Chapter 976: It begins, laying down the setup
Itogami Island is far from peaceful. A certain news changed that…
"Due to an unforeseen change in the dragon veins under Itogami Island, citizens and residents will be evacuated over a week's time to prevent harm to civilian lives. After a week, an investigative force will be sent to address this dragon vein issue."
What is a dragon vein?
A dragon vein is another term for ley lines.
In some places, the energy levels emitted are so powerful that it's impossible for humans to compete with it. These reservoirs of spiritual power are derived from the ley lines that ran underneath the area. It's like a network of veins coursing with power.
Because dragon veins are very powerful, they tend to bless whatever is around them. Humans thought that building cities near or on dragon veins can lead to a prosperous metropolis.
Whenever someone discovers a land where dragon veins are present, the land would be occupied immediately for development purposes.
Itogami Island is constructed on top of an intersection of dragon veins.
It's still a subject of debate whether building cities on ley lines and dragon veins can lead to a bustling city.
However, it's confirmed that humans can draw energy from the dragon veins to help them execute spiritual arts and magic spells. Indeed, even complex spells, rituals, and rites can be performed with the help of dragon veins.
This is especially helpful considering Itogami Island is mainly a research base with research centered on demons and other magical races.
This is also why Itogami Island was built so far away from the closest landmass, it's all to draw on the dragon veins running below the island.
It's not just Itogami Island, other magic research bases are built on dragon veins too. Only those firms that are not conducting important research randomly chose a place to build their base.
Getting the blessing of the dragon vein is just one thing. The Foundation Gate's reinforcement magic is supported by magic power converted from dragon vein energy. If the supply of magic stops, the Foundation Gate will no longer be able to support Itogami Island.
After that, it's just a matter of time before the island crumbles and sinks into the sea.
Dragon veins are very essential to the island, no matter how small the problem is, it would be everyone's interest to investigate the disturbance in dragon veins.
The Itogami Island citizens accepted the news and they cooperated with the authorities to evacuate according to the schedule. They returned to their hometowns to chill and relax for a bit.
Wu Yan is very pleased with how things turned out.
The Lion King Organization is a competitor with the Management Corporation that runs Itogami Island. Natsuki also mentioned cases where Lion King Organization swooped in and stole her case. With the dragon veins as the excuse, Lion King Organization's activity shouldn't have flown past the Management Corporation so easily.
They have assault mages too, although they weren't on par with the Lion King Organization. If they can do it, there's no reason the Management Corp can't do the same thing. Even if they can't, they will find a way to hold on.
That's normally how the management acted.
Koyomi must have pulled some strings to get the Management Corp to play balls. Wu Yan secretly praised her ability to evacuate the citizens. Kotori pouted when Wu Yan praised Koyomi.
They are competitors because they tried to get the same benefit as the other party. However, when the objective becomes minimalization of damage, both parties naturally found the common ground to work together.
In Wu Yan's mind, Koyomi probably used some bargaining chips to get the citizens to leave the island. For Kotori, she can think of at least 10 ways to do so.
If it were Shokuhou Misaki who is the strategist, she can probably think of 100 ways to get everyone to leave.
It's just a temporary retreat, the island didn't tell them to stay away forever. It might mess up people's plan in the short term but excluding the super powerful mages and demons, all the citizens complied with this, whether they liked it or not.
All the normal and powerless citizens and demons already evacuated. There are also powerful mages and demons who stayed on Itogami Island.
It's not just mages and demons, a minority of humans stayed behind too, for instance…
"No! No! No!"
Nagisa covered her ears like she didn't want to hear it. The others were a bit fed up with her attitude.
"Nagisa!"
Wu Yan rubbed his temple, he tried persuade her one more time.
"The other residents here are already gone. You should follow them, what if something happens to you? Do you only want to run when trouble finds you?"
"Then why can Kotori-chan stay?!"
She puffed her cheeks with a sassy attitude. Kotori wasn't sure whether she should cry or laugh.
"Don't think just because I am a human you can look down on me. I stayed with my vampire Onii-san so I know a trick or two…"
"How about Kojou-kun and Yukina-chan?! What about Kanon-chan?!"
Nagisa pointed at Kojou, Yukina, and Kanon.
She leered at Wu Yan.
"Kojou-kun, Yukina-chan, Kanon-chan gets to stay, why can't I stay?!"
Because he (we) are not average people!
Wu Yan, Kotori, Yukina, Kojou, and Kanon silently shouted in their hearts, they never voiced their thoughts though.
Nagisa has demonphobia. She can't stand the presence and sight of demons excluding Wu Yan. If she found out her brother is a vampire, the sibling relationship between Kojou and Nagisa might change permanently.
As for Kanon, she was a human until she transformed into Wu Yan's familiar. In other words, she can be perceived as a demon, however, Nagisa isn't in the loop on this.
As for Yukina, she can be exposed. But, that would drag Kojou's identity into the picture.
Although they were sorry they had to do this to Nagisa, they can only omit the truth from her.
In Wu Yan's plan, Kojou, Yukina, Kanon, and Nagisa should stay away from the island. However, they saw Natsuki flipping out on Wu Yan and with Yukina's connection to the Lion King Organization, they more or less knew what transpired. The dragon vein issue also didn't work on them.
When they found out about Wu Yan's plan to rescue Natsuki, the three immediately offered their help.
Wu Yan reluctantly agreed to their requests. With their powers, they should be able to hold out against the prisoners within the Prison Barrier.
The problem lies with Nagisa.
In her eyes, since the three other humans can stay, it's not fair that she should be sent away from the island.
Nagisa also saw what happened with Natsuki. Wu Yan told her the story and that's when she insisted on staying.
Bitterly laughing, Wu Yan sighed as he faced the others.
"How about you guys accompany Nagisa and stay away from the Island too?"
The trio immediately shook their heads. Kojou appeared to be the one with the firmest conviction.
Natsuki is his homeroom teacher, she's also the one who protected him behind the scenes, how can he walk away when she's in trouble?
But, Nagisa…
"Nagisa…"
"I don't want to hear it!"
Nagisa stopped Kojou before he can talk to her.
"If you guys are staying, I am staying too!"
Nagisa stuffed her head in the pillow on the sofa, she didn't want to hear or stay in this conversation any longer. The others exchanged frustrated looks…