The Mask Maker

Preparations

Morai and Giovanni were eating dinner by a campfire. They had made a day of gathering the ingredients, having to travel all over the island and different environments to get them all, and utilizing Morai's power where possible. Their efforts produced a nice savory curry. At this point, Morai's body was sore, but not unmanageably so. It was the kind of sore she was used to when she spent much of her time being active and training. The week that Giovanni had allotted himself to help her was almost over, with 2 days remaining. Morai had almost forgotten about the deal they had made and didn't care too much about the time, but Giovanni had something else planned. 

"Now that the week is coming to an end, do you feel like my presence has helped you improve?" the man asked, setting his bowl to the side. 

"Yes, though I was hesitant to admit it at first. There's still one thing I've yet to learn, however..." Morai said. 

The trainer had started to write in one of her notebooks, not paying Giovanni much attention. After every dream in which she encountered her counterparts, she made sure to write down every detail. Sometimes she remembered it all, and sometimes small details came to her memory later. Everything she saw was important in her eyes and must be written down. From there, she could theorize about herself and that strange other realm of existence. Perhaps the key to her broken identity and her psychic abilities lied within those minute details. 

The world in which Light and Shadow Morai existed was made up of strange rules, it seemed. Her counterparts appeared only in her dreams, yes, but they seemed to have lives of their own, lives that continued even when she wasn't present. They shared her memories but also spoke as if they had memories unique to them, however vague. Light Morai especially had to possess a backstory that her host didn't, or at least that's what the real Morai thought. Morai herself had full use of both of her eyes, and she didn't quite understand why her friend in the Dream Realm didn't.

 It was theorized by Morai that, because both counterparts were personalizations of her psyche, their appearance and abilities were symbolic. Shadow Morai's appearance, for example, possessed qualities that made her appear more monstrous and cruel. Her fingernails were sharper and longer than normal, as were her teeth. Her hair was what Morai's hair used to be before she grew it out and braided it. It was curly and often looked a bit disheveled from her constant training and fighting. And of course, her signature wide and insidious smile didn't help her look the slightest bit charitable. All of this was captured in a sketch in Morai's notebook, along with written descriptors of her appearance. 

"So, these two people in your dreams...You think they represent parts of your brain?" Giovanni asked, peering over Morai's shoulder, which caused her to sigh and close her book. 

"That's my guess. When I first...changed...my actions were predominantly influenced by one of them. The other side came along later," Morai replied. 

"Interesting...So, would it be possible that parts of your brain were injured, causing you to act more like one of your, ahem, counterparts?" Giovanni asked.

Giovanni's interests were suddenly piqued. Morai nodded to confirm his theory, but then shrugged.

"But then again, I did also get psychic powers, so I suppose any wild theory could be true."

 Morai went to put on one of her masks and noticed her old outfit. It was similar to Shadow Morai's. 

Was I really that bad?  she thought. Meanwhile, Giovanni was coming to a realization.

This is it. All we have to do now is refine the serum's formula to fit Morai's exact brain makeup. If we can alter specific parts of her brain, dampening the one's we don't want and exaggerating the parts responsible for certain features and behaviors that we do want, why...we could do anything! But first...