capeandcowl ☆ application ☆ part one
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Lycoris
AGE: 18
JOURNAL: glossological
IM: vertigo monologue [AIM]
E-MAIL: lycoris@gazeta.pl
RETURNING: n/a
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Fudou Yuusei
FANDOM: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s (anime)
CHRONOLOGY: End of episode 143.
CLASS: Hero to the core, he’s a kind of The Messiah character, so. Yeah. All heroic and stuff.
SUPERHERO NAME: Satellite’s Shooting Star
ALTER EGO: Fudou Yuusei; mechanic.
BACKGROUND:
Card games on motorcycles.
That’s the easiest and probably most common description of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s universe and while it may seem fitting, there's more to it than meets the eye. But allow me to elaborate.
5D’s takes place about thirty (estimate) years after the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters series. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, where once happy Domino City has been divided into Neo Domino City for rich and respected citizens and Satellite filled with outcasts of society. Neo Domino City also happens to be one of the most technologically advanced places in Japan, if not the whole world, mostly thanks to the Momentum technology, based on epicyclic gearing, which is now widely used in vehicles and other mechanical devices.
"Hold on," you say, "what about those 'card games' I keep hearing about?" See, the first series of Yu-Gi-Oh! introduced a trading card game of a name "Duel Monsters". Ever since that time, the game has been gaining amazing popularity, to the point an academy devoted to teaching children play it was created. In 5D’s timeline, you’d have a hard time finding someone who doesn’t play it, and I don’t think there’s a single person in the world who hasn’t at least heard of it. In fact, a new way of playing has been invented - namely, Riding Duels, played on… D-Wheels, machines similar to motorcycles. It’s even become a sort of sport discipline by now. Actually, any sort of conflict, be it a family argument or battle for the world’s survival, can be resolved by having a duel with those cards.
Well then, prepare to be guided through a story of urban segregation, everlasting friendship, battle between good and evil, and perhaps card games. On motorcycles.
Riding Duel, Acceleration!
Yuusei was born in Tops, the most luxurious residential area of Neo Domino City. His parents were leading developers of Kaiba Corporation’s Momentum Investigation and Development Section (M.I.D.S.), working on Momentum - a kind of energy generation system based on Solid Vision System (a technology used in Duel Disks to project the holograms of cards played in duels). However, seventeen years prior to the beginning of the series, an accident occurred - the reactor went out of control, causing an enormous explosion, in which thousands of people lost their lives - Yuusei’s parents included. The West Domino, where the Momentum was located, was thorn off the land and became an island, later called Satellite. The truth about the accident - named Zero Reverse incident - was not to leak into public. Therefore, M.I.D.S. used all its power to cover it, stating the cause was a natural disaster. The City was rebuild, and a new Momentum was constructed to power it. Satellite, however, remained as it was - a run-down ruin connected to Neo Domino City via a pipeline. From that point on, Satellite was considered the City’s junkyard - all the trash from the City was sent there to be recycled or burned. People from Satellite were forbidden into the City, as they were considered to be worthless scum.
Shortly after his parents’ death, Yuusei was sent to an orphanage in Satellite, where he was raised along with some other kids by their foster mother, Martha. As he grew up he taught himself many skills that he needed in order to cope with the tough life in Satellite such as reading, spelling, writing, grammar, mathematics, computer skills, electrical and mechanical engineering, hand-to-hand combat, motorcycle riding, and of course dueling. He made two very close friends - close enough to call them brothers - namely, Jack Atlus and Crow Hogan, whom he was always hanging out with. Back then there were many Dueling Gangs on the streets of Satellite, fighting to seize control over the island. On one day, the friends met Kyousuke Kiryuu, who asked them to form a gang with him. That’s how Team Satisfaction came to exist. The reason behind the name? Its members believed they would never be able to leave Satellite, so they could as well take of their lives there as much as possible. They began dueling other gangs and soon became one of the most powerful teams around. Finally, the day of fighting one last team arrived. Team Satisfaction easily defeated most of the opponents. When Yuusei challenged their leader, however, he was thrown off the roof by him. Kiryuu managed to save him from falling to what would be a certain death. Thus, they managed to win the whole Satellite for themselves.
For Kiryuu, however, it was just the beginning. He started forcing weaker gangs to duels and ended up assaulting the defeated opponents. Crow got into an argument over it with him and left the team, Jack following him soon. Yuusei, on the other hand, chose to stay by Kiryuu’s side. When the latter decided to start a war against the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, Yuusei realized it wasn’t the friend he had known and left him to his own devices. Soon after that, Kiryuu killed an officer of Security who was attempting to place him under arrest. Yuusei got into a fight with the former leader of their team, but they were interfered by the Security. Yuusei was trying to convince them he was the leader of the gang and thus take the blame on himself, but failed to do so. Kiryuu misinterpreted what he saw and thought Yuusei had betrayed him and sold him to the Security. Yuusei didn’t manage to explain that to him before he got taken away. After that incident, the former members of Team Satisfaction tried to visit Kiryuu in prison, but they were never allowed to see him and eventually were told he had already died.
Later on, Yuusei found new friends: Taka, Nerve, Blitz and Rally Dawson. After he succeeded in getting a TV signal by hacking it, they were all fascinated by the Riding Duel they saw. Yuusei managed to build a D-Wheel using the scrap parts he and his friends had gathered. At some point, Rally disappeared. Jack contacted Yuusei, saying he knew where the boy is. It turned out Jack had kidnapped him and put him in a boat. He gave Yuusei a choice - he could either duel him to prove he’s a better duelist or save his friend. Yuusei obviously jumped into the sea and rescued Rally, while Jack stole his D-Wheel, as well as his ace card, Stardust Dragon.
Two years later, Yuusei managed to build another D-Wheel with the help of his friends. In order to complete it, Rally stole a CPU from a factory and was followed by the Security to an abandoned subway station where they lived. Yuusei hacked Security’s system to block the signal coming from Rally’s criminal marker and took off on his D-Wheel as a bait, so that his friends could run away. He then challenged the Security that went after him, Tetsu Ushio, to a Riding Duel, which Yuusei won and thus was allowed to get away with Rally’s theft.
Yuusei was then challenged to a duel by a man called Uryu with his D-Wheel at stake. He accepted it because the other offended his dreams and won. Yuusei then revealed he was planning on escaping Satellite via a pipeline connecting the island to the City. It could only be done during the three minutes long maintenance, in which there would be no trash inside. Yuusei got into the pipeline, but was followed by Ushio, who forced him into a duel with his special Pursuit Deck. Unable to escape, Yuusei dueled him and managed to win in three minutes. When the time ran out, the trash started flowing again, but Yuusei reached the exit just before it was closed. Upon entering the City, he faced Jack, who had been waiting for him there. Jack gave him Stardust Dragon back, but Yuusei refused to accept it, saying he would get it back in a duel. The two headed to the Stadium and another Riding Duel began. Unknowingly to them, it was observed by Rex Godwin, the Chief of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, as well as his assistants - Mikage Sagiri and Jaeger.
When Jack succeeded in summoning both Stardust Dragon and Red Demon’s Dragon it seemed like he was going to win. However, Yuusei managed to turn the tables around by forcing Jack to use Stardust Dragon’s effect, Victim Sanctuary (You can Tribute this card to negate the activation of a Spell Card, Trap Card or Effect Monster's effect that destroys a card(s) on the field and destroy that card. If you negate an effect this way, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard during your End Phase.) and then activating a Trap Card that allowed him to gain the control over Stardust.
As the dragons faced each other, both Yuusei and Jack felt pain in their forearms; nevertheless, they continued dueling. Suddenly, another dragon appeared between the fighting ones, damaging a part of the Stadium in the process. In the meantime, the Momentum was going out of control and finally caused a blackout upon the dragon’s appearance. The dragon disappeared shortly after that. Much to his surprise, Yuusei discovered a glowing mark on his right forearm, as well as a similar one on Jack’s arm. However, before they could discuss the phenomenon, Security entered the Stadium and arrested Yuusei on the suspicion of unauthorized trespassing.
He was found guilty (not that he was given a chance to defend himself in the trial) and sentenced to one month of reeducation program in a detention center, followed by six months of community service, and then being sent back to Satellite. A criminal marker was engraved on his left cheek and his deck and D-Wheel were confiscated by the authorities. Finally, he was stripped of the right to livelihood within the jurisdiction of Neo Domino City.
While being transported to the detention center, Yuusei met a friendly old man, Yanagi Tanzen, whom he tried his best to ignore. It soon turned out they would be sharing a cell. Yanagi mentioned having seen the dragon above the Stadium and suggested he knew more about it, but Yuusei failed to get him to talk as the man started showing off with hid deck. They met Jin Himuro, an ex-Pro League duelist, whom they had to duel in order to determine their place in the hierarchy of the detention center. Obviously, Yuusei couldn’t duel due to the lack of his deck. Yanagi faced Himuro and lost. Enraged by Himuro calling the other man’s cards trash, Yuusei challenged him to a duel in which he would be using Yanagi’s deck. He managed to win and became friends with both Yanagi and Himuro.
Yuusei was then called to see the warden, Takasu, who was told to examine him in order to find dragon’s birthmark on his body. A team of researchers ran some "tests", which technically meant electrocuting Yuusei until he was barely conscious. Despite that, there was no trace of the birthmark. The guards dragged the teenager back to his cell, where Yanagi told him that he might be a Signer - a person with the power to summon the legendary Crimson Dragon.
Later, Rex Godwin himself came to the detention center to give a speech. After that he requested to have a talk with Yuusei. The later demanded to know what Rex wanted from him. Godwin explained he’s interested in Signers and made it clear that if something was to happen, he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice Satellite to protect Neo Domino City. He then left Yuusei both angry and confused about why there would be need to sacrifice any of the two.
Yuusei was then moved to a block for long-term prisoners, where he met his new cellmate, Aoyama, who tried to befriend him, but was utterly ignored. It turned out Himuro and Yanagi were also transferred to the said block. Aoyama revealed to Yuusei the escape route he had been working on for the past half a year. Yuusei agreed to flee with him, provided that Yanagi and Himuro could tag along. Before they could run away, however, Himuro was beaten up by Takasu for his "crimes" and the warden declared that the prisoners were to remain in their cells and not be able to see anyone, just like in isolated cells. Yuusei argued that Himuro hadn’t done anything wrong as he’s a real duelist. Takasu challenged him to a duel, knowing he didn’t have his deck. Nevertheless, Yuusei accepted the challenge and refused to leave the detention center without his friends as Aoyama suggested. Every prisoner gave Yuusei their most treasured card they had managed to bring with themselves, thus creating a brand new deck.
Yuusei faced the warden in a duel. Their Duel Disks were supposed to be connected to electric current so that the duelists would receive an electric shock whenever they took damage in the battle. However, only Yuusei’s one was plugged in. Aoyama managed to change it by hacking the prison’s system and causing a short power cut, during which Yuusei hid one of his cards in his sleeve, making sure it couldn’t be seen via the CCTV cameras. Thanks to that, he won the duel. Takasu didn’t intend to keep his promise, but was forced to do so by Godwin, who had been watching the duel from the start.
Yuusei was released and he immediately went to see a man called Saiga that Himuro had told him about. Unknowingly to him, he was being tailed the whole time by Security agents. However, Saiga succeeded in riding off with Yuusei on his D-Wheel and jamming the signal coming from Yuusei’s marker in order to make it impossible for Security to couldn’t find them at his place. While there, Saiga worked on a plan for Yuusei to get into Security’s storage warehouse in order to retrieve his deck and D-Wheel, though he couldn’t understand why he would risk going back to the detention center only to get back what he called "bonds with friends". Yuusei sneaked into the warehouse, only to face Ushio, who forced him into yet another Riding Duel. In the meantime, all exits of the building were sealed, so that Yuusei couldn’t escape. Suddenly, Saiga appeared and guided him to the exit, so he could flee after winning the duel. However, the Security was waiting for him at the exit and they beat him with truncheons. Nevertheless, Yuusei made it to the entrance of the Tops area, where he collapsed. He was found by two children, Rua and Ruka, who took him to their apartment.
After waking up, Yuusei intended to leave as soon as possible, which Ruka, the younger of the twins, didn’t oppose to. Being much more excited with their mysterious guest, Rua explained to him that he wanted to enter a Kaiba Corporation tournament, Duel of Fortune Cup, disguised as his sister. As Yuusei expressed his disinterest in the subject, Rua decided to challenge him to a duel. He tried to ignore the kid at first, but having noticed how similar he was to Rally, he agreed to play with him. While Rua was certainly an enthusiastic duelist, he lacked experience and strategy, and thus was easily beaten by Yuusei, who then attempted to leave, but was stopped by Rua begging him to stay over for another night. When the twins fell asleep, Yuusei worked to customize their Duel Disks, so that they would fit the kids’ small arms. Having done that, he left without waking them up.
Upon leaving the Tops area, he met Ushio, who had been waiting for him the whole time. As he was about to attempt to escape, Jaeger arrived, introducing himself as the Chief of Public Security Maintenance Bureau’s Special Investigations Section. He handed a letter of invitation to Fortune Cup to Yuusei, as well as a photo of Rally and the rest of his Satellite friends, telling him that if he refused to participate in the tournament, they would suffer the consequences.
Saiga contacted Yuusei and provided him with a place to live - namely, a garage. He also offered his help in checking on Rally and others back in Satellite. Soon, Yuusei was visited by Yanagi and Himuro. The latter one wanted to duel him, but their plans were interrupted by Jack’s arrival. He gave Yuusei his Stardust Dragon back, saying he would need it in the Fortune Cup. Yuusei asked Jack if he had sold their friends to the Security, but Jack didn’t know anything about the blackmail. When Jack left, Yuusei and others went to the Daimon area, a place where people with criminal markers gathered and held duels. While there, they met Rua and his friend Tempei, who wanted to find and duel the legendary Black Rose Witch. When the witch appeared, Yuusei’s birthmark began to glow again and the witch made it clear she knew something about what she called "the wretched mark". Yuusei suspected she might even have one on herself, but she left before he could confirm that.
During the Duel of Fortune Cup opening ceremony, eight duelists chosen for it were introduced, Yuusei and Rua (disguised as Ruka) among them. The audience disliked Yuusei because of his criminal marker, but a man named Bommer made a speech, stating they were all chosen thanks to their abilities, so no one should be discriminated. In the first match, Rua faced Bommer and lost. Later, a girl named Aki Izayoi dueled Jill de Launcebeaux, revealing that she was the Black Rose Witch and winning the match. Yuusei then was supposed to face a mysterious duelist called Shira in a Riding Duel. He ended up dueling Mukuro Enjo, who forcibly replaced Shira before the match, but Yuusei won nonetheless. After that, a consolation match between Ruka (not Rua for once) and Professor Frank was held. It ended with a draw, and the match-ups for the next day were announced - Yuusei was supposed to duel Bommer in the next round. In order to help Yuusei win, Rua went to Bommer’s garage to see what kind of D-Wheel he had. However, he got locked up there and fell asleep. While Yuusei and Ruka were searching all over the City for him, Saiga contacted them and announced that he hadn’t found Rally and others. After that, Bommer brought sleeping Rua to them, and they all went back to the twins’ apartment. At night, Bommer and Yuusei discussed each other’s reasons for participating in the tournament, revealing they were both fighting for their hometowns.
On the next day, the two dueled and Yuusei managed to win. However, Bommer’s true goal turned out to be killing Godwin, who had used Bommer’s hometown as an experimental area for reviving the Crimson Dragon, causing the whole village to be raved to the ground. Yuusei stopped Bommer from assassinating Security’s Chief, telling him that revenge would only beget revenge. Later, in the final round of the tournament, Yuusei fought Aki, trying his best to understand her feelings and open her heart. Although he defeated her, he wasn’t able to help her accept who she was as she was taken by her mentor, Divine, who was also the boss of the Arcadia Movement, an organization assembling psychic duelists.
Finally, Yuusei was able to face Jack again. During their Riding Duel, the Crimson Dragon once again appeared in the sky, showing them, Ruka and Aki a vision of People of the Stars, as well as a future in which Satellite was to be destroyed by a geoglyph shaped like a spider. Yuusei and Jack carried on dueling there until Yuusei won, causing them to come back to the stadium. As the damage in their duel was real, Jack got injured and was taken to the hospital, while Yuusei was announced to have become the New King. He then had to run away from the journalists and stayed with his friends at Saiga’s place. While there, Yanagi explained to them that there were five Signers with Dragon birthmarks - so far, they knew about Yuusei (Tail), Jack (Wings), Aki (Front Claw), Ruka (Back Claw). Looking at the picture of Crimson Dragon, Ruka passed out, so they all decided to rest.
At night, Yuusei’s birthmark started glowing and he saw someone with a birthmark outside the building. Thinking it’s the last Signer, he followed that person to a car park, where they dueled. To Yuusei’s surprise, the damage in that duel was real. As the mysterious man explained, it was a Duel of Darkness. He also called himself "Dark Signer", revealing that his birthmark is shaped like spider, just like the geoglyph Yuusei had seen in his vision. The man was using cards Yuusei had never heard of before, such as Dark Tuner Monsters and Dark Synchro Monsters, which had negative level. Nevertheless, Yuusei won the duel. A reporter named Carly Nagisa, who had observed the fight, recognized the man to be Dick Pitt, a street duelist. When she asked him about that, it turned out he didn’t remember anything that had happened. Leaving them to deal with the Security, Yuusei went back to Saiga’s place.
Later, Ushio arrived and took Yuusei to meet Rex Godwin, who explained to him that Dark Signers are Signers’ archenemies who aim to destroy the world with the powers of Earthbound Gods that had been defeated by the Crimson Dragon 5,000 years before. Though Yuusei wasn’t willing to cooperate with Godwin at first, Rex telling him the Dark Signers’ first goal would be destroying Satellite convinced him to agree to fight them. He was then taken to Satellite, where he was greeted by Crow. The friends went to Yuusei’s hideout, where they met Rally and others. However, they had to face Security officers, who were after Crow, in a tag duel. Afterwards, they headed towards Crow’s hideout, where he was staying with the kids he was taking care of. In the evening, Crow told them a story of the legendary D-Wheeler, who had once lived in Satellite. He had began building a bridge by himself and soon other people had joined him. However, the Security had forbidden the Satellite residents to complete the construction and tried to arrest the man who had started it. The man had jumped from the bridge on his D-Wheel and had never been seen again. After that, the bridge had been named Daedalus Bridge. The following night Yuusei tried to leave the hideout without waking up anyone, but Crow knew him too well and was already waiting for him. Though Yuusei didn’t want to drag his friend into the fight against the Dark Signers, Crow demanded to go with him, as he knew the Barbaric Area After Damage better than Yuusei. Finally, Yuusei agreed to take him along.
While heading to the Old Momentum through B.A.D., they were stopped by a mysterious D-Wheeler, who soon revealed himself to be no one else but Kyousuke Kiryuu himself. Not paying much attention to their shock to see him alive, Kiryuu immediately challenged Yuusei to a Duel of Darkness. Upon his challenge, one of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs made of purple flames appeared on both ground and in the sky. Yuusei had no choice but to accept the duel, even though he didn’t feel comfortable facing his former friend. During the duel, Yuusei noticed that both Kiryuu’s deck and strategy had changed completely since the time they had been hanging out together - most notable being his hand-at-zero Handless Combo, which caused Yuusei a lot of trouble until he managed to summon Stardust Dragon. When it seemed that Yuusei was about to win, Kiryuu sacrificed the souls of Satellite’s residents in order to summon his ace card, Earthbound God Ccapac Apu, which could attack the opposing player directly and was not affected by either Spell or Trap Cards, making it impossible for Yuusei to protect himself from the attack. However, his D-Wheel broke down, causing Yuusei to fall down from it, which ironically saved him from being crushed by Ccapac Apu. Kiryuu left while Rally and others ran to Yuusei to check if he was injured. It turned out he had a big scrap of metal stabbed in his lower stomach. Crow immediately took him to Martha’s place on his D-Wheel while in the meantime Rally, Nerve, Blitz and Taka took care of Yuusei’s one. In the orphanage Dr. Schmitt and Martha operated Yuusei and managed to save his life. When he came back to his senses, Martha criticized him for having fought alone and forced him stay in the house until his wounds were fully healed.
After getting better, Yuusei fixed his D-Wheel, but still felt uncertain about dueling again due to his nightmares and fear of the Earthbound Gods and Dark Signers. Thus, when Hideo Izayoi, Aki’s father, arrived at Satellite to ask Yuusei for help in waking Aki up from coma after her Duel of Darkness with a female Dark Signer named Misty Lola, he wasn’t sure whether he could do anything, but Martha convinced him to go. In the hospital, Aki woke up and immediately challenged Yuusei to a duel, upset by Divine’s assumed death after his duel with (now changed into a Dark Signer) Carly. In spite of how troublesome and painful the psychic duel was, Yuusei won and convinced Aki he was her friend and that she should give her parents one more chance.
With all the Signers (Yuusei, Jack, Aki and Ruka) gathered together, Godwin invited them to his mansion to explain to them the details of the upcoming battle against the Dark Signers. He showed them the Sanctuary, where People of the Stars prayed to the Star Dragon God, who came to them from the sky in the form of the Crimson Dragon. Though Godwin tried to avoid the subject, Yuusei and Jack demanded to know who the Dark Signers really were. It was revealed to them the Dark Signers were the souls of people that no longer belonged to that world - in other words, they were dead. It shocked Yuusei, who started blaming himself for Kiryuu’s death and thus was unable to face the Dark Signers. Jack made him get a hold of himself by beating him and telling that to him, Yuusei was the one who had died. Disagreeing with that, Yuusei gained the courage needed to fight his former friend.
In the meantime, strange black mist appeared above Satellite, causing most of its residents to disappear. Before the Signers set off to the island, Yuusei demanded that Godwin promised him he would use his influence to finish the Daedalus Bridge and connect Satellite to the City. Though reluctant to do so, Rex finally agreed. Ushio was chosen to escort the Signers to Satellite. While traveling there, Mikage explained to everyone who Yuusei’s father was. Finally, they reached the orphanage, where they were greeted by Martha and kids. While they were staying there, a man with a Spider birthmark appeared in front of them and Yuusei accepted his challenge. During their duel, the man, Rudger revealed that 17 years earlier he, his brother Rex Godwin and Dr. Fudou had been working together. He also suggested the Zero Reverse incident might not have been an accident. Summoning his Earthbound God, Uru, he sacrificed Martha’s soul in the process. When Yuusei summoned Stardust Dragon, Rudger forced Rally to fight in his place. Having to choose between his life and Yuusei’s one, the boy decided to die for his friend’s sake. Enraged by the loss of people close to him, Yuusei demanded to fight Rudger again, but he and the other Dark Signers were gone.
Afterwards, Mikage explained to the Signers the goal of their mission - placing the seals (namely, the Signer Dragon cards) inside four control towers that secured the Old Momentum. The towers symbolized Earthbound Gods: Ccapac Apu (the Astronaut), Aslla Piscu (the Hummingbird), Cusillu (the Monkey) and Ccarayhua (the Lizard), which were guarded by Kiryuu, Carly, Demak and Misty respectively. Yuusei of course chose to go to the Astronaut tower. While on his way there, he decided to check on Ruka and Rua, who went to confront Demak. Meanwhile, Ruka moved to the world of Duel Monsters spirits. Due to a misunderstanding, Rua got himself into a duel against Demak. Unable to stop the fight, Yuusei could only watch his friend’s struggle. At some point, though, Ruka returned, took over the duel and won. They headed to the Astronaut tower, but changed their plans upon seeing Killer Whale geoglyph that had appeared in the sky. Yuusei went inside the goeglyph and found out Crow and Bommer (who had become a Dark Signer) were dueling there. Despite his attempts to make them stop, they carried on until Bommer lost and turned into dust, telling Yuusei to defeat the Dark Signers.
Finally, Yuusei arrived at the Astronaut control tower, where Kiryuu was waiting for him. They began another Riding Duel, this time with the auto pilots switched off. In a few rounds Kiryuu managed to summon his Earthbound God Ccapac Apu. Determined to face his fears, as well as Kiryuu’s, Yuusei explained to his friend that he wasn’t fighting to defeat him, but to save him. His willpower gathered all birthmarks of other Signers on his back and he managed to summon Saviour Star Dragon, which destroyed Ccapac Apu. While he was holding Kiryuu, the other told him he had already lost and confessed he couldn’t hate Yuusei at all. Having said that, he turned into dust in Yuusei’s arms.
After that, Rudger possessed Ushio once again and told Yuusei to come to the Old Momentum to fight him. Yuusei and others went there and he faced Rudger in a duel on a bridge above the reactivated Momentum. Having successfully summoned his Earthbound God, Uru, Rudger told Yuusei the story of his father: Dr. Fudou had been a leading quantum physics researcher, who had discovered the Yuusei Ryuushi - "Planetary Particle", which connects particles to one another. Therefore, he had named his son after that discovery, wishing for him to become a person that would connect people. However, when he had tried to stop the further development of Momentum project, he had been withdrawn from it and shot while trying to escape with the Momentum’s seals - namely, Stardust, Red Demon’s and Black Rose Dragons - which he entrusted to Rex Godwin. Then he had managed to put his infant son in an escape capsule, making sure he would survive the upcoming explosion caused by Rudger.
Having listened to the truth behind the Zero Reverse incident, Yuusei was enraged and asked how long Rudger planned on playing a god by toying people’s lives like that. He continued by telling how Jack’s parents, as well as Crow’s, were killed in that incident. He couldn’t stand the thought that it was his father’s creation that had caused so much sorrow in the lives of people he cared for - and yet, Jack, Crow and others considered him, the son of Momentum’s creator, a friend. With tears in his eyes, he asked how he was supposed to make up for the loss of possibility to live with their parents happily. Crow answers him by assuring he had never considered Yuusei’s father to be responsible for the incident, so there was no need for him to feel guilty, as to him Yuusei was an irreplaceable friend. Yuusei understood that and promised to win the duel, which he did a few minutes later. However, Rudger didn’t intend to admit his defeat and said that if the seals weren’t set before the sunset, the King of Underworld would be awaken. He then blew up the bridge, causing Yuusei to fall into the Old Momentum.
When Yuusei woke up he found himself surrounded by ghosts that attempted to pull him into the ground. Upon being touched by them he saw their memories and realized those were spirits of people who had died in the Zero Reverse incident. They seemed to blame him for it and tried to take him to the underworld. They were stopped in time by a mysterious voice that stated Yuusei’s innocent and claimed it was too soon for him to be there. Yuusei recognized his father, who apologized for having burdened his son with such destiny on his shoulders and told him to go back. Yuusei tried to chase after his father, but woke up outside of the Momentum. After apologizing to his friends for making them worry, the group left to set the last two seals before the sunset.
They soon reached a run-down amusement park, in which the last battle - Aki vs. Misty - was taking place. While looking for them, Yuusei nearly got crashed by a falling part of a building, but he was warned in time by a man who introduced himself as Security agent sent to Satellite by Godwin. He guided Yuusei to a building, in which he found unconscious Mikage. The man revealed himself to be a Psychic Duelist when he suddenly attacked Yuusei with his cards, throwing him into a cell together with Mikage. The water began to flood the room and the man left the two to drown. However, Ushio came along and save them. After that, Yuusei went to watch the duel and noticed Divine nearby. Realizing it was him who tried to kill them, he faced him and tricked him into confessing he was the one who had killed Misty’s little brother, Toby. Unknowingly to Divine, Yuusei had turned on a hidden microphone in his Duel Disk, making it possible for all other duelist to listen to his confession via Duelist Network. As Misty heard what really had happened to her brother, she had her Earthbound God Ccarayhua swallow him. She didn’t want to fight with Aki anymore, but was forced to do so by her God. Despite having won the duel, Aki didn’t manage to set the last seal in the Lizard control tower in time before the sunset.
The Condor geoglyph appeared in the sky above the City and the King of Underworld was revived inside the Old Momentum. It started heading towards the Nazca line and Ruka heard Duel Monsters spirits telling her they could not allow for it to reach it; failing to do so would mean the end of the world. The Crimson Dragon was summoned by Signers’ birthmarks and it took them to Rex Godwin’s residence, where an enormous pyramid - the Sky Temple - appeared. As Godwin himself faced them, he revealed he’s a Dark Signer with Condor birthmark and explained he intended to become an ultimate God by using the power of both Earthbound Gods and Crimson Dragon. In order to achieve his goal, he attached his brother’s arm to himself, thus gaining Rudger’s Dragon’s Head birthmark. Rex then challenged the Signers to a Riding Duel as a ritual to become a God who would destroy the world and create it anew. Yuusei, Jack and Crow (in spite of not being a Signer) accepted the challenge.
The duel was played with irregular duel rules - meaning that Yuusei, Jack and Crow had 4,000 LP each while Godwin had 12,000. The Dark Signer quickly gained the upper hand by summoning Synchro Monster, Sun Dragon Inti, Dark Synchro Monster, Moon Dragon Quilla, as well as his Earthbound God, Wiraqocha Rasca. Thanks to his God’s Monster Effect, Godwin decreased both Crow’s and Jack’s LP down to 1 quickly, causing their D-Wheels to break and thus eliminating them from the game. Despite his LP being brought down to 1 as well, Yuusei kept on playing while trying to make Godwin realize he was mistaken about the reasons for his actions, including escaping from Satellite and becoming the legendary D-Wheeler, as they had just learned he was the one. The Tail Birthmark on his arm changed to Head Birthmark and the Tail moved to Crow. Once again gathering all birthmarks on his back, Yuusei summoned Saviour Star Dragon, which defeated Wiraqocha Rasca and enabled Crimson Dragon to materialize and strike at the King of Underworld.
For a moment, Yuusei found himself in an entirely different place, where he saw all the previously defeated Dark Signers. As Rudger and Rex, both back to their human selves, explained, they were to be revived soon. They, however, chose to stay on the other side, despite Yuusei’s attempts to stop them. At that moment, the King of Underworld was destroyed and the Condor geoglyph disappeared along with the Sky Temple.
Some time later, the City was rebuild, and Satellite was being reconstructed as well. The memories of the citizens were altered so they wouldn’t remember the incident - that including Dark Signers such as Carly. Yuusei, Jack and Crow completed their goal - Satellite finally became connected to Neo Domino City via the completed Daedalus Bridge.
Are you still with me? Good, we’re halfway through! ... Just kidding. But since I do, in fact, care for the sanity of the readers and will therefore make an attempt to be less detailed on the summarized events, as most of them happen to be filler episodes that have no meaning to the plot whatsoever. AHEM. Moving on~
Half a year later, when the City and Satellite had been already connected with a system of roads and bridges, a new threat appeared. While Yuusei, Jack and Crow were attempting to upgrade their D-Wheels in order to take part in the upcoming WRGP (World Riding Gran Prix), Ushio asked them to help the Security work on the case of a mysterious D-Wheeler called "Ghost", who had caused a series of accidents. Upon being turned down by Crow, Ushio tried to fight Ghost alone and lost. The three decided to find the culprit and bring him down. Soon Ghost appeared and challenged Yuusei. It turned out he was in possession of a powerful monster named Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity, which had an ability to absorb Synchro Monsters, making Yuusei’s strategy, as well as ace cards, useless. He did manage to win, though, thanks to his Savior Star Dragon and enormous amount of luck. After the duel, they found out that Ghost was actually a robot created by Security and stolen from them.
Soon after that, Yuusei was kidnapped by a group of people who wanted him to join their team for WRGP. Having been rescued by Aki, he was then challenged to a duel by an unknown D-Wheeler, who turned out to be a woman named Sherry LeBlanc. She told them about a mysterious group called Yliaster that had killed her parents and she was going to participate in WRGP in order to get her revenge. Her story made Yuusei wonder what his own reasons for entering the tournament were. Sherry asked him to consider joining her team and left, even though the result of their duel hadn’t been determined yet.
Despite having defeated Ghost, Yuusei still felt troubled by the experience of facing a Syncho Killer monster. Therefore, he tried dueling Jack without using Syncho Monsters, but the result wasn’t determined. Soon after that, the group participated in WRGP Premium Event, during which they met Team Unicorn. After the party, Yuusei was challenged to a duel by a mysterious man (referred to as “Dark Glass”), who claimed that he couldn’t defeat Ghost unless he learnt to surpass his own limits. Therefore, he showed him Accel Synchro, but didn’t fully explain how to obtain it, so Yuusei was left to wonder if he can find out the secret behind Accel Synchro by himself.
When a transfer student named Luciano attacked Rua and Ruka, revealing himself to be a member of Yliaster controlling another Machine Emperor - Skiel Infinity, Yuusei and other Signers went after them, which resulted in an unintentional, but very fortunate summoning of the Crimson Dragon that saved Rua’s life. The fact they were once again targeted by a Synchro Killer only reassured Yuusei he needed to find a way to gain the ability to use Accel Synchro.
Some time later, Ushio and Mikage asked Yuusei, Jack and Crow to take care of a man who had lost his memory, Bruno. Though resultant to take him in at first, Yuusei quickly grew a little too attached to him in a very lovey-dovey way befriended him, as Bruno turned out to be way too perfect for it to be normal a genius mechanic, hacker and duelist. The two wrote a program for D-Wheel engines, but it was stolen by Jaeger. The group followed Security’s vice-director to a shopping center and later to a supposedly abandoned factory in the suburbs, where Placido was creating an army of Ghosts. Yuusei and Jaeger got locked up there and Yuusei was forced to duel a Duel Robot in order to escape the upcoming explosion. They ran away after his victory, and while Jaeger still refused to reveal whom he was working for, he warned Yuusei those people were not ones to be messed with.
One night, Security entered the group’s garage and arrested Jack on suspicion of causing a number of crashes, as the witnesses claimed to have seen his Wheel of Fortune. Jack escaped the detention center in an attempt to catch the real culprit. He faced his impostor in a duel and lost, causing Crow and Yuusei to believe he’d died. When they went after the false Jack, however, the real one came back just in time to kick his impostor’s ass, which allowed them to discover it was actually a robot.
After that incident, Yuusei received a calling card letter, in which he was asked to come to Crash Town and save Kiryuu. Thus, he went there and learnt about the war between Ramon’s and Malcolm’s gangs that was taking place there from Barbara, who had sent him the letter. The members of opposing gangs were facing each other in a one-on-one duel that began with the sunset. The loser would be captured and taken to the nearby mine, where they would be forced to work for the rest of their miserable lives. As Kiryuu was dueling for Ramon’s group, he was risking his life and freedom, which Yuusei didn’t want him to lose. He joined Malcolm’s group by defeating three its members in a single turn in order to duel his friend. Unfortunately, Kiryuu, who’d gone pretty emo due to what’d happened while he was a Dark Signer, wasn’t about to listen to what Yuusei had to say. Instead, he wanted Yuusei to defeat him - which he did, since he and Barbara had a plan to save Kiryuu from being taken to the mine.
Except Barbara had never planned to cooperate in the first place. Oops. Also, she was Malcolm’s girlfriend. Double oops. Also, Malcolm’s little brother, Lotten, came to the town and beat the crap out of Ramon in the very first turn of their duel. Triple oops.
Due to Yuusei being a horrible judge of character, he, Kiryuu and Ramon ended up being sent to the mine. Though Yuusei easily got rid of the collar that was supposed to keep the prisoners in line (with electric torture, because apparently you can never get tired of watching the characters on this show being electrocuted), Kiryuu refused to run away. Mostly because he considered himself to be some sort of atoner. That, however, did not convince Yuusei to leave his friend behind, so he used force and carried unconscious Kiryuu outside. No, the latter wasn’t happy with that, but that’s beside the point. Two kids who looked up to Kiryuu while he’d been in Crash Town, West and Nico, came to help them, bringing Yuusei’s D-Wheel along. Unfortunately, Lotten had followed them and dueled Yuusei during the chase. Instead of simply playing until the winner was declared, though, he just threw some freakin’ dynamite at them.
Sadly, the application does not end here. No, because despite having been dangerously close to the source of explosion, being thrown a few dozens of feet up in the air, and then falling down the canyon while bouncing into its walls several times, Yuusei and Kiryuu not only managed to survive, but also stood up after a few minutes, ready to kick ass and take names. But we’ll get on to that.
Anyway, much to everyone’s surprise, they got back to Crash Town/Barbara Town/Lotten Town (it sure changes names fast) and challenged Lotten to a duel. Which they had a chance to win, but Barbara commanded her gang to take them down by force (pretty smart of her). However, they were stopped by the very dramatic entrance of Crow and Jack, resulting with a temporary revival of Team Satisfaction. Having defeated Lotten, Kiryuu decided to stay in the Satisfaction Town (told you it changes names fast) to bring it back to its former glory.
Back in Neo Domino, Yuusei and Bruno went to the Security HQ to see whether Ushio and Mikage had found out anything that would help Bruno regain his memories. While there, they got stuck in the building after the building was sealed off by Sherry and her bulter, Mizoguchi. The latter dueled Yuusei, who, not surprisingly, won. Meanwhile, Bruno followed Sherry, turned out to be a robot of sorts and helped Sherry analyze the card she’d brought with her, Z-ONE. Which caused an explosion that brought them and Yuusei into… another dimension of sorts, where they faced a robot shrimp magatama-shaped machine. Upon seeing a human-like figure in it, they all passed out. Later, they woke up on a shore far away from the Security’s headquarters.
Prior to WRGP preliminaries, Crow got his hands on the Black Feather Dragon card, which turned out to be one of the Signer Dragons. Since it’s one big continuity error, I beg of you, don’t ask how’s that possible. Either way, the team consisting of Yuusei, Jack and Crow as the main duelists and Aki, Rua, Ruka and Bruno as their supporters was created under a name "5D’s", that meaning "5 Dragons" (from the Signers’ birthmarks). During the team’s training, Crow got into a crash with a member of Team Unicorn, Jack got into an argument with another one, and Yuusei ended up dueling the last one. Perhaps he would have won, but since the time of training had run out before he had a chance to declare the last attack. The teams were to face each other in the first round of WRGP, but unfortunately, Crow broke his arm. Of course it was an accident and not some other team trying to get rid of potential rivals-er, anyway, Aki, who had gotten a D-Wheeler license before, participated in the match against Team Unicorn in his place. Andore of Team Unicorn defeated both Jack and Aki fairly easily, leaving Yuusei alone to fight against three participants in a row.
Hold your breath.
He WON. Finally, being a Boring Invincible Hero pays off!
Team 5D’s even befriended Team Unicorn after that, promising to meet each other later in the tournament. Sadly, Team Unicorn was defeated by Team Catastrophe due to Andore and Jean’s crashes. Which were amazingly similar to Crow’s one. Just when they figured out Team Catastrophe was causing those, Aki fell a victim to their strategy, too. Crow decided to take part in the match despite his arm not being fully healed, which resulted in the victory of Team 5D’s after he and Jack defeated their respective opponents. At that point, one of the members of Yliaster, Placido, got really pissed off, so he sent an entire army of Ghosts to duel people on the highways in order to complete the Circuit. Whatever that is. A number of D-Wheelers, Yuusei, Jack and Sherry among them, set off to stop them. At one point, Placido went after Yuusei to crush him personally. However, Yuusei was saved by Dark Glass (though we now ooc-ly know his real identity is Bruno), who dueled Placido in his place. In the meantime, Yuusei saw a dragon (which pretty much everyone knows to be Shooting Star Dragon) inside, uh, the speed thanks to Clear Mind ability, which supposedly allows one to control Momentum with one’s heart. Yeah, I know it sounds odd. And doesn’t make sense. And then he just suddenly teleported to a crater outside the city, where a stone tablet with a picture of the said dragon had fallen from the sky just a moment earlier. Upon touching it, Yuusei was once again taken to where he, Bruno and Sherry had been transferred to before. He faced the same robot shrimp magatama-shaped machine and was given a new card (it’s not hard to figure it’s an Accel Synchro card) by the individual inside it. He tried to chase after him, but he was sent back to where he’d come from. With that, Yuusei took Bruno's place in the duel against Placido. In order to show how serious business the duel was, Placido combined with his D-Wheel.
... No, I mean it. He really did.
Anyway, Yuusei managed to protect his Stardust Dragon from Machine Emperor Wisel's effect for a few turns and made an attempt at using Accel Synchro, but failed due to the doubt in his heart. Stardust was absorbed by Wisel, only to be taken back after a while. Since he’d already calmed down by that time, Yuusei succeeded in Accel Synchro summoning his new monster, Shooting Star Dragon. He gathered all Signer birthmarks on his back (which, as always, looked totally cool but did absolutely nothing, aside maybe from letting the viewers know The Power of Friendship was at work) and activated Shooting Star’s effect, which allowed him to destroy three parts of Machine Emperor, thus defeating Placido, who was literally thorn in half afterwards even though 4Kids claims this show to be for children. At that moment, two other members of Yliaster, Luciano and Jose, appeared, revealing their plans of destroying Neo Domino City in order to set the history back to the right course. They were attacked by Sherry and Mizoguchi, but fought them off easily and told Team 5D’s to meet them in WRGP before disappearing. The WRGP itself was held off for the time of Security’s investigation on what had happened.
In the meantime, the writes decided Jack deserves to get a new power as well. Therefore, he and Yuusei went to Peru, where the latter did nothing of substance - unless you count shouting Jack’s name about 16 times in 3 episodes. Then Jack leveled up! Jack learned Burning Soul! And they went back. Afterwards the group ran into Jaeger and tried to catch him in order to find out more about the Yliaster and eventually succeeded thanks to ramen and Crow winning a duel against him. He revealed to them, albeit not without ramen’s help, that a company called Momentum Express had ties to Yliaster. Yuusei, Sherry and Bruno infiltrated the company, which led to them being sent to wormhole, a sort of “shortcut” in spacetime. Unfortunately, Sherry got stuck there (for nearly half a year) while Yuusei and Bruno witnessed “the Last Momentum”, as Dr. Fudou (yes, Yuusei was talking to his dead father again) called it. The two went back to their world and from that point on, a huge upside-down city was hovering over Neo Domino, though it was only visible to the Signers or other people blessed with sucky godly powers at that time.
Back to the WRGP! Well, not quite - before it resumed, Rua befriended members of Team Taiyou (one of which was Yuusei’s fanboy ohgod), who only had one D-Wheel in... questionable condition. Which is why Yuusei and Bruno helped to fix it and befriended them as well. And if you haven’t guessed they turned out to be Team 5D’s next opponents, I will be sad. Regardless, after a surprisingly tough struggle and residents of Neo Domino City proving to be a bunch of douchebags, 5D’s emerged victious once again.
Yuusei, Jack and Crow met their semi-finals opponents - team Ragnarok, who all had Rune Eyes and Polar Star God cards. Their goal was to defeat the Yliaster, but they refused to cooperate with 5D’s as they considered Dr. Fudou responsible for causing Zero Reverse and therefore concluded in their flawless logic Yuusei must bring destruction wherever he goes. Sounds legit. Also, Dragan had a grudge against Jack, but that’s a different story. Long story short, the Signers defeated Team Ragnarok, albeit not without difficulties. The Rune Eye duelists decided Yuusei was not a threat to the world after all and left the future in his hands.
And so, the finals of the WRGP arrived. Team 5D’s faced Team New World - the Three Emperors of Yliaster. After Jack defeated Luciano and Placido, it turned out to have been a trap, thanks to which Jose easily beat Jack and Crow. While dueling Yuusei, he showed the Signers the future in which people close to the Emperors were killed by giant robots that came from space. All because of Syncho Summon, apparently. Oh, and Jose, Luciano and Placido fused into one, revealing their true identity as Aporia, one of the last human beings that survived the robots’ attack. After his death (in the future), he was brought back to life as a robot by our good old pal - giant mechanical shrimp ZONE. When the duel reached its dramatic climax, the combined power of Yuusei, Crow and Jack’s dragons, friendship and hope made Aporia go KABOOM and brought peace and happiness to the world. And they lived happily ever after. Right?
Wrong. It Got Worse.
Upon 5D’s victory, the Circuit was completed and the citadel of god (aka city in the sky), Ark Cradle, was called forth. Also it sucked the entire Momentum energy from the city. Also it was falling. Thankfully, the Signres’ birthmarks and Ragnarok’s Rune Eyes turned out to be perfect alternate sources of energy, allowing them to use their D-Wheels. That’s when Sherry contacted them, saying she’s seen the future in which Yuusei died after heading to Ark Cradle. Despite the warning, and maybe because they only had 12 hours to save the world and their lives, Team 5D’s went to Ark Cradle. How they got there, you ask? They rode on rainbow bridge. Yup. Upon getting inside (or falling inside, to be precise), they got split in small groups in which they went to stop the Yuusei Gears around Ark Cradle’s Momentum. Crow and Aki succeeded in doing so by defeating Sherry in Battle Royal Mode duel, while Rua, Ruka and Jack faced repaired Aporia in a irregular tag duel, during which Rua became the sixth ranger, pardon, Signer. Meanwhile, Yuusei and The Mysterious Sunglasses Guy also known to general public as Bruno reached the last Yuusei Gear, where the latter one regained his memories after looking into flashing lights (don’t do that at home, kids, it may lead to epilepsy attack). He revealed his true identity to out hero, introducing himself as Antinomy, Zone’s accomplice. Also he broke his heart by telling him his memory was erased only so that he can pretend to be the Signers’ friend better and use their power to call forth Ark Cradle and, now that his goal was achieved, he didn’t need Yuusei anymore and therefore challenged him to a duel.
And because Porter’s a bitch, that’s when she pulled Yuusei into the City.
NAME: Lycoris
AGE: 18
JOURNAL: glossological
IM: vertigo monologue [AIM]
E-MAIL: lycoris@gazeta.pl
RETURNING: n/a
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Fudou Yuusei
FANDOM: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s (anime)
CHRONOLOGY: End of episode 143.
CLASS: Hero to the core, he’s a kind of The Messiah character, so. Yeah. All heroic and stuff.
SUPERHERO NAME: Satellite’s Shooting Star
ALTER EGO: Fudou Yuusei; mechanic.
BACKGROUND:
Card games on motorcycles.
That’s the easiest and probably most common description of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s universe and while it may seem fitting, there's more to it than meets the eye. But allow me to elaborate.
5D’s takes place about thirty (estimate) years after the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters series. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, where once happy Domino City has been divided into Neo Domino City for rich and respected citizens and Satellite filled with outcasts of society. Neo Domino City also happens to be one of the most technologically advanced places in Japan, if not the whole world, mostly thanks to the Momentum technology, based on epicyclic gearing, which is now widely used in vehicles and other mechanical devices.
"Hold on," you say, "what about those 'card games' I keep hearing about?" See, the first series of Yu-Gi-Oh! introduced a trading card game of a name "Duel Monsters". Ever since that time, the game has been gaining amazing popularity, to the point an academy devoted to teaching children play it was created. In 5D’s timeline, you’d have a hard time finding someone who doesn’t play it, and I don’t think there’s a single person in the world who hasn’t at least heard of it. In fact, a new way of playing has been invented - namely, Riding Duels, played on… D-Wheels, machines similar to motorcycles. It’s even become a sort of sport discipline by now. Actually, any sort of conflict, be it a family argument or battle for the world’s survival, can be resolved by having a duel with those cards.
Well then, prepare to be guided through a story of urban segregation, everlasting friendship, battle between good and evil, and perhaps card games. On motorcycles.
Riding Duel, Acceleration!
Yuusei was born in Tops, the most luxurious residential area of Neo Domino City. His parents were leading developers of Kaiba Corporation’s Momentum Investigation and Development Section (M.I.D.S.), working on Momentum - a kind of energy generation system based on Solid Vision System (a technology used in Duel Disks to project the holograms of cards played in duels). However, seventeen years prior to the beginning of the series, an accident occurred - the reactor went out of control, causing an enormous explosion, in which thousands of people lost their lives - Yuusei’s parents included. The West Domino, where the Momentum was located, was thorn off the land and became an island, later called Satellite. The truth about the accident - named Zero Reverse incident - was not to leak into public. Therefore, M.I.D.S. used all its power to cover it, stating the cause was a natural disaster. The City was rebuild, and a new Momentum was constructed to power it. Satellite, however, remained as it was - a run-down ruin connected to Neo Domino City via a pipeline. From that point on, Satellite was considered the City’s junkyard - all the trash from the City was sent there to be recycled or burned. People from Satellite were forbidden into the City, as they were considered to be worthless scum.
Shortly after his parents’ death, Yuusei was sent to an orphanage in Satellite, where he was raised along with some other kids by their foster mother, Martha. As he grew up he taught himself many skills that he needed in order to cope with the tough life in Satellite such as reading, spelling, writing, grammar, mathematics, computer skills, electrical and mechanical engineering, hand-to-hand combat, motorcycle riding, and of course dueling. He made two very close friends - close enough to call them brothers - namely, Jack Atlus and Crow Hogan, whom he was always hanging out with. Back then there were many Dueling Gangs on the streets of Satellite, fighting to seize control over the island. On one day, the friends met Kyousuke Kiryuu, who asked them to form a gang with him. That’s how Team Satisfaction came to exist. The reason behind the name? Its members believed they would never be able to leave Satellite, so they could as well take of their lives there as much as possible. They began dueling other gangs and soon became one of the most powerful teams around. Finally, the day of fighting one last team arrived. Team Satisfaction easily defeated most of the opponents. When Yuusei challenged their leader, however, he was thrown off the roof by him. Kiryuu managed to save him from falling to what would be a certain death. Thus, they managed to win the whole Satellite for themselves.
For Kiryuu, however, it was just the beginning. He started forcing weaker gangs to duels and ended up assaulting the defeated opponents. Crow got into an argument over it with him and left the team, Jack following him soon. Yuusei, on the other hand, chose to stay by Kiryuu’s side. When the latter decided to start a war against the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, Yuusei realized it wasn’t the friend he had known and left him to his own devices. Soon after that, Kiryuu killed an officer of Security who was attempting to place him under arrest. Yuusei got into a fight with the former leader of their team, but they were interfered by the Security. Yuusei was trying to convince them he was the leader of the gang and thus take the blame on himself, but failed to do so. Kiryuu misinterpreted what he saw and thought Yuusei had betrayed him and sold him to the Security. Yuusei didn’t manage to explain that to him before he got taken away. After that incident, the former members of Team Satisfaction tried to visit Kiryuu in prison, but they were never allowed to see him and eventually were told he had already died.
Later on, Yuusei found new friends: Taka, Nerve, Blitz and Rally Dawson. After he succeeded in getting a TV signal by hacking it, they were all fascinated by the Riding Duel they saw. Yuusei managed to build a D-Wheel using the scrap parts he and his friends had gathered. At some point, Rally disappeared. Jack contacted Yuusei, saying he knew where the boy is. It turned out Jack had kidnapped him and put him in a boat. He gave Yuusei a choice - he could either duel him to prove he’s a better duelist or save his friend. Yuusei obviously jumped into the sea and rescued Rally, while Jack stole his D-Wheel, as well as his ace card, Stardust Dragon.
Two years later, Yuusei managed to build another D-Wheel with the help of his friends. In order to complete it, Rally stole a CPU from a factory and was followed by the Security to an abandoned subway station where they lived. Yuusei hacked Security’s system to block the signal coming from Rally’s criminal marker and took off on his D-Wheel as a bait, so that his friends could run away. He then challenged the Security that went after him, Tetsu Ushio, to a Riding Duel, which Yuusei won and thus was allowed to get away with Rally’s theft.
Yuusei was then challenged to a duel by a man called Uryu with his D-Wheel at stake. He accepted it because the other offended his dreams and won. Yuusei then revealed he was planning on escaping Satellite via a pipeline connecting the island to the City. It could only be done during the three minutes long maintenance, in which there would be no trash inside. Yuusei got into the pipeline, but was followed by Ushio, who forced him into a duel with his special Pursuit Deck. Unable to escape, Yuusei dueled him and managed to win in three minutes. When the time ran out, the trash started flowing again, but Yuusei reached the exit just before it was closed. Upon entering the City, he faced Jack, who had been waiting for him there. Jack gave him Stardust Dragon back, but Yuusei refused to accept it, saying he would get it back in a duel. The two headed to the Stadium and another Riding Duel began. Unknowingly to them, it was observed by Rex Godwin, the Chief of the Public Security Maintenance Bureau, as well as his assistants - Mikage Sagiri and Jaeger.
When Jack succeeded in summoning both Stardust Dragon and Red Demon’s Dragon it seemed like he was going to win. However, Yuusei managed to turn the tables around by forcing Jack to use Stardust Dragon’s effect, Victim Sanctuary (You can Tribute this card to negate the activation of a Spell Card, Trap Card or Effect Monster's effect that destroys a card(s) on the field and destroy that card. If you negate an effect this way, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard during your End Phase.) and then activating a Trap Card that allowed him to gain the control over Stardust.
As the dragons faced each other, both Yuusei and Jack felt pain in their forearms; nevertheless, they continued dueling. Suddenly, another dragon appeared between the fighting ones, damaging a part of the Stadium in the process. In the meantime, the Momentum was going out of control and finally caused a blackout upon the dragon’s appearance. The dragon disappeared shortly after that. Much to his surprise, Yuusei discovered a glowing mark on his right forearm, as well as a similar one on Jack’s arm. However, before they could discuss the phenomenon, Security entered the Stadium and arrested Yuusei on the suspicion of unauthorized trespassing.
He was found guilty (not that he was given a chance to defend himself in the trial) and sentenced to one month of reeducation program in a detention center, followed by six months of community service, and then being sent back to Satellite. A criminal marker was engraved on his left cheek and his deck and D-Wheel were confiscated by the authorities. Finally, he was stripped of the right to livelihood within the jurisdiction of Neo Domino City.
While being transported to the detention center, Yuusei met a friendly old man, Yanagi Tanzen, whom he tried his best to ignore. It soon turned out they would be sharing a cell. Yanagi mentioned having seen the dragon above the Stadium and suggested he knew more about it, but Yuusei failed to get him to talk as the man started showing off with hid deck. They met Jin Himuro, an ex-Pro League duelist, whom they had to duel in order to determine their place in the hierarchy of the detention center. Obviously, Yuusei couldn’t duel due to the lack of his deck. Yanagi faced Himuro and lost. Enraged by Himuro calling the other man’s cards trash, Yuusei challenged him to a duel in which he would be using Yanagi’s deck. He managed to win and became friends with both Yanagi and Himuro.
Yuusei was then called to see the warden, Takasu, who was told to examine him in order to find dragon’s birthmark on his body. A team of researchers ran some "tests", which technically meant electrocuting Yuusei until he was barely conscious. Despite that, there was no trace of the birthmark. The guards dragged the teenager back to his cell, where Yanagi told him that he might be a Signer - a person with the power to summon the legendary Crimson Dragon.
Later, Rex Godwin himself came to the detention center to give a speech. After that he requested to have a talk with Yuusei. The later demanded to know what Rex wanted from him. Godwin explained he’s interested in Signers and made it clear that if something was to happen, he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice Satellite to protect Neo Domino City. He then left Yuusei both angry and confused about why there would be need to sacrifice any of the two.
Yuusei was then moved to a block for long-term prisoners, where he met his new cellmate, Aoyama, who tried to befriend him, but was utterly ignored. It turned out Himuro and Yanagi were also transferred to the said block. Aoyama revealed to Yuusei the escape route he had been working on for the past half a year. Yuusei agreed to flee with him, provided that Yanagi and Himuro could tag along. Before they could run away, however, Himuro was beaten up by Takasu for his "crimes" and the warden declared that the prisoners were to remain in their cells and not be able to see anyone, just like in isolated cells. Yuusei argued that Himuro hadn’t done anything wrong as he’s a real duelist. Takasu challenged him to a duel, knowing he didn’t have his deck. Nevertheless, Yuusei accepted the challenge and refused to leave the detention center without his friends as Aoyama suggested. Every prisoner gave Yuusei their most treasured card they had managed to bring with themselves, thus creating a brand new deck.
Yuusei faced the warden in a duel. Their Duel Disks were supposed to be connected to electric current so that the duelists would receive an electric shock whenever they took damage in the battle. However, only Yuusei’s one was plugged in. Aoyama managed to change it by hacking the prison’s system and causing a short power cut, during which Yuusei hid one of his cards in his sleeve, making sure it couldn’t be seen via the CCTV cameras. Thanks to that, he won the duel. Takasu didn’t intend to keep his promise, but was forced to do so by Godwin, who had been watching the duel from the start.
Yuusei was released and he immediately went to see a man called Saiga that Himuro had told him about. Unknowingly to him, he was being tailed the whole time by Security agents. However, Saiga succeeded in riding off with Yuusei on his D-Wheel and jamming the signal coming from Yuusei’s marker in order to make it impossible for Security to couldn’t find them at his place. While there, Saiga worked on a plan for Yuusei to get into Security’s storage warehouse in order to retrieve his deck and D-Wheel, though he couldn’t understand why he would risk going back to the detention center only to get back what he called "bonds with friends". Yuusei sneaked into the warehouse, only to face Ushio, who forced him into yet another Riding Duel. In the meantime, all exits of the building were sealed, so that Yuusei couldn’t escape. Suddenly, Saiga appeared and guided him to the exit, so he could flee after winning the duel. However, the Security was waiting for him at the exit and they beat him with truncheons. Nevertheless, Yuusei made it to the entrance of the Tops area, where he collapsed. He was found by two children, Rua and Ruka, who took him to their apartment.
After waking up, Yuusei intended to leave as soon as possible, which Ruka, the younger of the twins, didn’t oppose to. Being much more excited with their mysterious guest, Rua explained to him that he wanted to enter a Kaiba Corporation tournament, Duel of Fortune Cup, disguised as his sister. As Yuusei expressed his disinterest in the subject, Rua decided to challenge him to a duel. He tried to ignore the kid at first, but having noticed how similar he was to Rally, he agreed to play with him. While Rua was certainly an enthusiastic duelist, he lacked experience and strategy, and thus was easily beaten by Yuusei, who then attempted to leave, but was stopped by Rua begging him to stay over for another night. When the twins fell asleep, Yuusei worked to customize their Duel Disks, so that they would fit the kids’ small arms. Having done that, he left without waking them up.
Upon leaving the Tops area, he met Ushio, who had been waiting for him the whole time. As he was about to attempt to escape, Jaeger arrived, introducing himself as the Chief of Public Security Maintenance Bureau’s Special Investigations Section. He handed a letter of invitation to Fortune Cup to Yuusei, as well as a photo of Rally and the rest of his Satellite friends, telling him that if he refused to participate in the tournament, they would suffer the consequences.
Saiga contacted Yuusei and provided him with a place to live - namely, a garage. He also offered his help in checking on Rally and others back in Satellite. Soon, Yuusei was visited by Yanagi and Himuro. The latter one wanted to duel him, but their plans were interrupted by Jack’s arrival. He gave Yuusei his Stardust Dragon back, saying he would need it in the Fortune Cup. Yuusei asked Jack if he had sold their friends to the Security, but Jack didn’t know anything about the blackmail. When Jack left, Yuusei and others went to the Daimon area, a place where people with criminal markers gathered and held duels. While there, they met Rua and his friend Tempei, who wanted to find and duel the legendary Black Rose Witch. When the witch appeared, Yuusei’s birthmark began to glow again and the witch made it clear she knew something about what she called "the wretched mark". Yuusei suspected she might even have one on herself, but she left before he could confirm that.
During the Duel of Fortune Cup opening ceremony, eight duelists chosen for it were introduced, Yuusei and Rua (disguised as Ruka) among them. The audience disliked Yuusei because of his criminal marker, but a man named Bommer made a speech, stating they were all chosen thanks to their abilities, so no one should be discriminated. In the first match, Rua faced Bommer and lost. Later, a girl named Aki Izayoi dueled Jill de Launcebeaux, revealing that she was the Black Rose Witch and winning the match. Yuusei then was supposed to face a mysterious duelist called Shira in a Riding Duel. He ended up dueling Mukuro Enjo, who forcibly replaced Shira before the match, but Yuusei won nonetheless. After that, a consolation match between Ruka (not Rua for once) and Professor Frank was held. It ended with a draw, and the match-ups for the next day were announced - Yuusei was supposed to duel Bommer in the next round. In order to help Yuusei win, Rua went to Bommer’s garage to see what kind of D-Wheel he had. However, he got locked up there and fell asleep. While Yuusei and Ruka were searching all over the City for him, Saiga contacted them and announced that he hadn’t found Rally and others. After that, Bommer brought sleeping Rua to them, and they all went back to the twins’ apartment. At night, Bommer and Yuusei discussed each other’s reasons for participating in the tournament, revealing they were both fighting for their hometowns.
On the next day, the two dueled and Yuusei managed to win. However, Bommer’s true goal turned out to be killing Godwin, who had used Bommer’s hometown as an experimental area for reviving the Crimson Dragon, causing the whole village to be raved to the ground. Yuusei stopped Bommer from assassinating Security’s Chief, telling him that revenge would only beget revenge. Later, in the final round of the tournament, Yuusei fought Aki, trying his best to understand her feelings and open her heart. Although he defeated her, he wasn’t able to help her accept who she was as she was taken by her mentor, Divine, who was also the boss of the Arcadia Movement, an organization assembling psychic duelists.
Finally, Yuusei was able to face Jack again. During their Riding Duel, the Crimson Dragon once again appeared in the sky, showing them, Ruka and Aki a vision of People of the Stars, as well as a future in which Satellite was to be destroyed by a geoglyph shaped like a spider. Yuusei and Jack carried on dueling there until Yuusei won, causing them to come back to the stadium. As the damage in their duel was real, Jack got injured and was taken to the hospital, while Yuusei was announced to have become the New King. He then had to run away from the journalists and stayed with his friends at Saiga’s place. While there, Yanagi explained to them that there were five Signers with Dragon birthmarks - so far, they knew about Yuusei (Tail), Jack (Wings), Aki (Front Claw), Ruka (Back Claw). Looking at the picture of Crimson Dragon, Ruka passed out, so they all decided to rest.
At night, Yuusei’s birthmark started glowing and he saw someone with a birthmark outside the building. Thinking it’s the last Signer, he followed that person to a car park, where they dueled. To Yuusei’s surprise, the damage in that duel was real. As the mysterious man explained, it was a Duel of Darkness. He also called himself "Dark Signer", revealing that his birthmark is shaped like spider, just like the geoglyph Yuusei had seen in his vision. The man was using cards Yuusei had never heard of before, such as Dark Tuner Monsters and Dark Synchro Monsters, which had negative level. Nevertheless, Yuusei won the duel. A reporter named Carly Nagisa, who had observed the fight, recognized the man to be Dick Pitt, a street duelist. When she asked him about that, it turned out he didn’t remember anything that had happened. Leaving them to deal with the Security, Yuusei went back to Saiga’s place.
Later, Ushio arrived and took Yuusei to meet Rex Godwin, who explained to him that Dark Signers are Signers’ archenemies who aim to destroy the world with the powers of Earthbound Gods that had been defeated by the Crimson Dragon 5,000 years before. Though Yuusei wasn’t willing to cooperate with Godwin at first, Rex telling him the Dark Signers’ first goal would be destroying Satellite convinced him to agree to fight them. He was then taken to Satellite, where he was greeted by Crow. The friends went to Yuusei’s hideout, where they met Rally and others. However, they had to face Security officers, who were after Crow, in a tag duel. Afterwards, they headed towards Crow’s hideout, where he was staying with the kids he was taking care of. In the evening, Crow told them a story of the legendary D-Wheeler, who had once lived in Satellite. He had began building a bridge by himself and soon other people had joined him. However, the Security had forbidden the Satellite residents to complete the construction and tried to arrest the man who had started it. The man had jumped from the bridge on his D-Wheel and had never been seen again. After that, the bridge had been named Daedalus Bridge. The following night Yuusei tried to leave the hideout without waking up anyone, but Crow knew him too well and was already waiting for him. Though Yuusei didn’t want to drag his friend into the fight against the Dark Signers, Crow demanded to go with him, as he knew the Barbaric Area After Damage better than Yuusei. Finally, Yuusei agreed to take him along.
While heading to the Old Momentum through B.A.D., they were stopped by a mysterious D-Wheeler, who soon revealed himself to be no one else but Kyousuke Kiryuu himself. Not paying much attention to their shock to see him alive, Kiryuu immediately challenged Yuusei to a Duel of Darkness. Upon his challenge, one of the Nazca Lines geoglyphs made of purple flames appeared on both ground and in the sky. Yuusei had no choice but to accept the duel, even though he didn’t feel comfortable facing his former friend. During the duel, Yuusei noticed that both Kiryuu’s deck and strategy had changed completely since the time they had been hanging out together - most notable being his hand-at-zero Handless Combo, which caused Yuusei a lot of trouble until he managed to summon Stardust Dragon. When it seemed that Yuusei was about to win, Kiryuu sacrificed the souls of Satellite’s residents in order to summon his ace card, Earthbound God Ccapac Apu, which could attack the opposing player directly and was not affected by either Spell or Trap Cards, making it impossible for Yuusei to protect himself from the attack. However, his D-Wheel broke down, causing Yuusei to fall down from it, which ironically saved him from being crushed by Ccapac Apu. Kiryuu left while Rally and others ran to Yuusei to check if he was injured. It turned out he had a big scrap of metal stabbed in his lower stomach. Crow immediately took him to Martha’s place on his D-Wheel while in the meantime Rally, Nerve, Blitz and Taka took care of Yuusei’s one. In the orphanage Dr. Schmitt and Martha operated Yuusei and managed to save his life. When he came back to his senses, Martha criticized him for having fought alone and forced him stay in the house until his wounds were fully healed.
After getting better, Yuusei fixed his D-Wheel, but still felt uncertain about dueling again due to his nightmares and fear of the Earthbound Gods and Dark Signers. Thus, when Hideo Izayoi, Aki’s father, arrived at Satellite to ask Yuusei for help in waking Aki up from coma after her Duel of Darkness with a female Dark Signer named Misty Lola, he wasn’t sure whether he could do anything, but Martha convinced him to go. In the hospital, Aki woke up and immediately challenged Yuusei to a duel, upset by Divine’s assumed death after his duel with (now changed into a Dark Signer) Carly. In spite of how troublesome and painful the psychic duel was, Yuusei won and convinced Aki he was her friend and that she should give her parents one more chance.
With all the Signers (Yuusei, Jack, Aki and Ruka) gathered together, Godwin invited them to his mansion to explain to them the details of the upcoming battle against the Dark Signers. He showed them the Sanctuary, where People of the Stars prayed to the Star Dragon God, who came to them from the sky in the form of the Crimson Dragon. Though Godwin tried to avoid the subject, Yuusei and Jack demanded to know who the Dark Signers really were. It was revealed to them the Dark Signers were the souls of people that no longer belonged to that world - in other words, they were dead. It shocked Yuusei, who started blaming himself for Kiryuu’s death and thus was unable to face the Dark Signers. Jack made him get a hold of himself by beating him and telling that to him, Yuusei was the one who had died. Disagreeing with that, Yuusei gained the courage needed to fight his former friend.
In the meantime, strange black mist appeared above Satellite, causing most of its residents to disappear. Before the Signers set off to the island, Yuusei demanded that Godwin promised him he would use his influence to finish the Daedalus Bridge and connect Satellite to the City. Though reluctant to do so, Rex finally agreed. Ushio was chosen to escort the Signers to Satellite. While traveling there, Mikage explained to everyone who Yuusei’s father was. Finally, they reached the orphanage, where they were greeted by Martha and kids. While they were staying there, a man with a Spider birthmark appeared in front of them and Yuusei accepted his challenge. During their duel, the man, Rudger revealed that 17 years earlier he, his brother Rex Godwin and Dr. Fudou had been working together. He also suggested the Zero Reverse incident might not have been an accident. Summoning his Earthbound God, Uru, he sacrificed Martha’s soul in the process. When Yuusei summoned Stardust Dragon, Rudger forced Rally to fight in his place. Having to choose between his life and Yuusei’s one, the boy decided to die for his friend’s sake. Enraged by the loss of people close to him, Yuusei demanded to fight Rudger again, but he and the other Dark Signers were gone.
Afterwards, Mikage explained to the Signers the goal of their mission - placing the seals (namely, the Signer Dragon cards) inside four control towers that secured the Old Momentum. The towers symbolized Earthbound Gods: Ccapac Apu (the Astronaut), Aslla Piscu (the Hummingbird), Cusillu (the Monkey) and Ccarayhua (the Lizard), which were guarded by Kiryuu, Carly, Demak and Misty respectively. Yuusei of course chose to go to the Astronaut tower. While on his way there, he decided to check on Ruka and Rua, who went to confront Demak. Meanwhile, Ruka moved to the world of Duel Monsters spirits. Due to a misunderstanding, Rua got himself into a duel against Demak. Unable to stop the fight, Yuusei could only watch his friend’s struggle. At some point, though, Ruka returned, took over the duel and won. They headed to the Astronaut tower, but changed their plans upon seeing Killer Whale geoglyph that had appeared in the sky. Yuusei went inside the goeglyph and found out Crow and Bommer (who had become a Dark Signer) were dueling there. Despite his attempts to make them stop, they carried on until Bommer lost and turned into dust, telling Yuusei to defeat the Dark Signers.
Finally, Yuusei arrived at the Astronaut control tower, where Kiryuu was waiting for him. They began another Riding Duel, this time with the auto pilots switched off. In a few rounds Kiryuu managed to summon his Earthbound God Ccapac Apu. Determined to face his fears, as well as Kiryuu’s, Yuusei explained to his friend that he wasn’t fighting to defeat him, but to save him. His willpower gathered all birthmarks of other Signers on his back and he managed to summon Saviour Star Dragon, which destroyed Ccapac Apu. While he was holding Kiryuu, the other told him he had already lost and confessed he couldn’t hate Yuusei at all. Having said that, he turned into dust in Yuusei’s arms.
After that, Rudger possessed Ushio once again and told Yuusei to come to the Old Momentum to fight him. Yuusei and others went there and he faced Rudger in a duel on a bridge above the reactivated Momentum. Having successfully summoned his Earthbound God, Uru, Rudger told Yuusei the story of his father: Dr. Fudou had been a leading quantum physics researcher, who had discovered the Yuusei Ryuushi - "Planetary Particle", which connects particles to one another. Therefore, he had named his son after that discovery, wishing for him to become a person that would connect people. However, when he had tried to stop the further development of Momentum project, he had been withdrawn from it and shot while trying to escape with the Momentum’s seals - namely, Stardust, Red Demon’s and Black Rose Dragons - which he entrusted to Rex Godwin. Then he had managed to put his infant son in an escape capsule, making sure he would survive the upcoming explosion caused by Rudger.
Having listened to the truth behind the Zero Reverse incident, Yuusei was enraged and asked how long Rudger planned on playing a god by toying people’s lives like that. He continued by telling how Jack’s parents, as well as Crow’s, were killed in that incident. He couldn’t stand the thought that it was his father’s creation that had caused so much sorrow in the lives of people he cared for - and yet, Jack, Crow and others considered him, the son of Momentum’s creator, a friend. With tears in his eyes, he asked how he was supposed to make up for the loss of possibility to live with their parents happily. Crow answers him by assuring he had never considered Yuusei’s father to be responsible for the incident, so there was no need for him to feel guilty, as to him Yuusei was an irreplaceable friend. Yuusei understood that and promised to win the duel, which he did a few minutes later. However, Rudger didn’t intend to admit his defeat and said that if the seals weren’t set before the sunset, the King of Underworld would be awaken. He then blew up the bridge, causing Yuusei to fall into the Old Momentum.
When Yuusei woke up he found himself surrounded by ghosts that attempted to pull him into the ground. Upon being touched by them he saw their memories and realized those were spirits of people who had died in the Zero Reverse incident. They seemed to blame him for it and tried to take him to the underworld. They were stopped in time by a mysterious voice that stated Yuusei’s innocent and claimed it was too soon for him to be there. Yuusei recognized his father, who apologized for having burdened his son with such destiny on his shoulders and told him to go back. Yuusei tried to chase after his father, but woke up outside of the Momentum. After apologizing to his friends for making them worry, the group left to set the last two seals before the sunset.
They soon reached a run-down amusement park, in which the last battle - Aki vs. Misty - was taking place. While looking for them, Yuusei nearly got crashed by a falling part of a building, but he was warned in time by a man who introduced himself as Security agent sent to Satellite by Godwin. He guided Yuusei to a building, in which he found unconscious Mikage. The man revealed himself to be a Psychic Duelist when he suddenly attacked Yuusei with his cards, throwing him into a cell together with Mikage. The water began to flood the room and the man left the two to drown. However, Ushio came along and save them. After that, Yuusei went to watch the duel and noticed Divine nearby. Realizing it was him who tried to kill them, he faced him and tricked him into confessing he was the one who had killed Misty’s little brother, Toby. Unknowingly to Divine, Yuusei had turned on a hidden microphone in his Duel Disk, making it possible for all other duelist to listen to his confession via Duelist Network. As Misty heard what really had happened to her brother, she had her Earthbound God Ccarayhua swallow him. She didn’t want to fight with Aki anymore, but was forced to do so by her God. Despite having won the duel, Aki didn’t manage to set the last seal in the Lizard control tower in time before the sunset.
The Condor geoglyph appeared in the sky above the City and the King of Underworld was revived inside the Old Momentum. It started heading towards the Nazca line and Ruka heard Duel Monsters spirits telling her they could not allow for it to reach it; failing to do so would mean the end of the world. The Crimson Dragon was summoned by Signers’ birthmarks and it took them to Rex Godwin’s residence, where an enormous pyramid - the Sky Temple - appeared. As Godwin himself faced them, he revealed he’s a Dark Signer with Condor birthmark and explained he intended to become an ultimate God by using the power of both Earthbound Gods and Crimson Dragon. In order to achieve his goal, he attached his brother’s arm to himself, thus gaining Rudger’s Dragon’s Head birthmark. Rex then challenged the Signers to a Riding Duel as a ritual to become a God who would destroy the world and create it anew. Yuusei, Jack and Crow (in spite of not being a Signer) accepted the challenge.
The duel was played with irregular duel rules - meaning that Yuusei, Jack and Crow had 4,000 LP each while Godwin had 12,000. The Dark Signer quickly gained the upper hand by summoning Synchro Monster, Sun Dragon Inti, Dark Synchro Monster, Moon Dragon Quilla, as well as his Earthbound God, Wiraqocha Rasca. Thanks to his God’s Monster Effect, Godwin decreased both Crow’s and Jack’s LP down to 1 quickly, causing their D-Wheels to break and thus eliminating them from the game. Despite his LP being brought down to 1 as well, Yuusei kept on playing while trying to make Godwin realize he was mistaken about the reasons for his actions, including escaping from Satellite and becoming the legendary D-Wheeler, as they had just learned he was the one. The Tail Birthmark on his arm changed to Head Birthmark and the Tail moved to Crow. Once again gathering all birthmarks on his back, Yuusei summoned Saviour Star Dragon, which defeated Wiraqocha Rasca and enabled Crimson Dragon to materialize and strike at the King of Underworld.
For a moment, Yuusei found himself in an entirely different place, where he saw all the previously defeated Dark Signers. As Rudger and Rex, both back to their human selves, explained, they were to be revived soon. They, however, chose to stay on the other side, despite Yuusei’s attempts to stop them. At that moment, the King of Underworld was destroyed and the Condor geoglyph disappeared along with the Sky Temple.
Some time later, the City was rebuild, and Satellite was being reconstructed as well. The memories of the citizens were altered so they wouldn’t remember the incident - that including Dark Signers such as Carly. Yuusei, Jack and Crow completed their goal - Satellite finally became connected to Neo Domino City via the completed Daedalus Bridge.
Are you still with me? Good, we’re halfway through! ... Just kidding. But since I do, in fact, care for the sanity of the readers and will therefore make an attempt to be less detailed on the summarized events, as most of them happen to be filler episodes that have no meaning to the plot whatsoever. AHEM. Moving on~
Half a year later, when the City and Satellite had been already connected with a system of roads and bridges, a new threat appeared. While Yuusei, Jack and Crow were attempting to upgrade their D-Wheels in order to take part in the upcoming WRGP (World Riding Gran Prix), Ushio asked them to help the Security work on the case of a mysterious D-Wheeler called "Ghost", who had caused a series of accidents. Upon being turned down by Crow, Ushio tried to fight Ghost alone and lost. The three decided to find the culprit and bring him down. Soon Ghost appeared and challenged Yuusei. It turned out he was in possession of a powerful monster named Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity, which had an ability to absorb Synchro Monsters, making Yuusei’s strategy, as well as ace cards, useless. He did manage to win, though, thanks to his Savior Star Dragon and enormous amount of luck. After the duel, they found out that Ghost was actually a robot created by Security and stolen from them.
Soon after that, Yuusei was kidnapped by a group of people who wanted him to join their team for WRGP. Having been rescued by Aki, he was then challenged to a duel by an unknown D-Wheeler, who turned out to be a woman named Sherry LeBlanc. She told them about a mysterious group called Yliaster that had killed her parents and she was going to participate in WRGP in order to get her revenge. Her story made Yuusei wonder what his own reasons for entering the tournament were. Sherry asked him to consider joining her team and left, even though the result of their duel hadn’t been determined yet.
Despite having defeated Ghost, Yuusei still felt troubled by the experience of facing a Syncho Killer monster. Therefore, he tried dueling Jack without using Syncho Monsters, but the result wasn’t determined. Soon after that, the group participated in WRGP Premium Event, during which they met Team Unicorn. After the party, Yuusei was challenged to a duel by a mysterious man (referred to as “Dark Glass”), who claimed that he couldn’t defeat Ghost unless he learnt to surpass his own limits. Therefore, he showed him Accel Synchro, but didn’t fully explain how to obtain it, so Yuusei was left to wonder if he can find out the secret behind Accel Synchro by himself.
When a transfer student named Luciano attacked Rua and Ruka, revealing himself to be a member of Yliaster controlling another Machine Emperor - Skiel Infinity, Yuusei and other Signers went after them, which resulted in an unintentional, but very fortunate summoning of the Crimson Dragon that saved Rua’s life. The fact they were once again targeted by a Synchro Killer only reassured Yuusei he needed to find a way to gain the ability to use Accel Synchro.
Some time later, Ushio and Mikage asked Yuusei, Jack and Crow to take care of a man who had lost his memory, Bruno. Though resultant to take him in at first, Yuusei quickly grew a little too attached to him in a very lovey-dovey way befriended him, as Bruno turned out to be way too perfect for it to be normal a genius mechanic, hacker and duelist. The two wrote a program for D-Wheel engines, but it was stolen by Jaeger. The group followed Security’s vice-director to a shopping center and later to a supposedly abandoned factory in the suburbs, where Placido was creating an army of Ghosts. Yuusei and Jaeger got locked up there and Yuusei was forced to duel a Duel Robot in order to escape the upcoming explosion. They ran away after his victory, and while Jaeger still refused to reveal whom he was working for, he warned Yuusei those people were not ones to be messed with.
One night, Security entered the group’s garage and arrested Jack on suspicion of causing a number of crashes, as the witnesses claimed to have seen his Wheel of Fortune. Jack escaped the detention center in an attempt to catch the real culprit. He faced his impostor in a duel and lost, causing Crow and Yuusei to believe he’d died. When they went after the false Jack, however, the real one came back just in time to kick his impostor’s ass, which allowed them to discover it was actually a robot.
After that incident, Yuusei received a calling card letter, in which he was asked to come to Crash Town and save Kiryuu. Thus, he went there and learnt about the war between Ramon’s and Malcolm’s gangs that was taking place there from Barbara, who had sent him the letter. The members of opposing gangs were facing each other in a one-on-one duel that began with the sunset. The loser would be captured and taken to the nearby mine, where they would be forced to work for the rest of their miserable lives. As Kiryuu was dueling for Ramon’s group, he was risking his life and freedom, which Yuusei didn’t want him to lose. He joined Malcolm’s group by defeating three its members in a single turn in order to duel his friend. Unfortunately, Kiryuu, who’d gone pretty emo due to what’d happened while he was a Dark Signer, wasn’t about to listen to what Yuusei had to say. Instead, he wanted Yuusei to defeat him - which he did, since he and Barbara had a plan to save Kiryuu from being taken to the mine.
Except Barbara had never planned to cooperate in the first place. Oops. Also, she was Malcolm’s girlfriend. Double oops. Also, Malcolm’s little brother, Lotten, came to the town and beat the crap out of Ramon in the very first turn of their duel. Triple oops.
Due to Yuusei being a horrible judge of character, he, Kiryuu and Ramon ended up being sent to the mine. Though Yuusei easily got rid of the collar that was supposed to keep the prisoners in line (with electric torture, because apparently you can never get tired of watching the characters on this show being electrocuted), Kiryuu refused to run away. Mostly because he considered himself to be some sort of atoner. That, however, did not convince Yuusei to leave his friend behind, so he used force and carried unconscious Kiryuu outside. No, the latter wasn’t happy with that, but that’s beside the point. Two kids who looked up to Kiryuu while he’d been in Crash Town, West and Nico, came to help them, bringing Yuusei’s D-Wheel along. Unfortunately, Lotten had followed them and dueled Yuusei during the chase. Instead of simply playing until the winner was declared, though, he just threw some freakin’ dynamite at them.
Sadly, the application does not end here. No, because despite having been dangerously close to the source of explosion, being thrown a few dozens of feet up in the air, and then falling down the canyon while bouncing into its walls several times, Yuusei and Kiryuu not only managed to survive, but also stood up after a few minutes, ready to kick ass and take names. But we’ll get on to that.
Anyway, much to everyone’s surprise, they got back to Crash Town/Barbara Town/Lotten Town (it sure changes names fast) and challenged Lotten to a duel. Which they had a chance to win, but Barbara commanded her gang to take them down by force (pretty smart of her). However, they were stopped by the very dramatic entrance of Crow and Jack, resulting with a temporary revival of Team Satisfaction. Having defeated Lotten, Kiryuu decided to stay in the Satisfaction Town (told you it changes names fast) to bring it back to its former glory.
Back in Neo Domino, Yuusei and Bruno went to the Security HQ to see whether Ushio and Mikage had found out anything that would help Bruno regain his memories. While there, they got stuck in the building after the building was sealed off by Sherry and her bulter, Mizoguchi. The latter dueled Yuusei, who, not surprisingly, won. Meanwhile, Bruno followed Sherry, turned out to be a robot of sorts and helped Sherry analyze the card she’d brought with her, Z-ONE. Which caused an explosion that brought them and Yuusei into… another dimension of sorts, where they faced a robot shrimp magatama-shaped machine. Upon seeing a human-like figure in it, they all passed out. Later, they woke up on a shore far away from the Security’s headquarters.
Prior to WRGP preliminaries, Crow got his hands on the Black Feather Dragon card, which turned out to be one of the Signer Dragons. Since it’s one big continuity error, I beg of you, don’t ask how’s that possible. Either way, the team consisting of Yuusei, Jack and Crow as the main duelists and Aki, Rua, Ruka and Bruno as their supporters was created under a name "5D’s", that meaning "5 Dragons" (from the Signers’ birthmarks). During the team’s training, Crow got into a crash with a member of Team Unicorn, Jack got into an argument with another one, and Yuusei ended up dueling the last one. Perhaps he would have won, but since the time of training had run out before he had a chance to declare the last attack. The teams were to face each other in the first round of WRGP, but unfortunately, Crow broke his arm. Of course it was an accident and not some other team trying to get rid of potential rivals-er, anyway, Aki, who had gotten a D-Wheeler license before, participated in the match against Team Unicorn in his place. Andore of Team Unicorn defeated both Jack and Aki fairly easily, leaving Yuusei alone to fight against three participants in a row.
Hold your breath.
He WON. Finally, being a Boring Invincible Hero pays off!
Team 5D’s even befriended Team Unicorn after that, promising to meet each other later in the tournament. Sadly, Team Unicorn was defeated by Team Catastrophe due to Andore and Jean’s crashes. Which were amazingly similar to Crow’s one. Just when they figured out Team Catastrophe was causing those, Aki fell a victim to their strategy, too. Crow decided to take part in the match despite his arm not being fully healed, which resulted in the victory of Team 5D’s after he and Jack defeated their respective opponents. At that point, one of the members of Yliaster, Placido, got really pissed off, so he sent an entire army of Ghosts to duel people on the highways in order to complete the Circuit. Whatever that is. A number of D-Wheelers, Yuusei, Jack and Sherry among them, set off to stop them. At one point, Placido went after Yuusei to crush him personally. However, Yuusei was saved by Dark Glass (though we now ooc-ly know his real identity is Bruno), who dueled Placido in his place. In the meantime, Yuusei saw a dragon (which pretty much everyone knows to be Shooting Star Dragon) inside, uh, the speed thanks to Clear Mind ability, which supposedly allows one to control Momentum with one’s heart. Yeah, I know it sounds odd. And doesn’t make sense. And then he just suddenly teleported to a crater outside the city, where a stone tablet with a picture of the said dragon had fallen from the sky just a moment earlier. Upon touching it, Yuusei was once again taken to where he, Bruno and Sherry had been transferred to before. He faced the same robot shrimp magatama-shaped machine and was given a new card (it’s not hard to figure it’s an Accel Synchro card) by the individual inside it. He tried to chase after him, but he was sent back to where he’d come from. With that, Yuusei took Bruno's place in the duel against Placido. In order to show how serious business the duel was, Placido combined with his D-Wheel.
... No, I mean it. He really did.
Anyway, Yuusei managed to protect his Stardust Dragon from Machine Emperor Wisel's effect for a few turns and made an attempt at using Accel Synchro, but failed due to the doubt in his heart. Stardust was absorbed by Wisel, only to be taken back after a while. Since he’d already calmed down by that time, Yuusei succeeded in Accel Synchro summoning his new monster, Shooting Star Dragon. He gathered all Signer birthmarks on his back (which, as always, looked totally cool but did absolutely nothing, aside maybe from letting the viewers know The Power of Friendship was at work) and activated Shooting Star’s effect, which allowed him to destroy three parts of Machine Emperor, thus defeating Placido, who was literally thorn in half afterwards even though 4Kids claims this show to be for children. At that moment, two other members of Yliaster, Luciano and Jose, appeared, revealing their plans of destroying Neo Domino City in order to set the history back to the right course. They were attacked by Sherry and Mizoguchi, but fought them off easily and told Team 5D’s to meet them in WRGP before disappearing. The WRGP itself was held off for the time of Security’s investigation on what had happened.
In the meantime, the writes decided Jack deserves to get a new power as well. Therefore, he and Yuusei went to Peru, where the latter did nothing of substance - unless you count shouting Jack’s name about 16 times in 3 episodes. Then Jack leveled up! Jack learned Burning Soul! And they went back. Afterwards the group ran into Jaeger and tried to catch him in order to find out more about the Yliaster and eventually succeeded thanks to ramen and Crow winning a duel against him. He revealed to them, albeit not without ramen’s help, that a company called Momentum Express had ties to Yliaster. Yuusei, Sherry and Bruno infiltrated the company, which led to them being sent to wormhole, a sort of “shortcut” in spacetime. Unfortunately, Sherry got stuck there (for nearly half a year) while Yuusei and Bruno witnessed “the Last Momentum”, as Dr. Fudou (yes, Yuusei was talking to his dead father again) called it. The two went back to their world and from that point on, a huge upside-down city was hovering over Neo Domino, though it was only visible to the Signers or other people blessed with sucky godly powers at that time.
Back to the WRGP! Well, not quite - before it resumed, Rua befriended members of Team Taiyou (one of which was Yuusei’s fanboy ohgod), who only had one D-Wheel in... questionable condition. Which is why Yuusei and Bruno helped to fix it and befriended them as well. And if you haven’t guessed they turned out to be Team 5D’s next opponents, I will be sad. Regardless, after a surprisingly tough struggle and residents of Neo Domino City proving to be a bunch of douchebags, 5D’s emerged victious once again.
Yuusei, Jack and Crow met their semi-finals opponents - team Ragnarok, who all had Rune Eyes and Polar Star God cards. Their goal was to defeat the Yliaster, but they refused to cooperate with 5D’s as they considered Dr. Fudou responsible for causing Zero Reverse and therefore concluded in their flawless logic Yuusei must bring destruction wherever he goes. Sounds legit. Also, Dragan had a grudge against Jack, but that’s a different story. Long story short, the Signers defeated Team Ragnarok, albeit not without difficulties. The Rune Eye duelists decided Yuusei was not a threat to the world after all and left the future in his hands.
And so, the finals of the WRGP arrived. Team 5D’s faced Team New World - the Three Emperors of Yliaster. After Jack defeated Luciano and Placido, it turned out to have been a trap, thanks to which Jose easily beat Jack and Crow. While dueling Yuusei, he showed the Signers the future in which people close to the Emperors were killed by giant robots that came from space. All because of Syncho Summon, apparently. Oh, and Jose, Luciano and Placido fused into one, revealing their true identity as Aporia, one of the last human beings that survived the robots’ attack. After his death (in the future), he was brought back to life as a robot by our good old pal - giant mechanical shrimp ZONE. When the duel reached its dramatic climax, the combined power of Yuusei, Crow and Jack’s dragons, friendship and hope made Aporia go KABOOM and brought peace and happiness to the world. And they lived happily ever after. Right?
Wrong. It Got Worse.
Upon 5D’s victory, the Circuit was completed and the citadel of god (aka city in the sky), Ark Cradle, was called forth. Also it sucked the entire Momentum energy from the city. Also it was falling. Thankfully, the Signres’ birthmarks and Ragnarok’s Rune Eyes turned out to be perfect alternate sources of energy, allowing them to use their D-Wheels. That’s when Sherry contacted them, saying she’s seen the future in which Yuusei died after heading to Ark Cradle. Despite the warning, and maybe because they only had 12 hours to save the world and their lives, Team 5D’s went to Ark Cradle. How they got there, you ask? They rode on rainbow bridge. Yup. Upon getting inside (or falling inside, to be precise), they got split in small groups in which they went to stop the Yuusei Gears around Ark Cradle’s Momentum. Crow and Aki succeeded in doing so by defeating Sherry in Battle Royal Mode duel, while Rua, Ruka and Jack faced repaired Aporia in a irregular tag duel, during which Rua became the sixth ranger, pardon, Signer. Meanwhile, Yuusei and The Mysterious Sunglasses Guy also known to general public as Bruno reached the last Yuusei Gear, where the latter one regained his memories after looking into flashing lights (don’t do that at home, kids, it may lead to epilepsy attack). He revealed his true identity to out hero, introducing himself as Antinomy, Zone’s accomplice. Also he broke his heart by telling him his memory was erased only so that he can pretend to be the Signers’ friend better and use their power to call forth Ark Cradle and, now that his goal was achieved, he didn’t need Yuusei anymore and therefore challenged him to a duel.
And because Porter’s a bitch, that’s when she pulled Yuusei into the City.