>>7039888Well, I wouldn't go as far as you do. I don't think entering any kind of relationship needs to come with altruistic intentions in mind. Befriending people because of your needs isn't doomed to failure. It's how the relationship progresses which decides its fate. You see, it's quite hard to relinquish your needs in favour of a stranger, for most people at least. Altruism can be an effect, a natural outcome of lasting relation between two people as well. I guess Yuu and Chi aren't the best of examples, as childhood friendships work q bit differently, but you could also say that they hanged out at first to fulfill both of their needs of fun and social contact. Let's say – soldiers. However cruel may it sound, I say at first they (or at least most of them) get to know each other more because of their own well-being (not a concious decision of course). It's much more likely one will survive if he knows his comrades well and without any social interaction morale of any individual would lower; in simpler terms, he'd feel bad alone. Only as a result of events they go through, battles won and lost, friends whose deaths they had to endure, do they develop a sense of brotherhood, altruistic will to fight not for the survival of one's own, but rather for his unit, his friends. Being with the same people for a long time, sharing the same emotions, those create strong bonds, powerful enough for them to even value life of a companion more than their own. Then, I've never been in the army, so I wouldn't know if that's how it is, but I think you get what I mean and can expect what other examples I could have given instead. And again, certainly there are people who are too egoistic to ever get there and people altruistic enough that they start off with those kinds of feelings. People are different.
Still, Yuu burning those books without any consultation with Chi was such an idiotic decision, even for her. I felt really bad for Chi at the time.