The Mask Maker

Damaged

Shadow Morai kneeled over her real world counterpart, looking at her with an almost crazed expression. Morai tried to hypnotize her but the weak attempt was quickly crushed by the trainer's own hypnotic power. 

"What's the matter?" she mockingly asked. "Have you decided that I'm just too morally repulsive again? As soon as you do that, the abilities you share with me diminish. I guess I can scare you out of them anytime I want!" 

Morai attempted to push her counterpart away, but as soon as she did Shadow Morai grabbed her throat. Morai had been taught how to combat this, but she couldn't remember what to do. She couldn't remember or think of anything, really. She just grabbed her counterpart's wrists, trying to loosen her grip. Shadow Morai's nails were digging into the skin of her throat and making the pain worse. 

"I-I'm going to wake up!" Morai choked out through tiny gasps of air. 

"What's worse, do you think?" Shadow Morai asked, loosening her grip a little to allow time for her to speak. "This, or waking up and realizing that you walked right into the hands of the International Police and that you will be held on a tight leash for the years to come? You should've showed my side just a little and it would've handled the situation, and you would be free. But you choose to remain weak, and your maladies there are infecting me here." 

"I-I can't believe that y-you exist," Morai whispered, "and t-that you're a part of me". 

Tears began to well in her eyes, both from being choked and because she was again appalled at what was staring her in the face. Someone so cruel, so violent. She was staring at herself. Her shadow self only looked back at her with bared teeth, no shred of sympathy in her eyes, but rage and hatred instead. Not only for Morai, perhaps, but for the cage she found herself trapped in. A world of dreams and imaginary situations could only hold her energy for so long before cracking a little, and letting some of that violence out into the real world in the form of the actions Morai took then regretted later. 

Morai felt an increasing pressure in her head, and everything began to fade. Her counterpart was right. She would wake up in a prison of a house, only to be sent off to do whatever justice commanded. But she felt that it was necessary. A price she had to pay for having this monster in her head in the first place. A monster that was only becoming more violent and dangerous as time passed. 

Suddenly, before she could register what was happening, her counterpart's grip was ripped away. Shadow Morai was sent flying to the side, and Light Morai appeared before her. 

"Morai! You're still dreaming, aren't you? When you come to, I need your help," Light Morai said. She turned to face her shadow counterpart just in time to dodge an attack. 

Morai could see them exchange a few moves in the corner of her eye. The trainer rose to her feet and leaned against a tree, waiting for some semblance of clarity, watching as the two fought much like her mind did every waking day. Both of them had their masks hanging at their side, Shadow Morai's with an obvious crack from being hit by the Ursaring she had fought. 

Morai realized that Light Morai was struggling against her counterpart, who was behaving even more wildly than before. With bared teeth and wide eyes, Shadow Morai landed a kick so hard that it sent her counterpart stumbling sideways into a tree. She punched at Light Morai's head and narrowly missed, her punch turning into a deep scratch that left marks on the bark. 

"Morai, please don't—" 

Light Morai ducked under another punch that cracked the bark where her head had been. She was used to calling her counterpart by that name, and it was hard to break the habit when the real Morai was around. Light Morai held her arm for a moment. It seemed broken, or at least she couldn't use it.