#𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : wake me from this oxidizing world of a dream / character study.

[finalism]

" in the beginning there was nothing but darkness. if you ask me, the light is winning. "

there was a section of the annihilation gang who believed they could kill an aeon. what better way to follow the path of destruction than to fell a god? so they targeted the peaceful ix of nihility thinking it would be easy. aha gave them power thinking it would be fun. with the power of an aeon at their backs, they went to slay the impossible.

there were fireworks, yes, but not in the way they had hoped. meaninglessness is like a thick blanket, suffocating anyone it can reach. this goal is meaningless. life is meaningless. the entire universe is meaningless. they were never heard from again and the path of nihility is still being followed. people simply made their own assumptions from that.

but assumptions can only lead one so far. what truly happened out there in the void of space is forever lost if not for one person. because you see, ix was hurt. not that the aeon felt it, but a small piece of itself was ripped from the whole. new life was created on that day.

dazai osamu is a piece of ix separated from the aeon, wandering aimlessly with no point to his life. being made of the same stuff as ix, he cannot be killed by conventional means and so he continues to look for a way to end his meaningless existence.

he holds the power of ix within himself, though on a much smaller scale. he is the closest thing to an emanator of nihility that we have seen. dazai has the power to nullify the abilities of others and diminish their will to live. however, this can only be done through touch.

through his own life experiences, he has a separate type of nihilistic philosophy from ix. nothing in the world lasts forever; everything is meaningless. therefore, why abide to such things as laws or some sense of morality when none of it matters? dazai enjoys life unburdened by law or societal norms.

this always means he's a great collaborator with criminals since he has no sense of right or wrong. he has worked with the stellaron hunters in many of their missions to steal away stellarons. killing, stealing, maiming, he'll do anything as long as he finds enjoyment out of it.

ironically, this makes his ideals align closely with those of elation. dazai doesn't like the masked fools only because aha's powers trigger the traumatic memories of his birth. he tries to give them a wide birth if he can.

no one knows if his true identity. however, aeons and their emanators can sense his tie to ix on some level.

[finalism]

so like, no longer human is kinda weird, right? (very long post below)

by this point i have consumed almost all canon bsd media (the whole manga, anime 6/8 light novels etc) and i have noticed that there are some interesting inconsistencies with how dazai's ability works. now, i know that all abilities are basically mcguffins for plot points in some way or another but i don't think there is an ability used in this capacity as much as no longer human is.

and really, the average reader should just leave it there and enjoy the media for what it is. but i'm crazy and i love overanalyzing the muses i write so i'm going to try and break down no longer human and write out the true succinct rules of this ability.

let's start with the concrete rules we know about no longer human first:

it can nullify any and all abilities, no exceptions

dazai cannot turn off his ability

he nullifies through touch

so the first point is pretty strict but this allows us to glean some information about other characters through this.

when kyouka first appears, she is able to grab dazai and use her ability to capture him. now, we don't know how kyouka took him to the port mafia. she could have simply threatened him with demon snow and he followed along with her (hence how he let himself get captured). but how did kyouka even summon her ability in the first place if she had grabbed onto him? you can explain this by the fact that demon snow was still controlled by the phone and therefore kyouka was not the source of the ability.

guivre became something more than an ability. if he were something like corruption, dazai could have just nullified it and stopping the rampaging gravity godzilla from destroying all of japan. this is definitely one of those moments where the answer is 'because plot' since this was chuuya's story and chuuya had to overcome verlaine on both a physical and emotional level. but realistically, guivre is a big, slow moving monster that dazai has said multiple times in storm bringer could kill him (pages 278, 293).

could it be that singularities affect no longer human differently? it would explain how creating a singularity in beast allows dazai to connect the fragmented worlds in the book. but why can he still nullify corruption? maybe this is because the singularity is contained within a physical body, whereas guivre was a being of pure gravitational force created by verlaine's singularity. these are the only instances in which dazai has come in contact with a singularity so there is nothing yet to refute that no longer human works differently with singularities.

that brings us to the second point. this one has not been broken but i would like to bring up something about this rule that i just love to remind people. dazai is not part of all men are equal because he cannot turn off his ability to allow himself to be connected to it.

now this brings us to the third point where most of the inconsistencies come from. because it is shown that the concept of touch is defined with whatever asagiri feels like at the time.

let me give you some contradicting examples:

in the day i picked up dazai (side a), oda is able to use flawless in order to see when pursuers shoot dazai in the chest in order protect him from the oncoming attack. for now, this is a fan translation so take this with a grain of salt but it does mention how oda sees the blood bloom on dazai's chest from the bullet to confirm that he was using his ability on dazai and not the bullet. okay, that's fine because oda was not touching dazai. however, earlier dazai notes that he wasn't worried about oda cheating in cards because abilities don't work on him even though he wasn't making physical contact with oda then (oda was using his ability on the cards, not on dazai).

he didn't need to touch the number ability user in dazai's entrance exam; it simply did not work on him.

dazai was not affected by draconia / can nullify rashomon simply by coming in contact with the cloth / was not affected by the gun created by the matchless poet. this means that dazai does not need to touch the ability user in order to nullify tangible abilities.

in meursault, chuuya was able to use his ability to stop the elevator dazai was in so he wouldn't fall to his death. in addition, gogol was able to use the overcoat to bust dazai out of prison by surrounding dazai with his ability but not allowing it to touch him. so this means that if there is a material between dazai and the ability, then he cannot nullify it.

however, he could still nullify the grapes of wrath while touching steinbeck on his clothed shoulder.

okay, but here is the kicker and the reason i'm writing this whole thing.

in the dazai, chuuya, age fifteen light novel, the way chuuya is able to defeat rimbaud is by wrapping himself in garland that dazai is holding the other end of. because dazai was touching the garland, that cloth carried his ability to nullify and essentially created armor for chuuya against the onslaught of illuminations. like, HUH??? this flies in the face of everything we know about dazai's ability.

i have a feeling asagiri retconned this, which is why the 15 arc in the anime is so different and we know that asagiri is consulted on the anime. this would also explain why the anime-only hand holding scene is shown in the manga during chapter 101. but what if i don't retcon this? would that break how dazai's ability works irrevocably? i don't think it would.

here are the real rules of no longer human

it can nullify any and all abilities, no exceptions

singularities interact different with no longer human

dazai cannot turn off his ability

all abilities are nullified immediately upon contact with the ability user

touching tangible abilities like rashomon or the matchless poet is enough to nullify it

materials like doors, elevators, etc do not carry his ability through them

cloth carries his ability. this includes clothes and bandages

abilities meant to affect other people do not affect him; abilities meant to affect the user still work on him. this is why flawless works on dazai but something like the number ability does not.

so that's it! these are all the findings i know of where dazai's ability doesn't work precisely how it's described as. but i think with these rules, we have a more cohesive understanding of how no longer human actually works and the rules it follows.

[finalism]

WHAT POISONOUS FLOWER ARE YOU?

OLEANDER

This is the poison of stagnation. You grow drowsy. Your heart rate slows, and when you do move you can't seem to stop shaking. It may seem to others that you're lazy, or reticent. Like you avoid hard work on purpose, like you always take the easy way out. But you know deep down that it wouldn't be like this if you weren't so tired, so deeply tired. If you weren't crushed under the weight of sorrow like a mile of water over your head. Nothing brings you peace, except rest and-- though you can hardly dare to ask-- having someone tend to you gently and sweetly. A good gardener speaks to their plants, sings to them, waters them, fertilizes their soil, prunes the dead parts, nurtures the new growth. You yearn to be cared for like that, even though you feel you don't deserve it. The secret is that you do. You always have. And someday, you'll learn that, and receive that care, and the exhaustion won't keep you from growing strong and lovely anymore. You were never the problem. These are simply poor growing conditions for you.

Tagged By : @chaosbled

Tagging : steal it

[finalism]

dazai tag dump

𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : flowers of buffoonery / ic. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : no longer human / visage. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : wake me from this oxidizing world of a dream / character study. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : memorized script / musings. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : the ones who save orphans / ada verse. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : your blood is mafia black / dark era verse. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : red right hand / doa verse. 𝐝𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢 : and when the devil was dead he took the throne of hell for himself / kitsugi verse.