The Mask Maker

Merry Christmas, Morai

Morai was once again lurking in the alleyways of Castelia City. It had been only a day since she was last out, but she was now often subject to bouts of adrenaline that nothing other than fighting or practicing her psychic abilities on unknowing strangers could quench. 

"C'mon, this'll cut our walking distance in half!" a feminine voice said a ways down the alley. There had to be at least two people.

"I don't know, haven't you heard those reports? The Mask Maker is supposed to be back," another voice said. Morai snuck closer to them, walking on the balls of her feet along the walls until she saw the source of the voices. It was a group of three young women who looked to be having a night on the town.

"Oh, please," another voice said. "I'll believe it when I see it." The third woman plucked a paper that had been pinned to the wall and read it in a disbelieving tone. It warned of The Mask Maker, of course, and cautioned against traversing less populated areas, especially at night. A drawing of her masked face was the biggest thing on the page.

Morai rounded the corner, ducking down a bit so that her face appeared next to the illustration.

"Hi there!" she said, quickly scanning everyone's eyes. The woman holding the paper began to let out a scream, but was cut off by Morai clasping a hand over her mouth and backing her into the wall. She leaned in close, putting her other hand on the wall beside the woman's head.

"Now—wait, wait a second! Are you two really running? Get back here!" she said with an amused grin. The two other trainers, who had begun to run away, turned around and walked back. Morai released them from her hypnosis, leaving them to look around confused.

She flipped her mask up onto her head and laughed. "You two really ran! I mean, you were just going to leave...ahem, what's your name?" she asked, uncovering the third woman's mouth.

"O-olivia," she stammered, scrunching herself up under Morai's stare.

"You were just going to leave poor Olivia here alone with me!" Morai continued amusedly. "What friends are you? What if you never saw her again? You'd be at brunch, and one of you would go 'Hey, where's Olivia? She's la—oh that's right! We left her alone in an alleyway with a known violent criminal while we tried to save our own tails!'"

No one found the situation as entertaining as Morai did. She laughed to herself for a few seconds, then let her wide fanged smile fade. The two stood there, almost looking ashamed.

"You're cowards," she said. "With three on one, you had a decent chance."

She took control of Olivia and had her switch places with one of the others, while the third watched in horror and began to back away again.

"Oh, don't try to run again," Morai warned. "The more you're hypnotized, the more drained and foggy you'll be when you snap out of it. The same goes for your Pokémon. Now, Olivia, since you're cursed with terrible friends, I'd let you go, but there's always the possibility that you'll be an idiot and call the—"

Morai was slapped by the trainer who was now backed against the wall. It didn't do much other than stop her from speaking, but it did surprise her a little. Her Foresight was like a switch that could be turned on or off. If she kept it on all the time, it would drain her overall energy—not that she didn't have a ton of it anyway. She often turned it off in situations where seeing every next move would be boring.

"What's wrong with you?!" the woman yelled, perturbed by the fact that her assailant hadn't moved in response to her strike. Morai shrugged and grinned, leaning in close again.

"I ask myself that sometimes," she said. "But there's no answer."

"What do you want?" Olivia asked. "Money? Name your price, just leave us alone!"