Chapter 43

Cherrirs! (ヘルリス！,) is the 43rd chapter of the Bungo Stray Dogs manga.

Summary
Atsushi and Kyōka head off to Café Uzumaki to discuss a case. They are met by an annoyed Lucy, who hands them a dispatch regarding the murder of Kyōka's parents. It turns out there is one page missing from the booklet, and Atsushi and Kyōka head off to a dock to find the missing page. Atsushi and Kyōka split up and Atsushi then meets Lucy. She taunts the missing page to Atsushi. Lucy gets annoyed and yells at Atsushi for not saving her from Moby Dick as he promised.

Lucy then throws the page into the ocean. Atsushi immediately jumps into the water but is trapped by discarded anchor chains. Lucy then sees that Atsushi will drown and jumps in after him. She then uses her ability to save both of them. Atsushi explains that he did try to search for her after the war. They then go back to the surface and meet up with Kyōka. The three go back to the café and read the report.

Three years ago, Kyōka's father was originally a secret agent for the government, but after a certain incident, he resigned. Kyōka's father along with Kyōka's mother, then wielder of Demon Snow, took care of multiple assassinations. One day, Kyōka's father tried to murder Kyōka but it was the doing of an ability user who had the ability to manipulate bodies. Demon Snow then murdered him. Kyōka's mother also fell under the effect of the ability. She realized that it was body manipulation through the blood. At the last moment, she ordered Demon Snow to protect Kyōka. Demon Snow then murdered Kyōka's mother.

It turns out that there is a way to transfer abilities to a blood relative. It appears that an ability user who could manipulate shadows taught Kyōka's mother. However, since the transfer during the attack was so sudden, Kyōka could not fully control her ability. Realizing that the ability she long thought killed her parents was actually a sign of her parents' love, Lucy drags Atsushi out of the café to give Kyōka some time alone.

Trivia

 * The title is from a Palauan custom Atsushi Nakajima wrote about in a story called "Husband and Wife", in which two women compete for a man.