Mayuri turned his head slowly and saw Unohana Retsu approaching from behind him.
He spoke in his distinct, eerie tone. "By the way, there was a mistake with one of the mice I gave you earlier."
"One of them is dead."
Unohana's expression froze. "Dead?"
Kotetsu Isane's eyes widened. One of the mice had died?
Mayuri continued, "It was an accident on our end. That mouse clearly couldn't be treated with Kaidō."
"While Kaidō can heal injuries, it cannot bring the dead back to life."
"So this was our oversight..."
"Wait… wait a minute, Captain Kurotsuchi," Kotetsu interjected, her expression confused and tense. "I inspected them personally. Every mouse is alive…"
"That's not possible!" Mayuri lifted his head sharply. "The data is infallible. That mouse is dead."
"What number was it?" Kotetsu asked quickly.
"Seventy-nine."
Kotetsu opened the container and pulled out mouse number seventy-nine. It squirmed in her palm, alive and moving.
She flipped it over to show the number on its back. Mayuri stared silently, frozen mid-motion with his fingers hovering over the keyboard. He didn't type another stroke.
Unohana watched the squirming mouse and smiled slightly. Despite her usual calm demeanor, there was something in that smile-a chill that felt like falling into deep cold water, as though she had discovered something deeply intriguing.
Yuta's Kaidō had already surpassed the peak. It had evolved beyond the domain of healing and into something much harder to define.
"Interesting," she said softly.
Mayuri whispered like someone in the grip of obsession. "Fascinating…"
The mask on his face twisted slightly as he grinned wider. His eyes were wild as he stood and stepped quickly toward Kotetsu. He snatched the mouse from her hand, bringing it close to inspect it again.
"Let me examine this."
It had been too long since he encountered something so stimulating.
He dropped the mouse into a scanner unit. His fingers pounded the keyboard without stopping, causing lines of data to flood the screen.
He compared it directly with prior records of mouse seventy-nine. Every indicator matched perfectly down to the last decimal point.
He stared, stunned.
"A masterpiece," he whispered.
"An undeniable masterpiece…"
"Who did this?"
"How was it done?"
"How do you bring back a dead mouse?"
"This exceeds any known use of Kaidō."
"Perfect restoration… not only were its physical wounds healed-but its spiritual composition, its soul… precisely replicated."
"What kind of skill does that take?"
"Who healed this?"
Kotetsu hesitated, caught off guard. "It was… a student from Shinō Academy. I think his name is Yuta."
"Yuta… Yuta…"
"He's only a student?" Mayuri repeated incredulously.
"A genius," he said next. "An undeniable genius."
"His scientific potential may be close to mine…"
Mayuri wasn't one to offer praise lightly.
After all, methods that manipulate the soul were exceedingly rare-even for someone like him.
In essence, Mayuri's whole body of knowledge was built around artificial death and resurrection. His greatest achievement was through "Dream Technology," creating artificial Shinigami known as "Face No. 7." These were created using skeletal implants and simulated souls, but their existence was limited strictly to dreams-not waking reality.
And now someone had used something else entirely-to bring something back from death.
Had that boy created a new soul? Had he rebuilt it and embedded it flawlessly into the recovered body? Or did he use something beyond Mayuri's understanding altogether?
Just how far did this ability go?
His grin stretched wider against his mask as he thought about it.
He needed to study this in detail-and soon. He turned again toward his instruments and bent toward further analysis with renewed hunger.
Nemu stepped forward after watching for a while. "Captain Kurotsuchi will be busy with research for some time. You're welcome to wait in the lounge."
Unohana nodded silently as Nemu explained further. "He tends to skip meals and sleep when something captures his interest."
Unohana smiled faintly again. "Even I'm curious about this Yuta now."
Nemu seemed thoughtful too. She couldn't recall when she'd last seen that startled look on Mayuri's face-and it had been from this boy called Yuta.
They left the lab and entered a modest lounge with four kneeling cushions placed around a low table at its center.
Nemu poured tea for both Unohana and Kotetsu before excusing herself calmly. She glided out without sound, shutting the sliding door behind her.
Unohana took a sip from her cup.
The tea was bland by her standards. The Twelfth Division rarely focused on taste-it was store bought and functional, nothing artisanal about it-but developing spiritual tea that boosted reiryoku would absolutely be something worth researching for them later on.
She set her cup down and looked across at Kotetsu Isane, who was visibly shaken.
"I can't believe we missed that…" Isane said finally. "Mouse number seventy-nine wasn't healed-it was resurrected! Though I don't know how…"
Unohana's expression turned grave.
"You must be careful with your words."
"You have no idea what 'resurrection' means in Soul Society."
Isane shook her head slowly.
"If word gets out that Yuta brought something back from the dead… it would cause riots."
"People who don't want to die will seek him out. Some may try to control him by hurting those he cares for."
"The older nobles-the ones clinging hardest to life-they'll see Yuta as someone who could keep them alive forever."
"Or worse-they'll see him as someone who might recover someone they already lost."
"They'll stop at nothing to make that power theirs."
Isane clutched her chest as that sense of dread settled in deep.
"I understand, Captain… I really do…"
…
After saying goodbye to Kuchiki Rukia, Yuta walked alone toward one of Shinō Academy's open squares.
It was large-as wide as any sports field-with a circular layout framed around a fountain at its center that caught sunlight in golden flashes whenever it splashed upward over the basin walls.
Benches wrapped around its edge while groves of trees stood close behind them. The breeze carried hints of fresh leaves rising from within the woods nearby.
Students passed in no particular hurry under scattered patches of shade cast by low buildings and branches above them.
There was also a large board posted near the edge of the plaza-it looked much like any map placed for tourists or children in parks unfamiliar with their surroundings.
Yuta scanned it quickly and saw familiar labels across campus: practice fields, various classrooms-and one building labeled clearly near the top margin:
"The Grand Library of Shinō Academy."
"Library?" Yuta said aloud under his breath. "Might be worth looking into."
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