— sdr2 circus au; circus of talent 🎪
— requested by: anonymous
“Now, a big round of applause to our dearest duo of clowns, Ibuki Mioda and Mikan Tsumiki!” announced Nagito Komaeda, the circus owner.
In a second, the stage was filled with confetti, bubbles and soap foam of all colors, and a clown with black, pink and blue clothing with horns in her head blasted to the public from the foam in a spark and a loud “boom!” and landed impressively on her feet, striking a pose with both of her fists closed against her waist and her long fake, pointy nose tilted up, while having a blue spotlight focused on her. It was an escape from the traditional Japanese aesthetic the circus had, but it was still impressive to the public.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” yelled her, “Ibuki Mioda!”
Then, another clown with a badly cut purple hair and wearing a black kimono with pink flowers and carrying a pie stepped peacefully in, with a big smile on her face. Abruptly, some kind of mallet hit her on the back in a comic “bonk” and caused her to slip on the foam, which caused her to shout and slide until she hit Ibuki, throwing her into the ground and falling right above her. The pie fell right into Mikan’s face and slid over to her outfit.
The audience bursted in laugher. Even Ibuki herself did when she looked up and saw Mikan with her face stuffed with frosting and her clothes full of foam.
But Mikan didn’t laugh. On the contrary, she brought her hands to her cheeks and started crying. “Oh, no! My pie is r-ruined! And I-I’m ruined too!” she whined.
Ibuki got up and slid her fingers through her chin, thinking about what she could do. Her face lit up with an idea, as she lifted her index finger on a classic gesture of “eureka!” She rant to one of the foam mountains and shoved her hands inside it, taking a pie out of it and he over to Mikan. The purple haired clown was crying so comically loud that she had to take a bugle and blew it loudly, making Mikan skip up out of fright — which made the crowd giggle. They stared at each other for a second, waiting for something to happen. Quickly, Ibuki threw the pie in her own face; it slowly slid down her face, and, when it finally did fall to the ground, it made her nose bounce quickly up and down, causing even Mikan herself to giggle.
“See? Now we’re even!” she exclaimed, helping Mikan to get up, and pulling her into a messy hug. The audience warmed up to a “awww” sound.
While Ibuki is entertained hugging her friend, Mikan takes a bandage roll out of her sleeve and starts wrapping it around them. Her plan was to just get Mioda wrapped, but she ends up wrapping both of them together. As she tries to abruptly separate them to reveal to Ibuki she’s stuck in bandages, she realizes they’re stuck together, and they both end up falling on the ground.
“Oh, no, this wasn’t what I planned...” whined Mikan as the public and Ibuki laughed.
They comically tried to roll out of the stage, but the bandages that tied them together only made them swing left to right to the delight of the audience. The man with white, spiky hair and a megaphone on his hands had to come for their help to the stage, also laughing. He simply grabbed the end of the bandages with one hand and harshly pulled, causing the girls to roll out to the ground, and you could easily picture birds flying in circles over their heads.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Mikan Tsumiki and Ibuki Mioda!” exclaimed Nagito into the megaphone, giggling and staring at the crowd.
The audience applauded, as the spotlight gently strolled to the entrance of the ring and the two clowns from the previous number ran and left through a secret exit that couldn’t be seen by the public and the mountains of foam gently disappeared into the air.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen,” the circus owner roared through the tent once more, “welcome Peko Pekoyama, the ultimate swordswoman!”
As he said that, a woman with her hair stuck on a braid behind her back and wearing a black attire tight to her body walked slowly into the ring. On her mouth, she had a fat cigar. On her back, there was a black and silver sheath, containing a katana. When she was already a few steps far from the entrance, she drew the sword out of the sheath, placed it right under her cigarette and spun it as it was made of leaves, cutting the tip of the cigar off and causing some dust to fall, gaining an applause from the crowd.
From the other side of the ring, a man in a tuxedo and a hat covering his eyes entered calmly walking on the stage, pulling a cart with a box on top. He stopped when he reached a catapult, placing the cart right beside it.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he circus owner announced once again, “Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu.”
He tilted his hat up so his eyes were now uncovered staring at the catapult. The stage was a complete silence while Fuyuhiko opened the box and took something from it: an apple. He placed the apple in the bucket and started spinning a handle slowly, pulling a string and bringing the catapult down little by little. When he finally released it, the apple flew across the stage, and Pekoyama swung her sword and sliced the fruit perfectly in half. The two apple slices fell to the ground gracefully, as the woman stood in the same place, like she never even moved in the first place.
She gained more claps and surprised gasps from the crowd, but they didn’t even realize the act had just started.
Next, Fuyuhiko took another fruit from the box, a watermelon. He did the same as he did for the apple, and released the watermelon directly to Peko. This time, she jumped on what seemed like a flash, and the watermelon fell into the ground, sliced in half, while she landed still with her feet on the ground. Her braid or cigar didn’t even seem to have moved.
Once more, the public clapped, gasped and whistled with her performance.
Kuzuryu shoved his hand inside the box once more, this time picking up a megaphone. With one and holding the megaphone close to his lips and the other pulling the cart as he walked closer to Peko, he said, “Now, folks, prepare to see Pekoyama’s true act.”
They crossed eyes with each other and nodded. Fuyuhiko picked the box from the cart and put it on the ground right beside Peko. As he walked away pushing the cart to leave the stage, just stopping to pick up the fruit slices from the ground and take them out of the stage.
Peko swings her katana back to it’s sheath, leaning to the box and opening it completely. She searched for something using her hands, and found it: a lighter, and uses it to light up her giant cigar.
She throws the lighter back inside the box and takes something directly out of it, earning well-deserved gasps from the crowd.
She brings the fuse close to the tip of her cigar, causing it to catch fire. The crowd whispers and gasps in awe and twinges of fear. Quickly, she throws the dynamite up and cuts the fuse before it can reach the dynamite, not letting it explode, getting one more applause.
She takes another dynamite from the box, puts it on fire using the tip of her cigar, but, instead of throwing it upwards, she throws it directly to the crowd.
The crowd started screaming, until something flashed in front of them, stopping the dynamite before it could reach them. Peko had jumped and cut the fuse like a thunder, and used the impact the bomb had on her sword to throw it down, or at least stop it from going forward to the crowd, causing the red pipe to fall on the stage ground. More applauses came.
Now, when she goes back to the box, she gets even more dynamite — a whole bundle. She spins the bundle to light it up using her cigar, and slices all the fuses she had to so it wouldn’t explode.
She just wouldn’t stop. She picked one firework, dynamite, or anything with a fuse she could cut and made the crowd believe it would explode until she cut it.
Until she saw she had one last explosive in the box, a firework. She takes the firework and lights it up with the tip of her massive cigar like she did with the others. The audience waits for the flash to strike and cut the fuse off, but that flash never came. A bright red explosion occurred behind her, as Pekoyama held the sharp tip of the sword against ser tongue, holding the grip with both hands. The crowd was in pure surprise while they watched the woman pushing the sword down her throat, slowly swallowing it. When the sword was already completely eaten by her, a loud gulp roars through the tent.
After a few seconds of digesting the sword, she sighs and takes the lighter from the box to lit her cigar one last time and blow smoke.
The tent was filled with claps, gasps, shouts, whistles, every impressed noise you can imagine. Peko bowed to thank the crowd, but didn’t leave the stage, just walked over to sit down in the first line on the audience, enjoy the rest of the show, seriously.
“Now, here they come,” announced the circus owner, as the spotlight strolled over to the entrance once more, “our best dancer and our best human cannon ball, Hiyoko Saionji and Teruteru Hanamura!”
From the entrance, a short man entered the stage. He wore an orange attire decorated with painted white flowers, and a white helmet to match. He waved at the crowd, calmly making his way into the stage. When the crowd least expected, he was knocked down by a huge mallet, getting a loud laugh from the crowd. The spotlight instantly switched to a blonde girl wearing a kimono that matched Teruteru’s outfit, only more detailed and with some kind of rocket bomb tied to her back, receiving a round of applause. She was standing on top of some kind of metal pedestal, tied to a tightrope. She held one green fan on each hand, and one long ornate pipe dangling from her lips. She looked so adorable it was hard to believe she was the one who threw the mallet at him.
Her sharp eyes rolled through the stage, as it was a sign for the music to start. A gentle traditional Japanese melody filled the silent tent, and Hiyoko slightly moved her arms, dancing with the fans.
Suddenly, the calming music stops, giving place for a loud cymbal sound, and then a suspicious and loud music starts as Hiyoko slowly moved one feet to step in the tightrope in front of her. The crowd gasped.
She slowly stepped again, and the rope shook. A tense music roared as she stepped again, and again, and again. Each of her arms were extended to her side, holding the fans tightly, while the pipe dangled on her lips every time she moved.
As she was on the middle of the rope, two fireworks went up and blew exactly beside her dangerously, the explosions not allowing her to continue. As soon as the two fireworks weren’t a threat anymore, she took a deep breath and continued, slowly, step by step.
At the end of the rope, there was only one last step left. Two fireworks erupted beside her again abruptly, surprising the public once more. She waited for the a bit after the explosion to continue once more, and, with one last step, she finished crossing the tightrope, reached the other metal pedestal.
A calming melody sounded again as the audience applauded and Hiyoko danced on top of the pedestal, moving her arms slowly while holding the fans open. As the music stopped, she stepped in some platform in front of the pedestal and, as Teruteru spun the handle, the platform descended with Saionji on top of it with the spotlight still focused on her. It took a few seconds until she was on the ground again.
While Hiyoko distracted the audience with her tightrope number, Teruteru set lots of fireworks, making some sort of oval arena inside the stage, with enough space for Hiyoko to dance.
She stepped inside the oval through a small opening Hanamura had left for her, as planned, and started a traditional Japanese soft melody started playing. She softly moved her arms and shook the fans on her hands while smoke of all colors coming out of the tip of the pipe, and sometimes even some sparkles. Sometimes she lowered her torso, keeping her head straight so the pipe wouldn’t fall off her mouth, and spinning so she could face every part of the audience. While she danced, Teruteru used a small lighter to light up some fireworks around her, causing light blue, orange and green explosions to happen right above them. As Hiyoko finished her dancing number, all the fireworks left exploded one right after one, as Saionji finished her performance with a cutesy pose, earning claps and shouts from the crowd.
After a few seconds holding her pose, Hiyoko walked over in Teruteru’s direction, who held her mallet with a smile that went from ear to ear. Now, the only spotlight had vanished, as all the tent lights turned on again, giving the audience a complete view of the stage.
“Yes, Miss Saionji?” questioned him with a sloppy voice while she stood right in front of him.
She didn’t answer due to the long ornate pipe on her mouth, but she put her fans on the ground and gestured with her hands in a sign of asking for the mallet, and he gave it to her. She held it with both hands and spun her arms around three times, releasing it on Hanamura and flinging him directly to the inside of the cannon, causing the audience to laugh. She walked calmly over to the cannon, as Teruteru waved dizzily to the public. Hiyoko positioned herself behind the canon fuse, leaning down to lit it up with a spark. The fuse sparkled away slowly, giving time to one more dancing act of hers. More colorful smoke came from the pipe dangling from her lips as she beautifully spun not only her arms and fans, but also herself around the stage, lighting up fireworks using the sparkles coming from the tip of the pipe.
Hiyoko knows exactly when the fuse finally burns down, which gave her time to strike an adorable pose while she plugged her ears as Teruteru was shot into the night sky, accompanied by an explosion of sparkles coming directly from her pipe.
“Yahoo!” he exclaimed as he flew over the audience. He went through a square opening on the tent — proper for him to pass — and disappearing into the night sky in a comical twinkle, causing the crowd to erupt with laughter.
The spotlight was back to Hiyoko and Hiyoko only. She walked calmly over to the center of the stage, tricking the audience to think she had magically made two fans appear on her hands using the ones she had just hidden using the space between her back and the rocket before the performance even started. The melody started again, and she went back to her dancing act, as all the members of the circus got in a line, with Saionji in the middle. When she was finished dancing, all the tent lights lit up again. Hiyoko threw her fans to the ground and Kazuichi, the mechanic that worked behind the whole show, gave her the mallet, that was comically big compared to Hiyoko herself.
Finally, the circus bowed to the public that shoved them with applause.
“Thank you all so much for coming!” said Nagito Komaeda as the crowd separated and left the tent. “Have a good night!”
As the crowd dissolved and there was only a few people left on the tent, the members were tired but extremely proud of one more extravagantly done performance, and were ready for a rest.
“Hey, now,” called Kazuichi, “why does Hiyoko has a rocket on her back?”
“For this,” said Peko, taking huge cigar out of her mouth and lit up the fuse, slowly bringing it back to her lips again.
“Wha— what—“ Hiyoko stuttered as she understood what was going to happen to her. In a few seconds, she was blasted into the sky and went through the same hole as Teruteru, screaming and cussing at her partners. While she flew up into the sky, she released the mallet, causing it to fall right over Hanamura’s head.
“Twinkle twinkle little star, oh-my-god-that-girl-went-far,” Ibuki sang a ditty, while Mikan had both her hands covering her eyes.
Pekoyama crossed her arms; she seemed weirdly proud of her action.
But it wasn’t done yet. The rocket exploded, causing a firework to erupt in a massive color explosion, forming a figure of Hiyoko herself to appear on the sky, visible to the public that had even left the tent already. The firework pipe in her mouth sparkled shooting even more fireworks. The firework Hiyoko cutely winks and blows a firework smoke ring, finally ending the show.
After the real Hiyoko came back from her blastoff, she went to help the other circus members to undo the tent and take down the decorations — it was their last presentation at that city, after all.
Now, her and Teruteru were removing the chairs, just like many of the others, as Hiyoko was back to smoking her funnily long pipe.
“Hey, Hiyoko,” said Teruteru, as him and Saionji removed the chairs, “I think our act was simply amazing. L-like, the way you danced and kept throwing me around the stage—“
His voiced made him sound like he was melting, and that exact tone was the one that made Hiyoko’s blood boil. She quickly got her hands on her mallet once again, held it close to the tip of her pipe so it was burning, spun it around and Teruteru was once again blasted into the night sky, this time creating a hole on the tent with an even brighter twinkle, that caused the others to cover their eyes like they were staring directly into the sun, even though the night was still outside.
It wasn’t exactly the sun, it was more of a fire, reflecting directly into Peko’s glasses as she carried one of the chairs that once held the public; it glowed just like the huge cigar that she wouldn’t remove from her lips. She looked at Fuyuhiko, that carried another chair behind her. “She might’ve broken a distance record this time. I wonder if he’ll reach the orbit again.”
Kuzuryu smiled behind her, trying not to laugh, “Just keep going.”
“Oh, no, this again...” cried Mikan.
Ibuki bursted into laughter, “This never gets old!” She watched him comically vanish, then put her palms around her lips and yelled, “Hey, shoot for the moon, Teruteru!”
“I can’t even tell if she’s joking or not,” commented Souda.
Hiyoko crossed her arms and used one hand to remove the pipe from her lips, “Keep going! Nothing to see here, morons.”
Nagito giggled, and they went back to working on undoing the tent. As she walked away, the smoke coming out Saionji’s pipe was forming heart shapes without her even realizing. Ibuki noticed it, and shook her head in Mikan’s direction as she was asking “Should I point it out?” and she frenetically shook her head as she was screaming “no!” and Ibuki immediately understood why.
