The relationship between Soubi and Ritsuka is hard to define in terms of labels. Is it friendship, brothers, lovers even? One can perhaps see it as a friendship with brother-like attachment.
To Ritsuka, Soubi obviously serves as the new substitute brother, while he himself serves as the substitute Sacrifice for Soubi. The reason why their relationship seems so loaded is because to the both of them, the brother or the Sacrifice (in their case this all comes down to Seimei) has been an extremely important component in their lives. Having found a new individual to fill in that space in your life comes with the necessary emotions and troubles.
Also, it is only common that two people of a spell battle team are close to each other, as this improves fighting ability. This probably makes Soubi and Ritsuka look like they are that kind of close, up to the point one could see them as lovers. It’s obvious I think that the extra speculative love element implemented in the story, is more as means of fan service than a way of interpretation per se. That at the same time forms an attractive element of this relationship — it is up to the reader to define and read into it as much as he/she wants because there is no obligatory label already specified.
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