Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 323 Into the Tomb!

It certainly is the season for it! All kinds of "haunted" locations have popped up everywhere, and I'm stoked to be going to one this week for a nice walk through a spooky forest. Don't think I could do a TOMB myself; I don't have claustrophobia or anything, but not being able to run when scared is something that makes me nervous, which is why I tend to go for open-air attractions myself. There's a whole market for more AUTHENTIC experiences these days, though, that push the envelope a bit much for my tastes. The folks who like those kinds of haunts would be JEALOUS AS HELL of our protags right now.

But I'm perfectly satisfied with just watching "The Houses October Built".

These kids, though? No, they're on a fucking MISSION.

But they're not the only ones. Back in the underground temple with game!Yami, Zorc is questioning in a rage who this masked buff dude is and how he can just jump in front of and block his god attacks like this. Hasan answers with his name and title of Spirit of the Stone Tablet, a title which Zorc repeats in disbelief. Behind Hasan, Yami is starting to recognize him as the guy who knelt next to his injured and bloodied form in the cave. He gave such unforgettable advice, after all.

Hasan says that he and Zorc are two sides of the same coin: the light and darkness of the world beyond. He appears as well when the evil will of destruction awakes, Zorc's bound twin which, if that question mark on Zorc is any indication, he had no idea existed. Hasan declares it's his destiny to protect the pharaoh. 

How typical of a villain to get hung up on a label and ignore all evidence he doesn't like. Game!Yami groans as beams of the attack shoot past, but Hasan insists that he HAS to endure, since the end of Zorc's attack means his magic power will be lowered, and he won't be able to stop time anymore. Just a LITTLE longer, buddy! 

Zorc roars while he continues to shoot hellfire from his palms. Game!Yami is wincing, and argues to Hasan that even if time moves again, he and his priests are badly wounded. He comments on Zorc's strength and questions if there is ANY way to defeat the monster, but Hasan tells him there's still hope. At game!Yami's stunned expression, Hasan looks over his shoulder and says Yami still has his friends. Wide-eyed, game!Yami remembers that this is right, his friends DO exist!

His name, his friends, damn if Yami's HEAD wasn't attached...

Yami has recalled that his friends souls are even now wandering lost in the game world, searching for the name he had when he was pharaoh and alive. I would say Yami's friends deserve a little more credit, but they HAVE been wandering pretty aimless until the last chapter. Asshole!Bakura tsks at the fact that these friends seem to have in that time gotten some inside information, and he says he didn't think that an NPC he didn't even know about could tell Yuugi and company about the location of the pharaoh's name. He's rather UNCONCERNED when he says this wasn't part of his plan. 

This escapes Yami, who asks for confirmation that his buds have indeed found where his name is. Grinning, asshole!Bakura says this is true, and that they should be getting there right about this time. Yami complains that asshole!Bakura shouldn't know what his friends are up to if even HE can't know that, claiming it's out-of-character info. Asshole!Bakura retorts that he sent in a piece of his soul as a spy, as Yami glares to cover his shock.

Quite obvious now why asshole!Bakura remains so very smug. He urges Yami not to worry, because he can join them when Zorc is done destroying the pharaoh. Of course, he recognizes that he'll have to get that masked buff dude out of the way first, who is STILL blocking Zorc's hell fire attack in the diorama. Asshole!Bakura admits he doesn't know who Hasan is, or why he's been protecting the mold tablet and the pharaoh for the past 3,000 years, but asshole!Bakura vows with exuberance that he'll destroy anything that gets in Zorc's way, emphasizing this with a raised clenched fist.

Yami glowers, while silently begging Yuugi and the rest of his friends to be careful, insisting they have to survive. 

Back on the ground once more, Yuugi is displaying full-on poop face toward the entrance, knowing that somewhere in here is his other self's true name. Honda waves a hand in front of a guard's stationary face to confirm that he and the rest of them are frozen too, because apparently EVERYONE is forgetting that they're invisible and can't be seen anyway in this world. I don't want to hear another word about how Jonouchi is stupid for not getting that fact after this, not one solitary word!

Yuugi begins to walk in, urging the others to follow, which they do, Jonouchi holding up a fist and making a declaration of solidarity as he does so. They're framed for a moment as silhouettes at the end of a dark corridor with pictograms carved into the walls, and while they walk along it, Jonouchi starts to lose his nerve and complain that the place is all dark and creepy. He invites Anzu to go ahead of him, who demands a break from his bullshit, as if she's been dealing with this particular trait of his at all since Death-T. Honda points out that there are torches, so they can at least see where they're going in there. 

Yuugi looks around in awe, thinking about how this is the other him's/the pharaoh's tomb. Honda puts his hand on an intricately carve pillar and says you can tell by it and the statues that this has to be a king's tomb, not that this was ever a question. Jonouchi just slouches behind him, looking ill. Yuugi's still thinking on Yami, who must have been lonely after he died, being in here all by himself. 

Well that was far more sudden an entrance in here than Yuugi's grandfather made. Then again, there hasn't been time for a bunch of corpses to be pinned to the wall in this iteration yet.

Yuugi looks up at the massive statues with their blades raised, and thinks with a sweatdrop that that sword seems like it could drop at any moment. Reasoning that he could fly just a few minutes ago in this game world, Jonouchi makes a carefree running leap right off the edge of the platform with a yell... then drops out of sight when it turns out that gravity works here. His friends dive for him and grab his wrist just in time, Honda shouting at him to watch it. They pull him back up to safety, Yuugi explaining that this is just like in Duel Monsters, citing a rule that you can't fly in a dungeon. Sounds legit. Jonouchi mutters that they could have TOLD him, conveniently forgetting that he didn't give them much time to do so before he just took that leap of faith. 

While Jonouchi pants from near hyperventilation behind him, Yuugi assures his friends that it's okay, because time is stopped. He approaches the first statue, on the logic that even if it's a booby trap, it can't move when time isn't. 

Four little kiddos, all in a row... Jonouchi warns everyone to watch where they step, because if they fall, it's all over, and he would know. Still, it does seem a slight cop-out that these statues don't pose the threat they are designed to right now. 

Yuugi DOES find cause to pause in alarm on the path, though, when he sees a Duel Monsters card laid face down right in the middle of it. He picks it up to look at what it is, and looks rather disturbed by what he sees. His friends gather at his side, Jonouchi asking what it is, and Yuugi answering that what's in his hand was on the ground. Anzu asks the obvious question if this isn't a Duel Monster's card, while Yuugi glares around the surrounding room in heightened paranoia, knowing someone else must be there. He fixes his eyes on their destination, the great statue under which the exit to the room resides. We get a good view of the card: "Destiny Board", which I believe we've seen before. Yuugi at least recognizes it, and stands seriously wondering, no doubt coming to the only conclusion anyone can here. 

Beyond the exit to the previous room and the path across the abyss in the next, a familiar figure sits on the pedestal at the end of the chamber.

Don't give me THAT attitude. It's the same attitude my cat has every time I'm trying to get up in the morning and perform my morning toilet. I don't need it from you too.

Once again, we switch back to Hasan standing in the way of this fucking ETERNAL attack from Zorc, who demands he just die already. At last, there is movement when Hasan is blown back off his feet and over Yami's head. Yami calls to the groaning tablet spirit, as Zorc waits for the figures behind the lingering fire of his attack to clear, wondering if Hasan is dead yet. Then he hums in some surprise. 

Good, because I'm pretty sure time being frozen is part of the reason that attack lasted so unbearably long. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The main thing that the beginning of this chapter brings up is the concept of a light side of the coin to Zorc's dark side. The duality of light and dark, night and day, is a fundamental component to many cosmologies, and it looks like the cosmology of THIS world is no different. It's a familiar enough idea, and perfectly understandable to implement when KT had to create a counterpart that could stand up to his villain, at least in the moment most needed. He did seem to write himself into a tiny corner with asshole!Bakura controlling the game in the biased way he is.

The curious thing here is that neither asshole!Bakura nor Zorc seem to be aware of this counterpart spirit to Zorc, while Hasan is very well aware of Zorc. The fact that light and dark are such fundamental binaries that I find it a little ludicrous that one WOULDN'T be aware of the other, this brings up a slight snag in the narrative. Clearly, if Zorc/asshole!Bakura don't know of Hasan's existence, that means he didn't show up in the actual events, and if Hasan didn't show up then, where was he? Stuck in the tablet? Did he not have any body to manifest through at the time? He has said that he appears when Zorc does to defend the pharaoh, but that's not true, because he would have appeared to defend against Zorc when he first showed up in the past. He can't JUST be an NPC in the game, because this was set up entirely by asshole!Bakura, and he doesn't know who the fuck Hasan is. What, precisely, is the deal here, and why is it going on NOW instead of the first time around the block? I don't know if there are answers to these questions this close to the end, but I can't help wondering about it, given that I'm naturally curious who Hasan is and where he came from/came to be a spirit of the tablet. 

I joked above about the kids just bypassing the statues in the tomb, but I am actually glad they didn't have to work this one out again. We already saw the solution to the puzzle through Sugoroku's flashback at the very beginning of the Millennium World arc, and there was really no need to show us that again. It also helps to keep the chapter moving faster by keeping the characters on the move as well, minimizing their need to pause and think about things as much as possible. 

Hell, SOMEBODY needed to be moving forward in this chapter, with Zorc and Hasan in their overly extended gridlock. Only gods of light and dark could go on forever like that as if time didn't matter.