Chapter 93

Chapter 93 is the ninety-third chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
The Agakura family enter the hospital first, but what they encounter goes against their wildest expectations!

Synopsis
A man in a dark room on an upper storey of a building near the Arataya General Hospital watches, via binoculars, the four Agakuras enter the hospital grounds. He puts his smartphone to his ear and asks if "everyone" is ready.

On the other end of the line, numerous men cock their guns and affirm that they are ready to avenge "Higuro-san." Rumbles of anti-Agakura-scum sentiment ripple through the group.

Gioacchino Soldati, who is monitoring the situation via his laptop, now knows that the rumors about Higuro's soldiers being intensely brainwashed are true. With maddened soldiers and the dangerous Agakura afoot, he says, one best not set foot tonight in Shibuya. Likewise monitoring the situation from his cell, the Grocer wonders who among the participants of the corpse hunt shall first find a corpse...or become one themselves.

Participants include: Katashiro and possibly his entourage, currently traveling via train; Corpse God and company, walking toward the hospital; the Agakura siblings, already in the hospital; Lemmings, standing on a rooftop; and a group of men preparing to enter a van.

Sayo Shinoyama, Xiaoyu Lei, Misaki Sakimiya and Majiri Agakura come to a stop alongside Corpse God outside the hospital fence. Corpse God glances at Majiri and reminds himself that he thinks she is no enemy, at least in light of their conversation in the café.

Majiri asks Misaki if she has further considered becoming an Agakura; Misaki supposes she could be one three days out of the week—"like a part-time job?!" think Xiaoyu and Corpse God—a novel proposal that had not occurred to Majiri. She suggests that Xiaoyu trial the same approach at a safe rate of one day per week, but Xiaoyu is categorically unswayed.
 * Flashback

Although Majiri claims that she is 'kidding,' she reiterates that working with her would be to Misaki's benefit, turning to "Riz-kun" for support. Out of them all, Corpse God must understand that, given that necromancy is limited regarding necromancy—and unless Corpse God can accomplish it outside of Easlies Swordfrail's methods—Misaki shall need Majiri's assistance to "go beyond" her current status.

Corpse God says that he cannot do it and that Misaki should decide for herself. At this, Majiri tells him that Easlies was "right to be proud" of him, for he chooses to "walk side-by-side with the dead." This claim as to his master's feelings takes Corpse God aback.

Misaki asks if they could discuss her joining the Agakura Family after the corpse hunt, to which Majiri, encouraged, buoyantly agrees. She says that she will reintroduce the group to some of her family members in the hospital, as her siblings ought to have entered the site by the time their group arrives. As for the hunt itself, she is confident that Corpse God will masterfully handle it.

Corpse God internally realizes that their are more life signs within the hospital than he can ascertain. He asks whether this is illegal trespassing on their part, and Misaki explains that her brother, "after a few adjustments," has taken charge of Shibuya in the stead of a Shibuyan called Higuro. Corpse God privately interprets "adjustments" to mean "hypnosis," as the idea of a Godhead-level vampire being capable of it even on Earth is not too far-fetched.
 * Present

The man in the window reports via his phone that Majiri has arrived with several companions who are probably additional family members though, no matter their identity, they must still be slaughtered with the rest and their bodies disposed of in "that hospital." The latter will be easy enough; one may simply feed the corpses to that thing downstairs.

Within the hospital, Yumeji Agakura leads his siblings down a dark corridor without turning on his flashlight, lest someone outside see the light and call the cops. Instead, he makes do with what light can be gleaned from the outside. Kana Agakura questions whether the smell in the air is one of lingering blood, something that Majiri would have been able to confirm at once. Dahlia Agakura adds that Majiri has quite the knack for determining if someone is alive or dead as a consequence. Momoya Agakura quips that they might as well be comparing Majiri to something as unflattering as a dog, though Dahlia jokes that Majiri is not nearly so cute as one.

Yumeji wonders whether the people whom Majiri wants her siblings to meet so badly are new family member candidates, at which Momoya suggests that they could also be people so "scary" that it would behoove the Agakuras to ally with them. Such a prospect, particularly the hypothetical of having to "make nice" with the ilk of the Crazy Bones Kagura, causes Yumeji some discomfort. However, the blood splatters visible a few feet ahead in the corridor do not.

Three questions arise as voiced by Momoya: is the blood real; how old is it; and, if it's old enough, are the police not already on the case? As Upon crouching to inspect the blood, Yumeji replies that, from what he has heard, the police never uncovered anything material in their past several investigations. A camera on the floor catches Yumeji's attention; Yumeji picks it up, stands, and says the camera still has its SD card but is missing its battery. Although Momoya is intrigued by what clues the SD card may hold, Yumeji ponders why whoever presumably attacked its owners would leave a camera with potential evidence on it out in the open. Perhaps someone irrational...?

Kana asks if Yumeji means the likes of junkies. Yumeji means that the attacker was likely no mere hoodlum at minimum, considering that Higuro once oversaw the premises. Dahlia's own question—whether the group should wait for Majiri before proceeding—goes unanswered, for Yumeji has lapsed into thought and fervent mutterings. Among what snatches can be heard is Yumeji regretting his inadequate observation during yesterday's mediators' meeting; he seems to believe that "normally, the mediators should've" done something, but what that something is remains inaudible. Dahlia comments that Yumeji has entered his "usual 'find the normal' mode," which Kana is relieved he did not do during the aformentioned meeting.

Momoya notices four parallel grooves—resembling claw marks—in the ceiling and turns to ask his siblings what they think. A pair of eyes located high above his siblings' heads stare back at him; his hand flies to his katana's hilt before he hesitates, studying the gloomy darkness of the corridor beyond. The eyes have vanished. He considers but dismisses the crazy notion that whoever had those eyes was roughly around his height; instead, he poses an apparently less crazy inquiry to his siblings: whether the hospital could be haunted.

A five-fingered hand reaches for Dahlia just as she is incredulously asking if Momoya is scared; she snaps her left leg high and back to counter it while Kana uses her threads to ensnare the forearm. Yumeji leaps onto the muscled humanoid chest of the arm's towering owner and kicks its head, holding the offending upper arm so that Momoya can better cleave the arm in twain. The beast staggers as its right forearm is severed and Yumeji, who returns to the floor, alarmedly wonders what it is. A bear?! A lion?! "Some weirdo in a costume...?" offers Dahlia.

The beast's wound self-seals, veins bulging under the skin that extends itself over bubbling flesh. No, replies Momoya. Not some costumed weirdo. Yumeji curses Majiri with a strained grin, staring up at face of a beast that is far from the "normal" that Majiri had promised: a shaggy-haired, pointy-eared inhuman terror with the bared carnassialforme teeth of a carnivore and the unblinking gaze of a feral hunter.

Lo; a corpse hunt is nigh indeed.

Trivia

 * Page 9 spells Corpse God's mentor's name different in two panels: "Izliz" in panel 1, and "Easlies" in panel 3.
 * Kana makes the bold claim that it would "be no exaggeration to say...that [Majiri] is the incarnation of Fenrir, a mythical Norse wolf.

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