~A Certain Academy City~

Introductory

Gakuhen Toshi, or Academy City (locate in western Tokyo) has a population of approximately 2.3 million occupants and out of that 80% are students and 1/8 of those students live in the city dorms. As the name implies, it is a city of several schools and institutions of higher learning from kindergarten to university level, literally an academic city. This city is composed of a total of 23 districts, each having a different field of learning –each district is simply numbered from one through twenty-three.

Aside from academics, Academy City is also known to be the most technologically advanced city in the world –it's said that the technology in the city is 20 to 30 years ahead of what's 'outside' Academy City. All due to these heavy advancements, the city has accessibility to a more sophisticated array of measures to ensure security across the city. Academy City is surrounded by walls that can only be accessed through entry points which allow people to enter or leave the premises only if they have permission granted by the officials known as the Board of Directors. Not only is the security outside the city tight, the city itself is dotted with hidden cameras along every road, alleyway, and corner, or even possibly in your own dorm room—the only way to escape the cameras' watchful surveillances is to rent a room in the private salons located in District 3 (but even then that's not enough; rumor has it that the very particles in the air or perhaps the molecules themselves are equipped with nano-recording-devices). Of course, Academy City and its Board of Director have political reasons for the use of such high-level security; they take pride in their seats of influence in the scientific side of the world. In addition to the ground-level security protocols of Academy City, two satellites, Orihime I (the supercomputer Tree Diagram is located within) and Hikoboshi II (a camera satellite as well as a laser-cannon [no one knows what that's for and I for one do not want to know]) surveys and gathers pictures of the area's activities then relays it back to Earth. Through the satellites (predominantly with the supercomputer, Tree Diagram) the weather can be predicted with extremely high accuracy –even to the extent of knowing when the changes in weather will begin and/or subside (by the second!). And speaking of weather, Academy City's climate is constantly windy allowing the wind turbines erected all over the city to generate power. The high majority of Academy City's electricity, in fact, comes from wind-generated energy.

But all in all, Academy City was chiefly established for the scientific research of ESP (extrasensory perception) and with the use of the students who have taken residence within the city, researchers have conducted experiments upon them to gain data about ESP. Of the entire student population, about 60% have the ability to demonstrate even the slightest amount of psychic ability (bending a spoon without the use of one's hands). The level of efficiency and control of the student's powers are gauged from Level 0 to 5; (Level 0) is an Idiot, (Level 1) an Imbecile, (Level 2) Extraordinary Power, (Level 3) is Strong Power, (Level 4) for Great Power, and finally (Level 5) as Super Power. Whether it's super-strength, super-speed, teleportation, telekinesis, psychic powers, control of the natural elements, firing laser beams, you name it, we got every single ability you can imagine in this 20-to-30-year-technologically-advanced metropolis (but let me add in that these powers do not transcend above the laws of science and/or nature itself; they comply to these laws one way or another no matter how extraordinary they are.)

However, this taken-out-of-a-sci-fi-movie city is far from a utopia. There are always some bad apples in the barrel. Thugs, delinquents, and dropouts (they most likely reside within the remaining 40% demographic) are always out there making a ruckus across the city. It was also said District 10 (reformatories, nuclear energy research facilities, and the one and only cemetery are located there) is overrun by its inhabitants; gangs destroyed all the hidden cameras and security bots throughout the area to secure their territory from Judgment and Anti-Skill.

The remaining 40% (excluding the dropouts) of the students in Academy City pursue other subjects instead of going under the Power Curriculum Program.

It is unknown if Child Errors are part of the 80% demographic since they are no longer given any support from their guardians. On the other hand, it is highly probable that drop-outs and gangs such as Skill-Out are part of the remaining 20% demographic.

A pink haired little girl read over the punishment assignment given to her by a boy with spiky black hair who was sitting tensely in front of her. In actuality, this 135 centimeter tall "girl" who looked twelve years old was, in fact, a teacher, and possibly much older than the 15 year old high school student, who was taking afterschool supplementary lessons, awaiting for her feedback. Ah, but wait… this cute and tiny instructor teaches chemistry, so why is she the one looking over a student's essay, or rather, this particular student's essay?

After a few seconds, the little teacher sighed with a disappointed and unimpressed expression, "Hahh…"

"Umm… Sensei?" the spiky haired boy cautiously ushered his teacher for her evaluation.

"Just where did you get all this from?" the teacher questioned her student as she waved the thin packet of paper.

"I-I used reliable sources from the internet, of course." the student put on a crooked smile and looked to the side with a stiff expression.

"And I assume you made full use of this reliable source of yours, am I correct?" the teacher pressed on.

The spiky haired boy nodded slowly. A drop of sweat started to trickle down from his temple.

"And I also assume that you have forgotten to properly cite the source from which you extracted the information and slapped it on to your paper, word-for-word and without any quotes?"

The spiky haired boy stiffened having been caught of violating academic integrity.

The childlike teacher puffed out her cheeks in exasperation, "Not only did you commit plagiarism, you also didn't follow the criteria I assigned you for the paper. Even if it happened to follow the criteria, your paper lacks a conclusion. It just tapers off with no real end to it. In fact it doesn't even have any structure to it. That's what you get for just taking stuff out and not putting them into your own words. You're also using parentheses excessively, their completely unneeded. And further more…"

He dropped his head down in depression as his teacher continued to give an endless barrage of criticisms for the paper which he hurriedly tried to scrape away.

The spiky haired boy felt something bounce off his head. He looked up to see his teacher patting his essay, which was now rolled up into a narrow cone, into her free hand.

The tiny teacher leaned in closer to her student's face and put on a cute, innocent smile, but the situation and vibes that the smile gave off did not match at all. The two were facing each other like that within a suffocating silence.

"Y-yes, Sensei?" the student weakly replied, knowing what was going to happen next.

"By the end of this week, I expect a twelve page research report paper on the topic you were so intensely focused on for this paper. Oh, and no more "copy-and-paste"-ing. If I catch you plagiarizing again, it's off to Columbus's Egg with you every day after school. You are also not allowed to leave until you achieve ten consecutive wins in Blind Poker. Do you understand?" the childlike teacher tilted her head and smiled.

"Such misfortune…" the spiky haired boy groaned.

The sky was painted with a brilliant orange with a blanket of dull blue following over from the east as the sun was setting to the west. School had ended a few hours ago at 4:05 PM, but Zhanshin Hibiki wanted to familiarize himself with the facility first and so toured around the school building with a few of the other students; after all, it was the first day of school so no one was busy. On the other hand, Hibiki remembered that he had heard from that morning about taking his sister out for dinner. So, he was currently on his way to a family diner called JonaGarden after having picked up his sister Zhanshin Hotaru from her middle school.

Hibiki's ears suddenly pricked up. The twelve-year old girl walking beside her brother noticed his reaction and tilted her head.

"Hmm? What's wrong Hibi-nii?"

Hibiki lightly scratched the back of his ear and then cupped his hand behind it.

"That was weird… I could've sworn I heard a certain familiar catchphrase…"

Note: So... yeah, as you can see this is really just a very basic explaination of To aru Majutsu no Index's setting, Academy City. For those of you who do not know about TAMnI, it may be best to read this after the first chapter in order to better understand the area. For those of you who are familiar with the setting, just skip ahead (and wait) to the next chapter (unless you like a little Touma/Komoe interaction [but sorry, no romance]).

Edit: AAAAAHHH! I totally forgot to give the credits for the information i got from wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_Wiki; thank you Wikia!