Academy City

Academy City (学園都市 GakuenToshi) is the primary setting of the Toaru Majutsu no Index series and its side stories.

As the city's name suggests, it is a city of several schools and institutions of higher learning from kindergarten to university level that learn side-by-side along with the scientists who research on psychic powers and higher technology, the latter being one of the primary reasons for its establishment. It is the most advanced city in the world and its technology is said to be 30 years ahead of what's 'outside' of Academy City.

Academy City is composed of 23 districts, called School Districts which are simply numbered from one to twenty-three and each of these districts have a specific purpose.

Background
It is a semi-independent city led by the 12 members of the Board of Directors, which are then, supervised by its founder Aleister Crowley & Heaven Canceler. The city was founded by the magician Aleister Crowley to do studies and research on the development of preternatural abilities. Where the city's funds comes from is probably from different countries, even the military, that have high interest in psychic research. Also, the city has other bases of operations outside of Japan such as in Russia, demonstrated when all of the SISTER clones left after the Level 6 Shift Experiment except 10 are sent outside Academy City for adjustments.

According to Telestina, the students in Academy City are just being used to further the research and development in the achivement of a Level 6. How truthful her words are remains to be seen, however its important to note that both Aleister Crowley and Board of Directors have allowed deaths of students, and have allowed and supported further experimentation and research at the expense of many lives.

Geography
Located just west of Tokyo, it is apprently located in a region where there is a constant wind that flows within the city, allowing its wind turbines to generate power. Climate in Academy City is probably the same in Tokyo and other surrounding areas, though through its technological advances they are able to predict the weather much more accurately and can actually give schedules on when the weather might change.

As stated, Academy City is composed of 23 districts, which are simply called School Districts and are numbered from one to twenty-three. Each of these districts has a specific purpose; below lists all 23 School Districts of Academy City, including their functions and purposes:

Demographics
Academy City's total population is about 2.3 million with 80% of them being students and 1/8 of those students living in the city dorms. Of the entire student population, about 60% of them have the ability to demonstrate even a slight amount of psychic ability (these are Power Users of Levels 0-5). The remaining 20% of the students in Academy City pursue other subjects instead of going under the Power Curriculum Program, like Tsuchimikado Maika, who studies in a maid school.

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.

Security
Academy City's technology is thirty years ahead of its time and thus, has accessibility to a more sophisticated array of measures to ensure security across the city.

The city limits leading outside are lined with walls, accessible only through entry points which require persons to have permission to enter or leave the premises. Inside the city, hidden cameras are dotted along every road and alleyway.

In addition to the ground-level security protocols in Academy City, the satellite Orihime 1 (where the Tree Diagram supercomputer is located) and Hikoboshi II (a camera satellite and also a satellite laser-cannon) gathers detailed pictures of the area and relays it back to Earth.

The primary peacekeeping forces in Academy City are Judgment and Anti-Skill; these two groups are composed of trained students and faculty respectively which deal with crimes and conflicts with security. They are authorized to retrieve Information from surveillance equipment within Academy City, to check if there are any crimes occurring, in addition to their constant patrol duties.

Unfortunately, security in Academy City is revealed to have severe flaws in it. Because of the destruction of Orihime 1, live feeds of satellite images are greatly reduced. Magicians can easily enter Academy City and, like Sherry Cromwell, can cause damage despite the presence of Judgment and Anti-Skill units. Also, it has been revealed that parts of District 10 of Academy City have been completely overrun by its inhabitants, unreachable by technology due to the Skill-Out members destroying the hidden cameras and security robots throughout the area.

Though there are other forces like the HsPS-15 armoured AI, other advanced technology, and groups like MEMBER and ITEM, they are mostly politically motivated factions working for one of the 12 Board of Directors of Academy City or Aleister Crowley, and care less about security and more on furthering their (or their employer's) own interests.

External Politics
Though Academy City is stated as the dominant faction on the Science side, there are still internal conflicts with the science side, not unlike what's happening in the magic side between the various churches.

Many countries/factions found out the existence of 'gemstones', natural born espers, and attempted to collect them to set up a esper research insititute independant of Academy City. There is up to 50 different factions/countries, all of which targeted one of the 50 gemstones outside Academy City. It was stated the CIA had 2 moles within each faction and tried to bring all of the gemstones together under their control.

Academy City's Board of Directors in the end made a deal with Heaven Canceler, and sent in the SISTER clones to all 50 institutes around the world to retrieve the gemstones for their protection, and also sent Kinuhata Saiai to assassinate the mastermind behind the plan of collecting the gemstones.

Trivia

 * Many scenes of Academy City from the anime are taken from Tama City and from Tachikawa City, both of which are in the Tokyo prefecture.