Usogui - Vol. 41 Ch. 446 - The Helping Hands

[Solano]

@RapidLord
"Hal avoiding suppress the leader is just something Baku say to Lalo to trick him to thinking Hal is not his ally." ==> Hal has then no reason to enter the BAN... or to even impose a BAN.
All he had to do was to wait one of them, then gambling the winner in 'surpassing the Leader'.
Leader DID want to gamble with Lalo and Baku... chap 325 it's explain BAN is when many players want to gamble together. so, Leader proposed a BAN without knowing what the game would be since Midara came at the chap 326
Chap 404, Lalo asked Baku if him and Hal were pretending being ennemies, Baku said no, Hal actually did try something to take him down by actually letting Lalo take shoudo... Kaji just happened to get there first because Baku had the same leader's plan.
He's respecting the rules regarding being Baku allies, yet that's contradict his will of not wanting to gamble on a surpassing the leader.

 

[hollyguild]

I don't know who's clicking into this comment section before reading the chapter, but:

Spoiler

Wow, I'm super impressed that the 2v2 theory was correct. Kudos. I think it was @idle_af who caught it? I'm going to have to re-read when this is over and see if I can get the hints.

And it seems the bios bet theory is incorrect, it doesn't matter how much is bet as to which hand is chosen. I would not be surprised if this was set up as an intentional red herring though.

Now we'll have to see how the iron maiden game works. The theory that it's some sort of nerve stimulation rather than actual needles makes sense because Fukurou would have lost a couple times by now and only has some little pinpoints on his skin whereas Hal lost and is shown in agony. It's like anti-acupuncture. But do they choose the hands face to face and then go into the iron maiden, or do they have to decide while isolated and wait to see if they get the pain? The latter would be more poetic since the guys in the water are also suffering, but it will be more interesting if there is some banter between the two at least.

@vaur I think you're on the right track. Hal and Fukurou have their hands and feet somewhat free, they could also respond through vibrations. It's just difficult to assume it's happening in some way more complicated than e.g. morse code because the message vibrations need to be strong enough overcome the natural sloshing around of the water and movement of the players. At the same time, it would have to be subtle enough for Fukurou not to notice and send a message of his own to Lalo. Perhaps the "shadow" that was mentioned earlier was setting up some sort of receiver system?

Of course with these guys once they know each other is playing this game they can easily think "what would Hal do in this situation?" "what hand would Baku want me to pick?".

I also would not be surprised if it's revealed Baku is just taunting someone again.

 

[Veshv]

@Solano
Hal forced the Ban and intended to use it to create a situation in which Baku and Lalo could both lose. Unknown to us at the time, the moment Baku enlisted him as an ally, Hal was, by Kakerou's "code", going to aim to make him the winner of the Ban. This is made apparent in chapter 422.

As for chapter 404, you're misunderstanding it. Hal's intention was to do exactly what Baku did. Lose to Lalo on the 23rd and making him the kaiser. However Baku forced the situation so Lalo would go after Tipa. Which meant Hal needed to cause Shoudo to lose secretly instead. It wasn't a coincident, Hal literally gave Baku the idea.

Yes his will was to avoid StL, but that was no longer an option after Baku enlisted him for the Ban.

 

[BossCrab]

Some word vomit here

Lalo's theory is honestly not a bad one with the information he has; he knows the thinking required to understand the game on the fly and it's not the most outrageous thing to think Baku's trying to find a shorthand memory cue for the hands while trying to solve the mystery of how they're formed so he doesn't have to think about both of them at once and waste more air.

I like the idea that Baku may be trying to signal Hal by carving on the table. I think the reasoning of the bolted tables and water makes sense. I would say though him simply tapping on the table is almost certainly not trying to communicate, at least at the start of the game. Tapping the table is the signal to check, meaning you're ending your turn without betting more. Baku and Lalo obviously can't speak to each other (Lalo's screaming of CALL, RAISE in the first round notwithstanding) so the hand signal is simply a poker move to signal to Lalo and the referees his action.

If Baku really is trying to signal Hal through scratching on the table, the questions are 1. What does it mean? and 2. Can Hal parse the signals? It looks like his brain just got fried by the impalement. Last time we saw Hal get a big violent shock to his system he was knocked unconscious, then was re-imprinted by Eba and Kakerou and came out as Souichi.

As for why Hal is even here (spoilered because its long)

Spoiler

Hal kind of fell into his predicament due to his memory loss, but through the ship gamble and stealing Voja's phone, he was able to catch up enough to know that while Baku should have the rights to Surpassing the Leader, Lalo has possession of the 50 billion. With the weight of this gamble and everything thats at stake, it makes sense that they would post the Ban. I don't really have any explanations other than that and that the author probably thought about this awesome setting for a bunch of little gambles under the umbrella of a large team gamble and needed to use it because it allows them to fire all his bullets of Ideal's manpower vs Kakerou's in one big last showdown. This was something the entire story built to through Caracal's constant interfering with Kakerou. I wouldn't be surprised it it comes out later that Hal predicted that Lalo would call in a lot of manpower in this kind of setting, using all of his final aces like Long, and Hal was betting that Kakerou would be able to crush Ideal once and for all.

Hal initially was hoping to create a situation in which both Baku and Lalo could lose the Ban match and he could take all the amassed assets and the ability to play Surpassing the Leader off the table. Remember, his ultimate goal (as Souichi) is a complete restructuring of Japan with Kakerou in control. Being able to take the 50 billion and karametes and not have to risk his own Leadership was probably the safest way for him to amass these resources. He had no idea about the game being played because he lost his memory and couldn't tell which referee Baku would call. This is why he was the only one in the meeting not participating in the match. However, Baku realizes that he set up the meeting to create that scenario, so chooses him as his ally, and he accepts. Why, specifically he did this when he could have refused, I'm not sure, but maybe he thought he could keep a better eye on the match while participating. I think part of it, too, was that he said both to Oofuna and Baku that he wanted to "continue being Hachina for a while longer". My theory is that despite his insane capacity to lead, efficiency as a Leader, and apparent enjoyment of his power and status during the early chapters (especially on display during Hangman) when he was a driving force for all of Kakerou, there is a part of him that maybe does not like or does not want to be Souichi. The Kakerou imprinting maybe begins to warp his personality as Souichi into the ultimate Leader. We've gotten hints that perhaps they were able to influence him or imprint faulty things into his head during the process. Perhaps deep down he just wants to be a normal gambler, similar to how his Dad just wanted to be a referee and fight people. We saw him put his life as "Hal" on the line in the first match with Fukurou, willing to give up being "Souichi" entirely, before being re-imprinted and returning to his life as Souichi. "Hachina Naoki" has no real reason to refuse being Baku's ally, and it lets him have a more direct influence over the game. Especially when one of the participants is Lalo, Kakerou's purge target and the force behind Lacy and Voja, who he just had a run-in with on the ship. Hal's plans here are multilayered with contingencies on whether he wins or loses. Baku correctly predicts that by making Hal his ally, he locks him into a position where he is forced to help him, because Hal's morals and dedication to Kakerou's rules would not allow him to truly sabotage his ally during a gamble.

Usogui and Hal have a level of trust and understanding in their relationship due to their similar lines of thinking and unique personalities that has persisted through Hal's memory losses. As Baku explained, Hal can legitimately attempt to take Baku down, but Baku can continue to trust him because he knows that above all else Hal is his ally and will follow the rules of the Kakerou match. Hal sent Usogui a message through Kaji, if Baku had not understood what he meant, I (and Baku) seem to believe he would have simply proceeded with a Plan B (have Shoudo defeat Tipa early, then lose to Lalo on the 23rd). But because Usogui understood the message and sent Kaji to Hal and Nobuko, he was able to both protect Nobuko and help Baku win the match (or put him in a position to do so, he also seems to have predicted the devolving of the island which is why he sent Oofuna to help).

As for his current predicament against Fukurou, he probably feels like Fukurou is holding a critical piece of his missing memory and his relationship with Baku, so he was willing to have a serious gamble with him, betting it all on Baku just like Fukurou is betting on Lalo and Ideal.

@Veshv well stated, you got it much more succinctly than i did lol

 

[idle_af]

@hollyguild
No way it was me. I'm just reurgitating what I've read here, I haven't come up with a single original theory that wasn't disproven the next chapter or so. I can't remember either though, I'm not really gonna bother rereading comments just to find out who..

Little comment about the bios bet theory

Spoiler

Forgot to say this when it was brought up before but I don't know how it could've been relevant because the amount you can bet changes each round. Seemed a bit too convoluted to factor in to be honest

 

[Lithe]

@BossCrab Made for a better read though.

 

[RapidLord]

@vaur
Ok, I'm more sold on this theory now. One thing that still bugs me is if Baku was signalling Hal then how on earth does Baku know that Hal is beneath him & not just in another room. Maybe the torture method could have cause vibrations? But you will think Lalo would have notice the vibration as well.

 

[Takoshi]

Now that 2v2 is validated, once again, this game goes into unknown territories because the best hands might not necessarily be made! Bravo move to the writer for planning for such a twist - now the guesses remain meaningful still.

I'll reserve my thoughts for the next chapter, but damn does that torture device seem gruesome. Why do I get the feeling we're going into some even more insane shit than the bull?

 

[Heap]

now we know why referee nowa jr said "please forgive me" when they started