A/N: And so I've been invigorated by my work on my new story, Ripples in the Ocean (yes, pimping my own stuff, I'm despicable, now go read!), and Dark's attempt (she's not doin' so well, currently) at rewriting La Ragazza, to redo The Remix. Though I am thinking of changing the title… any ideas on what to change it to? Also, I seem to have fallen in love with present tense… sooo… yeah. Enjoy! And, much love to the 'Synonyms' option in MicrosoftWord for making this chapter possible. Unfortunately, this time, it's doubtful anyone will be able to escape the ANGST. For further notes, see the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21. Eyeshield 21 is property of Inagaki Riichiro and Murata Yusuke.
Summary: Sena never really knew what living was like until a certain devil dragged her into the light kicking and screaming. And she never knew what she was missing until she got it. And now she'll do anything to keep it that way.
Complicated Pairing Thingyie-Maijig: Agon/Sena, Akaba/Sena, Gaou/Sena, Ikari/Sena, Ikkyu/Sena, Juumonji/Sena, Kakei/Sena, Karin/Sena, Kid/Sena, Kisaragi/Sena, Kotaro/Sena, Kuroki/Sena, Marco/Sena, Mizumachi/Sena, Monta/Sena, Musashi/Sena, Panther/Sena, Riku/Sena, Rui/Sena, Sakuraba/Sena, Shin/Sena, Takami/Sena, Taka/Sena, Taki/Sena, Tetsuma/Sena, Togano/Sena, Unsui/Sena, Watt/Sena, Yamato/Sena, Yukimitsu/Sena, Hiruma/Mamori, Banba/Harao, Monta+Mamori, Monta+Suzuna, Suzuna+Sena
Kobayakawa Sena glances around apprehensively, searching for her friend. She's feeling more nervous about this than she should be, as she's been told many times. She risks a glance at the results but her fear overcomes her again before she manages to see anything. Objectively, she knows that she shouldn't be worried. She's studied hard for this, and the expectations of this school aren't that high. Honestly, Mamori's told her she could do better. But she still can't remember any of the test, and she still—
"Sena!" a female voice calls out, and Sena jerks, looking around wildly to see who's called out to her. "Over here, Sena!" the voice calls again, and Sena finally spots Mamori waving to her from in the crowd.
Sena jogs over to her friend and offers her a shaky smile. "O-ohayo," the azure eyed girl greets, and feels ashamed when her voice squeaks.
Mamori gives her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry," the redhead says, patting the younger on the shoulder, "You're really smart, there's no way you'll fail." Her eyes move back to the board that holds the exam results. "What was your number again?"
Managing a slightly more normal smile for her friend, Sena glances down at her ID card. "021," she tells the taller. "Oh, Kami-sama, I'm so nervous… you really think I did well?" she gazes hopefully at her friend.
"Yes," Mamori answers, "I'm positive." And she is. Mamori has known Sena for a very long time, known her for almost all of the younger girl's life. The brown eyed girl's been there to see her grow, to see her work hard, to see her improve through her effort. She knows how smart the girl she views as a younger sister is, and she knows that there's almost no chance that she's failed. In fact, Sena could have probably taken a much more difficult entrance exam and still passed. But no matter how many times she tells her this, it still doesn't seem to register.
With a small sigh, Mamori looks away from her friend and towards the board. She searches through the mess of numbers covering it, concentrating on the beginning where the highest scoring exam numbers are places. She finds the number she's looking for instantly, to her surprise. She's expected Sena to place well, but she hadn't expected… well, she hadn't expected her to place first.
"Sena…" she murmurs quietly, too quietly apparently, as the other girl doesn't hear over the cries of other passing students. "Sena! Sena! Look! You placed first! You placed first! First!" She's smiling so widely that her cheeks are beginning to hurt. The teen grabs the new first year Deimon student in a crushing hug. She feels tears come to her eyes as she thinks over how far her friend has come. Meeting Rikkun really changed her, she thinks, before letting emotion sweep her away.
"I… I made it?" Sena asks, unbelieving. She looks up at where Mamori pointing, her number proudly displayed first on the board. "F-first?" she shakes her head, "N-no, that can't be… it must be a mistake…"
"It's no mistake, Sena-chan," Mamori declares, affectionately throwing an arm around the teenager's shoulders, "and first in your class, too! I'm so proud!" She mocks sniffs and wipes away a fake tear. "Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised, you worked so hard for this and you've come so far… remember how terrible you used to be at school work? But you've gotten so much better now… and all on your own, too! Well, with only a little help from me," the redhead adds as an afterthought. Then she smirks. "Rikkun certainly left you a good impression, didn't he?"
Sena flushed a deep crimson, eyes widening and expression turning utterly mortified. "Mamori-nee!" she shrieks voice high, hands rising to cover her face in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.
Mamori chuckles and ruffles her hair. "Oh, no need to hide it," she laughs, "I think it's adorable."
She lets the subject drop with that, something for which Sena is incredibly grateful. She always feels strange whenever her old friend is mentioned, and her self-confidence lowers to depths even farther below her usual lows. Her face gets hot and her heart starts beating rapidly, and she becomes even more clumsy than normal. But even with all that, what Mamori said is true. Sena really does owe her progress to Riku. She would never have gotten this far if he hadn't taken her under his wing and given her someone to look up to.
Sena takes a deep breath and notices that Mamori is still speaking. "—and you'll be my kouhai again!" Sena sends a bright smile to her friend, nodding. It's something she's looking forward to as well.
"Anyway, Sena, I should go get you one of those information packets," Mamori continues, "wait here, I'll be right back." She turns to go.
"Wait!" Sena cries out, startled and frightened at the idea of being left alone in this crush of people she doesn't know.
Mamori turns, but only to call out a quick, "Oh, and congratulations!" before hurrying on.
Sena watches miserably as her friend disappears from sight, but makes no move to follow her. In this crowd, all she'd be able to do would be to get lost, and then Mamori would never be able to find her. She resigned herself to waiting and sat down on the ledge of an island containing several different kinds of plants, oblivious to the danger that was about to befall her.
She has a seconds warning before it's upon her and she manages a half turn and a step to the side before she's being lifted up into the air and she's never been so glad she to be wearing pants before. She was tossed up into the air several times before her feet are allowed to touch the ground again. She stumbles for a moment, dizzy, and then manages to look up and see her two attackers.
One is a demonic looking teen, with sharp teeth, white-blond hair, slanted beady black eyes, and pointed, double pierced ears. The other is a rather large boy with small black eyes, brown hair, and a head shaped like a chestnut. They're both wearing red, with white and black accents, football jerseys. The blonde's jersey reads the number one, and the black haired teen's jersey reads number seventy-seven. They look like they're older than her, and she concludes that they must be some of Deimon's second or third year students.
The demonic looking boy smiles in what would be a kind way on anyone else. When he does it, it just serves to make him look even more demonic, showing off his mouthful of pointy teeth. Sena shivers, but, stupidly, she doesn't run. His grin widens and he holds out a flip top cell phone. "Congratulations on passing!" he compliments, and even to Sena's ears it sounds insincere, "Here, you can use this to call your parents and tell them!"
Sena smiles uncertainly as she reaches out and takes the phone. "A-are you sure?" she asks. Her instincts are screaming at her that this isn't right, but she can't figure out why.
"It's fine!" the blond boy tells her, and Sena nods, and slowly enters her home number into the phone, unused to using a cell. She puts it to her ear and hears her mother's voice on the other end.
"Hello? Kaa-san? I pas—" is all she manages to get out before the cell is snatched out of her hands by one of the older teens and both of them are running off, leaving Sena to stare after them in shock and wonder what the whole episode had been about. She quickly forgets about it, though, when she spots Mamori returning.
Hiruma smirks and stops as soon as he and Kurita turn a corner and are out of sight of any of the freshmen. Quickly, he ends the call the black haired freshman had made and scrolls through the call log. He grins, quickly memorizing the last number called, then snaps the phone shut. Subsequently, from out of seemingly nowhere he pulls a mess of advertisements for different food businesses and restaurants, dropping them to the ground in front of him.
Behind him, Kurita nervously glances around the corner, panting from the effort of his short run, keeping a look out for any more celebrating new students.
From a too small pocket Hiruma removes several phones, and quickly inputs the numbers of four different restaurants from the ads in front of him. Simultaneously all four phones ring and each requests a phone number. Hiruma recites the number he received from the blue eyed new student.
Three out of the four people on the other ends of the lines ask if he's a new customer, but he gets lucky with the fourth.
"Kobayakawa-san!" the man greets, "Thank you for calling! Are you still located at 2-15-00 Hon-Machi in Amefuto City?" he asks, and Hiruma discards that phone as well, objective accomplished.
"Name, address, and phone number—got 'em!" he cackles evilly records the information in his Devil's Handbook.
Kurita winces. "It's scary how good you are at this, Hiruma," he comments, looking at the dark and ominous aura that surrounds his friend and teammate.
The older teen ignores him, standing, all the papers and phones disappearing back into… where ever they had been before. "Stop dawdling! Hurry up, Damn Fatty, I've spotted the next one!" he calls, and they both rush out to perform the routine all over again.
"See you at the ceremony, Sena!" Mamori calls loudly to her friend, waving as they exit the train station and part ways. Sena smiles and waves back as she heads off towards her home.
Sena feels happy, and it's been so long since she's felt that way that the emotion is almost completely foreign to her. But even that little fact isn't enough to dampen her enthusiasm at passing her high school entrance exam with the highest score of her year. Her step feels lighter than it has in years, and the joyful girl even starts to skip a bit as she nears her home.
She slows to get out her key and unlock the gate, noticing as she does so that the mailbox is overflowing. Curious, she gathers the papers and flips through them as she locks the gate behind her and walks to up the path. Every single piece of mail in the pile is an advertisement for the Deimon High Football Club. Sena feels very confused.
Sena unlocks the front door and enters her house, jumping when the phone starts to ring. She quickly places the mail on the table beside the door and rushes to pick up the phone before the answering machine picks up.
"Hello?" she answers, wondering how would call at such a time. It's probably for her parents, she thinks.
"Ya-Ha!" answers the voice from the phone, and Sena feels like she's heard the voice before, even through the mechanical tone that tells her it's a prerecorded message, "Join the football team! Power, speed and strategy! The triple foundation of the ultimate battle sport! Come try out for the football team! Join us, damn it!!"
She remembers where she's heard the voice now, the demonic looking upperclassman from that morning, and it only takes her a second to figure out how he knows her phone number. How he knows her address eludes her, though. Sena might be good at bookwork now, but she still fails at common sense.
The message starts to repeat, and she hangs up, feeling incredibly bewildered. In her experience, sports teams didn't try this hard to recruit players, and the older teen seems to be trying incredibly hard to get her to join his team, though Sena can't figure out why. She's also never heard of a team trying to recruit this early. The fact that the team for the only sport she knows anything about is trying to recruit her is another thing that mystifies her.
When she can't figure it out after several minutes of thought, Sena lets out a sigh and quietly give up. When the phone rings again, the girl glances at the caller ID and then disconnects the phone, making a note to herself to tell her parents about it when they get home. With that done, she climbs the stairs and retreats to her room to wait out the rest of the day.
Sena groans as she looks at herself in the mirror, gazing with dissatisfaction over her appearance. Large -unnaturally so, in her opinion-, clear blue eyes, rare for a person of Japanese descent, and even more unusual as a daughter of brown eyed parents, look back at her. Her unnaturally pale skin almost glows in glare from her florescent lamp, making her look sickly and even weaker than she is. The girl's small, slender form also frustrated her, making her a target to no end of bullies. And then, even without all those disfigurements, there's her uniform.
Somehow, when her school uniform had been ordered, something or someone had gotten confused, and the suppliers had ended up sending her not only a boys uniform, but one two sizes too large.
It's not my fault that my parents picked out a boy's name, Sena thinks despairingly. By the time they managed to figure out that there had been a mistake, it'd been too late. There'd been no time to send in for one in the proper gender. She'd tried to borrow one from Mamori, but her friend hadn't had any that didn't fall off her when she tried them on. So now Sena has to wear a boy's uniform until the girl's uniform arrives, which they said will be in about a week.
Well, she'll just have to deal with it and hope that no one pays enough attention to her to actually notice the change in uniforms. She doesn't want to be made fun of for something that isn't even her fault.
With a sigh, the small girl brushes out her elbow length black hair, swiftly tying it back with a movement that speaks of experience. She glances in the mirror again. She looks fine, she determines, not stunning, but not completely repulsive, either, especially not with her face and eyes covered by her lengthy bangs. As long as no one looks too closely, she should be able to pass as a girlish looking boy, and for now that's fine.
Sena walks to the door, grabbing her pre-packed bag and slinging it onto her should on the way. Her reaches for the door, but comes up short. She turns and dashes back to her desk, grabbing the shiny new cell phone of the top and letting out a pleased sigh.
"I can't believe I almost forgot this…" she whispers to herself. "It was a present for passing; after all… it'd be stupid to forget it on my first day." She lets out a small, little smile. She feels good when she looks at her first cell phone, she feels like she is finally growing up. Her smile fades when an accidental movement of her thumb brings up her phone book, reminding her that there is only one person who would call her.
Sena sighs again, dropping the phone in her pocket and walking down the stairs. She grabs the lunch she made after her morning run off the counter and walks out the door, calling a goodbye to her parents as she leaves.
"Ohayo!" Mamori calls out, a bright smile spreading across her face. Sena jumps slightly, then turns to face her friend, granting her a tight-lipped smile in return. "Ready for your first day as a high school student, Sena-chan?" she asks, teasingly.
Sena nods stiffly, barely listening. She's so nervous that it's getting hard to breath. Mamori notices her friend's discomfort and frowns. "Sena?" the younger girl doesn't respond, and the second years frown deepens. "Sena, wake up," she pats the girl on the back, "you'll do fine, I guarantee it."
Mamori's rather weak pat sends Sena's slim form forward about a foot. The small girl stumbles, but manages to remain upright. She looks at Mamori as if noticing the other girl for the first time. "Oh, o-ohayo, Mamori-nee," she greets shakily, but the other girl smiles, because she looks much more awake than she has since she met up with her.
"Finally awake, eh?" Mamori asks, and smiles at Sena's embarrassed blush. "Well, make sure you don't drift off again, and I'm sure you'll do fine."
They walk in silence for a few moments before Mamori speaks up once more. "This time, you really need to work hard to make friends," she declares, "It's practically your last chance, and first impressions are really important." The older girl turns stern brown eyes on her friend. "You can't let anyone bully you. If you just stand up for yourself and say 'no', they'll leave you alone. Bullies only succeed if you let them, they're really only full of hot air."
Sena shrinks at the repetition of a speech she's already heard many times before. She knows that Mamori only says it in an attempt to encourage her and make her feel better, but all it achieves is to make her feel like the bullying is all her fault. But she can't tell the older girl that, it would make her feel bad. So all she says is, "Yes," in a very small voice.
Mamori beams happily at her, and Sena cringes guiltily, unable to look at her friend. They're nearing the school now, so Sena chooses to look at the different posters requesting new members for different clubs instead.
Following her gaze, Mamori comes upon an idea. "Why don't you join a club?" she asks, and Sena looks at her in surprise. "Yeah, that would work! You could make friends and they could protect you if anyone tried to bully you!"
But what if they bully me? Sena wonders, but Mamori looks so pleased with her idea that she can't say it. So she nods and pretends to look over the flyers to hide her dejected expression.
When she finally turns back to the second year, Sena's surprised to see conflicting expressions on her face, like she wants to say something, but isn't sure if she should. She relieves her friend of the decision by asking, "What is it?"
Mamori looks at her, shocked, then smiles fondly. "You just know me too well, don't you?" Then she lets out a heavy sigh.
"Well, there's this one guy that I really want you to avoid. He's evil, and if he gets his claws in you, he'll never let go! Promise me that if you even think he's anywhere near you, you'll run away?" Mamori started out speaking calmly enough, but she seems to get more worked up the farther she gets into her speech, so that at the end she's grabbed Sena's shoulders and is shaking her.
Sena stares at her near hysterical friend in wide-eyed astonishment. She's never seen the older girl so worried. "Okay!" she agrees quickly, "I promise! But, Mamori-nee, you have to tell me who it is you want me to avoid…?" she questions gently.
A pause as the other girl realizes her lapse and blushes. "Oh, yes. His name is Hiruma Youichi, and I'm serious about how bad he is. I really want you to listen to me on this one and avoid him," she pleads, and Sena is surprised to find that she looks slightly desperate.
She gives her a reassuring smile. "I already promised, didn't I?" she asks rhetorically. She pauses, then to make sure she has it correct, asks, "Hiruma, right?"
Sena honestly doesn't expect the reaction that the sound of that name, voiced aloud, causes.
All movement in the immediate area ceases. A mere second later the screams start. Sena looks around wildly, backing up on instinct. She freezes when she feels a hand latch onto her sleeve, terrified.
When he starts to babble incomprehensibly, Sena takes off. She feels scared and cornered, and neither are feelings that have brought her anything but pain.
Sena idly packs up her empty lunch box as she glances through the flyers on different clubs that she'd picked up. She'd decided to take Mamori's advice and join a club, and the only thing left is to pick out which one to join. During the earlier break between English and Ancient Japan she'd gone around and collected flyers from clubs that looked interesting, and now she's looking through them.
Frustrated, Sena gathers the papers together and stuffs them in her bag. Even though she specifically picked out flyers for clubs that didn't involve sports, the flyer for the football club keeps jumping back into her mind, unbidden. With an irritated sigh, the azure eyed adolescent leaves the classroom.
There's still about twenty minutes until the end of the lunch period, so she has plenty of time to wonder around and familiarize herself with the campus. It takes Sena a while to find the library, always her first stop when she goes somewhere new, but once she does she's amazed. The library at Deimon is almost twice as large as the one at her middle school. The instant she sees it she knows she'll be spending most of her high school years in this place.
Sena spends a few minutes in the library before moving on. She'll have plenty of time for that later. Right now she wants to explore her new school a bit more.
She manages to find the school store (which is out of extra uniforms) and the changing rooms before her luck runs out. The first year had wandered outside to look at the school grounds, and she's up right on the edge of a group of delinquents before she knows it.
Surprised, as Sena almost has an ingrained sense for locating bullies from all the bullying she's been subjected to, and it's never failed her so drastically before, she backs up frantically. She's almost out of their sight when she trips over an empty can, falling backwards with a clatter.
All three look up, and, through her terror, Sena realizes that she recognizes them. They're students in her class; she'd noticed them during the introductions because they sat in the back. The blond one with the cross shaped scar on his cheek was named Juumonji Kazuki, while the darker blond with the orange glasses and the Shonen Jump was called Togano Shozo, and the one with shoulder length brown hair was Kuroki Koji.
Sena shivers in fear as the three smirk simultaneously.
"Sena-kun," the Juumonji drawls, and the shaking girl quickly identifies him as the leader, "How about you go grab me a sweet roll?" It seems like a request, but as a well experienced victim, Sena knows better.
Nevertheless, she tries to talk her way out of it. "But—" is all she manages to get out before she's interrupted.
"Hah?"
"Hah?!"
"HAH?!"
Sena's off by the time the second exclamation is voiced, slightly more than terrified by the bullies and her own unexpected behavior.
By the time she's back inside the school, it's only been three seconds. Why? she thinks hysterically, pushing on more speed, Why do these things always end up happening to me?
It takes her one minute to reach the school store and discover that they're out of sweet rolls, and slightly more time to return to her tormenters, burdened with the knowledge that they're going to blame her anyway.
Sena halts in front of the group, panting. "Th-they were o-out…" she manages to stutter, hands on her knees as she breaths heavily.
"Hah?"
"Hah?!"
"HAH?!"
Flinching back, Sena makes a move to run, wondering why she even bothered to come back, but Kuroki grabs onto the back of her blazer, preventing her escape.
"There's no way in hell you made it to the school store and back that fast, you dipshit!" Togano growls, kicking her on the back and sending her face first into the ground.
"Do you think we're idiots?" Kuroki shouts, slapping her into the ground just as the girl attempts to stand once again.
Sena closes her eyes as Kuroki pulls back his fist to hit her again, tensing for impact. "Wait," Juumonji says, and Sena dares to hope.
Only to have that hope crushed a moment later with the blond boy's next words. "Not here."
Stupid, foolish… Sena curses, even as the three boys search around for a suitable place to drag her off to so they can beat her up uninterrupted.
"Hey, how 'bout that empty shed over there?" one of the boys, Sena doesn't risk raising her head to tell which one, points. The other two turn to look, and wicked grins cross their faces. Even though she can't see them, what with her body being crushed into the ground due to the foot planted on her back, the azure eyed girl feels a shiver of terror run through her.
Location decided, the trio commence with dragging her towards the shed. Sena puts up a feeble struggle, but knows that in the end she won't escape this. However, struggling against them with words can't hurt her, so in the five minutes it takes them to drag her to the feeble, dilapidated shed; she proclaims her innocence, telling them that she had indeed managed to make it to the school store and back. The last 10 or so years as a minion haven't only given her a submissive personality, after all. In the end it proves useless, as the three delinquent first years refuse to listen.
Kuroki opens the door and throws Sena into the room, and she squeezes her eyes tight, expecting the floor to be hard and unforgiving, and bracing herself for that. So she's surprised when she lands sooner than expected, and on something that was, while not soft, certainly much more comfortable than a cement floor.
The girl opens her eyes and looks about the room. It's cluttered for something that's supposed to be abandoned. Possibly it's less unused than they'd thought. She can't help looking more closely at the mess, and in doing so she sees several football related objects.
"Is this… the football clubhouse?" Togano voices her thoughts, and Sena hazards a glance at the trio. They seem to have been sidetracked by the football equipment, Kuroki's even trying on a uniform and making ridiculous poses, but the dark haired girl doesn't want to risk moving and making some sort of noise that'll draw their attention back to her. So she waits, hoping, even though she knows it's useless, that they'll lose interest in her completely and leave.
The delinquent trio is in the middle of laughing at each other, free of spite, and Sena is seriously starting to contemplate escape when the door opens again, and there's a flash of light from the open door before it's blocked again by a bulky frame. Four eyes instantly snap towards the intruder, freezing. For a moment, all they can see is the large shape of a stocky boy, but then he moves, letting the light shine in again, and they can see his face.
The staring contest lasts for a moment, and then the teen opened his mouth. "You… you guys," his expression is fierce, and the trio of delinquents tense, "You're here to try out for the football club!" he exclaims, and Sena is shocked by the look of absolute glee that crosses his face.
"Hah?"
"Hah?!"
"HAH?!"
The reaction of theirs is starting to get predictable, Sena notices, and she wonders if this is a habit of theirs. The exclamation seems to calm them down, which Sena finds odd, as they don't immediately charge at the larger boy. The cowering girl takes a moment to observe him more closely, he looks familiar, but she can't tell in this lighting.
"No," dismisses Juumonji, and Sena can't help but admire the way he seems completely at ease in the presence of such a scary guy, "We've got no clue what you're talking about. Go away."
Kuroki starts to advance on the large teen, and Togano sneers at him. "Get lost, ya hear?" The brunet reached the teen and shoved against him, hard.
Surprisingly, the other teen doesn't move. Grunting, he increases the strength of his pushing. The other two stare for a moment, astonished that he's having trouble, before moving to help. Even so, all three of them together can't get the much larger teen to budge. "What the hell?" Juumonji manages to grunt out, completely baffled that the amount of strength they were using couldn't even move the boy an inch.
"Oh!" the teen exclaims, looking down on the three pushing against him, his expression estatic, "You want to be Linemen?" his grin is happy enough to be infectious, if not for the circumstances.
The delinquent trio doesn't respond, they just continue to try and add more strength to their pushing. The bulky teen continues to grin. "You're doing it wrong," he informs them, "When you come at a come at a blocker, you place the heel of your hand into your opponents' armpit and push," he advises. His grin widens. "I'll demonstrate."
His 'demonstration' sends all three freshmen flying back at least five feet. And it only stops at that because that because of the wall behind them. As the trio groans, rubbing bumped heads, the fiery light leaves the giants eyes and he rushes towards them, a concerned look on his face. "Oh my, are you alright?!" he asks, "I just got so fired up I went overboard!"
The three take one look at the approaching teen and hit the road. Kuroki strips himself of the football uniform he'd been trying on as the three flee around the corner. "W-wait!" the large teen calls after then, reaching out a hand as if to stop them, then letting it drop as they turn the corner. He lets out a sign and trudges back to his clubhouse, picking up the discarded uniform on his way. "I can't believe I scared them off…" he mumbles to himself, looking utterly dejected, "they were the first people who ever showed any interest…"
He enters the clubroom and Sena cowers back even further, hoping desperately that he'll leave without noticing her. Unfortunately, her movement causes one of the precariously balancing objects to fall, clattering, to the floor. He whirls on her, and Sena flinches again, squeezing her eyes shut and bringing her arms up to shield her head.
For a moment, he just stares blankly at her. Then tears of happiness start to run down his cheeks. "There's still one left!" he cries gleefully, and Sena opens one eye a crack to look at him. Slowly, sensing that she's not in danger but almost unable to believe it, the blue-eyed girl lowers her arms.
She watches, still nervous, as he rushes around the room, cleaning until there's a clear table and two chairs, as well as a teapot and several teacups. He picks Sena up and deposits her into one of the chairs and then starts a brew of tea, introducing himself as he does so.
"Hello! My name is Kurita Ryoukan, what's yours?" he asks excitedly, pouring out the tea into two cups when it whistles. "I'm so glad that someone's finally trying out for the football club! We started it last year, but we still only have two active members!" he babbles animatedly as he sits, adding several dozens of sugar cubes to his tea. He offers some to Sena, but she politely declines, disliking artificial sweeteners.
Sena remains silent for a moment, gathering her courage. "Ah… no, I'm n… not here for football…" she manages timidly, but at Kurita's utterly dejected expression she finds herself saying, "B…but m…maybe you could… convince me?" She curses her inability to speak normally when talking to strangers. Besides, this is football. Her favorite (though that is debatable, as it's the only sport she knows anything about, and only because Riku had once mentioned it to her) sport. She hasn't considered joining before… she's much too weak. Besides, Sena's a girl, wouldn't it be against the rules for her to play? But maybe she can join in an administrative position or something.
Kurita brightens up immediately. "Oh! I'm sure I can!" he exclaims, "Football is such a fun game!" He pauses, and a sudden frown crosses his face. "Ah, what's your name?" he asks, and Sena blushes, embarrassed at having forgotten such a simple courtesy.
"I'm Kobayakawa Sena," she manages to stutter out, "It's very nice to meet you."
"Likewise," the brown haired boy answers with a wide grin. He turns and unearths a tape from a pile of precariously stacked boxes as Sena looks on curiously. "Do you know anything about football?" he asks as he dusts off an old but well cared for looking TV set. Sena jumps at his sudden question.
"Um… a… a little," she admits, hands clenching spasmodically on her teacup. She wonders what Kurita's doing and shifts in her seat in an attempt to get a better look.
"Really?!" Kurita asks excitedly, smiling hugely when Sena sends him a timid nod. "Well, that'll just make this easier!" he exclaims, pushing the tape into the VCR and hitting the 'play' button with one large finger.
Sena wonders what the 'this' he's talking about is, and opens her mouth to ask. Then the TV screen flickers to life and her mouth goes dry. There are two teams of football players, one clothed in red uniforms and the other in green. Sena takes a gulp of air as a play starts and several players from the red team (which she assumes is Deimon, due to them wearing her school's colors) charge towards the green team.
"This is one of our games from last year," Kurita explains, voice hushed in a display of reverence towards the sport, "We lost, but it was still so much fun!" he exclaims, voice a mixture of regret and joy. Sena winces when a red player gets brutally tackled in the forefront of the screen. This was why she can never stand to watch full matches of the game on TV, no matter how much she wants to know more about football in her (rather childish and foolish) attempt to become closer to Riku.
He probably doesn't even remember me… and he certainly doesn't remember that one offhand mention… she laments in a not-so-rare moment of doubt, before jerking her train of thought back on track. Sena glances at the screen again, just in time to see another red player get tackled by not one but two green players, ball falling from his limp stretchers. She covers her eyes as an audio recording calls out for a stretcher. She only manages to lower her shaking hands when Kurita turns the TV off.
The older boy sits back into his chair heavily, and said piece of furniture lets out an ominous creak. "Well… I guess we won't even get to see the 'C' in the Christmas Bowl this year," he remarks mournfully.
Sena looks up curiously. That sounds familiar… "Christmas Bowl?" she asks, somewhat hesitantly. Kurita seems to be very nice, but a few minutes can't erase years of harsh and often brutal conditioning.
"Oh, yes, you wouldn't know, would you?" He smiles kindly at her, chocolate eyes warm, "The Christmas Bowl is the all Japan Championship game. Once a year, on Christmas Day—"
"—the best teams of the East and West face off," Sena finishes, the information coming back to her the more she hears. Kurita looks surprised at her interruption.
"You do know it?" he asks, and Sena blushes, embarrassed at letting her mouth get away from her.
"A little," she admits, nodding nervously and lowering her gaze to where her hands lay twisted together in her lap.
"It's really amazing," Kurita continues, and Sena glances up from under her bangs, "At the Tokyo Stadium, replays are broadcast on a giant screen TV!" He looks so excited that Sena can't help but give him a small smile.
His smile dims a moment later. "I know we'll probably lose, but I really want us to be able to compete! And we can't do that with only two players. But no one seems to want to join…" he mourns.
Sena averts her eyes in an attempt to give him at least a semblance of privacy. Her roving eyes spot a poster for recruitment on the wall. She looks it over idly and notices something she'd missed before. A small note at the bottom asking for applications for managers. She stares at the line for a moment in thought. Maybe… she thinks. But, no, why would they want her? But Kurita had said that no one wanted to join… and Mamori had told her that she couldn't be so passive… And it wouldn't hurt to ask. At least, no more than one of her daily beatings would.
"D…do you think… that maybe… I could be a manager?" she asks hesitantly, nerves causing her to shake slightly.
There is total silence as Kurita stares at her, shocked. Sena immediately starts spouting out apologize, only to be interrupted when the teen stands suddenly. "Really?! You would want to?!" he asks, and Sena nods, intimidated. On her response, Kurita sweeps her up and begins to swing her around, laughing happily all the while. "Of course you can!" he shouts gleefully, "Let's go for it! To the Christmas Bowl!"
Sena smiles to herself as she leaves the school, looking down at her phone. Lunch had been great, she'd managed to make a new friend (maybe, hopefully), and they'd even had time to exchange phone numbers before they'd both had to leave to return to class. But now her phone book is thicker, even if it's by only one name. She reaches the small bridge before the station and starts to cross, still oblivious to her surroundings. She knows that it's rather sad, but even that small fact makes her incredibly happy.
And because of that, Sena misses the fact that she's being surrounded until it's too late to do anything.
Sena is sent flying to the ground from the harsh blow dealt directly to her face. The brown haired girl lies in shock from the unexpected blow, one hand clutching her phone and the other raising to her injured cheek. Feeling around, she's relieved to find that nothings broken. She knows from experience how much a broken nose can hurt, and she doesn't want to go through that again anytime soon.
Finally raising her eyes, Sena sees the three delinquents from lunch sneering down on her. The black haired one smacks a baseball bat menacingly against his hand, while the darker blond quietly closes and pockets his manga one handed, his other hand holding Sena painfully in place. The platinum blond cracks his knuckles and glares down at her.
"We've been waiting for you, Sena…" he tells her, voice sickeningly sweet, tone completely at odds with his expression. "You know that Fatty, don't you?" he asks, and the small azure-eyed girl begins to shake, "Now, if you tell us where we can find him, there'll be no trouble," he offers, but Sena has enough experience to be able to tell that there'll be 'trouble' no matter what she says, even when she's as dazed as she is.
Kuroki glances at Juumonji, suddenly looking nervous. "Are you sure one bat is enough?" he asks, swinging the bat in his hands around more from nervousness than anything else. Sena dislikes the intense familiarity he displays when handling it, and just the sight is enough to bring back some unpleasant memories from some of the worst beatings of her life.
"Oh, I'm positive," Juumonji smirks, fingering the cross-shaped scar placed upon his cheek. "One'll be more than enough, because I've already called the police." From the other two's surprised looks, Sena concludes that they have as much of an idea of what's going on as she does.
"The police? 'Monji, are you sure that's such a good idea?" Togano asks hesitantly, as if he fears that his friend has gone insane. Kuroki nods in agreement.
Juumonji grins evilly. "It's fine, we just have to get the Fatty to fight with us. Then, when the police come, we can tell them that he started the fight and attacked me with the bat, giving me this wound," he gestures towards the scar on his cheek, "He's in the football club, right? Getting in a fight that gets him arrested will prevent him from playing in any games, won't it?"
The looks on Kuroki and Togano's faces turn down right evil as the realization of their friend's plan comes to them. Sena tries to suppress a shiver as the three turn on her, but fails spectacularly. "Come on, out with it! Where is he?!" Kuroki, who seems to be the most excitable of the trio, demands, leaning forward and gesturing with the bat threateningly. Mean while, Togano increases the pressure bearing down on her shoulder, forcing her to wince in an instinctual attempt to escape the increasing pain.
She really, really, really doesn't want to get hurt (Sena can't even express in words just how much she doesn't want to get hurt)… but she can't do what they're asking. She can't give up Kurita, the first real friend she's ever made on her own, to these bullies. She has no idea what they want, but whatever it is, it can't be good. She knows that she can handle the pain she'll get from refusing them, she's done it before, but she doesn't know if she can handle what she'll feel if she gave Kurita up and something happens to him.
Slowly, Sena raises her head and looks all three bullies directly in the eyes. It takes all her courage, and she almost doesn't manage to get the next words out. But she has to say them. They're important. "I refuse…" says, and winces at the shocked silence that follows. This is going to hurt so bad. "I don't know where Kurita is, and even if I did, I would never tell you." She puts as much vehemence into her words as she can.
The three look surprised, but only for a moment. A second later, they're grinning again. Kuroki swings the bat a couple of times, while Togano's grip tightens even further and Juumonji cracks his knuckles. "Well, we'll see how you feel about that after a couple of hits," he says cruelly.
Sena whimpers and cowers back, trying to make herself a smaller target. She doesn't even try to escape or fight back. She knows that even if, impossibly, she manages to escape, it'll be useless. If they don't manage to catch her again immediately, they'll be able to find her again later on. After all, they go to the same school. She can't stay home forever, and even if she gets away this time, next time will just be even worse.
Sena is so absorbed in her attempts to lessen the pain to come, that she doesn't notice when Togano spots her cell phone, nor does she notice his interest in it. She does, however, notice when he grabs it out of her hand.
"Hey, 'Monji, look at this," Togano says, smirking, holding the cell high and out of Sena's reach, easily preventing her from grabbing it as she mindlessly jumps for it, completely forgetting the reasons she was listing just seconds ago about why she shouldn't even attempt to fight back. He tosses the phone to Juumonji, who catches it easily. He flips it open and thumbs through the contacts section, making a small noise of approval when he finds what he's looking for. "Kurita Ryoukan… that's definitely him," he says.
"Hey, he's even got a girls number in here!" Kuroki exclaims, looking over Juumonji's shoulder at the phone.
"Well, it'll be easy enough now that we've got his phone number," Juumonji says, "And why don't we get the girls number while we're at it?" he smirks at Sena, who struggles even more at the sight, "It might even come in… handy."
At those words, Sena goes cold, an unfamiliar emotion running through her. Before she even knows what she's doing, she's broken from Togano's hold and is jumping at Juumonji, a fierce snarl on her lips. She has no idea what the three plan on doing with Mamori's phone number, but if it's anything like what they plan for Kurita, it can't be good. She can't let anything bad happen to either of them, her only two friends, not if she has any chance of stopping it.
Sena lands on Juumonji and reaches for her phone, only to find her hands occupied with pushing his own away. Sena doesn't even hesitate to sink her teeth into the hand holding her phone, biting down viscously. The moment he lets go, she grabs the falling cell in her mouth and jumps onto the rail of the bridge, bursting into a run the moment her feet touch the metal.
As Sena sets off, she hears the blonde's scream of pain, but she hasn't gone even ten meters before he's recovered. She's jumping off the railing and onto the street when she hears, "After him! Don't let him get away!" there's the sound of running feet, then the same voice shouts, "Split up and cut him off at the station!"
Sena races as fast as she can, skidding dangerously around corners, in an effort to reach the station long before the delinquents do. She's almost there when she risks a glance behind her. Seeing nothing, she quickly turns back around, only to slide to a halt when she sees a crowd of people suddenly spreading out in front of her, too many to go through. She glances around, searching desperately for some way to get by.
Hiruma walks out of a convenience store and into the crowd. Fuming over the poor selection of gum, he almost doesn't notice the commotion across the street.
Giving the shop behind him the evil eye, Hiruma turns to walk away, pausing when he spots a familiar figure. Narrowing his eyes, he studies the boy, and almost instantly it comes to him. Ah, the first kid we scouted… he remembers, and looks closer when he notices how panicked the kid looks.
Blowing a bubble of gun and subsequently popping it, Hiruma decides to wait and see what happens next, wondering in the back of his mind if he's only wasting his time.
Sena looks wildly from side to side, desperately trying to figure out a way to escape the harsh beating that gets closer and closer with every second she waits. Should I hide in the crowd? She wonders, looking the mass of people over. She discards the idea a second later, realizing she'll get crush the instant she tries. Take a detour? She ponders that idea for a second, but then rejects it as well. Whatever I do, they'll still be waiting for me at the station… Sena clenches her hand around her phone, wondering what she should do.
"There he is!" a voice shouts from close behind her, and Sena jumps. She thought she'd had more before they'd catch up to her, but apparently not. She clenches her fists even harder and feels resistance. She looks down and is surprised to see her phone. She'd forgotten she was holding it. But just seeing it reminds her why she's doing this. She's doing it so that those three don't get their hands on her friends.
Determination renewed, Sena crouches down, entering the stance that will allow her to use her only talent, the skill Riku taught her, the only thing she can do. Her face sets into a determined expression, and she sets her feet firmly against the pavement. Before her, the crowd that seemed so impossible to pass just seconds earlier looks as easy to get through as a breeze. She takes a deep breath. She can do this.
Kuroki approaches behind her, hands already reaching out for the grab, certain that she's already in his grasp.
And then Sena takes off, leaving the dark haired boy behind her to grab at empty air, eyes wide at the unbelievable speed of the small teen.
Sena darts through the crowd, swiftly turning left or right to avoid the people in front of and around her, always moving forward to the next open space. She's so concentrated on avoiding hitting anyone that she doesn't even notice the shocked people she leaves behind her.
Hiruma watches, astonished, as the teen runs right past him, stirring up a small wind behind him. He's so shocked at the speed that it takes him a second to react. He's moving before his brain makes a full connection, using a little known shortcut to the station to get ahead of the kid.
Pausing on top of a wall to look down, he gapes in shock at the raw talent he sees. The sheer beauty of the cuts the teen is performing astounds him. In his opinion, the kid should be playing football with that sort of ability, not whatever sport he's playing, because there's no way someone with that speed isn't playing some kind of sport.
Well, he'll take care of that. He can't let someone with such an ability go. No matter what kind of blackmail he has to use to get them, Hiruma will get this runner on his team.
A/N: Another place holder, as I wanted to get this out by Christmas. Also, this is chapter one, part one of 4.