Description: Mamori had to prove that she was worth it, and Hiruma, well, he realizes how far he'd go for her.

Disclaimer: I don't own Eyeshield 21.

AN: I wrote this fanfic entirely already, so I might as well just keep posting the chapters monthly. Enjoy!

Warning: Light gore in this chapter.

The Devil's Angel

Chapter II

The story of Junko Furuta

They continued to walk by each other, down the streets that afternoon, passing by all kind of stores. Mamori was feeling better, the quarterback didn't make any rude comments, so it made it a lot easier. Even though Hiruma was like that, he understood what she was going through. At some moment, they passed by a small park. It immediately caught Mamori's attention, so she stopped when she saw a small group of kids playing with a football.

Without thinking twice, she left her stuff at the bench and ran towards them. Hiruma was curious on what she was going to do, so he stayed there by the park entrance, watching her talk to the kids.

Apparently, they didn't know how to catch or pass the ball. Hiruma watched as she made the same gestures he showed to Sena on the early days of the Devil Bats, two thumbs together and all that shit. He was chewing his gum and then started to blow a bubble, as he stared at her distantly. Mamori noticed he was watching her.

Their eyes met, and she gave him a heartwarming smile. He just popped his bubble gum as she looked away from him again.

'Damn mother.' He thought, watching her enjoy teaching those kids how to play football. She was going to be a great teacher, even though it was hard for someone like Hiruma to admit that.

The time passed and she was still teaching them, making Hiruma starting to get impatient. Wasn't it enough already? Those fucking brats weren't stupid.

"Hiruma-kun!" Mamori called out suddenly, with the football in her hands. He looked at her. What the fuck was she going to do? She couldn't expect him to...

She threw it. She threw the football towards him. He caught it with only one hand, and stood there, not saying anything and not showing any type of reaction. The children looked at him with shock, but then it turned to solid admiration. So it was going to be like that? She expected to him to play house with her...?

He might just have some fun playing along, not with her rules, of course.

"Sensei, you call that a pass?" He laughed hysterically as he went towards her, with the football in his hand, acting as one of the kids. The children were between them, looking at Hiruma with shiny eyes, since he caught the ball so easily. Mamori stared at him in disbelief, wondering what would be his next move. "Why don't you teach them properly? Kekeke."

"What? But I am –" She replied, seeing that all the kids were staring her, with disapproving glares.

"Sensei, score a touchdown!" He exclaimed just behind the kids, and they all looked towards her, supporting the quarterback's idea.

"W-Wha... I can't do that here!"

"She eats creampuffs all day, so she's not in the right shape. Kekeke." He laughed, and she looked at him, embarrassed and angry. All the kids started laughing and he threw the football back to them. They ran away from the couple and Hiruma was just counting the seconds for the manager to snap at him.

"Why you jerk!" Mamori exclaimed as he started walking away from her. She got her stuff from the bench and rushed towards him again. "I am not fat." She continued complaining and he continued ignoring her. He grinned as he blew another bubble. He just had a lot of fun.

They returned to the sidewalks of the streets, getting out of the park and continued walking, Mamori ate her creampuffs while she followed him around. She was still angry at him for embarrassing her in front of the kids and for calling her fat, she was pretty good at demonstrating it, or Hiruma was pretty good at noticing it. Maybe he payed more attention to her than he imagined.

"If you ask a girl on a date, you should at least treat her properly." She suddenly said firmly, walking beside him. Hiruma didn't see that coming, he thought she was just going to play offended until she got tired of it.

"Who said this was a date? Kekeke." He answered, laughing and amused. Yes, he took the bait! Now it was time for revenge.

"I just did." She said stubbornly. That last phrase made Hiruma direct his emerald eyes to her blue one's, as a new challenge. "If you know the answer, don't ask." Mamori quoted him, taking another creampuff out of the bag. He remained looking at her, serious and blowing another bubble. Was she trying to play with him? Challenge accepted.

"So, you want to see a movie?" He said, serious, also playing her game and interested in how she was going to react. She couldn't beat him, not in this game.

Mamori looked at him doubtfully. He was playing along.

"S-Sure. Why not?" Mamori answered, being stubborn and trying to act cool, even though she wasn't even looking at him, blushing.

So she wasn't going to give up, eh? 'This is going to be fun.' He thought, wondering how long she would take. He was going to make her life miserable and make her regret trying to win against him.

Mamori threw the empty paper bag away as they walked towards the nearest movie theater. She had gotten uncomfortable walking by his side, realizing that she probably made a huge mistake by saying it was a date, while Hiruma seemed to be less affected than ever. When they got there, she looked for the movie list to see which ones were available. She hoped she could at least pick the movie they were going to watch.

"You're still going on with this?" He asked, with another blown bubble out of his mouth while he stared at her looking at the list of movies behind the counter. She looked behind her to see him.

"Going on with what...?" She asked innocently. Hiruma grinned, and knew that was still part of her act, so he decided to pick the film.

"Two tickets for the horror film, kekeke." Hiruma said to the attendant, pushing Mamori aside. Mamori's jaw dropped, surprised, and he noticed that right away. She was so predictable and he was having so much fun, seeing how desperate she was trying win against him.

"A horror film...?" Mamori muttered, now looking to the poster with her hand covering her mouth in a worried expression. It made her almost give up on the idea on continuing the game.

"Are you scared? Kekeke." He laughed as he got the tickets. She immediately looked back to him, opening her mouth to reply something, while she clenched her fists with her arms stretched out along her body.

"N-No, but..." Mamori looked to her feet, somewhat defeated, but decided to win. In his territory, she couldn't demonstrate any sign of hesitation or fear. If she did that, it would mean she lost. And she couldn't lose to him.

They went inside the room and the trailers started. Mamori hated horror films. She couldn't stand gore or terror. Of course she was familiar with violence and blood, after all, she used to be an American Football team manager. But seeing the inside of human beings? That was not for her.

They sat somewhere in the middle of the theater, not too far and not to close to the screen. Hiruma couldn't wait to see the expression on her face when she started seeing the movie. He was curious on how long she'd sit before running away or screaming.

As the movie started, the first part wasn't that bad. Most horror stories started happily, to show the impact of the bad scenes. The protagonist was a cute high school girl, that had a group of friends. One of those friends was a yakuza member that had a crush on her. When he confessed to her, she turned him down. Because of that, he kidnapped her.

At that part, the movie was intolerable. It was getting worse and even harder for Mamori to watch, she often looked at Hiruma, who didn't even twitch on the scenes, while Mamori was getting each time more terrified. He apparently forgot that she was there and was interested in the movie. When the protagonist was raped for the first of several times through the movie, Mamori led her hand to her face, covering her mouth with her eyes glued on the screen, horrified. Seeing the desperate expression of the girl, hearing her screams, was making Mamori feel a pain in the chest.

Then they started torturing the poor girl, so many types of torture Mamori didn't even know existed – the girl had to cut her own nipple off with a razor, or cut her genitals with a scissor –. There was so many blood, so many screams and suffering, Mamori was starting to feel dizzy and nauseated. She could barely take it by that time. She often closed her eyes, when the torture scenes were too heavy, and her heartbeat was fast. She knew that none of that was real, of course she did, but seeing all of that happening made it pretty real to her.

By the middle of the film, Mamori was almost crying. Her hands started shaking as she saw the girl being tortured day after day, and the tortures were getting worse. Mamori couldn't take it anymore, she was practically holding herself back from puking, and her eyes were shut most of the times, horrified with the scenes before her.

Hiruma felt her hand holding his sleeve tightly. He looked over her to notice that Mamori's eyebrows were up high, her eyes were wide open looking at the screen in a terrified state. Then she closed her eyes tight, as if she were trying to escape, and turned her body towards him, both hands now holding his left arm. "H-Hiruma-kun..." 'You won, please take me out of here', was what she meant to say after that, but she couldn't get it out of her. With her eyes shut, the gory images kept appearing before her eyes, despite all the darkness. Her hand was now on her mouth, again keeping her from throwing up on him.

"Fucking manager...!" Hiruma cursed, seeing her in that state wasn't what he had in mind. He got up and pulled her by her hand out of the theater. She was so frightened he could feel her hand trembling below his. He shouldn't have taken her to that movie! Why did she have to be so stubborn? "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Hiruma continued holding her hand as she was still petrified. He should have noticed earlier, and the only one he could blame was himself, swearing to the air. Mamori was still with her eyes closed tight, holding on to his hand as if it were the only thing that mattered. He sat her on the theater's sofa just outside the room entrance, as she continued to hold his hand. Due to that, he sat by her side, feeling her shaking and her hard grip.

"Fuck." Hiruma cursed again, with Mamori still with her eyes closed and continuing on holding his hand. She was breathing deeply, trembling, and trying to calm down and take those horrible images off her mind. At some times, she would turn away towards the trash can with her hand on her mouth, feeling nauseated. Hiruma's guilt was getting each time more evident.

"Anezaki!" He called, shaking her trembling figure with only one hand, trying to make her look at him. He knew it was useless, if she looked at him, it's not as if all would get better. Hiruma should never have taken her to see that movie in the first place.

Mamori took another few deep breaths, slowly the images were starting to fade away. She felt her hand below his, his hands were gripping hers tightly. Her heartbeat was normalizing, she blinked about two times to finally open her eyes and respond to the quarterback's calls. Mamori was feeling extremely embarrassed by all of what had happened and the burden she was for him, she shouldn't have been so proud.

"Stupid, fucking, stubborn –!" Hiruma noticed her eyes were now open, looking up to him, and it looking like she was about to cry. His chest started aching.

Looking up to him like that, with watery eyes, made him feel so guilty he was speechless. She was never going to forget what she saw, those horrible images were now stuck in her head and probably were going to be for the next days. Mamori closed her eyes again and leaned towards him, her forehead meeting his shoulders. Her hand rested beneath his, while her other hand was on his arm. She was starting to feel safe again. Hiruma could feel her breath on his collarbone, she was still breathing deeply.

"It's not your fault." She whispered so low he could barely hear, his head involuntarily turned to face her hair, feeling her breathing heavily. He didn't answer, and frowned in disgust, tightening his grip on her hand. "Stop it...!" Mamori shot at him louder as he squeezed her hand tighter. "It's not your fault, so stop blaming yourself..."

They sat there, with Mamori defenseless as she rested her head on the quarterback's shoulder, finally feeling safe.

AN: The movie Hiruma and Mamori saw in this chapter is actually based on a true story about a girl called Junko Furuta, that suffered 44 days of torture before finally dying. So if you're wondering what Mamori saw on the screen, just look her up. But I warn you, it's horrible. And a movie about it was actually made – but I never saw it – so in this chapter I didn't refer to the real movie, just her story that I read.