Heartshield 02

Chapter 2 - Venom

Shein Mushanokoji (The Kid)

((Author's note: I know Houston isn't very accurate in this fic, but this is how it was portrayed in Eyeshield 21. Obviously it isn't accurate with its California and Florida like beaches and Pennsylvania weather. BTW, I'm not dead! I just had hardcore writer's block…))

Texas nights were relaxing. The stars were always out, the air was always warm, the moon always seemed to light the whole sky. The sounds of crickets and locusts rang out as I walk the town of Houston after hours. I was positive I was the only one on the street until I saw a girl walking with a large backpack and a huge tote bag of a purse slung over her shoulder. Her hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail, her large t-shirt fell off her shoulders and her shorts were cut dangerously short. She looked like a typical traveler. But as I got closer, I realized she wasn't a typical traveler, but Mari Tanaka, the strategist for the Deimon Devil Bats. Before she ever became known, Yoichi Hiruma was just scary on his own, but with her, they were one impossible mind game.

She walked under a streetlight, which illuminated her tear streaked face. As she walked past me I could smell a mixture of apples, lily, and the faintest scent of liqueur. I shrugged her presence off and continued back to Ben Ranch. I opened the door to the ranch house and found everyone lounged around the living room. Tetsuma sat off away from everyone else and read a book in a lounge chair. When I stepped in, he looked up at me and then back down at his book.

"How was your walk?" He asked. It was rare that anyone besides me heard him talk. He usually answered with grunts and never asked questions, but we had been childhood friends and it seemed like sometimes we only had each other.

"Relaxing." I said as I pulled up a wooden stool and sat down next to him. "What are you reading?"

"The Great Gatsby. It's actually very interesting." He folded the corner of the page he was on and shut the book before placing it on the end table next to him. "Most American Literature is."

"I'm sure the Americans your age around here will disagree with you." I smirked at him and looked around. The ranch house was nice with its white and gray bordered walls, oak floors, Amish made rugs from Pennsylvania, small game mounted on the walls, big game lurking in the corners. My personal favorite was a giant stuffed grizzly next to the couch. It looked so ominous and scary, yet calm and serene. "Well, I'm heading on up to bed. We have training early tomorrow." I let out a long yawn and murmured a quick "Good Night.".

I let myself into the two bed room that I was to share with Tetsuma and let myself fall face first into the pillowed abyss. I loved the feel of the cool sheets under my body as I let my tired eyes close and I drifted away into dream land.

XxX

The next morning, I felt as if I had been soaked in the night. My skin was sticky and drenched with sweat. I felt as if I were melting. After a quick shower and a change of clothes that didn't make me want to sweat out of them and dehydrate on the side of the road like a overworked donkey. I decided to hitchhike and then take a walk in a nicer part of the city with the big beautiful houses that I had enjoyed even before I came here with Doc and the team. My father used to like to vacation here, and he didn't expect us to dress like stereotypical cowboys.

One of my favorite houses was the Apollo house. It was a big two story with a large stone front and a black, large windowed front door. The siding around the rest of the house was beige. The bay windows on the first window were freshly cleaned, window boxes of flowers hang from the top floor. A stone pathway went from the two car garage paved driveway to the front door. The grass was nicely watered and green. A wooden sign hung from the top of the garage. It read The Apollos in beautifully carved calligraphy, and in smaller, neat letters it read Leonard, Jeremy, Maria underneath it. This had been Mari Tanaka's childhood home. She had left it for a small apartment where she lived with a crazed demon, and the only reasons any of us could figure why she left was because she was either being beaten or molested. But judging by her hard, bitter personality, she had definitely been beaten. I have seen the scars on her arms.

"It looks beautiful, but I like to call it the Hell House." A voice piped in from behind me. I turned to look at the hungover mess of a girl that stood behind me. Her red hair was tied into a messy ponytail. She wore glasses so the sun wouldn't murder her eyes. "What are you doing here, Kid?" She asked, glaring at me.

"Contemplating on going bandito on your house. Anything worth stealing in there?" I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm walking. Admiring the scenery. Not all of Houston is poor and ugly."

"I really wish I could just burn this house down without being charged with arson. It's a dream of mine." She crossed her arms.

"Why aren't you with your team?" I asked her, worried about her wellbeing. Part of me thought she could possibly be on drugs or high. Why had she left them?

"I don't have a team anymore." She snorted. "As of last night. I'm no longer a Devil Bat. And I have nowhere to stay." She giggled. "Last night, I slept in some strange guy's car. Bastard tried to touch me. I bonked him on the head and locked him out, and snuck out while he was still asleep this morning."

I felt accountable now if I woke up one day and saw on the news that a young girl had been raped and murdered and left to rot in an alley somewhere. "Look, my team is staying at Ben Ranch. I can take you to go get your belongings, and you can shower and you can sleep on my bed until you're in a better state. Bad news though, there's no alcohol on the farm. Can you survive?"

"I'm not an alcoholic. I just had a bad night." She snapped. "But I'll take your offer. Are you staying for the summer?"

"Yes Ma'am." I put my arm around her shoulder and tried to ignore the smell of booze. "Alright, I seriously need to fix you up before you go back to that hotel." We stopped at a CVS and I picked up soap, cheap perfume, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant. After she cleaned herself up in the bathroom and dried her hair under a hand dryer, she came out. She looked a little better, and I gave her my shirt to wear. She threw hers in a garbage. "Promise me you'll practice good hygiene staying with us."

"No promises." She scowled. Her hotel was only about ten minutes from the CVS, and Ben Ranch was a decently long way out away from the city lines. I didn't want to hitchhike and put a lady in danger, so I decided I'd probably have to get a hold of Doc to bring the truck out and come get us. I called him on the way there, and he cussed up a storm until we got to the elevator of the hotel.

The hallway of the fifth floor had peeling floral wallpaper and green doors. It was ugly and tacky and depressing and the look on Mari's face showed that it was taking it's toll. I watched her pound on the door to room 502 until Yoichi Hiruma pulled the door open with a look of boiling rage on his face.

"Where the fuck were you?" He demanded. I could see a vein was pulsing in his neck.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She pushed her glasses up to rest on her head like a small tiara. She handed him a small yellow envelope. Every team captain knew what lay inside one. A resignation. "I'm part of your stupid team anymore. I'm not coming back to Japan with you."

"All because I had a fucking one night stand?" He hissed.

Mari's eyes widened. This was news to her. "Well, no. But if you wanna mess around with Mama Anezaki, more power to you, you sick fuck." She let out a bitter chuckle. "That kinda hurts, Yoichi, I won't lie." She turned her head and refused to look at him.

"Then why are you leaving?" He put a hand upon her shoulder.

"My mom died, and my grandma isn't going to pay for our apartment anymore. I have to stay here in Houston. When Leo comes home, he's bringing my stuff with him. You have to do something with your stuff. Maybe you can move in with fucking Mamori or something." She rolled her eyes and walked towards me to room 501. "Kid, can you help me get my stuff?" She asked.

She put a backpack full of toiletries and lingerie on her back and took a duffel back full of shirts, and left me to carry another duffel bag and a backpack with shoes in it. Mamori Anezaki watched her leave with satisfaction. "You're a sore loser, you know that?"

Mari dropped her duffel bag and looked straight at her. "You're not the reason I'm leaving. And go ask Yoichi yourself. You were just a one night stand. I'm leaving because my mother died and I can't go back to Japan, not because someone took pity on your and had sex with you because you were a jealous little cry baby. Yeah, I know why you were such a bitch to me." She stopped to brush her hair out of her eyes. "You were jealous, because Yoichi and I were tight. Fuck, I'll admit it. I loved him. But none of that matters now. So you can just go take your Plan B pill and pray to god Saikyoudai accepts teen mothers."

I wasn't even this poor girl and I wanted to cry. That was the thing about people like Mari Tanaka and Yoichi Hiruma. They were like snakes. They knew exactly where to strike and flood your veins with a crippling venom.