Pacifica awoke on Friday the 26th particularly unrested. Shouri and Rebecca were out like rocks and cuddled together in the center of the bed.

  From what they had explained, on top of Rebecca unlocking the final level of her summon spell, they used a ton of rhythm in the fight against the Scherzando. Their troubles didn’t end upon scattering the beasts as they then also had to pry the grateful hunters off of them after the fact.

  While normally she would have laughed that off and comforted her tired friends, she had run herself through the wringer mentally during those hours left at home.

  The longer she thought about it, the cloudier things grew in her mind. The water in the shower had most certainly bent to her will. But… frustratingly, she failed to replicate that trick no matter how hard she tried.

  Seeds of doubt were festering in her mind.

  Finally, she sat up. None of her friends moved, they were all dead asleep. She slipped out of bed and into her everyday wear before quietly leaving the room.

  Right outside of their door she ran into Vince and Mila.

  “Oh, good morning, Pacifica. Up early?” asked Vince.

  “Uh, yeah, couldn’t stay asleep,” Pacifica burned her rhythm strong, managing to fake her expression to not worry the young Maestro.

  Mila hummed, studying the otter. “Let’s leave her be, we got a jog to do,” she urged her Maestro on.

  “Okay. Bye, Pacifica!” Vince shouted as he departed.

  Once the two were out of view, Pacifica relaxed, allowing the mask to fade away. Despite her exhaustion, she pressed on. She made her way into the office and sat down behind the computer, flipping up the laptop screen.

  Unlike her fellow Resonators, Pacifica was tech-savvy, so it only took her a second to pull up the phone app and call her mother.

  “Good morning my little otter!”

  “Put Dad on the phone.”

  Silence.

  Pacifica started the call without video; she didn’t want to see them, and she didn’t want to be seen. Especially with the scowl on her face.

  After a moment, her mother spoke. “Alright. Let me go get him.”

  Some shuffling on the other end was the only insurance she got that the line had remained connected. “Hey, my little pup, what’s going on?” asked the concerned father.

  “Is mom there?”

  “Yeah-”

  “Tell her to leave.”

  Silence again.

  “Pacifica, what’s going on?”

  “I want to talk to you. Alone. Tell her to leave.”

  There was another pause, and finally, he acquiesced to her demand. A moment later he returned. “It’s just us now. What’s going on?” he repeated, a sternness slowly overtaking his concern.

  “Dad, what is my ad-Lib?” she asked.

  “Bolla D'acqua,” he replied.

  “Dad-!”

  “Pacifica, what is this about?” his tone had finally given away from his prior worry to the proper parental one of authority.

  Pacifica matched his energy though. She wasn’t going to be pushed around. “My ad-Lib is not Bolla D'acqua. What is it?”

  The line hung idle as father and daughter verbally stood off against one another. Finally, a sigh came through the receiver. “I don’t actually know.”

  “But you said-!”

  “Pacifica,” he cut her off. “Maestro-Resonator children are complicated. There was no guarantee you would even be an otter. You could have just as easily been born a Maestro,” he said. “Unlike your species, it’s possible you didn’t inherit my ad-Lib.”

  “But but, I… all my life I thought I had Bolla D'acqua, I was told I had Bolla D'acqua… I can’t have another ad-Lib!” she argued.

  “If you’ve called me about this, then you already know more than I do.”

  Pacifica remained quiet, hanging her head. Her eyes were wide, her normally vibrant red rhythm flickering in noncompliance as the whirlwind of emotions battered her mind.

  “Pacifica-”

  “Sorry for bothering you,” and she hung up.

  Shouri awoke with a start. Something was wrong. It took him a moment to realize what was missing – it was the same sort of feeling he had experienced when he had been kidnapped those months ago.

  It wasn’t a physical sensation, but one in his rhythm. He had been disconnected from one of his Resonators: Pacifica. Of the three pillars that held him up her kind, emotional strength was completely missing.

  And it was replaced by pure panic. His breath slowly rose in repetition, as each one felt harder to force through. Fists balled up on his lap constricted white from the pressure exerted on themselves; even his nails piercing his palms couldn’t hope to release the grip placed on himself.

  Finally, he managed to pull together enough willpower to take an action. “Girls!” he shouted with alarm.

  The two foxes snapped up with him.

  “Che?!”

  “Wha-?!”

  “Pacifica’s gone!”

  The three sat for a moment, the two foxes running through the same diagnostic Shouri did, and the dread hitting them just as hard.

  “How? Where is she?” Rebecca flew out of bed.

  “Her shoes are gone,” Taika noted.

  “Same with her tuner,” Shouri added, only finding Taika and Rebecca’s on the nightstand where he had left them.

  “She’s not here,” Rebecca stood frozen in the center of the room, directionless.

  “Sho, dai, Sho!” Taika cried out.

  Shouri was curled up, hands on his head, nails digging into his scalp. “Not again…” he whimpered, his voice only a squeak of its usual self.

  “Rebby! I don’t know what to do!” Taika shouted to her fellow fox.

  “You think I do!?” Rebecca yelled back.

  “You’re smarter than me! Think of something!”

  The proud fox ground her teeth in frustration. Finally, she just went with her gut, jumping back in bed. “Everything you got, give it to him,” she instructed, wrapping her arms around their panicking Maestro. Taika nodded and followed suit.

  Minutes passed like this, the two foxes pouring everything coursing through their scales into their Maestro, and receiving the weight in his heart for their trouble.

  Their efforts weren’t in vain as Shouri returned to reality. “Where is she?” he squeaked.

  “We don’t know, but we can think it through,” Rebecca whispered.

  “Together,” added Taika.

  “Something was bothering her,” said Shouri, his voice still cracking.

  “It was after the hunt you went on with her the other night,” noted Rebecca.

  “Did something happen?” asked Taika.

  “Yeah,” Shouri nodded. “We met a dragon with Pioggia Fragole. She got in her feelings about it,” he told the vixens.

  “Oh.” Rebecca gasped.

  “Huh?” Taika was out of the loop.

  “Pioggia Fragole is like our ad-Libs, Taika. If she had it, she could fight by herself using water,” the fire element revealed to her lunar counterpart.

  “She already has a complex about being weak. I guess seeing someone fight like he did struck a chord with her,” Shouri posited.

  Rebecca hummed in thought. “That makes sense. She was kinda out of it when you got home.” She furrowed her brow, humming deeper. “But she seemed to get even more cagey after her shower…” Rebecca stroked her chin in thought.

  The trio ruminated on the facts of the situation.

  “But we don’t know why she’s gone,” Taika finally spoke.

  “Maybe someone saw her leave? There are like seven other people who live here,” Rebecca suggested.

  Taika nodded. “Come on Sho, let’s get dressed and see if someone knows something.” She patted his back reassuringly. All he could do was nod slowly. The poor lunar fox knew she was going to go through it today if they didn’t find Pacifica fast. She focused on the positive of at least she got to be all over her beloved Maestro all day…

  …that wasn’t a positive. Not while Pacifica wasn’t there to enjoy it with them and not while Shouri was having an active panic attack.

  With the trio dressed for their mission, they left the confines of their room.

  “What do we do?” Taika asked, keeping an iron grip on Shouri’s hand.

  “We’re going to get everyone out here,” Rebecca said.

  Before Taika could ask how, Rebecca took in a breath. “EVERYONE GET OUT HERE!” bellowed the Renard.

  Shouri whimpered, quietly closing his eyes tight at the shock of the sudden noise.

  “S-sorry Sho,” Rebecca muttered.

  It was worth startling their Maestro, however, as five doors opened, one by one. Miro stood alone on the second floor, and the other Maestros and Resonators gathered on the ground floor.

  “What’s going on?” Mila was the first to ask.

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  Shouri paid her the most attention, whereas everyone else was just featureless shadows in his eyes. “Pacifica is gone,” he squeaked.

  “Wait… she went into the office this morning when me and beansprout went on our jog,” Mila furrowed her brows in confusion. “Is she not in there?” asked the cat.

  “We can’t feel her tempo, she’s not here,” Rebecca asserted.

  Vince and Mila exchanged a glance. “That’s a thing?” the pair asked in tandem.

  “Since Shouri and his Resonators have such a high tempo level, they have an innate sense of where each other are at all times,” Colette told the uninformed Maestro.

  Mila’s ears folded back as her expression clouded. A flicking tail cemented her distracted state.

  “Let’s go see if she did something in the office,” Rebecca suggested.

  “Keep an eye out for Pacifica and let us know if you see her,” Taika added, directing the rest of the guild in lieu of her Maestro.

  “Right!” Emily declared, turning to direct her trio.

  “I’ll call around and see if there are any reports at local MA Offices,” Elijah added, pulling his tuner from his side and burying himself in his screen.

  “Emily, can we help you?” Vince asked of the other Maestro.

  “Sure! Let’s do this…”

  As the rest of the guild mobilized, Shouri and his two foxes closed themselves in the office.

  “I don’t see anything amiss in here,” Rebecca frowned, not surprised but still disappointed.

  “Did you leave the computer open, Sho?” Taika asked.

  “I didn’t…” Shouri meandered over to the device and woke it from its sleep.

  The last application that remained open was still on screen, the phone app. It took him a moment of processing time, but he realized the significance after careful consideration. He hunched over the laptop and studied the call history. It was all numbers he recognized as calls made by him until he reached the most recent call.

  “This number looks familiar…” He cross-referenced the mystery number with his tuner’s address book and…

  “She called her mom.” Shouri clicked call on the number and allowed it to ring.

  “Shouri? What’s going on?” Priscilla asked from the other end. “Are you doing something dangerous again?”

  A stake of guilt hit him immediately, and he couldn’t muster up the words.

  “Pacifica’s missing!” Taika cried out.

  “We woke up and she was just gone! We don’t know why!” Rebecca added.

  “Hang on, let me get Jack. She spoke to him this morning.” The mother left the line open as she stepped away.

  “Paci’s dad?” Taika raised a brow.

  “What did they talk about?” Rebecca wondered.

  Their thoughts were interrupted by the return of Priscilla and Jack, mostly the father of the duo. “Where’s Pacifica?” he asked.

  “We thought you’d help us figure that out,” Rebecca said, grasping Shouri’s hand – she needed his logical rhythm since even with Taika’s willpower he was barely functional at best.

  “We woke up and she was gone, and you were the last one she called,” Taika elaborated.

  There was a heavy sigh from the other end. “She called to talk about her ad-Lib. I think she has Pioggia Fragole based on what she said,” he told them. “I suspected it a little myself. She didn’t always have the most rhythm, but I just chalked it up to her lack of training. I didn’t consider she was pushing herself without realizing it.”

  Rebecca focused herself on Shouri, putting her knowledge against his rhythm.

  “Oh! She got a similar effect to Bolla D'acqua using her unrealized Pioggia Fragole! She was moving the water around herself to swim faster,” Rebecca explained to the other two.

  “Right, that’s what I realized too,” Jack confirmed.

  “And she was already in her feelings about it before,” Shouri mumbled.

  “But I don’t get it – why would she be upset about having that ad-Lib? Isn’t that what she wanted?” Taika furrowed her brow.

  “Dunno, but thinking about it isn’t gonna find her,” Rebecca determined. “Thanks,” she addressed the otter’s father. “We’ll find her.”

  “Keep us updated!” Priscilla shouted.

  “We will!” Taika chimed in before the line dropped.

  Rebecca turned to her fellow Resonator and Maestro. “Any ideas?” she asked. “Cause this was all I had,” said the fire fox.

  “Sho, we need you,” Taika urged the boy.

  His head was lowered, his breath labored as if he had run a marathon. Even without the physical signs of it, both foxes knew what this was doing to him – his rhythm was erratic, pulsing wildly between all different staves. It made linking with him in any meaningful way next to impossible, but they kept trying.

  They needed him and he needed them.

  “She took her tuner,” Shouri said on an exhale.

  “Oh!” Rebecca caught the implication. She pulled her tuner from his side and thumbed through the menus.

  Finally. she landed on the call button.

  Instant rejection from Pacifica’s tuner. Rebecca ground her teeth, baring her fangs at the screen. “If she thought I was cruel when I trained her… I’m gonna swing on her,” growled the fire fox.

  “Rebecca, calmati,” Taika grabbed the other vixen by her shoulders. “We need to focus. Sho needs us to focus,” she implored.

  The tense shoulders fell as Rebecca took in a deep breath. “Yeah, I know… my stave isn’t like Paci’s,” she kept her breathing even. “We know she has her tuner, but it’s not like we can red button her home using ours. Plus, she’s not listening to our calls.”

  “Let me see,” Taika grabbed her tuner from Shouri’s side. “Oh! Look at this!”

  On the screen was an email Pacifica had been reading.

  “It is addressed to Pacifica, but what is it?” Taika asked.

  Rebecca’s eyes widened. “Uhh, Oltre is like a uhh, what’s it called?” Rebecca snapped her fingers as she spoke, desperately trying to recall what exactly the app was called.

  “Ride-sharing app,” Shouri spoke up.

  “Yeah, that!” Rebecca exclaimed. “You can pay for people to come pick you up and drive you places. Some Maestros with driver’s licenses do it to cover the costs of their rental cars,” explained the fire fox.

  “She had someone come here to pick her up?” Taika asked.

  “Yeah! But more importantly-” Rebecca tapped through her tuner. After a moment she flipped the screen to Taika. “-we know exactly where she went now.”

  “Oh! Let’s go then!” Taika was already making her way to the door.

  “Come on bossman, let’s go save our idiot!” Rebecca tried to pull him up but he remained firmly seated.

  He shook his head. “What if she wanted this?” he asked. “What if she wants to be done with… us?”

  The excitement from the two foxes deflated. It was a thought they hadn’t considered. It was true the way she left was so sudden.

  “No!” Taika barked, drawing the attention of Shouri and Rebecca. “If she wants to leave, she owes us an explanation.” Her brows pinched into a tight glare. “And if she thinks she can escape us, then she’s an idiot; because we’re hunters – this is what we do,” grinned the lunar fox.

  Rebecca couldn’t help but smile. “Come on bossman, let’s go get our otter.”

  Shouri nodded and rose from his seat – they were right. Even if Pacifica did want to break up with them, she needed to explain herself first.

  At least with that, he would be able to let go if that’s what she truly wanted.