Hard and Fast [Alex, Yugiri]

She had a job to do. Well, not a job. It was more like a favour to a best friend and a duty to her junior which had her running around the African savannah infested with hollows. Somewhere around here there would be a clue as to where Rafaela had gotten lost at. As little as the squirt was, Yugiri knew she had a presence just as big and cool as her own.

Wave upon wave of hollows is what she encountered though. Packs which she had to obliterate in a single action, or just the odd troublemaker that she ran straight through with her shunpo to blow them apart was beginning to lose its charm. It didn't help that no one was around to even see how much she was cleaning up the region just by herself.

She scanned each region before moving onto another, this was about the time that she ought to change spots so she was dashing through the plains as a blur with her eyes being careful to not miss anything in the environment as she was running through it.

Alex was really starting to hate it out here. Not because he had any issue with the wilderness or whatever, if anything it was where he felt most at home. No, the problem out here was that it was hot, it was empty, and it reminded him of back when it hadn't all been a fucking mess. If you were the kind of ape that liked getting into fights, this was probably a good place to be, but that wasn't him.

Well, whatever. Could be a lot worse, too. His attention was mostly just on the book in his hand, only looking upward when he noticed anything going on around him. Hm. He was used to hollows showing up, and dealing with them didn't exactly take much effort, but this didn't quite seem like the same thing. Shinigami? Hard to say, it was quick. Guess he'd figure it out when it got closer, eh?

Oh, that was a hollow though. Folding the corner of the page he was on, Alex tossed the book into his bag, before stepping once toward the hollow in question and turning it to little more than a pile of mush with one kick.

"Heyyyyyy, I saw it first."

She called down at seeing the matchstick crush the hollow in one kick. It was a pretty impressive display right there, though not as incredible as her own capabilities in hoho or Masaru's swordsmanship. It was plain and simple, without elegance, practical.

"But thanks for saving me the trouble, big guy. You seen a short girl with big twin tails and... big personality around here?"

Yugiri called from up high, she stood high in the sky with nothing except what looked like she was straight out the gym rather than on a battlefield. It was so rare to see people around nowadays rather than hollows, shinigami, and the like.

Glancing upward, Alex simply shrugged as he stuck his hands in his pockets, not hugely confused at the notion of someone looking so casual around here. Judging from her commentary, she wasn't someone he was going to have to beat up. Probably. Hopefully not, the last time around had been a real nuisance.

"That code for her tits, or she actually loud? Either way, can't say I've seen anyone like that around here."

It did idly cross Alex's mind that this was one more person he might have trouble with if it did come to a fight. This flying thing was getting a little annoyingly common to deal with, and at this rate, he was gonna need to figure something out.

"Gonna go out on a limb and say you're not with the Gotei or the Vandenreich, huh?"

"Yes, and yes- Oh.. Damn."

She started talking before he finished, it was rude to interrupt but when one went as fast as Yugiri it was hard to not get ahead of herself. One way or another she'd find some evidence, it was just a matter of when not if since she was a persistent person.

"Nope. I don't belong to anyone, and I'm not lookin' to join up either if you're gonna try and sell me one. Got it?"

"Ha. Psh, no chance I'm selling you on either of those. Not my style, feel me? I'm just helping out for some friends and family, you know how it is."

Whether or not she did, in fact, know how it was, Alex seemed unperturbed by the notion. After all, he was still technically supposed to be making sure she was someone on the level, and so while he liked the cut of her jib well enough, he did still have a few more questions for her before he was willing to just let her do whatever.

"Take it from your uh..." Alex paused briefly as he tried to think of the word he wanted to use, it was one he'd heard Nel use once or twice, and then continued after snapping his fingers, "consternation, that you're not with the hollows around here either, then?"

"Ohoho, is that so? Me too. I can't leave my junior out here all on her lonesome. She's pretty pale so she'd burn out in this sun."

She dropped down gracefully from the sky to land after a few somersaults through the air. It was the kind of dive that'd get her top marks in some competetion albeit second-nature to her by this stage. Nothing felt unnatural about the movements of her body and everything was precise in what was a once crippled hunk of meat.

"You are correct about my consternation. I am not with these guys but I've been giving them knuckle sandwiches as I see them for getting in my way. Can't just let them run amok, can I?"

Yugiri honestly had no idea what that word meant. She'd be sure to ask Erchanhardt sometime. She might be fluent but this was a language she had only picked up quite recently, one only for its convenience of travelling around to converse. At the same time, Yugiri could not admit she didn't know what it meant because then she'd look stupid. The context he used it in would suffice.

"So you out here looking for someone too?"

"Short, pale, blonde twintails, fat tits. Really painting one hell of a picture here here, you know."

Alex watched as Yugiri fell gracefully to Earth, interested at least somewhat by the impressive showing. But that was mostly just the sense that he probably couldn't do the same thing, and he definitely didn't think it was something he cared enough to actually try. Maybe he could do it, who knew?

"Yeah, I follow. Pretty big problem. I'm not really looking for anyone in particular though, just here to help out. Got a few friends on both sides, and I used to live here."

He jerked his head to the side, gesturing toward the pit as if someone could possibly have missed it being anywhere near the vicinity. It was pretty obvious nobody who'd lived here still could live here, after all.

"What brings your little lady around here? She a local?"

"She's a do gooder. So of course she'd come all the way out here to try and figure out what happened, and to help out."

Seemed that she had bitten off more than she could chew this time though. She was a little disappointed for her junior to have to suffer the consequences of her robust attitude yet she wouldn't find her anywhere near as charming if she was any less.

"You been down that hole? I tried to steer clear since there were all those losers in the Gotei and Vandenreich when I checked it before. I wonder if I go there if I'll get the answers I need."

"Ah, one of those, huh? Sounds kinda like my little girl."

Lighting a cigarette for himself, Alex's eyes turned back to the hole for a moment, thinking about his very brief encounter with the pit itself. What a shitshow this had all been so far, eh?

"Kinda, not really. I fell in during a throwdown, but I didn't get far. Tossed myself back into the wall and climbed out before I got too far down. Didn't like it, though. Felt all kindsa wrong, get me? Dealt with plenty of Hollows in my day, but I've never felt that much Hollow all at once."

Sighing, Alex shrugged and returned his attention to Yugiri herself, knowing full well there wasn't much else to be done about it.

"I wouldn't just hop down there casually or anything."