"He know the blue-haired guy? Never met him myself, but... sure heard that's a thing from multiple angles."

Minako being stuck with people who should have known her but didn't. Shirogane unearthing memories of some weird labyrinth thing that included the guy. And that's just the tip of the timeline-bullshit iceberg, even if it seemed to hit Inaba hardest.

Besides, Aki definitely looked like he'd expected Shinji to be dead, so it's not really a surprise. Shinji never got the sense the blue-haired guy was very talkative, and it was only some very insistent prying that got him admitting his watch existed in the first place. That'll be fine, though. Aki's still Aki, so they know how to handle each other.