Sensui's Boys: Game Master (1/2)
Game Master
Tsukihito Amanuma
"It seems my turn has come."
Posts so far:
Intro to Sensui's arc
Doctor
Seaman 1 & 2
Sniper
How they reached Game Master territory:
After Yusuke accepts Seaman's help saying that he trusted him, Seaman guides them inside the cave. After some walking they reach a closed gate: Game Master's territory. To advance further they need to go through accepting his rules. Thus, their initial plan of splitting the group into two, one inside and the other outside, was thwarted by the rule of the 7 players. They have to go back and get the rest. Once inside, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Seaman, Genkai, Taboo and Copy have to play Game Battler in turns against phantom players and then Amanuma, who is the Demon King in Devil City and final boss of the game. Defeating the Demon King is no easy task, as he knows the games by heart and is really, really good at them.
How Sensui recruited Game Master:
One day Sensui showed up at the game center and challenged Amanuma.
The kid accepted, but warned him that he was very strong at games.
Sensui turned out to be the first person Amanuma had ever met who could play better than him.
Sensui then told him that there was something much more fun than games, something incredibly exciting.
Amanuma asked him what that was.
Sensui replied, literally: "I'll show you when we've become closer friends."
I don't know what you think, but that totally READS LIKE PERVY PEDO INVITATION. He's totally offering this kid his favorite candy to get him in his pan... gang.
Also, aside from being Kuroro's predecessor, Sensui there has a Hisoka's air about him, don't you think? I wouldn't be surprised if Togashi had buit Hisoka and Gon's relationship based on these two, the same way he seems to have created Gon and Killua's friendship from Yusuke and Hiei's tandem earlier during this arc.
Ahem. So, yeah, Sensui finally explained that he wanted to turn the world upside down, and he needed Amanuma's ability for that.
Amanuma argued that he had no special ability at all.
Sensui replied that his special powers were going to wake up very soon. He could see he had it in him.
(Remember that special powers were awakening in random people of a certain area.)
And here's one of this eyecandy panels that Togashi regales the reader with every now and then: artistic Sensui.
"I'll make your boring world interesting.
Your stupid parents,
your stupid teachers,
your stupid classmates.
You are sick of them all, aren't you?"
That's how Amanuma became Game Master and started collaborating willingly with Sensui in his evil scheme. He drove the truck that kidnapped Kuwabara and then waited in his game lair inside the cave until the "guests" arrived and he could entertain them. His specialty game iis Game Battler, and that's why Sensui chose that game for him in this first test of his new powers. But Sensui didn't tell him the whole truth of the real-life gaming conditions.
Amanuma's Play-Station:
Game Battler comprises different mini games like sports and quizzes. While Mitarai (Seaman), the traitor, is playing one of the phantom players, Amanuma says, trying to either distract him or get him back to Sensui's cause: "We once talked about how we were alike because we both were loners at school. But Sensui told me that the reasons for our isolation were the oppossite: I am too strong and you are too weak. Everybody around me is so weak that *I* don't want to be with them, but you are so weak that nobody wants to be around *you*."
And Amanuma *is* strong. All his phantom players are defeated and it's his turn to play. As good as Taboo is with quizzes, Amanuma knows the answer even before the question has appeared on the screen, because he knows the order of the questions by heart. And that's how they get their first loss. But Taboo doesn't die and nothing happens to him. That's how they discover that it doesn't matter if they lose a game, they can try again and keep playing on and on. But they cannot leave the game: they must keep on playing and playing until they defeat the Demon King. On his side, Amanuma seems to be genuinely happy:
"I want to play a different game next."
That makes them suspicious: he doesn't seem evil at all, or know of the extent of what is at stake outside. He is still a kid after all. A kid who misses playing with friends.
They soon realize that the main purpose of this stage is not to harm them, but to make Yusuke and his gang lose precious time while Sensui and Itsuki, with the unwilling aid of Kuwabara, finish breaking the barrier between the demon and the human worlds. Amanuma is just an innocent distraction that Yusuke's group won't be able to defeat due to their own kind nature.
Because such are the deadly rules:
1. They cannot abandon the game or they'll die.
2. They must keep playing until they defeat the Demon King, Amanuma,
3. Or until time's up, the barrier is destroyed, and then Amanuma will annulate his territory by losing on purpose and setting them free.
What Sensui hadn't told Amanuma is what will happen to himself when the Demon King loses either voluntarily or by defeat, which his rivals do realize in time and that makes them hesitate.
But here comes the turn of someone who is also extremely good at games. Particularly at mind games. And who can be as ruthless as the enemy.
Sensui hadn't counted on Kurama.
To be continued...
*All pages are from the manga Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi.