Monday, a school day.
Begrudgingly dragging my tired body to the classroom, I notice a similarly tired-looking Uiharu just staring dazedly at the door.
The Judgment test happened yesterday from noon to midnight, a full twelve hours. Not to mention that we hardly had any breaks during its duration as a form of test to see how we fare against physical and mental fatigue.
Judgement is a volunteer student-based law enforcement organisation after all. Having a strong mentality is very important as they are tasked to maintain peace and order within the school system. A Judgement member who runs away in the face of an adversity doesn't deserve to be a part of it.
The written exams are comprised of various academics, a hundred or so laws of the city, basic first aid and basic emergency response.
Afterwards, the physical exams required us to showcase our quirks, complete an obstacle course within or less than 30 minutes, and for those who have combat-able quirks, would spar 1v1 against an examiner.
In addition, psychological profiling was conducted to see whether or not someone was fit for the burden and responsibility of the position.
And lastly, when we are allowed a short rest as the higher-ups review the final results, those that pass would need to finalize and sign 9 different contracts three times. One for me, one for the organisation, and one for the database, which means 27 signatures.
The test ended at exactly midnight but it wasn't until it was nearly 1 A.M. when I managed to get back to the dorms.
I wouldn't be surprised if Uiharu was even more tired than I am right now, considering that she has less stamina than me.
Tapping her shoulder to get her attention, she turns her head to me and the first thing I notice was the dark circles under her eyes, the same as mine no doubt.
"C'mon. Let's go." I said, gesturing to the door before opening it.
The both of us enter the sparsely occupied classroom. It isn't strange that there are only a handful of students as it's the first school day of the week. In addition, me and Uiharu hardly had much good sleep last night so we went to school early for a change of scenery.
Lazily dropping my bad on my desk, I used it as a pillow and immediately started to doze off.
A few minutes later, A prickling sensation on my neck roused me from my sweet dreams. When I groggily turned to look at the culprit, "Yo!" Haru waved at me.
He's standing at the side of my desk with a finger on his other hand sprouting a thin root-like appendage growing something similar to a cactus at the tip.
Haru told me about his quirk, [Self-Garden] he calls it, that uses his body's resources to grow plants inside his body. A quirk similar to Momo's [Creation] if not for the fact that anything he grows will instantly wither the moment it's cut off from his body.
"So... What happened? You pass? How was it? You sick? Spill the beans. C'mon don't leaveanyofthejuicydeta-"
"One at a time." I cut him off as he was beginning to rapid fire his words like a machine gun. I'm more than certain that he's simply doing it to get a reaction out of me.
For a few moments, I entertained the curiosity of Haru as he barrages me with his questions. Taking a couple of peeks at my left side, the neighboring Uiharu is calmly asleep but not for long as Saten arrived by loudly opening the door.
She swept her eyes over the classroom and promptly locked onto the now awake Uiharu, making her way towards her and started asking her own set of questions.
It wasn't until the teacher arrive that everything returned calm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Me and Uiharu are currently walking over to the 177th Judgment branch to introduce ourselves before officially starting with both Saten and Haru tagging along.
"So you were actually neighbours?!" Asked an astonished Haru.
"Yup! I was surprised too, seeing him solemn like in one of those detective movies!" Exclaimed Saten as she pretends to smoke an imaginary British pipe.
The two of them have hit it off apparently, and are quite chummy with each other. They've been chatting ever since this morning and only stopped when it's time for class, most likely because they wanted to give both me and Uiharu a break but are too bored to stay put. Thankfully, she kept quiet about my drink.
Glancing over at the girl beside me, I notice that she hasn't been talking much today. From the glazed look on her eyes, she's probably still in disbelief that she managed to pass. The written exams aside, Uiharu barely passed the physical exams by the skin of her teeth. After all, every single member of Judgment, regardless of frontliner or backliner, needs the capacity to act in emergency situations.
I reach out a hand to gently tap on her back to get her attention and asked, "Getting second thoughts?" Which also caught the attention of the other two.
It was subtle, but I managed to notice that she flinched.
Uiharu's eyes dart around a bit before she settles her gaze to the concrete sidewalk and all four of us paused from walking.
"...What if I mess up?" She spoke meekly as she clutches the hem of her skirt. "I'm not that smart. I barely finished the course with a few seconds left on the timer... My quirk isn't even that useful. What if- what if I just become a burden?"
Tears formed at the corner of her eyes and threatened to fall. "I'll just blunder everything I do and get kicked out and then-" Saten hugged her.
"Harsh words for someone like you, don't you think?" She softly said. "You passed the test, overtaking plenty of people with better scores. Even just participating is more than anybody else would've done."
"Yea! And look at me, I have cool quirk and I couldn't even do a quarter of what you guys did!" Haru spoke. "You should be more proud of yourself!" I nod deeply at their words.
It's not surprising that Uiharu has such little self-confidence. She once told us in passing that the original reason why she took the test in the first place was because she wanted to accompany a childhood friend.
During the Junior Judgment training program that was conducted for elementary schoolers, (That I didn't need to take because of healer privileges.) The girl moved to a different school on the exact day the judgment training first began, leaving Uiharu there alone a few years ago.
It was at that same training facility that she also met another girl that eventually became her friend and cheered her up that she managed pull through everything.
There was also the fact that we sometimes borrowed the school fields for simple body workouts whenever a sports club wasn't using the place. It wasn't exactly private and plenty of people saw us, particularly Uiharu.
The rumors flew around quickly and she was bullied for a short while because they couldn't believe someone without a stronger quirk would succeed, a quirk-based discrimination in a society oversaturated with All Might's image of peace and security granted by his facade of invulnerability.
We would've been left none the wiser if Saten didn't stumble upon her crying alone in the girls restroom.
It goes without saying that Me, Saten and Haru did our best to defend our friend from then on out, with Saten being the most vocal about it. But the seed of self-doubt was already planted in the heart of Uiharu at that point and she most likely didn't have the heart to give up after all we did to help.
Only now that she's become an official member of Judgment did the dam on her emotions finally break down.
'The only thing we can do now is to help lift her spirits up from here on out.' I thought while the three of us continue to comfort our innocent sweets-loving friend.
Taking half an hour, words of comfort and reassurance along with a parfait later, she's back to her cheerful self. Using my emphatic ability, I can tell that she's no longer in a low mood and that she's now excited for the prospect of what her first mission would be.
Walking down the street, we finally arrived at our destination. In contrast to the tall grey buildings commonly found in the city, the 177th Judgment branch is located in a building only 5 stories tall with soft wheat-colored brick tiles.
Following the sign on the entrance, we make our way to the second floor where the office resides.
Upon entering the office, the four of us are surprised that it's littered with boxes filled over the brim with paper entailing who-knows-what, stacked on top of one another. Despite of this however, there was still plenty of space for people to move around in without feeling uncomfortable. In fact, there also seems to be a small kitten sleeping on one of the boxes.
Inside the messy office were two people working on laptops.
One is what appears to be a highschool girl that has short black hair, blue eyes, with glasses. And the other is a girl with tawny hair tied in place by a small red bow each into two curly pigtails; the rest of her hair is left to hang as two rows of fringes divided in the middle.
"Hm? Ah, you guys are the new recruits, correct? Come in and have a seat." The bespectacled girl said as she guided us to a sofa. "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Milk?" She offered.
"N-no need desu." "I'm alright~" "I'm good." "Nah, don't mind me." We politely refused while we sat down. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Uiharu is constantly glancing in another direction. Looking over, it was the pigtailed girl who seemed to be preoccupied with her work.
"I see." She nods. "Well then, I am Konori Mii, currently in highschool." She introduced herself and then points at the other girl working on the laptop. "That, over there, is Shirai Kuroko, don't mind her too much, she's been having a bad day." She said with a wry smile.
"Uiharu Kazari desu! P-please take care of me!" She nervously gives a small bow. "Shuzenji Kizuki. Yorushiku." I slightly bowed at her.
"Ahaha~ you guys don't have to be so stiff."
Uiharu then introduced the other two. "T-these two are our friends who were curious about judgment desu." She notions toward Saten, "Saten Ruiko-san" She waves. "And Tsuyuki Haruaki-san" Haru straightened his back.
"A pleasure to meet you all." Konori starts. "I would have liked to tell you all more about my work as well give you a tour of the place but..." She looks at the scattered boxes. "...Ano, Uiharu-san, Shuzenji-san... Do you two mind starting today? We've been severely understaffed here for quite a while now, you see..." She embarrassedly asked us while scratching her cheek.
Uiharu looks at me to know my thoughts on the matter, to which I nod my head.
"We don't mind at all desu!" She replied.
"We can help out too!" "Count me in! I don't have anything better to do today!"
"Thank you very much!" Konori immediately brightened up on their responses. "Ah, for starters, Uiharu and Shuzenji can sort out these papers." She handed each of us a stack of unfiled reports and we took the liberty of using the unoccupied laptops.
She then turns to Saten and Haru. "Meanwhile, can the two of you make multiple copies of this flyer?"
Saten took the flyer from her hands and read it's contents. "A missing cat?" She looks at the sleeping kitten. "So that one's not yours?"
"No. Not at all." Konori denied. "Kuroko found her today. The little one was being harassed by some delinquents when she happened to pass by during patrol and saved her. We did scan her but she didn't have a tag so she wasn't on the database."
"No tag? How odd... That's why you resorted to using the old method of finding the owner." Haru said. "But what if she's a stray?"
"Ah, well... I'll take care of him in the meantime." Konori shrugs.
By the laws of Academy City, every single animal, no matter what kind, was required to be tagged electronically. The tag is located right underneath the skin and would be programmed with the animal's unique serial number, it's current owners, and it's origin.
So without the tag, it would be much harder to search for the owner. Shelters, on the other hand, aren't an option either.
Animal shelters in Academy City were not free; due to the fact that every animal was tagged, even if Judgment had to keep a pet in custody for a few days, they'd just deliver it to a shelter, and the owner would receive the bill when they came to pick it up. Basically, the higher-ups in Academy City figured people should take care of their pets, and would not spend tax-payer's money on providing free shelters.
But without the tag, no shelter would accept it. Not only would it be a hassle for them to find the owners, but they'd have no guarantee of getting paid; thus, even if they accepted to take care of it, Judgment would most likely receive the bill. And what if it stayed there for weeks and weeks?
'In the first place, how did the cat even get inside academy city? Was it born here?' I shrug at the thought. 'The cat aside, I'm more concerned about the mountain of paperwork here.' Sighing as I pick up another unfiled report. '...Hm? ... Interesting...'