Broken by Humanity, Healed By A Dragon is a Fantasy Alternate Universe fanfic of Yu-Gi-Oh! by Hunter13Hawkie that’s primarily a Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V fanfic, but which also has characters and concepts from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, and Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.
Long ago, humans and Spirits lived together in the same world. Unfortunately, it got to the point where humanity realized they could exploit the Spirits, and did so. A war broke out between the Spirits and Humanity, with the former being led by the powerful Supreme Dragon King Zarc and aided by four separate groups of human generals. The war ended with Zarc creating a hidden realm within the world where Spirits could live in peace.
The main bulk of the story takes place several years after the war has ended. Zarc, having lost four of his dragon companions during the war to humans, is feeling depressed and lonely. The generals, their lives having been changed for the better in various ways by Zarc, feel as though they owe it to Zarc to find him a family and make him happy. The generals go their separate ways to look through the human kingdoms to look for a family, only to find (one by one) four individual boys who share the same face and who have all suffered different traumas. A mystery unfolds surrounding the children, leading to startling revelations about their origins in the process.
The fic can be found here
and here
Broken By Humanity, Healed By A Dragon contains the following tropes:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Yuya has heterochromatic eyes (one green and one red) in contrast to the two red eyes he has in canon.
- Adaptation Species Change: Zarc is a Spirit here. In canon, he was a human (or at least, he started out as one).
- Adaptational Heroism:
- In Canon, Zarc was the Big Bad of the series. Here, he's the kind ruler of the Spirit realm.
- Yuri gets this treatment as well; although he has his moments he’s nowhere near the level of evil he was in his source material.
- Adaptational Job Change: In both GX and Arc V, Asuka was a student at Duel Academia. Here, she's the herbalist of two separate villages.
- Adapted Out: Yuzu, Serena, Rin, and Ruri are nowhere to be found.
- Adopted into Royalty / Happily Adopted: Yuya, Yuri, Yugo, and Yuto are all adopted by King Zarc. Before that, they were orphans living lives that were varying degrees of miserable.
- Adoptive Name Change: Subverted, Asuka gives the boy she finds the name "Yuri" after the saplings they planted in her garden note ; it’s later revealed that the boy’s name was always Yuri.
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Zarc has nicknames for each of the Yu-boys:
- Yuya is called "Firefly".
- Yuri is called "Lily".
- Yugo is called "Crystal".
- Yuto is called "Phantom".
- The boys themselves affectionally refer to Zarc as "Haoryuu".
- Zarc has nicknames for each of the Yu-boys:
- Age Lift:
- Zarc is an adult who looks to be in his thirties in this fic. In canon, he was roughly the same as the Yu-Boys (14).
- All of the Signers are aged up, the most notable being the twins Ruka and Rua who are now eighteen. In canon, they were preteens for the majority of the series.
- The Yu-boys are all around ten years old when they're introduced, in contrast to their canon fourteen.
- Anachronism Stew: Hula Hoops, backpacks, pyjamas, and cigarettes exist in the pseudo-medieval setting of the story.
- Are We There Yet?: Yugo does this to Zarc while they're traveling to the Synchro Domain.
- Asshole Victim: The circus announcer who treats Yuya no better than an animal gets subjected to a penalty game courtesy of Atem.
- Back from the Dead: Atem is able to revive Yugi after the latter gives his soul to Atem.
- Big "NO!": Yuto when he believes Yuya to be dead.
- Bitch Slap: Judai delivers one to Yuri after the latter yells that he wishes that the men who have been chasing him would burn in hell.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Yuri consumes a package of poison in an attempt to commit suicide before he can be killed by the vengeful hunters pursuing him. He gets better.
- Buffy Speak: Ray when she asks Zarc to transform into a human-dragon hybrid:"Fine, then human dragon thingy or whatever you call it."
- Child Soldiers: As soon as child mages are able to walk, they are sent to SOL Association training facilities to become obedient soldiers.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Asuka dies from being stabbed with a sword in a flashback.
- Fubuki is mentioned as having died either during the war or prior to the start of it.
- Yuma's sister, grandmother, and parents were killed when the Barians attacked his village.
- Yuya's parents die prior to the start of the fic.
- Yugi loses his grandfather to a group of bandits.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon dies while being cradled in Zarc's arms.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Subverted with Yugo, who when found by Yusei and the Signers has become blind by being Carded but makes a miraculous recovery.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Zarc telling the boys that their bodies will go through changes (that will result in them gaining more draconian appearances) when they’re around 14 calls to mind a parent explaining the concept of puberty to their child(ren).
- Fanservice: Zarc takes off his shirt, giving Ray a view of his abdominal muscles and biceps.
- Flashback: There are multiple; one even occurs in the form of a bad dream.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Zarc (whose natural form is a black dragon with neon green lines) learned to take human form around the time he gained human generals.
- The Glomp: Yugo practically launches himself at Stardust Dragon when the two meet each other again.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Zarc was of this opinion before meeting Ray.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: As the title suggests, the fic itself is about four orphaned boys recovering from their disparate traumas with their new guardian.
- Interspecies Adoption: Zarc, a Spirit, is the adoptive father of four human boys.
- Kid Fic: The story is about Zarc adopting four orphaned boys.
- Mercy Kill: Zarc kills Odd-Eyes (who is poisoned and suffering from internal bleeding) at Odd-Eyes's request.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: Yuto has four: an obsidian knife, a single blue crystal pendant, a lily-shaped badge, and an earring. The latter three items belong respectively to his brothers Yuya, Yuri, and Yugo. Touching the lily badge causes Yuri to remember his past.
- Papa Wolf: Zarc is very protective of his children:If someone would dare to lay their hands on Yuya, Yuri and even Yugo now, Zarc wasn't sure he'd be able to hold back his anger on humans who so selfishly pointed all their negativity into their own young.
- Past Experience Nightmare: At one point Zarc has a nightmare where he relives the death of Odd-Eyes.
- Patchwork Fic: In addition to adapting characters and concepts from across Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yuri’s characterization in particular draws from both his anime and manga versions and Yugo is based on his manga incarnation.
- The Plague: A number of close villages have been completely decimated due to a plague brought from abroad, specifically the first village that Yuri and Asuka called home.
- Power-Strain Blackout: The first time the Eye of Ra appears on Atem, he collapses in a faint.
- Reincarnation:
- Towards the end, it's revealed that Yuya, Yugo, Yuri and Yuto are the partial reincarnations of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, and Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon respectively.
- Atem is the reincarnation of the Pharaoh rather than being the Pharaoh himself.
- Related in the Adaptation: In canon Yuya, Yuri, Yugo and Yuto were alternate versions of each other/four parts of the same soul. Here, they're brothers.
- The Reveal: Yuri and Asuka weren't immune to the plague that destroyed their home; both were in a constant state of healing due to Yuri's dragon powers.
- Seeking Sanctuary: Zarc and the dragon hatchlings meet Ray when they seek shelter at her father's shrine, away from a mob of would-be Spirit killers.
- So What Do We Do Now?: At the beginning of the story it's noted that ever since Zarc has achieved a utopia for his subjects he doesn't know what he should do next.
- Taking the Bullet: Asuka dies taking the sword thrust meant for Yuri.
- This Cannot Be!: "This can't be" is uttered by Yuto after learning that Yuya has gone missing from the circus.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Yuya loses his memories of his brothers after being dealt a blow to the head.
- Travel Transformation: Zarc and Yugo travel to the Synchro Domain, with Zarc in his Dragon Spirit form for the entirety of the trip and Yugo in his Dragon form for most of it.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The circus owner is verbally and physically abusive to Yuya and makes him sleep in a cage with straw like an animal.
- Lotten, the owner of the Dyne mine, forces children as young as five to work in the highly toxic mine ever since parts of it collapsed, causing the children to become malnourished and injured.
