Reminiscence (Hisana, Momo)

There was no doubt that she was becoming more popular just lately and as Momo set about getting the tea ready for her latest guest, the dark haired woman would gently hum. Her experiences just recently had gone rather well and the Ex Lieutenant smiled as she recalled her visitors. Whether it be for training or advice, she’d been sure not to let them out of her sight until they’d learned something. It was rather stimulating work although Momo had to admit that she worried over Bambietta. The woman was very much like her in some ways, her lack of confidence a mirror of what Momo’s had once been.

Her success with her students aside though, Momo still had a slight amount of concern regarding her visitor today. The request had been rather more formal than usual, which naturally triggered the dark haired woman’s guard just a touch. Had the Gotei become frustrated by her desire to teach others in a way that wasn’t strictly by the book? It was a long shot but made Momo wary nonetheless. The trust simply wasn’t there any longer and considering the state of the organisation, who knew what the head honchos were thinking?

Ah, she should be above all of this by now but some grudges were simply too painful to overcome, scars that ran far too deep. Over a century had passed and despite all the progress she’d made in bringing herself back from the brink, she simply could not forgive and forget. Still, for the sake of her son, she was willing to be civil at least, even if at times she wanted to walk straight up to their headquarters and fire a fireball straight through the head office.

There was no need to take out any of that frustration on her guest though and so after placing the refreshments on a small table beside her, Momo would sit and begin to sketch in the meantime, her mind briefly consumed by it as she drew out yet another spell idea.

She’d become somewhat lost in her sketching, causing the knock on the door to make Momo jump a little in surprise. With a shake of the head, she’d place her sketchbook aside and head towards the door, feeling a tad nervous herself. The communication hadn’t appeared as though it was a sign that something unpleasant was about to occur which helped her a touch and the curious admission that the visitor was of a race other than a Shinigami actually did as well. Yes, Momo had fought the Arrancar in the war but she held no grudge. They’d been manipulated like everyone else, to be used like puppets by that bastard of a man.

Opening the door once she reached it, Momo would find herself looking at a woman who reminded her so vividly of another. There was a brief look of surprise that crossed her features but beyond that, there was nothing in the way of a negative reaction from the Ex Lieutenant. The purple haired woman didn’t appear to be threatening by her body language and if Momo could read anything from her features, it was that perhaps she was similarly nervous. That, more than anything, helped Momo relax.

“Hi there.” She’d say with a kind smile, motioning for the woman to come in. “It’s Hisana, right? Come on in and make yourself at home. Help yourself to tea if you’d like a cup.”

The feel of the woman’s spiritual energy couldn’t help but remind Momo of the past but she wasn’t going to allow that to cause her to be anything other than hospitable. In truth, she was rather curious as to what the Arrancar wished to discuss. The fact that an Arrancar was in the Gotei at all had somewhat taken Momo by surprise. Had the Gotei finally begun to adapt to the times?

There certainly was a different vibe to the woman before her than her sister and Momo couldn’t help but feel a sense of curiosity. There was obviously a story there and as hard as she tried, the dark haired woman had noticed about herself that she found it more difficult not to pry these days. Whether it be someone she’d never met or an old friend, she simply had to ask, even if sometimes it came to bite her. The truth simply brought people closer together or at least she believed so and after all the lies she’d swallowed, it was a view that she’d come to understand better than most.

Offering Hisana a seat, Momo would then walk over to the table that she’d prepared earlier, fussing about with the tea, before offering a steaming cup of it to her guest.

“Don’t mention it. I must admit that your communication did take me rather by surprise, as I haven’t been on the best of terms with the Gotei for quite some time.” Momo answered truthfully. “I wasn’t sure just what to expect from your visit although I am thankful that it seems I was worried for nothing. You don’t appear to be here to interrogate me.” The fact she was smiling would give away the fact that she was trying to be humorous, her shoulder noticeably more relaxed.

From the way Hisana spoke, it almost appeared as if the Arrancar thought that she was the one who was going to be interrogated, which somewhat surprised Momo. That was certainly not what the brown eyed Shinigami wished to do. Pondering about that for a moment, she’d ask something incredibly simple. “What brought you to my door?”

Ring a bell was quite the understatement and Momo had gone through various phases when it came to just how she felt about him. There were times where she’d despised him, cursed his name and yet as time had worn on, that had changed dramatically. Nowadays, she was thankful that the then young man had done what had been necessary during the third world war, eliminating the man that had caused so much harm to so many, with Momo probably being rather close to the top of that list in terms of damage.

“I’m afraid that I don’t have an awful lot of insight when it comes to the going ons in the human world. Most of what I pick up comes from the Shinigami who come to me for training and many of them are rather reluctant to speak. Toki doesn’t speak an awful lot about it either, probably because he doesn’t want to worry me too much." Momo replied honestly. “You’ll have to fill me in on the details.”

She could, however, speak about her dealing with Rukia and the dark haired woman would smile softly then. “I always enjoyed the time that I spent with your sister and we got along well whenever we came across each other. She was always a bit of a firecracker in my opinion and always made her opinion known. My experiences with nobility are fairly limited but Rukia was never one to flout that and was as down to earth as anyone I’ve met.”

The smile faded at that point. “Rukia and Ichigo have always shared a special bond since they first met or that’s what I’ve always thought anyway. It doesn’t surprise me that she’d be feeling low if something unpleasant happened to him.”

It was quite a shock to put it mildly and Momo did an awfully good job just to keep her reaction to a rather deep sigh. She had no idea that the state of the human world was quite so precarious and the dark haired woman now understood precisely why no one had told her about any of it. The Momo of old would have probably broken down into hysterics at such developments, her emotions overcoming her to the point of complete instability. It wasn’t a period of her life that she looked back on if she could avoid it but she had to admit that by going through it, she had come out a much stronger woman.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” She eventually said softly, trying to smile but not quite making it. How could she smile at something like that? “I asked you for the story and you told me the truth, which I am thankful for. I honestly believe that I’ve been a little too in my own world anyway for far too long. It’s about time that I start to actually experience what the real one is again, as unpleasant as it can be.”

Taking a sip of her tea, she’d go on after a short pause. “It must have been an enormous shock for Rukia and I am sympathetic to how she’s probably feeling right now. To live with such a deep wound, as you put it, continually festering and harming inside you is a foul state of being. I can only hazard a guess but I feel it could well be a case that she’s feeling rather similar to how I did when…World War 3 came to be. To have someone that you respect, admire…love, suddenly desert you does far more harm to a person than any sword or spell. You feel as though your heart has been ripped out and all that’s left behind is emptiness. I believe that is what Rukia may well be feeling…Empty.”

A second pause followed before the Ex Lieutenant added. “The longer she feels this way, the harder it will be for her to recover.”