When the gang got to the clubhouse the next day, no mouth stayed closed. What the heck had happened? Their clubhouse was a construction zone! Ed glared at Hiruma. "What did you do?"
The second year cackled. "We're getting a locker room. The principle promised one extension per victory. This is for beating Zokugaku." Ed smirked. So he didn't just threaten students after all. The devil walked up to one of the workers and asked, "Can you finish it in one week?"
The man to a puff of his cigarette and blew out. "You must be crazy! The concrete won't even be dry by then."
Hiruma scowled. He needed it finished now! Then he got another of his so-insane-it-had-to-work ideas. He slammed the butt of his gun into the ground and shouted at his team, "All right, all hands on deck! All of you to work!"
"What?!" They shrieked, backpedaling away from the clearly insane quarterback.
"Construction work will be perfect for drills," he proclaimed as he threw work clothes and boots at the rest of them. "It's basic strength training."
They each grudgingly picked up a pile of clothes and headed into the school to change. "Man," Monta complained to Sena, "why do you and me need this training? We don't have to be strong to cover our positions."
"Yeah," Ed replied from inside one of the bathroom stalls as he pulled off his pants and stuck his feet into the looser work pants, "But construction needs more than just strength. You'll get trained for endurance too, and any athlete can use that." He tied the laces of the heavy duty boots, slipped the work shirt on over his under armor and unlocked the door with his other clothes in hand, finished. "Besides, the more muscle you have, the harder it is to get hurt. Without muscle, you're too easy for someone like Shin to break." After that, the boys rushed to get changed.
They deposited their own shirts and sneakers in the clubhouse and lined up in front of Hiruma in the work clothes. He looked them over. "Good. You'll take orders from this guy." He jerked his thumb at the smoker he'd talked to earlier. "He'll tell you what to do."
The smoker looked over each player. Kurita and Komusubi, as linemen, needed to build their arms up. He assigned them to hauling steel and gravel. The two pipsqueaks both ran all over the field, but they needed to outrun opponents, not overpower them. They were told to move the bagged concrete from one side of the building to the other in the longest route possible.
Bulking up the tall guy wouldn't do much good, but he could use a boost in endurance. Concrete mixing seemed like a good idea, and it'd build up his arm strength at the same time. One glance at the brothers told him they'd need special attention. Jumonji, Kuroki, and Togano went right under him, with orders that had them doing everything, with absolutely NO slacking off.
Finally, the only one left was the short blond. Hiruma had told him about this kid. "So you're the Tight End."
Ed stood tall. "Yeah. What about it?" He challenged the old timer.
He looked the shorty over again. Simply putting him on speed training with the other two was tempting, but the kid didn't need a special sort of training, being rather like Hiruma that way. He was rather the opposite of that tall kid from earlier, who needed to work on everything. Finally, he put him to work shoveling out dirt for the foundation. It was a full body workout, so it was endurance and strength training, and it didn't hurt that you needed to wear gloves for the job. Maybe he'd switch him to a speed exercise later.
Monta and Sena carted the bags around all afternoon, jealously catching sight of the practicing soccer team. They were working of their footwork, doing nothing but kicking the ball around and learning cool tricks from their coach. One guy was practicing kicking the ball straight into the air, over his opponent's head, swerving around, and kicking it again when it landed. Sena unloaded the bags from his arms again. "The basics are pretty tough…"
Monta nodded. "Basic is fine but, I want to hurry up and work on my super catch plays." The construction chief couldn't help but overhear.
"What're they mixing concrete for?" Hiruma asked, "We can just have a block foundation, right?"
Musashi smiled. He wouldn't get a better opportunity. "If you don't lay a good foundation, then the whole thing will fall apart." He saw the two smaller players stop and listen.
Hiruma, oblivious to the two listening teenagers, commented, "We're not planning to use this building for decades, anyway."
"You're going to use it through the end of this year, though, aren't you?" He saw Sena turn his head to hear better. Musashi grabbed the knot at the back of his head and pulled it tighter. "In order to build something that will remain standing until the end, you have to start with a strong and solid foundation."
"Yeah, my teacher wouldn't let me learn kicks until three months into my training." Musashi looked over at the blond pipsqueak still digging. Had he caught on to what the older boy was trying to do? "If I hadn't gotten stronger first, I would've hurt myself with the very first kick I tried." He winked at Musashi.
The receiver and runningback ran off to get more bags and Musashi turned to Ed. "The foundation's almost ready. We can start pouring in the concrete now. Elric, get up here." Ed put his hand on the rim of the pit and vaulted up out and onto the level ground, grinning.
The pipsqueak started pouring the mixed concrete into the hole. "So, did you ever play a sport?" he asked.
Musashi sighed. "Yep, but I quit. Still," he looked around at the kids working hard, "it'd been nice to be on a team again." He turned back to the wall he was working on, but couldn't hide the small smile. Ed just shrugged and poured out the concrete.
I liked letting Ed in on Musashi's little strategy. Please Review!
Also, I wrote a fight between Agon and Edward in a couple chapters! Who wanted to see that?