Lunch? (Rei/Erica)

“That’s a good start. I only just heard the voice of my sword for the first time a few days ago during a meet up with a friend of mine. I know it sounds a little weird that it wasn’t in combat but I think my Zanpakuto is the type to make fun of her wielder, as I'm sure she was teasing me about drinking too much.” Erica laughed, thinking back to her date with Ranma. She’d certainly woken up with a bad headache the morning after but it was worth it. The two had opened up to each other and had been one of the best nights of her life.

Turning her gaze to Rei, she’d raise an eyebrow. “You’ve met Hannah? I went to her for advice recently myself and I ended up getting a scolding. She’s certainly a quirky woman.”

“I just meant that it can be a little difficult to know what to say to her sometimes. Sometimes she can be so cold and scathing but other times she’s friendly and offers some great advice. I went to her hoping to brush up on my Kido and perhaps learn some new healing spells to use in combat but instead I ended up talking to her about my worries about fighting. She wasn’t exactly kind at times but she hugged me when I needed it the most. She cares but just has a weird way of showing it, at least I think. Like I said, quirky.” Erica replied with a smile. It wasn’t an easy conversation to think about but it had helped the pink haired girl to sort herself out. She owed Hannah a lot for that.

After a moment or two, spending that time eating some more ramen, she’d turn back to Rei with a curious look in her eye. “Why was she scolding you?”

The healer sighed when Rei admitted as to why she’d been scolded and Erica briefly frowned. She’d tried to be firm when informing her friend about not overdoing it but it seemed as though the eyepatch wearing Shinigami hadn’t listened. The pink haired woman didn’t feel the need to further scold Rei since Hannah had seemed to have done a good job of it but mused that if she ever healed her again then she might have to be just a little tougher about it. Luckily, Rei seemed to have come out of it all unscathed, which was the best solution to things.

“Mmm. Try not to push it too much next time. You may end up making things worse.” She replied, her tone neutral despite the fact her advice had been ignored.

Finishing off her own ramen, appreciating the taste, Erica couldn’t find it in her heart to be angry with Rei, as she understood that the girl was eager to train and make up for her previous mistakes. There were many Shinigami who felt the same way and while it sometimes frustrated the healer when they pushed themselves too hard, she’d realised that it was done more out of a desire to help others that spurred them on, which was admirable. The pink haired Shinigami was meant to bring smiles to faces, not frowns and that was a role that she rather adored, deciding then and there to leave the scolding to others.

“Ah, don’t worry about it too much. We all make mistakes and I’m sure that Hannah was pretty thorough when it came to speaking her mind about it. Just focus now on healing up and you’ll be back to training in no time.”

“That’s the spirit.” The healer replied with a smile, pleased that Rei had learned from the whole ordeal. A part of her wondered just what exactly Hannah had said and done when encountering the eyepatch wearing woman but another simply didn’t want to know. The blonde Kido expert could be very harsh when she needed to be although when Erica thought about it, perhaps that was for the best. A soft approach was nice but sometimes it just didn’t seem to do the job. Her own experience with Hannah had been the same way. She’d been hurt at times mentally during their talk but had come out afterwards with a fresh new outlook.

“If things happen to go wrong and you find yourself needing to be patched up again, feel free to seek me out for treatment.” She added with a smile. “It’s what I’m here for, after all.”