Patrols, paperwork and the sneering contempt of delinquent students... Life in JUDGEMENT had always been a slog, but with the extra duties dumped on the new Student Council, Wataru was finding it hard to fit in enough study time. He and the rest of the council had alternated between trying to keep the peace in and around the Academy and cementing their position within the student body; either would have been a full-time job at the best of times. With the mysterious murder on the first day and rumours that a rogue esper was responsible, it was all they could do to keep order. Wataru was halfway through his second patrol that day when a student interrupted his thoughts. [b]'Hey, you're JUDGEMENT, right?'[/b] The girl pointed animatedly at his armband, perhaps relieved to have found an enforcer so soon. [b]'Remember the alarm the other day? I think I know who did it!'[/b] She leant in close, treating Wataru to a conspiratorial smile. He leaned back ever so slightly in response, trying to remain a decent distance away as she explained herself. [b]'I see...',[/b] he replied slowly, weighing up the situation in his mind. The rest of the council was pretty unified in their suspicions of a certain classmate, especially one of the Vice Presidents; Wataru chided himself for not remembering their names yet, but he trusted their intuition. Which meant that his actions would depend on which girl he found within that clubroom...

He disentangled himself from the gossipy girl with a hint of disgust and peered around the doorway, casting a vague mirage over his features to mask his presence. The electronics club wasn't the largest or best budgeted club on campus, that much he knew from settling the annual club budget, which was one of the few council duties that he had actually enjoyed. With only a few registered members, it was something of a quiet group and not at all the sort of place one would expect to find the most likely culprit. And so he found only a few people, most he didn't recognise, quietly toiling away at a number of workbenches doing inexplicable things with soldering irons and batteries. Hardly troublemaking material. Still, he had a responsibility to investigate the irritating girl's report...

Wandering in slowly, Wataru gave the club president a friendly wave and explained that he was just on patrol, then took then time to tour the room slowly, peering over the shoulders of each club member as unobtrusively as possible, all the while searching for this supposed hammer. By the time he reached the last bench, Wataru had all but lost interest in the technology on display and so was pleasantly surprised to find the hammer in one of the club member's possession. [b]'Excuse me there, mind if I have a quick word?'[/b] He moved around from behind the girl, sitting on the stool next to her work area and was surprised to realise that he recognised the face. [b]'Otonashi? Didn't know you were into electronics?'[/b] His thoughts raced, trying to plot the situation with this new information; Otonashi had been speaking to him when the alarm had gone off and had entered the class before him. Logically she couldn't have set it off. [i]Unless...[/i] He decided to feign ignorance about the hammer for the moment, cracking a smile instead. [b]'You know, I never got to finish what I was saying the other day. Do you mind if I ask what your power is?'[/b]