Some People Genuinely Believe Chuuya Thinks Of Dazai As Inhuman And That's Bewildering To Me. Time For

Some people genuinely believe Chuuya thinks of Dazai as inhuman and that's bewildering to me. Time for me to activate my autism and analyze the hell out of that one manga panel ᕙ⁠(⁠＠⁠°⁠▽⁠°⁠＠⁠)⁠ᕗ

OKAY, so this panel is from the Dead Apple Manga and takes place during the Dragon's Head Conflict. We can assume it's probably a few months after Stormbringer, which also aligns with Chuuya having Albatross's motorcycle. In this scene Dazai is treating the passing as someone, a person Chuuya likely knew as a coworker, like it's convenient and could benefit them. Is he telling the truth? Yes, as executive candidates the passing of an executive means they may move up in the ranks. Is this a good time whatsoever? Absolutely not, Chuuya has already lost a lot of people he cares about very recently, someone he probably knew just died, and Dazai is being... Himself. This brings me to WHY Chuuya said what he did to Dazai.

Chuuya is incredibly upset by Dazai's blatant disregard for life, and he wants to get under Dazai's skin. This is probably made even stronger by how Dazai was the one who ORIGINALLY baited CHUUYA. Dazai was the one who brought up humanity, and his phrasing of "I'm human too, you know?" means that Dazai may be taking a jab at Chuuya to further upset him. It is this that causes Chuuya to push even further by denying it.

Another thing I would like to point out is that Chuuya doesn't reference anyone specific when saying no one would believe that. While looking at this scene it seems obvious it would be Dazai, we need to take into account how recent Stormbringer was. Chuuya is actively grieving his friends and the life he never got to have. He has also faced SO much dehumanization recently. While we, the readers, may infer that Chuuya is most likely the original due to his scar, Chuuya still needs to take time processing what has happened, what that means, and coming to terms with it.

At this point in time Chuuya may also say things he doesn't completely mean while trying to hurt Dazai. Soukoku was not made overnight. Objectively, Dazai and Chuuya have worked well together since the beginning, but that trust and companionship took a long time to build. We as the readers are seeing a point where it is wavering. The foundation hasn't exactly been the best since it is Dazai forcing Chuuya out of his only home only about a year and a half ago. We see them becoming Soukoku in Stormbringer where they are coming together and Chuuya is reconciling with Shirase, which takes away a lot of the animosity built up between him and Dazai. However, that resulted in more of a window looking towards the other rather than walls coming down.

Bringing back the time period of this panel, Dazai and Chuuya are sixteen. While four years of their partnership aren't exactly... Present? We still have two years for them to grow as people and build one another up. People don't account for how brand new working together is for them. They're two teenagers forced to grow up early and be independent. It is also likely that Dazai and Chuuya just didn't work together often. Chuuya worked in the jewel trade, and Dazai was the main strategist and torture specialist. While they both work in the Mafia and clearly do occasionally partner up together (based on Dazai's trust Chuuya will find him when he's kidnapped), they work in completely different areas and it's completely plausible that they just don't see each other as often as we assume. They are not accustomed to relying on people and are used to being hurt by people they are supposed to depend on. To base Soukoku and their partnership as a whole on this specific scene is not fair because we are missing a lot of character development and looking when tensions are incredibly high. This is a Chuuya who would genuinely celebrate when Dazai left. This is not the Chuuya that looked like THIS as he said that.

In conclusion, tensions are incredibly high during that scene during the Dragon's Head Conflict, Dazai and Chuuya are both doing their best to hurt each other at that point in time, and it is not fair to judge Soukoku's partnership on one scene after just a year of working together. Thank you for coming to my ted talk ♡⁠˖⁠꒰⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠⑅⁠꒱