Yūko Tsushima

* **Main**
* BEAST

"*It's not about getting stronger so I can carry on alone. If I'm not gaining that strength for someone else, there's no point. That's what true strength is.*"

## Tsushima Yūko

* Manga
* Anime

## Portrayal

### Live-Action Actor

Ayami Nakajô

**Yūko Tsushima** (津つ島しま 佑ゆ子こ, *Tsushima Yūko* ?) is a member of the Port Mafia and has the ability Missing.

## Appearance

Yūko has a "frail-looking" build and light complexion with long, dark grey hair, and wears bangs, parted twice so as to not obscure her vision. She wears her hair loose with long side bangs along with somewhat sharp but empty-looking-grey eyes her posture is very unconfident, and she sometimes has dark eyelids due to lack of sleep, and wrapped bandages around her right arm, chest, and right leg.

Yuko wears a white military dress decorated with epaulets and a white admiral's cap with an emblem similar to that of a rising sun on the front of it. In the middle of the emblem is a clock face. She also wears white gloves and white, heeled boots. She has long white hair usually tied in symmetrical twin tails. Her right eye is tinted red while her left eye appears as a blue clock face. She is stated to look identical to Kihaku, as they are twins, aside from the obvious color scheme differences.

When Yūko was younger, her hair was ragged and dirty, and she wore ragged-looking clothing and wore her hair in bangs.

Yūko's casual attire consists of a loose sky jacket with sleeves that stop at her forearms, a skirt of a lighter shade, a white collared shirt with a blue ribbon tied on it, and a black bag with golden details slung over her shoulder. She also wears three silver hair clips clipped to the right strand of hair. Occasionally, she wears a white wig and blue contacts as a disguise.

After being bitten by Bram Stoker, her iris turns darker, the sclera turns black with red veins across the eye and into the skin around the eye, and her hair is converted into a light shade of grey.

Tsushima disguised as a guard in the shipTsushima's vampiric appearanceCasual attire (disguise)
## Personality

Yūko has a very complex personality due to a series of tragic events that occurred throughout her life. After her sister and parents were killed, Yūko cursed herself using her ability to eradicate her emotions. Without her cumbersome feelings, Yūko grew to become cold and stoic. She lost value in familial relationships and refused to engage in social interaction, trusting very few people and preferring to handle tasks by herself.

When introduced to the series, Yūko was quiet, cynical, and distrustful of others. Though taciturn, she wasn't afraid to tell others what she really thought of them. Impassive and, at times, obtuse, she tends to think only for herself and operates on logic alone, never letting emotion guide her, making her seem completely apathetic and indifferent. Despite her uncaring and unserious demeanor, she has been shown to get serious when it is required and is devoted to her position.

Being outwardly nonchalant and calculating most of the time, Yūko is ruthless and ill-tempered. She fails to understand the value of human life and will not hesitate to eliminate inconveniences.

She perceives death as a natural occurrence in the cycle of life and cannot empathize with those who mourn their losses. Rather than imparting her vast knowledge to others, Yūko maintains a condescending attitude towards those who do not meet her standards. She is capable of analyzing others with a single glance and manipulating them at will.

Under all that, however, Yūko was revealed to be a pragmatic and rational being with high intelligence, as she is highly observant of the people around her and her surroundings. Though coming off as stoic and stony-hearted, Yūko is known to be highly calm and respectful, wearing a solemn and cool expression at all times, and rarely showing outbursts of emotion.

Yūko also has a very specific ideology about what determines good from bad; something is only good if it is good from the start, whereas something bad that becomes good, though a pleasant surprise, is still ultimately bad. this most likely stemmed from her own inability to forgive herself for her actions. The author describes her as, "a person who tries her best to be kind", though she is overly blunt about other people's shortcomings.

She is also a highly private person who personally dislikes talking about her past.

## Ability

Main article: Missing
Tsushima's ability **Missing** (行方不明,, *Yukue fume*?) allows the user to manipulate and control shadows at will. Users of this ability who have awakened the ability are said to die upon reaching the age of 25. Yuko mentioned that despite the increased power, it reduces her life span due to the strain on her body.

Due to the "curse's" inconsistency, it is possible that it's simply superstition. However, there is nothing that comprehensively disproves it, so it's just as likely that the "curse" does truly exist

### Skills:

**Overall Abilities**: As a child prodigy, and part of the command unit of the Port Mafia, Yūko is a very powerful swordsman and combatant. She is noted to be incredibly talented despite her young age.

**Enhanced Vision:** Yūko possesses extremely sharp eyesight, being able to accurately predict her opponent's next attack and movements by simply observing the subtle shifts of their muscles, joints, and the slight movements of their eyes. This allows her to make effective counterattacks and dodges and stay ahead of her opponents.

**Great Intellect**: As a child prodigy, Yūko is extremely intelligent. Despite not speaking for most of her childhood, her first words were very clear and pronounced. Yūko has showcased a high level of tactical thinking. She is capable of quickly spotting various weaknesses her opponents may have. Raised by the Port Mafia, Yūko has a good grasp of all aspects of the world. She can stay one step of her opponent in battle and can read other people's moves through their personalities. When it came to her assignments, Yuko approached her missions with careful calculation, caution, and patience.

**Master Weapons Specialist**: Able to wield a wide assortment of different weapons, Yūko is considered to be an expert in all sorts of weaponry. She normally uses katanas in battle but is fully capable of switching between multiple weapons in the course of a single fight. She is also fully capable of incorporating martial arts such as aikido into close-range combat. Even now, Yuko continues to wield her katana as her main weapon. She is far more proficient and moves extremely well as a swordsman. Yuko reinforces her body and blade with energy, allowing her to wield it with superhuman physical prowess.

**Extrasensory Perception:** Yūko has extremely honed senses able to pick up things outside the normal range of perception, such as discerning the aura of an ally from a foe.

**Immense Speed & Reflexes:** Yuko has been noted on several occasions to have superhuman speed, so much so that it's impossible for her opponents to read her moves. As a mafioso, Yūko is tremendously fast, displaying the ability to blitz opponents and move in bursts of speeds akin to teleporting. Yūko has attained incredible physical strength through harsh training. She can jump extremely high distances incredibly fast, showing her incredible leg strength. In terms of arm strength, she can swing her katana at subsonic speeds incessantly without tiring.

**Immense Stamina & Endurance:** Yūko possesses superhuman stamina and endurance, which she displayed on multiple occasions. Even as a child, Yuko could run for a whole day without rest, she even remarked she didn't feel the least bit enervated. Her vitality is also beyond peak-human level, being able to survive without food or water for 10 whole days when growing up.

**Immense Strength:** Despite her build appearing to be one of the smallest and seemingly weakest of the Port Mafia and mafioso, Yūko has shown to possess a caliber of physical strength heads and shoulders above that of the average Port Mafia member.

## Background

Yūko lived an impoverished lifestyle before she was taken in by the Port Mafia. Her parents were incredibly abusive towards her and her sister, beating them and drowning them if they did anything they disliked. Even crying or making sounds of pain would result in a punishment by the parents.

## Battles

Dark Era Arc

The Guild Arc

## Appearances

* Main
* DEAD APPLE

**Manga Appearances**
*Chapters in order of appearance*

Port Mafia Arc

* Chapter 3 - Yokohama Gangster Paradise, Part 1
* Chapter 4 - Yokohama Gangster Paradise, Part 2
* Chapter 8 - Kill A Man and Die Thee Too, Part 2
* Chapter 9 - Beauty, Hushed Like a Statue
* Chapter 10 - Detective Boys (mentioned)
* Chapter 11 - Back in the Day...
* Chapter 12 - Rashomon and the Tiger
* Chapter 13 - The Rapturous Detective Agency (flashback)
* Chapter 14 - An Unsuitable Occupation for Her

The Guild Arc

* Chapter 17 - The First Job (flashback)
* Chapter 20 - A Single Lemon
* Chapter 21 - The Brother and the Devil
* Chapter 25 - Q
* Chapter 33 - A White Whale, into the Oceans of Heaven
* Chapter 34 - The Last Tycoon
* Chapter 35 - Rashomon, the Tiger and the Last Tycoon
* Chapter 36 - If I May Lay Down This Burden Today
* Chapter 37 - Closing the Party

The Guild Aftermath Arc

* Chapter 39 - Portrait of a Father
* Chapter 41 - Addict

Cannibalism Arc

* Chapter 46 - The Masked Assassin
* Chapter 47 - Mutual Destruction, Part 1
* Chapter 49 - Mutual Destruction, Part 3
* Chapter 51 - Echo, Part 1
* Chapter 52 - Echo, Part 2
* Chapter 53 - Echo, Part 3

Kamui Revelation Arc

* Chapter 83.5 - Toward the Complete Answer, Part 2
* Chapter 84 - Hero vs. Criminal, Part 1
* Chapter 85 - Hero vs. Criminal, Part 2
* Chapter 86 - Hero vs. Criminal Part 3
* Chapter 87 - Hero vs. Criminal Part 4
* Chapter 88 - As If Hurtling Downward

Vampire Infection Outbreak Arc

* Chapter 96 - The Empty Port, Part 6

**Anime Appearances**
*Episodes in order of appearance*

Port Mafia Arc

* Episode 2 - A Certain Bomb
* Episode 3 - Yokohama Gangster Paradise
* Episode 4 - The Tragedy of the Fatalist
* Episode 8 - Teaching Them to Kill; Then to Die
* Episode 9 - The Beauty Is Quiet Like a Stone Statue
* Episode 10 - Rashomon and the Tiger
* Episode 11 - First, an Unsuitable Profession for Her / Second, an Ecstatic Detective Agency

Azure Apostle Arc

* Episode 6 - The Azure Messenger

Dark Era Arc

* Episode 14 - Nowhere to Return
* Episode 15 - A Room Where We Can Someday See the Ocean

The Guild Arc

* Episode 18 - The Strategy of Conflict
* Episode 19 - Will of Tycoon (vision)
* Episode 22 - Part 1: Poe and Rampo; Part 2: Moby Dick, Swimming in the Sky
* Episode 23 - Rashoumon, the Tiger, and the Last Emperor
* Episode 24 - If I May Shed Away My Burden Now

The Guild Aftermath Arc

* Episode 30 - Slap the Stick & Addict

Cannibalism Arc

* Episode 33 - The Masked Assassin
* Episode 34 - Cannibalism (Part 1)
* Episode 35 - Cannibalism (Part 2)
* Episode 36 - Cannibalism (Part 3)
* Episode 37 - Echo

**Light Novel Appearances**
*Light novels in order of appearance*

* Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam
* Bungo Stray Dogs: Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era
* Bungo Stray Dogs: 55 Minutes
* Bungo Stray Dogs: DEAD APPLE

**Manga Appearances**
*Chapters in order of appearance*

* Chapter 5
* Chapter 5.2
* Chapter 6
* Chapter 6.2
* Chapter 7
* Chapter 12.1 (flashback)

**Anime Appearances**
*Episodes in order of appearance*

* DEAD APPLE Movie

## Quotes

* (To Kihaku Tsushima): "*In a battle, I'm alone, no one's gonna save me. That won't change*."
* (To Dazai Osamu): "*I'm no one but me. I don't need to compare myself to anyone."*
* (To Ōchi Fukuchi): "*I had it backwards, you don't get strong so you can live life alone. It turns out true strength is the kind you gain for the sake of the people you care about, and the more you build it, the more you understand what it means to be free!*"

## Etymology

* The name **Yuko** means "help" (佑)(Yu) and "child" (子)(ko). Meaning "helpful child".
* The surname **Tsushima** means “port" (津)(Tsu) and "island" (島)(shima/jima)

## Trivia

* The real-life Yūko Tsushima's name is **Satoko Tsushima** ( 聡子 津島)
* The real-life Yuko Tsushima's father is Dazai Osamu, as his birth name was Shuji Tsushima, but in Bungou Stray Dogs, this relationship was omitted.
* According to the first official guidebook:
	+ She spends most of her time reading
	+ She has an irregular sleeping pattern and doesn't sleep much, much like Dazai.
	+ She doesn't have an ideal type
	+ Her motto is "Silence is Golden"

* Yuko has broken 2 katanas before her current one
* Yuko owns a black and white mobile phone
* Yuko likes reading, running, calculating, and pole-vaulting
* Once in elementary school, Yuko sleep-laughed, which is one of the rare times she has laughed out loud, besides when being tickled.