ok fujoing out a bit
a theory i've seen and am obsessed with now is the idea of eito backstabbing takumi and hiruko and just straight up lying to them about how to escape the time loop. he sorta has the motive-they didn't really listen this demands at all and while they fixed his issue, they also brainwashed him before going right back to ignoring him. i am an "eito isn't really brainwashed, he's just not actively backstabbing on SF" truther so that part doesn't change much
anyways i have the most vivid image of like. right when the escape pod is about to reach the artificial satellite, eito wrapping his arms around takumi from behind, nestling his head on his shoulder. saying he'll miss him when they touch down, truly. and explaining from there that he figures takumi's only got a few minutes left before he's pulled back into the loop. neither him nor hiruko could have ever fact checked him on the knowledge in the book. keeping everyone alive only lengthened the spring-it could never break it entirely.
and takumi going through all the phases of grief in succession and just asking him why. and eito explaining he's not sure what it was that pushed him over the edge. maybe it was being abandoned in that room to rot. maybe it's that neither he nor hiruko ever considered apologizing or persuading him, and instead used time travel to fix it. maybe it was the brainwashing. but either way, they needed to pay. he even considered cooperating but oh, they weren't in the timeline that day. what a shaaame.
and takumi would shake him off and wring his neck buuuut that's around when he runs out of time and the loop restarts yet again.
(and uh. we might get a few more "kill eito" branches, but i'd also like to point out that hiruko is better at remembering itmelines than takumi. so there are going to be an entirely new flavor of branch that is "takumi spares eito but he shows up dead in his cage anyways to what must have been a lot of axe wounds).
just. there coudl be such an evil gay betrayal there.
