"Believe in miracles...so that your wish comes true."

Tsuchiya Ruka and Arisugawa Juri. Like and yet unlike. Larger than life and yet suffering inwardly from some incurable pain. Could it be fate that bound them together?

Ruka speaks of the "power of miracles" and accuses Juri of having once believed. Ruka once knew the old, confident Juri and still carries the image of her in his heart. The Juri he sees now, however, is bitter, jaded, and unwilling to let old wounds heal. Juri must have started changing before Ruka left the Academy, since the reason he returns is to help her.

Ruka's "help" is seducing Juri's secret love, using her, and then throwing her away. How is this going to help Juri? Juri herself is horrified at Ruka's methods and denounces him more than once. Why does Ruka go to such lengths to gain Juri's undivided attention? Because all his actions, after all, are to gain her attention. If he had simply tried to reason with her using words, Juri would have never listened.

Does Ruka love Juri?

That is the primary argument. Or, rather, what kind of love does Ruka feel for Juri? How does Juri feel about Ruka?

In the end, it doesn't matter how Juri feels about Ruka, only how she feels about Shiori. Ruka's "power of miracles" was to break Juri free from Shiori, to return her to the Juri he once knew and the one with whom he fell in love.

"The power is...here. In your heart. In your tearful face..."

Yes, Ruka does love Juri. Why else would he accept Akio's contract, become a duelist, and return to Ohtori? Ruka is a single-minded man with a single goal, and he works furiously towards that goal until he completes it. By hurting Shiori and then hurting Juri, he forces Juri to face the lies in her life, the wall which she has built around herself. Ruka is the only one who can break those walls down, and he knows that full well. He is the only one besides Shiori who has known Juri for that long, and he is now the only one who can make her see what she has become.

"I love Juri best when she's fighting. If I could make her shine again, I would even throw my own life away. And when Juri cried for me, I would know a world of happiness for eternity. But if I die, please, don't let her know."

It can be said that Ruka loves Juri too much. In his noble knight-quest, charging after miracles to bring them back to his lady, Ruka may have been over-zealous in his work. Ruka's actions hurt both him and Juri, and in the end things aren't resolved quite as he wanted them to be. Juri will always be the only one for Ruka, but as Juri is the marble goddess on the pedestal, high, unreachable. Ruka will do as much as he can to play the Pygmalion, but he can only do so much. The rest is entirely up to Juri, and the healing period for her has barely begun before Ruka passes away and whatever chances there would have been for the two of them are gone. Juri's sexual preference is not so much an issue here. Shiori represents sexual love to Juri. Ruka represents pure love, the kind of love which the Greeks called "Agape" and which Japanese call "Ai," a spiritual, truly unconditional love that surpasses all things.

"But even if you did tell her, I'm sure she wouldn't believe you...that's my Juri."

But the story of miracles, again, is a sacrifice. Ruka's enormous sacrifice paves the way for Juri's healing. Passing through his fire, all her old hate and bitterness is burned away and she emerges blackened by the ordeal, but cleansed. Ruka does not live to see her final act of healing, but he would have been proud, and perhaps he does hear her last words to him.

"How are you? I have something to ask you when I see you next. What did you hope to accomplish with the power of miracles? And was it directed at someone? I pray...your wish comes true."

 
[more information on the Ruka/Juri relationship is found in Ruka's duel chorus analysis under "angel."]