This is incredibly beautiful, thanks for drawing my attention to it again. For anyone not aware of it, both their eyes are grey. Akira was groomed by Sekai, Yumi was groomed by Akira (insofar as we have corresponding scenes of the two pairs kissing for instance). The light from her eyes still shine, his are long gone. Drawing from their understood and yet not understood connection, her grey brings back his own.
I don't know to which extent Yumi and Akira have been a couple in previous cycles, but from this excerpt alone it is easy to draw parallels between why he'd feel comfortable with her the same as with Maya in the beginning (maybe even more so with Yumi tbh). He says at some point that he became a teacher to save people like her, and Yumi was the only one he was actively interacting with before the cycles - maybe he always saw her like himself (which is tragic because it also makes her the more likely to be groomed - further throwing uncertainty towards what the original Akira's intentions with her were).
Anyway, the game has always favored this couple (for mysterious reasons) and so do I, now more than ever.
>The ship of Yumi x Akira
Oh yea totally.Ive always fancied the 2 but this event seals the deal.
Now let me share my theory as to why this is.
Akira has said that he became a teacher to save people like her(By her he refers to people lost,aimless with no reason to live or to exist.Just like he was after Sekais death).I believe that one of 2 things happened.
1)Akira saw himself in Yumi,approached her and essentially a "Maya" situation happened where they had a relationship.
2)(Refering to the creepy and perverted punishments he gave Yumi)At this point i believe that the sensei before the cycles IS the same as the sensei right now but not quite.I mean that Sensei was in fact this sadistic pedophilic guy(Due to the Sekai arc) and he,as the tale goes,instead of being the victim became the perpertator and Yumi was the victim in this scenario.Through many hoops and turns(Maybe some classic Stockholm syndrome or because he is the only HUMAN that ever cared about her--Damn that felt sad even to type-- or whatever happened now) they got into a relationship.The by far most important thing to take note of is the fact Yumi and Sensei share a bond more unique than any of the cast has any right to say(While yes techincally Mayas bond is stronger cause cycles im excluding them cause im talking purely as a person by person compatability thing) and that is the fact that they were both horribly abused by people they loved and cared about.Akira by Sekai and Yumi by Yuki.
Now to get back on what i first said.Why would Akira from the start(before the cycles begun) be the same person as the Akira now(After the cycles started)? I think that his personality got subconciously altered cycle after cycle.I mean lets examine the changes.
-Akira has huge gaps in his memory that when examined either completely reset him or cause him MAJOR duress,emotional or otherwise
-Akira suffers from an advanced form of psycosis and many other mental illnesses that i cant list(He already did if we follow the Yuu theory BUT i believe that the cycles only worked against him and "enhanced" them since if we look at Sensei now he refers to periods of times--Note,HOURS at a time-- as "One of those days").Essentially the longer he stays in the cycle the worse they get.
TLDR:Yumi became the end game girl,Sensei is the biggest victim of all and i am STILL waiting for a Yuki sex scene