”That’s— I mean, she would’a thought you were— Not t’ say that yer not, but…” Madison clamped her lips shut, cheeks flaring. Dang it. It was such a simple compliment, but she was still finding herself a smidge tongue-tied.
”Magic and flattery.”
Kaito let out a small chuckle at the cute reaction, his grin widening.
“Comes with the job! Though, it’s not really flattery if it’s true.”
Another giggle and delighted clap of her hands, and she was feeling giddy all over again. “It’s nice t’ meet’cha Kuroba! Name’s Madison. It’s too bad m’ niece isn’t here t’ meet’cha herself. Her thing is handsome magicians.”
“Hmm, but if she had come, this ‘handsome magician’ wouldn’t have had the chance of teaching a trick to such a lovely lady,” he said teasingly, putting his arms behind his head.
”I c’n guarantee that m’ niece is going to be smilin’ for a week if I can manage t’ not screw it up in front of her.” That would mean getting a deck of cards, but she was sure she could find a place that sold them.
It then occurred to her that he had gone through the trouble of teaching her a trick when she hadn’t even know who he was. “M’sorry. I got so caught up in everythin’ that I didn’t get yer name.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” The magician grinned and pulled out one of his hands, making another rose appear.
“And the name’s Kuroba Kaito.”
”Ten years?” No one stuck to a hobby like magic for that long unless it was their passion. She knew that people thought it was silly that she still carried her love of plants and flowers, regardless those same people having told her that it would get her nowhere as a child.
The sudden pop and shower of colorful paper made her flinch, but her smile was returning. Tilting her head back, she let a few of the pieces fall unto her hands.
”Yer an amazin’ magician. Really. I mean, it’s cool t’ see it on TV an’ stuff, but it’s way more fun up close.” She giggled, “Thanks for teachin’ me…”
The teen put his hands in his pockets, slightly tilting his head and grinning.
“It was my pleasure. One of the best things about being a magician is making people smile,” He let out a small chuckle, “And I’d be doing a poor job of that if I didn’t help spread more around.”
He had a point, but she didn’t say a word since he had already begun to show her how the trick worked. Leaning forward, Madison kept her eyes on the cards and soaked in his instructions. A nod here and there, and she glanced up at the teen.
”I don’t think I’ll be gettin’ that fancy yet, but I think I get it.” Standing straight, she placed her hands on her hips and cocked a brow at the magician.
”Y‘know, y’ look kinda young. How long have y’ been doin’ this fer?”
“Well, I suppose it’s been about ten years since I’ve been practicing magic myself.”
Kaito split the deck, fanning all the cards out in both hands. Then, he closed them with a snap and they disappeared in a burst of confetti.
“My father was a magician, you see, so I kinda took after him as soon as I was old enough to understand how it worked,” he said, eyes softening as he watched the paper fall.
”I only got it ‘cause I had a great teacher.” She felt her face heat up even more under his praise and applause. Bobbing on the front of her sneakers, she tried hard to contain the ecstatic grin twitching at her face.
At his question, however, she gave a snort.
”Yer gonna haffta show me.”
“Well, I haven’t really taught you much yet, so I don’t think ‘great teacher’ is really correct…”
Kaito politely took the deck back from her and set up the trick a third time. However, rather than having her choose a card, he turned the faces toward himself so that she could look at the back. behind the fanned out cards lay another whose face couldn’t be seen.
“When you say a number and take the cards off, this card makes it so that the one picked isn’t removed and is left at the top,” He smiled at her.
“There are some ways of doing it differently, like giving a choice of more cards or less, or even shuffling the deck, if you can manage to keep the top card where it is. But in general, it’s a pretty simple trick, right?”
As subtle as his chuckling was, she still caught it and turned even redder than before. Drawing her shoulders up, Madison lowered her eyes to the deck in her hands and felt a few more knots gathering in her stomach.
”A—All right.” She took in a shallow breath and slowly…
… slowly…
lifted the card on the top up. She hardly wanted to flip it and find out it was the wrong card, but she was painfully curious to know. Tilting the corner, she peeked with one eye open and——
”It’s the card! Look!” She turned the card and let herself grin, “I did it!”
“I knew you could do it!”
Kaito gave some applause, mirroring her smile. He always enjoyed when magic made others happy, whether he was the on performing the tricks or not.
“Wanna see how it works, now? Or maybe….” He tilted his head, “You want to try guessing the trick’s secret yourself?”
”Nnn… Are ya sure it’ll work?” She eyed the cards for a moment, taking in his instructions through the jitters she was now receiving. Her stomach knotted a little, since failing in front of a perfectly kind stranger was something that made her nervous.
Still, she wanted to learn for the sake of her niece. Picking a card, she took the deck into her hands and removed the cards as she was told. Oh, right. She’s supposed to summon the card.
”U—Uh… O’… great magical card, please come to the top of the deck?” Oh, yeah. She was brimming with confidence. Not.
He couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the ‘summoning’.
“There’s no reason to be nervous. It’ll come no matter how you call it.”
Truthfully, the card was already at the top of the deck. The trick really was easy, if you know how it’s prepared…
“Go ahead and pick it up. I’m sure it reached the top by now.”
The seriousness in his face was enough to make her nervous. That, and she hadn’t been paying attention. It was so easy to get caught up in the entertainment of simple card tricks that she had forgotten that she was to learn the trick he was preforming.
Curling at the ends of her hair with her finger, she kept her eyes glued to his hands. She was going to catch the trick——
—— and she missed it.He had already drawn the correct card. Face flushed and eyes wide, she have her cheeks a puff. “Dang it. All right, you’re gonna have t’ do that slower.”
Kaito shuffled the deck a bit, laughing softly.
“Rather than just repeat the trick though….”
He fanned out the same number of cards in the back for her to chose.
“I’ll have you do the second half! After you pick one, I’ll hand the deck over to you. Simply remove the number of cards off the deck based on the number you chose and try summoning the card you picked to the top.”
The magician winked, tilting his head slightly and giving an encouraging grin.
“The magic will do the rest.”
”You’re the best!” She gave her hands an eager clap and promised herself that she would focus. There was some infinite joy that came out of making her niece happy, and she wasn’t going to pass up the chance to learn how.
Biting at her lower lip and eyeing the cards, she pointed to the second card. “Two!”
“Ok, now…”
Kaito moved the cards back into the deck and held it face down.
“I’ll take the first two cards and put them somewhere in the deck…”
He took the top card off and placed it towards the middle of the stack, then did the same with the next, though he placed that one lower.
“And say a magic chant to summon your card to the top.”
One hand moved to cover the other, covering the cards. The teen closed his eyes and put on a more serious face. When he next spoke, it was in a solemn tone
“Arise, oh card chosen by the fair lady who stands before me…”
He removed the hand that rested on the cards, taking the top one between his fingers. After a quick little spin, he showed it to her, grin quickly returning. It was indeed the same one she had picked.
“Well? Doesn’t look too difficult, now does it?”
Moonlight Archive 