Here I go, Turn the Page

For the last three hours, Hannah had been staring at the Asauchi in front of her. Jizen was not any faster because you had done this whole song and dance before, but also she wasn't fully hearted. She was anxious, jittering and worried. Peach was still out there, still cared for her, but would a new Asauchi change that? It wasn't like she could ask anyone, or anything. She just needed to learn by doing and see what happened. If the worst happened, she could always just rip out her heart and throw Peach away again.

Ha. Like that'd ever happen.

The next hour passed silently, but then there was a spark. She heard something. Opening her eyes, she was in an abyss. No spiritual imput, or output, just nothingness.
"Hello" was a soft voice. Barely audible, but still just enough to bring Hannah to tears. She was finally back, finally here again. Her heart swelled with emotion and determination. She would do anything she could to get her spirit back to her.

Losing focus, Hannah was jolted out of her meditation. Though there was a hum to the Asauchi now. A gentle, loving murmur of appreciation. Standing up and grasping the hilt of the blade, she used a modified Sho to clear the apartment's floor space. Anything that broke could just be fixed by her, she was that good of a medic these days.

Sliding her foot back, her head hurt as she started to recoil days of Shin'o. Even then, she was poor with her sword, but did it diligently anyway. Slowly flowing through the stances as she poured her energy into the Asauchi, Hannah would feel a softly rebuilding connection. This sword was her sword, her Zanpaktou. She got caught up in the kata and went through every drill she had ever learned in Shin'o, ending up drenched in sweat and throbbing in pain by the end of it. Muscle fatigue was hard to relieve with Kaido, so she simply dragged herself to the couch and flopped on it.

This was the next few days. Using her PTO from Lux Orior, Hannah would focus on her sword. Not quite pushing herself as wildly as last time, she worked on the forms as well as her battered body would allow. And in times of relaxation, she would meditate in Jizen, to try and connect once more with the spirit within her. She was fixated and obsessed with this now, and wouldn't let anything disturb her gait. The second and third day were the same, fill of nothing but food, Jizen and sword practice. With the experience of last time, the connection was a lot quicker this time. But never seemed to crest the edge, like something was building up, and not quite there. Her body - made of cardboard and never much good at exertion - was crying, and the doctor inside her told her to chill out. But that was hard.

Laying on the couch on the fourth day, she looked in the sword's direction, scarcely having let go of it since she got it.
"Will you grow for me, Peach?" Hannah asked, slowly closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep. A few seconds later she woke up in a lovely meadow, as far as they eye could see. But they weren't peaches......

Hannah stared for a few moments, feeling the expanse of flowers around her, and the reality crashed down. Peach, as she was, was never coming back. She was lost forever in some dam field, worrying that she had been abandoned. Did Zanpaktou spirits die? Or did they just live on forever, trapped in their world with nobody to talk to, nothing to do, and no idea what had happened.

The abject terror quickly overwhelmed her as she crashed to her knees, loud keening wails coming from her as she broke into hysteria. Why, did she have to go and do something as stupid as surviving that time?

"I-i-i-i-s-s-orry" A gentle, feminine voice came. It was one of shock and surprise, as people tended to be when handed sudden hysteria by a stranger. For that was what they were. Hannah didn't hear the rest of the panicked words, too busy digging her fingers into the soft ground and losing herself in the vortex that was eternal despair.

Fortunately, Hannah was a woman of decisive action most of the time, and so she imparted that onto her spirit. So after a bit of panicking and trying to figure out what to do, there was action. Dragging her up from the ground, the spirit cupped Hannah's hands in her own.
"I don't understand" was not the best opening move. Or, maybe it was? "I have no frame of reference and can't relate to what you are going through, so it would be an insult to say I understand. But you and I are together now, so I want to be together with you. I don't want to play second fiddle to a memory of someone that is gone, ok?" The tone was stern and firm, but not uncaring. Much like a mother who was trying to help their young child.

"If you think you can't love me without remembering her, then please. Put me down, and leave me alone. I want to occupy your heart the way she did, not replace her, but be alongside her. Can you do that?" the woman asked.

Hannah, who had been struggling to even breathe properly, looked up at the woman. Her sonar pulled in to the tightest degree, to get a good feel of who was in front of her. Not beautiful like peach, but a woman of fortitude, it seemed. Was her new persona and powers effecting the appearance of her spirit?

Stuttering, and with hitching breath, Hannah would try to speak, fail, and then make an attempt to calm herself and try again.
"I.....wi-wi-wi-will..." Hannah whispered. Peach, would forever be in her heart but that didnt mean this new woman deserved to be put on the back of the bus because of that.
"Thank you, Hannah. Now...I am ▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅" the woman said, and then let out a gentle sigh as the name was distorted and unheard. "I didn't expect that to work, but I had to try. We will work together, until the day you can hear who I am. We shall support each other and be the world's greatest partnership, not in spite of her-" Hannah would cut off the woman.
"Peach. She, she, was called Peach" Hannah put in.
"Thank you. Not in spite of Peach, but because of her. In memory of her. And you need someone to support you. I just hope I can be that person. I don't know anything about you, but I hope to learn in the future, so I can better support you. All I know, is that you need it. I can feel the weight in your heart that you carry, and you need someone to lean on, regardless of what face you might show to the world"

Hannah would pause for a moment, listening to all this, and then drape herself around the new spirit, sobbing and keening and hugging her tight. The past was painful, and needed exorcising, so that the future may take root inside her.