Eyeshield 21: The Remix
Chapter 1: The Girl With the Golden Legs
by: DC Coda -The Music of My Soul- Ivan
In football...

The factors that control the battle are...

Power!

Strategy!

And...

Kobayakawa Sena ducked past and around people with little regard for corners or even pedestrians as she ran, creating a small wind as she went. She was trying reach the place where the results for the entrance test that she had taken for Deimon High School were being held before she was late. She sighed in relief as she reached it and saw that she wasn't yet late.

Speed!!

"Sena!" a voice called from the crowd.

Sena looked around when she heard someone call her name. As soon as she did, she spotted someone waving to her from the crowd around the board that held the results of the test.

It was Anezaki Mamori, her childhood friend and older sister figure. "Over here, Sena!" she was shouting, waving Sena over. Sena smiled, and waving back, jogged over.

"What's your exam number?" Mamori asked when Sena reached her.

"Um..." Sena glanced down at the I.D. she held in her hand, "021," she told the older girl. Glancing back down at the card, she felt her courage failing her. Sena whirled around, intending to take off, saying; "Aw, I'm going home. I failed anyway."

Mamori shot out a hand and grabbed her shoulder to prevent her from getting away. Sena was a very smart girl, she usually got very good grades in all her subjects, and almost made honors, but she had very little self-confidence and it continued to fail her constantly, so she always freaked out over tests and school work, convinced that she would fail even when others told her otherwise.

'Which might be why she always dresses like a boy,' Mamori mused, 'I can't remember the last time I've seen her dressed like a girl... I think it was the day Riku left. Boy, was he surprised...' Mamori stifled the giggles that threatened to burst out as they always did when she thought about that incident and steered a weakly resisting Sena back towards the board that displayed the results of the entrance test.

"021... 021" Mamori murmured as she searched the board. Then she saw it. "There it is! There's 021!" she shouted jumping up and down in joy as Sena looked at the number in amazement.

"I made it!!" Sena told her unbelievingly through her tears of happiness.

"Well done, Sena!" Mamori praised her, ruffling Sena's spiky hair.

Sena smiled, looking at the board in wonderment. "Wow!" she exclaimed, excited, "It's been about 6 years since someone's praised me."

Mamori smiled, happy for her friend. "And you used to be so horrible at English..." she commented, nudging Sena with her elbow, "I guess you owe it all to me- your Onee-chan Mamori!"

Sena nodded, smiling. It was true, she had been bad at English, but after a couple of long grueling weeks of study with Mamori, she knew it fairly well. Not perfectly, mind, but well enough to hold a decent conversation.

"Well, well..." Mamori mused aloud, breaking Sena out of her thoughts, "Sena's going to be my underclassman..."

Sena nodded. She had been thinking about that too. "We haven't gone to the same school since Elementary school," she added, thinking about all the times that her Mamori-nee had protected her from bullies.

Mamori looked at her, and deciding that she needed to be broken out of her thoughts, elbowed her in the ribs. "Aren't you glad you get to walk to school with a childhood friend? You lucky girl!"

"Ow!" Sena said to the elbow to her ribs, then; "Y-yeah..." to Mamori's question.

Mamori smiled the younger girl. 'I'm so glad...' she thought. "Sena..." she started, tears at the corners of her eyes, "Con-" 'Congratulations...'

"Con?" Sena asked when Mamori stopped in the middle of whatever she had been going to say.

"Um..." Mamori said, stalling for time as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "Oh, yeah..." she said, turning away, "I'll go get you a school information packet! You wait here." she told the younger teen, rushing off.

"Huh?! What?" Sena asked, confused, but Mamori had already taken off.

Around the corner behind Sena, two forms in football uniforms lurked "That kid got in! Fresh meat!" one crowed sinisterly.

Oblivious to what was going on behind her, Sena was lost in her thoughts about Mamori. 'Mamori-nee...' she thought, 'Was she crying?'

Sena was broken out of her thoughts when she felt something rush up behind her. She turned and then almost wished she hadn't. Rushing towards her were two people, both in football uniforms. The one in the back had a helmet on, but she could clearly see the madly grinning face of the one in front. For some reason she couldn't explain, Sena felt as though doom had fallen on her.

"Ackk!" she cried in surprise, too startled to even think of running away. "What the-!?!?"

The two football players, instead of crashing into her like she expected, had picked her up and thrown her into the air, the larger one telling her; "Congratulations, you did it!", while the demonic one shouted, "Ya-Ha!!"

Sena smiled, 'Wow...' she thought, still a bit surprised, 'I've never been thrown up in the air like this before...!'

As soon as they put her down, the demonic looking teen held out a cell phone to her. "Hey! Call your parents to tell them that you got in!" he said, holding the cell phone out for her to take and use.

Sena looked at him, surprise once again, but this time at the scary looking teens kindness. "Um, you're sure it's all right for me to use this?" she asked, a little worried. What if she broke it?

"Sure!" the teen said, grinning.

'This school has such nice upperclassman! I'm glad Mamori convinced me to go here instead of Ojo, like I was going to!' Sena thought, smiling as she dialed her number on the cell phone.

"Uh, Mom?" she said as soon as the phone on the other end had stopped ringing and was picked up, "I pass-" and then suddenly the demonic looking teen had swiped the phone right out of her hands and took off, the other following him, leaving Sena staring after them as they ran away.

The two football gear wearing teens stopped around the corner, the larger one panting and keeping a look out as the demonic one opened the phone's call log. "Phone number- got it!" he announced, cackling evilly. Then he dropped a bunch of adds for restaurants onto the ground, and pulling out four phones, started dialing their numbers.

"Hello, Sushi Express!" came a voice from phone number one.

"Pizza Quick!" came from phone number two.

"Chinese Delivery!" was phone number three.

"Speedy Bento" answered phone number four.

"Your phone number, please?" they all asked.

"It's 000--1234." the demonic looking teen answered, repeating the number that he had gotten from Sena when she had used the phone.

"A new-" started the voice from phone number three before the teen threw the phone down, deeming it not of use.

"Not in our-" started the voice from phone number 4, before the demonic teen threw that one out as well.

"You aren't in our system. You must be a new customer-" phone number 1 began before it, too, was thrown aside.

"Mr. Kobayakawa! Thank you for calling! Are you still at 2-15-00 Hon-Machi in Amefuto City?" phone number 2 asked, before the teen threw away that one as well, finally getting what he had been looking for.

"Name and address- got it!" the teen cackled evilly, scribbling the information down

The larger teen looked on, shivering, and whispered to himself, "It's scary how good you are at this..."

The other teen ignored this, instead saying; "On to the next one! Hurry up, Damn Fatty!"

"Oh right..." the 'Damn Fatty' said, getting up from where he had been picking up the restaurant adds that the other had dropped on the ground.

They both ran back into the mess of new students and started their routine all over again, ignoring the sign that said, 'CLUB RECRUITMENT IS PROHIBITED IN THE ASSEMBLY' very clearly.

Sometime later, after the strange incident with the upperclassmen and Mamori's return, Sena and Mamori got off the subway, and waved goodbye to each other, Mamori calling out to her; "See you at the matriculation ceremony!"

When Sena reached her home and opened the gate, she was surprised to look down at the mailbox and see it over flowing.

"Huh?" she wondered aloud, bending down to pick up one of the pieces of paper falling out of her mailbox, all of which appeared to be fliers for something. "What's this...?" Sena asked the air, and started to read the paper, wondering what it was.

'GO FOR IT!', it said, then under that; 'Make it to the Christmas Bowl!!' underneath that was; 'FOOTBALL TEAM TRYOUTS' and a bit of information about the sport and where the tryouts were being held. Sena quickly paged through the rest, only to find out that they all said the same thing.

Picking them up, as it wouldn't be good to just leave them laying there, for that would be littering, Sena entered the house, only to hear the annoying sound of the phone ringing.

Vaguely wondering where her mother was and why she wasn't answering the phone, Sena put the neat pile of paper which she had picked up and stacked on the entry way table, and moved to answer the phone.

"Ya-Ha!! Join the football team!! Power, speed and strategy! The triple foundation of the..." came from the phone.

Sena turned as her mother came in, carrying even more of the pamphlets of paper, and told her; "There's more..." just a bit despairingly.

"What's going on!?" Sena shouted, wondering what, indeed, was going on.

That night, unknown to the peacefully sleeping neighborhood (Sena's family had disconnected their phone so that they could actually sleep), a devil walked the streets, putting fliers for football tryouts in peoples mailboxes.

The next morning Sena woke up early as she usually did and got ready for her first day at Deimon High School.

First she put on some running clothes and jogged a bit around the block, as she had been doing ever since Riku, one of her best friends had moved. While she had only known him for a little bit, he was still one of her few friends, and the one who had taught her how to run. So she kept a picture of them together in the silver locket that her Grandmother had given her before she passed away, right next to a picture of herself and Mamori. She never took it off, always keeping it close to her heart, just as her friends were.

While Riku would have wanted her to use the gift that he had given her to run away from the bullies that seemed to constantly come after her, her kind nature wouldn't allow that.

So instead she used it to be a better gopher for the bullies. While it did help keep her from getting beat up, it wasn't what Riku had meant when he had told her to use her new speed to protect herself.

So, since Sena felt that if Riku ever came back and learned about that, he would be disappointed in her, so she had started to jog in the mornings so that she could get faster and show him that she appreciated what he had done for her, and not just because it helped her be a better gopher.

After her 20 minute jog, just long enough for her to work up a sweat, Sena took a shower and then got dressed.

Because of Sena's odd habit of usually dressing like the boy that most people thought she was, her way of dressing was a little strange.

It wasn't that Sena lied to them, though, it was just that if people thought she was a boy because of the way she cut her hair, hid her figure and dressed... well, she didn't correct them.

It was easier that way after all. Boys didn't try to ask her out on dates or pick her up that way, and by looking like what they thought was a wimpy looking boy, bullies tended to go a bit easier on her.

After all, a wimpy looking boy doesn't pose nearly as much of a threat as a normal looking girl does.

First she had to bind her chest almost flat. Even though if she did it too tight it made it hard for her to breath, she still had to do it because it was very important in her disguise.

After that though, her routine was mostly that same as anyone else's, at least up until she put on her school uniform.

She put the shirt and pants from the boy's style of the Deimon High Uniform first, then she finished up with putting on the jacket and the tie.

As Sena looked at her self in the mirror, she felt that maybe Mamori had gotten the uniform a bit to big. The sleeves went down to the middle of her hands and the jacket practically swallowed her!

"What was she thinking...?" Sena asked herself aloud, remembering what Mamori had told her when she had given Sena the uniform; "If you insist on wearing the boy's uniform, you should at least have one in a bigger size!" But this big? Sena shook her head and went down to go have some breakfast.

After breakfast, as Sena was gathering her stuff for school, she suddenly whirled around to grab something off her neat desk just before she left the room.

"Oh! I almost forgot my cell phone!" she said, berating herself aloud. 'I can't do that! After all, it was a present for making it into Deimon...' Sena looked at the cell phone and smiled to herself. 'I feel so mature!'

Then, while closing the phone, she accidentally pressed a button, causing the phone book to come up. It only had one name in it, Anezaki Mamori. Sena's smile faded as she closed the phone. 'But what's the use?' she asked herself, 'Nobody will call me. Mamori's the only one in my phone book anyway...' Then, seeing the time, she wrenched herself out of her depressing thoughts. '7:27... I should go, or I might be late...'

Having gotten used to walking to school by herself in the last couple of years, Sena was surprised when she heard someone call out to her as she was walking.

"Morning!" Mamori called, causing Sena to turn around in surprise before smiling at her. Mamori looked her over then frowned, as Sena looked at her, confused. "Hey, that's too loose!" Mamori told her, coming up to fix her tie.

"Ah!" Sena squeaked in surprise.

Mamori, satisfied, moved back to walk beside the younger girl once again. "Sena..." she started, then waited for Sena to give her her full attention. Once she was satisfied that she had it, she continued. "This time you've gotta make some more friends."

"Hey! I have friends!" Sena told her, indignantly. Then she thought about it. Okay, so they mostly just used her as a gopher, but...

"You can't call them your friends! You were just their gopher!" Mamori told her, voicing Sena's own thoughts.

They were silent for a few more minutes as they walked, but as they neared the school, Mamori spoke up again. "Hey!" she said, coming up with an idea as she saw the people loitering around the school entrance trying to recruit people to join their clubs, "Why don't you join a club?" She turned to face Sena and patted her on the back. "You can't be so passive! If you join a club, you'll even get to talk to upperclassmen!"

Sena blushed, huffing; "I-I'm not a little kid, you know!" even though it wasn't very convincing.

Suddenly remembering something, Mamori turned serious once again. "But there is this one guy!" she told Sena, shoving a hand in the smaller girls face to emphasize her point, "You shouldn't get mixed up with him for sure!!" She dropped her voice, then continued. "His name is..." then she paused, lowering her voice even more, so much so that this time Sena had to lean in to hear what she was saying, "Hiruma..."

Then, raising her voice once again, Mamori warned her; "Really, he's such a demonic guy that once he sets his sights on you..." Sena shuddered, imagining some kind of demonic warlord, "...he'll suck you dry to the bone before he's through!"

'I-I better remember that!' Sena told herself, scared of what might happen if she ever got caught up with his person. "What was his name again?" she asked, "Hiruma?"

Everyone around her froze, then suddenly moved into action led by blind panic.

"Wh-wh-where is he? Where? Where? Where's Hiruma?" one second year asked, almost collapsing in his terror.

Another second year, this time a girl screamed.

Yet another student, this time a third year, spoke up, panicking; "A-a-a-ah! Please don't show everyone my love letter!!" as he dropped to the ground.

Another kid grabbed Sena's arms and pleaded with her, "P-please, you've gotta help me. He's coming..." But Sena wasn't listening. Startled and scared, she took off for the school building at top speed.

Later, during lunch, after everything had calmed down, Sena thought about what Mamori had told her. "Join a club, huh?" she asks herself quietly, looking through the fliers on different clubs that she had picked up. As she looked at the one on tea ceremony, she could just picture in her mind what Mamori would say about that... "Aw, Sena, you're doing tea ceremony? How sweet..."

At that instant, Sena's phone started vibrating from inside her pocket. Surprised, she opened it up to see what it was about.

It was a text message from Mamori, telling her 'If anyone tries to make you their gopher, say you'll rock-paper-scissors them for it! Sena sighed, saving the message, and muttered to herself; "I told her... I'm not a little kid anymore!"

By now Sena was outside, having gotten up when Mamori had called, and now she had wondered to the edge of the school grounds. Turning a corner, she ran across three boys, they looked like punks, lounging around. Hoping that they hadn't noticed her, Sena started to back away. Unfortunately, it was already to late.

"Sena, go get me a sweet roll." the blond with a cross shaped scar on his cheek demanded. Sena now recognized them, all three of them were in her class, they most likely recognized her from the introductions that the teacher had had them do this morning.

'Wha?' Sena thought, startled, 'But I only just met this guy in class!' Then, remembering Mamori's advice, she started to say, "Um... Rock, paper-"

"Huh?"

"Huh!?"

"Huuh!?"

"Eek! N-nothing!" Sena told them, rushing off.

"Be back in five minutes." one of the blond's friends said.

"Don't be late..." added the other.

"Ackkkkk!" Sena cried, rushing away almost at top speed.

'Why?!' Sena shouted in her mind, as she speed down the hallways, raising a breeze where she passed.

Then, reaching the store, she raced around, looking for the sweet rolls. She found where they were supposed to be, but apparently, they were all out.

Turning, she raced back the way she had come, once again screaming in her mind, 'Why does this always happen to meeee'

Reaching the three bullies once again, Sena told them, a bit scared; "They were sold out."

"Huh?"

"Huh!?"

"Huuh!?" they said once again, staring at her in astonishment.

Then one of them kicked her in the back, clearly not believing her.

"No way you made it to the school store so fast, you idiot!" the punk with black hair and fish lips yelled at her, kicking her in the back again.

The punk who had been reading up until now stood up, dusting himself off, and said, "He needs to be punished..."

Sena smiled inwardly. At least she had done something right, they thought she was a boy. Unfortunately, that didn't mean they wouldn't beat her up.

Then the supposed leader of the group spoke up. "Wait, not here..." he said, looking around for a suitable place. "How 'bout that rundown shed?" he asked, pointing towards a small shed that did indeed look run down, located on a corner of the school grounds not far from where they were.

Sena protested her innocence as they dragged her towards the shed by the back of her school jacket; "B-but they really were sold out! I've been a gopher since kindergarten so I've gotten pretty fast..." '...and I train every day...' she thought to herself, but it wasn't helping, as the three bullies weren't even listening.

When the door opened, all four of them stared in surprise at how unkempt the room was. Then Sena spotted a helmet sitting on a lone chair. '...the football team?' she asked herself, before she was tossed into the corner by the blond punk. "Nngh!" she groaned as she landed oddly on some clutter.

The three punks started looking around, and one of them said, "Hey... this must be the football team's room."

Another punk had put on some of the football gear. "I'm all suited up!" he told them, laughing.

"Hah! You look stupid!" the other told him.

Just then, someone opened the door. Sena looked up and realized that it was one of the two teens, the larger one, with the head shaped like a chestnut, who had thrown her in the air when she had passed the test to enter Deimon High School.

The two groups stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, before the larger teen spoke up, head bent and eyes shadowed. "Y-you guys..." he started, his hands clenching sporadicly, "It can't be..." suddenly he looked up, pointing a finger at them and finished with; "Are you all here for the football team tryouts!!?"

"Huh?"

"Huh!?"

"Huuh!?" the three bullies exclaimed once again, this time looking at the large boy in confusion.

Then the blond turned around again, dismissing the large boy with a shake of his hand and said; "What are you talking about!? We're busy here!"

The one with dark hair tried to tackle the intruder while the other bully told him, "Get lost, ya here?"

The bully who had tried to tackle the larger teen stopped in surprise as he pushed against the guy. The kid wouldn't move! Suddenly he started to put more force into it, grunting as he pushed.

The chestnut headed teen looked at him in surprise. "Oh! You want to be a lineman?" he asked, as the other two bullies came up to try to help the other push him back.

"You fatty..." one of them grunted, pushing more force into it.

The 'Fatty' was unfazed. "You see, " he told them, "When you're coming at a blocker, you take the heel of your hand and place it into your opponents armpit and push off." he advised. Suddenly his eyes blazed. "Like this!!!" he shouted, demonstrating it on the three boys.

"Funurghbah!" he yelled, pushing them back just as he had said and out of the room.

"Whoa!" the three bullies screamed as they flew backwards, then slammed into the wall on the building opposite to them.

The large teen gasped. "Oh no!" he shouted, looking at them surprise, then he raced over to them, asking; "Are you okay?"

Getting up, the three bullies raced away screaming, the one who had been trying on the football uniform throwing it off and behind him. "Hey..." the other teen called after them, reaching out as they ran away.

Then he sighed, bending down to pick up the abandoned uniform and trudging back to the club house. "Man," he sighed to himself, entering the room, "And they were the first one's who wanted to join..." Then he looked up and spotted Sena, who had been left behind, staring blankly at him. 'There's...' the large boy thought, tears of happiness streaming down his cheeks, 'There's still one left!'

He rushed around the room, cleaning things up and picking up Sena and depositing her in a chair in front of a table. One that was swiftly cleared of all of all odds and ends that littered it, telling her, "Here! Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable!" Then, pulling a tea set out from underneath some boxes, he asked her, "Care for Tea? Coffee? Or...?" smiling the whole time.

Sena sat up, startled. "Uh, no... That's..." she paused to gather her thoughts together before she said anything else. "It's just that... I'm not here to try out..." she told him, a bit regretfully. He seemed so nice and so happy at the idea that someone would join, but she was weak, the only thing she could do was run. And she was a girl. It was almost certain that they wouldn't let girls play football...

The other teens smile fell as he dropped into despair. Then he collapsed on the table, offering her tea with a shaking hand anyway. "I see..." he told her, depressed, "That's okay. Fine, really... Please go ahead and enjoy your tea..."

Sena looked at him sadly. 'He's so disappointed...' she thought.

A few minutes later, they got to talking a bit, after the other teen, who Sena had learned was named Kurita Ryokan, had cheered up a bit.

"How many dozen sugars do you take?" Kurita asked, and Sena sweat dropped.

'Dozen...?' "Uh, no, just one..." she told him. Then she started looking around the room. 'Hm...' she thought, seeing all the sports gear laying around, 'A sports team... hadn't even thought of joining one. It'd be kinda cool...' then she thought about it some more. 'Yeah, but it's too much for me... and I'm a girl. I don't anyone would want a girl on their team even if it was allowed... And the only sport I've ever really played is dodgeball.' Sena thought, a bit sad for some reason she couldn't name.

Then Kurita spoke up, breaking her out of her ever depressing thoughts. "I guess we'll only have two players again this year... And we have a game coming up..."

Sena looked at him surprised. "Can you only play football with two people?" she asked.

Kurita shook his head. "No, not with two people. You need at least eleven players. For our games, we get 'support' from some of the other sports teams," he answered. Then he stood up, and rummaging around in a box behind his chair, he pulled out a video tape. Inserting it in the VCR for the TV, he told her, "Here's a video of last year's games! Take a look! Football's great!"

Sena watched as the players in red and white uniforms crashed into each other, most of them falling down. Then she heard the people talking. "Hey, he doesn't look so good!" and "Get a stretcher!"

When Kurita turned to her and told her, "Both of them fainted and had to be taken away... In the end, we lost." she turned away, the hand holding her tea cup shaking.

'Th-this sport is definitely not for me... Sure, I'm used to pain from getting beat up all the time and I've broken more then a couple of bones... at a time... but that doesn't mean that I like pain! So, no, not this sport.' she thought, trying to control the shaking in her arm that she tried to tell herself was fear, and not anything else. Like excitement. Yes, definitely not excitement. Or want, which would be just as bad.

Kurita sighed, sitting back down again and nibbling on the edge of his tea cup, "Oh, well... I won't even get to see the 'C' in the Christmas Bowl..."

Sena looked at him, curious. "Christmas Bowl?" she inquired.

Kurita nodded. "The all Japan championship game." He sat up straighter, smiling at her. "One a year, on Christmas day, the best teams from the east and west face off!" Sena looked at him in wonder, she could almost see it, a large stadium with stands filled with people, teams playing against each other, and the roar of the crowd... "It's really amazing!" Kurita continued, breaking her from her thoughts, "And at Tokyo Stadium the replays are broadcast on the giant screen!"

"Wow..." breathed Sena.

Kurita nodded. "You see, I know we'll probably lose, but I really want us to compete in the next game!" Sena just watched him talk, wide eyed. "With all of us moving towards a common goal, we literally collide against our opponents! The moment is ablaze with passion!"

Sena smiled, caught up in the moment, then she spotted a sign hanging on the wall behind Kurita. It said; 'ALSO RECRUITING TEAM MANAGERS!! We need your smarts to help us get to the CHRISTMAS BOWL!' Scrutinizing the sign, she asked Kurita, "What's a 'Team Manager'?"

"Huh?" Kurita asked, twisting around to see what she was looking at, "Oh, that..." he said, spotting the poster. He turned back to Sena to explain. "They do what's called scouting- they analyze opponents' plays, set up visiting games, and handle general management duties. They are ultimately responsible for the team's administration."

Sena could picture it in her mind. This might actually be something she could do! This time she allowed the thrill of excitement to overtake her, there was nothing to fear in management. But... would they actually want a girl like her?

Then she remembered Mamori's advise. "You can't be so passive!" was what she had said, so maybe it was time to do so... "D-do you think that," she paused, unsure if she was being to forward, then she went on, "I could be a team manager?"

Kurita stood up in shock, slamming his hands on the table. "What!?" he shouted, and Sena's heart sank.

'I knew it,' she thought, 'They surely wou-'

"O-of course!" Kurita continued, making Sena's heart rise once again. He picked her up and started swinging her in circles, shouting all the while; "Yeah!! Let's go for it! To the Christmas Bowl!" After a little while, Kurita calmed down once again, and they sat down to talk some more, Kurita even offering her the strawberry from his shortcake.

Soon, Sena was saying goodbye to her new friend- a real friend!- and was walking home. She had just started to cross a bridge on the way to the station, when it happened. She was so engrossed in looking at her phone, as she and Kurita had traded call phone numbers, and it was so nice to see another number next to Mamori-nee's in her phone book, that she didn't notice it until it was too late to do anything about it.

Wheeling back from the blow to her face, Sena clutched her phone in one hand as she brought her other up to cradle her bruised cheek. She felt her face and realized that her nose was bleeding, though luckily it wasn't broken. She'd had her nose a couple times broken before and she didn't want to go through that experience again any time soon. Looking up, she saw that it was the three punks from her class who had been going to beat her up before.

"We've been waiting for you..." the leader, the one who had hit her, said, his two friends standing behind him. He glared down at her, his eye's menacing. "That Fatty... do you know him, Sena?" he asked her, still glaring, "You tell us where we can find him, then we'll let you go."

Sena stared up at him in confusion, not quite understanding what was going on. Maybe the blow to her head had given her a concussion? But she didn't think so, she had had a couple of those before too, and they didn't feel quite like this... Sena groaned as she tried to force her brain to catch up with what was going on.

"But do you think one baseball bat is enough?" asked the dark haired punk, swinging one around, "He was so strong..."

The blond smirked. "One bat will be fine." he told them, "Because I already called the police."

"The police?" asked the other punk, taking a drag on his cigarette.

The blond nodded. "We just have to get him to fight us." he reached up to touch the cross shaped scar on his cheek. "Then we'll say Fatty attacked me with the bat and gave me this injury." he added, indicating his scar, "That'll get him suspended from any future football games." he finished, smirking evilly.

The other two punks wore matching grins, "Right on!" one of them told him.

Sena looked at them in astonishment, her brain finally catching up. "You see, I know we'll probably lose, but I really want us to compete in the next game!" Kurita had said that, she remembered, she couldn't let these bullies ruin his dream! But the bullies were already speaking again, this time to her.

"Come on, out with it. Tell us and we'll let you go." the blond told her.

Sena clenched her hands, then said, in barely a whisper, "No..." then, stronger, "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you." she told them. Then she raised her head, ignoring the tears streaming down her cheeks. This was going to hurt. "You can hit me if you want!!!" she declared, "But I won't talk!!!"

The three bullies looked at each other, a bit surprised, but then they turned back to her. The blond cracked his knuckles while the one with dark hair swung the bat a couple of times and the last one held her up by her arms. "Hm, I guess we'll see how your body feels about that..." the blond told her.

Sena struggled against the punks hold. 'I really don't want to get beat up!' she thought franticly, kicking her legs in a futile attempt to get free.

Then the one holding her plucked something out of her hand. Sena's eyes widened when she saw what it was. It was her cell phone! She'd almost forgotten that she'd still been holding it.

"Hey, he's got a cell phone!" the one holding her remarked, dropping her and looking it over.

"Hey!" Sena said, reaching for it, "Give it ba-" before she could finish her sentence the one who had been holding her kicked her in the face.

"Hah! He's got a girls number in here!" he said, looking in the phone book.

The blond reached out and took the phone from him before looking as well. "This 'Kurita,' that's the guy." he told them, finding his name, "And get the girl's number too."

Sena looked at them in anger, these were her friends! She wouldn't let them be hurt! She jumped up and at the guy holding her phone, biting his hand when he wouldn't let go. "Damn you!" one of the other punks shouted, before she had jumped onto the railing of the bridge and taken off, almost at top speed.

"What the-!? Hey, don't let him get away!" the blond punk shouted, then, "Split up! Cut him off at the station!"

Sena dogged around corners and objects as she raced towards the station, glancing behind her every so often. Then she reached the main street and had to skid to a stop. There were too many people to get by, and a sign hanging up above revealed the reason. 'SPRING FESTIVAL, Deimon Chamber of Commerce' it said.

"No way!!!" Sena shouted. What was she going to do now!?

A blond haired demonic looking teen walked out of a shop across the street from where Sena was standing and noticed the panicking teen right away. "Huh?" he wondered aloud, blowing a bubble with his gum before popping it. "It's that guy..." he said, remembering him from when he and Kurita had thrown Sena in the air the day before.

Back on the other side of the street, Sena was panicking. 'Should I hide in the crowd? No, take a detour? Nope, whatever I do, they'll be waiting for me at the station...' Sena clenched her hands, wondering what she should do.

"There he is!" she heard behind her, turning to look she saw two of the bullies were catching up to her.

Clenching her hands even more, Sena felt something. She looked down. It was her phone, still open to the phone book, still showing Mamori and Kurita's names. Oh, yes, she was doing this for them. Steeling her resolve, Sena crouched down, pushing her feet hard into the ground. Then she looked at the crowd, looking for a path. A zigzagging line of light seemed to appear in front of her eyes, showing the easiest path through the crowd and to the station.

Coming up behind her, one of the bullies reached out to grab her, thinking, 'Aha! Got him-'

And then Sena took off, zooming through the crowds at an incredible rate, leaving two bullies staring at her in surprise, one stumbling from his missed try at catching her, and a surprised teen who was watching the whole thing.

Darting through the crowd, Sena cut through it like a hot knife through butter, not hitting anyone, but leaving astonished people behind her.

The two bullies had much more trouble at it, shoving through the crowd with brute force and using insults to try to get by faster.

The blond teen watched astonished, as Sena cut through the crowd. 'Look at those cuts...' he thought, imagining how it would be if the kid was playing football instead of just running through a crowd.

Sena continued running even as she came up on the last remaining punk, who was standing right in front of Deimon Station, running straight towards him. "All right, I got you-" he said, spreading out his arms to stop the speeding girl.

Sena ran right up until she was barely a foot away, then spun to the side, and the around, before continuing on her way.

"What the-?" the other punk said in astonishment, turning around just as Sena entered the station.

'Wow- Spin move!' the demonic looking boy who was watching thought, following after the whole chase to get a good view.

The three punks, the other two having finally caught up, got caught by the ticket booth, slamming into the bar.

Sena continued to run, speeding down the stairs, jumping most of the way when she heard the doors for the trains start to close. "Ackkk! Uh-oh!" she yelled, trying to go faster.

"You can make it." The demonic teen commented to himself as he perched on a fence and watched the whole thing. 'With those legs, you can do it!' he thought.

Sena gritted her teeth, her head over lapped by a face with a football helmet with a green eyeshield for a moment as the other teen watched her. "FLY!" he shouted, grinning manically and pointing a long finger at her.

Sena kicked off the stairs, hard, and jumped onto the train, sliding through the doors just as they were closing.

In the demonic teens eyes, he saw a football player wearing the number 21 and an eyeshield slam into the end zone.

Sena tumbled across the train as the doors slid shut behind her, finally coming to a stop by slamming upside down into the opposite door. "Ex-excuse me..." she said, blushing as people stared at her.

In the station, the three bullies ran after her, then one tripped and they all tumbled down the stairs and into a heap just as the train started to leave.

"Please stand clear of the moving train..." a disembodied voice advised from over the loud speakers as the train started to pick up speed.

The demonic boy walked up to them, then sat down on the leaders head. Hands on his knees and grinning manically, the boy announced, "Touchdown! Ya-Ha!"

The next day, after school, Kurita met up with the only other person on his team to inform them of his success at finding a manager. "Hey!" he told the other happily, "We got a new recruit yesterday!"

The other grinned at him, revealing fangs, and told him, "Oh? Actually, I found someone too." his grin turned into a smirk. "A running back with golden legs. And he's real eager to join the team."

Kurita smiled at him. "Wow! What a find! That's great Hiruma!"

The demonic looking teen, now revealed as Hiruma, told Kurita, "He's probably already here."

When Kurita looked at him questioningly, Hiruma pulled out one of his many guns and kicked the door to the club house open.

"Here's your application form..." he told a tied up and gagged Sena as he shot at her with his gun.

Sena grunted in panic as Kurita looked on in surprise and questioned, "S-Sena!?"

Mamori closed her shoe locker and started to walk away when she spotted Sena's. She opened it, curious, and saw that her shoes were still there. 'She's still here.' she thought, before closing it and walking outside. 'Maybe she joined a club! That's great!' Mamori thought, smiling, 'Now that we're in high school, I guess we're not always going to walk home together every day.' She smiled sadly. 'Because, we're not little kids anymore, are we Sena?'

Across the school, Sena looked down at the football uniform that Hiruma, the demonic looking football captain had forced her to change into.

Kurita smiled at her and told her, "Number 21. And the eyeshield looks good!"

Hiruma nodded, "We'll keep your identity a secret during games. Otherwise all the teams in our school will be after you, eh?" he said.

Sena looked at him in surprise. "Games?" she echoed, confused, "No, I'm just the team manager and-" she started, but stopped when Hiruma pulled out another gun and started loading it. She flinched back into Kurita, scared.

Hiruma rested the but of his gun on a table and said, "During games you aren't gonna use your own name, Kobayakawa Sena, got it?" he told her, "Your code name will be Eyeshield 21!" he finished, grinning and pointing a finger at Sena.

"But I'm just the team manager! And I'm a girl! I can't play football!" Sena cried.

"Okay, athlete an-" Hiruma started only half listening. Then he cut himself off when the rest of what Sena had said got through to him. "What!" he cried looking astonished. Then his face gained a calculating look and he reached out towards Sena.

Frightened of what he might do to her, Sena backed up until she hit a wall, but it did no use as Hiruma kept advancing.

When he finally reached her, he stuck out his hand and groped her chest to verify her claim. Sena flushed bright red and slapped his hand away before she even knew what she was doing.

Hiruma smirked. "So you are... Kekeke, doesn't matter, girls can play." he said, turning to leave, "so you'll just be an athlete and the manager! You'll do both!" And then he left, cackling madly and leaving his two dumbstruck team mates behind.

In school, the three beaten up bullies stared at the posters posted on the bulletin board. The words 'LEAVE HIM ALONE! Or else I'll reveal your identities' surrounded picture of them naked with there faces blocked out.

'' was the only thing they could think as they sweated in fear.

TBC...