DEATH BATTLE: Yu-Gi-Oh Battle Royale!

DEATH BATTLE!: YU-GI-OH! PROTAGONIST BATTLE ROYALE!

Initially i was gonna post something witty bout how i finished One Piece (BUGGY D CLOWN, EMPEROR OF THE FUCKING SEA BOIIIIIIS!), but since my last blog i finished One Piece, Breath of the Wild, Brilliant Diamond, Legends Arceus, several other smaller games, got addicted to Deep Rock Galactic and Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel (TOPICAL) and got Covid. Its been a fucking time lads.


Hey one and all and welcome back to yet another shitty vs blog! For a guy who's pretty vocal bout just...not being a weeb, doing two anime battles back to back is kinda funny.

Yu-Gi-Oh. A franchise that has alot of meanings to alot of people. The most complicated card game on the planet, which is not a compliment, over ten thousand cards, of which 10% are probably HEROs, the only franchise keeping the shell of Konami alive after they fucked up PES and MGS, and it's even the franchise solely responsible for killing 4Kids in its original form. But more than anything else, Yu-Gi-Oh is possibly the most well known for its anime series, of which there have been 8, with various different English Subtitles for different series, to the point even the card games eras are named after the shows. DM. GX. 5Ds. ZeXal. Arc-V. Vrains. Sevens. Go Rush!!!. Each show has its own Yu, a boy dedicated to being the very best like no one ever was and being a digital card gaming champion....wait none of thats right. 

Yugi Mutou and Atem, the alter egos that make up Duel Monsters infamous king of games.

Judai "Jaden" Yuki, the last Slifer Red Duel Academy student and the Reincarnated Supreme King frome the neXt Generation, the GX if you will. 

Yusei Fudou, leader of team 5Ds, also known as the heroic Signers, servants of the Crimson Dragon.

Yuma Tsukumo, partner to Astral, professional Number Hunter and wielder of the ZeXal morph.

Yuya Sakaki, the greatest Entertainment Duelist in any dimension, reincarnation of Zarc. 

And Yusaku Fujiki, the hero of the digital world Vrains, Playmaker.

Also there is Yuga Ohdo from Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens, a the recently finished series with a different focus both in scope and format it is advertising, which we will not be focusing on, as well as Yudias Velgear from its upcoming sequel series, Yu-Gi-Oh Go Rush!!!. The shows are even animated by a new studio, so see this almost as a "Studio Gallop Yugioh Battle Royale" if you have to. Kinda fitting given Master Duel animes seem to be dead.

These 6 duelists are without question the most powerful duelists of their eras, but which one is the most masterful duelist of all?

I don't know or care. Each one of them is capable of bending the rules of the card game to their whim, subconsciously or otherwise, so who would win in some sort of Card Game battle royale is pretty much impossible to figure out. So we gonna lock em in a room with their decks and tell em to kill each other. 

So notes before we begin. As I just said, but for absolute clarification, dueling skill is NOT a factor here due to being entirely subjective. all 6 are capable of weaponizing their abilities outside it, which is much more tangible, so that's what we will focus on. This also means potential potholes like not knowing about certain summoning types, deck consistency etc are non issues. that's an entirely separate, non Death Battle/versus related Debate. 

We will also be focusing on the subbed Anime versions of the characters, minus the original DM which will be composited between the Manga and Anime, due to the stories being at least vaguely similar. all the others are so wildly, vastly different its nigh impossible to wrap it up into one composite character that does justice to either version. I will use dub names interchangeably with the sub, for ease of reading, but ALL stats etc come from the source, more or less. Summon animations of boss monsters in certain games can also be drawn upon. 

And finally, All of them will be at a theoretical max potential. Yugi with everything he and Atem have used, Judai with all of his and Yubels vast arsenal minus I guess the Sacred Beasts, Yusei with the full signer mark (though not the other dragons, those aren't his), Yuma and ALL the Numbers (holy shit) and the Numeron Code, Yuya with all 5 of his and his counterparts decks and power and Yusaku with his and Ais not inconsiderable power and skill. No stone unturned, if any of the characters included can lay claim to owning anything in their respective lore, its gonna be covered if it matters. 

So with the decks cut, shuffled and hands drawn, lets roll that dice and see which main character will go first in this duel to the death? 

CLANG

Would you believe the story of Yu-Gi-Oh, that one anime that markets a childrens card game, does not start with a card game at all? 

Given how infamous Toeis "Season 0" has become, yeah you probably can. 

 

Despite his hair screaming ANIME PROTAGONIST, Yugi Mutou was a normal bottom of the rung highschool student attending Domino High in Domino City. The dude had one friend, Anzu (Tea in the dub) and was bullied relentlessly by Jounouchi and Honda (Joey and Tristan) and generally just was a nerd. And to be fair, he didn't have much of a chance, being raised by his mother and grandfather in the latter's game shop. Yugi grew up enamored with gaming of all kinds, loving to test his mind with pretty much anything he could get his hands on, its probably the only thing he was confident in. 

His grandfather, who was also an archeologist as is the case with most of the best gamers at the time, thus got him a gift from one of his latest digs, an ancient artifact that nobody had really been able to figure out....some sort of puzzle. 

This turns out to be the biggest event in his life. 

Even before he solved the puzzle it changed his life, its shards and a few other incidents being catalysts to turning Joey and Tristan into best friends loyal to the ends of the earth, particularly the former, but upon solving it, which is a stupid impressive feat given Seto Kaiba needed several super computers to solve it later in the timeline, his life was irrevocably changed, and no longer just his own. 

Yugi was possessed by the spirit of an unnamed pharaoh, who he'd come to call Yami....his dark half. 

In times of stress, Yami would take control of Yugis body and trick or deceive anybody trying to do him and his friends harm, challenging them to a Shadow Game. Unlike in the dub, Shadow games weren't just games in some magical realm that steals your soul, it was often just a game with lethal stakes, often not even complex, such as when Yami challenged an escaped convict holding himself, Tea and an entire dinner hostage at gunpoint to kill him with one finger, Yami doing the same. Guy picks the trigger finger, but poses just long enough while pouring his vodka that Yami lights his smoke...then drops his lighter on his hand, ensuring that if he shoots or moves, he'd die. As such the guy freaks out, uses more fingers and that was the BIGGEST mistake he could have made, as it left him open to a Penalty game, which of course, was Yamis signature mind crush, which generally attacked a persons personality and inflicted madness in most cases, though not all. 

The Manga Version of this event actually didn't even use the mind crush, and the Penalty Game was just the guy dying in a self inflicted fire. Yu-Gi-Oh was officially a psychological horror before the various Card Games took off.

This is pretty much what happened when his grandfather attracted the attention of aforementioned billionaire, game tycoon, child prodigy and autistic icon Seto Kaiba, with he, and later his brother Mokuba trying to kill the entire gang several times, culminating in shadow games taking place with their favorite table top entertainment...in Kaibas case it was Monsters and Magic, but you and I know it better as Duel Monsters. 

and Yami was REALLY good at Duel Monsters. 

Defeating a renowned champion and overall genius like Kaiba attracted attention to Yugi, as did the puzzle around his neck, known to those steeped in Duel Monsters and Egyptian history as the Millennium puzzle. One of the seven millennium items created by sacrificing 99 innocent Egyptians to imbue them with great power. The Puzzle, the defeat of Kaiba and Yamis existence drew the attention of Pegasus J Crawford, probably better known as Maximillian Pegasus, and the Kaibacorp Big 5, the former of whom kidnapped Yugis grandfather, Kaibas brother and seemingly every other game on the planet in order to force Yugi and Yami to play Duel Monsters in his newfangled Duelist Kingdom Tournament, in order to steal the Puzzle and Kaibacorp from Yugi and Kaiba in one fell swoop, crowning the winner as King of Games. 

More In the Manga trivia: Pegasus plan was to be reunited with his dead wife, which he wanted to use a combo of Kaibacorp tech and the Puzzle to achieve....except in the Manga, given he already possessed the Eye, he'd given up on using Egyptian magic to revive his wife, wanting to use the Kaibacorp tech he'd get from the merger to live with a lookalike, ala Atem in Darkside of Dimensions. Nobody in the plan even cared about the puzzle!

and to be fair, Duel Monsters itself is kind of the King Game of Games, being based on and drawing power from the same magic at least the Egyptians, if not older, use to wage fucking war. Wait Egyptians? 

Yeah needless to say Pegasus bit off a bit more than he could chew despite being the creator of modern Duel Monsters, trying to beat a guy who was playing it since before his great great great great great great great grandfather was born in much higher stakes. 

 

Just as Seto, who was a reincarnation of the Egyptian Priest Seto, was drawn to use cards based off his ancestors preferences, right down to his lust/love for the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Yugi tended to use monsters related to and based on his own past life. Summoned Skull, Gaia the Fierce Knight and Buster Blader are just a few examples of some of his legendary monsters. The dude can even invoke the powers of light and darkness to summon beasts like Black Luster Soldier. 

But without a doubt his key card, his ace monster, is the legendary Dark Magician, who is actually Yamis old Egyptian partner....who in turn is the fusion of one of Yamis priests Mahad and his own partner. The ultimate magician in terms of attack and defense, ignoring all the superior magicians, Dark Magician, via its many many MANY support cards, has shown a plethora of skills ranging from a Houdini style stage magician to a master of arcane arts able to manipulate the fabric of reality to access the forces of Chaos itself. He's a Dragon tamer, a knight in many different forms, be it a fire wielder, a dragon slayer or a cavalry man, and has even become part dragon if he fuses with dragons with the right amount of potential....


killitkillitkillitkillitkillit

But DM isn't at his most powerful when chasing Chaos or Draconic power, but when teamed with his apprentice, the sexual awakening of many a early 2000s child weeb, Dark Magician Girl, the partner of Mahads real life apprentice Mana. Its when Yami has both these two at his side he's considered at his most dangerous....well except for those 3. 

After becoming King of Games, Millennium Item holders came out of the woodwork to help or hinder Yugi and Yami in their new primary quest: to get Yami his name back. Among those was Marik Ishtar, a keeper of the Pharaohs tomb, who unleashed Yamis oldest partners on him once again, this time in card form. 

The Egyptian Gods.

Slifer, or Osiris, the Sky Dragon. 
Obelisk the Tormentor, the great War God
The Winged Sun Dragon of Ra

Slifer's name was changed just to be named after a 4Kids executive. Yes this is where the Abridged Joke came from

No matter what name you know em by, and you probably see it in the above amalgamations, you probably know the supreme power they command....in the anime at least, ignore the irl game cause these things are peepee poopoo bad. Monsters so deadly they supposedly can only fell each other, these spirits were passed between pharaohs to combat any threats that came Egypt's way. 

How the FUCK did the Romans beat this shit?

 

Yami got the three of them back, and he'd need them too unlock his memories as well as defeat the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring, Bakura similarly possessing his own, more docile reincarnation of the same name in a more forceful manner, and the dark master he served back in Egypt as the Thief King. 

Zorc. A being so powerful he could move the moon to eclipse the sun in the middle of the fucking day. It took all 3 gods to keep him at bay, or Exodia or Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, but all eventually fell before him (but not definitively enough to not scale pog). Darkness incarnate, the Nameless Pharaoh once sealed him inside his Millennium Pendant with his own life force, sealing his own spirit inside it, using his true name as the binding spell, wiping his memories, then shattering the necklace to prevent it ever reviving. But forced to relive these events as a game, with the help from his modern friends, Atem rewrote history, (Sort of, its just the events of the game) and defeated the spirit of the Ring once and for all. More or less. 

Oh yeah, his names Atem. no wonder he was so willing to throw that name away, Yami does sound alot cooler.

Restored, but a man out of time, Atems last goal was to do what all his people wished to do and proceed to the afterlife to join his loved ones, but could not without being defeated in a no holes barred duel. And naturally, it was Yugi who did it.

See throughout all those misadventures, Yugi was with his other, often the voice of reason or logic, and even more often willing to make the big brained, big balled sacrifice play to get the dub, all the while gaining the one thing he was ever really missing. Confidence. 

So with his own, more varied monsters at his side, ranging from marshmallows, legos and magnets to stoic swordsmen, sorceresses and giant dragons of destruction, Yugi succeeded in even defeating the gods (the amount varying by version), Yamis blatant fate manipulation in the anime and stopping Monster Reborn in the ultimate message: You can rest now, partner.

In the anime, the Millennium Puzzle is said to give its wielder Fate and Luck manipulation, but in the Manga the opposite is true, with Atem only using Slifer in the Ceremonial Duel to offset how clunky using the 3 of them would be. However with Dark Side of Dimensions, with Atem willing Palladium Oracle Mahad to the top of Yugi's deck when he returned, he likely has Fate manipulation regardless. Its also consistent with the other Anime continuities in its timeline, so we will include it.  

And so he did, Atem proceeded to the afterlife. and they all marched to the next great game....called life...






UNTIL SETO MOTHERFUCKING KAIBA HAPPENED

Setos autistic (i don't mean internet autism here, the dudes gotta be actually Autistic and i love him for it) manbonner for Atem was so large he dug up the Millennium Puzzle, had it rebuilt, built an AI to recreate his dueling skill (Which failed, it didn't have the fate manipulating bullshit Atem had or his hair apparently) before challenging Yugi (via the big brother network he has around the city cause OF COURSE) and the last real Egyptian threat left Aigami (Who Kaiba PULLED OBELISK OUT OF THE GROUND TO DEFEAT PSBLSRESNM), to duels to decide the fate of the puzzle, the two in question having the final pieces. Yugi proved to Kaiba that he, not Atem, was the true King of Games and that Atem wasn't just dodging his calls and was actually dead dead, until Atem, noticing shit with Aigami and the cockroach that is the Millennium Ring had hit the fan, came back from the dead for like 5 minutes proving Kaiba right, before removing the Millennium Items from this plane of existence once and for all. This STILL wasn't enough for Kaiba, who took all the Egyptian magic he could, chucked it into a space elevator which he DROPPED DOWN to go to the afterlife and it WORKED????????????

And no, he didn't just...you know, die, he broke into the after life to play a card game with his deceased husbando, seemingly won given he then came BACK and made Yugis own game concepts into actual games....

And pushed the realm of Duel monsters from just a game....into a career. and careers require education. Education requires schools....

CLANG

GAME ON GETCHA GAME ON, COME ON YOU BETTER PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT! 

When Judai "Jaden" Yuki showed up at the entrance exam late, having bumped into a mysterious leather clad figure on his way that definitely wasn't Yugi and this definitely wasn't an overt passing of the torch moment, nobody at Kaibas Duel Academy could have known this barely passing, always tardy and overly excitable goof could be their greatest student ever, not for his tournament places or grades, but for being the most varied world savior the world has ever seen, saving their own student body several times over, often from themselves.

To that I say, have you EVER watched a Shonen before?

This kid, sorted into the bottom of the barrel Slifer Reds, had a pretty normal, if eventful, school life at first, probably a welcome change from his childhood. He made friends and enemies with students and teachers alike, investigated seemingly phoney myths around campus and almost got expelled, representing his school in events, chilling out with the crew in the school yard, finding trouble never working too hard, you know standard stuff. 

Sure kids had gone missing on this school island with a volcano on it, but that could be chalked up to dorm life on an island with a volcano. one bad trip ya know? 

Except...no. Duel Academy is built basically on a native American burial site, covered in pentagrams and also consecrated in virgin blood and the guts of newborn orphans. This is the most cursed place on the planet bar none. 

So this kid got roped into 4, count em, 4 world ending cult plots that he basically stopped solo over the next 3 years. He went from dueling guys obsessed with tennis to his friends mind controlled brother inside a volcano, or a vampire

This was just in his first year.  

Judai just wanted to play card games man. He couldn't help but love the game, especially since he could see Duel Spirits, the actual spirits inhabiting the monster cards he used, Such as the Winged Kuriboh he got from Yugi. 

Unfortunately for him he had a bit of a Hero complex built in, as seen with his deck of choice, the Elemental HEROs. This overly supported archetype of warriors which i love so much is a bunch of Marvel/DC styled super heroes who revolve entirely around Fusion Summoning, the act of using a Spell card (or stand ins) to merge two monsters together to create a stronger one. For example, take the scantily clad fire woman, Burstinatrix, chuck her in a portal with the bird man, Avian, and out comes this one winged angel looking mother fucker with a dragon arm, Flame Wingman, Judais favorite monster by his own admission. Toss the Kamen Rider looking Sparkman into that mix with Flame Wingman, out comes an upgraded form, Shinning Flare Wingman. nearly every hero can merge with each other, often in numerous ways, meaning that Judais options are frankly absurd should he draw the right stuff....which he can. Anime protagonist. 

Judai was the primary defender of the Spirit Keys against the Shadow Riders, not because it was all on his shoulders, but because of the 7 of them, he took down 5. So it basically was all on his shoulders. these Spirit Keys were basically the only thing stopping these evil, Duel Spirit devouring Egyptian God Knock offs called the Sacred Beasts from being woken from their tomb under Duel Academy....except they got woken up anyway, by the duel energy exerted defending the keys, meaning its was all pointless and Judai had to beat them. 

This, again, is his first year. His second started with the more tame event of a Pro Duelist taking an interest in him due to his usage of HEROs before showing up at Duel Academy, beating his ass and taking away his ability to even see his cards. 

Never mind back to the weird shit.  

This led to Judai, who was already used to protecting his friends, being helpless as another cult led by the mysterious Saiou took root at the Academy, eventually leading to him leaving the school all together. 

Then he went to a different dimension and was greeted by a dolphin man. It's here that we actually start to get Judais backstory. Turns out even as a kid weird shit happened to him, including him winning a contest held by one Seto fucking Kaiba to design a series of cards and have them LAUNCHED INTO SPACE to expose them to some weird energy he found and TEACH ALIENS TO DUEL SETO WTF? Already a HERO enthusiast, Judai designs an adjacent set of cards, the Neo-Spacians, a bunch of alien animals of the 6 attributes, Dark Panther, Aqua Dolphin, Flare Scarab, Air Hummingbird, Gran Mole and....Glow Moss? Moss? Weird but okay....anyway they had the relatively unique at the time gimmick of Contact Fusion, being able to fuse with another monster on the field without a spell. But unlike the HEROs they couldn't fuse with each other, they needed a base, a catalyst. And who better than the Leader of the Elemental Heroes and Judais Ace monster, Elemental HERO Neos. 

This Ultraman looking motherfucker is pretty strong on his own, able to launch beams from his forehead and energy blasts from his....well everything, but he's also possibly the most malleable HERO in the entire, vast Archetype....not in the actual game, he's a terrible brick you play in Rainbow Neos Turbo and maybe HERO Spacian Variants possible with the new support, but just in terms of the sheer number of monsters he can fuse with and into. He can combine with each of the Neo-Spacians, either in sets of 1 or 2 (Sometimes 3!), to form fusions of pretty devastating power....that don't stick around outside Neo-Space. He can also Fuse with any Warrior he chooses to don a suit of armor, a double sided sword, a shield and a mighty pony tail to become Elemental HERO Neos Knight, who can attack pretty much anything around him at the same time. He has a few more, but we'll get into those in a bit. 

So Judai comes back to Duel Academy and sees that Saio and his band of cronies has grown....pretty big, via Saios own bullshit fate manipulation and...just general manipulation and Edo Phoenix as his big gun, the same Pro who thrashed Judai in the first place with his Destiny HEROs, defeating any student who dared stand up to them and brainwashing them into their cult, the Society of Light, serving the So Called Light of Destruction. Judai began the fight back by getting revenge on Edo, who left Duel Academy soon after to find a power up in The Ultimate D (HA) and do some soul searching, but even still some of his friends kept getting brainwashed and he had to beat them to get them back. 

Saio eventually made the play he wanted to do, using the cover of the GeneX Tournament held in Domino City and Academy Island to get his hands on access to a satellite cannon to wipe out the worlds populous, at the whims of the Light of Destruction which was mind controlling even him. Judai abandoned the tournament, where he even beat a fake version of Ra, to chase him down and with the help of Edo, his own level of bullshit that was immune to Saios own and...

this shit that I SWEAR makes sense in context, Judai took down Saio and vanquished the Light of Destruction from this world for at least a few episodes.

Wait. 

So the third year was pretty wild, season 3 and 4 happened in the same fucking year. It starts with a bunch of new cast members coming in, representing other schools, just as an exchange program of sorts. Judai quickly befriends one of them, Johan, who honestly becomes his best friend, at least (Johan uses a rainbow based deck. Enough said). This isn't to shit on his friendship with Sho, Asuka, Manjoume or Kenzan, for instance, but Johan was basically Judais clone! He was somebody Judai didn't have to protect. He could see Duel Spirits, like Judai could, loved just dueling like Judai could, was laid back like Judai, won a contest to have his deck made real like Judai....the two were so similar and quickly became inseparable. Even as the new Professor, Viper, fitted the whole school with Bio Bands causing people who lost duels to pass out, at least Judai had Johan. 

Turns out the Duel energy was being gathered to transport the gang to another dimension, whereupon Johan got nigh instantly kidnapped. 

Judai....did not take this well, going on a crusade to get him back, with his friends tagging along and telling him that trekking through a hostile dimension with no direction while weakened to fight an unknown enemy was a stupid idea. Judai ignored this and they got picked off one by one, to eventually by sacrificed....by ultimately, Judai. 

 

We are 3/4 the way through his story and only NOW do we get Judais complete history. Long ago, from the depths of a white hole near the beginning of all creation, the malicious energy, the Light of Destruction, yes the same one from 4 paragraphs ago, emerged. Its sole purpose was to return the universe to its pure form, with no life, so life may begin anew, thus repeating the cycle. The universe shat out a force to stop it, that being the Gentle Darkness, which was said to one day be wielded by a champion, a king. The Supreme King if you will. In Ancient times, seemingly before Atems time, the boy was discovered and his friend, Yubel, offered to be turned into a monster to protect him, and the King, in turn, declared he'd only ever love Yubel. Yubel, a champion to non binary folk everywhere. 

Of course now they turn evil. We can't have nice things.

In the modern era the Light reemerged, thus so did the Dark and the King, and Judai was the reincarnation of that King. Yubel, being their ever faithful guardian, became a Duel Monster and came into Judais possession. Judai was instantly enamored with the card, who's spirit he started talking to, making his parents think he had an imaginary friend....which was bad when said friend was also causing anyone who dueled Judai to encounter immediate misfortune, including one guy who proceeded to fall into a coma. Judai, of course, wanted to fix this, so asked for Yubel to be included in the space program with the Neo Spacians, and they were sent up, but separated from the animal aliens in a different pod. Judai then got inflicted by nightmares of Yubel burning, seeing his soulmate corrupted by his fated enemy, the Light, and his parents had his memories erased so he could sleep. 

So Yubel shows back up, corrupted by the light, and decides to show Judai the same love he showed them....by burning everything he knows to the ground. This isn't ironic, Yubel genuinely loved Judai above all else, but in their light induced madness equated unimaginable pain to love. Yeowch. 

So using many peons, Yubel and the Spirit of the King tricked Judai into sacrificing most of his friends, except Sho, to create the powerful Super Polymerization, a spell that supposedly could merge all 12 dimensions together. these dimensions are stated to be their own universes, based in quantum theory, so its quite likely they are actual universes. This merge would eventually have caused a big kaboom to wipe them all out, via summoning the Super Fusion God. Basically, Scary shit. 

And Judai just...broke. He'd lost pretty much everyone, he'd been pretty much expected to solve anything and everything and this whole circumstance is his fault from Yubel to the actual murders. So he retreated into his mind and let the Supreme King of old take charge. He was decidedly less nice. 
 but eventually two more of his friends (who also got murdered in the process) Dragged Judai back into his minds drivers seat, letting him finally stop Yubel by...accepting them, despite their crimes, acknowledging that everything they ever did was for Judais own good, even under the Lights madness (in their own twisted way) and finally returned their love, fusing their souls together with Super Polymerization to keep them forever reunited through whatever cycles of reincarnation happen. 

These events unlocked Judais true power, turning him into the Supreme King in ability as well as title, as well as a Human/Duel Spirit Hybrid according to Trueman, a Season 4 antagonist. Judai can summon and strengthen Spirits whenever he wants, with Yubel and Neos being his favorites. We covered most of Neos, but Yubel is even more insane, capable of removing souls, manipulating vines, fireballs, telekinesis, mind control and memory manipulation and more as well as immunities to most of the above, though most of these could possibly have been due to the power of the Light they no longer have. This power boost gave Judai 3 new Neos forms too, Rainow Neos being the ultimate Gay icon in this franchise, which is saying something, a representation of his and Johans relationship, fusing Neos and Johans Rainbow Dragon. Its hard for him to bring out, but he DOES have the tools to do it without Johan. Of course if he can fuse with anothers boss, he can fuse with his own, so he can fuse Neos and Yubel to form Neos Wiseman, basically merging their powers. But when he wants something proper dead, he summons out Elemental HERO Divine Neos, Neos ultimate form with the power of all the Neo-Spacians. This is the form he used at the end of Season 4 to defeat Nightshroud, or Darkness, an entity from the space between the dimensions that represents the evil in humanities hearts. And Judai just....blew it up.

And with that sorted, and witnessing most of his friends resolve most of their personal issues while he was busy as card games Batman (Though Asuka never confessed to him, she got cold feet, which is the only issue that never gets resolved among the ENTIRE cast), Judai graduated Duel Academy, and rather easily at that....as the sole person left in the entire Slifer Red dorm, not even just in his year, there was no other student in the whole school in that outhouse. As such while his friends were celebrating he decided to just...leave. He had a higher calling and didn't want to drag them down with their whole life ahead of them.

But not before Winged Kuriboh led him to his old master, who sent him back in time/into a dream to Duel his Past self and discover what he lost through those 3 years. Given about 70% of his duels were must wins with at first his academic future, then his friends lives and then the whole world and then MULTIPLE worlds on the line, Judai....forgot his love of dueling. its only by engaging with an equal in a duel WITHOUT those stakes that Judai finally remembered who he is

He just wanted to play card games man.

So he left Duel Academy, but his friends are his friends for a reason, sending a note to him without his knowledge as he left promising they'd keep in contact. So Judai went out into the world to solve any issues he could find involving Duel Spirits, doing his duties as the Supreme King whilst also enjoying his time as a duelist. not a pro duelist, not a world saving duelist, just a duelist. So long as he stopped spirit related shenanigans he could enjoy himself again.

So where the FUCK was he when Domino City got blown up by card games?

CLANG

KABEWMMMMMMM

Thats the sound that started the journey of one Yusei Fudo when he was but a baby. Like his predecessors Yusei was born in Domino City, in his case to some loving parents with high up jobs in KaibaCorps science division. His father actually discovered a new particle in quantum physics, which he called the Planetary Particle, though its Japanese name is the Yusei Particle, which he named his child after! This particle is alive, reading peoples emotions, and can be harnessed via special gears to produce Momentum, or Ener-D.

Or, in short, this shit is a perpetual motion machine, a theoretical system that you can put energy into and will run indefinitely without putting more energy in. The reason its theoretical is because this shit violates physics like the Catholic church PreRenaissance. Its straight up impossible.

Naturally this shit is tied to Card games but we will get to that.

The thing about systems like this is that its potential for disaster is immense. Pumping in more energy than the system can handle into a system that can produce infinite energy can produce explosive results, which is exactly what happened when Roman Godwin, head of the project after Dr Fudo was removed for seeing it as the bad idea it was, decided to kill himself for magic anime powers and wake up card game demons. This explosion was so violent that it caused a split in the city, which was obviously leveled, leaving part of Domino stranded away from the rest like some sort of Satellite. So that's what they called it.

While Neo Domino as it became known became a utopia with infinite energy, Satellite was its dump, regardless of people living there, with its citizens below second class. 

 

And this is where Yusei ended up when he got sent away from the explosion in an escape pod, Superman style. Growing up an orphan, Yusei had it rough, but had his friends, Jack and Crow, to help him get by and quickly grew to be very adaptable, thriving in such a harsh environment. When not forced to work as a laborer for the upper class "Tops" Yusei was studying mechanics, learning how to defend himself in hand to hand and of course, learning how to duel. Eventually as a teenager, under the guide of Kallen Kessller, or Kiryu Kyousuke in the sub, Yusei, Jack and Crow formed the Enforcers, a group who went into districts of Satellite to beat the crap out of anyone causing problems for the common folk, be it via Dueling or Punching.

This group of 4 Bishie as fuck teenage boys was known as Team Satisfaction in the sub, which is probably where modern KPop bands got their inspiration tbh. BTS eat your heart out.

While the group didn't last due to Kiryu going batshit insane (Before he went even more batshit insane down the road) Yusei, Jack and Crow remained thick as thieves, basically being inseparable.

Then Jack said "Screw that" Stole Yuseis D-Wheel, or Duel Runner, the source of the forever memed Card Games on Motorcycles, stole his ace monster and went to New Domino City on his own to pursue his dreams. Normally this would be impossible, you can't just leave Satellite, but Jack had contacts in the form of Rex Godwin, head of sector security, and was considered pretty special due to his birthmark. Yusei was none of these things, but that didn't stop him from building a second D-Wheel in a cave with a box of scraps and following Jack, even beating him in their rematch....to no ones knowledge but Jack and his bosses due to the interruption of the Crimson Dragon. So now we can get into the weird fucky wucky stuff in this particular card game show.

The Crimson Dragon is some sort of all might cosmic entity, the physical manifestation of the Dragon Star, which was considered a god by the ancient Aztec based People of the Stars. Yes its a clear and obvious Quetzalcoatl stand in. This firey snek bestows pieces of itself onto some chosen people, who are fated to come together to save the world from Dark Gods or even other threats to the Earth. The only way you'd know you were chosen is if you had a strange scar or birthmark on your arm, which burns when in a high intensity situation. These marks became to be known as Signer Marks, and its what made Jack special, as one of only 4 people in the world to have one at the time. The others, Aki(za) Izayoi the psychic witch and Ruka/Luna the Duel Spirit medium (Like most people in GX by the end lol) were already in the tops and, while in very different circumstances, well within Rex Godwins reach, and he possessed the 4th mark, specifically the head of the dragon making him the leader. They just were waiting for the tail to show up. And of course, it showed up on Yusei. Though it didn't actually burn itself onto his skin before his next match with Jack, it did mark Yusei for a higher calling, despite his arrest and LITERALLY FUCKING BEING BRANDED AS A CRIMINAL FOR THE REST OF HIS DAYS, WITH A TRACKER WTF

Neo Domino is a fucking dystopia. 

These marks bestow their bearers with incredible powers to ease their burdens, from the ability to jam yet another card game satan into a card against its will to psychic powers or links with your twin, but all of them seem to be able to locate each other, prevent the user from being retconed from existence, stop their soul being sucked out and generally protect the user from harmful effects. Yusei has a power unique to him like the above, but more on that later. In certain circumstances one signer can actually temporarily take the power (if not the actual burned in tattoo) of the other marks, but have never shown to be able to access their more unique powers and its just a broad power up.

So Yuseis a pretty good duelist as established. Jack was the best Duelist in Domino when Yusei sped back into his life (though his matches may have been riged at a point) and Yusei beat him twice, once in their interrupted match and again in the final of the Fortune Cup where he finally got his hands on his full Mark. To get here he also had to beat back other pro duelists and most impressively another Signer in Aki, who was using her Psychic powers to intimidate and injure her foes as they duel. Yusei not only beat her, but helped her very slowly through her mental issues and set her on the path to heroism.

So would it surprise you to know Yusei still uses straight up Garbage? Literally.

Yuseis preferred deck is basically a bunch of low level monsters he found lying around that happen to work well with his preferred monster archetype, Synchrons. These mechanical men made of literal garbage for the most part, to the point alot of them are called Junk, use their special abilities to summon out Warriors from the extra deck often exclusive to them by the method of Synchro Summoning, a method that involves using a Tuner, such as the Synchrons, and Non Tuners, like say Yuseis Quilbolt Hedgehog, Sonic Chick, Dopplewarrior or Speed Warrior, to make up the level of the white card in the extra deck. Basic addition. Yuseis more favored monster from this series is Junk Warrior, which powers up when paired with weaker monsters which is what Yuseis all about, but he has tons of them. Most Synchrons have a "Warrior" exclusive to them and he has several Junk monsters that aren't Junk Warrior, to the point Junk and Synchron are pretty distinct if related archetypes connected through Yuseis main tuner, Junk Synchron.

However, much as Yusei loves his garbage, he needed something a bit better than that to be able to fulfill his duties as a Signer, which is where the Ace Monster Jack stole all those years ago comes in. The one, the only, the dragon with a harpoon for a nose and giant purple tits, Stardust Dragon!

Stardust isn't just your corporate mandated dragon....i mean it is, but not in universe! Its actually Yuseis destined partner, one of the servants of the Crimson Dragon itself, a Signer Dragon! This means Stardust has incredible power at its disposal, from the ability to match its more hyper destructive peers in combat, such as Jacks Red Dragon Archfiend and Akis Black Rose Dragon, to literally negating their effects by temporarily sacrificing itself. It attacks with its signature Shooting Sonic, or Cosmic Blast in the dub, or by giving you and itself an existence removing hug with Victims Sanctuary. Its also Malleable, upgrading its powers as Yusei evolved as a Duelist, from upgrading itself with an Assault Mode upgrade to using the power of the Crimson Dragon to evolve into Majestic Star Dragon, which temporarily increased its power way beyond its norm, artificially. It even later got used as a Fusion for Draco-Equiste. Most of Yuseis strategies always went through this beast.

And it would need every bit of this power to stop the Dark Signers who were....well the evil, often mind controlled, counterparts to the Signers. People such as Kiryu (remember him!) or Jacks sort of maybe girlfriend before retcons Carly all were enlisted, willingly or otherwise, into this dark order who summoned the very evil the Crimson Dragon formed the Signer Dragons to destroy (Not that one, the other one), the Earthbound Immortals. These duel monsters suck ass are so deadly they absorb the souls of anyone in the surrounding blocks not with a signer mark to power their summoning and are fucking massive, absolute Kaiju looking assholes. The dark signers even had to die in order to embrace this power. Which...yeah this is why Roman Godwin went all Chernobyl on Domino (slava ukraini btw!). Offing himself and several thousand others to awaken the Immortals and obtain one for himself. What a sane man. Fortunately his signer brother formed a force to stop him!

Except....Roman was the Signer. not Rex. He'd already resolved to off himself, but he gained the Mark of the Dragons Head, marking him as leader of the Signers. The reason Roman went crazy is that he'd already obtained the Dark Signer Mark and the two presences were dueling in his body, so he cut off his own arm, gave it to Rex, thus giving him the Dragon Mark (though no signer attached to it) and killed himself, fully embracing his role as a dark Signer, telling Rex to gather the signers and beat them.

Rex, the cheeky younger brother, strayed at the final hurdle and purposefully threw a Duel against his zombie brother to become a Dark Signer himself. Then, when dueling Yusei, Jack and Crow, he took off his robot arm (long story) and stuck on his Brothers arm, gaining the full power of both signers and dark signers, hoping to summon the king of the Netherworld to raze the earth, then remake the world with the Dragon to end the cycle. Instead the dragon revolted, taking the mark and moving the Tail to Crow, giving Yusei the Head mark instead, marking Yusei as the leader of the Signers moving forward.

Then they fight time traveling robots in another tournament Arc. Yes really.

So, turns out, remember that Planetary Particle from earlier? Yeah its pretty powerful right, being able to form a fucking Perpetual Motion Machine. Turns out infinite energy means infinite development for humanity, and it goes faster, somehow....with Synchro Summoning.

I remind you, this technology came from Kaibacorp.

So the future fucking died, absolutely massacred by Meklord Emperors created by Momentum going nuts, and it was only discovered right before Zero Reverses Big brother went off and killed humanity that the upgraded Synchro Summon, Accel Synchro, goes fast enough to offset this energy...a technique discovered by a future Yusei Fudo.

Yusei was taught this technique by a guy who honestly goes by so many names its hard to keep track of, but he's a bro, one of the only survivors of this genocide (until he wasn't but then robots) who in turn had learned it from Future him. Time Travel.

Accel Synchro is basically using a Synchro Summon with 2 Synchro Monsters, one of which is a Tuner. Performing it requires the user to enter a state called Clear Mind, which is not dissimilar to something like Ultra Instinct. Yu-Gi-Oh ripped off this martial arts discipline first and did it on Motorcycles, take that Toriyama! In order to use Clear Mind, and thus Accel Synchro, the user needs to be going really fucking fast, focused on nothing but the battle they are in. This allows them to control the Momentum in their heart, teleporting behind their foe with their brand new monster nothing personal kid style. Yusei, of course, uses this to upgrade his Dragon in a more natural way than his previous methods, summoning out Shooting Star Dragon. This dragon can teleport itself, make mirage clones, shoot lasers and of course revive itself, its one mean mother fucker, and comes out with its own
Masaaki Endoh insert song! I don't think its controversial to say this is the coolest monster Yusei owns.

However, Clear Mind doesn't stop there. You can go even faster, use TWO Tuner monsters and believe in your own potential, attaining Top Clear Mind to perform Delta Accel Synchro, which allows you to summon monsters with enough force to pop a fucking star!

The context behind the star pop is weird, given it seemingly happens somewhere in the Planetary Gear in the Divine Temple, which is only the size of Neo Domino, its highly likely that this is only Solid Vision. However Solid Vision throughout the series has been used to show what the monsters are actually capable of, so there is no reason to discard this, seemingly its an alternate dimensional space or something?

Yusei...NEVER used this, at least in this timeline, however he did invent the technique to summon his ultimate dragon, Cosmic Blazar Dragon, in the ruined future. Not applicable here but worth noting. Antimoney, Yuseis Accel synchro teacher and one of the time traveling future robots did summon his own Delta Accel Synchro in their duel and Yusei did, with alot of effort, overcome it with Shooting Star Alone. However when he fought the leader of Illiaster, the time traveling robots, this was not enough. Fortunately, with the help of his friends ace monsters and the full Dragon Mark once again (now with 6 pieces!) Yusei broke limits even his future self could not, surpassing Top Clear Mind, going...over it. Over Top Clear Mind is...functionally exactly the same as Top Clear Mind, but it turns you gold and lets you fly. Seemingly the Crimson Dragon is required for this to work. but that isn't a problem for Yusei when the chips are down. With it, and all his friends monsters, he was able to perform a Limit Over Accel Synchro to summon one of the most feared monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh history, a monster which for a long time was the main man in every Synchro focused deck that existed irl, Stardusts Ultimate Evolution.

Shooting Quasar Dragon.

This massive behemoth of a dragon shoots lasers from its fists colour coded to its friends, plus has all the powers of its predecessors. It has the ability in duels to just say "no" to most effects in one of the earliest examples of the dreaded Omni Negate ever known to a yugioh player. Even now when it shares the spot light with other, post Anime 5Ds upgrades of Stardust in terms of bossing the synchro mechanic, it is still ran in most Synchron decks as a way to punch out the lights of anyone who lets them reach the battle phase with board presence. When you think Synchro, this is the shit you think of.

This goes to show just how strong a duelist Yusei is. The guy defeated 3 of the 7 Dark Signers, including both Godwins (thought he had alot of help for Rex), won every single tournament he's ever been a part of including the Fortune Cup and World Racing Grand Prix, and in fact outside once in a flash back, has never lost a duel on Screen, with all his matches, even ones where he was 100% certain to lose, ending in no contests at worst. Several times he's taken other peoples worthless decks and won with them. 

 

In terms of feats, we have the aforementioned Antimony star pop, with Yusei later escaping the pull of the black hole with his help, and Shooting Quasar splitting a bunch of clouds just by being summoned. He's as skilled as Jack in hand to hand, both able to take out a warehouse of thugs on their own, and is the only person in history to wield the entirety of the Crimson Dragons power, as even the original signer and Jack, who also wielded the complete mark on occasion, never had access to the Heart like Yusei did in his final duel.  Heck he beat one of the members of Illiaster back in the past, with the help of...Yugi and Judai. And Yusei wasn't close to the end of his story at the time!

With this power, Yusei defeated Z-One, the last survivor from that ruined future, destroying his lab in the sky of New Domino and promising him that his future would never come to pass. And it worked. Yusei spent his time developing a program called Fortune, which regulates the Momentum generators to make sure no Zero Reverse style events ever happened aga...wait

WHY DID THEY NOT HAVE THIS BEFORE???????????? THAT IS LITERALLY FUCKING INFINITE ENERGY AND YOU LEFT IT UNREGULATED? THE INITIAL GENERATOR HAD THE FOUR SIGNER DRAGONS AS OFF SWITCHES, COOL, BUT THERE WAS NOTHING ACTUALLY KEEPING IT IN WORKING ORDER IF SOMETHING WENT TITS UP??????

Kaibacorp man.

Either way, the Crimson Dragon deemed the Signers mission fulfilled and removed their marks, allowing the 6 of them to pursue their futures unbound by fate. Unlike his friends, Yusei permanently stayed in Neo Domino and became its protector, seemingly while researching on the side.

Aki absolutely came back after she became a doctor and you can't convince me otherwise, the two eyefucked each other the whole series lmao.

And with that, the story of Yusei Fudo, and this whole timeline, ends....and actually ends on a high. There is no other big apocalyptic event that could possibly threaten them barring multiversal shenanigans.

SO LETS GO TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE OR TWO THAT REVOLVES AROUND MULTIVERSAL WAR!

CLANG

Can I be honest?

This timeline jump is pointless. There is absolutely no reason Zexal can't be in the OG Timeline, but it isn't. Research has convinced me that they did this just so everything isn't Kaibacorps fault....again.

So if it wasn't obvious the franchise took a radical shift halfway through 5Ds, away from the supernatural and into more technological based stories, much more sci-fi than fantasy. This is kinda shoved in your face with our new setting, Heartland. This technological utopia with garbage robots and neon lights everywhere is so much more obviously advanced than Domino, and no slave labor slums in sight! However the more things change, the more they stay the same, with the world revolving around Card Games, but nowhere near as intrusively due to the development of the Duel Gazer and AR Dueling technology. The idea here is to let people duel wherever and whenever they want as before without interrupting daily life, with the monsters invisible to anyone without what is essentially Google Glass if it looked like a Dragonball Scouter.

And our hero in this super smart and advanced society is:

 

This incompetent idiot.

You probably noticed by now that no matter what, the protagonists of Yu-Gi-Oh are dueling prodigies, even if they are geniuses like Yusei or otherwise completely useless like Judai. This continues on after this point too, spoilers. Yuma Tsukumo is the exception to this rule. Not only is he a dumbass like Judai, he's quite possibly the worst duelist in his entire school, if not more, when we meet him. Despite this the guy just wants to Feel the Flow, High Five the Sky, Katabingou and get set to get decked....look I swear he doesn't only speak in catchphrases. Like Judai before him he just wants to be a champion duelist.

But again, I cannot stress this enough, he fucking sucks. Perhaps its due to his missing parents, leaving his grandmother and workaholic older sister to raise him, perhaps its due to him not being all there, but despite his and others best efforts he can't master the simplests parts of Yu-Gi-Oh, such as Xyz Summoning

Don't worry Yuma, plenty of people reading this probably see the black cards and shit themselves. You ain't alone.

Xyz Summoning, for context, is the act of summoning a monster from the extra deck by stacking two or more monsters that meet the conditions, normally just the same level, but it can be a bit more specific, ontop of each other, becoming Xyz Material, and then putting the black card monster on top. thats it. Its not even Addition like Synchro, no special monsters like Tuners, no spell cards (yet) just....match the number. And Yuma before the start of canon, never performed an Xyz summon.

In fact, he made one of his best friends, Tetsuo/Brock, because he kept challenging him to duels and kept fucking losing. The dudes tenacious as anything however, and if you give him a chance, he's way too fucking endearing. Heck his best friend Kotori stayed by his side through all the bullying and mistakes because...well she just couldn't help it. If you are Yumas friend, you STAY Yuma's friend.

This is a trend, we'll be back to this.

Despite looking normal, given everyone in Zexal has Yu-Gi-Oh Hair, Yuma was plagued by something dark at night, a strange door that tempted him with power beyond measure, at the cost of what he values most. The dreams seemed centered on the Emperors Key, a strange pendant Yuma received from his father before his parents disappeared. Key...door...I wonder what the connection is?????????

Either way, Yuma continued his days of failing at school then failing at dueling, until Tetsuo lost to the school bully and one of TWO resident Kaibas for this show, Shark, who took the guys deck. Yuma, being Yuma, challenged Shark to a winner take all match, but not before fishboy broke the Emperors Key. That night, with the big match the next day, Yuma broke out his fathers cards and resolved to take on Shark. This deck was the beginnings of Yumas Onomatopeia strategy he would expand as the series goes on, a deck revolved around a bunch of monsters named shit like Gagaga, Gogogo, Dododo and Zubaba, who modulate their levels in order to Xyz summon a number of different monsters of different levels.

 

Wait Xyz summon?

Needless to say Yuma didn't do well. He made several bad mistakes and was losing badly. But upon overcoming a crisis of fate, his Key started to glow and he was once again infront of that Door. Yuma inserted the key and opened it...and somebody flew out.

This was Yumas partner, Astral. He's a spirit that came from inside the Key that has amnesia

Wait. Have we been here before i feel like we've been here before?

Even after Shark summoned a strange Xyz Monster named Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Yuma was able to overcome his foe with the help of Astral and a new monster inserted in his extra deck: Number 39: Utopia, the King of Wishes, Hope. His first Xyz summon, and far from the last.

So clearly somethings up with these monsters so what are these "Number"s? These transforming monstrosities that ate the franchises entire CGI budget for years to come are actually pieces of Astrals memory, turned into cards. The cards are actually blank until they find a user, who they then normally possess to give in to their desires. Astral wanted to get these memories back and find out who he was and why he was with Yuma. Yuma didn't exactly agree, but Numbers kept popping up around him, and he was the only one who could even see Astral, so he ended up helping regardless. How many of these Numbers are there? 100 of course.

Yep

Only 100. No less and 100% definitely no more no sir.

Well, to be fair, there is only 100 important cards for Astrals memory, but we getting ahead of ourselves.

Yuma and his friends keep running into Number holders, who Yuma normally then proceeds to befriend, even Shark from the first episode who becomes one of Yumas best friends...rather begrudgingly, and their relationship can be complex. Turns out however Yuma isn't the only person hunting Numbers. Shark gets another few, eventually wielding Number 32 Shark Drake with no ill effects, but more seriously was the Number Hunter Kaito, who had quite the collection and almost absolutely trounced him in their first encounter. And Kaitos method of taking numbers was decidedly less passive than Yumas, stealing the losers soul, which would cause Astral to disappear.

This led Yuma to a crash course with Kaito, and eventually his employers, the Arclights, and Kaitos own father, Dr Faker who were trying to gather Numbers for their own ends: The Destruction of Astral World to heal Tron, the father of the Arclights who had been transformed into a child, or Kaitos Younger brother Hart, using the power of the Barrian race. Ohh Astral world....Guess whos from there?

By this point Yuma and Astral were pretty good friends, so this didn't exactly sit well with him. Fortunately, the two had become so close they gained the ability to upgrade their monsters in the form of Rank Ups and...themselves?

Zexal morphing turns Astral and Yuma into one being, literally "overlaying" their souls. The form normally needs to be in an alternate dimension to work, but when it does Yuma gains a bunch of power, such as changing reality itself with a Shinning Draw to create a monster on the fly to win a duel, or Change an existing card with Shinning Potential. He also doesn't need a Duel Gazer anymore, but only in this form, while other characters like Shark and Kaito just flat out didn't need one at all as the series goes on.

As for his monsters, he developed some techniques for Ranking them up as i said before, which is....well...upping their strength pretty much, mostly as Chaos Numbers, using the Chaotic Power of Barrian World. Utopia can overlay onto itself to form Utopia Ray, but its more powerful forms are locked behind rank up spells, such as Utopia Ray V or Utopia Ray Victory (Which are different cards) or Utopia Roots when he ranks it down. However his most powerful form of Utopia in the anime is Number 39, Utopia Beyond, which is formed when He and Astral ascend to Zexal 3 (cause of course they have 3 forms) and Used Rank Up Magic Astral Force, basically calling on the power of the entire Astral universe for a new card. Jesus christ.

Im saying alot of words here and you guys are probably lost, so to cut through the bs, the Astral World and Barrian World are two Alternate Dimensions from our own. Astral is a being from...well...Astral World, and the events that led Yuma, Shark and Kaito to facing Tron and Faker were puppeteered by beings known as the Barrian Emperors, seven beings who ruled Barrian World. Turns out, the two worlds were at war, and now our world was the main battleground. Joy.

And it wasn't just Yuma and Astrals connection that led to this multiversal war at our doorstep. The emperors wanted Astral World destroyed to survive, Astral World wanted Barrian World destroyed as it was pure Chaos incarnate which they seperated from themselves long ago and their goal of "Ranking up" was seen as impossible while Chaos still existed. Both saw one way to accomplish this, as neither world could properly attack the other due to both being energy dimensions. They both sought the Numeron Code. This is basically the code to all 3 dimensions, letting the wielder manipulate them at will. Basically card game infinity gauntlet.

Also, turns out, Shark and Rio, Sharks sister, were Barian Emperors with amnesia, as is seemingly tradition, leading to some of Yumas staunchest allies becoming his final foes. To Say nothing of Vector. 

 

But Yuma and Astral wouldn't be denied. Be it watching friends die on the moon, taking on the entirety of Astral World, the god of Barian World who caused every single emperor, even the psychotic Vector, to become evil, Don Thousand, and a final battle against Shark, the leader of the Barrian Emperors Nasch, they powered through it all, getting stronger and stronger together, eventually getting the Numeron Code from Number 100: Numeron Dragon, who created the code, and the universe, in the first place.

But Astrals mission remained, despite Astral World itself no longer desiring it. he had to destroy Barian World, no matter the cost. Yuma disagreed, so the two partners seperated to duel each other for the Code, the fate of all worlds hanging in the balance.

You'd think Yuma would be screwed here, especially since Astral had all 100 Numbers at his disposal and all their upgrades, but Yuma, through all this, had really come on as a duelist. He had won the World Duel Carnival, he'd beaten Astrals Dark Mirror, Number 96, on his own, he'd won several duels without Utopia, the heart and soul of his deck, and he'd most importantly, learned everything Astral was about. And some stuff about himself.

Long ago, before any events of the series, Astral fought Don Thousand 1 v 1 and won. However he was split in half. Astral and 50 Numbers stayed in the key, while another part of himself and the other 50 fell to earth. Those lost 50 were the inciting incidents of alot of historical events in Zexals distant past, several even being connected to the Barian Emperors, and the other half of Astral, apparently...became Yuma. Despite Yuma only being born centuries later. Thats why the two could fuse. They were once....the Original Number.

So Yuma was able to use Shinning Draw on his own, no Astral, no zexal Morph, and make a Number completely unconnected from Astral, F0 Utopic Future, and eventually defeated his Partner, proving his idology correct. Astral conceded and used the Numeron Code to revive everyone who died over Zexals final arc (the body count is massive) and fused Astral World and Barian World together once more, returning Chaos to the once pure Barian world, which would open yet more doors to evolution.

But the rogue, problematic chaos still remained, and Astral needed to clean up his mess.

If only he knew somebody who would help him with that.

Poor Chaos doesn't know whats coming. Thats the entire animes protagonist and antagonist cast coming to deck it in the face. And Yuma and Astral will be right at the centre of it.

CLANG

This one gets weird guys.

In another timeline, dueling had once again progressed more than it reasonably should, and in the opposite direction to Zexal. Instead of Duels being shunted off to the side via AR tech, the duel monsters have been made real due to new Real Solid Vision technology, basically physical holograms. Thanks to this, duelists were able to participate with their monsters in the battle, giving rise to the Action Duel format, where a bunch of cards get randomly scattered around the holographic battle field and duelists run around, or ride on their monsters, in order to get ahead and use these cards for themselves. There was many different approaches to how to abuse this, such as ABSOLUTE PHYSICAL VIOLENCE or countering the use of Action Cards to eliminate them entirely, but one man rose above the rest and became duel champion while turning his contests in to circus performances. Yusho Sakaki. 

 

And nobody was a bigger fan of this legend than his own Son, Yuya Sakaki. Yuya admired his father and wanted nothing more than to be just like him and bring smiles to the audience, and his opponents, while dueling.

Everything changed however, when Yuya found out he was an anime protagonist and his father disappeared, no showing a title defence and instantly becoming a laughing stock, with Yuya, who defended him, almost becoming a social pariah. This kid grew up bullied and depressed, his only respite being the Duel School his father set up which he attended after school, which in and of itself was run down. So, when years later Yuya gets the chance to duel the very champion his father ducked, Yuya jumped at the chance.

Problem, Yuya was not as skilled as his father as a Duelist or as an entertainer. His deck was just missing something and his entertaining style was to be a literal clown instead of sucking the audience into a circus routine. As such, he was backed into a corner and about to be humiliated like his father before him.

Something gave.

When Yuyas pendant he got from his father started to glow in the middle of the duel, near his entire deck metomorphisized into a card type that prior to this moment had never existed before. Pendulum Monsters. Even his ace monster, Odd-Eyes Dragon, wasn't safe and became his soon to be famous Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon.

Aight so Pendulum monsters are weird, and you either love em (hi) or hate em. How they work is almost identical to normal monsters, minus the fact that when they leave the field they go face up in the Extra Deck rather than the GY. HOWEVER you can place them in two special slots on the field called Pendulum Zones where they will be treated as Spell Cards. While there they use different effects and have these things called Pendulum scales, set two pendulum spells and you can perform a Pendulum Summon, where you can summon as many monsters as possible whos levels are between the two spells Pendulum Scales from your hand or extra deck.

In short, you can summon a bunch of monsters in one turn and its not against the rules. Screw the rules we have funny coloured cards.

Naturally Yuyas opponent was COMPLETELY unprepared for the onslaught of Pendulum and caved, and the eyes of the dueling world fell on him.

Yuya honestly didn't know what the hell had happened and even struggled replicating the summon in the subsequent duels, but he didn't focus on the mystery, just on improving his skills in dueling and as an entertainer, saving his duel school, qualifying for tournaments, making new friends like the weird but friendly Sora, the usual.

No it was his girlfriend, Zuzu Boyle (Yuzu Hiragi) who found the plot when she bore witness to a boy who looked exactly like Yuya but used Xyz summoning attacking a bunch of local cronies of their local annoyance Sawatari, the two similar looking boys never seen in the same place. Yuya fell under suspicion despite literally not being involved, and Yuzu was desperate to figure out what was going on while also improving her own duel strength.

 

 
Yuya just fought through to the upcoming Maiami Championship tournament, unknowing of much of the conspiracy surrounding him beyond the interest in his Pendulum monsters. Yuyas deck of choice was a hodgepodge of 3 different Pendulum Archetypes, most prominently the Performapals, a bunch of circus animals and performers in funky make up designed, mostly around manipulating attack points and levels of allies and opponents. You name a situation, Yuya has a Performapal for it. He also uses Performapals such as Hip Hippo or Whip Viper as transportation during Action Duels.They mostly play backup to the two powerhouses of the deck, the opening act if you will. His midcard performers are the Pendulum Magicians, a bunch of Spellcasters which mostly like to be scales instead of on field, which aren't quite as generic in their support capabilities as the Pals, being limited more to themselves and Yuyas main attraction, the aforementioned Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. Odd-Eyes actually comes with his own backup troupe performers, some of which are also Performapals.  It even comes with its own upgraded forms, such as Odd-Eyes Sabre or Lancer Dragons, and fusions with the other Performapals and Magicians after he learned the method from his friend Sora, Rune-Eyes for Spellcasters, Beast-Eyes for the more beastly Pals and Brave-Eyes for the Warriors.

Plot didn't avoid Yuya forever though, despite his best efforts, and it smacked him in the face when Sora fought Shun/Shay Kurosaki, an ally of the Yuya lookalike from before who had been even more violent than his relatively passive partner, in the middle of the Miami championship. Shun had been running around turning people into trading cards and was working with the shady head of the Leo corporation, Declan/Reiji Akaba, whom Yuya had been clashing with initially over his Pendulum Cards.

So, imagine Yuyas shock when it turned out between Sora and Shun....Shun was the good guy and Sora was a fucking Psychopath. He didn't even get a chance to digest this before Sora ran off, Yuya finally met his dark alter ego named Yuto and a THIRD Yuya look alike who wielded Synchros showed up, Dueled Yuto and seemingly killed him while possessed, the dark other dying in Yuyas arms. The next day, when being physically assaulted in his next round of the Miami tournament, Yuya....snapped, and brought out Yutos Ace monster, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, just adding to his confusion. It was only after Sora came back, with a bunch of Soldiers, and the Miami championship ended after the battle royale round that Yuya got his answers from Reiji

War were declared.

The Arc-V world can be divided into four distinct dimensions, seperate universes where one form of Yugioh extra deck summons became more dominant and powerful than the others. Standard, Yuyas home, had access to them all, but the energy levels they gave off were noticable lesser unless there was a connection to some person from another dimension. The Fusion dimension had allied with Reijis father, Leo Akaba, and launched an Assault on the Xyz Dimension, where Yuto and Shun were from, and pretty much leveled the place while turning anyone they came across into cards. Heartland (yes, the same name) was rubble with the resistance constantly fighting to survive day by day. Yuto and Shun had come to this dimension to kidnap Reiji and force his father into submission, not being aware Reiji was also working against his long estranged father, thus Shuns allegience. And Sora? he was a Fusion soldier from Duel Academia (YES THE SAME NAME) who had been sent to keep an eye on Yuzu and Reiji both, and look out for fleeing Resistance members.

Yuzu? Wait where was Yuzu? Turns out, she was attacked by the Fusion Dimensions version of Yuya, but was rescued by the no longer possesed and murderous Synchro Yuya, Yugo, but its okay because now they had the defected Fusion Yuzu, named Serena. Turns out Yuyas not the only one with dimensional counterparts. Reiji didn't have all the answers, like why his father was targetting Yuzu look alikes, having used Fusion Yuya to kidnap the Synchro Yuzu and Yugos girlfriend Rin, and the Xyz Yuzu, Ruri who was not only Yutos girlfriend but Shuns sister. He didn't know why Yuya had Dark Rebellion, having seemingly fused with Yuto. And he especially didn't know about Yuyas super powered dark form. 

 

 

See when Yuya got pushed to the brink in the Battle Royale, he went full edgy super saiyan, complete with the standy up hair, glowing red eyes and darker mannerisms. Instead of wanting to entertain, he just wanted to win, through any means necessary. He even BIT people trying to hold him down. This super powered form gave rise to a bunch of his more powerful monsters as the series progressed, such as Performapal Gattling Ghoul, which is a gremlin with the most entertaining item of all. A Minigun! Though more impressive is when he magiced up cards that let him treat Dark Rebellion not as a Rank 4 Xyz monster, but as a Level 7 Monster, overlayed it with Odd-Eyes and made a PENDULUM Xyz Monster, the Supreme King Black Dragon: Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon. He actually made a second one later in the series, a Supreme King Blazing Dragon: Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon for when he's REALLY ticked off, but Rebellion is his go to. Yuyas "Awakened Mode" as it became known can also causes shockwaves, resist mind control and heightens Yuyas already superhuman stats to the point he can smash pillers he's trapped against, among other things.

Yuya joined Reijis new anti Fusion Dimension group The Lancers, and were tasked with going to the Synchro Dimension to hopefully gather allies. However the Synchro dimension was a dystopia, rulled by the upper class tops at the expense of the poor commons. Does. This. Sound. Familiar. It's duel champion was even Jack Atlas! Yuya had to try come to terms with the inbalance in this society, the incoming war and his inability to track down Yuzu all while holding onto his style of Entertainment Dueling he'd been cultivating in Standard, which the Synchro Dimension rejected whole heartedly.

Plus side? He learned Synchro Summoning, even Synchro Summoning a Pendulum Synchro Nirvana High Paladin which is that one card you see posted when people say modern Yugioh bad. He also won the Friendship cup! And Sora abandoned Academia to be their friend again! 
Negative side: Everything else. Yugo and Yuzu went missing again to who knows where, When all 4 Yuya clones were in one spot a giant hole opened in the sky, Academia attacked, one of the lancers was a fusion spy. Yuya ended up in the ruined Xyz dimension, where once again his entertainment dueling was mostly rebuffed, now also on the trail of his Father who turned up in Heartland after he'd disappeared, but in turn left Heartland when the invasion started. But between his Synchro and Xyz dimension exploits things...actually started going well for Yuya at the end of the day. His duel style was connecting people like his fathers before him, turning enemies into allies and making victims happy.

In Fusion this all came crashing down when Yuya learned his true history, why everything was happening and saw Yuzu, Ruri (Yuto was tagging with him remember) and even his own father defeated, carded or even disappearing into the aether by some grand plan.

See, theres a REASON Yuya and Yuzu are the only people with Dimensional Counterparts, theres a REASON the world is split in 4 and theres a reason Leo is doing all this crazy shit. This world isn't the first one. That world was ruined by one duelist who rose through the ranks to become unstoppable, driven on by the roar of the crowd to become violent, who had a bond with his monsters nigh unmatched. Who became ONE with his monsters. The supreme duelist, later known as the Supreme King, Zarc. 

 

 

With the worlds artillery useless against the mighty dragon and his dragonic servents, the people quickly went to ground and a scientist began researching how to stop this menace, deciding to utilise energy from nature, specifically Flowers, Birds, Wind and the Moon, traditional symbols of beauty, to depower this monstrosity. However this scientists daughter, a duelist in her own right, decided her father would be much more needed in the world that came after Zarc, a duelist she once admired, and knowing that stopping him was a suicide mission.So she stole the cards (of course) that her father created and faced the monster, seperating him from his dragons.

Thus is the story of the demise of Zarc and Ray Akaba. Yep. Akaba. it probably is starting to line up.

But Zarcs death throes were violent and split the universe into 4, one for each of his dragons, Odd-Eyes Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon and Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, each with a designated master. Ray was also split in 4 and sent one of her selves to watch over the Zarclings, 3/4 of them becoming inseperable to their counterpart. Yuzu was even given a bracelet, they all were, but Yuzus in particular teleported the boys away from each other should they meet while she was around, given Zarc would possess the boys and drive them to defeat and merge with each other to ressurect, which is why Yugo and Yuto fought, why Yuto fused with Yuya. This is why Yuyas awakened form exists.

Leo lived a happy life for a while, unaware of what he lost and starting a family with a wife and Child in Reiji, but eventually regained his memories and left to the more totalitarian fusion dimension to build his army, card people to power a machine to remerge the dimensions and his daughter. He also decided to use fusions Zarc, Yuri as his attack dog and elite agent, driving him crazy in the process. Nice fucking job. Yuri went on to defeat Yugo and absorb him and take ownership of his Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, then carded Yusho infront of Yuya setting up a grudge match between them, made all the more desperate as Leo sent the 4 girls into the Arc-V machine to complete the dimensional merge, setting up a climactic showdown between Yuya and his Dark other. but in the end, Yuya won.

Welllllll

Nah, Zarc won. He instantly possessed Yuya, absorbed Yuri and Yugo and refused with his Dragons and the dimensions. Zarc had returned.

In his dragon form Zarc is massive, able to create massive storms, launch lasers from his mouth and summon his 4 dragon servents, corrupted with his influence, at will to fight for him, each more violent than before. Since we haven't covered it yet, Odd-Eyes can add more power to his fire breath post launch with Reaction Force, Dark Rebellion can shoot lightning or embue it into his chin blade, as well as absorb his foes strength and add it to his own, Clear Wing can negate powers with sparkly light and create massive vortexes of wind to slash its opponent and Starving Venom can shoot lasers, absorb enemies power, launch these tentacle vine mouth things from its back and destroy all around it on death. Being corrupted just buffs those powers more.

Zarc proceeded to destroy the entire cast in one duel. They kept joining and he kept winning. Eventually Leo joined with the very cards he once made to counter Zarc, but Zarc was prepared and got rid of them. But Ray reincarnated in Reijis adoptive little sister Reira, who finally activated the cards to be rid of Zarc once and for all....but this didn't finish him off. Zarc just needed to Pendulum Summon back his field and win, which is why he invented Pendulum Summoning when he died the first time, which he proceeded to give to Yuya to perfect. However at the critical moment, Yuya regained control at last and threw the duel, allowing Reira to defuse Zarc and seal him in her own body, somehow turning into a baby. Zarcs death throes once again resplit the dimensions but with none of the habitants memories in tact, until Yuya started to awaken his true strength again.

This last sprint to try make a baby smile (seriously) is when Yuya truly started to realize his own skill. Yuto, Yugo and Yuri were all inside him and helped him tame their dragons. Based on his duels with Yuto he should also have access to their decks and their dragons upgrades, and even upgraded them himself by merging Clear Wing and Starving Venom with Odd-Eyes. Yuya has ALL of Zarcs power without the Darkness, including his ability to talk to duel spirits, but Zarcs soul was still a threat, and if Yuya and his dragons couldn't get through to their other, his rampage would resume in the body of a baby girl. It took some doing, but Yuya finally achieved his ultimate goal and made the baby laugh, passing his Pro exam in the process, becoming the only protagonist in the franchise to ACTUALLY become a pro. Its a bit redundent given he defeated people like Reiji and Jack who are considered the best duelists in their worlds, and Zarc did that plus more with no effort whatsoever, like becoming a pro footballer after winning the world cup, but he did it! And Yuzu, with the other Rayparts in her body, revived too! All in all it was a happy ending for Yuya Sakaki, but in his words the fun had only just begun!

...

But...wait, what about Shun? Yuya and Yuzu can swap places with their counterparts we know that, but Shun lost his best friend and little sister in one fell swoop and will almost never see them again?

Bittersweet as fuck man! But hey, Yuya gets that duel with his dad now....thats gonna be a massacre. Lets...just finish up here and go into the Vrains...

CLANG

BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP COMPUTER TIME! YOU KIDS EVER SEE SWORD ART ONLINE???? Oh you did i'm so sorry.

In this final timeline Dueling once again evolved in a different, and honestly arguably more realistic way. Instead of AR tech or hardlight holograms, this timeline focused on Virtual Reality, where the card game was mostly played in an online space called LINK VRAINS, or the LINK Virtual Realitiy Artificial Intelligence Network System. Here people would strut around in fancy avatars and duel for peoples entertainment, though it was generally just a VR social network with dueling as its most popular, though not only, attraction.

Little did the populace know that behind the Wrestlers and Idols there was a shadow war being waged by one guy on the....basically terrorist organization, the Knights of Hanoi. His name was whispered about but for a long time nobody knew if he existed or what he looked like. All that was known was his Alias. Playmaker. 

 

Now lets catch up with completely unconnected Yusaku Fujiki and....oh come on his hair just spiked up and glows in VR this is some clark kenting bullshit.

Yusaku was your fairly standard dude on the surface but his past was dark as shit. Once a normal kid who loved dueling cause...Yugioh, he had an unfortunate run in with a similarly impassioned kid, who he befriended quick. They both came to regret this when the kids dad Kidnapped Yusaku and locked him in a white room, forcing him to duel over and over and over again, non stop. Win, he gets to eat. Lose and he gets shocked.

The goal was to use these kids suffering to create some new, super cool A.I. that had free will. Literally playing god, and breaking several rules of robotics and ethics in the process! Eventually the docs son who had been unknowningly used to lure these kids in, and had been trying to keep them sane, Ryouken, couldn't take it anymore, the crying and the guilt being too much for a kid to bare, and blew the whistle. The kids were rescued and the researcher responsible confined by his parent company to cyberspace, the incident forever covered up. For these kids though, the trauma never went away. Yusaku, and his ally Kusanagi who's brother was also a victim of this "lost incident" teamed up to form an independent hacking group of two to find those responsible and take revenge. Their target? well it was the Hanoi Project, so the Knights of Hanoi was a good place to start!

However a wrench was thrown in the works when they inadvertently learned one more fact about this project

It had been a complete success.

Yusaku came into contact with, and later traped, a very intelligent AI, a member of a race called Ignises, who was fleeing the destruction of the cyber world he and his 5 fellows inhabited with a bunch of monsters of their creation, called, creatively, Cyberse. Yusaku, equally creatively, called this guy Ai. Yes an A.I., Artificial Intelligence, named....Ai.

Yusaku wanted to use his power to take down Hanoi, and given it was the knights and their leader Revolver (or Varis) who destroyed Cyberse in the first place, Ais protests were more at being trapped and used as a tool than actually being used in this op.

And so the duo fought the Knights of Hanoi together, including several of Playmakers associates who were mind controlled by them or chasing bounties placed on Ai, and even another lost child, Allied with the Knights. Turns out the Knights were indeed founded by the leader of that Hanoi project and their leader Revolver, in turn was the same son who'd kidnapped and later saved the kids all those years ago, Ryoken. Their mission? Destroy the Ignis who through simulations were predicted to rise up and destroy humanity. Ai protested this, and Playmaker fought for this little gremlin who had become his partner and friend, and to free himself and Revolver from their shackles of the past. 

 

And well...he beat Revolver and felt better about himself, freeing the people who'd been hurt in the crossfire of Hanois rampage, but Revolvers determination to save humanity by destroying the Ignis remained. But Ai was allowed to return to live out his days in peace

Thus ends season 1.

Oh.

Oh no.

So turns out Ai was completely fucking wrong and some of the Ignis WERE hankering for the destruction of humanity, Lighning and Windy in particular. So teaming up with Soulburner, another lost child, and Flame, his Ignis, among other allies, Ai and Playmaker took the two rogue ignis on, trying to get the other two, Aqua and Earth, on side while dealing with Lightnings magnum Opus, Bohman, the Ai that was supposed to surpass the Ignis.

Long, repetitive story short, every AI involved fucking died, including Ai, who only survived due to a backup he left in Yusakus....Vaccuum Cleaner. Oookay.

So to sum it up, everything is Lightnings fault. the reason Windy is evil? Lightning fucked with his code and killed the lost child he was based on. Revolver finding Cyberse? Lightning. Cyberse destruction between seasons? Lightning.

Revolvers father trapped in cyberspace? Lightning!

Heck even the results of the simulation saying that the Ignis were assured to cause Humanities destruction? Lightning fucked with the results, because it wasn't the whole race who would destroy humanity, only him! He had his race wiped out in a fit of jealousy! FUCK LIGHTNING

well....i tell a lie. Lightning wasn't the only Ignis prophesised to end humanity. there was one other. As he revealed to Ai in his death bed, Ai too, would be the end of humanity should he survive, despite Ais best intentions to the contrary. Ai ran his own simulations and backed this up too, and resolved to basically commit suicide by cop...or in this case, Playmaker. Which happened. Though like the cockroach he is, it seems a bit of Ai survived, so not quite a downer ending.

So we speedran the plot, lets cover Playmakers abilities. As an Avatar in Vrains, he can regenerate lost limbs cause he's just a program, and summon a duel board to ride around in the air like Sword Art Marty McFly. He's also an expert hacker, though prefers to do most of his hacking with his avatar. His main skill however that was literally beat into him is dueling. After the lost children incident, Playmaker has NEVER lost a duel. This is thanks in part to his utilization of the same monsters the Ignis lived with in Cyberse....Cyberse monsters. Their main purpose is to swarm the field to facilitate the summon of Yugiohs newest (holy shit its half a decade+ old) summon mechanic, Link Summoning! Links are simultaneously easy and complex, which sums this whole game up, but the long and short of it is they are an order of magnitutude easier to summon than Xyz, at the cost of only being able to be summoned to the Extra Monster Zone (a 6th Monster zone above the main field) or a Zone the arrows on another Link monster points to.

Yusaku uses a bunch of generic Cyberse Monsters to access his Extra Deck powerhouses, which can mostly be divided into 3 categories, the Code Talkers, Cyberse boss monsters for other summon types and the dreaded Firewall Dragon series. The Code Talkers are a bunch of mostly link 3 Cyberse monsters of various attributes who are useful in a variety of situations with offensive and defensive effects from attack buffing and revival to zone collapsing. They also use a bunch of different weapons, Swords, Shields, Claws, Bows, Guns, Energy blast the works. Decode Talker is his main staple and most reliable monster, its big energy sword often being the last thing Playmakers enemies see. When Links down cut it, he has a series of Cyberse boss monsters too! Cyberse Magician is a ritual when he needs a more magic touch, his fusion of choice is Cyberse Clock Dragon, which is just the biggest of bungeses, gaining a bunch of attack on summon and shooting giant lasers, while the Synchro, Cyberse Quantum Dragon is the more defensive option. Similarly, the firewall series has 3 bosses that can als be classed as a dissapointment, the Xyz Firewall eXceed Dragon, the more defensive link Firewall Dragon and the biggest boss of them all that end games when it drops, Firewall Dragon Darkfluid, a mighty Link 5 monster. They all shoot lasers...thats....thats about it. But they are his undisputed aces!

Except for the big boss of the Code Talkers, the boss of the link Mechanic as a whole and the assurance that almost any deck in the modern game can and will kill you if they combo off

Accesscode Talker. This lance wielding code talker, bigger than the rest, destroys its opponents with its effects before stabbing them with the giant lance. Yusakus simple, but he's effective!

Ai isn't completely helpless. The dude can summon Data Storms, even outside the Vrains, which allow Yusaku to magic monsters on the fly, and when he turned Heel in season 3 he actually developed his own deck, the @Ignisters. Like Yusaku, he also utilizes all the non Pendulum summon methods, one monster for each Ignis. Since he is the Ignis based off Yusaku, if it wasn't obvious, he has a similar Ace, to Decode Talker, Dark Templar @Ignister, but when he wants to go all out he summons his big Link 6, The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister, one of the most powerful Link Monsters ever concieved. This Axe wielding Behemoth just tends to say no to whatever tries to kill it. 

 

Overall, Yusaku and Ai make one hell of a team. They defeated the strongest duelists in their world, like Blue Angel/Girl/Maiden, Go Onizuka, Revolver, Soul Burner and Spectre, stopped Bohman and Lightnings plan, the former of whom shook the real world just by powering up in LINK Vrains, the latter made a whole new Cyberse! And in the end, the only people capable of stopping either of them....was each other. Yusaku defeated Ai, leaving him to die via the circumstances Ai himself had set up to ensure his death, thus humanities survival, but Yusaku claimed that Ai threw the duel. The two are perfectly even! Despite his victory, however, Yusaku believed Ai still existed somewhere out there, and left to find him. But no matter where he is, Link VRAINS can rest easy, knowing its protector is still out there with 3 Reasons to protect them all when the chips are down, so long as he can seize the wind!

CLANG

Alright we've met our duelists, time to decide which among them is the TRUE King of Games

ITS TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

CLANG

In a realm of pure darkness, 6 figures stood, facing each other, hands across their chests, nerves etched on their face. Locked in a dark dimension with no way out....for 5 of them. 

Only one may return home, and they know this.

and from one of the figures, pawing at a pyramid on his chest, a glow pierced the dark, turning the darkness to a generic city scape as he transformed with a cry. 

"YU-GI-OOHHHHHH!" 

Yugi Mutou hit the worlds most violent instance of instant puberty this side of Gon Freeces as, for the first time in a long time, he relinquished control of his body to his old partner. 

"I'll handle a battle like this, partner" Atem said to his now ghostly other half. "Battles like this are my true expertise!" 

Yugi sighed a little with an upset look on his face. "I know, but I wish I could help, my duel skills are no good in a shadow game." 

"Perhaps, but the bond with your unique monsters is the perfect partner to my own forces." Atem replied, eyes never leaving the surrounding foes. As he said this, ghostly forms of several monsters became visable around him. Magicians, dragons, fiends and three massive silhouettes in the distance. 

"Yeah, you're right!" Yugi exclaimed as his own, more childish arsenal was silhouetted around him too. "Only together are we..."

The two gained matching intense gazes as they rallied. 

"THE TRUE KING OF GAMES!"

"Judai" an elegant voice rang out around the second figure. "This is not good at all."

"Yeah" the visible human replied, Heterochromatic eyes glowing with unsaid power. "Yusei and the duel king....and those two are just kids...." 

"Not that" the voice replied, before Judais partner, Yubel, phased into view beside him. "You still aren't mentally recovered from our previous battles. I have no doubt you can win, I can never doubt you, but you don't deserve this anymore."

"Thanks Yubel." Judai muttered. "But my lifes not been about what I deserve. We just gotta get through this." He put on a brave face hiding some clear pain, before letting out a loud shout. "ITS TIME TO GET MY GAME ON!" before he retreated into himself slightly "Well, Shadow game I guess....is it a shadow game?"

Yubel smiled fondly at her idiotic king, before her gaze went to the only other person they knew here. 'I'm worried about him though....Yusei Fudo is a much different opponent from the one we fought with against Paradox....I can feel it.'

The hero of Satellite said nothing, having no partner to speak of, but felt the burn of the full power of the Crimson Dragon etched on his back. To be honest, he was back where he was most comfortable in a way, astride a Duel runner with his link to his friends closer than most would consider possible. 

'Don't worry guys.' He thought 'Theres no way i'm going to die here!'

Yuma Tsukumo, unlike the leader of team 5Ds, did have a partner to converse with, which he did. 

Quite loudly.

Don't blame Yuma, he's just naturally loud. 

"I don't like this Astral, these guys seem really strong!" He yelled out to the ghostly blue figure floating beside him not unlike the other partners. 

"I agree Yuma, but I also remember what you proved me so long ago." The ghost, Astral, replied "That so long as we feel the flow together, there is no obstacle we can not overcome!" 

Yuma smiled at his partner. "Got it in one buddy! Its been a while since we fought together, I hope we aren't rusty!" 

"I should hope not. I predict a single mistake would surely result in our demise."

"You know Astral, This is literally the only thing about you I didn't miss." 

While Yuma got into an argument with the spirit of the Key, Yuya Sakaki was having a literal internal conflict. 

'Yuya. Let me out if you are gonna be such a baby.'

"No Yuri."

'Oi oi oi Yuya, listen to us we don't got a choice.'

"No Yugo."

'Yuya.' The third of Yuyas internal selves said, calmly. 'I understand your struggle. fighting like this goes against literally everything you stand for. This is the hardest thing you'd ever have to do, and theres no Zarc to take control.'

Yuya sighed. "See guys! Yuto gets it!"

The purple haired ghost held up a hand, gaze hard. 'That being said, Yuya, as much as you are my friend, as much as I'm all in on Entertainment dueling. There is literally no way out and I have a date with Ruri next week. If we die because you won't fight at your best and you ruin one of the few chances I get with the body, I will take that Pendulum from around your neck in the afterlife and shove it down your throat.'

"..."
'...'

'...You know, Fusion, I changed my mind. I like Yuto.'
'YOU KNOW MY NAMES YUGO YOU FUSION ASSHOLE!'

His Synchro and Fusion selves bickering loudly beside him, Yuya wilted under Yutos stern gaze. "Fine, Yuto....just this once."

'That's all I ask. Now come on, lets swing into action!'
"I don't think we are using that one this time"

The final boy was silent looking down at his duel disk. 
"....Ai."
"I'm not talking to you."
"Ai."
"I said, hey I need to go away to save your life, and what do you do? You do what I wanted....just to come find me again! Why are you like this!"
"Ai."
"Then the second we reunite, against my better judgement mind you, we immediately get thrown into the most dangerous situation so far! This is real and you are your avatar and.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh this doesn't make any sense!"
"Ai."
"WHAT?"
"We're starting." 
"What? Oh....Hehem" The purple eye in his duel disk rose to be a small figure, standing atop its center. "Well may as well rig this a bit huh? Its been a while" He raised his hands, a purple vortex starting among the combatants. "Its time. Seize the wind, Playmaker!" 

In response Yuyas duel disk spoke. "ACTION FIELD: CROSS OVER!" and with a wave of energy, a bunch of floating platforms appeared around the field.

"OH COME ON THATS MY BIT" Ai yelled. 
The 6 boys hardened their gazes on each other one last time, hands above their decks.

""""""DUEL""""""

But for you and me watching, a more fitting word would be....

FIGHT

Music

Yuya was first to the draw, slamming a monster down before the others could. "Come on out, Performapal Whip Viper!" 

'YUYA! YOU PROMISED!'
'Oh come on we're running away? Lemme at em Yuya!'
'NOOOO RETURN TO THE SLAUGHTER!' 

"You guys sort this out among yourselves, I'm going....literally anywhere else!" and with that, he threw the purple snake coiled around his wrist towards and around a nearby traffic light, swinging off it onto a nearby platform like a tomato shaped Tarzan before proceeding to hop platform to platform to reach the cityscapes skyline.

The other five duelists came to a simultaneous conclusion independently. They will deal with clown boy later if they have to. 

They don't know how to back down. 

"TO MY SIDE, DARK MAGICIAN!"
"HERE'S MY FAVORITE CARD! ELEMENTAL HERO FLAME WINGMAN"
"RISE, JUNK WARRIOR" 
"YOU GUYS HAVEN'T GOT A HOPE! NUMBER 39: UTOPIA, TO THE FIELD!"
"DECODE TALKER!" 

The called monsters appeared behind their masters, the black and blue magician, red and green dragon man, metallic junk man, literally a gundam man and digital sword man all facing each other down, free from the shackles of the game they call home. 

And as such, they let fly. 

The mighty mage leveled his staff at Junk Warrior, blasting him with the first attack of the fight. Unphased, a mighty right hook tore through the blast of magic before the scrap scrapper leapt forward, attempting to follow up with a blow of his own, being parried by the mages staff. It stumbled, glaring with its two small red eyes at the master of magic, before being engulfed in flame from behind. Flame Wingman was not to be forgotten. 

Yusei winced as the flames overtook his partner, reving up his duel runner and beginning to drive, circling around his opponents. In response, Junk Warrior shot out of the flames to his masters side, the two heading into the city to regroup. Yusaku, having none of this, summoned his D-Board below him and made to take off, but was halted by Yuma, who gestured behind him with a grin. 

Decode Talker was not having a good time. 

He was locked in combat with the other swordwielder in the fivesome, but the mighty number was proving to be much the better of the two. Every slash from the cyber defender was blocked by one of the glowing blades, before the other rose up and slashed his torso. If the superior range of the great blade was brought into play, its swing was met by Utopias wings, detaching and forming a shield. 

It was clear which monster was vastly superior. All the Japanese Zexal support was paying off! 

"Hey cyber skater!" Yuma taunted. "You gonna run off after bike boy and leave your monster hanging?" 

Stoic as ever, Yusaku glared at the Number hunter. Five portals glowed behind him surrounded by different formations of glowing red arrows,  symbolizing the call of reinforcements. "Not a chance." 

The other Code Talkers burst forth, going to aid their Dark Attributed Brethren. So, when Utopia made a two handed slash to finish off its foe, it was met with the glowing white shield of Encode Talker. Not being given a moment to breathe, the King of Wishes shield shot up to cover its sides, blocking bullets from Transcode, energy blasts from Excode and arrows from Shootingcode, leaving it vulnerable to the chained claw from Powercode Talker behind it. It was pulled back towards the FIRE monster, who prepared a fist of flame, which it buried into Utopias stomach and sent it into terra firma. 

"UTOPIA" Yuma cried. 
"It seems Utopia requires assistance" Astral input helpfully. 
"Yeah no kidding, 6 on 1 ain't fair!" Yuma agreed with a hint of annoyance. "Luckily I know just the guy, cause his partners the guy i'd want at my back." A black hole appeared on the ground, or at least a visual similarity. "Number 32: Shark Drake! Give Utopia a hand wouldya?" 

A roar of response echoed as the red draconic sea serpent shot out of the Overlay Network, Slamming into Powercode Talker to free its fellow number before Blasting towards the other Cyberse warriors, who quickly flew away. Utopia shook itself back into shape and rose up to float beside Shark Drake, nodding to it before charging with it into the melee, Swords and Fangs held aloft to meet the Code Talkers varied weaponry.

Meanwhile, with Yugi and Judai, a battle of wits had ensued once Junk Warrior and Yusei had retreated. Dark Magician quickly busted out its bag of tricks, summoning knives, hats, birds and boxes in order to keep attacking and hiding from Flame Wingmans fiery blasts. In response, Flame Wingman flew away and the Magician was assaulted by Judais other partners. 

The Neo Spacians. 

Aqua Dolphin was using its sonics to disorient his foe, Glow Moss protecting its friends by gloopily rising up to absorb blasts or knives, Flare Scarab and the Shape Shifting Dark Panther, mimicking Wingman, shooting fire at the Magician to keep it on its toes, not knowing where the real threat was, while Air Hummingbird healed its teammates and Gran Mole dug escape tunnels. 

It couldn't last however. 

"You need help Mahad." Atem called. "I'm sending out Mana!" 

Dark Magician nodded in response and its pupil, the much fetishized Dark Magician Girl, appeared back to back with her master. The two pointed their staves into the sky to build up charge. With a simultaneous "HA" they pointed down to the ground, a dome of dark magic burst forth and engulfed the annoying aliens. 

"I'm sorry, Judai..." Aqua Dolphin cried as it and its fellows were disintegrated, knocked back to the spirit world. 

"Its fine bud." He said, smirking as Yubel blocked the expanding dome with dark vines. "You bought us time." 

And he looked up. 

Atop a Skyscraper, perched arms spread, was Flame Wingman. 

"Alright Flame Wingman, here we go! Skydive Scorcher!" 

The dragon man dove off the tip of the building as commanded, bursting into flame and attempting to ram its lizard hand straight down Dark Magician Girls throat. 

Lucky

Neither magician, of course, would let that happen, once again aiming a tandem shot at an enemy, but this time it was all in Judais plan, a silvery glow coming from his standing position.

"LOOK OUT MY MAGICIANS" Atem yelled, causing them to immediately turn their blast at the incoming foe, barely holding back the new enemy, a familiar one to all present.

Leader of the Elemental Heroes and Neo Spacians alike, Judais ace, Elemental Hero Neos had arrived, currently using a glowing fist to hold back the combined Dark Burning Magic Attack. 

Giving enough time for a newly upgraded in the confusion Shinning Flare Wingman to land infront of them, glowing as much as his leader was. 

Judai smirked at the Duel King. "And with that I think...I Gotcha!" 

A dome of white energy erupted from the Wingman, attempting to engulf the magical pair. at the same time, Neos overpowered their combined might, tossing it into the air where it was pulled into Playmakers data storm from earlier, charging forward to assist if he was needed.

And as the blur that surprised almost all present showed, he probably would be needed, the dome of energy being repelled by a similar one from Atems own field. The two Heroes jumped back to take stock, ready to counter whatever trick the two magicians had pulled.

Except it wasn't the two magicians, but a third accomplice. With silvery hair, a stoic face, Shakira hips and a regal outfit, Silent Magician had joined the fight, for the first time aligned with the two sorcerers it had once defeated to send their master to the afterlife. 

"I told you, Partner." Yugi said floating by a shocked Atem, hand pointed forwards having just commanded his own signature magician "Together".

"Yugi..." Atem muttered before shaking himself out of his stupor. "You always were my better half Partner." He smirked over at Judai. "Now lets see if your men in pajamas can take on the true magic of teamwork, of our partnership!"

"Partnership huh?" Judai muttered as the spiritual Yugi made his next move. "I can do that too..."

"Come, Gandora the Dragon of Destruction!"  Yugi screeched, summoning a gigantic black dragon covered in glowing red orbs, the first true dragon of many to be summoned this fight, "End him with Giga Rays of Destruction!"

"Protect us and yourselves my magicians!" 

The three magicians brought up a glowing barrier, light and dark energies intertwining in a shield as the dragon shot rays of red light from every single one of its orbs. The Yugis were unable to see the outcome, but knew how this usually went. Gandora self destructs and leaves nobody in its wake.

So they were surprised when once the magicians dropped their shield, where Judai once stood was an orb of vines, quickly receding. 

"In a battle of partnership, how can me and my beloved lose?" a quickly revealed Yubel, now physical, questioned their foes, the vines being absorbed into their arm, "After all, our bond goes beyond time." They turned to Neos giving orders on Judais behalf, said Slifer Slacker clearly caught off guard the same way the Yugis were, rubbing the back of his head. "I will defend Judai, Neos, you and birdbrain go take care of Houdini and the cosplayers." 

The until now silent Dark Magician Girl yelled "EXCUSE ME" while her fellow femme fetal ala magical just looked afronted, still keeping to her silent moniker. The duo charged full steam ahead at Yubel, the two Heroes rushing out to greet them while Dark Magician followed behind, looking quite bemused. 

They clashed in an explosion of light and dark energy that collapsed buildings for blocks around....blocking one Yusei Fudos path with rubble....that happened to contain one Yuya Sakaki, tumbling out onto the street, Whip Snakes solid vision dissolving around him. 

"Owwwww" he muttered to himself and his others. "Is this what Sora felt like when..."

"LOOK OUT YOU MORON!" Came the irritated voice of Yuri, making Yuya yelp and leap backwards with his not inconsiderable acrobatics skill, barely avoiding the incoming fist of Junk Warrior as it cratered the ground. 

"Wow" muttered Yugo as Yuya dusted himself off. "Bastard did something nice." He gave a side eye to a flabbergasted Yuto. "Did you know he could do that?" 

Yusei sighed as Junk Warrior returned to his side momentarily to ready itself for another assault, still reeling from its previous battles. "Sorry kid, nothing personal. Figured I'd at least make it quick for you."

Yuya backed up slightly, clearly intimidated and unsure of himself. 

Another sigh from Satellites champion. "Nothing huh? I get it, this is pretty sick. It reminds me too much of the old days back home. But just like then...its you or me." A hand outstretched, he called his second monster. "Gathering stars will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!" Behind him a glowing cocoon arose, before it burst into two wings sending sparkling white dust everywhere, revealing the long nosed Signer Dragon within. "Lets take this sixsome down to five! Cosmic Flare!" 

Yuya looked terrified as the mighty dragon leased its deadly breath attack, barreling towards him like it had so many foes before....when his eyes hardened, changed color to an almost aqua tone and he slammed a card down on his disk, his voice taking a more rough, almost uneducated edge as he chanted. "Spread those wonderous and beautiful wings and take down our enemies at the speed of light! Come on out, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" and from behind him burst a green hurricane with a beautiful dragon with see through wings, shooting right into the blast from what we know to be its predecessor in alot of ways. Stardust flapped its wings, barely getting away from the charging Dimensional Dragon, but Junk Warrior behind him wasn't so lucky, being absolutely obliterated by the impact, with Clear Wing not even slowing down before doing a wide arcing u-turn and returning to its Masters side, almost purring softly upon slowing down, as if greeting an old friend. 

"Actually willing to put up a fight are you?" Yusei questioned, smiling to himself despite the circumstances. "Not bad...what was your name, Yuya?"

Yuya rose his hand into the air, an angry look on his face, almost as if he was going to yell at the Signer, before it softened slightly and his eyes changed again, this time to a more sad, serene grey. "Just....Don't Yugo. Don't. Its not worth it."

See if it wasn't obvious, Yuyas counterparts have rebelled against their passive counterpart and decided to take the brawl into their own hands, Yuya now sulking, thinking, in the back of his own mind while Yuri basically blew raspberries at him Yugo got his moment in the spotlight summoning his ace to save them from certain doom, and now the most level headed, mature of the four is in the drivers seat to prevent Yugo from basically ruining his own shine. 

This didn't go unnoticed by the perceptive Yusei. "You...aren't a normal kid, are you?" 

Yuto gave a wan smile back. "You have no idea. and sometimes to be honest? Neither do I. But right now I guess you can say i'm waging an internal....Dark Rebellion!" 

Yusei knew a bad pun when he heard one, but before he could react a Dragon shot out of a black hole not dissimilar to the one Shark Drake rose out of across the city. 

"TREASON DISCHARGE!"

Dark Rebellions wings snapped open like a robot, sparking like a dynamo and shooting lightning at the stationary Stardust, visibly weakening it. 

"Stardust, no!"

"Revolt of Lightning....DISOBEY!" 

The Xyz Dragons wings developed a hardlight sheen underneath them, crackling with the latent electrical power Dark Rebellion has absorbed, before it burst forward, dipping its glowing jaw horn fang thing down low and thrusting it upwards, through Yusei Fudos legendary Partner, blowing dust everywhere, shielding the signer from view.

"If you don't mind, Clear Wing? Wrap this up! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!" 

Clear Wing, clearly upset since Yuto took the reigns from his favored master, gave a nod, shooting up into the air, twirling, being enveloped in a familiar green whirlwind which, ironically enough, once killed Yuto. Arcing in a U towards Yuseis last known location, it banking downwards, intent on cutting the signer and his D-Wheel into ribbons....before being stopped by a giant white hand.

And Yusei appeared behind Yuyato, from seemingly nowhere. 

"CLEAR MIND! ARISE, SHOOTING STAR DRAGON!"

While Stardust may have fallen, in a battle such as this its essence could form its improved self, card game mechanics be damned. 

"Oh...oh shit."

"CLEAR WING NO!"

"Dark Rebellion help Clear Wing out!" 

Before Shooting Star could slam the smaller white dragon into the ground and obliterate it, the still powered up Dark Rebellion made another charge, attempting to free its sibling. Shooting Star, not wanting to risk meeting a similar fate its first form had, obliged, releasing the Synchro Dimensions dragon to avoid the Xyz one. 

Yusei laughed. "You really do have some fight in you don't you? Its been a while since I've felt like this! Come on." His D-Wheel roared in agreement. "LETS REV IT UP!"

Yuto prepared a retort, before his eyes changed again, back to their natural red, the pendulum around Yuyas neck glowing and swaying. "If all of you are so dead set on this...fine! I'll help out! Appear, Wondrous and Beautiful Dichromatic eyes, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" 

A glowing maw opened up in the sky, a giant red light shooting down infront of Yuya, giving birth to yet another dragon, this one more similar to a t-rex in build and stance, completely wingless. Odd-Eyes roared as its master jumped aboard its back, hanging onto the arced horns on its hind for support. "This better not cause you guys to relapse!" Yuya yelled at his dragons, who didn't look excited, or even upset, merely determined. "Alright then, lets do this!"

Odd-Eyes shot forward, flanked by its sibling dragons, charging at the signer. Yusei gave an amused grunt and began to speed away, back the way he came towards the other duelists, Shooting Star above him, sending clones of itself in different colors out to attack their pursuers. 

Perhaps if they knew what lied ahead their attention would have remained on the road, as Yuma was almost finished, apparently dealing with the champion of Vrains. 

The Code Talkers and Shark Drake had long since been evicted from the battle, however Utopia was still trucking, now engaging a brand new foe, Firewall Dragon, in battle. As before, things were not going well for the Cyberse contingent, with every shot launched being blocked by Utopias near omnipresent shield. Yusaku was going nowhere, fast. Something had to change. 

So it did. 

Yusaku called Firewall back behind him and a Data Storm rose around it, shielding it from Yumas point of view. While Yuma got his bearing's, Yusaku took the chance to upgrade his Dragon into his most powerful monster. "The mysterious power filling the universe! Rain on the miracle star and create infinite life! Appear, Firewall Dragon Darkfluid!"

Yuma stumbled backwards a bit as the powerful dragon took the field, but didn't look intimidated in the slightest. "Bout time you got serious!" he yelled over to Playmaker. "I suppose that means its our turn too!" 

Astral, beside him nodded. "Indeed, Yuma, I believe now is an optimal time to show the power of Zexal!" 

"With myself and Astral, I build the overlay Network!" Yuma bellowed, turning into a red light while his partner transformed into a similar blue one, the two diving into a newly formed black hole not dissimilar from the one Utopia, Shark Drake or Dark Rebellion rose from earlier. "GO, ZEXAL MORPH!" 

The Black hole exploded and a single figure stood where once was...one and a ghost. Looking not dissimilar to Utopias current form with red accents, just human sized instead of Transformer size. 

Of course, Yuma was only similar to Utopias current form. 

"RANK UP, XYZ CHANGE!" 

Astral forms of monsters not dissimilar to Utopia itself appeared in a circle around it, each nodding at each other before raising their swords aloft, each shinning like the sun. 

"Smash through the limits, Utopia! Reveal yourself in your new guise! When a person embraces a dream that exists beyond hope, a new future appears far off in the distance! Go beyond the limits and seize that future in your own hands! Number 39 Utopia Beyond!!"

Armour formed from Zexals power appeared from nowhere, each piece seemingly carrying part of Utopias many forms, snapping into position onto the Numbers Base form like an Iron Man suit, each connection causing lines of energy to run through its being. when the helmet snapped into place, its eyes glowed a menacing red as the figure rose to full height. 

Utopia Beyond was here, and given how much Yusaku struggled matching its base form that was horrible news. 

Never one to back down, Yusaku commanded his new dragon to battle. "Neo Tempest End!" he yelled, the dragon shooting a rainbow colored beam at its foe. 

Yuma was nonplussed. "Cut 'em down to size Utopia! Beyond the Rising Sun Slash!" 

Utopia did as commanded, swinging its blade THROUGH the beam and flying into the dragon it faced, bisecting it before Yusaku could even process the counterattack.

Ai was seeing some writing on the wall. "Playmaker, we need to regroup, quickly!" 

"I know Ai!" Playmaker yelled back at his newly refound partner. "But I don't have much left!" 

"Shame!" yelled Yuma, overhearing their argument. "We have hundreds of options, right Astral?"

"Indeed, and I'm sure as before you shall use none of them beyond Utopia." 

"HEY"  Yuma yelled at his merged partner. "I can too use other monsters, I'm just sticking to what works!" He shook his head. "Whatever, i'll show you. Finish em off Utopia and we'll go strut our stuff against whoever else is left."

Utopia obeyed its master without question, bringing its sword down where Yusaku stood, the unflappable Playmaker scrambling for an answer...before being countered by a massive energy battle axe. Both duelists and even the spirit of the key were gobsmacked by the counter, and the hulking purple goliath made of seemingly random shapes who wielded it, but one little AI was ahead of the curve.

"Come on, where's the Playmaker that beat me eh?" Ai ribbed his partner. "Sorry I held this out till now, but I just had to make a dramatic....ARRIVAL!"

Playmaker shook his head fondly. "Ai..."

"Counterattack, Arrival!" Ai cried from within the Duel disk. His own most powerful monster obliged, hefting its axe on its shoulder to bring it down on Beyond, who deftly zipped out range, behind its own master, ready to strike again when required. 

It had to dodge once again, this time doing a matrix style bend out of the way of a giant gold spear which almost lodged itself into its skull. 

Playmaker had fully recovered and summoned his final Ace. Accesscode Talker. 

"Thank you, Ai. As always, you are such a great partner." He said, smiling at his duel disk. 

Ai, of course, started crying, be it out of happiness or fear at Playmakers weird behavior. 

He never got a chance to clarify however, as Atem was sent flying between Yusaku and Yuma, having been decked in the stomach by Neos. The three magicians appeared behind him and caught him mid flight, letting him down softly as Yubel and Shinning Flame Wingman carried their own master down to complete the mexican standoff developing. Before anyone could even think to move, or Atem could even recover properly, the roar of engines and dragons deafened them all as Yusei and Yuya made themselves equally known, Yusei doing an Akira slide through the group while Yuya stopped just outside them forming a circle almost. 

A tense moment as the duelists caught their breath, and then, almost predictably, Yuma struck first. 

"Alright Utopia, lets kick it up a notch!" he cried, Utopia roaring like a barbarian in agreement, swinging its sword down at the closest target, in this case, Shooting Star Dragon, who was able to disappear into a mirage to avoid the deadly blow. Being as crafty as its master, Shooting Star decided to sneak attack somebody else, appearing behind Shinning Flare Wingman and ramming its fist straight through its chest, shattering it into particles instantly. 

"Flame Wingman no!" Judai screamed, feeling the burn of one of his monsters defeats. "Neos! After him!" 

Neos flew after the evolved form of the dragon that had defeated him years prior, this time with no holds barred. Shooting Star, sensing the incoming danger, disappeared again and reappeared behind the Arrival, attempting a repeat, but was blocked by the spear of Accesscode, driving it off. Neos couldn't stop his momentum and plowed straight into Silent Magician, absolutely wrecking Yugis resident sorceress.

Lucky. 

Atem was quick to have his magicians counter, trying to catch Neos off guard while he was trying to find Yuseis dragon in the midst of the melee, but Yubel was the perfect backup for Neos just as they were for Judai, vines snapping forward and deflecting the combined dark magic away, right into Yuya and Odd-Eyes. 

"GAH" Yuya yelped, burning pain hitting every sense as he and Odd-Eyes were shunted back. Before he could even get his barring's, the fourth of his counterparts took his chance to sew a little destruction. Eyes shifting purple, Yuri quickly surveyed the battlefield and found the best way to get back at those two magicians. The two....Dark Magicians....

"Spell Card, Super Polymerisation, activate!" he yelled slapping a card onto the blade of his duel disk, a sparking vortex of energy appearing above him from atop Odd-Eyes back

Judai and Yubel stared down the vortex in disbelief, Judai immediately going through his deck to be sure his greatest weapon hadn't been stolen. He wasn't sure which possibility, that it was gone or that it WASN'T meaning there was a second Super Polymerisation out there, was more terrifying. 

"With this, I'll call out a monster using any suitable material around here, and I know just the ones!" He pointed at the duel kings main monsters with a maniacal grin. "I'll fuse Dark Magician and his little apprentice into something much more fitting of the moniker dark!" 

Lightning shot out and engulfed the two sorcerers, who screamed in agony as they were dissolved, their essence pulled into the swirling vortex. 

"Master of magics who has chased the chaos of creation! Become one with your disciple and give birth to despair incarnate! Come forth! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" 

The vortex exploded, because of course it did, and a massive purple dragon covered in mouths, orbs and miscellaneous accents of color made itself known. The mouths mounted on its back vine things opened, pulling particles from the air into itself, buffing it. 

"Now Starving Venom, feeding time! Start with those miserable magicians' master!" 

The fusion dragon obliged its own chosen wielder, its various maws opening up creating tendrils of energy behind it which coalesced into an orb, right above it, which leased a thin but quick beam right at Atems head. An Atem who was...weirdly non plussed...and rightly so when quick as a flash a streak of red appeared in front of him, blocking the blow. The red wall coiled around him and up into the sky, before revealing itself.

Slifer the Sky Dragon. One of the egyptian gods. 

"Thats quite a monster you have there, and I mean monster in every sense of the word." Atem complimented almost sarcastically. "But what is a mere monster...TO A GOD!" 

Behind him the ground rumbled as a hulking blue behemoth rose from a crevice it was creating around itself, pushing the earth away to rise from its slumber. The sky simultaneously parted, revealing a miniature sun which started to pop apart like a Bakugan, forming a great golden dragon. 

"The gods again, Judai." Yubel muttered. "But this time not in an amicable setting." 
Judai just nodded, glancing sideways at a stunned Yusei, who was seeing these legends in the flesh for the first time. Even Yusaku and Yuma, who had never heard of the beasts could feel the raw power they radiated. 

And Yuri? He was getting the full brunt of their might. 

"Ra! Wipe out that abomination and its master! God Blaze Cannon!" 

And orb of fire formed in the hoop around Ras neck, which exploded out like a solar flare upon reaching critical mass, the beam of heat streaking towards the Sakaki boy.

"Tag out!" Yuri yelped, as the bodys eyes changed color once again, back to red. Yuya was as surprised by this as anyone, stumbling back slightly atop Odd-Eyes and nearly falling, his own gaze locked onto the inferno blistering towards him. 

Without a command, Odd-Eyes leased its own Spiral Flame Strike in an attempt to stop the blast, but it was like an ant fighting a gorilla. The gods attack wasn't even phased. The other 3 dragons flew into formation, infront of their master, arms crossed to take the hit. 

The beam connected.

The sky lit up a glorious gold.

When the fighters could see again, not a trace of Yuya Sakaki could be seen. 

"One down." Atem said, matter-of-factly. "Four to go." 

Playmaker, hoping to take advantage of the shock of the first KO, ordered his an assault. 

"Access Integration! Take him out before those things cause more damage!" 

Accesscode hurled its lance (Another instantly digitizing in its hand) straight at Atem, hoping to take down the King of Games without dealing with the gods.

But you cannot just ignore a god, as proven when Obelisks hand blocked the lance, which didn't even pierce its skin. 

Atem gave a wan smile. "Your turn then. Fist of Fury Obelisk!" 

The great war god bellowed its approval, rearing its mighty fist back and taking aim at Playmaker and his two monsters. Then with the force of a tidal wave, it let fly.

"Accesscode!"
"Arrival!" 

The two former enemies launched forward, weapons moving in sync, trying to stop an unstoppable force through willpower alone. 

It wasn't to be, the two weapons shattering on contact with the war gods hide, its fist plowing through their defenseless digital bodies and scattering their code to the aether. 

Playmaker and Ai looked at the oncoming fist in horror, before shooting each other a glance. 

"It...its been fun, Yusaku."
"That it has Ai. Thank you." 

Ai clearly was about to give some sort of witty retort, but before a syllable could enter the airwaves the two were made into pancakes by Chef Tormentor. Obelisk withdrew its fist once it hit stone, leaving behind a cloud of dust, a pile of rubble and a pool of viscera. 

 Atem gave a weary sigh. "Thats two."

"Partner.." Yugi muttered, seeing his best friend just seem so....weary. the memories of a lifetime of battles clearly hitting home alot harder now than they would have when they first met. Once Atem would have relished a battle like this but now he looked....sad. 

But his 3 foes noticing this was a bad thing for the pharaoh as they took from that look, perhaps correctly, that he was writing them off, seeing the battle as a foregone conclusion. And they would take this personally. 

Judai struck first. "I'm borrowing this kid!" he yelled, looking at Yuma before slamming down his own Super Polymerization. "I'm going to fuse Number 39 Utopia Beyond and Elemental Hero Neos!" 

"HEY!" 

"Come on out, Elemental Hero Neos Knight!" 

Despite Yumas protests, Utopia was indeed pulled into the lightning vortex beyond, along with a much more willing Neos, with the armored Number being turned into armor itself, making Neos a stereotypical medieval knight, complete with oversized sword. 

"Alright, lets take those oversized dorm mascots down!" Neos abided by its masters call, flying straight at Obelisk, around its forearm as it tried to block, slashing it across the chest and actually doing damage, making the goliath actually cry out in pain. 

Atems eyes widened as his god was actually damaged. "Obelisk!" 

Neos wasn't done, shooting towards Ra, actually decapitating the beast before anyone could comprehend the first attack properly. Slifer adjusted to the wounding of its brethren quicker than any of the duelists present, pelting Neos with blasts of thunder from both its mouths, stripping it of its stolen armor. 

"Neos!" 

A familiar scene emerged, Elemental Hero Neos launching itself toward the gaping maw of the god that housed its master for its entire series. 

However this battle would not end in a fade to black. It WOULD end in a no contest however, as this was not a one on one showdown. 

"Numeron Dragon!" 

A something burst out of the ground below Slifer, coiling around the massive snake like dragon, showing it was absolutely DWARFED in size. This dragon was golden, its body formed from spiral like formations housing energy rather than anything solid. This was Number 100 Numeron Dragon.

Its time for a clash of gods....though in this case, it was less setting up for a clash, more an execution, Numeron Dragon strangling the life out of Slifer as its golden skull approached Slifers own gasping maw. 

"What kind of monster is this?" Atem yelled, Ghost Yugi behind him going pale. 

"Its not a monster dude!" Yuma snarked back. "It's a god too!" 

Atem couldn't risk losing one of his most powerful cards, looking desperately for a counter. He turned to the most powerful of them all. "RA! HELP SLIFER!" 

The decapitated carcass of the sun god, still flying where Neos left it, suddenly burst into flame. While the metallic body perished, its fiery soul took form, Phoenix Mode as it is known in the card game. The bird shaped inferno moved like a wave, diving to where Numeron Dragon had its cohort in a bind. 

a burst of gold light met it on the way down.

"LIMIT OVER ACCEL SYNCHRO!" 

Then the fire got Punched in the face by a massive white hand, as Shooting Star Dragon evolved once more. 

"ALL WISHES CONVERGE IN YOU!" Cried Yusei flying, yes FLYING via a Crimson Dragon shaped bunch of energy below his D-Wheel, glowing pure gold. "SHOOTING QUASAR DRAGON!" 

The golden light dissipated in a green burst of energy from around Yusei and the new dragon, revealing a titanic white lizard that actually eclipsed Ra in size. Quasar bellowed out a guttural roar that shook Atem down to his very souls, challenging the god of the sun. The Phoenix responded by leasing its God Blaze Cannon once more, but Quasar just formed multicolored balls of energy in its hands and tossed them into the blaze which parted like the Red Sea around a Beyblade.  The energy pelted the fiery avatar, driving it towards the ground one shot at a time, impacting the earth before the last shot connected, the phoenix god letting out a shrill wail as it was slain, permanently this time. 

"RA! NO!" Atem yelled, seeing the most powerful god laid to waste by the pinnacle of Synchro Summoning making the normally calm king of games panic. Seeing the gods beaten is not new, in fact Atem considered it necessary for anyone to truly challenge him, but in a fight like this, unlike a duel, they were his best assets. There was no plan B. "OBELISK!"

Atems cry was non specific because he didn't quite know what his monsters were supposed to do. God or no god, one was tied up and the other was fighting two equals alone.

And Judai was about to make another move.

"If we are going all godly, i'm not gonna be left out of all the fun!" Judai said "Divine Neos, lets go!" 

Neos flew into the air, six coloured orbs of light coming from Judai's graveyard and merging with him, the Hero growing bigger and becoming clad in golden armor like....pretty much every warrior this fight huh? 

Not one to bask in his own divine glory, Neos pulled a Quasar and formed coloured balls, which unlike Quasar it merged into one larger colourless ball which it shot at Obelisk, making the goliath stumble back, throwing a wild Fist of Fate at its smaller, winged adversary. Divine Neos BLOCKED the much larger first, parrying it above Obelisks head, diving headfirst towards Obelisks chest wound it made earlier as a mere Knight. Shoving its hands deep into the crevasse, Neos formed a second Legendary Strike, which exploded nigh instantly, turning the mighty war god into particles, which clearly would have been giblets had they been purely physical. 

At this juncture, Numeron Dragon finally subdued Slifer, coiled around it to the point the divine beast was immobile. Using its actual built arms and actual to scale hands, unlike Slifers little T-Rex arms and hands, the Godly Number began to pry open the larger of Slifers mouths, the smaller upper mouth snapping over and over in vain, even launching some Thunderforce balls into the sky to struggle, but Numeron Dragon would not be deterred, even literally face tanking Slifers best efforts.  It charged up a blast of golden flame and....

we all know where this is going 

The Egyptian Gods had fallen.

The three gods not under the thrall of Pharaoh Atem wheeled around to face said ancient egyptian monarch. Atems eyes were the size of saucers as the three charged up a final energy blast, before, like Yusaku before him, he closed his eyes and addressed his partner.

"I....I'm sorry Yugi."

"Why?" said a pale but stone faced Yugi Muto "You did everything you could."

"Did I?"

"Do you really think Mind Crushing them would work if the Gods didn't?"

Atem sighed...."No, I suppose not. Still you are coming with me to eternal rest far too soon..."

Yugi sighed softly. "I suppose....though I guess its just what I always wanted." At Atems raised eyebrow, Yugi gave a shy laugh, scratching the back of his astral head. "One last adventure with you."

Atem smiled, almost as brightly as the energy blasts heading towards them. "I guess I do like the sound of that...." 

VROOOOOOOMMMMM

A ball of bright light engulfed the Duel King, leaving nothing behind, golden sparkles rising from where the millennium puzzle once lay. 

Three remain. The duelists locked eyes, as did the boss monsters above them. 

Then a green blur slammed into Quasar, cutting the gigantic synchro dragon in two. 

*Que*

"Wha...QUASAR" Yusei yelled, his best monster just disappearing before his eyes. Unlike in the actual game, Shooting Star did not take the dragons place, leaving Yusei defenseless. Judai and Yuma looked just as shocked as he did. 

Then a beam of white light struck Divine Neos, disintegrating it. 

"What...." Judai muttered, trying to figure out where the beam came from, following its line of fire....before being distracted as Numeron Dragon started roaring in pain above them. 

Along its curled up spine a dragon flew, pitch black with sparking electrical wings, not dissimilar to Dark Rebellion earlier with a ghostly boy similar in appearance to Yuya on its head, guiding it, dragging its fangs in the Number Gods spine. It flew at a break neck pace, twisting around as it got to the dragons head and plunging its fangs straight through its skull, causing it to burst into light from all the gauges in its hide and explode. The Black Dragon wheeled around to face the three grounded duelists, hovering near a skyscraper tip, a similar looking white/purple dragon and white/blue dragon regrouping with it, both also with a Yuya doppelganger perched atop them. 

The sky darkened, spotlights bursting from above as if sent by the divine themselves, ironic since the divine was just slain, circling around the skyscraper before coming to a single point. 

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" 

As they say, do not assume somebodies dead unless you see a body. 

Atop his beloved Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, was Yuya Sakaki. 

"I'd like to thank my fellow performers, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri, for guiding Odd-Eyes Rebellion, Wing and Venom dragons in their act and for cleaning up the stage for the finale!" Yuya exclaimed. He poured his heart and soul into the performance, goggles over his eyes, tear marks obvious running down his face, probably trying to distract himself from what he's about to attempt to do. 

"No.....Yuya...don't ruin this for me..." Yuri muttered, Odd-Eyes Venom Dragon growling a reprimand at him.

"Lets get outta here already!" Yugo yelled, Odd-Eyes Wing Dragon bellowing its agreement.

"Yuya...." Yuto mumbled, worried for his friend/other self. Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon, the oldest partner of the three combined dragon forms, rumbled a low noise in its throat in shared dread. 

"Now it's time for the climax!" Yuya yelled, his own, basic Odd-Eyes jumping off the building, the 3 extra deck dragons falling into line behind them. "And what is a better way to send us off than a firework show!" 

Yusei felt the mark on his back burn, trying to muster some sort of power to save him, but nothing came. 'Jack...Crow...Rua...Ruka...Aki...I'm sorry...'

Yumas Zexal morph failed, he and Astral on their knees, panting. "I think...this is it Astral." Yuma muttered. "I must have made a mistake like you said I might. What did I do wrong?"

Astral gave a small smile "Nothing Yuma. Absolutely nothing. And you already knew that." 

Judai and Yubel were silent, not really needing to exchange anymore with how they were bonded. They shared a fond glance, knowing that no matter what happened next, they'd be together. 

Yuyas hand shot forward, tears flying from his face at the violent motion. "GO MY DRAGONS! SPIRAL FLAME RAINBOW STRIKE!" All four dragons reared their heads back, charging up colored breath attacks fitting of their rider, unleashing them simultaneously, The four beams merged quickly into a rainbow blaze, spanning a massive area, covering the sky. 

It hit the ground, created a heat dome, engulfing the three duelists below them. It dissipated into colorful flakes or light, making a beautiful skyline not befitting the bloodbath that just took place. 

Yuya Sakaki was the last man standing. He flipped off his dragon, landing arms spread in a classic TADA pose.

"The fun has only....just...begun..." he said, initially still hyped, but then he just....broke. This was something completely against his morals. His dragons around him cooed to comfort him, having literally been there once before with their old master. Yutos ghost embraced him. There was only one dry set of eyes in the house.

"Why are YOU crying?" Yugo asked a balling Yuri. 
"Theres....theres something so beautiful about murder, ya know? Its been so long....it feels so good..."
Once again, Yugo was reaffirmed in his belief he was the only sane one. 

Nobody tell him.

The view scrolls away from the boys, into the cloud layer rolling in. Clearly visible, tinted red from the sun and green from the dispersing solid vision, is a familiar, ominous, draconic outline. 

Merry Zarcmas, everyone. 

KO

CLANG

HEY YOU WON YUYA, GIVE US AN EGAO! YUYA? WHY NO EGAO? 

So this battle was, surprisingly, pretty clear cut for the most part. Despite the fact all of them have vast arsenals, none of them can really do much of anything besides raw power and perhaps some mindhax from Atem or memory fuckery from Yubel, but given everyone except Yusaku and Yusei have at least one alternate persona in their bodies, and Yusaku has Ai, and that this ability has been resisted before and Atem needs to win a game to inflict a penalty game at full power, this is negligible. Plus....like everyone here minus Yusaku is immune to mind stuff and soul fuckery by their endgames.
So speaking of which!

Yeah thats about right. Even at their max potential, with Bohman affecting the real world with his power then scaling both Yusaku and Ai to it, the others all have feats far surpassing Planetary. Being more realistic however, Yusaku and Ai probably only hit Country level via Ai making a country sized dimension for Robopoppy and other Ignis making the Cyberse, and even THAT could be just manipulation of Vrains code, but we are being generous. We could scale them to the end of Vrains which is said to connect to infinite worlds with infinite possibilities but...WTF does that even mean? How can we scale that? It doesn't really rely on anyones power...

Card games everyone.  

The only way to get Yugi and Yusei up to the other 3s level is via scaling to Judai, but theres a few problems with this. Judais stats don't come from his duel energy or even his Gentle Darkness, but Super Polymerisation making a super fusion god, and in his crossover appearances with them, Judai was not taking anything seriously. Think EXE v Starforce here, Judais duel with Yugi wasn't him unleashing his full power on him, it was him trying to regain his love for dueling, and the duel v Paradox? Judai was running that ENTIRE duel, easily the mvp running the entire show, even enabling Atems strategy and the attacks by Stardust before that he was on the defensive trying to figure out what was going on. Not that valid a point of comparison given its some sort of alternate universe Atem where....Battle City 2 happened? and its a Yusei from early in the 5Ds timeline, but the point remains that its near impossible to get any valid scaling from BBT. 

Plus the Gentle Darkness is a primordial force, unlike the Egyptian Gods or the Crimson Dragon. It has to be stronger for the lore to make sense. 

We could be nice and assume the two are comparable to Judai, but we'll give an advantage to Yusei here, given he and Antimoneys black hole shenanigans beating out Zorc moving the moon. either way, in terms of the original timeline, theres no doubt the Slifer Slacker comes out ahead. 

Judai however can't compete with the other two heroes who are not from that timeline. Super Polymerisation making the Super Fusion God is certainly stronger than the Numeron Code or Zarc, it would destroy 12 Universes while the others don't even reach half that, but it has an issue in that unlike those two, it requires ALOT of setup to pull off that Judai likely won't get a chance to use. Not to mention Judai likely wouldn't survive the destruction. Yubels plan was merely to be together forever with Judai, death in a void is just as likely and its implied that she flat out didn't consider this possibility in her madness. Judais certainly universal without and capable of leveling dimensions at full power, such as Darkness one, but 12X that is not power he normally has. Even fusing away his opponents, while a valid strategy, probably wouldn't be enough to get a win as unless he fused them with...like a rock or something, the fused entity would still be above Judai himself, or the resulting energy would kill Judai as well. Given Yubel ultimately abandoned their goal of fusing the dimension to rule and instead wished for destruction, this kinda lines up. 

So we are down to two, and Yuma and Astral struggle for similar reasons. the Numeron Code is certainly powerful, it made Barrian and Astral World AND the regular World, and Yuma can access the full power of it at any moment via Numeron Dragon, which hey, unlike Judais Super Fusion God he actually summoned this one! But...thats it. Numeron Dragon is far stronger than the rest of his arsenal, which is likely only universal as well, unless buffed by said Dragon. So we got 3x Universal at his max, while throwing around probable universal power at his peak """casual""" power 

Yuyas full power is....a bit beyond that.

Zarcs energy from being defused made 4 universes twice, which is stronger than the Code, but also his refusing merged those dimensions back together. Yuya may not have Zarcs madness in his head any more, but he has all that power just...inside his body, which he uses for his Odd-Eyes variants of the other dragons, and pretty much any summon should he so chose. The only thing stopping Yuya from ending this fight before Judais Super Polymerisation and the Numeron Code become a factor is his own pacifism, but in a life or death scenario, his other 3 personas, especially Yuri, are only gonna let that go so far. It's only a matter of time before Yuya goes all out and delivers fatal blows, given nothing present beyond Judai summoning the Fusion God would kill him.

Basically, Yuyas feats are by far the most clear cut with no possible routes for downplay that wouldn't strike the others far lower, and unlike the other powerhouses, he has all that power at his beck and call at any time. 

And he uses it to make people smile, how nice. You better smile or he'll nuke your universe in a fit of rage. 

Yuyas skill as a duelist is locked mostly to action duels or Arc-Vs more streamlined Turbo Duels which also featured Action Cards after a point, but his Duel disk can turn any duel into an action duel, meaning even if his ability to duel was a factor, he'd still be at full power. its also likely he'd be able to bullshit a Link that allows him to play at 100% under modern master rules, such as the newly revealed Beyond the Pendulum, which is clearly a card inspired by Yuya and Rey Akaba and was revealed by Yuyas Voice actor. This of course opens a can of worms about characters pulling out bosses for their decks balanced around the IRL game, such as Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, Nebula Neos, Decode Talker Heatsoul, Shooting Star Majestic Dragon or Utopic Draco Future, as well as made up fanfic oc bullshit, which is why the actual game wasn't considered at all. 

Look at it this way. All 6 Yus have the ability to alter the game to their whim and are the strongest duelists in their worlds or at least points in time, as stated at the start, even their rivals don't really come close. Basically, lol Protagonist. What sets Yuya apart is he's also his worlds main Antagonist with all the raw power that provides, and the only reason Zarc even lost is because Yuya took back control and threw the duel v Rey. He only lost because in the face of an ability made to specifically to counter him, he fucking threw. Zarc, and thus Yuya, is all the power of a main antagonist with all the bullshit of a protagonist, and that's something nobody really has an answer to. And sure, Yuyas lost duels in canon, but not once he started awakening his true nature as Zarc, and if we went by dueling record here, Yusaku would win which is hilarious. 

In the end, Yuyas overwhelming personal power meant victory was sure to swing in Pendulums favor. 

The winner is Yuya Sakaki

CLOSING COMMENTS:


HOLY FUCK ITS FINALY OUT!!!!!!

Honestly, probably bit off more than i could chew here which is why it took so long. Image quality and usage is way down, not as many stat breakdowns, not as well edited, but i got to share my love for all 6 of theses series (and don't doubt I love all 6) so in the end, its worth it.Fun fact, very few of the monsters mentioned actually appear in the images scattered through the blog. The monsters on the Deck slides are, minus Accesscode, the more modern pieces of support. I wanted to include Summon animations, chants, and at least some visual flair but honestly, I went back when i added the tabs to do so and i'm just drained. If you wanna see em, google it, i promise they cool.

IMO this is not only the optimal match for all of them, but the only acceptable ones. Ash v Yugi and Judai v Ben 10? Suck donkey dick.

As for the verdict, If you want a less formal (somehow) breakdown, Yuya > Yuma >= Judai >= Yugi/Yusei > Yusaku is how it ended. You could make an argument for Judai winning and oh god i wanted to he's my boy, my favourite and its not close, but in the end this is where i felt comfortable.  For such a vast series with so many abilities and monsters its a shame it comes down to solely stats but everyone just says "No" to all the hax that matters here. And if you are from a more YGO Focused Community than a VS one and reading this, reminder, Dueling skill was NOT a factor due to how fucky that can be. Also Hi.

So, as for a next time? I need to go ALOT simpler. I have only maybe one more match with this many moving parts but i never wanna do more than 2 analysis again, or at least nt for a while. Plus while i knew the source materials here like the back of my hand, the cosmologies involved are still decently complex and needed second opinions. If i want to get shit out in a reasonable timeframe, I need a much simpler match. 

COMING WHEN ITS READY: COLNEL FLASH THOMPSON, THE AGENT ANTI-VENOM, VERSUS SERGENT JAMES HELLER, THE SECOND PROTOTYPE!

I had one other possible match which I'll probably do AFTER this one, but this ideas more complete in my head, so this is where we going.

Follow me on Twitter or join the Discussing Death Battle Discord if you wanna contact me, i'm not putting comments on for my own mental health lol. Also, check out Medds DB scripts cause i help in those a good deal too, in particular Norman Osborn v Kazuya Mishima practically took over from this for a long time. Big reason why Flash v Heller is next is cause alot of the stuff for Norman will carry over to Flash....though not all duh duh duh!!!!

 

Until next time, remember that combat robotics has been and always will be the superior form of VS Debating. #TantrumGang