Fanfic / Zero Hour (ARC-V)

Zero Hour is a Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V AU fanfic, written by Azure_witch13 This is a story that changes the anime thanks to a single change.

In this story, Professor Akaba tasks Yuri to go after one of Ray's counterparts. But instead of Ruri or Rin, Yuri heads off to Standard to take Yuzu Hiragi. However, things go slightly off course when Yuzu is taken over by none other than Ray Akaba who decides to have Yuri work for her, instead of her father.

For you see, in this tale, Ray Akaba is not the maiden who slew the evil Supreme Dragon King Zarc. No, in this tale, she sided with the Demonic Dragon God to destroy humanity and has awakened deep within in her counterparts to revive her beloved. And after the four girls learn the truth of what's going on, they become more than determined to stop this madness but also allow Ray to resurrect Zarc back into the world of the living.

No matter what the cost.

Zero Hour makes good use of multiple characters from the animes preceding Arc-V, some of them who only was for a sole duel, and fleshes them out to have different characteristics. Also, because of this, new changes have been made to the dimensions so fans expecting a cut and paste translation of the anime are in for a big, big surprise.

As the author Azure-Witch13 says "Canon has long been thrown into the dumpster and been set on fucking fire."

It can read here in Ao3 and fanfiction.

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This story contains examples of the following Tropes:

Tropes A-M

• Action Girl: The main focus of the story is on Ray and her counterparts, but we also can add Mana, Akiza Izayoi, and Carly Carmine under her guise as Xavier Maxa.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When Armstrong learns that Xavier has a Fortune Lady deck on him, he bursts into laughter that he finds having his ass handed to him by a Fabled deck was better than facing that sort of thing.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: The back story for both Zarc and Ray in the anime was minimal at best, to the point that Zarc\'s last name and possibly actual name is unknown to this day. This story dives back through flashbacks into Zarc and Ray\'s lives, their relationship and personality.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Some of the Arc-V cast was not shown or introduced for a long time. This fic introduces many characters, such as Ray, Ruri, Rin, Yuto, Shun, Yugo and Zarc as early as the first or second chapter.
  • Certain Duel Monsters are summoned earlier than they did in Canon.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Compare to the anime, both Ray and Zarc's backstory are slowly being expanded prior to the splitting of the original dimension.
  • The Synchro dimension has been completely fleshed out compared to how it was treated in the anime where the order of Tops and Commons isn't as fractured, the Arcadia Movement exists, and many side characters from 5Ds get plenty of screen time.
  • The Red-Eyes Black Dragon, despite being used by Joey, never gains a backstory of its own. In the story, Pegasus reveals that there was a tribe of warriors who chose their king by whoever manifested the soul of the Red-Eyes Dragon within.
  • The story focuses more on how Heartland is doing after the Invasion and goes on to explain the insecurities and fears that Yuto, Ruri, and Shun are going through.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Plenty as seen in the Synchro Dimension.
  • Rin is far sweeter and protective of Yugo than the travesty of "brainwashed Yuzu 2.0" that was in the anime. She is also a street girl, she's quick to fight quick to anger and has an icy glare that terrifies anyone who looks at her. She is also comfortable in her body and sexuality especially around Yugo, and isn't ashamed to to show all her beauty for all its worth.
  • Ruri becoming far more assertive and pragmatic, as well as showing the effects the war has on her, she is still a gentle girl at heart but due to circumstances she is willing to be strong, attack and protect her home and her friends, instead of the brainwashed puppet and the simply gentle girl we see in the anime
  • Mr. Armstrong was a Jerkass who looked down at the Commons and was so vile that Goodwin showed disgust at his actions. Here, he's still gruff but he's not 100% a dick as he points out that he's not a big fan of Roget and sees Professor Frank as a piece of trash. He also has a one-sided rivalry with Trudge and, even though he shows the least bit interested in the mystery of Rin and Yugo, is actually a good source of information.
  • Gill Randsborg was a knight who was behind times with how he accused Akiza of being the "Black Rose Witch". Here while he still acts like a knight from the Middle Ages, he knows better than to press her buttons and has an exposition role about the Crimson Dragon.
  • Carly in the anime was dorky, clumsy, and way over her head. Here she's much more effective as a reporter by going in a disguise (as Xavier Maxa) and is implied to have gotten her former boss fired, making her much more assertive. She also is known to have gained a level of snark and doesn't show any signs of having feelings for Jack Atlas.
  • Grady was just your average street duelist and any personality he had was when he was brainwashed. Here, he's quick to be a mediator, has a lot of dry wits, tries his best to act as intimidating as the Enforcers and shows concern for Carly when he finds out that she's gone undercover.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Ray and Zarc being the biggest ones. Instead of being arch-enemies from canon, the two of them are villainous lovers who enter an Unholy Matrimony with each other as they transcend to Godhood. In the present time, the two of them act Like an Old Married Couple (since the two aren't legally married) with a strong trust in each other and treated their respective four counterparts as their own children. Furthermore, anyone who is close relatives and friends to their counterparts is welcome into their family as well.
  • As each of the Bracelet Girls became more assertive and realizing their own feelings for their respective Dragon Boys, each of them became closer:
    • Ruri and Yuto becoming much more openly affectionate as a couple, as they kept things low-key prior to Heartland getting invaded by Academia.
    • Rin returning Yugo's one-sided romantic feelings with a Big Damn Kiss as she acted like a maternal figure to him prior to Ray's awakening and drops most of her Tsundere tendencies that involve hitting him.
    • Serena and Yuri starting to confide in each other despite Leo Akaba's meddling.
    • Yuzu and Yuya becoming a couple after his win against Strong Ishijima, completed with a Big Damn Kiss from the former.
  • The Bracelet girls growing together closer as sisters, caring and loving each other, and becoming comfortable as a family when in the anime they all got a dose of outoffocus bullshit and had no time to bond or get to know each other. Unless you count the duel in which Serena and Ruri where they were Brainwashed and Crazy (it does not count)
  • Grady and Carly's relationship was very very minimal (Aside from a comment Carly made of knowing who Grady was). In the story, they have each other's back and act like brother and sister.
  • In canon, Reiji and Himika were Leo's second family, which he abandons in order to resurrect Ray. Here, Himika is Ray's mother, and Reiji was born prior to the dimensional split, though neither one remembers that at present.
• Adapted Out: Azure_witch13 reveals that the Dark Signers are not going to make an appearance in the story since this is still an Arc-V based AU even with Synchro's makeover.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Zigzagged with Shingo who uses Monarchs against Mana. While he tries to use other cards aside from Mobius and even ends up knocking a little more than a thousand LP from Mana, he still has his ass handed to him.
  • Yugi was already a badass and would eventually earn the title of King of Games, but he uses a deck filled with Xyz summoning in his duel against Tilla. Likewise, Tilla is more of a threat because she now has access to more Vampire monsters than when she appeared in the manga.
  • Carly Carmine, under the alias "Xavier Maxa", fought off Akiza Izayoi with a Fabled deck and destroyed her Black Rose Dragon and Black Rose Moonlight Dragon and destroyed them. Twice.
  • Implied with Randsborg; in the anime, he used a Masked Knight deck with LV monsters. The narration says he uses Infernoble in this story.
  • The writers feel that the Bracelet Girls — Yuzu, Serena, Ruri, and Rin — were all disrespected and "Done dirty" especially with how they were kidnapped without so much as an on-screen duel by Yuri, brainwashed by disgusting parasites, and by the end of it all three out of four were forgotten and swept under the rug, thus they became determined to make them more powerful.
    • Rin is given more Windwitches under her sleeve by Azure_witch13, and wins her duel against Professor Frank
    • Ruri is alluded to have defeated many Fusion Duelists while the Resistance fought back against them.
  • Yuzu gaining Xyz and Fusion early and being able to widdle Yuya's life points who was taking the duel seriously.
• Adaptational Jerkass: If it wasn't enough for Gen Ankokuji being The Bully to Yuya in canon and implementing pragmatic methods to win, but he tries to straight-up physically assault Yuya in chapter 11 after seeing his idol lose, along with having a few goons to back him up. Fittingly, this makes him more in line with the character, Street Fighter, a Villain of the Week from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, who the former is an Expy of. Luckily for Yuya, Serena and Sora were passing by at the right time.
• Adaptational Namechange:
• Adaptational Sexuality: Word of God states in chapter 22 that its possible that none of the characters are purely heterosexual.
  • Yuto is Bi
  • Shun Kurosaki is adapted as gay in the fic.
  • Yugi and Atem are in a same-sex relationship.
  • The Enforcers, consisting of Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, Crow Hogan, and Kalin Kessler, are all in a polyamorous relationship with each other.
• Adaptational Skill:
  • As the story goes on, Yuzu and her counterparts will be learning to use other Extra Summoning methods than just their native one.
    • Furthermore, they also gain Pendulum cards as well.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • As shown in the beginning, Ray Akaba enters an Unholy Matrimony with Zarc instead of opposing him in canon, making her and the four Bracelet Girls an Apocalypse Maiden like Zarc and the four Dragon Boys.
  • Furthermore, Yuzu and her counterparts will serve as the Lady Macbeth to their respective Dragon Boys along with those who're close to them, with Shun Kurosaki being the first known example.
  • The Yu-boys are all being influinced by Zarc and affected by circumstances and dangers to take the offer of power and protection in order to combat the threats.
  • Shun Kurosaki siding with Ray Akaba to protect his sister and best friend.
• Adaptational Wealth: In the anime, the Commons from the Synchro Dimension is always described to "worry about their next meal" with some of them being lucky to get by with the necessities outside of prison or working for the Tops, which includes Crow Hogan, Shinji Weber, and Frank, Amanda, and Tarren. Here, it's thanks to the efforts of The Enforcers that they were able to better the living conditions by creating "Satisfaction Town" and Yusei Fudo being the current Champion of the Friendship Cup (later changed to Fortune Cup).
• Affably Evil: Despite both Zarc and Ray being destructive forces of nature after their transcendent to Godhood in the original dimension, the two of them are very polite and kind to their respective four counterparts, seeing and treating them as their own children, along with the friends and family members of those counterparts as well.
• Agent Mulder: Reiji is more open-minded about the supernatural and unknown this time around, believing that some other force is what was responsible for Yuya's Pendulum cards.
• All Part of the Show: During Yuya and Yuzu's duel in Chapter 10, Mana's magic goes out of control and starts summoning fireworks but the audience (mostly children) just assumes it's part of the Action Field.
• Amazon Brigade:
  • Mana uses the Magician Girl archetype, which is focused on Dark Magician Girl, her alternate selves, and the Black Magician Girls. She does have a Dark Magician in her deck though and Quintet Magician in her Extra Deck.
  • Yuzu uses a group of singing Farias\Angels
  • Serena uses Lunalights a group of anthropomorphic animals who are all female Beast-warriors
  • Rin uses Windwitches, a coven of witches associated with winter and ice.
  • Ruri uses a group of cute bird Ladies called Lyriluscs, who might appear weak but have amazing effects.
  • Ray uses the Sirens, female figures that are part bird/part mermaid and named after goddesses and mythological women.
• Anything but That!: Yusei's reaction when Jack says he'll cook something for when Yusei wakes up.
• Arc Words: "Everything has a dual nature", which is Xavier/Carly's philosophy. This keeps being repeated in Chapter 5 by Professor Frank and Rin, much to Xavier's frustration.
• Ascended Extra: Chapter 5 has three extras getting slightly bigger roles: Armstrong is the one who points out exposition on Professor Frank, Gill Randsborg knows the legends of the Crimson Dragon, and Grady is revealed to be a close friend of Carly and a Secret-Keeper when she's in disguise as "Xavier Maxa".
• Author Appeal: Author Azure-Witch 13 has a few favorite tropes and story elements that she loves to use and add in her stories.
  • Out of all the girls, Rin is Azure's favorite. Chapter 6 (Part 2) has her screaming in excitement over the new Windwitch support that was released.
  • Magic is a strong element in her stories and she loves to go a little deeper into it.
  • Additionally she loves adding witches into her work.
  • Evil Queens are very much some of her favorite things to write.
  • Dragon and Humanoid draconic monsters have a huge appeal to her.
• Awful Truth:
  • The Bracelet Girls learn the reason why the world was shattered, Heartland destroyed Academia's true purpose, and more in the first chapter. Needless to say, none of them are happy about it.
  • In a later chapter, they learn about the Parasites. Their Heroic BSoD is justified.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Chapter 28 ends with Alexis barely escaping the duel with Yuri, who would've crushed and carded her if it hadn't been for Yusho and her brother. More importantly, Yuri took a very important card from her deck: En Moon
• Bar Brawl: In Chapter 6, Grady intentionally starts one with Kiryu so Armstrong can grab Yannagi and take him to safety. He and Carly take Kiryu on, but a scene cut later reveals Kiryu swiftly handed them a solid defeat.
• The Bet: When Yugi duels Tilla Mook in Chapter 4, Joey, Tristan, Ryou, and Mana make a bet as to how many turns it would take Yugi to beat her. Joey wins with 6 turns.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Mana is a goofy girly girl with a love of Kuribohs and cute animals...and she also has a very powerful deck on her, nearly defeating Serena in their duel.
• Big Brother Mentor: Joey acts like one for Yuya, helping Yuya move on from Yusho's disappearance and become more emotionally healthy. Yoko herself even let Joey stay in the Sakaki residence as a thank you for everything he did.
• Canon Character All Along: Xavier Maxa is actually a disguised Carly Carmine going undercover to do a report on the Black Rose Witch.
• Composite Character: Gill Randsborg hails from a family of knights — like in the Japanese version — whereas Grady comments that he thought Gill was just cosplaying (like in the dub).
• Control Freak: Ray describes Leo Akaba as this, and she really isn't wrong.
• The Corrupter: Ray has corrupted her counterparts to become much more assertive, more protective of Zarc's counterparts, and having them plan Zarc's resurrection. In Chapter 2, Ruri and Ray plan on corrupting Yuto and Shun to help them destroy Academia.
• Corrupt the Cutie: The girls were originally portrayed (or meant to be portrayed) as innocent and sweet pure maidens, being loved or cared for in the dimension, however with Ray's influence the girls become much more assertive and dark, willing to do a lot and compromise morals in order to reach their goals.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Both Kiryu and Crow won their duels in Chapter 6 (Part 2), albeit offscreen.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • While Shingo ultimately lost against Mana, he did end up banishing her Dark Magician Girl and knocking off a few thousand life points.
  • Tilla Mook fights Yugi all the way down until he's at 100 life points left and only lost because Yugi had a Kuriboh in his hand. Not bad for a one-shot villain.
  • Xavier Maxa's duel against Akiza; while he still lost, he still destroyed her Synchro Dragons twice via card effect and got her down to a little over half of her life points. This becomes much more interesting when it's revealed that Xavier is actually Carly in disguise.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Everyone who sees White Rose Dragon and Red Rose Dragon starts to fawn and coo over them. Xavier even lampshades that he'd be fawning over them if he didn't forget that they would attack him with their claws.
  • During the duel between Xavier and Akiza, the audience gushes over The Fabled Cerburrel (a three-headed puppy) and The Fabled Caitsith (a black cat)
  • Mana absolutely gushes over Kuribohs and after she introduces them to Serena, she also becomes enamored.
    Serena: (hugging Kuriboh with sparkly eyes) It's...so...FLUFFY!!! IT'S LIKE A FLUFFY LITTLE KITTY!!!
  • Speaking of which, Mana spends most of her duel against Serena cooing over the Lunalights.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Atem just like in the original anime, is a dark figure with crimson eyes and power over the shadows. He only uses them on those who would hurt his friends.
  • Mana uses the Magician Girls archetype and her signature monster is Dark Magician Girl, but she's a happy ball of sunshine. She also seems to have her own magic powers alongside her brothers as she did comment to Yugi that if he wants Dark Powers he could have asked them to teach him
  • Pegasus's story of the Red-Eyes Tribe states that despite them worshiping a dark dragon, they aided the Pharaoh against other powerful threats.
  • Grady has black hair, wears a red and black outfit and a black hoodie, but he's quick to be a mediator when people start fighting and is known to be like a brother to Carly.
• Deal with the Devil: The deals with Ray and Zarc can be seen as that, as they promise their counterpart something that they desire or need in return for resurrecting them.
• Demoted to Extra: Barrett isn't Serena's bodyguard this time around as Serena duels him for the right to have Yuri be.
• Demonic Possession: Both Ray and Zarc are able to take over and use their counterpart's bodies to interact with the world and others, with the only noticeable difference being the eye-color as it switches to their own when they posses one of their counterparts.
• Didn't See That Coming: Xavier's reaction when Akiza Synchro Summons Black Rose Moonlight Dragon, as he only knows of Black Rose Dragon.
• Double-Meaning Title:
  • Zero Hour is a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story but Word of God also points out that it focuses on Ray because her family all carry the kanji for Zero in their names.
  • Chapter 5, "Enter the Dragon", can have the dragon either be Akiza's Black Rose and Black Rose Moonlight Dragons, Zarc's name being uttered, or how the dimension is going to tackle the Crimson Dragon mythos from the original 5Ds anime.
• Double Standard: Discussed in Chapter 2. When Yuto asks Ruri why she's become so cold, Ruri retorts that both Yuto and Shun also became stoic and angry yet no one questions them about it.
• Dub Name Change: Numerous characters are going by their dub names.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Due to many factors the writer seems to have drooped a few plot points especially concerning the DM cast, with them being written as important or famous figures in Standard for the few chapters that they appeared in, however after a certain chapter where they were stopped showing up there was also an old author's note asking if the audience would like to see Yami Bakura appear and have a relationship with Bakura, which had been deleted. That was because early on there was a partnership with the author Green_Phantom_Queen, and the main author was not sure how to fully write the fic and what she wanted from it. However early on Green_Phantom_Queen couldn't help writing the story and the main author fully committed to the story and it became her own.
• Everyone Has Standards: Armstrong is a Fat Bastard with a habit of picking his nose hairs and is unpleasant to be around, but he doesn't like Roget and honestly has low esteem for Professor Frank and his use of brainwashing a 14-year-old girl.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • In the final turn of their duel, Shingo notes that Mana can't do much with two Level 6 spellcasters on the field...until he realizes what you could do with two monsters of the same level: Xyz Summon!
  • When discussing the possibility of other summoning methods, Armstrong has this reaction when he recalls learning about Polyermization and Fusion monsters.
• Foreshadowing: There are a lot of subtle clues about Xavier Maxa's real identity being that of Carly Carmine:
  • When he starts dueling Akiza, he calls himself "C". He also says that he sometimes gets demeaned as a "coffee delivery guy." However he was correcting himself before he said, girl.
  • The fact that Grady knows him. In the Japanese anime, it's implied that Carly knew him.
  • Akiza asks why Xavier is nosing into other people's business. Carly's a reporter and it was through investigating the Arcadia Movement that got her killed.
  • When Xavier snarks about fitting in with the "Knights of Amber Beach" he questions if he'd be able to wear armor to cover "all of this" while pointing at his chest.
  • Xavier allows Randsborg to do fortune-telling with his deck. The card Randsborg drew was Fortune Lady Past, who looks like Carly's Dark Signer form.
• Fix Fic: The author of this fic is not shy about her hatred of the writing for Arc-V, especially the third season. From the regression of Yuya's character development, the way Yugo was treated or the way the Bracelet Girls were practically Extra Characters, brainwashed and disrespected, damsels in distress with no care for their agency, and many other things. The author instead writes this fic to give the girls a sense of importance and some "justice" for the way the Arc-V writers treated them.
• Food Porn: The food described in Chapter 6 when Akiza treats Yugo and Rin to a meal at a Tops restaurant. Lampshaded in the author's notes when it's mentioned how much Green Phantom Queen loves putting food descriptions in stories.
• Foreign Queasine: Yugo and Rin's reaction when having lunch with Akiza upon seeing one of the appetizers being chicken feet.
• For Want Of A Nail: A lot of changes have come up in this story compared to the canon.
  • Professor Akaba asks Yuri to go capture Yuzu Hiragi first instead of Ruri or Rin. However, doing so awakened Ray in Yuzu and the other Bracelet Girls made them aware as to what Akaba is planning for them and empowered them (along with having Yuri ally with Ray).
  • The original Yu-Gi-Oh characters befriending Yuya, particularly Joey, is what prevented Yuya from being a Sad Clown/Stepford Smiler and made the You Show Duel School much more relevant.
  • Synchro got a complete makeover because The Enforcers exist in this world. When Yusei defeated Jack in the Friendship Cup, he used his role to start bringing peace between the Tops and Commons.
  • When Yuya obtains Pendulums this time, Pegasus arrives to keep their creation a secret and states it's a "marketing ploy" by Industrial Illusions to protect Yuya's reputation and prevent Shingo from stealing them like in the anime.
  • Serena decides to join with Yuri instead of being babysat by Barrett this time around and both she and Yuri join Sora in infiltrating Standard.
• Girly Bruiser: Mana is an adorable ball of sunshine who uses the Magician Girls archetype and coos over anything cute (like Kuribohs). That said, she's also one of You Show's best duelists and when she gets dangerous, she'll summon Quintet Magician to murder you.
• The Glomp: Mana as usual. When she sees her uncle and aunt at the apartment, she full-on tackles them, causing them and the couch they sit on to fall to the floor. She even introduces herself to Sora and Serena with one of Scorpia's lines:
  Mana: Just to let you know, I'm a hugger!
• How Do I Shot Web?: Rin's duel with Yugo has her trying to Xyz Summon...but failing since she forgot that the monsters used for an Xyz Summon don't go to the graveyard.
• Hypocritical Humor: Tristan gets annoyed when Joey fawns over the Red-Eyes Black Dragon support that looks like him...and then start gushing when Joey notes that there's a card based on Tristan also.
• If I Were a Rich Man: Rin and Yugo both dream of getting out of poverty, and competes in the current Friendship Cup to raise money for their (somewhat better) living space. When Akiza took them to the shopping mall at the Tops, the narration describes the two as if they were looking through a dream filter.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Yugo's reactions to seeing White Rose Dragon and Red Rose Dragon is to grab them, take them back to his house and spoil them, even begging Rin if he can keep them.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Xavier's voice does this when he sees Akiza's Black Rose Moonlight Dragon. It's a bit of foreshadowing that Xavier is Carly in disguise.
• Internal Reveal: Reiji confesses his father's invasion with Pegasus in Chapter 10.
• Irony:
  • Compare to the other three counterparts of Ray, Ruri Kurosaki is known to be very kind, gentle, and ladylike. When being confronted with the Awful Truth in the first chapter, she becomes much more ruthless and pragmatic than the others, even delving into hate-filled rants of destroying Academia upon being informed of the Fusion Parasite.
  • Randsborg notes how Xavier destroyed Akiza's Black Rose Dragons with a cat (The Fabled Catsith), which are usually the allies of witches.
• It Was a Gift: Black Rose Moonlight Dragon was apparently a gift from Akiza's mother.
• Lady Macbeth: The author's notes for Chapter 2 describe Ray and the Bracelet Girls this way, with Ruri even tempting Yuto and Shun to give in to their hatred and violence to destroy Academia.
• Lampshade Hanging: When discussing Rin and Yugo, Armstrong, Grady, and Carly question why Yugo's dragon is called Synchro Dragon when it's obvious that it's the only summoning method they know. This makes them wonder if there are other summoning methods out there.
• Light Is Not Good: This comes up a lot like a mirror to the authors' previous work.
  • Ray has corrupted the Bracelet Girls to become more assertive and to bring about Zarc's resurrection. This is notable in Yuzu whose monsters are all LIGHT.
  • The monster Professor Frank uses in his duel against Rin, Superego the Celestial Lord is LIGHT. However, under his calm facade is a madman who was ready to hypnotize a young girl for his and Divine's wishes.
  • Xavier discusses this trope to Randsborg by bringing up the story of how the Fabled monsters were actually jerks who got into a large war amongst many archetypes that ended up with Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier nuking everything.
  • Akiza zigzags this. One of her dragons is Black Rose Moonlight Dragon but she herself is morally conflicted. She's not evil as she is more of an Anti-Villain under the clutches of Divine.
• Literary Allusion Title: Zero Hour is a short story by Ray Bradbury which tells about children excited about playing a game (really an alien invasion in disguise) while everyone else is oblivious as to what's about to happen.
• Like Brother and Sister: Grady and Carly's relationship.
• Loophole Abuse: Yugi gets into a duel with Tilla Mook over Atem becoming Tilla's boyfriend. After Yugi wins, Atem and Yugi note that even if Tilla won, Atem could just break up with her immediately. The conditions never stated be her boyfriend forever.
• Manchild: Pegasus as usual has a love for childish things. He mentions to his limo driver how he saw every film on the flight...but then gets excited when he finds there's a copy of Yotsuba&! in the limo and can't wait to read it.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": In Chapter 10 (Part 2), when Mana unleashes Quintet Magician against Serena.
• Mathematician's Answer: When Sora asks who uses Xyz and Fusion, Mana simply answers "Yes!" We later learn why when she Fusion Summons Quintet Magician against Serena.
• Mister Exposition: In Chapter 5, Randsborg is the one who brings up the tale of the Crimson Dragon while Armstrong mentions Professor Frank's hypnosis abilities.
• Must Have Caffeine: Xavier is really into coffee. Carly, after revealing herself as Xavier, explains that this is due to her former boss being a thorn in her side and Chapter 6 adds that this was due to her having to taste different brews in order to get on Mr. Pitt's good side.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Everyone cheering Mana in her duel against Shingo is just like in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX where everyone cheered Dark Magician Girl on and jeered at Jaden when he attacked.
  • Yugi's Illusion Bard looks like Ryou. The narration notes that Ryou wished that he looked more like a White Mage, like in the Monster World manga arc.
  • In Pegasus's story of the Red-Eyes tribe, there's a small story of an armored warrior being associated with a blond-haired woman, referencing the relationship between Valon and Mai Valentine in the Waking the Dragons arc.
  • Professor Frank duels a green-haired girl with spiritual abilities and puts her in a hypnotic trance, just like he did in the original anime.

Tropes N-Z

• Near-Villain Victory:
  • Tilla nearly defeats Yugi by having her Vampires (and his Hero of Illusion) attack him directly, only for Yugi to save himself with Kuriboh before the final direct attack, giving him an extra turn.
  • Frank has Rin under his control and is one turn away from defeating her in a duel. However, Yugo arrives just in time to wake her out of it and a dark shadow in Rin's mind, presumably Zarc, awakens "Ray" to kick Frank out.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Averted compare to the anime, where all the characters display open affections to each other.
• Noodle Incident: Yusei is never allowed to have caffeine since he's a Workaholic and the last time he did it took Jack, Crow, and Kalin to drag him to the bed where they..."played paddy cake" until he fell asleep.
• Official Couple: Yugi and Atem in the Standard Dimension and Yusei, Jack, Crow, and Kalin in Synchro.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Carly, as Xavier Maxa, somehow fought Armstrong in a duel and won. Note, this is the same Armstrong that Yusei had to make a deck based on random cards from Facility inmates.
  • It is said that Atem has defeated Reiji Akaba off-screen, the details of that duel are yet unknown
• Parental Neglect: Deconstructed. According to Zarc, his own parents, along with Ray's, were never really around due to their busy jobs, which is sadly Truth in Television in Japanese culture. This leads the two to become each other's pillars, being there for one another whenever things were rough, including to the point where they both became disillusion with humanity and transcend to Godhood.
• Parental Obliviousness: Leo Akaba only cares about resurrecting his "perfect daughter" while disregarding her four counterparts as merely "sacrifices", and believing that Ray was brainwashed by Zarc into joining him in the first place. To put it simply, Ray is disgusted by this delusion and had renounced Leo as her father long ago.
• Parents as People: Joey gives this lesson to Yuya about Yusho. Considering the type of father Joey has, this is quite meaningful.
  Joey: “Fathers don’t always know what’s best. They’re human, they can be wrong, they can be bad, they can harm you, whether accidentally or not. Your dad hurt ya Yuya, it’s okay ta be angry and hurt. It’s okay to hate him. It’s okay to love him, but it’s not okay for you to lie about it ta yerself. You’re not responsible for his mistakes. You need to live ya own life. He may be gone, but ya still here.”
• Polyamory:
  • The Enforcers are one big foursome of wholesome satisfaction in this fic.
  • Yuto Ruri and Shun are navigating their own polyamories relationship and try to make it work, which is a little hard with it being a very new thing and all of them are trying to hide, repress or control their feelings to a certain degree.
• Poor Communication Kills: Armstrong's encounter with Yanagi goes out horribly wrong because Yanagi assumes Armstrong wants to arrest him and all Armstrong wants is to have Yanagi explain the story of the Crimson Dragon. Doesn't help that Armstrong isn't being clear about what he wants.
• The Power of Love:
  • A villainous example. As both Zarc and Ray regarded each other as the most important thing to one another, leading to an Unholy Matrimony between them as they wreak havoc on the original dimension and transcend as Gods. Even after they get defeated by the Four Duelists, their love for each other is so strong to the point that not even the fracturing of the original dimension is enough to keep them apart.
  • Randsborg muses that this was probably what caused Rin to snap out of Professor Frank's trance when Yugo arrived.
• Rage Breaking Point: Xavier really gets angry when Frank starts spouting out his philosophy "Everything has a dual nature" while the latter has put Rin into a trance.
  Xavier: FUCK YOU ASSHOLE FOR TAKING MY PHILOSOPHY AND TWISTING IT TO YOUR OWN DESIRES!
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The "Crismon Dragon Crusaders" consists of a knight, an eccentric archaeologist, a former cop, a snarky milk-drinking biker, and a reporter.
• Red Baron: Each member of the Enforcers has a nickname: "Shinigami" for Kalin, "Hell's Harbinger" for Jack, "Stardust Accelerator" for Yusei, and "Black Omen" for Crow. Crow actually lampshades how everyone else got a title before he did.
• Related in the Adaptation: Pegasus and Cecilia are the uncle and aunt of Mahad, Mana, and Atem.
• Running Gag: People in the Synchro Dimension keep mentioning Lady Fate.
• Say My Name: In Chapter 5, Yugo shouts "RIN!!!!" in order to wake her out of the trance Professor Frank put her in.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: Rin's reaction to seeing how much the clothes and food Akiza is treating her and Yugo costs. Justified in that these are locations from the Tops, which has stuff that Rin and Yugo herself can't afford.
• Shout-Out:
  • The character "Xavier Maxa" whom Carly goes undercover as is a character in Green Phantom Queen's fanfic, Between My Brother and Me: Mors Omnibus, who was the deceased older brother of Yvonne Maxa.
  • Randsborg says that he has a cousin named Ivan who founded the "Knights of Amber Beach" He also calls Xavier "He of fair eyes" as Piros did to Kite.
  • Carly's chatroom name is CarliXCX.
  • Mana hugs Serena and Sora, preceding it with "Just to let you know, I'm a hugger!"
  • The building Yugo goes to is called Octavius building, a clear shout out to Marvel's character Otto Octavius.
  • One of Rin's titles is now Killer Frost, a shout out to DC's Supervillen\ Anti-Hero Character Killer Frost.
  • The character Maria Riess is a shout out from Attack on Titan. Wall Maria and Yemir's daughter as well as Historia's last name.
  • Shout out to one of Atop the Fourth Wall's running gags "It's Magic, I don't have to explain it."
• Spanner in the Works: Windwitch Familiar - Freya appearing to Yugo was what brought Yugo to the underground arena, just as Frank has put Rin into a powerful trance.
• Stealth Pun: The fanfic is focused on Ray Akaba and the fanfic's title comes from a short story by Ray Bradbury.
• Sunglasses at Night: Xavier Maxa wears a pair of black sunglasses in an underground dueling arena. Justified because it's Carly in disguise.
• Take That!: Azure really hates the limited support for Windwitch and Lyriluscs and especially hates the Fusion monsters for them (particularly Independent Nightingale). Better yet, she hates a lot of the writing in Arc-V in general and how the Bracelet Girls lost focus later in the season.
• Tempting Fate: A Running Gag in chapter 6 is Jack Atlas telling Yusei Fudo that there's no way Tenzin Yanagi is going to get into trouble. Cut to the last scene of the chapter when Armstrong starts chasing him down to get answers about the Crimson Dragon. Yusei even stops Jack from even mentioning Lady Fate as he knows that she hates him. The author's notes even lampshade this.
  "No, Lady Fate does not hate Jack Atlas. She just finds screwing with him funny."
• Trademark Favorite Food: Considering the Author Appeal from Green Phantom Queen, food was a given.
  • As usual, Jack Atlas loves his instant ramen and coffee.
  • Grady loves drinking milk, probably a reference to the infamous scene in the anime when Yusei ordered milk.
  • Yanagi likes oden. Armstrong learns this from his file and searches Yanagi having lunch at a local oden stall.
• Unholy Matrimony: Ray and Zarc in this fanfic are in love and waged war against humanity in the previous world.
  “Yes,” Ray whispered, taking Zarc’s extended hand. Zarc’s four beloved dragons stood behind him, and Ray Sirens stood behind her, as they all seemed to be waiting for an answer. The grace beneath their feet rustled as the wind swept through.
  They had met in the park once more, the anger and sorrow from the spirits around them, not just their own had become a constant wail of anger and hate, desiring destruction and vengeance. Both Ray and Zarc heard them loud and clear, as the blood lust had increased in the spirits, so it had in both of them towards others. Zarc had stood before her.
  “I’ll always choose you, above all else,” she vowed.
  “As will I! Astrograph Sorcerer!” Zarc said turning to the powerful entity, his body was black and blue filled with stars as if created from the stars and galaxies themselves.
  “Moirai Sousoress of Fate, I invoke thee!” Ray chanted, calling on her own monster.
  “We beg of you, use your mighty powers!”
  “Let us become one with our spirits!”
  Create us anew, and let us rise a power never before seen, never before told, never before challenged!
  Astrograph Sorcerer and Moirai raised their staffs above their heads as shimmering lights enveloped them all, what and who came after were two destructive forces of nature.
  ...
  ...
  ...
  Death is but a door, time is but a window, this will never be our end, and once more, we shall return to this world and be remade anew.
• The Unreveal: How and why Ray turned against humanity to aid Zarc is one of the mysteries of the story.
• Vampires Are Sex Gods: Tilla Mook seems to think so. Unfortunately, Yugi also gets an Imagine Spot of Atem being a vampire, much to his embarrassment.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Carly disguises herself as a boy with short hair and a long-sleeved blouse going by the name of "Xavier Maxa" to get into an underground duel arena and investigate Akiza Izayoi.
• Workaholic: Yusei will work himself to death and it's up to Jack to keep him from collapsing. He's not allowed to drink caffeine either due to a certain incident that had his boyfriends drag him to bed to tire him out. This is shown in Chapter 7 when Randsborgh accidentally left a mug of coffee for Yusei and his boyfriends have pinned him to the floor to stop him from working.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 26 reveals one of the four duelists who opposed Zarc and Ray in the original dimension: Jack Atlas.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A literal case with Ray and Zarc. Yes, they're responsible for setting the plot in motion, and once they're revived they'll start right back where they left off, but they didn't have the best upbringing. Ray's parents were distant and gave her little to no freedom, while Zarc's parents were never around for him. While it doesn't excuse away their actions, they do genuinely care about their reincarnations and each other.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Yugi's Illusion monsters have the ability to change their attributes from LIGHT to DARK or increase their power depending on how many LIGHT and DARK monsters are on the field.
• Your Answer to Everything: When The Enforcers (minus Kallin) are questioning why they have their Crimson Dragon marks, Jack states that they are destined for something greater. Crow grumbles that it's Jack's answer for every strange thing they encountered.
• You're Not My Father: In her own words, whatever love Ray has for her father is long gone. As of now, the only thing she cares about Leo is regret for not being able to kill him before the split of the original dimension.
• You Remind Me of X: Chapter 10 has Pegasus note that Reiji reminds him of someone who was also focused on logic and had a glare (Kaiba).

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