AtsuLucy

AtsuLucy is the het ship between Atsushi Nakajima and Lucy Maud Montgomery from the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom.

Canon
Atsushi and Lucy started off as enemies from opposing sides. Lucy detested Atsushi for his fortune in life, however, Atsushi related and sympathize with Lucy and despite her antagonism, felt bad after defeating her and attempted to run after her asking if he could help her in any way. In the Guild Arc, when Atsushi is captured by the Guild, Lucy comes to taunt him with her scars from the orphanage, not expecting Atsushi to have shown his and understand her experiences. Upon Atsushi's speech Lucy agrees to help Atsushi take down Fitzgerald with Anne's Room and trusted him to win; with Atsushi promising to find her afterwards. When they later reunite at the Uzumaki Cafe, Lucy embarrassedly antagonizes Atsushi once again after he failed to find her after the events of the Moby Dick to which Atsushi apologizes for his mishap.

After being defeated by Atsushi in the Guild Arc, her haughty and rude facade faded and she expressed herself more with Atsushi, often insulting and bickering with him. Once they came on good terms, over time Atsushi grew comfortable with Lucy and treated her as an opponent-turned-subordinate. This rapport is shared by Lucy herself, who would occasionally aid Atsushi and his comrades in the Agency however way she can, even if she is not an official member herself. Notably, Atsushi views Lucy as a honorary member of the Agency, as shown in Chapter 83.5.

By the Sky Casino Arc, Lucy had attempted to comfort Atsushi and treat him with less aggression. Lucy and Atsushi's relationship had improved to where Lucy called Atsushi by his name and not an assortment of cat-related names such as "tabby cat."

Lucy goes out of her way to help him, such as jumping into the water and getting drenched to save Atsushi from drowning without a second thought or putting herself at great risk to protect him. Kyouka sees through Lucy, knowing that the latter wants only Atsushi's trust during Chapter 33.

Lucy appreciates Atsushi’s empathy for her, caring greatly about Atsushi and his opinion of her. Moments of heartfelt sincerity are shared between them where Lucy brushes her hair out of her eyes with a softened expression. It's implied that Lucy has feelings for Atsushi, upset when he didn’t save her on the Moby Dick and bashful when confessing it. She blushes and gets overly embarrassed with him even at the slightest of situations. Lucy gets flustered thanking Atsushi and embarrassed when Ango talks about her fervor of how she was announcing Atsushi's innocence. She's bashful when Atsushi thanks her or merely smiles; moments like these are more notable in the manga over the anime. Atsushi is naive to Lucy's embarrassment around him.

At the moment, Atsushi doesn't have any feelings towards Lucy nor are they implied. He views Lucy as a fond close friend, convincing her to make the right choice in stopping the Moby Dick and showing sympathy and guilt during their first meetings. Atsushi wastes no time in saving or protecting her, forming an unlikely friendship with her. Atsushi often addresses Lucy as "Montgomery-chan" in the manga, in which the honorific is used to refer to someone as a close friend. He occasionally addresses Lucy as "Montgomery-san".

The Guild Arc
"To tell you the truth…I don’t want you to fail your mission! I don’t want you to lose your home!"

- Atsushi showing guilt while defeating Lucy.

Atsushi and Lucy first meet after Lucy has trapped members of the agency inside her ability where they're trapped until she lets them leave. She traps Atsushi and Tanizaki in the room and challenges them to a game of tag, where if they win, she'll let the imprisoned civilians and agency members go. They agree, and Tanizaki is immediately caught due to Anne's speed. Atsushi evades Anne multiple times, and Lucy giggles and comments how Atsushi is like an acrobat.

She goes on to say how Atsushi’s ability is so convenient and that he was probably doted on since a child. Lucy retorts that Atsushi’s an orphan as well, reminiscing on how cold her orphanage was and how her fingers ached for days after washing the dishes. Lucy amusedly says how everyone viewed her as a freak because of her ability, while the detective agency did everything they could for Atsushi; in her words, because of his ability. Lucy states that if she fails this mission she'll be kicked out the Guild with no place to go. Atsushi hesitates and shows his guilt for what Lucy said, not wanting to cause her abandonment but needing to rescue the others.

Lucy monologues on how it’s not fair that it was Atsushi and not her; Lucy claims now to make Atsushi understand how she feels, she’ll lock him in the room forever. Anne chases Atsushi is able to evade, and he eventually gets to the door where everyone is trapped. As he's about to use the key, however, it tries to attack him, and Lucy explains that not even she knows how to use the key and only Anne could open it.

Atsushi realizes the whole game was a trap, tries to run, but is stopped by Mori, who reminds him that if he leaves, he will have no memory of the room, leaving everyone still trapped in the room. Atsushi goes on the offense, but is soon caught by Anne, and is pulled into the room. Lucy celebrates momentarily, but then she realizes that at the moment the door opened, Tanizaki activated his ability, creating the illusion that Atsushi had been pulled into the room when in reality he had been holding onto the door frame to keep himself from being pulled in. Lucy then realizes that Atsushi had also tied a ribbon around her waist, and he pulls her towards where he is, grabbing her.

Atsushi tells Lucy determinedly that abilities should be used for the good. Now, he explains to her that he’s going to let go, and she'll have a split-second decision to let everyone free from the room or be trapped in her own reality until she dies along with everyone else. Atsushi lets go and Lucy screams, deactivating her ability, making everyone that was previously trapped in the room reappear in the street where she had forced them into her reality. Atsushi goes to ask if he could do anything for Lucy, but she runs away, crying because she had failed her mission.

After Lucy's defeat, they meet again when Atsushi has been captured by the Guild. As he's being held in a cell, Lucy comes to taunt him and tells him about what her time in the orphanage was like, showing him scars on her arm from when she was poked with a hot metal rod, explaining how no one would ever know the pain. However, to her surprise, Atsushi responds explaining how the bones ache on the first day, and on the third day it hurts so bad even moving a muscle. Lucy shows shock as Atsushi shows her his own scars from a hot metal rod from his orphanage on his ribs. Atsushi then tells Lucy abandoning the people of Yokohoma in this situation is like abandoning her past self. This shifts a change in Lucy, and in the blink of an eye she transports them into Anne's Room, giving him a parachute and telling him that if he exits the door, he'll be right outside the Moby Dick, able to escape. Atsushi asks if she'll be okay, and she tells him that as long as she's in Anne's Room she'll be safe. Lucy asks him to come and save him later when he comes back, stating she'll be waiting for him while brushing her hair out of her eyes. Atsushi promises he will and jumps off the Moby Dick.

Afterwards, Atsushi attempted to search for Lucy everywhere but was unable to because of the fight with Akutagawa and Fitzgerald.

The Guild Aftermath Arc
After defeating the Guild, Atsushi goes with Kyouka Izumi to visit the Uzumaki Cafe, where they see Lucy walking in carrying a metal box. Atsushi asks what she's doing there and Lucy throws the metal box at him, yelling and blushing. They later find out she works there, and Lucy aggressively serves Atsushi and Kyouka some water and gives Kyouka a dispatch about her parents, and as they go to the shipyard to find where it is, they realize a page is missing, which Lucy took without their knowledge to get revenge on Atsushi.

Lucy shows Atsushi that she has the paper, before crumpling it and throwing it into the water. Atsushi dives in after it, getting his leg caught in boat debris and he starts drowning, raising his arm out of the water for help. Lucy jumps in after him, bringing them both into Anne's Room as she complains about him being an idiot and drowning in such shallow water and how her work clothes are wet.

Atsushi apologizes suddenly for not going to find her after the Moby Dick events. He explained he searched everywhere for her and Lucy blushes, shocked and stating her "revenge" on Atsushi was just an excuse.

Atsushi, oblivious, then comes up with an idea to have Lucy transport the moisture out of their clothes by bringing them back to reality then Anne's Room. Lucy says she isn't sure it will work but transports them back to reality, then snaps her fingers to bring them back to Anne's Room. As they enter Anne's Room, instead of just the water in their clothes being left behind, their clothes have been left in reality, leaving them naked in Anne's Room. They take a moment to process what's happened, and Lucy screams at the top of her lungs, sending Atsushi out of the reality.

Cannibalism Arc
Lucy assists the Armed Detective Agency by keeping Fukuzawa hidden in Anne's Room. Atsushi and Lucy don't have many interactions during this arc; however, Lucy is helping the agency because of Atsushi.

Sky Casino Arc
Atsushi and Kyouka turn to Lucy to help them rebuild the agency because of her ability. Lucy is more than willing to help, and when the two meet up with Lucy, Ango, and Mushitaro, they discuss the Decay of Angels's plan. Lucy remains silent and as Atsushi learns that the page will be used at the next full moon, he goes silent. Ango and Mushitaro plan to tell Dazai, and Lucy sees as Atsushi darkens and attempts to comfort him. While in Anne's room, Atsushi asks how Lucy even ended up here with Ango, and she immediately blushes and attempts to stop Ango before he explains; Ango explains how Lucy was dragged out of their building because she ran screaming how the ADA was innocent and how "Atsushi would never do this!". Ango adds how she did it with a very threatening look. This makes Lucy turn into a frantic blush with steam coming out of her ears from embarrassment; this makes Atsushi smile, commenting how kind it was of her and she angrily covers her face, telling Ango how he didn't have to explain that.

Lucy huffs and jokingly demands thanks, and to her surprise, Atsushi formally apologizes for roping her into their current situation. Lucy softens her expression and tells him she's the one repaying a favor, which makes them both pause for a moment before Lucy blushes and starts flailing her arms around begging Atsushi to just forget what she had said before; before Atsushi could respond, Ango interrupts their conversation and reminds them they need to move on as Kyouka observes the scene.

She lets Atsushi and Kyouka into Anne's Room and gets in a taxi headed towards Sky Casino. Atsushi and Kyouka leave Anne's room for a bit.

When Atsushi jumps out of the Sky Casino to catch Sigma and keep him from falling to his death, Sigma lets go and Atsushi is left hanging by his tail but is hit by Nathaniel Hawthorne's ability, knocking him out so he too will eventually fall. Lucy stands above the scene and sees this, and not knowing what to do, jumps off the Sky Casino's balcony, reaching her hand out to Atsushi desperately and reaching him; She brings them both into Anne's room to save them. In this scene we see how Atsushi and Lucy's relationship has improved from day 1: with Lucy remarking "looks like I reached one way or another" while Atsushi thanks her profusely.

When Hawthorne transports himself into the room and attempts to stab Lucy with his blood bullet, Atsushi quickly jumps at Lucy and pulls her away before further harm could be done. Once Anne takes down Hawthorne, Lucy clutches her bloody shoulder and celebrates that the two won the brief battle. Afterwards, Ango cuts their victory short and explains they failed in saving Sigma from his supposed death.

When Lucy asks what they can do now, Atsushi jumps up and announces they can look for another lead, only to drop forward unconscious. The next scene Atsushi is on a couch and Lucy stares worriedly at his body, and before Ango can shoot Lucy and Kyouka, Atsushi wakes up and announces he's found the page's location. Once Atsushi feels a blade stick through his forehead, he immediately jumps after he gets information on Kamui. Notably, out of all the people in Anne's Room, Atsushi grabs Lucy's shoulder first. Lucy is visibly confused and asks if Atsushi is alright.

When the Detective Agency reunites, Lucy watches contently as Atsushi hugs the other members, remarking "My, my, they're rejoicing." and comments on how Atsushi's been on his own. She asks Kyouka if she'd like to hug Atsushi too, notably calmly. This scene shows Lucy's development over time as she now calmly interacts with Kyouka when at their first meeting she antagonized her.

The last time Lucy appears in the Decay of Angels Arc and the manga overall has been in Chapter 83.5 when she appears in Atsushi's flashback of Ango and the members of the agency. Notably, he states 'Ranpo-san and everyone from the agency" in this flashback despite Lucy merely being a staff of the Uzumaki cafe. While panicking over the fight with Fukuchi, Atsushi recalls Lucy's help amongst the list of people he doesn’t want to let down.

Wan!
Throughout wan, Lucy is portrayed to have jealousy towards Atsushi and Kyouka's relationship.

In Chapter 66, when Atsushi (who is the Prince) prepares to kiss Kyouka (Snow White) and Lucy angrily storms over and interrupts the scene, demanding Atsushi to not kiss Kyouka while blushing madly. Atsushi, scared of Lucy's outburst, says he could kiss Lucy instead and she angrily objects. Lucy scolds Atsushi saying he's a filthy person and he states it's to lift the curse.

Fanon
The ship is one of the more popular het ships in the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom. AtsuLucy sailed after their heartwarming scene during the Guild Arc and is mostly shipped because of Lucy's implied feelings towards Atsushi. Its main rival ship is Shin Soukoku.

AtsuLucy received some backlash for Lucy's rude and unjustified behavior towards Atsushi; however, shippers argue that since the Sky Casino Arc, AtsuLucy has grown to be a healthy and respectful pairing.

AtsuLucy fans don't have much hope for their relationship to become official; as the author of Bungou Stray Dogs may draw back from making any romantic relationships official in order to respect the original authors, or for other unspecified reasons. There may be heavy backlash from the toxic shippers or anyone against the ship, and romance doesn't fit the overall thematic goal of the series.

A running joke and headcannon amongst the AtsuLucy community is that Kyouka is AtsuLucy's adopted child due to how she is always the third wheel in their scenes. Some AtsuKyou shippers suspect that Lucy, Kyouka, and Atsushi are currently in a love triangle, though this has yet to be confirmed—Lucy’s jealousy towards Kyouka is apparent in Wan! however.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Lucy calls Atsushi many varieties of cat-related nicknames such as tabby cat.
 * In the Official Game Tales of The Lost they are both featured in the library Scout together.
 * Lucy's Active Skill feature's Atsushi & Atsushi's Active Skill implies to be in the POV of Lucy towards the end.
 * They both feature and interact mainly with each other in the side stories of their respective Scouts.

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