Ryūnosuke Akutagawa/Relationships

Port Mafia=


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Gin Akutagawa
Gin is Akutagawa's younger sister and only remaining relative. The two siblings grew up in the slums together along with eight other children and are the only survivors of the massacre that got the other children killed.

Although not much is known about their sibling relationship, the two seem to be on good terms with one another as shown by Akutagawa picking her up at the laundromat after Gin had been away on a long-term mission, or when they drink some tea together. Though Akutagawa is supposedly familiar with Gin the most, he finds some of her casual behaviors puzzling, such as when she stops in the middle of a walkway to pet a cat.

Ichiyō Higuchi
"I require neither your help nor anyone else's."

- Akutagawa's constant refusal of Higuchi's help

Higuchi is works as part of Akutagawa's command unit and acts as his assistant and bodyguard. She is shown to be very loyal to Akutagawa and is always willing to fight alongside him, though this is highly unreciprocated. In various occasions, Akutagawa largely expresses his refusal to accept Higuchi's assistance in his endeavors, especially in his constant pursuit of gaining Osamu Dazai's acknowledgement, claiming that he does not need her nor anyone else's help.

As his adjutant, Akutagawa maintains a strict and rather cold relationship with Higuchi. Befitting his lone wolf attitude, Akutagawa frequently performs his operations by himself, pushing away Higuchi and even his team by not issuing them orders. When working together, Akutagawa is prone to bouts of anger whenever she commits blunders. For instance, he slaps and berates Higuchi when he arrives and finds out that she has gunned down an entire alley, which placed Atsushi Nakajima, their bounty target, at risk.

Nevertheless, Akutagawa has shown rare instances of comradeship towards her as a fellow mafioso. While battling the tiger-transformed Atsushi, Akutagawa instinctively saves Higuchi after she gets cornered by the tiger, forcing him to ostensibly kill Atsushi despite strict orders of bringing him in alive. In another occasion, Akutagawa apologizes to her after she, later alongside the Black Lizard, rushes to retrieve him from his abductors.

Sakunosuke Oda
"Dazai told me something once. He said I could train a hundred years and still wouldn't be able to defeat you. He wouldn't lie, which is exactly why I can't forgive you. I'm inferior to even you, the lowest-ranking member of the Mafia? Why? Why? Why?"

- Akutagawa expresses his murderous rage towards Oda

As Dazai's then apprentice in the Mafia, Akutagawa learns of Oda from Dazai himself, who praises the lowest-ranking mafioso as someone far more superior than Akutagawa and whom the latter cannot surpass even if he trains for "a hundred years". Akutagawa immediately seeks Dazai's reasoning, only to be cut off at once by the executive.

Eventually, Akutagawa crosses paths with Oda. Scarred with Dazai's previous comparison, Akutagawa confronts Oda after he rescues the lad in a crossfire with Mimic, lashing out at him with Rashōmon out of murderous rage, but to no avail. In addition to Akutagawa's anguish, Oda expounds having noticed "something faint—something other than anger—hidden behind his expression".

Ōgai Mori
Similar to other mafiosi, Akutagawa is loyal to Mori as the Mafia boss. For instance, Akutagawa participates in the feud against the Agency in their plan to kill the Agency president and save Mori in the process from the Cannibalism virus.

Given how he typically works individually despite being assigned an entire command unit, Akutagawa presumably receives orders directly from Mori. This is further shown when Akutagawa personally contacts Mori during their hunt for the masked assassin, which results to Akutagawa facing the culprit on his own.

Osamu Dazai
"My hope lies in my credo. A few plain words spoken to me by a certain someone… Those words have let me overcome defeats akin to licking dirt and sipping mud."

- Akutagawa to Hawthorne on his persistent faith

Dazai is Akutagawa's former mentor in the Port Mafia. At the age of 14 years old, Akutagawa had met Dazai, who promised to give him anything he wanted in exchange for joining the Mafia. Akutagawa asked if he could give him a reason to live, which Dazai accepted as an answer. In response, Akutagawa emotionally screamed out, and Dazai handed him his black overcoat as a customary symbol of recruitment in the organization, formally welcoming him into the Mafia.

As the then executive's apprentice, Akutagawa had underwent horrific and abusive training that would shape him into the feared man he is. Only enduring Dazai's berating, he greatly yearns for his validation, often going to extreme lengths to hear a few words of acknowledgement. For instance, Akutagawa grows a murderous rage towards Sakunosuke Oda, a low-ranking mafioso whom Dazai speaks highly of and considers to be far superior than Akutagawa himself. Even after Dazai leaves the Mafia, Akutagawa strives for his approval, more so with the uncertain time he has left due to his lung disease.

In the early stages following Dazai's defection, Akutagawa set out throughout Yokohama in search of his mentor, not knowing the reason for his sudden disappearance. After dismissing his theory that Dazai was the Azure King, Akutagawa continues his search in the city and vows to find him at all costs. During this search, he once bombed a public building in broad daylight in hopes of having such signal get noticed by Dazai, musing how the latter, who disappeared without any warning, had yet to accept Akutagawa's power. Eventually, Akutagawa crosses paths with Dazai during their bounty hunt for Atsushi Nakajima, whom he learns to be Dazai's new subordinate who has acquired the ex-mafioso's praise.

From then, Akutagawa has displayed instances of hostility towards Dazai on grounds of dereliction of duty, desertion of his post, and defying the Mafia, even threatening to kill him when provoked. However, Akutagawa retains his search for approval towards Dazai whenever he gets the chance. Hence, Akutagawa is quick to accept almost any personal favor from Dazai, considering it as an opportunity to prove himself to him. As such, he immediately promised to show his power to Dazai despite being at his limit after defeating Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, worked with his rival Atsushi to catch the virus ability user, and even tailed Atsushi – albeit with initial reluctance – prior to the Decay of the Angel's terrorism outbreak.

Akutagawa also remains firmly loyal towards Dazai. Ōchi Fukuchi once offered to become his mentor and hone him as the strongest gifted Hunting Dog, but Akutagawa promptly rejected such request, claiming that no human, not even the war hero Fukuchi, can ever replace Dazai as his mentor. Instead, Akutagawa even surmised that defeating Fukuchi would earn him Dazai's acknowledgement, which compels Akutagawa all the more to do anything in his power to kill Kamui. In a turn of events, however, all these led to Akutagawa's defeat in demise.

Atsushi Nakajima
"Let me tell you why I said you disgust me. It's because you have everything in hand and yet fail to even notice it! You're an imbecile who keeps dwelling on old wounds! You were a gifted a skill and connections without single shred of effort and given Dazai-san's praise and recognition out of sheer luck! Even so, you completely fail to notice! You're a fool who does nothing but wallow in his own tragedy."

- Akutagawa reiterates his initial hatred for Atsushi

Akutagawa and Atsushi met one another only by accident, when Higuchi had led them into an alleyway and trapped the two. Akutagawa, originally seeing Atsushi as another weak person, was on a mission to collect Atsushi for a bounty. He sways the new detective into thinking that his subordinates were merely caught in the crossfire out of the mantiger's misfortune. Atsushi ends up taking him on nonetheless, leading the two in their first clash. As it ends with Dazai's interference, Akutagawa retreats with Higuchi, albeit still bent on taking their bounty target.

Akutagawa eventually comes to learn the Atsushi is Dazai's new subordinate, and greatly resents him. While Dazai boasts about Atsushi as his new subordinate, Akutagawa begins to feel an even stronger hatred for Atsushi and obtains a will to kill him in hopes that he will earn Dazai's approval.

In his attempt to defeat Atsushi aboard a cargo ship, Akutagawa constantly asserts his animosity towards Atsushi, even planning not to hand him in alive for the bounty and reminding him that all he does is cause misfortune around him. At every instance of Atsushi getting the upper hand on him, Akutagawa bellows out his sentiments of why and how Atsushi was chosen by Dazai over him, until he ultimately suffers his first defeat against Atsushi. As a result, Akutagawa was once plagued by Atsushi berating him that "people can't live unless someone tells them 'it's okay to go on'", afterwards admitting in himself that he knows such reality all along.

Harboring this hatred towards the detective, Akutagawa sticks to his lone wolf attitude so far as to break the détente between the Mafia and the Agency after acquiring intel of Atsushi's Moby Dick infiltration. Akutagawa initially expresses his similar thirst to kill Atsushi, though he eventually comes to know of Atsushi's motivations, which the mafioso finds quite disgusting and disappointing that he finds it quite worthless to kill his target.

Nevertheless, Akutagawa ultimately ends up cooperating with Atsushi against Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, during which the two mutually and shortly come to terms: Akutagawa claiming that Atsushi's past no longer has anything to do with his present self and Atsushi thinking that Dazai must have acknowledged Akutagawa long ago. This collaboration would soon be followed by other succeeding ones, though the two would do so begrudgingly.

Though initially full of flaws, the partnership between Akutagawa and Atsushi soon grew through time and experience. This collaboration birthed Beast Beneath the Moonlight–Rashōmon, which requires Akutagawa to clad Atsushi in Rashōmon and morph it with his tiger ability. The two first used Toramurakumo against Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and later Black Tiger's Supreme Claw on Ivan Goncharov, both of which won their respective battles. The duo also claim the latter as their strongest move yet, which can cut through even abilities and whence no life form can quite possibly survive an attack, prematurely overwhelming even the nearly undefeatable Ōchi Fukuchi.

From their instances of working together, Akutagawa cuts a deal with Atsushi that he shall kill him within six months, believing that he would not be able to move forward so long as he cannot deny his very being. In response, Atsushi challenges him not to kill anyone within those six months, a promise Akutagawa accepts and upholds. Moreover, outside combat and work, Akutagawa occasionally treats Atsushi with more respect, far from his initial hostility. For instance, Akutagawa let Atsushi mourn for the death of his "master". Consequently, Akutagawa also reached the point of saving Atsushi's life by letting him escape from Fukuchi at the cost of his life.

Kyōka Izumi
"You must keep killing, Kyōka, as a member of the Mafia. If you don't, then stop breathing. Worthless humans like you have no right to breathe."

- Akutagawa to Kyōka after her defection from the Mafia

Doppo Kunikida
"Pathetic. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a detective agency that works for chump change. Don't worry. It'll all be over when I snap your head off."

- Akutagawa upon fighting Kunikida

Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Is that all you have, Brother? Challenge me with your full strength. If not, it was hardly worth volunteering to kill you."

- Akutagawa challenges Hawthorne

Margaret Mitchell
"You say I know nothing of defeat? […] Defeat, humiliation... They are one with me. I am a lone survivor, left to traverse the dark after the fall of my comrades. […] Thus, this level of desperation shall never wilt the likes of me."

- Akutagawa refutes Margaret's claim

André Gide
"Kill me. I— understand your feelings, truly I do. I regret that I couldn’t become the enemy you sought."

- Akutagawa concedes defeat against Gide