FASH: Hello my lovely readers, I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Man, apparently I accidentally called Takami Takami-neechan in a chapter instead of nii-chan. Woah, big-sister!Takami, lol, my bad. (Sweatdrop)
""-speech
''-thoughts
"Running back eh?" Hiruma closed the Devil's Handbook with a large grin spreading across his lips. "Do you know how fast you can do the forty yard dash in?" "I can do it in under five seconds." Sean responded confidently, of course he'd only ever done the forty yard dash once with Takami, but he figured he must have gotten faster by now.
"Really, let's go check you out then." Hiruma grabbed onto his blazer and lifted him up from the chair and out of the clubhouse, Kurita not far behind.
Sena was thrown onto the football field and Hiruma pulled out a stopwatch from somewhere.
'I swear he must have sub-dimensional pockets to store all his stuff or something.' Sena thought as he got as he went to the yard line forty yards from Hiruma and prepared himself.
"Ready? GO!" Sena pushed himself forward quickly before settling into a more steady pace, quickly passing Hiruma and slowly down to a stop.
"Hiruma-kun, how did Sena-kun do?" Kurita asked, peering over Hiruma's shoulder at the stop watch curiously.
"He did it in 4.7 seconds." Hiruma said already digging around for his laptop to bring up some records. "Whaaaaat?" Kurita turned to Sena and took him by the hands. "Sena-kun, you're awesome!" "A-am I really?" Kurita nodded reverently. "You broke the five second wall that separates sprinters from ordinary people." He picked Sena up and began swinging him around. "With you on the team I'm sure we can make it to the Christmas Bowl! I can't believe you weren't famous for your speed in middle school."
"Hmm. Kobayakawa Sena's Middle School fitness tests." Hiruma began, having found the information he was looking for. "You were best in school only at side step exercises." He threw Sena a look. "So I suppose that means you didn't want people to know how fast you really were, bullies perhaps?"
"Where'd you get that information?" Sena asked, but his question was ignored.
"You've developed a phenomenal burst speed by being a gopher for bullies, that's how you got that rocket start." Hiruma was opening up a bag of dog treats and Sena tried to ignore the action. "But you're speed eases up after you think you've escaped the majority of the danger. But if we keep the danger right behind you." Hiruma smirked and stuck a bone shaped treat in Sena's shirt. "You won't allow yourself to slow down."
Sena did not like where this was going at all.
Hiruma sucked in a lung-ful of air and began walking towards what had been Sena's starting point before bellowing out: "CEREBERUS!"
Sena looked around wildly for the hell hound to appear. 'Oh God, will I be able to outrun him this time?'
Appearing like some sort of demon out of hell cam Cereberus, already growling and in a bad mood.
'Maybe he remembers me from that time I tripped over him?' Sena thought nervously, watching as the dog's claw flashed menacingly as it leapt forward.
"HIIIIIII!" Sena turned tail and ran as fast as he possibly could in Hiruma's direction, not bothering to stop this time as he tried to keep himself from becoming the mad dog's chew toy.
"YA-HA! Look at that skill!" Hiruma pumped his fist with the stop watch into the air and grabbed Kurita with his other hand. "Forty yards in 4.2 seconds, it's a new high school record! That's top speed even for the NFL!" Hiruma turned to yell at Sena, who had sadly been caught by the ravenous beast.
"No one can stop you, fucking shrimp!" Hiruma exclaimed, already pulling out an application form from a duffle bag that had been left on the field.'No one except your dog apparently.' The brunette thought from his rather painful position on the ground.
Kurita stumbled towards Sena, shooing Cereberus away effectivly. "S-Sena-kun, you really are amazing, not even Shin can touch that, his best speed is the forty yards in 4.4 seconds." "Shin-san is amazing." Kurita smiled widely. "But you're even more amazing!"
Sena found that rather hard to believe. "But I only run this fast when I'm being chased by Cereberus right? On the field I'll still just be 4.7."
Kurita seemed shocked that Sena thought of it as only 4.7, but wasn't able to comment on it as Hiruma was already dragging Sena back to the clubhouse.
"Come on fucking fatty, we've got some stuff to go over in private." Hiruma called back, glancing around to make sure no one had seen Sena's amazing feat.
"Here's your application form." He said as they entered the messy building, pushing the slip of paper into Sena's hands and grinning in a spectacularly evil way as Kurita smiled soothingly.
"You've got golden legs, and since I don't want to have to go through dealing with teams who want to scout you and steal you away-" Hiruma strutted over to a table and picked up a helmet with an eyeshield.
"From now on when you're on the field you will abandon the name Kobayakawa Sena and go by Eyeshield 21!"
'Eyeshield 21? Like Akaba-san? Well, that solves one problem at least.'
"Alright, and while we're at it could I pretend to be the manager? Because I have a really over protective older sister figure-" 'And older brother figure, and older friends.' "And she'll get suspicious if I'm not walking home with her everyday with out a good reason. But if she finds out I'm on the team she'll want me to quit."
Hiruma rose an eyebrow. "Who is it?" "Anezaki Mamori." Hiruma nodded in understanding. "I see, the last thing I want is for that annoyance to be flitting around, interrupting practice."
Sena frowned a bit at the annoying comment, but did nothing otherwise. 'I suppose Mamori-neechan has been the only one who bothers standing up to Hiruma-san, so he probably does find her annoying.'
"So, do we have morning practice tomorrow?" Hiruma grinned and pressed his index finger against Sena's forehead. "You bet your ass we do, I expect you to be here right on damn time too at seven o' clock."
Sena smiled brightly. "Of course, I'll be here bright and early tomorrow." He turned and walked out of the clubhouse.
Hiruma and Kurita watched him go.
"Hiruma-kun, that was the first time someone willingly joined our team since we entered high school." "Yeah." Hiruma was fooling around with his laptop, searching for some extra info on his newest recruit.
'Kobayakawa Sena eh? That shrimp is pretty wimpy looking, but he's got balls.' Not many people looked him in the eye, or requested things of him. 'This year is going to be fun.' He grinned once more and Kurita sweatdropped.
The next morning as Mamori walked past Sena's house on her way to school she saw Sena just coming out the door, curious, since as far as she knew Sena had no reason to go to school so early, she snuck up behind him and tapped his shoulder.
"Hm, Mamori-neechan? What are you going to school so early for?" "Disciplinary committee meeting, how about you, it's unusual for you to be out of bed so early."
Sena smiled brightly. "Yesterday I joined the American Football Club." Mamori turned to him, eyes widening in shock. "The American Football Club? But I told you to stay away from Hiruma! And football is to dangerous! You're slight, you're delicate, you're frail, not to be mean or anything, but you're just plain weak!" 'That's pretty harsh, but it's good to know she cares enough to get worried.' Besides, Sena had expected this reaction.
"Don't worry Mamori-neechan, I won't actually play, I'm the team manager." "Oh, that's a relief." Mamori held her hand to her chest and sighed before perking up. "Wait, then why are you going to school so early."
"Administrative staff meeting." Sena tightened his tie and smiled. 'Now Mamori-neechan won't wonder what I'm up to if we can't walk to and from school together.'
He passed by the football field on the way to the clubhouse and saw Kurita practicing enthusiastically. 'He's already suited up and everything, I wonder what time he got here this morning?' He kept his eyes focused on Kurita as he pummeled his equipment, not noticing Hiruma blocking his path until he walked into him.
"H-Hiruma-san?" Hiruma glanced down at him, blowing a bubble calmly and shutting his Devil's Handbook..
"Hey fucking shrimp, have you ever practiced before at all? Or do I have to show you what to do?" "Well, I've seen people practice, so I think I should be okay for the majority of the stuff." Sena replied uneasily, the majority of his confidence having been used up yesterday. 'Thank God I decided to go and watch everyone practice once in a while.'
Hiruma nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Get into your gear and don't forget the eyeshield." He ordered before passing by Sena and walking towards Kurita. "Oi fucking fatty, what time did you get here?"
Sena stepped into the clubroom, carefully stepping around piles of dirty uniforms and unused equipment to the table where his uniform had been laid out for him.
'My first uniform from my first club.' Sena ran his fingers along the helmet and over the eyeshield, feeling somewhat sentimental. 'I wonder if Hiruma-san knows about Akaba-san? I hope no one gets upset that I'm using his code name.' He frowned slightly but decided to stop that train of thought. If it happened, it happened, and since it was Hiruma who had given him his on-field identity it wasn't like he was going to try and change it for fear of making the older boy angry.
He quickly glanced around, the clubhouse was rather cramped and there appeared to be no separate area for changing, unless the door to it was hidden under a pile of stuff.
So he quickly turned around and locked the door tightly before stripping out of his school uniform and putting on the multiple pieces of protective equipment (knee pads, thigh pads, rib pads etc.) before slipping the uniform on over that, and fumbling with his helmet until it was secure.
When he came back to the field Hiruma was yelling at Kurita, probably because the piece of equipment he had been pummeling early had broken, but Hiruma was quick to cool down and said something that sounded suspiciously like: "I'll just force the principal to get us a new one."
'Kurita-san's strength is pretty scary, but Hiruma-san's lack of morals is even scarier.'
Sena's first practice of the year was fairly easy, he tried out the ladder drill, watched Kurita and Hiruma do a forty yard dash and ran some laps while Hiruma watched him closely with a rather unnerving grin on his lips.
"The Spring Tournament is ours!" Hiruma exclaimed after Sena had run five laps around the field and was still going strong.
"Oh, that's right, the game's coming up." Kurita said and Sena stilled his run to walk over to his teammates.
"We'd better start gathering support players." Hiruma said as he began gathering up his equipment.
"Hiruma-san, when is the first game?" Sena asked curiously.
"Tomorrow." Hiruma replied cooly, to which both Kurita and Sena replied with a rather loud: "No way!"
"So we need eight more players for tomorrow's game, so round up some people during class, whoever brings in the least gets the penalty game." He ended on a sinister note before strutting away.
'P-penalty game? Hiruma-san sure knows who to get people motivated.' Sena sighed and Kurita patted his back soothingly. "Don't worry Sena-kun, I'm sure we'll both get enough people that neither of us will have to go through one of Hiruma-kun's punishment games." Kurita said optimistically before heading back to the clubhouse.
'I suppose it's a bit mean of me, but I kind of thought that Hiurma-san would be able to gather up eight more players by himself. I guess even he needs some help sometimes, maybe not everyone is swayed by blackmail and his evil aura.' Sena clenched his fists determinedly. 'That's it, if Hiruma-san can make people join the team by being himself, surely if I act the polar opposite of him, nice and sweet and respectful, people would want to join because they wouldn't be afraid of me!'
Or at least that was what he told himself, by the end of the day his plan hadn't worked at all. 'Maybe mimicking Hiurma-san would have been easier.' He slumped against his desk as the last class of the day ended.
Most people at this school, even if you were being nice to them, seemed to cringe whenever you mentioned the American Football team. The only ones who didn't were the first-years who didn't know any better, yet.
He lifted his head off of the desk, watching as his classmates left the room without a care in the world. 'I'm doomed aren't I? Well, Hiruma-san can't do anything too bad, since he needs me to be in working order for the game.' He turned his head, caught sight of Juumonji, Kuroki and Toganou and decided to ask them just for the hell of it.
"Do you guy want to play American Football?" He asked dully and, just like he had predicted, they scoffed at his question.
'That's too bad, they have pretty good builds. If I were like Hiruma-san I could just reveal that I know their deepest, darkest secrets and force them to join.' But alas, he didn't think he would ever be able to stoop that low, so he would just have to see how the recruiting job was going for the others.
As expected Hiruma had already gathered a fair amount of people, but he and Kurita hadn't convinced anyone to join yet.
'Kurita-san looks so depressed.' "I'll go ask some more people, don't worry, I'm sure I'll be able to find a couple people willing to play." Kurita sniffled and nodded.
'If we don't get enough people and have to forfeit our first game we won't be able to play until the Autumn Tournament, I don't think I can wait that long, just practicing and sitting on the sidelines as I watch games, I want to play!' He rushed around to the various clubrooms he hadn't visited yet, getting resounding 'no's from everyone until the only clubroom left was for the track and field team.
He carefully opened the door and spotted one person inside. 'That makes it easier, it's not as scary talking one on one with people you don't know as opposed to ten on one.'
To his delight and surprise the boy, Ishimaru Tetsuo, agreed to play. "Hiruma is recruiting first years right? If I play with you guys I can see their athletic ability and then maybe I can convince the promising ones to join the track team." He explained.
"Great! So I can count on you tomorrow?" "Tomorrow! No way, can't do it!" "Wh-why?" Sena cursed his rotten luck.
"Well you see I've got a job delivering local magazines and I've got to deliver them all by tomorrow afternoon." Sena stepped forward. "I'll help you deliver them, just please say you'll play." Ishimaru sent him a questioning look but relented.
"Alright, I'll give you half the map and we'll meet up back here when we're done." "Alright." Sena smiled brightly and nodded. "You can count on me."
