Episode 06

**The Firestarter** (火吹き蟲 *Hifuki Mushi*, lit. "Fire-breathing Bug") is the sixth episode of the *Dead Mount Death Play* anime.

## Official Blurb

Keeping his promise to a ghost, Polka returns to his family's mansion with Misaki in tow. Can the necromancer fool the people who know the real Polka best? And can he save them from an unknown threat without arousing their suspicions?

## Synopsis

Shizuki, Kazuki—both closely shadowed by a smoldering spirit—and Takeru Shinoyama welcome Corpse God and Misaki to the Shinoyama mansion, where the five lunch with Takeru's wife Kiri, Polka's half-niece Sayo, and Rozan's nephew-in-law. Misaki explains that Polka saved her on several occasions, the first of which was a suicide attempt. This seems to be a little out of character for Polka but not entirely impossible since Takeru seems willing to believe that Polka did discover a 'new him' after all. He is more surprised that Polka somehow acquainted himself with Sakimiya Steel's heiress, whose parents had helped Takeru in his younger years. Misaki gently corrects him with the same uncharacteristic decorum she has displayed all lunch: Sakimiya Steel, she says, no longer exists.

During Takumi's earlier briefing on Polka's family tree, Takumi had warned Corpse God to beware Takeru out of Polka's relatives most of all. Takeru is the 26-year-old president of Shinoyama Security, which Miyabi had described to Corpse God as the branch responsible for doing Shinoyama Group's dirty work. Where Corpse God and Takeru make for reserved lunch conversationalists, Misaki and Kiri make up for them; Kiri warmly tells Misaki that she can ask the Shinoyamas for help whenever she needs to. Takeru's younger siblings finally join the conversation when Shizuki asks "Polka" about his shark plush—he could have sworn he saw it twitch—and the shark-obsessed Sayo identifies it as merchandise for *The Sharkborg from Hell* movies.

Rozan's nephew-in-law, whose name the real Polka does not remember, takes the opportunity to welcome "Polka" back. The rest of Polka's relatives are out working—with Polka's half-brother and half-sister-in-law specified to be overseas—save for Rozan, who enters the dining room to thank Sayo for recommending a shark movie he recently finished and liked. One would not suspect Rozan to have been in ill health given his affability, good humor, and easy-going demeanor, all of which vanish when his nephew-in-law attempts to broach the topic of the Shinoyama Group's pharmaceutical division. It takes only a narrowed gaze and an implied warning for the nephew-in-law to apologize and scuttle out of the room.

When Rozan finally turns his attention to his apologetic runaway son, he offers "Polka" a warm *welcome home* in lieu of a rebuke before inviting him to the mansion's annex for a private conversation. The twins head to their bedroom with the tormented spirit hot on their heels, her pleas for the children's safety falling on deaf ears. Rozan, meanwhile, is all ears as to his son's life as a fortuneteller, and Corpse God is all practiced smiles as he gives him an edited account of events. That Rozan is so receptive to Polka living in an abandoned building on the goodwill of a nightclub owner and to Polka's encounter with the police *should* strike Corpse God as odd. Still, he is all too relieved and willing to believe he is pulling this latest sham off.

He is not. Rozan has one more question: With *whom* is Rozan speaking? Certainly, not his own son, though Corpse God undeniably looks and sounds like Polka. This does not deter him from putting a katana to "Polka's" throat when Corpse God prepares to feign confusion. *So this is what a parent is*, Polka thinks, remembering the heartlessness with which his father had sold him. *He's nothing like the ones I've known*. As further evidence, Rozan poses another question: What has happened to the real Polka?

Corpse God is about to answer when he looks abruptly in the direction of the mansion, though it is shielded from view by a thicket of trees. He tells Rozan that the twins are in potential danger, from which he must protect them, and promises to answer Rozan's question later. Rozan then permits Corpse God to leave, not that the boy asked for it, but he does so with preternatural haste. A bodyguard hidden under the floorboards opines that Rozan should have killed the impostor, but Rozan admits he is not so heartless that he could kill someone with his son's face. An audible explosion from the mansion's direction occurs moments later, sending smoke billowing into the sky.

Two years ago
Suzuka comes across Shizuki consoling Kazuki, who tearfully explains that she dropped her purse somewhere in the woods. Suzuka finds it despite the late hour; after that, she recognizes it as a present she had gifted her sister. At the sound of nearby voices, she discovers a "bodyguard" informing her cousin's husband that he will need two years to prepare for the fulfillment of the relative's plan due to its large scope. Although the relative grumbles, the wait is not so onerous for him to consider the easier, faster alternative that the bodyguard suggests: a small fire that targets only a few people. As for who to blame the fire on, he adds, lightning sparking across his glove, just blame the twins.

Suzuka gasps in horror and returns to the mansion to warn her family. She makes it as far as the boiler room; the bodyguard impostor, who had heard her gasp, kills her by causing the boiler to explode. Her fear for the twins' safety warps and anchors her soul to Earth, but she is as unable to warn anyone in death as she was in life. The only thing she *is* capable of doing left is witnessing her loved ones die in two years. Trepidation and futility drive her half-mad in the agonizing interim.

Present
The arsonist tells the twins a fire has broken out and to follow him to an exit. Suzuka wails.

In Tokyo Penitentiary, Tsubaki and Kōzaburō Arase visit the "Phantom Solitaire" Tena Sorimura, a troublemaker who is such an escape risk as to be straitjacketed. Iwanome shows Sorimura footage of the skeletons in the Shakuzawa Building fire and says that Fire-breathing Bug was probably responsible because Comps-3 found their signature calling card—the sentence "This world is a buggy program"—at the scene and because the fire, like all of Bug's fires, spread impossibly fast. He theorizes that Bug accomplishes this by infiltrating their targets in disguise and taking a painstaking amount of time to thoroughly 'prime' the scene.

The so-called "Bug" leads the twins to an underground room that Kazuki knows has no outside exit. "Bug" assures her that one exists, for he spent two years building it as he did everything else. Suzuka helplessly swipes her arms through him as his glove crackles with lightning; Misaki's knee; however, makes direct contact with "Bug's" cheek. Misaki, who had followed the bodyguard because she recognized him from the twins' visit, promises the invisible Suzuka that she and Polka shall rescue the children.

"Bug" lets the bodyguard's damaged face flutter to the ground. He does not bother to chase the twins when Misaki instructs them to flee while she holds him off and eventually tells her why: his design for the fire's spread ensures that there is *nowhere* for the twins to run. He is not bluffing: they soon surround themselves with a firewall. Shizuki wonders if this is karma for Suzuka's death and if Suzuka was mad at him and his sister for causing it. Kazuki wants to object that Suzuka would never be, mad only to falter, afraid that Shizuki might be right. She says they will apologize to Suzuka if they reunite with her and holds her brother close as part of the ceiling caves in.

Two large skeletal hands catch the debris before it can bury Kazuki and Shizuki. They open their eyes to see Suzuka smiling at them before her face fades into that of their smiling half-uncle, who has made no attempt to hide the hands overhead. Relieved that he could save them where he could not save his found family, "Polka" assures the twins that Suzuka never once blamed them and never stopped caring about them. Her spirit and sanity are restored, and Suzuka gives the twins an intangible hug.

Corpse God brings the twins outside and hands them over to two of the maids watching the conflagration. With the twins confirmed safe, Takeru shifts his attention to *clean-up*. His subordinate Yochigi has already been deployed to retrieve Rozan's long-gone nephew-in-law for interrogation. Corpse God meanwhile catches "Bug" as he attempts to sneak off in the guise of a maid, having seen through "Bug's" disguise with his Evil Eye. If the hue of "Bug's" soul had not already made it obvious, then the sight of the bodyguard's and maid's faceless spirits clawing at "Bug's" face in want of their back does now.

"Bug" staggers back as more hands reach for him as Suzuka's hands had done, but once again, Misaki nails him in the face, a bit singed but otherwise unharmed from the burning basement. He recovers quickly and sets the grass ablaze. Corpse God debates whether he has enough mana to break through the high flames, but he does not have to; Lemmings does instead and pins "Bug" to the ground. He asks for Corpse God and Misaki, not to mention him, by putting a finger to his lips.

The police arrest "Bug" and are en route to jail when Yochigi brings Takeru Rozan's nephew-in-law, who feigns ignorance when Takeru refers to "Bug" being in police custody. Yochigi and Lemmings step into the light; they, and the woman and man in the shadows, belong to Takeru's "Dragon Palace Agency," or at least Rozan's relative presume as much. Rozan's relative changes his tune when Yochigi shows off a sinister version of a Swiss army knife, claiming that Fire-breathing Bug blackmailed him. However, this does nothing to dissuade Takeru from interrogating him.

Solitaire says that Iwanome is lying. Iwanomoe described the modus operandi of an ordinary criminal, not Bug, and he omitted that Bug's catchphrase has a second part that only the police know. The phrases left behind at the crime scene Iwanome listed only contained the first part.

In the belly of a police car, the impostor Bug plots to escape as soon as possible. One never comes. In its stead, the English words "This world is a buggy program...so it cries for the flame" sear themselves onto the vehicle's ceiling. The three policemen, eyes glazing and voices stuttering, accuse Know of being a fake bug that must consequently be exterminated. They snap back to themselves just in time to see the impostor burst into flames and throw themselves out of the vehicle before it follows suit.

On an overhead bridge, Fire-breathing Bug sings a children's song while their imposter burns to death.

## Adapted From

* Chapter 13 (final third)
* Chapter 14
* Chapter 15
* Chapter 16
* Chapter 17

### Changes

* Solitaire specifically identifies the Fire-breathing Bug impostor as the criminal Know in the manga.
* Fire-breathing Bug's physical appearance seems to be anime-original. In the manga, all that can be seen of Bug close-up when they are singing is their smile, and from a distance, all that one can tell is that they are wearing trousers rather than a skirt or dress.

## Trivia

* The song that Bug sings is the classic nursery rhyme "Amefuri" (あめふり) which means "Raining".
* Bug's umbrella reads "Fire Safety," or, as the manga translates it, "Watch out for fires."
* This episode does not use its usual ending; instead, the credits play while Know is exterminated.