Three pairs of eyes locked onto this newcomer, this stranger. Long flowing brunette hair, clad in a brown jacket and pants with a yellow top under that and a red sash wrapped around her waist with a white tuner clipped to it.

Brown eyes scanned the couch, spotting the three girls surrounding the boy. “You have Resonators?” she questioned.

Shouri remained quiet, still in shock. Taika reached over and grabbed her Maestro’s hand, focusing herself on him. With that shot of willpower, he was thawed from his frozen state. “Yeah. I do,” he still spoke in a hushed tone.

The farmer who had hired these two Maestros slid away quietly; he must have recognized the tension in the air, or maybe not.

Lina lit up. “That’s great Shouri! I’m super happy for you!” The girl beamed. “You remember Effy right?” She stepped aside to let her own Resonator in.

The trio of Resonator girls stared at their counterpart. He was a canine-type Resonator similar to Taika and Rebecca, however, his canid features were sharper and larger than his counterparts. He had silverish grey hair and stood well above anyone in the room, even taller than that dog Resonator they had initially encountered when first arriving here.

Though where Effy and that dog differed was in build – Effy was on the thinner side, but only because he had more muscle tone to him, not an ounce of fat to be found. Otherwise, he was dressed kind of plainly, dark greys and tans made up most of his attire, consisting of a simple jacket and pants combo.

“Shouri.” The Resonator nodded.

“Efigenios.” The Maestro nodded back.

Silence once more.

The farmer returned with two chairs for the additional guests and the lady of the house presented the two new guests with their own bowls of food.

“Eat up!” she demanded, similarly to Shouri and company.

“It looks wonderful! Thanks so much!” Lina clapped her hands together, plopping down directly across from Shouri.

Taika quickly polished off her food so her hands could be free for Shouri. Ever since his eyes met Lina, she could feel a significant pull on her rhythm – he did not want to be here, his very soul was screaming to run away.

This was going to be a long night.

“It’s really good Effy! Try it!” Lina urged her Resonator.

He slowly took a small sip of it. “So it is.” He allowed himself a thin smile.

With her Resonator sipping away, the woman studied the three Resonator girls across from her. “Oh, how rude of me! I’m Jorgelina, but my friends call me Lina!” she addressed them directly. She waited for Efigenios to introduce himself, but he just glared at her with a mouthful of food.

“This is Efigenios, but nobody calls him that, call him Effy.” Lina laughed loudly, patting her Resonator’s back (and causing him to choke on his food).

“I’m Taika.”

“Pacifica, nice to meetcha!”

“Rebecca.”

Lina smiled warmly at all their introductions, as short as they were. Her attention shifted back to the Maestro of the trio. “You really have three Resonators though? Color me surprised,” she noted.

“Shit happens.” Shouri kept his gaze firmly away from Lina. Taika squeezed his hand tighter, and he squeezed back, which earned a small smile from the fox.

“Lunar, Fire, Water. You have wonderful Resonators.”

Pacifica could feel how genuine this girl was with her words. Just a ball of sunshine. Made sense though, considering the Resonator she kept in her company was a solar element.

The otter bit the bullet and decided to sate a curiosity. Given the situation with Shouri and Mila (and to a lesser extent Amika), she knew he wouldn’t be forthcoming with information about his past.

“So Lina-” Pacifica began, “-how do you know our Maestro?” she asked.

Lina seemed almost caught off guard by that question. Her gaze shifted to the other Maestro in the room. “Ah. Shouri you shy boy,” she teased him with a coy smirk, causing him to curl up a bit (and straining poor Taika’s rhythm further).

The brunette sat up straight before addressing Pacifica’s question: “I’m his childhood friend!” she declared proudly.

“You seem to have a lot of those,” Taika muttered in Shouri’s direction.

“Why are they all women?” Rebecca mumbled quietly, also shooting a glance at their Maestro.

“We go way back,” Lina added. “Though-” She paused. Her tone had notably deflated, as she cast her now melancholic gaze towards Shouri. “-we did kinda lose touch after we got out of school.”

Effy set his bowl down. “Been about three years now,” he chimed in.

Pacifica could feel it from down the couch – more of his past haunting him; though in this case it was now in his face and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“Shouri’s always been like that though! I’m used to it.” Lina laughed heartily, right back to 100% sunshine. “Nobody else saw the real him. He’s quite the charmer when he wants to be,” she continued before taking up a spoonful of stew.

“Still is apparently,” Effy mumbled under his breath, leaning back in his chair.

“Why are you here?” Shouri asked.

Lina frowned, mimicking her own Resonator in posture. “We’ve been out here for a couple of years. ‘mika begged me to come with her to Canolapra while she works on her degree.” She shrugged. “Didn’t have anything better to do, and these farms are wicked good money when we need some.”

“What about you?”

Shouri briefly considered how much he was willing to divulge. “Got disowned,” he started, earning a small gasp from Lina. “Picked up these two along the way.” He motioned to Pacifica and Rebecca. “Now we’re here.” And left it at that.

“Sounds like you’ve had a heck of a time,” Lina commented.

“They don’t tell you how easy it is to almost die out here,” Shouri spoke quietly.

“Oh stop it.”

“I’m serious Lina.”

Silence. Shouri glared at Lina, who returned it with a concerned frown.

“I get it,” she spoke quieter. “Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. You had nothing to do with any of it.”

Another round of silence.

Before things could get any more awkward, the employer of these two Maestros returned. “Now that y'all are here and fed I suppose I should properly introduce myself and tell y'all what yer doing here tonight.”

“Yes, that would be wonderful,” Lina spoke up, thankful for the reprieve from the heavy atmosphere.

“Name’s Sebastian and I’ve run this farm here for thirty years now. Old dog out in the barn is Liam, he’s basically your daytime counterpart, but he’ll also pop up in the fields while you’re working. Don’t mind him, he’s just married to the job.”

“So what exactly are we dealing with Mr. Sebastian?” Pacifica inquired.

“We get a lot of burrowing-type Scherzando here. They like digging holes and eating the crops. Think they’re bein’ cute. Problem is, when you go to stop them, they start bitin’ somethin’ fierce.”

“Any tips on dealing with them?” Rebecca asked.

“Well, that girl there is water.” He motioned to Pacifica. “You can flush out their burrows real good with that.” The farmer noticed the little rhythm fox on Rebecca’s lap. “Seen a couple of people use that spell there to help flush 'em out too, though be careful about lighting my crops on fire, it’ll come out of your bonus.”

“Noted,” Rebecca said quietly.

“Hmm, Effy’s wind spells should work well too.” Lina nodded. “What do you think Shouri?” She looked to him for confirmation.

His line of sight was firmly away from the other Maestro, but he still addressed her verbally. “It should work. If they’re not damaged, they’ll be shot out of the ground. Taika has the best spell accuracy out of our group, and she has Rilevare l'intenzione at Lento, so finding them should be quick and easy,” he stated as evenly as possible.

Lina regarded the lunar fox with awe. “Lento rank? Good job girl!” the brunette beamed.

Taika flinched at the praise. “Gr-grazie…” she squeaked.

“Well, it sounds like y'all have a plan on how to deal with them. I’ll leave you to it. If you have any trouble, find Liam. That old dog will see you off once you’re done,” Sebastian advised the group.

With that, the group was left to fend for themselves.

The group trudged out of the home, towards the endless lines of corn. Taika looked back to the little farmhouse as they walked towards the fields. The lights were slowly flicked off, only the porch light remaining lit. “Early,” she noted.

“Hm?” Shouri turned his head to the lunar-fox.

“They’re going to bed,” she pointed out.

“As far as I know farmers get up pretty early,” he offered.

“Makes sense.”

The six-strong group gathered just before the ocean of corn started, huddled around Rebecca’s rhythm fox who sat in the center, scratching its ear with its back paw.

“Dang, it’s so dark out here,” Pacifica noted.

“Less light pollution when we’re away from the city,” Lina added.

“So how are we doing this?” Effy asked.

“We can start with this.” Shouri drew Taika’s black tuner from his side. “Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento.”

Taika closed her eyes, gently placing her outstretched index and middle fingers on her right temple. She felt a pulse radiate from her form, identifying her allies and then washing through the landscape.

Once her scan was done, her eyes slowly opened. “There’s a lot out there.”

Shouri was already reviewing the data on his tuner. “Damn, but it looks like they’re gathered together in little groups, so hopefully it shouldn’t take us that long,” the Maestro noted, flicking around the map. “Check your map app, it should be updated with the results of Taika’s spell,” he told his counterpart.

Lina scrambled to pull her tuner from her side to verify. “Thanks,” she added. Sure enough, as Shouri had said, her map now had little red dots signaling where the Scherzando lay.

“I think our plan of attack should go something like this.” Shouri drew on his map, which also updated his counterpart’s.

“So from the corner out.” Lina tilted her head studying the lines drawn. “Like a zig-zag?” she questioned.

“Seems slow,” Efigenios noted.

“We’ve had a couple of hunts now end poorly from getting surrounded. Not going to let that happen again,” he replied gruffly.

Effy didn’t appreciate the tone but kept his mouth shut, though only at Lina’s non-verbal behest. “Well Shouri, let’s get started then,” the Maestro said with a grin.

The group migrated to the corner of the fields and carefully began to trudge through the many stalks of corn to find their first target. It was easy enough as they could see some stalks starting to vanish into the ground.

“Where’s the hole?” Rebecca questioned, mentally guiding her rhythm fox around to scan for the Scherzando burrow.

“EEEP!” Pacifica suddenly shrieked. Instinctively, Rebecca had the rhythm fox run to Pacifica to find out what happened. “F-found it,” the otter spoke sheepishly, pulling her foot out of a deep hole she had inadvertently stepped in.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Kinda small,” Shouri noted.

“Yeah, these guys are usually small fries, but there’s a lot of them,” Lina advised.

“Right right.” He considered his choice of Resonator for this first skirmish. “Taika,” he decided, opting for the tuner he already had in hand. The lunar vixen nodded, wearing a determined glare – nothing further needed to be said. However, there was the matter of how to get the beasts out of their burrow. An awkward glance was cast in Lina’s direction. “Could you…?”

“Of course! Let’s do it Effy!” The brunette pulled her white tuner from her side, ready to go.

“Luce Lunare, Rubato,” Shouri called out. Taika braced herself, already forming a ball of lunar energy in each hand.

“Rubato? You trust them that much huh?” Lina whispered to herself with a knowing smile, before focusing on her tuner. Effy knelt near the hole, as practiced as a professional.

“Raffica Discendente, Moderato!” the solar Maestro called out. A strong downdraft was directed into the hole with expert precision.

Rebecca noticed that the spell was so accurately cast, that the stalks of corn surrounding them didn’t move, despite how powerful the solar spell was. These two had done this before; many times before – that much was abundantly clear to the battle-trained fox.

And as planned, only a couple of seconds later, a cluster of small bodies flew out of another spot in the cornfield; which Taika sniped from the air using her own Luce Lunare spells.

Lina whistled. “Damn girl, you have a hell of an arm,” the Maestro praised.

Once more, Taika was caught off guard by a non-Shouri entity praising her. “Gr-grazie…”

“Sotto. Rilevare l'intenzione, Presto,” Shouri cast.

Repeating the detection spell once more, she felt only six presences in their immediate area. “We got ‘em all Sho.”

Shouri nodded. “Good. Let’s move on to the next one, over here.” He pointed in a seemingly random direction, though that was only because they were surrounded by corn stalks with no actual landmarks to differentiate where they were going.

“Can I try Shouri?” Rebecca asked as they located the second hole.

“Oh?” He turned his attention to the current keeper of the light source for the group.

“Okay, so I could make a bunch of foxes and send them into the hole,” she spoke with a certain eagerness that was endearing. So much so, that Shouri managed to crack a smile.

“Sure, that sounds like a plan.” He swapped to holding Rebecca’s tuner.

Lina and Effy watched on with great interest. Despite knowing Amika, who had a fire Resonator, they hadn’t seen the summon spell in action before.

“Famiglio Incendio, Presto Staccato – let’s start with five,” Shouri instructed.

“Righto!” Rebecca knelt and placed her hands on the ground. Five circles of red light surrounded her, and after a moment, her pack of rhythm beasts were six strong. The first one she summoned stayed by her side while the other five lined up in front of their master. “Alright troops! Your mission, should you accept it, is to invade the enemy camp and annihilate their forces.” The fire Resonator was way too excited about having her own personal army.

Pacifica tittered at how cute the whole performance was. Taika watched the small spectacle with indifference. And Shouri smiled warmly, happy Rebecca was having a good time.

“March!” the commanding fox-girl ordered. One by one, the little fire foxes jumped into the hole, until only the original summon remained on the surface. “Give ‘em hell!”

A minute or two passed, with the hole lighting up from the fire spells doing their work. Rebecca remained on her knees, excitedly overlooking the hole with her one little rhythm beast that stayed by her side. The light in the hole would die down, and with it, the fox-girl’s ears drooped. “Uhhh Sho, can I send reinforcements?” the fire Resonator quietly requested.

“Go ahead.” Shouri chuckled.

Another five rhythm beasts were formed and sent down into the trenches of underground warfare. “Maybe two more for good measure.” Without waiting for her Maestro’s approval, she created two more fire foxes and sent them down with their comrades.

After a tense couple of minutes, four foxes returned to the surface from the supplementary seven that were sent down, giving Rebecca a small pack of five rhythm beasts. “Has the enemy been destroyed?” One of the little foxes gave a nod.

Rebecca jumped to her feet in triumph. “Victory!” she declared joyously.

The red tuner in Shouri’s hand also beeped, indicating that the key spell responsible had unlocked a new level. “Well, that was fun. Let’s keep moving.”

The third hole of the night, and this time Pacifica spoke up, “Sho.”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna take a shot at flushing them out.”

“Sure.” His eyes wandered towards Lina.

Pacifica picked up on what Shouri was thinking, but hesitant to vocalize. The enabler that she was, she’d be his voice.

“Hey, Lina!” Pacifica called to the other Maestro.

“What’s up?”

“Can you have Effy pull sniper duty on them?”

Lina looked at her Resonator. “Effy?”

The wolf-boy shrugged. “Yeah yeah,” he acquiesced.

Taking their positions, Shouri pulled Pacifica’s blue tuner from his side. Before giving Pacifica his rhythm, however, he had an idea: “Rebecca, can you spread your foxes out so they have some good light,” Shouri suggested.

“Oh, good idea.” Rebecca motioned to her gaggle of rhythm beasts that crowded around her. Four of them took off into the fields, illuminating them for the non-lunars to be able to see.

“Thanks, Sho.” Pacifica smiled warmly. Her mental preparations completed, she knelt by the hole. “I’m ready.” The otter nodded.

“L'onda di tempesta, Accelerando,” Shouri ordered.

“Luce del Sole, Piano Staccato,” Lina commanded of her Resonator.

Effy’s hands began to glow with a white light, as he held a spell in each hand, ready to launch at a moment’s notice. Rebecca noticed the stance the wolf was in.

“Slashing,” she muttered.

“Hm?” Taika glanced over at her fellow fox.

“That stance he’s in, it’s one Slashing attribute Resonators use for spell casting. Kinda like the one you use when throwing your Luce Lunare,” Rebecca explained.

“Ohhh.” Taika was impressed by that bit of knowledge from the fire Resonator.

Pacifica meanwhile focused herself. She had a much narrower space to cast the spell in, and she didn’t want to damage the earth around them any more than the Scherzando had already done. Holding the spell in though was beginning to take its toll and she placed her hands on the inside edges of the burrow, focusing on exerting as much force as possible, while not just drilling through the earth.

A river of water burst from underneath her hands, violently blasting through the tunnel system the burrowing Scherzando had created. Sure enough, not a minute later, a fountain of water erupted from another part of the field, scattering the small Scherzando that had previously been underground.

Effy grunted as he swiped his arms back and forth, letting loose blades of light from his hands that easily sliced through the falling Scherzando like a knife through warm butter.

Rebecca and Taika clapped at the display. Efigenios ignored them (he didn’t notice his tail wagging).

The rest of the night went on in typical fashion with the group trading off who was evacuating Scherzando burrows and who was playing the role of sniper. The farm was massive, however, and it took them into the early hours of the morning to finish.

“What the fuck?” Shouri collapsed to the ground. He glared eastward, where the veil of night was starting to slowly give way to the might of the rising sun.

Pacifica sat down next to her Maestro, wiping some sweat from her brow. “Is it always like this?” She looked to the two who lived in the area.

“Usually.” Lina nodded.

“Yeah,” Effy added with a sharp exhale.

“You’re still here?” a gruff voice asked.

The exhausted group turned their attention to the owner of the seventh voice – it was the guard dog, Liam. As he was when they met him earlier, he was still just as intimidating in both size and demeanor. Though, Lina and Effy didn’t seem to regard his intense aura in any meaningful way.

“We were having such a good time that we lost track of it!” Lina giggled, as bright as the sun that was just about to rise.

“There was a lot tonight,” Efigenios observed.

Liam grunted, shifting his gaze towards the swaying crops nearby. “Can’t be everywhere at once,” he grumbled quietly. He sniffed the air, adjusting his jaw as he continued to observe the corn dancing in the breeze. “You did good tonight,” he added, his voice remaining low. “You can go.”

Pacifica and Rebecca shot a look at each other, sensing there was something more, but failed to find the courage to pry.

Weak-willed Shouri however didn’t need to be told twice; he got up and helped Pacifica to her feet. Dusting himself off, he turned and started walking away with his Resonators in tow.

Lina tilted her head, looking back at the stoic Liam, before running to follow Shouri. “Have a good one,” Effy said giving a short, parting nod to the large dog-man before following his Maestro.

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

“Shouriiiiii! Wait up!” Lina called out to the other Maestro.

Said Maestro flinched, stopping in place, but only to decide whether they could get away with another wacky chase.

Unfortunately for him, he spent too long considering it, allowing his pursuer to catch up.

“Whew! You’ve gotten faster since we were kids!” she wheezed, though still keeping her smile. Straightening out her back, she addressed her fellow Maestro. “That was a blast! It was so good hanging out with you again.” She was so pure and genuine with her words; it made Shouri almost a little ill.

“We should hang out again!”

And there it was, what he had been dreading she would suggest. “Amika and Leo want to see you too,” the solar Maestro added.

“I’m well aware of that,” he grumbled, crossing his arms and shrinking a bit. Pacifica and Taika both ended up placing a hand on their Maestro’s shoulder.

“We’d love to,” Pacifica spoke up.

“Can you give us some time though?” Taika asked.

“He’s been through a lot lately,” Rebecca chimed in.

Lina was taken aback by the three girls suddenly speaking up on behalf of their Maestro. The corners of her lips slowly rose. “Sure!” She exclaimed. “At your own pace.”

With that, Lina and Effy departed down the dusty road back to the hunter base camp.

“You okay Sho?” Pacifica surveyed her Maestro. He still held himself but slowly nodded.

“What’s your deal with her anyways?” Rebecca decided to just tear the bandage off this time.

He drew in a breath, hesitant to even say what was eating him up. Lying wasn’t an option – they were too good to him and didn’t deserve that. But he knew they were not going like what he was about to say.

“Lina… she’s technically still my girlfriend.”