Soukoku

"A view worth the billions."

- Chūya about Dazai

Soukoku is the slash ship between Chūya Nakahara and Osamu Dazai from the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom.

Canon
Dazai and Chūya were paired up with each other when they were 15 years old. The man who had paired them was Mori Ougai, the new chief of the mafia, who reasoned that "only diamonds can be polished by diamonds."

The duo was named Soukoku after one memorable night during the events of "Dragon's Head Rush", where they had defeated an enemy organization in a short amount of time that night. This resulted in them recognizing themselves as Soukoku, or Double Black, among other enemy organizations. They are also known as "Yokohama's vicious duo". The pair have an unconditional trust on each other.

As stated in "Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple" guide book, "The core characterization of Dazai and Chūya's partnership is based on pure trust where both of them are capable of leaving each other's life on the other's hand without a second thought or doubt."

Even if Dazai and Chūya had few misunderstanding at the very beginning, the trust was always present from an unknown force. Dazai was well aware that the gang under the name of "The Sheep" was merely using Chūya for their own goods and decided to trick them into abandoning Chūya for his good in future. During the events of the light novel for the pair, Dazai had also claimed Chūya to be his dog, to which Chūya declines. However, still to the present times, Dazai likes to refer Chūya to his "Sheep Dog".

The first time when Chūya had used Corruption was mentioned in the light novel for the duo; "Dazai, Chūya, 15 years old". Next it was during the arc of "Dragon Head's Rush." Chūya did not chant anything while he had activated corruption as shown in the movie. However, in the "Dead Apple" light novel, it had been mentioned that the chant was originally created by his partner Dazai Osamu, as followed: "The wind rose, Chūya's hair floated. Don't stop me."

In the events of "Dragon Head's Rush" (light novel and from the game) Chūya is seen breaking into Dazai's room to check if he was safe; just to find an empty room. He then recalls a conversation from the previous night during an executives meeting where Dazai calls him extremely small in size and he is in need of a microscope to be able to see him properly. Chūya raged but he later realizes it was a code language for what will happen the following day and where to find him.

Their partnership collapsed for four years when Dazai decided to leave Port Mafia and join the Armed Detective Agency. However, their partnership resumes during the conflict with the foreign organization The Guild. Also, the duo seem to be known to each other to a questionable point when Dazai says he knows Chūya's "Thrust", to which Chūya responds with, "I was just going easy on you," with a faint blush. Later Dazai is also seen folding Chūya's coat and hat before taking his leave. There had been also an extra chapter where Ozaki Koūyo was looking for Chūya but when she was unable to find him she came across his coat; where she noticed a badge sewed inside saying "Dear Hatrack's." Their constant childish bickering and fighting is something iconic for the pair however, Chūya is aware of his partner not experiencing a proper childhood; therefore allows him to act as childish as he can and lets him tease him relentlessly.

In "Dead Apple," Chūya uses corruption to save Dazai, even if Ango says that he's dead for sure. As well as Chūya screams for Dazai, while on Corruption clearly he is not supposed to be in sane state of mind. As Dazai mentions in their reunion episode, Chūya clearly loses control and does not have the track of reality while under his own ability but this time, while using corruption, the one and only thing that was on his mind was "Dazai."

Afterwards when Chūya manages to rescue Dazai, Dazai gently touches his cheek to nullify corruption and greets him with, "You used Corruption believing in me? I am so touched I could cry." Chūya groans, and replies that yes he did, Dazai argues it with, "That was a somewhat a violent way to wake the snow white up." claiming himself as the snow white and Chūya his prince who saved him and should have kissed him otherwise. To which Chūya replies with, "You were the one who hid that antidote in your mouth knowing that I would come and punch you to life."

When the duo falls on the ground Dazai forces Chūya to rest on his lap and stops him from getting up when Chūya tried to use his knee as a support, because he did not want to risk it any longer for if the fog separates Chūya from his ability specially when Chūya was worn out.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the interview for a bonus after purchasing the DVD or Blu-ray of Dead Apple, the director for the film, Takuya Igarashi, comments on Dazai and Chūya's relationship as something more than friends where one another can understand and communicate as if they are one soul in two different bodies.
 * The author of the series, Kafka Asagiri, adds with Takuya Igarashi that Chūya is the only one who can predict and understand Dazai's true motive.

Fanon
Soukoku is the most popular ship within its fandom. On AO3, Soukoku is the most written ship for both characters as well as the Bungou Stray Dogs tag. Platonic Soukoku is also the second most written ship for both characters and the third most written ship for the fandom. Soukoku is normally shipped alongside other popular ships like Shin Soukoku and Ranpoe.

People tend to ship Soukoku due to their special and complex dynamic. Even though Dazai and Chūya state that they "hate or strongly dislike each other", they canonically have a much deeper bond. They trust each other and would risk their life for each other.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * On the ranking of top 20 pairings of 2018 in Japan, Dazai and Chūya had came on the 7th place, while their voice actors were placed at 20th.
 * During the character designs, the creators of the series mentioned that Dazai and Chuuya would be in a Partner/relationship, as well as that Chūya was originally designed for Dazai.
 * Chūya had been promoted to being an executive before Dazai; making him the youngest executive in the history of Port Mafia. However when Dazai became an executive, the title had been given to Dazai since he was 51 days younger than Chūya.
 * When Chūya mentions Dazai as the youngest executive in the History of the Port Mafia, it is simply an insult for his bitterness and jealousy about Dazai taking the title away from him. Dazai on the other hand does not back off and calls Chūya "Short" and "Small half of Double Black."
 * In the official High School alternate universe, it had been mentioned that Chūya used to call Osamu (his given name) when they were younger and Dazai had written this down and hide it in a time capsule. (Source- Bonus special from the pre-order of DVD/Blu-ray of Dead Apple.)
 * The ship is the most popular ship among the Japanese and Western fandom.
 * Their stage actors ships and adores them (Dazai played by Hideya Tawada and Chūya played by Ueda Keisuke).
 * Dazai and Chūya are 51 days apart in age.
 * Their height difference is 21 cm (Chūya - 160 cm, Dazai - 181 cm).
 * They have a whole episode dedicated to them for their reunion in season two, called "Double Black".
 * Chūya has put his life on the line just to save Dazai many times.
 * Dazai once stated that he did not enjoy the company of men or hugging men. Yet, in one promo picture, he is seen hugging Chūya from the side, while wearing a very amused smile and winking at Chūya.
 * Red camellias (Camellia Japonica) are often used to represent them. The said flower stands for love, passion, trust, and desire. In some cases, it also represents death or sorrow of losing someone, and is related to Chūya's ability (For the Tainted Sorrow), where he has a higher chance of dying.
 * The name was canonically given to the pair of men from the boss of mafia, Mori Ougai.
 * On Crunchyroll the subtitles were changed to "You used Corruption believing in me? How beautiful."
 * In Dead apple, Despite being told by Ango sakaguchi that Dazai was most likely dead, Chūya still risked his life to save the city and Dazai, knowing Dazai was still alive and that if he were actually dead, he wouldn't mind dying alongside him, because in the end it would have been worth it.
 * In BSD Wan! Chapter 83, Dazai tells Chūya that he has several notebooks / journals dedicated to his grievances with Chūya.
 * In BSD Wan! Chapter 92, Chūya reads a book on Conversation techniques and uses it on Dazai, unintentionally flirting with him, only realizing afterwards that the book was a Romance volume.
 * In a mini comic in Volume 4, Chūya drunk calls Dazai.
 * In the Cannibalism stage play, Dazai has regrets for not taking Chūya with him when he left the port mafia.
 * In the 15 light novel, Dazai expresses that he loves Chūya because how well they get along together, Chūya however gets caught off guard by the advance, causing him to be grossed out by it. This results in Dazai being disappointed by the response.
 * In the Stormbringer stage play, Mori explains to Dazai that if Chūya dies, he could share the double suicide he craves with Chūya.
 * In Stormbringer, Dazai was convinced that Chūya was human despite others like Verlaine denying Chūya's humanity.
 * On July 1st 2023, the official Fandom Twitter account tweets about Soukoku ranking #4 for the top 5 LGBTQ+ ships on fandom via the Shipping wiki.
 * In chapter 101 / episode 58, Dazai smiles fondly as he has memories about him & Chūya, which causes him to pause / hesitate when he attempted to drown Chūya
 * In chapter 109 Dazai tries snapping Chūya out of his vampiric state by saying some emotional words; this includes Dazai stating "We can't let our destinies end like this. After all, we're both indelibly fated to-" before proceeding to get shot by Chūya.
 * In the finale of season 5, after it's revealed Dazai didn't die and Chūya was never turned into a vampire in the first place, Chūya asks Dazai "fated to what?" as he passes him, Dazai replies simply with "I'll keep that to myself today.".