What do you Hunger for?

[Kufuku Wasureo]

    "Thanks for indulging me a little. I'll have to make it up to you in the future."

    He was definitely going outside of what his division usually ad an interest in now, but he couldn't help it. There was too much to learn, especially about the other worlds, and he wasn't going to get it done in a laboratory. He had to be out there, in the world in order for that to happen. A few times he had considered properly transferring to the eleventh. They were sent out to the human world fairly regularly for patrol, but he wasn't sure how they might take to his desire to learn. They were there to do the muscle work, and while Rei could certainly keep up with that, he didn't want it to be everything.

    He turned back to look at Tsurumiya Chihaya over his shoulder. As a member of the tenth, she got the leeway to head to the living world as well as part of her duties, and in a far more individualized manner as far as he could tell. Why the repairmen of the soul society had this kind of authority he didn't know, yet, but he wasn't going to squander it or lose the chance by asking questions too early. All he'd asked was for some help getting some 'truly fresh air' as he put it. Something so divorced from the stuffy lab and server rooms of the twelfth.

    And so here they were, out in the middle of nowhere. Sort of nowhere. Actually a very famous spot that were they humans they really shouldn't be on top of. Uluru, Ayers Rock. No civilization for miles around, and nothing above them but the twinkling black of the midnight sky. Rei's bones hummed as he fell back on the hard red sandstone with his hands tucked behind his head and kicked off his socks and sandals. While he did need the fresh air, there was a reason he'd chosen this spot specifically. He'd seen this place in his dreams more than once over the past few months. Felt the sandstone beneath his claws, seen the twinkling light of the stars on the horizon. The last time he'd beaten his spirit in combat, the word Uluru had been in the wind's whispers. Scraps of memory far clearer than anything else. This is where he'd last been The King of Hungry Ghosts. This is-

    "Where I died."

[Chihaya]

As far as sight-seeing goes, this isn't a terrible spot.

They are far above where most mortals dare to tread, after all, and the few bits and pieces of those who had chanced their local authority's wrath and hefty penalties associated therein have faded from harsh sun and blistering winds. The reddish hue of the rock, the canopy of stars above glittering like the jewels on the skin of her spirit or the myriad necklaces and bracelets of the elite she serves as a consult for as her cover there on Earth... it makes for a pretty picture.

Her companion's words break the peaceful silence. An attempt to lower her guard, perhaps? Dark hair moves with the shake of her head before falling tidily back into place.

"It fit into my patrol schedule. Think nothing of it." Her voice is cool and even without an indicator of pleasure or irritation.

Chihaya scans the horizon on principle. Searching for any indicator of a set up or ambush that her fellow Shinigami may have put into place as either a test of skill and loyalty toward her new division. The vibrant orchid color of her eyes stands out in contrast to her otherwise standard appearance. Her head turns to see him flat on his back against the ancient stone. Schooling her expression carefully to reveal nothing, all she can think about is whether or not the iron rich soil is going to stain his clothing and prove itself impossible to clean.

He is lost in thought. She could spy exactly three openings on him that would prove to be either a fatal or potentially fatal hit in response to a number of blows. Analysis complete, she returns to scanning their surroundings. Why she'd been granted permission to escort this one was a mystery. Goodwill between Divisions, perhaps? Or a hazing ritual for newcomers to the Tenth?

The mention of death draws her attention back from her surveillance.

...had he truly come here out of a sense of nostalgia, of all things?

"Pardon?" She inquires more out of a sense of politeness than anything else. The iron fan in its usual position in her hand. The heavy metal tapped against her chin in a gesture reminiscent of a noblewoman's habit as she glanced over to the long haired Shinigami on the ground.

[Kufuku Wasureo]

He didn't entirely buy the line about the top of a monument being within her patrol route, but he wasn't going to press too much into that. She had her reasons for humoring him. Whether she liked it or not, he was going to find a way to make it up to her for the trouble. It was just a matter of figuring out what she might want. He shifted his head away from the view of the sky and looked back towards Chihaya. Her expression betrayed nothing, her eyes as cool and calm as the sky above. He was almost tempted to rib at her a little to-

Ah. There it was. The point where he registered both that he had spoken aloud, and that his words had been heard. He hadn't done anything like that for some time, but he supposed it was a side effect of being here. For a moment he was silent, mind rolling through ways to play it off. Lying outright wouldn't do it. Not really his wheelhouse, and it had already been too long. Nor could he tell the full truth. 'Yes, it is as I said. In my past life and many lives beyond that I was a hollow. This is the spot I most recently died, but this is the first time I'm aware of having these memories while not being a hollowbreed. What this means is something I seek to discover as well as devouring all the knowledge I can because it makes me feel good inside.' It sounded even more insipid when given to words in his head. Distraction was just as bad as lying.

And so it fell to the middle path.

While he felt like it had been too long, in reality it had only been a few seconds that the shinigami spent contemplating how to avoid doom or seeming like a moron. "Aye." Not a strong start, but it was something. Rei sat up and dusted off his lower back before settling back on his palms and looking towards the sky once more. "The details are a bit foggy," not a total lie, "but this is somewhere from my previous life. This sky and it's horizon, the stone beneath me, they're the last memories I have before waking up on the edge of the rukon." His fingers curled in against the stone, scraping into it as well as scraping up his fingers some. Slowly he got to his feet and turned to Chihaya, dust falling from his fingertips. "This is where my life changed. Whoever I was, whatever I-" Was "did, that ended here." He shrugged and then looked out to the horizon.

"What about you? We've indulged me. Got anywhere nearby that you want to see again? Some pivotal location?"

[Chihaya]

He goes from prone to reclining amid a tiny cloud of reddish dust, a cloud added to by the way he dusts himself off in the absent-minded habit of most, and turns his gaze back to the skies above. A moment to collect his scattered thoughts and weigh his responses carefully and he begins to speak.

Chihaya, intrigued by both what he'd said as well as how he began to clarify, finds herself with the spare thought wondering why he continued to search the skies. For that matter, what made so many souls do the selfsame thing? Searching the skies above as though they would provide answers, comfort, or a lightning bolt from the heavens to smite one's foes seemed such a pointless act.

And yet they did it all the same.

Violet eyes narrow at his words. Is it normal to remember one's past life? Or rare? She can't remember and will have to consult her notes from the Academy after this has concluded. She continues to listen, perplexed, and wonders further why she's being told all of this information. Is it a set up? A test of her knowledge when and when not to turn a body in for suspicious or otherwise abnormal behaviors?

If not... why tell her all of this?

"Nostalgia is for the old, the weak, and the infirm." She says finally. "What is in the past lies as dead as what you used to be. Who you were, what you wished for back then... it's pointless to think about."

She spares a glance to the sky above to see if anything has changed. Nothing. A pointless and futile thing, that action, and she reminds herself not to waste her time and efforts in doing it again. "Who you are in the present and, most importantly, what you have to offer in the name of a new tomorrow are what your thoughts should be occupied with."

A shake of her head and she straightens her back, hand on one hip as she glances down off the cliff face to ensure no slip of a Hollow or rogue spirit of the dead is approaching. Nothing thus far.

What an absurdly quiet waste of an evening.

"There may be others who yet disagree, but that is my personal stance. I concern myself with the matters of now and let what lies in the past stay there where it belongs."

[Kufuku Wasureo]

    Well then . . .

    He couldn't say he didn't get what he wanted. He had hoped, in sharing a bit of himself, he would be able to get her to share as well. Nothing so personal, no. Well, maybe. It was a slim chance, but it would be more to learn about the people around him. The people he would have to work with, and more than inevitably fight alongside. So he had. He had managed to get Chihaya to share.

    It was just the content of that sharing that bothered him.

    He had looked back to her as soon as she finished her first thought on nostalgia. His eyes burned fiercely with possible rebuttals, but he kept his mouth shut for the moment. If he wanted to learn anything, then he was going to have to listen. Even to the harsher opinions. Nor could he blame her for being factually, objectively wrong. She didn't know everything, and from the sound of it, she didn't make it much her business to try to know.

    Rei sighed softly, and as his breath left him, his presence left the world. The Hunter's Step, the skill of a predator, of one who did not forsake their past. He wasn't expressly invisible, just hard to make out. Indistinct from the world behind and around him. As easily looked over as the faceless masses until you put in the extended effort to search for him. He moved like this, slowly circling around Chihaya while he gathered his thoughts for response.

    "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Another snippet from instinct, though fitting. He had a feeling he knew where that one was from and just tucked it away for now. "From where do we arrive at the present but the past?" he followed. "How did we arrive at this spot if not for the steps behind us." He was behind her at that point, but continued on.

    "Fair is fair, it probably isn't the best course of action to become so obsessed with the past. To seek merely to recreate what was in neglect of what currently is, and what could be. Still, if you're always looking down at your feet, you'll never appreciate how far you've come." Not quite instinct in full, but part of it. The weight of the years briefly resting upon his shoulders. And just as quickly it was shaken off and he looked to Chihaya again. His pacing had not been in service of a true circle, but a spiral. He now stood before her separated by a couple feet at most where before he had stood at yards, and relaxed that muscle of the soul that saw him slip outside casual perception.

    It would be easy to disengage. To write her off as opposed to his way of thinking, and thus boring and not worth his time. And yet, though her responses cut at him, they had not been made flippantly. There was reasoning behind it, and more importantly a reason. A reason he wished to at least try and dig out of her. A man would retreat. A beast would pursue until it was truly untenable.

    "If we won't be retracing old steps, we could at least then make new ones. We're in the mortal world on top of Uluru after all. Is there nowhere you wish to see yourself? We have the rest of the night ahead of us, and a literal world of possibilities."