Its Magic Time! (M)

[matto]

Name: Apollo the not so Magnificent!
Rank: D
IIC Length: 1 Day
Difficulty: Easy
Description: The Great Magician Apollo has arrived in Kusagakure to perform a show! Because his assistant has fallen ill, he requires help from a local ninja to act as his helper during the act. A note from his assistant is inclosed. Dearest Ninja, if by some bizarre reason you decide to assist my blundering employer, be advised that none of his magic is his own. He relied on my skills as a genjutsu user to fool crowds into believing his magic. Being able to use three illusions to entertain a crowd is all he requires. Be creative and please help him succeed!
Objective: Help the great magician perform a spectacular show by helping him perform 3 mystifying illusions. This should take three posts.
Reward: 900

With a magician coming into town, things were beginning to get interesting throughout the village. Several people were helping to setup for the upcoming event, as well as getting food preparation done for those that would be catering the event.

If only all things were just as exciting, as Apollo stood backstage, frantically searching for some kind of hope to hang on. "I've got no material, since my assistant is down!" He spoke, nearly breathless as he tried to capture some form of an act to do.

Stepping into the magician's makeshift dressing room, Kakan spoke calmly. "I take it you need my help?" Kakan asked, curious.

"Are you the help the Kusakage is sending?" Apollo asked, almost frantic.

"Yes, I am..."

"Good, I need you to tell me what you can do and we'll figure something out for a routine." This would probably weigh heavily on Kakan's ninjutsu.

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Opening Night: First Illusion

There it was, opening night, Kakan and Apollo ready to go on stage. The stage was just a plain stage, the only lighting a few paper lanterns placed on the edges of the stage. They had gone over the three tricks in question, the ones that would win over the audience, but Apollo obviously, was not too courageous about it.

"Are... are you sure they won't see your handseals?" Apollo asked, curious and a little frightened.

"Are you sure you can keep up your 'wand waving?'" Kakan asked, sarcastically. Apollo merely nodded and stepped onto the stage as his name came echoing through the curtains.

The crowd began to applaud, seeing Apollo, the famous magician, step onto the stage. "Greetings to everyone, and welcome to my magic show! You will be amazed, astounded, and all-around amused at my magic that I am bringing with me to the stage today. I'd like to introduce my assistant." Apollo spoke, Kakan stepping into everyone's sight. Kakan was dressed in a blue cloak, several small stars sewn into the fabric, as well as a hood pulled just enough over his head that you could see his face but not his hair. "My first magic trick will be... Floating Splinters! Using my magic wand as a medium, and my natural magic ability, I will cause the splinters of a broken log to float into the air and into a target, all whilst my hands will be tied behind my back." Apollo said, Kakan beginning to tie the ropes around his wrists.

"Lay it a bit thicker and I might be able to cut your act with a knife... Kakan whispered to Apollo, stepping off stage and gathering a specially picked log from off-stage. Setting it on a rolling table and going out to the audience, Kakan took out his sword and began breaking off splinters, Apollo's voice no longer an important thing for Kakan to hear. He had to focus on not letting the audience know that it was him actually doing the magic. Another assistant was pulling a large dart board onto the stage, placing it behind the table, with Apollo standing several meters away.

"Now... watch as I make those splinters levitate and fly into the dart board to my right." With that as his cue, Kakan stepped a bit off stage, still staying close enough that he could still channel the chakra for the technique in question. Rifling through each handseal, Kakan began to make the splinters float, all to the amazement of the audience. If it was this easy to be a magician, it didn't even seem like a real career anymore.

Shooting the scattered splinters into the dart board, Kakan let his hands drop as he moved onto the view of the stage to gather the materials and move them off stage, getting ready for their next trick.

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Second trick

With the first trick out of the way, Kakan gathered a larger table on wheels, a set of two hats placed on it, with room for a third. Unknown to the audience, there were three small holes drilled through the table, easily hidden by the white table cloth that was placed over it. With the table on stage, Kakan slipped a vine through his right shoulder blade and through the sleeve of his robe and under the table cloth, lifting a small latch that was under the table.

"And, now, for some simple levitation, as well as mind reading." Apollo boomed, taking off his hat and showing it to the audience. "You see nothing in my hat, correct? Here, you take it and look through it." He said, tossing a single hat off stage to a member of the audience. Following suit he threw the other two to others in the audience. "Check them all, in fact, come look at my table. All three of you." Each member of the audience stepped forward, ready to look through his little scheme. "You see nothing on this table that would give away anything that you've done, correct? Go ahead, move the fabric, tug it and even place your hand on it. Its weighted at the edges so that no one will leave a single trace of what they've done. Now, what we're going to do is first set up these hats with three different cards of your choosing. There are six cards here, each the same shape and size, but holding a completely different picture on it. Assistant, let them pick their cards and place them where they want on the table, I want to make sure no one can say I've cheated." Apollo said, walking off stage with his hand over his face, almost stumbling into a dressing rack.

Kakan approached them with the six cards, a smile on his face. "Pick one of these six cards and place them under one of these hats. Once you are done, let me know so that I can let Apollo know." Kakan said, watching as each of them picked a specific card. One picked a diamond, one picked a heart, and one picked a clover. Each placed their card on the table and covered it with a hat. "Now, stay on stage and I will get Apollo the Magnificent." Kakan said, stepping off stage and getting Apollo. "You know the signal, go for the hat that is bumped and give me three seconds to retract my technique..." Kakan said, stepping off stage where he could still see the table, making one of his vines from his right foot move through a hole in the boards and under the latch near the table.

"Now... You..." Apollo spoke, gesturing to the first person in line. "I will magically figure out which card you had, as well as which hat you placed it under." Apollo said, Kakan taking this chance to push his vine through a strategically placed hole in the fabric to bump the middle hat. Taking the three second wait, just as Kakan had said, Apollo picked up the hat and waved the card to the participant in his great facade. "Was this your card?" Of course it was.

The next two participants went just the same way, they even went so far as to mix up the cards and the hats without him looking. With Kakan's vines and his eyes, he'd keep an eye on the cards and the hats for Apollo.

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Final Trick

With the card trick out of the way, there was only one more thing that needed to be done. Directly below the open latch was earth for Kakan to manipulate for this next technique/trick.

"Now... Up until now, you've only see this table cloth. So, now, I want to show you what is below this table." Apollo said, pulling the fabric off in great elegance. "This is a simple table, nothing more, nothing less. Now, what if I were to say, I stab a thousand thorns through this table with just a wave of this fabric, following up with the grandest surprise of all? DO you think I could do it?"

Of course they do... Because you are just so magnificent...

Kakan, whether he liked it or not, was getting fed up with this guy and pretending he was doing all this. If it weren't for the fact that Kakan was interested in getting paid, he'd be all over messing this guy up. With the open latch below, Kakan created several handseals, Apollo throwing the fabric back over the table with much difficulty. The fabric was actually just like a type of chainmail, the soft white shimmer actual metal that was meant for this last trick.

With the last handseal formed, Kakan brought a vine up from beneath the table and began shooting several hundred thorns through the wood, the metal holding each thorn back as Apollo "mystified" the audience with his greatness. With the last of the thorns shot out of the technique, Kakan then followed up with a last technique, a single deep purple flower blooming below the table. Pulling the metallic sheet off of the table and handing it to Kakan, Kakan stepped off stage, as the people in the crowd just stared at the decimated table. Hundreds of thorns were left all over the table, thanks to the metallic sheet.

"That's not the most magnificent thing, this is!" Apollo spoke, having Kakan and another assistant lift the table up and take it off stage.

"Don't let the thorns touch you... I don't want you getting any poison on you." Kakan spoke to the girl, giving her fair warning. Below the table, the audience gave their applause at the appearance of a single purple flower, at full bloom.

"Thank you, thank you everyone!" Apollo spoke, bowing to the audience repeatedly and stepping off stage to see Kakan's pissed face.

"You got your show, so, can I have my completion notice?" Kakan wanted to get out of these clothes and into his normal attire, to turn in this mission.

With a final signature, Kakan received his notice, as well as the heartfelt thanks of the magician. "A real magician would learn ninjutsu, so that they wouldn't have to keep up this facade for everyone that he was 'magic.'" Kakan said, stepping off stage and changing into his clothes, leaving to go turn in another mission.

-exit-