Bungo Stray Dogs Oneshots

Jupiter

Please forgive me for not knowing shit about astronomy

This was inspired by a Xie Lian angst slideshow in tiktok at 3AM on some random morning

Not edited or proof read or anything

Also not me casually sprinkling in a headcanon for dazai's backstory

Jupiter was supposed to be a star, but failed.

'Dazai Osamu' is a name that not many people know. It is passed in whispers among a few members of the underworld, but most of the time, when people refer to this man, his other name is used.

'The Demon Prodigy'.

Raised and trained and nurtured by Mori himself.

A child with the blood of many on his hands, accumulated from both his allies and his enemies. Dazai has forgotten how many people have died in front of him, how he surely could've saved some of them, how most of them were probably his own doing, and not Mori's, like he sometimes tries to convince himself.

Jupiter... the Demon Prodigy, handed a gun at younger than fourteen, paraded around under a spotlight, pleaded and wheedled and pushed—who is he kidding, though? Dazai did everything of his own accord—into committing acts so atrocious that people still shudder when they remember him... was meant to be a star.

The Demon Prodigy was supposed to be Mori's ace.

But failed.

He failed the moment he made Mori fearful for his own status, the moment the boss of the Port Mafia realized that the child he'd raised as his tool was quite prepared to run a knife across his throat.

And because he failed, Oda died.

Dazai sometimes likes to pretend that Oda's death was for the best. That he couldn't have joined the good side, the Armed Detective Agency, if it wasn't for that incident with Mimic.

But it's just like Oda Sakunosuke said in his dying moments all those years ago.

It doesn't matter to Dazai. Good or bad, it's all the same.

Dazai Osamu was meant to be a good person, but failed.

He is a failure—his parents' expectations, when he still carried the Tsushima name—of a failure—Mori's careful training—of a failure—Oda's dying wishes, unfulfilled.

He just never had a chance in the first place.

Jupiter turned into something bigger...

Something bigger, something older, even less human than before, with a new coat and fewer bandages and actually screw the coat thing, it's an entirely new outfit. A new facade, a new mask, a smile that makes people think he's happy and cheerful when really...

Dazai could have fooled smart men—has fooled Ranpo, in fact—into believing he's become something good, something better, than what he'd been in the Port Mafia under Mori's wing, abusing Akutagawa and killing subordinates left and right at the slightest twitch of an eyebrow, and yet he cannot lie to himself because—

Jupiter turned into something bigger, but not something brighter.