Exam week smacks Shinryuuji across the face like a sledgehammer, usual calm intensity of the school grounds thrumming with anxiety and stress. The students start looking haggard, unfocused.
Agon goes missing for the week except for when he has an exam, which is par for the course, really, though he replies to Unsui's texts at least once a day to complain about his nagging and ignore all the rest.
Coincidentally, coach reduces training time by half and taps Unsui and Hiruma to tutor the team. Hiruma does recon; gathers the Nagas' schedules, finds out their grades, their strengths and weaknesses. Unsui assembles the material, all the information that's likely to end up on the tests, bypasses anything too minor to really make a difference, then lays it all out in packets of practice problems in gradiated levels of difficulty. Too much information would only clutter their minds and squeeze out the essential things.
They both stay up late into the nights to review with the rest of the first-years, red-inking their way through reams of looseleaf as their teammates finish pages and pages of mock exams. Unsui handles the humanities track subjects while Hiruma tackles the maths and sciences- it's not that either of them have weaknesses, but both have their own specialties, too. (Hiruma's English is better than Unsui's, but not by enough to make a difference on the high school level.) They only chose the most efficient way to cover all their bases.
Kurita and Ikkyu disappear around noon one day early on and come back loaded down with cofee-making supplies, which they set up in Hiruma's room, where the two quarterbacks usually grade and correct the work (which gets done in Unsui's room, which is the only one really free of distractions, which is probably why Agon had cleared out). They appreciate it most when sleep becomes Something Everyone Else Is Doing, though it's not like Hiruma's going to complain if Kurita and Ikkyu fall asleep on Musashi's old futon while they're trying to keep him and Unsui company.
(Which is, coincidentally, the perfect time for them to develop a sign language code for use mid-game when the numbers and characters start blurring together and both of them sorely need a break.)
Their entire floor ends up smelling like coffee for the remainder of the week, which is an unofficially banned substance most of the time, but no one makes a peep about it and they open all the windows when Coach and teachers walk by. Teamwork at its best.
The Nagas pass their exams- not all of them by a very wide margin, but the point is that they all passed, with no one scoring low enough to raise any red flags.
Agon's ranked first in the school, which drives everyone on the team absolutely nuts. He'd flipped through Unsui's notes once, breezed through every equation, every practice problem, memorized each meticulous notation in the margins of his paper. Unsui doesn't even remember the last time he saw his twin in class.
Hiruma and Unsui tie for second, which the rest of the team expected. Hiruma never takes notes, always seems to absorb and process information like some sort of endless sponge of knowledge. He thinks like a computer- input fact, cross-reference and categorize; when necessary, spit it back out precisely.
Unsui's the type who spends at least half an hour a day studying; he might know and understand the information the first time, but he reviews anyway, carefully engraving the procedures and facts into his mind, training himself to know the patterns until they become a part of him, ingrained in the muscles of his hand, permanently etched in the wrinkles of his brain.
Training resumes with a vengeance, though the Coach does take it easy on Unsui and Hiruma until they've recovered from the brutal, week-long tutoring session.
Unsui gets a text from Hiruma two days before the start of their second year that only says 「found something interesting」, along with a blurry picture. A few minutes later, he gets another one that says, 「meet me in deimon」.
He takes the train after consulting a map, a schedule and Agon. Agon's on his way to Tokyo anyway, so they take the train together (Unsui knows he looks like a tourist, especially since he has to buy his ticket at the machine, but it's really hard to stop looking around).
Agon meets a petite, fashionably-dressed girl at the train station and sees Unsui off with a wave and a light shove, putting on a show of brotherly affection for her. Unsui arrives at Deimon's field and pauses when he sees Hiruma standing in front of someone. He approaches slowly, then kneels, dropping a hand to the top of Cerberos's head when he's in range to scratch behind his ear. "Hiruma," Unsui says, already used to his antics but never quite understanding them, "why did you tie a middle school student up in the middle of Deimon's football field?"
Hiruma prods the kid with a toe. Grins.
Unsui looks again, this time paying special attention to his build. Scrawny and light, but toned legs- it's not much to go on, but Hiruma's looking at him expectantly. "Runner, then? This doesn't mean you can kidnap him."
There's an emphatic nod of agreement, but the kid has duct tape over his mouth so Unsui flashes him a sympathetic look and then rips it off his face.
"E-excuse me! I don't know who either of you are, but whatever it is you want, y-you have the wrong person... probably."
He looks like he expects Unsui to untie him and let him go, but Sanzo is Shinryuuji's only runner (besides Agon, of course) and he's fine, but he's not breaking any records. He's a pretty good receiver, too, and Ikkyu could use some help- Unsui's hands pause on the knots at the kid's wrist. "Do you have a name?"
Hiruma's snickering, but he whips out a student handbook that's definitely not his and reads off the page. "Kobayakawa Sena."
"Look! I'm really sorry I stepped on your dog's tail, and I won't do it again!"
"He's transferring to Shinryuuji under the athletic scholarship."
"I'm really not!"
Unsui frowns, but he doesn't dispute it while he finishes untying Kobayakawa, carefully inspecting his wrists as he does, but the ropes haven't chafed them so he figures Hiruma had been careful. Sena's still sitting, a little disoriented and a lot scared while Unsui and Hiruma talk over his head.
"Did he run a forty?"
"Yeah, fucking monk- it's 4.2 with Cerberos on his tail. Got some nice, sharp cuts, too."
There's a long moment of silence and Sena's looking at him like the world would end if Unsui took Hiruma's side. "I trust your judgment," he says slowly, and Sena's expression of betrayal actually makes Unsui feel a little sorry for him, so he finishes, "but your methods are too extreme. We can't force people to join the Nagas against their will."
Hiruma tosses Sena's handbook to Unsui, looks him in the eye and sees absolutely no sign of resignation or loss, only grim determination. He has blackmail material to spare, but even Hiruma can admit that the skill of 'convincing people to do things while making them believe they actually wanted to in the first place' is one that Unsui has the advantage in. So he snorts and walks away.
"Sorry about that," Unsui says, giving Sena a hand up and returning his book, "my teammate is really serious about American Football." The irony of implying to strangers that Hiruma's more serious about football than he is isn't lost on Unsui, but he likes to keep that side of himself under control.
"It's fine," Sena answers agreeably while he dusts off the seat of his pants and ruefully massages his wrists, "I'm sorry you had to go through all the trouble of... coming out here to save me."
"Are you going to Deimon?" Unsui asks as he sticks his arm back into his robes. "Congratulations."
"Actually, I just finished taking the exam, so I hope so!" Sena looks at the school building, across a patch of grass and smiles mildly at the scenery, "I already know someone at Deimon, and I was supposed to meet her to walk home, but she's probably already left by now."
Unsui claps him on the shoulder, glances behind them and then sighs. "How about I go with you instead? Hiruma might come back."
"D-do you think he will?"
"I really couldn't tell you."
They walk in silence for a while; Sena's directing the way but it doesn't quite feel like it, trailing behind Unsui, looking over his shoulder every few minutes. When he finally breaks the silence, he sounds moderately calm. "So you um, said you played rugby?"
"American football. It's a little different."
"Oh," Sena says sheepishly, cowed at the curtness of Unsui's reply, but the older boy turns around, stops, nods. His expression is mild when he says helpfully, "I'm Kongo Unsui."
"I'm-"
"I know."
"Right." Sena stuffs his hands into his pockets, and finally gets a good look at Unsui's uniform. "Do you really go to Shinryuuji?"
"Yes."
"I heard the exam is really hard."
"It's a lot of work," he says diplomatically. Difficult, but not impossible. He'd scored fairly high on the entrance exams, but still not nearly as high as Agon, though he had studied and his twin hadn't bothered.
"It's all the way in Kanagawa."
"It has the best football team in Kantou."
"It sounds like you like football a lot, Unsui-san."
Unsui doesn't try to deflect the question, as he usually would. He starts walking again, eyes on the sidewalk ahead, mind on the year that's just passed and the one that's about to start. "It's fun."
"In any case, I..."
Sena pauses when Unsui slows down, lets him catch up and pins him with a steady look.
Mamori's always watched over him, always dictated the direction his activities should take- it's safe, and he likes it, but the idea of going to Shinryuuji, infamous all over the Tokyo Area for the level of its sports teams and academics, both scares and honestly sort of tempts him. Sena says, trying more to convince himself than anything else, "I don't have the grades to get into Shinryuuji... and I wouldn't have the grades to stay in it, either."
"There's an athletic scholarship," Unsui says evenly, as if he can't hear the anxiety in Sena's voice, "and if you need help with any of the work, it's not a problem if you ask me."
Sena doesn't say anything for the next few blocks, but when they draw up to his house he stops and puts a hand on the gate, turns one last considering look on Unsui, who'd been on his phone for most of the rest of the walk.
The taller boy rubs the back of his neck and flashes Sena a smile, corners of his lips just barely turning up. "Sorry. I'm not trying to pressure you, but we could use someone with your speed. It's faster than anything I've seen at the high school level."
Unsui seems like the type who's rarely vocal about praise- it's all been brutally honest assessment from the moment he opened his mouth around Sena, but even just that one comment sounds like a high compliment, eliciting a flush of pride that Sena didn't even know he was capable of having. It sounds like it was designed just to make him feel good, make him want to test his mettle on the best American Football team in Kantou- and most of all not let down this guy he met less than an hour ago. Probably because Unsui had been so polite about the whole thing.
"But you haven't even-"
"Hiruma sent me the video while we were walking."
"... oh."
"This is your house, right? It was nice meeting you."
"Unsui-san?"
"Yes?"
There's a long silence where the words stick in Sena's throat, as if clinging to the back of his tongue, but he coughs once, twice, summons his nerve and says, "Can you tell me about the application?"