Phantom of the Night (真夜中の怪人, Mayonaka no kaijin) is the 32nd chapter of Dorohedoro.
Summary[]
An En Family Goon is walking trough the Mansion's corridor at night until a shady figure approach him, a scream is heard.
Next morning we see Chota in his room, and introduces the current situation with a monologue, explaining its been five days since the Blue night ended and five days since he is been recluse and depressed in his room, how everybody in the news are talking about En's new partner and how much that pissed him off. But still tries to have an optimistic look and tries to have a nice day going outside, but the goons are talking again about En's new partner, he realizes that even if he couldn't become his partner, still wants to be useful to En.
He finds out a murder happened last night and his coffee shop is closed because of it, En himself is there to investigate with the forensic goons, the victim, the one we see at the beginning of the story, is lying on the ground with his neck broken. While they speculate about the crime scene, Chota explains the victim wasn't killed in the spot but fell from the building near, En ask if it was a suicide, but they can't jump into conclusions yet, Chota points how En reeks to alcohol and volunteers to unravel the crime. Annoyed, En just tells him to do whatever he wants as he goes, Chota is girly exited and shouts he will do his best pissing En even further.
His forensic investigation starts, looking for clues about the real crime scene in the 11th floor of the mansion's west wing, he affirms the victim tried to reach the end of the corridor when he was killed, but is a simple blank wall. In that moment Ebisu appears with her motor scooter and Kikurage, Chota ask her if he can see her room because he is investigating a murder, Ebisu shows a camera she found last night in her door, and the man realizes the pieces of glass he found near the crime scene belongs to the camera lenses, so it belonged to the victim, Chota asks the little sorceress where he can find Noi, and she told him, for a price.
We see Shin and Noi exhausted in a bench telling how they could't rest for around three days, near them are a bunch of body bags with labels of TV stations (later explaining they all where paparazzi's who tried to sneak into the mansion to find the identity of En's partner, and the cleaners had to dispose). Chota appears with Ebisu to ask them if they were near the crime scene yesterday, but that wasn't the case, and also if they know where Nikaido was, the cleaners tell him that only En knows, and right now is really angry because she doesn't even talk to him.
In the morgue one of the goons identified the corpse as Igarashi, a man recently assigned to En personal service, he points out the many magical surgeries his body was subjected and the goon, scared, tells the bird mask about how some of other workers in the area spotted Igarashi alive and well that morning, believing he is a ghost.
They later finds Fujita, Ebisu tries to be the investigator this time and interrogates the sorcerer where he was last night, coincidentally in the west wing practicing magic and quickly finds him guilty, Chota tires to be more polite and ask him if he saw anything suspicious, and recalls see a shady figure with long hair walking trough the halls last night, with this, Chota finally realizes the truth.
Later in En's office the boss ask the bird face about the results of his investigation, Chota straightforward says that he is the culprit, this infuriates En, who proceeds to strangle the bird mask, shouting at him to stop talk nonsense, trying to explain himself and breath at the same time, Chota tells him how he reach to this conclusion.
He noticed his breath in the morning and how he can't recall anything about yesterday, except taking a bath and having a couple glasses of licor, this explains why his hair was long and loose contrary to its normal pointy look, and why Kikurage spent the night with Ebisu, because she was scared of him, Chota reveals the photo from the camera, and how En is in there, moments before attack the goon. En is shocked by the idea he killed one of his men while he was drunk, but Chota assures him that wasn't the case.
Back in the morgue they see the supposed body of Igarashi, and using his dispelling-type magic, the bird mask reveal it was magic what made the body look like that, exposing the dead body as a journalist who most probably knew Igarashi and used magic to disguise himself to find the scoop about En's new partner, knowing the place where Nikaido is locked in behind the wall on the 11th floor of the west wing of the mansion. This still is estrange to En, knowing he always use magic, don't understanding why the body wasn't transformed into mushrooms, and once again Chota recalls about the many surgeries in the body, knowing that different layers of magic render the bodies immune to the effect of more magic, and just the hit of En's magic made the impostor to fall to his death. Also using this as a reason because "The friend of his princess" is immune to magic.
The chapter ends with En once again strangling Chota, even if he did an excellent job finding the truth about the crime, he is still pissed about how he didn't told something so important as the truth about the lizard head immunity towards magic.
Characters:[]
Main Characters:
Minor Characters