Fanfic / Nobody's Hero

Nobody's Hero is a Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS fanfic written by wizqevelyn, set a few days after the final battle. It focuses on the bad future shown in the final episode.

A random data storm in the real world transfers Yusaku to an alternative future, a future where he's dead, Ai is the emperor and Den City is the site of a Robot War between humans and AI. Torn between wanting to save Ai and the Resistance's wishes to destroy Ai, he must first survive if he wants to resolve the war.

The story is complete in fifteen chapters.

Nobody's Hero contains the following tropes:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene:
  • In between Yusaku's capture and escape, Ai and Yusaku have a heavy conversation about Ai's action in the last two years, and it becomes unnerving as Ai slowly shows how unhinged and Ax-Crazy he has become.
  • After the intense final battle, it's followed by a somber dramatic scene between all the main characters.
• Action Survivor: Naoki survived the initial onslaught two years ago and even Took a Level in Badass after joining the Knights of Hanoi. The next time Yusaku meets him, he had just saved a kid and reunited him with his relatives.
• After Action Patch Up: Non-romantic version, the resistance finds Yusaku, who's dazed from the datastorm and sprained his right hand after landing badly on it. They bring him to Revolver who patches him up while explaining everything that happened in the timeline.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Ai took over SOL Technologies and he repurposed the building into his base of operations.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Of the Bad Future variety where Yusaku died instead of Ai.
• Ambiguously Gay: Revolver's noticeably protective and gentle with Yusaku, even wishing that Yusaku stays in their timeline but knows he should go back.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After heavily debating if Ai is even redeemable, Playmaker angrily asks Revolver, Soulburner, and Blue Maiden if they forgot their friendship with Ai and if killing him will solve everything, leaving the others speechless. Revolver tries to reverse this with his question, but Playmaker points out his hypocrisy.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Yusaku gives one to Ai as he believes Ai didn't delete his emotions, that he misses Yusaku and his self-imposed isolation is making things worse. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect on Ai in the worst way possible.
    Yusaku: You had to know after all this time that no amount of bloodshed was ever going to bring the Yusaku of this dimension back to you. You had to know that, Ai…
  • Revolver asks Yusaku if Ai can be forgiven after all he's done if Ai deserves a second chance to live. Yusaku counters it's not unlike how he and everyone else forgave Revolver for the Tower of Hanoi incident. Revolver can't say anything after that.
    Revolver: You act as if this is a simple act of ‘forgive and forget’, but it’s not. Do you really expect us to give him a second chance after all he has done to this city?!
    Playmaker: We gave you one, or did you forget about the Tower of Hanoi?
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Revolver shows why he's the leader of the Knights of Hanoi as he summons his powerful monsters and destroys all the SOLdiers without fail.
• Badass in Distress: A SOLtiS bot captures Yusaku when he used himself as bait to save the helpless citizens. He manages to free himself after figuring out how to transform into his Playmaker avatar.
• Bad Future: This fanfic expands the exact timeline where Yusaku is shot in front of Ai and the devastating consequences afterward.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Ai can monitor everything happening in the outside world with the help of his AISPY mainframe, and send his SOLtiS bots to attack anytime he wants. It can also detect Cyberse monsters, which is how Ai was able to discover Yusaku's existence.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ai is finally stopped and the city begins anew with other cities aiding in Den City's reconstruction, but there are still a lot of casualties and traumatized people who need help after Ai's reign of terror. Yusaku goes back to his own time extremely traumatized from the ordeal and Ai has a Villainous BSoD from his actions and the former's departure. But after a few months, Revolver transfers Ai to Yusaku's universe where the two reunite in a heartwarming moment.
• Blatant Lies: Combined with Bad "Bad Acting". Ryoken and Roboppi certainly didn't create a program or steal Ai an ethernet cable to connect himself to the laptop. Ryoken also didn't mean to accidentally initialize the transfer to the network while deleting him. It's also not a ploy to send him to the alternate timeline, nor did they destroy all the evidence in front of Takeru, no siree.
• Broken Pedestal: The survivors turn hostile once Playmaker shows up in front of them, believing he abandoned them in their time of need, and start to throw everything they can get their hands on at him. Yusaku understands they need to have something to vent their feelings out, so he lets them vent before giving a Rousing Speech.
• Cardboard Box Home: The refugee camps are made of stitched up tents and surrounded by rubbles of once-tall skyscrapers.
• Cruel Mercy: Blue Maiden wants Ai to live, not because she forgives him, but she wants him to experience the same pain of living without Yusaku like how she lives and her brother is dead.
  Blue Maiden: You don’t deserve an easy way out! After everything you have done, I want you to suffer! I want you to feel every ounce of the pain you’ve inflicted on me and everyone else in this city! You don’t get to escape while the rest of us have to stay behind and clean up the mess you made!! If I have to live in this world without my brother, then you have to figure out how to live in this world without Yusaku!!
• Cycle of Revenge: Continuing from canon and after Yusaku's death, Ai killed everyone in SOL Technologies in revenge, Akira included, and made himself Emperor. After killing nearly everyone in Den City, many want him dead for his crimes, especially Blue Maiden who cannot forgive him for killing her brother.
• Death Seeker: Ai's true endgame is to escalate things until everyone will kill him since he cannot kill himself, but he forgot this over time as he is swallowed by grief and loneliness.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest:
  • Ai is slightly disappointed after realizing Yusaku is not from his timeline, but from an Alternate Universe. When Yusaku tried to convince Ai killing everyone won't bring his version of Yusaku back, Ai snaps and declares he doesn't care if the Yusaku in front of him is not from his own timeline.
    Ai: I can’t have my Yusaku back, sure! But you’re still a Yusaku, and that’s just as good, right?!
  • In the end, Yusaku and Ai did get together after Ai was sent to Yusaku's timeline.
• Duel to the Death: Ai and Yusaku face off one last time in the middle of a giant data storm. After a brutal battle, Ai pinned down Yusaku and was about to kill him but couldn't go through with it. Go and Faust tasered him a little later, and Revolver ordered that Ai will live.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After seeing Revolver fighting monsters on the monitor, Yusaku realizes that LINK VRAINS and the real world are one, allowing him to transform into Playmaker and escape Ai's clutches.
• Face–Heel Turn: Ai took a turn for the worse after Yusaku's death, going on a killing spree against humanity and declaring himself Emperor.
• Faux Affably Evil: The SOLdiers speak in a cheerful and polite tone while they follow Ai's orders to capture Yusaku, who finds the dissonance disturbing.
• First Kiss: Ai kissed Yusaku in what turned out to be his first kiss just before his departure, confusing the latter with his feelings.
• Fusion Dance: Turns out Ai can fuse with all of his monsters, equipping Dark Templar's armor into his body and attacking Playmaker directly instead of dueling. After a few clashes, Yusaku summons Decode Talker and it equips himself into Yusaku's body to protect him and make the fight even.
• Gilded Cage:
  • Yusaku is kidnapped and confined to a lavish room in the heart of Ai's fortress, compared to the desolate ruins outside. His room is heavily guarded by SOLtiS androids who won't let him out without Ai's permission.
  • Ryoken confines Ai to his old home/base of operations on Stardust Road for his own safety, since nearly everyone wants his head on a platter after it's revealed he is still alive.
• Gone Horribly Right: Yusaku was able to convince the others to spare Ai even after all he's done, but realized too late he condemned Ai into a world that hates him. He pondered briefly if killing him is the more merciful option.
• Grave-Marking Scene: Yusaku is understandably unnerved when Ai takes him to the heart of the fortress to visit his other self's grave.
• Guilt Complex: Yusaku can't help but blame himself for every bad thing that happened in this timeline as he feels his death is the reason for Ai's insanity.
• Hard Light: Ai was able to integrate LINK VRAINS into the real world, turning the-once data monsters real, allowing them to wreak havoc in the real world. It depends on the Duelist's determination instead of life points if the monster will last long in battle. Turns out, he used a Real Solid Vision projector to combine LINK VRAINS and the real world.
• Heel–Face Turn: While not evil per se, Roboppi defected to Yusaku's side after realizing he's unhappy being Ai's captive and even helped him escape Ai's fortress. Roboppi even stayed behind in order to help rebuild Den City.
• Killed Off for Real: Alternate Yusaku is the first casualty, then Ai killed Akira and the Kusanagi Brothers in his rampage for Yusaku's death two years ago.
• Lack of Empathy: Defied. Ai claims he deleted all his emotions and can't feel anything anymore. Yusaku sees through his lies and tries to convince Ai that he's still the Ai who loves humans and to turn back from his senseless bloodshed. Ai didn't take it well and started to crack further.
• La Résistance: The Knights of Hanoi are composed of Revolver, Soulburner, Blue Maiden, Brave Max, Spectre, Go, the three commanders, and the remaining duelists. They oppose and protect the remaining civilians from Ai's attacks.
• The Lost Lenore: Male variant with Yusaku. His death is the Start of Darkness for Ai, and his attempt to bring back Yusaku via time travel kicks off the plot.
• Motive Decay: Ai reveals that after his capture, he wanted to do a Suicide by Cop because there is a self-preservation protocol built in him, necessitating for him to escalate things until he's killed. But two years of grief blinded him and he forgot his original intention, rather, his desire warped into terminating humanity.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Revolver discreetly sends Ai through the network, traveling through different dimensions and fusing with different versions of himself before reuniting with Yusaku in the final chapter. This time, they have another chance to start over and be happy together.
• Mythology Gag: Ai reveals there used to be four separate dimensions and there are ways to travel between them before it merged into one. The Real Solid Vision also existed before it was outlawed for being too dangerous and replaced with VR technology.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Ai kidnaps Yusaku, invites him for breakfast where a feast is readied for him before Ai comments about hotdogs. The mere mention of it prompted Yusaku to ask questions and quickly turned the conversation sour.
• Orcus on His Throne: Ai chose to lock himself in his fortress and let his army fight when he could have led it himself. Yusaku notes that Ai must have been lonely for two years while looking at the outside world but never interacting with anyone else. Once Yusaku escapes, that's the time Ai finally goes out of his fortress and attacks the resistance camp.
• Power Nullifier: Revolver creates a collar that jams Ai's connection to other systems, limiting his powers as a compromise instead of killing him.
• Punny Name: This is still Ai, and he names his soldiers SOLdiers, a overseer bot SOL PrAIme, and his spying bot AISPY.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: This is why Ai turned evil and wants to kill all humans. Soulburner bitterly notes while they understand why Ai wants revenge for Yusaku's death after he was shot by a tank, less so when he blames everyone and tries to kill everyone. This was revealed to be opposite to Ai's original plan since he cannot self terminate, but grief and two years of self-isolation is not good for one's mental health.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Revolver is shown to be a level headed leader, willing to listen to both sides when a verbal spat happens, doing his best to protect the remaining citizens, and giving his subordinates a second chance when they failed in protecting Yusaku. The people of Den City wants to vote him to be their new mayor, much to his dismay.
• The Reveal: Ai reveals that he, desperate to revive Yusaku, sent a data storm to pick him up and send him to the Alternate Universe but thought it failed. Turns out, it took Yusaku 2 years to catch up to the Alternate Universe's timeline.
• Robot War: Revolver reveals to Yusaku that Ai declared war against humanity and for two years, Den City became the site of a bloody war between Ai's SOLtiS and the residents of the city.
• Rousing Speech: Playmaker pacifies the hostile crowd by giving a moving speech on how moving on from their tragedies will be hard, but bonds can help everyone to move on and live again.
• Song Fic: As stated in the Author's notes, the AU is set to the music of Black Veil Brides’ album "Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones"
• Sympathy for the Devil: Takeru agrees to be responsible for Ai once Yusaku is gone. He clears up that he cannot forgive Ai's actions but cannot help but think of if Flame was in the same situation, and he would want someone to take care of Flame and make sure he's happy if it was Takeru who died.
• Temporal Paradox: Discussed. Revolver says they can't take any chances of a paradox happening when Soulburner asks if they have to send Yusaku back to his original timeline.
• That Man Is Dead: Revolver says Kogami Ryoken died two years ago after the incident, and only Revolver remains to lead the Knights of Hanoi.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. There is a ward for traumatized patients to help with the trauma, and a nurse is shown tending to a very traumatized little girl. Baira even points out it will take a long time for some to live normally again.
• Titled After the Song: The chapter titles are taken from the Black Veiled Brides album, and the fic title is even derived from the song "Nobody's Hero".
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Thanks to her brother's death and the never-ending war, Blue Maiden became jaded and prone to anger. She angrily chewed out Yusaku when he wants to save Ai even after all the deaths and destruction he's caused and is the only one who never forgave Ai after his capture. She apologized to Yusaku but still refuses to forgive Ai for what he's done.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ai, after destroying the AISPY room in a fit of rage after Yusaku escapes, slowly slips into despair as he thinks how the world wants to destroy him every chance he gets. This line of thinking ends with Ai desiring to kill the imposter before letting himself be killed.
• Villainous BSoD: Ai shuts down when it's clear the others don't want to kill him, keeping him alive per Yusaku's wishes and to make him atone for his crimes. Takeru even notices in the epilogue that he does nothing but stare at the sea for many hours.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: How the fic starts. Yusaku wakes up in a dilapidated warehouse after the datastorm swept him away, before discovering the ruined Den City.
• War Is Hell:
  • Two years of never-ending fighting against a huge robot army and seeing friends and family die is more than enough to change everyone into battle-hardened soldiers.
  • After spending three days fighting for his life, Yusaku is very traumatized by his experience and breaks down in Kusanagi's arms once he's back in his own world.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kids are not exempt from the brutality of war as the SOLdiers target everyone they see. A family can only scream their kid's name as he tumbles down a slippery slope while the SOLdiers invade the remaining sanctuary. It would have ended badly if it wasn't for Yusaku's interference.
• Yandere: Ai, whose sanity is deteriorating after Yusaku's death, constantly switches between affectionate with Yusaku and psychotic, wanting to keep him safe from "those pesky rebels". He's even willing to use a mind-control device to keep him docile, and once Yusaku escapes, had a Villainous Breakdown before deciding to kill him.