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

Deeper and deeper she sank into the abyss. This was it, huh? To say she had regrets was an understatement. It was so unfair, so early. She barely had the chance to live. She had only just found what it meant to dream. A mere candle snuffed out by a cruel wind as the darkness began to take over.

Why? Why did it have to end this way?!

She wished she could have done things differently. Oh if only, if only she hadn’t been born with her cursed name perhaps she could have lived the selfish life she had desired.

And then Rebecca opened her eyes. A dream. She was alive.

That’s right, she was safe now - with a Maestro who cared about her.

At this moment she was warm, she was content. Even if the world was sloshing and swaying around her, she had found her happiness – it was less believable than a dream in all honesty.

There was a moment where she just lay there, in Shouri’s arms, absolute bliss.

...

Wait...

In his arms?!

Why was he holding her?!

How did this even happen?!

The night prior, Rebecca had officially joined Shouri; seeing her red tuner with the blue and black ones he already carried brought her the smallest bit of pride. They had talked about the ground rules, of which the one that most stuck out was that they were a team. All of their opinions mattered, and she should talk to him if she had any issues.

They were equals; it was such a warm thought. It was little wonder that they were all so happy together before. Though…

Pacifica and Taika, his other two Resonators, seemed to be a bit stand-offish for the moment. In fact, there was an air of animosity that Rebecca hadn’t sensed before. She knew she was the cause of this slight attitude shift. That’s how it always was. Other Maestros she had in the past immediately fawned over her and neglected their other Resonators, earning their ire.

Even with a Maestro as great as Shouri, there was no way to stop the jealousy caused by a new Resonator entering the dynamic.

Or maybe because of her presence, they had to downgrade to a lesser room and they were mad about that? That had to be it.

It made sense really; they were now relegated to a tiny cabin with a bunk bed. There wouldn’t even be room for all of them in the beds – there was going to be some sleeping on the floor. Anyone would be upset about that.

“Taika, Pacifica, can you take the top bunk while Rebecca and I share the bottom?” he requested, much to Rebecca’s shock. Sharing beds? The bunks weren’t that big, they couldn’t accommodate two people and give them enough space to have separation between them.

Either way, the other two Resonators didn’t seem pleased by the arrangement but didn’t protest.

“Fine,” Taika relented.

“You owe us,” Pacifica added.

Rebecca was unsure of what was going on, but she watched Pacifica, and then Taika climb up to the top bunk to lay down. Shouri slid their tuners to them – another oddity.

“Why?” Rebecca tilted her head.

“Well, Taika likes reading, and Pacifica’s gotten into some mobile gaming recently.” Shouri shrugged, sitting down on the bottom bunk. He patted the empty spot on the bed next to him. Rebecca hesitated, ears folding back as she fidgeted with the last button of her shirt. His eyes bore into her, though he waited patiently for her decision it felt rude to leave him hanging like that. She finally just did what he asked and crawled into bed next to him, resting her back against the wall as he was.

“N-now what?” she asked.

“You tired?” he fired back a question of his own.

“Not really.”

“I understand – boats make me kinda uneasy too.”

She looked at him. He smiled warmly rolling his thumbs on his lap “Pacifica’s a really strong swimmer – she taught Taika how to swim,” he told her. “I know water is unpleasant for you, but we can teach you to swim if you want. I’ve heard of fire Resonators learning to swim as a just-in-case emergency thing.”

Rebecca bit her lip as she listened to his proposal. As a fire element, she feared the thought of willingly subjecting herself to cold water. But her Maestro had offered! She didn’t want to cause trouble already; even in the short time they had known each other he had been nothing but good to her. With that in mind, there was only one answer: “Okay.”

“No no.” Shouri shook his head. “Tell me how you really feel,” he demanded.

She balled up her fists, trembling with emotion - this Maestro was simply too much. “I’m scared of the water,” she admitted quietly.

“There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s only natural,” he spoke so gently that it made her swoon. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I just wanted to put the offer out there.”

What could she even say? He was just so damn considerate of her feelings. Being thought of as a person and not a thing would certainly take some getting used to for the Renard. “Don’t worry about that.” He pulled her tuner from his side. “Since we’re both wired, let’s watch some videos.”

The fire Resonator sat there uneasily while her Maestro played some videos for them to watch together. There wasn’t any real rhyme or reason to the videos, they were just random funny clips of people being silly or doing stupid stuff. She just quietly watched – sure they were amusing, but she didn’t understand.

Slowly her eyelids began to droop. It had been such a long day. He radiated such a soothing warmth she couldn’t help but smile contentedly. This was nice.

Right... she must have fallen asleep while they were watching videos. But that didn’t answer the pressing concern of her presence in his arms.

thumpthumpthumpthump

And why her heart was beating so fast? Also, what was that scent? It smelled so good. It was Shouri? It was Shouri. Now why did he smell good?

So many questions and the poor little fox just couldn’t answer any of them. Instead, she opted to just lay there. She figured he must have been cold and if he wanted to capitalize on her radiant heat while they slept, what right did she have to refuse? Hopefully, her pounding heart didn’t bother him.

She wasn’t sure how long she lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness. Finally, Shouri stirred.

“Good morning Rebecca,” he whispered.

“M-morning.” she squeaked.

“How did you sleep?”

Rebecca gulped; was it just her or did this situation seem fairly... intimate? “F-fine.”

Shouri released his captive and they sat up facing one another. Rebecca averted her gaze, still contemplating the nature of their sleeping arrangements from the night prior.

“Is something the matter?” he asked.

“N-no! Not at all!” she muttered sheepishly.

“Wrong answer, try again.” He wore a disapproving frown. How was he so good at reading her?

She fidgeted nervously, still refusing Shouri’s gaze. “W-well... I don’t understand... why we slept together.”

Shouri furrowed his brows as if it should have been obvious. After a moment it clicked; it probably was weird to her – he had gotten so used to Pacifica and Taika constantly sharing a bed with him that it was just the status quo. “Changing Maestros is always disruptive to your rhythm, which can degrade the quality of your sleep for a little bit,” he explained.

“So...?” Her lips pursed, brows pinched together, not understanding.

Reaching out, he placed an index finger on her forehead. “Etude. Making physical contact swaps our rhythm.”

The poor fire fox remained confused – it was written all over her face. “Here, we’ll do it right now.” He grabbed her hands. “Close your eyes and focus on me.”

If nothing else, Rebecca was obedient, so she followed his lead. She closed her eyes and just thought about him, she didn’t know how else to “focus” on him. It was all so confusing...

Or... was it? She never had a Maestro etude with her before. In fact, it was a miracle she had made it this far all things considered. She had such a poor rhythm experience with all of her previous Maestros. Why was that? Why did they behave that way?

Her eyes suddenly shot open upon noticing it: a subtle change in her thought process. There was a sudden clarity to her thoughts. Etude just made sense now, even though she was hopelessly confused prior. He released her. “Strong Knowledge.” Shouri smirked, tapping his temple. “Pacifica is strong emotion, Taika is strong willpower, just so you know,” he added. She nodded. From a rhythm perspective, they were all taken care of.

Well, if Taika and Pacifica ever wanted to interact with her that is. Speaking of – the two senior Resonators descended from their perch upon high. “Morning,” Shouri greeted them. “How’d you two sleep?” he asked.

“Passable,” Pacifica yawned.

“Così così,” Taika grumbled.

Shouri rose from the bed. “Let’s go get breakfast, Pacifica. Taika, Rebecca, be good,” he addressed his trio of Resonators in turn.

Pacifica handed her tuner back to Shouri and they were off. Which left Taika and Rebecca alone.

The two vixens regarded one another for a brief moment. Taika yawned and climbed back up to the bed, vanishing over the edge. Hot off a fresh etude with Shouri, Rebecca couldn’t help but be curious. She hadn’t interacted with Lunar Resonators before, but now she was in a party with one. “Um... Taika?”

The lunar maiden poked her head off the top bunk. “Ma che vuoi?” she asked, the annoyance dripping from her inflection.

Rebecca flattened her ears; this wasn’t going well. “Sh-shouri said you liked reading... so I was wondering what you were reading,” the younger fox inquired.

Taika stared at her condescendingly for a moment. “A book.” And with that, she retreated towards the wall, once again out of Rebecca’s sight.

Essentially left alone, Rebecca hugged herself, brows furrowed up with concern. She had wanted this, but once again she had managed to earn the ire of the Resonators her Maestro had already possessed.

Where things changed, more stayed the same.

Shouri and Pacifica returned with breakfast. Rebecca immediately sensed the emotional distance between the pair. Did something happen?

“Here you go.” Shouri handed Rebecca a take-out container. She sat down on the bed and popped open her container. Eggs, sausage, a biscuit – a relatively light breakfast. The fire fox kept her head down and just focused on eating her food. Shouri sat down next to her – where were the other two?

Ah, they were sitting on the ground, just furthering the animosity. It was always like this.

Pacifica held up their empty travel bottle and shook it. “Ah right.” Shouri dropped his hand down to his waist, grasping Pacifica’s tuner. “Mani Nell'acqua, Moderato,” the Maestro called out. Setting down the container, water poured from Pacifica’s hands, filling it up. “Ghiacciolo, Piano.” And then the second spell. Producing needles of ice, the otter-girl slotted them into the bottle, capped it off, and gave it a hearty shake.

Taika and Pacifica shared the bottle before handing it off to Shouri. “Want some?” He offered it to Rebecca without taking a sip himself.

“I-I’m fine,” she lied.

“Try again.” He frowned at her.

“O-okay...”

It was becoming rapidly apparent that she needed to learn to be open with her feelings – he was simply too good at figuring her out. “Th-thirsty,” she finally acquiesced, telling him what he wanted her to say.

Wordlessly, he handed her the bottle and she took a small sip. He narrowed his eyes at her and she yipped quietly before drinking much more. With a slow nod, he polished off the remainder of the bottle and had Pacifica re-fill the bottle again.

With breakfast out of the way it was time to explore the ship. “Taika and I are gonna go off on our own,” Pacifica told her Maestro. “Ah, wait take your tuners.” Shouri handed them off. “You can reach me by Rebecca’s.”

There was a brief pause before Pacifica slowly nodded while regarding her tuner. “Ok,” she muttered. And with that Rebecca and Shouri were alone.

“W-was that a good idea?” Rebecca questioned.

“Why not?” he countered. “They’re their own people. I gave them their tuners; they can call me if they need me,” he added with a shrug.

Rebecca could sense there was more to that. Much more. Everything she had experienced this morning. The shoe was on the other foot – while he wasn’t lying, he certainly was deflecting. “Try again.” The vixen covered her mouth when she realized what she had just blurted out.

Shouri chuckled, though upon closing his mouth his lips fell. “I guess we’re both not being honest.”

Sitting on the bed, they remained quiet for some time. Shouri let out a tired sigh. “They’re mad at me. Like really mad,” he finally broke the silence.

“Wh-why?”

“Well, we almost bit it fighting one of those big Scherzando,” Shouri told her. Rebecca gasped. There were many rumors and stories about the massive beasts, but she had never seen one herself before. What she had heard was they were horrifyingly strong.

And they had fought such a creature AND survived?!

“The bonus we got for killing it, I spent nearly all of it on freeing you,” he revealed.

And then Rebecca felt horrible.

“3500 notes we almost all died for” – Pacifica had said that when Rebecca had asked to join their group. Guilt. That’s all the vixen felt. Tears poured from her eyes. She really was no good. Chasing her dreams just caused people pain. What a miserable little wretch she was.

“Hey hey.” Shouri pushed her chin up. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I let you stay with him.” This only made Rebecca cry harder as she threw herself into his chest, holding him tightly and trembling with emotion.

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry Shouri...” Rebecca sniveled, still clinging to him. He stroked her hair gently, lightly holding her.

“It’s okay Rebecca, I know you’ve been through a lot.”

“I’ve never had a Maestro genuinely care about me... it’s always my name... they always just want my name...”

“Fucking assholes.”

Silence returned to the small room, the ever so slight rocking and swaying of the boat disregarded by the inhabitants.

“Let’s go get some fresh air.” He ruffled her hair affectionately. She nodded quickly, failing to hide her fluster.

The pair made their way to the top deck and found a quiet spot to be alone. They leaned on the rails, watching the forests pass them by as the boat drifted along the river.

Rebecca’s eyes were laser-focused on the water, thinking about how she would have to escape if the boat suddenly sank, though land being so close put her mind slightly at ease. Slightly.

“I got Taika about a month and a half ago. My parents were pushing me super hard to get a Resonator,” Shouri suddenly began. Rebecca was distracted from the river below as she turned her focus on him. His gaze was fixated on the scenery they were drifting by.

“Something just clicked with her, and I wanted to give her a better life,” he continued. “It was obvious whoever was taking care of her before saw her as a thing.” Her eyes drifted down to the railing he held; his grip tightening to a knuckle-whitening point.

The vixen lowered her head. Though people thought of them as objects, Rebecca figured Taika was treated far worse given her element.

“My parents unfortunately took exception with her and dropped the pleasantries when they caught Taika and me in bed together,” he went on. Rebecca blushed; the phrasing he used promoted certain imagery in the young woman’s head.

“We ran away from home after my father disowned me. What was worse is the small town we ran to had an unwelcoming hunting scene.” The Maestro paused, reflecting on that for a moment. “I guess I pissed off one of the locals 'cause they cold-cocked me and locked me in a cave.”

“Oh my god...” Rebecca gasped.

“That’s where I met Pacifica,” he added.

“Oh my god.”

“She was basically on death’s door, but she still lent me what little strength she had left and we managed to get out of there. We got caught and Taika saved us in the nick of time, but Pacifica almost didn’t make it.” Rebecca could sense the authenticity of the story. Even to this day, he was still scared of losing Pacifica – that much was abundantly clear to her.

“After she recovered, she came to our room at the MA Office and asked to join Taika and me. And while we’ve grown considerably since then, at that time we were much weaker.” He paused. “Much much weaker.”

“That guy that kidnapped Pacifica and I came after us again, and we escaped by the skin of our teeth,” Shouri added. “A bunch of other stuff happened, but that’s the jist of how we all met.” He looked to Rebecca who returned his gaze. “And now you’re one of us.” He smiled. Poor Rebecca was caught off-guard by his expression, her eyes widening and her heart racing. She whipped her head away to hide the warmth that splashed onto her face.

Shouri exhaled sharply. “Anyways, let’s try to have some fun.” Rebecca braved facing him again, but she was met by his genuine, heart-felt smile, and immediately turned back away.

He was simply too much.

They spent the remainder of the day together just her and him. Rebecca wondered the entire time – did she deserve something like this?

Happiness?