Title: A Fear of the Inevitable

Disclaimer: I'd never own this series. Not in a million years. But please allow me this small pleasure of imagining I can.

Summary: This story does not contain spoilers. It's just purely out of my imagination. The rainy season sort of affects my brain or something… It's about football, love, and life. It's about Hiruma (and then some other people).

Chapter 2: Grim Tidings for the Reluctant

The streets of Manhattan are constantly crowded, especially during lunch hour. The old friends dined at a nearby restaurant, their table just beside a large side window. They munched on sashimi and western-made bentou while looking at passersby. The wall was made of see-through glass that every so often someone would glance at them from outside. Most of these passing onlookers were women, while some are men who probably recognized him as the CEO of a corporation considered by them as either a formidable competitor or a much desired client. All these did not escape Gen's attention. But Hiruma, was unaffected. He is the sort of person who do not let such unimportant matters take any of his time.

He also noticed that Hiruma has developed a barely recognizable twitch on his right hand. Every few seconds or so, his thumd and his forefinger would move at the same time, as if pulling an invisible trigger. Despite this, his friend's face was always calm, his posture composed, his mouth set firm. Somehow, Gen missed the old Hiruma Youichi, who grinned menacingly and was always acting crazy and violent all the time and wherever he goes. He sighed and told himself: Maybe I am getting old.

"Youichi, the main reason why I came to find you is to invite you to my wedding", the old kicker confessed.

An eyebrow raised; "Che, and who's the unlucky girl?"

"Ah, haha, her name is Mizuki. She's a nurse from Tokyo", he answered, blushing and scratching the back of his head.

To Hiruma, his old friend looked younger, acting bashful; Hn.. fucking old man..

Instead of showing off his elusive grin and saying something really witty, he just looked out to the street. "You know I hate weddings, fuckin' old man".

"Ah, how can you really? I can't remember you ever attending one. I can't even imagine you attending any weddings while you're here in America".

The other one stayed silent.

"Or maybe you have changed so much that attending weddings had become your hobby".

His friend did not seem to catch the sarcasm. He was silent still.

"Anyway, I would appreciate it much if you'd be there to be one of my best men, with Kurita. Everyone will be there: the guys from the team, and ---", he suddenly stopped, sensing the other one getting tense.

In one moment, Hiruma became stiff; his hands stopped moving then twitched quite violently, which he tried to hide. His faraway look became a focused squint.

Trying to repair the damage and to bring back the smallest likelihood that Hiruma would say 'yes' to him, Gen strung out: "Well, not really every one. Juumonji might not come 'cause he will be in a business trip, and Komusubi has a K1 match that day. And then Ishimaru will be training for the Olympics in Osaka…" he trailed off.

But he knew that the Hiruma couldn't care less if those fucking shrimps will be there to attend. He was quite sure that he was thinking of the person he especially did not mention.

"Er—I couldn't—" he hesitated.

"We, I mean Sena and I, we couldn't contact –"

Then, he was interrupted: "Tch. I'll check my schedule old man". And from inside his coat, Hiruma pulled put a small silver thing, pushed some buttons and barked: "Hey fucking assistant, cancel my entire schedule next week!"

An almost inaudible but evidently nervous reply issued from the speaker.

"I don't give a damn. Send them notices. If they don't reschedule, tell them I will pull out all my accounts". Then he terminated the all before the person on the line even gave another reply.

Gen was touched. Hiruma was willing to risk his business just so he'd be able to attend his friend's weeding. But then, he reconsidered. Knowing Hiruma, he'd probably thought about his decision and allocated his most accurate percentages of pros and cons, and consequently found the pros to be of higher bearing. This made Gen nervous. Perhaps there is another reason why his friend wanted to go to Japan. He can't even begin to imagine what's running inside the devil's mind.

"It's settled. We'll leave for Japan tonight", the devil said matter-of-factly, before sipping his black coffee.

"E—What?! But my return flight won't leave until tomorrow night" Gen replied, sputtering.

"TCh. Stop blabbering old man. We leave tonight; in my jet".

A phone at the other side of the globe rang. Azekawa Mizuki answered: "Hello?"

"Hello, Mizuki-san, it's Gen"

"Ah, Musashi-kun, how are you? How's America?"

"It's okay. Not as nice as Tokyo though. I already found Hiruma, we'll be leaving for Japan within the hour", he explained.

"Oh, I thought you wouldn't be here until the next day?"

Gen chuckled on the line, "Well, I guess Hiruma was too excited to come home".

"That is wonderful, MUsashi-kun! Finally everything is ready, don't you agree?"

"Hai", Gen said on the other line as he nodded. He wondered however, when his soon-ot-be-wife would stop calling him Musashi-kun. She treats him like a little boy. And he remembered how he sorely missed her.

"I'll see you in a while, Mizu.. "

"Hai, see you Mou-kun"

"Bye"

The phone at the Ryokan household rang. It was after only several rings that Mr. Ryokan answered. He is already quite old. But his bearings are still as formidable and proud as always. He looked out of the window and called for his son, who was trimming their bonsai in the garden.

"Kurita! Phone. For you."

The former Deimon Devilbats lineman hurried to the house and took the phone:

"Hello? Ay, Mizuki-san!"

"Really? Hiruma an Musashi?"

"Yes, yes, I will. Arigatto, Mizuki-san"

After returning the phone to its cradle, Kurita exclaimed with much delight: "Hiruma! Hiruma is finally coming back!!!"

"Oh, I must tell everyone—I must cook some ramen—Oh, I should call Sena—"

Mr. Ryokan would swear he has never seen the entire house shake like that. Ever.

Okinawa: in a kindergarten playground…

A black-haired boy of about five years is sitting by himself. His forehead was cinched, as if concentrating on something while he looked at the other children playing in front of him.

"Hiroshi-kun? Hiroshi-kun? Is there something wrong?" the teacher asked him.

The boy slowly turned his head to her and smiled sweetly. "Imaki-sensei?"

"Yes, Hiroshi-kun?"

"I wonder, why can't I do my math instead of just playing here?", the boy asked earnestly.

His teacher smiled impatiently and answered: "Well, all kids must have time for playing. You'll have time to do your math when you're older".

The boy sighed. "I just think that playing is a complete waste of time"

The teacher looked at the boy with consternation. Before she could scold him, however, a familiar honking of a car was heard. Hiroshi recognized this immediately and jumped for his bag, then left without saying goodbye. He ran outside to the waiting car.

The driver's window was open: "Hiroshi, don't rush!" a beautiful woman with a kind face shouted from driver's seat. The boy beamed and ran to the passenger's side.

"Don't be too noisy", the woman added, as they both looked at the backseat.

"I'm so glad you finally cam, mum. I was so bored", the boy said in the most perfect English.

"They kept singing these horrible nursery rhymes and playing with blocks. Extreeeeemly boooorrriinnngggg!!".

His mother chuckled. "Well, maybe we should send you to another school then".

"Please, please… as long as they don't do those kinds of stupid stuff…"

"Er—I mean, useless stuff???"

His mother sighed. This is the curse of having a child with genius IQ, she thought. His verbs and adjectives are getting more -- more like… Ah, that's what you get for teaching them English!!

They drove off, chatting in whispers, so as not to wake the girl sleeping at the backseat, who, unlike her brother, has the same auburn hair as that of her mother.

Chapter 2 ends…

For the small quantity of readers this fic has:

I apologize for boring you to death. I, myself, got a little bored (bored that it took me ages to type this.. lol). Well, the third chapter is already halfway finished. The plot is ticking inside my brain that I just have to think about it every night. And then there is the continuation of my other fic (Stalker) which has like 5 more chapters awaiting encoding and uploading (haha.. I admit, I've become too busy with other stuff.. getting old and such). In short, please bear with me. There are / will be (I hope) some exciting 'revelations' which will be published in the next ten or so chapters (Oh, yes, I am thinking of writing that long..) because I just know this won't fit in just a few chapters. You'd probably think: Where's who and who? Why is it just Hiruma there and here and such. Well, I adore him, so, you don't have any choice.. kekeke. But I promise to have the other characters appear along the story.

Thanks!