Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 265 Showdown in the Heavens!

Ah, fresh air and freedom. Meanwhile, I'm down on the ground trying to Tetris all my shit into boxes and totes AGAIN. At least I'm not moving across the country this time - just basically down the street. It doesn't make this process any less infuriating though. Every time I pack, I'm forced to wonder where all of this crap came from. I don't buy a lot of stuff or make shopping a habit; it's like some unholy capitalism fairy snuck into my space when I wasn't paying attention and hid useless trinkets I don't remember even seeing before around my apartment, like sick twisted Easter eggs. 

Another purge of junk is therefore at hand. Joy. 

Not on earth for long, if the title is anything to go by. Just go with it, Yami, you're not being paid for this.

Kaiba crosses his arms in surly silence, while thinking that it's the card he threw at Yami is the only one that can overcome other!Marik's One-Turn Kill, but Yami doesn't know that. Thus, he has decided to uncharacteristically clam up and refuse to tell him so. But it's probably only a matter of time before Yami figures it out on his own anyway, so it's not like it matters. At this point, though, Yami looks over at Kaiba, wondering perplexed why he's given it to him. Kaiba just glares, waiting to see if Yami can discover how to use the card on his own. He chuckles in his head, a little dissonant with his serious expression, and thinks about that 20% figure for success again. Yami glares at him right back, in a kind of bewildered way. Kaiba responds with a patronizing comment on how it's up to Yami whether he wants to include the new card in his deck or not, suggesting that he consider WHY the macious KAIBA would give him a card, even that it might be harmful. Smirking, Kaiba insinuates that it COULD be a lesson not to be so trusting of others, chuckling out loud this time. At least his face matches the laughter now. 

Yami chuckles too, bowing his head in a humbled manner, before shoving that card right into the deck slot of his Duel Disk with the rest of his cards. This is where I'd normally complain about how there are rules in this tournament for how many cards you can have in your deck, but ehhhhh, I'm tired. Kaiba does NOT look amused, but Yami addresses him, insisting that he's going to BELIEVE in him. He makes yet another promise, too.

So many promises... 

A short distance away, Jonouchi is beside himself, hunched, grinding his teeth, with his fists curled up over the fact that Kaiba gave Yami a card. He says he doesn't like the look of it, warning Yami to be careful. He is unfortunately acquainted with the concept of an invader card in one's deck, so this checks out. Mokuba stands mystified behind his brother, wondering why he did that. Ishizu stands back too, quietly staring at Kaiba with an unreadable expression. Apparently he feels her eyes on him, because he addresses her, saying in no uncertain terms that the stone tablet means nothing to him, rambling about how civilizations are built from time and the ashes of the countless dead, stating he has no connection to someone who lived 3000 years prior. Ishizu disagrees - she says while civilizations rise and fall, kingdoms come and go, the human spirit is eternal. 

Looking more and more like a jaded middle-aged man than the teenager he's supposed to be, Kaiba scoffs at the words "eternal" and "spirit". He's convinced that those religion and superstitions are created from the wishes of desperate people, beliefs that are proven false by science and technology. Kaiba declares that miracles don't exist, as if he hadn't subscribed to the idea himself in the past to explain certain aspects of Yami's victories. With a sardonic little smirk, he tells Ishizu that she helped Yami out just like she wanted, but he's sure it will only prove that miracles simply don't happen. Kaiba eyes Ishizu out of his periphery and mocks her with the question of whether she'll sink into the depths of despair if Yami loses and her brother can't be saved. 

Come on, dude, you were doing so GOOD in the last chapter! Don't backslide now!

With perfect seriousness, Ishizu says that she believes in Yami, and believes friendship can defeat a god controlled by an evil mind. Kaiba has no retort except the wrinkling of his nose. 

Because other!Marik just cannot shut up for a single solitary minute, he quips about seeing Yami get that card from Kaiba, but states that it won't do him a lick of good. He claims that no matter what the card is, nothing can protect Yami from Ra. Yami displays his Duel Disk proudly, and announces in a bit of a non sequitur that he's going to defeat the evil with other!Marik. Which would be the whole of other!Marik, so no need to get so specific, Yami. Other!Marik bows his head to chuckle, then snaps his head back up to fix Yami with one of his crazy stares, saying he'd like to see him try. 

Moar Cards Guy instructs the competitors to step forward to cut and shuffle each others' decks, which has me all confused. Was this always a thing that KT skipped for expediency? I feel like I've seen it before in this tournament, but I don't have a very clear memory... I swear, sometimes reading Yu-Gi-Oh is a bit like waking up from a vivid dream; you're sure something happened, but you can't quite put your finger on what or when it was. 

As Yami's friends/fans cheer him on below the platform, he and other!Marik meet in the middle of it to exchange decks and shuffle. While other!Marik pulls wacky faces and wags his tongue (literally) at Yami, Yami just stares at him in determination. I commend Yami for not rolling his eyes at other!Marik and his sad, childish antics here. 

Jonouchi recounts the god cards Yami now has: Slifer and Obelisk, but points out that Yami is still at a disadvantage, since it takes three sacrifices to summon each god card. He also mentions that Ra can be brought back with Monster Reborn and use a quick attack to decimate enemies, just like it did to him. PLUS, there's that rumored second special ability that hasn't even been revealed yet. KT's gotta keep an extra secret in his back pocket for the big finale, apparently. Jonouchi then looks over at Kaiba and realizes that Kaiba has acted like he knows all about Ra's powers, and gave Yami a card, so he starts to think, somewhat reluctantly, that this card might be the key to defeating Ra. 

Did... did Jonouchi, class clown and coded idiot, just figure this out before Yami did? Damn, this boy sure has come far.

Other!Marik asks if Yami shuffled thoroughly, hoping that Ra would sink to the bottom of the deck. Yami says that other!Marik shouldn't be asking him, but his deck instead, because it already knows he's going to lose. Honestly, this is just the kind of shade people should address other!Marik with constantly. Treat him like the clown that he is. And other!Marik is cool with it - he just chuckles with a strange good nature at the joke, just not bothered at all. He knows this is his place. 

Below the platform, Honda and Jonouchi yell out encouragement for Yami, telling him not to be afraid of Ra and to kick other!Marik's clown butt. I added the "clown" part myself, but I feel like it's in the proper spirit of this statement. Jonouchi adds a silent plea that Yami save Mai, sweatdropping hard. Ishizu still stands back from the rest of the spectators, thinking that the fate of the Ishtars is now in Yami's hands, silently begging him to defeat the evil in her brother and regain his memories. When pretty much everyone watching has come down on one favorite to win, you pretty much know how this is going to pan out. 

Moar Cards Guy raises his arm, announces the names of the competitors, Kaiba muses on "Yami's" name a moment, and...

Let the final headache duel commence!

Right out of the gate, other!Marik is sexually assaulting his Millennium Rod with his tongue, while he declares that he's going first. I move to amend the rules so that edgy little edge boys never go first - can we get a vote on that? Not one that can take effect fast enough, unfortunately. Other!Marik has already called it, but before he actually acts on his first turn, he tells Yami to look around. Yami glares up at the sky in alarm, which has quickly become overcast and dark as other!Marik holds the rod up to it. Jonouchi frets to the rest of his Yami fans that this is just like the last time, the sky turning black.

Veins have started to pop out all over other!Marik's jaw and face, like some kind of unholy acne. He gushes that his and Yami's shadow game will be the greatest of all, darkness will cover the Earth, and the gates of Hell will open up. A great ball of crackling dark energy expands over the top of the tower, and Yami wonders what's happening now, grinding his teeth. Other!Marik literally pants like a dog, tongue lolling, and asks if Yami can see the sacrificial offering. No doubt deliberately ignoring how obvious other!Marik's boner must be right now, his eyes widen, fixed on the sky. 

How many fucked up fetishes is other!Marik going to represent in this duel? Is he just going for broke since it's the last one, or what?

And then I look at the next page and realize I asked this question too soon.

Yup, the non-con has come in. Only a matter of time before we get the hammers and leeches. 

Other!Marik has now decided to start his turn, and I SWEAR I WAS JOKING ABOUT THE LEECH THING BUT HIS SUMMON IS A BLOATED TENTACLED WORM CREATURE CALLED VAMPIRIC LEECH AND I AM SCREAMING. Yami is taken aback, and other!Marik doesn't hesitate to have his leech monster attack Yami immediately, which I assume is allowed by the text on the card, but the print is a little too small for me to read. The leech lunges at Yami, pointing its many tentacles straight at his face and dodging his cringe to dig them into his cheeks. Yami screams in pain and horror while his life points decrease to 3500. 

A real shame I couldn't get this entry out in time for Halloween - it's VERY appropriate.

Other!Marik asks Yami, unironically I'm sure, if he liked that HE feels the pain when the monsters attack, then tells him to direct his attention next to him again. Yami is once more alarmed. 

Pretty convenient that Yami got an attack to the face, but that's not the part of Yuugi that he loses. Almost as if it's essential that Yuugi's ability to scream for a weird edgy pervert's pleasure is preserved. 

Yami, of course, calls out to Yuugi in distress. Other!Marik thrusts his thumb over his shoulder to point out his own sacrifice, which is NOT Mai? Nope, it's OG Marik, hanging there crucifix-style just like Yuugi, unconscious. Yami identifies him in a wasted panel, and other!Marik explains that once the player's life points hit zero, the sacrifice's "body" is consumed. The quotations are mine, because these both Yuugi and OG Marik share a physical body with their respective players, so it seems like there should be a qualifier on that word. Anyway, other!Marik also says that the losing player too will be swallowed by darkness and suffer the ultimate pain. He talks about walking the razor thin line between victory or defeat, pleasure or pain, all while looking so high his eyes are almost completely rolled back. 

Saying Marik's name tentatively, Yami wonders what he should do here, considering the real Marik will die if the other!Marik is defeated at this point. He then looks up at Yuugi again with worry at his groans of pain, but Yuugi insists that he's fine and Yami should just fight other!Marik. Other!Marik doubles over with laughter, chuckling that this is the spirit he likes to see. 

Somebody, for the sake of my sensitive stomach, inform other!Marik there are COMMUNITIES he can join to satisfy his sadism. PLEASE.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Remember in Death-T, when Anzu was getting uniquely sexualized torture on the carnival horror ride to the haunted house challenge, and I said I felt like I had walked in on a very personal fantasy of KT's I REALLY didn't want to know about? I'm getting those same "this might be some sort of kinky outlet that I was not quite prepared for" vibes from other!Marik here. Granted, there were definitely signs for this one; other!Marik's sadist tendencies kept steadily escalating into sexual fetish territory over the course of his arc, so this isn't exactly out of nowhere like the previous example was. But I suppose I never thought the hinted orgasmic joy other!Marik displays in more subtle, mild forms before would ever cross the line. Here we are, though, watching him pant and lick and crow about the pleasure wracking his body when people in his immediate vicinity suffer. Is this comic for kids anymore? Because it's skirting DANGEROUSLY close to pornographic territory. All we need is a clear shot of that boner he's no doubt sprouted.

All that aside, I'm very confused about what Mai is doing there, being referred to as a "sacrifice" herself, but clearly not being linked to the players in the direct way the alternate, original personalities are in respect to gameplay as well as the obvious. Is she just being displayed for psychological torture purposes, high up out of reach, implied to never be recovered? Or will she eventually factor into the duel as a sacrifice like Yuugi and the original Marik? 

I hope she's not just some sort of sick pendant hanging over their heads with no significance whatsoever, but... it would be about par, unfortunately.