Work Text:
Koumyou was not always the moon.
Or at the very least, he wasn’t the full moon he so embodies now. When Jikaku met him, Koumyou - Houmei, then - was more like a new moon, or perhaps an eclipse. Shrouded in darkness, with no light to reflect, he still waited and watched, a mysterious presence they never could grasp.
It was when he met that boy - Kouryuu, he called him - that he changed. The new moon became a crescent. Then half moon. Until finally, the cycle completed, and the full moon kept itself ever peacefully in the sky.
That boy changed him, truly. Jikaku always believed it, though he never said so to either of them. Rather than remain in the darkness, he became a mirror, showcasing the softer side of the sun’s brilliance in his own way.
When Jikaku finally meets the boy - no longer a boy and now a Sanzo - he understands why Koumyou cared for him so. There is nothing fake about that brilliant aura that surrounds him. He is more than Koumyou’s son. He is passion and light, and everything Koumyou pretended to be, but wasn’t always.
Genjo Sanzo idolized his master, and still does. It’s blindingly obvious, to anyone that knew them both. Jikaku can see the boy struggling to fill the shoes he doesn’t know he’s already filled, never once realizing that the man he thought his master was was the man Genjo made him to be.
He wished he could guide the boy better. To spend time with him and tell him stories of a dark young man, and the sunlight that changed him. That sunlight is still there, though hidden behind dark clouds of grief and despair. It just needs to be reminded to shine. That even the darkness of the night will eventually pass. It has before.
But there is only so much that can be done. The boy doesn’t realize, and perhaps never will, that he was never the reflection - Koumyou was. But, Jikaku can still leave him with something, leave a small flame for that spark of light that led the moon out of the darkness. The butt of a cigarette as it hits the ground is all he needs.
“With that kind of talk, you sound just like Koumyou. ”
[
I leave the rest to you, Genjo Sanzo.
]