Welcome to Gaia! ::

The night had long since taken control from the day. The sun having fallen below the horizon hours ago, the air was chill enough for one to see their own breath, yet dark enough that it made it damn near impossible to see. Without the moon or a single star in the sky the night had taken on a sinister feel to it, a dark forboding slithering through the air to wrap its intangible tenticles around any who stepped foot into the void the night created. In the distance sat a building, large enough in size to fit the entire Thirteen Court Guards within its structure and still have room for every one of the members to get lost for days if they weren't careful. Tonight this building was lit only by the gentle flicker of old gas lamps that were placed every ten feet or so away from each other. The Grand Library, generally friendly and inviting in the day time, now stood as a fortress for those who wanted to enter; a top of the line security system set up by the Captain Commander himself as a means to track who came and went, and what exactly they were searching for.

Tonight this electronic sentinel stood between one very dedicated vice captain and his search for answers. Tired of the mundane tricks that made up shunpo, Lerato decided to delve deeper into the secrets of the shinigami to find a way to even greater speed, speed he had seen his own captain using and knew deep within his soul he was capable of; if not to exceed the king of speed, then surely to atleast be able to match him on even footing.

Breaking in to the Grand Library had been almost too easy. Without the cameras running to catch him on tape, or a single sentinel within the entire confines of the giant building, it was as if Lerato were just walking down an incredibly dark section of the first division barracks. Silence enveloped him in its familiar embrace while shadows clung to the edges of his clothing like hungry leeches unwilling to let go. Without the typical shinigami sandals to make the telltale 'Clack. Clack.' that typically filled the massive room or the hushed whispers of lower seated officers to rebound off the walls of books the room felt insanely lonely. It was almost as if the immeasurable weight of the silence was the last security measure; the only one that couldn't be shut up by a simple code typed into a hidden computer terminal. "I'd better get this s**t wrapped up before I go insane..." His words seemed to echo around him eerily as he moved, reaching the first section books. "Damn... that's a long way down..." He commented as he looked over the edge of a long drop, easy six stories down, consisting of public access books. "Huh... and to think these are just a fraction of the texts in this place..." With a sigh Lerato shook his head and set about searching the various lengths of tomes, the first massive wall having only belonged to the first division.

Twenty minutes later and the only sound to break the oppressive silence was the soft tune of pages being flipped in rapid succession. "Come on... there has to be something here..." The vice captain grumbled as he flipped page after page of yet another useless anatomy book. "Books on chiyudou... on meditative techniques, musculature and nerves... Why the hell isn't there even a scrap of information on infusion!" Momentarily forgetting to stay quiet the shinigami let out a frustrated growl that seemed to almost shake the books from their shelves. Slamming the book in front of him closed he sat back against his chair, sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I have to remember to bring it to the Captain's attention that this place needs to be reorganized. I've never seen such a mess before..." Taking a second to roll his shoulders back he leaned forward and grabbed another leather bound codex and, absent mindedly, began to flip through to the index. After writing down a list of promising entry numbers he began his tireless search, flipping the rice paper carefully so as to not rip the ancient parchment.

The night, which had been moving at a snails pace already, seemed to come to a halt altogether as Lerato made his way up and down the rows of literature. Climbing up and down the multiple shelves had done nothing to satiate his hunger for the knowledge he knew lay just beyond his reach. His hand would plunge into the sea of texts, pull out a manuscript, then promptly shove it back into its place with a frustrated growl. Growl. That was one thing he found himself doing a lot of lately. "Ever since he brought me to the brink of death I've been doing a lot of peculiar things... In fact, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't feel the need to sneak around in these blasted catacombs for who-the-hell-knows-what." A sudden sense of static electricity lifted the hair on the back of his neck raise as he smacked a book from its place. With a deep breath the vice captain attempted to get his emotions under control and, with a shaky hand, ran his hand through his shaggy mane of platinum hair.

A half hour later and Lerato had become completely submersed in both ancient and modern writings yet again. What time was it? Or more importantly, how much more time could he spare to spend here before someone stumbled across him? Was it already morning? No matter; with another flip of a page the worry was wiped clear from his mind, leaving only the rich scent of paper to consume his mind. Now chapters in to his reading, the lieutenant was beginning to notice a fair amount of similarity between the texts of the fourth and the fifth divisions. Any time the two started to veer off in the direction of reiatsu infusion -beyond the principles of shunpo- and the codices would end up censored with scratched out words, blacked out paragraphs, or even missing pages completely. Throwing his head back Lerato bellowed into the night. 'How can the Central 46 so blatantly cover up information. I mean, to go as far as ripping the pages from their bindings; the act alone should be considered a crime unto itself!' With a swipe of his arms the towers of books went flying, some smashing into the walls while others fell pitifully to the ground where they lay motionless. Normally he would have waited a few minutes, gotten himself under control, and went to retrieve the many leather-bound tomes so that he could replace them but not tonight. No, tonight he left them to be found. Sure, it was a small detail that would surely be over looked, but in the pit of his stomach the vice captain felt a little warmth at his surrender to the fury he felt.

The path down to the restricted access section of the Grand Library was a maze; a literal labyrinth of book shelves, empty corridors, and doorways to nowhere, all of which seemed to be lined with cameras. Thankfully though the security cameras were hooked to a live feed only and, as there were no guards on duty during the night, he was somewhat put at ease about being found down here without written authorization and without a set manuscript he was to be looking through. At long last Lerato stopped in front of a nondescript entry, the only thing setting this doorway apart from all the others was the material it was made of. A strong oak layer made it look to passers that was just another dead end, but if one were to look closer they could see a thin metallic strip along the threshold and brick off to the side that seemed to have been hollowed out. This was it. The entrance to the restricted access area. Punching in another pass code and Lerato walked in, a camera behind him catching a detailed look at his back while another caught a full frontal look. Had anyone been watching it would have been all too easy to see just who was searching around for forbidden information.

By the time the scent of burnt leaves and rustic spice filled his lungs he was already too late. Lerato went stumbling back at the sound of his Captain's voice. With a resounding crash three shelves of books came crashing down around him, eyes locked on the Red Man as if he was a ghost. "H... How? I took all the precautions... I made sure no one saw me. How in the hell did you find out?" Though his words came out as a whisper, they sounded as if he had screamed them into the silence of the room. It didn't make sense. He had shut off all the cameras... followed all the guidelines... Hell, he had treated those codes and diagrams as if they were law. Actually, given his current predicament, he had treated them as if they were higher than law. Where had he gone wrong? At which point had he made the mistake? Temporarily ignoring his Captain, Lerato began to flip through the pages of that impeccable script in his mind. 's**t...' It had hit him. Though a large portion of the manuscripts had been printed by necessity there were still some of the finer details -little notes scrawled on the side- that should have been an immediate red flag. "Of course...." It only made sense that the person who had installed the security system would know how to get around it, but it still didn't answer the question of how Fefnir had found out about his plans.

Deciding it would probably be best not to push the matter quite yet Lerato got up, crossed the small gap between them, and immediately stood at attention. "How may I be of service, Captain?" His words were stiff, his tongue slightly numb from biting down on it. Lerato stared straight ahead, eyes focused on a singular point above Fefnir's head as he waited for the punishment that was sure to come. After a few minutes of silence the lieutenant chanced a glance down and was startled to see a calmness surrounding Fefnir instead of the rage he had anticipated. As he let out a sigh the Vice Captain realized just how much anxiety had built up in such a short time. Clearing his throat and rolling his shoulders he looked down to where the man sat. "What is it, Captain?" By the time he had asked the question his tone had crept back to it previous level. If it wasn't punishment that Fefnir wanted to discuss, then what was it?

A flicker of emotion lit the lieutenant’s eyes as he took in what the Captain said. ‘I was set up?’ In that instant Lerato was unsure whether he wanted to fall to his knees in defeat, or jump the small gap that separated him from the carmine clad man so he could ring the life from his body. “You led me about like a lamb for slaughter…” There was something in his voice, a despairing croak that whispered the sense of distrust that filled the air around them. It was one thing to leave a subordinate to their own whims, but to plant the necessary tools told him only one thing: Fefnir had been watching him much more closely than previously thought, knowing that if Lerato had been stupid enough to try to mimic him he could have died.. “I guess we have a very different idea of what ‘falling into your lap’ is… sir.” Though he had tried to keep his tone level he could help as the end of his sentenced turned up into a sneer. If Fefnir believed that the amount of searching he had done was ‘falling into his lap’ than just how well had the information been hidden before the Captain had started pulling strings? Minutes passed as Lerato pondered on Fefnir’s next question. ‘Why would he bother asking something as stupid as that?’ The answer had been obvious enough that the Vice Captain wanted nothing more than to roll his eyes, but he humored the man before him and spoke, “If I had come to you, I would have only been borrowing your talents, your speed. None of it would have been my own. Not to mention if you had known I was searching for a way to surpass your shukuchi, then no matter how proficient I got, I would never have gotten the jump on you.”

“And a friendly reminder, Fefnir,” he spoke to the ground as he walked around the table and settled into place before the giant red book he had been instructed to look through, “I’m not the same person who so willingly threw themselves at your feet before. I think you’d be surprised just how hardened I’ve become since then.” And then, as he had been instructed to do, Lerato opened the book before him and started to skim until he found information pertinent to his search. Some of the information he already knew such as the legs being a natural retainer for the short storage of reiatsu; it was one of the main principles of shunpo after all, even if the majority of younger shinigami assumed it was about miniature explosions alone. It was also one of the main reasons performing kidou through your legs was so difficult, not to mention dangerous. It wasn’t until about half way through the chapter that he came upon a diagram with rushed script in the margins of the page. A test the show if the subject was capable of more advanced reiatsu integration. Hazarding a glance towards the captain he found the man rocking back and forth in a wheelie, seemingly without a care in the world. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s bad luck to play around in those things?” He grumbled just loud enough for the Red Man to hear. Without waiting for a response, or the chance for Fefnir to reprimand him for what he was about to attempt, Lerato closed his eyes and mentally traced the musculature in his legs time and time again getting deeper with each run down.

After he was sure he had located the appropriate pathways, the Vice Captain started to pour energy into them. The progress was quick at first, but after just a few fleeting seconds a sharp pain ran through his legs as if a shot had been fired, following the sciatic nerve from his upper a** cheek till it reached his big toe. With a scream that knocked the dust from the surrounding tomes Lerato fell sideways off his chair. Blotches of red and yellow clouded his vision for a fair while as the reiatsu that had seeped into the pathways slowly dissipated into the air around them. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as his vision finally cleared and he was able to push himself up to gently lean on his hip. “That was a stupid idea…” He panted and with one hand wiped a thick film of sweat from his brow. “Humph.” The Vice Captain shook his head briefly before getting back to his reading, taking in the words without much notice while a list of worries ran through his mind. ‘If I ******** myself up beyond repair already I don’t know what I’ll do…’ Doing his best not to let the idea stick he quietly ran a mental check to see if he could still move the his toes as well as feel the chair beneath him. “Well, at least I didn’t mess myself up too badly…” he mumbled. Closing his he once again sent a tendril of energy to touch the overly sensitive nerve the man prepared himself for the inevitable pain but was instead met with a faint buzz feeling as the energy trickled down the nerve to fill the pathway where it sat for a solid thirteen seconds. Without being put into action the reiatsu slowly crawled from his musculature and faded away.

The hands of a near by clock met, passed, and met again before Lerato finally put the last book that was on the table back down and looked up to his Captain, a small joy deprived smile twisting his lips up into a haunted looking grin. “I guess that explains why you’re in a wheel chair now, yeah?” The question had often played at the tip of his tongue but he had held it in place out of respect. Even with perfect control of ones reiatsu, performing a technique designed to integrate spiritual energy into the body of a shinigami meant destroying the nerves and, after prolonged exposure, causing irreparable damage. But his studies revealed something possibly even more important. It had given him information that could allow him to see the movements of the Captain’s shukuchi. Within the texts given to him there were telltale signs from the exertion of massive amounts of pressure, to the wake of displaced reishi and, with a self satisfied smile, Lerato looked up and nodded. “So, are you going to drill me, or are you just going to trust that I’m going to run?” He inquired as he pushed his chair back with a slight scuffing sound. The night had been both painful and enlightening and despite still having to come up with a way to avoid getting his a** handed to him on a silver platter, the young Vice Captain still felt relatively confident that tonight would be a turning point.

“So,” he continued, voice laden with sarcasm, “you think you’ll be able get up the stairs, or should I look for an elevator for you?” He laughed as he started walking towards the red clad man. “Sit back and relax. If it comes to hefting you up the stairs I’ll do it with a smile on my face, alright gramps?” His tone was playful as he grabbed the back of the wheelchair and started directing it towards the door. Stopping at the threshold Lerato lifted a lone finger as if to say ‘One minute.’ and jogged perhaps ten feet to his right where a camera hung from the ceiling. The jump was relatively easy and as the lieutenant hung from a support rod for the electrical equipment his reiatsu spiked and there was a sudden flash that -despite being confined to the one room- Lerato new extended to every place where a camera sat as the wiring within them fried. Falling to the ground he jogged back over and with a shrug of his shoulders explained, “I didn’t want anyone to see us, especially after you said all that s**t about the codes only turning off the lights.” Grabbing hold of the handles on the back of the chair he again proceeded to work his way out of the cavernous library.