Too Many Bridges to Cross Over [Reida, Safira]

"No. I was here to handle this guy. I ain't cut out for humanitarian work."

Was Reida opposed to helping others? She'd have liked to say 'no,' but the reality was that it depended no small amount on who those others actually were. She didn't care about the Gotei, she didn't even really care about a lot of those people who'd fallen into this pit. That probably cast her in a pretty bad light, but it was what it was.

"Helpin' people's good n' all, but it's not what I do. Not really what I'm good at, either. I'd rather clear out the bad stuff so other people can do good."

Someone had to handle the dirty work, and Reida didn't mind doing it. No, that wasn't true. She enjoyed doing it. It was the closest she could come to getting any real vengeance. Seeing any semblance of the justice she so desperately longed for.

"Some people just gotta die. Keepin' em around ain't do anybody any good."

"I think that if you clean out evil then more evil will just take its place."

She articulately in a very plain manner. Really, if she wasn't playing up her petite appearance then she would've said it a lot more sophisticated however it was not to be. That would be a bit suspicious now, wouldn't it? So for the moment she would explain it like she was naive to the world.

"Is that what you want? If you got rid of the bad people and no one took its place then no one would need you... I'd be very sad if no one needed me. Does killing bad people make you happy?"

Safira pressed the question while advancing to look up at her with an intense amount of naive curiosity, or the kind of interest she might take for someone she'd followed the major developments over their life.

"Nobody evil just means I could finally settle down. But that ain't happenin' any time soon."

The notion of being needed certainly did get to Reida, but at the same time, there were other parts of what the arrancar said that ate at her far more. Did it make her happy? Hard to say. It was a little more complicated than all that, and as she made her reply, there was a bit more gravity to her voice.

"Happy? Nah. But every time I do it takes some weight off my shoulders. Doesn't make me happy, but it makes me less unhappy. Close enough, right?"

"You mean it's like being hungry, you feel a bit full after you eat food until you get hungry again. Then you eat more food."

She innocently tried to rationalise her feeling as being a universal constant. Of course Reida could retort that eventually she'd not feel unhappy if she kept wittling away at it but she would've already said that if it were true, no?

In the same way that a human needed to sleep, eat, and drink from the moment they are born, she was a hollow with insatiable hunger. Well, that's what Safira wanted to see anyway. Why would she waste time experimenting with fullbringers if not to see how far their hollow origins could develop?

"I guess. Not quite. I got an end in sight. Just might take me a while to get there."

And once she got there, she'd settle down, in whatever way she was able to by then. It didn't matter to Reida how long it took, either. She had a lot of things to live for, that much was true. But that hate hadn't gone away. It wouldn't any time soon, either. She knew that, no matter how much she'd tried to keep it down.

"There's a lotta people that'll have to go before that day comes. In the meantime, best I can do is hang in there. Get stronger. Do what I can."

She'd done a lot. Found somewhere she could be herself, at least in some respects. But, ever since that fucking arrancar had shown up, she'd been able to read the room in the City of Lights. Things were changin'. That stupid little exhibition with the Gotei'd turned into somethin' else entirely, and suddenly it seemed like everyone wanted to be best friends.

She didn't like it. Hated it, in fact. That was why she spent so much more time than ever out in the field.

"You sure got a lotta questions, huh?"

"Is that bad?"

She wondered aloud to Reida, quietly evaluating if she was bothering her or not with all this talk. Safira did note the forthcoming nature of the woman though and wondered if it was only because of her unassuming state which made her speak so casually. Their meeting would be a lot different should she have not lost her powers and been the same individual she was when she arrived in this continent.

"I guess you do seem like a person that doesn't want to talk a lot. If you want I can go and stop bothering you. Your group will sort everything out soon and it'll go back to normal, right? Then I don't have to worry about the strong hollow anymore."

Safira followed up with a naive outlook on the situation which she hoped would echo the sentiments of the general population in the continent as well. She was well aware what she had done and how easily the Vandenreich's forces in particular folded under the pressure of the overwhelming attack made by the hollows. No, how easily they had been brought to their knees by a single arrancar last year too.

As far as she'd make Reida think, the little one had faith in the group to the point she was willing to risk her wellbeing on their competency. They wouldn't let her and, by proxy, every other soul in Africa down by failing would they?

"Not really. I don't mind."

The questions were needling, certainly, and that last point was like nothing short of a hot iron stake being driven down her spine. Her group will just sort everything out? Things will go back to normal? That probably wasn't true. Even if it was, and the Gotei didn't end up being the solution to all their problems, then what?

She already knew the reality. She wasn't just going to get her vengeance by being here. She'd known that a long time, and she'd been practically consumed by it since that question in Japan.

"I dunno. Back to normal maybe, but normal ain't all that great these days. Bad people've got too much sway. You already killed at least one, at least. One less to worry about I guess."

There was hate in her voice, and as she jerked a thumb back to gesture at the blood-caked sword in her pack, Reida's eye scanned the horizon. She wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but she was mostly just thinking. Back during the war, it'd been easy to know what she wanted to do with herself. Nowadays, it seemed like she was just standing still.

Hoh. Now she was interested, that was malicious. That was the ferocity she remembered directed at her which made her hairs stand on edge. At the time she was too powerful to appreciate the thought but in their current state of reversed roles? That wild beast could tear her fragile little body apart with her bare hands.

"You want to kill the shinigami?"

Safira asked her. Another niggling question for her to consider and answer. That was great! Safira was elated to hear that she had developed a resentment towards them which she kept in the recesses of her mind. To proud to show her true feelings on the matter.

"Your group was working with the shinigami though, weren't they? Around the, uh, big hole. Why would you be friends with bad people?"

Reida was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them, and neither was unattentive. This little arrancar was suddenly showing a little more than she had before. They weren't just some bad guys. now they were the shinigami. She knew about the Vandenreich and the shinigami working together, too. Wasn't that interesting?

"Someone's a mighty smart girl, pickin' all that up so quick. Don't remember ever sayin' that about the Vandenreich. Must've been around here a while, huh?"

It was, quite transparently, an accusatory statement, but Reida hadn't actually aimed her gun at the arrancar just yet. her spiritual pressure, however, had decidedly begun to seep out a bit more now, and it was certainly much more abundantly clear just how deeply Reida had cultivated the hollow part of her soul.

"I ain't friends with the shinigami. Never have been. Never will be."

"Huh? I saw shinigami and your group around the hole when I was watching from afar. Then the monsters came out from the hole. Though I guess you were in different spots but if you weren't killing each other I assume you'd be friends."

Safira glossed over the accusatory statement to narrow her eyes at the increase of power. Her tongue poked out a little bit, if only for an instant before it retreated to her mouth like she was tasting the air. Scents were one of the strongest factors for recalling memories and so it became more transparent to her the difference between that Reida and this one.

"You do want to kill the shinigami though? Well, I think that they are pretty bad too. They kill us and act like they own the place. That's why I'd rather the Vandenreich - that's your name, right? - make everything better."