#bsd untold origins

[originalartblog]

now that Untold Origins is out, I would like to take a moment to mourn all of Fukuzawa's inner yelling that didn't make it into the anime

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Dazai and Odasaku have a fascinating connection I never noticed before, their views on killing for justice.

Dazai Osamu's entrance exam

He looked far off into the distance. “The phrase ‘seeking justice’ is a weapon. Once it hurts the weak, it can no longer be a force of good. This justice the Azure King sought was what killed Sasaki.”

The untold origins of the armed detective agency

“Justice,” said the hit man. “I can understand killing for money or because you hated someone, but they’re killing for justice. I don’t want to get involved with a group like that. After they’re done killing for their justice, they’ll only continue to kill. They’ll just stop caring who they’re killing.”

It's very interesting that two characters who both have no issue with killing people and have killed hundreds themselves see the incredible danger of "killing for justice"

Killing for greed, killing for revenge, killing for boredom... all of these are personal things, they stay focused on the person who's doing the killing, but if you kill because you think it's right, then you will seek out more people to kill unendingly "Their religion is heresy", "Their whole country is evil", "They don't respect my authority" and soon even people who have done nothing wrong are killed because "they could be a threat later"

The moment you justify killing, you can never stop, there will always be more criminals who deserve to die, and soon it won't matter if they deserved it or not.

[strayingsocks]

the scrunkle

[almostoreghano]

Fukuzawa x child!reader x child!ranpo

Note: In case you were wondering why he’s so rigid around you and Ranpo, this is a younger Fukuzawa. If you read the Untold Origins light novel he literally thinks of 50 ways to get rid of Ranpo.

————————————————————————-

Fukuzawa didn’t know at what point he began to regret every decision that led him to this point in his life. Was it back at the crime scene, when you and Ranpo kicked down the door of the Presidents office? Was it when he watched you two obliterate your red bean porridge?

Whenever it was, all he wanted was to reclaim the calming silence that broke ties with him as soon as he offered to look after you two.

The trio had reached Fukuzawa’s house. It was an old home—it wasn’t very big, but big enough for a man and the little gremlins that followed him. He managed to keep them distracted with unsolved mysteries until night fell over Yokohama, by suggestion of his guide to raising 5 year olds

“You can sleep in this room tonight and I’ll put you in another room,” Fukuzawa said in his usual collected way.

You and Ranpo nodded, for the first time that day, holding back any snarky remarks. Fukuzawa helped you both set up your futons, before retiring to his own room.

As he was about to start changing, he heard little feet running towards his door. He turned around to find you standing there with a cold stare.

“I need a something to listen to,” you said blankly, as if he should have known this despite only meeting you today. You were about to express more grievances, when Ranpo ran up behind you.

“I can’t sleep in the dark,” he whined. Neither of you were blood related, but you managed to hold the exact same expression. Fukuzawa sighed , placing his hand in his head.

Without saying anything he led you both back to your bedrooms, grabbing a nightlight for Ranpo and a small radio for you on the way. He returned to his room, and attempted to begin changing again.

Before he undid the first button, little feet were once again heard stomping towards his door.

“Can you sit with me?” You said quietly. Before Fukuzawa could send you back to your room, Ranpo once again appeared behind you as if summoned.

Feeling the discomfort of these two gremlins staring into his soul catching up to him, he complied.

“You’re a patient old guy, y’know?” You said while staring at the ceiling. Ranpo chimes in, but Fukuzawa was too overcome by tiredness to respond in fear that it would only be met with a snarky remark from the other. He sat there with them for what felt like an hour until silence filled the room.

Being to caught up in the subtle excitement that the two had calmed down, he foolishly believed that he would finally be able to get some rest.

Fukuzawa quietly closed the door, not bothering to take Ranpo back to his own room. He quickly changed into his night clothes and peaked out of his room to make sure the duo had not followed him back.

He slipped into his futon, recounting the days events. He’d been through a lot, meeting new people, vowing to himself that he would never grow closer to them beyond knowing their name. But here he was, his daily routine suddenly taking a drastic turn, having two brats children to look after.

His stream of thoughts was suddenly interrupted when he felt someone place their head on his chest.

His eyes flew open. He looked to his side to find that you had somehow snuck into his room with your blanket. You cling onto his shirt.

“There’s something in my room, I know it!” You whimpered. He was going to point out that the extra scary presence was Ranpo but decided against it. Before he could move, Ranpo appeared at the door.

Perhaps he could hear his thoughts, Fukuzawa thought to himself. Without saying a word, Ranpo crawled onto Fukuzawa’s right side. The man sighed to himself, realising there was no escaping his current predicament. If it was a predicament.

I’m too soft*, he thought to himself. He could’ve kicked them both to the curb, but whether or not he’d be able to sleep at night was the problem.

It was quiet before you raised your head to look him in the eyes. Fukuzawa knew what was coming and before you had the chance to even sign, he got up and retrieved the radio and nightlight he had placed in yours and Ranpos room.

As soon as he laid back down, you and Ranpo cuddled up to him closer than he would’ve liked, but of course accepted it.

“Fukuzawa-san,” you said in a hushed voice, notably the quietest voice you’ve used all day.

“Hm?” He responded. He waited for you to speak up again, but was met with the joint small snores from the children on either side of him.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Teenage Chuuya fighting primarily with his legs and keeping his hands in his pockets.

Teenage Oda fighting Fukuzawa with his legs as his hands are cuffed behind his back.

One who enjoys the thrill of the fight. One who only cares for the kill.

[beans-beneath-moonlight]

I feel like the anime didn't explore it as much as the light novel (since they left out pretty much all the backstory about Ranpo's parents and why he was raised the way he was plus a few important panels from his call with Mushitaro), but Ranpo basically spent the first 14 years of his life thinking he was stupid and that there was something wrong with him because everyone always got angry and he never understood why, so surely it must be his fault, right?

Fukuzawa may have helped him see the truth, but Ranpo's switch between "why can't I understand, there's something wrong with me" and "everyone else is the problem, I'm the best" is pretty much instant but to me it feels like the one he's really trying to convince is himself. Finally figuring out what's going on doesn't just instantly erase fourteen years of self-esteem issues and feeling like everyone hates you.

I think that's why he's so desperate for praise, because he hardly ever got any and needs that confirmation that he's doing something right, and why he's so scared of not being good enough for the Agency, to the point where he frequently puts himself in dangerous situations if he thinks it will be helpful. Because after his parents died, everyone, even Fukuzawa at first, wanted nothing to do with him once they got to know him, and it wasn't until he started to use his talent to help people that that changed. To him, being useful is what made people finally start to like him, and he's afraid that if he's not useful enough, he'll go back to being hated again.

[cousticks]

reminder that pre-agency fukuzawa invented the resting bitch face and also jaywalking

Fukuzawa looked extremely surly that day. The weekend crowd rolled back like the tide as he strode down the avenue. Even cars stopped as he walked across the pedestrian crossing, even though their light was green. All of this was due to the sullen aura radiating from his expression.

[carbonateds-oda]

no cuz in dark era oda kept referring to dazai as being above him in terms of mafia hierarchy and when he calls dazai for help and mentions the silver oracle cuz he remembered that dazai’s an executive and that makes him his subordinate dazai immediately is like dw abt it u don’t even need to do that I’ll help u anyway and also the whole interaction dazai had w mori abt not understanding why he wanted to save him but ultimately trying anyway despite it going against everything he was taught to be cuz he was his friend and he needed help and that was enough of a reason to go

i swear i wanted to weep whenever oda told fukuzawa he was jealous of the fact that he was willing to put aside his principles to save his subordinate like he did eventually manage to find someone who was willing to do the same for him but it was too late anyway and I’m just !! in shambles now !!

oda needed dazai just as much as dazai needed him and ugh I’m gonna cry istg I can’t fucking do this shit anymore

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

There's a passage from Untold Origins that is really interesting to me, and it's the part that occurs when Fukuzawa and Ranpo are watching the play.

"What was unique about this play was that it mentioned the existence of skill users. Revealing their existence wasn’t prohibited, but there was a darkness that surrounded it... Not many people knew of their existence outside of rumors and fairy tales; thus, a play that included one of them was an anomaly. Due to these circumstances, the skill user was depicted in good taste but as total fiction.

One skill per person.

Some could freely use their skill, while others were uncontrollable and happened automatically.

While some people were born with skills, others suddenly developed theirs.

Skills do not always make the possessor happy.

The characters in the play were searching for a skill user who fit these rules."

What's interesting is that some of these rules, despite allegedly being total fiction, actually appear to be somewhat true from what we've seen. Abilities definitely do not always make the user happy - they appear to be more neutral unless exploited. Some abilities are wielded with astounding control and others are always active (Dazai), appear to have something of a consciousness (Fyodor), or are controlled by someone else's orders (Kyouka, Tsujimura). (Not including Chuuya because Corruption is the release of a singularity and those follow wildly different rules. Abilities like Gab are also too unusual to include.)

We don't know if people can be born with abilities. Indeed, this one might be false - people seem to be born with a potential to activate an ability (likely a genetic one) but it appears most have to undergo some kind of stressor or trauma to activate it. So, the play is likely incorrect about this.

It's the first one though that gives me pause. We've only seen one ability per person, that's true. ...or have we?

When I was writing all the information up on the Book in this post here, I mentioned how Atsushi's pale crystal was already outside his body the moment he transformed into the tiger for the first time. Can ability crystals even exist in pre-ability users before their ability even activates? Even if they could, Shibusawa, enamoured with the crystal, was totally shocked and terrified when Atsushi started to transform, implying that this wasn't an expected outcome in the slightest. We see another pale crystal, Dazai's, but when it starts to turn red after being removed from him, Shibusawa, suddenly anguished, realizes it wasn't the ability he'd been looking for. It was Atsushi's, which notably didn't change colour. But the tiger's ability crystal was red like everyone else's.

"One ability per person"? Or is it possible that Atsushi has not only the tiger, but also a latent ability we don't know about yet?

Anyways, I'm probably wrong about this and it was just that Atsushi's pure force of anime boy willpower pulled the ability back into himself, but I'm just saying there are reasonable grounds to suspect Atsushi might have two abilities.

[dazaistabletop]

Wait

Wait hold up so next week we're getting

We're getting-

We're getting this scene

[tacky-sugar]

That's a normal response to Dazai, yeah.

[note-boom]

Watching the latest BSD episode and Odasaku just basically summarizing the whole themes of the Decay of Angels story arc with his whole speech about how those who kill under a pretext of a great cause are fated to kill indiscriminately as opposed to those who kill for some obviously selfish cause...

Like okay, sure...

[strayingsocks]

i love them i am so excited to see the light novel being adapted (i'm gonna cry when we see ranpo's meltdown)

[astrojanus]

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY, FUKUZAWA !!! ❤️ i just really love those AUs where he adopts Both ranpo and odasaku

[beans-beneath-moonlight]

I can't believe they left out the part with Ranpo shit-talking seagulls

[monarchamos]

it’s so silly how untold origins is the only bsd light novel that gets me to cry. Every time. Like, not stormbringer, not dark era, NO it’s the silly little story about Fukuzawa bringing light back into ranpo’s world, helping the boy see a little clearer, and accidentally adopting him 😭😭😭 it gets me every time man