Chapter 75

**Chapter 75** is the seventy-fifth chapter of the *Dead Mount Death Play* manga.

## Official Blurb

As Civil and Corpse God exchange blows, their allies are quick to join the fight!

## Synopsis

Tsubaki Iwanome, flanked by members of Comps-3, asks one of the presumed "Fire-breathing Bugs" before him where he (they) is (are) going with umbrellas on such a clear day. The Bug who replies is a young man with a benign smile; he thanks Iwanome for "the other day" but wonders why Iwanome calls him "Fire-breathing Bug"—the name of a recently-active arsonist. Iwanome ripostes that the name is not only inexclusive to one indindivual, it truly ought to belong to people who no longer existed by the time the name was devised: **Mitsu Haigawara** and **Takejirou Toura**.

These sole survivors of the Sabaramond organization's experiments, Iwanome says, must have been the start of "Fire-breathing Bug."

Meanwhile, Corpse God, finding himself propelled by Civil A. Sabaramond over Shinjuku, drives several bone blades toward Civil by way of counterattack. This racket is overheard by Soara Habaki, despite not being anywhere near the pair; moments later, her companion Lulu exclaims that—according to the Great Elementals—"Civil-*sama* is fighting something." Alarmed, Soara takes her leave via racing up the side of the nearest building, atop which she is able to spot an explosive bit of magic in the distance.

Civil blasts several humanoid skeletons with a magical burst, then proceeds to snap successive bones with stomps of his feat. As he does so, Corpse God assesses his magical praxis: Corpse God can tell Civil's magic is being released in atavistic bursts; although Civil's protection of his "body fortification" is superb, Civil's other spells are amateurish.

Civil, on the other hand, crows that with Corpse God he has found himself a *jackpot*. That such a powerful jackpot shall not be his friend is all the more 'sick', especially since said jackpot apparently desires, of all things, peace and quiet. Perhaps it is sick, responds Corpse God—but nevertheless, he refuses to allow others to obstruct peace in a world in which his friends and *little brother* reside.

So saying, Corpse God unleashes two large skeletal hands above and below Civil as if to crunch him between their palms—

—but Soara crunches the hands into pieces with a mighty kick. As she rights herself mid-air, she sneers that she cannot fathom why a 'brat' like Corpse God would quarrel with someone who had offered him "such a sweet deal"—but, well! At least she can "go all out." Civil agrees that Soara can; however, he says, she might want to focus on a certain *other* opponent instead.

A black cord lassos Soara's right ankle, and Soara finds herself soaring backward to crash land on a rooftop. Soara is unimpressed to find herself faced with "another brat"—Xiaoyu Lei—whom she is nonplussed to observe has the same scent she smelled in the Abandoned Building. Both Xiaoyu and Soara acknowledge that their respective roles are to protect their prospective charges; when Soara jeers that she shall walk over Xiaoyu's body should Xiaoyu stand in her way, Xiaoyu readies himself, electricity crackling around his right hand.

Back on the streets, Lulu, distressed at seeing the signs of a rooftop confrontation from afar, clasps her hands together to beg that the Great Elementals protect Civil. The Elementals cut her prayer off with the most fervent warning she has ever heard—one that sends a great shudder down her spine.

Behind Lulu, Misaki Sakimiya croons, "Found you."

Lulu turns and, upon recognizing Misaki as the "fortuneteller's...receptionist?" warns her to flee from such dangerous premises as these. She fretfully remarks that the "Elementals' warning" that she just heard is stronger than the warning she heard when she was held at gunpoint—her point, she says, is that danger equivalent to a 'missile' is approaching them, so Misaki must make her escape posthaste.

Misaki laughs that Lulu is a "good kid" who ought to relax, for Misaki will be on her way as soon as she retrieves *Polka*, she clarifies, charging forward—

—only for a vending machine to slam itself into her side.

The Bug spokesperson wonders not only what Iwanome is "going on about" but what help Iwanome expects when the detective does not have so much as a warrant to his name. Iwanome recalls the conclusion a certain doctor's drew from the papers retrieved from the storage unit: 'Fire-breathing Bug' is "a pseudo-personality implanted by hypnosis." Thus through a combination of "unique voices and sound waves [that drilled] condensed information into human brain[s]" did the originals "[propogate] their personal will into the world."

Such a hypothesis, Bug quips, sounds a tad too nonsensical to be considered science. Still, Iwanome supposes, it is at least more grounded that ghosts, curses, evil spirits, or magic, i.e. the realm coveted by Tena Sorimura.

Sorimura, himself an open-armed acceptor of all things magic and evil spirits—in other words, the type of fellow who "let[s] chaos reign!"—stands atop a guardrail somewhere in the city, one higher than Civil and Corpse God's current location. He trains a pair of binoculars on Civil, eager to witness the moment "this world gets turned inside out."

In this moment, Civil is expressing how glad he is that he met Corpse God specifically, for this will only work out because it was you." Unlike an ordinary sorcerer, Corpse God alone has the power to *revolutionize* the world via necromancy—that singular branch of magic that is tantamount to proof of the soul's existence. Consider, he says, the amount of people who might be willing to become something even like an Undead in order to achieve immortality. Consider, he says, what it would mean for Corpse God to contract himself to such people; consider how that could feasibly reframe the world according to an entirely new value set.

If this does not sound appealing, Civil says, spreading his arms wide, his face toward the sky—consider how the two of them could work together to "bore a hole to the other side of the sky." Let the two of us go home, he insists, to the world where we both belong. The atmosphere darkens, gusting about Civil as he speaks: "...*If you won't change the world...then there's no place for us here*."

Corpse God, stunned, watches Civil's magic "[start] to come together"—whirling in patterns and arcs, then coming to warp around Civil's head. Much like Corpse God previously thanked Civil for talking so much, allowing him time to formulate a spell, Civil now thanks Corpse God for demonstrating his power to the extent that he did: although it took a bit of time, Civil says, he believes he has come to grasp *how to use* that magic in the interim.

There is enough time for Corpse God to grit his teeth upon realizing that Civil is a prodigy before Civil lets loose "fireworks" in celebration of their meeting: a massive horizontal plume of fire and smoke that appears to engulf Corpse God and everything else in its path.

From a rooftop many buildings and at least one major street away, a raincoated Bug remarks to theirself that they knew "they'd use fire" just as 'twas done a century ago—when the Bugs' souls were burned to ash.

**The Great Shinjuku War begins...**

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