“Your child has Discordant Willpower.”

“What does that mean?”

“He’ll be reliant on etude if he wants to live a normal life.”

“For how long?”

“Well it’s a deficiency in his rhythm, there’s no curing it – the only method of alleviating the symptoms is etude, preferably in a duet with a matching Resonator. He can live a perfectly normal life this way.”

“I disagree.”

“Excuse me?”

“My son doesn’t NEED a Resonator to live. I’m going to get a second opinion.”

What would his life have been if his parents weren’t so strict…?

“I want her.”

“Are you sure Shouri? She’s a lunar.”

“Yes! She’s really nice!”

“Can we take her home?”

“It’s a good thing we already have a pool, an otter like her must love swimming.”

“Swimming is so much fun!”

“She’s the one I want.”

“Oh, a fire fox. What a fine choice! She looks lovely.”

“I like how warm she is…”

They could have been together for so much longer than they had been. But it was all broken. Cold, alone, miserable. It was a terrible fate that had befallen all of them.

It was all over.

“Wake up.”

“Come on. I know you’re made of tougher stuff than that.”

“You were taken for a reason, now get up.”

…

Consciousness returned to Shouri Tomoshibi. Instantly he was assailed by stimuli and/or the lack thereof. For starters, he was in a seat of some kind. He had no motion of his hands or legs, as they were bound. He was also being deprived of his vision; some kind of cloth covering his eyes.

There was a significant weight around his neck, some kind of device binding it. Whatever it was also had an effect that was draining his rhythm. The image in his mind was of the device that was used on the kidnapper when he was finally apprehended by law enforcement. A miniature Ceoíche cage he surmised based on the sensation.

His head still pounded something fierce. On top of his rhythm being suppressed, he was still drained from the battle he had against Lyle. They had won pretty convincingly, but then it was foggy after that.

“You’re finally awake,” an unknown voice said.

“Wha-!?” A hand covered his mouth.

“Shhhhh… Quietly now.”

Heeding the stranger’s advice, he spoke quietly. “Who are you?” he whispered.

“A friend.”

“Not one I know,” Shouri snarked.

“That’s a fair point.”

There was a moment of silence. “So, are you going to help me?” said Shouri

“I was just taking a moment to appreciate you.”

Shouri didn’t know how to take that. Thankfully the enigmatic voice spoke up and broke the awkward pause. “Let me deal with this real quick.”

There was a jostling with the device around his neck and after a moment, his rhythm was freed. The rest of the restraints and blindfold however remained in place. “Are you going to undo the rest of these?” Shouri asked.

“Nope!” they responded cheerfully.

“You’re fucking with me,” Shouri grumbled.

“They didn’t bother putting any kind of detection on your rhythm. By all accounts, this should be an easy transport gig. In fact, Whistler and Vail aren’t even here.”

Shouri furrowed his brow. “Wait, those names-”

“Yes, they work for Ilea. But that’s a whole other story. First, we need to get out of here. If we make it back to Lyreann, you’re not getting out alive. Especially without a Resonator.”

And it was at that point that a familiar object was forced into his hand. A tuner.

“You’re a Resonator then?” was the obvious conclusion he reached.

“Of course,” their voice had pitched up a couple of octaves – they were excited. “Use me, Shouri.”

“I don’t even know where to begin.”

“We’ll start with something you’re familiar with: Luce Lunare en Forte please.”

Weighing his options there was a Lunar (or null) Resonator willing to help him, going as far as to give their tuner to him to accomplish the task. On the other hand, he knew very little about the situation. He couldn’t feel Taika or the others at all. Only this mystery Resonator.

They were strong-willed, he knew that. They had been offering themselves up on etude this entire time. Almost too readily.

And asking for a Forte spell right off the bat. He couldn’t confirm this Resonator could even handle that.

He didn’t have much of a choice though, not if he wanted to find out what was going on.

“Luce Lunare, Forte,” he called. The rhythm was pulled from his body and transmitted through the tuner, connecting him with the Resonator. It was all so transactional he didn’t feel much else.

“Ohohhh… that’s the ticket,” a pleasured gasp came from the Resonator. “I’ll be right back and you can give me more.”

That was unnerving. Especially because not even his Resonators reacted like that to normal spell craft. This Resonator was addicted to rhythm, that much was abundantly clear. Either way, he just had to put up with whoever this was long enough to get back to his Resonators. Wherever they were.

Shouri sat bound and blinded for some time. The passage of time was unknowable to him as he lacked the stimuli to inform it. He only became cognizant of his surroundings when his stomach suddenly sank and the distinct feeling of freefall overtook him.

“What the hell?!” he shouted.

“Alright, don’t panic!” the mystery voice had returned.

“What the hell is going on?!” Shouri screamed, the sensation of falling continuing.

“Turns out the pilots had explicit instructions to crash the plane should you get free, Anyway, we’re like seconds away from the ground.”

“WHAT?!”

“Just trust me and brace yourself!”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“FUCKING HOW!? I’M LITERALLY STRAPPED TO THIS CHAIR!”

And then he lost consciousness.

----------------------------------------

This was not the end of Shouri Tomoshibi.

Despite the insanity of the previous situation, Shouri woke up. And this time he could see. His hands and legs were unbound, but his head still pounded in protest. In the chaos of the collision, he had been thrown from his seat and now laid on the ground. Draped across his form was a body. Clad in black with a splash of blue adorning the sleeves, velvety black fox ears, and a tail dipped in white.

“Hey, wake up.” Shouri nudged the raven-clad girl atop of him.

“Sh-sho?” they asked.

“Don’t call me that,” he replied gruffly.

“Sho? What? It’s me, Taika.” She sat atop him, hurt and bewildered.

“You can drop the act; I know you’re not Taika.” Shouri glared this stranger down. “You may look like her, but I know Taika’s rhythm, and you’re not her.”

“Taika” smirked, making a face wholly unlike the girl Shouri had grown accustomed to. “You really are a rhythm master. Not many people can unmask me so effortlessly,” though they dropped the act, they still spoke with Taika’s voice.

“You’re the Resonator who helped me.” Shouri looked around the wreckage of the plane that surrounded them. “Though help is a relative term I suppose,” he mumbled.

They giggled and grinned. “Yep, that’s me. You can call me Vii,” she introduced herself (and finally decided to get off of Shouri.)

“Vii?”

“Yeah, like the old-world numeral for seven,” she added almost with a boast.

At least this Vii character was friendly enough. He was free now and could assess the situation. “Where’s your tuner?” Shouri asked. His first order of business was getting in touch with any of his friends.

“Oh, let me find it, just sit tight.” Vii hopped up and began rummaging around the wreckage. Shouri didn’t argue with that, he was still exhausted and Vii was full of energy. He watched as she brought back a bunch of small odds and ends but not her tuner.

“Do you need help?” Shouri questioned after a little bit of this. It was getting quite hot, wherever they ended up had the sun beating down on them. Looking out the remnants of the window revealed dry grasses and spare shade – a savannah. Though it was getting late based on the orange hue the sky had taken.

“Nah! I found it!” Vii returned at that moment holding out a black tuner for him.

Something seemed off about the device. As soon as he accepted it, he tested his theory, thumbing down the red control button. His eyes went wide. It was hollow. The button did nothing.

“It’s a counterfeit.” His heart sank instantly. The control button being fake was one thing, he didn’t care about that. In fact, that made him respect the false device even more. No, the problem was…

“This thing has no service.” He hung his head.

“Nope, not at all.” Vii plopped down next to the Maestro.

“Fuck.” He buried his head into his knees. “I’m so screwed,” he cursed.

“Wow, ye of little faith.” Vii rolled her eyes.

The two remained there in the wreckage of the plane silently for some time. Vii finally spoke up. “We need to get going,” she asserted.

“Why?” Shouri mumbled. “If we stay here, we’ll have a chance of being found,” he pointed out, shifting his gaze to the Taika-like figure.

Vii hopped to her feet. “Yeah, and that’s the issue. Remember what I said? If they brought you back to Lyreann, you were as good as dead,” she reminded him. “This plane’s black box has a transponder. They know it crashed, and they’re most likely on the way right this second.” She began gathering the things she had picked out from around the plane.

Shouri looked up to find a hand being offered to him. Vii, wearing Taika’s image, made his heart ache for the genuine article. “Come on,” she urged.

He did not attempt to accept the outstretched hand. “Where are we even going?” Shouri questioned wearily.

“When they find you’re not here, they’re going to try to track you down.” Her hand remained outstretched as she spoke. “We need time to recuperate, neither of us are in a state to fight off Vail and Whistler,” Vii stated calmly.

“Let’s clear something up here.” Shouri continued to refuse the outstretched hand. “Vail and Whistler, they’re Ilea Vim’s assistants, right?” he asked.

Vii withdrew her hand for the moment. “Something like that.” She shrugged.

“And they’re after me?” Shouri questioned.

“Yep. You’re too good at curing Feroce,” she stated.

“So why don’t they just ask? Why go through this elaborate kidnapping? In broad daylight mind you,” Shouri pointed out.

Vii chuckled and shrugged. “Obviously they want a cadaver to study.”

That silenced Shouri. That was insane. Ilea had so many eyes on him; Grand Masters even. Then again, the attack was so precise he never actually saw who had attacked them, but someone did. At the moment, Vii was the only source of information he had regarding this whole situation. She might have been lying to him. His gaze shifted to the nearby crack in the fuselage where he could see the surrounding savanna.

Right now she was all he had, and if she was tricking him, he’d have to use her more intelligently than she could deceive him.

“So now what?” He pushed himself up to his feet under his own strength.

“Simple: if they’re going to check human settlements we don’t go to a human settlement.”

Shouri’s eyes widened at the implication. “You mean-?”

“Subterris isn’t far from here. We’ll vanish underground, into a Natural settlement.”