Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 084 A Storm in the Kingdom!!

Everyone take shelter! Rain's a-comin'! Maybe lightning too. Maybe a whole hurricane or tsunami. Well, let's face it, if a hurricane or tsunami were coming to that island, it and everyone on it would be obliterated, given how ridiculously tiny it is. Besides, I wouldn't bet on anything THAT serious going down, because there are multiple exclamation marks in the title, and you know what that means...

Absolutely nothing. It means nothing.

Holy ellipses, Batman! This translator went pretty crazy with those dots.

Also, this is what Seto Kaiba gets for being loudmouthed about his plans to go to the island.

Even though Pegasus claimed to already know about this on the previous page, he's freaking out about it on this one, holding his head in his hand over-dramatically while his Secret Service Servant hangs in the background. From a window on the other side of the room, a silhouette calls out Pegasus's name. This person, one of five individuals in the room behind the window, says that their plan has to be changed if this is true. Another silhouette says that the plan can't be changed now, and another curses the fact that Kaiba just won't effing die.

Having gotten over his brief drama-fit, Pegasus now assures the Anonymous Big 5 through their observation window that there's nothing to worry about and there shouldn't be any problems. Pegasus holds up a jaunty finger, saying that Kaiba Corp will still be theirs once he defeats Yami. There's an exclamation point above the Anonymous Big 5's heads, as though anyone needed to know that they're surprised about anything. Pegasus goes on to say that Kaiba won't ever make it to the island, due to something shady being done about this already.

One of the Anonymous Big 5 chuckles, saying he sees, but then pleads with Pegasus to succeed. Another says that if Kaiba is left alive, their lives will be in danger too. He might bust in like Liam Neeson and shoot off all their faces or something.

Just like that.

Pegasus tells his observation window peeps not to worry and steps out onto a balcony overlooking his island to declare that Seto Kaiba will be sent back to hell soon.

Elsewhere on the island, a short recap panel explained that over the last three chapters, Yami defeated the superfluous asshole and got back Mai's star chips. He leaves the duel booth tossing the star chips into the air while the superfluous asshole continues to scream in the box behind him. Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen!

Anzu exclaims Yami's name, impressed. Mai has her arms crossed and wears a small smile when she says that Yami did a good job. He holds out the star chips to her, but she hangs her head. Yami urges Mai to take the chips, only for her to say that she can't because they belong to him. Yami doesn't look impressed with this answer as she continues by saying that she lost, so she's leaving the island due to her lack of star chips.

She turns, preparing to make good on her word, and twists around again to say that it was nice meeting them all. Mai waves to Anzu and Yami but is stopped from walking any further by a shout for her to wait just a cotton-pickin' minute.

That's right, and looking like they got up on the wrong side of the bed. Jonouchi claims to have been woken by all their loud talking, but the duel was even freaking louder, so he can stuff it if he managed to sleep through that shit. Mai gapes at him like an idiot and they all stand around awkwardly for a moment until she asks them with a smirk why it is that they all seem to gather up like that. It's called a GROUP, Mai.

Honda turns to Bakura to ask what time it is, and he looks at what must be the only watch between all of them to report sleepily that it's just a little before eleven at night. Honda looks back at Mai to tell her that for one more hour, they're friends. She looks confused, so Honda explains that while they were eating, she said they were enemies the next day. He reasons that since it's not yet tomorrow, they are still friends, winking. Well, I don't know how sound that line of logic is, but whatever.

Mai looks downright flabbergasted that he used the word friends there. Yami steps in now, telling her that all the duelists are there to fight fair and square, but Pegasus has hired some assholes to prevent them from doing that. He doesn't recognize them as duelists, and he doesn't want them to ruin everyone else's good time. Mai looks thoughtful as Yami holds out the star chips again, urging her to take them and allow them to choose who's the strongest among the true duelists. This is essentially his long-winded way of saying that he doesn't think Mai's duel with the superfluous asshole even counted.

Anzu asks Mai if she didn't say that her dream was to duel Yami. Mai hangs her head and begins to say something when Jonouchi winks at her. He then suddenly blurts out that they're not getting anywhere and cheekily suggests that he has the solution. Anzu asks him what that could possibly be and he grins at Mai, looking a little evil as he does so.

Jonouchi laughs like a hyena and Mai seethes in the foreground, veins popping all over the place as she stutters. She finally gets out an angry demand for him to hold it, yelling that she's not going to let him take them in addition to asking why the hell he thinks he can. She wants them back from that bastard.

This is all it takes for him to sullenly drop them into her hand, mumbling like he DIDN'T deserve the tirade. Mai quiets up real fast, blinking at the chips in her hand like she can't quite believe it was that easy to get them back. Jonouchi looks perfectly charming when he looks over his shoulder at her and tells her that if her pride won't allow her to use the chips, she should throw them into the ocean. It's absolutely her choice, but Jonouchi advises her that he wouldn't throw them OR his dreams away like that.

See? This is why you're my favorite, Jonouchi. It just can't be helped. Mai looks utterly speechless as she holds her regained chips to her chest and Jonouchi turns around and waves goodnight to them, heading back to sleep. Mai addresses Yami, saying that she has no right to play him while she has the borrowed chips, but promises to gain the right to duel him fair and square later. Yami smiles at her, promising in turn to be waiting for that moment.

Meanwhile...

Looks like Kaiba's still on his way. He's sorting through a few cards while he sits in the helicopter and talks to a bald guy sitting next to him. Kaiba asks Baldie how long it's been since Death-T, and Baldie responds that it's been about a year. Instead of freaking the fuck out that he's lost a whole year of his life, Kaiba simply says he sees, and what a year it's been. He thinks he even forgot how the cards felt.

Kaiba, how are you the biggest dork in the world and also so stoic? It seems like these should be mutually exclusive traits, at least in my own experience...

Baldie smiles, telling Kaiba that he and the rest of the staff were waiting for his recovery every day. Kaiba doesn't respond to this heartfelt comment, instead focusing on an envelope that Mokuba apparently gave to the servant he trusted the most. He exposits that it details all of the goings-on of the past year, saying it all out loud like the guy next to him wouldn't already know that. If he DOESN'T already know that, I would like to know what the hell Kaiba thinks he's doing telling a guy Mokuba DIDN'T trust with the information to begin with. He's being pretty careless in the name of exposition, here.

Especially since Baldie is trying too hard to get into Kaiba's good graces, saying unnecessarily that the staff has been worried about Mokuba too. Kaiba reflects on the last time he saw Mokuba and his ridiculous cape/robe thing, begging for approval. He talks about how Pegasus made a secret deal with the Big 5 as well as kidnapping Mokuba, and vows to beat Pegasus with his own hands. Baldie's expression is impossible to read, given the sunglasses he's wearing. At night.

Kaiba opens his briefcase, which not only contains cards, but a device in the upper half. Baldie continues to watch Kaiba fiddling with all that stuff as he reminds Kaiba that there's also someone else on the island he needs to defeat; the tiny gamer dude that started all this mess. He encourages Kaiba to consider defeating Yami a shortcut to regaining his former glory and getting revenge. Kaiba repeats the word revenge, and I hope he remembers that's the REAL thing that started this whole mess. He reminisces on Yami defeating him with Exodia, and the glare on Yami's face as he did so. Kaiba calls Yami's battling splendid.

He zones out as he gazes out the helicopter window, mumbling about how he doesn't really care that his heart seethes with feelings of revenge, because all he wants to face Yami again in a duel. Don't those two things kind of go hand in hand? Are you still sleepy from your long-ass nap, Kaiba? Is that what's making your brain all fuzzy?

His brain isn't fuzzy enough not to notice something peculiar; the moon is moving in the opposite direction than it should be. He fiddles with his cards some more, but he's shifty-eyed as he notes that the helicopter is actually going in circles. Both pilot and Baldy remain silent while Kaiba glances between them. He's totally fucked.

Kaiba fiddles with his cards MORE, chuckling that these two assholes managed to betray him too. Baldie claims that Kaiba's going to die and his body will be dumped into the ocean like shit. The circle of life. Baldie thinks that Kaiba should be ready by now, but Kaiba still has one last request. He wants to raise his hands so that he doesn't get his precious cards all dirty with his blood. It's a testament to just how ridiculous Kaiba NORMALLY is when this request doesn't seem strange to Baldie and he lets Kaiba do it. He even calls those the great last words of the Prince of Cards!

I want to slap every single person in this helicopter. Twice.

Anyway, Kaiba glares at Baldie out of the corner of his eye as Baldie tells him to die. Standard Yu-Gi-Oh fare.

Okaaaaaaaaaay... Not only is that the HAMMER of the gun, not the trigger, but my suspension of disbelief is cracking like a chipped windshield in winter right now. A flimsy cardstock square stopping the hammer like that? Can we get MythBusters in here to confirm or deny that this is possible please? Because I want to be impressed, but...

Kaiba, sweetie, YOU were the one who deliberately put it somewhere you knew it would get damaged, even after you pretended to be so concerned with getting blood on it. I suppose a dent is probably easier to fix than blood spatter, though.

Anyway, why do you need THIS to excuse you being mad at him and breaking his finger, though? Isn't him trying to kill you enough?

THEY can't do that. Yami's the person you can get that death-simulation experience with in a card game, Kaiba. Even in that instance you didn't really die, so...

Kaiba keeps the gun trained on Baldie while Baldie holds up his hands in surrender. He orders Baldie to open the door to the helicopter, and Baldie is is in disbelief at the order. Why? Did you think this crazy fucker would just let you off the hook for trying to kill him? Baldie begs for forgiveness as he opens the door, but he's barking up the WRONG tree, as he should well know by now. Kaiba points the gun at the pilot this time, commanding him to open his door too, much to the pilot's surprise.

Kaiba tells him not to worry, because he knows how to pilot a helicopter, and he's more than capable of getting to the island even if he has to splatter the pilot's brains all over the dash. I... don't think he was worried about YOUR well-being Kaiba, but, I suppose that doesn't really matter to you, does it?

He tells them to disappear into the ocean and they comply, screaming.

That is an extremely specific hope Kaiba. But I do absolutely love that "filthy animals" comment.

Anyway, after his happy foray into cold-blooded murder of men who probably had families, Kaiba begins the final leg of his journey to Pegasus's island, where Yami awaits as well.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The way Jonouchi teased Mai into taking back her chips was inspired. He understands a lot more about her and how she operates at this point than she does him, which is pretty amazing. Jonouchi knew that it would just eat her UP if he were to take the chips instead, so he goaded her into demanding them for herself so HE couldn't have them. Then he did his best to encourage her not to give up on her dreams because she encountered that small setback.

It's funny it worked so much better than Yami's insistence that the duel in which she lost the chips didn't actually count. HE'S the one she really wants to face in the future, but it's JONOUCHI'S encouragement that helps to convince her that she can be worthy of that future encounter, despite her loss before. She's clearly beginning to see him more on a level with herself, as opposed to Yami who she has yet to come up against.

And can we just talk about how badass Kaiba got between his last appearance and this new one? He was pretty laid back when he was being threatened, and he just so coolly took back control of the situation like it was no big deal. Compare that with when he was failing at lying and hitting Yuugi in the face with a briefcase in an hysterical attempt to get him to stop accusing him of theft. Did that coma mellow him out or what!

Shit, put ME in a coma if it means I chill out a little bit in the face of adversity like shitstorms ain't no thang!