Chapter 48

Chapter 48 is the forty-eighth chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
As everyone struggle[s] to find the answers they're looking for, a hidden connection is revealed...

Synopsis
Curious as to whether the Shinoyamas have a connection to the Abandoned Building, which Clarissa Kuraki owns, Eightport Kochou reads an old Weekly Dry article covering Clarissa's kidnapping when she came into her inheritance in high school. Upon realizing the article's author was her Chief Editor, she approaches the Chief to ask if he remembers a connection between the Shinoyamas and the Kuraki kidnapping case.

It takes the Chief a moment to recall, but when he does, he asks in turn if Eightport recalls him saying a policeman once disappeared inside 'that building'. Eightport admits she looked into the remark and learned the policeman was one Inspector Hosorogi. This is the connection the Chief excluded from his article at the time—a time from before Hosorogi became an inspector: Hosorogi was the person who rescued Clarissa from her abduction and near-murder.

Meanwhile in the Tena Sorimura investigation HQ meeting room, Tsubaki Iwanome exclaims Hosorogi's name in his shock. Hosorogi reminds him to keep his voice down. Glancing over at Kōzaburō Arase, Iwanome turns away and asks why Hosorogi is using a voice changer; it throws his authenticity into doubt. However, Hosorogi's reply—"This makes the third time you've doubted my word over the phone"—signals he is indeed Hosorogi, and he explains he has been "deprived of speech."

Iwanome privately worries that Hosorogi may have been tortured before imploring Hosorogi give him his location; he wants to see Hosorogi in the flesh. He does not understand what is going on; he knows the old Hosorogi would have never involved a "high schooler to pull a stunt like that!" After confirming Iwanome is referring to Polka Shinoyama—withCorpse God and Sayo Shinoyama listening in—Hosorogi agrees he is no longer the same old Hosorogi and gets down to business.

Hosorogi informs Iwanome he left him several clues at the location he wrote down on the note and that he can only relay some basic information at this time—such as his suspicion Clarissa may become involved 'again'. He himself intends to intercept the enemy should they be on the move 'again', dismissing Iwanome's point that Clarissa is a criminal, and says any discussions on trust will have to be saved for "next time." For now, he wants to tell Iwanome about his list of suspects and who he believes is the "wire-puller" at the police department.

Over in Jirotarou Takasu's office, Jirotarou asks if Sorimura is insinuating he is some sort of mastermind. The fact that Jirotarou "sits at the pinnacle of close to 300,000 police officers nationwide" certainly qualifies him as a player in Sorimura's mind—but here Jirotarou objects that Sorimura has one major particular wrong: even as a superintendent general, Jirotarou is only one of multiple authorities with jurisdiction in this location.

He launches into a speech on law enforcement hierarchies and his superiors, spinning Sorimura's logic by suggesting all citizens are 'players' by virtue of their popular sovereignty over the prime minister. Everyone is both player and pawn, Jirotarou suggests, as demonstrated when Sorimura once made Prime Minister Kubikigawara his own pawn by kidnapping him.

Although Sorimura apologizes for conflating the metropolitan police department with the national police agency, he observes Jirotarou is using semantics to derail Sorimura's insinuation. Caught out, Jirotarou questions why Sorimura would reveal himself to someone he suspects is the mastermind behind 'something'—but therein lies the rub: Jirotarou is questioning a plan Sorimura never developed beyond 'visiting Jirotarou to see if he would reveal he ordered Solitaire assassinated'. Since Jirotarou has admitted to no such act, Sorimura must figure out his next move fast.

Unlike Sorimura, Misaki Sakimiya has already come up with a new plan for her confrontation with Momoya Agakura in the hideout. She whispers this plan into Xiaoyu Lei's ear while Momoya considers his chest wound; although Xiaoyu is dubious, he implicitly agrees to cooperate when Misaki requests his trust.

Where his opponents are talking strategy, Momoya is using the time to think over Misaki's 'arm' trick and to prepare for the next round. Once his opponents' team meeting is over, he charges with his blade swinging at Misaki—coming close enough to confirm the fabric of her right stocking has been cut. In other words, his blade must have landed earlier. With this in mind, he leaps an incredibly high leap over Misaki and kicks off a column to dive attack. Misaki blocks his blade before alighting on it, hooking and hurting his left arm with her crowbar, but Momoya's arm is so long he is able to seize Misaki's neck in a vice-like grip. In that moment, he is sure he has her.

He does not. She laughs, fangs glinting as her midriff and forearms fragment into a block of bats—and four of Xiaoyu's finger extensions pierce through the gaps and into Momoya's body: one in his right shoulder; his wounded torso; his waist; and his left thigh, though the last one technically first pierces through Misaki's right shin.

The risk of collateral damage was one Misaki had already accepted, and so she is still grinning when she says, "Got you." Momoya releases her in his shock—only to suffer a true electroshock when Xiaoyu's extensions electrify him.

Trivia
Referbacks
 * To Sorimura's kidnapping of the prime minister, first mentioned in Volume 3, Chapter 19.
 * To the assassination attempt on Sorimura, as seen in Volume 4, Chapter 26.