Original Yu-Gi-Oh Series
Parallel
Chapter 068
Originally Written: Thursday, May 5, 2022 1048AM to ~100PM
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A/N: There are officially ten chapters of this story remaining. Thank you for staying with me this long.
"'shizu." Namu leaned up against the counter he was chopping vegetables at. She was helping him make dinner that day. Namu found he liked cooking, which was something Marik hadn't liked doing. It threw him for a loop, but then he remembered what Marik asked him to do when he realized they were going to lose their duel against Joey. So Namu leaned into it, and started cooking.
Who helped him cook changed each day. The most interesting days came from Seto, who had no expertise in cooking whatsoever. Seto could make the most impossible of things a reality with his magic and his mind, but managed to burn a pot of water. Ishizu made it worse, because she would randomly walk by Seto and flirt with him. Days with Joey were boring, who could make the most bland food taste good. Mokuba cooked almost as well as Joey, but was better at cooking healthy foods than just whatever they could find, like Joey.
Ishizu looked over, holding a pot of water. He hadn't expected it to be, but cooking with Ishizu was most fun. She followed his instructions to the letter, and he almost felt important as a result. Seto never gathered the courage to disrupt her as she helped however. She set the pot of water back on the floor. She rushed over and grabbed him as he slumped against the counter even further.
"Namu?" To her, it looked like he had lost control of his limbs, but not.
Namu tapped the table. "Just don't let me hit my head. That hurts too much."
"Namu!" Ishizu strained her muscles, doing her best to keep him upright as he collapsed in a faint. She slowly let them drop to the floor. She placed Namu's head in her lap. She tapped her fingers against his wild hair. "When did you hit your head? How many times have you fainted?"
Mokuba, Joey and Seto arrived a few minutes later.
'I told you he wasn't feeling well.' Seto stayed in the back, leaning up against the door frame.
"With what?" Ishizu snapped as she looked up at Seto in confusion.
"I don't know." Seto replied out loud.
Joey and Mokuba crowded around Namu. Mokuba looked off to the side occasionally, listening to Bakura. He learned a lot from the Mystical Elves, but he wasn't sure what was wrong with Namu, and that worried him greatly.
"For how long?" Ishizu asked.
Seto shook his head. "He must not have wanted us to worry."
Joey picked up Namu piggyback style. He set him down on the couch.
It took many weeks to discern the cause of Namu's fainting spells. The Mystical Elves couldn't determine what was wrong. Neither could other magicians. They found help through Shadi, and a small group of traveling psychologists that helped people through the traumas created by Zorc's army.
Shadi simply told them, "This isn't Namu's body," as though that would explain everything.
An older psychologist figured it out, after listening to Namu speak about Marik.
"Marik made me, but he's gone now." Namu said, laying on a hospital cot in one of the many underground shelters around Domino. His voice was wistful, and full of longing. "He asked me to live for him, and learn to smile. I think I did pretty well."
The female had blatantly asked Ishizu, "Do you think Namu is real?"
"I didn't at first, not when he was Yami Marik," Ishizu idly twirled a strand of messy black hair around her finger, "but Namu is real. He's different from Marik."
"Who is Marik?"
Ishizu looked at Namu, who passed out again. Mokuba laid next to him on the cot. "You are looking at him. His body at least."
Doctors looked Namu over, utterly perplexed. Magic utterly perplexed them.
"I think you know what's wrong with him." The psychologist told Ishizu. "You just don't want to admit it. Perhaps that made you ignore it, perhaps not."
"What's that supposed to mean, doc?" Joey stood next to Ishizu, looking and sounding quite threatening, even though this was just how Joey got when he was upset.
Ishizu shook her head, silent.
Seto pulled Joey back from her with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Namu, Yami Marik, was created by anger. Does he look angry to you now, Joey?"
Joey looked at Namu. Though he was laying unconscious, he looked quite peaceful, and undisturbed with a small smile on his lips. "Nah." Joey shook his head.
'I see now,' Yami slowly agreed with Seto. 'If he isn't angry, he has no anchor for existence. His body isn't degrading or ill. His soul is. He is fainting because-'
"-Marik ain't there..." Joey muttered, dropping his head. "There's gotta be something..."
Seto shook his head, "Even if we somehow got Marik back from the shadows, that wouldn't help Namu. We'd have to make him angry again, and that would be cruel."
Namu kept mostly silent when he woke up again. He looked at Mokuba lying next to him, and ruffled up his hair.
"We recommend that you rest, Namu." A doctor told him. "We all are grateful for how much you've helped us." The doctors around him also agreed. Namu smiled, purple eyes shining.
Mokuba broke the silence by wrapping his arms around Namu. "I'm glad you're happy now."
"I am." Namu said, "I have friends, and we take good care of each other. Everyday is filled with joy, even when there's death. So I know everything will be okay. I'm so happy I could die."
Ishizu gave him a lighthearted glare for that sentence. "I don't think Odion would have liked that one." She rolled her eyes.
Namu dissolved into a fit of giggles that dragged Mokuba, and Yami into it.
'You are right, Namu.' Yami's spirit stood next to Joey. Namu looked at him. 'You are more than just an ally. You are indeed a friend.'
Seto firmly agreed as he fiddled with his glasses.
Joey looked at Bakura's spirit. Bakura was kneeling on the cot next to Namu. Bakura looked at him and nodded. Joey looked back at Namu. "Then, we'll smile right alongside you, buddy."
Namu faded from Marik's body a week later after laughing at a terrible joke he told them. Marik's body failed a few hours later. Their funeral was a short, quiet affair, where Joey burned their body, so someone like Zorc couldn't desecrate it as he often did to the dearly departed. And life, with its ups and downs continued.