Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 252 Sky Duel Coliseum!

Come to think of it, there's been a lot of emphasis in the Battle City finals on the use of vertical space. The finalists dueled on the blimp, and now Kaiba has them hanging out on this tower - is there some significance to the sky and dueling up there for our eccentric rich boy? I suppose it juxtaposes in a mundane way Pegasus's island, with its grounded wilderness setting, but I don't think that's necessarily it. Since the god cards are a feature, and our gods generally reside in the heavens (with some exceptions, of course), perhaps Kaiba is trying to elevate himself in symbolic emulation; like dressing himself for the job he wants, right?

But if he's looking to get promoted, might I suggest to the bosses that he have to perform some more grueling trials than playing card games? Make him fight a fucking hydra or something.

Noooo... Definitely an ante of cards. Pride just happens to be tied up in them, but you can't trade THAT part, friends. You gotta take it with you, mortally wounded or not.

Kaiba chuckles in that doofy way of his, saying that the top of his own tower is a bit too drab for such a monumental duel, what with it being one to determine the ultimate duelist and everything. Man, I must not understand tournaments at ALL, because I could have sworn that the part that determined the ultimate competitor was the last match, not the SECOND to last. Shows how much I know, huh? Kaiba announces to Yami that he's prepared a stage that's worthy of their duel as several whirring, clunking fingers recline from the base of the platform where they were once standing upright at intervals poking up around the edge. Kaiba tells his Solid Vision system to activate, and the tips of each finger emits light, then a whirling image around an alarmed Yami, twisting his head to get a better view at his shoulder. Kaiba calls this a "virtual stage".

I... can't believe it. When I said that Kaiba could put Jonouchi in a Colosseum with a hungry lion and he'd be orgasming WAY back in the Death-T arc, only to be proven wrong two chapters later, I wasn't suggesting that Kaiba should try this little idea out on HIMSELF in the future. Although, he does look a little TOO excited in there at the moment. Perhaps HE was the one who would get off on that sort of thing all along. Who knew?

You guys. You guys knew.

Yami gapes around at all the faceless, and they ARE faceless, virtual people in the stands, that cheer Kaiba's name. Mokuba thinks the mass of human figures models surrounding the duelists are fab, and tells his brother so. Kaiba is too busy monologing to notice, clenching his fist as he pontificates on how they will now, after countless conflicts (it is officially canon that Kaiba can't count his and Yami's duels on the ONE hand they would fit), they will fight their decisive battle in the name of fate. Why weren't the other "countless" matches fate? Because Kaiba didn't WANT them to be, that's why! He goes on to compare their upcoming tiff to those of Roman gladiators fighting for pride and freedom.

Okay, I wasn't going to mention it, but since Kaiba brought up Roman gladiators - he did specifically model this thing after the Colosseum in Rome, so would this duel coliseum be spelled in the former way rather than the latter? I understand it's not THE Colosseum, but it is an interesting question of whether the deliberate resemblance and reference should not just take on the specific name. I feel almost like the Colosseum is some sort of copyrighted brand the translators are trying not to infringe upon or something. Let me know if you think I'm way off base.

Anyway, Kaiba yells at Yami to draw his sword from his deck, to which Yami responds with the declaration that he's going first and indeed draws. An arc of electricity surrounds him as he poses there a moment, thinking of his weapon in his right hand being one-in-the-same; sword, card, pride. He makes a similar analogy for the contents of his left hand; shield, deck, soul. He asks Kaiba if he's ready for this, Kaiba responds with a wild little smirk as he urges Yami, either out loud or internally is unclear, to bring it on. Yami slaps down his first card, introducing it as...

Sheesh, for a couple of dudes who took forever to get started, they're sure hauling ass now.

Kaiba announces his draw, as tradition dictates, and sees that it's Obelisk. His smile grows more smug now as he mentally chuckles, thinking that that god of victory has smiled upon him. He seems to have forgotten the simple fact that just because he HAS a card in his hand doesn't mean he can play it right away, but that's fine. NBD, I'm sure he'll pull something out of his ass. Oh wait, that's YAMI. Never mind, I got my ridiculously overconfident and heavily favored by plot characters mixed up for a moment.

All Kaiba has to do now, per his mental process, is put three sacrifices on the field. A piece of cake, surely. Meanwhile, Yami wonders what kind of strategy Kaiba is likely to use. My bet is on trying to convince you that he's the winner despite all evidence to the contrary once he's lost. Seems to be how most rich guys operate. Yami's leaning more toward the possibility of Kaiba using deck-destroying monsters and spells, like he did against Ishizu. But Yami DOES know that deck-destruction strategy in and out, and reasons that Kaiba probz has a new strategy he hasn't used yet.

In spite of all Yami's speculation, Kaiba is using his turn to summon a floating torso of a robot with two beefy arms and cannons protruding from its shoulders called "X-Head Cannon", appropriately. Then Kaiba plays a face down card that appears to have some sort of game console controller on it from the angle where the reader can kind of make it out. Couldn't IMAGINE what that does. He ends his turn on this, and thinks that Yami is DONE on his next turn. Awww, already?

HAHAHAHAHAA! Kaiba ACTUALLY thinks this will be a quickie. We should all be so lucky.

Yami announces his turn and his draw, spending a moment pondering the fact that Kaiba's monster has higher attack points than his, but didn't attack. He wonders if this is because Kaiba is just being cautious of his face down card, or if there's a more insidious reason for the lack of action. Yami plays another monster, Kuriboh in defense, to which move Kaiba scoffs. His brief frown is turned upside down by his silent promise to teach Yami how foolish it is to play low-level critters against him. In fact that grin resembles more a beast baring its fangs than a human smile. Creepy as always.

When Yami ends his turn on Kuriboh's lackluster appearance, Kaiba yells that it's his turn with a wave of his hand over his Duel Disk. I guess he was drawing a new card there, but we don't see that in favor of a close-up on Kaiba's menacing little grin as he bids Yami to bow down before his god, and die. Kaiba tugs a card from his hand and plays it - Soul Exchange. Yami gapes, paradoxically leaning forward as if trying to make out the card, even though you'd expect him to recoil. I mean, if silly WRITCH knows what this card means at a glance, we know damn well that HE does.

And yet, Kaiba has to yell the name, as well as Yami in disbelief, followed by the inevitable explanation that Yami's monsters have now had their souls captured by Kaiba to do with as he pleases. He says he chooses to sacrifice them, and Queen's Knight/Kuriboh are surrounded in their own respective whirlwinds for the purpose. But wait, Kaiba acknowledges that a side-effect of the exchange of souls is the... exchange part. Less of a side-effect and more of a stated feature if you ask me, but I guess Kaiba didn't, so I'll just grumble over here in my corner. Kaiba says that X-Head Cannon has now become Yami's monster, as is illustrated by the fact that it has appeared next to the stunned Yami. However, Kaiba has a way to get around HIS end of the deal.

I'll tell you, there's nothing more essentially capitalist than constructing a loophole to renege on an arrangement and leave the opposite party with literally nothing. Kaiba is the ultimate businessman.

Kaiba comments flippantly that 1000 life points is a small price to pay to control the X-Head Cannon again, as if ANY price is beyond his elevated means, and proceeds to enter the code on the virtual controller. Manually. Seriously, he actually PRESSES left, right, A, and B, and I've got to admit, it's a little cute because his hand is dwarfed by the giant buttons. Don't hold it against me, friends, if I consider a miniature Kaiba a little adorable. Definitely less terrifying, at the very least.

When he's finished, the monster returns to his side, and Kaiba says X-Head Cannon has become HIS sacrifice, turning two into three surrounding him. Yami is flabbergasted that it looks like Kaiba might actually summon Obelisk in two turns. Facing Yami's absolute horror-stricken expression, Kaiba scoffs and pulls his Obelisk card from his hand, ordering it to come forth. Yami chooses this moment to draw his hand dramatically across his intense glare in the act of flipping his own face down card. Now it's Kaiba's turn to be flabbergasted.

Maybe more pissy than flabbergasted, but it's as close as we're gonna get, right?

Still holding his arm out from his flip-motion, Yami tells Kaiba that the Light-Force Sword will keep Obelisk out of commission for three turns. Wait, aren't spell cards only supposed to work for ONE turn on god cards? Or is that only effects on them once they've been summoned? However this is supposed to work, Kaiba wears a crooked little smirk again as Yami tells him through his own smug smile not to get too hasty, since the game has only JUST begun.

A long, loooooooong countdown, no doubt.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The pacing has accelerated quite a bit, and that always makes me happy. KT didn't waste any time getting into the game, and cycling through a couple of turns, not only keeping the action moving, but also giving the readers a real sense of how fast these two can think in their element. It would have been nice to see in the past few chapters, especially when I've been seriously doubtful about how competent Kaiba is supposed to be while making ALL the stupid mistakes, but better late than never, right? To be honest, it probably won't do much to restore my suspension of disbelief for Kaiba's genius, though, because I don't expect this level of pacing to last. KT has been building this encounter up ever since the beginning of Battle City, and maybe even before that, so he'll have to slow things down quite a bit to squeeze as much drama and tension from it as possible; with how much personal animosity they have for one another, in addition to complicated coexistence of respect and jealousy, there's bound to be a heavy conversation ahead as well to work out all the feels. As much as I would have found such a thing a little undercooked in the past, this is a talk that has been stewing a while now and is just about ready to come off the stove.

Besides, there's already a piece of that very discussion constructed in a hologram around them at this very moment. I find the coliseum a very interesting display for Kaiba, for a few reasons. It's a throwback to Death-T when they faced each other in Kaiba's new Battle Boxes, with their capability of showing both amazing and disturbing imagery, surrounded by cheering Kaiba fans. It shows off how far the technology has come, as well as how potent the image it projects really is. Kaiba made an offhand remark to Yami in the last couple of chapters how his friends aren't there to cheer him one like usual - and then erects an entire stadium of virtual support to juxtapose Yami's loneliness. The message is clear: while you're on your own in your toughest challenge so far, I can conjure as many people as I need to project the love you don't have. It doesn't matter if it's an illusion. What matters is that it stimulates a primal feeling of smallness when already feeling vulnerable and alone.

Something that Kaiba clearly couldn't reproduce in spades if he hadn't felt it before when seeing Yami's little gang of cheerleaders gunning for him on the sidelines.

Just something to think about.