Tokio and Azuma followed the other's advice from chapter 43
In chapter 43, Tokio and Azuma laid out their decision-making processes as follows:
- Tokio: Everyone is inevitably going to make mistakes at some point, so what's most important is that you decide to do something even if it turns out to be wrong in retrospect
- Azuma: Whenever you decide to do something, you should carefully weigh the pros-and-cons, and pick out the path most likely to yield the best results.
Fast-forward to the current arc, and Tokio and Azuma do what the other describes.
When Azuma's group was fighting Vlad, Azuma at every turn was making the "right" choice. He carefully judged his opponent's strengths and weaknesses, coordinating with his teammates to exploit Vlad's weaknesses as best as they could. But in the end, that wasn't enough; Vlad chaosified and proceedes to massacre them.
The "logical" decision, as outlined by Azuma's flashback conversation with Ely, would be to run. Azuma's squad had tried everything they could reasonably do. At that point, the "best" choice is to cut your losses and get out while you still can.
But that's not what Azuma does. He throws all that logic to the side and goes "fuck if I'm gonna die anyway I'm going out swinging." He discards all his reason and fear as he fully gives in to his bloodlust against Vlad. I also want to call attention to how the meaning of the "tunnel" is recontextualized. In chapter 19, it's used as a symbol for Azuma's atychiphobia (fear of failure). As his "father" frames it, making the wrong decision will lead to nothing but ruin, a metaphorical "dead-end" like the tunnel. But in chapter 58.3, Azuma mentally questions "What's beyond that tunnel?" Making the "wrong" decision isn't the end; that tunnel does lead somewhere, even if he can't get to it under all the rubble.
In the end, this decision lead to... a lot of shit, but I think it was ultimately for the better. Azuma chaosified and killed Vlad. Although "Azuma" (or rather his non-sentient body) quickly turned feral and attacked the YM soldiers, BB sacrificed herself to save Azuma from the throes of chaos (unknowingly stopping Azuma from losing his entire identity). BB already had a fatal wound and there was no way she was making it out of that fight alive. While extremely risky, Azuma's choice was the correct one. If he made the "right" decision and ran away, Vlad would have absolutely killed almost all of them. He would hunt them down one by one, and he would enjoy it. Maybe a few soldiers could have gotten away by getting to Sandek, but most of them would get killed.
I also need to mention the elephant in the room here: the traumatic revelations Azuma had about the true nature of his existence. Obviously this is a horrible thing for anyone to go through, but Azuma did need to go through it at some point. The delusion of his family's existence worked as a coping mechanism, but it's not something that could work in the long term. The reality that the headless figure laid out is painful, but it's ultimately necessary. Azuma's issues are far from resolved, but chapter 59.3 ended on a decidedly optimistic note. This whole situation sucks for him, but there is a way through, just like the caved-in tunnel.
All this is to say, Azuma pretty much validated what Tokio said in chapter 43. He took a chance, and in the end things went right. Not "ideal" by any means, but Azuma and his squad made it through the fight alive.
By contrast, when Tokio and the others confronted Zora, Tokio didn't go in guns blazing and hope for the best. Instead, he sat down with Zora and carefully talked things through. When he agreed to take the Mark, this wasn't some spur-of-the-moment whim; it was a rational decision he had thought long and hard about. He gives the benefit of the doubt to both Zora and Mado, and picks a path that validates both of their prophecies.
It may seem naive that Tokio is trying to talk things through in the middle of a war, but it really isn't. Even on her deathbed, Zora is an absolute powerhouse. There is a very, very real chance that Zora just flat-out wins and kills all of them. And on top of that, there still is a chance that Zora is right and Mado is wrong. The Dark Calamity could be true.
The emotional decision, as evidenced by the YM soldiers' outburst, was to kill Zora on behalf of everyone who died. Tokio, however, remained objective and levelheaded about everything. These soldiers have seen their allies be killed all around them, but what was any of that even for if it all ends with them having a civil negotiation with the enemy leader? The soldiers want to validate their fallen comrades, even if that means creating more deaths in the process. Even Sandek, the advocate for rational self-control, momentarily gave in to anger when he saw Batista's body. Tokio, just one chapter earlier, had seen Azuma on the verge of death, and yet Tokio keeps his wits about him and doesn't give in to anger against Zora. Ironically, Tokio acts truer to Sandek's ideals than even Sandek himself.
Tokio throughout this entire story has constantly been second-guessing himself, and his "act without thinking" mindset described earlier is kind of a "solution" to his indecisiveness. Tokio understands that he's fallible, and so he's always turning to people like Ely or Azuma to make decisions for him. Even when Tokio thought for himself and went off to Iwato, he pointedly did not want to say goodbye to Ely or Azuma because he knew he'd just rely on them again.
But here, he's completely confident in his decision. Even when everyone tells him not to, Tokio calmly and rationally lays out his thought process.
Tokio's decision here is a culmination of everything he's been taught throughout the story. Ever since chapter 1, Tokio, who didn't believe in anything, has come into contact with all these contrasting perspectives and worldviews. Tokio doesn't single-mindedly follow any one ideology, but he doesn't invalidate the perspectives of people like Sandek, Sato, Mado, or even Zora. Rather, he draws meaning from all of them and decides a path that works best for all of them.
Tokio's decision is essentially what Azuma described back in chapter 43. He carefully mulled over his options, narrowed down the pros and cons of each, and rationally decided on a path that worked best.
As an addendum, the paneling between the moments where Tokio and Azuma make their decisions is clearly juxtaposed with each other:
I haven't talked about Ely this post, but I want to call attention to this page:
Unlike Tokio or Azuma, Ely hasn't made her decision yet. If Azuma's decision was to pick an option and hope for the best, and if Tokio's decision was to carefully weigh the pros and cons, perhaps Ely's decision will be to reject the choice entirely and pick an option that invalidates the entire dilemma.
Only time will tell.