Chapter Summaries

Atsushi and the other Bungo Stray Dogs characters watched footage introducing An Xinyi, a self-described villain who wanted to make all humanity immortal. An Xinyi revealed his advanced research and insisted that no one, not even Dazai, could be excluded, leaving Dazai shaken by the thought that An Xinyi considered him human.

• Atsushi found himself trapped in a viewing room with the Armed Detective Agency, the Port Mafia, the Special Division for Unusual Powers, and the Hunting Dogs as footage began playing.
• The footage described villains who sought to remake the world, then revealed that An Xinyi considered himself one because he wanted to grant immortality to all humanity.
• An Xinyi entered a concealed laboratory, where his AI DD reported that its research could reverse cellular aging and restore a sixty-year-old person's youth.
• Mori recognized the enormous value of An Xinyi's stem-cell research, while An Xinyi explained that he would not rely on supernatural abilities in treatments because their risks were not understood.
• An Xinyi declared that his goal included every human being, even someone with Dazai's ability, and Dazai wondered whether An Xinyi considered him human.

The viewers watched An Xinyi explain how his childhood fear of death led him to pursue immortality for all humanity, including saving a suicidal young Dazai. The chapter ended with DD and the viewers condemning An Xinyi for leaving Dazai behind, while Dazai vowed to kill him if they met again.

• An Xinyi lost his grandfather and concluded that humanity's fear of aging, illness, and death drove people to seek a better life.
• In Tsugaru, Aomori, An Xinyi met a young, suicidal Dazai and told him that death could not offer salvation.
• An Xinyi's ability awakened, and he decided to eliminate death so that all humanity would keep living.
• An Xinyi admitted to DD that he did not know what happened to Dazai after he left him.
• DD and the viewers called An Xinyi a scumbag, while young Dazai decided he would kill him if they met again.

An Xinyi pursued immortality through technology while accepting that his efforts could save only the people he encountered, and he insisted he was a villain despite his compassion. When he met Osamu Dazai again, An Xinyi pretended not to recognize him, leaving Dazai angry and hurt while An Xinyi privately wished to keep him at a distance.

• An Xinyi instructed DD to prepare Nanite Repair Technology for clinical trials, prompting the observers to question his supposedly strongest and tragic ability.
• After hearing that Yokohama's Five-Hundred-Billion Inheritance had triggered a deadly conflict, An Xinyi ordered DD to collect the deceased's tissues for experiments on digitizing consciousness.
• An Xinyi explained that he wanted to preserve human lives, though he could save only those he saw, and called himself a villain acting on his own desires.
• While walking through the city, An Xinyi was drenched with soda by Osamu Dazai, who claimed his hand had slipped.
• An Xinyi recognized Dazai but acted as if he did not, while Dazai resented being forgotten and An Xinyi privately hoped Dazai would stay away.

An Xinyi secretly delivered Osamu Dazai a birthday gift, then ordered a covert massacre to contain the threat posed by a mysterious statue. The chapter revealed that An Xinyi’s Black God Squad consisted of controlled clones, leaving the gathered observers horrified by the lengths he would go to protect humanity.

• An Xinyi dismissed DD’s warning that Osamu Dazai had noticed something unusual about him and said the time was almost right.
• On his birthday, Osamu Dazai received a navy-blue yukata from the teddy bear who had secretly sent him gifts every year, and he realized An Xinyi was the sender.
• An Xinyi escaped through a secret passage and told DD that he could distinguish among the different Osamu Dazais he had encountered.
• DD found that a statue had entered the private collection of President Shiraishi and was due to be exhibited, so An Xinyi ordered the Black God Squad to kill everyone who had encountered it and then eliminate the squad.
• An Xinyi’s Black God Squad was revealed to be made of clones controlled by DD, provoking horror and anger among the observers.

An Xinyi deliberately presented himself to Ayatsuji Yukito as the murderer, intending to die before he could implicate anyone else. After An Xinyi died in a billboard accident, Osamu Dazai walked away troubled and returned to thoughts of suicide.

• After Ayatsuji Yukito was assigned to find President Shiraishi's killer, An Xinyi ordered DD to initiate plan B.
• An Xinyi disguised himself, approached Ayatsuji Yukito, and openly declared his guilt, knowing Ayatsuji's ability Another would kill him.
• Ayatsuji Yukito noticed the number 143 tattooed on An Xinyi's wrist, and An Xinyi urged him to smile before they parted.
• An Xinyi spotted Osamu Dazai watching him, then stepped beneath a swaying billboard rather than risk dying at Dazai's hands.
• An Xinyi died from the billboard's impact after smiling at Dazai, who left and said he would try drowning again the next day.

A recording revealed that a hidden laboratory had been creating successive versions of An Xinyi by implanting a recovered ability crystal into clones. An Xinyi No. 144 awakened as the others realized the implications of his repeated deaths and replacements.

• DD confirmed that An Xinyi had died and that his ability crystal had been recovered.
• DD decommissioned No. 143 and began preparing No. 144 for awakening and crystal implantation.
• Chūya Nakahara, Osamu Dazai, Ranpo Edogawa, and Fyodor reacted with shock as they understood what the process meant.
• The recording showed a laboratory filled with clone tanks containing people with An Xinyi’s face.
• An Xinyi No. 144 opened his eyes, and DD welcomed him back.

An Xinyi revealed that cursed energy was far more dangerous than the jujutsu world understood, and that Satoru Gojo might be at risk of death or madness. The chapter ended with An Xinyi explaining that cursed energy and cursed spirits were manifestations of a god responding to humanity’s dreams, leaving the viewers confronting how fragile their world was.

• Fyodor called An Xinyi a demon behind a saint’s ideals, but Ranpo Edogawa fiercely insisted that An Xinyi was different from Fyodor.
• Satoru Gojo and members of Tokyo Jujutsu High and Kyoto Jujutsu High arrived as the next group of viewers and learned that cursed energy created cursed spirits.
• An Xinyi ordered DD to lure Satoru Gojo away from danger, explaining that Gojo himself—not the Six Eyes—was dangerous and might die or go mad.
• An Xinyi warned that knowing the truth about cursed energy could contaminate people, and Ranpo realized An Xinyi had been trying to protect him.
• An Xinyi compared cursed energy to nightmares from a god in humanity’s subconscious and explained that cursed techniques could eventually consume their users.

An Xinyi explained that a nightmare from the being called “God” could turn cursed energy into a natural disaster, and that Satoru Gojo must never use the Six Eyes to look at God. He revealed that Gojo’s potential fairy-tale bubble calamity would center on his fear of losing those he cares about, leaving the Jujutsu sorcerers confronted with the horrific fate awaiting anyone drawn into it.

• Masamichi Yaga, Kasumi Miwa, and the others reacted with fear and disbelief to the claim that jujutsu and cursed energy came from inhuman forces, while Ranpo said they had never questioned their origins.
• An Xinyi warned that a nightmare from God could bring a terrifying fairy tale into reality, and said he would have to try to kill God if that happened.
• An Xinyi explained that Satoru Gojo must never use the Six Eyes to look at God, because doing so would awaken Him and turn cursed energy into a natural disaster.
• An Xinyi identified Gojo’s potential bubble calamity as the story of Kintarō, with Yuji Itadori and Yuta Okkotsu as key figures, and said Gojo’s deepest fear was losing everyone he cared about.
• An Xinyi warned that Gojo’s calamity would assign fairy-tale roles to those around him, subjecting them to grotesque transformations and deaths that could not be reversed.

The observers learned that An Xinyi had deliberately exposed himself to the Nightmare Bubble, whose calamity was “The Little Prince,” and gained a fragment with immense spatial power. He could use it to reach the sleeping god, but acquiring it again would irreversibly turn him into a terrifying Heretic, so he refused to use it and continued to sacrifice himself for a world that was not his home.

• The observers recoiled at the Nightmare Bubble’s grotesque visions, and Satoru Gojo vowed to kill the god for hurting his students.
• The group learned that the god slept beyond human reach and that An Xinyi had tried to infect himself with its nightmare.
• An Xinyi revealed that his Bubble Calamity had been “The Little Prince,” and the observers reflected on his loneliness and his inability to return home.
• An Xinyi explained that the fragment “The Distant Star I Can Never Reach Again” could cross any distance or banish anything, but using it again would inevitably make him a terrifying Heretic.
• Ayatsuji Yukito, Ranpo Edogawa, and Osamu Dazai suggested that An Xinyi stayed out of love for the roses, fox, and friend he had found on Earth, while Satoru Gojo called being loved by him both the best and worst thing.
• Mori Ougai coveted the fragment’s power, but Osamu Dazai mocked him and said he did not deserve it.

An Xinyi’s ability, Regret, could overwrite everything that had happened, but it trapped him in endless repetition after humanity was wiped out. The chapter ended with him unable to accept his own death or let go of the world he had failed to save.

• An Xinyi explained that he and the Little Prince’s imitators had sacrificed themselves because they loved humanity.
• An Xinyi’s dream revealed that his ability, Regret, could completely overwrite the past.
• Ayatsuji Yukito realized An Xinyi had met them countless times, while the others concluded there was no way to counter his ability.
• Nobara Kugisaki, Yuji Itadori, and Satoru Gojo imagined the people they might have saved with Regret.
• An Xinyi revealed that the ability trapped him in an endless cycle after humanity had been wiped out.

The others learned that An Xinyi had repeatedly endured humanity’s destruction and reset the world, earning their respect and fear. In a dream of one ruined cycle, he rescued a violet-eyed boy who turned out to be Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

• Doppo Kunikida and the others reacted in disbelief as Ranpo Edogawa confirmed An Xinyi was telling the truth about humanity’s destruction.
• Ayatsuji Yukito wondered how many times An Xinyi had died, while Osamu Dazai and others realized the burden he had carried alone.
• Yuji Itadori pointed out that the people An Xinyi saved did not know what he had done, prompting anger and grief from the others.
• Atsushi Nakajima and Chūya Nakahara learned that the statues spread madness and helped bring about humanity’s extinction, while Mori Ougai and others agreed that An Xinyi had been right to eliminate those exposed to them.
• An Xinyi dreamed of a cycle in which nuclear war and societal collapse left humanity reduced to brutal survivors and beasts.
• An Xinyi rescued a violet-eyed boy from people trying to cook him, then recognized him as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

An Xinyi found a broken, barefoot Fyodor in the apocalyptic world and took him in, while the observers reacted to Fyodor’s suffering and mocked his new hat. As An Xinyi carried him toward an underground base, Fyodor considered killing him but instead clung to his back.

• The observers saw the miserable Fyodor, and Nikolai Gogol excitedly pointed him out while the others reacted with disbelief or pity.
• An Xinyi covered Fyodor with his coat, dressed him, and found a white felt hat to put on his head.
• Osamu Dazai, Chūya Nakahara, Ranpo Edogawa, and Nikolai Gogol joked that Fyodor looked like a rice ball.
• An Xinyi set out with Fyodor for an underground base, noticed the wounds on his bare feet, and offered to carry him.
• Fyodor reached toward An Xinyi’s exposed neck, but when An Xinyi asked whether he intended to kill him, Fyodor withdrew his hand and rested against his back.

An Xinyi cared for Fyodor and his ability manifestation, hoping to restore the boy’s hope while humanity’s world continued to collapse. After more than a year, a meteor shower marked the final end of civilization, and Fyodor’s eyes went lifeless again.

• An Xinyi kept Fyodor close and cared for him, while reflecting on the ruined world and delaying his reset because he could not abandon the boy.
• An Xinyi named Fyodor’s ability manifestation Mickey and gave Fyodor a collection of cartoons, which Fyodor watched with Mickey.
• Ayatsuji Yukito questioned whether Zero was the original An Xinyi, and Ranpo Edogawa confirmed that Zero remained conscious but slept to recover his mental state.
• As time passed, Fyodor’s eyes regained a faint glimmer, and An Xinyi felt glad that he had helped him find hope.
• More than a year after civilization collapsed, a meteor shower ended humanity’s last hope, and Fyodor’s eyes went lifeless again.

An Xinyi 948 devoted his remaining life to building and launching a spacecraft so Fyodor could see a star rise and regain hope. The launch succeeded, carrying the statue away from Earth, and the cycle ended with a new record preserved in An Xinyi’s memory.

• After humanity watched the satellites fall, An Xinyi decided to save Fyodor by promising to send a star into the sky.
• An Xinyi gained Zero’s support, gathered supplies and wreckage, and built the spacecraft Star One with help from DD and the survivors.
• Though Fyodor did not believe the launch could succeed, he spread the promise among the survivors and helped them believe.
• Star One launched, its stages separated successfully, and it carried the statue away from Earth.
• Fyodor’s hope returned as he watched the star rise, and he told An Xinyi that he had seen it.
• An Xinyi reflected that the record would remain in his memory, and the cycle ended with the record overwritten.

An Xinyi woke from a dream of 948 and Fyodor and prepared to launch S016 into space, believing the gesture was still necessary. In another cycle, 948 and Fyodor passed each other on the street without recognizing one another.

• The gathered observers applauded after Atsushi Nakajima called the ending good and Satoru Gojo began clapping.
• An Xinyi told DD that his racing heart came from a dream and asked whether the launcher was ready.
• An Xinyi insisted that banishing S016 to the stars was necessary, despite the extra effort.
• A young man with a 948 tattoo bumped into Fyodor, who returned his dropped document.
• Fyodor dismissed the brief encounter as insignificant when Nikolai Gogol asked what was wrong.

948 raised a star for Fyodor amid humanity’s destruction, restoring the light to the boy’s eyes. The star remained in Fyodor’s heart even after the cycle and its records were overwritten.

• 948 watched humanity’s final meteor shower and realized the boy beside him had lost all hope.
• 948 decided to raise a star for the boy and for humanity, despite believing the act might be meaningless.
• The star rose and briefly illuminated the darkness, bringing the light back to the boy’s eyes.
• 948’s dream preserved the moment as his own, even if the cycle ended and the records were overwritten.
• Fyodor remembered the star’s light in his heart and vowed never to despair again.

An Xinyi continued sacrificing his well-being to protect humanity, while others wondered why he would not trust anyone enough to seek help. The chapter revealed that 143 had chosen to live freely and invited a defiant Ayatsuji Yukito to travel the world with him.

• An Xinyi kept researching and eliminating threats, refusing DD's pleas to rest, and the observers discussed how years of isolation had taught him to treat himself as expendable.
• An Xinyi recalled that 143 had been unusual from the start, leaving the culture medium soon after his creation to see the world.
• 143 rejected the idea that Zero or humanity could decide how he lived, and set out on his own journey.
• Before leaving, 143 met a caged Ayatsuji Yukito, took his hand, and invited him to travel the world.
• Mizuki Tsujimura recognized the person 143 had invited as Mr. Ayatsuji.

An Xinyi took Ayatsuji Yukito out to explore a small town, though his lack of money nearly left them with nowhere to stay. He earned enough by performing magic tricks, then carved Ayatsuji a doll, deepening the detective’s curiosity about him.

• An Xinyi and Ayatsuji Yukito wandered through a small town while An Xinyi observed its people and Ayatsuji grew impatient.
• Ayatsuji tried to leave when he learned An Xinyi had no money, but An Xinyi stopped him and promised to find a solution.
• An Xinyi borrowed props and performed magic tricks for the townspeople, earning enough money for a few days of expenses.
• An Xinyi carved Ayatsuji a lifelike doll, leaving Ayatsuji more intrigued by his unexplained abilities.
• An Xinyi told Ayatsuji that he would prefer humans if they were all like him, prompting amused and exasperated reactions from those watching.

An Xinyi and Ayatsuji Yukito enjoyed a summer festival and watched fireworks, while An Xinyi reflected on the brief lives of the other An Xinyis. After seeing an elderly couple supporting each other, An Xinyi revealed that he would never grow old, but accepted the value of his short life as 143.

• An Xinyi dragged Ayatsuji Yukito to the summer festival and watched fireworks with him, saying that even a brief life could light up the darkness.
• Satoru Gojo, Masamichi Yaga, Fyodor, Ranpo, and Yukichi Fukuzawa reacted to An Xinyi's words and the deaths of the other An Xinyis.
• An Xinyi steadied an elderly man who nearly fell in the crowd, and the man left with his wife after thanking him.
• An Xinyi admired the elderly couple's lasting companionship and joked about Ayatsuji Yukito growing old with him.
• An Xinyi told Ayatsuji Yukito he would not see him as an old man, because the clones could live only two or three years before their bodies deteriorated.
• An Xinyi watched the couple together and accepted that his brief life as 143 still had worth.

Shoko Ieiri, Akiko Yosano, and others reacted to An Xinyi’s willingness to sacrifice himself, while An Xinyi traveled with Ayatsuji Yukito and struggled to understand the love and longing driving his many selves. He ended by telling Yukito he was trying to fall in love with the world and with him.

• Shoko Ieiri and Akiko Yosano condemned An Xinyi for treating his life so carelessly, while Satoru Gojo and Ryomen Sukuna considered what his devotion might mean.
• An Xinyi and Ayatsuji Yukito climbed a mountain and watched the stars as An Xinyi reflected on humanity as an unreachable ideal and wondered why his other selves pursued it.
• An Xinyi told Yukito he liked The Little Prince, then admitted he did not know who his rose or B612 might be; Yukito misread his answer as meaning nobody mattered to him.
• As they descended the mountain, Yukito asked when their journey would end, and An Xinyi said it could not end yet because he had not fallen in love with the world.
• An Xinyi told Yukito he was trying to love the mountains, the ocean, humanity, and Yukito himself.