[There are five commonly-accepted steps of performing sleight of hand in stage magic.
The first is to arrest attention, to get all eyes on you.
The second is to direct it where you want your audience to focus.
The third is to captivate their attention.
The fourth is to give them a specific area to focus on.
And the fifth is to sustain that control. After all that, the actual sleight of hand is practically an afterthought.
That doesn't mean that Sayo isn't fantastic at that afterthought, though. A childhood of harmless pranks (and botched attempts at setting up hypothetical locked rooms out of morbid curiosity) on top of having to put her very best effort forward to keep someone else's childhood dreams alive has left Sayo with an impressive array of tricks in this department. Not that many of them matter when really she's just sneaking Lucifer into her hand.
Sayo feels guilty for an instant, knowing that she's using Ryoko as the final piece in this gamble.
Guilt has never stopped her before, though.
In the few seconds of everyone's eyes being on Ryoko, Sayo strikes. Pounding a steel stake into a human skull takes significant effort, but the shape is surprisingly aerodynamic, and likewise after two years of practice Sayo has excellent aim. She's never used a stake like this before, but the principle is easy enough to understand, and so before anyone gets the chance to see what she's doing she tosses it.
The steel spike flies through the air at a trajectory that, if it isn't stopped, will hit Battler in either the chest or throat and kill him.
It being stopped, however, is exactly what Sayo is gambling on.
There's the sound of cloth tearing (with an uncomfortable undertone of flesh ripping), and the stake is knocked out of the air by a parasol.
Nui Harime, Champion Couturier, is alive.
Battler Ushiromiya, Champion Detective, is dead.]
...my case rests.
[A flurry of activity erupts in the courtroom, confused exclamations and remands leveled Sayo's way, before Nui takes all of the attention with her own unhinged ranting.
Sayo doesn't respond to any of it. She just... stands there, shoulders hunched. Lifeless, almost. Like a puppet with its strings cut.]
no subject
The first is to arrest attention, to get all eyes on you.
The second is to direct it where you want your audience to focus.
The third is to captivate their attention.
The fourth is to give them a specific area to focus on.
And the fifth is to sustain that control. After all that, the actual sleight of hand is practically an afterthought.
That doesn't mean that Sayo isn't fantastic at that afterthought, though. A childhood of harmless pranks (and botched attempts at setting up hypothetical locked rooms out of morbid curiosity) on top of having to put her very best effort forward to keep someone else's childhood dreams alive has left Sayo with an impressive array of tricks in this department. Not that many of them matter when really she's just sneaking Lucifer into her hand.
Sayo feels guilty for an instant, knowing that she's using Ryoko as the final piece in this gamble.
Guilt has never stopped her before, though.
In the few seconds of everyone's eyes being on Ryoko, Sayo strikes. Pounding a steel stake into a human skull takes significant effort, but the shape is surprisingly aerodynamic, and likewise after two years of practice Sayo has excellent aim. She's never used a stake like this before, but the principle is easy enough to understand, and so before anyone gets the chance to see what she's doing she tosses it.
The steel spike flies through the air at a trajectory that, if it isn't stopped, will hit Battler in either the chest or throat and kill him.
It being stopped, however, is exactly what Sayo is gambling on.
There's the sound of cloth tearing (with an uncomfortable undertone of flesh ripping), and the stake is knocked out of the air by a parasol.
Nui Harime, Champion Couturier, is alive.
Battler Ushiromiya, Champion Detective, is dead.]
...my case rests.
[A flurry of activity erupts in the courtroom, confused exclamations and remands leveled Sayo's way, before Nui takes all of the attention with her own unhinged ranting.
Sayo doesn't respond to any of it. She just... stands there, shoulders hunched. Lifeless, almost. Like a puppet with its strings cut.]