Learning From Experience [Liltotto/SOLO]

Finally, her body cooled down and she didn't feel terrible, it was a rough night after her hunger came pooling back, but she was back on schedule after a week of rest. Being feverishly hot for a few days after taking a chunk out of an unfathomable hollow definitely yielded some ideas, so the time not doing much wasn't ill-served.

Such thoughts was what brought her out to an islet, far off from any people and most living organisms, and she wasn't intent on leaving until she developed something useful, something that could serve to hit hard; her current skill worked well in one-to-one fights, but she definitely couldn't hold out against bigger opponents or massive numbers with just traps, a sword, and her spirit weapon. That giant hole wasn't closing anytime soon, and if anyone could develop something effective against those nasty beasts, it was gonna be her no matter what.

Though there was doubt that much else could have been as gnarly as that giant lizard, there was always room for doubt. He definitely read as 'apex', though - that was the minimum she got. Shrugged off spiritual attacks, barely reacted to pain... There had to be something that'd send things like that running, or better yet, dead.

Fight fire with fire, she had decided on - she needed some basis, and going over what she knew about hollows seemed to be the best. As much as she didn't know about being a fragment of the Soul King or whatever, there had to be something she could come up with after years of eating the bastards, on top of the nasty thing she just finished getting down.

Sat down, stick in hand, she'd begin drawing things in the sand, figures of hollows she thought up on the spot,

"Let's see..." She'd mumble, drawing a crude Gillian in the wet sand, ".. Hollows use Cero, Bala, Sonido, can also regenerate.." She'd furrow her brow, "Damn, anything else is kinda useless or inaccessible then... Well, actually, not the worst batch to make something of, shouldn't complain."

Hmming to herself, she'd write out the words of all four points she could possibly start with. Regeneration was an immediate out - unless she ate something that had remarkable skill in that, it wasn't going to be very helpful or easy to gain. Sonido was a possibility, but not something she felt pressured to gain - she was pretty fast on her own, but forming something resembling of that high speed movement would've been ideal in the long run, she wasn't able to utilize Hirenkyaku or any other spells, something she felt greatly irritated by, but in the end she had a lot more potential for flexibility.

Thus she circled two - Cero and Bala. Well, Bala were just smaller, less powerful Ceros packed into a bunch of shots instead of fired like a beam... If she could form something that resembled a Cero, she definitely could dial it back to form a Bala equivalent, yeah? Yeah, so going for a Cero it is.

Thinking back to every time she witnessed the ability being used, of course her most recent example being that ugly lizard, she figured the easiest way to emulate it was breaking it down into steps, drawing four Gillian-like shapes in the wet sand.

"..So lets see.. They focus their Reiryuko into one point, let it build up at that point, aim, then fire.." Mumbling to herself as she'd draw each step, before leaning up, "Alright, I can do that. Easy peasy."

Not as easy peasy as she anticipated, turns out. Though she had a good picture in her head of what she wanted, and all the natural control she'd need, it wasn't working out. Initially, it was her built habit of gathering Reishi causing a few hiccups - barely an issue but definitely annoying, just took a short exercising of what she was already capable of to get the right muscles worked. She found it a little humorous; she gained a taste for the techniques her instructors tried so hard to teach her, and now they would be stubborn to go. There was time to further improve her weapon, but right now she needed to roll back.

After that, it was just a matter of getting the right formation, which itself proved difficult to work into the feel for. It wasn't hard to focus a ton of energy, it simply was something she wasn't used to, like hopping into a differently-sized car; it had the same workings, but the differences were hard to ignore and took some getting used to, but by time she was making some headway, the sun was sinking in the horizon, and she was sweaty and hungry. Some brief fishing, a fire started, something cooked, and it was time for bed, settling in her tent with her body warmed by the embrace of a sleeping bag.

...
..Huh?

Her eyes slid open, only to feel a slight sting of salt in them for a brief moment as they adjusted. There was nothing but muted blues around her, and she was floating listlessly in the midst of it, hair flowing around her bare form. Light filtered from above.. Was she underwater?

Despite her normal fears of being in deep water, they didn't seem to exist here, if anything she felt a strange sensation of nostalgia, until she looked down, peering into a dark abyss where no light could touch. It was almost like she felt the form of another consciousness within the darkness, one she felt compelled to approach, one to call out to...

No words came, but she realized her breath was suddenly short, and filling with water. She choked, feeling unable to breathe, suffocated by the weight and pressure around her, trying to swim to the surface, only for her vision to darken, her body becoming heavy and refusing to rise, the trembles of a force from the depths surrounding her and crushing her, the darkness threatening to swallow her up until..

"BAH!" She'd yell out, sitting up in her tent and nearly knocking one of the walls out with her head. Ugh, maybe she shouldn't have cheaped out and have gotten a bigger one... Still, she felt herself near coughing and out of breath, though not entirely sure of why. It felt like she was drowning for a second, but she couldn't make out what she dreamt of that'd provoke that feeling

Well, sun seemed to be rising. Back to it, she supposed, placing that niggling thought to the back of her mind for now.

Hours into practice and it still didn't feel right. She was frustrated - how could what amounted to an animal just do it no problem, but she had such issue? The shots never went off at the power or distance of a Cero, but she was getting there. She got steps one through three down, but four was consistently underwhelming.

"What's running through those thing's minds that i'm not doing.." She'd ponder for a moment, sitting in the sand as she'd peel the meat from a leftover fish she preserved in the cooler. Yuck, definitely preferred that warm but it was better than having nothing.

Well, she definitely was pretty calm while doing it. She doubted Hollows felt calm when in a scenario where using that ability would make sense to their brains. They were instinct-driven, using that was a vie for survival. But she didn't often feel too threatened for her own safety - she was awful tough, it'd take a lot to kill her...

Maybe thinking about somebody else? Protecting someone else would bring that feeling on? Once again, she'd raise her hand in front of her, and began focusing her energy. While that was performed, she'd breathe and close her eyes.

There was a lot of things she could think about.. A lot of people she wanted to keep safe. The city, the Vandenreich..

The energy gathering in her palm slightly fluctuated in formation, her mind drawing to the destruction dealt by that Arrancar. She never wanted to see the city in such disarray ever again if she could help it.

Her friends, her colleagues... It'd be crushing if they were hurt and she couldn't do anything about it. A more recent memory dredged up, along with the horrible array of what ifs her mind did not process in the moment; a degree of terrible ways that Alastair could've been badly hurt or died during that mission. Crushed or incinerated were her top worries - she had faith in the young man's abilities of course, but she could not help but hold concern. There was a fine line between trusting someone to perform on their own and carelessness for their well being.

A great crackle came from the energy, a true shape attempting to flicker into being as she pushed her thoughts, her heart racing, sweat beading down her face from the hours of practice, feet firmly planted in the ground as she reached into these uncomfortable thoughts to motivate.

Giselle... Dorian...

Energy surged into a powerful swirl in her palm, the sounds and sensations of wind suddenly whipping about catching her ears but not breaking her focus.

She'd feel incredibly, especially like shit if either of them were killed, when she could've done something. When she could have been there, like she wasn't before. There wasn't a good descriptor in words that could express the difference, but she knew - she had felt it before.

But that was the moment she forced the energy to disperse with a twist of the wrist and an uncomfortable thunderclap to the ears, a small 'wuff' escaping her as she lowered her hand. Definitely dug a little too deep into the emotion well there, but that was about the feeling she was aiming for. She was getting closer to what she wanted.

One more time, no rehearsing, she'd just do what came natural. Her thoughts were in play, her hand focused, her energy gathering. Something was happening, the previously blue-ish sphere of gathering reiryuko crackling with a blackened aura, like tiny spits of energy were throbbing and receding as she focused, the white glow growing an almost flame-like center. A heavy heart and focused thoughts would slowly grow this into a larger ball, roughly the size of a basket ball, churning from the concentration.

Aim...
Her hand pointed off to the horizon at first, but instead lifted slightly up into the deep blue. For some reason, she felt the gut instinct to handle this with caution.

Release.
A shot flew up into the air, spewing from the ball until it's energy was spent, piercing and parting the clouds. There it was, a Cero, or at least one in it's infancy. Though, any onlookers would hardly call that 'infancy'; it was a powerful blast propelled some ways into the sky before ceasing, the beam closing in on itself and shrinking away; an odd behavior she took note of.

Though she did notice something strange about how the clouds parted... It was less like a force blew them apart and more like.. They were cleaved clean through.

Smaller.

A pang of energy would hit the sand.

Concentrated.

She'd hold the shape with a single finger instead of her whole hand, shaping it into a tiny ball before letting off a shot. Her eyes were firm on what she hit; she needed a smaller scale version for proper, safe observation.

Once it was more consistent, she'd launch this power at a good-sized rock a few times, watching each bit as it clashed against the rock and petered out. Then, she'd take a closer look at the damage dealt to the rock itself.

They were strange, near perfect spherical shapes gouged into it. Bala would blow a rock like that apart, but that wasn't what she was seeing, tracing her fingers along the grainy, burnt-on residue. It was almost as if they were dissolved.. Or absorbed?

With a gentle 'hmm', she just wanted to do one more test before she concluded on this. Creating a small reservoir of water in the sand, she'd point a finger at it. If it was simple displacement, the water would splash everywhere in an explosion, and if it really was some kind of disintegration or absorption...

"..Yeah," She'd breathe after a few goes, performing a low burst mode of what she had managed to create, "..Yeah it is just dissolving it."

There was no water left in the small reservoir she dug out for the test, even after her carefully constructed shots. It was all dried out, even the leaves used to hold the water looked eaten away at, speckled with odd divots and holes despite her intentionally avoiding to apply too much force.

"Well, that's scary," She's mumble, an eyebrow raised. Was she absorbing it? Was this some form of her eating? Well.. She definitely was less hungry than normal, now that she thought about it. It was almost night and she almost didn't notice the time go by again. Maybe it was the same thing as her body's passive defenses, but concentrated and amplified into a cero. That was her best guesses, at least.

This was something she definitely had to handle with a lot of care and responsibility.

Yeah, she wasn't going back home til she was one-hundred percent sure she understood this ability and it's extent, as well as having control of it to the finest point she could muster. Such a process took days, pushing it at different sizes and shapes, carefully feeling out it's capabilities.

The "bala"-like attack definitely was the most convenient to use in close-range altercations, it was easy to use her dominant hand's fingers as a means of quickly concentrating and using the attack, chalking up to be pretty dangerous gap closer for anyone physically stronger than her or getting the drop on her, kind of like having a gun to quickly brandish.

However, the "cero"-like attack wasn't something she could casually use. Took longer to charge, and she estimated pushing it to max strength definitely would be a tax on her, but even lower caliber charges were consumptive. It was a versatile ability in her quite experienced hands, though one she held with a lot of caution - it wasn't discriminating in what it struck, and as much as she tried there was no way to get it to only work on specific things. Troubling, but not the worst.