Beating the Odds
By Uniasus
Chapter 2
Sena was hanging out in the family kitchen. There wasn't much else he could do. His father had a study on the bottom floor, where he had slept last night, and now that they were back in Japan it was decided that it would become Sena's new room. Because he couldn't walk up the stairs to his old one.
And now, here he was, watching his parents shuffle things out of the office into the living room in preparation for moving Sena's things downstairs. He stayed in the kitchen, because it was the one place where his parents weren't travelling to, the only place where he wasn't in the way. He couldn't even help transfer boxes of paperwork, because he wasn't able to lift a box on to or off of his lap. And from this height, he couldn't even reach the counters to make lunch for his parents.
The doorbell rang. Sena looked up from the pages of Amefuto Monthly and watched his mother walk over to door. "Monta-kun!" he heard her exclaim. "Thanks for stopping by."
"Sorry for the intrusion. Is Sena-kun home?"
Sana dog-eared his page, rolled up the magazine, and stuck it in the pouch hanging from the right armrest. He pushed up his sleeves and rolled his wheelchair out into the hallway. Halfway to the door, he stopped. The space between the boxes in his way wasn't wide enough for his wheelchair to pass through.
"Sena!" his friend greeted.
"Hey Monta, don't you have class?"
"Nah, I always have Wednesday's free. Still have practice later though."
Sena nodded.
"So, I figured we could hang out or something."
"What a wonderful idea!" his mom said. "Don't you think so Sena? Come one, get over here, oh." She seemed to realize he couldn't travel any farther. "Sorry about that Sena." She set to work moving a box over. "I'll get your father."
Sena watched her head back towards the office, and then turned back to his friend. Monta was looking about the front room curiously. "What are you guys doing?"
"Moving my bedroom downstairs."
"…oh."
"Hello there, Monta-kun," Kobayakawa said as he came up behind his son.
"Hello Kobayakawa-san," Monta gave a bow.
"Do you mind helping me carry Sena down?"
The receiver blinked in confusion, so Sena filled him in. "There are steps leading up to the door. We're getting a ramp installed in a couple of days."
"Oh, right. How can I help?"
"If we each take one the arm rests, we can lift Sena to the sidewalk."
"Okay." Monta took one of the left side and placed his hands under the armrest. "Lift max!" He lifted higher than Kobayakawa and Sena pitched to the side. "Oops, sorry!" Monta dropped his side, but Kobayakawa didn't, and Sena pitched to the other side. Monta stopped him from falling out as the other side lowered. "You alright Sena?"
He was a bit harried, but smiled anyway. "No harm done."
"How about we try again," Kobayakawa suggested, and Monta nodded. "One, two, three."
The wheelchair wobbled, but for the most part stayed even and together the two men lowered Sena to the ground. "Arigato," he murmured, angry and yet defeated at the idea he couldn't leave his own house without help.
"Don't worry about it," Monta rubbed a finger under his nose and Sena's father just softly smiled. "Call when you're on your way home." Sena nodded.
Monta made a movement to get behind the wheelchair to push, but Sena quickly pushed on his wheels to move himself. "Mind getting the gate Monta?"
"No problem," he ran to get there first.
They ended getting cups of ramen to go, the noodles cooking on Sena's lap while Monta pushed him to a spot along the dyke Diemon used to train along. Sena's arms were weak form disuse, and before long it became hard for him to self propel his wheelchair. Monta had picked up the slack without saying anything.
In a spot devoid of people, Monta stopped and parked Sena next to a bench before sitting down.
"Here," Sena handed him the noodle cup and then pulled a pair of chopsticks out of the wheelchair's pouch to hand over as well.
"Thanks."
"So tell me," Sena began, opening the paper his chopsticks were in, "How's Enma's team doing?"
Monta blew on his ramen before answering. "Okay I guess. We have a good offence. There's a couple of good receivers, but not as good as me, and Riku-kun is pretty good too. Ishimaru-kun's gotten faster, but you still miss him half the time. Unsui-san's a pretty good quarterback. He doesn't have as many tricks as Hiruma-san, but he's hard to knock down. And Kurita is even more powerful then he was at Diemon! But the rest of the line aren't as good. I mean, they're average, about as good as Juumonji-kun. We've won all our games so far though." Monta picked up a bunch of noodles.
"Have you versed Oujou or Saikyoudai yet?"
Monta finished the noodle bunch before answering. "We play Oujou on Friday, and Saikyoudai next week. But we beat Shuuei Medical University. That was a tough game. Yukimitsu-kun plays for them you know."
"Really? I always thought he would have gone to Saikyoudai."
"Yeah, me too. And I certainly didn't expect Juumonji-kun to go there."
"Wah! Really?"
"Yeah, since we couldn't play amefuto last semester he spent a lot of time studying and got in."
"Impressive."
"Yup, we were all kinda shocked."
They lapsed into silence, eating their ramen and watching a family of ducks drift by with the current.
"Sena," Monta said, not turning to look at his friend.
"Hmm?" the brunette said around a mouth of noodles.
"Are you okay?"
There was the sound of a hasty swallow. "Yeah, today's a good day."
"That's not what I meant Sena."
"Yeah," he started poking the bottom of the ramen cup with a chopstick.
"Sena," Monta scooted a bit closer, "We're best friends, you can tell me anything." Sena's poking turned into stabs. "Sena?"
Sena launched the ramen cup towards the river. It didn't make it, the container was too light, but it was a good toss. They had started practicing throws as a pair after the game against the Dinosaurs. Sena was much better than Monta. He fisted the fabric on his legs and stared hard at the back of his hands.
"I was so close Monta, so close. The training over there in America was a lot tougher than here. I managed to clock the 40 yard dash in four point oh nine the day before that game. And there were scouts from the NFL who said that if my team made it to the Rice Bowl, they'd come and see me play. But I already was talking to coaches about going back to America when I was done with school."
He's eyes were stinging. "But I, I can't do that now, and it hurts! It's not like when we versed the USA in the World Cup, when I first found out Panther was faster than me, cuz I could still fight. But now, now I can't even leave my own house without help!"
The tears were falling now, leaving splotches on his hands. Monta kept staring at the ramen cup on the sidewalk.
"I didn't have anything before amefuto Monta. You had a dream to be the best catcher ever before you joined the team, but all I was concerned about was not getting beat up. Amefuto...changed that. And I worked so hard! And, and, I don't even know why that guy shot me!"
Sena's eyes were screwed tightly shut, his shoulders hunched as his tears turned into full fledged crying. "I don't even remember it, I had just passed the other player and I remember stumbling, but I kept going…I don't remember falling, but Rick said I just dropped. I just woke up in the hospital and realized I couldn't feel my legs."
He slouched forward, hands rising to catch his head, saline slipping silently between his fingers to darken his pants. Monta reached over to give him a swift one armed hug and then pulled back to let Sena cry uninterrupted. He gave the surrounding area a quick look, making sure his buddy could have a bit of peace, and noticed Shin jogging along the top of the hill. The linebacker was moving slower than normal, but sped up when Monta shook his head. Sena didn't need an audience. Shin never even turned to look at them.
When Sena's tears started drying up, the brunette leaned back into his wheelchair and tried to dry his face with his hands. "Sorry," he whispered.
"Don't be," Monta chastised, turning his attention from the ramen cup to Sena. "You needed to do that."
"Yeah."
"So, you just have to have a new amefuto goal now."
"Monta, what part of 'I can't walk' do you not understand?"
"Well, there's a goal right there. To walk again. But now since you can't practice with the rest of the team, you can study strategy! Didn't you say that at the airport?"
Sena gave the receiver a watery smile. "Hiruma-san's really good at plays."
"Doesn't mean you can't beat him, right?"
"Right."
"Shin-san! Please, come in." Sena backed up out of the doorway and the Oujou linebacker stepped through. "Sorry about the mess, we're getting some work down to the house."
"I can see that." There was a box of tools on the floor down the hallway and more obvious were the two men working on taking down the wall at the end of it.
"We're adding an additional room," Sena offered as an explanation. It was actually expanding the small half bathroom that had resided on the first floor, but now that Sena wasn't able to use the one upstairs his parents were having one he could use installed, complete with wheelchair accessibility involved. A low sink and cabinets, a shower with a seat and handle bar, and another handle bar by the toilet. He hated having his dad help him with basic sanitary needs.
"Can I offer you something to eat or drink?" Sena asked Shin.
The taller player shook his head. "Thank you, but I am not in need of anything."
"Okay. Please, have a seat." Sena gestured towards couch. The table in front of it was covered in papers, all showing amefuto plays. He quickly tried to gather them all up while Shin settled himself. "Sorry about the mess," he apologized again.
"Are you devising a strategy against Saikyoudai?"
Sena nodded. "I know a lot of Hiruma-san's plays and tricks from when we played at Deimon together, so I'm hoping to help the team out from the bench when we play them later this week."
"Enma used a couple of trick plays against us last week, did you have them do that?"
"Yeah well, not being on the field gives me a completely different perspective, so I suggest things when I think they need help."
"You did a good job Sena-kun."
A faint blush grew across the brunette's face, but it quickly disappeared. "Since I can't help the team on the field, I might as well be useful some other way."
Shin didn't say anything, just gave him a bland look. "I brought you a gift."
"Ano, you didn't have too."
"It's okay, I don't use them anymore."
The linebacker dug into his sports bag and withdrew a set of barbells.
"Weights, Shin-san?"
Shin nodded. "For your arms. You'll need a lot of strength to push your wheelchair every day. And there are track and field events for those who use wheelchairs. If your arms are strong enough, you could race."
Sena reached out for a medium sized weight and lifted it. After being able to bench press 55kg, it was rather pitiful how much trouble it gave him. Shin covered his hand with his larger one and guided Sena in putting it back on the table. "You haven't used your arms in months, so you have to start from the beginning again." Sean nodded, willing his eyes to not be watery.
"Thank you Shin-san. I'll use them every day."
Shin pulled out a piece of paper from his bag as well. "Not every day. I have a schedule here for you follow."
Sena gave the linebacker a smile. "You think of everything don't you? Thank you, again."
Yamato and Riku weren't an even match, their battles on the field leaned 60/40 towards the Saikyoudai player. Monta was faring better against Ikkyuu, but both were still giving it their all. But the other team had two good receivers, and with Monta covering the former Naga player, Taka was wide open. And as good as Mizumachi and Kurita were, they were no match for the combined efforts of Banba, Juumonji, and Agon. Sena also suspected that Kurita was holding back a little; he was doing wonderfully when Enma was on the offensive, but when playing defense he just held the line instead of breaking through. It most likely had to do with some left over sentiment of protecting Hiruma who was now the opposing quarterback.
There was no question about it, Enma was a better team than Deimon had been, but their opponents had also increased in strength. Instead of having players distributed amongst four higher class teams in the league (Wild Gunmen, White Knights, Alexanders, Dinosaurs), the college pool had shrunk to two high ranked teams, Oujou and Saikyoudai, with Enma and Shuuei filling in the upper tiers of the middle ranks. Granted, there were players from high school who were longer playing (Sena found it rather funny Karin-chan was doing an amefuto manga) or were playing in the X-League (but all the ones he knew were on the same team, the one Musashi founded, which made it easy to decided what team to cheer for). But overall, the college league was much harder than the high school league.
However, being friends with people on most teams didn't affect Sena's ability to choose a team to root for. Enma all the way!
"Yay! Go Riku!" Sena shouted from the sidelines. Suzuna (who while not an Enma student still managed to cheer for them) jumped in the air with the other cheerleaders, pom-poms waving, in celebration of Riku getting around Yamato. The runner shifted posture, leaning forward, and took off at a sprint. Two seconds later he was flattened by Agon, who had come at him from behind at an angle for a killer tackle Riku hadn't been able to see. Sena winced. Agon's tackles hurt. But Gaou's were more forceful. He hadn't realized it till after the Fall Tournament, but the Dinosaur player had managed to fracture one of his ribs in the game.
Sena was still too new at reading opponent's plays and coming up with counter measures to be really effective, but he had managed to convince an Enma student to film the game from up in the bleachers to study for the next season and his familiarity with Hiruma's strategy allowed him to know what trap the quarterback was setting. He wasn't very good at picking out when the trap would spring, but he was at least able to inform Unsui about blonde's most likely long term goals. After all, Mamori never got the final say as a manager (true, Hiruma was better than her at plays), the quarterback was the ultimate control tower and it was Sena's job to give him as much information as he could. Next season, for the Fall Tournament that would lead to the Rice Bowl, Sena would be better.
As it was, Enma lost by 9.
One of the linemen, Kurosawa-kun, whom Sena hadn't known before meeting the Enma team, forcibly ripped his helmet from his head and threw it to the ground. He was new to the game, he had wrestled in high school instead. It was the most forceful display of anger at the lost. The rest of the team simply took a good hard look at the clock and the dejectedly turned towards the locker room.
"What do you all look so grumpy for?" Sena demanded as they filtered past him.
"Um, Sena-kun? We lost."
"This game yes, but winning this game wasn't our goal."
"No?" Monta and Riku shared a look that clearly stated they thought he was crazy.
"You're right!" Kurita spoke up, fire in his eyes. "It's the Rice Bowl! The Fall season! Everyone, we must begin practicing tomorrow for our goal!"
"Sena-kun!" Sean stopped rolling as both him and his mom turned to look behind them at the call.
"Yukimitsu-san!" He turned his wheelchair around and made his way over to the other student, waving with one hand in between a wheel push. His mom followed a step or two behind. "How are your studies?"
Yukimitsu shrugged. "It's like high school all over again, study study study with amefuto stuffed into every free moment. At least I no longer go to cram school, instead I work in one of the clinics here."
"Oh?"
"Well, really just secretary work, I don't know enough to actually interact with patients yet, but next semester I get to start helping the doctors."
"Maybe we'll see each other then."
"You'll be coming to Shuuei often?"
Sena nodded, "I'm doing my physical therapy here. I just had my first session today."
"I look forward to seeing more of you then. It was good seeing you Sena-kun, but I have someplace to be –ah! Before I forget," Yukimitsu dug into his bag and pulled out a pale yellow brochure. "I was going to come by your house this weekend anyway, but since you're here now." He handed it over.
Wheelchair Athletic League the front of it read. "Shuuni sponsors it, and I think there's a few things in there that you'd like. Bye, Sena-kun!" Yukimitsu took off at a light job.
"Bye Yukimitsu-san! Thank you!"
The other guy didn't turn around, but Sena knew he heard him.
"What is it?" his mom asked.
"A way for me to play sports."
A/N: I know the manga reports 4.2 for the 40yd dash to be the human limit, but here has been a NFL playerer who reportedly clocked a 4.09. (Greene, if I remember right) And if you do crazy math and factor in the different distances and means of keeping score, the fastest 100m dash ever (which was actually done during a 400m relay) had a 40 yd time of 3.94. (I think. My ES 21 note sheet has disappeared on me.)
I'm surprised this fic is getting written so quickly, but I do usually keep the file open and so when I'm bored in class my thoughts naturally stray to writing that next sentence.
Remember, reviews are loved!
