This chapter opens with Atsushi and Kunikida debating the fate of Kyouka. Kunikida demands she be handed over to the police as a known assassin of 35 people, where she will inevitably be put on death row. Additionally, if she returns to the mafia, she will be inevitably murdered for her betrayal. Atsushi is hesitant to turn her in, though, after having saved her in the previous chapter and seeing her humanity. 

Kunikida then argues on behalf of Atsushi’s self-preservation, claiming “I am not telling you to ignore the plights of the unfortunate. But in the world we live in, such misfortune is prevalent. Consider yourself a one-man boat. If you try to save someone you cannot, it will sink both of you.” This prompts Atsushi to internally question why Dazai chose to save him.

Essentially, Atsushi is being challenged as the absurdist protagonist. Kunikida is actually arguing on behalf of those who give in to the absurd reality. He basically says that the world sucks and we can’t save everyone, and while he has a point in terms of Atsushi’s self-preservation, he is ultimately suggesting that Atsushi give up on saving Kyouka because she’s a lost cause. 

This conflicts Atsushi, whose instinct is to help others — and as of right now, it is quite literally his reason for living. If he fails to save Kyouka, what does that make him? Especially after Dazai went out of his way to save Atsushi and give him a purpose. 

So what does Atsushi do? He stalls. He takes Kyouka out for a fun day in Yokohama rather than going straight to the military police as Kunikida ordered him to. It’s a rebellion against the idea that she’s beyond saving and serves as a reminder to the reader that Kyouka may be an assassin, but she’s also a thirteen-year-old, a rebellion against the absurd idea that a child should be sentenced to death.

Kyouka isn’t blind, though. She eventually leads Atsushi to the police station, intending to turn herself in… and then Akutagawa appears. 

Kyouka was bait. She won’t be punished for her betrayal, as this was the plan all along, unbeknownst to her. For Kyouka, it’s absurd — just when she thinks that she might be able to face her crimes by turning herself in, Akutagawa comes along to drag her back into the darkness. 

Meanwhile, Dazai has been “captured” by the Port Mafia and is locked in a dungeon, where Akutagawa comes to visit him (note that this takes place before Akutagawa sabotages Kyouka and Atsushi). 

This scene is the first time the connection between Akutagawa and Dazai is directly addressed, revealing that the latter trained the former during his time as a PM executive. Dazai very much slips back into his old ways here, criticizing Akutagawa harshly — complaining about how difficult he was, calling his ability useless, and claiming that Atsushi is ultimately better than him, goading Akutagawa into beating him multiple times. 

It’s interesting to see here how differently Dazai deals with Atsushi and Akutagawa, both his protogés. I don’t know for sure if he’s already planning to make them the new double black at this point, but I’d bet that he’s starting to. This is likely because at the current moment, Akutagawa’s reason for living is to impress Dazai, and Dazai knows this, so he’s trying to detach himself from being Akutagawa’s objective by pitting him against Atsushi.

I want to acknowledge here that while Dazai’s ultimate objective with Akutagawa is making him better, his methods are extremely dubious. While in the PM, he was verbally, physically, and psychologically abusive. Now, he tends to be more manipulative and cruel than anything else. This hits at the morally gray trend in BSD where no character is entirely “good” or “bad” — and this is reflective of the absurdity of our reality.

We try to assign black and white labels to everything, but that’s not how things work. Dazai can be striving to better Akutagawa, but use malicious, cruel methods to do so. This does not excuse his methodology, but can help us better understand his internal moral compass and character development. 

As always, please feel free to contribute to the discussion! Thanks for reading :>