Chapter 108

**Chapter 108** is the one-hundred-and-eighth chapter of the *Dead Mount Death Play* manga.

## Official Blurb

The Corpse God is thrown when Yumeji Agakura immediately realizes that he’s not actually Polka! How will the Corpse God get himself out of this mess?

## Synopsis

Polka Shinoyama remembers how much of an intelligent quick learner and how adultlike Yumeji Agakura was, from the adroit way he could 'pick up' the video games Polka showed him to the way he would mind Polka at events. Although Polka had been oblivious to the trials with which Yumeji had been struggling with at the time, Yumeji had never directed any ill will toward him.

It is with such obvious ill will that Yumeji reaches for Corpse God now that Misaki Sakimiya swipes at his outthrust hand with her prybar. Yumeji lurches back, recognizing her as the "girl from Shinjuku." After a moment, Misaki remembers and speaks out loud his name. Corpse God is surprised that one of Majiri Agakura's 'people' is attacking him, and further surprised when Polka surreptitiously tells him that he and Yumeji know each other. Out in the corridor, with Trix supine on one end and Trix' father prostrate on the other, Katashiro's attention shifts toward the conversation playing out inside the room.

Xiaoyu Lei stands guard in front of Sayo Shinoyama and Teven while Yumeji asks again who the Polka impostor is and what his motive is for the impersonation. In disbelief that Yumeji immediately saw through his ruse just like Rozan Shinoyama, and therefore unable to concoct an excuse, Corpse God hesitates and asks if Yumeji is "...Yumeji...*kun*?" Yumeji glares. "...Polka never called me 'Yumeji-*kun*......" he says, swinging his bag back. "He's not some normal guy like you."

Misaki lashes her prybar at Yumeji again before informing Corpse God that Yumeji is Shibuya's new meditator. Yumeji catches the prybar with the strap of his bag, yanks the bag away, and charges for Corpse God once more. Corpse God stumbles back, unwilling to let his little half-brother's body come to harm, and manifests a large skeletal hand with which he attempts to seize Yumeji. Yumeji leaps, hooks the bag strap entangled in the bony fingers with his ankle, and retrieves it with such force as to break the skeletal digit in the process. Incredible: first he fights some sort of yeti monster, and now a Gashadokuro? He notices a Magic Circle sizzling nearby and dodges a second before three skeletal hands—one per circle—can snatch him up; the handles topple two shelves in the process.

Polka pleadingly insists to Corpse God that Yumeji is his friend. Corpse God reassures him that he knows, and only intends to immobilize him. As Yumeji scuffles with the skeletal hands, he wonders just what they are. If they are hallucinations brought on by inhaling some 'weird gas,' then perhaps so is the sham Polka—but no. Both the sensation of bone under his palms and his loathing toward the sham Polka are unmistakably real. He strikes one skeletal hand with his bag and rears back his fist, which smacks into Katashiro's equally real palm. Katashiro says that he cannot allow Yumeji to touch "that kid."

Although Katashiro appears calm, internally he is stressed over the likelihood that Yumeji's fist would have broken his teeth had he not stopped it in time. *Let's take care of our teeth, people! 8020 campaign for the win!* He also thinks that Yumeji does not seem to be acting in retaliation to Katashiro's trespassing on Shibuya turf. If that is so, then it could very well be that the armed men outside are targeting Yumeji himself. Sympathy for Yumeji wells within him much like it did during Yumeji's mediator confirmation meeting. Yumeji's only crime is to have succeeded Kuon Higuro. *This is all Higuro's fault!*

Katashiro gently clarifies that "that boy" is under his protection. Yumeji takes this to mean that Akihabara is colluding with Polka Shinoyama, reconsiders, and asks if Akihabara and Shinjuku have formed an alliance. Katashiro replies that rather than Akihabara havinng any official or particular stance regarding the Shinoyamas, he has personally opted to protect Polka. Therefore, Yumeji's claim that "this boy" is not Polka Shinoyama is of concern to him.

Majiri emerges from behind one of the upright shelves and remarks that Yumeji, with his bloody, dishelved appearance, looks to have had a rough time of things. The werewolves were one thing, she says, but surely it was good experience for Yumeji to have fought with a "clear superior." Yumeji pauses. "Don't tell me that Lemmings guy was planted here by you...?"

In the empty room, the missing girl/young woman shrinks back at a bandaged man's approaching figure and asks if the man is friends with the monsters. Lemmings compares the girl—and the injured black-haired werewolf wheezing on the floor—to the girls in his photograph, pockets it, and withdraws his smartphone to check his schedule as he takes another step forward. His schedule includes a magazine interview at 6:00 PM, a TV meeting and TV taping from 9–10 PM, and, after that, something to do with "\_location."

Lemmings pockets his phone and crouches before the girl, who cringes and clutches her head. He pulls down the bandages uncovering his face. The girl tentatively peeks at him. "No way... How...? Why are you here...?" Lemmings brings a bandaged finger to his unbandaged lips and says he has come to save her. He offers her his hand and promises to protect her during their escape. With Lemmings' true face having erased all anxiety in the girl, she agrees and departs the room with him.

## Trivia

* A Gashadokuro is "a mythical creature from Japanese folklore that resembles a 10-foot-tall skeleton."
* Japan's 8020 campaign is a government initiative "that encourages [people to] keep at least 20 functioning teeth by age 80."

### Referbacks

* Yumeji and Misaki took notice of each other at the mediators' meeting in Chapter 86.