Three days after they returned from America and got back into the swing of things at Deimon high school, the Devil Bats headed for their clubhouse after practice to find out who would be the players on the team for the fall season. Ed glared at Taki from the other side of the room. If he got kicked out because of that stupid blond…well he'd just find somewhere to hide the body. "All the guys whose names I call out, we'll use for both offense and defense." Kurita dumped the box of clay figures out on the football side of the table. "First," Hiruma slammed the figure with the pointy ears down, "the quarterback. That's me! Next, four linemen." He looked down at the folder with his notes for the team. "Kurita, Komusubi, Togano, and Kuroki."
"What?" Togano stuttered. "But-"
"Jumonji and Edward will switch between running back and lineman depending on the play." The brothers breathed with relief. For a second, they'd thought that, well, that Jumonji hadn't made the cut. "Eyeshield is our permanent running back. Tight end is," and Hiruma glanced at Taki. Despite the boy's earlier bluster, sweat had beaded on his upper lip and the boy was tense. "Natsuhiko Taki." Edward put a hand over his ear as Sena, Suzuna, and half the team roared to life, congratulating the new player. He rolled his eyes at Taki's sudden burst of confidence. Like the guy hadn't been shaking like a leaf before Hiruma said his name.
"Lastly, two receivers." Ed perked up. He actually wanted to know about this. "Taro Raimon, and one other!" Ed glanced at the only rookie second year. He'd trained as hard as the rest of them during the death march, but… "We'll alternate using one of the basketball players as a substitute. Satake or Yamaoka."
"What!?" Mamori yelled as she hurried around the table towards Hiruma. Edward sank into his chair. It had been the right call, Yukimitsu wasn't good enough yet, but still…
Hiruma tossed the black folder of team assignments and walked out the door. "That's it! Listen to Doburoku for each of your defensive positions." Mamori chased him as he went out and the rest stopped listening as Doburoku listed off who was what defensive position. "Defensive linemen are Jumonji, Togano, Kuroki, Komusubi, and Kurita. Middle linebacker is Edward, Taki and one of the substitutes are the outside linebackers. Monta and the other substitute are cornerbacks. Hiruma and Sena are safeties." He closed the folder and told everyone to get out of their uniforms and ready to go home.
Taki whipped his jacket on with a flourish and turned around to comment to Edward on how he would try to help the boy become as great a linebacker. As he watched, Edward removed his under armor. The taller blond looked like he'd just swallowed wasabi. Suzuna saw his face and asked,"What's wrong now?" She turned and froze. "Wha-what?" Edward slid his shirt back over his arm and slung his jacket over his arm. Slowly, he walked to the door. Suzuna shook herself and glared at Monta and Sena. "Explain."
The boys froze under the slightly heated gaze. "Explain what?"
"Why is someone like that on our team?" She jabbed her finger in the direction of the open door. "How can he even play like that?"
"Actually," Sena said, voice growing stronger, "Edward is one of our best players, better than Me or Hiruma."
The skater didn't look convinced. "He can run the 40 yard dash in 4.4 seconds," added Monta, "And I think only Kurita is stronger than him. We probably would have lost the Nasa and Taiyo games without him."
"But, his arm…doesn't that hurt?"
"Not really," Sena answered Suzuna, "only when you take it off and put it back on." Taki turned a bit green and ran outside. Limbs coming off… that was not an image he wanted in his head. He was so busy he didn't notice the shorter player grinning from where he leaned just outside the door to the clubhouse.
A few days later, everyone crowded around Mamori as she Drew a black X over yet another day on the calendar. Only three days to go! Ed spent most of the day out on the field, throwing himself against the blocking equipment. But this time, he didn't strap extra weights to his arms and used his whole body. He couldn't really be on his game if only half of him was at its best, now could he?
Two days to the start of the fall season, and when Hiromu finally saw Edward back at the youth's apartment, the blond was trembling like he was having a seizure. "Are you alright?" the artist asked.
"Very hard practice," Ed mumbled before he collapsed through the unlocked door. Hiromu decided to come back after the start of the fall season.
Then, with one day to go, Kurita vanished. "But the fall season starts tomorrow!" Monta yelled, clutching his football.
Sena headed for the door. "Where could he have gone?"
"We should probably split up and look for him," Jumonji added. The group assigned each other different areas and took off to look for the big lineman.
Hiruma headed for the storage shed. Sure enough, the vaulting horse was shaking from the force of the trembling boy hid inside it. "Just as I thought, you fatty. Whenever you're scared to death, you hide in the vaulting horse."
"Hiruma," asked the boy inside the piece of equipment, "Do you believe in reincarnation? Could I be a high school student just one more year? This isn't anything like last year's fall season. Back then, I thought we'd have another shot. But now this year's…"
But Hiruma wasn't having it. "Stop whining and get out of there! We finally have a team to back us up and you're just going to hide and let us fight without you? Idiot!" He fired at the vaulting horse, making Kurita and the whole thing jump several feet in the air.
On their way to the shop classroom to find something to hopefully get Kurita out of his predicament, they passed their old classroom. "Look, it's the first years' room 2!" Hiruma stopped and turned around as his friend reminded him. Was it still there?
Aparrently yes. The TV he, Musashi, and Kurita had written their goal on was still…Hiruma's mind temporarily stopped working when he saw the side of the TV.
Their original message had only filled up about the bottom half of the side of the TV, even writing as large as he could. At the time, Hiruma had been trying to fill the space where other names, of more players should have gone. But now the side was crammed with names in other handwriting.
"Kozuki Jumonji"
"Koji Kuroki"
"Shozo Togano"
"Suzuna!"
"Mamori Anejaki"
"Edward Elric"
"Taro Raimon"
"Doburoku Sakaki"
"Daikichi Komusubi"
"Sena Kobayakawa"
"Natsuhiko Taki"
"Manabu Yukimitsu"
Kurita busted right out of the vaulting horse when he saw that, and Hiruma almost wanted to do the same.
I really, really wanted to do something with the TV. How did you guys like it?
