Mayuri Kurotsuchi vs. Szayelaporro Granz

 is a battle taking place during the Invasion of Hueco Mundo, focusing on the conflict between 12th Division Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Espada #8. Szayelaporro Granz.

Prelude
Before he can finish off Uryū Ishida, 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai, Pesche Guatiche, and Dondochakka Birstanne, Szayelaporro Granz finds himself confronted by 12th Division Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi, who had been transported to Hueco Mundo by Kisuke Urahara at the behest of Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto. When Szayelaporro wonders who he is, Mayuri merely questions what the point of telling Szayelaporro anything is.

Uryū demands to know what Mayuri is doing here, and when Szayelaporro inquires if Uryū is a friend of his, Mayuri claims that he does not befriend inferior creatures, to Uryū's irritation. In response, Szayelaporro requests that they not quarrel in front of him since it is unseemly and begins to ask for Mayuri's name again, but stops and muses that it does not matter since Mayuri and Nemu are just two insects for him to crush. However, Mayuri notes that he does need to know Szayelaporro's name and informs the curious latter that he needs to know how to label the specimen jar which Szayelaporro will be put in, to Szayelaporro's amusement.

Battle
Some time later, Mayuri is left panting in exhaustion against a smiling Szayelaporro. Having used Teatro de Titere against Mayuri and inflicted enough pressure on the resulting doll to make the latter scream in pain, Szayelaporro claims to find it shameful that even a captain was helpless before his power and pops apart the doll to take out and crush one of the organ pieces, which makes Mayuri cough up blood. However, as Nemu expresses concern for Mayuri and a laughing Szayelaporro assumes Mayuri's frightful appearance was just for show, Mayuri simply sticks his tongue out, rolls his eyes in opposite directions, and reveals that he fooled Szayelaporro, who is taken aback. When Mayuri stands up and wonders why he is shocked at this, Szayelaporro crushes another organ piece and is pleased when Mayuri spits up blood once again, but an annoyed Mayuri tells him to stop because this trick has become tiresome.

Mayuri orders Nemu to get up as well, which she complies with, before an enraged Szayelaporro throws the doll to the ground, spilling its contents across a chunk of rubble, and begins angrily stomping on the various pieces, causing Mayuri's body to jerk in different directions while he remains expressionless. With Szayelaporro demanding to know what kind of power Mayuri has to not die after having all of his organs and tendons smashed, Mayuri clarifies that he has no special power and merely got tired of seeing the effects of Teatro de Titere over and over again, to Szayelaporro's confusion, before elaborating that his caution compels him to always puts something into his opponents, which is why he infected Uryū with Data-Gathering Bacteria and watched the latter's battle with Szayelaporro this way. Once Mayuri concludes that he used this time to replace his own organs and tendons with dummy replacements, a dumbstruck Szayelaporro refuses to believe Mayuri could accomplish this in only an hour since the start of the battle against Uryū, but Mayuri bluntly asserts that he is only here because he did.

As Szayelaporro glares in disbelief, Uryū demands that Mayuri wait and responds to being called annoying by the latter by pointing out that this is the first thing he has said since Mayuri arrived and demanding to know if Mayuri infected him during their battle. Though Uryū insists that Mayuri using the Data-Gathering Bacteria to view his private life is a violation of human rights and insists he remove them, Mayuri simply rolls his eyes in opposite directions once more, and when Uryū wonders if Mayuri is even listening to him, Mayuri coldly tells him to be silent, causing Uryū to cough up blood when he tries to argue further while Renji tells him to stop. Suddenly, Nemu is grabbed by a tentacle that bursts out of the rubble behind her, which leads Szayelaporro to cackle maniacally and chastise Mayuri for not being cautious enough to mind the area near Nemu's feet, only for Nemu to calmly tell him she is useless as a hostage.

With Szayelaporro demanding that Nemu shut up because he is not talking to her, an unimpressed Mayuri complains about how noisy everyone is being and activates his Bankai, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō, unnerving Szayelaporro prior to it unleashing poisonous gas from its mouth. Upon noticing the gas discoloring his skin, Szayelaporro deduces that the gas contains deadly bacterium and attempts to neutralize it, but realizes he does not have enough time to do so and is left screaming in horror while Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō crashes into and devours him. Mayuri stands next to his facedown Bankai and notes that the battle between the barbarians continues before Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō rears up to chew and swallow Szayelaporro's remains. Watching this in disgust alongside Uryū, Renji coughs up blood when his skin becomes discolored, which prompts Uryū to deduce that he has been infected as well.

Though he attributes his own lack of symptoms to having developed antibodies against the poison when he came into contact with it before, Uryū immediately develops discolored skin and coughs up blood as well while Mayuri informs them that he changes the composition of the poison after every fight. With Mayuri asserting that part of his genius lies in preventing his enemies from developing immunities, causing an irritated Uryū to demand that he give them the antidote, Nemu requests that Mayuri help her out of the tentacle still binding her, only for Mayuri to ignore her and exasperatedly toss the antidote to Uryū and Renji. Suddenly, the pupils of Nemu's eyes rapidly contract and she begins writhing in pain within the tentacle's grasp, alarming Uryū and Mayuri, the former of whom realizes that something is not right and urges the latter to help Nemu right now.

With Nemu's abdomen swelling in size and ripping her clothing, a section of the tentacle binding her grows a mouth and asks Mayuri if he believed he had killed Szayelaporro. As Uryū and Renji recognize Szayelaporro's voice, Szayelaporro explains that the most important and brilliant technique of his Resurrección, Fornicarás, is Gabriel, which is the ability to implant himself in his enemies by entering their body through the belly button, laying an egg inside their internal organs that grows quickly by feeding on its host, and eventually causing their death while simultaneously rebirthing him, concluding this by rapidly draining Nemu to a withered husk and exiting from her mouth in his fully-grown Resurrección form. After Nemu's body drops to the ground, a dripping wet Szayelaporro suggests that he and Mayuri begin by introducing themselves again, which Mayuri merely smiles at. Szayelaporro notes that the phoenix is said to be immortal because it throws itself into the fire to be reborn anew whenever it grows old, which he identifies as immortality and perfection. Szayelaporro energetically explains that rather than avoiding death, he turns death into a pathway to continued life that no longer functions as an end.

Proclaiming that his endless cycle of death and rebirth makes him a perfect life form, Szayelaporro concludes that his ability to be reborn when killed means that Mayuri cannot win. Though he smiles smugly when Mayuri silently approaches him, Szayelaporro is nonplussed when Mayuri moves past him and kneels down before a desiccated Nemu, who slowly apologizes to him. With Szayelaporro assuming that Mayuri is heartbroken at seeing his lieutenant so withered despite coming off as callous and suggesting that he forget her since Nemu's condition leaves her beyond saving, Mayuri simply stands up and grins widely while calling Gabriel interesting, to Szayelaporro's lack of amusement. Claiming to be highly intrigued by this ability, Mayuri asks Szayelaporro if this is it, and when Szayelaporro expresses confusion, Mayuri elaborates that Szayelaporro calling himself the perfect being implies that he must have another hidden ability and encourages the latter to use it.

In response, Szayelaporro flicks his finger upward, causing Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō to suddenly rear up behind Mayuri and crash down onto him, to the shock of Uryū and Renji. However, when a maniacally laughing Szayelaporro reveals that his body invades the nervous system of anyone who consumes it and that controlling the central activation system of Mayuri's Zanpakutō allows him to control all facets of it even if he does not know how it works, which means Mayuri should curse himself for having a living being for a Bankai, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō rapidly swells up with bulbous growths and pops like a balloon, leaving Szayelaporro stunned. Emerging from the collapsing body, an unharmed Mayuri asserts that his weapon turning on him would never do and informs Szayelaporro that he modified it to activate a Self-Destruct Protocol should anyone ever try to use it against him.

After observing that Szayelaporro seems to be out of tricks, Mayuri announces that the former will be a test subject for his new drug, and when a startled Szayelaporro instinctively backs up, Mayuri assures him that he does not need to be defensive since the drug is already in his system. With Szayelaporro noticing that Mayuri's speech is starting to slow down, Mayuri details how he implanted several drugs within Nemu so that they would be ingested if she were eaten and holds up a vial containing the same drug that he put in the area where Szayelaporro implanted his eggs, though he clarifies that it is not lethal and will instead make Szayelaporro superhuman. Mayuri describes a rumored phenomenon where two battling master swordsmen will see their swords move in slow motion like time is slowing down for them, which occurs due to their senses being sharpened to the highest degree, and reveals that his Superhuman Drug allows anyone to experience this sensation, though Szayelaporro is unable to understand what he is saying due to Mayuri's words sounding incredibly drawn-out to him. After musing that even an untrained eye using this drug would see bullets hanging in midair as though frozen, Mayuri notes that his own movements must seem slow and boring to a superhuman Szayelaporro.

Inquiring if his Zanpakutō seems motionless to Szayelaporro while holding it up to the latter's motionless eye and deciding to tell Szayelaporro the most amazing thing about the Superhuman Drug, Mayuri asserts that the effect of seeing swords in slow motion with a master's senses can be amplified a trillion times over with it and that the optimal dosage of the Superhuman Drug is a single drop diluted to 1/250,000th of its original concentration, only to clarify that he used a special undiluted solution on Szayelaporro that will make him perceive every second as one hundred years. As he observes that his sword will take several hundred centuries to reach Szayelaporro to the latter's superhuman perception, Mayuri clarifies that the effects of the Superhuman Drug do not extend to Szayelaporro's body, which is hopelessly slow by comparison and has effectively been left behind by its senses.

Mayuri elaborates that Szayelaporro's attempt to stop the blade with his hand will only result in it being pierced while the pain takes a hundred years to reach Szayelaporro. With Mayuri's Zanpakutō continuing to push through Szayelaporro's hand toward his chest, Mayuri admits that he has no idea when these words will even reach Szayelaporro, though he states that there is no rush and that Szayelaporro can savor the feeling of the blade entering his heart for an entire century while his bodily fluids turn to dust prior to maliciously encouraging Szayelaporro to enjoy the next hundred years. In his mind, Szayelaporro wonders how many years have passed, eventually settling on it being an immense amount of time, and wonders when Mayuri's Zanpakutō will finally pierce his heart before repeatedly begging for it to hurry up and kill him. Shortly afterward, in the real world, a dead Szayelaporro stands with Mayuri's Zanpakutō piercing through both his right hand and his heart.

Aftermath
Watching this, a scoffing Mayuri observes that nothing in this world is perfect, which is why the average person yearns for it, but questions if perfection is really desirable and declares that he abhors the concept due to the emptiness and stagnation that it implies, with anyone who reaches perfection having no more room for innovation, improvement, wisdom, or talent. After elaborating that scientists should consider perfection to represent despair and strive to be greater than all who came before without reaching perfection, which is a contradiction that they both struggle with and take pleasure in, Mayuri grabs his Zanpakutō and concludes that Szayelaporro lost as a scientist the moment that he declared himself to be perfect.

Upon seeing the blade of Mayuri's Zanpakutō break off in Szayelaporro, leaving only the hilt in his hand as he walks away, a confused Uryū questions if he is alright due to this, only for Mayuri to clarify that he intentionally broke his Zanpakutō because he can always recreate the blade so long as the hilt remains intact and wished to punish his Zanpakutō for its disobedience. Looking around the rubble of Szayelaporro's palace, Mayuri settles on a large chunk of rock that he finds himself unable to lift, and when he calls Nemu over to help him, Mayuri remembers that she is currently desiccated and laments how much trouble she is prior to using a strange technique to revive and heal her, leaving Uryū and Renji blushing and astonished at this working, though Mayuri asserts that it should be obvious as to how it worked.

Mayuri declares that it is a waste of time to explain his techniques to simpletons and orders Nemu to dig a hole in the rubble he was examining earlier as Renji warns an irritated Uryū to not aggravate his crushed organs any further. When Nemu breaks through the rubble with Tedoriru, Pesche and Dondochakka burst out, but have their explanation of where they went interrupted by Nemu continuing to drill through the rubble with her hand. With Pesche begging Nemu to calm down and assuring her that they are on the same side, Mayuri instructs her to not bother digging around Pesche and Dondochakka since the latter are in the way and responds to Pesche offering to explain the situation to them by coldly asserting that he and Dondochakka should be dead, to their horror.

Suddenly, Nemu lifts and throws away the large chunk of rubble that Pesche and Dondochakka were standing on top of, exposing a set of doors in the side of a more intact section of the building within the wreckage. In response to Uryū wondering how a doorway survived the destruction of the palace, Mayuri explains that scientists constructing a laboratory build a room that is sturdier than all the others not to fill it with equipment or a library of research papers that they spent a great amount of time working on, but instead to store their specimens that they crawled to the edges of the world to collect, which he demonstrates by opening the doors to reveal two bodies hanging from the ceiling within, to his intrigue.

Moments later, while pinned down by Nemu, Uryū demands that she let go of him and to know what Mayuri is going to do to him, prompting Mayuri to reach into his haori and claim that he is going to fix Uryū, though the latter realizes that Mayuri actually intends to modify him. With Mayuri pointing out how Uryū should at least thank him for offering to heal Uryū's wounds for free regardless of how it turns out, Uryū refuses and questions if Mayuri will be changing his appearance as well, and as Nemu smothers a protesting Uryū with her breasts to silence him, Mayuri encourages her to do so and assures Nemu that it is fine even if Uryū dies. From behind Mayuri, Renji requests that the former heal him first so he can aid the others who have encountered Espada.

However, Mayuri informs Renji that the only one still battling is 11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki, who has reached Ichigo Kurosaki's location, and asserts that Kenpachi does not need Renji's help before reminding Renji that Kenpachi is like a wolf with blood in his nostrils who will devour anyone who gets in his way when on the battlefield, which Mayuri considers a foolish way to die.