Songs for Daddy- Chapter 47: Play the Game Tonight (Part 4 [kick off])
Part 3
The Field
Flying up, every eye in the stadium watched withheld breaths as a single golden coin spun in the air. Would it favor the Babies? Would it favor the Wizards?
The referee caught the coin deftly and looked Hiruma in the eye, waiting for Hiruma’s choice.
Yamato and Ishimaru mentally sighed, knowing they just lost their first offense and potentially their one chance at winning.
“Will you take the field, Hiruma-shi?” The referee asked, finding Hiruma’s silence and blank expression unnerving.
“No, we’ll kick.” Hiruma corrected the man.
“W-what!?” Yamato and Ishimaru gasped. There was no way in hell Hiruma would have done that!
Yamato went cold at that realization. The moment you think ‘there’s no way in hell he’d do that’ it would be exactly what Hiruma would do. Right off from the start of the game Hiruma was controlling everyone with his unpredictable, unexpected behavior. Yamato knew from all of his years of experience that there was one thing, only one thing he could predict reliably today.
His team’s chances of winning were not as large as everyone thought they were. In fact they were getting smaller by the moment.
The team leaders broke off and Hiruma called a huddle for the Babies.
“Fucking old man,” Hiruma pointed a sharp finger as Takekura’s chest, “kick the ball to number 24.”
Takekura only nodded solemnly while the rest of the team bit back protests. They all knew that number 24, Yumi Shigehito, was their ace runningback. Surely there was a reason for doing this, a plan behind Hiruma’s madness.
“Fucking freckles,” Hiruma addressed one of his own teammates, “your job will be forcing that fucking ace of theirs to fumble.”
“W-what?!” Nakamura Tadayoshi, the only man on the team with freckles, gasped. He was a fast linebacker but he had low self-esteem and often made things worse when he was on the field because of this.
“You’re the only one who can compete with that fucking ace in speed.” Hiruma reminded the linebacker bluntly. “All you need to do is knock the ball out of that so-called ace’s hands. Should be damn easy, the brat’s got a loose one arm grip.”
Everyone stared at Hiruma as he said this. It was news to them.
“Even a pathetic idiot like you could pull it off,” Hiruma went on, “just make their fucking ace fumble.”
“What about the fumble?” Kuroda Shinji, number 82, wide receiver, asked.
“You, fucking doughnuts,” Hiruma pointed his vicious finger at the wide receiver that was fond of eating doughnuts, “will catch that fumble if fucking freckles here can’t.”
The team was silent.
“Why are we doing something so risky?” Kuroda asked softly.
“Because they aren’t fucking ready for it,” Hiruma answered confidently, “they’re preparing for a fucking squib kick-”
Which was completely true, the Wizards were convinced Hiruma Youichi was intending to mock them by using a squib kick.
“-and that means their defense will be shattered when faced with such an extreme change of plan.” The Babies nodded, understanding the logic even if it bothered them.
“It will also scare those brats shitless.” Hiruma added smugly.
“Is scaring a bunch of over-confident kids necessary?” Nakamura asked. He just knew he would find a way to fuck up this job.
“Whoever scares the opponent first wins.” Takekura told Nakamura calmly. “That’s a simple football rule, isn’t it Hiruma?”
“Fuck yes.” Hiruma agreed with a happy, devilish, smile. “Now kiddies, time for your next lesson.”
Gulp.
“We didn’t come here to defeat our enemy,” Hiruma began using his fatherly correction voice, “we came here to slaughter them.”
“Now that’s something I haven’t heard in a while,” Juumonji began,
“It just wasn’t the same when you were gone,” Kuroki went on,
“But I think we all agree we’re damn glad its back.” Toganou finished.
“Oh you taught these kiddies?” Hiruma grinned happily at the thought.
“’Course we did.” The three ‘brothers’ grinned back.
“We’ll fucking kill them. Ya-ha!”
American Announcer Booth
“D-did we get a censor on that?” Hendrickson asked, a bit startled by the English huddle shot.
“No.” Lewis answered, he didn’t appear to care. “There’s no point in censoring it.”
“What do you mean?” Hendrickson asked, still a bit uncomposed.
“That’s Youichi’s huddle shout,” Lewis explained, “He’s been using it since middle school.”
“Just because the behavior is common doesn’t make it appropriate.” Hendrickson pointed out.
“Maybe not, but this isn’t a football game with Youichi Hiruma on the field unless he’s out there swearing.” Lewis countered. “Besides, Sena leads all sorts of horribly inappropriate huddle shouts in Japanese all the time. If it’s acceptable in the NFL, it can certainly be acceptable here.”
“He does?” Hendrickson blinked.
“His current favorite translates something on the lines of ‘unpleasant destruction of a man’s gentiles.’” Lewis put some fingered quotes on the words to make his point clear. Hendrickson paled. “But much cruder of course.”
“O-of course.” Hendrickson muttered.
“Don’t worry too much Bob,” Lewis assured his co-announcer, “Youichi’s going to be the only one taking heat for his swearing.”
The Field
“He’s planning something.” Yamato muttered to himself. He knew Hiruma was going to do something and for once he was at a loss as to how that was. It was a small comfort that Hiruma would not actually be standing on the field with the kicking team, but that was the only comfort. He was hoping that Hiruma had ordered a squib kick, but because he suspected that play it probably wasn’t going to happen. He warned his team, of course, but he didn’t think they took his warning seriously enough. Yamato’s only hope was that his team would figure out that Hiruma Youichi was very much a threat and that Yamato wasn’t shitting them about the added caution.
“When is he not?” Banba Manoru, the giant tanned ex-linemen and Yamato’s assistant coach, asked humorlessly from behind Yamato. He’d been busy making sure the line had proper taping and warm-ups before the match to have talked to Yamato about Hiruma. Only now that the match was moments away from starting could he find the time to talk about how many issues they were going to be having.
“These boys have no idea how much trouble they are about to be in….” Yamato muttered sadly.
“Then let them learn by doing.” Banba highly believed in learning by doing. He also knew instead of raising a proper team this year, they’d guided a group of ruffians that had just been meaner than anyone else. A smack around from Hiruma might accomplish something in an hour that Banba had been attempting all season.
“Don’t you want victory?” Yamato asked with a frown.
“Of course I do and I’m confident they’ll flatten their opponent if they get serious about it.” Banba explained. “Hiruma will take the lead and knock them around in the first quarter then they will man up and have a lead by the beginning of the second half.”
“Banba-sama, I didn’t know you made predictions.” One of the benched linemen almost sneered. The boy was a known trouble child so Banba benched him.
“I only state facts.” Banba explained to the kid tonelessly. “Just sit and watch this play, we’re going to lose possession of the ball.”
Takekura stretched his leg out. Ten men beside him, 11 men, well boys really, before him. 11 against 11, comrades beside you, stadium a mass of cheers around you, and Hiruma’s small smirk on the sideline.
How long had it been since he’d played football like this? Too long really, part of him had felt that time had stopped for him and Kurita when Hiruma ran out of practice that one day over six years ago. His legs felt light and strong, youthful really. He’d done fine as a professional kicker, but he’d never done anything spectacular without Hiruma there.
Maybe it was time to show them what happens when Takekura returns to his old self.
After nodding briefly to his teammates, Takekura stood in position and waited for the referee to blow the whistle and start the game. The roar of the crowd became deafening after the whistle blew, everyone was hanging on this moment. Step, step, step, pulling back his leg, restraining all of its power until the last moment. His cleat made a clean contact and the cannon went off, sending the ball soaring farther than the eye could see into the chilly sky.
The crowd was awestruck, the announcers were babbling senselessly about the beautiful kick off. Without any hesitation, Nakamura and Kuroda went bolting forward at the sound of the ball being blasted into the sky. Both had their eyes set on Yumi, everyone else was ignored as they blasted past the stunned team.
To say the Wizards were caught off guard was an understatement. Every single one of them was staring at the sky for three seconds, trying to find the ball. This hesitation was fatal, the Babies were on them and in their faces. Most of the Wizards didn’t have time to get into proper blocking form (not that they used it anyway) when they encountered their opponent. The Babies didn’t show any hesitation and proceeded to blue sky anyone in their path, roughly pushing the young boys to the ground.
“The Wizards are falling like flies!” Sanada exclaimed. “They have completely, helplessly fallen into Hiruma-shi’s trap! What an amazing kick off!”
Yumi found himself running backwards a bit to catch the ball. Takekura hadn’t kicked it terribly far, just extremely high. He could catch this-! What the hell!?
The ball was completely unstable and tumbling in the air. Takekura had managed to kick it out of sight with it tumbling like that!? Yumi spared a glance at the kicker only to watch him flatten their ace linemen without batting an eye. Suddenly Yumi became acutely aware the entire Babies team was running towards him, destroying any obstacles in their path. They knew, all of these men in pink knew the ball had been kicked to him. They knew it been a hard-to-catch kick and they knew that the Wizards hadn’t been expecting it.
“Like hell!” Yumi swore. He wasn’t going to let these guys win. He was going to catch that ball and run it past all of them for a kick-off return touchdown. Pulling his gaze upwards, Yumi readied himself for the ball. Damn that thing was falling fast!
Bong!
Yumi managed to catch it but he held it awkwardly in his arms, defenders were closing in. The nearest was only two yards away. To Yumi, two yards was plenty. Without any hesitation, Yumi started to run, aiming for the gaps in the tight defense.
“…Bad plan.” Emiko muttered with a frown. It went unheard in the noise around her.
Nakamura came closing in on Yumi, his hand out stretched to snap the ball out of that kid’s arm. It was going to be impossible, Nakamura realized quickly, the kid had locked the ball (rather poorly, but it was hard to tell) in both arms and was charging at full speed just off an intersection course. Nakamura was wishing he’d been able to convince Hiruma this was a bad idea, because right now he was about to cost their team its first points.
Yumi managed to escape Nakamura, whom he sneered at as he ran by. He spun past two more Babies only to slam right into Juumonji’s chest.
“Hey kid.” The scary bescared man remarked with a menacing smile. “Let’s have a good game.”
“Wha-?” Yumi muttered only to find out he’d just impaled himself on the linemen’s unforgiving hand. Falling backwards, Yumi found the air gone from his lungs before he hit the ground. With a loud crash, Yumi hit the unforgiving field, back first, right on the twenty yard line.
Hiruma only went ‘tch’. The plan hadn’t come off perfectly, as he suspected it might. He could use that though. The kids were going to definitely expect some kind of trick play, probably poorly executed, from now on. This meant he could use fundamentals to crush them; which was much more fitting.
“Saikyodai ball!” The referee called. He was looking pale. Never before had he seen a kick off like that, it sent shivers down his spine.
“Looks like you were wrong, coach.” This was the general consensus from the Wizards’ bench. Banba looked unsettled.
“…They could have had it.” Yamato muttered. “We got lucky.”
“No, number 40 is a coward, no confidence. He didn’t have enough spirit to complete the play.” Banba corrected. “Hiruma looks annoyed.”
“Ah he just revealed a weakness.” Yamato frowned. “But was it on purpose?”
“It’s going to be now.” Banba muttered. “We should have lost possession.”
Nakamura walked back to the bench, looking defeated. He was probably going to be benched for that fuck up.
“What the fuck was that?” Hiruma demanded. “Tell me, Nakamura, what. The. Fuck. Was. That?!” Hiruma spat his words acidly. Everyone on the bench cringed. They all knew Hiruma was one hell of a beast when angered ever since the day someone decided to mock the water bottle Emiko had given her Papa.
“I-I-!” Nakamura found himself speechless under the gaze of this green eyed devil before him.
“Why,” Hiruma pointed at the man’s face, “are you playing this game, you fucking coward?”
Nakamura could only stare on in horror.
“Answer my question!” Hiruma snapped.
“B-b-because I like it?” Nakamura confessed and prayed.
“....” Hiruma glared at him as he examined the truth of that statement. “Tch.”
The team grew tenser.
Part 5
The Field
Flying up, every eye in the stadium watched withheld breaths as a single golden coin spun in the air. Would it favor the Babies? Would it favor the Wizards?
The referee caught the coin deftly and looked Hiruma in the eye, waiting for Hiruma’s choice.
Yamato and Ishimaru mentally sighed, knowing they just lost their first offense and potentially their one chance at winning.
“Will you take the field, Hiruma-shi?” The referee asked, finding Hiruma’s silence and blank expression unnerving.
“No, we’ll kick.” Hiruma corrected the man.
“W-what!?” Yamato and Ishimaru gasped. There was no way in hell Hiruma would have done that!
Yamato went cold at that realization. The moment you think ‘there’s no way in hell he’d do that’ it would be exactly what Hiruma would do. Right off from the start of the game Hiruma was controlling everyone with his unpredictable, unexpected behavior. Yamato knew from all of his years of experience that there was one thing, only one thing he could predict reliably today.
His team’s chances of winning were not as large as everyone thought they were. In fact they were getting smaller by the moment.
The team leaders broke off and Hiruma called a huddle for the Babies.
“Fucking old man,” Hiruma pointed a sharp finger as Takekura’s chest, “kick the ball to number 24.”
Takekura only nodded solemnly while the rest of the team bit back protests. They all knew that number 24, Yumi Shigehito, was their ace runningback. Surely there was a reason for doing this, a plan behind Hiruma’s madness.
“Fucking freckles,” Hiruma addressed one of his own teammates, “your job will be forcing that fucking ace of theirs to fumble.”
“W-what?!” Nakamura Tadayoshi, the only man on the team with freckles, gasped. He was a fast linebacker but he had low self-esteem and often made things worse when he was on the field because of this.
“You’re the only one who can compete with that fucking ace in speed.” Hiruma reminded the linebacker bluntly. “All you need to do is knock the ball out of that so-called ace’s hands. Should be damn easy, the brat’s got a loose one arm grip.”
Everyone stared at Hiruma as he said this. It was news to them.
“Even a pathetic idiot like you could pull it off,” Hiruma went on, “just make their fucking ace fumble.”
“What about the fumble?” Kuroda Shinji, number 82, wide receiver, asked.
“You, fucking doughnuts,” Hiruma pointed his vicious finger at the wide receiver that was fond of eating doughnuts, “will catch that fumble if fucking freckles here can’t.”
The team was silent.
“Why are we doing something so risky?” Kuroda asked softly.
“Because they aren’t fucking ready for it,” Hiruma answered confidently, “they’re preparing for a fucking squib kick-”
Which was completely true, the Wizards were convinced Hiruma Youichi was intending to mock them by using a squib kick.
“-and that means their defense will be shattered when faced with such an extreme change of plan.” The Babies nodded, understanding the logic even if it bothered them.
“It will also scare those brats shitless.” Hiruma added smugly.
“Is scaring a bunch of over-confident kids necessary?” Nakamura asked. He just knew he would find a way to fuck up this job.
“Whoever scares the opponent first wins.” Takekura told Nakamura calmly. “That’s a simple football rule, isn’t it Hiruma?”
“Fuck yes.” Hiruma agreed with a happy, devilish, smile. “Now kiddies, time for your next lesson.”
Gulp.
“We didn’t come here to defeat our enemy,” Hiruma began using his fatherly correction voice, “we came here to slaughter them.”
“Now that’s something I haven’t heard in a while,” Juumonji began,
“It just wasn’t the same when you were gone,” Kuroki went on,
“But I think we all agree we’re damn glad its back.” Toganou finished.
“Oh you taught these kiddies?” Hiruma grinned happily at the thought.
“’Course we did.” The three ‘brothers’ grinned back.
“We’ll fucking kill them. Ya-ha!”
American Announcer Booth
“D-did we get a censor on that?” Hendrickson asked, a bit startled by the English huddle shot.
“No.” Lewis answered, he didn’t appear to care. “There’s no point in censoring it.”
“What do you mean?” Hendrickson asked, still a bit uncomposed.
“That’s Youichi’s huddle shout,” Lewis explained, “He’s been using it since middle school.”
“Just because the behavior is common doesn’t make it appropriate.” Hendrickson pointed out.
“Maybe not, but this isn’t a football game with Youichi Hiruma on the field unless he’s out there swearing.” Lewis countered. “Besides, Sena leads all sorts of horribly inappropriate huddle shouts in Japanese all the time. If it’s acceptable in the NFL, it can certainly be acceptable here.”
“He does?” Hendrickson blinked.
“His current favorite translates something on the lines of ‘unpleasant destruction of a man’s gentiles.’” Lewis put some fingered quotes on the words to make his point clear. Hendrickson paled. “But much cruder of course.”
“O-of course.” Hendrickson muttered.
“Don’t worry too much Bob,” Lewis assured his co-announcer, “Youichi’s going to be the only one taking heat for his swearing.”
The Field
“He’s planning something.” Yamato muttered to himself. He knew Hiruma was going to do something and for once he was at a loss as to how that was. It was a small comfort that Hiruma would not actually be standing on the field with the kicking team, but that was the only comfort. He was hoping that Hiruma had ordered a squib kick, but because he suspected that play it probably wasn’t going to happen. He warned his team, of course, but he didn’t think they took his warning seriously enough. Yamato’s only hope was that his team would figure out that Hiruma Youichi was very much a threat and that Yamato wasn’t shitting them about the added caution.
“When is he not?” Banba Manoru, the giant tanned ex-linemen and Yamato’s assistant coach, asked humorlessly from behind Yamato. He’d been busy making sure the line had proper taping and warm-ups before the match to have talked to Yamato about Hiruma. Only now that the match was moments away from starting could he find the time to talk about how many issues they were going to be having.
“These boys have no idea how much trouble they are about to be in….” Yamato muttered sadly.
“Then let them learn by doing.” Banba highly believed in learning by doing. He also knew instead of raising a proper team this year, they’d guided a group of ruffians that had just been meaner than anyone else. A smack around from Hiruma might accomplish something in an hour that Banba had been attempting all season.
“Don’t you want victory?” Yamato asked with a frown.
“Of course I do and I’m confident they’ll flatten their opponent if they get serious about it.” Banba explained. “Hiruma will take the lead and knock them around in the first quarter then they will man up and have a lead by the beginning of the second half.”
“Banba-sama, I didn’t know you made predictions.” One of the benched linemen almost sneered. The boy was a known trouble child so Banba benched him.
“I only state facts.” Banba explained to the kid tonelessly. “Just sit and watch this play, we’re going to lose possession of the ball.”
Takekura stretched his leg out. Ten men beside him, 11 men, well boys really, before him. 11 against 11, comrades beside you, stadium a mass of cheers around you, and Hiruma’s small smirk on the sideline.
How long had it been since he’d played football like this? Too long really, part of him had felt that time had stopped for him and Kurita when Hiruma ran out of practice that one day over six years ago. His legs felt light and strong, youthful really. He’d done fine as a professional kicker, but he’d never done anything spectacular without Hiruma there.
Maybe it was time to show them what happens when Takekura returns to his old self.
After nodding briefly to his teammates, Takekura stood in position and waited for the referee to blow the whistle and start the game. The roar of the crowd became deafening after the whistle blew, everyone was hanging on this moment. Step, step, step, pulling back his leg, restraining all of its power until the last moment. His cleat made a clean contact and the cannon went off, sending the ball soaring farther than the eye could see into the chilly sky.
The crowd was awestruck, the announcers were babbling senselessly about the beautiful kick off. Without any hesitation, Nakamura and Kuroda went bolting forward at the sound of the ball being blasted into the sky. Both had their eyes set on Yumi, everyone else was ignored as they blasted past the stunned team.
To say the Wizards were caught off guard was an understatement. Every single one of them was staring at the sky for three seconds, trying to find the ball. This hesitation was fatal, the Babies were on them and in their faces. Most of the Wizards didn’t have time to get into proper blocking form (not that they used it anyway) when they encountered their opponent. The Babies didn’t show any hesitation and proceeded to blue sky anyone in their path, roughly pushing the young boys to the ground.
“The Wizards are falling like flies!” Sanada exclaimed. “They have completely, helplessly fallen into Hiruma-shi’s trap! What an amazing kick off!”
Yumi found himself running backwards a bit to catch the ball. Takekura hadn’t kicked it terribly far, just extremely high. He could catch this-! What the hell!?
The ball was completely unstable and tumbling in the air. Takekura had managed to kick it out of sight with it tumbling like that!? Yumi spared a glance at the kicker only to watch him flatten their ace linemen without batting an eye. Suddenly Yumi became acutely aware the entire Babies team was running towards him, destroying any obstacles in their path. They knew, all of these men in pink knew the ball had been kicked to him. They knew it been a hard-to-catch kick and they knew that the Wizards hadn’t been expecting it.
“Like hell!” Yumi swore. He wasn’t going to let these guys win. He was going to catch that ball and run it past all of them for a kick-off return touchdown. Pulling his gaze upwards, Yumi readied himself for the ball. Damn that thing was falling fast!
Bong!
Yumi managed to catch it but he held it awkwardly in his arms, defenders were closing in. The nearest was only two yards away. To Yumi, two yards was plenty. Without any hesitation, Yumi started to run, aiming for the gaps in the tight defense.
“…Bad plan.” Emiko muttered with a frown. It went unheard in the noise around her.
Nakamura came closing in on Yumi, his hand out stretched to snap the ball out of that kid’s arm. It was going to be impossible, Nakamura realized quickly, the kid had locked the ball (rather poorly, but it was hard to tell) in both arms and was charging at full speed just off an intersection course. Nakamura was wishing he’d been able to convince Hiruma this was a bad idea, because right now he was about to cost their team its first points.
Yumi managed to escape Nakamura, whom he sneered at as he ran by. He spun past two more Babies only to slam right into Juumonji’s chest.
“Hey kid.” The scary bescared man remarked with a menacing smile. “Let’s have a good game.”
“Wha-?” Yumi muttered only to find out he’d just impaled himself on the linemen’s unforgiving hand. Falling backwards, Yumi found the air gone from his lungs before he hit the ground. With a loud crash, Yumi hit the unforgiving field, back first, right on the twenty yard line.
Hiruma only went ‘tch’. The plan hadn’t come off perfectly, as he suspected it might. He could use that though. The kids were going to definitely expect some kind of trick play, probably poorly executed, from now on. This meant he could use fundamentals to crush them; which was much more fitting.
“Saikyodai ball!” The referee called. He was looking pale. Never before had he seen a kick off like that, it sent shivers down his spine.
“Looks like you were wrong, coach.” This was the general consensus from the Wizards’ bench. Banba looked unsettled.
“…They could have had it.” Yamato muttered. “We got lucky.”
“No, number 40 is a coward, no confidence. He didn’t have enough spirit to complete the play.” Banba corrected. “Hiruma looks annoyed.”
“Ah he just revealed a weakness.” Yamato frowned. “But was it on purpose?”
“It’s going to be now.” Banba muttered. “We should have lost possession.”
Nakamura walked back to the bench, looking defeated. He was probably going to be benched for that fuck up.
“What the fuck was that?” Hiruma demanded. “Tell me, Nakamura, what. The. Fuck. Was. That?!” Hiruma spat his words acidly. Everyone on the bench cringed. They all knew Hiruma was one hell of a beast when angered ever since the day someone decided to mock the water bottle Emiko had given her Papa.
“I-I-!” Nakamura found himself speechless under the gaze of this green eyed devil before him.
“Why,” Hiruma pointed at the man’s face, “are you playing this game, you fucking coward?”
Nakamura could only stare on in horror.
“Answer my question!” Hiruma snapped.
“B-b-because I like it?” Nakamura confessed and prayed.
“....” Hiruma glared at him as he examined the truth of that statement. “Tch.”
The team grew tenser.
Part 5