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[color=cornflowerblue]“Don’t you know you shouldn’t ask a magician about their secrets?”[/color] Mercurial replied to Rei’s question playfully. [color=cornflowerblue]“Anyway, I guess I —no, we’ll take that bet of yours and claim tonight’s big prize. I hope you are ready to fork out some big bucks, after all, I didn’t see you catch a single one yet,”[/color] she added, right as her partner, the ever-so-dazzling Himea, showed up.

[color=cornflowerblue]“Stop, please, I’m nothing but a simple trickster. You are going to make me blush if you keep saying things like that,”[/color] Yayoi said after Himea’s praise.

Sadly, their light-hearted banter was interrupted by a much-undesired interloper. Or rather, a whole group of ‘em light weirdos.

[color=cornflowerblue]“On it,”[/color] Yayoi answered to her partner’s request. While Himea didn’t explain what kind of distraction she wanted, improvising was part of the show so Mercurial was more than ready for it. She snapped her fingers, summoning a cane with a darkened sapphire in its head, spun it around a couple times, and tipped her hat towards the mass of congregating Miseria.

And then, she fired a stream of bubbles, from her cane, trapping any who would get caught in them, before quickly consuming the tides of darkness.

After taking care of the threats in her immediate surroundings, Yayoi turned her attention back to Himea. She seemed to be dealing with a less-than-ideal match-up against a certain frog maniac. It was right that Mercurial took a part in that as well.

[color=cornflowerblue]“Let’s see what kind of surprise awaits a [i]pawn[/i] like you,”[/color] Mercurial said to Kaeru after she joined Kriegspiel atop their elevated arena. As she did so, she threw her hat at the frog girl and her battle toad. Mercurial’s intention wasn’t even to hit them, just to have the magical hat be close enough for her real trick to take effect.

If Kriegspiel took the cue, all she had to do was concentrate on summoning whatever piece she wanted next right from Mercurial’s hat, hopefully making it come from an unexpected angle that would take their target with her guard down.