Chapter 41

Chapter 41 is the forty-first chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
Someone's targeting the building where Polka's staying, but what is their true objective...?

Synopsis
Five years ago, Tsubaki Iwanome receives an email from Miyabi Hosorogi in which Hosorogi states he has found 'crucial evidence' and provides a web address with the relevant location. Upon entering a basement room in a certain building, Iwanome finds the room empty and a bloodstain on the opposite wall.

In the present, two police officers open the same door to the same room and find it empty and stain-free—and in the secret passageway, two skeleton corpses carry Nishida's corpse with two eyeball spies looking on. Meanwhile, the Grocer—monitoring the situation from his cell—notes that the market price for assassins will be on the rise now that the main Sakuradamon branch has made its move.

The two police officers report no sign of Nishida to Ikeuchi once they return from the basement. A young man in a suit suggests that the mugger may have run upstairs, but Ikeuchi adds the mugger may have already fled and instructs the policemen to check the neighborhood cameras if they cannot find Nishida in this building.

Bao, observing the building from an unknown location, contacts Takeru Shinoyama to report that central office police have entered the building where Polka Shinoyama and his friends are staying; she also informs Takeru that Polka and his friends are outside waiting for the police to finish their investigation. These associates include Misaki Sakimiya, Eightport Kochou, Sayo Shinoyama, and Takumi Kuruya.

With Hosorogi clutched in his hand, Polka—the Corpse God—privately tells Hosorogi he discovered a secret passageway below the basement floor while searching the building on the night of the rooftop incident. Though he had noticed the passageway was connected to another building, he had not given it much thought due to the passageway's disused state; however, he had concluded that someone was—is—attempting to trap this building. What he has yet to determine is whether the schemer's objective is his group or Clarissa Kuraki, the building's owner.

Kōzaburō Arase, watching Polka's group and the police around a corner alongside Iwanome, comments that Eightport is a Weekly Dry reporter who appears to be doing a story on Polka. Iwanome finds the idea of the central office coming here for a mugging case dubious and the idea that Clarissa's bartender would flee into one of Clarissa's buildings senseless—with the timing of it all too perfect, he suspects the police were fed false information. Tense, he mutters that the situation is the "same as five years ago."

Iwanome then relates how, five years ago, Hosorogi had already been missing for some time when he emailed Iwanome about having found crucial evidence; he recalls finding the empty room, and confirming that the bloodstain matched Hosorogi's DNA.

From his vantage point at a nearby building's window, Higuro remarks to Momoya that he (Higuro) will have to disguise himself better if Arase is involved; he still remembers how Arase invaded the Son of the Styx's main base and beat eight of their best members "within an inch of their lives." Momoya, peering down at the streets below, murmurs that "there's such a thing...as destiny."

Just as Xiaoyu Lei is deciding to keep watching the situation from afar a little while longer, Taipei appears and asks Xiaoyu what he is doing when he ought to be guarding Sayo. He reminds Xiaoyu that Xiaoyu has no further use to the Lei Family except for fulfilling his duty as Sayo's guard, a statement with which Xiaoyu agrees and uses as a reason why Taipei ought no longer act superior to him. Taipei coldly smiles that Xiaoyu is simply rabble if he has no connection to the family, adding that Xiaoyu ought to learn to control what he says.

Xiaoyu stiffens. Before he can do something he might potentially regret, Misaki pops into view, takes one of his two shopping bags, and leads him over to the building while explaining they have found themselves in a bit of a mess. Momoya, having witnessed the encounter from afar, concludes at once that 'the girl' is a killer and no amateur at that—he guesses she has killed at least ten people. Higuro goes to look with his binoculars; eyes widening, he states that the girl is likely a Shinjuku assassin and that Clarissa seems to still be on her guard five years on. Once again, he expresses disbelief that Takumi is "here of all places."

Momoya considers the players at hand: Polka Shinoyama; an assassin; an informant; members of the Lei Family; a building visited by Phantom Solitaire; and Arase—and declares that a job he was afraid would be 'boring' is—much to his pleasure—shaping up to promise much more fun than he first thought.

As Xiaoyu follows after Misaki, he stops in his tracks at a cellphone alert and takes out his cellphone to see a new text message from his older sister Imbi: Imbi assures him not to worry about Taipei or their father when she loves him above all else, adding that 'as proof' she has transferred all of the money in Taipei's savings account to Xiaoyu's own.

Sayo loudly congratulates Xiaoyu for buying new shark merch, startling him to attention. Upon seeing Misaki's shopping bag in Sayo's hand, he asks where Misaki has gone; Takumi remarks she was here just a minute ago.

Over on an empty street, Taipei asks why Misaki has approached him; recognizing her body language as the movements of no amateur, he calmly explains he is on the Shinoyama Family's side. Misaki replies that an ally of the Shinoyamas is not inherently equivalent to an ally of Polka, implicitly establishing herself as a member of Polka's crew, and reminds him that he they are on Shinjuku rather than Shinoyama turf. Telling him to take care—since this turf is "packed with all sorts of people"—she walks off to rejoin her friends.

Taipei silently muses that Misaki is like no other person he has ever seen. After puzzling over her 'weak aura of life', he smirks that this "really is a den of thieves."

Referbacks

 * To Chapter 7, where Arase's 'takeout' of the eight gang members is first mentioned.