This is Lotus

This is Saiki

This is Lotus and Saiki

~Thoughts of others~

Chouno's Second Act! - Can Magic Heal Relationships?

Lotus smiled walking next to Saiki, the two pink-haired teens going down the streets of the shopping district. Lotus stated there was a store she wanted to stop by before she went home and Saiki was accompanying her. He did directly state that he was going with her, but he didn't deny it either.

Lotus smiled to herself thinking about how close she and Saiki had become.

"I've cracked the outer shell and have started to reach the core of Saiki. Although he hides it Saiki is really nice and kind."

Lotus's thoughts started to drift deeper the main topic being Saiki and her cheeks started to flush.

She was finally taken out of her little daydream when someone else's thoughts entered her head.

"~So that's that. Down the drain my life goes.~"

"What a pain. Other's thoughts are so exhausting. This guys' got it pretty bad."

"Doesn't that voice sound kind of familiar though?"

"Yeah, I swear I've heard it before."

Lotus and Saiki took a turn stopping when they saw the magician Chouno. He looked like a mess and was sitting on the side of the road, several empty bottles next to him another one in his hand the contents pouring out onto the ground.

"Nope. False alarm. Let's go Lotus."

Before either teen could make an escape Chouno spotted them.

"Master! Is that you?! Miss Assistant too!"

"Wrong guys!"

"Also the title Miss Assistant sounds a bit demeaning."

Chouno sprung up chasing after Saiki and Lotus, crawling on all fours at a rather impressive speed.

"It's a miracle! Oh, Master! I've never needed your help and wisdom more than right now!"

Chouno caught Saiki, throwing himself on the boy wrapping his arms around the teen entrapping him.

"I said wrong guys!"

"Master!" Chouno got on his hands and knees in front of Saiki and Lotus. "I beg of you. Can you please lend me your Assistant for my next stage act?"

"You can't have Lotus."

*DOKI*

Lotus let out a soft silent gasp. She tentatively put a hand over her heart, due to the fact it had jumped a bit.

"Wha...What was that?"

"Please, Master I need an assistant for my next act!" Chouno begged

The location where the performance was being held was a little place called trick. A fitting name for a theater where magic was performed.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, our next performer has been on TV. The illusionists you've all been waiting for! Chouno!"

A spotlight beamed over the stage and Chouno appeared.

"Tres Bien!"

The crowd went wild clapping and cheering.

"What an applause!"

Behind the magician were two figures one female and one male.

"Whoa they're going wild, has he always been this popular?"

"Yeah, how is he more popular than ever? His acting is just as terrible as I remember but the real question is how did I get roped into this?"

4 hours ago

"You see I have a show booked tonight, but my regular assistant Micheal got in an accident." Chouno sad

"Oh my god is he okay?!" Lotus said

"Did he die?" Saiki questioned

"Fortunately he didn't die in said accident, but he did say he couldn't do today's show. I asked anyone I could think of to be my assistant, but they all told me no. When I needed them the most my friends vanished into thin air. It feels like a really bad illusion," Chouno told them with a few tears on the edge of his eyes.

"That's sad I guess."

"That is sad. What kind of friends does he have?"

"I was so desperate I even asked my mom. But it wound up looking really terrible." Chouno said

"Don't say that about your mom."

"Please Master!" Chouno once again dropped onto his hands and knees begging. "Can you help me out just for tonight's show?"

"Sorry, I'm busy," Saiki stated turning and walking away.

As he passed by Lotus he grabbed the girl's wrist pulling her along. Lotus was taken aback by Saiki's sudden physical contact. Normally it was she that initiated contact with Saiki, not the other way around.

"Please Master wait! This is the biggest show of my life. My love! My darling wife who left me is coming to see it. This is my last best chance to win back her love." Chouno started to sniffle looking to the ground.

When he looked back up he saw that Saiki hadn't stopped walking.

"You're already that far?!"

"Because you're annoying."

Chouno chased after Saiki. "You aren't even slowing down are you? You're unbelievable!"

"Also when you referred to her as your darling wife I cringed."

"How could you ignore someone in need of help. Please see this before you go."

Chouno led the teens to a small hut or shed where the two assumed Chouno was living out of. In the middle of the room was a large box with a cartoonish body painted on top.

"This is the classical body cutting trick. I put all of my savings into this box. A new one would cost 1.2 million yen. But I couldn't afford that, so I bought this used one for 1.18 million yen." Chouno said

"You should've bought it new."

Lotus gaped looking at the box. "It cost how much!? That's 18508.30 USD or 16920.94 EURO. But no matter the country that's a lot of money!"

"How are you so good at currency calculations?" Saiki questioned

"From when I was traveling with my parents for their work. Once I learned the proper equations I learned how to do the currency exchange in my head, pretty useful skill if you travel. My mother also taught me how to barter using objects instead of cash, I once saw her trade a goat for a pickaxe and some gasoline."

Chouno looked to the teens speaking again getting the conversation back on topic.

"This box came with no instruction book! Micheal and I tried doing the trick dozens of different ways but couldn't get it right."

"Was that his accident?"

"Fortunately he only needed a couple of stitches from that. No, the real problem came two days after that when a motorcycle hit him dead on throwing him 30 meters." Chouno said

"Holy crap!"

"Point is I still don't know how to do this trick, and now that the worlds abandoned me I have no choice but to figure out how to do the trick." Chouno

Using his ability to see through things Saiki scanned the box.

"There's nothing much to figure out here. There are no moving pieces or hidden compartments just partitions. It's a box."

"I feel kind of bad, the man got gypped."

A loud revving sounded in the room as Chouno pulled out a chainsaw.

"I'm thinking of using this chainsaw in the show then picking a random assistant from the audience."

"No! No! No! No! No! No!"

"Nooooooo!"

So that's how both Lotus and Saiki found themselves as Chouno assistants. Saiki was here so Chouno wouldn't accidentally murder someone live on stage and Lotus was there to lessen Saiki's suffering, like the good friend she was.

Lotus donned the same outfit she wore that Ethan had created for her during her first performance with Chouno. Ethan was also kind enough to create an outfit for Saiki as well. Saiki wore a white button-down shirt with a purple vest over it paired with a green tie. To finish off the outfit Saiki had a purple mask with green lenses like his glasses.

Both teens noticed how their outfits matched but neither commented on it.

Chouno's eyes darted across the crowd searching for his special lady. "~Midori, where are you? No. That's not her. Definitely not.~"

"What does his ex-wife even look like?"

Lotus and Saiki each rolled out two large red boxes onto the stage.

"~I have to focus on my performance. Besides my Master is helping and I have to impress him too!"

"And now for my next trick. I'll transport my assistant Saichael from this box here over to this box here on the other side of the stage." Chouno announced

"Saichael?"

"I'll have the lovely Miss Mystery lock the box to keep Saichael in and everyone else out." Chouno looked to Saiki. "Alright crawl inside."

"Okay but I still don't know how this works."

"Is he expecting Saiki to automatically know what to do?"

Saiki crawled into the box crouching down, so he could fit.

"Alright, when I say so pop out of the other box okay? Good!" Chouno whispered

"No, it's not."

"Alright, Miss Mystery lock that box! Music please!"

Lotus gave an awkward chuckle watching Chouno dance around the stage waving his hands over the boxes performing his "magic".

"He's a better showman than a magician."

"Seriously? He didn't even explain it. How am I supposed to get to one box from another when-"

The floor beneath Saiki dropped depositing him in a small tunnel that led to the other box.

"-well that answers that. Secret passage tunnel. I gotta hand it to him this a pretty involved trick."

Saiki crawled to the other box to the trapdoor. He grabbed the handle on it trying to pull it open but it wouldn't budge.

"And it won't open I'm not surprised."

"Now let's open the box! It's tres bien time!"

Chouno lifted the top off the box and the walls fell away relieving it to be empty.

"Fine."

Saiki all but sighed teleporting into his spot.

The crowd gasped before cheering and clapping.

"He appeared out of nowhere!"

"Whoa, how'd he do that!"

"~Master came through for me but how?~"

"Tres bien right!" Chouno cheered

The door to the back of the theater started to open grabbing Chouno's attention.

"~Is that her? Did she come?~"

The group on stage was surprised to see who walked in because it wasn't Chouno's ex-wife but the one and only Nendou.

"Nendou? What are you doing here?"

"Does he have some kind of Saiki tracking device implanted on him?"

"She's here." Chouno started to cry, streams of tears going down his cheeks. "She's here. You came back. She came back to me. Midori."

Lotus and Saiki froze trying to compute Chouno's words with dumbstruck looks on their faces.

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

Lotus was still confused up until the group went backstage. In the green room, Chouno explained to her and Saiki why this performance was so important. To put it short he worked a dead-end job but was able to get through it when he met the love of his life, but then shortly after he got fired. They fell on hard times with Chouno experiencing a depressing spiral downwards which caused his wife to leave taking her kid with her.

"It's important she sees what I accomplished in the last two years. That's the reason why today's performance means so much to me!" Chouno exclaimed

"Yeah I get all that but in the end this Midori person didn't even show up."

"Whoa cool knife."

Nendou was in the green room as well messing with some of Chouno's props.

"All he got was this idiot."

"No, no, Riki that's not a toy." A guff yet slight feminine voice spoke.

Once again Saiki and Lotus were thrown into a state of shocked confusion.

"This can't be real."

A woman entered the room looking exactly like Nendou. The only key differences between the two was that woman had curly black hair, two scars going down her eyes, as opposed to Nendou's one scar, and she was wearing red lipstick.

"Nendou's multiplying."

"Midori it's so nice to see you again!" Chouno shouted

"It has been a while," Midori said

"They even sound the same."

"She's nothing like his memory!"

"Master, Miss Assistant, let me introduce her to you. This is my wife Midori," Chouno introduced

"Ex-wife that is." Midori corrected

"These plot twists are giving me whiplash."

Lotus turned to Nendou. "Nendou that's your mother?!"

"Yup," Nendou smiled nodding his head.

"Nendou! There's no way she's your Mom! She's your sister, right? You're just messing with us, right? She's really your older sister right?" Lotus said with a bit of panic in her voice.

"Nah, that's my Mom," Nendou said

Midori chuckled patting Lotus on the head. "Oh my, she thinks I'm young enough to be Riki's sister, what a charming young lady. But I am indeed Nendou's mother."

The resemblance between Nendou and his mother was unnerving to Lotus. She could accept that Nendou looked like his father. She could accept that Nendou looked like his mother. But she could not process the fact that all three of them looked almost identical.

Lotus grabbed onto Saiki's sleeve. "Saiki, I'm a bit scared."

"I wish the writer would stop making things up on the fly."

"Hey you two look kinda familiar," Nendou spoke walking over to Saiki and Lotus.

"Oh no."

Nendou studied the two psychics, "Nah, the glasses and hair are all wrong." He spoke referring to Saiki's mask and Lotus's wig. "For a second there I thought you were Saiki my best buddy from school, and I thought you were Lotus my best girl buddy."

"Wait, I just called him Nendou like three seconds ago. How could he not know it's me? Also still calling me girl buddy huh?"

"He's so reliably stupid. Well, that's my cue to leave."

Saiki tried to walk away but he was stopped by both Lotus and Chouno.

"Whoa don't go anywhere yet Saichael we still have the rest half of the show," Chouno said

"Remember Saiki, if we leave Chouno alone he'll chainsaw someone in half."

"Just my luck."

Chouno looked to Midori. "My sweet will you watch the rest of my performance tonight? Then give me a second chance?"

"This is unfathomably weird."

"I'm so confused, I feel like at this point I should just shut my brain off and let my body go on autopilot."

Midori put a hand on her chin appearing torn about what she should do.

"Well, it is a bit of a drive for me and Riki so the least we could do is watch your show. But don't expect anything more from me than that. It feels like our relationship ran its course a long time ago." Midori said

"Why do you and Nendou have the same face?"

"It's so weird seeing Nendou's face speak so eloquently."

Midori and Nendou exit the room leaving behind two confused teenagers and a determined magician.

"Master. Miss Assistant-"

"That nickname still seems demeaning."

"-let's get the box ready."

Chouno took center stage as Saiki wheeled out the box, Lotus sat atop the box waving at the crowd.

"And now I've been reduced to a prop, how lovely."

"Get ready for my all new body-cutting trick!" Chouno announced to the crowd. "My lovely assistant Saichael will get inside the box. I will then separate the box into parts with the chainsaw then I will move the parts before I put them back together."

"If you explain the whole trick before you do it where's the surprise?"

Chouno opened the segmented doors of the box before Saiki stepped in.

"Do you think it'll work?"

"There's gotta be a trick to it."

"There isn't. It's just a box. I'd be worried if I wasn't a psychic. I thought of 13 ways to avoid getting injured."

Lotus had offered to be the one to get in the box but since her control over her powers were not on the same level as Saiki's it was smarter for him to go in to avoid the chance of injury, at least that's what Saiki told Lotus.

"First I'll bend the blade as it cuts into the box. Then right before he pulls it out I'll turn back time just on the blade. Then when he moves around the boxes I'll use my super flexibility."

"Guess Saiki was the best choice to put in the box. I only know how to do one of those three things he just mentioned."

"Ready Saichael? Let's go!" Chouno said

"Hold on!"

"Huh?"

Standing up in the middle of the crowd holding up his hand was Nendou.

"I wanna be your magician helper and get inside the box! Try to cut me up with whatever, I'll be fine!"

"Riki...well...but…" Chouno stuttered

"You idiot. Sit down."

"That idiot! Why does he want to get cut up?!"

"That's enough Riki." Midori stood up. "Let's go home."

"Uh….No! Midori don't go!"

So in order to stop Midori from walking out of the show Chouno had to put Nendou in the box.

Lotus was pale staring at the goofy smile of Nendou while he was in the box.

"He's going to die….I'm about to watch Nendou die."

"What's he gonna do now? With Nendou in the box he's going to send the audience home screaming."

"~It'll be okay the blade won't touch Riki. I'm sure the gimmick will trigger somehow! The love of my life is watching! Don't kill her son!~"

Lotus went even paler as the chainsaw got closer, she looked like she was about to faint.

"Hit me with that chainsaw bro!" Nendou said

Chouno stopped gasping and he dropped the chainsaw. "I'm sorry I can't go through with this trick."

"Oh thank god!" Lotus sighed putting a hand over her heart.

"I violated the code of stage magic. I wanted this trick to be a hit so badly that I brought it out even though I hadn't figured out how to do it safely. Sorry."

The entire theater was a mess including Chouno himself. After his admission, the crowd turned into a mob, Chouno only getting away with minor injuries thanks to Lotus and Saiki.

"I knew they'd be made but not that mad." Chouno lamented

"They full-on rioted."

"I think I saw a man throw a chair, those things are bolted to the ground."

"But you made the right decision. I can usually find a ton of ways out but this time I could only figure out 4 ways to save Nendou."

"It's a good thing you were here Saiki. I just stood there about to pass out. The only thing I could think of was to drop kick the chainsaw out of Chouno's hand. I guess there's really no need to worry if I got you around huh?"

*DOKI*

Saiki turned away from Lotus's smile causing the girl to blink confusedly. For a guy with a crush a girl's bright smile is a deadly weapon.

"What will I do now?" Chouno cried

Something was thrown at Chouno's feet stopping his sobs.

"Huh?"

He looked to see it was a cash card along with a checkbook.

"Hey, my old bank account."

"It'd gotten lost in my stuff," Midori said

"Holy crap! When did she get in here?!"

"I never spent one cent from it," Midori stated with a kind smile.

"Midori I thought you left!" Chouno said

"Well, that was a really bad show. You got the crowd all excited then didn't deliver the goods. Is it any wonder that they rioted? No worry when you got that trick down I'll come to see it again. " Midori said

Chouno eyes started to water. "Thanks for my bank account. I promise I'll do it right next time. With this I now have the money to buy a new 1.2 million yen body cutting box-"

"~1.2 million?~"

Chouno was cut off when Midori kicked him right in the solar plexus.

"On the second thought give that back loser!"

Lotus flinched, "Now I see even more of Nendou in her. Saiki, I'm scared again."