The Armed Detective Agency (武装探偵社, Busō Tantei-sha?) is an ability user organization.
Description
They are a group focused on solving crimes which are considered too violent or difficult for the metropolitan police to handle. Often, these crimes are of a supernatural origin. Nearly all of the detectives within the company have their own special powers known as abilities. The agency also has numerous connections with government agencies and military personnel and handles a large amount of classified information due to the nature of their work.
The agency's licensed staff are granted police-like authority. Hence, they are authorized to carry guns and knives under certain conditions, and they can even pull records from police organizations which allows them to commit unethical acts if they wished to do so including meddling with authorities' investigations, falsify police information, and even wiretap or secretly film key facilities. [1]
Background
- Main article: The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency
The agency is founded over a decade ago by Fukuzawa after his encounter with a certain ability user named Ranpo Edogawa.[2]
Admission
The agency has an entrance exam for new employees, to assess if they possess qualities that make them worthy to join the Agency. The test usually consists of their qualities as a detective and their emotions of whether they are willing to risk their lives to save people. In order to join the agency, the candidate must take a test that evaluates their righteousness, prowess, wisdom, morality [2] and genuineness of spirit [1]. The examiner sets up a situation that the candidate needs to solve. If the testee passes the exam, only then will they become an official member.
As the current Director of the Agency is Fukuzawa Yukichi, all people that are official members are affected by his ability, All Men Are Equal.
Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam
- Main article: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam
After two years of laying low following his defection from the Port Mafia, Dazai was introduced and recommended for employment to Fukuzawa by Chief Taneda, Head of the Home of Ministry Affairs, Special Division for Unusual Powers. Fukuzawa put Kunikida in charge of Dazai and his entrance exam. Kunikida decided that solving the Serial Disappearances of Yokohama Visitors case would be Dazai's entrance exam.
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's Entrance Exam
Nothing is much known about Tanizaki's exam except that it was described as a very harsh exam that all of Tanizaki's memories of the day ended up buried deep in his unconscious. [2]
Atsushi Nakajima's Entrance Exam
Before the Day of the Exam
Before the entrance exam, the agency members each suggest their ideas:
- Handle a case (by Tanizaki) - Look at the requests they've received from clients and pick something that Atsushi will handle[2]
- Solve an in-house issue? (by Tanizaki) - Let Atsushi solve a problem at the agency like clearing a jam paper or cleaning the pipes[2]
- Test (by Dazai)
- Physical abilities and stamina - Have Atsushi be thrown into the Asiatic black bear exhibit and leave him overnight. If he's either defeated the bears or escaped by the time they come back the next morning, they'll hire him. If he reconciles with the bear, then they keep him on standby.[2]
- Thinking ability and problem-solving - Have Atsuhi come up with a reason to borrow a thousan yen from the old man at the Sixth District. If he can keep playing dumb for amonth without paying him, they'll hire him.[2]
- If he eats four pounds of sugar in under five minutes[2]
- Hideyoshi Toyotomi (by Kenji)
- Tear off eight fingers (by Yosano) - Start tearing Atsushi's pinkie on his left finger until they reach the pinkie on his right. If he can make it through all ten fingers, he's in. (compromised to eight fingers) [2]
- Hazing (by Yosano) - File down his crotch and see how long before he cries [2]
- Crush Dazai (by Kunikida)
- ````ing (by Naomi)[2]
- These meat buns are delicious.[2]
Day of the Exam
Atsushi talking to the bomber.
Shortly after meeting Dazai and rescuing him from a drowing at the riverbank, and meeting his partner Kunikida, Atsushi is forced into helping Dazai capture the man-eating tiger that is causing havoc throughout the city. Atsushi then learns that he is the man-tiger and Dazai decided to take him in to the agency. [3]
The morning after Dazai reveals Atsushi's ability, he is rescued from a failed suicide attempt involving a trash can and takes his charge to the Agency. Shortly after joining with Kunikida, they are informed of a hostage situation in the building and rush to the scene. When they arrive, they discover Tanizaki, acting the part of a terrorist, demanding the President's time while holding a remote control to a bomb countdown and a tied-up Naomi.
Atsushi covers the bomb with his body.
When Kunikida attempts to supposedly talk him out of it and surrenders, Dazai has Atsushi, whom the assumed terrorist has never seen before, pretend to be a newspaper delivery boy and distract Tanizaki. When Atsushi babbles on about his life story, Kunikida summons a wire gun and knocks the remote out of Tanizaki's hand. Once Atsushi is calmed down, however, Naomi shoves him, causing him to fall onto the button and start a five-second countdown. His immediate response was to cover up the bomb with his own body, bracing himself for an explosion that never came. Dazai welcomed him to the Agency, much to his dismay, more or less threatening him with the costs of the apartment and cellphone they had purchased for him. [4]
Kyōka Izumi's Entrance Exam
Kyoka after Moby Dick's crash.
Kyōka's entrance exam took place at the tail end of battle with the Guild. While Atsushi and Akutagawa were fighting Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and eventually defeated him, someone hacked into the system of the Moby Dick - the whaleship the three were fighting on - and sent it to ruin Yokohama. Dazai, having foreseen this, contacted Kyōka, who was shackled in an unmanned airplane at the time. She made the Moby Dick change course by crashing the airplane she was in, into the Moby Dick, which subsequently landed in the ocean. Atsushi, Akutagawa and Melville got out unharmed by the use of parachutes. After Atsushi thought her to be dead, Kyōka emerged alive and explained that she used Demon Snow's sword to cut down the shackles and escape. This was possible due to her exam being passed right before the plane crashed and gained partial control over Demon Snow. [5]
Members
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Cases handled
- Serial Disappearances of Yokohama Visitors
- Serial Skill User Suicide Phenomenon
Trivia
- The Armed Detective Agency has a webpage which displays their address and their phone numbers. A twitter account is also seen (@busou_da_jp). [6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Bungo Stray Dogs: The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 1.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 2.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Chapter 36.
- ↑ Bungo Stray Dogs Manga: Volume 2, Omake.