Taika took in a deep breath and held it. She was a healer. That wasn’t just an extension of her magical capabilities – it was who she was. As much as she could fight, her real calling was to ease people’s suffering, to bring her order to the chaos of the universe. Her magic was an extension of her very soul.

And Shouri was counting on her. Her partner, the Maestro who chose her out of every other Resonator in the world, the one who approached her and said “You, I want you.”

Releasing her held breath, she opened her eyes. It was just her and Shouri, Rebecca having been sent back to the MA Office for the moment.

“Relax Taika, it’s fine.” Shouri smiled at her. “I trust you.”

That was the worst thing he could say, especially being as heartfelt as he was, it just made her swoon and lose focus. Though she’d snap back to reality when the doctor returned. Behind him was a nurse pushing a cart full of medical equipment, hopefully, they wouldn’t require it when she was through.

“Alright Shouri, are you ready?” the doctor asked.

“Don’t ask me, ask her.” He motioned to Taika.

The doctor scrutinized the lunar fox for a moment. She wore a determined gaze, nervous, but determined all the same. “Your etude is certainly strong. Only someone who thoroughly cares would be as nervous as she is.” He nodded, approving of the Resonator.

The doctor lowered Shouri’s bed, flattening it out so the Maestro was laid out as flat as possible. “Excuse me.” The doctor moved the boy’s gown up exposing his bandaged mid-section. “This might sting a little bit, but I’m going to remove your bandages. An etude expert like yourself must know rhythm passes most efficiently through direct touch,” they spoke slowly and gently.

Shouri simply held a thumbs up and the nurse accompanying the doctor got to work delicately removing the dressing over the patient’s wound. Taika’s resolve flickered upon seeing the true nature of what lurked underneath the bandages keeping her Maestro together, her heart raced with fear. How did he survive this!? It was such a big wound, making a line from the bottom of his rib cage down to his gut.

“First time?” The doctor remained calm in the face of the wound.

“I probably looked worse before they cleaned me up,” Shouri chuckled, trying not to put any more strain on the wound than needed.

“Most of the hard work has been done,” the doctor told Taika. “If we lived in a world without magic, he certainly could have died from this wound, it would have been impossible to stabilize him long enough to get him into surgery,” they advised her. “Even with the limits of your magic, do know you can still make miracles happen with the tools at your disposal.”

Taika nodded.

The nurse stepped around the bed and cleaned Taika and Shouri’s hands with disinfectant. “Take her hand,” the nurse instructed Shouri, who did as he was told. Next was the instructions for Taika. “Now rest your hand on the center of the wound, be careful not to apply any pressure, and let it sit naturally.”

With no hesitation, Taika gently laid her hand over her Maestro’s wound. “Excellent.” The doctor nodded. “Go ahead and cast La Bella Vita at Presto rank please, use the Staccato modifier,” they advised the Maestro.

“Got it.” Shouri paused, focusing on his rhythm and connection with Taika. “La Bella Vita, Rubato,” he cast in defiance of the instructions given.

“What?! Don’t!” the doctor shouted.

“Relax,” Shouri said as Taika’s hand began to glow with a warm light. “I trust her.”

Despite giving his healer full access to his rhythm, Shouri noted she was controlling it perfectly fine – his trust was not misplaced (not that he ever doubted his loyal fox for a moment).

Taika meanwhile focused on the task at hand, there was a reason they wanted to limit her output. Magic could heal too fast, at least in deep wounds like this is what she reasoned out. Her Maestros flow of knowledge-rich rhythm coursed through her network of rhythm making her thoughts crystal clear and focused.

A will she wanted to exert upon her healing: start deep, heal out from the furthest point of damage, ease the chaos away, and chase it from her Maestro’s core. That’s how she directed her magic to function, ease it out, gently, slowly, free him from his pain. Those are the thoughts that floated around in her head as she committed herself to the task.

Healing surface wounds didn’t require this much concentration. Shoot, she didn’t even need this much focus when Rebecca decided it would be funny to compress Andi’s face with her foot when they “sparred” three weeks ago.

This injury was the real deal. Shouri really… could have easily… died.

She felt her rhythm shift as the intrusive line of thinking shook her. No! She dismissed that dreadful thought away with a quick burst of her rhythm. Even if she was still getting over an ailment of her own, he needed her to be strong. He NEEDED her. She was NEEDED.

The vixen’s eyes opened, blue rhythm wildly raging behind her eyes, glowing with such firm conviction and ferocity that the doctor and nurse were robbed of speech.

A stubborn healer is a good healer.

BEEEEEEEP!

La Bella Vita

Presto – Allegro – Moderato – Adagio – Lento (New!)

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Healing is the slowest magic. Perhaps that is why the practice of medicine is so slow. No matter what part of the process they found themselves in, a patient is always subjected to waiting.

Waiting waiting waiting

And it’s not without its own stress, as Taika and Shouri knew full well. It was about eleven at night by this point, they sat in a little lobby just outside the Radiology Department of Lyreann General Hospital.

“What was that machine Sho?” Taika asked her Maestro finally able to sate a particular curiosity.

It was a strange set of affairs after she had completed her spell. They were taken to this other wing of the building and Shouri was laid on a flat surface in front of a machine that looked like a giant doughnut with a hole in the middle. The “doughnut” moved back and forth over Shouri. Taika recalled the noise, it was quite loud, with knocking and buzzing – she couldn’t imagine what it was like actually being in the room since she was with the technicians in a separate room observing the procedure. Occasionally they stopped the machine to look at some very confusing computer screens, dictate some instructions to Shouri, and begin the process anew.

It was all hopelessly confusing for the poor fox and she didn’t know what to make of it all. She just trusted these professionals knew what they were doing and would elucidate herself after the fact when she could speak with Shouri.

And speak he did: “That was a giant body scanner, an MRI I think it’s called. Uses some fancy technology to scan the inside of your body without having to tear you open.” His tone was far more upbeat than previously. In fact, it was the best he had felt in days. He held Taika’s hand that sat next to his, just giddy to be finally rid of the pain that had plagued him.

“Why did they need to do that? You said you feel fine right?” she questioned.

“I feel fantastic right now. But they want to make sure it was fully effective, especially since I’m rhythm burnt again,” the Maestro advised his curious Resonator. “They don’t want to send me off with a clean bill of health only to find out later we missed a spot and it cause complications.”

Taika nodded slowly. It made sense, they were just being super extra careful. She squeezed his hand, smiling warmly. That was something she could appreciate.

“As soon as we get out of here, I’m getting a triple burger. I’m going to eat my weight in food,” Shouri decided, mouth already watering at the prospect of real food.

“That drink stuff was really bad, wasn’t it?” Taika chuckled sheepishly (though she was totally down for a triple patty burger of her own).

“You have no idea.” The young Maestro shuddered recalling his new nemesis, the “health” smoothie.

It was about this time when the door to the lobby opened and one of the technicians walked out with Shouri’s attending physician. “You’re all set! Since you’re rhythm burned again I highly recommend you take it easy for the next few days. No dangerous work, just rest, preferably somewhere safe,” the doctor told the Maestro.

“We’ll be in the MA Office next door.” Shouri rose to his feet, Taika behind him like a shadow. “And after everything we’ve been through, I don’t think we’ll be going out into the field for a while,” Shouri chuckled, his hand unconsciously rubbing where his previous injury had been.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“We can leave?” Taika asked hopefully.

“Yeah, just gotta dart back upstairs to grab my clothes and we can head back to our room at the MA Office,” he replied, patting the vixen on the head.

“One more thing,” the doctor spoke up. He looked specifically to Taika. “You did excellent work in there – I’ve worked with my fair share of healers, and you have the right eyes for it.”

The healer in question was taken aback. It was rare for people not related to her in some way to praise her, much less an expert in the field of study she had just decided to take on. “Th-thank you.” She mulled over her words for a moment. “I know magic can’t fix everything though, so I want to learn medicine too,” she told the doctor.

Which earned her an appreciative smile. “That’s wonderful to hear. I wish you the best of luck.” One didn’t need to have a strong rhythmic sense or be a mind reader to feel the sincerity of those words.

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“Damn, he really did a number on this huh?” Shouri had put his pants back on, but the shirt was another story. Holding it up, Taika got to see the extent of the damage. There was a huge hole in the front of it. Thankfully Zino didn’t go all the way through the young Maestro, meaning the back was perfectly fine.

“This was reinforced to withstand pretty significant damage from rhythm-based attacks too,” he commented.

“What even happened?” Taika finally braved asking.

It was late, they were still hanging out in Shouri’s hospital room. Given the time, they were allowed to leave at their own pace – this hospital wasn’t hurting for space thankfully.

“He uses these dirt rhythm claws in battle. He charged at Pacifica with no intention of stopping, so I threw myself in between them,” Shouri replied. He paused for a moment. “I… was so mad that he tried to hurt her, I lashed back out at him,” he admitted shamefully.

Taika raised a brow. “How so?” she questioned.

“I hit him,” he mumbled.

“You did?” There was a measurable surprise in Taika’s voice.

“I just… threatening Pacifica like that, trying to hurt her so thoroughly, I just saw red and when he was in my range, I just swung at him,” Shouri quietly explained. “Paci told me I got him pretty hard too, she says I knocked him flat on his back. Don’t remember much of that, started bleeding out at that point,” he continued.

“Kaira is a fucking miracle worker with her sand, she managed to keep me compressed up so I didn’t instantly bleed out until the emergency healers got there,” he added.

After a moment of ruminating on that, the boy shook his head. Taika had wilted, quiet, thinking. “Hey.” He pushed her chin up with a finger. “Don’t dwell on that, I’m fine now, in part thanks to you.” He smiled. Her face rushed with blood thanks to her racing heart. “You’re the best Taika.”

She could only offer a flustered squeak and nodded. That was one way to get her out of that funk. “Anyways.” Shouri returned to his clothing situation. “We’ll need to do some shopping tomorrow.” He glanced over at his jacket, which vibrantly glowed thanks to the stellar job the nurses did cleaning it. Turned out the people who regularly worked with blood knew a thing or two about getting it out of clothing.

Ultimately, he decided to just deal with the hole and wear his clothes like normal. He could zip up his jacket so no prying eyes could be concerned with the state of his outfit. Simple as.

“Let’s get outta here.” He smiled at his faithful Resonator.

“Si!” she beamed back brightly.

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BEEP! Click!

Pacifica was stirred from her slumber by a sudden noise from the door. Did someone unlock it? She sat up just in time to be blinded by the hall lights. “Who’s there?” she asked groggily.

“Oh sorry, did we wake you?” a familiar voice asked.

If she wasn’t awake by now, Pacifica was surely snapped back into reality. “Sho?!”

The lights in the kitchen were flicked on revealing the return of her beloved Maestro as well as Taika. “Sorry if we woke you,” Shouri apologized, setting some bags on the counter.

“Sho!” Pacifica bounded from the couch rushing into the kitchen, and almost tackling the poor boy to the ground, barely managing to keep them both standing. “I missed you!” she exclaimed, holding him out by his shoulders.

“I missed you too Paci,” the boy said with a smile.

Pacifica stepped away when she felt two pairs of eyes boring through her.

“We brought food since I haven’t been allowed to eat real food!” Shouri dumped out a bag of cheap burgers onto the counter. “Taika’s got the fries,” he pointed out.

The otter took a single burger for herself and quietly dismissed herself from the rest of the group.

“How are you back so soon?” Rebecca asked as she brushed past Pacifica, taking a wide circle around the counter to intentionally hit the other Resonator’s shoulder with her own.

Shouri’s eyes narrowed for a moment, he exhaled sharply from his nostrils before addressing Rebecca. “Taika did a good job healing me. I’m rhythm burned again so we’re gonna be taking it easy for the next few days, but I’m back to perfect health,” he said, patting the fire fox on the head.

“Way to go Taika!” Rebecca exclaimed, smacking the other fox’s back.

“Heh heh, I just did what I had to,” Taika giggled.

While the two foxes chattered excitedly amongst themselves, Shouri’s line of sight was fixed on the couch where Pacifica slowly unwrapped her single burger and took a small bite of it. His gaze drifted back to Taika and Rebecca, who were now dolling out the burgers and fries. Shouri grabbed a cup before they could devour it and walked it over to the couch.

“Here.” He held out the fries for Pacifica. The room went quiet. Pacifica stared up at her Maestro as if he had offered her a bar of gold. Shouri watched her gaze fall for a second before snapping back up. She opened her mouth, but Shouri spun around on his heel and faced the other two Resonators. They hadn’t expected that motion so he caught their petty glares aimed at Pacifica.

Busted.

Now all three girls sat on the couch – Pacifica trying to make herself small on one side, and the two foxes bunched up together on the other, avoiding their fellow Resonator as if she had a disease.

“You know.” Shouri stood over them, scowling at the trio. “I don’t like having to do this,” he told them. “I’d rather let you all do whatever you want.” He paused for a moment. “But I’m not about to deal with you three fighting.” His eyes focused on the two catty foxes. “Especially when this whole situation was a decision I MADE,” he raised his voice, just shy of shouting. The trio flinched, not used to him taking such an authoritative tone with them.

“Do you two really think she wanted to see me hurt like this?” Shouri asked.

“But she-!” Rebecca was cut off, however.

“Answer the question,” said Shouri, his tone even.

The two foxes hung their heads.

“N-no…”

“Non…”

Shouri sighed, relaxing slightly. “I didn’t do it just to protect her,” he told the trio. Pacifica raised her head. “She was trying so hard not to hurt him,” he revealed to the two not present at the incident. “But, before I stepped in the way, I felt her take enough rhythm for a fortissimo. She was ready to defend herself.”

Taika and Rebecca stared at their Maestro, waiting for his continuation.

“He wasn’t going to stop, violence was the only language he was going to understand,” they could see the pure disgust on Shouri’s face as he said this. “The failure is mine. I shouldn’t have hit him. Pacifica shouldn’t have been driven to a point where she was considering her versus him.”

“Sho!” Taika and Rebecca cried out in protest.

“It’s not your fault!” Taika shouted.

“Yeah yeah! That guy is a fucking rock head!” Rebecca nodded.

“Okay, if it’s not my fault, then you agree that it’s not Pacifica’s, right?” he turned their logic back on them.

“Erk!” The two foxes realized the trap they walked into.

“You get it now,” Shouri said simply. “So don’t be giving her the stink eye.” He turned and stepped away from the couch, leaving the three Resonators to themselves.

That was easy enough to say… but as the three Resonators exchanged awkward glances, it was clear things weren’t going to go back to normal just like that.