Koi's Attempts at FFXIV Write 2023

They say all is fair in love and war.

However what Hanako went through was not love, nor was it war, and it especially wasn't fair.

Hanako was only 15 years of age when she had naively signed up into the fighting ring. Her two brothers, Fel and Hylric worked the Kugane docks all day for a pittance of a wage. All Hanako wanted to do was change that and provide extra income to the struggling trio. Hanako had thought that with the included coaching and training; that the price offered for a night's worth of beatings was justified. And perhaps, after some time had passed that she'd learn the skills well enough to make even more money and supersede her family from poverty.

Hanako had no idea what she had gotten herself into.

Hanako trained endlessly, her mindset was that with enough time and effort she'd finally rank above the rest and turn the tables. She hadn't accounted for the fact that she'd be matched up with bigger and bigger targets. Unfair targets. Even when breaking her limits and rising above those in which were related to human, the pit fights turned into survival against beasts, warped enraged creatures of the damned, and even creatures beyond her understanding entirely.

Hanako should've read the fine print, she should've taken more time to understand the premise of the situation.

Yet now she found herself trapped in a cage and all she could bare to blame was herself, as the thought of being coerced broke her soul.

As the contracts grew tighter, she was offered more entrapment disguised as gifts.

Offers of her home and board to be covered, but on the condition that she move in to the estate grounds themselves.

Offers to become a part of the community, but on the condition that she must mainly socialize and sweet-talk the wealthy elite into betting more.

Hanako didn't realize the weight of these conditions, or what meaning they held just below the surface and yet, she now found herself trapped within the walls of the great organization she once used to look up to as her salvation. Through a complex web of half-truths and gracious offerings, Hanako had seemingly sold her soul.

Yet now she needed a way out. Someway, somehow, she had to plot her escape. Wriggle her way out of her legal mess. Break free from this corrupt system.

A solution presented itself in the form of another offer. An opportunity. Tied deeply with the fighting ring's organization was a mercenaries guild, and if she could find some rapport within them she could find a way out through their line of work. It did occur to her that perhaps she was moving laterally; forfeiting one cage for another, but that was a risk she was willing to take. If she could find some work outside the ceramic-clad walls, then she could talk to people and hopefully reach her family.

It would seem her captors had thought of that when she finally got her offer. She was told to accept it or risk being reported about to the fighting ring's management. Once she was allowed to know the details, and her destination was told to her, her heart dropped. She was being sent to the complete other side of the world.

Ishgard. Frigid cold and unwelcoming.

A place she somehow had to make a home.