What does Yosano Akiko do to her Patients? Yosano’s Ability Explained 

Among the huge cast of male characters in Bungo Stray Dogs, Yosano Akiko stands out as one of the few badass female characters in the series.

Yosano is also the only doctor in the Armed Detective Agency. However, unlike regular doctors, her way of treating her patients is rather…quirky.

Yosano fatally injures her patients with surgical tools like chainsaws to heal them. The reason behind this is the so-called restriction of her ability, Thou Shalt Not Die. She can heal the external wounds of her patients only if they are nearly dead.

So, can she use this ability to treat her own wounds? Why does she strip off her clothes while treating her patients? Let’s take a deeper look at her ability and her ‘questionable’ clinical practices.

Thou Shalt Not Die Limitations

Thou Shalt Not Die is pretty invaluable for the Armed Detective Agency, since all the members land themselves in life-threatening situations on a regular basis.

However, this ability comes with its own set of drawbacks. Here are some of the limitations of Thou Shalt Not Die that greatly undermine its potential.

1. Thou Shalt Not Die’s unique restriction obviously makes it difficult to treat small wounds.

2. Thou Shalt Not Die doesn’t work on Dazai, since No Longer Human nullifies her ability.

3. Yosano can’t heal internal injuries and diseases. She can’t heal a person who has been poisoned, either.

4. Yosano can reattach severed limbs, but she can’t heal someone whose head is crushed.

5. Yosano ends up having severe fatigue, if she overuses Thou Shalt Not Die.

Can Yosano’s ability heal her own wounds?

Since Yosano can treat anyone and even regrow their limbs, does this also mean she can also heal herself? In a way, yes.

Yosano’s ability could reattach her severed arm during the fog incident caused by Shibusawa. This means she can treat her own wounds, as long as she’s conscious.

However, her ability might also fail to work if she loses consciousness due to excessive bleeding from her fatal wounds. Relying on Thou Shalt Not Die in such situations can prove to be an extremely risky gamble for Yosano.

Why does Yosano strip off her clothes to heal her patients?

The most questionable practice that Yosano follows while treating her patients is her habit to strip off her clothes completely.

Some fans have simply dismissed it as fan service, while others have concluded that it’s something she does for sexual pleasure. But I believe that the real reason behind this odd habit of hers might be a bit more logical.

Yosano might strip herself to avoid getting her clothes bloody. Yosano has to fatally injure her patients to treat them, and her chainsaw treatment makes the blood splatter even worse. That’s why it’s much better for her to go nude, rather than stay clothed.

However, this theory is just mere speculation, and we don’t know the actual reason behind this habit of hers.

Why Yosano doesn’t use anesthesia on her patients?

Administering anesthesia to the patient is a critical step in any major medical procedure, but Yosano skips this step altogether.

It is argued that Yosano can treat her patients in a more efficient way by simply administering anesthesia when she has to injure them. But on the contrary, she chooses to keep her patients awake through the whole horrifying ordeal.

You can simply attribute this behavior of hers to her apparent ‘sadistic’ tendencies, but if we take a look at her attitude towards the concept of death, her reluctance to use anesthesia starts to make a lot of sense.

Yosano hates meaningless deaths. She hates people who got recklessly injured because she was always there to heal them. She probably avoids using anesthesia so that the pain might teach people to value their bodies more.

This theory is solidified even further if you take a look at Yosano’s and Motojiro Kaji’s interaction during the Port Mafia arc. When Kaji confesses his curiosity toward death by bombing innocent civilians, Yosano clearly mocks him.

About Bungou Stray Dogs

Bungou Stray Dogs is a manga series by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. It has also received an anime adaptation.

The story follows Atsushi, a weretiger, who later joins the Armed Detective Agency, where people with special abilities help keep peace in the area.

The agency faces peril from time to time and must rise up against all odds.