Characters / Yu-gi-oh Arc-V: Pendulum of Hope

This is a list of characters who appear in the story Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V: Pendulum's Fifth Swing. Be aware that there will be spoilers for the canon series, and there will be unmarked spoilers ahead for the story!

For the original canon characters, click here.

Main Characters

Yuto Ohnaka

Yuto Ohnaka

Archetype: Phantom Knights and Entermate

In Pendulum of Hope Yuto is the main protagonist and Ruri's boyfriend. His life was uprooted when Academia arrived and laid waste to Heartland, carding anyone they encountered. Worse, in the middle of it all, his best friend's sister and girlfriend was kidnapped. In order to find her, Yuto along with his friends Shun, Shark, and O'Brien left for the Standard Dimension to gather intelligence and they aim to restore Heartland back to normal, defeat Academia, and stop the inter-dimensional war for good. Despite all the suffering and Trauma he had to good, Despite all the suffering and trauma he went through, Yuto is still kindhearted who aims to end the conflict peacefully, and refuses to hurt others.

Yuto uses a Phantom Knight deck with his ace being Dark Rebellion Dragon Xyz Dragon and Dark Requiem Xyz Dragon. After Yuya got absorbed by him, Yuto inherited his deck Entermate and his ace Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

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• Action Survivor: He's one of the few survivors of Heartland, who fight to protect his people from Academia.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the canon his feelings for hurting Sawatari are unknown. Here he feels remorseful for unknowingly hurting him.
• Adaptation Expansion: His interaction with Masumi and Sora in #24 has more scenes compared to canon, and he manages to duel them before it gets interrupted by Yuzu's bracelet.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In canon, Yuto is mostly The Stoic and reserved, but here he's more emotional and expressive. He started off in the fic as a cheerful and absent-minded dork, before becoming the cynical and broken man he is today.
• All-Loving Hero: Even more so than his canon counterpart. Yuto resents hurting people and using duels as a tool for war. He wants a world where people can enjoy dueling peacefully and wants to end the inter-dimensional war peacefully without hurting others.
• Always Save the Girl: Yuto is determined to save Ruri from Academia and after he meets Yuzu he becomes protective of her due to her resemblance to his girlfriend. He is also very protective of her counterparts and refuses to hand them over to Academia and is determined to save them from Leo's clutches.
• Alleged Lookalikes:
  • When Yugo first arrived at Xyz Dimension he mistook Yuto for Yuri and assumed he was the one who kidnap Rin, but thankfully they both cleared their misunderstanding,
  • Some Standard characters mistook him for Yuya. After Yuya got absorbed by him, Yoko and Yuzu decide to take Yuto under their wing and Yuto decides to cosplay as Yuya and take his place during the Championship in order to avoid his reputation getting tarnished. Most of the participants and some of Yuya's friends didn't realize that he was Yuto until he revealed his true identity to them, minus Shark who figured out its Yuto in Yuya's disguise after watching his duel against Kacidohki, Shuzo, Shun, Reiji, and Nakajima were suspicious that the participant isn't Yuya but they only got to know he was Yuto after he revealed to them.
• Ascended Extra: He's the main protagonist in the fic instead of Yuya.
• Badass Biker: During the Synchro arc Yuto becomes a turbo Duelist.
• Badass Cape: He wears a black cape which highlights how badass he is as a Duelist.
• Break the Cutie: Yuto used to be a cheerful boy who simply wanted to enjoy dueling however he witnessed his hometown getting burned to ashes by Academia, his father getting carded in front of his own eyes, and Ruri getting kidnap by Yuri has hit him so hard.
• Berserk Button:
  • Hurting Ruri, his friends, and his family is an easy way to piss off Yuto.
  • Whenever he sees Academia soldiers carding and hurting people with a smile, Yuto's Superpowered Evil Side triggers him and he becomes very violent.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's one of the nicest guys in the series, and even without going his Superpowered Evil Side, he's still really scary when he's pissed off.
• Big Brother Instinct: During the Synchro arc Yuto becomes very protective towards Reira and when they first arrive at Synchro, he fights against the security for her safety, and he's one of the few people whom Reira feels comfortable with apart from Reiji.
• Character Development:
  • Yuto developed a deep hatred towards Fusion and refused to use it due to Academia invading his home but he eventually realizes that there are good and bad Fusion users, and he should just focus on his hatred towards Academia and decides to use Fusion in order to become stronger and protect his comrades.
  • After the war Yuto was reluctant to hurt others but by the time of Synchro arc, he becomes a battle-hardened Duelist similar to Shun.
• Childhood Friends: With Shun and Shark. He met both of them when they were in elementary school.
• Cool Big Bro: He has two younger brothers and they view him as this. This proves to be true when he starts to act as this towards Reira during the Synchro arc, to the point he's one of the few people Reira grows to like and feel comfortable with apart from Reiji.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He wears a dark outfit and uses a dark heroic deck, but he's genuinely a good guy who wants to end the war peacefully.
• Despair Event Horizon: The Academia invasion, seeing his home getting destroyed, father and other Heartland citizens getting carded, breaks him mentally which triggers his Superpowered Evil Side.
• Easily Forgiven: After Yuto revealed his background and Yuya's status to the latter's friend, they didn't blame him because they knew his suffering and carrying all the turmoil, and guilt inside him.
• Fantastic Racism: Like Shun and most of the Resistance, Yuto developed a deep hatred towards Fusion Summoning, but he gradually grows out of it after being advised by Yuya and Reiji. Yuto eventually decides to focus his hatred on Academia, rather than Fusion users in general, and eventually decides to learn Fusion in order to win the war and protect his comrades. Reiji pointed out that Yuto could have easily defeated him if he had agreed to use Fusion.
• Fusion Dance: He fuses with Yuya, which is similar to the overlaying in Xyz.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Becomes aggressive in dueling through his Superpowered Evil Side, only for self-defense though.
• The Hero: He's the main hero of Pendulum Of Hope, who aims to stop the war peacefully.
• Fighting Your Friend: In #25-26 he fights against Shun, in order to snap him and make him come back to his
• Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. He wore goggles with his facemask when he first came to Standard but they did they did protect his eyes from flying debris when he shielded Yuzu, but the lens broke sense.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • He is more prone to these, and it's perfectly justified as his brooding personality also masks his trauma, and emotional pain caused by the Heartland invasion, his father getting carded and his attempts to cope with it.
  • Becomes depressed after his disturbing victory against Kachidoki in #39. The audience's applause for Yuzu's duel and Yuya's words of wisdom help Yuto get over it an episode later.
  • Poor beggar has another one after Yuzu's disappearance.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: After Yuto loses his first duel to Jack, he wonders if he really can end the war peacefully and make everyone happy.
• Heroic Resolve:
  • After learning that Yuya's soul and a darkness are inside of him. He remembers his resolve to end the war peacefully and decides to move forward, trusting himself and Yuya.
  • Later on when he dueled Reiji because he disregarded the people who got carded in the Battle Royal as necessary casualties and wanted him to repent for it and Reiji just kept pushing at his buttons until he declared that he will definitely bring Yuzu back and keep the promise he made to Yuya.
  • In #65 he vows to use Fusion in order to become stronger and protect his comrades.
• Instant Expert: While can be explained by Yuto having Yuya's "soul" inside his body, he seemingly has no problem using Yuya's deck during the Miami Championship arc.
• It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the invasion of Heartland and his father's death, but Shark manages to snap him out.
• Love at First Sight: Yuto was infatuated with Ruri the first time he met her and both of them began dating shortly after they met.
• Luminescent Blush: He blushes whenever he's with Ruri and frequently daydreams about her.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Ruri and Yuzu are this to him. Despite the latter spending only a few days with him, Yuto was very pissed off at Reiji after she goes missing,
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When his berserk mode hit, Yuto was not in his right mind and he carded two Obelisk Force members. However, after he comes back to his senses he feels guilty for hurting them.
  • He feels remorseful for unknowingly trashing Sawatari during their duel since the latter had no idea about the war.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • He blames himself for not saving his father from getting carded by Academia.
  • Yuya Taking the Bullet for him.
  • Brutally defeating Kachidoki. In #39, he gets triggered pretty badly for Takeda and Umesugi making the same mocking gesture as Kachidoki.
  • After learning that Yuzu went missing he regrets not being there to help her, and later Reiji proves to him that he still needs to be stronger to rescue her.
• Nonuniform Uniform: Yuto wears his school uniform along with his black cape.
• Not So Above It All: Despite all his seriousness, he also proves to be a boy deeply in love with his girlfriend, often blushing when around her and worrying about getting flustered around her.
• Obviously Evil: His Superpowered Evil Side. In Episodes 45 and 46, he gets a constant dark aura around him
• Nice Guy: Despite his trauma, Yuto is still a kindhearted boy who wants to end the war peacefully without hurting others and he's even kind to his foes as well.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He never responds to any trash talk and is very merciful, trying not to hurt his opponent, and stops the duel with Yuya once Sora is taken away.
• Official Couple: With Ruri. They begin dating after they meet and they have to keep their relationship secret from Shun.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Since he's the main protagonist of the fic, Yuto never gets absorbed into Yuya.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Heartland invasion crushed him so badly.
• Sympathy for the Devil: After learning more about Academia's teaching and students' background from Serena in #63, Yuto begins to feel sorry for them because the majority are orphans who aren't educated and they are only taught about Dueling and tactics of war and fighting.
• True Companions: He deeply values his comrades and cherishes the bonds he made with them.
• Trauma Button: Whenever he sees an Academia soldier carding others, Yuto will always recall the Heartland invasion and his father getting carded in front of him.
• Trauma Conga Line: Throughout the invasion, Yuto has to watch his hometown getting burned, his father, and the innocent Heartland citizens getting carded.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He gives a brutal one to Serena in #64 calling her out for her reckless Blood Knight tendencies and her lack of empathy and concern toward the safety of their comrades
• Worf Had the Flu: Yuto loses against Reiji because he stubbornly refuses to use Fusion and Reiji also points out that Yuto could have easily defeated him if he agreed to use Fusion.
• The Worf Effect: He lost to Darkness in order to show how dangerous a threat Darkness is to him.

Ruri Kurosaki

Ruri Kurosaki

Archetype: Lyrical Luscinia

Ruri is Yuto's girlfriend and Shun Kurosaki's younger sister. After Academia invaded her hometown Ruri just like her brother and Yuto joined the Heartland Resistance movement to take down Academia and during the aftermath of the attack she got kidnapped by Academia and this made her brother, Yuto, Shark, and O'Brien target Academia and travel to Standard to gather intelligence.

Ruri uses a Lyrical Luscinia/Lyrilusc deck, a Luscinia-based archetype that focuses on swarming the field to Xyz Summon Weak, but Skilled monsters with a lot of Overlay Units.

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• Action Girl: She's a very skilled Duelist and one of the few strongest female soldiers of the Resistance. She can also handle herself physically.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon her feelings for being an Academia prisoner are unknown, but here Ruri finds her days as an Academia prisoner horrible and describes it as a nightmare.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In canon she never got to win any of her duels, but here she defeated Crow during the first round of the Friendship Cup.
  • She's also one of the few opponents whom Shun had a hard time defeating.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon Ruri wasn't revealed until the climax of Synchro arc, here she made her debut in episode 1.
• Adaptation Expansion: The fic gives her more screen time when it comes to her relationship with Yuto and Shun.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon Ruri never interacted with any of her counterparts, here she is able to form a bond with Rin while they were Academia prisoners, and worked well with each other during their tag duel against Sanders and BB in #55.
• All-Loving Heroine: Even more so than Yuto. Ruri genuinely believes Dueling is fun and hates it when people use it for war, bribery, or any other shady stuff. Her belief or dueling still remains intact after facing the invasion.
• Alleged Lookalikes: When Sawatari met her for the first time he at first thought she was Serena and then he quickly mistook her for Yuzu.
• Amazon Brigade: All of her monsters are females.
• Animal Motif: Her deck is based on lusciniae, a genus of singing birds, completing the Kachou Fuugetsu theme of the Bracelet Girls with her bird-themed deck. The episode where she first duels is also called "The Little Bird Trapped in Darkness", which also has "Kotori" ("little bird") in the title.
• Ascended Extra: She gets more screen time and duel in this fic compared to canon.
• Badass in Distress: Before she got kidnapped by Yuri she challenged him to a duel and put up a good fight, before losing and getting captured by them.
• Birds of a Feather: She's this with Yuya. Both of them are kind and pure-hearted All-Loving Hero who resents using dueling for war and hurting others. Both of them hate when people use their cards for bribery and they both idolize Yusho Sakaki's teaching.
• Break the Cutie: She was just an innocent girl who wanted to enjoy dueling until Academia destroyed her home and kidnapped her.
• Berserk Button: She doesn't like when any Duelist uses their cards as bribery.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as this to Sayaka and all the younger characters of the Resistance.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Her disappearance is what drives Kurosaki's crusade against Academia, which he mistakenly believes includes LDS.
• Official Couple: With Yuto. Both of them begin dating after they met and they had to keep their relationship secret from Shun. They're the only counterparts who are in a relationship.
• Feather Motif: Ruri wears feather-shaped earrings and a feather-shaped bracelet, which not only gives her a connection to her brother's bird motif but is also a hint of her deck eventually representing the bird kanji chou of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle. Indeed, her deck, Lyrical Luscinia, is based on said genus of singing birds, and they use feathers to attack.
• Fighting from the Inside: When the Dokter activates Parasite Fusioner in her brain, Ruri refuses to let it control her and keeps on fighting for her life.
• Fragile Speedster: Ruri's Assembly Nightingale's effect allows her to speedily use a Death of a Thousand Cuts to fight, but also trends into a Speedy Stone Wall due to her effect allowing her to protect herself as well.
• The Heart: Downplayed since she is the Deuteragonist whose plotline and character development doesn't revolve around this trope, but she was the one who kept her friends and brother together and her disappearance had affected both Yuto and Shun so badly.
• Lady of War: Ruri is calm, graceful, and elegant when she duels, which is a huge contrast to her tsundere counterparts.
• Nice Girl: She lacks all tsundere traits her counterpart has and is very kind, sweet, and friendly most of the time.
• "Not So Different" Remark: She and Crow are very similar to each other which they both came to realize during their duel against each other in #70. Both of them use bird motif decks and are fond of kids.
• Put on a Bus: After getting kidnap by Yuri in #15, Ruri is absent for the majority of the Standard arc and doesn't appear again until #54.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent during the Standard arc, Ruri is again back in action from Chapter #24 onwards.
• Shrinking Violet: Outside of her comrades from the Xyz Dimension, Ruri is shy and socially awkward whenever she interacts with Duelists from other Dimensions.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She's normally a quiet and calm girl who lacks all the tsundere traits her counterparts possess. But like them Ruri proves to be a skilled physical fighter apart from being a skilled Duelist, which is seen in the #70 flashback during her first date with Yuto, when she was attacked by her bullies they tried to attack and pick a fight on her, but Ruri didn't wait for Yuto's rescue and she used her self-defense strength to psychically kick their ass.
• Took a Level in Badass: When she was a kid she was bullied by some thug boys her age and Shun had to come to her rescue, which also resulted in their family leaving Heartland for a few years. When she comes back to Heartland as a teenager, Ruri becomes a tough-as-nails Action Girl underneath her gentle deposition and knows how to use her self-defense thanks to Shun. Her targets have also remarked on how much of a badass she has become.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's a gentle and sweet girly girl to Serena and Rin's aggressive tomboy.
• Unkempt Beauty: When escaping from Duel Chasers in #57, Ruri landed in a trash can in the Commons, and had all the dirt and banana peel stuck in her hair.
• Will Not Be a Victim: Her Living MacGuffin status gets her kidnapped/targeted a lot, but even weaponless and handcuffed Ruri always tries to fight back, whether physically or verbally.

Shun Kurosaki

Shun Kurosaki

Archetype: Raid Raptors

A duelist originating from the Xyz Dimension, and a member of the Heartland Resistance movement.

Once a promising duelist, everything changed when Academia invaded the Xyz Dimension, laying waste to the city and carding everyone in sight. Shun became enraged by this transgression and has since developed an intense hatred towards anyone who utilizes Fusion.

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• Action Survivor: Shun is one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect his people from Academia.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon he made his debut in #15, here he made his debut in #1.
• Adaptation Expansion: His duel with Marco happened off-screen in canon, while here he curb-stomps Marco by using One-Hit Kill.
• Anti-Hero: Type 3. Shun is one of the good guys who will do whatever it takes to defeat Academia, and protect his hometown, friends, and people from Academia, but he also attacks innocents for going to LDS, showing a disregard for the safety of his own allies, and he has no hesitation about fighting anyone in his way regardless of their own moral standing and that also includes his friends.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears a long blue-purple coat and looks tough and badass with it.
• Batman Gambit: He attacked LDS to lure out Reiji, so he can use him as a bartering chip against the Professor, only to find out that both father and son are estranged
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very overprotective towards Ruri and doesn't approve of her dating anyone, let alone his best friend Yuto.
• Big Brother Mentor: Acts as this to all the young kids from Heartland along with Kaito.
• Break the Cutie: The Academia invasion has transformed him from a Nice Guy to a cold Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Character Development: After Academia invaded Heartland, Shun developed a deep hatred towards them and anything that is related to Fusion, and he also generalizes that all the people from Fusion are evil. However thanks to reuniting with Ruri at the beginning of the Synchro arc, Shun gradually came back to his senses, and realized not all Fusion users and people from said dimension are evil, and he warmed up to O'Brien and is willing to work with Ryo.
• Determinator: No matter how tough the war is, Shun will never give up and will do whatever it takes to defeat Academia.
• Enemy Mine: He decides to join forces with Reiji to defeat Leo.
• Fantastic Racism: He hates Fusion and all the people who are from Fusion Dimension, generalizing them to be evil and the only member of Resistance who had trouble working with O'Brien despite the latter proving to him that he had nothing to do with the Central branch war. But he gradually came to understand that not all people from Fusion are evil, which is seen when he took a stand for Ryo against his friend Kaito and decided to focus on his hatred of Central Academia rather than Fusion residents and users in general.
• Foil: He's one to Shark. Both of them have younger sisters and are overprotective towards them and they both will do whatever it takes to defeat and card any Academia soldiers that get in their way. While Shark is still very nice towards anyone who isn't involved with Academia and is willing to work with people from Fusion who aren't involved with Central Academia and make sure no innocents are hurt, while Shun is hot-headed and is willing to hurt innocents who aren't involved with Academia and believes all the people from Fusion are evil, even if they aren't associated with Central branch.
• Fighting Your Friend:
  • In #25 he is forced to duel against Yuto after getting fed up with the latter's cautious way of thinking.
  • In #109 he decides to duel against Kaito after seeing how far he has crossed his limit during his duel with Ryo.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Despite everything he's lost, the Standard arc states that does in no way EXCUSE him. Yuto stated that he lost his father, Shark and Allen lost their parents at the hands of Academia and still hate them, but they aren't as unreasonable as Shun and make sure they don't hurt innocents. O'Brien also lost his parents but isn't as destructive as Shun is.
• Friend to All Children: Like in canon Shun is fond of children from Heartland and acts as a big brother figure to them along with Kaito, and he also has a soft spot for children from other Dimension except children from Academia.
• Good Is Not Soft: Shun is one of the good guys but he doesn't go easy on anyone after the invasion.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: He challenges Kaito to a duel in #109 in order to make the latter come back to his senses.
• Hypocrite: He's pissed off at Academia for carding innocents, yet he managed to card an innocent who has nothing to do with war.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a ruthless Duelist who's willing to card any Academia solider that gets in his way, but he's doing it for the sake of his friends and people of Heartland. He's willing to agree with Yuto's plan even if it means his ideals are clashed with the latter's.
• Kick the Dog: He ruthlessly cards Marco who seems to be a Nice Guy and had no idea about a war taking place.
• The Lancer: His impatient, hotheaded, and reckless behavior contrasts Yuto's cautious way of thinking and this can lead to both of them clashing with each other.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: He doesn't approve of his sister Ruri with any other boys, including his best friend Yuto, but he's unaware that both of them are in a relationship.
• No One Gets Left Behind: He's very protective towards his friends and the Resistance, frequently making sure their safety is his top priority.
• Not So Above It All: In #50 after he learns that Yuto is disguised as Yuya, he starts to poke fun at his best friend in a playful manner.
• One-Man Army: Kurosaki is a specialist in dueling multiple opponents since some of his Xyz Monsters can attack or destroy multiple monsters at once.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shun is hotheaded and stubborn red oni contrast to Yuto, Shark, and O'Briens cautious and calculating blue.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Downplayed. He has no problem working with his Resistance friends but he doesn't like to work with outsiders, especially people from Fusion Dimension like O'Brien who is also one of the good guys. While his friends are perfectly fine with O'Brien helping them, Shun grudgingly works with him and takes time to warm up to him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He used to be a playful Nice Guy before the invasion, but post-invasion and Ruri getting kidnapped, has consumed him with rage and he will do whatever it takes to defeat Academia and get Ruri back. In #24 he begins to simply consider Yuto as a comrade instead of his best friend and even admits he's willing to sacrifice the latter in order to get his sister back. However, it turns out he only said this to Yuto out of anger and he gradually snaps out of his jerkass behavior in the Synchro arc.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Ruri gets kidnapped, Shun is consumed with rage and he's obsessed with getting her back and destroying Academia. He doesn't even realize that his reckless behavior is putting him and his friends' life at stake.

The Resistance

The Resistance

Resistance

The Resistance. The remaining Xyz duelists who haven't been captured by Academia; they are the last remnants of a world that's gone to hell due to dimensional invaders. The Xyz dimension was originally a peaceful place to live in before they were attacked without warning. Somehow, duelists of the Resistance were able to procure the same technology as their enemies and can now inflict real damage on their opponents and seal them away into cards. Only time will tell if their efforts against their enemies will pay off, though according to Sora, these duelists are fighting a losing battle. They are based off of the fourth Yu-Gi-Oh! series, with Heartland being their setting and their main summoning method being Xyz.

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Tropes associated with Resistance:

• Apocalypse How: Class 1, Civilization Disruption. A majority of the citizens have been sealed away and there aren't that many left. The once bright city of Heartland has now been reduced to a dying wasteland.
• Arch-Enemy: The Resistance hates anyone associated with Academia. Can you really blame them? Kurosaki in particular is so filled with hate that he starts attacking those associated with LDS in the Standard Dimension, not thinking of the consequences that could arise (bringing unneeded attention to themselves, innocent people who know nothing about the war sealed away, etc.) Even Yuto carries a grudge toward them, despite his pacifistic nature.
• Big Good: Next to the Lancers and the Standard Dimension trying to oppose Academia, the Resistance is this as well but some members barring Ruri, Yuto, Shun, Shark, Rio, Kaito, Allen, Sayaka, and Dr'Faker lack the strength to truly help.
• Cardboard Box Home: Their base is made up of a hundred or so tents camped in the same area.
• Color-Coded Characters: Yuto, Kurosaki, Kaito, Shark, and Ruri all wear prominently black or dark purple outfits, the color of Xyz monsters.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Resistance members have gotten more and more desperate and violent in their determination to defeat the Academia as the war has dragged on.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Resistance fighters don't have any formal uniforms; aside from rather militaristic tattered clothing, the only article they have in common is a red scarf.
• Red Is Heroic: All of its members wear a red scarf somewhere on their bodies.
• The Remnant: Academia considers anyone from the Xyz dimension to be this and makes it a point to hunt them down. Yuto and Kurosaki get ticked whenever they are referred to this, as they believe that eventually, they will take back their homes and friends. The Xyz arc reveals the Academia is mostly correct with the Resistance barely holding on.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: To fight back against Academia, the Resistance had to battle them the same way they do and it does work. However, Yuto, Shark, and O'Brien have to keep Kurosaki in check, as he lets his personal feelings take their actions too far at times, especially in the Standard Dimension which doesn't know of the war.

Kaito Tenjo

Kaito Tenjo

Archetype: Cipher

An alternate counterpart to Kaito Tenjou from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. He's also close friends with Yuto and the Kurosaki siblings. Prior to the invasion of Heartland, he was an Entertainment Duelist who loved to make people smile and have fun doing it. Nowadays, he is consumed with wrath and has a deep hatred towards Academia, and is kind of paranoid towards strangers after his family was carded. As one of the last members of the Resistance, he did not hesitate from hostile methods and would card any enemy without mercy. He wields the "Cipher" archetype, a deck that revolves around having multiples of cards with the same name on the field, even if he has to manipulate them to fulfill his requirements.

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• Action Survivor: He's one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect his people from Academia.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon, he makes his debut in Season 3, where he appears since the beginning of the story.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Due to his dad and Haruto being around, Kaito is still amiable and nicer to his friends, until Rin carded his family but he again reverts back to his nicer self in #109 after Shun knocks some sense in him.
• Adaptation Personality Change: He's more friendly, nice, and less stoic compared to his ZEXAL and ARC-V counterparts until his family got carded which made Kaito vengeful similar to his canon counterpart.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: His relationship with Faker is much better than in canon, and they have a normal son-father relationship. He even lost his senses after he saw him getting carded by Rin.
• The Ace: He was a Top Duelist at his school and his skills are equal to One-Man Army. He even defeated a fellow ace Ryo.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears a long black trench coat.
• Break the Cutie: Haruto and his dad getting carded by Rin in #60 has taken a toll in him.
• Big Brother Mentor: Acts as this to most of the younger kids of Heartland along with Shun before the invasion.
• The Dreaded: Many Academia soldiers are terrified of him
• Despair Event Horizon: Seeing his dad and Haruto carded in front of him, has affected him mentally and he's filled with revenge and hatred towards Academia.
• Friend to All Children: Like Shun Kaito was very popular with the young kids of Heartland and he enjoyed spending more time with them.
• Friendly Rival: Was this to Yuto and Kurosaki siblings during their pre-invasion school days.
• Graceful Loser: He, Allen, and Syaka harbor no ill feelings after being defeated by the Spade Brach Trio, Yuto, and the Kurosaki siblings. When Yuto apologizes to him for defeating them, Kaito calls him stupid.
• Light Is Good: His Cipher monsters are light attribute and Kaito is firmly on the side of heroes.
• He's Back!: After becoming a lone wolf and a man obsessed with getting revenge on Academia from #60 onwards, Kaito gradually starts to return back to his kinder self in #109 after Shun knocks some sense in him.
• La Résistance: It's in their name.
• I Work Alone: After Rin carded his family, Kaito defected Resistance and distanced himself from his allies in order to defeat Academia all alone, and threatened to card them if they ever get in his way.
• One-Hit Kill: He easily defeated Ryo in one turn.
• Took a Level in Badass: He has become a lot stronger and a fearsome Duelist after his family got carded by Rin, and easily defeated Ryo in OTK,
• Unstoppable Rage: After Rin carded his family Kaito is consumed with hatred and vengeance towards Academia and is even willing to attack the former Academia students like Ryo.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shark. Both of them tend to bicker with each other but they mutually consider each other as friends,

Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro

Ryoga Kamishiro

Archetype:Sharks

An alternate counterpart to Ryoga Kamishiro from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. He is a close friend of Yuto and the older twin brother of Rio. After Academia invades his home, Shark and his allies join the Resistance in order to save their people from Academia and he is determined to destroy any Academia Duelist that gets in his way. After Ruri got kidnapped by Yuri, he along with Yuto, Shun, and O'Brien traveled to Standard in order to gain some intelligence. Shark used to be a Duelist who enjoyed dueling but after Academia invaded his home he became a battle-hardened Duelist but managed to regain his joy of dueling after he dueled Yuya.

Shark uses a WATER Xyz-based deck, mostly revolving around Sharks. His anime deck involves quickly Xyz summoning and banishing his monsters.

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• Action Survivor: He's one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect his people from Academia.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Shark is very friendly, nicer, and expressive with his emotions compared to his ZEXAL counterpart. He is more of a team player and less of a lone wolf since he's willing to work with people like O'Brien and Yuya to stop the war, The writer also states that he purposely made Shark's personality opposite to his ZEXAL counterpart because he doesn't want him to be another Shun Expy.
• Adaptation Personality Change: He's less stoic and lacks all the jerkass traits his ZEXAL counterpart possesses.
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of his younger sister Rio, especially after Academia invaded his home.
• Break the Cutie: The Academia invasion has taken a major toll on him.
• Birds of a Feather: With Yuto. Both of them have purple hair, similar personalities, act as The Heart of their team, and a cautious Only Sane Man towards Shun frequently calling him out for his rash and reckless behavior.
• Embarrassing Nickname: He gets annoyed when Dennis calls him Shark-chan or Ryoga-chan which prompts him to threaten him with a Death Glare.
• Foil: He's one to Shun. Both of them lost everything during the invasion, with their younger sisters being the only survivors in their family, and are willing to destroy and card any Academia Duelist that gets in their way. While Shun became very hotheaded and reckless post-invasion, which causes him to clash with his friends particularly Yuto, and is also willing to hunt down innocent LDS Duelists who are unaware of the war, Shark similar to Yuto is still reasonable and nice towards anyone who isn't involved with Central Academia and make sure no innocents are hurt or involved.
• In-Series Nickname: Just like in ZEXAL, everyone calls him by his nickname Shark, instead of his actual name.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Give this to Yuto in #7, after he was suffering from Heroic BSoD.
• The Heart: He acts like this towards his teammates and often tries to get them to work together.
• Nice Guy: He's very nice and friendly towards his friends and all the people he interacts with, except for people of Central Academia off course.
• Not So Above It All:
  • He admits to Yuya that he enjoys the latter's entertainment duel.
  • He and Shun poke fun at Yuto cosplaying as Yuya.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's kind and loyal towards his friends, but cold and ruthless towards his foes.
• Undying Loyalty: He's loyal to all of his friends but mostly to Yuto. Without questioning him, Shark will agree with any decision Yuto makes.
• Worthy Opponent: He considers Yuya as this and his respect towards him continues to grow after he realizes Yuya is the son of his idol Yusho Sakaki.

Rio Kamishiro

Rio Kamishiro

Archetype: Penguin

Shark's younger twin sister, and also a genius at dueling. She resents being seen only as "Shark's sister" or simply a decoration and has therefore resolved to become strong enough to be both respected in her own right and able to defend herself against those who would use her against Shark. After Academia invaded her home, Rio along with her brother and friends joined the Resistance in order to protect her people from Academia and end the war peacefully.

Rio fights with a Penguin deck. Her Xyz monsters focus on "freezing" the field and cutting off the opponent's resources.

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• Action Girl: She's a very strong Duelist and one of the few strongest female members of the Resistance along with Ruri, and Sayaka.
• Action Survivor: She's one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect her people from Academia.
• An Ice Person: She uses an ice-winged theme deck.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In ZEXAL she doesn't make a proper appearance until Season 2, here she appears since the beginning of the series.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Rio is very kind, gentle, and sweet most of the time but she will not sit on the sidelines whenever her friends are in danger and will mercilessly defeat any Academia soldiers if they attempt to harm her friends.
• Birds of a Feather: With Ruri. Both of them have older brothers and are tougher and badass duelists underneath their gentle and friendly nature.
• Determinator: Even when foes put her in a pinch Rio will never give up until she kicks their ass.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Rio is a feminine girly girl most of the time but won't hesitate to become tough and aggressive when she's dueling.
• Nice Girl: Rio is very kind, selfless, sweet, and friendly towards everyone she interacts with except people from Academia.
• Punny Name: Rio sounds a lot like Ryo, when she and Ryo met in #60, the former assumed he knew her name and due to their names being similar, Ryo requested the people of Resistance call him Kaiser in order to avoid confusion.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Don't let her gentle deposition fool you, because she's a tough-as-nails Action Girl who can kick ass.
• Team Mom: Acts as a this towards the Resistance, since she's the most mature and sensible girl who frequently gets worried about other members' well-being and treats their wounds whenever they get injured.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She might be only 14 but she's more mature and rational than any of her male teammates.

Allen Kozuki

Allen Kozuki

Archetype: Railway

Allen Kozuki is a resident of Heartland and a survivor along with his friends, Sayaka, Yuto, Shun, Ruri, Kaito, Shark, and Rio. Allen uses a Railway deck that uses Offensive tactics.

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• Action Survivor: He's one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect his people from Academia.
• Adaptational Badass: In canon he only dueled once with Sayaka and lost with her against the Tyler sisters, despite putting up a good fight, here Allen is able to win his duels against Academia students and Obelisk Force.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon, he made his debut in Season 3, here he made his debut since the beginning of the fic.
• Ascended Extra: He is one of the main supporting cast.
• Badass Cape: He wears a cape after the invasion and is a very skilled Duelist.
• Break the Cutie: He witnessed his hometown turned into a wasteland and learned his parents got carded by Academia.
• Fiery Redhead: He has red hair and is very upbeat and hotblooded most of the time.
• Idiot Hero: During his debut tag duel against Yuto and Kurosaki siblings, he was busy focusing on summoning his ace and didn't even realize his Duel Disk was broken until his monster didn't appear, much to the embarrassment of Kaito, Sayaka, and his opponents, and this also causes him to get humiliated by the audience. He starts to avert this after the invasion and becomes more mature and rational after the war.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: He uses a Railway deck, thus all of his monsters are Machine-Type monsters.
• My Greatest Failure: He doesn't outright say it, but it is clear he feels this way about his inability to protect his parents during the invasion, which resulted in them getting carded.
• Ship Tease: He harbors feelings towards Sayaka and has some moments with her, and her parents also ship both of them together.

Sayaka Sasayma

Sayaka Sasayma

Archetype: Fairy

Sayaka Sasayama is a resident of Heartland and a survivor along with her friend, Allen, Yuto, Shun, Ruri, Kaito, Shark, and Rio. Sayaka uses a Fairy Deck that uses defensive tactics.

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• Action Girl: She's a very strong Duelist and one of the few strongest female members of the Resistance along with Ruri, and Rio.
• Action Survivor: She's one of the few survivors of Heartland who fights to protect her people from Academia.
• Adaptational Badass: She has Rank-Up-Magic cards and can easily defeat her opponents in one turn.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon, she made her debut in Season 3, here she appeared since the start of the fic.
• Ascended Extra: She's one of the main supporting characters.

Dr. Faker

Dr. Faker

Archetype: Garbage

A genius scientist and the father of Kaito and Haruto, after Academia invaded Heartland, Faker acted as a Team Dad to the younger members of the Resistance and a mentor to Yuto and his friends. His deck theme is "Garbage," and based on getting out two main Number monsters; No. 53: Fake-Body God, Heart-eartH and No. 92: Fake-Body God Dragon, Heart-eartH Dragon.

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• Adaptational Heroism: In ZEXAL he was a Mad Scientist and one of the main antagonists of Season 1. Here Faker is the Big Good of the Resistance who opposes Academia.
• Adaptation Personality Change: He's a Cool Old Guy who acts as a loving father towards his sons and the younger members of Resistance.
• And I Must Scream: He and Haruto get sealed into cards by Rin in #60.
• Big Good: To the Resistance, since he's one of the few surviving adults who's capable of fighting in the front line.
• Cool Old Guy: He acts as a this to all the younger members of the Resistance, along with being their Team Dad.

Austin O'Brien

Austin O'Brien

Archetype: Volcanic

A student from West Duel Academia and a resident of Fusion Dimension, he was hired by Professor Cobra to help the Resistance from the Xyz Dimension and eventually won their trust. He would later accompany Yuto, Shun, and Shark to standard in order to gather some intelligence,

He uses a Volcanic deck, and his duel disc mimics a gun.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: In Gx he made his debut in Season 3, here he appears since the beginning of the fic and is part of the main cast.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In GX he started off as an Aloof Ally towards Judai and his gang, and took time to warm up to them, here O'Brien is very nice and a team player to the Resistance, openly supporting them and the Lancers to defeat Central Academia.
• Ascended Extra: In GX he was one of the main cast during Season 3 and got demoted in Season 4, here O'Brien has been part of the main cast since the beginning, and gets more screen time than Asuka and Ryo were part of the main cast since the beginning of their series, and his Yuto's sidekick along with Shun, Shark, and Yuto.
• The Comically Serious: He's one of The Stoic characters in the fic, but he still has his own sense of humor, such as feeling disgusted when Futoshi shakes his butt and does shivers in front of him
• Death Dealer: His guns shoot cards that are somehow razor-sharp.
• Do-Anything Soldier: Justified, considering he's a mercenary. He will follow Professor Viper's orders without even questioning him.y.
• The Gunslinger: Yes, with trading cards. That explode upon impact.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: His Duel Disk doubles as a gun that shoots cards. Don't question how it works, just accept that it does.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He has flawless aim with his gun, regardless of distance, and even when suspended upside down.
• Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls or refers to him by his surname.
• The Reliable One: Yuto and Shark see him as this since he's the most mature and smartest member of their team.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His impressive arms are always on display.
• The Stoic: He stays very calm and collected in nearly all situations.
• Storming the Castle: The Supreme King's castle.
• The Smart Guy: He's an expert in technology and one of the smartest members of his team.
• The Sixth Ranger: Under Viper's order O'Brien traveled to Xyz Dimension in order to help the Resistance, and when Yuto and the others decide to trust him after seeing how genuine he is in wanting to help them, he becomes their most trusted ally and even tagged with Yuto, Shun, and Shark to Standard and Synchro.
• Voodoo Shark: Fire-attribute cards apparently explode. This makes perfect sense to everyone and is never contested.

Fusion Dimension

Central Academia

General

Academia

The Fusion Dimension's Central branch of Duel Academia. They are the main antagonists of the series, who make it their life's mission of attacking other dimensions and sealing their victims into cards. A majority of the characters shown from this dimension are quite sadistic, treating their heinous actions as a "hunting game" and laughing about the destruction that they cause. Those who aren't overly sadistic are instead very adamant about fulfilling the mission they were given (Serena, Barrett). They are based off of the second Yu-Gi-Oh! series, with the school-like setting and their colored uniforms (Obelisk Blue, Ra Yellow, Osiris Red).

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Tropes associated with Academia:

• Achilles' Heel: A lot of Academia duelists use strategies that restrict their opponents which usually gives them a tremendous advantage in a duel. But usually, these strategies can be overcome if their opponent uses Fusion Summoning.
• Academy of Evil: A school that teaches students to make war on other dimensions. However, not all students take to the Academy's sadistic teachings and have been known to defect when given the chance.
• Adaptational Villainy: While the Duel Academy of GX wasn't without its dark secrets, neither its students nor its faculty outside of Kagemaru were evil by any measure; the worst of them were elitist Jerkasses, and those guys were the minority among the friendly teachers and students. Here Duel Academy collectively acts as the main antagonists of the series, training duel soldiers to conquer other dimensions.
• Ax-Crazy: A majority of the students here love pulling off disturbing facial expressions and screaming about how they're going to destroy their opponents. Thankfully, there are still some students like Serena, Ryo, Asuka, and Sho who came to their senses and rejected the school's draconian methods. Oddly enough, the Professor of all people is just The Stoic.
• Character Tic: People from this dimension tend to clasp their hands together when they Fusion Summon. People from other dimensions who have been around them sometimes pick up this tic, such as Yuzu and Sergey. The only one who avert this so far is Barrett.
  • There are two notable variations of the pose. Sora, while clasping his hands together during his first Fusion Summon of Frightfur Chimera, generally slams his fist into his palm. Yuri puts his palms together in a prayer-like pose, which Yuya also does when he gains ownership of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
• Clock Punk: The soldiers use the Antique Gear archetype used by Cronos de Medici.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Many of them have color schemes that reflect their alignment to Fusion; either purple, the color of Fusion Monster cards, or orange and blue, the colors of the artwork on the Polymerization card. The Professor, Yuri, Roget, and Captain Solo, all wear purple, Sora and Dennis wear orange and blue outfits, and Serena has blue hair with an orange ribbon in it.
  • Their elite soldiers Obelisk Force wear blue, while lower-ranked commanders wear yellow and the grunt soldiers wear red.
• Cool Sword: The Hard Light blades projected by their Duel Disks take the shape of swords.
• Defector from Decadence: For some Academia Duelists, this is their reason for deserting the said school.
• Dirty Coward: They're fine with carding defeated opponents or any survivors that come across their path, but beg to be spared when the shoe is on the other foot.
• The Empire: The Academia fits the trope to a T: their students and graduates become their army, said army invades the other three dimensions to create a "paradise", their leader, the Professor acts as their Emperor Scientist as their principal and leader, and their enemies are various La Résistance from different dimensions that are much less organization and weaker than them.
• Enemy Civil War: Not all Fusion Duelists are from Academia since Asuka and eventually Ryo are the first of Yusho's agents who are against their cause.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Although five of them get thrown into a Battle Royale against five Lancers and will eventually have to card one another until the last man's standing, they aren't stupid enough to try it before they take out the Lancers. This is one hint that there's something very wrong with BB.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • They're this to their West counterpart. The Western branch aims to defend dimensions and their students are heroic soldiers who fight for the greater good, the central branch aims to conquer them.
  • Aside from being an evil version of GX's Duel Academia, Academia is this to LDS. Both are prominent Duel Schools with a rivalry against You Show run by members of the Akaba family with the intention of training soldiers, but while Academia aims to conquer the dimensions, LDS aims to defend them. Additionally, while Academia focuses entirely on Fusion while looking down on other Summoning methods, LDS gives education in all of them.
• Final Solution: Academia at the very least wants to do this to the Xyz Dimension. Subverted when Edo reveals the students are taught after the single world has been made, everyone that was carded will be freed and be allowed to live in paradise.
• Fluffy the Terrible: One wouldn't think an organization that commits (technical) mass-murder and aspires to conquer multiple dimensions would call itself a school synonym.
• For the Evulz: This group clearly gets off on destroying a dimension's way of life. They compare hunting down anyone from an alternate dimension to being a game.
• Fusion Dance: Duh! Every member uses Fusion Monsters and they are proud of them.
• Heel–Face Turn: Any Academia member who gets humbled (Sora), horrified at the school's Awful Truth (Serena), and bailed out (Asuka and Ryo), will end up becoming renegades as a result.
• Homage: They're based on the Duel Academy of GX serving as their homage for the franchise's anniversary. Antique Gear monsters, which were employed by Chronos in the series, and Obelisk Force, which is based on the Obelisk Blue dorm which was considered the top of the academy just like how the Force is considered the Elite Mook group.
• Humongous Mecha: Antique Gear Chaos Giant, which destroyed Heartland. They have several of them.
• Lack of Empathy: Most Duelists from Academia, particularly Yuri, Dennis, and the Obelisk Force, enjoy what they do and have zero remorse for what their actions have wrought. Serena seems to be the one exception, clearly disgusted with what she heard from Yuzu and what she's seen from Sora's duel with Kurosaki. Other exceptions are Sora (who develops a sense of sympathy thanks to Yuya and Yuzu), Barrett (who is an Affably Evil Noble Demon at worst), Asuka, Ryo and Sho (who hate war and are against sealing civilians in cards), and Edo (who is already morally conflicted when Yuya first met him).
• More than Mind Control: The Duel Soldiers are heavily indoctrinated, to the point they have no problem with, and will encourage, their own allies being carded when they lose a duel, as they've been taught that falling on the battlefield is deserving of such punishment. Thanks to The Doktor, this is extending to direct mind control, too.
• Obliviously Evil: Some Academia members have no clue at all that their "hunting games" sparked an all-out war with the Xyz Dimension. Given what the Professor needs the carded people for, they might even truly think they're the good guys.
• Psycho for Hire: Several Academia officers have this attitude. Although their boss is against the Doktor's Uriah Gambit involving the Bracelet Girls as suicide bombers or Yuri's Omnicidal Maniac philosophy.
• Puppeteer Parasite: The Doktor's Parasite Fusioners can turn Serena, Rin, and Ruri into his Brainwashed and Crazy meat shields.
• Phantom-Zone Picture: Their way of "killing" is sealing people's souls into cards.
• Player Killing: Their "Hunting Games" function as this.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Anyone who tries to leave is turned into a card, such as Sho who tried to escape.
• Toy Transmutation: Their soldiers transform people into cards as an equivalent of killing them. They do this to those who lose to them in a duel or can't fight back against their Duel Monsters.
• War for Fun and Profit: According to Sora. The way the Obelisk Force and Yuri are obviously enjoying the destruction they spread only cemented it.
• Would Hurt a Child: They're not too picky about their prey. This means even infants are fair game.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Academia members believe they are creating a utopia by fusing the four dimensions, to the point that some members don't even believe they've started a war. That might be because the Professor's goal actually IS to create a utopia by recreating the Original Dimension.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Academia is loved in the Fusion Dimension, who don't know the truth about them.

Leo Akaba

Leo Akaba

The Sole Survivor of the Original Dimension, founder of the Leo Corporation, and Head Professor of the Fusion Dimension's Central Duel Academia, Leo is obsessed with completing the Arc Area Project, intended to both reunite the dimensions into one and to bring back his daughter Ray. To accomplish this, he has militarized Academia and launched a campaign of interdimensional conquest.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: He appears at the beginning of the story, while in canon he made his debut during the second half of Season 1.
• Adaptational Jerkass: This time he's more of a Bad Boss towards his subordinates than his canon counterpart and his Anti-Villain traits are downplayed.
• Ambition Is Evil: When said ambition is starting an interdimensional war, destroying dimensions where the losers are sealed in a card, yes, it is evil.
• Anti-Villain: Downplayed. He may be the mastermind behind Academia's attack on Heartland, but he finds no joy in Academia's sadism and feels guilty for carding Sho because he has the potential to become an elite like his brother, despite allowing the Doktor to rip off his card.
• Archnemesis Dad: Reprising his role to Reiji, from the canon.
• Bad Boss: Played with. He seems to treat his subordinates respectfully but won't hesitate to deduct their salary, punish, and card them if they defy him.
• Badass Cape: He wears a purple one which highlights his authority in Academia.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and the main Big Bad of the fic.
• Big Bad: He's the mastermind behind the interdimensional war and the one who started it by having the Fusion Dimension invade the Xyz Dimension.
• The Corrupter: Turned most of Duel Academy's students into genocidal soldiers, Doktor and Yuri into the monster he's well known to be.
• Evil Former Friend: Apparently to Yusho, due to their work on Solid Vision and Action Dueling. Yusho believed he would be able to talk to him, but never had a chance.
• Evil Plan: His plan is to invade the other worlds to unite all of them.
• Full-Name Basis: When he is not referred to as the Professor, people will call him "Leo Akaba" when he's not present.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • He took a young Yuri under his wing to get a powerful enforcer. Years later he realizes he turned Yuri into a complete psychopath that wants to card everyone.^note Aka, ANOTHER Zarc.
  • He improved Real Solid Vision to allow Duel Monsters to be real. When that happened, the ancient Duel Spirits began to manifest in them and cause real destruction.
• Icy Gray Eyes: His gray eyes symbolize his detached and stoic personality.
• He Who Fights Monsters: His goal to revive Ray and restore the Original Dimension is sympathetic but his actions and the collateral damage he caused (devastating the Xyz Dimension, sending Roger into the Synchro Dimension allowing him to install a dictatorship in the City, and allowing the Obelisk Force to attack the Standard and Synchro Dimensions) make him just as horrible as Zarc.
• Hypocrite: Because Yuya is a fragment of Zarc, he is designated as an important target to be defeated at all costs, and the Professor chastises Reiji for siding with Yuya during their duel. He also stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that any of his own actions helped facilitate Zarc's revival, such as his inter-dimensional invasions allowing Yuya's counterparts to encounter each other, or breeding sociopathic behavior in Yuri, another one of Zarc's fragments.
• Kick the Dog: He orders his minions to card Shou in #5 after Shou attempts to escape from Academia.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Implied to have happened to everyone when the world was split in 4. Many years later, the Professor creates a machine that searches his own memories and that's what causes him to change.
• Light Is Not Good: The Spirit Tech monsters are all LIGHT and they're used by someone who while not pure evil, is not a good guy at all.
• Meaningful Name: The Kanji characters that make up his name mean "Zero King."
• Moral Myopia: He's trying to save his own loved one by reviving Ray, but doesn't care at all that the people who are fighting him are trying to do the same thing, such as Shun.
• Mr. Exposition: In Episodes 126 and 127, he reveals his motives along with the back story of the series.
• Not So Stoic: In #55 he gets miffed seeing Ryo and Asuka rescuing Rin and Ruri respectively.
• Papa Wolf: Zigzagged. He may be a horrible father towards Reiji, but he's not above protecting the Bracelet Girls by backstabbing the Doktor, who are all split versions of his daughter.
• Parental Abandonment: He abandoned his family from Standard 3 years ago in order to create his utopia.
• Parental Neglect: Reiji believes that the Professor wouldn't care if Reiji were kidnapped. Due to the above example, he has a point.
• Parental Substitute: The Professor became this to Yuri in his childhood years when he was shunned by all the students at school. He even encourages him to duel as he desires fit and to take pride in what he does. He also acts as a father figure towards Yusuke. Sadly due to the Professor's own biases, this leads Yuri to become a second Zarc.
• Pet the Dog: Harming the Bracelet Girls through parasitic implants is NOT part of his moral code. Although this has more to do with them being pieces of his daughter.
• Slouch of Villainy: In episode 106, while talking to the Tyler Sisters, he slouches on his throne, in stark contrast to how he was standing and polite with Sora and Barrett.
• Start of Darkness: He really, really misses his daughter. Zarc is to blame for his crimes.
• The Stoic: Just like his son, he mostly only shows brief flashes of emotion.
• Tainted Veins: On his head.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Though Ambiguously Evil, the Professor's first name Leo doesn't impress people that much, especially the non-Japanese audience. It works better in Japanese since his name is a pun to "Reiou" and his name actually means "Zero King", but since his name is highly promoted with the spelling "Leo" even in the original version (even when he is rarely called by his name), it is still this trope.
• Tragic Villain: The Professor is a father who outlived his daughter and has one chance to get her back. Poor guy. Ray is his reason to live, and he'll commit horrible acts to bring her back. Beneath the stern look and cold approach is a grieving man who cannot heal or move on.
• Trauma Button: Seeing Yuya summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in Episode 128, reminds him of when Zarc let Odd-Eyes Dragon loose on the Original Dimension.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • His research to enhance Real Solid Vision, allowed Zarc to summon and then fuse with the four dimension dragons, leading to the end of the original world.
  • His plans are the only reason the four pieces of Zarc ever began to encounter each other, Reiji even says he's the strongest if not the only reason Zarc may be resurrected.
  • His hurry to revive Ray is this in spades. By focusing on Ray's revival, he allows Yuya and Yuri to duel letting Zarc to revive. But his plan to revive Ray has hit a snag when for some reason despite Arc-V fusing the dimensions together Ray isn't reviving. The final issue is by fusing the dimensions, he's pulling all of them towards a resurrected Zarc.
• Walking Spoiler: The Professor's motivations spoiler nearly the entire Myth Arc.
• The Worf Effect: The Professor steps in to face Zarc just before Sawatari and Crow lose, only to be very quickly denied the opportunity to use the "En" cards, which contributed to Zarc's initial defeat at Ray's hands.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Considering his hatred of Zarc, it's strongly implied he's planning on doing this to Yuri.

Yuri

Yuri

Archetype: Predator Plant (Predaplant)

One of Zarc's fragments, and Yuya's counterpart in the Fusion Dimension.

Arguably the strongest duelist in the Fusion Dimension, barring the Professor himself, Yuri is feared by many for his vicious style of dueling.

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• The Ace: Of Academia, and rightfully so, given his track record.
• Ax-Crazy: Not exactly the sanest of individuals and loves making crazy faces.
• Blood Knight: He's arguably the closest to Zarc's original personality in this regard during his days as the Demon Duelist. If he finds someone he considers annoying or worthy pray, he'll hunt them down and tear them apart, piece by piece.
• The Dragon: For all intents and purposes, Yuri is Leo Akaba's right-hand man, being higher ranked than the other students at Academia and answering directly to him.
• The Dreaded: Sora, and likely many others in Academia, are downright scared of this guy, and for good reason. This status even applies to his ace monster, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, as when Sora and Barrett both see Zarc's Supreme King Starving Venom, they promptly panic and fear for the worst.
• The Heavy: While Leo is the main antagonist, he's primarily an Orcus on His Throne. Yuri meanwhile is responsible for setting the events of the main series in motion whilst following the Professor's orders. His kidnapping of Rin and Ruri is what leads to Yugo and Yuto's meeting, which in turn brings the two of them to Standard. With Yuto came Shun, and the two of them attacking LDS led to Reiji finalizing his forces against Leo, and with Yugo came the knowledge that Synchro wasn't Standard's enemy.
• Just Following Orders: When Yuzu questioned his loyalty towards Academia, Yuri stated to her that he was simply following Leo's orders.
• Manipulative Bastard: Just like in canon, Yuri purposefully misled Yugo to Xyz Dimension after kidnapping Rin, so that Yugo can mistook Yuto for him and Yuri himself can peacefully go back to Academia with Rin.
• Sadist: He takes great pleasure in brutally beating down his enemies. In the story, when Sora sees Zarc bust out SKSD Starving Venom, he has a flashback of dueling Yuri, where Yuri utterly destroys him with a grin on his face.
• The Sociopath: Yuri embodies most of Zarc's more negative aspects, including his Blood Lust and sadism. As a result of Leo's enabling him, Yuri cares little for anything aside from indulging his own impulses, whether they be by intimidating his fellow Academia students into submission, hunting down Ray's fragments, or punishing any traitors to Academia he comes across.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He used to be a relatively normal kid, finding enjoyment in dueling but many others were put off by his skill and ferocity. Once Leo Akaba took him under his wing however, he began to embrace the darker impulses of being one of Z-ARC's fragments, and turned into a full-blown sadist, relishing in the terror he caused his victims.

Dennis Mackfield

Dennis Mackfield

Archetype: Enermage/Antique Gear)

Dennis is a mole for the main antagonists of the series Academia, working directly with Yuri and spying on the Lancers and the Resistance in order to capture Ruri.

He plays a somewhat balanced Entermage/Antique Gear hybrid deck, which brings out the potential of Pendulum, Xyz, and Fusion Summoning. Later he abandons the Antique Gears and fully embraces the Entermage deck, though he has not given up Fusion Summoning.

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• Affably Evil: Despite working for Academia, Dennis genuinely enjoys being an entertainer.
• Anti-Villain: He's willing to do Leo's dirty work but still values his entertainment dueling.
• Blatant Lies: After Gongenzaka, Shark, Sawatari, and O'Brien learn that he is acquainted with Ruri, they correctly suspect him as an Academia spy but he manages to clear their doubts about him being a resistance member from Xyz who teleported to Standard after dueling against an Academia soldier.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He pretends to be friends with Ruri, but in reality, he's a spy from Academia who was responsible for starting the invasion in Heartland and lured Ruri to get kidnapped by Yuri.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He might be an entertainer but don't let his goofy nature fool you, because he's actually very cunning and dangerous
• Bishie Sparkle: Sparkles are all over him and his monsters for the sake of being flashy.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His eccentric and entertaining persona contrasts O'Brien, Shark, and Gongenzaka's serious and no-nonsense personality.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction when he met Ruri in prison in #65 during Synchro arc. He thought she was in Academia's clutches but she escaped thanks to Ryo and Asuka.
• Only Sane Man: Averted. When he first lands in Synchro with Gongenzaka, Shark, and O'Brien, Dennis was the only one who wants to entertain the crowds, while his comrades are concerned about finding the whereabouts of their fellow Lancers. The 3 call him out for his lack of concern towards their comrades.

The Doktor

The Doktor/Hiro

The Doktor is an unnamed character and antagonist, a member of Academia. Hee is one of The Professor's closest aides. The Doktor is responsible for implanting Parasite Fusioners on Rin and Ruri. The Doktor is implied to use a Parasite deck but duels through his victims instead of actually fighting himself.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon, he made his debut in Season 3, here he appears equivalent to Season 1.
• Adaptational Heroism: In canon, he was genuinely evil, here he was Forced into Evil and became the ruthless man he is today after getting tortured by Leo.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In canon, he was mostly a relaxed, calm, and collected old man, here he's prone to overreact comically when things don't go according to his plan similar to Noro.
• Animal Motif: Parasites and other creepy insects symbolize his obsession with mind control. He has even a room full of experimental insects. He gives all of the Bracelet Girls his Parasite cards to empower their decks.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: When Hiro attempts to escape Academia three years ago, he is caught by Leo and his student, and they arrest and keep on torturing him until he decides to give in and become the sadist monster he is today.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: His Parasite monsters are Insect-Type monsters and are usually large in size.
• Creepy Long Fingers: The Doktor's hands are long and huge, highlighting how wrong he is.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Possibly eye bags, but they are a very creepy reddish color.
• Dark Is Evil: His Parasite monsters are DARK monsters and corrupt the brains of his People Puppets, forcing them to do evil things.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Three years ago after he got arrested by Leo for trying to escape, Leo won't give him any food to eat except when he's starving.
• Evil Genius: His role as the Professor's aide, due to his use of Parasite Fusioners and other methods.
• Evil Laugh: The Doktor loves giving these out, accentuating his creepiness.
• Evil Is Hammy: He loves being dramatic and gets excited when his People Puppets do something that pleases him, usually doing something evil.
• Forced into Evil: Three years ago after Leo became The Leader of Academia, Hiro was disgusted with Leo's plan to brainwash young students to become Child Soldier and invade other dimensions for his Arc Area Project, and attempted to flee but was arrested and tortured by Leo until he became sadistic and decide to go along with Leo's plan and enjoy hurting people.
• Giggling Villain: Constantly giggles the whole time.
• Gonk: His face is not a pleasant sight, bearing several protruding veins and sunken beady eyes
• Herr Doctor: His title is in German and he experiments on parasites and brainwashing, making him a large threat and a key member of Academia.
• Hive Queen: Parasite Queen, and although it appears in Serena's deck, he calls her his greatest Parasite creation.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He also tore Sho and an unknown student's cards into pieces.
  • He not only corrupts the Bracelet Girls and forces them to become his puppets, but after Ryo and Asuka manage to successfully rescue the girls, he manages to mind-control them and make them fight against their saviors, but thankfully both Ruri and Rin manage to fight for their self.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A brilliant, but perverse scientist working directly under the Professor's orders.
• Named by the Adaptation: In canon, the production didn't reveal his real name, and they simply named him Dokter, here his real name is Hiro.
• Obviously Evil: A creepy guy that uses parasites to control others, it's a given, not to mention the glee he takes at the girls' corruption. Eventually, it is revealed that he only became evil after Leo brainwashed and tortured him.
• Only in It for the Money: His main reason for joining Academia, is because they paid high salaries for their employees, and after the former principal left and Leo replaced him, Hiro wanted to flee because Leo wasn't paying him well compared to his former boss.
• Perpetual Smiler: 99% of the time he's shown, he's smiling creepily.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Implied, as his Parasite Fusioner card is used to activate the corruption, and appears in the decks of the corrupted.
• The Reveal: Chapter #42 reveals his real name is Hiro.
• Revenge: He has his own agenda and wants to get revenge on Leo for tormenting him.
• Slasher Smile: Gives a wicked one when he activates Ruri and Rin's infection.
• Smug Snake: Very confident in his intelligence.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before Leo arrived and corrupted him, the Dokter appeared to be a sane individual with high moral standards despite his greed for money.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He has white hate and is the most despicable even by Academia's standards.

Edo Phoenix

Edo Phoenix

Archetype: Destiny Hero

An alternate counterpart to Edo Phoenix from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. He is the Commander-in-Chief of Academia's military forces. A rising star in Academia, he begins to question his role and feelings after dueling against Yusho, becoming obsessed with finding him after he defeats Edo. This obsession then transfers to Yusho's son.

He uses a Destiny HERO deck, with a penchant for Fusion Summoning his Ace Card, D-Hero Dystopia Guy, a powerful monster that can destroy other monsters if its ATK or DEF values are altered in any way, including self-inflicted effects. Edo later evolves his monster into the stronger D-Hero Dusktopiaguy against Yuri.

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• Adaptational Wimp: Despite being Commander-in-Chief of Academia's army he lost against Ryo, while in GX he was the one who curb stomped him.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon, he made his debut in Season 3, here he appears in the beginning of Season 2.
• Adaptation Personality Change: He's very similar to his GX manga counterpart in terms of personality than his ARC-V counterpart, while still being very loyal to Professor.
• Affably Evil: Before he finds out Yuya's background, and who his father is, Edo is willing to help a random stranger find their parent, boasting he could probably find them faster.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears a variation of his trademark suit from GX, but the majority of it is covered by his Badass Long Robe.
• Badass Long Robe: Wears an intimidating robe over his suit to reinforce his reputation as Academia's Commander-in-Chief.
• Berserk Button:
  • Being reminded about his humiliating defeat against Ryo in the past, hits Edo badly and the Dokter faces his wrath.
  • Anything related to Yusho causes Edo to nearly foam at the mouth, regardless of whether it is the man himself, his son Yuya or Smile World. He grows out of it in the end.
• Dark Is Evil: Like his GX and ARC-V counterpart, he uses Destiny HEROes but is a villain with undying loyalty towards Professor.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After pulling a Heel–Face Turn, he has no problems giving Yuya's group the needed resources to end the interdimensional war.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He might be very loyal towards Leo, but even he's horrified to learn that Academia is willing to card their families from Ryo, and after his duel with Ryo, Edo is disturbed and conflicted by Leo's method.
• Evil Hero: Uses a Destiny HERO deck like the original, and Academia believes that they are the good guys.
• Foil: Both he and Ryo were The Ace of Academia, and have a connection to Yusho Sakaki. While Edo finds Academia's goals noble and thinks they're the good guys, Ryo is disgusted with their methods but hopes they would change for good until they carded Sho, which prompts Ryo to defect them for good. Edo despises Yusho and his son Yuya because of their entertainment ideals and wants to prove to them that Academia ideals are correct, while Ryo deeply respects Yusho and Yuya because Yusho is the one who gave him a place where he feels he truly belongs.
• Gratuitous English: Like his British GX counterpart, he uses English words and phrases like "Effect" or "Cemetery" or "another one".
• Humiliation Conga: Suffers this off-screen during his duel against Ryo and wants a payback from him.
• In the Hood: During his first appearance, he wears a hooded cloak over his robe.
• It's Personal: For him, everything about Yusho is Serious Business. This carries over to Yuya, who is Yusho's son. He drops his vendetta later on though.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Attempts to use Yuya as bait to lure out Yusho if he wins in their first Duel, only to end up failing thanks to Yuto.
• Light The Way: Destiny HERO Duskutopiaguy, while DARK is golden and associated with light.
• Might Makes Right: What Edo thinks of Dueling in general.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: As Yuya and Ryo put it, Edo's heart is "like a pendulum", as he is emotionally distraught between Academia's way of Dueling and Yusho's beliefs.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being foes, Edo still respects Ryo such as giving him a chance to come back to Academia, feeling sorry for him when he learned that Sho got carded, and even allowing him to escape with Yuya and Yuto after the latter defeated him.
• Redemption Quest: [[spoiler:A villainous version. Edo decides to stay in Heartland to redeem himself by finding Yusho and proving to him that Academia's Dueling is right.
• The Resenter: Edo harbors an intense resentment towards Yusho and challenges Yuya to a Duel because he's Yusho's son, given that Yusho's Entertainment Dueling goes against Academia's beliefs and yet he still somehow enjoyed it; unable to requite the two, Edo ended up in Villainous Breakdown mode and turned the blame to Yusho.
• Sore Loser: He doesn't take losing very well.
  • He's pissed off at Ryo for defeating him during their days at Academia and being reminded about the humiliating defeat he suffered against Ryo is a Berserk Button for him.
  • He didn't take his defeat against Yushou very well.
• The Social Darwinist: Prefers brutality over Yuya and his dad's Entertainment Dueling.
• Underestimating Badassery: Despite Ryo previously defeating him in the past, Edo acted smug and over-confident during his rematch against him and assumed he defeated him so easily, but he again ended up losing against Ryo.
• We Used to Be Friends: He used to be more of a Friendly Rival with Ryo during their days at Academia, but after Ryo betrayed Academia they consider each other as enemies but Edo still gives him chances to rejoin Academia, which the latter refuses due to his high moral standard.

Tyler Sisters

Tyler Sisters

Archetype: Amazoness

A pair of Tag Team Twins who arrive at the Xyz Dimension under the Professor's orders to eliminate the Lancers. They use Amazoness decks.

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Tropes associated with the Tyler Sisters:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: In canon the sisters made their debut in Season 3, here they made their debut in Season 2.
• Amazon Brigade: All of their Amazoness monsters are females.
• Amazonian Beauty: The sisters themselves are slender but their Amazoness deck is filled with scantly clad muscular amazonian warriors.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: They have no problems questioning Edo's military experience, and have a lot of confidence in their skills, remaining calm for the majority of their Tag Duel against Allen and Sayaka.
• Blood Knight: They seek strong opponents that satisfy their lust for dueling. Bonus points for their dueling debut episode being named "The Duel-Starved Amazonesses'".
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Gloria's stuck as the tsukkomi to both Grace and Noro's boke, as shown by her irritation with both of their antics.
• Composite Characters: The Tyler Sisters seem to be a combination of the Meikyuu Brothers and Tania, the Amazon among the Seven Stars Assassins. Their dueling style is also reminiscent to Masks of Light and Darkness. Gloria uses more monsters like Mask of Darkness, while Grace uses more Spell and Trap Cards like Mask of Light.
• Dark Action Girls: A given for female Academia soldiers.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Many of the Amazoness are EARTH monsters.
• The Dreaded: They have a fearsome reputation in Heartland as the Tyler Sisters.
• Force and Finesse: In Dueling, Gloria is force and Grace is finesse.
• The Gadfly: To Noro, giving him a silly nickname based on his name.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Downplayed, but the silver-haired Grace is more feminine and graceful, while the blond Gloria has a less feminine posture and a wilder expression.
• Hero Killer: They nearly destroyed the Spade Faction of the Resistance by themselves and followed up by taking down Sayaka, Allen, Gongenzaka, and Sawatari. And were able to push Kurosaki and Yuya into a corner.
• Heel–Face Turn: Both sisters ditch Academia's side and join the Lancers thanks to meeting Yuya.
• Just Toying with Them: During their Tag Duel with Sayaka and Allen, the sisters focus their attacks more on the former because it's more fun.
• Kick the Dog: The first thing they did after arriving in Heartland was gang up on Sayaka, and then beat her up with Allen before setting their sights on Gongenzaka and Sawatari (off-screen).
• Meaningful Name: Their first names, "Gloria" and "Grace", reflect their nature and personality:
  • Gloria is a Glory Seeker who prefers to use offensive tactics, is very focused on finishing the job, and gets annoyed at losing to the likes of Yuya.
  • Grace is a Proper Lady who prefers to use supporting tactics, has no problems losing a Duel, and gets easily distracted at "pretty" stuff, such as Yuya's Entertainment Dueling.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ironically, not the Tyler Sisters themselves, but their humanoid monsters are this. Grace does get a moment when she poses in front of her Amazoness Secret Hot Springs card.
• Mythology Gag: The Amazoness archetype was originally used by Mai Kujaku from Duel Monsters, and later fully utilized by Tania in GX, an actual Amazon. The Tyler Sisters are described as amazons as well. To strengthen the reference, their ace monsters also look similar to Mai and Tania. Gloria's Amazoness Empress has similar hair and an almost identical face to Mai's. And Grace's Amazoness Pet Liger is white and appears similar to Tania's true, tigress form.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: They are collectively known as "Tyler Shimai" in Japanese, which is a possible reference to the original Amazoness user, Mai Kujaku. "Tyler" also rhymes with "tiger", a possible reference to Tania, the first pure Amazoness duelist, who also later turned out to be a tiger.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Gloria is aggressive while Grace is a lot calmer and reserved, even a bit air-headed at times. While Gloria isn't happy about the loss, Grace accepts it because it was a fun duel.
• Smug Smiler: Subverted. They might toss backtalk the way of those they don't respect, but if they do respect you they are quite respectful.^note And in Grace's case, outright Fangirl.
• Smug Super: Powerful Duelists who toss backtalk Edo and Noro's way and toy with Allen and Sayaka.^note They do just note that Edo is lacking in experience rather than strength though.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Gloria relies primarily on her monsters to beat down her opponents while Grace utilizes spells and traps more in her strategy.
• Tag Team Twins: So far all of the opponents they've fought have been in Tag Duels. Notably, they don't duel in Battle Royal style but use classic Tag Dueling style, sharing the same field, Graveyard, and Life Points and so do their opponents.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Gloria is the aggressive tomboy, while Grace is a girly girl being a Proper Lady who likes cute and pretty things.

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Gloria Tyler

The older sister of the two. Gloria is the more aggressive of the two and relies more on her monsters and their effects to maintain field control.

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Tropes associated with Gloria:

• Cute Bruiser: Dueling example, being a small-bodied young woman that uses aggressive dueling tactics, and her monsters can take a punch due to Queen and Empresses's ability to prevent Amazoness monsters from being destroyed in battle.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Gloria has reddish pink eyes, which combined with her Slasher Smile makes them more creepy.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gloria's the more aggressive red to Grace's more calm and reserved blue. In Duels, she prefers to go on the offense, while Grace takes care of defense.
• Slasher Smile: Gloria has a bloodthirsty smile for most of the time. Grace can also sport these, but not as intense as Gloria. Gloria's Slasher Smiles get

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Grace Tyler

The younger sister of the two. Grace is calmer and reserved and relies more on Spell and Trap Cards to protect their field. She also takes an interest in Yuya after their duel.

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Tropes associated with Grace:

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Pesters her sister for just a few more minutes because she wants to watch the duel between Edo and Yuya, instead of going to do their job. Later she teases Gloria for liking Yuya's entertainment skills far more than she lets on.
• Badass Adorable: Grace displays a rather squeeful personality after her defeat, having cutesy excited faces and calling some of Yuya's cards cute or pretty.
• Badass Longcoat: Grace wears one with style.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Grace in the dub, where she's a Valley Girl.
• Cleavage Window: Grace's outfit sports one formed from the combination of her shoulder pads and the low neckline of her top. Downplayed by the fact that it doesn't really show any due to being farther up and her being flat.
• Deadpan Snarker: Unlike Gloria, Grace is more sarcastic.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Grace is shown to be conflicted with Academia's plan and reluctantly follows their order.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: A Lady of War whose outfit makes liberal use of different shades of purple. Gloria would also qualify, except she lacks the "graceful" part.
• Lady of War: A graceful and elegant duelist and a Proper Lady.
• Panthera Awesome: Not only does Amazoness Tiger come back, but Grace's ace monster is Amazoness Pet Liger.
• Proper Lady: She's a Graceful Loser after all.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Grace wears a lilac skirt and white tights.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Grace's more calm and reserved blue to Gloria's more aggressive red. In Duels, Grace focuses more on defense while her sister goes on the attack.
• Ship Tease: She gets really into Yuya and his Entertainment Dueling.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Grace has silver hair and looks utterly terrifying in her duel with Sayaka and Allen. Partly subverted in that she is the more reasonable of the twins.

Sora Shiunin

Sora Shiunin

Archetype: Furnimal (Fluffal), Edge Imp, Death-Toy (Frightfur)

A mysterious duelist who joins You Show after witnessing Yuya's duel against Sawatari and Kakimoto. Despite his apparent young age, he is arguably one of the best Fusion Duelists in the Standard Dimension.

In reality, however, Sora Shiunin is a top-tier duelist from Academia, sent to scout out the Standard Dimension's defenses and gather data. He is currently gathering intelligence on Action Duels and Pendulum Summoning.

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• Adorable Abomination: Mad Chimaera dancing with Bloom Prima makes it absolutely adorable.
• Anime Hair: Par for the course, closely resembling Lua's, but more blue than turquoise.
• Anti-Villain: Unless he's facing Xyz Duelists from Resistance, Sora would rather eat candy and fool around with the heroes, whom he develops a genuine bond with. These traits mostly remain after his Heel–Face Turn, making him an Anti-Hero.
• Arch-Enemy: Ever since his loss to Kurosaki and Yuto, Sora considers them as this. Nothing will deter him from trying to defeat them, nothing. He finally succeeds in defeating Shun.
  • However, though they hate each other, their animosity is rather impersonal and more about Xyz vs. Fusion as a whole. Compared to Dennis, the latter fits this role between Kurosaki far better.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A platonic version, but after the reveal that he was The Mole, he's had moments that show he still cares about his friends in Standard.
  • He was very disturbed when he saw that Serena, his capture target, looked identical to Yuzu.
• Badass Adorable: Don't let his cute expression fool you because he's a badass and a dangerous kid.
  • Despite being injured from his duel with Kurosaki, Sora quickly knocks out two Security guards to chase after Yuto. Note that the Security guards are full-grown adults while Sora is still just a kid.
  • He later defeats Kurosaki in their rematch.
  • He manages to OTK a small legion of guards simultaneously with two monsters and a trap.
• The Bad Guy Wins: After his allegiance is revealed, Sora defeats Kurosaki in his rematch, laughing and enjoying the man's suffering.
• Beast and Beauty: Non-romantic metaphorical Beast to Yuzu's Beauty.
• Berserk Button:
  • The idea of an Xyz duelist either being better or looking down on him is a major button. More specifically, thinking about Kurosaki and the way he humiliated him.
• Big Bad Friend: After Sora's real identity is exposed and his friends call him out on his behavior, Sora tries, in a half-hearted manner, to justify his actions of sealing people away into cards and promoting Dimensional Wars between the Fusion Faction and everybody else. Yuya and Yuzu are having none of it.
• Big Brother Mentor: An age-inverted example; he ends up teaching Yuzu about Fusion Summoning.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: A minor example; his eyebrows aren't particularly big, just thicker than everyone else's pencil-thin brows.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Due to being a Child Soldier Sadist, though his Death-Toy Chain Sheep is a literal example.
• Break the Haughty: As the duel with Kurosaki went on, this happened. And again against Yuto.
• Brutal Honesty: He points out that Yuya was the only reason that LDS didn't get the You Show Duel School.
• Bullying a Dragon: Does this to Kurosaki. At least Sora got to keep his soul. Subverted in that he later does beat him, showing they are more or less on equal footing.
• Child Soldier: A lot of Sora's claims about his abilities and superiority to Xyz duelists, is eerily similar to the lies real child soldiers are told to get him to fight.
• 5* Creepy Good: Post-Heel–Face Turn, his Death-Toys are still scary, but he is a good guy.
• Cute and Psycho: He plays off his cuteness blatantly, and partakes in hunting Xyz Duelists and destroying Heartland City for fun.
• Dance Battler: His Trap Card Fusion Death Waltz literally invokes this. Mad Chimaera then dances with Bloom Prima to wipe out Security.
• Dark Is Evil: His Death-Toy monsters are all DARK Monsters, with the exception of Death-Toy Kraken.
• Determinator: Once he sets his sights on something, Sora will not give up until he gets it. Kurosaki uses this to reason that Sora survived being blown up during his message to Yuya.
• at he can't be persuaded, don't you!?"
• Dishing Out Dirt: Despite being fairies, the Furnimal monsters are all EARTH monsters.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He's incredibly insulted when Yuto passes up a chance to One-Hit Kill him because he didn't want to hurt him. He says he'll never forgive Yuto for looking down on him. But after Yuto defeats him he becomes a Sore Loser and wants to avenge his defeat against him and Shun.
• Eldritch Abomination: His Death-Toy monsters, but Mad Chimaera takes the cake: It is best described as the upper parts of various puppets and plushes attached to four anvils, with working tools jammed into their heads.
• Evil All Along: Despite getting all buddy-buddy with the main Standard cast he makes a sport out of hunting Xyz Duelists and partaking in interdimensional invasions.
• Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed; when he returns to the Standard Dimension, he is using the Academia's Duel Disk instead of the Standard Dimension one he previously used. He keeps it after his Heel–Face Turn though.
• Evil Is Hammy: Oh boy. Sora takes several levels in ham after The Reveal, especially when he's performing Fusion Summons, and it's quite telling that he drops it around Yuya and Yuzu.
• Evil Mentor: Since he was Evil All Along.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sora was actually Evil All Along. After showing his true colors and being forcefully teleported back to Academia, he has become an enemy.
• Fantastic Racism: Considers Fusion the best kind of summon, and actively looks down upon Xyz Duelists, using that as a justification to target them for fun.
• Final Boss: Of the Miami Championship arc, being the last remaining Academia member remaining after invading the tournament.
• Foreshadowing: His use of Fusion and his influence on Yuzu and by proxy Yuya ends up foreshadowing the later plot of Yuto's enemies using Fusions. This turns out to be more than a coincidence as he is revealed to have a hand in the destruction of what is implied to be Heartland, Kurosaki's home. His nature is further foreshadowed by the cards he uses, cute little creatures that when fused take on a disturbing corrupted form.
• For the Evulz: The reason Sora and his fellow Fusion duelists hunted Xyz duelists.
• Forced into Evil: Sora seems to believe no matter what he does because he was raised by Academia, he is stuck to them forever.
• Friendless Background: He grew up without any friends in Academia, Yuzu and Yuya being his first.
• The Gadfly: Enjoys teasing Yuya a lot. He also teased Yuzu over her interest in Yuto a lot while he tutored her.
• The Heavy: Despite being under the Professor's orders and Yuri and Dennis being around, he is the leader of the invasion force during the Battle Royale. Reiji also remarks that Sora's Fusion power indirectly influenced Yuya, which resulted in the births of Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Beast-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As mentioned in Brutal Honesty, he was pretty spot on when he pointed out that Yuya was the only reason LDS didn't acquire the You Show Duel School.
• Kick the Dog: Several. He reveals gleefully how his group attacked Heartland, and then turns Hikage into a card. He then completely rejects Yuto's attempts to invoke a Heel–Face Turn.
• Killer Rabbit: His Furnimal/Edge Imp/Death-Toy deck. Also a reflection of his own Badass Adorable nature and his Hidden Depths. Note that in the real game (but not in the series yet) there is a monster called Furnimal Rabbit.
• Killer Teddy Bear: Again, his deck. Bonus point for his (initial) signature card actually being named Scissor Bear.
• Lack of Empathy: Sora doesn't see that his and Academia's actions against the Xyz Dimension was wrong and instead considers it fun. When others call him out on this, he just shrugs it off, saying it's necessary to unite the dimensions.
• Le Parkour: Being trained in Fusion has its upsides. He has improbably good skills for a small child, being able to Wall Jump, leap across wide gaps and rooftops, and chase a D-Wheel.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: He sees most of his duels as just a plaything since nobody (aside from Yuya) has been able to pass his Death-Toy Scissor Bear, until Episode 33. Kurosaki outsmarts him and destroys his monsters with Raid Raptors - Rise Falcon. Sora, at the end of the episode, though a little surprised, gets up, pulls a Slasher Smile, and finally decides to get serious.
• Loose Lips: Was dragged back to Academia for revealing their plans to Yuto, but not Yuya (though he was there), since Standard Dimension isn't the enemy.
• Morality Pet: Yuya and Yuzu are this for him.
• Mr. Exposition: Oddly enough. He is the only one in You Show that seems to know the mechanics of the advanced Summoning methods that are apparently not available to the general public. Especially Xyz.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sora likes to play the playful, cheerful, and (sometimes) helpless child card in his duels until he's pushed hard enough to get dangerous. Also, because he hardly finds people able to excite him enough to do it.
  • He also hides his true nature during the duel with Kurosaki until he is pushed to the edge and gleefully reveals his hand in the attacks on his hometown.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: How he feels about Kurosaki and Yuto after they beat him in their first duel. He even calls Shun his "prey".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Let's just say the You Show was greatly shocked by his true nature.
• Our Demons Are Different: Known as Fiend-Type in the TCG, the Edge Imps are possessed cutting instruments, which in turn combine with stuffed toys, mangling them to create diabolical playthings, the Death-Toys.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He agreed to teach Yuzu how to Fusion Summon. Subverted, as he later revealed that it was for the glory of Fusion. Double Subverted, he later admits it was out of friendship.
  • After his allegiance to the Big Bad is revealed, he gets one when the Professor orders him to recapture Serena who looks like Yuzu. Sora is shocked at the idea of capturing his friend. Even after the Professor clarifies that Serena and Yuzu are different people, he has trouble getting past the fact Serena looks too much like Yuzu.
  • Later after he saves Dennis he insists that he goes home because he is hurt, and promises that he will complete his mission for him, all the while being extremely courteous and kind to him.
• Pride: Sora is so proud of his dueling skills, particularly Fusion, that he tends to not take other duelists seriously enough.
  • When Yuto suggests that Fusion doesn't fit Yuzu's dueling style, Sora considers that an insult and suggests a duel to show him his place.
  • When Yuya tries to warn him about Kurosaki, he insists that he'll be perfectly fine. When Kurosaki destroys his Death-Toy Scissor Bear, Sora finally shows his teeth.
• Punny Name: Des-Toy, the Japanese name for his deck archetype. It's a pun on "Death Toy" and sounds like "destroy." Overlaps with Meaningful Name due to the monsters' appearances and offensive effects.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: When his act of cuteness isn't enough, Sora weaponizes the puppy eyes pout, and he can even add some Crocodile Tears for extra power.
• Put on a Bus:
  • After being sent back to Academia, Sora is absent until the Battle Royal starts.
  • After the Battle Royal, he is absent until half of the Synchro Dimension arc.
• Shipper on Deck: One for Yuya/Yuzu.
• Slasher Smile: He gives them a lot during his duel with Shun and Yuto.
• Smug Smiler: Very confident in his reading of people and his dueling knowledge which allows him to be one step ahead of his opponent. This also serves as a hint to the audience about his mysterious Hidden Depths.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Well, Duelist in any case, though this does entail actively harming his opponents and destroying their city. He believes Fusion Duelists to be far superior to Xyz Duelists, and targets them just for fun.
• Sore Loser: Sora just can't accept the fact that he lost to Kurosaki and Yuto, and insists that he's the "stronger" of the three when he's not holding back, despite the audience clearly seeing that Kurosaki won fair and square.
• Sour Supporter: Downplayed. Sora is more realistic and knows how to choose his opponents. His attitude often clashes with the more optimistic and idealist members of You Show.
• Student–Master Team: Whenever he Tags with Yuzu.
• Sweet Tooth: Sora is always eating something sweet. ALWAYS.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Hanging out with Yuya and Yuzu has significantly improved his sanity.
• Troll: Whenever Sora starts getting the upper hand, he starts acting like this to antagonize his opponents. The greatest example is when he rebels against Obelisk Force and steals all their monsters with his ace Death-Toy Mad Chimera, giving them a smile as he kicks their asses with them.
• Villain Ball: See the Idiot Ball up there? He's only been this dumb when he was a villain, and the only times that he hasn't were when he had prior information about his foes, aka Kurosaki and Dark Rebellion. And despite strict instructions from the Professor to pursue Serena first and Kurosaki later, guess who he goes after first? The only reason that it didn't bite him harder than it could have was because fortunately, Serena was looking for Kurosaki herself.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end of his duel with Kurosaki, he was reduced to an insane screaming mess. Yuto also dealt it to him in considerably less time, though he was still fresh from his last breakdown.
• Walking Spoiler: Sora being initially Evil All Along and him eventually pulling a Heel–Face Turn in the next season make most of the spoiler tags useless.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims what he is doing is for the purpose of bringing the dimensions into one.
• What the Hell, Hero?: On the receiving end of this from the kids for his attitude, and later Yuya for when he revealed his true self.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Yuya one, as he comments on how fun it is to duel Yuya after seeing Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon.

Yusuke Fujiwara (Darkness)

Yusuke Fujiwara

Archetype: Clear Mind

An alternate counterpart of Yusuke Fujiwara from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and a Duelist from Central Academia and Leo Akaba's right-hand man, he uses Clear Mind deck.

---

• The Ace: Darkness is a top elite soldier of Academia and he is said to strong as Leo. This proves to be true when he defeats Yuto.
• Adaptational Badass: In canon, Yusuke doesn't rely on Extra Deck monsters, here he is able to master all summoning methods.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In GX he appeared in the final season, here he appears in Season 2 during the climax of Synchro arc.
• Ax-Crazy: Not to the level of Yuri but he is capable of acting insane and pulling Nightmare Face during his duel with Yuto.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears a black trench coat and is a very dangerous Duelist who proves to be an obstacle for Yuto.
• Dark Is Evil: He wears black attire and is a ruthless soldier.'
• The Dreaded: Many people in Academia who are terrified of this guy including Sora and according to him even Yuri is scared of him.
  Sora: This isn't good! If that is the one capturing Yuzu, then she's in trouble! There was a rumor going around saying that he is as strong as the Professor! Even Yuri would have a hard time with him!
• Number Two: He is Leo's right-hand man.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Yusuke Fujiwara but everyone in Academia knows him by his codename Darkness.
• Parental Substitute: He considers Leo as this and the Professor in return treats him like his own son.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He flat-out tells to Yuto that bonds and friendships are trash.

Obelisk Force

Obelisk Force

The Obelisk Force is an elite group of Duel Soldiers of Academia. They often duel in tag, using the advantages and loopholes of the Battle Royale Mode, and take down their opponents with teamwork and burn damage.

All of them seem to run Antique Gear decks, particularly based on the Antique Gear Hound Dog archetype.

---

Tropes associated with the Obelisk Force:

• Ancient Grome and Clock Punk: Like many other Duel Soldiers, they use cards such as Antique Gear Knight and Antique Gear Hound Dog.
• Color Coded For Y Our Convenience: Their masks have gems of different colors set in them, which is generally the only way to tell them apart. Doesn't make too much of a difference because they're all basically interchangeable to begin with, but it does make their duels easier to follow.
• Combat Pragmatists: They duel in Battle Royal Mode rather than in regular 1-on-1 duel. Since the Battle Royals don't have specific rules, they attack their opponents before they even get their first turn.
• Cyber Cyclops: Antique Gear Chaos Giant, see Dennis's sheet.
• Dirty Coward: They have no problems carding their opponents after defeating them, but when karma hits back on them, they start to beg for mercy.
• Elite Mooks: Played with. They are built up as a threat, and their invasion of Standard involves them defeating and carding many duelists.
• Expressive Mask: Downplayed, their mouths are visible anyway, but the red lenses in the eyes move in ways they should not be able to.
• Faceless Goons: They all wear masks. The gems on the masks are colored differently.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Yugo wipes a trio of them out by dealing damage to them with their own cards.
• Humongous Mecha: They have an Antique Gear Chaos Giant to use in their decks.
• Jerkass: All of them have unpleasant qualities and they enjoy tormenting their opponents
• The Magic Poker Equation: Their ability to reliably get two or three Antique Gear Hound Dogs and a Polymerization in their opening hands defies probability.
• Mooks: All of them wear the same uniforms, wear almost the same masks, all share the same personality, and all of them seem to run Antique Gear decks. Unfortunately, they are also Elite Mooks.
• Mythology Gag: As they are called Obelisk Force, their masks resemble the usual Duel Monsters version of Obelisk the Tormentor (The Millennium World version of him has a slightly different head design). The elite students of GX's Duel Academia were from the Obelisk Blue Dorm.
• Sadist: They feel pleasure from hurting and carding people.
• Smug Smiler: All of them frequently give smug smiles whenever they get the upper hand.
• Smug Super: They can come off as Smug Snake, but they're technically this since they're actually good Duelists. The primary reason they did so poorly against Yuya was likely because it was three-on-one and they underestimated him.
• Would Hurt a Child: They have no problem carding children during the Heartland invasion.
• Zerg Rush: As mentioned in Combat Pragmatist above, ganging up on opponents is pretty much their go-to strategy.

Juvenile Officers

Juvenile Officers

A group employed by Academia who serve as a security force and they use the Armoredog archetype, attacking in three-man groups to overwhelm the opponent.

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Tropes associated with the Juvenile Officers:

• Blow You Away: Armoredog Bull Copter is a WIND monster.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Armoredog Cannon Boxer is an EARTH monster.
• Mooks: They aren't soldiers, simply officers.
• Oh, Crap!: One of the officers reacts when he realizes that he's dueling against Kaiser.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: The Armoredog archetype is based on Robot Dogs.
• Robot Dog: The Armoredog archetype consists of robotic dogs, similar to the Antique Gear Hound Dog.

West Duel Academia

West Duel Academia

• Evil Doppelgänger: Inverted. They are a heroic version of their Central counterpart in many aspects. Unlike their Central Counterpart, who takes pleasure in destroying the universe, the West is disgusted with their plans and help the Resistance and their allies foil their plans.

You Show Duel School (Fusion Dimension)

You Show Duel School (Fusion)

You Show Duel School

You Show is a preparatory Duel school located in City Fusion Dimension it is the alternate counterpart to You Show Duel School in Standard. Its current owner is Yusho Sakaki who opened this school when he came to the Fusion Dimension. Among its students are Ryo Marufuji and Asuka Tenjoin and, according to them, many students who escaped from Academia decided to enroll in this school.

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Tropes associated with this branch:

• Defector from Decadence: Made up of all the Academia defectors that aren't Serena or Sora.
• Fusion Dance: Of course, they use Fusion Monsters. Yuri mocks them for that.
• Good Costume Switch: The members of You Show use Duel Disks that resemble the Duel Disks from the original Duel Academia from GX. This is mostly likely invoked as the You Show members are not proud of their past.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: A large number of the students are implied to be this, given their defection from Academia after serving in the Fusion Dimension.
• Sinister Scimitar: Their Duel Disks have curved Hard Light card plates resembling these, as opposed to the straight blades of Academia Duel Disks. The "Sinister" part is averted, though.

Ryo Marufuji

Ryo Marufuji

Archetype: Cyber Dragons and Cyberdark

^{Hell Kaiser}

An alternate counterpart of Ryo Marufuji that appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. He's a former top student and Duelist of Central Academia, like in the original due to his status as The Ace, Ryo was known as Kaiser by his fellow schoolmates. After learning how Academia cruelly cards people without regret and waging war, Ryo becomes disgusted with their methods but hopes Academia will change for good, he eventually decides to defect for good after his younger brother Sho gets carded and joins Yusho's Duel School and becomes his student and aid along with Asuka.

He and Asuka would eventually save Ruri and Rin from Academia and he would later help Yuto, Yuya, and the Resistance to defeat Academia and stop the war for good,

Ryo uses a Cyber Dragons and their fusions, with support cards based on Chinese mythology.

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• The Ace: Just like in GX, Ryo had the reputation of being an elite honor student and Duelist of Academia and earned the nickname Kaiser. Professor wants to brainwash him and make him become his top elite soldier but thankfully Ryo betrays Academia before Leo convinces him and his reputation means nothing to him compared to his stance towards humanity.
• Adaptational Badass: His GX counterpart suffered a humiliating defeat against Edo at Pro-League, here he managed to defeat Edo flawlessly. Ryo has Fusions since the beginning of his debut, which is justified and his dueling skills are equal to One-Man Army.
• Adaptational Heroism: He wears his Hell Kaiser outfit whenever he's at Xyz Dimension but he's still a Nice Guy, and never became a ruthless or sadist individual.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: His personality is similar to Asuka's. He's nicer and kind towards everyone he interacts with and eager to help people in need, contrasting with his aloof and stoic GX counterpart.
• Adaptational Villainy: Played with. He used to be an Academia student, but he's currently working for Yusho after becoming a renegade due to his high moral standards.
• Adaptation Personality Change: This time he isn't aloof and is more open and expressive with his emotions than his GX counterpart. His backstory reveals that his personality was a lot like his Season 1 GX counterpart but bonding with Yusho has helped him to become more open.
• Ascended Extra: In canon, his name appeared on the whiteboard, while here he appears physically.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: He has a deep respect and Undying Loyalty towards Yusho because the latter saved him from Juvenile Officers while he was trying to escape, and this also extends to his son Yuya.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Yuya from getting attacked by Edo and takes over the duel for him.
• Continuity Nod: Ryo being a former honor student is a nod to his original counterpart, who was an honor student in every way.
• Crazy-Prepared: Played With. After he is accidentally teleported to Xyz Dimension with Rin in #56, Ryo knows that Heartland survivors will mistake him for an Academia soldier due to his uniform, so he decides to wear his Hell Kaiser outfit but people still mistook him for an Academia spy because he still uses the standard Academia Duel Disk.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His Cyberdark are dark attribute deck and his Hell Kaiser outfit is a darker color, but Ryo is still one of the good guys.
• Defector from Decadence: After learning Academia was carding civilians, Ryo hoped that they would change for good and when he learned that Sho got carded, Ryo learned that they will always cross the line, and decide to betray them for good.
• Everyone Has Standards: He could still be an Academia student if it weren't for said school being rotten to the core and going on a carding spree in Heartland.
• Expy: His role and personality is very similar to Asuka's ARC-V counterpart. Both of them are kind and selfless individuals who used to be one of the top honor students of Academia, after learning Academia wages war in Heartland and carding civilians and people dear to them they feel disgusted with their methods and defect them for good. While trying to escape they were attacked by Juvenile Officers but got saved by Yusho and became a student of his school. The way he saved Yuya and Yuto from Edo and took them under his wing, also mirrors Asuka saving Yuzu from Juvenile Officers and taking the latter under her wing.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once Ryo finds out about Academia's true colors, followed by Yusho bailing him out from a group of Juvenile Officers, he goes rogue in disgust.
• Light Is Good: Ryo's Cyber Dragons are Light-Attribute monsters and he's also one of the pure moral characters in the fic. He immediately runs away from Academia after he finds out Academia carded Sho and bystanders in Heartland and is eager to help people in need.
• Light 'em Up: Most of his monsters, and his Cyber Dragons are LIGHT monsters.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: He's the only character wearing his Obelisk Blue uniform, while Asuka and Edo wear modified versions of their original counterparts' outfit.
• Nerves of Steel: He always remains calm and collected whenever he duels.
• Not So Stoic: He's normally calm and collected, but when he accidentally got teleported to Heartland in #56 he looks disturbed and shocked to see Academia turning the city into a wasteland.
• Number Two: He and Asuka are this towards Yusho.
• One-Man Army: Cyber End Dragon practically defeats any pure Fusion Duelist, and his effect and ATK make sure that she defeats every single Fusion Duelist in one turn as long as there are no other factors that would prevent him from doing so.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Cyber Dragons are Dragon-Types, but they are Dragon-Types in the OCG.
• Punny Name: Ryo sounds a lot like Rio, when he and Rio met in #60, the latter assumed he knew her name and due to their names being similar Ryo told the people of Resistance to call him Kaiser in order to avoid confusion.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives one to three Juvenile Officers in #23 for using the same by-the-book predictable moves and finding the Professor's goals noble.
• The Not-Love Interest: With Asuka. They both are very close to each other but they don't harbor any romantic feelings for each other and Asuka sees him as an older brother figure.
• Revenge: Along with being disgusted with their methods, Ryo wanted to get revenge on them for carding Sho.
• Tranquil Fury: When he learned about Sho getting carded for rebelling, he looked calm and collected but is very angry and pissed off at Academia for killing his brother.
• Walking Spoiler: Not only is he another legacy character, but he is a good character from the Fusion Dimension rather than being a villain.

Asuka Tenjouin

Asuka Tenjouin

Archetype: Cyber Girl

An alternate counterpart to Asuka Tenjoin from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Formerly an honor student in Academia, after learning the invasion of Heartland Asuka changes her mind. Seeing how Academia cruelly cards people without regret, she joins Yusho's Duel School and becomes his student and aide along with Ryo.

She and Ryo save Ruri and Rin from Academia and later assist the Lancers and Yuzu in getting to Academia

She uses a Cyber Girl deck that also includes the Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters, focusing on an anti-Fusion strategy.

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• Action Girl: She's a skilled Duelist who saves lives and aims to defeat Academia and stop the war for good.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: She made her debut in Season 1, while in canon she didn't appear until Season 3.
• Adapted Out: Subverted. Her brother Fubuki exists in this continuity but hasn't appeared on-screen. She mentioned to Ryo in #54 that Fubuki disappeared before she was enrolled in Academia.
• Big Damn Heroes: In #54 she and Ryo saved Ruri and Rin from Academia's captive.
• Big Sister Mentor: She acts as this to Yuzu after the latter arrives at Fusion, and even teaches her how to Ritual Summon.
• Birds of a Feather: With Ryo. Both of them are kind-hearted individuals who lost their brothers, used to be a top honor student of Central Academia, betrayed their school after finding out what they did to Heartland, and while escaping they were attacked by Juvenile Officers but got saved by Yusho.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: She wears blue prominently and is one of the only two characters in the series to use Ritual Summoning so far, although her uniform belongs to a Fusion-centered Duel School.
• Continuity Nod: Asuka being a former honor student is a nod to her original counterpart, who was an honor student in every way.
• Cool Big Sis: Acts like one to Yuzu and the younger kids of You Show Duel School. She also was this to other Academia girls.
• Defector from Decadence: After learning Academia was carding civilians, she attempted to escape Academia with an Osiris Red friend of hers. When patrols caught them and carded her friend, Asuka knew that Academia crossed a line too many and turned against them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Just like Ryo she could still be an Academia student if it weren't for said school being rotten to the core and going on a carding spree in Heartland.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once Asuka finds out about Academia's true colors, followed by Yusho bailing her out from a group of Juvenile Officers, she goes rogue in disgust.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Despite being natively from the Fusion Dimension and a former Academia student, Asuka is disgusted by Academia so much that she despises Fusions. She eventually builds an anti-Fusion deck; symbolically, she discards her own Polymerization for Polymerization Destruction to showcase how she's done with Fusions. When Yuzu convinces her to focus her hatred on Academia rather than Fusion users, Asuka tells her that when she sees Fusion all she can think of is Academia's misdeed.
• Light 'em Up: Most of her monsters, and her Cyber Angels are LIGHT monsters.
• Man of Kryptonite: Asuka's Cyber deck is designed to counter Fusion duelist
  * Ms. Fanservice: She's still a busty and shapely young lady wearing a miniskirt and sleeveless shirt. Her monsters are likewise curvaceous females with very little clothing, if any.
• Mythology Gag: In GX, her first ace monster was the Fusion Monster Cyber Blader, but as her deck evolved, she stopped using her and switched to the Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters. In this series, Asuka is a former Academia agent who abandoned them and now fights for Yusho using anti-Fusion Cyber Angel Ritual Monsters and other anti-Fusion cards.
• The Not-Love Interest: With Ryo. They both are very close with each other but they don't harbor any romantic feelings for each other and Asuka sees him as an older brother figure.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: She's the only character wearing her variant of the Obelisk Blue uniform.
• Nice Girl: Asuka is very sweet, kind, and pleasant most of the time.
• Number Two: To Yusho, being the co-founder of You Show's Fusion branch along with Yusho himself.
• One-Man Army: Cyber Angel - Vishnu can practically defeat any pure Fusion Duelist, and her effect and ATK make sure that she defeats every single Fusion Duelist in one turn as long as there are no other factors that would prevent her from doing so.

Yusho Sakaki

Yusho Sakaki

A famous entertainment Duelist and resident of Heartland, after Academia invaded Heartland, Yusho escaped to Fusion Dimension and opened another branch of You Show Duel School where he takes all the defected Academia students under his wing and foil Leo Akaba's plan

He's eventually revealed to be a native of Standard Dimension, a founder of You Show Duel School, and Yuya's father. He was the leading pioneer of Action Duels and a famous entertainment Duelist.

Three years before the start of the series, Yusho Sakaki disappeared on the day he was to defend his title from Strong Ishijima and has been labeled a coward ever since. However, there is more to his disappearance than people realize, with only Reiji Akaba knowing the truth behind it.

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• The Ace: People who really respect him praise Yusho for his performances and skills. Reiji even describes him as a pioneer of Action Duels.
• Action Dad: Just because he has a son doesn't mean he can't kick butt and can easily OTK his opponents.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon, he was perfectly fine with leaving his son and wife behind while trying to stop the war. Here Yusho feels guilty for leaving them behind and tells Asuka that he regrets taking part in the war without informing them.
• All-Loving Hero: Just like Yuya. He is understandably not happy with the Academia's methods, but he stated he was willing to forgive them if they truly apologized.
• All There in the Manual: Model sheets give us the name of his ace monster, Sky Magician.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • He arrived just in time to save a shocked Ryo from the Juvenile Officers in #23.
  • He also did the same thing to Asuka off-screen.
• Big Good: Played With in a different way from Reiji. He arrived in Heartland before Academia invaded it and taught the young people dueling skills that have helped them, but he also left one day. But he's currently in the Fusion Dimension working against Academia.
• Broken Pedestal: Many people in Standard and Xyz who admired him consider him a coward after he disappeared from their Dimension except Reiji, Ruri, Shark, and Yuto. Even his own son Yuya started to hate him when he found out that Yusho left for Xyz without telling him and Yoko, until he found out the complete truth.
• Character Catchphrase: Yuya's "The fun's just getting started!" was originally Yusho's.
• Dented Iron: His duel against Edo has taken its toll on him. His leg is injured and he can barely walk as a result
• Disappeared Dad: To Yuya. He's been missing for three years, and is actually traveling across dimensions.]]
• Foil: He's one to Leo Abaka. They left their family three years ago and are deeply involved with the Interdimensional War. But Leo not only willingly abandoned his family for his daughter and started the war. Yusho joined the war to stop Leo and has shown to be a loving father to Yuya.
• Friend to All Children: He's shown that he adores children.
• Good Parents: He's shown to be a loving father towards Yuya.
• Handicapped Badass: Just because his leg broke during his Duel against Edo doesn't mean he can't Duel properly. This is established in #23, where he saves Ryo and OTK Juvenile Officers.
• In the Blood: Yuya's ideals of entertaining the audience and his opponents and that duels should never be used as a tool for conflict all come from Yusho.
• Large Ham: While he's normally subdued, but when he's being an entertainment Duelist Yusho becomes hammy like Yuya.
• Nice Guy: He's a kind and loving man to everyone.
• Parents as People: Yusho is consistently shown to be a kind, loving, and supportive dad to Yuya. But at the same time due to Yusho leaving three years ago, Yuya had to deal with being bullied and mocked.
• Punny Name: Yusho sounds a lot like You Show, his own Dueling school's name, and hints at his flashy Entertainment Dueling style.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Zigzagged with Dennis, who has been evil since day one but truly loved Yusho's Entertainment Dueling style to the point of growing obsessed with it but he hasn't changed his alignment at all.
• Spirited Competitor: He was really happy when his acrobatic style was caught on and decided to polish his abilities in order to become an example to the newest generations.
• Stage Magician: Both he and his Sky Magician give off this vibe. Episode 132 shows that this is the motif of his deck.
• Technical Pacifist: Like Yuya, his go-to method to stop conflict is to talk things out but if he's forced to he'll resort to violence.
• World's Strongest Man: For Standard, to the point, Strong didn't feel like he was the champion till he beat Yusho.
• Worthy Opponent: To Strong Ishijima, who even hoped to lure Yusho out by challenging Yuya.
• You Remind Me of X: When he first met Ruri and Yuto at Xyz prior to the invasion, they reminded him of Yuzu and his son Yuya.

Standard Dimension

The Lancers

Yuya Sakaki

Yuya Sakaki

Archetype: Entermate (Performapal), Odd-Eyes

The fun has just begun!

Yuto's Standard Dimension counterpart and an entertainment Duelist who aims to make people smile. When he was a child, however, Yusho disappeared on the day he was to defend his title against Strong Ishijima, effectively ruining his career and causing people to ridicule Yuya.

When he has the chance to defend his father's name and take on Strong Ishijima in an official match, he accepts and unveils the new Summoning Method known as Pendulum Summoning.

Sometime after this, Yuya encounters his Xyz counterpart Yuto, and learns about the interdimensional war. He then duels against his Synchro counterpart Yugo who mistook him for Yuri, But once they summon their dragons, they are possessed by their Superpowered Evil Side. While Yuto manages to bring Yuya back to his senses, he fails to do the same with Yugo, resulting in Yuya losing the duel and being greatly injured by Yugo's last attack. Before disappearing into light, Yuya entrusts Yuto with his Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and his last will: to make everyone smile with his dueling. He is absorbed by Yuto and his spirit resides within him for the majority of the mid-Standard and Synchro arc, acting as a mentor and friend to Yuto. By the end of the Synchro arc, Yuya got his body back and helps Yuto and his friends defeat Academia and find his father

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon after learning the reason Yusho abandoned him and Yoko, Yuya felt proud of his father and gladly accepted his disappearance, here when he learned that Yusho went to Xyz and left him and Yoko behind, he started to hate him until he learned the whole truth,
• Adaptational Badass: He is able to master Xyz summoning before the fic.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In canon, Yuya was a downplayed Idiot Hero, but here he's much smarter and wiser compared to canon.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Since he's not the main protagonist, Yuya made his debut in #14
• Adaptation Distillation: The majority of his duels in Standard are cut short or Adapted Out.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Yuya started off similar to his canon counterpart, but after getting absorbed by Yuto and learning about the war he becomes very serious, grim, and cynical and also believes it's impossible to make people simile through duels during the war and ditches his entertainment duel.
• Back from the Dead: He's not dead and he ends up getting absorbed by Yuto after being defeated by Yugo, and acted as a spirit advisor towards Yuto by the end of Standard and throughout Synchro arc, but he got his body back by the end of Synchro arc.
• Character Catchphrase: He has two during duels: "Ladies and gentlemen!" and "The fun's just getting started!" The latter also appears frequently in the opening and ending songs.
• Cool Big Bro: To the kids from the You Show Duel School.
• Expy: After getting absorbed by Yuto, Yuya's role and personality becomes very similar to Atem and Astral.
• Famed In-Story: Yuya is very famous for defeating Strong Ishijima and debuting the Pendulum Summon, in Standard.
• Fatal Flaw: As Reiji and Jack pointed out, being naive, self-righteous and Willfully Weak are his biggest weaknesses. Yuya thinks he's right at what he's doing, only for the likes of Reiji, to bite him in the ass, causing him to become frustrated and violently aggressive.
• Flip Personality: If he wills it, Yuya can gain temporary control over Yuto's body while still remaining sane, marked by Yuto's eyes changing to a crimson color.
• Go Out with a Smile: He smiles as his body fades away, although his soul is inside Yuto.
• Heroic BSoD: He has a big one after learning that Reiji can Pendulum Summon and needed Shuzo to duel him out of it.
• Not Quite Dead: After disappearing into the light after his duel with Yugo, he merges with Yuyo, transferring his soul and Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon to him. While his physical body is gone, he's still around and appears from time to time when Yuto's Superpowered Evil Side emerges or simply when Yuya appears as a Spirit Advisor.
• Oblivious to Love: He doesn't seem to notice or realize Yuzu is in love with him.
• Ship Tease: He has some moments with Yuzu.
• Sharing a Body: Yuya's soul/body is inside Yuto and can at times influence or share thoughts with his counterpart. This allows Yuto's access to Yuya's Dimensional Dragon.
• Split-Personality Takeover: While he's not really Yuto's split personality, he takes over Yuto's body in Episode 51 when Yuto refuses to listen to him, attempting to crush Reiji in a duel.
• Synchronization. Yuya eventually takes Yuto's body over, to the point that the viewers and some characters can see Yuya, but the monitor footage depicts Yuto's body.]]
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: After getting absorbed by Yuto, Yuya starts to despise his entertainment dueling and believes making people smile is useless. Which is when he was watching Shinji and Aki's duel in #71 through Yuto.
  Yuya: Friendship Cup my ass. There is no friendship going on here. Everything is just forced. The Tops and Commons don't want to be friends at all. The Commons want the Tops heads and the Tops look at the Commons as trash
• Took a Level in Cynic: Yuya was a cheerful and idealistic young man who believes that it's easy to make people smile with his entertainment dueling, but after getting absorbed by Yuto, learning about the war, and seeing Academia invade Standard and carding people, Yuya becomes very serious, brooding and grim and he also believes duels should be taken seriously during war, and impossible to make people simile through duel which is opposite to his canon counterpart.
• Tag Team: With his willpower, Yuya is able to take over Yuto's body or synchronize with him, which allows them to magically draw Yuya's cards from Yuto's deck.
• Take Up My Sword: After his defeat against Yugo, Yuya gives to Yuto his Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon before he fuses with him.
• Taking the Bullet: Just as Yugo's finishing attack is about to hit Yuto, Yuya pushes him out of the way and takes the hit instead.

Reiji Akaba

Reiji Akaba

Archetype: D/D, D/D/D

The son of Leo Akaba and current President of the Leo Corporation. A talented duelist who is determined to stop his father, Reiji and his mother introduced the other Summoning Methods to the Standard Dimension and began building a program meant to train duelists for live combat, in the hopes that they would serve to defend their home from the Fusion Dimension.

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• The Ace: Reiji has the reputation of excelling pretty much at everything. On top of being a Pro Duelist who is able to master all the summoning methods, he owns a gaming prestigious company at 16, comes from a rich family, and is deadly gorgeous.
• Adaptation Distillation: His interaction with Serena and duel with Barret are cut short.
• Adaptation Expansion: He has more interaction and chemistry with Shun in the canon, and even dueled against him.
• Anti-Hero: Of the Pragmatic Hero variety. Reiji genuinely cares about his hometown, and wanted to defeat his dad and stop the war for good, but he's also a gray and a morally ambiguous man, willing to use teenagers as soldiers, from manipulating his students and allies, and lying to his allies so he can experiment on their possibly dead ally's Duel Disk
• Armor-Piercing Question: During his duel with Yuto/Yuya, Reiji asks them if he is fine with leaving the others carded even if Yuzu is all right.
• Awesome by Analysis: He's a very analytical and skilled strategist who managed to create his own Pendulum cards.
• Badass Bookworm: Being a CEO at age 16 and a professional duelist at age 15 certainly qualifies him even before we see what he can do.
  • He proves it even more when he duels, having mastered every form of summoning. He proceeds to show this by summoning a Fusion Monster, a Synchro Monster, AND an Xyz Monster in just One or two of his turns.
  • It's pretty much explicitly stated that he managed to make his own Pendulum Monsters. Granted, they malfunction at first, but that's still a pretty big achievement.
• Batman Gambit: Does this to Yuto/Yuya during their Duel in #51.
• Benevolent Boss: Even more so than his mother, despite being a Well-Intentioned Extremist Reiji is very nice and reasonable to his subordinates.
• Big Good: In spite of his morally ambiguous ways, he's the closest thing the show has to one early on, as he's dedicated to protecting Maiami from the forces of the other dimensions, and is fundamentally opposing Professor Leo Akaba, who's responsible for the war between Academia and the Resistance.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Shouts at Hokuto and Yaiba to make them stop trash-talking Yuya's dad, declaring that he highly respects Yusho for being a pioneer in Action Duels.
• Blatant Lies: After the Battle Royal arc when the surviving Lancers got to know about Yusho Sakaki being at Xyz Dimension, Shun correctly deduced that Reiji was responsible for sending Yusho to Xyz and questioned him, but Reiji claimed that he wasn't involved in Yusho's disappearance.
• Character Tics: He has a habit of adjusting his glasses whenever he has a well-thought-out strategy and a few tricks up his sleeve.
• The Chessmaster: He spent the last three years preparing for the inevitable inter-dimensional war when it comes to the Standard Dimension and likes to be aware of everything that happens in the city to make sure it doesn't interfere with his plans.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Finding out that his father was the head of the Academia and that he intended to fuse dimensions together really messed with Reiji's head. Turning him from a nice guy to what he is today.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In spite of his DARK Fiend-Type deck, Reiji is a polite and reasonable person. He does however have some more morally ambiguous qualities and is definitely a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Deal with the Devil: His deck's playstyle relies on making these for Power at a Price, then destroying the contract before the costs become overwhelming.
• Death or Glory Attack: His standard modus operandi. His Covenants are excellent searching cards that will wreck him if they stay on the field, and his Astronomer Pendulums have ridiculously good Scales, but degrade quickly and have the potential to wipe out his whole field in the process.
• Everyone Has Standards: Like in canon Reiji is a morally ambiguous grey individual but he's disgusted with the social structure in the City and The Executive Council's toxic way of bringing peace to the City.
• Hates Their Parent: Cares for his mother, but hates his father, Leo Akaba.
• Master of All: His deck is based around performing every kind of summoning. So far he's displayed Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz, and the elemental theme of his monsters makes it possible he's also got an EARTH Ritual monster we haven't seen yet. Not to mention his Pendulum Monsters.
• Noble Demon: His DD deck contains Fiend-type monsters, but Reiji is the leader of the heroes and has noble goals.
• Not So Stoic:
  • His Big "SHUT UP!" moment. He exploded. Again in Episode 22, where he performs an Evil Laugh, and while his face is covered by his hand, his eyes look crazy.
  • In #71 he gets pissed off when the Council reveals their toxic way of bringing peace to the City and even angrily called out to them for being a Dirty Coward.
• One-Hit Kill: Of course, The Ace of the Lancers, Reiji is also capable of this.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. His disguise using a hooded sweatshirt is probably more to avert suspicion, as the people he's hiding from don't even know about him.
• Parental Neglect: Not his mother, but he seriously doubts his father, Leo Akaba, values him enough for him to be useful as a hostage.
• Parental Abandonment: Leo abandoned his family when he got back his memories of the United World all to chase the idea of bringing Ray back and the emotional toll this had on both Reiji and his mother is not softened in the slightest.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While Reiji is morally ambiguous, at least he's a Benevolent Boss who has complete faith in Yuto and the Lancers because he knows that they're the ones who will beat the crap out of Security and Academia.
  • Despite his cold exterior, he has shown multiple times that he both trusts and cares about Reira, even if they aren't blood-related.
• Playing Card Motifs: Has a motif based around the Diamond suit. Shown with his monster archetype being D/D, wearing a pair of black diamond studded earrings, and the symbol of the Lancers that he formed and led is shaped like a diamond.
• Princely Young Man: Rich? Check. Heir to a big corporation? Check. Seen as one of the elite and treated with respect? Check. Instant Fanclub? They're apparently enough to fill a full section of the stadium. In a twist even though he's based off Kaiba, and like him he's of the Ice King variety of this trope and the vibe he initially gives, he's not actually a Jerkass, not even shallowly, he's always polite and respectful to others, and as time goes by, his personality is shown to be far less abrasive and hiding more gentleness than initially shown.
  • Even his Family Theme Naming could be taken as a poke to this trope, since like his father's name, Leo, has the kanjis that translates to "Zero King", his name has kanji that could translate to "Zero Prince" (or child).
• Punch Catch: Counters Yuto's sucker punch with this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives one to Yuto in #51 during their duel, where he points out that Yuto's racism towards Fusion, can cost his life and he can't defeat Academia if he refuses to Fusion summon.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. While his Duel Disk is red and black, Reiji is morally ambiguous at worst.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: His attitude towards Yuya's kindness.
• The Smart Guy: While the Leader of the Lancers, he is also The Strategist and the most intelligent member.
• The Stoic: He's usually calm and collected and rarely shows emotions.
• Strong and Skilled: His DD and DDD are capable of being played in many ways, from pure beatdown to control to everywhere in between.
• Supporting Leader: He is the leader of the Lancers and the tritagonist, so he is definitively this.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Reiji is a gentle and good-hearted person underneath his no-nonsense and stoic nature.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: As stated in Anti-Hero, he just wants to protect his dimension but he has done some really dark things in his quest.
• Wise Beyond His Years: Much like Kaiba, he's a teenager who already has the wealth and influence of a major corporation, just without the obsession.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Yuya one and doesn't even consider that he is the perpetrator attacking LDS students.

Noboru Gongenzaka

Noboru Gongenzaka

Archetype: Superheavy Samurai

A practitioner of the "Steadfast" Dueling style, Gongenzaka isn't a student of You Show Duel School but is a close friend to Yuya Sakaki and Yuzu Hiiragi, having been a childhood friend to them both.

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• Adaptation Distillation: His duel with and student-mentor relationship with Yaiba, are cut short. Even his duel with Anko Kuji happened off-screen.
• Adaptation Expansion: Here he's shown training and getting his butt kicked by his dad before going to Standard, while in canon it happened off-screen.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's really a nice and easy-going guy, but get on his bad side or face him in a duel, and he'll show you what Steadfast Dueling is really about.
• The Big Guy: He is very definitely one of the bigger characters and serves as a muscle to the Lancers.
• Blush Sticker: The manly Gongenzaka always has some blush on his cheeks, and it does not detract from said manliness one bit.
• Bully Hunter: He protected Yuya when they were younger, from those who wanted to beat him up for being a coward's son.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Unforgivable, this is unforgivable, [person name]!"
  • Also some variation of "I, the manly Gongenzaka..."
• Charles Atlas Superpower: As a result of his Steadfast Training, Gongenzaka is a very physically strong individual. He can endure attacks from Real Solid Vision monsters often without losing his balance, can stand still while holding very heavy boulders, do karate chops strong enough to destroy a Real Solid vision spike, and when he draws in his Draw Phase, he does with so much strength that he releases a strong force of wind. He is strong enough to punch a hole into a wall of concrete without injury.
• Childhood Friends: With Yuya and Yuzu.
• Determinator: He never gives up, believing in his deck to the end. And if he gets hit by an attack, he'll keep himself on his feet and get pushed backwards, unless it wipes him out. He karate-chopped through Battleguard Mad Shaman's spike without flinching. He also saves Yuya by holding up a stone pillar twice his size with no injury. Granted, it was Solid Vision, but still dangerous. Also, he fought his way halfway to Kurosaki's solitary confinement cell armed only with his (metal) geta.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: His deck's motif is based on ancient Samurai and also fits his Heir to the Dojo status.
• Gag Nose: Downplayed; it stands out from the other characters because it's pink, but it's normal-sized.
• Gentle Giant: He can be a bit stuffy, but he's a pretty nice guy.
• Good Is Not Soft: One of the nicest, most morally upright characters on the show, and he's proven himself perfectly capable of kicking lots of ass.
• Graceful Loser: He didn't really mind losing to Yuya and was simply happy to force Yuya to pass his limits. And again when he is defeated by Crow.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Him and Yuya. They know what the other thinks without talking.
• Hot-Blooded: Odd example; he's a very staunch and enthusiastic proponent of his own family's Steadfast Dueling style, which means that he doesn't care for the other Hot-Blooded characters running around during Action Duels, as "real men don't make unnecessary movements." While he can be very emotional, Gongenzaka is one of the most level-headed characters and tries to keep the others in line when they are acting unreasonably.
• Large Ham: The manly Gongenzaka is hammy whenever he duels.
• Last-Name Basis: His family name is used to refer to him both when he references himself and by all his friends. His father is the only person who calls him by his first name.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: The manly Gongenzaka values honor and mutual respect in duels.
• Made of Iron: Suffers no serious injury from a pillar falling on him.
• Martial Arts Headband: Wears a red one around his head, though it might be his sash from childhood.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: His Superheavy Samurais are all Machine-Types.
• Nice Guy: He is very nice and respectful towards everyone he interacts with, and is very loyal to his friends.
• No Indoor Voice: He's loud most of the time.
• The Reliable One: His friends see him as this since he's the most mature and smartest among them.
• Sixth Ranger: Gongenzaka isn't actually a member of You Show since he's going to inherit his family's dojo, but he hangs around a lot and takes offense to being called an "outsider" by Sora (who only just transferred to the school himself).
• Team Dad: He's this for the Lancers, trying to keep them on track and from doing stupid things that will hurt them.
• Third-Person Person: Not only does he refer to himself by his last name, but adds "the manly" onto the front. This characteristic is retained in the dub, where he simply refers to himself as "Gong".
• This Is Unforgivable!: One of his catchphrases is in the form of "Inexcusable! This is inexcusable, (person's name).
• True Companions: With Yuya and Yuzu. And eventually with the Lancers with a lot of tries.
• Underestimating Badassery: Is the victim of this from both Sora and Yaiba (though maybe "victim" isn't the right word...), but he surprises them with his unique strategy and manages to get a draw. Then he's a victim of
  • Gongenzaka has to duel with Kaito with only 2000 Life Points, and Sawatari isn't much of a help and actually hinders him.
  • Due to the Tag Dueling rules, Gongenzaka has to share his Life Points, field and Graveyard with his partner, and since Sawatari's deck is reliant on Spell Cards, Gongenzaka is heavily handicapped in a Tag Duel, resulting that he and Sawatari lose off-screen to the Tyler Sisters.
• Younger Than He Looks: He is 14 but looks a lot older than other guys of his age, due to his muscular and heavy-build body.

Shingo Sawatari

Shingo Sawatari

Archetype: Darts [Former], Monarch

The son of the Mayor of Miami City and a collector of rare cards. He was initially the Starter Villain at the beginning of the Standard arc, before becoming one of the central characters later on in the story.

After the Miami Championship arc, he becomes a member of Lancers and helps the Resistance defeat Academia

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• Adaptational Distillation: Sawatari kidnaps Yuzu and her friends, in order to lure Yuya and steal his Pendulum cards happened offscreen.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He's still arrogant, boastful, cocky, and show-off but he's more nicer and less self-centered than his canon counterpart.
• Ascended Extra: He's one of the five ARC-V main characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special, probably as a nod to his early status in the series. Sawatari basically took Reiji's spot, of all people.
• Attack Backfire: His duel with Yuto. The latter starts off by setting five Spell/Trap Cards. Sawatari takes the bait and, using a new Deck he made, sends all of them to the Graveyard. This allows Yuto to win the duel, via Spell Cards with effects that activate from the Graveyard.
• Attention Whore: He loved having the crowd cheering his name in his rematch with Yuya, and when he got the spotlight of Pendulum Summoning. And he got over his loss against Yugo the moment when people started chanting his name.
  • However, this trait is one of his biggest flaws, as Sawatari needs to be in the spotlight to satisfy his ego. Anyone else he perceives to be "stealing" his spotlight, he blows a casket.
• Big Damn Heroes: He rushes in to save Tsukikage in the Battle Royale.
• Blatant Lies: A lot of his bragging crosses into this. One example is him stating he was undefeated in Standard and Yuto was his student when he first met Crow in Commons but Yuto snarkly calls him out and Crow notices he's just a show-off.
• Big Damn Heroes: He rushes in to save Tsukikage in the Battle Royale.
• Blow You Away: His Yosenju monsters are all WIND monsters.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: He is the boke to everyone, notably to Yuto and Gongenzaka. Especially Gongenzaka.
• Butt-Monkey: Reprising his role from canon, Sawatari is still treated as this by the Lancers, since he's the most relaxed and comic relief member of the team.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his status as the show's residential Butt-Monkey, Swatari proves to be a skilled Duelist.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Well, kinda. Whether he actually had any plans after playing up his injuries from his duel with Yuto isn't disclosed.
• Easily Forgiven: After learning that it was Yuto who attacked him Sawatari doesn't hold any grudges on him, and feels sorry for Yuto after learning about his tragic past during Yuto's duel with Reiji.
• Foil: On the Lancers, he and Gongenzaka are foils. Sawatari is an egotistical glory hound that can't stand anyone badmouthing him while Gongenzaka is a steadfast and loyal friend that has willingly stepped out of the limelight to protect them. Gongenzaka understands the emotional effects of being a child soldier while Sawatari is giddy at being a Lancer. Gongenzaka is loyal to his dueling style while Sawatari has changed his decks after each loss. Gongenzaka realizes the folly of challenging opponents to duels for no good reason and keeps his cool whereas Sawatari loses his composure at the drop of a hat and recklessly jumps into avoidable situations.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Given Sawatari's personality, he is this to everyone he interacts with, except for his dad. His three "best friends" are more like minions if anything, given that they grudgingly follow his orders and even call out Sawatari's hypocrisy at times. As part of the Lancers, the rest of the group either ignores him (Serena, Kurosaki, O'Brien, and Reira), tolerates him (Yuto, Shark, Reiji, Ruri, and Tsukikage), humors him (Dennis), or outright puts him in his place (Gongenzaka).
• Got Me Doing It: After being defeated by Yuya, Sawatari seems to have adopted some of his hamminess; even as his minions comment on it, he can be heard in the background saying "Ladies and Gentlemen!" while making a bunch of dramatic gestures.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He was initially jealous of Yuya being the only person who knew how to Pendulum Summon.
• Harmless Electrocution: As a result of his Big Damn Heroes moment during the Obelisk Force duel, he was electrocuted by the 2000 Life Points duel penalty.
• Hidden Depths: He's actually a skilled entertainer who enjoys putting on a good show for people.
  • He's never used it on-screen, but a few blink-and-you-miss-it moments
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Yuzu calls Sawatari a "coward, sore-loser, and second-rate duelist". The last one is what causes Sawatari to react, especially when Yuzu says that he's not even on that level and calls him a "hundredth-rate" duelist.
• Large Ham: After Yuya Gets Him Doing It, Sawatari ups his hamminess.
• Last-Name Basis: With the exception of his father, everyone refers to him as Sawatari.
• Laughably Evil: Not really a villain past his first appearance, but he always remains incredibly fun to watch.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When watching Yuto/Yuya's duel with Reiji, he feels sorry for Yuto after learning that his home was invaded by Academia.
  • When Sawatari told his dad in #53 about his mission with the Lancers, his father refused to send him, but Sawatri insisted that he wanted to stop the inter-dimensional war for good.
  • After a Prisoner tripped Ruri in #65, Sawatari got angry at him and attempted to punch him.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Reprising his role from canon, Sawatari is the least serious member of his team.
• Revenge: Wants revenge on Yuya for defeating and humiliating him last time, which leads us to...
  • Revenge Myopia: Since Yuya only beat him because Sawatari stole his cards and put Yuzu and the children in danger. And he still blames Yuya for what Yuto did to him, and Yuya has to remind him that wasn't his fault. Then Sawatari tries to accuse him of attacking his father, only for Yuya to respond that it wasn't him either.
• The Rival: He is Yuya's secondary rival in the first season. Later he becomes somewhat of a friend to Yuya, at worst a Friendly Rival.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He likes to use his father's status to get what he wants. Incidentally, it does work during the Battle Royale, as it gets him out of the arena to go talk to Reiji. Though it does nothing in the Synchro Dimension as no one knows who his father even is; Sawatari himself doesn't realize this simple fact.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Big time. Even after his character development, he's still extremely arrogant and probably doesn't fit his bragging just yet.
• Smug Snake: He thinks that he's stronger than the others. Downplayed after his Character Development; he's still arrogant, but he is overall nicer.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After his rematch with Yuya, he starts embracing the "performer" life, as Yuya does, and later turns the goal of a duel into entertaining the crowd, which is reflected in his Abyss Actor deck. While he's still a Sore Loser, he doesn't mind if the crowd has fun because of him.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Gender flipped. Sawatari is a lot better-looking than his father.
• Underestimating Badassery: He looks down on low-level and low ATK monsters and calls them trash, and never seems to consider their effects. Also does this to Yuya and Yuto. He gets over this mentality and ironically almost defeats Yugo with two low-level monsters after Yugo underestimates them.
• Worthy Opponent: After his second duel with Yuya, he recognizes him as a friendly rival rather than someone to exact revenge upon. And Yugo recognizes him as one in their duel, even lamenting he'll have to send him to the Underground.
• Yōkai: His Yosenju (often translated as "Hermit Yokai") deck is based on the Kamaitachi, the wind-sickle weasels of Japanese mythology.

Serena

Serena

Archetype: Moonlight (Lunalight)

A student of Academia, and Ruri's Fusion Counterpart. Serena initially believed Academia and Professor Akaba's goals were noble, until she learned the truth from Yuzu, which prompt her to perform a Heel–Face Turn and eventually become a member of Lancers, helping them and the Resistance foil Leo Akaba's plan.

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• Adaptational Distillation: She cards Hokuto off-screen and her duel with Dennis isn't shown fully.
• Adapted Out: Her backstory and interaction with Reiji aren't shown.
• Alleged Lookalikes: With Yuzu and Ruri. A few friends from Standard mistake her for Yuzu several times, and Yuzu mistakes her for Ruri briefly until she concludes that Serena is her Fusion counterpart.
• Blood Knight: Serena is obsessed with fighting against strong opponents, and gets annoyed when people don't duel her seriously.
• Cat Girl: She has two of them in her deck, including her Fusion Monster Lunalight Cat Dancer. Four with
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair, eye, and outfit colors are drawn from the Polymerization card◊.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: She's not the least bit pleased that Tsukikage and Hikage rescued her and Yuzu from an attack by the Obelisk Force.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of her duels since her deck revolves around a quick-kill combo.
• Cute Bruiser: Dueling example, Serena's Lunalight relies on combat and brute force, but can also take hits due to their inability to be destroyed by battle or effects.
• Dark Action Girl: Serena really wants to be this and to be a front fighter of Academia, and she is willing to crush Xyz duelists to get Professor Leo Akaba's approval, even though he doesn't want to let her go from Academia.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Her Lunalight deck is DARK-attribute, but she herself proves to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Defector from Decadence: She does a Heel–Face Turn after seeing the actual methods Academia uses.
• Evil Doppelgänger: At first she appears to be this to Ruri and her counterparts since Serena travels to Standard and hunts Xyz Duelist in order to prove she's a capable warrior to Leo. But this turns out to be subverted when she learns about Academia's evil methods, which prompt her to betray them and stop the war for good, and also revealing that she's noble with good intentions like her counterparts.
• Fantastic Racism: Like other members of her faction, she looked down on Xyz users. Unlike other members of her faction, it's because she honestly believed they're evil; when the Fusion forces were attacking Xyz Dimension, Serena was purposely prevented from going by the Professor, and he seems to have misled her as to his actions and intentions.
• Gilded Cage Serena is a prisoner and vital to the Professor's plan as much as Ruri and Rin are, but the difference is that she doesn't know it. She only thinks that the Professor doesn't consider her strong enough to be on the front lines so she is kept inside the curiously castle-like Academia and never allowed to leave, with every attempt of escape failing. She only was able to escape this time thanks to the Professor keeping an eye on Standard instead of her for once.
• Good Costume Switch: After becoming a Lancer she changes her outfit to a set of casual clothes that resemble her old Academia uniform. It involves a less evil-looking red jacket and a white skirt.
• Graceful Loser: She took her loss to Yugo well, even happily shaking his hand and wishing him luck for the rest of the Friendship Cup.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Just like Yuzu, but for very different reasons. While Yuzu is normally calm and collected but easily pissed at people's idiocy, Serena is bitter that her potential is getting wasted and hates people looking down on or mocking her.
• Heroic Resolve: She declares that she'll save Yuzu as Yuzu opens her eyes about the Academia and it was her fault that Yuzu was captured.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: She betrays Academia and ends up fighting side-by-side with Standard and Kurosaki. Serena also becomes one of Reiji's eight Lancers.
• Heel Realization: She's utterly horrified when Kurosaki tells her the truth about Academia's attacks on Heartland.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Barrett. She's like an ant standing next to a giant.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Despite her talent, the Professor keeps her cooped up in Academia and refuses to let her go out on the front lines. She hates this.
• In the Hood: When she arrived in Standard she wore a black hood.
• The Lad-ette: A rather G-rated example. As discussed in her subversion of Tomboy with a Girly Streak, she is not feminine. Serena is blunt, abrasive, and is so aggressive and combat-happy that Sawatari, not a bastion of restraint himself, calls her out on it at one point.
• Leeroy Jenkins: During the Lancers' duel against Security, she refuses to flee the scene with Reira to get help after Yuto instructs her to do so, leading to their entire group being cornered by Security and almost getting arrested until Crow and his gang rescues them.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Academia tries to leave Standard away from the war, but Serena hunts everyone that can Xyz Summon in Standard, disregarding the troubles that can come from that. While she's just as arrogant and battle crazy as the rest of her dimension, she does not like the possibility of innocents getting hurt.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: She's appalled when Yuzu tells her that families were being hurt in the Xyz invasion.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Cat Dancer evolves into Panther Dancer, who then evolves into Lio Dancer.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Being raised in Fusion, this is her primary attribute. She's always very serious in her dueling and hates it when her opponents are weak or aren't taking the duel seriously.
• One-Man Army: Her entire dueling strategy is about this trope. She summons one powerful Fusion Monster that obliterates the opponent's entire field by herself, but she is mostly left alone.
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Hikage carries her in this manner after saving her from being attacked by the Obelisk Force, much to her displeasure.
• Pride: She's very proud of her skills and is pissed off at Leo for not letting her become a frontline soldier,
• Serious Business: Serena doesn't view Duel Monsters as a game but as a duel between two warriors who are fighting for their honor.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Averted like Yuzu. When Security captures her, they hold both arms and are also an adult overpowering a fourteen-year-old girl. Yuya was being held the same way.
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted. Being from the Fusion Dimension and a student of Academia, she initially appears to be this for her dimensional counterparts. However, she is soon revealed to have noble intentions and, upon learning of Academia's true nature, she immediately defects from them to join the Lancers.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tough and aggressive tomboy to Ruri's girly girl.
• Twin Switch: With Yuzu, by using Clothing Switch. They did that to distract the Obelisk Force from Serena, so she would have a free way to Kurosaki.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Also noted in Boring Yet Practical; although she is a good duelist, Serena relies on a single strong monster that attacks over and over again, and generally uses the same tactic.
• War for Fun and Profit: Subverted, she rejects Yuzu's claim that the Academia sees their invasion of the Xyz Dimension as a game.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Yuto gives a brutal one to her in #64 for being a reckless Blood Knight who wanted to find a strong Duelist and being apathetic and indifferent towards the safety of her own comrades.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Wants to impress her mentor, Professor Leo Akaba, and make him proud enough to let her fight. It gets a sadder if you realize that Celina is technically Leo's daughter by virtue of being a fragment of Ray, his actual daughter from the Original Dimension before it was split.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her talk with Yuzu painted her as this. She fully believed that what the Professor wanted to do was for the greater good. And even if the Xyz duelists lost, they still had their pride despite losing. She is shaken by the implication of the Xyz duelists having families that are not duelists and resolves to see Kurosaki to check if it's true.

Reira Akaba

Reira Akaba

Archetype: CC

Reiji's little sister. She uses a CC deck, which revolves around copying the opponent's cards and specializes in multiple types of Special Summonings, like Reiji. As her brother is confident about Reira's skills and power, he makes her one of the Lancers.

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• Action Girl: Reira is a very skilled duelist and can flawlessly defeat her opponents
• Beware the Quiet Ones: She rarely talks, but she's still a tough-as-nails Action Girl who can easily OTK the mooks, and her dueling skills are evenly matched to Reiji's.
• Body Motifs: Eyes, particularly related to cameras, show up in her summoning chants.
• Dark Is Not Evil: CC Critical Eye is DARK, but Reira is a good girl.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: She has them most of the time.
• Elemental Powers: The Extra Deck monsters she summons depend on the Attribute and Level of the copied monsters she is using as Materials.
• Family Theme Naming: Reira, like Reiji and Leo, have the kanji of zero (零) in their names.
• In the Hood: Coupled with Hidden Eyes to empathize with her creepiness and brokenness. She also wears a cap under her hood.
• Just a Kid: Some characters who haven't seen her duel, like Sawatari and Kurosaki, are dismissive of her and find it hard to believe such a young girl could be a competent duelist. Skills aside, they are not completely wrong either. She's not as brave as the others and Yuto has to tell Reiji in his face that Reira is way too young to be a Lancer.
• Parental Abandonment: We have no idea what happened to her biological family. Himika simply said she was all by herself, which leads to some very depressing or disturbing conclusions.
• Protectorate: While in the Synchro Dimension, Yuto has taken the role of a protective big brother towards her. In a straighter example, she's this to Tsukikage, by Reiji's orders.
• The Quiet One: She rarely talks and never brags.
• Shrinking Violet: She's very shy and a socially awkward girl who rarely speaks.
• Tag Along Kid: To the Lancers. Reiji insists she's as good a duelist as any of them (and he's right), but Reira is this until she gets her Character Development and then hands three Security officers their asses.
• Tyke Bomb: Reira was adopted by Himika for the sole purpose of defeating Academia.

Tsukikage

Tsukikage

Archetype:Ninja

Tsukikage is Hikage's twin brother and fellow participant in the Junior Youth class of the Miami Championship. After losing his brother to Academia, he joined the Lancers. Unlike the rest of the Lancers who specialize in a summoning mechanic, Tsukikage focuses on utilizing the tricky and powerful effects of his Ninja Effect Monsters, while exploiting the Action Cards to great effect.

He serves as one of the most useful characters in the entire series, guarding Reiji and Reira from physical harm and taking advantage of his shinobi training to infiltrate even the most secure places to get the job done, which aids the Lancers greatly throughout the show.

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• Angsty Surviving Twin: While not twins (maybe, Hikage was referred to as the older brother), although downplayed, in a Not So Stoic moment Tsukikage shows how deeply hurt he is by his brother's loss.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: His role around Reiji besides stealth. He's a capable duelist in his own right, though Reiji is of course Reiji. Though considering his abilities and his sword, he appears to be for non-dueling defense as well.
• Demotedto Extra: Compared to canon, Tsukikage doesn't get a more active role and his role in the fic is akin to a Recurring Extra.
• Escape Artist: He's a ninja, so escaping the underground isn't hard for him.
• Face Death with Dignity: Tsukikage is ready to do this against the Obelisk Force, but Sawatari saves him.
• Flash Step: He can move faster than the human eye can see, to instantly move around the field and collect Action Cards. He can even move off his D-Wheel and move back while it is still in motion.
• Left-Handed Mirror: Tsukikage is the blue, left-handed Ninja with a stalling strategy, while Hikage is the red, right-handed Ninja with an offensive strategy.
• Made a Slave: Gets sent to the Underground, though Episode 73 shows escape isn't that difficult for a Ninja.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted, while it initially seems he has Undying Loyalty, he makes it clear to Yuya that he would have abandoned Reiji long ago if he was as cruel as Academia.
• Nice Guy: Tsukikage is loyal to the Lancers, and kind, if a bit stoic. However, don't insult his clan to his face...
• Number Two: Tsukikage is Reiji's right-hand man, being the only Lancer that both knows and is involved in Reiji's plans usually acting as Reiji's substitute if he's busy.
• Stone Wall: His deck is defensive, and his offensive strategy sacrifices Action Cards to inflict scratch damage, using his speed to collect all the Action Cards.

You Show Duel School

Yuzu Hiiragi

Yuzu Hiiragi

Archetype: Fantasia

Ruri's Standard Dimension Counterpart and Yuya's childhood friend. She first meets Yuto after he interferes with her duel against Sawatari, and becomes disturbed and confused with Yuto's looks due to his strong resemblance towards Yuya. But after clearing her misunderstanding she learns about her counterparts and the inter-dimensional war from Yuto and resolves to become stronger in order to protect her friends from Academia. After Yuya disappears and gets absorbed by Yuto, Yuzu takes the latter under her wing and helps Yuto disguise as Yuya during the Miami Championship, in order to protect her friend's reputation from getting tarnished.

Yuzu plays a Fantasia/Melodious deck which largely relies on Special Summoning multiple smaller monsters to Tribute Summon her ace, Prodigy Mozart, which Special Summons more Fantasia monsters, continuing the chain. After her loss to Masumi Kotsu, she decided to train in Fusion Summoning. The result is a deck that can take advantage of swarming and Fusion and earn her a new ace, Bloom Diva. During the Synchro arc she's able to master Pendulum Summoning and after arriving at Fusion she adds Ritual Summoning to her deck, thanks to Asuka.

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• Action Girl: She is a very skilled Duelist and even came closer to defeating Yuri during their rematch in #111.
• Adaptational Badass: She has Pendulum along with Fusion in her extra deck, and also mastered Ritual Summoning when she's at Fusion.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: She made her debut in #14, while in canon she made her debut in the beginning.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
• Adaptation Distillation: Her duel with Masumi and some of her duels at the Miami Championship are briefly shown, and also her student-mentor relationship with Sora.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • She has more scenes with Yuto during the Standard arc than in the canon.
  • Her duel with Yuri during the Miami Championship arc is shown fully while in canon the duel happened off-screen.
  • When she asks Sora to teach her how to Fusion Summon.
  • When she arrived at Fusion, she begged Asuka to teach her Ritual Summoning
• Badass Biker: Along with the Lancers Yuzu becomes a D-Wheeler during Friendship Cup.
• Baddie Flattery: On the receiving end of one from Yuri who compliments her on defying him and not going willingly with him, after he proved to be completely remorseless on carding Halil and Olga and threatens her with the same if she got in the way as well, saying that she's the same as Ruri and Rin. He then offers to duel her and if he wins she has to go with him.
• Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Sora's metaphorical Beast.
• Berserk Button:
  • Making fun of her friends is never a good idea. Especially if said friend is Yuya. This is a much more serious one.
  • Acting callous about human suffering pisses her off more than anything else, just ask Yuto, Serena, or Yuri.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Whenever Yuya or her father makes her mad, she hits them with her fan, which is a classic manzai gag.
• The Cassandra: While in Synchro Dimension with Yugo, she tries to warn people about the invasion, but no one listens to her, and thinks they're idiots.
• Childhood Friends: With Yuya, which is why her meeting with Yuto disturbs her so much. He looks like Yuya, making her question just how much she really knows about her best friend.
• Childhood Friend Romance: There have been plenty of hints that her feelings for Yuya are more than just friendship.
• Clothing Switch: In order to distract Obelisk Force she and Serena swap clothes, and she starts wearing Rin's clothes.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts this way to the younger students of You Show Duel School, and even to Yuto after Yuya disappeared despite both of them being around the same age.
• Damsel in Distress: She is a target to many chess master characters.
  • Despite her skill in dueling, even Yuzu is fleeing in terror from the far more dangerous Yuri and starts wishing for Yuya and Yuto to come and save her after running a whole night long from said enemy. Then Damsel out of Distress kicks in when her bracelet makes Yuri disappear, probably because Yugo arrives at that moment.
• Designated Girl Fight: With Masumi, twice. Then again with Mikiyo and Asuka.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: She's a perfectly competent Duelist and able to hold off most of her pursuers on her own. So naturally she keeps losing her Duel Disk throughout the Synchro arc.
• Everyone Can See It: It is fairly obvious to most people that Yuzu loves Yuya, and no one really seems to believe her claims otherwise.
• Fiery Redhead: Of the fuchsia-haired kind. While normally a well-meaning Nice Girl, people's idiocy (especially Yuya's) gets on her nerves.
• Flower Motifs: Yuzu's deck represents the flower kanji ka of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle, which is also referenced in the sixth opening. Her Melodious Choir monsters are all based on flowers, and fairies are generally related to flowers.
• From Bad to Worse: Being surrounded by the Obelisk Force is bad. Yuri sending them away and taking over is just horrifying.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in this style, complete with blue barrettes.
• Girly Bruiser: Both she and her deck are overtly feminine, and she's proven herself to be a capable duelist.
• Girly Run: She runs like this in #24, when chasing after Masumi.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She frequently gets annoyed with Yuya and her dad's goofy antics, or when anyone pokes fun at Yuya,
• Hammerspace: Where she keeps her fan.
• The Heart: She is the one who was forced to control the You Show Duel School's more manic personalities. Probably why her disappearance in #50 hits them so hard, especially Yuya.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Says this in stereo with Yuya. Though she didn't like how much stronger he said.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • She's very troubled by her encounter with Yuto and his resemblance to Yuya. A
  • She has a nasty one in #47-48 after dueling and running away from Yuri for an entire night, she admits that she can't escape him and is crying for Yuya to save her.
• Heroic Resolve: Despite being surrounded by three Obelisk Force, she refuses to go down without a fight. She maintains the same attitude even when confronted by Yuri.
• Hunter Of Her Own Kind: Card game version. She runs a Fusion deck that counters Fusions, as Masumi found out.
• Le Parkour: While not as much as Yuya, she's shown to be rather nimble in an Action Duel and did four backflips in a row when she dueled Yuri.
• Light Is Good: Her monsters are LIGHT monsters.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Yuya is this to her and later Yuto. Throughout the Synchro arc, she shows concern towards their well-being.
• Luminescent Blush: This happens to her a couple of times, though all of those times involve Yuya and his dimensional counterparts getting up close and personal with her. Usually, she thinks each of Yuya's dimensional counterparts is Yuya.
• Make Some Noise: Her Fantasia monsters' attacks are visualized as voices that materialize... As razor-sharp waves.
• Mini Dress Of Power: She wears a jacket mini-skirt when she borrows Rin's clothes.
• Miss Exposition: She acts as one to Yugo, telling him about the people that resemble them, her bracelet, the Academia, and the Resistance.
• Morality Pet: Her and Yuya's friendship with Sora caused him to make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Musical Assassin: Her Fantasia monsters are graceful divas that can charm their opponents with the sweet melody of pain.
• Nice Girl: She's kind-hearted and friendly most of the time, but won't hesitate to use her paper fan as a weapon when the situation calls for it.
• Paper Fan of Doom: She smacks her father with a paper fan whenever he does something stupid. Her other target is usually Yuya. She also uses the fan on other people such as Yuri and Sharl.
• Pink Is Feminine: She has not only pink hair, her Duel Disk is pink, her Destiny Draw draws a pink, music-themed line, she continues to wear a pink (and white) Riding outfit and rides a pink D-Wheel, thanks to Rin herself who seems to be fond of the color pink. Her deck is very feminine, and so is her character. She would later borrow Asuka's old clothes which are coincidentally pink (and white).
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Her hair has two different shades of pink and she's mostly a Nice Girl.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Inverted in her dynamic with Yuya; he's the energetic guy and she's the savvy girl.
• Sanity Slippage: After her meeting with Yuto, Yuzu's perception has become a bit... flawed. She gets better after uncovering the facts.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: After Yuri appears and tries to intimidate and threaten her to surrender and go with him without making a fuss, she slaps his hand away, hits him with a fan, makes four backflips to get away from him, and is prepared to fight back.
• She-Fu: She backflips four times in a row when she faces Yuri.
• Ship Tease:
  • She mostly has her moments with Yuya, and many characters have pointed out she's in love with him.
  • She also has her moments with Yuto despite their relationship being platonic, she shows concern about his well-being throughout the Synchro arc and screams in horror when he gets brutally defeated by Jack.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's in love with Yuya, one of the kinder characters of the series.
• {{Tsundere}]: Yuzu is Type B. She is normally kind and friendly but people's idiocy pisses her off easily.
• Took a Level in Badass: Along with Fusion, Yuzu is able to master Pendulum and Ritual summoning.
• Twin Switch: With Serena, by using Clothing Switch. They did that to distract the Obelisk Force from Serena.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She gives one to Yuto, saying it is wrong for him to protect her, but let Masumi be hurt.
• Worf Had the Flu: Yuzu loses to Masumi in their first duel because she's been confused by the existence of Yuto the entire time, making mistakes like not preparing counters, and not realizing the Action Card she saw was a reflection before she desperately attempted to dive toward it.

Tatsuya Yamishiro, Ayu Ayukawa, and Futoshi Harada

Tatsuya Yamashiro, Ayu Ayukawa, and Futoshi Harada

The three children that go to You Show Duel School. The three of them accompany Yuya and Yuzu wherever they go and cheer them on. They're the representatives for You Show Duel School in the Junion division of the Miami City Championship.

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• Adapted Out: Tatsuya's duel with Reira isn't shown in this continuity.
• Alliterative Name: Ayu Ayukawa.
• Big Brother Worship: The three admire Yuya and Yuzu and add "-onii-chan" and "-onee-chan" on their names.
• The Big Guy: Among the three, it's Futoshi.
• Character Catchphrase: Futoshi and his "shivers."
• Chromatic Arrangement: Futoshi wears yellow/green, Ayu has red hair and wears pink, and Tatsuya has blue hair.
• The Cutie: Ayu to whom her parents just state she's absolutely adorable.
• Freudian Trio: Ayu is the Ego, Futoshi is the Id, and Tatsuya is the Superego.
• The Load: Futoshi does nothing but make it worse in Yuya's duel with Sawatari.
• Making a Splash: Ayu uses an Aqua Actress deck, which are fish that look like actresses.
• Nice Guy: And Girl. But all three are friendly.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Tatsuya and Futoshi are the boys, and Ayu is the girl. Platonic, by the way.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Ayu took a lot from her mother.
• Weak, but Skilled: Ayu's Aqua Actress deck monsters have low attack, but are supported by an array of spells and traps to make them a threat. Reira turns this against her by copying her monsters to receive the boost, while preventing her monsters from receiving it.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • They give one to Sora for not even bothering to duel against the LDS Students. And for daring to insult Yuzu and Gongenzaka for losing, since they tried their best to defend the school.
  • Futoshi and Ayu later after the Battle Royale arc give one to Yuto for being unable to protect Yuzu and Yuya.

Shuzou Hiiragi

Shuzou Hiiragi

Yuzu's father and the current owner of You Show Duel School.

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Tropes associated with Shuzou:

• Adaptation Distillation: His duel with Yuya happened off-screen.
• Bumbling Dad: Due to his Hot-Blooded nature, he acts as this to Yuzu much to her embracement.
• Character Catchphrase: "Burning" and "hot-blooded."
• Dare to Be Badass: Challenges Yuya to set the precedence for Pendulum summoning, just like his father did for Action Dueling.
• Doting Parent: He cares very much for his daughter.
• Eccentric Mentor: He's pretty odd, though well-meaning towards the You Show students.
• Fiery Redhead: His hair color fits his Hot-Blooded personality.
• Good Parents: He is arguably the best parent in the series. Having the most screen time out of all the parents, worrying about Yuzu's odd behavior after meeting Yuto, and happily cheering for her.
• Hot-Blooded: Yuya looked subdued by comparison. Shuzou even screams the term.
• Large Ham: When you can make Yuya look quiet, you're definitely this. And then there are his "manly fainting noises". ^note A fansub subbed his feigned fainting in Episode 14 as this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a critical one to Yuya for being a pessimist, not being able to accept another Pendulum summoner, and for not coming close to his father's skills. He continues to mock him through their duel, provoking him to be better.

Yoko Sakaki

Yoko Sakaki

Yuya's mother and the wife of Yusho Sakaki

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon, she was perfectly fine with Yusho abandoning her and Yuya, in order to take part in war, here when she learned from Yuto that Yusho went to Xyz Dimension three years ago, without informing her and Yuya, she became mad at her husband.
• Easily Forgiven: After learning the truth about Yuya's disappearance from Yuto and her husband's whereabouts, Yoko isn't mad at Yuto for hiding it from her because she understands that Yuto lost his home and is carrying all the guilt and trauma inside him, and she even entrust Smile World to him before he departs to Synchro with the Lancers.
• Like a Son to Me: The moment she met Yuto for the first time in #37, Yoko treated him as her own son as if he was Yuya, even after she learned her son is inside Yuto.
• Good Parents: She's shown to be a very loving mother towards Yuya, and even treated Yuto as her own son and entrusted Smile World to him.
• Nice Girl: She's very kind and friendly towards everyone she interacts with.
• You Remind Me of X: Just like how Yuto reminds her of Yuya, Yuto reminds Yoko of his own mother.

Synchro Dimension

Commons

Yugo

Yugo

Archetype: Speedroid

Yuto's Synchro counterpart and a Turbo Duelist. He is looking for his friend Rin who got kidnapped by his Fusion counterpart Yuri after being tricked by the latter, Yugo ends up teleported to Xyz Dimension and mistakes Yuto for Yuri which causes both of them to clash, but they both manage to clear their misunderstanding. He declines to work with Yuto because the latter's allies are distrustful towards him and decide to hunt down Academia alone, in order to save Rin. He uses a deck with Speedroids, WIND Machine Type Monsters that resemble toys or are references to games, primarily those centering on dice. Similar to Joey Wheeler from the original series, Yugo relies on luck as a powerful factor in his duel style and all his monsters lead up to supporting his ace monster, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, and its stronger counterpart, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: He made his debut a bit earlier than in the canon.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In canon, he and Yuto never cleared their misunderstandings, here both he and Yuto soon cleared their misunderstanding and began to consider each other as friends, and by the time they met in Synchro arc they both became close friends.
• Accidental Misnaming: Just like in canon, Yugo's name is similar to the Japanese name of "Fusion", leading to misconceptions of him being from the Fusion Dimension.
• Accidental Pervert: In the #71 flashback he accidentally went to a woman's changing and saw Aki in a bathrobe, which prompted Rin to kneel him hard in the stomach.
• All There in the Manual: How his name and alleged crime are revealed.
• Always Save the Girl: Yugo puts saving Rin at the very top of his priorities. even if it means he loses his shot at a better life.
• Arch-Enemy: He considers Yuri as this because he kidnaps his precious girlfriend Rin and vows to defeat him.
• Badass Biker: He's a turbo duelist and is capable of pulling some amazing stunts using his D-Wheel.
• Berserk Button:
  • Getting his name wrong. So far, he has been mistaken by the Resistance and Academia as being affiliated with the Fusion Dimension due to his name sounding almost like the same as the Japanese word for Fusion.
  • Seeing people get hurt in front of him makes him angry, as seeing the Obelisk Force duelists causes him to flashback to images of their attacks.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He crashes his D-Wheel, has No Social Skills, and is constantly irritated at his name being messed up. He's also a duelist capable of defeating Yuto.
• Big Damn Heroes: He has two during the Battle Royal arc, first when he rescues Yuu Sakuragi, and then when he saves Yuzu by inadvertently causing Yuri to teleport away, though he mistook her for Rin.
• Blow You Away: Yugo uses a WIND deck, which includes all of his Extra Deck Monsters as well.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Whenever Yuya and Yugo mentally synchronize, Yugo uses Yuya's catchphrase "The fun's just getting started!".
• Book Dumb: When he went to the changing room area in Commons Yugo couldn't differentiate between a male and a female sign, which caused him to become an Accdiental Pervert.
• Butt-Monkey: Even more so than Sawatari. He frequently gets dragged into random Dimensions by Clear Wing, has people confusing his name for Fusion which also causes some Resistance to mistake him for an Academia spy and frequently becomes victim of Yuzu's paper fan and Rin's slap and kneeling him in the stomach.
• Cassandra Truth: His attempts to convince anyone associated with the Resistance that he has nothing to do with Academia hardly work.
• Character Catchphrase: "Yūgō jya nee!! Yūgo da!!" (I'm not Fusion!! I'm Yugo!!)
• Childhood Friends: With Rin. Both of them grew up in the slums.
• Childhood Friend Romance: He has very obvious feelings towards Rin with him saying while she's not his girlfriend, he would love for it to be true.
• Cosmic Plaything: Mild example, but if it's not Yuzu's bracelet, it's Clear Wing Synchro Dragon that's warping him all over the place as it chooses. And then of course there's his Superpowered Evil Side and Synchronization.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He turns out to be a bit of a goofball, but immediately defeats Yuya upon his comeback at Standardf. The next time he shows up, he's acting like even more of an idiot, but then beats two guys at once, and later defeats three Obelisk Force members in one turn (by turning their own card against them, no less).
• Easily Forgiven: Yuzu doesn't blame or hold him responsible for Yuya's disappearance because she understands it's easy to mistake a look-alike for each other and Yugo didn't intentionally hurt Yuya because he mistook the latter for Yuri.
• Hot-Blooded: Yugo's certainly not lacking in passion and spirit.
• Insistent Terminology: Every time someone gets his name wrong, he corrects them by saying that it's Yugo and not Fusion.
• Idiot Hero: Among his Dimensional Counterparts Yugo isn't wise and is the less bright.
• Ironic Name: His name sounds pretty similar to the Japanese word for Fusion, but he's a Synchro user - which turns out to be a significant plot point.
• I Will Find You: His goal is to find Rin, no matter where she is.
• Lost in Translation: The Resistance mistakes him for an agent of Academia due to a Japanese wordplay which doesn't work in English: Yūgo's name is pronounced almost exactly as the word for Fusion, "Yūgō".
• My God, What Have I Done?: He feels terrible when he learns from Yuzu that the person he dueled against in #36 is not Yuri but Yuya.
• No Social Skills: Implied, since the first thing he does after crashing into a street light camera is challenging Yuto, not even bother
• Not Helping Your Case: He tries to help Yuzu when she tries to tell people about the invasion but looks like a crazy person when he tries to have Clear Wing move him across dimensions.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Any time he drops the anger and hot-headedness means that he's being deadly serious.
• Punny Name: His name Yūgo is a pun to "Yūgō" ("Fusion"), which doubles as an Ironic Name. The O in his name is slightly shorter.
• Red Herring: The claims of him being a Fusion agent were proven false, and a distraction from Academia's reveal.
• Running Gag:
  • Getting his name wrong. Either calling him Yūgō "Fusion" or any of his counterparts' names. Or thinking he's on the Fusion Dimension's side because of his name.
• Say My Name: "RIIIIIIN!" Usually to Yuzu or Serena.
• Teleporters and Transporters: Clear Wing Synchro Dragon can teleport Yugo across dimensions, but he can't control where he goes.
• Unfortunate Names: His name sounds similar to the Japanese word for "Fusion", so half the people he meets assume him to be associated with the antagonistic Fusion Dimension when he tells them his name and end up in conflict with him, which is not helped by his irritation at people getting it wrong.

Rin

Rin

Archetype: Wind Witch

Ruri's Synchro counterpart and Yugo's Childhood Friend hailing from Synchro Dimension. Her deck is a Wind Witch deck, themed after winter, wind, and bells, which focuses on Burn Damage and copying effects from the Graveyard. Due to Parasite Fusioner corrupting her deck, Rin also uses Fusion Monsters, in addition to her regular Synchro Monsters.

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• Action Girl: She's a very skilled Duelist and can physically handle herself in a fight.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon her feelings for being an Academia prisoner are unknown, here she and Rin find their days trapped at Academia terrifying, and both of them were badly tortured by Sanders and other soldiers.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: She made her debut in Season 1, while in canon she made her debut in Season 2, but we didn't get to see her in person until Season 3.
• Adaptation Expansion: She gets more scenes during interaction with Yuri, and being an Academia prisoner.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon Rin never interacted with anyone except Yugo and she's a Satellite Character whose life and relationship revolves around Yugo, here she gets to interact with many characters, and is able to form a bond with Ruri while they are Academia prisoners, and worked well with each other during their tag duel against Sanders and BB in #56. She also goes to form bonds with Ryo and Asuka despite spending briefly with them.
• Ascended Extra: Unlike in canon, Rin gets more screen time during Synchro and Fusion arc.
• Badass in Distress: She gets kidnapped by Yuri, but before getting kidnapped by him she runs away in fear, challenges him to a duel, and loses.
• Black Magician Girl: Dueling example, although she does cross into Lady of Black Magic due to the elegance of her cold winds and monsters. Rin uses an offensive and aggressive Spellcaster-Type deck that relies on burn damage and is also a Wrench Wench and Tomboy.
• Blow You Away: Rin's Wind Witch deck is full of WIND monsters and it represents the wind kanji fuu of the Kachou Fuugetsu principle. Her monsters attack with cold wind and several of her Spell and Trap Cards are related to wind.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Sanders was punching her in the gut and face, Rin was bleeding from her mouth,
• The Chessmaster: Rin is aware of the effects of her opponent's monsters (especially Sander's), so she forces them to use their effects to prevent them from reusing them again, allowing her to utilize the full potential of her own monsters without any prevention.
• Childhood Friends: With Yugo. Both of them grew up in the slums.
• Closer to Earth: Than Yugo, often reprimanding him like a mother reprimanding a child.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Her hair color resembles the Rings that appear when a Synchro Summon is performed. She also wears blue, white, and pink to contrast with Yuzu's purple and pink and Serena's red.
• Combat Pragmatist: She always lectures Yugi about taking any chance that presents itself, no matter what. This means that she believes in doing anything it takes to win.
• Consistent Clothing Style: All of her outfits are in soft and bright colors with prominent shades of pink.
• Creepy Monotone: Rin gives plenty of these during her duel with Kaito.
• Cute Witch: She uses a Wind Witch deck, although the only one that fits the criteria so far is Ice Bell who looks like a Magical Girl. Neither of her Extra Deck Monsters nor her Tuner Monster are either this trope or Hot Witches and are barely humanoid.
• Electric Torture: When she was trapped at Academia, Sanders often subjected her and Ruri to these if they didn't listen to him.
• Fighting from the Inside: When Dokter activates the Parasite Fusioner in her brain, Rin keeps on fighting for her life and tries to gain control over herself which is seen in #56 and #60.
• Kick the Dog: When under Parasite's influence, Rin carded Haruto and Dr.Faker in #60.
• An Ice Person: Her deck is winter-themed, but rather than using ice, her monsters use cold wind to frost-burn
• Only Friend: Yugo seemed to be Rin's only friend.
• Our Fairies Are Different: The only known card in her Deck is Lucky Pied Piper; averted as this was her childhood deck only. Her current deck is a Spellcaster-Type deck.
• Palette Swap: Curiously, despite the two Ice Bell monsters Rin summoned being the same card, one had green hair, boots, and hair while the other one was purple.
• Pink Is Feminine: Rin seems to be very fond of the color pink. All of her clothes have the color pink as well.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: She gives one before she and Ruri tag duel against BB and Sanders in #55.
• Revenge: She wants to get revenge on Sanders for badly torturing her, and she finally succeeds.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Rin is an aggressive and hotheaded red oni to Ruri's calm and elegant blue. When she was Academia's prisoner, she keeps on fighting back while Ruri waits patiently until she's safe.
• Slasher Smile: She gives a creepy one whenever the Doktor activates Parasite Fusioner on her, which is seen during her duel with Kaito in #60
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's stuborn and Wrench Wench tomboy to Ruri's girly girl.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Rin is a Tsundere and Wrench Wench, but she is also fond of the color pink and is described as motherly by Yugo.
• Tsundere: Type B, towards Yugo. While she loves and cares for him, she frequently nags and scolds him for his foolishness, and after she figures out Yugo is in love with her, she tries to avoid being a tsundere.
• Weak, but Skilled: Like Yuzu's deck, Rin's Wind Witches have relatively low ATK, but make up for it with their powerful effects and support.
• Wicked Witch: Wind Witch Crystal Bell is the corrupted and stronger Fusion evolution of Wind Witch Winter Bell.
• Women Are Wiser: She's more mature and wiser than Yugo.
• Will Not Be a Victim: Her Living MacGuffin status gets her kidnapped/targeted a lot, but like her counterparts, if she's even weaponless and tortured, Rin will always try to fight back whether physically or verbally. The first thing she and Ruri do after being rescued by Ryo and Asuka is take over the duel against Sanders and BB for them and state to them they aren't [[DamselInDistress damsels in distress.

Crow Hogan

Crow Hogan

Archetype: Black Wings

An alternate counterpart to Crow Hogan from Yu-Gi-Oh!!5D's. A member of the Commons, he takes care of three orphans. Like in canon, he uses a Black Wings deck

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• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In 5D's he and Aki don't become friends until Season 2, here they know each other 2 years prior to the start of the fic.
• Adaptational Wimp: In canon, he was able to make it to the semi-finals of FC, here he lost to Ruri in the first round.
• Back from the Dead:
  • His self-dubbed "Phantom Synchro" technique, which only summons Synchro Monsters from the Graveyard as opposed to summoning from the Extra Deck.
  • The man himself comes back from being carded in Episode 138 to face Zarc with Sawatari.
• Badass Biker: Comes with riding a D-Wheel. Since it's the Blackbird, he can "fly" with it.
• Big Damn Heroes: He made his debut by saving Yuto and co from security.
• Casting a Shadow: The Blackwings and Assault Blackwings are DARK monsters.
• Continuity Nod: Like his 5D's counterpart, this Crow sympathizes with people who are Friends To All Children.
• Cool Bike: It's not Crow without his "flying" Blackbird.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His Blackwings and Assault Blackwings are black in color, but Crow is a good guy.
• Friend to All Children: Like in canon Crow is fond of children and he takes care of orphan three kids Frank, Tanner, and Amanda.
• Graceful Loser: Isn't bothered by losing to Ruri, and tells her to save her friends.]]
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He puts on a facade during the Prison Break arc, since he and Shinji are planning a prison break, and pushes Ruri to arm's length because he knows friends left behind get punished for escape attempts.
• Made a Slave: He is sent to the underground after losing to Ruri
• Morality Chain: The three kids are this for him.
• Mr. Exposition: He explains Tops and Commons to Yuto, Serena, and Sawatari.
• Noble Bird of Prey: The Blackwings. The Assault Blackwings are more humanoid than their predecessors but can also count as this.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He's this to Ruri and both of them realize that they have a lot in common with each other during their duel in #70. Both of their decks are bird motifs and are fond of children.
• Parental Substitute: For the three kids, Tanner, Frank, and Amanda.
• Power of the Storm: His Assault Blackwings are based on weather conditions, such as rain, thunder, etc.
• Shock and Awe: The Assault Blackwings have lightning in their attacks and summoning chants.

Aki Izayoi

Akiza Izinski

Archetype: Black Rose

An alternate counterpart of Aki Izayoi from Yu-Gi-Oh!!5D's. She was originally a Tops and was the daughter of a former Senator, after her father lost his position Aki's parents got captured by Roget and she was forced to leave Tops and take refuge in Commons, and hunt down Duel Chasers and Sector Security in order to lure Roget and save her parents. Just like her 5D's counterpart Aki uses a plant deck focusing on field control. Her signature card is Black Rose Dragon. She has psychic powers, which enable her to manifest her cards in reality.

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• Action Girl: She's a very skilled Duelist who is feared by the Duel Chasers and hunts them down in order to save her parents.
• Adaptational Badass: In canon Aki became a D-Wheeler in Season 3, here she became a D-Wheeler before the fic even started.
• Adaptational Heroism: Just like in canon Aki is known as Black Rose Witch, while her 5Ds counterpart was known as Black Rose Witch because she was a sadistic Duelist who enjoyed hurting people, here Aki is a heroic Duelist who fights to save her parents, and is only considered as a witch by Sector Security.
• Adaptational Wealth: Inverted. Just like in canon Aki comes from a wealthy family, but unlike in 5D's her dad lost his position as a Senator while trying to make peace between Tops and Commons, and she was kicked out of her home and forced to live in slums. Her home is clean and beautiful compared to other Commons residents but it's not lavish like people in Tops.
• Age Lift: Downplayed. Aki was 16 at the start of 5D's here she is 18.
• Ax-Crazy: When her Superpowered Evil Side is activated Aki becomes insane and loves tormenting her opponents.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Aki is normally a Nice Girl but when her Berserk Button is pushed and her Superpowered Evil Side is activated, her anger becomes terrifying and she can be a ruthless Duelist.
• Berserk Button: She gets pissed off when people call her Black Rose Witch which also activates her Superpowered Evil Side.
• Big Damn Heroes: She saves Ruri from Duel Chaser 227 in #58 and duels him in her palace.
• Broken Pedestal: To Shinji and Ruri.
  • Shinji considers her as a friend but after he learns that she used to from Tops, he starts to despise her and accuse her of betraying them.
  • Ruri looked up to her as Cool Big Sis and when Aki used Fusion during her duel with Yuto, Ruri started to resent her.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as this to Ruri after saving and taking her under her wing.
• Dark and Troubled Past: After her dad lost his job as a Senator while trying to bring peace between Tops and Commons, she and her family were kicked out of their house by Roget and Sector Security and they were arrested by them. Aki was thrown into a different facility away from her parents.
• The Dreaded: People of Sector Security fear her, to the point they try to avoid challenging her.
• Expy: She takes some elements of Asuka Tenjoiun and Kaito Tenjo's ARC-V canon counterparts.
  • Like Asuka saving the female lead Yuzu from Mooks in canon and taking Yuzu under her wing, Aki also saves the female lead Ruri from Duel Chaser 227 and takes her under her wing. Both of them acted as a Cool Big Sis towards Yuzu and Ruri respectively.
  • Like Kaito, Aki lost her home and family at the hands of antagonist forces Academia and Sector Security respectively, hunts them down in order to save them, and becomes The Dreaded and Wanted by them.
• Girly Bruiser: She is a very feminine girl who uses a Rose-style deck and loves cute things and likes to keep her house clean.
• Hellbent For Leather: Aki's Riding Duel suit is by far the most "leathery" looking out of characters who participate in Riding Duels, as the camera shows off the gleamy reflection typical of polished leather clothing in a few shots.
• Hot Witch: Of sorts. Aki's psychic powers were considered by many to be a form of witchcraft leading to her getting the nickname "Black Rose Witch", and she wears clothes that emphasize her sex appeal. You could consider her a "sexy witch" adapted to the sci-fi sensibilities of the series.
• Humiliation Conga: She suffers this after she defeats Shinji, which causes many commons to throw dirt on her.
• Kill It with Fire: Black Rose Dragon is a FIRE attribute monster. Its attack is named "Black Rose Flare."
• Lady of Black Magic: Elegant, reserved, and aloof, and has powerful Psychic Powers that she uses to make her cards' attacks real (in the form of vines and fire).
• Latex Space Suit: Her riding outfit is very form-fitting, as is pretty much mandatory for female characters. Aki has probably the tightest Riding Duel suit in the show, which was pretty explicitly designed for fanservice - the red and black coloring, the fact Aki never zips up her cleavage (which shows off her bust).
• Most Common Superpower: Aki is by far the most well-endowed female protagonist in the entire Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, and is also a terrifyingly powerful Psychic duelist who can keep up with the boys with no problem.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's still a busty and shapely young lady rivaling Asuka, and during her debut duel with Duel Chaser in #59 when he used her monsters to attack and rip her off, her clothes get tattered revealing her sexy figure.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Aki came back to her senses after she defeated Shinji, she felt remorse for accidentally hurting him.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Aki is one of the few people from Tops who wants to co-exist with Commons, and she gives them supplies and entertains them but when she is revealed to be a former Tops during her duel with Shinji he and some Commons accuse her of being a traitor. When she accidentally harmed Shinji after Superpowered Evil Side activated many of them humiliate and throw dirt on her after she defeats him.
• Of Corsets Sexy: She wears a low-cut red corset that helps to accentuate her breasts.
• Power Incontinence: Like many Psychic duelists she wasn't able to turn her manifestation power off, until her 2nd Duel with Yusei when her father was in danger.
• Power Limiter: Aki's hairband supposedly acts as a restraint for her powers. It's not known whether it is a Magic Feather or not.
• Price on Their Head: Aki is a wanted woman by the Sector Security since she hunts them down in order to save her parents.
• Psychic Powers: Can manifest her cards in reality.
• Psychotic Smirk: She gives them during her duel with 277 in #59.
• Riches to Rags: Aki hails from Tops, used to be the daughter of a Senator, and comes from a rich family but after her dad lost his job, she gets kicked out of her home and took refuge in Commons a slum area.
• Red Is Heroic: Aki is heavily associated with the color red, and is firmly on the side of the heroes after some Character Development.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like a younger version of her mother and inherited her eyes and red hair.
• Something about a Rose: Roses are a major part of both her and her deck's motif.
• Split Personality: She developed one of these when she couldn't handle the guilt of hurting people anymore.
• Tentacle Rope: A power of her 'Rose Tentacles' monster card. Used gratuitously during her duel with 277 and the latter also used her Rose Tentacles against her.
• Vine Tentacles: Another part of her deck. A particular example is the Black Rose Dragon when it's equipped with Thorn of Hatred/Thorn of Malice. Or her other monster Rose Tentacles.

Tops

Jack Atlas

Jack Atlas

Archetype: Red/Reasonator

An alternate counterpart to of Jack Atlas from Yu-Gi-Oh!!5D's. He was originally a Common, but he won the Friendship Cup and eventually became the Duel King afterward, climbing up to the Tops and becoming a hero figure for the Commons. He uses a Red deck, which also includes the Resonator archetype.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Jack has gained a reputation for being arrogant and rude since his victory in the Friendship Cup and his subsequent fame and fortune. Turns out this is the assumed perspective from the majority of Commons; Jack is really a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who's bored with facing "weak" duelists who offer no type of interesting entertainment and was waiting for the one duelist who can do that.
• Badass Biker: He's a D-Wheeler just like the original Jack. And he can pull off the same stunts Yusei did.
• Badass Longcoat: Just like the original he wears a trench coat and remains undefeated ever since he became the King.
• Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe example. After he became king, the Commons were split in half over their opinion of him. Some think he's a symbol of hope for them to win their way to Tops, such as Yugo, others think the fame changed him and that he's a traitor, such as Crow.
• Broken Pedestal: To many of the Commons, especially Sam and Crow.
• Brutal Honesty: Does not approve of Yuto's (initial) Entertainment Dueling for two reasons: 1) It's conceited, and 2) It's a blatant copy of Yuya like tow personalities stuck in one.
• Casting a Shadow: It attacks with fire, but Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend is a DARK monster.
• Character Catchphrase: In the original: "There is only one King, and it is me!"
• The Chessmaster: As both a duelist and entertainer. Jack deliberately manipulates the flow of a duel so that, aside from winning within the number of turns he's declared, he can work up the crowd by making things more dramatic.
• Chick Magnet: Chapter 69 showed he has plenty of fangirls, who call him "ATLAS-SAMA".
• Famed In-Story: Jack is very famous in the Synchro Dimension for being the Duel King and being from the Commons. This contrasts with the Jack from 5D's, whose origin, Satellite, was kept a secret from the public when he was still "King".
• Final Boss Preview: Invoked In-Universe. The tradition of the Friendship Cup is for Jack to hold an exhibition match against some hapless schmuck (in this case, Yuto) before the Cup begins, in order to show the competition exactly what the winner will be going up against and, as Yugo describes it, to rub in the Tops' incontrovertible authority.
• Friend to All Children: While the original Jack was already child-friendly, this Jack deeply cares for the potential of the younger generation, since he himself was a nobody kid back then.
• Hero Antagonist: While Jack is far from evil, he stands as an obstacle that Yuto and the Lancers must beat to get their message across to the City.
• Hot-Blooded: It's JACK ATLAS! Whether he has a Burning Soul or not, his heart burns like hell.
• Invincible Hero: He never lost a single Duel since his win in the Friendship Cup.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Just like the original, Jack is arrogant and haughty, but a good guy underneath it.
• Kick the Dog: Subverted. His downright brutal comment on Yuto's Entertainment Dueling is actually part of his facade, not because he's an arrogant, cruel, and gleeful Sadist like his pre-Character Development 5D's counterpart.
• King of Games: Or perhaps King Of Riding Duels. He's undefeated, and he's the King
• Large Ham: It's Jack. No matter which dimension this is, this is an unavoidable truth.
• Light Is Good: Although his Scarlight is DARK, Jack has a lot of fire, light, and solar imagery.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He is very kind to Reira, and and though Sam didn't understand, he gave him his first card, Tuning Magician, to send him on the same path as him.
  • He also has a very high opinion of Ruri and Yuzu, saying that they're the most impressive duelist on the first day of the Friendship Cup.
• Playing with Fire: So far all his monsters have fire motifs. Especially Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend.
• Perpetual Frowner: He's always seen with a frowning expression.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the end of their first Duel, Jack tells Yuto that his Dueling is a copy of two personalities stuck in one, before giving him a wake-up call.
• Red Is Heroic: Played With, while Jack himself doesn't wear red the majority of his monsters are red, especially Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend.
• Shoot the Dog: How he ends his first Duel against Yuto.
• Stealth Mentor:
  • Played with. His "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Yuto makes the latter realize that he's a nobody in the eyes of the City and he can't stay Willfully Weak anymore.
  • Deconstructed with Sam, who he gave a weak low-Level Monster after Sam managed to grab his attention. Said monster is the first card Jack ever had, and finding it inspired Jack to become the King. Since Sam didn't know the emotional background and wasn't able to figure out the deeper meaning, he interpreted the gift as an insult.
• Victory Is Boring: Jack has spent years undefeated as King but he's either always frowning or looks plain bored in the Synchro arc. Chojiro realizes that because Jack doesn't want to be undefeated but wants to continue to grow thus grew bored and frustrated with his easy wins. It's not till Reiji and Yuto prove to be a Worthy Opponent does Jack lighten up.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Yuto for being naive and self-righteous while holding back in their first Duel the whole time.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Jack's duelist strategy can be summed up thusly: "summon Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend as fast as possible, pummel opponent with it using Spell and Trap support to protect it as needed." He further implies with his duel with Yuya that this strategy has worked for years to keep his crown as King. However, Scarlight's effect is so good coupled with its high ATK, that Jack doesn't really need much else but it to win against most opponents.
• World's Strongest Man: He's considered the best duelist in the City. After taking down even Sergey, he reinforces this.
• Worthy Opponent: He sees Reiji and Yuto as this.

Jean Michel Roget

Jean Michel Roget

Archetype: Antique Gear

The head of Security, and the main antagonist for the Synchro Arc. He is later revealed to have come from the Fusion Dimension ten years ago, sent in as a spy to take over City from the inside. However, he soon let the power go to his head and now he wants nothing to do with his home dimension, instead preferring to rule a different place altogether. To that end, Roget will do anything to maintain his seat of power, anything. Roget plays an Antique Gear deck, to drive home that he hailed from Academia and their love for Fusion Monsters.

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• Ambition Is Evil: His ambition is to rule over the Synchro Dimension as its "King", and to this end, he has implanted Mind Control chips into the Security forces.
• Ancient Grome: He also uses a deck full of Clock Punks like Dennis, and one of the first on-screen Fusion Monsters he summoned is Antique Gear Devil.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's too arrogant for his own good in both "playing chess" and Dueling. Unfortunately, he's facing Reiji.
• Arc Villain: The main antagonist of the Synchro arc and the villain Reiji has to deal with the most.
• Asshole Victim: Ends up being sucked into a black hole after trying to destroy the City by taking it with him. Nobody loses sleep over him.
• Bad Boss: Roget is a flat-out Dirty Coward who is not above mind-controlling his Mooks and Sergey, treating Yuto, Ruri, Aki and her parents like crap, or leaving his subordinates to die by blowing up Security's headquarters.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • He manages to capture Yuto, Serena, Sawatari, Gongenzaka, Dennis, Kurosaki, Crow, Aki, Shark, Ryoga, O'Brien, Ruri, and Shinji in chapter 64, simply by commanding his subordinates while he sits and watches the monitors. They break out in chapters 67-68, but he captures them again. Then the Executive Council comes in to snatch them away from him.
• Berserk Button:
  • He hates being overruled, and most of his Not So Stoic moments are when the Council puts him in his place. Makes sense since he likes being in charge and the idea that people like the Executive Council and Professor Akaba threaten his rule as "King" pisses him off.
  • An even bigger button is when he experiences failure in any way, shape, or form. Episode 94 takes the cake when he starts screaming his head off because Sergey no longer listens to his commands and ends up losing to Jack as a result.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Leo Akaba in Season 2. Roget controls the City where the action happens while Leo sends his agents as he prepares to invade the Synchro Dimension.
• Blatant Lies: He tells Yuya that he has the same ideals as him in an attempt to get on his good side. When this doesn't work, he quickly schedules Yuya to be Brainwashed, instead.
• Chess Motif: He tends to play with chess figures while monitoring the City and moves pieces into play while making plans for characters represented by them. If one pays attention, he's actually mapping out how things are going and how he predicts they will go. His coup d'état of the Executive Council in Episode 76 is called "King's Gambit," and is activated by making a specific move on the board.
• The Chessmaster: He spends several chapters tracking the Lancers and gathering information on them before he makes his move against them. While power and control slip from his hands during the first rounds of the Friendship Cup, with his authority usurped by the Council, he eventually reveals "King's Gambit," where he could forcibly take control of Security via mind control and stage a coup against the Council any time he wanted.
• Clock Punk: Plays an Antique Gear deck, of course.
• Determinator: He'll do anything in his power to control the City at all costs.
• Dishing Out Dirt: His Ancient Gear monsters are EARTH monsters.
• Disney Villain Death: Not really death, but he falls into a wormhole, so he probably is alive, but is stuck in a different dimension.
• Dirty Cop: Let Gallager know when a crackdown is happening to arrest people, so he'll find good duelists for him to use as pawns.
• Fantastic Racism: Or in this case, classism. His claims about wanting to "clean up the City" and the way he seems to view all Commons as "undesirables" are eerily reminiscent of real-life cases of such discrimination.
• Foil: He's one to Professor Leo Akaba. They are both leaders of a Dimension^note Or at least a significant force within a dimension, as Roget only controls one city who are not originally from said dimension. While everyone in the Fusion Dimension is loyal to the Professor, Roget takes power by force or mind control. Roget only desires the Synchro Dimension for his desire to be on top, while the Professor at least seems to state how his goal is for the greater good.
• It's All About Me: Everything revolves around Roget, with no exceptions.
• Lack of Empathy: Among those who are not named Yuri, he's arguably the biggest Jerkass of the bunch.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: He's a villain, but unlike Academia, he's not planning on staging any interdimensional wars any time soon. In fact, he pointedly doesn't want a war, because that would send the Synchro Dimension into chaos and he's spent years trying to keep order in it.
• The Mole: It's strongly implied he's in league with the Fusion Dimension and Academia. As it turns out, it's
• Nightmare Face: As with every Yu-Gi-Oh! villain who's unhinged, Roget's face takes on terrifying expressions as he starts to rant and scream.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He is effectively the leader of the City and a fearsome Duelist.

Security

Security

ARC-V version of Sector Security, that enforces the law. They use Vigilante and Goyo decks, the latter being monsters that can Special Summon the opponents' monsters from the graveyard after destroying them.

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Tropes associated with Security:

• A Lighter Shade of Grey: In comparison to Academia, something that Crow flat-out admits after learning what Academia does first-hand.
• Badass Biker: The Duel Chasers duel on police D-Wheels like the ones from 5D's. They also enforce this trope as they have to entertain the Tops with their Riding Dueling.
• Dirty Cop: Given they enforce a cruel system like the one in the City, yes they are. Especially the easily bribed facility guards.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The majority of their monsters are EARTH monsters.
• Duels Decide Everything: Averted, unlike in 5D's. The only reason Security duel the criminals is because of entertaining the Tops. If they lose, they still chase them.
• Elite Mooks: The Arrest Corps, who cannot be bribed by rare cards.
• Faceless Mooks: The faces of the Duel Chasers and the Arrest Corps are hidden by helmets.
• Foil: The Duel Chasers are this to the Obelisk Force. They are their respective force's elites and wear masks that cover most of their faces and use an archetype connected to the series their dimension is based on. But while the Security are stoic and silent especially after Roget brainwashes them, the Obelisk Force are loud and sadistic. Security is forced into taking over their dimension, while the Obelisk Force gladly commits genocide.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Arrest Corps all wear gas masks.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: While most of Security is competent, the Facility ones are not, being easily distracted by a hoard of rare cards in the breakout of the Lancers, Tokumatsu, Crow, Shinji, Shark, O'Brien, Aki, and Damon.
• Knight Templar: Say any tactic is worthwhile if it catches the thief. And beating them in a duel doesn't mean they'll stop chasing you.
• Underestimating Badassery: Most of the time they underestimate their opponents, only to get their asses kicked.
• Would Hurt a Child: Security has shown a disturbing lack of restraint towards children and they even enjoy tormenting a young Reira.

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