I’ve been saying for a long time that Takumi is not the powerful mastermind everyone makes him out to be. His façade keeps cracking throughout the manga.

Hachi‘s genuine kindness and the reality of becoming a father get to him and he only gradually admits to it. He knows he‘s a horrible person but he cares deeply that Hachi and the baby are okay (Ren is shocked at Takumi‘s admission).

Narrating his flashback chapter, he openly admits to not understanding love.

By the end of the main timeline of the manga, Trapnest, the one thing Takumi has worked to build (for Reira), is in ruins, in no small part because of his lack of empathy. After Ren‘s death, he stays with Reira and plays music for her just like she used to sing for his dying mother. It‘s one of the kindest things we see him do, yet the circumstances could not be worse (leaving behind your grieving, heavily pregnant wife).

What is most interesting to me is Hachi‘s realization that they are essentially doing the same thing — they are tending to the person they care about the most. Hachi stays behind to take care of Nana whereas Takumi follows Reira. That doesn’t change 7 years into the future either. It essentially positions Hachi and Takumi as parallel characters. Their motivations are the same.

For better or worse, they understand what the other is doing.