Number One: She Asks Me Why
It was a normal Wednesday afternoon. Yoichi Hiruma had pushed Sena Kobayakawa to his limit at team practice again; Ryokan Kurita beat his 40-meter dash record (6.1 seconds, baby!); and Mamori Anezaki cleaned up the football team's room. Yep, the Deimon Devil Bats were acting as normal as they usually did.
Sena was so exhausted that fell off of the bench on the sidelines of the football field. His camcorder fell from his hand, hitting the emerald grass softly. His black hair ruffled in the soft wind. Hiruma looked away from his black book and turned to Sena.
"You're such a klutz," Hiruma shrugged. "You have to run the 40-meter again today. You didn't do well earlier."
"Can I just go home?" Sena mumbled. Kurita began to do ladder exercises, not noticing Sena's pain.
"No," Hiruma answered bluntly, running his hand through his spiky blonde hair. "You can't just give up, you know. You're the Devil Bats' ticket to victory! So get out there and do something, damn pipsqueak!"
Mamori walked out of the football team's room, carrying an empty box to the trash bin. She had an irritated look on her pretty face, and Sena knew that she was getting angry, and was probably going to yell at Hiruma. She was the only one at Deimon High School gutsy enough to stand up to him. Everyone else had some nasty secret that Hiruma could reveal to the world. Mamori was pretty clean in that respect. Either that or Hiruma could care less. Sena tended to think it was the latter.
"HIRUMA!" Mamori yelled. "WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY EMPTY BOXES! IT'S POINTLESS!"
"You can never have too many empty boxes," Hiruma frowned, going back to his black book and ignoring Mamori. That book contained so much information about everyone at Deimon High School that it was mind-boggling. HOW Hiruma knew so much about everybody, no one could figure out.
Mamori crossed her arms haughtily. She hated Hiruma, and had since she first met him.
Mamori was jerked out of her anger by the presence of a teenaged boy walking towards her. She pulled a strand of auburn-red hair out of her face to get a better look at him. He had black hair that reached his neck and a slim figure. His blue eyes darted around nervously, as if he was afraid of something. Mamori smiled.
"Can I help you?" Mamori asked. "You look a bit lost."
"Is that the football team over there?" The boy pointed over to the field, where Sena was watching Kurita do some ladder drills.
"Yes, it is," Mamori nodded. "I'm Mamori Anezaki, part of the administrative team in charge of the Deimon Devil Bats."
"I'm Moto Hanada," the boy introduced himself. "I want to join the team, actually. I'm a first-year student. Where's Yoichi Hiruma?"
"He's…"
Mamori looked over. Hiruma had gotten mad at Kurita and was starting to kick him, spouting expletives and babble. Sena backed away slowly, trying to avoid Hiruma's gaze.
"…Over there, but he's getting ticked off. I wouldn't bug him now…"
"Whatever," Moto smiled, and he walked right towards the danger zone. Mamori tried to voice some dissent, but it was no use. This Moto kid was rather determined. Mamori said a small prayer of intervention before looking over to see that Moto had reached Hiruma.
She didn't hear much, but she saw Moto say something to the three of them. Sena shook his hand and presumably introduced himself. Hiruma stopped beating up on Kurita and got completely in Moto's face. Kurita tried to do something about that, but he didn't quite succeed. Moto got slightly flustered by Hiruma's attitude and mumbled something back. Kurita got very happy and threw Moto in the air (which wasn't so hard to do – Kurita was very strong). Moto grew extremely pale, and Hiruma kicked Kurita in the stomach to get him to stop throwing Moto. Sena jumped back and said something. Hiruma answered him very coldly before turning to a shaken Moto and asking him something.
Moto walked over to the bench that Sena had fallen off of moments ago and rustled through a box underneath the bench. Hiruma, Kurita, Sena, and Mamori watched Moto carefully as he pulled a football out of the box. He walked back over to Hiruma and gave him the ball, telling him something that Mamori couldn't hear. Moto took a few steps backward and watched as Hiruma threw the football – hard AND fast. Moto ran after it and caught it with one hand, amazingly subdued and spot-on. Moto threw the ball back at Hiruma, just as fast as Hiruma had thrown it. Hiruma caught it, smiling wickedly.
"You're pretty good at this," Hiruma yelled at Moto.
"Thanks," Moto yelled back. "I want to play with you guys! Can I?"
Kurita jumped up in the air happily before tackling Moto. Moto was nearly crushed. Mamori covered her mouth in shock.
"Kurita…" Sena protested before Kurita got up and grinned at the severely rattled Moto.
Mamori looked around before realizing that Hiruma had disappeared. She bit her tongue, wary of what might happen.
A giant explosion rattled the school. Moto looked positively frightened now. Mamori turned around to see that Hiruma had a rocket launcher on his shoulder. Of course, Hiruma had no idea how much commotion a rocket launcher would cause at a high school. (Hiruma had no idea how much commotion his persona caused, either. Oblivious freak.)
"Ya-ha--!" Hiruma cried. "New teammate!"
Mamori clenched her fists. "HIRUMA, THAT'S -!"
Mamori's cell phone began to ring. Her overcoat pocket began to vibrate with the steady beeping and electronic melody. Mamori stopped yelling and looked at the number. Moto was being tossed in the air again, but Mamori didn't see that.
"Hello?" Mamori greeted. A voice at the other end that sounded particularly girly giggled out a welcome. Mamori smiled.
"Ah, Umi-chan," Mamori smirked, "what's up? Why are you calling so late in the day?"
Hiruma went back into the football team room to put away the rocket launcher (where it went, only Hiruma knew). Mamori wasn't paying attention, because what Umi-chan was saying on the other line was near amazing.
Moto fell to the ground with a thud. Kurita had forgotten to catch him. Sena pulled Moto upward and began to tell him all about what typically happened at a normal football practice. Mamori saw Moto's face grow confused with each statement, but she was too mesmerized by what Umi-chan was telling her to care.
"Is it true?" Mamori asked incredulously. "That seems impossible!"
Umi-chan giggled again before becoming calmer and telling Mamori that it was just a rumor, but it seemed like every girl was taking it for fact. Mamori began to giggle.
"No way," Mamori grinned widely. "That… woah. Just…" Mamori's giggle became a full-blown laugh. Sena noticed how hard she was sniggering and walked over. Moto, who now looked as if the slightest thing would set him over the edge, followed. Kurita was celebrating the addition of another player, but hopped over anyway. Hiruma was still in the football team's room, probably yelling about how he couldn't find anything with the room so clean.
"I'll talk to you later…" Mamori laughed. "Yeah. Okay. Bye…"
Mamori hung up, but she was still laughing. Sena looked a bit lost.
"Mamori," Sena asked, "what's so funny?"
Mamori put her phone away. "My friend Umi-chan… she was telling me about this rumor that's going around…"
"Is it something embarrassing?" Moto asked. Mamori noticed that his voice was rather mellow. Moto looked kind of small for his age, and sometimes he sounded like he was about to go through puberty.
"Oh yeah," Mamori beamed. "Apparently there's this girl who… hah ha… oh my God… yeah, well there's apparently there's this girl who likes Hiruma!"
Silence…
…until Sena let out a stifled laugh. Moto smiled widely, looking away from Mamori. Kurita blinked.
"Why?" Kurita asked. "He doesn't seem like the type of person any girl would like…"
Moto still looked dumbstruck. "He doesn't appear to have any redeeming qualities… maybe his utter recklessness, but that's not really a redeeming quality… that's actually not even a good quality…" Moto began to ramble incoherently.
"Who?" Sena asked. Mamori stopped laughing for a few seconds.
"I have no idea," Mamori admitted. "That's what Umi-chan was saying. No one knows. There was apparently something carved into the door on one of the stalls in the girl's bathroom…" Mamori continued laughing. "But seriously… why? Why would anyone like Hiruma?"
"Kurita seems to like me fine."
Hiruma was back, apparently. Mamori jumped backwards. Moto's eyes shifted around before he ventured a question.
"How long have you been there?" Moto inquired, his face palling rapidly.
"Not very long," Hiruma admitted. "But really though… what was Mamori talking about? It sounded amusing enough…"
Hiruma was scary enough when he was yelling or giving orders, but Sena thought that when he was just talking like a normal person, he was creepier than humanly possible. Sena turned to Mamori, who seemed unperturbed. In fact, she was still laughing.
"My friend called me," Mamori said through giggles. "And she -!"
"Okay, so Mamori has a friend. Wow," Hiruma rolled his eyes. "Your cover-up SUCKS, damn manager."
"Don't call me that," Mamori frowned. "Apparently some girl likes you."
"I've never had a friend outside of football," Hiruma blurted out, rustling through the equipment box. "I'm sure as hell not gonna start now." It appeared that he really didn't care… or was more oblivious that previously thought.
"I think you're missing the point," Sena groaned, his head drooping.
"No," Moto said, "she means that there's a girl that REALLY likes you."
"Oh," Hiruma replied, not looking up as he dropped a stopwatch onto the bench. "That's good."
Kurita swallowed nervously before turning to Sena. "I don't think he cares."
"Neither do I," Sena shrugged, just as nervous as Kurita. Mamori was still giggling. Moto looked completely flabbergasted. (And why wouldn't he be? You have this giant, overly enthusiastic blocker; a rather violent, indifferent quarterback; a mousy, passive team manager; and a normal girl that really didn't belong there.)
"DAMN FATTY, GET OVER HERE!" Hiruma yelled. "YOU TOO, NEW GUY!" Hiruma stood on the sideline, waiting impatiently. "40-meter dash! COME ON!"
Moto, not knowing what else to do, ran over to where Hiruma stood.
A/N: I hope you guys like this story. In other sections of the site, I am known for my patently bizarre brand of fiction. (Just click on my penname to see just how weird I really am…) This has to be one of the weirder ones, trust me… it may seem normal now…
A/N 2: It may seem like I've only read up to Volume 2 of Eyeshield 21. I have read up to Volume 5, actually. The story only STARTS near Volume 2… see, I'm writing one of those progressive stories…
Disclaimer: I don't own Eyeshield 21. Whoever said they'd make the story focus less on Sena, I agree. I WOULD play up the Mamori/Sena pairing, however… (babbles on)
