"That night started unlike any other and by the end of it, our lives had changed forever."

Evening began to set on Riva Solare, but it didn’t mean the town went to sleep. No, it simply meant the corporate foot traffic waned into those of Maestros and their Resonators.

“Aura! Move your butt!” Damian barked from the bottom of the steps.

“I’m comin’ hold yer horses!” the woman snapped back, descending the central staircase

“We got the kids with us today, gotta get there early.” He motioned to Shouri and Taika who both frowned and shot him a sidelong glance.

It had been a month to the day since Taika began her journey as Shouri’s Resonator, and it all had been building up to this day.

Aura stood before the impatiently waiting trio. She turned to Shouri and Taika with an almost prideful grin. “You two good?”

“As we’ll ever be,” Shouri sighed. He was nervous, but they had prepped as much as they could.

Taika nodded. “Yeah.” The Resonator shared her Maestro’s sentiments but also wanted to tear the bandage off already and get into some real combat.

“Let’s get this gravy train rollin’ then.” The eldest smirked.

And with that declaration, they were off. For Aura and Damian, this was their nine-to-five. It was so routine it bordered on monotony. For Shouri and Taika however, this was to be their trial by fire. They would get to learn what being a “hunter” really meant.

The trip to the local hunter base camp wasn’t too terrible. A short jaunt to the location in question to get the blood flowing. They knew they were reaching their destination when they noticed the foot traffic thicken. There were many other Resonators and Maestros about. Lots of water elementals with their striking blues, but there was also a healthy number of earths just in case.

The site of the hunts in question was more along the lines of a dispatch station. There were many booths and tents scattered around, almost like a fair in size and organization.

“This area’s been thick with it lately,” Aura told the newbies, who were taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the practical festival before them.

The sister smiled warmly in her brother’s direction. A month of just straight training got their current spells to a usable level. She felt comfortable enough with their progress to take them out into real battle. “Come on you two.” Waving them towards one of the lines, they waited to see what they would be assigned.

After what felt like ages it was finally their turn. “Tuner,” the man occupying the booth said. Shouri considered that request for a moment before handing the device over. With the practice of a tenured employee, he quickly waved it over a scanner on his laptop computer. “Ah, a Lunar healer. Now that’s a rare combo,” he noted. “Wait.” The name of the Maestro seemed familiar.

Glancing up, his eyes met Aura. “Heyyyyy Jake!” The woman waved.

“I knew I recognized that name! Aura you bitch why didn’t you tell me you were bringing your brother?” the man said with a laugh.

“Eh, you know me, spur of the moment,” the woman laughed back.

“Well, let me get them supporting y'all. I’m sure Dames will appreciate a healer for once, ya fuckin’ slave driver.”

Damian nudged his Maestro, smirking as if to say “I told you so.” Aura just rolled her eyes in response.

“Alright, I got y’all taking vanguard tonight. When you’re in support roles like healing, you get paid per support spell, but also if you pick off some Scherzando in the process it pays better than the damage dealers. Just don’t spread yourself too thin,” he told Shouri.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” The newbie Maestro nodded. It was a lot to take in, but as long as Aura and the others were there it’d be fine and they could make money.

Finally freed from the bureaucratic part of the process, Aura took the lead once more:

“We’re starting in like an hour, let’s grab a bite to eat, my treat!”

While they were at the whims of Aura, there was a part of Shouri that appreciated this atmosphere. It was chaotically organized. It was a weird mix, but it was nice. Everyone was here to do a job, but there was a lot of casual conversation amongst the various Maestros and their Resonators.

Taika even seemed to be enjoying the ambiance, her tail wagging as she took in all the visual stimuli.

And in a refreshing change of pace, nobody was giving her the stink eye. Everyone was just too wrapped up in their own little worlds to notice the small fox-girl.

Aura naturally picked the food stall where they’d get their pre-work snack from. “The chick that’s running this is like a famous chef, her stuff’s crazy good.” Aura pointed at the woman running the stand with her trio of Resonators.

“Who is she?” Shouri asked.

“Solana Leduc, I think her name was?” Aura put a finger to her lips in thought. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it.”

Shouri had heard that name before. “Oh, yeah, the Leduc family is supposed to be like super chefs. I believe she is their heiress.” He watched the woman in question work. Her long ginger hair swayed almost hypnotically as she moved about. Despite how hard she and her three Resonators worked, they were all wearing big grins, laughing and joking. There was a certain radiance the trio exuded that Shouri couldn’t help but be jealous of.

“One Maestro can have multiple Resonators,” Shouri noted on a breath.

“Well, sure. There’s no rule saying you can’t.” Aura shrugged. “It’s just about how much rhythm you can give them.”

“Don’t spread yourself too thin,” Shouri repeated the advice from earlier.

“Right, most people agree three is the most that one Maestro can handle.”

Taika didn’t know how she felt about that. She wanted to be Shouri’s exclusive Resonator, but in the same respect, if something happened to her there would be no one to protect him. It troubled her ever so slightly.

Before they realized it, their turn to order came up. “Oh.” Solana seemed to take a keen interest in Shouri however. “You’re a new face.” She leaned on the counter. Her eyes drifted to Taika, who the chef took more interest in. “Oh, baby you have beautiful eyes,” she remarked. Taika blushed and hid more behind her Maestro.

“What do you two want? It’s on me,” the chef offered with a toothy grin, motioning to the chalkboard next to her detailing their rather diverse menu.

Shouri looked to Taika who was overloaded by a combination of the menu and still reeling from the compliment. “O-order for me,” she squeaked.

“We’ll just do a couple of those Savory hand pies,” Shouri decided with a chuckle.

“Good choice!” The woman turned back to her crew. “Vivi, two hand pies!”

“On it Lana!” a fire Resonator in the back shouted.

“See? If Mom and Dad picked your Resonator you wouldn’t have gotten free food,” Aura teased.

“Oh, hush.” Shouri rolled his eyes but smirked all the same.

With food out of the way, the quartet made their way toward their assignment for the evening. Shouri and Taika remained quiet, allowing Aura to lead the way.

“Fuoco Fatuo, Tenuto.” With Aura’s command, Damian created a small ball of fire at a snap of his fingers. The little fireball followed them, providing light to the deep dark depths of the forest (though Shouri and Taika needed no such light).

“So here’s the deal,” Aura began as they made their way through the winding woods. “There’s a few people already taking care of the stragglers, but what we’re here to do is take out the Scherzando that start appearing at about 10 PM,” the woman imparted on the newbies. “They get real feisty around midnight 1 AM or so. We’re usually done by two for the clean-up dudes to handle.”

“Why do they specifically appear at night? I never got that,” Taika commented.

“The current theory is they’re attracted to negative emotions, which tend to flare up at night in melopomorphs,” Shouri told his Resonator. Taika nodded slowly, recalling her own nightmares. “With modern cities getting as big as they are it’s all but mandatory that there’s a fighting force available to deal with them, otherwise we’d be overrun,” he added.

“Thankfully between Maestros already living in town and those that travel the world, there’s plenty of people willing to lend a hand – of course for the right price,” Aura chimed in.

By this point in the conversation, they had made their way to a source of light pollution amid the wilds – the scene of tonight’s festivities. As promised, there were already a small number of Maestros and their Resonators gathered, idly chatting by firelight.

“Oi Aura and Damian are here!” one of the gathered Maestros shouted.

Shouri shot a sidelong glance at his sister. “Bit of a local legend?” he questioned.

“You could say that.” The woman patted her brother’s back before leading them to the front.

“Who’s your friend?” One of the regulars asked, eyeing up the newcomer.

“My brother. So if you don’t want an ass-kicking, you’ll leave him be and let him do his job.” Aura threatened jokingly.

“Maybe I’m into that,” the other Maestro snarked back.

“I’d have Dames do the honors hun.”

“Eugh, never mind.”

And with that, they were allowed to take the front. “Is it always like this?” Shouri asked. “Pretty much. We try to let travelers get their fair share, but there’s usually a core group of us that handle this area,” the tenured Maestro informed her greenhorn brother.

Aura snapped her fingers with a sudden realization. “We can make this easy tonight. What level is your detection spell at?”

“Lento, it’s the easiest to use,” Shouri replied.

“Oh sweet, doesn’t it get a bonus at max rank?”

“Yeah, she can detect hostility, so it should work on Scherzando.”

“Gotcha.” Aura turned to the rest. “Alright fuckers!” she shouted. “We got ourselves a rare treat tonight: that detection spell at Lento!” she informed the group. There was some muttering amongst the masses. “Get in close, we’ll be able to clean house pretty quick!”

The other Maestros gathered around and all had their tuners out. Shouri looked around seeing the device in many other colors besides the black and red variations he was used to. They all had a map of the surrounding area. “Sync with my brother’s map,” she instructed, motioning to Shouri who quickly pulled out his tuner and scrambled to find the application they were using. There was some muttering about the tuner color he was holding, but paid it no mind.

“Alright Shouri, have her do it.”

“Right, Taika, Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento.”

The sole Lunar Resonator on-site closed her eyes. She first detected all the gathered Maestros and Resonators, then started feeling hostility outside of their group. Little bunches of it all around them. There was so much it was almost baffling.

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But it validated them coming out here. There were so many little groups, but together it was almost an army’s worth of beasts.

The tuner beeped, marking Shouri’s map with where all of their quarry was hiding. Since the Maestros taking point here were all synchronizing their maps with his, they all gained this invaluable info.

“Oh, this is sweet.”

“This is way easier than what we usually do.”

“Need to get Lunars out here more often.”

“Well, we got Aura’s brother for that now.”

“Let’s get moving!”

The group seemed pretty excited about the success of the spell, which put Shouri and Taika at ease. There were good people in the world it seemed.

“I’m keeping them by my side, but text me if you want the map updated,” Aura told the group.

And with that, they broke off. “What do you all normally do without having a lunar?” Shouri inquired as he and Taika followed Aura and Damian.

“Usually make a big commotion and attract them to us,” the fire Resonator spoke up.

“That works?” Taika asked.

“For the most part. It gets kinda rough for a bit if a bunch swarm us, but we can usually handle it,” the Doberman told his fox counterpart.

They came up to their first battle of the night, a trio of quadrupedal canine-shaped shadows with moss and leaves seemingly growing off of them.

Taika gulped. She had never seen a Scherzando in person before, and frankly, they were kind of terrifying. Her rhythm raced with a deep, primordial fear as soon as she laid eyes upon their forms. They looked innocuous enough, even in their shadowy guises she could sense their element like any other Resonator. These three quadrupeds radiated a foresty kind of feel.

That aside, the most horrifying thing about them was how they were absolutely silent. No matter how much they pranced about or even made motions that one would expect to make some kind of sound, she heard nothing. Not even the dead leaves and branches they pranced on generated noise. They were dead quiet; they didn't even breathe. She had always read in stories how scary Scherzando could be - their ruthlessness, their bloodlust, and it was plain to see why. They could easily get the jump on her even with her excellent hearing. That being said, her heart raced with a strange excitement.

Damian stepped forward, the Doberman sizing up their adversaries. After a moment he snorted in amusement. “Natures? It feels like we’re bullying them.”

“It’s us or them dear, just focus,” Aura reminded her Resonator.

“Yeah yeah. Rather use Shouri as a GPS battery and not for heals.” The fire element focused on the targets before them. The Scherzando noticed the Resonator before them and took combative poses. Despite barred fangs from their shadowy, featureless forms they continued to remain completely tacet - where one expected snarling there was only the sound of the wind through the trees.

Aura was as calm as Shouri expected of a veteran like herself, raising her tuner and holding it level with her chest. “Anello di Fuoco, Tenuto!”

With that command, Damian thrust out his hand igniting a ring of fire around the Scherzando, encircling them within a blaze of their elemental weakness. They were as good as toast from one simple action. Aura smirked, shooting a glance to her brother. “Wanna take one out?” she offered. The male Maestro looked to his Resonator, who nodded.

Taika stepped forward. “Luce Lunare, Piano!” Shouri commanded. The lunar Resonator created the ball of lunar energy and whipped it at the trapped Scherzando with an impressive force, not only wiping out all three but dispelling the fires that trapped them.

Damian whistled, impressed.

Aura ruffled her brother’s hair. “I said one, not all three,” she teased him. He just laughed, keeping his eyes on Taika, who was staring at her own hands in awe at what she was able to accomplish.

“Let’s keep going, the night is young!”

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

“I can’t wait to hit the hay,” Shouri sighed as they walked home. The night had been lucrative on many fronts, but mainly from the perspective of his pocketbook. He smiled at the money that now graced his wallet app. Money that was earned by his and Taika’s efforts; money that wasn’t touchable by his parents. It was nice.

“You two ended up doing way more than I originally intended, but it was a good experience.” Aura patted her brother’s back. There was a tinge of pride in her heart, but she had to give him and Taika all the credit. They had worked hard to raise themselves to this level. “You got a new spell, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah. I think it’s the smokescreen one,” he noted, flashing the spell list to his sister.

Luce Lunare

Pianissimo - Piano

Rilevare l'intenzione

Presto - Allegro - Moderato - Adagio – Lento

Nuvola Oscura (New!)

Presto (New!)

La Bella Vita

Presto – Allegro – Moderato (New!)

Magifiamma

Legato

“The upgrade to our heal is nice too,” the Maestro added. Spells just seemed to get stronger from actual usage instead of repeated useless castings. Though all of the practice Taika put into throwing her spells came in handy – she didn’t miss a single attack all night.

Finally arriving home, the two pairs parted ways. Shouri and Taika made their way towards their bedrooms. “Did you have fun tonight Taika?” the Maestro asked.

“Si!” the vixen beamed. “It was nice.” She smiled warmly. They came to a stop in front of Shouri’s room. Taika grabbed Shouri’s hands and held them tightly. He gulped. “Thank you so much for being my Maestro.”

“I-it’s no problem...” he replied sheepishly, averting his gaze. “Come on, let’s get to sleep.” As had become a habit over the last month, he pulled her into his room.

“Ah, don’t feel like changing.” Shouri yawned while he removed his jacket. Depositing their tuner on his nightstand, he crawled into bed.

“Fair.” Taika caught her Maestro’s yawn, flicking her jacket off. She made her way into bed with him.

They huddled under the blanket together, with Taika drawing close. It had been such a wonderful night, neither minded just skipping the pretense. The lunar Resonator could almost cry from how happy she was at this moment; nestled in her Maestro’s embrace after an honest night’s work. She was just about to fall fast asleep when suddenly-

SLAM

The bedroom door was violently forced open. The pair sat up in fright and was then subsequently blinded by the lights being flicked on. “Shouri Tomoshibi!” his father’s voice boomed. Their blood ran cold hearing that voice. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

Shouri winced, still rubbing his eyes from the unexpected light. His vision finally cleared, though what he saw made him pull Taika close to him.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Taika whispered.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he whispered back, reaching back for their tuner.

At the door was not only his father but his mother and a couple of the Resonators they kept staffed for security. None of them appeared pleased at what they saw.

“You’re sleeping with her?!” his mother exclaimed, the surprise in her voice on full display.

Shouri immediately took exception, throwing the blanket off of himself and Taika. “You have a problem with that?” he asked, getting out of bed with Taika. He was careful to keep the bed between them and the aggressors at the door.

“It was one thing to let it into this house, but no son of mine will be a filthy animal fucker,” the father growled.

It was Shouri’s turn to be disgusted at what he was hearing. “What the hell is your problem?!” Shouri barked, kicking his jacket up into his hand.

Taika followed suit with her own jacket, nearly ill and trembling from what was happening. The only thing that kept her from totally breaking down was that Shouri had grabbed her hand, interlinking his fingers with hers and gripping tightly.

“Shouri, what is your problem?! What ideas has she put in your head?” his mother nearly shrieked. Shouri’s expression calmed.

“So that’s it?” He chuckled hollowly. Despite how even his demeanor had become, there was a wildfire in his heart, a bright blue wildfire. “I thought you’d give me more time to be honest.” Taika turned her gaze to her Maestro, confused as to what he was saying right now.

Releasing her hand, he brought their tuner up. The two security Resonators stepped in front of their employers, ready to fight.

“Nuvola Oscura, Presto!” he suddenly shouted, while pivoting on the ball of his foot. Taika just moved, letting out a thick black smoke from her free hand, which instantly filled the room. While their vision was obscured, he threw the window open. “Come on Taika!” He grabbed his Resonator’s hand and pulled her up onto the windowsill.

“Don’t you dare! I will disown you!” his father bellowed, though such a threat fell on deaf ears.

“W-wait, Sho we’re on the second-”

“Trust me!”

Out the window they went.

While plummeting towards the bushes below, a command pierced the night air: “La Bella Vita, Rubato!”

They hit the bushes hard, and both of their bodies were immediately racked with pain. Through the protests of her damaged body, Taika healed herself and then Shouri, relieving them from suffering the effects of their fall. “Come on let’s go let’s go!”

Scrambling out of the bushes, they ran as fast as their legs would carry them, ignoring the pain rapidly building from their lack of foot coverings. “YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO GET AWAY WITH THIS?! YOU’RE DEAD TO ME!”

Neither escapee looked back, nor spoke a word, they just ran and ran and ran. Through the front gates they fled unimpeded and onto the streets, though staying in the city wasn’t an option. For this they trekked north, eventually leaving the city behind for the woods that surrounded their town. It wasn't long before all traces of civilization dried up as the run further intensified in pain and difficulty. Regardless, they sped along. They weren’t sure how long or far they ran ignoring the pain, ignoring their emotions, ignoring any thoughts of possible pursuers. It came to a violent end when Shouri’s legs finally gave out in the middle of the woods they had run into.

The boy fell like a rock, hitting the ground hard, and rolling to a stop. Taika tried to pivot back around to help her Maestro, but the last vestiges of her strength betrayed her and she ended up on the ground. They both just lay there, finally breaking into a loud cry from the excruciating pain and frustration they were in.