Love in the vessel of Time

He gives up several chances to go after Kuregumo to focus on saving Char, because her life if more important than his vendetta

He gives up Enten to save Hakuri's life, because even when Hakuri was 'powerless' he was still worth more by being a good person than the most valuable object in the world to Chihiro

Basically ignores all three sides of a 3 way stand-off btw the government, the Hishaku, and Samura to ask Iori (who everyone else is treating like a living Mcguffin) what She Wants to Do and deliberately makes it an informed decision and lets her know he will support her no matter what

EVEN The Very First Chapter - Chihiro gives up a lead on the Hishaku to focus on saving a nameless small town and unnamed background extra

Anyway, thematically, Chihiro (who for his father and Samura explicitly represents a brighter future) not just wanting to save people, but having an overwhelming respect for their autonomy makes sense.

Especially as so much of the confrontation with Akemura at end of Part 1 is triggered by Yura and the Kamunabi longing to go back to the past because it seemed more orderly, but it sucked, it always sucked it just didn't suck for them specifically (See noteable human trafficker Kyora cosy with the government, its why 2 out of4 of Japan's best sorcerers are orphan teens raised to kill/torture/die for their country/its why chiaki's at risk of getting sold off/hiyuki's about to go to war as a fetus)!!

It’s been almost a year since Mai’s death, things are finally going back to normal.