Disclaimer: El Hazard is owned by AIC/Pioneer LDC.  The author owns 
only the writing.

Rock and Redemption

Chapter 2: Earth

At school Hiashi was a pushed to the front through the crowd of 
students. It was time for Jinnai's impeachment hearing and Makoto was 
nowhere to be found. As he sat and prepared a written statement, he 
glanced at Jinnai's table. There sat the president of the baseball, 
soccer, and judo club, but Jinnai was strangely missing. "Is the 
prosecution ready?" the principal asked.

Hiashi was one of those people who always looked like they try to look 
decent, but for some reason never could. He had one of those tall thin 
frames which makes any set clothes look like the tailor was off by an 
inch. His hair was easily tangled. He could comb it at the start of a 
class and by then end it would look like he slept on it wrong. More 
often than not, he looked defeated and depressed as if he got half a 
night's worth of sleep. Yet despite all that was still friendly and 
helpful towards the other students. Those in the science fiction club, 
which knew him best thought of Hiashi as a survivor, someone who went 
to hell and back and would do it again if necessary. "Sir, our star 
witnesses is missing. I am, however, prepared to present our other 
evidence." He responded nervously.

"Proceed."

"Last month during the school council elections, Mr.Katuhiko Jinnai 
made several illegal deals with the people at the defendant's table. 
All are presidents of different clubs at Shinonome High. The agreement 
exchanged votes for increased funding. Makoto Mizuhara uncovered this 
scandal. These accusations have been confirmed by Nanami Jinnai and her 
camera crew. Additionally I am ready to provide audits of Jinni making 
good on his promise. Funding of the clubs which supported him have had 
their budget increased at the cost of those who opposed him."

"Has your missing witnesses left any written statement?"

"Yes, we have hardcopies of their statements made yesterday, hours 
before their disappearance."

The principle and the other members of the tribunal whispered amongst 
themselves. "Mr.Hiashi, we have already reviewed the evidence earlier 
today. In light of current events you case has been proved beyond all 
doubt." the principal said while standing.

"Which events?" Hiashi asked confused.

"A security camera recorded President Jinnai chasing Mizuhara with a 
rope. Unfortunately, an aftershock damaged the camera before it could 
see what happened. We believe Jinnai either kidnaped or murdered 
Mizuhara. Also we believe Nanami witnessed the event and suffered the 
same fate. However we have no physical evidence. Jinnai is presently 
wanted by the police for questioning. His actions have brought shame on 
our school. His title of president is hereby revoked he is now 
expelled. Katuhiko Jinnai is no longer a student at Shinonome High 
School!"

The student body cheered at this turn of events. Hiashi motioned for 
everyone to quiet down. The principal continued. "Mr.Hirogima, you and 
the other club presidents are also impeached. Since you were not the 
mastermind of this fiasco, you will not be expelled. But this will go 
on your permanent records and you are barred for any school sports. Now 
we have the current problem of finding a replacement president. 
Mr.Hiashi, you are the one who began this investigation. You have shown 
leadership and the other skills necessary for the position. Until the 
next election, you are the new student council president."

Again everyone cheered, louder this time. Several of his friends patted 
him on the back in congratulations. He managed not to reveal just how 
much those friendly slaps hurt. Hiashi found himself hoisted onto the 
shoulders of his club members and carried from the room. Hiashi felt 
like he was on top of the world. Only two things worried him, the fate 
of both Jinnais and Makoto, and Father.

It didn't take long for the thrill of being president to wear off. His 
first day as president kept him after school past sunset. First was all 
the papers and forms to fill out, then he had to work on repairing the 
damage Jinnai's term caused. Briefly he wondered how Jinnai dealt with 
it, but then he remembered Jinnai had stooges to take care of such 
menial tasks. It's not like he wanted the position. But ever since he 
refused to support Jinnai in the election, the science fiction club had 
no end of financial problems. The first draft of the annual budget cut 
his club's funding by over 75%. In the first week after Jinnai's 
election they were regulated to a dingy basement room. The TV and VCR 
for their weekly movie was mysteriously missing. Members were 
threatening to quit. A check with the computer and foreign language 
clubs revealed similar problems. Then Makoto came to him with what he 
heard. Hiashi only did what he thought was right, everyone else just 
flocked around him. Maybe they knew better. Maybe he did have 
leadership potential. "Of course it's more likely Makoto was pulled 
into an alternate universe." he thought to himself when a teacher and 
two police officers brought him the news.

His mother had just died. A hit and run auto accident on the other side 
of town. The police were investigating. They asked him if he knew why 
she was there? Hiashi said he didn't know, but it was a lie. It was to 
get away from Father. He had been getting worse lately, when the test 
scores put Hiashi in the 93 percentile. Father kept tearing up the 
fliers the universities were mailing before Hiashi could read them. 
Mother said she was going to leave him. When she was established in 
another town, Hiashi would join her. It didn't seem like much of a 
plan, but it was better than nothing. Now...now he didn't know what to 
do. The principal insisted he go home early to grieve, but he didn't 
want to.

He was commended for his diligence, but was told his father was here to 
pick him up. They rode in uncomfortable silence. Hiashi could see the 
anger in his father's eyes and smell the alcohol on his breath. Without 
another word they went into their small house. Mother had left early 
this morning and already Father had made a mess of things. Hiashi 
removed his suit coat when his father softly said, "You knew she was 
leaving me didn't you?"

"N-n-no sir."

"Don't lie to me you little shit!" his father said and grabbed him by 
his shirt. Hiashi inherited some of his father's looks and height but 
none of his father's strength. He also inherited a rare variation of 
lactose intolerance. Concentrations of lactic acid, which normally 
causes fatigue or even cramps at higher concentrations, were dangerous 
to his health particularly to his muscles. His body was unable to break 
down and dispose of it as well as it should. He could eat almost like 
everyone else since by the time the lactose reached his muscles, it was 
somewhat diluted to tolerable levels. However prolonged physical 
activity exhausted him quickly and had even caused bruises where his 
muscles damaged themselves from their own byproducts. When the doctor 
first told his family, he joked that contrary to the proverb, hard work 
could kill him, one normal week of blue collar labor and his body would 
self destruct. The doctor commented tongue in cheek that he would have 
no choice but to become an academic or a businessman and make lots of 
money.

This got his father upset. He was a laborer and felt his son should be 
too. But Hiashi's condition made it impossible for him to have the same 
kind of physically-demanding job as his father. All his life, Father 
berated him for it. Repeatedly he would try to make his son a 'real 
man', by making him work for hours then punishing him when he 
collapsed. Ap first it was just insults, saying he was lazy, but when 
biology kept winning, his father turned to force. As the years passed, 
Father got worse. The fact his son was going to be better than him made 
him jealous. He was used to solving problems with violence, so he used 
it. When it too failed to make his son more like him, his jealousy 
turned to anger. Soon Hiashi became the target for anything which made 
his father mad.

Mother tried to stop him once, but then he turned on her talking about 
the role of 'traditional' wives. Science fiction was Hiashi's haven, a 
means of escaping his dark reality. In a sad way, Father's actions 
helped Hiashi. Too scared to go home, he spent time in the library 
reading and studying. He first learned what he could about his 
condition, then when he realized it wasn't his fault and accepted who 
he is, he went into other subjects. His grades steadily improved until 
he was in the top 10% of his class. He was happier at school. Reading 
American books and watching American movies taught him fluent English, 
science fiction's influence gave him the creativity in writing and an 
appreciation for the real sciences. He would have left for a private 
boarding school years ago if he wasn't afraid of what would happen to 
Mother. But now she wasn't here. There was no one to protect. Hiashi's 
anger, pain, and frustration were released in an explosion. He 
regretted what he would say the instant the first word left his mouth. 
He knew what would happen, but it would have been easier to stop a 
typhoon.

"Yes she was leaving you! And so was I. You're a pathetic excuse for a 
husband, a father, a HUMAN! You hit me because I can't have your bulk. 
Well I don't want it! Your genes aren't a blessing, they're a curse! 
Unlike you, I think. I dream. I picture a world without you every day. 
Do you hear me, every day! I earn good grades, the other students like 
me. Today I became the student council president. And you never 
noticed. You never cared! You were too busy stuffing your face with 
noodles and cheap sake. I'm not putting up with your crap any more!" he 
rebelled struggling to get out of his father's grip. When he finished 
his piece, he succeeded in freeing himself. Not looking back he grabbed 
his coat and turned toward the door.

"You...fucking...ingrate!" Father said, grabbing Hiashi by the neck he 
violently turned him around and delivered a painful jab into his 
stomach. As his son gasped for air, he continued, "I gave you life, I 
tried raised you to be a real man. But you went and buried your nose in 
books like some goddamn lazy scholarly wimp. I work the steel mills. My 
father spent his life in a factory, making guns for our military. My 
grandfather was a blacksmith as was his father and his grandfather. I 
don't care what some doctor says, your blood is that of a laborer and 
you're going to get that through your dreamin head no matter what. 
You're gonna stop acting like you're smart and realize your rank. 
Starting tomorrow you're coming to the steel mill with me every day 
until you realize your fate of being just what a worthless grunt 
worker. The low class scum you were meant to be!"

Hiashi gasped for breath. The smart thing would be to agree, to keep 
Father from hitting him again, but he had gone too far to stop now. 
"...never...I'm better than that."

Father slapped him across the fact so hard, Hiashi fell over on his 
back, jacket flying across the room and landing near the door. "You 
snotty punk. You're never going to be better than your father. I'm 
gonna havta teach you just like your whore of a mother."

Hiashi started to pick himself up. He could see out the window into the 
night. A car passed by the house, its headlights reflected off Father's 
dented car. He hadn't noticed it before since the car was always in bad 
shape, but now he could see a new dent, a larger one as if he hit 
something bigger than a squirrel or dog. It wasn't so big as to be a 
horse or cow that left... "Mother! You killed her! You bastard, you ran 
over your own wife!" Hiashi accused as he tried to stand up.

The crack of Father's belt across his back was almost as painful as the 
blow itself. This wasn't the first time Father used the belt. It had 
happened too many times before. But Hiashi felt this time would be far 
worse unless he did something. He collapsed on the floor again. "I 
didn't mean to kill her, but she had to learn who was in charge! 
<CRACK> No woman leaves me! <CRACK> And no son is going to leave me 
either! <CRACK> <CRACK>"

Hiashi lost track of the blows, they were becoming one long, continuos 
strike. Unconsciousness was creeping into his body. "No," he thought, 
"If I black out now, he'll kill me." With a heroic surge of will, 
Hiashi rolled over and caught the next blow with his arm. The belt 
painfully wrapped around his forearm several times. He managed to pull 
it away from his surprised father. "You give that back and take your 
punishment like a man you asshole!"

With a scream of such ferocity which surprised even him, Hiashi whipped 
the belt at his father. The buckle raked across his face drawing blood. 
Father howled in pain as he fell down in pain and shock. Hiashi saw his 
chance and ran out the door, dropping the hated belt and grabbing his 
jacket. He ran into the night, to the only place he felt safe, 
Shinonome High.

He didn't get two blocks before he heard Father's voice, screaming for 
him to return and swearing like crazy. He kept running. Then there was 
the familiar sound of a rusting motor starting. Hiashi turned to the 
alleys, staying out of the lights, running on adrenaline on an erratic 
path to the school.

What seemed like hours later, he stumbled into the west wing. The quake 
damage was evident. No one was around. Stumbling past the police tape, 
fatigue caught up with him and he fell to the floor of a classroom now 
exposed to the elements. Soon his muscles would fail him. He could 
almost feel some bruises starting to form in his legs from all that 
running. He tried to stay conscious, straining his ears for that motor 
which signified the coming of his killer. Emotionally, spiritually, and 
physically drained, he fell asleep as his mind cried out in defiance.

He needn't have worried. Father never thought to look at the school. If 
his condition kept him from doing an honest day's work, it would keep 
him from a school that was two miles away. Besides, he never liked 
school so why should his son? It was that sort of logic which driven 
him to violence and he never realized it. After a few hours of cruising 
the neighborhood, he gave up and went to a bar in the bad part of town. 
There, after more than a few drinks, he thought he saw Hiashi defiantly 
walk in. Drunkness blurred his vision beyond belief. The only way the 
man resembled Hiashi was the color of his jacket. He started verbally 
assaulting his "son". "Hiashi" shouted right back using those big 
intellectual words the sake kept him from hearing. He had enough and 
threw his fist back to teach that punk a lesson. There was a pain in 
his gut then...nothing.

The other man turned over the body of the drunkard with the toe of his 
shoe. "Who was this fucker?" he asked.

"Just some scum, Wakashira." a tattooed man said with head bowed, his 
hands cleaning the red dagger.

"You did not need to interfere, he was no threat."

"He showed you disrespect, Wakashira and was about to attack. I did my 
duty."

The man smiled, "So you have, you are very loyal. Barkeep! Dispose of 
the body. No one will miss this one."

Hiashi heard a car engine and was awake instantly. The pain from the 
previous night was still with him and his muscles ached. He almost 
fainted again. Painfully he pulled himself up. It was almost dawn. The 
engine was louder, it HAD to be Father's. Without knowing where he was 
going, he left the room. The sound was growing faint but he could still 
hear it. But it wasn't an engine, Father's or anyone else's. A painful 
irony was that the quake dislocated a water pipe. The engine was 
actually the gurgling of water as it flowed from the pipe to the floor. 
He continued to move from room to room, the sound of the engine 
everywhere. When he stumbled past the tennis courts he saw something. A 
green disk and two figures, locked in an embrace sinking into it. 
Hiashi knew what it was instantly, a portal to another world. He read 
enough books and saw enough movies to recognize it. Seeing it as a 
means of escape, he threw himself at it, diving in a second after 
Makoto and Ifurita vanished. Portals like this were temporary. Father 
would never reach him, or so he hoped.

As he fell through, he saw planets, galaxies, stars, the pure wonder of 
it took his mind off the pain. At least he felt free of Father's 
terror. Where he wound up, he didn't care? This was the start of a new 
life. It might last a day, or a century but it would be his.