Chapter 72

**Chapter 72** is the seventy-second chapter of the *Dead Mount Death Play* manga.

## Official Blurb

Pasts are uncovered and secrets revealed as the Fire-breathing Bug and the Bastard Child of Sabaramond collide.

## Synopsis

Prelude
Six hooded figures regard a fetus that is enveloped in the center of twin gnarled trees. The being, it is explained, was created—with the help of Pani the alchemist—to be the heir of a great sorcerer; an image is shown of Arius Sabaramond holding a childlike being in a transparent container. As the sorcerer's "bastard child," the being would act as his vessel: the being would inherit the sorcerer's character and memories, embody his magic and wisdom, and eventually come to serve as a future leader in his stead.

The vessel—Civil A. Sabaramond—*was meant* to do all that. However...

Present
A brilliant fiery orb overhead illuminates the space where Civil, Soara Habaki, Lulu, Tena Sorimura, and Fire-breathing Bugs have converged. Sorimura, outwardly calm, deduces out loud that Bug must have "ruptured fuel in the air and ignited it." Inwardly, his thoughts race down an increasingly nerve-wracking deductive track. He is sure the fuel mixture must combine naphtha and napalm. If so, it "must have" been sourced from the "contents of a napalm bomb and the fuel from a flamethrower"—but in that case, such a mixture could generate fatally high temperatures. Suddenly doubting Fire-breathing Bug's possession of any modicum of ethics, Sorimura frets that "this is looking really bad, isn't it!?"

The incendiary reaction abruptly burns hotter, causing Sorimura to turn tail while Soara and Lulu look to Civil in alarm. Civil, seeing an opportunity to test something out, outthrusts his right hand. "Is it like...this?" Pressurized air blasts upward from his palm, dispelling the fire; Civil ambivalently considers what just occurred, then, flexing his hand, considers whether he should "follow the formal procedure."

Bug allows him no time for considerations. At a surge of heat, Civil turns to face a fiery shockwave blossoming toward him—and counters with another magical slash of air before taking off at a run. As he ducks fireballs, he laughingly shouts that he has sympathy for the likes of Bug—whom he suspects, not knows, must have been a test subject in the Bastard Children of Sabaramond's experiments a century ago to give humans special abilities. Solitaire, suddenly alert, listens from his hiding place as Civil recalls what the organization did in the name of secrecy: it incinerated all eighteen test subjects—yet only sixteen corpses were found. However, two potential Bug survivors does not explain Bug's current number.

It does not explain, for instance, the multiple Bugs trying to restrain Soara during Civil's speech; though Soara wrests her way from their grasp, reinforcements arrive to surround her. Observing that these men seem to be 'amateurs', Soara rethinks her murder strategy. Meanwhile, Civil hops onto the roof of a construction vehicle to better address the Bugs. He opines that Bug, in order to better carry out their grudge, must have chosen to 'multiply' by instilling their thirst for revenge in innocents—whether through science or magic, Civil cannot say. He *can* say that Bug is surely doing what Civil's organization's elders did when they strove to rob eighteen people of their lives. If one compares numbers, Civil asserts, Bug is the *brutal* one.

A suited, umbrella-carrying Bug steps forward to express agreement. They are wicked. They are bugs within the world's system. Thus, once Bug has "burned [Civil et al.] to a crisp," Bug will depart from all the bugged people and "burn them as well." Civil seems to think this intention absolves him from owing Bug anything—so he ravenously suggest they each put their lives on the line and try to crush each other. This, Bug deems as a cheap threat.

A canister arcing over Civil releases a white smokescreen, and Civil, by way of response, fires off a swirl of wind. Sorimura wonders how Civil fired off pressurized air without obvious fuels or devices, and just what 'trickery' Bug will employ next—which, to his shock, seems to be a disappearing act: when the smoke disperses, the crowd of Bugs, including that which had surrounded Soara, is nowhere to be found.

Civil sighs with something akin to relief or a realization. Bug is not, it seems, driven solely by sheer revenge. Their retreat was strategic, he supposes, as he hops off the vehicle—and turns his vocal remarks toward a retreating Sorimura: retreat, Civil opines, is certainly better than "thoughtlessly flying into the flame like a moth."

On the assumption that Sorimura must know where Bug's hideout is, Soara grabs him by the back of his collar so as to prevent his departure. Sorimura asks whether Soara has proof, and, more importantly, whether he resembles someone who would sell out a friend in a heartbeat. Soara immediately replies that he does; Civil and Lulu silently concur. From where Soara holds him aloft, Sorimura offers to share other 'valuable information' instead; so saying, he begins recounting the origin of the expression "a moth flying into the flame."

Soara, patience thin, cuts him off with an indignant "who cares!?", shaking him as easily as a child shakes a toy. Diplomatically, Civil says he would rather hear about something else: why Solitaire, who somehow obtained the symbol of Byandy's imperial emblem, visited a certain building in Shinjuku. Does the building's "fortunetelling boy" have anything to do with it?

Sorimura muses that Civil seems to have "already reached that conclusion as well"—though what he means by this is not apparent. He continues that an ordinary moth who flies into the flame is foolish indeed—but what of a moth who is resistant to fire? Twisting in Sorimura's grasp, Sorimura obscures his escape via a flourish of his cape; when the cape lifts, Soara finds herself gripping the neck of a Sorimura sack-mannequin, its forehead sporting a 'missed me' taunt.

From atop the construction vehicle, Sorimura declares that some worlds can only be seen if one dares to fly into the fire. As much as he is curious to know whether Civil's powers are the "real deal," he has other plans tonight—here he steps forward into a flurry of cards, a storm—if Civil can show him a trickless world, he shall reappear within the flames as often as necessary.

The torrent of cards ceases into a gentle drift, by which time Sorimura is gone with the wind. Civil smiles at the fluttering cards, more certain than ever that coming to Japan was a good move. His lifelong thirst, he murmurs has been ever so sated. Soara asks him to explain what his earlier "canon-like" magic was. "I tried it out, and it worked," replies Civil. Thus far, his magical capabilities have been limited to strengthening his body and mind—evidence that he was a "failure from the start, after all."

Such 'pathetic origins' are ones he related to his companions before traveling to Japan. From what he knows, his body was supposed to receive the memories and personality of an otherworlder sorcerer named Arius Sabaramond—a sorcerer that "they say" never appeared in this world. Nevertheless, the organization deferentially named itself after Sabaramond in homage—its name a most ironic one. As a failure, Civil was left alone to struggle with 'that failed magic'...until the fortuneteller *triggered it*.

Never before had Civil felt his magic being tampered with by an external entity. When he tried his 'test' earlier, he was testing to see what would happen if he attempted the "opposite of that sensation, working magic inside out." While he is still "only at the threshold," he thinks he should be able to do more the more he acclimates to the feeling.

Civil spins in place before declaring his affection for Soara and Lulu, who let him "feel the world beyond." This world, however, wants for chaos because *Civil* wants for chaos; Civil has always felt that his lack of belonging in this world is due to the fact his creation took place in the other one. He desires to return to the homeland of his memories—a homeland he has never seen. He yearns, desires, craves for something, anything in this world, to banish his boredom.

His smartphone rings. Upon answering it, Civil expresses surprise that the caller has his number. After all, the two of them have never spoken—but even so, Civil wonders if introductions are necessary. The caller—The Grocer—agrees that introductions can be dispensed with: "Sabaramond-*sama*" has patronized his store even before the store's "move."

Civil asks whether Grocer's reaching out means a certain product is in stock: Polka Shinoyama's genealogy, and, especially, information on Polka's mother—Kanon Shinoyama.

In Lulu's arms, Polka thinks, "...Mom?"