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Chapter 360: Chapter 326

First off, I think a normal animal would instinctively avoid this area if even Humans knew that something was wrong. And yet, it was sitting right here, a monster roaring at the side, just calmly looking at me.

I guess I did cause a little bit of a commotion, but I didn\'t think it would be enough to grab anyone\'s immediate attention.

"Hello?" I offered a greeting.

The Cat tilted its head, tail swaying behind it.

....atleast it wasn\'t as terrifying as that other animal from Chaldea. Speaking of, I never did ask Olga or anyone else about it. I suppose I was understandably preoccupied with other matters and it didn\'t show an iota of hostility.

Honestly, I\'d even call it friendly. It just seemed to like messing with me, probably because I was the only one who understood what kind of might it could bear.

Something I\'ll have to look into later.

I took a step forward, towards the strange cat, and it didn\'t react, still staring at me.

Taking a few more steps forward, I crouched down, holding my hand out to see if it wanted to be pet. It still didn\'t react so I stood back up. I turned around back towards the hollow, only to jerk backwards and try to get a reaction from the quick movement.

Still, the cat didn\'t react, but I think I saw a hint of amusement in its eyes.

Shaking my head, I turned back around again.

Acting as if I was going to ignore it, I flicked my hand backwards, a single Talisman flew out of my hand towards the cat.

It finally reacted, moving very fast. Enough that the air displaced from where it stood.

I turned to the side, and it was sitting there, like nothing had happened, dozens of feet away from where it was previously.

And now, I was feeling competitive.

I didn\'t even try to hide it, flexing my fingers and taking out a fistful of Talismans.

And of course, the cat looked at me challengingly.

I wasted no time, the Talismans already left my hand. Each of them had a different effect. One of them hit the ground, creating a small glacier that erupted from the ground. The Cat jumped up with ease, avoiding it.

While it was in the air, my second Talisman turned into Fiery snake that coiled around it at an odd angle.

The Cat slapped the air and back flipped out of the way. Somehow, it was able to create a foot hold through what I assume was Reishi and dodge that way.

My eyes widened and it looked way too smug at my reaction.

I crossed my arms at its reaction, looking rather smug myself. "Should have looked at where the last one went." I tooted in chastisement.

The Cat\'s Eyes flickered as it clearly didn\'t see where I threw it, but I held up a lazy arm, pointing at the hollow.

It wasn\'t difficult to hijack the spell I already cast. My last Talisman slapped onto the Hollow\'s mask, and it lit up as if siphoning the effects. Several chains shot out from the Talisman at the Cat that was falling in mid-air.

The Cat jerked its body to avoid one, and jumped to avoid another, but they wrapped and shot in such angles that it was apparently taken by surprise, only having the option to fall straight down without being caught.

I held my arms open. "I win." I declared as it fell right into my grasp.

I was under no delusion that this cat could escape from my arms if it really wanted to. Hell, I felt like it was merely playing around and wasn\'t nearly as intense as it could have been.

"So....how long are you going to keep pretending?" I lifted it up to the sky.

"Meow." It said in a very deep voice.

It wasn\'t the sound a cat made, but a literal word as if a human spoke.

"Cute." I said dryly. "You know, cats are an invasive species. I should do my due diligence and hand you over to the proper organizations. A little snip here and there, I\'m sure it\'ll be over quick. Don\'t want more stray cats popping up."

It stuck its tongue out at me.

"Fine, be that way." I just let go, letting it drop to the ground. "Got more important things to take care of." I pivoted, walking back towards the Hollow.

It finally stopped thrashing about, mostly just seething quietly. I was a little miffed, so I kicked it as I got closer. The Hollow immediately started yelling and roaring again.

"What are you doing?"

I blinked, realizing the little Cat was at my feet, looking up at me. "Oh, so you can talk." I deadpanned.

"Meow." It replied rather dryly."

"You\'re lucky I like cats." I pursed my lips. "What\'s your deal? Some kind of Youkai?"

"Sure."

"....I feel like you\'re not being truthful."

"Sure."

"Are you a parrot?"

"Sure."

"Are you upset about what I said regarding getting you neutered?"

"Meow."

I rolled my eyes. Clearly, this cat was just messing with me. I don\'t know what\'s up with me and small – dangerous animals that seem to find enjoyment out of annoying me.

"What\'s your name?"

"Don\'t you know it\'s impolite to ask someone\'s name without introducing yourself first?" The Cat shot back. "Do Gaijin\'s not know that?" It tilt its head.

"First, that\'s more of a slur than an actual statement of one\'s status." I pointed out. "And Second, I\'m Half Japanese, thank you very much. And Third –" I leaned down. "I don\'t think you can call someone impolite when you\'re technically trespassing. Or do cats not know anything about that?" I parroted its words.

"Meow."

"Right." I sighed. "Should have expected that. Anyways, the name is Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg."

"Yoruichi." The cat replied with its own name. "And this place is abandoned."

"I just bought it recently. Hence, you\'re trespassing." I mean, I will have technically purchased it soonish. Depends on how quickly that roleplayer got the stuff taken care of.

"Why do you have that Hollow?" It didn\'t even care about my retort as if my ownership was irrelevant to it.

"You know about Hollows?" I questioned. "Seems kind of suspicious for a Cat to know something like that."

"I know a thing or two." It walked up, clearly unafraid of the evil spirit.

"Uh huh. Well, good for you then." I ignored it, making sure the bindings on the Hollow were still nice and secure.

"What are you going to use this Hollow for? You went to the effort of catching it." The Cat jumped onto the Hollow\'s head without a care in the world. Even as it struggled and let out roars, Yoruichi didn\'t even seem to care.

"Recruitment."

"Recruitment?" Yurichi looked confused.

"Yup, I need a new employee. Obviously, this is an interview to see if he\'s right for the position." I think I kept the sarcasm subtle enough.

As if to agree with me, the Hollow let out another roar.

"See, even Bob agrees." I pointed out.

"Bob?" Yuruichi looked at me incredulously.

"Do you think he doesn\'t have a name?" I looked \'offended\' at her suggestion. "Even a Cat like you has a name, why can\'t he have one? Anyways, lots of important matters to take care of." I grabbed hold of the newly named Bob\'s leg and started dragging him towards the building he originally came from. "Personal interview to take care of, you know how it is."

"I\'ll come with." Yoruichi declared.

"Sorry, this is private." I shooed the cat away.

"Don\'t wanna~" It looked at me mischievously.

I furrowed my brow, knowing it would be difficult to drive this cat away if it set its mind to resisting me. I was pretty damn sure it didn\'t show nearly the peak of its capabilities when we were playing before. I wasn\'t entirely sure it was just a cat and I didn\'t want it to watch me go through my experiments.

It already saw my Talismans and hadn\'t made a big deal about them, so I wasn\'t too perturbed about that being revealed. But I didn\'t know much about this world so I was being a tiny bit cautious.

"How about this." I set the Hollow back down. "I have a question about Hollows. You said you know some things about them, so if you answer my question, I won\'t kick you out. But if you can\'t, then you leave me to my business."

"Alright, sounds like fun." The Cat grinned. "There isn\'t much I don\'t know about Hollows though~"

"Okay then." I hummed to myself. "I don\'t know much about them so I wanted to know. This hole at the center of its chest –"

"Hah, that\'s easy!" Yurichi cut in, practically prancing around. "When a soul\'s soul chain completely degrades due to not moving on or falling to regrets or obsessions, it opens up a hole in their chest. The Hole signifies that they lost their heart, and it then becomes the mask they wear."

Huh, though I was curious about why there was just a hole on its chest, that you could see from one side to the other from. I assumed there was some sort of spiritual meaning. Guess I was correct in that regard. "Nice to know, but that wasn\'t the question I was going to ask."

Though, that\'s some new information I will want to get elaboration on.

"What\'s the question then?" Yoruichi asked.

"If you touch the inside of the hole, is it like skin or is it like you\'re touching its actual insides?"

".....that\'s your question?" Yoruichi blinked.

"I\'ve been very curious, and I didn\'t want to just stick my hand in there and find out."

I was waiting for Yoruichi\'s answer but the cat just opened its mouth a few times and closed it.

".....ask me something else."

"Nope~"

The cat clicked its tongue. "Fine." I could hear the grumbling. "But I\'ll be back." Yoruichi declared before disappearing with a burst of displaced air.

Well, I wouldn\'t mind. He seemed to be relatively pleasant and approachable. I\'m sure I could get some more information out of him later.

But for now, I had some experiments to start.

"Come along, Bob. It\'s time for your interview." I continued to hum to myself as I pulled it towards where I would be making my makeshift workshop.

[***]

"Mundane weapons seem to have a minimal effect." I muttered, putting away a Gun I happened to have stored.

A bullet barely left a bruise on its arm.

I took out a regular sword. There was nothing Magical about it, just a basic Iron weapon. I casually swiped at the Hollow\'s arm again, and it left just a small bruise, not even breaking the skin.

I was correct in my initial thoughts. It appears as though Hollows exist at a higher state, mundane means are heavily negated. Though it may seem obvious, I did want to verify instead of just assuming.

They were Spiritual Beings, so it made sense.

I cast a Basic Reinforcement on the Sword and slashed at the Hollow once more. A cut opened up about the extent that I expected. There was a little bit of resistance, but that could be attributed to his thick skin and muscles.

Good thing I set up several Bounded Fields, because this thing was making a lot of noise.

I pulled on my Divinity and held a little bit of Lightning above my index finger. I gathered as much – or rather, as little as I wanted. Just a tiny little spark, which was oddly more difficult to do than just gathering a huge amount.

I pushed it against the Hollow\'s arm and it picked up its roaring. It struggled violently, thrashing against its bindings.

"Interesting, very interesting." I muttered again, retracting my Divinity. I tried again with just normal lightning, and although it still raged in pain, it didn\'t react quite as violently as before.

"Divinity appears to have some sort of suppression effect on Hollows." I spoke the words as I wrote them down in my little notebook. That is to say, my Divinity was its natural enemy in a sense. Which corresponded to how Onmyoji called upon the Gods to purify Youkai and other nefarious beings.

Again, it made sense, but assuming things often leads to incorrect conclusions.

Divinity was more intertwined with the world where a Hollow appeared to be an unnatural aberration that went against the natural order.

"Now, what about my Aura?" I questioned aloud, calling forth the manifestation of my Soul. I wasn\'t quite sure how Aura would interact with the Spiritual nature of the things found in this world. I was fairly confident that there would be no negatives to my possession of it outright.

I released one of its arm and it took no time to try and lash out at me. This things\' intelligence was borderline animalistic with only basic higher-level thoughts. Strategy, scheming, traps and such didn\'t even process with it based on my observations thus far.

I gathered my Aura and braced myself in case for the worse. While I had no thoughts about it truly harming me, no one likes getting hit abruptly.

The Multicolored wall of light solidified at my beckoning, intercepting the arm of this Spiritual being. I felt a reverberation through it, but it held without any indication of failing.

"Interesting, a sort of resonance due to the nature of being a Spiritual being?" I questioned but furrowed my brow as my girls have smacked my Aura plenty of times and it didn\'t have the same effect. "Perhaps due to the nature of their Ether-based vessels? It allows them to exist in the physical world different from a Hollow that is a purely spiritual being – basically a ghost."

I drew a string of Runes, landing on the Hollow\'s flailing arm, locking it back down.

"And noted that Magecraft is still operable without any noticeable drawbacks. Further testing with other spells and branches is required on a wider variety of these \'Hollows\'." I wrote it down as well.

Just like my time in Remnant, I would give Gramps a copy of any notes and discoveries I made.

Now that I\'ve settled down a little from what happened, I felt much more relaxed. My academic mind was reeling at all the possibilities that existed due to this thing. So many different experiments I could conduct and a wide array of data I could gather.

I had many different thoughts, much of them not feasible. Such as trying to feed it a piece of my Peach of Immortality. I am very curious to see if it would have some adverse effect such as bringing it closer to a living being due to the high concentration of \'life\' contained within it. However, it was much too scarce a resource to waste on such a whimsical idea.

Would Necromancer have an effect on them as well? Should I see if Mordred\'s Master has any thoughts in that regard?

I wouldn\'t actively practice Necromancy due to Meridia\'s preferences, but that doesn\'t mean I couldn\'t seek him out as a consultant.

I\'m sure he could make a lot of use out of a Hollow\'s body.

Another thing to think about later.

But thinking about Meridia.....

Flipping my hand over, Dawnbreaker appeared in my hand. Its golden light shone brightly in this enclosed space.

And to my surprise, the Hollow reacted violently. Not like before that was froth with rage and anger, no.

This was fear.

It was trying its best to run away and struggled desperately under the bindings.

Interesting, very interesting.

As much as I would like to see the extent at which Dawnbreaker has on these things and by extension my Spear that also contains a Holy Attribute, I captured this Hollow for a more specific avenue of research.

I\'m sure I could go find more at a later date, but I had a more immediate concern. And that was being able to facilitate the processing of Reishi properly.

I felt like.....I had the pieces but fitting them together was going to take work.

For that, I needed to see how this Hollow was able to accumulate and manipulate it. Hopefully it would give me some clues I could work with and being the path of strengthening my own soul and harnessing it.

Putting Dawnbreaker away, I took out my other swords and let them float next to me. I lacked a scalpel for more surgical needs, but these would work for now.

[***]

I let out a long breath.

I noticed the sun coming up across the horizon and I put all my stuff away.

The Hollow was long dead at this point, but I got a significant amount of data that would be very beneficial to me.

However, I would need many more test subjects to confirm a few hypotheses I had currently.

It was annoying how quickly the body dissipated once it actually died. I had try several means to keep it around, but they sort of failed to take hold. It seems I would have to take drastic measures if I wanted to keep the mass of soul power coherent for further deliberation next time.

And there was still plenty of things I couldn\'t test, such as my Primordial Runes. Which would probably be a good method to try and keep it from dissipating.

Well, it\'s not like I\'m in a huge hurry. My concerns regarding Chaldea are thus far unfounded. Sir Wiggles is doing fine from what I\'ve gathered. But that doesn\'t mean I\'m not on a clock, I don\'t know what happened to the World-line there and I wasn\'t entirely sure I would be able to do my normal side-stepping of time related variables.

I felt frustrated more than anything. Well, that\'s not true. I was still very angry at the one calling himself Solomon.

Having to see Artoria – Any Artoria die like that was not something I ever wanted to experience.

I just had to remind myself why I was here.

My concern for now should be to find more Hollows and do more research. This first one was just a happy coincidence, I\'ll have to really search for a Hollow next time. Do they come out more at night? That would be my first thought considering their nature but I\'m not anywhere near an expert on them.

Maybe I\'ll just –

"I\'m back." A Black Cat suddenly burst through the nearby door.

I blinked, staring at the black cat. I mentally checked my Bounded Fields, and they were still intact without any problems.

I held up a finger and was about to say something before closing my mouth and shaking my head. Instead, I walked up to Yoruichi and picked him up. He looked at me happily as I walked to the door, and tossed him out, slamming it shut and casting a quick Alteration to make sure it couldn\'t be opened again.

"Oh, what was that? I felt the Reiatsu flare up weirdly."

I slowly turned around to see Yoruichi sitting there, on the ground.

"How – Why are you here!?" I exclaimed in exasperation.

"Meow."

I let out a sigh realizing that this cat was going to be tiring.

[***]

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