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

“Sho... what were we doing?” Pacifica asked.

“I dunno, I feel like something is wrong though,” Shouri replied.

Once more they found themselves in the dreamscape, complete with the empty, unchanging fog. The familiarity of the mist elicited a sense of dread rather than one of ease.

“We’re in a dream,” Shouri established quickly.

“Right! Yeah!” Pacifica nodded, again becoming cognizant of the situation they had fallen into.

The two frowned, exchanging hums of thought. “I really feel like something is missing though, but I just can’t remember when we fell asleep,” Shouri grunted, trying to dig up any semblance of a memory.

Pacifica too, strained herself, reaching deep to dredge up a memory of their objective here. “Something is missing,” she repeated Shouri’s thought. “Darn it, what are we forgetting?” She pounded her head with her fists. It was really important, yet whenever she tried to think of what it could be all she drew was frustration.

“Maybe if we walk, we’ll figure it out?” Shouri suggested.

“Yeah, good idea Sho.” Pacifica nodded with a smile.

There was something about this whole set-up that felt familiar and put him on edge, but his memory of events outside the current dream was too muddled to inform his decision-making.

Endlessly they walked never making any progress. No matter how long and far they shuffled along everything simply looked the same. Even the ground beneath them never seemed to change. A play on loop, practically taunting them in its repetition.

“Augh, still can’t think of anything” Shouri suddenly spoke up.

“Maybe we should take a break?” Pacifica offered.

“Mhm, that sounds good.”

Locating a suitable patch of wall, the pair took a small reprieve from their pilgrimage. “You know, this feels weirdly familiar.” The water Resonator leaned her head against her Maestro as they sat on the ground.

Furrowing his brow, Shouri slowly nodded. “Definitely, but it’s-”

Cutting him off was a low growl. One which was etched into their very souls. “I suddenly remember this dream,” Pacifica spoke the grim realization.

“Fuck fuck fuck. We need to wake up,” Shouri cursed, jumping to his feet and pulling his otter-girl up with him.

THUD THUD THUD THUD

The pair bolted for their lives. Behind them was the massive lion that wanted them dead. The same lion that had attacked them twice now.

“Leave us alone you fuck!” Pacifica screamed back at the beast. All this accomplished was earning a piercing roar from the savage beast.

“What did you think that would do?!” Shouri shouted back to Pacifica.

“I was hoping it’d be intimidated!” she cried out.

“You’re sounding more intimidated now than anything!”

“You’re not?!”

“I never said that!”

Shouri desperately whipped his head to and fro, looking for any kind of landmark they could dart around or an alleyway to hide in. Something, anything!

Alas, there was none to be found. The walls and road stretched on forever like the worst maze in the world – a single path to infinity, with an angry beast wanting to consume them in hot pursuit.

Unfortunately, the chase had to end at some point, and this time it was Pacifica who catalyzed their demise as she suddenly tripped, being torn out of Shouri’s grasp.

“PACI!” Shouri pivoted back sharply, diving to scoop her into his arms. He did make it, saving her from being crushed underfoot by the lion. But even in the dream world, it seemed Shouri wasn’t the best at these kinds of athletics and the pair lay in a heap on the ground. A delicious-looking pile of meat from the perspective of the lion who pinned the pair down for a third round of consumption.

All the air was gently crushed out of them as the beast applied the precise amount of pressure to keep them alive but squeeze the resistance out of them. A cruel merciless beast this one was, toying with them until the very end.

Thwick!

The beast perked up. Something had struck it. Whatever it had been was small, barely registering to the creature, but annoying nonetheless.

Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick Thwick

The volume increased rapidly until 107 of these strikes total had hit their mark.

“Alright! I tried asking nicely!”

THWACK!

The beast was removed by a massive force, giving Shouri and Pacifica much-needed relief and room to breathe. The pair sat up coughing and wheezing, taking in large gasps of life-giving air.

Clack clack

Something landed nearby. A pair of metal geta. Tracing up the figure that had saved their lives, they found this mystery person was clad in black monk robes with matching beige pants. A singular white-tipped black fox tail swished behind them. Their long black hair was tied high, swaying in the wind that had begun to blow upon their entrance. A pair of blue eyes opened, and the savior’s lips turned to a smirk as small silver beads began to fly to their neck, forming a necklace 107 strong.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Taika spoke from this newcomer’s body.

“T-TAIKA?!” Shouri and Pacifica exclaimed in shock.

“Yep! Never fear I am here!” the vixen beamed, her tail swishing behind her excitedly.

“What the heck are you wearing?” Shouri inquired, finally taking in the odd garb his Resonator was clad in.

Her ears twitched, as she glanced behind her. “Hang on Sho.” Pivoting on her geta, she turned back to face the direction she had sent the Scherzando in. Once more emerging from the fog was the lion. It approached slowly, carefully. Whatever this strange fox was, it was not to be trifled with.

“W-wait! Taika! You can’t fight that! We don’t have spells!” Pacifica tried to warn her.

The monk-robed vixen relaxed, turning to her Maestro and fellow Resonator. “Uhhh, this is a dream? We can do whatever we want.”

“Eh?” Shouri and Pacifica stared back, flabbergasted.

“Just watch.” She took in a deep breath, extending a palm towards the beast. The 107 beads left her neck and shot toward the sky. “Loro Formato Lunare Lago, Legato!” she called out.

Her voice echoed down the empty street they stood on. For a moment there was silence. The beast began to growl once again. That was until the fog began to clear. “Right on schedule.” Taika chuckled. A massive space rock wrapped in ice descended from the sky, slowly smushing the beast underneath.

Shouri and Pacifica looked not at the destruction of their tormentor, but to the girl who had rescued them. She stood confidently, staring down the last rites of the beast, her hair, tail, and robes whipping in the wind triumphantly.

As the dust settled, Pacifica felt a sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted off of her. “That did it.” She looked at her hands. “That thing won’t bother us again.” A smile rose on her lips, as the joy invaded her from where the despair had left.

Shouri, ever the scholar, was more curious about his Lunar Resonator. The strange monk robes turned to light, shattering off of her and returning her to her usual everyday attire. “Sho.” She smiled at her Maestro.

“What the heck just happened?” he asked, though returning her expression in kind.

Taika stroked her chin in thought. “So, there was this girl,” she began, “she had big yellow dragon wings. Oh, she also had horns and super long blonde hair.” The vixen frowned for a moment. “And some cute fluffy ears like me and Paci’s!”

“Okay?” Shouri didn’t see the relevance.

“She told me she was going to save you herself, but since I was here it’d be best if I did it instead,” the lunar fox recalled.

That felt strange to Shouri, but he chalked it up to random dream nonsense. Looking around, the walls that surrounded them were crumbling away, revealing the true nature of their shared dreamscape: a picturesque field of flowers, in the distance there was a single, solitary hill with a tree that stood proudly at the peak.

“It’s beautiful.” Pacifica took in the sights as the final puffs of fog melted away under the warm, gentle sunlight. She took hold of Shouri and Taika’s hands.

“Come on.”

Leading the pair up the hill they found a spot to sit. Pacifica took the center, with Shouri and Taika on either side of her.

“This is nice.” Shouri leaned on Pacifica’s shoulder.

“Yeah.” Taika did the same, cozying up against her friend.

“This is the kind of dream I want to have.” Her eyes gradually closed, finally at peace.

The next time her eyes opened, Pacifica found herself in the MA office she had fallen asleep in. The only difference was the sun was now setting. She awoke not exhausted and afraid, but rested and content. Shouri and Taika too slept peacefully, faces free from pain or worry. Slowly she drifted back to sleep, feeling safe to do so.

Upon her next awakening, the sun had completed its journey for the day, now fully set.

“Hey, hey, wake up.” Rebecca shook Pacifica before walking around the bed to do the same to Shouri.

“Rebecca?” Shouri groggily rose. Waking up feeling somewhat rested presented one conclusion to him: “I guess we won.” He yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Yeah, like an hour in, you all started getting rhythm back, so I just let you sleep,” the fire Resonator told the bed-bound trio. “We got a new problem though.”

The tone in her voice was grim, which sobered up Pacifica and Shouri in an instant. Taika was still dead asleep though. “What’s going on?” Shouri hesitantly inquired.

“This just got slipped under our door a couple of minutes ago.” Rebecca handed a folded-up piece of paper to Shouri before going to turn on some of the room lights.

“What is it?” Pacifica asked as the lamps were flicked on by Rebecca.

“Dunno.” Shouri unfolded the sheet, finding a handwritten note.

“Your foolish friend is in danger. If you want to try and save him, he is heading to the northern base camp.

Get to him before I do.”

Pacifica and Shouri stared at the letter and paled. Their eyes raced, scanning the ominous letter, desperately searching for a different meaning or additional information.

“Bwuh...?” Taika arose from her slumber at this point. “Whas goin’ on?” She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

The rest of the room was in a tizzy, however, with Shouri jumping out of bed in the next instant. “Get dressed, we gotta go - NOW!”

Corhiasela was still a massive city and no matter how much they rushed, it still took little under an hour to arrive at the hunter base camp. The four-strong group ran at full sprint from the bus stop to the registration area.

Though their furious pace was ultimately in vain. As they drew ever closer to the promised location, they found Maestros and Resonators running in the opposite direction.

The shouts and screams from the fleeing civilians only caused the hearts of Shouri and his Resonators to sink in dread. The gravity of the situation was unveiled as they ran in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd.

“What the fuck is going on?!”

“Some dudes just started a fight in the middle of the camp!"

“They’re flinging around all kinds of crazy high-level spells!”

“I’m not sticking around to be collateral damage!”

The more they heard, the faster they ran. Rebecca broke out the big guns, activating her ad-Lib and blazing ahead of the group with fire at her heels, expertly dodging the human obstacles in her way.

Arriving on the scene first, Rebecca had no idea what to do. Taika arrived next but similarly lost her direction, simply standing idle.

Finally, Pacifica and Shouri got to the scene, being the most worn down out of the group.

What they found was chilling, especially for the pair who had spent the last eighteen or so hours being tormented by the visage of:

“Cecil?!” Pacifica yelped.

The solar lion was viciously attacking another Resonator, one the group didn’t have a name for, but all recognized him.

“It’s that Resonator!” Rebecca shouted, recognizing the mystery Resonator that stood opposite Cecil. “He’s the one that came to the room a couple of days ago!” She pointed to the well-built man, though rather than wearing the casual civilian clothes they saw him in before he was in much more robust, heavy, military-issued battle armor. Turns out he was quite the nimble fighter himself despite the heavy-looking outfit he wore. He was on the defensive, but not on the back foot, easily keeping pace with Cecil, dodging the lion’s frenzied assault.

“Leave us alone!” Vince barked, standing a distance away from Shouri’s group. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” he insisted.

“Then stop using those spells!” the mystery man shouted. He swiped his arm out, forming a wave of sharp ice that rolled at Cecil, finally revealing his element as water (and Rebecca noted he was of the Shielding attribute). Rather than dodge as one expected, Cecil took the wave of ice head-on, busting through it and roaring.

Pacifica winced. “Nnngh...” She grabbed her head suddenly.

“Paci, what’s wrong?” Taika steadied her fellow Resonator.

“Really violent emotions from Cecil... he’s drowning in them.” She let out a sharp breath and tried to steady herself without her fellow Resonator’s assistance.

“That’s not good.” Rebecca gritted her teeth and ground her feet into the grass, her heels sparking.

“Grave Fulmine, Feroce!” Vince commanded.

“Wait, Grave Torcitore isn’t the only weird spell?!” Shouri exclaimed.

Pacifica’s eyes widened as she let out a cry of pain. “Stop him from using those spells! He’s gonna kill Cecil!” the otter shouted.

Shouri’s jaw was locked tight as he watched Cecil darken ever so slightly before casting a bolt of black lightning toward the mystery Resonator. The armored man pivoted around the spell, avoiding its effects. The ground wasn’t so lucky however as sections of the grass and dirt were licked up, leaving not so insignificant divots and trenches in the battlefield.

“Sho!” Taika grabbed her Maestro’s hand, he looked at her. “We have to do something! Vince and Cecil are gonna get killed!” Her eyes were practically blazing blue at this point. The boy winced feeling her rhythm invade him in a strange reversal of their relationship.

Though with her will propping him up, he gained a determined glare. He swiped his hand across the three tuners at his waist, giving commands as he went.

“Taika, Fissare la Ombra Allegro Staccato!”

“Pacifica, Manga de Agua, Piano Staccato!”

“Rebecca, with me! Let’s disarm Vince!”

“GO!”

The four broke off: Taika and Pacifica creating their spells and directing them towards the raging lion. Rebecca and Shouri darted straight for Vince.

A vortex of water honed in on Cecil, courtesy of Pacifica, while the lion was forced to jump and dodge to avoid getting his shadow pinned down by Taika’s Fissare la Ombra.

“HEY! GET OUT OF HERE!” the mystery Resonator shouted.

“We’re trying to save our friend!” Pacifica barked back, forming two more water spouts and sending them toward Cecil.

“Vince STOP!” Shouri yelled at the other Maestro.

“Shouri! You don’t understand! They’re gonna take Cecil away!” Vince turned tail and ran. “Grave Delirio, Feroce!” he barked into his tuner.

Just as Taika and Pacifica’s spells were about to hit their mark, Cecil’s body darkened further. He opened his mouth and let loose a horrifying, indecipherable cacophony. It wasn’t any kind of known language, scream, or roar. It almost seemed like chaotic machine noise in nature.

Either way, the strange vocalizations Cecil was emitting were more than random noise – it carried a rhythmic weight, erasing Pacifica and Taika’s spells like chalk being wiped off a board, and throwing the two girls off their feet. The downed pair held their ears and rolled around in pain from the sinister soundwaves.

“NNNgh!” Rebecca and Shouri both slowed their pursuit of Vince and fell to their knees, also being affected by the odd spell.

“VINCE!” Shouri roared as the Grave Delirio faded.

“I can’t go back! Leave me alone!” Vince shouted back. “Grave Beccuccio, Feroce!” he let out another command.

Cecil’s form once more darkened and he roared before unleashing a blast of shadowy water at the still-stunned Taika and Pacifica. Before they were hit by the devastating attack, the mystery Resonator darted in and scooped the two girls up before jumping away, saving them from the attack and putting some distance between them and their attacker. The pair looked back, seeing the massive hole that was left in the wake of the strange spell.

“No matter the shape Feroce spells are always strong against normal Resonators. Do NOT get hit by them,” the man advised, setting the pair back on their feet.

“Like when lightning spells hit me?” Pacifica asked, familiar with her elemental weakness.

“Exactly.”

Taika, still having her link with Shouri, formed a practical swarm of arrows. They had to restrain him - the madness had to end. “Dodge this.” She waved her volley of Fissare la Ombra forward. Cecil saw the cloud of lunar arrows descending upon him and knew the source of the spell. He ran towards Taika, dodging many arrows as he approached the trio that stood before him, the entire time snarling and growling like a wild animal, his complexion continued to darken, as if stained in the darkness.

“AAAUGH!” Pacifica screamed gripping her head tightly, hunching over in pain. “It’s too much! He can’t handle it!” she cried out, tears streaming down her face

“GRAVE FIAMMATA, FEROCE!” Vince bellowed.

“VINCE! YOU’RE KILLING HIM! STOP!!” Shouri roared, jumping to tackle the still-escaping Vince.

Cecil let out the loudest, most pained roar he could muster as his body was completely overtaken by the shadows, his physical form beginning to deteriorate. What was once a bipedal human-like shape melted into a quadrupedal lion, indistinguishable from a Scherzando. Vince, Shouri, and his Resonators all stared at the incomprehensible event that had just occurred.

Though they were all in shock, the lion Scherzando still had his command from when he was Cecil and began to execute it, gathering shadowy flames in his maw to unleash it on the stupefied Pacifica and Taika.

“He’s gone! Kiki, take the shot!” the mystery Resonator shouted.

A trail of blue punched a hole in the amorphous lion, the flames from its attack vanishing in an instant. After what felt like an eternity, the sound reached them...

BANG!

...and just like any other Scherzando, the beast formerly known as Cecil Albright faded into dust.