Short Story #1: Penalty Game

"This is a bad idea. This is an extremely bad idea," the Spirit had been saying all day.

But Ryou was stubborn, and his mind was made up. Right after school ended that day, he went to Jounouchi's apartment and knocked on the door. He knew his friend wasn't home because Jounouchi had multiple part-time jobs, one of which started right after school ended.

"Penalty Games can be dangerous even if you're trying to use it to help people," the Spirit said.

"But I have to try," Ryou said. "I would never be able to let it go if I didn't try."

Jounouchi's drunken father opened up the door with a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hand. "Eh? Whaada you want?" he slurred.

Ryou pointed his finger and said, "Penalty Game."

The next morning, Jounouchi was late to school. When he did show up he looked frazzled and tired, as if he hadn't slept all night. He explained to everybody that his father had somehow miraculously given up alcohol, however his gambling addiction had gotten worse. He gambled all of Jounouchi's hard-earned money away in one night.

That afternoon after school, Ryou rushed to the cashino to find Jounouchi's father.

"I knew Jounouchi's dad had an alcohol addiction, but I didn't know he also had a gambling addiction," Ryou said anxiously. "I have to fix it."

Ryou found Jounouchi's father at one of the slot machines, pointed his finger and said, "Penalty Game."

The next morning, Jounouchi didn't arrive at school at all. The day after that, he explained why he had missed school. It was because his father got alcohol poisoning from drinking too much and had to go to the hospital. Jounouchi had missed school because he was checking his father into the hospital.

Ryou was devastated. The first Penalty Game was supposed to cure Jounouchi's father of the alcohol addiction, and the second Penalty Game was supposed to cure the gambling addiction. Ryou did not dare try to dish out a third Penalty Game.

However there was one silver lining to this story. After that day, Jounouchi's father never gambled ever again, although he still had a problem with alcohol.

"Penalty Games only affect the brain's psychology, not things like neurology or biology," the Spirit explained. "Alcohol addiction is a biological disorder whereas gambling addiction is a psychological disorder. That's why you were able to cure his gambling problem but not his alcohol problem. You were half-successful."

Nevertheless, Ryou learned his lesson about dishing out Penalty Games and never tried it again, even if it was to help people.


Short Story #2: Shadi

It was a normal day at first. Ryou was at the museum in the secret room working on his diorama, when all of a sudden he felt like he was being watched. When he looked up, there was the faint glow of a ghost standing across the table.

"Who are you?" Ryou gasped.

The ghost simply stared at him.

"Wait, I recognize you!" Ryou said. "You're that guy in Pegasus's portrait! What was your name again? Shadi, right?"

"So you are the boy who was chosen by the Millennium Ring," said Shadi.

"Spirit, do you know this guy?" Ryou wondered.

"Let me front. I'll get him to go away," said the Spirit.

The Millennium Ring glowed as Ryou and the Spirit switched places. As soon as Bakura was fronting, he growled angrily and said, "I thought I killed you!"

"You merely destroyed my physical form, however my spirit lives on," said Shadi.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Just checking up on you to make sure everything is going as planned."

"I have everything under control. I don't fucking need you checking up on me," Bakura hissed. "Now go away! My host doesn't like it when people watch him while he works! You'll slow him down!"

"As you wish," Shadi said. Then he turned around and started to walk towards the exit of the room. While he was on his way out, Malik happened to enter the room right when Shadi was about to exit.

"Pardon me. Please step aside," said Shadi as Malik stood agape by the door, staring at the ghost.

"YOU!" Malik shouted. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Please, I must take my leave," said Shadi.

Because Shadi was a ghost, he didn't necessarily have to use the door to leave. Normally he would use the door anyway even though he didn't have to because he didn't want to scare anybody who might be nearby. But since there was no one around who didn't already know he was a ghost, it should be safe for him to just phase through the walls. And that's what he did. Instead of waiting for Malik to get out of the way, Shadi phased through the wall and left without another word.

The Millennium Ring glowed and Ryou switched back out. He blinked a few times as he reoriented himself to the situation. "Oh hi Malik!" he said when he saw his friend.

"What the hell was Shadi doing here?" Malik said.

"He said he wanted to check up on me," the Spirit growled. "I really hate that guy. He thinks he can pretend he and I are chummy after the way he treated me for three thousand years. I was just an object to him. He didn't see me as a human being at all."

"I hate him too," said Malik. "He's the one who told me that my father's death was the will of the Pharaoh, which led me to believe that the Pharaoh killed my father. He purposely set me up so that I would grow up to become the Pharaoh's villain."

"Wait, really? That's awful," said Ryou. "Wait, isn't that the same thing he did to Pegasus? He groomed Pegasus into becoming Yami Yugi's villain too."

"I'm not surprised," said Malik.

"I don't fucking need his help. I don't want anything to do with him," said the Spirit.

"What exactly did he do to you? Do you want to talk about it?" Ryou asked.

"I absolutely do not want to talk about it. Too much trauma."

"Me too. I don't want to talk about my experiences with him either," said Malik.

"I'm going back inside to watch TV. You get back to work," said the Spirit. And with that, he returned to Ryou's soulroom to watch TV.

Malik got out a book, went to his own corner of the room, and started reading. "Don't mind me. You concentrate on your work," he said.

"Oh. Ok," Ryou said awkwardly. And he went back to working on the diorama as if nothing happened.


Short Story #3: Denial

Bakura flashed the character cards in front of Malik's face.

"What do you think?" Bakura said smugly. "I made these myself. Pretty good, right?"

Malik took the cards and looked at the artwork. "The drawings are well-done," he admitted. "Thief King Bakura? Is that what you named yourself?"

"Yep, it has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Bakura smiled.

"So this is what you looked like when you lived in Ancient Egypt?" Malik marveled.

"Don't I look so hot? I'd totally go back in time and fuck myself."

"Y'know, I'm not surprised you would say that. It sounds like something you would say, because it's you."

Bakura laughed.

Malik gave the cards back. "Is that all you wanted me to do today? Just look at your cards?" he said.

"For the most part, yes."

"What are we supposed to do for the rest of the day?"

"Watch some movies with me."

So Malik and Bakura sat down in front of the TV and started watching movies. About two-thirds through the second movie, the power went out, and the room became engulfed in pitch black darkness.

"What?" Bakura groaned. "Bad timing. It was just getting to the good part."

Five seconds later the power came back on.

"Oh good, it's back," Bakura said nonchalantly. "Pass me the remote so we can resume the movie."

"What do I fucking look like, your maid? Get it yourself!" Malik spat viciously.

"Huh?" Bakura said, taken aback by the sudden hostility.

Malik stood up and screamed, "You're trying to manipulate me! Don't you fucking try to manipulate me!"

"The fuck are you talking about?!" Bakura shouted back.

"Fuck you! I don't take orders from the likes of you! I'll bet you're a serial killer you fucking sociopath!"

"What the hell?! Who are you?"

"I'm Malik Ishtar!"

"No you are not Malik Ishtar! Malik wouldn't accuse me of being manipulative when I haven't done anything! You still have DID, don't you!"

"NO I DON'T! I DON'T HAVE DID! I'M CURED! I'M CURED!" Malik was screaming at the top of his lungs. He took a book from his bag and flung it at Bakura, and Bakura raised his arms to block the book before it hit his head.

"Ow! The hell was that for!?" Bakura said.

"I'M CURED! I'VE ALREADY BEEN CURED!"

"Alright fine, you're cured!" Bakura said.

"I DON'T HAVE DID! I'VE BEEN CURED!"

"Yes, whatever, fine. You're cured. Believe what you want." Bakura stood up and headed towards the door. "I'm not dealing with this shit. I'm out of here."

Later that day, the Spirit told Ryou what happened.

"Malik still has DID, and he's in denial about it!" the Spirit was saying.

"Are you sure? How do you know it was another alter?" Ryou asked.

"He threw his book at me."

"He did?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, in that case you're probably right. Malik views books as sacred. He would never throw one no matter how angry he is."

"He was so rude to me!" the Spirit fumed. "Malik needs to apologize for his part's actions! System members are supposed to share responsibility!"

"He can't exactly apologize when he's in denial about having DID," Ryou pointed out. "I think I know what happened. Malik is afraid of the dark. When the power went out, the darkness must've triggered him to switch with a different alter. It's just a defense mechanism. Then when you told him he still has DID, he got more defensive because he's afraid of having DID due to what happened with his perpetrator. What we need to do is find a way to help Malik be less afraid of having DID. Just look at us! We're very happy together sharing the same body. If we show Malik how proud we are of being plural, maybe he'll learn to accept himself."

The Spirit grumbled.

"What's the matter? Don't you want to help Malik?" Ryou asked.

"Why should we help him? What do we stand to gain from it?" the Spirit questioned.

"Malik is our friend! Helping each other is what friends do!"

The Spirit hmphed and grumbled.

"Aw quit acting so antisocial," Ryou nudged playfully. "And besides, maybe you will gain something from it. If we can coax Malik out of denial about having DID, maybe you'll get your apology."

The Spirit sighed. "Fine. We'll give it a try."

"Gently through. Because remember, it's not just Malik Ishtar who's in denial about having DID. It's every alter in his entire system. And we don't know how many alters he has. It could be dozens. If we come off too strong about him still having DID, his protector is going to come out and lash out at us."

The next day, Ryou invited Malik to go out for ice cream. They sat on a park bench outside, enjoying the sunlight and eating ice cream, as Ryou started up a conversation.

"How many alters are in the average DID system?" Ryou asked.

"About fourteen for boys and sixteen for girls," Malik answered instantly. He knew his facts.

"So how many more do you think you might have?" Ryou questioned.

"What?"

"I said, how many alters do you think you could have? If the average number of alters in a system is around fourteen for boys, don't you think you might have more? In fact it's very rare for there to be only two alters in a system."

"I haven't really thought about that. I guess it is possible I might have more alters," Malik said with uncertainty.

"If you did, it wouldn't be so bad would it? After all, there's no such thing as an evil alter. My Yami used to be a really mean persecutor, but he's changed and now we get along very well! In fact, we've succeeded in achieving healthy multiplicity. I'm proud to be plural. If it worked out so well for me, maybe there's hope for you too."

"Yeah…maybe…"

"I just want you to know that if you do have other alters, me and my Yami will be right by your side to support you in your journey for healthy multiplicity! So don't give up, okay?" Ryou beamed with a bright smile.

"Thanks…I appreciate it…" Malik said awkwardly.

Ryou went home that day, feeling accomplished.

The next day, Ryou got a phone call from Malik.

"Hello Malik! How have you been?" Ryou said into the phone.

"I've been fine. Listen, Ryou, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday and I changed my mind about the possibility that I might have more alters. I've already been cured from DID."

"But…are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure. If I had other alters I would've noticed by now. Or at least, my siblings would've noticed. I talked to my siblings about it and they were adamant that I've been cured."

"Your siblings told you that?"

"I have to be cured. I can't have DID. I can't put my siblings through the awful experiences of having alters ever again."

"You shouldn't be ashamed of having alters…"

"I'd rather not talk about this, so please don't ask anymore. Though I appreciate your concern."

"But…"

"I don't have DID anymore, end of story," Malik said firmly, and then he hung up.

Ryou sighed as he put down his phone. "We managed to coax him out of denial for one day, and then the next day he slipped right back into denial again."

"Denial is one hell of a drug," said the Spirit.

"I guess there's nothing more I can do. Being in denial might be the only way for him to survive in his home environment at the moment," Ryou rationalized. "His siblings have negative views about DID due to what Yami Malik did, so the possibility of him having other alters is terrifying for them. I wonder what kind of things his siblings have been saying to him to scare him so badly into denial?"

"Who knows," said the Spirit. He, however, was bitter because even after all this effort of coaxing Malik out of denial, he never got an apology.