He couldn't help his heart sinking a little the way Yami was talking. But he was right, if you say something enough, you might forget why you were saying it in the first place. Yugi would know, he had done the same thing with his own words, about things he was dealing with. Things he swallowed down, so he could focus on Atem.
And then his breath caught in his throat at his last words, feeling his heart grow heave. But he took a breath and matched Yami's gaze.
"Coming back from the afterlife could not have been an easy decision. All magic comes at a cost and I cannot begin to imagine what he gave to be here now, with me. And I will not squander the time I have with him, I love him with all my being and I know I am the selfish one for that. But he deserves a good life, and that includes you, this part of him that shows before me now."
"Why do you say that?" He snapped, glaring daggers at Yugi, that last statement seemingly striking some sort of nerve with him.
"I may have his visage, his voice... but does he wield this power, this magic?" He raised his hand, a fake stone of the same magic forming in his hand, before he gripped it in his fist, seemingly dispelling the stone.
"The Snake has said it himself. This magic reveals the wielder's true nature. And if you think for one second that I am anything like your beloved Coward, maybe listen to him for once when he says how much of a monster I am."
"We are not one in the same."