novelraw Chapter 336 - 278 - Intervention
Chapter 336 - 278 - Intervention
The hubbub in the hospital grew without warning, as Naturals abandoned their posts in curiosity. Shouri and Rebecca were on dish washing duty when they noticed the commotion.
"Helicopters," Rebecca said, her sensitive ears twitching with the racket outside. "Quite a few of them," she added.
Shouri let the dish he was scrubbing clatter into the sink. "I thought they said they couldn't spare anymore conductors." His brows perked up in contemplation, while he considered who it could be. "Let's go check it out," he decided.
A congregation of Natural doctors and nurses (and even a few patients) watched from the door, none brave enough to step out themselves and face the windstorm kicked up by the large machine.
With Shouri and Rebecca's approach, the crowd parted to allow the pair to pass. "Heh, they want us to go figure out who the intruders are," Rebecca whispered to her Maestro.
"Of course, they saw what we did last night," he replied.
So, man and fox stepped out into the mid-afternoon sun to greet whoever was aboard the choppers. Only one helicopter thus far landed in the town proper. It was a smaller one, very maneuverable. The machine had perched in the town square with ease. Perfectly positioned as to not threaten any of the buildings or structures outside of kicking up dust with its rotors.
Three other choppers circled the canyon, presumably in an attempt to find spots to land. The main difference between the ones still airborne and the machine the comfortably nestled in town, was the scale--the tiny one was a passenger helicopter, while the others appeared to carry cargo.
It wasn't the nature of the machines that made Shouri draw pause. It was who stepped out of it. It was enough for him to grab Taika's tuner.
René Noel, in the flesh. His blue tuner gleaming in the sunlight, with Girard right behind him.
"Ah, Mr. Tomoshibi. It's been awhile," greeted the executive.
"René. For what do I owe the pleasure?" Shouri asked, only held back by Rebecca's rhythm and Taika's presence in his grasp.
"Well, you see, I heard you were in the area and I figured I'd drop by," the man said, adjusting his suit as he surveyed the area.
The door opened behind Shouri and Rebecca. They spun around to find Pacifica, joined by Deandre and Walter.
"Sho, what's going--" Pacifica stopped mid-thought as she spotted the man of the hour.
Deandre held no apprehension toward the new presence, however. She rushed over to the man. "Mr. Noel! Thanks for coming!" she exclaimed.
That made Shouri's blood run cold. He hoped to god that he was wrong about his earlier suspicion. He cursed the fact that he had no way to check one way or another at the present.
"Of course I came running, Miss Elsey. Well, flying--you get the idea," the man chuckled.
"You know each other?" asked Pacifica, pointing between Deandre and René Noel.
"I would hope so! Miss Elsey is one of my many many talented employees!" Noel exclaimed, while Deandre beamed with pride.
Shouri huffed and looked to Girard. "What's his game today?" asked the guildmaster.
"Only Lord Cievo knows. Man just suddenly burst into the office and said 'Girard my boy, pack your things, we're going to Nabhon!' No rhyme or reason with this man," scoffed the Water element.
René shook his head, clicking his tongue with pity. "You lack vision--Naturals also keep Resonators in their company. It's an untapped market! I am ever so grateful to Miss Elsey that she informed me of their plight, on her vacation no less!"
Shouri didn't like that, and wore his thoughts on the matter openly. Rebecca tapped his rhythm, and silently demanded they à deux. He gave in, only because he didn't feel like starting a scuffle with all of these Naturals around them.
Girard shot the linked pair an appraising gaze, and pushed his glasses up. "I see," he mumbled to himself.
"What's that?" René looked to his Resonator.
"Nothing, you dullard. Don't you have some networking or whatever to do?" scoffed the small Resonator.
"Most assuredly!" He turned to Shouri and his duo of Resonators. "You can go home now; we'll take it from here," René said to the Maestro.
Shouri, calmed by Rebecca in his mind, folded his arms across his chest. "We're not done yet," he said simply.
"Right, what time is it?" The man checked his tuner. He held up his free hand and counted off three.
As if summoned by the countdown, Shouri's tuners began to ring.
Rebecca couldn't stop the scowl that took over Shouri's face. He slowly raised his tuner to his ear and answered.
"Shouri," Cheryth spoke from the other side.
"Yes?" asked the guildmaster, strained.
"We're on the way to come get you and the rest of your guild."
"Why?"
"Orders from above. Have everyone ready to go in an hour, we're on the way."
The boy refused to tear his glower off of Noel. "Fine." He still capitulated with his guild liaison and walked away from the situation--lest he cause more problems than needed.
Especially with his present suspicion…
He wasn't ready, they weren't ready.
They made some distance from the town, near the climb back up to the base camp when Shouri came to a stop and regarded the black tuner still in his grasp.
"I don't like it," Taika spoke from the device.
Pacifica blinked at the suddenness of her fellow Resonator's voice. "She was listening?"
Shouri huffed and leaned against the rocky wall behind him. "As soon as I saw that smarmy fuck, I turned it on so she could listen as well," he replied.
"Are you coming home early then?" wondered the Lunar fox.
The boy looked around, noting the Naturals wandered around in a more normal manner. It was dry here but-- "Not sure. There's still a lot of work in the area. Cheryth will probably have us help the conductor guy I told you about," he said.
"When?" Pacifica wondered, shooting their Maestro an incredulous look.
"He's been calling her a ton. Whenever we have a second he lets her know what's going on," Rebecca informed the otter.
"Ah, makes sense."
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The (technically) quartet let the conversation lull. Taika was the one that broke the silence. "So what are you doing, then?" she asked.
"Gotta get Ems, Vince, and Miro. We'll figure out our marching orders from there."
"Ok, keep me updated."
"Of course, love you."
And with that, Taika went back to whatever it was she was up to back home, which left Shouri with the pair by his side. He didn't put away Taika's tuner and instead, made a proper call.
"Hey Ems? Where are you at? The farm? Alright, let's meet back up at the base camp. You got an hour to be there."
"She's arguing," Rebecca informed Pacifica, who was only getting one end of the conversation.
"Tough--wait, is that Mila I hear? Good, bring Vince with you. We're all leaving--Scott included." The guildmaster winced and pulled the device away from his head.
"Really arguing," Rebecca commented.
"Yeah, I can tell," Pacifica chuckled.
Shouri rubbed his temple with his free hand as he resisted the urge to snap at his second in command. Today sucked, he decided. "Look, I'll tell you what the hell is going on once we're out of here. Just, there's a good reason--and we don't have much of a choice in the matter."
"See you in an hour."
With that out of the way, Shouri finally put Taika's tuner away. "Alright. Let's play the 'where the hell is Miro' game."
Turned out, he wasn't difficult to find. Miro was a bit of a celebrity in the small town, and they were able to snatch him up from the adoring public without too much trouble.
"What were they asking you about?" Shouri wondered.
"They wanted to know what it was like being with many Maestros," said the Natural.
"Ah, that's fair. I'm sure if people knew we've been to a couple Natural settlements, they'd probably ask the same of me," Shouri nodded with understanding.
"Why is it that we are leaving? There is many things we are still needing to do…" Miro looked around the still recovering town as they made their way back toward the base camp.
"We'll talk about it when we get away from town," Shouri announced. He knew as a fellow knowledge stave, that wasn't the best thing to mollify Miro. In the same respect, Shouri couldn't necessarily trust René or one of his minions not to snoop.
One trek up the perilous cliffs later, Shouri, and the trio behind him arrived at the base camp. "Uhh, I guess get your stuff packed," he told Miro. "I'll explain when everyone else is here." He definitely sensed Miro wasn't pleased by that answer, but the fox begrudgingly accepted and wandered to his tent to start taking it down.
Alabrich emerged from Emily's tent, having stayed behind to keep out of the sun. "What's going on?" he questioned.
"Start packing y'alls tent, we're getting out of here," Shouri told the dragon.
"Yeah, she told me already. Didn't say why though," he replied.
"We'll get to that, I promise, just focus on packing," Shouri advised.
Albarich studied the Maestro for a moment longer, before deciding arguing wasn't worth it and went back to what he was doing.
Shouri in the meantime, helped his girls start to take down their own tent.
It wasn't too long before Philina began depositing the group of Maestros and Resonators on the top of the plateau. She started with her own Maestro, then the group of five Resonators, and finally, the remainder of PTRS.
Emily immediately marched over to her fellow guild lead. "Alright mister," she demanded. She tempered her ire when she saw how done with today Shouri was. "What's going on?" she asked, calmer.
Shouri took a breath. "Everyone bring it in!"
Miro ran over like his life depended on it. Emily was already there, but her trio joined her. Vince, too came over, with Scott and Philina right behind him.
"The René Group is taking over clean up here," Shouri announced.
Like a blow to the chest, those words knocked Zephyr out of the air and Mila caught the fairy. She looked like she wanted to die. "H-he's here?" she managed to utter.
"In the flesh. Best we get out of here sooner rather than later," Shouri told the group.
Given everything they had been through regarding the company, they were more than happy to expedite their packing. Mila handed off Zephyr to Vince, who let her hide in his jacket. The cat went to the cliff side to keep watch in the interim.
An interesting reaction was Scott and Philina--they appeared to share PTRS' disdain for the Resonator services company.
"What's your deal?" Shouri asked.
Scott grunted and motioned for Shouri to follow.
"Girls! I'll be back!" Shouri shouted, and followed along.
The two men joined Mila at the edge of the plateau. "I don't trust them," Scott told the guildmaster. He pulled a pocket scope from his belt and swept it across the town. "We've noticed them meddling a lot. Specifically when rare Resonators are involved. We haven't been able to prove anything because--"
"It's all above board and clean, right?" Shouri asked.
"Yeah, you're familiar then?"
"Unfortunately. Vince's fairy, Zephyr--she was one of his 'pieces'," Shouri whispered.
"That slimeball," Mila growled.
"Hmph. We've told him not to meddle with the fae lands before. He never listens," Scott huffed. "They've also monopolized the cryptid populations. It's extremely difficult to find any wild cryptids these days," Scott explained.
"Oh, so the vampire wasn't the only cryptid they have in their payroll," scoffed Shouri.
"Vampire?" Scott shook his head. "Oh goodness," the man grumbled. It was odd seeing the normally upbeat and charismatic man so annoyed with anyone. That spoke to his opinion of the René Group as a whole in Shouri's eyes.
The three by the cliff's edge watched the René Group employees move into the town like they owned the place.
"There was an incident in Selvica a few months back where a live streamer caught a fight between one of their 'acquisitions' and one of their executives. They managed to get themselves out of any legal trouble by claiming he was a rogue employee. It was all too clean, though," Scott told Shouri.
"Yeah, sounds about right," Shouri scoffed.
Another moment passed and Scott looked to the guildmaster. "Shouri, can I ask a favor of you?"
"What is it?"
"Can your guild place these five?" the conductor motioned to the five Resonators he had borrowed from the Naturals.
"Huh? Why? Aren't they going back home?" questioned the guildmaster.
Scott sighed. "It's not that easy. Naturals don't take Resonators that have been…'Avvelenato', poisoned in Maelish."
"Poisoned by what?" Mila asked.
"Maestro rhythm. Naturals can be a superstitious bunch. Not that I blame them, if you've brushed up on your history. Any Resonator who has had a Maestro cast a spell through them might as well be carrying the plague." Scott looked to Miro, who chatted with Soot and Ritika. "Even if that's far from the truth of the matter. I knew when I took them to help us, I'd be taking them home."
Shouri nodded slowly. He considered it, looking to the group of five who worked in tandem. They were quick and efficient. Based on what he had seen of them during the Scherzando fights the other night, they were decent hunters. He couldn't be sure if that was their own innate talents or Scott's direction as a tenured conductor.
"I know they're why Mister Noel is here," Scott added. "He's a Snow Crane," he pointed to the bird boy.
Next were the pair of earth cats."The two brothers there are Leopards."
The solar dog was next. "She's a Dhole."
"Finally there's her, she's a Central Nabhonan Cobra."
Shouri realized what Scott was about to say next, and it took everything in Taika's willpower across the world not to explode.
"They're all endangered or threatened Resonator types, and I'm certain that's why the René Group suddenly showed such interest in this area," Scott told the guildmaster.
Shouri looked to Mila, who paid him a short nod in return. "We'll find all of them good homes."