Thou Art Blessed [Reida, Safira]

"There's a few different paths that come to mind but the result is the same. Regardless, they all require me to expand the scale of my soul to even greater heights and I will need some dominion over Hueco Mundo to fulfill this goal. Most importantly though, the human factor. You are a unique mixture of hollows and humans, somehow you possess unique powers that our race doesn't display but they must connect to us in some capacity."

Safira explained and this is where the importance of Reida came into play. By design, her hollow factor had been strong at conception. It was necessary to build a bridge but the missing link hadn't be identified just yet. The fullbringer next to her wasn't "hollow" enough for Safira to discern what could help her achieve these goals.

"A bridge needs to exist between humans and hollows. I need you to become that, Reida. The connection between our two races that will help me create this new era that frees souls from the shinigami's world, and to be someone that will lead the humans against the shinigami if need be."

She placed a hand on her sapling's shoulder like she understood what a tremendous weight she was asking the woman to carry. At the same time though, hadn't she been carrying enough weight until this point? If she was going to lead a burdened life would she not want to see it put towards a higher purpose than just floating through this life in a drunken haze of grudges and alcohol?

If nothing else, the acknowledgement of the importance of Hueco Mundo over the human realm gave Reida some faint reassurance that this wasn't something she needed to immediately fight against. Whether this ended up being the right thing to do, or was something that she would need to fight against in time, there was only one correct way to handle this. She was here now, and she'd chosen to walk this path. Whatever the right thing turned out to be, she'd find out when she got to that point.

"I ain't that much special. Besides, what'd that entail? Bein' a bridge like that sounds like a bigger bar than I know how to meet, know what I mean?"

At the same time, maybe she would have to bear that cross. Whether it was as part of going along with this plan, or just because it was the right path. Reida would do what she had to to do the right thing. Any more pointless sins in her life would just send her further toward hell.

"That's where you are wrong but your attitude towards it is a virtue in itself."

She was very special, Safira might go so far as to call her a messiah of a new age but the woman was too humble. Something that she already identified as being part of that. It was its own kind of charisma that made her relatable and personable to others. Something that she could not do due to the awareness she had of how different she was from humans. For too long she had been a hollow and now she had only ascended the ladder further from it.

"It is necessary to raise your hollow factor. Others I have encountered have all either peaked too soon or their hollow factor was unstable from the beginning and they became hollows. I hypothesise that once you become closer to hollows it will become easier to identify where the connection between fullbring and hollows are. Yours is extraordinarily high, and yet stable, and I believe your quincy attributes will prove valuable."

There was more to it but Safira already was revealing some previous experience in this scientific process. She did not want to disclose the extent of her work. Past failures would just be steps on the path to success with her sapling.

Corpses did make the best fertilizer at the end of the day.

"That's a tall order."

Reida didn't choose to address that first claim, if only because she was the sort to avoid much in the way of compliments that felt quite so over the top. She was far more curious about this talk regarding her hollow factor, anyway. Reida had always been more in touch with that side of her abilities, maybe just on account of how negative life had always been.

Well, she wasn't going to ruminate on that much.

"Don't exactly know how to get even more in touch with it. Ain't in the business of doin' what hollows do and eatin' hollows or anything like that."

Fortunately for her, Safira's new form opened up avenues that she could not do previously for these experiments. She could ruminate on it but it was better to explain it to her sapling instead.

"A bit like that. Your kinds' powers I've noted are based on perception and experience. It manifests in your affinity for certain objects that give them special attributes based on the personal meaning. It's a very sentimental kind of power. So if you are to be more 'hollow' then you need to see yourself as one, to think like one, and to understand the emptiness of them."

She wanted to take advantage of her sub-conscious and try to make it manifest with tangible results. Safira took her hand off the woman's shoulder and gave a wry grin, she didn't need to subject her to the actions of eating. It was pointless for her to force the fullbringer to devour souls unless she understood and empathised with why they did it in the first place.

"Don't worry. The only flesh I want you to taste is my own. It's not something I want you to do blindly either. The reishi that makes up my body also has my history, and so I want you to try to find my memories of when I was a hollow and experience that emptiness."

Her statement made her grin turn into a smile that flashed her fangs. There were other ways she could share that information in a similar manner but there was also a symbolic property to having her do it in this boorish manner. It played into the perception she identified just before. She did also want Reida to consume it so that she could mark her, having her devour the reishi that was full of her spiritual power was a very direct pathway to applying that brand. It was necessary for later but for now Safira was keen on also seeing just how rigid those principles were.

Now that didn't sit right with her at all. That was the sort of thing she didn't want to abide, and certainly didn't think sounded very pleasant, even if it wasn't wildly against her principles. If she had to, she'd do it. After all, she was a woman who had already committed to seeing this to the end, in one form or another. But if that was something she could avoid, she'd certainly like to.

"Can't exactly say I like the idea of eatin' part of you, no offense. Ain't really in my nature. 'Sides, I can't hardly imagine that kinda existence is any different from the kinda emptiness I already know. Didn't learn to start destroyin' my own soul 'til I was in that pit of despair."

It seemed reasonable to Reida, at least, that she would already have understood the degree of emptiness that was being suggested here. Any further totality wasn't feasible, not simply because she considered herself the saddest person alive, but because she wondered if anything further could even be considered a real thinking being anymore. Hell, she wasn't sure she counted as one when she got like that.

"Your emptiness comes from experiences but a hollow's emptiness is rooted in their core. While it is due to the loss of their 'heart', you retain your 'heart' but experience something similar."

Safira tried to present an explanation in a way that highlighted the difference, she was sure that were Reida to die those feelings alone would put her on the path to a hollow--hollow factor aside--but for the moment she was still human and therefore, different enough for it to be a variable in her mind.

"Those inhibitions will only hold you back through this process, Reida. Hollows are creatures of instinct and so you need to let them direct you if you're going to succeed."

"Don't quite sound like I'm just lettin' go of my inhibitions. Sounds like I'm lettin' go of my heart."

Reida did not like that, and not simply because it was self-destructive. It was something that could feasibly change who she was at her most fundamental, making her vulnerable to manipulation, infection, even simple outright death. She couldn't afford to take that kind of chance, now could she?

"Maybe y'all don't need your hearts, but even a human like me still needs one. Black as it is."

She sighed at Reida's arguments against her. What was this reluctance? Was she unclear or losing her intention in the exchange of language? Perhaps it was the case but regardless she was going to try to alleviate them for the best. Forcing her sapling into this wasn't viable, she had to walk down it willingly.

"I want you to experience the absence of the heart but I do not want you to give it up. That is the reason I want you to gain that experience from me. If you lost your heart the entire point of this would be for naught and you would be no more than a hollow. That is the last thing I want."

There was another possibility that came to mind though. The one she didn't want it to be. Safira pushed herself off the edge of the pool so that she could move in front of the human. Her height was insignificant but she could still lean down to place her hands on her sapling's shoulders and look her in the eye.

"Your hesitation towards this, is it fear?"

If she said it in her normal tone, it might be taken as teasing her but this was a serious subject - one might even hear a note of concern in her question.

On one hand, Reida preferred to hear that answer. On the other hand, did she actually have a reason to trust this arrancar with something as important as her being? It didn't sit right with her to become so vulnerable for someone like this. Their relationship had been one of little more than business to this point, an agreement built on a mutual goal. Something like this was well above that.

"It ain't plain ol' fear. But ya think I survived this long just takin' people at their word about what they got planned? Think ya oughta understand that I might be a little nervous about eatin' your flesh n' just puttin your thoughts right in my own head. Makes me mighty vulnerable to let ya do whatever ya might want, now don't it?"

Reida's voice hadn't become accusatory, but was rather responding in the same relatively mellow tone that Safira herself had. It was pretty simple, as far as she saw it. An entirely one-sided exchange.