Honda repeats it's almost time for lights-out, turning to Yuugi and Jonouchi to lay some extra advice on them to go rest, because they must be pretty worn out from this SINGLE DAY OF BATTLE CITY. That it has taken me an ETERNITY to cover. Jonouchi begins to protest and looks down at Mai, all frowny. Anzu assures him that she'll take care of Mai, and reiterates that he'll need rest to prepare for whatever this tournament has in store for him in the morning. Yuugi suggests that he let his friends handle this, but Jonouchi just keeps looking forlorn, uncharacteristically speechless.
He's pondering how Mai's dying due to Marik's dark powers. There's that overworked word again. Jonouchi is sure Yuugi doesn't know about the entirety of the incident, or how he has 23 hours left to defeat Marik before Mai slips away. Still, he seems to keep it to himself and also decides to leave the room, imploring Mai silently to wait for him and promising that he'll fix this tomorrow. Now, if he has a brain anything like mine, he'll go over every possible move he needs to make tomorrow and not get one wink of sleep even though there is no way to take care of the problem right away, because fuck him, right?
He, Yuugi, Ishizu and Shizuka all leave the hospital room wordlessly, but Yuugi turns once they're in the hallway to tell Jonouchi to do his best tomorrow. He tacks on a completely unrelated comment about how Shizuka should get some rest too, which is a nice thing to say, if a bit random as well. Jonouchi addresses him back with a serious refusal to forget their promise to meet at an unspecified time in the future, reiterating that he'll beat Yuugi at that time with "that" power, also unspecified. Yuugi doesn't miss a beat, though, asserting that Battle City ain't over until the two of THEM have dueled. I would say that's pretty arrogant, putting yourself at the center of a huge event like that, but because he's the protagonist, it's actually true.
Shizuka frets about how her brother's dream is to win against Yuugi, when Yuugi is pretty freaking good at this game, and Jonouchi flies into a stuttering fluster, demanding she not say doubting things like that. He says he always has a 50/50 attitude, which I guess is a way of saying he doesn't consider the likelihood based on skill, OR that he has no idea how statistics work. It's probably both. Shizuka turns to Ishizu and suggest they ask HER about the results of this upcoming duel, considering she can see the future. Jonouchi protests that this will make the thing uninteresting, but secretly, he wants to know.
But Ishizu tells them that her Millennium Necklace has LOST that particular power, ever since her duel with Kaiba, when he changed the future. Clearly she still hasn't considered the possibility that she was played by the necklace more than Seto Kaiba, but whatevz. Yuugi and Jonouchi are both flabbergasted by the news that Kaiba changed the future, and at first, Ishizu just looks blankly at them. If there were a thought bubble there it would include something about these damn kids needing to get off her lawn.
She pleads with both of them to return Marik's heart that's been consumed by darkness no matter what. Ishizu is sure with their powers to draw cards and shit, they can do it.
Ishizu spills that five other Millennium Items are needed to awaken the pharaoh's memory, including Marik's Millennium Rod. Since it's the duty of the tomb keeper cult to give the items to the owner of the pharaoh's soul, she feels she's done what she needs to. So Marik just complicated the shit out of this whole business because some rando wandered into his house and told him at his most vulnerable grieving point that he should be pissed off at a dead king?
I repeat: Shadi is the fucking WORST.
Yuugi examines the Millennium Necklace in his hand and thinks about how he now has two Millennium Items.
Ishizu and Anzu stand in the corridor silently, Ishizu keeping her back turned to Anzu as Anzu wonders why she's asking, even though she doesn't really want to know the answer. Eventually, Ishizu says through a long, slow blink that all the souls will have a place to return to, and that includes her. Anzu stands in alarmed silence.
The blimp keeps cruising along as lights-out is called, and through his porthole, we see Jonouchi has already passed right out, tangled in his blanket, snorting and calling out in a dueling dream, or so I assume. Yuugi, having hung the Millennium Puzzle on his bedpost, lays awake and ponders the tragic story Ishizu told earlier. The revenge that Marik seeks due to his father's death (and Shadi's prompt, don't forget Shadi's prompt!), Marik's other personality, the seven items, Yami's memory, and how all those things are connected keeps him awake and he can't sleep. Yuugi sits up suddenly to find Yami hanging out in one of the armchairs next to his bed.
Yuugi looks over at the Millennium Puzzle dangling from the bedpost before he confidently states that Yami will definitely be able to collect all those items and get his memories back. Yami just looks silently over at him, so Yuugi goes on to fantasize about one day heading over to Egypt and placing all the items in the memory stone, fulfilling his current mission. Again, Yami remains silent, glaring forward this time. Yuugi ruminates a little more about when that time comes, and then scoots back beneath his blanket, cheerfully inviting Yami to sleep because tomorrow is quite the big fight. Yami looks over at him and finally smiles, nodding his agreement.
I CAN blame the one guy who is actively reveling in his trauma by making another attempt to cause more, though. He's pulling that hidden blade from the Millennium Rod and everything. Marik walks the corridors, lit only by the tiny pinpricks above doorways - perhaps fire alarms, or is this a mandatory regulation that they're following about the minimum amount of light in aircraft in flight? I don't know. He makes his way to that specific hospital room housing Rishid, whom no one came to visit earlier, because it would entail them finding that dead doctor Marik killed earlier, and wouldn't THAT be a whoopsie! Rishid is still snoozing away in unconsciousness, so Marik lifts his Millennium Knife and edgelords it up by saying the darkness has come for Rishid. In the midst of commanding this man to die for the crime of being troublesome to him, Marik is distracted by something to his left.
Marik says that he won't let Other!Marik kill Rishid, though Asshole!Bakura laughs that the guy's life has not meaning to HIM. What he's really interested is the secret carved on Marik's back, and the Millennium Rod of course. Other!Marik plays the ditz and recalls casually that Asshole!Bakura IS collecting the Millennium Items, as he's said before. Asshole!Bakura offers to spare him from being a piece of that collection if he just hands over the rod, but Other!Marik just grins psychotically and says he'll just see what it feels like to be shredded, even though the threat didn't have anything to do with shredding. Just because you have an obsession with dismemberment doesn't mean everyone ELSE does, my dude. Asshole!Bakura is perfectly content with Other!Marik suiting himself, but before Asshole!Bakura can lift a finger to make good on his vague plans, Other!Marik lifts the glowing rod.
Asshole!Bakura is back on his feet again by the next panel, the wall cracked in his form behind him. He laughs that Other!Marik's power isn't so great after all. Other!Marik smiles a little, like it's all water off a duck's back. Asshole!Bakura suggests they play the games of darkness that only those chosen by the Millennium Items can play, which Other!Marik agrees to if it pleases him.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Most of it was just a reiteration of what we already know about the state of everyone's emotions - strained and broken. This does a pretty good job of covering the extent of the damage, though, because we've gotten a lot of this piecemeal over the course of the arc, and haven't had time until now to pause and take stock of the damage. There's a LOT. Everyone is hurting, to varying degrees and in a lot of different ways, and it's a little shocking to see it all laid out so plainly.
The second half of the chapter had me scratching my head a little; as per usual, the translator wasn't very clear on what was said between Asshole!Bakura and Other!Marik. I feel like there was more to it than what was successfully translated, but I have no real way of knowing. There also must have been so much more to the deliberations between Asshole!Bakura and the regular ol' Marik, but given how quickly the latter appeared and disappeared, I don't think there was much information here on what they discussed. Marik must have had to do some real convincing on Asshole!Bakura to interfere in something that he admittedly has no stake in. Perhaps they discussed the instability of Other!Marik and how bargaining with him for the Millennium Rod wouldn't work out very well, as was demonstrated in the actual chapter.
Or perhaps Marik was just briefly there to give Asshole!Bakura a narrative excuse to be there and KT didn't really give it much thought beyond that. But at least the "dark" in the chapter continued to be somewhat justified, what with lights-out literally making it dark for the struggle and everything.
Yaaaaaaay...
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