Yup, still not giving up on this fic. Hope you're all staying safe and well! Thank you for the constant rain of love this fic gets with every chapter update!

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

To no surprise, Mamori had to pull her head away from her phone as Youichi's loud cackle reached painful levels after she told him what had happened today. It was a good thing she was alone in the house, too, or else someone was bound to tell her to keep it down considering it was now past 11pm.

"Are they fucking serious?" Youichi continued to cackle. "They sounded so fucking serious but their training involves you managing a dumb brat?"

"She's not a brat!" Mamori protested. "Fuyumi is a beautiful young woman and from what I can see she is well-disciplined too."

"If she's so well-disciplined, why does she need someone to manage her?"

"That's..." Mamori cringed slightly. "Well, she seems to also be quite free spirited and it's that free spirit that needs managing, based on what Madam Kaede and Saori have revealed."

"Fuck, if that's the only issue, you've pretty much won," Youichi's laughter continued, though thankfully toned down. "Having dealt with the Devil Bats and the Wizards should make dealing with this brat a lot easier."

"I keep telling you, she's not a brat."

"If she was raised by that woman she's a brat to me."

Mamori settled herself before her suitcase, as there were still a few items to unpack. But it also felt like she was unpacking everything she had learnt to Youichi as well as she told him what she learnt about Fuyumi today.

"Well, according to Saori who informed me once I was dismissed, Fuyumi is also another distant relative of the Sato family," said Mamori, as she began to rummage through her suitcase. "Her father is estranged from the family and he went broke from a bad business, so in desperation he sent Fuyumi here to be raised. Seeing as there are so few members in the family with the potential to be the next head of the Sato family, Kaede chose Fuyumi to be her replacement."

"So the brat didn't have much of a choice," said Youichi, considerably calmer now. "I guess that's where her free spirited behaviour comes from."

"Speaking of which, tomorrow I will need to wake up early and learn her diet requirements. She won't be allowed to eat meat soon, so I will need to ensure she sticks to that diet. I think it's because of that, Fuyumi has requested to leave the residence with me tomorrow evening, her excuse being she wants to get to know me more and show me what Akita has to offer."

"The fucking witch allowed that?"

"Surprisingly yes," said Mamori, pulling out her comb from her suitcase. "Maybe she has a soft spot for Fuyumi?"

"Keh, not enough to pull the brat out of those expectations."

"Hmm..." Mamori went silent for a moment, looking at another suitcase that contained her laptop and other equipment.

As if he could tell what was on her mind, Youichi spoke up. "I'll be there soon to set up your work laptop. You will just have to get used to using your smartphone to pull through for now. It should be easy enough for you, right?"

"The basics of calls, emails, and videos, yes," said Mamori. "It should be easy enough for now." Mamori held back a sigh. "Did the team take my sudden absence badly?"

"Worse. There were fucking tears. I had to stop them from conducting a search party to drag you back."

Mamori couldn't help but sigh now. She hadn't even been there for a day, and she was already feeling homesick. "Banba and Yamato, especially?"

"They'll be kept busy now that I put them on the assignment of finding out more about Kurosaki, on top of training." Youichi paused for a moment. "You don't need to fucking care about them. Just focus on what needs to be done on your side."

Mamori hummed to herself. "Aren't you tired?"

"You should be the one tired."

"Did you eat?"

"Yes."

"What did you eat?"

"Whatever I could fucking scrounge up from the fridge."

"Did you heat it up properly?"

"I may be the devil but I'm no monster to eat cold food."

Mamori giggled. She looked at the time. It was close to midnight now. She had to sleep as she needed to wake by 5am.

And yet she couldn't bear to end the call. Not yet. "Youichi..."

"I'm here."

Mamori closed her eyes, letting his words sink in. "... Everything is going to be fine, right?"

"Of course it will. You're the legendary manager of the Deimon Devil Bats and the Saikyoudai Wizards. If you can handle me and the rest of those monsters, you can do anything."

"And you?"

"Keh, don't look down on the Wizards. We will fucking kill them all. You should know that by now."

Mamori smiled. They stayed in silence for a moment, before Mamori worked up the courage to finally end the call. "Thank you. I will talk to you when I can. Be sure to get some sleep tonight, okay?"

"Ah. You too."

How could ending a call be this painful? Mamori pondered as she pressed the red button on her phone. She wished she could do that cliche thing and have Youichi by the phone as she went to bed. But she couldn't bear keeping him up any further, she knew he needed to rest and get ready for training in the morning. She put her phone away and began to comb her hair.

All the while a lingering pain remained in her heart.

This was unusual.

Youichi woke up the next day in pain. Not because of torn muscles or old injuries. It was a new, fresh type of pain. One he had never experienced before.

Because it was situated somewhere in his chest.

What the heck is this shit? Youichi pondered, still lying in bed. It was 6am. The training with the Wizards starts at 8am. He should be able to make it in time.

But this pain was annoying him. He felt it a little bit last night, and thought nothing of it as nothing more than exhaustion. But this level? Ridiculous.

The first day Mamori won't be around and he already felt like shit.

There was no time to mull over his feelings though. Getting up, he went straight to making coffee and setting up his laptop to check the news and any relevant updates. Today's practice was key now that Mamori won't be around. He will need to push the team even further, especially that little weakling that's meant to replace Mamori for now.

As he reviewed today's practice, his coffee was ready before he knew it. As he got up to take it himself, he felt the emptiness of his apartment ring around him, making him look around for a moment.

His eyes stopped at his work table. It sure didn't take long for him to trash his apartment, Youichi noted, as he looked at the many papers of information scattered around the table. He would usually leave such a mess behind, but that's only because someone would be around to eventually clean it up for him.

"Keh. I really did depend on her too much." Youichi poured himself a cup of coffee but made a quick mental note to pick up his mess before leaving.

Mutou wasn't surprised to find Kurosaki holed up in the clubroom. But he was surprised to find a relatively calm Kurosaki. He had expected his teammate to go insane the moment news spread of Anezaki Mamori's sudden leave and absence from both football and college.

But Kurosaki looked quite calm, staring at his laptop, merely clicking on his mouse rather than typing furiously as Mutou expected when Kurosaki was stressed.

It was so strange to Mutou that he couldn't help but ask, "Is everything okay?" Knowing full well that this may be a death wish.

But again, Kurosaki surprised him. "I'm great. Perfect." Kurosaki's face remained unchanged.

Mutou knew he was taking a risk, but he needed to assess the situation better. "Really? Even though the control tower you so desperately wanted to destroy yourself has now been destroyed with very little effort?"

It was silent for a few seconds before Kurosaki began to cackle. Then he laughed a lot harder, pushing his laptop away and throwing his head back. To Mutou, it almost looked like Kurosaki was screaming instead.

When Kurosaki finally calmed down, a grin remained on his face. "Do you really think that just because Anezaki Mamori isn't physically present, that devil of a Quarterback won't utilise her skills in some way or form?"

"But-"

"It's the age of the internet, Mutou!" Kurosaki raised his voice. "There are cameras, live feeds, data that can be sent in less than a second to her! He's basically keeping her away to ensure that I can't analyse her any further, but to focus on him instead!"

Kurosaki calmed down a little before he continued. "Which, if you ask me, I'm very willing to do so. I'm going to make him squirm in their next game because if he thinks I don't have a plan against him now that Anezaki Mamori is out of the picture, he's completely wrong."

"But of course, you still want them to win the next game so that they eventually face us, right?" asked Mutou.

"They won't lose," Kurosaki laughed. "That's the whole point of what I'm doing. It's like leaving little cracks in their foundation so that when it's our turn, all it takes is one big swoop and they'll come tumbling down."

"I guess with Anezaki Mamori's lack of presence, that can be counted as a crack?"

"Perhaps," Kurosaki sneered. "It's almost ridiculous that all it took was me facing her for them to do something this drastic though. I'm sensing something else is at play here, and they took advantage of what I did as an opportunity instead. But that's fine… I'll figure it out.

I'll figure it all out."

There was still another hour until practice but Banba made his way to the field, dressed up and ready to warm up first. He knew a lot of the other members wouldn't be there, but he did expect another person to be there.

What surprised him was that said person wasn't even warming up, but sat on the benches, talking to someone on the phone in a calm and hushed tone.

"It's all right, you really don't have to worry about anything. We really do have everything under control and-" Yamato cut himself short, though Banba wasn't sure if it was because of him or the other person on the phone.

"Well, I'm sure with your help we can figure it all out. The Babels would have better insight in the working world after all, and that's a good start for us. But really you don't have to-"

Yamato was cut off again, making Yamato look at Banba sheepishly who remained standing before him. "No, I understand. Do what you must. Thank you."

Yamato ended the call and sighed. "Sorry I went ahead and contacted him," he told Banba.

"No that's fine, we're the type to do things as early as possible anyways," said Banba. "After all, our best hint is understanding the Kurosaki family and the power they have and who better to get such insight than the Takekura Babels."

Yamato nodded, but he still had this sheepish look on him that Banba couldn't ignore. "Wait… who exactly did you contact in the Babels?" Banba asked.

"I err… contacted Takekura himself, Musashi."

Banba was still confused. "Isn't that who we were planning to talk to anyways? So why are you looking like that?"

Yamato let out a nervous laugh. "Well, I told him about Anezaki's departure and he didn't take that part well. I think we forgot a very vital point about Musashi."

"What's that?"

"He was pretty close to Anezaki and Hiruma back in Deimon, so there was no way he was going to sit back and NOT take her departure personally."

"Oh… no." Banba finally understood and grimaced. "You don't mean-"

"Yeah, Musashi is definitely planning to visit Hiruma and give him a piece of his mind."

"When?"

"Definitely today."

"Damn, and here we thought we wouldn't drag Hiruma into our research."

"Well, I suppose he was going to find out either way," Yamato shrugged, finally getting up. "But let's just hope our Devil Quarterback is ready to deal with an old friend who definitely sounded unhappy."

"... Yikes. Oh well. Let's warm up for now. If Hiruma does decide to pin the blame on us, we might as well continue to prove our worth to him."

Yamato nervously laughed. "Ever the optimist, Banba. Let's go."

This chapter is more of a setup for the next chapter ahead so I'm sorry if it feels like nothing has happened. Progress will happen soon, I promise!

Hope you all missed Musashi cause he's going to make an appearance next chapter! Just a quick recap, the Takekura Babels is a football team mainly consisting of working adults, but they can still participate in Football games against College students. They won't play a major role but I loved bringing them back in some way as I think they're a group that deserves a little more love.

So far I can at least handle chapter updates monthly so here's hoping I can keep it up. Like I said, still not giving up on this fic. I cannot thank you all enough for the love this fic keeps getting despite all these years! It really means a lot to me that this fic is still giving you joy in some way, even if you have moved on from Eyeshield 21 and HiruMamo. Thank you, and until the next chapter!