... Probably including having been married to a close relative to keep all that "divinity" in the family, and at a young age as well, sadly. Good luck to Yami dealing with uncovering all that psychological trauma.
Cut to a satellite in space, because that's just what we need to find a "doll" right? Oh, never mind, we touch back down to Earth at Kaiba Corporation, Blue Eyes White Dragons in statue form hanging outside and everything, and we know HE'S not looking for Marik's crony. His busy bees have locked onto SOMETHING, though, and are retrieving their image data from the satellite. They zoom and zoom and zoom some more onto West Block "D" for a closer look at the two duelists they detect there. They look up both of them, search the associated decks with the registration number (which might have changed by this point if they won any cards so far), and... nothing.
One of Kaiba's computer bees confirms that there was no luck in finding any god cards in either deck. The
The king bee stutters an apology, explaining that the duelists have spread over a wide area since the beginning of the tournament and it'll take a while to analyze all of their cards. Kaiba proceeds to lecture him about how the Ghouls are hiding somewhere in Domino city, and he doesn't want them sniffing out his Obelisk card before he gets the chance to catch them himself - Kaiba is old fashioned and insists on making the first move. Don't want the uppity Ghouls to make any power plays in this relationship, I see.
Kaiba's image disappears from the screen, but not before he demands his bees contact him the moment they've found those god cards. King bee agrees with a bow to the blank screen. In the flesh, Kaiba is kneeling by his open briefcase, which I guess NOW acts like a transmission device with a screen and a keyboard. I wondered at first what happened to all the rare cards he was keeping in there until I realized they were just beneath the keyboard. I guess that just leaves the question of where he was keeping the keyboard until now...
Mokuba asks Seto if their busy bees haven't caught the rats yet, which is an awful mixed metaphor that I regret having typed into being. Sorry. Kaiba scoffs and says it's only a matter of time before Kaiba Corporation catches the Ghouls with their advanced ground surveillance system that's one and the same to the U.S. Military's. Damn. Kaiba don't play. Mokuba grins at the sky, stating confidently that they'll never guess he and his brother have a net spread across the whole of it. Kaiba laughs his stupid laugh and reminds Mokuba that the whole tournament is a trap for these goons. He loses all sense of mirth in less than a second, though.
Dick.
He strides off down the street, making Mokuba lug his suitcase off after him. Meanwhile, at a dock in "Port Othello", I shit you not, Marik has just stepped off the boat. A couple cloaked minions are waiting to greet him, and instead of greeting them back, he skips right to asking if "everything" is ready. One of his minions answers in the affirmative, and the other hands him the Duel Disk they've been saving him. Marik takes the device and lets it rest in his hand a moment, smiling at how much lighter it is than he thought.
The mustached minion expresses his surprise that Marik bothered to come there himself as they walk into a warehouse toward a motorcycle. He apparently assumed Marik would leave the business in the hands of his most skilled Rare Hunters that are already awaiting orders in the city. Marik holds up a deck of cards and says that his mustached minion should tell it to them, especially the god card in there. As he mounts the motorcycle, he further explains that he's been beginning to forget he's a duelist himself since he's been waiting on the sidelines so long.
His mustached minion informs him that Domino is about an hour from here, and Marik promises to get there in forty minutes instead. Yeah, good luck speeding while being foreign and brown in Japan, dude. Marik asks what Yuugi's current location is, and his shaven minion reads the information from a tablet of some kind - Yuugi is apparently heading west along E Block. Grinning, Marik says that in order to avoid boring Yuugi further, he'll duel him before even getting to the city. The mustached minion is aghast that Marik appears to be implying he's going to use "the doll", so Marik explains, with a roll of his eyes no doubt, that this is why he had "the doll" waiting in the middle of the city for the past two days. He wears the same smirk as before while plotting to inhabit this "doll" and fight Yuugi.
With this final word, he kicks the motorcycle to life and speeds off, thinking the time has come to begin his millennium battle with Yuugi. Cut to Domino City Park, where the mime Bakura was harassing still stands still as a statue. People continue to stare, and someone expresses their disbelief that this guy has been standing there for two days. A silent command prompts the guy to finally move.
The two who were watching begin to argue about whether or not they saw movement, but "the doll" isn't paying any attention, obvi. He opens the shoulder-bag he had been wearing this whole time to reveal his very own Duel Disk.
At another mental command from Marik, "the doll" sprints off robotically, nearly mowing over the shocked couple in his hurry. They hold each other in "the doll"'s wake, wondering what that was all about. Meanwhile, he's continuing to shock everyone he passes with his mechanical running as Marik makes a weird possessive comment about him being his "silent doll". It's creeping me out.
We find Yuugi complaining that he just doesn't understand near an overpass what Marik meant by "doll". Lots of scare-quotes in this recap, friends. Yami tells Yuugi they'll just have to wait if their enemies are still hiding, but Yuugi isn't really down with patience right now. He reminds Yami that they Ghouls want him dead, and could be plotting something horrible as they speak. Yuugi is determined that no one should get in the way of Yami's important quest, and he's not about to LET them do it either. Yami pauses in slack-jawed awe for a moment at his partner's outburst. After all, Yami went to all the trouble keeping that quest a secret and all.
Nope. Yami remains silent while Yuugi explains that he knew from the beginning because Yami wouldn't enter a tournament to win rare cards. He deduced Yami must be after something really important, and despite Yami's continued moody silence, Yuugi would like him not to worry and work together with him for it because Yuugi is convinced it's HIS duty to find those memories too. Yami is once again taken-aback, so Yuugi cradles the puzzle in his hands, explaining that he took years completing it, meeting Yami, who gave him courage when he had no friends and was weak. Yuugi considers all the friends he has now, and credits Yami with making that wish come true.
Yami smirks and says that Yuugi made his friends all on his own, but Yuugi doesn't acknowledge this. He just goes on to admit that part of him wants Yami to stay with him forever, but speculates that this is because he's far too dependent on Yami. He even goes so far as to say that he may be TRAPPING Yami inside him and using his strength to protect him and his friends. Not sure how you could be convinced you're not strong yourself when you also think you're trapping a powerful mystical soul in your body and forcing it to use its powers to your benefit, but okay boy.
Yuugi concludes that he can't let Yami protect him forever, so there's only one thing to do now.
Yuugi looks behind him at Yami's statement that something is coming, and sees the weird robotic running "doll" heading straight for him. He skids to a stop on his heels while Yuugi asks him who the hell he is. He doesn't say a word, just holds up his arm to show Yuugi the Duel Disk there.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? As much as I tend to enjoy heartfelt discussions between Yami and Yuugi, this one rubbed me the wrong way a bit. I'm not crazy about how little Yami said to correct all of Yuugi's self-deprecating assumptions. He didn't say anything whatsoever regarding Yuugi's postulation that he was TRAPPING Yami, an interpretation that would require some quick walking back to avoid making anyone putting it up think it's valid. Or maybe that's my real-world experience talking, overpowering the critical assumption that KT just needed to keep the conversation short in order to manage chapter length.
And the discussion DID seem a bit shorter than some of the others. I'd have to go back and count panels or something to be sure, but I'm reasonably convinced it's shorter because the chapter covered more points of view in a more equal manner than usual. It was cut into rough thirds, with Kaiba, Marik and Yuugi/Yami all getting approximately the same amount of time. I think Kaiba might have gotten a bit less than the others, but that may be because he really didn't have anything new to add to the narrative. He showed the rather impressive (read: EXCESSIVE) amount of resources he's dedicated to finding a couple of cards, giving the impression that these efforts will probably lead him to Yami's match with this "doll" guy.
Speaking of which, I'm a little incredulous at this concept. Here's a guy, clearly flesh-and-blood given that Marik can control him at all, but he appears to be completely mindless. He stands for DAYS without food or water or shelter, waiting for Marik to hop inside and take the controls. But those controls have got to be a bit rusty, considering not just that the guy doesn't use them himself, but also he's running on empty. No fuel. How the fuck does this dude even WORK the way Marik treats him?
I can just HEAR my mother lecturing my ten-year-old self not to leave my Barbies out in the rain again or else I would ruin them.
You know, I get why Pegasus had to duel Yugi/Atem. It was a formality The Big 5 imposed on him. But why does MARIK have to duel Yugi/Atem? Why not just go straight to murder? I mean, sure, Atem has magic powers and all, but couldn't he at least try?
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling it's some sort of desperation to prove he can beat the pharaoh that he's been subordinate to his whole life. Kind of a statement that the pharaoh ain't shit, and he can totally defeat him at his own game (so to speak) before offing him.
DeleteThat's only a feeling though, since I don't believe KT really specifies the reason why Marik wants to win against Yami before killing him. It's probably more about trying to keep the card-game action going over the expediency of going straight in for the kill.