[ThirstMcGurst]

Baku’s behavior in this episode makes perfect sense once you step back and look at what his life has become.

He’s living the fantasy of being a dream-world secret agent, but it’s a fantasy with real consequences. I mean, is Baku actually getting true rest? He feels every injury from every battle, and he jumps straight into missions the moment he closes his eyes.

With everything happening so fast, cases stacking up, Nightmares growing stronger, people relying on him, he has no actual time or mental space to question what CODE is, where it came from, or whether he should be suspicious of anything. He just keeps moving because saving people is all he knows how to do. This episode shows the first cracks in that worldview, especially once Nox forces him to confront the possibility that he understands almost nothing about his own powers.

And to add, Nasuka is the one person trying to bring logic to the situation, pointing out details like the time discrepancy in dreams, but she is constantly talked over or dismissed by Fujimi, who leaps to conclusions the second he hears anything useful. He means well, but his obsession with proving Black Cases are legit and finding Odaka is pushing away the only person asking the right questions. I can see Zero hiding from Nasuka more than Fujimi because she doesn't hesitate to call out nonsense.

And for me personally, it bothered the hell out of me that Minami was snooping around. lol I don't hate the character, but her walking all over Baku's boundary bothered me on an older-sibling level.