Wow, you guys really surpised me. I love you guys who reviewed: Frog Lady, Cowgirl 101, CloverBabe, darksoul 93, and mangalover4ever07. You guys have given me so much love and hope. Thank you. as promised, he's the next chapter. If you haven't already, my profile has pictures of the jerseys, and helmets of the players, just for a better visual. Also I hope you all know plenty about footbal or this might be a bit hard to follow, and if not I have a few notes at the bottom to help.
Chapter 5: Opening Game
It had been a little over a week since the Kikyo incident, and Kagome hadn't exactly listened to her. Inuyasha and her would exchange a few words now and then, nothing major or important, and usually while in the presence of others; namely Miroku and/or Sango, never alone. Today was Friday, and the season-opener for the Hanyous. Normally all students had wear uniforms, but on days they had games; thee football players were given special permission from Principal Kaede to wear their jerseys along with their normal school uniform pants. She did this because she wanted the players to be cheered on and encouraged by other students the day of the game; she was cool like that, even in her old age.
After the school day had ended, the teams went to get ready for the games. All the girls were in their locker room changing. "So Sango" Kagome said, "is there anything special about this team they're facing?"
Sango thought for a moment, trying to find something, "Not really, the only have 1 player worth mentioning. Their Middle Linebacker Taigokumaru. He's known for being big and scary so other players find him intimidating."
"Is he better than Inuyasha?"
Sango gave a snort then started laughing, "Oh hell no! He only has size. Inuyasha is stronger, faster, with better instincts. He doesn't stand a chance in hell!" All the girls started laughing as they finished changing and headed out to the game field where the football team was already warming up. They stretched in unison, ran through small position drills, and team drills. And after some time they left and went down that small incline into the shed.
"Where are they going? The game's going to start in like 10 minutes!" Kagome yelled.
"Relax" Ayame said, "They always do this. They go down to the shed and go over last-minute reminders… and… a prayer I think."
Down at the shed, Myoga was talking to the team. "Okay everyone, this is it. You've been training since last season ended for this. You've done everything I've asked you to do since then, but now, there's one more thing I'm going to ask of you……. win." The rest of the team only stared at him, their focus unwavering. "Jinenji, remember if you get a chance, let the rest of the Offensive Line take the Defensive Line and you go block Taigokumaru."
"Yes sir" he said in his low clam voice.
"Miroku, throw high against him, he can't jump very high."
"You got it!" he said confidently.
"Sesshomaru, work hard to the outside, their Quarterback likes to roll out of the pocket.(1)"
"Understood" he said stoically.
"Shippo, jam(2) those receivers hard to slow their routes and give Sesshomaru more time."
"Consider it done" he said hyper and a bit anxious.
"Inuyasha……… try not to hurt anyone too bad."
"No promises" he said with a smirk.
"… Alright everyone out." They stepped out of the shed into the open. In the distance they could hear the crowd grow anxious. "Take a knee everyone." They did so, gathered around him in a circle with Myoga in the core. On their right knees, with their helmets in their hands gripping the facemasks, the backs touching the ground, the players eyes cast down, most closed.
"Dear God, help me to be a player in this game of life. I don't ask for any easy plays, I only ask for the stuff to give 100 of what I've got. Help me to understand this game is full of knocks and troubles, help me to play on the square. And finally…"
The team began rattling the backs of their helmets against the ground.
"if I am laid on the shelf in sickness or injury, help me to take that as part of the game too. Help me never to whimper of squeal that I had a raw deal. And at the end, I ask for no lying compliments. I only wanna know…"
The rest of the team joined in.
"That I am a competitor!"
"Now get out there boys!"
"YEAH!" they all cheered running up onto the field in front of the now roaring crowd. The players grouped together in the middle of the field with Inuyasha and most other 3rd years in the center as Inuyasha took the lead.
"Alright guys let's get it done! Take this game, put it in your heads, put it in your hearts, let's go to war! And let's welcome these assholes to the Wishbone!" They jumped in unison with their helmets held high above their heads chanting.
"Welcome to the Wishbone, Wishbone, Wishbone!"
"Welcome to the Wishbone, Wishbone, Wishbone!"
"Welcome to the Wishbone, Wishbone, Wishbone!"
"Welcome to the Wishbone, Wishbone, Wishbone!"
"WOOOO!!!"
""Hanyous" on three!" Inuyasha yelled.
"1, 2, 3, Hanyous!"
They broke apart and headed for the sidelines, except for Inuyasha who stayed at center field as the refs approached along with a rather large player the number 52 on his red, yellow, and black jersey. He stood a little taller than Inuyasha and much wider, but Inuyasha's stern glare at the colossal player never faltered. The referees spoke to both of them. "Alright captains, nice to meet you. Dark Bats, since you are the away team, you call it."
"Tails." Taigokumaru said in a low gravely voice.
The ref flipped the coin in the air and it landed on the ground, heads-up.
"It's heads, your call Hanyous."
"Receive." Inuyasha stated never breaking a fierce eye contact with Taigokumaru.
"Very well, Dark Bats, which side of the field will be yours?" He pointed to his right. "Alright, shake hands and let's have a good game!" They looked very disgusted at each other; they extended their hands, but gave more of a quick pat with their gloved hands then a shake and went back to their sidelines.
They lined up for kick-off(3) as the crowd hoped and hollered for the two teams. The kicker was ready and made his approach, booting the ball towards one of the return-men Ginta. He avoided a few players but was grabbed by the leg at his own 40-yard line and fell. This is where their offense drive would start. The offense went out to the field and huddled up holding hands as Miroku took to one knee with the play.
"Alright boys, first play of the season so let's make it a good one; … Right, New York, 14; on 1, on1, ready…"
"Break!" they yelled and clapped their hands heading to the Line of Scrimmage(4). The offensive lined up at the LOS with Jinenji over the ball, a Tight End(5) on the left side of the line, with Kouga split out to the right. Miroku stood behind Jinenji. Hachi stood almost 2 yards behind him, Hakkaku and Ginta stood 2 yards behind Hachi next to each other with some space between them.
Taigokumaru grinned widely with a fierce gaze at Miroku. "Fresh meat boys! Fresh meat!" he yelled.
Miroku glanced at him unfazed and simply winked at him with a smirk as he got under center. "Set… GO!"
The ball was snapped and Miroku put it in front of Hachi as he came forward. Taigokumaru lunged forward, tackling Hachi at the LOS. He smiled widely as he looked down at his victim who had nothing in his hands. Taigokumaru went wide-eyed and looked up to see Miroku pitch it to Hakkaku to the right for a 15 yard gain running out-of-bounds.
In the defensive huddle Taigokumaru was yelling at his team. "Concentrate heavy on middle and far outside, ready… BREAK!" The offense lined up the same way. The ball was snapped and Hachi came forward once again. Taigokumaru came forward to stop him once again noticing he had no ball. He looked to the outside and saw Hakkaku covered completely; however, Miroku still had the ball and ran for 12 yards before being hit from the side.
The next huddle was filled with more anger. "What's wrong with you guys?! … Alright fine! Let's stack the outside!"
"But what about…"
"Shut up!!!" The defense lined up with the linebackers far to the outside after the ball was snapped, the outside-linebackers and Taigokumaru headed right for Miroku and Hakkaku, but saw as Miroku simply handed it to Hachi who ran it up the middle, past the well-blocked defensive line for a 10 yard gain before being tackled by both safeties.
After this, Taigokumaru was irate. "DAMNIT! I've had enough of this. YOU - safeties, move down towards the line to stop 33, while the rest of us take the outside."
"But Tai…"
"SHUT UP!"
Every player on the defense stayed within 5 yards of the LOS. This time, after the ball was snapped and Hachi came forward again; the safeties ran up but noticed he stopped before he touched the offensive line. Miroku stepped behind him holding the ball. Taigokumaru went wide-eyed once more as he looked behind him to see Kouga run straight for 8 yards, then cut at a deep angle towards the inside of the field as Miroku passed the ball to him, and with no safeties to guard the deep middle area, there was no one to stop this speed-demon from reaching the end zone(6)
The crowd cheered loudly as the ref threw hi arms up for the signal as the game announcer yelled, "TOUCHDOWN!!(7)" Taigokumaru dropped to his knees in disbelief. The field goal team went on the field to kick the extra point. "Score: Musashi Hanyous - 7, Hiroshima Dark Bats - 0."
This time it was Kouga's turn to kick-off. He booted the ball past the end zone, which is what the team liked. They didn't want the other team to even have a chance of doing some damage against them. Now it was finally Inuyasha's turn to take the field. Kagome watched him intently, almost completely ignoring what the other cheerleaders were doing, as he strapped on his helmet. The sight of his tremendously thick facemask and his eye-black shaped like talons on his face, send a chill even through her as he jogged up to the huddle near the 20 yard line. The offense lined up in a normal I-Formation(8).
"Down… set… HIKE!" Jinenji wasn't a bit surprised that he got double teamed at the line. Inuyasha made a quick read and moved a bit to his left. The offensive line's left Guard went to his closest choice which was at this point the outside linebacker, not Inuyasha, big mistake. When the guard moved away from Inuyasha, he sped forward, rushing through the gap the guard left behind finding the Dark Bat's halfback right in front of him. Inuyasha lowered himself at his hips and sprang forward, lunging at the half-back, knocking him completely backward as Inuyasha lay on top of him with a toothy grin.
He stood up as the whistle blew noticing the half-back wasn't moving… but he was breathing… that's a plus. The officials rushed over to him while the Dark Bat's coach was yelling for a penalty flag to be thrown, but the refs kept saying it was a clean hit.
Two officials ran over to look at him, "Well he's out" one said.
"…Cold" the other added.
Miroku shook his head covered in his hand, Kagome was a bit shocked, and Inuyasha was just wondering what the big deal was; it's not like this was the first time he had done this.
"Geez Inuyasha" Kohaku said "did you have to go that far?"
"I wanted to set a tone and send a message; so yes. Besides this makes things better for Sesshomaru and Shippo, now they're more likely to pass the ball, so they can follow Myoga's strategy."
"After he was carted off the field, the offense lined up again."Down… set… HIKE!" The quarter back moved quickly to his right, moving away from the protective offensive line. Shippo had given a great initial hit on the right side, delaying the receiver's route. The QB saw his receiver wasn't where he was supposed to be, but he did see someone else; Sesshomaru heading right for him, The QB threw it at the last second just as Sesshomaru made contact. Under this kind of pressure, the ball was thrown poorly and the receiver couldn't tell where it was, but Shippo could. He sped up, right in the balls' path; intercepting(9) it. He made it almost to the 10 yard line before being pushed out by the back-up running-back.
The crowd cheered loudly as the offense went back out to the field calmly. Taigokumaru was so mad he could barely stand it. "Set…GO!" The ball was snapped and Miroku faked a hand-off to Hachi who came up to his right. Ginta went towards the middle-left through a small hole in the line and Taigokumaru saw it, but as he went to his right he something huge in his way. Jinenji stayed as low as he could as he slammed his palms to Taigokumaru's chest and then exploded with power against him, knocking him onto his back. Meanwhile Hakkaku had done a counter-step and rushed after Ginta with the ball in hand, following his blocker all the way to the end zone. Taigokumaru layed on the ground staring up at the twilight sky knowing this was going to be a long night.
The rest of the games went on, no real change in pace. "Final Score: …" the announcer said, "Musashi Hanyous - 56, Hiroshima Dark Bats - 0" The crowd gave one last cheer, their throats sore. Taigokumaru was sprawled across the bench, tired, bruised, unable to move and even think. The team had gone to the stands to talk to and thank those who came. Most sought out parents or girlfriends. As Miroku went towards them, he saw the only reason he came over talking to some other boy.
"My dear Sango," the boy said, "I am in Takeda Kuranosuke."
"Oh I remember, we had class together as 1st years. And you had terribles colds that whole year and kept getting runny noises" she said with a laughing smile gracing her lips.
"Yes, unfortunately that was the case. And I'm honored that you remember so much about me. I will be quite forward with you if you don't mind. For some time now I've harbored these deep feelings for you." Sango took a step back blushing. "I would like for you to go out with me. My family as you may know has a lot of money, so you'll have a lot of fun and we'll get to many great things together."
She looked away towards the ground. "I… I don't…"
"I see, you require time from the shock. Very well, I will be waiting for your answer." He strode away with a hopeful look.
Sango was still blushing as she heard the sound of cleated foot steps. She looked up and caught eyes with Miroku who didn't look too happy. He turned away from her and headed back towards the locker room.
Kagome was still slipping through the crowd of players and fans searching for him. She caught sight of him apparently looking for someone as well. As she took a few steps closer she saw Kikyo walk up behind him and tap him on the shoulder. As he turned around she jumped on him, looping her arms around his neck and kissing him full on the lips. Kagome took a few steps back before running back through the crowd, not even noticing Kouga trying to hit on her one more time.
1) pocket - the offensive linemen drop back to shield the quarter back in an almost semi-circle, creating a "pocket" of protection.
2) jam - an initial hit on the receiver to slow his route and mess up timing for the offense by the defense.
3) kick-off the ball is placed at the 40 yard line and held up and is then kicked to the other team to be returned.
4) Line of Scrimmage- the line across the field at which the ball is placed.
5) Tight End- A position that is a mixture of receiver and an offensive lineman, they stay on the end of the line in the sme stance as the line man, and will either stay in to block or go out for a pass.
6)end zone - the area at the ends of the field where if the ball crosses it being held by a player will result in a Touchdown
7)Touchdown - a score of 6 points, followed either by a kick (1 point) through the up-rights, or another play (2 pts) (both down at the 3 yard line)
8) I-Formation -a receiver split out to both sides and a backfield forming a "I" by the half-back behind the fullback whose behind the quarterback.
9) Interceptions - a defender catching a pass thrown by the offense resulting in a change of possesion.
Wow, I'm drained. I typed this as soon as I got back from class, with a lunch break, and I'm finally done. I hope you like it. I'm still working on the next chapter. So it might be a little bit. But you should know that reviews encourage me to work faster, just in case.