Tied Up 〔An Eyeshield 21's Fanfiction〕

Ch.10: New Manager = New Problem

"Damn it. What's with that noise?!"

Rie glanced at her side then sighed. That girl, Anezaki Mamori, was quarelling with Hiruma.

'You don't have to care, Rie. Just do your work and finish it quickly so you can go home sooner.'

"Rie is our manager, and fuckin' chibi is her assistant. But, it looks like a room for one more is still open, because Rie doesn't want to do cleaning and such. To summarize it, she's our profiler and tactician." Hiruma said.
"It's settled then. I'll do it!"
"Kekeke, got another free working person for us."
"Who?" Rie suddenly came to his side while brought some of their equipments.
"That fuckin' discipline committee."

Her face hardened. She didn't have any problem with Mamori, but she felt uneasy whenever she near her.

"Ah. What position?"
"Manager."

The box on her hand fell immediately. She smiled a forced smile. Her feeling was true.

"You okay?" He asked.
"It's my position, right? Do you want me to go?"
"Her jobs are different from yours. You don't need to--"

Before he completed his sentences, Rie has already made her way to the gate, leaving the team behind, without even looking on them, especially him, Hiruma.

"Oi! Where did you want to go? Your job here--"
"Has done." She finished his words, still didn't look back at him.
"Have fun playing with Oujo in the next round. Now you have a golden-legged runningback, so you don't have to worry to lose 99-0 again that you received when some rotten-legged runningback played for your team, back then."

She turned her back to face them ―the annoyed Hiruma, the crying Kurita, the flustered Sena and Mamori― now, only to confronted them in anger that she hid behind her stoic face.

"What the fuck she talked about?!" Hiruma nagged. He couldn't understand what was going on, what her feelings would like when he told that Mamori was their new manager. Calling Mamori their manager was the same as getting rid of herself, that was she thought.

Like what she has said, she has done her jobs on the team. When she said 'have fun', she didn't literally mean to say 'have fun with the game', but more into 'have fun with your new fuckin' manager'. Rie couldn't help to not hating Sena too because he was the reason of Mamori's arrival. Without any words, she left. Completely left, like Musashi.

ー◆ー

(Hiruma's PoV)

She left me stunned because of her words. Her face was indeed calm. But, I knew that she was angry. She just didn't loose her composure, that's all. Now, my question is, why she got mad all of sudden? She even threw a sarcasm before she left. She called fuckin' shrimp a golden-legged runningback while she's a rotten-legged one. I never thought like that even for a second. She's the best partner that could make a same decision like me without any discussions first. The play went spontaneous and most of it were succeeded, despite the other brats often couldn't help her to pass the opponents. At first, it didn't bug me, until she didn't came to our practice yesterday. I phoned her a few times, but she didn't answer it. She never missed any practices before. Even if she's sick, she would come, only for receiving a scold from me who told her to go home and rest. I got a bad, really bad feeling about this. And it proven today.

"Why did you miss our practice? Both, morning and evening."

I asked her. The school just dismissed. She didn't answer it at first. Completely ignored me, she tidied her books and got up. When she started to walk, I grabbed her wrist and tugged it.

"What's wrong with you, really?"

I tried to keep my cool when I asked her again. My usual 'threatening' tone went away.

"Asked yourself. What's wrong with you, really?"

Her answer surprised me. Me? She mad at me? What did I do? The day before yesterday, the last time we talked, I--

"That fuckin' manager?"
"Music to my ear."

She yanked her arm and tried to outrun me but failed since I was faster. Once again, I grabbed her wrist.

"At least tell me!!"
"By calling her a manager, that's mean you get rid of me from the team!"

I swore I could see tears in her eyes, although it didn't rolled down. I loosened my grip on her wrist.

"I never have any intentions to get rid of you, fuckin' crybaby."
"Making her a manager is the same thing!"
"All she has to do is doing chores. Yours are to help me analyze and such. It's different."
"So Deimon has 2 managers?"
"Mind to have her as your assistant?"

She seems hesitated for a while, before finally, she shook her head. My hands trailed to her eyes, wiped her tears with my thumbs.

"Sorry."

I muttered. Probably she didn't hear that but to my surprise, she did.

"Hm. I was getting too sensitive these days."
"Or are you just got jealous of that fuckin' assistant manager? Before, there wasn't any girl who brave enough to confront me except you."
"Don't get too confident."

She turned then walked away. A smirk came up to my face as I followed her.

"Admit it."
"What?"
"You got jealous, right?"
"NO!"

I laughed when I saw a pink tinge on her cheeks. Problem solved. Rie's back to her usual self, which made me relieved.

Or maybe... glad.