Blazing Days

In which Sena finds the football club on his own, meets Kurita, runs the 40 yard dash, and joins the team. Then he meets Hiruma, and with three serious players the Devil Bats are off to a running start.

I'll say this once, and only once: I own nothing.

Chapter One

Curiosity Killed the Cat, the Devil Bat Brought Him Back

Running down the streets while dodging through and around the crowds of people, Sena Kobayakowa enjoyed the feeling of the wind rushing past him as he made his way towards Deimon High. Sweat dripped down his face and matted his short, messy brown hair to his head, but he didn't really mind. Slowing down as the entrance came into sight, Sena came to a stop just outside the school grounds to catch his breath as he bent over, hands on his knees.

After a minute of sucking in air to try and regain his normal breathing, he straightened up, knowing from experience that if he stayed bent over too long he'd get a cramp in his side. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead onto the sleeve of his sweatshirt, Sena entered the school grounds and started looking around for the bulletin board where the results from the entrance exams were supposed to be posted. It only took a few moments to find it over to his left. Walking over, Sena pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket that had his form number on it, 21.

Unfortunately, a decent sized crowd had already formed around the board, so Sena couldn't see if his number was there or not. Letting out a sigh, Sena slipped into the back of the crowd. Following the flow of the people around him, Sena slipped into small gaps that barely even seemed to exist and allowed himself to be bumped forward by the people around him so that within a minute or two he was standing right in front of the board.

Scanning the papers with his eyes, he noted the results were posted by numerical order and quickly found his number, 21, near the middle of the first column. Feeling his shoulders slump a bit in relief, Sena got away from the board the same way he got close to it. It was rather easy as people didn't seem to pay him much notice so he was able to free himself from the throng fairly quick.

Satisfied that he had passed, Sena glanced at the paper in his hand again, noting that it asked those who'd passed the exams to visit the office before leaving to receive their uniforms and class schedules. Turning to head towards the main school building, Sena felt a bit of a shiver run down his spine as two guys in red ran past him to a boy behind him that had also just made it out of the group of people surrounding the bulletin board. It was obvious by the boy's smile that he'd passed.

Even as Sena watched, the two guys, in what he now recognized as sports jerseys of some sort, grabbed onto the boy and tossed him into the air, congratulating him on passing. Figuring they must know each other somehow, Sena left them behind and went to pick up his uniform and schedule at the school office. Finding a line that spilled out of the door to the office and into the hallway, Sena took his place at the back of the line, wishing he had something to do to kill time as the line slowly moved forward.

"Ah, what is this? The line's so long, let's come back later." Looking behind him, Sena saw three guys standing in a group a little ways off. The one who'd spoken had dark brown hair that hung almost to his shoulders, and his face had a pretty annoyed look on it. Next to him was a boy with spiky blond hair wearing orange tinted sunglasses who was reading a manga of some sort. It made Sena kind of jealous since he was getting bored from standing in line. The final guy of the trio had short pale blond hair that Sena assumed was bleached. On his cheek was a small scar in an 'x' shape.

"Idiot," the one with the scar said, walking towards Sena. "It doesn't matter when we come, there'll always be a line, so we might as well just get it over with now before the line becomes any longer." Noticing the guy didn't seem to be stopping, Sena prepared himself for the familiar sensation of being bumped into. Sure enough, the guy with the scar on his cheek ran right into him a few seconds later.

"Huh?" the guy said, looking down in confusion at Sena who stood a mere 5'3. Sena resisted the urge to face palm. With his short height and obscure presence, people ran into him a lot. At least his height was beginning to fix itself though; in the past three months he'd grown two inches, and he was hoping the growth spurt wouldn't stop anytime soon. He really didn't want to be mistaken for a middle school kid now that he was in high school.

"Hey, did he cut in front of us?" the guy with long brown hair said, leaning over to stare Sena in the face. Now that the guy with the scar had drawn attention to him, the other two finally noticed him.

"Um…I've been here for almost fifteen minutes now," Sena said, resisting the urge to back up into the person in front of him in line as the three guys leaned in closer.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"HUH?"

Blinking, Sena couldn't help it and took a step back. Luckily, the line had moved forward so he didn't bump into anyone. When the three didn't stop staring at him, Sena began to feel rather uncomfortable.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, blushing lightly in embarrassment as his voice broke on the last word. He couldn't help it that he'd hit puberty a bit later than his peers who'd already gone through their voices changing. The three guys stared at him for a moment longer before suddenly turning away from him and proceeding to ignore him. Not sure how to really take this, Sena simply turned around and waited for the line to keep moving. By the time he reached the desk in the office, he'd learned from listening to the guys behind him that the one with brown hair was named Kuroki, the one with the manga was Togano, and the one with the scar on his cheek was Jumonji.

"Size?" the receptionist asked. Sena could feel her looking him over. "You're probably a small, just a minute."

"Actually," Sena said, getting the receptionist's attention, "I've started growing a lot lately, so could I get a medium instead?" The receptionist considered his request for a moment before nodding her head.

"Alright, just a minute." When she returned, she gave Sena a bag with a few school uniforms inside, and after asking for his information, printed out and handed him his school schedule. Slipping his schedule into his bag so he wouldn't lose it, Sena thanked the receptionist and left. On his way out, he found himself feeling rather glad that he'd arrived when he did since the line now stretched much farther down the hall than it had earlier.

Making his way outside, Sena found himself wandering around the grounds to explore them. It took him a little bit, but he found the baseball field, the tennis courts, and the soccer field. Sena stopped at the soccer field for a bit, imagining the players out there running around, kicking and passing the ball or trying to steal it away with a sliding tackle. In middle school he'd somehow ended up as a cross between ball boy and manager for his school's soccer team, and he'd come to understand the sport fairly well.

Eventually, Sena returned to his wanderings, and finally found himself at the far end of the school grounds standing on a hill above a field he wasn't very familiar with. On each end were two large 'y' shaped posts, and the ground in between them was marked off with numbers in increments of ten up to the middle where they reached the number fifty and then started going back down.

"Is this… an American football field?" Sena wondered aloud, not really sure if his guess was right or not. Walking down to the field, Sena noted somewhere in the back of his head that while it appeared about as long as a soccer field, it was definitely narrower. Wandering around a little more, Sena found a small gray building that looked like a storage shed not too far from the field, but a poster on the door caught his attention. On it were several guys dressed in jerseys that seemed vaguely familiar until he realized it looked like the two guys he'd seen earlier tossing someone in the air. Above what he assumed were the football players in big bold letters were the words: JOIN THE AMERICAN FOOTBALL TEAM!

Surrounding the players in different bright, bold colors were the words power, tactics, and speed. Looking closer, Sena noticed a few more words underneath the players that read: "Also looking for team manager!" and "Aim for the Christmas Bowl!" Sena wasn't really sure what the Christmas Bowl was, but he decided it must be football's big tournament, kind of like the equivalent to the national's for the soccer team, and, judging by the name, it must happen very close to Christmas time.

Feeling curious, Sena knocked on the door a few times before trying the doorknob to find it unlocked. "Excuse me," he called as he walked in. The sight that greeted him could literally be compared to a disaster zone. Jerseys, footballs, helmets, empty pizza boxes and Chinese food containers lay scattered all over the place along with magazines, sporting equipment Sena didn't have a name for, a tv, and quite a few more odds and ends.

Stepping over several discarded boxes of pizza by his feet, Sena set to exploring the place. Seeing the place in such a state made Sena's instincts from being a manager and ball boy for the soccer team want to kick in and clean the place up since that had been one of his jobs before, but he held back. He was just here out of curiosity, so it wasn't his place to start cleaning up even if some of the items were obviously trash that needed to be thrown out.

Finding several magazines hidden amongst the other things in the small clubroom, Sena gathered them up and moved just a few things around so that there was a little space on the table in the middle of the room and a stool to sit on. Feeling his foot bump against something that gave way, Sena looked down before bending over to pick up the stray football that was wobbling around on the floor.

Staring at the oblong ball, Sena wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. Since it wasn't a sphere, it wouldn't be very good for kicking which meant it must be a game where you touch the ball with your hands, like basketball. Still, even if he could discern that much, turning the ball around in his hands, Sena couldn't really figure out a good way to hold the thing. Everything he tried just felt awkward, or made it seem like that ball would slip from his hands without a moment's notice. Frowning, Sena set the football down on the table next to the stack of magazines he'd collected. Maybe he'd find something in one of them that could help him figure it out.

Sitting down on the stool that he'd cleared off, Sena picked up the first magazine, an American Football Monthly, and flipped open to the first page which had the table of contents. Scanning the table, Sena found a section labeled 'breaking down the basics' and, noting the page number, turned to the article. He hadn't gotten very far into the article when the door to the clubhouse opened.

Looking up, feeling a flash of guilt at being somewhere that he wasn't sure if he was really allowed to be or not, Sena found the doorway was completely blocked by someone with a very large, rotund frame that was also very tall. The person walked in humming happily and shut the door behind him, and Sena had the feeling that, like happened quite often, the guy hadn't even noticed him.

"I hope we get some new members this year," the guy said to himself as he set down his stuff in the corner. "Then we'll be able to go to the Christmas Bowl!" Feeling bad, and a bit awkward, since the guy was talking to himself without realizing he was there, Sena cleared his throat.

"Um, excuse me." The guy whipped around so fast Sena nearly did a double take, finding it hard to believe that someone with such a large mass could move so fast.

"Who-wah!" the guy exclaimed, nearly falling backwards when he spotted Sena sitting at the table. Sena opened his mouth to apologize, but before he could get a word out, the guy's eyes flicked from him to the football magazine in his hand and back up to his face.

"C-could you be-" the guy began, a fire burning in his eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry," Sena began, holding up his hands defensively.

"-here to join the football team?!" Sena blinked, his mouth still open in mid-apology as the guy's words registered in his head.

"U-um, well, I don't know-" Sena was cut off midsentence as the guy swept him up into a crushing bear hug. "C-can't breathe!" Sena managed to get out. The guy quickly let go and started apologizing.

"Ah, no, it's okay," Sena said as the guy swept everything of the table and plopped Sena back down on the stool he'd been sitting on before rummaging around and pulling out some tea.

"Um, am I in trouble?" Sena asked, a bit confused by the swift turn of events.

"Trouble, why would you be in trouble?" the large guy asked as he sat down across from Sena. Honestly, Sena was surprised the stool didn't break under his weight, and silently hoped that this guy would never accidentally bump into him since it would probably end up with him being squished flat as a pancake.

"Well, I'm not a member of your club, but I was in here looking around at stuff," Sena said, indicating the magazines he'd somehow saved from the guy's rough clearing of the table.

"But you're going to be one of us from now on, so why does it matter?" the guy asked as Sena watched him pour a ridiculous amount of sugar into his tea. "How many dozen sugar cubes do you want?" he asked, holding the sugar above what Sena guessed was his cup of tea.

"I'll just have a single cube," he said, hoping the guy didn't actually put a whole dozen sugar cubes in on accident. "And, I don't know if I'm going to be one of you guys," he said, watching the other guy's expression fall almost instantly. Feeling bad, Sena quickly scrambled to explain himself. "I mean, I ended up here out of curiosity, but I don't actually know anything about football. The only sport experience I have was being a manager for my middle school soccer team."

"Oh, that's okay," the guy said, brightening up a bit as he realized why Sena was hesitating. "It doesn't matter if you've never played before, we can teach you, or, since you've been a manager before, you could try being our team manager since we need one of those too." Taking a sip of his tea, Sena thought about it for a minute.

"Well, before I really make a decision, do you think you could tell me about football? I'm Sena Kobayakowa by the way," he added belatedly, realizing he'd been rude and not introduced himself.

"Ah, I'm Ryokan Kurita," Kurita said, also realizing they hadn't been introduced. "Feel free to ask me whatever you want about football." Relaxing a bit more as Kurita smiled widely at him, Sena nodded. Thinking for a moment, he decided it would be best to start with the basics of basics before asking more complicated questions.

"How many players are on a football team?"

"Well, you need eleven players to make a team, but most teams have a lot more players than that because they have a team for offense, a team for defense, and a special team or kick team," Kurita said as he added even more sugar to his tea. The sight made Sena feel kind of sick. He'd lost his sweet tooth for the most part a few years back thanks to his friend Mamori. Going over Kurita's answer to his question, Sena realized this could get complicated quickly, so he asked Kurita for a few sheets of paper and a pen so he could write things out and keep them straight. Once the items were in front of him, Sena wrote American Football Basics on the top of the first sheet and then put what Kurita had told him underneath.

"Okay, so what's the job of the offensive team?" Sena asked, having made a column for each of the three types of teams that Kurita had mentioned on the paper.

"It's scoring. In football you score points by getting a touchdown, and each touchdown is worth six points." Jotting this down, Sena asked the next question he could think of.

"What's a touchdown?"

"A touchdown is when you get the football into the opponent's end zone, and you can get it there by running with the ball or passing the ball." Smiling, Kurita pulled out some sweets he'd bought earlier and plopped them on the table. "Oh, you probably don't know what the end zone is. It's at either end of the field."

"You mean the place with those yellow 'y' shaped post things?" Closing his eyes, Sena pictured the field that he'd seen not too long ago in his head. He could remember the tall yellow posts, and there'd been a marked off area in front of them that didn't have any of the numbers to mark distance.

"Yep, that's right, and those yellow posts are called goal posts. You can score points with them by kicking the ball between the posts with a field kick which is worth three points or you can use them on a point after touchdown. When you go for a PAT you have two options: you can either try to kick the ball through the goal posts for one point, or you can try to get the ball into the end zone again for two points." Nodding, Sena scribbled down everything that was Kurita was saying as they continued through the basics of scoring, the different positions and their rolls in offense and defense, the basic rules of the game, and several other odd questions Sena thought to ask.

By the time they were through, Sena had filled multiple sheets of paper, front and back, with all the things Kurita had patiently and rather happily explained to him, and Kurita had run out of sweets. Sena could tell from the way Kurita talked about it that he really loved football. Looking through all the stuff he'd written down, Sena actually found it to be really interesting. It was obvious that football was a pretty rough and physical game, but it also sounded exciting.

"So, what do you think Sena-kun? Isn't football amazing?"

"Yeah, it is," Sena said quietly as he gathered up his papers. Pulling out his cellphone to check the time, Sena paled. He was going to miss the train home if he didn't leave soon. "Kurita-san, do you by chance have any videos I could take home and watch? I need to get going so I don't miss the train."

"Of course!" Getting up, Kurita rummaged around through the piles of stuff for a few minutes before providing Sena with a couple of tapes. "You can take those magazines you were looking at too, they're old editions so it should be fine." Thanking Kurita, Sena put everything into the bag that held his school uniforms. Making sure he had everything, Sena pulled out his cellphone again and held it out towards Kurita, the question plain on his face. He thought Kurita was going to squish him with another bear hug again as he took his phone and entered in his number before handing it back.

"Hey, Kurita-san, how fast do you have to be to be a running back?" Sena asked, thinking about one of two positions Kurita had told him about that seemed like he'd be able to do, the other being a receiver. Any kind of position on the line was obviously out of the question because of his lack of size and strength. On the reverse though, receiver, running back, and possibly line back or corner back sounded like positions he could do. Being the quarterback also sounded interesting, but Kurita had mentioned someone named Hiruma when he'd explained the position to him, and from what Sena understood, you only needed one quarterback in football. Besides, he'd need to get a lot better grasp on the game before he could realistically think about trying to play the position that coordinated everyone else on the team. It might be fun to try and learn later on though.

"Come with me Sena," Kurita said excitedly, grabbing a stopwatch and pulling Sena out of the clubhouse and over to the football field. If Sena was showing interest in a position, that meant he was showing an interest in becoming a player! "Stay right here, Sena," Kurita said, positioning Sena at the line of the endzone before heading down the field to the forty yard mark. "When I say go, run as fast as you can!" Kurita called. Figuring out what was going on, Sena gave Kurita a thumbs up and then dropped into a starting position.

"On your mark…get set…GO!"

At Kurita's signal, Sena took off, pushing his legs to run as fast as possible. Only after he'd passed Kurita and the stopwatch by a good five yards did he skid to a stop. He jogged over to Kurita who looked like he was going to cry. Sena couldn't believe it, was his time really that bad? Looking at the stopwatch in Kurita's hand, Sena saw the time, 4.8 seconds.

"I guess I'm not fast enough then," Sena said with a sigh. He'd always thought running was one of his strengths since his childhood friend, Riku, had taught him how all those years ago. Suddenly, Sena found himself being squished in another bear hug. He'd have to check and make sure his ribs were all still in one piece when he got home. Kurita didn't seem to realize just how strong he was; that, or Sena was even weaker than he thought.

"This is amazing, Sena!" Kurita cried as he spun Sena around and around. "The five second mark is the difference between a sprinter and a non-sprinter, and you beat it!" Feeling stunned as Kurita finally set him down, Sena smiled a bit as he patted down his sides to make sure they were still intact.

"So, does that mean I have the speed to be a running back?"

"Absolutely!" Kurita declared excitedly. "You're going to join our team as a running back now, right Sena?"

Walking back over to his bag that was sitting in the end zone, Sena looked over his shoulder at Kurita who looked like an overanxious puppy as he stood there quivering in anticipation.

"Give me a night to think it over and sleep on it; I'll call you tomorrow and let you know." Knowing he'd be cutting it close at the train station, Sena waved goodbye to Kurita and left. Jogging down the street, Sena checked the time again, and was glad to see that he'd have a minute or two to spare if he kept his current pace.

YA-HA!

Sena was glad for his sweatshirt as he jogged towards Deimon High's football field early in the morning. The previous night after he'd gotten home, he'd settled down to watch the videos Kurita had let him borrow. By the time he'd watched them all, Sena couldn't wait, he'd called Kurita right then and told him that he wanted to join the football team. He was glad he'd told Kurita over the phone because he was sure the huge lineman would've crushed him in his excitement if he'd told him in person.

It was the fact that he'd decided to join the team that had Sena jogging for the field so early in the morning three days before school even started. With the basic explanation Kurita had given him, and after watching the videos, Sena had a general idea of how the game worked, but he still needed to start practicing and getting experience, so Kurita had agreed to meet him at the school so they could start training.

Finally reaching the field, Sena was surprised to see Kurita already out on the field, charging against some kind of machine and pushing it back.

"Kurita-san!" Sena called as he ran down the hill to the field.

"Sena-kun!" Turning to face his newest teammate, Kurita's face seemed to glow with happiness. "Go get suited up and we'll start practicing. Well, I've actually been here for a few hours, but I can start teaching you." Sena blinked. A few hours? It wasn't quite seven in the morning, just how early had Kurita gotten there? Shaking his head to clear it, Sena thought of something else that seemed a little more important.

"Kurita-san, I don't have any equipment to suit up in, and even if I did, I don't know how."

"That's okay," Kurita beamed as he ambled off towards the clubhouse. "We've got all the stuff you'll need in the clubhouse, and I can show you how to put it on." Smiling, Sena caught up with Kurita easily and walked with him to the clubhouse. Once inside, Sena again found himself wondering how they were supposed to find anything at all in the giant mess. Perhaps, now that he was a member of the team, he could clean the place up a bit.

"Let's see, Sena-kun is probably a small," Kurita said as he pulled out several pairs of pants, looking for one that would fit the smaller boy. After that he also found a small sized set of shoulder pads, and a smaller helmet. "That box over there should have cleats in it, so you can find two that fit," Kurita said, pointing to a box that, to Sena, seemed to be balancing precariously on the edge of a locker and was just waiting to fall down on top of someone.

Grabbing a stool, Sena climbed on top of it and reached for the box, hoping against all odds that it wouldn't tip over on him. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on his side, and, as his fingers brushed against the box, it wobbled and tipped over before he could stop it.

"Wah!" Lifting up his arms to shield his face and head, Sena felt shoe after shoe bounce off his body until finally, the box itself landed upside down over his head.

"Sena-kun, are you okay?" Kurita asked as he plucked the box off of Sena, glad to see that the other boy didn't look hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but, would it be okay if-" Sena began, figuring he might as well ask now. "Well, now that I'm a member of the team that is… would it be okay if I cleaned up the clubhouse a bit so something like this doesn't happen again?"

"Ah, sure," Kurita said, throwing the box he was holding to the side. "Hiruma and I are used to it, but I guess it is a bit messy." Wondering what Kurita thought was really messy if the clubhouse was only a bit messy, Sena sighed and got down on his hands and knees to start looking through the shoes for two that would fit him. As he was looking through the cleats, Sena noticed something.

"Hey, Kurita-san, how come I'm seeing two different kinds of spikes on the bottom of the cleats?" To clarify his point, Sena held up two cleats, one with each type of spike to show to Kurita. The cleat in his right hand had less spikes and the spikes appeared a bit more rounded in appearance while the cleat in his left had more spikes that, while not necessarily pointy, weren't nearly as rounded as the other ones.

"That's because the one in your right hand is for playing on artificial turf and the one in your left hand is for playing on regular turf." Turning the cleats so that he could see the bottoms, Sena took a minute to memorize which one was which. He knew from being a soccer manager that using the wrong type of cleat could lead to injury and a decrease in performance.

"So, which type should I use?" Sena asked, putting the cleats to the side.

"Use the ones for regular turf unless Hiruma or I tell you otherwise," Kurita said as he gathered up all the gear he'd found for Sena. Nodding, Sena hunted around for a bit longer before finding a right and left regular turf cleat that were the correct size.

Now that they had all the gear, Kurita began walking Sena through how to put it all on, starting with an undershirt, a strange pair of spandex shorts that had built in thigh pads, and a pair of long socks that almost went to his knee. Next he had Sena put on the white football pants that had built in knee pads. At the top of the pants Sena did up a belt and set of laces, making sure to secure them tightly. Once his pants were on, Kurita had Sena sit down and put on the cleats that he'd found.

Tying his cleats with a double knot to make sure they wouldn't come undone, Sena stood up and took his shoulder pads from Kurita. Putting them on over his head, Sena felt strange with the large pads protruding out on either side of his body. At this point, Kurita helped Sena tighten his shoulder pads up so that Sena would know how tight to make them. Taking in a few deep breaths, Sena tried to get used to the feeling of pressure the rib part of the shoulder pads put on his chest. It was odd to feel his chest somewhat constricted, but after watching the videos last night, he knew he'd be more than happy for the protection out on the field.

"What's next Kurita-san?" Sena asked as he turned in a circle, trying to see himself.

"Well, next would be your jersey, but I'm not sure if Hiruma will have a specific number he wants you to have or not, so we'll just have you wear a plain t-shirt over the top for now," Kurita explained, handing Sena an oversized white t-shirt. Trying to get it on over his head with the shoulder pads on was proving difficult, and in the end Kurita ended up having to help him. Sena made a mental note to practice putting on and taking off his gear so that he wouldn't need help in the future.

"Now all that's left is the helmet," Kurita said, handing Sena a helmet that he thought would fit. "Try this one for size. You'll know it fits right if it's snug, the earholes line up over your ears, and…well, just try it on and we'll see." Nodding, Sena took the helmet and put it on. The fit was snug, but not uncomfortable. Sena thought he could compare it to a bicycle helmet, except that it was meant for your entire head and face. Adjusting the chin strap and snapping everything into place, Sena turned to Kurita.

"Well, do I look ready to hit the field Kurita-san?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Kurita said excitedly as he dragged Sena out of the clubhouse and towards the field. "Without Hiruma there's only so much we can practice, but he's busy right now, so you probably won't meet him until the first day of school." Making a mental note of that, Sena wondered just what kind of a person Hiruma was, but decided he'd meet him soon enough and that he should focus on learning the basics of playing football from Kurita.

When they arrived at the field, Kurita let go of Sena and started looking around, trying to decide what to teach him first. His specialty was blocking, but Sena wasn't going to be a lineman, so he should probably learn some other skills first before learning how to block, if he learned to block at all.

"What's this for Kurita-san?" Sena asked as he bent down to pick up a rope ladder.

"That's for a footwork drill," Kurita said, helping Sena smooth out the ladder in a straight line. "You use it to learn the basic moves of football. See, you step into one of the squares like this," Kurita said, demonstrating the move to Sena, "and then you cross your leg behind into the square next to it." Stepping off the ladder, Kurita motioned for Sena to give it a try.

"So, is the goal to be able to go from end to end using the cross leg motion?" Sena asked as he started at one end of the ladder and slowly worked his way down before going back the other way.

"That's right," Kurita smiled. "The faster you can do it, the better. Also, it's better if you don't always look at your feet since you can't really do that in a game." Without pausing, Sena slowly picked up his pace, and, once he felt he had a good idea of just how far he had to move his leg to get it into the next square, he lifted his head up and stared across the field as he continued to move faster and faster.

"Amazing, Sena!" Kurita knew the ladder drill was the basic of the basics, but Sena took to it so well, he couldn't help but get excited. Sena personally found the exercise to be even easier than Kurita thought it looked to him. While he'd been a manager for his middle school soccer team, he'd secretly practiced the footwork drills the team did and several other drills he found through some researching. Compared to some of those, the drill of simply cross stepping side to side seemed like something he could do in his sleep.

Coming to a stop, Sena looked at Kurita, waiting for whatever the lineman thought of next to have him try out. Kurita didn't seemed so confused though now as to what he should teach as he hummed happily while walking over to a basket full of footballs.

"Hiruma will have to teach you how to catch and throw, but I can help you learn how to hold the ball when you're running," Kurita explained as he plucked a ball from the basket and tossed it to Sena. The ball bounced awkwardly out of Sena's hands when he tried to catch it, and he found himself wanting to meet this Hiruma person more and more so he could learn how to throw and catch the strange ball. Chasing down the football, Sena returned to Kurita, holding the ball awkwardly in his hands.

"That's no good, Sena-kun," Kurita said, pointing to the ball in Sena's hands. "You need to hold it like this or you'll lose it if anyone tries to tackle you." Taking the ball from Sena's hands, Kurita demonstrated the correct hold which had the ball cradled with one arm above and below it as he held it parallel to the ground and bent forward slightly to protect it even more with his body. Nodding, Sena held out his arms and took the ball back from Kurita, mimicking the hold Kurita had just used. He had to admit that it felt pretty secure, and it kind of reminded him of how he'd carry his school bag when he was running.

The rest of the morning passed in a similar fashion with Kurita showing Sena lots of different basic skills, and reinforcing Sena's knowledge of the game and how it worked. Kurita had things to do during the afternoon, so the two split up after having a quick lunch and promising to meet up again the next day. Watching Kurita's retreating back, Sena smiled. He hadn't had that much fun in a long time. He honestly wanted to get back out on the field and keep practicing, but first… Turning back to the clubhouse, Sena sighed. If he was going to clean it, now was as good a time as any.

He started by fetching several large black garbage bags and filling them with all the things that were obviously trash such as the empty food containers, gum wrappers, empty pop cans, and many other strange things. With the obvious garbage out of the way, Sena began pulling everything out of the clubhouse. Once everything was out he set to work scrubbing and cleaning up every last nook and cranny until not a single cobweb remained and while the floor and walls didn't quite sparkle, you could definitely tell they were white.

Satisfied, Sena turned his attention to all the football equipment he'd pulled out of the clubhouse in the first place. Deciding it would be easiest to sort through things and then put them back in the clubhouse, Sena got to work. Jerseys and pants were sorted according to size and folded, all the footballs were placed in a cage like container, and the magazines were all stacked up in piles according to which magazine they were and when they were released.

Slowly, things found their way back into the clubhouse. Using extra boxes he'd found lying around, Sena placed the pants in one with the smallest size on top and the jerseys in another, also with smallest size on top. These were placed next to the locker in the clubhouse along with two boxes of cleats, one full of artificial turf cleats and the other with regular cleats; all of the cleats had been tied together in matching pairs. Using a sharpie he'd found, Sena clearly marked each of the boxes so that no one would mix them up on accident.

By the time he was finished, the clubhouse was unrecognizable. Feeling tired and worn out, Sena went to leave, but paused, turning to look back at the container of footballs. Surely, it wouldn't hurt if he borrowed one? Promising, to no one in particular, that he'd bring it back the next day when he came to practice again with Kurita, Sena plucked a ball from the container and held it the way Kurita had shown him. Smiling faintly, Sena turned off the light and left the clubhouse.

Found this gem in my hard drive, so I decided to dust it off and polish it up.

Let me know what you think.

Updates will come as life allows.

~EWAS~