Maggots

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/36309469.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Bleach
Relationship: Kurotsuchi Mayuri & Urahara Kisuke
Characters: Kurotsuchi Mayuri, Urahara Kisuke
Additional Tags: Self-Harm, Self-Experimentation, Cannot stress it enough,
Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, youve been warned, Turn Back the
Pendulum Arc (Bleach), Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2022-01-09 Words: 784 Chapters: 1/1
 Maggots
by BloomingAlyssum

Summary

Mayuri has an interesting talk with Urahara late at night.

Notes

This is mostly born of Mayuri clearly stating his dislike of urahara and also I accidentally
ripped a nail off recently.

Mayuri is honestly my least favorite character in bleach and I find him horrible, but
considering what he seems to think of Urahara I thought I'd see what writing them together
would be like. Pretty interesting as it turns out.

Now obviously Urahara isn't quite the vile, manipulative snake mayuri makes him out to be
in this fic and that may not even be what mayuri thinks of him, but it was fun to write.

p.s. a kaido is a healing kido incase you forgot. I sure did.

And again this fic has Explicit Self Harm! If you ignored the tags that's on you, not me.
Mayuri knows that he isn’t most people’s cup of tea. In fact, most would probably describe
him as being more reminiscent of a cup of tar. Or maybe acid. Point being, he isn’t well-
liked.

He understands. He doesn’t try to suck up to people who can’t help him in his endeavors.
People don’t like that, especially when you’re a prisoner fresh out of the Maggot’s Nest.

Something Mayuri doesn’t understand? How do people think that their Twelfth Division
Captain is so perfect? Mayuri knows that, deep down, Urahara is just as rotten as he is. A
maggot in the making.

He supposes that the beloved Captain hides it well enough. Getting the truth out of him is like
trying to tame a hollow. He pretends to be stupider than he is and puts up a front with
everyone. A stupid grin and innocent look might trick some, but Mayuri knows.

Oh, he knows.

He knows Urahara experiments with illegal subjects constantly, only getting by because he’s
tricky and hard to catch. He knows Urahara lies, constantly, about anything, even the things
that shouldn’t matter. He knows Urahara is doing something in regards to hollowfication.
And most importantly, he knows that if he plays his cards right, he can take Urahara’s place
as Captain.

But before he can do that, he has work to do.

A late-night trip is unusual for him, but here he finds himself back at the twelfth division’s
headquarters. Perhaps he could’ve timed it so that he wouldn’t be back to check on an
experiment at nearly one in the morning, though it hardly matters.

It seems Mayuri isn’t the only one up at this hour since the lights are on when he arrives. One
guess as to who it is.

Sure enough, Urahara is sitting at his desk when Mayuri comes in. Urahara has surrounded
himself with various papers and a few books, and Mayuri only gets a distracted hello out of
the man. Well, as distracted as someone always on high alert can get, so… Not distracted at
all. Only the illusion of it.

Mayuri would be content to ignore him were it not for the pliers securely holding one of
Urahara’s nails he notices. Mayuri understands that sometimes self-experimentation is
required but never took Urahara for the type to indulge. He can only watch curiously as the
nail gets slowly ripped from its bed. Undoubtedly painful, though Urahara shows no outward
sign of discomfort.

The nail is dropped in a dish waiting nearby.

“What are you doing?” Mayuri asks when Urahara begins to use the pliers on a new nail.
“With my nails?” Comes the response, too light for the situation. There’s blood oozing from
the tip of Urahara’s nailless finger.

“Don’t play dumb.”

A hum in response as the second nail comes off and is dropped in with the other. He holds up
his hand and considers it for a moment. A drop of blood rolls down his finger.

“I was doing some research on a certain Kaidō and whether it was effective on all parts of the
integumentary system. I found two conflicting reports, so I’m testing it myself.” He casts the
Kaidō and then holds his hand up again. It stopped bleeding, but the nails haven’t regrown.
“It seems it doesn’t work on keratin. A shame.”

A glance is barely thrown in Mayuri’s direction as Urahara begins writing. “What brings you
here?”

It sounds so casual as if they’re friends. Instead of the carefully crafted, disinterested facade
used for people considered untrustworthy by Urahara.

“I’m checking on an experiment.”

A moment passes, and Mayuri assumes the conversation is over and goes about his work. He
isn’t exactly startled when Urahara speaks again, he did know the other man was there, but he
certainly wasn’t expecting it either.

“If you started the experiment this morning, then you wouldn't be up right now.”

The way Urahara said it sounded like a statement, but Mayuri knew it was a question. Why
did you want to come here so late? He can always trust Urahara to know everyone’s business.
Especially Mayuri’s. It’s the only thing you can trust about him.

Well, if Urahara isn’t going to ask him directly, then Mayuri isn’t going to answer. He knows
when to retreat and leave his true goals to be accomplished later.

He finishes up with what he was doing and begins heading back, happy to rid himself of the
presence of Urahara. It’s no coincidence that he was there so late, ripping off his own nails.
All a ruse to make sure Mayuri knew he was there and, more importantly, make sure Mayuri
knew Urahara expected him.

What an unpleasant man.

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