Nero sauntered down the hall towards his regretfully acquired class. He entered into the small classroom and quickly swept his eyes around, surveying where he would be spending his mornings thrice a week for the next six months. There were maybe two dozen students here, in a university built to house thousands.

"Ms. Rodriguez was noted absent already, so that's the last one on the attendance list, take a seat and we will begin."

There was an incredibly tall, but not lanky, man leaning over a podium that came right above his waist. He had dark red hair that was particularly well groomed, and wore and oddly shiny suit.

"I'm Professor Virzi. You will address me as such. This is the compulsory power development course, if you thought you were in something else, please leave. I know none of you were that idiotic, as I checked the attendance as you entered, so I shall move on." He flipped open a small notebook on the desk.

"As I'm sure you are all well aware, we live in dangerous times. The districts are not always a certain place to be protected from crime despite the IMB's best efforts at preventing misuse of powers. The only thing you can truly rely on is yourself."

A meek girl in the front row slowly raised her hand, only to be ignored.

"Now, the reason you are all in this class with me, was because you were determined to be incapable of using your powers effectively, if at all. So, if possible, I'm going to draw them out of you, or teach you how to make your way around in these modern times."

Professor Virzi continued to drag on his speech over the rest of the hour, continuing to remind them the importance of being able to protect themselves and the ones they care about. The class of wide-eyed faces stared on silently until he passed out sheets listing times for labs with pairs of peoples names on them.

"I decided your pairings based on your profiles and determining who would be the best training partners for you. Nero Satou, you will be paired with a Maria Rodriguez who was absent today. I was notified that she will be available for your first training session this Saturday morning, so do not worry."

He was given a Saturday class with someone who he had never met. Worst of all, it was in the morning. At least he had an hour break between each of his classes. He went ahead and used this time to go visit Dr. Virzi, the small lady who was his advisor.

"Hey Nero! It's good to see you! What brings you to my office today?"

"I wanted to ask you about something."

"Sure, I have plenty of scholarships for you to look through and fill out."

"No, I have a few questions about the people at the school."

"Ehh... go ahead." Rose Virzi had tilted her head drastically to the side, still staring up at Nero.

"Has anyone you work with been acting strange recently? I was just wondering how they keep everything they research here safe and secure."

"That's a strange thing for you to ask. The director of campus security, Arnold Chesterfield, is the one who handles all of that. If you are worried about the safety of the campus, you should go talk to him. I do warn you, he is known to be rather abrasive."

Nero decided to visit the director after his day of classes was over.

***

Nero was finally freed from the shackles of studying for the day. The last class had run out as his history teacher continued to drone on about how one man had drawn together all the economic forces necessary to start this city. Nero was ready to go home, but the thoughts of money were still fresh on his mind. He might as well ask the director as slyly as he could about anyone strange.

He followed the instructions Dr. Virzi had given him to get to his office, and soon found himself at the top floor of another building entirely. He was well off the beaten path, far away from the lush green gardens that immediately surrounded the campus, and was far closer to the towering concrete pillars that surrounded everything. The interior was different from the clean marble white of the other buildings, this one instead had a rich red wood, and a much older feeling. It was the Roger's Memorial House, and it was now being used as offices for the directors of ESPU. He knocked quietly at the door, to the immediate shuffling of papers and the slamming of a drawer.

"Come in. Oh hello. I don't believe I've met you before. You are a student, yes?"

Nero had entered just as meekly as he knocked, trying carefully to somehow be less of a bother. "Yeah. I'm Nero Satou, a first year."

"Arnold Chesterfield. Call me Arnold." The balding man gave a gentle smile.

"Alright, thank you. I had some things I wanted to ask you about."

"What seems to be the matter? It's not often a student comes to me."

"I was wondering about how you deal with faculty or students that have other groups behind them."

"What do you mean by other groups?" Arnold was sitting straight up in his desk, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Like if say, hypothetically, a teacher was involved with some people that were wanted by the IMB, how would you figure that out?"

He was staring at Nero intently. "We conduct thorough background checks on all faculty that join, and comply with the IMB in their investigations into anyone they ask about. Is there a specific reason you are asking?" The amiable tone he had started with was gone.

"Like if... if someone wanted to steal research from a lab, what would you do?"

"Let them."

"What?"

"It's not our job to punish criminals, nor is it our job to prevent the crime in the first place, beyond reasonable deterrence. If someone was set on stealing information from us, it's in our best interest to let them so that the IMB can deal with the crime afterwards."

"I see."

"Any other questions Mr. Satou? Are you perhaps concerned about your safety or the safety of another student?"

"Not exactly..."

"Then allow me to get back to work, I have a lot to do."

Nero took a few steps back towards the door. "Thank you for your time, sir."

He left awkwardly, still being stared down by the balding man behind the desk. It seemed that it wouldn't be simple to find any easy leads to work from.

***

Arnold frantically walked down the staircase, step after step, towards the white labratories below. He was frazzled. How was a mere student able to figure out enough to be able to track him down as being wanted by the IMB? He needed to tell Cyrus that they had possibly been found out. It was a risk they couldn't take.

He stopped on the stairway. If he told Cyrus that he had been found out, then he wouldn't have any use left. He would have no protection from that tiger in a woman's body. He had to take care of this problem on his own, before it spiraled beyond his control. He just had to hope Cyrus wasn't aware of this already.

He went back up to his office, and pulled out the papers he had frantically shoved into a drawer. He needed to form a plan about how to best eliminate this Nero Satou. He pulled out his phone, and dialed the number.

"Hello? I don't recognize this number. If it's another damn telemarketer-"

He needed this to go over smoothly. He only knew one person he could trust. A vagrant from the outskirts that took up the business of selling connections to hitmen. Despite Arnold being a repeat customer for a couple decades, he still didn't know the broker's name, just the same calm voice that always answered him.

"Hey, it's me. I'm gonna have to call in a favor."

"Oh, hello there! It's a pleasure to hear from you again. Who or what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Nero Satou. I need him to disappear."

"Permanent or temporary adventure?"

"I'll be sending you related files, I just need him unable to talk, the more permanent the better."

"If possible, I'll take the canary to the coal mine."

Arnold hung up the phone, exasperated. It wasn't anything wrong with the quality of the work, nor even the fact that he would almost certainly have to help directly for any plan to work that made him let out a deep sigh. It was the reminder that the man he called had never outgrown talking in code phrases because they sounded 'cool'.

Arnold pulled out a laptop, and began searching around the university's records for any information he could use on his new opponent. A freshman student from the United States, here alone. In the remedial class with Ignatius Virzi. Scheduled for a lab on Saturday.

It was a perfect opportunity for abduction when the rest of campus would be emptier than usual. The broker would certainly appreciate such an easy time falling into his lap. The name Virzi, however, still gave him some pause.