Ichigo was waiting for Hiruma when his train came into the Karakura station. Ichigo smiled at him under the pasty lights of the station and Hiruma denied that it made his heart beat a little faster. They chatted leisurely as they made their way downtown to the small restaurant Ichigo had in mind for dinner.
"—and then the fucking chibi thought he was going to hang himself with a fucking coat hanger!"
Ichigo laughed, "Well, I'm sure from a distance it looked like a noose."
"…Not even the same fucking shape." Hiruma muttered.
"People tend to panic when faced with a situation like that."
"Yeah, yeah." Hiruma waved him off.
"Here we are." Ichigo opened the door for Hiruma to a small mom and pop restaurant in the middle of down town Karakura. Hiruma was surprised to see the inside of it looking decidedly western. The restaurant was a wide open space with rafters almost like a barn. The wallpaper depicted desert scenes and everything had a rustic look to it. There were cow skulls and horse knickknacks and wagon wheels in odd places and the waitresses were wearing cow spotted skirts.
"Cowboys? Are you fucking serious?"
"Shut up." Ichigo laughed, "They have good food. This has been my favorite restaurant since I was a kid."
Hiruma imagined a little Ichigo eating there with a tiny cowboy hat on his head, like the one a kid was wearing now with a different family, and decided that if he could get a picture of that, he would have very good blackmail material indeed. Then he berated himself. He wasn't supposed to blackmail his…boyfriend? He didn't want just another slave he reminded himself.
Their waitress, who had black hair and a red cowgirl hat, led them to a red booth with squeaky seats. It had a window facing the chilly, lit up streets of Karakura. They were actually pretty empty compared to Tokyo. Hiruma poked at the sad looking miniature cactus that served as the tan table's centerpiece and smirked.
"Shut up," Ichigo said playfully again. Hiruma raised his hands in surrender.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were going to." Ichigo accused.
Hiruma just smirked again. After a few minutes of looking at the old west named dishes on the old saloon door shaped menus, the waitress came back, her loud earrings jangling with her gait, and took their orders.
"So how's that Comet thing? Has it died down yet?"
"Nope," said Hiruma, sipping at his drink, "It's just gotten bigger. American Football Monthly posted videos of you playing in those games on their website."
Ichigo groaned, dropping his head to the table.
"At least they don't know who you are." Hiruma said.
"Yeah. Let's keep it that way."
Hiruma just drank his soda and sat back in his seat, the booth springs squeaking, with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Hiruma. We'll keep it that way, right?"
Hiruma set his soda on the table with a light 'tap'. The edges of his mouth were twitching.
"Hiruma."
Hiruma shot Ichigo his signature wide demonic grin that showed off every single one of his deadly-looking teeth. Ichigo wasn't fazed by it. He often saw worse on the eleventh division captain's face. Even the hollows he saw everyday had deadly grins worse than Hiruma's. Ichigo crossed his arms at him. The fake grin faltered, then faded. Hiruma gave Ichigo a considering look. He studied him for a minute, then came to a conclusion that Ichigo could see in his eyes. Hiruma knew that Ichigo wasn't affected by how he looked. Still sitting back in his seat, Hiruma also crossed his arms, almost gaining a pouting look if it weren't for the seriousness on his face.
"You're not unnerved by me." He tried to say it nonchalantly, but Ichigo could see his curiousness.
"No." Ichigo said, uncrossing his arms and leaning on his elbows on the table.
"Most people are."
"I'm not most people."
Each tried to star the other down and neither looked away. Hiruma narrowed his eyes at Ichigo, putting up a mask of confrontation to hide his disbelief and confusion.
"Why?"
Ichigo didn't miss a beat when he said, "Because it's just a mask."
Inside, Hiruma was stunned for a moment, but outside he glared at Ichigo.
"It is not—"
"It is." Ichigo interrupted him, "At least, that wide smile is. It's all teeth, it's too wide, it doesn't reach your eyes. It's too fake to be real. It's used to intimidate people because it's too unnatural. And it usually succeeds, doesn't it?"
Hiruma stayed silent, glaring at Ichigo with his arms still crossed.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Hiruma said.
"I do. I've made enough fake smiles to recognize one when I see one. But I want you to know that you don't have to pretend around me. I hate it when people fake a smile anyway."
Hiruma just stared at him, his surprise almost showing through. No one ever saw through his demonic smiles. Not even Musashi and Kurita, though they were aware that sometimes they weren't as genuine as everyone thought, they never saw through them like Kurosaki seemed to. He'd never run into anyone who could read him like Kurosaki could and Kurosaki could read him like a fucking book. He didn't know what it was. He always successfully hid his emotions behind his demonic looks. It was better that people questioned his humanness, even though he was just as human as everyone else on the planet. But Kurosaki… Kurosaki saw through his looks straight to him. Hiruma wasn't sure if he liked it or not and he wondered what Kurosaki's reaction would be like when he whipped out his guns around him for the first time.
"So on the way here you said you had a game this weekend?" Ichigo asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah, against Kyoshin Poseidon."
"How do you think that will go?"
"Che, we'll win of course. Especially now that fucking fatty jr finally has his head in the game."
They spent a while talking about Hiruma's next game and the hellish training he put his team through in preparation for it. Then, the waitress brought them their food and both fell silent to eat. For two teenagers only on their third date, it was a surprisingly comfortable silence.
Ichigo thought as he munched on his barbeque burger, surreptitiously sneaking glances at Hiruma. He was trying to think of what to say once the two of them were done eating. It's not like they would just stay silent the whole time Ichigo walked Hiruma back to the train station. Ichigo's gaze wandered around the restaurant, taking in the sights and décor he'd known since he was a child. His eyes fell upon a few of the other patrons, a small family of three. A little brunet boy sat with a little red cowboy hat on his head, something the restaurant provided all children, gesturing animatedly with his fork at smiling parents.
"What's your family like?" Ichigo asked once last bites were taken and napkins were bunched into balls on plates.
Hiruma stared at him with an unreadable expression on his face, but Ichigo didn't start sweating or get nervous under that gaze. He just waited patiently when Hiruma turned to stare out the window.
'Okay,' thought Ichigo as the waitress brought the bill, 'that's a topic to stay away from.'
Ichigo grabbed the bill before Hiruma could. He didn't say anything about it like Ichigo thought he would. Instead he just stared out the window, seemingly searching the streets with his eyes. He leaned against it, breath fogging the glass and golden streetlights painting his face in a way the sun never could. Ichigo was mesmerized by it and he still snuck glances at Hiruma as they walked the dark streets after paying their bill and leaving the restaurant. They walked under streetlight after streetlight. Each and every one of them showering Hiruma with a golden glow that made Ichigo's breath stutter in his chest, even as Hiruma seemed lost in thought, until the stark white lights of the train station interrupted the pathway of gold raining down on them.
Hiruma's train to Tokyo rolled in, but he stopped before getting on.
"Look," Ichigo said before Hiruma could say anything, "I'm sorry if the question I asked was a sore topic for you. You don't have to talk about anything you're uncomfortable with."
Hiruma shut his mouth that he'd opened to talk before Ichigo had interrupted him and nodded. He took something out of his pocket and held out a ticket to Ichigo.
"This is a ticket to my game on Saturday." Hiruma said simply. Ichigo stared at it for a minute, taken a little off guard. Then, he smiled blindingly and took it.
"I'll be there." He said.
Hiruma just 'che-ed' and got on the train.
Saturday saw Ichigo sitting in the stands surrounding the football field where the Deimon vs Kyoshin game would be taking place. The bleachers were packed with people all eager to see the game and Ichigo could see the Devilbats team in their red uniforms on the field. For now, they were just standing around waiting for the game to start. The cheerleaders were currently doing all the work, jumping around and waving their pom-poms. They were getting the crowd into the spirit of the game.
Then Kyoshin's cheerleaders came out on the opposite side of the field in very cosplay-worthy costumes that would have shown a lot of skin if it weren't for the black garment underneath it. Among them was an extremely tall, very male teenager who was also wearing said cosplay-worthy costume. He cheered along with the cheerleaders for a minute, getting their routine down as if he'd actually practiced with them. (Who knows, maybe he did.) Then, he jumped right out of the costume and into the hands of a circle of cheerleaders who threw him high into the air, did a couple of flips, and landed right on his hands. It riled the crowd up. They cheered what Ichigo assumed was the guy's name enthusiastically.
"Mizumachi! Mizumachi!"
Ichigo was not impressed. He's seen greater feats of physical strength done, but he supposed if he were a normal human, it might've been impressive. Mizumachi turned around still on his hands to face the Devilbats. He said something that no one in the stands could hear and the smallest member of the team determinedly confronted him.
"That guy in the flier, that's him, isn't it? He's even got a bounty."
"Isn't it void now?"
Ichigo overheard two guys sitting above him in the bleachers say.
"Nah, it's still valid! Ten thousand yen to the person who catches him." Hiruma shouted up at them. How had he even heard them?
'I guess those ears aren't just for show.' Ichigo thought. Hiruma's eyes traveled a little lower, catching sight of Chico's blinding orange hair, and their eyes met. Ichigo flashed him a smile and Hiruma turned away before Ichigo could see his expression.
"Ten Thousand Yen!" Multiple people shouted. Several of them suddenly swarmed over the fence and onto the field with yen signs in their eyes and things like net and rope in their hands. Every single one of them had huge greedy grins on their faces and Ichigo shuddered. It was a disturbing scene in that it showed the core of human greed. All those people dogpiled the little football player and Ichigo really wondered what Hiruma was thinking for a second. Then the entire pile trembled and little number fifty-five, who Ichigo was guessing was either 'fucking shrimp' or 'fucking fatass Jr' as Hiruma called them, was revealed to have lifted the entire pile of human bodies on top of him.
"That's some incredible power!" someone shouted.
"Deimon's shorty isn't bad either!"
Mizumachi and the small player faced each other with expressions Ichigo would recognize anywhere. They were challenging each other, but not in battle. They were challenging each other on a field, in a sport, in a high school game. In the moment Ichigo saw their expressions, he forgotten where he was for a second and who he was looking at.
High school students. Ichigo reminded himself, it's just a game. His eyes traveled to Hiruma's back. But a game taken very seriously by some.
"Doburoku-sensei!" a shrill voice brought his eyes back to the rest of the Devilbats players and he saw someone else dramatically coming out onto the field, cloaked in shadows. It was…a naked old man with a pig and only a leaf covering between his legs. Ichigo made a face and some other people in the stands made noises of disgust when they saw who had come out.
'Doburoku…the coach they had to get out of debt in America and practically drag him back to Japan?' Ichigo thought. 'That's their coach?'
The small pig that the old man had dragged with him was looking curiously at the brown dog on the field while the players carefully laid the old coach out on the bench and covered him with a jacket. Hiruma looked incensed, but the other players just looked kind of disturbed.
Suddenly, the fans on the other side of the field shot up with their hands in the air, then immediately sat back down in a cheer. The wave flowed across the stadium as fans did their favorite team's signature cheer.
"Poseidon! Poseidon!" the fans cheered. The Kyoshin players walked out of their dugout to tower above the referees, much to their consternation, and the Devilbats huddled up.
"We'll kill them!" they cried. Ichigo chuckled at the shout. Partly because of the seriousness of such a heavy statement coming out of the high schooler's mouths and partly because it was very obviously Hiruma who had come up with the cry.
"The nationwide American football tournament! Deimon vs Kyoshin, collision of the strong newcomers! Game Start!" the announcer's voice rang through the stadium and the fans cheered even louder for the start of the game.
Ichigo kept his eyes on Hiruma the whole game, watching him be a quarterback, a commander. He followed all of Hiruma's handoffs to the number twenty-one player and groaned with the rest of crowd when Mizumachi finally made it past the small round lineman to tackle twenty-one.
"Mizumachi-kun has crushed Komusubi-kun!" The announcer blared, "Deimon's offense fails! Kyoshin takes the offensive!"
The Deimon cheerleaders held up signs cheering for Deimon's defense and the crowd was still cheering for them, waving their plastic bat wings in the air. But, on the next play, Mizumachi blocked three of Deimon's players by himself and the crowd was left gaping. Ichigo heard a guy in a cowboy hat to the left of him tsk and say, "You're in a pinch, Deimon chibis!"
'Deimon Chibis? Is that what people call them?' Ichigo wondered. He eyed the Devilbats and was easily able to pick out which ones would be called the Deimon Chibis, due to the three of them being the shortest on the team. Ichigo laughed when Hiruma raged at the three of them, being held back by their biggest player, as he threw something at them. Ichigo could hear it all the way from where he sat in the stands.
"Were you all asleep or something, you fucking shrimps?! The plan cards are no use if you all get blocked by Mizumachi alone!"
As the teams were getting into position again, a bigger man walked down the bleacher stairs, much to the excitement of several fans.
"Deimon will be knocked out here." He said.
"Onihei!" shouted a fan excitedly.
"It's Onihei-san!"
Ichigo scowled at the man's back as he stopped to talk to a group of people closer to the front who were all wearing the same uniform. Hiruma wouldn't let Deimon lose here. Ichigo was sure of it.
"Daikichii!" A shout sounded from the field and Ichigo turned his attention back the Devilbats to see another giant man and a short woman had joined the team on their side of the field. "What the weapon of our household's many men? Speed? Height? That's not it, stupid! The arm strength of a delivery worker! Don't forget that!"
'Man, there are some loud people here.' Ichigo thought. He really shouldn't be able to hear them from the field, but some stuff he heard easily with how loud they were yelling.
"Well! Just a little more to touchdown! Will Kyoshin Poseidon be the first to score?!" the announcer said.
Ichigo was a little impressed during the next play when tiny little Komusubi managed to get past Mizumachi with just strength and determination, getting Deimon the ball back in the process.
"Komusubi! Komusubi!" the crowd cheered. But, once again, Mizumachi got past Komusubi using that strange arm technique and tackled Hiruma as he was about to throw the ball.
Ichigo scowled hard, scaring the people next to him, and clenched his fists. He took a deep breath through his teeth and reminded himself that it was just part of the game and that Hiruma was wearing protective padding. Hiruma got right back up and started kicking at Komusubi, probably for letting Mizumachi through.
"Hut!" Hiruma called, signaling the next play. He passed the ball to Twenty-one and Komusubi once again, pushed Mizumachi back. Twenty-one rushed through the opening left, only to be blocked by the long arms of Kyoshin's number forty-one. A small fight broke out among a few Kyoshin players after the whistle was blown and the referee frantically tried to break them up, while Hiruma looked on with a considering look on his face.
"The Deimon Devilbats are resuming play in front of their own goal line! This is their fourth attack! Their last chance!" the announcer rang as the large number seventy-seven hiked the ball to Hiruma. Hiruma darted back, preparing to throw, only to be blocked by two of Kyoshin's tallest players before he could do more than focus on number eighty. In an instant, Hiruma switched from throwing to number eighty to throwing to Twenty-one, and Ichigo almost gaped. To be able to switch targets so quickly, it was almost like being able to change your stance and sword's position in an instant in battle. Hiruma's eyes were sharp and his reflexes quick and Ichigo flashed a blinding smile at him, even though he couldn't see it.
Kyoshin finally scored a touchdown in the next play after blocking Twenty-one, putting them in the lead and their fans went wild, doing another wave across the stadium. Twenty-one was blocked in the next play as well, leading Hiruma to whip out a gun and start shooting at his teammates. Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that, but no one but him seemed surprised at the action and the bullets just bounced harmlessly off of the players so Ichigo let it go for now. He just chalked it up to another one of Hiruma eccentricities. Hiruma was grinning at two of the Deimon chibi members and walked over to them with his machine gun behind his head, talking.
It's going to take a while to get used to the guns… Ichigo thought. He was used to swords, not guns. Swords were swift and silent, guns were loud and flashy. Right up Hiruma's alley.
The Devilbats huddled up again on the side of the field, talking for a few minutes before Hiruma once again shot at them. The Kyoshin players were with the cheerleaders, enthusiastically riling up the crowd.
"Set!" Hiruma yelled. The Devilbats were already in formation, but it was different.
"The number of runners in the back ready to rush with the ball is three?!" A fan near Ichigo exclaimed, "Eyeshield and Monta are in a combination play!"
'So, Eyeshield is number twenty-one and Monta must be number eighty.' Ichigo realized.
The play started and Hiruma faked passing the ball, running with it himself. Ichigo cheered with the rest of the fans and startled when Hiruma threw the ball to Eyeshield without even looking his way.
'He's good'. Ichigo thought. Hiruma was in his element.
"Th-this is…!" Even the announcer was shocked, "After appearing to rush in while holding the ball, Ishimaru-kun blocks Mizumachi-kun! Hiruma-kun blocks Ohira-kun!"
Eyeshield and Monta both ran with the ball, Monta blocking a player, allowing Eyeshield to gain the team twenty yards. Deimon did the same play again, this time Ishimaru ran with the ball while Kyoshin used all their manpower to block Eyeshield and Ichigo finally caught the name of the technique—Wishbone. It was an amazing play. It was even more amazing once you realized it was all up to the quarterback to make the right decision in the split second of seeing the opponent's play. Ichigo's ears picked up Hiruma's name coming from guy farther down in the bleachers.
"Hiruma Yoichi. He's truly the Deimon Devilbat's hidden ace!"
A wide grin spread out across Ichigo's face, almost hollow-like in its appearance, but for the absence of maliciousness.
'Their hidden ace, huh? Hiruma, you're amazing'. Ichigo truly meant that. He himself could never read a play with that many people so quickly. The usual one-on-one fights he found himself in were much simpler because there was only one opponent, but Hiruma could read all eleven players at once and make a split second decision. Ichigo knew that, had Hiruma received the right training, he would have made a formidable warrior.
'Training…' Now there was an idea.
Hiruma was running with the ball, easily getting past Kyoshin's high wave while they were distracted with the other runners and scored a touchdown. The fans went wild, and Ichigo with them.
"Blow them away!" Hiruma commanded on the next play. The linemen obeyed and they opened a path for Eyeshield to run through. He was almost blocked by one of the tall players from Kyoshin, but he executed a running move that almost left behind an after image of himself.
'He's fast for a normal human.' Ichigo admitted.
Eyeshield was tackled anyway, but it was a good run.
"First half over!" the referee announced.
The two teams retreated to their respective benches to rest and rehydrate. Ichigo kept his eyes on Hiruma as he sat on the bench and removed his helmet. He drank from his water bottle and seemed to feel eyes on him because he turned around and looked at the stands. He met Ichigo's eyes and Ichigo gave him a wide grin before Hiruma turned back around to eye the Kyoshin team.
As Hiruma turned back around, Ichigo noticed that he was the only one of the Deimon players that had sat down on the bench. The rest of the players surrounded him like an honor guard, watching the opposing team with him, listening to what he was saying. Hiruma really was their commander.
Twelve minutes later saw the teams stretching to resume the game. Ichigo raised an eyebrow when one of the taller Kyoshin players stepped right over Eyeshield as he was stretching.
'Intimidation tactics.' Ichigo inwardly scoffed. If Deimon's players were as spirited as they seemed from his place in the stands, there was no way such a thing would work on them.
Eyeshield was the one who ran with the ball in the first play of the second half. He found Kyoshin's number forty-one as his obstacle and tried to do the same run he'd done with the other player, but was tackled right out of it. Everyone in the stands seemed shocked, even the announcer.
"Th-the Devilbat Ghost has been crushed." He announced.
'What's the big deal?' Ichigo thought, 'Just get up and try again. Or try something else. You only lose when you give up.' But Deimon's players, even Hiruma, seemed taken off guard.
The next play started with a kickoff from Kyoshin and they gained three more points when the ball went into the goal. Deimon played the wishbone again and once again, Eyeshield was blocked by Kyoshin's number forty-one. Eyeshield's spirit was down. He was becoming complacent with the turn of events instead of fighting it with everything he had.
Suddenly, Deimon's manager started making wild hand motions, trying to convey something to the team. Some of the team members copied her movements, giving her a thumbs up and Ichigo sweat dropped.
'They don't know what she's trying to say.' But then again, neither did Ichigo. Suddenly Hiruma's head shot over to look at the Kyoshin player's backs, scaring the crap out of Eyeshield, who was just behind him, in the process. Hiruma had a wide-eyed look on his face like he'd just realized something. He put his helmet back on with a devious grin.
"The Deimon Devilbats. This is their last offensive!" the loudspeakers announced, "Now that Eyeshield Twenty-One has been blocked, they don't have an effective means of offense!"
"Hut!"
The Devilbats one again played the Wishbone, but this time, instead of running with the ball, Hiruma threw it to a player that hadn't been significant in the game so far. Number thirty-seven, the player people in the stand were cheering for as "Idiot".
Hiruma stopped to chat with Kyoshin's number forty-one and that drew the other team members in. By the end of the talk, they all looked serious. A big contrast from their cheering from before.
Monta successfully ran the next Wishbone, leading to a huge cheer from the stands and teammates alike. Hiruma gave him a big kick in the ass in…congratulations?
'I've still got a lot of things to learn about Hiruma.' Ichigo thought.
"Seven minutes left. The Deimon Devilbats have finally made a comeback!" the announcer shouted.
Kyoshin seemed despaired, but a few words from Mizumachi had some hope coming back into their eyes. When they walked back out onto the field, their four tallest players took position behind the rest of their teammates.
'That can't be good.'
The four Kyoshin players flowed forward together like a tidal wave when the ball was hiked. They crushed Deimon's line and blocked Hiruma's high pass.
Deimon nearly broke through Kyoshin's line in the next play, but Eyeshield was once again blocked by number forty-one and pushed back past his own line.
Deimon's number fifty-one broke through the line next, almost tackling the quarterback, but Kyoshin's quarterback was fast and he threw the ball before Fifty-one could even get to him. It flew across the field and straight into the hands of a player in the end zone, scoring Kyoshin a touchdown.
'He's a pretty good quarterback too.' Ichigo admitted, 'But not as good as Hiruma.' He smiled.
The little voice of Ichigo's hollow cackled in the back of his head. 'You've got it bad, King.' It said.
'Shut up.' Ichigo shushed him, but he couldn't deny what his hollow had said.
Again and again Deimon was blocked by Kyoshin's Poseidon technique, but they tried their hardest. They didn't quit. With eighteen seconds left on the clock, Hiruma addressed Eyeshield with the team standing around them. Ichigo couldn't hear what was being said, but they all had serious looks on their faces. Eyeshield said one last thing to Hiruma and Hiruma got the most pleased and devious look on his face.
Ichigo shivered a little at that look. It brought out all the pretty things about Hiruma. The sharpness of his eyes, the angle of his face, his hair over his eyes, the stretch of his lips in that grin. It brought out a look of wildness and Ichigo loved it.
"Only eighteen seconds left on the clock! If Deimon can't score a touchdown with this offensive, they lose their chance at a comeback victory!" the announcer shouted.
The players lined up in their positions, the crowd was cheering for their respective teams and finally, Hiruma shouted "Hut!" showing off his impressive fangs behind the helmet's guard. Hiruma handed the ball off to Eyeshield twenty-one and he ran straight into Kyoshin's forty-one's path. Every single player on that field was trying their hardest, giving it their all, and putting their whole bodies and spirits into the game. Eyeshield almost stopped in front of Forty-one, he almost gave up. Then he ran right towards him, not even bothering to try to find an alternate route, and put a spin into his run. He spun and ran right by Forty-one and everyone, even Hiruma, thought that he had a clear path to a touchdown.
Then Seventy-One, Mizumachi, made one last desperate lunge for Eyeshield and just barely stopped him.
"Stop the clock!" shouted one of Deimon's linemen.
"Time out!" howled Hiruma desperately.
Kyoshin and their fans went wild, screaming and cheering for an already assured victory. Hiruma addressed his team for the last time during the game and he said something to Eyeshield with a genuine grin on his face.
'I can't wait till he gives me one of those.' Ichigo smiled. This was what Hiruma loved about the game. The tension, the battle of wills, the spirit. The same reasons why Ichigo loved fighting.
The fans in the stands were cheering even louder now, both rooting for their teams from the bottom of their hearts.
"Set! Hut!" Hiruma shouted. Ichigo was surprised when no one moved and Hiruma kept shouting Hut until, on the ninth Hut, the field burst into an explosion of activity. Every player rushed toward the center, two immovable forces pushing at each other. Eyeshield jumped over everyone's heads, only to be met by the blocks of Kyoshin's two tallest players. They blocked Eyeshield, only for Mizumachi to be plowed into by little Komusubi and tackled sky high. Eyeshield managed to fall past all the linemen and everyone in the stadium held their breaths while the referee checked where the small player had landed with the ball.
"Touchdown!" he yelled.
Deimon's players smashed through Kyoshin's linemen, cheering, ripping their helmets off and slapping Komusubi and Eyeshield on the backs in congratulations. Hiruma stood back, hands on his hips and smiling, watching his team celebrate.
Ichigo had the biggest smile on his face as he clapped and cheered with everyone around him. Hiruma turned to face him and Ichigo raised his fist above his head in congratulations. Hiruma hefted his helmet above his head with one arm back at him in acknowledgement.
The teams got in line and bowed to each other some shook hands with others and they talked and congratulated each other on a good game. Ichigo looked on from the stands almost sadly. If only his fights could end like this, with everyone making friends and able to go home with a good experience in mind. But his fights were not games. They were war. People got hurt. People died. You don't make friends in war. You fight to protect friends. Ichigo's phone beeped with a hollow warning. Speaking of…
Ichigo left his seat and the stadium with a calm gait and serious eyes, opening his phone to see just where he was needed. Ichigo didn't waste his time on wishful thinking. He had his precious people to protect, a group that Hiruma was quickly becoming a part of.
A/N: So, I'm thinking of rewriting this instead of continuing it as it is. I'm thinking that right now, the plot is too flat. It's too boring. Romance is kind of hard for me to write and I've thought of some things that I want to add to the story that will make it more interesting. It will still be Ichiog/Hiruma and some of these chapters will be in the rewrite, but I want to make the plot more exciting. What do you guys think?