Establishment (Private Training)

"Hehehe..."

The hollow perked its head up, eyes darting in every direction in an attempt to identify the source of the incessant giggling throughout the night shrouded woods. The sounds of grass rustling and heavy breathing filled this particular section of the Karakura Forest. They were the sounds of prey escaping its predator- and failing miserably. Initially, it had only wanted a snack, having found a nice human girl to prey on, only to find that it wasn't any ordinary human. What appeared to be a young woman scantily clad in a maid's uniform turned out to be far more trouble than previously anticipated. Far more trouble indeed. Any innocence the Hollow had seen in the girl turned out to be... something else. Words couldn't describe the amount of pain and fear those eyes had etched into its soul, only experience itself could prove just how much pain a look could cause someone. Under normal circumstances, the lizard-like hollow would have used its wings to fly away now, too, but having one of your wings... gone, would most likely prove to be a problem. Nothing could fly with only one wing, after all. At least, it certainly couldn't.

"Hehehehahaha!"

The laughter grew louder, and the hollow did its best to limp away as fast as it could. It couldn't decide what had happened to its wing and back left leg. Had it been decayed? Aged to dust? It didn't know what had happened, just that it turned black from being touched too long before eventually withering away into nothing in no more than mere seconds. The girl had managed to outmaneuver the Hollow as it lunged for her, thinking it had gotten the element of surprise. When it had closed its mouth, there was nothing but damp, night time air, and a pain in its wing. The speed at which the girl had turned the situation around only frightened the spiritual predator more, prompting it to increase its speed despite one of its legs not even working. It hadn't quite faded away completely, but had withered to the point where it would be better to amputate it completely than leave it there. The muscles there weren't responding, and any nerves that were there were obviously dead or decayed out of existence. Nonetheless, the evil being pressed onwards, escape being the only thing on its pathetic little brain.

"Hahahahaha!!"

Closer now than before, the laughter only proved to fuel the creature's desire to live even moreso than now. If it wasn't already going at full speed, it most certainly was now. The only thing that was proving to be a problem was the fact that the number of trees was increasing, making the woods around it thicker and harder to maneuver. Even still, the laughter got closer and closer, while the Hollow could only get slower and slower. There was hardly any choice now, really. Trees were going to have to die in order for the eater of souls to escape. Tensing its one back leg's muscles, the lizard crouched momentarily before desperately springing forwards and catapulting itself through a tree. It was getting so close to the center of the forest, it could feel it. Its escape was imminent, it had to be! After all of this... there was no way it could-

"Die."

The creature stopped mid air, feeling something pulling on its tail. Its head snapped back in fear, expecting to see the girl holding onto its tail, only to see the tree it had just busted through was completely fine. Looking down, the Hollow felt its heart sink in an instant once it realized that, no, the girl was not holding onto its tail, but instead was standing right next to it, reaching out to grab it. Her eyes were covered in shadows, but her unnerving, toothy, ear to ear grin still sent shivers down its spine. If she wasn't holding onto it's tail then what- wait, the tree was fine? The Hollow's head snapped around again to see that yes, the tree was fine. But it had completely destroyed it when it busted through! Yet here it was, completely fine and-

-trapping its tail in place because it fixed itself while the tail got in the way of the tree while it healed. Before the Hollow knew it, there was a searing pain in its tail, causing it to let out a loud roar of pain as it tried and failed to pull itself free.

"And here you thought you had the right to eat me..." the girl said, her right arm turned completely black from some unknown force. It grabbed the hollow's thick, scaly tail harshly and in turn, started to wither away at whatever flesh or hide was there. The Hollow could only fall on the ground and writhe in pain from how much it hurt. It was agonizing, like it was being set on fire and slowly withering away at the same time.

"If only you could speak words." the voice of the girl taunted in a mocking tone, "I would make you beg right here and now. Oohh, the thought itself is exciting!"

Then, everything stopped for the Hollow. The sound of its mask breaking didn't even reach its ears as the girl broke the mask and grabbed the Hollow's face, almost instantaneously decaying its head, and brain, into dust.

"But not exciting enough to try~"

Pulling her hand out from the Hollow's mask, and away from its mostly decayed face, the fiery haired girl sighed happily and dusted her maid's dress off. It would be foolish not to wear shorts underneath her dress, as someone might have seen her black laced panties. She knew the Hollow almost did when she jumped over its head. Only she and her significant other, who she had not found yet, were allowed to see her in her final layer of clothing. Alas, Yuyuko, the heir to the Mikadzuki household, and one of her "employers", had seen her once or twice in next to no clothing, and once when she was, in fact, wearing nothing whatsoever. Oh how funny it would be when the girl figured out who the head maid, obviously the girl standing here now, REALLY was. Oh yes, that would be quite entertaining. As for now, that was to be kept a secret.

"Yet I still cannot wait to see how she reacts..." the girl mumbled to herself with a playful, almost innocent grin.

Sighing, Ophelia patted her skirt into a comfortable state and sat down, leaning her back against a tree as she rested. The reason she came out here today was none other than to get used to... well, everything. It was a long time ago, but she had discovered her powers almost several years ago, not really thinking about what they were for or what to do with them. All she knew was that nothing could ever break around her, unless she decided not to fix it. Even when other people got hurt, she could just reverse their wounds from a distance before they could realize. Of course that lead to... a few more complications, and a few harsh lessons that were most certainly ingrained into her mind... somewhere. Yes, somewhere in her mind were memories that she had suppressed for the sake of simply forgetting. After all, she didn't like the choices she made as a child.

Ophelia did know about Hollows and Shinigami and Demons and the such. She had her opinions on the such and knew what they were and which of the groups allied with who, but never really delved deep into the topics or politics or such. In fact, she had only ever killed a few Hollow in her life, and only very recently had she done so. She had talked to a Shinigami, and even a Demon and a Sueki once. Her opinions on the last one were mixed, leaning towards negative ones. She didn't know how they came to be, but anything that THRIVED off of sex made Ophelia cringe a little. There wasn't much to judge however. They couldn't help it, after all, she just didn't like the idea of something that was meant to be so intimate being turned into... Just no.

Closing her eyes, Ophelia did her best to suppress her reiatsu, having already experienced what happens when she didn't. Apparently even Hollows were capable of sensing reiatsu, even from a distance, so Ophelia quickly figured out how to make hers inconspicuous so as to avoid detection. However, the way she did it was messy and half-assed, as she didn't really know any other way to do it. Anything nearby would know she was there in a split second, but it did help her from catching too much attention from Hollows. One would be not much of a problem for her to take on, but several would most likely kill her, right? Right. That was probably how it would go. Some of them sure seemed like mindless creatures with a tendency to eat souls, but she had encountered one that was surprisingly intelligent. Hell, it could even talk! That was certainly an experience to remember, one that gave Ophelia a fresh opinion of what she was hunting. Even though it could talk and said some mildly intelligent things, however, it was still a brute that did little to strategize or anything. It really just seemed intent on eating her soul, only to find that she was much more of a problem than it had previously anticipated. Just like with the last one.

But those times had come and gone, and now Ophelia knew she needed to move. While her sensory powers were mediocre at best, she still knew there was about two or three Hollows headed her way. Lucky for her, they were all coming from the same general direction. Maybe they were all working together? Whatever the reason, Ophelia decided now would be the best- if not only- time to move. Propelling herself onto her feet, Ophelia took no more than a second to dust herself off before quickly sprinting in the opposite direction, intent on getting as far away as possible. The sounds of her quiet, controlled breathing and nearly silent footsteps were all she heard as she ducked and weaved through the thick brush of the forest. She felt her thighs and arms get scraped a little bit by passing branches and leaves, but nothing cut her enough for her to be concerned. They may not have even cut her at all.

"Which means nothing should have poisoned me..." the woman muttered, realizing that she didn't know if anything here was poisonous. In fact, she knew little about the kind of plants and animals that would normally live in a forest. That was probably a bad thing. Then again she could get Yuyuko to teach her. That girl had probably read an encyclopedia or two on fauna and flora, right? Probably. That's all she does is read.

"Bah, what am I thinking!?" the woman exclaimed before reminding herself that she was supposed to be running. Turning her focus back to the task at hand, Ophelia picked up the pace to make sure her escape was a success.

A dead end. Ophelia had hit a freaking dead end in the middle of a forest, while being chased by several Hollows. It was just her luck too, as everything was looking up until just now. She had even been getting a way too, what a pity. Just as she thought everything was looking up, it all took a complete 180 at the last possible second by giving her this dead end. But what was this dead end you ask? Why it was a massive lake in the middle of the forest. How "fortunate" she was to be here while in a chase with a couple of things that wanted nothing more than to eat her soul. Turning around, Ophelia's mind instinctively went into overdrive. Hopefully with a bit of training she wouldn't have to worry so much about this kind of thing, and would be able to make these Hollows seem like small fry in comparison to her strength. That time was not now, however, as she was about equal in strength with all three -and now four, she was sensing- Hollows that were headed in her direction. She needed something to help her fight against these creatures, but it seemed that nothing would of such use would be near her. In fact, there was about twenty to thirty feet from the edge of the treeline to the start of the lake water. In other words, there wasn't much space between the water and the trees that would constrict Ophelia's ability to flee. It was hard enough getting through them, so it would most likely be just as hard getting back into said treeline. At least the land in between the lake and trees was flat and clear of any other obstructions. It seemed the trees wouldn't necessarily be a problem. At least, it was more than likely.

Ophelia sighed and turned to face the treeline, her reiatsu flaring up as if to tell the monsters to "come and get her". If she was going to be backed into a corner like this, she might as well try and fight her way out. The Hollows were about equal with her in strength, but she felt that she could outsmart them quite easily. Her powers allowed for a bit more trickiness than one would assume, after all. Her mind was racking itself for strategies, tricks, or anything she could use against what she assumed would be simple minded beasts. She knew she could quite literally decompose things into nothing and then spontaneously undo said decomposition, possibly- wait.

"Ooohhh, they're gonna love that." Ophelia mumbled to herself before beginning to set up for her plan. Walking forwards towards the treeline, Ophelia placed her hands on the trunk of one of the larger pine trees and pumped it full of her black reiatsu, the tree quickly starting to decay shortly afterwards. "This is gonna be so fun~"

*Ten minutes later*

Shortly after Ophelia finished what she was doing, she stepped back towards the shore and looked around her. The ground was completely littered in splinters from the wood, as well as pine needles from the tree. Her power was a little broken in the respect of being able to undo anything that happens, while at the same time preventing any further damage to the object or objects at hand. While they were flimsy, since they were essentially going back in time, no natural force could completely stop them. In fact, it worked essentially as a sort of way to use broken objects as projectiles. They would be stopped sure, but they would keep pushing as long as they were supplied with reiatsu from Ophelia. Yes, that was how it worked. They weren't 100% unstoppable, but still incredibly difficult to stop. That is, assuming whatever it was that was trying to stop her was on the same level as her. That would be plenty of things though, considering Ophelia knew she was particularly low on a scale of power. Maybe she should spend some time actually practicing her abilities and controlling her reiatsu. That would, of course, be a wise decision.

The thought would have to be saved for another time, however, as from the treeline burst three completely different looking Hollows. These were the predators that had been stalking her for quite some time now. The Hollow she had killed no more than twenty minutes ago was an ally of these three, and a particularly good one at that.

"It's YOU!" proclaimed the one that was circling to her left, stopping just at the shoreline. It was some monkey like creature that spoke in a low, gravely tone. Its body was tan, but it was covered in fur around most of its body, and it sported large hand-like paws with fingers that ended in absurdly sharp nails. Its mask wasn't anything special to look at, however, as it just resembled a monkey's face.
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"What an idiotic statement, of course I'm me." Ophelia mocked in her "posh" tone of voice. "Who else would I be? I'm not nearly ugly enough to be your recently deceased friend." These ones could talk, she needed to keep that in mind. They were already hungry and angry that she had killed their friend. It wouldn't be wise to piss them off, but if they went into a blind rage, maybe they wouldn't think properly before acting. There wasn't much brain to use though, so she didn't know why it would be an issue.

"Silence, mortal! You know not our power!" said the one that circled to her right. It seemed they were trying to surround her. That was fine. They clearly didn't know what her tricks were, either. This one was some kind of canine. Its mask sported massive fangs that jutted out from its mouth even when it was closed, and its body was essentially a hairless dog, with a long tail that ended in a spear-like head.

"Mortal? I see poor insults run in whatever little family you have here." Ophelia said, sighing and shaking her head. "'Tis a pity that I actually thought you were capable of more than basic thought processes."

Sitting on top of a tree was an owl-like Hollow who was massive in size and surprisingly not heavy enough to crush the entire tree. "If you're about as strong as you are good with words, you should not be much of a problem for the three of us." the Owl criticized, making Ophelia burst out in hysterically maniacal laughter.

"You think you can beat ME!?" the woman yelled, causing the Hollows to look at each other questioningly. There was something odd about this one. They all knew her reiatsu wasn't normal in structure or feel. For once, it actually made them think. Not about what to do or who they were going to eat next, but about what they had done long, long ago. Had this woman done something so sinister in her past that it ingrained itself permanently in her mind AND affected her reiatsu? The feeling they were given was one of nostalgic qualities, like there was something old about this woman. Yet they knew she wasn't any older than around two dozen years at the most.

"If you think you're stronger than all of us together, then we'll just have to beat you into your place, human." the monkey growled. Brandishing his claws, he lowered himself into a position that would make it easier to jump at Ophelia. What was this fool thinking? That he could get her with some kind of jump attack? The other two seemed to ready themselves as well. The owl spread its wings and let out a little gust of wind that Ophelia could feel from down here. That was just from when it flapped its wings, indicating just how impressive its side was. The canine on the right of her lowered its body and growled menacingly in an attempt to intimidate her. Ophelia couldn't feel whatever affects the intimidation was supposed to have. Should it be just bravery or lack of fear, Ophelia did not know.

"Doesn't matter. You've already failed to see my trap..." the woman sighed, looking up at the night sky. How beautiful it was. Too bad the ground was about to be stained red.