[When Hijikata spots Levi sending his candles down the river, he doesn't approach him. He just observes him giving one light after the next up to the water, without needing to pause and think about whom to dedicate each one to. You've got no shortage of deaths either, huh? But for Hijikata, it's easier.
During the few years the Shinsengumi has been operating, he lost a fair number of subordinates - men he knew well and trained himself, some of them mere boys, others older than him. He got them in line and he let them let loose, depending on the occasion; he had their back and they had his when things got serious; they looked up to him and he relied on them. But somehow, he always managed to come to terms with their deaths, knowing that one day it'll be him who gets struck down, and that on that day he'll see them again. He only lit two candles: One for his mother, one for his brother. (Mitsuba doesn't need one. She's on Prismatica, healthy and able to live her life to the fullest, and once they're done here, he'll return to check on her.)
Levi feels his losses more heavily than him, he thinks, and so he stands guard - not that anybody would disturb the other man, not when they all are remembering their own lost loved ones. There's an atmosphere of respect and sympathy that permeates this festival, and while Hijikata likes it, it also makes him feel terrible melancholic. Sometimes, being mortal really sucks, doesn't it?]
1 Drive-By(?)
During the few years the Shinsengumi has been operating, he lost a fair number of subordinates - men he knew well and trained himself, some of them mere boys, others older than him. He got them in line and he let them let loose, depending on the occasion; he had their back and they had his when things got serious; they looked up to him and he relied on them. But somehow, he always managed to come to terms with their deaths, knowing that one day it'll be him who gets struck down, and that on that day he'll see them again. He only lit two candles: One for his mother, one for his brother. (Mitsuba doesn't need one. She's on Prismatica, healthy and able to live her life to the fullest, and once they're done here, he'll return to check on her.)
Levi feels his losses more heavily than him, he thinks, and so he stands guard - not that anybody would disturb the other man, not when they all are remembering their own lost loved ones. There's an atmosphere of respect and sympathy that permeates this festival, and while Hijikata likes it, it also makes him feel terrible melancholic. Sometimes, being mortal really sucks, doesn't it?]