rei comports himself as a guy who's In Charge and Has a Plan for his every human interaction. and then ichiro showed up and it's like (sound of entire drumset falling down sixteen flights or stairs)
im like thrown for a loop bc i've been writing rei with his basic logic as the driving factor for a WHOLE YEAR and now it's like (TOSSES ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW) SON??? SONBOY??? SON?????
rei says to otome that ichiro barely counts as his son, so Rei an't be proud of his accomplishments. And he also judges Otome to her face about HER estranged relationship with HER son?
and then even though he says that, we've seen rei send ichiro help that he doesn't want or ask for MORE THAN ONCE (1 beating up some randos trying to jump ichiro all at once, 2 sending ichiro info on Nemu's missing persons case)
But rei also tries to steal jiro and saburo from underneath him??? And then admits that Ichiro is actually doing better than he expected when it doesn't work???? HUH???????????
Ichiro says that he burned all bridges between them because he doesn't agree with the way Rei is handling their mother's death. it's unclear When rei came and told him about all that, but i think it was probably after Rei dumped them at an orphanage (which we've seen one(1) panel of)
but i'm going to assume, based on rei rapping about taking revenge, that it's not great. and based on how he dumped his kids after her death, Probably All-Consuming In a Bad Way
the way ichiro holds his brothers up above all else probably points to what exactly he hates about rei, in that rei put everything aside to pursue wife justice. which ichiro considers worthless if he's gonna abandon the rest of his family for it
I'm still holding out for rei dumping his kids and changing his name for their own safety after jumping ship from the military, but that doesn't change anything
for all of rei's abandoning issues, he still doesn't seem to be able to let go of anything?!!? he keeps bugging ichiro in the above manners, and he befriended(ok, a strong word LMAO) saburo anonymously for years.... and he still protects ramuda...........
all of this to say that ichiro being in avalon is going to destroy rei's reputation as a smooth operator who's on top of everything. Because Rei is going to keep doing shit that makes NO SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMFAO
ultimately i think rei's feelings towards ichiro is like. that "you will always love your kid but you might not always like them." that's him. he doesnt like this damn kid, bless 'em LMFAO
rei SORT OF respects ichiro's determination to do things on his own and estranged from him... and understands that he can't be forgiven for his actions (see: refusing to explain to Saburo because "it doesnt change the fact he left them")....
enough has happened to Rei that could make him sympathetic, but he is like, actively bound and determined to be as unpitiable as possible adakadffdkfsdf
SPOILERS ALL OVER PROBABLY