Yurigaoka Girls' Academy

Yurigaoka Girls' Academy (百合ヶ丘女学院), also known as the Sacred Garden and in early sources as Yurigaoka Private Girls' Academy, is a Garden in Kamakura, Japan. It is one of the "Big Five Gardens" of Kamakura.

Location & History
On the old Assault Lily website, Yurigaoka is described as being in the "Shonan Special Administrative Region" of Kamakura Prefecture.

In Assault Lily: Bouquet, Yurigaoka Girls' Academy is located in the Yukinoshita neighborhood in the city of Kamakura proper, on the site of what is the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in the real world. Much of the surrounding city appears to have been destroyed and reclaimed by greenery, with only small pockets of Kamakura remaining.

Yurigaoka was originally established (as a normal girls' school) during the Taisho era. It has been operating as a Garden long enough that a number of currently active Lilies have mothers who also attended and graduated from it. Several dozen of the current core staff, including the chairwoman Takamatsu Shiera, are veterans of the Antarctic Campaign.

Yurigaoka's national defense area is quite large, covering both Yuigahama Beach on the south coast and Utsukushigaoka in the northern part of modern-day Yokohama, 35 kilometers away. It also seems to cover Oiso, 25 kilometers to the west.

Dormitories
Yurigaoka has several dormitories. Most of its Lilies reside in the two buildings referred to as the "old dormitory" and the "new dormitory." The old dormitory building dates back to the school's founding in the Taisho era and is traditional in its architecture, while the new dormitory is more modern.

Usually, only first-year students live in the new dormitory, while older students are housed in the old dormitory. All Lilies in these dormitories have a roommate, who they can either allow the Garden to assign them, or specifically request.

There is also a "special dormitory," which is officially said to be for Lilies who can't afford to pay the fee to live in the normal dormitories; the reality is that it's for Lilies that the Garden decides are best kept apart from the other students. This includes many Boosted Lilies under Yurigaoka's protection, though they can also request to be housed in the normal dormitories.

Lilies in the special dormitory typically have roommates, but there are single rooms for those who require them for their mental health. They have a custom of calling themselves and each other the "Sisters of Lyfjaberg".

Other Facilities
Among Yurigaoka's facilities are numerous hot springs that help Lilies recover Magi, a chapel in which the ceremony for the Schutzengel's Oath is performed, workshops for Arsenals, a coliseum in which Lilies can spar before an audience, a firing range for CHARMs, and a graveyard for fallen Lilies. In Full Bloom, the school buildings are shown to be surrounded by large "practice grounds" that Lilies can use for training.

Yurigaoka, along with Odaiba, is widely considered to have among the best cafeteria food of any Garden.

Classes
Yurigaoka organizes all of its Lilies into classes. There are at most 7 classes of Lilies and 2 classes of Arsenals in each school year, with each class containing 36 students. The Lily classes are named after various flowering trees (with the names reused between years,) and one Lily is chosen to be president of each one. Its newest classes of Lilies (those who are first-year students in 2052) are the 96th in number.

Names that Yurigaoka is known to use for its classes of Lilies are Tsubaki, Sakura, Sumomo, and Fuji. According to Fumi, there are also Kiku, Ume and Tachibana classes, but no active Lilies in 2052 are known to be members of these classes.

In 2051, a hellish battle resulted in the death or disappearance of almost every Lily in the 95th Tsubaki class.

The two Arsenal classes are always named Hinoki and Sugi. In every year, the Hinoki class is viewed as having a tendency to perform orthodox research, while the Sugi class is more unconventional.

Student Council
Yurigaoka's student council plays a major role in actions taken by the Garden.

The most powerful individuals in the council are the student council presidents, of which there are three, each named after a valkyrie and chosen via a separate process.


 * The Brynhildr serves as commander-in-chief of (almost) all of Yurigaoka's legions, including her personal elite legion, Brynhildr Line. She is voted upon by an electorate consisting of the captains and vice-captains of all legions at Yurigaoka, as well as the heads of athletic clubs. Lilies residing in the special dormitory are ineligible. The current Brynhildr is Izue Shinobu.
 * The Sigrún is in charge of maintaining the discipline of Yurigaoka's students. Yurigaoka does not have written school rules, so she essentially holds all authority in this matter. To limit the Sigrún's power, she is not allowed to be captain of a legion. The current Sigrún is Uchida Mayuri.
 * The Ortlinde oversees the general duties of the student council, including managing committees and taking reports from class representatives. Her personal legion is Legion Vingólf. She is elected by the entire student body. The current Ortlinde is Yamazaki Meika, but as she is injured, Hata Matsuri is performing her duties.



Every legion at Yurigaoka with a rank of S or higher is entitled to send their captain as a representative to the student council. These representatives vote on major decisions to be made by the Garden (such as whether to launch expeditions), as well as any decisions which the student council presidents cannot come to a consensus on. The Sigrún and vice-captains are expected to attend these meetings and take part in discussion, but do not have voting power.

The 13 legions currently represented on the student council are:


 * Legion Álfheimr
 * Legion Brynhildr Line
 * Legion Eir
 * Legion Geiravör
 * Legion Herfjötur
 * Legion Lohengrin
 * Legion Reginleif
 * Legion Rossweisse
 * Legion Sanngriðr
 * Legion Schwarz Grail
 * Legion Schwertleite
 * Legion Sigrdrífa
 * Legion Vingólf

Together, these 13 legions are known as the Fólkvangr.

Special Legions
Yurigaoka has special legions who serves special functions.

Legions under student council
The Brynhildr and Ortlinde are also captain of the LG Brynhildr Line and LG Vingólf respectively. Or more accurately, the legion they used to command receive name change when they are assigned to the post. Other than performing battle duty like all legions, they also acts as the student council.

In the current generation, because of Meika's inability to perform day-to-day duty as Ortlinde, the task is performed by Matsuri. This caused enimity between Vingólf and Eir because they see Eir acting as if they are the real student council legion.

Legions under direct command of Garden
Unlike other Yurigaoka legions positioned under authority of the Brynhildr as supreme commander, LG Rossweisse and LG Sigrdrífa are placed directly under the Garden's executives and they perform missions for the Garden itself. There is also LG Schwertleite who focus on defending the Garden.

LG Rossweisse is a special operations legion. They perform even black ops, attacking GEHENA labs to rescue Lilies who have been subjected to inhumane experiments. During these missions, they are allowed to take any measures necessary against any resistance they encounter. For this kind of duty, they are trained not just to fight against the Huge, but also against humans.

The legion consists of only Boosted Lilies, just like St. Mercurius' Raguel, which it is modeled after. . As cover, they're known as a legion of combat medics.

LG Sigrdrífa is the reconnaissance legion. They are sent to investigate target location of mission, be it for expedition, or for Rossweisse's black ops. This is because the Garden can't just trust all the informations given by local Garden. In case like during the Recapture of Niigata, they also investigated the internal situation in Ryuto.

LG Schwertleite is the Garden's last line of defense, tasked to focus on defending the Garden. Because of the nature of their duty, they host many Kamakura-born lilies with homeland-first ideology who believe top priority must be to protect their own territory.

Legions under special organization
LG Herfjötur is a generational legion under the Moral Study Committee. The legion name is passed down in the organization and is led by the Var, secretary of the committee.

LG Ginnungagap is a legion under the Labyrinth, a secret society in Yurigaoka with influence rivaling that of the student council. Yet, this legion is not officially acknowledged, so the members must treat sortie as "individual voluntary deployment" in place of requesting under name of their legion.

Schutzengel System


Yurigaoka's high school division has an officially recognized tradition where an older student will make a pledge of sisterhood with a younger student, in which the two vow to support and protect each other. The older student is known as the Schutzengel (German for guardian angel), and the younger student is known as the Schild (German for shield.) The pledge itself is known as the Schutzengel's Oath.

Any student in Yurigaoka's high school division can make this pledge, even with students in other courses (e.g. a Lily can be an Arsenal's Schutzengel, or vice versa) and other legions. However, one cannot take the Schutzengel's Oath with a student at another school, or a Yurigaoka student who is in the same school year. Each student can have only one Schutzengel and one Schild.

It's uncommon, but not prohibited, for Schutzengels to be more than one school year apart from each other. High school students and junior high school students aren't normally allowed to take the oath together, but sometimes exceptions are made when both are members of their respective student councils.

A Lily who no longer has a Schutzengel at Yurigaoka for some reason (such as if they're two years apart and she graduates) is allowed to take a new one. However, the Schutzengel's Oath is considered to be a lifelong bond, and does not dissolve when the Lilies graduate.

On rare occasions, a Schutzengel's Oath can or must be annulled. This can occur when one of the Lilies has to repeat a school year and it makes the oath invalid under Yurigaoka's rules, as was the case with Yamazaki Meika and her ex-Schild, Izue Shinobu. In another such case, Yamanashi Hibari's oath with Yanagisawa Ayako was annulled, though the reason why is unknown.

Norns
When a Lily's Schild has her own Schild, the three Lilies are known as "Norns" (or "Nornir"). This is considered the ideal Schutzengel arrangement by the Garden. Norns are referred to by the name of the oldest Lily in the trio; for example, the third-year Rosalinde Friedegunde von Otto, together with her Schild and her Schild's Schild, are called "The Otto Norns".

Roommate Request System
If two Lilies in the same school year wish to be Schutzengels, one of them can repeat a school year in order to become the other's Schild. However, most don't do this and simply request to share a room instead. While it holds no official recognition as such, at Yurigaoka, being someone's roommate by mutual request is popularly considered the equivalent of pledging a oath of sisterhood with them. It's said that even Lilies who are assigned to share a room will grow as close as sisters do.

Trivia

 * Yurigaoka literally means "hill that abounds with lilies."
 * Yurigaoka is also the name of a neighborhood in Kawasaki, a considerable distance north of the Garden's location in the anime/game continuity. In some older stories, like the novels by Kasama Hiroyuki, Yurigaoka is implied to be located in or near the neighborhood of that name.
 * Based on Fumi's statements about the size and number of classes, the theoretical maximum number of students in Yurigaoka's high school division is 756 Lilies and 216 Arsenals. (It's very likely there are fewer students than this, if only because some Lilies are known to have died in battle.)
 * The names of several Yurigaoka legions and other institutions of the Garden appear to be references to the operas of Richard Wagner, in particular Die Walküre. Some (but not all) of these operas were in turn based by Wagner upon Norse mythology.
 * There appears to be a naming theme among Yurigaoka's Lilies; the majority of them share their surnames with notable real-world architects, or people who work in architecture-related fields.
 * The concept of a school named Yurigaoka which teaches combat skills predates Assault Lily itself. It originally existed as its own setting, but was quite different from the current Yurigaoka in many ways.