Episode 17

**The Matriarch** (家長 *Kachō*) is the seventeenth episode of the *Dead Mount Death Play* anime.

## Official Blurb

One Agakura assassin didn't go down easy, and now the head of the clan has come to settle the score. How will Xiaoyu cope with this face from his past? And how will Iwanome and Arase cope when the Fire-Breathing Bug crashes their interrogation?

## Synopsis

Phantom Solitaire discovers a walkie-talkie buzzing in a hidden compartment of Jirotarou Takanosu's chair and baselessly speculates that the caller is the person who ordered him shot. The caller is actually Grocer, who has two news items pertaining to an 'order' Takanosu placed with him for a record of internal communications. Takanosu bids him make them despite Solitaire's presence.

1. Tsubaki Iwanome is currently speaking with ex-Internal Affairs Inspector Miyabi Hosorogi. Grocer says he will provide a transcript of the call after it is finished. Solitaire is surprised to hear Hosorogi's name out of the blue; Takanosu, meanwhile, takes the apparent evidence of Hosorogi being alive in somber stride.
2. Senior Commissioner Hideaki Habaki received many calls from the Shibuya mediator Kuon Higuro. This news, Takanosu expected. He thanks Grocer for his hard work.

Grocer ends the call. Solitaire asks Takanosu to sell him his convenient direct line to Grocer and, after he is denied, insinuates that a scandal could be made out of Takanosu using a criminal to spy on other law enforcement officers. Takanosu points out that Solitaire now has the name of his so-called mastermind and can track Habaki down via the security cameras if he wants. He does not deny Solitaire's interpretation of this as 'go do my [Takanosu's] dirty work;' in fact, he goads him to pursue the man behind his assassination attempt.

Solitaire has one more request for which he is willing to pay: Iwanome's cell phone number.

In a deserted room, with Kōzaburō Arase listening, Iwanome gasps at something Solitaire tells him over the phone.

Takumi Kuruya calls Corpse God and advises him to be on his guard until he, Misaki Sakimiya, and Xiaoyu Lei return to the Building. Xiaoyu, perplexed, picks up on the sound of people softly singing outside the warehouse.

Iwanome parrots Hosorogi when he confronts Habaki and—feeling betrayed by his mentor figure—chides his carelessness in speaking out loud the name of his contact Higuro. He asks "who or what is Sabaramond." Habaki says "Sabaramond is—" only to clamp his mouth shut as two Bugged policemen at the doorway mutter "he said...Sabaramond." Other law enforcement personnel murmur their agreement as they plod down the corridor and file into the room.

Majiri Agakura arrives outside the warehouse and listens to the Fire-breathing Bugs sing.

**Opening credits.**

The police Bugs inside the room grasp for Habaki, who they are now certain is a Bastard Child of Sabaramond. Arase directs Iwanome's attention to Bug's catchphrase searing into the ceiling; he dryly remarks that Iwanome has had the "luck of the draw" in having consecutively pulled Lemmings, Solitaire, and Fire-breathing Bug.

Majiri bids the Bugs to disperse. Her brother Momoya Agakura may be a fool, but he is no Bastard to burn. She declares that she will stay neutral in Bug's quest for revenge and once more asks Bug to disperse. They part like the Red Sea and allow Majiri and her sisters Kana and Dahlia to pass. Kana asks Majiri if she knows the people and Majiri replies that she and they are friends of sorts. She advises her sisters to avoid tangling with the "people in raincoats," for they are impossible to crush.

Iwanome and Arase take on two Bugs each. One of the Bugs slips past Iwanome and almost makes it to Habaki, who manages to topple a shelf for use as a barricade. He crouches and dials someone with his phone. Arase redirects Iwanome's attention from Habaki to the devices in several Bugs' hands.

Takanosu says that if Solitaire will not pay for the cell phone by turning himself in, then he can pay with an explanation of how Fire-breathing Bug commits arson. Solitaire's answering 'hint' is that Bug "is and is not one person." Although the Bugs resemble the likes of psychics and wizards, they truly represent technology at its finest.

One of the police Bugs points his emitter at a paper, which promptly bursts into flames. Iwanome tosses another Bug at the Bugs in the corridor and orders Arase to go find a fire extinguisher. Arase braves the corridor without hesitation. With multiple questions vying for answers, Iwanome harshly asks Habaki why Fire-breathing Bug is after him. Habaki ignores him, cell phone pressed to his ear. Bug's emitters remind Iwanome of the Gamma Knife that Mikoto Saimyouji once told him about: a machine that surrounds and targets tumors with numerous gamma rays. Saimyouji had compared this to detective work, where the likes of Iwanome follow evidence trails to a suspect and incinerate them "in the fires of judgment."

Arase returns, shuts the door, and sprays the fire extinguisher so that its contents suffuse the room. Iwanome privately hypothesizes that the Bugs are emitting lasers en masse that converge on specific targets, though he almost immediately second-guesses himself. He finds it hard to believe that the Bugs can be so in sync and precise as to burn words from great distances via this method. However, one could say that the events of the last month—from the skeletons in the Shakuzawa fire to the Human Knot to the Lemmings-Youtoukorou incident—are also hard to believe. Iwanome concedes that such events have redefined what is possible.

Takumi is champing at the bit to depart before Higuro potentially returns. Misaki wonders what they should do with Momoya, though this problem becomes moot when Xiaoyu informs them that someone is coming. Dahlia and Kana are mildly surprised that Xiaoyu heard them but entirely unsurprised that he failed to hear their sister. Majiri whispers a greeting in Xiaoyu's ear and, when Xiaoyu instinctively retaliates, chops off his prosthetic right arm by way of reunion. She compliments the high quality make of Xiaoyu's prosthetics and reminds Xiaoyu of her parting promise: that she will return his original limbs to him once he agrees to become her little brother.

Flashback
Xiaoyu is assigned a simple job request for his first Heilei mission: eliminate everyone in a specified building. In searching the building, he comes across Kana, Majiri, and Momoya, evidently people who had accepted the same job. He decides that they technically count as 'everyone' and attempts to decapitate Majiri with a recognizable Heilei technique. Utterly charmed, Majiri proceeds with Stage One of the Adoption Process by non-fatally delimbing him. This, she knows, will doom Xiaoyu to a tormented life within the Heilei. As she and her siblings leave, she tells Xiaoyu that she will slaughter the Heilei if he ever calls for her help and afterward smother him with sororal love.

Present
Majiri reaffirms this promise to punish the Heilei should Xiaoyu ask her to adopt him. Xiaoyu declares that his fealty lies with the Shinoyamas, not the Heilei or Agakura, and attempts to strike Majiri with his right knee. Majiri crushes the knee with her hand as if venting her frustration that the Shinoyamas snatched up Xiaoyu before she did.

Momoya weakly chuckles at how his sister has been turned down after a decade of pining. However glad Majiri is to see him alive, she nonetheless says she will later scold him for his impudent remark. He protests that he is too fragile at present to withstand one of her punishments. That Xiaoyu could inflict such injury to Momoya is rather unexpected news, in light of which Majiri praises Xiaoyu for how far he has come. Momoya corrects her; he did not quite lose to Xiaoyu, but to the girl above her.

Majiri looks up seconds before Misaki swings her prybar at her face. She catches it with her *teeth* and swipes her arm at Misaki, who evades it by transforming her abdomen into a flock of bats. Momoya supposes that Misaki must have trained under Solitaire.

On the sidelines, Kana remarks that Momoya is the seventh-weakest Agakura. Dahlia says that puts him right in the middle.

After tossing the prybar back to Misaki, Majiri asks whether she would consider assuming the Agakura name. Misaki says it could work as a middle name; Majiri says it should be her family name. When Momoya coughs up blood, Majiri concludes he will die without medical attention. Kana lassos Momoya with wire, reels him in, and drapes him over his shoulder. Dahlia takes his weapon. Majiri 'apologizes' for severing Xiaoyu's arm and tells Misaki "till we meet again."

Takumi doubts that letting the Agakuras leave so easily was the right call, but neither Xiaoyu nor Misaki think they could have stopped them. For Xiaoyu, the problem is his busted knee and severed arm; for Misaki, the problem is that she believes Majiri is even stronger than Corpse God was when he impaled Misaki back when they first met.

Habaki curses Iwanome. With Bug now familiar with what Habaki looks like, he can no longer keep his position within the police. He might as well "cut loose." Iwanome spies an open sachet of powder next to him before Habaki drives his palm into Iwanome's face. Arase catches Iwanome as Habaki advances toward them, white-eyed, and—as Iwanome accuses—red-handed. Habaki retorts that he is as colorless as their world. "Soon," he announces, "the great one shall bore a hole!"

A swarm of Bugs bust open the door. Stuck between the multiple, seemingly endless Bugs and the single tank that is now Habaki, Arase and Iwanome have little choice but to decide who to tackle first.

Corpse God and Sayo Shinoyama watch the ongoing thunderstorm through a window. At the sight of multiple lightning strikes, Corpse God reconsiders his previous stance that Elementals are scarce on Earth. Although this overall seems to remain the case, the density of Lightning Elementals here seems commensurate with their density in his home world.

On one of Shinjuku's rooftops, a sorcerer 'eats' a Lightning Elemental and remarks that "this land's elementals are quite the delicacy." A muscular woman shouts from the rooftop proper that she cannot hear him, what with her ears ringing from the thunder. Upon rejoining her and the girl who has been sheltering in the stairwell, the sorcerer apologizes and explains he is buzzing with excitement despite that "annoying Bug" likely being in this city. He never expected to see something like that flock of hands in this "far-away country" and wonders how the sorcerer controlling them came to Earth. Did "they" wrench open the hole "from the other side?" Is Ordom, the Destructive Wyvern, indulging in one of his whims?

The girl asks if the sorcerer should be displaying "that symbol" on his back like he is now. The sorcerer replies that hiding it is pointless thanks to a local stage magician's dirigible stunt. No one points out that the symbol on his tunic is the correct simplified version of the Byadian imperial emblem rather than the magician's modified version.

"I've just *got* to track them down and roll out the red carpet..." he says, splaying his arms against the wind, "...to welcome our very first visitor from my homeland."

## Adapted From

* Chapter 50
* Chapter 51
* Chapter 52

## Trivia

Cultural References

* The Bugs are singing Furusato, a Japanese children's song that expresses nostalgia for the singer's hometown. The song was written in 1914 and continues to be taught in public schools.