Well, let's hope that Takahashi managed to grab some more sugar for a proper cake this time, shall we?
"I told you to KNOCK!"
As impossible as it seemed, Kaiba's dragons have been wiped out, and he's freaking out. He can't believe Yami managed to summon Exodia either, because it would have taken a miracle. This is again in a bubble normally reserved for intense thoughts, but Yami responds to it like it was said out loud. He says that if you combine your heart with cards, miracles can happen. He also states that he wins again, which I'm sure was intended to fluster Kaiba into his current stutters.
Yami shouts that a penalty game is in order for Kaiba, atonement for his deeds this day. Kaiba looks terrified, as he should, because he still has nightmares about the last time this happened. Yami points, and declares the penalty game: MIND CRUSH.
No, just shatter him as a person. Maybe that bone will heal right this time if we just break it into a million pieces. That's the logic here, right?
Goodness gracious.
Jonouchi celebrates Yami's victory with leap for joy and a declaration that he just kicked that Kaiba's butt. Anzu is still holding a sleeping Jouji, though I'm kind of reluctant to call it sleeping so much as a coma at this point. Instead of jumping, she wipes a tear from her eye as she dismisses distinguishing between the two personalities in Yuugi's body. All she knows is that Yuugi isn't weak anymore.
Anzu, that's an asshole thing to think, and you know it. Partly because you chose THIS moment to judge him "no longer weak," and partly because he was never weak to begin with. If this is still referring to Yuugi's fears, just say that he's not afraid anymore, because that's a more accurate statement anyway.
The crowd is at first confused, the champion they had been rooting for being defeated now and all, but they change allegiances in record time as they shout Yuugi's name. Yami looks at Sugoroku's deck as he thinks on how he did what was requested so irresponsibly. Then he looks to the side, presumably where Jonouchi and Anzu stand, thanking them and Honda silently for their support. He's staring at the cheering crowds with a dignified stoicism.
While Jonouchi and Anzu continue to cheer Yami like they did before it was cool, Jouji finally responds to the noise and wonders how he's supposed to nap with all this racket. I guess the same way you've been doing it this whole damn time, Jouji. While he's looking around him, Jouji spots the gun still pointed at Anzu. He closes his eyes in a hurry, deciding to pretend to be asleep.
Jonouchi thinks about what he can do, but can't come up with anything. Anzu's still in danger, and he doesn't think he can take those two guys at once. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he sees a shape approaching the guards from behind. The shadow hits the one holding Anzu hostage over the head, and Jonouchi turns to see him grinning.
Jouji is no longer pretending to sleep, and is rooting for Honda to straight up murder those fuckers. Anzu is also cheering her friends on as they beat up these guards. Honda tells the guards that under no uncertain terms can they die, because they still have a whole world of men they haven't beaten to a bloody pulp yet. It's on their bucket list, clearly. One of the guards lifts himself from the floor with a curse and comes up behind Jonouchi to spin him around and point another gun at his cheek, determined to shoot him.
Jonouchi flinches, but a voice from behind the guard shouts that he's done enough. The guard identifies Mokuba as Baby Kaiba tells him to let Jonouchi go, because the game is over. The guard lowers his weapon with a dumbfounded look on his face, and Jonouchi shoves him aside with a foot, demanding he get out of the way.
Honda asks how the kid is related to Kaiba, and Jonouchi says Mokuba is the younger brother who worships Elder Kaiba like a little simpering brat. Honda doesn't take kindly to the language, because Mokuba saved him by opening the exit for him after he'd been stuck in there for a long time, even though Mokuba IS a little Kaiba. It's Jonouchi's turn to be dumbfounded, but Mokuba brushes off the implications that he's nicer than his name lets on, because all he was doing was paying the debt he owed to Yami/Yuugi. Mokuba narrows his eyes at something off the edge of the panel and it turns out to be Yami.
Jonouchi and Anzu immediately accost him with congratulations pats on the back, and Honda gives him a thumbs-up. Yami is happy to see him, but doesn't seem too surprised. He must have read the script. Honda leans over to whisper to Jonouchi that Yuugi seems a little different, but Jonouchi just says that Yuugi is Yuugi and that's all there is to it. After a moment of togetherness, Yami thanks everyone for being there for him, because their support saved him. Everyone smiles.
Mokuba watches them all for a moment, then swings around, telling his guards that it's time to go. Anzu notices and calls out his name. He pauses as she asks why his brother wanted this revenge so badly. Mokuba stays silent for a moment before saying that it all started that day Seto played chess in his picture...
Flashback alert! Mokuba tells Yuugi and friends that because his mother died giving birth to him and his father died in a car accident three years later, he and Seto were left alone without parents. Mokuba refers to when he was five as when they were alone without parents, so there's a two-year gap in his story where I have questions. Their relatives apparently spent all of Seto and Mokuba's inheritance and dumped them in an orphanage. Seto reassured Mokuba that someday he would make sure they had a good life, but he also warned him not to show weakness to anyone, or it would be all over. Not sure how showing "weakness" would prevent you from giving Mokuba a good life someday, but okay, Baby Seto.
Mokuba goes on to say that the day they were playing chess in his picture, Gozaburou Kaiba came to the orphanage looking for a boy to adopt, and smoking a cigar to ensure the kids all suffered from second hand smoke inhalation. He was the president of Kaiba Corp and a world champion at chess. Gozaburou talked to Seto, who had a proposition for him. Gozaburou laughed at it, but Seto was dead serious when he bet he and Mokuba's adoption on their chess match. Gozaburou, thinking it was interesting that this kid thought he could beat him, agreed to the match.
Apparently Seto has always been a little cheating cheater, and won only because the game was set up in his favor. Once their last name was changed to Kaiba, Seto and Mokuba had a rougher road ahead than they thought, though.
At a board meeting, some years later, Seto declares that he's the new CEO, and Gozaburou just squints at him at first. Then, he admits Seto wins the game and as the loser, Gozaburou's fate is clear. He jumps out the window, committing suicide, which seems like an overreaction to me. The message Seto got from this was not that his adoptive father was unbalanced and unhinged, but that defeat was equal to death, and he never forgot it. Okay, THAT'S why he interpreted Yami's initial penalty game for him as a metaphor for defeat rather than a lesson in how to treat what he saw as mere tools with respect. That actually makes a lot of sense.
Everyone stares as Mokuba sheds a tear at the close of his story. He wonders if maybe his brother wouldn't be a bloodthirsty maniac and remembered how to smile if he hadn't cheated his way into the Kaiba mansion all those years ago. Or, maybe he just would have been more genuine in his smiles. Yami tells Mokuba that Seto is currently picking up the pieces of his shattered heart in the dark.
Mokuba looks over and sees Seto sitting slumped with his mouth hanging open and eyes wide.
What am I thinking? There's no way a protagonist is ever going to admit to any wrong-doing here.
As Baby Seto sifts through the pieces in front of him, he finds a couple that fit together and smiles. Mokuba asks Yami if Seto will come back, and Yami confirms that once the puzzle of Seto Kaiba's heart has been reassembled, he'll come back. Mokuba promises to wait for his big brother, always.
I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye. Give me a minute.
Outside of Kaiba Land, Jonouchi claims Hanasaki called him back with the good news that Sugoroku's operation was a success and he'll be just fine. Did Hanasaki call that guard's phone? Did Jonouchi KEEP that guard's phone? Who knows. Yuugi is back out and is ecstatic that his grandfather is going to be okay. He even does a little spin with Jonouchi as though they're ballroom dancing. The gay is strong with this panel. They want to see Sugoroku, so everyone agrees to go to the hospital together. Jouji, back in his harness on Honda's back, says that he'll go too because he wants to say HELLO NURSE! I liked Jouji better when he was in a coma and not acting like he had a choice in being carried to a hospital or not.
Jonouchi stretches, commenting on how long a day it's been, but stares a moment at Yuugi as he realizes that he's back to normal. He begins to say something, but when Yuugi asks what's up, Jonouchi just smiles and tells him not to mind. They go along their way, roughhousing as they walk away from Kaiba Land. Yuugi already knows what Jonouchi was going to say, because he won't forget fighting alongside him and his other friends anytime soon.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It was a better wrap-up than the one to Shadi's arc, that's for sure. I don't feel like any characters were neglected or forgotten in this one, and I feel like everyone who had a part in this were given adequate development. No innocent bystanders were injured or disfigured in the making of this chapter either, which is a preferable state of affairs for me.
Kaiba's backstory is interesting for a couple of reasons. It's something like Jonouchi's except much more explicit in its depiction of abuse. Takahashi doesn't pull any punches here and gives the cold, hard truth, likely because of how young Mokuba is. He's old enough to understand what happened, but not old enough to have any discretion in talking about it, so I don't view the reveal of Seto Kaiba's past as a lack of subtlety on Takahashi's part. More like an appropriately blunt depiction by someone young and without secrets.
Gozaburou Kaiba was an interesting apparition in Mokuba's flashback too, because he was clearly a very brutal, very disturbed individual. He thought of everything as a game, and taught Seto to think of everything that way too, right up until the end. Strange, though, Seto Kaiba took the lesson that Gozaburou taught him at the end to heart, but what about the one at the beginning of their association? Seto rigged the chess game so he could win, and Gozaburou didn't kill himself when he lost that one. He probably knew that Seto was cheating all along, and was interested to know just how far Seto would go to get him and his brother adopted. By losing, Gozaburou was actually gaining something; a manipulative and intelligent child who could be trained to be as ruthless as required to be an heir to his company. It was only when Gozaburou lost that very company to Seto that he committed suicide, because he had at that point lost everything important to him to someone he had slated to be his heir anyway. The fact that Gozaburou's suicide was not just about losing a game was something that Seto overlooked, because he was so brainwashed by that point that everything was about winning or losing, not the degree at which that happened.
I don't think that we'll get much more information about Gozaburou as a person, which is a bit of a shame to me. I'd like to know more about him, because he's one hell of an interesting part of a backstory. I wonder if Seto will ever come to know that distinction, though, and understand that not only are there not just the two options of winning and death, but that losing can actually be valuable sometimes.
If Yami didn't fuck up this time, maybe losing in this match will have been just the kind of valuable Kaiba needed. That's one hell of an "if" though.
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