"Good morning, Shouri," Emily greeted upon meeting her fellow Maestro.

"Mmmrgh…" Shouri shambled towards the office, as his vice guildmaster followed along.

"When did you get back last night?" she asked, as they walked into the office.

"Like ten at night," he grumbled.

"That's not that bad," she replied, as they both took their seats.

"Thirteen hours of driving really takes it out of a motherfucker," he complained.

"Well, how were your holidays?" Emily quizzed.

"They were fine. Paci's parents were nice. Talked to Lina and them about a satellite office," he recalled. "Spent a few more days there after that, before heading back down here."

Emily hummed in thought. "Lina… those were your friends in Canolapra you were telling me about?"

"Yeah, them. Told them about à deux," he replied.

The wind was taken out of Emily's sails from that blase comment. Shouri, meanwhile, logged onto their laptop to see what kind of financial damage they had sustained in his absence.

Much to his surprise, his cute little guild members had been hard at work and they actually had a little more money than when he left. It was possibly time to consider a new facility. But what?

"Excuse me?" Emily wanted to spin back to the last thing he said to her.

"Huh?"

"Why did you tell them?" she questioned.

"Oh, I can trust them with it. They won't hurt themselves," he replied. "Much," he added, as a quiet aside.

The princess hummed disapprovingly.

"What?"

"On Luna, we have a select few pairs that can use à deux, and usually they're some of our best. Are you sure it's smart to be convincing random people to use it?" she continued to question.

"Sure, if they're gonna run a branch office that's my minimum requirement."

"Huh?" Now it was Emily's turn to be confused.

"Look, if people aren't willing to see things my way or bare minimum appreciate the ability to use à deux, I don't think they should be running one of our facilities." His gaze met Emily's.

The two leaders fell to silence again, eyes locked on one another.

Emily sighed. "You know, for a guy with supposedly discordant willpower, you sure are a stubborn brat," the princess joked, as she reclined in her seat.

"Hopped up on fox-girl rhythm, how many times do I gotta tell you people this?" Shouri shook his head, returning to studying the screen.

"What do you think we should get next?" he asked, re-directing the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked back.

"Facilities. We could do the pool, or like a rec building, or more rooms. We got options," he mused.

"Good question," Emily leaned her head back, reading the ceiling as if the answers were plastered there. Ultimately it was blank, just like her brain at that thought. "Dunno. Maybe we could hold a vote and see what everyone wants?" she proposed.

Shouri mulled that notion over. "That's not a bad idea," he agreed. "Is everyone even here?" was the next question.

"Vince got back at like noon yesterday. Colette and Klein are still out," replied Emily. "Miro never left obviously," she quickly added.

"Damn it, I need to call Klein, that guy's been MIA for a while."

"You think he's gonna quit?"

"Probably. We'd need to fill his spot quick, though. I can call Lina down here if need be, but also their apartment in Canolapra looked pretty pricey, so she's probably the breadwinner of that whole arrangement," Shouri considered.

"Ah."

The two guildmasters fell quiet once more. The holidays were over, but work never was.

"Shouri!" Vince greeted the guildmaster upon meeting outside. Mila was by his side and Zephyr poked her head out of his jacket.

"Morning Vince, have a good holiday?" Shouri asked.

"Mhm." The young Maestro looked between Mila and Zephyr. "Uhh…" He grimaced as words failed him.

Mila rolled her eyes and shook her head. "We're trying to do the à deux thing," she filled in for her Maestro.

Shouri blinked, taken aback. "Oh," was all he could utter. "Are you sure? Even after--"

"We know. There's gonna be some unsavory stuff," said Zephyr.

"I'm not cheesed at the idea of these two going through feroce with me again, but it's a hurdle to cross." Mila's expression darkened. "Especially if that creep tries to come after her again." Sparks flickered from Mila's wrists as she said this.

Before they could erupt in flames, Shouri stepped forward and grabbed her hands. He didn't say a word and moved to Vince. He took hold of her Maestro's hands, and interlocked them.

"Step one: get addicted to etude," Shouri said, knowingly.

Mila snorted indignantly, though she cracked a smile after a moment. "We're working on that," she admitted.

"Good. Let us know when you start having the fucked up dreams, Paci and I can help guide you through the next part." Shouri waved and let his three guild members wander off for their morning run.

Satisfied they were content for the moment, Shouri returned to his room and the loves of his life. Pacifica and Rebecca were on the edge of the bed, game controllers in hand, intensely focused on the screen. Taika was behind them, cross-legged and bowl of popcorn in her lap, also unable to tear her eyes away from the action.

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Bringing Pacifica's expansive collection of video games back with them was a good decision--Shouri had sensed she missed her game consoles (hence the rampant obsession with mobile gaming).

"GAME!" boomed the speakers.

"Bullshit!" Rebecca shouted, resisting the urge to throw her controller.

"Sorry Rebby, I don't hold back," Pacifica tittered.

"You said that character sucked!" the fire fox barked.

"They do, they're the bottomest of low tiers."

"Coulda fooled me!"

Taika simply giggled as she ate more popcorn.

Rebecca darted over to their Maestro. "Sho, it was a mistake to bring these games back."

"I dunno, you all seem to be having fun," Shouri said, with a smirk.

Before the festivities could continue, his tuners started ringing.

Incoming Call Colette Severine 61354-35129

Shouri furrowed his brows as he stared at the screen.

"Why is Colette calling?" wondered Pacifica, as she checked her own tuner.

"Dunno." Despite the dread pooling in his gut, Shouri answered.

"Hey Colette, what's going on?"

"Shouri? Where are you?" Colette asked. There was an expedience to her words. Not the usual hyper-fixation over-explanations, but a different emotion.

The guildmaster didn't like it. "The guild hall. Why? What's going on? Are you okay?"

His trio exchanged worried glances.

"Yes, well no… I dunno… I just… can you come to Unis-Resonne?"

Shouri locked up, he wasn't sure what to say. At that moment he felt Pacifica enter his mind--her focus in à deux told him what he needed to say--he let her in with practiced ease.

"Breathe. Slow down and tell me what is going on," Shouri's voice was notably calmer.

Rebecca and Taika looked to their fellow Resonator--the otter had her eyes closed, as still as a statue.

"à deux," Rebecca muttered. Taika nodded in agreement.

"I just, there's some guy after us, I don't know why. My grandpa is in the hospital now, Shouri I'm scared."

"Dorleans right?"

"Lyreann actually, I went to do some assignments in person."

"We're on the way. Stay in an MA Office. Keep Kaira close, please."

"O-okay…"

"Call me if you need anything."

"I will."

Click

Shouri pulled the tuner away from his ear staring at the flashing timer that hallmarked the end of the call.

He took in several deep, shaking breaths. "Okay. Get Emily, please," the boy spoke between gasps.

Rebecca was up and out of the room in an instant. Taika pulled Shouri to the bed and took hold of him along with Pacifica.

"We're going to Lyreann?" Taika questioned.

"Yeah." Shouri nodded.

"He thinks it might be the René Group. They have to know we have Zephyr but…" Pacifica trailed off.

"But?"

"I'm not sure if I agree," admitted the otter.

"Why not?" Shouri asked.

"Couldn't it be someone else? She didn't tell us who was after her. Just 'some guy'," she pointed out.

"Kaira's too strong on her own to be rolled by any normal Maestro. This has to be someone with power and influence," Shouri pointed out. "Someone with a vendetta; Colette was part of that raid on Ilea Vim's place, that's motive enough for one of his backers to target us," he laid out.

Taika furrowed her brows. "But I thought we already dealt with that Ilea Vim guy," she mumbled.

"Sho thinks he wasn't working alone, and the people he was working with have reason to be mad at us," Pacifica informed the fox.

The lunar nodded slowly, her brows pinched into a tight glare as her lips curled down; she didn't like it as much as her Maestro.

Emily burst into the room, Rebecca right behind her. "Shouri, what's going on?"

"I'm not certain--but I need you to make sure you keep everyone else here. The girls and I are going to Unis-Resonne to get Colette," Shouri laid out.

"O-okay…" Emily nodded, sensing the urgency of the situation--there wasn't time to ask questions. If Shouri was this strung up, whatever was going on was serious. "We'll stay away from hunts until we get more info," she decided.

"Good call. Keep everyone here. At most hunt the Scherzando on our property," he told her.

"Right."

With that, Emily left the room, probably to tell everyone else about the lock-down.

Shouri turned to his partners. "Pack your bags, we're heading out."

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