Usogui - Vol. 48 Ch. 526 - The Man Who Died First
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This chapter made me feel a lot better about this leap second trick. Baku is truly a madman
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This chapter makes it 100% more satisfying.
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I was kinda upset thinking Kaji did not have anything to do with the trick but now that he is hinted to having known the plan all along I feel a lot better. Really good writing Toshio.
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This explains Baku's absolute panic when Leader died in the 2nd round. He could have screwed up the timing window for Baku to be D at 8:59, which is literally what happened. Hence Baku absolutely needing to force his own 2nd near death to set the timer back to the proper timing, as opposed to dying 3 times as assumed to be his intent. Question is whether or not Leader's 2nd near-death was part of Baku's plans in any capacity. Hard to say, personally. Maybe Baku really does know a way to forcibly trigger the memory-loss from Hal (if he really did go to the abandoned building where Hal "died" and learned about the memory loss from Eba).
Also worth noting that it showed that even if Hal was aware of the leap second, he would have needed to take the gamble on there being a second "Dong" noise or not. It would have been a gamble, and Leader was not a gambler.
Edit: I take that back actually, if Leader knew from the start about the Leap Second, he'd just count the seconds. Baku definitely expected him to suffer a memory loss leading up to 8:59.
Also worth noting that it showed that even if Hal was aware of the leap second, he would have needed to take the gamble on there being a second "Dong" noise or not. It would have been a gamble, and Leader was not a gambler.
Edit: I take that back actually, if Leader knew from the start about the Leap Second, he'd just count the seconds. Baku definitely expected him to suffer a memory loss leading up to 8:59.
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Like I said last chapter, the amount of planning that Baku had to do to pull this off was crazy as hell. I love this manga lol.
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I agree generally with @299792458 analysis from last chapter.
There were plenty of foreshadowing moments to show that Baku understood Leader's condition, and we as a collective talked about it a few times in previous chapters. The fact that Baku was there looking for the Prince Bee, even on their first meeting, was not a coincidence. The conditions Leader needs to fulfill to regain his memory are so esoteric, that Baku would not be there looking for the rare Prince Bee book unless he knew about it. If he understands the mechanism by which Leader moves in a consistent manner, he could probably figure it out why he's doing this by cracking Eba's code in the book. From there, he would simply need to understand what exactly happens when Souichi goes to the meeting. Assuming Baku was able to hide from a referee-level talent (not a given), I don't think it's too crazy to think that Baku would have somehow been able to figure out Souichi loses his memory and uses The Prince Bee to get it back once a month. And if he knows that, I think it is well within reason that he could set the gamble to occur at the one month point considering he was in control of the time in the Ban match. Leader is a superhuman, I don't think it's a negative that Baku basically identified the dude's one weakness and attacked it because it was his only chance to win. Though I do think it's a bit silly to think that Leader apparently has that "running away from the referees and then waiting a week to order the book" song and dance once a month because it was such a big, dramatic world-shifting event when it happened during the Tower game.
I felt like it was rather obvious that Kaji was a plant for Baku to force them into using the speaking clock. It was very explicit that Yakou was dumping the clock in the tower because he thought Kaji messed with it; so not really a stretch to think that that's exactly what Baku wanted him to do. From there, it's a matter of figuring out how Baku can leverage the clock to his advantage. I don't think I could have predicted the leap second, but the game was pretty much always going to hinge on something revolving around that clock and Yakou saying it is superior to all else. If you look back at almost all the games in the manga, there is a sticking point about a specific rule (like the ban match and Usogui's strategy revolving around being the kaiser on the final day), or the way the rules are phrased is leveraged by one of the players (like when Mogami told Oofuna that interfering with the game like Lacy did was allowed, and then Oofuna just beats the shit out of him after the game ends), or something the referee says is explicit foreshadowing, or Baku predicts how the referee will rule and gambles accordingly (like when he bet his StL day with Yuukide and Kadokura allowed it). Yakou making that rule in response to something Usogui did is well within Usogui's plans; even in the first game he predicted that Yakou would pick up the wiretap and Qtaro would find it, and later predicted that Yakou would try to kill him before the Tower game so he planned accordingly to get him to challenge for Rank 0.
Satisfying to see Ryuusei's phone call brought up again; I know a few people mentioned that it was really suspicious that he brought it up multiple times. Had no idea what it was for, and had not even considered a difference like that in phone lines (is this a Japanese thing, or do I just know nothing about phone clocks?) but good to see it come up again.
The author has a great ability to make these cryptic foreshadowing clues in the dream sequences without giving too much away (or allowing people to understand and guess at what's going on if they're paying attention, like the shark hint in this game). I admire it a lot.
As an aside I'm also a bit confused/amused at people sticking on echolocation as a point of bullshit. Why was that the last straw in a manga full of these insane humans like Billy? Even if you remove a lot of the fighters with the weird abilities passed off as genetics (Minowa) or surgical alterations (Jonglyo) and say you'd prefer the actual gambling portion of the manga to be free of things like that (that's understandable and I'd agree, better for their "abilities" to be something like Sutegumas rather than superhuman) you still have things like Sadakuni's camera eyes. I'd say compared to a lot of the things in the manga, human echolocation is a more famously documented phenomenon.
@Veshv
Great point. Baku's panic when Leader took the near death definitely seemed exaggerated. I thought at the time maybe he didn't expect for Leader to take the death and try to further extend his lead, but even then it seemed excessive.
One other thing I'm hoping is explained is why exactly Usogui moved the drawer. Even the chapter name mentions it when it "disappears" from view. Maybe something on it could have made him recall the Leap Second? Like the way the cylinders were set up? I don't know but it seems odd that it would be specifically mentioned in the chapter name if we weren't supposed to think about it.
There were plenty of foreshadowing moments to show that Baku understood Leader's condition, and we as a collective talked about it a few times in previous chapters. The fact that Baku was there looking for the Prince Bee, even on their first meeting, was not a coincidence. The conditions Leader needs to fulfill to regain his memory are so esoteric, that Baku would not be there looking for the rare Prince Bee book unless he knew about it. If he understands the mechanism by which Leader moves in a consistent manner, he could probably figure it out why he's doing this by cracking Eba's code in the book. From there, he would simply need to understand what exactly happens when Souichi goes to the meeting. Assuming Baku was able to hide from a referee-level talent (not a given), I don't think it's too crazy to think that Baku would have somehow been able to figure out Souichi loses his memory and uses The Prince Bee to get it back once a month. And if he knows that, I think it is well within reason that he could set the gamble to occur at the one month point considering he was in control of the time in the Ban match. Leader is a superhuman, I don't think it's a negative that Baku basically identified the dude's one weakness and attacked it because it was his only chance to win. Though I do think it's a bit silly to think that Leader apparently has that "running away from the referees and then waiting a week to order the book" song and dance once a month because it was such a big, dramatic world-shifting event when it happened during the Tower game.
I felt like it was rather obvious that Kaji was a plant for Baku to force them into using the speaking clock. It was very explicit that Yakou was dumping the clock in the tower because he thought Kaji messed with it; so not really a stretch to think that that's exactly what Baku wanted him to do. From there, it's a matter of figuring out how Baku can leverage the clock to his advantage. I don't think I could have predicted the leap second, but the game was pretty much always going to hinge on something revolving around that clock and Yakou saying it is superior to all else. If you look back at almost all the games in the manga, there is a sticking point about a specific rule (like the ban match and Usogui's strategy revolving around being the kaiser on the final day), or the way the rules are phrased is leveraged by one of the players (like when Mogami told Oofuna that interfering with the game like Lacy did was allowed, and then Oofuna just beats the shit out of him after the game ends), or something the referee says is explicit foreshadowing, or Baku predicts how the referee will rule and gambles accordingly (like when he bet his StL day with Yuukide and Kadokura allowed it). Yakou making that rule in response to something Usogui did is well within Usogui's plans; even in the first game he predicted that Yakou would pick up the wiretap and Qtaro would find it, and later predicted that Yakou would try to kill him before the Tower game so he planned accordingly to get him to challenge for Rank 0.
Satisfying to see Ryuusei's phone call brought up again; I know a few people mentioned that it was really suspicious that he brought it up multiple times. Had no idea what it was for, and had not even considered a difference like that in phone lines (is this a Japanese thing, or do I just know nothing about phone clocks?) but good to see it come up again.
The author has a great ability to make these cryptic foreshadowing clues in the dream sequences without giving too much away (or allowing people to understand and guess at what's going on if they're paying attention, like the shark hint in this game). I admire it a lot.
As an aside I'm also a bit confused/amused at people sticking on echolocation as a point of bullshit. Why was that the last straw in a manga full of these insane humans like Billy? Even if you remove a lot of the fighters with the weird abilities passed off as genetics (Minowa) or surgical alterations (Jonglyo) and say you'd prefer the actual gambling portion of the manga to be free of things like that (that's understandable and I'd agree, better for their "abilities" to be something like Sutegumas rather than superhuman) you still have things like Sadakuni's camera eyes. I'd say compared to a lot of the things in the manga, human echolocation is a more famously documented phenomenon.
@Veshv
Great point. Baku's panic when Leader took the near death definitely seemed exaggerated. I thought at the time maybe he didn't expect for Leader to take the death and try to further extend his lead, but even then it seemed excessive.
One other thing I'm hoping is explained is why exactly Usogui moved the drawer. Even the chapter name mentions it when it "disappears" from view. Maybe something on it could have made him recall the Leap Second? Like the way the cylinders were set up? I don't know but it seems odd that it would be specifically mentioned in the chapter name if we weren't supposed to think about it.
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Just when you think nothing else can top "Air poker", this happens.
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God. To think that Baku have been planning this for so long.
@BossCrab
I don't think Kiruma run away to the bookstore every month cause I remember the guy in the bookstore said that it's been a long time since someone have order the Prince Bee book. I think the memory loss in the Tower arc might be an exception, maybe because Kiruma lost too much of his memory this time round and forgot that his dad and his referee attendants also know about his memory loss and so have to rely on Eba.
@BossCrab
I don't think Kiruma run away to the bookstore every month cause I remember the guy in the bookstore said that it's been a long time since someone have order the Prince Bee book. I think the memory loss in the Tower arc might be an exception, maybe because Kiruma lost too much of his memory this time round and forgot that his dad and his referee attendants also know about his memory loss and so have to rely on Eba.
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@RapidLord
You're right, thinking back I also remember when he ordered the book, Baku saw the order notice and said something like "It finally happened again". I guess he loses small bits once a month, but periodically loses it in a great degree, back to his "reset" point.
You're right, thinking back I also remember when he ordered the book, Baku saw the order notice and said something like "It finally happened again". I guess he loses small bits once a month, but periodically loses it in a great degree, back to his "reset" point.
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@BossCrab
It does seem to be variable how much he loses, but it could actually be to a fixed point still. There's one of two reasons why it wasn't a real problem in the last ~7 years between his time as Hal and the loss right after the tower. The glaring one was Tatsuki's existence. Because Tatsuki was active as the No. 0 ever since Baku lost StL, he could retrieve his son before the order got placed, because he knew where the bookstore was, and could track the "once a month" loss. The other referees were clearly unaware of this book deal between Eba and Souichi. The second reason would be that he never lost his memory to the extent that he forgot Eba was dead, so he never ran off to the bookstore because he knew that was a dead end. This one I think is less likely because the "once a month" loss in this match caused him to lose enough to the point that he once again forgot that Eba was dead.
On a side note, isn't it suspicious that Eba left Souichi on his own right when they were supposed to go on a trip together and it seemed to be around the time Souichi should lose his memory?
As it turns out, the year in-universe is either 2009, or 2017 if the calendar for our leap seconds is the one used. Leap seconds were added in 2008 and 2016, and prior to that on 2005, which it can't be because of the Labyrinth arc.
It does seem to be variable how much he loses, but it could actually be to a fixed point still. There's one of two reasons why it wasn't a real problem in the last ~7 years between his time as Hal and the loss right after the tower. The glaring one was Tatsuki's existence. Because Tatsuki was active as the No. 0 ever since Baku lost StL, he could retrieve his son before the order got placed, because he knew where the bookstore was, and could track the "once a month" loss. The other referees were clearly unaware of this book deal between Eba and Souichi. The second reason would be that he never lost his memory to the extent that he forgot Eba was dead, so he never ran off to the bookstore because he knew that was a dead end. This one I think is less likely because the "once a month" loss in this match caused him to lose enough to the point that he once again forgot that Eba was dead.
On a side note, isn't it suspicious that Eba left Souichi on his own right when they were supposed to go on a trip together and it seemed to be around the time Souichi should lose his memory?
As it turns out, the year in-universe is either 2009, or 2017 if the calendar for our leap seconds is the one used. Leap seconds were added in 2008 and 2016, and prior to that on 2005, which it can't be because of the Labyrinth arc.
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@Veshv
Oh yeah, the year right now is definitely 2009 because I was rereading the Air Bios arc and when Hal regain his memory he said that 10 years ago he gamble with Fukurou. Since it was around November 1998 when Hal meet Baku, it's now currently 2009. Sorry about the correction on your previous comment few chapters back 😅
On the other hand, it's been a long time since Baku's 1st StL. Wasn't expecting Baku to disappear for nearly 7-8 years
Oh yeah, the year right now is definitely 2009 because I was rereading the Air Bios arc and when Hal regain his memory he said that 10 years ago he gamble with Fukurou. Since it was around November 1998 when Hal meet Baku, it's now currently 2009. Sorry about the correction on your previous comment few chapters back 😅
On the other hand, it's been a long time since Baku's 1st StL. Wasn't expecting Baku to disappear for nearly 7-8 years
Man... i totaly feel defeated. Im not even the one gambling, i dont even favor Leader.. but it's like Baku just crushed me, as if it was me who lost against him "the drop the hankerchief"
@Veshv
That's been always a bit of bs around that from the author, tbh.. all we've always known was an approximative time of when Leader lose his memory, it was around 1 month, it's not an exact day, exact hour, then boom, memory lost.
@Veshv
That's been always a bit of bs around that from the author, tbh.. all we've always known was an approximative time of when Leader lose his memory, it was around 1 month, it's not an exact day, exact hour, then boom, memory lost.
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