analysis i wrote on mayuri and nemu vs pernida and how it develops their relationship!!
its very messy and imperfect (which im sure kurotsuchi would appreciate) but i hope you still enjoy reading it!
Mayuri and Nemus character development is one of the best in Bleach, especially proven during Mayuri and Nemu vs Pernida. He goes on to care for Nemu a lot more than initially shown in the Soul Society arc, and she grows to care for him more and more.
The fight starts out with Mayuri and Zaraki finding Pernida, one of Yhwach’s guards with the title of the “Compulsory”. Early on in the fight, before Pernidas true form is revealed, Zaraki recklessly charges in at them. His arm is ruined and starts acting on its own, so he rips it up and it crumbles to a puddle of blood on the floor. Despite Mayuris warnings, he continued to try to kill Pernida. Mayuri is forced to paralyze Zarakis entire body to prevent it from crumbling as his arm had done so. Mayuri realizes Pernida fights by injecting their nerves into the enemy and controlling them with the nerves. Pernida has arrows attached to some of the nerves that it shoots out. Mayuri had been dodging them until he noticed he was inevitably going to be hit by one. Nemu notices this as well and jumps up to save Mayuri.
After this, Mayuri snaps at Nemu, telling her “Do not think for yourself, you do not have the freedom to die of your own accord, you die when I order you to die” (chapter 640). While some people may argue it was abusive, I would argue against this. Nemu actually means a lot to Mayuri, as shown later on in the fight. This was more so from a place of concern, that he didn't want Nemu to die because he does care for her.
Nemu solemnly agrees to what Mayuri said and gives him hojiku zai (flesh healing medicine) to regenerate his missing arm that Pernida had cut off. She mentions that she noticed Mayuri had forgotten to shift through the medicine cabinet before leaving, as to which Mayuri remarks its “rather creepy” that she noticed that. Nemu claims she stepped into the fight to give Mayuri this medicine. Nemu seems to pay a lot of attention to Mayuri. This is shown in that scene as well as when she was a kid, when she was observant enough to realize Mayuri wouldn't tell her why he addressed her as Nemu rather than Nemuri (which I will touch on this name later), telling Akon “I don’t believe master Mayuri would tell me even if I asked” (640). This observance is clearly still present in her even as an adult as she noticed Mayuri forgot to do one small habit- searching through the medicine cabinets. Just as Mayuri cares for Nemu, Nemu cares for Mayuri.
After Mayuri is healed, he jumps back into the fight. He uses a small earpiece to communicate to Nemu instructions for the fight and what she must do to carry out her part. This is the second time we see Nemu actively participating in a fight alongside Mayuri. The first was in chapter 590, when Mayuri tells Nemu to prepare the reshi locking device as they are in midair. This time, her duty is much more significant. Mayuri instructs Nemu to stab Pernidas arrows with a nerve coagulating agent to stop all movement in their body and them as he spreads an anesthetic around to stunt the nerves, preventing them from controlling Nemu if she came in contact with them. Nemu successfully stabs one of the arrows with the coagulating agent and Pernida notices the skin on their thumb is starting to change color. It rips its thumb off, saying to Mayuri “This ain’t gonna kill me, Kurotsuchi” (641). Mayuri thinks to himself how Pernidas speech patterns sound a lot like Zarakis, and Mayuri realizes Pernida is also evolving and learning from whatever they put their nerves into. Mayuri panics and yells at Nemu to back away, as he knows she wont stand a chance with her reaction time. Pernida sheds its skin, essentially birthing a new one of itself as matai fukuin shotai (Mayuris altered bankai) had done. Nemu is standing at the bottom of Pernida with a worried expression as she watches this, repeating Mayuris name in her head. This scene shows both of them equally worried for one another- Mayuri yells for Nemu to get away for danger while Nemu worries about how close Mayuri is to said danger.
Here we see Nemu reflecting on her past, thinking about how Mayuri had done the Nemuri project. She remembers Akon's words: “You shoulda seen how happy the captain was when number 7 outlived that lifespan” (642) in reference to the 6th Nemuri who lived to be 2. This motivates Nemu to protect Mayuri, so she braces herself and jumps through the air to grab Mayuri before Pernida does. As she does this, we see more of her past. We see how she inquired to Akon why Mayuri had started to address her as “Nemu” rather than “Nemuri Nanago” (meaning sleep number 7”) (642). Akon explains that she’s part of the Nemuri project and also explains the depth behind the name. Akon says its Mayuris dream to make life, or make a soul reaper. He continues on to recite what Mayuri had said while naming the project: “Creating a soul from nothing. Artificially creating soul reapers is the dream of all soul reapers. But… a dream while awake is a silly thing. Therefore.. I am naming this project the Nemuri (sleep) project” (642). Akon goes on in his own words to say “it was the captains attempt at sarcasm” (642) and, still speaking to a child Nemu, “You eat, sleep, breathe. Learn something daily, grow up. While you do all that, captain Kurotsuchi is always in a dream. He’s probably afraid you’d notice that” (642).
Nemu admits she hasn't realized this and Akon says she would have eventually. This name, Nemuri, shows how much Mayuri values Nemu. Having her in his life is quite literally a dream come true. Akon says to Nemu that even if she had remained ignorant, Mayuri would've Kept calling her Nemu. The name was shortened for two reasons. First, to prevent Nemu from finding out just how pleased Mayuri was with the fact that his project was providing such fruitful results. Second, as a way to show intimacy between the two. Rather than having a title, she has more of an official name.
After this interaction between the two, Akon tells Nemu “you’re the captain's masterpiece. There's no way you won't evolve” (642). It goes without saying that this shows how much Nemu means to Mayuri.
Nemu grabs Mayuri from Pernida and bursts through them in the process, blowing up their palm and fingers. Mayuri questions how Nemu has such power as to which Nemu says “it is the power you gave me, master Mayuri” (642) with a contented smile on her face. She informs Mayuri that she has extracted her body to its utmost ability. Mayuri tries to protest this, not wanting her hurt and asking when he ordered her to save him, but she interrupts him saying “you didnt. It is my mission. My mission is to protect you, master Mayuri” (642). Mayuri again protests and says “No! Your mission is growth” (642), as to which Nemu responds “I believe I can show that growth by protecting you” (642). This shows that Nemu values Mayuris feelings, trying to show that he had achieved more than he originally aimed for. He had not only created a being, he had created one that was able to evolve on its own, had its own being, its own personality. It was Nemus way of showing Mayuri how much he’d achieved, and perhaps a way to show her gratitude to his devotion to her.
Nemu sets Mayuri down on a building and goes back to fighting Pernida. Mayuri remarks that he “can't believe… the day I leave a battle in your hands has come” (642). Nemu shaves away 6 percent of her soul to fire it at Pernida in an attempt to kill them. Pernida is split into a mess of flesh. Mayuri watches in awe as this happens, and as Nemu starts descending to the ground. As she is falling, Pernidas flesh chunks grow eyes and shoot their nerves into Nemu, then explode her body, her flesh splattering around Mayuri. Mayuri watches in horror, frozen in place. He repeats Nemus' name softly to himself as his head tips down in an expression of anguish (643).
As Mayuri was mourning Nemus' death, Szayelaporro appears next to his shoulder, mocking him for feeling despair. (643) He retorts how Mayuri had previously said that he “abhors perfection” (306), and in reference to Nemu, “What could be better than it dying then? It died because it wasn't perfect! That means there is room to create something even better” (643). He continues on to say “Well, that's what I expected you to say. Oh.. I see. You were beginning to think that.. That failure of a meat puppet was perfect” (643). Mayuri quietly hangs his head as Szayelaporro taunts him.
This scene is crucial to showing how Mayuri has developed. He directly contradicts his previous absolute hatred for perfection all because of Nemu. For once he practically accepted perfection because he truly began to believe she was perfect. This shows how much he cares for her because he accepted the one thing he hated for the person he cares for most.
After resolving himself, Mayuri swats Szayelaporro away (side note im not sure if he was really there as spirit or he was like a hallucination? But mayuri makes him leave so) and lifts up his head, regarding that it was “utterly comical” (643) to be “reminded of his negligence by a pseudo scientist like you” (643).
Mayuri lets Pernida eat Nemus' corpse, knowing that once it was consumed Pernida would die. He prevented them from eating Nemus' brain as that would stop their death- death by excessive cell growth, evolution. This is quite ironic because Nemu died in the act of trying to prove her growth to Mayuri.
Mayuri walks away with Nemus' brain before falling due to some of Pernidas stray nerves breaking his legs. Ikkaku and Yumichika take him back to one of the body preservation pods Mayuri had brought to the fight, allowing the second one to be used for the paralyzed Zaraki. While in the pod, Mayuri holds Nemus' brain under his clothes and acknowledges the fact that he’d achieved his dream, saying “Evolution! I have finally created a konpaku from scratch that evolves on its own! I have surpassed you! Kisuke Urahara” (644). His speech starts slowing down as he slides into sleep.
In his sleep, we see Mayuri with a naked Nemu. Partly because Kubo is a perv This is to show he saw Nemu in her purest state, similar to how Masaki was naked in her dream in front of Isshin, who loved her (536). It also shows how Nemu comforts Mayuri because he declares that he has surpassed Urahara by creating Nemu (644). He’s finally able to stop worrying about being less than Urahara and is now comfortable with himself, because of Nemu. The fight is concluded here.
Aside from the fight, the poem in volume 71 speaks greatly about their relationship.
“My child’s hand, so lost
Wandering, in search of mine
Close but far, I take your hand
Together we will walk, to the end” (start of v71)
The poem demonstrates how they are together. “My child's hand, so lost Wandering in search of mine” represents Nemu looking for her meaning. “Close but far, I take your hand” represents how Mayuri was at a subtle distance throughout all their time together. While he was there for all of her life, he was always slightly guarded, such as in chapter 642 when Nemu says “I don’t believe master Mayuri would answer me even if I asked”. This ties back to the line reading “Wandering, in search of mine” as that quote shows Nemu is searching for more about Mayuri. Finally, “Together we will walk, to the end” shows how Mayuri stayed with Nemu till death. At the end of chapter 644, there is a sketch of Mayuri holding a child Nemus hand, literally representing the poem in a visual aspect.
Leading up to this, there are also small sketches of Mayuris hand opening up (in order chapter 639, 640, 641, 644). This represents Mayuri only fully accepted his love for Nemu once it was too late, because the image of them finally holding hands was after Nemu had died.
Overall, the two have a very deep connection that people fail to admire. They’ve come far together and have one of the most interesting relationships in all of Bleach.
i hope you enjoyed ❤️
