<i>"This cross I've carried...the cross of collectible card game defeat... NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO CARRY IT!"</i>

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, Vol.5 is Yu-Gi-Oh! at its best, bringing together all of the magic, the intrigue, the tension, the genuinely high stakes without losing its signature campy sensibilities. Because all these needles were threaded so well in this volume, it's tonally cohesive, it's an incredibly good time, and certain events in this volume feel impactful enough to really stick with you. 

Of course, all this to say: this is <i>the</i> Yugi - Kaiba re-match that remains probably the most talked about all these years later. 

But in order to get there, a few other things had to happen first. 

We finish off the duel with the Paradox brothers in the underground labyrinth. I stand behind what I said in volume 4: it's a lot more exciting and feels like it contributes to world-building in a way the anime fails to convey, so it's pretty engaging even if the stakes don't actually feel all that high. 

The riddle of which door the gang has to exit to get out of the labyrinth also makes more sense in the manga even if it's just as silly. That, if anything, did slow the pacing down. However, it was interesting to get a little teasing re-emergence of Yami Bakura that will come back into play later. 

But let's get to the real meat of it. This was a very Kaiba-centric volume, and does an incredible amount of character building, letting us know just who Kaiba in a post-mind crush world is going to be. And he accomplishes an awful lot. He pulls a gun on Pegasus's goons, and gets one of their heads into a vice created out of his own briefcase to give us one of the manga's most iconic panels: 
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Now, we know in no uncertain terms that even 'good' Kaiba isn't going to be operating within the same bounds of civility that Yugi and his friends do. 
Pegasus seems unphased by a turning of the tables he apparently anticipated, and instead strikes at Kaiba's Achilles heel: Mokuba. By threatening Mokuba's life, Pegasus, more out of sadism than actual necessity, gives Kaiba an ultimatum: defeat Yugi in a duel and gain access to the castle or risk Mokuba's safety. Kaiba grudgingly accepts these terms, over which he has no control anyway, but reminds Pegasus that the string of fate he references is tied around his own neck. 

Then: the duel! 

The stakes in Yu-Gi-Oh! have rarely been as high as they were in this duel between Yugi and Kaiba. Weirdly, they're made a bit higher in the anime given that in the manga, Yugi's grandpa's soul is trapped in a video camera he still has access to (I still do not understand this choice on Takahashi's part). But nevertheless, this is pretty well the only time other than perhaps the duel between Yugi and brainwashed Joey/Jonouchi in Battle City where both opponents have equally as much to lose. 

It's also the duel that really shows us who Kaiba is. He doesn't share with Yugi and co. that he's only undertaking this duel to protect his brother, instead letting them believe that for him it's just about lost valor. This is interesting, because had he known what Kaiba was fighting for, Yugi would absolutely have tried to figure out a solution so that it didn't have to be a winner-loser situation. But Kaiba doesn't trust Yugi enough to even let him know this is an option, to his ultimate detriment. And this is a lesson that *spoilers* he never learns. Even in the anime where the extra filler arcs offer the opportunity for him to team up with Yugi and his friends in ways that would have benefited him, he chooses not to every time unless circumstances force his hand. And for this reason, he never wins. 

He does learn half a lesson between the end of Death-T and this duel, musing to himself while battling Yugi: "<i>Can a person be strong when they are shouldering the weight of protecting somebody? </i> 

Everything that happens whenever this is the case for Yugi or Joey/Jonouchi would suggest that 'yes, yes protecting someone else does give you strength.’ But the catch is that in Takahashi's world, there's a proviso: 'Protecting someone else gives you strength, but that strength is only enough to overcome adversity if the burden of being a protector is shared.' A very roundabout way of getting at one of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s central themes: the power of friendship. And, hey, listen, we've all gone through the phase of laughing at how silly and hippy-dippy that sounds, but in the world of Duel Monsters, if you don't buy it, you will never win. 

<i>And then</i> as things are ratcheting up, ratcheting up, and the tension of the duel reaches a fever pitch, Kaiba does something that has divided the fandom ever since: he threatens to kill himself if Yugi doesn't throw the match. 

The reader, of course, knows that this is an act of desperation, because the reader knows the real reason Kaiba is even dueling Yugi in the first place. But Yugi and his friends do not know, and so they assume this is coming from Kaiba's unhinged obsession with winning for its own sake. Nevertheless, they all recognize the threat is serious. 

And Kaiba, after making this declaration, makes it crystal clear where he stands (literally): "If our positions were reversed, Yugi...I would push you over the edge without a second's thought." 

I think the fandom kind of forgets the whole 'Mokuba's life being on the line' thing, because so many people reference this moment the same way Yugi and his friends do, but regardless of where you stand on what he did, it's freaking iconic when Kaiba says: "Yugi! Slit my throat with your card!!" 

And the even wilder thing is... Yami Yugi was going to do it. Unlike his host, Yugi, who would never entertain the notion of hurting another person, Yami Yugi has no moral qualms about doing what it takes to win -- every bit as ruthless in this regard as Kaiba is. And it's only because Yugi intervenes and stops Yami from striking the winning blow against Kaiba's weakened Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon that Kaiba walks away from the exchange alive and victorious. 

This occurrence of Yugi pushing back against Yami Yugi happens just as Yugi is coming to terms with the fact that he's hosting some other entity within himself, and also marks a turning point in Yami Yugi's ability to get away with his hitherto unquestioned 'eye for an eye' philosophy. And therefore, marks a turning point in the moral compass of the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe. 

From this duel forward, we see Kaiba and Yami Yugi's paths diverge, and we see how they either grow or remain stunted as a result. 

Excellent volume of manga, period. Certainly, a strong entry within the series. 

Can't wait to delve into the fallout of this most epic of duels in volume 6.