Chapter 101

Drifting in the Depths (水底にふ,) is the 101st chapter of the Bungo Stray Dogs manga.

Synopsis
The time has finally come for Dazai to make his escape from prison, but he has no intention of going anywhere while Dostoevsky still breathes! His onetime partner, Chūya, might doggedly stand in his way, but when has Dazai ever let that stop him?

Summary
Fyodor and Chūya make their way across Meursault, while Sigma voices his concern towards Dazai with them having to take on the dangerous gravity manipulator. Dazai appeases his concern, claiming that he has been thinking of ways to kill off Chūya for the past seven years. He also reminds him of an "angel" that assists him, whom Sigma correctly deduces to be Dazai's outside assistance.

Dazai explains that he relays intel to Ango through craftily using his heartbeat, the code of which is received and decoded by Ango. Sigma dismisses it as a half-truth, finding fault that such communication does not allow Dazai to receive but only send intel. Dazai then humors Sigma into taking a guess on how he does it; Sigma briefly ponders about it but soon demands Dazai to merely tell him about it if they wish to escape on time. Dazai, however, asserts that they are going to kill Fyodor before their time runs out.

Fyodor soon places a code incorrectly in the security doors, triggering shutdown to commence. He asks Chūya to break through the walls, but to no avail. Dazai explains to Sigma that such walls in Meursault are anti-ability metal that not even Chūya can break, and they eventually arrive at the central command room. As heavy water begins to flood on Fyodor and Chūya, Dazai and Sigma easily enter the command room and find all security personnel incapacitated. Upon being questioned by Sigma, Dazai tells him that he "stopped time".

As Fyodor and Chūya gradually get trapped, Dazai tells Sigma about a gifted criminal and best burglar in the world who is detained in Meursault. She made a plea bargain with Ango into reducing her jail sentence; in exchange, she would use her ability of stopping time every morning as instructed by Ango. In that way, Dazai is unaffected by her ability and was able to sneak into the command room to overwhelm the time-frozen guards, which also explains how Dazai is able to obtain intel. Sigma then realizes that Dazai changed the security codes, thinking how Fyodor did not have a chance against him from the start.

Dazai talks to Fyodor through the PA system and explains that his plan was to trap Fyodor in a way that Chūya's ability is vulnerable and where he cannot possibly use his own ability to their advantage, regardless of what it is. With Fyodor visibly agitated, Dazai bids his farewell to Chūya and muses back to their past exploits as Twin Dark, particularly to times when they connected, though he soon takes it back that there really was not any. In the end, Dazai singingly imparts his goodbye to his ex-partner as Fyodor and Chūya sink to the bottom of the water.

Abilities

 * Upon the Tainted Sorrow
 * Time-Stopping Ability (flashback)
 * No Longer Human (flashback)
 * Crime and Punishment (mentioned)