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

Taika slowly opened her eyes. It was early, probably about seven or eight in the morning from her guess based on how bright the room was. Rebecca was sleeping peacefully nearby. More pressingly though, their Maestro and fellow Resonator were still missing.

She recalled Shouri had said he and Pacifica were going to go on a short walk and come back, at least that’s what the lunar Resonator remembered. Or maybe she dreamt that? Either way here they were not.

Slipping out of bed, Taika couldn’t find their shoes, and their daily wear was still sitting on the dresser where they had left them the night before.

She considered going to look for them. However, nature was calling, as it did in the morning, and for that the vixen pardoned herself to the restroom.

Business handled and hands freshly washed, Taika returned to priority one: finding her Maestro and friend. She slipped on her shoes, ready to go hunt them down (or at the very least put out a missing persons notice). She only got as far as the door however when she was halted by a loud beep.

Stepping away from the door, it slowly swung open to reveal the missing persons in question, though much much worse for wear.

Clad in their night clothes, Shouri and Pacifica were stained with a combination of pool water and sweat. The breakfast bags they carried were in a state of disrepair, having been swung around during their outing. And the pair themselves looked dead on their feet. Slumped over slightly, hair matted and disheveled, and of course deep, dark bags around their eyes.

They looked like they could collapse any second now.

“Sho, Paci, are you okay?!” Taika rushed forward to catch them as their legs finally gave out. She was able to ease them to the ground, but only barely as they were dead weight.

“What happened?!” the distressed fox asked her friends

“Evil...” Pacifica muttered, grasping Taika’s shirt with a trembling fist.

“Vince is in trouble...” Shouri placed a hand on Taika’s shoulder.

Taika looked between her two dear friends as they deteriorated in her arms. What was happening? What could she even do? What should she do? This was all so much, so she turned her head back towards the room behind her, took in a deep breath, and swallowed her pride.

“REBECCA HELP!”

“What the fuck happened to them?” Rebecca asked Taika.

Shouri and Pacifica had been laid in bed and clung to one another as soon as they were. Despite this, they were both knocked out. Taika sat on the edge of the bed, dutifully watching over her friend’s sleep with concern practically dripping from her face. After a moment of this, she decided to address her fire counterpart’s inquiry.

“I dunno. They smell kinda like pool water,” the lunar Resonator noted.

“Well, she is a water, not too surprising I guess,” Rebecca hummed.

Looking back to the coffee table, their breakfast lay untouched since they had set it there while attention to Shouri and Pacifica. The fire fox meandered over and popped open one of the take-out containers. The contents of which had been shaken up and stirred like a mixed drink. “Put these things through hell,” she commented. Bending over she stuck a finger in the scrambled eggs. “Blech, cold too. How long were they carrying these around?” She looked back to Taika, who hadn’t taken her eyes off the sleeping pair.

“Not sure. But what they said worries me,” Taika muttered.

“What did they say?” Rebecca raised a brow.

“Paci said ‘Evil’ and Sho said ‘Vince is in trouble’.”

Rebecca digested those words. Her eyes widened. “Wait a tic. Didn’t Pacifica say something last night about that spell? That weird one that lion dude used?” she asked.

Taika nodded slowly in the affirmative. “Yeah. Paci said it felt... evil.”

“What does it all mean?”

“I wish I knew.”

“No no no no no... not again...” Pacifica whimpered as she clung to Shouri.

Once more they were back in the featureless fog. Just the two of them with a vague backlighting that enabled their sight. The sort of early morning mist that had yet to be burned away by the sun.

All Shouri could do was hold the distressed otter. “It’s okay Paci, it’s okay.” He stroked her hair, both for her peace of mind and his. “It’s all just a dream,” he whispered. And then he suddenly realized what he was saying: “Paci we’re dreaming.” He held her out by her shoulders.

“Dreaming?” she sniveled, looking around. “It’s not real.” She sniffled again. “We’re dreaming?” she asked, now more cognizant of their situation.

While he refused to release Pacifica, he did take stock of their surroundings. “Yeah. I can’t remember when and where we fell asleep, but I know for a fact this is a dream.”

Pacifica asked the pressing question: “But why are you in my dream though?”

Shouri opened his mouth to reply but didn’t have an answer for her and closed his mouth, grunting in frustration. “I dunno,” he finally decided on. “Probably a rhythm thing?” He brushed a hand across his side. “Tuners are still gone.” The Maestro frowned.

“I got my Fortissimo basic spells,” Pacifica recalled.

“Right, so the tuner limits what I’m able to send you. If we don’t have a sufficient tempo, me forcing my rhythm through you could hurt you,” he explained.

The otter-girl nodded. “Tempo is...?” She smiled awkwardly.

“To put it simply – our bond. It’s how much rhythm we exchange naturally. The longer we’re together, the easier rhythm passes between us,” he specified for her continued edification.

Pacifica giggled. “Well, we’ve been through a few hairy situations, so glad to know that meant something to you.”

Shouri couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Likewise.”

Though there was a brief reprieve in their distress at the situation, that begged the question: “I didn’t even know something like this could happen,” he admitted.

“Me too. Never heard of Maestros and Resonators sharing dreams.” The otter looked around, still not finding any landmarks. “Though I wouldn’t mind sharing dreams with you all the time if they were peaceful,” she chuckled.

Shouri quickly turned his head, face reddening. Even in dreams, he could still get flustered it seemed. At any rate, he was content to spend more time with Pacifica. “Come on.” Taking hold of her hand, they began to walk. The otter looked about with some trepidation.

There was something about this situation that felt familiar and put her on edge, but her memory of events outside the current dream was too hazy to parse.

They walked and walked and walked and walked, but never made any real progress. Everything looked the same no matter how long and far they tread on. Not even the ground beneath them seemed to change. It was all the same. With no movement of the sky-bound light source, they could have been walking for five minutes or five years.

“Can we sit for a little bit?” Pacifica spoke up.

“Yeah.” Shouri nodded.

Finding a wall, the pair took a reprieve from their endless march. “You know, this feels oddly familiar.” The water Resonator leaned her head against her Maestro.

Furrowing his brow, Shouri slowly nodded. “Yeah, but I can’t remember why.”

Unfortunately, both of them got a reminder of their previous fate when a low growl reverberated through them.

“Sh-sho please, PLEASE tell me that was your stomach.” She desperately held his arm.

“No. No, it was not.” He quickly rose to his feet, pulling Pacifica up with him.

Silence. Cold, uncaring silence. Both young adults failed to calm their racing hearts, breathing hard from their mouths. “Run. We should be running,” Pacifica urged her Maestro.

Shouri gulped. “Right. Running.”

Once more they ran, hand in hand. “C’mon wake up! Wake up!” Pacifica cried out.

“Taika! Rebecca! Please!” Shouri screamed at the sky.

THUD THUD THUD THUD

They could hear the beast chasing them; or rather, hunting them. Each monstrous pounding of the earth shook the fleeing pair to their very cores, propelling them to continue at their absolute top speed.

“It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream!” Pacifica repeated in a desperate attempt to convince herself that they weren’t in any real danger.

“WOULD REALLY LIKE TO WAKE UP ABOUT NOW!” Shouri bellowed to the heartless sky.

And then Shouri tripped. On what he couldn’t be sure, but he tumbled to the ground, with Pacifica stumbling over him and landing on her Maestro.

“I don’t want to die! Please!” Pacifica screamed, clinging to Shouri for dear life.

“Conveniently timed wake up any second now!!” Shouri held Pacifica, eyes closed in a vain attempt to force himself awake.

Their struggle ceased as the lion pressed its massive paw down on them again. Tears flowed freely from the young adults as they awaited the horrible pain to once again penetrate their forms, the sharpened keratin of the Scherzando’s claws slowly extending towards them like the blade of a guillotine.

“Sh-sho, I don’t want to die.”

“Me too Paci.”

“Wake up!” Taika got more than she bargained for as she shook Shouri and Pacifica from their nightmare: she was grabbed and squeezed between her two crying friends.

“Thank you, Taika! Thank you so much!” Pacifica sobbed.

“You saved us, thank you!” Shouri cried out.

After getting their panic out of their system, Shouri and Pacifica faced Rebecca and Taika as the four sat in bed once more to compare notes. “Again?” Rebecca asked the relevant question.

The afflicted pair nodded slowly. “I dunno what’s happening,” Pacifica whimpered, clinging to Shouri. “We’ve had the same nightmare twice now.” She trembled violently, not wanting to remember it.

“It’s so real.” Shouri reached over with his free arm and grabbed Pacifica’s tuner from the nightstand.

“Like you’re actually being hurt by it?” Rebecca raised a brow.

“I’m not sure.” She fiddled with her shirt, unbuttoning the top few buttons and exposing her shoulders. “Any claw marks?” she asked.

“None.” Rebecca shook her head. “Damn, you got nice skin,” she mumbled as an aside.

Taika shot a glance over at her fellow vixen, having been the only one to catch that pass. “It felt real though?” she asked. The lunar fox was familiar with terrifying nightmares, but hers were more assaults on her psyche, not physical attacks on her body like Pacifica was claiming.

Pacifica nodded. “Vividly so. It went through Sho, and then through me.” She rubbed her shoulder, wishing to forget the pain, but failing.

“Well, we weren’t physically hurt in the real world, but we’re not unscathed.” Shouri flashed Pacifica her tuner.

Status: Panic

Rhythm: 37%

Heart Rate: 133 BPM

Oxygen Saturation: 87%

Hydration: 54%

Last Sleep Efficiency: 0%

Actual Sleep: 4hr 12mins

Time since Last Sleep: 6 mins ago

Pacifica wrapped her hands around Shouri’s, steadying the screen to read it. “Zero sleep efficiency...?” Her eyes scanned her own status. “It’s basically like we didn’t sleep then?”

Shouri nodded slowly. “Feels like it too,” he added, trying to dismiss his fatigue. “But I’m more concerned about your rhythm.” Taking the tuner back he stared at the number. “You had 75% of your rhythm when we went to bed, I checked.”

The otter’s eyes went wide. “I... what?”

Rebecca too was shocked by that. “You lost rhythm while sleeping? That’s a thing?”

“APPARENTLY.” Shouri shook the device angrily. He took a deep breath, clearing his mind. “Taika lost rhythm because of nightmares before too,” he noted.

“I did?” The lunar fox in question furrowed her brow.

“Ah, I meant more in a technical sense. See with your rhythm loss it’s because you weren’t sleeping. Sleep deprivation disrupts your natural rhythm restoration process. If it goes on long enough it begins to be an active drain on it. Sleeping, even a little, is supposed to mitigate this,” he told Taika. She nodded slowly – it made sense.

Taking in a breath, the Maestro shot a glare at the tuner. “The problem here is according to the tuner, Pacifica and I were asleep for four hours, but she lost almost forty percent. I have to imagine my rhythm is in a similar state.”

“If this keeps up...” Pacifica gulped.

“We’ll run out of rhythm and die,” Shouri said what none of them wanted to hear.

The room went quiet.

Pacifica remained attached to Shouri, trembling, a breath away from tears flowing free once more.

Rebecca gritted her teeth in frustration.

Taika closed her eyes, in deep thought.

Finally, Shouri broke the silence. “We have to sleep again. We can’t fight it,” he directed this at his nightmare partner.

Who immediately shook her head in response. “No no... not again. I can’t go back,” she whimpered.

“Paci, we have to sleep. We’re going to die if we don’t,” Shouri stated sternly, grasping the girl’s shoulders.

She gulped. “Not you. I think it’s me,” the otter admitted. The other three looked at her, perplexed by what she was saying.

“I think that thing in our dreams is after me – I can feel it.” Pacifica trembled but put on a brave face. “I can’t let you risk that.” To say she was afraid was an understatement. She openly shook whilst the tears poured down her face.

Shouri took in a deep breath and tightened his grip around her shoulders. “Too bad,” he said adamantly. “I’m coming with you, and you don’t have much of a choice in the matter,” he stated his intentions. “I will not send any of you into danger like that alone – ever.”

Pacifica’s brows descended into a glare. She smacked his hands off her. “No! I’m not going to get my Maestro killed!” she shouted.

“Well, that’s too fucking bad, because I’m ready to die for you!” he barked back. “I’m never going to run away if I can do something.”

The two glared daggers at one another. Pacifica broke first, however – she could feel how genuine he was at that moment. Those words were not just the truth, they were his gospel, the irrational law that bound him to her.

“Wh-why?” she asked.

“I ask you three every day to put your lives on the line for fucking money of all things. If I’m not ready to lay my life down for you when you’re in danger, what kind of person am I?” Shouri declared without hesitation.

Rebecca too, could sense his commitment to her; no, all three of them in those words. Why was he like this? She had never met another Maestro so obsessed with their Resonators that they were willing to straight up die over them.

“Alright. I’ve seen enough.” Taika scooted closer to the distressed pair. “I’m coming with,” she decided.

“Wha-?” Now the rest of the room was looking at the lunar Resonator.

“How?” Pacifica asked.

“Yeah, we haven’t exactly figured out why this is happening to Paci and me,” Shouri added.

Now it was Taika’s turn to look surprised. “Really? I thought you would have some idea of how it works by now.” She pointed to their Maestro. “It’s an etude thing, I think that Sho was only in Paci’s dreams because of how close you two are.” The lunar fox reasoned out.

Shouri stroked his chin in thought. “I guess that makes sense.” He mumbled. “But wait, why are you so sure you can jump into our dreams?” He questioned.

The girl shrugged. “Non so, have a good feeling.” After a second of thought though, she offered up her real feelings on the matter: “I figure I’m close enough to both of you to give it a shot. I’m not going to let some stupid nightmares take my best friends away from me.” She spoke with a confident smirk across her lips.

At that moment her eyes glowed a brilliant blue. Shouri let out a sigh. “Of course, stubborn willpower.” He muttered but smiled all the same.

“Okay. Let’s try this again. If whatever is causing this nonsense is rhythm-based maybe having three staves of strong rhythm will give us some kind of fighting chance, or at least let us sleep peacefully,” Shouri announced their plan.

Rebecca stood awkwardly off to the side, not really involved.

“Rebecca!”

-or so she thought; jumping at being called upon. “Y-yea Shouri?”

He held out Pacifica and Taika’s tuners for the fire Resonator. She stared at the two devices, which at the present showed her fellow Resonators' vitals. “You have the most important job of all: If either of their rhythm dips below negative, wake us all up. Do whatever it takes. If we dip too far into the negatives, we’re in very real danger of death,” Shouri instructed her.

The fox continued to gawk at the two devices, blinking twice at the absurdity of the instructions she was just given.

“I know it’s a big ask, but you have the most important job in this thing.” Shouri felt a tinge of guilt before he spoke the truth of the matter: “Our lives are in your hands. I know I’m asking a lot.”

Rebecca placed her hands over the pair of tuners. “You know-” The fox let out a short laugh. She looked her Maestro in the eyes. “-this is the craziest fucking thing I’ve ever been asked to do. What the hell man?” She smirked as she wiped away the tears building up. “You better not die,” she sniffled, struggling to control her emotions as she pulled the two tuners away from their owner.

“That’s the plan.”

Laying down, Rebecca walked around dimming the lights and closing the curtains. Despite the tense situation they found themselves in, the trio of Shouri, Taika, and Pacifica were quite exhausted.

“Rebecca was right, this is crazy Sho,” Pacifica whispered.

“You two better not die on me. I don’t want to wake up between my dead friends.” Taika had taken up position in the center of the two.

“Trying my best here. Didn’t realize when we started this gig we’d be fighting nightmares,” Shouri chuckled.

They held hands, slowly drifting off to sleep, even given the stakes of failure.