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

Rock and Redemption

Chapter 3: El-Hazard

Makoto and Ifurita rose through the portal an instant after Makoto left alone. Everyone 
was a bit taken by the suddenness. Fujisawa was the first to recover, giving Makoto a 
friendly slap on the back in congratulations. The princesses were happy Makoto 
succeeded, but nervous about having the dreaded Demon God with them. "So Ifurita, 
how are you feeling? Need a wind up?" Fujisawa asked.

"Much better, but weak. Being lost in time and space for one hundred centuries has left 
my power drained. Even with a full winding by Makoto, I don't think I'll be as powerful 
as I was when I was reactivated." she answered.

Fatora let out a sigh of relief. The Council of Nations would be pleased to hear Ifurita is 
no longer a great threat to El-Hazard. Rune took on a more somber expression and said, 
"Ifurita, the people of El-Hazard are grateful to you in your part to save this world and 
that you have a will of your own. But as such, you will be responsible for your own 
actions. Do you understand?"

Ifurita nodded as Rune continued, "Until we can determine the extent of your damage and 
determine your current power level, I am afraid you will be restricted to the palace. 
What's more the sanctity of the Eye of God must be reinstated. If you and Makoto are 
finished here, the I ask that everyone leave."

Makoto and Ifurita were the last ones to leave. "Makoto, as we were coming back, I felt 
something strange. It wasn't you or us or ... I don't know." Ifurita said.

"I felt it too. But it doesn't matter. It was probably nothing."

Hiashi was asleep in a glen. Sunshine, filtered through the canopy of trees, danced over 
his eyelids. A brook babbled softly near by. As he returned to consciousness, he could 
smell the scent of the wildflowers around him. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, 
he looked at his surroundings. "Beautiful." he murmured.

Slowly he crawled to the brook. Muscles cried out in exhaustion with each movement. 
After drinking his fill, he collapsed onto his back and let sleep take him.

At the palace, there was a small party celebrating Ifurita's return. The CN was invited to 
meet the new Demon God and maybe end some of their fears. Makoto just gave her a 
winding and she felt more energetic than she ever felt before. Merry music played in the 
background for everyone to dance to. Fujisawa took the opportunity to show off some 
steps he learned in the Alps and was currently holding center stage as everyone clapped 
in time to the music. One councilman noted Ifurita's expression and nudged his friend, 
"She hardly seems like the demon god of legend. Look at her, so full of spirit. If she has 
any of her infamous power left, I'm sure she'd use it to defend El-Hazard."

"I know, I see her and I cannot picture her wielding such terrible force."

But not everyone was happy. Shayla-Shayla leaned against a hallway in the shadow of 
the ballroom. That was it, her last hope of winning Makoto was gone. She knew it would 
happen long enough. Ever since she saw the determination in Makoto's face when he first 
started his quest. She knew he would succeed, but at the same time she silently hoped 
otherwise. Now Shayla-Shayla would have to settle for being Makoto's friend. That 
wasn't a bad thing, of course, but after she wanted to be more.... Still she felt happy for 
him. She wanted to be his friend. The regret she felt had diminishing dramatically after 
Ifurita returned. It was as if she realized her and Makoto were never meant to be. But still 
there was some emptiness and heartache. Love does that, even in the best of break ups.

"Priestess Shayla-Shayla!" Londs yelled as he ran down the hall, "There has been a 
Bugrom siting in the eastern forest."

Great! Something to take her mind off things. "I'll get right on it."

"Umm, shouldn't we also tell the Royal Champion?"

"Nahh let him enjoy himself. This sounds minor anyway."

"But---"

"Hey don't you listen? I said I'll take care of it!"

"Yes ma'am, but I have my duties."

"Well if I'm not back in two hours, go ahead, tell him. Why spoil his fun? Besides, if he 
leaves now, the CN will know something's up."

"But he should still be told."

"Look at him. I think he's drunk." Shayla-Shayla said gesturing to Fujisawa. Actually the 
former teacher was completely sober. Even with the wide range of alcoholic drinks at the 
tables, he restricted himself to juice. But at the moment he was doing a polka with his 
wife, a dance no one in El-Hazard had seen before. The band was doing a poor job of 
playing one so the result was easily misunderstood as being drunk.

Londs made a face at seeing Fujisawa move around like that and figured either he finally 
cut loose after being alcohol free for so long, or Fatora ordered him to drink so the guests 
will be entertained by his drunken behavior. "Very well Priestess."

Shayla-Shayla ran down the hall as Londs took her place watching the party. Fujisawa's 
actions didn't seem so haphazard now that he took a longer look. He ordered a guard to 
keep a look out for trouble. Shayla needed someone to take her frustration out on, but just 
in case she bit off more than she can handle, a good captain of the guards had a back up.

Over Floristica she raced, her butterfly-like fire wings propelled her at an astounding 
speed. Finding the Bugrom in the eastern forest was no easy task. Fortunately Makoto 
stumbled across this neat gadget early on when he was examining the Eye of God. It was 
a tracking device. Just give it a sample and it would find the biggest source of it. Right 
now it had a piece of Makoto's school uniform. It had dyes and fibers completely foreign 
to El-Hazard. Makoto long ago abandoned the uniform preferring a more scholarly 
wardrobe. But Jinnai, hah! As long as he was student council president, there was no way 
he would take it off. Last time they tangled it looked worn. She wondered just how much 
longer he'd wear that thing. Wait, there, a blip. Coming up below her. It wasn't moving, 
probably a trap. She moved up slowly using the sun to hide. There, that familiar shade of 
blue. It was a Shinonome High uniform all right. She was too high to make out the details 
or any Bugrom hiding in the trees around the glen. But one good fireball ought to bring 
them out. Jinnai was not one to use himself as bait. Shayla-Shayla chuckled to herself, 
"This is going to be easy." then shouted, "Die Jinnai!" as she lobbed a large red and blue 
fireball straight down.

Hiashi stuck his hand in the stream and watched the water flow over it. His body still 
needed time to recover, but he was getting restless. While the glen was beautiful, it was 
about time to go. He spent the past hour relaxing and formulating a plan of action. The 
simplest thing to do was to follow the stream. It was bound to flow into a river and a river 
means a city. After that, he wasn't sure. Hire on a caravan or a mercenary like he did in 
those role playing games. But there was the language barrier. Well, if he could master 
English, the local tongue shouldn't be that hard. He'd probably have to sell his school 
jacket and some other things for pocket money. His mind drifted to school. He wondered 
what everyone thought happened. They might blame Jinnai for his disappearance. After 
all, he took Jinnai's old job and led the charge to his impeachment. Hopefully they'll 
blame Father and find out what he did to Mother. Some justice at last. But then his 
thoughts were interrupted by a woman yelling "Die Jinnai!" from ... above?

He looked up to see a giant fireball headed straight at him. His mind cried out, "Mind to 
body, MOVE!" as the body was frozen with surprise. The call made it through at the last 
instant as he leaped out of the way. He could feel the heat of the attack and hear steam 
from the flash heated brook. Looking up he yelled, "What are you doing? What the hell 
did I do?"

Shayla-Shayla looked down. Damn bastard jumped out of the way at the last second. 
Now it looked like he was ordering his minions to attack her. But he stayed in the open. 
Well if he wanted to make himself a target, Shayla-Shayla was not about to complain. 
"Well I wonder how the bugs will react when I grab their mighty leader." she commented 
diving down.

Great, now his attacker was going to get up close and personal. Hiashi couldn't see the 
details lost in the sun and those weird fire wings. He was frightened. Was he fated to 
have people attack him for no reason everywhere he went? Options were few. The forest 
looked thick, no way he'd be able to run through that. His opponent had the home court 
advantage. Well, it's been a good life...no it hasn't. Most of his life was spent ashamed. 
Ashamed of what his father did to him. Ashamed of how he looked. Ashamed of his 
condition and what it had done to him. Ashamed of having to hide his pain from anyone 
who wanted to be his friend. Ashamed of how he was kept down by his shame. No more. 
If he was going to get killed, he was going to go down fighting. Anger and frustration 
built inside him. He didn't risk life and limb by defying Father just to get immobilized by 
some flying stranger.

The fire wings burst from his body. Orbiting and flowing around him in the same manner 
as the fire priestess. Hiashi looked at himself and thought, "This changes everything." He 
crouched down and leapt up at his attacker doing the Flaming Dragon punch from Street 
Fighter. "Finally," he thought, "all those tokens at the arcade are going to pay off."

At one hundred feet, "Jinnai" produced the fire aura like her. But how? Fifty feet, Shayla-
Shayla found herself on the defensive as "Jinnai" came straight at her in a counter attack. 
It was sloppy and obviously done out of anger, easily dodged. As he flew past, Shayla-
Shayla got a good look at him. This was obviously not Jinnai. His face was more rounded 
and his hair shorter and probably hasn't been combed in days. In fact, the only way he 
looked like Jinnai was the fact they had the same uniform. "Oops, I think I made a 
mistake." Shayla-Shayla said to herself.

Hiashi cursed himself for missing, but was determined to get the upper hand. He turned 
around immediately and shouted "Multi-fireballs!" and began throwing smaller fireballs 
like baseballs as fast as he could. He wasn't sure how he could do it. Forming the fireballs 
was almost instinctual. Now he could see his attacker was a young woman about his age. 
Hiashi was not one to discriminate against age or gender though. Shayla-Shayla 
concentrated on avoiding the fireballs. She rarely went up against another fire-using 
opponent, and only once against one using her own powers. "Great," she thought, "an 
Earther with Ifurita's powers." She reasoned he was probably upset with her about the 
initial fireball. But that was only a misunderstanding. If only she could make him listen.

The fire priestess charged, reenforcing her fire shield to absorb Hiashi's attacks. Her plan 
was to stop just short of hitting him, then get him to understand. But right before she was 
ready to stop, he dived to her right and vanished out of her line of sight. Shayla-Shayla 
looked around. Up, down turning around in all sorts of directions, but she couldn't see the 
stranger. "Shit! Don't tell me he can turn invisible too!" she muttered.

She was about to pull out the tracker and scan for Hiashi's uniform when she noticed the 
Bugrom in the distance. They had been attracted by the fighting. Looks like the Earther 
will have to wait. Maybe he would have calmed down by the time she found him again. 
She flew down at the lone Bugrom, unaware Hiashi was hiding behind her facing away.

He had used his fire aura to join with hers, linking them together. Streams of energy 
flowed from Shayla-Shayla's gems to corresponding points on Hiashi's body. Unless she 
turned her head or noticed how her fire streams were arched, he'd stay safely hidden right 
behind her. Hiashi smiled at his own cleverness, taking some comfort in his spur of the 
moment strategy. He didn't care for having his back to her, but anything else would give 
him away. Part of him wanted to continue the fight, but he noticed she hadn't done any 
obvious counter attacks after the first one. His rational side insisted this might have been 
a case of mistaken identity or some other misunderstanding. Staying hidden and 
observing her would reveal her true intent. All he had to do was stay quiet. But a yelp of 
surprised almost escaped his lips when she dove.

The Bugrom saw her and ran away. Shayla-Shayla followed. Her short fight with Hiashi 
and frustration at losing him got her angry and acting irrationally. The Bugrom led her 
into a larger clearing where a dozen of his kind lay in wait. Jinnai stood in the center 
laughing triumphantly. Shayla-Shayla looked around and said, "So if it isn't the big bug 
himself. So what brings you to the decent people of El-Hazard?"

"My dear Shayla-Shayla, still have a temper don't you. I came here looking for something 
but when I heard you, I saw a wonderful opportunity to eliminate one of the heroic 
priestess--huh? Hiashi? What are you doing here?!"

"The gig is up." Hiashi though as he broke his fire link and dropped down to the ground, 
turning in mid-air. "Jinnai. Everyone was wondering what happened to you."

"What! You were hiding behind me the whole time? Why you---" Shayla-Shayla said, her 
fire gems glowing brighter.

Hiashi was barely got two words of his apology out when Jinnai ordered, "Now! Get 
her!"

Several Bugrom, hiding in the bushes, revealed themselves and shot at her with their 
pistols. But instead of their usual ammunition, they shot out some green goop which 
covered her. Shayla-Shayla felt her fire aura flicker out and her strength leaving her. 
Unable to stay airborne, she fell on top of Hiashi who made a failed effort to catch her. 
"So now, what brings you here?" Jinnai asked as Hiashi got up.

Hiashi kept the barely conscious Shayla-Shayla upright by supporting her on his 
shoulder, "Oh you know me, I saw a portal in the tennis court, couldn't resist jumping 
through it."

"I see. Well as school president, I order you to join me in my conquest of El-Hazard." 
Jinnai demanded followed by more laughter.

"You're not president any more, Jinnai. You've been impeached."

"Huh? Me? Impeached? By who?"

"Actually, by me. You should have never pulled funding for the science fiction club you 
little despot. While you've been here playing King of the Ant People, I was telling the 
whole school what you did. Not only that, you're wanted by the police for the 
disappearance of Makoto and your sister. I've been elected president in your place. As my 
first official act as student council president, I am informing you that you are now 
expelled by order of the principal! Take off that uniform, ex-president Jinnai."

"I-I-Impeached? E-E-Expelled? The pride of Shinonome? By you? Errrrrrrrr! I'll have 
your head for this!" the vein in his forehead throbbed like it was ready to burst, "Kill 
them my legions!"

"Okkkkkay maybe this was the wrong time to tell him. But you gotta admit, it felt good." 
Hiashi thought as he turned on his fire aura. Nothing happened. Beside him, Shayla-
Shayla moaned slightly. The Bugrom, hesitating in fear of the fire, recovered when it 
didn't come. Jinnai said, "You fools, the goop worked. As long as she's covered in it, she 
doesn't have her powers. And if she doesn't have them, then he can't seem to use them 
either. Get them!!"

Hiashi knew a cue to leave when he saw one. While Jinnai was berating his followers, he 
took advantage of the distraction and ran off. Once they were out of sight of the Bugrom, 
he said, "I think there's a stream nearby. We can use that to wash this stuff off."

"OK. ... so you know him?" Shayla-Shayla asked weakly.

"Yeah, but he seems to be just as power hungry here as on my world. Hey, we're in luck."

The stream's course took it close to the clearing. Shayla-Shayla half fell into the water in 
the rush. Hiashi tried to help wipe the goop off her. "Hey watch the hands!" she shouted 
after a moment.

"Sorry sorry. Is that enough?"

She took a few deep breaths. "Yeah, whatever that is, its effect doesn't last long once it's 
gone. Just in time too. We've got company. Look out!" she warned seeing Gommo charge 
out of the forest.

Shayla-Shayla pulled on the cord to activate her powers, but was a second too late. The 
Bugrom, Margaret was coming in the other direction ready to sucker punch Shayla. 
Hiashi tried to warn her, but knew he would be too late. Instead he threw himself at her, 
knocking her down just as Margaret attack. It punched Hiashi in the back, a scar on its 
fist healed badly giving it a sharp edge which ripped his jacked along his spine. Shayla 
sent both Bugrom flying with a fire blast. Looking down, she could see a trickle of blood 
on the unconscious Hiashi's back. "Shit! Let's go." Using her fire aura, she managed to 
cradle the larger Hiashi in her arms and took off for home.

Jinnai watched them leave. Frustrated he began yelling at his Bugrom, "How could you 
let them escape? Now they're going to tell everyone about us being here. Now get started. 
That treasure is bound to be around here somewhere!"

Hiashi barely regained consciousness as Shayla-Shayla flew him to the castle. The instant 
his eyes began to flutter open, the priestess's fire wings began emerging from his body as 
well. "Looks like Jinnai was right for once." she whispered.

But then he fainted again, the pain too much for his exhausted body to handle. His fire 
wings evaporated. Shayla began thinking. She attacked him without provocation, yet he 
still risked his life for her like Makoto did. Only this time there wasn't an Ura to protect 
him. Not a lot of people did nice things for her. Usually her temper kept others away. She 
didn't mind, she could take care of herself. But seeing Miz and Fujisawa, Makoto and 
Ifurita got her thinking. "Woah! Almost flew right past the castle. Gotta keep my mind on 
flying." she said screeching to a halt.