“Are you sure you’re alright Shouri?” Emily asked.

“No, I’m fucking exhausted!” Shouri groaned. “I get attacked and then get grilled by the police about it!”

“They kept us for like twenty minutes tops, chill bossman.” Rebecca rubbed the shoulder closest to her.

“Twenty minutes of my life I’ll never get back!” he countered.

After dealing with the goons (and the local authorities) they met Emily in her room at the Wenja MA office. Like Shouri, she had only gotten back into the city that day.

Taika leaned against her Maestro, her hair partially white. “That took a lot of rhythm to do,” she sighed, nuzzling her head against his shoulder. Her cluster of beads sat in her lap, having lost the invisible bonds that held together their necklace form.

“We coulda taken them,” Rebecca said, frowning at the two next to her.

“Were lightning spells always that slow?” Pacifica continued to wonder, staring at her hands.

“I know, but I also didn’t expect them to go down so easily,” Shouri sighed. “Wasn’t even a challenge,” he complained.

“You really love the wish sage don’cha?” asked Ritika, who reclined on their rented bed in the MA office.

Shouri shot a small glare at the cat. “Fuck that guy,” he grumbled.

The group shared a laugh.

“So, when is Klein getting here?” asked Shouri. “Been trying to ignore the group chat all day.”

“Tomorrow night. We’re supposed to meet at the Sotirio Hotel downtown,” Emily informed him.

Shouri rolled his eyes. “Of course, he can’t stay in an MA Office with the rest of us peasants.”

“Someone’s spicy today,” Emily said with a giggle.

“Can you fucking blame me? Get off the bus and my dad’s hired goons attacked me!” shouted Shouri.

“I mean, the video is already online. Didn’t look like you had much trouble,” Albarich pointed out, waving his tuner, where the video of said battle played on.

Emily took a peek at the video. “Oh, that’s cool! How did you get Luce Lunare to do that?” she asked, noting the sudden appearances of the spell taking out the four Resonators in rapid succession.

Shouri looked to Taika, who opened her eyes when she felt her Maestro’s gaze on her. With a flick of her finger, five of her hundred-plus beads flew up into the air and began rotating around in a circle. “These are connected to my scale, if I force some of my rhythm through it, I can pass cast spells through the beads like an extension of my body,” she explained.

The room went silent.

“Oh, I want that one,” Albarich finally spoke up. “Remote casting sounds sick as fuck.”

The beads fell back into Taika’s pile. “It takes so much rhythm to do though,” she sighed, taking possession of Shouri’s arm and hugging it tightly.

“As far as we’ve tested, she needs a ton of concentration to pull it off. If they had just focused on attacking her then she’d have to fight normally,” Shouri added.

“That’s where we come in,” Rebecca boasted with a grin.

“Rebby gets in their face, and I dodge forever and annoy them,” Pacifica chimed in, carrying a similar pride to her fiery teammate.

“It’s so tiring though,” complained Taika.

Shouri smiled, chuckling as he used his free hand to stroke the girl’s hair. She giggled and rubbed her face against his arm, pleased with the affection.

“Hunters are scary,” Emily sighed.

“Yeah…” Ritika said.

After dwelling on that thought for a moment, Shouri rose, Taika begrudgingly joining him. Rebecca and Pacifica also got to their feet.

“So we’ll meet up tomorrow with Mister Klein and talk strategy?” Shouri suggested.

“Sounds good. We’ll probably stay in tonight,” Emily agreed.

“Have a good night, Ems.”

“Night Shouri!”

With that Shouri and his trio made their way back to the front desk and got themselves a room proper. It was all so rehearsed and normal that the trio of Resonators relaxed and didn’t think anything was amiss.

That was until they entered the illustrious room twenty-three, Shouri stayed by the door, eliciting concern in the trio of Resonators.

“Sho?” Taika braved. She felt a massive tug on her rhythm – what was Shouri about to say?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He exhaled sharply. “Hey, I need to come clean with something,” he spoke low, reaching into his jacket pocket. His hand remained firmly hidden, however, against his will. The trio of girls could see him straining to reveal whatever was lurking within the confines of his pocket.

“Don’t be a brat about this,” he growled.

Taika realized something was there stopping him. Even if it couldn’t be seen, she could help him. She closed her eyes and within her mind extended her rhythm out, attempting to grab whatever was preventing her Maestro from retrieving the object he had hidden.

However-

“Ah!” Taika’s eyes suddenly bolted open, her telekinetic hand easily swatted away by an unknown force.

“Taika? What’s wrong?” Pacifica asked.

“Really strong rhythm… next to Sho,” said the psychic fox, pointing to his left, where he was still struggling.

Rebecca’s heels blazed to life, burning brightly. “Alright, whoever is fucking with my Maestro, cut it out or-”

SPLASH

A ball of water slammed into Rebecca’s feet, not only extinguishing her flames but sweeping her to the ground.

“Rebby?!” Pacifica yelped. “What the heck is going on?”

“Vienna, cut it out!” In the momentary distraction, Shouri took his hand back, a clear tuner in his grasp.

The three girls stared at the tuner in his hand.

“Vienna?” asked Taika.

“Why do you have another Maestro’s tuner?” Pacifica raised a brow but had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn’t like the answer.

“Because-” began an all too familiar voice. “-I can’t trust him with you,” slowly fading into view was the woman from the temple, the girl who constantly antagonized them, Vienna.

However, unlike when she was at the temple where she lacked any Resonator features, this woman sported a long, brown, feathery tail which she held high and proud behind her.

“Girls, this is Vienna, the last Lyrebird,” Shouri properly introduced her.

Taika, Pacifica, and Rebecca glared at their counterpart, who was more than happy to return the favor.

“What do you mean you can’t trust us?” Taika asked.

“What even is a lyrebird?” questioned Pacifica.

Vienna scoffed and shrugged. “It’s pretty simple: you’re not strong. Not strong enough to handle what’s ahead.”

“What do you know?” Rebecca challenged.

The lyrebird went to dismiss the questions of the three hostile Resonators, however, Shouri cut in.

“I think it’s about time you owe all of us an explanation,” Shouri said. He looked to his trio and took a breath. “Vienna is the one who saved me from Whistler, first from the plane they had me on, and again when she jumped me and Miro in Alspo,” he told them.

His gaze drifted back to the null element. “And she knows a lot more about this whole situation. Like for example that I was kidnapped specifically to be experimented on.”

The revelation earned tense silence.

“Let’s hear her out,” Pacifica suggested. “Sho hasn’t lied to us once about this, and I can sense… he doesn’t trust her either.”

“To be fair, she did force this tuner on me,” Shouri chimed in. “Not exactly the best basis for a relationship, platonic or otherwise,” he added as an aside.

All eyes returned to Vienna, who remained at best indignant about the situation.

With a dramatic sigh, the wingless bird spoke. “Ilea Vim is a monster in human skin, simply put,” she began. The null element paused, considering her words before continuing. “Maybe a better word is he’s a machine?” She shook her head. “Either way, he’s a rhythm researcher who focuses on potential.”

“Potential?” Taika asked, furrowing her brows.

“He’s already figured out how to maximize the potential of a Maestro’s body, you might have noticed it the few times you’ve been near him,” Vienna told them.

“Oh!” Pacifica exclaimed. “His emotions didn’t feel genuine, they felt entirely like an elaborate performance!”

“That goes for all three of his staves, they all can be manipulated by him. Rhythm is a plaything to Ilea,” Vienna continued.

Shouri hummed in thought, stroking his chin while he did so. “And how do you know all of this?” he questioned the Lyrebird.

“Simple, my father works for him.”