Chapter 102

Wicked Realms Beyond Mankind, Part 1, Section 1 (人外魔境 其の壱 前篇,) is the 102nd chapter of the Bungo Stray Dogs manga.

Synopsis
Aya and Bram reach a laundry facility truck where they can escape in. Aya reckons that airport officials would not perform exhaustive search over a vehicle carrying laundry cargo, considering it the optimal place to hide and lay wait in. Bram commends Aya's idea, to which the girl asserts that she is a savior of justice after all.

While waiting in the truck, Aya suggests to Bram that they take off the Holy Sword piercing him, but the latter declines and explains that doing so would only unleash darkness into the world. Aya blithely acknowledges, afterwards asking more about the sword. Bram expounds that it was a human being hundreds of years ago, forged from the ability user's body that into metal upon his death. The resulting ability turned out to be the power to consolidate "body" and "ability".

Meanwhile, Atsushi is urged by a certain voice to immediately wake up and soon awakens to find himself restrained before a watchful Teruko. Bram further elucidates that merging an abstract concept like an "ability" with a physical vessel like a "body" exceeds the laws of the world and is thus a considerably tremendous ability. He also tells her that the sword that struck him branches roots into his brain and etches a mark on its wielder, specifically Fukuchi, who is therefore the only one who can control him.

Aya remarks on Bram's vast knowledge on the topic; Bram finds it only natural, as he had been struck by the same sword twice. He recalls the first time during his past when he and his subjects were due for execution, where they were beheaded on stakes and punished as enemies of God. As he pleads the army to spare his 's people, one of them brands him a devil and apparently strikes his head with the sword.

The girl then notices Bram's glumness, which the latter dismisses as a 's anguish that a like her would not understand, though he quickly retracts it and considers her a horse instead for carrying him all throughout. As Aya quips to drown him in a bath, Bram unwittingly views it to be the modern age's treatment towards kings, which Aya does not further press on. Just then, the truck they are hiding in gets bisected laterally, and the two are discovered by the undead Akutagawa. Bram advises Aya to quickly run away.

Abilities

 * Rashōmon

Trivia

 * The name of the chapter is taken from a novel series by about an explorer discovering places untouched by man.