wait I never know that Chigiri styled his hair like that for the 1st pwc anniversary event — that's so sweet!! 🥹 It's also so cute that Kunigami is so ticklish that Chigiri merely touching his hair is triggering it LMAO
or maybe he's just particularly sensitive to Chigiri...🤭Tying this back to the canon — we know this to be true based on how exceptionally resistant he was towards Chigiri post-Wildcard. Kunigami sees Chigiri as the greatest threat to his new persona, the most capable of breaking through all the defences he's painstakingly established to support this new era. That's why Kuni's been so determined to keep him at an arm's length. Meanwhile, Chigiri is just as determined to push past that, because he's already lost him once — and he's not going through that ever again, lol.
I mean, we've seen the pure horror on his face when it happened...
So Chigiri's been relentless in his pursuit ever since their reunion to ensure it never happens again, no matter how much Kunigami tries to distance himself.
And that's the thing — Kunigami is uniquely sensitive to Chigiri, which is why he goes out of his way to be cold and reject any advances. He's terrified of Chigiri reviving parts of himself he'd long buried in Wildcard. We've seen how Chigiri brings him to life, makes him feel energised; something Chigiri caught onto and called out.
Kunigami, too, was distraught — not just at the prospect of elimination during the Second Selection, but even more so at the thought of never playing alongside Chigiri again. This is further emphasized by how his expression mirrors Reo's in that moment — someone else grappling with the reality of losing his most precious person at that moment. They reflect each other here, and Kaneshiro uses this parallel to convey the depth of Kunigami's feelings. He then immediately mirrors kunigiri's pained expressions as well, to show that Chigiri feels the same pain.
Kunigami is only able to pull himself together — and, by extension, help Reo do the same — because Chigiri confesses that he wants to stay by Kunigami's side and is determined to reunite. It's in that moment that Kunigami realises Chigiri feels the same, to the point of being just as committed to finding their way back to each other.
Before Chigiri's declaration, Kunigami looked completely lost; immediately after, he's energized, ready to step up as the hero fighting his way back to his princess. Chigiri quite literally moved his heart here and pushed him into action — that's the gravity of Chigiri's influence on him.
That little panel of Nagi at the end ties everything back to the parallel to Nagi and Reo's emotional arc — Nagi resonates with Chigiri's passionate drive to reunite with his precious person. Like Nagi, Chigiri is moving forward while leaving that person behind, and just like Nagi, he wants that person to grow and meet him at the top. Chigiri believes in Kunigami completely and has full faith in his ability to get there — just as Nagi did with Reo at this stage.
Although the dynamics and origins are very different, NagiReo's relationship — well-established and extensively explored by Kaneshiro — is frequently as a narrative mirror to highlight the emotional depth between Kunigami and Chigiri (specifically here at how far their relationship has grown during the Second Selection, since prior to this display the readers/audience hadn't really been shown something so intense between the two). Both pairs truly came to understand the weight of their feelings after being separated, making that parallel all the more evocative.
Chigiri's tears during Nagi's elimination and NagiReo's seemingly permanent separation, also encapsulates this resonance and echoes the parallel once again, as discussed in detail here.
All of this — Chigiri being his precious person and the only one capable of moving his heart — is why Kunigami absolutely refused to fall back under Chigiri's allure. Chigiri has the power to ignite the emotions Kunigami has so relentlessly tried to ice out and destroy.
Chigiri himself is no stranger to this, of course; we've seen him put up a cold façade to numb his emotions in the face of Kunigami truly being gone — despite how desperately he wanted him to make it, more than anyone else. And here, while everyone else expresses their sympathy, Chigiri takes a hard line to steel himself against his own feelings for Kunigami. Having already experienced how distraught and shaken to his core that their separation left him once, he decided — just like Kunigami did during and post-Wildcard — to push forward and abandon these feelings, fearing they could break his focus and derail his path to his dream (as discussed here).
They truly move each other's hearts like no one else can :')
All this coming from Kunigami being ticklish LMAO. Anything can be a prompt for me to launch into kunigiri analysis it seems.