Heartshield 02
Chapter 10: Working Together
Mamori Anezaki
At 2 in the afternoon the Devil Bats were supposed to play against the Amino Cyborgs but Hiruma wasn't back with Tanaka yet. I looked at the clock. It was ten in the morning now. Our new cheerleader, Suzuna, sat next to me. "So who is this girl supposed to be?" She asked, looking at my notes. "Everyone mentions her, but no one will tell me who she is."
"I don't know." I shrugged. "She's my partner. While I manage the team and know all the rules, she works with me on strategies and plays. She was also the trainer before Hiruma brought back Doburoku. She used to play football until it got her kicked out of her last school."
"She sounds manly." She stared at me and I couldn't help but to chuckle. The more I thought about all that Mari did, the more I was surprised that she didn't look like a man. I continued to look through my strategies and plays. The Amino Players were twice as big as the Devil Bats and I didn't know how I could get them off balance. Kurita and Komusubi might be okay, but I was worried about the rest of the line. Eyeshield 21 would get flattened if I didn't figure something out. I needed to speak with Doburoku about what to do.
"Suzuna, I'll be right back." I rose from my seat just as the door opened. Hiruma's footsteps were silent as he walked into the room, hands in his pockets and a bubble protruding from between his lips. "What took you so long!? You missed the intro assembly and everything!" I found myself yelling at him. He looked tired from severe jet lag and he was obviously pissed off. "Are you even going to be able to play?"
"Come on." Was all he said, forcing Suzuna and I to follow him. He took us to Deimon's appointed practice field where I saw a familiar player standing in the middle of the field with members of the line all around her. Mari was padded up, sporting a new jersey. Number 2. Her red hair was cut short and tied back. She was holding her arms out explaining something before she put her helmet on. She rushed at Jumonji and knocked him down easily. As we stepped onto the field we could hear her yelling out instructions.
"They're all bigger than you. You have to throw them off balance." She said, tossing her helmet aside and stepping back from the field. She watched them as she practiced and approached me. "Mama Anezaki." She said curtly. She then looked at Suzuna. "Who are you?"
"Suzuna Taki, head cheerleader!" Stupid Suzuna said happily. "Who are you?"
"Mari Tanaka." She said simply.
Suzuna's eyes widened and she grabbed Mari's throwing arm. "I was expecting someone bigger and more muscular. You're kind of girly."
Tanaka's face turned red. I wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or anger. Instead of entertaining us with a response, she looked away and focused her attention on Hiruma who had just started to gear up. Just as he pulled on his jersey, the practice field was infiltrated by men dressed as doctors. They were large and muscular, commanding the attention of everyone on the field. Everyone slowly gathered around. Just when they had everyone's attention, they ripped off their lab coats and showed off their bare chests. They were the Amino Cyborgs.
"Wow." Mari breathed, staring up at the largest one. He had dark hair and very strange eyebrows. He introduced himself as Munakata. Hiruma rolled his eyes and murmured some smartass comment about body building.
"Muscle building at Amino is a science!" Munakata continued, showing off his muscles even more.
"So…Steroids?" Mari crossed her arms as they all began taking supplements. "You know those are illegal in American Football NFL rules, right?"
Munakata laughed and looked down on her. "What do girls know about professional football?"
"Her father played for the NFL." Monta came to her rescue, picking something off his gloved hands. His comment went unnoticed as they continued to brag about their sports medicine and how Amino picks one sport every year to be better at.
"Come on, Anezaki." Tanaka pulled at my arm. "We don't have time to listen to this trash. We have work to do that doesn't involve sports medicine." She mimicked the large man and pulled me out of the room. She had me follow her into the locker room. I knew she wanted to confront me, but instead she was going to make me wait for it. I watched her strip down from her jersey and pads.
I didn't know what to say to her, and I didn't know what she wanted to say to me. We had fought before she left and both of us had been childish and cruel. But I had only acted the way she acted, to do anything to get what I wanted. I did feel bad even though she had left through no fault of mine. I had tried to take credit for shaking her up, making her choke on her pride and leave the team.
"The players are forbidden to have relations with anyone throughout the tournament. They need to focus on football." Her voice was almost mechanical as she pulled a pair of tight black training capris over herself and stepping into her black running shoes.
The way she spoke to me made me angry. We were equals, and here she was reprimanding me like a child. I wanted to scream, to choke her, to do something instead of watching this…succubus pull a tight black tank top over her body. I don't understand what she had that I didn't. Normal guys would be intimidated by her, but Hiruma wanted to go after her like it was a challenge. She pulled on the team's black and red zip up and pulled the zipper just below her chest and fixed her hair in the mirror. She looked tired and worn, but still just as fierce and angry. "What's your plan, anyway?" I found myself asking her. "Is this so you can swoop in and do whatever it is that you want to do?"
"Mamori, think about what you're saying for a minute." She turned to face me, her eyes locked in mine. "You're a smart girl. So really think about this. I've lived with Hiruma for a while. I've had numerous chances to make my move. I've never kissed him, I never held his hand, I never even hugged him. That's because we respect each other's priorities. Our main priority right now is football and if you can't respect that and you're offering a distraction then Hiruma will remove you from the team. This wasn't my decision. It was his. If you have any questions then talk to him about it after the game. If I find out that you have stressed him out before he plays, I will come after you. You're the manager and I'm the strategist. And that's all we're allowed to be for the remainder of the tournament. I want you to respect and honor that."
She seemed genuinely serious, so I gave her my word. Until around one in the afternoon we did our research on the other teams and the bracket not speaking of anything personal. Our conversations stayed solely on the topic of football. We then found Suzuna and walked to the stadium together, still talking about nothing but football. I could handle Tanaka on this level. She was calm, cold and calculating. She wasn't mean, she had no snide remarks and she even sat between me and Doburoku on the bench. She was okay until Hiruma spoke.
"The game is about to start and that idiot and Eyeshield are missing." He said, pulling out his phone. He looked back at Mari. "Aren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on the players? Fucking stupid girl."
"Excuse me?" Mari was on her feet in an instant, finger pointed in his face. "I'm only responsible for them during practice. It's not my fault half of you decided to run here and the other half didn't. Maybe you should have kept better tabs on him, he's your ace."
He just smirked at her and answered his ringing phone. "You're in Nagano?" He asked, trying to hide the disbelief in his voice. "I'll send someone to come get you." He hung up his phone. "Call Habashira." He commanded.
"What?" She gasped in horror. "How dare you-"
"Eyeshield got on the wrong bus and they're in Nagano. Either you get over yourself and call him, or we forfeit. There's no way he'll be here in time for the start of the game, but if we get behind he can at least bring us back up."
Mari wandered off the field and began to dial for someone to help.