Hanako's Possible Mistake

(Time Section 3)

The sun shined over her tanned skin as her blue eyes depressively wandered left and right. Hanako roamed through the alleyways and the streets of Karakura. Ever since her father dropped out of existence after humiliating her mother, Hanako has figuratively been everywhere in the world, like a cat with a lost intention. In her travels, she managed to pay off her plane tickets and train fees by stealing small amount of money that people carelessly “protected” them with their loose pockets. Some people passed by her as she pretended to be a lost tourist who occasionally bumped into people; just like so, she made impact at the same moment she slipped her gentle fingers into the pocket and extract some tip while they fumbled. Apologies are made and Hanako walked away with more than a hundred ill-gotten yen in her pocket. Eventually she stopped at the gap in the walls into the front yard of Urahara’s Shop.

(Hanako’s Thought) “The shop looks sturdy yet not as prosperous as the shops I’ve seen in other towns.”

Hanako leaned against the wall and slid down carefully into a relaxed, sitting position. She reached into her pocket and reviewed her wealth. The yen bills glistened with the sunlight and the same sunlight reminded her with the melody playing in her head. Slip-slip-slip-slip, her yen rustling against each other was rhythmic and Hanako played the basic algebra in her head.

(Hanako’s whisper to herself) “A thousand yen...enough for a small meal. Maybe the employees there can allow me to have some of their pay.”

Hanako stashed the money into her pocket and posed herself as if she was sleeping, hoping that if the employee noticed, he or she would try to help her, making an opening for her sly hands.

(Time Section 3)

During her fake sleep, Hanako instinct spiked as she pushed herself onto her feet. Her heart rate picked up as she looked around. She could have sworn that she heard a very light tap on the concrete floor. Curious, Hanako slipped into the yard infront of the shop and began looking around while in a lowered stance to improved her stealth. What was it that surprised Hanako, but something about the shop tripped her silent alarm. Her eyes darted left and right while her stance seemed ready to run away as soon as danger is apparent. She reached the side of the building and noticed some things that she could use. Some twine and long splinters that she can use for her trade involving picking pockets. She carefully ties the splinters together into an improvised protective wallet for her money and stashes the money into the spiky wallet before slipping the wallet into her pocket.

Hanako hugged against the wall while continuing her investigation. She soften her breathing while lowering herself to the ground. Carefully, she listens to the ground for any signs of life. Hearing none, she gets up on her feet slowly and quietly before sneaking into the backyard of the shop. Thievery was not Hanako's strong suit since she was ironically against it and believed that picking pockets are more lawful than robbing a store. She innocently looked around with a hint of loneliness hidden behind her eyes and frown.

(Hanako's Thought) "Odd. What brought me here?"

(Time Section 3)

Hanako jumped at the sound of the door slamming, she turned to the shop with fear in her eyes. When she heard the voice, she believed that someone is in the shop and she is detected. That person must have great hearing since she made necessary steps to avoid such detection. Without time to waste, she sprinted for the same side path out of the backyard, but she blundered when she tripped over a crate and smashed through wooden containers. With an escape in mind, she gets up and continued to rush out of the alley, though she was now reduced to limping with four wounds and twelve splinters all over her left side except for her neck and face. Hanako is almost in the clear as she continued to limped to the opened gateway.

Halfway, her left leg and left arm began to be dead weights for Hanako as she began to drag her left leg before collapsing in the same spot as where she was using the fake sleeping idea at. Laying on her right side, Hanako tried to treat her injuries, but she knew that she did not have enough for antibiotics or bandages. Had enough for medical treatment, but the nearest medical clinic is out of her reach.

(Hanako's Thought) "How the hell it came down to this..."

(Time Section 3)

(Kitty) "Karma can be a funny thing."

Hanako rolled onto her back noticed a woman with a strange feline appearance with a well-formed hourglass appearance. The voice was the same as before, though she really does not sound anything retributive. It no longer mattered to her now since she is now caught for what the woman thought was stealing. The woman chuckled and lowered herself to help out Hanako.

(Kitty) "Let me help you."

Hanako knew that she was lightweight, so the woman should have no trouble picking her up. However, instead of a medical clinic, the woman took Hanako to the shop that she was trying to leave. Was it fate that brought her here? All she could remembered was investigating the noise that was abnormal for any normal human. Now she was inside a shop with a cat lady treating her injuries.

(Kitty) "If you try to run away with anything, I'll have to take differnt measures, and possibly paralyze your limbs more so or something."

Her warning was clear as crystal and Hanako already gave up on trying to escape since she collapsed. The cat lady left to collect a medical kit after laying her on a sheet. Shortly after, she returned with the kit and was going to treat the injuries.

(Kitty) "Now, tell me. Why were you trying to steal fro this store in the first place?"

(Hanako) "I did not steal anything...I'm only a pickpocket...more honest than just robbery...I'm against robbery...too violent. I came because I've heard something passed by me and I went to find out if it was a robber...if I know the ways any thief would take...it would be...in the backyard since the walls...made it easy to sneak in. I-I ran because I feared that I would be blamed for what I did not do...If something else, I don't know what...but it is crazy if I said that I felt drawn here..."

Hanako's voice was soft and honestly innocent as she laid on a sheet before a cat lady. The blue eyes looked like the winter sky in daylight, pale and glazed with ice. Her body remained still as she gave enough trust to the cat lady to mend her. Hanako knows that she would have let this be, but she chose to go to the shop instead of letting the robber take the store. What if there was really a hold up? Hanako would be caught in it and get robbed herself or worse, killed or taken. Still she chose to go to the shop; there must be a reason and yet Hanako cannot think why. She looked away from the cat lady, ashamed that she let herself gave away that much information and the cat lady would eventually turn her in for theft.

(Time Section 3)

Hanako looked at the cat lady as she was mumbling to herself. She cannot tell if the cat lady believed her or not.

(Kitty) "I'm assuming your just human but...do you have any sort of abilities? Seeing ghosts...healing, or anything of that sort?"

(Hanako) “I do not know...but I always thought...that I was a regular. Nothing special. From what I’ve known, I was running from what the music man said to be Hollows...I think he was not kidding when...I met an girl I cannot trust...and an arrancar boy in a Null town in the outskirts.”

With Hanako’s uninjured arm, she slides her right hand into her pocket. She pulled out a black whistle and shows it to the cat lady.

(Hanako) “It is given to me by the music man and he said that if I blow on this, he’ll come in an instant to defend me if I was in trouble.”

After introducing the whistle to the cat lady, Hanako stashed it back into the pocket and relaxed herself so the cat lady can finish cleaning and dressing the wounds.

(Kitty) "There, I suggest you clean i and chage the bandage again before going to bed, and again in the morning until it's fully healed"

(Hanako) “Alright...for now, can I stay here? I’m afraid that I would not get far until these injuries are healed and I do not want to bother the music man...besides...of all the places I would have gone to, why did I choose here? I would need to figure out why...”

It became plain as day that Hanako is having deep thoughts as her eyes look nearly asleep and her speech no longer delayed in between because of the pain. Her breathing was slower and deeper as her lips became loose. A teardrop formed as she remembered the day she was exposed as an illegitimate child and at the same day, her mother cut her off from connections. With a tarnished reputation that ran deep, she could not get a job and was forced to use her pickpocket talent to supply her funding. Her father caused all this and he just disappeared...leaving Hanako to roam like Cain...damned and spiritually alone. Suddenly, there was a figurative spike in her spine and she knows what it meant.

(Hanako) “There’s something at the front yard...it’s looking for me...I cannot stay...I don’t want this to get worse...”

Hanako sounded like she needed to do what she said, even though a growl from a Lesser Hollow was from where Hanako pointed out without looking. From Hanako’s tone, she did this before, though what she said was naïve at best. Hanako wants to stay so she can heal properly, but her situation could be forcing her to deal with the possible infection in her wounds. Both unfortunately and fortunately, Hanako cannot move for a while, even though she was struggled a bit to move.