Usogui - Vol. 42 Ch. 459 - The Hidden Landmine

[Veshv]

@BossCrab
Baku definitely broke the covering for the indicator, the bits of glass remaining on it can be seen in an earlier chapter. I do like the idea of him doing nothing afterwards though, it fits better with the idea of setting up for a trick. I agree that Baku seems to want Lalo to catch on to the fact that Baku has extra air, to force a raise. The way he lifted the Bios and angled the indicator directly at Lalo last chapter leans into that idea heavily.

Fukurou can not possibly have made a junk hand, because whatever hand he makes is an auto-loss. If both Hal and Fukurou try that, we'd be in an indefinite loop for that hand, and clearly that isn't the case. Since the round went on even after the fold, I don't think the Witch Pain defaulted to Hal because of that, or it would have not repeated at all and gone straight to him.

Even putting aside other readers, the players of the match have less to work with than we do. We know what's going on with both sides, and what possibilities are left, but the players don't. On top of that, this match has been going on for less than 20 minutes, which is absolutely insane.

@idle_af
We don't really know which of the two options Lalo has, folding or raising, is the one that Baku wants. A case can basically be made for him wanting either with what we know, which is why there's confusion.

Also, I like that you quoted a comment of all things, it just seems hilarious. About figuring anything out from the cards, Hal was remembering the time he was given the name by Baku: (could be a spoiler?)

Spoiler

The idea of naming him Hal was shifting each letter (digit) by 1 to get a new word. It was done with IBM - HAL and and the NEC's Kyu-Hachi (98) to Hachi-Nana (87). If you consider it with 25, you either get 36 or 14...

@KeepTheFeather
Comes with the fact that we've been following the manga for so long, I guess. People were suspicious of a weird looking air-bubble, and that led them to determining the glass far ahead of time.

Can chapters even be renamed? You guys might have to re-upload it with the proper Ch. Number so later readers don't accidentally skip it.
Seems they can be. That's good.

 

[Jonui]

I was just re-reading chapter 454, and thought of something interesting. Maybe.

Spoiler

What if Hal casually used the referees to tell Baku that he regained his memories? You know, when he made them laugh with the alien joke.
Since Baku resolved the law thanks to Kaji's signs, it's certain that he could see Nowa and Yakou laugh. And there is only one other time when the referees eerily laughed like this: during the hangman game, when Souichi appeared. There's no way Baku didn't catch this, is there?
That means that he could have bet on Hal in the 4th round knowing full well that he regained his memories.

Sadly, the timeline is quite confusing, since the 4th round cards were revealed to us before perfect Souichi's awakening, but I think it happened the other way around. After all, several pages represent the players in the top being in the iron maiden right when the players at the bottom have to chose a card. And clearly, the joke was made before Souichi entered the iron maiden, so supposedly before Usogui selected his card.
So if I'm right, Baku had some real reasons to bet on Hal when he played his 26.

That's probably nothing important, but the thought of Hal using the referees like this made me laugh, so I had to share.

 

[BossCrab]

@Veshv
My thinking was that because Baku folded, the hands above end up becoming irrelevant (Hal loses and Fukurou wins regardless of the hands created), but I cannot confirm that without more information from the manga. I don't know how a fold influences the punishments for the upper layer, or if it does at all. We know for a fact Fukurou made an invalid hand, which made me wonder if Hal had made a bogus hand so they had to repick (and Fukurou corrected his hand, which is likely) or if the Pain defaulted to Hal because Baku folded.

I guess it doesn't matter, because Fukurou can only make the high-value hands with 63, and if Baku has the cards to form the straight flush for 25 it beats whatever Lalo can have in the final round regardless.

I agree with the sentiment that some others have posted that if Baku is indeed saving air, him almost drowning in order to save that information for when he needs it most is both 1 insane and 2 completely in character. I think it makes a lot of sense that he wants Lalo to figure that out and goad him into raising, only to be destroyed by the 25. If I had been reading this all at once after the scanlations had been completed, I probably would not have picked up on the multi-layered aspects of Baku's plans here, but having days in between and other commenters to bounce off of has made a lot of whats going on much clearer. We have a massive advantage over the characters, it's not surprising that even superhumans like Lalo or Baku could be caught off guard in this situation.

@Jonui
That's quite clever. I think that's certainly plausible, especially since we haven't figured out if Hal was able to send a signal back to Baku (presuming we are all correct that Baku was trying to contact him, and wanted him to throw 26 and save cards for 25). We know that Lalo and Baku can hear the main referees, in any case, even if Baku isn't paying attention to Yakou and Nowa outside the water.

 

[Rooster]

There is another possibility:

It's pretty clear now Baku broke the thingy. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it is showing the air left incorrectly. If it doesn't that would mean that Baku didn't save any air. But maybe that's what he wants Lalo to think. He wants him to notice that it is broken and place fear in his mind. Fear of what if Baku did save some air. Forcing him to bet instead of folding. That would make him raise. It would explain why Manabe called it a landmine. Landmine is something you need to step on, in order to activate it. In the situation where Baku would save some air, it wouldn't make sense to call it a landmine. Instead, it would be called something like Ace up his sleeve. And that's why Baku is saying in the last chapter "As long he doesn't uncover it.." and "It's alright, he will never know".

Personally, I don't think this is the case, but it would make sense why Manabe called it a landmine and how Baku can still lose if Lalo uncovers it (If he uncovers the fact that breaking the meter was a bluff).

 

[Veshv]

@Rooster
Manabe would call it a landmine either way, since Lalo would be "walking into it" if he just up and folds, assuming there is air. The wording is ambiguous as to who the "game over" is referring to, but I suppose that is the point. I don't think the referees believe it to be an empty bluff, honestly. If they do, it'd be due to them knowing something specific about the Air-Bios that we don't, like it being impossible to reseal them to prevent any remaining air from escaping. That being the case for the Air-Bios would be out of nowhere, though.

@BossCrab
Yeah, Fukurou was basically locked in his choices, although why Hal lost the round is left up in the air until we learn more. I think since Kaji made a point out of the extended round, a redo of the round was performed. Though, you are right that wouldn't exactly change anything.

@BossCrab @Jonui
About that theory:

Spoiler

Pinpointing the exact moment when Hal had his alien spiel is really hard. It most likely happened when Lalo was exchanging his most recent Air-Bios, since we had the concurrent view up until then. On the other hand, it could have happened earlier than that if the entirety of Ch. 453 was misdirection and the two events were not concurrent. We don't even know from earlier rounds when the two players are taken back into the device things. I think Hal definitely intended to get that message across to Baku though, looking at what he was specifically remembering in Ch. 455. It lends credence to the idea that Baku did somehow send a message to Hal during his weird mnemonic (?) thing. With that said, I don't know if Baku actually got the message. He only noticed Kaji because Kaji literally walked up to the glass wall. At the distance the rest of the referees are, I think it's too difficult to notice them laughing, especially when it's only the two of them (?) doing so. I don't think he has any confirmation that his plan is going to work.