Condemned to Crawl [Ichigo, Safira]

She reflected on the events begrudgingly. The course of action at the time meant it was prudent to surrender her power to that hollow rather than be enthralled, it didn't bother her because in the grand scheme of things transformations occurred. She was a snake and so the cycle of change was something she was keenly aware of after all these years.

Depleted of her strength but not enough to be trampled over by the scum that made up Asher's hordes left her picking off the various hollows and corrupted individuals with her cero. The small amount of souls that she could consume would take hundreds of years to recover at this rate, she thought which was not feasible. Somehow she'd need to reclaim the hollow powers from Asher and ideally take from him what she was owed.

This had ended up more involved than Ichigo expected. He knew this wasn't going to be something small, but he hadn't thought it would take this long, or lead to such severe injury on Ignacio's end, let alone Lilynette still not reporting back. Walking through the African wastes with his zanpakuto slung over one shoulder, his pesquisa quickly noted a hollow that wasn't quite like the rest of them around here. Good. One sonido brought him toward the source, and he looked down toward the young-looking woman as he appeared before her.

"You. What do you know about the situation around here?"

He didn't have time to mess around with any other questions for now. After all, he was looking for people, and he was looking for something.

"Oh?"

She looked up at the imposing figure that had appeared. Safira would be a fool not to recognise him off looks alone, Ichigo Kurosaki. Well wasn't this just a stroke of luck to see the arrancar in Africa but what could bring him here? What brought the savage that destroyed the City of Lights abruptly to this wasteland.

His motives were interesting because they seemed to have nothing connecting them.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. What brings you here? It would make it far easier to give you information tailored to what you're seeking if you were to explain that."

Safira probed. If she could direct him towards Asher then it would serve her interests quite well.

Hm. It didn't surprise him too much to hear that this little girl knew who he was. If anything, it made things a little easier for Ichigo. Good.

"A few friends of mine were here as part of the fighting. One's made it back, but one hasn't. Lilynette Gingerbuck. Shorter side, long blonde hair. Mask like a helmet. Pretty well-built."

He'd been smart enough to give the name first, though he did make sure to note any changes that might have been especially relevant in the past century. After all, she didn't quite look the same as back then.

"I sent them to look into whatever was down there. Don't imagine those are normal hollows, just from the few I've run into. I want to know what's making them like that."

His head gestured toward the pit, though his gaze and his presence were still intense despite the casual gesture. Of course, he had a general idea of what might have been causing it, but he wasn't going to just lay that idea out.

"A former half of the Primera Espada."

She sighed as she said it. He was lecturing her like she was a child, maybe she did look like one right now with how unassuming her appearance was but Safira didn't appreciate it being taken at face value. The woman he'd described also looked like a child in the time that Safira had glanced her, so this was just unnecessary.

"Asher the Empty-Hearted. I happened to have fought him, it's why I look like this right now. He has a way of enthralling hollows and mutating them in a way which defies all reason."

Safira explained with a coy grin, advancing on Ichigo to float up until she was laying in the air in front of him. She had a wicked grin on her face now that she knew that they were aligned in their objectives, she rolled onto her back so that she was whimiscally looking at him from her upside-down position.

"Would you like to cut a deal, Ichigo Kurosaki? I want revenge on Asher the Empty-Hearted and whatever it is you seek will inevitably cause you to come into conflict with him, eh?"

Ichigo wasn't one for bargaining or dealing with nonsense. His eyes narrowed at the playful approach to the conversation, and it was fairly obvious just from his expression that he wasn't interested in playing many games.

"That depends on the deal. I have things to get done, and I'm not going to let anything waste my time. As long as you don't get in my way, I'm willing to listen."

Politics and little nonsense were a waste of time as far as Ichigo was concerned. He didn't have time for it, after all. If she wanted to help, Ichigo would gladly take her help, but if she was a problem then he'd just cut her down like anything else.

"Nothing too crazy. You're the one that vanquished Aizen, all I want is for you to kill Asher too. Seems simple enough, right?"

Safira asked him, the serpentine little lady rolled around back and forth in the air like she was amusing herself with this little interaction. Even if he could crush her Safira wasn't going to succumb to fear or stress. Being so small and unassuming had its perks after all, the act of floating around like this only reduced any hostility she might produce.

"That way you get the source of whats doing this and I get revenge. Though I do wonder what the connection between this hole and you attacking the City of Lights is. Care to share, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

She fished for more insight about him. When this was all over he'd no doubt still be a force in the world. Safira wanted to futureproof herself and get an idea if they would ever come into conflict or not. The last thing she needed was another adversary like him. The shinigami were already problematic enough to work around.

Ichigo was plenty used to fighting for other people's sake. Doing it now, when there was something he needed done in the same course, worked out perfectly well for him. But that goal of his still took priority, and he wasn't going to pretend otherwise.

"Sure. When he gets in the way, I'll get rid of him."

Of course, that made it pretty clear that Ichigo wasn't going to go out of his way to kill anyone. That was more work than he cared to do. But he understood from the situation that he wasn't exactly going to end up going down there without a fight.

Safira's question did give him pause, though, and he took a second to really analyze what she was asking. She'd already said she was 'like this' because of her fight with that hollow, one that was, by every other account, extremely strong. She, presumably, normally was too, and that certainly colored his response.

"The City of Lights had something I wanted, too. At least, I'd thought it did. Twelve rings. They kill whatever they touch. Know anything?"

"Hoh?"

She was interested now. Twelve rings that killed whatever touched them? The whimiscal petite woman rolled back around until she was laying in the air and facing him properly. There was something serious about the air even if she never lost her smirk.

"Are you chasing ghost stories and fables, Ichigo Kurosaki? You're speaking of the Rings of the Dead, right? I've only heard stories about them but I've never seen one to make it hold any veracity."

Safira inquired, wondering if that meant that the Quincy had one which is what brought down his wrath. Even if this was the case, Safira had to wonder what it was Ichigo Kurosaki wanted with the twelve rings that could grant a true miracle.

So he'd been right. That was just as well, he'd rather know if she was informed on the topic than dance around it. Nodding, Ichigo's expression grew more stern, more focused than his usual apathy.

"I am. I have a wish I intend to make."

There was a subdued force behind Ichigo's words, one that seemed to echo with the weight of the man he'd once been. Someone who cut through every realm for the sake of his friends, who'd been wholly unstoppable in his aims.