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

Day passed to night, and with it, work needed to be done. For that, the quartet made their way down to the camp just north of the city. It was far enough away that it necessitated a trip by bus, even despite picking the closest MA Office.

“City is too damn big,” Rebecca grumbled as they got off the bus with the various other Maestros and Resonators.

“Relax Rebby, at least the bus was air-conditioned. Will be nice on the way back.” Pacifica patted her fellow Resonator’s back.

“Wouldn’t have bothered me either way.” Rebecca sensed Pacifica wilt a bit. “But, I suppose it’s nice to save our strength for the actual fighting.” To say she wasn’t accustomed to having people truly care about her was an understatement.

“Rebby!” Pacifica hugged the fox.

It was certainly something she could get used to though.

Shouri shook his head but smiled, glad that they were all gradually getting used to one another.

They found their way to the registration line. This part of the night always sucked; Shouri discussed tactics with his group to kill some time.

As usual, Taika was on support duty – she didn’t mind, it kept her close to Shouri.

Pacifica and Rebecca were in vanguard positions for their group.

Rebecca specifically was given explicit instructions to not use her ad-Lib unless it was absolutely needed.

“But why?” Rebecca questioned.

“Two reasons. One: We never got you new socks and shoes. I did some reading online and it’s looking like something we may have to custom order. There aren’t any good stores that I saw around here. All the good fire Resonator equipment comes from Nabhon.”

“Why’s that?” Pacifica asked.

“Nabhon has a large fire Resonator population and traditionally where they came from in the ancient past. Meanwhile here on Lybertera, water Resonators reign supreme,” he told the otter.

The water elemental nodded. “Makes sense.”

“We’ll see though, I didn’t get too far into my research on local clothiers,” the Maestro added.

Rebecca cut back in. “So why else can’t I use my ad-Lib?”

“Ah, well the second reason is ad-Libs use your latent rhythm, the same rhythm that protects you from spells and their damaging effects. The more you utilize your ad-Lib, the more susceptible you are to being injured.”

The fire vixen frowned, humming in thought. She wasn’t ready to give up yet. “But we have a healer.” She pointed to Taika, who scowled back.

“So about that-” Shouri took a breath to start another explanation. But before he could, it was their turn to register.

Checked in, they began their trek to the hunt site proper.

“Hey, I’m not done,” Rebecca began the conversation anew. “I wanna know why we can’t just have her heal me.” Once more another finger was thrown in Taika’s (unappreciative) direction.

“Use Taika’s name, pointing is rude,” Shouri scolded her. Rebecca didn’t apologize, but she did listen and put her arm down.

Taika stuck out a tongue at Rebecca but was ignored in favor of their Maestro’s continued lecturing.

“Healers can inflict a status condition called “Rhythm Burn” which causes your body to reject outside sources of rhythm for some time. It usually comes from overuse of La Bella Vita, the basic healing spell.”

“And that means?”

“If we fuck up and you get rhythm burned, healing and support spells will stop affecting you. We have to be smart with how much and how often you’re healed to make sure you can be healed when it matters.”

Rebecca lowered her head. She had been with Maestros before who just threw her into battle and expected their healers to pick up the slack. There were a couple of instances she remembered where it felt like the Resonators healing her weren’t as effective as they should have been. She counted her blessings that Shouri thought about these kinds of things.

“R-right. I’ll keep that in mind,” she decided. This earned her a head pat.

“Good good. I don’t want any of us ending up in the hospital when it could have been easily avoided,” he said with a smile.

THUMP THUMP

Now why was her heart so fluttery all of a sudden?

She didn’t have time to explore that thought, however, as they came to a clearing with a group of Maestros and Resonators.

All in all, it was a pretty typical group. Well except for him-

“Shouri! Funny seeing you here!” Vince loudly declared, much to the ire of the rest present.

Needless to say, since Shouri “knew” Vince, that put him in the unique position of “babysitter” and the rest of the group saw fit to pair them off so they didn’t have to deal with the overzealous greenhorn.

Not wanting to cause a fuss, Shouri begrudgingly accepted his assignment and they made their way deeper into the woods. Several balls of fire (provided by Rebecca) floated amongst the group to illuminate their path through the forest.

“Uuugh, this sucks,” Rebecca muttered, leading the way with Pacifica right behind her.

“Relax Rebby, I’m sure it’ll be fiiiine.” Though the water Resonator was saying this more for herself than her fellow Resonator.

“What are we gonna do with him Sho?” Taika whispered to Shouri. They were trailing a bit behind Pacifica and Rebecca, but ahead of Vince and Cecil who were taking up the rear for the moment.

“Make sure he doesn’t die,” he replied.

At any rate, they came across the first group of Scherzando mulling about. The group knelt near some underbrush. They hadn’t been noticed quite yet, so Shouri got to strategizing. “Ooooh, what’s the plan?” Vince bounced excitedly in place, attempting to whisper (and failing).

Shouri kept his gaze fixated on their quarry. There weren’t a lot of them, maybe five or six. A pack of quadrupedal Scherzando, he spotted they were mostly of the earth element with rocky protrusions jutting out of their shadowy forms. With that information in mind, he addressed the other Maestro. “You can help with damage. I’ll have Pacifica and Taika trap them and then-”

“Oh! I got that! Come on Cecil!” Vince rushed out from the foliage, his Resonator following.

“Vince wait- god damn it!” Shouri had failed to restrain the younger Maestro before he was already out of reach.

“Let’s go!” Rebecca knew her Maestro didn’t want to see this boy get killed and took off after the overzealous greenhorn.

Vince naturally attracted the attention of the Scherzando who turned to face him. Before they could move to attack him, however, he belted out the first spell of the night:

“Raffica Discendente, Allegro!”

Cecil continued moving towards the Scherzando, swiping a hand down. An intense wind blew down from the sky, crushing the Scherzando underneath it.

“Protuberanza solare, Piano!” And then the lion Resonator launched a ball of pure white light at the stunned beasts, scattering them into the wind.

Rebecca stopped short, having reached Vince first. Her jaw hung in shock.

“Hey Shouri! I did it!” Vince almost seemed more impressed with himself than proud.

“Th-that you did,” Shouri muttered.

“I thought he was...” Pacifica struggled to come up with a word

“Un stolto?” Taika offered.

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” the otter chuckled sheepishly.

Shouri dismissed his Resonator’s gossiping and decided to address Vince. “Hey Vince-“

“Yes, Shouri?!” The smaller boy beamed.

“Let’s try to be a bit more careful.”

“What did I do wrong?”

The senior Maestro frowned, closing his eyes and folding his arms across his chest. Rebecca joined Taika and Pacifica behind their Maestro. “Well, your spell usage was fine, but did you really need to run at the Scherzando?” he questioned.

Vince processed that for a moment. “I guess not.” He frowned.

“Also, your spells could have been cast perfectly fine from a distance – it wasn’t necessary to expose Cecil to danger like that,” Shouri continued to deliver his feedback.

“It’s fine.”

That wasn’t a familiar voice. Looking at the source – it was Cecil.

“He can talk?!” Pacifica hissed to Rebecca and Taika who were similarly shocked at the lion breaking his silence.

Once more disregarding his Resonator’s gossip, Shouri turned his attention to Cecil. “If you’re okay with how Vince is commanding you, I’m not going to complain. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt,” the veteran Maestro told him.

Cecil nodded. “Quite noble of you,” the lion commented.

Vince looked back and forth between his Resonator and Shouri. “I’ll try to remember that,” the younger Maestro stated.

“Let’s keep going.” Shouri grabbed Taika’s tuner. “Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento.”

“Ok, what’s the plan Shouri?”

They had come up on the second group of Scherzando, again just kind of wandering around aimlessly. Like the last group, a bunch of quadrupeds awaited them. Slender and graceful, they looked adapted for speed and agility, their bodies streamlined and powerful-looking legs. Their wedge-shaped heads were up and alert, their ears flicking as they scanned the environment for prey. Bark and vines adorned their bodies informing the tactician of their element.

“Too spread out for that wind spell,” Shouri noted quietly. As he scrutinized their enemy’s positioning, he came to a realization. “Or are they?” He whispered. “Let’s re-position.” Shouri motioned towards some shrubs a little off to their left. “And try to keep quiet.” He directed specifically at Vince.

The six-strong group crept silently through the underbrush to the spot Shouri had pointed to.

“Now what?” Vince asked, almost struggling to keep his voice at a whisper.

“I’m gonna trap the Scherzando, when I do, you finish them off,” the senior Maestro laid out his plan.

“Right!”

The Scherzando perked up while Shouri and Pacifica slammed their hands over Vince’s mouth. Cecil shook his head but cracked an amused smirk.

Taika and Rebecca kept their eyes on the beasts, which stood at attention for a moment however they went back to milling about harmlessly. Shouri and Pacifica relaxed, releasing Vince, with Shouri aggressively applying his index finger to his mouth signaling to the other Maestro to shut up. Vince enthusiastically nodded, fighting to keep himself from causing any more commotion.

With that matter settled, Shouri drew Pacifica’s tuner from his side. The otter crept deeper into the foliage and laid her hands on the ground just outside their hiding spot.

“L'onda di tempesta, Rallentando.”

A river of water sprang up from the ground, from Pacifica’s hands, and underneath the Scherzando, who thanks to Shouri’s repositioning, were in a nice neat line to get captured by the water spell.

“Now Vince! Now!”

“Flusso del Vento, Piano!”

As the Scherzando struggled to remain standing in the river of water, they were pulled into a stream of wind that sliced them up like the expert swing of a swordsman. With such a careful, surgical strike, it was no surprise when the entire mob was defeated in one blow.

“Ooooh! We did it Shouri!” Vince exclaimed, excitedly pointing to where the Scherzando once stood.

“That we did,” Shouri stated simply, helping Pacifica up.

“You did good.” Vince watched Shouri praise his Resonator and pat her head.

The younger Maestro, wanting to emulate his hero followed suit. “You did good.” He tried to reach up to pat Cecil’s head, but the lion man was much taller than his Maestro. Cecil rolled his eyes but decided to humor his Maestro. The taller Resonator lowered himself enough to allow his Maestro to pat his head.

Rebecca watched this little display. He wasn’t just putting on airs, he was genuine. Super naïve, yes; but genuine all the same. A small smile rose on the fire Resonator’s lips.

“Come on, let’s keep it up.” Shouri pointed towards their next destination.

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. Turns out Vince was a quick learner and picked up on the small things Shouri did and took direction well.

“Whew, what a night.” Shouri let his shoulders catch slack as they made their way back towards the main staging area.

“Thank you for teaming up with me today.” Vince grinned. It seemed his usual sugar rush had worn away, leaving just a normal Maestro underneath his typical hyperactivity.

“Yes, thank you for showing this one how a proper Maestro carries themselves,” Cecil chimed in.

Pacifica shot a tired glance over at the solar Resonator. That odd sensation she felt from him before had faded away. It did slightly bother her, but maybe that’s just how he was with people he didn’t know? Or perhaps she was imagining it? Either way, she felt both Vince and Cecil were trustworthy after the night’s events.

“Sho I want a burger,” Taika whined.

“You ate two dinners,” Rebecca groaned, just wanting to sleep.

“That was literally five hours ago.”

Shouri shook his head but smiled all the same. “Well, I’m gonna get these three back to the MA office.”

“‘kaaaay. Cecil and I might do some more hunting on our own.” Vince looked back towards the forest they had just left.

“Don’t push yourself,” Shouri advised.

“We’ll be fine.”

The elder Maestro frowned hard, making a disapproving hum.

“Just a couple more, then we’ll head back,” Vince chuckled, still not fully deterred from his planned course of action.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Cecil added.

Letting out a held breath, Shouri shrugged. “Well, I’m not your mother, so do as you will - just be careful.”

“Totally! Thanks again Shouri, I super super appreciate you hanging out with me.”

And with that, the two Maestros parted ways.

“He’s a nice kid,” Pacifica spoke up as they made their way down to the bus stop.

“Just a bit overzealous,” Shouri added in.

“Just want to sleep,” Rebecca whined.

“Ho fame!” Taika cried out, holding her stomach.