The Awakening

Awakening ( Kakusei) or Awakening State (覚醒状態 Kakusei Joutai), also known as Berserk Mode, is a term used to refer to the state of mind that Yūya, Yūto, Yūgo, and Yūri occasionally enter.

Effects
This ability causes Yūya and his dimensional counterparts to go into a state of rage, signed by their glowing eyes. This usually occurs in a Duel invoking the Four Heavenly Dragons where the dragons seemingly overtake their owner's mind, or when the user is sufficiently angered, and its activation is accompanied by an excruciating amount of pain. While they are awakened, they are willing to harm or destroy their opponent in order to win the Duel. When they regain their senses, they generally have no knowledge of what happened while they were awakened. The only exception was Yūgo, who is able to retain a glimpse of his memory in such a state. If they enter the Awakening while being merged by one of their counterparts, they become vulnerable to being influenced counterpart's own memories and desires.

Notably, Yūya's Awakened state is slightly different from his dimensional counterparts. Originally, instead of going into a blind, homicidal rage, Yūya is collected and cold, speaking no more than necessary. However, during his Duel against the Obelisk Force, Yūya instead acted on Yūto's deep hatred for the Fusion Dimension for invading the Xyz Dimension and proceeded to defeat them ruthlessly. Additionally, his hair becomes wild and his pupils glow red instead of his entire eyes; in extreme cases, his hair sticks upward, his pupils glow white, and he is surrounded by a dark aura. Because he absorbed Yūto's soul and merged with it, Yūto can indirectly take control of Yūya, which triggered the state, although both souls become increasingly vulnerable to a darkness born of Yūto's hatred. Once aware of the circumstances, however, Yūya has become capable of breaking out of this mode by sheer force of will. At one point, Yūya was capable of controlling this state. So far, the only instance he did so was during his Duel against Duel Chaser 227, in which even though Yūya was filled with anger and his main objective was only to defeat his enemy, he has full control of his anger, making him less violent than before.

After coming to from the awakened state, each counterparts may have little to no recollection of what happened while they are in the state.

This ability can also be forcefully triggered by interference from outside their dragons or emotions. The notable example of this is when Yūya entered this state not because of his dragon or sufficiently angered, but because of the mind-control chip that Roget has placed that interrupted the nerve of his brain, causing his state of mind turned into turmoil.

Stages
In Yūya's case, there are multiple stages of his Awakening. Each of this stage capable of progressing into the next with enough time and each time it progresses, Yūya's Dueling skill and viciousness increases. The stages are:
 * First Stage: Yūya's irises barely glows and unlike the other stages, Yūya is not filled with anger or contempt or any negative thoughts and quite in control of himself while also becoming more serious and confident. This stage is only shown once during his Duel against Strong Ishijima. As he entered this state, he also gained the ability to Pendulum Summon. Like most stages, however, Yūya has no recollection of what he has done while in this state.Yuya's Madness.png
 * Second Stage: Yūya becomes collected and cold, speaking no more than necessary. Additionally, his hair frizzled and his voice deeper, both his iris and pupils glow and mute any natural shine to them. Yūya's Duelling becomes more straightforward in attacking his opponent. When under influence by the darkness, dark aura also surrounds his body for a moment before it dissipated. Cards in contact with him became darkened.Ep46 Awakened Yūya.png
 * Third Stage: Yūya's hair sticks upwards, his pupils glow white, and the influence of the darkness is stronger, resulting Yūya's body being constantly surrounded by a dark aura. While Yūya's Dueling skill increased, he behaves more like Zarc, vicious and even sadistic, enjoying to inflict harm on his opponents. He is also capable of unleashing powerful shockwaves that are beyond normal for a person originating from the Standard Dimension. This stage also gives Yūya a strong tolerance of pain, able to stand up and barely feeling hurt even after he continuously got attacked.Dimension Counterparts Synchronization 2.jpg
 * Fourth Stage: This stage requires all of Yūya's counterparts to be present near him or at least on the same area. Yūya pupils will glow even brighter and the dark aura surrounding him is darker and stronger than before. Yūya's anger in this stage grows to an almost primal rage, he become impervious to reason. This stage takes such a toll on their bodies and minds that their eyes becoming dull and empty as the glow fades, and all of them pass out afterwards. Anything he is in contact with also gain black aura, in the same manner as Yūya. Similar to the third stage, this stage also gives Yūya a strong tolerance of pain, able to stay conscious for a duel after and while being electrified.Yuya 128-6.png
 * Fifth Stage: Yūya's eyes become completely red. Yūya is surrounded by thicker dark aura and he is partly possessed by Zarc, wanting to show his own strength and ruthlessness to his opponents for his own pleasure.
 * Sixth Stage: Yūya's pupils become white, his hair once again stick upwards, and surrounded by a thicker dark aura. At this level of extreme rage, Yūya gained unnatural strength as he broke free from "Binding Swords of Impact".Yuya 135-4.png
 * Seventh Stage: Yūya's eyes completely white out and glow red like his counterparts. He is constantly surrounded by a dark aura and instantly release intense dark shockwaves or strong gusts of wind from his body. This stage takes a toll on Yūya's mind as he and his counterparts's mind are connected and the Four Heavenly Dragons are present on the field and resonating with one another. This is the closest stage to Zarc's awakening and the hardest to resist.Zarc 135.png
 * Final Stage: At this point and onward, Zarc has taken full control of Yūya. With Yūya's veins sprouting and sports a wicked appearances. Yūya's eyes became completely red out and glows even brigther and the dark aura he unleashes is far stronger than his previous awakening. At this stage, Zarc is capable of summoning "Astrograph Magician" without the use of Duel Disk and use its power to become Supreme King Dragon Zarc.

History
When Zarc fused with his four dragons using Astrograph Magician, he awakened when they became Supreme Dragon King Zarc.undefined

Pre-Maiami Championship
The Awakening initially appeared during Yūya's Duel with Strong Ishijima where, while his eye's didn't glow, he became serious and calculating and proceeded to defeat him and Yūya couldn't remember what happened when he first Pendulum Summoned. The Awakening appeared again during the Duel between Yūto and Yūgo. When Yūto Xyz Summoned his "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon" and Yūgo Synchro Summoned his "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" their eyes glowed. After being reminded by Yūya that he didn't want to hurt anyone, Yūto came out of his Awakening, but then lost to Yūgo who was still awakened a moment later.

Maiami Championship
Later in his Duel against Isao Kachidoki, Yūto appeared in Yūya's mind and the two merged, causing Yūya to awaken and duel ruthlessly. He summoned his Pendulum monsters and used them to summon Yūto's "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon" and won the Duel brutally. When Yūya regained his senses, he was met with concerned stares from the audience and disdain from Isao causing him to wonder what he had done.

During his Duel against Makoto Takeda and Ken Umesugi, "Dark Rebellion" appeared in Yūya's mind and he would have entered the Awakening had his ally, Dennis Macfield, not managed to bring him back to his senses before it fully consumed him. Yūya proceeded to summon "Dark Rebellion" and was able to remain in control for the remainder of the Duel and use it's affects to win.

After seeing the Knight of Duels students being turned into cards by the Obelisk Force, Yūto's memories of Heartland's invasion and vengeful hatred towards the Fusion Dimension flooded Yūya's mind, triggering Yūya to enter the Awakening again to take revenge on them. This time, Yūya's Awakening took on a whole different level; Yūya became more brutal and even enjoyed inflicting damage to his opponents. During the Duel against the Obelisk Force, Yūya progressively became more malicious and violent, becoming surrounded by a dark aura, and ultimately he summoned "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon" to defeat them all at once.

After winning the Duel, he continued to his next target, Sora Shiun'in but was restrained by Gongenzaka, Mieru Hōchun, Michio Mokota, and Teppei Tairyōbata. Yūya only kept on yelling violently in pain until he snapped out of his awakening. Mieru was able to determine that there were two hearts within Yūya, along with a terrifying darkness. Yūto's soul was the one who initially triggered the Awakening, but the darkness eventually took over both souls and worsened it.

When Yūya saw his friends being turned into cards by the Obelisk Force one by one, he awakened once more and chased after Sora. After reaching Sora, however, Yūya recalled Yūto's words and managed to calm down, negating the state.

Goaded by Reiji Akaba in their duel that brought up the memories of his carded friends and tragedy of Heartland, Yūya briefly evoked this state but able to prevent himself from entering it by his sheer force of will.

Friendship Cup: Round 1
He later briefly enters the state in his Duel against Duel Chaser 227 and though he snaps out of it soon enough since he was able to control his anger, but still retains the serious demeanor throughout the rest of the duel.

During the rematch between Dennis and Shun, Yūya briefly awakened again after learning about the former's affiliation with Academia and sensed Yūto's hatred and anger within him that reacted the moment Dennis' true colour was revealed, but he snapped out of it after remembering his own belief and the promise he made with Yūto.

Friendship Cup Semi-finals
During his match against Crow, the electrical shock chip that Roget has placed inside Yūya's helmet made his mind unstable and triggered this state. His synchronisation with his dimensional counterparts also led them to enter the same state. The state was invoked again when Yūri, the Obelisk Force, and Yūgo arrived at Yūya's location. With Yūya controlling "Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon" and "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon" in his Duel with Barrett and Yūgo and Yūri summoning their "Clear Wing" and "Starve Venom Fusion Dragon" respectively, all of the Four Heavenly Dragons were in play at the same time, causing Yūya and his counterparts to awaken and synchronize again. As the dragons began roaring in each other's presence, Yūya and his counterparts began speaking of becoming one. A huge dimensional hole appeared in the sky afterwards and his counterparts soon began heading towards it. before the unification process could begin, Yuzu arrived and sent Yūri and Yūgo away with her bracelet ending the process and the Awakening.

Fusion Dimension Arc
Yūri was shown to have awakened with a purple aura appearing behind him briefly just before he sealed Asuka Tenjōin into a card.undefined During his Duel with Ruri and Serena, a Parasite Monster landed on Yūya's shoulder and went inside his ear, attempting to take control of him. However, it caused him to awaken for a brief moment as The Darkness destroyed it. After the Doctor taunted Yūya by showing that Yuzu was under his control, Yūya and Yūto furiously awakened. They summoned "Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon" to defeat both Ruri and Serena simultaneously, destroying most of Doctor's laboratory in the process. After the Duel, Yūya remained conscious and followed them to Doctor.undefined When Yūgo and Yūri summoned "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon" and "Starve Venom Fusion Dragon" respectively, they, Yūya, and Yūto entered a synchronized awakening (with Yūya gaining his aura again) and started shouting that they would become one again.undefined When ARC-V started to power up around the girls capsule, Yūya and Yūto was worried and angrily told Leo to stop this, causing them to awaken and gain dark aura. He and Yūto manage to overcome the pain but Yūya returned to the state when Fusion Summoning "Entermate Gatlinghoul".undefined During the Duel, Yūya managed to fight most of the pain and even make brief contact to Reiji with Yūto. But, Zarc's will continued to try to take over and when the Four Heavenly Dragons were all out at the same time, Yūya's pain increased with his dark aura turning into a dragon's silhouette. As he Summoned "Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon", Yūya destroyed everything on the field and inflicting damage to Reiji unintentionally. As He was about to defeat Leo and Reiji, Yūshō bound him to a pillar with "Binding Swords of Impact".undefined Yūya then tried to break freeundefined as he sensed Yūgo and Yūri coming to him soon and didn't want to be near them.undefined When Edo and Kaito's Duel against Yūgo and Yūri, they managed to push Yūgo into a corner in order for him to regain his true self. Yūgo started to show signs of breaking free when Edo mentioned about saving Rin. Edo managed to free Yūgo from his awakening with "Destiny HERO - Duskutopiaguy", but Yūri told him it was too late to get him to smile. He then defeated Edo and Kaito with the effect of "Greedy Venom Fusion Dragon"undefinedand Yūgo with the effect of "Starve Venom".undefined When "Clear Wing" and "Starve Venom" resonated, Yūgo awakened briefly and shouted to become one just before being absorbed by Yūri.undefined Yūya broke free from it completely during their Duel but reawaken again when Yūri sealed his father into a carded and showed it to Yūya, who then broke free from "Binding Swords of Impact".undefined During his Duel with Yūri, Yūya managed to calm down after drawing "Smile World" and remembering Yūshō's words but remained awakened. When he and Yūri Summoned all Four Heavenly Dragons, their resonation caused Yūri, Yūgo, and Yūto entered a synchronized awakening and shout to become one while Yūya screamed in pain.undefined When Yūri tried to convince Yūya to surrender and become one with him, he briefly awakened while he, Yūto, and Yūgo kept shouting to become one. It also caused Yūya to awaken and release a shockwave of darkness until Reiji made him remember Yūshō's ideals to break free. Yūto and Yūgo also break free from their awakening when Yūya took control of "Dark Rebellion" and "Clear Wing" from Yūri. After Yūya defeated Yūri, he finally succumb to Zarc's will and awakened when he summoned "Astrograph Magician" to fuse with the Four Heavenly Dragons. Yūri also awaken briefly before being absorbed by Yūya to become the Supreme King Dragon Zarc.undefined

Trivia

 * Unlike his dimensional counterparts during the Awakening, Yūya's eyes doesn't glow entirely, only his pupil glows.
 * However in the sixth and the final stage, his eyes white out in red.
 * Yūya is so far the only one to nearly reach the Awakening by another dragon's influence instead of his own dragon.
 * After Zarc is revealed, the awakening of Yūgo and Yūri are changed to the glow no longer blank out the eyes.
 * Yūgo and Yūri so far are the only counterparts whose eyes still glow entirely with different colors, while Yūto has shown his pupil glowed red like Yūya and Zarc in episode 125 as oppose to his previous awakening.