Author's Note: In the last chapter of Infinity, I said the next thing I would be writing in would be Uninvited Guests, my Bleach story.
Turns out sometimes I'm dishonest.
Chapter 4:
Lutecia wiped the last of the makeup from her face and stared into the mirror, her expression set in stone.
"Another great performance, Lu!" Agito said. "You were knocking 'em dead out there!"
"Thank you, Agito." Lutecia said, lightly inclining her head in the red-head's direction.
"Zest... er... you were... certainly... present?" Agito said. "I don't know one person I could ask who would say that you weren't totally existing out there tonight."
"I have already died once. This life is nothing but a brief reprieve before I return to the netherworld." Zest intoned.
"... ... ..." Agito said. "Good for you?"
"You also performed well, Agito." Lutecia offered.
"Naaah, I'm nothing compared to you and... well, okay, I did better than Zest. Though he totally existed! Way to be physically there, man! But I can't hold a candle to you, Lulu." Agito said. "I mean, I get some chuckles, but you... it's like the whole world stands still. And then, after they stand still, they start laughing."
"Isn't it, though?" A new voice inquired. Doc Scaglietti strode into the dressing room, a shark's grin on his face. "You were brilliant tonight, my dear. You lit up the arena, a rousing success all around."
"Yes, doctor."
"But we can't relax just yet. We'll be upping your treatments again, starting tonight. Five percent should be enough, I think." He said, almost conversationally.
"What?!" Agito snapped. "Listen you nut, even Lu can't handle much more of-"
"It's fine, Agito." Lutecia said. "If the doctor thinks I need to be funnier, I'm sure he has a good reason."
"Indeed I do." Jail said. "I thought we had more time, but... I've just been informed that she was here, in the audience tonight. Uno just found her on the security footage."
For the first time that night, Lutecia showed the slightest hint of emotion. Unfortunately, it wasn't a terribly appropriate clownish emotion. Nobody wants to see a frightened clown. "And I... I didn't even sense her? That shouldn't be..."
"I know. That's what worries me... she shouldn't be anything special, I would have staked my life that she wasn't, not yet. And yet somehow, she evaded your notice." Scaglietti said severely. "I don't fully understand her abilities. She is an excellent clown... not on your level, of course, but excellent..."
"Yes. She is." Lutecia said softly. She had seen the girl, Vivio, perform once; the doctor had wanted her to study a potential rival. Aside from thinking that the young clown down in the ring looked suspiciously similar to a girl who had once passed out in front of her trailer and spooked the elephants, Lutecia had not been terribly impressed... except for one moment.
It was a simple gag, honestly. She'd been pretending to sneak up on another of the clowns in her troupe, holding a cream pie. The audience could clearly see this 'stealth', of course, so she was exaggeratedly hushing them as she 'snuck'. Then, just when the tension reached it's climax, and she was to tap her unsuspecting target on the shoulder and pie them in the face when they turned... she would trip over her own feet and land face-first in the pie. As gags went it was funny, but nothing special.
But it was made special when Vivio performed it... there was no other way to say it other than she performed it Perfectly. Every single second of the small routine; the deliberately over-exaggerated 'sneaking'. The way she held the projectile pastry. The intentional 'trip' and subsequent fall. Every instant of it, of that one single gag, had been completely without flaw. Before and after that one gag, Vivio had been... good, but not great. But during that one, crystalline moment, she was Perfect, a clown to end all clowns, the audience rolling in the aisles in helpless laughter in spite of the fact that the gag really wasn't anything special, their senses of humor completely overloaded by the sheer presence of the girl. The experience of being surpassed, upstaged even for a few brief seconds, had rocked Lutecia to her core, shaken her confidence like nothing else ever had. She'd nearly made a facial expression, she'd been so shocked.
Her reverie was interrupted by Scaglietti's continued speech, "But now it seems that she is somehow able to appear perfectly normal when not performing."
"But... but clowns are not normal. Just because she isn't wearing the make-up doesn't mean she isn't a clown." Lutecia protested. "Just because she wasn't performing doesn't mean she isn't a clown. Clowning is more than face paint and shoes. It is in the soul."
"As I said, I don't understand exactly what's happening." Scaglietti replied. "It's disturbing, and you must be prepared for whatever the consequences might be. It could very well be that her powers are beyond what we expected, and you must be able to match them. The endgame is approaching, and a conflict is inevitable. You know as well as I do that there can be only one Ultimate Circus, and only one Ultimate Clown."
"Of course," Lutecia said, as though this were the most logical thing in the world.
"This is the Ultimate Circus. Our performers are the finest the world has ever seen. And you are the Ultimate Clown." Scaglietti said, passion rising in his eyes.
"Ultimate? Hey, what about that Yagami lady's circus?" Agito asked.
Jail winced. "Yes, well..."
"I just ask 'cause I think they sell about the same number of tickets we do. And they're the ones who employ this clowning prodigy you're all worried about. So aren't they just as good as us? We can't really be 'Ultimate' if there's another out there that's just as good."
"All right, yes, technically speaking we do have roughly the same attendance rates. But it's not because they're as good as us. They cheat." Scaglietti said irritably. "I mean, really, have you seen their acts?"
"Oh, you mean that thing where Nanoha flips off the trapeze and lands on the tightrope next to Fate, and she pretends she's about to fall off but then Fate catches her and they look like they're about to kiss, but then before they do they suddenly turn away from each other and bow to the audience?"
"That, among other things." Scaglietti said. "Look, my point is that we're the better circus. We don't need to blatantly troll the audience, we get by on pure skill."
Agito smiled sweetly. "Uh-huh, pure skill! That's right, chief!" She then coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'highly illegal gene therapy'.
"... what was that?"
"Nothing. Just a cough." Agito said. "::cough::black-market-cybernetic-implants::cough::."
"That's... that's quite a cough."
"I might be coming down with something. But you totally run this circus on nothing but the pure, natural skill of your performers. ::cough::Bizarre-and-immoral-experiments-with-strange-artifacts-of-unknown-origin::cough::." Agito coughed.
Jail narrowed his eyes. "You should do something about that cough. Immediately."
"Will do, chief. Got some cough medicine in my car. I must be getting sick. Sick with amazement over how totally legitimate this show is, I mean! ::cough::You-think-we-haven't-figured-out-what-Due's-actual-job-is?::cough::."
"Well... go get it." Jail said, taking Lutecia by the arm and leading her off for her treatments.
Agito cheerfully waved good-bye. "Bye, Lu! Good luck! ::cough::This-guy-is-a-nut-and-we-should-get-a-new-job::cough::"
"Okay! Seriously! Go get the cough drops!"