Chapter 79 - 73 - Fischer and Forest
"What are we even supposed to be doing?" Rebecca questioned her Maestro as they stood at the hunter base camp. They had already signed up for the evening's festivities, now they just had to wait for Colette.
"Good fucking question. My brain turned off after seeing how much we'd make for helping out," Shouri replied.
"How much was it?" Pacifica asked.
"We'd basically double our nightly earnings," he replied.
"It's like doing two nights of work for one night!" The otter's eyes began to sparkle. "Imagine the cruise we could go on," she plotted.
"Or the cakes we could buy." Taika also was preemptively spending their future wages, mouth-watering.
Shouri shook his head, smiling. They were consistent if nothing else.
Pacifica suddenly squeaked and trembled, holding herself. Her eyes were locked on the dirt path leading up to the hunter camp.
Amongst the groups walking up, the awaiting quartet spotted Colette with two Resonators in tow. Kaira was her typical, strong but silent presence behind her Maestro. The other Resonator was a new addition.
He was a small boy, probably three or four years younger than the rest of the group. Atop his head were long ears with thin, fine, sand-colored fur. He held his thin tail out in front of him, looking around uneasily. To note his tail was quite long, almost as long as he was tall, covered in the same fine fur as his ears. Though the tip of his tail had a cluster of longer fur that jutted out.
Colette waved as she walked up. "Hey Shouri, here's our patient today!" she called out to the other Maestro.
The male Maestro studied the much younger rodent boy before looking at his otter. Taking in a breath, Pacifica dismissed the uncomfortable feeling she had come to associate with the Feroce phenomenon. She regarded her Maestro with a short nod, a smirk, and a thumbs up.
Turning on the charm, she smiled at the afflicted Resonator. "What's your name?" the otter greeted the rodent boy. He shirked a bit, trembling upon being called upon.
"Fischer…" he squeaked. His eyes darted around, looking at all the older, stronger Resonators that now surrounded him.
Pacifica leaned forward, bending her knees a bit to appear smaller. "I'm Pacifica, this is Taika, and she's Rebecca. He's our Maestro, Shouri." She sweetened her voice a bit, speaking slowly so as not to stress the boy out any further than he already was.
And it worked, Fischer calmed down ever so slightly but still held onto his tail as if it would protect him from a sudden attack.
Colette meanwhile, spoke with Shouri about what his role was in all of this.
"Feroce Resonators heal from the condition by being in environments with healthy Resonators. As a reminder, powerful etude like yours will quickly show results," she explained. From her side, she produced a green tuner and offered it to the other Maestro. "Here's his tuner."
Shouri stared at the device being extended to him. "Why?" he asked, making no effort to accept it.
"Being around healthy Resonators is one thing, channeling the rhythm of Maestros with strong etude very rapidly cures the condition. Fischer here is just about cured, just needs that last push," the redhead revealed.
"Where's his Maestro?" Shouri questioned more pointedly.
Colette raised a brow, lowering her arm. "He doesn't have one?" she said as if it should have been obvious. Kaira tapped her Maestro's shoulder. "Ah." Colette jumped at the touch. "None of the Resonators in the program do. Once they've been cured of their affliction, they will go into foster care at which point a permanent Maestro may be found," she detailed out for the newly initiated Maestro.
"Hmmm… What kind of success rate are we looking at?" Shouri inquired.
"One hundred percent!" Colette beamed. "Feroce only gets worse if the spells are used. As long as you stay within the program's parameters, Fischer will be cured and be able to move to the foster phase and a forever home after that." The scholar explained with pride.
"Hrm." Shouri's eyes drifted to the green tuner Colette was still holding. "Fine. Hand it over," he acquiesced. Colette grinned toothily and once more held out the device for him. This time he took it. Four Resonators would be tough but looking at the spell list, it was all the most basic Nature element spells. That would be nothing compared to what he usually cast with his Resonators.