Work Text:
A small, dogwood bonsai. Gyomei got it for him as a way to control his temper.
“The bonsai represents balance, and peace with oneself. Use it to reflect on yourself. As you alter the shape of its branches to match your inner image of it, think about how to alter yourself to match your own self image.”
The leaves are dark on the inside, light on the outside.
He bites into the demon’s arm, feels his own body shift, the dark hair growing light ends.
The shivering white flowers symbolize rebirth, apparently. Or so he read within the texts.
How fitting for a half demon. Die, over and over, but always coming back. Clawing his way back to life. Until his head gets cut off, he refuses to die.
The tree itself has its own symbolism, too. Kindness, stability, determination.
He’s not kind, hasn’t been in a while. Not the most emotionally stable, either. But, he has the determination to push forward. Maybe, one day, he’d be determined enough to be kind and stable once more.
Wrap the trunk in wire. Stretch it out.
Change his workout routine and diet. The demon flesh makes him grow taller, faster. He outgrows his uniform within a month.
A stray graze against the bark with his switchblade, leaving marks. He keeps them visible, in the open.
The scars litter his body now. He keeps them covered up.
Snip, snip of the trimmers. Cutting away at the excess branches, the leaves fluttering to the table.
Working on his outbursts, trying to tame his temper. Cutting down at his snappiness, minimizing his lack of trust in others.
Twist, twist of the wire, shaping the branches. Forming swirls and curves as the wood bends to his will.
Building up the courage to apologize to those he wronged. Growing and nourishing his determination, his grit. Working harder than ever.
He gets more bonsai. An ash for his first friend, inquisitive and sensitive. A smaller sakura bonsai by its side, another who had the fortune to reawaken. Two stalks of free willed flexible bamboo, reminiscent of a pair of dual blades. A rough barked wisteria bonsai for a girl learning to love, where the butterflies flitted in through his open window and rested. An elm for the friend who found strength in his dreams, wiser than his sniffling appearance betrayed.
A willow for the dreamy, wishful prodigy with his head in the clouds. Oak, the strongest tree, for his mentor, the strongest man.
He gets a birch, too. He keeps it to the side, with the hopes to bring it out when he finally gets to talk to the person he wanted to apologize to the most. An unspoken new beginning and cleansing of past wrongs.
He was tending to the bonsai when he heard the emergency summon. Stretching out one of the branches, building up his courage. Attack on the Ubuyashiki estate, the crow called. In his rush to answer the call, he knocked the bonsai over.
The pot fell to the ground with a crack, splitting in half.
