Too Many Bridges to Cross Over [Reida, Safira]

"Mighty observant of you."

Reida quite transparently wasn't buying the girl's story, but just as transparently wasn't bothering to press further. She didn't care. The arrancar wasn't causing her any problems, and she wasn't causing the Vandenreich any problems.

"Yeah. I'd rather that too. But I don't think that's happenin' any time soon. Vandenreich ain't got it in 'em to take down the shinigami."

In more ways than one. Sure, they didn't have the strength, but they also just didn't have the drive. There wasn't any grit. They'd all just accepted this enforced peace, just like back when America'd gone under Shadow Fall's thumb. Maybe they were too stupid to see it, maybe they were just too weak-willed to fight back. Reida didn't know the answer, but she didn't care, either. She'd fight 'til the end, just like she always had.

"Why are you with them then?"

Safira earnestly asked her that question of her fullbringer. Reida was dedicating herself to these people that didn't share her ideals it was wasting her time, it was getting in the way of what she wanted. How did she find that fulfilling?

An unsatisfied existence that moved to strings which she didn't agree with, if she wanted to serve that was fine but if you're going to serve someone. At least do it because you agree on something.

Great question. Enough of one that Reida let out a humorless chuckle, before taking another long drink from her bottle and turning her gaze firmly back to the diminutive arrancar.

"Wasn't like this when I joined. And there's some people I'd miss a lot if I left. Well, just a couple people, I guess."

One in particular, but Reida certainly wasn't about to lay bare her entire personal life for this stranger. Even if she didn't exactly feel like she was dealing with a stranger at this point. Gut instinct told her there was more to this arrancar than that, but she wasn't foolish enough to just act on instinct with no information.

"Don't think I'd have joined to begin with if it was like this back then, though."

"Well, that's a shame then."

Safira sighed like she was mourning Reida's situation for her. What other options did she have for herself then? What was more important to her? Revenge, or those people? She wondered to herself just what it would take to tip the scales for Reida's values.

It was an amusing thought.

"I'm sure they'd understand if they cared about you. Why would you make someone you care about do something they don't like, right?"

"Maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn't."

Reida wasn't entirely convinced people would understand. Some might, but it was still a pretty brazen decision to make for something as boldfaced as revenge. Even so, was she satisfied with the way the Vandenreich was going? No, not really. Did she think they would stop capitulating any time soon?

Not with how things were going.

"Nowhere else to go, now is there?"

There were things she could say here but they were a bit too intelligent than what she'd been articulating thus far. Then again Reida had already accused her of having more going on than she was letting on, hadn't she? There wasn't much reason to keep playing herself down.

"You smell like a quincy but you feel and act more like a hollow right now. So you're a human but are you a quincy or a hollow?"

Safira held out her two hands like she was weighing the two things that Reida was trying to be on a scale. Which one was she, which one did she want to be? Two enemies of the shinigami but two paths with different ends.

"Does that matter?"

Reida didn't really care about things like that. She'd never cared about the idea of what race she was, and she still didn't. The prickling of all her hollow senses didn't change the knowledge that she was damn good at what she'd learned as a quincy.

"I'm someone who wants the Gotei to burn to the ground. That matters a whole lot more than tryin' to decide what I oughta do just based on what I am."

"Well, you can come with me if you want."

She declared with a impish grin, thousands of years in existence made the idea of demolishing the Gotei seem like a fun little endeavour. More or less she just wanted to tip the scales which had been in their favour for too long, to see them struggle like the animals they saw hollows as or to be at the mercy of other forces like a wandering plus which was forced to continue to play a role in their delicate system.

"Do you want to burn it down together?"

The question was asked in such an innocent manner that she might've been asking Reida if she wanted to play tea party with her or some other childish game but her eyes showed a hint of the sinister creature that she was at her core.

"Yeah? Squirt like you's gonna burn it down?"

Reida was obviously being all the more accusatory now, though her eye showed no small amount of interest in the question. This wasn't any normal Arrancar. That much was quite clear. Her expression was still dour, but she spoke with what might, for the first time, be called some amount of interest.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"My name is Safira. Safira Aldrovandi."

She might've felt that it deserved a bit of grandeur to give her name but for now just stating it plainly had the same amount of gravity that her current form deserved to have. The serpentine eyes sharpened rather than remaining wide and naive, was it a little deceitful? Of course it was to play the part of something more childish but hopefully Reida could understand the reason behind the deception.

"Once I get rid of Asher the Empty-Hearted and reclaim what he stole from me, I'll continue in my goals to cripple the shinigami and make them yield, or you could do them a favour right now and kill me while I'm in this larval state."

Safira was confident that under different circumstances this woman would put the bullet in her and walk away but she emphasised the fact the group it served the most was the one she wanted to destroy. The human world was more interesting to inhabit the Hueco Mundo but she remained inconspicuous among them rather than cause problems for the Vandenreich.

Though even the Vandenreich probably wanted her dead except Reida had admitted that they no longer represented her values. So which instincts guided her. The quincy that destroyed hollows or the hollow that destroyed shinigami?