Chapter 75
Bright blue eyes sparkled as their owner pulled a wrapped sandwich out of the bag. Yes, it was breakfast time, and Taika was beyond excited, her tail wagging within the seat she sat in. The train rolled through town, but it was not nearly as interesting as the breakfast roll with sausage and egg that the vixen was unwrapping.
CHOMP
A hearty bite into the sandwich earned a squeal of delight from the young woman. “Ish sho waam am tayshy,” she spoke with her mouth full.
“That’s rude,” Rebecca pointed out, but was ignored by her lunar counterpart who was practically in love with her cheap, mass-produced meal.
“Let her have her fun Rebby,” Pacifica chuckled before taking a bite out of her own sandwich.
With a roll of her eyes, the fire fox decided to ignore Taika, with her gaze drifting to their shared Maestro. Shouri sipped his iced coffee while doing something on one of the three tuners he possessed. “What’s up bossman?” Rebecca inquired, noting his intense rumination over the device.
“Trying to see if there’s any special rhythm thing that could have been what Colette wanted to tell us,” he mumbled, knowing full well Rebecca could hear him despite the lack of volume in his voice.
“Is it really that big of a deal? She said she’d tell us later,” Rebecca pointed out.
“It’s bugging me now. She’s strong-staved knowledge too, she should know this would bug me.” Shouri’s eyes narrowed, glaring at the lack of results on his tuner.
“If I had her pinned down right, she’s weak emotion, so she’d totally miss that,” Pacifica chimed in
Shouri snorted in irritation. “Annoying,” he decided.
“You don’t actually think that.” Pacifica reached across and patted his knee.
The Maestro mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and slid the tuner back onto his waist. “Stupid itchy rhythm,” came another complaint.
“You should eat your food. Can’t subsist solely on coffee,” Pacifica advised; her gaze affixed to the still-closed bag sitting on her Maestro’s lap.
“Mmmrph. I can damn well try.” Despite his protests, he conceded and opened his own bag of food.
Roughly an hour passed in relative peace, with the train stopping in several small towns that dotted the central Unis-Résonne plains.
The ultimate destination the quartet found themselves was a tiny village north of Lyreann. It was so small they were the only ones who got off at the stop, and nobody boarded the train. Checking the board, Shouri took note of the trains returning to Lyreann.
“Gotta be back here by three, so we have plenty of time to catch the 4 PM train back to Lyreann,” he told his Resonators.
Pacifica studied the analog clock that hung proudly on the terminal. “It’s ten now, so we got five hours to play in the river. Come on!” She eagerly waved her friends towards the exit.
As soon as they left the train station, they could see the river in question. The buildings around were small, what one might call old-fashioned or even rustic. They stood on an old cobblestone road, but despite the apparent age of the infrastructure it was well maintained, looking as solid as when the bricks were laid all those hundreds of years ago.
Even the trees that dotted the town providing shade were well kept, not a dead limb in sight, and vibrantly green. A couple of Resonators milled about, but outside of that it seemed like a ghost town.
“Quiet place,” Rebecca noted, taking in the scenery.
Otter ears and tail perked up as the river was in sight, causing Pacifica to take off like a rocket down the road, not letting anyone or anything get in her way.
“She loves the water,” Shouri chuckled.
“E noi adoriamo lei,” Taika said with a giggle.
“She can have my share.” Rebecca rolled her eyes.
Following their overzealous companion, Shouri, Taika, and Rebecca found themselves at the river in question. There wasn’t a soul around except for Pacifica, who was already zooming up and down the stream.
Taika turned to and fro, noting the distinct lack of facilities on the river. “Wh-where do I change?” she asked, pulling their backpack in front of her.
“Dunno,” Shouri said, pulling his shirt off.
“SH-Sho??!” Taika yelped.
“Hm?” He unbuttoned his pants.
“Public?!” The fox pointed as if accusing him of a crime
Rebecca’s sinful eyes were locked squarely on the now shirtless Maestro of theirs, waiting for the curtains to fall for the climax of the performance.
And fall they did, revealing Shouri had simply worn his green swim trunks underneath his pants. “You didn’t wear your swimsuit under your clothes?” he questioned, kicking his pants up to his hand.
“Right, that makes sense I guess.” Taika frowned, feeling particularly silly at the moment.
“Just go change in the trees over there,” the Maestro advised, motioning to the nearby foliage.
The lunar fox eyed the small cluster of trees. After a moment of weighing her options, she sighed and resigned to her fate, made her way into the trees to change.
Shouri next turned his attention to the fire element of their merry band. She quickly averted her immoral gaze, trying and failing to whistle innocently. “What do you want to do?” the Maestro questioned. “Sorry for bringing you out here,” he quickly added. “I didn’t think about it until we were already on the train.”
“It’s fine Sho, don’t worry about it.” The vixen smirked. She shed her blazer and her yellow dress shirt under that, revealing she had a white t-shirt on.
Shouri raised a brow. “I don’t recall getting you that shirt.”
The fox returned his confusion with a toothy grin. “You didn’t, it’s your spare.”
Upon further inspection, it was a bit loose on her. “Still didn’t answer my question.” He noted.
“Right!” And then Rebecca whipped her skirt off, revealing the black bike shorts she wore underneath. “Gonna soak up some rays, work on a bit of a tan,” she nodded.
“Gotcha.” He was grateful Rebecca had already thought of a solution to her impending boredom. “Here.” He handed her tuner off to her. “You can listen to some videos while you sunbathe,” he offered.
Rebecca eyed her own tuner for a moment before accepting it. A smile rose on her lips. “Yeah, that’s a good idea, thanks Sho.”
With that taken care of, Shouri could now address the water, which his otter was patrolling like a shark. Taika joined him a moment later.
“Come on! Come on!” Pacifica excitedly waved for her friends to join her.
“Shall we?” Shouri asked the lunar fox.
“Si!”
Red eyes slowly fluttered open. The sun had moved positions significantly from when their owner last had them open, though the sky remained bereft of even a hint of cloud cover. The splashing of the water informed her that her companions hadn’t abandoned her
Rebecca yawned and sat up. “Musta fell asleep.” Though dangerous for most, her fire element meant the extra heat only served to bolster her condition rather than harm her, leaving the vixen feeling particularly supercharged at the moment.
Her bright red tuner lay in the grass next to her, still playing some videos she had been listening to before her nap. “What time is it?” Grabbing the tuner, she dismissed the noise and found the clock.
2:48 PM
Blink blink
The groggy fox glared at the numbers for a moment or so before realizing their significance.
“Heeeeeeey!” Rebecca called out. “It’s almost three!”
“Awwwwww!” came the immediate complaint from the otter.
Rebecca rolled her eyes, getting up from her spot. She put her usual clothes back on while Shouri and Taika swam to shore.
“Whew, that was fun.” Shouri drew one of the towels they brought out of the bag and quickly dried off, before passing the towel to Taika. The lunar fox didn’t immediately accept it. “Hm?” He turned just in time to witness her start to collapse.
“Taika!”
Thankfully Rebecca was paying attention, clearing the distance in an instant to catch her fellow fox. The fire element slowly eased her lunar counterpart to the ground. The lunar fox struggled to catch her breath, dark bags around her eyes.
“What’s going on?!” Pacifica rushed up to shore, having seen Taika fall.
Shouri was checking her over for any visible injuries when a thought came to mind. Pulling Taika’s black tuner from his side, he flipped to the status screen; his fears being confirmed by what he found:
Status: Illness
“Here it is - she has Cloudless Day Illness.”
“I’m such a fucking idiot.”
Shouri sat in a chair in a small MA Office that happened to be nearby. He was slumped over, holding his head in his hands. Taika laid on the examination table, coated in sweat, eyes closed. Rebecca and Pacifica stood behind their Maestro, each with a hand laid on the shoulder closest to him, focusing on keeping him from having a total meltdown.
The attendant who had seen to Taika’s condition reviewed it once more on the computer screen they had input the tuner data into. “She’ll need at least a week to recover,” they noted.
“Stupid stupid stupid!” Shouri loudly berated himself.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it.” The attendant stood up, glancing to the counter where a well-worn book lay open. Scrawled across the browning pages was a hand-written account describing Cloudless Day Illness. “If I have to be honest, they don’t teach us enough about Lunar care in Med school. I can’t blame you for not knowing.” The receptionist paused for a moment. “If you told me you came from Luna that’d be a different story.”
Though the attendant’s words rang true it didn’t ease the turmoil in the young Maestro’s heart.
“Sh-sho…” Taika struggled to push herself up.
In a flash, Shouri was at her side, easing her back down. “Just rest,” he told her.
She grasped his jacket, fist trembling. “It’s not your fault. I felt weird while we were swimming but I ignored it,” Taika managed to get out.
Shouri grunted, averting his gaze. Taika mustered up a frown and a pout, grabbing her Maestro’s face and forcing him to look at her. “Don’t blame yourself.” The normally determined blue rhythm that shone in her eyes was but a wisp of its former glory. Shouri wilted further, his eyes desperately trying to escape the sorry state of his precious lunar fox.
“She should regain her physical strength by morning, but her rhythm will take some time. Avoiding any further exposure to the sun should be prioritized. Needless to say, you shouldn’t use her in battle either,” the attendant read from their book, flipping a couple of pages, they scanned the notes before speaking again. “Having her sleep during the day and walking her outside at night should also help speed up the recovery time,” they concluded.
Taika’s ears folded back, lowering her head. Her hand continued to shake as she desperately clung to her Maestro.
Pacifica let out a sigh, sensing how both of her friends were taking the news. “Thank you,” she spoke up for them. “Can we get a room here? So she can recover?” the otter asked.
The attendant raised a brow, not accustomed to a Resonator asking them such a question. Their gaze shifted to the Maestro, who simply regarded them with a nod.
“Right. Room one should be open, you’re free to use it. I’ll sign you in.”
“Cloudless Day Illness? Can’t say I’ve heard of it,” Colette’s voice came from one of Shouri’s tuners.
“Not surprising.” Shouri rolled his eyes. He re-adjusted himself in the big recliner that sat in the common room at the MA office they had decided to stay at.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
After a moment of silence, Colette spoke once more. “You won’t be out tonight?”
“No.” He snapped back quickly, glaring at his tuner. “We’re like an hour away by train.” He clarified, failing to hide the annoyance in his voice.
The Maestro glanced around the empty common room before continuing. “I still want to help with the Feroce thing. Just not tonight.” He muttered.
“That should be fine,” Colette replied. “We got another one like Fischer, so no rush,” she added.
“What do you mean?” Shouri raised a brow.
“Feroce comes in stages. The first stage of infection is the easiest to bring back to normal, but the more the Resonator uses Feroce spells the deeper they’re dragged into it. Should they use too many their physical body will melt away and they’ll become no different from a Scherzando,” she explained.
Shouri remained quiet, images of Cecil’s demise playing on loop in his mind.
“Shouri? Are you there?” the pushy scholar’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Right,” he mumbled.
“Any who, the Resonator we have assigned next is on the final cusp before they’re cured of Feroce, we just need to give them that last push,” Colette told him.
“Did you find Fischer a Maestro?”
“Not yet, it takes time since we want to make sure we get a good match both rhythm and personality-wise. In the interim, he’ll be with a foster Maestro who will take care of all of his basic needs,” Colette explained.
“I see,” Shouri grunted. It wasn’t ideal, but at least Fischer would end up in a good home. Hopefully.
“I got some paperwork to do, I’ll talk to you tomorrow about the job,” Colette said.
“Yeah yeah,” came another grunt.
“Bye Shouri.”
“Bye.”
And with that, Shouri was left alone with only his thoughts to keep him company. “Fuck. Forgot to ask her about what this morning was about.” He let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Whatever.” The boy slumped further in his chair, glaring at the empty common room walls.
“Hey, Bossman,” Rebecca’s voice perked him out of his thoughts.
“Rebecca?”
Rebecca, having opted to use her yellow dress shirt and shorts as make-shift eveningwear, sat on the arm of the recliner Shouri had claimed as his brooding spot.
“How are you holding up?” she asked, rubbing his shoulder closest to her.
“Been better,” he admitted.
“I see,” the fox replied, hand retreating.
The pair sat in silence, allowing time to slip by without their consent. Eventually, Rebecca slid down onto Shouri’s lap. “Rebecca-” His voice caught in his throat as the fox-girl curled up, rested her head on his shoulder, and blanketed them with her tail.
“I know you like how warm I am,” she breathed into his ear, nuzzling his shoulder as she got comfortable.
Hesitantly, he accepted the implied offer and wrapped his arms around her, holding the vixen tightly. “I do,” the Maestro admitted quietly.
“It’s okay, I like how warm you are too,” she whispered back.
What a long day it had been.
And here Rebecca was having the sheer audacity to be so soft and warm.
It was almost enough to make one fall right…