Also, I'm pretty sure the puzzle is a UNIQUE artifact. There's not multiples of it floating around, despite what that indefinite article implies in the title. The Millennium Puzzle is VERY SPECIFIC to just the one, and I very much doubt Yuugi would be handing it over to little old me to take apart and reassemble.
At least not after this incident.
Yuugi leans forward, noting that the Millennium Ring is clearly visible and controlling Bakura. Asshole!Bakura giggles at him, having noticed that he noticed, and assures Yuugi that he's on HIS side this time, having become a better man. Yuugi is speechless in his suspicion, looking ANYTHING but convinced, and asshole!Bakura observes this too. He reminds Yuugi of what Pegasus said at Duelist Kingdom, that the seven Millennium Items are all pieces of the pharaoh's memory, and that fact gives he and Yuugi the same goal: to gather the items. Losing even one of those items will be inconvenient to their plot, so there's no reason not to team up now. Yuugi is looking apprehensive, wondering if asshole!Bakura is being truthful.
However, looking across the table at Ryuji, Yuugi realizes that whether or not asshole!Bakura is his enemy isn't really the point. He decides he has to figure out how to win the game in front of him at the moment, for Yami.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Yuugi thinks about what asshole!Bakura told him about turning the tables, but he just doesn't see a way out of the corner he's in now. asshole!Bakura glares at Yuugi, arms crossed, as he thinks at Yuugi that someone who solved the Millennium Puzzle SHOULD be able to find the final way out of this situation. But Ryuji isn't buying this rhetoric. He laughs, saying that it's impossible that ANYONE should be able to get out of the mess Yuugi is in. Mocking asshole!Bakura for his calm stoicism, Ryuji tells him it's a little hard to believe that he'd be that interested in the Millennium Items. Is it necessary for someone to be leaping around and shouting his head off to be a fanboy?
Don't answer that.
Ryuji informs asshole!Bakura that HE'LL be the next owner of that puzzle, but asshole!Bakura retorts that he and his weak-ass soul would be burned to a crisp if he ever put it on. Oh yeah, the Millennium Items do that, don't they? Shit, now I'm DOUBLY hoping Ryuji doesn't win. I mean, he's a little shit, but he certainly doesn't deserve immolation. Asshole!Bakura tells Ryuji that he'll still have to think about solving that damn puzzle to begin with anyway. Smirking, Ryuji invites him to just keep on barking away, then points at Yuugi to shout that it's his turn now, so he'd better roll the dice.
In one of the speech bubbles coming from Yuugi on the next panel, it appears that he says "catch!", though I can't possibly tell what that's in reference to. Is he throwing something at Ryuji? Is Ryuji throwing something at HIM? Is this translation in error? Hard to tell, honestly, but it's probably the latter explanation. Yuugi has a fist raised, determined to keep going until the end. Asshole!Bakura glares at Yuugi, mentally urging him to pay attention to the dice.
Yuugi notes that the God Ogre is at 2000 attack points, and wonders how he should have Duker attack it. According to a little box of information I'm sure Yuugi doesn't have the benefit of seeing like the audience, Duker is able to attack continuously with a long string of attack crests. And wouldn't you know it, Yuugi happens to HAVE a long string of attack crests in his crest pool. Oh happy day! Still, he looks like he's at a funeral regardless. Doing the math in his head, all of his attack crests add up to just over 2000 points, and that SHOULD be enough for Duker to destroy the God Ogre. He's betting it all on this turn as he calls to Duker to attack the God Ogre, activating all his attack crests to increase Duker's power by six times. Duker does some flashy sword maneuvers, surrounded by those empowering crests, then goes for the God Ogre's stupid tiny helmet on its stupid tiny head.
But wouldn't you know it, just when Duker is leaping toward the God Ogre with twin swords extended, a smirking Ryuji moves one of his monsters forward with crests from HIS pool, having known all along that Yuugi would pull that move. So instead of striking down the God Ogre, Yuugi's Duker slices off the head of that dragon creature from earlier whose name I'm too lazy to look up. Yuugi is astounded that another monster jumped in from the side right into his blow, being carved up INSTEAD of the God Ogre. It remains unharmed while the dragon dissolves into mist like one of Pegasus or Kaiba's holograms.
Ryuji laughs like a maniac about how his low-level creature is gone, but his God Ogre remains, making Yuugi's move totally worthless now. Duker stares up at the God Ogre with ellipses in a speech-bubble next to it, which was kind of unnecessary given that it never speaks anyway. I guess the theme of this page is worthlessness, huh? Yuugi slams a fist on the table, grunting and squeezing his eyes shut in dismay, and asshole!Bakura just glares. Ryuji announces with gusto that it's his turn, and Yuugi's eyes are open wide again in horror at this revelation.
Yuugi's stare is hollow, his mouth agape, as he thinks he has no monsters left and he's lost. Ryuji reminds Yuugi that his dungeon master still has two hearts left to eliminate yet, so they should keep the game going until the end. I want to say this is Ryuji trying to be comforting, assuring Yuugi that it's not over for him JUST yet, but that big cocky grin is kind of throwing me off my read.
One hand curled into a fist, and the other held up to his temple as he curses, Yuugi rolls his dice. Somehow. The dice all land on different crests, and Yuugi determines that he has no way to defend, so he grips the top of his dungeon master's hat to move him away from the danger. But the God Ogre zooms right up behind the dungeon master anyway, to the tune of Ryuji's laughter as he tells Yuugi a dungeon master can't run away once it's in the attack range of the God Ogre. He commands the God Ogre to attack Yuugi's dungeon master, and the sight of that giant armored creature smacking the cartoonish dungeon master in the back with its sword is a tad comical, for better or worse.
A heart disappears from the dungeon master's cache, and Yuugi's eyes are squeezed shut once more when he mentally bemoans that he'll lose next turn. Clown!dad, whom I was a little surprised was still in the room, points at Yuugi to gloat that he's lost, and also look back at Ryuji to tell him he's done a good job, proving his worth as the son of an abusing douchebag clown. Someone just punch him, PLEASE. Clown!dad picks up the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle sitting on the side of the table where Ryuji left them and presents them to him, telling him to try and save the new toy he's won. Ryuji looks MORE than happy to accept it now, grinning at his assumption that he's beaten Yuugi and therefore the puzzle has chosen him to be its new host. He indeed begins to put it together, planning to solve it in time for it to transfer its powers over to him.
Asshole!Bakura seems amused by this, watching with a giggle before he reminds Ryuji of what he said before - Ryuji won't be able to solve it. Ryuji scoffs and tells asshole!Bakura to keep barking, claiming to have solved many harder puzzles than the one he's fiddling with now. Asshole!Bakura is insistent, however.
Honda does nothing to assuage Jonouchi's concerns, instead inquiring about Yuugi, whom he hasn't seen. Sugoroku informs him that they also don't know where he is, and Anzu says they're quite worried now. Honda is shocked to learn that Yuugi is missing, only for Jonouchi to further mention that Yuugi disappeared inside that store just like Honda said Bakura did. He doesn't think this is at all good, Sugoroku agreeing that something weird is going on while they both glare at the Black Crown.
Sugoroku becomes eager to head to the store and look again, though whether it's at more merch for that brand new game or his grandson is not exactly clear. On their way, Honda tells them that there's something else he wants them to know; he saw Bakura holding the Millennium Ring again. Jonouchi is up in arms and now Anzu is the one asking if Honda is sure. Honda admits that he saw asshole!Bakura come out at Duelist Kingdom, but when he followed and watched Bakura since they came home, he didn't see anything unusual so he didn't mention it. Way to sit on the knowledge of potentially destructive behavior, Honda.
Sweating, Jonouchi repeats that this seems bad before they all run toward the Black Crown in order to find out just what's happening over there. If anything has happened to Yuugi at asshole!Bakura's hands, blame dickbag!Honda for not speaking up sooner.
Yuugi's inside, wearing an extra-constipated face while he concentrates on his dice.
Meanwhile, across the table, Ryuji isn't looking so cocky anymore, hands trembling, sweat pouring down his face. He's getting nowhere with that puzzle, wondering why he's not solving it already. Maybe it's a whole hell of a lot harder than you gave it credit for? Also it took Yuugi some years to do it, so I wouldn't expect you could do it faster than him. Asshole!Bakura chuckles some more, repeating again that Ryuji won't be able to solve the puzzle he's struggling so hard with, because Yuugi's the only one who can.
Yuugi looks like he's had an epiphany around the puzzle all of a sudden, peering a bit closer at the layout of the path on the table, where particular space catches his eye.
Yuugi is stoked that he got those summoning crests and begins to choose a die to summon. Though Ryuji tells Yuugi it was useless to roll summoning crests now, he doesn't exactly look happy about it either, though he does seem to perk up when he explains that Yuugi's space is too small and complicated to find a die that will fit inside it when it unfolds. Oh good, I'm glad we've finally established that the pattern for the dice unfolding is actually predetermined at the END OF THE GAME. Thanks for that, KT.
Having chosen his die, Yuugi is determined to take his chances with it, setting it in the tiny space he spotted before. Ryuji has regained his smirk, thinking that Yuugi can't possibly be successful with the die he's chosen, while Yuugi thinks if he doesn't solve the puzzle of this space with this particular die, he's lost the game. He calls for the die to unfold and it does so, not hitting a single existing path as it does so.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Other Bakura was somewhat entertaining in this chapter, but I'm not sure he really BELONGS here. So far, all he's done is allude to some mysterious way Yuugi could turn things around and giggle every once in a while at how daft Ryuji is for trying to take the Millennium Puzzle for himself. Would things have been any different without him there at all? I doubt Yuugi would have given up if he saw he was losing, because he was determined to see this game through to the end long before Other Bakura even showed up. Half the time I was laughing with Other Bakura at Ryuji's stupidity, and the other half I was asking what exactly he was accomplishing by being here. It's all so conflicting.
However, I didn't feel that way about Yuugi's final move of the chapter. It was a creative and intuitive way to look at the problem, pondering the negative space much in the way one does to put together a standard puzzle flat puzzle. It works to re-establish Yuugi as the creative flipside to Yami's more straightforward eye on games, too, which is a kind of poetic justice in this situation. Ryuji created a complicated game that contains elements of puzzle-solving in order to trip Yuugi up once he's been robbed of Yami, but he ends up dealing with the half of the partnership that's less obstinate in his methods and more flexible in terms of his thinking. His attention to what's NOT there helped him in this instance.
I also really love the end, where in the final panel Yuugi is appalled that he's managed to summon a creature with ZERO attack strength. He's not out of the woods yet because a brand NEW challenge has presented itself in opposition to Yuugi's goal. Subsequent struggles really keep the pace up on the stakes in this arc, and I'm always down with that.
You done good, KT. You done good.
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