#hiruma doing a suzuna impression is so good

[rocket-bear]

shinsena ghost fic outline

SO. on my last list of shinsena fic ideas I had written "shinsena ghost AU (yes, like the patrick swayze movie) but with an actually happy ending". I have decided that I'm not actually going to write this fic because 1) it would take forever and I have other ones that are bigger priorities for me and 2) the inspiration for it was really the MOUNTAIN of IT fix-it fics I was reading in early 2020 because I was Going Through It where I then shunted that inspiration over into a fandom I was actually comfortable writing for, and at this point I have moved past that stage and no longer need the catharsis,

BUT! I do really like the bits that I did already write for it, and I still love the idea, so I'm just going to go ahead and post the WIP bits that I did get finished, and then flesh out what the rest of my plan was after!

The fic takes place in Sena's second year of college! It's a ghostfic so, y'know, warning for major character death and copious discussion of grief, haha, but it gets better!!! Also, in addition to ShinSena there's BG mentions of HiruMamo in both the fic excerpts and bulletpoints for the rest of the planned plot. Text below the cut is about 6k words!

---------

"Aw, beans," is the first thing Sena hears after he dies.

He doesn't really process it in the moment, too busy blinking up at the bright, unclouded sun and distantly noticing that it doesn't hurt his eyes. He sits up, running through the last few moments in his mind-- a bouncy ball dotted with pink flowers, skipping merrily over the sidewalk into the street, a girl in her school smock tottering on chubby legs after it, a car unavoidably close, his view of everything blurring as he throws himself forward without even thinking about it--

Oh.

"EHHHH," he shrieks, and scrambles away from his body, and it doesn't come with him.

"I'm going to be in ;so much trouble," that voice says again, and Sena whips around because it's the only thing he can actually hear clearly, even though he's pretty sure he should be able to hear-- the other people around him, looking at his body without looking at him, everyone unharmed but most of them in tears, and he doesn't want to think about that.

So he looks, and sees-- something. It almost looks like an afterimage, at first, the kind of light-dark luminescent spots your eyes put up when you look away from a light you've been staring at too long, but it stays put as Sena stares at it, a kind of void of shifting light just stamped in the way of his view of the bushes lining the sidewalk.

"Um," he says, and the Thing kind of goes more dark-light than light-dark for a moment as it… sighs?

"Yeah, sorry, you're not getting me at my best, this wasn't supposed to happen," it says, and Sena feels like he would be hyperventilating if he had lungs, but he doesn't anymore.

"No, listen," the Thing says, and it starts to get bigger, which Sena belatedly realizes is because it's moved closer to him. With the way it doesn't actually seem to take up space, it's hard to tell. "Let's move away from here, okay? It's going to be hard for you to listen with all this going on."

And, well-- Sena casts a glance back behind him, to the people with their hands over their mouths and tears in their eyes and the pointless things they're doing to his body to try to bring him back to it, and he scrambles up to his feet and follows the thing.

"Okay, here goes," the Thing says as they move further away from the-- the scene, and then its voice changes. "Fear not, mortal, for your time on this plane has elapsed, and you have accomplished all that you were intended for. Your current form--"

"Wait," Sena says, fighting against the mesmerizing effect of the Thing's shifting lights in combination with its new, multilayered voice, high and low at once but somehow soothing. "I thought you said this wasn't supposed to happen??"

"Well, okay, yeah," the Thing says, its voice reedy and thin once more. "Your time actually isn't supposed to be up, but-- okay, did you know you're like, really fast? Like crazy fast. I was just supposed to nudge the driver once they stopped the car in time, you know, typical near-death experience stuff, but you jumped right through me before I was in place."

"You kill people by touching them?!" Sena skitters away from the Thing, and gets the distinct impression that the silvery flush it pulses in response is decidedly unimpressed.

"I can't kill you again," it says. "And we don't kill things, anyway. We just… mark them as finished. I got you out of the oven too soon, that's all."

That sounds a lot like it was only different from killing things in terms of word choice to Sena, but he doesn't say so.

"C-can-- can we fix it?" He asks instead, the first shards of ice-cold realization sinking in at last. He's dead. He's dead?

The Thing flares sigh-dark, and says, "You know this kind of thing has only happened like, four times before? Ever! Since the dawn of humanity! It's been like 20,000 years since the last time! I don't know off the top of my head, kid, I'm gonna have to look it up."

"Then-- there's a chance? How long will that take? What if-- I mean-- they're gonna take me to the hospital--"

The ice shards sink further into his body, but the Thing's voice is dismissive.

"If there's a way, that's not the body you're going to be coming back to; there's no way we're gonna be able to do this without rolling back the clock. So don't worry about the morgue, okay?"

Which-- was a relief, but Sena feels an empty sensation at the word "morgue" that he's pretty sure would have been nausea if he had a working stomach left to experience it.

Some of that must show on his face because the Thing comes to an abrupt stop, and its voice is more gentle as it says, "Okay, gameplan. If there's a way to get you back, it's gonna have something to do with the energy left over from your presence among the living. So go see your friends and family and see what you can figure out. Right now, you're a ghost, so there's got to be some way to tap into that energy."

Sena nods a little numbly at first, working on auto-pilot, and then nods more firmly as he actually processes the Thing's words. A plan! That means-- there's something he can actually do, while the Thing goes to-- "look it up." That's good! A plan!

And then, the Thing goes yellowish, and its tone turns apologetic.

"And… Speaking of ghost stuff, I didn't get to finish this part before. Your current form will let you move around this plane to visit your loved ones and grant yourself any closure you desire, but you won't be able to interact with the living world, and if we're not able to fix this in time-- when the time comes, you'll have to make a choice. Move on completely to the next plane, or stay here with your loved ones until there are none left who remember you."

Sena blinks, going still, and the Thing glows even more yellow.

"So we've got about [a month] to figure this thing out. I'll do what I can, kid. You hang tight."

And then it's gone, and Sena is left alone on the sidewalk.

He does all that he can do, and goes to find Mamori.

------

He doesn't think through the consequences of that until he gets to her apartment and finds her in tears and Hiruma on the phone, calling them an escort to the hospital. Every awful minute of that first day feels like nothing more than a smear in Sena's memory by the time his funeral comes around. He spends the time in-between trying his best to do something, anything, that will let his friends and parents know that he's still there. He does his absolute best to go full Hollywood Haunting on everyone he knows, trying to knock over pictures or rattle windows or flick lights on and off, but nothing works. Every once in a while, when he's flopped beside Mamori on the floor as she goes through photo albums, he almost thinks she hears him as he talks about the photos she's flipping through-- but it always just ends up being a fresh round of quiet tears that brings Hiruma over to her side.

The funeral seems to be no different. He'd hoped, somehow, that maybe having so many loved ones gathered in one place to think about him would somehow give him the energy to make himself solid-- and there are so many people there, not just Sena's family and closest friends, but people from nearly every team in the Tokyo American football community, some of them who he only ever remembered seeing across the field.

All of the original Devil Bats are there, of course. Kurita sobs his way through the service. The Ha-Ha Brothers stand stony-faced, and Juumonji scrubs a rough hand across his eyes, but Sena never sees any tears. Suzuna clings to Monta's arm as they both cry openly with Riku in the row behind Sena's parents, Mamori, and Hiruma.

His parents cry. Mamori seems too exhausted to, just sitting quietly and taking in the service with bruised red eyes. Hiruma puts his arm around her shoulder at one point, and Sena finds himself surprised by how much tenderness he's seen between them in the last few days. Hiruma had handled almost all of the arrangements, actually-- Mamori and Sena's parents making the decisions, and Hiruma diligently rising from each discussion to make the appropriate phone calls.

In the middle rows, Sena finds himself looking at Shin and Sakuraba. He shouldn't have been surprised to see them-- and he really wasn't, not really, he knew he would be devastated and would definitely show up if the situation was reversed-- but something on Shin's face startles him into looking again.

He looks tired. Sena doesn't think he's ever seen Shin tired, before, not even after playing full-out through an entire game, not even after the most intensive of training. But Shin's face is undeniably drawn, and the skin underneath his eyes is bruise-dark.

Sakuraba tears up, and Shin doesn't, but it's Sakuraba who lays a comforting hand on Shin's shoulder. [UNFINISHED SCENE-- also I had intended to go back and make this scene more accurately reflect Japanese (vs Western) funeral traditions but have not done that since, I'm not finishing the fic]

----------

He finds himself seeking out one of his and Shin's old training routes from high school, when they lived close enough that it made sense to share. It's been years since he ran this route, but it makes sense, he figures, that he would be revisiting old memories like this. It was a good route, anyway-- at one point it ran alongside the river, and Sena remembers reaching it on hot summer days, and noticing that even Shin tipped his face into the breeze when the sun was really beating down.

He walks along the path at first, but before long finds himself jogging, the force of memory and habit alike drawing him into those quick strides. It doesn't feel the same without the sensation of the wind on his face, or the heat of the sun on his body, or even the sweat beading up stickily between his skin and his clothes, but it's something.

Without fatigue or fear of obstacles to keep him vigilant, Sena finds himself startled before too long by the sound of steady footfalls coming up behind him. He automatically shifts his path to make way-- though it doesn't matter much now, he thinks with a frown-- and looks up as the lone jogger makes to pass him.

It's Shin.

Sena's not-heart squeezes painfully at seeing him unexpectedly, and Sena gapes.

"Shin-san--" He gasps, and of course Shin doesn't respond or look his way. Sena swallows the painful reminder and adjusts his pace to match Shin's.

They run together, and of course it's quiet, because Shin doesn't know that he has company. Not that companionable silence was atypical for their runs together before-- running was for focusing on technique, including breathing, so they would save the chatting for before and after.

Sena wonders if Shin had kept to running this path all along-- he was so sure that they'd both abandoned it when they'd made their way to university. Or at least, Shin had apologetically told him so, when he'd moved on to Oujou University and Sena was still in his third year at Deimon.

Maybe Shin's feeling nostalgic too, Sena thinks, and then shakes his head. He doesn't want to be sad, and it's nice to have Shin at his side, even if Shin doesn't know he's there.

He tries to sink into the feeling of running. It's still hard-- he can't feel much of anything, after all-- but with Shin there, it's a little easier to fall into old memories and let those guide him. He can pretend-- to feel the gentle breeze off the river cooling the sweat on his face, to feel the push of the sidewalk under his feet launching him into his next step, to feel how the sun is hotter on his back and shoulders than anywhere else as it crawls its way up the sky.

It almost feels like normal, finding that rhythm alongside Shin that has their steps striking the pavement in tandem, Sena's extra stride to make up for their heights a little accented half-note; that peaceful, focused haze that has them inhaling and exhaling in synch. It's so perfectly familiar that Sena can almost imagine a lump rising in his throat and the sting of tears in his eyes, nearly overcome with the twin sensations of having and loss--

--when Shin startles hard beside him and skids to a stop, with a gasp that has Sena's blood running cold before he even looks back for him, the image of the oncoming truck flashing through his mind.

But there's no truck here, of course. They're on a running trail, on a totally separate level than the road, but it's obvious enough what drew that terrifying, uncharacteristic noise from Shin's lungs when Sena looks back, and his eyes meet Shin's.

Shin sees him.

[UNFINISHED SCENE, this is the last of the actual fic that I wrote!]

---------

FROM THERE here was the plan:

- Shin being able to see him only lasts a split second. Shin's super shaken and keeps looking around and rubbing his eyes for a couple moments, and then he turns around and walks back to the train, and Sena-- thinking, like, "holy shit, Shin never skips training"-- follows him back, because even though it's super heart-breaking seeing Shin so shaken up it's also the closest he's gotten to making any progress the whole time

- Shin gets back to his dorm and just like. sits down at his table with his head in his hands. Sena's motivation to keep trying to get his attention kind of dries up so he pokes around Shin's dorm room instead and notices, like. a bunch of half-eaten meals/snacks in the trash, "Practice" scratched out on his calendar for the next few weeks, unmade bed, evidence that Shin's only really gotten dressed to go out jogging over the last few days and is only wearing his pajamas otherwise-- he's just not doing good.

- Just as Sena's like, really starting to grasp this, Sakuraba shows up at the door-- Shin gets up to answer the door with his back to Sena and like, whatever Sakuraba sees on Shin's face just stops him in his tracks and he immediately pulls Shin into a hug, which Sena is kind of shocked to see that Shin totally sinks into

- Sakuraba sits down with Shin at the table and they talk. Shin admits that he thought he saw Sena while he was jogging, and both of them are just brushing it off as like, a grief-induced sensory memory, stuff like that happens, etc. Sakuraba comforts him and encourages Shin to take it easy, it's okay to take time off of even his own personal training, it's okay if he needs more time, and also like fusses about Shin not getting enough to eat especially if he IS going to keep training

- Sena meanwhile is like, feeling awful with guilt but also just kind of overwhelmed with the realization of how important he was to Shin, and this is where I would've like, laid the groundwork for how they'd gotten closer during the rest of high school/early college but Sena still never rrreally understood how much Shin cared about him because 1) he's got self-esteem issues baybee, and 2) Shin is not exactly, like, super forthright about his feelings,

- but, while Sena DOES feel awful about how much Shin was shaken up about seeing him, it's the only thread he can think of to pull on to try and bring himself back, and he ALSO feels guilty about having to watch everyone grieve for him, so, well,

- he starts haunting Shin!! Shin does not listen to his good and helpful friend Sakuraba and goes jogging again the next day, but it's obvious that he's still feeling Off and he's having a hard time getting into a rhythm, and Sena isn't able to tap into ~whatever it was~ that made him visible the previous time and is feeling super defeated about it, UNTIL,

- Shin takes a break at the midpoint of his normal route, which is a thing Sena knows he does not generally do from their own training together, and is basically just slumped over on a bench with his head in his hands again and Sena's also feeling awful and helpless and does the same thing,

- and then Shin tenses up beside him, his breath getting shallow, and Sena notices and tentatively calls out to him. Shin slowly, slowly looks up, and they make eye contact for just a second again, before Sena can tell he's not visible anymore because Shin's eyes kind of unfocus and he looks away, and just gets up and goes home.

- This kind of refreshes Sena's determination, and over the next few days (IT WAS GONNA DEPEND ON HOW LONG I WANTED TO TORTURE SHIN) they repeat the same pattern, with Sena going on Shin's jogs with him and occasionally achieving small flashes of visibility(/audibility, though Sena isn't ever able to get out anything helpful before the universe mutes him again) which Shin seems to be determined to just brush off as grief illusions even as he gets more and more tense each time

- Until finally as they're jogging, Shin sort of tersely asks "Are you there?" and instead of saying anything Sena just tries to barrel into him for a hug because clearly auditory-visual haunting only isn't WORKING and we've gotta get some TACTILE FEEDBACK in here,

- and it works. He knocks Shin off of his stride, and Shin grabs for him in turn, and there's a moment where they both stare at each other in total shock and relief before Sena starts trying to frantically tell Shin the whole story and disappears out of his arms like, three words in.

- Shin has a little tiny mental breakdown in the middle of the sidewalk where he cycles from devastation at Sena disappearing again to trying to pull himself together like, "okay if this is real then this isn't my last chance because it's happened a lot over the past few days" to a kind of giddy catharsis because it's real Sena's really here to kind of shutting down over the idea that maybe it's STILL not real and he's just going REALLY crazy to actually pulling himself back together and going to find a bench to sit down on, and just like,

- talking things out, out loud, in hopes that Sena can hear him. He can only see Sena when they're running, which is something they used to do together, so maybe recreating old memories is what triggers it. He's noticed that even when running, he usually sees Sena in moments when he's feeling least conflicted/emotionally complex-- either pure grief or pure nostalgia or pure just-zoning-out-running, not as much when he's really struggling to process and has a lot going on internally at once. Maybe the stability of the emotion is part of it.

- Sena meanwhile is having his own meltdown from sheer overwhelming relief over FINALLY FINALLY making contact and Shin FINALLY FINALLY believing he's there and also just like making hearteyes at Shin for immediately going into full methodical Ghost Scientist mode after getting his own meltdown over and done with

- speaking of going full Ghost Scientist, Shin announces his intention to do exactly that by saying he's heading back to his and Sena's old running trail to test out the "recreating memories" theory right that second, and they head over.

- They jog, and Shin talks out some of his memories with Sena from his own perspective, which is a surprise for Sena because he doesn't even remember some of the things that Shin does and also it lets him actually understand what Shin was thinking in those moments.

- And most importantly: it works. It's not constant, but the longer they practice, the longer they're able to keep Sena in view for longer stretches of time, more of an unsteady flicker than the total off-or-on that it was before. They stay out for a long time (and in the process discover that other people still can't see Sena when Shin can as he continually gets weird looks for talking to thin air) and Shin actually eats a real meal when he finally goes home.

- Sena and Shin keep practicing over the next few days, which makes Sakuraba SUPER concerned because Shin spending hours and hours jogging every day looks like Shin further depression-spiralling from his perspective, but he's somewhat mollified by the fact that Shin's actually getting back to eating and getting dressed etc. normally, even though he's still not going to practice.

- During this time, Sena and Shin bond when they're actually able to communicate. Sena notices that Shin's parents haven't checked in on him even once despite the fact that he just lost a friend, and Shin confirms in one conversation that he basically doesn't have a relationship or emotional connection with his parents at all. (But watch, hang in there, I'm gonna fix it,)

- In the meantime, Shinigami-san tracks Sena back down and they both share what they've learned. Shinigami-san says that Sena has to gather energy from as many of the people he's formed bonds with as possible to chain himself more strongly to life, and gives him a pendant to wear around his neck that will store the energy. When Sena talks about his and Shin's experiments, It says that it makes sense that being emotionally and physically in-sync would help bolster the connection between them to the point where other people would be able to see him, and that if they practice enough they might even be able to just use one or the other (emotional sync or physical sync) without needing both.

- After Sena laboriously relays this to him through flickers, Shin gets a metronome and they both practice tapping their fingers to the rhythm, and they're finally able to see each other at Shin's dorm room vs having to be on a run and actively reminiscing together. They develop a system where when Shin wants/needs to see him, he'll tap his finger against the side of his leg and Sena will do the same thing so they can actually talk.

(- There is at least one moment in the development of this that, when Sena successfully appears in front of him, Shin smiles fondly and very softly says, "There you are," and Sena immediately disappears again because he's so shaken to his disaster bisexual core that he can't even handle it.)

- During this process they find out that Sena's pendant glows when Shin is reminiscing or otherwise talking about his feelings (but not the capital-L feeling) about Sena, which lets them know how to go about "gathering energy" from Sena's friends.

- With the clock counting down on Sena's deadline, Shin starts approaching Sena's friends to "check on them," or, to sit down with them and talk about Sena. It's a little awkwardly sweet on both sides, because no one expects Shin of all people to be making sympathy housecalls and Shin's not very good at talking about feelings, but the conversations are surprisingly genuine and cathartic for all parties (including Shin, who is still processing some weird sideways grief even with his new connection to ghostSena, and Sena, whose self-esteem issues have a hard time standing up under a deluge of people talking about how much they cared about and miss him), PARTICULARLY:

- Monta and Suzuna, where the reminiscing works a little too well and they actually see a flicker of Sena sitting at Shin's side during the conversation and freak out. Shin immediately changes tacks and tells them that Sena is there and that he's trying to bring Sena back and he needs their help, and at first this makes them freak out more because what the fuck but by virtue of Shin being… Seijuurou "Overly-Serious-Stoic-Never-Overreacted-In-His-Life" Shin, he convinces them to try the tapping technique to bring Sena back into view.

- Sena has Shin describe a memory involving the three of them while they tap along to Shin's rhythm, and the combination of reminiscing and tapping works well enough that they're able to get frequent enough flickers of Sena to believe Shin. Yes, they do get a least one good long group hug out of the flickers, I'm not a monster.

- Shin still has to do most of the communication for Sena because it would take a lot of practice for the Sena-Monta-Suzuna combo to get enough in-sync to be able to communicate effectively, but he explains the whole situation and all the information they've gotten from Shinigami-san. They decide that it still makes the most sense for Shin to field the energy-gathering housecalls for the same communication-based reasons-- Sena can guide Shin through the conversations by suggesting memories to bring up with his friends-- but all the same, Shin suddenly finds himself with two tiny new best friends who want to hang out with him all the time. (And not even just to talk to Sena! Suzuna and Monta become pretty attached to and curious about Shin after he shows them more of his vulnerable side in the conversation leading up to the point where they actually see Sena themselves.)

- I was going to go through little flashes of Shin's conversations with a lot of Sena's friends across the football world, but the other Big One was going to be Mamori, of course. (And a little bit of Hiruma, who refuses to sit down for an Emotional Conversation with fucking Shin, but will gladly peanut-gallery Mamori's out of his own repressed desire for catharsis and also to make sure with guns loaded that Shin doesn't fuck up the fragile acceptance Mamori's been building since Sena's death.)

- Having learned from the experience with Suzuna and Monta, Sena wisely sits out of view during the conversation because he actually doesn't want to put Mamori through the rollercoaster of seeing him again, especially if his and Shin's efforts fail.

- Shin does not fuck up his conversation with Mamori and so Hiruma doesn't have to murder him! It's actually the most honest-- and healing-- conversation he has with anyone. Mamori finds herself feeling very fond of Shin, who she didn't know was so close with Sena and could be so supportive and empathetic under all that stoic strength, and Shin finds himself immediately adopted by another one of Sena's loved ones.

(- In their conversation, Mamori also mentions that just after Sena passed she kept finding herself thinking she heard Sena's voice, because that seed in the actually-written bit above was in fact foreshadowing ohoho.)

- I was not going to Go Into It because not even I have the strength, but to continue the theme of Shin finding a new family via his bond with Sena, there was going to be a brief scene referencing that Shin's visit with Sena's parents went much the same, with the addition that Shin was surprised Sena's parents already knew so much about him (because as it turns out Sena talked about him FREQUENTLY.)

(- Also within the housecalls there's a comedy scene where Shin makes Sena solid just long enough for Sena to log Shin in on Skype so he can talk to Panther without sacrificing a computer, and they discover that international friendship energy gathering does in fact work.)

- AND THEN: SAKURABA. The fic would switch to Shin's POV from here! In Shin's energy-gathering conversation with Sakuraba, things are going well at first, with Sakuraba reminiscing about Sena and then turning the conversation toward Shin himself to talk about how he's noticed Shin's seeming a lot more steady and like he's been doing some real healing lately. Shin obviously does not explain the ghostSena situation, but does honestly say that his conversations with Sena's other friends have helped him process his feelings a lot. And Sakuraba, being a supportive friend, very gently says that he's proud of Shin for reaching out, and for doing so well when he's going through something so hard, because he can't imagine losing the person he was in love with.

- Shin freezes up, and Sakuraba tries to reassure him that it's okay, he's known for a long time, he's so sorry that Shin never got to actually process those feelings with Sena, and Shin doesn't have to talk about it but if he ever wants to Sakuraba's there for him-- and Shin very stiltedly deflects the whole conversation because he doesn't want to totally shut Sakuraba down when he's just trying to be supportive but also Sena is right there

- After finally, awkwardly shooing Sakuraba out the door, Shin sits back down and tries to Talk About It with Sena, but he's so emotionally frazzled that he's not able to get a stable connection. Since they can't have a two-way conversation, he just launches into apologizing-- he's sorry, he understands if it makes Sena uncomfortable, Sena doesn't need to feel obligated to respond to it and of course Shin is going to help him finish getting what he needs regardless--

- Sena's just RAPIDLY flickering in and out of view, with the time he's not visible getting longer and longer as Shin keeps talking because they are incredibly emotionally out-of-sync, and with Shin only able to tell that Sena looks upset whenever he's able to see him, he makes some Assumptions about Sena's feelings about his accidental confession.

- Things don't get better over the next day or two. They try to do their synchronizing exercises, but even reciting memories doesn't help because Shin is too anxious and ashamed (and sleep-deprived from stress) to connect to them emotionally, which is only compounded because he realizes that Sena's deadline is fast approaching and they won't be able to finish in time if he can't get his shit together but that anxiety Does Not Help with relaxing enough to synchronize when he's spiralling over the thought of losing Sena again because of something that he "did".

- Finally, Sena apparently gets desperate and snatches up the metronome during one of the moments when he's solid for just long enough to do it.

- Shin doesn't see him for a while after that, and assumes (correctly) that Sena has taken the metronome with him to try and sync with Monta and/or Suzuna instead, and also assumes (incorrectly) that this is because Sena is extremely disappointed with him at best and totally hates him at worst, and that either way Sena probably doesn't want much to do with him anymore even if he is able to be brought back.

- He spirals for like, A Day, after which he does in fact break and go to tear up very stoically on Sakuraba about how yes he was (is) in love with Sena and it hurts him that he'll never get to express that properly (now that Sena wants nothing to do with him) and how he feels like he let himself (and Sena) down by not being able to act on that earlier (when it wasn't a literal life-or-death situation) and how maybe he's just not cut out for emotions and connections with other people actually, just look at even his relationship with his parents???

- Sakuraba comforts him and very gently tells him he's being a catastrophizing dingus and shows him, like, a mountain of texts on his phone not ONLY from concerned fellow Oujous, but also from a bunch of the people that Shin's talked to about Sena over the last few weeks, all of them expressing the general sentiment of "wow I was super surprised when Shin came around to talk to me about Sena but I'm so glad he did, it looks like he's doing well, keep an eye on him for me" in varying levels of transparency because after all they are Manly Footballers, but regardless: look at that, Shin is actually perfectly capable of forming relationships with other people, and they like and care about him.

- This results in some decidedly less stoic tears, and Sakuraba and Shin successfully patch things up after their previous awkward discussion about Shin's feelings for Sena. When Shin leaves he immediately heads for Enma to try and find Monta, because even if Sena and his friends don't want to see him he absolutely can't just shrug and sit back and just wait to see if they manage to save him.

- When he's like halfway there, he comes across Monta and Suzuna heading in his direction, and they cut off his questions by just being like NOPE SHUT UP COME WITH US and dragging him over to like, a park gazebo for some semi-privacy.

- Suzuna gets the metronome out of her bag and sets it on the park table and turns it on. Monta pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and starts reading.

- It turns out that after he left Shin's, Sena ghosted up into Monta's room and just plopped the suddenly-appearing metronome down on Monta's desk, scaring the shit out of him but also giving a very clear signal of WE NEED TO TALK. Monta called up Suzuna and the three of them had spent the last day and a half working on synchronizing non-stop, and while they still aren't nearly as good as Shin and Sena had gotten with weeks' worth of practice, they got far enough along that Sena was able to have them slowly write out some of his memories with Shin, this time from his perspective, through the unsteady connection.

- Suzuna and Monta take turns yanking the paper back and forth between them to read out the description of Sena and Shin's memories, and with Shin tapping along to the metronome, he's able to see Sena more and more clearly over time until he's solid more often than not.

- As it becomes increasingly clear, even to Shin, that these specific memories Sena has chosen to share are a record of him coming to realize his feelings for Shin, Sena is eventually able to take Shin's hands and hold them without disappearing, tapping not needed. He interrupts Suzuna and Monta to try to finish off the confession himself: Shin didn't need to be scared when Sena found out about his feelings, because--

- Absolutely overwhelmed by everything about the last 36 hours and having no ability to process any of it in words ANYMORE but moved by the SPIRIT OF COMMUNICATION regardless, Shin gambles on the pretty sure bet that he and Sena are in-sync about this, and kisses him.

- It connects. (And connects, and connects...) Sena's pendant starts to glow brighter and brighter until he's totally enveloped, and--

- Switch back to Sena's POV! He wakes up on the street in front of the truck again, scraped up but otherwise totally unharmed. So are the little girl, who he successfully pushed out of the way, and the driver of the car, who stopped in time regardless. Shinigami-san is also there, and Sena tells It to leave the driver alone because It owes him one, and Shinigami-san congratulates him and tells him that hey hey that was the plan along!! (The onlookers assume that he's confused from the near-accident when he starts talking to thin air.)

- Sena waves off all the concerned onlookers and runs off to find somewhere to sit where he's not going to be gawked at so he can text literally everyone he knows. By the time he finds a bench, he's already gotten HOLY SHIT WE JUST TIME-TRAVELED ARE YOU OKAY??? texts from Monta and Suzuna, which he responds to and incites a flood of emoji-based cheering. Everyone else he texts is politely puzzled by his "are you okay???" message, including Mamori and his parents to his intense relief, except--

- He gets a call from Sakuraba, who sounds very confused as he tells him that Shin wants to talk to him. Sena reassures Shin that he's okay, and tells him to meet him at the park that they left off at, and also that he loves him because he can't restrain himself after not getting to say it before. Shin says it back, and Sakuraba therefore sounds both confused AND delighted when he gets the phone back from Shin to say goodbye.

- Sena texts Suzuna and Monta to meet him at the same place, since it's about halfway between Enma and Oujou, and starts running.

- Shin and Sena, being… Shin and Sena, get there before the other two, and there's so many tears and so much hugging and so many I Love Yous and also some apologies. Monta and Suzuna eventually arrive and there's another round of tears and hugging and I Love Yous, and when everyone is less punchdrunk off of trauma and catharsis, they sit down and figure out that it's only the people that actually saw Sena as a ghost that remember the other timeline.

- With the group understandably not ready to be separated under the circumstances, but also with Sena desperately wanting to see his parents, Mamori and Riku, he comes up with a thin excuse for an impromptu dinner party at his parents' place later in the day (celebrating passing a tough test? beat the Cupids in a football game? national pancake day?? doesn't matter!!!), clears it with them, and invites Mamori+Hiruma and Riku over as well. (Shin lets Sena arrange takeout for everyone on his dime so that Sena's parents won't have to cook for an unplanned dinner party.)

- Fic ends with the group heading toward Sena's parents' house, Shin and Sena holding hands, with Sena feeling content and confident in his relationships as his phone continuously blows up with people responding to his check-in text, and Shin admitting that he's feeling pretty hopeful about the idea of getting to form connections with Sena's family all over again.

END. Thanks for indulging my "I'm too lazy to write this but NOT too lazy to bulletpoint each plot detail beat-by-beat" post, haha!

#shinsena #eyeshield 21 #my fic #kind of!!!

[therainroguefanfiction]

⁂ Seven Minutes (Sena Kobayakawa)

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life, Fluff ☁

Word Count: 3,627 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Sena ☁

World: Eyeshield 21 ☁

Author’s Note: This was originally meant to be a Seven Minutes in Heaven with all of the cast, but I started this fic years ago when I was watching Eyeshield 21 and never finished it. It’s been so long, I don’t remember all of them well and didn’t feel confident completing it so I changed it up and made it a Sena-centric fic.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

“Ya-ha! Ya-ha! Ya-ha! Ya-ha!”

You groaned, lifting your face from the fluffy pillow. Your tired eyes scanned the room for the source of the insistent, high-pitched yell that seemed to be on an endless loop. Your gaze stopped on the screen of your laptop that lay open on the desk. In the middle of the screen was Hiruma’s trademark symbol, the Devil Bat, floating around and flapping its wings while repeating Ya-Ha! a hundred times over.

With an exasperated sigh, you pushed yourself out of bed and over to the desk. You scratched your cheek after sitting down in the wooden chair, running your finger over the mousepad. The Devil Bat smirked and flew to the corner of the screen. A chibi head of Hiruma appeared seconds later.

“Get your ass to the clubhouse pronto, or there will be hell to pay! Ya-ha!”

You blinked at the chibi head that laughed maniacally. You were almost tempted to ignore the message. Saturday was the one day you got off of practice and work, and now he’s wanting you to show up to do god-knows-what.

The chibi Hiruma cackled again, the rest of his body appearing with a machine gun in hand. He pointed it at you, the grin growing to show off his insanely sharp teeth. “I won’t take no for an answer!”

Your eye twitched. You weren’t sure if you should be annoyed or impressed. Either way, you pushed away from the desk and grabbed a towel before entering the bathroom.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

You yawned as you shuffled onto the Deimon High School grounds, hands stuffed into the pockets of your hoodie. Before you could reach out to slide the club room door open, a hand landed on your shoulder.

“Come on. We were waiting for you so we could leave.”

“Leave?” you turned around to face Musashi, “Leave where?”

Musashi heaved a deep sigh, closing his eyes. “Hiruma wouldn’t even tell me or Kurita.”

“This is gonna be bad, huh?” you questioned as you turned, walking at his side.

Musashi nodded, “Yeah, probably.”

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

After exiting the train, the Devil Bats followed Hiruma into a twenty-five-floor office building. Going to the twentieth floor and to the end of the hallway, Hiruma pushed open the oak door. The Inside was fairly simple. There were several different couches throughout the room. Coffee tables, a desk, a chair, and two bookshelves.

“What are we doing here?” Mamori asked as she walked farther into the room.

No one knew what to think.

Hiruma laughed, moving to sit on the desk that sat at the front of the room. Cerberus and Piggyberus jumped up on either side of him. “Everyone isn’t here yet. Nothing will be explained until everyone arrives.”

“Everyone?” Mamori looked at him, her eyes curious.

A laugh was his response, followed by a sadistic grin.

“I guess we just sit and wait.” Sena mused, sitting down on one of the couches. Suzuna and Monta followed suit, sitting on either side of him.

“What’s the point of this anyway?” Jumonji questioned, hands in his pockets.

“Seems pointless to me,” Kuroki responded, his hands folded behind his head.

“I doubt there is a point to this.” Togano agreed, his eyes trained on the manga in his hand.

Hiruma grinned. “Think of this as… special training.”

“Special training?” the three chorused, blinking in confusion. This also caught everyone else’s attention, which was now on the cackling blonde.

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” you sighed, falling back onto the couch opposite of Sena. Musashi agreed, taking a seat next to you.

Within twenty minutes of absolute boredom, various people began to appear, each more confused than the last, but not half as confused – and, in some cases, annoyed – as the Devil Bats currently were.

“They’re late,” Hiruma growled, firing his gun at the ceiling.

“Stop that, Hiruma!” Mamori scolded, grabbing the gun from the blonde’s hand.

Before anyone could question who they were, the door was kicked open with such force that it slammed into the wall. Standing in the doorway with a less than pleasant expression on his face was none other than Agon Kongo. Behind him was Reiji Maruko and Rikiya Gao of the Hakushu Dinosaurs.

Everyone stared in shock at the sight, which was quickly followed by hushed whispers. They were all thinking the same thing: What are they doing here?

“Yosh! Now that everyone is finally here,” Hiruma threw Agon a creepy grin. “Let’s begin.”

Agon gritted his teeth, shuffling over and plopping down on your right. His eyes were narrowed behind his glasses and his fists were clenched tightly in his hoodie’s pocket. After the other two entered the room, Hiruma walked over and slammed it shut, locking it and feeding the key to Cerberus.

“Why didn’t we notice the lock had been switched?” Monta whispered to Sena who shrugged in response, looking just as nervous as the rest of the Bats. No one knew better than them just what Hiruma was truly capable of.

“It was too small a thing to notice,” you muttered in reply, watching the blonde as he made his way back to the desk, leaning against it with his ankles crossed and arms folded. His grin grew, showing off his extremely sharp teeth. “Listen up, ladies! I’m only gonna say this once!”

Everyone’s eyes were on the blonde maniac. The room had been completely overtaken by silence. No one dared to move or even breathe.

“Devil Hiruma’s Seven. Minutes. In. Heaven.” he said slowly, his teal orbs scanning the shocked and horrified expressions of the group.

“W-What?” Mamori stuttered, taking a step back, “You can’t be serious, Hiruma!”

“I’m dead serious.”

“Well,” you stood from the couch, stuffing your hands into your pockets, “That’s gonna be a hard pass for me.”

Hiruma cackled, pulling out another weapon from god-knows-where and aiming it at you, “If you try to leave, I’ll send you straight to hell.”

“Why not?” you shrugged, looking at the blonde lazily. “I go through hell every day with you anyway.”

“There’s no way to get out!” Jumonji cried, pulling on the doorknob with his foot on the wall.

“You’re doing it wrong!” Kuroki growled, his own hands wrapping around the knob and giving a heavy pull.

“You have to twist then pull!” Togano joined the pair.

“It’s not budging! What the hell?!” Kuroki growled, kicking the door as the other two stood off to the side, panting.

“Move,” you commanded, walking over to the door. Your right hand pulled back, eyes narrowing in determination. You let out a yell before slamming your fist into the wood. Now, normally, you’d easily be able to knock down a wooden door, but this was no normal wooden door. Hiruma had his hands on it, after all, so the fact that it was reinforced with steel didn’t surprise you.

“Y/N!” Sena rushed over as you squatted down, holding your wrist in pain. “Are you okay?”

“Che,” you glared at your bloody knuckles before turning your blazing eyes to the blonde. He was laughing so hard, tears were leaving the corners of his eyes like a waterfall, “The hell’d you do to it?”

“You think I wouldn’t calculate the option that you’d try breaking the door down with your super-strength? No one can break down that door!”

Your eyes shifted to the rather large Gao standing near the door, “Do you mind?”

He grinned, “Not really.”

“It won’t work~” Hiruma sang.

After you and the Ha-Ha Brothers moved out of the way, Gao stepped forward. He took a deep breath before letting out a roar and body slamming the door. Now, with Gao’s monstrous strength – that may be even greater than both yours and Agons -, you’d think he’d be able to break down the door without a problem, but the door didn’t budge. It didn’t even rattle.

“W-What the hell?” Monta asked, his eyes wide in shock.

“T-That’s not… possible.” Sena gulped, his hand clenching around the back of your hoodie. He had witnessed Gao’s strength back when he defeated the Spinx and knew that it was the real deal. The fact that not even he could break the door spelled out bad news for you all.

“You’re more than welcome to jump out the window.” Hiruma motioned towards the back wall, which was completely made of glass, “If you think you can survive a twenty-story drop, that is.”

Despite most of the people in the room having in-human strength and speed, not even they stood a chance dropping from a twenty-story window and surviving to tell the tale.

“In other words, it’s do-or-die.” you sighed, moving to re-take your seat between Musashi and Agon.

“That’s right~”

“Devil Hiruma’s Seven Minutes in Heaven… how does that work?” Sakuraba questioned.

“Kekeke~ The rules are just slightly different than that of the normal game.”

“It’s more of a seven minutes in hell type thing,” you responded, staring blankly at the tan carpeted floor.

“O-Oh.” Sakuraba gulped, a small drop of sweat rolling down the side of his forehead.

“What is ‘seven minutes in heaven’?”

Almost everyone in the room froze at Shin’s question, sending him either looks of disbelief or looks of horror.

“Yeah! I’ve never heard of it before!” Mizumachi joined in, a carefree grin on his lips, “How do you play?”

The room tensed. Would they really have to explain that?

Everyone was brought from their thoughts at the high pitched Ya-ha! echoed through the room, belonging only to Devil Bat Jr. who had appeared on Hiruma’s laptop screen. Was that laptop on the desk when you got there?

Devil Bat appeared next to him, an evil grin on his face as words flashed across the screen in bold lettering: ✧Devil Bat & Devil Bat Jr.’s Explanations for Dummies✧

“Listen up, ladies, and try to keep up!” Devil Bat cackled, flapping his wings. “Seven minutes in heaven is a game created in the early 1950s by teenagers who had nothing better to do with their time. It’s played with a group of people, Ya-ha!”

“There are various versions floating around! Some people like to put objects in a hat, others prefer writing down colors or adding ribbons of various colors. For the Devil Hiruma version, all of the males will draw a Stick Figure on a piece of paper doing any random thing, along with any random number above ten. Crumble the paper and throw it in the box, Ya-ha!”

“From there, the women will select one of the papers from the hat. The person who drew the stick figure on the paper is the one that will spend a certain amount of time in the closet with her. The object of the game is to kiss the person you’re in the closet with. Anyone who fails to at least do that will be sent straight to hell!”

“Now, stop complaining and get to drawing! Ya-ha!”

The pair of Devil Bats disappeared from the screen and it went black.

Hearing that threat from Devil Bat Jr. really wasn’t that threatening, but the people from Deimon knew better than to underestimate such a threat. That would be a very stupid move on their part.

“Do we… really have to kiss?” Sena gulped, his face flushing. He took sneaky glances at you, but no one noticed but Hiruma.

“That’s right,” Hiruma reached into the drawer of the desk, pulling out a stack of printer paper and a bag of pens. He threw the paper at Mamori and the pens at Sena. “Hand those out to every guy in the room, Manajerks.”

Mamori huffed, stomping her foot but handing out a sheet to each male. Sena followed behind, giving each a pen to draw with. Most of the men looked less than happy to comply but knew that they had no other choice. After all, they weren’t allowed to leave until they played along.

After all the pictures had been drawn, crumbled and thrown into the green shoebox, it was returned to Hiruma who gave it a shake and grinned, his teal orbs scanning the crowd for his first victim.

His eyes landed on the one person he absolutely loved to annoy. Walking over, he shoved the box in your face, sending you a manic-like grin, “Guess who’s first~”

“Oh, hell no.” you glared at the box, wishing with everything that it’d catch on fire right then and there.

“If you ever want to leave this room, shebitch, pick a damn piece of paper.”

“Go to hell, asshole.” you scoffed.

He cackled, “I’ll see you there.”

After a stare-off between the two that lasted a good twenty minutes, you finally sighed and stuck your hand into the box. You knew you weren’t gonna win against the devil. Besides, you didn’t have to kiss the person you got, just spend some time in a dark closet with him and pretend like you kissed. Fun.

Digging into the box, your hand finally settled on one of the slips of paper. Pulling it out, you heaved a sigh before pealing it open. The stick figure was neatly drawn with a helmet on its head. Above him was the number twenty-one.

Hiruma’s lips tugged up as if he expected the result, his sharp eyes snapping to Sena, who jumped in surprise. “Get in the closet with shebitch!”

Sena’s face went red as he glanced at you. Your face was blank as you stood up, shoving the paper against Hiruma’s chest. “I really fucking hate you, Hiruma.”

His laughter followed you as you headed to the closet, yanking the door open. It was small and cramped, barely able to fit two people, but Sena was small and didn’t take up much room. He stepped in behind you, jumping when the door slammed behind him.

His heart was racing, pounding in his ears. He was thankful that the closet was dark and hoped you couldn’t see how red his face had become. Ever since he first met you, Sena has had a huge crush on you that only grew as he spent more time with you. His crush had sprouted like a spring flower, turning into a one-sided love that he sometimes wished he didn’t experience.

You were a third year with no interest in sports or in dating, despite being asked out several times since you started high school. You weren’t the most attractive person in school, but you were far from being ugly. Sena always hated the attention you received, but he knew that you had no interest in dating any of them. Still, the thought that you might say yes scared him.

You would be graduating soon. His window of opportunity was closing, as Hiruma liked to say, but what could he do? He didn’t want to ruin his friendship with you.

“What are you thinking so hard about, Sena?” you asked, softly, leaning back against the wall. You studied him closely, though it was a bit hard to see his expression in the darkness.

“Ah, I, um…” he tried to swallow down his nerves. “I’m sorry Hiruma is doing this.”

“Not your fault,” you shrugged. “You’re going through it, too.” You paused, letting your body slide down the wall until you found the floor. “Honestly, I’m glad I got you and not one of those other idiots. I can’t imagine being stuck in here with that idiot Agon.”

Sena smiled softly, kneeling down as he tried to take up as little space as possible. His voice was soft, “I’m glad I got you, too.”

You didn’t think about the space, stretching your right leg out while the other was folded on the floor. The closet was so small that your foot almost touched the door. Sena was acutely aware of your leg brushing against his own.

“Do you… think Hiruma will know?” he mumbled, shifting awkwardly.

“Know what?”

“That we… didn’t kiss,” he mumbled, lowering his head.

“He probably will,” you glanced around the closet, but the darkness hid whatever secrets it might hide. “Knowing him, he’s got a camera in here somewhere.”

“A-Ah, I see…”

“He can’t force us to do anything, but he can certainly keep us in here until he’s satisfied.”

“S-Should we…?” Sena bit his lip, hands clenching around his jeans.

You hummed, thoughtfully, shifting so that you could move closer to him. You could feel the heat radiating off his face and you smirked. “Do you want to, Sena?”

He squeaked, falling back against the door to put distance between the two of you. You chuckled, closing the distance again. “W-What are you d-doing?”

You ran your fingers across his warm cheek. “You didn’t answer the question,”

“I…” he breathed out, closing his eyes tightly. “I do – !”

You pressed your lips against his, your hand on the back of his neck. His body tensed up, hand on your wrist.

‘Is this a dream? Y/N is really kissing me!’, his grip on your wrist tightened as his lips started to move against yours.

You smiled, tugging on his bottom lip as you pulled away. “That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

‘It’s now or never’, he thought, nervously. “Can I… tell you something, Y/N?”

You hummed, lightly tugging at his hair at the nape of his neck. “What is it?”

“Do you remember the day we met?” he asked, softly, fingers playing with the leather bracelet around your wrist.

“The day we met?” you echoed, thoughtfully. ‘That’s pretty random,’ Even so, you thought back to the day the results of the entrance exam came out. You planned on spending the day lazing around at home, but Hiruma threatened to release some photos of your illicit activities to the principal if you didn’t show up. He wanted to scope out some new blood for the football team and wanted you for free slave labor.

You remembered seeing Sena walking with Mamori when they turned the corner and ran straight into Ichirou Amano. Ichirou was in your class and he was known for being a hot-headed douche, especially to the younger students. He made the Ha-Ha brothers look like saints.

He had gotten super pissed off when Sena ran into him, even though he apologized profusely. Normally, you’d ignore such instances because it had nothing to do with you and you just couldn’t be bothered, but something about the situation had you acting on instinct. You had caught his fist before he could punch Sena and then punched him in the crotch with your steel-toed boots.

Sena smiled, “You said that it was your good deed for the day, stopping him from being able to breed.”

“Heh, he never looked at me again after that.”

He pulled your hand free from his neck, holding it between his own. “I remember thinking how cool you were. I would always see you around school, but I never knew how to approach you. Then Hiruma made me join the team and I started to see you more. I don’t think you remembered the day we met, but I never forgot it. Now that I think about it, I never thanked you for that…”

“I did remember,” you responded. “I thought it was strange when you joined the team. Didn’t seem like something you’d be interested in. I just figured Hiruma blackmailed you to get you to join.”

“Not quite,” he mumbled, his grip tightening around your hand. “He bribed me. He said if I joined, I could get closer to… to you.”

The pieces of the puzzle clicked into place in your mind. “Oh… oh~ You have a crush on me.”

He nodded, “You mean so much to me, Y/N. I want you to know that, but… it’s perfectly fine if you don’t feel the same! I don’t want to ruin our friendship over this…”

Your fingers wrapped tight around his hand and you gave a sharp tug, bringing his body towards yours. Your free arm wrapped around his neck and you claimed his lips once again. He responded instantly, lips moving in sync with your own.

You pulled back with a chuckle, your fingers lightly rubbing the back of his neck. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve always belonged to me, Sena. There’s a reason Mamori and Suzuna has always been the only girls around you. It’s not because you’re not cute or dateable, it’s because I threatened to destroy any girl that tried to get close to you.” You smirked. “Sorry, but I’m a bit possessive over what belongs to me,”

Sena smiled, feeling warmth fill his heart at your words. “Be as possessive as you want, Y/N.”

“Gladly,” you grinned, lips attaching to his neck. He stuttered out your name as you nipped his skin, marking him as yours.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

“Y/N?”

“Yes?”

“It’s definitely been more than seven minutes… don’t you think?”

You raised a brow, pulling both of you to your feet. You pecked his lips once more before grabbing the doorknob and twisting. It wasn’t locked, so it swung open without a problem. You stepped out and deadpanned.

Sena, being shorter than you, peeked around your side only to sweatdrop. “Where did everyone go…”

The room that had previously been filled with teenagers was now completely empty. You sent the first year a look. “I think we were set up,”

“But how? All of the guys drew different things. I saw them when I helped collect them all.”

“I’ve learned not to question him,” you sighed before turning around, your arms sliding around his waist. You pulled him tight against your body, happy to be able to see his face as the embarrassed expression he wore. “It worked out in the end, don’t you agree~?”

He nodded, a smile slipping onto his lips.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

📜 Read more by checking out my masterlist 📜

If you enjoy my writing, please considering tipping me on Kofi or Cashapp. Every little bit helps and means a lot, thank you so much ^~^)/ If you can’t afford to do so, that’s okay, too, thanks for reading!

#comedy #slice of life #fluff #one shot #kobayakawa sena #anime #e21 #eyeshield 21 #writing #creative writing #writeblr #scenario #scenarios #anime scenarios #anime scenario #reader insert #reader-insert #reader #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfics #anime fanfic #anime fanfics #seven minutes in heaven #sena kobayakawa