Training Days [Mizu, Hana]

At Hana's unsure question, Mizu simply nodded her head and uttered an encouraging "Hai!" She understood the difficulty a novice like Hana would deal with in this kind of situation. After all, even experienced Shinigami can't always ignore their own feelings about a person when attacking, even in sparring scenarios. She hoped the fierceness of her gaze would help assure Hana it was alright to come at her with everything she has.

Mizu stayed facing Hana and raised her hands so they hovered in front of her, waiting for the inevitable attack from the silver-haired woman. She stood stock still and with bated breath for the Seventh Division member to unleash her spell, and it didn't take long for Hana to do so; upon saying the spell's name, a blue bolt of energy fired from her finger tip and rocketed towards Mizu's diminutive frame. She did it! thought Mizu as she confidently summoned a shield-sized translucent Kidō barrier in front of herself, resulting in Hana's Byakurai striking and fizzling out against it harmlessly.

"Great job, Aoyama-san! Do you think you have it in you to do it again, or would you like to try something else?"

When the energy cleared and Mizu was standing without injury, Hana was visibly relieved. She exhaled heavily and put a hand on her chest. Hearing the words of encouragement, Hana's smile brightened. She felt so much more confident and knew she'd be able to do her job as a shinigami much better now.

"Well, some advice then, if you don't mind?" Hana asked, looking down to her right hand. "Um... Which is better, mastering one spell at at time or trying to master multiple at once? A-And I don't mean that I could, literally, master them. I more or less mean just learn. Which way is better for learning kido?"

Hana was weighing the options. If she mastered one, she would be confident in using it in battle, but she would only have that one to use. If she tried learning multiple, she would have a range of tools to use, but her proficiency with any of them would be lower and could fizzle away in battle. Which was best?

With Hana's successful spell cast came another question for the Eighth Squad member, this time about focusing on learning a single spell at a time or many. The way Hana spoke, making sure to say she didn't think she could actually master multiple spells, reminded Mizu of herself...which saddened her a bit. She had never been on the other end of such insecure aspiration, and whether it was just Hana being realistic or not didn't matter in the moment to Mizu. All she wanted was to assure the woman she could do anything.

Mizu took a handful of steps forward and narrowed her eyes as she spoke to Hana "I learned the ins and outs of one spell at a time. If you can figure out all the different ways a Kidō spell can be used, not knowing many spells isn't that big of a deal...but Aoyama-san, I want to be as clear as possible: You can do anything you set your mind to. I am wholly confident in this, and in you." Even with her own serious deficiencies and struggles to improve, Mizu wished at minimum her own parents had been this supportive of herself. Maybe that would have made her struggles easier.

It's not that Hana couldn't express how grateful she felt to Mizu. She didn't know how to. Hana's mind whirled with insecurities that were just breaking her down. She felt like a complete failure, a message her Mother had made sure she understood for longer than she could remember. Anytime Hana was ever met with hardship, she gave up. What was the point of trying if her entire being wasn't worthy of the air she breathed? Thinking back to those old memories, nightmares really... Hana closed her eyes tight and shook them out of her mind, trying to focus on today and what was right in front of her. She pushed up a smile, as genuine as she could.

"Thank you," Hana said, tightly clasping shaky hands together. "I'll keep trying."