Hey, people! I'm new to writing fanfiction, but not to this website. Heh. So for right now I'm sticking with oneshots, and this is a dry test run, so tell me what you think. If you look at the bottom-ish of my profile, you'll see this self-contest thing.
I don't know Eyeshield 21:
"A Little Piece About Life"
It all started when he was nine. It was what sculpted him to be the way he was now. It would be four years--almost five--before someone found out. It would be seven years before someone else would finally get him to call the police. It would be seven years before it ended. There was no real reason for him not to let anyone know; just every time a person was about to find out, he'd panic and go on defense. It was almost really, that his team was purely offense. He was himself was purely attack attack attack. But then again, it was an escape from reality.
***
Some times, though, he couldn't stop reality to come crashing back. After all, what ever goes up must come down. Most nights, if Hiruma was actually home for once, they'd just eat dinner together in complete silence like nothing ever happened. Then, of course, there would be the bad days, and he'd go to school covered in bruises. Other times, it just got so bad that he'd skip. A teacher asked about it once. He was about to tell, but just a lame excuse came out instead. The teacher looked doubtful said that if he ever needed help, that she was there to listen.
It was after being asked that he taught himself how to lie.
***
Hiruma didn't see his life in years. He saw them in stages. The first one was when he mom was alive and that ended at the age of eight. Then there was the nothing stage, but that ended when he found that small hole in the fence. If he'd been any bigger than he was, he wouldn't have fit. But he was small and skinny and his body slid through easily. It was there that he saw the greatest game ever played. At the time, he never thought in a million years that one day he'd be part of that same game. When they caught him though, that was when the next stage hit. In that stage, he learned what winning felt like. And he liked it. He memorized the game of Texas Hold 'Em after watching it once, and he only lost two games in all the time he played with them. He actually felt like he had friends.
***
Kurita was the first one who didn't automatically label him as a bad kid. Most people thought he was the type of person who would smoke and drink, but he'd never done either of those. Kurita on the other had hand, never thought that way. He made it his mission to get Hiruma to play American football with him. He was so persistent about making him his friend. Besides the people at the military base, Hiruma never had a friend before. And never one his own age. It scared him shitless. He gave in eventually, and he was glad he did. Kurita always did what people asked for him, so Hiruma just tried to make it easier for him. The threat book wasn't only for his personal gain; it was to help his new friend too.
***
He lived in a nice apartment with his father. He'd lied to Kurita about that, too, along with hundreds of other things. He still felt bad about it. The money he won from gambling was hidden under his bed where no one could find it. One thing he hadn't lied about was keeping it because he liked winning. He was also keeping it for college just incase he didn't get a scholarship. He had the perfect grades, a perfect GPA, but he saved it anyway. He wanted to get away. That part he left out.
***
When he first met Musashi, his next friend, he'd told him that his dad was a doctor. Though he bullshitted the speech (the worst on-the-spot lie he ever told), he hadn't been lying. Musashi didn't believe him at the time because no one did. He was shocked when he found out it was true. Hiruma always lied. And even when he didn't, he left details out. That's what Musashi and just everyone else who met him thought. People didn't like to believe him. What most people didn't realize was that more than three quarters of those lies were half true.
***
He never let anyone call him Youichi. Almost all of the Devil Bats, new and old, asked him why at one point. But it was always Hiruma. Teachers and other kids used to call him by his his real name. So instead, when he hit middle school, he managed to tell the teachers to just call him by his family name. His dad called him Youichi, so he stopped other people from doing the same. Since then, only a few people still did. In truth, that name wasn't even associated with him anymore. No one realized he was the same short kid with the black hair who rarely ever talked. Not even his friends did, and he was fine with that.
***
It was a Tuesday, halfway through summer break, that it got bad enough that he left the house at one in the morning. He'd always thought the worse one was when he was eleven, and his wrist got snapped. He never dreamed that it would leave him that scared. But it was a Tuesday, halfway through summer break, that he was proven wrong. No broken bones, just a bunch of bruises, but he was terrified. It was because of that he learned to never hit back.
***
American football with Kurita and Musashi was the perfect way to hide. No adults ever become suspicious anymore, because he had a reason, so he just went with it. And it was fun, he realized, and he got good fast. It felt nice, really, having people who he could play the game with. Yes, he was strange, and yes, they acknowledged that, but they liked him anyway. For the first time in his life, he didn't mind getting those black and blue spots, or the occasional scrape. They didn't mind either. They were rough together, but a different kind of rough than the one he was used it. It was fun. And he held onto that tightly. That was why he could never let them find out.
***
It was ironic then that he was the one who told rather than the person just figuring it out on their own. It was one of those times that it got so bad that he just left. It was raining though, and he had the Oujo game the next day. He couldn't get sick and he couldn't go back. He panic at first, because he didn't know where to go. To this day, he still doesn't know why he did it, but he went to Musashi's. His friend was pretty surprised to hear a knock on the bedroom door and find a bruised and bleeding Hiruma standing there. When he asked why, Hiruma just told him and he couldn't think of anything to say. Fourteen-year-old Hiruma somehow reverted back to little Youichi. He cried for the first time in five years. Musashi didn't know what to do. So he just held him.
***
He showed up a few more times after that, but rarely, despite Musashi insisting he got there before he got hurt. It stopped though, when Musashi left the team. Hiruma, though he'd never say it, decided that his friend had his own problems to deal with. So even when it got so bad all he had to do was leave, and even if it was raining, he didn't go back. He couldn't.
***
Then Sena came in, quickly followed with the rest of the Devil Bats. He never admitted it, even to himself, but he had a soft spot for the kid. It was probably because without him, the Devil Bats would never have formed. Hiruma would never have had a full team. He would never have had thirteen members playing with him, enjoying the game. It was then that American football wasn't just an escape from reality, but its own reality as well. That wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the fucking shrimp. Sometimes, but only sometimes, he thought about thanking the kid. But he never did.
***
He did like a few other people though, ones that weren't on his team. Actually, he had quite a bit of respect for a lot of them. As long as they weren't too stupid, or too annoying, he didn't mind them. He the only one he would ever even come close to thinking of as a friend would be Kid. In a way, Kid got him. Sure, other people could predict some of his trick plays, but the Seibu quarter back was the only one who seemed to get why he played the way he did. It was interesting almost, how alike they were. Most people could call them opposites, but there were a few traits they shared, the subtle ones. Neither liked to talk about themselves. Neither really cared about that either. Both put their teams before anything else, and their friends. So he liked Kid, because it wasn't too often he met someone who understood why he did the things he did.
***
He hadn't broken his arm during the Dinosaur because Goau had surprised him or because Kurita failed. There was no way he could be surprised, because he suspected it would happen anyway. Two ribs on his right side, the same side as his throwing arm, were snapped it shoulder was a bit twisted. His throwing was slower than usual. He thought Marco would've realized, but he never did. So when it broke, it hurt like hell, but he didn't scream because he told himself it was going to happen whether he liked it or not. He'd heard Sena, Yuki, and Monta talking about why he "just knew things" before they happened. It was actually just guess work. The only reason he knew that Sena was going to fill in as quarterback was because he knew the kid's personality. It was another part that made up his character. And since he couldn't break that character, he didn't scream. He couldn't, because then they could.
***
About four days before the Christmas Bowl, he showed up at Sena's house. On natural reaction, he'd done to Musashi's, because it was snowing. But for the first time ever, he hadn't been there. Hiruma had stayed frozen on the doorstep for almost twenty minutes before the dizziness got too bad and the cold got to get to him. He scrolled through his contacts on his cell phone to find who lived closest. It was either the baldy or the shrimp. He picked the shrimp.
***
It was obvious the shrimp wasn't expecting him, though Hiruma was probably even more surprised than he was. When he went to Musashi's, no one never noticed him. The last thing he expected was Sena's mom opening up there. For a moment he didn't know what to say. Sena saved him there, too. Just came out from behind her. Next thing he knew, he was waking up. He'd fainted, Sena told him. Only for a second, though. But his running back didn't have much time to tell him anything else before his mom started drilling him with questions. He hadn't wanted to tell her, but looking at his friend's face made him. His face was dead white. Thinking back to it Hiruma realized that his probably was, too. Especially when Kobayakawa-san called the police and asked him if he wanted to talk to them himself or if he wanted her to talk to them for him. The first one, he'd said.
***
So it was amazing really, that he was able to play the Christmas Bowl. The game was spectacular. Everything from the first moment to the final win. When they reached there, the stands were filled. He could see all the football teams there--the ones they'd lost and one to--and even he had to smile because they were all there for them. It was amazing. He and his team were always aiming for that moment, for that game, but once he was there, he had to admit that he hadn't thought they were going to make that. And they almost didn't. But they did and he did and everyone was there and then they won and he'd never felt anything like it before. They'd been attacked by everyone: Kid's team, Agon's (Agon wasn't there), Akaba's, Kakei's, Shin's, everyone's, even the Alexanders. He'd never laughed so hard in his entire life.
***
So that's what all led up to this moment. The American stadium is huge. Around is everyone--from his team, from other. It's the finals of the Youth Cup. The game's going to start the moment he puts his foot over the line. His heart's pounding. Though he doesn't show it, he's scared. It's a different kind of fear though. It's a fear that he doesn't mind. He feels like he'll never calm down. But when he gets over into that field, his world just gets kind of quiet.
He likes it here.