Episode 30: The Legendary Strongest Soldier: Chaos Soldier Descends

Mai's got Yugi on the ropes. He's down to 300 life points, while she's still at 2000. She has a powered-up Harpie Lady and Harpie's Pet Dragon on the field. Yugi has no monsters, and Mai's trap card Shadow of Eyes prevents him from playing any monsters in defense, plus her Mirror Wall reduces the attack strength of any monster he plays in attack mode by half. Again, Yami asks Yugi to let him help, and again Yugi refuses. (And again, this doesn't happen in the Japanese episode.) Pegasus senses Yugi's confusion, struggling against the power of his Millennium Item. The gang is impressed by Mai's dueling ability, and Joey wonders if it was sheer dumb luck that let him beat her before.

But Mai tells Joey it wasn't luck. He won because he knew something she didn't, and she learned more from that defeat that she had from any victory. She learned that she had to trust in herself. She asks Joey if he knows why he made it to the finals, and Joey says i was because he had his friends supporting him, but Mai says that as well as having his friends, he was willing to look his demons in the eye and face them.

Then she asks Yugi: have you faced up to your fears?

Yugi thinks about the duel with Kaiba. The spirit was willing to risk hurting Kaiba in order to win, but Yugi couldn't let that happen. He couldn't hurt anyone else, even to save his Grandpa. Now Yami speaks to Yugi, telling him he only wanted to help, and promising not to go against Yugi's wishes again. He reminds Yugi that Grandpa told him to trust in the power of the Millennium Puzzle.

(In the Japanese, well, the subtitles are very confusing here, and I'm not sure what Yugi's thinking. Let's just transcribe the subtitles directly, and let you draw your own conclusions: "Yes, at that time... to gamble our life in front of Kaiba, I really had a fear of defeat. I fear defeat will hurt my pride. I was helped when wounded after the battle. It was really painful. Between Kaiba and me there is another me. Yes, but I haven't discovered it yet. No, it's me that haven't observed it, to mend the weakness of my inner self. On the other hand, the strong me, that's.... can be seen, yet cannot be seen." Okay, I think this is Yami, finally acknowledging the presence of little Yugi inside him, and realizing that the two of them have to work together.)

Yugi resolves to trust the spirit (or, in the Japanese, is it the spirit resolving to trust Yugi?), and returns to the duel, no longer divided. He draws, and plays Brain Control, which allows him to control one of Mai's monsters for a turn. He takes control of Harpie's Pet Dragon, but Mai tells him the Dragon is a servant of Harpie Lady only, and Yugi can't make it attack her.

But Yugi says he doesn't intend to attack Harpie Lady. He plays Catapult Turtle, and uses it to launch Harpie's Pet Dragon at the Mirror Wall, destroying it. Not only that, but Harpie's Pet Dragon is destroyed, and half of its attack points are deducted from Mai's life points. Now she's down to 850, and things are looking a little less dire for Yugi. (Aha! Here, Yami thinks he's glad he met Mai, because "you drawn me to notice the existance of another me." So, I was right, that is what's going on in the Japanese episode.)

Mai has to make a decision. She could send Harpie Lady to destroy Yugi's Catapult Turtle, which would finish Yugi off and win the game. But he's got that one face-down card—if it's a trap, she could lose her life points instead. Yugi urges her to bring on her assault, and stands confident at the other side of the field.

She decides not to attack. Instead, she plays the magic card Elegant Egotist, which turns her one Harpie Lady into three.

Yugi tells her she should have attacked. His face-down card isn't a trap, it's a magic card, Monster Recovery.

If she had attacked him, she'd have won, but she fell for his bluff. Now he plays Monster Recovery, which allows him to put his Catapult Turtle and his hand back into his deck, shuffle, and draw five new cards. But to his disappointment, he hasn't drawn a monster powerful enough to take on Mai's Harpie Ladies. So he plays Mystical Elf in defense, saying that Shadow of Eyes doesn't work on female monsters. (Which is, you know, a crock. On the other hand, Shadow of Eyes is actually a normal trap card, not a continuous trap, so in the real game it would have been off the field the turn after she first played it.) But he's only buying time—Mystical Elf won't last long against the Harpies' assault.

Mai uses Monster Reborn to revive Harpie's Pet Dragon, now powered up to 2900 attack points by the three Harpie Ladies on the field. The Harpie Ladies destroy Mystical Elf, leaving Yugi defenseless.

Everything depends on Yugi's next draw. So much depends on this duel! Yugi doesn't know if he can do it. But the spirit encourages him to trust him, and together they draw their next card. (In the Japanese, natch, it's Yugi's presence encouraging Yami.)

Yugi's card is Swords of Revealing Light. He's gained himself three more turns in which to find a way to defeat Mai. She thinks he's just delaying the inevitable, but Yugi says he'll win. Harpie's Pet Dragon is Mai's most powerful monster, but if he can draw the right three cards, there's a way to win. It involves the Black Luster Ritual. Yugi asks the spirit what that is, but Yami only says to wait and see. (Okay, this is dumb. Yami might be a better duelist than Yugi, but doesn't Yugi know what cards he has in his deck? This doesn't happen in the Japanese.)

Yugi plays Kuriboh, and Mai has a good laugh at the little furball. She draws a card and ends her turn.

Yugi draws Polymerization, but it's not the card he needs. Instead, he plays Monster Reborn to bring back Gaia the Fierce Knight. Mai draws and ends her second turn under Swords of Revealing Light, and Yugi draws Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress—still not the right card.

Mai draws another Harpie Lady—once Swords of Revealing Light wears off, she can play it and raise Harpie's Pet Dragon's attack by another 300 points, to 3200! It will be all over for Yugi then.

The three turns have passed, and it's Yugi's last chance. Slowly, he begins to draw his final card... but he can't do it. (In the Japanese, you can hear the heartbeat of the cards as Yugi reaches out his hand towards them.) Too much is riding on this last draw! But little Yugi joins him, reminding him that they have the support of all their friends. They must trust in the heart of the cards!

Pegasus is stunned by the sudden surge of power he senses from Yugi.

And Yugi draws the Black Luster Ritual (Chaos Ritual) card! He plays it, sacrificing Kuriboh and Gaia the Fierce Knight to summon the mighty Black Luster Soldier (Chaos Soldier), with an attack power of 3000 points! He attacks Harpie's Pet Dragon, destroying it, and reducing Mai's life points to 750. Disheartened, she surrenders, saying she'd rather not see her Harpie Ladies destroyed.

But as she leaves, Yugi stops her to thank her. She taught him to face his own fears. She tells him she still has more to learn, but one day she'll meet him in the arena again, and then he'd better watch out!