The Acrobat's Performance
Bickslow rarely managed to take solo mission, the Raijinshuu's busy schedule and tendency to take long missions meant it was nearly impossible. It was a shame, he really did enjoy taking a quick mission himself. Not that he didn't enjoy going on missions with his team; they were his best friends and he would never entertain the idea of leaving them. Simply, he liked going off on a mission himself and beating up some criminals himself from time to time.
So, when the opportunity presented itself to take a mission, Bickslow had leapt at the chance.
And what an opportunity it was! The stars seemed to have aligned with this mission. Not only had his team decided to take a few weeks off after a particularly long mission, giving him more than enough time to take a solo, but a job had been posted on the notice board that was perfect for him. It was fate.
The mission was spectacular. A thief had been bothering patrons of a nearby carnival, pretending to be a visitor before temporarily paralysing people and stealing anything they had of worth as they left the circus after the main show. The mission called for a mage who could not only deal with the thief, but also could go undercover as a performer so they could assess the crowd and find the thief in question. It spoke to Bickslow's very soul. A mission where he could make a spectacle of himself, wear ridiculously gaudy clothing, show off his exceptional skills in gymnastics and be applauded by an adoring crowd: it was perfect. He'd taken the job without hesitation, rushed towards the carnival and explained he'd be taking up the request. That very night, he was called into the tent for his first performance.
Before a crowd of cheering onlookers, he was in his element. He wore a sleeveless spandex shirt, bright blue tights and a pair of gloves for grip. Both hands were pressed against a balance-beam, the man in a rigid hand stand with his legs spread in a perfect spilt. As the crowd hooted, he slowly removed one hand from the beam and raised it in the air, the crowd loving the near impossibility of the pose. It had been far too long since he'd shown off his athleticism.
He wasn't just having fun, though. He'd choreographed his routine so he could get a good look at every member of the crowd, being able to scout out everyone there to find the thief. For the people outside of the shows, Poppo and Puppu were whizzing around the carnival scouting everyone else; they'd annoyed Freed and got him into trouble, so they weren't allowed to be part of his routine.
So far, he hadn't seen anyone who was suspicious. Most people had fairly clean souls, the worse he'd seen so far was a low level of guilt, a soul tinted with minor betrayal. The guy had probably cheated on a lover or screwed a friend over; not bad enough to be a thief.
He needed to get a look at the other side of the crowd, so slowly lowered his raised hand again and placed it on the beam. With fluid movements and not a hint of the intense strain on his arms, he turned the movement into a simple cartwheel that took him off the beam. He performed an overly extravagant bow to the crowd, eyes never leaving the crowd as he looked for a corrupted soul in the jungle of cheers. So far nothing.
"I'd like to introduce you all to a couple of friends of mine." He shouted to the crowd. "Meet Pappa, Peppe and Pippi."
From behind a curtain of the tent, the three wooden dolls flew out. They swirled around, releasing a small amount of Bickslow's magic to leave bright blue trails behind them to distract the crowd. As the dolls danced, it gave Bickslow the opportunity to focus truly on the crowd. He wasn't just looking for souls, he also kept an eye out for people's facial expressions of people faking enjoyment or not trying at all; he found many and made a shortlist of people to keep an eye on.
His dolls could only distract the crowd for so long. He walked to a metal bar, suspended high in the air with enchantments. His dolls followed him as he leapt up, grabbing the bar with both hands and began swinging on it. He moved his hips in the direction of his swings, getting enough momentum so his legs reached above the bar at the high point of a swing.
As his height reached the apex of his swing, he removed his grasp on the bar and leapt forward. Two of the dolls sprung forward, Bickslow landing with one foot on each. Pappa, the third doll, flew behind his head and met his hand, leaving him in a crab position while floating in the air with one hand held aloft. With a small push from Pappa, his body was pushed forward so he was standing straight on Pippi and Peppe, not showing any imbalance as his dolls flew him around.
From the high up position, he got a better look at his shortlist of potential thieves. They were all looking at him, and he had the chance to check their souls. After seeing most of their souls were bright and unburdened, just two were left.
He pushed his foot down against Peppe, using the force to jump up and leave the platforms of his dolls. Airborne, he brought his foot over his head and performed and impressive flip. He landed on the sandy ground with one foot, smirking. All he had to do now was see which of the two was the thief, just a split second of eye contact with both men and he could confirm his suspicious and act on them.
Easy as a mid-air somersault.
They were either side of the circus tent, but that worked in his favour. Walking to the edge of the ring in front of one of his suspects, he performed a few stretches. He feigned the need to limber up, but it granted him the chance to catch his suspect's eyes and read his guilt. He couldn't be sure of the specifics, but he felt guilt for his treatment of someone before they died, meaning he wasn't the thief.
With that conclusion, he needed to be sure his other suspect was guilty. With quick movements, he began to perform a triple back-flip to the other side of the ring. Once he stopped, with chest heaving slightly, he caught the mans eyes. His guilt was from thievery, he was the criminal he had been called there for.
But he wasn't just there to find out who had been harassing the robbing the customers. He needed to apprehend them as well, and that was where the fun was really going to begin. He sent a pulse to his five dolls, recalling them to his side just in case things didn't go quite as planned. Once he knew the dolls were coming, he addressed the crowd with a grin.
"For my next little trick, I'm gonna need a little help from a member of the audience." He grinned, watching as some members got excited while others shelled up. His thief didn't react. "Don't worry, my little assistants will pick out the perfect participants."
He sent out Pappa, Peppe and Pippi towards the crowd, wordlessly telling the three of them to float around the crowd as if they were picking someone out at random. They followed the instruction, flickering around the loud group of spectators until they all floated towards the thief, pulling to a stop and hovering over them and floating around in a circle. The thief looked up at them with the smallest amount of panic, all eyes in the tent now looking at him. Bickslow grinned and walked back to that side of the ring.
"Looks like we've got our participant. Come down and we'll have a little fun." He smirked, immediately seeing him open his mouth to protest. Bickslow couldn't have that. "But before you do, I'd make sure that shiny little ring is safe. A place like this, who knows what could go missing?"
There. Just enough of a suggestion that he knew what the man was doing to bring him towards the mage.
Bickslow grinned as the thief walked down the stairs of the seating, the dolls following behind him; any chances the man had of running out would be stopped by an angry little doll. The thief seemed to know this, so climbed over the small dividing wall to the ring and beside Bickslow. The mage's tongue slipped out a little as he looked the man up and down, knowing exactly what he needed to do to deal with the situation effectively. First, he needed to deal with the crowd.
"Aw, you look petrified. Don't worry, I ain't gonna make you do any flips or anything." He grinned, patting the mans back with more force than needed. "You just need to toss me a couple things, that's it."
He walked to the back of the ring and picked up four juggling pins, tucking two under his arms and juggling mindlessly with the other two as he walked back to the thief. After placing the pins down beside the thief, he took a steel cylinder and a sturdy plank of wood from the side of the ring and placed them both on the balance beam.
With his next performance now set up, he walked back to the thief. He placed a hand on the man's shoulder and grasped it with enough strength to make him squirm slightly. The crowd couldn't see, but he was showing the thief he knew exactly what he had done.
"All you gotta do is toss the pins to me when I say. And don't worry if my babies start to spiral ya, its just them saying hi." He gripped the mans shoulder tighter. "Although, be careful when you throw me the pins. These little guys are connected to me, have the same reflexes. Say a pin hits my in the stomach, one of my dolls might wince and hit ya in the eye. Hope you got good aim."
A threat now established that would deter the thief from trying to 'accidentally' knock Bickslow off and flee in the confusion, he hopped onto the balance beam. He leant the plank of wood on the cylinder and placed a foot on it, quickly moving his other foot to the other side of the plank. He was now balancing on the plank that was wobbling slightly, suspended at the top of the cylinder precariously. The crowd watched as Bickslow steadied himself, unaware that the dolls – now all five of them having returned – had formed a circle around the thief and were slowly spiralling him. The thief had noticed, however, and was watching the dolls with caution.
"Come on kid." Bickslow grinned. "Crowd a'waiting~"
Seemingly trapped in the situation, the thief picked up one of the pins by his feet and tossed it towards Bickslow with an underarm throw. Bickslow caught it with ease, managing to keep balanced on the precarious piece of wood. He tossed it in the air and caught it once, nodding to the thief for him to throw it again.
As the pin became airborne, Bickslow made eye contact with the man again. This time, instead of just taking a short glimpse at his soul, he established a link with the thief. It was just enough for him to access the thief's mind and leave a message.
"We both know who you are and what you've been doing." Bickslow implanted in the mans mind, noticing him wince at the foreign voice in his mind. "Don't react, just throw the next pin."
The thief picked up the third pin and tossed it to Bickslow, who managed to catch it with his right hand and juggled the three items at once. The performer could hear the cheers of his adoring crowd and couldn't help but feel a little bitter that they couldn't know just how impressive it was. Not only was he juggling three pins while balancing, he was also maintaining a pretty powerful spell and having a conversation with a thief through his mind. He should have been covered in roses thrown by the crowd for his skills, and only the criminal could vouch for how impressive he was being.
After he got into a groove with juggling the three pins – he needed to make sure the audience were both entertained and distracted, after all – he looked back to the thief. He continued his message when he had the chance.
"The way I see it, you're kinda screwed right now." Bickslow grinned. "You're thinking of all the ways you can get outta this, but I'm gonna save you the trouble. Right now, my babies are perfectly positioned in their Baryon Formation, with you right in the middle. I've never actually used it with someone there, but I'm gonna guess being at the catalyst of a high powered magical beam, it won't be nice. And it definitely won't be pretty, probably would ruin my show. I think we both wanna avoid that."
Bickslow nodded to the final pin that the thief was gripping with whitening knuckles. The thief tossed towards him and he managed to catch it, adding it to the juggling loop. The crowd cheered and applauded at this, but Bickslow had to ignore them as he sent another message into the mans thoughts.
"So, this I what's gonna happen. When I stop, I'm gonna give you an excuse to leave. You're gonna walk directly to the gates, there's a couple rune-knights hanging around waiting for ya. You confess to them and let them deal with your ass." He noticed the thief flinch slightly. "And don't try running off. I'm gonna send one of my babies with ya, so you're not gonna be able to slip out with the army chasing ya. Capiche?"
When the thief nodded – and the intimidated expression on his face told Bickslow he would follow through with the deal – Bickslow smirked and looked back to the crowd. He called one of his babies over and had it knock away the pins as they were airborne. With the pins now laying on the ground, Bickslow had to complete his act.
Still balancing on the plank, he slowly leant down and placed his right hand in the centre and grinned. With an enormous amount of strain in his arm, his legs slowly lifted from the plank and performed a one-handed handstand on the wobbling surface. The crowd went wild for that.
Yeah. He was a badass!
Quickly, he placed his free hand on the rigid balance beam and grabbed onto it. With the same level of speed, he moved his other hand onto the beam and turned to the position his routine has began with. He pushed down and used it to springboard himself upwards into a final flip. The crowd cheered again and Bickslow bowed to every section of the crowd, making sure that the thief was still entrapped by his dolls. When he saw the man still being spiralled by his babies, he decided he would allow himself to relish in the cheers. He had, after all, quite possible saved everyone here from losing their valuable possessions.
"And a hand for my assistant." He motioned to the thief. "As a thank-you for your help, you can take one of my dolls to the food tent and get anything you want for free. Only catch is that the place closes in like ten minutes, so you better hurry."
The applaud died down as Bickslow approached the thief, the Baryon formation breaking as he patted the man on the back. He took a glance at Pappa, wordlessly telling the doll he would be in charge of escorting the thief to the knights. He also gave the possessed doll the permission the be forceful with the thief if he was acting out, and that it should alert the knights itself. He doubted it would be needed, the thief seemed pretty shaken up, so would probably do anything Bickslow said because of this. It was always wise o have a contingency plan, though.
With a final overly aggressive slap on the back, Bickslow sent the thief packing with Pappa floating along beside him. Bickslow grinned and decided that, now his mission was coming to an end, he needed to make the best of the crowd while he had it.
The mage performed a quick set of backflips that took him to the back of the ring. He gave one final, extravagant bow, saluted to the audience and let the curtain fall before him, letting the strain on his muscles and exhaustion for the intensive performance take over as he walked to a bench to recuperate.
Defeating a thief while performing in spandex. He was such a fucking badass!
"Here is your payment, feel free to check its all there. And, again, thank you for what you've done tonight."
Bickslow grinned at the praise from the ringleader of the carnival, who was holding up a bulging bag of jewels as part of his payment; he also got to keep the costume they'd made for him, a reward he was ecstatic about. The ringleader had claimed Bickslow had earned it, he'd taken down the thief that was affecting their business with minimal effort and mess. And he'd put on a show that the audience seemed to enjoy, so he had claimed that Bickslow deserved a little more than what was posted on the job poster. Bickslow wasn't going to fight that.
After the performance had ended and he'd recovered, Bickslow had been told the thief had followed his instructions and handed himself in. The rune-knights had taken him to a nearby jail and he'd be put on trial. Bickslow claimed he was happy to help and the remaining rune-knight left.
"And you're sure I can't convince you to do a couple more shows. You're a real crowd pleaser." The ringleader laughed. "If you work with our contortionist, you could make a pretty great double act. You might enjoy it."
"No can do, I'm afraid. I enjoy being a mage plenty much." Bickslow chuckled. "It was fun showing off again. Hardly ever get to use it."
"Well, I'm glad I can give you that at least." The ringleader chuckled. "I'll let you see yourself out. And thanks again."
Bickslow nodded and took the bag of jewels out of the ringleader's hand, turning to leave. As he did, he caught the mans eyes directly and saw directly into his soul. It was tainted with viciousness, stemming from manipulation, extortion, robbery and cruelty. The mage became completely aware of the environment he was in, his eyes sadly settling on the desk of the ringleader's caravan. Right before the mirror, the very same ring that the thief had been wearing.
"Dammit." He sighed. "I really did like you."
He turned his body back to the ringleader, all mirth in his expression gone. The only way he could have got the ring is on the walk from the tent to the knights. Bickslow knew that the ringleader hadn't been at his performance, so he'd either stolen off a man he assumed was innocent, or knew he was the thief in advance.
The expression on the ringleader's face turning from a pleasant smile to a narrowed eye sneer told Bickslow all he needed to know. Not only did the ringleader know the thief, he was in on it. And Bickslow was being scammed.
"Let me guess." Bickslow spoke again. "You go from town to town. A couple days into being some place, to find a guy down on his luck or a thief or whatever. You make a deal, you lure a couple people away from the crowds every night, have your 'hired help' steal from them and split the profits. But you don't tell him that, once you get enough from an area and you're close to leaving, you get a mage from a random guild to deal with them. You look all innocent 'cause you dealt with it, your hired help is no longer an issue and you get away scot free. You probably know where the guy lived, right? You can get back his share of the profit."
"You're smarter than you look, acrobat." The ringleader grinned. "But you were very fast to come up with something like that. A criminal mind, perhaps. Maybe you're more like me than you think."
Bickslow's jaw clenched slightly at that, the ringleader having hit a nerve. Yes, perhaps the mage did have the remnants of a criminal mind from his past, but he was not the same. Bickslow's soul was tainted with the guilt of his actions, which he'd done out of need. This man was vicious, and his crimes were done because of greed.
"That explains the guy's soul then. It was guilty. He was probably living on the streets and then you show up and offer him a way to turn his life around. Exploiting the needy." He laughed a little, disgusted. "You're a little bit fucked up."
"That's an interpretation, I suppose." The ringleader grinned. "But what are you gonna do? You ain't the first time a mage found out what I'm doing, and you wouldn't be the first to fight back, but I'm still doing it. And, well, you just did a pretty intensive show. Do you really have the energy to get into a fight?"
"I thought it was weird you wanted someone to perform an act. You do it to tire us out, in case of resistance right?" Bickslow groaned as the realisation hit him. He really was being scammed, and by a pro no less. "That's why you give such a big-ass reward for a pretty simple mission. You probably fill everyone with the crap about how good their act was. You inflate our egos, make us so preoccupied with the praise that we don't realise what's going on. You've really got this whole thing figured out, haven't ya?
The ring leader didn't reply. He took the cane he had previously been spinning around the main tent and twisted the head, revealing a long sword similar to Freed's. With a glow of the mans eyes, it light aflame and began to roar. The ringleader smirked.
"I have. I've planned for every eventuality. And you can either leave, forget about this and let me leave or you can fight me, lose and see why my soul is so vicious. Or maybe, you can pretend to leave, report me and, once I find out, I'll hunt you down and burn you alive."
The ringleader truly had planned this out. But he had missed out a couple of things that would eventually lead to his downfall. Bickslow smirked and called his dolls to his side, preparing for a fight that he hoped would be avoidable. Now he himself was ready, he walked close to the ringleader and right in front of the flaming sword.
"You like listing things huh? So I'm gonna list the ways this has gone very badly for you." Bickslow's tongue left his mouth again, a sign of his confidence in his situation. "One: a fire sword ain't scaring a Fairy Tail mage. We've all been burnt by the Fire-Cracker so often that it doesn't really do much anymore. Two: you really should check out the guild's you send the jobs to, we're kinda the kings of going against logic and what you'll expect. That means, I've got a whole lot more options on what to do now. And three: you think I'm tired? I'm a member of the Raijinsuu, one of the strongest teams of the strongest guild. We go and do S-class missions every damn week. That thing I did out there, it wasn't strenuous, it was a fucking warm up."
With the same speed and strength of his performance, he slammed his fist into the mans jaw. With his disorientation, he grabbed the man by the wrist and attempted to wrestle the sword from his hands. When met with resistance, he quickly snapped the mans wrist so he could no longer hold it. The force was revenge for treating him like an idiot.
The sword was thrown to the side and Bickslow quickly took the man in a sharp headlock, applying just enough pressure on his throat to partially block his breathing. He tried to fight against the grasp, but Bickslow's superior stature meant it wasn't worth the effort.
"We're gonna take a nice, romantic walk to jail town, okay." Bickslow taunted. "And while we're there, you're gonna confess to everything you've done and your gonna get locked up in a cage. And make sure they know you hire people who need the money, it'll lower the guys sentence a little."
"Like hell I will." He groaned. "I have a small army out there, what do-"
"No you don't. I can see your soul, baby. I know when you ain't telling the truth. Your troop doesn't have a damn clue about what you're doing. That why all the fancy shit you get from the scheme is in your own caravan. If they knew, you'd scatter it around and keep it as far away from you as you could." Bickslow grinned. "Nah, you're screwed Baby. So, how about that date huh? I've heard interrogation rooms are the new candle lit dinners. Just a shame I won't be joining ya."
The ringleader tried to struggle again, so Bickslow tightened his grip around the mans neck and subdued him slightly. He called his babies to surround the ringleader, circling again. This time, he instructed them to make the trails of energy as they spun, making them on the brink of the Baryon formation without releasing the beam, meaning his babies acted as a mobile cage.
"You should be honoured, never used my babies like this before. So, I guess you're my first time." He taunted. "I think I'll call it Entrapment Formation. I feel like bondage is too on the nose."
Bickslow continued to taunt the now incapacitated ringleader as he guided him out of the caravan, his dolls chanting Entrapment a few times in giddiness for their new spell. As he left the carnival grounds, he made sure to go the most public route he could. Kind of like a walk of shame, further retribution for treating Bickslow like he was some moron. The feeling of petty vengeance was enough to bring the grin on his face fully.
What had begun as a simple mission to take out some thief had ended up in him bringing down a pretty big scammer who manipulated and used people for his own gain. All while wearing bejewelled spandex tights and performing for his adoring crowd.
Yeah. He was the biggest badass in town!