u/ComprehensiveRub2070

so, I know I’ve already made three separate posts on my first day of using Reddit, but Yukiji’s childbirth scene is another part of the manga that’s so worth talking about. 

What stands out to me most is how Tomoe views a woman as an individual without ever collapsing her entire identity into being a mother.

For Yukiji, having a child was about continuing her lineage and leaving physical proof that she existed in the world. rightfully so for her time, but times have changed now.

The second they called Tomoe into the room, he rushed straight to Yukiji’s side to check if she was okay. it should be normal, the “bare minimum“ to someone like Tomoe, but In society, the focus mostly shifts entirely to the newborn, but Tomoe’s instinct is to check on yukiji, it’s the most obvious thing in the world to him. 

Throughout her pregnancy, he was hunting, making friends with the villagers and bringing them to take care of her, assuming humans need other humans, indeed he was correct. Yukiji did start to feel more calm afterwards, he continued to take care her of her as her pregnancy progressed, with the dragon‘s eye making her more healthy as well.

But knowing how much he panicked over Yukiji’s pregnancy five hundred years ago, you just know that after regaining his memories, he must have been ridiculously protective, attentive, and responsible with Nanami after they got married, they lived happily together for over a decade before she got pregnant.

They are two entirely different species, which naturally makes mutual understanding difficult. But all he wants is to understand the woman he loves most. and he believes there’s nothing he can’t do.

There’s a side of Tomoe that I personally find fascinating. 

his completely unabashed, promiscuous past. In the broader landscape of romance, male leads usually fall into a few categories but I’ve never seen a character quite like him. He is genuinely, deeply hedonistic. unbothered and effortless In the way he approaches anything.

From a Jungian perspective, we often find ourselves fascinated by the traits we repress or lack in our own lives, perhaps for me, as a girl who isn't that promiscuous, his complete lack of shame around physical pleasure is magnetic. There’s an honesty to how he approaches his desires. As revealed in the CD dramas, during the 20 years Mikage was gone, Tomoe regularly visited the red light district.

Before meeting Nanami, when he was just living as a wild yokai, he was living in pure pursuit of pleasure, comfort, and vanity. He is, in many ways, a very typical representation of male desire, elevated by extreme charm and beauty.

He doesn't magically stay chaste out of some subconscious loyalty, without the memory of the woman he loved, he simply reverts to "factory settings” He goes right back to seeking immediate gratification because, as a yokai, and I guess, a man, that is his baseline.

so his complete devotion to Nanami carries so much weight. His devotion isn't the result of ignorance or lack of experience; it’s a deliberate choice. He has tasted absolute freedom and indulgence, yet once he falls in love, he completely closes that door.

Tomoe meets the real Yukiji eight years after Nanami returns to the present day, when Yukiji is around 29 or 30 and pregnant, Close to the age Nanami reaches when she gets pregnant at the end of the manga

Tomoe helps Yukiji hide from Akura Ou after he killed her husband what stood out to me is that he doesn't care that she’s pregnant with another man’s child and refuses to look at him and tells him to wait longer because he believes she is the woman he fell in love with 

Tomoe poses as her husband who was a regional military commander In Sengoku period, even wearing the appropriate clothes

his willingness to go this far for love makes me love him even more

he was feeding her and desperately trying to keep her alive (he was hunting and asking villagers to make food for her)When he learns that childbirth can be fatal for human women he struggles to comprehend why she would risk her life (pro abortion king)

that drives him to steal the Dragon King's eye out of pure desperation to grant her longevity

the Dragon's Eye passes to her newborn daughter, so Basically Tomoe preserves Nanami's entire ancestral lineage without even knowing

another interesting point is This moment loops back to when Nanami time travels in the present after the Dragon King takes Tomoe

when Tomoe steals the eye in the past, he catches sight of Nanami he recognises the girl he loves but mistakes her for Yukiji's ghost since she just told her about how humans become a ghost after they die and may Take longer to leave earth (basically humans and yokai go to different Places after death That’s why Tomoe wanted to become human and be with the love of his life after death too)

this was one of my favourite arcs because we finally got some closure on what happened to Tomoe after nanami leaves and comes to the present time and I feel so sad for him, I love past Tomoe and I wish we got to see him more in the anime

he’s so reckless and willing to do anything, he’s much more grounded in the present, that came with age and experiences

She said she wanted $190 and he got her $913,106, almost a million, but what’s funnier is that Mikage offered him $100 an hour which would’ve been $438m, they would’ve been set for life and live lavishly as humans, and knowing Tomoe was working as an analyst in a construction company at the end, it shows he’s really good with finances So he must have invested the money he had or bought property with it, anyways, i love Tomoe so much, he was doing well in nanami‘s part time job but he pretended that he had messed up so Mikage will give him his salary, and of course Mikage didn’t even hesitate, nanami is the luckiest woman ever, oh and on top of that she didn’t get pregnant until she was about 30 so they spent a long time just building their life together and living in the human world as they wanted, nanami had worked as a teacher only because she wanted work experience not because she “had to” since tomoe can handle everything, but i love that she likes to have her own finances as well even when having the most perfect husband, she’s adroable, it was said that she wants to have her own kindergarten/school later which I assume Tomoe will help her with the funding