Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 207 One-Turn Struggle to the Death!

It's been a while, but I do remember who Yami is dueling right now, so I find it a LITTLE difficult to believe that this thing is going to end in death for either opponent. I gave asshole!Bakura his distinguishing title for a reason, but that doesn't mean he's not important in the future. I've been told he's got a role to play at the end of this story, and since we're still in the meaty center of the matter here, I doubt he's kicking the bucket here. Unless he returns later as pure ghost without the fleshy body next time.

Oh man, that would actually be pretty dope. Please don't let KT be using Kaiba's bullshit wide definition of "death", PLEASE.

Oooooooh, asshole's in serious shit now. Yami's pulled out the smug-face.

Not as good as the shit-eating grin, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Asshole!Bakura frets about the possibility of his combo being defeated in just one turn, and wonders if that smirk Yami is wearing with his piddly 750 life points is a bluff, or if there's some truth to it. If it's a bluff, it's working, because asshole!Bakura is the one sweating, even with 3700 points of padding. He considers the one face down card on Yami's side, and also the fact that Yami hasn't got any monsters on the field anymore. He concludes that taking the low life Yami has left, if he uses a strong monster to attack, he can win. Yet his current monster only has 500 points of attack. He consults his hand to see what he's got, and singles out Ghost Duke with 2000 attack points. But he's still pretty apprehensive about how well an attack with the bigger, badder monster will go over. He eyes that face down card, thinking that it might be a trap.

A foreign laughter enters asshole!Bakura's head, and an image of a grinning Marik, who mocks him for being so careful. Asshole!Bakura is so offended by this comment that his initial disbelief is soon pushed aside so he can instead threaten to kill Marik. Well shit, THAT escalated quickly. Marik isn't the least put-out, though, telling asshole!Bakura to listen to the fact that Yami already knows his combo's weak point. Though the term "weak point" is another gross insult to asshole!Bakura, he doesn't have time to do more than repeat the phrase, scandalized. Marik says he knows what that face down card is before asshole!Bakura can let drop any more death threats. Asshole!Bakura stares at the aforementioned card in shock.

Marik begins the painful and irritating process of explaining to Bakura why his strategy is so interesting - the Ouija Board's ability to reduce the time of the duel to only five turns. I guess, if you ignore how bad it is at the same time. Still, Marik praises this strategy as one of the deadliest ever.

Oooookaaaayyyyy...

But now that he's done buttering asshole!Bakura up, he's got a criticism. It's that in order for the Ouija Board to work, Necrofear has to be in the graveyard. It'll disappear once Necrofear is no longer dead and buried there. This puts asshole!Bakura in the mind of raising the dead, but not in the boner-tastic way he's normally prone to think of such things. He's looking pretty horrified at the prospect, and Marik's confirmation that Yami does indeed have a card that accomplishes that end face down is all the more devastating to his mood.

Along with mine, because even though I TOTALLY CALLED IT, I just feel all the dumber for my obvious prediction. I hope if this "twist" was done on purpose, it wasn't for the effect of making KT's audience feel clever.

Anyway, Yami just stands there, staring speechlessly, not bothering to urge asshole!Bakura along in his turn. He's being very polite in letting asshole!Bakura continue his conversation. Marik is, after all, talking again, saying that even if the big monster asshole!Bakura planned to use attacked, it would just activate the Monster Reborn card, and Necrofear would become the target thereafter, since it'll be Yami's monster from that point.

Asshole!Bakura grumbles about how he doesn't have a card in his hand to remove magic cards from the field, and it'll be just as Yami said; one turn to break the combo. Marik assures him that there IS a way to do this, but asshole!Bakura doesn't want to hear it. He yells at Marik to get lost, because he doesn't need advice. Uhhh, seems a bit like you do, dude. Regardless, he announces that it's his turn and draws a card. Wow, surprised he hadn't done that yet. He hopes this draw will change the situation he's in.

Apparently, his hopes were realized, because the moment he looks at his draw, he starts laughing like a maniac, sure that Yami won't be able to break his combo with THIS card.

Why is the translator asking their AUDIENCE for the name of this monster? It's no wonder no one was signing their guestbook and they threatened to flounce a couple of pages ago...

Things go just as presumed - Yami raises his hand and reveals his face down magic card, and his intention to use it to summon back Nercrofear, this time to his side of the conflict. Asshole!Bakura glares at his Duel Disk as it starts to issue some holographic smoke. At least, I hope it's holographic. Maybe these kids are overtaxing the machinery and it's going to catch fire. Now THAT would constitute a struggle to the death.

The image of Necrofear's card appears on Yami's side, and then the monster itself. Despite his insistence that he was falling into the trap on purpose, asshole!Bakura groans at the sight of Necrofear on Yami's side of the field, and sweats, gaping at his disappearing Ouija Board hologram as Yami announces its exit. In addition, he commands Necrofear to counter the attack leveled against him from the mystery monster above. Its eyes glow and a dark light emits from its body, disintegrating the offending monster. It only takes a couple hundred points off of asshole!Bakura, but he still has an awfully sour look on his face. Yami reminds him that his combo has successfully been broken.

And yet... asshole!Bakura is smiling again by the next panel as he draws a card. He asks Yami how he likes something else - something we can't see yet, but YAMI sure can. He's got a brand new look of horror and alarm to wear.

Hacks! I call hacks! How the fuck did asshole!Bakura manage to do that??

Instead of explaining, asshole!Bakura draws attention to the fact that Yami's side of the duel has changed too. If possible, Yami's expression becomes all the more shocked, as he observes that all his monsters are back - Kuriboh, DMG, and Beta the Magnet Warrior - in place of a missing Necrofear. A wide-eyed Anzu demands to know what this shit is, and Jonouchi says that the recalled monsters were returned. Well, I guess that is TECHNICALLY an answer to the question. Kaiba gapes at the scene, trying to determine which magic card asshole!Bakura used.

He needn't bother, as asshole!Bakura is gleeful as he promises to solve this little mystery. He reveals the card he used as...

I think I can figure out what that means. But asshole!Bakura is compelled to explain it anyway, stating it's power allows him to turn back the clock on the whole field one turn, but the cards Yami used to beat the combo are not about to return to his hand. After all, his hand and his deck aren't part of the field. Yami makes a noise of disbelief, while asshole!Bakura chuckles about how there's no way he can beat the combo from hell now. He promises Yami that he will receive the announcement of DEATH on the next turn.

You know what they say - tomorrow's always a day away.

Yami's friends all express dismay that the situation has returned to the way it was, and call his name impotently. He himself makes the trailing statement that it's his turn now, acknowledging that when it ends, the dreaded word will be spelled out and he'll lose. He currently has no revival cards in his hand. Staring at his deck resting snug in his Duel Disk, he realizes he has only one card to draw that can help now.

Jonouchi shouts at him not to give up, but asshole!Bakura is sure that it's useless and that he's won. Kaiba silently urges Yami to call on the god in his deck. With all of these various comments and thoughts flying around, Yami's hand hovers over his deck, and he agonizes over drawing the card for a moment. As he does, Yuugi appears to him to offer encouragement and tell him to do his best, because the return of his forgotten memories rely on him winning. No pressure or anything, though. :)

Yuugi insists that they have to draw IT, Yami agreeing and identifying IT as the card Yuugi helped to get.

Then shit hits the fan.

Oh shit, someone might actually die right now.

I guess his time-travel card came back to bite asshole!Bakura, huh? And everyone else along with him, if that lightning has anything to say about it.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's almost as if this chapter was a specific rebuttal to my criticisms of asshole!Bakura's deck being structured in the rigid way of most other villains in this series. He was able to reverse the breaking of his combo despite the fact that, by all rights, Yami had him beat there for a second. It produced a brand new moment of shock and nervousness in me, because I thought this match would follow the formula already well established, but KT blindsided me. It was a delightful surprise, I must say, because it was actually a good red herring.

A true red herring, too, because the combo really DID end up being asshole!Bakura's go-to strategy that he stuck to through thick and thin, just like the other villains. Only this time he had enough foresight to be able to include a card (or two, possibly) capable of bringing it back to him if he lost it. It's not AS rigid a strategy as the others, but it's still instrumental enough to his success that he had to keep it going with everything he had.

I'm somewhat impressed with that, and I'm ready to see Slifer in action with Yami at the leash instead of Marik. Bet you he won't be such a smug, silver-tongued douche in the coming chapter.

... But chances are I'll lose my money.