FASH: Ah-ha! The perfect way to cross two of my favourite sports manga over. The poor Devil Bats, they've no idea what's in store for them...

J is for: Juice

-x-x-x-

Hiruma cackled darkly, which was a completely normal thing for him to do, really, but for someone who wasn't used to his mannerisms it was exceedingly frightening.

Thankfully, while not entirely used to this sort of thing, there were many Seigaku regulars that had bouts of irrational behaviour, so Inui reacted quite well, considering the circumstances. Which is to say, his fingers twitched minutely and his eyes, completely hidden by the his thick glasses, widened slightly.

He'd been heading home after supervising Kaidoh's waterside training when an imposing figure had materialized from the shadows to block his path.

The Deimon uniform, pointed ears and spiky blonde hair had been enough for Inui to identify the person standing in front of him, even before the cackling had started.

He'd heard rumours about Hiruma Yoichi, the demonic high schooler, and knew enough about him to know that being sought out by the blonde meant he should either be really flattered, or completely terrified.

Hiruma gave him an appraising look, a satisfied grin pulling at his lips to show off his dangerously pointed teeth.

Inui, unable to help himself, quickly calculated the chances of those teeth being completely natural, and came up with a disturbingly high percentage.

No wonder he was known as a demon.

"So, you must be the kid Rui's cousin talks about, right, Inui-kun?"

"Rui?" Inui repeated, mentally going through his databanks to find a connection.

"Kaidoh-kun's cousin, Habashira Rui, currently attending Zokuto Gakuen." He stated passively and Hiruma nodded slowly, the grin growing impossibly wider.

"I heard through the grape vine that you can whip up some really motivating beverages." Hiruma began, his hands toying with a M84 Stun Grenade as if they handled similarly dangerous objects on a daily basis.

Half of Inui wanted to inquire about how exactly Hiruma had been able to acquire one of those, the other half told him that his survival depended on silence.

He wisely allowed Hiruma to continue.

"Naturally I doubted the information I was receiving at first, but it was interesting enough that I decided to check up on your practice this afternoon."

Inui hadn't noticed him, no one had noticed anyone suspicious at practice, and there were always various groups of fangirls hanging around who drove potential spies away when none of the players or the coach noticed them.

All the rumours about Hiruma Yoichi were true.

"I must say; I am very impressed with your workmanship, so I'll get straight to the point. My team has started getting used to my normal methods of punishment, and it's just not enough to shoot at them anymore, but my fucking manager won't allow me to bring any of my bigger weapons to school for motivation. You understand where I'm going with this?"

Inui nodded. "There is an eighty one percent chance that you have sought me out so that I will make a batch of Inui Juice for 'punishment games', and, if the rumours are to be trusted, there is a nineteen percent chance that you have approached me just to 'screw with my head'."

Hiruma chuckled dryly, lightly fiddling with the fuse of the grenade, and the percentage of the second option skyrocketed.

"I'll spare you from the second option for today." Hiruma said in a not entirely convincing voice, and his fingers were still toying with the fuse. "I realize you're busy, and if you're under the impression of having nothing to gain from making me any of your drinks..." He trailed off and gave Inui a sharp look.

"Then I most likely would not set aside the spare time needed to make any extra batches." Inui finished truthfully.

"Which is exactly why we'll come to a compromise of sorts." Hiruma almost hissed out, and Inui wondered if this was what making a deal with the devil was supposed to be like.

Well, at least Hiruma wasn't asking for his soul.

"You make me some of that juice for my team, and I'll give you data."

And just like that, the grenade in Hiruma's hand was replaced by a little black book, a deep red bat on one side, and the yellow words 'Devil's Handbook' on the other.

That book was legendary, even more so than Hiruma himself as far as Inui was concerned.

"You've got yourself a deal."

-x-x-x-

"So, if I catch anyone slacking off today, you'll have to drink this!" Hiruma held up the pitcher, filled nearly to the brim with red liquid. "This is Penal Tea, a special vegetable juice that's especially good for the body."

Sena and Mamori both stared at him with wide eyes, unable to believe that Hiruma's method of controlling the team wouldn't involve violence.

While Mamori was immensely pleased with this development, Sena was busy worrying that the apocalypse was nearing.

"Vegetable juice, that's it? It doesn't sound like a punishment game at all. Lucky max!"

"Wait a minute, it's a really weird colour. And is it glowing?" Kuroki managed to sputter out after he had thrown Monta an incredulous look.

"I don't think it's glowing, but there are some random lighter patches of colour moving around, like they mixed water and oil together and it's staring to separate." Juumonji eyed the large pitcher dubiously.

"Penal Tea, a play on the English word penalty; meaning a punishment imposed for breaking a law, rule or contract." Yukimitsu mumbled under his breath, eyebrows furrowing.

Hiruma looked all too triumphant as panic began to set in at Yukimitsu's revelation, and it wasn't long before Kurita had to assure everyone that no, Hiruma was not planning to poison them all.

No one was entirely convinced though, and they practised like their lives depended on it.

This was by far the best business deal Hiruma had ever gone through with, and it was totally worth spying on a couple middle school tennis teams (Even though Hyotei's security was pretty tight.) if it meant that his team was once again completely under his thumb.