Kunikidazai

Kunikidazai is the slash ship between Kunikida and Dazai from the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom.

Armed Detective Agency vs. Port Mafia Arc
In Chapter 1, Kunikida and Dazai are work partners who are trying to solve the case of the tiger that has been appearing in Yokohama. Shortly after Atsushi rescues Dazai from drowning, Kunikida sees the two of them and scolds Dazai for fooling around. Dazai thanks Kunikida for his hard work. This does little to abate Kunikida's anger, and Dazai offers to treat Atsushi to chazuke on Kunikida's dime.

At the restaurant, Kunikida tells Dazai they have to get back to work. Kunikida reprimands Dazai for jumping into a river in the middle of work and says it is his fault they are behind schedule. Dazai comments on Kunikida's affection for the latter's notebook, and Kunikida retorts by saying that it is not just a notebook but his aspirations and life compass. Kunikida adds that having a suicide maniac as a colleague was not part of his ideal. Kunikida explains to Atsushi that the military police requested that Kunikida and Dazai drive out a wild beast. As Dazai and Atsushi converse, Kunikida tells Dazai that the two of them are not philanthropists, and they must return to work. Dazai and Kunikida explain to Atsushi that they are detectives working for the Armed Detective Agency. Dazai comments that the beam in the teashop looks like it could support a person's weight, and Kunikida scolds Dazai for thinking about hanging himself every time he is in a teashop. Dazai pranks Kunikida by telling him that hanging is part of a health regimen, and Kunikida believes him and starts to write down information on this "health regimen" as Dazai dictates information to him.

A few moments later, Kunikida restrains Atsushi and demands that Atsushi tell Kunikida and Dazai about the man-eating tiger or else Atsushi will pay for the chazuke with his arm. Dazai tells Kunikida to calm down and reminds him that the director always says to gather information through questioning. Dazai questions Atsushi as Kunikida shoos away onlookers. Kunikida and Dazai listen to Atsushi's story and Kunikida asks what Atsushi means when the latter claims that the tiger is here to kill him. Dazai questions Atsushi some more, and Kunikida mentions some more details of the case. Dazai asks Atsushi to help with the case and tells Kunikida to take a note back to the director. Kunikida asks Dazai if he is planning on catching the tiger with just himself and Atushi, but Dazai says it will be fine.

After Dazai nullifies Atsushi's ability and solves the case, Kunikida appears at the warehouse, and Dazai tells him it took long enough and that he has solved the case. Kunikida asks Dazai if Atsushi is the tiger, and Dazai confirms it. Kunikida tells Dazai to let him know beforehand next time because Dazai gave him quite a fright.

At the beginning of Chapter 2, Dazai mentions that he will be hiring Atsushi, and Kunikida responds in a surprised way. The next day, Dazai and Atsushi are walking to the office when Kunikida spots Dazai and calls him a "bandage-wasting device," and Dazai acts hurt. Kunikida alerts the two of them to an emergency happening, and Dazai responds by telling Kunikida the negative health effects of shouting too much. Kunikida believes him, and Dazai instructs him to write it down, which Kunikida does. Dazai then reveals he is lying, and Atsushi looks on at their antics with an unentertained expression until he asks what the emergency is.

Kunikida stops physically contorting Dazai and remembers the emergency. He urges the other two to come to the office. Dazai asks why, and Kunikida explains that a bomber has taken a hostage and barricaded himself in the office. In the next scene, Kunikida, Dazai, and Atsushi are hiding and discussing what to do about the bomber. Dazai suggests that they give into the bomber's demands and allow him to meet the president, but Kunikida objects, mentioning that not only would the bomber would kill the president, the president is also away on business. All of a sudden, Kunikida and Dazai play rock, paper, scissors, and Kunikida loses. Kunikida confronts the bomber, which proves to be ineffective. Atsushi is sent out by Dazai to address the bomber, and Kunikida is able to remove the detonator from the bomber's hand and arrest him.

Atsushi makes the decision to cover the bomb with his body after he is pushed onto the detonator. After the test is over, Atsushi is bewildered, and Kunikida tells Atsushi to curse Dazai if Atsushi wants to curse anyone. Dazai tells Atsushi that Kunikida is right and explains that this was an entrance exam.

In Chapter 3, Kunikida, Dazai, Tanizaki, and Atsushi are hanging out after the exam, and Tanizaki apologies to Atsushi. Kunikida tells Tanizaki that he has nothing to apologize for, and Dazai tells Kunikida that is he being rude. Dazai imitates Kunikida activating his ability during the exam, much to Kunikida's annoyance. Kunikida tells Atsushi that he is part of the agency now and that he should not copy those who trash the agency's sign or cause trouble. Kunikida says that he and the others will be making sure and asks Dazai to back him up. Dazai instead asks if the waitress would be willing to strangle him, and Kunikida tells him to shut up and scolds him.

Light Novels:
First Novel=

Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam
The novel is almost entirely written in first person from Kunikida's point of view. The prologue opens on Kunikida and Dazai chasing a criminal through the streets of Yokohama. Kunikida yells at Dazai not to fall behind, but Dazai responds saying that his shoe came untied. Kunikida tells Dazai to keep running, and they continue to banter.

"'I could always just shoot you in the head if you want to die that badly!' Kunikida yells, to which Dazai replies: 'Wait. Seriously? Wow, thanks.' Dazai smiles bashfully, even though there's nothing to blush about."

The chase continues until Dazai yells "fire," sending the townspeople into a frenzy, which blocks the routes of escape for the criminal. Kunikida is able to take down the criminal, and Dazai calms the crowd and introduces both himself and Kunikida as members of the Armed Detective Agency.

The first chapter starts with Kunikida arriving to work early and discovering that Dazai is tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms as a staff member begs Kunikida to do something. Kunikida ignores Dazai at first but knocks him unconscious a little later. Kunikida begins to recount his first meeting with Dazai that occurred four days ago.

Dazai and Kunikida first meet two years prior to the start of the manga when Dazai is seeking a job at the Armed Detective Agency. Kunikida describes Dazai as somewhat handsome and notes that they are the same age. As Dazai shakes Kunikida's hand, Kunikida notices something:

"In that moment, I suddenly sense a cold, piercing light in his eyes, as if he were calmly evaluating his senior--no, as if he were staring into my very soul through the eyes of a heavenly, enlightened sage. However, it is only for a fleeting moment before his vacant expression returns. Was I seeing things?"

The president asks Kunikida to carry out Dazai's entrance exam and to ascertain whether or not Dazai can be trusted. Additionally, the president gives Kunikida a gun and instructs Kunikida to shoot Dazai if there are "any signs of wickedness in his heart." After being handed the gun, there is a time skip to where Dazai and Kunikida are walking to an informant and talking about their plan to investigate ’a haunted mansion’ by request of an anonymous client that reported strange noises. The two bicker about being late on their way to the informant, later introduced as Rokuzo. Kunikida brings up the earlier fiasco of Dazai eating the hallucinogenic mushrooms, and despite telling him next time he should make sure it’s the fatal ones, wonders if he’s alright after that. Kunikida begins to express that he believes there’s no way Dazai is a spy or has wickedness in his heart since he thinks Dazai’s antics are so stupid, and his solution is to get rid of him.

The two enter a small warehouse, arguing over ghost stories, and are welcomed by a young boy in a room filled with technology. Rokuzo and Kunikida do some back and forth chat, it’s clear the two have already formed a connection before events of the novel. Dazai and Rokuzo introduce themselves to each other and quickly end up teaming up on Kunikida, but it’s revealed amidst the humour that there has been a series of missing persons incidents with no obvious connections between victims. Before they set back off, Dazai jokes about getting incriminating photos of Kunikida since Rokuzo is a hacker. Kunikida claims nervously no such things exist, he has nothing to hide.

As they wait for a taxi, a more transcendental scene occurs. Dazai mentions Rokuzo is a good kid, regret evident on Kunikida’s part at introducing them, but asks Kunikida why he’s looking after him with a solemn expression. The two of them wind up talking about the boys father who died to an old terrorist, the Azure King. After Kunikida lets out some of his personal feelings about that incident, having been a detective in the scene and feeling like he’d failed people, Dazai reassures him, and they get in their taxi.

As if a magnet to troublesome people, Kunikida even squabbles with his talkative taxi driver, trying to talk to Dazai about the missing people he’d mentioned earlier that Dazai didn’t know about. After a summary, Dazai shows some deep knowledge on black markets while telling Kunikida his idea on what’s going on, giving a sketchy excuse at confrontation. They get distracted anyhow, and somewhere along the line Dazai ends up speaking like a stereotypical tourist while poking fun at Kunikida yet again. The man also finds he can’t trust Dazai behind a wheel.

At their destination, the haunted mansion at mid night, Dazai consistently brings up the topic of ghosts, going so far as to intentionally pretend a ghost is there, scaring Kunikida to the threat of firing Dazai already. Until, Dazai goes for the same joke again, his yelp covered by a real scream, leading them to meet Sasaki, who leads them to a room full of other victims that Kunikida cannot save. And the next morning, Kunikida faces public and personal shame as it got public coverage. After Dazai attempts to get Kunikida to go home since he looks unwell- Kunikida notices Dazai did not get into any photos shared in the newspaper.

After Kunikida shows Dazai his ‘ideal woman’, he comes to a realisation with the case when his glasses are stolen by his new partner. The two confront the supposed kidnapper with all their gathered evidence, they work over a deal of sorts with who they caught, until their car is hit by members of the Port Mafia. At this, Dazai sprints away to deal with the kidnapper while Kunikida faces Akutagawa. After the stressful events, Kunikida starts to offer he and Dazai go for drinks, but they’re then told to defuse a bomb, and if they don’t do so within time then over 100 people would die.

The pair don’t meet until a couple pages later as Kunikida runs things over with other members of the ADA, Kunikida finding Dazai using him as a conversation piece with Sasaki. Kunikida repeatedly denies he’s jealous of Dazai, you don’t have to be told that’s a lie to know. More information is shared about the Azure King, and more information is shared about Sasaki’s type, surprisingly correlating with Kunikida.

In an utterly embarrassing and childish display, Dazai infiltrates the United States Embassy with Kunikida, both of them undercover. It’s here that Kunikida suspects Dazai has some kind of criminal background due to his evident backgrounds erasure- but when Dazai starts talking rudely to a lady in the Embassy, he sticks with the idea he’s just an idiot. For the first time of a few in the novel, Kunikida thinks about how Dazai is amazing after he saves Kunikida who was doing a terrible job of lying to someone important to lie to, getting them to where they need to be.

They meet Ranpo and get led to a fishing-gear shop, and in the car on their way there, Kunikida finds himself questioning Dazai’s past from how intrigued he was about Ranpo. "Thats not what I’m talking about. You seemed taken aback that someone had the ability to know and see all."

After the death of a person called Alamata, Kunikida gets a call from Rokuzo, who tells Kunikida that the person that sent the agency emails was none other than Dazai himself. Kunikida takes Dazai to a secluded space, and aims a gun to his head, rattling off all the reasons he ‘knows’ Dazai is the villain of this story. Before giving a final warning, Kunikida thinks of how Dazai was so talented, and how he couldn’t have asked for a better partner. "… Get up. We’ve got work to do."

A real confession ensues, where it’s revealed what’s been going on behind the scenes all along by Dazai’s point of view, and they get back to cracking the case- the current issue being a plane falling from the sky, headed to hit the city. After Dazai talks to a little girl and helps calm her, and Kunikida explains to the pilots the situation, Dazai runs into an air-raid shelter with Kunikida backing him up due to armed men awaiting them.

Once settled into their own places in the building, Kunikida faced with an ability user and Dazai with a muscled man, after realising neither of them are capable to fight their own battles due to their personal weaknesses, they manage to lock eyes, each of their weaknesses able to be backed up by the others strength, they yell each other’s name and swap places; Kunikida using a grapple by his own ability and Dazai jumping down.

With their enemies taken down, and Dazai having bent the key to the communicator, Kunikida makes one with his ability: Matchless Poet. With their teamwork, they manage to communicate that the pilots are back in control, and watch the crashing plane slowly melt onto the sky together.

Faced with Fukuzawa’s question on if Dazai passed his exam, Kunikida makes sure to get across that Dazai is awful, yet has exceptional talent, he passed his exam. He’s then contacted by Dazai while he is at a cemetery, and goes to meet him, and the final truth is revealed, who the true Azure Apostle is. Sasaki. In an intense confrontation, both Rokuzo and Sasaki are shot dead, leaving Kunikida and Dazai alone with their late acquaintances last words. Rage fills Kunikida, grabbing Dazai and yelling at him, only met with a blank stare, the message that ‘there was no other way’, and a cold hard truth about an ‘ideal world’ dropped from the others tongue. Kunikida understands somewhere, but it still hurts him.

Drawing the novel to a close, it’s revealed that Kunikida was telling this as a story to the Tanizaki siblings about the case. Identified from a tracker Kunikida put on Dazai, he was floating down a river. After all of the trouble, Kunikida leaves with the thought of Dazai’s capabilities, acknowledging his own weaknesses.


 * -|Third Novel=

The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency
"However, the fact of the matter was that they were the most talented duo in the agency when it came to solving tough cases, and they had boasted a record of solving the most difficult cases ever since Dazai joined the company two years ago. Outsiders who didn't know their personalities or how much they didn't get along often thought they were the perfect pair. Ignorance is bliss."

- Excerpt from The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency

Moments
Twitter Events:= On July 7th in 2016 was when the first Q&A event was introduced on the official Twitter, and a new one was held on different events up until 2020. In these events, the characters in the show were asked a series of questions each time and they gave their answers accordingly. In the events (this link leads to a page of the pictures to go with the text) there’s also a series of small conversations between Kunikida and Dazai.

On February 14th, 2017, there was an event held for St Valentines day. In this event, Dazai comes into work late after being flooded with chocolate’s since ‘a sinful man like himself gets so many chocolates by merely waking’. He says after being shouted at by Kunikida for his lack of punctuation, while he’s grateful for the chocolate’s, he’d have to turn them down, and all women are candidates for a double suicide. Kunikida reacts with a hint of surprise as it looks like he forgot it was Valentine’s day at all, and declares he wants to verify if the chocolate’s given to Dazai were out of obligation or serious.
 * -|Valentines=

According to Kunikida’s notebook, in the case of an obligation the ‘ideal return price’ (I assume to give to the person obligated to give chocolate, so they get paid for their troubles) is 3.25 times the original price, then says he’ll have to add the work of checking the price of the chocolate’s Dazai received in the next days schedule. Dazai tells him with a serious face that he has a piece of advice, it’s better to leave that alone.

On July 7th, 2017, is when Kunikida and Dazai are next featured together, and it was for Tanabata. Their interaction starts with Dazai yawning and Kunikida mentioning it’s still before noon. To this, Dazai informs him he drank too much the night before. Kunikida yells at him for slacking off, the usual, urging him to do something with all of his accumulated papers; this is before Dazai tells him to not raise his voice since it hurts his head. Kunikida pushes his glasses up and takes his voice back down to complain about how Dazai can’t be useful for 5 minutes in a 24 hour day, only to come to the conclusion it can’t be helped, instead telling Dazai to drink some water and lie down. Dazai supposes he has no choice. A while later after some other characters have spoken is when Kunikida tells Dazai he should get up to make Sasa decorations with the rest of them and eat something because he hadn’t all day, but he’s met again with indifference since Dazai says it’s too much and he has no appetite- he’ll get up when it’s adult time. Again, ‘there’s no helping it’ is claimed since Kunikida supposes Dazai stayed up late and Kunikida says he’ll scold Dazai in one hour. Before seeming to fall back asleep Dazai mentions to his partner that he’s a sensitive person and that’s why he can’t sleep at night. Despite the intriguing information, that’s only met with Kunikida saying compared to Dazai, rubber bands are more sensitive.
 * -|Tanabata=

To end the event off, the two group back together one last time and talk about wishes, and Dazai says Kunikida should wish to meet his ideal woman. As the partners conversations go, Dazai is told to shut up, and Kunikida notes that since it’s the evening Dazai is full of energy, a nocturnal creature. Back to the topic of wishes, he moves on to ask what Dazai wished for instead. Dazai says such things as wishes are meaningless, what he wants is a timing device that promises to be lost the moment he obtains it- but in that moment, since Kunikida mentioned it, he guesses he would wish for a night without dreams. Prompted by the mystery of the wish, Kunikida asks another question, did Dazai have a nightmare? And he had, but he moves onward quickly to invite Kunikida out. He says since it’s Saturday the next day they should drink while watching the stars. Kunikida at first calls him a moron since in the morning he’ll have to throw the Tanabata decorations with everyone’s wishes into the river and he has no time, then wonders if Dazai hadn’t learnt his lesson since that very morning he had a hangover.

At Kunikida’s rejection there’s a whine on Dazai’s part, and he threatens to drink a lot of sake by himself ‘again’ and throw himself in the river if Kunikida doesn’t go. Like a broken record, Kunikida supposes there’s no helping it, and he’ll go out with Dazai; but he’ll leave before the next day arrives. Dazai smiles and says he’s so unusually kind, demanding they go quickly. He also seems to tug on Kunikida’s hair, since Kunikida yells that his hair isn’t a bridle. Kunikida also says he said it’s okay, but is evidently annoyed that his schedule is always ruined. Dazai must continue, ‘are you even listening to me’ being written as if in a shout, but ignores it with a grin, wondering what the two should toast to.

On December the 24th and 25th, 2017, they hosted a Christmas event. This event features Dazai missing a party, whining at Kunikida that he didn’t get an invite. Kunikida tells him he looked for him, but Dazai probably went out by himself. Every single time, he says, Dazai wanders and wanders like he’s a balloon with a broken string. Dazai doesn’t talk about what his partner said, only calls him mean, saying he also wants a gift. Kunikida reprimands him since in spite of being old enough to know better he acts like a blockhead, claiming that even if Dazai was a child he couldn’t be considered a good boy, so if he wants a gift he should listen and get work done and come to hear from a client and report. Again, however, Dazai simply says he’s cruel and a bully, Kunikida yelling that he’s an annoying brat afterwards. Their last interaction in this event is Kunikida showing concern as to why Dazai looks worn out, told it’s because what happens in the event seems like a medical treatment to him.
 * -|Christmas=

Fanon
Kunikidazai is the most popular ship for Kunikida and a somewhat popular ship for Dazai. Despite Kunikida's annoyance at Dazai's antics, it has been acknowledged that they work well together and are the best duo in the ADA. At the start of the manga/anime, they have been work partners for 2 years. Additionally, it has been explicitly shown that they have high opinions of each other even though they do not always get along. Their dynamic in Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam was popular enough to inspire Fukuzawa and Mori's interactions in a scene from the Dead Apple film. Kunikidazai occasionally gets compared to Soukoku due to the fact that Chuuya is Dazai's former work partner and Kunikida is his current work partner and the similarity in temperaments between Chuuya and Kunikida.

The Bones adaptation of the Azure Messenger Arc (episodes 6 and 7 of season 1) made several changes compared to the light novel. In the light novel, solving the Azure Messenger case was Dazai's entrance exam for the ADA. However, the anime added Atsushi, and this story arc takes place after both Dazai and Atsushi have already joined the ADA. It is suggested to read the first light novel in order to understand their relationship better. Dazai and Kunikida have additional interactions in The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency and 55 Minutes.

As far as tropes go for this ship, the most reoccurring one revolves around either of them being the sun or the moon, or yin and yang. This is brought on by their moral differences that make them interesting to many.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Frequent Writers: Spicygrass, Kunikidakinnie, Collofo, Celestial_Stardust, OhZuku
 * Frequent Writers: Spicygrass, Kunikidakinnie, Collofo, Celestial_Stardust, OhZuku

ART
 * Kunikida/Dazai on Pixiv
 * Dazai/Kunikida on Pixiv
 * Twitter Artists: Entei, Cocoa, Kyros, Carameldancen

Trivia

 * Kunikida has two check ins with Dazai a day, written in his schedule.