Tulip-Jin: Sorry ya'll. Been busy. Yami-training classes don't pay for themselves, you know.

Chibi Red Eyes Black Dragon: Rawwwwr, rawr rawr rawr rawr. Rawwwwr rawr rrrawwwr, rawwr raaaawr? (You've got some mail, TJ. By the way, what do you learn in Yami-training classes?)

TJ: How to keep control of your Yami without too much loss of life and property damage, of course.

(opens mail)

Letter: Dear TJ. Inclosed is a check for one hundred dollars. Please stop sending your Yami to us. Our insurance is getting too high to pay anymore. Sincerely, the Yami-training class association.

TJ: I guess you CAN make money from a class! That reminds me, its time for Yami's class! You guys just enjoy the fic!

Disclaimer: what do YOU think?
There was no way to know how long we had been playing. It was the last stage of the game.

I was standing on one, semitransparent leg and my head felt really very fuzzy, and my vision was blurred now. I had three Energies, one Leg, two Arms, two Feet, three Hands, one Head, and of course my Soul.

Takai was faring a little better, standing on two semitransparent legs and playing with a mostly transparent head. He had four Energies, one Foot, two Legs, four Hands, four Arms, and his Soul. It was his move.

"Well, you may have been a fast learner, but there's no way you can win against my vast experience," he said with a chuckle that was strangely echoing in his mostly headless state.

As soon as I figured out what he had moved, a very desperate strategy formed in my mind. It would cost me dearly, but it would be worth it.

I had figured out the depths of this so-called game and although normally I never would have been able to get near his Soul - he was an unbelievable expert and kept moving it out of my reach - I saw there was just one way to keep his Soul from escaping me.

I moved. He laughed, and did exactly what I thought he would - destroyed the three Energies and the Arm I had left exposed. My right arm burned in agony and faded partly as my head swam.

"Foolish boy! I'm surprised you still have the strength to stand up. Soon you'll be too weak to play and collapse, and then the Shadow Realm will claim your soul for eternity and I'll be the new owner of the Millennium Puzzle!"

He seemed taken aback when I laughed.

"Why are you laughing? Has the strain gone to your head? You seem to have gotten all muddled up!"

"No; I'm laughing because I'm about to win, just as I promised you, Takai. Observe!"

It took some effort, to use my half-gone arm to move my still fully there hand, but move I did. Takai screamed in both shock and pain as I removed all his remaining Arms and Legs in a single stroke.

He was left with legs that weren't attached to the feet that kept him upright, and his solid hands hung limply at the ends of nonexistent arms. He tried, but no matter how hard he struggled he couldn't reach for his pieces.

"It looks like you can't move your pieces anymore, Takai. That counts as a forfeit - which means I win!"

"No! No no no! It's impossible! It cannot be!" He shrieked as his Soul began glowing.

I watched in horrified fascination as a black energy shot from that piece and began deleting him from the feet up.

A white energy enveloped me from my own Soul piece, but as it worked from the bottom up I felt my body being restored. Takai screamed and writhed as he was destroyed bit by bit.

Finally, as his head was being engulfed, he fixed his eyes on me.

"Know this, Solver of the Millennium Puzzle! Know that as long as you exist, you shall be tied to that Puzzle and it to you! Your soul is cursed, doomed for all eternity! Do you hear me? Your people shall wither, your world shall be annihilated, and all that you know destroyed and forgotten! By the shadows of the Realm, you will be cursed forever -!"

Takai's final words were cut off as his head was erased. The board vanished, leaving me alone in the Shadow Realm.

I had never felt so utterly exhausted - my magical reserves were almost nonexistent and my body felt like it had been run over by a herd of horses. But there was still the problem of getting out. Turning back in the direction I had come, there was nothing to mark where I might leave by.

And it had occurred to me that there would be more people here then Takai - and they wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of my current state. But there had to be some way of getting back to the palace - I glanced down as the Millennium Puzzle began glowing.

Most mages that employ powerful magical artifacts will tell you that their magic can have a mind of its own. Sometimes, a magical item can be temperamental, moody, or blatantly anti-social.

A good mage has to learn to deal with his magical items by finding some kind of common ground with it. Also, no two magics are exactly alike. I'd have to say the Millennium Puzzle had a one-of-a-kind attitude.

The magic I felt coming from it was best described as bright, cheery, and especially playful.

The Millennium Puzzle just wanted to play games. Didn't matter what kind of games - could be gambling games, could be fighting games, could be strategy games, could be puzzles, could be riddles, you name it, It wanted to play.

It also wanted to win, but It was willing to make exceptions if the game was fun to lose. I found myself chuckling after all this processed - if the Puzzle and I had anything more in common It would be painted in three colors and my skin would be made from gold.

I felt the raw energy of the Puzzle surge through me and reach out, opening a hole in the air in front of me. I stepped through and found myself in my room. There was daylight coming through the windows, late afternoon now.

As the hole closed behind me, I was treated to a startled surprise when a guard stuck his head into my room. He seemed shocked at first, then relieved.

"My Prince!"

Another guard and Hiskotonamekt entered shortly after the shout.

"My Prince, there you are! We've been looking for you - you haven't been in the palace for the last three days!"

I started. The game had lasted three days? No wonder they were so upset - more of Father's daughters then his sons had survived this long, and with Egypt at war so often, it needed all the male heirs it could get.

"Where were you? We thought you had been kidnapped!"

"I wasn't kidnapped," I said, tired and a little cranky now.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to go to sleep."

I then plopped myself on the bench and went to sleep, ignoring Hiskotonamekt's questions.
Yami Tulip-Jin: Heh heh, things are starting to pick up now! R&R! Or - (reads off card) - I'll, uh, grind your bones to make my bread? What idiot wrote this? You can only make pancakes out of bones!