Episode 02

**The New World** (異世界 *Isekai*) is the second episode of the *Dead Mount Death Play* anime.

## Official Blurb

Polka scrambles to get his bearings while facing off against his would-be killer's colleagues. Is this the prelude to a new fight for survival or the start of an unlikely friendship?

## Synopsis

The Corpse God reflects on how he had fought on imperial battlegrounds as a necromancer after his parents sold him to the Imperial Court Sorcerers until the empire fell, after which he searched for a place to live the quiet life for which he had always yearned. He came to find it in five youths, the oldest of whom would come to see him in a romantic light as a young woman.

Their years of peaceful co-existence ended when the children's lives did on the pikes of Geldwood soldiers who, after that, rejoiced, believing they had freed the children's souls from the necromancer's enslavement. Corpse God spent the rest of the century enacting vengeance on the soldier's souls in the abandoned coal mine he and the youths had called home; over time, the coal mine evolved into a writhing labyrinth of corpses. With the Corpse God no longer able to die naturally, he waited for someone capable of slaying him attempted as much—and when someone did, Corpse God successfully performed the secret art of reincarnation.

The prospect of his reincarnated life being one short-lived is unacceptable, unthinkable—but neither was it thinkable for Misaki Sakimiya's life, which has nonetheless ended on the talon of Corpse God's skeletal hand. Corpse God shakes Misaki down for healing potions or anodyne-enchanted items with increasing panic, his concern not for her life but for the peaceful life he has inadvertently imperiled. Then it hits him that he told a corpse, "now, let us continue."

As Corpse God lets loose a mortified scream, Takumi lets loose a stressed one as he struggles to process what he just witnessed. Lisa "Clarissa" Kuraki calls him to ask why he is taking so long to update her. Hence, he sends her clipped footage of Polka screaming at Misaki's corpse.

A young Misaki is cossetted by her loving parents, who say her bright smile will bring others happiness. Misaki's smile is nowhere to be found when an older Misaki watches a laughing man stab her parents to death, but it returns with the nominal vengeance she greets the man with years later. The man recognizes her as Clarissa's pet, 'Zaki the Killer Killer', and warns her that Clarissa will punish her. Misaki counters that Clarissa is the one who ordered the man's death. Whether Clarissa specified that Misaki should first torment the man with a nail gun like she presently does is unmentioned.

Misaki wonders if she looks as happy as the man did "back then." Finally remembering her as the Sakimiyas' daughter, the man assumes Misaki is doing this out of revenge. Not at all, replies Misaki, who then claims she kills killers for fun. It occurs to her that she has never tested whether killing good people is fun. The man insists he is a good person; Misaki kills him for the lie.

When a client asks Youtoukorou to kill a sixteen-year-old, Misaki volunteers for the job; if she can kill an innocent fellow minor like Polka, then she is *really* messed up as a person.

She kills Polka easily.

When reflecting on this near a fence overlooking a steep drop to a street, Misaki concludes that someone like her can never bring others happiness and is probably better off dead. Besides: she has tested whether she can kill good people alongside bad, so all that is left to test is whether she can kill herself. She steps off the fence. Takumi calls. She arrests her fall and answers Takumi, who tells her she cannot die before she fulfills her job. She has not; he says: the kid is walking around with a slit throat.

Misaki awakes, vaguely aware that she has just had her life flash before her eyes. "Polka" high-fives Takumi's drone, pleased that "it" worked. The drone promptly sinks with bashfulness when Misaki lifts her shirt to check her stomach. After being told that she has been reborn via magic, she looks at her colleagues—whose weapons are trained on her and "Polka," and asks what is happening. Clarissa makes her way to the front and hugs Misaki close, confirming that she is warm with life rather than cold as a corpse. Misaki has a pulse! Bracing news, indeed. Corpse God helpfully tells Misaki that she is a zombie, which leaves her more befuddled than ever.

Safe inside his control room, Takumi maintains his sanity by writing a text file addressed to an imaginary audience. "If you're reading this," he types, "I've probably lost my mind."

40 minutes before Misaki wakes up
Takumi informs the audience that he is an all-around "nice guy" based in Shinjuku—one who makes a living as an info broker who sometimes helps hit men hide bodies on the side. How could someone with such a humble and discreet life wind up in the mess he has found himself in? By "mess," he means Lisa's Youtoukorou subordinates aiming their handguns at a violently deceased Misaki and the still-living Polka.

Clarissa asks "Polka" to explain himself, then asks Takumi what he is looking at. Takumi says that the drone hovering nearby is not his doing; it must be the drone he lost control of earlier. Clarissa observes that the drone is flying without noise, which Takumi assures her is *not* something drones do.

Corpse God asks everyone to stand by while he mends Misaki's physical damage. Izuna Ajijō (Ajishiro?) moves to intervene. Clarissa prevents her, quipping to Takumi that she should not expect this is special effects on his part. "If I could make CGI like that," Takumi quips back, "I'd do it for a living."

Clarissa informs Corpse God that she and her companions are Misaki's friends who came here to kill "Polka" and avenge Misaki...though that plan has apparently been derailed. She observes the circular runes underneath Misaki and asks if she is indeed still alive. Corpse God replies that he repaired the physical damage and that Misaki's brain and soul were otherwise spared; all left is for a sorcerer to cast resurrection magic when Misaki wakes up.

Everyone stares at him. "Magic," Clarissa repeats flatly. Exactly, replies Corpse God, who says his body knows of spells like R\*ise and Ar\*ise. Spells from video games, says Clarissa, still matter of fact, not that Corpse God knows what video games are. Once he confirms that this country is unfamiliar with magic or spirit arts practitioners, he scrubs his magic and lamely claims that the people just experienced a mass hallucination.

Clarissa is not fooled. Corpse God asks if perhaps she would agree to be fooled, resummoning his blades—and then pins an aggressive man with his skeletal hand, admitting that he initially did not understand how "fragile and easily killed" the local people are. Clarissa requests a moment to think, which Corpse God grants to Takumi's surprise. In truth, Corpse God lacks much of a plan himself, so the spare moment benefits him as much as it does the others.

A siren wails in the near distance—a noise all too common as of late, Clarissa says. Takumi confirms the sirens are for a fire in the Shakuzawa Building and sends Clarissa footage from a nearby drone. Despite Clarissa's concern for the children, Clarissa supposes they will have to leave the children's lives in the hands of the fire department, as their hands are tied.

Her subordinates notice a quadrupedal eyeball looking at the tablet from Clarissa's shoulder; Izuna slices it in half and points her katana at Corpse God, who asks about the children. Clarissa explains that the Shakuzawa Building houses an unlicensed nursery for yakuza orphans and children of sex workers. She asks why Corpse God wants directions, given his lack of connection to the land, and Corpse God responds that he has been burned multiple times—and burning is not an agony that any child should experience.

Clarissa instructs Takumi to lead "Polka" to the fire via his drone. Takumi objects that "Polka" could make a break for it, but that is precisely why Clarissa wants him to keep an eye on the kid. Corpse God expedites himself to the site via magic circles and skeletal hands, making Takumi's drone struggle to keep up.

Upon arrival, Corpse God amplifies his Evil Eye with magic and ascertains that the life forces of children are still viable. He ignores Takumi's inquiries about his plan, perhaps because he acts on instinct: he elevates himself with a skeletal hand, one noticed by the rubberneckers, and flings himself into the fiery emissions. Two caretakers have already flung themselves over a group of children; he asks the four spirits hovering overhead if the children are theirs. They are. He asks for the parents' aid and manifests four skeletons for them to possess.

Onlookers below spot two skeletons in the window, one of which cradles a little girl. The girl opens her eyes and sees her dead father, who smiles before he and the other parents pass the children to Corpse God's skeletal hand outside the window. Once the hand deposits the children and caretakers on the ground, firefighters rush to attend to them.

Takumi sighs as Corpse God removes himself from the rooftops. "Twittia" is already \*aflame\* itself, with people tweeting about skeleton hands intervening in the fire. "Who does that in front of a crowd?" he complains. What are "Polka's" motives anyway? How is Takumi supposed to reconcile "Polka's" treatment of Misaki's life as a toy versus "Polka's treatment" of the children's lives as lives to be saved? Whoever this "Polka" is, he's entirely inhuman and, therefore, a monster Clarissa should avoid.

Clarissa agrees that Takumi is probably right, but oh well—Misaki is about to wake up, so Takumi would be dear if he piloted a drone back to the Abandoned Building.

"For real?" Takumi asks. "She's seriously gonna wake up?"

Seriously.

Misaki tolerates Ichinose's shaking down of her, asking, "Hey, what do you mean I'm dead?" Where Misaki is not processing her circumstances, Corpse God is still processing the fact that children still suffer in such an advanced nation as the one he has found himself.

He asks Clarissa what it would take to achieve peace in such a nation, but is taken aback when Clarissa asks him to clarify the peace he has in mind. Regarding Clarissa's idea of peace, *money* is her go-to recommendation for achieving it. She also asks "Polka" who he is, then amends herself. What does "Polka" *want*? What is Polka's *goal* in Shinjuku?

"Polka" knows nothing of Shinjuku, aside from the apparent fact that magic is foreign to it. He says that if that is the case, perhaps he can use his magic to make money. If money is what it takes to achieve the peaceful life he desires, he shall pursue it—just as he shall pursue anything seemingly conducive to that life.

Clarissa offers to assist him in that endeavor, for she happens to be Shinjuku's mediator. She has already concluded that "Polka" is no longer \*Polka\* inwardly speaking, which incentives her. She assigns Misaki and Takumi to help Polka adjust to life in Japan.

## Adaptation Notes

### Adapted From

* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3

### Changes

* Misaki's bra was split when she was impaled in the manga.
* Corpse God does not skeletally swing from building to building in Chapter 3. The only magical enhancement he is seen using is skeletal hands gripping his feet and ankles, enabling him to sprint faster.

## Trivia

* The Youtoukorou members' weapons remind Corpse God of the Imperial Dazzling Corps, i.e., the Imperial Gorgeous Unit.
* Kochou Eightport, who does not make her debut in the manga until chapter 35, was included in this episode in the crowd that gathered in front of the fire.
* Urai is not shown as one of the Youtoukorou members. Granted, he was not shown as one of them in Chapters 2 and 3; it was only after the fact that the manga revealed he was there.
* Episode 2 conspicuously omits the "corpse of a fallen kinsman" line.
* Misaki's skirt has a wireframe for storing throwing knives. The wireframe is why the skirt does not flip when Misaki is upside-down.