Home Again

It was quite the feeling. To be here again, in the Seireitei, escorted to the First Division Barracks for a meeting with the Commander. Nobody could miss Hannah's passing, her sight demanded a constant release of energy through the surroundings. She did her best to soothe and ease it so it was not an irritant for anyone, but it was still unavoidable as a side-effect of continuing to live.

The knock upon the Commander's door was gentle, not through any decorum or sense of demurity, but because Hannah's hands didn't do much hard. So all there was to announce her was a soft pressure and a quiet rap on the door. Hopefully, it would be enough and she hadn't done a foolish thing like come with Abalia was not in or something.

It was almost peculiar, the amount that Abalia found herself dealing with those who were, by all accounts, wanted criminals. She would have understood it far more if she were still operating as a part of her division in the field, but of course, her position as Captain Commander meant that she had rather little reason to be doing something that risky. So instead, here she was, meeting with a woman that was, by all metrics, decidedly considered a criminal under Gotei law.

"Enter, Ms. Chiza."

Despite her having grown rather tremendously on an emotional level, that did not change the coldness of Abalia's voice or the professional nature that she carried. After all, she was still the Captain Commander, still the White Gold Queen of Vastime. She had a great deal of presence that she needed to maintain.

Well that was not not a great start. Her voice was chill and made Hannah's hand tremble for a few moments before she got it under control and did as ordered, entering the room. Her reiatsu spread out to gain perspective of the area, as she herself stepped in, to stand in front of the chair. Her eyes hovered in Abalia's general vicinity, but never actually locked onto her, the glazed and pale eyes prone to wandering off and then being snapped back almost as if a mother controlling her unruly children.

"Thank you, for seeing me, Commander"

Hannah tried to keep the waver out of her voice. Despite having managed to get her whole stuff under control, that didn't mean it was gone entirely, and being here was still a terrifying prospect that she never wished to do. Though, she never wished for here to be a terrifying prospect to begin with, so it tracked.

"Of course."

Abalia gestured to the seat opposite her desk, already aware that despite Hannah's condition, she was perfectly aware of those around her. She rifled through her paperwork for a few short moments before pulling the relevant file out and studying it for only the briefest moment as a refresher.

"I will move straight to the matter at hand, if you do not mind. You are aware that you are considered a wanted woman in the Gotei, yes? I wish to discuss the circumstances of the warrant for your arrest, and the crime for which you are currently wanted."

Chiefly, that she had so few records on it that she could hardly call it a justifiable outstanding warrant. Even if the matter were brought to court, nothing short of an absolute order by Abalia herself could really have earned a guilty verdict. That led her to assume that, in all likelihood, either foul play or simple clerical error from the less functional eras of the Gotei were almost assuredly at play.

Hannah would take a seat when offered, and then clasp her hands together, trying to hold the tremble down so it wasn't as noticed. For a few moments she sat, after Abalia had spoken. Just staring, though she was trying to unlock her jaw so she could talk without stuttering through the entire sentence. Shit, white-room scenarios were one thing, but she was so not ready for the actual thing. No backing down now though.

"I" she'd state, taking a deep inhale. "I know. What happened. But, I don't know, what you know. So, before I can discuss that, I need to know where you stand on that"

It was delusional to assume they knew everything. One didn't stumble across four Shinigami in the middle of the living world, just past the Demonic Incursion, and assume they had been killed by a Shinigami. Regardless of the state they were in.

"It tends to be in poor form to ask questions in a position such as yours. But let us assume, for the sake of this conversation, that we have no record of anything beyond your warrant and the criminal charges against you. That all written mention of what actually occurred had simply disappeared. What, then, would you tell me?"

That was, in fact, entirely true, but Abalia knew that saying it so boldly, outlining it so brazenly and in such a way, would only make it seem as though that could never possibly be the case. It was the sort of question that one only put forward if they had the answers, because it made the investigation so transparently paper-thin.

That was, in fact, exactly why Abalia was so confident in simply asking it as though it were any other investigation. Was there a degree of pity for the woman before her? Yes, a touch. But that was not something she allowed to influence her in any capacity. If this proved fruitful, there would be time for it then.

Nothing. They had nothing. Even K-World? She wasn't exactly waving their banner around, but was still there and placed pretty highly...Was she really written off as a casualty like she had thought?

"I, am sorry, Commander. I just didn't want to cover ground you already knew" She'd wonder how far she had to go back, and decided on footnotes till the important part. A short while to gather her words, and then she began to speak.

"I was born with a very powerful Reiryoku. The kind that hurts your family. So I kept it inside, didn't let it leak out, so they weren't hurt. But, that wasn't good, and it ravaged my body. Occasionally I would be wracked with such pain I couldn't move, and just had to lay immobile in bed. The eternal misfortune is that one such time happened during the Demonic Incursion.

Afterwards, some Shinigami took me out to the World of the Living, telling me that a squad deployed there had been wounded and needed my care. So I went with them, and found myself trapped inside a barrier with a dozen Hollows. I guess they took my healing arts and cadaverous body for an inability to protect myself.

So, I dealt with the hollows and broke the barrier. And by that point...my heart was burning with an anger I had never felt. The guys who tried to make me hollow bait started a fight, and one hit me across the face with his sword before I....killed them, and then passed out from the pain and exhaustion"

While remaining somewhat composed up until now, her face turned green and she seemed to gag on some invisible memory.
"The...ugh, the smell...it was horrific. I was glad to be blind in that moment, because all that is seared into my brain is the smell. I don't think I could have handled the sight as well. I tried healing my eyesight but botched it in my panic and ruined any chance to fix them. And probably drawn by the commotion, a group of slave traders grabbed me and dragged me to the camp. My emotions were in turmoil and I couldn't focus on using my Kido. And all that came even worse when....." she'd pause, tears welling up in her eyes. "I lost Peach. I felt so....so empty. I couldn't...I couldn't" she'd try, futily, to restrain some tears.

"A-a-an-d-d t-h-he-n-n a-af-t-t-e-r a-a-al-l th-th-that" she'd stutter, trying to force her way through it before stopping to bring herself under control.

"And then, after all that...I got moved somewhere else. I don't know where they were going, but the convoy was interrupted by a man who proclaimed them to be trespassing. He dealt with the guards, opened the truck, and told us we were free. But...I had no heart to go anywhere. I just wanted to stop existing. Not even die, dying was too much effort. I just wanted to cease. So he took me home. Food, clothes, company, support. It took me about eight months to get a handle on the loss of my Zanpaktou Spirit, and eyesight. But I eventually developed this"

Hannah would gesture to the air, no doubt referring to the soft energy pervasive around them.
"I couldn't come back here. Now I could feel anything, the only thing I felt for here was a seething rage. So I stayed where I was, and helped out my benefactor. Where I was turned out to be China, so I joined the Kokuyuteshi and put my skills to work so that his charity was not wasted, so I didn't seem ungrateful. But after a while I couldn't keep up the emotions to be angry. It was just...heh, not in my nature. it all burned out, and I left Kokuyuteshi behind to find a hole somewhere I wouldn't be bothered"

The rest of it, meeting Sou and getting sent to prison and meeting Shadin...that didn't seem relevant to the charges, so she didn't mention them. Just, fell into silence to let Abalia deal as she would.

Well, Abalia had asked for the full extent of the story, but she hadn't quite expected it to be this...overwhelming for the woman. Admittedly, most of her only wished for Hannah to compose herself, but the emotions she had still yet to fully temper flared in the back of her mind, and before she had even fully realized it, she had pulled the handkerchief from her coat pocket and offered it to the woman as she cried.

"None remain to make any formal accusations against you. The file itself on your crimes is lacking in anything that I would call meaningful evidence or reason to maintain the warrant for your arrest. And, speaking personally as the Captain Commander, I am not in the habit of expending valuable time and resources on those who are clearly not cause for concern."

In terms of her power, Hannah was of course someone to be watched. But Abalia highly doubted, based both on her temperament and those actions that she did have on record from surveillance, that she would be any sort of threat. If nothing else, Abalia was quite exceptional at reading others, and beyond that, she was someone who valued repentance for crimes above anything else.

"I will strike your warrant from the record, unless you have any objections."

Hannah would take the hankerchief with a grateful nod, and cleaned herself up. Though, when Abalia came out with the fact that the crimes were apocryphal at best and lacked any sort of support to hold up in court, Hannah was silent and still for a moment, and then hysteria came. In such a situation, there were either tears or laughter, and Hannah fell to the latter.

It started with a twitching half-smile, and a single 'heh', and then it was just giggles. She was not a woman for rancour it seemed, but there was a fit of uncontrollable giggles for quite a while before she managed to get a handle of herself.
"I...." She started, getting her breath back and laughing some more. "I have not thought of my mother in a long time. But that was a textbook bluff to get your child to tell you what he has done even though you have barely any idea on the details" Hannah exclaimed, letting out an exhale, and leaning back. They didn't know. These past few years of fear, angst, and turmoil and....they didn't know.

"You will make a brilliant mother, Commander Kyoraku-Hayden. Thank you for this meeting. I am currently living in Karakura and working for Lux Orior, if you need me for anything"