Do you ever think about how the event that led people to start calling Dazai and Chuuya Soukoku was an act of grief?
Their partnership started at 15, but the mafia immortalized it after the Dragon's Head Conflict by dubbing them Soukoku.
The most fearsome duo in all of Yokohama.
Soukoku, a name meant to remind everyone, enemies and allies alike of the destructive force of they're capable of. Of the mafia's victory during the Dragon's Head Conflict.
Of the same night, the very moment, Chuuya learned he lost his friends again.
Chuuya wasn't there to bring the mafia victory or destroy buildings, he was there to save his friends. That's all he wanted, to get the people he cared about home, safe.
Instead he had more people ripped from him. He activated corruption in a state of grief and it's so different from the corruption we see in the main manga.
Chuuya's rage feels cold and calculated when he's fighting Lovecraft and then afterwards, he starts laughing manically. Dead Apple Chuuya's corruption feels so raw and pained.
Especially when we see Dazai nullify it.
He never stopped screaming, when the marks are gone and corruption's nullified, he's still screaming. You can't tell me that's not a tear in the second panel, it's shaped and shaded differently to the debris.
Chuuya told Dazai not to stop him and we assume he meant not to stop him using corruption, but what if he meant "Don't stop me, at all." What if he was so overcome with grief that, in that moment, he was okay with corruption burning through him completely. What if he didn't mean that but it's what Dazai heard? And that's why he's so gentle with Chuuya afterwards, because for a second, Chuuya sounded too much like himself.
Do you think there was a time where Chuuya couldn't stand the name Soukoku, not because it associated him with Dazai but because it immortalized the night he failed to save his friends again?
Do you think Dazai watched Chuuya just that little more closely afterwards, afraid to hear something like "Don't stop me." again?
Does hearing the name Soukoku sometimes bring back awful memories for them when other people say it with awe?
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