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

The arrival of 2019 started not with a bang, but whimpers of protest.

"Shooooo…" Pacifica whined, holding him from behind tightly.

"Sleepy…" Rebecca joined in on the complaints.

"Mrrrpgh…" Taika buried her face in his chest, ears folded back in an attempt to silence the noise of her bed mates.

"Go back to sleep then, stop bitching," Shouri groused, wondering what the fuss was about in the first place.

BOOOOM!

Nevermind, 2019 did in fact, start with a bang.

Shouri and the girls threw open the door to their room to find the guild's youngest helping his fire cat up to her feet. Zephyr hovered nearby; her gaze focused on the source of the thunderous explosion that rocked the guild hall.

The huge, smoldering crater taken out of their front lawn. Just behind it sat the rental van which was now coated in a fine layer of clay.

Shouri gestured at the hole with an expression that said "explain yourself."

"Okay, funny story, true story; we were practicing spells and disarming them, and Mila accidentally set off her own landmine," Vince explained, chuckling nervously as everyone was at their doors staring at him.

The guildmaster didn't have words, he just gawked at the younger Maestro whose nervous laughter was growing progressively louder with each passing second. Finally, Shouri spoke his demand. "Pay one of the earth elements to fix the hole and wash the van--that's your punishment for waking everyone up at this ungodly hour."

"It's 9AM," Zephyr pointed out.

"Right, that's what I said, ungodly hour." With that, Shouri slammed the door shut and attempted to return to bed with his three lovely ladies behind him.

When his tuner rang.

The young guildmaster slumped over, a weary sigh escaping as he did so. "One day I'm gonna fall off the face of the planet only so I may know peace." He trudged over to the nightstand with Taika at his back.

The explosion was one thing; it got his heart racing and adrenaline pumping, while jolting him out of bed. This. This was something entirely different.

If there was ever a time in his life he'd answered the phone faster, it had yet to happen.

"Aura?!" He almost screamed into the receiver.

Immediately the three girls crowded around their Maestro, both to snoop at what the elusive sister had to say, but also to keep the boy calm.

"Hey Shouri, have you seen mom or has she hit you up?" It was his sister's voice alright.

"Where the hell have you been? Are you okay?" Shouri asked.

"Yeah, I've been around, I'm fine--we're fine. Just seeing if Mom's reached out."

Shouri's fears were assuaged, only for a moment. He let out a silent breath before answering. "One of my guild members said he ran into her the other day. What's going on?"

"Where at?" she asked.

"Dalliva, at that building dad owns."

"Ah, she's so cheeky. Okay thanks."

"What's going on? Where have you been?"

"Hold on--What's that Chiara? Dames is what--? Oh shit, okay, be right over. Love you bro, bye!"

"Wait! Aura!"

He stared at the flashing call timer, indicating the call's conclusion. His vacant expression reflected off the screen as the tuner went back to sleep.

Taika and the others backed off from Shouri, looking at one another with a mixture of confusion and concern.

WHAM CRACK

Their attention was drawn towards their trembling Maestro; his fist having gone straight through the drywall. He stumbled backward, still shaking with a whirlwind of emotions coursing through him.

"FUCK!"

"It's not broken, we can heal it with a moderato," Taika advised her Maestro as she examined his hand.

He sat in their solitary desk chair, with his healer knelt before him with her medical supplies by her side. His head whipped away a scowl still painting his face. "I don't deserve it," he grumbled.

Rebecca had enough and grabbed her Maestro by the scruff of his shirt.

SMACK

And then her hand whipped across his face. "Stop this pity shit. I am NOT going through this again," snarled the Renard.

Pacifica pulled the feisty Resonator off their Maestro. "Rebby, enough."

"I don't want to hear that from you," the fire fox growled.

"Rebby, zitto," Taika returned the fire fox's vitriol with some of her own.

Rebecca huffed and refused to look at the others. "Hurting yourself isn't gonna do you any good. Put that brain to use bossman, I know you're better than this." She held herself tightly. "I don't like when you hurt yourself," she added, quieter.

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Pacifica and Taika both nodded in agreement with their fellow Resonator's sentiments.

With a resigned sigh, he finally gave into their implicit request. "La Bella Vita, Moderato Tutti."

Taika grabbed his injured hand with one of hers and placed her free one on his reddened cheek. It took mere seconds for his pain to be chased away under the scrutiny of the healing light.

"Sorry," Shouri mumbled.

"The words are 'thank you'," replied Taika, gently rubbing his cheek and squeezing his previously injured hand tightly.

Shouri leaned into her hand, allowing his eyes to close. "It's hard," he whispered.

"I know," she said.

"Thank you."

"I guess it's a good thing nothing stops capitalism, even the start of the New Year," Shouri grumbled as they pulled into the sparsely populated parking lot of their local Rezo Repo. There were a couple of handy men and women wandering around with various supplies (or lists of supplies).

Shouri and his merry band of fixer uppers made their way in as well. "What do we need again Taika?"

"We have the paint already, so we just need a patch kit." she replied.

"They make those?" questioned Shouri.

"Si! People put holes in their walls all the time!" Taika beamed, her tail wagging.

Rebecca and Pacifica shared a glance and a short nod, lagging behind to make some distance between them and Taika. The fire fox pulled her water counterpart down and cupped a hand over her ear. "Really want to know how the fuck she's so good at this," whispered Rebecca as quietly as she could.

Pacifica could only offer a nod back before the two lagging Resonators ran to catch up with Taika and Shouri.

The inexperienced trio allowed their handy woman to lead the charge as she ignored the shopping baskets and carts by the front door to delve deep into the store.

Taika continued her forward march, eventually pivoting into aisle twenty three. By the time Shouri, Pacifica, and Rebecca turned the corner, Taika already had what they needed.

"Okay, we can go," she said.

"That's it?" Shouri asked, inspecting what the vixen carried. Sure enough, it was a drywall patch kit, just as the prophecy foretold.

"How much is it?" Pacifica wondered.

"Fifteen notes. Like I said, people put holes in their walls all the time." She pointed to the pictures on the front which showed the two-step process.

Shouri offered his other Resonators with a shrug. "We leave it to her, I guess." The two could only nod back in agreement.

The uninformed of the quartet watched their fourth work. It was as simple as she had made it out. She pushed the hanging fragments of the once proud drywall into the hole before giving it a light dusting. Then she plucked the patch from the packaging and applied it, using the provided plastic knife to push it down further. The next step was using the provided solution in the tiny bucket which was a putty known as spackling paste.

She hummed to herself as she spread it thin over the wall and patch, slowly causing it to blend with the wall.

Given the exciting part of the project was over (for now), Shouri, Pacifica, and Rebecca wandered away. Taika too found other things to occupy her time in the intervening time.

It was allowed to dry for an hour before setting applying a second coat of the spackle. After the second layer had sufficiently dried, Taika returned to the project, using the provided sand paper to smooth out the roughness. Finally, she drew the paint they had used previously and finished the job with a clean coat of paint.

"Molto meglio," beamed the vixen, her tail wagging at a job well done.

"Taika," Rebecca started. Pacifica tried to stop her, but was too late. "How do you know all this stuff?" the fire vixen asked directly.

Shouri whipped his head over from where he was seated. Pacifica stopped dead cold, only managing to have grabbed Rebecca's shoulders.

Rebecca stared wide eyed, realizing only now what she had done.

But just as quickly as it had started, Taika smiled. "It was my job before I met Sho, no big deal."

She looked to her hands covered in paint, spackle, and drywall dust. The vixen frowned. "I should take a shower," she said before quickly excusing herself to the bathroom.

The click of the bathroom door closing finally broke the trio from their spell.

"Uh…I… didn't think it was that bad," Rebecca shakily admitted. "I'm such an idiot." She shook as she spoke.

"It's okay, you didn't know." Pacifica rubbed her fellow Resonator's back.

Shouri huffed and looked back to his work, though his expression was clouded. In that moment, it was as if the three of them had been sucked into the darkness in Taika's heart. It was a strange, horrifying feeling, and the three of them knew one thing--whatever happened to her she wasn't just repressing it, she was actively fighting it every waking moment.

"What the hell happened to you?" Shouri whispered to himself.