Songs for Daddy- Chapter 47: Play the Game Tonight (Part 1 [pre-game])
Author: bar_ohki
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: Play the Game Tonight is by Kansas, I do not own it. This chapter's a bit longer than usual, which is why it took so long to post. I hope you enjoy it.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 46: You're Gonna Pay
Part 2: the rumors
Part 3: players enter
Part 4: kick off
Part 5: first exchange
Part 6: first blood
Part 7: first trap
Part 8: Hiruma's plan
Part 9: end game
Part 10: Clifford's cliffhanger
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 47: Play the Game Tonight
Two days before the Rice Bowl and Kakei found himself sitting across the table from someone he hadn’t expected to see. Hiruma had scheduled a meeting rather randomly two days before the Rice Bowl. Kakei was sure there was significance to having the meeting at this time, but it was lost on him.
Since Emiko’s diagnosis, there had been once a month therapy sessions between Mizumachi and Emiko. Kakei was aware that this was too small an amount, the girl should have weekly meetings considering her age and state of development. Unfortunately the Welfare Center did not have enough personnel to provide such a service, so once a month was the best they could do. Mizumachi did find ways around this, however, and prepared a means by which Hiruma and Anezaki could provide Emiko help themselves. Most of what Emiko would need, Mizumachi realized, was guidance and immediate correction of social behaviors. Those were the sort of things fell on the parents anyways because a therapist could not be on hand every day, all day, like a parent was.
Normally Kakei would have a yearly check up with Emiko’s case in a meeting that would house Emiko, Hiruma, and Mizumachi. Should Anezaki marry Hiruma, she would be invited to attend the meetings as well. So having a meeting between himself and Hiruma outside of that seemed a bit odd.
“I’m taking Emiko to the Rice Bowl and I don’t want her to be over-stimulated by it,” Hiruma announced without any preamble, “how do I do this?”
Not what Kakei had been expecting but it had made sense. Mizumachi’s specialty was therapy and treatment, Kakei handled affairs but he also handled finding an appropriate tool to suit the disabled child’s need. Hiruma had come to him because he was fairly sure he could use tools as opposed to technique in this case.
“Has she seen videos of football games?” Kakei asked.
“Hundreds of times,” Hiruma answered.
“Have you given her a clear picture of what it’s like to be in the stands live?” Kakei was just going through basics to gather information.
“Yes.”
“Her biggest stressors are going to be the amount of people, the unpredictability of those people, and the noise.” Kakei explained. “I hope her love of football will be enough to allow her to focus on the game, if she does this being around that many people ought to be bearable.”
“That’s what I was betting on.” Hiruma admitted.
“As for the noise, some sort of ear protection should do just fine.” Kakei mused. “Anything from headphones to ear plugs will do, just use whatever is most comfortable for her.”
“What about the color?” Hiruma knew Emiko could be over-stimulated by color.
“Usually football fans dress to match their teams so I don’t think it’d be too much of an issue.” Kakei remarked. “Don’t be surprised if she gets distracted by the score board.”
Hiruma chuckled. That thought had already crossed his mind.
“Is she going to be with someone?” Kakei asked curiously.
“Mm, yeah, Mamori,” Hiruma answered.
“You would be the best person,” Kakei explained, “but I know you can’t play and be in the stands at the same time. Anezaki-san makes an excellent second choice.”
Hiruma nodded.
“My old man is coming too- Emiko won’t have to sit next to a stranger.” Hiruma added.
“I was going to suggest something along those lines, but you beat me to it.” Kakei laughed. “I’m going to say your family is all set to attend the Rice Bowl.”
For once, Hiruma was easy to read. He was relieved and it showed.
“And do kick those Saikyodai’s asses for me would you?” Kakei requested. “I’m not impressed with their behavior this season and I think they need to be put in place.”
“I can do that.” Hiruma half-cackled, half-chuckled.
“You have no love of your alma matter.” Kakei observed.
“I would be doing those brats no favors if I didn’t murder them at full strength.” Hiruma smirked. “Is there anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.” Kakei admitted.
Sadly Kakei did overlook something. He completely overlooked half-time along with entering and exiting the stadium. Those same things were also overlooked by Hiruma and Anezaki, while Yuuya assumed the other two had thought of everything.
Rice Bowl, four hours before
The only people in the stadium four hours before the Rice Bowl were typically the teams playing, the stadium staff, and the officials. Occasionally you had a few people up in the VIP rooms or die-hard fans with pre-ordered tickets milling about. In an hour and a half they would open seating for the game and sell last minute tickets. This year they were expecting a full stadium mostly due to the fact that the infamous Hiruma Youichi might be playing. Hiruma had an amazing following as a player and was a crowd pleaser whose fans easily rivaled those of NFL players. Everything from playing style to personal appearance, Hiruma Youichi was a man all to himself. His tactics often continually baffled expert football strategists. No one was able to pull off replicating Hiruma’s way of controlling the game, no one except Clifford D. Lewis of the New England Patriots.
Though, Lewis did not copy Hiruma’s way of playing and everyone knew this. Lewis had a similar playing style, but it was distinctly different than Hiruma’s. Both players were compared as being the same kind of quarterback, but with two different interpretations, which is why they can easily mimic the other’s playing style but they chose not to.
Normally Lewis was not brought up as a subject in the Japanese football scene, beyond the occasional comparison to Hiruma or beyond the occasional mention as the man that recruited Kobayakawa Sena into the NFL. But today was special, very special.
Clifford D. Lewis was attending the Rice Bowl as an English speaking announcer with no disclosed reason for doing so. The Patriots had just finished the season and were going in for the playoffs; it was not a time for a professional player like him to be abroad. Yet he was. So far he hadn’t arrived in the stadium yet, but Hiruma assured anyone there that Lewis would be showing his ugly mug any minute now.
Anezaki and Emiko were there, they came in with Hiruma. Yuuya had not arrived yet, much to Emiko’s confusion. Hiruma explained his papa was picking someone special up, and that’s why he was running late.
“Hey, Hiruma!” Takekura greeted his old friend. “Why don’t you take Emiko out to see the field before we mess it up?”
“The field?” Emiko’s face lit up.
Hiruma nodded. “Tell Clifford where I am if he asks.” And with that he led Emiko out onto the spacious green field. Once out into the open, Emiko bolted ahead of Hiruma to go stand in the center of the field and look around at the empty stands around her, awed.
Papa was going to play here! The field was big! Really big! Emiko hadn’t ever seen something so big! It was awesome!
She then decided to run around the sidelines. Hiruma didn’t move from where he was standing, he just silently watched over Emiko as she ran about, her eyes wide open in wonder. It kind of reminded Hiruma with his first experience with football, the field was so big it had intimidated him. Emiko wasn’t intimidated, but she was amazed by the size.
Without much warning, Emiko’s attention snapped onto something and she went running for the benches. Hiruma frowned and realized she was looking at something, no wait, waving at someone. He turned his gaze to follow Emiko’s path to see Lewis standing on the edge of the grandstands, Yuuya beside him.
Like usual, Lewis was wearing one of his feathery purple jackets that looked overly lush and very expensive. His cold blue eyes showed remarkable amusement and his fair blond hair was shorter than Hiruma recalled it being, but it still had that dramatic bang that covered most of his face. Hiruma could make out some sort of manly pink and white combination under the ensemble, to show which team he was supporting. Oh, well how about that? Lewis was actually waving back to Emiko.
Lewis was used to having young children come running at him and waving. A side effect of being a famous player meant having lots of young, starry-eyed fans. The best thing to do with children was to smile and wave back. Of course right now he didn’t have the choice; he was standing next to the girl’s grandfather after all. It only took three minutes in the car with Yuuya to see how much his son resembled him.
“Papa look!” Emiko cried. “It’s Clifford! And Grandpapa!”
“So it is.” Hiruma sounded amused and was faking some surprise. He wasn’t surprised; he had arranged this meeting after all. Kobayakawa had wanted to attend this Rice Bowl and see Hiruma play again, but his son had fallen sick and he hadn’t been able to come. Lewis had volunteered to come in Kobayakawa’s stead and wouldn’t let Raimon do it.
“I want to watch my one rival get reborn, so sue me.” Lewis had remarked on the matter. Raimon understood this and backed down, begrudgingly, but he did it all the same.
“So how did you manage to sire such a cute kid?” Lewis called from the edge of the stands in prefect Japanese. He was smiling honestly, sincerely happy to be talking with Hiruma for the first time in eight years. The two were rivals despite playing in different countries; they had grown to have a mutual respect and a strange sort of friendship that amazed many.
“It was her mother’s fault.” Hiruma called back. That was always his comeback to that statement. Emiko only snorted, she did not agree.
Smoothly, Lewis swung himself over the rail and fell to the grassy ground bellow. Landing in a crouch, Lewis stood up, clearly uninjured and with a great deal of dramatics.
“Show off.” Hiruma retorted in English while Emiko squealed in delight. Her hands began flapping quickly, but Clifford didn’t seem to notice or at least be openly bothered by it if he had.
“An audience of one is still an audience.” Lewis pointed out with sly smile in English. He then returned to Japanese. “Ah, so you are Hiruma Emiko-chan?”
Emiko nodded and bowed, only to right herself again immediately. She was practically bouncing in place.
“Oye,” Yuuya called, “I’m going to go use the stairs, like a normal person.”
“Have fun!” Emiko wished Grandpapa sincerely.
Yuuya broke out a smile and retreated. Hiruma looked pleased with it.
“You are your dad’s son.” Lewis commented in bemused Japanese.
“I suppose I am.” Hiruma admitted with a frown while continuing the conversation in Japanese. It wasn’t something he chose to be proud of.
“The field is big!” Emiko exclaimed.
Lewis took a moment to look around at the stadium around him. It was about medium sized for him, but that did not surprise him. Football wasn’t Japan’s number one sport after all. He looked out at the grassy field. When was the last time he played on grass?
“Ah, yeah, it is big, isn’t it?” Lewis commented thoughtfully. Three yards was longer than a man was tall, and trying to get the ball that distance to score a touchdown could be just about impossible at the best of times. The field was big, very big.
And Lewis had forgotten that.
Children did have the power to remind adults of the most important, basic facts in life. Lewis did often forget the small things; he knew this better than anyone. Being a celebrity took most of the fun out of finding pure, childish joy in the things in life. Still Lewis continued to pursue that joy and he only really found it when children were about to show it to him. This wasn’t something he was proud of, but he considered himself better off than most celebrities because he did still manage to find that joy in life.
“Mm. Yeah, it’s plenty big.” Hiruma smiled. “Plenty of room to get around the defense.” The last statement issued an understanding chuckle from Lewis.
Emiko seemed to like that thought, if the increased bouncing and flapping was anything to go by.
“You’re wearing pink.” Hiruma teased. “How feminine of you.”
“Your mascot’s the Babies,” Lewis pointed out, “I don’t mean to offend your CEO, but seriously, that’s the most ridiculous mascot ever.”
“Ridiculous?” Emiko didn’t know that word.
“It means really silly.” Hiruma clarified.
“The Babies aren’t silly, they’re good.” Emiko frowned.
“He’s being a jerk, you can ignore him.” Hiruma assured Emiko, who just nodded.
Lewis only rolled his eyes.
“Hiruma,” Lewis began, more seriously this time, “I’m going to leave to go talk to the staff here in a moment.”
Hiruma turned and met Lewis’s serious gaze.
“I’ve got one bit of advice for you,” Lewis went on, “win.”
It wasn’t the advice Hiruma was expecting, but it was the right advice. He nodded, taking in what was not said. Lewis didn’t bother to suggest plays or strategy, he had confidence Hiruma could make those calls himself. Lewis also believed the Babies had a shot at winning this thing.
Though Hiruma didn’t care about what the fans thought, it was comforting to have a foreign quarterback come all this way to say, with his professional opinion, that he believed Hiruma still had what it takes to be a good quarterback.
Perhaps that was the real reason Lewis showed up.
Because both Hiruma and Lewis knew that if the situation was reversed, Hiruma would have done the same thing.
“I plan to.” Hiruma told Lewis. The other man looked him over carefully with those cold blue eyes, as if he was weighing the truth of that statement. Knowing Lewis, he probably was. He was taking into account every probability, examining every subtle unconscious signal Hiruma was admitting and comparing it to the chances. Hiruma was masking his emotions, the fear and nervousness, the doubt in his heart. Every player had those on some level, especially when they were about to face a strong opponent. But Hiruma also held determination, love, and excitement inside. He was ready to face whatever this game would become. Hiruma knew those blue eyes could see all of this, no mask he could make would be a match for Lewis’ gaze.
Lewis nodded.
“I’ll be on my way then, I’ll see you after the game.” Lewis told Hiruma.
“Bye.” Emiko waved as Lewis began to leave. He turned to wave back before he disappeared inside the stadium proper.
Without any prompting Emiko went straight back to the field to run around on it. Hiruma watched her for a bit more smiling.
“Ten yards!” Emiko yelled and proceeded to run ten yards. It was then Hiruma recalled he had a stop watch in his pocket. Taking it out, Hiruma turned to his daughter with a bright smile of his own.
“Oi! Emiko!” Hiruma waved the watch in the air. “Do you want to clock your 40-yard dash time?”
It was 4.80 seconds.
Hiruma was damn proud.
To part 2
Title: Songs for Daddy
Rating: This chapter is rated T.
Summary: After receiving a phone call, Hiruma abandons his job, his football team, and his friends, disappearing into nothing. After several years pass, Mamori finds a strange girl in her Kindergarten class, a girl strange enough to have the only remaining connection to the missing quarterback….
Notes: Play the Game Tonight is by Kansas, I do not own it. This chapter's a bit longer than usual, which is why it took so long to post. I hope you enjoy it.
Links: To song on youtube: Video
To lyrics of song: Lyrics
To a list of chapter links: Links
To chapter 46: You're Gonna Pay
Part 2: the rumors
Part 3: players enter
Part 4: kick off
Part 5: first exchange
Part 6: first blood
Part 7: first trap
Part 8: Hiruma's plan
Part 9: end game
Part 10: Clifford's cliffhanger
Songs for Daddy
Chapter 47: Play the Game Tonight
Two days before the Rice Bowl and Kakei found himself sitting across the table from someone he hadn’t expected to see. Hiruma had scheduled a meeting rather randomly two days before the Rice Bowl. Kakei was sure there was significance to having the meeting at this time, but it was lost on him.
Since Emiko’s diagnosis, there had been once a month therapy sessions between Mizumachi and Emiko. Kakei was aware that this was too small an amount, the girl should have weekly meetings considering her age and state of development. Unfortunately the Welfare Center did not have enough personnel to provide such a service, so once a month was the best they could do. Mizumachi did find ways around this, however, and prepared a means by which Hiruma and Anezaki could provide Emiko help themselves. Most of what Emiko would need, Mizumachi realized, was guidance and immediate correction of social behaviors. Those were the sort of things fell on the parents anyways because a therapist could not be on hand every day, all day, like a parent was.
Normally Kakei would have a yearly check up with Emiko’s case in a meeting that would house Emiko, Hiruma, and Mizumachi. Should Anezaki marry Hiruma, she would be invited to attend the meetings as well. So having a meeting between himself and Hiruma outside of that seemed a bit odd.
“I’m taking Emiko to the Rice Bowl and I don’t want her to be over-stimulated by it,” Hiruma announced without any preamble, “how do I do this?”
Not what Kakei had been expecting but it had made sense. Mizumachi’s specialty was therapy and treatment, Kakei handled affairs but he also handled finding an appropriate tool to suit the disabled child’s need. Hiruma had come to him because he was fairly sure he could use tools as opposed to technique in this case.
“Has she seen videos of football games?” Kakei asked.
“Hundreds of times,” Hiruma answered.
“Have you given her a clear picture of what it’s like to be in the stands live?” Kakei was just going through basics to gather information.
“Yes.”
“Her biggest stressors are going to be the amount of people, the unpredictability of those people, and the noise.” Kakei explained. “I hope her love of football will be enough to allow her to focus on the game, if she does this being around that many people ought to be bearable.”
“That’s what I was betting on.” Hiruma admitted.
“As for the noise, some sort of ear protection should do just fine.” Kakei mused. “Anything from headphones to ear plugs will do, just use whatever is most comfortable for her.”
“What about the color?” Hiruma knew Emiko could be over-stimulated by color.
“Usually football fans dress to match their teams so I don’t think it’d be too much of an issue.” Kakei remarked. “Don’t be surprised if she gets distracted by the score board.”
Hiruma chuckled. That thought had already crossed his mind.
“Is she going to be with someone?” Kakei asked curiously.
“Mm, yeah, Mamori,” Hiruma answered.
“You would be the best person,” Kakei explained, “but I know you can’t play and be in the stands at the same time. Anezaki-san makes an excellent second choice.”
Hiruma nodded.
“My old man is coming too- Emiko won’t have to sit next to a stranger.” Hiruma added.
“I was going to suggest something along those lines, but you beat me to it.” Kakei laughed. “I’m going to say your family is all set to attend the Rice Bowl.”
For once, Hiruma was easy to read. He was relieved and it showed.
“And do kick those Saikyodai’s asses for me would you?” Kakei requested. “I’m not impressed with their behavior this season and I think they need to be put in place.”
“I can do that.” Hiruma half-cackled, half-chuckled.
“You have no love of your alma matter.” Kakei observed.
“I would be doing those brats no favors if I didn’t murder them at full strength.” Hiruma smirked. “Is there anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.” Kakei admitted.
Sadly Kakei did overlook something. He completely overlooked half-time along with entering and exiting the stadium. Those same things were also overlooked by Hiruma and Anezaki, while Yuuya assumed the other two had thought of everything.
Rice Bowl, four hours before
The only people in the stadium four hours before the Rice Bowl were typically the teams playing, the stadium staff, and the officials. Occasionally you had a few people up in the VIP rooms or die-hard fans with pre-ordered tickets milling about. In an hour and a half they would open seating for the game and sell last minute tickets. This year they were expecting a full stadium mostly due to the fact that the infamous Hiruma Youichi might be playing. Hiruma had an amazing following as a player and was a crowd pleaser whose fans easily rivaled those of NFL players. Everything from playing style to personal appearance, Hiruma Youichi was a man all to himself. His tactics often continually baffled expert football strategists. No one was able to pull off replicating Hiruma’s way of controlling the game, no one except Clifford D. Lewis of the New England Patriots.
Though, Lewis did not copy Hiruma’s way of playing and everyone knew this. Lewis had a similar playing style, but it was distinctly different than Hiruma’s. Both players were compared as being the same kind of quarterback, but with two different interpretations, which is why they can easily mimic the other’s playing style but they chose not to.
Normally Lewis was not brought up as a subject in the Japanese football scene, beyond the occasional comparison to Hiruma or beyond the occasional mention as the man that recruited Kobayakawa Sena into the NFL. But today was special, very special.
Clifford D. Lewis was attending the Rice Bowl as an English speaking announcer with no disclosed reason for doing so. The Patriots had just finished the season and were going in for the playoffs; it was not a time for a professional player like him to be abroad. Yet he was. So far he hadn’t arrived in the stadium yet, but Hiruma assured anyone there that Lewis would be showing his ugly mug any minute now.
Anezaki and Emiko were there, they came in with Hiruma. Yuuya had not arrived yet, much to Emiko’s confusion. Hiruma explained his papa was picking someone special up, and that’s why he was running late.
“Hey, Hiruma!” Takekura greeted his old friend. “Why don’t you take Emiko out to see the field before we mess it up?”
“The field?” Emiko’s face lit up.
Hiruma nodded. “Tell Clifford where I am if he asks.” And with that he led Emiko out onto the spacious green field. Once out into the open, Emiko bolted ahead of Hiruma to go stand in the center of the field and look around at the empty stands around her, awed.
Papa was going to play here! The field was big! Really big! Emiko hadn’t ever seen something so big! It was awesome!
She then decided to run around the sidelines. Hiruma didn’t move from where he was standing, he just silently watched over Emiko as she ran about, her eyes wide open in wonder. It kind of reminded Hiruma with his first experience with football, the field was so big it had intimidated him. Emiko wasn’t intimidated, but she was amazed by the size.
Without much warning, Emiko’s attention snapped onto something and she went running for the benches. Hiruma frowned and realized she was looking at something, no wait, waving at someone. He turned his gaze to follow Emiko’s path to see Lewis standing on the edge of the grandstands, Yuuya beside him.
Like usual, Lewis was wearing one of his feathery purple jackets that looked overly lush and very expensive. His cold blue eyes showed remarkable amusement and his fair blond hair was shorter than Hiruma recalled it being, but it still had that dramatic bang that covered most of his face. Hiruma could make out some sort of manly pink and white combination under the ensemble, to show which team he was supporting. Oh, well how about that? Lewis was actually waving back to Emiko.
Lewis was used to having young children come running at him and waving. A side effect of being a famous player meant having lots of young, starry-eyed fans. The best thing to do with children was to smile and wave back. Of course right now he didn’t have the choice; he was standing next to the girl’s grandfather after all. It only took three minutes in the car with Yuuya to see how much his son resembled him.
“Papa look!” Emiko cried. “It’s Clifford! And Grandpapa!”
“So it is.” Hiruma sounded amused and was faking some surprise. He wasn’t surprised; he had arranged this meeting after all. Kobayakawa had wanted to attend this Rice Bowl and see Hiruma play again, but his son had fallen sick and he hadn’t been able to come. Lewis had volunteered to come in Kobayakawa’s stead and wouldn’t let Raimon do it.
“I want to watch my one rival get reborn, so sue me.” Lewis had remarked on the matter. Raimon understood this and backed down, begrudgingly, but he did it all the same.
“So how did you manage to sire such a cute kid?” Lewis called from the edge of the stands in prefect Japanese. He was smiling honestly, sincerely happy to be talking with Hiruma for the first time in eight years. The two were rivals despite playing in different countries; they had grown to have a mutual respect and a strange sort of friendship that amazed many.
“It was her mother’s fault.” Hiruma called back. That was always his comeback to that statement. Emiko only snorted, she did not agree.
Smoothly, Lewis swung himself over the rail and fell to the grassy ground bellow. Landing in a crouch, Lewis stood up, clearly uninjured and with a great deal of dramatics.
“Show off.” Hiruma retorted in English while Emiko squealed in delight. Her hands began flapping quickly, but Clifford didn’t seem to notice or at least be openly bothered by it if he had.
“An audience of one is still an audience.” Lewis pointed out with sly smile in English. He then returned to Japanese. “Ah, so you are Hiruma Emiko-chan?”
Emiko nodded and bowed, only to right herself again immediately. She was practically bouncing in place.
“Oye,” Yuuya called, “I’m going to go use the stairs, like a normal person.”
“Have fun!” Emiko wished Grandpapa sincerely.
Yuuya broke out a smile and retreated. Hiruma looked pleased with it.
“You are your dad’s son.” Lewis commented in bemused Japanese.
“I suppose I am.” Hiruma admitted with a frown while continuing the conversation in Japanese. It wasn’t something he chose to be proud of.
“The field is big!” Emiko exclaimed.
Lewis took a moment to look around at the stadium around him. It was about medium sized for him, but that did not surprise him. Football wasn’t Japan’s number one sport after all. He looked out at the grassy field. When was the last time he played on grass?
“Ah, yeah, it is big, isn’t it?” Lewis commented thoughtfully. Three yards was longer than a man was tall, and trying to get the ball that distance to score a touchdown could be just about impossible at the best of times. The field was big, very big.
And Lewis had forgotten that.
Children did have the power to remind adults of the most important, basic facts in life. Lewis did often forget the small things; he knew this better than anyone. Being a celebrity took most of the fun out of finding pure, childish joy in the things in life. Still Lewis continued to pursue that joy and he only really found it when children were about to show it to him. This wasn’t something he was proud of, but he considered himself better off than most celebrities because he did still manage to find that joy in life.
“Mm. Yeah, it’s plenty big.” Hiruma smiled. “Plenty of room to get around the defense.” The last statement issued an understanding chuckle from Lewis.
Emiko seemed to like that thought, if the increased bouncing and flapping was anything to go by.
“You’re wearing pink.” Hiruma teased. “How feminine of you.”
“Your mascot’s the Babies,” Lewis pointed out, “I don’t mean to offend your CEO, but seriously, that’s the most ridiculous mascot ever.”
“Ridiculous?” Emiko didn’t know that word.
“It means really silly.” Hiruma clarified.
“The Babies aren’t silly, they’re good.” Emiko frowned.
“He’s being a jerk, you can ignore him.” Hiruma assured Emiko, who just nodded.
Lewis only rolled his eyes.
“Hiruma,” Lewis began, more seriously this time, “I’m going to leave to go talk to the staff here in a moment.”
Hiruma turned and met Lewis’s serious gaze.
“I’ve got one bit of advice for you,” Lewis went on, “win.”
It wasn’t the advice Hiruma was expecting, but it was the right advice. He nodded, taking in what was not said. Lewis didn’t bother to suggest plays or strategy, he had confidence Hiruma could make those calls himself. Lewis also believed the Babies had a shot at winning this thing.
Though Hiruma didn’t care about what the fans thought, it was comforting to have a foreign quarterback come all this way to say, with his professional opinion, that he believed Hiruma still had what it takes to be a good quarterback.
Perhaps that was the real reason Lewis showed up.
Because both Hiruma and Lewis knew that if the situation was reversed, Hiruma would have done the same thing.
“I plan to.” Hiruma told Lewis. The other man looked him over carefully with those cold blue eyes, as if he was weighing the truth of that statement. Knowing Lewis, he probably was. He was taking into account every probability, examining every subtle unconscious signal Hiruma was admitting and comparing it to the chances. Hiruma was masking his emotions, the fear and nervousness, the doubt in his heart. Every player had those on some level, especially when they were about to face a strong opponent. But Hiruma also held determination, love, and excitement inside. He was ready to face whatever this game would become. Hiruma knew those blue eyes could see all of this, no mask he could make would be a match for Lewis’ gaze.
Lewis nodded.
“I’ll be on my way then, I’ll see you after the game.” Lewis told Hiruma.
“Bye.” Emiko waved as Lewis began to leave. He turned to wave back before he disappeared inside the stadium proper.
Without any prompting Emiko went straight back to the field to run around on it. Hiruma watched her for a bit more smiling.
“Ten yards!” Emiko yelled and proceeded to run ten yards. It was then Hiruma recalled he had a stop watch in his pocket. Taking it out, Hiruma turned to his daughter with a bright smile of his own.
“Oi! Emiko!” Hiruma waved the watch in the air. “Do you want to clock your 40-yard dash time?”
It was 4.80 seconds.
Hiruma was damn proud.
To part 2