The Call of Duty—During the Dinosaurs game, the players aren't the only ones learning the true meaning of strength.
A/N: I think people underestimate Suzuna, her range of emotions and how much the Christmas Bowl means to her as well. Despite her constant, unrelenting perkiness, there are moments when she shows herself to be an unusually mature young woman. After Gaou breaks Hiruma's arm, we see her crying into Mamori's chest, but in the next chapter she's smiling and cheering again. I don't think this illustrates a shallow personality; quite the opposite, in fact.
Every Devil Bat had a job. The line blocked; the backs learned their routes and caught the ball; everyone had to contribute in some way to victory.
It was Suzuna's job to cheer, and even if her assets were, ahem, somewhat minimal, she would have said she did a pretty damn good job. She had that key quality, which was, in her opinion, the ability to remain staunchly exuberant in any situation.
The crowd could be disappointed, despairing, unsupportive, but it was the cheerleader's job to reverse the effects of a bad turn in the game. The cheerleaders were there to boost the spectators' morale, and in turn the crowd would root harder for their team. And so, Suzuna decided, she had to do her job and do it well.
It was hard sometimes. Though the Devil Bats had a tendency to come back from behind, this meant they necessarily ended up in that behind place for the majority of the game.
It had been a big, amazing roller coaster ride, but losing to Seibu…the last play of the Oujo game… In those moments, it was so hard to think of smiling and cheering again, or even staying on her feet.
But it was also Suzuna's job to watch them drop to their knees and pound the ground and scream at their loss, and she would suffer their mourning in silence…and sometimes tears. But once that time was over, she always knew what her job required of her and somewhere inside her, that little impulse to fight for others' happiness pushed her forward. And all of them, being resilient first-class athletes, were on their feet again.
It was fun. Football was fun. Cheering was fun. The whole team was fun! Even You-nii was fun.
That was the only word for it, and Suzuna was probably the first person—ever—to use it in reference to Hiruma Youichi. It wasn't that he was funny, really, just fun. Something about the way he had those pointy teeth and looked like a demonic elf and carried guns everywhere and yelled at everyone but never actually hurt anyone. Suzuna had a good eye for personality (except Sena's, of course—she'd always be finding out new things about Sena, which was what made him so fun). She knew about putting on shows, and she liked doing impressions of You-nii. It was easy, because putting on a show was his business as well.
The never exchanged more than a few words, but You-nii was like the rest of the Devil Bats—they all added a little bit to the team to make it special and different. And they all did their job too.
The Dinosaurs game was the worst. Worse even than that helpless feeling, watching the White Knights' final kickoff, because this time…
It all became real when they started carrying You-nii off the field on that stretcher. Because it wasn't just that he was hurt (how badly they didn't know yet), and it wasn't just that they'd all seen him go flying, bouncing on the gridiron. It was that he couldn't play. You-nii had played football on sand, in the rain, in typhoon-level winds, on grass and artificial turf. Nothing stopped You-nii from playing football.
The fear and sadness at that moment were physically painful. When Suzuna hugged Mamo-nee with all her strength, hiding her face from the crowd, unable to fight back the tears blurring her vision, she knew Mamo-nee could feel it too. Even the boys had to be hurting inside, but she couldn't look at them now. Not yet.
The change came when You-nii spent the last of his energy kicking Kuritan. After he was carried to the infirmary, Suzuna dried her eyes on the tissue Mamo-nee had left her. Then she straightened up, and fumbled for her compact in the little duffel bag where her everyday clothes were stored.
A cheerleader could not look as though she'd been crying.
And so, while Hiruma Youichi lay in the infirmary, pale, sweating, in pain, the rest of the team filled the gap left by his absence with unforeseen bravado. Suzuna put on her very best smile, because the crowd needed it right now, and took her place in front of the stands.
Behind her, the team came to a decision.
Sena, please…
And all together, the Devil Bats roared their usual war cry, louder than she'd ever heard it, almost making up for the absence of Hiruma's ear-splitting yell.
"LET'S…KILL…THEM!"
That was her cue.
"OFFENSE!" shouted Suzuna in her most commanding voice, punching one pom-pom into the air. The Deimon spectators looked like they don't know what to think; that was okay, she could tell them. Suzuna nodded to her fellow cheerleaders, who all looked about as shell-shocked as the crowd, and motioned them to follow suit. By the time Sena started the snap count, they had a good chant going.
Now was not the time to think about You-nii, or how the game would have gone if he were still in it. There was nothing to be done about the past, so Suzuna was going to carry the remaining Devil Bats to the Christmas Bowl the only way she knew how—by doing her job.