The Reishi lamps in the laboratory at the Maggot's Nest shone brighter than usual.
Urahara Kisuke had already gone to the Twelfth Division barracks for the handover.
A new captain taking office meant mountains of work: division paperwork, research project transfers, personnel assignments, and budget approvals.
Apart from a purely combat-oriented unit like the Eleventh Division, every division's handover was tedious.
Now this laboratory had become Kurotsuchi Mayuri's private room.
The workbenches, instrument racks, material cabinets—everything had been arranged to suit his habits.
He had even moved a bed inside, placing it in a corner behind a curtain.
When Yan Si pushed the door open, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was standing at a workbench, gently swirling a test tube in his hand.
The liquid inside was pale blue, glowing faintly beneath the lights.
"By the way."
Yan Si walked over to the workbench and looked at the test tube in Kurotsuchi Mayuri's hand.
"What did you do to get locked up here?" Kurotsuchi Mayuri had been arrested directly by the Second Division, so the Ninth Division had no detailed records.
Yan Si had always been curious about that. Kurotsuchi Mayuri was clearly just a Seat Officer at present, and before this, he had stayed inside the Twelfth Division without so much as stepping outside. What crime could he have committed?
It certainly couldn't have been creating souls. That research hadn't gotten anywhere yet.
Kurotsuchi Mayuri continued swirling the test tube with a steady hand, making the liquid form a small vortex against the glass.
"I merely did what I was supposed to do."
His voice was perfectly calm.
"What you were supposed to do?" Yan Si paused.
He hadn't expected to hear those words from this mad scientist.
Kurotsuchi Mayuri turned his head and grinned.
His golden teeth glittered beneath the lights,