Episode 10

**The Emblem** (国章 *Kokushou*) is the tenth episode of the *Dead Mount Death Play* anime.

## Official Blurb

Solitaire fills the skies of Shinjuku with blimps—all marked with the emblem of the Corpse God's home country! What is a symbol from another world doing in modern Japan, and who will take the magician's bait?

## Synopsis

Flashback
In the imperial palace of the Byandy Empire, Easlies Swordfrail points at a banner overlooking a grand staircase and tells Corpse God (not yet known as such) that the symbol adorning it is the emblem of the Empire that shall be Corpse God's home. The young emperor declares that he redesigned the emblem upon ascending the throne, for his father's version was much simpler. He proudly shows his original sketch for the redesign emblem and remarks, "Pretty cool, eh?"

Present
The Corpse God stares at the symbol adorning the dirigibles in Shinjuku's airspace and says the symbol is the emblem of his fallen Empire. Meanwhile, members of a certain organization discuss online both Solitaire's uncloaking of the symbol and Fire-breathing Bug's immolation of the members' brethren. Some suggest hiding the symbol in a crowd or forest or claiming that the logo is attributed to an upstart cult, for they are worried about the emblem circulating amongst the public. In contrast, others claim it is a trap or lure: "The problem is," someone types, "that someone baited a hook for us." The overwhelming consensus of the online discussion group is one of slaughter and death, with Solitaire on the chopping block.

A suited individual types a response as follows: "Make it swift and painless. Don't give them time to suffer. Sadism feels satisfying, but it reveals more than necessary. Like that time five years ago."

**Opening Credits.**
Tsubaki Iwanome wonders out loud, "What the hell is going on" as he stares at the dirigibles that have invaded Shinjuku airspace. Kōzaburō Arase asks if the symbol adorning the dirigibles is the symbol that Iwanome has previously mentioned; Iwanome, deciding that he does not need to hide it any longer, shows Arase the message that the pencil—or, as they believe, Polka Shinoyama—had written during the fortunetelling session:

> At least choose the brand of your [...] yourself.
> Corruption is eating away from the top.
> Don't trust anyone.
> There's another garage on the west side of that place.
> The signpost is inside.
> The key is behind the mirror of I-383.
>
>

Iwanome supposes that if Solitaire is behind the dirigibles stunt, he must be involved either Miyabi Hosorogi or the people Hosorogi was pursuing due to the symbol. Regardless, says Arase, that Comps-3 keeps encountering this symbol five years after Hosorogi's disappearance seems more than a coincidence. Iwanome replies that Arase has a good point, but he nonetheless posits that Solitaire could have had him (Iwanome) in his crosshairs all along. What if, Iwanome asks, [Solitaire] was watching when Polka Shinoyama read my fortune?

Fumiyo Yamada jogs into the room to inform Iwanome that "the top," Metropolitan Police HQ, is currently asking for him.

Via a radio balanced on a table balanced on an airship, a news broadcaster relays that, per the statements from the Metropolitan Government and Police, no airships (blimps) are "cleaeëd to fly in the impacted area." However, the government does not consider this stunt an act of terrorism. Phantom Solitaire, settled in a recliner next to said dirigible-topping table, muses that "the Web is probably better informed than the news at this point"—but what he indeed dwells upon is the amount of money he spent on, of all things, *blimps*!

Flashback
When Solitaire, disguised as a security guard, asks The Grocer for the price of the information he seeks, Grocer replies with the staggering sum of ¥3,000.000,000,000—which Grocer has rounded *down* for Solitaire specifically. Solitaire, a mix of chagrined and baffled objects that, comparatively, Grocer had only charged him ¥30,000,000 for three minutes of signal hijacking.

Grocer reminds Solitaire that his shop adjusts prices according to the customer's life contents. In Solitaire's case, Grocer estimates that Solitaire, if he devoted himself to accumulating money no matter the means, could accumulate ¥6,000,000,000,000. In other words, Grocer has concluded that the symbol, as far as *Solitaire* is concerned, is worth half of Solitaire's projected ideal earnings. For anyone else, however, the price for the symbol might be as low as a few dozen yen since most of them would construe it as merely a tall tale.

For Solitaire, contrasted, says Grocer, the symbol is guaranteed to shape his destiny. It might as well be a miracle drug concocted for Solitaire exclusively: mishandling it will poison Solitaire to his destruction. Solitaire says he will trust Grocer because Grocer's predecessor trusted Grocer, but he refuses to pay Grocer's exorbitant price because of Grocer's buildup (and probably also the price). Instead, he asks how much a fleet of airships will cost.

Present
Solitaire, reclining next to a radio on top of a dirigible, reads a manga insert from a magazine and admires the story's idea of tethering a human rope to an ad balloon. A shot rings out when he is considering borrowing the idea for himself. Solitaire's bloody arm falls limp by the recliner.

Rinne Horojima, posted on scaffolding some distance away, keeps her sniper rifle steady as she asks whether she hit Solitaire. Her brother, Hiiro Horojima, tells her she missed and hands her his binoculars. She peers through them and discovers that she hit a Solitaire mannequin. Hiiro speculates that the two of them shall not be paid regardless of whether they have failed the mission, and his sister asks, displeased with the subpar jobs they have endured between this, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro. He proposes that the two of them solicit Shinjuku, for he has heard promising rumors about its mediator.

Solitaire broadcasts the footage of his mannequin's "death" on the "Solitaire Channel". It explains to the audience that his dummy was shot just fifty-eight minutes after the dirigibles were airborne. He claims that the only 'things' high enough to discover that his dummy was lounging on a dirigible could have been police helicopters, then extrapolates that "an organization with snipers accessed police information in under an hour," which implies that someone or other was prepared to shoot him the moment he revealed the (modified) symbol. Upon speculating that a secret society or some other conspiracy might be involved with this symbol. He offers a ¥300,000,000 reward to anyone who can provide him with substantial information about it. He ends his livestream clumsily, having forgotten to trial his sign-off.

Takumi Kuruya and Corpse God stare at the terminated live stream feed with mutual alarm. Corpse God wonders what they should focus on first despite knowing the answer: Sayo Shinoyama, who looms over them with questions regarding the 'empire' and 'reincarnation' that Corpse God had uttered next to her at the window.

Misaki Shinoyama cluelessly joins a mutually crestfallen Takumi and Corpse God on the couch to be interrogated by Sayo, who self-assuredly expects "Polka" to answer her questions. Corpse God meekly answers 'yes.' He says that he is a court sorcerer from the militaristic "Byady#erig" (Byandy) Empire who, at the moment he let himself be felled by the Calamity Crusher one hundred years after the Empire's collapse, reincarnated in Polka's body and "battles securities about his future" for the sake of a peaceful life.

Corpse God assures Sayo that he shall return Polka's soul to Polka's body. Takumi, flabbergasted, asks how Corpse God can possibly expect Sayo to buy the story; Corpse God replies that he supposed resolving the situation would be easier if Sayo *did not*. In fact, to Takumi's great shock, Sayo *does* believe in the story. She says that the real Polka would not have stayed as calm as Corpse God did when a cop grabbed him. That she harbored suspicions does not mean she is not shaken by the idea her half-uncle was murdered, so she decides to take a shower to calm down before asking for more details. Before she leaves, she adds that she shall not enlighten Xiaoyu Lei of this development before he returns from shopping.

Corpse God remarks that Sayo is inscrutable and asks Takumi to show her the dancing skeleton's spectacle. Takumi thinks the more salient takeaway is that Sayo probably will not snitch to "Polka's" true identity. However, he asks whether Corpse God, in the worst-case scenario, could use a spell to wipe Sayo's memory. Corpse God admits that he can have a contracted spirit possess someone and remove parts of their memory as a scalpel might amputate a sectioned piece—essentially, this would indirectly affect said someone's *physical* brain.

All this adheres to a different school than Geldwood's "brainwashing and forced-confession spells," but none of it is significantly hard to do, explains Corpse God, to *humans on his world*; he is hesitant to try such methods on humans of this world lest they differ from humans on his world, for, even if they only slightly differed, a slight mistake with the spell could break the targeted human. Takumi supposes they had better not risk doing that, only to be perturbed when Corpse God muses that, with enemies, "cutting corners and destroying their minds could make things easier."

Takumi apprehensively asks if Corpse God "messed with" the memories of the "goons" who comprised the 'Human Knot." Corpse God insists that he *held back* so that the men will not be *completely* broken, at which Takumi states, "Man, sometimes you scare the crap out of me." Blushing, Corpse God admits that he is somewhat glad to hear Takumi say *sometimes*. Takumi reminds Corpse God that he was not killed like Misaki was and looked toward Misaki, only to realize she has absconded.

In the shower room, a mortified Polka blushes and ducks under discarded clothes as his half-niece, Sayo, walks past him to a shower head, under which she asks if Misaki needs something. Misaki pins her to the wall and asks if she did not wonder who killed Polka—and if she did not, was that because she already suspected the killer's identity? Sayo replies that she would rather discuss sharks, but Misaki presses the issue: what would Sayo do if she told Sayo she killed Polka? Sayo pins Misaki to the wall and hypothesizes not only that Misaki wishes for someone to condemn her for what she did, but that Polka forgave her for murdering him. Sayo says Polka is the gentle type who would see a man-eating shark killed at the movie's end and exclaim that he felt bad for the *shark* and its victims. Assuming Misaki still has yet to make peace with Polka's forgiveness, Sayo says Misaki probably wants Sayo to assail her as part of her atonement.

Sayo declares that she shall not assail Misaki and instead forgive her despite her slyness. Misaki joins her, sitting on the edge of the shower room, and remarks that she would make a great detective, though she wonders why Sayo does not seem to be scared of the assassin who slit Polka's throat. To her initial befuddlement, Sayo replies that "no one who likes shark movies is a bad person," emphasizing how she enjoyed discussing shark movies with Misaki and that no bad person could have participated in such a discussion. "You may have slit my relative's throat, but sharks will forgive you!"

Polka, shellshocked by the evidence that "his relative [has] more of a screw loose than he'd thought," decides to pretend he heard nothing of the shower conversation.

Sayo belatedly acknowledges Misaki's rescue of Kazuki Shinoyama and Shizuki Shinoyama as her second reason for forgiving Misaki, "although it doesn't count for much." Misaki laughs helplessly at the notion that, for Sayo, rescuing her younger siblings was an afterthought and admitted that she is speechless. Sayo encourages her to speak about sharks.

Misaki nuzzles Sayo's cheek after she and Sayo return to the common room, explaining to Takumi and Corpse God that she had "screwed up" when she attempted to ascertain whether Sayo had commissioned the hit on Polka. Nevertheless, she has concluded that Sayo is innocent. Takumi, miffed, indignantly retorts that the only thing Misaki proved is that Sayo is "out of her goddamn mind." He remains baffled by Sayo's logic when Sayo says that she is too shark-obsessed to bother hiring someone to murder Polka, so Sayo clarifies that she would have converted Polka into shark food had she killed him.

Takumi reluctantly laments that this is a convincing argument before noticing that Sayo is holding Polka-the plush and plucking it from her hands, saying, "Don't tell me you took him into the bath." Sayo replies that she did not take him into the bath and apologizes for borrowing the plush without asking. With some sympathy, Takumi remarks to Polka that Polka must have had it rough, living with a family such as this—only to exclaim, "You didn't know?" when Sayo says that, although she aspires to make all sharks her family, she has not met this shark plush before.

Takumi's explanation that the shark plush is Polka bowls Sayo over. Sympathetically like before, Takumi acknowledges that it must be uncomfortable to learn your relative saw you changing—but that is not what has Sayo all agog. She says she thought that two souls were fighting for control of Polka's body—just as Rozan Shinoyama had thought, Corpse God interjects—but more importantly, how could one of her relatives become a shark instead of her?! She volunteers her body for Polka's possession in exchange for herself being "sharkified." Polka decides to let sleeping sharks lie.

Takumi asks Corpse God what their next move is, given the symbol's clear significance to him. Corpse God says that while he does not mind if the emblem is publicized, he must confront anyone who is striving to use the emblem for some purpose and especially someone who might defile such a precious memory as this. Takumi is willing to investigate any shadowy organizations that might be using it, though he does not discount the possibility that Solitaire could "have been making shit up."

*Last six minutes to be added.*

## Adapted From

* Chapter 26
* Chapter 27
* Chapter 28

## Trivia

* Ryouma Kannagi is featured on the magazine cover that Solitaire is reading on the dirigible.
* Corpse God's backstory, as narrated to Sayo, is rendered in an older animanga style per Chapter 27.