Me and Aibou

This is CRAZY work. What do you MEAN they left this out of the dub?

I thought Diva's beef with Kaiba was him being rich and owning a company (which, okay, eat the rich), but this makes Diva's position so much more valid?

Is Kaiba the god-king-emperor of Domino City? Is Domino City some authoratarian capitalist city state in Japan?

Are the people of Domino just chill with this? Is there some non-dueling salaryman who made and registered a deck the way we'd grumble and go down with our identification documents to the local town hall?

I need that series. A series about an average salaryman in Domino City who can't name a duel monster and is just trying to get by but this insane CEO keeps slowly eroding the local government and implementing bat-shit crazy laws involving a children's card game.

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First thing just quickkkk: Diva has beef with Kaiba because Kaiba brought back the puzzle and risks bringing Atem back and end Prana, not because he is a dictator or rich. Indeed he ignored Kaiba to the day Kaiba pulled the puzzle from the ground and started in his opinion being a threat. Of course he'll call Kaiba a crazy dictator and oppose anything about him.

Diva is not an unbiased narrator because of course, he wants Kaiba to NOT PUT THE PUZZLE TOGETHER. It is why after losing to Kaiba he decides to "Erase the vessel" (starting a self-fulfilling prophecy descent).

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Now, register your deck.

Domino revolves around Duel Monsters much before Kaiba and this is shown in canon. Pegasus created Duel Monsters, and after this happened, some people became DUELISTS.

Dueling is not synonymous with 'playing Duel Monsters'.

The status of "Duelist" is depicted in the series. Kaiba values dueling and duels because dueling is measuring skills, willpower, adaptability and nerves. We know some duelists are also not TRUE duelists (because they cheat, are disrespectful etc etc). Kaiba will recognize Jounouchi as a TRUE duelist after he saw some of these characteristics in him.

In Domino all the culture, economy, entertainment, and technology are heavily centered on Duel Monsters.

Think of a city obsessed with football, everyone knows the rules, there are stadiums, youth leagues, there will be an academia (GX) merchandise is everywhere, the local billionaire is passionate, the sport influences tourism at many levels.

Respect for dueling does not mean dueling solves everything.

James from accounting can go home, microwave lasagna, ignore football entirely, and complain about taxes being too high with wife (or hubby whatever, in YGO we know everyone is GAY.)

Domino clearly has millions of ordinary people and there is no evidence courts are replaced with duels, contracts are enforced by duels. Criminal cases, divorce, inheritance, taxes, or anything resembling ordinary civil law is NOT ONCE settled through Duel Monsters.

The series has still police and prisons and hospitals and characters go to school. Kaiba himself has canonically legal departments and corporate lawyers. If duels settled lawsuits, KaibaCorp wouldn't need an army of attorneys.

What we DO know instead, is that every specialization is clearly respected especially from Kaiba. Kaiba shows he has lots of employees, engineers to build and program, Isono to help him with security, lawyers for his trouble, diggers to dig...

DUELISTS DUEL.

In the world of Yu-gi-oh! I see dueling as a choice just like becoming a Pokémon trainer in the world of Pokémon.

Unfortunately (Or fortunately) Magic revolves around some games. Duel Monsters is one of them since Ancient Egypt, and all the rest we know.

Some cards are special (like some Pokémon are legendary), some duelists have the ability to turn duels into Shadow Games... Some Duels are necessary to BET on important things (How many times we see betting LIFE!).

Diva vs. Kaiba is a duel with a bet on the Puzzle Kaiba wins (With Atem's intervention, even). Diva does NOT respect this loss, one of the reasons he will be doomed.

Some duels can help solve and untangle magic problems and feelings like rage, revenge, power, love, elaborate grief, talk in an obscure language that sinks into decks that link souls... other will just make people win prizes. (Haga wins a cup, for example).

But magic, magic duels, revenge, rage, wanting to become a champion, and all the rest does not impact on law and I see no reason why it should at all.

By DSOD what we know is: thanks to KaibaCorp, Solid vision is everywhere, there's Duel Links infrastructures, Transcend Game sold egg-visors, there are ranking databases and Kaiba could easily appear on TV since DM to communicate.

If Domino has effectively become the world's dueling capital, it isn't crazy that DUELISTS to be also residents HAVE TO RECEIVE some sort of KC duel ID and Yugi is famous.

This sentence, to me, means: IF YOU ARE A DUELIST (only if you are a duelist, since Dueling is of this importance), YOU HAVE TO REGISTER YOUR DECK OR YOU CAN'T HAVE DOMINO RESIDENCY.

This is because KaibaCorp has become so influential that civic administration in Domino is by now intertwined with Kaiba's dueling infrastructure.

Seto took out his phone only to see a text from Honda, a preview above a row of older attempts he had ignored since morning: wake info? yugi and anzu are asking too. shizuka told us tonight but not the time. just send address. and let us know if you need help with anything if you can. we’re worried, man. hope you’re holding up  Worried. He stared at the word until it lost whatever mercy or compassion Honda had intended for it.  He wondered, with a distant and almost procedural contempt, what it would feel like to be only worried. To stand at the edge of the day with nothing but dread and concern, untouched by the knowledge of Katsuya’s body under fluorescent morgue light, untouched by the wet ruin of his face, the absent ring, the hand that had been reduced beyond presentation. To feel grief in the communal register the others still had available to them. They hadn’t seen what he had seen at the morgue. Whatever gentler feeling might have existed had been burned out of him that night, leaving only the clean, violent heat that gave the day its shape. He opened the thread and typed the address: Shingetsu-ji. 6:00 p.m. It was no use thinking on it any more. Worry would not go back to Igo Station and turn Katsuya toward home. It would not restore the hand, or remove the gloves from the service. Honda’s worry belonged to the wake, to everyone they knew gathering helplessly around a casket. Seto had no use for it here.  There was only Hirutani.

COME ALONE. NO TALK.

Complete; 32,321 words. Art by @kaftofi, written for 2026 Dragonfire Exchange for @pureichor.

Summary: Katsuya is found murdered, his wedding ring missing from his hand. This leaves Seto with a wake to plan, an obituary to write, a body to approve for cremation, and a voicemail from the man Katsuya died trying to save.

Grief won't bring his husband home... but violence can certainly still be arranged. _

OR: Hirutani kills Jounouchi, which obviously doesn't fly by his very well adjusted husband, Kaiba.

Tags: Major Character Death, Noir, Mystery, Mutism, Murder, Revenge, Hirutani SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSS, Foxes, Dead Wife Vibes Galore, Baddie Sex Workers Unite, Foxes, Drug Use, Bougie Vacations, Bougie Apartments, Bougie Mansions, Everyone is Very Sad, Morgues and Funerals, Seto Is Also Losing His Damn Mind As Per Usual, Daddy Issues As Per Usual, Surreal Dream Sequences As Per Usual, Erotic Nightmares, Did I Mention Hirutani Sucks, Accidental Character Study

Though the answers won't always be strictly "canon" to the manga, they're not unsanctioned by any means; and even if you don't agree with what a character does in the extra time they're given, you can still spot interesting stuff in the thought process. Anzu dueling (and having a perfect win record) will always be my favourite iteration of this. Yes, it's a bit of the early-aughts 'mandatory girl power' that shows up added to many anime adaptations in this period. But you can also see the thought process of a hard-working, relentless, laser-focused person who is very committed to her own ideals, being given the chance to project those qualities through Duel Monsters (and later DDR, lol.) In a story like this, there's very little space for these qualities of hers to surface via information about her grades or her dancing or her class leadership; pretty much every character's 'self' is revealed most thoroughly through their duels. So why not Anzu?

Ygo redraw ♥️

May I present my project for PuzzleJune 2026, out super soon? In 12 days!

SUMMARY: After a routine duel, Yuugi gets hit by a card and loses all of his memories about Atem. Everyone gathers to help him gain them back.

@x-puzzlejune-x offered ODYSSEY and HOME

And I take them both :D

There's sweetness in this story, and much love. I added just a pinch of angst. I chose to talk memory once again, in a choir that celebrates, I hope, many of its forms and how it sticks to the places we loved so fondly, once... or forever.

I hope your curiosity is at least a small bit challenged! If so, meet me June 1st! I will release 2 chapters at a time, for 4 weeks.

Small preview is under the cut.

Thanks for the prompts!

Some old sketches

I wrote a fanfiction for the wonderful @wuzzy90 these 2 past months! I hope it was enough I put care! <3 you can also read it of course, it's a teenage-coded story of pining and yearning told of course through smut!

Since I promised, here's my playlist for it, and the link for the fic in the end! It is a prideshipping fanfiction this time. I tried to render the prompt at my best! If you want to visit, I'll be happy. :)

Nate Smith, Avril Lavigne - Can You Die From a Broken Heart

Damiano David - The First Time

Taylor Swift - Gold Rush

Sick Puppies - All The Same

Maroon 5 - Payphone

Rihanna - California King Bed

Zac Efron & Zendaya - Rewrite the Stars

Demi Lovato - Heart Attack

Selena Gomez - Naturally

Baby's first AI-generated comment, woohoo! 🥰

It's tragic: as much as I'd love my writing to be described as "feels like calm after a storm"...this specific story is 1,5k words of Keith whump, with the most graphic description I've made of a character burning alive. Something very heartwarming, if you will, but not exactly calm.

[Side note: it did remind me that I didn't share this story here. It's a companion fic to @scorp2510's VLD/HSR crossover (which I affectionately call the KIAverse, since its first fic is KIA - Killed In Action.) I'm not sure many of you are into such a crossover, but it was the first flash-fic I wrote in a while, so here goes: The Pyre, VLD/HSR crossover on AO3. I need to remember posting my stories on AO3 and sharing the links on Tumblr more often. I have a stupid backlog.]

Anyway.

The comment disappeared since, but I'm slightly concerned that this is a Registered User, which means scammers now manage to make accounts in spite of the invitation system.

In my case, I'm somewhat blasé about it, since I'm not exactly looking for comments when I post (don't get me wrong, I love receiving them! And being enthusiastic along with readers is so cool! But I mostly post on AO3 for archiving purposes first and readers later.)

But for writers who really rely on comments to remain motivated, receiving something like this and realising it's fake might be devastating.

This is, thus, your regular reminder to comment on the fics you like, so that writers know that REAL PEOPLE actually, genuinely enjoy their work. Comment with your own words, with your own feelings. Emoji and keysmashes also work. Just be yourself and don't overthink it.

DON'T LET CHATGPT WRITE YOUR COMMENTS FOR YOU. DON'T LET CHATGPT RUIN THE STORIES YOU LOVE READING.

I mean this STOP GENERATING, it fries your brain. It takes away your words, it kills your creativity slowly and it will be so hard to recover it.

Write a little less, read a little less, comment a little less, but do it YOURSELF.

Trust your brain and trust your emotions! Trust that any comment produced by you is better than feeding an algorithm and copy paste like a parrot.

Slow down, take your time!

STOP treating and creating and consuming fic and art like drugs.

Fandom is our space, shielded from money and burnout. It is a beautiful, beautiful culture of gifting each other our creativity and take care of our imagination.