Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 103 Hang in There!

Only three more days until Friday, friends! Just a LITTLE longer! Then it's off to the bar with your work friends to discuss how much HELL the week was while kicking back a few shots and trying not to worry about what Monday is going to be like. Or, rather, trying not to worry about what the next duel is going to be like, in Yami's case. He's probably going to need as hefty a drink after all this is over as any office monkey.

 Even though you've been exposed to card game syphilis by the office bike.

Kaiba's deck has been around the block, it seems, but he's not the least bit ashamed. Yami is looking scared shitless by this virus Kaiba has inflicted on him, and Kaiba just laughs about how any monster in his deck with higher than 1500 attack points has been taken out, making Yami's deck as good as dead. Holographic smoke smolders around Yami's deck-holder as he repeats this reality in disbelief.

Yami is doing that weird thing where his knees are bent and it looks like he's running or something, though he's clearly standing still. What the... Yami curses the fact that he's lost all his best monsters and wonders how he's supposed to fight with low-level monsters. Across from him, Kaiba is looking forward to really letting Yami have some terror and freezing his blood. He just wants to scare Yami, I guess? Okay.

Jonouchi is pissed that Kaiba is using "biological weapons" while Anzu calls out Yami's name. Bakura reiterates the fact that Yami will have to use low-level monsters combined with spell cards now, followed by Anzu's further unnecessary comment on Kaiba having three Blue Eyes White Dragons. Jonouchi insists there has to be a way for Yami to come back from this. Anzu silently begs Yami not to lose.

Keith is still lurking, thinking that Kaiba was planning on destroying Yami's deck with the virus card since the beginning, and that it decided the outcome of the duel. He compares Yami to a chicken with its wings torn off, and restricted thus, even though chickens are flightless birds and don't really need their wings anyway, least of all to win fights. Nonsensical similes aside, Keith is convinced with Yami's now shit deck, all Kaiba needs to do is play one high-level monster to bring Yami to his knees.

What if he draws one of his high-level monsters? Does he have to redraw?

My question is immediately answered, because Yami drew two monsters; Silver Fang and Summoned Skull. Summoned Skull is way over 1500 points, so it's not going to work. He doesn't draw another card to replace it, though, just setting down Silver Fang in defense position. It pops up when Yami throws his disk again, and Kaiba taunts him with the comment that the only cards left in Yami's deck are junk designed to lose.

It's his turn, so he draws two new cards himself, chuckling at the Mystical Elf and his second Blue Eyes White dragon. He mentally encourages Yami to keep running and hiding with plays to block his legitimate cards and their wrath, because all the while more cards useful to him will fall into his lap. He's SO ready to collect the third Blue Eyes White Dragon and polymerization, so he can complete his ultimate monster.

He pulls back his disk, sets down his Blue Eyes White Dragon in a sub stage until he needs it, and throws the Duel Disk back out again.

I thought that close-up on Yami's eyes might have indicated that he had something behind his wolf, but Kaiba's ox destroys it without incident, causing Yami to growl in frustration. Jonouchi shouts Yami's name and Anzu asks if he can't play strong monsters anymore. GIRL, ARE YOU NOT PAYING ATTENTION?? Gracious child, it's not like you have a phone to be distracted by or anything.

Honda frets about how Yami's going to be tortured to death, and Bakura goes the wiser route of just saying Yami's name. Less chance of pissing off the reviewer that way, well done. Kaiba laughs and tells Yami that he shouldn't think this is the strongest monster he could face, because there are even stronger one's in reserve. No shit, Kaiba. He saw your first Blue Eyes White Dragon, remember?

Yami looks downright pissed at Kaiba's patronizing speech, especially when he starts pointing out the fact that the relatively tame Battle Ox has become a bit too much for Yami to handle. Kaiba takes stock of what he has so far; two Blue Eyes White Dragons, a Negate Attack card just in case, and a Mystical Elf card to restore his points. It's looking like the perfect hand, and Kaiba thinks along the same lines as Bandit Keith; he's already victorious.

Well, better decide on something soon, because it looks like Kaiba's getting a bit antsy. He wants to murder some more of Yami's monsters already, leaving Yami no choice but to draw another card. Yami casts a determined glare at Kaiba, silently vowing not to give up until his life points hit zero.

Yami draws TWO new cards, Griffor and Mammoth Graveyard. He's really happy to see Griffor, because he's already got an idea of what he could do with it. He sets it in his disk and tosses it out there, introducing Kaiba to his new main monster. Kaiba judges Griffor as just one more useless monster in defense that his ox will chop up and leave Yami one step closer to his doom. Yami chuckles at this, because let's face it, Kaiba's face when Yami informs him that Griffor isn't in defense IS pretty funny.

Yami flips one of his sub-cards, revealing it as Horn of the Unicorn and his intentions to use it to modify Griffor to attack. This puts it 200 points over the Battle Ox and allows it to take down its enemy but good. Yami tells Kaiba he can lose those 200 points now, thank you very much, while Jonouchi obnoxiously asks how Kaiba likes them serious apples. Kaiba seems to like them alright, considering he's chuckling himself now.

In fact, he says he should actually THANK Yami for destroying his puny Battle Ox. Yami stares, and Jonouchi gets all kinds of pissed about how nothing shuts this prick up. Kaiba figures he doesn't NEED to say to Yami that his monster remains in attack position until his following turn, but he does anyway, because it's absolutely true that nothing ever shuts this prick up. Not even obvious fucking shit. Kaiba mockingly hopes that Yami made the correct decision.

Kaiba begins his turn with a smirk, quickly followed by him playing one of his spell cards in the sub-stage, which Yami gapes at. It's that Mystical Elf card, which he uses to restore his life points from Yami's previous attack and bring them back up to 900. Sweating, Yami despairs at how all his damage was undone and wonders if Kaiba lured him into attacking his Battle Ox JUST to get him to put a new monster in attack mode. Kaiba chuckles his annoying chuckle once more.

Nice SFX there. Very appropriate.

Kaiba is just GIDDY that he has all three of his dragons AND the polymerization card now. That infuriating chuckle is just EVERYWHERE on this page, fuck. Kaiba sets his new cards in his Duel Disk while Yami looks on with heart hammering. This kid KNOWS what's coming next. Kaiba acknowledges that he'll need another turn altogether in order to fuse all three dragons, so he'll just play the first dragon during this one. Sinatra it is.

With a mental declaration that Yami is FINALLY at his mercy, Kaiba tosses out that Duel Disk.

They act like they've never seen this fucker before. No guys, the REAL play he's been waiting to make is still around the corner. Can't you save your awe until then, please?

Kaiba tells Yami to get himself ready because this is it for Yami's trash monster. The Blue Eyes White Dragon takes out the garbage with its Burst Stream attack, leaving a wincing Yami with only 100 points. Kaiba continues to giggle like a moron when he asks Yami if that wasn't a close one for him. He reminds Yami that it's his turn, and a growling Yami draws a card. He plays his Stone Guardian in defense and ends his turn without any fanfare.

Kaiba begins monologuing, talking about how Yami introduced the thirst of defeat to him and left him with an insatiable hunger for victory until this moment, when he promises that he'll be the one to inflict the same on Yami now.

You said it, Gretchen.

And he said he would stop Kaiba from doing it. Yami lied SO HARD.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Yami is just barely taking the chapter title's advice, and this is the first time in a while that the manga has managed to convince me that he's in a whole WORLD of shit. He's barely gotten to display the level of cockiness that he's been able to within the rest of the tournament, and his gaping in shock far outweighed it. It's only too clear here that all of his effort up until this moment has been nothing in comparison to this.

It's really reminiscent of his last duel with Kaiba, back in Death-T, struggling to overcome the sheer might of all three of Kaiba's dragons when he was down to his last leg. This will be even tougher, of course, because now all of the dragons will be combined into one and will probably have the attack points to match their combined strength.

Which is GREAT, because I was concerned with how little I gave a shit about Yami's duels and how little immediate struggle they evoked in the story line for him. Kaiba really brought out in Yami what Jonouchi has had during the entire tournament - TRUE TENSION. It's even greater that this was so unexpected, because I had been thinking this would be yet another easy win for Yami, and his treading water really came out of left field for me. I probably SHOULD have known Kaiba would be the real challenge here, but KT lulled me into a false sense of security with Yami's string of success. Well-played, sir.

Let's just hope that there isn't a whole chapter devoted to just ONE turn, like in the last clash between these two. THAT'S a move that does not bear repeating.