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

Morning arose, and with it, Shouri and his two Resonators. This particular spring morning, the Maestro and his otter were out on the prowl.

“So apparently this one has a cafeteria in building B,” Shouri told Pacifica as they made their way over to the building in question. “Would have been nice to know after we spent a couple of days living off of vending machines and shitty fast food,” the boy grumbled.

The otter-girl had more pressing concerns, glancing back towards building A where they had come from. “Are you sure it was okay to leave Taika alone?”

Shouri exhaled sharply. “No, not really. But she insisted.” Pacifica noted his pace was a lot faster than normal – it was clear he wanted to get back to their room quickly.

Pacifica wilted slightly. “She knows better than us how people look at her,” the otter muttered. “I guess she didn’t want to deal with it this morning,” she surmised.

“That or she didn’t want us to have to deal with it,” Shouri grumbled irritably. “Either way, we’re gonna get in and get out. Breakfast food doesn’t keep well.” He picked up the pace further.

"You could have just sent me to pick it up," Pacifica pointed out, matching his pace.

"No, I'm not making either of you be my errand girls, I can do my fair share of the work," the Maestro insisted as they entered the building.

Pacifica sensed there was more to it than that, but she didn't have the courage to be nosy right now and quietly complied.

Building B had the standard gym area, but on the east side of the building, there was also a cafeteria as promised. Plenty of tables to sit and eat at, and as one would expect of an MA office of this size, nearly all the tables were full of people. Shouri grabbed a tray, while Pacifica grabbed two. Given the number of people expected to go through this canteen each day, the food was served in a buffet style with grab-n-go options aplenty. There appeared to be a head cafeteria lady, a Maestro, who oversaw a squad of Resonators who worked under her, serving the actual food.

Shouri grew annoyed as they waited in line. Not because of the line itself but because of a behavioral change he noticed from the Maestros around him – he wasn’t getting any dirty looks or the like. All because the Resonator that was standing next to him was a water-element instead of lunar.

He had Taika’s tuner in his pocket, so it was out of immediate sight, while Pacifica’s water blue tuner was proudly displayed on his waist.

It was beyond frustrating.

Escaping the clutches of the food service department, Shouri immediately began to complain. “God people are so infuriating!” he let loose.

“Yeah... I noticed it too.” Pacifica acknowledged the difference in their treatment. “I never realized it was this bad,” she admitted.

“Taika and I were jumped a couple of days after we got together,” he told Pacifica.

“Oh my god really?!” The otter girl gasped in astonishment.

“Yeah. Thankfully my sister stepped in and kicked the dude’s ass, but we have garnered our fair share of negative attention.”

“Awful. Why are people like that?”

“You got me.”

Returning to their room, the trio ate breakfast in peace. Ultimately, they decided to just spend the day in their room relaxing, something they hadn’t been able to do in several days.

Shouri opened his eyes at one point. The television was playing some kind of mid-day infomercial, Pacifica and Taika were both fast asleep, on either side of him, draped over him. Their hands were interlinked and resting on his stomach. Both girls were content it seemed.

What a lovely dream, he thought before drifting back to sleep himself.

Pacifica awoke next. She had fallen asleep? The orange hue in the sky told her the truth of the matter: they had slept the entire day away. Either way, she found she was with her two favorite people in the world. How quickly she had become attached to them. It had been just about a week now and she couldn't dream of traveling alone again. She squeezed Taika’s hand tightly, which caused the Lunar fox to adjust herself on the opposite side of their Maestro (though said fox-girl remained asleep).

She jumped slightly as she felt Shouri stroke her hair. “You up?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she whispered back

“Feeling up to work tonight?”

She nuzzled the arm underneath her head. “Definitely. I feel good right now,” she cooed.

“I’m glad.” The Maestro smiled warmly. He started stroking Taika’s ears to get her up. Immediately it seemed to put her in a good mood as she awoke from her slumber.

A groggy smile arose on her lips. “Buongiorno...” the lunar fox breathed out, her eyes half open.

“We’re gonna work tonight,” Shouri told her.

“Good.” She hugged Shouri tightly.

And with that, the trio got ready to tackle the night. Shouri was at the desk with both tuners on the spell screens once again refreshing himself on what exactly they had available. Taika sat on the bed, brushing her freshly washed tail.

Pacifica emerged from her shower, dripping water all over the carpet as she let out a pleasured sigh.

“I hope you dried off some first,” Shouri spoke up, though keeping his attention on the two devices in front of them.

“Erk!” Pacifica stepped back into the bathroom to properly dry off. Taika couldn’t help but giggle.

With everyone ready to go, they stepped out of their room. “I just hope this is like Riva Solare,” Taika voiced her concern.

“Yeah?” Pacifica looked to her lunar counterpart as they made their way out of the MA Office

“Everyone there was so friendly. It was nice.”

Pacifica rubbed Taika’s back. “It’s okay. If nothing else you have me and Sho.”

Taika smiled warmly. “Yeah...”

Leaving the MA campus, the trio made their way down the streets. They hadn’t gotten too much exploring done of Riva Sranvi, but they found it was your typical beach-side city. The ocean was in plain view to the west and there were plenty of shops ready to take advantage of all the tourism.

The hunter-base camp turned out to be in the opposite direction, much to the water-loving Pacifica’s dismay. They once again found themselves in a large field flanked by a forested area. Even with the sun just dipping below the horizon, there was activity aplenty. Like the Riva Solare hunting site, water seemed to be the name of the game – plenty of water and earth Resonators about. Fire and Lunar seemed to be absent here, while there was a small mix of the remaining elements.

Elemental census aside, Taika’s tail began to wag excitedly as she could smell food in the distance. There were all kinds of booths and stalls peddling various Resonator-wares, and of course food stalls for the hungry Maestros and Resonators alike.

The first order of business was unfortunately just that – business. The trio waited in the sign-up line. Shouri kept his gaze on one of the two tuners he possessed, while the two girls behind him excitedly took in all the visual stimuli. These gatherings tended to be rife with activity, bordering on sensory overload. Eventually, it was their turn. The person manning the station noticed the two girls behind the Maestro.

“Tuners please.”

Shouri handed over the pair of devices and they were scanned in. “Healer huh?” The worker noted.

“Are healers rare?” Shouri questioned.

“Less rare and more of high in demand.” They shrugged.

“Ah.”

“At any rate, we’ll put you in the main group – we only have a reserve healer right now, so I’m sure they’ll appreciate having you there.”

“Sure sure.” Shouri nodded.

And with that, they had their assignment. “Now what?” Pacifica asked as they left the booth. It was her first time being a part of one of these after all.

“We wander around for like an hour or so until the main event,” Shouri told the Resonator.

“Oh! Can we get food!?” The otter bounced in excitement.

Shouri chuckled. He didn’t have to even ask Taika her thoughts, her tail was wagging as hard as she could will it to.

“Yes yes.”

Perusing the food stands offered many options for the hungry trio. Many local specialties were of course on full display, but some traveling merchants displayed their own region’s specialties with pride. “What’s that?” Taika asked fluttering towards a particular stall.

The trio watched the chef behind the counter pour some batter into a skillet filled with oil. Then he flipped the cooking batter after about two minutes, and two more minutes had him plating the strange dish. It was golden brown and had a lovely scent to it. The final touch was a healthy coating of powdered sugar.

“What is it?” Pacifica and Taika asked, voices filled with wonder.

“Funnel cake,” Shouri answered. “Want one?” he asked – though he didn’t need to as the two girl’s eyes were locked on the sweet treat.

“We’ll take one,” Shouri spoke up for the group.

Food secured; they found a bench to sit down while they consumed their purchase.

Shouri’s lap was the designated table while Taika and Pacifica flanked his sides. “Ahhhh, it’s so warm and sweet...” Taika spoke with her mouth full of the cake.

“I love this,” Pacifica similarly forgot her manners and spoke while still eating.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had some,” Shouri remembered his manners unlike his two Resonators, and spoke with an empty mouth.

Pacifica looked to her Maestro – that was an intriguing comment. “From what you’ve told me, you came from a pretty hoity-toity household,” she noted, “But you seem super down to earth. A lot of rich people I met don’t seem to grasp common things as well.”

Shouri pondered that thought – one he hadn’t considered. “Yeah, I guess I’m just built different.” He shrugged. “But in all honesty, it’s probably because I went to public school rather than private school.”

“Oh really? I didn’t have a Maestro so my parents had to hire a tutor for me,” Pacifica told her new friends.

“Me too,” Taika chimed in, though there was a certain darkness to those two words. Pacifica picked up on it but decided now wasn’t the time for it.

“What was public school like?” The otter changed the subject to distract from Taika’s response.

The Maestro hummed in thought before answering. “I guess if I had to say I’m glad I went,” he decided after a moment of thought. “My parents’ wealth is first generation – it wasn’t handed down to them. So I guess they just sent us to Public schooling since that’s what they knew.” He shrugged.

“Though Aura ended up hanging around with sketchy crowds and I got a bit of a “commoner’s taste” as it were – I think they regretted that decision.” He paused. “I never thought I’d be thankful for the education I got.” He smiled.

“Why’s that?” Taika blurted out.

Shouri smiled at her. “I dunno, it’s just a feeling.” He ruffled her hair, eliciting a giggle from the vixen.

Pacifica knew better though – it was a formative experience; one that shaped him into the caring person he was today. The kind of person who would take in a Lunar despite knowing how society viewed them. He was a lot like her in a sense. Money and luxuries didn’t matter at the end of the day. Just being around friends was what made getting up in the morning worth it, or at least that’s how she felt about it.

“It was this way right?” Pacifica asked, being led along by Taika.

“I hope so, this is where all the other Maestros were going.” Shouri looked around the path they were currently walking.

The forest path they were on was dark. There were small lights from other Maestros guiding the way, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get Pacifica through the forest without tripping on things. The solution was for Taika to hold onto Pacifica’s hand and guide her along since the water elemental wasn’t blessed by the night vision shared between Taika and Shouri.

Finally making it to the clearing, they found the other Maestros gathered around, idly chatting amongst themselves.

Shouri didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to be doing and kind of hung around the edge of the group. After the last treatment they got from the Maestros at Mt. Wynding, he felt a bit shy walking up. At the very least he could get a good idea of how much work was available for this evening.

Pulling Taika’s tuner from his waist, he whispered a command: “Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento.”

Taika jumped at the rhythm suddenly connecting with her. Pacifica watched her fellow Resonator raise two fingers and place them against her temple. “There’s a lot here Sho.” She suddenly trembled. “SHO!” she cried out.

Such a loud cry earned the attention of the rest of the Maestros present. Shouri disregarded the stares of the masses, however, having grabbed his Resonator’s shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a really big one. A huge one out there.” A thick sweat coated the girl as she trembled slightly and struggled to control her breathing. “I’ve never felt anything like this,” she whispered.

“Excuse me.”

The trio turned to see one of the other Maestros had approached. “Is she a Lunar?” they asked.

“Yeah.” Shouri held an arm in front of her, grabbing Pacifica’s tuner with his free hand.

“Woah, it’s okay bud! I didn’t mean anything ill by that. Did you have her use the detection spell?” the other Maestro inquired.

“I did.” He remained skeptical.

“Could we see the map data please?”

Shouri’s frown sharpened. It seemed like an honest request. “It’s okay Sho. I think we can trust him,” Pacifica whispered to her Maestro. Letting out a sigh, he acquiesced.

“Come on, join us. I swear we don’t bite.” The Maestro led them over to the main group.

“Cera, who’s he?” a particularly large Resonator asked, pointing at Shouri and his two Resonators. The Resonator in question was massive, easily clearing both the heights and weights of all present. Atop his head sat two fluffy circular ears, with a tiny fluffy tail poking out from behind him.

“Good question – who are y'all? My name’s Cera, this big cuddly bear is Saul.” He patted his much bulkier Resonator’s back. The difference in frames between Maestro and Resonator was hysterical in all honesty. Cera was a lithe man on the shorter side, with Saul being monstrously massive, though the way the bear-man stood made one think there may not be much going on in that head of his.

“Shouri.” He motioned to the two girls behind him.

“Taika.”

“Pacifica, nice to meetcha!”

Cera nodded. “Nice crew you have.” He cradled his own green tuner, regarding it for a moment before addressing the point. “We don’t get many Lunars out here, but we treat them right when we do. Makes life easier,” the man told the newcomers. “Especially with our current situation.” He glanced back towards a mountain that loomed in the distance.

“What’s that?” Shouri inquired.

“Well, Taika there already picked it up: there’s a Big Scherzando that’s taken up residence in the mountain. Makin’ it real dangerous.” The man shuffled a bit uneasily. “Unfortunately, it has a body count.”

Shouri hummed in thought, that certainly was odd. “If it has killed people why hasn’t anyone else gotten involved?” He raised the obvious question

“Like who?” Cera queried back.

“Military, Grand Masters, Guilds, anyone really?” Shouri shot in the dark.

“Yeah, question of the hour. We have regional champs and such, but none of them have lifted a finger.” He glanced over at the rest of the group. They all seemed uneasy about the idea of hunting a Big Scherzando.

“If we can get a few more Maestros, we could probably bring it down.” Cera patted his Resonator’s back. “This big guy isn’t for show, he’s a hell of a fighter,” he added.

Shouri looked back to Pacifica and Taika. They both glared at him determinedly and nodded. “We’re not that strong, but we can at least give you support. Taika is a healer and if nothing else I can have Pacifica try to tag it from a safe distance,” Shouri suggested.

Cera stroked his chin in thought. “We can talk later; I think the rest of the guys and gals here want to get to the actual hunting.”

“I don’t feel like we’re really doing much Sho,” Pacifica whispered to her Maestro.

As it turned out, this Cera character and his bear Resonator, Saul were vastly more powerful than Shouri and either of his Resonators.

“Colpo di vite, Fortissimo!” Cera called out. Saul formed a thick vine out of his Maestro’s rhythm and easily crushed several Scherzando that had decided to attack.

“Fantastic!” Cera pat his bear’s back. “Where’s the next group?” he asked Shouri.

“Right.” Shouri nodded slowly. He looked to Taika, who perked up from her slump of boredom. “Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento,” he requested of her. She nodded slowly and with her spell, the maps were updated across all the tuners nearby.

Cera pored over the current data, grinning and nodding. “Thanks, buddy! Let’s keep moving!” He pointed the group forward.

“We’re not gonna make any money like this Sho,” Pacifica complained to her Maestro.

“I mean we get a bit with each Rilevare l'intenzione, but yeah, I’d like to be something more than a glorified tracking device,” he grumbled.

“Colpo di vite, Fortissimo!” With a heavy thud, Saul easily dispatched with the next group of Scherzando.

“Great! Great!” Cera congratulated his Resonator on a job well done. “So the next-”

Pacifica finally had enough: “Hey!” she barked.

Cera was surprised by the sudden shout. “Pacifica, right?” the other Maestro asked.

“Yeah! Let us get some of the action!” she insisted.

The nature Maestro and his large Resonator exchanged a glance. “Oh, we were doing it again weren’t we buddy?” he asked his Resonator. “Ah, yup I think we were,” Saul replied after a long moment of thought.

Cera let out a carefree laugh. “Okay okay, we’ll back you up on the next few groups. Don’t want to be a poor host.”

Taking the lead finally, Shouri glanced over to his otter. “Thanks, Pacifica,” he muttered.

“It’s okay Sho.” She wrapped her arm around his neck. “I’ll be your voice,” she tittered. Taika turned her head away from the blatant display of affection right next to her. Pacifica felt the dark cloud emanating from her friend and pivoted around Shouri to pull Taika in. “And Taika can rescue us when we inevitably get in over our heads,” Pacifica added. The lunar fox broke into a small smile, grateful to be included.

They came upon a group of Scherzando.

Before Shouri could even draw his tuners, Cera spoke first: “Funghi Magici, Legato!”

Taika was immediately transfixed by the spell, as glowing mushrooms sprouted up amongst the Scherzando’s ranks and spread their spores, causing them to slump over.

Shouri noted the new spell added to Taika’s available spell list.

“Consider it an apology for taking up so many Scherzando before.” Cera winked at the other Maestro.

It would certainly be useful, though resisted by Nature and Lunar elements being the dual element spell of those elements. He shook his head and focused – Cera was hanging back to let them get some money and experience.

“Taika, grab Pacifica’s hand,” he instructed. The two Resonators looked at each other, perplexed at the order, but obeyed their Maestro’s command.

“Luce Lunare, Pianissimo Staccato! Meravigliare Bolla, Presto Staccato!”

Rather than the usual orbs of Lunar energy that Taika was expecting, she found when creating the spell nothing was happening – at least at first appearance. It turned out Pacifica’s spell revealed the fate of the orbs of Lunar energy: they were being stored in little bubbles

“Oh!” Cera gasped.

“So that’s what that meant,” Shouri muttered, seeing a dozen or so bubbles all loaded with Luce Lunare. “Sotto!” he called out. “Pacifica, Ghiacciolo Pianissimo Staccato!”

Pacifica got the gist of what Shouri was going for and formed a cluster of icy needles between her fingers. With a flick of her wrist, she launched her ice needles towards the slumbering Scherzando. The needles not only hit their mark but on the way shredded through the bubbles containing Taika’s Luce Lunare spells, finishing off the weakened Scherzando in one devastating attack.

“Ooooh.” Both Taika and Pacifica clapped at their success.

Cera also shared in the applause. “That’s the ticket! Way to go!” he cheered. “Let’s keep going!”

And so the night wore on with the group taking on several more groups of Scherzando before deciding to call it.

“Well, I guess thanks for the carry,” Shouri mumbled to Cera awkwardly.

“No problemo! If you’re serious about helping take out that big Scherzando in the mountains, I’d be glad to have your help.” Cera offered his counterpart.

Shouri glanced back to Taika and Pacifica; who were more exhausted from their battles tonight than anything. “We’ll consider it,” he decided for now.

“Either way. I live here so I’d rather not have a bloodthirsty Scherzando snacking on my friends and family,” he stated his stake in the matter. “Come on Saul, let’s go get some burgers.”

And with that, Shouri and his Resonators were freed from the social contract that was Cera’s personality (for now). A loud sigh emanated from the trio. “He’s exhausting,” they all spoke together.

Finally getting back to their room at around two in the morning, the trio split off.

Shouri sat at the desk, confirming their earnings from the night’s work while also checking on any updates to the spell lists.

Pacifica took to the shower to soak a bit before bed.

Taika ate a sandwich Shouri bought her as they were coming into the building.

Eventually, the trio convened in bed.

“Tired.” Pacifica yawned.

“Yeah.” Shouri caught her yawn.

“Comfy.” Taika nuzzled the Maestro’s arm.

“Between the Scherzando and support spells, we finally made back the money we spent on supplies and such,” Shouri told the two girls. “So any money we make now will be profit,” he added.

“Ahh, we did good.” Pacifica wore a fatigued, yet satisfied smile.

“You two also got new spells,” he revealed.

“We did?” They both perked up.

He held up Pacifica’s tuner first. “You got the next level of the bubble spell.” Sure enough, there was a “(New!)” next to the next level of the bubble spell. Handing it over to Pacifica, she set it on the nightstand nearest to her.

Next was Taika’s tuner. “And you got that sleep mushroom spell thanks to Cera and Saul. Along with this one.”

Fissare la Ombra (New!)

Presto (New!)

The two Resonators stared at the new spell. “What’s it do?” Taika asked.

“If I recall correctly, this one is supposed to be able to pin targets in place by their shadows. We’ll have to play around with it to see what it can do."

“Maybe higher ranks hold them easier?” Pacifica guessed.

“Probably?” Shouri shrugged, handing the device to Taika to put away. “Lunar spells have shitty documentation,” the Maestro grumbled, settling properly between his two Resonators.

“Hey, it could be like that vine spell,” Taika spoke up.

The other two remained quiet. “What do you mean?” Pacifica inquired after a moment of silence.

“Oh! Well, like... when that kidnapper guy cast it on us before it had thorns, but when that uh, loud guy said it today, it didn’t have thorns,” Taika pointed out.

Shouri pondered that thought – Taika did bring up a good point. Rullante di radice if it wasn’t cast with a modifier just made roots that ensnared the target; Cera demonstrated that tonight. But whenever their kidnapper cast it, he called it with an attack modifier and the vines gained painful thorns.

“You might be onto something Taika,” Shouri commented. “Hmm...” Closing his eyes, there was a big difference between the two spells though. “Your spell has a support modifier though.”

Pacifica decided she wanted some more knowledge about spell-casting. “What do you mean by support modifier?”

The Maestro yawned before explaining. “Spells have two major parts: the spell itself, and its modifiers,” he began, “The spell part is obvious, but there’s a bunch of different modifiers.” Another yawn. “I’ll tell you about the other ones I learned later, but the most common ones are the Attack or Support modifiers, basically attack spells have four: Pianissimo, Piano, Forte, Fortissimo. While support spells have five: Presto, Allegro, Moderato, Adagio, Lento. Each level costs a different amount of rhythm and provides an equivalent efficacy. So, Pianissimo and Presto spells are the weakest but cost the least, while Fortissimo and Lento spells cost the most.” He took a breath.

“I read there are a few spells that get different effects if you change the modifier. We might try it tomorrow just to see,” he concluded his explanation.

Pacifica nodded slowly. “That makes a lot of sense,” she said with a giggle. “I just let you handle the thinking on that stuff.” And with that, she hugged him from the side, and once again locked hands with Taika on his opposite side. “Thanks for explaining though...” she spoke softly. “Things just make more sense when you’re explaining it,” she whispered.

“G-goodnight Pacifica,” he stammered out.

“Buona notte, Sho,” Taika also whispered.

“And good night to you too Taika.”