CHAPTER 411: CHAPTER 410: THE FINAL QUALIFIER

Koyo lay in a hospital bed, eyes closed, hooked up to life-support and monitoring devices.

"Sorry, Mr. Koyo," Jaden said at the bedside, scratching his head. "Looks like I lost after all."

"As I said, you did more than enough," Midori replied softly. "If Koyo knew, he’d be proud."

Kira thought, of course—Jaden literally imprinted a new effect onto a card. After that duel, Absolute Zero is now epic-level, a huge upgrade for Elemental HEROes.

If Jaden keeps pushing himself and triggering those power plays, all HERO duelists worldwide will benefit.

What a walking, living card printer!

But Kira had something else on his mind.

Though it was just a brief moment, he was sure he’d seen it—Jaden’s eyes flashed dangerously gold for an instant, the mark of the Supreme King.

But when he asked Jaden, the boy was clueless.

"Nope, didn’t feel anything," Jaden said. "If anything, I remember feeling frustrated, wanting to put everything into that duel. Everything after that was just instinct."

As Kira suspected, even the person himself couldn’t explain it.

But Kira had a bold theory.

Though Jaden is the Supreme King’s reincarnation, there was no hint of it in the early anime—it was clearly a late addition by the writers and felt abrupt.

So maybe, although he’s the reincarnation, the Supreme King wasn’t actually inside him all along?

Otherwise, why didn’t he awaken during all Jaden’s early crises, even after losing to Aster with the power of the Light of Destruction?

And when Jaden went to the alternate dimension to save Jesse, the spirits there already knew the Supreme King.

Combining this with the Arbiter’s words, Kira suspected:

Jaden is closely linked to the Supreme King, but perhaps the Supreme King wasn’t dormant inside him, but in the Spirit World—one of the twelve dimensions from the anime.

Still, the Supreme King’s on-screen duels were few and ambiguous. He seemed strong, but Kira couldn’t judge his true strength.

After all, the Supreme King only had one win and one draw.

Even against Jim, the Supreme King actually lost at first, but the writers miscounted by 100 life points, so he survived with 50 and made a comeback. In the DVD version, this was corrected by lowering Jim’s monster’s ATK to 1200.

That’s also why the real card has 1200 ATK.

But anime win rates aren’t everything. Plenty of bosses lost to the main characters. Even Dartz never actually won, except a tag duel against Kaiba.

The real MVP was Yubel. She wasn’t just a one-shot boss—she dueled again and again, and always in quality matches.

She faced Hell Kaiser Zane in rage mode, Adrian who sacrificed his lover to unlock the Dark Magician, and even took on Jaden and Jesse together. She faced Jaden three times, including a 2v1 and a duel after the Supreme King was unsealed. She never lost, giving up her only draw intentionally to steal Super Polymerization.

Ignoring power scaling, Yubel has by far the most glorious record of any boss in Yu-Gi-Oh.

Kira figured, now that he’d found a way to the Spirit World, he could visit those twelve dimensions someday and see if the Supreme King was there.

But first, the tournament.

...

Twenty minutes left.

Kira returned to his room for final deck adjustments.

"It’s finally here. My opponent—Seto Kaiba..."

The world’s top duelist, and Kira’s best chance yet to test himself.

His spirits seemed excited too.

"Seto Kaiba, the strongest duelist..." Jinzo crossed his arms, calm as ever. "No matter. I’ll do my part."

"Hehehe..." Shadow Monarch snickered.

Jinzo frowned. "What’s funny?"

"Don’t make me laugh. You bully weaklings, but against Blue-Eyes, what good are you? Block our own backrow?"

It’s true. President Kaiba is a balanced duelist, but relies less on traps than Kira. Against him, Jinzo’s skills are less useful.

Jinzo was speechless, then snapped, "Then what good are you? He’s all LIGHT monsters, your DARK-killer effect is useless!"

Shadow Monarch retorted, "At least I can banish, even banish myself for damage! Can you?"

They were about to argue more when the Silent Magician’s white staff extended between them. She glared, ready to fight.

Both spirits instantly fell silent, glaring at each other but saying nothing.

"However you choose to attack," Black Luster Soldier floated behind, "my sword is always at your side."

He had no choice—he does what his master asks. Even as the legendary warrior, if the master wanted him to run a burn loop, he’d obey.

"Alright, let’s go."

Kira put away his deck, slotted it into his duel disk, and stood up.

"Can’t keep the President waiting, right?"

///

Kira VS Kaiba.

Who do you think will win?

PS: Bonus Chapters at 1000 PS