Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

By the time they had dried off and recuperated for the most part, it had rolled into mid-afternoon. Sitting up, the trio studied the map on one of the tuners. “Man, that really threw us off course, but we did get a little closer to Riva Sranvi,” Pacifica noted.

“Are we going to have to camp out in the woods?” Taika questioned.

“Not a good idea. We’d have to fight Scherzando all night. We’re in the middle of nowhere, but still,” Shouri advised.

“So we’re just gonna have to travel through the night. We can probably make it by like midnight or so,” Pacifica reasoned out, continuing to review the map.

The group fell silent. They were just going to make it to their destination before the sun had set before. However, thanks to the persistence of their kidnapper their journey had become far more perilous. That awful man may get the last laugh after all.

“We should just keep moving.” Taika stood up. “There’s no sense in worrying about it, right?” she spoke with a new-found determination.

Her sudden positive disposition was infectious, as a smile slowly rose on Shouri’s lips. “You’re right Taika.” He held out his hand, Taika pulling him up to his feet. Then both of them extended their hands out for Pacifica who grabbed hold of them. The trio held hands in a circle. “We’re gonna make it through this,” Shouri declared.

“Or make a hell of a fuss trying.” Pacifica grinned toothily.

“That’s the spirit!” Taika cheered.

Unlike before when they had a solid road to follow, the group was now out of their element. None of them knew the first thing about navigating the great outdoors. What they did know was how to follow a map – and thankfully tuners very rarely lost connection. Turns out that thanks to Pacifica, they had managed to zoom down most of the river. As such it wasn’t too long before they had found the river’s conclusion.

“THE OCEAN!” Pacifica cried out joyously. She ran towards the beach with Shouri and Taika struggling to keep up.

“Aaaaaah! Hello old friend!” Pacifica held out her arms allowing the sea breeze to wash over her. She turned to the pair following her, smiling with the setting sun illuminating her from behind. “Sorry, I love the beaches here.” The girl giggled. She was practically glowing despite how the day had gone.

“Let’s keep moving.” Shouri pointed down the beach, due north.

Onward once again the trio traveled, the sun slowly falling below the horizon.

Taika nervously eyed the approaching and receding waters crashing on the shore. She had been walking on Shouri’s left side, between him and the ocean, but she edged around her Maestro, joining Pacifica on his right.

A gesture not missed by the otter-girl. “You really don’t know how to swim, do you?” she asked her lunar companion.

Taika lowered her head shamefully, trying to appear smaller than she was. “I don’t,” she whispered.

Pacifica felt bad for asking but felt it needed to be said. “It’s okay if you don’t know how to swim.” She rubbed the vixen’s back. “Lots of people don’t know how to swim,” she added. It didn’t seem to make the downtrodden lunar element feel any better about her situation.

“I brought it up because if you want, I could teach you how to swim,” Pacifica offered.

Taika looked at her water-companion; mouth slightly agape. She quickly shook her head. “Non! You don’t have to do that.” Once more her head drooped. “I don’t want you to waste your time,” she mumbled.

And suddenly hugs! Pacifica wrapped her arms around Taika holding her tightly as they continued to walk. “Nonsense!” the otter exclaimed. “I love swimming and I would love to swim with you too!”

Taika couldn’t figure out what to say, too flustered by the positive attention. “S-sure... if you don’t mind.”

“It’s settled! We’ll get you a cute bathing suit and then I can teach you to swim!”

Shouri shook his head but smiled all the same.

The sun had finally set, but that didn’t mean much for our intrepid heroes who trudged along the sandy beach. Despite the sun’s departure, it was still hot and humid out which didn’t make the trek any easier, further complicating things was the fact that it was the night of a new moon, further limiting the already low light – though this was only a problem for Pacifica.

“How far away are we Sho?” Taika asked.

“It’s probably another hour's walk.” Shouri wiped some sweat from his brow.

“Hungry... should have ate a bigger breakfast,” Pacifica groaned.

“I’m sorry Pacifica.” Shouri felt a tinge of guilt subjecting her to hunger so quickly after she almost starved to death.

“No no no! I’m fine!” she insisted. “Really! Knowing there’s a hot fresh meal waiting for us at the end of this gives me the strength of an army!” the otter declared boldly.

“Yeah, we can hit up one of those twenty-four-hour diners. Riva Sranvi is a big enough city to have them,” Shouri noted, trying to look up any that were open to not put his foot in his mouth. “Here we go.” He set that as their destination and returned the tuner to his side.

Continuing their walk down the beach they could spot the faintest glow of light pollution in the distance. “We’re almost there!” Pacifica excitedly pointed ahead.

“Finally, civilization,” Shouri groaned.

“Can’t wait for bed tonight,” Taika additionally complained.

“We’re almost there! Just a little bit more!” Pacifica tried to keep the mood up, but it was ultimately dashed upon the rocks as a shadowy figure rose over the nearby dunes.

“uuuuuuuu ARGH!” Shouri ruffled his hair in frustration at the large fiery snake Scherzando stood in their path. “Of fucking COURSE there was a Scherzando wandering around!” Shouri pulled both of his tuners from his side, the screens flipping to the spell/battle screen. Taika and Pacifica took point.

The red glow from the flames coating the Scherzando’s body would hopefully make it an easier target to hit given how dark it was. “Here’s the plan girls: it’s fire, so Pacifica you’ll be dealing damage. Taika I’m gonna give you heals on Rubato, follow behind Pacifica and keep both of you healthy.”

“Got it!”

“Capito!”

“Go! La Bella Vita, Rubato! Idrante, Piano!” With those commands, the two girls rushed at the snake. Pacifica threw a small volley of water needles at the snake, who responded in kind by unleashing a blade of fire toward the two Resonators. The needles of water met the blade of fire and the two spells vanished into nothingness. Pacifica and Taika both froze, surprised at the result. The snake was however beyond such petty emotions like shock and awe, opening its maw to unleash a ball of hell fire.

“Taika! Pacifica!” Shouri shouted in distress at the situation.

Thankfully the two girls rolled out of the practical explosion of fire with Taika applying heals to both of them thanks to the Rubato modifier. Now it was the snake’s turn to charge, chasing the two Resonators around and unleashing fire on them. All they could do was run away.

“Sho! What do we do?!” Pacifica cried out as they fled.

Shouri was looking between the two tuners trying to figure out how to string the available spells together to win. He still didn’t know what the other water spells did and with Pacifica’s basic water attacks being more or less useless, they needed another plan.

“Nuvola Oscura, Allegro! Come on back!” was the next command.

Taika let out a thick smokescreen at the Scherzando, obscuring its vision whilst the two Resonators returned to their Maestro.

“What’s... the plan Sho?” Pacifica asked between gasps of breath.

“Sotto.” Taika jumped as she felt her link with Shouri break – he canceled the healing spell?

“So my thought is, this thing is a slashing attribute, so it beats your piercing attribute spells,” he told her.

Pacifica gasped. “Oh yeah, that is a thing, isn’t it?” She shook her head. “So what do we do?” she asked.

“I dunno what these other water spells do since I never had any real chance to sit down and look them up, so I’m just gonna call them out and we’ll figure them out on the fly,” he proposed.

“Oh boy.” Pacifica gulped, steeling herself to return to battle. “Okay, Sho.”

“What about me?” Taika asked.

“Thankfully I know what your spells do, so whatever she does if you get an opportunity to lay down damage, Luce Lunare, Rubato,” he instructed her. The trio glared down the fading smoke screen as the snake made the motions of a roar, but with no sound coming out.

“Manga de Agua, Pianissimo!” Shouri called out. Pacifica didn’t fight it and just allowed her body to move with her Maestro’s command. In front of her, she created a small tornado, though this was made of water. With a wave of her hand, the water spout was off, slowly approaching the snake. Unfortunately, the snake was able to slither away from it and the spell faded.

“Damn, that looked strong.” Pacifica snapped her fingers.

“Hmmm.” Taika studied the movement of the snake and the water spout.

“I got an idea!”

Pacifica was taken aback by that. Both Taika and Shouri had exclaimed that in unison. “What’s your thought?” Shouri asked.

“The snake focuses on running away from the tornado, so-” Taika started

“-you’d be able to hit it with spells while it’s busy running,” Shouri finished her sentence for her.

“Esatto!” Taika clapped her hands together; pleased she was on the same wavelength as her Maestro. Pacifica smirked and readied herself, she knew what she had to do for this plan.

“Manga de Agua, Pianissimo Staccato!”

Once more Pacifica created the water spout spell and sent it off towards the snake. She created two more successive spouts and sent them off as well. Taika meanwhile watched how the snake was moving and began lobbing orbs of lunar energy at the fleeing snake, landing several hits in a row. The snake then attempted dodging those in addition to the three spouts of water, but only ended up getting mixed up and got sucked into one of the vortexes.

“Ghiacciolo, Rubato!”

Pacifica took her chance and started sending a flurry of ice needles into the vortex the fire snake was trapped in, ultimately defeating it.

With the dissolution of the Scherzando, Shouri let his shoulders drop. “Holy shit,” he exhaled sharply. Pacifica and Taika held him up. “You both did great.” He smirked, rubbing the backs of their heads. The two Resonators shared a grin, pleased with themselves for a job well done.

“I guess I’m glad that thing showed up,” Shouri spoke after having recovered from the earlier battle. They had made significant headway toward their goal. In fact, they began seeing people wandering around the beaches, even nearing midnight.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Pacifica inquired.

“Reminded me I really need to learn what all the water spells do,” he told her, “I at least have an idea of what all the lunar spells do.”

“Yeah, that water tornado thingy was cool but kinda slow,” Pacifica recalled its movements during the battle.

“Maybe it gets bigger and faster at higher levels,” Taika suggested.

“Probably!” Pacifica chuckled.

“Either way, I’m proud of us,” Shouri said, looking ahead to the city in the distance. “We could probably take another one down if it came to it.” He tempted fate.

“Don’t excite the wish sage,” Pacifica warned.

“I know I know.” The curl on his lips fell. “We’ll do even better with full stomachs and a good eight hours of sleep behind us.”

“Heck yeah!” Pacifica pumped her fist into the sky.

“Food and bed sounds really good right now,” Taika spoke dreamily, imagining reclining in bed with a juicy burger.

“I know I’m a broken record when I say this but: just a little bit longer,” Shouri reminded his two companions.

“So stoked for food,” Pacifica reminded herself

“And bed,” Taika chimed in.

Shouri chuckled; they were at least consistent if nothing else. Though as they walked the beach became more populated, even this late at night. Maestros and Resonators walking, talking, and chatting. Given the trio’s disheveled state from being attacked twice, taking a trip down the rapids, and their miles upon miles of walking they earned looks, muttering and pointing.

Pacifica felt it the hardest. Even what was being unsaid, how people were just judging them, judging Shouri and Taika specifically made her blood boil. She stopped and turned to a particular pair to give them a piece of her mind. Her Maestro grabbed her shoulder.

“Not worth it,” he whispered.

“But-!” she protested, wanting to defend her friend’s honor.

“I don’t want to start another fight in our state.”

The otter gritted her teeth hard, her fists balled up tightly. He was right, and it was obvious her exhaustion was getting to her now. She wasn’t thinking rationally. “Level me out please,” she requested.

Shouri grabbed Pacifica’s hand. He turned to Taika who averted her gaze. “Come on.” He took hold of the fox’s hand as well, earning a hidden smile from her.

The Maestro focused his rhythm to his hands, wanting to calm his stressed-out companions. The storms raging in the two Resonator’s minds slowly subsided whilst Shouri himself was provided the motivation and fortitude to carry on.

And after all of that trial and tribulation, they finally made it to the food they had all been craving for so long. Staving off hunger with water for hours on end could only get them so far. They desired substance to their intake, and this diner would quell that primal urge.

The diner itself was a small place, they were greeted and immediately seated in a booth, Shouri on one side with Taika and Pacifica his opposite. There were a couple of other patrons minding their own business, and a digital jukebox in the corner played away a popular song, albeit at a low volume as background noise.

The hungry trio looked over the menu which was their first mistake. Everything sounded so good. It was hard not to consider telling the waitress they wanted to order the whole menu. What made matters worse was the kitchen. It was an open design, so they could see the Maestro and his crew of three to four Resonator chefs working away on the various patrons meals. The smell was unbearable, unbearably delicious.

“What can I do ya kids for?” their waitress, an older Resonator, inquired – she regretted that question immediately; these guests were HUNGRY.

“Golden fish and grits, oh also I want that Jumbo shrimp combo!” Pacifica shouted, slamming her menu down on the table, causing the silverware and condiments on the table to clatter from the force of the impact.

“Can I have this club sandwich, with double, no triple chips?!” Taika yelled, pointing to the menu item in question.

Both girls were definitely starving in both mannerisms and appearance, which freaked out the Resonator waitress who struggled to maintain her professionalism. She turned to the Maestro of the pair who cleared his throat. “Right, I’ll do the bacon cheeseburger,” he spoke calmly. The waitress sighed, thinking at least the Maestro was going to have a normal order. “Oh, also make that a triple patty, double bacon, and a double order of cheese fries.”

The poor waitress scribbled down the order and rushed off to have the kitchen prepare the feast for the hungry travelers.

With the waitress gone, Shouri decided to address his famished familiars. “I know you two are going to want to devour everything-” Which they were demonstrating by their transfixed gazes on the kitchen. “-but we need to eat slowly. I don’t want any of us getting sick. The food is coming and nobody’s going to take it away from us,” he advised.

“I’ll do my best.” Pacifica gulped, unsure if she’d be able to keep her word.

“Same,” Taika chimed in, eying the ketchup bottle that made its home on the table as a possible appetizer.

He could tell both of their mouths were watering something fierce and they both were trembling from excitement at their well-earned dinner.

“We’re gonna lose money on this meal, but thankfully our snake friend from earlier at least paid for a little bit of this,” Shouri sighed, glancing back towards the kitchen himself.

It didn't take too long for their food to arrive. The waitress hadn’t even set down Shouri’s plate by the time Pacifica and Taika were scarfing their meals down like it was the last they would ever have.

“HEY!” Shouri barked, surprising the two girls into stopping their rapid consumption of food. “I really don’t feel like spending the rest of the night dealing with your stomach problems. PLEASE pace yourselves,” he spoke sternly.

“S-sorry Sho,” they both uttered.

The boy exhaled sharply. “Like I said, just pace yourselves.” He put a fry into his mouth and trembled slightly. “Even if it is tempting to just eat everything,” he muttered, trying his darndest to not be an immediate hypocrite.

With a much healthier pace, the trio only got through roughly half of their respective meals and they requested some containers for their remaining portions.

“Breakfast for tomorrow.” Pacifica smiled contentedly at what remained of her dinner.

“I’m excited for that,” Taika chimed in, closing her box.

“At least it’s economical in that sense.” Shouri eyed the slip of paper at the end of their table, the damage of their indulgence.

He dreaded that receipt, but had to face his fears; slowly lifting it to find out the total. “Oh god.” He let it fall.

“How bad is it?” Pacifica inquired.

“Eighty-five notes,” Shouri replied, pushing his hair back and sighing. He couldn’t say he was surprised all things considered. At least all three of them were content and had breakfast for tomorrow.

The otter regarded their three filled take-out boxes with a tinge of satisfaction. “We did get a lot of food,” she noted.

“Yeah, yeah. I just don’t want us to end up in a bad spot from over-spending,” he laid out his primary concern.

“At worst I can beg my parents for money,” Pacifica offered.

“I’ve already said why I don’t want to do that,” Shouri reminded her.

“My life is more important than some stupid money.” She threw his own words back at him with a smirk.

He relaxed, smiling back. “If it really came down to it, then fine,” the Maestro conceded the point. “But I’m not going to let us get to that point because of reckless spending,” he told them.

Taika and Pacifica nodded. “We’ll be careful,” the two Resonators acquiesced.

“Let’s get this paid for and get out of here.”

Paying for the food was the easy part. Walking had become the hard part though.

“Aaaah... my legs are so stiff...” Pacifica complained as they walked through the city of Riva Sranvi. Like the nearby beaches, there were a few people out and about. Mostly Maestros and their Resonators coming and going from hunts it seemed.

“Unfortunately, muscle soreness isn’t fixable by healing magic,” Shouri groaned, having the worst time of it out of the trio.

“Why not Sho?” Taika asked, curious about her own power’s limits.

They stopped to rest on a nearby bench.

“From what I read, healing magic can only return order to disrupted systems. The direct result of 'chaos' as it were. So like if I cut myself with a knife that would be me exerting a form of chaos on my own system,” he told the two Resonators. They both nodded slowly. “Things like diseases, muscle soreness, and even death are considered 'orderly' since those are all natural parts of life and so there would be no 'order' to return it to,” he imparted the fruit of his research to the two Resonators.

“Magic in that sense like Lunar or Water magic is incredibly 'chaotic' by that definition. As such it’s super easy for healing magic to counter other forms of magic,” he added.

“That’s so crazy.” Pacifica glanced at Taika who was staring at her hands.

“You’re telling me,” The healer in question whispered.

“Thankfully healing magic can fix blisters cause god I can already feel them forming,” the boy groaned, “Really wish we didn’t have to walk around with wet socks and shoes for hours.” He grimaced.

“How far away is the MA Office?” Pacifica inquired.

“Just a little bit down the road.” Shouri pointed down the street where the familiar stone signage could be seen. The boy reluctantly stood up. “The sooner we get going, the sooner we sleep.” He winced slightly as he stepped down, his body protesting the resumed locomotion.

Thankfully, unlike the entire rest of today’s journey, the exhausted trio completed the final leg of their pilgrimage without anything ridiculous happening.

Ding ding ding

“Welcome to the South Riva Sranvi Maestro Affairs Office-” It was at that point the night shift attendant reached the counter and saw the state of the guests. “-how... can we assist you?” she trailed off.

“Room, please.” Shouri practically begged, sliding his two tuners across the counter.

While the attendant signed them in, she couldn’t help but ask: “What happened to you?”

“You know Mt. Wynding?” The Maestro returned her question with one of her own.

“Yes!”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“We took the long way down the rapids and up the coast.”

“Oh my.”

“Yeah. Could use a bed badly.”

“Certainly, you will be in room fifty-nine, down the hall.” The attendant pointed to the oh-so-familiar Maestro’s quarters.

“Cool, thanks.” Shouri turned back to his similarly exhausted Resonators. “Come on girls, let's bounce.”

PLOP

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Shouri screamed into the bed that he was currently lying face down in. Taika was sitting on a chair, sadly looking over the soaked evening wear. She had been wearing their backpack the whole day and forgot they had taken a plunge into the river, bag and all earlier in the day.

Pacifica had taken to the bathroom to soak in the shower before bed.

“La Bella Vita, Allegro.” Taika heard Shouri’s muffled voice from his face-down position in the comforters. She perked up as some of the pain in her feet faded away.

“La Bella Vita, Allegro Tutti.” And then she directed some of that healing her Maestro’s way. He turned his head to the side to speak to Taika properly. “We’re gonna be sore as fuck tomorrow, but at least our feet won’t be cut up from blisters.”

Taika nodded slowly, before reclining back in the loveseat she was occupying. “What are we gonna do tomorrow Sho?”

“Sleep. Sleep a lot,” the Maestro murmured. In all honesty, it was taking a lot of his strength to not just pass out sprawled out in the center of the bed. Reluctantly pushing himself up, he removed his jacket. The clothes on his person had dried already. “How’s the bag?” he asked Taika.

“Still wet,” she informed him.

“Urgh, let’s go use the dryer real quick,” he quickly decided.

Though the Maestro drew pause, considering Pacifica. Grabbing the blue tuner off the bed, he pressed the talk button. “Pacifica.”

Taika could hear Pacifica splashing out in surprise in the bathroom. “Y-yes Sho?” her voice came from the tuner she was linked to.

“Taika and I want to dry our bedclothes,” he said, pausing to decide if he wanted to say anything else. Instead, he released the talk button.

“I’m getting out now,” she spoke after a moment.

With that, he flipped off the listen function to allow her to dry off in privacy.

“Why?” Taika whispered.

“I feel nervous leaving her alone,” he admitted shakily. Looking closely at his hands, his knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping the blue tuner. Standing in silence, the two snapped to as the bathroom door opened.

Pacifica left her hair down, adjusting her vest as she approached her Maestro and fellow Resonator. “Let’s go.”

“Right.”

The trio all sat around in the small laundry room, eyes fixated on the dryer as Shouri and Taika’s loungewear tumbled away. It was nearing three in the morning at this point and they were all at the point of falling asleep.

“... right?! Can you believe she said that shit!? Absolutely crazy!”

Drawing their attention was an unfamiliar pair entering the room. First was a boy clad in a brown flight jacket and pants, a pair of aviator’s goggles nestled in the brown messy nest of hair adorning the top of his head. But what piqued their interest was the Resonator floating next to him, as well as the black tuner clipped to his belt.

The Resonator was a pale girl with purplish black wings and hair and a white shoulderless shirt with green shorts. The new pair noticed they had walked in on another group. “Told you Ryn.” The Maestro elbowed his Resonator.

“Sorry Maki, I didn’t think anyone else’d be here,” the winged girl chuckled sheepishly.

The two Maestros took note of their counterpart’s choice of Resonators. “A lunar,” they both noted.

The other Maestro grinned and approached Shouri. “Hey, bud, name’s Makani.” He extended out a partially gloved hand, his beige skin rough around the fingertips despite how young he appeared otherwise.

An offer that was easily accepted. “Shouri.”

“Not often I see someone else who keeps a Lunar in their company, figured I could use all the friends I could get.” Makani laughed. His eyes seemed to glow knowingly with blue rhythm. “And I can tell you treat your partners right,” he noted.

“Can you now?” Shouri gulped. He wasn’t that strong of a rhythm user; he was well aware of that. Was it truly that easy to see how one treats their Resonators?

“Sure, they both huddled up to you so familiarly when we walked in.”

Glancing back at the Resonators in question, Pacifica and Taika both turned away to hide their red faces from Shouri (though they remained close to him.)

Makani couldn’t help but chuckle. “See what I mean?”

“Got our stuff, Maki.” Ryn floated up behind her Maestro with their freshly laundered clothes.

“We’re gonna be here for another week, maybe we’ll see each other around.” With a wave, Shouri and his Resonators were left alone once again.

“What a busybody,” Taika decided with a huff.

“He seemed nice,” Pacifica chuckled, patting her counterpart’s shoulder.

“I’ll take anyone that doesn’t immediately hate us at this point,” Shouri threw in his two cents.

“Yeah...” Taika and Pacifica both sighed wearily.

In freshly laundered clothes, a trio of bodies hit the bed.

“E mi è mancato il modo in cui facevi parte della mia vita,” Taika cooed, stroking the bed.

“Same...” Pacifica sighed.

“Good night,” Shouri spoke aloud.

“Good night Sho,” the two girls said together.

Getting under the blankets proper, Taika huddled up next to Shouri’s back. Pacifica herself was conflicted about her sleeping situation. “What’s up?” Shouri questioned.

“Just... don’t want to bother you,” she admitted quietly.

“It’s gonna be more of a bother when you try to scoot out of bed in an hour because of nightmares,” he reminded her.

“Mmmrrhhh...” The girl fidgeted uncomfortably.

“You were fine etuding with me earlier,” he pointed out.

Pacifica was once again thankful they were in a dark room as her face was flush with fluster, recalling holding his hand earlier. It was really nice.

“Can you please hurry up? I want to sleep,” came Taika’s slightly irritated voice from the other side of Shouri.

“F-fine...” She submitted once more to the whims of her Maestro and now fellow Resonator, huddling up close to Shouri and allowing him to drape his arms over her. The uncertainty in her heart quickly melted away as the warmth of his rhythm eased the storm in her mind. It was clear to her – this was correct, just plain right and she easily drifted off to sleep.

With Pacifica comfy and Taika wrapped around him, Shouri also fell asleep, his Resonator’s rhythm soothing him just as he did for them.