Disclaimer: Ranma, Yugi-oh and Slayers are figments of some other peoples' 
imaginations and one should not blame the writer of this fic.


< >: Thoughts

Ranma-chan: Ranma as a girl, also called Ranko



Prologue

A Puzzling Opportunity


In the district of Nerima, a teenage martial artist of exceptional talent 
wandered about the neighborhood bazaar as he waited for the arrival of his 
short-tempered fiance. During this time, Ranma Saotome had decided to check 
out some of the stands and the second-hand merchandise that was being 
offered for sale. Since he didn't have much money with him, especially after 
Nabiki had taken her weekly extortion payoff, he wasn't thinking of buying 
anything. In any case, he thought that most of the junk there was overpriced 
and not worth spending what few yen coins he had left.

Just as Ranma passed another stand, a flash of gold caught his eye. He 
turned around and saw a small box that had several odd-shaped pieces of 
gold-colored metal in it. The box was surrounded by various pieces of 
jewelry and whatnot on the counter. He approached the stand which had an old 
man manning it.

"Good day to you sir. Can I interest you in anything?"

Ranma shrugged as he replied. "I'm... just browsing." As he looked over the 
various pieces of merchandise, his gaze kept on returning to that strange 
box with the metal pieces in it. He could tell by their tarnished surfaces 
that whatever that thing had been was old. However, it was clearly broken 
and the old man was probably just trying to get rid of it.

"What is that?" He pointed to the box.

"Ah, you have a good eye." The old man smiled as a glint appeared in his 
eye. "This particular item is an antique, coming all the way from ancient 
Egypt."

<Yeah, right.> Ranma thought sarcastically. <Some people will say anything 
to sell off their old, broken junk!>

"No, it is not junk, nor is it broken." The vender said with a grin.

"Huh?" The son of Genma was about to ask how the old man knew what he was 
thinking, then shrugged. <Probably a lucky guess.> "Okay, if it's not junk, 
then what is it?" Ranma asked, deciding to humor the old man.

"This... is a puzzle."

"A puzzle?"

"Yes. It is a very special puzzle."

"It looks like a box of broken metal to me." Ranma snorted.

"To the untrained eye." The old man agreed. "Nonetheless, it is a puzzle and 
a very complex one at that. As far back as I can remember, no one has EVER 
solved it."

"Yeah?" Ranma was already becoming bored. "So what's so special about this 
puzzle?"

"It is said that whoever solves this puzzle will have the key to attaining 
his greatest desire."

This had caught the pigtailed martial artist's attention, but he was very 
suspicious. His greatest desire was of course finding a cure for his 
Jusenkyo curse, but after all the failed attempts and false promises to 
achieve that goal, Ranma was more wary of getting his hopes up.

"I see that you do not believe me." The vendor said quietly. "Well then, how 
about this? Why don't you try to solve it? Then you will find out just how 
special this puzzle really is."

"Me? I ain't interested in puzzles and stuff like that. Besides, I ain't got 
much money."

"Ten yen."

"Excuse me?"

"I'll give you the whole puzzle and the box for ten yen."

"You're offering all this for ten yen?"

"Yes."

"Nothing's THAT cheap. What's the catch?"

"No catch. Ten yen."


----------


"Ranma, where have you been? I've been waiting for you for twenty minutes!" 
Akane fumed at her fianc as he came walking toward her with a small box in 
his hands.

"Uh, I was just looking around and I guess I lost track of time."

"What's that?" Akane pointed at the box.

"This? Oh, it's... just something that I bought. The vendor said that it was 
some kind of puzzle."

At first, Akane became excited as she believed that Ranma had bought her a 
gift. However, as soon as she looked inside of the box, she frowned.

"That's not a puzzle! It's just a box of worthless junk!"

"Well... I haven't put it together yet. It only cost me ten yen and..."

"Hmpf! You wasted your money, and I wasted my time waiting for you!" Without 
another word, the angry girl turned and left him in a huff.


----------


Later that night, the Tendo home after dinner...


"<Just what was I thinking?> Ranma stared at the pieces of the puzzle as he 
sat at the dining table. <Maybe Akane was right. This isn't a puzzle, it's 
just some worthless hunks of metal and I got suckered out of ten yen! I just 
can't believe that I fell for that line that this thing could fulfill my 
greatest desire.>

Ranma began absently fingering two of the pieces in his hands and rubbed the 
sides together. He rotated and slid the parts about, not caring about 
anything in particular. It was then that he began feeling strange. His hands 
began moving as if they were being guided. He started hearing a very 
powerful, ancient voice in his head. When the two pieces became aligned in a 
certain position, they instantly came together like two magnets and fused 
into a larger piece.

Ranma stared at the object in confusion, then looked down at the remaining 
pieces of the puzzle. Slowly, he reached for another piece. He held it up 
and tried to fit its edges along the ones on the larger piece. The new piece 
locked into place with the first two.

Slowly, but surely, the teenager began fitting the puzzle pieces together. 
He thought that it was strange that he was assembling something without 
knowing what the finished product would look like. As he worked the puzzle, 
he kept hearing that odd voice in his head, urging and guiding him on how 
the pieces fit with each other. The puzzle began taking shape and formed a 
small pyramid with a metal hoop at the bottom. At last, he reached for the 
final piece, which resembled an eye and snapped it into place, completing 
the puzzle. It was then that the thing gave off a brief, but mysterious 
light which almost made Ranma drop it in surprise. It felt as if it were 
alive, and that was when he knew that he was on to something. After dealing 
with various kinds of magic, (Jusenkyo, magic mushrooms, the Wishbringer 
Sword, the Dragon's Whisker, the Mark of a God, etc), Ranma knew that he was 
in possession of some kind of mystical item. The problem was that he didn't 
know how this could help him become free of his curse. He knew that somehow, 
it could. He just had to find out what. Until then, he would have to hold on 
to it.

Ranma stood up and went up to the guest room. Currently, both his father and 
Soun Tendo were out drinking, Happosai was out on his nightly panty raid, 
Nabiki was separating another fool from his money, Kasumi had gone shopping 
and Akane was out with some friends. Entering the room that he shared with 
his father, he went to the closet and took out his backpack. Reaching into a 
pocket, he pulled out a length of string and threaded it through the loop of 
the puzzle, forming a kind of necklace. Tying the ends of the string 
together, he then hung it around his neck.

<That should do for now.> He looked into a nearby mirror and shrugged as the 
puzzle glittered. <Not a bad deal for ten yen.>


----------


The next day...


"Oh how pretty!" Kasumi said as she held the puzzle in her hands. "What is 
it?"

"It's a puzzle that I bought at the bazaar for ten yen." Ranma shrugged. "I 
put it together last night."

Akane snorted as she glanced at it while heading out the door. "It's just a 
tacky piece of jewelry, that's all." She was still feeling insulted that 
Ranma had not bought it for her.

Nearby, Genma and Soun were engaged in another round of Shogi. The father to 
the heir of the Anything Goes frowned as he looked at the trinket that hung 
around Ranma's neck. When he had first laid eyes on it, he had thought about 
selling it for some fast cash. However, after hearing how little his son had 
paid for it, and that it wasn't real gold, he had later labeled it as 
worthless junk.

Little did Ranma know that he was in possession of one of the legendary 
Millennium Items, and that he was one step closer to realizing his dream to 
be free of the Jusenkyo curse. The item only LOOKED like a simple piece of 
jewelry and was actually worth far more than mere gold. The magic within it 
would reveal itself when the time came. Until then, the spell that made it 
appear worthless, kept on making others believe that it was nothing more 
than a trinket.


----------


Noon at Furinken High...


"What's going on?" Ranma asked a student as he saw a large group of people 
crowded around one of the picnic tables near the gymnasium.

"Daisuke and Obari are having a duel!" The teen replied as he went over 
toward the crowd.

<A duel? Daisuke's not a martial artist. > Ranma followed the boy and 
managed to get near the table where the two teens were 'duking it out.'

"Huh? I thought they were having a duel." The only thing that Ranma could 
see was two students vigorously slapping down cards with pictures of 
monsters and warriors on them.

"They are!" A nearby student replied excitedly. "And it looks like Daisuke 
has Obari cornered!"

"But... they're not throwing any punches or anything." Ranma was confused, 
but deep within his Millennium Puzzle, an ancient presence began to react to 
the game.

"It's not that kind of duel. They're playing Duel Monsters! It's the hottest 
game in world! Everybody's playing it! Don't you know about it?"

Ranma could only shake his head. After all, if it didn't have martial arts 
in it, he tended to ignore such things. Furthermore, this game dealt with 
cards, and he knew that he sucked at cards. However, the magic within his 
Millennium Puzzle began stirring in response to the game.

The pigtailed martial artist shrugged as he turned to walk away. This didn't 
concern him. As he began moving away from the crowd, he heard Daisuke's 
voice as he cried out in disbelief.

"Oh no! It's a trap card!"

Obari smirked as he triumphantly slapped down his final card. "My Vortex 
freezes your Rock Ogre and cuts your attack points in half! Now my 
Cyber-Triceratops destroys your monster! Your Life Points are gone! I win! 
Hand over your lunch money!"

"No fair! C'mon, give me another chance!"

"Tough luck! Hand it over!"

Daisuke grumbled as he reached into his pocket and gave his opponent all of 
his money. "That wasn't fair."

"It's not my fault that you stink!" Obari said with a sneer.

"But it's all the money that I have! I won't be able to buy lunch for a 
week!"

"Then you shouldn't have bet it all on that pathetic deck of yours! Then 
again, you always were a loser!"


----------



In the background, Ranma clenched a fist. He hated to see bullies picking on 
the weak. However, this wasn't like his other fights and Daisuke had made 
the mistake. He had wagered, and since it dealt with cards instead of fists, 
there was nothing Ranma could do about it.

Or was there?

The Millennium Puzzle then glowed with an eerie light as Ranma's desire to 
help his friend had activated the ancient magic within. The martial artist 
felt strange new energies flooding into his body. The light was so bright, 
that he had to shut his eyes. When it faded away, Ranma stood with more 
confidence than he had ever felt before. If he tried to fire off his 
confidence-fueled ki, it would have devastated the entire schoolyard. He had 
remained unchanged except for his hair, which was more unruly. With one 
quick turn, he headed back to where Daisuke and Obari were.


----------


"Care to bet next week's allowance?" Obari chuckled.

Daisuke was about to shake his head and leave when he felt a strong hand 
being placed on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw his fellow classmate 
smiling at him.

"Ranma?"

"Don't worry Daisuke. Everything will be all right." He addressed Obari with 
a much harder edge to his voice. "I hereby challenge you to a duel!"

"You?" Like everyone else in school, Obari knew that Ranma was the top 
martial artist in Nerima. He beat up Kuno on a regular basis. He shivered as 
he knew that he would be no match against Ranma in fight.

However, Ranma simply smiled as he said, "I don't mean THAT kind of duel. 
I'm challenging you to a game of Duel Monsters!"

Obari gave off a sigh of relief, then smiled. Thanks to a little tidbit that 
he had bought from Nabiki, he knew that Ranma was also the world's worst 
card player, which gave him a decided advantage. He could gain some 
notoriety, if he were to defeat Ranma. "Okay... sure, but what are the 
stakes?"

Ranma gestured for Daisuke to stand up. when Ranma sat down, he asked 
Daisuke, "May I use your deck?"

Daisuke looked down at the cards in his hand, then shrugged while handing it 
to him.

Ranma took the deck and used his Chestnut technique to flash through them. 
After scanning its contents, he nodded as he addressed Obari once more. "I 
can't see how Daisuke could have lost to you, especially since his deck has 
some very strong cards. Therefore, I will use his deck and when I defeat 
you, you'll give back Daisuke's lunch money."

"You think you can beat me using his wimpy cards?" Obari snorted. "You don't 
even know how to play this game!"

"If you're not afraid, then you'll have nothing to lose." Ranma said simply 
as he shuffled the deck in his hands.

Obari snorted again. "Fine, but if I win, then you'll give me your whole 
month's allowance! Deal?"

"Agreed." The martial artist replied as he laid down the deck and drew five 
cards. "IT'S TIME TO DUEL!"

At this point, the crowds got bigger as more people became interested.


----------


A little later...


"That jerk! Where is he?" Akane grumbled as she looked about for Ranma. She 
frowned as she saw Ukyo approaching with a takeout box in her hands; 
obviously for Ranma, of course.

"Hey Akane. Have you seen Ranma? I made this special seafood okonomiyaki for 
him."

"No." Akane gritted as she looked down at Ukyo's food. It smelled wonderful 
and there was no doubt in her mind that Ranma would gulp it down without 
hesitation. <That baka! He'll eat Ukyo or Shampoo's cooking, but not mine! 
Hmpf!>

"Hey, look at that crowd over there." Ukyo said as she pointed to where a 
large gathering of people were surrounding a picnic table. "I wonder what's 
going on?"

Both girls decided to investigate and headed toward the mass of spectators. 
When they got to it, they were just barely able to see past the throngs of 
people.

Ukyo tapped the shoulder of one of the observers. "Excuse me, but can you 
tell us what's going on?"

"It's a really intense Dual Monsters game!" The student replied, while 
keeping his eyes focused on the match.

"Dual Monsters?" Akane repeated. "Isn't Dual Monsters that really popular 
card game that everyone is playing now?"

Ukyo nodded. "Yeah. It's caught on here in Furinken. I've even gotten hooked 
on it." She reached into the pocket of her male school uniform and pulled 
out a deck of cards. "It involves a LOT of strategy."

Akane smirked. "Well then, I'll bet that Ranma would be totally useless at 
this game."

"No argument here, sugar." The okonomiyaki chef then asked the student. "So 
who's playing?"

"Our school champion Obari and Saotome. Ranma's already beaten Obari four 
games in a row!" The student replied.

"WHAT?!" Both girls cried out.

"That's impossible! Ranma's the world's WORST card player!" Akane exclaimed 
as she began pushing her way toward the table. Ukyo followed and both were 
in a state of shock as they saw Ranma about to trounce his opponent.


----------


"Draw your last card, Obari."

The current Duel Monters champion of Furinken growled as he slapped a card 
onto the table. "I've got you this time! Let's see if you can stand up to my 
Ice Giant and his Blizzard Beam Attack!"

Ranma however, was unconcerned as he simply flipped over a card that he had 
laid out previously. "I counter with this trap card, Mirror Force!"

"WHAT?!"

"The Mirror Force reflects any attack right back at you. Your Ice Giant is 
destroyed and you have no more Life Points. I win."

Obari could do nothing but stare with his mouth agape. The cards in his 
hands fell though his fingers as Ranma got up.

"Wait! Just one more game!"

"There would be little point. You're clearly no match for me. Now, you will 
give back Daisuke his lunch money, or do you want to lose more than just a 
few games?" Ranma's underlying threat was emphasized as he held up a fist 
and clenched it even tighter, cracking his knuckles.

The former Duelist Champion of Furinken gritted his teeth, but gave in as he 
reached into his pocket, and returned the money to Daisuke before skulking 
off. The rest of the crowds cheered on Ranma's victories as he held out the 
deck to his friend.

"Here's your deck back."

Daisuke smiled as he shook his head. "Nah. You keep it, Ranma. Think of it 
as my way of thanking you for getting my money back. I'll build a new deck."

On the sidelines, Akane and Ukyo were still in a state of shock. Ranma had 
actually won at something besides martial arts?


---------


At the Tendo Home...


"Well Ranma, I hear that you've become a Duel Monsters sensation in just one 
day." Nabiki commented as she confronted him while he was practicing some 
katas in the dojo. "So when did you become so good at card games?"

"None of your business." Ranma said as he continued to put his body through 
its paces.

"Oh don't give me that, Ranma. Until today, you couldn't win a card game to 
save your life without cheating." Nabiki remembered how Ranma had beaten the 
Gambling King. "Now all of a sudden, you beat the school's best player at a 
very complicated game; not once but FIVE times in a row!"

"I guess I got lucky."

"No way! The odds are too stacked against you, to chalk up those wins to 
luck! You didn't even know how the game was played until today. Out with it, 
Ranma!"

"Leave me alone, Nabiki." He growled as he finished with his katas and 
headed toward the furo to take a short bath before dinner.

Nabiki frowned. This was the first time that Ranma rebelled against her 
without even thinking about the consequences. That would not do. She had to 
know just how Ranma had done it and whether or not she could turn this new 
talent into a money maker. Nabiki decided that it was time to remind him of 
his place.

"Hold it, Ranma. You can't just walk away."

"Hmmm?" Ranma stopped and glanced over his shoulder.

"Why don't we play a little game?" The middle Tendo daughter held up a deck 
of playing cards. "Instead of Dual Monsters, we'll play a few hands of 
poker. If I win three hands, then you'll tell me everything that I want to 
know, PLUS pose for a few dozen snapshots. Kuno's getting hungry for photos 
of his pigtailed goddess again."

"And when I win three hands?" Ranma asked, not turning around to face her.

Nabiki's eyebrows narrowed. Ranma had said 'when,' not if. "If by some 
miracle that you win three hands... I'll cancel out half of the amounts that 
you owe me."

"All of it."

"What?"

"This will be an all or nothing deal. My secrets and the snapshots versus 
the all the debts that I owe you. After all, I'll be sacrificing my pride 
and my cursed body to your camera. Unless, you're afraid?"

Nabiki considered him for a very long time, before finally nodding. 
"Agreed." <Ranma's not THAT smart and he's no match against me when it comes 
to gambling.>

Ranma's Millennium Puzzle glowed with a soft light as Ranma became something 
more. Since his back was turned to Nabiki, she did not catch the subtle 
transformation. When he turned around, his expression was more smug as he 
said, "It's time to duel."


----------


Three hands later...


Nabiki was in state of total disbelief as Ranma got up from the floor after 
beating her Full House with a Royal Straight Flush.

"And that's win number three. Nice doing business with you, Nabiki. I don't 
owe you anything. We're quits!"

As Ranma left the dojo, Akane's sister remained as still as a statue.

<How did he DO that?!>

Then she winced as she realized that Ranma's debts were now null and void.


----------


Later that night...


<How did I do that?> Ranma thought as he lay on his futon. <I've never 
played Dual Monsters in my life, but as soon as I had those cards in my 
hands, I knew all the rules and the best ways to play! And I BEAT Nabiki at 
her own game!> He continued to ponder as he absently fingered his Millennium 
Puzzle. He held up the charm in front of him and considered. <Could... it 
have something to do with this? My greatest desire is to be cured of my 
curse, but getting Nabiki to cancel out what I owed to her, comes in as a 
close second.>

The martial artist eventually decided to figure it out in the morning and 
soon went to sleep. A few minutes later, the Millennium Puzzle glowed again 
as Ranma's consciousness slipped from the mortal plane and entered another 
side of existence known as the Shadow Realm. It was there that Ranma awoke 
to find himself facing... himself.

"W-Where am I? How did I get here? And... who are you?"

The mirror image of himself, (except for the more wilder hairstyle), nodded 
as he replied. "In order, you are in the Shadow Realm. You were brought here 
by the Millennium Puzzle. And as for who I am... simply put, I'm you. 
However, you may call me Yami."


End of Prologue...


Author's Notes

Whether or not I will continue this is up in the air, but I just had to 
write this much down after seeing Yugi-oh. We all know that Ranma is the 
worst card player, so I thought this might put a new spin on things. 
Eventually, I was going to add the Slayers Cast when Ranma goes to search 
for the other Millennium Items in Lina Inverse's world and so on. Ah, too 
many ideas and too much caffeine does this to me every time.

