The five stages of grief

Denial

'Freak.'

'Lonely bastard.'

'Emotionless.'

'Weak.'

'Excuse of a hashira.'

'Monster.'

Words rang through Tomioka Giyuu's head. He hated it. Why wouldn't they leave him alone? These were the words he had heard his fellow hashira say about him. It was cruel. Had he done something wrong? 

He watched as Mitsuri and Shinobu laughed at each other. Why couldn't he laugh with them? A sharp pain seemed to grow in his chest. He wanted to feel loved too. 

Uzui had his wives. Rengoku had Senjuro. Obanai had Mitsuri. Shinobu had her little sister. Gyomei had Muichiro. Sanemi had his little brother, even if he acted like he hated him. Him? His sister was dead, his parents were dead, his only friend was dead. 

Despite wanting to cry, to scream at the top of his lungs, Giyuu controlled his expression. If he let his mask crack, it would only get worse. He knew that. He had let it crack for Sabito. He had died. He let a small amount of emotion out when with Shinobu. She made fun of him and called him a freak. 

He wasn't a freak. He wasn't emotionless. He wasn't weak. Sure, he knew that Sabito would've done a better job than him but he knew his own strength. 

But he felt afraid. He knew he couldn't last much longer even with Sabito's promise. he had taken to completely avoiding the others so that he wouldn't hear what they had to say about him.

He didn't know that they were worried.

"Tomioka's acting weird." Obanai said as he watched the man from a distance. "I don't like it."

"He hasn't been as flamboyant as he was before in a while." Uzui agreed.

"He's just seeking attention." Sanemi snapped. He was worried too but he didn't want to tell them that. "I hate that bastard." Gyomei sighed.

"You can't keep insulting him like that. His aura has been feeling even more down than normal." He mentioned. Worry grew in their minds as they noticed the lack of emotion in the man's eyes. His face had always been blank but his eyes had always some emotion. But now they were colder than ice. 

"I think I know why." Muichiro mumbled. They glanced at him.

"He mentioned that sometime this week was the anniversary of someone's death." They winced. That made sense. Death was a sensitive subject for all of them. Sanemi rolled his eyes.

"We've all suffered losses. He doesn't get to act special." Gyomei bit his tongue, not wanting to cause a scene but not wanting to let Sanemi say things like this.

Their eyes drifted back to the man as they heard Kocho laughing loudly. She was standing in front of the man clearly poking fun at him. He wasn't reacting as per the normal. But his eyes held a look of fury. He didn't like it. And it seemed like he wasn't letting it slip this time.

Their eyes grew wide as they watched him turn sharply on his heel and slapped Kocho directly across the face. Sanemi whistled. "Didn't think he had it in him."

Kocho stormed off, crying to Mitsuri. They were just about to walk over to talk to Tomioka when he ran off, tears gathering in his own eyes.

'What the hell did Kocho say to make him cry?' Sanemi thought in concern. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I'm not dealing with the aftermath of this shit."