Outcasts
(AO3 Link) is a Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Alternate Universe Fic written by LordGinger, the same writer behind the Kill la Kill Alternate Universe Fic, Natural Selection.
The plot follows Aki Izayoi as she ends up trapped in the Satellite after her powers first manifested, where she becomes the childhood friend of Yusei, Jack, and Crow.
Outcasts provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Ironically, despite the fact that she's trapped on Satellite, Aki ends up making a lot of friends at Martha's orphanage and gets control of her powers much faster. This is in contrast to the anime, where she suffered a Friendless Background, was manipulated by a cult, and being unable to control her powers was the biggest source of her problems.
- Adaptational Badass: Thanks to receiving proper emotional support and wellbeing from living at Martha's place, losing her Friendless Background in the process, Aki is more competent with her psychic powers than in canon. She learns to control her output up to a degree, and can manifest monsters without a Duel Disk.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Because of how volatile and destructive her powers can be, Aki initially refuses to duel anyone while staying at Martha's orphanage.
- Break the Cutie: This basically sums up everything Aki goes through for the first couple of chapters as she's subject to a long, non-stop Trauma Conga Line.
- Child Prodigy: Aki shows a lot of proficiency at Duel Monsters even as a kid. In her time at Martha's orphanage, she easily wins against everyone (including Jack) and has never been defeated. Jack dismisses it as her having better cards than everyone else, while Yusei points out that it's more on the skill of the duelist, not the cards themselves.
- Combat Pragmatist: Everyone on Satellite is this, due to having to fight as hard as they can for any little advantage. It's pretty much a requirement for survival.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Yusei, Crow, and Aki meet Kiryu while looking for cards in the BAD area.
- Emotional Powers: While helping Aki train her abilities, the squad finds out that her attacks hurt much less if she's in a good mood - for example, when Jack is set on fire, he feels warm instead of getting burned. Aki sarcastically comments that she must Think Happy Thoughts then.
- Escape Pod: Crow jokes that Yusei is an alien because Martha found him in one of these.
- Fat Bastard: The Security officer that Aki is forced to duel in Chapter 6 is described as being very large and lumbering. He also has no problem intimidating children and abusing them and trying to arrest them on false charges.
- Groin Attack: Crow tends to take advantage of his shorter stature to dish these out.
- I Am a Monster: How Aki views herself thanks to the destruction her powers caused upon awakening and being called as such by her father. She even calls her dragon mark "the mark of a monster".
- Innocently Insensitive: Aki referring to her mark as the sign of her being a monster insulted Jack since he also has a mark and it came off as if she was calling him a monster.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Implied on the part of Aki's parents. One of the many things that haunt Aki during her escape from Neo Domino is the memory of her mother begging her to return.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Yusei, Jack, and Crow form this. Yusei is the most considerate of others, the cool head of the trio, and always polite, even to Security officers. Jack by contrast is quite hot-headed and blunt, willing to do whatever it takes to get his way and ready to throw a punch over minor teasing. And while Crow constantly needles people to get under their skin and is quick to jibe at his friends and their flaws, it's never truly mean-spirited, and he's shown to have people's best interests at heart.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jack is seriously shaken up by Aki calling him a monster, especially since that was followed by their Signer marks activating. When he asks Yusei and Crow if they think he's a monster, he acts so quietly that Yusei actually loses his balance by how shocked he is.
- Police Brutality: As Satellite is under the rule of Security, this is par for the course, and not helped by Aki's dramatic arrival. Aki and the boys experience it first-hand in Chapter 5, accused of assisting local gangs with a raid on Security. All of them are slapped with false charges, with Jack and Crow getting physically abused for resisting in any small way.
- Riches to Rags: Aki goes from living in the lap of luxury as a senator's daughter in Neo Domino to slumming it in the Satellite at Martha's House with the orphans.
- Shout-Out: After a young Jack gets backhanded by a security officer, his response is "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
- Trauma Conga Line: Aki has a pretty rough time over the course of the first two chapters. Long story short Did we mention she is only eight years old when all this happens? Thankfully, things do start getting a bit better after she gets taken in by Martha.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Crow and Jack spend a lot of time sniping, fighting, and otherwise arguing with one another, but they're also thick as thieves and have the other's back in a heartbeat.
- What If?: Aki grew up in Satellite at Martha's House alongside Yusei, Jack, and Crow?
- What the Hell, Hero?: Yusei, Crow, and a couple of other orphans call out Jack on making Aki run off in Chapter 4.
- Would Hit a Girl: Violence between children in Satellite is unisex, as Aki finds out after trying to invoke the opposite to her advantage.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Played for Laughs. After Aki runs away from Martha's House due to Jack, Crow takes it upon himself to put Jack in a full nelson hold the next time they find her, as to keep him away from her. Given that Jack is a good deal taller than Crow, it doesn't hold for long.
- Wretched Hive: The Satellite is a broken-down slum of crime and poverty suffocated under a totalitarian police rule, with frequent conflicts between Security forces and gangs. Aki's first experience in the Satellite is her getting caught in the crossfire of one such altercation. In Chapter 4, Rex Goodwin's narration reveals that this trope was actually invoked by his predecessor, who dropped the city's criminals onto the island and perpetuated the belief that all Satellite residents were dangerous.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Aki is subjected to this trope twice over. Firstly, it's because she thinks she's a monster and that her family doesn't want her home anymore. Secondly, she's accidentally shipped over to Satellite with no way to make it back to Neo Domino even if she did want to return.
