The excitement was abuzz around the high school campus today, as the first Basketball game of the season was about to take place. While the early season games are often considered the foundation from which teams begin to grow and thrive, they also served as the beginning of inter-school rivalries yet again. The gym had many students from both schools in the stands, along with their respective cheer squads. While the cheerleaders were warming up the crowds, the coaches were going over strategy and game plans in their locker rooms. The Sensuji high school team room was relatively tame, but the Coach of Juuban was a little different.

"Alright you guys! Get in there and crush them off the bat! Sensuji is always low tier so we need to use them as a stepping stone to get pumped up and push our ways to the Nationals again this year!" Coach says, addressing his team energetically and enthusiastically. Perhaps with a bit of over zealousness as well.

Meanwhile, the Juuban Cheerleaders were doing a mediocre job of getting the crowd excited. There just seemed to be a lack of creativity and interesting routine here, with the coach equally disinterested. Most of the cheerleaders were doing it to credit an extracurricular activity to their resumes for college applications. A few entrepreneurial students operated snack stands in the corner with permission from the school selling a few basic snacks using equipment borrowed from the culinary room.

A tall male in black jeans with a blue formal shirt, the collar popped up arrived with a few male friends in tow. They look around, as the dark haired lead chuckles slightly and looks at his friends with a lazy smile. "I forget how cheap Juuban is...saa...let's see if these scrubs are worth anything this year." he says with an arrogant chuckle, reflected by his friends as they went to the top of a bleacher on the Juuban side and claimed a spot in the middle, forming a small pack that others were reluctant to sit around.

Val blinked, why the hell was she here again? Oh yes the boy she had dress up to her sleep over was playing. Seeing how he came to her event social standards dictated she attend his. So here she was cramming into a school gym for basket ball game. Though as soon as she was in the gym she noticed something severely wrong. Now Val was a competitive girl; and she certainly was not going to attend a school with second best anything. That and being in show biz she knew how much the audience applause could make a difference.

”Pushy cat…this wont do; You get the girls dancing I’ll get the crowd going”

Val walked up to one of the lead cheerleaders during a pause in their routine and grabbed the megaphone.

”GOOD EVENING JUUBAN! Every one stand up its time to make a bit of noise for our team yes?”

It would seem that Val had taken on another persona, her movements where animated and a large smile was on her face.

”Now I want you all to fallow me”

She looked back at Yuki with a wink and began a series of stomps and claps. Creating a rhythm that was catchy and up beat.

Yuki had arrived to the basketball game with Val, but was somewhat disappointed in the lack of school spirit. For the competitor in Yuki, this would simply not do and it appeared as though Valdis was of the same mind. Even so, her words took Yuki by surprise.

”Get them dancing?” Now Yuki wasn’t exactly what one could call shy, but even she felt as though that might be a tall order. Then again…there was that one time where she found herself surprisingly good at charming girls.

Though as she watched Valdis take on a whole new persona, even Yuki was impressed. Valdis was good. Well she was a professional after all. Yuki quickly stood up, trying to follow Valdis’ lead.

”Let’s go Juuban!” She yelled before imitating the other girl’s stomps and claps. A few people around her gave Yuki questionable stares. Yuki responded with a large grin.

”Come on, join in!” She spoke with confidence. This was one of those things that once a few people started to join in, the rest would follow along as well. Valdis with the megaphone would certainly help things as well.

”Juu-ban! Juu-ban!” Yuki then began to chant, following the beat.

It was here, the first game of the season. As the coach shouts encouragement and motivational speeches at the team Kousuke simply sits on the end of the bench taking deep breaths. The atmosphere around Kousuke was nothing like the one he carried in everyday life there was a air of tension around him. Like a spring that had been wound tight and was ready, aching to be released.

When the teams begin to enter the basketball court Kousuke lets out a long exhalation and takes his spot, an expression of utter focus on his face. It was time, the game was about to start, the first step to domination and victory was here, and the whistle blew. The teams center won the toss and the game starts with the ball being knocked into Steven, the team’s captain’s, hands.

“Alright Kou, score and get the tempo started.” He orders in a good natured voice that also seemed to carry no room for backtalk and no tolerance for disappointment as he gave a quick and precise bounce pass to the team’s ace.

And it began.

The moment Kousuke’s hand touched the ball, the spring releases and Kousuke shot forward like a bullet. Juking past the first defender Kousuke spun while keeping perfect control over the basketball, as his gaze turned towards the hoop he bounced the ball through the legs of another defender, a play Yuki would recognize as something she had done to him during their one on one game. Then following the momentum he takes three more steps towards the basket and jumps.

“RAAAAAAA!” Kousuke lets out a below as he jumps high into the air and release a monsterous one handed dunk that makes the rim rattle and ball rebound across the floor. After landing Kousuke rolled his shoulders and jogged back to his side of the court.

Sophia runs into the stadium a little late. Too busy making shirts for school spirit. Her parents told her homemade shirts were a thing for games to show school spirit. So in the past few hours, she had been tie dying plain white t-shirts in the school colors. A picture of a fierce honey badger drawn in fabric markers stands proud on the front while the words “Let’s go Juuban!” in big bright letters are on the back.

Carrying homemade shirts, she finds Valdis and Yuki rallying on the crowd. “Here you go!” she says with a ton of pep, throwing shirts at both of them. “I made quite a few extras too since the shirts came in a large pack,” she says before placing them on the chair behind her. Joining in with Valdis and Yuki’s school pep, she yells towards the crowd, clapping loudly, “Not loud enough! Yell louder for the best basketball team! JUUBAN! JUUBAN!”

The other team's morale drops considerably after Kousuke utterly dominates the first in play with the ball. The next few minutes would be spent trying to recover from the stunning beginning of the match, but it was clear that Juuban had the advantage for the moment as the score began to ramp up to 17-9. During one of the exchanges, a Sensuji senior tries to steal the ball from Kousuke, while in the process leaves an elbow going into Kousuke's diaphragm, the cheap shot not having been seen by the ref.

Meanwhile, the pack of boys at the top begin to laugh, as the leader begins to mock him.

"How did that taste Kou? Welcome to the real world baby!" he says with an arrogant sneer, to the high fives of his comrades.



Meanwhile, the head cheerleader looks indignant at Valdis taking the megaphone and looks at her, poking her in the chest.

"Hey! Who do you think you are you freaky emo chick?" she says, indignant, trying to take the megaphone back from Valdis, feeling embarrassed at Valdis having shown her up, but a soda cup is thrown at her and blows in her hair, showing the crowd seemed to prefer Valdis' method. The head cheerleader looks angry, glaring at the direction of where the drink came from. The other cheerleaders, sheep in the flock looked for guidance, and reluctantly began to follow Yuki's lead, the crowd growing in a support of 'Juuban' being shouted.

" Thats it... Now if you'll pull some hair and start calling each other names." Takumi smirked, another flash from his camera going off from the floor. Unlike most photographers, he enjoyed taking interesting shots from odd angles. For example, this time he was flat on his back with his camera pointed up from behind the other team's head cheerleader. He hadn't been in the stadium long, just long enough however to catch some meager shots of the basketball team running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

A big wide smile rippling back his lips. Another flash from his camera and Takumi began scooting across the floor on his back. " scoot, scoot, scoot." He says to himself, scooting back to the bleachers. It was safe at the bleachers, easy to blend in and easier to take mediocre shots. All he needed was a preppy teen girl smashing his camera lens before getting the shots he needed. Hell he could sell these to the school news paper, that or the other teams school. Either way, money is money.

Now normally going to a basketball game or any sports game was not something Takumi would enjoy attending. However, he was being paid a good sum from the local news paper. So might as well watch this mess of a sport.

Valdis gave a triumphant smirk, that was more like it. Ridiculous not to being screaming wild at one of these games, it was half of the fun of coming. Exactly how bad did you have to fail for people not to be loud at a game? She gave a thumbs up to Yuki for getting the others going, she defiantly made things easier. Suddenly there was a bright yellow shirt being thrown at her, she caught it. She just stared at it then back up at the very peppy Little mouse. Shrugging she slipped on the shirt over her black long sleeved shirt. So now she was donned in a bright yellow shirt that really contrasted with her long purple hair which was done up in a high pony tail.

Her attention was pulled away when the head cheerleader she snagged the megaphone from snapped at her. A sly smile spread across her face, as she held the megaphone away and leaned in close to the girls face and whispered to her.

”I’m your better in every way, looks, breeding, talent….and I’m actually competent in what I do. Find another activity cause you suck at this one”

She leaned back just in time for the drink to go flying, she gave the look of I told you so to the cheerleader. Using her normal voice she called out to the now drenched girl.

”Little mouse has some extra shirts over there; so why don’t you get cleaned up, no point of starting a wet t-shirt contest after all.”

Valdis turned back to the crowed, chanting into the microphone when ever things began to wind down. Every time they scored she lead in dance; her musical voice ringing out. Even she felt excited to see Kousuke dominate the other team. It was how it should be; though she didn’t miss the cheep shot that the refs missed. She brought the megaphone to her lips and yelled a load booo while showing a thumbs down towards the player who took the cheap shot.

Kousuke felt a bit discontented. The score was too close, well it was to be expected that the team wasn’t taking Sensuji too seriously. After all they were last year’s National champions and Sensuji was not a national level team. It’s always like this at the start. Kousuke had to remind himself, he couldn’t wait for nationals when real challenges would present themselves. Hell, Capt was benched at the moment.

As Kousuke continued to think about this he suddenly felt a hard blow in his solar plexus and his complete attention focused on the man who had hit him. In the background he hears some boos and cheers, but his expression went from concentrated to a cold seething that would show anger to anyone with half a wit of sense.

He hands the ball over to one of the new players who was being played just to get some experience and says. “Give me the ball.” Then he jukes his defender and gets the ball, weaving past opposing players Kousuke reaches the opponents foul line and stands up straight. “I’ll take that foul shot now.” He says coldly and then instead of taking a proper shot he simply makes an overhand throw at the basket causing the ball to hit the backboard hard, but at a steep enough angle that it simply goes through the hoop with a great deal of momentum.

Then instead of running back to his side to defend he steps up and begins full court defense, his stare intense on the members of the opposing team. This was no longer about simply winning the game, he was going to crush these bugs who defile basketball, HIS DOMAIN!

Yuki continued to cheer as the game got underway. Right off the bat, Kousuke came out full force not that she was surprised. Having played against him herself, Yuki was fully aware of Kousuke’s aggressive play style. She even recognized a few of her own moves as well.

She was happy to see that Sophia decided to turn up for the game as well.

”Glad to see you could make it!” She yelled, examining the shirt before pulling it over her head.

As she continued cheering and watching the game Yuki frowned at some of the rough play that went unchecked. She had heard the comments from the stands as well, but such behavior wasn’t uncommon at sporting events. Valdis seemed to notice the play as well and began to boo.

”Come on ref, that was a foul!” Yuki yelled. Again, these things happened all the time, but she hoped the ref wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. She then, however, continued to cheer, it seemed the play and riled Kousuke up.

Sophia hands over another shirt to the drenched cheerleader. Valdis’ initial reaction to the insult was expected… her reaction to the girl getting drenched was not. It was oddly nice for her. She smiles at Valdis, “See, you are plenty nice to be around…”

Sophia looks back towards the game. She winces a little as Kousuke gets elbowed. “Ouch. I don’t remember basketball being so violent.” However, it appears that it did little injure him. She cheers as he makes his shot. However, she is a little worried about how the rest of the game would go from this point, but hopefully, there would be no injuries tonight.

She turns to Valdis and Yuki. “Seems like you two have become the pep squad.”

The refs watching the game seem slightly confused as to why Kousuke did what he did, conferring briefly to discuss whether such conduct was considered 'legal' in terms of Basketball, but in interest of keeping the game going, they consider it a normal shot. Meanwhile, the Sensuji team glares at Kousuke, the coach calling a time out for a moment while the Sensuji team huddles up at it's base of operations, allowing Juuban a few moments respite before the game keeps going. Meanwhile, the Juuban coach, having seen Kousuke take the hit, takes the moment to go and confer with the refs, the conversation muffled by the crowd, but a few choice words such as 'blind nincompoop' and 'crooked cheat' come out. Juuban's coach was infamous for his 'disagreements' with refs who were failing to keep up their end of the deal, reflecting the passion, albeit slightly misguided, for his own team's well being.

Meanwhile the head cheerleader, having been made twice to look foolish, ignores Sophia. She reaches back when Valdis turns and launches a full force slap which lands upon her cheek causing an appropriate red mark and sting to it, while glaring at her.

"You're only famous because you dress like a..." she starts, before a second drink is thrown to a loud cascade of boos from the crowd...the cheerleader's disbelief at her horrible run of luck leaving her open for retaliation.

Valdis just blinks at Sophia confused…nice?

”Nice? I just don’t have any desire to see her headlights when it gets chilly.”

She chuckled at the mention of pep squad, it did seem out of character for her slightly but she hated to lose. The attitude the crowd had when they walked in was a losing one, and that was simply unacceptable. As she turned back she suddenly felt a sharp pain spread across her face, the force of it jerking her head to the side. Valdis paused for a bit slowly turning her head, the look in her eyes was of ice cold intent. You NEVER hit a person in show biz in the face, NEVER, they made their livelihoods on their looks and talents. To damage her face even in the slightest of red marks was a direct attack to her career.

A scary smile spread across her lips, a look of pure evil was on her face. She stepped over to the cheerleader and lightly tapped the girls cheek with the back off her had, before walking past her and straight to a kid she noticed snapping photos while scooting on his back. Valdis walked up to him and crouched down so she was closer to his level.

”You wouldn’t have happened to get a picture of that would you?”

She tapped the bright red mark on her cheek.

”Of course,” Yuki nodded when Sophia mentioned the fact that she and Valdis had become the pep squad. ”You have to go all out at these sorts of events, that what makes them fun. I’m also use to playing in the game, so it’s fun to be a fan once in a while too.”

The coach arguing with the refs was also typically normal for basketball games, especially when it came to these refs. Yuki watched during the time out with mild interest. It was one thing to miss a foul, those happened all the time, but at least competent refs were able to hide and make up for their mistakes. These just struck her as idiots, seeing as they had seemed to question Kousuke’s last shot for some reason. Sure he was a bit flashier than the average player, but nowhere near technical foul zone as of yet. If anything that was the other team.

Yuki’s attention was then brought to Valdis and the scene with the cheerleader. Yuki would have intervened, but the crowd beat her to it plus it seemed like Valdis could take care of the other on her own. Valdis didn’t really seem like the type of person Yuki would want to piss off.

Sophia is a little shocked to see the cheerleader slap Valdis in the face. Did people need to be so aggressive and cruel both on and off the court? She wasn’t entirely sure how to repair the situation at hand. The look Valdis gave certainly meant she had something devious in mind for the cheerleader.

Powers of love, right? Could she force a little empathy in these people towards each other? Could she get them to care about each other’s wellbeing? Could she get everyone to stop attacking each other and apologize? Internally, she shrugs… it was worth a shot. She takes a deep breath, and on the exhale, she lets out some of her feelings of love and friendship. Not enough to act buddy-buddy with everyone, but enough to have some concern for a stranger.

She looks at the cheerleader, “Is your wounded pride really worth starting a fight? I would say apologize while you can… Also, please just take the shirt. You are soaked.” Her face seems somewhat conflicted. While she doesn’t really like the girl for attacking her friend, she doesn’t really want this mean to destroy her high school life. “Just let it go…”

To Valdis, she says, “I can’t say that you don’t deserve some kind of justice, revenge, compensation for what just happened, but please don’t destroy the girl.”