Disclaimer: The Eyeshield 21 manga and anime series do not belong to me.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

Chapter 12: The Game – Part One

If either of her parents thought there was something a little off about their daughter they kept silent about it all morning; Mihae assumed it had been something to do with that "nice Shin boy", who had started hanging out with her daughter. She was so glad seeing her little Sena-chan becoming more social, not that she didn't love her daughter deeply, Mihae loved Sena as much as Shiyuma did it was just that the happy bubbly child had grown up into an introverted, painfully shy young girl. Mihae would defend her child tooth and nail, any parent unlucky enough to be heard sneering about the meek little girl when Sena was younger would soon find themselves at the end of a chilling glare and a barely supressed rage emanating from the woman suddenly appearing in front of them; but she was still concerned that this extreme shyness was not Sena's own choice and that Sena would be much happier if she had more friends. Mihae didn't want her little girl to be popular or the 'queen of the school' as she had been, she wanted Sena to be happy.

Of course the fact that Sena's first new friend in about 10 years was a strapping young boy was just a bonus. Despite her husband's fears Mihae was perfectly happy to let the odd ritual morning jog continue, she had managed to catch a glimpse of the pair as they returned home and Sena always had a smile, a genuine smile, on her face. It made that knot in Mihae's chest loosen a little more each time she saw it and if the stoic looking boy next to her was the cause of that smile than she was quite content to let it continue.

Still, no matter how good an athlete he was if he hurt her than there would be serious issues.

Shiyuma's thoughts that morning were concerned but resolved to not interfere. He could tell that Sena was nervous, more nervous than she had been in a while, but it was a different kind of nervous than what he was used to seeing in her. She wasn't acting like there were bullies she'd have to walk past to get to school, nor was she giving off the aura of one who had forgotten to prepare for a test or exam, and as far as he could tell she didn't look the same as she did last year when she was told to present a report on the Sengoku period to her classmates.

No this was an….excited jumpiness, perhaps a little fearful, but most of the things his daughter did were tinged with a little bit of fear anyway. Whatever the situation was it had caused a healthy colour to appear in her face and she seemed to be more present in the room, if he didn't know any better he'd have called her confidant, well as confidant as Sena could be.

No, this was something he would keep to himself for the time being. He'd keep an eye on her for now.

Whatever she was up to he wished her luck.

'I can't do this.'

'I can do this.'

'I can't do this.'

'I can do this.'

'I can't.'

'I can.'

'I-'

Will you just shut the fuck up shrimp and get to the fucking station!

"Yes Hiruma-san!"

The blur that rushed past people in the street startled many, one or two even jumped away from the speeding ball of brown and green which weaved through the crowd.

She had told Mamori-neechan where she was going when they had met up in the morning, her friend still didn't know exactly what she was doing in the club; she'd probably just assumed that Sena was a secretary or something, and part of her was reluctant to say anymore until after her first game. This was the big test for her, it didn't matter how many dreams she'd had about this day and all the ones after if she couldn't turn it into reality. What if she froze up when she stepped on the pitch? What if someone discovered who she was? What if she ran the wrong way again…for the first time?

What if she wasn't good enough?

Of all the questions buzzing around in her head, that was the one that scared her most of all. Failure was something that she had lived with for many years: she wasn't smart or beautiful, she hadn't really succeeded at anything in middle school, and her 'golden legs' had been used as a school-wide fetching service. It had lost its sting after a while, it was easier to go in with the expectation that she would fail than with the hope that she could do better and failure had become just another fact of life for her along with the knowledge that she was a prime bullying target and that Mamori had become her shield.

It had been fine. Sure she wasn't happy 100% of the time, what teenager was? But she got by. She had her health, her family, her one good friend and she wasn't a total idiot.

It had been enough. Until suddenly it wasn't anymore.

Suddenly failure was no longer a safe, secure mattress for her to fall on to. It was no longer OK to fail and think 'that's fine, it's what I usually do anyway' not when people depended on her. Not when that small emotion had begun flaring in her chest, the desire to win. It had been so small that she hadn't noticed it at first a tiny little match-flame of feeling that had burst into life had gotten bigger and bigger until she could no longer accept failure as an inevitable outcome.

How could she look anyone on her team, any of her rivals, in the face if she did?

So if she didn't do well today it-

"Hey Sena-san, where are you going?"

Her feet screeched to a halt as Ishimaru-san called out to her. The rest of the hastily-assembled team turned to stare at the small girl and she could feel her face start to turn red. Reaching back to rub the back of her head, another nervous habit of hers, she attempted to smile.

"A-Ah, s-sorry about that. I w-wasn't t-thinking properly."

"That's OK, wow you can run really fast." Cue nervous laughter and refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

"I-I've had a lot of p-practice, t-that's all. I'm not that g-good." She tried to force the tension in her shoulders to disappear and tried to stop thinking about what Hiruma would do if he found out she'd nearly blown her cover before her first proper game.

"So you've gathered." A familiar voice turned the relatively peaceful atmosphere of the train station into something dark and sinister. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Turning to read the train timetable she took a deep breath and tried to focus her thoughts. Blind panic would do nothing but taint her enjoyment and this was something she had been looking forward to for months. So she needed to put all thoughts of failure out of her head, along with thoughts of panic, Mamori finding out about her actually playing in the game, Hiruma destroying her, letting Kurita down, Shin-san noticing her-

This was harder than she thought.

"So where are the extremely cute cheerleaders?" Several voices chorused at once, breaking her line of thought. A sigh escaped her mouth, this dimension or another, teenage boys remained the same. Come to think of it, how had her other self acted around girls. Her forehead crinkled as she tried to remember; from what she had dreamt the male Sena hadn't acted like her new 'teammates' were acting now if anything he had been intimidated by nearly every female apart from Mamori and later Suzuna.

Was it just her or was someone staring at her?…multiple someone's. With a steadily growing sinking feeling in her stomach she turned her head back towards the team, nearly all of them were staring at her. Fantastic.

"Um, can I help y-you?" One of them opened his mouth but before he could speak an ominous click was heard and something hard and metal was pressed very close to his ear.

"They'll be coming later. At the moment it's just us and our manager. I trust that won't be a problem." If there was anything scarier than Yoichi Hiruma it was a Yoichi Hiruma who wasn't swearing. The amount of menace put in the word manager was impressive and if Sena had been the one on the receiving end of it she'd be half way back to her house by now.

As it wasn't directed at her she just allowed herself to relax a little. Hiruma wasn't going to force her to be a cheerleader as she had semi-feared he would. Having everyone stare at you when you weren't covered in protective football gear was a paralyzing fear of hers and she would have been uncomfortable for the rest of the game. He'd spared her that and ensured that none of the other members would try and pressure her into doing it.

Knowing that if he saw her smiling he'd shoot at her she tried to convey her thanks via eye contact. Funny, she still struggled to meet normal people's gazes yet she could meet the eyes of the frankly terrifying teenager in front of her.

He seemed to pick up on her gratitude and snorted whilst putting his gun back.

"Now where's the fatty with the gear? I gave him an easy penalty game this time so he better fucking be on time." He asked eyes darting back and forth for his friend/prey.

"Kurita-senpai is bringing the gear then? That's a relief I don't have any equipment for American football." Ishimaru said.

"Yeah, we take care of everything. Here you are fucking fatty. Now we can go."

"This is pretty heavy." Once again Sena found herself taken aback by the strength of Kurita. The amount of things he was lugging towards them was incredible. It looked like a mountain of sport gear was migrating towards them. It was just unreal and made her very glad that the gentle giant was on their side as the gargantuan shadow eclipsed them all.

"Sena-chan, how are you today?" This time she was free to smile and this one wasn't forced.

"I'm a little nervous K-Kurita-senpai. T-This is my first game that-"A hand slapped over her mouth.

"That you'll be present at. Isn't that right manager?" This time the menace was directed at her and she started nodding franticly, though whether that was of her own accord or Hiruma moving her head she had no idea. She wasn't going to say another word for the rest of the train ride.

Should have kept your fucking mouth shut shrimp.

'I know.' She whimpered inwardly.

On the train

Hiruma glanced at the newest permanent member of the Devil Bats as he answered the questions of the rest of the makeshift team. The shrimp hadn't said a single word so far, her face, which was incredibly open and easy to read, showed that whatever thoughts were going through her head were distracting enough to block the real world out.

She didn't look panicked, at least not anymore. Back at the station at one point she looked like she was going to collapse to the floor. If she did that during the game there would have to be a series of intense training sessions involving Cerberus and his armoury.

The name of their opponent stared back up from the match listings: The Koigahama Cupids. A ridiculous name for a ridiculous team of idiots who just wanted to look impressive in front of their fucking girlfriends. Girlfriends who would be cheering for the Devil Bats once he bribed them with a shitload of Haruto Sakuraba merchandise. Who knows, maybe this time they'd have something to fucking cheer about.

Ruthlessly squashing the small pinprick of hope that appeared he let his mind start to calculate their odds of victory. Perhaps if they were lucky they wouldn't have to use the shrimp at all. The track team member she'd picked up, and he would admit to be a little surprised that she had managed to find someone decent and that she hadn't been too shy to ask him, may be good enough to win on his own. The cupids were unlikely to get past the fatty and if one of the temporary players could actually catch, though his data said it was unlikely, they might win without the shrimp.

Now he knew that the girl wanted to play, desperately needed to play even, but his eyes glanced at the soon to burned match listings, at the name of the opponent they would know doubt play if they won: Ojo White Knights. The Knights were too good to not scout out this match, even if they knew both teams were rubbish this was the first game of the season and new players were something to be suspicious of. Case in point, the soft spoken, meek looking girl sat quietly at the end of the carriage who could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds.

A player who could outrun even that monster player Shin if she had to. For that reason he would only let her play today if there was no other choice. Eyeshield 21 was their new secret weapon and he wanted the Knights to be caught completely unaware when they faced them. It was a long shot but there was a tiny miniscule chance that they could win. From what he'd seen in practice Sena could run at her top speed for about 4 or 5 times during a game, even when she wasn't running at full speed she was a force to be reckoned with, a force that had somehow fallen into Deimon High School and wanted to play American Football. She knew the rules fairly well and there was no hesitance in her running, no fear of getting tackled harshly into the ground, there was perhaps a little doubt in her own abilities but that was because she was so lacking in confidence. Seriously he knew toddlers with more self-belief than her.

If he believed in luck he might think that his was starting to change. But he didn't, if there was one thing he was determined on it was that he made his own path and he's use whatever means where at his disposal to further it.

Here was a chance. A real chance after a year of disappointment. The shrimp would only go on if she had to end of story. If she felt disappointed about not being able to play well…life was full of them and she'd get a turn next game anyway.

The Devil Bats first victory. No doubts. Not after this long.

Koigahama High School

She wasn't going to play. She knew when her captain didn't drag her away from the others with an excuse about scouting the other team. Instead he barked at her to start handing out gear to everyone.

After all that panic she wasn't even going to play, because this time she knew which shoes to hand out and there was no way she was going to intentionally injure any of the players. Ishimaru was a track team member, if he couldn't run he would be upset even if he attempted to hide it. So he wouldn't fall at the crucial point and Deimon would win without having to reveal their newest member. It was a good logical plan, if they could win whilst concealing their strength than so much the better.

After all Ojo was next, and Hiruma probably wanted to surprise them like last time, a secret weapon was meant to be secret after all.

It made sense for her not to play. This was for the best. Now she had time to get over her fear of messing up, she had more time to practice, more time to make up an excuse for Shin-san, more time to prepare. She should be feeling relieved. She didn't have to play today.

She wanted to though.

She had really wanted to play her first real game today.

Despite her fear she had been looking forward to it.

Disappointment curled in her gut and she bit her lip to prevent herself from speaking, from saying 'I can play too. I'm just as good as them. I want to play; I'm not here because of threats or bribery. Why won't you let me play?' Because she knew why, she knew the way her captain's mind worked, and she could understand his reasoning. It didn't mean that she liked it.

What made it worse was that she could feel his eyes on her, watching how she would react, knowing that she knew he wouldn't let her play. She straightened her back. Yes she was disappointed. Yes it hurt a little. Was she going to let that ruin this moment? No.

This would be their first victory and even if she wasn't a part of it she would celebrate with them, because she knew how much this meant to the two older players. Pasting on a small smile she turned to face Hiruma.

"I've handed out all the gear. Anything e-else Hiruma-san?" 'Why won't you let me play?'

"No, just need to get the fools motivated now." She nodded and was about to leave when he spoke again. "Though if they're not pumped up enough I made need to use something a little stronger." Without looking at her he walked towards the nervous looking collection of athletes lucky enough to be dragged here.

Brown eyes blinked before lighting up in comprehension. He would use her if he had to. It wasn't that she wasn't good enough or mentally unready for it. She was their trump card. It didn't change the fact that she most likely would not be playing today but it helped lessen the sting.

With a more genuine smile she followed him over to the now fuming team who had caught sight of the Cupid's army of girlfriends who were helping them 'prepare' for the match. This apparently included feeding them a meal and writing messages on their helmets. Now for angry jealous yells in 3…2…1.

"We'll definitely beat them!"

"Destroy them all!"

"Let's do our best Kurita-senpai!"

"Um, sure." She shared a look with a bewildered looking Kurita and shrugged her shoulders. She may have dreams about being a teenage boy but the way their minds worked was still a mystery to her.

"Don't worry I'm sure our manager has got even better cheerleaders for us." A voice piped out over the incensed testosterone filled rage."

So this is what books meant when they said 'it turned their blood to ice'.

"E-E-E-Excuse m-m-me?" Once again the unsettling feeling of many eyes staring at her was upon her and she felt old defences start to rear there head.

"Yes manager-san it's your job to get us some cute cheerleaders." A sly look came over his face that she did not like at all. 'Unless you want to be our cheerleader of co-"

A single bullet grazed his cheek and the boy was sent flying backwards in fear. Fear filled eyes gazed up at an unimpressed looking Hiruma, casually letting the gun rest at his side.

"Tch, if you could stop thinking with you fucking dick for a couple of seconds it'll be sorted. Now stop annoying me with the fucking yelling. Understand?"

A burst of 'yes sir's filled the air and the entire group of boys stepped away from Sena in one motion who in turn stepped towards Kurita. There was silence for about 2 seconds before a ball came flying from the other side of the field and landed in front of them. One of the Cupid's came running over, she thought it might be the captain but wasn't really sure. The Cupid's hadn't exactly rated high on her rival team meter and their faces seemed to blur into one in her mind.

The player picked up the ball before looking at them with a terrible fake smile and a smug looking girl by his arm.

"Oh hi dirty Devil Bats. I'm sorry about our loud cheering. Our girlfriends wouldn't listen and insisted on coming to support us." He then faked a look around their side of the field before pulling a very unattractive look of surprise.

"OH! There's not one single girl here! That's strange, I wonder if Deimon High is an all-boy school." The team was getting angrier and angrier. Until Kurita stepped aside to try and calm them down, leaving the captain to see Sena who had been standing behind him. She instantly wanted to duck behind her senpai again when his eyes zeroed in on her.

"OK so maybe you have one cute girl, but she's not even in a cheerleading outfit." With a flourish he was in front of a very startled Sena who was wishing that Kurita hadn't moved at all. "Why don't you come over to our side, we have an extra outfit and don't you want to support the winning team?"

'Hiruma if you don't stop this soon captain or not I will-'

"After all we have over 10-" she followed his gesturing hand and wanted to burst out laughing.

There was Hiruma with the oh -so loyal girlfriends in Deimon cheer outfits behind him enthusiastically yelling out: "Go Devil bats."

Deciding that now was the perfect time to disappear she walked over to him. He didn't spare her a glance too busy typing something into his ominous laptop.

"Didn't you just make the other team even more fired up?" The sprinklers on the other side conveniently came on and drenched them.

"It's been extinguished. I better go make sure our team know enough of the fucking rules to actually play." With that he clicked the computer shut.

"OK, I'm going to have a quick look around, just to get used to the set up and find somewhere to set up the video camera." He gave her an odd look but didn't say no. If she wasn't going to play then she should at least do something useful and at this point Mamori wasn't here to record every game.

After digging out the camera from one of the boxes of gear, it looked a little squished but it still turned on which was the important thing, she started to walk towards the bench, not before she heard the battle cry go up behind her. She wouldn't join in this time because she wasn't a player yet. She knew she would be playing against Ojo but for now she was the manager and she still had a job to do. The next huddle would be hers though.

"Kick their asses!" She couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face as the feeling of being in a team once again washed over her. Despite not being in kit, not being able to play she felt grounded and secure. It had been right to do this.

The teams assembled on the field and she hurried to her spot and clicked record. Her hands were a little shaky handling the camera, Mamori-neechan was so much better than her at this. The game had begun and it was time for her to do her semi-fake job. Unfortunately in her desire to hold the camera steady and her disappointment over not playing she had kinda forgotten who else would be showing up at the game. A certain someone whose presence had been an issue of much thought to Sena until it had slipped from her mind, replaced with the let-down of sitting the game out.

That certain someone was now making his way towards the game with his friend and teammate.

"What's the point in scouting out games between small and weak teams?" Shin carried on walking as he replied.

"Don't speak nonsense." He knew that new players could rapidly change a team's strength. New players brought vitality and new skills and whilst old ones were lost they may have been replaced with stronger players than before. This was general knowledge and sent even the best teams taking a new look at weak teams at the start of the year.

There was another reason for his being here though. A more personal one that made him glad when coach had ordered him and Sakuraba to watch the next game. Sena had not told him what high school she had got into. He wasn't sure if she had joined one of the stronger teams or not and he wanted to discover who his rival/training partner would be playing for. He knew it couldn't be the Shinryūji Nagas and it couldn't be any of the teams outside the area because she hadn't moved.

He knew he could have asked Sena where she was going but she hadn't volunteered the information and selfishly he wanted to see her running without her knowing he was there, wanted to see her run in a game as a silent observer.

"That's a bad habit, Sakuraba there is no certain victory if you look elsewhere for possible recruits."

"Yeah, yeah." His teammate looked bored. A sudden kick had them looking up to see the ball high in the sky. He remembered the cupids had got a better than average kicker last year so he doubted it was Deimon. Hiruma had made it clear that there was only player who was the kicker for the Devil Bats.

A sudden squeal of "Sakuraba-kun" had them both looking up. His friend now had a slightly odd look on his face but he didn't focus on that. All he saw was the girl lean too far over the railing and gravity coming into effect.

Before she knew what was happening the girl was falling to the ground. Shin shot forward. The world narrowed to a single corridor of speed. His eyes locked on the falling target and his arm extended to catch her. A slight thump and he stopped his feet.

The girl looked a little dazed until she caught sight of Sakuraba and fainted. Deciding to let her rest he stood up and carried on walking. They found a spot by some fences and Sakuraba started up the camera. Teenage girls were one of many things he didn't understand, he could usually understand Sena pretty well but she was an athlete and very straight forward in her way of speaking. She didn't seem to speak one thing and mean another, she spoke to him about things he understood and didn't seem at all bothered by his lack of social skills. Most of his team was still bothered by that a little.

He focused on the present and turned back to the game. It was the cupid's offence, but there was no way they were going to stop Kurita. The Deimon lineman was one of the best players on the team. He was able to stand against Otawara and had good technique. The Cupid line didn't have a chance as he barrelled through them. Slow but unstoppable.

He looked at the player who was the most dangerous; Yoichi Hiruma. A man who may not have a physical advantage but was excellent at strategizing. If he had another permanent team member he could bring Deimon a victory and if he had command over a dedicated team of players he would be a force to be reckoned with.

The game continued and the score didn't change from 0-0.

"Both teams are still scoreless." Sakuraba was commenting for the video. "The cupid's offence is powerful in its own way."

It wasn't enough to stop Kurita and he said as much. Images from their last match against Deimon flashed through his mind, 99-0 but it would have been an awful lot more if Kurita hadn't been there. He respected the lineman for his continuing passion for the game and his seemingly unquenchable spirit. It didn't look like Deimon had any new proper players. The other members of the 'team' were from other sports and knew next to nothing about the game. He could see it in the way they played and the fear in their frames of playing a different sport to the one they were used to.

Deimon was the same as last year it seemed.

He watched Hiruma send a strong pass through the narrow opening in the line, but the amateur at the receiving end fumbled it and it skipped his grasp.

"Incomplete pass!"

The two knights watched Hiruma rage at the unlucky player.

"That was a good pass." Sakuraba said. Shin hmmed in agreement. Hiruma was an excellent quarterback but-

"His teammates are a bunch of amateurs." There was potential in Deimon but as long as they had only two players they wouldn't go far. They may not even win a single game.

"It's the same as last year then. Only Hiruma and Kurita are any good. It's a shame there in such a bad team."

He nodded and looked around the pitch. "Yeah, just one more person, it may be a different story if they also had a fast running back." Right as he said those words his eyes passed over the Deimon team bench, and his muscles seemed to freeze. It couldn't be could it?

As if sensing his gaze the figure on the bench looked up to meet the stare that seemed to be drilling into her skin. She recognized it, the intensity behind it, and the shiver that shot down her spine at the thought of facing him.

Brown eyes met his and the rest of the world faded into silence. An exchange that went unnoticed by all except a yellow haired demon with a brightening glint of comprehension in his eyes.

Why wasn't she on the field?

AN: I can't say anything other than I'm sorry. I had a couple of months to catch up on all the university work I missed in Iceland and learn the new stuff too, then there were exams and sorting out my house for next year. It killed my muse and I've been stuck with writer's block because of it.

All I can say is sorry and that I have no intention of abandoning this story. Thank you to anyone still reading and hopefully this won't be a one off writing urge.

HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED AND FROCED ME TO WRITE THIS.

PLUS I HAVE FANART FOR THIS STORY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! One of which is the cover for this story.

I'll try and track them down and put some links on my profile page so you can check them out to. They're awesome!