Matsubayashi High School Times

[ships_you]

[ A week into classes finds the first release of the Matsubayashi High School Newspaper. Hot off the virtual press is the newspaper, found all over the high school's private sim on Sefira. Avatars of teachers and students alike pick it up and browse through it, commenting how different it seems this year. ]


Matsubayashi High School Times

New Principal Shakes Up Old Traditions Report by Azusa Kannagi - 1C Two weeks ago the student body was introduced to our new principal, Naomi Nagasawa at the annual entrance ceremony here at Matsubayashi High School. The former principal Saito Fujisawa left behind a strong legacy on the school, one that Nagasawa-san intends on redefining herself. At her speech our new Principal spoke about how she wants to change Mastsubayashi to be more focused on the future. She spoke about how the new computers donated by the Jupiter Corporation are part of her platform of changing the way things are done in this school. She said "We as educators cannot pretend that the old ways are always best, and must try to prepare you students for what comes ahead." At the end of her speech many students stuck around to speak with this reporter of their thoughts, both positive and negative. While many students agree with her focus on technology as an important factor in student's lives, it was the Student Council President herself, Momoko Terada, who summed up many of Mastubayashi's returning students' opinions. She said she would would work the new principal closely to make sure that student's lives positively affected by all the new changes. Continued on page 3...

Departure Syndrome On the Rise Story by Hideki Araragi - 2A In the years since Sefira, the worldwide virtual reality network, came into the spotlight, more and more people are coming down with what has been dubbed the "Departure Syndrome". Many know of its symptoms, giving up on real life responsibilities, deciding to live in the fantasy world of the virtual reality instead. Some sufferers have gone so far as completely neglect their own physical body, forgetting to eat and dying in their apartments only to be found sometime later. Doctors relate it to a simple addiction, the same as some people have for gambling or illegal substances. At the same time, prolific spiritual leaders call it out as something different, as a gathering of impure spirits infecting a person's body, causing them to be unable to discern whether the real world or Sefira is truly reality. Many have even related it to the early 21st century "Apathy Syndrome" that plagued Japan, causing people to give up on living, too apathetic to care for themselves. Continued on page 2... Tokimori University Hospital Remembrance Report by Azusa Kannagi - 1C This week the Tokimori University Hospital will be hosting a memorial for the lives lost two years ago. For those unaware, the hospital was struck by a new computer virus at the time that hit every system in the hospital. The doors were locked shut, and power went out in the entire hospital for exactly one hour. The deaths of over two dozen patients has been blamed on the Jupiter Corporation, as their servers were the ones affected, causing even the backup generators not to turn on. It's been called a national tragedy that the multinational company has promised will never happen again. Continued on page 4...

[ While much of the newspaper is pretty boilerplate, many students find it well written, far different than the sloppy mess of reporting done in the last few years. Perhaps the newspaper club had been given some new blood to freshen things up. Though why there were so many mentions of magic and spirits in the later pages, is hard to say.. ]