Dark Bakura and Dark Marik's Duel (manga)

Dark Bakura and Dark Marik faced each other in a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga.

Events

Prior

Your host Marik is also here — The portion of Marik's consciousness, alongside Dark Bakura

A portion of Marik Ishtar's consciousness remained in the bodies of Ryo Bakura^[2] and Anzu Mazaki from when he had brainwashed them. Through Anzu, he learned from Ishizu Ishtar that Dark Marik had been the one killed his father. Marik then made a deal with Dark Bakura; Dark Bakura could take the Millennium Rod and see the Seal of Memories, if he helped him protect Rishid and kill Dark Marik. To improve their chances, Marik told Dark Bakura about his Deck, which he understood Dark Marik would be using.^[3]

The night after the quarterfinals of the Battle City tournament, Dark Marik proceeded to Rishid's room on the Battle Ship, with the intention of killing him, while he lay unconscious. However, he was interrupted by Dark Bakura and Marik. Marik refused to let Dark Marik kill Rishid and while Dark Bakura had no interest in Rishid's life, stated his intentions to take the Millennium Rod.^[2]

Dark Marik was unwilling to hand over the Millennium Rod and used its powers to pin Dark Bakura to the wall. He resumed his plan to murder Rishid, with the unsheathed Millennium Rod, but Dark Bakura was able to use the Millennium Ring to free himself and prevent Dark Marik from moving his hand, which held the rod. The two agreed to a Shadow Game and made their way to the Aerial Dueling Platform. Dark Marik stipulated that the loser of the game would disappear.^[2]

Dark Bakura flung to the wall — Dark Marik and Dark Bakura, battling with their Millennium Items

Since Dark Bakura was absent for Dark Marik's Duel with Mai Kujaku, Dark Marik was satisfied that he would not know the abilities of the "The Sun Dragon Ra". He suspected Marik may have told Dark Bakura about his Deck, but was not worried, since he had changed its contents, after taking control of Marik's body. He was also confident that he knew Dark Bakura's strategy, having seen him Duel Dark Yugi.^[3]

Marik announced that he was aware Dark Marik had killed their father. Dark Marik shamelessly admitted it, but reminded Marik that he was not without blame. Marik agreed and in reflection of the tragedy, commented on how Shadi had made him think the pharaoh was responsible for the death. Dark Bakura was surprised that Shadi could have been alive five years ago,^[3] since he killed him earlier.^[4] As atonement for his part in his father's death, Marik vowed to kill Dark Marik.^[3]

Marik got ready to issue Dark Bakura with their tactics, but Dark Bakura was unwilling to follow his charge. He reminded Marik of the agreement and stated his wishes to burn Dark Marik's body after the Duel, which Marik had no problem with.^[3]

Dark Marik initiated the Shadow Game, causing dark mist to surround the arena and reminded Dark Bakura that the loser's body and soul would be consumed by darkness.^[3]

Duel

Turn 1: Dark Bakura

Dark Bakura Set "Fearful Earthbound", pleased to have gotten such a powerful Trap Card on his first turn. He then Summoned "Goblin Zombie".^[3]

Turn 2: Dark Marik

Dark Marik Set "Remove Trap" and Summoned "Drillago".^[3]

"Drillago" attacked "Goblin Zombie", but Dark Bakura activated "Fearful Earthbound". A monster appeared on the field, with its mouth, surrounding Dark Marik. Dark Bakura explained that he had used a weak monster as bait, to allow him to use the trap. He had no problem allowing the monster to be destroyed, since his Deck was structured to benefit from monsters being sent to his Graveyard. "Drillago" proceeded to destroy "Goblin Zombie" (Dark Bakura: 4000 → 3500 Life Points), but as "Fearful Earthbound" was about to snap on Dark Marik, Dark Marik activated "Remove Trap" to erase it.^[3]

Dark Marik directed Dark Bakura's attention to his body, where a chunk of his arm had disappeared, since he lost Life Points. Dark Bakura laughed and remarked that this was an interesting game.^[3]

Turn 3: Dark Bakura

Dark Marik advised Dark Bakura to be careful what card he chose, since he knew what kind of cards he had. "Dark Necrofear" and "Destiny Board" were both in Dark Bakura's hand. He figured they would not be much use, since Dark Marik had seen him use them before, and opted to use another strategy he should be unaware of. He thought about how Dark Marik would need three Sacrifices to Summon his God card, "The Sun Dragon Ra". Marik advised him not to fear God and privately informed him of a way to seal God; "Ra" gains its power via Sacrifice Summon, so if it were to be discarded, it would not be able to acquire this power and since Spell Cards can only affect it for one turn, a revival from "Monster Reborn" would only be temporary. Dark Bakura was pleased, since making players discard would also allow him to use the full power of his Deck.^[5]

Dark Bakura Set "Dark Designator" and "Multiple Destruction" and Summoned "Gelnia" in Defense Mode.^[5]

Turn 4: Dark Marik

With "Ra", not in his hand, Dark Marik activated "Card of Sanctity", causing both players to draw more cards, but still did not have "Ra" afterwards. Dark Barkura laughed and asked if Dark Marik was that desperate to have his God card. He said he would fulfill that desire, as he activated "Dark Designator", making Dark Marik add "Ra" to his hand. He then activated "Multiple Destruction", making both players discard their hands and draw five new cards. Dark Bakura also took damage from the effect of "Multiple Destruction" (Dark Bakura: 3500 → 2900), but felt it was worth it to seal "Ra" and optimize his Deck's abilities by having more cards in the Graveyard.^[5]

Turn 5: Dark Bakura

PuppetMaster-JP-Manga-DM-NC-color — "Puppet Master" revives Dark Bakura's monsters.

Dark Bakura Set a card and Sacrificed "Gelnia" to Summon "Puppet Master", whose effect let him Summon three monsters from the Graveyard; "Headless Knight", "Dark Necrofear" and "Gelnia", at the cost of 1000 Life Points (Dark Bakura: 2900 → 1900 Life Points). With his own Life Points untouched, Dark Marik pointed out that this was harming Dark Bakura more than him. Dark Bakura replied that his monsters could not attack this turn, but when they do next turn, Dark Marik should have no Life Points left.^[5]

Turn 6: Dark Marik

Dark Marik drew a card and laughed. When asked what was so funny, he replied "One Turn Kill" and declared that Bakura would die this turn. He then said that he would let Dark Bakura see the second ability of "Ra", something Marik did not even know about.^[5]

Dark Marik activated "Monster Reborn", reviving "The Sun Dragon Ra", to Marik's surprise, since it had 0 ATK and DEF, due to the lack of Sacrifices and was to disappear at the end of the turn, since Spell Cards only had a temporary effect. Dark Marik explained that Marik did not know the true abilities of Ra, since the Millennium Rod had not imparted that information to him.^[6]

Dark Marik defeats Dark Bakura — Dark Marik, fused with "Ra", attacks Dark Bakura.

After conducting the incantation, Dark Marik's body began to disappear, as he paid all of his Life Points bar 1 to increase the ATK and DEF of "Ra", by the same amount (Dark Marik: 4000 → 1 Life Points, "Ra": 0 → 3999 ATK, 0 → 3999 DEF). The portion of Dark Marik's body that disappeared, reappeared, fused with "Ra".^[6]

"Ra" attacked with "God Blaze Cannon", destroying all of Dark Bakura's monsters and taking out his remaining Life Points (Dark Bakura: 1900 → 0 Life Points).^[6]

Aftermath

Since Dark Bakura lost the Shadow Game, his body was to be consumed by the darkness. The portion of Marik's consciousness that existed in Bakura's body also disappeared. Before vanishing completely, Dark Bakura warned Dark Marik that he would revive and kill him and explained that he had originally came from the darkness. Dark Marik picked up the Millennium Ring, which Dark Bakura had left behind and said that defeating darkness was interesting.^[6]

With a portion of his consciousness still existing in Anzu, Marik possessed her and approached Ishizu, to enlist her help in hiding Rishid's body from Dark Marik.^[7]

Cards used

The following cards appeared in this Duel.

Dark Bakura

Monsters

Monsters

Spells & Traps

Spells

Dark Designator

Traps

Dark Marik