Chapter 19: Tanegashima Island

“Now arriving at Sector Kagoshima.”

The sound of the train’s announcer woke Hikaru up from his trance as he stared at his phone screen, flipping through the pictures he had sent Celia.

Is it really okay to send a silly picture like that?  he wondered, are we really that close yet? We’ve only known each other for about a month at this point after all... Maybe I’ve gotten too comfortable, but it’s not like we can stay indifferent forever if we want to work together. At the same time however, I feel like I’m forcing a friendship too quickly, and I don’t want that either.

Hikaru didn’t know what to make of their relationship at the moment. To him, Celia felt like a close coworker; one that he could be himself around to a certain extent. Since Celia hadn’t responded to the pictures he sent her yesterday, it was hard to make out what she thought about it all either.

Well, she didn’t judge me when I accidentally got too excited when I saw Alto, he recalled, a lot of people would’ve definitely called me weird for that. Come to think of it, I’ve been jabbing at and making fun of her ignorance at every chance I get, but she’s never done the same to me. Have I become a much meaner person over the years I lived here?

He looked towards Kyomi who was resting on his lap, just like his old cat used to do.

She was the cause of some of the hate and judgement he got from others — not her herself — but rather her design. Almost everyone here carried around cubic shaped drones instead of spherical ones, but Hikaru didn’t think a box shaped cat would look nice, and thought that a more spherical drone design would better emulate how his old cat looked like.

The only problem was that being too different was a curse in the country he came from. It was better to fit in than to stick out, but he wasn’t willing to give up Kyomi’s design in respect to his old cat. The relentless judgement he got for just having Kyomi designed differently, coupled with the snide remarks and depressing words spoken to him behind his back after admitting he was going to pursue Aerospace Engineering, was enough to convince him to transfer to a college in Euracia.

There, being different wasn’t treated with as much disdain, and even if it was, it was fine because Kyomi fit in with all the other spherical drones that reigned as the most popular drone shape there. Now that he was back in his home country in the Silk Axis however, he felt weird mix of both a sense of normalcy and anxiety.

Feeling worried about being judged feels so normal but… I know it’s wrong to feel this way.

“Hikaru?” Alto asked, interrupting his train of thoughts, “we have to leave the train soon. The doors are about to close and we have a boat to catch. Is there perhaps something wrong with Kyomi? You’ve been staring at her for a while now.”

Hikaru looked up at Alto and smiled.

“No, nothing’s wrong, I was just thinking about something that’s all,” he assured him, “let’s get going before the doors close shall we?”

The two of them leave the train, and quickly make their way to the nearby docks. 

There was only one port in the entire world that offered a direct boat route to Tanegashima Island; the Kagoshima Port. Other ports either didn’t go to Sector Tanegashima, needed to be routed from  the Kagoshima Port first to reach the port, or route to Kagoshima and then head to Tanegashima.

This single route system didn’t change for centuries despite heavy railroad and transportation overhauls over the years, mainly because there wasn’t too much of a need to get to it now since it was mostly a tourist spot nowadays.

Fortunately, a train station was already built next to the Kagoshima Port a couple centuries ago, making the trip from the station to the port a quick one.

Alto and Hikaru made their way over to the port, hopping on a ferry to Tanegashima that they had reserved in advance. As the boat departed from docks, Hikaru took a moment to admire and take pictures of the view of the surrounding landscape.

Small distant hills surrounded the waters around them as the ferry glided through the calm waters of the shorelines of Kagoshima Bay. Although the hills were modest in size, they were still majestic and beautiful in their own kind of way; adding onto the endless expanse of the rippling dark blue waves and bright blue sky that had been cleared by the nano drones.

Celia didn’t respond to the last images I sent her, but it’s probably because she’s busy with her internship, Hikaru thought to himself as he snapped a picture of Alto awkwardly staring at the island behind them, I don’t know her too well, but I’m sure she would still appreciate some pictures of my home country. Even if she didn’t, I could just use it as an excuse to update her on our journey so far.

The rest of the boat ride went smoothly with Hikaru asking Alto to do some silly poses with him as he snapped more pictures of their journey to Sector Tanegashima. When they finally reached their destination, the three of them hop off and take a look at a nearby map that showcased the points of interest on the island.

“Hmm… according to my research, the space center should be near the southeastern parts of the island,” Hikaru mumbled as he examined the map, he eyes gazing over to the appropriate part of the map only to see something completely different there, “but now it just says 'Tanegashima Beach' where the space center is supposed to be.”

He looked back to Alto, wondering what his opinion was on what to do now.

“I think we should still check out the site just in case,” Alto suggested, “it could still be there, but just slightly refurbished. As long as the main parts are still there, we can still make use of it... although it might be hard to secretly build a rocket there.”

Hikaru let out a tired smile.

“So it’ll be pointless anyway huh?” he murmured, “finding a space center won’t do us any good if it’s bad at covering up what we’re doing, because we’ll be caught immediately. Since it’s a beach now, I assume the area wouldn’t be too empty either.”

“Well we’re already here anyway,” Alto said, “might as well enjoy ourselves on the beach. It would be a waste of a boat and train ticket here otherwise.”

Hikaru shrugged and agreed.

“It’s not like I’m in a rush to head back to Euracia anyway,” he said.

They all make their way to the site where the space center used to be, and were not surprised to see nothing that resembled a space center there. All there was was natural green landscape filled with short green hills with trees on top and tall palm trees that littered across grass that bordered the sand along the shoreline.

“So much for a beach,” Hikaru joked, “there’s more grass here than sand. I assume it’s less of a beach for playing in the sand than it is for swimming and enjoying the coastline.”

Nevertheless, he walks around the area, climbing the short hills to get a higher vantage point for more photos. It wasn't like he brought beach gear here anyways and the scenery was beautiful enough to capture with his camera. 

As he takes pictures of the surrounding landscape, he shoots a quick message over to Celia, informing her that the last space center site didn’t exist anymore either. He wasn’t really sure what to do now, other than wait for her to be free enough to meet up and decide what they should do next.

As the sun begins to set in the sky, although still high above the horizon, Hikaru decides it’s time to head back to the mainland of Tokyosaka to get some food. Just as they were about to board the ferry back however, Hikaru suddenly gets a text message from Celia.

“That means you guys are free right?”

“Can you actually come over to Shanghaijing instead of heading back home?”

“I think it would be better if we discuss the plans in person and…”

“I need some help.”