Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 199 The Treasure

Is that a SUNKEN treasure? I mean, whether tangible or intangible, there is going to be some treasure dragged into sea today, since three seconds is barely enough time to unlock one handcuff, let alone two. And as morbid as all this could be (if I wasn't certain both boys would come out of this alive in the end) I can't help but giggle at the pirate voice drifting through my head right now. "Aye, thar be booty at the bottom of the bay! Beware ye the anchored boys and the pyramid puzzle! Arrr!"

That voice sticks with me as the first page of this chapter recaps the end of the previous one, Red Eyes shooting a Black Fire Bullet at Jonouchi at his desperate request, and Yuugi's key box popping open at the prompt of Jonouchi's life points falling to zero. Jonouchi thanks Red Eyes, and expresses some relief that he's FINALLY out from under Marik's spell.

You BETTER not. How are we supposed to make it to chapter 200 without the little bugger? This ain't no GRRM bullshit.

Noting that the anchor's timer above has ticked down to two seconds, Jonouchi takes the Millennium Puzzle off his neck as he insists on getting that key to Yuugi's cuff in time. He claims not to have time to grab his own key, despite it being right in front of him. Jonouchi unlatches his Duel Disk from his arm and throws it along with the puzzle on the dock next to him, thinking he may as well take them off before he goes swimming.

Then he grabs hold of his own cuff's chain and pushes off from the dock over the gap in between him and Yuugi hoping he makes it in time. Jonouchi yells as he Tarzans right across the water toward Yuugi.

And the rigging above blows apart in an explosion, dropping the anchor and probably slinging a whole bunch of sharp metal debris everywhere - EXCEPT into either of out heroic boys, conveniently. The most Jonouchi gets from the explosion itself is a loss of momentum in his swing before the heavy anchor splashes into the water and yanks both his and Yuugi's wrists along with it. Both of them follow its lead, Jonouchi with another yell.

Amidst a crowd of bubbles, the boys descend into a dark sea. Yuugi, eyes screwed shut, releases his breath from a silently screaming mouth. Jonouchi, has found his way to Yuugi's side, however, and grips the chain still pulling on Yuugi's wrist. He reveals the key he managed to snatch from the box before they both went down. A moment later, Jonouchi has inserted the key into the cuff and turned it, and it drifts open so Yuugi's wrist is now free. Yuugi opens his eyes a crack, struggling to articulate Jonouchi's name even in his head. In all fairness, it's probably dying for some oxygen right now, even this early in drowning.

Jonouchi apologizes for all this nonsense in his head, a lot more cogent than his friend. He smiles, silently calling Yuugi a real friend as he watches Yuugi's form recede up to the surface. Jonouchi tries the key he's held onto in his own cuff, but it doesn't fit. He curses, though on some level he had a suspicion that this key wouldn't work for his cuff.

It BETTER not be. How are we supposed to get to chapter 200 without you, you little bugger? This ain't no GRRM bullshit!

Elsewhere, a convertible races down Domino streets, around a corner, and someone in there shouts that they're at the pier, that Jonouchi must be around there somewhere. The car leans dangerously as it passes all the anchored ships, though it can't be that easy to tip that thing, with it being so low to the ground already.

Honda leans all the way over onto Ryuji, asking Mai if she could slow the fuck down, but Ryuji seems not to care one bit. His thoughts are only of how hot Mai is for... endangering their lives? I don't know. Mai orders Shizuka to keep her seat belt on, even though hands are nowhere near the buckle, but Shizuka agrees not to anyway. Best not to argue with the crazy lady behind the wheel who thinks this is a Disney cartoon. Unless she doesn't, because her advice to the boys in the back is to just hold on tight in dealing with the speed. Does she not have seat belts in the back? What the fuck?

Again, though, arguing with the crazy lady at the wheel seems like a bad move right now, so both Ryuji and Honda agree with little more than a flush and narrowed eyes. Internally, Mai addresses Jonouchi and the dream he's been chasing since Duelist Kingdom, promising with a glance as Shizuka that the dream is going to come true. She continues to talk to the Jonouchi in her head about how it's time to gather up all the courage he's collected in all his duels and give it to his sister, whom Mai gives another sidelong glance. Good thing she's got that bandage around her eyes right now, or she might be asking for an explanation. Instead, she's just sitting letting the wind blow through her hair and thinking of seeing her brother again soon.

Hey, I have a question: why is Mai speeding like she knows that Jonouchi is currently drowning at a dock? Why is she speeding at all?

BECAUSE THE PLOT DEMANDS IT, THAT'S WHY!

Jonouchi's cheeks expand as the air tries to leave him, and his only thoughts are about how he can't breathe and he's going to die. Eyes bloodshot and cheeks distended, he thinks he's all out of air, releasing the bubbles as he can no longer keep his mouth clamped shut.

Meanwhile, Mokuba drags Yuugi out of the sea, demanding to know if he's okay. He kneels next to Yuugi, yelling at him to wake up, until Yuugi mumbles Jonouchi's name. Mokuba looks up at his brother and assures him that Yuugi is okay, just passed out. Seto says this is good, and he's smiling when he states the only thing left is "the other one".

So, guy who was agonizing just a couple of chapters ago about what you can personally do to make sure that neither one of the players in the duel dies, what are you going to personally do to make sure Jonouchi doesn't die?

... You piece of shit. Why do you ALWAYS tempt me to take back every single nice thing I have ever said about you? You can just go straight to hell!

Of course, by the miracle of plot, currents and other physical phenomena that might have washed that key off kilter don't apply all of a sudden. Just as Jonouchi is issuing the last of his air, with the horrible knowledge that he's dead, he grins as the key drifts right in front of his eyes. Kaiba's aim is clearly unparalleled. That garbage-baby.

Anyway, Mokuba is still screaming at Yuugi to wake up, and at long last, he opens his eyes. His first sight is Mokuba leaning over him and Kaiba standing stoically in the background with his arms crossed. Yuugi groans groggily, and Mokuba declares he's awake, no thanks to his constant screeches. But Yuugi's time in between coherent thought is short-lived, because he soon sits up in a panic, asking where Jonouchi is. Mokuba looks over his shoulder at this water and thrusts his thumb at it, telling Yuugi not to worry, since Jonouchi will now be just fine thanks to his brother.

Grrrrrr....

As though Mokuba had read the script, it is at that moment that Jonouchi pops out of the water, gasping. Yuugi cheers Jonouchi's sustained life with a fat tear at the corner of his eye as Jonouchi slaps his arms onto the side of the dock, dragging himself up out of the water and complaining that he thought he was going to die. Kaiba scoffs at the sopping wet and exhausted Jonouchi, snobbishly stating that the only reason he saved him was because in his haste to remove his Duel Disk, he forgot to take his own key. Apparently this amounts to Kaiba having some sort of admiration for Jonouchi's boundless stupidity.

Jonouchi is rather upset to learn that KAIBA, this jerk of jerks, was the one who saved him, and shaking his fist, chooses to deny this fact entirely. Kaiba doesn't correct him, just turns, crosses his arms, and smiles about how Jonouchi has finally become a decent duelist. Jonouchi snaps begrudgingly that he owes Kaiba one, before walking over to where he dropped the Millennium Puzzle and picks it up by its chain.

Woah, woah, that familiar silhouette in the background is looking kind of ominous...

But we're not going to address that yet, because it's time for the feely-feels! Yuugi tells Jonouchi not to blame himself, but the hunched and shamed Jonouchi struggles to express just how fucked up what he did to Yuugi was, words ultimately failing him. Yuugi assures him that what he DID was protect what was important to them. Jonouchi stares at him disbelievingly, but doesn't argue anymore, looking down at the Millennium Puzzle dangling from his fist. He walks over to Yuugi and hangs it around a stunned Yuugi's neck, presenting it as Yuugi's treasure.

Yuugi smiles, affirms this, and the two of them chuckle weirdly, because awkward expression of emotion is awkward.

Anzu suddenly spits out her poison pill and looks up in confusion, wondering what she was doing just now. I was wondering where you WENT there for a while, girl. Yuugi cheers that she's alright too, approaching her with Jonouchi, unwisely. I say unwisely, because while she appears to be back to normal, saying Yuugi and Jonouchi's names happily, Marik's image is still pictured behind her in the next panel, grinning.

Great, could you have found him without inflicting whiplash on all your poor passengers?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Boy, were there a lot of issues with the tertiary characters' actions in this one. A lot of sense was sacrificed for the sake of character consistency, which on a level is understandable. It would be very strange to see dear douchey Kaiba jumping into the ocean, regalia and all, to actively save a guy he has historically had very little regard for. Though he's decided here that Jonouchi has become a fairly good duelist, and expresses some admiration for his almost STUPID reverence for his Duel Disk,  Kaiba is still not one to sacrifice so much as DRYNESS for someone he would normally consider a nuisance at worst and opponent at best.

Although, the smile on Kaiba's face before he drops the key, lovingly imagining how Jonouchi must be running out of breath by now, kind of walks back his claim that he's not nearly as bad as our current villain even at his worst. Torture is torture, dude, and getting off to it is getting off to it.

Mai's speeding is less character consistency as just flat-out weirdness. I'm not sure what the point was to her going 100 mph, since KT didn't offer any kind of explanation. My best guess is that, knowing how long was your typical duel, she figured they only had that amount or less to find Jonouchi before he moved on to another area and they wouldn't have any clues in locating him anymore. I've got to set off my broken record again here, though, and state how little I like making up headcanons to fill in facts that should already be provided in the canon.

All that and the violation of everything from physics to human endurance, I did like the little exchange at the very end of the chapter between Yuugi and Jonouchi. Not only are they exhausted, waterlogged and traumatized, they've said most of everything they needed to before this point during the duel. Too many words now would just be beating a dead horse, and there's also the sense of having said TOO much already, like they've shown too many emotions and it's a little embarrassing knowing how much has been revealed in the event that they might not get to live another day. Like your stereotypical love confession at the last moment, but this one carries a non-romantic twist. It's cute.

And yes, I'm classifying this as non-romantic. I joke about them being gay for each other all the time, but in reality I really kind of hate how much romance is overused in stories, as well as fan interpretation. I'm always excited to see platonic relationships portrayed as valuable and important, because it shows that romance isn't the end-all be-all of interaction.

Not that I think you're wrong to ship them if you do. I'm not jumping into THAT pit of snakes.