Usogui - Vol. 36 Ch. 388 - The Sad News Within The Hollowness

Fed-Kun's army
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The last image of this chapter was the very picture that got me to check out this series years ago.

Thank you random Google image searches. Lol

Also, thank you Team Duwang. There was a time were I was convinced we'd never see another translation of Usogui. So I'm very grateful we've come this far.
 
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That Baku realization scene was done so well. It affected him so much that he's back to his older hairstyle.
It was also bit odd to see how groggy he was after waking up, it's rare we see him like that.

The author went out of his way to remind us about Lalo and the Fortress incident, intriguing. Still not quite sure what he intended to do with the outlaws over there. In addition, he's also severely weakening his own kingdom? One possibility I can think of right now is that he wants to intentionally cripple Azura, and then switch to another kingdom using his own weakened kingdom as a tribute or sacrifice? And perhaps become a king of that other kingdom + take over Azura's territory. Since there's no rule that says he has to win as Azura's king, and Hal somehow managed to switch kingdoms, so it should be possible.
 
Fed-Kun's army
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I wonder if the delivery of the coordinates will go successfully and his allies can find the island, cause then his ally shortage won't be a problem. And that's probably what he's betting on, since as Kadokura put it, "he's destroying his own citizens, who will become his army." If his allies find the island, they can be his army (illegally, but still).

Both Baku and Vincent realize that it will take too long/is impossible to gain support of 2/3 of the high class players the normal way, so instead they are lessening the number of high class players, either by taking away their citizenship (Vincent) or making them leave the island (Baku).

I loved the gag of Kadokura messing with Nanpou by pretending he is busy/not telling him who Hal is. He wants Nanpou to feel the same shock and embarrassment he felt when he found out who Hal was. It's fun to see the development of their relationship, as they seem to have gotten over their rivalry/get along much better, but will still tease each other (at least on Kadokura's part).

And then there's Baku's weird dream. The arm that turns to bone has Kyara's messed up fingernails, so it probably represents his death. (There's a really good analysis in the reddit comment section for his chapter). Also something that I just remembered (though it probably doesn't mean anything), is that Kyara's face was a skeleton in a previous dream (the tower one). And Kyara is like that because Baku believes he is dead at that point (I think at least). So maybe in Baku's subconscious bones/skeletons represent death...

A little while back, I (poorly) read a comment on a Japanese discussion thread for this chapter about how Baku, on page 11, looks like Yukiide. It might not of been intentional/have no meaning, but I found it very interesting regardless.

Baku was able to come to the conclusion that Kyara was dead on his own (based on those two being there and not Kyara, as well as Mitaka's gesture of not wanting to look at him, possibly guilt based or at least not wanting to see his reaction. The bad dream might of also gave him a feeling that something was up.) Baku isn't one to express his true feelings, but you can see in his dead eyes how distraught he is. His emotional instability is also hinted at with his dialogue on the last page.

As always, thanks for the chapter! Just wanted to say that I also express @saxifraga 's sentiment about previously being convinced that the translation would never be finished (since the previous group abandoned it). (Honestly, my desire to find out what happened in Usogui was one of my main drives to start studying Japanese...) Also amazed how far the translation has come, so thanks so much (again) for all your hard work, Team Duwang!
 
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@Ghetsis I also believe that is exactly what Lalo is aiming for, getting his allies through illegal means (just like BK is using the Outlaws illegally as well) and closing the gap that way. It was very easy for BK to notice Kyara was dead since Referees don't abandon their duties, and for this gamble all referees had to stay by their respective Player's side, which means that if Mitaka is there without Kyara, Kyara must be dead. I also do think that BK looked very similar to Yuukiide after waking up from that dream, which I think might mean that they have the same disease (or smth similar), since BK definitely has some sort of health complication in my opinion (the nosebleeds when he gets excited (though this may be a bit of a japanese gag), the abnormally low stamina, the constant eating of Kariume). Also he's had deductions and realizations in the form of dreams or hallucination quite a few times before. In the labyrinth match he could hear the voices of all the people who died because of him haunting him, and there was this visual cue thing where he figured out Seiichi's lies that way, then in the Tower game he had the most important realization of the match in the form of a dream as well after getting his eye stabbed, and now this one. Might be more that I missed, but I do think there's probably some sort of illness afflicting our BK.

Kyara's death does seem to be bothering him quite a bit, he seems quite angry. He also bought his lip that time when Kyara got the scar on his eye, so this must be quite a few times worse than that time... I'm looking forward to seeing how he will crush Lalo in the future. I'm excited for the continuation of this arc.
 
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Usogui is pissed. Probably a huge blow to his character too. He's struggled with the weight of "killing" Hal probably every day since then, and having such a loyal ally like Kyara die in a gamble for him will probably mess him up a bit. Not to play armchair psychologist but he might blame himself for what happened to Hal and now Kyara. As an aside, he's also lost a bit of his violence here; we know from the Billy fight that Marco is willing to fight to the death now, but Baku still can't really ask him to kill or assume he will be ok with killing like Kyara.

Its interesting seeing the different strategies here. Lalo is leading Azura to ruin by simply defeating all the high ranking players (and presumably putting all his hope on Ideal being able to locate the island to become his "army"). Baku is using the Outlaws to dominate the island behind the scenes and force his competition in Tipa out of the way, while building up his original slave group with Champ into a higher class fighting force. And Hachina seems to be playing the game the "normal" way, while also taking advantage of Kakerou's influence and rules. He's more or less account sharing with Nobuko, using her High Class stats and resources to get a head start on the other two. And by playing as her, he can rally his kingdom around her and perhaps have her legitimately elected as Kaiser.

Good catch on noticing Baku coming out of his dream like Yuukiide. I was wondering why they hung on that shot for so long.

I echo the sentiment of thanks to Team Duwang. I found this manga right before Duwang took over and I was worried it was abandoned. There really is a market for thrilling "gambling manga" like this, even though they're rare. I'm very happy to go through a fresh experience with people reading this, with an enthusiastic team behind the translations. It's been a treat.
 
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@299792458 @Ghetsis
Oh man, I couldn't quite put my finger on it until you mentioned it, but that Yukiide connection feels critical here. I definitely agree with all the hints about BK having a health problem. I've always suspected the kariume doubling as some sort of medication. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think he ever ate kariume during the flashback, not during the bookstore gamble, or the clam battle (or against the son). He ate one during the 1st StL game however. So in between losing Hal and the 1st StL game (two and a half years), he picked up the habit of eating kariume. But he had bad stamina since the bookstore gamble, so perhaps his condition got worse over time. Edit: Nvm, remembered it wrong. He ate it during the gamble vs the son.

Two other possible hints off the top of my head:
1) During the labyrinth game, Baku got sick/fainted from the low oxygen trap even though he prepared for it, and Kadokura commented "Seems like your body is weaker than you think."
2) There's a gap of time where Usogui was inactive between the start of series and after losing surpassing the leader. He already made his preparations to come back while he was a Kakerou member (in making the L-file, finding Q-Tarou), so what exactly was he doing in that time? Perhaps being held back by his medical condition? Or maybe it's unrelated and he was searching for someone like Kaji the whole time as a crucial part of his plans... his motive in teaming up with Kaji is also still quite the mystery.

@BossCrab
I also think he completely set up Kaji to fail the fortress mission because he didn't tell Kaji that Hal was an enemy. Baku definitely knew about Hal's intentions, so why bother withholding such information? If Kaji knew, things could've gone differently. Maybe he wouldn't have done a risky 1v1 gamble knowing that another enemy was around. It definitely feels like Baku is not really certain or committed in how to deal with Hal, with his constant visions of the young him and possible secondary goal of wanting him to be his real ally rather than an enemy.
 

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