Usogui - Vol. 25 Ch. 272 - The People Who Leave Will Forget

[caitsith]

I am fairly certain that the scene at the end is, at least, not depicting Caracal taking a flight out of Japan alive after the Tower of Karma arc. His lobotomy at the end of Ch.255 was about as vivid of a death as you could get.

I'm personally in favor of an "afterlife" or "alternate life" theory because of two details:

1. The name of the airline on the plane in this chapter (p.16) is mirrored compared to the plane in Ch.255. In Ch.255 it's 全航空, probably a parody of 全日空, which is a common abbreviation for the full Japanese name of ANA (All Nippon Airways). In this chapter it's reversed to 空航全 which, while containing the same kanji, does not produce a meaningful name.
   (Side note: I can't work out what the BKB on the tail could be initials for, as it doesn't really line up with reading of the kanji or any English translation of the name that I can come up with).
   
   This is at least enough to make me think that the last scene does not take place in the "real" world.
   
   
2. Considering that the "carpet" narration found throughout this chapter also leads directly into its final scene, I believe understanding it is key to understanding that scene. While I have done my best to parse the translation as given, since I do not have access to the raw this should all be taken with a large grain of salt:
   
   I believe that the "carpet" here is a metaphor for one's fate as orchestrated by another. Having the "rug pulled out from under you" means to suddenly have your assumptions and stability betrayed; conversely, to have a rug placed under you could mean to unknowingly build your assumptions according to another person's intentions, even to be betrayed later. It's stated that "getting rid of the feeling under your feet" (the invisible sense of compulsion) a.k.a. "leaving the carpet" once you are already standing on it, requires something more than your own will. The only "easy" ways to leave are death or forgetting, which are different "fates."
   
   The viewers of Karl's broadcast, drawn in by a hunger for dramatic and sensational content, ultimately find themselves provoked toward personal action against injustice, but they easily leave by forgetting what they saw and heard that day. Gakuto is stepping onto the carpet laid out by "Hachina," unknowingly embarking on a series of events orchestrated for Hachina's own purposes toward uncertain ends. And lastly, what of the characters standing on the stage of Usogui, whose fates are drawn out by the author himself? We might say that Caracal has left this carpet by death.
   
   The final part of the narration states: "'Making yourself, or others, step onto a newly placed carpet.' Only by doing that [can you] bring back the people who left, before they completely disappear from the stage." This could be interpreted as meaning that a new carpet, a completely different story, separate from the old carpet, might be the only way of "bringing back" Caracal, who has already left. The final scene could, in one's imagination, show Caracal stepping onto a new carpet. If this is the case, he will likely not appear in the main story again.