Chapter 28: Strength To Prove Part 3


Everyone started laughing.

Everyone.

Well, not everyone, but everyone who was siding with the Sphinxes. They were taunting the Devil Bats' linemen, throwing insults of how weak they were and about why they even bothered to go against the opposing team. The Egyptian cosplaying students were especially annoying, but that was probably because there were a lot more of them in the audience; albeit the Sphinxes were bordering on nuisance since their air of arrogance was quite suffocating.

And it finally hit her. It hit Sena like falling bricks.

'Wow, the students here are really dedicated to the school's theme, huh?'

Might as well ask why the sky's blue.

"I'm sorry everyone," whimpered Kurita, catching the attention of the other linemen who were glaring at the mocking spectators. "It was the first time since ever that we've managed to gather linemen. We all practiced so hard. I thought we might have a chance…" He sniffled, a fat tear threatening to roll down his round face.

'Is someone taping this? Someone has got to be taping this.'

"I guess it was too reckless for challenging the Taiyo team after all," he continued despondently. "Sorry guys, I made you into clowns…"

'So is he gonna give up? Good, because I need to shower.' There was a throbbing pain in Sena's chest, making her frown in exasperation. 'Aw great, my CONSCIENCE is telling me otherwise.'

So that means encouraging Kurita to throw the towel would be a big NO.

Sena huffed aloud and kicked the grass, but stayed put nonetheless.

Komusubi, Jyuumonji, Kuroki, and Togano watched Kurita with wide eyes and slightly dropped mouths, obviously shocked from hearing something so…so…so unusual coming from his mouth. He had always said encouraging comments, always trying to get them motivated and always being the one who worked the hardest. Was it weird to see the big guy collapse from the unstipulated loss just because he wasn't strong enough? No. It was fucking WEIRD! You see, there is a difference between weird and WEIRD.

Komusubi was wearing a frantic face as the Huh Huh Bros stared at Kurita with disbelief. Sena never did find out what their response would be since Hiruma interjected with his imposing presence.

"'Common folks always laugh at challengers,'" Hiruma quoted. "So said someone who ignored all the criticism thrown at him and overcame his greatest obstacle with success."

He looked up hesitantly. "Is it Hideo Nomo-san?" Kurita asked semi-curiously, referring to the Japanese baseball player who did something impressive (from what Sena heard).

"No," Hiruma chirped, "it was Eyeshield!"

"Did you ever say that?" Monta murmured.

"No," she mouthed, hunching over as an attempt to make herself invisible.

"Eyeshield-kun? Really?" Kurita gasped, amazed.

'No Kurita-san! Don't believe that conniving demon! NO!'

"Hellz yeah!" Hiruma pointed his finger at the other boy's chest. "Too reckless to challenge Taiyo's line? Che. No matter what, we have to kick everyone's asses, including the Taiyo's, to get to the Christmas Bowl!"

'Ah man, still onto that?' Sena sighed inwardly.

Kurita let the words sink in, and with those words taken in from the ever-so sage Hiruma, the big fella's confidence flared once again. He jammed his head into his helmet along with an excited Komusubi, and the Huh Huh Bros followed after the two with nil enthusiasm. Apparently, they didn't catch their positive energy.

And so the linemen tried again. Alas, failure was their result. Again they tried. Again they failed. They tried again. They failed again.

The audience was taunting them. Monta got peeved and jumped up in fury, shouting, "BURNING ANGER MAAAX!"

"So what are you going to do about it?" Sena asked with inquisitiveness.

"Well, I could wave my fist at them and pose as a bad boy you don't want to mess with." He looked at her, hopefulness gleaming on his eyes. "Maybe if you were to hold me back…"

"No way, you can get serious with the beating." She snorted, cocking her head at the spectators. "Their booing is kind of giving me a headache."

"Hell no! Then we'll be disqualified!"

"Plus, you would lose the respect Mamo-nee had for you."

Monta gasped. "I wouldn't want that!" Then he paused. "She respects me?"

"LET'S GET THOSE ASSHOLES!" The Huh Huh Bros spontaneously sprung onto their feet and marched over to their designated positions on the field.

"Lookey here, they got their motivation back on," she noted, raising a brow.

"You reckon we'd make a win out of their determination?"

"Heaven above! I hope not."


Near the sidelines, Sena stood there watching Jyuumonji going against his huge opponent, the very one who he kept losing to. But now, at that moment, she saw the ferocity crawling in his skin, awakening his senses as he no longer helplessly push against the Sphinxes' lineman, in hopes of at least budging him, but finding it that if it were to be his last then he wouldn't go down as the loser—not anymore.

Jyuumonji tugged at his opponent's jersey sleeve after sidestepping the attack, and hauled the other boy behind him with a powerful thrust.

"When your opponent comes right at you, grab onto his sleeve, step diagonally, and then throw them down."

Sena remembered hearing him murmur that to himself when they stood next to each other before they got ready to play again. It must have been a reminder—to never lose when it comes to victory.

And so, finally bypassing his opponent, Jyuumonji sprinted towards the Sphinxes' quarterback and lunged, tackling down him and the football. From the corner of her eye, Sena saw how this had surprised many. She understood somewhat, regarding to how the Devil Bats' linemen were well-known as incompetent. Well, surely that had changed their opinions about them.

The football had fumbled out of the quarterback's grip, bouncing off onto the field. "Catch it!" he cried to his teammates.

Togano and Kuroki were about to make their pounce, but to their misfortune the enemy's players were far bigger and was able to shield the ball away from them.

'Well, there goes the plan,' Sena thought. But just as they were going to leave it at that, Komusubi came along and charged underneath the pile of players. He shot out like a rocket and scooped up the football, and then the ball was released from his fingers and flew high in the air.

'This game is getting messy. I mean, it's so disorganized.' This was becoming the longest game ever.

"Get it! Get the ball!" was what she kept hearing from every direction. Sena sighed and told Ishimaru to fetch the ball, knowing that ever since that day in the Hell Tower, the second-year's speed had improved. He casted her a curious glance before letting her words sink in. Then giving a curt nod, he chased after the ball.

It was pure luck that Ishimaru had managed to swipe the ball in time, just right before the opponent could touch it.

"GO!" Monta whooped.

Kurita and the Huh Huh Bros protected Ishimaru from any chargers, but somehow Banba made it in time to block him. Ishimaru stiffen in fear, not hearing the shouts from Hiruma and Kurita. Mamori called out to him to run to the sidelines, apparently fearing for the boy if he ever got hurt from being crushed by an elephant like Banba.

Sena knew that the noises rebounded from his ears, and she also knew that he was scared but wasn't thinking at all. His eyes were wide but his legs kept moving at the same pace—that cannot be good. Ishimaru was going to be crushed—that's definite, unless he gets his head into the program and starts to think!

Banba shifted his legs, revealing a large gap.

"UNDERNEATH!" she screamed.

Ishimaru blinked and fell, but rather falling face first, he somersaulted through the gap. Then out of the way, he planted one foot onto the ground, and then another, and took a step, and another step, and another, and another, and another. He was full-blown running now, and it was pure luck AGAIN that Banba missed grabbing Ishimaru.

It was believed that he would have made it to the goal, but that was until a player tackled him.

"WHOA! WOO-HOO!"

The Devil Bats' crowded around Ishimaru and cheered, congratulating him for making a couple yards ahead. Yes, it was believed that they would have never made it so far when Banba faced him, so it came out as incredible when he went past him. The team also went to Eyeshield and expressed their awe about how quick she was to instruct the boy. She told them that it was mainly because of Ishimaru who acted accordingly to it, with her help or not.

Ishimaru was blushing, sheepish of the sudden attention. He denied that he would be able to do it without her instructions and thanked her many, many times. He looked happy, truly happy.

"Way to go, fucking shadowless!" Hiruma grinned wickedly at him.

'Shadowless?'

"You did it!" Kurita gave him a hug.

Sena smiled. This was a story to tell during her babysitting, unless Ishimaru tells his siblings before she does.


"HUH?"

"HUUH?"

"HUUUH?"

The Huh Huh Bros sneered at the player who constantly looked down at them, taking the liberty to repay the mockery since they went through their line. And then they huddled up, talking about how many times they need to beat them in order to get this 'revenge' that they speak of. Sena could evaluate that they held some nasty resentment towards the Sphinxes, and pulling out the memory of them dragging themselves into the weight-room, she could conclude that the Sphinxes had done brutal beating on the Huh Huh Bros.

It was no wonder why they were oddly ecstatic about this particular game.

Male pride. Go figure.


The score was 13 to 12, the 13 to Deimon's favor. This apparently brought dissatisfaction amongst the opponents, so that was when they decided to whip out their secret player.

Taiyo Sphinxes' cornerback, Kamaguruma Ken.

Also the weirdo with the outrageous hairstyle and personality.

Seriously, his hair was standing on his head and it was perfectly shaped as a column; not to mention how the first-year seemed to worship every step his sempais take. It was slightly nauseating.

Sena dubbed his as the Epic Weirdo.

"You! Hey you!" The Epic Weirdo screamed at them, randomly pointing at a few Devil Bats' players. "Don't be naïve to think that Taiyo's a team that's totally reliant on the line! If the sempais are on the pyramid line then I'm the CHARIOT! The Chariot Cornerback of the Ancient Egypt!"

Okay, so let's redub that even though the guy definitely lives up to Epic Weirdo.

'I'll dub him as Chariot since there's no way I'll recall his full name. Heck no.'

So Chariot it was.

Sena didn't know why, but she suddenly felt compelled to talk to Chariot. It was like a peculiar urging to have a conversation with him, despite her failures as a conversationalist. Buuut Chariot won't KNOW that it's her underneath the shield, sooo…why so hesitant? Sure, why not? Be as giddy and cheery as you want!

So she did. They talked about ponies.

Anyway…

During the play, Chariot was rather violent: he shoved down poor Monta to the ground with such force! And it looked painful too.

Sena and Chariot talked about horses that pulled chariots then.


"He has to do those poses still."

"When will he ever understand that it's lame when he does that…"

Sena and Ishimaru watched Monta do the same finger-jabbing-air and kneeling-on-the-ground pose. It was really lame.

But at least he caught the ball.

"Yahoo!" said Chariot, who was somewhere…


"YAHOO!"


In the end, it was 20 to 20. A tie. A shocker. A miracle (yada yada yada yada).

Those who were supporting Taiyo (essentially everyone other than those in Deimon) were stunned by this because they really thought the Sphinxes were going to win this. Then they became so impressed that they had accomplished something so amazing (for what they considered it to be as), they allowed the Devil Bats to take the win and play against the American football team.

How nice of them, even though they had picked on them mercilessly and annoyed the heck out of them.

So what? This is it? They're just gonna say a few flattering things to them and brush off the fact that they picked on and taunted and mocked and sneered and…and…and…

So that's it?

Hiruma commented about sportsmanship (although he did say, "So whaddya want?", seeing how he did not trust them). The majority of the team was cheering. Banba was complimenting Kurita (wow). Chariot was having a tantrum (okay, now that one was the only normal reaction around). Hiruma climbed up a pole and exclaimed about being the ones playing against the American team.

Woo-hoo.