The Lies You Tell Yourself (and the Truth You Fail to See)

by AstraeaSilvers_TheNullifiedKing

Summary:

Sena has had a difficult life. She’s always been targeted for being an omega, and now the school’s resident Devil -Hiruma- has come after her for his own reason. That reason? Join his team.
But Sena has a secret she’s been unintentionally hiding for a while now. She’s tried telling people, but after so long of nobody believing her, she gave up.
The secret?
She’s not a girl!

Chapter 1: Dealing with the Devil

Notes:

I’m using MoxyPoxie’s A/B/O dynamics, which are as follows:

Beta Alphas (BA-type) - Alphas who have more neutral scents and are level-headed. Have characteristics of betas and alphas.
Omega Alphas (OA-type) - Alphas who tend to have a more submissive nature in some instances, but not all times. They don't have an overpowering scent, and have qualities belonging to both genders.
Pure Alphas - Alphas who can have a dominant aura and personality, and some are able to form packs. These alphas can also control their scent and aura without the need for suppressants or scent blockers.
Alpha Beta (AB-type) - Betas who have a stronger scent and can show dominance when needed, all while keeping cool and in control.
Omega Beta (OA-type) - Betas who have more of a submissive and gentle nature, some can even be mistaken for omegas as they adopt a lot of omega traits.
Pure Betas - Betas that are neutral and can stay calm and collected in the face of most obstacles. They're unaffected by overpowering scents, and can help with extreme pack dynamics.
Alpha Omega (AO-type) - Omegas that can be more assertive and dominant in some ways. They have the most control over their scents.
Beta Omega (BO-type) - Omegas that can keep their scent, and those that they've bonded to, neutral and calm. They can more easily pick up the scents of others.
Pure Omegas - Omegas that have a submissive and gentle personality and aura. They can soothe hostility quickly, but often fold to more dominating scents and traits.
Command-type - Rare omegas that are born with a special set of abilities all linked to their 'command.' It allows them to carry traits similar to all the second genders, and use them to seek out members of their pack.

 

Some of these might differ from Moxy’s fic, but not by much. If it does, it’s mostly for social dynamics, and to better suit the characters.

──Hiruma──

Hiruma remembers seeing her that first day. He took note of her while he was watching the new students walk onto the grounds for the Entrance Ceremony. She was nothing exceptional at first glance. So, he had carried on with his plans; conning people into getting their numbers so he could harass them about joining his team.

Then, the first day of school came around, and Hiruma saw her again. Once more, nothing extraordinary. Just another student. Nothing more to think about.

But after school, walking to the train station, he realized just how wrong he was.

As he was walking past, along the road leading from school to the train station, he spotted her. She was practically being cornered by four men, all alphas. Just from their body language, he could tell they were sexually harassing her.

Hiruma rolls his eyes, about to shout over. If they knew he’s nearby, they’d most likely back off, in fear of becoming another one of his blackmail victims.

But before he can, one of them goes to grab the short brunette, and gets his hand smacked away. The entire group scowls, but before they can get any more aggressive, she’s gone, absolutely sprinting down the road.

The men take off behind her, and Hiruma blinks after her receding form, faster than he’s ever seen. A grin slips across his face, and as Hiruma starts on his way down a shortcut to the train station, he pulls out his phone to follow her on the surveillance cameras.

Navigating the alleys and roads as he watches was definitely worth it. The girl is sprinting across a bridge, when she all of a sudden leaps onto the railing and off the bridge. Despite jumping down from nearly 5 meters above the ground, she continues her sprint without faltering.

But the men quickly clamber down the nearby ladder, and follow closely after.

He switches cameras, and pauses at the sight. The street she’s running towards is filled with people. No doubt no one would spare this any thought, and there was no way through. She was cornered again.

But as she nears, she pulls her bag closer to her side, and weaves through the crowd with such expertise, you’d think she’d done this on the regular.

The men are still on her trail, but not as close, now. The brunette girl ducks into an alley, but still doesn’t lose them. Swapping camera views again, he finds there’s a tall chain link fence separating this alleyway.

Once more, she doesn’t falter. Nearing the fence, she leaps up, grabbing hold of the fencing a meter off the ground, and quickly starts scaling it. She drops to the ground on the other side, and seconds later, the men reach the fencing, too.

But by then, the chase is over. She’s already sprinted out the other side of the alley, and is long gone by the time they even start thinking about scaling the fence after her.

Hiruma grins, glancing up from his phone as he finally reaches the train station. Turning around at the sound of frantic footsteps, Hiruma spots her. She’s just under five feet tall, with a messy shoulder-length wolfcut hairstyle, doe eyes and a slim waist. And is most definitely an omega.

She comes to a stop at the entrance to the train station, and a few people spare her confused glances as she breathes heavily. She stands up straight, adjusting the bag on her shoulder, before starting towards one of the station’s platforms. As she passes him, he notices it. The fiery determination in her eyes.

I need her on my team.

 

──Sena──

I really hate living here… Sena sighs as he walks down the street. About seven months back, Sena’s mom had found a better paying job that would require them to move. Sena refused to go. His only friend was here, and he knew -without her- he wouldn’t hold up well on his own. Not with all the harassment he goes through for his appearance.

His mom didn’t have much choice but to leave anyway. The financial toll his dad’s death from five years ago took on them was too much. So, his mom sold the house, gave him a big chunk of money so he could survive on his own while she climbed the ladder at her new job, and moved.

Sena didn’t have many qualms with it, if he’s being honest. He’s fine living alone in his apartment, and if he ever gets lonely, his nee-chan is always willing to stop by.

Even if she does think I’m a girl like everyone does, she’s still my only friend. Besides, I don’t think I could deal with so much harassment without her support.

Unlocking his door, he practically bee-lines for the couch and collapses down onto it. Lifting his hand, he looks at the cut on his palm. He had sliced it on the fence while evading those alphas earlier. He groans slightly, leaning back into the cushions. He knows why he was targeted. It’s kind of hard not to.

First off is the fact he’s an omega. That alone is reason enough for some people, but then there’s the fact everyone thinks he’s a girl. Again, he knows why. Between the lighter tone of voice he has is just inherently more delicate and because he never really talks, and the fact he’s short with a very slim waist, people just perceive him as a girl.

Sena’s never really bothered to correct people. First of all, they never believed him, and secondly, it just got exhausting to try. You’d think the male school uniform would have given it away, but it’s become common for women to wear pants instead of a skirt, so that didn’t really change much.

No matter what he did, there was no real viable way to convince people. After a point, he just gave up. He stopped cutting his hair to try to get the point across, and just let it messily grow out. With his only two friends both under the same impression, there was obviously no way to change it.

Snapping back from his thoughts, he hears his phone ringing. Digging it out of his bag, he finds an incoming call from Mamori on his screen. Picking up, he’s quickly met with her voice.

“Hey, Sena! Did you get home okay?” She asks cheerfully.

“Uh,” Sena hesitates. “For the most part, yeah?”

“Oh, Sena-chan! What happened this time?”

Sena leans back again, sighing. “Some alphas were harassing me, so I had to run for it. I got home fine aside from that.”

Mamori sighs tiredly. “Well, at least you're safe. I’m just thankful you’ve gotten so good at outrunning and evading people like that.”

Snickering slightly, he responds, “Yeah, well… we know who we have to thank for that.”

He can practically hear her smile. “I guess so.”

“Well, anyway, I should get started on dinner, so I’ll see you later, nee-chan.”

“Okay. Try to get some rest,” she says, the smile still apparent in her voice.

“Will do.”

Hanging up, he gets to his feet to start making food.

 

Never in a million years would Sena have expected himself to be kidnapped outside his door. He had just barely locked his front door when it happened. He’s not even sure what happened, exactly, just that he was turning away from his door, and not even ten minutes later, he was in what looks like a sports clubroom.

Completely disoriented, Sena can feel himself panicking. Until he spots the blonde man standing next to the only door in the small room. Sena recognized him instantly. He’d been warned by Mamori to be cautious of him. He’d heard all the whispers of his name, too.

But he never would have expected to find himself cornered by Hiruma Yōichi.

──Hiruma──

He can’t really blame the girl for panicking. But the second she spots him, her expression shifts. It goes from panicked, to frozen like a deer in headlights. But then, after seemingly taking in the situation she’s in, instead of looking worried or scared, she gets that fiery look in her eyes again.

“Wh-What’s going on?” She stutters out.

Hiruma chuckles. “You’re joining my team.”

“T-Team? What team??”

Hiruma leans against the wall, responding, “My American football team.”

The look on her face quickly turns to complete confusion. “I-I’m sorry- what? You want me for what??”

Hiruma can’t help but chuckle at that. “Listen, shorty. I saw you running the other day, and that’s exactly what I need.”

She blinks at him, before setting her jaw. “Why should I?”

He raises an eyebrow at that, hiding his surprise that she just stood up to someone she obviously knows is the Devil of Deimon. “‘Why,’ huh?’

She straightens her back, and just like that, her entire demeanor changes. “Yeah. Why should I? Don’t think I haven’t heard of you! Give me a reason why I should do you any favors.”

Hiruma cracks a grin, before breaking into a cackle. “You know who I am, and you’re asking that?”

She picks up her bag, prepared to walk past him and out the door. “I know you don’t have anything on me. You’ve made that pretty clear.”

What?

She looks him straight in the eyes, saying flatly, “So I have no reason to fear you.”

With that she heads for the door. But as she nears, Hiruma grabs her arm.

“Wait.”

She glances at him.

“I’ll give you a reason.”

She looks away, tugging her arm from his grasp. “Better be good.”

Hiruma chuckles. “You’re an omega -that’s obvious- but the way you ran from those guys yesterday told me a lot. That it happens often. You join my team, and that shit won’t happen again.”

She pauses, seeming to think.

“And if things play out right,” Hiruma continues, “after all is said and done, you’ll handle yourself better, and won’t deal with it at all anymore.”

She doesn’t look at him, seeming to turn away more. But then, she sighs. “You swear I won’t have to deal with it while I’m on your team?”

“Even though we’ll be claiming you’re the manager, just that will be enough to scare almost anyone away,” he smirks.

“F-Fine, then. I guess I can endure this if it means having to deal with less harassment. But why claim I’m the manager?”

“If ya haven’t noticed,” Hiruma chuckles, “you’ve got a pretty good skill there. Plenty of other sports clubs would try to convince you to join their team, as well. Besides, do you really want to give people any more of an excuse to try to pester ya, shorty?”

She sighs tiredly. “Whatever. But my name is Sena, not shorty.”

Hiruma smirks again. “Yeah, whatever.”

Turning away, Hiruma grabs the duffel bag and slides open the door, ready to head to the field.

Notes:

Thanks to MoxyPoxie for letting me use their dynamics! Alongside that, thank you to my HiruSena server friends for helping me with this idea!

Chapter 2: 4.2 seconds

Summary:

Sena has joined the team, and sets out to recruit some members.

──Hiruma──

Exiting the clubroom, he quickly spots Kurita already on the field, practicing. It slipped my mind that he’s been getting here early to practice. He does this every time he starts getting anxious. I probably passed him earlier, but I doubt he noticed.

Walking down the steps, he hears the brunette -Sena- slowly start leaving the clubroom after him. Hiruma approaches his only other teammate, who stops his practice and turns to look at him.

“Well,” Hiruma starts, “we got a new member.”

Kurita immediately gets stars in his eyes. “We do? Who??”

Suddenly, his eyes lock onto something, and Hiruma hears light footsteps coming down the stairs.

“That would be me,” Sena says, a little hesitantly.

Kurita balks. It’s obvious what he’s thinking. Why would such a small girl join a sport like Amefuto?

“Uh-! H-Hello! I’m-” Kurita stutters, only to get cut off.

“Let’s just begin practice, fatass. We’re starting with the 40-yard dash.” Hiruma continues on his way, dropping the duffel bag on the sidelines of the field.

Kurita glances at Sena again, before walking off to set up the cones to mark the distance for the exercise. Meanwhile, Hiruma digs out the stopwatch. Standing back up, he turns, dropping it into the girl’s hands.

“Er… How many seconds does the 40-yard dash typically take?” She asks.

“For average players, it’s about 5 seconds. You could say the 5-second barrier is what separates average players from sprinters. If a high school student can run it in 4.8, they can go anywhere,” Hiruma explains. “High school’s fastest player is a guy named Shin, with a time of 4.4 seconds.”

Kurita calls over that he’s ready, so Hiruma pulls the bazooka from the duffel bag. Sena spares him a glance, before quickly covering her ear with the timer in her other hand -probably in hope of not getting her eardrum busted.

Hiruma fires off a shot, and Kurita starts his run. As he passes them, Hiruma glances over Sena’s shoulder to find Kurita’s time is 6.5 seconds.

Scowling, Hiruma growls, “Are ya fucking serious, fatass?? Goddamn it, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Hiruma walks off down the field, and before Sena can say anything, he calls from down the field, “Get the stopwatch ready, shorty.”

Sena seems to frown slightly at the nickname, but prepares the device anyway. Hiruma starts his sprint, and as he passes, Sena clicks the button.

“5.1 seconds,” Sena says.

Hiruma cackles as he approaches, saying, “Just ran my best time! Now,” he plucks the stopwatch from Sena’s hand, “your turn.”

Sena blinks up at him for a second, before sighing and walking off to the starting spot.

Hiruma grins. “It’s possible to overcome the 5 second wall with those legs.”

“A-Are you sure, Hiruma?” Kurita asks. “Even if so, she’s so small! And an omega! She could get really hurt playing this sport.”

Hiruma rolls his eyes. “You seem to forget there’s a girl on the reigning champion’s team. But I guess we’ll find out.”

Picking up the bazooka again, Hiruma fires off a shot, and the little brunette comes sprinting down the field like a goddamn bullet.

Hiruma grins as he hits the button on the stopwatch. “4.2 seconds.”

Kurita’s eyes widen, and he turns to face Sena as she walks over. “That’s incredible, Sena-chan!”

Sena seems to startle at that, responding, “U-Uh, well, thanks?”

“I’m Kurita! I’m an omega-alpha, and the lineman for the team!”

Sena seems to relax slightly, hesitantly saying, “M-My name is Sena. I’m an omega.”

Kurita nods. “And of course you’ve met Hiruma! He’s the quarterback, and a-”

“Shut up before I hurt ya,” Hiruma says flatly, walking past. “Anyway, it’ll be easier to win our matches now. Not guaranteed, but definitely not as impossible. But right now, it’s time for us to gather people who can help us during the tournament.”

Kurita nods. “When does the tournament start, by the way?”

“Tomorrow.”

Kurita stammers, quickly following after him as he heads for the clubroom. Opening the door, Hiruma picks up a marker and starts writing on the white board next to the door.

“Listen up,” Hiruma starts. “Seeing as there will undoubtedly be people from other teams there to record the match and I don’t want them seeing just what kind of skill set we’ve got now, we’ll need a spare member.”

Turning to face them, Hiruma continues. “So, we need nine people. Each of us needs to gather three, at least.”

 

──Sena──

Sitting in his classroom, staring out the window, Sena sighs a little. He’s felt people staring at him quite a bit, and it’s starting to get unnerving.

Pulling his attention away from where he had been zoning-out, Sena gets up, grabbing his bag and slinging it off his shoulder. He pauses for a second, staring at the bandaging wrapped across his palm. It doesn’t hurt, and this isn't the first time something like that has happened. But it always just feels like a reminder. A reminder that he’ll probably always deal with this. That he’ll always have to be ready to run at any moment. Looking back up, he heads for the door, deciding he might as well get started on finding those members, now.

Walking down the halls, he scans the door signs, looking for the other sports clubs. Finally finding one, he takes a steadying breath. Sliding open the door, Sena steps inside the basketball clubroom.

There’s only two guys inside, one with his feet up and reading a magazine, and the other is facing away from the door while he pulls on his blazer jacket.

Hesitantly, Sena says, “Uh, hello.”

They turn to look at him, and immediately seem to freeze. One man’s eyes go wide, and the other’s face starts to turn slightly pink.

Dammit. Again??

The guy holding the magazine immediately takes his feet off the table, turning to look at him. “H-Hello! Can we help you?”

The other guy walks over, smiling. “Anything you need?”

Sena gives them a polite smile, saying, “Would either of you be willing to help out the American football team for a match tomorrow?”

That seems to make them take pause, blinking slightly.

Sena continues. “I’m asking because the team is short some members and we’re running a little out of time. We’ll hopefully not need the help for long.”

The first guy sets the magazine down on the table, saying, “Er, well… you said tomorrow, right? Yeah, I can help. I’m Kenta Yamaoka.”

“And I’m Yōhei Satake,” the other guy says. “I can help too.”

Sena gives them that same polite smile. “Thank you!” Pulling a sheet of paper from his bag, he tells them, “This is the information for the match tomorrow. I’ll see you both there.”

Turning away, Sena walks back out the door. Not without catching them whispering about ‘how cute that girl is.’ Sighing, Sena continues down the hall. Mostly everyone will be on their way home by now, so I probably only have maybe ten minutes before I’m out of luck. I’ll check this hall’s clubrooms before heading home.

 

After finding the rest of the clubrooms empty or locked, Sena comes to the last door. Knocking, Sena hears someone inside, and pulls the door to the track team clubroom open. The guy inside turns as he pulls on his blazer jacket, and blinks at him.

“Uh, hello. Can I help you?” He asks.

Sena nods, giving his spiel.

The man thinks for a second. “Sure. I can help. Hiruma’s gathering all the freshmen, right? If I join, I can invite some of them to the track team. Win-win, you know? Anyway, when did you say it was?”

“Uhm, tomorrow, actually.”

The guy’s eyes widen. “Crap, then I can’t.”

“O-Oh,” Sena rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, it’s pretty last minute, so that’s not surprising.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I’ve got to finish up my magazine deliveries, and it’s gonna take until tomorrow, with how many there are.”

Sena pauses at that, a thought flitting through his mind. “You know,” Sena starts as he straightens his back, “I can help you with that, if you’d like? We can get it done today, so you can join.”

“Are you sure?” The man asks.

Sena nods. “If you join, we’ll have enough players, so I’d say that’s definitely a win-win. I’ll help.”

Walking outside to the bike racks, the man opens a box in the basket of his bike. He tears the map in half, handing it and a stack of the magazines to Sena.

“You can take that half, then, right?”

Nodding, Sena smiles. “Yep!”

Parting ways with the man at the school gate -agreeing to meet back here when they’re done- Sena makes his way down the different roads. It didn’t take long to distribute them all, especially with how much he was running.

Quickly arriving back at the school gates, Sena sits down under a streetlight to catch his breath. Too much running in such a short amount of time. But I guess I’ll have to get used to that… Sena sighs. I can’t believe I agreed to join. But dealing with one Devil sounds much easier than dealing with dozens of random alphas harassing me weekly. It won’t be that bad, right? If anything, I can always leave. Not like Hiruma has anything to hold over me, anyway.

Catching onto the sound of a bicycle nearing, Sena looks up to find the track team guy nearing. He notices Sena on the ground, and startles, coming to a screeching halt.

“You scared the life out of me,” he says, laughing slightly.

Sena gets to his feet. “Sorry about that.”

“That was… really quick. You seriously delivered them all?”

“Yeah, I did,” Sena smiles. “That means you can join, right?”

“It does. My name’s Tetsuo Ishimaru,” he says, grinning.

“I’m Sena Kobayakawa.”

 

Arriving back at the clubroom, Sena puts three magnets on his column of the white board. Then, he glances at the other two columns. It doesn’t look like Kurita has had any luck, but Hiruma seems to have collected just nearly enough players.

“Hello, Sena-chan,” Kurita says depressedly from the corner of the room.

“Ah,” Sena glances over. “Hello, Kurita. Looks like we’re two players short, huh?”

The man seems to deflate slightly. “Yeah…”

Right then, the door is flung open, and Hiruma comes in, cursing up a storm about something. He walks over to the white board, putting a handful more magnets on the board.

“Looks like the shorty at least got some members,” Hiruma grumbles.

Sena slumps tiredly. “You’re going to keep calling me that, aren’t you?”

Hiruma grins, “Yeah.”

He sighs. “You know what? Fine. Whatever. I’ve been called worse.”

Kurita -who was stunned and excited by Hiruma coming back with news of more members- suddenly looks at Sena. “What do you mean, Sena-chan?”

Sena shrugs, “People can be cruel.” He absently rubs the back of his neck with his bandaged hand. “Simple-as, Kurita.”

──Hiruma──

As she lifts her hand to rub her neck, Hiruma spots the bandages wrapped across her palm. He pauses, realizing that had been there this morning, too.

Kurita apparently spots it as well, exclaiming, “Sena-chan! What happened?”

Sena pauses looking at him in confusion, before looking at her hand. “Oh. I, uh, cut it on a fence yesterday. It’s okay. I’m fine.”

Kurita looks at her with worried eyes, which seems to make the girl uneasy.

“Seriously, Kurita. I’m fine,” she says. “It’s not unusual for this to happen to me. It’s just one of the things that happens when- uh…”

“‘When’ what?” Kurita asks, still worried.

Hiruma chuckles. “When she’s running from alphas.”

Sena glances away. “W-Well… yeah. It doesn’t matter. The point is, I’m used to it. I-I need to go. See you two tomorrow.”

She quickly grabs her bag, fleeing out the door. Kurita sighs, still blatantly worried about her.

I guess getting minor injuries is something she ’s used to?

Chapter 3: Take One for the Team

Summary:

The game against the Cupids has arrived.

──Sena──

Arriving home, Sena closes the door after himself before leaning against it. Today was… something, alright. Having someone aside from Mamori worried about him was kind of odd, but Kurita was incredibly kind. Hiruma on the other hand… Sena’s still wondering if he made the right choice. If he picked the lesser of two evils, or the fucking demon king.

Sighing, Sena pushes away from the door. It’s no matter. I should probably call Mamori nee-chan now, to let her know about this… development. I don’t want her thinking I was hiding it from her or something, given Hiruma’s reputation.

Pulling his phone from his pocket as he walks to the kitchen to get started on dinner, he dials her number. It doesn’t take long for her to pick up.

“Sena-chan,” she exclaims happily the second she answers the call. “I didn’t get a chance to see you at school today!”

Sena smiles softly, responding, “Yeah, got a bit busy. I, uhm… Just wanted to let you know something.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

He hesitates, leaning against the counter. “W-Well… I joined a sports club. As a manager, of course.”

“Really? That’s great,” She chimes. “Which one?”

“American football.”

There’s immediately a silence falling over the line. After a moment she says, “You don’t mean… H-Hiruma-kun’s team??”

“Yeah,” Sena says, “I do.”

“He’s not-”

“No, nee-chan. He’s not,” he assures her. “You don’t have to worry. He may be the Devil, but it’s pretty apparent that he doesn’t have anything on me. He practically told me that. So I can leave safely any time.”

She audibly takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’m trusting you, Sena-chan. Oh, by the way, some of my girl friends want to hangout tomorrow, and they were wondering when they’d get to meet you.”

“Oh, uhm, well. That’s part of the reason I called to tell you. There’s a match tomorrow against the Koigahama Cupids, so…”

“It’s okay, Sena! Maybe some other time. If you want, I can stop by the match after meeting with them -if everything wraps up before it’s over, that is.”

“N-No, it’s fine,” Sena says, trying to keep the nervousness from his voice. “I’ll just tell you about it later.”

“Alright, then!”

“Anyway, I should probably go so I can make dinner,” Sena says, pushing off of the counter. “Later.”

“Have a good night, Sena!”

 

──Hiruma──

Approaching where the team is currently sitting while waiting for the train, Hiruma spares a glance around. Looks like -aside from the fatass- everyone’s here. But that’s to be expected. He’s carrying the equipment.

As he nears, he catches onto the sound of a few of the temporary players speaking.

“The manager is pretty cute, don’t you think?” One guy asks.

“Yeah, she is. She’s an omega, so it makes sense. Omega girls are always cuter.” Another man says.

A third guy chuckles. “Seriously. Maybe if I play well enough during the match and impress her, I’ll have a shot.”

“Wonder what she’s doing on the Devil’s team, though,” the first says. “He must have something pretty bad on her if she’s helping him.”

“Maybe she’s the promiscuous type,” the third grins.

If only I had something on her. Would make this a whole lot easier, and I wouldn’t have to risk her suddenly up-and-leaving. Pushing the thought from his mind, Hiruma nears them. The group that he was just listening in on spot him, and get to their feet.

“So, where are the cute cheerleaders?” One of them asks.

“They’ll come later,” Hiruma responds, trying not to roll his eyes. Fucking hell. Try to think with the right head for this match.

Turning away, he hears Kurita nearing -the clatter of the cart carrying their equipment marking his arrival. With that, he shoos them onto the train so they can get to the location of their match.

──Sena──

After having been stared at by so many people while they were waiting, Sena found it a relief when Hiruma arrived and they all boarded the train. Hiruma led him and Kurita into an empty carriage, away from the rest of the team. Sitting down, Sena takes a breath. At least none of them tried approaching me.

“So,” Sena starts, pulling out the tournament brackets, “Are the Koigahama Cupids strong?”

“No,” Kurita says. “They’re pretty small and weak.” He brightens up, turning to Hiruma, “Which means we might actually win! The Devil Bat’s first victory!”

“Not ‘might,’ fatass. We will,” Hiruma replies, getting to his feet.

As Sena scans the page -taking note of the team names- there’s suddenly an orange glow below the paper. Before he can react, fire claims the page, and it crumbles between his fingertips. Turning his attention to the blonde man crouched in front of him, Sena just blinks tiredly.

Hiruma flicks the lighter closed, and stands up. “Don’t think about that shit. Focus on winning today’s game.”

 

Finally reaching the field the game is taking place at, Sena starts unboxing the equipment and setting it out. Glancing over, he sees the team mumbling to themselves. It’s obvious their spirits aren’t exactly high. But I don’t think it’s right to expect them to put their hearts into something that Hiruma undoubtedly blackmailed them into doing.

Kurita walks over while staring at the other side of the field. “Oh, looks like they’re already here.”

Following his line of sight, Sena spots the opposing team preparing for the match with whom Sena can only presume to be their girlfriends talking with them. The sight seems to anger the temporary players, but Hiruma only makes it worse.

“Koigahama Cupids third years. All members have girlfriends, and are famous for bringing them to their matches.”

That sure lights a fire under the team. Sena goes to open another box, when they suddenly turn their attention to him.

“Hey, miss manager,” one of them says. “We have cheerleaders coming, right?”

Oh, great. The lie falls to me, now? Plastering a polite smile on his face, Sena turns back to them, responding, “I’ll call them and see where they are.”

Picking up his phone to make the gesture a little more believable, Sena walks off to hide for a few minutes.

──Hiruma──

Not long after Sena walks off, Hiruma hears the voice of the Cupids’ team captain -Hatsujou- as he approaches.

“Hello, dirty Devil Bats. I’m sorry about their loud cheering. They wouldn’t listen, and insisted on coming to support us,” the man says, a smug smile on his face. He takes a second to look around their group, before theatrically exclaiming, “Huh?? There’s not one single girl here! That’s strange. I wonder if Deimon is an all boy’s school?”

Hiruma gets to his feet, picking up one of the sealed boxes and walking not far off. While the man blabbers more, Hiruma starts poaching their cheerleaders, using pictures of Sakuraba -a famous TV figure and a fellow high school football player- to convince them to switch sides.

Before he can draw the bastard’s attention to this fact, Sena comes walking back over in the middle of the man’s taunts.

“Looks like they got a little delayed,” Sena says as she nears.

Her voice catches Hatusjou’s attention, and he blinks blankly at her. Sena doesn’t pay the man any mind, almost making a point out of it.

She smiles at the team, saying, “Don’t worry, though. I’ll be rooting for you all.”

Hiruma can’t help but chuckle as he leads their new cheerleaders over. Dunno if she knows she’s playing them, or not, but either damn way!

──Sena──

Sena knows what he’s doing, and he hates it. Having to play into their views of him was pretty annoying, but he needed things to go well. As long as Sena is on Hiruma’s team, he’s safe. That’s all he cares about right now.

As Hiruma comes walking up -cheerleaders in tow- Sena turns away. As he passes one of the girls, Sena spots a picture in her hands of a blonde guy he recognizes from TV.

“Hey, Kurita,” he begins, walking over to the man. “Who’s picture is that?”

“Oh, that’s Jari Production’s Sakuraba-kun. He’s also a member of another high school’s American football club. The Ojo White Knights are an excellent team. They were very strong. But somehow, we held on, 99-0!”

Sena snickers,  “You lost that badly, huh?”

Kurita slumps, “Y-Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kurita. I bet you’ll do better this year,” Sena says. It’s an empty sentiment on his part, but he didn’t like seeing Kurita so sad. Maybe it’s because he worried about me, but I really do hope only the best for him.

 

──Shin──

Walking up to the field with Sakuraba, Shin listens to his friend’s thoughts on the match.

“Both teams are scoreless… Ah, to be fair though, Kurita even gave us quite a bit of trouble, so I can see why. The Cupids’ soft line is no match for him. Deimon’s offense would be good too, if…”

“If his teammates weren’t amateurs,” Shin finishes for him.

“It’s the same as last year,” Sakuraba sighs. “Only Hiruma and Kurita are good. What a wasteful team.”

“Yeah,” Shin agrees. “If they just had one more person, it would probably be a different story. Especially with a fast runningback.”

“Huh,” Sakuraba suddenly says. “Looks like Deimon has a manager now? I see a cute girl over on the benches.”

“Mhm,” Shin responds, completely uninterested.

Suddenly, on the field, one of Deimon’s members slips right as the Cupids’ go for a kick. The Cupids finally score, and Hiruma looks pissed about it. He grabs the injured teammate’s shoe, inspecting it, before getting even more pissed. He marches off field, signaling to the girl to follow him. Shockingly, she does so.

“Hiruma… wouldn’t hurt a girl, right?” Sakuraba asks nervously.

Hiruma comes back from around the shed, the girl nowhere in sight. He passes behind the cheerleaders, and seconds later, said cheerleaders spot Sakuraba and nearly create a stampede.

Sakuraba startles, quickly handing him the video camera. “Shit, uh-! Looks like I’ll have to leave the rest of the video to you!”

Then, he’s gone, sprinting off onto the campus.

Inspecting the camera momentarily, something breaks off of it. Crap…

Shin quickly takes off after his friend to get his help with the camera.