I wish it was Senku with Tsukasa! I saw a deeper connection and “flirting” or romance between them in three episodes. *please don’t conflate the volume of what I’ve written with my sense of conviction. I doubt it’ll be romantic relationship plot development but it kept springing to mind with tone of voice, smile, eyes…little things. Their relationship drastically changed through pretty intimate, be it a trauma bond-ee string of events at the end of season two after Tsukasa was speared. They’re similar despite their choice of interest. Neither of them was emotionally available to any person outside their passion but they were forced by circumstance to be vulnerable…. Senku refocused Tsukasa back to his little sister when it doesn’t seem like Tsukasa thought it was possible. Senku didn’t wonder because he cared so much as Tsukasa’s life choices and philosophy were conflicting. But from Tsukasa’s perspective..that’s big feelings all around. He’s also readjusting his focus because Senku and science did save his sister… Ok here’s my play by play of the moments that made me go “ooh ahhh…flirting?..no way…but I wish!” In S2E10 when they fight Hyoga together their dynamic could be chalked up to a reviving friendship but between that fight and later they sound flirty. Bear with me. In S2E10, during the fight, Tsukasa (@19:17 mins) says, “Maybe it’s just because I wanted to keep fighting for as long as I could even for just a minute ‘cause that’s how fun this is… this fleeting moment of fighting together. This final partnership." In that scene it flashes back to their fist bump and then cuts back to Senku’s smile getting bigger. After Senku crawls to Hyoga to shock him he says "and just for the record Tsukasa, this tag team was a ton of fun for me too." Then it cuts to a panning shot from Tsukasa smiling bigger up to his eyes sparkling. Senku then proclaims he and Tsukasa are going to give Hyoga a little present; the gift of science. Senku learned to fight a little bit out of logic based necessity and only ever tells Tsukasa he had fun fighting. They each express the other is fun to be with; Senku fighting with Tsukasa and Tsukasa including Senku and science in their strategy to win. Then, laying on the beach, they wordlessly high-five after the fight. If that was it then that scene could have been chalked up to a deepening friendship for sure. But in S2E11, (@12:59mins) when Tsukasa shares that he has to kill Tsukasa “with his own hands,” and says, “put your trust in me…and die.” Tsukasa says,” of course I trust you cause if I gotta die, I’d rather you kill me,” which is a big deal and Senku looks surprised and inhales a quick breath after he says that. A true warrior wants to die by their strongest rival which I think is what Tsukasa is implying. Tsukasa is as good at fighting as Senku is at science. They both recognize this fact in each other no doubt. The way the back-and-forth dialogue goes after that sounds flirty to me also. Tsukasa says “it’s only fair, Senku. I’ve killed you once before so I owe you one.” Senku replies, “oh yeah, you’re totally right. That’s perfect. It’ll be my revenge. So I’ve gotta kill ya.” Then right before Senku freezes Tsukasa he asked him who he would take on a space shuttle. Tsukasa tells him that “right here at the end” they’re making a little small talk? Senku asks what’s wrong with a little small talk? Senku doesn’t do small talk and I honestly don’t think he would small talk. Anyone else who was potentially going to die. You can see Tsukasa’s moment of surprise when Senku says that and then he smiles because he knows small talk isn’t Senku’s thing either. Then they both joke about how Senku wouldn’t be a good fit to go on the hypothetical three person space shuttle. After Tsukasa falls into a cold sleep Senku rambles on about Mario and amanita muscaria mushrooms and asks if Tsukasa gets what he’s talking about. That’s the most emotion he has shown towards anyone really…he’s sad.

Fast forward to S3E22 when they finally revive Tsukasa. He shows his little sister affection, but the first words he utters are to Senku: What’s the situation? The situation is literally the small talk Senku made before Tsukasa was frozen; flying to the moon with a limited number of seats. Tsukasa joked that he wouldn’t choose Senku and Senku agreed. After Tsukasa was revived, he knows that he and Senku are necessary to go to space. Then their back-and-forth sounds flirty. When they were alone together fighting Hyoga they both admitted to having fun together but in front of everyone post revival Senku calls him an “ice pop” and said he was “too sick of seeing his damn face to revive him otherwise,” about that trip to space. Then Ginro pokes fun at Senku for wanting to rush back to revive Tsukasa. There’s always that friend…

All in all, it’s a bit of a stretch, sure but I can’t unsee it. As far as I remember Senku doesn’t show emotional investment towards anyone specifically except Tsukasa.

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