BEEEP BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEEP!

“WAS I BORN TO SUFFER?!” With Pacifica’s anguished cry, Sunday, July 15th began in earnest.

Just like the day prior, the present day’s festivities began bright and early. The four young adults shambled about the suite, finally converging at the front door, where Alfred pinned their staff badges to their clothing and saw them off for the day.

“What do you think he’s gonna make us do today bossman?” Rebecca questioned Shouri as they were driven to the site.

“Well Taika and Pacifica are gonna be on medical duty most of the week, Elijah told me yesterday,” Shouri began. Taika and Pacifica nodded – they had heard as much from Jess as well.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Rebecca stroked her chin in thought. “What about you and I, though?” was the more pressing concern of the fire fox.

“Honestly he’ll probably just throw us at a court again and have us watch matches.” Shouri shrugged.

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“You want us to what?” Shouri questioned Elijah.

At breakfast, the Klein heir revealed what he wanted Shouri and Rebecca to work on today, and it wasn’t anything the group had expected.

“As I said, the main tournament starts tomorrow. If you think the crowds yesterday and today were impressive, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Elijah chuckled. “As such we have a large quantity of supplies coming in from all over, I need strong Maestros protecting those trucks. You won’t be watching over a convoy or anything like that – I’m having a Maestro-Resonator pair assigned to each truck.”

“Do you really think something that bad is going to happen?” Shouri questioned wearily.

“Absolutely! It happens every event,” Elijah beamed.

“Y-you’re not supposed to smile like that.” Shouri shook his head.

“This sounds… kind of dangerous,” Pacifica noted uneasily, stealing a glance at her own Maestro.

“Oh, it is.” Elijah didn’t deny that.

“Then why?” Shouri continued to argue.

“I trust you Mister Tomoshibi, simple as.” It was at this point that the Klein heir rose from his seat. “Come, Zino, we have our own business to attend to.”

“Mrrgh,” with that grunt, Zino rose from his seat and the pair wandered off to do whatever it was Elijah had planned for himself that day.

“Uuhhhgh.” Shouri’s head hit the table in front of him.

“Relax bossman, we got this.” Rebecca patted her Maestro’s back.

“I don’t want to got it,” he complained.

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After parting ways with Taika and Pacifica, Shouri and Rebecca made their way down to where their ride to the airport was. Given the scope of the job at hand, a couple of buses were arranged to ferry the selected “muscle” of this operation.

“We aren’t going to the same airport we arrived at?” Rebecca questioned as they rode along with the other Maestros in the bus.

“Looks like it. They must have a much larger airport outside the city for cargo.” Shouri pulled the red tuner from his side. “Ah, outside of Lutera, Naiza itself is locked away from the rest of the world, being surrounded by harsh mountains from all sides. Only way in is by plane,” he told his Resonator.

“But… I’ve seen plenty of like roads and stuff going through mountains in Lybertera,” Rebecca pondered aloud.

Shouri frowned hard. He glanced around before whispering to his fox: “The real reason is they probably want to stop Lunars and Luna natives from easily leaving this general area.”

“The real reason huh.” Rebecca slowly nodded her head. It never occurred to her just how badly Lunars were viewed until she was friends with one. “I don’t get it,” she mumbled.

“Are you familiar with the Seven Heroes?” Shouri asked.

“Yeah, they’re like the first Maestros, right?” Rebecca replied, unsure of where her Maestro was going.

“Pretty much, there’s a legend that says there was a great evil, and seven Maestros, with their partner Resonators defeated the great evil together. There was one hero for every element, including Lunar,” he recounted for his own Resonator.

“So then why?” Rebecca had a good idea of where Shouri was going with this.

“There are some people who believe that in the final hour, the Lunar hero abandoned the other six, making the final battle much more difficult than it should have been. The people shamed Lunars ever since,” he explained.

“That’s it?” Rebecca raised a brow – that seemed almost too simple of an explanation for such deep-rooted spite towards the element.

“Not really. Lunars not naturally occurring on Riterra, Naturals being unable to be Lunar or use Lunar magic, Lunar magic being associated with darkness and the supernatural as well as some people being more sensitive to the aura produced by Lunar Resonators has built up a stigma against the element,” he explained.

“You still took in Taika knowing all of that?” Rebecca whispered.

“Don’t be so impressed with me. I had no idea about any of that until well after I decided to take her in,” he revealed. “I just couldn’t understand why people hated her. She’s just like you – she’s just a girl, only her magic is slightly different.” He lowered his head, a bitter glare painted across his face.

The two remained quiet for a moment – the chattering of the others on the bus having long been reduced to white noise.

“Would you…” Rebecca paused. “Would you have still been her Maestro if you knew?” the fire Resonator questioned.

“Yes,” there was no hesitation in his reply. “I would have tried to be more persuasive so she didn’t have to chase after me,” he added.

Rebecca couldn’t help but smile – that sounded like him alright. “I see.” She slipped her hand into his, linking her digits in his. “You’re a good person Sho.”

“Doing my best,” he whispered back.

With that little melopology lesson out of the way, their transport soon arrived at their destination. Disembarking from the bus was a simple affair. It was humid out, and by Shouri’s admission, kind of chilly. Given how early in the morning it was, that was no surprise. Though, Rebecca’s heat and cold resistance she passed along to him thanks to their link, meant he merely noticed the temperature and wasn’t bothered by it.

“This way folks!” The middle manager in charge of organizing this mess of Maestros and Resonators motioned for the group to follow him into the airport.

There was much less tourist traffic here, leaning more towards truckers and other members of the transport industry. As usual, since he was with Rebecca, there were curious eyes on the pair, wondering that dreaded thing: Is that a Renard?

He really did hate the attention, not because of his weak will pushing him to avoid the attention of the masses, but because of the unwanted attention Rebecca got. Still with her hand in his grasp, he gave her a re-affirming squeeze. Her lips curled up ever so slightly as she returned the gesture in kind.

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At last, they were all brought into a room with bagels and coffee. Coming from breakfast already, Shouri and Rebecca just settled on the hot coffee and listened to the briefing.

“Alright people! Here’s what we have going on for the new folks. There are fifteen transport trucks, we have enough pairs here to have one in each.” The manager began. “It’s pretty likely at least one truck will be attacked.” They paused to allow the sudden side chatter to settle.

“That’s kind of crazy,” Shouri commented.

“At least that dude warned us,” Rebecca muttered back before sipping her coffee.

“I just sent out an invite to a group chat for this. Please post updates here, we’ll be monitoring it and can get you help if something comes up. Any questions?”

Sure enough, Shouri pulled out one of his tuners and found himself part of a large group text with the other Maestros and management. Notably, Elijah was also one of the members, though he was probably tending to other matters and wouldn’t be an active participant in the chat.

Tuning back into the conversation, there were a few people asking questions about scenarios that probably wouldn’t come up. All stuff that could be safely ignored.

Assignments were soon doled out with Shouri and Rebecca being assigned to a thirty-something driver.

“Morning folks!” he greeted the pair familiarly.

“Hey… guy.” Shouri waved back hesitantly.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” The man chuckled. “Let’s get to the truck, shouldn’t take us too long to get to the stadium.”

Guy the truck driver led Shouri and Rebecca out, following along with a couple of the other groups that got the introductions done quickly. “This way folks!” Guy continued his healthy pace ahead of the younger pair.

“I didn’t think truckers would be this in shape,” Shouri mumbled.

“Right, I know you get more exercise than he would,” Rebecca complained, almost shy of a run.

They arrived at the docks of the warehouse, the truck fully loaded up and ready to go. Guy went ahead and opened the passenger door, allowing Shouri and Rebecca in. Up the two steps, the uninitiated duo was shocked to silence at what was inside.

Naturally, there was a driver and passenger seat with all the usual features of any automobile – steering wheel, pedals, dashboard, radio, navigator, the whole kit and caboodle. No, what surprised the young adults was that the cab kept going.

There was an entire seating area in the back of the cab with a table flanked by two seats (complete with safety belts), a television, microwave, mini-fridge, coffee maker, and ample head space to fully stand up.

“Y’all can sit in the back there, it’s plenty comfy while we ride,” Guy told the pair. “Normally my partner Resonator rides with me, but he’s home sick with Weathering Illness. But you folks look mighty tough so I think I’m in good hands!” the man said with a hearty laugh.

“Uh-huh.” Rebecca nodded absentmindedly, finding her way to a seat. Shouri followed suit. It was comfortable, surprisingly so – not what either of them had expected when they took on this task. There was plenty of storage room too; what looked like a mini closet was behind the driver’s seat, the aforementioned miniature refrigerator, and lots of little closed-up cabinets dotted around the space.

“Never been in one of these before?” Guy asked as he took to the driver's seat.

“No sir,” Shouri replied.

“Thought so, people are pretty impressed the first time they sit in one of these.” The trucker laughed loudly. “Anyways, enjoy the ride, should be smooth sailing!”

“That kind of language excites the wish sage,” Shouri muttered under his breath, leaning back in his seat.

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Meanwhile, Taika and Pacifica’s work day began with some drama.

“Are you fucking serious? A fucking ninte? What has this sport been reduced to?” an annoyed Maestro sneered at Taika.

The lunar Resonator in question stared back apathetically. She was sick of these people. She gave a sympathetic glance to the Maestro’s ailing Resonator who had been poisoned in the first round of Swiss for the day.

Pacifica stood behind her fellow Resonator, absolutely boiling, ready to explode.

Taika ignored the vitriol and mixed up the antidote to cure the poison of the suffering Resonator. “Here.” She held out the completed brew for the Resonator.

SMACK

The medicine was slapped from the healer’s hands and spilled on the ground. Pacifica opened her mouth, ready to lay into the unreasonable Maestro when-

SMACK

A hand whipped across the man’s face. “What the fu-”

SMACK

And Jess’ hand flew across the other side of the face evening out the red on his face. “Leave or I’m handing you a game loss for harassment,” the doctor returned the Maestro’s venom with some of her own.

“You bitch! I’ll get you fired you ninte fucker!”

“OUT!”

The man cowered under the pressure of the seasoned doctor and made his escape. “Go ahead Taika.” Dr. Miya motioned to the still-suffering Resonator who had remained seated. Mixing up a new batch of antidote only took a minute – she had plenty of practice making this brew yesterday as poison seemed to be the favored tactic in this tournament.

“Here.” Once more, Taika handed off the remedy to the Resonator who choked it down. Almost instantly the relief poured onto their face.

“Sorry about him,” the Resonator mumbled. “We lost hard to a lunar dragon yesterday and he’s been upset ever since.”

“I didn’t think Lunars were a common sight in Resonator battling,” Pacifica commented.

“They’re not. None of us had any idea what to do… not that it mattered. That dragon demolished my teammate without breaking a sweat,” the Resonator told the trio, shuddering as they recalled the beatdown.

“No excuse,” Jess spoke up, her tone still decidedly bitter. “Taking your anger out on the people trying to help you is never justified. The kid can grow up, and I think that his stupid tongue ending his tournament run is a good lesson for him,” the seasoned doctor huffed. “Go rest up.” She motioned for the Resonator to leave.

“I understand.” They were disappointed, but it was nothing they did wrong – it was all their Maestro’s decision.

Once alone again, Jess spoke up. “I’m from Luna you know,” she told the two Resonators. “It’s not all sunshine and rainbows up there, quite the opposite.” The doctor regarded Taika with a smile. “On Luna though you’d be treated like a celebrity.” The elder woman chuckled.

“Huh? Why’s that? Aren’t there tons of Lunar Resonators on Luna?” Pacifica questioned.

“In Lunar culture, Healing foxes are revered, after all, the Lunar Hero’s partner was a Healing attribute fox,” Jess revealed.

Taika remained silent, staring at the Luna native blankly as her mind raced with so many new questions.