Cursed

Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh! or Ranma 1/2. Those belong to Kazuki Takahashi and Rumiko Takahashi respectively. This is a product of my warped mind wanting to cross EVERYTHING over with Ranma 1/2 and actually writing it down this time. Of course, this is just for FUN and I'm not making any money out of this, so please do not sue me.

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Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, was making his way across Domino City, a worried expression on his face. He had come here from Nerima as he'd had a feeling that something very bad was about to happen and if there was one thing that Ranma had learned over the years it was to trust this kind of gut instinct. They didn't often steer him wrong.



As he drew closer to the tall building that housed Kaiba Corporation, the feelings intensified sharply and he began to feel very uneasy. Suddenly, he looked up at the top of the imposing building and stopped dead as he did so. Was that someone standing on the edge of the roof? And, from the blond hair, could it possibly be Jonouchi? He quickly picked up the pace again, a sense of urgency urging him on. Something here was very wrong and if what he suspected was true then he would not have time to go through the building to get to the roof, let alone argue with all the security he was bound to run into.



Making a snap decision, he jumped the wall and started bouncing up the side of the building in true Anything Goes style, instinctively finding small ledges and footholds that anyone else would have missed, let alone been able to use. He just prayed that he would be fast enough.



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Seto Kaiba came to, blinking blearily as he struggled to overcome his disorientation, which was exacerbated by the barrage of mixed emotions he was experiencing due to the backwash from Jonouchi. He stumbled forwards a step as he tried to regain his balance, only for his foot to meet air.



Suddenly he had perfect clarity of thought as he realised what was happening. He was falling from the roof of the Kaiba Corporation building and he was going to meet his end in a similar way to his adoptive father. But what had Jonouchi been doing up on the edge of the roof in the first place? Had he really been intending to kill himself? For some reason the thought of the blond being so upset as to want to take his own life left Kaiba feeling cold. All these thoughts chased through his mind at lightning speed as he finally overbalanced and began to fall, oddly calm as he came to terms with the fact that he had died once already and at least this would be quicker than drowning.



Just as he had resigned himself to his fate, he noticed a red blur bouncing up the side of the building. Well, that was usnusual…



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Ranma Saotome, now in female form thanks to the same rain shower that had changed Jonouchi to Kaiba, noticed the tall brunet starting to fall and picked up her pace. "Kaiba!" she shouted as she approached the CEO, trying to give him some notice so that he could prepare himself.



Kaiba heard Ranma scream his name and, realising what the redhead intended to do, he hurriedly braced himself for impact, knowing that this was going to hurt like hell, but at least it would be better than ending up as pavement pizza.



Almost as that thought finished crossing his mind, Ranma reached and crashed into him, knocking all the breath out of him as she used her momentum to drive him back up onto the roof. Once they were safely up and away from the edge, Seto Kaiba promptly emptied his stomach.



That had been a close one.



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Yugi Mutou, scared by the desperate phone call that he had received from Jonouchi, quickly ushered the last customer out of the shop and locked the door. He was about to call for a taxi when his darker half spoke to him. /Yugi,/ Yami said in the back of his mind, /let me take over for now./



/Go ahead, Yami,/ Yugi replied even as he relinquished control to the spirit who, knowing that this was a desperate situation, wasted no time in creating a shadow portal - something he would never have considered doing otherwise. He stepped through to emerge outside the rear of the Kaiba Corporation building, immediately looking up to assess the situation. He gasped as he saw a flash of red push someone who was wearing white back up onto the roof and instantly knew that someone or something had just saved his cousin and Jonouchi from meeting their end.



After making sure that no one was watching, Yami took a deep breath, gathering what remained of his reserves of shadow magic as he created another portal and stepped through directly to the roof of the Kaiba Corporation building.



"What the hell?" a red-headed woman exclaimed, eyes widening as the spike haired king of games stepped out of the strange dark portal. She stepped away from where she had been checking Kaiba over to ensure that he wasn't badly injured and prepared to defend against what she perceived to be a possible threat.



"Stand down, Saotome." Kaiba gasped the instruction out as he attempted to catch his breath. However, he looked up at Yami with shocked eyes. "You…" he struggled to speak. "I thought you were gone."



"I'll explain later cousin," Yami said in his deep voice, "But recall that this is not the first time we have met since you were cursed."



"I'm not your cousin," Kaiba groused, even now attempting to deny his past, although it was fast becoming clear that this was an exercise in futility.



"You were once," Yami stated, "and your soul is the same now as it was back then, no matter how much you wish to deny it. Now let's get you off the roof." Reluctantly, Kaiba permitted Yami and Ranma to assist him back to his office. Ranma clearly had many questions running through her mind, but she remained silent for now, assessing the situation as she watched this play out, knowing that she would likely get answers to the strange goings on in due course.



Finally, Seto sat in his office chair and sipped at the glass of water that the martial artist had procured for him. Seto had wanted something stronger but had been warned that it was probably not a good idea to stress his stomach any further at the moment. Once he had finished drinking, the events of the last few minutes finally started to catch up with him and he placed his head into his hands. "So, does anyone want to explain to me what the hell just happened?" he asked.



"I think that… Jonouchi had intended to kill himself, cousin," Yami said, earning himself a sharp look from the blue eyed teen for the continued use of that particular form of address. "He called Yugi a short while ago to say goodbye." Giving Kaiba a dark look, he continued, "You have broken him Kaiba."



Kaiba looked blankly at Yami. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, knowing full well that Yami wouldn't pull any punches and he wasn't likely to like the answer that he got.



"Oh, Kaiba," Yami shook his head, "Only that Jonouchi basically gave up his entire life for you and you did not even deign to notice, let alone care," he said, exasperation bleeding through into his voice. "He never sees his friends any more and you know how important friendship is to Jonouchi." He raised a hand to forestall Kaiba who had been about to interrupt. Knowing the CEO it was probably going to be a disparaging remark about the 'friendship fusion'. "Not only that but he is about to be expelled from school for non attendance." Yami sighed as he continued, "He could probably have dealt with all that, but he really needed to see his sister today. You of all people should understand the importance of family."



"But the meetings I've missed..." Kaiba protested weakly, only to be cut off again.



"Think about it Kaiba," Yami said harshly, "When is the last time that you missed a scheduled meeting?" Seto made to reply, only for Yami to cut him off, "Don't bother to answer, I can tell you. It was shortly after we all returned from China, and it only happened then because you had not seen fit to share your schedule with Jonouchi. The worst of it is that even after that incident you still did not share your schedule with him, but despite you making it extremely difficult, Jonouchi has bent over backwards to make sure that he was not a burden to you and yet you simply took him for granted. Just think about it," Yami insisted again as Kaiba was about to argue, "Jonouchi could have made life very difficult for you but he went out of his way not to."



"So how come no-one told Kaiba about what Jonouchi was doing?" Ranma asked, reminding the other occupants of the room of her presence. "Surely if someone had told him about it then maybe things would not have come to this point."



"Jonouchi did not want us to say anything," Yami informed the red haired woman, "He was of the opinion that if Kaiba was such a genius then he should be able to work it out for himself. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account that Kaiba wouldn't even give it consideration." He looked harshly at the CEO, who sat there glowering back. "There is also the fact that Kaiba would most likely not have listened to us anyway."



"It sounds like this has been building up for a little while then," Ranma observed.



"Yes, it has. But I think the thing that really sent Jonouchi over the edge wasn't what happened with his sister today, although it didn't help." Yami said.



"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked in a neutral tone, doing his best to hide his inner turmoil.



"Tell me, cousin," Yami said, "What was the last thing you communicated to Jonouchi tonight?"



"I… I told him that my time was worth so much more than a worthless mutt's, then something about his sister," Seto replied.



"You crushed his hopes and made him feel completely worthless," Yami pointed out. "Everything was made worse because, for all your flaws, Jonouchi actually likes you and he always has despite everything you have thrown his way. But his feelings may go much deeper than like, especially considering that you are…"



"Don't finish that sentence!" Seto snarled before Yami could finish what he was saying. He stood up and started pacing the room, unable to hide his agitation any longer.



"And it is just that attitude that got you into this mess in the first place," Yami said with little sympathy in his voice. "I warned you that you had to at least get along with each other or the fates would find a way to force you together. Now because you still refuse to get along with Jonouchi, despite his best efforts, he felt compelled to try and take his own life!"



Seto continued to pace the room, still trying to deny everything that he'd heard tonight. He could not deny it though. Everything was true, no matter what kind of spin he tried to put on events and the fact that he had deliberately misjudged things so badly left him feeling sick to his stomach.



"So what now?" Ranma said, breaking the silence that had followed Yami's last statement. "Should we bring Jonouchi out?"



"I'm not sure that would be a good idea at this point," Yami said. "Besides, Kaiba caused this, now he has to fix it."



"And how do you propose I do something like that?" Seto said incredulously as he stopped pacing. "It's not like I can just walk up and talk to him, is it?"



"Actually, there is a way you can do just that," the spirit said, crossing his arms and glaring at the CEO in a manner that said he would not be argued with. "You will have to enter your soul room and cross to Jonouchi's. Heaven knows that he's tried enough times to get you to open the door to yours."



Seto sighed. This was something involved with all the stuff that he didn't like to think about, but… "How do I do that?" He asked grudgingly.



"You already know Kaiba," Yami said more gently, "You just need to let yourself remember."



Seto gave Yami a sharp look, then deflated and sighed. "Fine, you win." he said as he stalked over to a couch on the other side of the room and sat down. He closed his eyes and went still.



"Oh cousin, it's not about winning," Yami said sadly as he watched Kaiba. He waited until he was satisfied that the brunet was actually doing as he said, then turned to Ranma, fixing the redhead with a steely gaze. "I… need to rest now," he said and Ranma could see the fatigue in his eyes. "What you are about to see must not leave this room."



Ranma, seeing that Yami was deadly serious, nodded her head. "You have my word as a martial artist that whatever happens will not leave this room and I will not divulge your secrets." She looked at him with interest, wondering what was going to happen.



"Thank you," Yami said simply as he finally relinquished control to Yugi, losing a couple of inches in the process. The smaller boy looked at Ranma and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Yugi Mutou. Pleased to meet you." He thrust his hand out towards the redhead.



"Ranma Saotome," Ranma said, finally getting to introduce herself. "Likewise." She clasped Yugi's hand and gave it a firm shake. "So… what just happened. It's not a Jusenkyo curse is it?" She was looking at Yugi with curiosity.



"Ah, no, it's not," Yugi said, "but I'm not sure that I can explain really."



"Well, I gave your… other half my word that nothing I saw would leave this room. That applies to this too." Ranma paused. "Does he have a name? With everything that was happening earlier we didn't get to introduce ourselves."



"He does have a name," Yugi replied, "but he doesn't like to use it much. We all simply call him Yami."



"I see," Ranma said. She walked across to the bathroom. "Do you mind if I get some hot water?" She asked.



"Eh?" Yugi was confused. "I don't see why not, but what are you going to do with it?" he asked with some concern in his voice. He was worried that Ranma was going to change Kaiba back to Jonouchi and he really wasn't sure that it would be a good idea right now.



"Don't worry," Ranma smiled as she reassured the spike haired teen, "It's for me. Come on," She gestured for Yugi to follow her, "I'll show you."



Yugi blushed as he followed the red-headed woman into Kaiba's private bathroom. Ranma didn't say anything else, but simply crossed to the sink and splashed herself with hot water.



"You have a Jusenkyo curse!" Yugi exclaimed as the svelte female turned into a muscular male.



"Yep," Ranma confirmed as Yugi stared at him in fascination. "I fell into the spring of drowned girl when I was sixteen years old." The pair walked back into the office and sat down where they could keep an eye on Kaiba. "So can you tell me a little of what is going on with Kaiba and Jonouchi?"



Yugi considered Ranma's request for a moment. "I… guess so," he said. "You did just save their lives after all, and I thank you for that."



"Ah, it was nothing," Ranma said with some embarrassment.



Yugi simply looked sharply at Ranma, reinforcing that what he was about to say was to remain private. "Kaiba and Jonouchi have never seen eye to eye in this lifetime," he began.



"This lifetime?" Ranma said with some surprise at the odd turn of phrase.



"Yes," Yugi confirmed, "I think the root of the problems between them lies in their previous lifetime." He paused and took a deep breath as he prepared himself to share this next part. "Kaiba and Jonouchi are, for want of a better way to explain it, soul mates. Back in Ancient Egypt they were almost inseparable, but one day tragedy struck. Jono was killed, targeted to get at the High Priest Seth when several direct assassination attempts failed."



"Hmm," Ranma mused, "From what I understand of soul mates is that when one dies, the other soon follows, but I sense that there is more to the story than that. So what happened next?"



"You are right," Yugi confirmed. "Seth didn't die. He was far too stubborn for that and he always insisted that his country needed him. He went through the rest of his life in terrible pain. Naturally, this changed him somewhat."



"I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like," Ranma said with a shudder. "So what about this lifetime? Why is there so much animosity between them now?"



"I think that it's possible that Kaiba's soul was so scarred by the pain that he went through in his previous life that he associated the Jonouchi of today with that pain and he's been constantly pushing him away because of it." He paused for a moment before continuing, "The first time that Kaiba saw Jonouchi he insulted and belittled him. It wasn't in Jou's nature to just let it go and even though he was at least subconsciously confused over Kaiba's attitude towards him, he gave as good as he got. Things just snowballed from there until Yami had to… go away for a while." He paused as he remembered the pain of that separation; the loss of half of his soul. He took a deep breath. "Yami told them before he left that they had to learn to get along or something bad would happen to force it. Jou stopped fighting and tried to get along, but Kaiba didn't and when he couldn't get a rise out of Jonouchi any more, he started ignoring him for most of the time."



"So I take it that Jusenkyo provided the 'bad thing' that happened?" Ranma asked.



"Yes," Yugi replied. "Yami theorised that it would force them to get along and at least learn to live with each other or it would destroy them. Thanks to Kaiba's hard headed attitude, that almost happened tonight. However, we weren't sure that it would be appropriate to inform them about it as Yami thought that it wouldn't have helped or possibly even made the situation worse. Maybe we were wrong."



"It can be hard to know what to do for the best in that kind of situation, but I'm curious," Ranma looked at Yugi quizzically, "how do you know about their past lives and where do you fit into all this?"



Yugi sighed. He had explained so much already that he guessed that it couldn't hurt to elaborate a little further. Besides, he felt that he could trust Ranma and he had rarely been wrong when he listened to these gut feelings. "Yami, well, both of us really, were the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time that Seth was High Priest. There was an event about six months after Jono died and our soul was split in two. The dark half was sealed away until the light half was reincarnated three thousand years later."



"You said that he had to go away," Ranma observed, "but he is clearly with you now. How does that work out?"



"Well, Yami's half of the soul was sealed into an item. Lots of things had to happen in this lifetime for him to be able to go back to the afterlife. In the past that is. However, the way our soul was split was irreparable and when I was reborn he had to be sealed away, unable to be reborn with me in case he caused some kind of paradox with him being in two places at once." Yugi shook his head, "It's kind of complicated and Yami could probably explain things much better than I ever could, but suffice it to say that once 'old' Yami had gone back to the past and his afterlife, 'reborn' Yami was given leave by the gods to return to his soul room. I might never have realised that he was there, but I decided to go back into my soul room one last time for old time's sake. I was surprised to see that there was still a door in the room and even more surprised that the corridor and Yami's soul room door were still there too. I knocked on the door, Yami opened it and we have co existed ever since." He paused a moment as he remembered the joy of that reunion. "Yami thinks that the next time we are reborn we will have separate bodies, maybe as twins, which does make sense really."



"I see…" Ranma said, still trying to get his head around the explanation. "It must have taken a lot of… power for these things to happen. Can you tell me anything about that?"



"I don't think that would be a good idea," Yugi said apologetically. "I've probably already said more than I should have done."



"I won't pry," Ranma said, "I just wanted to know if it could have anything to do with the strange shadowy mark that is a part of Jonouchi and Kaiba's aura – especially Kaiba's."



"Possibly," Yugi hedged, "But you will have to ask Yami if he can explain about that. He doesn't like to come out in public though. If the wrong people were to realise that he was here with me things could become very difficult for us." Yugi shuddered at the potential of being a project for some mad scientist or locked away in a mental institution by people who couldn't understand.



"I can certainly relate to that," Ranma said sympathetically. "I'll have to try and speak to Yami at some point I guess. He is alright isn't he?"



"Yes, he was just very tired after… what he had to do." Yugi said. He changed the subject. "So what about you Mr. Saotome. How has your life been affected by your Jusenkyo curse?"



"How hasn't it been affected?" Ranma exclaimed. "When I was sixteen I was the most cocky punk that you would ever meet and thanks to my idiot pops I was convinced that women were weak."



"Ooh, I wouldn't let Anzu hear you say that," he giggled even as he gave a small grimace as he thought about what she might do.



"Who is Anzu?" Ranma asked.



"She is my… err… our girlfriend," Yugi said with a small blush.



"Cool. You found someone that accepts you for who you are," Ranma said with a smile, "I wish I'd had someone like that when I was younger. If I had then things may have been a lot easier."



"We actually have a whole group of friends that accept us, but Anzu is special," Yugi said, blushing once again. "So because you thought that women were weak…"



"Yes, that is why Jusenkyo claimed me and made me turn into a girl," Ranma confirmed. "The thing about Jusenkyo is that it doesn't indiscriminately curse. There is usually a lesson to be learned somewhere along the line."



"So the curse really is trying to teach Kaiba and Jonouchi a lesson in co-operation!" Yugi exclaimed.



"Most likely," Ranma agreed. "Now let me tell you that I hated my curse with a passion when I was sixteen. I hated turning into something that I perceived as being weak, but as I matured – slowly – I gained a new perspective and I learned to accept it. I probably would have learned to accept it much sooner, but my life was full of… complications."



"What kind of complications Mr. Saotome?" Yugi asked.



Please, call me Ranma," the black haired man said. "Mr. Saotome is my old man and I don't want to be associated with him any more than necessary." He shuddered. "As for the complications, to cut a long story short I had several fiancées as my pops had engaged me to more women than I could count on my fingers and toes put together. I also ended up with a Chinese Amazon who claimed I was her husband simply because I accidentally defeated her in a fight that I didn't even want to be a part of." He shook his head, "Then I also had all these women's potential suitors constantly fighting with me while the girls fought with each other over me. And on top of all that I had a pair of delusional siblings that either wanted to bed me or kill me depending on which form I was in at the time. And that is only just scratching the surface."



"That sounds pretty amazing Mr. Sao…" Yugi stopped at a sharp look from Ranma, "sorry, Ranma. Did your multiple engagements ever get resolved?" he asked with genuine curiosity.



Ranma looked a little sheepish, "Not for a long time," he admitted. "Back then the most important thing to me was my honour, but everyone knew it and would use it against me. Eventually, I came to realise that there was no honourable way to disentangle myself from the utter mess that was my life and I kind of went off the deep end and told them all that I wasn't going to marry any of them, honour be-damned." He didn't add in that he'd had to threaten to commit seppuku to get them to finally agree to leave him alone and that he'd also had to threaten to disown his family. "Some of them still try occasionally," Ranma continued, "but for the most part they've settled down with other people. Having said all that, my honour is still very important to me, but I won't let people use it against me any more." His expression hardened slightly as he recalled the hell that he'd had to go through to get to that point. The version of events that he'd told Yugi had been extremely condensed as the whole story would have taken many hours to fully tell.



"What about those delusional siblings you mentioned. Did they ever stop bothering you?"



"No, they didn't," Ranma admitted. "I tried getting restraining orders against them, but even in the event that the courts actually listened to me and granted them, they carried on regardless then used their wealth to buy their way out of trouble. I guess that's what having money does to some people," he sighed. "These days I just deal with them as they show up. It's annoying, but there doesn't seem to be any other way."



"And what happened with the Amazons?" Yugi was genuinely interested to hear about that, especially as Yami had reacted so badly to them.



Ranma frowned, "Let's just say that I had to go much further than I would have liked to get them to leave me alone and leave it at that."



Yugi wasn't totally satisfied with that answer, but before the conversation could go any further, their attention was directed towards Seto who had shifted slightly in his seat. It looked very much like the CEO would be waking up soon.



They both hoped that things had gone well between Jonouchi and Kaiba, for both their sakes.

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A/N - Yep, I decided on a place to cut this chapter - just over half way through the original draft chapter. The next chapter may be a little shorter than usual, (although upon looking at it there is a fair bit that I need to add to it yet), but this works.