#bsd arahabaki

[originalaccountname]

replacement suggestion for people who want the drama of Arahabaki being a voice in Chuuya's head that yearns for destruction and stuff (since canonically it has no thoughts or will of its own and is just raw power):

Picture our Nakahara "I do everything for my friends" Chuuya, Nakahara "with great power comes great responsibility" Chuuya, Nakahara "if I compartimentalize my trauma it can't hurt me" Chuuya.

Picture our guy so raw from using Corruption, or maybe not dealing as well as he thinks with his trauma, or maybe just really tired, or any moment of weakness where you'd want the Arahabaki whispers to kick in.

In those moments of weakness, the Bad Feelings get a hold of him: self-doubt, despair, anger, loneliness. It's so unusual for him to dwell on those things it might as well sound like someone else is feeding him those thoughts. Maybe it adds another layer of frustration. Maybe it does make him want to blow everything up, just to let off some of those feelings.

And maybe in that already bad state of mind, intrusive thoughts enter the field. Things he doesn't really want and things he would never do. Things that make him uncomfortable, things that scare him. He would be able to bring down the Port Mafia. He could kill all those random civilians. He could run away. He already has black holes at the tip of his fingers, he could just destroy everything and leave nothing behind.

And between the very real (but enhanced, put at the forefront) bad feelings and the persistant intrusive thoughts, things might get jumbled in his head. If missing departed friends is real, maybe wanting to get rid of those left is, too. If he's angry at how unfair things have been for him and his loved ones, blowing everything up might be a legitimate reaction. Maybe it really is what he wants? Perhaps that little voice, no matter how scary, is right?

In short: replace "Arahabaki" with "Chuuya's subconscious", for better and for worse. Not to quote Dazai, but: let Chuuya suffer as a human being. Let his struggles be tragically mundane and common.

(and for comfort there's nothing like bringing other people in for a reality check and ground him again)

[chuuya-fan-page]

Arahabaki is not a God

I know they said it was a God in Fifteen, I know I know I know, but it isn't. The Arahabaki in BSD is not a God by any means, it is simply named after a God.

In the Shinto religion, Arahabaki is the God of defiance and prowess, but the Arahabaki referred to in BSD is not that same God. In Fifteen we learn that Arahabaki has gained it's notoriety and name as the "god of destruction" due to the explosion that created Suribachi City, and the supposed attacks it has posed against forces such as the GSS and the Port Mafia. The "god of destruction" Arahabaki is an urban legend within the people who live in and around Suribachi City, based on the original God of defiance and prowess Arahabaki.

During the final battle between Rimbaud and Soukoku, Dazai asks the question "What is Arahabaki"

Dazai knows it's not a God, the legend of Arahabaki in Suribachi City has strayed too far from the original God, but even Rimbaud doesn't know.

The truth is revealed in Stormbringer, Arahabaki is not a god, but an ability singularity, a relatively new concept that is explained by N. An Ability Singularity, in the simplest terms, is an ability that has reached a point of infinite output. As N explains, there is no ability that can destroy the entire world, because they have a limiter to how much power can be put out through the ability, but an Ability Singularity does not have that limitation.

N also explains that whilst a singularity is typically created by having two abilities that contradict each other, or a contradictory singularity, there is also such thing as a self-contradictory singularity, or an ability that can become a singularity without interference of another ability.

That is what Arahabaki is, a self-contradictory singularity sealed via code within Chuuya's body. That is why Chuuya needs that chant, "O granters of dark disgrace" and all, to activate corruption, it is the initialisation code that opens the "seal" or "gate" that keeps Arahabaki, the ability singularity, contained.

Confusing, yes, but interesting.

Anyway, this is a PSA, Arahabaki is not a god, Chuuya does not have a god within him, stop calling it a god pretty please.

-T

[m-i-r-p]

Listen for obvious reasons, we are all freaking out, but like, I haven't seen anyone talking about Arahabaki in all of this.

Like, my man's a literal god of destruction, an almighty entity, feared and worshipped and what not, and one day he is just randomly squished into a freaking child who can actually resist him.

And THEN, the one time he can get out, he is stopped by A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD that looks like a twig, and this goes on until FINALLY THE TWIG DIES, and this would be great, except his VESSEL is being CONTROLLED by a vampiric lollipop WHO IS ALSO BEING CONTROLLED by a grandpa, a hyperactive clown and a rat that just took a bath in McDonald's oil frier.

Like imagine the shame. The embarrassment. I don't know if there are other gods in BSD but Arahabaki better hope there aren't because he is NOT living this down.

(Also technically, the death of said twig is bad for him too. Cause the only reason Chuuya unleashed Corruption was the knowledge Dazai would stop him.)

[dunnowho180125]

THEORY

I HAVE A THEORY ABOUT SKK AND ARAHABAKI!

So, Arahabaki is a god, but Chuuya’s ability doesn’t come from him or else why Verlaine would have the same? So, the ability and the god are two separate things.

(More than that, Arahabaki is the God of Destruction so what if corruption was the god boosting Chuuya’s ability?)

Dazai can nullifies abilities but (god Lovecraft theory), he can’t nullifies a god’s power.

Arahabaki voluntary disactives himself for Dazai.

[sodacanbones]

id like to apologize for drawing arahabaki as the most cliché hybrid of animals. i had a vision

[lamentfulwarbler]

Chuuya Week Day 4 - Human

(Drawn for @chuuyaweek2024 ‘s Chuuya Week)

[lavender-bundle-blithe]

modern au but is it really?

chuuya has recently moved to the countryside from the busy city, for the change of scenery but also because it's closer to the hospital that is looking after his twin brother. verlaine and rimbaud think it's a good idea, for a change of pace.

anyways chuuya goes through the notions of being the new kid from the city now in the quiet countryside with their dirt roads, hokura(small shrines found on the country roadsides), and rice fields, as well as neighbors a good walk away from his new home. he adjusts well, surprisingly. his friends at school who claim themselves to be called the flags, his neighbor who frequently visits who he found calling her ane-san. and since moving, he was able to visit his brother in the hospital more often, whose health has been progressing slowly but positively. baki's now able to walk with a cane, an upgrade from his wheelchair!

but he could tell that something was... different about this side of the country. he couldn't figure out what the feeling was. and when asking ane-san and the flags, they all deduce that he was simply getting used to the airy atmosphere the spirits brought, as if welcoming them. that same night, he could hair faint whistling amongst the gentle breeze and rustling treetops.

—————

it was any other day where chuuya found himself laying amongst the grass, enjoying the sun on his skin. then just a moment later, he hears a skitter. but when he looked over, there was nothing. thinking nothing of it, he resumed minding his own business. this happens for the next few minutes before chuuya just got tired and snapped his head over. only to see a white fox from the nose to tailtip.

with his phone in their jaws.

needless to say, chuuya gave chase after the animal who raced off, letting out loud squeals that sound as if it were laughing. but in this current scenario, chuuya felt-- no, knew-- it was mocking him. they ran all over the place; his open front yard, down through the streets (it didn't help that he people were out and about harvesting their fields, they have a front row seat to the spectacle happening before them. the flags, definitely), and through the forest brush.

after chasing the white speck of squealing fur for what felt like a lifetime, chuuya finally first through the forest and... into a small clearing. it physically made him stop to take in the sudden change of scenery, as one second ago it was purely forest. and now... there's a path that he could tell has been overun by the grass. he could barely see the stone slates that help make the path. at the edges of the clearing, small but prominent stones with shimenawa encircled the clearing. and just ahead of him, a rundown and unattended hokura, a small stone statue in the form of a fox with five tails. five? suddenly, he hears a mischievous snicker behind him, and he whips around, remembering what brought him on this wild goosechase.

only to be met twin white fox ears poking out the top of curly brown hair, a glint in heather brown eyes accompanied by a mischievous smirk, and five white tails behind them and their blue kimono.

oh, and his phone in their mouth.

[minced-mangoes]

Different flavours of Chuuya

I drew the different flavours of Chuuya.

Basically Anime him, what he was probably meant to look like, a well accepted fanon ver, and holy shit it's Arahabaki as a bonus

[crimson0lake]

BSD: One Time Sanity Masterlist

WARNINGS: this series contains: swears, gore, blood, weapons, guns, knives, manipulation, toxic behaviour, deaths, angst, mentions of abuse, memory loss. More triggers can be added or changed chapters to chapters

A.n: not all chapters can have the same warnings, be sure to check the warnings before reading. If you feel uncomfortable with anything in the warnings, please do not interact.

_______________________________________

>Intro

>Prologue

>Chapter-1

>Chapter-2

[leodehurlvant]

The poor transcendents don’t know their ship sinked 7 years ago

[originalaccountname]

Sorry to bother you but I’ve been getting into BSD and Chuuya’s my fave, but I’ve been seeing some contradictory things in fanfic so…

Does Chuuya actually have a god sealed inside him? I thought it was just like his power without limitations and was dubious of those takes, but since eldritch beings can apparently be a thing (and not an ability), I think it could be plausible either way.

Though even if it’s not I can see why people would use that route for some good angst.

This is not a bother at all! This is something I very much like to talk about

if you're really new I do recommend you go read both "Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen Years Old" and "STORM BRINGER" light novels (but SB especially), not only are they great books with Chuuya as the focal point but they will help answer your question in depth (you can buy the English translations but I can help you find the translation online if that's what you need, just message me again)

The short version is that Arahabaki being an actual god, a separate entity from Chuuya that has a personality/a voice/desires, is a common fanon trope, but not a canon fact. The truth is more complex and much more fun, lore-wise, in my opinion

And now the long version, because I'm passionate about this and this is my excuse to deep dive into it (spoilers for Fifteen)

In Fifteen, Chuuya says this:

Chuuya himself presents "Arahabaki" as nothing more than pure power. No thoughts, no personality, but powerful for sure.

That phrasing in Fifteen created a lot of confusion I think, talking about gods as real but also not:

But I think it's more of a symbolic reference, talking about immense power that seem out of this world. Because in practice, as Chuuya said before, "Arahabaki" is simply raw power, not an entity. You can't pray to it, it can't understand you, it can't perform miracles (which is why he knew the Old Boss couldn't have been brought back by Arahabaki and it was all nonsense from the start)

I'm also putting part of the blame on the anime, where they decided (while not being exactly wrong either, out of context it's weird) to illustrate Chuuya "floating in a bluish-black darkness, surrounded by a transparent seal" and being pulled out by a hand:

like this:

When, if you actually reread that part in the novel with knowledge about Storm Bringer, it's actually this moment that was being referred to:

Which brings us to Storm Bringer! (heavy spoilers I'm serious)

"Project Arahabaki" was the Japanese government's attempt to create an ability weapon from an individual. They wanted to craft a singularity that could be used multiple times, thus granting them access to power that should not be accessible normally. They based their research on what France had discovered through Verlaine. The objective is to create a massive energy output through a self-contradicting ability, for which you need a vessel:

Chuuya is the device. "Arahabaki" is the massive energy. That massive energy can control gravity to the point of being able to create localized black holes! N implied that part of the lab's work for the Arahabaki Project was to modify Chuuya's body to be able to withstand the constant gravity effects on it so he doesn't just die. Chuuya's normal use of his ability doesn't seem to have any drastic effects on him, and his physical resilience (to getting hit, stabbed, poisoned, shot, electrocuted, to going through a black hole) does seem to imply they did succeed at least in part.

And this bit here explains why "Arahabaki" was the chosen name for the project; unexplained phenomena across History that can be linked to an ability going haywire, but were attributed to god-like interventions at the time. So you're a funny little mad scientist, you read research papers from another mad scientist that named their own creation after a mythological monster, and you decide to do the same with your own local folklore.

But!

There's still something to be said about how "Arahabaki" is a singularity, and therefore, has its own set of rules. Chuuya does loose control, Chuuya does regress to a sort of destructive instinct while under Corruption. But "Arahabaki" is still no more than an ability singularity. Here's what is said about Guivre and Arahabaki:

They are both singularity life-forms. They exist because they are singularities; outside of it, they are nothing. The inner workings of abilities are still mysterious, but most of them have a link to their wielder's desires. For example, Atsushi's Tiger is there to protect him, a mirror to his will to live no matter what. Verlaine's Guivre is similar:

Guivre was a beast born out of Verlaine's loneliness and resulting hatred. He felt deeply alone in not feeling/being human, and through Pan's (his "creator") special "programming" of Verlaine's ability, N was able to trigger the true form of his singularity with that flare gun and metal powder, which took the form of Guivre. It's what the hat was supposed to prevent, but Verlaine had already lost it by then.

Chuuya's Arahabaki is probably similar. Its first apparition was when Rimbaud tried to absorb him and use his ability for himself, and any subsequent use is linked to grief and survival. Basically, if they're their own entities, they are still born in a specific context and deeply linked to the original ability user's character. And Arahabaki? Only exists if Chuuya uses his activation phrase to get rid of the limitations put into place to prevent him from exploding:

More about about Corruption: SB is kind enough to give us an explanation on how the nullification process works, right here:

Chuuya's self-contradicting ability makes him able to control gravity through the sheer amount of energy it creates by permanently interacting with itself. It is kept under control through the use of an activation phrase, O grantors of dark disgrace, do not wake me again, which, after being either said or thought by Chuuya, will open his "Gate" (which I'm interpreting as a blocker put in place by the lab so the singularity doesn't just kill him, like those poor people they mentioned existed through History), and by opening it, "free Arahabaki's true power" (aka Corruption). When Dazai uses his ability on him, the base self-contradicting ability is nullified, which cancels out the singularity taking place, which stops Corruption and allows that "Gate" to close again. The red markings are there because they're cool and fun.

To conclude, I'll let Dazai do the honors:

bonus: what does that mean for Chuuya's ability?

bons 2: Perceived timeline of Chuuya's past and what happened to to create confusion around his humanity

[pinkisacreativecolour]

Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?

….

That could.

[dunnowho180125]

Skk headcanon #6

After a while of Chuuya and Arahabaki living together in the same body, they started to be able to communicate in words. It did gave them both a headache but they still did it. That’s why they both liked No Longer Human, because it let them go into their own worlds. It’s why Chuuya sleep better with Dazai and why Arahabaki let him nullifies corruption.

Arahabaki also likes to tell comments to Chuuya about Dazai that can range to “Don’t forget to pick up crab for Dazai” to “That b*tch touched him, kill her”.

[staledirt87]

Even as a god Chuuya is described as small

[nightlight-stardust-and-rain]

Mmmh. Okay okay okay so... I'm actually fascinated by the arahabaki thing. Like really. I think it would be really interesting if Chuuya had some characteristics that made him... Weird. Not inhuman, because he is very human fuck you very much, but just... Weird.

So. List of headcanons about the consequences of having a god sealed inside you.

Chuuya doesn't dream. Like, at all. Doesn't have nightmares either. Sleep is just sleep (sometimes he thinks about dreams and then he's pretty relieved that he can't dream because he has seen the kind of nightmares that people in the mafia have).

Eyes very subtly glow in the dark. It's only apparent in complete darkness so no one knows about it. He's got a slightly better than average night vision.

Chuuya can purr! It's pretty cute and Kouyou absolutely pets his hair to make him purr. It's relaxing.

Can hear the kind of sounds that dogs hear. He's very careful to not let Dazai find that out because if he did, Chuuya would likely die of exasperation by dog whistle. (he doesn't likes the association with dogs but he did gave Kouyou, Akutagawa, Gin and Kyoka dog whistles just in case they're in danger and need help)

You know how humans actually glow in the dark but we can't see it? Well, Chuuya glows way more than your average person. But it's still not enough to see to the naked eye so no one knows about it. Also you know how said glowing has a pattern, looks like stripes? Well Chuuya's pattern looks like the marks of Corruption.

Animals love him which he finds confusing because you'd think a god of destruction would scare animals, not attract them. Amusingly, this attraction also works on Rashomon, who is basically in love with Chuuya. Akutagawa is very embarassed by his coat. Chuuya thinks it's cute :) he gives Rashomon treats sometimes.

Slightly pointier than normal teeth. Mori, Kouyou and Dazai are the only ones who really noticed that (And Dazai knows about it because Chuuya bit him once and it did more damage than planned)

Just slightly enhanced senses all around, which can lead to sensory overload, but it sure is useful.

Can feel when people are looking at him, like needles on his skin. He's not sure if this is a god-sealed-inside-me thing or a martial artist thing tho....

He gets lots of freckles after activating Corruption, like a person spending hours in the sun. It's weird.

Sometimes if you look at Chuuya from the very corner of your eyes you can sort of see glowing red marks on his face, but then you look at him outright and there's nothing here.

If you record Chuuya speaking, there will be a sort of weird tone to his voice, as if another voice, deeper, higher, weirder, was layered on top of his. He doesn't like when his voice his recorded (Kouyou recorded him once when he was singing and the result was pretty spectacular. But in a good way, si she kept the recording).

When he's genuinely angry he actually really sees red. Like, as if he was wearing red-tinted glasses.

He gets a feeling that can be summarized as "????" when he steps into a religious place. As if the place was trying to recognize him and his instincts were trying to recognize the place but neither succeeded so there's confusion on both sides. His relationship with religious places is mutual confusion, and he doesn't like it.

Chuuya can actually growl, which is very intimidating actually.

He has a very weird, very limited kind of synesthesia - when he sees the color red, he can taste the very specific taste of Corruption in his mouth. It's not exactly a bad taste so it's okay. It's just weird.

He has a faster than normal metabolism - he burns through drugs and alcohol pretty fast (which is pretty useful) but he also needs more food than someone his size should.

Chuuya's presence just unsettles people sometimes? Like they can feel there's something bigger and stronger than them in the room. Prey instinct activated!

I can't think of others subtle supernatural signs, but please add more! I would like to see what you think :)

[hopelessbluebird]

i will never stop pushing my God of calamity Arahabaki (in the form of a fox) Godess of protection/guardian deity Byakko (tigress) agendas

yes i know that they aren’t canon but hey it’s a thought