FASH: Ugh, working at a coffee shop in the morning is so annoying, to bad I need the money for my precious anime. Anyways, this right here is the second last chapter, and then after tomorrow I'm back to school and busy with homework
""-speech
''-thoughts
Sena was no stranger to Kotarou's complaints, he'd gotten used to his strange keyword which he used to describe everything and had pretty much gotten used to the way Juri and Kotarou acted around each other.
He'd known them both for over a year after all.
His interest in American Football had grown a substantial amount after watching the spring tournament and during the summer he found himself going around to watch various teams practice.
And that was where Kotarou's complaints came in to play.
It seemed that all Kotarou ever talked about was the player Akaba Hayato it was always 'not smart' this and 'not smart' that.
Sena couldn't see why though, Akaba was an amazing player, even if he was kind of strange and was always playing electric guitar, or using musical terms in his speech.
"Stupid teammates underestimating the kicker, not smart." Kotarou muttered under his breath after practice, running a comb through his hair.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've never seen anyone kick more accurately than you." Kotarou seemed to perk up a bit and he puffed out his chest confidently. "Of course, I've got a one hundred percent accuracy rate, smart isn't it?" "Mm-hm, I bet Bando will do really good in the Autumn Tournament with you and Akaba-san on the team."
A sour look crossed over Kotarou's face at the mention of Akaba, but he didn't comment on it.
'The Autumn Tournament, then the Kantou Tournament, then the Christmas Bowl.' He desperately hoped that the White Knights, the Nagas and the Spiders would never have to go up against each other, he wouldn't know who to root for.
'And I hear the Nagas have won the Kantou tournament several years in a row. Agon-san and Unsui-san sure joined a tough team. I wonder if they would let first years play in such an important game?' But then again, it was Agon and Unsui, if anyone was an exception, they were.
'Agon-san doesn't even practice and he's awesome, I still can't get over that.'
He bid his goodbyes to Juri and Kotarou as the Spider's practice came to a close, leisurely making his way home.
When he made it home he quickly re-heated and ate his supper before going on a search, looking under and behind the couches in the living room, crawling along the floor of his parent's room and, still not having found what he was looking for, decided there was only one more place for it left to hide.
"Here Pitt, come on." He gently cooed as he crouched beside his bed and lured his kitten out.
He'd gotten her just a couple weeks ago since his parents had been pleased with the general increase of his grades. She was so adorable and soft, she still hid underneath pieces of furniture a lot of them time, but he absolutely loved it when she'd come out of hiding and let him run his fingers along her fur. "That's a good girl, you're such a sweetheart." He scooped her up into his arms and scratched behind her ears, smiling widely as she began to purr.
He'd been so excited to get her that he'd called Takami up and excitedly said. "I got my kitty!! I have to go now, but I got my kitten!" And promptly hung up.
He wondered how long Takami had stared at his phone after that, processing the information with both eyebrows slowly moving closer towards his hairline.
"You know what Pitt, you're so adorable, I hope you stay this cute forever." He sat down on his bed with Pitt in his lap, petting her slowly as his mind wandered.
'American Football, it really is an amazing sport.'
In the blink of an eye the Autumn Tournament came and went, he'd cheered for Akaba when he was given the Tokyo MVP Award even though the Bando Spiders hadn't been selected as one of the teams to represent the Kantou area.
And then when the Kantou tournament came up he had cheered for the Nagas and White Knights even as the teams battled each other, he had rooted for Agon and Unsui as they were sent out to 'turn the game around.'
And then, after an infinite number of matches, came the Christmas Bowl.
He'd never watched such an intense game, it seemed like during the entire duration of it he was on the edge of his seat and he felt as though he couldn't catch his breath, almost like he was taking part in this awesome event.
A strange feeling washed over him as he watched the game, it was something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but it made him want to get up and do something.
It made him want to compete.
'I want to see how I'd measure up against athletes like these guys.' He bit his lip, trying to keep from fidgeting around during the final quarter of the game.
'Maybe once I'm in high school I join the team, I'm not very strong and I don't have any experience on the field, but the one good thing about me is my speed.'
Of course, the only high school he was bothering to apply to was Deimon since it was close by and Mamori was there, which meant he'd be on the team with Hiruma, which meant he could tell no one of this plan because they would all tell him horror stories about the blond to dissuade him.
'And they'd probably think I'd get killed on the field and would try and get me to join a different club, like table tennis.' But really, as much as Hiruma scared him, Agon had scared him a lot more when he'd first met him, and Sena had years of running quickly of dodging people under his belt.
Soon enough the Christmas Bowl was over and Sena went into his regular routine of jogging, playing video games, playing with Pitt, sleeping and studying for his high school entrance exams. But even through all that the want to join the Deimon Devil Bats and prove that he was no longer the same useless gopher that he used to be did not fade.
'But as soon as they realized that I was playing such a dangerous sport Mamori-neechan and Takami-niichan wouldn't let me play, they'd probably go right up to Hiruma-san and say that I'm to fragile for it.' He sighed.
'Maybe if I was able to conceal my identity with an Eyeshield, like Akaba-san, but aren't you only allowed to wear an eyeshield if you have some sort of eye strain?'
Damn, this was hard to figure out.
'Well, if anyone would support me with this, I'm pretty sure Agon-san would, he knows I'm fast, but then again he might not like it if I was playing with Hiruma-san, since they're not really on good terms anymore.'
Were they ever really on good terms though? Or had they just been using each other?
Sena stored away those thoughts to ponder on for another day, figuring out how he'd be able to join the football team right now was more important than the strange, violent relationship of Agon and Hiruma.
'Well, Hiruma-san's pretty sly, he'd probably be able to fake the documentation I'd need to wear an eyeshield, or he could just blackmail whoever dared to question it.'
He'd heard many scary stories about the Devil's Handbook, he'd even created his own little theory that Hiruma could secretly take over the world with the blackmail material he'd had listed in there.
'What if I applied to be the manager, like Julie-neechan, but it was just a cover?'
No that wouldn't work, even if Mamori didn't think he was actually playing, he was pretty sure if he had anything to do with Hiruma, even just having a passing conversation, Mamori would suddenly be all over him, freaking out in a concerned motherly sort of way and would drag him off to a safe place where he would never have contact with the demonic quarterback again.
"Uhg, this is to hard to think about." He fell back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling with a frown until he felt Pitt nuzzle against his leg.
"Aw, Pitt you're so cute." He moved to pick her up and laid back down with her on his chest.
"It's gonna take a while Pitt, but I'll figure this all out, you'll see. I'll join the American Football team if it's the last thing I do.
He conveniently ignored that with Hiruma as captain it could very well be the last thing he did.
"I don't mind if we don't make it to the Christmas Bowl, or even the Kantou tournament, if next year is anything like last year we won't have very many actual members anyways. I just really want to see how I measure up to these amazing athletes. I know I've just been training myself to outrun bullies, but I think I've gotten faster, or I've just kept on going really fast without slowing down. But, I just kind of want to prove to myself and everyone else that I've changed a lot, you know?"
Pitt purred in response.