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the-evil-authoress · 4 years

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5D’S MONTH DAY 18: HEART OF THE DRAGON

(More like ‘tail’, to be honest...)

Envoy of love and justice! This energetic machinist has as big of a punch as his heart! Today is all about Rua/Leo!

Leo screams as the shockwave of dirt from Cusillu’s fist crashes down on him.

This is it.

He survived by the skin of his teeth. He has only 400 LP left and even when Power Tool regain its attack points, he still won’t have enough to defeat Cusillu.

He’s going to lose.

He’s going to die. All because he thought he could be a hero. He’s not a signer and he can’t save anyone.

No! Leo shakes his head against the sting of tears, hands curling into fists in the dirt. He can’t give up yet! He still has to do this! For Luna!

His battered dragon leans over him, mechanical joints creaking. Leo looks up into its gleaming red glass eyes and Power Tool Dragon stares back. Once, he would have thought the dragon just a card, just a hologram, but Leo knows better now. “You’re...trying to tell me something, aren’t you?”

Power Tool bows its head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want. I can’t understand duel monster like Luna.” Leo pushes himself up with a wince, pulling his legs free. Everything hurts. There probably isn’t a single part of him not covered with scrapes or bruises.

Power Tool emits a sort of metallic scraping noise. Leo laughs weakly. “I can’t give up, right?” It's as good a guess as any. “Yeah, I know that.” Forcing himself back to his feet, Leo sways and catches himself against Power Tool’s leg. The metal is warm. Not this-piece-of-tech-is-overheating-I-should-turn-it-off warm; something pulses under Leo’s hand like there’s living flesh beneath the armor.

“Still standing?” Devak’s voice pulls Leo’s attention back to the Dark Signer. “I’ll be sure to rectify that. I activate the trap card Cursed Prison, allowing me to special summon a synchro monster of my choosing.”

Ah, crap, oh crap! Leo flinches away as the trap flips up. If this guy can attack him again he’s really done for! But the battle phase is already over right?! Leo frantically checks the indicator on his duel disk as Devak slots the card in place. The monster appears bound in chains behind the bars of an ornate cage, and Leo recognizes those pastel wings.

“Ancient Fairy Dragon!”

“Say hello to my prisoner!” Devak laughs. “Because of Cursed Prison, Ancient Fairy Dragon can’t attack, But I think she makes a lovely trophy, don’t you?”

“You monster!!” Leo’s vision blurs and he stumbles against Power Tool Dragon’s leg again.

Devak’s laugh grates against his ears. “Give up now, boy. You can barely stand!”

“I’m not giving up!” Leo yells. “Not as long as I have life points!”

“Then show me what you can do with a measly 400.”

Devak passes the turn to Leo who stubbornly pushes himself upright to draw his card. Limiter Removal. Great that’ll come in handy. Power Tool Dragon’s effect adds Central Shield to his hand, but he hesitates to equip it. Power Tool stares at him. He’s still trying to tell Leo something.

The pulse beneath the metal.

Luna said she saw a dragon that looked similar to Power Tool in her dream. What if...?

His arm stings.

Beneath the dirt his arm looks red. It could just be another scratch.

“Show me,” Leo whispers.

Lifting a claw, Power Tool scratches across his chest as if trying to pry off the metal plate.

“I summon Morphtronic Lantron!” It’s a crazy idea, and he’ll look stupid if it doesn’t work, but Leo’s gotta try all the same. “I tune Morphtronic Lanton with Power Tool Dragon!” His arm burns. Red light flares up in the corner of his vision and Leo knows. Lanton turns into the green tuning ring that encircles Power Tool and seven stars become eight that becomes the light that beckons a new monster to the field.

“What the hell is this?!”

“Break free of your metal shell and show us your true power!” Leo bellows as the metal armor crumbles to reveal the flesh and blood beast. The name comes to him as if he’s known it all his life. “Evolve, Life Stream Dragon!”

Life Stream roars as brilliant red power bursts with Leo. He doesn’t need to look at his arm to know the mark that shines there. “Life Strem’s effect boosts my life points to 2000!” A weight lifts from his lungs as his meter shoots up. He can do this.

“Impossible! How could you-” Devak sputters, visibly shaken. Then he laughs. “Ha! But it doesn’t change anything! Your dragon is still too weak to take down my Earthbound Immortal!”

Leo grits his teeth. Devak is right. Life Stream’s 2900 still isn’t a match for Cusillu’s 3600, and he still has to figure out a way to save Ancient Fairy Dragon. He looks back to the cards in his hand. Oh! That could work! “I equip Life Stream Dragon with Central Shield! Then I place two cards face down and end my turn!”

“A feeble last effort!” Devak draws. “Not even the Crimson Dragon can save you now!”

Devak attacks. Leo activates Limiter Removal. Devak tributes Ancient Fairy Dragon to prevent Cusillu’s destruction and falls right into Leo’s Trap. Respect Synchron brings Ancient Fairy Back to Leo’s side of the field, free of her chains. Limiter Removal’s second effect activates at the End Phase, but Leo uses Life Stream’s effect to remove Power Converter in his graveyard from play to save the dragon from destruction.

Leo draws. Ancient Fairy Dragon shrieks her rage as her effect destroys Closed Forest, and Cusillu disappears from the field without a field spell to support it. Devak is defenseless.

“Hey, Ancient Fairy Dragon, I bet you’re still pretty mad at this guy.” Leo grins up at the pastel dragon. “Why don’t you do the honor of finishing him off?”

“Gladly.” The fairy dragon rears her head back, her attack just enough to drop Devak to 0 LP and end the duel.

Leo cheers as the glowing lines disappear.

“You!” Devak growls, stumbling forward even as a dark substance oozes from his shaking body. “You think you’ve won? This isn’t over! I won’t fall alone! You’re coming...with me!”

Leo trips backwards with a yelp, someone more terrified of this half dead, barely standing man than he had been of the giant evil monkey. He trips over his own feet and lands hard in the dirt. Yusei yells his name as Devak looms above him, hands outstretched like a greedy zombie.

“You...will not stop the shadows from devouring this world, for I will...kill you I will drag you down into hell...”

A brilliant beam of light engulfs the man and Leo throws up his arms to shield his eyes.

“Leo!”

“Luna! You’re back!” Leo beams up at his sister, decidedly ignoring the suspicious pile of dust beneath her feet. “Luna! You won’t believe it! I duelled Devak and I won and look LOOK I’M A SIGNER!” Jumping to his feet, Leo shoves his out for display and looks at the mark properly for the first time - all sharp symmetric angles. It almost looks like an arrowhead, or a creepy mask if it flips it the other way.

Luna gasps quietly, her eyes going wide, and Leo barrels on, “Power Tool Dragon evolved into Life Stream Dragon it was so cool here look-” Fumbling for the card sill on his duel disk, he pauses and picks up the card next to it instead. “Oh, I got your dragon back for you!”

“Leo...!” Luna beams as he holds out the fairy dragon and throws her arms around him. He winces as the pressure reminds him of the bruises covering his body, but hugs her back all the same. “Thank you so much.”

“Aw, it’s nothing. Just what heros do, right?”

Laughing, Luna hugs him tighter.

#ygo5dsmonth2020 #rua #rua 5ds #leo 5ds #ruka #ruka 5ds #luna 5ds #5ds #ygo 5ds #yugioh 5ds

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dzamie-oc · 4 years

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Smaugust 08 - Glass

Dzamie, HM, and William experiment with a glass dragon eating two of them. Y’know, for science. Or something.

Contains vore; do not read if you object to vore existing.

An unusual trio gathered around the table, looking at a small, hollow, glass figurine of a dragon. A green-scaled dragon, inspecting the tiny version of his species, a blond human idly swirling a gently fizzling solution in his hand, and a smiling anthro cheetah with a rapidly swishing tail betraying his excitement. "Okay, so run this by me again," William requested of the nonhumans. He knew what they needed the potion for, and, if not for the dragon, could probably guess the plan.

"And, what am I here for?" HM asked, reaching forward to poke at the transparent figure, "seeing as I'm certain you know I'll sooner melt this thing down than be eaten by it." The cheetah drummed his paws on the table, harmless trails of green magic flying off as he burned through some energy. "I'm so glad you asked; exposition is a forte of mine! Now then..." He set his paws down flat on the table and drew up an illusion of a blueprint for the other two to see. "This is a three-part - well, five, really, but who's counting - three-part plan of action. Now that I've got this ADORABLE dragon statue, I'm gonna-" Dzamie traced two furred fingers through the air, trailing a spell circle behind them that dissipated into sparkles, "- put together a quick spell to animate it. Then, you have that fantastic growth potion to make him get-" he threw his arms open for emphasis, "- nice and big, and then he'll eat us. Probably you, then me," he said, physically pointing at William, then himself, "so I can observe, record, all that fun stuff." HM watched his energetic explanation dispassionately. "That better not be all you have to say." Dzamie reached over to the dragon and pat his head, earning a quick snap of his jaws that his paw just barely escaped. "Me? Nothing more to say? Why, HM, I thought you knew me. Now," the cheetah giggled before holding up one finger to forestall an interruption, and addressed them both, "so, it turns out that making life, like, through magic, is REALLY hard. And also, even if I DID - which I could, it's just too much effort - I have, like, a TON of moral reservations about magically altering the being's entire mind to a specific state for the purpose of doing some observation and also fun. Now, you know what's actually super very much easier than creating actual life, AND gets the soon to be big glass dragon to do exactly what we want it to do?" The cheetah put a finger to each of his friends' mouths - and once again dodged a bite from HM - before continuing, "now hold on, I'm gonna tell you. "Right, so, it turns out it's a heck of a lot easier to just make something able to move, like a puppet but much, much, MUCH finer controls, if I then also have someone pilot it around. Like an Eva. Or full synchro Megaman. Or- actually, there's a ton of stuff that did it. Anyway, that's what you're here for, HM! According to my notes, you have-" Dzamie traced a few numbers in the air, mumbling "carry the six," then went on, "- nearly twenty-four years of experience being a dragon! So this should be super easy for you. All you have to do is continue being a dragon, just one that's not made of flesh and blood and bone and all that nasty stuff. Well, scales aren't nasty. They're pretty cool." He shook his head. "Anyway, so in a way, you're gonna be eating us! It'll just also be a big glass dragon. So, any more questions?" William asked, "so why are we doing this in the first place?" This got an even wider grin from the cheetah. "For SCIENCE! ...and cuz I have a thing for being eaten, and I suspect you have one too, mister 'dating an aroma dragon.'" He rubbed his paws together, then summoned a clipboard and pen with a snap. "But officially? I'm using these funds for a scientific studie of dragon-shaped elementals, which this will technically be." Neither HM nor William had anything further to ask, so they looked back at the dragon. HM watched as several green circles formed in the air in front of the glass figure, populated with shifting, arcane symbols. After Dzamie drew another circle in front of him, the dragon blew a lick of his flame into each circle. With a quick gesture, the circles settled over the dragons - one glass, one scaly. HM took a step back shortly before going limp, and the small glass dragon jerked to life. It shook its head, then looked down at its see-through paws, back along its body, and stretched out its legs and wings, before staring up at the human and cheetah. "This is just... unnatural," HM said, "you should absolutely not be that big compared to me. I don't know how Sylvia does it." "She's... used to it, I guess, like I'm used to being human," William hazarded, then offered the growth potion. "And hey, at least you won't be tiny for long." "Fair." The little glass figure strolled up to the potion and stuck his head in, lapping at the liquid. He withdrew once the effects began to kick in, growing his body a good inch or so in each direction, then changed strategies, wrapping his jaws around the mouth of the bottle and tipping his head back. Dzamie scribbled on his clipboard as he watched the trail of potion snake down the inside of the glass dragon's neck, then pooled in his paws, with a small puddle having landed in the curve of his belly. It didn't stay there for long, and the trio could each see or feel as the power of the potion - and the potion itself, it seemed - dissipated into the transparent body. After lapping out the last drop with a glass tongue, he climbed down off the table, still growing in size. William and Dzamie stepped back to give him some room, but HM reached a paw out and casually pinned the cheetah to the floor. He smirked down at the now much more bite-sized friends before him. "Yes, this is much better," he said. "Was this strictly necessary?" Dzamie asked from under his paw. The paw was perfectly smooth, and easily clear enough for the feline to see his body through it. "Obviously, or you would've teleported out from under it already. Now then..." he swung his head right in front of William and made a show of licking his muzzle. There was no drool to leave streaked across his snout, however. "I believe he said something about you going first?" "What, I can't even take notes? At least let me move my arms." The dragon and the human looked skeptically at the mage, who rolled his eyes at them. In a flash of light, he vanished and reappeared a few feet behind William, sticking his tongue out at HM. "You're no fun." "It is serious sciencing time. Now, in you go, Will..." HM opened his jaws and lowered them over the human's body. The curves in the glass slightly distorted him from view - and the way he saw the world outside the glass dragon - and William reached a hand out to the mouth, exploring its texture. Slowly, carefully, the dragon clamped down and lifted his head, bringing the man horizontal, and parted his jaws once more to scoop the rest of the human inside with a glass tongue. A quick lick, and a swallow, and then William was sliding down the neck, only a couple inches of glass separating him from the outside of HM. He put his arms out to brace himself, and managed to avoid slipping into the dragon's legs, coming to a stop in his belly. Out of habit, William began to rub at the dragon's "stomach." Dzamie walked around HM's temporary body, taking notes, then stood under his belly directly, staring up at William. He reached a furry paw out and ran it along the underside. It felt smooth, like the shallow glass bowl it looked like. When he pressed against it, there was no give at all. "Can you hear me?" he asked. "Yeah, I can. Little muffled, though." The cheetah nodded. "So, similar to normal glass. That's cool." He turned to walk back to HM's head to present himself for the dragon, when suddenly, the dragon's belly dropped towards him. As HM laid down on him, Dzamie noted that the previously static, unmoving glass shifted, bent, and curved to cover his body more evenly. And, as a quick struggle showed, the dragon being hollow did little to make his weight any more tolerable. "What, exactly, is your damage?" he grumbled. "I'm being fun, my dear, and you know it," HM replied, resting his chin on his front paws, "you know exactly how to get out of that, you could've easily avoided it, and you're still there. I know how you act around dragons!" His voice carried a smug, but not quite mocking, tone. Another flash of magic, and Dzamie popped back into existence in front of the dragon's snout. "Rude. But not wrong. Open up, please, and stay open. I do have some actual observations to make on this." HM opened his jaws wide. Dzamie summoned his phone, snapped a photo, transferred it to his notes with a quick spell, and dispelled the device as quickly as it had arrived. With the mawshot on record, he stepped one foot into the mouth, and nudged the glass tongue aside. Two yellow-and-brown-furred hands tried to touch each other through the glass, and the cheetah copied down the dragon's thickness onto his notes. With a snap, the clipboard, pen, and paper vanished. He stepped fully into the transparent maw, taking a seat on the smooth, cool tongue. "At your leisure, then." The dragon coiled his tongue around the feline, earning a quick laugh, before lifting his head up once more and letting him slide down the smooth slide. Dzamie pressed out against the firm, hard neck, noting that, while it was obviously much drier than most dragon throats, it was just as slippery - he could barely slow his descent at all. His trip to the dragon's body was swift, and rather fun, not unlike a plastic slide one might find at a funfair. His momentum carried him into William, though they didn't slide too far. "Oof. Whoops, didn't think I'd keep that much speed," Dzamie apologized. HM chuckled, curling his neck to look at them through his body. "For once, the cheetah admits to going TOO fast for his comfort." "For my comfort OR my necessity," the feline added, "someone call Ripley's. Oh, but really," he said, changing topics as his clipboard and pen reappeared in his paws, "opinions, both of you?" "The throat was a lot of fun," said William, "I mean- er, you can leave the personal bits out of the notes, right?" "Out of the report, absolutely," Dzamie nodded, "out of my notes? ...maybe. For my eyes only, though. And HM's." William thought for a few moments before nodding. "Right. Well, this doesn't really do anything for me in terms of... well, what I usually get when Vanille does it. This feels more like a theme park attraction, complete with this... observation deck sort of thing. Actually, HM, Dzamie, if there's a way for him to make this watertight, I bet it'd be really neat to visit the sea in this glass dragon." "That is," Dzamie remarked, pointing his pen at the human, "a really cool idea. We should do it sometime. At the very least HM and I. And it was neat to see that HM didn't manifest a throat and stomach to eat us, although I think the tongue is new. It makes me wonder what other sort of anatomy he could have that's inaccurate to the original statue." HM laid down again, then slid to his side, giving his two prey a place to rest that didn't have hollow legs to fall into. "For science, huh." Dzamie waved him off. "Don't be silly, it's for horny purposes. Though I would catalog it all scientifically and see if it'll get accepted, too. But that can wait." He yawned and stretched out inside HM's side. William gently shook the cheetah. "I'd still like to get out. Glass isn't the most comfortable thing to lay on." "Plus," HM chipped in, "I can end the spell, myself, and I don't think either of you are interested in guessing what happens if I do. The growth potion only works on living things, after all." Dzamie looked at William, then at HM, through the glass body, then snapped his fingers. He and William found themselves back at the table, and HM walked over before assuming a rather statuesque pose. A darker green magic flickered across the glass dragon's form, then over the dormant, green-scaled dragon body laying nearby. And just like that, HM was back in his body. The glass statue rapidly shrunk back to its original size, and Dzamie quickly put it back on the table. The three of them got up, talked for a bit about various things, and ultimately, William bade them goodbye to go check on a few of his own experiments. HM looked at Dzamie. Dzamie looked at HM. The dragon opened his jaws, revealing a soft, saliva-coated maw, pink flesh glistening and framed by white teeth inside a green muzzle. "Still wanna nap?" The cheetah smiled placed his head in his friend's maw, purring as the dragon lapped warmly at his fur. "Thought you'd never ask."

#dragon #smaugust #soft vore #safe vore #extreme cuddling #writing #writers on tumblr #smaugust 2020 #ocs #oc: dzamie #oc: william #oc: hm #furry #furry cat #furry cheetah #text

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darkzorua100 · 5 years

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So now that I got all my jokes out of the way, time to talk fully about episode 106. For what it was, it was enjoyable and my love for Human!Ai just continues to grow with each passing episode because he’s just so ridiculous. Like Ai has always been a silly character but now combining that truly with his more serious side as the villain and he’s just like lowkey terrifying and I love villains like those. The ones that truly catch you off guard because you never know what it is that they can actually do since they hide their true plans so well behind the mask of a fool.

And that’s what I really like about Ai as the villain for this season because there has to be more to his plan instead of suddenly just going “yeah all my friends are dead so I’m going to kill humanity now” like he has been saying. We know for a fact that Ai is smarter then he lets on and this wouldn’t be the first time he has lied about his true intentions. All the way back in season 1 he lied to Yusaku about all that he truly knew in order to protect himself. Lightning even called him the wisest of the Ignis. There is something here that he isn’t telling us and I’m wondering if Ai is purposely trying to make himself the villain in everyone’s eyes as part of his survivor’s guilt. Maybe a part of him wants to be killed in order to be with his kin again and if he isn’t able to bring them back, he is trying to make himself humanity’s enemy in order to make things easier for himself by having everyone hate him and in turn making it so they need/want to kill him. Maybe the decision that he has come to is that artificial intelligence with free-will, like himself, shouldn’t be allowed to exist in order to protect humanity? So unless his backup/Lightning’s data did end up corrupting him, there just has to be more that’s going on there then meet the eye. After all, why would he give Akira a notice that he was coming after him instead of just attacking him right away once he was finished with Queen? And like people have been pointing out, the only human he has actually attacked was just Queen and that probably was mainly due to the fact that she was the reason why Earth was killed. As for Roboppy’s side of things, I don’t know if they could be in on this plan or Ai just sending them to their death by making them hate humans.

I liked how the episode began with Ai making this tier list of the best to worst duelists in the show. I mean, it is completely wrong percentage wise (I literally checked) but I do like the comment he made about how Playmaker wouldn’t have won as many of his duels as he should have if Ai wasn’t there to help him and it is true to some extent. Playmaker vs Revolver round 3 only ended in a draw because Ai was willing to sacrifice himself to shield Playmaker from the Tower of Hanoi’s Data Storm as he used his Storm Access and Playmaker wouldn’t have even been able to beat Bohman during their final duel of the season if Ai didn’t do all that he did during that duel. So while I think Playmaker can duel on his own just fine, we seen that he can during episodes 64 and 65, losing Ai is probably still going to be a big hit for him going forward.

I really do like how Ai is smarter then we actually give him credit for because he knew that Akira was going to send in the three best duelists (Playmaker, Soulburner, and Revolver) as his first line of defense and right away had a way to push them to the side so he wouldn’t have to worry about them. And while I’m kinda disappointment that his version of Flame wasn’t a Ritual, Fusion, or Pendulum like how his archetype was leaning towards with his first three Extra Deck Monsters being Link, Synchro, and Xyz, I still thought it was pretty cool how it still had Flame and Takeru’s reincarnation theme built into its effects and it being a phoenix and all that. I do find it funny though how when all the copies of Ai were able to set up their stall wall, Soulburner was just like “if we can’t use Links, how are we supposed to beat them?!”

Takeru, honey, you, Yusaku, and Ryoken have other Extra Deck monsters besides Links! You have a freaking Super Poly in yours and a monster that can bounce Spell/Traps when it is summoned! I think you have the easily way out between three of you. Speaking of which, thank you Vrains for finally acknowledging the Disaster Trio. Now when are we going to see the three of them duel against someone together?

Getting to the meat of the episode, BS and GG vs Roboppy. Got to say, I love Roboppy’s archetype and how it works. It is nothing to crazy but I like the simplicity of it. Nothing really stood out in the duel to me besides that but it looks like the half siblings could be turning this duel around next week but we still don’t know what Roboppy’s Skill is. They said they weren’t going to be using it but if they are able to drive them into a corner, they might have to break that role they set for themselves to be able to turn the duel around and win. And after seeing BS and GG’s duel percentages on paper, I’m even less confident then before that they are going to be able to win. Now we saw in this episode that Genome and Baira lost to the real Ai and just got disintegrated basically. I don’t know if that means they were turned data or they were forced to be logged out but I guess we will find out that answer next week.

Since Soulburner and Revolver aren’t speaking in 107, unless the cast list lied again, it doesn’t look like they are going to be freed from their current situation in this episode. So it looks like we could just be getting the conclusion to this tag duel and then jumping right into Ai vs Go and oh my god Go is going to get murdered. The preview out right states that Ai is still a little bit pissed about what happened to Earth and Go is about to go through hell once more. I do wonder how they are going to try and redeem the guy finally in this duel. From what we got from the 108′s summary, it seems they are going to try and go back to the orphanage route for him and hopefully it doesn’t feel bullsh*tted and after that I think we might be getting Revolver vs Ai since the title for 109 “The One Who Hunts The Ignises” has to be referring to Revolver. Honestly, I don’t see that ending very well either but hopefully we can get some more good Ai roasts out of it.

#vrains #vrains spoilers #Thoughts #theories

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machimachilegends · 5 years

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Disclaimer: Duelists within the anime severely lack in Spell-based Monster Removal, Spell/Trap Destruction, Effect Negation and Continuous Spell/Trap cards that prevent the opponent from performing certain actions since cards are notably more difficult to obtain and faith/morale play a bigger role than luck/deck-building with an abnormal Battle Phase fetish.

Therefore, this list ranking the strongest antagonists in Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime so far will sparsely discuss the flaws of each character's Deck. If you have any questions about my list or want my personal thoughts on anything Yu-Gi-Oh!, feel free to ask. I have nothing but time!

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Z-ONE

Has Level 10 Fairy-Type monsters he can normal summon regularly that are impervious to destruction by battle and card effects by normal means with minimal chances of being damaged.

The effects his Timelords possess range from shuffling your opponent's entire GY back to the Deck, dealing 2000+ effect damage instant Life Point recovery should he take damage. The only issue with Deck is the reliance on attacking and average use of one Timelord at a time. While his Continuous Traps over time will eventually disable the opponent from targeting his Timelords and allow him to exceed 20,000 ATK in a flash, his best play is his biggest weakness.

I could go all day explaining the other effects he has after a successful battle, but just know it's essentially a lot of shuffling cards back, returning cards back and burn. He only has one monster that can deal battle damage and that's about it.

And since he still needs to attack, akin to everybody else lower on the list, this is nothing each protagonist and most rivals can't get over, especially in their respective series, despite popular belief saying otherwise -- when Judai can equip Neos with Rainbow Veil or Light Laser to wall you, you know you messed up somewhere.

Zarc / Z-ARC

Fusion, Synchro, Xyz- and to a lesser extent Pendulum barely mean nothing to this guy and his stupendously powerful dragons. Having access to arguably the best Monster Type in the game both in anime and real life, with the added benefit of being Pendulum-based, many fans have very good reasons to hype him up as unbeatable prior to Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V's end.

His ultimate monster Z-ARC boasts and grants immunity to the monster effects of the aforementioned Extra Deck Monsters, in addition to the inability to leave the field by normal means similarly to Z-ONE with a whopping 4000 ATK minus the Battle damage immunity.

It may seem underwhelming at first, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. While Zarc cannot mend the course of a Duel through the Battle Phase, he does possess various ways of demoralizing his foes:

His opponents cannot add cards to their hand outside of the Draw Phase or else their effects will be negated and destroyed.

He can negate the effects of Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Monsters and drain them of their attack by performing the same summon on their Turn, with some of them capable of inflicting effect damage, and each dragon that resides in his Extra Deck has other effects ranging between dramatically exceeding their original ATK or mass removal.

His Supreme King Gates translate battle damage and effect damage into Life Points, while the servants in his Main Deck can protect Z-ARC from attacks and act as an unnecessary extra piece of armor amongst other cards.

And did I forget to mention through Astrograph Sorcerer Z-ARC's summon cannot be negated, which almost guarantees the defeat of his opponents with massage effect damage?

I know it all sounds amazing, but truth be told other than the initial summon of Z-ARC, his Deck is very very fragile in the grand scheme due to how susceptible his Deck is to common Monsters, Spells and Traps' targeting and non-targeting effects that have debut throughout the series.

Recall, since most of his cards only work so long as he controls Z-ARC, while someone like Z-ONE may get trolled by Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon or The Regulation of Tribe once in a blue moon, just call-in Dark Necrofear or Destiny HERO Plasma and it all goes downhill from here.

Dartz

As the practical incarnate of the Orichalcos, Dartz features a Deck revolving around its use. Monsters, Spells, Traps: The whole damn Deck.

While most people would like to focus on the Great Leviathan's lack of built in resistances, despite being an INFINITE ATK point monster that essentially prevents you from losing to any form of damage, this slithery-fuck that required countless souls for its revival planned to be summoned with all three layers/forms of the Orichalcos to be in effect. How else did you expect to acquire 10,000+ Life Points to get the dark thing out? Soul Absorption?

To put sum things up, layer one cannot be destroyed (possibly can't be negated, activation-wise), grants all monsters you control 500 extra ATK, practically enables you to treat your Spell/Trap Zones as extra Main Monster Zones and any monsters summoned there cannot be attacked so long as you have a Monster Zone filled, and if-need-be you can move monsters from the Main Monster Zone to the back, although those last two effects go underused.

Layer two takes all the effects of layer one and stacks it with a 500 Life Points gain for every monster you control once per turn and the ability to Tribute a monster you control to destroy an opposing monster.

Still not convinced these layers do much, well how about layer three? Once again it all stacks with the bonus on straight up telling your opponent "No" when they try to affect any of your monsters with a Spell/Trap Effect instantly negating and destroying them on a whim.

Now, we know the glaring hole in all this is the fact Monster Effects can still put in work, but if it's destruction based, you'll be putting all your time into the monsters leading up to the Great Leviathan.

A little sucker (Kyutora) that absorbs that would be inflicted at any time to fuel a stronger golem-like figure (not Gigas but Shunoros) in the Deck should it ever die with a base ATK of whatever was absorbed and two arms that will always be 300+ in ATK or DEF against an opponent's monster (Aristeros & Dexia), a jerk flame gargoyle that will force one of your opponent's monster back in Attack Position and motherfucking Timeater.

Generally speaking, he comes off very mediocre until you realize all he really needs is Mirror Knight Calling to dominate. With those Mirror Knights in conjunction with the Orichalcos he instantly assembles an army of tokens that can battle any monster and come out victorious, since their strength will always match the opposition and survive destruction by removing a single mirror counter that is generated by Mirror Knight Calling at the end of every Turn.

Simply put, he's someone that only gets better with time, unless he has Geh (The Great Leviathan) out. Then he has a solid chance to lose instantly, then again, if he didn't win on the Turn he summoned it, he deserves to lose seeing how he is milling 10 cards per attack from his Infinite ATK monster.

In many ways Zarc is just a better Dartz. For a guy like this, one Gemini Summoned Magical Reflect Slime + protection is all you need.

Don Thousand

Similarly to Z-ONE he comes off very unfair, except he's an offensive behemoth with control over the Overlay Network, opposed to defensive paragon with relative one-shot capabilities like the others. His Deck can be summed up without much need to go into effects, especially with how little we actually see.

Bluntly put, he will start his Turn spitting out 1 through 4 Number Monsters with the same gimmick of doubling their ATK after each attack, easily allowing him to exceed 8000 points of potential battle damage with a built-in Rank-Up play that deals even more lethal damage, essentially making him the true FTK antagonist looming in the back.

Should both attempts fail, he will fall on Number C1000, but that monster really means nothing to any character that possesses no "C" monsters. Rather Number iC1000 is what you really wanted to see. A walking win condition that basically tells your opponent, if you don't attack me, a 100,000 ATK monster you instantly lose the Duel. The only problem here is it can't negate two attacks, and the effect only applies so long as it stands.

Unlike some of the powerhouses higher on the ladder, he at least has Counter Traps, so there's at least some merit why you rarely see YouTubers try to script any Duels with him. Linear af.

I would say the true problem with his Deck/power as a Duelist is the fact he uses a Field Spell to kickstart his FTK's which means any bro like Bastion Misawa could play Curse of the Forbidden Spell and he's a goner. Like, here me out, at least Dartz can still play the game without the Orichalcos.

Bohman

Now, at first I thought Bohman was going to end up stronger than Z-ONE with the blanket Monster Effect negation he had on his Hydradrives when Dueling Blue Maiden, but that turned out to become more nothing more than a dream.

Bohman lacks proper negation for LIGHT & DARK Attributes essentially made Bohman's Deck a very unfocused beatdown strategy like many of the Duelists of the week characters in Link Swarming form, basically trading Majesty's Fiend for Five-Headed Dragon + Wind-Up Rabbit on crack playing dice.

Ignoring his use of Master Storm Access, it's not so much his Hydradrives suck or OTK/FTK potential isn't there- because it is, it's more so everything he does against Playmaker outside of switching dragon heads or rolling some dice (which only sucks irl) can be done better by everyone on the list:

Over 5000 ATK just cause? Check.

Can dominate Battle Phase procedures more than normal? Check.

Inherently prevents adversaries from dealing with monsters via built-in effects? Check.

Can summon more than one powerful monster per turn/Duel if need be? Check.

Safe from most damaging effects? Check.

Counters most of his generation? Check.

Benefits from his opponents' plays somehow? Check.

He's a jack of all trades and master of none but making attributes change with a die. Why he doesn't run DNA Transplant but Half Shut will forever be a mystery in the same world Revolver acquires Imperial Order for the sole purpose of stopping Judgment Arrows.

It sure is a good thing most protagonists/rivals use LIGHT & DARK Attributes over EARTH, WIND, WATER & FIRE or this man would be at the mercy of so many characters. Poor Yusei though.

Nightshroud

Nightshroud's strategies are the utmost straightforward with how it plans to win. Activate Darkness, Set Darkness 1 through 3 + Zero & Infinity, use various Darkness monsters to peep at your Set cards and/or organize them however you like before activating everything between Zero & Infinity.

Darkness 1 destroys up to 3 card your opponent controls based on face-up Darkness traps.

Darkness 2 increase the ATK of one monster you control 1000 to 3000 based on face-up Darkness traps.

Darkness 3 deal 1000 to 3000 per activation based on face-up Darkness traps.

Each of these are Set and randomized in the zones via Darkness (Field Spell) after activation between Zero & Infinity, which means in 2 Turns if the correct Darkness monster is on the field, that's a clean ceiling of 6000 effect damage if Darkness Neosphere is present.

Through these various Darkness Traps controlling the cards present on the field at a time makes it easy to disrupt characters from summoning their strongest monsters via Contact Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link Summoning, making the monsters he pumps up through Darkness 2 like Darkness Destroyer game enders via Battle Damage, which would make many come to the conclusion he should rank higher on the list. The main problem with Darkness is he doesn't showcase any further Spells/Traps and anything like Denko Sekka can shut him down in an instant.

Nightshroud's combo is highly susceptible to card destruction, despite boasting some of the finest at his best and other than that poor RNG styled Field Spell.

To cut things short, anything that can't be destroyed by Traps or benefits from destruction will only have to worry about effect damage or higher ATK. And considering how badly Nightshroud needs to go first, he's not only the slowest boss character but has the worst matchup potential, especially against other bosses.

Please don't tell him about Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En or Naturia Rosewhip OR Mister Alister's hmm... I don't know... Oh yeah! ROYAL DECREE!!!

I would say he has it the worse, but it's understandable since he- outside of helping others mend the darkness in their hearts never created/announced anything notably new mid Duel. Very respectable for a skeleton man.

#ooc #outofgata #yugioh dm #yugioh gx #yugioh 5ds #yugioh zexal #yugioh arc v #yugioh vrains

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whiteclericmaris · 5 years

Text

What was your first impression of Arc V? Of your favorite character or ship?

My first impression about Arc V before pilot episode aired was that I didn't think they would continue to make a Yu-Gi-Oh! after Zexal not because I enjoyed Zexal and thought it perfect but rather what other ridiculous thing could they come up with when all the previous Yu-Gi-Ohs just had certain elements and theme. Like what would make Arc V stand out outside of introducing a new summoning method.

I remember even having to watch a youtube video because even though I do not play the card game outside video games I wanted to know how the new mechanic would work since the previous were easy to understand.

Like for me at least

Fusion =Polymerization/Fusion Support Cards and needs cards 2+ cards listed on the fusion monster being summoned

Synchro= Quick Tribute Summon but with levels and one of the monsters having to be a tuner and they need non tuner level monsters to summon or specific tuners/materials listed in the card. Monsters level has to equal the same amount as those being sent to the grave

XYZ= Tribute Summon but with same level monsters and the rank of the monster has to be the same as the monsters tributed. You can even rank up some of the XYZ monsters and attach them as materials.

I wanted to at least understand how Pendulum would change the game and although I didn't play the game during the time I would collect some cards.

The Pendulum mechanic was so new that they even changed the mat by adding the scales (although link format currently messes it up leaving you with 3 spell/trap zones compared to before where you could use the 5 spell/trap zones and the scales [I don't play it but man playing duel links with only 3 and even having a special challenge where I could only place 1 spell/trap makes it rough]).

I thought Pendulum was complicated even with the tutorial and then pilot episode came out and what the heck? New summoning mechanic but no explanation for it. Nothing like Zexal where at least XYZ is shown to be used outside the Numbers when Shark summons his XYZ to take down Tetsuo and Yuma or even 5d's where outside Yusei you do see Tetsuo being able to Synchro summon and if I remember correctly Jack's Synchro Summon of RDA was shown.

Like only Yuya is able to Pendulum Summon and he created it out of thin air (explained in Season 3 why it happened)? This pilot episode just almost said "Scr*w the rules I'm the protag and can thereby create a new summoning method with magic". If it wasn't for the backstory being shown first about Yuya and Yusho I probably would have been pissed at this direction.

I did feel sympathy for Yuya because he did not remember what happened in his duel against Strong and just the way duelists scoffed at him in the school since only he could use Pendulum Cards which he had no idea how to use and even stated having to watch a video of the duel to at least have an understanding on what he did to Pendulum.

Then when he was shown determined to understand Pendulum by the end of episode 2 I thought it was cool.

My favorite ship... uh...

I'll just go with Sparrowshipping for this one.

I was annoyed that there were so many fanfics of Yuya with Shun (Unaware that this was in part due to YGOShipOlympics they had). I would be like "Why are you pairing him with that guy? He is angry in canon and even when he and Yuya do have a confrontation they do not really have an understanding".

Then I decided to give a fanfic a try and... I started to love it. I marathoned read almost all the sparrowshipping fics on Ao3 at the time and wanted more. I don't even remember the title or even which fic I decided to read first but it had me hooked.

That's literally how I started sparrowshipping.

#arcvanniversary #text

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authoratmidnight · 6 years

Note

give your thoughts on vrains, zexal, and gx in the form of that anime ask

Hoo man this is gonna get long. So I’m throwing it under a cut.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

don’t watch period| drop if not interested within 2-3 episodes| give it a go, could be your thing| 5 star recommendation

fav characters: Judai, Manjoume, Jim Cook, also I developed a soft spot for Yubel as well :>

least fav characters: Amon, also all the people running and attending the underground duels. Fuck you.

fav relationship: Judai and Johan,

fav moment: I really like the episode where Judai basically befriend The Winged Dragon of Ra. It’s such a good episode.

headcanons/theories: The desert world with the three suns that Judai and co end up in the first season with the Gravekeepers is the same desert world they end up in s3 also. And was the world that Judai lived in in a past life as Haou (it’s just that it’s been so long that there’s nothing left but ruins and sand)

unpopular opinion: I really really don’t see any romantic chemistry between Judai and Asuka. Especially from Judai(he is woefully oblivious, also have you seen how react when girls flirt with him?). And even at the end Asuka just, gives up on it.

how’d you find it: I’m not actually sure. I think I happened to see it on the tv guide and was like ‘oh, a new Yu-Gi-Oh?’ and decided to put it on and was hooked from like the get go.

random thoughts: I heckin LOVE GX, I think it and VRAINS are tied for fav series atm.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal

don’t watch period| drop if not interested within 2-3 episodes| give it a go, could be your thing| 5 star recommendation

fav characters: Yuma, Shark, Astral, III, Fuuya

least fav characters: Dr. Faker, Don K, Anna and that guy that kept creeping on Akari. Don’t hit on your friend’s daughter, that’s gross and creepy my guy.

fav relationship: Yuma and Astral, hands down. Also Yuma and Shark.

fav moment: When Yuma and Astral reunited and hugged it out after Yuma fought Eliphas to get him back. What a good scene ;A;

headcanons/theories: I still by the idea that mythical creatures actually exist in the Zexal world they’re just, super hidden (I mean, winged horses and dragons exist).

Also, Heartland is the far future of Neo Domino + Satellite, where Turbo duels and Synchro summoning have since fallen out of fashion for VR duels and XYZ summoning (and occasional fusion summoning).

unpopular opinion: I don’t, I don’t like Anna cause her entire backstory just makes me uncomfortable.

Hurr hurr physical violence against a boy she has a crush on is sooo funny. She fucking bullied and harassed him to the point he had to MOVE SCHOOLS so it would stop and I’m supposed to just, laugh??? And she never gets called out for it, like ever. That’s not horrible that’s, horrible. If it’s not funny when a boy harasses a girl he likes, why is it ok when a girl does it to a boy??

how’d you find it: I was watching through the various YGO series and just decided to start it lol

random thoughts: I wish they’d actually explained how Yuma’s mom got trapped in the Astral world as well. Like, Kazuma got trapped b/c of Dr. Faker but Yuma’s mom wasn’t there when it happened so, how??? Even a throw away line about her going searching for her husband and then going missing would have sufficed imo.

Also I love the Barians and their designs and concepts. They’re just, so cool??

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

don’t watch period| drop if not interested within 2-3 episodes| give it a go, could be your thing| 5 star recommendation

fav characters: Uh...like, everyone? Ai, Yusaku, Takeru, Kusanagi, Ryoken.

least fav characters: Queen, Go Onizuka, Blood Shepherd. But mostly Queen right now. :/

fav relationship: Ai and literally everyone he meets(Ai and Yusaku, Ai and Kusanagi, Ai and Flame, they’re great), Yusaku and Kusanagi, Yusaku and Takeru, Yusaku and Ryoken.

fav moment: In the dub literally anytime Ai speaks cause it’s gold and the running joke about hotdogs not being sandwiches(Kusanagi’s conversation with Ema was hilarious).

In the sub, I like Takeru and Yusaku’s meeting irl. Especially hanging out in the ferris wheel.

headcanons/theories: Ema and Blood Shepherd are estranged siblings, though BS is at the moment, the only one who’s figured this out as Ema doesn’t realize who BS is irl

unpopular opinion: Aoi is not a victim of the Lost Incident.

how’d you find it: I heard about it while Arc V was airing when they started advertising the 6th series.

random thoughts: This series has, by far, the best dub so far of any YGO series.

I’d love to see Takeru introducing Kiku to Yusaku and Flame and Ai and everyone.

#ask meme #Anonymous

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higuchimon · 6 years

Text

[fanfic] Knight One

“What?” Yuusuke wasn’t entirely certain that he’d heard Juudai’s question correctly. Of all the questions that he could have heard, why that one in particular?

Juudai nibbled on the bread he’d picked up from the draw bread options. Even after being graduated for five years, he enjoyed that, it seemed.

“I asked, would you be my Knight? One of them anyway. I need three total.”

Yuusuke shook his head, though he wasn’t really saying no. He just didn’t understand what he’d heard. “What do you need knights for?” He could get to the other question after that: why him in particular.

“Because I can’t go everywhere and do everything,” Juudai pointed out. “I talked to Yubel about this and Yubel agrees that I need some help.” He grinned, a sudden sharp spark in his eyes. “Actually I think Yubel wants to be sure that I don’t wear myself out. And that I have time for them, too.”

Yuusuke hadn’t ever been formally introduced to Yubel. He’d heard about them, of course. No one who associated with Juudai on any sort of regular basis could avoid knowing about Yubel. But now he wondered what it was Yubel and Juudai did, and decided that he wasn’t that interested in finding out.

“Some help doing what?” He also knew something about what Juudai did. He helped people. He frequently traveled to the other dimensions and helped them there as well. Darkness could, after all, go anywhere and everywhere.

Juudai fiddled with the bread, worrying off a little piece of it. “Doing things. Helping. There are lots of people who need help, you know.” He lifted his gaze to meet Yuusuke’s, and for the first time, Yuusuke could feel exactly how old Juudai’s soul was.

Old. Ancient. Beyond counting.

“My Knights would get some abilities from me. Like being able to travel. And for the ones who can’t already, they’d be able to speak with Duel Spirits.” A grin flashed now, one that banished the extreme age and weariness from his face. “Fubuki-san’s going to love that, if he says yes. I bet Kaiser will, too.”

Yuusuke perked up. “You’re going to ask them?” The idea of being associated with his two oldest friends again sent happy thrills all through him. They’d spoken frequently since his return, but sometimes the mundane matters of life interfered, preventing them from talking for days at a time.

This might change that. Maybe.

“Yup. See, I sort of have to ask people who have a connection to some kind of darkness. Cause that way, my power can infuse them. Not everyone can do it.”

Yuusuke frowned. That sort of made sense. But another thought crossed his mind. “What about Johan-san? Couldn’t he be your Knight?”

“Nope. I said not everyone can.” Juudai set the little piece of bread he’d worked away onto the ground and Pharaoh started to sniff it. “Johan’s going to be picking his own Knights anyway.”

Yuusuke’s fingers twitched for a heartbeat. “He is?” As surprised as he was, the idea of Johan being like Juudai in some fashion...well, didn’t surprise him at all. If he strained himself, he could remember the feel of Johan’s mind, back during their duel. There had been such a sense of light.

Well. Light. There was a difference. A very big one.

Juudai nodded. “I have a feeling I know who he’s going to ask.” A quick shrug followed. “But I’m asking you now.”

Yuusuke watched as Pharaoh ate the bread. Was bread even good for cats? He trusted Juudai wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, at least not on purpose.

So do I trust Juudai enough for this?

He breathed in. “What do you mean by helping?”

“Do what I do. At least where you can. Find people who can see spirits and help them figure out what it means for them. Find people who can’t and help them bond to their spirits even without that. Help spirits who are new get cards.” Juudai leaned back against the tree they sat underneath. “There are some new ones coming out. President Pegasus is developing a new summoning method.” He grinned. “I’m not sure if he’s doing it because of the new spirits or if they’re coming out because of the new method, honestly.”

Yuusuke tilted his head. “New method?”

Juudai didn’t look at him. There did seem to be a faint hint of worry in his expression, though. “It’s being called Synchro. I-I need to keep an eye on it. So I also need some help so I can.”

In the five years he’d known Juudai, Yuusuke hadn’t ever heard him sound even the faintest worried until now. What did he know that no one else did?

Probably more than I can imagine. As he’d just had a reminder of, Juudai wasn’t entirely human, and that had nothing to do with Yubel being a part of him. He’d never been entirely human. He just hadn’t always known it.

But he was still human enough to need help. Human enough to care. Human enough to ask for help.

“How long is this for?” Another question held itself behind his lips. He didn’t think that he could have been picked just because of the mistakes he’d made when he was a teenager. At least he hoped not.

Juudai smiled. Like before, Yuusuke could feel how old he was with that smile. “The rest of your life. Probably the rest of all your lives.” He kept on playing with the bread in his fingers. “There’s a lot I can’t describe. Not with words. But you’d understand it if you were my Knight. Because I’d be able to show you. Once you’re all picked, anyway.”

Yuusuke started to say something, to ask once again why him, when Juudai’s eyes met his, and instead of the mismatched gleam of Yubel’s, this time Yuusuke saw shimmering gold.

“I’ll tell you if there’s anything in particular that I need you to do. But most of the time you three would just wander around – like I do. It’s not going to be easy. Living like me isn’t easy for me. But it’s the best way that I know to do what I have to do.” A laugh that didn’t match his eyes, or even come close to it. “And I hate the thought of being tied down, anyway. I’ve got all this power and I have to do something with it. I’ve believed that since I was seventeen. But there’s too much.”

Yuusuke swallowed. He’d heard about Juudai’s stint in Dark World. Fubuki and Ryou made sure that he knew. But never had he seen eyes like that before, or felt the taste of power like he did.

There really was only one answer that he could give. He could feel the faint whisper of Honest’s presence in the back of his mind, agreeing. Honest had never liked the concept of Darkness, but this was a different kind. This was something – and someone – meant to help and heal, who was asking for their help.

“All right. I’ll do it.” The more he thought on it, the more he knew this was the right thing to do. He’d done something sort of like it before, finding people who could see spirits and trying to help them. This would be a lot the same. At least he hoped.

Juudai nodded. Then he reached out a hand and Yuusuke took it automatically.

The moment that he did, he had time only to be aware of Juudai’s skin touching his, the full weight of the hand in his, and then darkness flowed through him.

He’d had something like this happen once before. As then, he’d accepted it freely and willingly, but there were so many differences now. Now he did this to help others, instead of trying to flee from his own fears. Now the darkness that crashed into him wasn’t the way of sealing him off from others and removing him from their memories, but the way of filling him up from the inside out, finding all the little cracks and chips and nicks inside of himself and letting him know that he was accepted in a way that he’d never thought that he would be.

Accepted by the primal darkness, that knew everything about him and gave him more, that opened his eyes and his heart and his mind even more so than had happened five years earlier.

When Yuusuke could see again, he found he stared up at the stars. What were they doing there? It had been mid-morning when Juudai walked up to his apartment door and asked if he wanted to have a talk. But there were the stars, glittering bright at him.

Juudai leaned over him. “Awake?”

He could hear a difference in Juudai’s voice this time. Most of it was the same. What was different was something that whispered underneath it, the soft call of the shadows. He breathed in and tried to push himself up. So seemed to be succeeding.

“I think so.” Everything seemed to act as it would when he was awake. Though wasn’t there more… something? He didn’t think that it was light. But he could see, nevertheless.

He rubbed at his eyes, trying to understand. Juudai chuckled at him.

“That’s one of the perks of being my Knight. You can see in the dark, like I do.” Juudai patted him on the arm. “You’ll be all right. It’s just going to take some time to adjust. Don’t worry, I’ll be here. Once you’re ready, we can go talk to Fubuki and the Kaiser.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “I guess he’s still Hell Kaiser. I should ask him that.”

Yuusuke nodded, though it was more because he wasn't sure of what else to do than in total agreement. He took a long look around. They were still where they’d been, the little copse of trees behind his apartment building. He even recognized one of his neighbors walking by. But said neighbor didn’t even look towards them.

Juudai leaned over. “They don’t see us. No one’s going to see us until I want them to. I figured you could use the time to rest.”

“Oh.” Yuusuke murmured, trying to piece his brain together. Everything seemed the same and different and he had no idea of what he needed to do next.

“Rest, that’s all.” Juudai said. Yuusuke glanced at him; was Juudai reading his mind? “Sort of. We’re connected now. The same thing’s going to happen to Fubuki and Hell Kaiser. Yubel says that there are ways to put up shields, though. We’re going to work on that later.”

Yuusuke nodded again. His head spun in clumsy circles, though he didn’t think he was dizzy in the way that he thought would lead to pitching face forward onto the grass. He closed his eyes and breathed in. Doing that seemed to steady him.

Juudai brushed his hand against Yuusuke’s. “Let me know when you’re ready to go. The sooner we get this done, the better.”

“It is?” He could now feel something coming from Juudai, a worry that he hadn’t felt before. It wasn’t his; it was clearly Juudai’s. And he wanted to know why.

“There’s things we have to do before you guys go out on your own. I want people to know that you’re my Knights.” Juudai’s smile said volumes. “And that’s going to be fun.”

Yuusuke wondered what Juudai’s idea of fun was. He thought it wouldn’t be all that long until he found out.

“It won’t be. I think you’re going to like it.” Juudai’s smile sliced harsh and sharp. “I know some people who won’t though.”

“Who?” Yuusuke tugged the word out. His tongue wasn’t quite working with him, but he made it speak regardless.

“You’ll see. First we talk to Fubuki and Hell Kaiser. Well, first you have a drink.” Juudai held out a thermos. “You’ve been out for a while.”

Yuusuke stared at it, uncomprehending, before he reached for it. Part of what his problem was, he suspected, was that his throat was dry. This would fix that. Then they could get started on what came next.

And whatever that was, he could hardly wait to get to it.

The End

Notes: I have had this idea for ages. Can you guess who Johan's Knights will be?

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #yuuki juudai #fujiwara yuusuke #series: king's knights

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checkurselfb4umachuwreckurself · 6 years

Text

Wrote another fun fic involving the Fusion Dimension and how this arc is killing me

“Love Letters From Synchro” 2.4k

Shinji’s just calling to check in on Crow. Nothing worse than getting sent to voicemail, right?

Crow sat on the boat, Reira leaning on his leg, fast asleep. He was listening to the wind as it swept the ocean. He had heard the ocean traveling from the Commons to the City, but never this close up. The thrum, the bird squawks, the beeping- wait, that wasn’t the ocean; that was his disc. The beeping woke up Reira, who scootched away from the noise, closer to Tsukikage, who was starboard. Crow managed to pick it up by the second ring. “Hello?”

“Crow!” Of course it was Shinji calling. “I wasn’t sure if it would let me call you this far away. What time is it? Are we the same time zone? Don’t tell me it’s nighttime and I woke you up- sorry!”

A laugh. “Nah, I’m good, Shinji,” He nodded at Tsukikage and Reira, moving away to continue talking. “I’m pretty surprised they work too, actually- oh, and it’s 9am. You?”

Shinji nodded on the other side on the conversation. “9am here too. Good thing it’s consistent. It’d be a bitch to convert the time every time I wanted to call you.”

Crow giggled quietly. “Language, mister. Reira’s here.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll try to remember.”

Reiji made a neck cutting gesture, pointing at the upcoming ship- wait was that a pirate ship? “Gotta go, babe; I’m gonna fight some pirates.”

“Bring me back a doubloon,” Shinji laughed.

“I’ll see what I can do. Call me back later,” Crow cooed, hanging up his disc. He summoned out Raikiri- just in case.

Shingo lied against the grass. His duel disc was destroyed- thank a lot for that- and Crow’s disc sat on his chest. Held in front of his face was Crow’s card. He didn’t look scared like all the others that were carded. Right before it all happened, he tossed the disc to Shingo. As if it was more important to keep safe than himself. Shingo squeezed his eyes shut, sighing as he kept the card close. He couldn’t lose it. Protecting it was his responsibility. It was his fault this happened.

From his chest, Crow’s disc rang. In a panic, Shingo muted the disc. Silently calling was “Honey” with an obnoxious amount of bee and honeypot emojis. That was his boyfriend right? What was his name? It was similar, but nowhere as pretty as “Shingo” ...oh yeah, Shinji. That was it. A message popped up saying “Going To Voicemail”. Curious, Shingo unmuted it.

“Heya Crow!” Shinji’s voice chimed. Shingo had remembered Shinji’s voice from when they were underground, but he was nowhere as chipper back then. “Just tucked the kids in, they miss you very much.” Is this all? Shingo had half the nerve to pick up and say Crow wasn’t available at the time and he should try again later, but he was snapped out of his anger, hearing a sniffle. “We all do, ya know. Now I know how you feel when I don’t come home for days on end.” Shingo was silent. He knew what that was like. Some days his dad wouldn’t come back, leaving him alone for the night. He’d practically have to beg his friends to stay over those nights; he couldn’t stand it. Shinji laughed, choking a little. “Please call me back soon- oh and look! I didn’t swear for you. I’m getting better, I promise.” With that, Shinji ended the call. A small mailbox icon popped up, saving the message. Crow would get to listen to it later. Right?

Shingo barely got any sleep. He had slept on his side, head on Gongenzaka’s chest, with Gongenzaka’s arm covering his neck, entrapping him. He must have caught him shaking in his sleep and tried is best to restrain him. In Shingo’s arms was the disc; in his pocket, Crow’s card. He dared not jostle it; what if they still felt pain while in the cards?

He struggled to get out, only to be interrupted by Crow’s disc beeping again. Had he forgotten to mute it after the first message? The noise woke up Gongenzaka, who fortunately released Shingo. “Is that yours?” He asked, “shouldn’t you pick it up?”

Shingo shook his head, wiping the tears he must have leaked in his sleep. “I just… let it ring.”

They did, the disc presenting the same “Going To Voicemail” it displayed last night. “I was so sure you would have called, ya know,” Shinji hummed into the receiver. Gongenzaka went to press the “enter call” button, but Shingo snatched it away. “Anyways, hi Crow! It's your loving boyfriend just calling this morning to say good morning!” Shinji laughed, which made Shingo grit his teeth. “The kids have been very good and they’ve been doing all their chores. I've been taking your role best I can. Tony and Damon visited the other day, told me to say hi! The City’s restoration is going swimmingly! Be sure to tell me how the pirate thing went! Oh, I'm running out of time! See you soon!” As soon as it started, the call ended. The inbox icon read a red “2” now.

Shingo pulled himself up into a sitting position, the disc in his lap. Gongenzaka mirrored it, crossing his arms. “Sawatari, you should have picked up and told him what happened.”

“I can’t,” Shingo whispered, pulling the disc to his chest, small tears bubbling in his eyes. “I just can’t do that to him.”

He kept both close to him. Neither the disc, nor the card, was ever out of his sight. Shingo was starting to wish he had brought a backpack. He sat with the others who were thinking up strategies, but Shingo couldn’t concentrate. As if to spite him, the disc rang. Yuuya and the others turned to him, curious. “This better be short,” Shingo hissed. He didn’t really mean that. Crow was gonna get to hear how much Shinji missed him, so of course he wouldn’t want Shinji to cut corners. Crow deserved all of it.

The disc switched the voicemail. “You know, it’s rude to listen to someone else’s calls,” Yuuya chided with a quirked eyebrow.

“Shut up,” Shingo whispered, leaning in to hear the message.

“Sorry if you're sleeping and can't pick up,” Shinji said, quieter than usual. That was new. Shinji was apologizing. “But we just wanted to say night- right kids?”

Three voices that Shingo would normally say he “unfortunately remembered” if he was in his right mind piped up. “Night dad!” That must have been Amanda, Frank, and Tanner: the Hogan-Weber kids.

Shinji’s tongue clicked. “Oh come on you won't call me dad but-” Shingo couldn’t tell if it was one, but the sound he heard sounded like Shinji shaking his head. “Whatever. Please call back soon! The kids miss you! Almost as much as me, even,” he laughed again. Despite his misery he was still laughing? How much was a facade for Crow? Or for the kids, that matter?

Speaking of the kids- “Shinji!” They all shouted at Shinji. So much for ‘almost’, Shingo guessed. He gave an inaudible sigh. He wished his father or his friends would have called him even just once. He’d been gone, what, weeks? Not even a single text or email. Sure they didn’t really know he left since he kinda snuck out without saying anything, but didn’t they miss him?

Shinji didn’t respond to their pleas. “Gotta go! Can’t let them stay up too long, ya know.” He made a noise that Shingo guessed was an air kiss- not that it was for him, anyways. “Love you to the Fusion Dimension and back!” Again, the inbox icon added another red number.

Shingo choked on his words, watching the disc switch to neutral. Yuuya placed a hand on Shingo’s shoulder. “And back…” he repeated in a whisper. As much as he didn’t want to, he let himself cry in front of the others.

Everyone was grouped up. Shingo was still a mess- physically and mentally. Seeing Crow turn into the card flashed in his head every time he closed his eyes. Was this what it was like to feel “un-fabulous”?

Reiji was lecturing about something. Cooperation or whatever. Where did that get them? Tsukikage and Crow were gone, and he was sure neither he nor Reira were there completely. Not to mention what happened to the girls-

As inconvenient as all the others were, Crow’s disc went off. Reiji sighed. “Sawatari, why are you still holding onto that.” It wasn’t a question.

Shingo scoffed. “It has everything that matters to Crow on it. His numbers, his win streak.” He paused a second. “His… selfies with his kids?” Reiji’s face didn’t change. “He’s gonna need it when he comes back.”

“If,” was Reiji’s only response.

“When,” Shingo hissed, letting the voicemail play.

“Hey Crow!” Shinji said, clearly tired. “I know it's earlier than usual, but I wanted to say hi before I went to work.” He gave out a small yawn. “It's kinda hard sleeping without you here-”

Reiji snatched the duel disc and pressed “enter call” before Shingo could even react. How much had the lack of sleep affected him? “Mr. Weber?” Reiji asked, pushing Shingo’s grabby hands away.

Shinji’s eyes immediately narrowed and his voice got dark. “What the he- who is this? Yuuya? Serena? Are you there?” He asked, desperately trying to match a face to the voice.

“This is Akaba Reiji,” Reiji answered- wow, a straight answer from them? That was rare. “I am the leader of the Lancers. The group that your husband-”

“Boyfriend,” Shinji corrected.

“Boyfriend, joined. Willingly, I may add.” Reiji’s voice was flat and didn’t waver. Reiji’s voice was where emotions went to die.

“What?” Shinji asked. He had remembered someone mentioning the Lancers during the Friendship Cup, but he surely wasn’t listening too well.

“I’m terribly sorry to say, but your ‘boyfriend’ was lost in a duel against the enemy.” Despite the ‘sorry’, Reiji didn’t seem too bothered about the loss.

Shinji was frantic. “What!?” he asked again.

Reiji continued, back to avoiding questions. “I best recommend you do not call this number anymore, as he will not be able to pick up.” They had essentially told Shinji to fuck off with not a shred of remorse. Shingo couldn’t believe this, but he couldn’t move either.

Shinji’s voice was wet and angry. “WHAT HAPPENED!?” He shouted, desperate for even the smallest of an answer.

There wasn’t one. “Goodbye,” Reiji stated as plain as if they had explained that water was indeed wet.

“DO NOT HANG UP YOU BAS-”

Reiji did.

They tossed the disc back to Shingo, suggesting he get rid of it to avoid anymore distractions.

“PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE! WHAT HAPPENED TO CROW!? WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER ME!? IS EVERYONE’S LIFE JUST SOME STUPID GAME THAT YOU THINK YOU CAN IGNORE IF YOU AREN’T WINNING!? ANSWER ME AKABA.”

“What the hell does “lost” even mean? Is he missing? Did he get captured? Is… did you let him die.”

“Reiji, I took a drive, I’m calm now. Pick up the phone please. What happened to Crow. You need to tell me. Please call me back, Crow already has my number on speed dial.”

“You’re lucky I can’t travel across dimensions and beat your ass, Reiji.”

Shingo sat against a ledge, hugging his knees. The duel disc that sat next to him hadn’t gone off in a while, just the last few popping into the inbox. Reiji and the others left him behind, not wanting Shingo to draw attention by listening to the messages. He didn’t want to stay in the Fusion Dimension. No one needed him here. As skilled as he was, Shingo hadn’t won a single duel without help.

“Akaba, I need to give Crow’s card to Shinji. It’s the only way he’ll understand what happened.”

“Be my guest, but if you do, don’t come back. A true Lancer wouldn’t leave their mission for anything, or anyone.”

He broke from the hold, slapping his cheeks. He couldn’t give up. He was the son of the to-be-mayor of Miami City. Plus there was no way he would let Reiji call him a ‘fake lancer’.

But first…

Shinji was correct: Shinji’s number was on Crow’s speed dial. Shingo pressed it, rocking his knees back and forth. What should he say when he picks up? What would he say if he didn’t pick up?

“Heeya,” a voice stammers out. It’s similar to Shinji’s… but more… intoxicated. “Is that you?”

The ‘you’ is not elaborated on, but Shingo assumes he meant Crow. “Are you drunk?” Shingo thinks out loud, suddenly sick to his stomach.

“Maybe,” Shinji slurs. That definitely means he is. Shingo takes a quiet deep breath. The only thing scarier than his dad saying he’s not coming home was his dad coming home drunk. Shingo would never touch that stuff, not even the fancy wines he sees at parties he gets dragged to. If it had even the slimmest chance of making him act like Furio? Nope. Never. “When are you coming home?” Shinji asked.

Shingo pauses. He forgot to explain who he was. Oops. “I’m... not your boyfriend. I’m Sawatari Shingo.”

“Never heard of you.”

Shingo pouted. “I’m a friend- well, acquaintance of Crow.”

Shinji hummed. “I’m glad Crow has so many close friends. Crow is the best.”

He certainly wasn’t like his father when he was drunk, but Shingo didn’t exactly want to stay on the line too long; Shinji still had the potential to turn on a dime. “Look, I’m calling to say that… well… Crow… Crow was carded.”

There was a long hollow pause. “What…” Shinji swallowed. “What does that even mean.”

“I… don’t know,” Shingo admitted. No one had really explained carding, had they? If they had, he surely wasn’t paying attention.

“He’s dead. Isn’t he,” Shinji stated. There was no question. Just solemn acceptance.

The cold wind was nowhere near as biting as the comment. Shingo took the card out of his pocket, rubbing his thumb against the edge. “I’m… sorry.” A tear splashed onto Crow’s printed face, Shingo promptly rubbing it off. “I would do anything to bring him back.”

Shinji’s voice was wet, but it didn’t sound like he was crying. “I hope he knows I’m sorry. For everything.”

Shingo looked up, seeing some Obelisk Force patrolling around. “If I don’t make it out alive, I’ll tell him for you.” Not waiting for a response, Shingo hung up. He turned off the disc, any new messages wouldn’t be automatically played.

And for the first time in days, Shingo’s thoughts were empty.

#this was VERY NECESSARY I promise #guardianshipping #this is fairly not canon complacent btw #for example? characters have feelings #not mixing up shinji and shingo's names is hell btw don't try this at home

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pxiao · 7 years

Text

For her

For what happened between episodes 140 and 141 in my mind. And something of a prequel to What should I do

In a pure white void, Yuya screamed with all his might as he floated weightlessly. “REIRA!”, the red and green haired boy wearing a pair of goggles screamed as his voice traveled in all directions. Yuya looked for anyone or even anything around him. His felt his heart race as he only saw nothing but white light as far as the eye could see.

“Where is everyone?” Yuya said as fear started to engulf his heart.

“Why does it matter?” A familiar deep and sinister voice answered which both sent shivers down Yuya’s spine and set his heart ablaze with hatred.

Yuya turned around as he faced a person with the same face, hair and even goggles as him but covered in grey scales as large demonic wings spouted from his back. Yuya clenched his teeth in rage or fear as the glow from their yellow eyes covered his body.

“Zarc!” Yuya spat in disgust.

“Why are you so mad? If anything I should be furious, considering you threw my duel against that wretch despite only being an alter ego of mine.” Zarc responded as his voice steadily dipped into anger as he spoke.

“What happened to everyone?!!!” Yuya screamed.

“why does it matter?” Zarc repeated as he threw his hands in the air.

Yuya’s eyes narrowed as he balled his hands into fists. “WHERE ARE THEY?!!!”

“Again why does it matter? It’s not like you can ever face them again.” Zarc answered.

“What?”

“After everything that happened, after all your failures. Do you think your friends will ever accept you again?” Zarc taunted.

Yuya opened his mouth to respond as acute nausea hit, stopping him in his tracks. The nausea continued to grow more intense before Yuya closed his eyes in the hope of lessening it. Seconds passed before the nausea slowly resided.

“It’s your fault.” A tranquil but angry voice said.

Yuya’s eyes opened in response as he was standing in a park with his arms raised.

“It’s all your fault.” the voice repeated.

Yuya’s eyes opened as he saw a boy with the same face as him wearing a black cape face him as his face twisted with disdain.

“Yuto ...” Yuya said in shock.

“Because you stop me, because of you! I LOST MY BODY!” Yuto roared in rage as Yuya flinched in response.

“I ... I .. I didn’t mean .. to.” Yuya struggled to say as he tried to defend himself.

“And that MAKES IT OK? Because of you I’m nothing more than a ghost, unable to do anything!!!” Yuto yelled as Yuya shrank in guilt.

A similar voice from behind Yuya said. “You stole my dream.”

Yuya’s eyes once again widened once he heard that voice. Yuya turned his head to see another boy his age wearing a white riding suit as he sat on his white D-wheel.

“Yugo ..”

“It was my dream to duel Jack and win the Friendship Cup but ... but you took my place!” Yugo yelled as Clear Wing Synchro Dragon roared in response.

“NO! I did that to pacify the City. I had to duel Jack to make everyone smile and ...!” Yuya desperately tried to defend himself.

“pacify? smile? What a load of bullshit.” A coarse voice derided.

Yuya looked around in shock as he was no longer in Maiami City’s park and instead in the LDS Center Court as rain had started to fall. Yuya then looked forward to see a purple haired man wearing multiple layers of clothes as he laid on the ground. “Kachidoki?” Yuya exclaimed.

“Was entertaining me really on your mind when you defeated me?” Kachidoki asked as he glared at Yuya.

“No I ... I .... that wasn’t me! I ....!” Yuya yelled back.

“In the end all you care about is victory while you say such pleasantries like you want to make everyone smile. You would do anything to win, wouldn’t you??!” Kachidoki declared as the sky grew darker with each passing second.

“I WOULD NEVER! ... I” Yuya stuttered.

“Really?” A man wearing a police outfit as his helmet covered his face stated as he rode a D-Wheel.

Yuya looked around as his surroundings has once again changed as he drove in a loop on a red D-Wheel. “Duel Chaser 227?”

“then what did you do to me?” 227 asked as Odd-Eyes floated right behind him.”

Yuya looked in horror as Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon roared in rage as it tipped it’s head onto 227′s bike. The bike tilted forward towards the ground causing 227 to launch through the air. Yuya looked away as 227′s body flew through the air before he heard sickening crunches as 227′s body hit the floor. Yuya opened his eyes to see 227 laying on the floor as he gazed straight at him.

“You would never what? Do anything to win, cause harm on your opponent? But Yuya, you already have and this time you can’t escape the guilt by saying Zarc did it.” 227 taunted.

Yuya gripped the sides of his head with his hands. “It was a mistake ... It was a mistake!”

“Was it?” a voice similar to his but softer rebutted.

Yuya looked in shock as once the surrounding area had changed as he now stood in the heart of Academia palace room surrounded by purple walls and Greek-styled pillars. He look straight ahead to see the third and final boy that looked like him but with pink and purple hair facing him. Yuya’s eyes fell into a glare once he caught a glimpse of boy as he spat with venom emitting from his voice. “Yuri.”

“Good day to you too. I see you haven’t changed at all since our duel.” Yuri taunted.

“what?”

“In the end Yuya, you’re still lying to yourself.” Yuri answered as he gave a sadistic grin. “You keep saying you want to entertain everyone and that you would never hurt anyone. But Yuya during our duel .... did you even thinking of making me smile?”

Yuya’s eyes widened as he flinched which only furthered twisted Yuri’s demented smile. “I knew it.”

“SHUT UP!”

“You’re saying that you didn’t want to crush me for embarrassing your father in front of you? For taunting you over his card? And you only wanted to entertain me. That the only thought on your mind wasn’t beating me?” Yuri pestered as Yuya shrank with each statement.

“I ...!” Yuya tried to rebut.

“that’s a lie. After all look at the end result. Zarc revived because you wanted to win so much that you awoke his soul.” Yuri interjected. “That feeling, that primal desire is our core. The desire to win at all cost, even if it leads us to crushing the corpse of our opponents under our feet as we walk. No matter how much you lie, you can’t escape that central truth, no matter which dimension you run to. That which makes us, Zarc!” Yuri finished as he started to scream.

“It’s wasn’t the first time either.” Zarc continued from behind Yuya. But before Yuya could react, he was once again in a new area. Instead of the decorum and style of the Academia, Yuya stood in a clearing surrounded by trees as a huge red Ogre wearing battle armor stood in front of him.

“This is .... the day I duel Strong Ishijama. The day I created Pendulum Summoning ....” the words escaped Yuya’s mouth as he looked around.

“This is the day that everything started.” Zarc explained as his voice echoed from the Action Field.

“Started?” Yuya asked.

“Have you wondered why it took 14 years before you knew of my presence? Because this day is the day my soul reawoke” Zarc answered with disturbing glee.

“This day?!” Yuya asked as his heart raced.

“Yes and can you guess why this day of all days I awoke?” Zarc asked as Yuya’s face turned as pale as a ghost.

“I .... I faced Strong Ishijama and he had me cornered ....” Yuya said with a whisper as Zarc’s face twisted into a grin. “I ... was ..... so .. so ...” His eyes widened before he dropped to his knees. “I was so desperate to win.” Yuya struggled to say as his hand hit the ground. “I awoke you up .... this is ... this is all my fault.” Yuya struggled to say as he fought the urge to vomit. He then clenched his teeth and dug his fingers into the dirt as the guilt assaulted his stomach.

“Exactly in the end. All the suffering that your loved ones suffered, all the pain, all the cardings. It was all because you wanted to win at all costs.” Zarc finished as the crowd around then went into a frenzy.

“DEMON”, the crowd repeated as each word was filled with more hatred and venom then the last. Yuya covered his ears with his hands in a vain attempt to block their voices. But as hard as he pressed his hands over his ears, he could still hear the crowd as they went into a frenzy. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Yuya begged. “I’m not a demon. I’M NOT!” Yuya screamed with all his might as he fought the hot tears welling up.

“It’s always like this with you. You cry your tears and expect me to hold your hand while I put my life on hold.” A strong and masculine voice belittled.

Yuya looked in shock to see a boy that looked older than him with a huge Pompadour wearing all white. “Gongenzaka?”

“You put on this pity show so I’ll remain your crutch. I’m sick of it.” Gongenzaka spat as venom filled his eyes.

“Gongenzaka. I never ..!” Yuya said desperately.

“That’s right. You never do anything.” A deep but feminine voice continued.

Yuya turned his attention to the source of the voice as he saw his mother looking at him with disapproval.

“When you left for the Synchro Dimension. You promised me so many things but you haven’t fulfilled any of them. In fact you only made things worse. In the end you’re just talk.” Yoko said, devoid of any warmth.

Yuya kept silent as he desperately wanted to counter but couldn’t help but mentally agree with his mom.

Yuya felt his heart drop as a man wearing a red suit and top hat walked next to Yoko.

“I was mistaken.” Yusho said as he shook his head.

“Dad ... I!” Yuya said as the damn broke and his tear freely fell.

“You truly are a demon.” Yusho answered with a look in his eyes as if he was talking to a bug instead of a person.

“dad ...” Yuya croaked.

“I protected you, I was even carded for you. But what did you do. You threw away my legacy ... my ideals ... my smile world just to win. You don’t care about anything but yourself. Isn’t that right Yuya ... no Zarc?” Yusho finished as Yuya dropped his head in despair as no light reflected from his eyes.

“I ..... I” Yuya whispered as he still heard the word demon being repeated.

“Face it Yuya, this is how they will now see you. No matter what you’re done, they won’t care anymore. You will always just be a demon to them.”

Yuya kept silent as his tears continued to hit the floor. He soon realized that among the thousands chanting demon, he heard Gongenzaka, Yoko and Yusho chanting the loudest as his head fell closer to the ground.

“That’s why Yuya, accept it. Accept yourself as me. If you do, you’ll never have suffer anymore.” Zarc tempted as he reappeared in front of Yuya with his hand extended..

“will I really ... never suffer anymore?” Yuya asked in a desperate voice.

“Yes. You’ll never have to listen to the audience ever again. You’ll never be a toy for humanity ever again. You can be happy.” Zarc answered as his eyes glowed intensified.

Yuya slowly reached for Zarc’s hand as he thought, “Maybe I was ... was wrong this whole time. In the end, I have every truly made anyone happy? Maybe I was a fool for believing that I could make anyone happy. How could a demon like me do anything but destroy.”

“You’re not a demon.” A strong feminine voice rejected.

Yuya’s eyes widened as his hand stopped mere centimeters from grabbing Zarc’s.

“Yuzu ....?” Yuya asked as the light returned to his eyes while Zarc clenched his teeth in rage.

Yuya then pulled his hand away from Zarc as he stood on his knees, looking for Yuzu. “YUZU WHERE ARE YOU?! YOU’RE HERE AREN’T YOU! ANSWER ME!” Yuya shouted with all his might.

“It’s pointless.” Zarc answered which made Yuya stop shouting. “She’s gone.” Zarc said full of venom.

“What do you mean gone?” Yuya asked horrified.

“She’s part of Ray now and who knows where that bitch is. And why does it matter. Why would she ever accept you when you failed her so many times. How many times were you too late or unable to protect her?”

Yuya clenched his teeth in rage as Zarc’s words hit a raw nerve. He remembered Serena handing him Yuzu’s clothes as he stood dumbfounded, he remembered watching Sergey kidnap Yuzu as he laid on the ground unable to do a thing and he remembered ignoring her pleas as tears streamed down her face as he ordered Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon to attack again. He remembered hundreds if not thousands of times disappointing her and failing her, over and over.

But he thought, despite all his failures, she never stopped trying to help him, she never left him alone, she never stopped believing in him. He remembered her repeating all of You Show’s catchphrases to cheer him up during her duel with Chojiro, he remembered her pleading to save the City despite being under Roger’s mercy, he remembered her taking control as she said that she believed him when Ray faced Zarc. As Yuya remembered all these memories, the good and the bad, he stood up.

Zarc looked in horror as Yuya started to walk. He then started to shout. “What are you doing?!”

Yuya simply ignored him as he continued to walk as Zarc’s wings started to crack and his hair started to turn grey.

“Don’t you realize they’ll never accept you! People don’t want to be entertained, they want bloodshred! They want violence, they want to make you a toy that they can throw away when they’re done with!” Zarc yelled desperately as he started to grow taller.

Yuya stopped in his tracks before he started talking. “Maybe ..... but.” Yuya closed his eyes as Yuzu’s smiling face flashed before him, causing him to smile. “But I have to try.”

“HOW? HOW CAN YOU STILL KEEP TRYING!” Zarc screamed as the grey scales started to fade as his skin returned to a natural tone.

“I made a promise. A promise to end this war, make everyone smile and return home with Yuzu.” Yuya gave a small laugh as he turned to face Zarc again. “Even thought I’ve failed, even though I’ve been a horrible entertainer. Yuzu has always believed in me. That’s why at the very least, I don’t want to prove her wrong.” Yuya gave a big smile before he turned away from Zarc as he continued to walk away.

Zarc stood in awe as Yuya walked further away from him. He then shook his head as he yelled with all his might. “IMPOSSIBLE. YOU’LL FAIL, YOU’LL FAIL JUST LIKE ME I KNOW IT!” But as Zarc screamed he no longer looked like a demon, instead he looked like a lost child screaming for his mother when scared.

“No matter how many times I fail, I’ll keep standing up. If it’s for a single person, if it’s for Yuzu. I’ll keep on trying.” Yuya thought as he reached the end of the white void.

#arc v spoilers #my fanfics #fruitshipping #Side note this was all a mental world #only Yuya and Zarc were really here #yuya sakaki #zarc

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thebibliomancer · 7 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Avengers #133: Yesterday and Beyond...

March, 1975

This cover is a filthy, filthy lie. The hooded man does reveal his identity this issue but the Avengers are otherwise occupied and aren’t around for it. And the person he reveals his identity to already knows who he is.

We really start with Wanda’s magic training. Y’know, the thing that has kept her away from the team while they’ve been punching dead people?

She’s come pretty far.

She manages to Sorcerer’s Apprentice a chair to life, although it tires her way out. Using her mutant power to magic is exhausting. And since she was exhausted, she turned her attention from the man chair and it tries to kill her.

But Agatha Harkness is a good teacher and re-chaired the chair to protect Wanda. And gives her the important life lesson: “When one summons forth forces from beyond, one must never relinquish control, my dear.”

But she is pleased with Wanda’s progress.

Wanda only wishes that the Avengers would return from Vietnam so she could show them how far she’s come.

Agatha just darkly remarks that the Avengers are not in Vietnam. OR ON EARTH!

Wanda, maybe: ‘If those jerks went to space without me...’

But, no. The Avengers are in Limbo with the third tier evolution of Kang, Immortus.

Immortus explains that yes, he was totally humoring Kang about his sudden but inevitable betrayal. Getting angry about being a tube boy, pretending to want to team up to take out the Avengers. All of it was a cunning ruse to teach Kang the dominance of destiny by letting him make an ass out of himself, apparently.

And in exchange for using the Avengers in that scheme, he offers to show the hidden pasts of Mantis and Vision.

Except Vision has to go alone. Because his past is too recent and may affect the present if anyone but Vision knows it. APPARENTLY.

It sounds fake but its really so that Vision is alone for when he runs into mishaps in the next issue.

So Immortus hands Vision a synchro-staff which will guide and narrate Vision’s journey into the past.

Also, it later turns out that the synchro-staffs are Space Phantoms in disguise. Everything is Space Phantoms. Your lamp is a Space Phantom. Your dog is a Space Phantom. Your parents are Space Phantoms. That sudden feeling of existential paranoia you get when you realize that with shapeshifters like Skrulls and the Space Phantoms, anything and anyone could be imposters and you can never know for sure that what you know is real is a Space Phantom.

Why Immortus had a couple dumb aliens disguise themselves as glitzy sticks is known only to Immortus and Kurt Busiek. Its probably so that the sticks could lie to Vision and/or Mantis so that troublesome background elements could be retconned.

Although you could always just say the sticks lied so there’s still that matter of why the sticks had to be Space Phantoms specifically, Immortus?

Anyway, voop. Vision is in the past.

Now for the rest of everyone. They’re all going to Mantis’ backstory. Her past doesn’t get to be private. She’s going to have Hawkeye, Thor, and Iron Man watching and peanut gallerying her origin story.

Oh and Hawkeye makes a comment very much in line with Hawkeye’s tendencies towards sexual harassment.

Meanwhile elsewhere IN SPACE, Moondragon. The priestess of Titan and a character from the Captain Marvel book. She once was spanked by Ben Grimm and once fixed Daredevil’s eyes. She once turned into a dragon and was ridden through space by her girlfriend.

These are all far off things or irrelevant.

What is relevant is that she has picked up the Avengers’ signal calling for Captain Marvel and since he hasn’t answered, she feels compelled to. So off she goes to Avengers Mansion, to obey the inscrutable exhortations of her soul.

But that’s for later. For now its:

THE ORIGIN OF THE VISION

Firmly grasping an alien shaped like a scepter, Vision flies through time musing and contemplating and recapping.

He remembers the Sentinel back in #102 identifying him as three decades vintage.

Three decades and change would put that back to 1939, when the robot Human Torch first appeared.

And the alien disguised as a stick clarifies that it was November 1939. And then introduces itself. Except as a staff. Leaves out the part about being an alien because that hasn’t been invented yet.

Basically tells Visions that it will summarize events for his greater ease of understanding as they zip past them.

So 1939. We see Professor Phineas T. Horton introducing his synthetic man. As seen in Marvel Comics #1. Except there’s one tiny eensy little design flaw.

The dang thing bursts into flames if exposed to oxygen.

The gentlemen of the press overreact, demanding Horton destroy his creation before “some madman can grasp its principles and hurl it against our civilization!”

Horton refuses so the gentlemen of the press create an outcry that forces Horton to bury the project.

Literally bury it.

Put the air-tight tube in a steel container and then dunk that container in fast-drying cement.

There to stay until further experimentation finds a way to correct the flaw of having oxygen reactive skin. Or a way to control the synthetic man and make him do Horton’s bidding and make him a fortune.

Professor Phineas T. Horton is actually very concerned about money. He’s not in this solely for the discovery or prestige. He wants to make bank.

Unfortunately, he went a little cheap on the materials for burying the Human Torch forever. The alleged air-tight tube developed a small leak and after a few days enough air leaked in that the Human Torch ignited. And exploded.

The Human-shaped Torch was set free and freely did he fly around New York, accidentally spreading terror because he is a flying man on fire going around and melting things.

He came to realize that he was different from other people. For one thing, nobody else was on fire. And decided that he didn’t deserve the name “Human.” So unable to control himself, he flew into a swimming pool. But the pool belonged to a rackets boss named Sardo who trapped the Torch under the winter glass cover.

And there we get the meme. “You fucked up a perfectly good robot is what you did. It has anxiety.”

Because so perfectly did the Human Torch replicate a human being, he could even develop claustrophobia. And did. Because of being buried underground and because of being trapped in the pool.

And this latent claustrophobia is what caused Vision to panic with Dormammu’s quicksand, Taurus’ pool, and Kang’s Macrobots.

So that’s that explained. FOR NOW.

In the present Vietnam, the hooded man is still meeting with Swordsman’s force ghost. Swordghost tells hooded man to chillax a little. Everything is going according to plan. Moondragon is coming and Mantis is beginning her instruction in the history of the universe.

But despite all hooded man’s training with the Priests of Pama, he has to fret. The plan is so intricate with so many different points. If even one little thing goes wrong... and even if Swordghost says nothing will go wrong, Mantis is hooded man’s daughter!

Yeah. Hooded man is secretly Libra.

AND NOW THE ORIGIN OF MANTIS.

And here a cheeky narration box says that this was why Avengers #123 was titled “An Origin for Mantis.” Like I said at the time, it had ambiguity about it.

The party of Thor, Mantis, Iron Man, and Haweye fly through time. Except Thor is leading this time voyage and holding the Synchro-Staff despite this being about Mantis’ backstory because: “Mantis may yet be overcome by her empathic nature during this voyage, and she cannot be entrusted with my care.”

Fuck you, talking stick that is secretly an alien.

Annnnyway. Planet Hala. The Kree homeworld. And the first year of their recorded history. Because yes, Mantis’ backstory goes back this far. Or at least the context for understanding it does.

And the Kree were already a warlike people. Strong, brutal, quick to anger, and obligate carnivores. If you see a Kree eating a salad, it’s fake.

And their leader was Morag, the mightiest male who hunts the mightiest, most ferocious beasts for his eats.

Oh and Hala was inhabited by another intelligent race at this time too.

The Cotati. Psychic plant people evolved from algae. They can locomote, slowly, and can communicate telepathically.

And neither the Kree nor the Cotati have anything to do with each other.

Since the Kree can’t eat them and since the Cotati aren’t competitors for resources, the Kree consider the Cotati and also all plants as beneath their notice.

And the Cotati consider the Kree frenetic and unstable barbarians WHICH ISN’T REALLY WRONG.

But everything changes when imperialism happens.

A spaceship touches down on Hala, observed by both races and believed by both races to be harbinger of the end of the world. WHICH ISN’T REALLY WRONG.

And from the spaceship comes the Skrulls! In the future, the age old enemies of the Kree. In this flashback, some little green men from space. And these Skrulls are not the Skrulls we know.

I mean, they’re still arrogant jerks but they’re straightforward arrogant jerks. Emperor Dorrek I lays out exactly what their deal is.

In the past decade, the Skrulls have perfected interstellar travel and Skrull scouts have traveled around space only to discover that they’re the best in space. Nobody else they found even approached their level.

But not being warriors, the Skrulls have decided there’s another way to exploit all these space people. So Dorrek has been traveling planet to planet and offering a beneficial proposition (not sure its ‘mutually beneficial’ but it could reasonably be described as beneficial).

The Skrulls will provide knowledge and technology in exchange for the loyalty and resources of their vassal planets. Sounds easy enough.

Sounds a lot like the Shi’ar actually. They’re the most notable space empire for having a lot of vassal planets. Except they’re kind of assholes while the Skrulls would be mostly exploitative and condescending. So like less bad Shi’ar.

There is one caveat though. Having two intelligent races on a single planet could create confusion or dissension over who will be representing the planet to the Skrulls. So the Skrulls will set up a small test and settle who should represent the planet.

Seventeen Kree and seventeen Cotati will be taken to different uninhabited planetoids for a year with complete supplies. And when the Skrulls swing back to pick them up, they’ll judge what each group has done with their time. Easy peasy.

The Cotati immediately accept. They sense “arrogance but no deceit in the Skrulls” and plus they want to grow. Its a plant thing, probably.

The Kree are “too barbaric to allow themselves a luxury like trust” or maybe wise enough to know that you don’t immediately trust weird chinned aliens that come bearing situational gifts and not having psychic powers would prefer to take some time to think through their course of action.

So for the rest of the day, the Kree debate whether to take the Skrulls up on their offer or not. Declining would probably mean the Cotati would win by default but when Morag decides to agree to the offer its because “he has heard no way to gracefully decline.”

And buddy, I’ve been there. Social is hard.

So seventeen Kree and seventeen Cotati are taken aboard the Skrull’s mighty spaceship. The Cotati are taken a random planetoid and dumped off. They’re starting off on bad footing though. These seventeen Cotati have never been this far from the rest of their people before and suffer from the psychic isolation. Apparently they’re plunged into shock for days.

Hawkeye interrupts the story to comment that he was pretty sure that this whole thing was a Skrull trick. Speaking of tricks, someone, possibly Coloring Error, stole his pants while he was distracted by all this space history.

ANYway. Next the Kree are dropped off on a familiar looking planetoid called Earth’s Moon. Yup.

Of course, this took place a long, long time ago so life on Earth is still of the cellular variety.

The Skrulls set up an artificial atmosphere and left supplies and tools for the Kree. And then they leave the Kree for a year.

And the Kree haven’t been idle on a spaceship for the first time. During the journey, they’ve been making plans and as soon as the Skrulls leave, the Kree get to it.

They mind, they refine, they build. Its like Minecraft: Kree edition.

They apparently have near-perpetual daylight to work with. Which. I don’t know if that’s right. But whatever.

Each Kree works until he passes out, slumbers where he falls, and then gets back up to work again.

They stick to this routine for one full year (no party time for the Kree) and are finally able to look upon their completed project. A gargantuan gleaming blue city, a testament to Kree muscles and dedication and Skrull technology. A city with an artificial atmosphere on the Moon.

Yup. The Kree built the Blue Area that the Watcher squats in.

The Skrulls are extremely impressed. Its a nice city (Or it was when they first built it. Its a decaying ruin by the time the Fantastic Four find it) and they built it in a year with only seventeen people.

So the Skrulls gather up the Kree to transport them back to Hala. All through the journey back, the Kree envision long and glorious futures in the Skrull Empire for themselves. Which is a change in attitude from ‘we’re only doing this because we can’t think of the right way to say ‘thanks but no thanks to our first alien contact.’

But when Morag gets back home, he discovers that the rest of the Kree are all depressed and pissed off and nobody came out to welcome him home. Which: rude.

Nameless indistinguishable Kree guy tells Morag that the he wasted a year of his life. The Skrulls are more impressed with what the Cotati accomplished.

When the Cotati were left on their barren planetoid they reached out with their psychic plant powers and found ancient seeds and water beneath the planetoids surface. And they used these to create a, well, the comic doesn’t say this so I might as well. The Kree created the Blue Area of the Moon and the Cotati created a Green Area of Some Planetoid. A garden on an otherwise lifeless rock.

So Nameless Indistinguishable Kree Guy is sure that the Skrulls are going to pick the Cotati as the winners. And Morag is blown away that after struggling to build a city in only a year, a park is going to be judged more impressive.

Hell no. He worked too hard for the Kree to be left behind.

So the Kree pull out their ace in the hole to give themselves the edge in this contest. Which is that they are really, really good at murder.

Like, super good. Best at murder for lightyears.

So they head over under the cover of darkness and KILL THE COTATI!

And I don’t really approve or endorse using murder to win a contest to determine which race a silly group of green imperialists like best but.

I mean, you have to give them credit where its due. I wasn’t joking about the Kree being super good at murder.

Over one night, they manage to kill every Cotati. A species of plant people that occupied an entire half of the planet. And they manage this with nothing more than a pointy rock tied to a stick.

Its definitely an achievement.

Anyway, by morning the Kree greet the Skrulls and tell Emperor Dorrek that they went ahead and solved the dilemma of Hala’s reputation for him. No big.

Perhaps not surprisingly (since these are the relatively kinder and gentler Skrulls of untold ages ago) Dorrek does not take kindly to the news. He is, in fact, horrified.

Emperor Dorrek: “You -- did what? Fools! Did you believe this would gain you our favor? Skrulls may deal with barbarians, but we do not condone barbarism! Now, Hala shall be shut forever from our circle of favored worlds!”

Yup. He just up and perma-bans them.

Which might have come as a shaming moment for the Kree except they just killed half a world. A handful more won’t matter. And after being exposed to all the Skrull’s wonderful toys, they’re not going back to their former ignorance.

Hawkeye (Mr. Peanut Gallery apparently) calls Morag stark, raving crazy and the stick doesn’t disagree but does wonder if they would see any more sanity if they were perusing Earth’s history.

So the Kree rush the Skrull spaceship with their pointed sticks and murder all the Skrulls.

Because, again, these are the Skrulls of long ago. They are not the scheming warriors that endless war with the Kree made them. Instead, they’re pacifists. Of the ‘think fighting is beneath them’ type. So they all die without fighting back.

“So much for pacifism” announces Hawkeye. Because Hawkeye.

Mantis argues that pacifism doesn’t preclude self-defense and grieves that the Skrulls believed otherwise.

Although its weird that this is apparently the first time the Skrulls’ sales pitch was met with violence. They never went somewhere where someone tried to kill them? They had no contingency for that? Huh.

So now the Kree have the planet all to themselves and they have a pile of Skrull bodies (probably to eat) and a Skrull spaceship. And they’re going to reverse engineer that ship and go out into space and kill the rest of the Skrulls because then the Kree can be bosses of space.

And apparently the Skrulls back on their homeworld weren’t keeping great track of their emperor because they never knew what happened to that ship. Probably figured it fell into a negative space wedgie. So they were entirely unprepared when decades later, the Kree attacked them with an armada.

And thus began the Kree-Skrull War.

Again, don’t want to condone killing and eating aliens and stealing their stuff necessarily but to go from using spears to mastering spaceship construction in decades? That’s really impressive.

But its still a little unclear what this has to do with Mantis. And I love space history but we’re here to learn about what Mantis has to do with space history.

And that will come next issue as the stick tells them to prepare to journey onward for more story.

But geez. The Kree really are the biggest dicks in space, huh?

9 notes · View notes

real-life-pine-tree · 7 years

Text

Arc-V Aftermath: Soulmates and Rivals (20/26)

When all is said and done, things have quickly recovered in the four dimensions. But when weird things start happening, the Yu-Salad Boys and the Bracelet Girls quickly realize they have some loose ends to fix. Co-written with @violetganache42.

WARNING: Dub names will be featured in the story.

As the first round continued, Nico proceeded to commentate on Team Obelisk's duels against Team Lancer, who had won the first set against Team Force. Block D's monitor had already revealed what the lineups were going to be: Yuri vs. Celina, Dennis vs. Sylvio, and Sora vs. Aura. Surely, focusing on another arena will keep everyone's minds off of some…unfortunate moments that occurred with Team Turbo.

"My goodness," Yuri said. "It seems I am going to duel Miss Celina." He let out a chuckle. "She will fall right into my Predaplant trap." His pupils became slitted once again as he finished the last sentence, which Dennis and Sora noticed since their friend was in between them.

"Whoa, calm down, dragon boy," Sora said. "You haven't even started the duel."

"Whatever do you mean?" Yuri asked.

"Your eyes are doing that weird dragon thing again," Dennis explained. "Sora and I both know that only happens when your heartbeat increases, which is usually when you're about to win a duel."

Well, Dennis was half right. The slitted pupils do occur whenever he has a faster heartbeat, but it is not just from winning a duel, which they were going to find out soon enough.

"My apologies," Yuri said. "We have won all of our duels in the previous round. If we defeat Team Lancer, we'll be able to move on to the next round." But his pupils didn't change back to normal."

After Dennis and Sora gave their considerations about victory, all six Duelists readied their Duel Disks as Block D was divided into three sections. However, Yuri and Celina were starting to love each other a little too much…and they honestly hate that feeling. How can a couple date each other and loathe the emotion of love? And to make things worse for them, the selected Action Field was Moonlit Ball, another costume-provided field that turned their normal clothes into formal attire.

While Celina bit her lip as she tried not to blush upon seeing Yuri in a dark blue tuxedo with coat tails, he was having a harder time. His girlfriend wore a purplish-pink, floor-length, strapless dress that split on her right to expose her right leg and had a pair of dark magenta high heels on her feet to match. What she was wearing went really well with her shoulder-length bob cut hairstyle, making it more difficult for the Predaplant user to cope with.

"Sh-Shall we begin?" Yuri asked, his arm shaking as he activated his Duel Disk.

"S...Sure," Celina agreed. She also activated her Duel Disk as she wished Yuri could go back to wearing his casual wear. That tuxedo looked so much better on him than his plant-themed t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

The two shouted out "Let's duel!" to begin their match, hoping this unbearable feeling wouldn't severely affect them.

Yuri looked at his opening hand. "My goodness," he said, smirking. "I drew the right cards. Now I shall set the Pendulum Scale with Performapal Ballad and Performapal Barracuda!"

"When did you start using Performapals?" Celina asked.

"Oh, don't act so surprised," Yuri said, glad he was finally acting normal. "Yuya let me borrow those cards for the tournament since they are the only Performapals that are as lovely and elegant as my beloved Predaplants."

"Great," Celina replied, sounding sarcastic. "Can't wait to see those two monstrosities-"

Her sentence was cut short when she saw the two Performapals. Ballad was a man who wielded two fencing sword and had a giant rose on his head, thorny vines behind his ears and on his left leg, and wore a white cape attached to a light chartreuse, light and dark green armor underneath a grass green vest, white pants, and brown boots with green studded straps. Barracuda was similar to Ballad, but had a darker color tone with different shades of dark purple on most of his appearance and had the vine wrapped around his right leg. There was definitely something wrong with Yuri because he would never use those cards up until now. What is he trying to do with this Pendulum Summon?

"What's the matter, Miss Celina?" Yuri asked. "Are you surprised by my true self?"

It may or may not be that, but she was clearly surprised to see him use Plant-Type monsters that aren't Predaplants. She was still confused on what he meant by that question; she was sure she saw his true self on the night of their date. Is there more to him than meets the eye?

Yuri let out a deep chuckle. "I'll take your silence as a 'yes'," he said. "Now watch four of my beloved Predaplants appear on the field in all their beautiful glory!"

With Yuya's Scale 2 Ballad and Scale 5 Barracuda set on the Pendulum Zones, he sent out his four Predaplants onto the field for his Pendulum Summon. Those four Predaplants were Darlingtonia Cobra, Moray Nepenthes, Pterapenthes, and Spinodionaea.

Celina was relieved. "So you're gonna fuse them into your dragon?" she asked.

"Not quite," Yuri replied. "I summon the Tuner monster Copy Plant!"

Once Yuri said the word "Tuner", Celina instantly knew he wasn't going to Fusion Summon, but Synchro Summon instead. Despite being a Level 1 monster with 0 ATK and DEF, Copy Plant's effect allows it to target a Plant-Type monster on the field and change its Level to the target's current Level until the end of Yuri's turn. With three Synchro monsters to choose from, it would be hard to figure out which one he would choose, but he already had his plan figured out beforehand.

"I activate Copy Plant's special ability!" Yuri declared. "Become a copy of Predaplant Pterapenthes and become one with Predaplant Darlingtonia Cobra to Synchro Summon into Queen of Thorns!"

Queen of Thorns was a Level 6 LIGHT Plant-Type Synchro monster with 2200 ATK and 1800 DEF. Her effect involves both Duelists to pay 1000 LP to normal or special summon non-Plant-Type monsters. What Celina was more focused on was the monster's appearance; she looked like she can harness the powers of the rose creatures that were part of her body.

"WHAT?" Celina asked.

"Hmm?" Yuri looked at her. "What ever is the matter?"

"That looks nothing like your Predaplants!" Celina pointed out. "What's wrong with you?"

Yuri was astonished at how Celina had the capability of catching on to his not-so-subtle differences, but she failed to realize what his true intentions were, which he will reveal in due time. For now, they should focus on this duel and the tournament.

"All shall be revealed eventually," Yuri explained as he set a card on his field. "But for now, keep in mind that you cannot summon any of your Lunalights unless you wish to give up your life points."

Celina was alarmed by what Queen of Thorns can do because Yuri can summon Plant-Type monsters without costing any of his Life Points. It was bad enough that she can't get rid of this feeling, but now she has to get herself out of this mess if she and her teammates want to move on to the second round. Once her opponent played a face-down to end his turn, she drew a card from her deck and looked at what she's got. She then checked her bearings to see if there was an Action Spell that can help her out.

Luckily Celina found a nearby Action Card, but before she could get it, she was slammed by a thorny vine. "What the...?" she mused.

"Don't think you can let an Action Card save you," Yuri said.

Celina glanced back at Yuri, who was holding the vine and explained it was actually a whip. This was a big—and possibly the main—reason as to why he has one: it makes getting Action Cards a lot easier to grab. This made her plan to negate Queen of Thorn's effect more challenging, but Celina was always a persistent girl and ran throughout Moonlit Ball to find another Action Card. Yuri pursued her, but didn't bother using his whip because he can only hold one Action Card at a time.

They dashed through the Action Field until Celina could find an Action Card. With his dragon-like eyes remaining on his face, Yuri anticipated her feeble attempts to avoid not losing her Life Points from his Synchro monster's effect. She paid no attention to him and sped up until she saw an Action Card hung up on a string of lights. She jumped onto one of the empty tables and leapt into the air to grab the card before landing on the ground to see what it was.

Celina smirked. "I activate the Action Spell Loving Spotlight to cancel your monster's effects for one turn-"

Before she could finish, a spotlight suddenly flashed down on Queen of Thorns to create a sparkly visual. She wasn't expecting the light to pop as it shortly blinded her; once she regained her vision, she stared back at Yuri and discovered his slitted pupils in the bright light. How long have they been like this? She obviously didn't see them like that during the surprise opening act, so it must have been recent, but why were they slitted?

"I see," Yuri said. "So as long as Queen of Thorns' special ability is negated, you can bring out your Lunalights during this turn." He used his free hand to clutch his chest. "Go ahead. Let me see your Cat Dancer try to take down my glorious queen."

Celina has never seen Yuri's eyes look like a serpent or a dragon until now. Since he now bears Starving Venom's eye colors, it made the dragon-like appearance stand out more, but she was more fixated on why they were severed like that and why he was clutching his heart. They rarely interacted during their time at Duel Academy, but she does know about his friendship with Sora and Dennis, so they could know if this was normal or not.

"Alright," Celina said. "I'll use Polymerization to fuse my Lunalight Black Sheep and Lunalight Crimson Fox into Lunalight Cat Dancer!"

With Celina's ace monster out on the field, it made Yuri stimulated to see Cat Dancer back for him to admire. If things couldn't get any better, she prepared to activate her Skill. "I activate my Skill: Natural Energy Burst!"

Although it was daytime, the sky got brighter from the lunar energy because it was still night somewhere else on Earth, meaning the moon never leaves the atmosphere. Celina's En Moons marking glowed cyan from her forehead as a matching symbol emerged on Cat Dancer's forehead as well, making her ATK raise by 500. The combined luminescence from the sky and her marking helped make her exhibit a prettier look, something Yuri was having slight trouble to not get himself distracted by her beauty.

"Lunalight Cat Dancer, dethorn that queen!" Celina announced.

Cat Dancer, now having 2900 ATK, unleashed her trademark attack on Queen of Thorns. Yuri was supposed to play his face-down card, but Celina's beauty diverted him from the duel as he was dealt with 700 damage, lowering his LP to 3300. The indigo-haired girl was proud of herself for vanquishing a monster with a admittedly useful effect. She set two cards face down and passed the turn onto her opponent, but he looked dazed and sidetracked for some odd reason. Her Battle Phase was already over, so why can't he stop thinking about her?

Yuri let out a loving sigh. "You are quite a lovely sight, Miss Celina," he said, calmly walking over to her. "How about we forget this duel and embrace the elegance of this Action Field?" He held out his hand.

Celina stood there as she admired the tuxedo Yuri was wearing, which was completed with a pair of white gloves that she never noticed beforehand. She couldn't prevent herself from not thinking about how handsome he looked as the two dropped their Duel Disks with music filling up the middle section. In between it, the Predaplant user's friends were struggling against Sylvio and Aura respectively in the other two sections. Despite switching archetypes, Dennis' Shaddolls failed to keep up with Sylvio's Abyss Actors whereas Sora wasn't expecting Aura's Prediction Princesses to be formidable against his Fluffals, Edge Imps, and Frightfurs. At the same time, they all heard the classical ballroom music through the dividers, wondering what was going on.

"Hey Yuri!" Sora exclaimed, riding on Frightfur Wolf as the Fusion monster ran all over the field to avoid Prediction Princess Tarotrei's attacks. "What's going on back there?!"

"Oh dear," Dennis remarked after using an Action Spell to protect El Shaddoll Wendigo from harm. "That doesn't sound good at all."

The audience members watching the duels in Block D were confused and concerned by this unexpected twist. Were Yuri and Celina…both surrendering their duel…because of their contagious love for each other? Whether it was or not, this was something that wasn't seem everyday, especially in a card game.

"Are you...asking me to dance?" Celina asked, feeling weird.

"Of course," Yuri answered. "You are quite stunning, Miss Celina."

"Stunning…" That was a word Yuri never used to describe his Predaplants. Celina was flattered by the compliment as a pink hue covered her cheeks. She asked herself if this was a sign that he genuinely loved her. Her response? Yes. Definitely. Absolutely. With the two lost in the depths of their trance, they began waltzing lovingly all over Moonlit Ball, much to the bafflement and distress of some of the people and Nico.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Melissa cried out. "First Yuya and Crow tried to turn the Friendship Cup into a circus, now this?! When are these Duelists gonna take tournaments seriously?!"

Nico had no idea what Melissa was talking about, so she explained to him—as well as those from the Pendulum, XYZ, and Fusion Dimensions—about what Yuya and Crow did during their match in the Friendship Cup Semifinals.

"It was mighty strange," Melissa explained. "Instead of duelin' properly, those folks thought it was a good idea to start off their duel by entertainin' the crowd with Tokens. Even I'm not sure why they decided to do that."

Fortunately, Nico knew exactly what she was talking about and mentioned that it was an example of an Entertainment Duel. He should know because he broadcasted Action Duels, which were significantly popular among Dueltainers like Yusho, Yuya, and Zuzu.

"So those Dueltainers really are that flashy?" Melissa asked.

"Precisely," Nico explained. "So what Celina and Yuri are doing is providing that kind of entertainment..." He quickly checked their bios. "...which is odd because they're not actually Dueltainers."

The two announcers pondered on what was causing Celina and Yuri's abrupt "entertainment". Although they claimed how ironic it was for two teens who grew up in Duel Academy could end up Dueltaining the people, they were wavering on how long it will last because this waltz might give both Teams Obelisk and Lancer a losing point.

"Wait a moment!" Nico realized. "What kind of an Action Field is Moonlit Ball?! I never heard about it until now!"

He browsed through a list of Action Fields that were created, applying filters to make sure they were in alphabetical order, would only find those starting with "M," and provided costume for the Duelists. No results showed up about Moonlit Ball, which made Nico contemplate on whether this card was fake, limited, or banned.

"Folks, it appears Moonlit Ball is not an official Action Field," Nico revealed. "The duel between Yuri and Celina does not count as an official tournament duel."

Discussions arose from several groups of people; at least they now know if Yuri and Celina were actually forfeiting the duel or not. It still doesn't change the fact that Dennis and Sora were on the brink of defeat and needed to find ways to win against Sylvio and Aura if they want to progress to the second round. While they glued their attentions to the two official tournament duels, Leo was more satisfied with the unforeseen outcome as he watched his former Obelisk Force soldier and former Duel Academy student dance to the rhythm of the waltz music.

"Well done Yuri," Leo said. "That Action Field I created was just the right push."

A few minutes later, the waltz ended and Yuri and Celina continues to embrace each other. "Not bad," Celina remarked, noticing Yuri's dragon eyes have changed back to normal. "You're a good dancer."

"Thank you," Yuri replied. "It was part of my etiquette lessons. However, I'm surprised on how graceful you are."

"I've been taking ballroom dance lessons," Celina said, leaning in towards her boyfriend. "Gotta keep up the pace."

"Well you certainly have improved," Yuri said, also leaning in as well so his and Celina's lips were barely touching. "You have proven to be quite a stunning lady, and I love that so much."

A gratified Celina was too adrift in her abstraction she let her face blush harder than it did earlier. She also leaned forward towards Yuri, with the latter following suit. Their mouths entwined with each other, and with their lips locked in place, they shared a kiss that was difficult to be avoided for two young teenagers with little-to-no non-dueling social skills. Unbeknownst to them, their surroundings changed back into a regular section and they were wearing their normal clothes again as Moonlit Ball and their provided costumes vanished away so that Nico could replace it with an official Action Field.

"Sorry folks, but Yuri and Celina will have to restart their duel on an official Action Field," Nico explained. "The one I have selected for them is Predaplanet War Arena."

With a click of a button, the section transformed into Predaplanet War Arena momentarily after Yuri and Celina parted their lips for air. They then picked up their Duel Disks and walked back to their positions to properly start their tournament duel. However, their faces were expressed differently than what was usually seen in their previous duels. Instead of their typical emotions of rage, they were more…respectful of one another…on a mutual level. With the few weeks spent apart from each other, their personalities matured quite significantly. Maybe some time alone was what they needed after all.

"I must say, Miss Celina, there's quite a spark in your eyes," Yuri remarked. "Such confidence..." He smiled. "I like it."

"You changed too," Celina replied. "You're not as annoying as you initially were weeks ago."

"Then how about we settle our feud once and for all?" Yuri asked as he activated his Duel Disk.

Celina smirked as she activated her Duel Disk. "Challenge accepted," she replied.

With that being said, the two officially initiated their duel as Yuri began his first turn. For the very first time, this was truly a pure Fusion fuel between him and Celina. Predaplants vs. Lunalights. Starving Venom vs. Cat Dancer. Their past duels pale in comparison to the what they were displaying in the tournament, but it was only a matter of time to determine who will move on to the second round.

Using the Action Field to his advantage, Yuri whipped at Action Cards to take them and utilize them with his Predaplants, but Celina wasn't fazed as she attempted to find Spells and Traps to help her out. In other words, their duel went smoothly and brought more joy and glee to the audience watching it than it did earlier. Eventually, they were near the end and have already summoned their strongest Fusion monsters.

"So here we are," Yuri said. "My lovely Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon against your Lunalight Leo Dancer. Shall we see who has the strongest Fusion?"

"We shall," Celina agreed. "But keep in mind that Leo Dancer is immune to your dragon's special abilities."

"True," Yuri said. "But I'll find some other way to win."

Celina replied that he wouldn't count on it as she declared an attack with Leo Dancer. She destroyed Greedy Venom and dealt 700 damage to Yuri's Life Points thanks to Natural Energy Burst; normally, according to one of her effects, all special summoned monsters the opponent controlled would be destroyed as well, but since Yuri's field was completely empty, he was vulnerable for a direct attack. Coincidentally, another effect enables her to attack a second time during each Battle Phase, which was what she did as took out the rest of his Life Points to make her owner the winner of this duel and to give Team Lancer a win for this round.

Celina was surprised. "Did I...actually defeat Yuri?" she asked, completely surprised. Then she smile wide. "Yes! Team Lancer's going straight to the top!"

Just as she was done exclaiming that statement, the dividers lowered down to reveal Sylvio and Aura were both defeated by Dennis and Sora. Block D was done with their duels and all three teams in the block must wait for the results to see who will move on. Celina, on the other hand, was speechless and confused on why her teammates lost.

"What happened?" Celina asked.

"I'm not sure," Aura admitted. "I thought I was winning, but then Sora merged his three Frightfurs into this three-headed snake creature and crushed my Prediction Princesses!"

"I have to agree with you," Sylvio replied. "I thought my Abyss Actors have become stronger. It seems those Shaddoll creatures are far more powerful than I initially thought."

Yuri saw how well his friends did, but he noticed a dismayed Celina. It was nice to know she finally beat him in Duel Monsters, yet she and her teammates may not be placed in the next round. Perhaps an affectionate moment may cheer her up.

Without warning, Yuri hugged Celina from behind and planted a kiss on her neck. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I believe it's what a lot of people call 'affection'," Yuri answered, feeling her soft hair on his cheek.

"Sounds disgusting," Celina said. She then heard a small whimper from Yuri, who was still holding onto her and trying to cheer her up. In retrospect, in the eyes of a girl with hardly any social skills, this display of affection was actually kind of cute.

The indigo-haired girl let out a sigh in defeat. "Do it again," she said as she tilted her head to the side.

Without any hesitation, Yuri resumed giving Celina pecks on her neck. It was obvious that they may need to take some time to get the hang of being in a relationship.

"Attention all Duelists," Declan said over the microphone. "All teams are reported to come back to the Center Duel Field. The final results have been calculated."

The four teams standing outside the four mini arenas headed back to their seats, with the other eight teams exiting said arenas and trailed down to do the same thing. Once everyone was seated, Declan and Aichi walked towards the stage to reveal who will be advancing to round two.

"Before we announce the winner, I have something important to say," Declan said.

"What?" Aichi asked. "Declan, if this is about Team Turbo-"

"It's not," Declan said. "My father, Leo Akaba, was not responsible for the rise of Zarc. It was me. I am the sole reason that this whole mess happened."

Everyone in the Center Duel Field and in the audience were muddled on what Declan was talking about. …Well, most of them. The Yu-Salad didn't see the teenage CEO of Leo Corporation on the stage; instead, they saw his past incarnation Seto Kaiba, apologizing for the Original Dimension's demise several years ago.

"It was my aggressive dueling style that started the trend of violent Action Duels," Kaiba said. "I was only demonstrating the new type of Solid Vision. I honestly had no idea that the demonstration would cause the world to separate into four dimensions. It was my fault that Zarc gave in to peer pressure. It was my fault that Leo nearly killed four innocent girls. And..." He took a deep breath. "I am very sorry for everything. So if you want to hate me, go ahead. I deserve it."

"No, you don't!"

The audience gasped in shock at the sudden outburst from Yuya, who was standing up from his seat as he remarked it out loud. "You might have been the reason for the dimensions separating, but you can't feel guilty for what happened during the Interdimensional War!" the tomato-haired teen continued.

"But if it wasn't for me, you would have had a completely different life," Kaiba pointed out.

Yuto stood up. "Don't say that," he said. "You might have been the unintentional reason for Zarc's rise to power, but your actions helped shape new futures for us."

"Yeah!" Yugo agreed, also standing up. "Thanks to you, we got second chances. We're practically new people now."

Yuri stood up as well. "So don't stand there and feel bad about yourself," he said. "We were able to redeem ourselves and become better people."

"You see?" Yuya asked. "While we came to accept that we were once one person, we now know that we've become more than that. We're now individuals and your actions allowed us to be together in spirit." He glanced at Yuto. "And some of us are closer because of fate."

Yuto smiled in response to what his cousin was referring to. "Counterparts by chance," he said, looking at Yuya. "Cousins by fate."

"Exactly," Yuya replied. He looked back at Kaiba. "And if it wasn't for you..." He took out three cards from his deck. "...I wouldn't have been great at other summoning techniques."

Those three cards were Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon's special summoning counterparts: Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon, and Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon. After Zarc and Ray split back into their reincarnations, Yuya got these cards to replace Dark Rebellion, Clear Wing, and Starving Venom to give himself an identity even though the four Dimension Dragons helped bond the Yu-Salad together. Thanks to Absolute Dragon, he also now has yet another dragon within his deck called Odd-Eyes Phantom Dragon.

"These cards represent my individuality," Yuya continued. "I no longer have the other three Dimension Dragons, but these Odd-Eyes variants are a way to show that I have changed as a person. If I never met my other selves, I wouldn't have been on the proper starting path to becoming a pro. As long as these three cards are by my side, I'll be able to use my power to keep the world entertained and smiling."

Kaiba was surprised to hear that. "I appreciate the words, but-"

"Okay Declan, I think you already confused enough people," Aichi politely interrupt.

"My apologies," Declan said. "The winning teams moving on to the next round are Team Smiles, Team Noble, Team Turbo, and Team Obelisk."

The Yu-Salad and their respective teammates celebrated the new of them winning the first round of the tournament, including Lulu. "I can't believe it!" she happily exclaimed. "We made it to the second round!"

"I know," Yuto happily agreed. "First the tournament, then medical school!"

"Medical school?" Shay repeated.

Yuto hasn't told the Obsidians yet, but he has finally figured out his future a couple days ago. After seeing Lulu and Shay suffer from the severe injuries they got during the Invasion, he wanted to make sure he'll help tend to people with any terrible lacerations. His plan was to attend medical school after he graduated from Heartland Duel School to get a medical degree and open up his own health clinic.

"Why are you bringing up medical school?" Lulu asked. "What's going on?"

Yuto realized he hasn't told her his plans for the future and had an "Oh, crap" look on his face, complete with a sweat drop creeping down from his forehead to his cheek. "Well... I..." he stammered.

"The next round will begin tomorrow," Declan said, making Yuto breathe a sigh of relief. "For now, I want the winning teams to rest up. Also, will Team Turbo stay behind for a few minutes? I wish to speak to them in private."

Yugo, Rin, Crow, and Shinji followed Declan backstage to discuss about what happened earlier. Meanwhile, the remaining eleven teams and the audience departure towards the doors while friends and families met up to congratulate on the other three winning teams and telling the other eight how proud they are for taking part in this tournament. Teams Smiles, Noble, and Obelisk were all excited about winning for different reasons: Yuya and Zuzu aim to become Dueltainers, Yuto wishes to start his own hospital, Lulu dreams of being a movie actress, Shay is preparing himself to run ObsidianCorp, and Yuri wants to teach Wicked Dueltainment to those interested in it, but he also mainly wants to continue seeking redemption for his actions during the Interdimensional War. Regardless of who will win, this will certainly mark the start of a bright future for the winning team.

#Arc V Aftermath #yugioh arc v #Yuya Sakaki #Zuzu Boyle #Yuzu Hiragi #FruitShipping #Yuto (arc v)#Lulu Obsidian #Ruri Kurosaki #FallenAngelShipping #Yugo (arc v)#Rin (arc v)#AppleShipping #Yuri (arc v)#Celina (arc v)#Serena (arc v)#PredatorShipping

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darkzorua100 · 6 years

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I said this once and I’ll say it again. Vrains REALLY doesn’t like competitive stuff in the anime.

Firewall Dragon is a broken ass card. Yeah best to never show that thing around anymore in case it does get banned (funny how when they do show Firewall again is when it IS banned in the OCG and TCG).

Gouki is causing all kinds of Extra Link problems. Best to replace them so they can’t get anymore good support (not like you were giving them good cards anyway. You been taking out the part of their effects that made them busted).

And now Trickstars. Oh Trickstars. You haven’t even been doing as well lately competitively from what I’ve been hearing yet you still get the axe in the anime because EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY CYBERSE! I even play Cyberse in real life, and even though I like the Type, this is actually stupid. Well I will say this. I don’t think many people will miss you, besides the Trickstar players of course, because damn that deck was annoying.

So...how much longer until Altergeist and Salamangreat are going to be axed? I’m dead serious about this question.

So episode 85 was just a mess. They tried to do so much in one episode and it really shows. I will admit. I did find myself caring for Haru’s storyline this episode. I think the added bit of dialogue between Bohman and Haru during 84 helped in this department but it still doesn’t change the fact that Haru literally was just a scapegoat. He did NOTHING only for him to be killed off just to give Blue Maiden a win. A win that feel absolutely shallow for her character.

Before this duel, Bohman and Lightning both basically told Haru he wasn’t going to win. Lightning didn’t care if he won or not. He just needed him to stall for time. It was a suicide mission for him because he wasn’t made to be this amazing duelist. He was only created to look after Bohman and then to be his servant. And this is supposed to be Blue Maiden’s big official debut win? No this is just an insult in every single meaning of the word. She didn’t beat someone like Revolver or Soulburner who have build themselves up to be some of the best duelists in Vrains. Heck she didn’t even beat someone like Windy, who even though he hasn’t won a single duel, he is still a major threat in this war. Someone who if she beat would have dealt a huge blow to Lightning’s factor. No Aoi won against a child. In appearance and skill. She beat someone who was only there to waste her time. She beat someone who Lightning knew she was easily going to be able to beat and honestly insulting isn’t even the right word to use. It is just pure disrespectful to her so called development. There is literally nothing satisfying about this and anyone who says this is an amazing win for her, I’m sorry, but no. That is just wrong. This was just a duel to give her a win for a win sake and after this, I won’t be surprised if she loses to the next person she duels against.

Now as for her new archetype...okay. I was on board with Aoi using a Water archetype back during her duel against Soulburner when there was still a chance of her being the Water Lost Child. Now it is just like we hit the reset button for her. During her duel against Soulburner, she talked about the flaws in her deck and how she had tried to improve them since her duel against Spectre. That is some good development there. Take what you know is wrong about your deck and fix it and/or try and improve it. However that turned out to be meaningless since now that she has Aqua, lets just give her a new deck all together because why not?! Wow Soulburner vs Blue Girl literally was just pointless wasn’t it? First off, why would you change your deck, in general, to go into a war zone, that you will die in if you lose, to something you never played before and have no experience with whatsoever? Anime logic on this one sure but I can’t be the only one to find this foolish. Secondly, this is continuing to prove my point that Miyu literally exist just to give Aoi an Ignis without having to rewrite her backstory. This was the deck that Miyu should’ve had because this is HER IGNIS, NOT AOI’S! What is she actually going to be using now when or if ever Aqua returns to her? Are they just going to give this archetype to Miyu after this battle is over? Because if so, again insulting to her since how special can this LOST CHILD mind you be if we are not even going to bother giving her her own fresh brand new deck for her official debut duel. I’m extremely worried now for Miyu as a character. I mean I was before but after this episode more then ever now. Aqua giving Blue Maiden some new cards was the right idea but changing her deck entirely wasn’t the route to go. She should have made her some cards that would help her improve her old strategies like Aoi was trying to do in the first place. She could have gave her a Water Tuner and a Water Synchro or even a Water XYZ that could synergize well with Aoi’s Trickstars even though they were Light monsters. And unlike all the other characters who suddenly just have these Extra Deck monsters for no explained reason, it makes sense. I’m actually surprised Blue Maiden didn’t summon an Xyz Monster during this duel but who knows, by the time she duels again will probably be when Pendulums are introduced and it is revealed that Marincess are a Pendulum based deck. I admit, that would be a cool reveal but that still doesn’t change the fact that none of this should have happened.

I’m just offended by this episode more then anything. As a writer and as a female duelist myself. Haru feels like a wasted character and Aoi is just...I don’t even know what to say about her anymore. Everything to do with her is just frustrating and it sucks because I truly do like her character. I like THE Aoi Zaizen but this “development” of hers is driving me completely insane.

Speaking of insanity, Plant Insanity is back in the form of Spectre next week. Funny with all this stuff going on with Earth, you forget that Spectre loses his god damn mind when he duels. Judging by Lightning’s expressions, seems that Spectre is the one playing the manipulative bastard card during this duel which I’m very much looking forward to seeing what he’s going to say to Lightning. Still crossing my fingers so hard for this Spectre/Earth subplot to be finally addressed during this duel and if not, at least I have Spectre’s expressions to look forward to next week. I truly do love the Plant Users in this franchise. They really do make this show so much more fun. Like if Lightning wasn’t the main antagonist of the season, he would so be getting murdered in this duel because, like I always say, YOU DON’T F*CK WITH THE PLANT USERS. You just don’t unless you have a death wise.

#vrains #vrains spoilers #Thoughts #theories

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em-exceeds-change-zearu · 8 years

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Can you defend Arc V against haters just like you did with Ash Ketchum and Yuma Tsukumo. I like Arc V til the end please help us be our hero :(

Phoo. Okay, this is actually gonna be kinda hard. Not because I hate ARC-V or anything, I don’t, I love it still; but I don’t particularly care for the direction it’s gone or how it’s treated its characters. This is a show that tried to do a whole lot of new things and had a bunch of stuff ahead of it, but got hamstrung by executive meddling and poor management and organization and konami not understanding how the card game works and continuing to introduce new mechanics that completely alter the metagame and viability of cards they’re trying to promote and whatever else is going on behind the scenes. It’s a mess. Even as a loving fan, I have to acknowledge that. I have a feeling a good portion of the haters are fans acknowledging that, and whether they’re inflicting their bile on other fans trying to be optimistic or not is up to them, but regardless of what direction the show’s gone now, I am a fan and I’ll defend it to the best of my ability. Still, I have to do the obligatory “hoo boy I mean I understand where the haters are coming from this time, because man are these flaws evident, yikes.”

That being said, I do love what it tried to do, what it has done as a series. It’s a series that introduced IRL gaming strategies to ingame duels, shouting out to the more meta fans there, one of the first series to actively integrate all the previous summonings into its plot on top of the new summons (the last one I can think of doing that was GX, and they admittedly didn’t have that many old summons to bring back), broke several YGO trends regarding tournaments, duelist archetypes (the protag, the tall rival, the main gal, etc), brought back minor characters to participate in important plot events, trying very hard to juggle a huge, huge cast, etc. There was a lot it had going for it before it got dropped through tournament filler hell in the Synchro arc and hella revisionist plot writing. Even now, when it’s plainly obvious that the writers are struggling to tie things together in whatever way they can with the limited time they have left, they can still pull off little things that make us go “oh!” in surprised delight even while the rest of the episode can make people go “oh…” in disappointment.

The characters in ARC-V are wonderful, still somewhat endearing even after either getting shafted, thrown in repetitive, unfulfilling development arcs, or just having been completely rewritten in their roles entirely. Although at this point I’m wondering if people are excited to see their babies because they’re fond of what they once were, or just because they’re happy to see them do things? The first two seasons of ARC-V are just great for what they do, and hell, I even like the Synchro arc’s progress up until the Friendship Cup, and I actually do like the idea behind that particular tournament despite not being too fond of it’s execution. The idea of “bringing duels with smiles” can work, even if it’s just not done right by this particular series, and if nothing, the series has given a lot of room for fans to speculate, to think about how things could have gone. (Hell, I have a writeup halfway done myself about how the flaws in it could be fixed/the plot could be rewritten. I just have to get around to finishing it one day.)

Really, for a series about entertainment, of fun displays and action duels with dancing alongside the monsters, ARC-V does a lot of telling, not showing, and that’s it’s major flaw. That being said, I did still find it enjoyable to watch, and I still love the characters enough to want to do them justice and to watch the series to the very end. I’m not telling you that the show is undefendable or anything like that, but it definitely could have done a lot better.

Remember, the series might be ending next week, but the characters and premise will never truly die. After all, every single YGO ends the same way: just because this particular story has ended, doesn’t mean the journey is over. There are always more duels to play, always more stories to tell, and infinite possibilities just beyond the horizon. For all its flaws, I’m still completely willing to take these characters to the next stage, and I hope you all who love them will too.

In other words:

#arc v #arc v spoilers #ask shenanigans #I'M SORRY FRIEND IT'S NOT A PERFECT DEFENSE BUT IT'S A DEFENSE

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whiteclericmaris · 6 years

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Just missing the Synchro Boxes but these are the packs I have bought from (except for the 1 pack per purchase I do. I'm pretty sure you can guess from some posts which that one went to and I am so happy because there are only a few packs left [though still not the card I want from it].

The only one in the Synchro era I haven't bought are the 2 recent new additions.

Some of the old boxes are good but... unlike the new boxes they (cards) do not have a lot of Synergy with each other. Like stuff like Gem Knights and X-sabers are archetypes from kinda new and old boxes are good but unless you are running certain archetypes (or want fairies [Konami give us more fairies you cowards!]) they aren't really good.

Wonders of the Sky is the only old box I made a purchase from since I was using Crow at the time and for the Winged Beast monsters plus some banish support cards and also for the Mist Valley field spell but I don't even use it compared to Harpie's Hunting Ground. Using Atmosphere was fun though and Mai's special lines for Birdface are cool.

Servants of the King was when the Last Kc Cup was running around. Some people recommended to get Wall of Disruption and boooooooooooyyyy. I remember before owning it puting a Reverse Trap in my Gem Knight deck since it is ridiculously common (it's not #2 in most popular cards used in ranked duel for nothing). It did pay off in one duel against Vampires (because field Spell) and an Odion player when I was using Yusei. I loved it when afterward I used Tourmaline's effect but they ended up Floodgating me but fortunately I had Gem Knight Crystal in hand and since it was a special summon I could still tribute summon Lapis and Topaz. It not only has that but Draining Shield for Aromages. By the time Kc Cup finished I just decided to reset the box as I got the most of it and was only missing 35 packs with some other SRs I knew I probably wouldn't use (Ironically I have 2 Birthrights but I don't recall resetting the box just because of it)

Then there are the selection boxes but those cost actual money and are a limited time. Usually they introduce new cards that will be released in future boxes which was how I managed to get a Shard of Greed, Gozuki, Super Rush Headlong and some other common cards I still use without buying from their boxes like White Magician Pikeru and Crystal Seer (usually for farming/scouting out certain cards from deck), heck even 1 unhappy Girl that's common for Unhappy Ra.

Reason I wasn't as motivated to buy from volume 2 was well... It had spellbook as a SR and I'd rather go back to Visions of Ice to also get Blizzard Princess and Tricky along with Dragon Ice. They also had Batteryman which I kind of want to go back to for the last Gem Knight Fusion. They had U.A. but unless you have the whole archetype it's not good and the box has Galaxy Cyclone too and Gates to the Dark World. I also wasn't as motivated to get many of the new cards introduced in it outside of Masked Hero Dian, Necrovalley, and Night Beam. Buy a box that soon costs real money just for 3 cards? I can wait for the main/mini boxes those cards will come in as the previous volume had Offerings to the Doomed and that one is in the Stardust Box which is a great box in general since it has all the Blue Eyes Support with Silver's Cry and Paleozoic Hallucinogenic. It's also where I got Tuned Magician which I have used a lot for Spellcaster Decks and my early Anti Trap version, and use Dark Elf to help me with Arkana's unlock mission. The only thing it lacks is good backrow removal unless you run X Sabers for Hyunlei which that thing is insane when I used her with Leo. It's practically a Synchro Vision Hero Witch Raider but not as flexible since you have to Synchro Summon instead of Tribute monsters and traps (and it can only be 3 Spells/Traps so if the opponent has a field spell [highly unlikely but still] you have to decide which cards to pop unlike Witch Raider that can be all.)

I won't end up buying all the boxes as that is not my goal. Heck that is impossible unless you are rich and can invest real money spending it all on fake cards.

I really don't know what to main though. Like some players have it all figured out with Vampires, Koaki, Blue Eyes, Masked Hero, Fur Hires, Dragunity but for me? I just want to have different decks depending on which character I am using (except for Vylons, that was for Tea but too short on time so I switched to a spellcaster deck since Dark Magician was her Main).

I don't want Vamps, I don't like LP cost strategies even if they recover with Vampire's Domain (although Bandit Vampires with Bandit Keith appear popular). Koaki are a no go as they self destruct unless they have certain cards in hand (and even in loaner deck challenges it's pretty bad unless you have Diamond Core), Blue Eyes is a heck no! I remember using them one time for ranked and it ain't a fun option for me unless I am skill farming for Seto. It's so bricky too even with the whole Arkana BE due to A Trick Up His Sleeve to always have Cosmo Brain in starting hand (Konami nerf that skill since that is originally for Dark Magician). Masked Hero ain't fun. I didn't have fun in loaner deck challenge with them since it is basically summon Drilldark to special summon another Destiny Hero, attack and then attack use Masked Change to avoid trap/deal finishing blow (recharge and get another Masked Change if you destroy a monster).

Nothing really speaks out to me to get these cards or run this archetype (except Aromages and they are free regardless) Like at first it was Gem Knights but in this meta I don't think I want to run that. I do love the Anti Trap but there have been times when it can brick even when using Balance. I remember I would have Tribute Burial just in case to summon Blizzard Princess and Vision Hero Witch Raider during the early days. One of the recent King of Decks did interest me as it ran Blizzard Princess but I would need Legion of the Fiend Jester for it which is in an old box that I would have to reset 3 times for.

#maris plays duel links #long post #sorry for the ramble #just don't know what deck I am building for in the long run

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