Thoughts on THH's Bad Ending & Toko Fukawa

I know there have been a lot of discussions on how Toko died in the bad ending of THH- a while ago Kodaka suggested she "probably just exploded or something" compared to more recently, when he said that Byakuya actually asked her out in this ending, and she died the next day from happiness. But I feel like that almost ruins the tragedy of the bad ending. It's about hopes being squandered, about giving up, about being relegated and resigned to this fate. Aoi's case is especially depressing- a promising athlete being forced into the role of motherhood, much to her misery. She looks overwhelmed and unhappy.

So, here's my take on Toko's role in the bad ending to enhance the despair a little bit: The child resembling Byakuya who stands at Aoi's side is not hers- that boy is the son of Toko and Byakuya.

As Kodaka stated previously, Byakuya asked Toko to be his girlfriend in this ending, and she accepted. Unlike Aoi, who seemed to be having children out of obligation and didn't particularly enjoy the role she had been relegated to, Toko has expressed a desire to be a mother before in canon, so I imagine after a few years, she was the first one who wanted a child (since this child seems to be the eldest of the three). When she got pregnant, Toko was ecstatic- as was Byakuya, given that again, he canonically asks her to be his girlfriend.

She did not survive the birth. Birth is a very dangerous and complicated thing when you are in a hospital with medical professionals- much less in a school with a bunch of teenagers/likely young adults at this point with no medical knowledge. It could've been a number of complications honestly, take your pick. Their son made it but Toko did not.

Aoi and Byakuya are not an item, to me. He stands the furthest away from her and is the one who holds Toko's portrait (which isn't necessary to begin with- from the THH class trials we can observe that they all come with stands, which implies Byakuya tends to carry her portrait around), but the child's closeness with her suggests to me that they might co-parent, since the child is lacking a mother after Toko's passing, and never got to know her. Might even consider Aoi his "Mom."

I think this is an especially tragic take on things, especially for Toko- she got everything she wanted but didn't even get to live to meet her son. I think it was hard on Byakuya too, who doesn't really get into another romantic relationship- just tries to focus on raising his child.