History Awesome / DuelingTriggerFinger

[[AC: Battle City Arc]]

** Bandit Keith Vs Sonia: The reader bears witness to Sonia's Darklord deck as Bandit Keith, who pushed Joey to his very limits, is made-out like a complete amateur before her cards.

** Nagito Vs Weevil: Because who didn't love seeing Weevil get humiliated coupled with Nagito's speech that actually made everyone ''like'' the guy for a short while.

** Gundham Vs Sonia: A true testament to the skill of both duelists, TheMagicPokerEquation aside, that has both countering each other's best strategies, ultimately culminating in a last ditch climax that turns into a draw by virtue of Sonia's Fairy Wind and Gundham's Bark of Dark Ruler.

** Joey Vs Ibuki: The duel is rife with one-liners that harken back to the lovably dumb dub and shows that behind all that cheerfulness and energy, Ibuki is ''quite'' the competent duelist. Not to mention it ends with one of the ''best'' climaxes, even topping Hajime's Five Headed Dragon summoning in terms of drama. Joey has no monsters on the field and only two face-down cards. He has 200 life points left and Ibuki has Blowback Dragon on the field. To increase her chances of destroying Joey's trap cards, she summons Twin-Barrel Dragon. Joey gazes on with a DeterminedExpression, holding onto the notion that luck will favor him. And it does. Neither trap card is destroyed and thanks to Magical Arm Chain, Joey destroys Ibuki's Twin-Barrel Dragon, draws Sword and Shield next turn and uses Graverobber to bring back Ibuki's Thunder King to destroy the rest of her life points.

** Chiaki Vs Celeste: Not only is this a showdown of two characters one would ''expect'' to be highly skilled at Duel Monsters--Celeste as the title of Ultimate Gambler and Chiaki as the Ultimate Gamer--but the way Chiaki pulls out a winning move is just incredible. Early on the in the duel, she activates Magic Jammer and discards Thunderclap Skywolf to the graveyard. Way later in the duel, she uses Monster Reborn to bring it back in accordance with Skull Invitation to destroy all of Celeste's monsters and deal life point damage. Couple that with a well-executed Card Destruction and Cemetery Bomb and the duel was over before Celeste even realized it was happening.

** Joey Vs Celeste is built up to ever since Chapter 4 and they finally throw down in this chapter. It ''does not'' disappoint. For starters, Celeste summoning the Wicked Dreadroot is barely a footnote in the duel with Joey turning the tide with a complex strategy. Joey manages to summon each monster he obtained in his last three duels when going up against Celeste. But the best part is when the duel basically comes down to luck of the draw for ''both'' duelists at the ''same time''. Their luck is on par with each other and it all comes down to "who can draw the better card first"? Even if you figure how much the good guys always win in Anime/YuGiOh, this is still Joey we're dealing with who has lost before. And, all the while, Marik is watching the duel and you just ''know'' Celeste is plotting something. The duel is also the longest single duel to date within the first chunk of the story and the conclusion of the duel is just icing on the cake. Why? Because Joey wins a duel, with [[JokeCharacter Swordsman of Landstar]].

** Mai Vs Sonia. Mai actually wins a duel and it's a nail biting, tense one to be sure.

** [[NightmareFuel While absolutely hell inducing to be sure]], Chiaki's duel against Yami Bakura certainly measures up to previous entries on this list. Chiaki gets electrocuted, bitten twice in the leg, blown back and knocked around to the point where she can't even stand up and, despite the terrifying nature of the shadow game, [[{{Determinator}} she stands tall and utterly ''refuses'' to back down. When all hope seems lost and Chiaki can't get up again, she stands once more thanks to]] ThePowerOfFriendship [[{{Determinator}} and poetically draws Monster Reborn to bring back her favorite monster, Thunderclap Skywolf to end the duel]]. The flow of the duel is more than just literary beauty as, when one stops and thinks about it, it rights two wrongs of both franchises. Chiaki stands tall despite getting more and more fatigued and injured throughout the battle, making Anime/YuGiOh fans reminiscent of Yami Marik Vs Joey and the injuries themselves bring back the pain and anguish Anime/DanganRonpa3 watchers felt when Chiaki was murdered by Junko. Except this time the evil villain is put in their place and it [[CatharsisFactor couldn't be more satisfying to read]] unless you added a kickass background music to the moment of Chiaki's triumph.

** Yugi Vs Celeste is an excellent way to kick start the Battle City finals. Both duelists hold nothing back with Yugi, rather than Yami, dueling thanks to a psychological trap set by Celeste that Yugi took the bait of without hesitation. For most of the duel, Celeste keeps Yugi pushed in a corner with almost no way out sans [[MagicPokerEquation the heart of the cards]]. Every time it seems like he's getting out of it, she just stuffs him right back into it more forcefully than ever. Sure, this being [[InvincibleHero Yugi]], he wins in the end, but even Kaiba agrees that, aside from him and Pegasus, Celeste is the hardest opponent Yugi's ever gone up against. And, by winning, it proves Yugi can hold his own regardless of whether or not Yami is with him.

** Yugi and everyone try to convince Kaiba to disqualify Yami Marik for what he did to Mahiru (as she isn't a participant nor his intended victim), however Kaiba simply scoffs off their explanations as hocus pocus and understates Mahiru's condition stating that the tournament will continue uninterrupted. Enter Chiaki who comes in straight from the medical wing to show Kaiba her own injuries from Bakura's shadow game, daring him to tell her that they're not real, and threatening to disqualify herself from the tournament if he doesn't get his act together. Kaiba at first tries to call her bluff, only for Chiaki to calmly dare him to try her. The two then engage in a brief heated staredown that actually ends with Chiaki ''winning'' as Kaiba relents before finally taking disciplinary measures onto Marik.

** Chiaki's duel with Kaiba for the first arc finale is utterly spectacular. It starts with flashbacks in showing how the two met and then involves Chiaki managing to destroy Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and almost winning against Kaiba when he has Obelisk the Tormentor on the field. She also winds up leading Kaiba by the nose the entire duel and reaches a moment where she could've won twice during the match, if not for either her or Kaiba drawing or not drawing what they needed to close the match. And this is why, ladies and gents, you don't screw around with hardcore gamers. Chiaki is the only person, other than Yugi, capable of giving Kaiba a hard time in a duel.

[[AC: Virtual World Arc]]

** The climax of Makoto vs Noah. Makoto summons and raises Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack to '''13,000'''. Noah's monster has 2,200 attack, and his life points are only 4,350. NoKillLikeOverkill has never felt so amazing. Even before the climax, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this chapter is [[BewareTheNiceOnes Makoto's time to shine]]. Between winning a duel Yugi won in canon to responding to Noah's manipulations with [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness actual anger]] while still managing to keep his [[AllLovingHero lovable hero status]], it's that moment in the story where Makoto [[CallForward calls forward]] to what he's eventually going to be.

** Gundham and Marik face off, not in a duel but an ''actual'' battle with both sides going neck and neck with one another.

** The Triangle Duel has its several highlights for how quick the duel is:

*** Nagito TakingTheBullet for Chiaki by sending his Deckmaster to intercept Izuru's Tyrant Neptune's attack, giving Chiaki the opportunity to snap Hajime back to senses. On top of that, he was also the first to raw first blood in the duel.

[[AC: Battle City Finals]]

** Disregarding the ForegoneConclusion, Joey and Kaiba's duel puts all their canon duels to shame for various reasons: 1) This duel is taking place in the Battle City Finals instead of an unofficial match to determine who wins third place in Battle City, and 2) Joey has proven himself to be a far more formidable duelist than in canon thanks to all the powerful cards he has won and from all the extensive training he received courtesy of Celeste and Mai. It says something about Joey's progressing when Kaiba only wins through the luck of the draw and with a direct attack from his ''Saggi the Dark Clown''.

*** Towards the end of the duel, Kaiba's Obelisk and Joey's The Wicked Dreadroot engage in what is essentially a full-on Kaiju battle that is nothing short of a spectacle. Both monsters waste no time going at it with another as they duke it out relentlessly. This clash goes on for a good long paragraph that describes in perfect detail everything the two titans are doing to one another eventually leading to a double-knockout that shakes the entire dueling field to its core.

** Mikan temporarily sheds away her clumsy girl persona and becomes complete nurse mode when she checks up on both Yugi and Kaiba after the two had their shared hallucination. Nowhere in the scene does she stutter or make a fool of herself as she checks on the two of them with the best of her abilities with Yami even telling her how she is very much a credit to her title.

** The sheer catharsis factor of Kyosuke, Chisa, and Kaiba delivering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the Steering Committee, then blackmailing them into cancelling the Kamukura Project ''and'' moving Hajime to the Main Course as the Ultimate Duelist. They're just in complete control the entire conversation.

[[AC: Orichalcos Arc]]

** Franchise/YuGiOh is often berated for its use of DuelsDecideEverything including the fate of the world, so when Fuyuhiko decides to try and take out [[ArcVillain Dartz]] while invoking a case of WhyDontYouJustShootHim, it's a breath of fresh air. Granted, it doesn't work because of Nagito's luck jamming the gun, but it's still refreshing to see, especially since it's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold quite the moral stance]] for Fuyuhiko's character.

** Mukuro shows her Ultimate Soldier credentials by single-handedly rescuing Kaiba and Mokuba (and the comatosed Alister) out of their crashing airplane.

[[AC: Canadian Nationals]]

* The arc in general may qualify as one since it's so different from previous arcs. There's no set main character, simply a battle royale among Byakuya, Celeste, Joey, and Mai, and no end of the world stakes, despite fan paranoia. And the duels are, especially the finals, considered some of the best by fans.

[[AC: Kaiba Corp Grand Prix]]

** This duel is Mai Vs Yukizome and it's one of the better written ones in the arc. Yukizome strategically counters Mirror Wall at one point. Then, later, when Goddess of Sweet Revenge goes off, this is usually an instant win button for Yukizome, but Mai is able to hold her own and almost win the duel by having the destruction of her field trigger a special summon.

*** If you read the duel blind, you know how well-executed the duel is too, not just Joey's achievement by itself. Rereads lose this impact--since you know the outcome--but several fans described this duel as "literally heart pounding". The amount of life point changes in ''both'' directions keep the duel engaging and who was going to win is kept a complete mystery right up until the very end.

** It took thirty chapters of duels, but the winner of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix has finally been crowned and it's none other than Chiaki! To get to this point, she had to overcome the Duel Monsters champion of Berlin, Byakuya Togami, Junko using Dark Castle of Despair, Makoto, and Joey. And Chiaki's victory means that she will be the one to face-off against Yugi. The final duel of the tournament is the Ultimate Gamer vs. the King of Games!

** Yugi and Chiaki's duel is worth the hype. The biggest stand-out moment comes when, against all expectations in and out of story, Chiaki actually manages to knock Yugi's life points down to Zero ... only for the King of Games to reveal one final card that allows him to keep playing so long as his chosen monster remains on the field. Before long, he's turned the duel back around and defended his title.

* The arc in general may qualify as one since it's so different from previous arcs. There's no set main character, simply a BattleRoyale among Byakuya, Celeste, Joey, and Mai, and no end of the world stakes, despite fan paranoia. And the duels are, especially the finals, considered some of the best by fans.

* Chapter 40:
** This chapter has Celeste replace Joey when it comes to dueling Johnson of the Big Five with one notable difference. In canon, Noah intervenes on Joey's behalf and tells Johnson he's disqualified from the duel for cheating. Joey goes for HonorBeforeReason, willing to finish the duel, provided Johnson doesn't cheat anymore. ''Here'' Celeste's talent as the Ultimate Gambler, is so powerful it actually ''overpowers'' Johnson's rigging of her dice rolls and coin flips. Even when he is able to rig the coin flip as tails, it's ''exactly what she wanted''.
** From a meta perspective, Celeste is also the first duelist to use the term chain, referring to when two or more effects are chained together before any resolve. She uses this rule to cheat Johnson out of 1000 life points upon activation of his effect, while destroying his spell cards via her own trap card by sacrificing her ''own'' monster since it was going to be destroyed anyway.
* Chapter 44:
** All three of the ladies in Nezbitt's three-on-one duel get to strut their stuff.
*** Komaru, despite being an amateur and making several early mistakes, makes an excellent comeback where she piles up Spell Counters upon Spell Counters, until in one turn she has summoned Endymion the Master Magician and ''Dark Magician''. She proceeds to [[CallingYourAttacks yell out "Dark Magic Attack!"]] in time with the latter blowing through Nezbitt's Twin-Barrel Dragon.
*** Mai, in a culmination of her CharacterDevelopment, makes what is essentially a trust fall: attacking Nezbitt's 4800 ATK machine token with her 2300 ATK Harpie's Pet Dragon, because Ibuki told her to trust her. Cue Ibuki activating Metalmorph, boosting the dragon's ATK enough to rip through the golem.
*** Ibuki sets Nezbitt up incredibly well, tribute summoning [[{{Kaiju}} Thunderking, the Lightningstrike Kaiju]] onto his field only to destroy it with a spell. While she pretends her goal was destroying one of his resources through the tribute, the ''real'' plan was for her to use Monster Reborn to get it back on her side her ''next'' turn. Cue her ordering it to destroy Perfect Machine King, taking Nezbitt's deck master with it and winning the duel.

** The climax of Makoto vs Noah. Makoto summons and raises Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack to '''13,000'''. Noah's monster has 2,200 attack, and his life points are only 4,350. NoKillLikeOverkill has never felt so amazing.
*** Even before the climax, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this chapter is [[BewareTheNiceOnes Makoto's time to shine]]. Between winning a duel Yugi won in canon to responding to Noah's manipulations with [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness actual anger]] while still managing to keep his [[AllLovingHero lovable hero status]], it's that moment in the story where Makoto [[CallForward calls forward]] to what he's eventually going to be.

[[AC: Despair Arc Part 1]]

* Chapter 96:
** Meta-example. As the story is primarily focused on dueling and since fighting games are such a visual medium, trying to write about a brawl in one would be pretty difficult to translate to a written format. Fan consensus is that not only did the author make it work, but it that it was incredibly engaging.
* Chapter 97:
** Another meta-example. In canon, many fans were disappointed about the lack of focus Class 78 got in Despair side. This chapter shows the character development undergone by the members of it previously in the fic and even creates a small group of them called The Terrific Ten, including all the students from Class 78 except Kyoko (because she's anti-social), Taka (who doesn't have time to make friends), Byakuya (because he's a stuck up jackass), Mondo (because he's a Bad Boy loner), Hifumi (who's a shut-in), and Leon (who doesn't have any airtight reasons, but also doesn't already know anyone in the group). While Sakura and Hina don't have any prior interactions with the other 8 characters (Yugi, Toko, Makoto, Mukuro, Junko, Celeste, Chihiro, and Sayaka) both are extremely friendly and open to others already so it's not a huge stretch. Not to mention it could be a CallForward to Hina's friendliness to Yugi in the prologue.

[[AC: Battle City Finals]]

** It took thirty chapters of duels, the winner of the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix has finally been crowned and it's none other than Chiaki! To get to this point, she had to overcome the Duel Monsters champion of Berlin, Byakuya Togami, Junko using Dark Castle of Despair, Makoto, and Joey. And Chiaki's victory means that she will be the one to face-off against Yugi. The final duel of the tournament is the Ultimate Gamer vs. the King of Games!

** After Kaiba loses to Yami, the Pharoah approaches him to at first commend him for being a worthy opponent until Kaiba's reactions suddenly cause Yami to resume his preachings about destiny. Seeing this as rubbing his nose into Kaiba's face, Chiaki immediately shuts him up and comes to Kaiba's defense.

** [[NightmareFuel While absolutely hell inducing to be sure]], Chiaki's duel against Yami Bakura certainly measures up to previous entries on this list. Chiaki gets electrocuted, bitten twice in the leg, blown back and knocked around to the point where she can't even stand up and, despite the terrifying nature of the shadow game, [[{{Determinator}} she stands tall and utterly ''refuses'' to back down. When all hope seems lost and Chiaki can't get up again, she stands once more thanks to]] ThePowerOfFriendship [[{{Determinator}} and poetically draws Monster Reborn to bring back her favorite monster, Thunderclap Skywolf to end the duel]]. The flow of the duel is more than just literary beauty as, when one stops and thinks about it, it rights two wrongs of both franchises. Chiaki stands tall despite getting more and mor fatigued and injured throughout the battle, making Anime/YuGiOh fans reminiscent of Yami Marik Vs Joey and the injuries themselves bring back the pain and anguish Anime/DanganRonpa3 watchers felt when Chiaki was murdered by Junko. Except this time the evil villain is put in their place and it couldn't be more satisfying to read unless you added a kickass background music to the moment of Chiaki's triumph.

** [[NightmareFuel While absolutely hell inducing to be sure]], Chiaki's duel against Yami Bakura certainly measures up to previous entries on this list. Chiaki gets electrocuted, bitten twice in the leg, blown back and knocked around to the point where she can't even stand up and, despite the terrifying nature of the shadow game, [[{{Determinator}} she stands tall and utterly ''refuses'' to back down. When all hope seems lost and Chiaki can't get up again, she stands once more thanks to ThePowerOfFriendship and poetically draws Monster Reborn to bring back her favorite monster, Thunderclap Skywolf to end the duel]]. The flow of the duel is more than just literary beauty as, when one stops and thinks about it, it rights two wrongs of both franchises. Chiaki stands tall despite getting more and mor fatigued and injured throughout the battle, making Anime/YuGiOh fans reminiscent of Yami Marik Vs Joey and the injuries themselves bring back the pain and anguish Anime/DanganRonpa3 watchers felt when Chiaki was murdered by Junko. Except this time the evil villain is put in their place and it couldn't be more satisfying to read unless you added a kickass background music to the moment of Chiaki's triumph.

** Meanwhile back in the real world, Gundham finally gets the chance to confront Marik leading to a Shadow game to occur between the two. And what happens next? Gundham decides to go full power and sends out his "Four Devas of Destruction" and sure enough because of the powers of the shadow game, his hamsters actually appear ''in the demonic forms'' that Gundham says they have making for quite a spectacle that even impresses Marik a little.

** After hijacking Mokuba's body to escape to the real world, Noah comes across Mahiru who puts two and two together aboout what he had done. And what does she do? Literally drag him by the ear and stuff his backstabbing ass back into the pods, demanding he give Mokuba his body back!

** Gundham Vs Sonia: A true testament to the skill of both duelists, TheMagicPokerEquation aside, that has both countering each other's best strategies, ultimately culminating in a last ditch climax [[spoiler:that turns into a draw by virtue of Sonia's Fairy Wind and Gundham's Bark of Dark Ruler]].

** Joey Vs Ibuki: The duel is rife with one-liners that harken back to the lovably dumb dub and shows that behind all that cheerfulness and energy, Ibuki is ''quite'' the competent duelist. Not to mention it ends with one of the ''best'' climaxes, even topping [[spoiler:Hajime's Five Headed Dragon summoning]] in terms of drama. [[spoiler:Joey has no monsters on the field and only two face-down cards. He has 200 life points left and Ibuki has Blowback Dragon on the field. To increase her chances of destroying Joey's trap cards, she summons Twin-Barrel Dragon. Joey gazes on with a DeterminedExpression, holding onto the notion that luck will favor him. And it does. Neither trap card is destroyed and thanks to Magical Arm Chain, Joey destroys Ibuki's Twin-Barrel Dragon, draws Sword and Shield next turn and uses Graverobber to bring back Ibuki's Thunder King to destroy the rest of her life points]].

** Chiaki Vs Celeste: Not only is this a showdown of two characters one would ''expect'' to be highly skilled at Duel Monsters--Celeste as the title of Ultimate Gambler and Chiaki as the Ultimate Gamer--but the way [[spoiler:Chiaki]] pulls out a winning move is just incredible. [[spoiler:Early on the in the duel, she activates Magic Jammer and discards Thunderclap Skywolf to the graveyard. Way later in the duel, she uses Monster Reborn to bring it back in accordance with Skull Invitation to destroy all of Celeste's monsters and deal life point damage. Couple that with a well-executed Card Destruction and Cemetery Bomb and the duel was over before Celeste even realized it was happening]].

** Byakuya Vs Kaiba puts all previous examples to shame. Not only do we get exactly what one would think going into a duel between the two biggest egomaniacs of each respective franchise, but it concludes in a way that will have you chuckling with glee. [[spoiler:After discarding a card to the graveyard via the effect of Card of Demise catching up to him, Kaiba draws Monster Reborn and uses it to bring back Obelisk the Tormentor from the graveyard. Byakuya activates Bottomless Trap Hole to rid the field of Obelisk, only for Obelisk to [[NoSell pull itself out of the hole]] and attack Byakuya for the win]].

** Joey Vs Celeste is built up to ever since Chapter 4 and they finally throw down in this chapter. It ''does not'' disappoint. [[spoiler:For starters, Celeste summoning the Wicked Dreadroot is barely a footnote in the duel with Joey turning the tide with a complex strategy. Joey manages to summon each monster he obtained in his last three duels when going up against Celeste. But the best part is when the duel basically comes down to luck of the draw for ''both'' duelists at the ''same time''. Their luck is on par with each other and it all comes down to "who can draw the better card first"? Even if you figure how much the good guys always win in Anime/YuGiOh, this is still Joey we're dealing with who has lost before. And, all the while, Marik is watching the duel and you just ''know'' Celeste is plotting something. The duel is also the longest single duel to date within the first chunk of the story and the conclusion of the duel is just icing on the cake. Why? Because Joey wins a duel, with [[JokeCharacter Swordsman of Landstar]]]].

** Mai Vs Sonia. [[spoiler:Mai actually wins a duel and it's a nail biting, tense one to be sure]].

** [[NightmareFuel While absolutely hell inducing to be sure]], Chiaki's duel against Yami Bakura certainly measures up to previous entries on this list. [[spoiler:Chiaki gets electrocuted, bitten twice in the leg, blown back and knocked around to the point where she can't even stand up and, despite the terrifying nature of the shadow game, [[{{Determinator}} she stands tall and utterly ''refuses'' to back down]]. When all hope seems lost and Chiaki can't get up again, she stands once more thanks to ThePowerOfFriendship and poetically draws Monster Reborn to bring back her favorite monster, Thunderclap Skywolf to end the duel]]. The flow of the duel is more than just literary beauty as, when one stops and thinks about it, it rights two wrongs of both franchises. [[spoiler:Chiaki stands tall despite getting more and mor fatigued and injured throughout the battle, making Anime/YuGiOh fans reminiscent of Yami Marik Vs Joey and the injuries themselves bring back the pain and anguish Anime/DanganRonpa3 watchers felt when Chiaki was murdered by Junko. Except this time the evil villain is put in their place and it couldn't be more satisfying to read unless you added a kickass background music to the moment of Chiaki's triumph]].

** Sonia Nevermind [[spoiler:being able to read Ancient Egyptian and therefore is able to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra after snatching it from Marik with Pot of Exchange]]. It's unfortunate that [[spoiler:Marik uses Dimensional Wall to counter this awesome moment]], but it's still pretty cool.

** Makoto's Ultimate Luck is so powerful [[spoiler:it confounds the Millennium Necklace]].

** Chiaki's duel with Kaiba for the first arc finale is utterly spectacular. It starts with flashbacks in showing how the two met and then involves [[spoiler:Chiaki managing to destroy Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and almost winning against Kaiba when he has Obelisk the Tormentor on the field. She also winds up leading Kaiba by the nose the entire duel and reaches a moment where she could've won twice during the match, if not for either her or Kaiba drawing or not drawing what they needed to close the match. And this is why, ladies and gents, you don't screw around with hardcore gamers. Chiaki is the only person, other than Yugi, capable of giving Kaiba a hard time in a duel]].

** The climax of [[spoiler:Makoto]] vs Noah. [[spoiler:Makoto summons and raises Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attack to '''13,000'''. Noah's monster has 2,200 attack, and his life points are only 4,350.]] NoKillLikeOverkill has never felt so amazing.

** Meanwhile back in the real world, Gundham finally gets the chance to confront Marik leading to a Shadow game to occur between the two. And what happens next? Gundham decides to go full power and sends out his "Four Devas of Destruction" [[spoiler: and sure enough because of the powers of the shadow game, his hamsters actually appear ''in the demonic forms'' that Gundham says they have making for quite a spectacle that even impresses Marik a little.]]

** An ominous one comes in the form of [[spoiler:Izuru's appearance]] for those familiar with what he means in the Danganronpa universe. You can almost hear the ScareChord playing when Chiaki and Nagito find out [[spoiler:[[YouAreTooLate they were too late to save Hajime]].]]

*** Nagito [[spoiler: TakingTheBullet for Chiaki by sending his Deckmaster to intercept Izuru's Tyrant Neptune's attack, giving Chiaki the opportunity to snap Hajime back to senses.]] On top of that, he was also the first to raw first blood in the duel.
*** Chiaki uses a mixture of her deck and Hajime's as part of her plea to [[spoiler: [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight release Hajime.]]]], which eventually boils down to her summoning Hajime's trusted Blackland Void Dragon.

** Let's just start with [[spoiler:the fact that '''Hajime beat Marik''. Yeah, let that sink in.]]

** [[spoiler:Hajime's [[SuperMode Awakened Mode]] kicking in after he's pulled out of the Shadow Realm by the sound of Sonia, Gundham's, and ''Izuru's'' voices. He'd been lying down, badly injured from all the damage sustained in the duel, but as Marik gloats over his victory, Hajime suddenly leaps to his feet, blazing in all his Awakened glory, and shouts about how he absolutely will not lose. He then proceeds to summon Five-Headed Dragon, trick Marik into pouring all but one of his Life Points into Ra, and then raises his dragon's attack just ''slightly'' higher...with a measly Equip spell, Horn of the Unicorn. And then he attacks. Marik can only scream in disbelief as he's defeated.]]

** The sheer catharsis factor of Kyosuke, Chisa, and Kaiba delivering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to [[spoiler:the Steering Committee, then blackmailing them into cancelling the Kamukura Project ''and'' moving Hajime to the Main Course as the Ultimate Duelist.]] They're just in complete control the entire conversation.

** Franchise/YuGiOh is often berated for its use of DuelsDecideEverything including the fate of the world, so when Fuyuhiko decides to try and take out [[ArcVillain Dartz]] while invoking a case of WhyDontYouJustShootHim, it's a breath of fresh air. Granted, it doesn't work [[spoiler:because of Nagito's luck jamming the gun]], but it's still refreshing to see, especially since it's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold quite the moral stance]] for Fuyuhiko's character.

** After four chapters of nothing, but grief and despair to kick off the Orichalcos arc, the good guys ''finally'' get a win thanks to [[spoiler:Yukizome]].
*** To elaborate: [[spoiler:It was [[InformedAbility implied]] in Battle City that Yukizome was an amazing duelist. Here, she throws down with Gurimo who, in canon, pushed Yugi into a corner and she absolutely goes to town on him. Despite losing almost all of her life points near the end, expert readers can tell that Yukizome had complete control of that entire duel in a similar vein to Chiaki's very first duel in the story]].
*** And that's not even getting into the showmanship of the duel itself with manages to combine BattleInTheRain and BattleAmongstTheFlames with lightning dropping every so often, which only adds to the tension and a burning desire for the reader for [[spoiler:Yukizome to pull off the win]], creating a great amount of [[CatharsisFactor catharsis]] when she does. The storm ending at the end of the duel symbolizes that the storm of despair is finally over and now it's time for the heroes to make their counterattack.

** Another meta-example. In canon, many fans were disappointed about the lack of focus Class 78 got in Despair side. This chapter shows the character development undergone by the members of it previously in the fic and even creates a small group of them called The Terrific Ten, including all the students from Class 78 except Kyoko (because she's anti-social), Taka (who doesn't have time to make friends), Byakuya (because he's a stuck up jackass), Mondo (because he's a Bad Boy loner), Hifumi (who's a shut-in), and Leon (who doesn't have any airtight reasons, but also doesn't already know anyone in the group). While Sakura and Hina don't have any prior interactions with the other 8 characters (Yugi, Toko, Makoto, Mukuro, Junko, Celeste, Chihiro, and Sayaka) both are extremely friendly and open to others already so it's not a huge stretch. [[spoiler:Not to mention it could be a CallForward to Hina's friendliness to Yugi in the prologue]].

* Meta-example. As the story is primarily focused on dueling and since fighting games are such a visual medium, trying to write about a brawl in one would be pretty difficult to translate to a written format. Fan consensus is that not only did the author make it work, but it that it was incredibly engaging.

** Befitting of the arc finale: The entire chapter qualifies.

** Mukuro shows her Ultimate Soldier credentials by single-handedly rescuing Kaiba and Mokuba (and the comatosed Alister) out of their crashing airplane.

*** And that's not even getting into the showmanship of the duel itself with manages to combine BattleInTheRain and BattleAmongstTheFlames with lightning dropping every so often, which only adds to the tension and a burning desire for the reader for [[spoiler:Yukizome to pull off the win]], creating a great amount of [[CatharsisFactor catharsis]] when she does. The storm ending at the end of the duel symbolizes that the storm of despair is finally over and now it's time for the heroes to make their counterattack.

** After 4 chapters of nothing, but grief and despair to kick off the Orichalcos arc, the good guys ''finally'' get a win thanks to [[spoiler:Yukizome]].

** The sheer catharsis factor of Kyosuke, Chisa, and Kaiba delivering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to [[spoiler:the Steering Committee, then blackmailing them into cancelling the Kamukura Project ''and'' moving Hajime to the Main Course as the Ultimate Duelist.]] They're just in complete control the entire conversation.