August 8th began how most days usually did for Shouri Tomoshibi, waking up surrounded by his friends. Rebecca and Pacifica were whispering amongst themselves, but Shouri was still groggy and couldn’t quite make out what the two girls were chatting about.

Taika was the last one to return to consciousness as always. Given that she was forced to wear those rhythm-suppressing robes even to bed, she woke the past couple of mornings coated in a lovely layer of sweat. They were thick and more suited for a colder environment such as a mountain trail and not a temperature-controlled cave world.

While Pacifica took two to three showers a day, Taika wasn’t used to such a rigorous cleaning routine and was growing weary of it. In the same respect though, she hated feeling dirty and used every opportunity to clean herself if she sensed it.

“Mmmrpgh…” Speaking of, the lunar fox herself joined her friends in the waking world, irritated by the state of her body post-sleep. “Mrrrpgh,” she grunted again in annoyance.

“Shower?” Pacifica asked hopefully.

“Me first,” Taika grumbled.

“Fine,” Pacifica mumbled, taking compensation in the form of more cuddles with Shouri.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Shouri asked.

“No,” replied the three girls in tandem.

Taika and Pacifica took their respective showers, after which the group made their way down to the kitchen. They had no way of knowing when Nina and/or Talys would return, so they were running on the assumption that it would be up to their group to make meals until the twins showed up again.

As usual, their trek through the temple was a lonely one. Sarayul rarely left his chamber, the quartet had discovered. It was certainly a surprise when he had made the effort to meander over to their sleeping quarters yesterday evening to beg for dinner.

“I thought Ethereals didn’t need to eat,” Shouri mused to himself.

“Hm?” Rebecca looked up from the pan she was attending to on the stove.

“Sarayul took the time to come to our room last night and have us make him dinner, but it’s not like he can starve to death,” the Maestro pointed out.

“Oh yeah, they are immortal, aren’t they?” the fire Resonator looked around the impressive kitchen.

“Why the heck do they need all of this?” questioned the fox.

“Good fucking question,” Shouri grumbled, glancing down at a tuner displaying the breakfast recipes this morning.

Shouri reprised his role as manager of the chaos, and in doing so, there was enough breakfast to go around.

“Why six plates?” Taika wondered, raising a brow at the additional plate of food.

“Vienna is still here as far as I’m aware,” Shouri replied simply. For this answer, he earned a few looks and snorts of indignation from the girls. It was no wonder, Vienna was doing a stellar job in alienating herself from his group.

Not his problem. “You all dig in, I’ll take care of these,” Shouri took up the two plates not designated to his group and left the kitchen to deliver the goods.

He happened to pass by Vienna in the hallway. “Here,” he said, handing off the food to her. She accepted the meal but made no verbal reply and the two went their separate ways.

Sarayul was where he usually was, sitting in front of his television. Shouri approached without a waver in his step. He stood behind the Ethereal for a moment, watching what was playing on the TV. It was a Lyberteran morning talk show.

“Eclipse’s new single ‘Gonna Make You Magnetic’ is topping the music charts this week.”

“It’s no surprise really, Mandalynn being not only a chart-topping musician but the Resonator of Grand Master Steve makes her a double threat in both the battle and musical worlds.”

“I wonder what this sassy little vixen can’t do!”

Shouri cleared his throat.

“You could have just left the plate there,” Sarayul spoke, keeping his gaze fixed on the screen.

“Fair enough I guess,” Shouri said, his eyes resting on the sensitive ears adorning the nine-tailed fox’s head.

The Maestro did as instructed and left the plate behind the Ethereal, though he stole a glance at the television once again. A sample of the song the talk show hosts were talking about playing in the background

“Ooh - storms

I feel metallic

Magnetic

And I'm dancing because you're kinetic”

“Metallic, metallic boy

Now I can't find the tempest without you.

You don't wanna be stuck indoors quaking.

And when you're gone I feel processive”

“Magnetic

Will you hold me tight and not go shivering

Not go shivering

I just wanna be part of your metals”

Shouri wasn’t one to listen to music on the regular, but he could certainly appreciate the choreography on display. A lilac-haired vixen danced as she sang, her outfit loud, idolic. It spoke to how she wanted to be perceived – one who craved the eyes of the audience.

With that in mind, it was unsurprising that she ended up as the Resonator of a Grand Master. As people who are on the top of the battling world, they can have any Resonator they want. Getting oneself an idol pop star as your Resonator must be easy for you if your credentials are that of a Grand Master.

Either way, Mandalynn looked happy enough as she sang. As strange as it was, he could sense her heart through just the sample of the song she sang. Her heart was heavy, yet…

“Bright as a sunny day,” Sarayul spoke up, snapping Shouri out of his thoughts. “She would have made an excellent general,” he mused.

“You think so?” Shouri braved asking.

“Of course. An army whose heart is moved crushes one whose is not,” the Ethereal waxed poetic.

Shouri considered those words. “I see,” he mumbled. With the breakfast delivered, he didn’t feel any further need to hang around and took his leave.

“I don’t have to explain that to you, though,” Sarayul chuckled once the Maestro was out of earshot.

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Taika stood in the training hall once more, her gaze cast ceiling-ward as she studied the target hanging defiantly above her. She prepared her bead, ready for another day of training her ad-Lib.

“What in the stars do you think you’re doing?” Sarayul’s voice hit Taika suddenly, eliciting a flinch and a ruffle of her tail fur.

“Training?” she offered, attempting to calm her now racing heart.

“Child, do you not know what today is?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe to the hall.

“Uhhh, Saturday?” she guessed.

“Well, no, it’s Wednesday, but besides that,” he allowed her another guess.

“I dunno,” the fox-girl frowned.

“It’s Lunar Hero’s Day,” he replied.

Taika blinked. She turned back towards the target, attempting to resume her training. Before she could, however, the bead flew from her hand and into Sarayul’s.

“Daft child, go spend the day with your Maestro,” he scolded her, shaking his head. To doubly ensure she’d listen, the target was torn from the ceiling and flew into his grasp. “I mean it,” spoke the Ethereal as he walked away.

“You’re the one that told me to train,” huffed the vixen. However, Shouri’s itchy curiosity did get the better of her. She recalled Dr. Miya had told her before that a healing fox was the Lunar Hero’s partner. Perhaps she could learn more about that while she had a day to idle around with her beloved Maestro.

With a sigh, she focused on her bond with him. Given her rhythm-deprived state, her body was naturally craving rhythm. She had noticed her rhythmic sense was much sharper than usual. Perhaps for greedy reasons such as filling the void left by the constant strain on her rhythm network.

She wouldn’t complain about having a clearer idea of where Shouri was at all times. He wasn’t too far from her; though, she also felt the lines that connected her to Pacifica and Rebecca just as strongly. Had those always been there? Either way, she was easily able to track Shouri down. She found him wandering the hallways, irritated as always.

“What’s wrong, Sho?” Taika spoke up, snapping the boy from his thoughts.

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“Sarayul locked the storage room, so I can’t make any more beads today,” he grumbled.

Taika couldn’t help but smile. They both shared similar sentiments regarding their forced day off. “Me too,” she told him.

“So what do you want to do today?” asked the Maestro.

“Well, I kinda wanted to know about the Lunar Hero,” she admitted.

Shouri hummed in thought, furrowing his brow. He didn’t know much about the enigmatic seventh hero himself. As with most other topics regarding Luna or the lunar element, information was sparse and or avoided altogether on Riterra. He recalled in school they glossed over the Lunar Hero’s involvement summing up their involvement as “they sure were there, probably”.

“I wonder…” he stroked his chin. “Come on,” he waved Taika along to follow.

The pair walked around the temple for some time, poking their heads into various rooms. What they discovered was there were quite a few bedrooms like their own. Way too many for the number of people that visited this place.

Finally, they found the place Shouri was looking for.

“Woah…” Taika gasped as they stepped in.

Huge shelves greeted their vision and stacked neatly on their many rows were books. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. It smelled of old wood (perhaps a little bit of a mildewy scent), with a hint of vanilla?

What information could the library of an Ethereal possibly hold?

There was only one way to find out.

Both book nerds stepped in, eyes filled with wonder. Taika grabbed Shouri’s hand, not wanting to be apart from him despite her raging curiosity trying to get the better of her. While Shouri was in pursuit of academic affairs, the romantic in Taika wondered if there were books of her preferred genre in these hallowed halls.

Either way, they were about to learn, one way or another.

The pair made their way up and down the rows, the spines advertising their information in languages long lost to the Riterran people. Unfortunately, Shouri discovered that Cunei’s grace didn’t extend to the written word, as Taika could not decipher the titles of the tomes contained within the library.

“That’s weird,” Taika furrowed her brow while holding a book.

“What’s that?” Shouri asked.

“These books feel… like they have rhythm…” she trailed off, her gaze rising to meet Shouri’s.

“Rhythm script!” they exclaimed in tandem.

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“Come on! I want to see you sweat!” Rebecca barked, flying backward with her flaming heels propelling her along.

Pacifica was running as fast as she could manage, sweat pouring from all over, and her jaw locked as tight as she could will it to.

“And that’s five minutes, break!”

The otter immediately collapsed on herself, rolling across the grass in a heap.

Shouri and Taika watched the whole spectacle unfold from the sidelines. “Uhhh, are we interrupting something?” the Maestro of the group raised a brow.

Rebecca glanced at the unmoving otter for a moment. “No,” decided the fox. “What’s up, Sho?” she asked.

“No, I want this explained first,” he demanded, pointing at the exhausted water element.

“Endurance training.” Rebecca looked Shouri up and down. “You could probably use it too,” she muttered.

“I’ll pass for now,” he decided that pressing Rebecca any further was a good way to end up like Pacifica. “Just don’t hurt her,” came the advisory.

“We’re done for the day, actually. Varying the training methods is good for the mind and body. Can’t just do one type of exercise all the time, not how you build flexible muscles.” Rebecca nodded.

“Is that how you trained?” Taika asked, taking her turn at pointing to the body formerly known as Pacifica.

Rebecca shook her head. “Hell no, but we did do rhythm versions of this style of training,” the fire element chuckled.

Pacifica extended her arms out as if presenting an object to Rebecca (while remaining face-down in the dirt).

The fire fox chuckled. “No need to get crass, Paci.”

“Huh?” Taika raised a brow, not getting it.

“Holding your hands out like this-” Shouri presented his hands to Taika, palms up as if holding an invisible object between them. “-is a pose Sahji takes in a lot of his depictions.”

“It’s like you’re saying ‘I hope Sahji finds you’,” Rebecca said with a titter.

“Or put another way: ‘fuck you’,” Shouri couldn’t help but laugh as he spoke as well.

Though they were having a good laugh at the exhausted otter’s expense, Shouri did kneel down and help the fallen girl up (ignoring the fact that she was soaked head to toe in sweat.) “Come on you, let’s get you in the bath.”

“Yaaaayyy…” Pacifica droned.

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With Pacifica suitably soothed in her sauna, Shouri and his pair of vixens could discuss more academic matters.

“So, we found Sarayul’s library,” Shouri began.

“But all the books have rhythm in them!” Taika added.

Rebecca raised a brow, pondering the significance of that for a moment. “Wait, rhythm script?” she asked, recalling she could read it.

“We think so, but we wanted you to check for us,” Shouri finally spoke of their request.

The fire Resonator nodded eagerly. “Yeah, I mean the wonder twins taught us some crazy stuff about the summon spell, so maybe there’s more cool tricks like that in his books,” said Rebecca.

Shouri hadn’t been made privy to what Pacifica and Rebecca’s training exactly was. All he knew was after the first day the two had suddenly shifted focus to training Pacifica’s endurance. He trusted them enough not to pry – they were their own people after all. They’d let him know the updates to their overall strategy whenever they finished whatever it was they were up to.

“Let’s hit the books then,” he finally spoke.

The trio left after letting Pacifica know where they’d be for the afternoon. (Not that they’d be able to get her out of her well-earned bathtime.)

They arrived back at the library, just the same as Shouri and Taika had left it. Upon clearing the perimeter of the chamber, Rebecca shuddered.

“Oh wow,” the fire fox breathed out.

“A lot?” Shouri guessed.

“A lot a lot,” confirmed the fox with a nod.

“Can you find us a book on the Lunar Hero?” Taika requested.

“Why?” asked Rebecca.

“Well, today’s Lunar Hero’s Day and the Lunar Hero’s Resonator was like me,” the lunar fox said quietly.

Rebecca nodded slowly. She didn’t know much about the topic herself. Anything about lunar Resonators, heroes or not, just wasn’t taught on Riterra, public or otherwise. “Let’s see what we can find then,” she said while motioning for her companions to follow.

Into the sea of books they delved, Rebecca walking with a shorter gait than usual. “It’s harder to read these titles than normal Maelish,” she told them. The fire element squinted as she scanned the shelves. “Gotta focus a lot more on reading rhythm,” she added.

Shouri nodded slowly, keeping any commentary to himself. He figured it must require quite a bit of concentration to even skim the many titles surrounding them. In his opinion, reading rhythm script was a fascinating skill that he wished he could learn, in the same respect he couldn’t be sure how useful it could be in the modern era (if it was even learnable in the first place).

“Let’s try this one,” Rebecca’s voice drew Shouri out of his mind palace. She pulled down a particularly old book (even by this library’s standards).

“What’s it say?” Taika asked, her tail swishing excitedly behind her.

“It’s called ‘Tales After Resonation’, I remember Sho said before that lunar magic only appeared after those Rabbits showed up on Riterra,” she explained.

“Surprised you remember all that,” Shouri said.

“Of course, I remember everything you say,” Rebecca boasted proudly.

Shouri just stared with an amused smirk on his face.

Rebecca’s grew redder and redder the longer his gaze was fixated on her. “I said what I said! Do you want me to read this book or not!?” she barked.

“Yes yes,” chuckled the Maestro, patting his fiery vixen on the head.