Chapter 53

Echo, Part 3 (其の参,) is the 53rd chapter of the Bungo Stray Dogs manga.

Summary
As Goncharov walks away, he turns behind him to see Akutagawa in his quicksand alone. He realizes that Atsushi is missing and sees the ground where he was carved away. Atsushi sneaks behind him, clad in Rashōmon, and easily breaks his stone titan. To Goncharov's surprise, his stone titan does not regenerate as usual, which Akutagawa tells him is the result of the exceptional tearing power of a tiger's claws. Hence, augmenting such power with his Rashōmon would prove to be an ultimate weapon that cannot be defended from. Combining their abilities together, Atsushi and Akutagawa launch an attack on Goncharov.

Pushkin giddily heads to the coal mine's exit and comes up with his plans once he leaves the Rats in the House of the Dead. As he reaches the end of the mine, Pushkin is being awaited by the forces of both the Agency and the Port Mafia, having anticipated his next movement. Facing Fukuzawa and Mori, Pushkin asks for their forgiveness for inflicting them with Cannibalism, after which he removes the virus and surrenders. Though Pushkin is initially relieved that the two leaders "accepted" his apology, Fukuzawa and Mori retract it afterwards and attack him.

As the virus dissipates, Atsushi muses how all their plans have worked. However, Dostoevsky is still missing; he contacts Kunikida and tells him that their target is not in the hideout. Goncharov, restrained by Akutagawa, chuckles and tells them of their successful misdirection: taking the hideout would not necessarily let them catch Dostoevsky. In reality, Dostoevsky has been at a café all along instead of being in the hideout. Akutagawa does not believe him, but Goncharov says that they communicate through the music on the radio, exchanging codes through a radio program's song requests.

Dostoevsky requests another song to wrap up their plan, remarking how his enemies were quite easy to deal with. At that point, he notices Dazai at the same café, surprised at how his location was discovered. To answer his utter confusion, Fitzgerald lowers his newspaper sitting beside Dazai, who made a deal with the Guild leader and used "Eyes of God" to find Dostoevsky. Military police soon storm the café, and Ango arrives to arrest Dostoevsky. As a police touches the latter, he instantly dies despite Dazai's warning. As Ango warns the Russian, he agrees to go with them and surrenders. Fitzgerald asks the detective if he knows Dostoevsky's ability, which Dazai denies.

Aboard the S.S. Zelda, Tanizaki voices his concern to Kyōka and Kenji after they disobeyed the President's order not to fight the mafia before. Ranpo, having escaped the novel, informs them that the President has decided on their repercussions. Meanwhile, Dazai asks Atsushi how teaming up with Akutagawa was; Atsushi asks Dazai not to make them work together again. He also tells Dazai of his and Akutagawa's deal with each other: if Akutagawa wishes to kill him in six months, Atsushi asks the mafioso not to kill anyone within those months. Atsushi sets his plan of training with Kunikida and honing his ability, while Dazai muses on the notion of a mafioso who does not kill.