Another “evening” fell upon the temple. Shouri and Rebecca relaxed on the couch, watching TV as usual. Taika laid on the bed, reading something on her tuner. Finally, Pacifica was capitalizing on the hot tub (and nobody was surprised).

  Shouri had an arm draped around Rebecca’s shoulder, and his other hand held his tuner.

  A soft beep alerted him to a text message, however upon checking it, he soon discovered he had been added to a group conversation, against his will.

  Rebecca noticed her Maestro glaring at her tuner. “What’s up bossman?” she said while peeking at the screen.

  “Elijah added me to a fucking group chat,” grumbled Shouri.

  “Is that really that bad?” Rebecca chuckled.

  “It means I have to socialize.”

  “You could just hug me more,” suggested the vixen.

  The brazen nature of the request earned a smirk from the boy. “Perhaps. I guess I do owe it to Emily though to not leave her alone with Elijah and Colette.” He paused. “Unless she did something while she had you to earn your ire?”

  “Nah, she was a little angel, text away,” Rebecca waved at the tuner. “But I’m gonna be nosy,” she warned.

  “That’s fine, it’ll be fun to have a commentary buddy.”

  And so the two caught up on the conversation thus far.

  “Hey uncalled for.” Shouri frowned at the screen.

  “She’s not wrong though,” Rebecca said.

  “It’s true, but she shouldn’t say it,” Shouri countered.

  “I have a bad feeling about how long Colette has been typing for,” Shouri commented.

  “Maybe she’s slow on the keyboard? Surprised you’re as fast as you are with the touchscreen keys,” Rebecca noted.

  “The faster I type, the faster everyone leaves me the hell alone,” he boasted.

  Rebecca was content to chuckle at her Maestro’s pile of dust he called his willpower.

  When they turned their attention back to the screen, Colette had attacked.

  “Holy shit it just keeps going,” Rebecca tore her eyes away from the screen, unable to read the thick block of text.

  “The short of it is, Colette thinks whoever actually built Whistler and Vail’s bodies had a lot of money and know-how to do so,” Shouri said, his eyes scanning the text wall for any other pertinent info.

  “Someone with a lot of money… like the Klein Foundation?” Rebecca questioned.

  Shouri hummed at the thought. It did seem to line up, considering the Klein Foundation had basically unlimited money and was in the game of Resonator battles.

  As if to answer that line of thinking, a new message came in.

  “What would you do with 100 million notes Sho?” Rebecca inquired.

  “Buy an island and never talk to anyone again,” he replied without missing a beat.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Rebecca laughed.

  The chat went silent for a couple of minutes. They had already established well enough that someone spent a fortune building Vail and Whistler’s bodies.

  “You’re not wrong,” Rebecca hummed in thought. “That’s a lot of money to just evaporate.”

  “I don’t think this line of questioning is gonna get us anywhere, but at least we might be able to wring someone’s neck up for the shit we went through,” Shouri grumbled.

  “That’s for sure,” agreed Rebecca, mirroring her Maestro’s irritation.

  “Why?” Shouri voiced out loud. “Why did he want to research Feroce so badly to get a whole college involved?”

  “I don’t understand why that’s a big deal. Isn’t it normal for colleges to study stuff?” Rebecca questioned.

  “Well yes, but I still think Ilea is suspicious as fuck,” Shouri said, glaring at the screen.

  Rebecca hummed in thought. She was glad she was etuding with Shouri at the moment, as her normal brain fog was lifted, giving her a clear picture of what was going on. “I do admit, every time we’ve seen him he feels… wrong somehow.”

  “Pacifica said his emotions felt crafted? I’m not sure what exactly that means, but that is a huge red flag to me – like he has something to hide,” Shouri recalled.

  “Right, and Kaira agreed with her,” Rebecca added.

  “Hmmm…” the two hummed.

  Their train of thought was interrupted by a new string of messages.

  The chat went silent. Rebecca grabbed Shouri’s free hand and gripped it tightly – it had suddenly become clammy and he trembled.

  It took a good minute or two for the conversation to resume.

  Rebecca perked up at the sudden question from her Maestro.

  “You were watching over us, but you weren’t directly in the dream thing. Taika and Pacifica I get being immune to the thing,” Shouri laid out his thoughts for her.

  “R-right,” Rebecca said uneasily.

  “I knew about Mila, I guess we never asked about those other two we fought,” Shouri mumbled.

  “I guess it’s good that we did. Would have sucked for them if we beat their asses and they were still Feroce,” Rebecca shrugged.

  “Yeah…”

  “Really hate our legal system,” Shouri grumbled.

  “I don’t know anything about it,” admitted Rebecca.

  “It’s just all a bunch of red tape and hanging on to loose interpretations of the ‘law’, which is whatever the hell they decide it is this week.”

  Rebecca frowned, mulling that over. The world was more complicated than she had thought. Shouri mentioned that trying to take down Ilea Vim may get them arrested. But if he was truly the bad guy, why would they get in trouble for it? Weren’t they being the good guys here?

  “Wait, who do we know?” Rebecca raised a brow, wondering what her Maestro was up to.

  “Makani, Lina, and all them in Canolapra, Vince, Solana, and probably a bunch of other people I’m forgetting about. I know Vince would come running if I told him about it, and if not Mila would drag him back here,” Shouri said.

  “So what’s your idea?” Rebecca questioned.

  “Still kinda thinking that through,” admitted Shouri quietly.

  “No! It’s not!” Rebecca shook her Maestro, who kept typing despite it all.