Mute City

Mute City—or 'Myūtoshiti,' is a famous metropolis and international city resulting from the merging of Tokyo and its immediate surrounding cities into one. Mute City appears in F-Zero: Seppuku as the main setting for the saga; it acts as the capital city of Japan, base of operations for the Chief Commander of the Galactic Space Federation, base of operations for the F-Zero Committee, and considered by many to be the capital city representing humanity.
==City Sections==
===Upper City===
'Lower, middle, and upper class citizens all shared the Upper City together. This part of the metropolis was well populated and always busy, but a heavenly place to be. With so many people of varying interests roaming the Upper City, finding a job or love interest was beyond easy.' ―Part 1/3, Prologue
The Upper City is the outer portion of Mute City covering most of the metropolis' east coast, and is the most ideal place to be given its countless opportunities and luxuries. The Upper City infrastructure is heavily invested into by the Galactic Space Federation, making for quick and easy travel between locations, and very few buildings are without tens or even hundreds of floors. The cost of living in the Upper City is famously expensive, but considered by most to be well worth the endeavor.
The Galactic Space Federation boasts the highest building in the metropolis with its headquarters, from where the Chief Commander and their team operate from. No building in Mute City is allowed to exceed the height of the Federation HQ, making it a structure typically visible from any part of the metropolis. The still independent Japanese government, meanwhile, maintains their own government palace in its historical location, and is ironically one of the shortest buildings in the Upper City due to an insistence on preserving its traditional form. The F-Zero Committee, while not allowed to exceed the height of the Federation HQ, compensates for this by occupying a significant portion of the city for its own headquarters and race track, from which the annual Grand Prix is often hosted, along with other minor racing events.
The Lower City connects directly to all other areas of the metropolis: the Lower City, Gambling Area, and the Lightning Area, as well as the nearby Red Canyon region.
===Lower City===
'In the end, the Lower City was a wasteland to the common man and woman, now only serving as a battlefield for two gangs and an internment camp for the creditless citizens. With both gangs heavily outnumbering the Mute City police force, there is nothing left to do for the Lower City. For now, those of whom find themselves trapped within the Lower City were doomed to lay witness to violence, destruction, and gang oppression.' ―Part 1/3, Prologue
The Lower City represents the inner depths of Mute City, surrounded and shadowed by the massive skyscrapers of the Upper City, thus keeping it in constant shade and easy to isolate. The Lower City has a homeless population of nearly 20 million, very few of whom can find honest work, and has led to an unsustainable economic situation where the Galactic Space Federation has made the controversial but nevertheless accepted decision to ignore the Lower City. The dire situation in the Lower City has led to the rise of gangs who wish to assert control of the Lower City and use its massive population and ire to either invade the Upper City (Red Star) or simply restore governance to the Lower City (Bloody Chain). Despite the presence of a gang war, a mixture of the Federation and Japanese government maintain a very inconsistent and microscopic police presence for the purpose of creating the illusion that the Lower City is still under government control; in reality, the Lower City is the lawless core of Mute City that no one dares step forth into without extreme caution.
===Gambling Area===
'This track was found not in the Upper City nor the Lower City; but rather, the 'Gambling Area'. This was a gambler's paradise, a section of Mute City styled after Las Vegas.' ―Part 1/3, Lap 10
Accessible only through the Upper City, the Gambling Area is a section of Mute City dedicated to bars, gambling, and relevant forms of entertainment. While the Upper City, Lightning Area, and even parts of the Lower City feature gambling locations, the Gambling Area is where the high stake bets occur—those who throw money down in the Gambling Area are said to come out buying a house in the Upper City, or end up homeless in the Lower City.
The Gambling Area, although a part of Japan, is more so under the watch of the Galactic Space Federation, thus Federation officers are more often found arresting people than the Japanese police. The intensive quantity of pedestrians on the streets of the Gambling Area tends to dissuade heavy traffic from forming, thus most would rather traverse it on-foot or rely on transportation services to get around.
The F-Zero Committee takes full advantage of this section of the metropolis, running a race track and casino called 'Casino Palace,' famous for hosting bet races all season long; though said bet races tend to happen less frequently during the annual Grand Prix due to racers not wanting to severely damage their machines mid-season.
===Lightning Area===
'Chiya crossed her arms and looked out the window. The dark stormy clouds of the Lightning Area could be seen far across a body of water.' ―Part 3/3, Lap 12
The least populated part of Mute City, the Lightning Area is a vital energy source for the metropolis located far out towards the ocean and is the only section of Mute City not connected to mainland Japan. The Lightning Area gets its name from the endless artificial storm that the Federation has produced over it, from which it gathers unlimited electricity capable of powering much of the metropolis. Due to the dark and chaotic nature of the Lightning Area, it is occupied primarily by workers who are unbothered by the endless storm. This section of the city also possesses an infamous reputation for harboring criminals, as it is an area seldom patrolled by law enforcement, making it an ideal location to flee towards, but also leaves said criminals cornered once there since the Lightning Area has no spaceports and is surrounded by water.
The F-Zero Committee has yet another race track in this section of Mute City, famous for the darkness, rain, and flashes of lightning that occur during races, but also controversial for inevitably drawing in a criminal audience who are locals of the area. With both the Federation and Japanese government mostly keeping law enforcement at a distance here, F-Zero security is, oddly enough, the closest thing the Lightning Area has to any kind of law enforcement.
One of the most influential characters in this area is the Port Town crime lord, Vax, who infamously funds an underground cantina known as 'The Krush,' where an illegal fighting ring called 'Throwdown' takes place. Chief Commander Jody Summer is aware of the illegal activities that takes place in The Krush but does not take action, believing that the cantina's existence keeps most of the Lightning Area's criminals isolated within this establishment.