Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 109 The Deadly Duelist King

I was expecting Pegasus to be featured on the title page for this one, considering he has a castle on his Duelist Kingdom island, and it has been indicated with a very out-of-place panel in the last chapter that he even has himself a nice throne... I WASN'T expecting this:

Well, he's a king, for sure, if one can judge by that crown on his head. Doesn't look like a deadly one, though. At all. Looks like a strangely FLAT one, in fact, compared to the characters on either side of him with all their dimension. Congratulations to Tamura indeed; getting his half-assed cameo in this crazy, crazy comic. Mazel tov.

Now we turn to the FICTIONAL people it's clear KT REALLY wants to draw. Pegasus is all kind of stoked, because he holds up the Blue Eyes White Dragon he claims to never have expected to get like a trophy. No one buys that shit for a second, Pegasus. Kaiba thinks that he never thought Pegasus would have a card that could steal the dragon from him. WHY??? Again, you're supposed to be a genius, and you couldn't even fathom that the creator of this game could have had a card or two up his sleeve created specifically to take you down? How does your mind even WORK?

Yuugi needlessly reiterates that Pegasus took Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Jonouchi needlessly comments on how Kaiba will really be in trouble if Pegasus uses it. Your commentary is INVALUABLE, guys. Yuugi wonders if Pegasus read Kaiba's mind, which is actually a fair question, because Kaiba's predictability could also be at work here, so you never know.

From his perch at the banister, Yuugi can clearly see the listless Mokuba flanked by guards and hanging behind Pegasus's seat some ways back. He recaps for the audience members who skipped out on the last chapter how Pegasus stole Mokuba's soul and the only way to get Mokuba back is to beat Pegasus. He wonders if Kaiba CAN, though, as well as if ANYONE can.

Pegasus smugly chuckles while Kaiba grinds his teeth and silently vows to Mokuba that he'll beat Pegasus and get him back. Pegasus draws a card and ends his turn, simple as pie. A sweating Kaiba tells himself to cool it, because if Pegasus does play his dragon, he has a card that can make him regret it. Kaiba quickly ends his turn after only switching his Rude Kaiser to defense. Pegasus jauntily says it's his turn again, while Kaiba wonders if he'll play the Blue Eyes White Dragon during this one.

With a little chuckle, Pegasus thinks about how he knows what Kaiba is thinking and can read his mind. Pegasus's Millennium Eye behind that curtain of hair flashes as he does that little Mind Scan thing that Kaiba inexplicably knew about in his flashback.

Those SFX are making me think that Kaiba's brain sounds like a freight train. It explains a lot.

Pegasus lays out the strategy Kaiba was planning as using Rude Kaiser as a lure to make him play the Blue Eyes White Dragon, then moving to play the Saggi/Crush Card combo to destroy it along with the rest of his deck. He praises Kaiba silently for his shrewd strategy, but is confident it won't work on this opponent. Well duh. Not when you can see every move he's planning, dude.

He places one card face down and plays Dark Rabbit, a character that looks an awful lot like his favorite comic book character with armor, in defense. He's done with his turn, and Kaiba looks confused by how Pegasus didn't play the dragon after all. He recovers pretty fast from this, declaring it's his turn and points with a pair of cards he's about to play. It looks like he shouts his Saggi/Crush Card combo out loud, which seems really stupid to me, until I learn that he can apparently sacrifice Saggi in order to activate the virus automatically to wipe out the opponent's deck. Uhhhh, that seems to eliminate the point of the secrecy behind the combo's use in Kaiba's last match, but... whatever, I guess.

Jonouchi identifies this as the combo that almost took out Yami in the last duel, while Yuugi assumes that Pegasus will go down if this works. Even though it wasn't enough to take out Yami. Yeah. Anyway, Yuugi notices that a smirking Pegasus is totally ready for this combo, because he's turning over his face down card in response to this, earning a dumbfounded look from Kaiba.

And the magic card is...

Pegasus declares that the virus is dead in the boosted immunity of the clown, and that's not all. Billy Mays, is that you? Pegasus says that since his Dark Rabbit is a dark monster too, its attack doubles to 2200, and he commands the newly beefed-up rabbit to attack Kaiba's Saggi. Kaiba gasps while he loses 1000 life points, and his heart pounds. Looks like Yami's not the only one who can produce that reaction in him.

Pegasus interprets his expression as fearful, but he doesn't think it's enough fear he sees there. He wants to keep fucking with Kaiba a bit more, and produce some true terror in Pegasus's particular world.

Yuugi is convinced this is the power of that Mind Scan they were warned about, and Jonouchi is appalled by the fact that Kaiba won't be able to bluff or anything with Pegasus knowing what he's going to do. Bakura now knows that this is the power of the Millennium Eye. Jonouchi asks Yuugi what one can do to beat the ability, but Yuugi can't think of a single weakness in it. He thinks of Kaiba with a pained face, contrasting the glare Kaiba himself is giving Pegasus right now. He mentally curses Pegasus for seeing through his strategy, and wonders if Pegasus can read his mind even now.

Yeah! Denying reality ALWAYS works!

Kaiba realizes that none of the cards in his hand will beat the Dark Rabbit, so he opts to play another monster in defense and end his turn. Pegasus looks down as he begins his turn, but looks back up when he asks Kaiba if this young man likes cartoons. Kaiba glares on, clearly not appreciating the small-talk that Pegasus is trying to stir up. Pegasus takes Kaiba's silence as a "no" answer, and says that he, in contrast, LOVES cartoons. The characters on Funny Rabbit he watched running around on his television every Saturday morning when he was growing up in the USA were his best friends at one point.

I can just see not-good-at-physical-sports Pegasus getting his ass beat by school jocks at the time. Is it bad of me to LIKE this image?

Anyway, Pegasus apparently cultivates a little garden in his heart for the characters to frolic in to this day, where they never betray him and never die. He wants to creepily invite Kaiba into this world, which I like to think changes Kaiba's garden-variety glare into a "hell no" kind of glare. Pegasus lays down a card with a book on it.

Kaiba is in awe, and not the good kind, as he mentally questions what this Toon World could be. Well, if my experience is any indication, it's a world in which all these kids run around playing card games and occasionally come across magical ancient Egyptian artifacts that screw them and their lives over.

Woah. Toon-ception.

Jonouchi is also asking what that card is, looking for all the world like a child's pop-up book. Yuugi admits he's never seen a card like that before, and is the third to wonder what it is. Kaiba notes that the Dark Rabbit disappeared from the table when the book came out, and asks where it went. Come on, Kaiba, you played a similar card for La Jinn in your last duel. Don't tell me you don't have SOME idea of where that rabbit went.

Pegasus informs Kaiba that all his cards are toon cards that live in his book world, and if Kaiba doesn't see them, they must be hiding.

Pegasus, were you tapping "Shave and a Haircut" on the table?

Headcanon.

The Dark Rabbit waggles its tongue tauntingly at Kaiba before being sucked back into the book, which closes on it. Pegasus describes this creature as SHY when he talks about how it closed itself back in the book and out of harm's way. Kaiba is shocked that he can't attack it now, even though this kind of thing should be well-known to him by this point. Yuugi can't believe that Pegasus did this, and wonders how Kaiba's supposed to fight back now.

Kaiba uses his turn to put a card face down on the table, gritting his teeth some more. Pegasus chuckles that it's his turn again, and he's prepared to show Kaiba something else interesting as he draws a card from his hand. It's the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and Pegasus shows it to him before he plays it.

Kaiba looks absolutely APPALLED by this, while Pegasus explains that even regular monsters are transformed into residents of Toon World. Pegasus asks Kaiba what he thinks, even though it's written all over his face what his thoughts are on this development. Regardless, Pegasus's opinion is that the Blue Eyes White Dragon is more cuddly this way.

Well, I didn't realize it was supposed to be CUDDLY. What's next? Making its WIELDER more cuddly?

Wait, there have already been moments that I've wanted to give Kaiba a supportive hug.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's already begun!

Anyway, at Pegasus's command, the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon shatters the Rude Kaiser. Kaiba growls while his life points continue to show his halved life points. At least he didn't lose any more. Pegasus claims to feel anger in Kaiba's heart, which is kind of a creeptastic statement, like he's groping at Kaiba's chest or something.

Kaiba closes his eyes, as though he's mentally counting to ten, and tells Pegasus that since he seems to know what his hand is, he's going to discard all the cards therein. He slaps the cards on the table, and Pegasus stares in surprise. Kaiba says he plans to draw one card at a time from the top of his deck, so that Pegasus won't know what his cards are any more than he will. He also promises to play in attack mode, but Pegasus doesn't seem at all bothered by this prospect. Kaiba announces he's about to give it a whirl as he draws a new card, thinking he's going to bet everything on it.

He's actually taking a leaf out of Yami's book here! Let's see how it works for him.

Oh SNAP!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Well, it took some pretty dire circumstances, but Kaiba is finally starting to improvise, which hopefully will lead to some of that ingenuity that Yami is known for in his matches. He might actually be starting to understand the way in which Yami can come back around and the role spontaneity plays in that. Taking down some of the structure around which he builds his strategy could give Kaiba a bit more flexibility and maybe help him to see those other avenues for winning. In that respect, I may have judged him as unwilling or unable to learn from his opponent too soon.

And yet, if he learned this from Yami, he did so under the circumstance in which Yami lost, unable to go through with his final attack. Kaiba's duel with Pegasus is clearly mirroring that in the fact that Kaiba was unwilling to keep his resolve on using the Duel Disk when faced with a listless Mokuba using it. Much like Yuugi/Yami in the previous match, he couldn't go through with using his advantage when it could mean people he cares about getting hurt.

So, rather than not learning anything, maybe he picked up TOO MUCH from the last duel, and it might cost him this one too.