Come into my web [Hannah, Hana]

"Strange is merely the lack of experience. All things are strange until they are part of your life" the woman would reply. And then, she would exclaim she was not cut out to be a Shinigami. Memories of Kitarune flashed through her head, of the tempers flared there as Kita insulted the memory of her friend, and of Hannah who barely stopped herself wiping the woman off the face of the planet.

"If you would indulge my curiosity a moment longer; what is it, to be a Shinigami? What does it mean, to be cut out for it?"

Fair questions, but Hana was too inexperienced to give the quality answers she preferred. She took a moment to contemplate what she would come back with, ordering her words in an order that felt right for the current moment.

"I hate fighting," Hana finally said after a long silence. "I hate feeling like I'm going to die at any moment. I hate feeling so unimportant in knowing that if I did die, I would be replaced like nothing. My own family wouldn't care; they'd likely jump at having another kid to continue the family line." Hana vented a depressing chuckle.

"I have not been successful in anything; I am always needing to be rescued." Hana rolled her eyes at herself. "So, I would say to be a Shinigami, you should be good at something. You shouldn't need to be babysat by an unexpected fox woman or be allowed to live by an Arrancar who decided you weren't worth killing!"

It seemed Hana had a lot of trauma about her, though the lacking desire of fighting was certainly a decent enough reason not to want to be on the frontlines.

"There is a lot more to being a Shinigami than just fighting. Second has healers, Third is Research and Development, Sixth are peacekeepers and Seventh are diplomats. One can avoid fighting very easily while still being a Shinigami.

But to tell the truth, nobody likes fighting. The fight is never the point even for the most battle-hungry. The point is the challenge, the thrill, the boiling of the blood. Or the point is the protection of the innocent, those who can not protect themselves. The point is to better yourself and know where you stand in the world. The point is to learn new things, try new things, make new friends. The point is to indulge in the pure esctacy of having absolute power over another being. The point is to demonstrate superiority over the other person.

The point is never merely the fight"

Hannah would finish her monologue, and take a breath. It wasn't easy maintaining three highly complex Kidos simultaneously, but the strain was nice, in a weird way. Reminiscent of when she was younger.

"Though I would absolutely say a woman who has yet to even take three steps out of Shin'o can hardly be said to be bad at everything. Even the greatest members; Unohana and Yamamoto and Urahara, started at the start. Built themselves up through failure and defeat to become the best at what they did, even if what they did was not nice"

Hana thought there could be something out there for her, but after visiting multiple Divisions, she found nothing helpful. Between patrols, she took her free time to visit other Divisions, meet people, and discover how they worked. Nothing the cloaked woman said was wrong, but Hana understood that. Everyone had different reasons for battle or why they built themselves into monsters. Hana had none of that.

"Maybe the reason for their success lies in their desire to become what they have become," Hana said in a bit of a mumble and sighed. Desire and direction were what she lacked. "Comparing my struggle to theirs is comparing clouds to rocks. I never wanted to be a Shinigami. I was given an ultimatum; marry immediately or become a soldier. I chose soldier, and I've regretted almost every moment of it."

"The water is soft and gentle, the rocks hard and tough. But yet, with persistence, the water wears down the hardest of mountains. I compare clouds to rocks and see both have their merits" Hannah would reply, a quick retort to her self-depreciation.

"But if you took soldier so quickly despite being against it with every fibre, am I correct in assuming that marriage is even worse than this could be?"

Hana did not plan on living as long as it took for water to wear down rocks. When that thought crossed her mind, she was even surprised at herself; the thought was darker than she ever would have intended. Blinking back the surprise, she stared at the cloaked woman and then tried removing herself from the invisible trap again.

"I'm not answering another question until I'm free of this," Hana said, her head gesturing to the area around her. "I question whether this is even legal; trapping someone for no reason, while not on a training ground? I doubt it."

The woman would flick her hand and the webbing would dissolve, freeing the poor woman. The hooded one in front of her seemed to become more real. More present, losing the very subtle discomfort around her that made a person think they weren't quite there. After all, even Hannah was not able to perfectly control three highly complicated Kidos at the same time.

"Legal is what can be enforced. But please, continue. If Marriage is such a terrible thing, I can offer an alternate"

Feeling the freedom in her movements again, Hana rolled her shoulders and put a short distance between her and the spot she had originally be trapped. She'd say thank you, but trapping her in the first place was wrong, so she held off.

"An alternative to marriage?" Hana scoffed. "I am not the one needing convincing; it's my mother and father that insist I marry to save the family business. It's all they care about. Though, I would still be interested in hearing your opinion on it..."

Hana looked curiously at the woman again, noticing the strange shift about her. "First... I would like to know whether you are an illusion. You look translucent..."

"We are all illusions in the reality of life, translucent and ephemeral" She would reply, nodding softly. And actually managing to get her self to nod, since she had fine motor control back. Even a barrier over the illusion in case someone decided to lunge.

"As for the alternate, well. An evil witch kidnaps you and casts a spell that means you can not return. And then a humble benefactor picks up their business to support it and see it grow. Would that be a story you would be interested in telling to people?"


The line about being an evil witch was given to Noharu as a joke, but here it might actually be a proper out for the woman who felt trapped in her own life. How the world rolled was ever-mocking....

Hana ran both her hands through her hair and to the back of her neck, sighing in frustration. The riddles and vagueness felt like she was talking to a character in one of her books. In fact, the story the cloaked woman was telling reminded her of a couple old stories she read. But this was real life, and she preferred straight answers in times like this. This wasn't a joke or a game to Hana; it was her life.

"I appreciate the offer, sort of, but I am going to decline," Hana said, not truly understanding what the offer was anyway. "I'm not interested in being taken by a witch, and... Wait," Something clicked in Hana's mind. "Are you offering to buy out my family's business? My father would disown me... These days, that's not a bad thought..."