Usogui - Vol. 46 Ch. 502 - Man Of The Neck

[MangaDex]

 

[UnderworldBlues]

thanks for the chapter.

 

[soladox]

horee shiet

 

[Petrichormus]

So they actually talked about the book and hangout like a normal friend would?
Also their relationship seemed so genuine somehow..

Man this is a heartbreak waiting to happen. Why am i feeling things in a gambling mango?

 

[xkcdhawk]

Wait is that Yakou's blood on page 16? I forgot his hand is barely intact. And shit, CPR takes actually requires quite a bit of force, can Yakou's hand even last that long?

 

[Ominous]

This allegory for training one's self for a chance at avoiding impending death.

 

[HyperMuteki]

Why didn't he fucking check at all?!

 

[theamatuer]

@HyperMuteki probably the same reason that was stated by Kaji earlier. Throwing while the reserved time is lower means you're more likely to recover from death, and you can store any squandered time in your body instead of the hourglass.

 

[Kirakirakirakay]

Masu Kijuuin is from chapter 77, that is such an insane callback!

 

[KeepTheFeather]

omg how do you remember? :O @kirakirakirakay

 

[Moonbunne]

Please let it be my speculation and Hal doesn't actually die
He's the 3rd best boy after Manabe Eggman and Marco

 

[Kirakirakirakay]

@KeepTheFeather I help edit the Usogui wiki and was on the search for every named character so I remembered making his profile for that, lol.

 

[Ghetsis]

Thanks for the chapter!! It was very fitting for "Hachina day" (8/7)! ^_^
The Masu Kijuuin story is hilarious considering how he dies. Mekama should of followed his strategy though haha.
A cool detail is that the place where Hal meets Tatsuki is the Sanzu River. (Mentioned previously during the car fight: https://mangadex.org/chapter/614926/15 )

Hal's dream seems similar to ones Baku has had. So there might be significance details in it. Such as the clock in Baku's room being the one that was considered for the game earlier (though discarded in favor of the sound). And I wonder if Tatsuki being "the 3rd king" has any significance other than relating to the end of the chapter. Such as the two arguing over which bee won the duel (winning = meeting 3rd king it seems). But meeting Tatsuki would mean dying... Idk, this chapter was very confusing (but interesting of course).

 

[299792458]

This match has been one of the most intense and interesting so far. It's really doing the final battle between Baku and Souichi justice, but it's really only getting started (39 chapters to go!). So for the finale, I decided to try my hand at some analysis once again. There is quite a bit I want to mention, so get ready for a wall of text. I'll put predictions in spoiler tags in case they're right, but I'll start by pointing out some interesting things and moments that may be relevant. As always, there will be many things that others have noticed/mentioned first, with lots of seemingly obvious things, but also things I missed on my first read and that others may have missed too.

First of all, the focus of this gamble is quite obviously time. This gamble's game was also shared with Baku by Yakou, which means he had time to do preparations if he so desired (I would even go as far as say that that was Yakou's intent when he shared the game with Baku, or at the very least he was aware of the possibility of that happening when he shared it, since it's something a referee wouldn't normally do, considering they're supposed to remain neutral). Now, when Baku and Souichi first met while waiting for a referee to arrive, Baku proposed the same game that lost him the last StL, (which was hilarious, because I thought there was no way he would gamble it all on the same game) now, while this seemed to be just a throwback there are some significant moments and key points/hidden here. The first one is obviously when Baku asks Souichi if he has a watch he can use for the match ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/911436/16 ), this is to make sure that there is no way for Souichi to tell the passage of time during the upcoming gamble, making him rely purely on the speaker clock. Now, in the same chapter Souichi mentions that Baku even seems nervous, almost like he is planning something and is afraid that Souichi will find out (for good reason, because Souichi is a monster and does notice a lot of things...), even asking if Baku thinks he can do something about the match using his allies (

Spoiler

which, in my opinion, he does end up doing since he used Marco to help Yakou win indirectly, and set up a feint/trick using Kaji. I'll explain this a bit more in my prediction later on, so he does end up using his allies about the upcoming match, just not in the obvious way it is implied here, given the fact that the air vehicles gamble isn't even the real StL game, lol

). In the next chapter, Souichi grasps Baku's intentions easily (at least what I think his intentions are, considering that Baku does not do unnecessary things in preparation for a gamble), since he ends up destroying the stopwatch with a "totally reasonable series of actions", thus removing the only way to figure out the time between the two of them, after confirming Souichi did not have a watch ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/912405/8 ), but there's a reasonable amount of doubt and a possibility that as Souichi said, this was just Baku's way of making Baku seem more fearsome in his mind, making Souichi doubt himself, or as Fukurou and Yakou later put it: exaggerating him in his own mind; given this, it may not be that important that Souichi, and also, this degree of awareness and insight is to be expected of Souichi, so Baku should not mind.

Moving on the start of the match, there are a few significant glances that Souichi gives Baku during the rules explanations, such as the one where Yakou introduces the gamble's time limit ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/956377/9 ), indicating that Souichi knows he was right about Baku's intentions when destroying the stopwatch and confirming whether Souichi had a watch on him, reinforcing the idea that Baku must have done some preparation for this gamble to ensure his victory. Another significant glance is obviously when Souichi thought about the "magician's choice" meaning he thinks/is aware that Baku wanted him to ask and tried to make it seem as if it was his own choice to do so ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/958534/4 ), obviously the fact that Souichi notices this given his high intellect means all these mindgames are very layered, since Baku is also aware that Souichi is such a monster and crafts his mindgames around this, so Baku also probably knows that Souichi might suspect this. However I don't know exactly how this part is relevant yet, in might be relevant sometime in between before the main trick that I theorize Baku will use. Another glance from that chapter: https://mangadex.org/chapter/958534/6 ; this one is just part of the earlier mentioned train of thought/mindgame about Baku having his allies do something about the upcoming match, which should further enforce Souichi's suspicions about the match and about Baku having rigged it somehow. Either by similar suspicion or prearranged agreement between Baku and Yakou (I would guess that it's by suspicion given the flow of the chapter and also due to me not thinking that Yakou is THAT biased towards Baku, even if he is to some degree), Yakou decides to not use the Obelisk's clock and opts for the speaker clock somewhere in Fukurou's current room. Now, in my opinion there are two very important things to be noted in this chapter, first is the fact that despite Yakou NOT using the clock (which could be reasonably assumed to be rigged by Kaji, even though we later find out it is not) Baku still eats his pickled plum, which we know to mean that things are going according to plan. The second and more important part is when Yakou says that the sound of the speaker clock is "superior to anything else" ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/958534/11 ; there's a typo here btw, should be "any other clock" instead of "anything other clock" in the bubble after) when it comes to the time limit of the checking and dropping of the handkerchief, and the part immediately after where Baku confirms that there will be no other sounds coming from the speaker ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/958534/12 ). This means that if the speaker clock were to malfunction it would not matter as the time limit of 1 minute will not be over until the 1 minute DONG sound is heard. So, given this, Baku really did use Kaji and Marco to do something about the upcoming match, making Souichi's words be meaningfully predictive once again (I wonder if we will get a "I told you, did you really think you could do something about this match using your allies?" moment, lol). Another similar thought/sentiment/hint in this direction is when Souichi tells Yakou that his 1 minute felt very long and that time can feel different depending on the situation ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/961245/14 ), more on this in a bit.

Before I talk about my hypothesis here are a few more general observations:
1) The theme of this match being time has been very heavily hinted, maybe almost uncharacteristically so, given how subtle the author's hints usually are, but maybe they just seem subtle in the moment, since usually when everything is revealed I think "how could I have missed something so obvious?!" lmao. We have seen the same clock over and over, including in Souichi's dream in this chapter, @Ghetsis if you take a closer look at the clock that was not used for this match, you will notice that the main hand has an arrow on it, whereas chapter 502's clock does not, it is the same clock that was in the room where Souichi was resting before StL that can be seen here and in many more instances ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/912405/2 ). I don't know if this clock has anything specific to do with the match, but there has to be some significance to it, given how often it's being shown to us.
2) Souichi's annoyance in recent chapters is probably (maybe) due to him not being "perfect" because of Baku, even accumulating some time on his squandered time, and Baku seemingly taunting him by not moving from the chair ( https://mangadex.org/chapter/975440/8 ), although I think that is just Baku stalling for a bit, more on this soon.
3) Even though Souichi failed to check in this round and was in near death for 1:24 this can be a counter to Baku's strategy if he was planning on making him accumulate time by using the safe strategy. If Baku really did intend to "use his body as a container" in other to just make Souichi squander time until he has 5 minutes accumulated and killing him in one go, Souichi can counter this by using his body as a container himself, since he just wiped the 24 seconds of accumulated time he had. Whether or not this was intentional remains to be seen.
4) Also a nice little detail like @Ghetsis mentioned: Souichi meeting his dead father at the Sanzu river being the telling clue that this is a Souichi near death hallucination.

Now, on to my hypothesis for Baku's plan/trick, as always I could be totally wrong:

Spoiler

as some of you may have guessed based on what I was hinting at earlier, I think the trick relies on the speaker clock, specifically on it malfunctioning for a period of time at a specific time. This is supported by Baku calculating the time that has passed and the average amount of time that passes after a near death, since he'd have to be careful about how much time passes in order to implement his plan when the clock is set to malfunction. As I said before, the rules state that the sound of the clock is superior to everything when it comes to the time limit, but ONLY when it comes to the time limit of a round. Meaning the malfunctioning clock can only be taken advantage of during a round to accumulate squandered time from Souichi or to confuse him while he is "D", but I assume that Baku wants to be "D" when the clock is set to malfunction, which will make the 1 minute time limit be in fact longer, which will let Baku accumulate much more time as "D" if he drops early and Souichi goes for the safe strategy, and even if they notice it (which they might, even though there is a possibility that they will just attribute it to "the passing of time feeling different depending on the situation", although Yakou should notice it when he uses his timer and it goes over 1 minute but without the speaker clock making the DONG sound) they won't be able to do anything about it since it was explicitly stated that the speaker clock sound was superior to anything else, even Yakou's watch; so this way, theoretically, it could be possible to accumulate more than 1 minute of squandered time in 1 round, which sounds insane depending on when it is used. Now, it might not necessarily be a malfunction or whatever, and this also does not explain why we've been seeing Souichi's room's clock all these chapters, but it would explain Baku calculating the passage of time after his ressurection, and why he might have been seemingly stalling by not standing up from the chair in the past chapter, he wants to drag this on as much as possible, and while it is not guaranteed for him whether or not he will be "D" when the time comes for the clock to malfunction, I think it's not particularly difficult to manipulate the length of rounds by deciding when to use the safe strategy, when to try a nearly perfect check, or when to just immediately turn around and just eat a minute of near death lol. Anyways, as I said I could be very wrong but it does seem plausible to me, and also keep in mind that Baku SPECIFICALLY confirmed the rule of no other sounds coming through the speakers, which could be used to try and fix the speaker clock by Fukurou maybe if he notices something, or him trying to say the correct time, or any other number of things. It could also not be a malfunction of the clock but simply Baku having replaced the speaker feed with a modified clock of his own (maybe with Kaji's help) that has the same effect. Baku never confirms a rule like this unless it is significant/part of his trick, or usually at least. Since this is the last match it could just be a quintuple layered ruse where Baku expects Souichi to think this and then turns that around on him or whatever as well, since Souichi has already noticed so much shit, lmao. To which extent Souichi has figured things out or not is unknown but if Souichi has figured this strategy out and if it is Baku's strategy then him failing to check this round could also be a way of screwing up the timing of Baku being the "D" at the malfunctioning time and trying to use it for himself; though I doubt this it is certainly possible with how monstrous Souichi is, although it's also possible that that's Baku's trap and it turns out the clock will end up being faster than normal instead of slower and thus screw him this way. Possibilities are endless, haha. Edit: Maybe the clock Souichi's dream shows 9 o clock because Souichi does suspect that the speaker clock will malfunction and that's the time when it will?

Edit: Also this chapter hinted that Souichi thought Baku was trying to set a trap because he thought that Souichi was kind to him, I love how Souichi is still so hung up on being perfect and making mistakes even in his dreams. The bleeding finger in the dream is probably due to Yakou's bleeding hands, and the "who was I trying to become" part shows how Souichi was Baku in this dream and viceversa, maybe because he's trying to think like him? Could the fact that we are shown this dream without the previous round be an indication for Souichi losing his memories again because he made a "mistake"? I hope not, I like Souichi being himself.

Anyway, those are my thoughts so far, I'm ready to be embarrassed and wrong at the end of this arc, haha. Even though I mentioned quite a few things I still think there are lots of things I have noticed and forgot to mention as well as things I simply did not notice or that I have noticed but cannot explain, but that's all part of the fun of this series. This battle has been very entertaining and tense so far, and it's only getting started, so I'm glad the author is doing these two monsters' extraordinary battle justice! As always, many thanks to Team Duwang for their insane release schedule and for being awesome. Obligatory "how long will this batch be, btw?".

 

[Lithe]

Souichi's dreams are bound to be equivalent to Baku's dreams in meaning and interest.

@Kirakirakirakay I knew I recognized that name, but did not remember from where. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Veshv]

@299792458
Good read, you pointed out a lot of observations that I think are definitely going to be relevant for the match.

Spoiler

Though I'm unsure if Kaji/Marco could have done anything to the speaker. Then again, they are in the room alongside the referees at this point, so it's not off the table.

What interests me about this match is that it feels more like the matches at the start of the manga. I mean this in the sense that starting from the Minotaur arc, all of the gambles had cheats involved from both sides that could have been figured out from the earlier points of the match. This really wasn't the case in the matches that took place before then. During Hangman, I doubt anyone would seriously theorize what Sadakuni's cheat method was, and it was more a showing of Baku being an incredible genius for picking up on it on the spot. Personally I couldn't fathom the way the Minotaur arc played out, but I do think much of it was possible to pick up on as soon as we realized Amako wasn't moving. From then onward though, it was possible to figure out how the matches would play out early on. Maybe that's just because it's when we started having consistent releases with gaps inbetween so there was time to theorize, and before the Minotaur we didn't have that.

At this point in time I still have no possible idea what Souichi's cheat method will end up being, or if he'll even have one. The match could ultimately end with Souichi having to read Baku perfectly and becoming more capable of that as it goes on.

 

[marcyvq]

I'm like, did I miss a chapter, is this spoilers? :>

 

[tripledraw]

I still think Baku's trick for this match has to do with sidereal versus solar time, thus the need for timekeeping with a digital clock instead of a wall clock or a stopwatch.

Now I'm starting to think the kariume might have something to do with the near death drug (neck training), and even more convinced that Baku knew (of?) Souichi before their first book store encounter ("kindness", which already paid off once during air poker).

But yeah, he definitely lost the first STL on purpose though I'm not sure if that was planned or if he had to due to Souichi forgetting, thus disallowing Baku to make use of the "kindness" and "wedge" he had seeded...

 

[Ghetsis]

Something a friend told me that I completely missed/haven't seen mentioned yet: the first page of this chapter is a recreation of the first page of 318 https://mangadex.org/chapter/711305/1 . Hal's teeth are visible in the first page (as he is screaming).

Also, in the last panel Hal is not visible. And that might be blood under the train/on the tracks.... (I'll add more to this/my thoughts near the end).
@299792458

Thanks for correcting me about the clock! I forgot about that one....
Btw (to avoid possible disappointment) the manga only has 539 chapters. I think the extra two on the md page are the special one-shots? Anyway, from 502 it would only be 37 to go.

What do you mean by Yakou sharing the game with Baku? (Hopefully i'm not reading it wrong). He never confirmed the game until the obelisk but it was listed in the list Yakou gave Baku (of like the usual Kakerou games). And Baku planted the idea of DTH by dropping the fake one. (Which now that I think abt, it's a lot like the "magician's choice" idea.) But yea Baku def had time and most likely did preparations beforehand. And based on the stopwatch thing he must of knew his seed was planted and Yakou would chose DTH.

Yea, Baku likes to repeat things he said to Hal in the past. I agree that the focus on the stop watch is probably important. That is a good analysis for the stop watch thing!

Yea I think Yakou was just being suspicious. Baku told Kaji he didn't have to do anything except stay by his side I think. But he may of told Kaji beforehand to say something that would make Yakou suspicious abt the clock. And Kaji does that by confirming he and Gakuto were not together the whole time (giving him a chance to mess with the clock). (Though this might just be me repeating something obvious/u already know).


"and the 'who was I trying to become' part shows how Souichi was Baku in this dream and viceversa, maybe because he's trying to think like him?"

I didn't consider how Hal was also Baku in the dream. My friend has a similar idea! Their interpretation is that Hal "was trying to become" 1. someone who can read Baku completely, 2. Baku himself (which both relate to your idea I think). The second part is based on their theory that Hal is trying to be like Baku. Specifically the Souichi persona seen in Hangman and the like is unconsciously copying Baku.
https://mangadex.org/chapter/714773/9 https://mangadex.org/chapter/204593/11 https://mangadex.org/chapter/204636/17

Anyway, Hal was very stressed out about losing to Baku, who to him is the "perfect gambler" (and thus he wants to be like him). Going back to what I brought up at the beginning, since Hal was very depressed at that moment (318), it's likely he was contemplating suicide then. So I think when dream "Baku" says "you could've just died... peacefully..." It was referring to 318....

 

[299792458]

@Ghetsis Baku did get the list of possible games from Yakou but it's shown that he told him "will this game allow me to win?" which implies to me that it was kind of already a strong possibility that Yakou was going to pick DtH as a game and either shared it with Baku or he figured it out himself.

I totally missed that correlation with 318! Thanks, I was thinking that it was a throwback to the scene where Baku jumps onto that truck from the bridge but since there were train tracks below I dismissed that idea. That correlation makes me also think that Hal was possibly contemplating suicide at that time and that's a possible interpretation of that part in the dream.

And yes, that is also what I think Baku meant by telling Kaji that he just has to be at his side in order to make Yakou and Souichi suspicious, but it could also easily be a double feint and perhaps he made Kaji make other preparations elsewhere, although I don't think Baku predicted that only 3 people would be allowed to be at the StL so perhaps he just made the preparations himself.