Dark Bakura (manga)

Dark Bakura, also romanized as Yami Bakura, is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. This is the original depiction of Dark Bakura, as created by Kazuki Takahashi. After Ryo Bakura came into possession of the Millennium Ring, Dark Bakura gained the ability to take control of his host's body.

Ancient Egypt
Circa 1000 B.C., the Millennium Ring contained the soul of Thief King Bakura as well as a part of the soul of Zorc Necrophades, resulting in the formation of a composite spirit within the Millennium Ring.

Rebirth
3000 years later, Ryo Bakura came into possession of the Millennium Ring. While Bakura held the Millennium Ring, the composite soul became able to take control Bakura's body as Dark Bakura. Dark Bakura had lost many of his memories as Zorc Necrophades and Thief King Bakura, commonly referring to himself as the "spirit of the Millennium Ring" or simply Bakura even after people became aware that he was a different mind than Ryo Bakura. However, Dark Bakura was able to recall that he was once a thief.

Monster World
Ryo Bakura used to play Monster World with his friends. However, Dark Bakura would take control, without him knowing, and turn the games into Shadow Games. As Dark Bakura defeated Bakura's friends, he inflicted the "Mind Doll" Penalty Game on his opponents, trapping their souls in Monster World miniatures, leaving their human bodies in comas. As a result, Bakura had to keep changing schools and isolated himself by living in an apartment.

When Bakura transferred to Domino High School, he befriended Yugi Mutou, the owner of the Millennium Puzzle. Dark Bakura gained the ability to communicate with Bakura as a voice in his head. He theorized that it was a result of the Millennium Items resonating off of each other. Later that day, Dark Bakura introduced himself to Bakura. Bakura then tried removing the Millennium Ring, only to find Dark Bakura had pierced its prongs into his body. Dark Bakura claimed to care for Bakura and to "pay [his] rent", taking over Bakura's body in order to exact revenge on Mr. Karita, the gym teacher who had bullied Bakura earlier that day.

Dark Bakura returned to the school, where he confronted Karita and inflicted the "Mind Doll" Penalty Game. Dark Bakura sealed Karita's soul in a Monster World piece and laughed that Karita would live as a living game miniature.

Bakura stayed home from school the next day. However his new friends, Yugi, Katsuya Jonouchi, Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda, came to visit him after school, hoping to play Monster World. Bakura tried warning them to leave, but Dark Bakura took over and invited them in to play.

Dark Bakura set up the game. He took on the role of Dark Master and used Zorc as his avatar. He also narrated the events of the game. The others played the adventurers and he helped them create their avatars; Yugi, Joey, Anzu and Honda. Among the non-player characters, he added was Karita in the role of "Villager D".

When the adventures entered the bar, they encountered Karita's character. Karita tried telling them what happened and asking for help. However, Dark Bakura warned him to play the character role or death.

Dark Bakura disguised his avatar Zorc as an innocent man lying unconscious in the adventurers' path. When the adventurers woke him, he lied that he had been traveling to the village to give the hero a holy sword capable of defeating Zorc, but he had been attacked in the forest and had it stolen. Despite Yugi's suspicions of a trap, the adventurers agreed to help him and were led into the forest. After they battled a group of monsters and tamed Pokii, Dark Bakura revealed that the man was in fact Zorc in disguise. Zorc switched to his true form to battle the adventurers and won initiative, having caught them off guard.

Dark Bakura rolled a super critical, 00, for Zorc, allowing him to inflict the "Mind Doll" Penalty Game on Anzu, trapping into Anzu's miniature. This was soon followed by Jonouchi rolling a fumble, 99, causing to be trapped in the Joey miniature too. Dark Bakura proceeded to mock Honda, calling Honda's character cowardly as he failed to roll high enough to overcome Zorc's aura and then rolled another 00, trapping in Honda in Honda's miniature too. Yugi suspected foul play on Dark Bakura's behalf and requested to be sealed in Yugi's miniature too. Dark Bakura obliged, as Game Master, and then thought he had won, having no opponents left capable of rolling the dice. However, Dark Yugi then took over for Yugi.

Using the double hit, technique, Dark Yugi rolled a critical, allowing Honda to blast off Zorc's left hand, causing it to mutate into more monsters. Dark Bakura then got Zorc to retreat to Zorc Castle, where he had prepared a special place for their final battle. Using more double hits, Dark Yugi got his friends to tame Pao and dispose of the remaining monsters. After the double hit had been exposed, both players agreed to drop the dice in a manner that made the technique impossible.

When the adventurers made it to Zorc Castle, Dark Bakura trapped them in a tower by dropping a ceiling on their heads. Seeing instant death traps as amateurish, he gave them three turns to roll a number to complete the supporting column before the weight of the ceiling crushed the miniatures. While they were trapped, he even got Zorc to attack them. Dark Yugi managed to roll the necessary 33, completing the column. Dark Bakura underestimated the speed of the adventurers and had Zorc slice the tower in two in an attempt to kill them before they escaped. The adventurers escaped in time and caught Zorc off guard, winning initiative.

Channeling the others' emotions into the dice, Dark Yugi rolled more criticals for his own friends and had them attack Zorc. However this proved futile due to the difference in levels and Zorc wasn't too badly injured. With the power of the Millennium Ring, Dark Bakura had previously sealed the souls of some of Bakura's former gaming companions in dice. These "brainwashed dice" allowed him to roll a super critical. This caused Zorc to use his "Dark Catastrophe" attack, which normally means instant death for any victim with less than 50 HP. However, Ryo Bakura had managed to gain control of Dark Bakura's left hand, which Dark Bakura had lost due to his connection with Zorc. Bakura used the left hand to interfere with the calculation leaving the adventurers with 1 HP each. Using his left hand to type, Bakura told Dark Bakura that he wasn't going to be controlled anymore or let him harm his friends. Dark Yugi rolled another critical, allowing Jonouchi to stab out Zorc's left eye. Due to his connection with Zorc, Dark Bakura lost the use of his own left eye. To prevent Bakura from interfering, Dark Bakura slid the computer away from his left hand.

Zorc and Anzu tired on initiative for the next move, so the players had to roll to see who won initiative. Dark Bakura tried rolling the brainwashed dice to force a super critical, 00. However, Bakura had swapped them with the regular dice and he only rolled a 10, which lost to Dark Yugi's 09. After Anzu healed the party, Dark Bakura prepared to take his turn, but Bakura used his left hand to roll the brainwashed dice, forcing a fumble, 99, causing Zorc's attack to backfire and hit himself. Frustrated, Dark Bakura impaled his own left hand on one of the diorama towers to prevent Bakura from interfering.

Dark Yugi and the others began to suspect that Dark Bakura was a different person than the Bakura that they knew. Dark Yugi rolled a 05 and got to use Yugi's training hand on Zork. Dark Bakura misunderstood this a futile attempt to tame Zorc. However, the training hand pulled the White Wizard Bakura, the Monster World avatar of Ryo Bakura out of the wound in Zorc's left arm. Bakura used his magic to lower Zorc's defenses, allowing Honda to inflict serious damage on Zorc.

With Zorc's hit points low, Dark Bakura transformed Zorc into Last Zorc as a final resort. He then rolled a super critical, allowing Zorc to use his "Zorc Inferno" attack. However Bakura used his white magic to shield the party, allowing them to survive the attack with minimal HP remaining. Dark Yugi discovered that the muzzle from Last Zorc's attack was his weak point, so Pokii flew into the hole to stop it closing. Afterwhich, the adventurers punched through the weak point and sliced Last Zorc in half.

Last Zorc survived the onslaught and Dark Bakura prepared to make him self-destruct. He and Dark Yugi rolled for initiative on the next attack. Dark Bakura sealed a part of his own soul in his dice, making them "doppelganger dice" and rolled a 00, which tied with Dark Yugi's roll. However, Bakura had also sealed his own soul in the "doppelganger dice" and with that was able to make the dice self-destruct. This allowed Dark Yugi to make the next roll, using Anzu to slay Zorc. Dark Bakura lost control of Bakura with Zorc's death and everyone he sealed in miniatures returned to their bodies. Bakura's body seemed to be dead, but Dark Yugi rolled for the Wizard Bakura to return his soul to his own body.

Duelist Kingdom
Following the Monster World game, Ryo Bakura stopped wearing the Millennium Ring, thinking that would be sufficient to prevent Dark Bakura from surfacing.

Bakura went to the Duelist Kingdom tournament to support Yugi Mutou and Katsuya Jonouchi but also to learn about the Millennium Items from Maximillion J. Pegasus. At times, the Millennium Ring would point in the direction of Pegasus Castle. Dark Bakura claimed that he was guiding Bakura towards the Millennium Eye.

Following Dark Yugi and Jonouchi's victory against the Meikyû Brothers, they and their friends had to solve a riddle to determine the correct door to exit the dungeon. While Bakura, Anzu Mazaki, Hiroto Honda and Jonouchi searched the chamber for clues, Dark Bakura began to communicate with Bakura. He requested that Bakura allow him to take control. Being a thief, he stated that he would have no problem determining the exit. Bakura refused, despite his claims to have changed. Dark Bakura reminded him that his friends would be trapped if he didn't accept his help. Bakura reluctantly allowed Dark Bakura to take control. Using a coin trick, Dark Yugi had the brothers think that the answer was the "Mei" door. Dark Bakura shouted that he was wrong; the "Kyû" door was correct but the brothers disallowed a change of answer and revealed that the Kyû door was correct. However, Dark Yugi then revealed that the "Kyû" door was actually chosen, knowing the brothers would say whichever door Dark Yugi guessed was wrong. Although thinking it was done by Bakura, Dark Yugi credited Dark Bakura's disruption to the Meikyû Brothers not detecting his coin trick. As they left, Dark Bakura returned control to Bakura unaware of what happened.

In the night before the Duelist Kingdom tournament finals, Dark Bakura possessed Bakura and began searching the castle. He saw Pegasus' portrait of Shadi and laughed that he did not expect to see Shadi's face there. At some point, he gave control back to Bakura spotted by Pegasus' guards and told to go back to his room. Later in the night, Dark Bakura resumed control. He knocked a guard unconscious and freed Honda from a dungeon cell. The two of them spent the night looking for the soulless bodies which Pegasus had stripped of. Honda noticed Bakura had been acting different, but decided not to speak up.

After the tournament, Dark Bakura confronted Pegasus and proceeded to gouge out the Millennium Eye, killing the creator of Duel Monsters. He took the Millennium Eye with him and left a replica behind.

Dungeon Dice Monsters
The Millennium Ring alerted Dark Bakura that something had happened to the Millennium Puzzle while Yugi Mutou was playing Dungeon Dice Monsters against Ryuji Otogi. Dark Bakura now considered the survival of the Millennium Puzzle and its wielder important to his plan. He entered the Black Clown, easily dispatching of the two guards and found his way to Yugi and Ryuji's game.

Dark Bakura mocked Ryuji for thinking of being capable of handling the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi realized that this wasn't the regular Bakura talking. Dark Bakura claimed to have turned over a new leaf and that he was now an ally of Yugi. He inspected the game and saw that the odds were against Yugi, but predicted that Yugi would still turn the game around. As Yugi doubted this, Dark Bakura insisted that this was just another test to see if Yugi is the true successor of the Millennium Puzzle.

When Yugi won the game, Dark Bakura helped gather the Millennium Puzzle's disassembled pieces. However, he secretly used the Parasite Mind ability of the Millennium Ring to seal a part of his soul in one of the pieces. This part of him was to serve as a spy after the Millennium Puzzle was reconstructed.

Battle City
During the Battle City tournament, the Millennium Ring reacted to the nearby presence of the Millennium Rod. Dark Bakura took control of Ryo Bakura and separated while Katsuya Jonouchi, Anzu Mazaki and Sugoroku Mutou to the aquarium. He knocked out a participant and stole his Duel Disk and Puzzle Card in order to take part in the tournament. He then located Marik Ishtar and asked to hand over the Millennium Rod. When questioned as to who he was, Dark Bakura replied that he was the person who would kill Marik if interfering with his plan.

Dark Bakura and Marik went to a pier to discuss the Millennium Items. Dark Bakura explained that he was collecting them for power; by inserting the seven Millennium Items into the Millennium Stone, the Door of Darkness granted evil power to the one who opened it. Marik was surprised that Dark Bakura knew that much, but informed him that more than just the Millennium Items were necessary to open that door. Marik claimed of not being interested in gathering the Millennium Items and only wanted to kill Yugi Mutou. If Dark Bakura helped, Marik would happily give him the Millennium Rod once it was over. If Dark Bakura refused, Marik threatened to kill him. Dark Bakura was given five minutes to decide.

Dark Bakura said that he would side with Marik and explained that the best way to hurt was to go through Yugi's friends. Although Marik already had a plan for this, Dark Bakura thought that Marik would still need to win their trust. He then stabbed himself in the arm and returned control to Bakura as his host fell unconscious so that Marik could use to get to Yugi.

Marik brought Bakura to where Anzu, Jonouchi and Sugoroku would notice them. Marik (under the alias Namu) apparently found Bakura lying in the street and treated him as best Namu could. The original owner of Dark Bakura's stolen Duel Disk then showed up with a friend and tried attacking Bakura. Marik got injured protecting him, winning Jonouchi and Anzu's trust. Sugoroku took Bakura to the hospital to get treated. But when Sugoroku wasn't looking, Dark Bakura took control and left.

Dark Bakura defeated a number of participants, taking their Puzzle Cards. The last opponent was Ghost Kozuka, resulting in him taking Kozuka's life as a Penalty Game.

Battle City Finals
With six Puzzle Cards, he proceeded to the Battle City finals. Bakura's friends were surprised to see him at the finals. Dark Bakura released control to Bakura, partially brainwashed by Marik, and claimed to have won the Puzzle Cards himself. . Dark Bakura was paired up to Duel Yugi in the first round of the Battle City finals. When Dark Yugi realized who his opponent was, Dark Bakura is asked how long he had been controlling Bakura and if he was after the Millennium Puzzle again. Dark Bakura said that he wasn't. Marik thought if things did not go well, Marik would take control of Bakura to win the Duel, but Dark Bakura told Marik to stay out of the duel.

On his first three turns, Dark Bakura Summoned monsters in Attack Mode, which Dark Yugi easily destroyed and drastically lowered Dark Bakura's Life Points. Some of the spectators began to wonder if Dark Bakura had a strategy, or if he even understood the basics of the game. Dark Bakura laughed that Dark Yugi had fallen for his trap, as those three monsters were a necessary sacrifice to Summon "Dark Necrofear".

Dark Yugi destroyed "Dark Necrofear", but Dark Bakura had hoped for this, as it allowed him to use her effect. Her marionette's soul began possessing Dark Yugi's monsters causing their attacks to backfire, both lowering Dark Yugi's Life Points and increasing Dark Bakura's. With "Dark Necrofear" destroyed, Dark Bakura was also able to use "Destiny Board". This caused the spirit of "Dark Necrofear" to start spelling out the word "DEATH" on a Ouija board, one letter per turn.

Using "The Dark Door" and "Dark Spirit of the Silent", he restricted Dark Yugi's attacks to one per turn, which he would force to be the possessed monster. He quickly managed to get his Life Points grossly higher while Dark Yugi's lost the same amount Dark Bakura gained with each attack.

Dark Yugi used "Monster Recovery" to clear his own field and Summoned "Kuriboh", the only monster possessed by the marionette's spirit. Dark Yugi used "Chain Destruction" to destroy "Kuriboh" and the spirit as well. Dark Yugi also used "Monster Reborn" on "Dark Necrofear", preventing her from operating the Ouija board from the grave. However, Dark Bakura used "Deja Vu" to return the field to its previous state.

With one turn left, before Dark Bakura won via "Destiny Board", Dark Yugi Summoned "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Dark Bakura tried to use the marionette's spirit to possess. However it was not powerful enough to possess and left him wide open for Dark Yugi's attack. As Dark Bakura was about to lose, Rishid (pretending to be Marik) arrived at the Duel. Rishid claimed that Bakura was being possessed by the Millennium Rod and then returned control to Bakura. Bakura's stab wound had more of an effect on him than Dark Bakura. With Bakura's very life at stake, Dark Bakura was unhappy with Marik's plan, resuming control of Bakura's body and allowing Dark Yugi to attack him, insisting that he wouldn't let Bakura die. Dark Yugi complied and won the Duel.

After the Duel, Bakura was taken away to be treated while Anzu (possessed by Marik) took the Millennium Ring.

After Marik is consumed by Dark Marik, a piece of Marik still existed in Bakura's body from when the prior possession. Dark Bakura and Marik made an agreement; Dark Bakura would help Marik save Rishid's life in exchange for the Millennium Rod and reading the secret's carved on the back of Marik's body.

During the night after the quarter finals, Dark Bakura demanded Dark Marik hand over the Millennium Rod and show him Dark Marik's back, offering to spare Dark Marik's life if complying. They began to try over powering each other with the power of their Millennium Items, before agreeing to play a Shadow Game where the loser was to be killed.

Dark Bakura relied on the regular Marik form information about Dark Marik's Deck. As Marik realized that Dark Marik had killed Marik's father, Dark Bakura was surprised to hear that Marik had met Shadi after the murder as Shadi was supposed to have died long ago. Before the Duel, Dark Bakura also said that he would burn Dark Marik's body if he won, a condition which Marik was okay with.

As players lost Life Points, parts of their bodies disappeared and they were to be consumed by darkness when they lost. Since Dark Marik knew about Dark Bakura's "Destiny Board" / "Dark Necrofear" strategy, Dark Bakura used his Deck's other tactic. He used "Dark Designator" and "Multiple Destruction" on Dark Marik. Dark Bakura Summoned "Puppet Master" and used its effect to revive cards he had destroyed or discarded; "Gernia", Headless Knight" and "Dark Necrofear". His Life Points were greatly lowered by his own actions but still had the advantage and he planned on winning on the next turn. However, Dark Marik revived "The Sun Dragon Ra" from the Graveyard with "Monster Reborn" and activated the One Turn Kill effect, transferring 3999 of Dark Marik's 4000 Life Points to ATK, proceeding to destroy all of Dark Bakura's monsters and drop his Life Points to 0. Dark Bakura and Marik were consumed by the shadows, but Dark Bakura vowed to be revived again, claiming to be "the darkness".

When Dark Yugi defeated Dark Marik in the Battle City finals, the Millennium Ring was given to Dark Yugi while Bakura was also revived. Bakura later found and retrieved the Millennium Ring, allowing Dark Bakura to return.

Project R.A.
Dark Bakura's murder of Maximillion J. Pegasus led Yako Tenma down the path for revenge, and Keith Howard's false account caused Yako to target Yugi Mutou.

Memory World
Dark Bakura took advantage of Ryo Bakura's diorama building hobby and the fact that his host father owned the museum. Behind the Millennium tablet, he got Bakura to construct a diorama of an Ancient Egyptian city in a secret room and a coffin on chains for Akhenaden's mummy.

One night someone tried to steal the Egyptian God cards from the Kame Game, Dark Bakura became aware of this and assaulted the thief, reminding Yugi Mutou that the Egyptian God cards were central. Yugi thanked him, but pointed out that he's wearing the Millennium Ring again. Dark Bakura was aware that Yugi would be needing all seven Millennium Items at some point and said that he would give the Millennium Ring no sooner than that time. To make up for it, he gave Yugi the Millennium Eye as his apparent way of swearing loyalty.

When asked, Dark Bakura told Yugi that the Millennium tablet in Kul Elna links their world to the afterlife when the Millennium Items are placed in the Millennium tablet. Yugi then asked Dark Bakura why he was helping; Dark Bakura explained that he (like the Pharaoh) is a spirit from 3000 years ago sealed in a Millennium Item and apparently wants to return to the afterworld. Before leaving, he told Yugi that Bakura would be going to the museum with Yugi's friends tomorrow but would be watching from the shadows.

The next day, Dark Bakura secretly watched as Dark Yugi presented the Egyptian God cards to the Millennium tablet in the museum and getting sucked into the Memory World. When Bakura's friends were committed about entering the Memory World too by finding the true door in the Pharaoh's soul room. Bobasa used the Millennium Scale to check for evil in their hearts before using the Millennium Key to let them enter the soul room; Dark Bakura's evil was detected in Bakura's heart and was not permitted to enter. This didn't bother Dark Bakura as a shadow of his soul was already existing within the Millennium Puzzle.



Within the Millennium Puzzle, Dark Bakura's clone spied on the others when they entered and learned that the Pharaoh's real name was the key to open the underworld's door. When they found the Memory World's true door, he followed through as well but (like the Pharaoh's friends) was invisible and intangible to the indigenous people of the Memory World.

Inside the museum's secret room, Dark Bakura was prepared to face part of Dark Yugi's soul while another part existed within the Memory World as the Pharaoh. Dark Bakura's Shadow RPG was somehow able to allow Dark Yugi exist outside of his own vessel's body. The Memory World was constructed using the memories of the Pharaoh and Zorc Necrophades via Akhenaden's mummy. The events of the Memory World were controlled by the Shadow RPG. Dark Bakura had also taken the bodies of Yugi's friends in coffins of the room, while they existed in the RPG as non-player characters. Dark Bakura compared the Shadow RPG to their previous game of Monster World as a warm-up for this game.

Dark Bakura and Dark Yugi each had a Deck of blank cards. As they envisioned significant people or items from their memories, the blank cards would fill in. Each person had a ba gauge on their card, which when emptied resulted in the person's death. Dark Bakura's main cards were Thief King Bakura and Akhenaden, while Dark Yugi's main card was the Pharaoh.

His clone was watching his ancient self several times. He also later contacted Akhenaden's true form (claiming to be Zorc Necrophades) about the Pharaoh's unplanned victory. After Akhandaden rewinded time, which was actually the Dark Bakura at the RPG table using an Hourglass Token to use Zorc's "Memory Reverse" ability to rewind time,  Dark Bakura stood before Yugi Mutou's friends to stop interfering again. He explained how he was a fragment of Zorc Necrophades and reviving his true self had been his plan all along. Since the Memory World's non-natives had some reality warping skills through willpower, Dark Bakura made a Duel Disk grow on his arm and challenged them to a Shadow Game of Duel Monsters in which the loser would die.

Katsuya Jonouchi volunteered to Duel Dark Bakura. Although Jonouchi defeated Dark Bakura's "Death Spirit Zoma", this activated Dark Bakura's monster's effect which would possess the opponent and devour their soul. However, Jonouchi avoids death when the Memory World temporarily goes black. Dark Bakura had left by the time the darkness lifted.

The Dark Bakura at the RPG table eventually accomplished his ultimate goal of Zorc Necrophades' revival. The Dark Bakura at the RPG table used another Hourglass Token to use Zorc's freeze time ability, causing Zorc Necrophades to be reborn in the Memory World. Dark Bakura thought he victorious until a non-playable character intervened, but was unfazed from the NPC's meddling. His clone also appeared and explained to the Pharaoh that this all the Shadow RPG.

Dark Bakura's clone meanwhile waited in the Valley of the Kings inside the Pharaoh's tomb. To prevent the revelation of the Pharaoh's true name, Dark Bakura challenges Yugi Mutou to a Shadow Game Duel, where the loser would die. During the duel, Bakura utilizes Necro monsters, limited Yugi's attacking options via "Narrow Corridor", and focused on a Deck Out strategy via "All Killing Death Card". However, Yugi Summons "Gandora the Dragon of Destruction" which destroys Bakura's strategy. Yugi is then able to use "Silent Swordsman LV0" with 4500 ATK, killing Dark Bakura's shadow.

The Dark Bakura at the RPG table felt his shadow's death. Despite being surprised from his shadow's demise, Dark Bakura used the final Hourglass Token to use Zorc's natural catastrophe ability. Dark Bakura thought he victorious over Dark Yugi, until Akhenaden and Zorc were killed, and lost the Shadow Game, which killed Dark Bakura.

Monster World pieces
Dark Bakura's avatar for the game of Monster World that he played with Dark Yugi and his friends was Dark Master Zorc.

As Game Master, he had some control over some of the NPCs, including the ms "Beega", "Goblin", Zorc Arm Dragon, "Pokii" and "Zorc Arm Eyeball" and the people "Barman" and "Villager D".

He did not control, but helped create the miniatures, "Yugi", "Anzu", "Joey" and "Hiroto".

Deck
During Battle City, Dark Bakura used an "Occult" Deck. His strategy involved letting his monsters be destroyed as a necessary sacrifice to Summon "Dark Necrofear". He used "Dark Necrofear" to possess his opponent's monsters, stopping them attacking him, while he got his Ouija board, "Destiny Board", to spell out "DEATH" for his opponent.

During the Memory World, Dark Bakura used an "Undead Lock" Deck.

Games
Dark Bakura played the following games.