novelraw Chapter 295 - 243 - Consequences
Chapter 295 - 243 - Consequences
"I'm gonna kill her. Ethereal be damned, I'm gonna fucking kill her."
"Sho, no!"
Pacifica knew this would happen, but putting it off was not an option. For the bookish type, Shouri certainly had a lot of power when he was motivated--it took Pacifica everything she had to hold him back. If he got to Colette, it would not be pretty.
"We're just going to talk," Shouri insisted.
"Punching isn't talking!" Pacifica cried out.
"I'm about to get the Blaze Lyre myself because her Maestro is fucking DEAD!"
"Shouri!"
Emily opened the door to Shouri's room, hesitantly poking her head in. "Is--uhhh, everything alright?" asked the princess.
Pacifica wanted to be the voice of reason. "We're fine we'--"
But Shouri was pettier than that. "Kaira has feroce!"
"She WHAT?!" Emily screeched.
"Tact Sho! Tact!" Pacifica barked.
"We could have died trying to stop this from being a thing, and now one of our people is carrying it! I am not going to be civil about this!" Shouri roared.
Rebecca and Taika finally decided to step in. They pulled their Maestro back and restrained him, so Pacifica could focus on talking him down.
"Thank you," the otter muttered to her two foxy friends. She turned her attention towards the wrathful Maestro before her. "Look, I know how you feel--trust me. Going in there spells blazing isn't going to solve anything," she tried.
"You're right--putting her in the ground will," he snarled.
"Not that I'm saying what she did was okay," Emily began, "but maybe I should handle this if you can't be civil about it."
Shouri glared at his second-in-command. In a surprise feat of strength, he pulled himself free from Taika and Rebecca. He didn't immediately charge the door, though.
"I'm not going to actually kill her," he clarified. "But I'm fucking pissed."
"We can see that." Pacifica let out a weary breath. "We at least know how to fix it, but Colette is a different story entirely," said the otter.
The room was quiet. Shouri locked eyes with Emily.
"Like I wasn't going to help with this," she responded to his implicit question. "Everyone wait here," said the princess. "Shouri and I will talk to her."
A pause. The three Resonators looked between one another, to make sure they all heard that right.
"A-are you sure?" asked Rebecca, hesitantly.
"Yes." Emily nodded slowly. "Come on Shouri." She waved him to follow. The guildmaster stuffed his fists into his jacket pockets and stepped to the door with Emily. "You can break down the door if you hear anything suspect," the princess told the wary Resonators.
With that, the two Maestros left to have the talk with Colette.
Before they got to the other Maestro's room, Emily stopped Shouri.
"Do you know why we're not bringing any Resonators with us?" she asked.
"Don't really care," Shouri huffed.
"Yes you do, don't be a brat," Emily tittered, though the smile quickly faded from her face. "I don't want us to look threatening to Nina when we talk to her. I don't know how she'll react if we showed up with our full complement of six. Even one or two Resonators might look threatening, especially if you plan on yelling at Colette."
"I know," Shouri grumbled.
Emily placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look--"
He batted her hand off, but held it, forcing a quick etude between the two. "Ems, we should be in prison for what we did that night." His eyes glowed with vibrant yellow rhythm. "If Cheryth or the guild network leadership find out about this, what the hell are they gonna think?"
Emily returned the rushing yellow rhythm with calm red stability. "I know. I don't think you want to live on Luna the rest of your life. We'll handle this, I promise."
The guildmaster released his vice's hand. "I'm holding you to that." He couldn't crack a smile, but he could at least rest his expression at neutrality. "You handle the talking. I might say something we'll both regret."
knock knock
Emily and Shouri waited. Nothing happened. No one stirred. The door didn't unlock. Just silence.
Shouri stepped up now.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Where the vice guildmaster was gentle, the master proper was not. The door shook hard from the force of his raps.
Shouri took in a breath to shout, Emily pulled him back, wrapping a hand tightly over his mouth to silence him. "Let's take a more civil approach," she suggested. Hesitantly, she released the boy, then pulled her black tuner from her side. "Hey Al, can you cast Rilevare l'intenzione, Lento please? Thanks."
A moment later, Emily's map updated with the results.
"One. It's Kaira by herself," Emily noted, flashing the screen to her fellow Maestro.
"Fine. We wait right here then." Shouri plopped right down in front of the door where he stood.
"You know," Emily sat down next to her fellow lunar Maestro, "for a guy with discordia, you sure can show some intense motivation."
"Nothing is a better motivator than spite," grumbled Shouri.
Shouri said it himself, spite was a hell of a motivator. The two guildmasters sat in front of Colette's door until well after nightfall.
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"Yeah, according to Cheryth, the Maestro that was commanding Desmond matches those other missing Maestros. From what I understand, there's been a bit of an epidemic in Unis-Resonne recently," Shouri explained.
"Really? Like people just go missing and then turn up days later?" Emily questioned.
"Young Maestro women. Apparently, he gets them when they're alone. The craziest part is whenever the abductions happen nearby cameras conveniently go on the fritz, so no one has even been able to snap a photo of him." The guildmaster leaned back, his expression wrinkled with trouble. "Just when I thought I was comfortable in my knowledge of what Resonators were capable of, this guy shows up and turns everything on its head."
Emily hummed thoughtfully, stroking her chin as she considered the possibilities. "I can't think of any Resonator with such a robust set of abilities like that," she conceded, after mulling it over.
"Right. We might have to just take him at his word: he's a vampire. Vampires are real Resonators and they're unbelievably powerful," Shouri concluded.
"And we pissed one off," Emily added.
Shouri snapped a finger. "That reminds me!" he exclaimed. "During the fight, he said some weird shit to me."
Emily perked up. "Oh? Do tell."
"He said something about being able to 'smell' that I was an à deux user; and that he thought 'they' had 'gotten rid of all of us'."
Emily didn't find herself as concerned as Shouri. No, she found herself hopelessly confused. "What?" she uttered. "We have probably about a hundred or so Maestros who are officially à deux paired on Luna. It's not hard, and you can't 'wipe them out'. That doesn't make any sense. Anyone can make the decision to dive deeper in their relationship with their Resonators."
This earned a slow nod from Shouri. "See, I thought that was weird. But--" He lowered his head as he considered his words. "Desmond seemed averse to my presence. Like just being near me was unpleasant. Where he straight up tried to choke out Colette without any issue. The dude refused to touch me."
"Very peculiar," Emily agreed.
They wouldn't have any more time to ponder the strange scenario, as another odd couple walked up.
Colette and Nina chatted familiarly, both laughing as they walked up with bags of food.
Shouri and Emily rose, both staring down the Maestro and her Ethereal.
"Have fun?" Shouri began the interrogation.
"Tons! Once you get used to it, flying by Resonator is pretty fun!" Colette beamed.
The two guildmasters exchanged their confirmed annoyance at the situation.
"Did you bring enough for Kaira?" Emily asked, gesturing at the bagged take-out containers.
Colette blinked twice, her smile blank. "Uh, no," she squeaked.
"Do you have any idea what is going on with Kaira right now?" Shouri quizzed.
"She's asleep right?" Colette wondered.
The Blaze Lyre's innocent smile had long since faded, and she puffed out her wings--not ready for flight, but to make herself look bigger than she appeared--a show of intimidation.
Shouri ignored the elevated gesturing of the phoenix and motioned to Colette's solitary red tuner. "Why don't you check?" he suggested.
Colette frowned and handed over the leftovers to Nina. She pulled the tuner from her skirt and tapped around the screen for a bit.
"Hmph, weird. How did that happen? We haven't been near any feroce Resonators recently. At least none that I could sense," stated the scholar matter-of-factly.
Nina flicked her wings out, sweat beading down the side of her head as she watched Shouri shake from anger.
"We can fix it, no problem," Colette said, with a nonchalant shrug.
Emily stepped between Shouri and Colette. "Leave," warned the vice guildmaster.
"H-huh?" Colette blinked.
"I don't know how long he's gonna hold himself back. Leave. Now," Emily demanded, louder.
"B-but I don't understand." The Maestro turned up her brows as she looked to Nina.
"W-we should do what they say. I don't think you can handle fighting all of them," said the Ethereal, her eyes darting around.
Nina's warning didn't help ease Colette's confusion. "But I don't get it I--"
"YOU did this Colette Severine. I haven't decided if you're worth keeping in the guild. Leave. I'll have Emily reach out when we've made our decision. I want you out of our sight before I do something we'll all regret," Shouri snarled; his entire body trembled, his scowl sharper than any blade.
Nina stepped back, gulping as her breath hitched in her throat. "Colette, he's serious. We should go."
"But--" Colette hung her head. "But Kaira--"
"Haven't you done enough?!" Pacifica screamed, standing in the open doorway of Shouri's room. "Go!"
Nina tugged Colette's hand, urging her away. Finally, the scholar relented and turned, walking into the night with her Ethereal by her side.
As soon as they were gone, Pacifica rushed over and took up Shouri in a tight embrace. "Shhh shhh shhh…" His rhythm poured into her. Every bit of his rage invaded her scale to be doused by the watery reassurance of her soul.
When his breathing finally was under control, he spoke. "Unlock the door. We need to be with Kaira."