Eyeshield 21: Five Years Gone

A man ran down the street wearing a green hooded sweat shirt and black windbreaker pants. It was a quarter past 3 in the morning and raining hard. The wind picked up and caused the rain to hit hard against him, stinging his exposed skin. He practically ignored it, with his mind on other things. He had trouble sleeping as he always did the night before the first day of school. It wasn't something he just picked up, it happened every night before the first day of school since he first entered school when he was young. He wasn't sure if it was excitement or nervousness. It was probably a combination of both. He was entering high school with a bunch of people he had never met. Not to mention the fact that he had been sent to live with his mother, who was living in Japan. Not only was he entering a new school but he was in a new country as well.

As he ran, he noticed a flyer that was taped to the wall. The flyer was on a green sheet of construction paper that looked like it was just recently put there. With the exception of water damage caused by the rain, the flyer was in perfect condition. The runner looked down the street and noticed that every couple of meters, another flyer was posted along the wall. He stopped and looked at one of the flyers and a grin began to form on his face.

"American football club at Deimon Senior High School is looking for new members." He said quietly to himself. "Looks like this country won't be so bad after all."

The following day was bright and sunny with no cloud in the sky. There was no evidence of the over night storm. It was as if the storm never happened. A teacher of a classroom smiled and extended his arms outward to the left presenting a new student to the classroom.

"Class, this is Ryan Grandon. He just moved here from America and will be attending this school." The teacher's attention turned to the new student. "Pick any seat in the class."

Ryan slightly bowed. "Thank you, Mr. Umino." He quickly surveyed the room and found a seat near the window. Once he sat down, he noticed a rather cute, crimson eyed girl sitting to his right. She glanced over catching him in the act of staring at her. He quickly turned away from her, directing his gaze to the window. She leaned towards him and whispered to him.

"I'm Sohma Kurenai. Nice to meet you, Grandon-san." She said.

"Nice to meet you too, Kurenai. Eh, I mean Sohma-san."

Kurenai smiled at him. "You can just call me Kurenai."

Ryan returned the smile. "And you can just call me Ryan."

A short time later, the bell had rung signaling that it was lunch time. Some of the students left the room. Ryan wasn't sure exactly what to do so he just stayed at his desk. He saw that Kurenai had pulled out a small container that was wrapped in a decorated fabric. She untied the knot and revealed a small oval shaped black box. She pulled the lid off of it, revealing its contents. The smell of tempura and rice immediately fill the air and teased Ryan's nostrils. It reminded him that he had an orange on him so he decided to pull that out and eat it.

Another student came over and sat down at the desk behind Ryan. He tapped Ryan on the shoulder and extended his hand as soon as he looked back at him. He looked a bit taller than Ryan, judging by how far he was leaning towards him. His hair was long and in a pony tail. He wore the standard green jacket, white shirt and tie uniform but his tie was not tied and just hung around his neck.

"The name's Chris." He said. "I'm not a local either. My parents and I just moved here last year. What's your story."

"Military brat." Ryan said with a grin. "My mother was stationed over here when she was in the military and ended up living over here. I was sent by my father to live with her."

"Why's that?" Kurenai asked.

Ryan hesitated a bit. "Eh, I'd rather not say."

"Oh." Kurenai said.

"Well, if you stick with me, then you'll be all right." Chris said.

"Is that so?" Ryan asked. "You're not one of those types who says that to the new people and they end up getting in trouble, are you?"

Before Chris could respond Kurenai spoke up. "Chris-kun is a real friendly person. He makes friends really fast. I've known him since he moved here and he's not a troublemaker." Her voice seemed a bit protective and Ryan picked up on it.

"Ah, I was actually joking about the question but that is also good to know." He said.

After school had ended, Ryan walked alone on his way home. Kurenai and Chris lived in the opposite direction which was the reason they weren't walking with him now. He was glad he made friends on the first day, which made things easier.

He kicked a rock down the road as he walked, keeping to his thoughts. This country was very different from America but it intrigued him. His thoughts kept shifting from topic to topic as he walked. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a roar of cheers.

He looked in the direction of the cheers and saw a high school stadium.

Must be a soccer match. He thought to himself.

He walked over to the gate and to his surprise it wasn't a soccer match, it was an American football game. He hadn't realized the Japanese played American football.

He loved watching football as well as playing it but professional football in the States had become less and less appealing because the commissioner of the league had become too focused on money and supposed safety issues that when a quarterback was tackled, the referees could judge it to be too hard of a hit and penalize the attacking player.

Ryan sat down in the bleachers of the home team that was the Seibu Wild Gunmen. The opposing team was the Bando Spiders. Their uniforms reminded Ryan of Spider-Man's costume. Ryan noticed the score was 28-6 and it was still in the first quarter.

Hmmm…Seibu must have one hell of an explosive offense. Either that or Bando really isn't all that good.

"Hey, Deimon student." A voice called. Ryan looked to his right and saw two more people wearing the same uniform as he was. The one closes to him was motioning to him to come to them.

He got up and moved the twenty some feet and sat next to them.

"What's up?" Ryan asked.

"You're the new kid from America, right?" The one next to him said.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Ryan Grandon." He said.

"The name is Miyazawa Arima. This guy over here is Hiruma Ichigo."

Ryan looked past Arima and saw a spiky haired kid with pointed ears and a sharp grin. Ryan also noticed that Arima wore the school's uniform correctly as Ichigo wore it without the tie.

"So what brings you to the stadium, Ryan?" Arima asked.

"Curiosity. I'm curious to see how the Japanese plays American football." Ryan said. "I see that Seibu is really knocking Bando into the dirt." His eyes shifted back to the field where the Gunman offense was coming back onto the field. The quarterback dropped back and almost immediately launched the ball twenty five yards to the receiver. "The Gunman quarterback is also holding back."

Arima and Ichigo looked at each other. "How would you know that?" Arima asked.

"I have some experience at the cornerback position." Ryan said. "I can read both the quarterback and the receiver. And with the score the way it is now, he could've hit the receiver that was running the post route, who had also beat the corner off the line and it would've been a touchdown. I seriously doubt he didn't see the receiver."

Arima and Ichigo shared another look and they both smiled. Arima turned back to Ryan. "How would you like to join the American football club at our school?"