I really wonder what the author's going to do with Akutsu.
Setting him up as an obstacle to jump for Aoi would be kinda ehh since at this point Akutsu didn't really matter to Aoi. On the other hand, no way he's going to befriend Aoi with all the seething. They have a semblance of rivalry but that's about it since both Aoi and Akutsu has a better goal in mind than one upping each other.
I really look forward to what kind of writing would finally gel Aoi and Akutsu in some way that would work well enough to justify 170 chapters of constant seething.