Annie stood in front of kids aged between five to eleven who huddled up together in a crowd to watch her perform as she stood behind a table and sat on a chair. A blonde girl stepped forward abd picked a card from the ones in Annie's hand.
"Now memorize it well," she said while shuffling the cards at an astounding speed, much too fast for the kids to keep up with.
The girl held it tightly and close to her chest. Then, two flames erupted by the Fire Magician's side as part of the act. She placed all the cards into her hat all at the same time before throwing it in the air, letting it spin but the cards didn't fall out. She then caught the hat, circling her left hand around it, making the kids pay good attention to her.
"Now, Lucy..." Annie addressed the blonde girl who was a bit startled as all the eyes had suddenly shifted to her.
"Um, yes?"
"The card in your hand. Is that what you had chosen from the deck of cards? Hmm?" She questioned and all the kids were in suspense as they waited for Lucy to reveal it. The young girl peeked at her card and was blown away.
"No. This is the Ace of Spades. I drew the Queen of Hearts."
"Whoa!"
"Did you hear that?"
"Tell us, Fire Magician."
The kids urged her while she chuckled to herself theatrically, playing the act of a mysterious magician exceptionally.
"Well..." She snapped her fingers and the hat floated over to Lucy's hand. "Why don't you find out?" She smiled, urging for Lucy to put her hand in it.
"Umm..." Lucy began searching in the hat, not peering into it but using her hand to feel around for something. Then, she finally felt something. She raised her hand out along with a card which was visible to the other kids so they could all see.
"Whoaaaaa!!"
The Queen of Hearts was overt in her hand and the children erupted into a cheer. "Thank you. Thank you. I do try." Annie bowed and bowed again after her performance. She loved the praise she was getting and even more so the amount of joy she was giving the kids.
The kids present for the most part were orphans with no one around to give them a healthy dose of happiness and joy so, Annie had taken it upon herself to take that place.
"Thank you. Thank you. Now, would my lovely audience please bare with me the wait while I prepare for my next magic trick." Annie retreated to the huge wall behind her while the kids sat patiently, murmuring among themselves about what she might do next. Annie rested her body on the floor and giggled to herself. "They're so cuuuute."
"Aren't they? Now, can I take over for your next act?"
"Ahh!!"
A voice that sounded much too dark and gloomy for her spoke and it caught her by surprise.
"Raten?! What are you doing here?" She inquired before waving off to the children who heard her shout. "Like I said, what are you doing here?"
"I want to take over for the next act. Like I said before," he repeated, leaving her completely dumbfounded.
'I thought I heard him by accident. Does he really want to help? Since when did the reincarnation of Satan care about people? Not to mention little kids.' She observed his face for a while which remained as he kept it, a poker face. 'Wait, no way. I'm still mad at him.'
It was then that Raten did something that she didn't think would ever happen until hell froze over. He began pleaded with his head lowered in a bowing position. "I beg of you, Annie. It would bring me so much happiness if you'd let me do this."
"What? But why would you-"
"Please, Annie." Raten didn't know why but he couldn't control himself. He wanted to make these kids happy as well. The Magic User still didn't understand completely but finally answered.
"Alright, fine," she huffed. "Get it over with."
In a dash, he disappeared and arrived in front of the kids.
The kids who had been waiting for the Fire Magician were greeted by him instead. Standing in front of them, it was as if Raten's entire persona had been completely altered as he put a smile on his face.
"Does anyone by chance have a spoon on them?" He asked and they all looked at him like he was a weirdo. Despite this, a boy came out of them holding one in hand. "Perfect, just perfect, young lad." He took the spoon and held it in one hand.
"Now you see it," He positioned his other hand around it, "and now you don't it." It disappeared, completely marvelling the children.
"Where did it go?" They murmured to each other. He then went around shaking all their hands before returning to the stage. Meanwhile, Annie had decided to peek over at what he was doing and was surprised by how well he was doing it.
It was obvious to her how he did the magic trick and waited to see what he would do next.
"Now!" He grabbed their attention effortlessly. "Could each of you please look at your hands?" They began looking at their hands one by one and were completely flabbergasted.
"Rings?!!" Each of them had silver rings on their fingers with special designs of suns for the boys and half moons for the girls. They awaited an answer.
"As you can see, dear audience, I have turned something of little value to something of true awesomeness. Like all of you. Thank you!" The kids applauded him in joy and he bowed just as Annie had before. The latter on the otherhand couldn't help but smile at him and his weird change in personality.
"Whooo!!" She applauded him as well, walking onto the stage. "Hey, kids! Would you like more magic tricks?! This time, it'll be a collaboration between I, the Fire Magician and my new partner, the Steel Magician."
The kids erupted so loud that others nearby could hear them. Seeing the look on their faces, both Raten and Annie giggled. She then whispered something into his ear. "He-he. Yes, that's perfect." Putting their heads together, they came up with more and more magic tricks such as Annie sawing his body in half before putting him together and Raten making a reflection of Annie in the mirror that acted differently.
It was a good thint that Annie had a lot of different equipment which were all effortlessly stored in her hat.
Making kids happy was Raten's Achilles heel, his only weakness and with all the tricks he pulled off today, he was able to increase his prowess in Metal Manipulation or tap more into what he had before.
The sun was going down and as the kids left, the Magic User turned to him. "This was really fun. We should do this again."
"Whatever."
"There you are," Annie said as the Raten she knew had returned as if he had an on-and-off switch or a split personality. The both of them were now on good terms and they had no idea it was all because of their roommate, Ace. The latter had seen Raten during their mission to Explica. On their way, a child had offered him a gift and he smiled genuinely.
"Welp, it's been a long day. We should probably return to the base."
"You're right." Raten and Annie left and headed for the Heart Base. Moving at their top speed, they arrived there in less than twenty minutes. They passed through the cloaked field and arrived at the closed doors.
They were about to open it when someone else did instead. "Where have you guys been?" Ace asked them with a face of uncontrollable excitement.
"We were just at Dreamdale. Why? What happened, Ace?" Annie asked and Raten as well wanted to know.
"It's the Captains. They're returning tonight," he said.