Sakura ran into the house like a train, she was still so excited about what had happened. She was going to get to be an assistant in a real magic show. She could hardly contain herself.

"I'm home!" She called out. The first to ask her how she liked the magic show was her father, Fujitake.

"What was it like?" He asked, and she went into a play-by-play description of the entire show from start to finish. Then, she dropped the question on him.

"You'll never guess. He asked me to be his assistant for the last show! Is it ok, he said I have to ask you, May I, please?" Sakura had never begged for anything in her life, but this once she felt she had to. Fujitake just smiled down at her. She was so excited, how could he say no?

"Of course, Sakura-san, but I want a front row seat."

"Thank you, father," she said as she jumped up and into his arms, absolutely elated. She let him go, still smiling and ran up the stairs to tell Kero the good news.

"Kero-chan, I'm back." She started talking a mile a minute. Kero just sat on the bed with his mouth hanging open, taking in every word she said. When she got to the part about the escape itself, Kero nodded at her.

"Hm," Kero said, "I would have loved to see the escape, at least. Even if there is a trick involved, it would still take a lot of courage and skill. In fact, even if the magic was real, you would still have to hold your breath long enough to get out."

Sakura stopped for a moment, thinking about what Kero said. She remembered that it took a while for them to get Joushin into the tank, plus the time he had to wait until the curtain was put up around the tank. She was feeling a strange kind of excitement, thinking about Joushin in the tank, and as she daydreamed she could almost imagine herself in the tank, surprising everyone with her escape ability. It would go a long way towards her proving that she was at least as good as Clow had been at illusions.

"Incredible," she caught herself saying out loud, "but he wants me to be his assistant for the last show. Tomoyo is making a special costume for me. And I go tomorrow to practice what I need to know to be an assistant."

"!!" Kero looked proud. "That's fantastic. I think it would be good for you to learn the fine art of illusion. You'll learn one of the most important things a good magician learns."

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"Misdirection," he replied. He flew over to the dresser and picked up a rolled up pair of socks. "Getting someone to look at one thing," he tossed the wadded socks across the room, and Sakura watched to see where they landed. When she looked back to where Kero was, he wasn't there. She looked to the left and the right, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"BOOO!" Kero screamed from right behind her head. Sakura nearly hit the ceiling from the fright.

"Kero-chan!" She yelled back, "Try to be quiet."

"While you do something else," he continued. "I made you look at the socks, and then snuck behind you quickly without you seeing." Just then, a knock on the door startled both of them. It was Touya.

"Is everything OK in here," Touya said as he opened the door. Kero dropped to the floor next to Sakura's feet, and she turned around quickly, sweat running down her forehead.

"Oni-chan!" She complained, "couldn't you wait till I said 'come in'? I could have been getting dressed!"

"Heh," he said, looking at her with his big, teasing eyes, "like there would be anything to see."

Sakura suddenly became furious. "Oni-chan, get out!" She screamed, pushing him towards the door. Touya was taken by surprise by her outrage, and he couldn't believe he had said what he said.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, but it was too late. Sakura was so angry, she thought she might have to throw something at her brother.

After he was gone, and Sakura was trying to calm down, anger still on her face. Touya was always doing things to get on her nerves, but only once in a while did he go too far. I'll show him, she said, I'll show what there is to see. I'll be a great assistant to Joushin, maybe even do something really spectacular. Then he'll learn.

The next day at school, Sakura had a hard time concentrating on anything because of thoughts of magical wonders. She actually dropped her recorder during music class, as well as reading from the wrong paragraph in reading class. But she held out, and as soon it was all over she strapped on her roller blades and headed for the theatre where practice would take place.

"Oh how I wish Tomoyo and Kero could be here to see," she thought on the way, "but Tomoyo has choir practice, and Kero just wants to wait till the show. Oh well."

When she got there, and after changing from her roller blades to her shoes, she stepped into the darkness of the theatre, now just a little unnerved by the quiet. When she made it to the main auditorium, she saw, up on the stage, bunches of the props for the show, including the tank from the escape trick. On a stepladder next to the tank, a young girl was cleaning the glass. Since she was unsure how to get anyone's attention, Sakura cleared her throat. The girl heard her and looked out into the theatre.

"Who's there?" The girl asked.

"Sakura Kinomoto," Sakura replied.

"Oh," The girl called out, dropping her towel as she jumped down onto the stage. "Come on up, I've been waiting for you." Sakura climbed the steps up to the stage, the same steps she had climbed the day before.

"Hi," the girl said, "my name is Elainu, I'm Joushin's niece. He wanted me to get you started, since were about the same age." Elainu was about one inch taller than Sakura, but with light brown shoulder length hair. Her eyes were hazel, and she had a smile that rivaled Sakura's in size and brightness. "Have you ever seen the backstage at a magic show before?"

"Um, no," Sakura told her.

"Well, you'll be surprised, I'm sure. Even when you find out how this stuff is done, it still doesn't take away the magic. When I became my uncle's apprentice, I was amazed at the work that goes into the show."

"Is it hard work?" Sakura asked her.

"It can be, but you got me to help you out. Every town we go to we ask a local girl to be an assistant for the last show. It helps make everyone in town want to come. But Joushin thinks you could be better. If you can manage it, he wouldn't mind you doing a couple of tricks yourself."

"OH," Sakura gasped. Then she had a thought. "Wait a minute. Didn't Joushin say his apprentice died doing the water chamber escape?"

"Well," Elainu said with a little guilt in her voice, "we just say that to make it seem more exciting. Truth is, the escape is a pretty safe trick. Let me show how all this works."

Like Elainu had said, Sakura was taken by surprise. She never could have dreamed that she could be so lucky. The rest of the time was spent looking at how some of the bigger tricks were done. Elainu explained about how the different tricks worked. She showed her the secret hiding places where the rabbits and doves were kept, how you need two elephants (both borrowed from the Tokyo metropolitan Zoo) to make one disappear, and how an assistant can distract an audience from what the magician is really doing.

But Sakura kept looking at the tank and wondering how that was done. Her curiosity about it was nearly killing her, since it seemed like it was so impossible. Finally she asked Elainu.

"Um, how about the escape? How is that done?" Sakura didn't really expect an answer. "Is it a very hard trick?"

"You mean the water chamber?" Elainu confirmed. "Nah, I've done it before."

Sakura's eyes got wide.

"Really? But, isn't it dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"Well, sure, but so is swimming." Elainu went over to the tank and leaned her hand against it. "The biggest danger of this is panic. If you loose your cool, you loose your life. But once you know how to get free, it's just as safe as the Sawing-in-half trick."

"But," Sakura said, "don't you have to know how to pick locks and things like that?"

Elainu looked at Sakura and considered how to explain it to her. She went over to a large case and pulled out a set of handcuffs.

"See these?" Elainu asked. "This is the special set that we had made to fit me. Full size ones are too loose, and people need to see that the cuffs are on tight. Turn around and put your hands behind your back."

Sakura's eyes got wide. She wasn't sure she wanted to let this girl, who she only just met, lock her hands behind her back. In fact, Sakura wasn't sure she's let anyone do that to her.

"Aw, come on, I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want to show you something."

Reluctantly, Sakura turned around and offered her hands behind her. Elainu put them on her, clicking them till they were snug.

"There," Elainu said, "all locked up. Can you get loose?" Sakura tried to slip her hands out of the cuffs, but they were too snug, and even though she could reach most of the metal with her fingers, she couldn't figure out if there was a trick.

"No," Sakura replied, her nerves getting the better of her.

"Relax," Elainu told her as she pulled out the key and unlocked the cuffs, "I understand how you feel. If you've never been locked up like that, it can get you nervous quick." She took the cuffs off and handed Sakura the key and the cuffs. "Now, you lock me." Elainu turned and around with her hands behind her back.

Sakura was shaking a little as she put the cuffs on Elainu. She wasn't sure if it was just the excitement of learning new things, or if she was just nervous about the whole thing. Once she had locked Elainu's hands, the magician's apprentice turned around to face her student.

"See," she said, first pulling her hands up just enough to be able to see them, "I can't get loose. The cuffs are tight enough to where I can't get my hands out of them, and I can't pull them in front of me." She continued to struggle against them, as she really was stuck for real, then without having said another thing, she pulled one hand out from behind her, with the cuffs still hanging from her wrist. Sakura was amazed, and instantly all the nervousness was replaced with pure shock.

"How did you."? Sakura started to say.

"With this," Elainu pulled her other hand out from behind her, and held up a key. "I had it hidden in my back pocket. I wouldn't let anyone hang me upside down in a tank of water if I had to pick the lock." Sakura was surprised at herself. It seemed that Kero had said something about that, something about.

"Misdirection!" Sakura blurted out.

"Very good," Elainu said, "you may be a natural at this. Once you loose your nerves, I bet you could be a great entertainer."

Sakura could only stare at Elainu. She had never thought about magic like this before. With all her cards, she was a pretty skilled little sorceress, but this was different. It was entertaining. People come from miles around to see this kind of thing. Maybe, she thought, I could use my cards as a way to entertain people. For the first time in her short time as mistress of the cards, she felt like she could somehow live up to the legacy of Clow.