Chapter 8

- Mrs. Harribel? - After the unknown Adjuchas left, Sun-Sun crawled to the girl who was still pensively looking at him. - Something is wrong?

"I trusted this Adjuchas. - She said thoughtfully.

- What do you mean trusted? - Mila Rosa did not understand.

- I don't know ... I don't trust Hollow, whom I met for the first time, but at the end of the meeting I lost my caution. If he wanted to, he would have had the opportunity to seriously injure me.

- What is it like? I do not understand! Apache shook her head.

- Me too ... - Tia held out. - I do not understand too...

- Auch, auch, auch, auch !!! - I yelled, rolling on the sand, trying to knock off the maroon flame. Which was not really a flame, but my own reiatsu, which got out of control and was now so vividly devouring my body. No, not warmth, reiatsu was simply destroying the connections between the reishi! - Hey! Hey! - Knocking down the last tongues of flame and examining half-fried myself, I just sighed heavily: Vaster Lord, it's called ... One disappointment ...

Disappointment began from the very transformation into Vaster Lord: there was no fanfare, no fireworks, no reiatsu flashes, no epic fight with an opponent superior to me, during which I evolved to punch him in the face ... No, I just walked along desert, counting the grains of sand under my paws out of boredom, when suddenly I felt like sleeping. And I have not wanted to sleep since the moment I became Adjuchas. Without even having time to comprehend my condition, I passed out, and when I woke up ... I became like that. No, I was still a cat, but my size left much to be desired: if before I was the size of a young calf, now I was slightly larger than the usual lynx in size. I certainly remember that the Vaster Lords are getting smaller, but I liked being a big cat rather than a small one. However, I didn't have much choice, so I had to put up with it and start dealing with my new body.

But here there was both good news and ... No, there were only good ones ... Except for my size ... Yes, I still have not come to terms with it, although I tried! Be that as it may, my theory turned out to be correct, and after evolution my whole body consisted of perfectly familiar "perfect" reishi. After several months of observation and a couple of experiments, I realized that you can forget about regression. No, in fact I can still regress, but in practice, my reishes die so slowly that it will be enough for me to eat one Adjuchas to supply my body with fuel for five to ten years. There was no point in continuing to hunt shinigami either; practice has shown that this has no effect. Well, in a sense, the effect was the same as before, but since all my reishes were already "perfect", there was no point in accelerating the "evolution". There was an idea to check what would happen if I eat another Vaster Lord, but I came to my senses in time: if I eat a piece of "perfect" reishi, they will go into my stomach, where ... Where they will remain as it is. In fact, by eating the Adjuchas, I get the flesh of the Vaster Lords, just a small piece takes a whole Adjuchas. Otherwise, I simply cannot cram it all into myself, so why then risk my life?

This was the end of the physical differences, but spiritual differences emanated from them, namely my reiatsu. Naturally, there was a qualitative leap in her level, however, half a year after becoming a Waster Lord, I noticed that the level of my reiatsu continues to increase. Slowly but surely. I still cannot say with certainty what caused this phenomenon, but I have one theory: I am simply growing up. In the sense that over time, my internal organs and reishes as a whole "rub in" to each other, and gradually increase the overall efficiency. Except for the increased level of reiatsu itself ... Nothing happened. I say that one disappointment: I hoped for much more, and all that I got was a significantly increased level of reiatsu, a new, more perfect body and that's it. The biggest blow was that my ability to control reiatsu did not improve at all. No, she gradually got better and better, but I did not notice a serious "jump", as with reiatsu or my own body.

But in general, I did not complain: all the changes were objectively positive, and the control over the rate ... Will come with time, right? It turned out not. The evidence is right under my nose: my "burns". The thing is, as soon as I became Vaster Lord and got enough reiatsu, I immediately began to try to adapt "Tiger Flash", Nen's ultimate technique, for myself. And at first I had some results: I was able to close the inner loop of Nen flows, in the sense of reiatsu, and almost close the outer one, which would mean the full activation of the technique ... Inspired by such success, I continued training, but the more I trained, the worse I did! It got to the point that now I can't even close the inner loop, as a result of which the reiatsu got out of control and here's the result ...

And the most offensive thing is that I know the reason! I know, but I can't do anything with her! The thing is, I have too many reiatsu now! Yes, it turns out this also happens. Imagine an overwhelming tsunami. An element that can raze major cities to the ground if they are on the coast, right? Now imagine the ocean. There is enough water for thousands, millions of tsunami, but ... If you cannot create this tsunami, then what is the point in this water? It's the same with me: I have a lot of reiatsu, but precisely because of such a quantity, my ability to control it fell lower and lower over time! Previously, I could create almost microscopic streams of Reiatsu and twist anything from them, but now, when I try to do this, a real fountain of energy bursts out of me, which is many times more difficult to control! It got to the point that I now cannot use a few tricks that were elementary for me when I was Adjuchas! Why, even the "Stimulating Breath" turned from a support and concealment technique into a combat technique - the last time I hunted Adjuchas, the latter got into the "Breath" area of ​​effect, and immediately turned out to be torn into smallest pieces, which flew to thirty around!

Since then, I've tripled my caution when I visited Soul Society: not only was it getting harder and harder to keep my pressure within my aura in check, I also had to worry about Hina: what if this fool is using shunpo to hug me? I don't want bloody pate to come out of shunpo instead of shinigami. It will be very ... Unpleasant. Fortunately, from the moment of my evolution, she did not appear at the indicated place, although she should have already graduated from the Academy, but oh well, she probably has a lot to do to get so far from Seireitei ...

And yet what should I do? If this continues, then all I can do is throw incredibly powerful Seros. Hmmm, who would have thought that Hollow would be looking to become weaker? Precisely weaker: being Adjuchas I could do much more than now! It's a shame, however! All I need is to reduce the rate of generation of reiatsu. Not always, but at least synchronize it with the speed of my control over reiatsu. How to do it? I tried to simply release my reiatsu, empty the stock almost to the bottom, but this does not help: when using the techniques, reiatsu is first taken from the newly generated energy, and only then from the stock. As with all electrical appliances connected to electricity: first, electricity will be taken from the network, and only if it is not enough, the charge will be spent from the battery. Forcibly weaken the generation of the rate? I should have known how ... I tried to think of something like that, but to no avail: my reishes continue to do their job no matter what I did.

- Gr-r-r-a-a-a-a-a !!! - Out of despair, I stamped my face in the sand. What should I do ?! No, no, no, you need to calm down. Inhale ... Exhale ... Inhale ... Exhale ... So, I tried everything I could to slow down the rate of generation of reiatsu, but nothing worked. Regression? It's a shame somehow; worked so hard to become a Vaster Lord ... Can I give someone a part of me to eat? I think it's too late: even if the level of my reiatsu stops growing, I have already reached a level where I can hardly control it. We need another way out. I raised my head above the sand, and stared at the leafless bush growing out of it. - Any ideas? - I asked him. The bush, of course, did not answer, to which I waved my paw and broke off almost all of its branches. - I wish it happened to me the same way - once, and broke off my strength in half ... - I shut up with my mouth open: how could I not have thought about this before! Split the power in half? That is, to become Arrancar!

Hmm ... And this is already an idea. No, I'm not going to bow to Aizen. Wait for him to appear here too. Stark was able to independently become an Arrancar? By the way, he had the same problem: other Hollows were dying from his spiritual pressure ... Maybe I should call him "brother"? The thought went to the wrong place! As far as I remember, Stark had his unique ability to divide his soul into as many pieces as he wants, which allowed him to become Arrancar on his own: he divided himself into Stark and Lilynette. I have no such ability. Does this mean that I'm flying by? No, it doesn't! The main thing is not exactly how he does it, but the fact that Hogyoku does not need Arrancarization. You just need to find a way to divide your soul in half, and with it the power will be divided.

"Easy to say ..." I muttered, curling up into a ball. It is very difficult to work with your soul, especially with your own. Difficult, but not impossible: I have been a necromancer several times, and I have a good idea of how to work with souls. Another thing is that then I had access to standard mana and many years of experience with it. And now I have reiatsu ... Almost uncontrollable energy. - Well, no, I just won't give up! - There is one option! Kido. While still Adjuchas, I met Hina a couple of times: she was given two weeks of rest a year while studying at the Academy, so she came to visit me. It was then that she showed and explained to me how Kido Shinigami works. I was not able to repeat their techniques, but I learned the principle itself. Then I brushed it off, just because I could do the same thing directly, without any spells, but now ... Now the situation has changed.

Kido is a set of techniques that allows you to control reiatsu not directly, but through a kind of buffer. A shinigami does not control her reiatsu, he or she simply throws her reiatsu into space or the desired part of the body, while a verbal incantation and a number of meditative techniques direct the reiatsu and weave it into the desired spell. Something like creating a program. It takes more time, but it does not require precise control over the flight. Exactly what I need. Of course I'll have to create my own spell from scratch. In addition, the task is complicated by the fact that the spell will not be easy ... There is a lot of work, but on the other hand, I have as much time as I want, because there is no need to hunt, Hina does not need to be trained. I don't have to do anything else, which means I can devote all my time to the task.

- Blarg-x-rgha-ah !!! - Consciousness returned along with a monstrous pain and spasm, which forced the entire contents of the stomach to be emptied, which, as practice showed, contained about a liter of blood and incomprehensible pieces of bloody flesh. Resting my hands on the sand, I tried to relieve the pain that was burning all over my body, and to remember what happened, and most importantly, what is happening now. Hmm? Stop! Leaning on your hands? Well, yes, five fingers, quite human skin ... I tried to clench and unclench my fist. They are listening! In the meantime, the pain passed, the mind was cleared of fog ...

Exactly! A year and a half of continuous work, countless calculations, and about a dozen failed experiments that almost cost me my life, but I still succeeded! I got it! Achieved !!!

- Ha ... Ha ha ... Ha ha ha ha ... - Pushing off the sand, I moved a little to the side, away from the contents of my stomach, and rolled over onto my back, looking at the near moon.

I did it! Lifting myself up, I examined myself. A perfectly folded human body, a Hollow hole where a person has a solar plexus, and of course a complete absence of any clothes. And the mask? Feeling my head, I realized that the remnants of the mask are a thin strip on the forehead, sharpening upwards from the edges. Does it look like cat ears? I don't know, it's hard to say without a mirror. Stop wallowing in the sand! Smoothly rising to my feet, I was completely satisfied with my own physical condition: the muscles worked flawlessly and exactly as I expected from the human body. So, where are mine ... Aha, there they are! Not far from ... Erm ... Surplus of evolution, on the sand lay Daisy: two absolutely identical straight daggers. The thing is, I was a little worried that even if I cut my strength in half, there would be too much reiatsu. So I decided to divide my soul into three parts. and of course no little girls, ordinary blades are enough for me.

- Good ... - I nodded, taking the weapon in hand, and twisting them in different directions. In general, I prefer the more versatile straight one and a half-hand swords, but taking one bastard in each hand is too much, especially since most of all I love hand-to-hand combat, but I knew and knew how to use paired daggers, so having made a couple of swings with both blades, I made sure that they fit perfectly in my hands and complaining about the lack of a scabbard, I walked away from here: there was no point in staying here.

So, what about reiatsu? Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh !!! Although it is strange: I divided my soul into three parts, but it feels like I have about sixty percent, maybe a little more. But this is exactly what is needed: I tentatively activated one of the methods that I had not available for a long time, and six red energy blades hung in the air near my hand. And not the slightest effort! Not the slightest difficulty! I'm ecstatic! I don't know how long I smiled stupidly, trying different techniques and wondering how easy they were for me, but in the end I returned to reality. And the reality was ... A naked man with two bared blades wanders through the desert ... Hmmm ... I'll go get some clothes. And at the same time the scabbard. Where? In Soul Society, of course.