Fandom: Yugioh x Death Note crossover

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/944883

Summary: Light Yagami solves the Millennium Puzzle and it all goes down hill from there. Encompasses the Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and Waking the Dragons arcs of Yugioh.

Warnings: None

Characters: Light Yagami, L (Death Note), Yugi Muto, Yami Yugi, Matsuda Touta, Yami Bakura, and pretty much every other character from Yugioh at least cameos, with varying prominence over the course of the series.

Pairings: None

When I Started: scarhoax and I started watching Yugioh in the summer of 2015 and thus Millennium Death Note was born. That summer, I wrote the entirety of the first installment, Stealer of Souls, which revolves around the Duelist Kingdom arc, and we had detailed plans for a second installment, set around Battle City, and vague plans for a third around Waking the Dragons.

How I Lost My Shit: I lost my shit a few times along the way. After finishing Stealer of Souls, I jumped into part 2, Controller of Minds, only to get stuck on that first scene, with L facing off against the Millennium Ring. I didn't end up getting back to it until the summer of 2018. I happened to suddenly have a lot of free time, and my writing skills had leveled up enough in the interim that I was finally able to finish that scene and the rest of Controller of Minds shortly followed.

We had known from the start that there needed to be a third installment, and that it would revolve around the Waking the Dragons arc of Yugioh, but our plans didn't go far beyond that. By the time I finished Controller of Minds, it had been long enough since that fateful watching of Yugioh that in order to plot it out part 3, Tamer of Beasts, I would need to rewatch season 4, which I wasn't racing to do (it's not a great show).

How I Finished My Shit: I didn't get around to rewatching season 4 until the beginning of 2021, listening to it in the background while I cooked (that's how we got through a lot of the show the first time too). After that, I did a little bit of plotting and I knew I should write it soon, but I had other stories on my plate and it just wasn't such a big priority any more. Then I discovered the WIP Big Bang, which is exactly what I needed to give me a push to just get it done. I also revised the first two installments along the way. The final part isn't perfect, but I don't know if it ever would have happened otherwise, and it's great to just finally have it complete!