Day two of their southern pilgrimage began uneventfully. They got up early, grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria, and were on the road by seven.

Shouri took the morning driving shift this time, navigating them out of the hellscape that was the Corhiaselan interchange.

Once they were free from that trial, the trip became dull. Every so often Taika looked up from her tuner to take in the landscape. Though for a time, there wasn't much that changed. Farmland, suburbs, and the occasional small town were all that she saw. Things that were normal and mundane to her at this point.

As such she buried herself in her books, taking pleasure in the fictional scenarios playing out on the screen and in her mind.

Six hours passed in the blink of an eye and the turn of a page. When Taika finally looked up, the car was coming to a stop. The vixen blinked a couple of times, her eyes protesting their unresting utilization during the trip.

"We're here?" she guessed. "Yeah, you were so absorbed in your book we just kinda left you be," said Shouri, gathering up the accumulated trash at his feet. "Guess it was a good one," teased Rebecca.

Only Rebecca knew her tastes, even so, the jab earned a flush of warmth through Taika's face. "S-si…" she squeaked.

As the quartet stepped out of the car, it came with a reminder from the Maestro of the group. "Make sure we don't forget anything in the car."

"Why?" asked Taika. "We can't take the car with us, so we're returning it and we'll rent a new one when we get to the island," Rebecca informed her companion. "It's not ours?" she asked as they began their trek into the familiar MA Office. "No, we were paying to borrow it is how Sho explained it to me," said Rebecca. "Ohhhh, okay. So, we can just borrow a new one on the island. That's kinda handy." Taika nodded in understanding. "I would still like one of my own one day," the driving fox whispered loud enough so only her fellow fox was privy to it.

Taika silently bid farewell to the car as they crossed the threshold into the MA Office.

No one was surprised when the lobby was identical to every other MA Office they had visited in the past. In that way, it was always a comfort to be in a familiar place no matter how far they traveled.

The process was always the same, so Shouri strode with confidence up to the front counter. Even the Resonator choice was the same, the human Maestro being accompanied by their bovine assistant. Comfy cozy familiarity.

"You'll be in Room 11 – thank you for choosing our MA Office, have a great evening!"

Check-in settled, they made their way down the hall to room eleven. All familiar, all comfortable, they made themselves at home.

"Paci." Shouri stopped the otter. "Let's go to the beach," he suggested. "H-huh?" she blinked. "You and me, beach," he said. "O-okay."

He didn't need to address the rest of the room – Taika and Rebecca were already lounging. Taika rested her eyes while sprawled out on the bed. Rebecca channel surfed on the TV; she waved them away and kept her gaze glued to the television.

"We'll be back in a little while," was the final announcement to the room before Shouri and Pacifica took their leave. Before they got too far, he took her hand in his and gripped it tightly.

"What are we doing?" she asked, not refusing the gesture and following along. "We're gonna go play for a bit, I think you need it." "You didn't bring your swimsuit," she pointed out.

Shouri pulled the waistband of his pants out showing that he was in fact wearing his swim trunks under his streetwear. "I'm your Maestro, I know better when we're going to a beach town," he grinned at her.

That got her, and she cracked a small smile of her own. "I love you," she muttered. "Love you too, now let's go have some fun."

Returning to the great outdoors, Pacifica finally took note of the temperature. It wasn't overly hot, but still comfortably warm despite it being almost five in the evening in November. The wind wasn't too bad, just a mild breeze carrying the warmth of the tropics their way.

The walk through the small town was short but peaceful. Given who she had in hand, Pacifica's curiosity broke through her gloomy mood and she started taking in her surroundings. She hadn't ever been to Cantefino, so it wasn't a difficult task to coax out her wonder.

They walked up to a resort, but before Pacifica could ask, Shouri motioned to a sign that pointed them down a brick sidewalk and road labeled "Public Beach Access", quelling her question before she could ask.

They were nearly alone in their walk down the street, only kept company by the occasional car and the palm trees lining the way down to the huge resort building piercing the skyline.

"Woah," Pacifica gasped as they were now across the street from the huge building that cast a shadow over the upcoming beach.

"This way," he urged her to cross the street with him and they found themselves by a restaurant on the beach. Rather than going into the Restaurant, he pulled her around back into an entrance area labeled for "customers and registered guests only."

"W-wait Sho, we can't be back here!" Pacifica hissed. "Nonsense, we're fine," Shouri downplayed her concern.

"Hey!" A gruff voice boomed.

Pacifica jumped as the two turned to face the towering bouncer – a bovine, but unlike the cheerful attendants at the MA Office, he was a bull and wasn't too pleased to see the two trespassers.

"This is a restric-" "Shouri Tomoshibi, she's my Resonator," the Maestro flashed his tuner to the bouncer.

The bull maintained his glare for a moment, but when Shouri didn't back down, he reached into his coat and pulled out a mini tablet. "Mr. Tomoshibi…" he scrolled through the list. "Oh, yes. Sorry, Mr. Tomoshibi. Your table will be ready at seven. Please enjoy the facilities until then."

As the bull left the two alone, Pacifica was left slack-jawed. "You planned this?" she asked. "Of course I did. I figured you'd enjoy some time to swim at the beach and have a nice evening dinner with me alone." "But Taika and Rebby-!" "I told them the plan in advance, we're going to hang out while you're training – also gave them free rein on the bank account to have a date night of their own if they want," he told her. "Surprise!" The boy laughed.

Pacifica couldn't help the red creeping up onto her face. She forgot how considerate he was. His effort couldn't go to waste – she forced her unease down. She had to enjoy herself tonight.

"Come on, let's go!"

The water wasn't cold yet, it was a warm, balmy temperature. Even so, Pacifica could still derive some pleasure from it.

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It got her mind wandering regardless. If she didn't have Bolla D'acqua, it was her Fisher of the Sea that gave her those perks. Fisher of the Sea on its own just wasn't as efficient as Bolla D'acqua. It made a lot of aspects of her life click together so cleanly.

She was never as fast as her father, she never had as much stamina as him.

He wasn't the most observant individual, so it didn't surprise Pacifica that he failed to catch onto her ad-Lib possibly being different from his.

What about her mother though? Knowing Mom, she must have known from day one. Why didn't she say anything if she knew?

"Oh."

That time Shouri almost drowned in Riva Sranvi – she imagined him calling a spell, but that was her ad-Lib activating. That was true for swimming. Every time it was just her moving the water around her with her real ad-Lib to fake a speed boost in water.

How fast was she in water without all of that then? She didn't know how to turn it off. Now that she was cognizant of it, she couldn't make it stop. She could feel the rhythm flickering off of her as she swam about.

It was vexing. But… it tracked. Taika had told her that she never had problems lifting heavy objects or throwing hard punches before because her ad-Lib was always on.

There was that mental component to it. It was all so strange.

"Paci!"

The otter turned back to the beach to find Shouri waving for her. It was a lot to figure out, but thankfully she wasn't alone.

The restaurant was actually a fancy sports bar, with televisions mounted around showing various sports being played. The main one was the global duelist circuit, with news about the upcoming Unis-Résonne Nationals in a week or so and the expected competitors to be participating.

It was a small distraction while they waited for their food.

"Feeling better?" asked Shouri. "A little. Still nervous," admitted the otter.

He reached across the table and took up her hands in his. "It'll be okay, I promise."

That earned a smile. The more she lived with him, the more she realized how precious those words truly were. For as gruff as Shouri could be to others, he saved his warmth for them. It never failed to make her heart flutter.

Their food arrived, forcing the two to break up the embrace of their fingers.

"This looks good," Shouri appreciated his meal visually before digging in.

Pacifica followed suit and they enjoyed the general ambiance of the restaurant while they ate. Everyone else going on about their lives without a care in the world. At that moment, despite however brief it was, they too forgot their worries.

Shouri stood from the table. "I'll go pay for the bill while you finish eating," he told his date. "Mhm!" she beamed.

He was glad that this little detour did the trick. As he made his payment with the cashier he noticed a board with pictures of various guests. Tons of Maestros and Resonators, all enjoying themselves. Shouri's smile cracked as his eyes landed on one photo in particular.

"Wait." Shouri suddenly snatched the picture off of the board. "Sir you can't do that!" barked the bartender. "When was this taken?!" Shouri demanded, thrusting the photo into the employee's face. "Huh?" "This is my sister! She's been missing for months – when was this taken?!"

Pacifica jolted at her Maestro's sudden cry. His rhythm had suddenly spun up like a tornado. Her eyes widened as she rushed up to meet her Maestro and find out what was going on. He was holding a photo and demanding answers from the bartender who was conferring with one of the other waitstaff.

Upon getting a glimpse of the picture it confirmed what she had thought she heard Shouri shouting about. It depicted a blonde woman, a black-haired Doberman… and an unfamiliar blonde sky dragon. They all looked well – grinning and laughing.

"That was a while ago, I think they were here watching Kalanichi Nationals," another member of the waitstaff informed the pair. They had started saying something else, but that fell on deaf ears as Shouri was fixated entirely on the photo of his sister and her Resonators.

"She last checked into an MA Office on June 6th, the Drahgo branch…" Shouri muttered. The next instant the Maestro was bolting from the restaurant. "Sho!" Pacifica was hot on his heels but didn't need to go far, as he stopped just outside. "Sho, what are you doing?!" cried the otter.

"She was here, and we missed her, I shouldn't be-" Pacifica grabbed her Maestro's shoulders. She did her best to impart serenity on to him, and in exchange, she took in his rushing knowledge-rich rhythm. "You said she was fine!" she spoke with her rhythm. "Huh?" Shouri blinked.

That stopped him cold – she grabbed that line of thought and pulled it as hard as she could. "When Elijah told us before about that dragon, what's her name, you said she was fine!"

Finally, his raging rhythm returned to normal, maybe even weakened a fair bit. "Chiara… right, if Chiara's with her, it's fine." Shouri gripped his chest, attempting to calm his ragged breathing. "Chiara's with her…" He studied the picture intently. "It's not a coincidence."

Pacifica frowned. "So, what's the deal with Chiara? How do you know her?" Pacifica questioned.

The boy remained silent for a moment as the sea breeze blew over them and the waning crescent above watched their plight.

"When we were young our grandpa told us about one of our great great grandparents having a powerful sky dragon as his Resonator. She was a Solar element named Chiara," he told the otter. "I don't know much else about my family besides that. And even then… I kinda doubt it's a real story," he mumbled.

"Why?" "Well, my family tree is really weird. When I tried to look it up, my grandpa didn't show up on it at all. I can't figure out why. But I know he's my grandpa so I don't know what to believe."

Pacifica knew there was more he wanted to say. "But?"

"I want to believe that story is real. It's either weird luck that Aura found a solar dragon named Chiara, or she gave her that name when she became her Maestro for some reason. I know Aura believes Grandpa's story as much as I do – so it's gotta be a message to me. Like she's saying she's okay?" The boy grunted and grabbed his head, ruffling his hair. "I wish she'd just fucking find us already. I'm sick of not knowing."

Ah, that's what it was. Pacifica once again failed her duties as his Resonator. She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. She had been so wrapped up in herself she forgot her Maestro had serious rhythm stability problems and he wouldn't bother her.

"It'll be okay – we'll find her one way or another, I know it." "Thanks, Paci."

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