Chapter 87

Chapter 87 is the eighty-seventh chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
The Corpse God uncovers a surprising connection to Polka Shinoyama.

Short Summary
Rozan Shinoyama, upon learning that Corpse God and Polka Shinoyama are half brothers, explains that he and Kanon both knew little of her past life, as Kanon had suffered trauma-induced amnesia. He is nonetheless prepared to welcome Kanon's son as his own son, a kindness that Corpse God is receptive to but finds confusing when juxtaposed with the cruelty of his biological father. Corpse God's desire to embrace being an older brother and to welcome Polka as his little brother is met with Rozan's acceptance, making Corpse God truly happy.

The mediators' liaison conference concludes with the formal acknowledgment of Yumeji Agakura as Kuon Higuro's Shibuya replacement, though Andalucía cannot resist a few last barbs at Lisa Kuraki's expense before the mediators part ways. Several henchmen ambush Katashiro shortly after as ordered by Gioacchino Soldati, who wants to sample Katashiro's skills in advance of a hypothetical takeover of Akihabara turf. Katashiro dispatches the men with brutal ease, portending that any seizure of his territory will be comparatively difficult. Gioacchino refocuses on a more immediate challenge: the 500 million yen bounty on Polka's head.

Yumeji is similarly interested in the bounty not for the reward money but for the threat Polka poses to the balance of power, and he emphasizes to his siblings that he wants to meet Polka before the Agakuras begin talking murder strategy. The prospect of meeting—rather, reuniting with—Polka is a happy one indeed, for Yumeji has not seen his childhood friend in years.

Synopsis
When the Corpse God asks Rozan Shinoyama if he was aware that Corpse God and Polka Shinoyama are brothers, Rozan—who was not aware—expresses surprise at the question. He admits that he knew little of Kanon Shinoyama's past life save for Kanon's ability to see the preternatural; at the time he met Kanon overseas, she had been so severely injured that the resulting trauma had rendered her a near-total amnesiac. Although Rozan had refrained from prying on the occasions her past haunted her, as such occasions appeared to pain her, he observed her murmur in fits of fever what he now realizes was Corpse God's name: "Riz."

Corpse God sags, despondent, at the tragic picture of his mother that Rozan has painted. Rozan gently remarks on the strangeness of his and Corpse God's connection; how strange indeed that life would present him a son one hundred years his senior. A son of Kanon is his son, in principle, he emphasizes, or at the very least no stranger—though he amends that he understands if Corpse God balks at the thought of an "old geezer younger than [him]" to be his family. Corpse God is quick to assure Rozan that he appreciates his expression of kinship, explaining that he is more confused than anything else: it is difficult for him to reconcile Rozan with his biological father, who was utterly different to Rozan and who acted abhorrent to his mother. Still, Corpse God wants to tell the little brother that Kanon left behind, Polka, that he is his older brother and wishes to protect him as an older brother ought—even if he has no right to say so as the person possessing Polka's body.

Rozan quips that this is an even stranger connection than that between him and Corpse God: Corpse God coming to possess his one hundred years-younger brother's body. Corpse God agrees, an unusually bright smile lighting his face.

In the mediators' conference room, Yumeji Agakura thanks his new confrere mediators for acknowledging him as the new mediator of Shibuya. With their main business concluded, Andalucía relaxes and asks Lisa Kuraki whether Miyabi Hosorogi's ghost has left her, for she "seems to be free of whatever evil spirit has been haunting you." Lisa serenely demurs "who knows?", though she muses that some people may still be "trapped by that man's illusions." Katashiro tells Andalucía to cease provoking Lisa in the hopes of "revert[ing] Lisa back into a starving animal' given how many of Lisa's followers like her for who she is now—and given that the point of this conference has to maintain the balance of peace. Privately, Katashiro hopes his speech "came out as cool"—and, indeed, Lisa calls Katashiro a poet, but Katashiro is already itching to go home, worried that he has flubbed it.

Gioacchino Soldati seconds Katashiro's opinion, but Andalucía is not quite done. She decides that she was mistaken in blaming Hosorogi for Lisa's mellowing out when she should have blamed Misaki Sakimiya instead: the smiling corpselike bodyguard who prioritized protecting her master even when personally at gunpoint. It seems that Lisa has "finally perfected" an inhuman killing machine, says Andalucía, in fashioning Zaki out of Misaki. Lisa states that she was not responsible for Misaki's abandonment of her humanity—"Right-o! I quit being a person!" chirps Misaki—but she concedes that Andalucía's interpretation is not "entirely wrong."

Andalucía calls herself naïve for assuming she would eventually need to set Lisa "back on the human path," to which Lisa says that she personally has no right to ruin the youths' lives, so she nevertheless mediates in pursuit of her desired future. Her latter remark echoes the spoken sentiments of her predecessor, the former Shinjuku mediator, much to Gioacchino's gratification. The meeting concludes with Andalucía telling Yumeji that she has high hopes for his future in Shibuya.

Outside the conference building, Momoya Agakura—his left arm in a sling—approaches Lisa's two lovers to commiserate with them over how "it sucks being on patrol duty," asking them to aid him on account of his condition should trouble arise. Koruto Ichinose exchanges a congenial smile with him while her companion remains stolid—but all traces of congeniality drain from their faces as a premonition of danger washes over the three of them. Katashiro strides out of the building moments later and off into the masses, though the tension does not leave Momoya until Katashiro disappears into the bowels of an alley. Word on the street, Momoya says, is that Katashiro is on par with Lemmings.

Katashiro, having overheard this remark, inwardly gripes about the comparison as he continues on his way. To compare him to a monster unaffected by bullets is to make him "feel the pressure, like, for real." His unbroken stream of thought turns to Andalucía as he kicks a knife-wielding mugger and blocks two shots from a gunman with the mugger's body: Andalucía shooting her own subordinate as she did reaffirmed her status as "bad news." Several more armed men converge on Katashiro and die to him in prompt, violent fashion without any mental acknowledgment, as it is the absent Lisa and 'Lucía', not they, who actually scare Katashiro "to death." Where Katashiro defeats these men effortlessly, he must make an active effort not to antagonize his fellow mediators. Peace and love, man... thinks Katashiro, striking the final man with a coup de grâce punch. Peace to all!

Katashiro's headcloth flutters with the movement, exposing glimpses of a snarling mask underneath it. Whatever Katashiro's real expression may be, Katashiro has worked up a real appetite, so he glances over to ask an observing Gioacchino if his restaurant is still open. Upon learning that the restaurant is fully booked, Katashiro suggests that Gioacchino handle corpse cleanup lest he incur Lucia's wrath; he then departs with vague aspirations of returning to a ninja café back in Akihabara.

While Gioacchino's subordinates examine the corpses, Gioacchino wonders aloud why Katashiro let him be when it was obvious that Gioacchino set him up for an ambush; Katashiro's mysterious motives notwithstanding, the results of Gioacchino's test ambush have made it obvious in turn that seizing control of Akihabara will be no easy task. Gioacchino's female bodyguard cautions her employer from making any rash moves, as she and her colleagues may not be able to protect him should Katashiro seek his end. Gioacchino, hardly deterred, replies that he and she are both cogs in their chairman's organization; their company is not so easily disturbed that it would suffer from their losses.

Similarly, the balance of power in Tokyo is not so easily disturbed as to suffer from the loss of a mediator, as the liaison conference has demonstrated; when one cog disappears, another takes its place. With the conference freshly on his mind, Gioacchino procures his smartphone and pulls up the one glaring matter the conference had left unresolved: the bounty advert on Polka Shinoyama's head, a photograph of which the advert helpfully includes as a reference. Open to all groups, reads the advert. 500 million yen reward. Gioacchino remarks that he would hate to see another organization break the stalemate in his company's place.

Momoya is rejoined outside the conference building by Dahlia, Kana, and Yumeji, the last of whom is rereading the same bounty advert on his smartphone. Yumeji claims he is invested in the bounty not for its admittedly hefty reward money, but for the fact that Polka Shinoyama's existence will break the balance of power. Kana takes this to mean that the Agakuras should kill Polka, but Yumeji insists upon meeting Polka first, invoking the carte blanche given to him by Majiri Agakura. Momoya suggests inviting Polka to Shibuya since it is beyond Shinjuku's protective purlieu; however, with Yumeji now engrossed in flicking through his digital photographs, Momoya shelves any talk of logistics and comments on Yumeji's apparent happiness with no small amount of amusement.

"Of course I'm happy," Yumeji exclaims, his face bright as he finds the photograph he is looking for: one featuring him and Polka as boys sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, each sporting beaming grins for the person behind the camera. "It's been a while since I last saw him...my childhood friend from way back when."

Trivia

 * Rozan attributed Kanon's preternatural sight to Polka's abrupt undertaking of fortunetelling; in other words, he was not overly surprised to learn of Polka's new pastime as he supposed an affinity for the preternatural was in Polka's blood.

Referbacks

 * Lisa is likely thinking of Tsubaki Iwanome when she refers to those who may still be under Hosorogi's metaphorical spell.
 * Andalucía shot her subordinate in Chapter 85.