[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frontier

I might be mis-remembering but I feel like part of the reason Kusaka hated Takumi so much was because of Mari.

Broadly speaking, yeah, that's true. Out of several reasons for Kusaka's beef with Takumi, all of them are connected to Mari in some way.

• Takumi is the only one who can see through his nice guy facade, becoming an obstacle between him and Mari.
  
• Takumi was able to bring Mari back to life, while Kusaka could do nothing.
  
• Takumi was suspected as the culprit for the Ryusei School incident that killed Mari the first time (later proven to be Kitazaki).
  
• Kusaka fights Orphenochs to protect Mari, yet she would rather believe in an Orphenoch like Takumi to protect her, despite getting killed by Orphenochs twice before.

Kusaka resents the weakness inside himself for his failure to live up to the role of Mari's protector, so he resents Takumi for being a constant reminder of that.

Regarding Takumi's feelings in the matter though, he took a long time to open up to the idea of Mari and Keitarou as friends, so I personally don't see him opening up to romance that quickly. Even when he showed interest in Saya, he still instinctively pushed her away, due to his usual fear of hurting people who get too close to him.