lost in the infinite lights
is an ongoing crossover series between Yu-Gi-Oh! and My Hero Academia written by arinrowan on ArchiveOfOurOwn. The overarching story focuses on Yuugi Muto as he navigates the world of heroes while maintaining his friendship with childhood friend Izuku Midoriya. Throughout the journey, Yuugi encounters a variety of characters from the two franchises while uncovering several major plots from villains and higher ups with questionable motivations.
Tropes per Book:
The series in general provides examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Major characters from My Hero Academia frequently appear before Izuku reaches Yuuei.
- Adaptational Job Change: Several Yu-Gi-Oh characters have new jobs to fit with the new world they reside in.
- Author Appeal: The creator has an exceptional dislike for
Endeavor so you can find Yuugi and his friends ripping on him when given the opportunity. - Big Bad Ensemble: No hero story would be complete without several villains lurking about out.
- In Book 1, there's Katsuki Bakugou, Chouno-sensei, Hirutani, and Stain.
- In Book 2, there's Overhaul and the Eight Precepts, the Meta Liberation Army in general, the Big 5, Pegasus J. Crawford, Wolfram and the League of Villains..
- Cast Full of Gay: A majority of Pro Heroes are revealed to be on the spectrum and the boys casually talk about LGBTQA themes among themselves without fear or prejudice.
- The Clan: The Yuuki Clan is regarded as one of the most influential families in Japan both before and after the rise of Quirks. To maintain their political power while also creating heirs with exceptional Empathy Quirks, they've coordinated with the Hero Commission and other family clans to promote Quirk acceptance while also establishing rules regarding Empathy Quirk users.
- Cute Kitten: An ongoing plot element is Yuugi and his friends getting to interact with different types of cats. It helps that his auntie is the resident cat lady who's experienced in breeding and raising cats.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Yuugi is diagnosed with autism. The story focuses on him and his Grandpa managing his autism along with how he perceives the world around him.
- Generational Trauma: As loving and as kind-hearted as Sugoroku is to his grandson, the story reveals that he passed him some unnecessary trauma onto him. Simply put, Sugoroku lost many of his family members throughout his life leaving only Yuugi as his last of kin. His method of dealing with the trauma is to suppress it and not to talk about it or how it affected him. This gets passed on to Yuugi who tries to ignore his own trauma while refusing to talk about his Disappeared Dad and his history with his mom or Jii-chan.
- Heroic Bystander: Despite having no interest in heroism, Yuugi ends up having to use his Quirk various times to save himself or his friends.
- In Spite of a Nail: While being a crossover with another series and undergoing drastic plot points, Izuku still faced Quirkless discrimination and would later become All Might's successor.
- Mental World: The series explores the concepts of "Soul Rooms" which are described as mental rooms that have unique appearances based on the personality and well-being of a given person. Yuugi's Quirk allows him to venture into other people's Soul Rooms and change them as he sees fit.
- Mythology Gag: You can find tons of references from the two franchises in any given chapter.
- Original Character: Along with the canon characters from the two series, there are also various original characters that Yuugi and friends interact with. The most recurring ones are Netsuko Tanaka-ba, a wisecracking cat lady who gives solid wisdom, and Nagare Yuuki, a member of the Yuuki Clan known for being persistent and annoying.
- Positive Friend Influence: Yuugi, Izuku and Jounouchi are shown to be this to each other as they constantly provide love and emotional support for one another throughout their adventures making them into better people.
- Power Trio: Yuugi Muto and Izuku Midoriya start off the series as childhood friends. And in middle school, they would befriend Katsuya Jounouchi and solidify themselves as a friendship trio.
- Raised by Grandparents: Yuugi is raised by his Grandpa Sugoroku after his mother's passing, made more apparent that his father wasn't interested in raising an autistic child.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: A recurring theme is that Yuugi, his grandfather and his friends are able to bypass traditional laws and customs thanks to them forming relationships with Pro Heroes, high-ranking individuals or people with computer hacking talents.
- Secret-Keeper: In Book 2, Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Sugoroku become fully informed of Toshinori's identity as the Fairest Hero in the Land and how he gave One For All to Izuku.
- Shown Their Work: The author has put exceptional effort in describing Yuugi's autism and what strategies he and his grandfather use to manage the disorder. The same can be said for going into detail when it comes to concepts pertaining to Japanese culture, such as butsudan or family registers. And that's not even getting into the advanced topics relating to biology, body disorders and space exploration.
- Synthetic Plague: In Book 1, the boys and Jii-chan fall victim to a tainted vaccine that resulted in more than 300 confirmed deaths. Book 2 would continue to elaborate on the fallout of the vaccine.
- Weirdness Magnet: Yuugi has the misfortune of being close to dangerous public attacks where heroes have to intervene to save the day. This is something that he is aware of and his friends openly discuss.
