MoriZaki

MoriZaki is the het ship between Ōgai Mori and Kouyou Ozaki from the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom.

Anime and manga
Mori and Kouyou know each other for many years and have a harmonious professional relationship as fellow higher-ups in the Port Mafia. They seem to be occasionally with each other's company, once amidst the falling cherry blossom petals overlooking a distant pavilion. While Mori perceives Kouyou an indispensable, strong, and proficient individual, Kouyou teasingly views Mori as an "unreliable boss" whom she must help in stitching back the Mafia in order. Nonetheless, she professes her loyalty to him as the current Mafia boss quite different from his predecessor whom she held a grudge on, and she trusts Mori's judgment as Mafia boss ever since Dazai Osamu's and Chuuya Nakahara's entrance in the Mafia. When Kouyou was young, she loved a older man who worked in the Port Mafia. Their feelings were mutual and they decided to run away together. However, in those years, another boss ruled the Port Mafia and he found out about their plan and gave the order to kill this man, and took her hostage. After this tragedy, Kouyou fell into despair and begin to hate love, and wanted to revenge The Former Boss. 4 years later, The Previous Boss fell to a sickness and got bedridden. Later on, Mori kills him in front of Dazai and becomes a new leader. Hearing about his death, Kouyou is finally pleased. Afterwards, she realizes that mafiosi are not so bad and they have a bit of goodness. She understands that Mori is a better person than The Previous Boss and starts to respect him. It's not much known how did Kouyou become a member of The Port Mafia, but later on, she becomes one of the people that Mori can trust. Kouyou, apart from Dazai, is the only person in the Port Mafia who calls Mori by his name. In Fifteen Arc, a year after Mori Ougai takes over the mafia, Kouyou is assigned to oversee (not necessarily mentor) Chuuya Nakahara, after he joins the Port Mafia. Kouyou is seen accompanying Chuuya while Mori is seen with Dazai and Q. Dazai and Chuuya continue to bicker after encountering each other. Kouyou asks Mori if it will be okay to have the two in the organization and won't it make problems. Mori replies that only a diamond can polish a diamond, words spoken by Natsume to him and Fukuzawa.

In The Guild Arc, just like The Armed Detective Agency, Mori together with Kouyou and Chuuya celebrate after the Guild war. Mori tells Kouyou that she can leave The Port Mafia whenever she wants. Also, he asks why she still there If she hated The Port Mafia in the past. Kouyou answers that she need to help an "unreliable boss" (Mori) get this organisation back in order. Mori says he's flattered by her words and then jokes by saying that she's not his type. Though Kouyou opts to speak to Mori blatantly at times, she dryly threatening to "sew his mouth shut", she retains a formal rapport with him.

In The Guild Aftermath Arc, Ace tells Mori that he have captured Fyodor Dostoevsky, the man behind the destruction of Moby Dick. Ace asks for Mori's approval to handle Fyodor himself to which the latter gives him approval. Upon Ace leaving, Kouyou asks Mori if it's okay to let Ace handle it to which Mori responds to see what he can do. In Cannibalism Arc, the police officer comes over to Mori and stabs him. As Mori grabs the mask off the man, it turns out to be Fyodor. Elise comes flying at him but has lost sight of him. Later, according to Fyodor's words, it turns out that if The Agency want to save Fukuzawa they would need to kill Mori. Junichiro decides to murder Mori, but Kouyou kept an eye on Mori's safety and engaged Junichiro in battle. Though he is able to slip into Mori's chamber and almost succeeds in killing him, Junichiro is stabbed from behind by Kouyou's Golden Demon, despite not wanting to cut down one of Kyouka Izumi's colleagues, for the sake of protecting Mori. Kouyou says that she does not want the Mafia to return to its previous state without Mori's leadership. Kyouka suddenly arrives in the room and counters Golden Demon with Demon Snow, much to Kouyou's surprise. Kyouka instantly grabs Junichiro and they escape.

In the Storm Bringer light novel, we see that Mori is very close to Kouyou, so she knows about his war past. When Mori forged his death in the Beast timeline, we can assume she leaved Port Mafia after this event because of their post Guild Arc conversation.

When graphics showing the interactions between characters were popular on the official Bungou Stray Dogs Twitter Page (2017/2018) they were seen together very often. Durning the Valentines Day event in 2017 they had their own minicomic, where Mori was grumbling about Elise, because she didnt share her sweets with him. Kouyou replied that for Valentine's Day she can give him handmade chocolate, but he refused, what made Kouyou upset.

Fanon
MoriZaki is a very popular pair in Russian and Polish fandoms while in English fandom it's not very often shipped. However, much like other ships in Bungou Stray Dogs, some people also do not like it because of age gap (Mori is 40 and Kouyou is 26). It has fanfictions on websites like AO3 and Ficbook, also the videos on TikTok (mostly from Russian fandom). Shippers of this couple also made an AU where Mori and Kouyou are the parents of Chuuya and (sometimes) Dazai. The main reason was the Fifteen Arc where was shown that Dazai was under Mori's care while Chuuya was under Kouyou's. Also, Mori and Kouyou were watching how Dazai and Chuuya arguing, just like parents to their children. However, some people who like this AU, see Chuuya more as Mori and Kouyou's son than Dazai for several reasons. Chuuya has a high status in the Mafia and shown to be often around those two. For example, during the important discussions, receiving important messages and celebrating the victory over the Guild. Chuuya even bears a resemblance to them. Basically, he looks more like Kouyou due to the color of his hair. However, unlike her, Chuuya prefers to wear black clothes just like Mori.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TWITTER

TIKTOK

Trivia

 * Kouyou, apart from Dazai, is the only person in the Port Mafia who calls Mori by his name.