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It’s their first time using real swords.
Well not real swords per say, they weren’t the color changing ones made of Nichirin ore, but of plain metal. It was so they could get used to the feel of it.
Up until now they had only used wooden swords. They worked, but weren’t durable like metal or Nichirin so they often broke or splintered when too much force was applied.
“Ready, Giyuu?” Sabito’s voice rings out from across the clearing. An array of rust and golden leaves litter the ground, blowing in the wind.
It’s their first spar with real swords and both boys are excited.
The hilt feels heavy in Giyuu’s hand and the metal blade is downcast, it weighs on his arms more than expected.
Giyuu takes a deep breath, tightening his grip and getting in the proper stance. “I’m ready.”
Sabito lunges forward, weaving in and out of sight until his movements fluidly shift into the third form: Flowing Dance. Sabito is fast, but his footsteps are loud making it easy to pinpoint where he’ll land and attack. Giyuu dodges the first strike, but is caught off guard when he immediately follows up with the third form again. It lands, causing Giyuu to nearly drop his sword.
Between the two, Sabito is more powerful but Giyuu has better precision. As long as he can avoid getting hit, he’ll be able to whittle the peach haired boy down and claim a win.
Finding his footing once more, Giyuu retaliates with Striking Tide.
Sabito falters and Giyuu takes a deep breath in preparation for the Tenth form: Constant Flux. He’s always struggled with it, but he feels he can pull it off this time.
He takes a deep breath and dives forward, blade tip pointed out. The brunt of the attack lands, causing Sabito to break his concentration. Instead of one of the 10 forms, he attacks in a plain sword slice.
Giyuu ducks his head and stumbles backwards. He aims for Sabito’s side with seventh form, effectively knocking the other boy onto the ground. Right as he readies to point his blade at Sabito’s throat to end the spar, a gust of wind has him shivering and scrunching his neck.
While he’s distracted, Sabito kicks the sword out of his hand and points his own at the other boy. Giyuu doesn’t acknowledge him or his defeat, only rubs at his neck when the wind kicks up again.
“Hey..did it get colder?”
Sabito looks at him quizzically. “No? It’s only early autumn, so you shouldn’t be cold. Why do you ask?”
When another breeze blows, Giyuu pulls the collar of his shirt up. Sabito rises from the ground to figure out what’s going on. As he looks at the other boy, he spots something in the corner of his eye.
A black wad of ..something ..lies in the dirt.
It looks like hair.
Stepping closer, he gently pokes at it with his sword. It’s soft and puts up little resistance which causes his sword tip to go right through and touch the dirt underneath.
It feels and acts like hair.
Crouching down he picks up the probably-hair between two fingers. It’s soft and a little spiky. And it seems blue in certain light.
Sabito comes to one conclusion.
It is most definitely hair.
Giyuu’s hair to be exact.
He stiffens. Giyuu’s hair has always been pretty; it’s a lovely shade of blue, long and naturally shiny. As if his hair was crafted by whatever gods may exist.
Giyuu doesn’t care for his own hair most of the time; Sabito has never seen the boy brush it, only tie it into a low ponytail each morning.
Sabito felt a need to intervene in order to stop the horrendous cycle, so it’s up to him to keep Giyuu’s hair in the pristine condition the gods intended it to be in. It’s his duty to keep him as the most beautiful boy to walk the Earth.
But knowing that a chunk of his bluish hair was missing horrified him. He glanced at his discarded sword and, upon noticing a few strands coiled around the blade, groans in frustration.
“Sabito? What’s wrong?” And of course Giyuu takes this opportunity to engage him once more. He balls up his fist in a poor attempt to hide the hair.
“..Is that..?” Giyuu reaches for the back of his head again, feeling around his neck as his eyes widen.
“Is that..my hair..?” Giyuu asks quietly, tears already gathering in his ocean eyes.
Fuck. He had hoped to slip away and bury it—and come back later to lay flowers at the makeshift grave—to avoid Giyuu from noticing but the gods must be making him pay for ruining their craft.
What the hell does he say? ‘Sorry you’re going to be bald, but it’ll grow back so it’s okay !’
Giyuu frantically grabs for his ponytail, letting out an “ eep !” When he finds nothing but loose ends and uneven clumps of hair.
Apparently saying nothing was just as bad as what he had planned to say. Fat tears roll down Giyuu’s reddening my face and for once Sabito feels like joining him.
“I-I’m really sorry, Gi…” he knows no amount of apologizing will fix this but it’s all he can think to do at the moment.
Giyuu doesn’t respond, he has one hand on his head and the other gripping his haori. He had once told him that he kept his hair long in remembrance of his sister, so he must be distraught at having it shortened.
“How bad is it?” Giyuu tearfully asks, looking as if he’s bordering on dropping to his knees and begging it to look okay.
“…It’s not.. that bad..” Sabito lies through his teeth. It isn’t often he runs away from his problems, with him being a man and all, but he can’t face the boy he desecrated right now.
It looks pretty awful actually. It wasn’t just the ponytail he snipped, he could see the baby hairs on a small portion of his right side and he knew if he swung a little lower than Giyuu would most definitely be balding there.
The baby hairs look bad next to the rest of his hair, but they signify hope for the both of them. Given enough time it’ll grow back to its full length and volume and they’ll be happy again.
Giyuu seems content just to hear that. Trusting Sabito with all his heart, which was a bad decision really, he wipes his eyes.
“We should head back. It’s, uh, been a stressful day.” Sabito stands and discreetly pockets the clump of hair. He picks up both his and Giyuu’s swords and, with a hand on Giyuu’s lower back, leads them back to their teacher’s cabin.
Urokodaki knew his two pupils had gotten into some type of trouble. One comes back carrying the scent of misery and guilt—he’s a little shocked to find it’s not Giyuu—and the other looks worse for wear.
“Sensei we’re back.” Giyuu calls out as they step inside. Sabito says nothing. Usually it’s him announcing their arrival and Giyuu quieting the boy down. Urokodaki turns to face the two.
“Hm. How did today’s training go?” He trusted them to not return injured, they can be smart when they apply themselves, but using a wooden sword is very different from using a metal one and they could easily be hurt if they were careless.
“It was fun! I almost won our spar but Sabito moved so quickly!” Giyuu eagerly recounts the afternoon's events, eyes bright, smiling wide and hands flying about as he imitates sword swings.
It isn’t until the boy spins while replicating the sixth form that he sees it.
“Stop.” Giyuu freezes mid twirl and looks owlishly at the elder who holds one hand up. “What on Earth happened to your hair, boy?”
Giyuu glances at Sabito, who pointedly avoids his gaze, before answering. “It got cut during our spar.”
Ah. So that’s why his loud and occasionally obnoxious student is quiet. Another wave of guilt rolls off of him, almost overwhelming his nose and drowning out the concern coming from Giyuu.
He stands and approaches the two boys who both stiffen as he nears them. He runs a hand over Giyuu’s hair to assess the damage and see if it’s salvageable, while whacking Sabito upside his head.
“Ack!—what the hell old man!” Sabito complains, which earns him another smack.
“What have I told you about swearing?”
Sabito grumbles but doesn’t say anything else. Urokodaki shoos him away. “Go and get me the scissors.”
As Sabito disappeares, Urokodaki racks his brain for how he could fix the mess that is Giyuu’s hair.
“It was an accident, sensei.” Giyuu mumbles.
He’s probably sighed more times in this one evening than in his entire life. “I’m sure it was, and I should’ve been observing to ensure nothing like this happened.” He chuckles, taking the scissors Sabito now holds out to him. “But knowing you two something like this would’ve happened anyway.”
With scissors in hand, and Sabito watching nervously on the side, he gets to work, being sure to lecture the two boys the entire time.
.
.
.
“Ooooh!” Giyuu stares at his new style in the hand mirror. It’s mostly the same up top and in the front, but the entire back and along the sides have been cut down to the baby hairs. The voluminous hair begins to taper off by the tips of his ears.
It was all that could be done, really.
“Thank you sensei!”
Giyuu seems to like it though, and Sabito is thoroughly enamored by the boy’s new hairstyle so he’ll count this as a win.
“Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Giyuu smiles and nods. He grabs Sabito’s hands and places them on the back of his head.
“It’s so soft, can you believe it?”
Sabito in fact can’t believe it. It’s one of the few times Urokodaki has seen the boy flustered.
“Ah..it’s..uh.” Sabito sputteres as Urokodaki returns to the fireplace to finish dinner.
“..It’s nice” he hears him say at last, the smell of adoration coming from the boy and replacing the guilty scent from earlier.
.
.
.
Even though Giyuu’s new haircut looks nice, he still has a job to do.
Sneaking outside, Sabito makes his way behind the cabin and with the moon as his only guest, he digs a shallow hole and lays the chopped off hair to rest, praying for forgiveness the entire time.
