Foreshadowing / Slow Damage

Just like the Evolving Title Screen of the game, plenty of things become clearer and clearer once the player completes one route and starts another.

Due to the nature of foreshadowing, all spoilers below are unmarked, so read at your own risk.

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General

• There is a scene where Towa sees a young boy hanging out with his mother during Christmas season— and ends up feeling uncomfortable at the sight. Likewise, some of Towa's nightmares have him feeling nothing but dread and anxiety whenever he sees a womanly figure in his dreams. This is because his memories with his own mother were anything but pleasant.

Ikuina's Story (Chapter 1: Fraise)

• Sakaki's introductory scene in the common route has him casually greet Towa and check on him before pointing out that Towa didn't come to his father's funeral. When Towa gives a blasé response, Sakaki intends to say something else; although he doesn't and just sighs it off. This doesn't seem like anything important at first; but after Fujieda's route puts everything into perspective, the player will realize that Sakaki was trying to see if Towa had any interest in finding more about his parents, which would then help him decide whether he should go through with his plan or not.
• If the player replays Chapter 1 after completing Taku's route, during the Exploration sequences, there will be a new scene where Towa runs into Sakaki, whose dialogue will provide an additional clue that will allow the player to access Madarame's route, and Sakaki mentions that the words he's sharing came from an unnamed person whose opinion he highly respects. Upon completing the final route, the player will soon realize that the person that Sakaki was referring to was Maya.

Asakura's Story (Chapter 2: Doctor)

• While discussing the possibility about Asakura being a pedophile and how he was spotted near a child-trafficking ring, Towa notes that while he isn't a kid person, he's strongly uncomfortable with the idea of children being subjected to sexual slavery. One could easily imagine that this is a case of how Everyone Has Standards, but another reason is because Towa suffered that exact same fate himself, with his mother passing him around to her customers for them to have their way with.

Taku's Story (Chapter 3: Nostalgia)

• Toono remarks how Sakaki would be infuriated were he to find out that Towa agreed to become his lover. Towa wonders why Sakaki would care about such things, and Toono replies that Sakaki is the kind of man who can get overly attached to his family. This ties in to Rei's comment in the common route about how Sakaki is trying to act like a father figure to Towa, and then it makes a lot more sense in the final route, given Sakaki's devotion to Maya and consequently, Towa's connection to her.
• Shortly after the above exchange, Toono notes how much (or rather, how little) Towa knows about his past. The full implications of his words won't be touched upon until much, much later, especially in Fujieda's route.
  Toono: You don't remember anything about your past, do you? Sakaki and Murase have known you since you were a kid, but they never talk to you about those days. Isn't that right?
• Taku mentions that he took up pharmaceutical research prior to studying medicine. By the time the player starts the final route, the simple fact that he's the one who prescribes Towa's sleeping starts to take a deeper meaning— the pills were likely not just hypnotics, they were also specifically manufactured to help suppress Towa's more traumatic memories.
• When Eiji contacts Towa and they exchange information about what they know regarding Toono and what he has planned, Towa asks Eiji if he's not allied with Toono after all. Eiji only responds that he likes Shinkoumi precisely because of its uniquely chaotic nature, but with the way things are now, they may as well destroy the status quo in the city and start anew. This takes a whole new meaning after the player has gone through Fujieda's route. Since Sakaki's plan for Towa goes nowhere in the first three routes and there's no chance of Maya "returning", Eiji no longer sees the point in maintaining what kept Shinkoumi interesting to him — especially after Toono kidnaps Towa and Taku and thus forcing him to take necessary action to aid them both; thus he decides to fully aid his higher-ups from the mainland. In the true route, however, Sakaki's plan still has a chance of being fulfilled, to which Eiji then takes the opposite course of action instead and even helps Sakaki kidnap Towa.
• Toono claims that Taku was in love with Maya and sees Towa as a substitute for her, something that Taku firmly denies and he says that while there was a time he admired Maya, he never saw her that way. He was telling a half-truth: he wasn't in love with Maya, but the part about him admiring her becomes a lot murkier when it's revealed in Fujieda's route that he knew about Towa's past, and by extension, the things that Maya had done to Towa. That being said, as previously mentioned he said that there was a time when he admired her, and the phrasing soon makes it apparent that Taku had no idea what was happening to Towa every time he would check up on him until after the accident that landed Maya and Towa in the hospital. With this, the accusation of him having feelings for Maya and his (ultimately false) claim about admiring her would apply less to him, and more to Sakaki; although some facts are reversed: Sakaki claims that he was not romantically and sexually attracted to Maya, but he undeniably worshipped the woman and was obsessed with her.
• Towa tells Taku that while his memories of the past are still somewhat fuzzy, he definitely remembered how he would always feel safe whenever Taku would show up to check on him. At first, it seems like an innocent memory, but once the full details of Towa's past are revealed in Fujieda's route, some things become Harsher in Hindsight. Like Towa says, Taku really is the only adult who he felt safe around... because every other adult who Towa encountered in his childhood had harmed him in some way, be they his mother or her clients. For bonus points, Taku was left in the dark about why Towa always got his injuries until after Maya died, thus making him the only adult figure who wasn't aware or complicit in her sinister plans for Towa.

Rei's Story (Chapter 3: Contradiction)

• In one of the Exploration sequences, Towa will encounter Kotarou, who suddenly asks Towa if he's into crossdressing. Kotarou then explains that he was tasked with clearing out a nightclub that got recently shut down, and while going through old documents, he saw some photos featuring someone who he thought looked an awful lot like a feminine version of Towa. It's later revealed that Maya used to work in a nightclub when she was younger.
• When Towa approaches Sakaki to ask about Rei's father, Sakaki provides Towa the answers he's seeking before commenting on how Rei's father is the kind of person who sees his son the same way he sees other children: tools to be used. In the Golden Ending, Sakaki is revealed to have a similar opinion of Towa deep down, seeing him than nothing else but a "vessel" for Maya. Likewise, Maya also treated Towa in a similar way, treating him like a property she could shape and mold and like a toy she and the others could play with however they please.
• Rei's father recognizes Towa as the son of the late leader of the Takasato-gumi, remarking that he last saw Towa when he was still a child. Rei's father also mentions that he used to work for Towa's parents (notice the plural form), with Sakaki mentioning that the man did some work for Towa's mother and briefly mentions her business, likening it to an "upscale club". The details are odd yet do not seem that suspect at first... until the player gets Fujieda's route, where the full picture is shown— the smuggled children were most likely brought to Euphoria to be used as Sex Slaves, and since Towa used to live in the mansion, then Rei's father would have naturally seen him at least once.
• While Sakaki does admit to Towa that part of the Takasato-gumi's business involves child trafficking, he's quick to deny that either of Towa's parents had any involvement in that. Though this is already a suspicious claim, since Towa's father is the leader of the group. But there's how Sakaki referred to both of Towa's parents, which then begs the question of how Towa's mother could have also been involved. The answer is, she ran a child brothel, putting her right in the center of that side of business. Sakaki made a rather blatant mistruth because he still would rather not have Towa know too soon what Maya had actually been doing when she was still alive on the off-chance that it could ruin his plan.
• As Sakaki challenges Towa to one game of poker, he lays the conditions: if Towa wins, Rei's debt is cancelled whether or not he wins his Moneymatch; if Sakaki wins, Towa will have to do one favor for him, but Sakaki doesn't give any further details on that. Should the player have Towa lose, the game will suddenly end before Sakaki starts explaining what he wants from Towa. But given what's revealed in Fujieda's route, it's most likely that Sakaki decided to give one more shot in fulfilling Maya's last request, as this would also explain why he gets unusually angry when Towa starts to the upper hand in the game.
  • When Towa beats him, Sakaki sighs that he should have expected Towa to be as shrewd as his mother. This seems like an innocuous remark at first, but then Fujieda's route reveals just how conniving Maya could be, since she was a master manipulator who had almost everyone in Shinkoumi wrapped around her finger thanks to both her business and her connection to the Takasato-gumi.
    Sakaki: So you were playing the long game. Is that it?
    Towa: Of course I was.
    Sakaki: [stunned, then chuckles and shakes his head] Good grief. Normally I'd never get so reckless. But I knew you were a troublemaker, so I got a little too cautious. Meanwhile, you used that to your advantage to frazzle me. Considering who raised you, I should have expected as much.

Madarame's Story (Chapter 2: Immutable)

• After Towa finished Ikuina's painting and shortly before he heading to Roost, Taku and Rei informed him that he had received a package, but Towa didn't pay any mind to it. Not long after, Eiji tells Towa that Sakaki wished to speak with him, and upon visiting Sakaki, the latter asks Towa about his inheritance — but Towa immediately dismisses it. As the final route would reveal, Sakaki was trying to see if Towa would become curious about his past (and by extension, his mother) — but since Towa never opened the package, he never got curious. Sakaki decided not to pursue the matter further, backing his statement in the Golden Ending that he would have left Towa be if he remained uninterested about his history.
• When Towa confirms that Madarame really is alive, only Igarashi is truly nonplussed, but Kotarou, Mayu and Eiji's reactions amount to Dull Surprise at most. It would later be revealed halfway through Madarame's route that the trio have actually been in cahoots with the man since the beginning, so they naturally would not be surprised about his return to Shinkoumi.
• In one of the flashbacks, a younger Toono muses about how things for the Takasato-gumi started falling apart after "that woman" died. Given that the ringleader of the group had yet to pass away at this time, there is no clue regarding the identity of the woman that Toono mentioned, and the only closest match is Ryuujirou's mistresses. True enough, Fujieda's route would reveal that Maya played a bigger hand than Towa or the player would expect in both the Takasato-gumi's and Shinkoumi's development, and Sakaki confirms this outright.
  Sakaki: The instant she was gone, Shinkoumi went straight to shit. We started fighting over how to lead the gang, and there was bloodshed.

Fujieda's Story (The Last Chapter: Equal)

• As Rei talks about how Fujieda has been asking all kinds of questions regarding Towa to everyone on Roost, Rei mentions that Fujieda was particularly curious about Towa's decision to use "Euphoria" as his artist name.
• When Fujieda notices the bunny plushie delivered to Towa and comments on it, Towa explains that it belongs to his younger sister, which Fujieda sounds very confused at. As Mei's actual older brother, it's only natural that he would be befuddled at Towa's statement. And since Mei's name is engraved on the toy (which Towa doesn't see at first due to his trauma messing with his perception), Fujieda would naturally be more perplexed.
  • Shortly after, Fujieda warns Towa that the truth he intends to discover may alter his perception of everything. It turns out that he meant this literally, because he correctly guessed that Towa's suppressed memories are altering how he perceives his surroundings when Towa adamantly insists that he never saw a name on the bunny toy even after looking at it multiple times.
• While staying over at Fujieda's apartment, Towa watches the TV, and what was currently playing was a scene where the male protagonist and the female villain have a final confrontation in an abandoned mansion, and the protagonist gets the upper hand when he pushes the villain down the stairs, resulting in her death. It's a perfect mirror of an incident from his past where he got in a violent scuffle with his mother, resulting in the same outcome as the scene from the movie.

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