I thought it would be poetic to post the very last chapter of Taming the Demon on Sena's birthday. Oh god, I'm gonna cry. Okay.

xDarklightx, you have stuck with me for so long, I'm so grateful and I hope you like this last chapter as much as you have the rest of the story. kakita101, I welcome you back to the fandom, and I hope you stay. , writing Eyeshield's death broke my heart a little bit, but I'm glad the scene is appreciated.

Time for the funny quiz! Who has the ball?

They needed to confuse the Alexanders right from the beginning, pull out of every trick they had and not stop. As such, the entire team pulled into the Hornet's Nest and handed off the ball to the least noticeable person on the team.

Ishimaru made it about four steps before they realized he held the ball, and even with Riku's Rodeo Drive and the all the combined blocking techniques of Ootawara, Kakei, and Mizumachi, the fucking shadowless only made it to the 19 yard line before Yamato forced him out of bounds.

Well whatever, it was Deimon's offence and time for some fun. Hiruma spewed lies at a few of the stupider Devil Bats to rile them up and lined up in his regular spot as the quarterback. Cast and all.

If the giant grin on his face didn't scream perfectly healed arm, then there really were some serious idiots on the Teikoku team.

Honjou Taka was no such idiot.

That being said, even though he lined up against Monta, even though he looked the monkey dead in the eyes, Hiruma would bet any money (and he had a lot of money) that Taka couldn't tell you a thing about what Monta looked like. He looked, but he didn't see. And when he jumped for the ball, the Teikoku receiver didn't even bother looking. To Taka, Monta was about as significant as a leaf to a tornado.

Taka handed off the ball to Yamato upon landing. Yamato, one arm behind his back, decided he was going to run all the way to the goal line, leading the safeties to fall into blocking position. Sena took off after him.

Would have caught him too, if it wasn't for all the snow on the field.

Barely 30 seconds in, and Teikoku took first points.

Hiruma was a little worried about the kids starting to lose hope early, but he needn't have bothered. Sena immediately pointed out that Yamato wasn't as fast as Shin, let alone Sena himself, and this was swiftly followed up by Mr. Eyeshield 21 of the West in the flesh, come to ruffle some feathers.

Absolute supremacy, my pale, bony ass. Deimon will smash Yamato's Absolute Prediction to pieces by not only getting on the board, but winning. Douche.

Teikoku used an onside kick to get on offense and Hiruma was incredibly grateful for the forethought to lie about Karin's gender (the idiots on this team are too many). Karin and Sena greeted each other in a ridiculously similar fashion and as the parallels between the two players lined up in Hiruma's mind, he wondered if maybe she too had a separate personality. Not that it mattered a whole lot one way or the other, especially in the face of her beautiful pass to Taka, her easy dodging of Kurita, and her handing off the ball to Yamato.

Yamato who had a Devil Bat Ghost (Alexander Ghost? Yeah, Alexander Ghost) of his own. Unfortunately, his version had multiple illusions. It wasn't long before it came down to Yamato and Sena once again.

Or rather, Yamato and Demon.

And Demon did not take Yamato's shit, did not fall for his feints, did not hold back in his tackle. Except that said tackle was not enough to knock Yamato over. Instead, he smiled, completely pleased with his opponent's level of skill. Yamato was smugly satisfied that Sena was strong enough to be fun to destroy. As if all of the kid's blood, sweat, and tears were for Yamato's personal benefit. Then he demonstrated the Caesar's Charge with his arm still behind his back and shook Sena off. It was like he was laughing at them.

He had a clear path to the goal. Teikoku started celebrating. The announcer declared it Yamato's victory.

Demon said no.

Between one moment and the next, Demon stood up from where he had been dropped and all but teleported to where Yamato was about to cross the goal line to tug on the Alexander's jersey. Yamato, in his shock, instinctively stiff-armed the kid and continued on to score. But Demon noticed, and Yamato noticed, and the Devil Bats all noticed. Hiruma grinned.

Yamato would need both arms to fight this opponent.

And he knew it too, by the way he promised to not hold back like he had up to now. Of course, in keeping his promise, Yamato proceeded to make life very difficult for the Devil Bats. Even Sena stepped up to the challenge by spontaneously bursting into his own multi-illusion Devil Bat Ghost (where was he hiding that skill?), the star Alexander all but smooshed the tiny running back once again into the dirt. With a fucking bear hug.

There was some desperation on the kid's face when he stood back up again, but he shook it off a bit by snagging Monta by the arm and dragging him over for the Christ Cross. Which they promptly fucked up. Hiruma held back a sigh as he screamed for the guys to pick up the fumbled ball; he didn't really expect anything different considering the pair never really managed to pull off the manoeuvre in practice.

In the ensuing chaos, Heracles manipulated a hole into the line through which Achilles slipped through and snatched up the ball. Fortunately, the three brothers triple-teamed him resulting in the ball bouncing right into Hiruma's palms. Then something interesting happened.

The fucking monkey was yelling about a long pass (because that's just what he does), Taka turned away to run up the field, and Monta moved back toward Hiruma. For a split second, time froze and all the noise fell away because it was such a beautiful, spontaneous pass that Hiruma's arm came up instinctively. Of course, because the ball had changed possession, the blond wasn't allowed to throw the pass. Yamato tackled him and Deimon lost two yards, but a window of opportunity had opened. Judging by Teikoku calling its first timeout in the whole tournament, Taka had noticed it too.

In the single moment where Taka turned, he stopped being aware of what Hiruma was doing with the ball. In that moment, Taka would not have been able to intercept the blond's pass.

Teikoku ended its timeout with one of Yamato's absolute predictions:

42. Four, two. Shi, ni. Death. The Alexanders would defeat the Devil Bats 42-0.

Hiruma threw Hail Mary passes like crazy. Again and again, Monta fell short of the catch. Both Yamato and Taka scored touchdowns, Taka's being an exact replica of what it seemed Deimon was trying to achieve. During Deimon's last offence of the first half, Monta pushed Taka to his utmost limit and still lost. In his defence, Taka made a jump that most wouldn't even dream of attempting and got a standing ovation for it. In the third quarter, Yamato dragged Sena right into the end zone, for yet another touchdown. The score was 35-0 at the beginning of the fourth quarter and there were nine minutes and 55 seconds left on the clock. It was Komusubi that shifted the momentum.

At first, it seemed the 'Sideline Magician', a cocky womanizer named Tenma, had slipped through the mini fatty's block and scored yet another touchdown. However, as the small player pointed out, there was snow all over the edge of the field which covered the sidelines. In a rare display of solidarity, the three brothers loudly supported their fellow lineman's theory, to the point where Musashi needed to shut them up or risk pissing off the ref.

Thankfully, the ref ruled in Deimon's favour. The team picked up some energy, and the crowd went wild. It had been the first time all game that Deimon had stopped anything the Alexanders threw at them. There was only one downside.

Sena still hadn't beaten Yamato. Not even a one man Devil Bat Dive had gotten past that guy and Hiruma simply couldn't afford to wait for him to do it anymore.

The blond sighed to himself, and shook off those thoughts. Instead, he rallied the boys with some swearing and yelling, and dared them all to go the rest of the game without a huddle. Kurita, the humongous sap, stuck his hand in the middle of what would be Deimon's very last huddle, live or die, because he's so stinking emotional about every little-

Everybody stuck their hands in the middle and looked at the blond. Fuck it.

The team gave one last cry ("We will kill them! YA-HA!") and tore out onto the field. From there on, Hiruma trusted even the idiots to remember the code that they drilled into their heads.

"Posidon, 424!"

Sweep.

"Sphinx, 138!"

Cutting middle pass.

"Dinosaurs, 921!"

The one we've all been waiting for…

Monta started running, pushing Taka as far back as he could. You could practically see him counting the steps until that perfect moment that Taka turned around. Of course, Taka saw through that and simply refused to turn.

And so he falls right into our trap. Kekeke…

Monta made to turn back up the field to Hiruma, Taka darted forward, only for Monta to continue running down the field, effectively throwing Taka off his rhythm and putting him two steps behind the fucking monkey.

When Hiruma threw his pass, it was no Hail Mary. But let's be honest, that should have been obvious. After all, how many times has it been said? Demons don't ask gods for favours, and this Hail Devil Laser was going to take Monta right to the end zone with his Devil Backfire.

That's not to say Deimon had forgotten that ridiculous catch Taka had made earlier. On the contrary, Hiruma had sent a hero to prevent such a disaster from happening a second time. Sena slammed into Taka and Monta scored the very first points against the Alexanders in the entire tournament.

It got better. With nothing but Kurita's strength, Deimon shoved her way into a two-point conversion. With exactly nine minutes left (all that shit happened in 55 seconds? Holy fuck), the score was 35-8 and Yamato wanted to know why they didn't use this plan earlier in the match. You know, when they still had time? What had he been waiting for?

Hiruma laughed it off, and tried not to notice Sena looking at them.

Given their lead, it made sense that the Alexanders would use time wasting plays; such as a run through the center. The blond piled all his players in the middle to head off such a play, and sent Kurita into the back to intercept Karin's corresponding pass.

Unfortunately, the fucking fat ass had absolutely zero catching ability, causing him to fumble the ball and fall on his face. The demonic quarterback sighed and started to get ready for Teikoku's next down when something flashed out of the corner of his eye. Until the ball hit the dirt, it was still in play. The ball bounced off Kurita's huge ass, but was snatched up before it touched the grass.

Demon had run back to help Kurita at the last second and was now tearing up the field with a ball that was still live.

Yamato noticed him too, and the Alexanders started to scramble. Deimon's players piled around Yamato to slow him down and inhibit his chasing Sena. They didn't last very long against the Eyeshield of the West, but they didn't really need to. Demon only needed a second's head start to slip through Yamato's fingers, and it wasn't like anyone else on the Alexanders could catch him. The ref called a touchdown and Kurita atoned for his fuck up by once again shoving the ball over the line for a two point conversion.

Naturally, Teikoku responded in kind to Deimon's sudden seizure of points with consecutive passes to Taka and finally a run by Yamato to score. If their try-for-point kick succeeded, they'd have their 42 point death score. The fucking monkey declared that he would catch the kicked ball, like that was a thing that was possible, but Hiruma was just desperate enough to let him try. That desperation paid off when Monta's glove grazed the ball just enough to knock it off course and save the Devil Bats that one point.

In the remaining five minutes and 45 seconds, Deimon needed to make up 25 points. At the very least, that'd take three touchdowns and a field goal. Their long passing game was shot with Taka marking the monkey, which meant they were depending pretty heavily on Sena's runs. Runs that were being repeatedly cut down by one Yamato Takeru.

Hiruma knew that Yamato would figure out that the blond had wasted a lot of time waiting for Sena to win man-to-man, he just wished Yamato didn't feel the need to point it out in front of the kid in question. Yeah, maybe Hiruma had waited longer than he should've, and yeah, that may have been a mistake on his part, but that's faith goddammit. The blond had never had faith before, in anything, and he liked the feeling too much to regret it, win or lose. He'd never regret having faith in his team, and he'd never regret having faith in Sena.

He turned away from said running back so that those thoughts wouldn't be written all over his face, but in doing so missed the resolve that settled into those too-big eyes. If Hiruma had been looking, he'd have seen an expression of such steadfast determination, the likes of which he hadn't seen since before the Bando game. For a moment, Sena would have reminded Hiruma of the long passed Eyeshield.

As it was, the blond could only marvel at the sudden force Sena threw into his runs. He even turned an insane suggestion made by Taki into a viable option (never would have thought to try ducking under Yamato's arm), only to be blocked at every turn. In one case, all Yamato did was fall on Sena. Deimon was about to run out of downs, so Hiruma called for a punt kick, unaware of the familiar voice that niggled in the back of Sena's mind.

Hey… Let's do something impossible.

At the last second before play began, Monta asked the Devil Bats to put their trust in Sena just once more. It was the riskiest gamble they could make in this moment, the one least likely to pay off, and Hiruma must have been going soft because he went with it. He handed the ball off to Sena and prayed.

The two Eyeshields were charging straight for each other and the shorty in red was making no moves in any direction around Mr. 3 Dimensional Block (what, was the plan to try to phase through Yamato now), and Hiruma wanted to look away from the impending impact-

Waaaaaaiiiiiit. Wait a fucking minute. What was that? The kid was about to crushed, again, but now he's not there, somebody explain this bullshit-

The blond took a deep breath because what happened wasn't really complicated: Sena waited until just before Yamato tackled him and then stepped backward, giving the illusion of time travel. Yamato tackled air and Sena got passed him.

Sena got passed him.

Hiruma could have kissed him right then and there.

Instead, he let out a laugh that was full of joy and pride and oh my fucking god that nearly drowned out the referee's declaration of a touchdown. The kid invented a fucking 4th Dimensional Run. Another two-point conversion and the score was 41-24. It was Deimon's kickoff.

Hiruma's faith had been quiet up to now, understated so that it couldn't be used against him. But now he was running high on the multitude of options that just opened up to him (runs, passes, power, all the cards are in play), and decided fuck quiet faith. For the first time in the five years he'd known Musashi, Hiruma told the shitty old man that he believed in him. He said it out loud so you'd better fucking reward that faith dammit, and kick it with everything you've got!

And he did.

If the ball had gone into the end zone and set the line back to twenty yards, it would have been acceptable on the grounds that the 20 yard line was a significant improvement to the 50 yard line that Yamato kept dragging it back to. As it was, the ball stopped an inch in front the end zone and that flashy moron Tenma picked it up.

Only to immediately drop it when Sena jumped on him. Kekeke…

Taki and Achilles also jumped into the fray, causing the ball to bounce further into the end zone. Hiruma wasn't really worried about what would happen next; as far as Teikoku went, Tenma and Achilles were no real threat. Either Sena or Taki would snatch up the ball to score, or the ball would roll out the back end of the end zone and Deimon would get a safety. Neither option was particularly preferable over the other-

Where did Yamato think he was going?

Ok, scratch that, there was a pretty big threat here. Sena was still tangled up with Tenma and Achilles, so clearly a touchdown was out. Luckily, Taki trusted Hiruma's judgment enough to not question his orders to forget about the ball and just stall Yamato. The idiot's block didn't last, but it got Deimon her safety. It was only two points, but it put the Devil Bats back on offence and gave them back the momentum.

Hiruma took that momentum and more or less manipulated his way down the field, earning first downs and gaining yards. Of course, Yamato decided he didn't appreciate this, and demonstrated his indignation by conquering Sena's previously undefeated 4th Dimensional Run. And then, on the off chance that he hadn't made his point clear enough, he chose to blitz Hiruma himself.

For just a moment, before that black and gold jersey filled his vision, Hiruma saw where all the Alexanders were. He found his window just as Yamato put hands on him. His receiver hadn't been there yet so he waited for a second, and was halfway to the dirt when he finally threw blind. But Hiruma knew that guy would surely catch it.

Yukimitsu.

The weakest Devil Bat scored a touchdown with his very first catch of the game.

With yet another two-point conversion, the gap had closed to 41-34 and there were still four minutes left on the clock. From here on out, the game was just as much a battle against time as it was against Teikoku, and of course they weren't fooling around. They openly admitted to giving up their passing game to focus purely on Yamato's undefeated Caesar's Charge runs.

And Yamato was goddamned unstoppable.

Hiruma could use Deimon's three timeouts to prevent Teikoku from wasting time with their huddles, but after that the Devil Bats were in trouble. And damn if Teikoku didn't play it safe with a kick at the 20 yard line, bumping the point gap from seven points up to ten when there was less than a minute left in play. Then they huddled.

Deimon would have all of eight seconds to score ten points.

Hiruma closed his eyes.

In his mind, he went all the way back to the Spring Tournament and watched Sena outrun Shin for the very first time. He watched this skinny kid strike fear into the likes of Habashira and obliterate Munakata. He replayed the half pint's conquering of Kakei and slaughter of Riku. He relived the pipsqueak's annihilation of Akaba and decimation of Agon. He even heard the screams of a phantom announcer that told him that this shitty little brat had the balls to take his place against the sheer destructive force that was Gaoh.

In his mind, he saw a TV in a classroom that was covered all in signatures.

This final game was bigger than Hiruma. It was even bigger than the original Maoh Trio. Losing was simply not an option.

So he opened his eyes and grinned, mental wheels spinning, trying to find a strategy that would work. It was clear as the nose on his face that nobody believed him, but nor did they choose to call his bluff so there was that at least.

It was time to let the chibis give the Christ Cross another try. Only this time, they'd put the Devil's spin on it.

And once again, it's time for the funny quiz! Who has the ball?

The answer was, of course, Sena, which everybody saw when the kid slipped in a pile a snow. Little did these idiots know that Sena slipping was a decoy to draw the defense in around him. Sena back passed to Hiruma and then kept the defense busy when Hiruma made a run for it. Now the Alexanders thought they were so smart because, instead of chasing Hiruma, they went and marked all of Deimon's receivers…

…leaving Sena completely unguarded!

The kid tore down the field to the goal line, only to be blocked at the last second by, you guessed it, Yamato fucking Takeru. Hiruma had been watching Sena's footwork evolve from the very beginning, but not even he could predict what the shorty did next.

Combining the 4th Dimensional Run and the Devil Bat Ghost to create a motherfucking backward Devil Bat Ghost?! Where does he pull this shit from?

Hiruma was too busy reveling in the touchdown to give it much thought at the time, but later he would think back to this moment and realize what it should have indicated. When the kid did impossible things like this, it was usually Demon in charge. This time… it hadn't been.

For Sena, it had happened between one footstep and the next.

Well, shit.

He recognized the voice, the one Hiruma-san called Demon-Sena.

I was having a lot of fun too. But I guess when the game's done, it's done.

He sounded sort of resigned. On one hand, Sena was relieved that the Demon didn't sound angry like he did during the Hakushuu match. On the other, the sadness in his voice made something inside Sena ache in a way he hadn't felt since after the Bando match- oh.

Yeah. You go ahead and finish the match. I don't have a lot of time left, and Yoichi'd get pissed off if I didn't say adios.

With that, the quiet constant presence in the back of his mind just sort of faded away, and reality slammed back into the kid, practically tripping him into the end zone. Hiruma took one look at the kid and knew something happened inside his head, but couldn't allow him to break down yet. So he put the brunet behind Kurita for a Devil Bat Dive two-point conversion to keep him distracted.

Three seconds left for two points.

Deimon's kickoff, Monta vs. Taka, Sena distracting Yamato, confusion, then:

"Deimon's ball!"

One second left for two points.

Half the field to cover… what to do…

Sena walked out onto the field, looked down at the goal posts and said something impossible.

"That's… yeah, that's about 60 yards, isn't it?"

Everybody looked at Musashi. Musashi whom had never scored from farther than 55 yards away. The shitty old man reminded him, as if he forgot. So Hiruma reminded him of something. Of when Musashi left the team, of how much Kurita threw things and screamed and kicked, even though they both knew that Kurita would never throw things or scream or kick. He reminded the shitty old man that he had a debt to pay and the Devil of Deimon never let debts go unpaid.

If puny, runty Sena could overthrow the Emporer Yamato, then Musashi could fucking well do this.

The Maoh Trio started this; they were going to finish it.

They just had to hold off Yamato.

Kurita hiked the ball, Hiruma set it, - fuck, there's Yamato – Musashi swung his leg back, - get him out of the way you little shits - and made contact – knock him the fuck down!

Sena jumped on Yamato's shoulder, pulling his hand down just in time for the ball to sail over their heads. There was a moment where the entire stadium held its breath as the ball flew through the air and just… barely… made it.

With the ref's whistle, Hiruma's heart started beating again.

All of their Kantou rivals stormed onto the field, started flinging players into the air, being the rowdy insane catastrophe they are when all together. Sena collapsed into tears.

He was pulled out of for a short while, distracted by the festivities, but the blond knew that something happened during that backward Ghost and it needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

The opportunity came up pretty quickly. The trophy was awarded, the stadium emptied, everyone went to shower, change, and maybe nap before heading home. Hiruma found the shorty in the stands, overlooking the field and sat down next to him. Sena inhaled deeply, shivered, and then Hiruma was looking at the calmest Demon he'd ever seen.

"I, uh… I had to duck out of the game early. Sorry about that," he turned his too big, too shiny eyes on his captain. "I didn't want to run out of time before I got to say something." Hiruma swallowed, but didn't interrupt. His face must have looked weird though because Demon suddenly looked annoyed. "I'm not gonna say goodbye, or I'll miss you, or any of that mushy crap, god fucking damn. I'm not going anywhere remember? I just wanted…" Demon started to fidget, so uncharacteristically nervous that Hiruma had a terrifying split second thought that he'd already phased back into Sena, before he started speaking again. "I just wanted to thank you." Those two-big eyes stared determinedly into Hiruma's own. "I wanted to thank you, because I don't think we would have survived much longer without you getting involved in our life. If high school had carried on the same way middle and elementary school had, the Original would have either taken too many of our Dad's sleeping pills, or I would have killed someone." Demon reached out and wrapped his hand around Hiruma's neck, bringing him in until their foreheads touched. "Thank you, Yoichi, for saving us from ourselves."

Demon's eyes closed and he slumped forward so that Hiruma's nose ended up in his hair and the blond's long arms wrapped around him and pulled him in tight. There was a burn in the conniving quarterback's throat and an itch in his eyes that trailed down his cheeks into fluffy brown locks and he needed to get that stuttering shake in his shoulders under control, preferably before Sena woke up and saw-

A small pair of arms curled up under his shoulders, which only seemed to make them shake harder. "I know he's not really gone, but it feels like he is. So, it's okay, if, if we stay like this, for a while. It's okay… Hiruma-san."

Neither of them moved until it was time to leave.

Later, on the train back to Tokyo, Hiruma would realize that after a year of being Sena's support beam, security blanket, motivation, and mentor, it was Sena who comforted Hiruma through the final stages of the kid's own mental illness. He could only laugh. In the end, it seemed Hiruma had been the demon that was tamed.

The team all went their separate ways after arriving at the train station. As the brunet walked away to meet up with his parents, Hiruma watched him. He recognized the set of Eyeshield's shoulders, the strength of Demon's steps, and when the kid turned back to him, he saw Sena's smile.

Hiruma smiled back.

I want to thank everybody who came with me on this journey. It's been four and a half years since I started Taming the Demon, and just over six since the original Payback drabble. For those of you looking forward to the Youth Cup epilogue, it will be posted as a separate piece under the title Demon Unleashed. Keep an eye out.