Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me. But of course, everybody knows that.

Author's Note: Eh… Sorry for the long wait. I was terribly busy, job, uni, all that. But I promise I'll update soon(er)! (I always say that… maybe this time I'll actually keep my word!) I'm afraid there's not as much light-hearted humor and action in this chapter, but hey, the story had to get a bit dark before it gets to light again. Don't worry, though! I'm not leaving Mayuri in the mental state he is in now! (jee, there I go, killing my own cliffhanger.)

Chapter 3

Nemu had been waiting quietly before Mayuri's door, wondering when he would come out. But actually, it made no difference whether he got out in a minute or an hour. She only wanted to see the door open and then ask him, plead him…

At that precise moment, the door indeed opened and he came out, dressed in a robe that was obviously his only piece of clothing at the time. Nemu fell on her knees in front of him.

"Mayuri-sama," she begged. "Please allow me to be your servant in all things. Do not search for others when I can give you anything that you might desire."

She had no clue, obviously, but that was possibly the worst moment to make such a demand. Mayuri had expected to feel better after he slept with Izanami again. Instead, he had never felt worse in his entire life and he couldn't figure out why. It was as if something pressed against him from all sides, ruining his entire life, the entire view he had upon the world and destroying him inside out. This process had already started and it gave no sign of stopping anytime soon. After a frightening meditation, he had also realized that Ashisogi Jizo was gone. His sword simply wasn't there anymore. And it honestly scared him to hell and back.

Nemu's request fell on death ears. But what surprised even him was the surge of rage he felt towards that girl who was lying on the floor, demanding him to sleep with her. He saw it, understood it, her entire drama of being a creation with nearly complete dependence on its creator, in love with him, rejected, jealous and possessive in her own way. He realized she was very afraid of losing him, conscious that her only power was to be as good a slave as possible, make him want her for convenience. Before, he would have smiled and been happy to have a slave. After his first encounter with Izanami, he might have shrugged it off. But now?… He had no mercy.

He hit her. Hard. His leg collided with her ribs. It made her scream softly in pain and roll into the wall. He felt disgust and anger, pulling her up by the hair, grinning madly.

"You're telling me what to do?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry! So sorry! I shall never ask anything again!" she pleaded.

He slapped her across the face. And that was when Izanami darted out of the bedroom, wearing only a T-shirt.

"What's going on?" she demanded, but she grasped the situation the next moment and grabbed Mayuri's arm. "Don't hurt her! She's just…"

Mayuri roared like a dragon, all the hurt of losing his zanpakuto focusing on the very catalyst that had brought the horrible event. He forgot about Nemu in a second and grabbed Izanami instead, hitting her against the wall. She let out a pained gasp.

"You killed Ashisogi Jizo," he murmured, holding her against the cold wall. "You killed me."

"I didn't… Mayuri… I don't know what happened! I didn't do anything! I swear!"

"I could care less," he replied, pulling her by the hair, dragging her to the Quiet Laboratory. Even Nemu was afraid. Izanami cried out, trying to pull herself away from him, but he just dragged her mercilessly through the corridor that linked his quarters to that place. "NEMU!" he yelled and his faithful creation could only obey and follow him in the laboratory, her heart shrinking to the size of a flea. Mayuri had gone insane.

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A tall, thin shinigami was brought before the Captains (minus Mayuri and the turncoats, of course), shivering slightly. Yumichika, her escort, gazed at her one last time and spoke:

"This woman was running around the Seireitei, but she doesn't belong to any of the Divisions. We, the Eleventh Division, found her and decided that, as you were in meeting anyway, we should bring her here."

"Eh? Another Ichigo case?" Kyoraku asked, interestedly.

"Raspberries?" the unknown shinigami asked softly. "Was I supposed to bring raspberries?...Or what's it got to do with me?"

"No, it's irrelevant" Yamamoto brushed it off and the woman made a mental note to bring raspberries the next time. "Who are you?"

"My name is Nakotsu Mieko. Pleased to meet you," she replied politely, bowing.

"And what are you doing here?"

"I'm searching for my friend. I thought he was here, but he seems to have gone away. Otherwise, he'd have come to me already. He always feels when I'm close, you see."

In normal conditions, they'd probably have interrogated the intruder very thoroughly and mercilessly to get all sorts of information out of her – such as who she was and how she'd gotten into seireitei. But Mieko seemed to be falling apart as it were, with her slight trembling and thin frame. Besides, she didn't seem to be hiding anything.

"And who is this friend you're looking for?" Yamamoto asked.

"Lord Ryu," she nearly whispered. "He said to come when I woke up and here I am… but he's gone! Maybe Lord Yamamoto can help me find him, he was his friend and the captain of the First Division and he promised to take me in that one, too!"

"Don't be silly!" Hitsugaya said. "He's still the captain of the First Division and he obviously doesn't remember you, so he can't take you into any Division at all…"

"What do you mean he doesn't remember me?" cried Mieko.

"Well, you don't remember him either, do you?"

"Yes, I do!" she said, tears in her eyes. "I do! He's the kindest man on earth to me and I still love him… And even if he's the captain of the First Division and so important, he can't have forgotten me!"

"Well, he's right there next to you and you can't see him!"

Meanwhile, Yamamoto had frozen. Of course he remembered Ryu. He had thought about him just the day before. His strange connection to Mayuri, the fact that they'd both lost their Bankai, the change they went through… Ryu's name was popping back again, as if it were the time the man appeared again in the world and he was sending unlikely messengers, announcing him: "Ryu, the shinigami who wielded exceptional power"; "the old captain of the First Division". Yamamoto's disappeared friend, who could have helped with Mayuri. Just what was going on?...

Mieko turned towards him, an expression of surprise and hurt in her eyes. "Ryu?"

"No," the old captain shook his head. "Yamamoto. Ryu… disappeared 2000 years ago."

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Izanami tried to trash around, fighting against the straps on the same chair she'd been tied to during her first experience in the quiet laboratory. Of course, her resistance was futile and the only effect it had was making her tired and sore.

"Mayuri! Let me go, I swear to all the gods that I didn't do anything! Please!"

Mayuri listened to her, feeling crueler than ever. He understood her, knowing she was afraid and for some reason, the thought fueled him like well-refined fuel. He threw a set of needles and strings towards Nemu, who appeared frightened herself, something that didn't happen to often.

"Sew her holes. All of them," he commanded. "Mouth, ears, vagina, nose. All. Kill her."

"What?! Have you gone nuts?!" Izanami cried. "You bloody perverted bastard son of a motherfucker, you've gone fucking insane!"

Mayuri grinned at her in his newfound madder-than-ever style.

"How about we make this even better, eh?..." he muttered. "Be right back. Nemu, wait!"

He left the room.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Izanami chanted, trying to hit something in frustration. "Nemu, come on! Just this once, please don't listen to him! Please!"

"But he's my master…" she said, with very little conviction. At some level, she knew that the thing that had just run out, all evil grin, was not the Mayuri she had known until then. He had been driven mad and had he been himself, he'd never have said or done the things he'd just said and done. Well… at least, not in the same manner or for the same reasons. Or something like that.

"I'll make him better, I swear! Just help me get out of this and take him down and then we'll make him all better. If I do him any wrong, I swear to God, I'll… I'll… I'll sew myself closed. All holes and all that!"

Nemu hesitated, looking at the door and then at Izanami. For her part, Izanami was starting to regret the "sew myself" thing… just in case she did do anything wrong.

"He'll be a lot better, you'll see!" the tied-up girl pleaded. "We can make him be better! And he'll treat you with all the respect and love you deserve! I know that's what you want and he really can give you that, but not if you go along with his madness now!"

That did it. Even Nemu's fabricated heart knew what love was and she felt it thoroughly when it came to her master. So, for the first time in her life, acting like a woman following her feelings rather than a robot following orders, she quickly unbound Izanami.

"What now?" she asked, thrilled and terrified of her disobedience.

"Now… we ambush him!" Izanami said. "He's lost most of his shinigami power and if we bind him, he can't hurt either us or himself. Then we'll think of something. Don't be scared! Everything will be just fine, you'll see!"

"Yes," Nemu answered, though she didn't feel very secure at all. In fact, she was starting to feel more and more terrified. Going against Mayuri… She'd never dreamt she would do such a thing.

"We can stop him!" Izanami said. "We can!"

They stood on both sides of the door, ready to jump on the man gone mad.

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Meanwhile, in a not so far off place in the Seireitei, having absolutely no connection to any of the events and no clue that Mayuri had gone insane, Renji and Ichigo were playing Go while Rukia watched. Unbeknownst to any of them, both guys had the same bet going through their heads: "If I win this game, then Rukia will be mine and not his." Of course, secret feelings and inner bets notwithstanding, they seemed to be having just a normal, albeit ruthless, game.

"Where's onii-sama?" Rukia wondered.

"At the Captain's meeting," Renji answered.

"Again?!..."

"Yes, they seem to have them a lot now."

"Makes me wonder whether they're having a group portrait done," Ichigo mussed. "They spend enough time together lately doing God knows what…"

Renji and Rukia both got the same perverted mental image hearing that, but decided not to comment on it. Instead, they couldn't help but notice a near-naked (just robed) Mayuri going at an incredibly fast pace towards a sakura tree in bloom. He broke a branch, stared at it, then cried "Too small!" and broke another one. Apparently, too small again.

"What the-?!" Ichigo asked.

"He looks weird," Renji noticed.

Finally, after a few minutes, Mayuri found a suitably large branch, broke it (Kyoraku would've wept seeing all the discarded branches) and went back towards where he came from at the same quick pace.

"This could mean trouble, let's follow him," Rukia suggested. So the two males got up, cursed their fate that they hadn't finished the game and see who got her and engaged in a Mayuri-chase.

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