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

The drive back home had been quiet. There was a lot on all their minds, and none were ready to talk about what they had discovered. Most of all Shouri didn't think Zephyr was ready to have a conversation about her previous captor after such a long day.

Something bothered the young guildmaster though, a thought he only voiced once they were in the safety of their room.

"Why didn't he chip her? It's not like he lacks the reach or resources to do so…" wondered Shouri as he lay on the bed.

"Oh boy, this conversation," said Rebecca, as she sat up next to him.

Taika was in the kitchen, making them a simple dinner while Pacifica was lounging in the bathtub.

"What do you mean?" Shouri sat up next to his vixen.

She took a breath; it was clear this was yet another aspect of Maestro culture Rebecca wasn't comfortable with. Shouri grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. In his grasp, she relaxed, and gave him a gentle squeeze back.

"Some collectors prefer their Resonators 'untouched', so like chips and others even go as far to get Resonators without any additional spell levels."

It wasn't as if Shouri needed a reason to hate Resonator collectors even more than he already did, but they sure did make themselves as punchable as possible. At least from his knowledge, as long as the spellcasting was consensual, Resonators quite enjoyed the act of casting magic, nothing to say about the minor etude that occurred with each one.

To deny a Resonator of that was like denying them of a core aspect of their biology. Almost paramount to torture in his opinion.

"So, we can deduce that René is probably one of those type of collectors then?" Shouri asked for confirmation.

"He reeked of that kind of guy." Rebecca held herself, shuddering as she considered the implications.

Shouri wrapped his arms around the vixen, who immediately buried her head in his chest, small mutterings of "that's not my life" earning her a healthy dose of etude from him.

"Everything okay?" Pacifica asked, wrapped up in a towel and dripping water on the carpet.
"Rebby?" Shouri looked down to the fire element who held up a shaky thumbs up, but didn't move from her safe haven.

"NON SUL TAPPETO!!" Taika screamed from the kitchen.
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Pacifica fled back into the bathroom, lest the utensils start flying.

Night passed to day, and Rebecca joined the world of consciousness once more. In Shouri and Pacifica's grasp her heart could be at ease. She had left that life behind. Though… men like René Noel made her heart ache. Not for fear that she'd return to that life herself, but for all her other fellow Resonators who were gradually being worn down, being broken.

"Hey…" Pacifica whispered into her ear. "It's okay…"

Rebecca's face reddened as Pacifica's hand reached her bare stomach and pressed down. The vixen closed her eyes, and allowed the otter's embrace to tighten; the foreign rhythm coursed through her scale.

Even though they shared the same stave, Rebecca found comfort in the etude with her elemental opposite. Who knew fire could love water so easily?

It wasn't long before Shouri joined the ranks of the woken world, and now his fingertips graced the bare of her back.

"B-both of you?!" Rebecca gasped. She didn't hate this; she loved every millisecond of it, even more so when Shouri silenced her protests with lips locked against hers. The blood that rushed through her face only intensified as Pacifica got grabby and began to run a tight grip down her tail.

"Ah…" Poor Rebecca was wrapped up in love – perhaps this was how she met her end?

Taika rose from her sleep to find Rebecca curled up in a tiny ball under the blankets. Shouri was already up, and sipped a cup of fresh coffee while he read his tuner. Pacifica sat his opposite, on her own tuner, already geared up in her winterwear.

"Breakfast is on the stove," he told the newly conscious vixen.
"Grazie…" Taika yawned, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked to the ball of blanket and Rebecca next to her.
"No, she hasn't eaten," said Pacifica, failing to hide a small, mischievous chuckle.

The pair got to their feet. "We're gonna go to the office so Rebecca can get up proper," said Shouri.
"Feel free to join us once you've eaten," Pacifica added.

Besides Pacifica yelling outside about everything being covered in ice, quiet returned to the room. Taika looked to Rebecca.

"Hai voglia di parlarne?" asked Taika.
"No, I don't want to talk about it," whimpered Rebecca.

Taika blinked a couple times. "Ah." The realization hit her. She flicked the blanket up and draped herself over Rebecca. "When's my turn?" asked Taika coyly, playing with Rebecca's ears while she awaited the flustered fox's answer

"My heart is not meant to know peace…" Rebecca whimpered.

"…that's definitely him," Zephyr confirmed after Shouri and the others recounted their meeting with René Noel the day prior. Taika and Rebecca had since joined the gathering, and added their own commentary alongside Shouri and Pacifica.

At Zephyr's request, Vince held the little fairy in his grasp, the warmth both physically and through etude kept her sane through the hard talk.

"My meals were bland, almost tasteless pellets. I never felt sick or anything. Like I was getting all my nutrients, but it was always the same, day in and day out," she recalled, shuddering at the experience.

Pacifica noticed Taika stiffen at the description of Zephyr's daily meals and committed it to memory before she returned focus to the solar element.

"Did he ever hurt or abuse you?" Shouri asked.

Zephyr shook her head. "He'd come into the room where I was kept and would just stare before taking his leave. He didn't even feed me himself; he had some other people do it for him," she replied.

"Urgh…" Rebecca shook her head.
"You can leave," Shouri whispered.
"No, I want to stay here," she quietly replied.

"What can we even do about it?" asked Vince.
"Unless we can find evidence of him physically abusing any of the Resonators in his care, nothing," Shouri stated.
"Emotional abuse doesn't count?" asked Pacifica.

Shouri didn't reply, he lowered his head, his trembling fists told her the result of that research rabbit hole.

"I don't need revenge or anything like that," Zephyr spoke up. "I just want to forget about it," she added, quieter.

The Maestro nodded. "Of course," he replied, motioning for their dismissal.

With that, Vince left, taking his sullen fairy with him.

"That's so messed up," Pacifica shook her head once they were alone. "Emotional abuse doesn't count? Why the hell not?" she asked, having to fight raising her voice.

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"Dunno, it's a weird loophole in Resonator care laws. As long as the Resonator is physically healthy that's all that matters to the courts." Shouri looked sick to his stomach even having to say that. "The only thing that's keeping me sane is there's a growing movement in the senate to pass mental health laws, but there's opposition."

"What's there to oppose!?" Pacifica lost control of her voice.

"Nothing. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out that people like René are paying off lawmakers to keep things the way they are for their own benefit," Shouri explained.

The girls felt it in his rhythm – he boiled, the hatred for these aspects of their system blazed wildly right underneath his skin.

"Now what?" Taika dared to ask.

Shouri took a deep breath, exhaling long and hard. "We do what we're able to – we take in Resonators who need us and find them Maestros who will actually take care of them," he stated, more calmly.

With the morning as heavy as it was, the quartet wanted some sense of normalcy.

For that, they loaded themselves up in the van and headed down to one of the local hunting sites, just the four of them.

None of PTRS argued with their plans – in fact, they agreed for the most part. Emily took her trio on her motorcycle to the far eastern hunting grounds. Vince, Mila, and Zephyr took the night off to rest after yesterday. Finally, Colette, Kaira, and Miro kept watch for any errant Scherzando that may threaten their humble little guildhall.

Shouri, Taika, Pacifica, and Rebecca got to the hunting grounds a little after nine at night. Without missing a beat, they walked right past the line, earning them many perplexed looks for those stuck waiting. The confusion only grew as Shouri simply waved a tuner as he passed and the registrar returned a thumbs up to the man.

"I hear he's a guildmaster," was the one thing Taika managed to pick up before they were out of earshot of the rest of the rabble.

"Alright girls," Shouri announced to his trio. "Tonight, I want us to practice fighting on our own without coordination," he revealed.

"Huh?" Pacifica and Taika blinked.
"Makes sense to me." Rebecca nodded.

"Wait, you said 'us' – what are you going to be doing?" asked Pacifica.
"Famiglio Incendio, Lento," Shouri replied.

Rebecca summoned the large flame fox. Shouri rested a hand on the rhythm beast, who knelt before its Maestro. "There might be a time where you need to make decisions on your own with your ad-Libs. I want to make sure you have sharp judgment. I also want to see what kind of damage I can do directing a summon like this. From what I read, I can channel rhythm into it and cast Lanciafiamme. Once we get that last rank on Meravigliare Bolla we can probably start playing with other big rhythm beasts," he explained his thoughts to his trio.

"We're gonna end up in the news again," Rebecca laughed.
"At least we got out of the whole triple casting thing," Pacifica added.
"Sounds fun!" Taika chimed in.

And so the plan was set: Shouri held onto Taika's tuner, while Pacifica and Rebecca had their own tuners. As usual Taika was to update the maps, while they fanned out and went their separate ways.

Rebecca crept through the woods alone. It was dark out, but her tuner guided the way. She remembered a few exercises in less dangerous areas for combat training. For her, this was a walk in the park. Sliding the tuner onto her skirt, she continued her leisurely stroll.

There were a few Scherzando just ahead. She kept her senses sharp. Even if her ears didn't help, her expertly tuned combat and rhythm senses would.

"Man, this ain't even fair," chuckled the vixen. Her heels ignited as she got the jump on a couple of nature element deer Scherzando that had the misfortune of meeting Rebecca Renard.

…

Pacifica meanwhile, had a worse time going through the woods, so she relied instead on her social sense.

"There's some people this way," she mumbled to herself. Sure enough, Taika's helpful updates confirmed this as fact.

"What Sho doesn't know won't hurt him," Pacifica chuckled. She approached the tense group. "Hey!" she greeted, earning a couple of shouts of fright.

"Woah… you scared us," one of the Maestros spoke up.
"Where's your Maestro?" another asked.

"Sorry about that. My Maestro sent us off on our own to train. I can't see right from left in these woods though. Mind if I tag along for a little bit? I'll pull my weight, prommy," Pacifica requested, pressing her hands together as she smiled cutely at the group.

…

Taika had the fortune of not only being a lunar element, but also her repeated castings of Rilevare l'intenzione made the whole forest her playground.

"I should focus on taking down one at a time. My beads can't handle more than that," she said to herself as she crept through the woods.

She walked through the darkness. Where most would see it as stepping into their demise, for the lunar element the darkness was gentle – it was the light that wrought destruction. Calm, gentle darkness. It was a peaceful little jaunt. She smiled; this was nice.

Her tail bristled up, she spun on her feet and side stepped away from a large owl Scherzando that tried to get the jump on the fox girl.

"Ci hai provato," said Taika, her beads flew from her neck at the speed of thought. Before the Scherzando could gather its bearings, it was torn apart by 108 beads that coursed with the lunar element's rhythm. "Grazie per aver giocato."

…

Shouri's eyes darted back and forth while his hair whipped in the wind. He urged the rhythm beast to run as fast as it could. It was as smart as a Scherzando but carried the loyalty of a Resonator, listening to every mental command he offered it. Probably helped his rhythm was responsible for its creation.

The beast picked up speed and jumped. Shouri's eyes bugged out as there was now a river beneath them, but this was no problem for the summon who had accounted for this (hence the acceleration). The flame beast skidded to a halt on the other side of the river bank.

"Woo, hot damn…" Shouri gripped his chest as he caught his breath. "Surprised me," he patted the fox who shook its head and took a leisurely trot down the river bank.

"You're the first one we summoned, aren't you?" Shouri asked the beast. It nodded slowly. The Maestro couldn't be sure if that was the truth or if the beast caught onto Shouri's desire for it to be so. He'd choose to subscribe to the former opinion.

"Woah! What the hell?!" a voice shouted.

Shouri's gaze turned towards the forest, where a small group of hunters watched in awe.

There was a certain playfulness that welled up in the guildmaster. He held a finger up to his lips, before the rhythm beast jumped back across the river and vanished into the woods with its rider.

Needless to say, there would be plenty to talk about for the various Maestros at the end of the night.