Yoshida: 35

I know the Magician's identity.

After I left Howland and Stroud I made my way across town to visit my sensei in the art of stage magic. While I have little desire to go into specific detail, recording the exact dialog of the encounter as everyone else here insists on doing, I do feel some obligation to "show my work" in how I arrived in the answer. At least with my chronicle of events the accuracy of what was actually said will be an improvement over the dismally deficient and preposterously subjective recitations of those who lack a nearly photographic memory, as I do.

For the first ten minutes of the instruction, my master merely quizzed me as to what had been previously learned, satisfying himself that I had indeed been practicing and could now perform the various tricks he'd taught me. Inoue-San then decided to begin training me in a new trick.


INOUE: Now I will teach you the rabbit out of the hat trick.

YOSHIDA: No. Something else.

INOUE: I am the teacher. If you wish to know how to become a magician, you need to know this trick.

YOSHIDA: No. I loathe rabbits. When I was young my father worked with them in Australia. Their smell makes me gag to this day.

INOUE: The "pull the rabbit out of a hat" trick is iconic [I believe this is the English word closest to what Inoue was attempting to describe]. When anyone thinks of a magician, the rabbit out of a hat is the trick that pops into their minds first.

YOSHIDA: The rabbit out of a hat. The Magician. The rabbit out of a hat. He pulls the rabbit out of a hat. The Magician. When someone thinks of that trick, they think of him.

INOUE: Are you all right? You seem odder than normal, with all respect to your family.

YOSHIDA: Mrs. Justina Walentowicz. Her head was pulled down through her torso.

INOUE: Excuse me?

YOSHIDA: Then he pulled it up through the incision in her belly. He pulled it up. He pulled it out of... he was performing the rabbit out of a hat trick with her head, announcing himself.

INOUE: You're making me sick. Settle down now, and I'll teach you.

YOSHIDA: He was showing us right from the beginning. He even put the rabbit's foot in her brain. Rabbit out of a hat trick. The Magician. Of course.

INOUE: Whose brain? What are you saying? You are worrying me.

YOSHIDA: What do you know about the rabbit out of a hat trick? You must tell me everything you know immediately.

INOUE: Well, uh... you require a hat-

YOSHIDA: No, idiot! Not how to perform it. Tell me about it! I want to know everything.


This is the story he told (with corrections and additional information supplied by myself):

In England, in the year 1831, an itinerant magician was wandering between towns, performing magic tricks for food. On one of his stops, a member of the local aristocracy happened to notice that he had a rabbit caged along with his belongings. The lady was a grand supporter of the newly-formed Animal Protection Legislation Act (much like your similarly misguided American SPCA), and she fetched the local constable to report the magician for animal cruelty.

The magician was quick on his feet, informing the constable and the lady that the rabbit was in fact part of his act and not dinner, and the lady demanded to see what trick the rabbit could possibly assist with that very night. As you can surmise, at the finale to his show, the magician thanked his "friend" for all his help that night, pulling the rabbit from his hat to the wild applause of the crowd and the great annoyance of the thwarted lady.

This is the first record of any magician ever performing the "rabbit out of a hat" trick.

The magician was known as The Great Gagasti.