Student Life

The Mirai City school year runs from April to March as it does in Japan, with summer and winter breaks. The city also observes Golden Week, with many students obtaining exit passes to visit family or go on trips outside the city. Most students stay in school dormitories during the rest of the semesters; the city bills itself as incredibly safety conscious, with many CCTV cameras and security officers posted. Tours for prospective students and parents usually run in fall and winter for spring admissions.

Most, though not all, schools offer the Power Curriculum as part of their standard classes from kindergarten onwards, which remains one of the primary drivers of student enrolment. However, even without that, Mirai City has some of the best educational opportunities in the world, and offers scholarships to exceptionally gifted students to attract the best and brightest. Students who develop exceptional superhuman abilities may even be moved to research-focused schooling developed for them exclusively.

Afterschool clubs are a major part of student life as well, with the usual kinds of arts (calligraphy, band, drama, etc) and sports (soccer, baseball, kendo, etc) represented, but also ones leaning towards Mirai City’s brands of advanced sciences, such as robotics or chemistry clubs. In later grade levels, these are especially popular with students who remain at Level 0.

Some additional school club suggestions:

Many schools have remedial classes for cases where student performance isn’t up to par, but for overbearing parents, there are cram schools that run until an hour before curfew. This is where you’ll find some of the most stressed-out students in the city. Unfortunately while studying can improve your grades, power development is much more unreliable as far as acquisition and progression goes.

Either for spending cash or to help contribute to their tuition, or maybe even saving for university in the future, some students also have part-time jobs. The malls and shopping centres of Mirai City are always in need of unskilled staff, students who have powers of particular interest might be paid to participate in experiments, and there are always low-effort ways to make a few extra yen around, such as filling out surveys after taste-testing new street food concepts, and so on.

City Youth Council

The City Youth Council is made up on the heads of the Student Councils at the six most prestigious schools in Mirai City. They meet on an infrequent basis to decide upon “very important” (ie, more trivial) concerns regarding the student population as a whole, such as which of the Level 5 students will be invited to give opening remarks at the Grand Champion Star Festival, for instance.

Competitions

Seiryuu Martial Arts Tournament

Every spring, in conjunction with the Judgement training academy, Mirai City hosts the Seiryuu Martial Arts Tournament. Students of any Level are invited to participate, with two broad competition categories.

Standard competitions are traditional in form, for judo, karate, and aikido. Depending on the year, categories for kendo, kyuudo, wing chun, shaolin kung fu, or other forms of martial arts may be present depending on current popularity.

Level 1 to Level 4 competitions are essentially mixed martial arts, with enhancement through somatipsyche powers allowed. There are a number of rules to prevent serious injury and ensure fairness of competition. There are usually only a few Level 4 entrants, but those matches are the most publicized and bring in the most spectators.

BATTLEBOTS!

The all-caps and exclamation mark are part of the official competition name, as this is the robot arena battle competition where students are allowed to break out all the dangerous high-powered goodies they can get their hands on. It has gotten out of hand some years, but that hasn’t stopped them yet, only caused more and more safety measures to be put into place, to the point that competitors have to drop their robots into a ring enclosed with foot-thick bulletproof glass.

Robot Sumo Championship

A less worryingly violent competition, here the goal is to fling opposing robot out of the ring, using any method within a set weight limit.

Form and Function Design Contest

With a set theme for robot’s function, this is a contest where not only does it have to perform well at a a set task but also has to look aesthetically pleasing and be designed to be easy to service and maintain. Entries here are often collaborations between technical and arts schools.

Festivals

Grand Champion Star Festival

This festival takes the city to the international stage as a televised psi power exhibition sporting event, with international news stations and camera crews coming into the city alongside proud parents. It is easily the biggest event every year, making the city a crowded and packed place for one week at the end of September. Usually some of the Level 5 students and a couple members of the Board Of Directors are there for opening ceremonies, and possibly to entertain interviews from foreign reporters. A wide variety of inter-school competitions take place across the city throughout the week, and students are given time out of their studies to go cheer on their classmates and enjoy the festivities.

Pinnacle of Excellence Festival

This is the city-wise culture festival that runs mid-November. Though not an international event like the Star Festival, each school has to work hard to produce some kind of impressive display – and the bar for impressive is pretty high in Mirai City. Many schools use this as an opportunity to try to poach students and convince them to switch to their school.