Chapter Fifty Nine: Minor Restorations
Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21.
Song Playing: Handlebars by Flobot
Theme 2: Back Alley
She was in debt. It was an unfamiliar feeling and one she did not care for but the fact remained that she owed money. Mamori knew she would the moment she signed her soul over to the financial aid in order to obtain her student loan. It didn't help matters when the majority of her spare time was consumed in sports activities, therefore leaving any sort of supplement income up to whatever odd job she could get during her off hours.
Due to her lack of funds she had been forced to take an apartment further away from the university than she would have liked. Namely it required her to take a series of alleys in what could be considered a dodgy neighborhood in order to get to the train station that would eventually take her to the campus. Lucky for her, the football manager was as smart as she was pretty. Knowing the dangers of wondering the alleys alone at night she took it upon herself to set up precautionary measures. One of those measures was being sure to take Cerberus along with her to and from her apartment. Others were the safety whistle she kept around her neck and a can of the highest grade of pepper spray in her jacket pocket, both courtesy of the cheer squad.
Recently there had been the unexpected company of Hiruma walking her home after they had locked up for the night. She still wasn't sure what suddenly prompted the quarterback into making sure she got home alright. All she knew for certain was that one night she had said her goodbyes just as she had done a thousand times before and the nest thing she knew she had fallen in step right along side her, like it was something he did everyday. She had been so dumbfounded that she hadn't been able to bring herself to ask what he thought he was doing.
After that it seemed rather awkward. So, she didn't.
Instead she allowed herself to enjoy the extra feeling of security, knowing he was in arms reach should something happen.
It was several weeks after he had started escorting her home that she started noticing a change in their walk from the train station to her front door. Little things that she hadn't really paid attention to at first: less trash littering the streets, graffiti gone from walls, things like that.
Then the little things started to turn into bigger things: an increase in the number of lamp posts, a decrease in the number of sketchy looking individuals resulting in an all around safer feeling.
Though it wasn't until they passed a construction crew working on widening one of the narrower alleyways and another several blocks up putting the finishing touches on a nice set of suburban homes that had only recently been built that she felt the need to say something out loud, "Is it just me or does this neighborhood seem... nicer than usual?"
Hiruma, for his part, just gave a careless shrug. "I hadn't noticed."
At that moment Mamori's cell rang from somewhere deep within the confines of her bag. It was because she was so busy trying to dig it out she failed to notice the way several of the men working on the houses stopped to wave as they passed by. They were nothing if not grateful for the pay bonus the blond had given them for completing the project so quickly.