July 4th, 2018

Wednesday began not with a bang but a whimper.

“I dun wanna go, l wanna stay in bed,” Pacifica whined, clinging to Taika.

“Mweeeh, mi stai schiacciando…” the lunar Resonator weakly protested as she was slowly being smothered by the larger otter girl.

“Sho lemee just sleep.” Rebecca claimed Shouri, lying atop and clinging to him.

Shouri lay there, groggily glaring at the ceiling. He didn’t want to go either, but also…

“CECIL! CECIL!”

Vince’s anguished cries after Cecil’s untimely demise rang in his head. Feroce, the strange phenomenon that corrupts innocent Resonators, he had to see what he could do to help stop it.

“There’s nothing you could have done!”

Or at the very least he would do what he could to help, to ease the suffering of others; no matter the cost to himself.

Taking in a breath, he held it for a moment before speaking. “Girls we gotta get up,” he spoke firmly.

With that declaration, the unwilling Resonators began to slime off the bed and shamble to get ready for the day.

Pacifica got ready the fastest and sat at the foot of the bed next to Shouri. She slumped onto his shoulder while he read the news. He extended the claimed arm up and stroked the back of her head.

“Sleep well?” he inquired, keeping his eyes on the tuner in his opposite hand.

“Mmmrgh, not enough,” she cooed, nuzzling up against him further. The otter could sense the pairs of angry eyes locked on her from other parts of the room, but she cared not.

“We’re ready,” Rebecca said, standing in front of her Maestro and fellow Resonator. Taika joined the group in front of the bed.

Shouri rose to his feet, with Pacifica slumping behind him. “Well, let’s get this over with,” he said begrudgingly.

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The trip down to the college was peaceful (for once). Just a short walk down to the train station and they were ferried off to the campus by the time it opened for classes.

However, the peace of this quiet morning didn’t last long. Taika tugged on Shouri’s sleeve as they made their way into the building. “Sho, ho fame.” She chirped.

“You’re always hungry,” Rebecca commented.

“We didn’t eat breakfast,” Taika pointed out.

“Just deal with it,” the fire fox grumbled.

“Non! Sto morendo di fame!” the hungry fox complained louder.

“You’re not that hungry, stop being a drama queen,” came the dismissal and eye roll from Rebecca.

“Girls please, break it up.” Pacifica inserted herself between the two catty foxes, pushing them apart. “It’s rude,” she whispered, motioning around them.

Outside of their little spat, the hallways were quiet, professors and students alike shambling along to their classrooms, waiting for that first hit of caffeine to take effect.

Shouri meanwhile was glaring between his tuner and the piece of paper he had been provided the day prior. Glancing up at one of the nearby room numbers revealed they were near room 118.

“Hrmmm…” he hummed in irritation. “Let’s go find an elevator,” the Maestro decided.

Without waiting for a response from the rest of his traveling party, he picked up the pace and located an elevator by a small group who was huddled nearby. Their quartet joined the waiting group and waited for the descent of the cabin in question. The door opened a minute or so later allowing the group to shuffle in.

It was cramped and warm, and there were some disapproving grunts most certainly directed towards Shouri’s group. It was too early to deal with that, and as such the foreign quartet ignored the annoyance of these total strangers.

The elevator stopped on the second and third floors, allowing the cramped space to thin out. Finally, they reached the fourth floor and-

“God damn it!” Shouri complained loudly as they stood in front of room 180.

“What room do we need to go to?” Pacifica asked, rubbing Shouri’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him.

“448! Instead of the fourth floor, we need to find the fourth fucking building! Uuuuuuggh!” He cared not for the peace he was disturbing with his whining.

“Ho fame,” Taika whimpered.

“Not the time,” Rebecca muttered back.

Ruffling his hair in frustration he let loose another growl of anger before finally slumping his shoulders, allowing his arms to fall to his sides. Just as fast as the fire of fury had begun in the young man, it burnt out, leaving him just plain tired. “Let’s go,” he sighed in defeat, dragging his feet towards the nearby stairwell.

The descent back to the first floor was quiet, though Pacifica could sense how emotionally exhausted her Maestro was, even at eight in the morning. As soon as they hit the ground floor, she took hold of his hand, forcing her rhythm into him. He let out a sharp exhale through his nostrils and gripped her back tightly.

Back out in the courtyard, there was no signage or any directions one could follow to differentiate one building from another. “I hate this place. I hate this place.” Shouri spoke repeatedly under his breath. Pacifica felt her digits pop from how tight her hand was being crushed. For the sake of her finger bones, she had to get them on the right track fast. Thankfully there were plenty of hapless passersby’s who hopefully knew the lay of the land.

“Hey!” Pacifica called out to a random student.

“Huh?” They stopped for the Resonator

“Can you point us to building four please?” the otter asked, with a slightly strained smile.

A brow was raised at the odd group. Three Resonators and a Maestro, of whom the otter was speaking on behalf of the Maestro? Probably a service Resonator, the student figured. “Uh yeah, it’s over there.” They pointed the otter and her Maestro to the furthest building from their current location.

Before the student knew it, the otter girl was pulling her Maestro away with the other two Resonators following. “Thanks!!” Pacifica at least remembered her manners at the last moment.

Building four architecturally was constructed similarly to the first building they had entered this morning. Same tile, same paint on the walls, same doors. Quite boring in all honesty.

Pacifica kept a healthy grip on Shouri’s hand, though now she was using his rhythm to help reason out where they needed to go. “We’re in the right building now. Look.” With her free hand, she pointed out the room numbers.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

405

407

409

“Now all we gotta do is find wherever this 448 is,” Rebecca said.

“Let’s try the elevator again,” Pacifica suggested.

[DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE PLEASE USE STAIRS]

The four young adults stared at the sign taped between the two segments of the elevator door. Shouri reached out with his non-ottered hand and pressed the button anyways. Nothing happened.

Press

Press

Press

“Sho it’s down,” Pacifica quietly spoke up, brows turned up with worry.

The young Maestro hung his head in defeat. “I need a drink.”

Slowly they made their way up the nearby stairwell, ascending four flights of stairs in hopes of finally reaching their destination.

“Here we go.”

Finally, after many trials and tribulations, they had arrived at room 448. It looked as plain as every other room. Before Pacifica could even knock, the door swung open. “Hello!” the red-haired Maestro they had been dreading answered the door.

“Oh! It’s you all,” Colette gasped, not expecting Shouri and his Resonators. “Are you here for the um… invite?” she inquired.

Shouri reached into his jacket pocket and drew out the paper he had been given the day prior.

Colette accepted it and gave it a once over. “Yeah, this is me alright. Come on.” She waved them in.

The room itself was a pretty typical classroom set-up. Not a big auditorium or anything like that. Not what any of them expected from a college room. Even stranger was how Colette and her Resonator were the only ones in the room.

Speaking of, Colette’s Resonator, Kaira, was in the back of the room, a book propped up in front of her whilst she was folding some paper. Every so often she took her paper craft in one hand and used her now freed hand to turn the page of her book.

“Since you had this invite you must know why you’re here,” Colette started.

“Feroce Phenomenon. We have some quality that can help fix it?” Shouri questioned.

Colette hummed in thought for a moment. “Probably. If Dr.Vim’s assistants appraised you as such you can probably reverse the Feroce process,” the woman mused aloud.

Rebecca now sought to sate a curiosity. “Who are those 'assistants' of his anyways?” the Resonator inquired.

A shrug was the response Rebecca received. “Dunno. They have highly unusual rhythm is all I know.” Colette frowned hard.

“Noise.”

The room turned to the back corner. Kaira had said that, but her nose was still in her book and origami. Colette nodded slowly. “Right. Kaira described their rhythm to be akin to something like gibberish or computer noise. Noise is was what we decided on given how hard it is to differentiate from the background rhythm.”

“Has she heard them talk to each other?” Taika questioned, looking to Rebecca, who nodded in agreement with that question.

Colette opened her mouth to speak, but Kaira spoke up again: “Yes. It’s the reason we decided to call it Noise.” And back to silence the woman went.

Her Maestro smiled. “I trust Kaira’s sense and judgment on that. She’s a Jackal from Kalanichi and has a strong rhythm sense,” Colette spoke with pride on that.

There was a moment of realization on Rebecca’s part, her eyes resting on the small satchel Kaira kept at her waist. “Aha…” the fire Resonator breathed out. “Was just curious about them,” she spoke up and gave up the talking stick for the moment.

“So why are we here? And what’s this quality thing?” Shouri inquired, steering the conversation back on track.

Colette took in a deep breath. “Okay, so do you know what a Feroce Resonator is?” she began.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Shouri shrank a bit, averting his gaze bitterly.

“Oh,” Kaira breathed out quietly, glancing up from her book. The boy’s three Resonators also appeared to sulk a bit at that question, the jackal noted to herself. They must have had a deeply personal experience with one, she reasoned out.

“Oh! Good! That expedites things!” The freight train known as Colette barreled through without regard for the other’s feelings (earning a small glare from Shouri in particular). “Our goal here is to cure afflicted Resonators of their condition. A cured Resonator gains immunity to the phenomenon after the fact, so we don’t have to worry about them relapsing and falling under the effects of the condition again,” the scholar explained.

The uninitiated looked between one another. There was something to be hopeful about after all.

“How do we heal them?” Pacifica asked the question on all her friends’ minds

“They simply need to work with Resonators and Maestros with a particular etude type, the stronger the better,” Colette told them. “If you could, form a circle and hold hands,” she instructed, offering both of her hands out.

No one made a move to accept the offer. Pacifica decided to just get this over with and grabbed Shouri’s hand as well as Colette’s. Taika took Shouri’s other free hand, and Rebecca was left with Colette and Taika.

Circle formed, the Rhythm major gave the next set of instructions: “Focus on your hands and the person next to you. Envision us as a cable and send your rhythm down it in a circle, clockwise.” Her voice was gentle, much more soothing than her usual fast-talking excitement they knew her for. Her eyes were closed for a moment, then they opened wide.

“Oh!” She suddenly released Pacifica and Rebecca’s hands, breaking the circle. “That… was a lot,” she muttered.

“What’s the problem?” Shouri raised a brow.

Colette opened her mouth for a second before closing it again, frowning as she sought the right words. Taking in a breath, she spoke her mind. “Rhythm flows so naturally through you all. It hit me on both sides much faster than I was expecting.”

Shouri and his Resonators exchanged glances. “So we pass?” he asked.

“Yeah, you can help.” Colette pulled her brown tuner from the band of her skirt. “If you still want to help with curing Resonators of Feroce, we can start as early as tonight,” the woman said, rapidly tapping through something on her tuner. “As part of this program, you will get a bonus on top of your normal hunter stipends,” she explained.

Turning the screen over to show Shouri, his eyes widened. If he wasn’t already convinced to help the cause, the money sealed the deal.