Fanfic / Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds A Live

Due to the story assuming you have watched/played both Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds and Live A Live all spoilers related to their plots will be left unmarked.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's A Live (or just 5D's A Live) is a crossover fanfic by Green_Phantom_Queen, in which the heroes from Live A Live get teleported into the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds and end up as the Crimson Dragon's avatars against the likes of the Dark Signers.

In the world of Live A Live, the seven heroes across time and space are successfully living their lives after defeating the likes of Odio and Oersted peacefully passes on. Unfortunately, while Oersted has decided to Abdicate the Throne in the Lucrece of the afterlife for a spiritual journey, he leaves the kingdom to be ruled by his friend Streibough and Princess Alethea, the new king and queen. Worse, Streibough has not learned a thing from the last time Odio roamed the Earth and has become so bitter over the slap across the face from his friend and Alethea leaving him that he becomes tempted to get some payback at the cost of one person.

In Neo-Domino, Jack Atlas has made Yusei Fudo go through an ultimatum: his friends or his dreams. Like in canon, Yusei forgoes his D-Wheel and Stardust Dragon to save Rally, but this time ends up drowning. Unfortunately, Yusei's desires to live made him become the last thing anyone expected. A Dark Signer.

With the intended hero of Neo-Domino fallen, the Crimson Dragon has transferred their signs to the heroes across time and space, who must learn to survive Satellite, duel, and go to war against the Dark Signers, all while dark forces try to take advantage of Yusei's fall into the dark for their benefits.

The story is split into two types of chapters: the normal chapters consist of 250 words each, while longer chapters are called "Interludes" which focuses more on character interactions and duels if need be. It's also not afraid to shake the status quo while staying true to the personalities of the Live A Live crew.

5Ds A Live started on September 21st, 2022 and the first Arc was completed on January 3rd, 2024. The second Arc Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V A Live was uploaded on January 5th, 2024, in which the Seven Heroes, and Oersted, get transported to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V on the day of the Championship battle Yusho disappeared from to ensure a boy with red eyes doesn't become a Demon Lord.

This fanfic contains examples of:

Arc 1

• Accusation Fic: A staple of Green Phantom Queen.
  • The prologue has Alethea call Streibough out for his stupidity that got everyone in Lucrece killed off before she dumps him to better herself.
  • Jack gets called out by a lot of people for his reckless move that endangered the lives of Rally and Yusei solely for his benefit.
  • Akira rips the Tops a new one for being apathetic towards the suffering of the Satellites and booing him just because he completely whomped Jack in three turns. Deconstructed, since this results in his breaking point that warps Neo-Domino into madness.
• Adaptation Expansion: The Dark Signers in the anime rarely get any screen time that showcase their relationships with one another, being portrayed as people only united for a common goal and little to no relationships outside of that, barring Misty portrayed as a big sister to Carly. The story has many chapters dedicated to the Dark Signers having a family-type dynamic.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Akira's mind-reading only worked if he was standing near a person, and only one person at a time. In the story he can read multiple minds from a distance, even going as far as to hear an entire stadium full of people. He can hear thoughts of a person even if he's in separate rooms as well. And while he never used telekinesis — outside promotional art for the remake and the Near Future manga — he's capable of using it to temporarily immobilize Yusei from punching Jaeger.
  • Due to the story being uploaded years after the anime ended, Akiza has an upgrade to her Black Rose Dragon, Ruddy Rose Dragon.
  • Yusei uses Ice Barrier monsters that came out in the 2020s.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • For Akiza's parents; while they're first seen in flashbacks during the Fortune Cup, they don't make a physical appearance until Episode 40. Here, their physical appearance takes place during the first round of the Fortune Cup.
  • Dr. Fudo doesn't appear till Carly vs Jack, but he appears during the Fortune Cup.
• Adaptational Explanation: Goodwin explains that he keeps the Arcadia Movement around because of it being a safe haven for Akiza, and also to keep an eye on Divine and his craftiness.
• Adaptational Heroism: Dr. Frank is a good guy in this story as he's only using hypnosis to see if Leo and Luna could tap into their powers early, not for his benefit or that of Yliaster.
• Adaptational Karma:
  • During Live A Live's Middle Ages chapter, even though it resulted in their deaths, Streibough and Alethea got away with causing Lucrece's downfall as no one in the kingdom learned of their actions before they were all massacred, and it's left unknown if they knew after the Dominion of Hate as only the Seven Heroes did. The prologue has Oersted reveal what they did and as a result, both of them are shunned and despised by all of the undead of Lucrece.
  • Jack never gets chewed out for the stunt that put Rally in a boat and for stealing Yusei's card and bike. Here, the heroes are rightfully pissed off that Jack sunk so low, particularly Yusei. Doesn't help that the latter did die. Upon the Act's end, he quickly loses his coveted "Riding King" title to Akira, and is left a worthless wreck that is beaten up by the former friend he betrayed, while the Dark Signers' followers laugh and record his degradifcation on their cameras.
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Jack gets no sympathy from the heroes because he refuses to admit what he did was wrong.
  • Alethea is the one between her and Streibough who fully realizes her part in creating Odio and decides to leave him on a spiritual journey. Streibough is also hated by After-Lucrece for being the cause of all their suffering.
  • Jaeger is despised by the heroes because of his cowardice and begging for mercy for someone to protect his wife and son when he shows none for Satellite.
• Adapted Out:
  • The first Trudge duel, Leroy, and Jack and Yusei's first duel are omitted from the story.
  • Commander Koda is only mentioned in passing while Hunter Pace never infiltrates the Fortune Cup since Kiryu is the Duel Reaper.
• Anyone Can Die: Starting with Yusei Fudo dying via drowning, every time a person dies, it signals things getting worse. Aside from Yusei, we have Crow, Blister (later revealed he's alive but his soul devoured), Leo, and even Rex Goodwin.
• Ban on Magic: Tobei reveals in the fourth LAL Interlude that Psychics (and magic-users in general) have become a rare species due to a certain sorcerer's actions and the Lucrece Disaster ruining the reputation of magic. The Magi and Psychics who weren't executed in the Witch Hunts went into hiding.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Akira and Yusei have an argument over the idea of getting revenge. Akira points out that seeking vengeance makes Yusei and the others no better than the assholes who caused his suffering. Yusei then points out the tragedies he and his fellow Dark Signers have endured and asks if they should just let them go while the instigators of their pain get away with everything.
• Call-Forward: Jaeger is shown happily purchasing cup ramen with Mikage. His love of cup ramen was revealed during the WRGP arc.
• The Cameo: Numerous side characters from Live A Live get mentioned here and there in the beginning, but ultimately phase out as the 5Ds stuff takes center stage.
• Chekhov's Gun: Divine grants Akira a bracelet to amplify his psychic powers, which he uses to mass teleport himself and everyone throughout the city. However Lawless reveals that for every time Akira was using his psychic powers, it would absorb them until the point that the next psychic activity would overload the wearer...and said wearer ends up being Leo — Akira was trying to give the bracelet to Luna but she rejected it so Leo snatched it instead — who has limited Twin Telepathy with his sister.
• Contemplate Our Navels: When the Seven Heroes find themselves in Satellite, Oboro suggests that they should start "contemplating on their place in the universe" as their first step.
• Country Matters: During Akira's duel against Akiza, Kira calling Akiza a "bimbo" has the audience horrified as if they decided to call her a "C-dash-dash-dash."
• Crapsack World: Even when it faded into the afterlife, Lucrece still isn't a good place to stay in, with the unstable mindsets of the smallfolk, and especially the new king and queen.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The choices made for the Live A Live side are the following: Akira was the leader for the final scenario, Lei ends up as the new shifu, Sundown and Mad Dog made up, and Oboromaru took the Pacifist Run and decides to be the bodyguard for Ryoma Sakamoto.
• Death by Adaptation: A lot of people in Neo-Domino end up biting the dust. Some of them becoming Dark Signers.
  • Yusei drowns in the first chapter.
  • Crow jumps into a pit of Momentum energy/the Netherworld to escape being a prisoner.
  • Blister gets his soul extracted out of his body by Kiryu, but later revealed to be alive...and the Dark Signers' puppet.
  • Rex Goodwin gets frozen by Dark Signer Yusei and thrown out a window.
• Deconstruction Crossover: The story deconstructs the dangers the Live A Live crew have to deal with being transplanted into Neo-Domino. Four of them don't speak the same language or know how to use technology like smartphones. Their ways of fighting are incapable of getting anything done in a world where Duels Decide Everything. And just because they were able to tackle Odio, the Earthbound Immortals are leagues above the Lord of Dark. Moreover, canon Yusei was known to be kind, forgiving, and patient with the likes of Akiza and Jack, easily bringing them to the side of good. The New Signers do their best to live up to the kindness and idealism he had, but they falter because they don't have Yusei's bottomless patience and mercy and can't forgive Akiza and Jack for their actions even though what those two did are small potatoes compared to Oersted/Odio. To the point Akira loses control from the Fortune Cup audience bullying him over Jack's quick defeat and unwittingly delivering Neo-Domino to darkness.
• Dirty Mind-Reading: Akira unfortunately has to read the minds of Kiryu and Yusei, who are hopelessly in love with each other and equally horny.
• Dramatic Irony: Because the series takes place during the Dark Signers arc, people believe there are only five signs, whereas the anime would add a sixth one near the end of the series. This is easily highlighted with Yanagi, the expert of the Crimson Dragon outside of Goodwin, laughing at how ridiculous that there's a sixth sign.
• Downer Ending: After curb-stomping Jack, the bullying from the Fortune Cup audience causes Akira to lose control and break the minds of those in Neo-Domino with Judgment Day, allowing the Dark Signers take over now that there's no-one strong enough to stop them, and the heroes in their bid to escape, are forced into another world where yet another audience is mocking a lonely victim...oh, and Streibough's still alive and setting his sights on Arc-V Heartland.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The interludes were given different names before starting with the Dirt Poor Robins lyrics.
• Epigraph: Both parts of the prologue end in William Shakespeare quotes. The first part quotes Macbeth while the second part quotes Othello.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: The heroes except Akira and Cube have to deal with living in a time period that is technologically advanced from their very own.
• Flower Motifs: The second part of the prologue has Alethea pissed off that Streibough gives her a snapdragon bouquet.
  Alethea: You dare to give me snapdragons as an apology?!
  Streibough: But you love snapdragons. They represent strength and grace.
  Alethea: I loved snapdragons. They also mean deceit and deviousness, the things you are. It also means denial, because I didn't want to admit that you were a demon in human skin.
• From Bad to Worse: With Lucrece still unstable as ever with its scapegoating and refusal to share the blame, and the traitor wanting revenge, this results in a very different 5Ds universe where the heroic Team Satisfaction are worse off, up to the protagonist and two others becoming undead, while The Rival never drops his arrogance and the Magical Girl Warrior remaining friendless, now a psychotic shell of her former self.
• The Ghost: Jaeger's wife and son are constantly mentioned but never seen.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: The Seven Heroes are the Good chosen by the Crimson Dragon to stop the Dark Signers, the Dark Signers are the Bad as they do want to destroy Neo-Domino but are known to have complex and sympathetic backstories, while Odio and Streibough are the Evil who want nothing but total annihilation and entitlement.
• Historical In-Joke: At one point, Oboromaru hopes Ryoma hasn't been assassinated as he's been stuck in Neo Domino for a year. In real life, that's how Sakamoto Ryōma died.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The Interludes are named after lyrics from songs by the band Dirt Poor Robins.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Even with Yusei dead, many of the events of the anime play out the same. Whether it be Akira dueling Trudge in the trash tunnel, the Facility duels, and Yusei ending up being taken care of by Leo and Luna.
  • Leo still dies, but falls victim to the overloaded psychic bracelet absorbing Akira's energies instead of nanomachines from Aporia.
• Karmic Shunning: Streibough and Alethea are despised by the residents of Lucrece in the afterlife, since they're both at fault for the destruction of Lucrece by making Oersted kill the King and Alethea being stupid enough to kill herself for a Judas. Alethea admits that it is well deserved on her end.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The story assumes that you know twists from both series, whether it be Odio's origins or the fact there's a sixth Mark of the Dragon.
• One-Word Title: Many of the 250 word chapters have one word titles.
• Papa Wolf: Hideo Izayoi doesn't take the Slut-Shaming towards his daughter too well...but then Yusei and Misty reveal that he and his wife neglected Akiza when she was younger.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The Dark Signers may have brought Neo-Domino to its knees, and Streibough is still at large, but what matters is that the eight protagonists of Live A Live are together in the same boat - and in a different dimension, Lawless is currently in the doomed Neo-Domino guarding Carly, Luna and the other innocents from harm, the Live A Live universe is safeguarded from the Lord of Dark by the spirits of the Magi killed in the Hunts, and the Earthen Heart spirits have gained a new ally - Alethea.
• Running Gag:
  • Cube still can't make a good coffee to save their life. Everyone who drinks it has complained at how bitter it is.
  • The annoyance and horror of the heroes (except Pogo) having to listen to Kiryu and Yusei's lovemaking when they're sleeping at the Dark Signers headquarters.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Most of the heroes' tormentors and opposition in Neo-Domino (who aren't Dark Signers) embody one.
  • Pride: Jack, having left Yusei behind in the name of becoming the "Riding King", and will take questionable deals just to keep his title.
  • Envy: Akiza, separated from her parents and under the thumb of a treacherous snake, torments her victims believing that their lives were better than hers without thinking.
  • Wrath: Greiger, having being wronged by the Goodwins and losing his sanity through his desire for revenge that his hatred is overriding him.
  • Sloth: The apathetic audience of the Neo-Domino Cup, who will bully those who don't give a good show from the safety of their seats.
  • Greed: Security, for not caring about those in Satellite, mainly through Jaeger, who prioritizes his family over everyone else.
  • Gluttony: Armstrong, being a Fat Bastard who uses his authority to squash the Satellite prisoners stuck in the Facility.
  • Lust: Mikage, with her unhealthy attraction towards Jack without considering his age or the fact that he's from Satellite.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Because Yusei is the Dark Signer for the Whale, then Greiger escapes his canon fate and also from the Judgement Day from Akira.
• Stating the Simple Solution: As part of it being part Accusation Fic, the Signers bring up solutions that could've prevented the suffering of the main characters.
  • Upon learning the convoluted plot of Yusei getting to Neo-Domino involved Jack stealing his old D-Wheel and Stardust Dragon, Yusei asks Goodwin that he could've just get a helicopter to transport both of them to Neo-Domino if they were necessary for his plans. Oboro also suggests that Jack could've just stolen them without the need of putting someone in complete danger like stealing the items in the middle of the night.
  • As Akiza starts bitching and moaning and bitching and bitching and bitching about how her parents looked happy without her and she sarcastically asks what she could've done to get her attention, Kira gives her an answer — send them an email or call them!
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • Akira's mind reading is a god-send in the story as he's capable of getting information from all sides while acting coy. However, he can only get the info if people are actively thinking about it. Lawless lampshades this by stating that thieves don't constantly think about who they're going to rob from 24/7. He also has to contend with the Earthbound Immortals paralyzing him if he tries to pry into the minds of the Dark Signers.
  • While Yusei can read into Akira's memories/soul, he can't pick up any of the thoughts Akira has read.
  • Sundown is the second dangerous member of the Seven since one shot of his gun means instant death. To counteract this, Sundown's shotgun is confiscated in his time in the Facility, or he usually attacks someone's Duel Disk, the monsters Divine summons, or his target is Immune to Bullets like Kiryu demonstrated.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Akira's plan to steal Stardust Dragon from Jack involves spiking his coffee. Downplayed when it's revealed Akira asked Lei to put lavender syrup in it so that his Sleep in Heaven ability has a higher chance of knocking Jack out.
• Tempting Fate:
  • When Streibough decides to gain power at the cross of one person dying in return, he doesn't think twice on who has to die. The first official chapter and summary reveals the person dying is none other than Yusei Fudo.
  • When Akira is dueling Leo after his resurrection as a Dark Signer, he assumes the kid can't surprise him. Cue them Synchro Summoning.
• Time Skip: The first intermission takes place a year after the Seven Heroes arrive in Satellite and explains what they did during the time.
• Trapped in Another World: Time-displaced heroes of a remade RPG in a futuristic dystopia card game anime? Yeah, this ain't your papa's average Isekai... And once the latter collapses on itself, the former end up in a different world again.
• Weird Crossover: One's an anime where card games are played on motorcycles where a city is divided into two social classes. The other's a game series where seven heroes from different time periods were fighting off baddies who all shared the same name for some reason.

Arc 2: Arc-V

• The Atoner: Two of them being fathers. Tadashi Tadokoro, who died afraid of what might happen to his children Akira and Kaori reconciles with Lawless and joins the afterlife resistance, while former king of Lucrece Alvis attempted to make things right from his inaction in the Lucrece Disaster, only to unwittingly contribute to the rise of Lord of Dark Streibough and get most of the unruly Lucrecites brainwashed into its army - innocent children included.
• Moral Myopia: Maiami City is quick to call Yuya a coward's son but when Masaru dares anyone in the audience to duel the likes of him everyone decides to shut up.