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

Corn, wheat, beans. Common food stocks grown in this region of the world whipped by the car windows. The fields looked just plain endless. While interesting at first, the crops had overstayed their welcome in young Taika’s eyes. Even the road grew boring after the first hour, just being essentially a straight line to nowhere.

She exhaled sharply through her nose, folding her fox ears back and leaning against the car window. They had been driving for hours and she didn’t want to be the one to keep asking if they were there yet. The lids of her eyes started to droop, she started drifting in and out of consciousness, recalling the events that led to her being in this vehicle in the first place.

It was only a couple days ago that Shouri and Pacifica burst into their room at the Leono MA Office.

“So Pacifica recapped all the shit we went through and her parents understandably freaked out,” Shouri revealed to Taika and Rebecca.

Rebecca yawned, still trying to get her bearings in the waking world. “Is that a bad thing?” the fire fox questioned before stretching.

“She would have seen right through me! I couldn’t lie to her!” Pacifica cried out, defending her honor.

Taika herself was in the same state as her fellow fox – trying to shake off her grogginess. “What's going on?” the lunar Resonator asked.

“Pacifica’s parents are on the way to come get us,” Shouri revealed.

The two foxes stared at Shouri for a moment, before turning their gaze on the already flustered Pacifica. “Paci, avevi un solo compito,” Taika muttered, narrowing her eyes at the otter.

“We could always run, I think you said at one point they were in Canolapra right? That’s like a million miles away,” Rebecca suggested.

Shouri pulled out Rebecca’s tuner. After a moment of tapping away on the screen, he came to his consensus: “It’s a thirteen-hour drive, give or take stopping to recharge the car,” he stated, returning the device to his side.

“Thirteen hours is plenty of time for us to be not here.” Rebecca nodded with a confident smirk.

Pacifica grabbed the fire fox by her pajama shirt and shook her. “You don’t understand! They’ll hunt us down!”

“They can’t be that mad!” Rebecca shouted over being shaken.

“No, you really don’t get it! My mom is a BLOODHOUND! She WILL find us! Running just makes things worse!!” Pacifica implored of her fellow Resonator, refusing to release her.

“Enough!” Rebecca pushed the otter’s hands off of her, tired of being rocked back and forth. “I get it, running is probably a bad idea.” Her attention shifted to the leader of their group: Shouri. “What do you think bossman?”

The Maestro hummed and frowned. “There’s part of me that agrees with Rebecca, that we could make a hell of a fuss running away from them.”

Stressed out otter-girl, Pacifica turned up the sad puppy dog eyes. “Shooooo that’s a terrible idea,” she whined.

Shouri sighed, stepping over and placing a hand on the otter’s head. “We did need a bit of a rest after everything that’s happened. I can concede to them coming to pick us up.” Which earned a sigh of relief from her.

Slowly Taika opened her eyes again. They were passing through a town it seemed. More interesting than the endless fields of staple crops that had plagued the last few hours of their trip.

“Anyone alive back there? We’re gonna stop for some food and a bathroom break,” Pacifica’s mother, Priscilla, called to the back.

There was a small bout of groaning as the quartet relegated to the back of the vehicle stretched and groaned after being roused from their sleep. Thankfully Pacifica’s parents had opted to rent a mini-van for this road trip and as such the seats for the four young adults were spacious and comfy enough to fall asleep in.

Taika and Shouri had the middle two seats, while Rebecca and Pacifica got the long back seat to themselves. Speaking of, the pair of girls in the back stretched out, coming out of their own naps. “Are we there?” Rebecca groggily asked.

“Not quite, still got another few hours,” the current driver told the group as she pulled off the road into a refueling station to charge their vehicle. As Priscilla began fiddling with the charger to pay for the refueling, Pacifica's father Jack hopped out of the front passenger seat and opened the side door to let the still groggy passengers out.

“Urgh...” Shouri shielded his eyes from the sunlight, hobbling around the station. They were in a small town, and as such there wasn’t anyone else around. Which was fine by him. The less people, the less there was a chance for someone to say or do something to set him off.

“Sho I’m hungry,” Taika whined.

“You’re always hungry,” Rebecca commented, shooting a tired, sidelong glance at her fellow fox.

“Rebby please behave,” Pacifica chided the fire elemental, inserting herself between the canine girls.

“We can get some snacks,” Shouri decided, motioning to the convenience store attached to the recharging station.

They made their way into the little shop without much delay. Rebecca and Pacifica wandered off on their own, while Shouri kept Taika at his side. None of them wanted to deal with any dissenting opinions about Shouri’s choice of Resonators. Thankfully, one of the two employees in the shop, a Resonator ignored them, taking a bucket and mop into the bathroom that sat at the back of the store. The other employee was a Maestro, they stood behind the counter and kept a careful watch on Shouri and Taika.

Sensing the stink-eye cast solely at them, Shouri maintained his guard. Taika was blissfully filling a small basket with snacks. “Do you really need this much?” the Maestro commented, brow raised.

“Si!” Taika responded almost immediately.

Shouri rolled his eyes but smiled all the same. She was consistent. He picked out some stuff for himself and threw it in Taika’s basket.

The quartet re-convened at the counter. Rebecca and Pacifica both noted their lunar counterpart’s selections, and the fact that she had probably twice the number of snacks they both picked combined.

“What? We can get that much?” Rebecca voiced her opinion on the matter.

“I never said you couldn’t,” Shouri countered.

Rebecca opened her mouth to snap back but had no rebuttal. She shoved her snacks into Pacifica’s arms before turning and rushing back into the aisles. “I’ll be back!”

Setting all their selections on the counter the shopkeeper shot a glare at Taika, but kept their thoughts to themselves, doing their job and scanning the group’s selections. Pacifica could sense the hostility and kept her guard up.

Rebecca returned and similarly picked up on the tense air. She slowly slid her extra items up to be scanned and bagged.

“That’ll be 89.25,” the shopkeeper finally said. They spoke quietly, obviously miffed at the presence of the lunar. Shouri himself grunted and in a show of pettiness, he specifically pulled out Taika’s tuner to complete the transaction. With a scan of the device, it was all paid for.

Pacifica and Rebecca grabbed the bags. Shouri and Taika exchanged a smirk and a quick nod. “Thank you so very much! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day!” Taika said in the cheeriest tone she could muster.

This clearly bothered the employee, but they bit their tongue and refused to take the bait and cause a scene. It was especially frustrating that such a Maestro could pay for such a large quantity of snacks.

“Way to go!” Rebecca laughed heartily once they were out of earshot of the store.

“Hrm, I dunno,” Pacifica hummed, nervously glancing back at the shop.

“I didn’t feel like putting up with his shit,” Shouri huffed as they piled back into the van.

“I get it, I really do, but I don’t think giving him an excuse to be a dick was the right move,” Pacifica laid out her thoughts.

Taika popped the window next to her to let some air in before opening her bag of snacks. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” she stated simply, drawing a chocolate bar from the hoard of sweets she selected. “I just wished him a good day.” She shrugged before taking a big bite out of the bar.

“Yeah, that’s his problem if he wants to get pissed about a lunar talking to him.” Shouri shrugged.

“And it was awesome! Dude’s face was so red!” Rebecca was still riding the high of their pettiness it seemed.

Pacifica sighed. She was in the minority it seemed. “Just don’t get us arrested,” she warned.

“Relax Pacifica. Everything’s fine!” Rebecca patted her fellow Resonator’s back.

Thankfully, for Pacifica’s blood pressure, nothing else of note happened. They just kind of enjoyed their snacks and drinks in the middle of nowhere, Lybertera. Eventually, the adults returned and their ride having completed its charging cycle, they were ready to roll out again.

Rebecca took quite an interest in what happened upon the return of Jack and Priscilla. Rather than Priscilla getting back in the driver’s seat, her Resonator, Jack took the wheel.

Leaning forward, the fire fox tugged on her Maestro’s jacket. “Hm?” He turned around in his seat. Rebecca pointed at Jack. “I told you if you want to, we can look into it,” he reminded her. Even though she was the one pointing out another Resonator driving a vehicle, she still felt bad – Shouri would also have to get a driver’s license if she wanted one.

“I really don’t mind. If it’s something you want to do, we can do it,” Shouri said simply. Rebecca folded her ears back – this boy was too much.

“M-maybe,” she mumbled, sitting back in her seat. She didn’t know why she was being so wishy-washy with this whole situation. She truly wanted to learn how to drive, but she didn’t want to inconvenience Shouri no matter how much he insisted it wasn’t.

Sitting back, she leaned against the nearby window. Shooting a tired glance around, she took inventory of the other occupants of the vehicle.

Pacifica was on her tuner doing some web surfing probably.

Taika was still snacking away. With how much she ate, Rebecca wondered how the lunar fox maintained such a lithe form.

Shouri was also on a tuner, probably reading some boring nerd junk.

Then there were them, Pacifica’s parents. They were an odd couple, a Resonator and a Maestro. Apparently, they got married? They were so weird...

Earlier that day

Shouri and his Resonators rose from their slumber. Today was the day of their big trip to Canolapra. Supposedly that had been the goal of all this traveling, but Rebecca hadn’t been apprised of the situation until the whole deal with Pacifica’s parents came up.

It did kind of make sense though, at least as far as she had been told. Pacifica’s mother was a Maestro and her father was her mother’s Resonator. So of course, they would be accepting of a Maestro who was as personally close to his Resonators as Shouri was.

Shouri himself was an oddity, but he was normal compared to these people.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The quartet looked to the door, freezing for a moment. Shouri drew a tuner from his side. “Pacifica-”

“I got it.” The otter walked to the door and hesitantly opened it.

Thankfully it was who they were expecting.

“Hello my little pup!” A male voice greeted the ears of the room’s occupants.

“Daddy! How are you!?” Pacifica exclaimed, embracing her (crying) father.

“Good good! Very good!” The otter man looked around and spotted the Maestro in the room. Immediately the man rushed over and embraced Shouri, much to his surprise. “Thank you! Thank you so much for saving my little pup!” he bawled.

“Jack, please behave.” Now a woman joined the crowded room. She stood confident but relaxed all at the same time. Rebecca immediately felt it – this woman was strong; overwhelmingly so. She knew her Maestro wasn’t a slouch, but in the same respect, they were all growing as a group. Pacifica’s mother was frighteningly powerful.

Jack stepped away from Shouri, wiping the tears away from his face. The woman walked over and studied her daughter’s Maestro. After a moment, she smirked. “Mhm, like I thought. You have great eyes,” the elder Maestro noted.

“Priscilla.” She held out a hand for Shouri.

“Shouri.” He accepted the handshake.

Before releasing Shouri’s hand she clasped her other hand around his. “Thank you for taking care of my daughter. I know she’s in good hands.” The woman gave such a genuine smile, it disarmed the younger Maestro. He quickly gathered his thoughts.

“Honestly I think she’s taken care of us more than I have her,” he replied.

Releasing hands, Priscilla looked around the room. She spotted the other two Resonators Shouri kept in his company. Approaching Taika, Priscilla looked the fox over. “You must be Taika.” The woman smiled at the fox. Taika was a bit flustered, not used to strangers immediately taking a shine to her.

“S-si...” she muttered.

“Pacifica has told me all about you.” Priscilla stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the fox. “Thank you for saving my daughter,” she whispered.

Taika pushed back against Pricilla’s embrace. “Ch-che? Sho ha fatto tutto il lavoro!”

Priscilla just smiled and tilted her head. “Sorry dear, my Naturalian isn’t that good; Jack honey?”

“She’s being modest,” he replied.

“What a cute thing you are!” Priscilla ruffled Taika’s hair, once again flustering the fox.

Rebecca stood off to the side, she hadn’t been part of the squad when Pacifica joined, so she just opted to keep quiet while the accolades were passed around. She knew the story from Shouri’s point of view; he had told her all about how he and Pacifica met shortly after Rebecca joined him officially.

“That leaves you, Rebecca.”

And suddenly Rebecca found herself being hugged too?

“You also saved my daughter; I can’t thank you enough.” The woman smiled.

“When?!” Like Taika before, Rebecca squirmed out of the older woman’s grasp.

“A couple of modest foxes, that’s cute,” Priscilla giggled. “Unless I’m mistaken, you were the one who took out that horrible man who kidnapped my little otter.”

Rebecca furrowed her brow. Priscilla was right – Rebecca was the one who landed the final blow on the kidnapper and his Resonator. Well, she only needed the one hit to deal with him, but that was neither here nor there.

With most of the introductions out of the way, Shouri spoke up, “So, what does our itinerary look like?”

“We’re heading out right away, it’s about thirteen hours to Canolapra.” Priscilla looked around. There was only one bag the group seemed to have: the one on Taika’s back. “Traveling light?” she asked the other Maestro.

“Yeah, it’s easier that way especially when we have to walk,” Shouri replied, hoping there wasn’t a problem with that.

“Ah, yes, those certainly were the days,” the elder reminisced. “Come come, everyone to the car. Made sure to get a big one so we’re all comfy cozy.”

Rebecca slowly awoke. She had fallen asleep? Why was she so tired? Probably because they had gotten up so early. Throwing off their sleep schedule and all that jazz.

The vehicle began to veer off one of the exits and came to a stop in a small parking lot with a building. “Rest stop! Take care of your business!” Priscilla announced before exiting the car herself with her Resonator following suit.

“She’s a mind reader I swear,” Shouri huffed, undoing his seat belt.

“S-si...” Taika seemed a bit flustered.

“Yeah, mom is like that. You get used to it,” Pacifica told the other two as they all made their way out of the vehicle.

Rebecca raised a brow. Ah, they had to use the restroom. That’s what they meant. And Priscilla had picked up on that. Either way, it wouldn’t hurt to freshen up and stretch her legs, and for that, Rebecca herself left the van as well to brave the mid-afternoon heat.

It was a quaint little rest stop, with large hills and trees that overlooked the highways on either side of them. To their left was the northbound traffic, and to the right was the southbound traffic. Little pavilions covered some tables and benches, making lovely picnic areas. It looked like there were Resonators employed here as well, a couple wandering around picking up trash and generally tidying the place up. Finally, there was the main rest stop building. Walking in, Rebecca immediately felt the sting of the air conditioning. It wasn’t overly cold, but the difference between inside and out was noticeable for sure.

Taika seemed to have finished up her own business and was pawing at one of the vending machines while looking around every so often for Shouri. Probably was going to beg for more snacks despite nearly spending a hundred notes during their last stop.

Still a bit groggy, and needing to attend to her own needs, Rebecca jammed her hands into her blazer’s pockets and made her way to the restrooms.

“Ah!” Pacifica was just exiting the bathroom herself. “Hey Rebby, take your time. Looks like everyone wants to wander a bit before we hit the road again,” the otter told her companion.

“Sure.” Rebecca nodded. As they swapped, the fire Resonator noted the... disarray the bathroom was in. Public bathrooms were the worst. She supposed it was better than the alternative though.

Once her business was completed, Rebecca was forced to complete the worst bathroom task: washing her hands. “One button,” she said with a grimace. Taking in a deep breath, she exhaled sharply and just got it over with. She took meticulous care in actually scrubbing her hands with the soap before finally hitting the push handle with her soapy hands.

Fresh water flowed from the faucet, but she bit her bottom lip, forcing her hands into the stream. “Ggguhhh,” she groaned. It was cold. So very cold. It was awful. This sucked. This always sucked. Would it kill them to heat the water even a little bit? It was due to this flagrant disregard for fire-element amenities that she had gotten quite good at minimizing the amount of time she needed to rinse the soap off of her hands, but it didn’t stop it from being so unpleasant.

Hands finally clean, she took some extra time at the air driers. These were extra warm which was nice, but so not worth the effort of washing her hands to be able to utilize.

Nice and dry once more, Rebecca exited the bathroom to find her companions huddled around the vending machine. Mrs. and Mr. Nicchi were nowhere to be found for the moment. At any rate, Rebecca went to see what the commotion was all about.

“Taika you still have snacks in the car,” Shouri reminded the little lunar Resonator.

“Si si! But they have the gummies with the fruit juice in them!” She pointed to the item in question.

“I haven’t seen those around in years, are they even still good?” Pacifica questioned.

“The best by date on them says next week,” Taika retorted.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. This girl was insatiable. Not wanting to deal with listening to this drivel, the fire Resonator made her way out of the building. She stretched in the warmth of the sun, enjoying the heat. “Ah,” she let out a pleasured breath, relaxing.

“Having fun?”

The vixen perked up and whipped around to see Priscilla and Jack sitting on the nearby brick sign.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be on that,” Rebecca pointed out.

“Relax, live a little.” Priscilla waved the young woman off.

Rebecca exhaled sharply through her nose and returned to basking in the sun.

“Build bridges, not walls.”

“Huh?”

The fire-elemental snapped her head back once again, but Priscilla and Jack were walking away by this point. “The heck?” She raised a brow, confused at the seemingly random phrase.

Eventually, the group found their way back to the van and they were off again.

Pacifica found herself wide awake now. She usually slept during trips like these, but after everything she had been through over the past few months, she was actually excited to be going home.

Though... was it right for her to feel like this? She had a Maestro now. For Resonators, once you got a Maestro, their home was your home. This was less of her returning home and more of another place she would be staying with her Maestro.

It was something she never thought about. Her brows turned up as the excitement was quickly dashed by her own analysis of the situation.

“Hey, what’s up?”

The girl jumped – that was Shouri, whispering right next to her?! Sure enough, he was sitting by her side in the back and Rebecca was in his seat. “When did you-?!”

“Rebecca told me you looked kinda stressed so I wanted to see if you wanted to talk about it,” he said.

She lowered her head in shame. Rebecca had the same stave as her, so of course she picked up on any mood changes.

“You can lean on me and whisper.” He offered his shoulder to her.

“Ah...” That was an enticing proposition. One which she partook in, leaning on her Maestro.

“I just, feel weird being with my parents again.”

“Well, if we’re speaking in strictly technical terms – you’re still mine, we’re just kind of visiting these tangentially related people.”

She wrapped her arms around the one of Shouri’s she was up against. “I know. It just feels all messed up and weird.”

Shouri exhaled and smiled warmly. “If at any time you want to break this off, I’ll let you go. Shoot, I’ll even make sure you get back home safely.”

Pacifica tightened her grip around his arm. “Rhythm is the soul. I’m your Resonator and I’m going to be with you until the day I die.”

“Don’t say that.”

“We almost died together in a nightmare.”

“I mean-”

“Sho, you told me you’d literally die for me. You don’t get to just gloss over that.”

“I suppose, the offer is on the table though.”

“The road goes both ways – I’ll gladly lay down my life for you.”

They shared a moment of silence. “Well let’s both do our best to not meet a grisly end.”

“Agreed.” The otter smiled.

Despite what they had just finished saying, that did bring the otter some relief. Or maybe that was the etude. Either way, she was confident and content with her position as Shouri’s Resonator. As she leaned on his shoulder, her eyelids began to droop before she was taken by the inviting comfort of darkness.

“Paci...”

“Paci...”

“We’re here...”

Slowly Pacifica’s eyes opened with the gentle persuasion of Shouri’s voice. Though the first sight she saw was her own mother, staring back from the front of the vehicle, and plastered on her face was the most mischievous, shit-eating grin she could muster.

“WAH!” Pacifica practically ejected herself from Shouri’s side

Priscilla mouthed: ‘It’s okay, I got pictures.’

Which Pacifica read loud and clear and was absolutely mortified.

Her companions didn’t know what was going on but decided to stay out of it.

With that little intermission out of the way, the vehicle was pulling into an upper-class neighborhood. One could immediately tell due to the large gates they had to pass through which partitioned the community off from the general public.

The roads and sidewalks were well maintained, with no sign of litter to be found. The grass in every yard was meticulously cared for, trimmed to an optimal height, properly watered and fertilized, the whole gambit.

The houses themselves were varied, but all prestigious in their own right. Many different styles of homes occupied the neighborhood, but none were in disrepair. In fact, some were in the process of upgrades and maintenance.

Finally, they arrived at their destination. A corner lot with a large one-story home comfortably sat in the center. Like all of its neighbors, this home was well kept, with grass trimmed to perfection, and the stone walls that made up the outside of the home free from any dirt or grime.

“This is it?” Shouri asked.

“Yeah, sorry it’s not a manor.” Pacifica wilted a bit.

“Don’t be. This looks cozy.” He patted the otter girl’s back.

“Well don’t just stand there, come on in!” Priscilla waved the worn-out group into her home.

With that invitation, the traveling quartet finally had a place to rest for the time being. Pacifica led the way with Shouri and the pair of fox-girls behind him.

The group huddled in the entrance-way near the front door. Priscilla and Jack were deeper in the home, leaving the tour up to their daughter. “You can leave your shoes here,” she began the tour. Taking that as law, the trio of guests removed their shoes while Pacifica did the same. Without another word, she motioned for them to follow.

They walked through a small hallway before arriving in the first room of the tour. Pacifica stopped fast and threw open a door to their left. It was a half bath, just having the toilet and sink. “Bathroom,” she said simply before continuing. A small dining room table sat before them. “Kitchen—” Pacifica pointed to their left. “—dining room—” She motioned to the table. “—living room.” To her right was an entranceway to a large couch and TV set-up. “We also have two lounges which you can get to from the foyer,” she informed them. “They also connect to the kitchen as well as the living room there,” the otter explained.

She walked around the table and threw open the curtains. “We also have a pool outside,” the tour guide said as the trio huddled around the window. Sure enough, there was a huge pool complete with diving board within easy access of the back glass door.

“I suppose when you have two otters in the house a pool is mandatory.” Shouri chuckled.

“We heat it during the winter so Dad and I can still swim. Hella expensive though.” Pacifica smiled at the group. Rebecca couldn’t help but notice the otter girl’s tail hadn’t stopped swishing excitedly since she started giving this tour.

“This way this way!” She led them around and through the kitchen down another long hallway. “Laundry room. I can wash our clothes after we shower and change into our pajamas,” Pacifica offered. Given how tired they all were, none of the three guests argued. A little bit down the hallway was a second bathroom. “This one has a shower,” she noted.

The hall took a sharp ninety-degree turn, and at that turn was an open door and bedroom. Priscilla was lying face down on their bed. Pacifica trotted up to the door frame and leaned on it. “Tired?” she asked her mother.

The elder Maestro lifted her face from the pillow it was buried in. “We’ve been going since like 3 AM. Gotta make sure your dad doesn’t drown.” There seemed to be a third bathroom hidden in the depths of the master bedroom – either way none of the guests wanted to invade the privacy of their current benefactors, so they stayed outside the room.

Thwump!

And back down she went. Pacifica couldn’t stifle her giggle. “Let’s leave her be.” The otter waved for her friends to continue to follow. “We have a couple of guest bedrooms; in case you want to nap with some privacy during the day.” She pointed to the room directly at the end of the hallway, then the room on the right. “But we’ll probably be in my room.” Throwing open the door, she allowed her friends in.

It was certainly Pacifica’s bedroom alright. It was clean, but there were all kinds of little nick-nacks everywhere. She had a computer with two monitors attached to it, a huge television on a cart, and a king-sized bed of course with a sea-shell patterned comforter covering it. There was a closet in the corner of the room, closed off currently from any nosy looky-loos.

“My home is your home, get comfy,” Pacifica boasted proudly.

The trio of guests stood a bit awkwardly for a moment. Rebecca was the brave one and threw herself onto the bed. “Ah... why am I so freaking tired, we just rode in a car all day?” The fire fox sighed.

Pacifica dropped into her computer chair, swiveling it around to face the rest of the room. “Riding in a car like that moves your body a bunch and requires small unconscious adjustments of your muscles to stay in place. You can wear yourself out pretty quickly from all that moving around,” she imparted on the exhausted fox.

Rebecca sat up, raising a brow. “Where the heck did you learn that?”

The water-elemental motioned to their Maestro. “Sho.”

It was kind of obvious in hindsight. “Ah.” And with that, Rebecca flopped back down.

Shouri meanwhile was looking around his Resonator’s room, Taika right behind him like a shadow. Pacifica seemed to have quite the collection of stuff. Sea shells, rocks, and even a few model ships in a bottle.

The biggest thing was the anchor hanging on the wall to the left of the bed. “Is this real?” Shouri questioned.

“Sure is. Dad and I pulled it up from a shipwreck in the Seirra Islands,” Pacifica bragged. “Mom kept telling us not to go after it, but she couldn’t stop us when we got underwater.” The Resonator chuckled, recalling the fond memory.

Shouri noticed Taika was furrowing her brows at the anchor. “The Seirra Islands are a chain of islands to the south of Lybertera,” he told her.

“Here here!” Pacifica sprang from her seat and pointed out a sea chart hanging up on another wall. The excited otter pulled her fellow Resonator over. “See we’re here right now.” She pointed to Canolapra on the map. “And we found the wreck here.” Tracing her finger down, she stopped in the middle of a chain of islands to the south of the Lyberteran mainland.

“Oh, that says Corhiasela.” Taika noticed the city they had stayed in just north of the islands.

“Yeah, we weren’t too far off.” Pacifica nodded.

The Maestro of the group smiled. Pacifica seemed happy right now. It was nice. “I’m going to use the bathroom,” he announced, figuring it was polite to do so.

“You remember where it’s at?” Pacifica asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he replied.

With that, Pacifica returned to educating Taika on the various island chains surrounding Lybertera.

Shouri made his way out of the room and down the hallway. As he walked by, he noticed there were quite a few picture frames on the walls. He stopped, studying the contents of the frames. Family photos. But as he checked the other pictures that had been selected, he noticed one trend: each one had Pacifica somewhere in them.

“They love their daughter huh...” he breathed, a hint of guilt passing his lips. How was this right? His hand brushed against Pacifica’s blue tuner. It wasn’t as easy with her as it was with Taika or Rebecca. She still very much loved her parents, as they did her. What right did he have breaking up this family he had unintentionally reunited?

“Shouri.”

The boy flinched. He slowly turned to face Priscilla, Pacifica’s mother. “You have a moment?” she asked.

The pair of Maestros stood outside, on the pool deck, watching the water ripple with the wind. “I was curious what kind of Maestro she’d look for,” Priscilla began. “That girl left home on her own, knowing full well how dangerous it was for a stray like her.”

Shouri slowly nodded. She was preaching to the choir – he knew that fact as well.

“I didn’t do a terribly good job raising her. Jack and I are awful examples of what to expect from a Maestro and their Resonators.” A hollow chuckle followed. The boy snuck a peek at the elder at his side. She was tired, both physically, and mentally (though the thirteen-plus hour road trip was mostly to blame).

Priscilla met his gaze. “That girl loves you dearly. You’re what she was looking for.” The woman paused. “Don’t feel bad about taking her from here,” she told him. He raised a brow. “Being a Maestro, but also a parent of your Resonator’s child is tough, and there definitely aren’t any guides out there on how to do it right-” She paused, gathering her thoughts. “-but I know I can trust her with you. The way she talks about you is from the heart, and that’s not something that can be forced.”

The younger Maestro finally broke his silence: “I’m not sure I follow.”

Priscilla smirked; she didn’t call his lie to spare his feelings. She knew he understood the implication better than he claimed. Instead, she spoke in no uncertain terms:

“What I’m trying to say is: you have my blessing – take her with you. Show her the world, make her dreams come true.”

Eventually, Shouri was left alone with the pool and his thoughts.

Pacifica had been thorough in communicating her thoughts about their ongoing relationship as Maestro and Resonator to him. She was just as devoted to him as Taika and Rebecca. Though the two vixens were stuck with him, not having a place to return to, Pacifica was the odd one out; this home would always welcome her back with open arms.

That’s what caused the turmoil in his heart. But-

“Sho?”

He turned to find Pacifica standing at the glass door, brows turned up with worry.

She wanted to be with him, not out of obligation, but because she genuinely liked him as a person. He smiled at the otter-girl. The doubt in his mind would always be there, but maybe it’d be easier to silence that nagging voice.