Wild Sand Chapter 6
Yu-gi-oh crossover with Ranma 1/2
by Naquiel
Disclaimer - Ranma and Yu-gi-oh don't belong to me so please don't sue. I would like to apologise about the lack of any card duels in this chapter, expect one in the next chapter though!
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Chapter 6
The girls were frozen upon hearing those words, 'At the price of the World itself!'
Until Minako, aka Sailor Venus broke the silence. "Oh, he was so cute! Why, why do we never get cute, nice boys in our line of work!"
"Don't forget my Mamo-chan!" Usagi raged.
"Oh, yeah like Tuxedo Kamen can even be considered a contender against that black-haired boy, Ranma I think he said his name was!" stated Sailor Jupiter with little love-hearts in her eyes.
Usagi went of in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning.
Sailor Pluto was not pleased with the girls reactions. "Don't you want to know about how to stop him?"
"Go ahead, tell us," asked Hotaru, aka Sailor Saturn. She coughed lightly into her hand.
"Well, it started about two thousand years ago." She paused to collect her thoughts.
"At first I thought it was just an anomaly in the time stream, but normally anomalies don't grow, especially not the way it did. I did some digging and discovered that just before the anomaly started, the Ancient Egyptians were experimenting, trying to find the source of all magic. I am sure that they did not, in fact, find the source of all magic, but the source of all nightmares. They tapped into that power and played games, of all things, with it. The anomaly came to be through this, it was a side effect that made the entire Old Kingdom beyond the power of the gates to see." She paused again, as if considering what to say and what to keep secret.
"I managed to find some ways in which to penetrate this 'fog' in the Time Gates sight, but it was not easy and drew upon a lot of power. I managed to find a number of time-orientated magical items to enhance the power of the Gates and penetrate the fog, but by this time, somehow, they had managed to discover the true evil of the force they tapped into and lock it away. I thereafter ceased to consider it as a threat. The Time Gates showed nothing of what had happened in Egypt, what had happened during the magic being used, or how it was locked away; it also showed nothing of if the magic would reappear.
"Four hundred years ago, I discovered that the evil place, the Shadow Realm, as it was called, was still being tapped into. I continued to dig into the topic, and discovered that it's malignant influence was limited to several items, each containing unimaginable power from the Shadow Realm, and that together they would unleash the true force of the Shadow Realm. By making one man, or woman, a God, and spread the power of the Shadow Realm, through a giant portal, a sort of thinness in the membrane between there and here!"
"Wow," said Rei. "So how is this connected to Duel Monsters?"
"I beg your pardon!" Sailor Pluto plucked up, "Ah, that. Well, somehow, the ancient game once played by the Egyptians through the magic of the Shadow Realm has been duplicated for modern circumstances. However there is no actual magic within the cards!" she finished with a clear unopposed point.
"I'm not to sure of that!" stated Rei doubtfully. "If there is no magic to them, then how did he make two of them come alive?"
No one answered especially the shame-faced, ignorant, Pluto.
Ranma chuckled. What fools! They didn't realise the first thing about the Shadow Realm.
He was currently in his room, lying on his futon, clothed and resting, using his magic to spy of the magical girls. He was more than slightly amused that the green-haired one that attempted to kill him actually had a reason, flawed, but at least a reason that he could understand, unlike the motivations of a certain Royoga Hibiki, or say, Kuno Tatewaki!
He was curious as to why the Scouts always seemed to jump to conclusions, he had spied on them most of the day, and throughout they were always making irratic assumptions about, well, daimons.
Earlier, well after the incident at the card store, they attacked a perfectly harmless, wandering youma. It, oddly enough, had no desire to even feed itself by devouring the life energy of it's victims, going so far as to have completely starved itself of life-giving energy. It wouldn't have stood a chance against the Scout's speeches, never mind their attacks. They only way it could be saved was, a reappearance of the well-dressed Golden heart of Tokyo, who promptly carded the monster and ran off, making sure to appear the hero in the whole incident.
He found it, well, odd, that he could have pulled off that stunt without out them reacting differently, but they even reacted as if he was the saviour, even though all they knew who he really was! It must be the costume; short-skirted magical girls reincarnated from a fallen civilisation tended to lean towards men in really-wacky-cum-cool-looking-'uniforms'!
Thinking about the monster in question, he drew the slip of card from his pocket. It, like all other cards, was wonderfully elegant, in some in-perceivable way! He, however, could clearly see how it bent the magic of the Shadow Realm around itself. The scouts had assumed that the cards were either magical or non-magical, they were both very wrong!
The cards, as soon as they were printed, became one of many 'keys' to the magic of the Shadow Realm. Just like a stereotypical witch would use potions to do specific tasks, Duel Monsters were designed to, wither intentionally or not, bend the weave of magical power around themselves, becoming channels, capped with a thin membrane that held the power from leaking out into the real world. To tap into that power, one had to pierce the membrane and a Millennium Item could do that better than any High Priest!
Still, he drew his attention to the card's unique qualities. It's name was the Avatar of Tidings, in the picture box was a child-like figure in a dark rust red cloak, with the hood up, hiding all of it's face but two oval, luminous red eyes, and two thin, protruding, swept-back horns. The horns were enshrouded with a pale aura that highlighted their silver colour, and his hunched form was outlined in a similar red halo.
His attack and defence was 1500/2500, a good, very good, set of numbers, better than the Mystic Elf. But, what Ranma found the most interesting was the fact that there was a special ability demonstrated by the insecure daimon.
The little daimon was actually a cute, likeable fellow, in a demony way! He was certainly a more likeable person, than some of the people, Ranma, had met in his life! Ranma had conversed with the surprisingly intellectual creature, in the Shadow Realm, of course, where both he and the daimon could exist without the same bonds, and could meet as more-or-less equals. The only thing about his creature that Ranma worried about was its insecurity.
Every time a card representing a creature is used, in a game in the realworld, it experiences the game; it's channelled into the card. Every time it won or lost, it felt it, and revelled in it. Ranma was sure that by using the daimon in his next duel, it would increase the little ones spiritual self-confidence a great deal, and help it gain a greater understanding of it's new existence, to help it truly become one with it's new nature.
He found doing the same thing was just about impossible with the crystal daimon, or Animated Crystal, as it was newly named. The creature was very evil and sought to destroy and control as a youma, and would continue to do so as a Duel Monster, only Ranma could use that to his advantage! Any form of communication, other than, 'here's your target, seek 'em' gave any results, except a great deal of anger and resentment, and a pure evil presence, that rolled off the thing like fog!
He gave up all hope of a possible teamwork advantage, oh well; it's not as if it's necessary, he just liked feeling really close to his cards. This lack of friendship did not bother him, actually he would have found it odd if one did develop! He sensed the creature's evil on the first encounter; it was then that he knew that if things went along the lines of, he won, he carded it, then this sort of minor problem would arise, hence, he wasn't really bothered by being given the cold shoulder!
He sighed heavily as he 'heard' the Scouts begin the slow, tedious process of saying very little of interest!
Ranma was just walking to school, a perfectly natural scene, with him walking perfectly normally along the top of a fence. He, however, was quite different.
Yesterday, the day of the whole card store escapade and the capturing of two new Duel monsters, he had decided to go for a change of fashion, yet stick to the whole, Chinese-silk theme! He traded in his old red shirt with the embroidered Dragon, for a black shirt with gold lining and stitching, complete with black leather bracers on his wrists. He traded in his typical black kung-fu trousers for a similar version, except in a matching gold and black design and with black leather shin guards.
He chose these clothes as they went, surprisingly, well with his Millennium Item. The gold of the clothes was just the right shade to match the Item, and the black matched the unnaturally dark shadows cast upon the Item. Other than this matching colour scheme, Ranma liked the bracers and shin guards as useful magical assists. He planned to make each of the bracers and shin guards magical items by infusing them with power later on.
His black bookbag swung and slapped into his side as he walked, keeping perfect time, as Ranma set his pace so that each little slap meant a second had passed, he used this as a way to count the time, so that he wasn't late!
He arrived, luckily intact after a little incident with Shampoo and her bike, not to mention the demented 'fiancée' using a certain accursed mallet! He had discovered a small tear in his new shirt, obviously caused by the mallet. The wound was repairable, with a little magic, of course, but it made Ranma madder than he had ever been at Akane! He vowed revenge!
Akane was 'innocently' sitting on her group's lunch bench, talking 'lovingly' of her 'dear' 'fiancée.' With her were her two new best friends, Yiko and Saski, both new to the school that day. Her ex-friends had become sick and tired of Akane prattling on about Ranma's various faults, some real, some not.
"I hate that sick perverted jerk! He does nothing but cheat on me!" stated Akane, allowing her sick, sad fantasies to take over, as she tended to do, just about every second, 24:7!
Her two new friends nodded dumbly, they had never heard of Ranma before, never even seen him, so they just took Akane's word for it. Although they had not been to the school for any more than a day, they had lived in Nerima for a week and as such, found Akane's improbable twaddle to be disturbingly possible!
As Akane prattled on, and on, and on: the two girls developed mental pictures, of Ranma as a person. Both images were, despite minor discrepancies, of a tall, lanky boy with a runny nose and a lascivious stare! You can see how surprised they were when Akane burst out.
"There, ha, you can see for yourselves how much of a pervert he is! Look over there. Ooh, if you excuse me I have a fiancée to beat up!" she ground out as she looked beyond the two other girl's shoulders.
She stood up and stomped towards where she was looking. Curious, the two girls turned round and searched for a boy fitting the description of their mental impression! Unsurprisingly, they didn't find him, but they did find a disturbingly handsome boy dressed in black, with black hair and a cocky smile talking amiably to two other boys. One of the boys with a cast on his leg and arm, with a crutch secured under one armpit while they stood, all three with what looked like piles of cards in their hands.
They watched as Akane walked up towards the handsome black-haired boy, and for no apparent reason, took a mallet out of somewhere and hit him with it, under the chin, sending him flying high into the sky, screaming.
"What did I do? You Uncute Tomboy!" the scream faded as the distance got longer and he was just a little black dot on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Akane calmly walked back to the table, only shouting a final stream of abuse as a retort.
She promptly tucked back into her lunch, ignoring the twin stares from the shocked girls. The girls, once they had shook themselves out of their shock, put their lunches back into their bentos, stood up and walked away from the table.
"Hey, where are you going?" asked Akane loudly of the two departing girls.
Yiko shivered, turned around and replied. "You just hit that guy for no reason!"
"Yeah. If that was Ranma, I pity the poor guy for being engaged to such a b****!" Saski chimed in.
Both Yiko and Akane stared at Saski, along with others that had overheard her last word. The playground was suddenly quiet, with almost every eye in her direction.
"Um," stated Saski, embarassed. The entire student body looking at her. "Uh, my mother's a politician!"
The students and faculty simultaneously let of a loud 'oh' and returned to their business, sparing some sympathetic glances towards Saski.
"Well, the point is, you can't just hit someone like that and expect to get away with it! Even if that someone, is your fiancée. Saski, your mother's a politician, what's the name for it?" asked Yiko.
"Uh, don't remind me!" said Saski, with an unhealthy dose of self-loathing, and disgust at her mother's profession. "I think it's called husband beating, if they were married, and abuse if they aren't. I'm not sure if that changes since their engaged!"
"There!" Yiko said triumphantly. "Saski and I'll go to the police if we see you hitting someone again! I hate people who hit others for fun! You disgust me!" Yiko gave Akane a look that clearly showed her disgust and loathing for the so-called martial artist.
They made final pitying, or hateful, looks before walking away, in a search for a lunch bench with saner people at it.
Meanwhile, all Akane could do was smoulder and come to the irrational conclusion that it was all Ranma's fault.
Ranma sneezed as he floated, cross-legged, in a typical wise-man pose, high above the school, enjoying the sight of Akane's rejection. He had loved the way the two girls had showed Akane up, although he felt deep pity for the poor girl. Politician, ugh!
He loved floating, it always felt nice to get away from the normality of life, and embrace a more unusual and exotic power! Even better, no one could see him; despite he was only twenty feet above the highest point of the school!
Magic is so cool! He thought strongly, and with passion. Then he thought about Akane, he had vowed revenge, but had what the girls done enough? Na, not even close! He would devise an even worse embarrassment! The only problem, was what kind of prank to pull on her for vengeance to be satisfied?
He was so deep in though, he didn't notice Akane storm towards a madly flailing and poetry spouting, waste-of-flesh.
But, then again, was making Akane's life hard, really worth the time that he was losing. His mother's life was still attached firmly to a timer! Wouldn't it be the best thing to make his mother happy, in case the magic didn't work, and besides, wouldn't it be the right thing to do? He let a heavy sigh and answered his own question. Yes!
It was then that Kuno landed on his head, headfirst, and painfully.
Ranma was so shocked that he released the invisibility construct, in a wave of palatable mystic energy. He twitched as Kuno shifted from his place on Ranma's head, in a standing position, completely unaware that he was the wrong way up.
"Truly the Kami have recognised my place among the presence of themselves and the spirits of my ancestors. They must fear the almighty blade of the Blue Thunder..." after that Ranma, and everyone else in hearing distance, ignored him, for fear that it was contagious, and just because it was really, really boring!
All of the people in the playground, even Akane and her two ex-friends were staring, along with Nabiki, Daisuke, Hiroshi and his other lunch-bearing fiancés, and, of course the rest of the faculty and student body, up at the floating form of Ranma, and the deranged fool on his head.
Ranma was getting ticked off at the ranting kendoist on his head. He raised a hand in front of him and conjured an amount of Chi and Sa
He bent the power to his will and generated electrical charge within the magic, until it became one with the Sa. He enhanced the ball of energy with his Chi causing the sphere to flare with static, causing even the about-faced Kuno to feel the hairs of his body rising to the energy
Ranma smiled and whispered. "Kuno, your going to get a charge out of this!" he laughed evilly, then stopped realising how corny that just sounded, he took a moment to think up a better one. He couldn't! "Well, I guess the old ones are the best," he shrugged. "See ya, Kuno. Banrai Chimanako!"
The ball of electricity flew upwards and sparked fiercely.
To Kuno it was below him and therefore he made the unnatural object part of his sad, sad fantasy. "Truly is a gift from the Kami. I shall let myself receive you and make me a Kami!"
The ball of energy was not amused at the boy's aspirations of godliness. It decided to show him why it was call Heavy Thunder Frenzy. Sparks along its surface collected and flew from the main body of energy. It sent its lightening bolt towards Kuno, pushing him off Ranma's head and towards the ground.
However, despite Ranma being very confident in the power of the attack, he too, caught a great deal of the static charge as Kuno fell. The shock of the electricity put Ranma off-guard as Kuno attempted to reach for something solid. One of his flailing hands slapped Ranma on the head, with a meaty chunk.
Now, Ranma has tolerances, just like everyone else, and although he is, or all intents and purposes, superhuman, he can be affected by certain blows, particularly to the head, in this case, the affect was strong enough to make him lose concentration and let gravity take hold.
Both martial artists, one very good, the other pitifully bad, fell towards the ground. Kuno landed on his back, and passed out with, thankfully, only one verse of badly written poetry, Ranma however, did not hit the ground. Halfway down, Ranma spread his arms out wide, and seemed to float away from the ground. He landed safely down on the tarmac, feet-first.
He turned round with a feeling of foreboding. He saw the assembled crowd of pupils and faculty staring at him.
He was also at a loss for words, until Kuno spoke up, as he shakily stood from his landing pad.
"Thou evil and vile sorcerer agent of the devil, took from thy the rightful power of the Kami. I challenge thee to reveal thee hideous powers, reveal your form foul cretin, reveal, and return my Kami-hood!" Kuno was in rare form as he ranted at Ranma.
Ranma smirked as he saw a way in which to reveal his powers in perhaps the most positive, or at least, dramatic, way he could. Follow Kuno's lead and then no one will believe it.
Ranma coughed lightly into his hand and mentally prepared himself. He spoke like a character from one of Shakespeare's plays. "Yay, good warrior, it was I, before you, who stole the power of the Kami from thee. A challenge reaches my ears from your noble tongue, perchance it is fortunate that we may do the act here, in this place and time, in front of our audience, and show our prowess!"
The entire assembled crowd, including Kuno, blinked.
Ranma sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and translated to the crowd. "Yeah, I took it, so what! You want to fight?"
Kuno steeled his face upon hearing this, and replied. "Yay I shall fight thee now. Use none of your evil skills!" he warned.
"But, surely good warrior, the power of magic is nothing in the face of a noble heart?" Ranma asked, smirking.
Kuno was at a loss, unsure how to react. "Well... Um... Yay, a noble heart such as mine shall negate any foulness that you can wield."
"Alright, then let's fight!" stated Ranma as he lifted on of his hand, with the index finger extended.
"Yes, let us!" confirmed Kuno as he placed himself in an aggressive stance. He pushed off from the tarmac and flew towards Ranma.
"Sorry, Kuno, not today, and not ever!" stated Ranma, almost pityingly, looking at Kuno. "Here is my attack, Ryu..."
Kuno screamed and increased his speed, wailing his battle cry.
"... Mei..." Ranma continued, his voice deepening, unnaturally.
Kuno was only a few feet away, still screaming determinedly, and in vain.
"... Ka!" finished Ranma, a wall of red flame appearing in front of him, quickly speeding forth to engulf the approaching boy.
Kuno screamed in anger and defeat as the Dragon King Fire came at him, like a wave of flame. It's scorching touch washed over him, revealing to him, a world of pain, for only a moment, as it died like an ember on top of the hearth. The boy fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings' cut.
Ranma turned to the crowd, scratched the base of his pigtail with one hand, and smiling said, "Heh, heh. New technique, cool, huh!"
The sense of relief washed through the crowd, many releasing, deep, sighs and went around their business.
Ranma quietly sweatdropped as he saw everyone accept his barely there explanation. "Only in Nerima," he muttered in bemused puzzlement as he walked away, towards his next class, despite being early.
"Ugh," groaned Kuno as Ranma and many other people walked over him, barely noticing his presence. It was just not his day!
Ranma walked to a secluded and deserted classroom, deep in thought about the weirdness of Nerima, not noticing the creeping figure that followed him. He did not even noticed when a second figure joined her and was rudely shushed for making too much noise.
Ranma slid open the door to the classroom, and slipped inside, still deep in thought.
The two figures followed and peered through a small window, set into the door itself. Usagi and Rei had plenty of light to see what was occurring inside, and should have been content, but none-the-less Usagi still received a jab in the ribs from Rei for breathing too hard.
Ranma took a deep breath and purged his mind of that fool, Kuno. He was feeling a little flustered after the close call of the discovery of his powers, but agreed with the nagging voice in his head that told him that it was his own fault.
While he was talking to Dasuke and Hiroshi, he came to the conclusion that he had been unfair in just suddenly disappearing from Yugi's universe. It might be best, he thought now that he finished berating himself about his loss of self-control, to go back and help his new friends with Pegasus.
Ranma, being the spontaneous person that he is, hummed with his hands cupped, framing a reappearing shape. Ranma smiled when his Item was fully revealed, and readied it's power.
Rei gasped and hissed to Usagi, "That's the Millennium Item, Setsuna's been going on about! If we get it, we don't have to fight him any more!"
"Really?" Usagi was doubtful. "It isn't this easy!" she stated, worried.
"Oh, don't be a coward, come on!" spat Rei.
Ranma had already triggered his teleport ability and was just about to disappear in a flash, when two short-skirted magical girls barged in and screamed their attacks.
"Moon Therapy Kiss!" screamed the blonde, as the black-haired girl screeched, "Mars Flare Sniper!"
Both attacks hit his just as the light enveloped him. The fire attack flew past, unnoticed, while the white-magic attack rammed in to Ranma with incredible force.
Then all Ranma knew was black.
Yu-gi-oh crossover with Ranma 1/2
by Naquiel
Disclaimer - Ranma and Yu-gi-oh don't belong to me so please don't sue. I would like to apologise about the lack of any card duels in this chapter, expect one in the next chapter though!
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Chapter 6
The girls were frozen upon hearing those words, 'At the price of the World itself!'
Until Minako, aka Sailor Venus broke the silence. "Oh, he was so cute! Why, why do we never get cute, nice boys in our line of work!"
"Don't forget my Mamo-chan!" Usagi raged.
"Oh, yeah like Tuxedo Kamen can even be considered a contender against that black-haired boy, Ranma I think he said his name was!" stated Sailor Jupiter with little love-hearts in her eyes.
Usagi went of in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning.
Sailor Pluto was not pleased with the girls reactions. "Don't you want to know about how to stop him?"
"Go ahead, tell us," asked Hotaru, aka Sailor Saturn. She coughed lightly into her hand.
"Well, it started about two thousand years ago." She paused to collect her thoughts.
"At first I thought it was just an anomaly in the time stream, but normally anomalies don't grow, especially not the way it did. I did some digging and discovered that just before the anomaly started, the Ancient Egyptians were experimenting, trying to find the source of all magic. I am sure that they did not, in fact, find the source of all magic, but the source of all nightmares. They tapped into that power and played games, of all things, with it. The anomaly came to be through this, it was a side effect that made the entire Old Kingdom beyond the power of the gates to see." She paused again, as if considering what to say and what to keep secret.
"I managed to find some ways in which to penetrate this 'fog' in the Time Gates sight, but it was not easy and drew upon a lot of power. I managed to find a number of time-orientated magical items to enhance the power of the Gates and penetrate the fog, but by this time, somehow, they had managed to discover the true evil of the force they tapped into and lock it away. I thereafter ceased to consider it as a threat. The Time Gates showed nothing of what had happened in Egypt, what had happened during the magic being used, or how it was locked away; it also showed nothing of if the magic would reappear.
"Four hundred years ago, I discovered that the evil place, the Shadow Realm, as it was called, was still being tapped into. I continued to dig into the topic, and discovered that it's malignant influence was limited to several items, each containing unimaginable power from the Shadow Realm, and that together they would unleash the true force of the Shadow Realm. By making one man, or woman, a God, and spread the power of the Shadow Realm, through a giant portal, a sort of thinness in the membrane between there and here!"
"Wow," said Rei. "So how is this connected to Duel Monsters?"
"I beg your pardon!" Sailor Pluto plucked up, "Ah, that. Well, somehow, the ancient game once played by the Egyptians through the magic of the Shadow Realm has been duplicated for modern circumstances. However there is no actual magic within the cards!" she finished with a clear unopposed point.
"I'm not to sure of that!" stated Rei doubtfully. "If there is no magic to them, then how did he make two of them come alive?"
No one answered especially the shame-faced, ignorant, Pluto.
Ranma chuckled. What fools! They didn't realise the first thing about the Shadow Realm.
He was currently in his room, lying on his futon, clothed and resting, using his magic to spy of the magical girls. He was more than slightly amused that the green-haired one that attempted to kill him actually had a reason, flawed, but at least a reason that he could understand, unlike the motivations of a certain Royoga Hibiki, or say, Kuno Tatewaki!
He was curious as to why the Scouts always seemed to jump to conclusions, he had spied on them most of the day, and throughout they were always making irratic assumptions about, well, daimons.
Earlier, well after the incident at the card store, they attacked a perfectly harmless, wandering youma. It, oddly enough, had no desire to even feed itself by devouring the life energy of it's victims, going so far as to have completely starved itself of life-giving energy. It wouldn't have stood a chance against the Scout's speeches, never mind their attacks. They only way it could be saved was, a reappearance of the well-dressed Golden heart of Tokyo, who promptly carded the monster and ran off, making sure to appear the hero in the whole incident.
He found it, well, odd, that he could have pulled off that stunt without out them reacting differently, but they even reacted as if he was the saviour, even though all they knew who he really was! It must be the costume; short-skirted magical girls reincarnated from a fallen civilisation tended to lean towards men in really-wacky-cum-cool-looking-'uniforms'!
Thinking about the monster in question, he drew the slip of card from his pocket. It, like all other cards, was wonderfully elegant, in some in-perceivable way! He, however, could clearly see how it bent the magic of the Shadow Realm around itself. The scouts had assumed that the cards were either magical or non-magical, they were both very wrong!
The cards, as soon as they were printed, became one of many 'keys' to the magic of the Shadow Realm. Just like a stereotypical witch would use potions to do specific tasks, Duel Monsters were designed to, wither intentionally or not, bend the weave of magical power around themselves, becoming channels, capped with a thin membrane that held the power from leaking out into the real world. To tap into that power, one had to pierce the membrane and a Millennium Item could do that better than any High Priest!
Still, he drew his attention to the card's unique qualities. It's name was the Avatar of Tidings, in the picture box was a child-like figure in a dark rust red cloak, with the hood up, hiding all of it's face but two oval, luminous red eyes, and two thin, protruding, swept-back horns. The horns were enshrouded with a pale aura that highlighted their silver colour, and his hunched form was outlined in a similar red halo.
His attack and defence was 1500/2500, a good, very good, set of numbers, better than the Mystic Elf. But, what Ranma found the most interesting was the fact that there was a special ability demonstrated by the insecure daimon.
The little daimon was actually a cute, likeable fellow, in a demony way! He was certainly a more likeable person, than some of the people, Ranma, had met in his life! Ranma had conversed with the surprisingly intellectual creature, in the Shadow Realm, of course, where both he and the daimon could exist without the same bonds, and could meet as more-or-less equals. The only thing about his creature that Ranma worried about was its insecurity.
Every time a card representing a creature is used, in a game in the realworld, it experiences the game; it's channelled into the card. Every time it won or lost, it felt it, and revelled in it. Ranma was sure that by using the daimon in his next duel, it would increase the little ones spiritual self-confidence a great deal, and help it gain a greater understanding of it's new existence, to help it truly become one with it's new nature.
He found doing the same thing was just about impossible with the crystal daimon, or Animated Crystal, as it was newly named. The creature was very evil and sought to destroy and control as a youma, and would continue to do so as a Duel Monster, only Ranma could use that to his advantage! Any form of communication, other than, 'here's your target, seek 'em' gave any results, except a great deal of anger and resentment, and a pure evil presence, that rolled off the thing like fog!
He gave up all hope of a possible teamwork advantage, oh well; it's not as if it's necessary, he just liked feeling really close to his cards. This lack of friendship did not bother him, actually he would have found it odd if one did develop! He sensed the creature's evil on the first encounter; it was then that he knew that if things went along the lines of, he won, he carded it, then this sort of minor problem would arise, hence, he wasn't really bothered by being given the cold shoulder!
He sighed heavily as he 'heard' the Scouts begin the slow, tedious process of saying very little of interest!
Ranma was just walking to school, a perfectly natural scene, with him walking perfectly normally along the top of a fence. He, however, was quite different.
Yesterday, the day of the whole card store escapade and the capturing of two new Duel monsters, he had decided to go for a change of fashion, yet stick to the whole, Chinese-silk theme! He traded in his old red shirt with the embroidered Dragon, for a black shirt with gold lining and stitching, complete with black leather bracers on his wrists. He traded in his typical black kung-fu trousers for a similar version, except in a matching gold and black design and with black leather shin guards.
He chose these clothes as they went, surprisingly, well with his Millennium Item. The gold of the clothes was just the right shade to match the Item, and the black matched the unnaturally dark shadows cast upon the Item. Other than this matching colour scheme, Ranma liked the bracers and shin guards as useful magical assists. He planned to make each of the bracers and shin guards magical items by infusing them with power later on.
His black bookbag swung and slapped into his side as he walked, keeping perfect time, as Ranma set his pace so that each little slap meant a second had passed, he used this as a way to count the time, so that he wasn't late!
He arrived, luckily intact after a little incident with Shampoo and her bike, not to mention the demented 'fiancée' using a certain accursed mallet! He had discovered a small tear in his new shirt, obviously caused by the mallet. The wound was repairable, with a little magic, of course, but it made Ranma madder than he had ever been at Akane! He vowed revenge!
Akane was 'innocently' sitting on her group's lunch bench, talking 'lovingly' of her 'dear' 'fiancée.' With her were her two new best friends, Yiko and Saski, both new to the school that day. Her ex-friends had become sick and tired of Akane prattling on about Ranma's various faults, some real, some not.
"I hate that sick perverted jerk! He does nothing but cheat on me!" stated Akane, allowing her sick, sad fantasies to take over, as she tended to do, just about every second, 24:7!
Her two new friends nodded dumbly, they had never heard of Ranma before, never even seen him, so they just took Akane's word for it. Although they had not been to the school for any more than a day, they had lived in Nerima for a week and as such, found Akane's improbable twaddle to be disturbingly possible!
As Akane prattled on, and on, and on: the two girls developed mental pictures, of Ranma as a person. Both images were, despite minor discrepancies, of a tall, lanky boy with a runny nose and a lascivious stare! You can see how surprised they were when Akane burst out.
"There, ha, you can see for yourselves how much of a pervert he is! Look over there. Ooh, if you excuse me I have a fiancée to beat up!" she ground out as she looked beyond the two other girl's shoulders.
She stood up and stomped towards where she was looking. Curious, the two girls turned round and searched for a boy fitting the description of their mental impression! Unsurprisingly, they didn't find him, but they did find a disturbingly handsome boy dressed in black, with black hair and a cocky smile talking amiably to two other boys. One of the boys with a cast on his leg and arm, with a crutch secured under one armpit while they stood, all three with what looked like piles of cards in their hands.
They watched as Akane walked up towards the handsome black-haired boy, and for no apparent reason, took a mallet out of somewhere and hit him with it, under the chin, sending him flying high into the sky, screaming.
"What did I do? You Uncute Tomboy!" the scream faded as the distance got longer and he was just a little black dot on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Akane calmly walked back to the table, only shouting a final stream of abuse as a retort.
She promptly tucked back into her lunch, ignoring the twin stares from the shocked girls. The girls, once they had shook themselves out of their shock, put their lunches back into their bentos, stood up and walked away from the table.
"Hey, where are you going?" asked Akane loudly of the two departing girls.
Yiko shivered, turned around and replied. "You just hit that guy for no reason!"
"Yeah. If that was Ranma, I pity the poor guy for being engaged to such a b****!" Saski chimed in.
Both Yiko and Akane stared at Saski, along with others that had overheard her last word. The playground was suddenly quiet, with almost every eye in her direction.
"Um," stated Saski, embarassed. The entire student body looking at her. "Uh, my mother's a politician!"
The students and faculty simultaneously let of a loud 'oh' and returned to their business, sparing some sympathetic glances towards Saski.
"Well, the point is, you can't just hit someone like that and expect to get away with it! Even if that someone, is your fiancée. Saski, your mother's a politician, what's the name for it?" asked Yiko.
"Uh, don't remind me!" said Saski, with an unhealthy dose of self-loathing, and disgust at her mother's profession. "I think it's called husband beating, if they were married, and abuse if they aren't. I'm not sure if that changes since their engaged!"
"There!" Yiko said triumphantly. "Saski and I'll go to the police if we see you hitting someone again! I hate people who hit others for fun! You disgust me!" Yiko gave Akane a look that clearly showed her disgust and loathing for the so-called martial artist.
They made final pitying, or hateful, looks before walking away, in a search for a lunch bench with saner people at it.
Meanwhile, all Akane could do was smoulder and come to the irrational conclusion that it was all Ranma's fault.
Ranma sneezed as he floated, cross-legged, in a typical wise-man pose, high above the school, enjoying the sight of Akane's rejection. He had loved the way the two girls had showed Akane up, although he felt deep pity for the poor girl. Politician, ugh!
He loved floating, it always felt nice to get away from the normality of life, and embrace a more unusual and exotic power! Even better, no one could see him; despite he was only twenty feet above the highest point of the school!
Magic is so cool! He thought strongly, and with passion. Then he thought about Akane, he had vowed revenge, but had what the girls done enough? Na, not even close! He would devise an even worse embarrassment! The only problem, was what kind of prank to pull on her for vengeance to be satisfied?
He was so deep in though, he didn't notice Akane storm towards a madly flailing and poetry spouting, waste-of-flesh.
But, then again, was making Akane's life hard, really worth the time that he was losing. His mother's life was still attached firmly to a timer! Wouldn't it be the best thing to make his mother happy, in case the magic didn't work, and besides, wouldn't it be the right thing to do? He let a heavy sigh and answered his own question. Yes!
It was then that Kuno landed on his head, headfirst, and painfully.
Ranma was so shocked that he released the invisibility construct, in a wave of palatable mystic energy. He twitched as Kuno shifted from his place on Ranma's head, in a standing position, completely unaware that he was the wrong way up.
"Truly the Kami have recognised my place among the presence of themselves and the spirits of my ancestors. They must fear the almighty blade of the Blue Thunder..." after that Ranma, and everyone else in hearing distance, ignored him, for fear that it was contagious, and just because it was really, really boring!
All of the people in the playground, even Akane and her two ex-friends were staring, along with Nabiki, Daisuke, Hiroshi and his other lunch-bearing fiancés, and, of course the rest of the faculty and student body, up at the floating form of Ranma, and the deranged fool on his head.
Ranma was getting ticked off at the ranting kendoist on his head. He raised a hand in front of him and conjured an amount of Chi and Sa
He bent the power to his will and generated electrical charge within the magic, until it became one with the Sa. He enhanced the ball of energy with his Chi causing the sphere to flare with static, causing even the about-faced Kuno to feel the hairs of his body rising to the energy
Ranma smiled and whispered. "Kuno, your going to get a charge out of this!" he laughed evilly, then stopped realising how corny that just sounded, he took a moment to think up a better one. He couldn't! "Well, I guess the old ones are the best," he shrugged. "See ya, Kuno. Banrai Chimanako!"
The ball of electricity flew upwards and sparked fiercely.
To Kuno it was below him and therefore he made the unnatural object part of his sad, sad fantasy. "Truly is a gift from the Kami. I shall let myself receive you and make me a Kami!"
The ball of energy was not amused at the boy's aspirations of godliness. It decided to show him why it was call Heavy Thunder Frenzy. Sparks along its surface collected and flew from the main body of energy. It sent its lightening bolt towards Kuno, pushing him off Ranma's head and towards the ground.
However, despite Ranma being very confident in the power of the attack, he too, caught a great deal of the static charge as Kuno fell. The shock of the electricity put Ranma off-guard as Kuno attempted to reach for something solid. One of his flailing hands slapped Ranma on the head, with a meaty chunk.
Now, Ranma has tolerances, just like everyone else, and although he is, or all intents and purposes, superhuman, he can be affected by certain blows, particularly to the head, in this case, the affect was strong enough to make him lose concentration and let gravity take hold.
Both martial artists, one very good, the other pitifully bad, fell towards the ground. Kuno landed on his back, and passed out with, thankfully, only one verse of badly written poetry, Ranma however, did not hit the ground. Halfway down, Ranma spread his arms out wide, and seemed to float away from the ground. He landed safely down on the tarmac, feet-first.
He turned round with a feeling of foreboding. He saw the assembled crowd of pupils and faculty staring at him.
He was also at a loss for words, until Kuno spoke up, as he shakily stood from his landing pad.
"Thou evil and vile sorcerer agent of the devil, took from thy the rightful power of the Kami. I challenge thee to reveal thee hideous powers, reveal your form foul cretin, reveal, and return my Kami-hood!" Kuno was in rare form as he ranted at Ranma.
Ranma smirked as he saw a way in which to reveal his powers in perhaps the most positive, or at least, dramatic, way he could. Follow Kuno's lead and then no one will believe it.
Ranma coughed lightly into his hand and mentally prepared himself. He spoke like a character from one of Shakespeare's plays. "Yay, good warrior, it was I, before you, who stole the power of the Kami from thee. A challenge reaches my ears from your noble tongue, perchance it is fortunate that we may do the act here, in this place and time, in front of our audience, and show our prowess!"
The entire assembled crowd, including Kuno, blinked.
Ranma sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and translated to the crowd. "Yeah, I took it, so what! You want to fight?"
Kuno steeled his face upon hearing this, and replied. "Yay I shall fight thee now. Use none of your evil skills!" he warned.
"But, surely good warrior, the power of magic is nothing in the face of a noble heart?" Ranma asked, smirking.
Kuno was at a loss, unsure how to react. "Well... Um... Yay, a noble heart such as mine shall negate any foulness that you can wield."
"Alright, then let's fight!" stated Ranma as he lifted on of his hand, with the index finger extended.
"Yes, let us!" confirmed Kuno as he placed himself in an aggressive stance. He pushed off from the tarmac and flew towards Ranma.
"Sorry, Kuno, not today, and not ever!" stated Ranma, almost pityingly, looking at Kuno. "Here is my attack, Ryu..."
Kuno screamed and increased his speed, wailing his battle cry.
"... Mei..." Ranma continued, his voice deepening, unnaturally.
Kuno was only a few feet away, still screaming determinedly, and in vain.
"... Ka!" finished Ranma, a wall of red flame appearing in front of him, quickly speeding forth to engulf the approaching boy.
Kuno screamed in anger and defeat as the Dragon King Fire came at him, like a wave of flame. It's scorching touch washed over him, revealing to him, a world of pain, for only a moment, as it died like an ember on top of the hearth. The boy fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings' cut.
Ranma turned to the crowd, scratched the base of his pigtail with one hand, and smiling said, "Heh, heh. New technique, cool, huh!"
The sense of relief washed through the crowd, many releasing, deep, sighs and went around their business.
Ranma quietly sweatdropped as he saw everyone accept his barely there explanation. "Only in Nerima," he muttered in bemused puzzlement as he walked away, towards his next class, despite being early.
"Ugh," groaned Kuno as Ranma and many other people walked over him, barely noticing his presence. It was just not his day!
Ranma walked to a secluded and deserted classroom, deep in thought about the weirdness of Nerima, not noticing the creeping figure that followed him. He did not even noticed when a second figure joined her and was rudely shushed for making too much noise.
Ranma slid open the door to the classroom, and slipped inside, still deep in thought.
The two figures followed and peered through a small window, set into the door itself. Usagi and Rei had plenty of light to see what was occurring inside, and should have been content, but none-the-less Usagi still received a jab in the ribs from Rei for breathing too hard.
Ranma took a deep breath and purged his mind of that fool, Kuno. He was feeling a little flustered after the close call of the discovery of his powers, but agreed with the nagging voice in his head that told him that it was his own fault.
While he was talking to Dasuke and Hiroshi, he came to the conclusion that he had been unfair in just suddenly disappearing from Yugi's universe. It might be best, he thought now that he finished berating himself about his loss of self-control, to go back and help his new friends with Pegasus.
Ranma, being the spontaneous person that he is, hummed with his hands cupped, framing a reappearing shape. Ranma smiled when his Item was fully revealed, and readied it's power.
Rei gasped and hissed to Usagi, "That's the Millennium Item, Setsuna's been going on about! If we get it, we don't have to fight him any more!"
"Really?" Usagi was doubtful. "It isn't this easy!" she stated, worried.
"Oh, don't be a coward, come on!" spat Rei.
Ranma had already triggered his teleport ability and was just about to disappear in a flash, when two short-skirted magical girls barged in and screamed their attacks.
"Moon Therapy Kiss!" screamed the blonde, as the black-haired girl screeched, "Mars Flare Sniper!"
Both attacks hit his just as the light enveloped him. The fire attack flew past, unnoticed, while the white-magic attack rammed in to Ranma with incredible force.
Then all Ranma knew was black.