Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 307 Shadows Fall!!

No, no more shadows, dammit! My yard is mostly shaded right now, and I've had to begin gardening without really knowing where the sun falls most of the day. I went ahead and constructed a bed and put some shade-hardy seedlings in there, but who really knows if the spot I picked is good enough. I do love being surrounded by trees, but that also means they're blocking a lot of light to plants beneath them, and some of my favorite veggies won't really produce here. It's a disappointing realization, but hopefully I can get a little SOMETHING out of my new patch of dirt. Not as much as I'd like, but SOMETHING surely.

I don't know if YOUR condition is any more optimal for results than that of my yard, Shada.

As Yami speeds along on his horse, the Millennium Ring around thief!Bakura's neck hovers, pointing with a single dangling cone-ornament at the bottom, presumably at the approaching Yami. He laughs that Yami is on his way, with no fear of death, which is perfectly fine with thief!Bakura. He says he won't run or hide, or so much as BUDGE from the place he declares Yami is going to die. Yami himself is concentrating too hard on getting to thief!Bakura to monologue himself, but ZN is... somewhere, encouraging thief!Bakura to take the Millennium Items, calling him a cog in the wheel. But a SPECIAL cog! One that will reawaken ZN's fate and truth.

I would personally be pretty irritated by this poor excuse for encouragement, but there are some people who will swallow even the flimsiest praise in order to play strong-man for a little while.

KT is NOT disappointing with these late-stage title illustrations. Not as active as the others, but dope as hell.

Cut to where asshole!Bakura has appropriated a defensive stance, legs wide and arms crossed, in front of Yuugi and friends. Yuugi has a hand on an enraged Jonouchi's arm as Jonouchi growls and trails an insult about asshole!Bakura being lousy and other such things. Honda's also got his fists out, but I very much doubt there will be fisticuffs like early in the manga. If the ex-bullies haven't punched Kaiba all the multiple times he's deserved it so far, I don't think it will occur to them to break asshole!Bakura's nose either. 

Yuugi snaps that they don't have time to fight each other, demanding (with a cursory polite "please") that asshole!Bakura let them by. Asshole!Bakura chuckles that they have to defeat him before he'll let them get past him, and Yuugi can only think in frustrated impotence that he TRUSTED asshole!Bakura. This kid is lucky he's the main character - in any other position, his poor judgment would have gotten him killed WAY at the beginning of the manga. Asshole!Bakura reminds Yuugi that this world is a memory created by the pharaoh, in which the epic battle over the Millennium Items is replaying before their eyes. He argues that the events will play out just as they did 3,000 years before if they just let them happen. Yuugi shouts that he KNOWS that, which is precisely why they are trying to save Yami from this shitty fate. With a glare, asshole!Bakura tells Yuugi in no uncertain terms that he came here to STOP them from doing just that. 

Jonouchi sputters in confusion and disbelief, and Honda asks WHY asshole!Bakura would want them to fail. Asshole!Bakura repeats again that this world is a moment-by-moment replay reel of events that have already happened, but contrary to his previous assertion, he says that the ENDING is going to be different. 

... Justice?

Yuugi gapes and Honda clenches his teeth, both in horror. Asshole!Bakura explains that only one of the two souls that were sealed into the puzzle 3,000 years ago can return to the modern world, but he, much like ZN, didn't expect one thing. He admits that he didn't really anticipate Yami making friends strong enough to infiltrate this world inside the puzzle and make an imprint on the pharaoh's eternal memories. He calls them pathetic too, but the insult seems like a last-ditch effort to dismiss all their very successful meddling so far. 

Sweatdropping, Yuugi asks hesitantly who exactly asshole!Bakura is. In response, asshole!Bakura asks what Yuugi would think if ZN sealed a part of himself in the Millennium Ring 3,000 years ago Presumably before Yami got the rest of him in the puzzle, I guess. Yuugi continues to gape, trailing a question he seems to have already gleaned the answer to, given how ridiculously obvious asshole!Bakura just made it. Nevertheless, asshole!Bakura confirms with a deranged grin that he is indeed ZN himself, leading me to wonder why the FUCK he looks like Bakura, then. 

KT remembers Bobasa again just long enough to show his shock and repulsion to this confession, and Yuugi thinks that this must mean that ZN used their friend Bakura (the OG) to steal the Millennium Items and kill them. Is... is that why he looks like Bakura? Did he just grow to look like his host like some mockery of an old married couple? 

Meanwhile, asshole!Bakura holds up his arm, which is bubbling and morphing into a disturbing growths. He keeps on grinning with malevolent intent as he tells Yuugi and pals that they have the ability to warp this world, so he has to get rid of them. Disturbed, Jonouchi points out asshole!Bakura's mutating arm. A close-up on his forearm shows jagged, angular lumps emerging from it as well, like new bones branching from it. He says he thought long and hard about how to destroy them. 

Ugh, I hate that ALMOST as much as ZN himself. The body-horror alone would probz be enough to defeat my weak ass. 

Asshole!Bakura tells them not to look so shocked; everything from the modern world that Yami remembers also exists here - as long as he covers it in skin and veins first, apparently. He says that you can WILL something to appear in this mind-realm, even if you can't see it, ordering them to try now too. Yuugi and Jonouchi stare at their clawed fingers in anxiety at first, then their expressions change to curiosity as an opaque outline of a Duel Disk starts to flicker around their wrists. They exclaim in awe as they solidify into a regular, NON-FLESHY Duel Disks on both of them.

Confirming that asshole!Bakura just wanted to be nasty. 

His Duel Disk looks completely normal too when he starts Bakura-splaining all about how the ancient Egyptians used stone slabs to summon their monsters, but these Duel Disks just seemed more appropriate for modern duelists like themselves to him. I don't know if I trust the definition of "appropriate" from a guy who just morphed a Duel Disk from his bones as a gross-out tactic. Jonouchi is DOWN, though; he says with confidence that this is the BEST weapon for a duelist. 

Behind them, Honda and Anzu stare with nauseated looks at their own imagineered Duel Disks, the former saying that he made one appear as well even though he can't duel. Anzu says she doesn't even know what CARDS she has. They are in some DEEP SHIT, because asshole!Bakura asks which of them wants to die first, so it looks like he's not letting ANY of them off the hook. Although, any of them could just sneak off while he's distracted dueling another.

Not out of cowardice, mind you. To help Yami. 

That's right.

His iron resolve is admirable, but I'm with Yuugi. He might want to rethink his eagerness to go up against the guy who just created a Duel Disk out of his own flesh. 

Just imagine what he'll create out of JONOUCHI'S.

Jonouchi insists that Yuugi leave this to him, saying he didn't make it through Battle City for nothing. And without the spirit of an ancient pharaoh running his duels too, so maybe he has a point. Asshole!Bakura gives him points for his guts, but tells him not to forget that this is a shadow game, a fact that Jonouchi is a little taken aback by. Asshole!Bakura tells him that upon losing one's 4000 life points, one dies a true death of darkness and oblivion, with NO chance of coming back. He impresses upon them that when you lose here, you lose everything, and you can never return to the real world. 

Surprisingly, Jonouchi's recoil at the announcement of a shadow game has completely dissipated by the next panel, and he displays steely determination as he simply challenges asshole!Bakura again. Yuugi, Honda and Anzu are all in utter shock by Jonouchi running headlong into this conflict, but Jonouchi is only thinking about defeating asshole!Bakura quickly in order to run help Yami. A counter for his life points appears, though I can't tell if it's supposed to be diagetic or not.

Asshole!Bakura summons Spirit Zoma, which looks a little like a gremlin's skeleton, but with the bones of wings attached to its back. Jonouchi summons Panther Warrior, commanding it to go get Zoma. Panther Warrior lunges and slices straight through Zoma with its sword, and Jonouchi declares this an easy win, wishing Zoma a "so long". But this late in the game, NOTHING is that easy. Asshole!Bakura chuckles through a dark grin and informs Jonouchi that he's fallen into a trap, sarcastically saying what a shame it is. Jonouchi makes an exclamation of disbelief as Zoma's skeletal head rematerializes before him, jaws open wide. 

Asshole!Bakura explains that Zoma has a special power, turning into ectoplasm when it's slain by the enemy and possessing the opposing player. This possession results in the consumption of the possessed player's soul, which asshole!Bakura clarifies means in other words that Jonouchi is dead, grinning all the way. Zoma speeds toward the still numb with disbelief Jonouchi, and the rest of the gang gapes in horror, Yuugi calling out to Jonouchi in alarm.

Normally I really like when this comic gives an impression of how it used to be in the beginning, but this... this isn't happening to a villain. This is happening to my FAVORITE, and I hate it.

I have a feeling I'm going to hate this too.

Thief!Bakura says he's been waiting for Yami, which is a big "duh" - can't imagine why ELSE he would be just sitting there. Yelling as effectively as he can in his utter exhaustion, Yami demands that thief!Bakura stop hurting innocent people who have nothing to do with this. Thief!Bakura chuckles over Yami losing all of his energy when his god was defeated, and his coming to deliver a lecture now that he can't summon ka. As much as I hate to admit it... that IS pretty funny. Very ironically on-brand for a guy who has spent this whole story delivering self-righteous monologues.

Thief!Bakura instructs Yami to look out at the city from their perch, asking if he can see the palace that is definitely too big to miss, even at this distance. He suggests that Yami has never seen his palace from afar like this, spending his days squatting on his throne all the time. Thief!Bakura calls a ruler a pitiful thing, which is definitely a valid point, given the framing. But I believe Stevie Nicks when she says they make bad lovers too, so maybe my existing opinion is also coloring my perception of thief!Bakura's position.

He compares Yami's sheltered and cloistered existence to that of a thief, who views everything they see as a potential steal (haha). He lists royal power, the city, human lives, and even their current view as examples here. He boasts that if being a king is essentially just getting everything you want, a king of thieves like him is surely a king of kings, ultimately. He sardonically asks for confirmation before bursting into laughter. Yami says thief!Bakura hasn't gotten anything (discounting the Millennium Ring and victory over him and his priests, of course), and that he's just stomping all over the lives and hopes of the people in the city. Grinning in pure satisfaction, thief!Bakura just asserts that it doesn't matter what Yami says, because he WINS.

Suddenly, the portion of the pass on which he and his horse are paused crumbles beneath them, completely detaching from the side of the cliff.

Great idea Shada, I'm sure he was thinking of NOT hanging on.

As Yami dangles by his hand, thief!Bakura comes to snatch the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. Thief!Bakura yanks the puzzle from Yami neck, breaking the rope holding there, narrating his action while Yami groans with the strain of clutching the precarious rock edge. With a call-back statement that now he'll trample YAMI's life, thief!Bakura stomps on Yami's fingers, and he plunges into the chasm below.

Man, I hope none of us are afraid of the dark...

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This is all looking very dire for Yami and company, although I think perhaps Yami's black-out as he fell into the chasm might have just saved Jonouchi's lucky bacon there. Since ZN has outright said that Yami is going to survive long enough to meet him and his ka army later on, that being when he sealed them both in the Millennium Puzzle in the first round of these events, I'm pretty sure Yami's going to survive this fall. That'll be one hell of a bump on the head, though. I do wonder if everyone stays CONSCIOUS during the literal black-out, though. Though I made a joke about it, I don't think it would matter if you're afraid of the dark or not - being stuck in complete darkness until Yami wakes up would be downright TERRIFYING. 

Yami is once again very poor at expressing his position as the hero in comparison to thief!Bakura, who isn't WRONG here. From his "everything can be stolen" philosophy, he's far more powerful that the inflexible and inexperienced Yami. He has freedom of movement, freedom of conscience, and a freedom of action that Yami cannot have, both in his previous life and his current reliving of memories. Being constrained by his moral compunction to protect the city-folk and his simultaneous complete UNFAMILIARITY with them or any of their conditions on the outside lost him the previous battle. And now all he has left is an appeal to thief!Bakura's sense of fairness to people who aren't personally involved in the scuffle, something he should know by now DOES NOT EXIST. Guy's got nothing, and that does not bode well for what lays ahead. 

Yuugi and the others seem to be having a similar problem: they are also trying to reason with asshole!Bakura like he has a conscience, engage with him as though he's inclined to give them a fair shot, when he has given them every indication to the contrary. It's frustrating seeing all of our protagonists still trying to preach fairness and empathy to a bunch of people who clearly have no interest in either concept. Seeing Yuugi piss and moan about trusting asshole!Bakura as though it should have made him feel bad, and Jonouchi rushing into a duel with him like there was even a modicum of a chance that he would be given a chance gave me a recurring scoff of irritation. There should be no doubt in their minds that they will be gutted at the first opportunity with no remorse, as they have been TOLD as much.

They're just opening more opportunities to be railroaded every time they act like their enemies can grow a conscience, and I've seen this happen too often in real life to be entertained much by it in fiction.

Of course, I've got more QUESTIONS regarding how asshole!Bakura is also ZN. My guess is it has to do with thief!Bakura tampering with the Millennium Eye, sealing a part of his soul in there that exacerbated the hinted nasty tendencies of Akhenaden. That could lead Akhenaden to be the one to make the deal with shadows and essentially create a fusion of the two that would become Zorc Necrophades... right? Honestly, I'm not sure trying to REASON my way to a conclusion on this is the best idea, since there seem to be about five million facets to this particular problem. All I can know for sure is that ZN/asshole!Bakura has been sealing his soul in damn near everything he can get his grubby hands on, and I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to be haunting half the cursed objects on this planet. 

Douchebag seriously needs to do the soul equivalent of keeping it in his pants.