Title: Who's the Fool?
Theme: HiruSena for April fool's Day 2009
Author: Tahleena
Disclaimer: Sadly I don't have the privilege of owning Eyeshield 21 (that honour belongs to the respective owners). I have simply *cough* "borrowed" the players for the purpose of setting them in unreal situations...
-Italics- = thoughts
[[words]] = Author's comments within story text
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= Yaha! Back into the writing zone (& it's only the 2nd year since it's creation T_T)
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Chapter 13 = To Protect or Not to Protect
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Mamori could only stare – who could have thought that the Demon was able of anything remotely akin to a gentle caring gesture! Oh, She knew that he was a person of (somewhat dubious) honour – look how he'd leapt to defend both Suzuna & herself at the Dinosaurs 'v' Taiyou game when Gaou had charged the bleachers; fully prepared to blow up whatever was necessary to defend what he had categorised as 'his'…. (okay, she hated his 'users' attitude but the fact that he'd been willing to exert himself over people he found annoying was something she'd had to give him points on) – It was his 'methods' more than anything that she despised as a whole! He was a bad influence that she desperately wanted to keep away from Sena – no matter how many girls would swoon over the whole 'dangerous bad guy' card that he obviously relished in playing.
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That disgust was one of the reasons that she refused to even consider him as a possible 'boyfriend', no matter how many girls in the school asked or assumed that they were an item. They were better off as 'friends' if that was what you could call it. Any romantic relationship would have died with the constant arguments they regularly undertook. And let's face it – Hiruma was never going to change….not for her at least. There was maybe mutual respect of sorts – given grudgingly by both parties (though she doubted that Hiruma would ever admit to it) but that was all there was to their partnership of complimentary skilled individuals. He got results when polite, respectful methods failed – she smoothed things over and soothed ruffled terrified feathers for the prospective future.
It hadn't been pleasant but she'd come to accept that Hiruma's tactics were unfortunately required for certain individuals that would never agree to anything without a lost of dignity on her part. (….and after Hiruma had put that particular Sleaze-ball in his place; she hadn't been able to deny the necessity of his existence or his methods any longer)
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She just didn't want her poor little Sena corrupted before his time – and the Demon, given the rumors around the school and what Suzuna had managed to find out, was more than adequately skilled. If he'd been a nicer person, maybe it wouldn't have galled her so much to pair them up in this situation. She wouldn't have had to worry about Hiruma taking things too fast or forcing Sena into things that he wasn't ready for – But he was a Bully! He'd probably do that and more (especially once his patience snapped and he lost his temper) and all her Life, Mamori had protected her Sena from Bullies!
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Now here she was, confronted with a scene that no one could have comprehended or imagined in a thousand years. Part of her – the side that hid her yaoi manga under the bed and sneaked in to those bookstores hoping no one would recognise her – was amazed & enraptured. Suzuna had been right – they were a good pair and Hiruma WAS a devastatingly handsome young man (when he bothered to behave – they'd seen that at the host club). But the other side of her – the one that had always risen to Sena's defence was crying out in rage. This was just a recipe for disaster! She just knew it and then she'd have to nurse Sena thru his tears once again and watch as he would start to avoid the club and the game he loved due to his fear. Sena was just that kind of person – it had happened before.
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He'd always enjoyed his manga so when he'd suddenly stopped mid year & switched to video games – she'd known that something had happened. Most noticeably after he'd apologised for losing her 'Rocket Bear' Manga. She'd of course, had questioned him in regards to bullies. Sena had denied any involvement in the usual way that made it pointedly clear that the Bullies had been up to something. And it had been such a shame too – Manga had been the only way to get him to practise his reading and had been one of the few subjects that he'd gotten high marks for in school. She'd just bought one of those western 'Pop-eye' comics to help give him a head start in English (figuring that it would be less graphically violent than the more popular X'men or Batman comics favoured by the rest of the boys in school).
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One of her favourite reasons for accepting Sena as a member of the Amefuto Club had been his return to manga. It was mostly due to the manga loving Toganou of the Huh Huh Sankyoudai, back in Sena's first year when Hiruma was still the Demonic Captain of the Devil Bats.
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Mamori watched over as the club members enjoyed a few moments rest time after clean up. General chatter was soft and muted as members complained of minor injuries and looked forward to the up and coming Chrismas bowl. Kurita & Komusbusi were their usual excited selves as they discussed line techniques between themselves. The Sankyoudai was slouching in their favourite corner. Hiruma was, as usual tapping away at something on his laptop as he cleaned one of his machine guns. – moe! Why can't he clean those things at home? One of these days they're going to misfire and hurt someone! - Mamori complained to herself as she laid out the after practise refreshments she'd prepared.
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Suddenly her attention was caught by Sena. Monta & Taki had disintegrated into yet another argument and Sena was now staring wistfully at the Sankyoudai – which in itself would have been a cause for concern.
Focusing her attention, she was able to determine that it wasn't the Sankyoudai per se that had caught his attention but the 3rd volume of SoulEater that Toganou was reading through. Her heart squeezed. No matter how hard she & his parents had tried, Sena wouldn't pick up a manga book. He'd stare at them wistfully, but when asked if he wanted a copy – he'd start, shake his head and walk off hurriedly.
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Part of her debated going over to the brothers; after all, they'd risen in her estimation since they'd joined as serious players. They were still rough punks, but where club members were concerned they were no longer threats to Sena's safety and were even unofficial bodyguards thanks to Hiruma's insistence and the fact that Sena was their most valuable player on the team. Sadly, she didn't think that anything she said would have an effect. They'd either laugh at Sena or shrug it off and ignore her.
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Then miracle of miracles, Toganou looked to have finally noticed Sena's attention and after a few moments of blank staring seemed to have figured out what had caught Sena's attention and headed over. The other two brothers joined him shortly only mildly curious and more due to being used to approaching people in threes.
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Mamori had already been hovering as unobtrusively as she could; now she held her breathe – they weren't likely to hurt Sena (physically as least) but all the same she readied herself in case she had to play saviour once again.
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" Oi chibi – what's the deal?" Toganou had asked the now unnerved Sena plastered against the wall behind him. The manga fan, pushed his shades up on his nose using the book only to notice how the small runningback couldn't help following the action with his eyes. The Brothers shared a look and just to test it out, Toganou waved the volume in front of the chibi's eyes…
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Kuroki smothered a laugh quickly and even Juumonji had to hide his smile as Sena's eyes followed the motions of the book like a kitten with a string – the chibi was just too cute.
Toganou shared a fellow grin with his gang as he headed to the locker room, returning shortly with something in his hand. Sena had just looked completely confused by the whole ordeal.
"Here" Toganou said as he squatted down to the same level as the sitting Sena, waving two volumes in front of the chibi's face. Sena looked blank for a moment, before reaching out to look at the two books Toganou had just offered him.
"Eh!" they were volume 1 & 2 of SoulEater, " you…yu…. It's ok if I read them?"
Toganou snorted, nodding towards the others. "I'm not that stupid Shortstop – before I ran into the others I had plenty of idiots taking the piss out of me for reading this shit. The only difference between me compared to you is that I wasn't afraid to beat the crap out of them when they did."
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The Sankyoudai paused at the look of incredulous amazement in the starlighted puppy eyes Sena had turned up to them "It's Really Okay?" The chibi looked like someone had given him the key to the pearly gates – there was that much angelic joy suffusing his little face, it left them dumbstruck. (Mamori could have cheered and hugged them all but restrained herself at the last moment, her heart leaping at that unrestrained joy on her Sena's face).
Toganou sighed "yeah, it's kool – you rip 'em tho and I thump you, 'kay!" he admonished gently – giving the smaller boy a light tap to his head to show what he meant. – the hell kind of bastards fucked with his head and made him not like manga? - Toganou thought to himself as he resolved to pound whoever had ruined a fellow manga-lover's joy of manga.
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"Yeah – and now you can gabble at him about them instead of leaving him to bore us to death about the stupid things" Kuroki sighed pointing at Toganou as he spoke down to Sena just to break the embarrassed silence Sena's joy had dealt to them.
"Ora! They not stupid!"
"Oh come on, what kind of dweeb lets himself get beat up for reading something with fighting in it?"
"For your information I was getting picked on in kindergarten year for reading Sailormoon!"
Toganou's friends looked at him incredulously for a moment before collapsing into laughter.
"Dude! That's a Girl's Manga! I don't read that shit, but even I know that!" Kuroki choked out. Juumonji had already stopped once he'd realised that his friend wasn't at all nonplussed by the statement he'd just made.
"Duh! Cute girls in mini skirts with great legs! What's not to like?" Toganou explained patiently like a parent to a small child.
"I liked Sailormoon too" Sena's small voice shyly entered the conversation, " Mamori-neechan's like Sailor Mercury & Sailor Mars put together."
"See! Even he gets it!" Toganou gestured emphatically
"Hai Hai," Juumonji soothed, "you're both idiots about this manga thing – we get that. Leave him be Kuroki, besides that would be back when he was a snot nosed little grade schooler so it's not a big deal now."
"What? Are you kidding? I still wank off to Sailor Mars every now and then! The chick's a hot little fireball!"
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The Sankyoudai paused and turned as a loud polite yet insistent cough was heard slightly behind them. Turning, the brothers were confronted with Mamori's flashing eyes as she nodded slightly indicating the slightly pink Sena.
"Ano… What do you mean by 'wank'…wo-wou-wouldn't opening the pages li-like that damage the book?" the wide eyed Sena asked innocently.
Both Juumonji & Toganou had the grace to look embarrassed, while Kuroki slapped his forehead with an exasperated sigh. Hurriedly they changed the subjected before they got another lecture like the one when she'd scolded them for talking about strip-bars in Sena's hearing!
"Mah mah…" Toganou muttered as he waved away the question, " that's neither here or there – I use odd words when I rave about Manga."
- There is no way the kid is going to buy that – Juumonji mentally cringed
"Ah Naru hou dou" Sena said nodding his acquiescence
"Huh!"
"Huh!"
"haaaaah!"
"Eh eh eh….. well Monta does something similar when it's talking about his baseball stuff and bananas…."
The Sankyoudai slumped – with the monkey it was a plausible explaination.
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"So what kind of manga do you like? And what have you got at home? Maybe we can start trading?" Toganou suggested kindly to change the subject.
"Ah…eheheheheh…. I don't really have a lot of manga at home," Sena said sadly, "I …I wasn't really sure if it was a good thing you know…for a guy to read kid's stuff and all?"
"HUH!" Toganou's lone 'huh' rang out – and he mentally renewed his resolve to pound whoever it was that had interfered with a fellow manga-lover's joy.
Sena just shook his head, giving away nothing " …but I always really wanted to read Bleach and Naruto and Onepiece and stuff – I'd see the other kids reading them at the store and always wondered what they'd be about."
Mamori silently cheered.
"Yoo! those are pretty good series – you might wanna read Kenichi: World's Strongest Disciple too; it's pretty funny…tell you what – I'll raid the bookcase tonight and bring you the first volumes of a selection of the stuff that should be 'safe' for you to read! Astro Boy would probably be a good start… what was the last manga you read before you got 'confused'?"
- 'Safe'? – Sena pondered briefly before answering "Really? Thank you! … ah! My last manga was Rocket Bear but I was seven so …yeah." Sena's shy voice had dropped at that admission
"then Astro Boy will definitely be a safe bet for you to read…anything in particular you don't want to see?"
" Oh…Nothing too scary please! I don't mind the fighting battle stuff cos I play those on the game console…but I don't like the gory creepy scarey stuff like that Deep Space Zombie thing with the mutant zombies – the cover on that was really icky! " his small voice rising as the conversation switched to the various pros & cons of games, manga and other innocent boy subjects.
The rest of the period was spent with Toganou having a friendly chat come quizt to determine what manga Sena might be interested in as the other Sankyoudai looked on with bemusement.
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Mamori watched them leave with a soft smile – she made it perfectly clear that she was grateful for their actions without actually saying anything and attracting the Demon's attention. A quick meeting of the eyes and a happy smile, left the Sankyoudai slightly embarrassed over the fiasco she was making over it – but it was probably something they couldn't comprehend.
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The fact that Sena was getting back into something he'd loved as a child and hadn't been able to do since he'd been bullied because of their help (former bullies all) was just astounding – it showed just how much her Sena and the Sankyoudai themselves had grown.
She had a private chuckle as she heard Toganou start to complain and rant against the Bullies that must have stopped Sena's joy in Manga – involving lots of physical violence to prone bodies. Jumonji & Kuroki shook their heads over their Manga-daft friend; sending cautious looks over to Mamori in case she was going to scold them about it.
Mamori simply smiled and shrugged as she turned back to finish cleaning up the clubroom; making it pointedly clear that she hadn't 'heard' anything. For once she wasn't going to care about any damage dealt to people who were nasty to her Sena for a change.
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Now here she was confronted with the potential loss of all the joy Sena had come to gain from Amefuto – all because it was unlikely that a certain Quarterback would be able to rein in his libido.
Mamori mused sourly if she was more upset that Sena was turning out to be gay…she'd been hoping to design his bride's dress when he married, but brushed that concern off nonchalantly. At the end of the day it would just mean that she'd make the dress to Sena's size (and hope she and his futuristic beau could convince him to actually wear it on the day).
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No, her main problem lay with the fact that Sena was 'pairing up' with the one that she despised the most and who was always looking to exasperate her – just for kicks she suspected most of the time.
And yet – There he was; a gentle arm around her friend and a small possessive smile ghosting across his lips. (Granted, most of his smiles had a degree of possessiveness about them but this time… it almost seemed as if there was ….something….more…)
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The observers had no further time to remain in confusion as the Demon they were all familiar with reverted back to form – and the face he turned back to Sena's assailant was anything but pleasant!
Sadly, the rising murmurs of the steadily growing crowd around them drowned out what ever ultimatum Hiruma was dealing out. Suzuna bounced around futilely as she tried to maintain a clear view of the couple, but the jostling crowd forced her out once again and she found herself at the pillars with the rest of the spies who had found themselves in a similar position. Mamori still looked rather pink and still had a morbidly stunned expression across her face as Monta and Riku waved a hand in front of her face.
"Mukkyaa! Crowded Max! I can't see a thing"
"At least we know Sena's safe for now. " Riku temporised as he case worried glances at the older girl, "once we get away from the crowd we can start to plan how to get him away from your Quarterback." His tone brooked no argument.
Suzuna mentally stuck out her tongue – he might think that but she was still curious as to how this 'budding romance' was going to pan out! At the very least they might be able to locate where Hiruma lived (and then she could deal with a stupid brother's lack of thought & decorum regarding certain pictures the Demon had sourced).
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Their thoughts were broken as a gunshot rang out, overlaid with a scream of agony and various squeals from the startled crowd members. With half the crowd crouched on the floor fearing a terrorist bombardment, they had a clear view of Hiruma (still with his arm around the runningback tightly pressed to his side), still smoking gun in his hand and the kneeling Koda glaring blue murder as he held the side of his head. A small thread of red could be seen tracking its way down his neck to soak into his shirt. Suzuna immediately began taking as many photos as she could – with the parted crowd she couldn't rely on the foyer lights and press of people to hide her flashes anymore so switched back into spy mode and hoped the film wouldn't be too compromised when she developed them in the school darkroom (she wished once again that she could have used the digital spy cam they had – but that was club property aka Hiruma's and that would have raised questions).
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Once again, their view was blocked as various officials and important looking people rushed up to see what the incident was.
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= again please memo/note me regarding spell errors/grammar mistakes and any other foul ups so I can correct and improve my writing skills
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Damn Mamori's hard to write :S
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Apologies for crappy title-ing