Kuon Higuro

—**Higuro**, *DMDP* Volume 5, Chapter 38.

## Kuon Higuro

* Manga
* Anime

### Affiliation

Fire-breathing Bug (semi-conscripted)
Agakura (cooperating with)
Bastard Children of Sabaramond (affiliated with)
Sons of the Styx (former leader)

### Relations

Momoya Agakura (hired hand)
Takumi Kuruya (former informant)
Fire-breathing Bug, Tena Sorimura (captors)

## Media

### Debut

Chapter 35 (informal debut)
Chapter 38 (formal debut)

### Japanese VA

Yoshimasa Hosoya

**Kuon Higuro** (氷黒 久遠 *Higuro Kuon*) is the former leader of Sons of the Styx and an affiliate of both the Bastard Children of Sabaramond and the Agakura.

## Appearance

Higuro is a young man with auburn, mid fade haircut. He typically wears a black baseball cap, a long black T-shirt over black trousers, multiple bracelets on his left wrist, and sandals. He has a smiling disposition.

## Personality

*Higuro always appears to be incredibly calm and composed, which hides incredibly cruel side. He is willing to go to the most cruel methods in order to gain more power. Despite his intense cruelty, he is always calm and calculating. Even facing supernatural threats doesn't make him lose composure.*

## Chronology

### Background

Prior to the start of the series, Higuro serves as the leader of Sons of the Styx, a loosely-formed criminal gang with influence along the Yamanote line. A young 'prodigy' by the name of Takumi Kuruya joins the gang as their informant during this time. Eventually, Higuro meddles with someone who has an "especially dangerous ally" on their side: yakuza-turned-detective Kōzaburō Arase, who responds by carrying out a solo sting on the gang. Takumi sells out the rest of the gang members after Arase assaults several of them in front of him, and Arase's actions that day ultimate dismantle Sons of the Styx for good. Higuro manages to evade the police that day and lays low for some time following the gang's ruin. It is implied the incident contributes to his concerns over the importance of having powerful connections.

Higuro is either personally involved in or at minimum later made aware of the circumstances surrounding Miyabi Hosorogi's death five years prior to the series' start.

### Present

The Nishida Affair
By the time of the series' start, Higuro has affiliated himself with the Agakura. When Phantom Solitaire deploys dirigibles over Shinjuku, Agakura-employed snipers Hīro and Rinne Horojima attempt to shoot Solitaire on Agakura's behalf. Upon failing to assassinate him, the siblings 'skip town' rather than return to Agakura. In the aftermath, Higuro receives a new mission from his superior or someone else via telephone; Higuro agrees he will take the same precautions the organization took "five years ago" with Hosorogi "all under the protection of Sabaramond." He then informs the caller that the snipers have absconded, though he does not seem particularly concerned since Agakura "only has an opening for one."

Higuro and Momoya Agakura travel to Shinjuku together shortly thereafter to begin their assignment. Higuro's efforts to keep a low profile while walking Shinjuku's streets are undermined by Momoya's abnormally tall stature, but he nonetheless protests when Momoya stops abruptly in the street since doing so will attract even more attention. Momoya apologizes, explaining he spotted a familiar face, and the two continue on their way.

That afternoon or evening, either Higuro, Momoya, or an ally calls the cell phone of one Nishida, an employee scheduled for a shift at Lisa Kuraki's Youtoukorou. Whatever is said on the call prompts Nishida to leave Youtoukorou and arrive at an unspecified place, where Momoya beheads him and learns he was a bartender after the fact.

By the time the moon hangs high in the night sky, Momoya, Higuro, Nishida's body, and a duffel bag have assembled on the rooftop of a building adjacent or near to the Abandoned Building. Momoya zips Nishida's body into the duffel bag and asks if they are not going to the building Solitaire appeared at the day prior (the abandoned building), but Higuro points out that building is under drone surveillance; instead, Higuro says, while unlocking the door to a stairwell, they shall enter the building using the same passageway utilized during the Hosorogi incident five years ago.

Equipped with a flashlight, Higuro leads Momoya—carrying the duffel bag—down the stairwell only to soon encounter a trio of men loitering on a landing. One of the men procures a pocket knife and invites Higuro to "donate" to their case; when Higuro and Momoya 'react' by talking among themselves, the tallest thug grabs Higuro's shirt and demands his attention. Higuro's request to ask a question earns him a blow to the face, but, still smiling, he asks his question anyway: "Do you have any pull?"

The tall man scoffs that he hopes Higuro has a friend in the funeral business, to which Higuro replies "I do" before shooting a bullet through the man's cheeks. He proceeds to shoot the man's two friends and at least one more bullet into the tall man's back for good measure, crouches down, and explains he would not kill the men had they only possessed powerful contacts. Once he has explained his "contacts are love" beliefs, he shoots the three men dead.

Momoya laughs at Higuro's "overkill" actions as they continue their descent. Higuro—advising Momoya avoid stepping in the blood, which he will have his undertaker friend clean later—remarks he has to rely on 'overkill' because he is so 'weak', nowhere near as strong as Momoya or the rest. When Momoya asks what Higuro would have done had the three men possessed powerful contacts, Higuro supposes he would have "gone into hiding again." Momoya's conclusion that Higuro is a lowlife and ergo the world is ending does not faze Higuro, who declares that the world "is on the brink of a new dawn."

Higuro and Momoya proceed to deposit Nishida's headless corpse in the basement of the Abandoned Building. They settle into an empty upper-storey room of a nearby building—the large window of which has a clear view to the Abandoned Building's front entrance—in the ensuing hours, buying some food from a store once available.

Night gives way to a drizzly morning while they wait, and eventually their patience is rewarded when Investigations Unit 1 of the Metropolitan Police Department [MPD], led by Ikeuchi, arrives outside the building. The plan here may be roughly outlined as follows: Ikeuchi and his policemen are to conduct a search of the premises on the pretense of looking for a mugger (Nishida having been framed); when they reach the basement, they ought to find Nishida's headless corpse and arrest the building's occupants as suspects.

Two policemen of the Shinjuku branch also arrive on the premises, which Higuro foresaw: however, he did not foresee one of them being Arase. He stares at Arase through his binoculars with some alarm before explaining to Momoya that Arase is the detective who destroyed his former organization. Concluding that the information his superiors provided is no longer sufficient on its own, he supposes that he will have to conduct his own research; as he remarks to Higuro, his former informant is now with a business rival in Shinjuku.

On the streets below, the building's occupants file outside to wait alongside two officers while Ikeuchi's men search the building's premises. Higuro muses he will have to do better than a baseball cap disguise-wise if Arase is to be involved; Momoya, however, is more preoccupied with the sight of Taipei approaching Xiaoyu Lei—the person he recognized the other day—on a nearby street. One of the building's affiliates—a teenage girl—intervenes in the confrontation and drags Xiaoyu away.

When Momoya deduces the girl is a killer—one who has killed at least ten people—Higuro takes a look through his binoculars; perturbed, Higuro says the girl is likely one of Shinjuku's—Kuraki's—assassins. What's more, he's spotted Takumi Kuruya—his former informant—among the people who have evacuated the building. With a smile, he says he never expected to find Takumi here.

Reunion with Takumi
When Ikeuchi and his men leave the premises empty-handed—with no arrests made, no sign that the body was discovered—Higuro knows something has gone awry. That evening, he sends Momoya to infiltrate Takumi's apartment while he waits at the apartment building's entrance. Eventually, Momoya unlocks the door via the electronic intercom, and Higuro ascends the building's many floors to join his present and former companions.

As rain resumes falling over Shinjuku, Higuro greets Takumi—whose wrists are bound behind his back, and whose thighs have been bound together—and takes several pens from Takumi's desk to fiddle with. Takumi declares he is working for Clarissa now, but Higuro says that is why he is here in the first place and asks if Takumi has "figured it out yet." After a notable pause, Takumi says, "The one who mugged Nishida...was you?" Higuro drives one of the pens into Takumi's thigh and calls him out on the pause, deducing that Takumi had to think about whether to say "killed" or "mugged." Driving a second pen into the same thigh, Higuro demands Takumi explain how he managed to hide the body in the basement—his employer intends to do whatever it takes to leave the building's associates with 'nothing', so Higuro needs them to become suspects in Nishida's death.

Misaki Sakimiya, the 'Shinjuku assassin' Momoya previously took note of, smashes a hole through one of the apartment windows *from the outside* and launches an attack on Momoya prybar-first. A brief scuffle between the two sees Momoya the victor when he bisects Misaki with his blade. Higuro injects Takumi with a concoction that knocks him out and then answers a call from his superior; Higuro admits their plan has had a 'hiccup' but puts off his report for later, stating that there can be no failure "under the protection of Sabaramond."

With Takumi hidden in Momoya's duffel bag, Higuro and Momoya carry the duffel bag to their van and make a getaway from the premises. An assailant—Misaki, though neither realize—lands on the van en route, but Higuro is able to throw her off with a sharp turn down a side road after Momoya attempts to stab her through the roof. The van arrives at the duo's hideout—a warehouse or similar building that "jams radio waves"—without further incident. After entering the building, Momoya extracts Takumi from the bag and removes his shirt (retying or keeping his wrists tied) while Higuro takes Takumi's cell phone. Once Takumi admits to being awake, Higuro speaks with him a little—revealing in the process that the Chinese youth (Xiaoyu) spotted in the Abandoned Building is a Heilei—before resuming the interrogation proper.

As before, Higuro seeks an explanation for how the body was hidden as well as Takumi's presence in the Building; as before, his methodology continues to combine threats, intimidation, pain, and psychological stress. He begins with an implied death threat, knowing that Takumi will prioritize his own life before anything else—except Takumi does not cave at gunpoint, as expected, so Higuro shoots and grazes Takumi's right calf and increases the psychological pressure, eventually pressing the handgun against Takumi's cherished visor. Still, uncharacteristically, Takumi does not succumb. Sensing that there must be some kind of security backing Takumi's unusual sangfroid, Higuro realizes with celerity that he must inflict pain severe enough to supersede said security—so he empties a soy packet into the graze wound and takes a screwdriver to it, digging and prying at the flesh. When even a threat against Sayo Shinoyama—fails to land, Higuro discards the screwdriver for his handgun, which he presses against the wound. Before Higuro can pull the trigger, Xiaoyu grabs onto Takumi's legs with the extended digits of his left hand and yanks Takumi up to the rafters of the building. If Higuro intends to make an enemy of the Shinoyamas, Xiaoyu declares, then Higuro is *his* enemy.

After Takumi is safely perched on one of the rafters, Xiaoyu and Momoya proceed to fight. Momoya has the upper hand until Misaki arrives, sending him crashing into a wall with a single kick. Misaki's survival is a shock to Higuro, who remembers that Takumi's reaction to Misaki's death was oddly subdued; he wonders if Takumi knew that Misaki *had not* died or *would not* die. Misaki and Xiaoyu challenge Momoya two against one. Higuro stays long enough to witness Misaki's hands *detach* and fly at Momoya with a prybar, but he soon slips away before anyone notices.

Once safely anonymous within the confines of the underground metro, Higuro switches off his signal jammer and calls Habaki with news related to the 'protection of Sabaramond': a high school girl "[he] killed" is very much still alive; he additionally reports that the Shinoyamas likely now have his face and name. Habaki advises Higuro to "lie low" and pledges to protect him from the Shinoyamas' displeasure—then shouts "what are you doing here?" While listening, Higuro notes but ignores the teenage Bug in front of him when she begins crooning a song.

Higuro's Capture
*Volume 7+ content not yet written. Click 'Edit' to expand this section.*

## Trivia

* The two kanji comprising Higuro individually mean 'ice'/'hail' (氷 *hi*) and 'black' (黒 *kuro* prounced *guro* as it is a suffix). 氷黒 does not appear to be a recognized given name in Japanese.

## References

1. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play (Manga)*: Chapter 92.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 38.
3. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 35.
4. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 36.
5. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 39.
6. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 40.
7. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 41.
8. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 42.
9. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 43.
10. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Chapter 44.
11. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Chapter 45.
12. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Chapter 46.
13. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Chapter 47.
14. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 6, Chapter 49.