Chapter Text
──────────────── Hiruma ────────────────
Sitting in the classroom the next day, Hiruma feels relaxed after the previous night -despite his body hurting like he was hit by a car. Typing away on his laptop, he hears the classroom door open, but he doesn't need to look over to know who just walked in. Anezaki.
“Today, since we have a break from practice, I’m checking on the team.” A chair scrapes behind him, and he hears her sit, leaning on the desk. “Doesn't your body hurt?”
“‘Course it fucking does. Not enough to be a problem. I’ll heal, anyway.”
She goes quiet for a moment. “You don’t need to shoulder the burden alone… Hiruma-kun, you always push yourself to do everything on your own. But everyone is here. They won’t let you down.”
At that moment, something felt… wrong. Why is she talking like this? Then, he remembers something. During the death march, he had let her wrap his knee because he knew she wouldn’t let it go otherwise, and he didn't want to worry Sena. While she was working, he had noticed something he had shrugged aside… but now he has come to realize what that look in her eye was.
It was the same look Shin and Riku kept giving Sena.
Affection.
Fuck.
After having tossed the team in the helicopter and shown them the example, they had landed and everyone headed home to rest. Soon enough, Thursday arrived, and after class, Hiruma starts herding them off school grounds and off to Ojo’s school festival.
──────────────── Sena ────────────────
The pure speed in which Taki was able to end up joining the gameshow and dragging him onto it with him was astounding. Even Sena isn’t quite sure how it happened. One second he was walking down the main path, the next he was on stage with Taki, in front of a podium. Christ, Taki. How did you even accomplish this?
Sitting there as Taki and Otawara have their idiocy contest, Sena sighs tiredly. At least Sakuraba and Otawara will lose and not us. I’d die if I had to wear a maid dress…
“Gah!”
Looking up right as the gameshow host fully disappears over the stage as he’s presumably yanked off, Sena smiles slightly. Oh, Ichii… I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
Hiruma jumps onstage dressed like the host, and starts acting like he didn’t just ambush that poor bastard. “Well, everyone! The last question. In the Ojo White Knights’ new tactic, ‘the Ballista,’ the defensive player Seijuro Shin participates in offense too.”
Sena's eyes widen. He what?
“I’m sorry, Hiruma,” Takami starts, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sena’s mind starts racing, playing back the few mentions he’s heard of Ballista, and the possibilities of how much their power will increase with this. How likely it is this is true, and everything to know about it.
Shin stands up from the crowd, walking over to Takami. “Please wait, Takami-san. Hiruma came here to investigate, instead of practicing. Deimon probably has revealed every card of theirs in the game against Shinryuuji.”
Hiruma grins, “Yes. A small trick play is different, but I don’t have any special hidden cards anymore.”
Ichii…
“In this situation -where only Ojo has hidden cards- it’s undeniable that Deimon has a disadvantage. If you were to have played against us before Shinryuuji, you would have used all your cards then, most likely winning. That difference is only because of the luck of the lottery. I don’t want to win because of something like that,” Shin states.
“It can’t be helped.” Takami says, taking a drink of water, before pushing up his glasses.
He’s about to continue, but Sena chuckles, before stretching his neck. “I have no doubt that’s the case, now. Shin will play offense as well, and between Sakuraba’s pass and Shin’s run, things will become more difficult. But after seeing your Trident Tackle in your last game, I already know plenty about your new plays. With this additional knowledge, and the first portion of the game, I’ll be able to analyze quite a bit more than I could have, had we not found this out.”
Walking around the podium, Sena starts to head for the steps leading off the stage. “Well, this match will be interesting.”
──────────────── Shin ────────────────
Waiting for Takami to confirm their suspicions, Sena chuckles, throwing him and Takami off majorly. Though, for different reasons. While Takami is visibly surprised by him laughing at the situation, Shin’s heart seems to trip over itself. His laugh sounds so…
Then, Sena started to speak. When he stated that he knows plenty of their new plays, Takami’s eyes widened. The short brunette walks off the stage with this small, knowing smile on his lips… Like he knew something they did not.
Shin finds himself about to follow after the short brunette, when Takami tells him that it’s time to get ready for the public practice. Stopping himself, Shin reluctantly follows Takami to the locker rooms.
──────────────── Hiruma ────────────────
Hiruma won’t lie, after finding out the penalty of losing the gameshow, he was a little peeved at that idiot Taki for not bombing harder. The thought of his little brunette in a maid dress? Blushing and shy… It was probably shameful how far his mind ran with the idea. But -reminding himself that he’s currently sitting with the whole team as they look through the images he gathered on Ojo’s practice game- Hiruma pulls his mind off track and back to the situation at hand.
Looking at Sena, he finds the young man looking through the images with such focus.
“Hey, Sena?” Juumonji glances at the short man. “What would you predict about this game?”
Sena looks back through the pictures for a second. He pauses. “I’m not sure. I can work out how different their plays can be, but it depends on how they go about it. I’ll know more once the game starts, but this time we’ll be playing by ear. Our chances of winning are different this time, since all our strategies have been shown, while theirs -though we’ve been told about Ballista- have much more that can change because of that one detail. As long as I analyze them without letting them hike up the score, we’ll win.”
His words seem to both reassure and rattle the team simultaneously. Getting to his feet, Hiruma leads the team to the field where Ojo is hosting a public practice.
──────────────── Sena ────────────────
Watching the public practice, Sena is in his head, analyzing everything he sees while he can. After Monta recklessly sends a football flying at Sakuraba, Sena catches onto movement from the corner of his eye, and the sound of something flying at them at high speeds.
Moving back, a football whizzes past him, and Monta snatches it out of the air. Turning in the direction it came from, he finds Unsui standing there. As he speaks with Sakuraba, Sena tunes out of the situation in favor of analyzing more of Ojo’s practice. After Sakuraba walks off, a hand taps him on the shoulder. Looking back, he finds Unsui standing there.
“Something the matter?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.
Unsui looks him in the eyes, trying to read his expression before asking his question. “Can we talk?”
Sena looks back at the field, before nodding. “I don’t see why not. I’ve seen as much as I can, right now.”
The taller man leads him behind one of the buildings, much to the confusion of the rest of the team. Unsui stops, and turns to him. “Have you heard the rumors of ‘the Devil’s Advocate?’”
Sena tilts his head quizzically, then lies, “No, I haven’t.”
Leaning against the wall, the quarterback continues. “It’s a rumor about someone who’s known Hiruma Yōichi for a while now, and can predict just about anything -if he’s given the chance. He’s a genius of a whole different caliber from my brother, and it’s said that -though he doesn't have an unbelievable reaction time like Agon- he can predict people’s moves before they make them, making it appear to others that he reacts inhumanly fast.”
“Why are you telling me about this,” Sena asks. “I don’t see how any part of that rumor could be true.”
Unsui narrows his eyes at him. “Tell me… How did you predict all that about our match?”
Sena smiles slightly, and looks away. “From everything I saw, it was quite obvious. Your team would come out swinging, and Agon would be determined to break me. Because of that, it would be hard to score during the first half, until you became overconfident and we could get a suckerpunch in. The shock would break down your mental states, and we’d be able to turn the tides.”
Unsui’s eyes seem to sparkle as if he just got confirmation. “You’ve known Hiruma for a while, have you not?”
“What makes you say that?”
“The two of you seem to work well together.”
“Well, I haven’t. Only just met him this past year,” Sena says, shrugging as he turns away. “Don’t know what you want me to tell you. The person you are looking for is not me.”
Walking back to the team, they all head back to school.
──────────────── Hiruma ────────────────
Scaling the trellis outside Sena’s house once more, Hiruma makes his way inside. Climbing through the window, he finds Sena at his desk once again, noting down plays and drawing formations. He glances at him, and Hiruma can tell he’s smiling at him from behind the mask. The twinkle in his eyes says it all.
“Hi, Ichii.”
“Whatcha doing, Sena?” Hiruma asks, moving to stand next to him so he can look at the papers.
“Just going over the possibilities. If I can figure out the main tactics that they can use to their advantage now, I’ll be able to go into the match with more awareness of what could happen. Then, I’ll be able to further analyze what needs to be done for us to win.”
Hiruma stares at Sena for a moment. He’s known for a long time now that his mind works similarly to his own -in the sense that they predict possibilities, and use that to determine the likely outcome- but there were a few differences.
Sena’s mind works on a whole nother level. Like he’s seen, Sena sees the moving pieces and peoples’ mental states, and pulls the strings to put everything on the right path. But he’s always astonished at how the short man uses everything he sees to his advantage.
You’d think he’d get overwhelmed by the possibilities, and lose track of where things could go wrong, but he doesn't. Somehow, he’s able to read so much further, and figure out what he needs to know. Almost as if he’s reading something others’ can’t see, and that’s what tells him these miraculous things.
Chuckling, Hiruma drapes an arm over the little brunette’s shoulders. “Ya really are somethin’ else.”
Sena giggles, and looks up at him. “Thanks? I think.”
“Take it in stride, chuckle fuck.”
──────────────── Doburoku ────────────────
Walking down the empty stands the night before the game, he can’t help but think of Hiruma and that strange enigma he calls a friend, ‘Sena.’ He really is something else…
“Doburoku?”
Looking over, he sees his old friend Shouji. Taking a seat, they discuss how much things have changed.
“I understand how much you’ve been waiting for this tall Sakuraba fellow to become strong. But…”
Shouji glances at him. “‘But?’”
“No doubt you’ve noticed our short player, Sena. Or ‘Eyeshield 21.’”
“Of course. He’s fast, but now he won’t be a match for Shin.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not what you should have been looking out for, old friend.”
Shouji turns to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“He’s fast -no doubt about that- but what exceeds his speed is his observational abilities. That kid, Sena, is not only known as ‘Eyeshield 21’... but also ‘the Devil’s Advocate.’”
Shouji’s eyes widen. “That’s only a baseless rumor!”
“It’s not.”
“How can you be so sure??”
“Sena predicted the outcome of the match against Shinryuuji down to a ‘T’. Down to the amount of points they’d be behind by before the end of the first half. Down to the difference in points they’d win by. He predicted the unpredictable, Shouji. And because of that alone, I would know it’s him.”
“But the rumor says they’d have been friends for a while-”
“And they have,” Doburoku says, taking a swig from his jug of alcohol. “You should have seen them back in America. When they all went to gamble off my debt, that kid… won a game of poker against Hiruma.”
Shouji shakes his head. “It’s no matter. The White Knights will win-”
“You don’t get it, Shouji. You’ve shown him too much. He’s already aware of your weaknesses. He’s already working out a way to win, and after the game starts, he’ll see the last of what he needs to do so. You can’t win.”