Lance had us go after a group of "crazy" Soul Reapers. A disease had infected them, and they had stolen Relics from Lance. The one that initially stole the relics Midnight ended up killing, although Le'Brian had started a contest to see who could kill him first. Long-story short, they're all dead. The Relics were in a bag, chained up with the insignia of Kord on the lock. Peering into the bag to be sure that they are the same, I barely dodge a blast of raw energy, hair getting singed.
We had a new member added to our battle team Yrie. He is a knight, and saw Midnight consuming Souls that were chained up in a courtyard. Yrie, appalled, challenges him to a duel.
As I introduce myself to Yrie, he seems perturbed by social interaction with only a handshake, so I give him his space. Regardless of his size, he is quite easy to lose track of and "forget about". This seems like something he enjoys, though.
We get back to the Soul Society, and Lance had recently got back from a Mission, but he should be back soon. He really wasn't supposed to be out of the hospital, but it's not really like anyone could stop him. Alice also tells us that he will be out all day tomorrow as well. We wait for a little while, and give the Relics to Lance. Le'Brian tells him that there were some Hollows in the courtyard, and Lance remarks that they were up to something, though it was something that we would have to deal with later.
He moves on, opens the bag, and seems unphased by the blast of energy that erupts. He hands Le'Brian a pair of gloves, allowing him to spontaneously cast, and very powerfully; these are the Gloves of Boccob. He hands me Bracers of Ehlonna; these can activate as a standard action, and surround me in wooden armor. If I'm paying attention, however, there are times I'm not touching the armor, as though it is floating a millimeter away from me. He hands Midnight Ring of the Fallen, making him better at studying his opponent, his preferred method of fighting. I ask whether Yrie got anything special for helping us, and Lance replies that he doesn't yet.
He turns to us, informing us that "All of your equipment has the tendency to grow or weaken in power depending on their mood." I find this fascinating and cool, that they have a mood. As soon as each of us takes our gift, a flash of green light erupts and blinds us for a moment. Lance comments, "What the -why...that...doesn't...happen...often. By the way, the items didn't do that." He looks over the items really quick, letting us know that it seems to be fine and it doesn't seem to have done anything, so they are ours to keep. As we are leaving, I see Lance pull Yrie aside and give him an Axe.
As Le'Brian is examining Amai, curious if she can talk, she is watching his every move; she is very intelligent, as she knows what each tool does. I spend about five minutes just bonding with and talking to Amai. She watches me for a little, then gets bored and starts walking over to my bed, jumping on it. I just follow her with a nervous chuckle and pet her, though it is hard for me to tell whether she likes it or not as there is a non-reaction. I ask her if she would like to come with me to deliver the data to Ukitake as I am leaving, and she jumps on my shoulder. I smile at her brightly, and Le'Brian and I make our way to see Ukitake.
Le'Brian had held onto the data, and wrote to Ukitake in advance on the matter. With the message sent, we understand that it is going to take a couple of days, so Le'Brian drags us to the Brazilian Soul Society for an adventure, though he doesn't say quite why. Yrie comes with us.
However, before we could leave, Roshi shows up and tells Midnight that he must pay in on his promise. He takes Midnight to the hot springs. He then makes Midnight crawl through the air vents, which break shortly after. The only person there is a catfolk known as Xue Zing, who screams and scratches his face, landing him in the hospital. This is the story I was told in the morning, which I find rather pleasing as I feel karma is finally taking its toll. Xue then apologizes for beating the crap out of him, making the comment that she wasn't aware Lt.s were so weak. Midnight of course responds that he didn't fight back.
While I am normally against Midnight, he is part of our team, and this is Le'Brian's adventure, so it is up to him. He actually decides to take Xue. I ask if Lance would be upset at this adventure, and Le'brian notes that he probably would, then decides to leave in the morning when Lance isn't here so we could be back before him. My response is that "You're just like a rebellious teenager!" Getting hit with a repressed memory of me leaving a house I don't really remember, but know is mine. It feels a lot like De Ja Vu, and I get quiet for a moment. I can remember the image, but nothing more in terms of context or anything. I become visibly quieter and slightly perturbed. I try to hide these emotions as they are not professional. However, Yrie asks "Are you okay?" To which I shake my head, "Yeah, Yeah, I-it's nothing." Even though it really isn't, he seems sated by this answer.
We arrive at the ruined city, and I noticed a flash of movemment. Xue saw two figures up ahead, one is Lance. She wonders, aloud, what Lance is doing here. We all attempt to hide our spirit pressure. He looks over, and the other figure flash-steps away. He was wearing clothing to suppress his spirit pressure. He then flash steps over to us, "You guys really don't know how to just let things go, do you?" we do notice that he is carrying a bouquet of flowers.
"Look, we're just trying to get answers to what we consider a very important question. I invited them, this was my idea." Le'Brian informs him once I mention that I was just tagging along.
"Come with me, we have a pit stop to make first." Lance was pissed, and when Midnight offers to leave, he replies, "No, you're already here. These guys won't leave anyway." He then leads us into the center of the city, and we all remain quiet. He the takes us to a large monument; a gravestone with a very large list of names. He tells us that this is a list of people who died here. When I ask what happened, Lance tells us that he isn't sure. That's why he has flowers; he couldn't save all of them. "All I know is that when I got here, almost everyone was dead. I've been told some details, but I just know enough to stay away from certain subjects," he finishes with an accusatory glance at Le'Brian. The person who wrote the book Le'Brian found is not on there. We also notice that another bouquet of flowers are there. They are fresh. He sets the flowers down, waits for a while, his head bowed. I bow as well, paying my respects.
A couple of hours pass, and Lance gets up to say "Well, I suppose we should get this over with. No point in waiting, anyways." Pulling out the map, we see that it has bunnies drawn all over it. We then start heading towards the main laboratory. We notice that two bookcases are knocked over, where one is not. Lance goes and moves the bookcase to show us a secret door. We then hear a rock drop behind us. Lance turns and draws gunblades. We sense a very powerful person behind us. He activates his sword, which then turns into a rocket launcher cannon, rather than a gun. "Raise your three heads, Cerberus." and flashsteps out; a wall of fire appearing in his place.
Marilith, demonic hollows (menos), suddenly appear nearby, though Yrie is right above them. While I charge them, dancing, Yrie drops down on the one I didn't focus on. Meanwhile, the menos slap Yrie with their tails, to which he responds by punching them. Shortly after, I fall unconscious due to lack of air. Amai then pops out of my shirt and bites the tail off of the menos, where I'm suddenly 30 feet away from the enemy. The creatures then summon in a bunch of Dretches, which appear and then charge right into the firewall, quickly turning to ash.
Yrie ends up finishing the menos off, after I switch to my bow as it hurts significantly more.
Lance comes back with a couple of cuts and bruises, which Le'Brian heals with a smack of his staff, "Uh...thank you and..." Lance then punches him, "Don't hit me." So into the Library we go. Most of the bookcases, we notice, are empty. Lance goes to one of them, takes one book, walks back, "Okay. There are two rules that come with this information. Oh, three rules. Don't share it; don't actually use it without my supervision or permission, and three, don't come back here, which includes never touching these books. Is that understood? Just in case you're wondering, one of these books could kill us all."
"Knowledge is power." Le'Brian remarks.
"What do you think killed these people? Reading the books didn't do anything. Using the knowledge in these books trying to save us is what killed people. Without the rest of the books, this is useless, which is why it's the only one you're allowed to take."
Le'Brian off on a tangent in which he rants frustratedly at the situation.
"So, what you need to do with this book to get what you want, take it to the captain of squad three. Pretty sure you're the only one that saw her name, so you're the only one that knows what to do with it." Lance says to Le'Brian. It comes to light that the captain of our Squad 3, is the same person as the head captain of the Brazilian Soul Society. This is the same person, as was told to me by Le'Brian, that had been trying to cure the disease Ukitake had. Shara's captain had the disease as well. I make it a priority to speak with her upon returning.
Le'Brian begins to groan and rant in further frustration, before composing himself and saying, "I understand your terms."
"Will you obey them...?"
"I accept your terms," came the begrudge reply.
"Okay, I'll burn all the books except this one if you prefer."
I reply that "As I don't know what this knowledge will do or what to apply it to, I understand and accept."
"Honestly, I don't know the full story either. I just know that it killed everybody here."
There is however, one book that looks particularly magical. There are burn-marks everywhere around that shelf; it's the only book on the shelf and is covered in burn marks. Le'Brian tries to destroy it, but it doesn't do anything. Lance erupts, "Wait that...did...some...get out of the room! Take book, get out!"
The only word we hear before an explosion is "Bankai!"
I'm not a huge fan of this whole predicament, as when knowledge is used properly, it won't backlash like had happened in this Soul Society. So the fact that all of them just got destroyed except for one, especially with the knowledge that this knowledge could be put to curing Ukitake. Of course, as I don't know the whole of the story on why the books were so dangerous, I prioritize speaking with Shara.
Akamori Yuki Community Member 
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