3rd Down: Enma's flame

The slim runner with pointy brown hair sat on the bed facing his roommate. Hatsujo discovered him consulting a room change. It would be troublesome to face his questions. (What I got myself into...). The Koigahama captain kept a straight face, watching the Notre Dame hero. After a few eternal seconds, he burst out complaining.

"I knew it! We were awful at playing today, so much that you decided not to live with me... We're an embarrassment to the sport."

"H-Huh? No, no, nonono. It wasn't like that, you guys did, uh, fine." consoled Sena.

"You don't have to lie..." he sighed. "I get it, we suck."

"I didn't say that."

"You thought it. It's natural, everyone thinks it, there's no sin in doing it." took in with a thoughtful face, his eyes staring at the ground.

"I-I not." insisted the runningback.

"Listen, I know you do... I know."

He sank into the mattress. Every year Koigahama prepared with a spark of hope to shut mouths and prove his worth. The tournament would begin, the opponents would be revealed... and no, they weren't ready. A record of pure defeats under their belt. Sometimes, on special occasions, they won a game and made it to the second round, only to be eliminated instantly. This was the cruel curse of the cupids. Being the coaching banquet for some luckier teams, they never enjoyed a winning streak, never made it to a bowl. Come to college, change had a chance to happen, but the situation was repeated. They lost again.

"I don't know how I'll go to the next practice. Seeing the guys in the eyes... Agh! Even my girl will think I'm a failure. I'd like to be like you." he admitted jealously looking at Sena.

"Like me?" he asked.

"Yes, you're fast, you're strong. You have a unique talent, I'd like something like that."

Sena felt bad for the quarterback. He didn't really feel like he had any talent, he just ran and ran to save himself from a beating. He never felt he had any kind of running ability. He still didn't believe it. It was not the same for Koigahama's captain. He saw a great football player.

"Uh, Hatsujo-san, I have to go." he said apologetically, not wanting to leave at a delicate moment.

"Sure, sure, I'd have to go too."

"Uh, yeah, see ya."

Uneasy.

The devil bat bolted away from there. It was a real awkward situation for him. (Let's hope this doesn't become routine).

Enma University - Selection of classes

A crowd was waiting at the entrance of the School of Finance. It was time to select the classes for the period, sign up and hope for the best to get good results. Among several overlapping papers, with information on teachers, subjects, and so on, Sena found a sheet with the title "ENMA FIRES". Big enough to be scary. He kept in his mind the classes to attend. He made a list of them during a call with Mamori, to be organized.

Many people were standing next to him writing down schedulehose who recognized him asked for photographs. Next, he went to the room designated for the professor's presentation. He entered a large room, like the one that welcomed him. He looked for a seat in the crowd, took out his notebook to take notes and prepared for the professor's entrance. Then, walked into the room a small, pot-bellied looking gentleman with tousled red hair, tiny scholar's eyes and the attempt at a beard on his lower face.

"Good afternoon, sirs. I am Uegaki Dayu, Professor of Economics III, I will be lecturing to you, my student body, for the duration of the program."

He revealed a fat notebook inside his typical college professor's jacket. Sena would try to work as hard as possible this year. In the upper high school, if it weren't for Deimon's brainy trio, he wouldn't know if he'd be here today. But his pink-haired childhood friend was not with him now. Neither was the malevolent blond who played the game on the field.

Suddenly, as the pompous educator continued his speech unhindered, a hand touched the runner's back.

When this one turned around, he found his friend Monta with a smile.

"Sena! Are you coming to this class too? This is going to be great!" asked in surprise.

"Oooh, this will be so much better with you here. I was feeling kind of lonely."

"I didn't know whether to save you a seat just in case or not." confessed with a laugh.

"Did you see the Fires poster too? Are we going to have to pass an entrance exam?"

"Oh, probably." surmised Monta.

"Well, I hope we do well."

The chubby professor located the pair of troublemakers who wouldn't stop talking.

"But good heavens. The duo in the back, please be quiet or I'll suspend you both." he asked annoyed.

Monta and Sena looked at each other fearfully. They wouldn't last long in the program if they acted like they did in Deimon.

Enma Stadium - Football practice

After the first day of college, classes were over and it was time for clubs. Spending some time on a beloved activity while taking a break from stress. Sena and Monta hit the football field. When the two of them stepped onto the smooth, fresh green grass, they saw a sweaty crowd with some adult muscle milling around. Unsui, Agon's older brother and control tower of the gods of Kanto, saw them. He was wearing protective football gear.

"Kobayakawa-san, Raimon-san, you're right on time."

"Phew, I thought I wouldn't make it." declared Sena.

"What are they doing?" asked Monta.

"The coach is on his way." spoke the shaven-haired one.

The big lineman Kurita overheard new conversation behind and approached them with joy.

"You guys made it! Everyone's talking about the match against Koigahama, morale is in the air."

The quarterback took a second to think to himself. (Team morale went up? That had to be in Hiruma's plan. He intends for us to get overconfident and start the season with a negative record).

"That's great, it will be interesting to meet the team." opined the receiver.

"Now the coach is about to arrive and practice will start. Unsui-kun, you were named captain by the senpais, right?" consulted the Deimon center.

The diligent student was surprised and after a few seconds reacted.

"Ah, yes. Anyway, I don't think it's right. There are many other more qualified members, like Konishi-san." he downplayed.

"Koshiro-kun? U-Uh, I don't know, you know how he is." countered Kurita.

(Unsui is officially captain), Sena thought. His contact with the quarterback was always minimal, they only saw each other in that first year match of Deimon vs Shinryuuji, where Naga lost 35 - 36. Then they met again the following year when Deimon tried to scrape some glory without Hiruma, Kurita or Musashi. It ended 31 - 19 in favor of Naga. At the end of the match, while Ikkyu and Monta were challenging each other in the locker room, he and Unsui crossed paths for a moment.

At the time, the older twin recognized him as a prodigious player. Maybe at his brother's level. That simple idea, even accompanied with a "maybe", left him thinking all night. What he wanted to become.

"It still doesn't seem right to me." he persisted.

Thereafter, an authority figure with extensive knowledge of football arrived on the field. At her side, a gentleman came trotting in a suit and reached the circle of players.

"Greetings... Uh... Payers- No! Players!" spoke Simard, remembering the Japanese.

"Simard-san, such formality is unnecessary. The team has already been greeted on the field by the senpais, now it remains to greet them on the team."

One woman, the authority figure, told her assistant. She had long hair in a high ponytail, analytical eyes and wrinkles. A Sengoku University sports cap on her head, with flexible and comfortable clothing to give orders all over the field. The Devil Bats had moved on from the paternal image of the senior high school coach, it was time for college.

"Okay! Direct your attention here, adult pretensions. In two weeks the spring tournament begins. If we want to go far, we need a great level. How had I put it today, Simard?" she went on before he answered. "Yeah! On each football field, two teams of forty-five players meet. If we lose a game, there are forty-five people better than us. How many will we take? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand? Well, I won't accept any more defeats than is desirable."

The new trainer addressed each of them, raising their spirits. When she had them in her hand, she made the announcement.

"I am Takaoka Tara! And I will train you to be champions, Kenkayuu Gladiators!" she sentenced.

...

...

"Huh? We are Enma Fires." clarified Unsui, the captain.

"A?"

"I had reminded you, coach." warned Simard.

"That's not true- Okay, we'll form freshman and senior teams!"

Despite the fact that the coach forgot the team she was addressing, everyone was assembled into teams according to their year. From what little Simard said: This friendly game would serve to define the coach's first impressions for the upcoming season.

The starting lineup was on stake. Being Eyeshield 21 might not be good enough to be a starting runningback. Being fast, being smart, being effective, that would do the trick. Come on, what he learned in the United States, in a nutshell. It would be a demonstration of level to test the waters. Sena joined Riku, Monta and Mizumachi in the freshmen group. The other players said things like "Good luck, Eyeshield-senpai" or "With you on the team we're going to win, senpai" as if they didn't know that Sena was the same age as them.

"Shouldn't we... do a, uh, physical test first or something?"

"Don't worry, those are wastes of time. Their true value will be seen in action, on the battlefield." replied Takaoka, drilling her players with her eyes.

"Doesn't sound, ah, v-very educational..."

The first-year players were dressed in the visiting uniform, as a metaphor for the fact that they were visiting the veterans' territory. The senior players wore the home uniform. The visiting uniform consisted of a white jersey with a red crescent stripe on the chest, with black borders, like a flaming trail. The home uniform was the one already worn against Koigahama red jersey with a black smoke tower across the center. That was the identity of Enma Fires. Fire, heat, smoke. Simple.

The whistle blew to start the match. Sena and Monta got into position for the kickoff, wearing the light uniforms.

The receiver felt a little strange in a different jersey than Deimon's. He had already experienced it against Koigahama, but was still distracted. (This is Enma. At least it still has the MAX red), thought Monta. The brown-haired next to him already tried another uniform in his time at Notre Dame. It was a unique experience too, running in other colors wouldn't seem significant before you felt it yourself. Blue and gold were unusual.

Enma was uncharted territory. Time to take the first step.

ENMA FRESHMEN VS ENMA SENIORS

Preeep!

The whistle brought the friendly match to life. The mechanical coughing of the device represented its vintage use. Kotaro, the 2nd year kicker, came in to kick. The kick went hard into a corner. Monta ran to receive the ball. The cool wind in his face reminded him that he was playing again. He had to admit he missed football during the vacations. As soon as the ball hit the ground and then Raimon's hands, the veteran defenders were already a few meters away. The youngsters failed to block them, Monta was going to be tackled. (Uh, it will hurt).

"Ush, that looked tough." opined Simard.

"A small receiver, huh... Surprised all the recruiters were talking about him." atoned Takaoka, with a hand on his chin.

"Huh?"

"My goodness, at Oujo the scouts kept naming him. 'We need a faster Monta', 'An athletic Monta would come in handy'. I wondered if 'Monta' was some kind of slang."

"Did they rate the strength of the wide receivers in relation to Raimon Tarou?"

"It seems so. They say he's probably the 'Ikkyu in offense'."

The Ikkyu in offense. It turned out that in the time between Deimon's championship and Sena's internship at Notre Dame, Monta and Ikkyu faced each other again. Then two more times at the wide receiver camp they went to, knowing the other would go.

In each confrontation, Monta came up with the idea of copying Ikkyu's techniques and his backwards running style. He did not succeed. But what he learned in those matches translated into a popular comparison among high school football fans. Monta was as dangerous as Ikkyu. Throwing a pass to a receiver defended by Ikkyu was an assured interception. Sending a pass to Monta defended by whomever... was a sure touchdown.

With the two yards gained on the kickoff, the freshmen start the offense at the 20-yard line. The first down started with Mizumachi at the line, in the offensive tackle position. Kurita was in the middle of the defensive line as a guard. Sena and Riku stood deep in the offense behind the freshman quarterback. On the other side of the melee of players, the captain Unsui was watching the scene. His position as safety committed him to prevent a touchdown, he was the last barrier.

Kotaro watched from the bench, kicked well and was satisfied.

First play.

Sena sighed.

(A run).

"Hut! Hut!"

Sena and Riku ran the moment the quarterback touched the ball. When both brown-haired and white-haired stretched to catch the ball on the hand-off, the two childhood friends went for a run. Such confusion that halfback and fullback, not knowing their positions, approached the quarterback to take the ball. In the miscommunication, the ball slipped out of their hands.

"N-Nooo!" shouted the marshal.

"Damn." cursed Riku.

"T-The ball!" observed Sena.

Mizumachi did his best to hold the linemen back from bursting through the line of scrimmage and capturing the fumble. Monta noticed and almost killed himself running to save the ball from hitting the ground. Sena dove to the ground in time and sent the ball skyward in a desperate act.

Riku jumped as far as he could to get the ball and start the attack at once. The inexperienced blockers could not help Mizumachi to stop Kurita, who with a 'Funnuraba' from the heart pushed five players, including the ex-Seibu in the air. The chaos Simard and Takaoka observed, added to the unmistakable lack of communication, left them shocked. Was this Enma's college level? The first ground play and they almost lost the ball because they didn't know their roles?

"A-Ah... I think it's nerves, Coach." opined the american.

"The twenty-ninth number. He was a first string runner in high school."

"How do you know?"

"The route he took, that deflection to the quarterback is characteristic of a halfback. He should have raised his face toward the offensive line to open up space for the running back. He didn't. Because he thought he was the running back."

Simard was taken aback. The coach noticed it in one play. (Impressive).

When the whole situation became slightly clearer, the important question arose: Who recovered the ball? Did the attackers manage to protect possession? Did the defenders steal the ball?

...

Players without the ball were getting up to clear the air. Mizumachi got up, he didn't reach the ball. Monta also moved away from the mountain of players, he didn't get to retrieve the ball. Unsui, Kurita, Riku... The players continued to leave space and the fate of the first possession was not revealed yet.

...

Sena. He didn't have the ball either.

He got up disappointed -and visibly in pain- after desperately scrambling to recover the fumble.

Then, a player from the senpais' team stood up amidst loud yawns, with large dark circles under his eyes, his wavy hair tied in a low ponytail, because he was too lazy to make it higher. With the ball in his hands, he managed to put an end to the rival offense. Tight end number thirty-four. The sleepy american ace.

Fumbled ball.

"Yaaawnn, I just came in as an outside linebacker and I already got sleepy." complained the recoverer.

The second most sports-savvy player on the team, Konishi 'Koshiro' Masahiro.

The match against the Senpais had just begun. Already the new opponent appeared, a lazy tight end.