Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 102 A Close Fight!

But they're ALL close fights, chapter! This isn't a distinguishing feature! Isn't there anything else you can name yourself after that isn't a tension design as common as WATER? Maybe a new monster or cool move? A comment from one of the attending cheer squad? Kaiba making another bromantic admission that reveals just how badly he wants to make love to Yami? Come on, get creative here!!!

Not THAT creative.

Hell, you could have named the chapter after these two glaring in the opening scene here and it would have been better.

Anyway, the chapter narrates to us how Yami and Kaiba are engaged in a DUEL OF FATE, after which only one of them may enter the castle. Kaiba has 1500 points and Yami has 1200. Close indeed. Jonouchi mumbles that Kaiba is really good for pulling those moves on Yami, but Anzu yells that the duels just getting started and Yami should keep it up. Keith agrees from afar, saying that it's still the first half of the duel in which the players are feeling each other up out, and it's about to get more serious.

Yami thinks that it's about time he and Kaiba settle the score between them, and he WILL come out of this the victor. Kaiba, on the other hand, is convinced Yami can't win because the Kaiba strategy is super perfect! He's already got one of his Blue Eyes White Dragons, probably Sinatra Jr, and once he has all three of them up there, the game is over.

Kaiba, sweetie, this isn't intimidating or clever. It's just cute. And if those are names for your dragons, boy, you can forget about me using them. Mine are way better.

He's doing the math in his head, and adding up the cubed elements of strong, invincible and ultimate comes out to Yami losing. He asks Yami if he's ready, because it's his turn, which returns the magic lamp to his hand and the genie to the field since the trap is completed. Kaiba acknowledges that La Jinn is no match for Yami's magician, so he has no choice but to attack Yami's cards instead. The genie spits fire on one of Yami's sub-cards, which he notes is Swords of Revealing Light with a desperate expression. Kaiba chuckles about his good luck in getting rid of the card that would have stopped his monsters attacking for three turns.

Kaiba says that while his turn is over, he can't leave his lamp card exposed because Yami will only destroy it, so he shuffles the cards like a street gambler, asking Yami to determine which one it is now. Yami reiterates what Kaiba did in surprise, while Kaiba brags about how perfect the combination of La Jinn and its lamp is to protect it automatically. Because of this, Yami's only option is to attack Kaiba's cards and hope he hits the lamp, but if Yami hits the Blue Eyes White Dragon instead, his Dark Magician will be destroyed. He wonders what Yami will do.

Yami announces it's his turn, as Bakura's worries align perfectly with Kaiba's curiosity. Anzu assures Bakura that Yami will be able to do it for sure because she's being extra super supportive in this particular duel, likely just wanting to see Kaiba's ass beat. Yami draws a card dramatically, and looks at it, identifying it as the Mystic Box. He formulates a plan around it then and there, but the audience isn't privy to it yet as he sets the card in his disk and throws it again. His cards are displayed once more, and Kaiba urges him to attack, though he thinks Yami will fall into his trap anyway. Yami smirks and informs Kaiba his genie/lamp combo is finished.

Kaiba's eyes widen in disbelief at Yami revealing a card called Eye of Truth, an Eye of Horus surrounded by a slew of other marks and symbols. Kaiba looks like he recognizes the card, and not in a good way. Yami says he's now able to see just which card he needs to destroy, and Kaiba's sub-cards all flip around so Yami can observe them.

You've beat that card twice already, and you're STILL looking fearful about it?

Jonouchi shouts that he KNEW Kaiba had a Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Anzu says it's not as bad as it could be, given he doesn't have all three. Good job on the jinx, Anzu. Bakura is dumbfounded on hearing that Kaiba has THREE Blue Eyes White Dragons and insists no one can beat a deck like that, despite the fact that he was there watching when Kaiba's deck with multiple Blue Eyes White Dragons was used by that first superfluous asshole. Get your shit together, Bakura. Anzu tells him that Yami has beat the three dragons before and he can do it again.

Yami is far more concerned with the fact that Kaiba isn't using the dragon as his main monster, speculating on what he means to be doing with it as only his sub-card. Kaiba growls and calls Yami a CUR for the ultimate humiliation of exposing his hand. A CUR. Really. Kaiba has yet to draw his polymerization card and was hoping to keep all his dragons safely hidden until he had done so, because using just ONE Blue Eyes White Dragon against a player like Yami is extremely risky. Kaiba is only too aware that if he loses his dragon, Yami can revive it to his advantage with Monster Reborn. Gritting his teeth, Kaiba promises that he'll merge those three dragons yet, though, and humiliate Yami right back three-fold when it happens. It's official; Kaiba's a Wiccan.

During Kaiba's internal monologue, Yami has figured out that Kaiba's plan is to merge the three Blue Eyes White dragons, because it's what Yami would do if he were him. He resolves to stop Kaiba. Somehow. Right now, he doesn't have a card that can stop even the dragon he sees, so he has to bide his time. For the time being, he decides on his course of action with a declaration that he's playing his Mystic Box. Kaiba observes that two boxes have appeared, surrounding his ancient lamp and the Dark Magician each.

Look at this cheeky bastard, wagging his finger at Kaiba! He's the best right now.

The Dark Magician uses its black magic to attack the genie with his extra attack and destroy it, bringing Kaiba's points down to 800. Kaiba curses Yami for breaking his awesome combo that turned out to be less awesome than he thought. In a completely unrelated tirade, Yami yells at Kaiba that he's going to take Kaiba's life points down to zero before he lets him polymerize three Blue Eyes White Dragons.

Kaiba chuckles, telling Yami he can try, but he should be aware that the strategy for combining the dragons is more perfect than he might think. Yami chuckles right back, surrounded by that weird spectral fire everyone's always sporting. Kaiba shouts that it's his turn, so he brings back his Duel Disk and draws two new cards to replace those just destroyed by Yami. He's just GIDDY when looking at them, thinking he'll show Yami a terrifying combo this time.

And you would know about murder as much as you know about narrating your every move, wouldn't you Kaiba?

The clown shows up on the field, arms and legs crossed, and Yami recognizes it even without Kaiba yelling its name. Though he acknowledges that Yami can clearly see, Kaiba tells him that it's in defense mode before he ends his turn. Yami notes that Saggi's defense of 1500 can easily be shattered with his Dark Magician, but something feels wrong about the play. You don't say. Couldn't be Kaiba's smirk and detailed recounting of everything he's doing that's making it the most obvious trap ever, could it? He may as well have "I set a trap for you" written on his forehead in Sharpie. In fact, what I wouldn't give to see Yami take that marker he used to write on those coins in his last match and walk over to write that on Kaiba's forehead right now.

Kaiba thinks that Yami has no choice bu to attack Saggi, because he'll just keep playing the clown over and over until Yami takes the bait, calling this a trap of HELL. So dramatic.

Yami starts his turn by drawing a card, or two. They're Gaia the Fierce Knight and Multiply, which Yami judges as a pretty good draw. He remembers that Gaia beat Saggi the last time he and Kaiba clashed, so he puts Gaia in his Duel Disk as his new main monster and throws it back, attacking Saggi with the Spiral Saber which is actually a lance. No, I'm not gonna get over that.

Yami sees that Gaia is disappearing before his eyes, and Kaiba alerts him that it's not JUST Gaia. It's also the Dark Magician, which has a panicked Yami wondering what's going on. How he didn't see this coming, I have NO CLUE.

Kaiba reveals that he did this damage with the virus card he attached to Saggi, which passed on the disease to Gaia as soon as Gaia made contact with it. Gaia in turn passed on the illness to Yami's hand and then to his entire deck.

This is made all the more apt considering the origin of clowns; deranged syphilitics who had entered the mentally degenerative phase of the STD and were paraded around as entertainment for the non-afflicted members of society. Change one letter in "deck" and you get a VERY inappropriate parallel to a nasty epidemic in European history, and the implication that Kaiba is indeed FUCKING Yami.

His whole deck indeed.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I was somewhat irritated with Kaiba's plan being revealed at the end of the last chapter, especially since it ended up being exposed in this one. It was done too early, and took a lot of the fun out of finding out what his eventual end-game was supposed to be. If Kaiba's musing about it before the Blue Eyes White Dragon in his hand was revealed had been left out, I would have been much more satisfied with Yami's deduction on what was going on, because it would have been less obvious to ME.

On the other hand, I DO appreciate being able to be in Kaiba's head during this duel as much as Yami's. Their status as equals in this game is more firmly established that way, and it seems only right because of how much the audience knows about Kaiba's stakes in this match as well. It can be somewhat difficult to commiserate with Kaiba when you don't know what's going on in his mind because his attitude is so repulsive. Understanding where he's coming from is essential to giving the audience that sense of internal conflict, because both opponents are so equally deserving of winning, and equally in NEED.

So, you see my dilemma.

But, most of all, I think this chapter just needed a better name. My suggestion would have been SYPHILIS. But that also would have been highly inappropriate for the target audience. So, you know...