Chapter Thirty Seven: Man's Best Friend
Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.
Song Playing: Agony Reprise (Into The Woods)
Theme 94: Old
Cerberus was a dog.
Cerberus was, according to the majority of Japan, the three headed hell hound dog reincarnated into the vicious living garbage disposal that he was.
Cerberus was, despite the biting barking scariness, a good dog. He kept thieves away. He was an excellent motivator. He made sure the food in the fridge never reached its expiration date. And while food was his main reason for sticking so close to Hiruma, and therefore Mamori by association, she still liked to think that he liked her.
She certainly liked him.
They had an understanding between them involving Cerberus being potty trained and walking her home at night after practice. In turn she made sure he was fed regularly and had a warm place when it snowed.
It was strange to think she'd never again hear the snapping of his jaws. There would be no more bite or scratch marks to mend. Leftovers would actually exist.
It was a very depressing thought.
Though it really shouldn't have come as that much of a shock. After all, Cerberus was a full grown eating machine by the time he became the unofficial secondary mascot of the Devil Bats. Then he lived the adventurous life as a member of the football team followed by the years at the university and the last few months in the new apartment shared by the former captain and manager. With all that taken into account and converted into dog years then it was nothing short of a deal with the devil that he had lived as long as he had.
But he had seemed so fine when they had left!
With summer winding down, they had to start getting ready for a new football season to start up again at Deimon High School. Since their graduation the football program there had more or less been run into the ground. Leaving Hiruma, who refused to see what had been his first enterprise die in such a pansy, to storm in and take charge. With no one able (or willing) to work with him on the program the task immediately fell to the ever faithful Mamori. So they had started the preparations needed to bring high school football back up to Hiruma's standards.
His standards involving exiling the previous staff, a complete remodel of the club house, and a team roster of kids who didn't know they were even on the football team yet.
It was like they were seventeen again.
To fast forward they had spent the morning scouting various other schools to see what the competition was shaping up to be when the phone call had come in. Musashi had been at the apartment going through the last season's footage and had been the one to make the discovery.
Now they were sitting in silence on the semi-crowded train ride home.
Hiruma popped his gum and Mamori look up from her seated position to find him staring down at her. With one hand shoved in his pocket and the other gripping the handle bar he said a in a off handed way, "I'm just saying that he scared the shit out of the fucking brats when they first joined. I don't see why he can't continue to motivate the new recruits in the same way."
Mamori glared daggers at him and hissed between clenched teeth, "For the last time we're not stuffing him and sticking him in front of the clubhouse!"