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

“The key is to know your limits.”

Shouri yawned as he watched Rebecca train under Aiden. It was early, about five or so on this cool but muggy Tuesday morning. The trio had driven down to a small abandoned urban area just outside of Canolapra. He slowly sipped some iced coffee from a plastic cup while he supervised the training.

His gaze slowly fell to his side, where two red tuners were clipped. “Crazy,” he mumbled, recalling the conversation just before they left the house.

“It’s too early…” Shouri of the past complained, failing to stifle a yawn.

“Agreed.” Rebecca leaned against him, barely managing to keep herself awake.

The pair stood in the foyer, waiting for their driver and teacher for the morning activities. It was easy to doze off though, even when standing.

Aiden strolled in, sitting on the metal folding chair in the corner to put on his shoes. “Chin up kids, we’ll stop at M’Kroc’s on the way and grab some breakfast,” the elder fire element offered.

“Gotta love some greasy fast food in the morning,” Shouri grumbled. “Maybe I’ll get a coffee,” he mused to himself.

“Oh yeah, before I forget.” Reaching into his pocket, Aiden produced a red tuner and offered it to Shouri.

No motion was made to take the device. “Why?” the Maestro questioned the gesture.

“Cici wanted you to have it while we’re out, just in case.” Aiden grinned. “I’m in your hands kid, be gentle!” he joked.

Shouri grunted, uncomfortable with the idea of just taking another Maestro’s tuner like this. She was offering though, and the Resonator in question didn’t seem to see a problem with being handed over like this. He acquiesced to the request and accepted the device.

“C’mon kids, gotta get out there early before any looky-loos show up!”

It was a strange way of doing things. Aiden was so strong; he could probably handle himself in a fight without any Maestro intervention should something happen.

Either way, Shouri was at least interested in this movement style, so he also paid attention.

“First thing is pankour is about efficient movement, that goes doubly so for practitioners who don’t have Trailblazer of the Forest,” Aiden explained. Rebecca nodded. “You have to see the obstacles ahead and plan how you’re going to overcome them in the fastest and most effective way possible,” he continued.

Rebecca frowned, humming in thought. “Sho’s the plan guy, I don’t do well with creative exercise,” she interjected.

“Nonsense! Some of the best pankour practitioners are weak knowledge – if you have a strong etude with your Maestro, none of that matters. Besides, the skills I teach you could save his life one day,” Aiden retorted.

Ah, that’s why they wanted him there, Shouri realized. Besides just being a Maestro looking over two Resonators in public, the discipline assumed one needed to move their Maestro around as well.

“Let’s get started, first show me your balance.” Aiden pointed to the nearby street curb. “Walk along that,” he instructed.

With a shrug, Rebecca did as told. Shouri noticed something immediately – her tail was out, swaying with her body, helping to balance her as she easily walked along the edge of the sidewalk. It was second nature to her, the long fluffy appendage making sharp movements to correct any sway her body began to make.

“Ah, so you already do have some training. We can skip some of the basics then.” Aiden grinned. “This way.”

Shouri and Rebecca were led over to some buildings, which were clearly abandoned. “Since your sense of balance is pretty top-notch, we can jump straight to this: scaling. Observe.” Aiden stood still for a moment before darting straight at the wall. He didn’t stop however and used his toes to scale the wall, almost as if he was climbing a ladder. Each step a small jet of fire ignited pushing him up further and further. The man ascended the building, making it to the top of the second story with minimal effort.

“Woah…” Rebecca blinked, rubbing her eyes. She had heard the stories but seeing it in practice was another thing entirely. Aiden had used no rhythm at all to do that. His ad-Lib was active, but his movement was clean and ensured his species trait remained active during the entire climb.

“You try it! Focus on minimizing your usage of Icarus’ Ala!” he shouted from upon high.

Rebecca gulped. She could easily get up there with her skills in flying with Icarus’ Ala, but that wasn’t the goal. “R-right.”

Suddenly she felt a hand on her. “You got this Rebecca.” Shouri rubbed her back.

“Right!” Her brows descended; trepidation was replaced with confidence. She ran at the wall, her heels sparking as she readied herself to hit the wall. She met the target, making the first step. The first two steps she was able to scale with just her built-up momentum, however that quickly wore off – she needed more momentum. For this, she applied her ad-Lib, but suddenly found herself shooting way higher than she intended and ended up accidentally kicking off of the wall instead of up it. She landed with a roll, breathing hard as she stared at the wall in shock.

Glaring at the wall, she took off again. However, the result was the same, she made it up two steps with her momentum, but when she went to use her ad-Lib it ejected her from the wall.

Three more times she attempted this seemingly simple trick but failed every time in the same manner.

This was proving to be much more involved than she realized. She had trained her ad-Lib to give such massive bursts of power that the precision control required of pankour was surprisingly difficult to achieve.

She fell to her hands and knees, balling up her fists and trembling with frustration. It was a bit embarrassing for the fox, especially after she had run her mouth to Andi less than a week ago on how to properly use their ad-Lib. Turns out she was just a big dumb idiot that didn’t know a damn thing!

“Hey, calm down.”

Rebecca snapped out of her self-admonishment. Shouri offered a hand to her. “Let’s see what Aiden has to say.” She just stared at her Maestro. This wasn’t right, she shouldn’t be so mad about a small setback like this. Taking hold of his hand, he pulled her up to her feet. She kept a grip on his hand, focusing on his rhythm. Etude, she needed etude right now.

Aiden jumped from the building, sliding down the wall and kicking off before he reached the bottom, rolling on the ground to disperse the built-up momentum.

“Do me a favor,” the red panda said as he walked over to the pair. “Kick me.”

The fire fox blinked and shook her head trying to decide if she heard him right. “What? No,” she decided.

“Shouri? What do you think?” Aiden looked to the Maestro.

The boy hummed, regarding the elder fire Resonator, then his younger counterpart. “Just do it, Rebecca. Worst thing that happens is you break some of his ribs and he gets to spend some time at an MA office for his hubris,” Shouri advised.

Rebecca let out a big loud dramatic sigh. “Fine. But-” She squared up, sliding her foot back. “-you asked for it!” In a fit of annoyance, she put everything she could into her kick, aiming for his side. Her flaming heels increased the speed at which her foot spun into him. In an instant, the man took a defensive stance and managed to catch the cannonball of a foot that had been launched at him.

While he was able to protect himself somewhat, it did throw him backward from the sheer force of the blow.

“Hrmph.” Rebecca stood for a moment with her knee held up before stomping down. “Happy?”

“Whew, you really didn’t hold back. You definitely chunked my rhythm, that’s for sure.” Aiden laughed as if he wasn’t just assaulted.

Thanks to Shouri’s possession of Aiden’s tuner, he could verify that claim. A mere ten percent was missing from the Ailuridae’s rhythm. The young Maestro wasn’t entirely sure exactly how strong Priscilla’s Resonators were, but he did recall Jack catching a fortissimo-level spell and hugging it like it was a plush toy. The assumption on his part was that Aiden was as powerful if not more powerful than his water counterpart.

Even chipping ten percent off of such a strong Resonator’s rhythm gave him more perspective on Rebecca’s raw strength.

“I think that’s the problem,” Aiden stroked his chin while mulling over the situation. “You have world-class power built up, but are lacking in the control department.” The man glanced over at Shouri.

Rebecca stepped in front of her Maestro. “Sho’s not the one who trained me like this.”

Aiden frowned hard; brows pinched. “Oh…” His expression eased. “A Renard.”

The fox ground her teeth hard, glaring back at the elder fire Resonator. “My condolences.” Once more Aiden’s eyes regarded Shouri with judgment.

“Don’t you dare.” Rebecca bared her fangs, tail puffing out. “I won’t let you think that of him even in your head,” the vixen growled.

Aiden chuckled, holding up his hands. “What a protective little pup you have,” he directed at Shouri.

The Maestro in question placed a hand on Rebecca’s head. “It’s okay,” he spoke gently, completely extinguishing her hostility.

“Come on you two, we’ll head back for today. You need to work on that control before you can even start practicing pankour.” Aiden motioned for the younger pair to follow. “When you get that fire control in place, you just need to know what you’re capable of, then you can build the muscles you need,” he continued to explain.

"What’s that mean?” Rebecca raised a brow incredulously.

“A lot of pankour is climbing, vaulting, and knowing how to fall. Normal Icarus’ Ala trainers only really teach you the falling part,” he pointed out.

Rebecca hummed in thought as they reached the car. There was a heavy emphasis in her flight training on how to hit the ground without hurting herself. Rolling to disperse one’s momentum. She had saved her own and Taika’s life with such a technique. It was so ingrained into her, that she didn’t even remember doing it – it was just a reflex ground into her bones.

So at least she had that going for her. Control on the other hand…

“Rebecca had all her training focused on her legs and her footwork, but pankour uses the whole body, is that what you’re getting at?” Shouri asked for clarification.

“Righto Mr. Maestro!” Aiden leaned on the car, regarding the Maestro and Resonator that stood his opposite. “I’m not saying you need to start bulking or pumping iron or anything. Just practicing pankour gets your body where it needs to be,” he informed them.

The fire fox still seemed bothered by all of this. “We’ll get through this,” Shouri told her.

“Mrrgh.” Rebecca wilted.

“Hey.” He took hold of her hands. “I’m serious. I’ll help you with whatever you need. You can practice and I can share my rhythm with you. Maybe we can watch some videos.”

She gripped his hands tightly. The gratitude was stuck in her throat, so she nodded slowly, hands trembling.