Warnings: A lot of spoilers so be aware

Disclaimer: I do not own anything about Eyeshield 21; this manga was made by Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata. No one is profiting from anything written in this story. It's just a fanfiction.

The Naga champions had finally been defeated. The Devilbats had done what was thought to be impossible, even by the Ojou White Knights, whom they are about to face in the upcoming days. Hiruma sat alone in the clubroom reflecting on the game and filing away the last piece of data on the Ojou Balista that he had managed to obtain. The truth was that he had never had such a small amount of data on anything in his life, but that didn't scare him. The Devilbats tended to turn the tide after the second quarter of a game, so he would get the rest of his data by then and find a weak spot in that play.

What actually scared him occurred a few days ago. It wasn't about the amefuto because that was his playground; it was about the damn manager, about the look she had in her eyes. It was the look he knew well and had seen a million times through the course of time they'd been together. It meant she understood something…

So she knows I like her…Why does it bother me so? Hiruma debated on the matter more then he ever wanted or thought he would.

Of course he liked her, that much was now obvious to him. He kept her around because she was useful, he hated to admit it, but he did enjoy a clean clubhouse. Everything had its place: files were alphabetically and chronologically stored (for short periods of time until he filed them into his hack-impossible computer and burned the paper evidence). The jerseys were well patched (on that note, so was he), and his entire team was no different because she had a bloody arsenal of bandages and other medical supplies. Even the coffee she made was just the way he liked it.

Damn woman, messing him up like that… Hiruma even thought (for a briefest moment) to actually ask her out on a normal date, like to the movies or maybe a dinner in some fancy restaurant. Yeah! And then we can fucking hold hands and merrily hop our way into the damn sunset! Stupid man, your idiocy level is at its fucking peak today.

Mocking himself was a brand new thing he recently developed when he was trying to think of a ways to be with her. He was used to getting things done his way and his way was to either blackmail or use the fear of possible blackmail. Neither could be used on her, not that he would ever use it for something like that, but there were other matters about her on which he would've saved his time and efforts if he just had a proper blackmail material.

All he had on her was a picture. A stupid picture of her in a cheerleader's uniform. That picture was only good for two things: for making her blush (what he managed to do on very rare occasions but teased her about it on very often occasions), and his personal favorite… Pissing. Her. Off! Sure, he could make some serious money with that picture, but he couldn't properly blackmail her into doing something out of fear of him.

And it was quite a picture, he thought, smirking. She was the sexiest cheerleader he had ever seen, precisely because this wasn't her thing; doing something so out of character for his goody too shoes manager. Speaking about out of character, there was also a folder in his laptop named 'gangsta onna,' a sort-of reminder for the Deimon field day.

Once again he opened 'clip 1' and watched it grinning. Hiruma would watch some short clips of that folder in order to clear his head, and obviously when the damn manager pissed him off by doing stupid things, like getting permission from the school committee to post Devilbats propaganda (even when he warned her not to do unnecessary things like that), demanding team practice break (when he was in his molesting element), which ruined all his fun, and other silly things he didn't like to bother with. The clips from that folder were somewhat sacred to him now, which is precisely why he never even threatened to blackmail her with it.

While everyone had thought he was acting especially maniacally that day (it was all just an act to get them to learn the proper bump) he was just truly fascinated by Mamori. Everything about her on that day was absolutely thrilling to him… the way she wore those clothes, which I spent hours searching and preparing for her, the way she acted, hell, it was even her idea to tie up the T-shirts so we can cheat in order to scare the team some more, the way she handled his weapons, the freaked out looks on both the teammates and schoolmates faces, even the teachers. 'Kekeke' one of them desperately screamed the most fitting comment "This must mean when hell freezes over!" A smirk made its way on his face as he closed the folder looking at the time and started packing his things.

Time to visit Taiyou Sphinx vs. Hakushuu Dinosaurs match to get some fucking data Hiruma thought as he headed to the exit still reflecting about that field day. Never in a million years would he have anticipated her reaction once he whispered to her that day ominously: "Damn manager, fucking team needs to learn a perfect bump or their dream of Christmas bowl is history. I need to scare them shitless so you better turn evil-mode as fast as you fucking can so my plan can be set in motion."

He was both surprised and thrilled by her immediate response; taking a gun from his hands and using a yakuza word like 'obliterate'. The fucking baldy was having a ball that day, but every time the three of them were alone, so Hiruma could explain the fucking plan, she would be sad and ashamed of her behavior. Mamori didn't say a word when he showed them the clothes he prepared for their act to be convincing enough, nor did she nag once he handed her the machine gun. She was willing to forget all her morals and principals for the sake of their team and their dream of Christmas Bowl.

Not so long ago, he tricked her into joining Devilbats because he thought that somewhat smart girl might prove to be useful if he kept her around, but after seeing this he finally acknowledged her as his nakama fighting for the same goal and a full pledged Devilbats member.

"Aha-ha! Monsieur Hiruma is always the first one to arrive!"

What the fuck? His thinking was abruptly interrupted by the fucking idiot who was standing at the agreed meeting point in front of stadium's West gate, spinning madly with (naturally) his leg in the air, obviously being very early. Hiruma chose not to comment on his retarded remark. There was also a "Yo" and he looked behind to see fucking old man with a finger in his ear (looking older than usual) walking up to him. The rest of the team soon joined them and they headed to find their seats.

(…)

The damn game was a complete Sphinx massacre. Dinosaurs got themselves a fucking caveman that was a serious threat. I'll have to pull off some extra hours on the stupid thing .His thinking was suddenly interrupted as he heard Gaou sneer "Who said that?" in a very low and a dangerous tone.

Hiruma wasn't paying attention, as he was deep in thought about the caveman problem, but then there was "Who was making fun of Banba?" He stopped listening to Gaou as he saw him charge ahead and his brain automatically switched to 'file his strength measurements' and 'strategize about the best defense play against this attack'.

Good thing the fucking Ha-Hah bros are always on stand by and armed for situations like this. Demolition of the fence followed next and the stupid cheerleader fell down because of the impact. Oh, fuck it the damn manager is in sever mother-hen mode… stupid woman, this isn't your everyday bully…this is bad, so fucking bad…

Before he was able to process anything he found himself standing in front of fucking manager armed with several stun guns that he pulled out from God-knows-where because he forgot he even had them. Things started to calm down from there, as Riku apparently saved the damn day. Hiruma later even agreed with Kid on mater that Gaou was indeed a fucking big problem to solve.

As all the fuss really started clearing out and the crowd started to leave, he tried to analyze what the hell happened a few minutes ago. 'My body moved on its own… That must be it.' He frowned at this realization. Did every fucking fiber in my damn being scream at me to keep her safe? Stupid idiot, that's just plain bullshit! Sighing, annoyed with himself, he watched his teammates quickly disappearing down the stairs that were ahead of the stand's aisle.

Trying to get rid of the stupid thoughts, one of his hands reached out to get his mobile from a pocket when a foreign hand stopped its trajectory. The hand was soft but it held his hand firmly in place although somewhat unsure. Hiruma looked threateningly at its owner who was apparently finding a damn random seat fascinating.

Mamori spoke quietly with a shaky voice, "Thank you Hiruma-kun… for protecting me…" At that her grip got a bit tighter before she let his hand go completely, smiling warmly as she rushed ahead of him to catch up with Sena and the others. Hiruma stood in place as he blew a bubble amusingly. So we actually held hands… Why the fuck do I feel like hopping a few times? Wondering briefly, he quickly frowned, disgusted with the ideaStupid man! Mind the damn idiocy level! He scolded himself once again as he continued his way up the aisle.

OMAKE

"I. Saw. That."

Hiruma's bubble popped and he stopped in his tracks as he narrowed his eyes dangerously at Musashi who was obviously left behind.

"Fucking old man… You're thinking of weird things again, aren't you? Leave me fucking out of it" he said indifferently but, of course, his friend knew better then that.

"I know you have a thing for her, so who do you think you're fooling?" Musashi smirked smugly seeing Hiruma's eyes narrow some more.

"Tch, you're getting fucking senile on me way too early. It's disgusting!" Hiruma spat as he blew another bubble and continued his way to the exit. 'Fucking oyaji'

A/N: Hope you are enjoying the story so far and C&C are most welcome and appreciated.

I just need to credit my most amazing beta girls who found some time to beta this… I treasure them lovingly
TeenageCrisis - expressions and word manipulation master & Jisa – grammar & punctuation guru

They are already working on the next chapter so I'll probably update the story faster.