Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 329 Until Our "Ba" Runs Out!

Mine is already down in the gutter, I'll tell you that much. December is already a busier month for pretty much everybody, so the fact that I'm usually run ragged enough that I don't post as much during the holidays as I do the rest of the year is probably not a surprise to anyone. But this year, I was a victim of two seasonal illnesses, a small cold in the first couple of weeks, and then my husband brought home a NASTY flu during Christmas and New Years. As I type, I'm still trying to recover, stuffed up and coughing. It's the first flu I think I've had since... I don't know, 10 years ago? It's been a while, and I had forgotten how absolutely MISERABLE it is, with every day being like entering a new level of Hell like fucking Dante. 

At least HE had company, though. He got to hang with his idol Virgil the whole time. I just get to hang with the cat, who does NOT understand I'm sick and tries to paw me awake whenever she wants me to get up and play with her.

Good thing there are no numbers attached to those gauges, because the hard cold math might make this look even WORSE than it already does.

We get a reiterative panel with basically the same scene as above, except WITHOUT the ba gauges, just taking up space, I suppose. Siamun declares that now is the time they all combine their power with the pharaoh to defeat Zorc Necrophades, which is easy for the guy with the fullest gauge to say. Hey Siamun, maybe you could spend a little of that ba in order to bring out that good ol' forbidden Exodia? Or is this not an option now that NO ONE has a Millennium Item in your group now? I'm still a little unclear about that rule, to be honest. 

Zorc laughs that he can snuff out all their weak souls and lives like you snuff out a candle. Please stop, dude, do you NOT realize how much you're embarrassing yourself? Mahado flies upward wordlessly (at the very least proving he's better than Zorc in that he can manage not to shout weird metaphors and similes every five seconds), and Yami assures him that he's going to fight until his ba runs out. Oooooh, that was ALMOST the title. So close! Mahado agrees, while Mana below implores the spirit that shares her soul give its power to her master. The Dark Magician Girl flies to join the Dark Magician in compliance, eliciting some surprise from... somewhere. Probably Mahado himself, but it's a little difficult to tell.

But if it is him, he gets over it fast.

Aim for the creepy dragon genitalia! That'll put him down!

Some of the soldiers with a view of the semi-distant figures of Mahado and DMG attacking exclaim that they hit Zorc dead-on. But Yami and Siamun at least aren't looking very celebratory in the next panel, gaping in horror at the NON-destroyed dark god. Zorc wiggles his claws under his gaze and says in a somewhat bored manner that the attack burned the tips of his fingers. Dammit. Should have aimed for the dick, guys. Why else is it just hanging out there?

Mahado and DMG adopt similar looks to Yami and Siamun; horrified shock all around. Yami himself internally bemoans that Mahado's greatest attack didn't even faze Zorc. Meanwhile, Zorc sweeps his giant hand to the side across his body, as he says it's now HIS turn to show them what-for. 

I see the burned fingertips aren't inhibiting you in any meaningful way. 

With half of the soldiers bowled over around Yami cradling Shada, and the ones that survived the explosions groaning as they get to their feet, Siamun marvels at Zorc's power. Yami just calls out to Shada, who does not answer, laying there inert in his arms. Yami hangs his head, grunting in his own pain and impotence. 

Akhenaden laughs about there only being two priests left now, but I'm not sure I believe him. After all, Shada hasn't turned to sand yet, so I'm almost expecting him to bounce back at some point. Akhenaden seems to have forgotten that the Inuyasha "it ain't dead unless it's dissolved" rule has been established, though, and continues on to declare that the pharaoh is injured enough that he's not able to summon the god monsters anymore. He asks if they haven't figured out how useless it is to fight against Zorc yet, narrowing down his addressees to just Priest Seto after a moment. 

HOLD UP. When did Priest Seto get his Millennium Rod back? Last I checked, it was in the Millennium Tablet along with the other items. Did... Did I miss a scene somewhere???

Akhenaden muses on how he's seen that shocked look on Priest Seto's face once before, but he probably doesn't really remember it. When Akhenaden first came home with that Millennium Eye in his head, he recalls it was like baby Priest Seto was seeing a monster and was afraid of him. I was under the impression that Akhenaden had kind of cut off contact with his wife and son right AS he went off to create the Millennium Items, but I guess I was mistaken? Anyway, the wide-eyed child and grown versions of Priest Seto are set side-by-side for comparison's sake, and YUP! That sure is the same face of absolute horror he's making!

But Akhenaden protests that he's NOT a monster, he's Priest Seto's FATHER. His mistake is thinking that these are somehow mutually exclusive categories. Definitely not. Priest Seto lays it out pretty plain for him when he readopts his determined face and declares that while once Akhenaden was his master, he's now the ENEMY that serves a dark master himself. He's not at ALL confused about where he stands in this fight. Though Akhenaden tries to assert that he's gained Zorc's shadow power and Priest Seto's ka can no longer even BEGIN to defeat him, Priest Seto is clearly not listening. He says that for his first and last rebellion against Akhenaden, he will defeat him, sending Duos over to do just that on this final syllable. 

Millennium Eye shining, Akhenaden insists that he CANNOT be defeated. 

Isn't it weird that Akhenaden's paternal AFFECTION went away for Priest Seto, but not his MOTIVATIONS? That's super weird, right?

Akhenaden starts lecturing Priest Seto as he's frying him, saying that the pain he feels should be showing him the path he must take, telling him to let his notions of "justice" be destroyed along with his ka. Can someone stop this asshole from having children in his next life, please? No contact with the young'uns in the next 3,000-year cycle, thanks. It's uncertain if Priest Seto even HEARS Akhenaden's wrong-headed lesson over his own screams from the prolonged electrocution.

Priest Seto kneels in the settling dust after the attack subsides, hunched over the ground and still inexplicably clinging to that Millennium Rod he really shouldn't have anymore. Yami and company call to him from a distance in concern, but he doesn't respond, just growling up at Akhenaden. Akhenaden faces Mahado and DMG, imploring Priest Seto to witness his power, as if he didn't JUST get an intimate feel for some of that himself. Then again, when Akhenaden calls for an army of the dead to rise, and armored mummies start popping up through the already roiling sand to do his bidding, grinning fleshless faces gnashing their exposed teeth, I can see how this might be a little bit different to what he was subjecting Priest Seto to earlier. 

Of COURSE there's a zombie army.

But, because the trope wasn't quite so established back in the day, Siamun is shocked by the massive force of corpse soldiers headed for them. Akhenaden giggles that it will destroy them long before they can so much as lay a finger on his precious Zorc. Mahado and DMG spend a moment being dumbfounded by the undead army heading for them, when they can afford it, and then starts firing off Magic Blasts like it's nobody's business. Which, I guess, it isn't. Who am I to tell them how to use their Magic Blasts?

Someone, probably Siamun who stands protectively in front of Yami still cradling Shada, orders their own diminished forces to fall back and protect the pharaoh. Yami himself scoffs, thinking they don't have nearly enough power while living soldiers get slashed left and right by the ghost mummies. Siamun yells to Isis that her Spiria alone can turn the tide of battle, which she acknowledges placidly before he commands her to give the last of her ba to her ruler. Meanwhile, Yami at last lays down Shada on the ground in front of Siamun. 

BTDubz, Shada also has his Millennium Key back, and it is prominently displayed so that Siamun can perform a little speech about he gave it to Shada as his successor but needs to repossess it now. Why the Millennium Items have suddenly shown back up in the hands of the good guys is now a bit clearer. Siamun lifts the Millennium Key from Shada's unconscious form and wonders if it will still lend its power to this old man. Then his thoughts shift abruptly to just precisely what I mentioned before, Exodia, what Siamun described as the Demon God of the Palace. 

That's all we need. More demon gods. 

The battlefield is busy with flying mummy soldiers darting every which way and living men trying to fight them off.

Ugh, I wouldn't have been able to put up any fight against Akhenaden taking me away either. Of course, in my case, it's just because I'm still a tad bit feverish with flu.

Akhenaden teleports Priest Seto to the palace, several buildings of which are crumbling with all the calamity going on in the ground. Priest Seto looks downright devastated with the palace's ongoing destruction as he looks up at it, exclaiming is despair and fear that it's collapsing. Akhenaden tells him that it's about to disappear under the sand, destroyed along with the whole of this world - which, being a game world, was kind of inevitable to begin with no matter what. But Akhenaden seems to think that some form of it will continue, saying that Zorc Necrophades's awakening will "purify" all and birth a new world of shadows. 

HEY! What did I tell you about terrible metaphors? Knock it off, my head's throbbing too hard for this!

The horror on Priest Seto's face intensifies, and with it, Akhenaden claims to know what it was that passed through his mind to cause this reaction. As Priest Seto struggles to stand and the buildings continue to crumble around him, Akhenaden asserts (whether just internally or not, I'm not certain) that Priest Seto is thinking of the "power" he left behind inside. Priest Seto himself identifies this "power" by her fucking NAME at least, Kisara, before starting to run off. He's given pause when Akhenaden states flatly that there's nothing he can do, and he freezes for a second to listen to Akhenaden callously assert that Kisara will die, and he'll get that awesome cool power of hers.

All that's missing from that picture is the steam issuing from his overheating brain. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I went back to look at previous chapters and noticed that the last chapter showed the Millennium Items back with their former wielders in a few select panels, and I just didn't notice until now. I must have overlooked it in the last chapter due to illness and the general stress of the holidays, so I assumed I must have overlooked the scene or the panel that showed the characters getting back their items and did a quick glance over the last ten to fifteen chapters so see if I could find it. Unfortunately, my search came up empty, and I'm hoping anyone reading might be able to point me in the right direction. I'd hate to think the priests and Yami just magically got those important artifacts back due to plot convenience, even though I COULD see this hole in the narrative completely slipping KT's mind in the midst of illness. While I'm VERY empathetic, especially right now, it does cause my story brain to itch something AWFUL. 

I might be susceptible to think that the Millennium Items returned to the priests and pharaoh during Yuugi's duel with asshole!Bakura, because short as it was, it would have allowed enough time for the good guys to gain at least that much ground back. But I keep bumping up against the question of how and WHY the version of asshole!Bakura up at the table would have allowed that to happen. He's had such tight control of the game thus far, pulled so many questionable moves in order to GET the items in the first place. I'm not sure I can buy that he'd let his opposition get the Millennium Items when they afford even the SMALLEST advantage of being able to summon monsters from the shrine. Sure, the shrine is no doubt crumbling to dust, but I'm still skeptical that he wouldn't just hold onto the Millennium Items out of pure SPITE. It just doesn't make much sense on a few levels, including that of character.

Because I was reminded above through Akhenaden's special attention to Priest Seto that asshole!Bakura is willing to ignore a relationship if it might hold back his pawn... until that relationship and the motivations that come with can manifest in such a way as to help his ends. This is by no means a bad thing, I actually very much like how Akhenaden's relationship with Priest Seto was able to be exploited in an interesting way by asshole!Bakura, and it's very much believable. But unless letting the priests and Yami have back their Millennium Items can ALSO be exploited in a clever way, it's always going to look more like a cringe-worthy oversight to me than just something I wasn't there to witness.

That's of course assuming I'm not just completely missing where the Millennium Items went back where they were before even though it's right in front of me. It's entirely possible at this point. I'm a little loopy right now, not gonna lie.