I Do Believe They Are Closer Than The Surface Level Belies - Blog Posts

✘𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐒: ‘A person’s life is not that easy. You must learn the truth from yourself.’ ✘𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄: 'i guess i cannot trust those silly horoscopes after all.’ this fits so achingly well he really never got to be a child at all. his parents literally died in their sleep turning over from cholera his village wiped out he was sold into sl/avery the motherly sister figures he met died in front of him to protect him he then buried the graves of all the sl/avers murdered and sl/aves like him until he made a field of wooden crosses he wasn't even /ten/ then after that he starts training under hiko to become his successor and there's no room to really be emotional about much but training i do believe they are closer than the surface level belies then he immediately due to his compassion / simple purity feels compelled to join the war and hiko knows this will destroy him but knowing him he knows he 'has no choice but to do this foolish thing' his childhood died /screaming/ and for all the sins and stains on his soul however much light is in it he finds a place to truly blossom ten years later in the kenshingumi who /do/ accept him as tomoe did fully; wholeheartedly and with love and hope. something he's never known and i think it low-key terrifies him. or at least makes him highly aware he may be dreaming it all up after being feared for so so long. also poppies symbolize death and sleep and i think for a long time his heart and soul were 'asleep' in the sense they resigned themselves to a fruitless existence aside from protecting japan life by life land by land. dying of loneliness or the possibility however slim of a person seeking revenge finally killing him. the kenshingumi to him are a miracle. and that's why he won't hesitate to protect them to the very last and watch over them . even /leave/ them if that's what it takes to keep them safe.