Ishikawa Hideaki

[Stuffz]

At this point, childhood was over for Hideaki. He became Ozawa's personal assistant.
The boy thought that he was more of a slave though.
However, he was rather incorporated into the Ozawa family's life. He had his own small room in their house and was eating and having tea with the family.

The job was tough, and between that and sleeping he didn't have much time for himself.
And the worst of all, he had to endure it for a full year.
His father knew that keeping the boy at home all the time wouldn't do him any good, so he thought that working in another family's household would teach him a few valuable lessons.
And it sure did.

One of the first things he learned was that business life is not for him. He accompanied Ozawa to all of his meetings and found them annoyingly boring.
Being degraded to the simple errand boy didn't help either.
But at least that taught him another thing. Modesty.
He was not the beloved son and heir anymore. Maybe he was treated with a bit more respect than the average employee, but not by much.

Maybe this whole thing had the effect his father had intended, but it also changed Hideaki in a few more ways.

-=-

"Well, from now on I won't let him decide over my fate anymore. This has been enough.
I'm old enough to decide for myself anyway."

"And you're absolutely sure about that? He's your father after all."

The two young men were out in the garden of the Ozawas.
Hideaki and the eldest son of Kenji Ozawa, Takashi, became rather good friends over the course of that year.
And so, as the time for departure came close, Hideaki laid out his plans to Takashi for when he eventually came back to his family.

"So what? All he cares about is my usefulness for him. I'm sick of that."

The other boy sighed. "Well, you surely seem determined about this. Consider though, you might lose your inheritance."

"pfft. He wouldn't dare." Hideaki turned his face up to the sky. "From now on, I'll decide what I will do with my life."

"If you say so.."

"And I'll be up there. In space."