Disclaimer: Damn, I do not own Eyeshield 21! Can't anybody get it!!??? (Hiruma-kun….. T-T)
Yea!!! Chapter 3, well, there's no HiruxMamo moments in this chapter I think…
"Sayonara – A Promise"
Chapter 3 – The Departure
The temperature kept dropping as she descended down the stairs, moments after hearing the shocking announcement from the Devil Bat's Captain... no, it's ex-Captain now. Considering what Hiruma had just said officially made Deimon Devil Bats lost their great leader, a leader that may not be replaceable by any common man.
Her jacket had not seemed to taken any effect as she hugged herself to keep warm. The file from Hiruma still safely tucked between her arms. It was hard to imagine how it can be so cold even inside the school building. Now and then, she tends to wipe the tears that slowly forming at the corner of her eyes.
Why am I crying anyway?
She started to wonder whether the coldness originated from the winter's act or was it because of his departure…
She fastened her pace, doubling the speed of her steps. She reached the ground in one piece, made a turn and began to head towards the Devil Bat's clubroom. Her head was storming for ideas on how she will deliver the bad news to the rest of the team. And how can she hide those tears. She tried to check whether her eyes were red. She can't help herself with the tears; even if it was only little in amount, they were coming out against her own will.
In the direction behind her, the figure of the blonde devil was disappearing by each step that both of them took... Neither of them looked back.
There was no use looking back now anyway.
And life goes on…
The day began as usual, people awoken from slumber, got cleaned and prepare for daily activities. Though it was winter, the work had not lessened as Christmas was just around the corner.
Same goes for Anezaki Mamori. School was cancelled for a week due to heavy snow 2 days ago but that doesn't mean that she was going to sit around doing nothing. Typical her.
Since its Christmas, the Devil Bats decided to have a Christmas Party. Thus, as the manager of the team (ignoring the importance of the University Entrance Exam, she decided to hold on to the title until the end of the Spring Tournament), she'll have to conduct and manage all the stuff for the party.
Most of the team will handle the decorations while Suzuna volunteered to handle the presents (she seemed to have something planned)
Well, she and Kurita will be handling the food (which she put Kariya's Bakery as the 1st on the list of suppliers for snacks – which Hiruma will mock her forever if he ever laid his hand to this piece of information)
The thought of Hiruma making fun of her made her blushed with annoyance, then she chuckled for a second which ended up to minutes of silence and stares towards nowhere.
She knew, despite all these commotion, there was something missing… or someone.
A few days had past since the day Hiruma left with no reason; just…'a promise'. That day on the rooftop was the last she ever saw of that skinny, devilish figure. No one knew where he had gone to, why or if he was ever going to come back.
None ever expected that day to come (not until graduation, of course) and nobody in the team believed it at first. Taki and Monta went screaming 'IMPOSSIBLE!!!" (With an add of 'MAX!' in Monta's phrase), the Hah, hah, hah bro's shouted their rhythmic chants, Sena and Suzuna exchanged meaningful looks, Kurita had already burst into tears with Komusubi trying to calm him down by saying words that can only be understand by strong men, while Musashi and Doburoku remained in their calm state when Mamori broke the news. But after Hiruma not showing up (at the school or the clubhouse) for the next few days, the team had to convince themselves that the devil had left the building.
This, of course, made the school turn to a happy place to study. The students suddenly had more life in things they do and in the assembly, the principal's smile was so strangely broad as if he had been transported to heaven.
For Mamori, those little drops of tears from her eyes didn't stay long. There was no desire to cry anymore since there was no shed of sadness left; just anger and disappointment, on why she can never fully understand that blonde hair captain. Those long months by his side helping and planning game strategies had not raised any chance of her knowing a lot of him. Although she started to understand him bit by bit, he still remained as the person that shadowed himself. Although she had tried to reach in and cracked the mask, the mask had not completely fallen off. Although she knew a little more of him everyday, she could never knew the whole thing.
He was a mystery and being the detective, she couldn't solve the mystery.
She had descended back to earth when she realized that she was in her room, organizing the party that was supposed to be held in few days time. So there she was, sitting behind her desk working on the party's preparations. The food and snack list papers, and other related-papers were scattered on her desk (though scattered, they were pretty organized). A pencil was clamped between her right ear and the side of her head. Removing the pencil, she searched for her cell phone under the piles of papers, found it and pressed a button. A ringing sound was heard as she pressed the phone to her left ear.
Someone picked up.
"Ahh.. Mamori-neechan…" a voice came out.
"Oh, Sena. I was just calling to check up on the decorations"
Suddenly a bump sound was heard. "Ouch, MAX!" a groan was heard, which then followed by laughter. Sena too couldn't hold himself from laughing.
"Hahaha… Well, Mamori-neechan, it's almost done. Only the Christmas tree is left." Sena reported. "Suzuna had already left with Taki-san to look for the presents just a while ago."
"Okay." She smiled and paused for a while. She thought of the boy talking at the phone with her right now. How he came to be Eyeshield 21. How he came to change from the cowardly boy becoming the star player of Deimon Devil Bats.
It was all because of the work of one man.
As another thought of Hiruma came into her mind, she held her head down, and she was shaking uncontrollably. Again, she felt the same feeling on anger, disappointment… and this time, with regrets too.
Sena felt awkward of the sudden silence and started to understand what was happening.
"Mamori-neechan…" he paused before he continued, "… are you okay?"
There was no answer.
Sena was going to ask the same question when she finally spoke, in her normal tone of voice, "I'm fine, it got cold just now but I'm fine."
He knew she's lying, but he's not going to make a fuss about it and decided to end the conversation. "Neh, Mamori-neechan, I need to go. Monta is still shrieking in pain when he fell from the Christmas tree just now. We will call you if anything goes wrong"
"Emph. Okay, tell Monta to be more careful!"
Sena smiled at her remark. The girl that he called 'neechan' at the back of her name was still overprotective as usual. But then, he knew that she too, like the rest of the team had been missing someone very important to the team. He could imagine what it would be like if Hiruma was around right now;
"Stop lazing around, fucking shrimps!"
"Fucking idiots! Stop laughing and get back to work!!!"
And of course, after or before each remark will be followed either by continuous gunshots, butt-kicking or a smack on the head.
"Okay, Mamori-neechan, bye"
"Bye" and she pressed the 'end call' button.
Her hands were on her lap; her cell phone was still in the grip of her hand. She raised her head, and gave a deep sigh.
"Sorry, but the number you had dialed is out of the network coverage. Please try again later"
She ended the call. The same reply for the 3rd time.
Drops of snows were still falling from the sky but at a slow rate now. There was little wind but the chill can still make people shiver of coldness. There were little people at the street and Mamori was one of them.
She was in front of Kariya's Bakery when suddenly Musashi walked up towards her. The spiky old-looking guy was crossing his arms and was looking towards the falling snow when he spotted the manager in front of him. He stopped as he saw the disappointed face of Mamori looking at the screen of her cell phone.
"Oh, Anezaki."
"Musashi-kun" she said as she turned her head facing Musashi, "what are you doing here?"
"Kurita asked me to accompany him to place the food order for the party. But then he got carried away and decided to have a 'little snack' instead." He said with a straight face, with his thumb pointed at the direction of his back. Mamori smiled, knowing of Kurita's big appetite.
Well, if Hiruma would have been there, Musashi would have witness continuous kicking and shooting from him with him calling Kurita as 'damn fat-ass'. Somehow, he missed that, the gunshots and shouting; without them, it was quiet. And with Hiruma leaving, Kurita had been so devastated that Musashi didn't even bother to stop his huge friend from eating like he always does.
Musashi laid himself at the counter, with him facing the outside of the bakery. With a little glance, he saw Mamori's hand holding a cell phone and judging by her disappointed face just now, he could guess who she had been trying to call.
"You've been trying to call him?" Musashi asked whiled eyes still fixed at the cell phone.
There was no response from Mamori. She had tried to dial his number 3 times, and all with the same annoying operator's answer. Out of all the cell phones Hiruma had, she notices that he had only brought along the black cell phone with him. So, there's only one number to dial out of hundreds. But still, he can't be reached. It was as if he wanted himself to disappear completely, leaving no trace for people to chase after him. Everything was planned, well planned.
"It would be no use," Musashi continued despite the silence from Mamori. He raised a head to look at the sky.
"When he said he will be leaving, he really meant it. There's no way you could stop him from doing what he had planned to do."
Mamori didn't say a word. Her eyes narrowed and her eyes were hollow. "There were even rumours that he abandon the team." She took a deep breath and let go. "He's not that type of person. There must be a reason why he would just leave like that."
Musashi gave a smirk. "That idiot would do anything but abandon his own team." Mamori turned to look at him, "You just have to trust him, like you always do."
Trust?
Suddenly, a loud call came from across the street. It was Kurita. Seeing Mamori with Musashi, he gave his usual big soft smile and a wave to the girl. With that, Musashi took his leave.
Looking at the two of them walked away, she wondered if the two could become three again. After the conversation with Musashi just now, she felt a little brighten up.
Somehow, she felt as if a little chance of hope arises.
YA-HA!!! Finally, the 3rd chapter!
I felt like my brain had melted doing this chapter. I think this chapter is so boring and hard to do! But anyway, pls R & R!!!
Ehem… I gave another hint on where Hiruma had gone to… hehe… now it's confirmed that he went outside of Japan. Hahahaha……. Again, thanks for all of you people that read my story so far… do review if you think I should improve in certain factor! Sayonara!
YA-HA!!!