The crowd roared to life as the Devil Bats walked onto the electronically lit field for the night game against the Aliens.
"Now, here they are! The Nasa Aliens!" The speakers blasted out one of the most annoying voices on the planet and announced the other team. Edward looked at their serious faces. Good. They're not taking us lightly. We did win against Taiyo, after all. The loudspeaker kept blaring out information on the other team. "The Aliens have Homer's shuttle pass!" So they've got a fancy throw, big deal. I wonder if Monta could intercept that?
Another voice added, "You can't overlook the strength of their offensive line, either." It was the editor from the magazine. Of course they'd have one of their staff members at the thing, especially since they were sponsoring it.
Then the other, more annoying voice came back on. "They're powerful on the inside too! Their player Gonzales is famous for his 'irredeemable tattoo.'"
The player in question proudly lifted up his sleeve and Sena and Monta didn't even try to hold it in. "His tattoo says poop!" Ed crumbled to the ground, gripping his stomach from the sheer force of his laughter. He was so glad he'd taken those Japanese classes now. After the obligatory trash talk between Coach Apollo and Hiruma, and the Nasa rallying cry of "One small step for man, one giant leap forwards toward victory for the Nasa Aliens!" and the much simpler Deimon chant "We'll kill them! Yeah!", both teams lined up and the game began!
Edward bounced on the balls of his feet. Hiruma had told Sena to blitz Homer on this first play to make an impression, but he'd need a gap in the wall to get there. Ed and the rest charged in to create that gap.
Bump! Every single one of them was forced back the instant they made contact with the other team's linemen. What was going on? Ed rushed in again, only to be thrown back. Okay, the other guys had to be doing something he wasn't. Again, he rushed in, but this time, he kept an eye on his opponent's arms. They were braced against his chest, and the instant before Ed made impact, he threw both hands forward. In that instant, Ed leaned back and his opponent fell forward, thrown off balance.
Quickly, Edward got his elbow against the other boy's back and threw the Nasa player into the dirt as he charged through the gap and towards Homer. But he had taken too long. The famous shuttle pass had already taken off, with Watt running up the field hotly pursued by Monta. The Devil Bats watched the path of the ball with Chagrin, and breathed a sigh of relief when it missed and they didn't get the touchdown. They had another chance at the blitz.
They huddled up and Hiruma asked Edward, "What did you do to get through their line?" Ed grinned and told the others. "They wait until you're right about to bowl them over, before they shift their weight forward and bump you hard. The trick is to lean back or slip to the side the instant they shift their weight. It makes them loose their balance, and that's when you get in a sack Homer."
Hiruma grinned and told the rest of the line to do just that. He and Edward would be the blitz line this time. The two teams lined up opposite each other and the American line got their wall ready. They had to be extra quick with the timing now. What happened with the short blond was a fluke. "Hut!" The ball was in Homer's hands and the Deimon line rushed forward.
The Nasa linemen watched their opponents. When the Devil Bats were only about a foot away, they shifted their weight forward and got ready for that sudden jolt. Jumonji and Komusubi watched the linemen's feet as they charged forward. There! Jumonji saw the other lineman's foot bend, with more weight on the toes than the heels. It was a good thing he'd had so many scrapes as a punk, they really helped his reflexes. Jumonji ducked to the side, letting his off kilter opponent fall into the grass.
Komusubi just barreled forward until his helmet collided with his opponent's stomach. If they were leaning forward, then a hit right there, in their center, should topple them over no matter when they leaned. The lineman flipped over the shorter Deimon player and landed in an undignified heap as the Devil Bat ran forward towards the American quarterback.
The shorter lineman locked his attention onto Homer's waist, which was the closest and easiest target for him, but then he remembered what Ed had said during their tackling training. They had to aim for the arms. "Anywhere else and he would have the chance to throw it before he went down," Edward had instructed. The shorter boy leapt up and latched onto the American quarterback's bicep just as Jumonji slammed into him on the same side, hands latched around his wrist. Homer crumbled under the combined weight of the punk and mini Kurita. The Americans lost one yard on their second play, and had only two more downs to move forward.
The stadium roared to life with cheering for the successful play by the Japanese Devil Bats, and the players took a moment to soak it in. They could do this. They could win. And if we win, Sena thought with a smile, Musashi will come back on the team.
Ed's eyes blazed. Musashi was riding on this, but so was something else. He couldn't let Hiruma make good on his bet about the Devil Bats moving. I don't want to have to explain to the others why I can't get through security at the airport or anything. He'd actually never been out of the country because of that, he didn't even know if they'd let him on a plane, with his arm and leg. And he sure didn't want to find that out with the rest of the team to watch. So that meant they had to win this thing. They huddled up again and Hiruma unfurled their new plan.
Yeah, Edward stole Sena's brain moment in the game, but don't worry. Sena still gets to shine.
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