I… did not expect to fall for Takeru so fucking hard. Normally, he’s not my type in attitude or appearance, but I am so smitten with him. Each new CG had me thinking just how freaking handsome he was or how “cool” he looked. More importantly, each scene had me falling for him more and more! His personality- his brash, bossy, bullying, and yet somehow benevolent personality- deepened in complexity with each chapter. It’s quite possible that he’s going to be my favorite love interest from the whole series, which is a huge surprise given my anticipation for him to be my least.
When it comes to otomes and fictional relationships, I’m all for those tsundere personalities and unhealthy dynamics, though they don’t tend to be favorites for me. Takeru is the first tsundere that I really enjoyed romancing, and his route was incredibly well written and impacting. So, let’s start from the beginning!
**Warning: there are several spoilers after this point!**
I don’t know if anyone else thought this when they first saw this CG, but it seriously looks like he’s choking Hoshino. On top of that, he looks kind of possessed and/or a bit demonic with the way his eyes look like they’re g l o w i n g.
Aesthetics aside though, at this point in the common route, Sasazuka is establishing the kind of character he is: he’s the pragmatic, goal-driven, overly independent, stubborn, and not-to-be-crossed-or-interfered-with genius who quit the police force for personal reasons and to focus on the August case. He makes it painfully clear to Hoshino that she doesn’t have any real options or leads without their help, and that he isn’t going to just let her go because she’s a victim. The reality of it is that she’s the biggest lead they have regarding Adonis and past, present, and future X-Day crimes, and that’s what makes her not necessarily important, but simply useful to him.
What a lady’s man, hm? Truly has a way with words. You can only imagine his joy when Hoshino decides she wants to tackle the August case as well.
That brings us to our second CG. After her persistent begging, Sasazuka finally concedes to acknowledge respect her skill (and decision) if she passes his test. Hoshino must find out why he and Yanagi have already come to the conclusion that the perpetrator of that day’s X-Day crime would be caught soon, and then find a common thread between the X-Day incidents as a whole. If she can’t do that, then there would be no point in working together since she would only be a pain in the ass and hindrance to him.
With the tiniest bit of help from Shiraishi, our protagonist comes up with an answer and presents it to the former Cyber Crimes investigator. He listens to her answer and rewards her with a passing score of 75 points (and a donut!), bringing us to the very moment that I fell hard for him. If you haven’t heard this specific line, you gotta. The way he says “poochie'' makes a grown woman w e a k. But not only is this the start of my adoration for Takeru, it’s also the very start of the two actually working together regardless of their dynamic.
We don’t have to wait long to start seeing glimpses of Sasazuka’s softer- or at least more genuine- side. As Hoshino leaves the agency, he stops her and the two go for dinner. Let me point this out right now: food is a major part of this route. It’s not like there’s hidden meaning behind the food or anything, it’s just that food is as much Sasazuka’s “thing” as sleep is Okazaki’s or the Sengoku period is Enomoto’s.
After treating her to dinner, they see Kazuki and Akito across the street and this sets off some red flags for him. He stops Hoshino from going after her brother and instructs her to send him a text asking where he is instead. The response she gets is a blatant lie saying he’s at Akito’s and staying the night, which kickstarts her worries- especially as she learns that her brother’s best friend was a suspect in the August case. Sasazuka accompanies her home in order to search Kazuki’s room, and ends up consoling her as she panics and nearly breaks down in the process.
While holding the protagonist, Takeru reminds her that they don’t know anything for certain and to calm down. At that moment, the only thing that she can do as an older sister or a police officer is to investigate what her brother’s relationship with Adonis and X-Day is in order to prove his innocence, or find condemning evidence that would move her to stop him from doing anything else. What I love most about this scene is that, after successfully calming her down, he simply says, “If you don’t mind, I’ll just stay like this for a little bit longer,” and continues to hold and comfort her without any unkind comments.
Fast forward a little bit and we get Hoshino inviting Akito over for dinner to express her gratitude for how much he and his family have been taking care of Kazuki. While the feeling is genuine to some degree, it’s also part of a ploy to get Sasazuka in contact with him. We also get this gem:
Yep! The “pretend we’re dating” trope gets utilized in his route as part of the excuse! And let me tell you, the whole scene is hysterical. Kazuki and Takeru butt heads so much and poor Akito and Hoshino are just trying to keep things civil. Eventually, the siblings are left alone for a short time, and Kazuki does not miss his chance to ask his sister why she’s dating someone like that. See? He does care about her…
After dinner, Hoshino walks Sasazuka out and he updates her on the conversation he had with Akito.This whole night, she’s tried so hard to keep herself together, to pretend that things are as normal as they’ve been with her brother and his bestie, and it all comes to a head as a few tears escape and break her composure. By now, we know (and Sasazuka knows) that his weakness is when she cries- so what does he do?
He. Kisses. Her.
Has it been a trip so far, or what? Well, fasten your seatbelts because it’s picking up from here. It’s backstory time!
Up to this point, we know that Sasazuka was born in Japan but grew up in the U.S. and lived there between ages 10-22. We also know that he is focused on the August case because he is trying to reinstate the Swords and Firearms Possession Control Law. What we finally learn though is why he came back to Japan and why reinstating that law is so important to him.
When Takeru was 18, he and his mother had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were caught in the crosshairs of some gang conflict and a stray bullet would have killed him if it wasn’t for his mother’s protection. He held his mother and watched her die with a smile on her lips, grateful that he was safe. This incident was incredibly traumatizing for him, and to make matters worse, the legal system found the shooter not guilty and he was set free. Because of this, Sasazuka returned to Japan, attracted to its strict gun control- only to have that backfire after the August X-Day crimes.
We don’t realize how bad it is, however, until Hoshino has to fire her gun and it triggers his PTSD real bad.
Witnessing the gunfire straight up debilitates him. He clings to her and needs reassurance that she’s still there and alive- that he isn’t going to lose her. After this panic, he passes out, and Hoshino calls on Yanagi to help her bring Sasazuka back to the office so she can watch over him while he rests. When he comes to, the two go outside and he finally opens up to his partner about his trauma and why getting the Swords and Firearms Possession Control Law reinstated is so important to him.
As Sasazuka’s route continues, he gets an offer from Adonis. Join them, and he will see his revenge against his mother’s killer come to fruition. They have tracked down the shooter, and he happens to be in Japan at that moment. It takes everything in him not to accept the offer, but it’s thanks to his thoughts and memories of Hoshino that he stays true. In the end, he is able to get the code for the collar and pinpoint Adonis’s hideout without joining them, and on top of that, gets the Police Commander, Yusaku Takaeda, to use his connections to get the law reinstated.
There’s a lot that I didn’t even touch on, so despite the massive amount of spoilers, I didn’t reveal everything. At some point, he rejoins the police, and I love that at the end of his route, he returns to the main police station and won’t be in the same building as Hoshino anymore. While they were in different departments and wouldn’t have seen each other that much anyway, the fact that he’s relocating actually makes her sad and she admits that she’ll feel lonely. This leads to him teasing her to hurry up and get Kazuki independent enough to move out so that they can live together (preventing her to be lonely, but c’mon, that’s obviously not the only reason).
