Ura Baito: Toubou Kinshi - Ch. 206 - Auction House Staff ③

[MangaDex]

 

[ZhdanLyubav]

those pages were intentional rightt...?

 

[Etanks]

Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department
Thank you, MangaOne Editorial Department

 

[Vainfire]

The use of the red ink on the page hearkens back to the red color used in the dangerous jobs. Its usage as censorship here is interesting, contrasted against its prior usage of highlighting danger. The playing with format is cool, but confusing—I couldn't follow who was speaking during the part of the story where Jin is knocked out.

 

[windfang]

They're playing with fire, and all of them get burned.....

 

[Sovyonok]

So all the biders we saw and their info came from a POV from cursed items ? Fun reversal albeit this comment was censored by the MangaOne Editorial Department

 

[binhoex]

[This comment was censored by the MangaOne Editorial Department]

 

[BreadBunny]

yeah fuck, also the fact that the last item has 8 billion 11 million and a whole bunch is.... If that's the number of lives it's taken. oh boy. It sure is one hell of a [this term is inappropriate - MangaOne editorial departement]

 

[thosaphony]

I will assumed the editor remarks to fix, but author have a better ideas to make it published like these instead make more thrill.

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

Those redactions

 

[friendly]

Hooooooh. Oh fun, fun, fun fun fun. The literal most powerful governing force in a comics universe strains and creaks to keep the information in check, but the bid war continues anyhow. I like the strain of this job.... it feels a little like the stress of grey jobs, and having to just. Witness the horror in front of you. While trying to stay calm... kind of coming to a head.

Well. Personally speaking I can't help but wonder if [Please replace with appropriate speculation- MangaOne editorial department]

 

[MsW0lf]

Oh no… It’s starting to leak…

 

[nodamnbrakes]

That was wild but if the ledger says it’s okay, then everything is okay.
don’t question the leader.
DON’T QUESTION THE LEDGER

 

[Fugutron]

Lol I like to think Jin almost got his head squished but by his sheer force of will survived it lol

 

[solamente]

Okay, so this chapter clarifies things. When Jin and Yin were told "Yayoi Kokuryou will be attending the auction", they were mislead. She attended as an "item", not as a bidder. This is why the auctioning of the mask coincides with her first appearance, and why she disappears after the fact.

In the flashback with Jin and Yin, the mask is shown to take the appearance of people / possess them (we already knew this, but it's nice to have explicit confirmation). The remaining question is what the criteria are for being targeted, and this chapter spells it out fairly straightforwardly: Yin attempts to "abandon the job", taking an interest in the thing-being-auctioned, "go after her" / "don't let her get away", and instantly bleeds from his eyes, nose and mouth. He wakes up perfectly fine, but then resolves to get her address, and bleeds again.

The reason why prior attempts to locate victims have failed is because the act of successfully doing so will cause the mask to be passed onto you, hence why the current personage is a detective. Towards the end, Yume's face is split: "It stinks!" and (I'm writing this in one shot, I don't remember the exact wording) "So long as you don't pay attention to it...". So we're left with a particular juxtaposition: Yume's abilities, and Yume being possessed.

In earlier chapters we see Yume go into a nonresponsive trancelike state - notably, in the cabin waitstaff chapter, this helps her avoid being possessed and sleep-walking into the forest, becoming a sacrifice. It's almost always accompanied by that particular face she makes. One recurring plot device is exclusivity - to be "claimed" by one supernatural entity comes at the exclusion of the influence of others - here, again, it's much more explicit with an auction and actual bargaining. So, put this together with Yume's mother and now it seems like there's a genealogical aspect to her ability: a given thing "stinks", not because it's dangerous, but because it's a competitor. Just prior to this arc, we were shown that godlike beings don't "stink" - they aren't competitors.

So, where does this get us? It seems like Yume, Nagomi, and Daidai have so far survived for three different reasons. Nagomi survives because gray jobs are simply transactional for her: she has no interest in the content of the work, only in the money (and the endnote shows this: nothing about the redacted events that occurred here, only the amount). The previous auctioneer quit because he discovered the true nature of the job and could no longer safely participate. Yume survives not simply as a result of her dubious parentage, but because the mental states that she enters into naturally exclude her from processing information. Daidai survives because she takes what she sees as given, and doesn't see it as supernatural at all.

Earlier I saw people connect "red" to "blood" - here it seems like "red" should be more connected to "correction ink". In each arc, it's rare for Yume and Nagomi to figure out the "mystery" of what occurred - all resolutions/explanations happen off-screen after the fact: they can only be safely shown to us. If our two protagonists came to know, they most likely wouldn't survive. (

Spoiler: .

We also get a pleasant set of thematic pairs along the way. Nagomi's mask is the mask of a service worker: the persona she adopts for gray jobs; her narrative survival takes the form of the straight man, playing absurd situations professionally. Yume's mask is a protective one: fumes, toxins, and disease; her narrative survival takes the form of predestination i.e "plot armour" - knowing what would end the story and intervening via authorial fiat. Daidai's mask is that of theatre: tragedy and comedy; her narrative survival takes the form of slapstick unawareness - slipping over a banana peel, falling down 6 stories, andanding on a mattress.)

So, now we know why only the last item was redacted: it was also the only one that required a starting bid of 8 billion people, and the only one that could not be "sold".

(all of this is just me speculating, but it does help gel together the stylistic aspects of Ura Baito as being deliberate choices rather than for comic effect)

 

[Babymech2]

I mean, if they're selling billige gutter I can see why there would be a lack of interest... Most people these days want their gutter to be dyre, kraftige and hårete, right?