Tony Code opened his eyes.
Afternoon. He'd missed Nakamura-sensei's morning calculus lecture. The information registered without weight. Calculus was trivial. He'd solved the entire semester's problem sets during the first week. Attending served no practical purpose.
He sat up, ran a hand through his hair. The gesture was learned, practiced over two years of living among humans. It signaled "just woke up" to observers. His friendship with Grimmey had taught him these patterns mattered to others, even if they meant nothing to him.
Grimmey. His roommate when Tony first enrolled at Tokyo University two years ago. Administrative reshuffling had separated their rooms after the first semester, but they'd maintained contact. The friendship was functional, based on mutual understanding rather than emotional attachment. Grimmey understood Tony's nature, didn't demand responses Tony couldn't provide.
The window showed Tokyo stretching below. Concrete, glass, humans moving in predictable patterns. Two years in this city. Two years since he'd fled Ìlú Ìmọ̀. Home. The word felt incomplete, like corrupted data he couldn't fully process.
The television was still on from last night. Tony often left it running, using news broadcasts as ambient data on human behavior. The anchor's face was grave, urgent.
"Breaking developments from West Africa. International investigators report that the isolated region of Ìlú Ìmọ̀ in Nigeria has been operating under what officials are calling 'anomalous governance' for over two decades. The technological advancement in this region far exceeds..."
The screen cut to footage. Tony's city. His skyline. Buildings that shouldn't exist. Towers of circuitry and light, architecture that violated known physics. Technology centuries beyond the rest of Earth.
Tony stared at the screen. The market where his mother used to shop. The school he'd attended until age sixteen. All of it exposed now. All of it revealed to the world. They would know. They would come.
He felt... nothing. No fear, no nostalgia, no concern. Just the acknowledgment of facts changing. Status updated. Operations continuing.
Movement outside caught his attention. Smoke rising from the campus library, three buildings over. Flames visible through shattered windows. Students evacuating in chaotic patterns.
Tony watched for thirty seconds, cataloging the information. Probable cause: electrical fire, sixty percent likelihood. Arson, thirty-five percent. Other factors, five percent. Not his concern. The situation didn't affect his immediate survival parameters.
He looked away.
His phone buzzed once.
Tony reached out with his mind, a simple psychic interface he'd developed over years of practice. Thought command sent through quantum entanglement. The call disconnected.
The phone buzzed again immediately. Interesting. Caller persistence suggested elevated importance.
Tony picked up. "Yes."
"Tony!" A female voice, high-pitched, stressed. Background noise suggested chaos. "This is Yuki Tanaka. From cognitive psychology class? I know we don't really talk, but my phone's dying and you were the last number and I'm trapped in the library and there's fire everywhere and I can't find the stairs and..."
The connection died. Battery failure, most likely.
Tony stared at the phone. Yuki Tanaka. Cognitive Psychology, Seat 3-B. Height, 157 centimeters. Dark hair, practical ponytail. Always took detailed notes. Had lent him a pen on the first day when he'd forgotten one. Had smiled at him once in the hallway for reasons he hadn't understood. Currently trapped in a burning structure. Survival probability without intervention: declining rapidly.
The optimal response was clear. Remain here. Minimize risk. Avoid complications.
Tony looked at the smoke rising from the library, at the flames consuming the third floor where Yuki Tanaka was probably trying to breathe through toxic fumes, searching for exits that no longer existed.
If he did nothing, she would die. One human fatality. Preventable if he acted. Unavoidable if he didn't.
He stood.
His door opened without warning. Grimmey entered, slightly out of breath, his normally perfect appearance disheveled. "Tones, we have a problem. The library fire isn't normal."
"Fire is chemical combustion. Oxidation reaction producing heat and light. The process is entirely normal."
"Not the fire itself. The person who started it." Grimmey walked to the window, gestured toward the library. "I saw him standing outside. Casual clothes, but his eyes were glowing. Orange. Like molten metal."
Tony processed this. "You're suggesting arson with abnormal characteristics."
"I'm suggesting something worse." Grimmey's tone carried unusual weight. He typically maintained a casual, almost narcissistic demeanor. The current deviation indicated genuine concern. "That girl you were on the phone with. Yuki. She's trapped on the third floor. And the fire guy is still down there. Waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"I don't know. But the timing is suspicious. Fire starts during lunch hour. Maximum chaos. Campus security responds immediately, but when they try to approach..." Grimmey pulled out his phone, showed Tony a photo. A man in his thirties, average build, standing in front of the library entrance. His eyes were glowing, faint orange light visible even in daylight. "He steps in front of them. Just looks at them. And they back away. All of them. Like they suddenly remembered urgent business elsewhere."
Tony studied the image. The man's posture was relaxed, confident. Like someone waiting for an expected delivery. "Psychic influence."
"Or worse." Grimmey put his phone away. "And if I'm right about what he is, you absolutely cannot go down there. It's dangerous."
"Explain your reasoning."
"Think about it. Fire starts at your university. Specifically targets a building where students congregate. Someone with special abilities similar to yours standing guard. And of all the people trapped inside..." Grimmey paused. "You think that's coincidence?"
Tony analyzed the pattern. Fire at his campus. Deliberate timing. Guard presence. Probability of random occurrence: point zero three percent. Non-random event. Deliberate targeting probable.
"Your analysis suggests a coordinated operation with me as the target," Tony said.
"Exactly. Which means the smart thing to do is leave. Right now. Put as much distance between us and that guy as possible."
Tony looked at the smoke, at Yuki's location, at the man with glowing eyes standing guard. "If I leave, Yuki Tanaka dies."
"Probably, yes."
"And you're suggesting I accept that outcome to preserve my safety."
"That's the logical choice. Isn't it?"
Tony ran the calculations. Risk versus benefit. Probability matrices. All possible outcomes. The logical conclusion was clear. Leave. Survive. Minimize exposure. But he found himself saying, "I'm going to help her."
Grimmey blinked. "What?"
"Yuki Tanaka's survival probability without intervention approaches zero. I have capabilities that could alter that probability. Choosing not to use those capabilities when I possess them would be..." He searched for the right word. "Suboptimal."
"Suboptimal." Grimmey repeated slowly. "That's your justification? Not because you care? Not because you'd feel guilty?"
"I don't experience guilt. I don't experience anything." Tony looked at his hands. "But I calculate outcomes. And I find the outcome where I possess the ability to prevent a death and choose not to use it less acceptable than the alternative."
Grimmey was quiet for several seconds. Then something like a smile crossed his face. "You know what? That's actually pretty human of you."
"That doesn't make sense."
"No, it doesn't." Grimmey walked to Tony's desk, grabbed paper and pen, started sketching. "But we're doing this anyway. And if we're doing it, we're doing it smart."
He drew a rough floor plan of the library, marking entrances, stairwells, probable fire spread patterns. "You go in through the east entrance. It's away from fire guy. I'll approach from the front, create a distraction, get his attention. While he's focused on me, you slip inside, find Yuki, get out."
"He'll attack you."
"Let him try." Grimmey's grin returned. "I'm tougher than I look. And I've got a few tricks that might surprise him."
Tony studied the sketch. The plan had logical merit. Acceptable risk distribution. Probability of success: moderate but achievable. "Why are you helping me?"
Grimmey looked up. "Because we're friends. And friends help each other. Even when it's stupid."
Tony didn't fully understand the emotional component of that statement, but he recognized sincerity in Grimmey's voice. "Acceptable. Let's proceed."
They left the dormitory together, moving quickly through campus. Students were evacuating in various states of panic. Campus security attempted crowd control with limited success. The smoke was thicker now, visible from multiple angles.
As they approached the library, Tony saw him clearly. The man with glowing eyes stood in front of the main entrance, posture relaxed, arms crossed. His eyes tracked their approach, and something like recognition flickered across his face. He smiled. Not friendly. Predatory.
"That's him," Grimmey muttered. "And he's seen us."
They were still fifty meters away when the man spoke, his voice carrying impossibly across the distance and chaos. "Tony Code. I've been waiting for you."
Grimmey stepped slightly in front of Tony, positioning himself as a barrier. "And who are you?"
"No one important. Just a messenger. Sent to deliver a package." The man's smile widened. "You."
The temperature increased instantly. Heat radiated from the man in visible waves, distorting the air around him. Grimmey tensed. "Pyrokinetic. And strong. This just got more complicated."
The man took a step forward. Where his foot touched concrete, the ground scorched black, leaving a perfect footprint of ash. "You can come with me quietly. I deliver you intact, everyone else lives. Or..." Fire manifested around him, coiling up his arms without fuel or source. "I burn this entire campus until there's nothing left but ash. Your choice."
Tony calculated. The threat was genuine. The power displayed was sufficient to execute it. Campus evacuation was incomplete. Estimated casualties if the man acted: eight hundred and forty-seven students and staff. Unacceptable.
"I'll come with you," Tony said.
"No," Grimmey replied immediately. "You won't."
"The logical choice is..."
"Forget logic." Grimmey raised one hand, and the air around them changed. Heavier. Denser. The flames around the man flickered, struggling against an invisible force. "Sometimes you fight anyway."
The man looked at Grimmey with new interest. "You're not just some kid. You're one of them. One of her children."
"Maybe." Grimmey grinned. "Or maybe I'm just really, really good at physics."
He moved his hand in a sharp downward motion. The ground beneath the pyrokinetic shifted. Gravity localized to that specific point inverted, pulling in three different directions simultaneously. The man stumbled, his flames guttering as his balance failed.
"Tony, go!" Grimmey shouted. "East entrance, just like we planned. I'll keep him busy."
"He'll kill you."
"He'll try." Grimmey's grin widened. "Emphasis on try. Now move!"
Tony ran. Not toward safety. Toward the library's east entrance, exactly as planned. Behind him, he heard fire explode outward. Heard the pyrokinetic roar in rage. Heard Grimmey laugh like this was the most fun he'd had in years.
Tony reached the entrance, pulled the door open. Smoke and heat hit him immediately, dense enough to block normal vision. But Tony's vision wasn't normal. He could perceive data streams, electromagnetic patterns, the structure of things in ways humans couldn't. Smoke was just particles suspended in air. Fire was energy transfer. The library's layout was stored in his memory with perfect clarity.
Third floor. West wing. That's where Yuki had called from.
Behind him, through the door, he heard Grimmey shout something. Heard another explosion. Heard laughter. His friend was buying him time. Time to save someone he barely knew. Time to make a choice that defied logic.
Tony stepped fully inside. The burning library swallowed him whole.