Usogui - Vol. 27 Ch. 292 - Volley Again

[MangaDex]

 

[299792458]

The goons telling Kaji and Yokoi to keep watching the screen after they leave supports my polygraph theory. I'm wondering if all Oofuna is doing is really following Hachina's orders, and if so, what were they and how did Hachina figure out the game to this extent without even being in the same room? Sure, he heard the rules, but how did he figure out the ship placements to this extent?

 

[Ominous]

"My placement have been seen? BY A FUCKING PLANT!?"

First page was a laugh.

 

[fire]

@299792458 Your polygraph theory is genius.

 

[Doomroar]

@299792458 nailed it with that theory.

 

[DQM]

I just realized... on chapter 286, Lacy said there are 20 containers with weapons on the ship which is the exact total number of cells on the board to have the ships (1 battleship * 4 cells + 2 cruisers * 3 cells + 4 destroyers * 2 cells + 2 submarines * 1 cell = 20 cells in total). So maybe this is not a coincidence (or it actually is).

 

[299792458]

I think the reason why the radar didn't seem to be as helpful this chapter is that Yokoi might have figured out the trick as well. Possibly from the same hint I mentioned before, the sailors telling them to look at the screen among other things. If that's the case, then he's deliberately messing with the readings. Throughout this chapter Yokoi seems to be awfully calm, often his face not even being shown while only showing us Kaji's face. And at the part where Lacy missed, you can see in the panel where Lacy says "maybe here?" Kaji is calm because he knows there's no ship there, but you can see a "!!" bubble near Yokoi. I think he might be deliberately trying to stay calm when he knows that Lacy's close to a ship, and intentionally getting nervous and excited when he knows he's off. Since the radar only has one reading, I'm assuming that it takes both Kaji's and Yokoi's reading and gets an average or something, explaining why Yokoi reacting in the opposite way of Kaji could mess things up for Lacy. If that's so, Yokoi was testing his theory this chapter and he might tell Kaji his conclusions in the next chapters, thus letting Lacy's plan possibly backfire. Could still be wrong though.

Also, is it just me or is Hachina incredibly beautiful? Sorry, it just had to be said lmao.

 

[299792458]

@DQM Ah. That just gave me a good hint. I think you're absolutely right. Remember how Hachina made Oofuna protest about him not trusting whether there was a way for Lacy to change his ship placement in the middle of the match? I thought the interaction was kind of weird since the Queen's proposition didn't really feel like a solution to Gakuto's objection. But she said "you will have no choice but to trust us... At the end of the game". Here's my take on it: she said she made her girls load up the containers, after checking the contents. What significance could this have? Well, Gakuto's objection (motivated by Hachina, remember) was that Kakerou's word wasn't enough of a guarantee that the ship placements truly couldn't be changed, and in response to this Queen loaded the containers, of which exactly 20 have the smuggled weapons inside. Now, why? I think what she did was load the containers in such a way that the ones with weapons coincide perfectly with Lacy's ship placements (viewed from the top, I assume), so that at the end of the game if Gakuto objects and says he cannot trust whether or not the ship placement changed mid game, she would just show him by comparing the containers' position to the Captain's final in-game ship placement, and if they coincide it would prove that they didn't change mid-game, since the containers were loaded before the game.

Now, the timeline before the start of the match is a bit jumbled on this, and I think it's intentional, because for this trick to work Queen had to have seen and confirmed Lacy's ship placements BEFORE loading the containers, which I think is entirely possible. This would also explain how exactly Hachina and Gakuto are cheating, since I thought they were only in contact before the game. Well, we saw that he was observing the Queen's girls while they were loading up the containers, which means that by memorizing some of the containers with the weapons inside, their color, etc, he would be able to tell where Lacy's ships were placed. I don't think he was able to check every single one though, and even if he did, Gakuto would probably not be able to remember them all (maybe). But this would explain a)why Queen decided to load the containers as a response to Gakuto's objection (to be able to compare the container's position to the final ship placement of the captain), b) how Gakuto and Hachina are cheating, and c) also why Hachina is running around and opening the containers (he might be double checking or just checking the ones he isn't sure of and probably planning on informing Gakuto on them later on).

That being said! Hachina is one crazy motherfucker. He came up with this in a matter of seconds. He predicted the Queen's decision, prompted Gakuto to act in a way that would lead her to take that decision, and then perfectly executed his part of the plan by checking on the containers and communicating with Gakuto. It goes to show how insanely fast he thinks on his feet, and how well he knows Kakerou. If I'm right about this and the polygraph theory, then the tricks in this gamble have been practically solved. I'm sure I'm missing some things, like for example I don't know how Lacy's body check on Gakuto plays into this, and other things. I could still be wrong about this, so if anyone has any thoughts on this feel free to share. Looking forward to the next few chapters!

 

[tack215]

@299792458 Really great analysis. You're so good at this, it's almost scary. You must be having so much fun reading this manga! I'd suggest you re-read chapter 285 if you want to solve all the mysteries. The TL had a slight alteration under my suggestion, and it should be possible to put about 90% of the whole picture together.

 

[catx3]

@299792458

Your reasoning sounds solid! It's always a joy to read your insights. Can't believe I overlooked the 20 thing so easily at first. Looking back, Mogami is the one who decided the allocation of the ships, immediately after that whole talk with Oofuna-Hachina and learning that the number of weapons containers is 20.

Also another supporting point to your theory, on p14, the panel where it says "Watching it and then showing it on the radar.", it shows the plant but also the camera as well. I think this is one of the author's classic moves where he misdirects the reader while hiding the clue in plain sight in the same panel. Definitely hinting at the camera being the key to the radar.

Hachina's manipulation is such a scary thing, that speed and accuracy honestly gives me the chills reading it. Him tricking Mogami like this reminded me a bit of Baku manipulating referees, though for me personally Hachina has seems to be the more terrifying of the two, but perhaps that's because we haven't seen Baku in awhile. The author's doing such a great job building up Baku's rival, much better than the alternative of just straight going into the Surpassing the Leader challenge.

Some other smaller mysteries to tackle (Let me know if there are any I missed):
-The captain apparently did something to make Oofuna miss a shot in the top-left corner. Hachina was surprised that it missed, so I'm assuming Hachina gave Oofuna info, and yet it still missed.
-What Hachina intended to do if Kakerou didn't come. It seemed to be significant given his 'cold eyes' reaction (c285p7)
-You mentioned it already, but the captain's body check.

 

[Lithe]

Lmao missed another rule. Didn't realize he could store the volley.

Really liked that one panel of the battleship.

 

[299792458]

Whoops, accidentally commented double when I went to edit.

 

[299792458]

@catx3 @tack215 So I went back again and noticed a few more things. For example, how Hachina went as far as asking the Queen (through Gakuto) to "look outside. This is the enemy's territory..." in order to get her to see how the ship's space for the containers coincides with the game's playing area, meaning he was manipulating her thoughts even through this simple action. Also, I somehow missed how Gakuto "checked the rules" one more time before he started hitting the ships (idk how I missed this since it was even explicitly said by the Captain and all), so it makes sense how Hachina has been able to gradually inform Gakuto of the Captain's ship placements.

Aa for the miss on the top left... @tack215 mentioned that there was a change in the translation, and something about a rule hidden in plain sight... The only thing I could think of, would be that there is actually a possibility that even if you figure out the enemy ship's placements and hit that cell, that your attack can still miss. "If your attack hits the ship hidden within that cell" seems very suggestive of it. At first I thought the only reason why the top left shot missed would be because Hachina found a container with weapons there, but the Captain didn't actually place a ship there. However that wouldn't really make sense, since if there were more than 20 containers with smuggled weapons on them the Queen would've noticed and called it out, since her guarantee wouldn't be as valid. She also said "there's something only I, who can see both player's ship placement can realize" or smth, which would support this as well. This would also explain how that top left miss wasn't through "luck, god, but by the Captain's own power", since he was the one who explained the rules and mentioned that rule very subtly. Also, Gakuto was already aiming at the top left before hitting it and the captain was going "miss, miss, miss!" in his head, and if that was truly where one of his ships were placed, then praying for it to miss wouldn't really do much, right? Unless missing on a correct cell was also possible!

That gives the game a bit more depth, and obviously more advantages to the Captain, since only he is aware of this rule (and Kakerou). Also, the reason why they play on the big screen and not the tablet is so the people watching from the camera can see what's going on, further supporting the polygraph theory. Also, why would the Captain make Kaji and Yokoi leave during the setting of the rules, but let them come back for the ship placements? This also supports the polygraph theory. He doesn't want them there to interfere with the rules, or to figure out the hidden rule, or to notice what he may or may not have done to Gakuto during the body check, but he definitely wants them there to witness the ship placement. Otherwise the plant trick wouldn't work! Also! Kaji said that the Captain missed how they were just able to wander around and didn't imprison then, which is what prompted them to leave. This way, once they inevitably do get imprisoned, Gakuto would have no clue and wouldn't be able to figure out how the plant trick works. The order to find Kaji and Yokoi and sit them on the chairs with maybe some other details could be what the guy hiding on the bathroom found. That's about it. I still don't know exactly what the Captain did to Gakuto during the body check, but I think it was definitely something, since he did a classic misdirection by telling him how nice of a chin he had and looking at him straight in the eye, and also they showed a panel of the Queen immediately after, hinting that she noticed. So I think there was something, I just don't know what. Other than that, I think most mysteries have been solved. Although I also don't know what exactly Hachina was planning to do if Kakerou didn't arrive, but I don't think it was so relevant since the cold eye scene was kind of used to cut from Hachina to Gakuto, maybe showing that they're connected since they had the same eyes or whatnot. I'm definitely having a blast reading this! Can't wait for more Hachina shenanigans.

 

[goodknife]

like, even if you choose the corrected cell, but your aim won't touch a ship head, you still missed? that's clever and add depth to the placement

 

[Veshv]

If you take a look at Gakuto's misses on the boards through the last couple of chapters, particularly ch. 288 p.13, a lot of them are off center from the panels. In fact, Gakuto's miss on the top left is lower than the center of the panel. Which means if @299792458 is right about there being a ship there already, then Gakuto missed it because he hit the lower half of the panel and the submarine is actually in the top quarter of the panel.

Let's say that it's true, and Lacy was the reason Gakuto missed. The only thing that comes to mind for that to be possible is that Lacy kept the sub out of reach from Gakuto himself. And if that's the case, than I think the "body check", and Lacy's comment about the Necktie during it were a blatant lie. What he really did was confirm Gakuto's height, or rather reach, and set up the huge panel so Gakuto can't reach the upper half of the top panels. Certainly would explain why that check happened.

But with all this being the case, isn't Gakuto's loss already set in stone? Even if he manages to figure it out, do the rules actually allow him to hit the top left panel a second time?

I also wonder, what'd happen if one of them hits 2 panels at once? Since where you press specifically matters, can't you sink 2 parts of a ship at once if you get it right?

 

[299792458]

@goodknife @Veshv You guys are right. At first I thought that it was just random chance whether or not you missed, and the probability was just low, but that way there wouldn't be a guaranteed way for the Captain to hit every shot, and if he was cheating and missed once because of chance, and suddenly had to hit the panel again (which I assume is possible. I mean, it has to be otherwise the game is unbeatable, and also there are no rules against it so I'm pretty certain it's possible) then the trick would be revealed to the enemy. However if it's aim-dependant there's a certain way for the Captain to never miss, and that would explain his peculiar way of choosing cells; I thought it was just eccentricity, but hitting every shot exactly in the middle is the only way to guarantee a hit no matter the orientation of the ship. Additionally, if you go back and take a look at all the X marks on the board (like Veshv said), only the ones from Gakuto's side are ever off-center, so I'm fairly certain that that's the trick. What @Veshv said would also explain the body check as well, since I assume the panels are adjustable and all he has to do is confirm the enemy's height before the game. That's really cunning, the Captain really has a lot of tricks prepared to guarantee his win, geez. But yeah, I think if we figured it out there's no way Hachina won't figure it out, so I'm pretty sure the game is still winnable; it'd be kinda dumb and anti-climatic for him to lose because there isn't a way to hit the same panel twice, haha. But there's no rule against it, so I'm pretty certain that it's possible, it's just something people would never think to do. I mean the Captain said it himself, there's often games where one finds all the big ships and can't find the submarines and thus the game gets turned around, probably because the Captain uses this trick and they never think to hit the same spots again; Obviously, I mean who would? That's a waste of a move. Not in this case, though. I don't think you can hit two panels at once, though. There might not be a rule against it (maybe, even though the rules state there's only two types of shots, the 1 hit type and the 5 hit volley) but since the game is electronic it would probably just detect which one of the two panels was hit first and then just go with that one, even if there's just milliseconds in between.

 

[catx3]

@goodknife @Veshv @299792458
Wow, what a good catch! I think that resolves both the body-check and the top-left miss, it fits perfectly.

The captain's finger was very shaky while he was hitting, makes sense since he was trying to be precise. And no wonder he was so happy about finding Gakuto's submarine. With his 'cheat' system in place, there's a chance that even he could miss the submarines on accident, even if he knows where they are. And indeed, all the the 'X's on Gakuto's board are off-centered.

I don't think there was a rule that said you can only hit a square once, so Gakuto should still be good. I guess we could see a situation where there are multiple off-center X's on a square then. Gakuto might also accidentally figure it out on his own, by clicking very off-center on the grid at one point.

Man, the captain making the submarine and the ship heads smaller than the an actual grid square, what a sneaky design on his part. Hachina'll have to figure all of this out while not even being in the same room. Since he didn't see the game visually, I'm sure he is missing a lot of clues, like not knowing that the ships have a head that's smaller than the grid square, or that the X's are off-centered, or that the captain hits in such a precise way... but I imagine he'll overcome it anyhow.

 

[Veshv]

@299792458 @catx3

I do think that Gakuto will be the one to accidentally figure it out after getting a few more battleships down from Hachina's search of the boxes, wondering why the top left missed.

I wonder how many times before Lacy has played this game against others. It's definitely his go-to option given how designed in his favor it is. Hachina had to force a situation that would put them on a closer matched playing field.