Chapter 17

**Dead Mount Death Play #17** is the seventeenth chapter of the *Dead Mount Death Play* manga, and the last chapter of Volume 2.

## Summary

While idling at a red light, and oblivious to the motorcyclist dismounting nearby, the middle-aged Shinoyama relative muses that the Fire-breathing Bug should be "finishing up his job right about now." He curses Rozan Shinoyama for embarrassing him in the dining room, hoping that Rozan witnessed his descendants burning as he cried himself to death—and the motorcyclist punches through his door's closed window. In the aftermath, the motorcyclist calls her employer to inform them of the capture and is instructed to bring the relative to headquarters.

At the Shinoyama Manor, Misaki Sakimiya joins up with the Corpse God seconds after Lemmings slams the intruder's head to the ground. The Corpse God wonders whether Lemmings is after him or Misaki and why he "got" the Fire-breathing Bug, but Lemmings simply brings a finger to his bandaged lips before walking off through the smoky flames.

With the fire dealt with, Rozan Shinoyama retires with the Corpse God and Misaki to his traditional parlor and says he feels he ought to thank them: whatever their reasons, he appreciates their results. (Outside the burnt section of the manor, Sayo Shinoyama wails over her shark collection). So saying, he bows his head and thanks them for saving his two grandchildren. Then, with a forbidding expression, he asks for the explanation he was promised.

The Corpse God glances at Misaki, but she assures him with a smile that she will be fine and that keeping promises are important. Thus supported, the Corpse God begins his story.

In an large, austere room, the relative wakes to find himself bound to a chair. From a darkened area of the room, Takeru Shinoyama emerges to inform him that he is in an undocumented room at Shinoyama Security, and that he (Takeru) is currently deciding what to be done with him. When the relative asks what he means, Takeru references how the relative "conspired with an arsonist to try and kill members of the family," something that would damage the Shinoyama brand's image if it were made public.

As such, Takeru opines that the best option is probably to erase the relative from the record and treat him like a deserter, and admits that for a time he had considered personally "taking out" the arsonist the relative colluded with. However, to do so would mean allowing everyone to continue believing his little sister Suzuka died in a 'boiler accident', which Takeru cannot have. Instead, he plans on telling the public Suzuka was an innocent 'saint' caught in the crossfire of 'ill will' targeted at the Shinoyamas, thereby cancelling out the relative's scandal with sympathy for the family.

Takeru reveals that his team has already apprehended the arsonist the relative colluded with, and that "he" should at this moment already be on his way to the station. Ignoring the relative's spluttered protestations of innocence, Takeru continues that they have sent in the Dragon King's Palace Agency's ace, glancing behind him as several agency members emerge from the shadows. At the forefront are Lemmings and Yochigi, the latter the motorcyclist from before.

The relative is taken aback that the agency exists, though Takeru demurs that he never gave them such a "grandiose name"—he simply gathered the Shinoyama Group's outcasts in one place, though Lemmings and Yochigi were working for him from the start. Again, the relative tries to protest: grabbing his tie, Takeru orders him to be quiet and plays a recording of the relative giving permission for the arson (as originally stated in Chapter 14).

Releasing his tie, Takeru admits that the wiretap itself is not very reliable as evidence. He therefore plans to secure a full confession—though as it will be secured through violence, it will not be much for evidence either. Still, it will make him feel better. As Yochigi begins an 'interrogation' via Swiss army knife, Takeru turns away and tells an absent Rozan that this is why he should have removed the bad apples in the family sooner: because Takeru is the one who has to "listen to the moaning in the end." Behind him, the relative screams.

In the penitentiary, Tena Sorimura chuckles that Tsubaki Iwanome is testing him. Iwanome denies this, but he and Kozaburo Arase both go on the alert when Sorimura accuses him of not being entirely truthful in his descriptions of the arsonist. Dismissing all Iwanome's talk of "disguise mastery" and "spending a long time rigging the house," Sorimura pins the blame on Know, an average criminal not quite dangerous enough to deserve the troublemaker title. Those in the category of troublemakers are practically calamities, people who transcend ordinary humans without magic.

With the few teeth he has remaining, the relative begs a stop to the torture and claims he only did what he did under duress from the Fire-breathing Bug. In response to the relative's claim of having no choice, Takeru concludes that it is no surprise someone so stupid would defy the family.

Meanwhile, the police car carrying Know continues speeding for the station. Know, handcuffed and flanked by two men in the backseat—still wearing his maid's uniform but otherwise wearing his true face—laments his current predicament. However, not all hope is lost: the police do not know about the gunpowder in his stomach, so all he has to do is wait for a chance to spit it up. A second later, he and the policemen hear a scratching sound overhead.

When Know looks up he sees the in-progress words, "This world is..."

"This world is a buggy program," says Sorimura—the motto Iwanome said the Fire-breathing Bug always leaves at his crime scenes. But Sorimura is aware that there is a second part to the "calling card" that only the cops know, refusing to say how he found out himself. Furthermore, all the crime scenes Iwanome listed were only the ones the media made public.

Takeru remarks to the relative that Lemmings and the Fire-breathing Bug have clashed multiple times, with Lemmings never able to do as much as even catch their shadow. Coldly, he reveals that there is no way "someone like [the relative" could have hired the Bug.

Know reads the rest of the overhead words in horror: "This world is a buggy program...so it cries out for the flame." With the motto a sure sign of the real Fire-breathing Bug, Know cries out in terror for the police to let him out of the car—but they seem to not see the words he does, and are only confused by his change in attitude.

As the car screeches to a halt, Know looks up to find eerie expressions on all three cops' faces. An odd voice (or multiple voices) says he is a sham, phony bug, and that "a sham bug has to be put down." In the enxt moment, Know spontaneously combusts.

The policemen rear back, and the driver manages to escape the car before it implodes. (It is not shown whether the two other policemen escaped). From where he has fallen to the ground, he is too busy staring at the car in fear and confusion to notice the figure behind him.

From a pedestrian bridge spanning the road, a shadowed figure with an umbrella sings "Amefuri" ("Raining"), a classic children's nursery song about the rain. As the car burns black below, soot and ash fluttering past him, he smiles.

## Trivia

* The kanji on the umbrella, revealed in the last panel, read, "Watch out for fires."