Not that this is an option or anything. There's just some things you HAVE to do, damn near unbearable tasks that are nonetheless necessary for life to go on. For most of us, these are adulting things like vacuuming and sending out all those emails you've been avoiding for work. I just spent the better part of an HOUR doing the almost impossible puzzle of sticking hours on viable projects with enough funding for my fucking timesheet. How I managed to finish the damn thing, I have no idea, not when I wanted to throw up my hands at every turn and simply quit. I guess I just wanted to get paid more.
Yuugi's goal of helping Yami with all that unfinished business of his is similarly overriding whatever urge to step back from the fight he might have. And similarly scaled for the higher stakes, of course.
I gotta admit, me not getting one paycheck would be a little bit less devastating than this.
Of course, Yuugi adds the part about black box asshole!Bakura chose eliminating his graveyard, which means he's the only on who has to discard anything, a pretty terrible combo by his estimation. He wonders in desperation if there's any way to get out of this, as Asshole!Bakura reminds him it's his turn. Without acknowledgement of this, Yuugi announces that he draws, looking sheepishly at his new card, Magic Barrier. Thankfully, asshole!Bakura doesn't open his fucking mouth to declare yet ANOTHER effect of his strategy, like he's done the last couple of turns. Still, Yuugi broods on what it is he should do.
From the sidelines, Anzu despairs over the fact that Yuugi has to discard even more cards if he plays another monster. Jonouchi adds that The Narrow Corridor on asshole!Bakura's side means that he really only needs two monsters to defend his whole side of the field, no matter HOW many monsters Yuugi plays. As I pointed out in the last chapter, Honda also draws attention to the fact that asshole!Bakura only has to wait for Yuugi to run out of cards in his deck. Then he wins by default.
Yuugi declares he's placing a card face down, then says he's attacking two of asshole!Bakura's shield monsters, using his Silent Swordsman and Magician monsters. While they lunge forward to fulfill the command, Jonouchi shouts at Yuugi not to do it, since asshole!Bakura will just summon more when they're taken out. Asshole!Bakura grins wickedly, asserting that actually, it's about to get even WORSE for Yuugi.
His monsters having hacked, slashed, and blasted the shit out of asshole!Bakura's shields, Yuugi asks aloud if he got them, like it would really make much of a difference there. With a card held out triumphantly, asshole!Bakura tells him he'll "get it" all right, saying he activated the spell card he's brandishing before Yuugi's attack landed. Yuugi stares in horror.
Appalled that there are TEN of these awful mannequins now, gaping in alarm. Jonouchi grinds his teeth with horrified frustration, fretting over how bad this is because there's twelve monsters on asshole!Bakura's side of the field now whether Yuugi defeats two of them or not, and with the three on Yuugi's side, that's a whole 15 monsters in total. Anzu asks if he means that Yuugi has to discard fifteen cards at the end of this turn, like she even NEEDS to, but Jonouchi goes ahead and answers her in the affirmative. Honda exclaims is disbelief that Yuugi's deck will be obliterated by the next turn at this rate.
Yuugi hangs his head, staring at the floor with an expression of hopelessness. Asshole!Bakura asks if Yuugi is done with his turn, telling him he knows what to do if it is. Asshole!Bakura demands that Yuugi take 15 cards from his deck and put them in the graveyard, his grin that much more vile. Yuugi sweats BULLETS.
Bummer bro. Confidence pretty much decimated, Yuugi peeps after a small pause that this is the end of his turn. Asshole!Bakura chuckles that Yuugi can't break through his weird fence of mannequins, and he doesn't need to to a single thing to win, just sit back and wait. Still, he expresses a desire to drive his metaphorical knife deeper into Yuugi's heart, and maybe twist it a little, for the lulz. So, he summons another doll, this time just the head, but with gross tentacles and a lump of metastasized flesh on it, called "Necroface". It's just in defense, and asshole!Bakura does nothing further before ending his turn. He gloats to Yuugi that this is it, and the precious cinnamon roll has just one more turn to look back on his life before he takes a dirt nap in this shitty game. Asshole!Bakura laughs at Yuugi, whose expression is downcast and unnerved.
Anzu calls out to Yuugi in disbelief and concern, Jonouchi mumbling a curse and asking how Yuugi's supposed to climb out of this hole. Yuugi himself squeezes his eyes shut, the knowledge of what losing this shadow game will mean weighing on him; he'll disappear and won't be able to help Yami anymore. That second part seems to be worse than the first to him, honestly. As he stands motionless against the horde of dolls tangled on asshole!Bakura's side, face downcast, Jonouchi shouts at him that he's a duelist and that he's not to give up until he draws his last card. Yuugi's eyes spring open at the identification as a duelist, looking back up with renewed determination. He recalls that his other self never gave up until the very end, no matter what happened.
Yuugi announces his turn with renewed vigor, drawing a card. We get a clear look at it before even he does, some dragon or something, I'm sure it won't be important. Asshole!Bakura is giggling as usual, but when Yuugi throws his phrase of "this is it" back at him, asshole!Bakura's eyes snap open in time to see Yuugi sacrificing two of his monsters, Silent Magician (we hardly knew ye) and Marshmallon.
Is this the long lost sibling of those god cards, or WHAT?
As the 4th god card up there leans down and snarls at asshole!Bakura, his bloodshot eyes bulge at it in turn, in disbelief that it's really there. Jonouchi exclaims in awe that he's never seen that dragon before, while Yuugi tells asshole!Bakura that the ONE thing that could break this "undead locked" strategy happened to be sleeping in his deck, conveniently enough. Hunched and looking oh-so frazzled, asshole!Bakura repeats this phrasing about the one card that can defeat his strategy weakly. Yuugi confirms that this is indeed the end of their little match, declaring Gandora's special magic attack - for half of Yuugi's life points, Gandora will destroy all monsters on the field, and it will head on out to the graveyard after it's done. At least, that's what it says on the card we're shown.
The jewel-like bubbles in Gandora's hide start glowing, surely a sign it's powering up. A sweating asshole!Bakura stutters that this can't happen, citing that it would even destroy Yuugi's monsters (the remaining ones anyway), but Yuugi appears unconcerned by this. Rather smug, actually.
Suicide dragon activated.
Asshole!Bakura shields his eyes from the brilliant explosion, and the flying pieces of mannequin being flung about, grunting about all his shield monsters being gone. Honda worries from the sidelines that Yuugi's monsters have been destroyed too, but Jonouchi points to a tall figure moving in the cloud after the destruction, completely awed.
Silent Sword, level 7, slashes up asshole!Bakura, who spits blood between clenched teeth as his life points drop to zero. He just barely manages to get out half the question as to WHY Silent Sword was still out on the field and not destroyed like the other monsters, so Yuugi explains to him that he used a little spell card he placed in wait ages ago, Magic Barrier, to make Silent Sword immune to any magical effect.
With this, asshole!Bakura dissolves into wisps of smoke with a defeated growl. One soul fragment gone, about a zillion left to get rid of. *sigh*
Ah yes, the kind of smile that says "I murdered an asshole today and have no regrets". Just another glorious achievement that will make Yami proud.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It felt so... short. Not just the chapter, but the little "duel for the name" sub-game it caps off. I expected this duel to last so much longer than it did, but that's really only because the others before this one tended to drag on a bit, and have a bit more padding than needed. I think, in KT's haste toward the end of the story, he managed to pare this match down to a lean size, keeping the meaningful bits and trimming that fat. As a result, though it feels UNEXPECTEDLY short, it still feels as long as it NEEDED to be to get its point across and still be entertaining/tense. I very much enjoyed it.
I only have a couple of minor criticisms about the chapter's prompt termination of the duel. The first is that Gandora seems just a tad too conveniently OP for this particular purpose. Considering that Yuugi had the ENTIRE Duel Monsters collection at his disposal to put into his dream deck here, it's just a little on the unrealistic side that he would happen imagine that one to fill out one of the 40 cards he's allowed here. Too much unrestricted choice could have easily led him to make the wrong decision and leave that one out. One COULD of course make the argument that he was paying attention during asshole!Bakura's Battle City duel and imagined this strategy as a possibility when choosing his cards for this one, since he had the advantage of hindsight where asshole!Bakura did not, and we've discussed in the comments of the previous chapter how asshole!Bakura's strategy in the past tournament meshed really well with the one he used in this match. To me, that breaks my suspension of disbelief just SLIGHTLY, but it would lend even more credit to Yuugi's dueling chops. After all, he really trounced asshole!Bakura early in the duel, proving that he was NO stranger to how his opponent played the game.
The second criticism is just a missed opportunity: When Yuugi is discarding a stack of cards, we can clearly see the one on top of the pile. This didn't HAVE to be anything special, but I just think it would have been a really cool setup for bringing Gandora back from the graveyard at the end of the game. What can I say? I love my setups and payoffs.
