Academy City Board of Directors

The Academy City Board of Directors (学園都市統括理事会) consists of 12 people who hold absolute authority in Academy City, with only the Board Chairman above them.

Principles
Tsuchimikado Motoharu once stated that there are only two kinds of people on the Board of Directors: bastards who must die and good people who were regarded as the same as the former even though they work seriously.

The Board of Directors are often the indirect antagonists in Science Side stories and arcs, disrupting the investigation and efforts of the protagonist. For example, Misaka Mikoto was unable to stop the Level 6 Shift on her own due to it being spread out across the city. They many times also put up red tape to disrupt the actions of facilities and personnel that could otherwise aid the protagonist, such as when Anti-Skill was prevented from entering the Dangai University Database Center after Skill-Out attacked it.

As members of the Board of Directors, they are Ranked S in the network terminals of Academy City.

It seems like at least a few of the members of the Board of Directors are either bribed, tricked, or falsely aided by the Kihara Family.

One of the matters decided by the board is the official promotion of espers to Level 5 status.

Membership
It is unknown how one becomes a member of the Board of Directors. Three of them were killed when Vento of the Front invaded Academy City on September 30th, though Aleister Crowley stated that replacements could always be found. It is known however that it is relatively easy for Kihara Yuiitsu to tell who will be the new replacements for members of the board of directors when they die.

It has been said in Tokiwadai Middle School that a student who achieves the title of "Majesty", given to the leader of a clique that remains the largest for over a year and until her graduation, is guaranteed a successful career, including a spot on the board, though the veracity of this claim isn't clear.

Relationship with the Dark side of Academy City
With the exception of Oyafune Monaka and Kaizumi Tsugutoshi, other Directors are directly involved in the 'dark side' of Academy City, financing various groups like ITEM and SCHOOL to do their dirty work, or have their own private forces. Regardless, just because they are working with the dark side of the city, does not indicate that they know of it, specifically the plans of their chairman.

The Directors have made agreements between each other to prevent any one Director having too much power that allows them to disrupt Academy City's balance of power. This is called the "observation system between those with the same powers", and a member that breaks an 'agreement' will be targeted by the other 11 Directors and be erased. Oyafune Monaka is said to be the one most adept in using these agreements to prevent herself from being targeted.

Relationship with the Magic Side
If not directly negotiating with Aleister, magicians like Stiyl Magnus that need to operate in the City have him report to them. The two sides cooperate on a limited basis with each other. He gives periodic reports on his actions, removing any unnecessary information, to reduce the friction between the two sides. The feeling is mutual with the Board of Directors, which seemingly keeps information secret, and even deliberately prevent the actions of a magician even if the city is in danger, as what happened with him and Kamijou Touma going to School District 23 to prevent a magician there.

Despite this, the Board of Directors do seem to try and provide some sort of modicum of goodwill to the magic side, specifically the Anglican Church. Stiyl was once given a helicopter for transport while the girls of Necessarius were given with a brand new washing machine. Although this might also have to do with their ignorance of the magic side in general, believing Aleister's statement that the Roman Catholic Church's revealing of its Magic though covered up is an esper development program in the aftermath of the 0930 Incident, as shown by Oyafune Monaka reacting in confusion to Kamijou Touma's comment about the magic side when she was recruiting him to go to Avignon, France, and could just be how they perceive them as a rival group.

Background
The board member involved with Tokiwadai Middle School was once a backer of Shundou Toshizou's work, having needed him at that point but eventually no longer needing and getting sick of him. As such, after the incident at Clone Dolly Ideal, she helped Shokuhou Misaki by withdrawing her support for him, so that Ideal would be dissolved, in exchange for the newly promoted Level 5's enrolment at Tokiwadai.

Academy City Invasion Arc
During 0930 Incident, three Academy City Board of Directors were killed by Vento of the Front.

Kamijou Arc
As Academy City was recovering from the shutdown and evacuation on December 12th, the Board of Directors met in person, following reports of Aleister Crowley's death. Many of them were keen to exploit the opportunity, but also wary as they did not know how the city was reactivated and who now held the key codes. They were subsequently interrupted and answered by the arrival of Accelerator, who revealed his possession of the code list and introduced himself to them as the new Board Chairman.

Operation Handcuffs Arc
The Board of Directors had chosen to refrain from openly commenting about Accelerator turning himself in after announcing his appointment as Board Chairman. As Operation Handcuffs commenced, members of the Board had decided to cut the dark side loose to save face, despite benefiting from their work for years.

One of the Board phoned Kihara Hasuu as he and Ladybird moved to cripple Anti-Skill's network in an attack on School District 1's general station. Confronting him on his actions, they claimed that the sweep of the dark side was all the new Board Chairman's doing and the twelve of them did not agree to it. Hasuu refuted their words as arrogance, pointing out that their betrayal had already brought down three Kiharas and his life was on the line, adding that although it changed nothing there was no need to hide Neoka's fall and that hiding it made it harder to trust them. After further futile threats, asking if he wanted to be deemed harmful, if he thought he could escape just because he was a Kihara, and claiming the city was the only place where they could survive, the Board member left him to be killed by the Anti-Skill Aggressors, who were instead dispatched by Ladybird.

After Anti-Skill sustained critical damage and was unable to continue the operation, Director Valart Signal went to confront Accelerator over the apparent failure of Operation Handcuffs and the damage it had caused to the city, only for Accelerator to confront him on his own ties to the dark side, having been waiting to see which of the Board would take the bait.