Article 14: Dropouts
No storied institution has a one hundred percent pass rate, but MSF High comes closer than most. Nearly 99% of all students that come to the school eventually graduate, with the large majority doing so in the standard four years. However, there are rare cases in which, for one of a number of reasons, a student does not manage to graduate. This article will discuss some of the ways in which a student might fail to graduate, and the fate of those students.
The process by which the school selects its students, while not random, is only able to gauge the potential heroism of those who it takes in. There's no such thing as a perfect fortune teller, however, and this process occasionally brings in students who have the spark of good in them but lack the ability to harness it properly. There's no way to tell for certain, even after meeting them, that someone is truly destined to be one of the good guys, but it's not hard for the staff to determine after a few months that a student is simply irredeemable. For example, everyone in my class knows that Baron, while a loud, brash, and generally evil-looking guy, has a natural predisposition towards helping others that will eventually overcome his miserable upbringing. He's genuinely a good guy and someday he'll realize that too. But let's say, for instance that that wasn't the case. If it were apparent to the teachers that he delighted in the suffering of others, had no drive to preserve sentient life, or cared only for his own gain of powers, rest assured that by now he would have been dealt with. For such a student, the punishment is swift and just. It's said that they're magically frozen, their memories of MSF High and Mahou City scrubbed from their minds, and during the next ceremony of Destiny they are unceremoniously shoved through the portal back to where they came from, left only with the knowledge that they should have just died. I've not heard of anyone trying to track down one of these expelled students, but I doubt any of them have bright futures.
In other cases, there's nothing morally wrong with a student, but they find that the harsh and hectic nature of MSF High is too much for them to handle. In most cases, this also happens during a student's first year, as they will feel completely out of place amongst the incredible people that surround them. Usually, when a teacher notices this is going on, they will try to find a way to work with that person and help them to discover what makes them special and worthy of being a student.Unfortunately, however, this doesn't always work, and a few of the students from each batch turn out to be unable to handle the rigors of MSF High. The fate of these drop-outs is much, much less severe. They're put under no obligation to leave, though they must relinquish their dorm room, as they are expected to earn their living in Mahou City for as long as they wish to stay. These ex-students are given an open invitation to re-start their schooling if things change, and they are encouraged to keep their student uniform just in case such a thing happens. Most of them choose to stay and take up jobs that let them interact with their friends from the school.
The third case is often the saddest. As every citizen of Mahou City knows, shadow attacks are an occasional occurrence that must be dealt with by one of a number of student, teacher, and alumni organizations. While they do a good job of keeping most of these monstrous memory-spawned creatures from reaching their targets, it's not unheard of for them to fail and a shadow to infect its originator. Victims of shadows fall into a coma where their psyche is assaulted by the mutated and strengthened negative emotions, and from there it can completely subjugate them if not dealt with through extraordinary means. In some cases, another student has been able to find a way to get through to a shadow victim, but in the large majority of cases, the only way to remove the influence of a shadow created by traumatic memories is to deny the student access to those memories--a memory wipe. The poor student will have lost everything they had gained so far at MSF High--their skills, abilities, and knowledge of the incredible good they're capable of. What they won't lose, however, is the friendship of those they had connected with during their studies. You'll see on more than a few occasions entire groups of students who have decided to put their studies on hold so that they can support a memory-wiped friend until they've caught up to them.
Finally, there are students who disappear for apparently no reason whatsoever. With all of the wilderness around Mahou City, along with the numerous villages and towns, someone who wanted to disappear usually has no trouble doing so. Eventually, friends will want to do some investigating of their own, and in most cases, the student is found and returned or it's discovered that they have decided to drop out and their dorm key is returned. There is a single well-known exception, however, but that particular student would need to be the subject of another article altogether, as describing his activity in the school, his disappearance, and the impact of his work on the next generation of students would be more than I could handle in the few words remaining.
If you are considering dropping out for any reason, please try to keep in mind that the school chose you to be here for reasons of its own. Weigh your choice against the potential future held in store for you, the friendships you've forged and will forge, and the growth that you need to understand you're more than capable of. Talk with someone that cares about you, and if you think that no one does, know that you're wrong, and that's a good thing.
