Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.
This is a response fic to the prompt by the tumblr blog arcvmonth for day 18, and is also crossposted on AO3 will be linked to tumblr. Unlike my old "Parallel Thoughts" projects, I do not plan to write all the prompts (which have been delayed for years at this point).
The MOST IMPORTANT part is that this fic is a SEQUEL to "Parallel Thoughts 2018 - chapter 2". You can find it through my profile. This one-shot is a direct continuation of that prompt! Please read it first! I tried to write this to make sense, but well, self-indulgent fic is self-indulgent.
The spellings of the names are taken from the Versus screens of the Japanese version, which is also to keep consistent with the original prompt series I wrote.
So without further ado, enjoy my Superhero AU!
Day 18 – DDD: Different Dimension Day
For the past few days, so full of nervous activity, Yuya could hear Odd-Eyes Dragon at the back of his head.
Ever since the… explosion for lack of better term (even though it was far from an explosion and more like something ripping itself apart) at the abandoned Leo Corporation lab, Odd-Eyes just would not keep quiet. His whines and rumbles and growls made his mood known at all times, his card seemed to glitter in some way, hot like fire to the touch and its artwork flashing, sometimes blurry – as if he was waiting for something to happen. Sometimes he could swear he felt his dragon's hot scales and burning crystals underneath his hands, nuzzling his head, watching over him in his sleep.
At those times he could see Yuzu's bracelet glittering again and remembered the bright pink flash.
As Yuya decided, he along with Yuzu and Gongenzaka were looking into disguises. If they wanted to investigate LDS they would have to be unrecognizable. And unfortunately, Yuya was not just some random nobody. No, because of his dad he was somewhat famous and not in a good way, and by extension so was Yuzu and to a considerably lesser degree Gongenzaka.
Fortunately, Yuya and Yuzu were entertainers.
And Yuya wanted a theme. He wanted them all to have costumes.
The three of them spent days talking about a costume theme, and Yuya insisted on channeling his Entertainment. He wanted – no, needed – entertainment to be a part of this. This was for his dad, to find answers about why he disappeared, and he wanted to honour dad and his spirit to bring smiles to everyone and he would never forgive himself if in his quests to find his dad he forgot what his dad wanted.
Yuzu and Gongenzaka had their objections, at first, but they understood where he was coming from and relented. So flashy entertainment theme it was. Yuya knew how to work with this.
But first, they needed codenames.
"OK, we're going with a performance theme but what kind of performance?" asked Yuzu. "You can't expect all of us to dress like clowns."
Yuya managed not to twitch at the comment, even though he knew where Yuzu was coming from. But he did not need to worry about it for more than a second. "No, I want you guys to have fun. I'm going with a circus theme but you should pick what you like."
"To match your Entermates, correct?" asked Gongenzaka even though he did not need an actual answer. Yuya nodded nonetheless.
Yuzu picked back up. "So, what kind of performer? Circuses have all sorts of people in them."
"I was thinking acrobat or an animal tamer? Probably animal tamer, since most of my deck is Beast types."
"So no clown makeup."
"No, we want quick change." Fortunately, that was also something Yuya knew how to do.
"You'll still need the acrobat vibe though, so both? Something easy to move in but kind of… official-looking."
"I'm thinking form fitting tuxedo with short sleeves for the top. It shouldn't get in the way. And probably narrower pants, if I want to hide them under my usual pair."
"And a good pair of shoes" added Yuzu. "With good traction."
"You two are also going to need masks" said Gongenzaka.
"Wait, Gongenzaka, you already decided what to wear?" Yuzu was honestly surprised. Out of all of them Gongenzaka was the most reluctant go along with her superhero idea.
"Yes." And to both Yuzu and Yuya's astonishment, Gongenzaka opened his school bag and revealed its contents.
A traditional Kabuki theater mask. Heavy and wooden, carved in the image of an oni, dyed white. A white oni…
"Why an Oni?" Gongenzaka was playing a Superheavy Samurai deck.
"Because what we are going to do is dishonorable."
Yuya felt Gongenzaka's words like a vice around his heart. Dishonorable. Of course it was. They were going to use dueling to sneak into out-of-limit areas, lie to their families about their activities, chase down people who might not even have answers.
They might even have to hurt someone.
Yuya locked eyes with Yuzu, her face grim in understanding. She was thinking the same thing he did.
They both looked Gongenzaka straight in the eye. "We understand." Gongenzaka would always be their rock. Even when he disagreed.
Because somehow this mask made it real. They were doing this. They were actually doing this.
"I'll be The Oni."
"Red Jester."
Yuzu and Gongenzaka sharply turned to Yuya. "Jester? Not tamer?"
Yuya smiled. Going by the expressions of his friends' faces, it looked as self-deprecating as it felt. "Always got to make people smile." And boy if that was not the crux of half the issues in his life. Always had to make people smile. At his expense.
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!"
"Yuzu!?"
"You two are way too gloomy! If you don't want to go with my idea just say so!"
"But we already agreed!?"
"Then show some confidence! I'll be Music Bloom! Now that's a proper superhero name!"
Personally, Yuya felt like that name belonged mostly in a magical girl show, but he was not about to say that. Yuzu was going to be a flower-themed musician, and that was that.
"It's decided!" declared Yuya. "We're going to be The Troupe! And we'll dazzle everyone!"
In the back of his mind, Odd-Eyes Dragon roared, just a breath away from materializing just like he did that time in the lab.
Soon. Just a bit further. And I'll give you everything that I am.
Of that, he had no doubt.
Within seconds this operation had gone sideways in the worst way possible.
The Numbers Hunter could stop time. This- this was beyond anything Ute imagined. This was so beyond the scope of what they had planned, everyone was frozen-
No. He was Midnight Phantom right now. One of the founders of the Resistance, which had grown beyond their expectations. And he could still move.
From the corner of his eye he say Ruri- no, Dawn Valkyrie shifting in her position. So she could also move. Good. At least she had backup. However, she won't be able to use Avian Cry…
The Numbers Hunter did not notice either of them, to Phantom's relief, too preoccupied with the Numbers-using criminal. At his side was a robot, oddly animated for a machine. It was the first time he was laying eyes on the much talked Hunter, and he felt-
He did not know what he was expecting. But definitely not someone their age. He could not possibly be older than Syun – but that alone was proof that Ute was a hypocrite for taking note of such things. He was almost inconspicuous, in a way, with an unusually fancy white coat that while notable, did not scream "sent everyone who dueled me to a coma" kind of dangerous.
And yet…
Something in the air changed- no, it was the Hunter's attention that shifted.
High-noon Cowboy and Daylight Pixie, frozen in place just as they readied their duel disks to challenge the criminal. The duel disks used by the Resistance were a far cry from the AR D-Pads used by everyone else. The half-formed Real Solid Vision blades only highlighted that.
"These duel disks…" Of course he noticed the obvious.
But the Hunter was already in his scope. And Midnight Phantom did not give him that opening.
He fired two shots with his RSV rifle, concussive; one straight to the thief's forehead, knocking him out. The other on the Hunter's hand, right at the duel disk. A card was thrown at his direction and Phantom leaped off his ledge, and then a- "Duel Anchor!?"
He twisted mid air and kicked it off, with a yellow-black blur – Valkyrie – leaping over the handrail, a gust of wind from the summoned Assembly Nightingale blasting the Hunter back. Phantom landed on his feet, doing a backwards roll to absorb the impact, his duel disk at the ready.
Dark Rebellion was screaming at him. That man is powerful. Dangerous. Full of light. His body is destroyed.
His what-
A second that he was caught off-guard and the duel anchor was back, grapping his duel disk, and Ute did the only thing he could because that was not natural, not like theirs-
A burst of dark power, the lightning, burst from the disk, the two energies recoiling away from each other because that light was antithetical to what he was- he could hear Ruri yelling his name.
The Numbers Hunter recoiled from shock before assuming a battle stance, his duel disk ready. "Two Numbers users…"
"Neither of us has Numbers."
Both men looked at Dawn Valkyrie, who stood there fearless.
"If neither of you has Numbers then how can you move in this space?"
Midnight Phantom straightened up. Behind him he could see the robot yelling something- about not recognizing the signals or something.
Apparently the Numbers Hunter took the robot at its word because he stared between them and the robot stunned.
"How can you move in this space?"
Phantom and Valkyrie exchanged a heavy gaze. They remembered that day. All too clearly. "Neither of us is normal. More importantly, we were looking for you."
"Oh? Do you want the Numbers for yourselves?"
"No" replied Phantom. "We are looking to stop them. Permanently."
"Permanently."
Valkyrie readied her duel disk. "I've been sensing so many souls be corrupted and vanish from this city, it's unnatural! And now… now… I can feel the light of all the souls you devoured within you. The human body isn't meant to handle that strain. The souls and the light your using are breaking you down from within! Why are you doing this!?"
So Dark Rebellion's assessment was correct.
"That's NONE of your business!"
"If you are destroying the people, it IS the Resistance's business!" declared Phantom. "We will put a stop to you right now!" And then the people behind the Hunter. But they did not need to tell him yet that they knew. He would not show his hand this early.
The duel disks were steadied, and the Hunter's left eye flashed red with a blue design around it; a sure sign that he was using unnatural power. Since that day, whenever he and Valkyrie had to duel with AR Vision, the same happened to them. Ute's left eye would change to blue with a dark purple angular design, while Valkyrie's would turn yellow like her brother's with a black wing pattern.
However, the Resistance did not duel with AR Vision. They dueled with Real Solid Vision. And quite frankly, he and Valkyrie had no need of it. So no rain of code and binary made it down around the area even as the blades of their duel disks manifested.
"The Resistance…" muttered the Hunter. He glanced behind them, finally taking in the other two visible members of their crew frozen behind them, High-noon Cowboy and Daylight Pixie – Allen and Sayaka. Ute and Ruri deliberately did not look towards where they knew Dusk Phoenix – Syun – was hiding. This operation was riding solely on the two of them and Ute would be damned twice if he let anyone hurt his teammates.
He could sense something utterly alien from the Hunter's deck and he was certain Valkyrie could sense it too.
"DUEL!"
Once upon a time – and by that they meant around five years ago – the Commons area was full of gangs. Hunting others for their cards, or even the very act of dueling, casting a second reign of terror over the few remaining innocents in these slums trying to make a living.
Then Team Satisfaction came, wielding power unlike any other, tales of dragons bleeding and crying out in pain, but still standing tall, wounded guardians as they were.
Then Team Satisfaction vanished, and the tales varied. The leader went mad, they said. The dragons vanished, they said. One of them was taken by a light, they said. The police finally got them, said the more cynic ones.
Hugo and Rin grew up listening to those stories over and over again. People fighting over these stories, because many people loathe Team Satisfaction, they said that they were traitors to the Commons who took away their strength and now they're even more suppressed by the Security, that some of the Team's members were from the Tops, and if they had nothing to be guilty about then people would actually know their identities.
Hugo and Rin were young at the time, but not young enough not to remember the heydays of Team Satisfaction and the days before them. Akane-sensei would not let any of the kids duel outside or near the windows back then, lest someone see them. But now, everyone was free to duel wherever and whenever they wanted.
So the two teenagers were grateful to them. The small team that disappeared. They dueled outdoors with everyone else without worrying about duel anchors and metal bars coming at them for their cards.
Until that day happened.
Hugo and Rin had been working on their D-Wheel for a couple of years, and it was finally, finally complete. Obviously they took it for a ride – their first real ride! – in the middle of the night, enjoying the cold wind on their faces and the empty streets, thinking that nobody would find them.
They were wrong.
She still remembered the fall. Such a long, long fall, and her just barely missing Hugo's hand before the wind danced through her fingertips and she heard a roar and then there was light.
Clear Wing Synchro Dragon raged at the world, and Hugo's eyes were green and he was unscathed and faster than light. Rin was terrified beyond belief, and her breath was coming out frozen and the wind danced and her bracelet was glowing.
Ironically, it was cops who saved them. Well, former cops. The Allies of Justice, a group that they had only heard as a punchline to a joke, appeared in a beaten-up van with makeshift armor and a few D-Wheels, grabbing them and their D-Wheel before either of them could really comprehend what was going on, and driving straight through Security's D-Wheels. Shouting and gunshots was all Rin could hear for a few minutes before they faded.
The leader of the group was a man with a patched up Security uniform in his fifties, and so where the other members when they led them to the abandoned office building that was their base.
Rin and Hugo never thought they would feel sympathetic for the police, but the story of how Roget – the ever mysterious Jean Michel Roget – singlehandedly turned the city for the worse by blacklisting everyone who tried to do an honest job ever, leading to the massive uprising in gang activity that Team Satisfaction eventually had to curb filled them with rage.
One of them, a guy named Kazama who was significantly younger than most of his peers, even said that he met them in person a couple of times. That he knew their names and their decks. Not that he would tell them who they were.
But he did say this.
"Hugo, right? Your dragon reminds me of theirs. Especially- well, that guy disappeared. They never really recovered from that… But even though I'm nothing special, I can tell that you two are. The same way Team Satisfaction was. So keep your chin high, okay?"
And they did.
Wind Rider and White Witch were here to learn about Roget's intentions, stop his plans and make him pay for all of his crimes. They would finish what Team Satisfaction started.
That was their promise.
The day after the incident with the teleporter, Academia was strangely silent.
Selena did not manage to escape. Instead she went back to her room and pretended nothing happened. She did not see the boy with the purple uniform who ran into her either. Nobody showed up to question her about what happened in the teleportation chambers. Not that Selena would be able to answer, because saying "there was lightning, a pink flash and I think I heard a dragon" explained absolutely nothing.
If she did not know better she would have thought the whole incident to be a bizarre fever dream.
But it was no dream.
The moonlight would catch on her bracelet in a way it never did before, making it glow from within and matching the moon's phase. Birds would startle awake and sing eerie tunes when she came near the trees at night. The plant next to her window started growing rapidly, leaves and stems twisting and curling in a way unnatural for its species, almost jagged. The eyes of her fellow students would glaze over and when they went back to normal they would be dazed. The moonlight made her skin so, so bright and the shadows so, so black, that she could hide in them completely.
Lunacy was the word that flashed through her mind the night of the incident. And maybe that was it. Maybe the moon suddenly decided to live up to every single eerie story ever told about it, just for her.
The boy in the purple uniform still did not appear again, and that bothered her. That bothered her a lot. Unnaturally so.
The nights filled her with energy now, so Selena took to late night walks. The cool sea breeze was refreshing. The moon was reflected on the sea's waves, and Selena could swear the moonlight was making a path for her.
But she could not cross the sea. Not yet. She wanted to so much but she had to find that boy. She had a burning need to find that boy in the purple uniform and she had no idea why. She was pretty sure he knew even less about the incident with the teleporter, he got knocked out cold. She honestly could not think of anything to gain by finding and talking to him.
But she had to find him. It was just one island. It would not be that hard.
And it was not. Not when during one of those late night walks she wandered to a small enclosed garden she had no idea was even there.
Selena did not know much about plants – she mostly had her own there to have something to do, it was a single small pot that came after some guy in a Ra Yellow uniform on the practice duels screamed at her to get a hobby.
She had dueled about fifteen people that day so he probably had a point. But yeah, she got the damn flower. Citronella to be exact because like everyone Selena loathed mosquitoes with a passion.
That garden was nothing like that small pot on Selena's window, or whatever few plants were usually around Academia. It was not pretty. There was colour, a lot of it.
But she could smell something overwhelmingly sweet and rotting coming from within, and their shapes were odd, climbing the metal bars of the enclosure as if attempting to devour them, not a single hint of order in the chaos.
And there, with her newly improved night vision, she found him. It took her a second to recognize him, as he was out of uniform, but he certainly recognized her. He rose to his full height, his hands covered in dirt and who knew what else – there were liquids dripping out of some of those – and he looked at her with a lazy grin that did not bode anything good.
"Well, well. Looks like our little wannabe escape has grown bolder in her strolls. Thinking of escaping again?"
"No" she answered honestly, because if nothing else Selena was brutally honest.
He blinked, almost exaggerated. "Oh? That's interesting. Then what do you want?"
First of all- "What's your name?"
He still looked amused. "Joeri. And you are the Professor's precious Selena."
Okay, now she was pissed. "You're helping me with my plant."
"What."
"You're a plant guy. You're helping me with my plant." What was she even saying!?
"I beg your pardon? Do you make inane demands of everyone you meet for the first time?" He looked so offended that it only spurred Selena more.
"My bracelet has been making it grow weird."
If pictures were a thing in dictionaries, the look on Joeri's face would be printed right next to dumbfounded. "Your bracelet."
"The teleporter made it weird."
Apparently being reminded of the weirdness of that particular incident was enough to shut him up for a moment. Just a moment. "Fine, I suppose I'll accompany you. But only because Starve Venom also started acting weird after that. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"
The smile was back but even she could tell he was not amused in the slightest. Selena shrugged. "There was lightning, a bright pink flash, I heard a dragon, you got knocked out and then some Obelisk Force guys showed up and my bracelet made them go insane."
"Marvelous. What an exceptional clarification."
"Will you shut up and help me with my plant already?"
"Fine, fine. What's your plant anyway?"
"A citronella."
"How overly practical."
"Not all of us can have monstrosities like whatever the hell you're planting there."
"They are carnivorous."
Why was she not surprised. "So yours are also overly practical."
Alright, his expressions were honestly kind of funny. "Just lead the way to your tower, princess."
It took everything she had not to punch him right there and there.
But she did get a few good tips on how to care for the plant.
And the look on Joeri's face once he saw the tumbleweed that her plant turned into was priceless, so that was a win.
Alright, some stuff about this AU.
First of all, the idea is basically stolen, if you can call it that? I got it after an abandoned fic on Wattpad from back in 2015 and some cool artwork on tumblr that turned out to be plagiarised by another creator (apparently the poster was tracing art, which I do not condone). But anyway, the concept got stuck in my head, so I wanted to write this for the longest time - literal years. Unfortunately, I have too many WIPs and real life, so an actual version of this AU will never be written. These are more like pilot episodes.
The idea behind this AU is that many members of the main cast have superpowers and operate as masked vigilantes - however, those superpowers are powered up and over exaggerated versions of stuff that's already in canon, implied to be in canon, and a few headcanons (serisouly, ask me about what the dragon boys are made of). It also borrows a lot of elements from 5Ds and ZeXal. Unfortunately, my setting for the Fusion dimension is nowhere near as fleshed out.
I have to admit that the Xyz Dimension segment here (and in the first fic) came out very different from what I envisioned. In my AU notes the Xyz portion is specifically post ZeXal, and there would be elements like Anna being Allen's sister and knowing about Kaito's mysterious background, and some overall tension behind the whole "what was the Numbers incident" thing. Here however the Xyz segment takes place during Kaito's first appearance in ZeXal, minus Yuma, which I'm not terribly happy about.
The Synchro dimension is the one I have the most fleshed out for this AU in terms of how it works, but it would take AGES to describe it all here, so please ask me.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.
Please Review. ALL CRITICISM IS WELCOME.