Stalking for Novices

Was he really that odd; he'd said all humans were different! In comparison to a good few he was a lot more on the normal side! ...With his personality, he guessed...

So literally almost anyone could get in the baths, that was fine but...

"I have a cat..." Considering Regalia was still obviously a kitten, it wouldn't be a good idea to let her roam around a large, steamy room...

"Pastel can keep her safe and occupied. Her scales can repel even kitten claws and bites." The snake around her neck seemed to give a long suffering sigh before it slithered down her body to the floor. Pastel then slipped over to Aito expectantly while Yysara waited.

"She will be safe. As safe as you." She blinked owlishly, her head tilting as she waited.

Aah...That snake wasn't going to eat his cat, was she? Yysara seemed to have control over them, or well, they were obedient to her, but...

Even with saying she'd be safe, it was still...

Regalia seemed curious, looking at the snake as she slipped over towards Aito.

"Pastel will not bother her. She...my snakes are much smarter than those in the wild. Pastel has been making comments that are not polite." Yysara picked up on the worry of the man, the snake lifting up a bit in interest towards the cat.

"Even if your cat does not understand, she will not hurt her no matter what she tries." The snake nodded in a very not animallike manner.

"Ah..." Her snake seemed...intelligent like she'd said, it was even nodding in accordance to what Yysara was saying...which...wasn't something an unintelligent animal would really...do.

Aito crouched down, a curious Regalia still in his grasp before finally he set her down. He didn't stand back up immediately, instead watching as the kitten walked towards the snake to sniff her.

It...didn't seem like the snake would do anything...like Yysara said...

Pastel flicked her her tongue out at the kitten sniffing her in goodnatured greeting, willing to let the kitten sniff as she wanted. She would play with it if it wanted, her tail flicking a bit as she watched the kitten.

Yysara stood by naked and watching as well, wondering if the kitten would attack her snake and not worried a bit for the snake... More if the kitten might be freaked out. "...See? She can keep her out of trouble as well."

As Pastel flicked her tail some, Regalia lightly attempted to bat at it, becoming playful as the snake toyed with her. It seemed the kitten had become distracted due to playing.

Aito blinked, letting out a breath when it seemed the snake would be fine for Regalia to be around.

"Ah..." Still...It seemed fine to use the baths, and from everything that'd been said so far it seemed...Yysara at least wanted him to try to baths...

Things would really be alright?

Pastel seemed to... enjoy the kitten's playing and became distracted herself. Yysara gave the pair a warm smile as she watched them, enjoying the cute antics of the snake and the kitten.

Straightening, she nodded at Aito before turning and stepping into the hot water with a pleased sigh. He was fine to try the baths he had been so worried about trying, all his worries assuaged she hoped so he could. He seemed to want to... He hadn't said he didn't want to...

After a few more moments, where it seemed both animals were distracted with the playing, Aito stood, moving to remove the things from his pockets. His wallet, his phone...

His eyes briefly went to the charm on it. Considering it was...now his power source, maybe he should hook it somewhere else...? It was a phone charm, but...he felt he could better optimize it's abilities if it weren't attached to his phone...

He could figure it out later...He had some ideas.

He needed to set these things somewhere where they wouldn't get...messed up though...

Yysara looked back and blinked, pointing to a nearby table as she noticed him standing there with hands full of things. "You can place it there or you can set it down on my uniform."

She dunked under the water after giving him those directions, getting her hair soaked and popping back out after a moment.

"Ah..." Aito gave a small nod, moving his things next to Yysara's uniform as she'd suggested. It'd be fine there from what she'd told him so...considering she'd been right about all the other things so far, he decided to believe her on this.

As Yysara went about soaking her hair, Aito went to remove his own clothing, having...accepted the fact the baths were fine to use, and...that it seemed like it was something others apparently wanted him, and any other guests to try out.

Once he'd removed his clothing he'd stepped in. It was warm, definitely...

He assumed this was a bit...higher in quality to what some resorts might have.

"You do not trust my kind?" Yysara commented after Aito slipped into the bath, his long moments of indecision causing her to realize this. It seemed humans really did not trust hollows or arrancar... But as he had said before all humans are different.

Shouldn't that hold the same for arrancar as well? She looked down at the hole between her breasts and sighed softly.

"It..." Well... How was he supposed to explain this. "Hollows...haven't done anything but try to eat us...humans anyway...so there's that..." He was at least attempting; "This...isn't what I...expected meeting an arrancar to be like so...it's..."

His hand went to his hair, ruffling it slightly out of habit.

"It's something to work past...so far you haven't done anything bad so...I'm getting more comfortable, but since this is the first time I'm....interacting with someone from...the hollow faction, basically...it's...adjusting..."

Technically, he was a fullbringer...fullbringers were...

He knew what they were, which he felt should make this whole...interacting with an arrancar easier, but adjusting was necessary considering hollows up until now had only attempted to kill him...that and he'd initially been told to stay away...

"Only the weakest of our kind go to the human world once they can enter Hueco Mundo. Scavengers." Yysara spat the word as if it was dirty. She did not like those that went there, there was no reason once you could get to Hueco Mundo, it kept you alive...

She did nod though, accepting his words as he spoke of not expecting meeting an arrancar like this... A tiny smile graced her lips as she spoke. "Arrancar are all different... Even hollows..."

"Its...hard though...it hurts...when you are hollow. This hole...the masks...always there is pain, the corruption of our souls... its painful." She felt she should explain a bit, turning to face the human as she sat in the bath. It was hard for her, she was speaking of her own experience and thus was quiet and stilted in her speech. "We used to be humans...so we hate them the most when we are weakest... I think..."

"Not all of us... hate fighting like I do. Some like to...and some like to kill humans too... We all are...people." Yysara reached out and gently took his hand, smiling down at it and happy he was...attempting to adjust. "Thank you."

"Ah..." He guessed...it made sense, for the weaker hollows to hate humans since they used to be them themselves...they'd just...had really bad luck. It was a reasoning, but not an excuse...his only concern was not dying, he had no right to judge on whether or not their habit of killing was bad or excusable.

They were all different, and they were all people...

He gave a small nod at Yysara's last words, along with her thanks. He was adjusting...obviously pure acceptance wasn't going to just...be immediate, but so far he was at least becoming accepting here.

Yysara let go of his hand as he nodded and spoke, letting Aito have space again...though she patted his head. "You are... a good young man, I think. Kind."

He had listened and accepted, and though he may kill hollows...he had to, to survive. She knew that and did not blame him one iota. Arrancar and Hollows did rule by survival of the fittest after all. Aito was still alive, therefore he was the fittest as judged by those standards.

Relaxing back against the ledge in the water, Yysara sunk down more and closed her eyes as she relaxed a bit more.

"Mn..." He wanted to deny the good thing, as always, but with much difficulty he bit back the urge to...he really didn't want to bother with explaining his reasoning to state he wasn't...

After Yysara had released his hand, Aito relaxed back as well, having already soaked his hair soon after he'd gotten in. He glanced back to see Regalia still playing, trying to lightly swat at the snakes tail, seemingly having a lot of fun.

Pastel was ranting about the kitten, though it was much less heated than earlier and obviously was staged. She was enjoying herself, it was obvious. The kitten was pretty smart and didn't outright try to kill her so she was fine for now.

Quietly relaxing, she almost felt like sleeping... heat always did make her drowsy. She shared more than a bit of snakelike attributes.

If she fell asleep though, if he had questions she couldn't answer. Also he would be stuck here for as long as she slept. She could take a nap after she had returned him...

The temperature of the water was relaxing, much better than you'd ever find at any bathhouse; it wasn't difficult at all for his muscles to loosen and relaxing from how tense he'd been earlier due to well...being a bit unnerved and stressed out.

Things were...fine now, it seemed.

He was safe, the cat was safe, he hadn't needed to fight or anything so...

The human next to her was relaxed now too, one crimson eye peeking over at him after she opened it. He seemed to feel better... which was good, she hadn't wanted him so tense in the first place. It seemed there was a lot to learn about humans and how they worked for her to learn... Maybe he'd let her follow him around at times then?

"Do you think I could come see you at times and follow you to learn of humans?" Her voice was soft and a bit drowsy but she got out her burning question.

Aito's eyes shifted over to Yysara at her question, though he didn't turn his head until a few moments after; "A-Ah...if you want..."

She could do whatever, if she wanted to come around and try to learn more about humans from him that was fine.

"You...sound unsure?" Yysara pointed out, her voice never changing as she questioned him. Aito sometimes said such things. She had no idea what it meant. Maybe unsure?

How was she supposed to learn of humans when this one was so odd? it would be good to study an outlier though. More data...and he was nice. She might wish to talk with him again.

Pastel would surely wish to meet the kitten again, despite her annoyed words.

"No...just, you...can do what you what you want...s'fine...I don't mind..." Aito answered, his hand itching to move back to his hair again; she could do what she wanted, he just...had difficulty putting that into words.

Though...

"If you're around...other humans, I wouldn't recommend you mention...that you're an arrancar." He added, she probably already knew but...she'd been pretty forward with him about what she was. "Some won't...react nicely..."

"...Oh." Yysara nodded slowly, a tiny smile appearing again. It seemed it was perfectly fine for her to come learn from him. Yysara was pleased to have a willing subject...maybe she would get to see his powers in action?

His advice was warranted and she hmed before nodding. "They will not be as accepting as you?"

She had assumed such, but did not want to assume entirely so she was asking. If Aito was warning her...then she should listen to such advice.

"Hard to tell...how accepting they'd be, right off the bat...no, I don't really think there'd be any accepting at all..." For something like this...it was probably best to get to know her first, and after learn what she was...to prove that she really wasn't any threat...

Her telling what she was immediately though...that would cause problems for her, definitely.