Beside her, Haibara Ai leaned back in a seat that was enormous to her, taking in the dim surroundings. Hidden within it, she felt a rare flicker of security.
Jiang Xia had somehow acquired a bucket of Popcorn. While he was busy talking to Inspector Yassa, Haibara Ai leaned over to take a look, reached out with her small hand to grab a handful, and held it in front of herself as she crunched away. She also passed some to Mouri Ran beside her.
But Mouri Ran shook her head and did not take any. Her hands were busy right now—busy covering her eyes.
The Magician in this troupe had a performance style exactly like his poster: horrifying, terrifying acts of dangerous magic that looked as though someone might suddenly die on the spot the next second.
Besides the most basic Sawing a Person in Half, there were naturally all sorts of other performances. For example, earlier, he had tied an assistant to a huge spinning wheel and thrown Darts at a Balloon she held slanted between her teeth. And that included the terrifying trick about to be performed now.
—A huge apparatus stood on the stage, resembling an old-fashioned four-poster bed, except there were numerous round holes in its bedboard.
Above it, parallel to the bedboard, hung an equally sized steel plate. Dense rows of sharp Knives stood upright on the plate, their Knife Tips perfectly aligned with the holes in the bedboard below.
"He'll probably lie on that steel plate, then have the Knives above lowered onto him." Haibara Ai grabbed another small handful of Popcorn from the bucket in Jiang Xia's hands. She did not think much of this sort of trick. "It's merely grotesque, with no aesthetic appeal at all."
Mouri Ran: "..." Ai was way