The young people stood stunned by what they had just heard, since not long ago they had sent her a message without noticing anything strange. They swallowed hard and waited for Pascal to finish speaking.

“Yes, her,” Pascal confirmed nervously. “Tori arrived a moment ago and asked me if I had seen her. I told her no, but that she was probably still in the subway.”

Pascal explained that Tori said Aria’s parents had started calling each of her classmates to see if she was with them because she hadn’t come home last night.

“She posted a photo from the station not long ago, and she also messaged me early this morning. Maybe her phone was stolen or something,” Lucas suggested.

“She knows how to get here without a map. And if her parents were waiting for her, how could they not find her?” Artemisa countered. “If I get robbed, the first thing I do is go to the Governmental Sector because it’s safer. And even then, she’s not here.”

Lucas and Artemisa widened their eyes and looked at each other. They both knew Aria and had worked with her on projects more than once. It was common to see her on campus surrounded by classmates who wanted more than just her notes. Aria was definitely a social butterfly and an academic star who was never truly alone. She was the model student and cadet: perfect grades, perfect abilities, perfect protocol, a powerful and activated core at a young age, intelligent, friendly, and on top of that, beautiful—easily mistaken for a model. That’s the kind of person Aria is: a tall, flirty blonde woman with deep honey-colored eyes, slightly tanned smooth skin. Aria Schmidt was the crush of both men and women; in fact, she had been Artemisa’s crush for a long time.

“And where was she coming from?” Artemisa asked.

“Her parents told us they went to pick her up at the metro today because she was at a party in North District last night and stayed over at a friend’s house. A supposed friend her parents don’t know. According to Aria, he took her to the station, she got on the metro, and messaged her parents saying she was on board,” Pascal continued.

“She posted a photo on Glimpse from line B-15,” Lucas defended.

“Her parents waited a long time at the station, but it turns out she never got off the B-15! They called her, texted her, and the phone was off, according to the operator. Me, Tori, and others started calling her too, but it keeps going straight to voicemail,” Pascal added.

Lucas was shocked.

“What about the cameras? There are like a thousand in the subways. It’s impossible for her to have just disappeared,” Artemisa said.

Pascal resumed the story:

“They asked if they could check the security cameras, but were told that they could only do that with a police order, due to worker privacy policies,” Pascal explained.

“A police order requires a valid reason, and if the reason is a disappearance, then they have to wait 24 hours before any action is taken,” Lucas guessed bitterly.

“Exactly!” Pascal affirmed. “We were wondering if maybe she took a different route while I was waiting for Luna, but if she was supposed to meet her parents at the station, it’s unlikely, don’t you think?”

“We should call her parents if Aria doesn’t show up in 20 minutes. Have you emailed or spoken to Professor Pavlov? Maybe he can help delay the ceremony and assist in the search,” Artemisa suggested. “I have his number. I’ll message him.”

Artemisa started typing on her phone, noticing a missed call from an unknown number. Lucas saw it too and checked his own screen, finding a missed call from Aria that he hadn’t answered. His phone had been on silent, so he hadn’t noticed it. As soon as he saw it, he showed the screen to both of them.

“She called me,” said Lucas, “but it says she hung up after three seconds.”

Artemisa and Pascal looked at each other because it didn’t seem like a good sign.

“Calling and hanging up right away... that’s not good,” Pascal commented. “They shouldn’t hold the ceremony until she’s found. God help us find her soon.”

“I’ll look for her Glimpsepost and forward it. Maybe one of my friends saw her or something,” Lucas offered, pulling out his phone. “I have the number of another professor. I’ll talk to him too. We’re future state agents, it’s ridiculous if we can’t be part of the investigation.”

The three nodded and then approached other people, who also said they hadn’t seen her. As they told the story, those students also tried to search for her using one of the photos from her profile. The goal was to build a network and gather as much information as possible about her whereabouts, but nothing relevant came up. They received many guesses: her phone was stolen, she fell asleep on the metro, she went off with someone and had an accident.

Lucas dared to break the silence:

“Aria would never just leave like that. She wouldn’t even miss something like this. Something must’ve happened to her. How could she get lost in a station? That’s stupid. And the idea that she fell asleep? She’s not careless,” he said.

Artemisa complained too:

“Hopefully we find her soon. Once this gets to the military police, they’ll just shelve it because she’s pretty and won’t even look for her,” she said angrily. “The military police are for bastards, and the only one I actually like is you.”

Everyone knew Pascal was going into the military police, since his grandparents were police officers in the old world, and having been raised by them, he was influenced to join the armed forces. However, according to Artemisa, Lucas, and many others, the military police left much to be desired in this world.

“Thanks, Artemisa,” Pascal smiled.

Pascal began to slow his pace and then asked Lucas:

“By the way, what division are you going into? Have you decided, or are you still going with that ‘whatever comes, I’ll take it’ idea?”

Lucas, with a carefree smile and a dismissive hand gesture as if it were no big deal, replied:

“Whatever comes- I’ll take it. As long as they pay me, it’s fine.”

Pascal looked at him for a few moments, then suddenly hugged him in a suffocating embrace, catching Lucas off guard, who tried to pull away from the pressure. Emotions were running high and the mystery surrounding Aria weighed on them, so they allowed themselves a brief moment of expression.

"Ahhh mi loco, I’m gonna miss you my whole life, boludo" said Pascal in Spanish with an exaggerated tone of sorrow.

"Por la chucha, Pascal culiao, don’t make me cry, hermanito" replied Lucas in the same language, matching his tone.

Artemisa watched them, not fully understanding what they were saying but getting the gist from their expressions, guessing they were talking about missing each other.

“I’m really gonna miss you, man. When will I ever see you again? In like 40 years maybe. Invite me for a matecitowhen we’re near again” lamented Pascal.

"Ya, weón" Lucas said

A woman with sky-blue hair and pale skin appeared and approached the men who were hugging. She surprised Artemisa, greeting her with a tap on the back, then asked the tearful guys:

“What happened? Why are you crying?” she asked in Spanish.

"¡Luna!, ¡Mi Lunita!” exclaimed Pascal in his accent, and Lucas pulled her and Artemisa into the hug too.

“I’m gonna miss you both so much, it was a pleasure working with you!” said Lucas, tightening the hug.

The two women complained about the strength of the hug but reciprocated and laughed with the camaraderie.

“And what the hell’s wrong with these cabrones?” Luna asked, puzzled.

"Yo. No. Saber" said Artemisa in Spanish.

“¡Noo! La recalcada concha de la lora. Artemisa was really getting into Spanish! I’m sorry I can’t be with you forever too.” exclaimed Pascal.

“What did he say?” Artemisa asked, confused.

“He said “Damn it, Artemisa was learning Spanish. I’m sorry I can’t be with you longer too” Luna translated to English.

“Pascal, you crybaby piece of shit, I’m gonna stay alive, I’m not dying” Artemisa snapped, still confused.

They broke the hug and took some distance. Then Pascal turned to Artemisa:

“And she’s so pretty! Have I told you you’re my ideal type of woman?” said Pascal.

“Yeah, you’ve said it a million times, but you’re not my type” Artemisa replied.

“And what’s your type?” Pascal asked her.

“Women” Artemisa replied, bluntly.

Pascal looked more disappointed than ever, but the rest of the group kept laughing at his rejection as a suitor, as always. Even though they were trying to stay relaxed, none of them stopped checking around or glancing at their phones, hoping for some news. Especially Luna, after learning what happened.

However, the only notice they received was an order from Professor Pavlov to enter the premises and head to the main auditorium for the start of the ceremony. Many of those present openly criticized the decision to move forward with the event, but no one opposed it directly. On the contrary, some —including Lucas— tried to find their professor to talk to him in person.

Before Professor Pavlov even allowed the recent graduates to speak, he said that Aria’s disappearance was already known by the academy, and the only instruction he received was to ensure all graduates were present in the building and the auditorium. He asked them to call their classmates who were still looking for her and tell them to come to central now. Otherwise, anyone disobeying the order would be suspended.

Professor Pavlov was also sincere with them, saying he regretted the situation but that there was still hope to find her. But until the request was formalized either by the Special Cases Agency or primarily by the police, the only thing the academy could do was to contact various local police stations to check for reports of theft, accidents, or suspicious activity near the station where she was supposed to get off.

The students who had approached him returned to their seats in frustration, and as soon as they sat down, they started spreading a rumor:

“Professor Pavlov told us the Anomalous Cases Enforcement made an emergency request about Aria’s disappearance and it was rejected as a ‘null cause’ because the minimum 24-hour period to qualify as a disappearance hasn’t passed.”

Many of the recent graduates covered their mouths, shocked at witnessing firsthand the police’s inefficiency. No one openly defended the rejection of the request — especially since some had bad experiences with law enforcement in cases related to their own lives. Not even Pascal dared defend the decision. On the contrary, the criticism was unanimous.

Everyone knew that the Vice Captain of the military police was also present backstage, and had surely heard about the disappearance of a graduate — yet still hadn’t increased the priority level of the emergency request. Even if he didn’t explicitly reject it, many believed he could have helped and didn’t.

The criticism grew louder, and surprisingly, they began to see journalists sneaking in with phones, asking uncomfortable questions to confirm whether a girl had indeed disappeared before the ceremony. Though Lucas and the others knew they weren’t authorized to disclose unverified information as graduates of law enforcement, the murmurs and outrage spread quickly — until the military began to shove the reporters out for entering a private ceremony without permission, triggering a clash in which several people wanted to speak out publicly on live TV about the mismanagement.

Feeling the tension, Luna tried to change the subject and calm her friends:

“This place is huge,” Luna said.

“Yeah, I think it fits about 600 people or something,” Artemisa said.

“Wrong. It fits 500 people,” corrected a voice from behind them, someone outside their group.

The four of them turned toward the speaker. There they saw a tall, slender young man with pale skin, a very handsome but completely expressionless face, blue eyes, and short slightly messy hair with pale pink tips. He was dressed in black, wearing a lot of silver-colored jewelry like chains and rings. He carried only a black crossbody bag with a stuffed cat keychain hanging from the zipper.

Artemisa and Lucas knew exactly who was correcting them without having been asked:

“Oh, hi Aqua!” Luna greeted politely.

“Hello, Luna,” greeted Aqua, returning the blank gesture.

Artemisa’s expression froze, and she started twitching in one eye, but she took a deep breath and decided to greet him with Lucas.

“Hello, Aqua,” said Lucas and Artemisa in unison.