Why They So Pretty.

The heartless cur, with heart ablaze

a sskk psychoanalitic canonical angst poem by yours truly!

Summary:

A question, rid of doubt, Met a spirit most devout. “Just the two of us?” he pondered, Yet conviction never faltered.

A poem from Knight Akutagawa's POV, a dive through his mind and heart during the events of chapter 119 onward, until the post-credits scene of S5.

Read on ao3, here clicky.

Or if you prefer here:

A knight reborn with purpose clear,

To rid the world of death and fear.

He strikes with newfound resolve,

For the sins of man to be absolved.

Until he hears a panicked voice,

Begging him to make a choice.

To save himself from slaughter

And protect his treasured daughter.

And his hand shall not be reckless,

If he wants to free the helpless.

But his prowess would be bested

By a creature most detested,

A mortal turned a god,

A truly wicked fraud.

In the vile vessel’s grasp,

With a faint and muted gasp,

He falls a pray to beast

Who’d relish in his feast

Of cursed souls, corrupt;

A pure world to construct.

A sudden slash would catch his eye,

The strangest phrase, perhaps a lie.

Till he’s pinned aghast in place

By an almost tender gaze.

Eyes that have entrapped the sunset,

Bearing not an inkling of regret.

Familiar words, a recognition

Of a far forgotten mission.

A sacrifice, his heart ablaze

For companion he couldn’t chase.

A scream tearing through space,

Through time and pain’s embrace.

A heartless cur.

Mind a blur.

In need to be stronger -

Mayhap no longer.

Trust. Sincerity.

Become a Singularity.

Shared affection, 

Mutual protection.

A feeling unnamed,

That couldn’t be tamed.

But now left fractured and torn,

For he just lost half his soul.

. . .

The fight was cruel, frightening, 

Enough to send him spiraling,

Grasping at the memory

Of a long forgotten enemy.

A shadow of the past,

That wasn’t meant to last.

But now a close companion

He wouldn’t dare abandon,

Not until his cursed lungs

Have sung their final verse. 

He swore he would protect him

From the fate forever grim - 

To be a weapon of destruction,

Devoid of human function.

The knight revealed his shield

Amidst the haunting barren field.

Soft-spoken words of reassurance,

To preserve his friend’s endurance.

A question, rid of doubt,

Met a spirit most devout.

“Just the two of us?” he pondered,

Yet conviction never faltered.

“Do we need any more?”

To win this godforsaken war.

They were bonded as a pair

In a world most unfair.

But through love unshaken, trust,

The devil shall be turned to dust.

Right now is such a great time to be a bsd fan. I feel like we're currently getting everything I've been wanting and more:

Sskk are facing a conflict that only they can handle. Not skk, not Ranpo and the ADA. Only Atsushi and Akutagawa can pull off a battle against Amenogozen

A ton of information about Atsushi's role, abilities as the bookmark, and even his hallucinations

Atsushi gaining a better understanding of Akutagawa through not only finding out about his past but witnessing his memories of it from his perspective

Dazai-Headmaster parallels for daaaays

Akutagawa has not coughed once

This is all the culmination of so much. Sskk will truly come out of this stronger than ever and I am so so hyped for it

Sskk's daughter

Her character profile;

Name: Akutagawa Shiori

Name origin: she's the only bsd ship kid I made without an actual name origin 🙏 I made Shiori a long time ago (I've been a sskk enthusiast for an ungodly amount of time), I think I just looked up female Japanese names and picked Shiori bc of the "shi" in it being like the "shi" in Atsushi lol. So yeah there's not really any meaning behind her name

Gender: female, she/her

Family: Ryuunosuke, Atsushi, Hiroshi (older brother)

Ability name: Demon Under the Moonlight 

Ability description: it's basically Atsushi's ability, except she's got grey fur with black stripes. Also in exchange for regeneration, she can manipulate her tiger tail similarly to Rashomon, where it can extend or sharpen. She does turn into a weretiger during the full moon, but they had Dazai deal with that, until Fukuzawa hired her at 14 for an "apprentice detective" spot at the Agency, where Fukuzawa's ability took care of the problem 

Age: 16

Height: 5'5

Occupation(s): student, apprentice detective at the Agency

Likes: chazuke, cats, figs, springtime, ice skating, reading

Dislikes: mandarin oranges, dolls, cigarettes, the smell of blood

Birthday: April 2nd 

Hair color(s): black and white

Eye color(s): silver (right eye), gold and purple (left eye)

~~

I'm horrible at digital art so please excuse the poorly skilled drawing, but the first picture is Shiori in color, the second is just a random doodle and the third is the original draft. I will be drawing her brother soon, but anyways, here's Sskk's daughter! I hope you like her (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)

Her birthday is April 2nd because it's exactly between March 1st (Akutagawa's birthday) and May 5th (Atsushi's birthday) lol. Her design is a little crazy, but please know that Atsushi is the one who cuts her hair and that's why it's that horrendous 😔

Shiori is kind and nice, but is usually tactless/blunt and can be really cold when she wants to be. Don't get on her bad side lmao

(regarding this whole "bsd ship kids" series, you're probably wondering how tf any of these very-much-not-biologically-possible characters are here, and since this whole series is just for fun, I don't really care on the answer; I decided on there just being an ability user who can give people children despite gender. Also in terms of abilities for the kids, they will either be mashups of their parent's abilities, or just something similar to their themes, I'm not the most creative person in the world lol. Once again, please don't take any of this too seriously and also ignore my crappy art)

Skk is next :]

Little guy 🧡

No, for real though. I'm thinking about Atsushi having some real case of separation anxiety from Akutagawa after the doa events. Before, he would have never, ever expected that losing Akutagawa would have effected him; but the days following his death, before they met again and before Akutagawa came back, where a new hell he never experienced before. Feeling like half of him was physically, violently teared from him, struggling to cope, trying to get used to live with the feeling of missing a piece of himself. A wound his ability can't regenerate no matter how much he irrationally prays for it to. And when Akutagawa is back, like a dream, like a miracle, the idea of losing him again is something debilitating and terrifying Atsushi just can't tolerate. He can't leave his side for even one instant. He wakes up lost and terrified searching around for Akutagawa because he fell again in the nightmare of living in a world where he isn't there. Just yeah

I'm aware my art isn't very popular or anything lol but please pick which kid you'd want to see me draw the most<3 (I'm also aware every kid on this list beside Kenjikyou's would be biologically impossible but uhh let's say there's just some ability user or whatever who can let two men have kids or smth, idk I'm here to draw not to have logic mk 😔)

I'll also name the kid and give them a bit of a story when I end up drawing whoever they are :>

FUNNIEST FRAME IN THE WHOLE BSD

Akutagawa out there facing the divine being alone… either atsushi does something from the inside to stop him or we get to see Akutagawa crash out of the century

Help imagine married sskk 😭

Atsushi: Ryuu honey can you do the dishes

Akutagawa: I already did them last night

Atsushi *with his hands on his hips*: I did not get stabbed by Amenogozen to save you just to have a lazy husband. Now go do the dishes

Like there's not even much of a joke here I just love what married sskk in their happily ever after would be like. They'd be so imperfectly perfect, and also it'd be funny to see them bicker, especially with their pasts

Do you think there's a chance that Shin Soukoku could become canon? I know that Bungou Stray Dogs isn't primarily a romance anime, among other things, but do you think it's possible?

Yep, I think it's possible

I usually give essay-long replies on Sskk anon asks lmao but I'll be short

I think the possibility *of* sskk becoming canon is low, mainly just because Bsd isn't a romance manga/anime

But I think if it *did* become canon it would make a lot of sense. Their dynamic already has a lot of romantic undertones to it, so I think if one day Asagiri made it canon, it would not feel forced or anything at all. It would feel natural because I mean, they just go so well together

There's a chance it'll be canon, there's always been a chance, but it's probably not that high. It's possible, but we'll just have to wait and see