Daihaseisai

The Daihaseisai (大覇星祭（だいはせいさい）) is an annual large-scale sports festival which takes place in Academy City. Occurring between September 19th and September 25th,  during which Academy City is partially open to outside visitors,    the week-long, city-wide, inter-school sporting competition sees students from all schools competing in various athletic events,    with the use of esper abilities permitted.

The Daihaseisai is a major milestone in story of the Toaru series, with two story arcs occurring during the events of the festival, one in Toaru Majutsu no Index and one in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.

Principles
The Daihaseisai is an annual sports festival which is held in Academy City. Similar to s held in schools elsewhere but on a much larger scale, the Daihaseisai takes place over seven days, between September 19th and September 25th, and is city-wide, with students from every school in the city involved in the festival, competing in a variety of athletic events.

With nearly all of the students in the city being espers, use of esper abilities is permitted and encouraged in events, with the stated purpose of observing large-scale mutual interference between different abilities (listed in student pamphlets). The performance of each school is also used to evaluate their esper development programs and determine the budgets they receive.

One of the main purposes of the Daihaseisai is to support and improve Academy City's public image,   with the festival being targeted towards outsiders who know little or nothing of the city's advanced science and esper abilities (as opposed to the similar scale cultural festival, the Ichihanaransai, which is internally focused). The city is open to the outside public during the festival and packed with visitors, including both students' families and tourists. Cameras are also allowed inside and the Daihaseisai is broadcast worldwide, with potential ratings comparable to even the World Cup due to the unique draw of esper showdowns not seen in normal sport matches.

Competition
The inter-school sports competition that makes up the bulk of the Daihaseisai is comprised of a wide variety of athletic events, held throughout the week at various points across the city. Events can be held in stadiums, sports grounds, on roads, and across entire districts, depending on their nature. Timetables are distributed listing the planned times for all events in a particular day, though certain circumstances can cause times and venues to change on the day. There is a two hour lunch break in the timetable between midday and 2:00 PM.

Every school in Academy City and most of its students are involved in the competition, with over 1.8 million participants. As such, most schools prepare in advance and train their students for the upcoming competition. An example of this would be Tokiwadai Middle School, more so during the current year after they came second to Nagatenjouki Academy in the previous year, setting up a school-wide P.E. lessons for the Daihaseisai. Although the exact uniform differs between schools, most of the students participating are basically wearing short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Because they are of different schools, some of them wear shoe covers or track attire. Some students from special schools even put on aikido clothing, camouflage pants, or armoured suits (non-driven) that are made from special materials.

The number of a school's students participating in a match differs depending on the nature of the event, from a single contestant to a pair or small team, or even a school's entire team. Each school divides its students into a red team and a white team, with colored headbands and sashes worn to indicate team membership, with a school's red team competing against another school's white team in events and vice versa. Event participation can also be divided based on year and gender.

Schools are ranked according to scores based on wins and losses, with wins from both red and white teams earning points to add to their school's overall score. The school with the highest score at the end of the festival is crowned champion, though in practice the only schools really competing for the championship are the top five schools, with changes in the top five rankings typically being a reshuffling between them. In both the current year's Daihaseisai and the one before it, Nagatenjouki Academy came in first place, with Tokiwadai Middle School being runners up.

Although the Daihaseisai is mostly a large-scale sporting event, students are not bound by the athletic events at all times. They are merely required to reach the competition area by a specific time and participate in the event, and aside from any additional obligations, they are free to spend their time how they like, with various attractions and stalls to enjoy. Schools are even allowed to set up stores to get some earnings like the management or home economics schools that Tsuchimikado Maika is in.

Rules
Rules vary depending on the event in question, though there are several common ones between many of them. With events taking place over a wide area, such as the Balloon Hunter, airborne Homing Cameras are used to keep track of competitors, monitor the event to assist with adjudication, and allow for communications to and from contestants.

Although esper abilities are permitted, there are a number of rules concerning their usage. Aside from supporting their own efforts, participants can use their abilities to impede and interfere with an opponent, however they cannot deliberately use them to directly injure an opponent. In cases where events are held in the general public, abilities past a certain threshold, specifically the Level 5s, are forbidden in case they harm people, like when Mikoto was in the 'borrowing-items race' she could not use her powers as it was too dangerous, even if she restrains herself. These restrictions don't apply in other matches where it is only school versus school. Using powers to influence adjudication is obviously not allowed.

Competitors are not allowed to take items unrelated to the event into the competition area.

Management
Given the scale of the Daihaseisai, physical preparations begin several weeks in advance of the festival, in early September. Alongside the individual preparations carried out by each school,  city-wide plans and preparations are overseen, organized and carried out by the Daihaseisai Management Committee,    together with Judgment and Anti-Skill. Tasks performed by the committee include reviewing the layout of the roads to prepare for the oncoming traffic, as well as refereeing competitions. In the days following the festival, though workers remain in alert mode, while the equipment is being removed, the students receive a short break.

The Daihaseisai allows for students to be out at night time (they are normally discouraged from doing so, with traffic set to stop when schools completely close) to enjoy various night events along with visitors, the most notable being the Night Parade which occurs every sunset during the festival. Night tours are also conducted during the festival.

Although normal teaching and certain research activities are halted during the festival, non-Daihaseisai research activities are not completely suspended. Several research-orientated events are held during the festival period, such as an ability researchers conference in School District 9 (planned for 2PM on September 20th (Day 2) in the current year).

Committee
The Daihaseisai Management Committee is the student group which is responsible for organizing and overseeing the Daihaseisai. It is separated into divisions according to levels of education - for example, Fukiyose Seiri is part of the High School Division. They wear armbands and labelled hoodies to indicate their position on the committee.

Though not possessing the special privileges of Judgment and Anti-Skill, they plan and oversee the preparations and running of the festival,  as well as carrying out any special requests concerning the festival made by the Board of Directors. Though they help to run the athletic events in the competition, committee members are not exempt from participating in events themselves and have to arrange their duties and work schedule so it doesn't affect their own matches, requiring them to memorize maps and schedules, and have good planning and adaptive capabilities. Their extensive obligations leave them with very little free time.

Guests
Visitors are given entrance IDs with a GPS transmitter attached, which is used to track their location from headquarters and assist with managing the many festival attendees. When a lost child notice is received, it is used to pinpoint their location and have the nearest Judgment member meet and care for the child until their parent arrives to pick them up.

Security robot cameras and the airborne Homing Cameras are also used to help locate and guide visitors.

Security
Due to the circumstances of the Daihaseisai, in which the city is open to outsiders, security at the city wall has to be relaxed during the preparation period and the festival itself. However, the chance that this kind of situation creates for terrorism, theft or other crimes by individuals from both inside and outside the city is not overlooked. As such, Judgment and Anti-Skill are deployed throughout the festival (though members of the former still have to take part in their matches ), both to keep peace and order, and to aid visitors.

Many schools prohibit access to their premises during the week, in order to avoid outsiders (both from outside the city and from other schools) from seeing their esper development facilities and technology, with the only exception being their own students. School Garden remains off-limits to outsiders, and the students of Tokiwadai Middle School stay at hotels rather than their dormitories during the festival. Anti-Skill are deployed to important power development and research facilities to prevent entry. Sports grounds are also heavily guarded to prevent people from stealing DNA maps for high level espers.

There are also hidden security issues concerning infiltration and interference from the Magic Side, which were illustrated in the current year's Daihaseisai with the actions of Oriana Thomson and her plot with Lidvia Lorenzetti to use the Croce di Pietro and place the city under the domain of the Roman Catholic Church. Due to the precarious circumstances between the Magic Side and the Science Side, the center of which is Academy City, and the treaty between them, both sides were limited in dealing with the situation. Scientific security forces such as Anti-Skill and Judgment could not be allowed to face the magical infiltrator, due to the risk of unauthorized access to the other side's techniques and causing problems with other magical groups. At the same time, Academy City could not make an exception and officially let a group from Necessarius in to deal with the infiltrator, as other external factions would either demand the same permit, under excuses such as "protecting citizens of our country who are in the city as tourists", or forcibly rush in regardless. Refusals would create disputes which would snowball into conflict and many would use the opportunity to sneak in and carry out sabotage work. In the end, Stiyl Magnus was sent into the city under the cover of being a "friend of a resident and being there for sightseeing", working with Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu while staying away from Index, whom the other factions were focusing their magical detection spells around.

Infrastructure
For transportation, other than the rerouting of traffic flow by the committee, the Daihaseisai marks the widespread use of automated buses in restricted conditions in spite of the difficulty of using them, while ordinary vehicles are banned, though taxis, delivery trucks, and ambulances and likely other emergency vehicles are still allowed.

Background
In the past, there have apparently been a number of incidents during the Daihaseisai which have not been made public, including spiritualists attempting to bomb a stadium and anti-AI people attempting to destroy an unmanned helicopter.

In previous festivals, the top rankings have mostly been fought for and occupied by the top five schools. In the year before the current year, the festival's champions were Nagatenjouki Academy with Tokiwadai Middle School as the runners-up.

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc
Tsuchimikado Maika mentioned the Daihaseisai along with many other activities and events in the second semester. Preparations for the festival were underway across the city, including at Touma's school, with Touma being asked to set up (and take down) a tent. Security at the outer wall was noted to be somewhat lax during the preparations and run-up to the festival.

Tree Diagram Remnant Arc
Shirai Kuroko mentioned that School Garden won't open to outsiders even during the Daihaseisai.

Daihasei Festival Arc
During the course of their pursuit, aside from their own injuries, Fukiyose Seiri was hospitalized by one of Oriana's traps, which Touma and Tsuchimikado had intruded into the Ball Tossing Contest to deal with, and Himegami Aisa was seriously wounded by Oriana herself when she mistook her for an enemy due to her cross. One of the automated buses was also blown up by Stiyl during the chase. The pursuit ended in a confrontation at dusk in School District 23. After Oriana's defeat, Lidvia's plot was thwarted when the light created by the Daihaseisai's Night Parade at 6:30 PM blotted out the starlight necessary for the Croce di Pietro.

After the events of the first day, Touma was briefly hospitalized but returned to participation on September 20th, starting with Group A of the male's Cavalry Battle, though his misfortune continued throughout the week. He also lost his bet with Mikoto, with his school unable to keep up with Tokiwadai's score and being utterly defeated in a direct clash on the third day.

La Regina del Mare Adriatico Arc
On the last day of the festival, Touma won the first place prize at the Visitor Numbers stall; a seven day trip to northern Italy, which would result in him and Index being in Chioggia and getting involved in the incident involving La Regina del Mare Adriatico.

Academy City Invasion Arc
On September 30th, when students were picking up their winter uniforms, measurements and orders for which were made around the time of the Daihaseisai, Touma accompanied Mikoto as part of the penalty game for having lost their bet during the festival. It was noted that the underground mall they visited, which had sustained damage during the incident on September 1st, was repaired quickly due to the Daihaseisai occurring soon afterwards. Later on, Accelerator passed a load of leftover child-focused medical kits from the festival.

Skill-Out Uprising
During a conversation amongst Touma's class as to where they should all go out for dinner, one of them referred to something which was launched during the Daihaseisai. At this point, they were also said to now be familiar with Index since she had barged into class five times since the start of the Daihaseisai. In a discussion with Yomikawa Aiho about her freeloader moving out, Tsukuyomi Komoe mentioned how Nagatenjouki Academy were the champions of this year's Daihaseisai, beating Tokiwadai Middle School.

Daihasei Festival Arc
The Daihasei Festival Arc in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun takes place at the same time as the one in Toaru Majutsu no Index, primarily covering events on the first two days of the festival, though it mainly focuses on the second day rather than the first. Additionally, while the Daihaseisai still serves as a backdrop for the main events of the arc, there is more focus on the games early on, with Misaka Mikoto herself participating.

During the preparation period, the higher-ups requested performances from the Level 5s at the opening ceremony, though the committee were only able to get Shokuhou Misaki and Sogiita Gunha for the athlete's pledge. On the day, Gunha ended up improvising after forgetting his lines.

On the first day, Mikoto participated in and won the Three-Legged Race with Kongou Mitsuko in place of the wheelchair-bound Shirai Kuroko. After the conclusion of the incident on the second day, while returning memories she had erased, Shokuhou covered up Mikoto's absence from the second day's events as the result of an upset stomach. In the subsequent days, Saten got first place in the Baseball Bat Race, Wannai Kinuho participated in a Cavalry Battle, and Kongou managed to recover in time to team up with Mikoto again. Near the end of the festival, Saten arranged for Mikoto to dance with Touma at the Folk Dance after noticing her reaction to him, with Uiharu briefly restraining Kuroko.