A Certain Scientific Railgun: Darklight

Striding an estimated thirty years ahead of any other settlement on Earth in terms of scientific advancement, Academy City, also known as the City of Schools, stands as the exemplar of research, human development, peace, and order. Above all, it is renown for its espers; gifted individuals possessed of inhuman abilities as many as they are varied, and all on record as part of the Power Curriculum Program, designed to unlock the secrets of these abilities, as well as enhance the power of those who already possess them. With a population of 40% espers and 80% students, the City is bright with optimism, and loud with the promise of knowledge.

However, in the dark and half-forgotten corners of the City lurks its counterpart. Those citizens who disregard their City's message and forge their own paths to power and riches. With cunning, corruption, and outright brute force, these criminals tread where the common citizen dares not, reaping the profits from the most heinous of acts with impunity and disregard, and doing so with subtlety enough to preserve the veneer they live under.

Yet they are not invincible, nor invisible. Every day, the City's law enforcement arms, the student-run Judgement and the adult-staffed Anti-Skill, seek out these deviants, pursuing them as far as their remits permit before bringing them in and locking them away, usually for good. In this cold war, made all the more dangerous by the devastating powers of the espers, both sides dance with each other, seeking and evading on a tireless basis and with the peace of the City at stake. With diligence and the kind of optimism rarely found elsewhere, Judgement and Anti-Skill hunt for even the smallest trail left behind by the crimes of the dark side.

Now, on one Sunday evening, such a trail is about to appear.