Understanding. The word has a great many depths to it; it’s undoubtedly a word of great value and importance. To Yummei that importance lay in understanding himself. Why he was, why he did what he did and most importantly what he could become given time and proper dedication.
The questions plagued him with an almost religious zeal, his mind constantly churned over the possibilities before him. However, before he could move forward and advance himself to new heights of glory and power. He knew he must first gain an understanding of the workings inside a hollow mind.
A short chuckle, his mind was a hollow mind indeed. Raping his knuckles on the back of his skull he settled down and continued his musings. The mind of a beast was an amazing thing; he would strive to garner all the complexities and secrets hidden within the minds of his brethren.
But first things first, a plan must be formulated. The blueprints to this scheme if you will.
He would he decided, start of with simple things. He would learn how the basic hollow brain worked. How it reacted to different situations and puzzles and how it overcame difficulties it faced.
He broke this plan down into three segments.
The first phase, devising a structure to hold and contain the hollow guinea pigs he would be testing upon.
The second phase would be to capture his research specimen. This to him seemed like the easy part of the whole thing.
The third phase would be the series of tests and trials he put forth to his unfortunate victims to determine his results, this would be the most important phase.
Getting on with the first phase though was a little tricky, as he had no idea where to start. His first concerns where what would he build it out of, but the thought of how he would design it and then how he would construct it to his design soon flooded his brain. Quick enough he felt ready to give up, but he knew that nothing worth attaining would be given up so easily so he persevered. As a result he soon came upon the solution. He would make the structure of his ‘trap’ out of his own reatsu, that way he could bend it to his will as necessary. And he would be able to control the environment of the test. Yes this was the perfect solution.
The second phase was simply to capture live test specimens for his research. For him this seemed to be the easiest bits, as hollow were always in abundance. And he could simply take them one by one when he needed them. First though he simply lay in wait… while easy this phase was quite boring in that large amounts of waiting would be necessary. But sure enough with patience he reaped rewards; as a simple hollow roamed near to him he struck out with sonido, darting forward and clubbing the beast unconscious.
Now taking phase two and adding too it phase one gave him phase three. Contain the beast and carry out his tests and research. Standing a way of from the beast he put out his palm and slowly concentrated his spirit energy into a physical manifestation of itself. Then exerting his will on it he shifted it, stretching it out and adding to it constantly. The process in its entirety was a long one, and he did a great deal of watching while his reatsu worked into the proper shape. But finally he ended up with a large maze at the center of which was the hollow, the maze of course was made up of his reatsu and as such he could almost instantly charge a certain point to release a shock upon his guinea pig.
He watched patiently as the hollow at the center of the maze woke, this is where the fun truly begins he told himself. Looks of confusion didn’t take long to make themselves apparent on the hollows simple features. And he reacted most naturally to the situation, with anger.
Flinging his weight against the walls of reatsu, this of course was a dire mistake as Yummei was a malicious fellow and simply poured energy instantly into that spot. The hollow wailed in pain and anger and again flung himself of the walls in protest. And again all he received was a sharp jab of energy for it. So licking his wounds he quickly settled down, and started testily walking along the proffered routes. Yummei duly noted that this hollow stayed well clear of the walls in future.
Note to self: Subjects learn to avoid pain in sense of self preservation; this indicates some form of intelligence and not just mindless anger.
Coming to problem solving the same hollow showed aptitude in working his way around puzzles. It wasn’t that he managed to get everything the first time or managed find every route out with his first guess. It was that he the hollow was quick to pick up on dead ends or places where Yummei decided to jolt him often and stayed well away from them. Yummei was amazed at how readily this simple hollow, who was seemingly mindless picked up upon little things and adapted to the situation.
Not to self: Subject has skills in adapting to a different environment and shows keen logic when facing situations that have resulted unfavorably beforehand.
Yummei was now quite amazed at how well this relatively stupid creature was coping in the maze Yummei had made for him. The one thing that did bug him though, was that all the intelligence shown by this hollow was primal. In that it his intelligence was very basic and simple, not keen and witty, it served a purpose. Simply self preservation, but aside from that it was a stupid being. And the question rose what separated this thing from himself? Why was he smarter? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why........
The hollow having eventually completed the maze came to the exit where of course Yummei coldly murdered him. Implanting his fist in the poor beast’s skull.
He couldn’t be bothered to capture another hollow and redo his experiment, he was sure he would but just not at the moment. For now he needed to ponder upon his thoughts. What was it that made him different from that hollow? Why was he gifted the ability of reason when others where not?
Long and hard he thought on this and he could figure no other explanation, it was all down to the fluky luck of evolution. Among all animals there were differences in ability, none more so than humans and seemingly hollow as well.
Accepting his conclusion he was content in the new found knowledge that evolution handed out gifts randomly and without favor, those who were granted such gifts had to seize upon them while those that weren’t had to live in acceptance. This truth could be applied towards hollow as well, and he was happy to accept for the while that he was as he was because he was meant to be so. And that was good enough reason for him.
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Marines don't die, they go to Hell to regroup.
Equality is a myth, the weak suffer what they must while they strong do what they can.