It was Sunday morning, June 23, 2097, and Angelina Kudou Shields—also known as Angie Sirius, the commander of the USNA Stars—found herself aboard a small VTOL aircraft.
Angelina, Lina for short, had been branded a traitor by her colleagues-turned-parasites and had nearly been assassinated at the Stars’ main base. With the help of Colonel Balance, who had secretly allied with the Yotsuba family, Lina escaped to Japan. Until a couple of days ago, she had been staying with the Kurobas, a Yotsuba branch family. She then spent the previous night at Tatsuya and Miyuki’s apartment.
She was now on her way to Miyaki—an island located about ninety kilometers south of the Boso Peninsula and about fifty kilometers east of Miyake Island. Since it was formed by underwater volcanic activity at the start of the 2000s, Miyaki was also known as the twenty-first-century New Island. Though small, its area had grown to eight square kilometers, about the size of Tokyo’s Kunitachi City. This was to be Lina’s new refuge.
Miyaki was private land owned by the Yotsuba family. Technically, a real estate company controlled by the Yotsuba family owned it, but this was merely a formality. Its unique history made it such an attractive property.
Miyaki Island originally served as a supply base for the National Defense Force. However, repeated eruptions in the 2050s forced the military to abandon the base. After the end of World War III, also known as the Twenty Years’ Global War Outbreak, the island was converted into a secret prison exclusively for military and civilian magicians. The Yotsuba family, being the only ones who could control the imprisoned magicians, was entrusted with managing the island. This responsibility eventually led to the Yotsuba family acquiring Miyaki in its entirety.
However, an eruption in January 2093 on the eastern side of the island prompted considerations to relocate the prison. By 2095, a new location for the prison was decided. Then, in May 2097—just one month prior—the prison was completed, and all its prisoners were successfully transferred. While the four-person residential facility still needed renovations, the supervisor’s quarters were ready to be occupied at any time.
On the eastern side of the island, there had been plans to construct a magic research facility in April. It was only recently that the head of the Yotsuba family decided instead to build a magic nuclear fusion energy plant for Tatsuya’s ESCAPES Plan there.
Tatsuya and Miyuki were on board the same small VTOL as Lina. Their primary objective was to monitor the commander and guide her around the island. For Tatsuya, however, visiting Miyaki Island also provided the perfect opportunity to inspect the construction site for his energy plant.
The decision to execute the ESCAPES Plan on Miyaki was made at the end of the previous month. Tatsuya had visited the island several times before and was familiar with the terrain and climate, but he had never thought about building something there. He now needed to see whether there were any natural conditions that could stand in the way of his plan.
“We have almost reached our destination,” Hyougo—the VTOL’s pilot— informed the group.
The VTOL could hold a maximum of six people in addition to the pilot, and there was no partition between the cockpit and the passenger seats. Hyougo’s voice reached Tatsuya and the others directly, much like in a car.
“This island is pretty big,” Lina noted, though she had no point of comparison—she had never seen any others. “I’m surprised it has such so much infrastructure.”
“I guess it is unusual,” Miyuki mused.
Though Miyuki had been to the island once before, she couldn’t hide her amazement at how drastically things had changed. During her last visit, the landscape had been so bleak.
“So have you been here before?” Lina asked.
“Yes.” Miyuki nodded. “A little over four years ago.”
Back then, the island had been mostly black volcanic rock and sand, with only a cluster of prison facilities along the western coast. Now there was an airport with a short runway in the north and a desalination plant to the south. A geothermal power plant had been built in the central part of the island near some foothills, and over ten mid-rise buildings stood parallel to the east.
The change in scenery surprised Tatsuya, too. Though in a different way than it did Miyuki.
That looks like a reaction stone refinery, he thought. And there’s even a large data center.
Tatsuya noticed a building that bore the familiar FLT facility features. Suddenly, it all made sense. These were the new Yotsuba headquarters.
Maya hadn’t directly said anything about this to Tatsuya. He had simply received permission to use Miyaki Island for the ESCAPES Plan energy plant. Then again, his plan did not technically prohibit the creation of a second home base. Maya clearly intended to build an open experimental plant on the island while simultaneously constructing a closed research facility next door. Moreover, she was probably planning to recruit exceptionally talented researchers working on the ESCAPES Plan into the Yotsuba ranks. This would be a perfect way to advance the family’s magic technology to greater heights.
Hyougo landed at the heliport. The runway wasn’t long enough for large aircrafts, but it could easily accommodate small jets carrying up to fifty passengers. The fact that landings here were not only limited to VTOLs and STOVLs proved the Yotsuba family’s commitment to Miyaki’s development. That said, there was still no railway or monorail. Hyougo had to drive Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Lina in a self-driving car provided by the Mashibas, one of the Yotsuba branch families that managed the magician prison.
The party headed toward the island’s western coast. After circling around the small active volcano, they arrived at the prison management staff’s residential building. The landscape along the drive was the same as it had been on earlier visits. Lava fields and rocky coastlines lined either side of the freeway. It seemed the Yotsuba family had focused their development more on the eastern side, opposite the prison.