it's the way I can't really hate Akashi Masaomi for what he did to my boy Sei
like- he was born in the Akashi family too. likely he was held up to the same standards as he drilled into Sei, and you can imagine how equally bad, if not much worse, the torment and abuse previous generations had within the family
yes he is to blame as well, since being abused is not an excuse or a free pass to be the abuser. but I do have at least some sympathy for this stoic man, and he raised Sei in the only way he knew how to. because therapy? what's that? an Akashi is perfect in everything.
I do keep going back to this and will keep going back to it in the future, but in the manga it specifically said that he "tried to forget" Shiori. If he was raised in a similar way and environment as Sei, it's likely that he didn't know how to deal with his own grief either, much less how to comfort Sei in that time, because "An Akashi must be perfect". he can't show weakness to his son, or it will go against everything he taught Sei, the essence of being an Akashi, and his own values.
so I can't really blame him wholeheartedly, because I'm like 90% sure he went through some shit too in his life. after all, an abuser isn't abusive for no reason.