Sick burn, brah [Hannah/Kokuto]

Hannah was glad he was happy, though as always, she was a cautious woman who did not want to advocate anything like being overly brash or impulsive.

"I am glad it works, though be cautious all the same. Barriers are to be used delicately and precisely. You should never take what you can avoid even if you know you can take it. Because there are sneaky people at the higher levels. Like so;"

Hannah would point at him again, to prompt him to put up his shield. And if he did, she would speak softly.

"Byakurai"

T'was a simple incantation, if not for the fact she had used her Weave-Way to tie a Geki and Geki Raiko into it in the same moment, ensuring that he'd be both paralyzed and blasted from points beyond his Barrier's coverage.

She thought barriers were meant to be used delicately and precisely? Well, he didn't agree with that sentiment -- it depended on the type of barrier, what you were using it for, and if it was the only one you were using. There were a lot of factors to even something as simple as that, it wasn't really feasible or fair to be putting out an overarching blanket over all of them.

But, as she lifted her hand, Kokuto lifted his, readying his barrier. But, as he went to make more adjustments, he found himself unable to move. So, she wanted to make an example out of what she said? Kokuto could sense the energy building up, and he went to manipulate the shield at his hand. The shade of crimson quickly spread, covering the rest of his body once more.

The armor cracked and strained under the blasts, shattering in some areas and damaging him, but still remained mostly intact.

"Barriers can be worked with just as creatively as your spells. You just gotta know what you're wantin' to do."

"You got hit" Hannah replied, in a voice equal parts surprise and exasperation, giving him as much of a glare as she could manage while being blind. "If I put any actual force behind that Kido, you'd be a stain on the wall now. You literally proved my point while trying to claim you have disproved my point. A Barrier only needs to break in one spot to kill you stone-dead"

Did she think he was as fragile as her underneath his Devil Skin? Kokuto's expression shifted to mild irritation, testing his body to make sure that he was able to move, flexing his fingers for a moment, before looking back at Hannah.

"No, I wouldn't be. Don't assume everyone is as fragile as glass if they use defensive abilities. I'm a lot tougher than you think."

He had only suffered very minor injuries from the spells -- even if they were probably a lot weaker than what she was capable of at full brunt. But, his shield had already taken damage before, which also fed into how quickly it had shattered.

"Barriers are always just a temporary safeguard. Precisely? Yeah, sometimes that's needed. Delicately? Definitely not."

"Fragility is relative, Kokuto" Hannah would reply. And with that, a focused release of her Reiatsu, kept relatively contained to this room but otherwise let loose in it's entirety. It was immense, like someone had just handed him the damned Moon to carry. Like the air was thirty kilos, and he had skipped lung day for the last thirty years.

"When I say 'actual force' I mean cratering a small town. Relying on static barriers and one's inherent durability to take shots you have no idea about, is how you die instantly. Treat everything like it will be the death of you, because not getting hit will always be the greatest armour a person can have.

And when I say delicately, I mean delicate application. Not a heavy-handed slapping of barriers over everything as your first go too"

Though he certainly could feel the strain of the sudden explosive weight of spiritual power, Kokuto didn't budge. It took a great deal of resolve to not buckle under the pressure, but, he had faced worse than her. His expression remained unchanged, begrudgingly listening to her inevitable spiel.

"Treating everything like it'll be the death of you is how you live your life in fear. Sure, not gettin' hit is better than taking it, that's obvious, but treatin' all of existence like you're walkin' on eggshells is also a dead giveaway that you can't take any hits."

Kokuto dismissed his weapon, the chains from the cuffs around his wrists shrinking back in response to small, broken links. He sighed softly, taking a moment to stretch. He wanted to be annoyed, but he knew that he was a better man than this.

"Regardless, you're a massive hypocrite for saying that, while you use barriers like they're goin' out of style. The first thing you did when you walked in here was slap on barriers to the area and yourself."

"Hypocrite?" Hannah asked, releasing the pressure. "The whole point of this exercise was to give you something against which you could exert your entire energy against. If it was just against a zippy foe you couldn't catch, then it doesn't help you except to know that you can't catch really fast things, nor do you get the experience of what your absolute maximum is capable of doing.

Hence barriers. I accepted the possibility of taking a few hits if you got through, and minimalized the risk by designing a barrier specifically to counter your fire-based powers. Because I am a Shinigami and my biology doesn't particularly care about massive wounds. Plus I am good at Kaido so I can heal those massive wounds quickly.

Sometimes there is no choice but to set your heels in and stand against the tide. But never let that be your number one tactic unless you are capable of tanking The Moon with a barrier and not exhausting yourself at the same time. You've only one life to lose, Kokuto. And you can lose it in an instant. Don't be blase with it"

Exert his entire energy against something? Yeah, right. All she did was play keep away and smack him around like a chew toy. The most that he'd done was learn what she could do and continued improving the abilities he already had.

Despite the growing irritation, Kokuto kept his mouth shut as she kept going on her spiel. He just brought out a pack of cigarettes, slipped one out and into his mouth, before snapping his fingers to light a flame on his thumb. He took in a deep breath, taking a long drag from the stick.

Kokuto let out a quiet sigh, a white plume quickly surging from his lips and into the open air. The immediate relaxation thankfully helped calm him down, but that didn't stop him from taking another drag.

"It's already my second chance at life, so you're already wrong on that front. I'm not afraid of dyin'. If it happens, so be it."

"There is only one you, Kokuto" Hannah would reply, staying where she was stood, hands politely in front of her.

"It doesn't matter how much of your life the next remembers, they are not you. You, are dead. The Soul Society gets enough people who remember too much and drive themselves mad trying to reclaim their past life. Sometimes they even manage to do it, to a degree. But it is always there, in everyone's heart. So don't waste it. Don't be so scared of it you'll do anything to avoid it, but don't waste it either"

All of that junk of remembering his past life wasn't really all that important to him. He had come to a point where he was fine with losing most of those memories -- even the new ones that he enjoyed. Being a part of something with the Vandenreich, meeting the people he had, trying to fulfil a purpose and make a better world. He was fine with losing it all. It was inevitable. Maybe it was partly because his time in Hell prevented him from losing those memories, forcing him to remember what he had done.

"Again, if it happens, it happens. I'm not racin' to die, but I'm not afraid of it. Still got some things left to do in this life before I kick the big one...again."

He knew that he had at least one thing he wanted to do before dying again -- make sure that Melody was alive somewhere, that she was safe, and that she never would go through something like he did. She didn't deserve that. Even still, he wasn't sure how true that whole thing of "not being him" was. It felt more applicable to his current situation than anything else, really. A human who died, went to Hell, and became a Demon.

"Outside of one thing, I don't really have any interest in pickin' up the pieces of my past. That ended when I died. Just gotta focus on the now and the future."

He took another drag, finishing the cigarette and tucking it away in a small, personal ashtray.

"Need someone to walk ya home?"