Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 239 The Crossing Souls

Quite honestly, this came a lot sooner than I expected. I knew other!Marik would go on a homicidal rampage eventually, but I kind of figured it would happen at the climax of the tournament, when he faced Yami or something. It feels a little premature for the souls to be crossing over now, what with there still being about 40 chapters left in the Duelist partition here. How's KT going to fill the rest of this arc? A drawn-out burial at sea?

We'll cross that bridge if we come to it, I guess, no pun intended. For now we can watch these youngsters live out their final moments doing what they love most - trash-talking each other over cards.

As Moar Cards Guy said in the last chapter, every glaring player is afforded 4000 life points to begin, but he's not finished explaining the rules, apparently. He states that each of them should have 40 cards to shuffle and insert into their Duel Disks, which would be shitty if anyone had forgotten that particular rule and were now stuck in their weird vertical rail cart, disqualified for the whole match. Luckily, Jonouchi already learned his tournament rules the embarrassing way at the beginning, so it looks like he's good. The other three I'm not worried about.

Moar Cards Guy tells them to connect the cable from their pod to a port in the Duel Disk, and when done, the screen at their navel level displays a READY notification where apparently the other duelists' cards will show up during the match. Then Moar Cards Guy explains that turns will rotate among the four players, and there's no restrictions on who any one of them can attack. Once a player has lost all 4000 life points, they'll reach the top of the tower.

But... what about the guy who wins? How does HE reach the top? Does he just sit there with his remaining points while everyone else parties up top?

I'm looking at you, Kaiba.

Moar Cards Guy adds that the first two players to lose will be the first pair up for the matches at the top. Well, in that case, does the duel even need to continue after that, since they already know who's paired with whom in the finals? All I'm saying is this is convoluted as shit and they didn't think the implications through.

And they nuked it, as they say in the Navy.

In this battle that determines your opponent for the next, Yami considers who his target will be. Kaiba looks across at Jonouchi, already having decided who his will be. He thinks that in order to defeat Marik's god card among god cards, he has to have the other two. Kaiba figures in order to achieve that, he's got to target the guy with the god card he thinks he can get in this battle, looking over at Yuugi with a little giggle and a promise that this will be their destined duel.

Uhhhh, you realize that this particular duel is only going to determine who you're supposed to go up against in your next one, right? You're not going to get any rare cards out of this one, honey. What, are you planning to do? Voluntarily lose points alongside the ones you beat out of Yami?

You know, for a supposed genius, Kaiba just seems to be getting dumber? Must have peaked early, poor kid.

Again, other!Marik silently reiterates that anyone can be his opponent, because he's pretty damn sure that no one can beat his Ra god card. Buuuuuut, he thinks that if he has to choose, it's gotta be Yami, because he's just dying to get rid of that guy. At least those are his feelings at the moment. Might change, given that he had to specify. Be on the lookout for that.

Jonouchi glances over at Yami too, recalling that he fought his way here to fulfill the promise they made at the beginning of the tournament. He certainly hasn't forgotten that promise, nor that Yami has his Red Eyes for that very event. This duel against him is also for "her"- whom I'm guessing is Shizuka - so he's doubly determined to win it. When Yami looks over at him too, though, he squeezes his eyes shut and begins to backtrack.

At this moment, his eyes pop open again at the sound of a cell phone ringing down below. Honda takes his phone out of his jacket pocket and answers; asking Shizuka on the other end how Mai is. Jonouchi gapes at the one side of the conversation as Honda confirms that there's really no change, and Jonouchi's head is filled with Mai now.

Again, I must stress that your opponent in the actual semi-final games is not determined by who you attack the most, guys. You've just got to be in the same losing or winning pair with them. Are they paying any attention at ALL to Moar Cards Guy?

Oh well, at least SOMEONE isn't totally focused on Yami here. That's good.

Back down on the floor, Honda asks Anzu if she's seen Bakura, and Anzu responds that he's not here. Why did Honda not just assume that Bakura was laid up in bed where they left him? Might have something to do with the fact that Honda returns to his phone conversation where he tells Shizuka that it's up to her to take care of Mai, then. So, the injured Bakura is missing, and as Honda ends the call with Shizuka, Anzu wonders where he is. Other!Marik smirks down at them from his pod-perch. You think he knows something they don't?

Moar Cards Guy announces that they will now determine the order in which the cycle through the players will occur for each round, which receives a glare from all the players and a question of how from Jonouchi specifically. They're told to grab a monster card from their deck, and the highest attack will go first, the next highest next, and so on. For some reason, Yami is portrayed as surprised by this. Not complicated enough, I guess, but if that's the case, then he's in luck, because a whole new caveat is about to drop. Moar Cards Guy says that the monster card they choose can't be returned to their deck - they'll have to play this game without it.

Soooo, they got to bring 40 cards up there, but now they'll only be playing with 39? Gracious, there's no end to the weird decisions to decide order.

Yami internally notes that the chosen monster's attack must be high in order to go first. Kaiba is only thinking about his advantage in going first and getting first pick of victim. Other!Marik just glares down his nose, no need to tell us again how little he gives a shit about any of this. Jonouchi rifles through his cards, fretting over which he should choose.

After a short period, Moar Cards Guy demands that the players show him their chosen cards, and they all hold them out. Don't know how the guy all the way on the ground is supposed to see them. Perhaps his sunglasses have telescopic tech in them or something. Knowing Kaiba, that's probably a thing.

The chapter's half over and we've FINALLY decided who's going first in the duel to figure out who's going first! This one is going to be a doozy, friends.

Yami looks over at Kaiba, acknowledging that he is indeed going first in his head. Kaiba smirks, inclining his head in a mockery of modesty and scoffing silently. He thinks that all he has to do attack the two duelists who will fight each other to separate them from he and his own opponent; that guy other!Marik and Jonouchi, whom Kaiba refers to as "the trash duelist". He must have figured out how this game is supposed to work between panels, and thank goodness for that. I was afraid I would spend this whole game shaking my head in disgust and pity. Now I'll only have to do it for a small portion.

Other!Marik has decided he DOES give a shit, because he's now actively planning on picking on the two players other than Yami. Couldn't keep up the cool disconnect from the outcome, could you? They never can. Jonouchi isn't even trying, though. He's AGONIZING over the fact that he really wants to face Yami, what with his feelings as a real duelist and everything, but Mai's health requires him to fight with someone else.

Yami's eyes are closed, considering where his own compass is pointing. He knows his real enemy in the tournament is other!Marik, because he's the one to go through for those lost memories. On the other hand, he made that promise to Jonouchi. On the THIRD hand, he's downright destined to duel Kaiba. Yami's torn three different ways, and is anyone else reminded of the hottest girl in school who has to choose between all the guys fighting over her? And the prom's tomorrow!!

Kaiba declares that he's first, even though that was already established. Twice. He places a card face down, and summons Blood Vors in attack, then ends his turn, clean as a whistle. Kaiba sneers in his knowledge that no one can attack on their first turn, but when the next one comes around, he'll get in the first hit. Yup, that sure is how going first works.

Other!Marik says he's going next, and summons a lanky yet muscular floating contortionist? I guess? Its name is Nyudoryuga, and according to other!Marik, its special ability is super useful. He ends his turn, and Yami announces his, drawing a card with style and imagining himself a duelist with the soul of a warrior. It's a little lame. He plays Big Shield Guarda in defense, as you do, and one face down card before ending his turn.

Jonouchi draws a card with his statement that it's his turn now, and looks down only to find that there are NO monster cards in his hand. Rotten luck. He groans, but manages to place a card face down before he ends his turn, cursing to himself. Yami casts him a sidelong glance.

Well that looks ominous.

Kaiba draws a card, looking downright jubilant as he announces his turn again. Jonouchi hangs his head across from him, and Kaiba starts rambling about how one can't just break the food chain of duelists to attack the one at the top. Guy must have taken a hit off of whatever other!Marik is always smoking. He commands his Blood Vors to attack Jonouchi, and while the monster approaches, Jonouchi grits his teeth and sweats. Kaiba laughs like an idiot and tells Jonouchi to die, but stops short at an unexpected sight.

Awww, Yami has chosen his prom date future opponent! They'll be the toast of the tournament.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I think the translator might have been the one not to understand who the targets should be in this game, and not the characters. There was a shift in the middle there when everyone went from thinking you attack the person you want to play in your next duel, to thinking you need to attack the other two that you DON'T want. To be fair, it's probably not the easiest concept to translate, alongside Kaiba's constant incoherent nonsense, this time about "food chains" in dueling. They noted that they had no idea what he was saying there, but my best guess was that he was trying to articulate some sort of inherent pecking order to a duel, which would kind of defeat the whole purpose of the game to begin with, but I digress. The point is, if I were the translator, I wouldn't trust whatever weirdly-phrased things these characters said either, and in fact DON'T. I'm always interpreting with my best guess too, so solidarity.

The pacing of the chapter was a bit strange. It started slow with quite an elaborate setup of rules, in addition to the long-winded agonizing over who would target whom. While I get that it would have kind of defeated the purpose of the four-way skill-based determination for the match ups in the next few duels to just randomly roll a four-sided die to figure out who goes first, the concept was entirely over-baked. At the very least the explanation of it could have been shaved down a bit - might have saved some of us some confusion. The characters' contemplations of who they wanted to face could have been much shorter too, since most reasons were well-covered in the past and perhaps only needed a short reiteration for new readers.

Save for Jonouchi's. He's the only one who really had to think this one through, torn in two different directions by two different obligations to his two different friends. He's been operating on a straight track to Yami in this tournament thus far, and that's given us a build-up of anticipation toward this promised face-off as much as him. Now that other!Marik has set him a timeline for ensuring Mai's safety, though, his desire to face Yami is now set against the urgent matter of Mai's condition. That's a compelling way of creating new conflict for Jonouchi, a breath of fresh air considering I still wasn't entirely impressed by the somewhat stagnant reasons he had for entering the tournament in the first place.

And the matter is made all the more complex by Yami announcing his preference to face Jonouchi in his next duel. Their intentions are at odds, and that causes so much more tension as Jonouchi hauls himself toward other!Marik, but Yami tries to haul him back. They haven't had a moment to discuss how their priorities may have changed over the course of the previous night, and they're not going to have time to discuss it now in the middle of the duel. Being out of sync with each other is going to lead to some very frustrating hijinks between them in the coming chapters.

Or the coming chapter-and-a-half for all I know. Once that duel got started, shit started happening at lightning speed, so perhaps KT will keep up that momentum. Fingers crossed.

And Merry Christmas, friends.