Chapter 104

 is the one-hundred-and-fourth chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
Having washed his hands of his business in Japan, Kuon Higuro explains the troubling truth of the werewolves.

Synopsis
Kuon Higuro tells the mobsters that he simply had no time to submit documentation about his project to the Bastard Children of Sabaramond. Shibuya's abandoned Arataya General Hospital had been an ideal location for monitoring and disposing of the project's test subjects. He idly wonders what has become of them in his absence and subsequent replacement.
 * Republic of Lugnisas

The woman, who had a minute prior expressed disbelief at the idea of human experimentation in modern-day Japan, laughs incredulously at how "despicabl[y]" irresponsible Higuro was provided he is telling the truth. Her male companion admits that the Republic seems to be guilty of similar activities, hence why he bothered to hear out Higuro at all.

When the woman asks Higuro to clarify what he meant earlier by "W2," he answers that W2 is a special, perhaps even 'successful' case. She asks if he is implying that the "monstrous-looking guys" in the photographs are failures; Higuro claims to disdain categorizing lives as successes or failures, but concedes that those monsters are on the lower rungs of the ladder, so to speak. Unlike those monsters, the W2 specimens were human-passing and quite intelligent, aka potentially useful assets if correctly nurtured.

Instead, the woman surmises, Higuro has since abandoned them alongside the rest for someone else to dispose. Higuro says he he did leave behind an insurance card in the form of a modest connection.


 * Hospital, Japan

Corpse God rushes into the storage room to discover the W2 girl sinking her teeth into Sayo Shinoyama's forearm. Majiri Agakura calls out Sayo for continuing to shield the girl despite the girl's naughtiness deserving punishment. She ominously suggests that such punishment entail locking the girl away in a dark place.

Sayo insists that she is fine and that the girl has hardly been naughty even as the girl clamps down tighter on her flesh. Sayo's brain floods with dopamine in response to the ensuing flare of pain and misfires altogether; in that moment, Sayo is convinced that a shark is biting her.

Sayo swallows a scream behind a strained smile, drawing on her past resolve to never cry out in the event of a shark bite. Misaki Sakimiya guesses that Sayo must be 'okay' after all.

"I am not okay," Sayo grinds out. "It just takes too much energy to scream and cry."

The girl releases Sayo's arm to give Sayo an appraising look. "Does not scream. Does not run away. Does not cry." She ponders this. "Is not food?" Sayo maintains her smile by way of answer.

Corpse God marvels at the thought that Sayo might truly be unafraid, recalling what Vice Captain of the Imperial Glamor Unit's Assessment Bureau, Jangrad Diromorigh XIV, had once told him about werewolves. Werewolves can detect someone's emotions, lies, and even soul through scent alone, which is precisely why His Majesty had entrusted him with his position. Some werewolves, however, revert into beasts when their "magic and blood circulation are blocked" and consequently treat frightened people as bait. By keeping one of their prey alive, they can lure their next meals—the prey's would-be rescuers—to them.

The hospital's werewolves, having exhibited such behaviors, must therefore be akin to the werewolves from the Other World. Corpse God wonders why werewolves are on Earth. The other W2 specimen, an older boy, demands that Sayo return his "little sister" before charging at them both. Corpse God blocks the boy's strike with a skeletal hand and beseeches Majiri to watch Sayo and the girl, which Majiri agrees to do. The boy cracks Corpse God's skeletal hand with a phenomenal kick that breeches the corridor wall, heedless of Corpse God's calls for peace.

Although Emperor Framrodia Byandiraz has never seen a higher species of werewolf before, he has heard of such "roavolds" as "Unlucky Fang Dotty," who was famously said to have singlehandedly obliterated a small country. If this child truly is a roavold, then this is a "big deal."

With the boy emerged snarling and unharmed from the debris in the corridor, Misaki asks whether the group has a chance of defeating him through teamwork. Where Corpse God is reluctant to cause the boy, Xiaoyu Lei is reluctant to risk going easy on him.

Both Xiaoyu and Misaki experience quite the shock when Katashiro, who has hitherto faded into the background, surmises that the goal is to deathlessly conquer the "hallucination" before them. Shouldering the responsibilities of being the presumable oldest person in the room and Polka Shinoyama's bodyguard, he steps forward to earn his keep.

Trivia

 * Jangrad's last name, spelled Diromorigh in this chapter and Chapter 101, was spelled "Dimorigh" in Chapter 25.
 * The Republic of Lugnisas' name was spelled as such in Chapter 90. However, in Chapter 82, it was spelled both as Lignisasse and Lignisse. This article uses the latest spelling per Chapter 90.

Referbacks

 * "Unlucky Fang" Dotty is described in Volume 6, Episode 6 as a bandit girl who became cognizant of her massive potential after she survived an attack by "The Sticky Witch" Radiall Shia's giant slime molds. Dotty likely belonged to the 20,000 members-strong traveling bandit gang that lost most of those 20,000 members, according to Volume 3, Chapter 20, when they became fodder for the "Sticky Witch"'s giant sticky beast.