Death's Reaper

Valuable Information

The one who called himself Joker laughed with my voice. "No way, that guy would never accept anyone other than you as his soul reaper, but since you're jumping to such inaccurate conclusions, I should feed you some extra info to keep you on the right track."

"I'm listening." Though I seriously wished all these wacky things weren't happening. I liked the way everything was up until now.

"I've been tracking this information for a while now, and I strongly believe that there is a group controlling suspicious activities in multiple countries." Well this just got big.

"Based on my research, I believe the leader of this group is the Illusions Master."

Recognition flashed in Brady's eyes before he closed them and breathed deeply.

"He was banned from Merlin's Circle sixteen years ago for his horrendous research-"

"Hold up," I interrupted. "What's Merlin's Circle?"

The phone crackled. "That's right, I almost forgot you don't know anything about the magic side of society."

The smug way he used my voice to say it thinned my nerve strings. "I'm not an idiot!" I protested.

He laughed again, still using my voice, the jerk. "The Merlin Circle is a group of sorcerers and they are people obsessed with their respective research. They receive government funding based on the usefulness and fruits of their work. The phone you're holding now is one of the results of their research. Anyway, the Illusions Master was uncovered as the mastermind behind providing magic weapons to a terrorist group that had been targeting the major cities in every state of Chroma. Two hundred people died and six hundred became casualties. It was a huge disaster in both the unaware and magical side of society. Luckily it was covered up before the unaware society became the aware society."

He paused and I said, "that's not funny."

"Really? I thought it was hilarious. Geez, tough audience today. Anyway, his research was stopped and he was stripped of his title, his magic was sealed, and he was sent to live amongst the unaware peoples as a patient in the Camelot Mental Hospital."

"That's harsh."

"True, but he deserved it. The high ups even considered making execution legal again, just for him."

"Wow, but repenting for it will at least somewhat lessen the judgement after death."

"True, but I don't think the old dudes know that. Well they might depending on their religion. My point is, he supposedly died from overdosage on pills and they buried him in the local cemetery. End of story, right? Well the funny thing is, the body in his coffin isn't his. It belongs to a fisherman who had conveniently gone missing three days before the Illusions Master 'died'."

How did he get his hands on that nifty piece of information?

"Don't worry, I didn't dig the body up or anything like that. I had specialists helping me. My theory is that the Illusions Master somehow unsealed his power to some extent and tricked the witnesses into believing that it was him who died, and held the funeral in the afternoon of the next day. Then he escaped and started his own evil organization. I'd say, ten to one, that his goal is revenge. I've been tracking the big guy from last night for a while now, and I've concluded that he is the assistant of the Illusions Master, who quit his job after his boss was banished. He opened a Glacial Ice business on the coast of Riegro, across the Eisric Ocean and it only opens during the summer. He checks in with the Ministry of Communications regularly, as required by our laws, and claims to be living quietly in Riegro, finding odd jobs during the other seasons or new business opportunities, but that's just a cover. He has a double who looks identical to him who actually does that, while he travels to multiple continents under a different name, most likely the double's."

"Is it that easy to find a double who looks just like you?" I questioned, interrupting his long explanation.

"Well for starters, you can ask Brady about our similarities, right Buddy?"

Brady reluctantly said, "I was unable to distinguish between April and 'Joker', I suspect a new form of duplicating one's appearance has been created." His fists were clenched.

"Nah, it's just been in the forbidden archives this whole time. Where do you think those doppelgänger legends started from? Some guys were messing around with magic they weren't supposed to touch, so the higher ups locked its secrets away in the forbidden archives since it was too important as research material and for magical advancement to destroy."

"And yet you somehow got your hands on it." I accused.

He laughed, still using my voice. It was seriously creepy hearing my voice talk back to me.

"I don't need that sort of magic to look like you, Appy." I froze, that nickname could only mean one thing.

"You have a horrible taste in nicknames." I complained.

"True, but you love me for it."

"Someone sounds confident, why don't you tell me your real name while you're at it?"

"Awe, that's no fun. Guess."

I sighed, "forget it. Just keep telling the story."

"Fine by me. I tracked this guy to multiple locations around the world, but he somehow always managed to get away from me in time for his meeting with someone. It was by some stroke of luck that I found his meeting location and time to be this morning at one of the old apartments downtown. So I figured I'd drag Brady there with me since the best way to convince him is to show him. In all fairness, I never said I was you."

"What makes you think I'll believe you? You could have staged all of it and hired some people to do your bidding and drag us into your twisted ploy." I challenged.

"Because you know I'm telling the truth. Isn't that one of your abilities, soul reaper? On the flip side, you can never lie either."

I gritted my teeth. How much did he know? What if this was all a big elaborate trick with the aim to drag me into some big, unknown territory?

"So what do you want?"

"Pardon?" He seemed to have been caught off guard.

"People don't just give out information like this for free. What do you want as compensation?"

He chuckled. "I don't know if I should call you smart or stupid. Alright, I have a plan of sorts and Brady needs to fill you in on the interesting conversation we heard a few hours ago. I'll call back later."

"Wait-", the phone beeped, signalling the end of the call. I raised an eyebrow at Brady.

"So, what did I miss?"