Chapter 6

- P-P-Mercy !! - Hina squeezed out of herself, burying her face in the ground.

- What are you doing now? - I asked, sitting next to her.

- I beg for mercy!

- You're wrong ... - I said insistently. - You're wasting your breath now. And since you can afford it, then go back to push-ups! There are only eight left. I'll even count them for you.

- Mmmmm ... - she moaned, still putting her hands on the ground.

- One ... Two ... Three ... - Hmm, just think that in some six years from a small, skinny, incapable of anything, this girl will come out. And all thanks to me ... Yes, modesty is not peculiar to me.

Although no, not only thanks to me. The fact is that when I said that she had no talents, I was wrong: she had one, but very important talent. Stubbornness. Hina turned out to be an incredibly stubborn girl. She whined, she cried, she begged for mercy and leniency, but she never gave up. She could fry all my brains with her complaints and whining, but in the end she always did what I asked of her. And the result is evident in front of me, not a worthless girl, who is offended by all and sundry, into a young girl in excellent shape, able not only to stand up for herself, but also to protect loved ones. If only she had people like that.

And her physical condition was just the tip of the iceberg: during this time I taught her how to read and write and count, and survive in the forest, and many psychological tricks when communicating with people, but what is there, when I started working with her didn't know anything! When she found out that Hollow is a former person, she was incredibly surprised: it seemed to her that Hollows are just such monsters that appear from nowhere, so I had to explain elementary things to her: who are Hollow, who are shinigami, what is reiatsu , reireku, reishi, what is Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, the World of the Living, how they differ from each other and much, much more. And now Hinata is a well-educated girl who will not disappear either at the royal ball, or in the densely populated shopping area of ​​a large city, or in the wild forest.

- Seven eight! You can rest. - I nodded, to which Hina did not even answer, just staying face down on the ground.

In general, I found a good place: I noticed it when I was hunting shinigami - an abandoned and slightly broken house in a small clearing in the great "Nowhere". The nearest settlement, which turned out to be a small town, was twenty-three kilometers away, and no one came here in six years. Even by accident. Of course, At first, everything was far from being as smooth as it is now: firstly, the house itself was in a disgusting state, and for lack of hands, I could help with repairs only indirectly, and at that time Hina did not know much, so she was had to live under a leaky roof and on a sloping floor.

The second problem was the essentials for the girl. I'm not talking about food: I hunted the local animal perfectly, so Hina did not starve, and in just a couple of months she stopped looking like a skeleton covered in leather. I'm talking about clothes, shoes, tools, and toilet paper after all! My first solution to the problem was to take the wallets from the shinigami I eat and send Hina to buy everything she needs in the nearest town. The first pancake is lumpy: the girl returned beaten, with her clothes torn to shreds, and of course both without money and without goods. Enterprising city guys robbed a child, used her for their own pleasure, but at least they did not kill. What infuriated me most of all was that she was most worried about not being able to save the money, what I gave her, saying that I was "used to such treatment for a long time."

Be that as it may, I had to look for another way to get the right product. I found it, though he was not very elegant: I simply tracked down a trade caravan carrying the right goods, after which I attacked him, killed all the witnesses, after which Hina collected the necessary goods, I destroyed the remains of the caravan so that it was not clear that something disappeared and we returned. Hina did not say anything about this far from bloodless method, she only frowned when she had to pick up goods next to my victims.

But after about three years, I decided that Hina had advanced far enough to be able to fend for herself, so I sent her back to town to shop ...

- I managed! - The excited voice of the girl pulled me out of the sweet slumber.

- Hmm? - Opening my eyes, I saw Hina throw her bag full of purchases on the ground, and having a good run, jumped on my neck. - What are you doing?! - I was indignant at such behavior of a petty impudent woman.

- I managed! Happened!

- What did you do? - I gave up.

- Beat those goats who tried to rob me! - Radiating joy in all directions, she said. - They were so weak! We were moving so slowly! And they don't know how to defend themselves! How do they even rob anyone ?! - Here, because verbal diarrhea.

- I see, I see. I nodded. - Well, since ordinary robbers are too weak for you, let's go and check the limit of your strength.

- Hmm? What is it like? - She did not understand, to which I silently opened Garganta. - Where are we? - She asked when we went out in the middle of a dense forest.

- In the Southwest Soul Society. Somewhere in the forest.

- "Somewhere in the woods"?

- Well, how do I know what this place is called? And it doesn't matter. The important thing is that Hollow lives here, which has not yet been killed by the shinigami. And by the way, he already noticed you. Hollow this weak, I think you can do it.

- But how can I kill him? - She was indignant. "I thought only the Zanpakuto could kill Hollow!

"Well, first of all, not only the Zanpakuto. Kido can do that too.

- I don't know Kido!

- Hmm, perhaps you're right. - I nodded. - Well, then you have to improvise. - Releasing claws, I with all the foolishness moved on my own mask, aiming at the right canine. - Ouch! - I shook my head from injury. - Here's a proven weapon. - I nodded at my fang. - Proven in many battles.

- Um ... thanks. She nodded, picking up a fang and weighing it in her hand.

- And here is Hollow! - I said, at the same time jumping into the bushes nearby. Hina, on the other hand, immediately prepared for battle, and Hollow, who had jumped out into the clearing, met Hollow fully armed. She bent down, missing a blow with her fist, abruptly leaves to the side, hits my fang on the inside of the knee.

- Gra-ah! - This only infuriated Hollow, who kicks the girl, but she expected this blow, and dodged in time. Then Hina simply danced around Hollow's legs, taking advantage of the fact that she was much smaller than her opponent, and wisely used his range of motion, avoiding punches and grabs at the very last moment, all the while showered him with punches. And now, after the next blow Hollow falls to one knee, Hina immediately appears in front of him, sticks my Hollow canine into the solar plexus, and almost hanging on his weapon, rips open the last belly. - A-A-A-R-gh-rh ... - The dying cry of a brainless creature, and Hollow finally falls silent at the feet of a panting, blood-covered, but incredibly proud girl.

- The rest is over. Get up. - After half an hour of rest, I said, to which Hina readily jumped to her feet, and muttering something under her breath, shook herself of dust and grass. - Time for sparring. - I said, activating one of my "useless" techniques: around Hina, four "illusions" appeared that looked more like dummies than people. And mannequins without any details: just red mannequins, even without faces.

When Hina's physical condition became satisfactory, I began to teach her hand-to-hand combat. Or rather, I wanted to do it, but I faced a problem. I was a cat. How can I show her movements? How to correct her movements? Not everything can be explained in words. So I turned to my faithful "hands", namely to reiatsu. After a week of experiments, I was able to build a prototype of these "dummies". At first I only used them to demonstrate stances and movements, controlling them like puppets, but over time I improved my technique, and eventually I started using them to spar with the girl. No, they fall apart from one blow, and even if they themselves hit something, they also fall apart, but I compensated for this with my personal intervention: if Hina hit the "dummy", then I put a barrier at the place of impact, simulating the effect of the blow ... The same is true if Hina missed the blow of the "mannequin": I created a barrier and already hit the girl with it.

And now I closely followed the battle so as not to miss such blows and not to let the "dummies" fly apart. And Hina ... Hina turned out to be completely mediocre in terms of hand-to-hand combat, which I am a little offended by. Why? It's just that I myself, without undue modesty, a master when it comes to hands and feet. What's the matter? I never know where I will spend my next life: the Middle Ages, space empires, the industrial world ... What kind of weapons will there be? Is it a firearm? Spears, yes swords? Lasers and plasma? I never know, but one weapon is always and everywhere with me: my body. That is why I have spent countless hours and lives on perfecting the art of hand-to-hand combat. But this girl had no talent. No, I managed to hammer into her the foundations necessary for self-defense, but she'd better not even aim for more. But what she excelled at was spatial sensation and footwork. The girl subconsciously felt the space around her and moved exactly so as to evade all attacks, take an advantageous position, force the enemy to either open up, or retreat, or go into defense, and all this on an unconscious level! The girl undoubtedly had the right mindset for fighting, she just needed to find the weapon that would be "her". So even now she was easily maneuvering around four "dummies" at once, which did not have the slightest chance to get her, but at the same time she herself only after twenty minutes of battle was able to deal with her opponents.

- Anything else, teacher? - After quenching her thirst from a bucket of spring water standing right there, she asked.

- There is something else. - I nodded, to which she sighed heavily. "But you don't have to do anything.

- What is it like? - She did not understand.

"Find a branch as thick as a doorknob.

- Ha-ah? - She raised her eyebrows in confusion, but still went to carry out the assignment. - Will this do?

- It'll do. I nodded. - Just break it off a little, we only need twenty centimeters. After waiting for Hina to break the branch, I continued. - Now lie down on the ground. No, not lying down, but on the back. Like this. - I nodded again, then went up to the girl and put his paw on her chest. - Now bite the branch. It will hurt.

- Hmmm? - Hina automatically complied with the order, mumbling in confusion through the gag.

- Be patient. - I ordered, after which I began to carry out my insidious plan. The thing is, I taught her everything I could except one. Her reiatsu level hasn't increased at all in six years, but two years ago I began researching her reiatsu and sometimes performed different influences on the girl. In the end, I came to the conclusion that her gift can be developed artificially, but it will hurt.

- M-M-M-M-M-M !!!!! - Hina yelled, biting down on the branch with force. Her body, meanwhile, moved without her control: her hands grabbed my paw and tried to remove it from my chest, her legs scraped the ground, trying to crawl out from under the source of incredible pain, but everything was useless: I reliably held her with one paw. The thing is that her reiatsu doesn't like my reiatsu too much, and now that's exactly what I was doing: filling her body with my reiatsu. The reaction taking place inside her body was similar to the relationship between fire and wind: on the one hand, the wind can blow out the fire, but if the blow is not too strong, then, on the contrary, the fire will grow faster and stronger than without wind. And now I "poisoned" Hina's body with my reiatsu, adding just as much as needed to stimulate her gift, but not enough to kill her.

- Well that's all. - I removed the paw from the girl's chest.

- For ... What? - She just asked.

- Hmm? No, this is not a punishment, or something like that, it's different.

- W ... What?

- No, first you sleep, rest, come to your senses, and then I'll explain to you what's what.