Alex Lin opened his eyes to the smell of wet stone and something that might have been old socks. Or maybe ancient magic. It was hard to tell the difference.
His head felt like someone had used it as a basketball, and his mouth tasted like he'd been chewing on copper coins. But the weirdest part? He was lying in a narrow alley wearing the fanciest suit he'd ever seen in his life.
The suit was red and black, and it seemed to move on its own—like someone had made clothing out of liquid fire. Every time he shifted, little lights ran along the seams like they were having a party. On his face was a mask made of white porcelain, grinning like it knew a secret he didn't.
"What the hell?" Alex muttered, sitting up slowly. His voice sounded strange, muffled by the mask.
That's when a voice spoke right inside his head.
"Good morning, sunshine. Sleep well?"
Alex nearly jumped out of his skin. "Who's there?"
"Name's Gramps. I'm your new best friend, whether you like it or not."
Alex looked around the empty alley. Nobody there. Just him, some garbage cans, and a cat that was staring at him like he owed it money.
"Are you in my head?" Alex asked.
"Bingo! Give the man a prize." Gramps sounded amused. "Don't worry, kid. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm what you might call a... helper."
"A helper for what?"
"For being the Fool, of course."
Alex blinked. "The what now?"
Suddenly, a glowing screen appeared in front of his face. It looked like something from a video game, but it was floating in mid-air.
WELCOME, FOOL!
Name: Alex Lin
Job: Cosmic Troublemaker
Power: Aura Manipulation (Warning: May Cause Chaos)
Mission: Make Life Interesting
First Task: Find breakfast. Try not to break reality.
"I'm dreaming," Alex said. "This is all a weird dream."
"Nope," Gramps said cheerfully. "Welcome to your new life, kid. You're not in Kansas anymore."
"I'm not from Kansas."
"It's an expression. Look, here's the deal. You're special now. You can do things that'll make people's jaws drop. But first, you need to get out of this alley before someone calls the police."
Alex stood up, his legs shaky. The suit felt perfect, like it had been made just for him. The mask was light as a feather, and somehow he could see perfectly through it.
"What kind of things can I do?" he asked.
"Try walking to the street. You'll figure it out."
First Steps into Chaos
Alex walked toward the mouth of the alley, and that's when things got interesting.
The moment his foot touched the main street, the world seemed to... shift. Colors got brighter. Sounds became clearer. And every person within fifty feet stopped what they were doing and stared at him.
"Uh, Gramps?" Alex whispered. "People are looking at me funny."
"That's because you're radiating what we call 'aura.' Think of it like... magical wi-fi. Everyone can sense it, but nobody knows what it means."
A woman in a purple dress was frozen mid-step, her coffee cup tilted but not spilling. A man reading a newspaper had his mouth hanging open. Even the pigeons had stopped moving.
"Did I break them?" Alex asked.
"Nah, they're just... impressed. Give it a second."
Then, all at once, everyone started moving again. The woman spilled her coffee. The man dropped his paper. The pigeons exploded into flight like they'd been shot from a cannon.
"The Fool!" someone shouted. "The Fool is here!"
People started running in every direction. Some ran away from Alex, others ran toward him. A few just ran in circles, apparently too confused to pick a direction.
"Well," Gramps said, "that's one way to make an entrance."
Alex looked around at the chaos. "Did I do this?"
"Kid, you're gonna do a lot worse than this before we're done."
The Detective Who Hated Mysteries
Three blocks away, Detective Sam Wu was having his morning coffee when his phone rang. He grabbed it without looking at the caller ID.
"Wu here."
"Detective!" It was Officer Chen, and she sounded like she was running. "You need to get down to Market Street right now!"
"What's the problem?"
"There's a guy in a mask, and he's... well, he's making people act weird."
Sam sighed. It wasn't even 9 AM and the city was already getting strange. "Define weird."
"Mrs. Park started speaking backwards. The hot dog vendor's cart is floating three feet off the ground. And all the street lights are blinking in perfect rhythm."
Sam grabbed his coat. "I'm on my way."
He'd been a detective for twelve years, and he'd thought he'd seen everything. But lately, the City of Shadows had been getting stranger and stranger. Last week, someone had reported that their shadow was giving them life advice. The week before that, a man claimed his reflection had quit and walked away.
Sam was starting to think he needed a new job.
The Coffee Shop of Destiny
By the time Sam reached Market Street, the crowd had grown bigger. Everyone was talking at once, trying to explain what they'd seen. But in the middle of it all, the masked man had disappeared.
"Where'd he go?" Sam asked Officer Chen.
"Nobody knows. One minute he was there, the next..." She shrugged. "Gone."
That's when Sam noticed something odd. Every person in the crowd was smiling. Not normal smiles—big, stupid grins like they'd just heard the world's best joke.
"Chen, why is everyone so happy?"
"I don't know, but I feel great!" Officer Chen laughed. "Don't you feel great?"
Sam looked around. She was right. Despite the chaos, despite the floating hot dog cart, despite the fact that Mrs. Park was now speaking perfect French (which she'd never learned), everyone seemed... happy.
"This is not normal," Sam muttered.
That's when he spotted him.
The masked man was sitting at a table outside Café Luna, calmly eating a piece of cake. He was impossible to miss—the red and black suit, the white grinning mask, the way he seemed to glow slightly in the morning sun.
Sam walked over slowly, his hand resting on his notebook. "Excuse me, sir. I'm Detective Wu. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"
The masked man looked up. Through the mask's eye holes, Sam could see golden eyes that sparkled with mischief.
"Sure," the man said. "But I should warn you—I'm not very good at normal answers."
"Let's start simple. What's your name?"
"Alex Lin."
"And why are you wearing a mask?"
Alex tilted his head. "Would you believe me if I said it was stuck?"
"No."
"Then let's go with 'fashion choice.'"
Sam wrote something in his notebook. "Mr. Lin, people are saying you made strange things happen on Market Street. Care to explain?"
Alex took another bite of cake. "Define strange."
"Floating hot dog carts. People speaking backwards. Street lights dancing."
"Huh," Alex said. "That does sound strange. Maybe it's something in the air?"
Sam was about to respond when the café owner came out. She was a small woman with gray hair and kind eyes, but she was staring at Alex like he was a celebrity.
"Are you really him?" she asked in a whisper. "The Fool?"
"So people keep saying," Alex replied. "Though I'm not sure what that means."
"It means," the woman said, "that everything's about to change."
The Woman Who Knew Too Much
That's when she appeared.
One moment, the seat across from Alex was empty. The next, a woman was sitting there like she'd been there all along. She had long black hair, was wearing a bright red scarf, and had the kind of smile that made you think she knew all your secrets.
"Hello, Alex," she said. "I'm Mina. I've been waiting for you."
Sam blinked. "Where did you come from?"
"I've been here the whole time," Mina said, never taking her eyes off Alex. "You just weren't looking."
"That's impossible," Sam said.
"Detective Wu," Mina said, still looking at Alex, "in this city, impossible is just another word for Tuesday."
Alex studied her. "You know me?"
"I know what you are. The question is, do you?"
"I'm starting to get the feeling that I don't know anything," Alex said.
Mina laughed. "That's the first step to wisdom."
In Alex's head, Gramps spoke up. "Careful, kid. This one's dangerous."
"Dangerous how?" Alex thought back.
"She's older than she looks. A lot older. And she's got her own agenda."
Alex looked at Mina more carefully. She seemed young, maybe twenty-five, but her eyes... her eyes looked like they'd seen centuries.
"What do you want?" Alex asked.
"To help you understand what you've become," Mina said. "And to warn you about what's coming."
"What's coming?"
Mina's smile faded. "The real test. You see, Alex, being the Fool isn't just about making people happy or bending reality. It's about balance. And right now, the balance is about to tip."
"Tip toward what?"
"Chaos. Or order. Depends on what you choose to do next."
Sam was writing furiously in his notebook. "This is all very interesting, but I still need to know about the floating hot dog cart."
That's when the ground started shaking.
The Arrival of the Serious People
The tremor was small at first, just enough to make the coffee cups rattle. But then it got stronger. And stronger. Soon, everyone in the café was holding onto their tables.
"What's happening?" Sam shouted over the noise.
"They're coming," Mina said, her voice deadly calm. "The Order of the Stern Bureaucrats. They don't like it when someone breaks the rules."
"What rules?" Alex asked.
"Reality rules. Physics rules. The rule that says normal people can't make hot dog carts fly."
That's when they appeared.
Six figures in gray suits marched down the street in perfect formation. They all looked exactly the same—average height, average build, average faces that you'd forget the moment you looked away. But their eyes were cold, and they moved with the kind of precision that made Sam's police training kick in.
"Alex Lin," the lead figure called out. "You are in violation of Reality Code 347: Unauthorized Use of Impossible Things. Please surrender your mask and report for processing."
"Processing?" Alex asked.
"Don't listen to them," Mina said. "Once they process you, you'll never be the same."
"What if I don't want to be processed?"
The lead figure's expression didn't change. "Resistance is inefficient. Compliance is mandatory."
"You know what?" Alex stood up, his aura beginning to glow brighter. "I'm having a really weird day. And you guys are making it weirder."
"Sir," Sam said, "I don't think this is a good idea."
"Probably not," Alex agreed. "But I'm starting to think good ideas are overrated."
He looked at the six gray figures, then at Mina, then at Sam, then at the crowd of people who were watching like this was the best show they'd ever seen.
"Gramps," he thought, "any advice?"
"Yeah," Gramps said. "Don't hold back."
Alex smiled behind his mask. "Okay then."
He raised his hand, and his aura exploded outward like a rainbow made of pure energy. The gray figures stopped marching. The ground stopped shaking. And for a moment, everything was perfectly still.
Then Alex did something that would be talked about in the City of Shadows for years to come.
He laughed.
It wasn't a normal laugh. It was the kind of laugh that made flowers bloom and birds sing and made everyone within a mile radius feel like they'd just remembered their favorite childhood memory.
The gray figures looked at each other, confused. One of them actually smiled before catching himself and frowning again.
"This is highly irregular," the lead figure said, but his voice was less certain now.
"Good," Alex said. "I like irregular."
And with that, he turned around and walked away, leaving behind a crowd of amazed people, a confused detective, a smiling woman in a red scarf, and six very frustrated bureaucrats.
"Where are you going?" Sam called after him.
"To find that fruit cake," Alex called back. "I hear it's prophetic."
As he disappeared around the corner, Mina smiled and followed. Sam looked at his notebook, which was now full of notes that made no sense whatsoever, and decided this was definitely going to be a very long day.
But somehow, he found himself smiling too.