It was late July and there were birds buzzing around the sky outside of Saten's window. She gazed out at the trees flickering in the wind and the said birds flying around and into the tree in what looked like some obscure game of chase for birds. She smiled as she watched the picturesque scene unfold and was inwardly happy. For those moments when she could observe such pleasant scenes she could forget all about her problems, her worries, her fears, her concerns. They were non-existent and nowhere to be seen in her mind's eye. Saten felt the sun heating up the bottom half of her face and the pleasant feeling of her arms being caressed by the warmth of the sun. She was just a person in sat in her room with the warm feeling of the world around her, not troubled by such things. The world looked bright from there. She reached over to a plate where she had cut several slices of watermelon and took one of the pieces and nonchalantly nibbling on the side, delicately separated the seeds from melon and spitting them lazily back onto the plate.

The sky was interrupted by a single cloud, it was a bright white and a distinct outline that disrupted the skyline, it just sat in the blue, ever present. The cloud moved slowly through the sky towards the small room, seemingly getting bigger as it approached. The silver lining of the cloud darkened to a ominous dark grey colour and blocked out the sun as it came closer yet. Saten sat up and peered out the window at the cloud hanging over. The blue sky outside of the cloud remained as the cloud grew a darker colour and disrupted the entire skyline. It began raining briefly for around 30 seconds and passed over.

Saten looked at the tree, which still stood with the usual activity that had already come to pass before the cloud had dispensed it's little rain, she could still see it there out the opposite window, ever present.

Saten was sat on a lounger chair with a small table sitting just above her.

Saten reached over for another piece of watermelon, still basking in her ignorance of temporarily forgetting her studies. She felt the smooth paper as her hand continued to run over and feel her pen. She turned over to see the paper with the date heading the top of the page. That was all she had written. The thought of her predicament and how little she had done so far created a black hole in her stomach that made her feel ill with the whole situation. She recalled what Terada-sensei had said to her. "You'll reach Level 1 if you follow this" The rectangular folder was thick with paper holding the middle up was sat on her table flipped open to the first piece of paper. Saten leant over the table to get a good glance to remind herself of what she had tried to start. "Give a definition of Personal Reality" it read. "Heh" Saten said to herself, this was something she had constantly gone over in her mind. She clicked the end of her pen with her chin and pressed the pen to the paper and began writing. "Personal Reality is a single person's world; their own version of reality, a personal universe, everything they see, hear, touch, smell and taste, the idea that nothing outside of this exists" Saten pulled her pen away and inspected her answer as she nonchalantly chewed on the end of her pen once more. Her eyes felt heavy.

Saten sat up groggily and turned her head to see her phone vibrating on the table she was sat next to.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Hey, it's Uiharu"

"Oh, Uiharu, what's up?"

"Saten, I just called to check up you're doing your work"

"Uhh, yeah, right, work"

"Saten!"

"Yeah, I'm getting on to it now, see ya later Uiharu" Saten ended the phone call.

"This isn't good" Saten thought to herself. "Okay! I need to get down to this now!" Saten promptly rolled over to see her book filled only with the one question she had answered earlier. "What exactly is in this folder?" Saten pulled the folder onto her lap and flicked through the pages of long paragraphs and descriptions. "Ugh…" She moaned to herself as she slammed the folder, blowing all the paper on the table to the floor. She just looked at it in disgust and stood up.

"Uiharu, come meet me"

"What? I thought you were studying?"

"It's not working, there has to be a better way of doing this"

"O-okay"

Uiharu and Saten were strolling through the lower half of the town where there were amusements lining either side of the pedestrianised street, lighting up Saten and Uiharu's faces with the golden glow of the arcades. "So I just fell asleep after answering one of the questions from the folder, what now?" Saten probed Uiharu for some sort of magical solution as she strode down the street with her hands locked behind her back taking playfully big steps. "Well, you really should just get your head down and do what the folder says" Uiharu answered laughing, she really couldn't see Saten's predicament. "Yeah, well you're studious Uiharu, you don't have these problems" Saten sulked as she thought of how easily Uiharu got through her homework when they had little sleepovers.

CRASH. A man was thrown through a small claw grab machine and out onto the street where the pair were walking. "Heh, you think you're something special?" The man said as he stood up wearily from the blow he had just taken, he was wearing a plain shirt and black trousers, with an unmistakeable Judgment armband attached to his arm. He had golden hair that fell to the top of his eyes and deep brown eyes that looked focussed on the opponent before him. The other man shot off down the street, Saten deduced that he was some kind of fugitive that Judgment were chasing. The Judgment man gave chase and so did Uiharu, who was shortly followed by Saten. They came to a dead end where the man had evidently turned to fight the Judgment member, who was now joined by Uiharu. "I'm from Judgment also, allow me to help you!" she stated formally as she stood beside him and stared at the opponent. "Get out of here kid, he's out of your league" He returned in the same formal manner. In the same second, the man took the opportunity to activate his ability as his arms turned to a shiny steel colour. "So he can manipulate his body's chemical make-up?" "Seems that way" He leaped forward with a speed towards the Judgment man who swiftly made a dodge, but he continued towards Saten who was stood behind him and cocked his fist back ready to strike her. Saten screamed. "NO!" The Judgment member yelled as he cast his hand out in front of him. His hand detached from his arm, connected by a metal wire. Everything was moving in slow motion. Saten saw his metal man's fist grow closer to her as the Judgment member's hand had reached the fugitive and rounded his neck, restraining him, he then yanked his arm back, subsequently throwing the man out of range of Saten and onto his back. "This one's between you and me!" He called as he leaped towards the fugitive and pulled his fist back ready to punch him. He threw a punch straight at the fugitive's head. He laughed as his face turned a shiny grey colour. "Urgh!" The man pulled his hand back in recoil. The man's face had turned to steel and the Judgment member's hand was bleeding from his knuckles. The blonde man then stepped back as he detached his other hand and wrapped it around his midriff and threw him up in the air and brought him back down with force. The victim yelled in pain as his body didn't flinch any longer.

"Th-Thanks for saving me back there" Saten eventually said as the Judgment man had slung the unconscious criminal over his shoulder and they had all accompanied him back to HQ. "It's no big deal" He smiled "I'm Hayato, by the way" "Saten" She replied as she felt her cheeks blush slightly. "I'm Uiharu, by the way" Uiharu added. "Alright, nice to meet you" He finished as he heaved the fugitive over his shoulder once more.

"So Saten…"

Maybe things would look up for Saten.