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

It was a warm Wednesday morning and Shouri alongside his lovely band of Resonators were sleeping in today. Shouri had Pacifica in his grasp, while Taika and Rebecca secured their Maestro’s back.

Shouri himself awoke first. He stroked Pacifica’s hair, causing her to stir. “Sho…” she whispered.

“Feeling better?” the Maestro asked.

“Nnmm…” Her eyes darted away.

“Talk to me.”

“Weak.”

Shouri snorted through his nostrils. “Stop it,” he grumbled, ruffling her hair roughly. “You’re not weak because of something I did,” the Maestro scolded her.

Her expression remained cloudy – it was clear that words alone weren’t going to resolve this.

The room fully awoke, with one thing being clear: they were hungry. Though they had missed breakfast, undoubtedly the lunch menu was most likely in full swing at this point. With that in mind, Shouri got ready to go. However, his usual breakfast buddy laid on the couch in her pajamas, dead to the world.

Shouri sighed; arms akimbo as he stood over Pacifica. “Don’t want to come with?” he asked.

“Weak,” she replied, not exerting the energy to even meet his gaze.

This earned a big dramatic sigh from the Maestro.

“Oh! I’m ready to go!” Rebecca hopped up, seeing her chance.

“Alright-” Rebecca turned to grab her shoes. “-Taika come with me,” Shouri requested, causing Rebecca to trip over herself (notably on purpose for the theatrics).

“Che? Mi?” the lunar fox perked up from where she laid on the bed.

“Her?! Why?!” Rebecca shouted from her new spot on the ground.

“You can fight by yourself. And seeing how well you did against a certain dinosaur I’m even more confident leaving you here with Pacifica.” His gaze fell back on the depressed otter. “She needs babysitting right now,” he decided.

“Uuuuuuhg!” Rebecca groaned, smashing her face into the ground dramatically.

“Sh-sho I don’t think me going with you is a good idea,” Taika fretted, though she had quickly gotten ready regardless.

“It’s fine Taika. It was just us starting out anyway. I need to learn to deal with people’s shit better anyways.” He shrugged. “Come on.” The boy held out his hand for her tuner.

The vixen still didn’t agree with this course of action but handed over her tuner all the same. “Be good Rebecca,” Shouri addressed the other, presently face-down fox.

“Mrrrrgh….” Rebecca continued to pout.

Click

And then the two stood in the hallway.

“Sho?” Taika questioned after a moment of silence.

“Let’s go,” he spoke quietly, which only unnerved the fox – what she would have given to be able to read people like Pacifica could at this moment in time.

The two walked in silence through the building out of one of the back exits that led to the campus exterior. It was a distance away from the large building B housed near the eastern side of the property. Given the schedules of most Maestros who lodged here, the noisy casting range and battlefields were kept away from the peaceful Maestro’s quarters where people were trying to relax and sleep.

Their walk was one of silence.

“Sho wait.” Taika grabbed her Maestro’s sleeve, halting them in between the two buildings. There were a few other Maestros with their Resonators around, just taking in the sun and scenery – chiefly the large fountain that denoted the center of the campus as a whole.

He turned to her, his face clouded.

“What’s wrong?” Taika asked.

“Hrm…” He was bothered, by what the lunar fox couldn’t be sure.

She did have a guess though.

“Is it Pacifica?” she shot out her thought.

“It’s a lot of things...” Shouri muttered.

There was something Taika had read once. Something in the many tomes of malicious knowledge she was forced to consume by her caretakers all those years ago.

Maestros and Resonators have their own cultures, while most Resonators are kept by Maestros as things, trophies, weapons; Resonators had their own feelings about the whole arrangement. There was an honor code to them. But one of the many things that she recalled so fiercely at the moment was her position.

The First.

It was commonly agreed upon by Resonators that the first Resonator in any party, the eldest in service time, was the most important - the strongest, the ace. This group was no exception. Taika was his duet partner. She was the one who pushed up his weak willpower and enabled his leadership, and in turn, the rhythm he provided her would always be far more efficient than what he could give to Rebecca or Pacifica.

And having plenty of time to think about this over the past few days, Taika realized where she was lacking.

She had been content to just let Pacifica and Rebecca deal with matters of mental health with Shouri, to be his emotional crutch – their strong staves were suited for that, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. And Taika was now witnessing the rotten fruit she had grown through her negligence. She was a healer herself; how could she be so naïve, nay stupid?

No more, she was his first, and her bright blue willpower refused to let her hear the end of it – it was time for action.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she offered.

“…yeah.”

“There’s just so much going on,” Shouri began.

They sat in the shade of the trees near the edge of the property. Had she not been trying to amend her perceived shortcomings; she would have been awash with fluster given this is where she had her first kiss and all. But now wasn’t the time for that: they were having a heart-to-heart!

“Like what?” the vixen inquired.

“Well between you three bickering, Colette’s deal with the feroce Resonators, and Elijah’s offer.” He paused. “Not to mention Mila,” the boy let out under his breath.

“It’s just too much. I can’t handle it.” He hung his head.

Taika too lowered her head shamefully – she wasn’t helping her Maestro’s stress; she was adding to it.

Though the realization hit her so sharply, it wasn’t an action, so it didn’t scratch the itch of her rhythm. For that, Taika gave in to it, allowing her body to just move. She pushed herself up, only to pivot her body around and throw her weight onto Shouri’s. Pinned to the ground by Taika, Shouri remained motionless. She interlinked her hands with his, forcing her rhythm into him. He freed his hands from hers, not to escape, but to dive deeper, wrapping his arms around her, and enveloping himself in her both physically and rhythmically.

Neither participant knew how long they laid amongst the sun-soaked trees, though when they came to, both were at peace. The clear skies after a storm, the state of their tortured minds calmed.

RIIIIIING RIIIIIIIING!

And suddenly they were jerked back into reality by the annoying ringtone of an incoming call. Shouri sat up, Taika clinging to him. “Oh,” he noted the caller was in fact, Rebecca’s tuner.

Hesitantly, he answered the call.

“H-hey Rebecca.”

“Where the HELL are you?!” Rebecca immediately barked from the other side.

Double-checking the tuner, it had been an hour since they left the room to get lunch. “Sorry, I-”

Taika snatched the tuner away from Shouri. “I took him,” she spoke into the tuner. “We went to etude, he wasn’t looking well.” A pause. “Lost track of time,” was what she settled on.

“…I see.” Even through the phone, Taika felt the distrust – Rebecca didn’t believe her.

Shouri reclaimed possession of the tuner. “We’ll get lunch and come back as soon as possible,” he told his other Resonator.

“Okay,” she replied quietly.

The call ended right after that.

“She’s not happy,” Shouri hummed.

“It’s been a stressful week or so.” Taika hopped to her feet and extended a hand for her Maestro.

Accepting the offered hand, the Maestro sighed dramatically. “You got that right.”

“So where are we going?” Rebecca inquired of Shouri.

Shouri and his merry band of Resonators were out on the town, having finished lunch and still having some daylight left. Yes, it was mid-afternoon and the quartet would take part in some good old-fashioned capitalism.

“I want to get some supplies,” Taika answered for their Maestro.

“Supplies?” Rebecca cocked a brow, confused.

“She wants to study medicine, to be a doctor,” Shouri chimed in.

“I read there’s a thing called a combat medic who specialize in stabilizing injured people in hunts or for battling stuff. That’s what I want to do,” Taika elaborated further.

“Turns out it's also pretty easy to get a license for that, and MA offices pay pretty fucking well for having us on retainer for that. Though that’s probably because they don’t provide much in the way of supplies.” Shouri shrugged.

“Oh, that’s why that Lee guy had his own bag of stuff,” Rebecca recalled their night with the axolotl man.

“Exactly.” Taika nodded.

The two foxes continued to discuss Taika’s new interest, Shouri slowed his pace to match Pacifica’s, who remained downtrodden from the night before. “Hey,” he whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Mmmgh…” She recoiled from his touch, turning her head away from him.

“Paci...” He withdrew his hand, openly wearing his concern.

Rebecca and Taika glanced at one another, their conversation slowing to a lull. “Just leave me alone,” Pacifica mumbled.

Shouri was taken aback. Rebecca ground her teeth and opened her mouth to snap at the otter, but Taika stopped her just in time. “Non,” the lunar whispered low enough so only her fellow fox could hear her.

“I’m not going to do anything stupid like run away. Just… leave me be,” Pacifica requested.

The Maestro didn’t like this. She was still in her feelings about the whole situation. His gaze flicked to his two foxes who watched the whole quiet spectacle. Rebecca was ready to let loose a tidal wave of emotion, while Taika remained calm, stoic.

It wasn’t that Taika didn’t care. No, she was simply respecting Pacifica’s wishes for space. “Do you want to go back to the MA Office?” he asked.

“I dunno what I want,” the otter-girl admitted.

“Try to keep up then,” Shouri decided to honor her request – for now.

The group began to move again, though they stayed tighter knit, at a much more subdued gait – Shouri stuck close to Pacifica, with Rebecca and Taika leading but not wanting to stray too far from their Maestro. Pacifica was unknowingly setting their pace, her mind elsewhere, head hung.

Eventually, they arrived at their destination – a big box outlet store that stocked basically everything.

Ray’s Hyper-Mart, commonly just called Ray’s, was a chain that one could find spread around Unis-Résonne. And true to its title of being a “Hyper-Mart” it certainly delivered. They arrived at the edge of the property which boasted a massive parking lot. Even so, there was a ton of foot traffic around the building as scores of people filed in and out of the gigantic structure which stretched down the length of the huge property.

“Let’s get in and out of here before we end up witnessing something stupid,” Shouri advised his gaggle of girls.

“Right.” Rebecca nodded in agreement, eying the crowds with a small bit of trepidation.

“Si.” Taika shared her fellow fox’s sentiments.

Pacifica remained silent. Shouri grabbed her hand and kept a grasp of it. She didn’t reject his gesture; it was more that she seemed numb to it.

Taika spoke up, to break the tension. “I read a bunch of stuff, and since I already have healing magic to help us with conditions on the battlefield, I want to focus on stuff that’s more critical, like stabilizing injured people to avoid rhythm burn,” she explained.

“What do you even need for that?” Rebecca questioned.

“I think it’s called uhhh personal protective something?” The lunar mulled it over for a second. “Equipment! Personal Protective Equipment, that’s it?”

“Wait, you’re getting body armor?!” The fire fox’s imagination ran wild instantly.

“No no, just stuff like gloves, masks, and eye protection,” Taika chuckled.

“That shouldn’t be too expensive,” Shouri commented.

“Right, some other stuff I wanted to get are things like a stethoscope and a blood pressure thingy? I have it written down on my tuner,” the healer told her Maestro.

Shouri, using his free hand, drew the black tuner from his side and easily found the document in question. “We’ll see what they have here.” He saw some common things like a thermometer, and then some items he questioned a big retailer like Ray’s having, such as a micro pulse oximeter.

“Definitely can get bandages and wraps here.” Shouri continued to study Taika’s shopping list. “Oh, a bunch of this is just medicine. Pain-killers, anti-allergy, sunscreen,” he noted.

At this point in their conversation, they crossed the threshold between the outside world and the capitalist utopia known as Ray’s Hyper-Mart. Instantly Rebecca huffed in annoyance. “Cold ass store,” she grumbled, getting a face full of refrigerated air blasted directly at them.

“Oh, this is… big.” Taika was at a loss for words, seeing the sheer scale of the building they entered.

“Yeah, we saw it from the outside, what did you think it was gonna be?” Rebecca gently pushed the unmoving fox forward out of the entranceway.

“Where are the medical supplies?” Taika asked her traveling companions as she took up a basket from the stack of them by the door.

“I dunno.” Rebecca shrugged.

“Good fucking question,” Shouri grumbled. “They change the layouts of these stores every so often for efficiency or some kind of other fake business buzzword,” he told the uninitiated fox.

“Ohhhh…” gasped Taika, nodding (and not getting it)

“There are signs hanging up everywhere, so we’ll just wander until we find them,” Shouri suggested. Entirely out of their element, the three girls quietly agreed and they were off to try and find the supplies of legend.

“Wow, there’s a lot of clothes here,” Rebecca noted immediately as they ventured into the store.

“I mean it is kind of illegal to be naked so kinda tracks.” Shouri shrugged.

“No tail holes though,” the fire fox noted, studying the clothes as they passed by.

“Yeah, Resonator clothes are usually from specialty stores, I guess it’s not as profitable to just have ready-made Resonator clothing?” Shouri guessed.

“There are generic brands, but they don’t fit well usually,” Pacifica spoke up, quieter than usual.

Shouri nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“At least if I want a new top or something I can find something here,” Rebecca added.

“Unless you have wings like Ryn,” Taika pointed out.

“Who’s that?” The fire Resonator raised a brow.

“Oh right, you never met her,” Taika realized.

“She’s a bird Resonator that helped us beat that big Scherzando I told you about before,” Shouri added for Rebecca’s edification.

“She taught us that cool meteor spell!” Taika chimed in.

“The lunar-water ossia, right?” Rebecca questioned.

“That’s the one!” the lunar fox beamed.

To her admission, that particular spell, Loro Formato Lunare Lago was a hell of a spell. It had a ridiculously slow wind-up, but the attack power of it was devastating, nearing Ultimate-level spell territory. From her observations of the spell, it appeared the user could keep pulling rhythm indefinitely and make a comet nearing an apocalyptic scale – an absurdity for what is supposed to be a normal spell. Then again Ossia spells did bend the rules of Resonator spellcasting.

“Rebecca?”

The group had come to a stop and had their attention turned on the fire Resonator, who had zoned out in her thoughts.

“What?” she asked.

“You okay? You kinda spaced out,” Shouri pointed out.

“Fine, just thinking.”

“Ah.”

Moving on from the clothes section, they found their way into the home goods section. Seeing how they were nomadic for the time being, none of the four even really acknowledged it. Finally, they found the reason they were putting themselves through this consumerist hell: the health department.

“Hmmm…” The vixen wandered around the aisles, grabbing some of the more common things from her list: rubbing alcohol, medications, a whole plethora of bandages, gloves, face masks, and eye shields. She also managed to find some dressings to help stop bleeding which she stocked up on as well. Rebecca sensed almost a bit of fear from Taika as she made her selections, very specifically her head tilted down and towards Shouri – specifically his midsection.

“Ah…” Rebecca understood.

Continuing on, they found a section filled with different jars of ointments and gels, though these were of a different variety.

“Oh,” Taika breathed out. “These are pricy.” Her ears wilted.

“You’re gonna need these,” Rebecca advised. “‘specially because you said you want to be a combat medic,” the fire fox added.

Singe Relief

Frostbite Relief

Numb Relief

Poison Relief

Blindness Relief

“What are these?” Taika raised a brow.

“Some spells cause temporary physical problems, like Bolide, one of my spells, can cause the Singe condition, which can slow down the target from the pain of movement,” the fire Resonator explained.

“We can easily heal these conditions with a spell, but having a jar of each on hand just in case wouldn’t hurt.” Shouri went ahead and got a set of the five. He winced a bit at the hundred notes he was just casually tossing into Taika’s basket, but she wanted this and he didn’t want to be a damper on her dreams.

“What else do we need?” Shouri inquired of his healer.

“Uhhh, lemee see the list,” Taika requested.

Reviewing the list together, it looked like they had most, if not all of the disposables squared away. Now it was time for the tech. Starting with a thermometer, Taika reviewed her options before deciding on a forehead one. If they were shopping just for their group of four, she wouldn’t have minded sharing one that worked in the mouth, but she considered the idea of accidentally infecting people she was trying to save with some nasty pathogen.

Next was a blood pressure monitor, she’d probably need that if someone was especially wounded to determine if she had to rhythm burn them or not – a necessary evil in her field of choice, but one not to be taken lightly. Seeing extreme rhythm burn firsthand, it was a condition that lasted days; she needed to be extremely careful about when and where she should inflict it. Either way, she found a nice small monitor and tossed it into the basket.

“Hmmm…” Taika frowned as she found a couple of options for stethoscopes. Picking up a pair, she compared them to her head shape, but no matter which brand or style she picked none of them matched the higher position of her ears.

Shouri, noticing his fox’s distress, scanned the shelves in search of a set that worked for her. It clicked after a moment of reviewing the offerings in question. “These are made for human ears, not Resonators,” he realized.

“Oh, let’s find the Resonator ones then.” Taika smiled, feeling a bit silly about her mistake.

It wasn’t that easy, however.

“Do they not have different ones?” Shouri grumbled, looking all around for any kind of alternate options. After pacing around the various aisles of the healthcare section of the store, the group gathered back where they had started this mini-quest: the human-fitted stethoscopes.

“Is this the only option?” Taika once more held up the contraption to her head, noting it simply didn’t match her physiology.

“I didn’t see any other ones,” Rebecca said, looking over the packaging of one of the stethoscopes herself. Her eyes rested on the small text on the back of the product which read: “Not intended for use by Resonators.”

“Why don’t we ask her?” Pacifica spoke up, pointing to the pharmacy where a woman in a white lab coat was eyeing the group. It appeared that the pharmacist in question was trying not to make it entirely obvious she was observing them (but she was no match for Pacifica’s social sense). “She desperately wants us to ask,” the otter muttered before returning to her silence.

Shouri placed a hand on Pacifica’s shoulder as if to thank her for speaking up. “Good idea.” He led the group over to the little pharmacy built into the massive store.

“Hey folks, what are you looking for?” the pharmacist asked as soon as the lost-looking group approached.

“I’m trying to get a stethoscope for her, she’s studying to be a combat medic.” Shouri motioned to Taika who nodded eagerly.

A brow was raised. “Not you?” the pharmacist questioned.

“No, she wants to do it, and I’m nothing but an enabler,” Shouri chuckled.

“Hmmm.”

Taika felt the eyes on her as the pharmacist looked her up and down. After a short study, the older woman nodded. “Well, Resonators aren’t very common as doctors in the medical field, you won’t find anything that fits her here,” she explained to the group.

“Oh…” Taika wilted, her ears folding back and tail drooping. Her eyes met the basket full of medical supplies as the seed of doubt began to fester in her mind. Of course, they didn’t make such tools for the odd Resonator anatomy. Resonators didn’t become doctors – they were at most tools for doctors. That’s how this messed up little world worked.

“So you’ll need to custom order them.”

The deflated vixen’s head snapped out of her dark thoughts. “There are a bunch of websites out there that make specialty tools like that meant for Resonator use,” the pharmacist revealed. “Kind of like with headphones and such – Medical equipment is just far too niche for us to stock them.”

“Okay, we’ll check that out, thanks.” Shouri nodded, appreciating the information.

“She’s a fox, right?” the pharmacist asked.

“Yeah, why do you ask?” The Maestro raised a brow of his own.

“Well unless she’s working in a particularly loud environment, Canid Sense is enough for her to pick up and listen for a heartbeat. For canine medics it's less of a necessary tool and more of something to help them focus,” the pharmacist explained.

Shouri stroked his chin in thought, considering the elder woman’s words. “Makes sense. Thanks again.”

With most everything gathered together they just needed a bag to put it all in, though none of the bags that Ray’s sold necessarily fit the purpose Taika intended on using it for. Tracking back through the rest of the store, they took a quick detour through the clothes section. Shouri snatched a plain white t-shirt off one of the displays and tossed it into the basket, to replace the one destroyed by Zino.

350.75♪

Shouri stared at the total displayed on the self-check-out display. He eyed their current sum of money.

4621.25♪

They sure knew how to spend money despite their hunting, odd jobs, and the like. Shouri could easily ring up Elijah and just have the Klein Foundation foot the bill, but also taking other people’s money was always a dubious prospect. He would rather have the Klein Foundation owe him favors rather than the other way around. At any rate, Shouri wagered they’d spend another hundred or so notes on ordering stuff online that they couldn’t get here.

“That’s a lot of money,” Taika fretted; her ears folded back as she stared at the total displayed on the screen. Suddenly her hair was ruffled.

“Don’t worry about it. I’d rather be spending money on you three than myself.” Shouri smiled at her, allowing his hand to rest on her head.

“N-non…” The lunar fox refused his smile, her face warmed with fluster.

Pacifica watched quietly, lowering her head ruefully.

KNOCK KNOCK

“Who could that be?” Shouri stared at the door from his spot on the couch.

They had returned to their room at the MA office some hours ago. Taika had spent the last few hours utilizing the counter space of the kitchen to look over all of her new medical supplies - trying some of the non-disposable things out and comparing their usage to some of the digital medical books she had purchased (with Shouri’s permission of course).

Rebecca had taken up the couch with Shouri, watching an old martial arts movie with him. They were her favorite and it got her tail wagging. Though admittedly, Shouri’s mind kept drifting to the fact that she could pull off way more impressive moves than the actors on screen.

Finally, Pacifica was in bed, hiding under the covers. Every so often Shouri stared at the otter-girl-shaped lump moping in bed with concern, but there wasn’t anything he could do for her at the moment.

At any rate, Shouri got up to find out who was knocking so late.

Upon opening the door he found a familiar pair.

“Good evening mister Tomoshibi,” Elijah Klein greeted the Maestro in his usual elegance. Zino stood behind the Klein heir with his usual gruff stoicism, though he carried a box in his arms. “Do you have a moment?”

Shouri considered the request for a moment. “I guess I don’t have anything better to do.” He stepped aside to allow the pair in.

“Oh…” Elijah gulped, grasping the collar of his shirt. “Having all four of you gathered in the same place is quite… crushing.” He wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. Regardless, he composed himself to speak with the other Maestro. “Let me get to the short of why I am here: I will be departing for Naiza in less than two days,” he revealed to the group.

“Okay?” Shouri raised a brow, leaning back against the door behind him. “You couldn’t have like, texted this to us?” the Maestro asked.

“Not at all. For you see, I have a proposition that I think you may wish to take part in,” Elijah began.