#and they took chuuya away and lived in the country side | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scarletta-ruan · 2 years

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[BSD] Spending rainy days with them

WARNING: OOC, soft!characters TYPE: Oneshort, fluff, drabbles PAIRING: Osamu Dazai || Chuuya Nakahara || Fyodor Dostoevsky || Gogol Nikolai x fem!reader WORDCOUNTS: 1k2+ words NOTES: Since the Noru storm is coming to my country and affected an area where I lived so I decided to write this one. The weather keep raining all of the day so I come up with some drabbles of rainy day with some BSD characters.

1. Osamu Dazai

Dazai suddenly woke up when he felt something cuddled up by his side, his brown eyes slowly opened to check out what was happening. When he turned his face aside, Dazai saw you were nuzzling beside him. You were shivering, he could see your body was curled up like you needed to get more warm.

Dazai turned to you right away, his big arms covered up your body, his skinny legs grabbed around yours. That moment Dazai realized he saw a pair of [color] eyes slowly opened to look at him. He heard you whining.

“Osamu, I…I’m cold.”

“Don’t worry, I’m here.” Dazai said, his arms hugged you tightly. You could feel his palm patting your back just to help you back to sleep. He continued. “It seems like the weather today is pretty cold right?”

You nodded your head to agree with him, Dazai leaned his forehead against yours. You slowly grabbed your arms around his body and pressed your chest close to him. Dazai could hear you murmuring in your sleep.

“Osamu, it was raining all last night, did you know that?”

Dazai now paid his attention to the weather outside when he turned his head to the window behind his back. The weak sunshine couldn’t go through the curtain so that made Dazai still believe that it wasn’t morning yet. Now he could hear the rain sound tapping outside the window, and Dazai understood the reason why you were feeling cold. He turned to you and kissed your forehead then said.

“I had just realized it a moment ago.”

“Because you were dead asleep last night, right?” Dazai could hear you giggling after saying this. But you lifted your head up, your [color] orbs reflected him and you continued. “I’m glad that you could sleep from night until morning like yesterday.”

You always worried for Dazai since his sleep wasn’t good, he could easily wake up at midnight so you had to take care of him when he suddenly awoke in the middle of night. Dazai nodded his head by the time he tugged the strain of your [color] hair falling down on your cheeks. You whined against him.

“I’m sleepy…”

“Let me lull you back to sleep.” Dazai said then started humming a lullaby to help you to sleep.

2. Chuuya Nakahara

You guys finally got home after a mission. When you two got home, the weather began to rain. Chuuya was making tea for both of you when he heard you whining on the sofa.

“Chuuya…”

“Yes, darling?”

Chuuya replied to you right away you called out his name. But he waited for a second later and you didn’t ask what you wanted. Chuuya was curious, which things could make you quiet after calling out his name. He put the tea bag inside the cup then came closer to you who were lying on the sofa. When Chuuya stood behind it he said,

“What’s wrong, dolly? You didn’t answer my calling for-”

Chuuya immediately became quiet when he saw you breathing soundly on the couch, you seemed really tired in front of him. Chuuya remembered that you had just worked hard for the day at Port Mafia, you were his secretary - the only person who had been spinning around with his report all of the day.

You were sleeping on the couch, your body curled up like a little kitten needed warmth from itself. Chuuya could see you quivering in your sleep, he sighed, you always forgot to take care of yourself was the only one problems that he worried most. Chuuya took his black coat on the chair then put it on you, when your body felt warmer you slowly relaxed it. He chuckled when he looked at you when you were sleeping like that. Chuuya bended down to kiss on your forehead and said,

“Sleep well, my little princess.”

3. Fyodor Dostoevky

You were humming a tune which Fyodor was playing on his cello. Today was an off day for you guys so you decided to stay home and do everything you like. It seemed a fortunate idea for you when the sky turned gray and started raining.

For some reason you loved this kind of moment a lot, because Fyodor and you were always busy with work and didn’t have much time for each other and that rain came just like a chance for you and your lover to spend time together. When Fyodor finished playing the song you suddenly said.

“The song name…”

Your voice caused Fyodor to look at your face, your [color] orbs seemed to not notice him at all. He noticed that when he saw your eyes looking at the glass window, Fyodor could see the reflection of the raindrops on the window. You slowly repeated again.

“The song's name is Canon in D, right?”

You turned your head to Fyodor while closing your own book. He could notice a smile on your face when you looked at him. Fyodor nodded his head, you stood up from your seat to sit next to him. Your eyes sparkled when you looked at him, that kind of thing made Fyodor’s heart cloudy. You said.

“Can you play that song again?”

“Why?”

Fyodor asked you, that made you silent for a while then said.

“Because… it reminds me of something that I had just forgotten for a long time.”

Fyodor said nothing but play this song again with you humming it for him.

4. Nikolai Gogol

“And then the sky started to rain…”

Nikolai’s voice was resounding into your ears while he hugged you tightly in his arms. You still paid your attention to the book which he read for you, the raindrops outside the window still created a sound that made you think you were in the orchestra. You sighed when Nikolai got ready to continue reading, that caused his attention to you successfully.

“What’s wrong, you seem to not want me to read you, right?”

“No,” You shook your head then took the book from his hand away. That surprised Nikolai a lot. Did his voice sound too bad to read for you? Or you didn’t want to spend time with him? A thousand questions were swimming in his head.

“I’m getting sleepy, Kolya.”

You yawned then said to him, Nikolai understood right away your saying. He let you lean your head on his chest and he said.

“Now then just sleep, my doll.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

You murmured then fell asleep quickly in his arms. To Nikolai, spending his time to become your own pillow had another meaning. He loved to let you sleep on his chest, for this reason he could cuddle with you more and… Nikolai could feel peaceful when you sleep in his arms. He gently took both of your hands in his.

Nikolai wondered to himself when he set your hand into his. Your hands were small compared to Nikolai himself. He rubbed them carefully like you were fragile things which could be easily broken if he held it too strong. Your both hands were so cold compared to him, he thought. When you suddenly nuzzled inside his arms, Nikolai got a bit nervous. He was afraid that he would disturb your sleep, but when he noticed you weren't awake, he continued to hold your hand in his and humming a song.

When you started nuzzling again, Nikolai lifted both of your legs up to the couch then helped you to lie in his arms. This time he thought you were just like a little child who was sleeping soundly in their mother's arms. Nikolai hummed an Ukrainian lullaby for you while you were dead asleep.

That was the reason why Nikolai loved the rainy weather.

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popopretty · 3 years

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Storm Bringer Spoilers (6)

One of my favorite scenes where Port Mafia went all out on Verlaine in CODE;4. I like this part because it introduced a lot of Port Mafia’s skill users that have never appeared in both the manga and the other novels. It was so fun to read.

Dazai made some interesting statements and theories here too. I like the dialogue at the end, where he kinda slipped and let out some of his real emotions.

PS: I can’t believe I actually typed out 5000 words! I was drafting this on my phone so I didn’t notice the actual amount of words. I know it’s not gonna be perfect and I am gonna make mistakes and I will want to punch myself so much but gosh, I am so proud of myself now!

...

The train driver put one hand on the handle, his eyes staring at the darkness in front of him.

Twenty-seven years of service. He is a veteran. He has held this handle through rains and winds, through the Great War where the bombs poured down like rain, messing up the landform.

Even for him, today’s job is unusual.

The train company he works for was bought out overnight. Together with the trains and the service schedules. Then he was ordered to operate a temporary ride. Yet there is only one passenger on this train. Even when he protested to his boss, what he got was only “stop questioning and just drive.” And then one more thing, “If you run away, it will be even worse.”

The driver took another look at the scenery in front of him. The trees have sunk into the darkness. All he could see were the silver railroad tracks and the yellow headlight. Those are the only guidelines to tell where the train is heading.

What his boss said might actually be true. Putting other cities aside, this is the unorthodox Yokohama. Anything can happen. Even if there is only one passenger, he has no intention to talk to them. If he does so, he might end up having to catch his cut off head with his chest. _

At that moment, from the eternal darkness of the night that looks no different from the bottom of the ocean, he felt something moving.

His well-trained eyes managed to capture it from the distance. Is that an animal? No. Is it just the trees rustling? No.

That’s a person.

A person is standing on the track.

He pulled the break even before his brain went ”Oh no”.

The compressed air was released, and the train’s speed reducer made a violent metallic noise. But it was too late. The train bumped straight into that human figure.

However, that figure took the train’s hit. A tremendous force was applied on the train. The first car jumped forward. It was like they were being pulled, the rear cars also jumped off, derailed, rolling over into the woods. Like a rampaging huge iron snake, the train hollowed out a big area around it, knocked down a bunch of trees, before finally stopping.

The person who witnessed the whole event, Verlaine, smiled with satisfaction. He took the train head-on but suffered no scratches. He started walking. Towards the car with Mori Ougai. Jumping over the cars half-buried underground, getting through the cars whose electric system were starting to catch fire, he reached his target.

Mori Ougai was lying face-down. The train was fully flipped sideway, the walls become the floors and the ceilings became the walls. He was facing away from Verlaine, not moving an inch. From beneath his body, a pool of blood is slowly spreading.

He did investigate the target’s skill in advanced. It’s not the kind of secret that a formal spy like him cannot find out. Mori Ougai does not possess a skill that can withstand such an impact.

“Too easy.”

Verlaine muttered and approached his target. He is not as stupid to walk away without confirming if his target is really dead or not. He is going to check and if by some rare chances the target is still alive, he will finish them off for real.

Verlaine flipped Mori Ougai’s body over. Then his eyes opened wide.

That was not Mori Ougai.

That was a man he had never seen. He was wearing a wig and clothes to disguise as Mori Ougai. But Verlaine’s assassination preparation was thorough. He had set up a hidden surveillance device in the last station. And the images taken from there were definitely Mori Ougai’s.

When he grabbed the man trying to confirm his identity, suddenly a hand was put on his chest.

“Too easy.”

A powerful repulsive force coming from a skill blew Verlaine away. He flew through the glass windows and landed on the humus soil outside. He rolled further while scattering the soil, and hit his back against a tree before finally stopping.

”... Not bad.”

Verlaine push his hand on the tree to stand up.

He brushed off the dirt from his clothes and started thinking. The face he saw at that moment moment, the repulsive force coming from his palm. That was probably one of Port Mafia’s constituent members, the one who with the repulsion skill, Hirotsu Ryurou.

A double!

They knew about the hidden device and let Mori Ougai’s image captured on purpose, then quickly switched the double in. In other words, Verlaine’s assassination plan was seen through. Ever since he came to this country, he only knew one person who has the ability to outsmart him with such finesse.

“Hello, Verlaine-san.” A small was sitting on the edge of a car, on top of the overturned train.

“Dazai-kun”, Verlaine said as he picked up the hat that had fallen to his feet. “I have heard the saying that age doesn’t matter when it comes to talent, but you are really frightening.”

“You are just bad.” Dazai said with a dry voice as though he was lecturing Verlaine. “This time you acted on your personal feelings too much. When you are like that, I can read all your moves. Why are you so obsessed with Chuuya?”

“Is it that strange for someone to be concerned about his brother?”, Verlaine said as he dusted the mud off his clothes.

“It is, a lot.” Dazai affirmed. “First of all, what made you believe so firmly that Chuuya was your brother?”

“What?” Verlaine narrowed his eyes.

“You saw that too, right? Chuuya’s original experimental body. Turned into bones and died.” Dazai spoke while swinging his legs that were dangling out of the train top. “That looks almost the same as Chuuya in terms of appearance. In terms of abilities, too. And a lot of other things in common. What if that thing was actually a skill-containing artificial life form, and the Chuuya who is living outside, whose only redeeming trait is being energetic, was the original one? Can someone like you who is not an expert, someone who has only browsed through limited materials from the past, see through that?”

“That is impossible.” Verlaine shook his head. “I’m not as stupid as to mistake the target in my infiltration mission. What I stole away from the lab nine years ago was undoubtedly the same as me, an artificial life-form.”

“If I look it up I will understand right away.” Dazai said casually. “Fortunately this time, the guys from the labs has demonstrated the method to rewrite the code formula inside Chuuya. If I capture some of those researchers using Mafia’s power, they will be more than happy to tell me how to read those codes. And then I will know which one Chuuya is actually. We have all the time in the world.”

“You seem pretty confident that Chuuya is human, don’t you?”

“I am”, Dazai laughed with a sigh. “There is no way a man-made string of code could create such a personality that I detest that much.”

Verlaine signed then started walking towards Dazai. His footsteps were heavy, as if he had to clean up a lot of tedious work.

“I can gently whole-heartedly explain to you the reason that was a misunderstanding... but now I have another job for you.“ he said, walking up the gentle slope that he fell from. “That is to spit out where Mori himself, not his double, is. It’s a painstaking job. Literally”

“So you have no intention to back off?”

“Of course not.”

Dazai didn’t look at anything, he gazed aimlessly into the air, “Is that so?”. Then he spoke with a disappointed face, “Then it is your loss.” A sniper bullet went straight for Verlaine’s head. Verlaine bent his upper body, and felt down the slope of humus. He rolled three times then looked up, looking at Dazai with stern eyes.

“Sniper?”

Before he could finish his sentence, yet another bullet struck Verlaine’s forehead. He almost fell to his side, pushing his hands against the ground to support.

“Your ability only works on things that you can touch.” Dazai said, swinging his legs as he looked down on his opponent. “That’s why the bullets that hit you will hit you. They just stop immediately. However, if we aim a larger sniper bullet, which has several times the velocity of a normal bullet, then it will still give you a blow the moment you use your gravity to stop it. Also...”

Dazai casually raised his hand.

From the top of the hill, through the gaps of the trees, from inside the humus, on top of big trees, more than fifty sniper bullets were fired at Verlaine at the same time. All the bullets pierced him, Verlaine growled.

Verlaine tried to hide under the shades of the trees while protecting himself by gravity. But even in the places he ran to, he got attacked from behind. Even if he tried to lower his posture to hide, the attack would come from above the trees. He had nowhere to run.

“To be able to set up this many snipers... in such a short time...”

A bullet pierced through Verlaine’s clothes and slid through his skin. It’s not a wound that could make him bleed, but there are so many of them. Ten shots in one second, then twenty, and more kept coming. It’s like the air that surrounds his whole body has become his enemies and attacked him.

Verlaine had no choice but to protect his head with his two arms and rolled himself up.

“You picked the wrong opponent, Verlaine-san.” Dazai chuckled. “I am an expert when it comes to dealing with gravity. Because no matter if I wake or sleep, the only thing I think about is how to annoy Chuuya.”

“Don’t underestimate me!”

While enduring the rain of bullets that were striking him, Verlaine grabbed a tree close by and pulled it out of the ground.

“You think you can kill me with this kind of rock throwing play? Verlaine swung the tree, trying to throw it. He planned to use the tree as a spear to crush the snipers who were hiding faraway in the dark.

However, that hand of his stopped halfway.

It was because the tree had been cut into pieces.

“Hoho, if I look closely, you look terribly like my subordinate.”

There was a flowing female voice as graceful as the sound of harp.

The burning bright red hair, eyes of the same color. Her crimson red

ombré looked like the color of ripen maple leaves. The most eye-catching thing was what floated beside her, a masked demon in a kimono. The demon was tall with long hair. She carried a sword of almost the same height as a child, as if it had no weights at all. The golden kimono melt into the air from her knees downwards, showing that it was not a real body.

“However, it was Mr. Brother who selfishly tried to poach our boy from us. I guess I can let that go after cutting off one of your limbs or two. So you’d better get lost quickly.”

Ozaki Kouyou. The Port Mafia’s young sword-woman. A powerful skill user who took Chuuya as her subordinate, accompanied by the golden demon, an embodiment of her skill, a beautiful beast.

Kouyou rolled a bright peony-colored umbrella on her shoulder. And then she twisted its handle and pulled it out. A silver blade appeared. A hidden sword.

“Mafia’s skill user?” Verlaine smiled like a beast. “But what can a mere ability user with two swords can do against gravity?”

Verlaine lowered his posture, ready to jump at Kouyou.

“Who said that I was alone?”

Verlaine’s body sank in.

Startled, Verlaine looked at his feet. The ground undulated like a snake, swallowing his two legs and even crawling up.

Verlaine was caught by surprise. He got rid of the gravity of his own body and jumped up. He landed on a trunk of a tree nearby. But even the trunk that definitely looked tough started to liquify the moment his shoes touched. It reached for Verlaine, trying to eat him up.

“This is...” Verlaine leaped again. However, the spot he planned to land on already turned into a mud with a will of its own, opening its mouth to wait for him.

“Hahaha. Keep running, young man. Youngsters like you exist to entertain this old man. Please die quickly and offer your head to me.”

Coming from the darkness of the woods was a big, strong man who looked just like a big tree. A military uniform that has faded in places. His bristle looked like a sewing needle. He wore a judo belt around his waist, and wooden clogs on his feet The arms folding in front of his chest were as thick as a tree that has lived for hundred years.

Port Mafia’s elite, a veteran who survived the Great War. His nickname in the organization is “Colonel.”

He swung his arms like an ancient tree and squeezed his fist tightly in front of his eyes. At the same time, the ground started to muffle. The liquified soil, trees, even the overturned train, all rushed to attack Verlaine in the air. An skill user who can manipulate objects and turn them into liquids?

Verlaine kicked the first wave of liquified soil that came towards him and retreated backward. But the soil was also coming from that direction. Even if he tried to change his orbit to run, liquified soil was still coming from beneath his feet and above his head. If they touched him they would still be blown away by the gravity, but the liquid will start to cover up from the top again, giving no time for Verlaine to prepare a counter attack.

On top of that, as if to stitch up the gaps, there were sniper shots coming from all directions.

“Tch...”

Verlaine densified a small amount of dust in the air, and stepped on that to leap his body up. He wanted to take some distance. Abilities that manipulate things like Colonel’s, in most of the cases won’t work for things that are out of their sights. That’s why he planned to hide deep in the wood then throw a huge rock enforced by gravity to finish them off.

An odd thing entered Verlaine’s field of vision at that moment.

A watch.

A watch was floating in the air.

From the outside, it looked just like a normal pocket watch. A dial with numbers, a long hand and a short hand, a crown, and the internal mechanism peeking out from the edge of the dial.

The strange thing about it was that it had a size of a man’s upper body. Also, it kept turning around as if it was staring at Verlaine.

Verlaine, who possesses a wide range of knowledge on skill users, sensed the danger from that watch almost immediately.

He tore off one button from the sleeve of his suit and amplified its gravity until it weighted dozens of kilograms. Then he threw it towards the watch.

That button comet holding enough power to knock down a building, however, couldn't interfere with the watch. It smoothly slipped through the watch, knocked off trees and disappeared into darkness.

“You can’t destroy that thing.”

A gloomy voice came from the ground.

Verlaine diverted his gaze and without his notice, a boy was already sitting on the ground. He was hugging his knees with his two arms, looking miserable. He looked up at Verlaine.

“It’s no use. That thing looks at everyone. Including me, and you. We have no choices but to die. One day it will find us. One day it will catch up with us. It’s　“time”. It’s the enemy of us all.”

He looked and sounded miserably. His clothes were so long it became awkward. The hems were all frayed. The boy who was so skinny you could see his bones through his clothes glared at Verlaine and waved his finger as if he was telling him “Come here, come here.”

The two hands of the watch clicked and pointed to the number 12 at the same time. Immediately afterwards, the watch in the air was sucked into Verlaine.

That was not a metaphor, it was literally sucked into him, into his chest.

Being wary of the disappeared watch, Verlaine stiffened his body. But nothing happened. There is nothing within his sig...

The liquified soil twisted around his legs.

Startled, Verlaine shook the liquid off by gravity. Then he looked around. He had got pretty far away for sure. It was so strange that the liquified soil could chase him this close. Right after that was a shock. A sniper bullet hit his head. Verlaine span halfway in the air. He landed on the ground, scraping the humus to stop.

It was weird. The speed of the sniper attack went up. The speed of the bullet by the moment it reached him was so fast that even if he used gravity to bounce it back, he was also blown away by a corresponding force.

“Did they replace their guns or bullets with more powerful ones? No, this is...”

The ground liquified again. Verlaine jumped out to dodge, before being eaten by the soil. But the speed of the liquid tentacles that extended and followed him also increased. Verlaine took a quick look around. From the treetops that were hit by the sniper attack just now, leaves were falling down. They were not fluttering, they were dropping as if they were stabbing the ground. This means, the attack speed didn’t get faster...

“Was my time... slowed down?”

“Everyone will die before me.” the gloomy boy stared at Verlaine with dubious eyes filled with hatred. “Brothers, parents, everyone will be killed by time. But I will get away with it. With this special power of mine”

A skill user who meddles with time. For the first time, Verlaine got a cold sweat on his forehead.

Time manipulation is not just a powerful skill, it is a extraordinary skill out of this world. As far as Verlaine knew, there were only a few cases reported in the world. The fist on the list of those time manipulation skill users who are separated from the world’s reasons, was a former skilled mechanic, H.G. Wells. After creating the skilled weapons called the “Shell”, she disappeared and became the world’s worst terrorist.

The time manipulation type of skills tinker the basic principles of this world, and rewrite them at will. Because if you look from the universe’s perspective, time and space are equivalent. The time manipulation skill users hold the same power that can alter the world, just like Verlaine’s gravity. Verlaine whose movements have become dulled because of the time delay　was flooded with Mafia’s attacks. All the bullets, the swords and liquified soil.

Even if he tried to retreat, because his time has been delayed, he could only move sluggishly as if he was under water.

Verlaine’s expressions became stiff.

Dazai gracefully looked at the wooded area echoing with gun shots and roaring sounds. He looked down at the battlefield that had turned into a hell, with such a carefree expression that cooled down in the night breeze._

“This is the rule of this world.” Dazai spoke like he was singing. “It applied in all times and ages, all creatures, the absolute truth. In this world, a group is stronger than an individual. A skill user is stronger than a group. And then...”

Feeling the pleasant cold breeze coming from the blasts of the battle on his cheeks, Dazai smiled.

“... a group of skill users are stronger than one skill user.”

Verlaine pushed his body’s gravity to the max. With a powerful driving force that surpassed the effect of the time manipulation skill, he quickly escaped from the battlefield. Verlaine’s bones cracked at the sudden speed acceleration that exceeded his limit.

Even when the danger struck in front of him, Verlaine’s judgement did not falter. It was not yet a hopeless situation. He would retreat as much as he could, taking as much distance he could from the waves of skill attacks. Then he would fix his posture, manipulate the gravity of the bullets that managed to reach him, repel them and knock down the skill users, one by one. That would be his win then.

Only three skill users. Not too much of a difference in strength.

Suddenly, blood came out from his skin.

Verlaine looked at his cuffs. The skin under his clothes was peeled off, exposing the flesh inside. But only a little blood came out. He felt almost no pains.

He landed down on the ground as a reflex. Upon touching the ground, the skin inside his shoes also came off. He could tell by the slippery feel from it. But again, there was no pain.

That was a new skill attack. But the true nature of it immediately became clear.

His breath was white.

His skin is frozen, there was frost on his eyelashes.

“Let us be held. By the frozen love. Let us be held. By the frozen flower that breaks in its full bloom.” the new skill user appeared, singing with a thin and screechy voice.

Long, white hair, white fur around her shoulders, white breath. And a crimson red rose on her chest. Every time the woman takes one breath, the trees around her froze, cracked up and snapped due to the water inside it freezing and expanding.

Verlaine understood it right away.

A skill user who can cool off the temperate. The reason why his skin was peeled off earlier was because the skin was exposed to the low temperature and got stuck to the inside of his clothes and shoes. His body really became that cold in just an instant. He was frozen from flesh to born, but not much time has even passed.

A super dangerous skill user. Freezing attack does not involve physical clashes. That’s why he can’t dodge them using gravity. It is his natural enemy

Another sniper bullet hit Verlaine’s shoulder. He groaned in pain.

The bullet was cold. It froze by the time it touched his skin, forming a frost pillar. The low temperature invaded into him through the wound, eating up his flesh.

The enemies attacks were too synchronized. Time delay, freezing, sniping. Apparently, it was a tactic that had been put together to block all of Verlaine’s strengths and exploit his weaknesses. There is still something strange about this. He has been retreating at a considerable speed since a while ago, yet the gunshots never stopped. His escape route was totally seen through. Normally if he ran at this speed in the woods in the middle of the night, he would immediately disappear from the telescopic sight. Losing the targets, sniping attack would definitely become impossible. So why?

“Hihihihi, what a sweet face. Hey, just between us, but if you cry and slobber and apologize here, maybe I will let you go this time?”

The voice was close. Really close.

Verlaine turned to that direction. No one was there... No.

In the middle of no where, a hole the size of a coin was opened. It was like the space was burnt and hollowed out, and on the other side of the hole was another different space. From that side, a black eye was staring at this side through the hole.

“Yes, it’s me. You are being watched. From now on, you can be assured even if you lock your toilet door hihihihi”

The hole was so small to see the entire thing. But that eye alone is enough. The eye was filled with malice. It had been watching Verlaine, chasing him and reporting about his positions all the time.

Verlaine fired a rotary kick by reflex at the hole.

“Oops.”

Right before being hit, the hole closed up and disappeared.

“I’m here.”

The voice came from behind. When he turned around, the same hole had been opened in a different place, looking straight at Verlaine.

That was the type of skill that connects space and monitor the targets. The skill user was probably sitting in another safe place, and monitoring the whole battle using their space connection skill. He couldn’t attack the actual skill user. If he tried to touch it, it would close immediately so he wouldn’t be able to destroy it using gravity.

Just how many skill users they have thrown in this battle?

“Hihihi, I have a present for you. From Port Mafia with love.”

From the coin-sized hole, flower petals flew out. Countless petals surrounded Verlaine then started to shine white. Yet another new skill.

The moment Verlaine tried to take a quick avoidance action, all the flower petals exploded at once.

From the train where he sat, Dazai could see the light from that explosion very clearly. The white light split open the woods at night, the afterglow burnt into the night sky.

Dazai looked at that scene, he was grinning.

“How is it going, Dazai-dono?”

From inside the train, a middle-aged man appear. He was wearing the boss’ outfit. He was the one who played the boss’ double, Hirotsu.

“As you can see, it is going well. So well that it is boring.”

In the direction he was pointing, the explosion sound was echoing, trees were falling, sniper flashes and low frequency noises were ringing non-stop.

Hirotsu took off the wig, put on the monocle he always has on, and narrowed his eyes.

“As one would expect.”

“Of course, I had to earn a lot of time to prepare all this. “ said Dazai, who was crossing his legs elegantly like a royal. “Chuuya and I had a terrible hard time fighting Randou-san. So this time I came prepared. Just to kill Mr. Assasin King from Europe, I had to gather a total of 422 people from the combat troops and 28 skill users. That is the full strength that Mafia can put in now.” At the scene where they were looking, the cold air and gun flashes kept shining. Verlaine tried to escape by threading his way in between the trees but a yellow-white ray burnt off the whole night sky, blocking that escape route. That was yet another skill user.

The plan was extremely simple. Setting up a trap and waiting. Chuuya and Adam drafted the same tactic before to defeat the Assasin King. The plan that Dazai carried out was basically the same. Identify the next target, set up traps around that target, and ambush Verlaine from behind when he appears.

The only difference between this and Chuuya’s plan is the scale of those traps. What have been set up as traps this time, was the entire Mafia’s overwhelming combat unit. The result was a one-sided destruction.

“We can keep this battle going for the whole night.” Dazai said as if he was whispering to Verlaine from far away. “Verlaine-san, you are a flawless assassin. With that vivid skill of yours, you have never once been traced down and surrounded like that, haven’t you? That’s why you have no experiences when being cornered by such a skill users organization. Even Randou-san was afraid of that dangerous flawlessness of yours.”

Dazai took out the leather notebook.

Rimbaud’s memoir. The journal Rimbaud had kept about the birth as well as full accounts of skill user Verlaine.

“I mourn for you, Verlaine-san.” Dazai put his hand on the notebook and said as if he was praying. “I mourn not for your death, but for your birth. No one mourns for you for being born. The only one who does is you yourself. That is the reason you fights... I think you are amazing. You despise the fact that you were born, you despise your own power, you despise the world. And by doing that, you came to accept your meaningless life. How wonderful that is. I don’t have that kind of courage. That’s why I wanted to talk with you more. But this is already goodbye.”

Dazai stood up, turning his back on the battlefield in front of him. He walked away.

“Dazai-dono?”

“Report to me when it is done.”

Dazai’s voice powerlessly fell to his feet. He walked away.

The next moment. A black way swelled over the battlefield.

...

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #storm bringer #spoilers #bsd spoilers #dazai osamu #paul verlain #port mafia

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xo-cuteplosion-xo · 2 years

Text

Even Monsters Love

Pt 12 (Finale) of Red; Blood and Love | Dazai x reader

Part one here

previous part here

masterlist here

Under the shining light of the moon, Dazai began to prepare to leave. It wouldn’t be long before they were back to themselves. He doubted they would remember anything that happened. They never seemed to remember anything from the last age-up, it was a relief to him in some way. At least then he didn’t have to deal with the consequences of spending time together, it would go back to how it was, how it’s supposed to be. The two separated by a crater created by him. Laying on his back, he stared up to the ceiling before the door swung open.

This was the fastest age-up they’d experienced yet. “I’m on my way out.” Dazai didn’t dare to glance at them.

“No, you don't get to just stroll away again.” Their voice didn’t hold anger, thoroughly dull and emotionless, the truest version of the executive.

“I was only helping out while you recovered.” Dazai grabbed his coat, swinging it over his shoulders, standing in silence for a moment before he went to leave. The executive sidestepped, blocking the door.

“Why Dazai? Why would you do this to me? You could have done anything, but you chose to be… like that!” Dazai raised a brow, finally glancing at their face. His eyes threatened to disobey his will: to soften.

“I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t normally do.” He attempted to brush it all off before the executive before him clamped their hands into fists.

“Really? Like you'd normally do? Normally you would have brushed everything under the rug, doing the bare minimum with an annoyed expression. Normally you wouldn’t have accepted this! Watching after me, what were you hoping to gain from it, Dazai?” Their face stayed unreadable, with blank eyes, a careless tone, their emotions nonexistent in everything but the small squeeze of their fists.

“I didn’t have any motives.” Dazai strained his own expression to mirror theirs.

In this age of Y/n, the one whose eyes no longer held light, he’d never seen them get emotional. Their eyes made a sudden narrow, darkening further as they clenched their hands tighter. Hanging their hand before violently swaying it to the side as they shouted, “bullshit! That’s bullshit Dazai! It was you who took care of the shaking child! You who didn’t take advantage of them. You who could have called me by a gender other than my own but chose not to! So don’t you dare tell me you had no second motive behind your fucking actions! You’re the one who hurt me! You're the one who promised me comfort and laughter, but took it away and shattered everything! So why Dazai why?” Dazai’s surprise, though it lasted less than a second, was noticed by the executive crumbling before him.

“I… what do you want me to say? That I regret leaving? That I'll come back? What do you expect from me Y/n? I changed, I'm a better person, but at the same time… I'm still a selfish bastard, the darkest of mafia black.” Y/n shook their head, shoving their fist into the man's chest. The first tears they spilled in so long plummeted to the floor as they hung their head and screamed once more.

“I want to know why you didn’t take me with you! Why didn’t you take me with you Dazai? It’s not fair! It’s not fair that you, the cruelest, and the most mafia black in the country, get to live like this while I'm in the darkness swallowed whole in suffering!” Dazai froze, tilting his head.

“Why I… you had Chuuya though?”

“But I loved you, Osamu-Kun… you were the one to introduce me to a gentle touch, to introduce me to the feeling of happiness… I was never loved or accepted at home, but you didn’t care if I wasn't perfect. You never laid your hands on me to hurt me, only to brush back my hair or to brush away the dirt with a tenderness I'd never known.” Dazai stared off to the side, pressing his lips together. “I knew from the start it would always be one-sided between us. You, an inhuman darkness that couldn’t feel, and me, a simple but naive child, but you didn’t have to let me go like that.”

“Do you hate me?” Dazai stepped back, observing the executive straighten themselves out.

“I should, I should despise you for the pain, but I don’t. I did, I hated you, loathed you, even wanted to kill you before this happened. But I remember bits and pieces of the past two months. I remember the feelings most. Your smile, the fondness in your eyes. The kindness you show… that smaller me didn’t lie… This version of you was my favorite because it reminded me of that side to your 14-year-old self only I ever saw. The small bit of a child that reminds me of before the mafia wiped it out completely. I wish you’d stolen me into the light Dazai…”

“So do I... but I didn’t and we can’t have what we had.” Dazai met their eyes, both showing what their thoughts spoke. Maybe not what we had, but we can have something new.

He couldn’t, no, he didn’t want to stop them from collapsing into him. Holding onto him in a tight embrace. He held them just as tight. Even monsters could learn to love and deserve love.

The past can’t rewrite itself, nor can it be forgotten, but it can make us better people. Even when you're so broken that you can’t be fixed, there is always somebody willing to lay within your arms or brush their fingers down your scars. There will always be somebody who cares for the ugly parts and the bright parts of you. It’s only a matter of believing you deserve to be loved and to be happy. “Hey… Dazai?”

“Hm?”

“Oda would be proud of you. You’ve really become a good man.” Dazai’s eyes widened before his face fell into a soft thankful expression. His eyes shut with a tender smile on his lips. It wasn’t until the next morning Dazai left after saying goodbye. Returning to work, both with a little more light in their eyes.

Tag list:

@pompompurin1028 @cherrytomato2 @ryuukero

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bsd-bibliophile · 4 years

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BSD-Bibliophile 2019 Top Ten

#10 Post:

I’m in no position to stand above humanity, acting as prosecutor, or judge. I have no right to condemn others. I am a child of evil. Beyond redemption. I suspect my past sins are fifty or a hundred times greater than yours.

- Dazai Osamu, “Thinking of Zenzo” from Self Portraits

#9 Post:

I hate the idea of getting old and ugly, you know. I’m not so afraid of dying, but the ravages of age just don’t match my aesthetic.

- Dazai Osamu, “Urashima-san” from Otogizoshi

#8 Post:

#7 Post:

Disappearing into the darkened sky, The longing that consumed me in my youth-

Resembling the stars of a summer night as ever, Obscured in the vast distances as ever.

Disappearing into the darkened sky, The hope, the dream of my youth.

I just grovel on the ground here Like some kind of beast, thoughts darken

There’s no way of knowing When those darkened thoughts will break.

It’s as if I’m drowning in the ocean And can see the moon glowing overhead.

Now that the wave is so swollen, And the rising moon so crisp,

This longing that consumed me in my youth of quiet sadness Is on its way to disappearing into the darkened night.

- Nakahara Chūya, “Lost Hope” from Poems of the Goat

#6 Post:

#5 Post:

Nakahara Chūya Trivia

His old surname was Kashiwamura. Later on, because the Nakahara family (his mother’s side) was a wealthy landowner, his surname was changed to Nakahara.

He was a prodigy in elementary school. However, when his brother died in 1915, he turned to composing poetry out of sorrow. He later failed middle school because he was too engrossed in literature.

He translated around 60 poems by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud into Japanese. Due to their similar lifestyles, he gained the nickname ‘The Japanese Rimbaud’. (Other Source)

He had a mistress, Hasegawa Yasuko, when he was 17; she was noted to be older and taller than him. However, the following year, she left Nakahara to live with his best friend Kobayashi Hideo, which frustrated him greatly. (Other Source)

After Kobayashi left Hasegawa, she married and had a child; she named Nakahara Chuuya the child’s godfather.

Chuuya was noted to adore children, and spoiled them rotten. When his eldest son, Fumiya, died at the age of two, Chuuya had a mental breakdown and had to be hospitalized for a month.

After his death, Hasegawa Yasuko established the Nakahara Chuuya Prize to honor him. The prize only lasted a few years, with Tachihara Michizou as one of its notable winners. Another award with the same name was established in 1996 by Yamaguchi City.

He greatly looked up to Miyazawa Kenji, and he had been noted to hum Miyazawa’s poems from time to time.

He once spent a month in jail for smashing street lamps while in a drunken rage.

He was 151.5 cm (about 4'11.5") in height. The Bungou Stray Dogs version of Chuuya is 160 cm, so they actually made him taller.

He remained close friends with Kobayashi Hideo all his life, and entrusted the manuscript for Songs of Bygone Days to him while on his deathbed.

He died at age 30 due to cerebral meningitis.

Because of their lyrical qualities, many of his poems were used as lyrics in songs.

It is possible to buy an exact replica of his hat from the Nakahara Chuuya Memorial Museum.

“Some of Nakahara’s images and metaphors may strike the Western reader as strange. Notes have been provided wherever helpful, but in general this strangeness is not a product of any culture gap, nor of the translation process. It is Nakahara’s own.” - from the Note on Translation from The Poems of Nakahara Chūya

Nakahara worked one the only issue of the Blue Flower Magazine with Dazai Osamu and the two hated each other immediately. Dazai Osamu invited Kazuo Dan and Chuya to a bar in Higashi Nakano and described Chuya as looking like “a blue mackerel floating in the sky.” (Source 1, Source 2)

His ideal woman, the inspiration for his poem Michiko, was Hayama Michiko (the screen name of Ishikawa Seiko). She was also Tanizaki Junichirou’s sister-in-law and the model for the character Naomi in his novel A Fool’s Love. (Source)

(Trivia Source: Bungo to Alchemist Wiki *italicized sections are added by me* - Image Source: tsukiko-ciah.tumblr.com)

#4 Post:

If you have only watched episode 31 of Bungou Stray Dogs and have not read chapter 39 of the manga, this is definitely worth reading. If you only watch the anime you are missing out.

If you’re not convinced check out my analysis under the cut.

Bungou Stray Dogs is more than just an anime series full of supernatural powers, action scenes, and tension between a detective agency and the mafia. The series is based on world famous literary figures, and by doing so invites its readers to compare BSD to the beloved authors and literary masterpieces it features. You are supposed to look closely at the characters, their backgrounds, development, and compare them to the authors and literary characters who inspired them. You are supposed to look closely at the plot, dissect it, notice foreshadowing, and analyze how events are sequenced and presented. Asagiri Kafka, the author of BSD, has obviously written the series in a way that gives bibliophiles a chance to compare, analyze, and dissect the series to their heart’s content.

The anime does a great job of making the characters Harukawa35 created move and interact in a beautifully animated world. The voice actors put everything they had into their performances and as a result the characters have very distinct voices that reflect the characters’ personalities and traits and draws audiences deeper into the world and story of BSD. The action scenes and moments of suspense are amazing to watch with a heart pounding soundtrack to match. Visually and audibly the series is superb.

However, if you only watch the anime then you are missing out on a lot of the details that make BSD so intricate and adds all the depth to the series. The anime has only so much time, and as a result various moments, scenes, and characters get cut. The anime also has a tendency to prioritize certain characters above others, so anime viewers see a lot of a handful of characters but don’t get to see the other characters’ scenes, backstories, and character development in their entirety. As scenes and characters are changed or left out in the anime the world of BSD gradually drifts away from the manga until ensuring the continuity of the anime means the series becomes more of its own entity and less connected to the manga. Of course the anime has not moved so far away from the manga that it has become its own entity, but there are distinct differences and unique atmospheres that are not shared between the anime and manga.

And that brings me to how the material in chapter 39 was presented in episode 31. There are three important facts in the chapter that makes it so powerful and memorable to readers:

Atsushi’s experiences at the orphanage: In season 1 on the anime there are various short flashbacks to when Atsushi was living at the orphanage. All are very brief, focus on Atsushi sitting helplessly as verbal abuse is heaped on him, and they are shown repeatedly to emphasize how deeply these experiences have affected Atsushi. Because of that when you see a new moment from Atsushi’s past you instinctively pay attention and notice how it is different from the flashbacks you had seen before. In chapter 39 the flashbacks are more than a mere few seconds where a few words are spoken and we see a helpless Atsushi; these flashbacks are complete stories about very specific instances where Atsushi was blamed, ridiculed, beaten, publicly humiliated, forced to have his foot nailed to the floor, had an unknown liquid injected into his system, was locked up, and taught some very important lessons that he didn’t understand at the time but would make him into the amazing protagonist he turned out to be. Episode 31 did not show any of these scenes in their entirety, condensing them into eight seconds of minute representations of the horrors Atsushi experienced, and only showed one part of an exchange between the young Atsushi and the Headmaster. Considering that Atsushi is the series protagonist it is strange that so much information that is vital to understanding Atsushi’s character was condensed into one third of an anime episode (while Kyouka’s backstory took up two thirds of the same episode).

The way Atsushi views his relationship to the Headmaster compared to how Akutagawa and Dazai view it: Chapter 39 shows Atsushi’s initial reaction the the Headmaster’s death as a kind of manic joy, which is also accurately portrayed in episode 31. Tanizaki, in both the manga and anime, is obviously concerned that Atsushi would be so overjoyed at someone’s death, even if it is the Headmaster who caused Atsushi to suffer so much. However, it is only in chapter 39 that Atsushi admits that he knew very little about the Headmaster and only knew “that he was the king of that small, small country,” the orphanage. That is the first hint that the way Atsushi remembers the Headmaster is skewed because he was so young and ignorant at the time. To Atsushi it is only natural to hate the man who he believed disliked him and tortured him because of it, but to outside parties like Akutagawa and Dazai the situation looks different. It is only in the manga that Dazai helps with the case by contacting an informant and sending Atsushi to meet them. The informant turns out to be Akutagawa. Atsushi and Akutagawa are foils, so while they are opposites they also complement each other which makes Akutagawa the perfect person to throw a wrench in Atsushi’s way of thinking. Akutagawa proves through the information he gathered that the Headmaster was not in Yokohama to do any harm to Atsushi, but to sell a gun in order to buy something and that there was no foul play that lead to his death. Akutagawa is also the only person to point out that while Dazai taught him, the Headmaster taught Atsushi and says he will let Atsushi off the hook today because it is “the anniversary of [his] mentor’s death.” Later when Atsushi doesn’t know how to feel after learning that the Headmaster had come to Yokohama to give him flowers and congratulate him on the person he had become, Dazai is the one to refer to the Headmaster as Atsushi’s father. It is only after this that Atsushi understands the role the Headmaster played in his life and he is finally able to cry and face his emotions and confusion surrounding the Headmaster’s death.

How the Headmaster’s past influenced the way he raised Atsushi: If you only watched the anime then you would have absolutely no idea how amazing and complex a character the Headmaster is! He didn’t just happen to become the Headmaster of an orphanage. When he was a child he grew up in an orphanage, “experienced a hellish life” that made the orphanage Atsushi grew up in “seem like heaven,” graduated from the orphanage only to join the criminal underworld, and he watched as all his friends from the orphanage died and he was the lone survivor. After becoming the Headmaster he, because of his past experience, recognized Atsushi had an ability and hid it from the rest of the orphanage until Atsushi was 18 in order to protect him. He knew how Atsushi would be hunted down and mistreated because of his ability and did the best he could, considering the horrible upbringing he had himself, to teach Atsushi to hate those who would hurt him and do everything he could to survive. The Headmaster taught Atsushi to be who he is and enabled him to have the will and determination to become the person who would save a drowning man while he himself is nearly dead from hunger, throw himself over a bomb to try and protect people in a detective agency he doesn’t know, risk his place in the Agency in order to save Kyouka and rescue her from a hopeless situation, and risk his own life to stop the Guild and become the hero who saved Yokohama. Can you imagine how proud and relieved the Headmaster must have been to learn that Atsushi was not only alive but had saved countless lives? How comforted he must have been knowing that his worst fears of Atsushi being killed, resorting to crime and living in a worse hell than the orphanage, or being tortured or used because of his ability had not become a reality! How could he be considered anything other than a proud father who wants to find and congratulate the son he raised? In my opinion, the absolute worst thing the anime has done is deprive its viewers the Headmaster’s complex and incredible character. Without knowing him there is no way of understanding what Atsushi truly felt and how much he grew to understand himself and his place in the world as a result of learning about the Headmaster’s past and what he had risked and sacrificed for him.

To me the anime’s biggest disappointment is how they treat the protagonist. The most important chapter for understanding Atsushi’s character and what makes him protagonist material has been squeezed into 7 minutes and 43 seconds of an anime episode (about 1/3 of an episode). As the protagonist he at least deserves his own episode explaining his backstory, or the two thirds of an episode that Kyouka got for her backstory. Asagiri Kafka and Harukawa35 took the time to create a vivid portrayal of Atsushi’s childhood and him learning what role the Headmaster really played in raising Atsushi. The writing in this chapter was superb. The characters were deep and fleshed out. The plot and the way evidence and memories were presented were so powerful people were dreading seeing it play out in the anime because it had that big of an effect on them. After getting ready for the most emotional chapter in the series to be animated, actually watching the episode was a major let down in so many ways.

I will always remember chapter 39 and what it taught me about humanity, perspective, and the influence one person can have on another. Reading it changed me as much as reading No Longer Human has, and I am just as fond of it as I am of Dazai Osamu’s works. What Atsushi and his battle to overcome his past represents has already helped me overcome some of my own demons. I hope more BSD fans will read the manga, and I mean really read it the way you would a work of literature, and allow the characters and writing to really sink in as they read. The manga is just that powerful and that relatable, because all of us have felt like the outcast, all of us have had our own demons from out past that haunt us even after they are dead, and all of us are looking for a place to belong and the power to conquer ourselves.

#3 Post:

No one realized that I had become insane; when I recovered nobody could tell the difference.

- Dazai Osamu, “Toys” from Dazai Osamu: Selected Stories and Sketches

#2 Post:

Nakahara Chuuya - “Poem of the Sheep”

Intention, thou art old dark vapour; begone from my heart! I now hope for nothing more than simplicity and peaceful murmurs and, at any rate, neatness.

Society, thou art indulgence of gloomy filth; do not wake me up again! I now will try to endure solitude, my arms already seem like useless things.

Thou, eyes opening wide in suspicion, eyes not moving for a while as they open. Ah, heart that believes too much in what is outside itself.

Intention, though art old dark vapour; begone from my heart! Begone! Apart from my poor dreams, nothing interests me.

Dazai Osamu - No Longer Human

“You might say that I still have no understanding of what makes human beings tick. My apprehension on discovering that my concept of happiness seemed to be completely at variance with that of everyone else was so great as to make me toss sleeplessly and groan night after night in my bed. It drove me indeed to the brink of lunacy. I wonder if I have actually been happy.”

“Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer ‘Nothing.’ The thought went through my mind that it didn’t make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.”

Mori Ogai - Vita Sexualis

“There are things which everyone does but which one does not mention to others.”

(FIFTEEN spoilers below)

Arthur Rimbaud - “A Season in Hell”

A while back, if I remember right, my life was one long party where all hearts were open wide, where all wines kept flowing.

One night, I sat Beauty down on my lap.—And I found her galling.—And I roughed her up.

I armed myself against justice.

I ran away. O witches, O misery, O hatred, my treasure’s been turned over to you!

I managed to make every trace of human hope vanish from my mind. I pounced on every joy like a ferocious animal eager to strangle it.

I called for executioners so that, while dying, I could bite the butts of their rifles. I called for plagues to choke me with sand, with blood. Bad luck was my god. I stretched out in the muck. I dried myself in the air of crime. And I played tricks on insanity.

And Spring brought me the frightening laugh of the idiot.

So, just recently, when I found myself on the brink of the final squawk! it dawned on me to look again for the key to that ancient party where I might find my appetite once more.

Charity is that key.—This inspiration proves I was dreaming!

“You’ll always be a hyena etc… ,“ yells the devil, who’d crowned me with such pretty poppies. “Deserve death with all your appetites, your selfishness, and all the capital sins!”

Ah! I’ve been through too much:-But, sweet Satan, I beg of you, a less blazing eye! and while waiting for the new little cowardly gestures yet to come, since you like an absence of descriptive or didactic skills in a writer, let me rip out these few ghastly pages from my notebook of the damned.

Paul Verlaine - Oh, Heavy, Heavy My Despair

Oh, heavy, heavy my despair, Because, because of One so fair. My misery knows no allay, Although my heart has come away. Although my heart, although my soul, Have fled the fatal One’s control. My misery knows no allay, Although my heart has come away. My heart, the too, too feeling one, Says to my soul, 'Can it be done, 'Can it be done, too feeling heart, That we from her shall live apart?’ My soul says to my heart, 'Know I What this strange pitfall should imply, 'That we, though far from her, are near, Yea, present, though in exile here?’

Note: These poems were selected simply because they reminded me of the plot in FIFTEEN.

#1 Post:

Looking for something to read on Halloween?

“Hell Screen” by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

Kappa by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

“The Human Chair” by Edogawa Ranpo

“Love After Death” by Yumeno Kyūsaku

“Hell in a Bottle” by Yumeno Kyūsaku

“The Holy Man of Mt. Koya” by Izumi Kyōka

“The Tattooer” by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō

“In the Forest, Under the Cherries in Full Bloom” by Sakaguchi Ango

“Fish Scales” by Shibusawa Tatsuhiko

The Decagon House Murders by Ayatsuji Yukito

In Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke:

Rashomon (pg. 48)

In a Bamboo Grove (pg. 54)

The Spider Thread (pg. 79)

Hell Screen (pg. 82)

In Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Ranpo:

The Human Chair (pg. 14)

The Caterpillar (pg. 76)

The Hell of Mirrors (pg. 117)

The Red Chamber (pg. 151)

These stories and books are included in my Online Library along with many others! The stories listed here are only a handful of the dark, terrifying tales written by the Japanese authors who inspired BSD, but they are all easily accessible and ones I would recommend.

Happy Halloween and happy reading!

#happy new year #2019 most popular posts #bsd-bibliophile #japanese literature #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd

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silentnightafk · 4 years

Text

Ballerinas Can’t Play Chess Part 2

"Did you... love me?"

"Chuuya-"

"Lie... to me."

"Just this once."

Warning: Major Character Death

Word Count: 1703

Read on AO3

The periodic dripping of the kitchen tap was the only sound that echoed throughout the hollow apartment. One would think that there was not a single living thing in this lifeless house, unless they glanced upon the broken man leaning against the wall as he sat on the floor, empty instant noodle cups and 2 nearly empty bottles of water littered around him. He stared unseeingly at the wall, occasionally tightening his clutch on the phone, letting the warm metal bite deeper into his palm. A gun laid on the other side of him, close enough to reach, but far enough so as to ensure it does not tempt him. Not yet, at least.

It had been 3 days since Dazai had raced to the airport in Kunikida's car, traffic laws be damned. Every red light crossed was another minute closer to Chuuya after all. He had hoped with desperation that he would make it in time, and prayed that Chuuya would listen. He should have realised. A few months was never going to be enough for Chuuya to leave the Port Mafia for him, even when they were throwing him to the dogs.

Chuuya was afraid of death. That haunted look in his eyes which he couldn't quite hide that day told Dazai enough. Yet, Dazai knew that Chuuya wouldn't leave. His loyalty to the mafia was far greater than his fear for death. And Dazai hated him for it. He hated him for being so selfless, hated him for finding a home at a place where Dazai had found nothing but pain. He hated him for choosing the mafia over his life, for throwing it all away at just one order. He hated Chuuya for choosing the mafia over him. But who was he to complain? After all, he was the one who left first.

Dazai wanted to believe that Chuuya would survive. He wanted to give himself hope that such a mission wasn't enough for Chuuya to just leave like that. Chuuya was passionate to a fault, caring even in a organisation where feelings were death's lure. He felt too much, cared too much, and yet was so strong that nothing could defeat him. Chuuya was a raging inferno, a blaze that could only diminish under the greatest of typhoons. He burned bright in a life of darkness, destroying anything and everythinf that stood in his way. A mere organisation, such a light downpour wasn't enough to snuff out a flame like him now. Right? A fire like Chuuya could never die so quickly.

But deep down inside Dazai knew that Chuuya was meant to die on this mission. A solo mission in a foreign country to destroy an organisation with an unknown amount of manpower. Chuuya was supposed to go down with it. This was all part of Mori's sick and twisted game.

"Remember this, Dazai." Mori had smiled at him, that sly, merciless smile.

"Betray me, and you'll wish you were never born."

Dazai had all but laughed then, at the mere age of 15, returning Mori's grin with a cold and empty one of his own.

"That's nothing special, I already wish I was dead."

"Oh, but Dazai." Mori's grin widened. For the first time in his life, Dazai felt a bone-chilling fear settle send a shiver down his spine. He kept his face controlled, and forced himself to stay rooted to the ground

"There are things way worse than death."

This was his checkmate. First was Odasaku. Now it was Chuuya. One by one, Mori slowly moved his pieces, playing them carefully. Dazai watched the chess board intently, convinced that he would win. The moment he left the mafia, he knew that he could never let himself be close to Chuuya ever again. But how could Dazai leave? Chuuya was the only one who ever made him felt genuine happiness, even though he never showed it. And Mori knew that. With Chuuya gone, Dazai would truly be in a state worse than death.

Music cut through the silence in the room, the lyrics of La Vie En Rose ringing out. Dazai snapped back to reality, picking up the phone immediately without checking for the caller.

"Chuuya-"

"Da..zai."

His heart froze in his chest, eyes widening slowly as his words died in his throat. Static came from the other side, the only sound. The battle was over it seemed. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as Chuuya's heavy breathing joined in the static, the only implication that he was still holding on, though barely.

There were a million things Dazai wanted to say, yet he couldn't find the proper words to use. His eloquence had all flown out the window the moment he picked up the call. He wanted to scream apologies, wanted to beg for him to hang on. He wanted to spill assurances and concern out of his mouth, and tell him that he would survive this, he would come home. But what was the point? Why spill lies when all it would leave is the heavy melancholic realisation of the harsh truth which is reality?

"Why has your voice gotten so small, Chuuya? Has it shrunk like your height?" It was the only thing Dazai could let himself say. If he strayed from this game of insults they played, he wouldn't be able to hold back his sobs.

"Shut up you... waste of bandages..." He huffed out a laugh, trying his hardest to suppress a sob that threatened to escape. He hated how small Chuuya's voice sounded, hated how it shook with effort and the excessive breaths he had to take to say just a simple sentence. He closed his eyes, imagining Chuuya's small body in his arms, both of them braving the cold wind of France together like they used to.

Silence settled between them again, the static and Chuuya's breathing the only sound once more. He let the tears continue to flow, but made sure that not a single sound escaped his lips. Chuuya didn't need to handle his crying ass right now. All he needed was a person by his side.

His tears fell faster as Chuuya's voice started getting shallower, and he knew time was running out. There was so much he wanted to say, so many things he wished he could do. Odasaku flashed before his eyes, his broken body drawing shallow breaths, and that body slowly transformed into Chuuya's, in the exact same state.

"Dazai." Chuuya's voice shocked Dazai out of his reverie, the strength in it coming as a shock.

"Did you... love me?"

His eyes widened at the question, tears stopping all at once. His grip on his phone tightened, an intense ache engulfing his body.

"Chuuya-"

"Lie... to me."

"Just this once."

He shut his eyes tight, wincing at the plea. Chuuya never begged, and Dazai never wanted to hear him beg. A man like him should never have to beg for something, not to anyone. Taking a deep breath, he steadied his breathing.

"I didn't love you."

A pause. Soft laughter started to travel from the phone, breathy and broken, followed by a series of coughs. He could hear the sobs that Chuuya tried to hold back, and the only sound on his side of the phone was the soft pitter patter of teardrops on wood.

"I'm sorry."

I'm sorry for leaving you.

When silence fell upon them again, Dazai moved for the first time in the day. He reaching his arm out towards the gun by his side, fingers steady on the trigger. Bringing it slowly to his temple, a click resounded as he released the safety. A sharp intake of breath travelled from the other side of the phone.

"Don't." Chuuya's voice was strained, like it took too much energy to choke the word out. His finger on the trigger froze, hand falling slightly. No. Don't do this to me Chuuya.

"Chuuya don't-"

"No!" Chuuya coughed once more, a wet sound like as though chocking on blood. There was not much longer left.

"What should I do?" His voice shook, his grip on the phone shaky as everything came crashing down on him.

"Live... please..." Tears sprang into his eyes again, the gun shaking against his temple.

"Live to continue to bring happiness to others. Live to stop another person from living the same wretched life as us. Live to fulfill your promise to Odasaku, and now your promise to me."

How a dying man was able to say so many things when he had so little time left was unbeknownst to anyone, but all one can say is that there were things more important than life and death. And in that moment, Dazai knew that he couldn't say no. And so all he did was loosen his hand on the gun by the temple, and made up his mind.

"I see."

"Wait for me, Chuuya."

He held onto the small chuckle that escaped through dying breaths, and held his own as he listened to Chuuya's breath slowly die out. Static was the only sound remaining on the other end as a scream echoed through the room, a cry for the what ifs and what could have beens. A crash of metal on concrete, the clatter of a gun thrown aside.

If he was there, he would have seen the small smile that spread dripping with blood. If he was there he would have noticed the way Chuuya grasped tightly on a bloodied photograph, staring at a smile so bright on a face with a bandaged eye with blurry eyes. He would have seen the slow mouthing of the words I love you on shaking lips, the tears that constantly rolled down to join the evergrowing puddle of blood underneath.

But he didn't. And so all he could hold onto was the final words of a man who made him feel from nothing to everything, to the words of a man who wanted nothing more to live and in his dying moments chose him to spend them with. And with that he whispered the same words as he did all those years ago to another dying man.

"I'll do that."

#yayyyyyyyy angst #more angst #angst #soukoku #double black #dazai osamu #nakahara chuuya #chuffering #dazai suffering #i love this fandom because of the angst #have more pain #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs

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aja154ever · 6 years

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BSD Dead Apple Spoilers

There is nothing here but MAJOR MAJOR spoilers, as in the plot summary, in detail as much as possible. Some points are already on @looking-for-stray-dogs post so I decided not to delve into them anymore. ((Gosh Lea and I talked about this for probably more than 2 hrs, making notes and the outline lol, until the restaurant finally told us to go home))

You’ve been warned so if you don’t want any of that, then don’t read this post. Also this is a fan report and is not 100% accurate. Bear with my human memory ability

Also, excuse my grammar, I can’t English damn it I’m tired

Bias - ofc everyone has their own. I have favorites so I might have focused more on some characters, but I did try to report this as objectively as I can. I put comments/feelings tho in some parts I found hard to narrate/describe like action scenes. And yes, I’m a Soukoku shipper but I tried to keep it low here, I’ll make a separate post for them for the sake of people who don’t want to read too much feels here. Also, my Japanese is far from perfect so I may have missed some or a lot of details, especially with Fyodor, Shibusawa, Fukuzawa, and Chuuya’s language.

Lastly, PLEASE DO SUPPORT THE MOVIE in any possible legal way you can. I’ve felt how much the staff put so much work on this movie, how they love it so much, and how they present it as a gift to everyone. The BSD fandom is not big, but we have been blessed to actually have this, because Asagiri believes we deserve more than a compilation film, and because Kadokawa and Bones are willing to produce this thing.

If it will be showing in your country, please, please do make sure to watch it. If not, then please buy official goods. And yeah do continue bugging Crunchyroll or anyone else

Actual Toho Cinemas, Ueno as seen from the Port Mafia Family Official art

So the movie will make you cry just by the first scene because the first character to appear on the big screen was… Odasaku.

It’s the event from 6 years ago, specifically the night before the end of the 88-day Dragon Head Dispute. Oda looks at the mess before him - dead ability users lying on the ground anywhere he looked. He hears a cry out of the blue, and goes to discover an alive child crying in the middle of her dead parents. The girl is Sakura, one of the orphans in the Dark era.

Dazai communicates with Oda thru a transmitter warning him to get away from where he is because it’ll be soon dangerous there.

Chuuya arrives on the scene, driving his motorcycle, when one of the enemies appears and chases him with an ability akin to lightning. So Chuuya gracefully maneuvers his motor around the building walls with his ability. He finally reaches the enemy’s base where Dazai is held hostage. Dazai complains that Chuuya is five minutes late, then goes to kick the enemy who’s pointing a gun at his head He also gets himself free from the shackles without any help. Soukoku starts bickering but Dazai says that the one Chuuya will kill isn’t him. The enemy surrounds them,

C: The garbage is piling up.

D: Hurry up and finish this.

Chuuya activates his ability and then there’s an explosion after, then cuts to the scene where Soukoku just walks away like nothing (RIP Chuuya bike)

Note: He didn’t use Corruption nor did he touch anyone, but apparently For the Tainted Sorrow also works that way.

Soukoku then found Shibusawa who was tediously chanting, “I will obtain it, I will not”, repeatedly while seemingly counting gemstones. He says there is something he wants but even with all the people who got killed, he still couldn’t get a hold of it or they couldn’t give him what he wants.

Chuuya angrily scowls, “Bring back my comrades.”

Shibusawa just shrugs saying that they all committed suicide, and boring people are still boring even on the point of dying. To this, Chuuya gets very angry because it’s as if his men died for nothing. Red marks start to appear on his skin, signaling Corruption getting activated but he didn’t have to say the chant. He told Dazai not to stop him, and so Dazai just backs off, “Oh, Corruption, huh?”

Then explosion again, and so we didn’t know what happened after. Beautiful Fyodor is seen on top of a building commenting that they’re having so much fun.

BSD Opening - Deadly drive YEESSSS anyway the graphics are soooo good and beautiful

Back to present time

Atsushi goes to find Dazai on a graveyard, sitting on the back of a tombstone, his head lying on top of it. Atsushi comments that it’s his first time seeing Dazai visiting/paying respect to a grave so he assumes that the person is someone important to Dazai. The tombstone is then revealed to be labeled, “S. ODA” Flashback to the Dark era scene of Oda dying when he advises Dazai to go to the side that saves people. ((Ok I didn’t need a flashback of this scene on a big screen damn it my poor heart))

Innocent Atsushi: By any chance, is it the person Dazai-san likes?

D: If it’s a girl that I liked, then I could’ve gone on a double suicide with her.

A: Ah, yeah, if it’s Dazai-san that would be it.

D: Did you say something?

A: Ah, no, nothing.

D: It was my friend. The one responsible for me quitting the Mafia and joining the Agency. If not for him, then maybe I’d still be in the Mafia killing people up to now. Anyway, Kunikida sent you to look for me, right?

A: Yes. There’ll be an important meeting today.

D: Pa-ss. I just found a new method to commit suicide and will go try it.

A: Eh? Again?

ADA Meeting

Kunikida explains the mysterious case of ability users dying of their own abilities around the world (as seen in the PV)

The person behind it is revealed to be Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, who is now starting to move in Yokohama. Something struck Atsushi when he sees Shibusawa’s photo and hears his name - he sees a closed door somewhere in his mind, but chooses to ignore it knowing nothing at the moment.

Fukuzawa orders the Agency to do everything to stop this/Shibusawa.

After that, Kunikida and Tanizaki is seen on the Port going out to meet someone. Worried Tanizaki talks about the ability users’ suicide incident, then they see the man they’re supposed to meet lying on the ground, already dead as Kunikida checked his pulse. On the crime scene, they discovered a knife stabbed on an apple.

Bar Lupin

Dazai sits on the bar alone with two glasses, one for him, and one with the flower on it. “Today what will we toast for?” He reminisces about a time when he talks with Oda about “apple suicide” cases. Oda doesn’t know about it then he guesses it’s like from Cinderella. And Dazai was just like, “Ow, I didn’t expect that answer. Odasaku is really interesting.” He then remembers the poisoned apple story of Snow White, and proceeds to consider that Snow White’s case was actually a suicide. snow white could’ve known that the apple is poisoned but she still took it anyway. Dazai then shares that he actually found an interesting ability user recently who’s making people commit apple suicides. He says that suicide getting popular in Yokohama would be great, with a lovely smile on his face. Odasaku comments that Dazai is indeed interesting. Dazai replies, “Not as much as you.”

Back to the present, Dazai says that Odasaku is actually right, that the side that saves people is indeed better… if only one would continue living. Then he swallows the pill.

“Well then, I’ll go for now, Odasaku.”

He leaves the drinks on the counter untouched, and leaves the bar, a stabbed apple revealed on the counter.

Outside the bar Ango appears to capture Dazai, saying that the one who called Shibusawa to go to Yokohama is Dazai. Dazai smirks (the Mafia smirk), “Do you think you can actually capture me?” Shibusawa shadow appears on Ango’s back and then the Mist (as seen in the PV).

ADA Dorm

Atsushi dreams of the door he saw earlier and a strange mist appearing, then he wakes up.

Kyouka goes to check on him (they’re actually sleeping in one room with Kyouka on the futon while Atsushi inside the closet (smth like Doraemon).

When they opened the window, they discovered that the mist is already spreading. They head to the Agency Office as Kyouka demanded over anxious Atsushi.

On the way

They discovered that the whole city is in a mess, cars everywhere on the streets, but no signs of people, as if everyone disappeared.

Kyouka sensed a strong bloodlust and when they looked for it, they found the white tiger. they called their abilities but to their surprise, they did not activate and so they ran for their lives. Atsushi trips on something, which is then revealed to be Kunikida, injured by a shot on his side. Kunikida says that he found out the cause of the suicide cases. But first, they managed to escape from the tiger.

Kunikida then explains that he got hit by his own ability, and that ability users did not commit suicide rather they got killed by their own abilities. Demon Snow appears all of a sudden chasing them. Kyouka manages to get them a car and they drove all the way to the Agency Office.

Agency Office

Kunikida reveals a communication device beneath the floor under the President’s table, which connects them to Ango. Ango explains the situation, revealing the castle where Shibusawa is supposedly in, and adds that Dazai is also there. He entrusts the agency the mission to capture Shibusawa and that he will not question whatever methods they use. Communication gets cut off. Kunikida’s ability arrives to wreak havoc at the Agency. Kunikida gives Atsushi a weapon while Kyouka refuses since she has her sword. Kunikida tells them to run away while he goes to fight his own Ability.

It was also shown here that the other Agency members are fighting their own Abilities. Kenji’s ability is throwing him cars and hitting him with the street signs, Tanizaki being strangled by Light Snow from behind, Yosano fighting with her big weapon and Fukuzawa sword fighting.

Special Ability Department

Ango commands his subordinate to call Ability user 5058 telling him to return his debt.

White trio in the castle

First scene revealing that this three are “working together” but they all know from the start that they do not trust one another. Interesting exchanges.