Usogui - Vol. 29 Ch. 316 - This Name Again

[Doomroar]

The web of intrigue on this manga, i would have missed all of that if it wasn't for those notes at the end thanks guys!

 

[Ominous]

So much foreshadow! Several hundred chapters ago!

 

[Ominous]

EDIT: Double posts...!

 

[ricky_rk7]

How did Baku knew Hachina will search the book there?
Is it possible maybe Eba is Baku's parent or relative?

 

[Lithe]

Is that a tease love interest for Kaji. Will he be able to pull a faerie away from the queen?

 

[a2j04vm0]

@ricky_rk7 Baku bought the bookstore(page 13-14), so he received the order form.

 

[KeepTheFeather]

Foreshadowwww, wonder if the friend that was mentioned right at the very beginning of this series that usogui discarded to win a gamble is actually Hal, and once Hal died, what remained was the hachina we know now. That would mean this whole thing has been foreshadowed since the first dozen chapters.

 

[Lithe]

Wouldn't Nowa recognize Hal as being Souichi? There could definitely be circumstances that would prevent that, say, word of mouth about the sacrifice, but otherwise mentioning that kind of sacrifice the way he did in the earlier chapters would be kinda strange, wouldn't it?

It could still be the first meeting, and instead Baku could have connections to the book or Eba on his own.

I'm still a little baffled on the kind of memory loss that Eba was expecting to create a 2-3 day procedure to implant the missing time.

 

[ricky_rk7]

@a2j04vm0 i know, but i mean their 1st encounter, seems fishy it just coincidence Baku want the same pic book as Hachina

 

[299792458]

@idle_af They went to a Casino afterwards, so Baku was already a gambler at this point. The stack of cash doesn't strike me as odd at all. I think the reason why he only gave Hachina 99 bills was because he only had 1 mil on him and he used the last 10k bill to pay for the value of The Prince Bee. One million yen isn't really much for Baku, if you remember in his first Kakerou gamble (against that gay, rich guy that later played the acid in a test tube game) he won like ten million, and that could likely be before this meeting, so him having that amount of money on him doesn't surprise me. It's not that important anyway, we'll see whether it was their first meeting or not soon enough, probably.

@KeepTheFeather I'm thinking that that's the case as well, what's left is to see the circumstances of his death.

 

[299792458]

I got the sequence of events a bit confused, but after going back and thinking things through, I think you guys are right and this is the correct sequence of events (assuming the memories Baku gave Yuukide were 100% accurate, which is unlikely, but fairly possible. At least the big events will probably be accurate):

??? 1998: Baku and Hachina meet at the bookstore (in my opinion, probably for the first time). Hachina becomes Hal.

November 23rd, 1998: Baku plays Pooyan, Hal is at his place when he comes back, throws his Pooyan run (what a sin). Afterwards, Baku apparently falls asleep or gets drugged, and Hal goes to Baku's big gamble of that day in his stead. Hal dies/loses his memories/gets sacrificed. (I wonder how accurate the other things are, too. Like him eating Eel with pickled plums the day before, and not getting enough sleep. I guess we'll see).

Baku probably continues being active as a Kakerou member. Eba dies in between here too, probably.

April 9th, 2001: Baku takes on the StL game with Kakerou's Leader, who, to his surprise, turns out to be his old friend Hal, who he thought died/was gone, and probably doesn't remember him anymore. Thus, Baku decides to throw the game (probably).

After losing, assuming he didn't become aware of Souichi's survival in the time between Hal's "death" and the StL game, he at some point buys Eba's friend's bookstore, in the hopes that one day Souichi will lose his memory again, do the book ordering trick again, intercept it, and meet him, hopefully as Hachina.

Mainly speculation, but I think the main events should be accurate enough. We're finally starting to get a glimpse of Baku's backstory and his true motivations. Curious to see how far Baku and Hal's friendship will go, and the details of the gamble where Hal "dies".

 

[BossCrab]

One thing to remember is after losing the first STL game, after Souichi decides to not kill Baku, Baku ends up smiling. I had always assumed it was because he had figured out some kind of critical weakness or flaw in Souichi that he could use again in a later STL challenge. But now I'm wondering if it was because he met his old friend and had been effectively spared from death by throwing so hard. Maybe some part of Hal still existed in Souichi and took pity on Baku, and he recognized it. Baku's thinking and actions here seem to indicate he hopes he can bring his friend Hal back somehow, despite his inner vision of Hachina screaming that he's gone. Against his better judgement and instincts that the current Hachina is not the Hachina he knew, Baku still told him his name. I wonder if that's why he was smiling during the STL loss? Maybe he's hoping to atone for "killing" Hal in some way by becoming the leader or finding a way to bring the true Hal back.

Also waiting for the other shoe to drop on the implanted memories...I think the chances of Hachina having fake memories implanted in him is very high. Will be interesting to see.

Thanks for all the hard work on the scanlations, Team Duwang. The attention to detail and explaining things like the Tower gamble/the big moments of foreshadowing is greatly appreciated.

 

[Rooster]

I'm starting to think that this was indeed their first meeting, but it wasn't a coincidence. Someone (like Eba or Tatsuki) set this up.

 

[Veshv]

If that were to be the case, I think Tatsuki isn't the one to do it. Most likely, he wasn't even aware of the secret contact method between Eba and Souichi. If he were, it would have been brought up alongside the topic of implanting memories back into Souichi that was discussed with the "Leader's Attendants", and we would have seen someone from Kakerou. Which would mean Eba had to have some motivation to set the meeting up, and I have no idea why he would.

Personally I believe it really is just a coincidence, but that Baku saw Hachina ordering the book, and didn't randomly show up when the book arrived.

 

[catx3]

@BossCrab

Him being fixated on recovering or atoning for Hal would be quite an interesting motive for sure.

For me, I interpreted his smile as 'things went perfectly as planned', as in he intended to lose all along. Mostly because back in that early chapter, Yakou seemed to think so as well, because Leader had complete control of Baku's forces, and there was something about "a force that could destroy and scatter Kakerou members". Not totally sure what that phrase means, but maybe it was referring to Ideal or something similar. He also thought that the abandoned building game was connected to the leader game, which I don't understand at all yet.

Things are still very unclear though. Did Leader spare him because his poor performance, or because he predicted that he'll prepare another tribute for a 2nd STL game, or because of their past relationship? And why did Baku have to lose? Why couldn't he just delay or not do the match, until he was ready? Or is it like you said, did he even intend to win, or was he focused on something with Hal? So many ways for it to play out.

---

Next batch: In a few days!

 

[Sinful_egg]

well deserved break for the team

just checked the other series and saw ur updating it too, Geez take a break team u deserve it xd

 

[Moonbunne]

Spoiler

this is imo a clear indication that he knows Hal would lose his memory, and is checking the bookstore to see if he's going after the Prince Bee again to refresh what he knows