thief_uchia: And we're back! Because someone asked me long time ago what Deimon would be doing… I figured I'd have this chapter! :3 Have fun!
Nyukisan10: Sweet! We actually got to the 5th chapter!! YAY!!! (Throws hands in the air) Oh yeah! I just want to say that the song Touchdown Turnaround reminds me of a certain chibi running-back... Well, enjoy this chapter and review please!
Disclaimer/Warning: We don't own.
Ryu Earth (too lazt to log in) : Well, I figured it'd be pretty obvious plot, so I decided to throw in some curve balls to amuse others. :D I'm glad to hear that it worked so well!
SplitPersonalities : I get the feeling he does that in the manga as well. Plus I wanted a little surprise for all of you!
NeoGene : Glad to hear it! :D
itachisgurl93 : Thanks! And I hope this is soon enough for you!
Bibity : LOL. Bricks for brains! That's a great way to describe him! XD! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
green-road : Sweet! Thanks! :D
chuya : Ah, sorry! Nyukisan10 insisted that I shouldn't make the chapters too long. So when in doubt, blame it on her! (Nyukisan10: WHAT?!)
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Chapter 5: The Man Stalked by Fan Girls
Sena stretched, yawning rather loudly as he did so. 5:45 AM. Yosh! He jumped out of bed and quickly changed out of his pajamas to a jogging suit. He then proceeded to tiptoe out of the dorm room, trying not to wake his sleeping roommate. Shutting the door behind him, he quickly made his way to the dormitory's entrance. Humming lightly, he began stretching. And he should be here in about…
"Good morning, Kobayakawa-kun," said Shin as he approached the smaller boy. Shin did not slow down, but instead continued to jog on. Normally, people would find this rather rude. But not a certain Kobayakawa Sena.
Sena smiled brightly, completely unfazed. "Good morning, Shin-san," he answered. He easily caught up with Shin and they began their usual morning jogs.
It's been five days since school started and Sena was beginning to get used to this routine. Not to mention his muscles were beginning to get used to this schedule. Every morning, the two would meet up and go jogging for about an hour. Afterwards, they would go to morning practice, where more jogging and couple of pass routes were mastered. Because Sena couldn't stand the thought of going to class sweating, he would always take a very quick wash before leaving for class. Then he would dutifully go to class, trying hard not to fall asleep when the teacher began talking. During lunch time, Takami would always stop by to make certain that Sena was eating a healthy lunch. Really, sometimes Sena swore Takami was Mamori in disguise… that is if Mamori was a guy and played American Football. Sena would always pause here and think guiltily that he needs to call his neechan. But he'd be quickly distracted by the arrival of Shin and Sakuraba, both wanting a light jog before lunch period was over.
After classes were finally over, Sena would let out a sigh of relief. Then, without a doubt, he'd be seen (or at least his dust cloud) running towards the football field at the top of his speed. Usually, the coach gave a pep talk before sending them all on individual training. For Sena, this involved lifting weights, aerobic exercise, long-distance running, and catching. The first three made sense to the young boy. He was physically weak, so he should work on getting stronger. Flexibility was also useful to a runner. And since he couldn't keep up his speedy run for a long period of time, he should work on his endurance. However, working on catching had come as a major surprise for Sena, who had by then learned the basic gist of the game.
"I have to catch the ball as well? I thought you wanted me to just run with the ball," Sena had protested when he had first found out.
"Yes," Shōji had agreed. "But it's always an advantage for us to have a running back who can intercept at will. Normally, this would be Sakuraba's training, but…" Here, the coach's mouth thinned into a line, his eyes on a certain tall receiver. Then he sighed and shook his head. "It's just training," he said finally. "It doesn't mean you'll be actually catching in the game."
Sena took those words to heart.
After training, Sena would always find Shin. And with a wordless greeting, the two would go off on their evening jog to 'cool down' before going to their respective dorms. Sena would quickly fly through his homework before taking a warm shower. It was around then that he would realize that he had a roommate and begin to talk to him. After a couple of minutes of talking, Sena would fall asleep. Then, Sena's day would repeat as soon as the alarm rang and Sena jumped out of bed. It was very simple schedule. And as Shin had told Sena, a tight schedule would help him increase his training.
However, it just so happened that that day was not like the rest. As soon as Sena walked in for the pep talk from Shōji, everything went downhill.
"Good aft-" he began.
The whole room was silent as a grave, and Shōji was no where to be seen. Sena blinked. "Uh…?" He got the feeling that he had just walked in one a rather serious discussion. Or perhaps an argument. Or perhaps a bit of both.
"Sena-kun!" Koharu exclaimed, looking relieved. "Great! You can go!" At those words, the whole room relaxed. Most of the teammates turned to face each other with forced laughter and jokes.
"But go where, Koharu-neechan?" Sena looked confusedly at Koharu.
"To the Deimon Devil Bats vs Koigahama Cupids match tomorrow!"
"Eh?! There's a match tomorrow?"
"You know, for the Spring Tourniment?" Koharu tried again.
Sena just stared at her, looking dumbfounded. Koharu threw a dirty look at the other players who were doing their best to ignore the two. "Figures. They didn't even bother to tell you," she grumbled under her breath. She the let out a resigned sigh and took Sena aside. "Sena-kun, why do you think we're training so hard?"
"Uh… well… isn't it so we'd look cool?" Sena asked, smiling nervously.
"Is that what American Football means to you? Looking cool?" Koharu snapped, quickly becoming enraged at such a suggestion. The others flinched at the sudden yell. They glanced at Sena and quickly looked away. Almost as if they were saying, 'Sorry, but better you than me.'
Sena quickly shook his head no and apologized. "I'm sorry! That's not what I meant!"
Koharu rolled her eyes, but calmed herself anyways. "We are training because we're aiming to defeat… them."
All the laughter and jokes died in the room. Sena looked around, surprised. What's going on? Why's everyone so tense?
"Therefore," Koharu finished with a bright smile. "You're going to watch this game so we know what to expect for our first match."
"Oh! So I'm going to be spying!" Sena exclaimed when everything dawned on him. Then he paused. "Eh?! Isn't that illegal?! What if I get caught?"
"Don't worry, Sena-kun," Takami said walking into the room. "Since this is an official match, it's not illegal at all. Other teams will be watching the game as well. And it's called 'scouting,' not 'spying.' Besides, you won't be going alone, so don't worry too much about getting 'caught.'"
"Ah… is that so…?" Sena mumbled. "But what's so bad about this match? Why does no one else want to go?"
"It's not the match, per say…" Keisuke, running back with the number 32, began. "It's…"
Sakuraba and Shin walked into the room. Everyone became silent. Keisuke's face visibly paled. Then suddenly, everyone jumped up and left, saying something about training. Sena frowned. Could Shin-san have something to do with this?
The rest of the practice went normally, like all others. The only difference was that at the end of practice, Koharu took Sena aside to speak to him. She handed him a camera, some batteries, and video tapes. Then she went into an in-dept explanation of how to use the camera to maximize the filming experience. Sena just nodded mutely, hoping that he remembered even half the things she said.
"But Koharu-neechan, didn't you say that I won't be going alone?" Sena asked confused. If he was going with a partner, wouldn't he be able to leave the filming of the game to the other person?
Koharu's lips thinned. Sena got the feeling that he had just trespassed on an unwanted territory.
"I know I'm throwing it a lot at you, and I apologize for that," Koharu finally admitted. "But it's for emergency, you understand? We tried to train Shin-san, but Coach won't forgive us if we break another camera. I wish you the best of luck!" Then she walked away with a look that seemed to say, 'Poor thing, I wish I could help, but what can I do? I'm just a manager.' Perhaps that's not what the look said exactly, but that's how Sena felt the gaze said.
How bad can it be? Sena found himself wondering. And what does she mean by 'break another camera?' Did something happen? Jeesh, now I'm scared being partners with Shin…
Then came the dreaded day…
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"Now that I think about it, Mamori-neechan goes to Deimon, doesn't she?" Sena mumbled. "Ah… I probably should've called her and told her to meet up somewhere. Well, since it is a Saturday, it should be okay… right? Not to mention that I haven't seen her in forever."
Sena was standing by himself at the metro station, waiting for his supposedly terrifying partner. I don't think Shin-san's that bad though. He just…have a strange way of thinking. He glanced at a clock nearby, wincing when he realized that they might be slightly late for the game. It's not like Shin-san to be late. He's always on time for the morning jogs and everything.
"Kobayakawa-kun!" And all thought of Mamori and Shin went out the window.
Sena steeled himself. That voice wasn't Shin's voice. He gulped. Who the hell is my partner then? He slowly looked up. Then blinked. Huh? But that doesn't make much sense. Smiling but slightly confused, he jogged lightly towards a waving Sakuraba.
"Are you my partner for spying? Oh, that's right, it's scouting, right?" Sena asked, mildly relieved and surprisingly disappointed when Sakuraba nodded yes. If it had been Shin, Sena had been prepared to go jogging afterwards with him. For some odd reason, Shin had a way of greeting Sena with a casual, "Want to train?" And for some odd reason, Sena found that he missed that.
He shrugged off the thought. Oh well. Sakuraba can't be that bad… right?
Sakuraba let out a nervous chuckle. "Let's get going. We don't want to be too late to the game."
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Sena and Sakuraba walked towards the Heavenly Grounds. Sena really didn't understand the reason for his teammates' reaction of being partners with Sakuraba. Sakuraba really wasn't a bad companion at all. The two talked merrily about things and Sena felt completely comfortable. With Shin, there was always silence that made it awkward to speak, but with Sakuraba, Sena felt it was easier to talk.
"You have no idea how bad Shin is with technology!" Sakuraba said with a laugh. "The last time, he broke the camera we gave him just by touching it! That guy maybe the perfect player on the field, but with technology, he's more of a klutz!"
"Sa… Sakuraba-chan!" squealed a voice.
Sena looked up, wincing from the high-pitched voice, just in time to see a girl swoon and fall from an impossible height. With a loud "Hiiieeee!", Sena ran under the girl, cushioning the fall with his body. Sakuraba stared with wide eyes, unsure of who to help. "Are… are you alright?" he asked, trying to help them both.
The girl stared at Sakuraba's hands before letting out a loud squeal and fainting. It took both of them to pick up the unconscious girl and place her somewhere that they both deemed safe. Then they came to the football game, both trying to shrug off the incident. Sakuraba took out the video camera and turned to Sena with an apologetic look.
"Sorry about that, Kobayakawa-kun," he said. "But I suppose you understand their urges, right?"
Sena cocked his head. "Urges? I'm afraid I don't, Sakuraba-san."
Sakuraba, who had been told by Shin that Sena was actually a rabid fan boy, blinked. "Eh? But Shin said…?"
The two stared at each other for a second. With a nervous laugh, they looked away; both refusing to admit what was on their minds. Sakuraba decided that Sena was a closet fan boy, and was rather shy about admitting things like that. Therefore, he shouldn't push the younger boy on the subject. Sena, on the other hand, decided that Sakuraba and Shin must've been talking about something rather odd that Sena didn't want to hear. After all, if it had been a pressing matter, Sakuraba would've pressed it, right?
Sena's eyes drifted over to the game. So far, both teams were scoreless. Deimon, Sena noticed, had great passes and a rather large Center. However, the rest of the team was rather… useless. None of the members could catch, and even if they could, they would quickly lose the ball. However, due to the strong fat Center, the Cupids couldn't advance at all. Then there was the fact that there was not a single person on the bench.
Sena frowned. "They don't have much players, do they?" he asked softly, almost worriedly. If I hadn't decided to be in Oujou, I'd be… He stopped the process of his thoughts. What am I thinking about? Of course I wouldn't have joined the Football team if it wasn't for Takami-senpai!
The crowd let out a disappointed groan when another Deimon's amazing pass was fumbled. "Another one?" Sena said. He could've sworn that most football game was more fast-paced, without so much mistakes. But to make sure, he asked the older boy next to him. "Is this how most games are like, Sakuraba-san?"
"Well… usually, there's something to watch, but both Cupids and Devil Bats are small and weak," Sakuraba said.
That must've gotten someone's attention because Sena could swear the blond-haired quarterback's pointy ears twitched. He turned and stared at the two Oujou students with a calculating glance. Sena gulped. Why do I get a bad feeling about this? Then the Quarterback smirked. And Sena knew that he was in for a ride. The blonde popped the balloon gum.
"What do you know, it's Jari-Pro's Sakuraba," he said in a rather loud voice.
Suddenly, as if Sakuraba was lit up with a neon signs, all the females of the game turned and stared at him. Then with almost wolfish glints in their eyes, they all ran as one after Sakuraba. The referee screamed something about inference, but he went ignored as the girls clambered each other for a certain tall Oujou student. Sakuraba visibly paled. "I leave the rest of the film up to you," he said tossing the camera at Sena before running off.
Sena blinked. He looked up and saw the elf-look-a-like smirking at him, as if issuing a challenge. Then the elf turned around, barking orders. But Sena couldn't help but to feel that the quarterback was grasping at straws, trying to make a miracle. Sena brought the camera up, remembering Koharu's words about using it. I use this button to focus and-
Smack!
Sena watched in horror as the camera fell to the ground, breaking into pieces. He pointed at the camera, his mouth moving but no words coming out. Then he looked up, unsure of what to do now that the camera was as dead as it got. Sena froze when he realized who it was that had run into him.
The person was a Deimon player, there was no question there. After all, the person was wearing a Deimon uniform. The number 29 was written in big bold letters. The player wasn't that taller than Sena, he was just more bulky. But Sena got the sneaking suspicion that if the player wasn't wearing the protection pads; he would be actually about Sena's build. But that wasn't what caught Sena's eyes. It was a certain green-blue eyes that caught Sena's brown ones. There was no doubt about it. There was only one person in the world with that color for eyes.
"R… Riku!!"