Chapter 2: A Comfortable Place

Is there anywhere else that's nice and cool?

Can we just give this up and get back to our meeting? I feel we're wasting time here.

But we've already had a taste of that sweet air conditioning. It's really hard to go back to that sweltering room now.

But there isn't much we can do.

Hello, everyone.

Hey, it's Nemnem! I thought you were busy today. What are you doing here?

I just finished taking care of Master Mayuri's errands. I'm on my way back to the barracks.

It must be rough having to work in this heat.

I don't feel it to be hot or cold inside the barracks, but it can be a little straining outside.

What do you mean? You don't feel the heat inside your barracks?

Could it be that the Department of Research and Development altered their Squad 12 barracks to cool it down somehow?

That sounds likely! Hey, Nemu. Can we come with you to your barracks?

Cool place please!

I'll do the explaining to Captain Kurotsuchi!

That's fine by me.

I see. I understand your situation. I do hope you realize you're a bunch of weaklings for not being able to withstand the weather.

But, very well. I'll let you spend some time in a cooler room. Come this way.

Woohoo! You're the best, Mayurin!

This is great! I thought he would shoo us away at the door. I'm pretty good at talking, huh, Nanao?

At least it saves us from the heat.

But isn't it a bit strange? Why would Captain Kurotsuchi be so accommodating of our request?

Nemu! Bring me the keys to the room.

Yes, Master Mayuri.

The room's locked?

Please, come in.

It's so much cooler in here!

Squad 12's not so bad! I didn't expect they would actually have an air conditioned room.

Huh? Wait, why are you locking us in?!

It's standard procedure when keeping my experimental subjects from running away.

What do you mean, subjects?!

You see, this is one of my experimentation rooms. I can control the temperature inside as high or low as I need it to be.

I was actually thinking about doing a few durability tests, so I thought I'd do them on you.

We never agreed to be your test subjects! We just wanted a cool, comfortable place to stay!

You say such strange things. Did you really think you'd get what you wanted without having to offer something in return?

You won't be able to get out of there without the key. Don't even bother trying to escape.

Of course we're gonna try to escape!

*Pant* *Pant*... We did it. We were able to get out of there alive.

That was terrifying. And here I actually thought he was being generous for once.

Well, it looks like we're back in this heat.

I'm getting hungry.

Yeah, maybe we should've just stayed in our usual meeting area like we were supposed to.

............

Uh, Rangiku? Are you okay? If you're not feeling well, maybe you should...

Argh!!! All I wanted was a nice, cool place to relax and have our meeting! Why do we have to go through all this?!

I can't stand this any longer! I'm using my last resort!

What does that entail?