Episode 13

**The Invaders** (侵入者 *Shinnyūsha*) is the thirteenth episode of the *Dead Mount Death Play* anime.

## Official Blurb

Polka's magical rampage has drawn even more unwanted attention to his new home. As if thrill-seeking magicians and underworld hitmen weren't bad enough, he now has a shrewd reporter to contend with.

## Synopsis

At 3:00 AM, Takumi Kuruya watches Proppen, a cosplay Youtuber, livestream her nighttime misadventures in Shinjuku. Proppen approaches a group of crows in a bid to teach them how to talk but, when noticing they are staring at something, follows their gaze to the rooftop of the Torture Building. She points the camera there to reveal a flock of massive arms-and-hands writhing from plumes of smoke. Takumi spits out his drink.

**Opening credits.**

Morning arrives and rubberneckers with it, spurred by Proppen's viral footage and rumors that Phantom Solitaire was involved. Ranmaru Yatsu, who alongside Danjō Tozawa was on the scene of the crime when it took place, wearily greets Tsubaki Iwanome and Kōzaburō Arase when they are late to join them due to Iwanome being summoned to the investigation HQ en route. Iwanome glances at all the rubberneckers with their phones out and chides the two for not securing the scene, but Tozawa points out they had neither permission (from the building's owner) nor a warrant to do so. Arase and Iwanome realize that the building's owner is Lisa "Clarissa" Kuraki.

The two snipers who failed to shoot Solitaire off the dirigibles pay Clarissa a visit at Youtoukorou, seeking work. She becomes more receptive after learning that Mister Daren referred them to her. The older sniper, a boy, adds that Clarissa's reputation precedes her, with the Shinjuku scene reportedly a comfy one with lax rules. He is surprised when Clarissa is able to identify them not only as Shibuya's ace snipers but also by their real names: he is Hiiro Horojima, and his younger sister, the one who took the Solitaire shot Rinne Horojima.

Clarissa warns them that while her rules *are* relaxed, the penalties for breaking them are not. Rinne remarks that her likely new employer is "kind of a bitch," which Deathclaw Saya takes offense to. Ultimately, Clarissa is always glad to receive willing workers, especially since she suspects—what with news of the hands swarm trending online—that Youtoukorou will soon have its own hands full.

In the Torture Building, Takumi shows Corpse God said online news about the swarm of hands on his tablet and asks if Corpse God has anything to say in his or his desired peaceful life's defense. Corpse God looks away in embarrassment. Sayo Shinoyama enters the room, flashes an article about the incident on her phone at Corpse God, and asks if he was involved. Corpse God says that he was. Takumi says that his involvement is not necessarily public knowledge since, for now, the public is split between thinking the incident was a haunting or another of Solitaire's stunts. Corpse God replies that he suspects Solitaire and Lemmings know what really occurred, but he does not know if the same is true of Xiaoyu Lei.

On an overlook of a high-rise building, Xiaoyu accepts an incoming call from Rozan Shinoyama.

Back outside the Torture Building, Iwanome supposes he and Arase ought to enter it for a second time. Yatsu blanches at the voice of a certain rubbernecker trying to break through the crowd and advises against Iwanome doing so, at least for now, because a certain "headache of a magazine reporter" has just shown up. The reporter in question bounces on her feet as she takes a streetside photograph of the roof.

Corpse God explains to Takumi that Solitaire disguised himself as a fortunetelling client the other day; he could tell because no matter the differences in appearance, the soul of the stranger on the roof was identical to the soul of the client whom he remembers *and* both were haunted by the same ghost. As for the high-school girl looking for her dog, the soul of the Shinoyama maid killed by Know, who has been watching the girl, has reported no further strange behavior; she has been spending time at home, playing with her dog. Neither the dog nor the girl's real father had left the home in the first place, but the girl truly acted as if it had run away and as if her father's imposter was her father.

Takumi internally worries about Solitaire's motives for coming after this place and reminds himself to tell Clarissa about it later. He says that the words burned into the wall—"This world is a buggy program. Are you a termite? Or are you a bird eating the bug?"—look like Fire-breathing Bug's handiwork and asks what Bug meant by the Bastard Children of Sabaramond, considering the term struck such a nerve in Corpse God that Corpse God unleashed a flashy spell. Corpse God hesitates before admitting that the Sabaramond he knows, Arius Sabaramond, was the head sorcerer of the Byandy Empire in his homeworld.

Flashback

Easlies Swordfrail/Izliz Swordflail tells her pupil Corpse God—not yet known as such—that he has no aptitude for magic aside from his Evil Eye, and even that is a mere feature of his soul rather than any talent. He flinches with the shock of someone who has been called untalented. Easlies assures him that she will train him regardless so that he will at least end up as the tenth-ranked Byadian court sorcerer. He slumps, apparently dejected that she did not say 'first-ranked'—and apparently more ambitious than Easlies appraised him to be. Easlies clarifies that Utsurojuza, the third-of-rank, is a cut well-above the fourth-and-under-of rank, that she is second-of-rank and, crucially, the first-of-rank is half politician. In other words, skill alone does not define the first position.

Arius disagrees with her as he approaches, quipping that if it were ability alone, Easlies would hold his position. Easlies cynically quips in kind to Corpse God that Arius has wasted no time in coming to judge the new pupil's worth as "a future tool in court politics." Arius objects to such snideness, places a hand on Corpse God's head, and says he cannot assign value judgment to people given that people possess equal worth.

Present
Corpse God says that Arius was a kind person beloved throughout the empire, its citizens flocking to the state functions at which he appeared. Takumi supposes Arius was like one of Earth's celebrities—say, Ryouma Kannagi, Sayo interjects, for once naming an idol instead of a shark reference. Takumi mentions this with mild surprise, only to learn *surprise*, it *was* an indirect shark reference, for Kannagi once had a minor part in *The Sharkborg From Hell Z* back when he was a child actor.

What remains to be explained is how Bug knows Sabaramond and why they are opposed to this supposed "Bastard Children of Sabaramond" organization, especially since Sabaramond is long dead, or at least Takumi assumes so since he lived over one-hundred years ago. Corpse God says this is not necessarily the case because sorcerers as skilled as Arius was could delay aging and extend their lifespans by a century or two. Regardless of whether Arius is alive, Sayo opines, any link to his name should make his "bastard children" Corpse God's allies, given his past allyship with Corpse God. Privately, Corpse God is not so sure. If the Bastards are part of the Empire, then they are part of the world that he abandoned for this one out of selfish reasons. He is an outsider there and here.

An auburn-haired man, Shibuya's mediator, ascends a staircase while talking on a phone. He responds to the caller with "yes, perfectly. Just like with Hosorogi five years ago. Everything is under Sabaramond's aegis." He adds that the Horojima snipers have left this (Shibuya) district, but one of the Agakuras should be newly available.

In an underground area zoned for a future water tank, armed men wearing gas masks have assembled to act as a diversion for something. Their apparent leader encourages them to dehumanize themselves as "bullets in flight" that kill their targets in "flashy" but desireless, disapassionate ways. Momoya Agakura, an extraordinarily tall young man, kills everyone present and sits on a pile of their corpses for a little monologue. One of his sisters involved in dispatching the men's main forces contacts him with instructions to visit Shibuya's mediator for work in Shinjuku. Momoya smiles at the thought that he might run into Solitaire, whose autograph he wants.

Xiaoyu informs Rozan that some invisible force was obstructing Lemmings and Solitaire, raging that he ought to have eliminated the Polka impostor in the first place. Rozan looks up from news articles on the flock of hands incident and points out the invisible force did not attack Xiaoyu and therefore was likely on his side. Xiaoyu asks him if he knows something and, when Rozan asks him to repeat the job he was tasked with, unhappily answers that is was to guard Sayo and "the fake Polka."

Rozan admits that he is aware of the fake Polka's secret but shall not disclose it now, since Xiaoyu would neither believe nor accept it in his current state. Xiaoyu protests that he would, but he cannot deny what Rozan says next: that Xiaoyu is actively refusing to believe his assurances that the Polka impostor can be trusted. Rozan advises him to consult the fake Polka himself, whom he will personally beg to reconsider if the fake Polka refuses to comply. Xiaoyu is horrified at the thought of his lordship begging, so Rozan again encourages him to earn the impostor's trust.

Momoya manages to spot Xiaoyu from a street at a great height and distance. Shibuya's mediator asks him why he has stopped, preferring that they not stand out on Shinjuku turf. Momoya blithely replies that he saw a familiar face. "He looks great for someone who had his arms and legs torn off. I respect that." The Heilei, he adds, to whom that face belongs, are as tough as centipedes. Farther down the street, Arase pauses and justifies his pause to Iwanome as him spotting a familiar face. He supposes that there is "no way" he saw who he thought he saw.

Takumi defers to Corpse God about his next moves for anything related to his homeworld. As Corpse God hesitates, Misaki enters the common area sunny smile-first and squishes Corpse God's face into another smile as if to banish her charge's gloominess. The reporter from earlier follows her into the room and captures a photograph of the moment, holding out her business card to introducer herself as Kochou Eightport from the *Weekly Dry*, to Takumi's chagrin. Eightport mirrors Misaki's smile as the latter cheerfully says the group will be on the news.

In an effort to escape reality, Takumi lapses into an internal self-narrating refresher course on what the *Weekly Dry* is: a 200,000-sales/week major tabloid launched by Anywhere, Inc. in 1996 that covers everything from politics and arts to occult sightings and videogames. Kochou Eightport happens to be one of its best fearless junior reporters. Corpse God guiltily insists to Eightport that he is innocent, like a guilty person or a person eaten by a shark halfway through a movie. Eightport explains she wants to interview the up-and-coming fortuneteller of grapevine fame. Takumi expresses little trust in reporters who photograph others without consent. Fine, says Eightport, if they refuse this interview, then she shall simply run another story about an information broker filming others without their consent.

Takumi freezes. Of course: Eightport must be here to expose a fraud and an ex-gangster info broker colluding to fake fortunes. Fine, he thinks, that itself will not the problem, what will be is the chance of Clarissa getting caught in the crossfire of suspicion. If that happens, then he can expect Clarissa's employees to string him up—so he had better try to smooth things over. Eightport privately appraises him in turn. From her research, she knows that Takumi is a boy prodigy who started a software company at fourteen, survived a family suicide after shifty adults conspired to take the company over, and entered the criminal underworld afterward to eventually become an information specialist for the Sons of the Styx gang.

Flashback
Eightport tells her boss that she wants to interview Shinjuku's newest fortuneteller for a story. Her boss is not against it, but he points out she is already working on a Solitaire story. She claims the stories are related: two detectives assigned to the Solitaire case visited the fortuneteller after they investigated the fake Bug behind the Shinoyama estate arson—and rumor has it the fortuneteller is a Shinoyama himself. She is convinced that the fire, the fortuneteller, and the fugitive Solitaire are all connected.

Present
Corpse God decides to proceed with the interview provided the story focuses purely on fortunetelling and asks if Eightport wants her fortune read. She declines out of an obligation to objectivity, preferring to bring him a customer tomorrow or later. Misaki helps Corpse God slip on his uniform while Takumi warns Eightport against interviewing the clients in the queue out of respect for their privacy. Eightport agrees, gloating all the while at her good 'fortune' behind her congenial smile. As senseless as it is for a Shinoyama to be collaborating with an information broker, this Shinoyama seemed relieved to hear that *that* is what her story is about, so something fishy must be afoot. Moreover, Solitaire coincidentally paid this building a visit during the wee hours. Moreoever *still*, the Bug's catchphrase is burned into the wall behind her—yet another winning ticket on top of other winning tickets to the point of unnerving her.

When Eightport inquires about the Bug's words, Misaki quizzically stares at them and wonders when *those* happened. Sayo shushes her with her shark sleeping-bag and claims she and Misaki are having their daily shark-wrestling. Takumi calmly lies that the graffiti pre-dates their moving in and that they have simply not gotten around to removing it. Much to his exasperation, Corpse God adds, "Y-Yes! That's right!" in a manner that convinces no one. Eightport, for one, thinks the writing looks brand-new and that she should not be so quick to concede that perhaps suspecting the Bug's involvement was jumping to conclusions. She cannot let her guard down, not when the Shinoyama Group has its own fingers in shady puddings.

In his office at Shinoyama Security, Takeru Shinoyama confirms that Lemmings was not hurt during the rooftop confrontation and that Lemmings, like him, does not believe that the flock of hands was Solitaire's doing. He suggests that Lemmings take some time off not only since Solitaire and Xiaoyu are likely on the lookout for him, but because Lemmings will probably be busy next week with his *main* job. After Lemmings leaves, Takeru orders Taipei to pursue Solitaire jointly with the Lei Family in the vicinity of the building where Polka works. Taipei asks if he should kill Solitaire; Takeru answers that he wants to question Solitaire about Polka and personally 'thank' him for causing Shinoyama Security's share prices to tumble. He orders Bao to provide Taipei with intelligence support. Bao affirms that she will without looking up from her mobile video game.

Takeru warns them not to underestimate the police force, many of whom, including the ones he is monitoring, are investigating Solitaire and will likely be aware of Taipei and Bao's movements. The police force, he says, is "truly a lair of demons."

A briefing about Takeru sits on the desk of Jirotarou Takanosu, a member of said police force. Jirotarou wonders if one of the Shinoyamas was the one snooping around and whether he will need to ask all of them to leave the stage.

Having left the Torture Building, Eightport tells her boss over the phone that she thinks "they" are linked in even more interesting ways than she thought, and that interesting things are going to keep happening in the Building.

Momoya stands over the corpse of a bartender whose head he has decapitated and whose card promotes the Youtoukorou bar. Momoya remarks that he would have borrowed inspiration from a cocktail when killing the man had he known his profession in advance.

## Adapted From

* Chapter 35
* Chapter 36
* Chapter 37

## Trivia

* Proppen is dressed up as the character "Killer Whale" from the move *The Sharkborg From Hell* 5.

### Referbacks

* Xiaoyu's father mentioned that Xiaoyu ran into Agakura and lost his limbs in Episode 08.