Fanfic / The Judgement of the World (5Ds)

Just because the Earthbound Gods are gone doesn't mean Aki's years of mistrust and anger issues are fixed. Those who wish to use and abuse her power are moving into place while a still uncertain band of friends strive to protect her. A Lady of Roses who could tear the world apart, though thankfully, Yusei allows for her sharp thorned stems to wrap around him. But can she learn to control herself before the threat on the horizon comes crashing down? Can she learn to trust the team, accept them as her friends and family, and let the bloom of her kinder emotions to fully develop before Yusei bleeds to death for her?

The Judgement of the World is a Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds fanfic by LadyLunarPhoenix set soon after the defeat of the Earthbound Immortals. Updates are roughly every two to three weeks.

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Tropes contained in The Judgement of the World:

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted. While Honest normally uses hypnosis so others will see him as his human partner, Yusuke Fujiwara, he decides to just appear in his true form to Aki when he finally approaches her to explain his situation, as he knows she wouldn't appreciate any further deceptions.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Judai is a non-romantic example towards Aki. Because he can see Duel Spirits but can't materialize them in the real world, he's obsessed with the fact that Aki can do both. Aki doesn't appreciate the attention at all, as she's still getting used to her powers and recovering from years of trauma due to them. It certainly doesn't help that Aki is friends with Asuka, who has a crush on Judai despite him ignoring her most of the time.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • As often the case in fanfics, Carly and Aki become close friends following the defeat of the Dark Signers.
  • Since Judai is initially portrayed as a Hate Sink in the story, many characters don't have as good of a relationship with him as they do in canon:
    • It's mentioned that Judai doesn't even give Asuka the time of day, suggesting they aren't friends like in the anime, which in turn implies Sho isn't Asuka's friend either. Fubuki also shows no signs of being a Shipper on Deck for his sister and Judai, instead calling Judai a jerk and an idiot for humiliating Asuka.
    • Yusei befriended Judai in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time. Here, when he first hears about Judai and how he's been pestering Aki to use her powers, Yusei's first instinct is to make a jump on his D-Wheel across the gap of the unfinished Daedalus Bridge and illegally enter Neo Domino City so he can punch Judai in the jaw. His opinion of Judai doesn't improve much as he gets to know him more.
  • Downplayed regarding the Signers, who (at least at first) are more distant from each other than they were in the anime following the defeat of the Dark Signers. Crow in particular barley knows anything about Rua and Ruka's living situation or Aki and her troubled past. Justified, as the ongoing construction of the Daedalus Bridge indicates that not as much time has passed yet, with Crow and Yusei still living on the Satellite.
  • Momoe and Junko are part of Ryo's circle of friends, as shown by his deep concern when they're mutilated after Yubel's attack.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: When Kiryu appears in Crash Town, while he's still deeply remorseful of his actions leading up to and following him becoming a Dark Signer, he's nowhere near the Death Seeker he was in canon, though this is said to be due to him fearing death. If anything, Kiryu seems committed to rebuilding his life, homeschooling himself while taking up a job at a motel to put a roof over his head. He even shares a few genuine laughs with his former teammates before they return to Neo Domino City.
• Adaptational Explanation: Crash Town's desert landscape and resemblance to Spaghetti Western towns is explained as being due to Zero Reverse altering the local ecosystem until it could no longer support indigenous vegetation, followed by Industrial Illusions and the Japanese government trying to revitalize the town by turning it into an American Western-themed tourist attraction, which quickly lost its appeal and is now mostly abandoned.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Yusei is hit with this due to being more overtly territorial towards Aki. He acts threatening towards anyone who insults, bothers, or even shows too much interest in her and has hints of being a Stalker with a Crush, feeling it's his right to know about whom Aki hangs out with and hacking the personal information of her new friends at school.
• Adaptational Nationality:
  • Martha is an American nun here.
  • Instead of being Scandinavian like in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Johan is American.
  • Patty, Rua and Ruka's friend from school, is stated to be a biracial American who immigrated to Japan.
• Adaptational Skill:
  • Carly is shown to be quite good at painting figurines. Jack is likewise revealed to have a talent for spray paint art.
  • Thanks to Martha being from America in the story, Yusei, Crow, and implicitly Jack are all fluent in English.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Aki's psychic powers are overhauled so that not only can she manifest Duel Monsters and card effects and see Duel Spirits, she also develops the ability to converse with them, summon others' spirits from the Duel Spirit world, and give any Duel Spirit in her proximity a corporeal form, which lets it communicate with people who normally can't see or hear it. Later, it's shown that she can also imbue Witch of the Black Rose with enough of her powers to allow the latter to materialize and interact with her surroundings even when miles away from Aki.
  • Ruka is stated to also be a Psychic Duelist and capable of materializing Duel Spirits, at least in theory. She's simply can't do so without endangering her health due to her age and frailty.
• Affectionate Nickname: Stardust Dragon always refers to Black Rose Dragon as "Rosy." He's the only one she lets call her that.
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • Mikage shows signs of still having feelings for Jack even though he's in a relationship with Carly.
  • Despite how popular she is among the boys at her school, Asuka ends up crushing on Judai, the one guy who hardly notices she exist. Judai, in turn, is only interested in Aki, albeit non-romantically due to her psychic powers, and seems completely oblivious that Aki doesn't like the attention at all. Deconstructed, as Aki is often put in an awkward position due to being friends with Asuka, who repeatedly gets hurt and humiliated from failing to get Judai to notice her. Asuka eventually gives up on Judai because of this.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The story takes place concurrently with instead of several years after the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, with many characters from the show appearing as Aki's schoolmates at Domino Dueling Academy or antagonists for the Signers to face. The GX anime is even referenced when Yugi tells Honest that in an alternate reality, Fubuki's disappearance and reappearance happened decades ago and at a school located on an island instead of in Neo Domino City. Additionally, Kazushi Muro, one of Aki's friends from school, has XYZ monster Queen Dragun Djinn as his Duel Spirit, indicating XYZ summoning is also widely used in this universe.
• Amazon Chaser: Jack notes that Stardust and Yusei both seem to have a thing for dangerous females (Black Rose Dragon and Aki, respectively). Given the Signer Dragons were once part of their partners, it's not too surprising that the two share this trait.
• An Arm and a Leg: Junko faces the possibility of this after having a leg burned by Yubel's corrupted fire, which corrodes skin, flesh, and bone, even after it's seemingly gone out.
• Analogy Backfire: Witch of the Black Rose asks Aki why the latter is suddenly being so humble in her email to Lord Kaiba asking him to forgive Yusei for hacking Kaiba Corporation's computer systems. Aki responds with the standard "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," to which the Duel Spirit counters that apple cider vinegar is actually very effective at attracting fruit flies.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Subverted. Many Duel Spirits look forward to seeing Judai get physically beat up or at least curb-stomped by Yusei and Aki in the Valentine's Day lovers tag team duel. Once the actual duel commences, everyone quickly finds it awkward and difficult to watch due to how much humiliation Asuka endures.
• Anthropomorphic Shift: Played with. While both the GX and 5Ds anime imply that all Duel Monsters have Duel Spirits with human-like personalities, most only appeared as lifeless holograms when summoned in duels with little to no hint of sapience or self-awareness. Here, due to Aki's powers evolving to allow her to communicate with both her and others' Duel Spirits, Duel Monsters are much more anthropomorphic in behavior. This also results in many of said spirits becoming major supporting characters.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Most of the duel monsters that appeared in the anime fall under this, appearing as Duel Spirits with their own personalities instead of only non-sentient holograms, sometimes even becoming major supporting characters.
    • Witch of the Black Rose is perhaps the best example. Only summoned twice in the anime, here, she is elected as the speaker for Aki's entire deck and becomes Aki's main Spirit Partner alongside Black Rose Dragon, acting as one of Aki's closest confidants and often lending direct assistance to her human partner, particularly as a messenger or for scouting purposes.
    • As the Signer Dragons are here born of the soul of his or her respective partner and inherited said partner's past memories, Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon are more fleshed-out characters with their own personalities. In the show, they were essentially Flat Chracters despite making many appearances. This also applies to a lesser degree to Red Dragon Archfiend.
    • Ancient Fairy Dragon was already portrayed as a sapient Duel Spirit in the show, but her role as ruler of the Duel Spirit World is further explored here.
    • Other examples include Yusei's Junk Synchron, Carly's Fortune Fairies, Ryo's Cyber End Dragon and Cyber Phoenix, Asuka's Cyber Blader and Cyber Tutu, and Fubuki's Red Eyes Black Dragon.
  • Misty only made a couple cameos in the show after the defeat of the Dark Signers. Here, she remains in close contact with Carly and the Signers and is a recurring character.
  • Patty, Rua and Ruka's friend from school, only had a few brief appearances in the anime. She's given quite a bit more focus here, particularly regarding the discrimination she's received due to being a mixed-race foreigner; her struggles taking care of her ailing grandmother; and Yusei, Crow, and Carly helping her fix her grandmother's music box.
• Bad Future: The story is set after a bad ending to one of the author's other stories, A Past and Future Pharaoh.
• Becoming the Mask: Honest realizes that during the time he pretended to be his partner Yusuke, he genuinely grew to think of Kazushi, one of the members of Yusuke's group, as a friend he made on his own.
• Call-Forward:
  • Life Stream Dragon is mentioned by name and confirmed to be the fifth Signer Dragon and the true form of Power Tool Dragon before construction of the Daedalus Bridge is completed.
  • Characters note that Crow doesn't have a dragon despite being made a Signer and wonder if he'll be given his own. Yugi later gives him a blank card, telling him a Duel Spirit will eventually inhabit it and transform it into a card Crow can use.
• Combat Pragmatist: Once Aki's corporeal Duel Spirits start showing up and fighting against Trueman's creations, instead of finishing his duel with Trueman, Yusei decides to just run at and physically attack the spirit.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Stardust tries to get Black Rose Dragon to back out of a collapsing building before the floor gives way and Aki gets hurt. The latter dragon instead insists that Stardust is calling her fat.
  • Judai has no romantic interest in Aki despite being her biggest fanboy, but he still asks her to be his partner in the Valentine's Day tag duel, unaware that the teams are supposed to be couples. He later agrees to partner with Asuka against Yusei and Aki, only to repeatedly try to switch partners with Yusei during the duel, still oblivious to the implications.
• Common Tongue:
  • This is apparently the case in the Duel Spirit world, as Ruby Carbuncle seems surprised to learn from Johan that the same isn't true in the human world. The one exception is Dragons, who have their own language, though they can sometimes also communicate with non-dragon Duel Spirits (plants can understand Black Rose Dragon and Ancient Fairy Dragon, like fairies, can talk to others).
  • Averted when Johan, an American, arrives in Japan and can't help out as much as he'd like to due to the Language Barrier.
• Dead All Along: While searching for Fubuki, Aki and her friends from school run into Jounouchi Katsuya, who vanished ages ago. Soon afterwards, though, it's revealed that Jounouchi has long already been nothing more than a skeleton.
• Death Faked for You: Isao and the remnants of the Arcadia Movement kidnap Aki and then arrange to have the body of a woman who resembles her be found by the authorities.
• Death Is Cheap:
  • Subverted for Jounouchi Katsuya. Time Wizard suggests finding Yugi or Seto to help or using his own abilities to turn back time, only for Witch of the Black Rose to tell him his suggestions would be futile.
  • Played with regarding Duel Spirits. They often have trouble comprehending the concept of their own death, as they aren't capable of destroying each other, and few beings even know how to do so. Humans who know about the existence of Duel Spirits tend to share this view, as the Duel Monsters game allows for many ways to bring monsters back from the graveyard. Thus, when Yubel kills most of Aki's friends' Duel Spirits, everyone initially despairs over the fact that the spirits are really gone, and that Aki can't summon them back using her powers or even have other spirits locate them in the Duel Spirit World. Eventually, however, Yugi's female Alternate Universe counterpart Kara creates new bodies for the murdered spirits and then implants them with their memories from right before their deaths, though she only agrees to this on the condition that the spirits' human partners agree to help fight the negation of their reality.
• Demoted to Extra: Because the story is about Aki, despite many GX characters appearing, Judai and Sho have very minor roles, though the former does become more prominent after Yubel enters the story. The author has stated that the fic is not meant to be a traditional crossover.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • When visiting the Duel Spirit World with her school friends to find information about Asuka's missing brother, Aki decides to wear her usual outfit, short dress, heels, and all. She quickly has trouble keeping up with everyone else, who wore more practical clothing, and ends up with her clothes ruined and legs scratched by branches.
  • After learning that Isao poisoned Yusei and has the only antidote, Jack and Crow both decide to ride to Isao's location despite knowing they won't be able to get back on time to save Yusei even if they obtain the antidote, as they want to at least avenge their friend. Crow later realizes they could've just asked Aki to have her father arrange a helicopter for them, which might've allowed them to arrive back fast enough to administer the antidote. Aki even comes up with a quicker solution, using her psychic powers to manifest Black Rose Dragon and Stardust Dragon and have them carry Yusei to Isao's location so the antidote can be given to him immediately.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Judai was told that Yugi was "up there." He thought people meant that Yugi was in outer space instead of dead and thus had Yubel sent to space via missile, hoping that Yugi would be able to help her. Justified, since he was only a child at the time. Not even people who consider him immature and dislike him can fault him for what he did.
• The Dreaded: Black Rose Dragon has this reputation among Duel Spirits due to her temper and violent outbursts. Not even her fellow Signer Dragons are completely safe from her.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • Ancient Fairy Dragon takes Rua's side over her partner's when he declares that Yusei and Aki are essentially already a couple in every way that matters and will definitely get together in the future. Ruka can't even bring herself to say to her brother's face that she doesn't see Yusei and Aki as a couple, despite insisting to Rua that they aren't dating.
  • When everyone finds out Yubel is lashing out because Judai sent her into space, he gets berated for said decision. He later explains that he thought Yugi would be able to help her there, since everyone has told him Yugi was "in heaven," which he didn't realize meant he was dead. Even Yusei and Aki, who detest Judai in particular, admit that they likely would've arrived at the same conclusion at such a young age.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Trueman is genuinely shocked when Yusei just makes a straight run at him rather than finish their duel. He even declares that Yusei has no honor as a duelist if he won't even follow the rules of the game.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Stardust Dragon might be an Amazon Chaser who likes females with "spice" in them, but he's well aware that Black Rose Dragon often goes way overboard with her tantrums.
  • On the flipside, while Stardust Dragon serves as a Morality Pet for Black Rose who regularly pushes her to be nice to or at least not demean or hurt others, Judai's fanboying quickly annoys him so much that he and Black Rose yell at Judai in unison to go back to class.
  • Even in her present damaged mental state, Black Rose Dragon is disgusted that in the Signer's past lives, Aki's tribe repaid Yusei saving them in the fight against the Earthbound Gods by making him a human sacrifice. Granted, the memories of that event are the prime causes of her instability.
  • Yusei firmly believes there's no such thing as a useless card and built his own deck using discarded cards he found on the Satellite. However, when he's handed a dead deck with only normal monsters and no traps or spells, even he knows dueling with said deck is a lost cause if his opponent has a real deck.
  • Witch of the Black Rose resents Yusei out of protectiveness towards Aki, but not to the extent of wanting to hurt him. When ordered to attack him by a Brainwashed Aki, Witch is visibly apologetic and even tries to throw off her own aim so she'd miss.
  • Jack makes sure to tone down his "King" personality when talking to the elderly.
  • Judai, initially a Hate Sink and heavily disliked by the main cast, is still shown sympathy after his connection to Yubel is revealed:
    • Yusei and Aki resent Judai more than most, with the former even holding violent urges towards Judai for trying to get Aki's attention. Nevertheless, both quickly have JerkassRealizations about greeting him with harsh expressions at the hospital after Judai had just been attacked and injured by Yubel and lost his Duel Spirits. Moreover, after hearing the full story about why Judai sent Yubel into space, they don't hold the misguided decision he made as a young child against him, despite the devastating consequences.
    • Witch of the Black Rose initially wanted to vent her frustrations regarding Yubel's attack on Judai, whom she blames for causing everything. She can't bring herself to go through with it after seeing how guilty he already feels.
• Everyone Can See It: Yusei and Aki, naturally. Judai might be the sole exception.
• Evil All Along: Isao Yoshifumi, one of Aki's friends from school, is really a spy for the Arcadia Movement and seems to have ties to Trueman and Yubel.
• Exact Words:
  • Martha tells her orphans to shut the window when one of them yells about seeing Yusei strip for Aki ^note He was actually just showing her the scar on his abdomen from his duel with Kiryu. The children obey... and then just continue watching the two from behind the glass panes. Martha herself even joins them.
  • Aki tries to interview Rua's deck by holding it while asking for whoever is considered the speaker of the deck. She ends up summoning at least one Duel Spirit from every deck in the room, since she didn't specify which deck she was talking to.
  • Yusei tells Witch of the Black Rose "Out" when the latter sneaks up on him and Aki and teases them. As they were sitting next to the twins' outdoor pool, Witch immediately snarks that he can't order her out, as they're already outside.
• Facial Horror: Yubel's attack leaves horrific burns on half of Momoe's face. What's worse is that the corrupted flame Yubel used continues to eat away at Momoe's flesh and will apparently burn through her skull eventually, spelling out a slow and painful death.
• Fake Memories:
  • Isao usurps Honest's place at Domino Dueling Academy over a year before Aki's return by replacing memories of Yusuke, whom Honest had been impersonating, with memories of himself. When Isao leaves the school, Honest then replaces Isao with Yusuke once more in the school's memories.
  • Honest plants these after Yubel's first attack to hide the fact that Kazushi personally killed his Duel Spirit, Queen Dragun Djinn, and then burnt Junko and Momoe with cursed flames while possessed by Yubel, hoping to make amends for past deceptions by sparing them the trauma of such memories.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There were several clues to Isao's true nature:
    • Witch gets protective upon noticing one of the guys staring at Aki when the latter invites some of her peers from school over to the twins' condo so they can interview Rua's deck. Aside from the children, whom Witch wouldn't be concerned about, the only guys present were Ryo, Kazushi, and Isao.
    • Isao and Aki were the only two who weren't with the rest of their group when they had to make a quick escape as the volcano they were in began to collapse.
    • When eating lunch with her school friends, one of the Duel Spirits present is Hibikime, who is strongly implied to be Isao's Duel Spirit based on Aki's thoughts. Later, when a group of unnamed men engineer for Yusei to lose consciousness after crashing his D-Wheel and then kidnap him, the leader amongst them shows in-depth knowledge about the Signers and is revealed to have an Empress Judge Duel Spirit, a fusion monster that has Hibikime as one of its required fusion materials.
  • A mysterious entity described as a purple eye seemingly hypnotizes the Arcadia Movement and turns their base into an inescapable labyrinth. Yubel's initial appearance in the GX anime was as an eye surrounded by purple flesh, and they become the next major antagonist.
• Friendly Address Privileges:
  • Aki realizes she accidentally revealed how close she is to Yusei, the new Turbo Duel King, and Jack, the former King, when she refers to them both as her friends without using any honorifics. Conversely, Crow deduces that Yusei referring to Aki by her given name must mean that Yusei likes her, since he would never be rude to a teammate.
  • Black Rose Dragon doesn't mind being called "Rosy," but only by Stardust. When Judai tries to refer to her by that nickname, she threatens to snap his neck (the fact that she's already annoyed by his constant pestering of Aki certainly didn't help).
• From the Mouths of Babes:
  • The children at Martha's orphanage seem fully aware that Yusei and Aki have feelings for each other, greeting the latter as "that girl big brother Yusei likes." Then, when Aki insists that Yusei show her where he had surgery following his duel with Kiryu, one of the orphans announces that Yusei is stripping for his girlfriend.
  • A variant regarding Red Dragon Archfiend, who isn't familiar with the human world. He asks Aki what a condom is, mentioning that he heard Jack and Carly discussing them and pills. Aki is understandably embarrassed by this.
• Futureshadowing: When Yusei and Aki notice that Black Rose Dragon, with her red eyes and black body, is similar in appearance to Red Eyes Black Dragon and its variants, Stardust makes a throwaway comment that she doesn't actually look like that. Later, it's revealed that Black Rose's original form was Moon Rose Dragon, and that her petals were once white and her body deep blue; the change happened due to Aki going insane and wiping out her entire tribe in her previous life after discovering they murdered Yusei.
• Go Mad from the Revelation:
  • In her previous life, Aki wiped out her entire tribe within half an hour after realizing they had tricked her into sacrificing her lover (Yusei's past incarnation) and later had to be cared for by Jack and Rua for the rest of her life.
  • Black Rose Dragon underwent this when she later inherited Aki's past memories.
  • Though she gets better, Aki is horrified when she learns that the practice dummy she saw herself dueling and using her psychic powers on in her VR headset was really Yusei and goes into Heroic BSoD while unleashing the raw power of Black Rose Dragon on her surroundings. What makes it worse is that she realizes she may have hurt or even killed others as well, due to how many times she had dueled using the headset.
• Good Hurts Evil: The presence of the Gem Beasts and later Ancient Fairy Dragon dispels Trueman's darkness and creations.
• Good Is Not Nice: Despite being a Signer Dragon, Black Rose is frequently irritable and has violent tendencies, often hurting her own allies when she lashes out.
• Hate Sink: Surprisingly, Judai is supposed to be this, at least initially. His lack of concern about school and his career is portrayed unsympathetically, and he has trouble respecting others' privacy, with his constant hounding of Aki to materialize Duel Spirits depicted as borderline harassment. Additionally, he shows little consideration of Asuka's feelings and likes to give play by plays of Duel Spirits fighting each other outside of duels, apparently not caring how the spirits or their owners might feel about this. Granted, most if not all of this is due to him being Innocently Insensitive rather than outright spiteful.
• Head-Turning Beauty:
  • Like in canon, Asuka is this, though the only guy whose attention she actually wants, Judai, barely even notices her.
  • Aki is this as well. Even prior to her shedding her past reputation as the Black Rose Witch, many of her male schoolmates show interest in her.
• Her Story Repeats Itself: Aki wiped out her entire tribe with her powers in her previous life after discovering that they had tricked her into sacrificing her lover, Yusei, all because his social status was beneath hers in their mind. In the present, she enters Heroic BSoD and lets Black Rose Dragon (Aki's SoulFragment) go on a rampage after learning that the dummy she saw herself using her powers against in her VR headset was really Yusei. The entire thing was even engineered by a handful of remaining members of the Arcadia Movement that she once belonged to, who all believed that Yusei was holding Aki back, with many of them getting injured or even killed in the ensuing destruction caused by Black Rose Dragon. Fortunately, Aki's friends help her snap out of it this time, and Yusei survives.
• Hidden Depths:
  • In spite of her usual clumsiness, Carly is quite talented at and very meticulous about painting figurines. Additionally, Aki states Carly is in fact a Psychic Duelist in the most basic sense of the term due to her ability to predict the future with her card readings.
  • Jack secretly enjoys creating spray paint art. Even Witch of the Black Rose is amazed by his works.
  • Aki is rather impressed that Judai is a good duelist despite his short attention span and seeming lack of intelligence. Additionally, as child, Judai noticed that unlike other Duel Monster holograms, Yugi's Dark Magician showed awareness of its surroundings whenever summoned, and while Judai was Entertainingly Wrong about Yugi being in outer space, Yusei and Aki admit his logic actually shows precociousness given his young age at the time.
• Holy Burns Evil: Inverted. Johan, who is referred to as a priest due to his ability to see Duel Spirits and open portals to their world, is unable to look at Trueman, and even attempting to do so irritates his eyes.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Yusei calls Jack out for trying to hide from him that Rua collapsed during a duel and had to go to the hospital, asking if Jack had told Aki to keep Yusei in the dark. Jack retorts by insulting Aki and accusing her of being untrustworthy and talking behind his back to Yusei, only for Yusei to inform Jack that Aki wasn't the one who told him. Rather, Rua confessed about the incident over a web call.
• Implausible Deniability: Invoked by Rua when he challenges his sister to look him in the eye and lie that she doesn't see Yusei and Aki as a couple. She can't bring herself to do it and instead just insists they aren't actually dating.
• Insane Equals Violent: Mind-shattering memories from Aki's previous incarnation tend to bring out the worst of Black Rose Dragon's madness and aggression. Originally, Black Rose was sane as long as she didn't think about her tragic past life, but Aki's troubled childhood and Divine's manipulations fractured Black Rose Dragon's psyche to the point that she now displays aggressive tendencies all the time.
• Keet: Deconstructed. Nearly everyone resents Judai for being annoying and intrusive due to his hyperactivity, borderline obsession with Duel Spirits, and constant pestering of Aki to summon said spirits. Aki in particular is still overcoming the lifelong trauma she associates with her powers and dislikes Judai thoughtlessly asking her to use them all the time, even if he doesn't mean any harm. He drops this attitude after Yubel starts attacking Duel Spirits.
• Lady Killer In Love:
  • Implied to be the case with Jack's relationship with Carly, though he's not explicitly shown to have many romantic admirers.
  • Aki was seemingly a gender-inverted example of this in her past life as a high priestess. According to Stardust, she was given whatever she wanted, be it in food, clothes, or men, but never truly cared about anyone until she met Yusei.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Honest hypnotized all of Domino Dueling Academy so they'd forget his human partner Yusuke ever disappeared, then uses illusions to pose as Yusuke. Isao Yoshifumi temporarily drives him from the school, causing them to remember Yusuke's disappearance once while Isao usurps Honest's place among Yusuke's group of friends, seemingly replacing Honest with himself in their memories. When Isao leaves the school, Honest returns and resumes his Masquerade, changing all memories of Isao back to memories of Yusuke.
• Laughing Mad: Black Rose Dragon lapses into this when she recalls memories from Aki's past life as her tribe's high priestess, specifically that the tribe tricked her into sacrificing Yusei, her betrothed.
• Let Me at Him!: Stardust usually finds himself having to restrain Black Rose Dragon whenever she goes off on one of her tantrums. Sometimes, he doesn't even bother.
• Loophole Abuse: When summoned in a duel, Duel Spirits must obey their respective controllers' commands, though some do find ways around them:
  • In spite of being ordered to attack his opponent directly, Gilford the Lightning never actually carries it out due to both Red Eyes Back Dragon arriving to physically shield said opponent and Witch of the Black Rose immediately informing Gilford that his controller is possessed, meaning that someone else is technically giving the commands instead.
  • Witch of the Black Rose attempts to throw off her own aim when ordered to attack Yusei to avoid hurting him.
  • When Aki summons Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon in a duel and tells them to "strike down my enemies," they decide to interpret it as meaning the Arcadia Movement who kidnapped and brainwashed her rather than her opponent Yusei and promptly begin destroying their hideout. They also free Yusei from his chains and remove the VR headset that was facilitating Aki's brainwashing in the process, since Aki's command didn't specify that they couldn't do those things.
• Magic Skirt: Averted. Aki sprinting in her dress causes the skirt to ride up quite a bit. Later, after riding on Crow's D-Wheel while unconscious, her skirt's all the way up to her waist by the time they arrive at their destination.
• Mistaken for Romance:
  • Aki admits to initially thinking Ryo and Asuka were a power couple at school before learning the two are only friends.
  • A brief example shortly after Fubuki is found after his prolonged disappearance. When he hears Ryo mention Aki for the first time by name, he teasingly asks if she's Ryo's girlfriend. Momoe quickly sets the record straight.
  • Zigzagged regarding Judai's one-sided interest in Aki. Both Rua and Crow seem to consider Judai's actions as hitting on Aki, with Rua at one point also declaring that Judai is trying to steal Aki from Yusei. However, Ryu Kaiba notes that Judai doesn't say anything overtly romantic to Aki, and Rua later admits that Judai's behavior never crosses into explicit flirting.
• Moral Myopia: In her past life, Aki often sacrificed humans to the gods as part of her duties as a high priestess, seemingly without incident. However, when she learned that one of her sacrificial victims was really her beloved, she flew into a rage and destroyed her entire tribe.
• Never My Fault: In one of her rage-fueled fits, Black Rose Dragon destroys the concrete floor of a construction site, causing Yusei to sink to his knees in the rubble. When she finally notices him, she wonders why he buried himself.
• No Social Skills: Downplayed for Judai. He's a Nice Guy and does have friends, but his inability to read a room as well as him being Oblivious to Love regularly leads to him being Innocently Insensitive.
• Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Red Dragon Archfiend tries to have a conversation with Stardust Dragon about how to get Life Stream Dragon (currently stuck in the form of Power Tool Dragon) to talk. Stardust, however, is too distracted staring at the cave Black Rose Dragon is hiding in and just replies with "Ummhmmm..." each time, including when Archfiend grumbles if he should just leave Stardust and Black Rose alone together and then throttles Stardust while demanding if he's even listening. It takes Black Rose Dragon tying the two up with her vines out of annoyance for Stardust to snap out of it.
• Not So Above It All:
  • The normally serene and mature Misty seems to enjoy aggravating Jack by giving him deliberately vague answers when he asks about Carly's whereabouts.
  • Lampshaded by Yusei when he notes that Jack, despite posing as a King, is more of a clown than people tend to think when he breaks character.
    • Initially dismissing soap operas as "mindless entertainment" that he only watched because Carly liked them, Jack ends up getting into them and even starts discussing characters and plots with Carly.
    • Though he had previously dismissed Carly's faith in her card readings, Jack ends up demanding one and later orders Misty to explain to him how they work when Carly's reading simultaneously produces "Super Lucky Fortune" and "Super Unlucky Fortune." To be fair, by then, both Carly and Yusei had spent months broken up over Aki's disappearance and likely death, so Jack was understandably desperate for any potential good news.
  • Yusei acts rather smug when he manages to avoid getting mobbed after successfully tricking Jack into being a decoy.
  • Ryo isn't above giving a faint snort of amusement at Aki's expense when she's being hounded by Judai and silently begging to be rescued. He also stares long enough at Aki when the latter's skirt rises up too high that Asuka has to forcefully cough to get him, Isao, and Kazushi to look away, with Asuka then moving to block Aki from Ryo's line of sight to be safe.
  • Though he accompanied Black Rose Dragon to Aki's school to keep her "nice," Stardust ends up joining Black Rose in yelling at Judai to go back to class.
  • Kiryu, The Atoner, sneaks a peek at Aki's thighs when her dress rides up to her waist despite knowing she and Yusei are unofficially an item.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Witch of the Black Rose lampshades this when she remarks that Yusei is in fact human and not a machine upon seeing him act awkward and shy after Aki asks him when the last time he smiled was. He also often gets flustered when teased about his crush on Aki. Conversely, he breaks down in tears after hearing Aki's death has been made official after her body was seemingly found.
  • Played for Laughs when Ryo does a Spit Take after Aki rapidly blurts out that a dragon Duel Spirit asked her what a condom is after hearing two people mention it in a conversation. Also Played for Drama when he learns later that Honest has been deceiving the entire school into thinking Ryo's friend Yusuke never went missing and recalls how Yusuke and Yubel mutilated Ryo's friends after killing most of their Duel Spirits.
  • Kiryu becomes morose due to regret of his actions prior to and during his time as a Dark Signer. He starts snapping out of it when he gets a good-natured laugh for the first time in years at Crow's panicked expression after the latter accidentally gets a Panty Shot of Aki while helping her unconscious form off the Blackbird. It continues when Witch of the Black Rose gives Kiryu a gown made of leaves and makes roses grow in his hair.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Martha realizes something must be wrong when she teases Yusei about his crush on Aki and he DOESN'T get flustered the way he normally does. It's no wonder, considering Aki had just been officially declared dead after her body was allegedly found.
• Oblivious to Love: Judai, even more so than in canon. Aside from being unaware of Asuka's crush on him, he might be the only person who doesn't recognize the mutual attraction between Aki and Yusei. Moreover, despite Judai's interest in Aki being non-romantic, he doesn't appear to realize that many of his actions concerning her (grabbing her hands while talking animatedly to her, constantly trying to get her attention, and asking her to be his partner in a Valentine's Day lovers tag team duel) could imply otherwise.
• Offscreen Teleportation: At the beginning of the story, Divine is in prison, with many characters having even visited him there. Sometime after Isao's failed attempt to kidnap and murder Yusei, it's mentioned that Divine is now missing, with no explanation as to how or when he escaped.
• Our Spirits Are Different: There are two types of Duel Spirits: human souls who became Duel Spirits rather than passed on to the afterlife, like as Yugi Mutou's Dark Magician and the original Dian Keto, and Duel Spirits who naturally evolved from the emotional connections duelists form with their cards, which don't necessarily need to be monster cards. The first Duel Spirits were from the former group, born when Yugi Mutou originally creating the Duel Spirit World as a home for the various human souls trapped in ancient Egyptian tablets. Duel Spirits' cards act as portals for them to travel to the human world, though they are normally immaterial and can only be seen or heard by Psychic Duelists with sufficient abilities, who can also give Duel Spirits a corporeal form that lets them communicate with humans who do not have psychic powers. If a spirit's card is destroyed, then the spirit will be trapped in the Duel Spirit World, though their partner replacing the card may replace the portal. As for the spirits themselves, they can be killed, after which they move on to the afterlife if the spirit was once a human soul or simply cease to exist if they weren't. A Duel Spirit can also be left incomplete if its human partner didn't take the time to form proper emotional bonds with it, though it is possible, albeit more difficult, for them to become fully-formed by developing new bonds with other people.
• Past-Life Memories: The Signers themselves don't have the memories of their past incarnations. Instead, it's their Signer Dragons, who are each born from the respective partner's soul, who inherit them so they can counsel their partners while the Signers are unburdened by the memories of their previous lives. This is partly the cause behind Black Rose Dragon's current mental instability.
• Reincarnation Romance:
  • In their previous lives, Aki was a priestess and Yusei a warrior from a rival tribe who fell in love with each other and decided to marry. It didn't end well for them.
  • Stardust and Black Rose Dragon likewise count, as each is a Soul Fragment of his or her respective partner and inherited said partner's past memories.
• Sanity Ball: Every now and again, Ax-Crazy Black Rose Dragon manages to grab onto this:
  • When Aki has a panic attack the first time she sees her and Yusei's Duel Spirits all confront each other, Black Rose Dragon is the one who finally resolves things by yelling at everyone to shut up so Aki can speak.
  • She calls out Stardust and Archfiend on their (though mostly the latter's) suggestion of trying to get Power Tool Dragon to talk through force.
  • Downplayed when Aki's school friends are found injured with their Duel Spirits missing after having apparently been attacked. While most of those present start arguing with Red Eyes Black Dragon over whether he should've been there during the attack, Black Rose seems more focused on examining the scene of the attack and calming Aki down.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: As the daughter of a senator, Aki is able to bend the rules for both herself and Yusei, such as having him flown from the Satellite to Neo Domino City prior to the completion of the Daedalus Bridge and convincing security at Domino Dueling Academy to allow Yusei onto the school grounds despite him being a marked criminal.
• Secretly Selfish: When Asuka begs Kara, a female Yugi from an alternate reality, to help Momoe and Junko, both of whom were grievously injured by Yubel, Kara immediately points out how Asuka has lived in relative comfort while countless people suffered from disease, poverty, crime, and more despite the unlimited energy produced by Momentum making a better quality of life possible for everyone. Thus, Asuka's prayer to help her friends really just reveals how she believes she has priority over those who have lived far more difficult lives and are more deserving of a boon.
• Serious Business: Dueling, naturally, particularly ending a duel prematurely. Johan is shocked when Yusei shuts off his duel disk in the middle of a duel against Trueman, and even Trueman declares such an act dishonorable.
• Soul Fragment: Each Signer Dragon is born from the soul of his or her respective partner and inherits the memories of said partner's previous incarnation.
• Stairs Are Faster: Jack claims this is the case to justify him taking the stairs up to Carly's apartment. Yusei is rather skeptical of it, though, recalling that Carly lives on the fifth floor.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Yusei was apparently much more laidback and upbeat in his previous life, a personality that Stardust Dragon now has.
• Two-Faced: Momoe has half of her face horrifically burned by Yubel.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Yusei in his past life was a warrior who fought bravely against the Earthbound gods and helped save his and Aki's tribes. In return, Aki's tribe tricked her, a priestess and his lover, into sacrificing him, as they didn't think he was worthy of marrying her (though it's hinted that they weren't aware of all he had done for them).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Honest simply wanted to rescue his human partner Yusuke and prevent the school from forgetting Yusuke in the meantime, but his actions end up giving Isao Yoshifumi a golden opportunity to infiltrate the school and get close to Aki, allowing Isao to later kidnap and brainwash her into almost killing Yusei.
  • Judai's decision to send Yubel into space, which was already based on misunderstandings, leads to the latter's assault on the Duel Spirit World, the deaths of countless Duel Spirits, and Junko and Momoe's disfigurements.
• Uptown Girl:
  • It's noted by many that Aki is the daughter of a wealthy senator while Yusei, despite becoming the Turbo Duel King, is a marked criminal and former gang member who grew up in the Satellite. Yusei himself insists that it would never work between him and Aki due to this, though it's heavily implied that he's at least partly using this as an excuse to try to get Martha to stop being a Shipper on Deck for the two of them.
  • This was apparently also the case in their past lives. Aki was a high priestess who grew up being showered with praise and given anything she wanted without question due to her connection to the gods, and Yusei was a warrior from a rival tribe who was considered unworthy of her (though it's implied that this was at least partially because Aki's tribe wasn't aware of all of Yusei's accomplishments).
• Violently Protective Girlfriend:
  • Though they aren't officially a couple, Aki acts this way towards Yusei, almost strangling nearly a dozen Arcadia Movement members for attempting to kill him. Additionally, in her past life, she destroyed her entire tribe after learning they schemed to have Yusei's past incarnation be made a human sacrifice.
  • Yusei also counts as a gender-flipped example. He threatens Jack with a fistfight when the latter insults Aki and frequently feels the urge to punch Judai for bothering Aki with his antics. Even seeing someone show interest in Aki or order her around is enough to stir his defensive instincts.
• What Does She See in Him?: Everyone is baffled by Asuka's crush on Judai, as he seems to only hurt her by ignoring her most of the time and has no future ahead of him, not even as a professional duelist, due to his short attention span and obsession with Duel Spirits.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The ultimate fate of Isao and his fellow Arcadia Movement members after Aki destroys their base at an abandoned mine near Crash Town is left ambiguous. Crow's Duel Spirits were mentioned to have freed some from Aki's vines to save them from being crushed to death, hinting some of them survived, while Isao was last seen dangling by his ankles, either unconscious or dead. It's not stated whether Aki, Crow, and Jack contacted the authorities and had everyone arrested, or whether the Movement managed to escape while the three and Yusei were recuperating at Crash Town.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Jack gets called out by Yusei for trying to keep the latter out of the loop regarding Rua fainting during a duel.
  • While his reaction is somewhat muted, Yusei is clearly unhappy that Aki tricked him into agreeing o be her partner in a tag team duel at her school without telling him it was a lovers tag duel until the last minute, as it effectively announces to the school that they're a couple when they aren't even officially in a relationship. He gets over it rather quickly, however, as Aki explains she only did this to help Asuka get Judai's attention (the two formed the opposing tag team) and simply didn't know how to tell Yusei that. Moreover, despite his discomfort with the whole thing, Yusei is nevertheless relieved that Aki didn't ask anyone else to be her partner and reasons that being her teammate in a lovers tag duel would at least keep other guys away from her.
  • Ryo gives this to Honest for lying to him and his friends and manipulating their memories regarding Yusuke for years.
  • Many characters have this reaction after learning that Judai is responsible for Yubel's rampage due to sending the latter into space, though some do concede that they can't exactly blame him when they didn't even know Duel Spirits existed until fairly recently. Yusei and Aki, at least, take it back after learning Judai's actions was due to misunderstandings caused by his young age and naivety at the time.