Chapter 26

Chapter 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
The mysterious symbol from the Corpse God’s previous world is in the air (literally). What connection does it have to what’s happening in the modern world, though? More importantly, why are people willing to kill to keep it secret…?

Synopsis
In a flashback to the Corpse God's childhood, his mentor points to a symbol tells him to memorize the crest of the empire he will be residing in from now on. A child walks past him and says that his father's design was so "dull and simplistic," so they took it upon themselves to redesign it after ascending to the throne. With a grin, they hold up a drawing of the redesigned crest, a simplified version of it in the top left corner.

In the present, the Corpse God looks up at a dirigible with an altered version of the simplified design on its side, and identifies it as the national emblem of a fallen empire.

Meanwhile, the Internet is abuzz with the dire situation that has emerged due to an information leak. Someone says that another associate of the Bug was burned alive in Japan, and "He should've been disguised as someone from the crime syndicate's subsidiaries." Much cursing of the Bug ensues, followed by people saying it will be impossible to cover up now that it has been made public.

Much chatter ensues, with some saying hide while others suggest passing off the symbol as a religious symbol (and others argue "who cares if people find out" about it). Some say it is a trap, that it is bait, that someone is using the symbol as a carrot dangling on a stick for them. They all agree that this must be the work of Phantom Solitaire, and to send Solitaire to hell.

An unidentified individual says they should make his death quick and painless, as indulging in sadism (while refreshing) can result their group giving away more information than they should—just like what happened five years ago. With that, an individual in a black jacket stands and leaves his laptop on his desk.

Over in the Shinjuku Station, Tsubaki Iwanome and Kōzaburō Arase gaze up at a dirigible from a window. Iwanome pulls out a crumpled note with the original simplified version of the symbol and observes the one on the dirigible is slightly different, and confirms to Arase that "Polka Shinoyama" drew this during the fortune-telling session. As Arase looks at the note, Iwanome muses that Solitaire must have some connection to Hosorogi if he is truly responsible for all this. It then occurs to him that he might be a part of the group Hosorogi was following at the time of his death.

Arase says that either way, they have seen this same symbol multiple times now, and all within the fifth year after Inspector Hosorogi's disappearance. He thinks they should regard them as connected in some way and Iwanome agrees, musing that he may have caught Solitaire's attention; for all he knows, Solitaire may have been remotely spying on his fortune-telling session. What he does know is that they need more information before they can rule anything out.

Fumiyo Yamada hurries into the room and says Iwanome is being summoned by the central office: Metropolitan police department Sakuradamon.

On top of one of his dirigibles, Sorimura reads a manga (in what looks like the Young Gangan magazine) while listing to a radio channel talk about the dirigible incident. He muses that there is probably more buzz about the incident online than on official news channels by now, and that he really treated himself by purchasing an entire fleet of dirigibles from the Grocer.

The manga revisits his visit to the Grocer in Chapter 25, continuing where it left off. When Sorimura asks how much he must pay for more information on the symbol, the Grocer answers "three trillion yen." Sorimura objects, complaining that it already cost him thirty million yen just to hijack the radio waves for three minutes, but the Grocer reminds him he prices his 'wares' according to his clients' financial standings. He has calculated that if Sorimura dedicated himself to earnestly earning money, he could earn six trillion yen—in other words, he believes this symbol is worth half of Sorimura's life.

Were it anybody else, the Joker would probably sell the information to them for a few ten-yen coins as such information would be practically meaningless to them. However, he guarantees that information on the symbol will change Sorimura's life, going so far as to say it would be like a 'miracle drug' specifically designed for him. And if used the wrong way, such a miracle drug could became a harmful toxin destroying him instead.

Sorimura decides to accept the Grocer is not shamming him, as he trusted the Grocer's predecessor, but in doing to he also decides to put the deal on hold; he thinks it would be more fun to arrive at the answer using his own methods, uncovering the mystery step by step. In lieu of paying the Grocer for such information, he instead asks how much it cost him to purchase a fleet of dirigibles ready to fly over Tokyo next week.

The Grocer's eyes widen as he has guessed what Sorimura is planning, and he offers Sorimura some free advice: 'harmful toxin' was no mere figure of speech of his, and he asks that Sorimura take care of himself. Even the Grocer is incapable of "recovering a lost life." Sorimura dons his policeman cap and remarks that the Grocer has inherited his predecessor's sense of duty. As he turns to leave, the Grocer asks him how he has managed to evade the officers' attention for so long—originally Sorimura had said their meeting would only take five minutes, but it has been close to ten now.

With a wink, Sorimura says he simply opened the door to the younger Gator Sister's room. The Grocer calls it "cruel," but Sorimura counters that the sister will only cause a lot of property damage rather than kill anyone. Besides, a 'mysterious figure' will give the police a generous donation to cover the cost of repairs—a cost much cheaper than three trillion yen.

In the present, Sorimura looks at a manga panel and plots to use its idea of a "hot air balloon where the basket's a person" for his own ends. A shot rings out in the next second; the magazine goes flying, and a spray of what looks like blood fills the air.

On a metal platform, an individual wearing a dog's mask lowers their sniper rifle and asks if they "got him." Their companion, an individual wearing a cat's mask, peers through their binoculars and says "It says, 'You missed'." When the one in the dog's mask looks through the binoculars, they see a pennant with the words "you missed" unfurling from a dummy's head. While neither person is sure if the mission has failed, the one in the cat mask figures they will not be paid.

They grouse that they are not getting any good jobs between Shibuya and Ikebukuro, and suggest to their dog mask companion that they go to Shinjuku—where they have heard good things about a certain mediator.

In a live broadcast, Sorimura shows camera footage of his ruined dummy and says that it was sniped fifty-eight minutes after the dirigibles went up. He wonders how they knew he would be up there, musing that the only thing that could get high enough to see his position would be a police helicopter. His subsequent supposition is that an organization "capable of arranging a hit on [him] in less than an hour" has some amount of influence in the police force, and, holding up the offending symbol to the camera, proposes the following to his viewers: he wants to crowdsource information on the organization affiliated with the symbol. He will take any information his viewers can scrounge up—and give 300 million yen to those whose information is the most helpful.

The Corpse God and Takumi Kuruya, watching the broadcast on Takumi's tablet next to Misaki Sakimiya, agree that the situation is getting out of hand. As Takumi wonders where they should start, Sayo Shinoyama approaches them and says she wants answers too; she heard what "Polka" said about about empires and past words, and she expects "Polka" to tell her what is going on.

As the Corpse God offers a meek "...Sure," Takumi buries his face in his hand. Over next to Hosorogi-the-pen, the real Polka Shinoyama appears as nervous as a shark plush can look.