FASH: Happy Easter! I worked 7-3 the last three days, I art dead due to coffee.
""-speech
''-thoughts
Sena sighed as he taped the game from the bench. 'I was really excited about this game, I really wanted to play.' He bit his lip. 'I guess being a secret weapon isn't as fun as I thought it would be.'
Neither teams were making any leeway so far, all of the Cupid's offensive maneuvers were made incomplete by Kurita's awesome defense. Juumonji, Kuroki and Toganou had been forced to become linemen, but they didn't seem to be putting forth much effort.
'If I were in the game, maybe, maybe...' He trailed off, not wanting to sound too overly confident. 'Maybe I could have scored a touchdown by now.'
Just telling himself that made him want to play and test himself even more.
'After all, there's absolutely no way we can defeat Oujou.' He looked up to the small crowd of spectators where Shin and Sakuraba were. 'So this will be out last game of the Spring Tournament, I want to have some actual, competitive game experience before the Autumn Tournament.'
He bit his lip again and crossed his fingers for an opportunity to play.
It was nearing the end of the game with less then a minute to go when Kurita tackled the Cupid's running back near the ten yard line, way too close for comfort.
'They'll probably be able to make a field goal from this distance, and there's not much time left.' Sena fidgeted nervously as he watched Hiruma speaking with Ishimaru lowly. 'I guess Hiruma-san will try to stop the kick and then the game will go into overtime... Maybe I'll get to play then?'
The play began and Ishimaru dashed forward, arms outstretched, but the Cupid's kicker was fast and the ball was in the air before Ishimaru could stop it.
Sena watched the events before him unfold, mouth slowly dropping open.
The ball grazed Ishimaru's finger tips, just enough for it to change course and it was caught by Satake, the dark haired boy who Hiruma had recruited from the basketball club, he stared at the ball for half of a second before awkwardly throwing it to Yamaoka, the other boy from the basketball team.
'Clearly they're too used to basketball to realize that they are allowed to run with the ball in this sport.'
Yamaoka took a good look at the football players barreling in his direction before tossing it over to Ishimaru, who caught it out of sheer luck and began running to the other team's end zone.
'I can't believe we intercepted that! Our team is amazing.' Sena watched as Ishimaru passed multiple players, none of them quite able to keep up with the star of the track team, and soon enough.
"Touchdown! Ya-ha!"
'Man, we must have the devil's luck.' Sena took a good look at Hiruma and decided that it was true enough. 'But next time, it won't be luck. Even if it takes everything I have, I want to score at least one touchdown against Oujou.' Sena turned off the video camera, placed it beside him carefully and clenched his fists determinedly. 'At least one touchdown, and then losing won't seem as bad as it will be.'
Hiruma was making his way towards the bench, ignoring the massive amounts of cheering coming from the field.
"Hiruma-san, I-" Hiruma held a hand up in a signal from Sena to stop talking and he grinned at the younger boy. "Don't worry, I just didn't want them to find out about our ace in the hole, you'll be playing in the next game fucking shrimp, hell, I'd make you play even if you didn't want to." His grin widened slightly and his eyes flashed in what was either a menacing or comforting sort of way, or maybe it was a strange, inconsistent mixture of the two.
In any case Sena smiled brightly at him, too happy at the opportunity to play to be frightened of Hiruma, besides, his willingness to play seemed to have put him on his captain's good side, Hiruma hardly ever pointed guns at him.
"And now that we've had this little talk, I want you to tell me something." Hiruma said lowly, taking out his Devil's Handbook and a pen, eyes heavy lidded as he leaned in close and Sena was horrified to feel blood rush to his cheeks.
But Hiruma didn't seem to notice his blush, or if he did he had already filed away the information for later investigation, and instead demanded that Sena tell him how, exactly, he knew the quarterback for the White Knights and why he addressed him as 'Nii-chan'.
His devious scheme was foiled, however, as Mamori suddenly popped up, seemingly from nowhere, and demanded that he stop bullying Sena.
"Mamori-neechan, you came to watch the game?" Sena asked happily, glad for the distraction, Mamori pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well, it's more like I wanted to check up on you and make sure everything was going okay." She threw a very unsubtle glare in Hiruma's direction and he glared right back at her.
Sena, ever the pacifist, lifted up his hands. "Hiruma-san is being very nice to me Mamori-neechan, you don't have to worry about me so much." "Umm-hmm." Mamori replied, eyes still locked on Hiruma, clearly not believing anything Sena said.
Several meters behind Mamori Sakuraba sent him a tentative wave, clearly not wanting to be noticed by Hiruma, and Sena sent a small wave back, mouthing: 'Goodbye.'
Thankfully both Hiruma and Mamori seemed to be too into their staring contest to notice.
"Sena-kun, Sena-kun! Has Hiruma-kun told you what team we're up against next?" Kurita asked so happily that Sena felt kind of mean, telling him the truth. "Oujou White Knights." Immediately Kurita's smile faded, but Mamori seemed to perk up and turned her attention back to Sena.
"Oujou, that's Takami-kun's team isn't it?" Sena nodded and she smiled. "Takami-kun is such a nice young man, it's too bad not all American Football players are like him." She clasped her hands together and threw a discreet look in an uncaring Hiruma's direction. He was too busy 'calming' Kurita down to care about anything that sprouted from the girl's mouth.
"Anyways Sena, if you ever feel like he's working you too hard, or you want to stop but he won't let you, just remember that you can tell me, I'll make sure everything will end up okay." She ruffled his hair fondly and Sena's smile was laced with embracement. "Don't worry Mamori-neechan, I'm not a little kid anymore, I can take care of myse-" "Oi, fucking shrimp, start gathering up the equipment." "I'll get right to it Hiruma-san... Anyways, I can take care of myself, Hiruma-san isn't so bad as long as you stay on his good side." He gave her a reassuring smile and she smiled back uneasily.
Soon enough everything had been gathered up and everyone was back on the train home, most of the teammates talking with each other excitedly or nervously, since now then knew they were up against the White Knights next.
Juumonji's group stayed silent, apparently they were still pissed off about having to play in the game, and now they'd be forced to play in another one.
'Well, I'm sure being on the line must count as some sort of anger management, maybe they secretly liked pushing the opposing players around but don't want anyone else to know?' Sena had to hold back a fit of laughter at the thought. "Closeted American Football fans, they secretly liiiiike iiiit." He whispered to himself, unaware of a shadow looming over him.
"Uh, are you talking to yourself?" Juumonji asked dryly and Sena almost jumped off of his seat in shock. "Nope! Definitely not." He shook his head furiously and Juumonji's eyebrows slowly rose, but he turned back to Kuroki and Toganou without commenting on it anymore.
'Great, now Juumonji-kun thinks I'm crazy.' He sighed, more because he felt the need to feel dramatic than out of an actual emotional need to express his distress.
Upon reaching the station the players quickly began to get off of the train, probably trying to get away before Hiruma forced some extra training on them, leaving Kurita, Hiruma and Sena to bring the equipment back to the school.
Well, Kurita carried the majority of the equipment, Sena carried two boxes of cleats, and Hiruma carried his Devil's Handbook and whatever concealed weapons he had on him at the time.
And once they reached the school they began putting the equipment away, which was quite hazardous to Sena's health considering how many times he tripped over the various items lying around on the floor of the clubroom. "Hiruma-san, maybe we should clean up the clubroom a bit?" The blond grunted and Kurita didn't pause in his unloading of the equipment in a haphazard manner.
'I guess that means that I'll be doing this by myself.' He took off his blazer and rolled up his sleeves, just leaning over to pick some stray footballs off of the ground when his cell phone began to ring.
He dug around in his backpack and flipped his phone open, raising it to his ear with a chipper: "Hello?"
"Hey there Sena, I watched you're game, I'm surprised Sakuraba managed to tape it all without getting chased away by crazy fangirls."
Hiruma's ears twitched as he recognized the voice on the phone and he slowly began to lean in behind Sena, who was quick to notice and started tensing up.
"Yeah, pretty amazing ending to a game eh? You can really tell that some of our teammates aren't used to American Football yet." "Yeah, it was pretty lucky that you guys were able to pass and catch the ball without fumbling or losing possession." "Yeah, I suppose so..." There was silence for a few moments until Takami whispered, almost so lowly that Sena had to strain to hear him. "Hiruma is right behind you isn't he?" "Uh, yeah." "Well, I'll be seeing you at Seisen Field on the seventeenth at the latest, but I might drop by to see how everything's going before then." He said in a no nonsense manner before speaking a little louder than he had to.
"Hiruma, if you so much as look at Sena wrong, I'll sic Shin after you." Hiruma chuckled deeply, but didn't otherwise respond.
"Anyways, bye Sena." "Bye Takami-niichan." Sena clicked the phone shut and before Hiruma even had a chance to grab his Devil's Handbook and a pen he started the explanation the older boy had been waiting to hear.
"My mom is friends with Takami-niichan's mom, a couple years back she started setting me up on play dates with her friends' children because she wanted me to have friends, and I know Shin-san and Sakuraba-san because sometimes I'd go watch the White Knights practice or play. And that's about it." He said without remorse, because Hiruma would have found out sooner or later anyways, and this way he could still keep a couple things to himself, like knowing Agon, Unsui and Akaba, who Sena was fairly certain Hiruma stole his 'Eyeshield 21' identity from.
"Interesting, any other note worthy things you'd like to tell me now?" Hiruma was quickly scribbling away and Sena could practically hear him adding 'before I figure it out for myself' to his statement.
"No, nothing comes to mind." He replied as he went back into 'cleaning mode'. 'God, this is going to take so much effort.' "Do we have, you know, actual designated spots for all these things and no one ever bothered to put them away properly, or are we just really lacking space?" Sena asked as he picked up a crumpled uniform with the number 80 off of the floor.
"Meh, who cares?" Hiruma shrugged his shoulders and Sena held back a sigh.
"Well you know, maybe if our clubroom left a better impression more people would join?" Hiruma smirked at him as if to say 'the clubroom isn't the reason people don't join, I am' in a very proud manner. "Alright, maybe it wouldn't help." Sena turned and began to pick more stray bits and pieces of uniforms off of the floor.
"But I guess it is a bit cramped in here..." Hiruma began and Sena didn't need to look at him to be able to tell that there was a evil grin on his face. "I'll go and have a chat with the principal about that tomorrow. How are we expected to win if we don't have proper equipment storage facilities?" He cackled a bit and both Sena and Kurita shuddered, hoping that the principal would survive the encounter.
And so Sena spent a good chunk of what was left of the day to clean up the clubhouse, dutifully sticking around even after Hiruma and Kurita had left. (Kurita had wanted to help, but Sena insisted he go home and rest up since he was probably at least a little tired after the game.)
Of course it was far from being tidy, there was too much stuff and too little space, but Hiruma would see that the problem was solved in his own, freakishly effective way.
'Well, I don't think it's going to get any better than this.' He dusted off his pants idily and wondered if there would be a practice tomorrow morning, Hiruma hadn't mentioned that there was one but...
'I'll come early anyways, a secret weapon's always got to be prepared.'