BABEL is the name of the network of special schools set up for those who have been to an alternate (and most of the time, magical) world, and returned. The school is where Akatsuki and Miu enroll after returning from Alayzard, and it is where most of the main cast attend as high school students.
Background[]
Following the creation of the G7, the de facto new United Nations (consisting of Japan, the USA, Russia, China, India, the Oceania Federation, and the European Union) co-founded BABEL a few years ago in order to protect and monitor all returnees from alternate worlds. BABEL's purpose is to guide the young men and women with special abilities along the right path: contribute to human prosperity and development[1].
All BABEL schools are situated within the new United Nations' member states' territories, and members of COCOON are responsible for each BABEL. The schools are comprised of institutes at all educational levels: elementary school, middle school, high school, university, and even research institutes. While the returnees receive general education, the school will specifically design a curriculum for each returnee so they can train the special abilities they acquired from their travel to alternate worlds[1].
Enrollment eligibility is only for returnees who came back from alternative worlds. In contrast, the returnees are all forced to study at a BABEL school without exception. The intent is to isolate the returnees and their special abilities from the general population in order to better manage them[1]. On the surface, BABEL's admissions are based on applications, but the truth is that it is a mandatory order, there is no other choice. Within a week of receiving the application, the returnees must surrender — that is, to go to school, or else BABEL will dispatch personnel to forcibly bring them there[2]. The uniforms and textbooks are provided by the new United Nations, and exempted from tuition and fees[1].
If a war occurs somewhere in the world, BABEL immediately intervene by sending returnees to the battlefield. On the surface, BABEL develop its students into an elite force to safeguard world peace and promote human prosperity. However, they are actually turning the returnees into tools for war, in order to suppress the enemy organizations worldwide[3], thought there are now very little wars and conflicts around the world, almost no need to send in troops[4].
True Purpose[]
It is eventually revealed that the true reason behind the construction of the Towers of BABEL is so, as part of COCOON's Y Plan, the towers can control the [Chimyaku] flowing through the Earth, turning the planet into a "suitable place" to allow the manifestation of a superior dimensional lifeform[5].
JPN BABEL[]
Japan's own BABEL school, situated on a man-made island inside Tokyo Bay, is accessible through an undersea tunnel, and made a special autonomous region[2]. Its principal characteristic of note is the high-rise white tower serving as a school building in the center of the island, with the research institutes, laboratories, and the sports ground all lined up row by row in close order. It is administrated by Kyouya Hikami, a member of COCOON and the Student Council President.
Under the island is the massive data server, "Apocalypse", a boundary system that covers the majority of the campus, the electricity and water circulation system, and the basic life support/environmental program[6].
Rank[]
Each student gains a rank and class after being tested and demonstrating their ability following their return from alternative worlds. BABEL uses a power ranking to divide all the students from Class A to E. Normally, freshly admitted students will enter into Class E, those with superior results to normal entering Class D. The student body is not only being looked after by the Student Council who keeps the student from harms away, but also by COCOON, seeking any individual with interesting enough potentials.
- Class S
- Class A
- Class B
- Class C
- Class D
- Class E