Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 128 The Downfall of Toon World

The path to victory will be much easier to pave for Yami/Yuugi once that nuisance is gone. I can't wait to see how it's going to be done, too. Surely there's another card in Yami/Yuugi's deck that can take that sucker off the table. Catapult Turtle isn't any good, because a book isn't a fortress, but a pummeling is still in order, I think. Or perhaps a drilling. Too bad he can't just pave a LITERAL freeway through it, huh?

It would also make Yami/Yuugi the baddie, but I doubt that would be acknowledged anyway, so fuck it.

Whoops, backtracked a bit here, hang on. Pegasus says it's all in vain hiding the Dark Magician in one of the hats, since Pegasus knows all of Yami's thoughts including WHERE the magician is. A dumbfounded Yami's mind is read, Pegasus chuckles, and Yami despairs that Pegasus knows all his secrets, grinding his teeth. He squeezes his eyes shut and wonders again if there's any way to beat Pegasus when suddenly...

It's a voice coming from deep inside Yami's heart, which is a super weird place for a sound to come from. He recognizes the voice as Yuugi's, which is calling Yami into their soul. Yami closes his eyes and the puzzle flashes.

Yami appears in the hallway between his and Yuugi's mind rooms discovered by Shadi a while ago, Yuugi happily identifying him right away. He's super stoked that Yami actually heard him speak, and Yami looks slightly annoyed as he confirms this. For fuck's sake, Yami, this is really important. Isn't this the first time you've really communicated since that whole mess with Bakura's tabletop RPG? Yuugi says it's the first time they've ever met in their heart like this, and he can't believe it worked, all the while getting a glare from Yami. Stop being a dick, you idiot.

Yuugi explains that he was never able to reach Yami no matter how loud he screamed before, and he could never do anything about the feelings that Yami had been hurt in battle before, until now. It's only after this that Yami looks a little surprised, like he had no idea Yuugi was trying to contact him all this time. He asks why Yuugi called him, and after a pause, Yuugi begs to be allowed to fight too, because he insists Yami can't defeat Pegasus alone.

Yami pauses too, hanging his head and saying there's no way to defeat the Millennium Eye. A thrid pause, and Yuugi asks if it's possible that Pegasus can only read one mind at a time, and wouldn't be able to read his as well. Yami looks shocked by this idea, probably because he's surprised at how stupid he would be to have not thought of it before. He reiterates that if Pegasus is unable to read more than one mind at a time, then they can fight him with two minds.

He looks back at Yuugi, which seems to surprise Yuugi.

No point in ignoring the whole purpose of the puzzle, is there?

This entire conversation must have taken place within the space of that flash it gave out, because Pegasus is still yet to attack, saying he already knows where the Dark Magician is hiding. He asks if Yami/Yuugi is ready, then shouts at the Toon Demon to kill the Dark Magician. Its demon lightning targets the left-hand hat, and as we've already seen, the virtual smoke clears to show that the Dark Magician wasn't there after all. Pegasus is understandably shocked that the magician isn't there and he was wrong.

Yuugi apologizes sarcastically that he hid the Dark Magician in a different hat. Pegasus gapes at the "other" Yuugi, wondering if he switched personalities. DUH. Honda recognizes the original Yuugi as well, and Jonouchi gives voice to Pegasus's worries that Yuugi and Yami switched minds on him.

Announcing it's his turn, Yuugi draws a card and peeks at it before slapping it face down on the table in front of him and ending his turn. He invites Pegasus to read his mind to determine what that face down card is, asking if he can. Pegasus scoffs, his Millennium Eye flashing through his hair as he says he'll know in a moment. The Mind Scan is engaged, but...

Oh snap! Look who's all kind of sassy now!

Pegasus stares, realizing Yuugi's mind has switched out again. Yami says that it seems to take Pegasus a little while to read opponents' minds, since he was able to switch minds while Pegasus was scanning. Pointing, Yami tells Pegasus the way to beat the Millennium Eye is MIND SHUFFLE.

Pegasus's shocked repeat of the phrase in his head just proves that Yami is the king of naming things. Honda shouts that he understands now, explaining that since Yuugi/Yami consists of two minds in front and behind, and if Pegasus reads one of them they can just switch so the other can fight. Jonouchi labels this as a Two-Yuugi Tag Team, and I realize HE'S actually the king of naming things. Sorry, Yami. Jonouchi thinks all that's left to do is figure out how to get rid of Toon World.

Yami yells at Pegasus that it's his turn and to get a move on. Pegasus glares, though he agrees and draws a card as he does so. He contemplates how the Dark Magician is still hiding in one of the remaining three hats, but Yuugi is the only one who knows which one, as well as what the face down card is. Yami glares back at Pegasus, with an image of Yuugi in profile glaring behind him too.

Pegasus closes his eyes to concede that he's surprised Yami/Yuugi came up with a plan like this. However, when he opens his eyes again, he reminds Yami that as long as Toon World is active, his monsters can't attack and all they can do is hide in their hats. Yami chuckles, inviting Pegasus to go ahead and try to pick the right hat with his one-in-three chance, unless he's a coward who can't trust his own instincts without relying on the Millennium Eye. Pegasus looks thoughtful a moment before he ends up taking the bait, his excuse being that it HAS been an awfully long time since he's relied on his own instincts. He puts Toon Demon back in attack mode and shouts at it to attack the middle hat, which it strikes with a bolt of lightning.

Looks like you're a tad rusty, Pegasus. And the little snot sitting across from you is going to use that as an excuse to lecture you, though he's also sure you're aware as the creator of this game that there's always a winner and a loser. Still, Yami wants to tell Pegasus what separates the two people, which is the good judgment to assess the rules and situation and the good intuition to decide when and how to act as what makes the winner. He continues by saying that the judgment comes from experience and confidence, and the intuition from even MORE confidence. Yami asserts that Pegasus has lost his duelist's intuition because he became too reliant on the Millennium Eye for too long, becoming smug and arrogant as a result.

And you can trust there's no one who is more acquainted with smugness and arrogance than Yami.

Glaring, Pegasus questions Yami's statements, which Yami answers with another assertion that Yuugi is ten times better than Pegasus when it comes to REAL confidence. Pegasus growls, eyes narrowing, but they widen again soon enough when he notes that another switch is taking place in front of his eyes. Back at the controls, Yuugi shouts that it's his turn while drawing a card. It's The Living Arrow, which he judges as a card it looks like he can use, so he plays it face down and ends his turn. Yami comes back out to inform Pegasus it's his turn again.

Pegasus gurgles in dismay, thinking he doesn't know what the new face down card played by Yami is either. Yami is thinking he has no idea what these cards Yuugi played are either, but he trusts Yuugi, even though Yuugi's image behind him appears to sport a sweatdrop and a thumping heart. Pegasus draws a card for his turn and is straight-faced as he looks at it, though he considers it GREAT.

Meh, that's not so big of a loss. The hats couldn't have even guaranteed one more turn for Yami/Yuugi anyway, if Pegasus had guessed correctly in destroying one of the last two.

Still, Yami freaks about how the Dark Magician has been exposed. Pegasus brags that Yami should see now the fact that all that intuition garbage he was spewing earlier is dumb, because real duelists use INTELLIGENCE to win without taking risks. It's Yami's turn to growl, while Pegasus calls forth his Toon Demon out of the Toon World book. Yami frets that since only a toon can beat a toon, the Dark Magician is going to die if it attacks. The Dark Magician looks just as nervous as him.

The goofy Toon Skull Demon pops out of the book like a jack-in-the-box, hovering over the Dark Magician as lightning surges out of its fingertips. Yuugi appears once again, shouting now, as Pegasus notes with shock the new mind-shift. Yuugi flips over one of the face down cards he placed, The Living Arrow. This announcement passes through a disbelieving Pegasus's mind, and Yuugi asks him if he didn't notice how Yami was trying to provoke him while Yuugi was busy drawing cards. Pegasus is flabbergasted, as Yuugi reiterates how he became flustered enough to play a card that would dispel the Magical Hats, which is exactly what Yuugi and Yami wanted. The Living arrow allows them to transfer magic and spells onto the opponent who used them, and arrow piecing the Magic Neutralizing Force means that Yami/Yuugi are giving its magic back to Pegasus.

Yeah, see, when you can't read people's minds, they tend to pull moves that you weren't aware of. Shocking.

Or, maybe he wasn't just floundering around for half the duel moaning about how Pegasus knew his every thought while refusing to actually consider what might prevent him from doing so.

So, what did I think about this chapter overall? A turn-around like this one was well overdue, which I think is why it feels so incredibly fast-paced in the last couple of pages. The pacing of the duel goes from zero-to-sixty in the space of about a page and a half, and the mental whiplash is quite the shock. I won't say that's a BAD thing, though. Sure, I'm dazed from the sudden stomp on the gas, but it makes sense given how little Yami was able to do before, and how Yuugi's solution allowed him to finally build up a viable trap. Everything HAD to happen all at once, and I appreciate how everything kicked into gear the moment Pegasus thought he had bested his opponent even without the use of his Millennium Eye.

I also appreciated the fact that the face down card that needed the least explanation was the one that was set up first and utilized last. I found myself wondering what it was just as much as Pegasus did, and when it was finally revealed to be a card that rounded out the trap so well, it was satisfying. I didn't figure it would be such a mundane card, or that such a mundane card would fuck Pegasus's points as badly as it did in conjunction with The Living Arrow, but that's what made it so interesting to see.

Now, if Yami had actually managed to LISTEN to Yuugi screaming before, we wouldn't have been subjected to his uselessness for as long as we were. Thanks for opening your ears, jackass.