Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 105 No Mercy

That's too bad, because Yami needs all the mercy he can get if he keeps betting his life on freaking cards. I swear, the boy does it at every available opportunity. It's like he has a death wish, but he can't seem to get it across in any other way. It must make it doubly complicated that, if he's a spirit that came from the puzzle (not a part of Yuugi all along), he's not exactly alive. He's sharing a body with Yuugi, after all, and he's already said that if one of them dies they both do.

Guys, what if Yami just hates Yuugi and wants someone to kill them both?

And before you ask, yes. Yes, it's fucking AWFUL living in my head.

Mammoth Graveyard makes a sound like a beating heart within the ultimate dragon as Yami explains what Kaiba did at the end of the previous chapter; the fusion of light and dark monsters is like a deadly organ-transplant rejection for the both of them, decomposing their unstable body. Kaiba stutters out that his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon is rotting in disbelief.

Yami says that the dragon will lose 1200 attack points every turn, because that's how many Mammoth Graveyard had. He informs Kaiba needlessly that HE'S now the one who's losing, asking him what he thinks of that. Kaiba gurgles in response, silently acknowledging that his negate attack only defends against attack spells, but won't separate the dragon from the mammoth. It's looking like the fusion is doing its job, taking out three hundred attack points a second off the abomination.

Honda, Jonouchi and Anzu are impressed with Yami's miraculous comeback, declaring his repeated win, and calling out his name happily, in that order. Jonouchi tells Kaiba to take it, because Yami has NO WEAKNESS, and Anzu stares with admiration at Yami, thinking about how she knew he could do it no matter how bad it looked. Bandit Keith is consulted by the next panel again, where he characterizes Yami's move as "fighting fire with fire" and Yami as pretty fucking smart. Am I the only one who's already sick and tired of hearing from this dude?

Kaiba, sweating, stumbles over his own tongue telling Yami that it's not over yet.

As the Kuribohs explode and diffuse Kaiba's fruitless attack, Kaiba curses the vermin with gritted teeth. Kaiba acknowledges the fact that his dragon is growing weaker every turn, it can't hit all of the Kuribohs at once to get rid of them, AND he still has five cards out so he can't draw a new one. Now who's getting fucked?

Yami draws a new card and ends his turn, while Kaiba wonders if his scummy opponent managed to end things. Yami confirms his checkmating of Kaiba with a smug grin.

Oh no. No, no, no no nonononono....

NO NO NO. I don't wanna have feels for this fucking bag of dicks! NO!

Just remember this fucker's smug monologuing in the last chapter, Writch! He's the actual worst! He IS!!

... And yet when Kaiba clutches the pendent around his neck and thinks Mokuba's name yet again, my heart shatters. It just fucking breaks. Yami wonders if Kaiba isn't forfeiting his turn, since he hasn't done anything in a while. Grinning, Jonouchi shouts that Kaiba's just standing there must mean that he's accepted his defeat. Bakura points out that Kaiba's turn is over with his having done nothing, and the dragon's attack points have continued to drop as well, now sitting at 900.

Yami realizes it's his chance to defeat the dragon, so he declares it's his turn now and he reveals all his cards, banishing all the Kuribohs from the main stage to play a new main monster. It's Celtic Guardian, popping out of the Duel Disk to lift its sword on the ultimate dragon in response to Yami's command. It dashes forward and lops off one of the heads of the dragon, eliciting a cry of victory from Jonouchi.

But Yami is surprised to see that the dragon hasn't actually died yet and has only lost one of its heads. Yami is reminded that since the ultimate dragon is a fusion of three, all of the heads have their own attack points and the whole thing won't be killed by an attack on just one. But he's fine with this, because on the next turn when he attacks, he'll win anyway.

Kaiba, looking a tad dazed, lifts his head and tells Yami that the game has only just begun. He's at 400 life points now, having lost 500 life points with Yami's last attack. He refers to the tiles on their dueling stage and says that each of them will represent 100 of his life points, so he'll move back one square every 100 points he loses. Yami stares in disbelief.

He stands on the very edge of the parapet, which is shown to be built upon the edge of a cliff that goes down quite a ways. Kaiba tells Yami that he's got nothing left to lose, so if Yami attacks again, he'll win, and Kaiba will step off the edge. Yami yells Kaiba's name, but Kaiba is smiling again, saying he'll GLADLY die for the cards.

You're killing me with your lies, Kaiba. You're just killing me.

Yami looks absolutely appalled at this statement, though he's staked his life on games more times than Kaiba has. Celtic Guardian kind of gurgles as he and Yami face a suicidal Kaiba. Anzu begs Kaiba not to do this dangerous thing, and Jonouchi calls him a jerk, yelling that this is just a bluff to keep Yami from using full force. Bakura worries about what will happen if it's not a bluff, though, and this causes Jonouchi's expression to turn to one of shock, like he hadn't considered THAT. Keith laughs about how no one knows what's on rich kids' minds.

It's clear from Yami's face that he HAS considered what Jonouchi hasn't, and is freaking out over it. Meanwhile, Kaiba calmly states that Yami's true worth as a duelist will be tested in this moment. He compares a duel to two mirrors being held against each other. What? Like an infinite regression? No, he's saying that the two opponents have to try to be one step ahead, predicting what their opponent would do under certain circumstances, putting themselves into the mind of the person opposite them, and that the only way in which they can know themselves as well. He admits to Yami that if their positions were reversed, he would push Yami over the edge without hesitation.

Yami is flabbergasted by this speech, but Kaiba isn't saying he gives up the fight just yet. He draws a card because Yami made a space in his defenses, and it's Monster Reborn. He resurrects the Blue Eyes White Dragon head that Yami killed with it, shocking Yami all the more. A sleek, shiny new head replaces the melting nasty one that was lost, and it has normal attack points for one dragon as well. But, because it's still joined with the other melting dragons, Kaiba won't be able to attack until the next turn. He tells Yami it's his turn now.

Faced with the three heads, at 900, 900, and 3000 attack points each, Yami knows he can win if he takes out one of the ones with 900 points. But he hesitates, considering Kaiba's threat of suicide.

But Yami, you did such a good job of listening to Sugoroku last chapter!

The Celtic Guardian begins to charge and everyone looks on in shock and horror, except for Kaiba. He looks listless and resigned. Yami stares just before he's shaken out of his apparent trance by Yuugi pushing to the forefront of his mind.

For fuck's sake...

What is it they say? Third time's torture? 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This was some pretty heavy content, even compared to the early chapters. This is the first time that I feel we've come so seriously close to a character actually dying, other than a one-note villain, of course. It's because I don't think Kaiba was bluffing, like Jonouchi assumed. I think he was very serious about going through with the threat of suicide if Yami wiped out his life points.

The moment Kaiba came to the island, he has referred to this idea he has of what a true winner is. I explained back then that Kaiba was alluding to (in a very roundabout way) what he thought made someone the victor in a duel, and it had to do with giving it one's all; doing whatever it took to get that win. He reveals a little more about that point of view in this chapter by telling Yami that opponents should be reading each other, putting themselves in their place, in order to be one step ahead. He believes you need to become your enemy in order to get a good idea of their strategy and stay ahead of it. In a way this is implying that putting himself in the place of Yami, he found himself balking at the suicide angle.

However, he was also frank with Yami when he told him that he wouldn't hesitate to defeat him and push him over the edge. Kaiba is encouraging Yami to OVERCOME those tender feelings that would have made him hesitate in taking Kaiba out. He wants Yami to SERIOUSLY consider actually taking that final step so he can take his own.

Because he's being absolutely serious when he says he has nothing left to lose. His company and Mokuba are both being held hostage by Pegasus, and if he can't get to either one, he may as well be dead. He's channeling Gozaburo in a big way here, who also jumped to his death after losing everything important to him when Seto took over his company. This event taught Seto that his life was tied up in those things he defined himself by, games, and he had to be willing to stake his life on them, facing the consequence of death if he failed to keep them.

Which brings us all the way back around to his view of a true winner - someone who is willing to do ANYTHING it takes. He's playing the Game of Thrones here, because either he wins, or he dies. Those are the two options to him, because he can't just fail. He has no other avenues, and this really is one of those situations where a SIMULATION of death isn't going to cut it as punishment.

Good thing Yuugi stepped in to stop Kaiba's plan from going down, because I can't imagine how Mokuba or Kaiba Corp were going to fare without Seto there to come to the rescue. It's kind of important that he gets his shot at Pegasus, if for no other reason than to allow Yuugi/Yami a reason to understand why they need to save HIM too, later on.