Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 113 Stealth in the Night!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, READERS! This is my absolute favorite holiday, and has been ever since I was a child, for a combination of various reasons. I have many positive memories around this time of year. I love fall in its entirety, with its mild days and cool nights. I love the iconography, the symbols, that encourage one to reflect on one's mortality and the more frightening aspects of life. I love the ability to face those symbols by becoming one of them, by putting on a mask and stepping into those shoes to explore the darker side of our psyches.

And, of course, I love walking around in the night, blending with the shadows while I search for adventure and fun.

Honda is searching for something quite different, though.

 

Not that there isn't adventure in a prison break. 

Bandit Keith lurks behind another dark corner, and I wonder how he catches sight of Honda running by when he's still wearing his stupid sunglasses, let alone identifies him as one of Yuugi's friends. Regardless of how he's seeing at all, Keith wonders what Honda is doing wandering the castle so late at night. He takes off his sunglasses (and here I was supposing they must have been fused to his skull) and chuckles, admitting that he's not really one to talk. 

Meanwhile, Honda has flattened himself against a wall to look around a nearby corner, and silently curses at the guards he sees standing on either side of a stone archway leading into what looks like a spiral staircase. Still, he figures this must be the place, or else they wouldn't be there. Honda also figures that they saw him when both of them call out, asking who's there. 

But they're actually talking to a confused-looking Bakura scratching the back of his head, demanding to know what the hell he's doing there. He haltingly says that he was looking for a bathroom, and Honda grinds his teeth from around his corner, wondering what Bakura is doing up so late. Uh, didn't he just say he was looking for a bathroom? One of the guards shout at Bakura to use the bathroom that's in his room, and as he's muttering his apologies, the other guard tells him to get out of there. He wishes them a good night as he walks past them toward Honda.

Bakura breathes a sigh of relief and asks Honda what he's doing here, in a new bubble I can only assume indicates whispers. At least, for now. Honda says he should be asking Bakura the same thing. The both of them look back out in the direction of the guards to the stairs, and Bakura assumes that this is the Kaiba rescue Honda was alluding to during dinner, which Honda confirms. Bakura asks if Honda wants him to tag along, but Honda turns down the offer adamantly, insisting he'll be fine by himself. Honda DOES request that the harmless-looking Bakura distract the guards for him again, though.

After Honda has crossed behind a pillar adjacent to the corner, he gives Bakura a thumbs-up and Bakura nods. He calls out, asking if there's anyone there, and the guards come running. They are more than a little peeved that it's him again, and he claims that he's forgotten where his room is. As one of the guards irritably points out the direction, Honda runs behind him and toward the stairs. You guys realize there was a reason Pegasus stationed TWO of you at the door, right? Stupid guards...

Bakura apologizes to them once more while Honda heads down the stairs, finding a set of barred cells at the bottom. He doesn't have to go very far to find one of the people he's looking for.

Honda shouts at Mokuba to wake up, because I guess he forgot he should have continued to be quiet. Mokuba doesn't answer, staring at his knees without expression. The next panel is super weird, what with one of the bars being faded out so that we can see Honda's face through it, and a blank speech bubble covering his fist holding onto the next bar over. Remember, this is the official translation folks! They worked SO HARD on it!

Anyway, Honda mutters that he doesn't think he can open the barred door without a key as he looks down at the lock. He gulps when he hears a gun cocking behind him, and one of the Secret Service Servants joking about not inviting a rat down there. Uhhhh, rats are rarely invited places, SSS guy. That was a pretty lame attempt at a cool and clever one-liner, dude.

We get a shot of the outside of the castle, then head back inside to where Keith is walking down the hall upstairs. He identifies a room that he's pretty sure belongs to someone who will be useful to him, and recalls the information he just learned about needing two cards to participate in the tournament going forward, otherwise he won't be able to win the prize. He's thinking specifically of the Honor of the King's Right Hand card, and internally chuckles, because Bandit Keith always gets his prize by any means necessary.

I like the added detail of Jonouchi sleeping with the lamps on, given that we know he doesn't like the dark. It's small, but reaffirming that helps to solidify character.

Keith thinks Jonouchi looks like a moron when he's asleep. I wouldn't be too smug, because I'm pretty sure EVERYONE looks dumb when they sleep. Keith starts digging through Jonouchi's pockets in the jacket hanging next to the bed, wondering where that card is. He grins when he finds it and prepares to leave, but Jonouchi freezes him with a declaration that he said he'd beat that jerk as he turns over in his sleep. Keith looks over his shoulder tensely to see that Jonouchi indeed still has his eyes closed and is chuckling in his slumber. Keith curses him for talking in the middle of a REM cycle and being so loud about it to boot.

He opens the door, thinking that since he's done there, he'd better skedaddle. As he's closing the door again in the hallway, though, he's frozen yet again by another voice behind him.

Miraculously, this works, and Yuugi mutters a half-asleep good night as he retreats back into his room. Once the door closes, Keith sighs again, grinning as he thinks what a close one that was.

Whoops, relaxed too soon, didn't you, Keith?

Yuugi identifies him correctly and demands to know what he's doing in front of Jonouchi's room. Keith grabs him by the sleeve, cursing him and telling him to shut up. Keith pulls back a fist to hit Yuugi.

I love how these characters start out so very quiet, and then decide to blow it by making a racket. Great idea you morons.

Yuugi stutters at Keith to wait as he stands, which Keith is pretty surprised about. He grabs hold of Yuugi yet again, fist at the ready should Yuugi continue to refuse to go back to bed and he has to beat the dueling spirit right out of him. In fact, he's not even going to give Yuugi a chance to go back to bed, getting ready to shut the little guy up with another face-full of Keith fist.

Surprise! All this nonsense woke him up too, Keith. You're not really upholding the "stealth" part of the title, are you?

Jonouchi is PISSED that Keith thinks he can hit his friend Yuugi. Keith also thinks he can hit Jonouchi, and with a chuckle takes a swing. Jonouchi ducks, headbutts Keith, breaking his nose, and then knees him in the stomach until Keith collapses onto his hands and knees. Jonouchi tells him that he may be good at cards, but Jonouchi is pretty good at physical fights. Keith groans through his hand trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose and IT'S AWESOME.

However, there's a reason Jonouchi didn't use his fists on Keith in the last few seconds. He wants to save them for drawing the cards that'll beat Keith tomorrow. This causes Keith to grin, because he knows he's got Jonouchi's honor card, and he won't be able to duel anyway, making Keith the winner by default. Jonouchi doesn't notice this, having knelt beside Yuugi to ask if he's okay. Yuugi tells him all's well as Anzu opens her adjacent door to ask him and Jonouchi what's happening out there. Jonouchi tells her to get the first-aid kit she supposedly has to take care of Yuugi's face.

While Anzu is grabbing that kit, Yuugi asks Jonouchi what Keith was doing outside his room. Jonouchi figures that Keith was just half asleep and went to the wrong door. Keith, meanwhile, is slinking back down the hall chuckling.

It's 3:20 am.

Stop being a baby about it, Yuugi. He cries out at Anzu's application of antiseptic and she contends that it can't hurt THAT much, bringing up the fact that he's a boy again. Yeah, because that's totally relevant to how much something hurts. Jonouchi hangs out until the patching up looks to be well under way and then lifts a hand to wish them a good night, because he's headed back to bed. Anzu and Yuugi say goodbye while he leaves.

Once Anzu is all finished, Yuugi says his thanks, but admits that he's embarrassed by how much he's always being helped by her, Jonouchi and his other self. Anzu is rendered speechless by this confession, allowing Yuugi to continue. He recalls how Anzu told him that he's fine the way he is the previous night, and she looks kind of surprised he remembered.

Yuugi says that despite what Anzu shared, he can't stay the way he is, because he's unable to protect her that way. WHY is this an issue? Anzu didn't even NEED protecting tonight. What caused this protection urge to be brought up in the first place? She doesn't ask any of these questions, just staring as Yuugi vows to get stronger so that he can beat his other self one day. Anzu nods silently and Yuugi looks determined as he looks up and out of the window next to the bed.

Yeah, it's pretty pathetic that you didn't think to keep your damn mouth shut once you got down there. You didn't really do the title justice either. But at least your predicament allowed us to go back in time a bit. That's pretty cool.

Suddenly, the guard who put Honda in his cell collapses on the floor in front of him, much to Honda's bewilderment. A shadowy figure approaches, prompting Honda to stand and demand who's there. It's Bakura, sporting his hard, possessed look and holding up a set of keys, asking if Honda needs a hand. Also, one of the bars is faded so his face is showing as well. That's just so weird. Honda wonders if it's really his FRIEND Bakura, or someone else.

Once dawn breaks...

Great! Let's get this show on the road! I've got candy to hand out!

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Is it weird that I've MISSED the brawling that Jonouchi was known for in the beginning of the story? I have to say that it was kind of enjoyable to see Jonouchi back in his element after such a long time. We've been following this tournament for such a while that Jonouchi's unique set of physical skills were somewhat forgotten, lost in all the card-game-shuffle. Being reminded that Jonouchi's background consists of street brawling and having him give one of our antagonists a well-deserved nosebleed with it made my day.

It was also reminiscent of how he beat the guy who stole Yuugi's puzzle at the arcade right before Death-T. Right down to not using his hands in the fight, it was a nice little throwback to that one time Jonouchi engaged in his own clever defeat of an enemy in a game. I feel like it was an important point to go back to, because with all of Jonouchi's hard work keeping up with Yami in this arc, a reader can sort of forget that he has a whole host of developments in a different area. This helps to even out how we see Jonouchi nowadays.

You know what else I thought might have been important to this chapter, but DIDN'T happen? Panel planning. Those bars could easily have been moved over to accommodate most of a character's face instead of cutting it right down the middle, OR KT could have gotten a tad creative and not centered the character's face in the panel. There were two instances where this would have been a viable solution, but unfortunately, he chose neither, and decided to fade a bar going down the middle of a panel to show a character's mug. That is just lazy as shit and looks like he didn't give a fuck.

To be fair, we're 113 chapters into this manga. His ability to give a fuck has probably waned somewhat by this point.