A Son Of Two Dad's

Weapons

The next day, they trained with the staff again and when MK asked about it, Macaque explained that they would do on-off days, trading between sparing and working on his powers alternate days. 

Which made sense. Today though, Macaque seemed a little colder, a little more distanced and MK couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong. Had he upset the other without knowing? Maybe he shouldn't have hugged him yesterday. It was possible that the other wasn't comfortable with hugs. 

MK really hoped he hadn't screwed it up. Not when training with Macaque was the best thing that had ever happened to him! 

Maybe it was just an off day? At least, that's what MK hoped as their training eventually came to an end and MK went back home, feeling a little more alone and empty. 

Maybe tomorrow would be better? 

The next day, MK entered the dojo only to immediately yelp, jaw hanging open as he pointed around the room in awe. 

"But! What? There's- Why's there so many of you?" He cried out, looking around wildly at the room that contained six identical Macaque's who were all doing their own thing. Some were sharpening tools, two were cleaning, one was putting things away.

The only one that wasn't doing anything smirked and walked up to him. 

"Today, we're going to see if you can duplicate yourself." MK gawked, looking down at his hands then back up at Macaque. 

"That's a thing I can do?" He asked, in awe, and the other shrugged. 

"Maybe. Honestly, kid, who knows? I just thought that since we seem to have... similar powers, you can probably do some other things I can do. Hence, cloning." 

Immediately interested, MK squeezed his hands into fists determinedly. 

"How do I do it?" He asked and Macaque waved his hand, his other clones disappearing into a puff of cloud, leaving nothing behind. 

"I find people learn best by being shown." Then he stopped, hands moving. 

"Clones are tools, used to serve and help you. They're weapons. So you must think of them as such. Give them a task to do before you create them. I find that mine are closely linked to my shadows. In terms of feelings, try recreating what you felt when you were making a shadow clone, but do it with yourself, not the shadows." 

Macaque showed him a few times and MK tried to do as instructed. At one point he'd managed to create shadow clones, which was cool, and MK was delighted but that wasn't what they were trying to do, they didn't have solid forms like Macaques, didn't have free will. 

"I-I can't." MK eventually conceded, trying everything he could and still feeling like he was a failure. Macaque could do it easily. Why couldn't he? Why was he always the screw-up? He looked up at his teacher, prepared to see the familiar disappointed look he used to receive from his parents only to be surprised when Macaque merely looked contemplative. 

"Hm." The demon looked over at MK, mind churning like cogs. 

"There's...another way." He started, siding his hand away from his chin. 

"Some other powerful... demons make clones by taking out a hair and blowing on it. It's easier than my own clones, but they're also harder to control and more unstable so you shouldn't keep any around for too long. Weapons aren't useful when they don't do what they're told."

MK looked down, eyes cast in shadows and he quietly said, 

"and if it doesn't work?" He was scared. He'd already messed up once. To do so again would definitely disappoint Macaque. 

His teacher slung an arm around his shoulder reassuringly, an encouraging smile on his face. 

"Then it doesn't. No harm done. It doesn't matter if you can't. You just have to try."  

MK nodded, taking in a deep breath as he relayed Macaque's earlier instructions in his mind. 

He plucked out a singular piece of hair, inhaling once before scrunching his eyes shut and blowing softly on it. 

His breath pushed the hair out of his hands and he opened his eyes to find it fall carefully to the floor. 

Nothing happened. 

MK Let out a sigh of disappointment, about to say something, probably an apology when the piece of hair glowed a golden glow. MK gawked at the bright light and suddenly there was a second him standing exactly where the hair had been. 

"Woah!" MK moved closer to his clone, pointing at him in awe while his doppelganger pointed back. 

"This is so cool!" They both said at the same time, voices overlapping each other like a distorted microphone. 

"You look just like me- I look just like you." They said in tandem again, laughing at the synchronicity. 

"That's..." MK and his clone looked over at Macaque, who was staring at the clone with a weird look in his eyes, something MK had never seen on him before. He didn't have time to decipher it before it was gone and Macaque's smile was back. 

"Good job MK. See, nothing to worry about." He put an arm on MK's shoulder and MK beamed up at him brightly. 

"Let's go play some pranks on the others!" His clone suddenly yelled, jumping around and MK shook his head, hoping his clone would understand that he didn't want to look like a-a child in front of Macaque.

"But we could totally mess with Mei! And Pigsy! Let's do it. Come on." His clone pleaded, jumping up and down, bright and childish.   

"How do you get rid of a clone?" He asked quickly, carefully ignoring his clone's look of betrayal as he turned his full attention to Macaque, wanting to seem serious and dedicated. 

He didn't want Macaque thinking he was fooling around. 

Macaque looked impressed or pleased so it must have been the right choice and then showed him a movement with his hands. 

"Just do that and point it at the clone. But also you can hit it till it breaks and that will also get rid of it. They're not very durable weapons." 

MK mimicked him, almost touching the clone as he did so and it puffed into an explosion of gold and hair. 

Macaque smiled and put a steady, firm hand on his shoulder, looking at the hair on the floor. 

"I think that's enough for today." 

(Hey! Hope you enjoyed. I'm going to try and update every day from now on if I can so lucky you! Thank you for reading, I'm really happy lots of you seem to really be enjoying this. Love you guys and I'll be back tomorrow.)