Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 014 The Man From Egypt, Part 2

What's this? Things are happening in this comic! Twelve chapters passed with only the smallest of whispers about what the Millennium Puzzle is, where it came from, and what the spirit inside is doing possessing tiny little highschooler Yuugi. In the last chapter, we got a few more whispers, and a cliffhanger ending that showed Yami just opening up his brain-home to a stranger who we saw kill a man with a couple of other Millennium items.

I just have to say, this may be a bad idea. I think Yami's murder grin has grown too weak to handle this new murder guest.

Seriously, look at that weak shit. He's even got a weak mole that makes him look like a weak Cindy Crawford. Weak sauce.

Yami tells Egypt Dude that the game is waiting for him, but Egypt Dude just stands on the threshold. Yami may as well be making bok-bok chicken noises as he teases Egypt Dude by asking if he's scared and urging him forward. Egypt Dude takes the bait like an idiot and steps inside. He thinks about how he's never seen a mind with two rooms before, let alone one with such a dark and foreboding atmosphere. Looking around at the brick walls with a band of pictographs running around them, he compares it to a tomb.

The conversation starts light. Yami asks Egypt Dude what kind of power he had to be able to get in his room to begin with. Pausing a moment, Egypt Dude asks a rhetorical question about whether he was an unexpected guest. At least, I'm guessing it was rhetorical, because I can't imagine a more stupid question if it were asked in earnest. Egypt Dude supposes he should answer as a courtesy, as Yami looks on with an unreadable expression. I like to imagine he's feeling some exasperation right now.

That... does not answer the question. He asked HOW you got there, not why you were there. Do you have cotton in your ears?

Egypt Dude goes on to state that he knew all along about the existence of all the Millennium Items, including the puzzle. He knows that for three thousand years, they were all kept in the Valley of the Kings, and were created by magicians to judge tomb robbers bent on stealing all the Pharaoh's treasures. All of this can apparently found in the Book of the Dead. Look it up. Egypt Dude used the Millennium (Skeleton) Key to wander into Yuugi and Yami's brain, the tool allowing him access to all kinds of personal information like personality, nature, complexes, social security numbers...

You are also a tool, Egypt Dude. A creepy, invasive tool.

He also mentions the other Millennium Item he carries is the scales, that judges and punishes the wicked. He knows about his two items, but he doesn't know the power of the puzzle, or if the one who solved it even got any powers. Yami asks why Egypt Dude bothered to visit HIS mind with the mind key, and Egypt Dude says he can see powers with his key as well, and wanted to see it for himself. If he's not satisfied, he might have to take the puzzle back with him to Egypt to show his family and fellow judges.

Yami doesn't appear very keen on this idea in the next panel. He says that Egypt Dude is welcome to look for the power that must be hidden in his room, but it'll be a challenge to find. He declares that finding the power is a shadow game.

Directly following this, Egypt Dude gives out some obligatory full disclosure: the key also gives him the ability to rearrange and even destroy rooms, manipulating or wiping out a person's whole personality. Yami is surprised at this information. Egypt Dude accepts the challenge Yami issued him, saying he'll find the true room.

Yami's smile returns as he says that the game may not be as simple or safe as Egypt Dude seems to believe. Because he's in the habit of not seeing things that are right in front of his face until it's convenient for him to do so, Egypt Dude suddenly gets a better look around him at the set of Labyrinth, with countless doors every which way. Egypt Dude stares in awe at the maze-like brain he's gotten himself into as Yami calls for the game to start.

Egypt Dude spends a minute standing there with his mouth agape and Yami gives him a little sarcastic push with a mocking inspirational quote about every journey starting with a step or some bullshit. Egypt Dude just doesn't know at which door to start, but he knows that behind one of them is the true room he's looking for. He just has to try each and every one. Sounds... fun... This is supposed to be a game right??

So, after much deliberation, Egypt Dude picks a door.

He immediately regrets every decision he's ever made.

As Egypt Dude contemplates how he might have almost gotten his freaking soul crushed by a literal booby trap in someone's mind, Yami taunts him again by asking if he's scared. Yami is a little shit, but he's got well-earned swagger. I mean, how does one even booby trap their own mind? Militaries all over the WORLD would pay big money to know how they can make their soldiers information-leak-proof. Cash in, Yami. Cash in.

Egypt Dude glares at Yami over his shoulder, but Yami just keeps his snark turned to eleven as he says that at this rate, Egypt Dude will be searching for a LONG time. Then he does a ghost ninja move and sinks backwards into a wall while he tells Egypt Dude he'll be waiting for him in the one true room. Egypt Dude sweats.

Complaining about how his literal mind-raid is being held up by the mind he's raiding, Egypt Dude is getting frustrated. Oh, poor baby! You're only trying to forcibly take personal information from his skull! Why can't he just stand aside and let you invade his privacy in peace??

He renews his conviction to keep searching this other person's mind for stuff he has no right to know but thinks he does anyway and goes to yet another door. Something about it makes Egypt Dude shout, but I couldn't tell you what. He opens it and sees Yami sitting on a stone chair in the center. Yami says hi, and Egypt Dude takes that as his cue to step into what he assumes is that one true room, but the bricks beneath his feet begin to fall away.

Egypt Dude grabs the edge of a brick that is still intact as he realizes this was a trap all along. He looks down into the dark pit below him, knowing that if he falls down there, he'll be lost forever. Yami walks over to where Egypt Dude is hanging and chuckles at the look Egypt Dude is giving him. He asks if Egypt Dude believes that he's going to give him that final push into the darkness. Yami, you're being such a shit here, I'm actually starting to feel bad for the dick who invaded your head. Still don't believe that you have the murder grin to actually pull off your joke threats though.

See? You've gone soft.

Egypt Dude hesitates for a panel in shock, but takes Yami's hand in the next panel. He sits on his knees, complaining that he had to take help from Yami, and that now he owes him one. Yami points out that this should be a lesson not to go poking around in other peoples' brains, and that he thinks it's about time Egypt Dude left before he gets really hurt. Egypt Dude concedes that he lost this game as he gets up to head for the door.

Yami watches Egypt Dude for a moment before asking if this is the beginning of their beautiful association, and Egypt Dude confirms that it is before he says his final goodbye and exits. Yuugi is hovering over him in physical reality.

Sweating and panting, Egypt Dude doesn't answer Yuugi for a moment while he thinks about how his intention to examine Yuugi's brain was turned back around on him. Yuugi asks Egypt Dude if he's okay, because he's pale and his eyes were going crazy a moment ago, probably not for the first time. Egypt Dude says he's fine. Obvious lie is obvious.

He stands up and says that Yuugi is an odd child, which is a rude-ass thing to say, especially when Yuugi couldn't possibly know what you mean by that, Egypt Dude. Jerk. Before he walks away, though, Egypt Dude brings out the Millennium Puzzle from the many folds of his robe and hands it back to an ecstatic Yuugi. Yuugi puts it back on, thanking Egypt Dude, though he has no idea where this stranger happened to pick up the puzzle. Egypt Dude says it's actually him that's indebted to Yuugi.

Yup, Yuugi comes to the unmistakable conclusion that this fucker really is off his rocker. Even as he's cross-eyed and goofy in the previous panel. Guess it takes one to know one.

Egypt Dude ponders the possibility that Yuugi is not aware of his daily possessions. Meanwhile, Yuugi is still giggling that he should be anyone but himself. Egypt Dude asks what Yuugi's name is, and after learning it thinks about how similar Yuugi and Yami appear in looks but how Yuugi doesn't know a thing about the other personality inside. He speculates that perhaps the power of the puzzle brought out a personality that was already in Yuugi, but buried.

He tells Yuugi to stay vigilant, because he'll eventually come to know about the other personality he has. Yuugi is confused, but Egypt Dude continues, saying that eventually Yuugi will find out what the true power of the Millennium Puzzle is, which is his fate as the solver of the puzzle. Yuugi repeats these things that he will supposedly discover one day with a shocked expression.

I can finally start calling you something other than Egypt Dude! Shadi chuckles about how he's never actually told anyone his name before as he heads for the door, leaving a sweating Yuugi behind. Yuugi turns around to look at Shadi retreating as Shadi is saying that there is one more judgment he must make on the other guy who dared to desecrate the tomb whose contents created the exhibit he's walking through.

Yuugi knows he'll be seeing Shadi again. What tipped you off, kid? Was it the Millennium Items he has that are connected to yours? The fact that he actually gave you his name when he never does that? Or was it the fact that he just basically admitted that he was going to attempt to murder your grandfather's friend that invited you to the museum today?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This was probably the most enjoyable by far. The way Yami interacted with Shadi was, dare I say, inspired. He's simultaneously annoyed with the intrusion into his mind room, intrigued by Shadi, and a cocky little asshole to him, all of which are understandable and well-executed in the way they're shown. It was so natural, just like it seemed natural that Shadi would be so comfortable with walking into others' heads without a single thought, because it had never occurred to him that the inhabitant might fight back. The way the mind-fuckery was addressed was great too, because it's clear that Shadi never thinks about how his use of the Millennium Key is actually an intimate violation. He just does it, and we can extrapolate from his attitude that he's done it many, MANY times before. Yami makes him reconsider what it is he does and encourages him to tread lightly, reprimanding him for being so grossly invasive.

There is snark above, to be sure, but I can't truly say I saw a single thing in this chapter that actually annoyed me to the point of it being a legitimate complaint. This chapter is the most well-constructed out of them all, and it didn't even have the level of dialogue or thought bubbles the others had. It's a perfect example of how the visual medium of a comic SHOULD be used in a primarily visual way, without such heavy emphasis on the characters expositing things to the audience in a clunky, unrealistic manner.

I hope Takahashi has more of these chapters in store, because these are what reading comics is REALLY about.