Unless we're talking about the power to call WITHOUT the aid of a telephone and straight-up telepathy. Then all bets are off.
Besides, they're INFINITELY more mockable when they CHOOSE not to translate words properly.
Asshole Bakura scoffs about what a troublesome king someone is being, presumably Yami, because I'm not THAT ignorant of where this story is going. Staring up at the Black Crown's sign, Asshole Bakura begins to mentally exposit at length about how it's the destiny of the Millennium Items to be reunited, as each holds a part of the overall "memory", though the Millennium Ring and Millennium Puzzle both have unknown powerful purposes. His thoughts then veer off to a silent declaration that no one but Yuugi is qualified to hold that puzzle, having already been chosen to be the host of the item three thousand years ago. It was already planning to destroy a tiny gamer's life before that tiny gamer was even born. How lovely.
Wrinkling the bridge of his nose as he smirks, Asshole Bakura thinks that Yuugi is still valuable to him, and therefore whomever is endangering Yuugi is ALSO an enemy to him. Because the enemy of his enemy is etc, Asshole Bakura ignores the "closed" sign on the double doors to the Black Crown and shoves them both open dramatically. They weren't locked? No one locks up anything in this screwy world...
Across the street, a German Shepard is barking like crazy at him as he illegally enters the shop, and a bewildered Honda kneels down next to her to try and calm her down with a pat on the back. Honda wonders aloud if he didn't just see Bakura going into the Black Crown before outright telling his dog BLANKEY to calm dog as he strokes her. BLANKEY? What, does she act as bedding on your mattress as well as a dog?
Anyway, Honda notes that the store is the one Yuugi mentioned he and the others were going to buy that new game today, and assumes hesitantly that Bakura must be going to buy it too. So, further extrapolating that Jonouchi must still be at Yuugi's place after their purchase, Honda pulls Blankey along on her leash so they can visit Yuugi's house as well, warning her not to chew on Jonouchi's shoes when they get there.
Inside the Black Crown, two guards look down at Bakura with sinister smirks, calling him a troublesome guest and informing him that they're closed for the day so he should come back tomorrow. One of them is picking his teeth in the foreground of the panel, so you know they're gangsta and up to no good. Bakura doesn't move, and suddenly the guards get all kinds of offended, asking if he's listening to them beyond his backlit silhouette. Asshole Bakura chuckles evilly, and the guards both look shocked, either by his very defiance of them or by something that's happening off-panel. I can't tell yet. Regardless, it's hilarious, because this little ceiling decoration looks just as upset.
Which of course makes it small potatoes compared to the scene that's happening in the back of the store.
Yuugi stutters at the destruction of his puzzle, tears flying from him wide eyes. Taking some really fucked-up perverse pleasure from seeing Yuugi weep over it, asks mockingly if Yuugi saw his precious puzzle shatter. He's assuming that since the Millennium Puzzle has gone to pieces, that means the whole legend, host and all, will be reset. Yuugi is on his knees sobbing while clown!dad points at Ryoji and tells Yuugi not to worry, since Ryoji will put the puzzle back together again, becoming its new owner. Ryoji looks strangely grim about the prospect.
Crawling toward the pieces clown!dad left carelessly strewn on the floor, Yuugi hiccups as he begins to gather them, more tears escaping him. He squeezes his eyes shut after he looks mournfully down at what was once his other soul's house, thinking that it took him YEARS to solve the puzzle the first time and meet Yami. Yuugi fiddles with the pieces a little more before clenching his fist and glaring up at clown!dad, demanding to know how he DARED to destroy the puzzle and Yuugi's other soul.
Clown!Dad is not the least intimidated by Yuugi's anger, and while that's not surprising, this is also the most intimidating he's been while angry. At least he doesn't just look like he's consipated on a toilet this time. Clown!dad tells Yuugi he'll have to defeat Ryoji before he can get the puzzle back to even BEGIN solving it again, turning his back to Yuugi to throw a snide comment back at him about how he may not even accomplish that without the puzzle anyway.
But clown!dad seems to be the only one who's taking any joy in Yuugi's suffering.
Clown!dad wonders why Ryuji is being so kind to Yuugi, but I think the better question is why clown!dad is such a gigantic piece of shit who will abuse a child for revenge on his grandfather. He seems to be shedding an actual tear through his mask at the sight of of his son acting like a decent human, and I can't tell if it's because he's moved by this or concerned. Either way, he needs to stop being such a shitty person.
Looking closely at one of the pieces he's picked up, Ryuji apologizes to Yuugi for all the agony he and his father put the puzzle through. Yuugi's glare has reverted back to his harmless poop-face, and he looks like he's considering the legitimacy of Ryuji's apology. Meanwhile, Ryuuji turns to his dad to glare at him in turn, who still clutches the top of the puzzle and its chain in his hand. Ryuji, in a hardcore act of defiance, snatches the rest of the puzzle out of his dad's hand, pleading with him not to touch the Millennium Puzzle again, eyes closed in a somewhat exasperated expression.
Clown!dad is aghast, asking what his son is saying. Ryuji then apologizes to his father, explaining that this is his and Yuugi's fight, then sets all the pieces of the puzzle on the side of the table. He tells Yuugi to take his seat again so they can continue their game, and Yuugi wipes away his tears aggressively. Ryuji reminds him of their deal to let the winner have the Millennium Puzzle, and that being the reason why he has to keep playing.
The boys stare at each other across the table once they've both seated themselves again, then Yuugi glances over at the pile of pieces on the table that were once his pendant, promising to put them back together without fail.
Ryuji calls to resume and Yuugi notes that if he can just bring Ryuji down by one more point, he'll be the winner. After a small pause, looking down at Yuugi's ninja crouched so close to his dungeon master, Ryuji throws his dice with gusto and a shout that Yuugi can only WISH. With this roll, Ryuji commands his God Ogre to attack the ninja, and it does so without any interference this time, slicing it in half laterally in an instant.
Yuugi is disturbed that his only monster on Ryuji's side has been destroyed, and he's only got three monsters left to get over there. His Little Wizard, Duker, and Gorugon are all he has left, the strongest of which is the former. Unfortunately, these stats don't measure up to Ryuji's four monsters including his God Ogre with its 2000 attack points, so things are looking a little grim.
Ryuji assures Yuugi that he can't summon any more monsters, because all his dice, other than the ones in his hand, are already open on the table. Comforting? In the unlikely event that it was, Ryuji ruins it by shouting at Yuugi that it's his turn and he should play his dice. Okay, jeez... Yuugi ponders the fact that he can attack right now, and Ryuji will definitely use this opportunity to get over to his side of the table, so he has to focus on protecting his dungeon master. So, he tosses his dice, then moves Duker closer to his dungeon master for more protection.
While Ryuji throws his dice, he wonders if Yuugi really thinks there's enough time for defense, and smirks when his dice bring up two forward crests. He plans to use a quick attack this time, commanding his God Ogre to move toward the swirling warp crest on the end of its unfolded die. Yuugi gapes at the crest as the behemoth approaches it, not looking very confident at all. Ryuji grins as he informs Yuugi that he is indeed going to use the crest to advance his God Ogre immediately to Yuugi's side.
The God Ogre steps onto the crest, looking for all the world like it's not going to fit inside because it's so beefed up, but in a beam of light it descends into the crest until it's no longer visible on Ryuji's side. Ryuji unnecessarily shouts at it to move through the warp point that it's already gone through. Thanks for that wasted speech bubble, kiddo.
Also, less realistically.
Yuugi mentally curses, knowing that the God Ogre alone is enough to take out his side. He announces that it's his turn with a determined expression and throws his dice, demanding that his scant monsters unite to defend his dungeon master. Ryuji tells Yuugi that it doesn't matter that he's using his remaining monsters as a wall, because they can't block the God Ogre's attack. To illustrate, he commands the God Ogre to destroy the Gorugon after he shouts that it's his turn, and the God Ogre wastes no time in slicing it in half length-wise. Yuugi stares agape at the toy/hologram violence, because I still can't tell what these monster creatures are supposed to be.
Ryuji smiles smugly as he mentally counts Yuugi's remaining two monsters, and Yuugi silently curses again as he rolls for his increasingly hopeless new turn. A summoning, attack, and forward crest are rolled, and Yuugi instructs his Little Wizard to attack the God Ogre with thunder power. So, is that just a sound shockwave, or...? Regardless, the attack isn't effective, because Ryuji drew defense crests from his pool to block the special magic attack.
This can and does get totally worse, though.
Now the God Ogre is advancing on Yuugi's final monster, Duker, which holds up its swords despite its apparent surprise at being the last standing. I assume that's what the exclamation mark means, anyway. It's always pretty difficult to tell. Ryuji, despite telling Yuugi to keep fighting earlier, now tells him to give up, because he can't possibly win with just one monster. Yuugi sweats, speechless, when clown!dad steps into the conversation again, sneering and smarming that Yuugi should finally understand that the Millennium Puzzle belongs to Ryuji by now. Squeezing his eyes shut, Yuugi dwells on the unbelievable insistence that he has indeed lost. Ryuji smirks some more, stating that the puzzle is now his.
In the open doorway, a familiar silhouette leans on the jamb and chuckles that it's no use for Ryoji to try, because he won't be able to reassemble the Millennium Puzzle.
Asshole Bakura approaches the table, Yuugi staring speechless the entire time, and leans down to take a close look at the table. He claims to see a way Yuugi couldn't lose, though the situation IS pretty hopeless by the looks of things.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm kind of overwhelmed by the whiplash that Ryuji's character is giving me right now. Don't get me wrong, I understand well enough that Ryuji is supposed to be teetering on the edge of realizing that his father's cruelty is too much to this innocent kid, he also STILL wants to be the actual heir of the Millennium Puzzle's power, BUT he wants to win that right to be the one to inherit the power fair and square. These are understandable, human things to feel, and I'm glad Ryuji is feeling them because these feelings make him into a multi-dimensional complex person.
But I'm only just BARELY interpreting those feelings based on the very poor and flat representation they're being given. Ryuji's sympathy with Yuugi is clear enough, but his want of a fair match over the puzzle is less so, and his evil smirk at the end here is just suggesting evil rather than validation in his worthiness to the puzzle. Not just that, but his suggestion that Yuugi just give up was such a backtrack from his encouragement from before that it was like a damn pendulum using a warp crest to skip its arc from left to right. Taking that line out ALONE would have taken away the waviness in character.
If Ryuji is on the fence, that's fine, but being on the fence doesn't mean vaulting over it back and forth continuously. SIT on the fence, dammit!
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