The Problem: Mori wants Dazai as his successor. The mafia wants Chuuya as Mori's successor. Dazai doesn't want it. Cannibalism stageplay revealed that Chuuya doesn't want it either.
The solution: They deal with is skk style. They flip coins, draw straws, battle it out at the arcade. Loser has to lead the PM for a week. Winner gets time off. A week later, rinse and repeat.
Yes, they cheat. Yes, they know the other is cheating. No, it doesn't stop them from trying to out-cheat the other. No, they don't miss a beat picking up right where the other left the work, no matter the codewords, operations, secrets, etc involved that they should technically be clueless about. No, they don't think that's strange. Yes, everyone else is screaming into their pillows.
(Bonus: Dazai spends his ill-gotten time off at the agency, working for the government for a given definition of Dazai-working at a job that pays less than 0.01% of the PM boss salary. He does it to be annoying (and also for mental health reasons).
Chuuya spends his ill-gotten time off attending classy wine-tasting events, writing poetry, and being lead singer for a rock band. He's got a healthy life work balance for the first time in his life.)
The difference in the actual semantics behind the use of the word "hate" for each soukoku generation...
Like Dazai and Chuuya initially "hated" each other the way I "hated" doing group projects in high school. Like you're annoying but whatever let's just complete the assignment.
And Akutagawa and Atsushi literally wanted to kill each other. Straight up had a battle to the death where they screamed at each other about what a loathsome human being the other was. Drew blood, broke bones. Cried in frustration. Relived their trauma.
When Chuuya is told about Dazai’s defect, something inside him freezes. And then it burns up with fury raging through his body because how dare this bastard.
Nobody knows where he is, of course. That asshole has always been slippery. During the interrogation, Chuuya makes it clear that he is furious and does not fucking know where the waste of bandages is. He wasn’t even in the god damn country! The mackerel and he don’t text as much as some people think!
It nags on Chuuya though, silently. Where is he and why did he vanish? Dazai is an asshole, but it still doesn't fit to what Chuuya knows about him.
When they release him and Chuuya hears about what has happened around the Mimic incident— that’s when he feels confirmed and understands and he starts to worry. Which is still as disgusting as it was when the shitty Dazai was still here.
Chuuya is no stranger to this feeling. Wondering where the fucker is, what he's doing, if he's getting himself killed or not.
Now it’s also annoying because it makes him start his own secret investigation, following clues that he knows he is the only one capable of even detecting, let alone decipher.
The Port Mafia is good, but they were especially good because of the waste of bandages.
Chuuya has learned to understand Dazai though, more than he'd ever be willing to admit to even himself. They both speak a language that no one else is even able to hear and it annoys Chuuya more often than not. It comes in handy though, now.
It takes him three months, but when he finally sees that boney lanky figure hunched over a worn handheld console, wearing the ugliest coat he has ever seen and hidden between two stalls of some market—that’s when he can finally feel like he can take a proper breath again.
He takes a breath and watches for a moment, his eyes confirming whatever weird thing inside him—his soul, it's his soul and he wants to throw up—had insisted on exactly this reality the entire time.
Then he turns around and goes home. He thinks he still has some of that Petrus left.
Y/N: We can explain
Y/N, Dazai: - looking at their hardass friend for a second before looking at each other -
Kunikida: Can you?
Y/N: If you can just give me thirty seconds to think of a lie
I feel that recent developments have made me fully understand the function skk serves in the story of bsd and where their relationship is headed, and I think it's a direction that is hard for the fandom to accept.
Like we can't forget that Dazai and Chuuya aren't the main characters. Dazai's development is important but has little to do with Chuuya in the present day. And Chuuya is a minor character who appears sparingly.
Double Black are the ultimate duo. They are what Atsushi and Akutagawa aspire to be. They can communicate without speaking and always save the day. Their strategies have never failed them. Their partnership is perfect.
And just like characters, fictional relationships can't be developed if they're already perfect and have no flaws to begin with.
Sure, we the fans may see room for improvement in their partnership. They could have better communication skills, for one. But I don't think Asagiri sees it the same way. And I don't think Dazai and Chuuya themselves see a problem with their current setup either. "If it ain't broke", etc.
Atsushi and Akutagawa's partnership is the one meant to dramatically evolve over time. They're the ones getting a feel for each other and trying to find their footing in the world. They get all the conflict, the sacrifices, the angst.
Dazai and Chuuya are meant to be static. They've already completed the growth Atsushi and Akutagawa are currently experiencing. There really isn't a struggle there.
We've been spoiled by the Fifteen and Stormbringer light novels but I think that's where Double Black's development is meant to stay. In the past. We're still in for the reveal of Chuuya's feelings following Dazai's defection, but we already know what happens when Dazai returns after 4 years. And that's that things get smoothed over basically without incident. They're back to working perfectly as a duo and really, there's nothing to be said between them. And I think that will remain true through to the end of the series.