Mission 111 A TALENT SHOW?!?!?! (Shinku X Midknightblu)

[Scorpion (Midknightblu)]

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[attr="class","gold"]@shinku

[attr="class","gold"]1025 Words

[attr="class","gold"]Auditions

ulla

[attr="class","sun"]A Foreign Sun *

I never thought I'd see

“GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!” The large pin-headed man shouted from the stage, den den mushi in hand. The crowd was large, falling from the banisters out onto the aisle's in between. It wasn't the LARGEST party in the world, but a few hundred people gathered to see those who believe themselves to be talented enough to earn ten thousand beri.

“As you all know.” The announcer continued to speak through the den den mushi, reverberating through the speakers around the stage. “This talent show draws talent from all over the world, marines, pirates, mercs, even the stray baker that thinks he has the pie and gumption to win.” The pin-headed man gestured to the crowd and smiled a bit as his last remark garnered a few rolling laughs. “But even then, we wouldn't show you the worst of them would we?” Booing was heard. “Would you rather see a child playing fetch with his dog or a lion tamer playing fetch with his arm?” Cheers were heard now, the announcer, the MC of this night smiled, patting his rotund belly with glee. “I shall be your master of Ceremonies today, MC Bagger if you will. And in about two hours the chosen contestants shall take the stage.” Looking around the man gauged the crowd, Bagger smoothed back his hair... Hair that stood straight up like a point. “Now, we have four judges, and those are by no means the ones who give the reward or prize. See, we have MANY contestants, almost a hundred. And we have a few smaller booths set up in the back. These judges will pick 16 of those hundred, and then they will preform for you. There will be three rounds. No one trick ponies around here. And the judges will be the mediators... They will be the ones to move on the party, to make the talent leave the stage... But we have other people to vote. And that's all of you!!” He gestured to the crowd, they ruptured into cheers left and right. “That's right, even if a single talent is on stage for less than a minute because the judges tell them to leave, YOU all decide who goes to the next round and who doesn't. Isn't that grand? Some might say that with judges it makes a popularity contest... But no, THIS is a true popularity contest. THIS IS THE TALENT SHOW!”



Kairy was a bit nervous. Normally calm and collected... But..

Kairy didn't like being crowded around, or showing off. She would much rather do this without the fan fare, and just show off how she was better than the other people here.

Regardless. “Kairy Novenbutter, please report to the stage.” Sighing she stood from where she was petting her feline friend.

“Wish me luck.” She said to her cat, to which it just stared at her with narrowing eyes. As if daring her to fail.

Stepping onto the stage where she was supposed to do a short thirty second thing to prove that she should be in the talent show, she looked around at the other members of the contest, as to right now they weren't even on the main stage currently. She heard shouting somewhere in the background. Or perhaps it was the speakers... Focus.

She looked around at the judge that was standing in front of her with a stop watch and she gulped. Then settled down starting to do long division in her head. Swallowing she placed her hands down on the wood of the stage.

She didn't need much... Kairy wasn't doing much either, at first... Nothing happened, then slowly... The ground she was touching started to shift. If anyone was on stage with her they would have seen the wood already split into different cubes... And slowly... Kairy stood, holding her hands out towards the ground, straightening her body.

Right fist shot up, and and the cubes followed, going up in a pattern, making a post... Not.. Exactly though, Her left hand shot up as well... Another post, intermingling with each other. Forming, combining.

25 seconds left.

The ground was being eaten away by the amount of cubes she took control over, 5 cubic meters worth... stretched out to the entire stage since there was no third dimension to this place, just the planks. Thinking fast she jumped down into the hole it was making.

20.

The Shipwright's arms were still up, and finally she opened her left fist. The cubes coalased into a bubble at the top and burst out, like branches from a tree, and it kept growing, thick... At 20 CM thick

15.

She wasn't done yet, of course not. Wasting no time Kairy took some of the height and opened her right fist, again the post exploded making more branches, making it more intricate, and in reality, Kairy was just allowing it to be as random as possible, for it to be more real.

10.

The post was now three meters in height, so instead of taking any more of the length of this creation, she started to hollow it out, and then she started to point at the branches, eyes closed, and leaves appeared, left and right..

5.

And finally she looked at the Tree she has made, looked at anything else... And finished. Releasing the power of the fruit and solidifying the small cubes to allow the blocky tree to exist.

The timer went off then.

And Kairy broke out of her stupor... And it was silent. Everyone was staring at her, at her creation that she made in thirty seconds. It was simple, nothing to impressive, just a bunch of random sticks coming from a post with leaves, if she had more time she would use her tools to make it look more elegant, but with what she had... She decided that randomness was key.

And looking around she blushed and bowed steeply, running of- well... running away from the stage area and grabbing her feline friend to go see how the other contestants are doing.

Kairy hated the spotlight, but damn if she didn't love the money.

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[Shinku]

Nervously he twisted the bokken in his hand. The wooden sword was an anchor which kept him steady in the middle of the crowd. Kyou had nothing against crowds, but people tended to be trouble and the young man liked to stay away from the masses where keeping your back safe and an eye on your surroundings was remarkable difficult even for a practised observer. Hard to believe that he had actually volunteered to participate by himself, but the offer had been too good to refuse. A chance to earn money without having to take the risk of being attacked and mutilated or killed by anyone or anything!? You could definitely count him in.
If all it took was him making a fool out of himself by showing off some skill in front of an audience, then he would be more than happy to oblige.
The teenage boy didn’t look happy at all though. Even after washing and combing his stubborn hair in order to look presentable, a single wisp of hair was standing upright on his head like some broken antenna. This dark-pink colored strand was swaying back and forth, almost as if it was mimicking its owner’s alerted thoughts by keeping watch to all sides.

“I think I’m getting sick.” The woman next to him complained to her friend. “I really shouldn’t have accepted that drink this person has offered me. It was really really strange, now that I think about it. There must have been something inside it! Oh! My poor stomach!”
“Don’t be stupid.” Her friend retorted sounding somewhat patronizing and underlined her words with a deprecatory wave of her hand. “You’re nervous. That’s all.”

Hearing the women talk like that, Kyou could suddenly feel his own stomach acting up. The half-paranoid boy would never have accepted drink or food from an unknown person – and sometimes not even from someone he knew – but the stage fright must have gotten him too.
A random observer might not have noticed anything beyond the slightly pursed lips and the scowl on his face, but someone who knew the easily irritated man might have spotted that the eyebrows were wrinkled deeper than normal and that there was a nervous twitch to them.

Realizing suddenly that his attention had been diverted by the lamentations of the two women beside him, the pink-haired man forced himself back to watch his competitors.
A young man with a greased pompadour was leaving the stage just now and Kyou had no clue what his talent could be, though judging by the teary look on the man’s face, his presentation probably didn’t go as well as planned.
A middle-aged woman replaced him and went on to knit a whole pullover in the short time they were given and she was only missing half a sleeve when her time was up. Amazing as it was, her skill had more of an industrial value than an entertaining one and yet the young boy found it intriguing to watch. At least her skill was something practical and useful – so unlike his own. But from the information the Bounty Hunter had gathered, being interesting was at least as important as being useful, if not actually more so. Whatever the contest had first tried to be, right now it was a show, first and foremost and the audience wanted to be entertained.
And so Kyou had chosen his trick accordingly.

As far as he could tell, none of the others so far had shown the talent he wanted to present, though with four different stages spread in this big and loud hall, it was impossible to keep track of everyone.

“Next.”

After a short moment of centering himself, hardly longer than it took to take a deep breath, Kyou entered the stage and set up his equipment.
Like him, a lot of participants used stage props for their show and so two of the four stages had some basic stuff ready to use. There were tables and chairs next to the stage and since the sweater-woman had left the chair she had used to sit in where it was, Kyou only needed to add a table.
The candles were requisites he had brought himself and after checking over and over he had found a lighter that would hopefully work.
“It’s only a show, no one wants to kill you, so relax.” He told his shaking hands and after trying twice he managed to light the candles without setting the whole table on fire.
Ready now the pale boy turned to the judge.

”He- hello… ‘m Mari…su.” He stuttered uncertainly. The mumbled words did neither fit the rough husky voice or the sour looking face, but the judge just pushed up his round glasses and set down his pen.
“Pardon me?”
“I’m Marisu and I’ll show you a trick with this paper plane and my sword.”
This time the words were firm and serious, almost as if they had been spoken by a complete different person. The young man had managed to compose himself by meeting the situation like he would a fight – with cold dread.
Fear and wariness were his constant companions and while not the whole reason, they were at least part of the motivation to give out a wrong name. The name Kyou was a fake one as well, but the pink head used it so constantly that it was already feeling like a real one and therefore a much too serious business to give out in such a silly place.
What if people would remember him? No! Just absolutely NO! So Marisu it was for now.

After holding up the paper plane once more for the judge to see, it was a very simple one and true be told, a normal sheet of paper would have done the trick just as well, Kyou set it down on the floor before standing a few steps behind it, bokken ready at his side.
Like most left-handed people he was wearing the sword on his right, though unlike most Kyou had only found out later in his life that he was actually left-handed and the habit of wanting to draw the sword with his right was still strong and showed itself when he didn’t consciously paid attention.
Eyes wandering from the chair on the other side of the table to the table with the burning candles and over to the plane on the floor, Kyou switched hands.
This was a tricky trick and he had to get it right on the first try. Kyou judged his chances to mess it up to be fifty-fifty. Or maybe even higher, since there wasn’t a threat to his life to keep him on edge.

Kyou drew the sword.
Caught by the created wind, the paper plane took flight.
Almost leisurely it flew up and over the lined up candles on the table.
But just when the boy thought that it was a success the plane’s flight path changed slightly from the intended course and the plane descended but ONE moment too early, catching fire as its tail got too close to the flame.
Still burning, the airplane landed on the chair as it should.

Without saying a word, Kyou went over to the happily burning paper and put out the fire with the bottle of water he had prepared for such emergencies. Experience had taught him to expect complications.

“Impressive.” The judge told him with the most monotonous voice in the history of mankind. It told him plainly that he had already seen it all and there was nothing that could ever impress him anymore.
“But keep in mind that we are very strict on safety and shows using fire and other dangerous things are required to take more precautions than a simple bottle of water. The staff is there to assist, but you’ll be held responsible if someone should get hurt.”

Kyou nodded and left the stage with wobbly feet.
“Wait? What? Did he actually thought that this was supposed to happen?” the boy wondered.
Maybe he still had a chance after all.
On stage number two a hair stylist had accidentally glued his hands to the hair of the model he had tried to primp, but Kyou hardly noticed him. The teenager was feeling as if he had just survived a seaking attack.