(T/N: Hey guys! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to drop a Power Stone! Thanks for the support!! it really helps a lot!)
Nanatsuki arrived at the 2nd Division.
Today, he was here to retrieve two people.
At the front gate, a Shinigami from the 2nd Division was already waiting.
"Captain Katori, this way please. The lieutenant is waiting for you in front of the Maggot's Nest," the Shinigami said warmly.
Nanatsuki had visited the 2nd Division many times and had worked with the Onmitsukidō before, so most of the 2nd Division Shinigami were already familiar with him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Please, lead the way," Nanatsuki replied gently.
The Maggot's Nest was the 2nd Division's prison.
Those held there were all prisoners captured by the Onmitsukidō.
The prison was located in a secluded area, separated from the 2nd Division barracks by a stretch of forest.
The two walked along a forest path and soon reached a calm river.
By the river stood a suspension bridge—crossing it would take them to the entrance of the Maggot's Nest.
"Sensei, over here~!"
Yoruichi waved at him from the bridge.
She'd been informed in advance and had been waiting for quite a while.
"Are these two really that important? If Sensei wanted them, I could've just had them sent directly to the 12th Division," she said with curiosity.
She already knew why her teacher was here, but she couldn't help wondering—why go to the trouble of personally coming to the Maggot's Nest?
"They're both rare geniuses. People like that tend to have pride, and if you want them to work for you, you need to treat them with a bit of respect." Nanatsuki smiled.
Nanatsuki intended to transform the 12th Division into a true Technical Development Bureau. But right now, it lacked any formal researcher training system. Most of the researchers were self-taught amateurs—they urgently needed technical talent.
To build and refine a proper researcher cultivation system, he first needed excellent researchers to lead the effort and lay the foundation.
That's why he wanted to pull Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Akon out of the Maggot's Nest.
"They're really that talented...? But that Mayuri is pretty slippery. The Onmitsukidō had a tough time catching him," Yoruichi recalled the reports. "That guy hid himself well. If the Onmitsukidō weren't just as skilled at infiltration, he might've actually escaped."
After hearing her teacher's plan to retrieve those two, she had gone to review their arrest reports.
Capturing Akon had been relatively easy. The operation happened so suddenly that he couldn't mount much resistance. The Onmitsukidō had subdued him without much trouble.
But in Mayuri's case, they had encountered fierce resistance.
Mayuri was an expert at hiding and had also used poison, which caused no small amount of trouble for the Shinigami sent to catch him.
The two crossed the suspension bridge and arrived at a large iron gate, guarded by two Onmitsukidō Shinigami.
Upon seeing Yoruichi and Nanatsuki, the guards immediately opened the gate.
Inside was a passage leading underground. After descending, they arrived in a vast rocky chamber.
The cavern was filled with people in white robes.
As Nanatsuki and Yoruichi entered the central hall, those robed figures stared at them with unfriendly eyes.
But the moment they noticed Nanatsuki's captain's haori and recognized Shihōin Yoruichi, the hostility quickly vanished.
"These people are lower-risk inmates, so they're not kept in isolation," Yoruichi explained. "Most of them were once Shinigami who committed violations because they tried to abandon their duties."
Once a soul becomes a Shinigami, there's no turning back.
Unless granted special leave, one cannot simply quit the Gotei 13 on their own.
Many of these robed men had tried to flee their duties—driven by fear of fighting Hollows or other reasons—and escaped to the Rukongai or even the World of the Living, only to be caught and imprisoned here.
"They seem intimidated by your presence," Nanatsuki chuckled.
"Heh, my first mission after joining the 2nd Division was personally subduing some troublemakers here." Yoruichi clenched her fist. "I beat these guys into submission long ago."
As the two walked forward, the robed men stepped aside, clearing a path.
After crossing the main chamber, they reached another corridor with stairs.
At the end of the stairway was a row of isolated cells.
"This area is for more dangerous individuals who require solitary confinement," Yoruichi said.
Each cell was separated by walls, preventing any contact between inmates.
"The ones Sensei is looking for are this way."
Yoruichi led Nanatsuki to a cell at the far end of the right corridor.
Inside sat a blue-haired man on a stone bed.
He looked up at the sound of footsteps, calmly observing the two outside the bars.
Nanatsuki stared back.
The man was none other than Mayuri Kurotsuchi. There were many versions of his appearance, but right now, he looked very much like a "mad scientist."
A black mark stretched across his face like an eyepatch, metallic cone-shaped piercings adorned his ears, and his skin was pale and bloodless.
Yoruichi signaled the guard, who immediately opened the iron bars.
"A captain I don't recognize visiting the Maggot's Nest…" Mayuri said slowly, unfazed by his circumstances. "Is it finally time for my trial?"
Back during the Quincy extermination in the World of the Living, Mayuri had secretly traveled there to collect Quincy corpses for research.
But he ran into the Onmitsukidō during cleanup and was captured, thrown into the Maggot's Nest.
He had been locked up for many years now. No captain-level Shinigami had ever come to see him.
So now that a captain had arrived, his first assumption was that his secret lab had finally been exposed.
'Hah… so they finally found that lab. Trouble never comes alone,' he thought silently.
Mayuri was a natural-born researcher. Whenever he grew curious about something unknown, he just had to study it.
That habit made it easy for him to break taboos.
Because of this, he had set up multiple secret bases in the Rukongai in case something went wrong.
"This isn't a trial. I'm Katori Nanatsuki, Captain of the 12th Division," Nanatsuki said with a light smile. "I've heard of your exploits. Your talent shouldn't be wasted in a place like this."
"So you're here to let me out?" Mayuri's lips curled slightly. "You want me to work for you, huh? What a shame—I find this place quite agreeable."
He had quickly deduced that these two weren't here to punish him for his secret lab—they were here because they had taken an interest in his talents.
"Is that so…? A pity indeed," Nanatsuki said with mock regret. "I was planning to transform the 12th Division into a true Technical Development Bureau. If you joined us, you'd have the freedom to fully display your genius."