Chapter 92

Chapter 92 is the ninety-second chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
The players start to gather for the “corpse hunt.”

Synopsis
Near Akihabara Station's Atre 1 exit, Katashiro pensively browses a collection of illustration keychains advertised in a storefront window while listening to members of his entourage speculate about his mood. They are quick to suppose that Katashiro could be bothered by the disappearance of "those livestreamers from Akihabara" and so many other explorers as of late; perhaps, they whisper to themselves, Katashiro is mulling over whether to accept all the requests he and his people are receiving to find the missing persons.

Katashiro is not. Katashiro had no idea until five seconds ago that "corpse hunts" were "a thing"—and now that he does, he returns to his much more troubling preoccupation: the possibility that the keychains are fake merchandise. The type where fanart is ripped from websites, printed for cheap, and passed off as official products. In other words, a national-level evil. Katashiro takes decisive action by telling his entourage to put him in contact with "Amagase." His entourage snaps to attention. Once in possession of a diminutive walkie talkie, and alone on a rooftop, Katashiro greets "Amagase"—The Grocer—and acknowledges how long it has been since they last spoke.

Grocer reminds Katashiro that his shop is no longer known as Amagase, but Katashiro cares little when the fact remains that Grocer was once his right-hand man. "You of all people should know..." he says, "...what I'm asking of you now." Grocer obliges by invoking the corpse hunts, which had nothing do with what Katashiro had in mind: apparently, the police, and the Shinjuku and Shibuya stations are about to embark on a joint effort in tackling the hunt, so tonight is Katashiro's last chance to become involved if Katashiro desires. As if sensing Katashiro droop over the connection, Grocer promises to send him the whereabouts of the fake merch sellers as a freebie in honor of his customer loyalty. The call ends shortly.

Katashiro flings his arms into the air out of sheer gratitude for "Amagase" and burns off his sheer 'hype' with a somersault. Then he suggests to his entourage that they together visit one of these infamous abandoned sites.

In the Abandoned Building, Civil A. Sabaramond looks over photographs of the abandoned ruins and identifies them as former bases of Bastard Children of Sabaramond. "The lab that did experiments on you," he tells Soara Habaki. "It's where that all started." Soara's expression is ambivalent.

Tsubaki Iwanome, Kayakusa, and Ranmaru Yatsu exit an elevator and head to their HQ room with the latter asking whether Materials Compiling Group No.3 will be on call for the "Corpse Hunt" case, since they seem to be directly in charge of it despite the involvement of a minor being the community safety division's jurisdiction. Iwanome says that his investigation of Fire-breathing Bug's base led him to other suspicious buildings—ones that "match up" with the Corpse Hunt abandoned sites.

On a hill at the edge of Shibuya stands an unmaintained building, and on a quiet street below stand Momoya Agakura, Dahlia Agakura, Kana Agakura, and Yumeji Agakura. Momoya uses his smartphone's camera to zoom in on a sign and asks Kana what it says. Arataya General Hospital. This is their site. Yumeji decides to wait until nightfall to enter, when people are asleep—but not necessarily until whenever Majiri Agakura arrives with whatever outside help she has solicited. He remarks that his predecessor had this hospital under tight surveillance, which likely explains why Momoya has not heard of this abandoned hospital; Momoya grows thoughtful at the reminder of Kuon Higuro—and then a memory gives him pause. He recalls that Higuro had called someone after killing some men in Shinjuku requesting "the usual, if you would. Dispose of them at Arataya." Immersed now in the memory of carrying Nishida down the stairwell, Momoya posits that the Abandoned Building "back then" could have been a "corpse hunt" candidate site. While the siblings talk, a silhouetted figure uses a monoscope to spy on them from one of the hospital windows.

In a café, Majiri—sat alone at one side of a table across Misaki Sakimiya, Corpse God, Sayo Shinoyama, and Xiaoyu Lei—sips her tea and remarks on how unexpected it is to meet the Shinoyama Clan's daughter in Shibuya like this. The others, too find the circumstances a tad strange.


 * Flashback

Takumi Kuruya, flabbergasted that Sayo is volunteering to join the hunt, tells her that there is no chance of encountering any sharks at any abandoned sites. THere is, she says, but that is besides the point. If she stays 'home,' then all the Heilei bodyguards keeping tabs on her will also stay home. If she goes on the hunt, however, then the prospect of splitting up the group's surveillance and protection will no longer be an issue. Civil concedes that this way also ensures their group will be able to call for assistance immediately should the hunt go awry. The hunt going awry—or Majiri going awry—is precisely what worries Xiaoyu, who insists that there is no guarantee a horde of Heilei could defend Sayo from Majiri. Sayo counters that this is as much true at the Abandoned Building as it would be at the site or anywhere else. She would much rather become involved and risk being a burden than remain behind as one, not least because Majiri and her brother Takeru are somehow linked. "Takeru-nii would never turn to an outsider unless it was serious."

Majiri asks if she can assume that everyone present knows what she is. Visages of bats and dogs flit and snarl around her, snapping at the air; Misaki, Xiaoyu, and Corpse God cannot help their respective physical reactions—but Sayo is as stolid as ever, to Majiri's not unpleasant surprise. When Majiri mentions it, Sayo asserts that shark films have acclimated her to fear; if anything, Majiri makes her think of a recent vampire shark movie making the rounds in the shark fandom. Ah, replies Majiri, the one from Director Paulownia. Genuine fondness lights her face as she explains that while she does not know especially much about shark movies, she loves vampire-centric works. Sayo approvingly says that Majiri seems not so bad after all; Majiri, in kind, appraises Sayo as someone "worthy of Xiaoyu-kun's protection."
 * Present

In an Italian restaurant possibly located in Ikebukuro, Gioacchino Soldati indulges aloud in self-satisfaction. "'The Agakuras killed Kuon Higuro and took over his position,'" he muses. "I never thought such a simple suggestion could work so well. Well, let's see how they do." On his laptop, feed from a security street camera shows people in plainclothes gathering on a road.

And so, the bullet is loaded.

Trivia

 * Vampire sharks are old hat for Narita. In Ryohgo Narita's light novel series Vamp!, which takes place in the Naritaverse, a Megalodon Vampire called George "The Deep Deep Deep Blue" is said to swim the deep deep deep blue seas.
 * The Yen Press translation spells the hospital's name inconsistently; when Kana reads the sign, it is written as 'Ataraya,' but it is later written twice as 'Arataya' when Momoya recalls Higuro speaking it. 'Ataraya' may be a typo.

Referbacks

 * Higuro killed the men in the stairwell in Chapter 38, telling Momoya that he would have his "'undertaker' friend clean up" the place later.
 * The flashback panel on page twenty in which Corpse God calls Majiri "Godhead Restorer" is the last panel of Chapter 85. Corpse God utters "return to ancestry" in the individual Yen Press release of that chapter instead; however, when the scene is reiterated at the beginning of Chapter 86, Corpse God does say "Godhead Restorer" as he does here.