Ura Baito: Toubou Kinshi - Vol. 9 Ch. 101 - Cotton Glove Dropper ③

[MangaDex]

 

[BreadBunny]

Okay, alright. A pretty simple one this time, though the red is staying longer than I thought it would. I suppose these jobs are all the more dangerous than the ones they normally take where death and danger are a lot less preventable.

 

[Etanks]

A little eye roll-y at how impossibly apocalyptic these jobs hoisted onto random part timers are.

 

[farranpoison]

Ok, I have no idea what this is supposed to be about. If they don't do this job it could mean the end of the world because... reasons? And if they try to figure out why they need to do it they'll get crushed and die.

I wonder if the woman searching the map on her phone has any significance, the place names on the map weren't translated.

(I also had some weird thought that maybe these hands were like map marker hands that pointed at destinations on like Google Maps or similar, so the gloves were supposed to be like a marker for them, but who knows if that's close to the truth)

 

[ilusatus]

What? Is an interdimensional deity just love to squish gloves?

 

[jumbomangojambo]

Stop probing into the meaning behind the job!

 

[Bel-Shug]

Ok, I have no idea what this is supposed to be about. If they don't do this job it could mean the end of the world because... reasons? And if they try to figure out why they need to do it they'll get crushed and die.

I wonder if the woman searching the map on her phone has any significance, the place names on the map weren't translated.

(I also had some weird thought that maybe these hands were like map marker hands that pointed at destinations on like Google Maps or similar, so the gloves were supposed to be like a marker for them, but who knows if that's close to the truth)

YOU MUST NOT ATTEMPT TO LEARN THE PURPOSE OF THE JOB

Nah, just kidding.
Honestly this story reminds me of one of those SCP story.

 

[farranpoison]

YOU MUST NOT ATTEMPT TO LEARN THE PURPOSE OF THE JOB

Nah, just kidding.
Honestly this story reminds me of one of those SCP story.

Oh shi-

Seriously though, how in the world did they figure out they need to do this job otherwise the world ends, if they can't learn the purpose of the job or else they get squished?

 

[Bel-Shug]

Oh shi-

Seriously though, how in the world did they figure out they need to do this job otherwise the world ends, if they can't learn the purpose of the job or else they get squished?

Honestly I doubt it and assume that the job real purpose is not related to saving the world at all.
That's why some people with the small knowledge (about the job is still alive.
Otherwise if they know the real purpose, they are already dead.

 

[Babymech2]

Pretty convenient - if you can't think of a backstory or explanation, just write into the story that asking for an explanation is doomed

 

[BreadBunny]

Honestly I doubt it and assume that the job real purpose is not related to saving the world at all.
That's why some people with the small knowledge (about the job is still alive.
Otherwise if they know the real purpose, they are already dead.

yeah considering that like anyone who looks into why they're doing this is instantly killed but also since it looks like the entity only kills those who look into the job it could be that no one is actually in danger if they just follow the instructions.

Or even that the entity would be completely inert if no one is actually doing this ritual of dropping cotton gloves on the sidewalk. Considering that the shadowy big boss is like "we don't even know why we're doing this we've just inherited this ritual from our ancestors" it might straight up be the case that they're just doing this because they think they have to.

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapters.

 

[Pagemistress]

This is actually a rather Ito-esque chapter. Not for the unexplained horror, but for taking a normal thing, a forgotten glove on the ground, and building the horror around it.

 

[SMAXZO]

I was busting out laughing seeing them being squashed by those hands...very Monty Python-esque.

 

[SMAXZO]

This is actually a rather Ito-esque chapter. Not for the unexplained horror, but for taking a normal thing, a forgotten glove on the ground, and building the horror around it.

Does remind me of that Ito story about the honey that needed to be drank in secret lest you get squashed by a tree like a mosquito getting squashed after drinking your blood.

 

[gundulgondrong]

yeah what's up with the cotton glove on the roadside? do any of you have the same thing happening in your town?

 

[BalrogDeMorgoth]

It's starting to get silly how many things could kill humanity any second now.

 

[HCO]

Isn't this almost identical to the setup with the kid in the sky? That was many chapters ago now but it's just about the same thing. Now that I've read the comments, though, I guess I have seen gardening gloves on the side of the road before... maybe it's just playing into a Japanese urban legend. There have been several setups in this manga where I don't think you'll really get it unless you're aware of the way Japanese beliefs work (or you read Urasekai Picnic, lol)

 

[fennec]

From the looks of it, no one knows the full reason for the job. The old man says no living human knows the reason and "we have inherited this duty ceaselessly" which seems to suggest it's been a tradition for many, many, MANY years.

I'm with the characters speculating that the gloves serve as a seal for whatever is at the center. My own take: the hands are trying to protect that seal and consider knowing anything about what's sealed to be too dangerous, including the location. Sole exception seems to be the designated inheritor, since they'd need to know where to place the gloves and there is a singular deployment chart.

All of the rules seem to be made by humans to try to maximize survival against the hands' inhuman logic: Trying to intentionally place the gloves shows you know they're important, so that gets you killed. Moving the gloves once dropped has potential to disrupt the seal and means you might know it's important, so that gets you killed. Whoever is holding the gloves when the hand notices them moved will be killed, so that rule is just to increase the glove dropper's own survival. It might be that the hands can only sense/see the people who are actively holding or have handled the gloves recently.

Ultimately, all the rules tie neatly together with the final rule: don't attempt to learn the purpose of the job. The hands do NOT want anyone to know, your best bet at survival is to play dumb. And it seems just seeing the hands can invoke some deep, internal understanding in people. Just seeing it from the outside like us manga readers wouldn't have that effect, we'd have to be experiencing it directly like the characters to get that sense.

I feel like that old man might reappear later in some minor capacity. That big liver spot on his head just feels too distinct to me. Maybe some big scene with a bunch of characters associated with Q?

 

[Duralumin]

the red looks like absolute shit, stop doing it