Now normally when you go to a basketball game you watch the players. However, it seemed that the crowd in the front wold seem more attuned to the drama consumed side lines where the cheerleaders were making a scene. Of course you would have your dedicated fans who watched the game have some point in these young adult lives. So no matter how many times he clicked the button to take a photo. Deep down, it was almost disappointing.

Another splash? Oh my, and a cat fight was about to break out. All such juicy shots this game had blessed him with. The light in the gym was perfect now for not using a flash. The head cheerleader had assaulted what he believed to be a vampire. Then the rest of the drama unfolded. Of course he couldn't forget about the game. The one where the refs were idiots and the coaches danced around like monkeys making calls.

He did get an interesting photo of one of the Juuban basket ball players, Kousuke if he recalled get hit. God these refs sucked. Before even taking another picture, Takumi's attention was disturbed. Vampire girl had approached. She was pointing at the redness of her cheek. Of course he got that picture. It wasn't discreet, hell the whole gym probably saw it. Thus the fans booing and making more racket than what was actually needed.

" Huh… Here I thought you had no blood of your own. Well, then thats slightly depressing." He sighs dramatically, shaking his head before continuing again. " Possibly, maybe, not quite sure.. more than likely…." He pauses, looking back through the pictures he took for a brief moment. " Yep I believe so, also a few pictures of the game, fans stuffing their faces with hotdogs, you throwing a drinks. " He shrugs, taking a snap shot of her face.

As the timeout is called Kousuke gets to his feet and leaves the bench as he says a few quick words to his teammates saying he would be right back. As Sophia used her emotion control all of the tension and intensity seemed to drain out of Kousuke, this was after all a sport about beating your opponent so suddenly making them empathic to each other just left Kousuke feeling bad for how weak they were. Well he felt that towards most of this teammates too. A loneliness starts to take seed within him, well I guess I shouldn’t have expected to find a challenge quickly.

As he starts walking towards the drama one of his teammates grabs him and hands him a pen and a small board which causes him to let out a sigh. Valdis’s presence in this dispute was causing man of the adults to shy away from getting involved but when Kousuke reached the group he stares at her with unamused dead eyes. “I don’t recall these games being a place for you to come make a scene, or for you to end up in a fight that simply distracts from the game. I appreciate your desire to help the crowd get going, but that this point the sideline drama is being counterproductive. Please take a seat and cool your heels.” He says in a flat voice that none of them would have ever heard from him before.

Without waiting to see the response Kousuke hoped off the bleachers and walks back onto the court. “Well let’s continue the lesson.”

Her eyebrow arched, she didn’t recall having any liquids. Nor did she remember throwing one.

” I do not believe I was the one to throw the drinks; but anyways would you mind if I bought that photo off of you”

She pulled a few bills out from her bra of holding; if successful she would pay him for the picture and get it when she got it, if not she would just shrug and walk away back to the little group.
Valdis looked down at little mouse; at the back of her mind she got an itching sensation that could only mean she was doing something weird. Her gaze began to soften from the ice that it was, just slightly. But it held its edge when she looked back at the cheerleader.

”Your pride should have been hurt as soon as I took the mega phone and your coach allowed it. Although I question if you have any to slap a person once there back is turned?

Val was going to wait for a response from the cheerleader before she decided what to do with her….normally she would have just got the photo and made her grovel…then destroy her anyways. But she was going to give the girl a chance to apologize; how ever that was when Kousuke walked up and decided to ‘lecture’ her about starting fights….She certainly did not start it; nor was she the one to start a scene or even make one afterwards for that matter. Any softening of her gaze was lost; her only response to Kousuke was to flip him off and walk away. As she walked away she pulled off the school shirt and tossed it over at the cheer leader. That certainly was the last time she attempted to help him at all. She waved as she left the auditorium, mostly to the two girls whom she figured would stay to cheer the boy on. Good luck to them with keeping the crowd going…

Sophia's potency with Love influence was a bit...stronger than usual. The entire Juuban crowd is infused with a sense of affection and love for whatever is most relevant to them. For some, this meant making out with their girlfriends in the bleachers, for others this meant a frenzied cheering for the Juuban team, and for others, they just began to discuss philosophy of affection with regards to their hobbies of choice. To the opposition's fans, it would be an odd scene on the other side.

Meanwhile, the soon to be former Head Cheerleader is influenced and runs over to Valdis...her anger replaced by something else. She hangs her head and then pauses when she was sure that Valdis could hear.

"...I'm sooooo sorry for what I did! I will do anything I can to make it up to you!" she grovels, the makeup running down the side of her face as she couldn't contain the guilt for wronging the person she (currently) admired and loved so much. The look on her face was truly repentant and she seemed to have a sincerity in her voice that might reach even Valdis' dark heart. Valdis would start to hear calls of admiration from fans that would rise above the crowds chatter, begging her to stay.

Others would fixate on Yuki, in fact, the junior cheerleaders whom were following her lead began to surround her and express thoughts of admiration for her boldness to stand up and take command of the dance steps, with some making a vote for her to become the new head cheerleader while others commented for Valdis to do so.

The black haired man at the top was looking at the ground level, and seeing Yuki became rather interested in the sporty girl, but holds his position for now, while talking to his friends about various things, including asking slightly insecure chances like 'what do you think the chances are a girl like that has a boyfriend?'.

The visiting team, having been outside the range of Sophia's influence on the other side of the Gym, comes back onto the court. The Juuban coach gets off his rant and apologizes to the ref for his outburst, retreating to his team's bench, while the other Juuban players are filled with a simply love of playing basketball and not quite a competitive 'crush the opponent' mindset.

The visiting team meanwhile gets back on the court, and when the whistle is blown, they begin a stern offensive, scoring 11 points consecutively over the new few minutes, taking advantage of the numbed Juuban team's behavior to begin making up the point deficit and even beginning to take a lead. While the Juuban team were, aside from Kousuke and maybe Capt, playing recreational style, the visiting team is aggressive, even 'accidentally' knocking the Juuban team's players down, while the refs seem oblivious to foul play or 'forced' accidents.

As Valdis leaves, Sophia can’t help but feel that maybe she couldn’t really do what she wanted after all. In addition, it may take some time to repair that friendship.

However, as takes some time to survey her surroundings, she notices back behind her in the bleachers that there are some sudden changes in attitude. While Sophia is happy about the change of disposition in the bleachers, she realizes that she really needs to learn more fine control. This was much more intense than her desired outcome. And she didn’t really like the idea of mind control. Maybe a small push, but this was more than that.

She just wanted people to be happier… She looks back at the court to see that it did not seem to affect the other side either. A few more incidents of foul play happen, which cause her to cringe. In her mind, she can’t understand how anyone would take advantage of the good cheer like that. It appears to her in this circumstance only to worsen things.

It was a little sad to think about. She lets loose a loud sigh, and stops emitting the positive energy that she was before. She tries to stop the power she sent out as best as she can. “I don’t understand…” she mumbles to herself. She didn’t really understand the other senshi or knights or even parts of the world around her. Her expression seems fairly serious as she looks over the basketball court. Hopefully, the other team could bounce back. At least, that was one thing she held some faith in at the moment. She asks Yuki with her eyes still on the court, “How do you think this will go?”

Yuki was very surprised when Kousuke walked over to sidelines in order to reprimand Valdis for actions she didn’t actually take. This caused Yuki to frown, as she watched an understandingly upset Valdis begin to leave. As an athlete herself, such an action angered Yuki a little bit. Kousuke’s place was on the court, and he had no business butting in on the sidelines, especially when he didn’t even have the proper understanding of the situation. Even though she hadn’t known Valdis very long yet, Yuki would have to make sure Kousuke properly apologized to her later.

”Focus on the game Archer! Your last few plays were sloppy!” Yuki shouted back, as Kousuke was already heading back on the court. Her anger didn’t last too long however, as she was looking over at Kousuke other random thoughts begin popping into Yuki’s head which caused her cheeks to redden slightly. That last move with Val he pulled was uncalled for, but she couldn’t help but think he did look somewhat cool when playing basketball.

She was thankfully distracted by these thoughts when some of the cheerleaders all of a sudden began to surround Yuki, some even suggesting she become the new head cheerleader or some nonsense like that.

”Me? A cheerleader?” A part of Yuki was actually quite pleased by the gesture as it meant these people, generally considered to be girly and attractive, actually saw her as one of them instead of one of the boys for a change. ”Er well that’s very nice….but I’m already on the soccer team and am generally pretty busy,” she tried to explain, not aware of the group of boys making comments about her.

Focusing back onto the game, things did not seem to be going as well as they had when the game started. It was hard for Yuki to believe that Juuban could be losing their stamina already. Sophia asked her how she thought the game would go, and Yuki considered for a moment.

”Even if Juuban is more of a first half team, it’s still too early for them to be losing their stamina like this already. It’s possible that the rest of the team just can’t match the pace and drive Kousuke set….it’s not too late for them to bounce back but they need to do it soon. Even though the score is still pretty even, when the refs are playing to the other team advancing the score becomes that much more difficult.” Yuki spoke, her eyes also still on the game. She of course had noticed what the refs were doing,  it was certainly not the first time she had seen such behavior.

Glancing over at Sophia, Yuki noticed the girl’s troubled expression.

”Oh don’t worry, our team still has way more skill than the other team. We’ll beat these guys for sure.” Turning back towards the court, Yuki began to cheer again.

”Come on Juuban, where’s your defense? You got this! You need to get that rebound! Let’s go Juuban!” Yuki shouted and cheered as the game continued. She hoped she could pump both the crowd and the team back up, it seemed they would need it.

Still feeling the effects of Sophia’s emotion control Kousuke finds his eyes wandering over to Yuki, though he quickly snaps them back, confused as to why she was suddenly so prominent in his thoughts. Then as he played he notices the guy staring at her and he glares at the boy, though he might have been too far off for it to be noticed. Why was he so irritated? Wasn’t Yuki making more friends a good thing?

Then suddenly his head clears and the emotions that had been flooding through him stopped. The sudden change actually caused him to stumble, but he quickly refocuses on the game and frowns finally noticing the score. “Woah! We’re losing!” He shouts giving an expression of comedic surprise. He calls a timeout and he turns back to his teammates with a smile on his face. He seemed on the verge of laughing.

“Come on guys, there’s really no excuse for this.” He says giving an encouraging slap on the back to a couple of them. “We are the best aren’t we? And as the best we need to laugh louder, play harder, and enjoy the game more than any other team. After all what kind of example are we if we lose here?” He asks turning back towards the court with a grin.

“Ignition on.” He announces rolling his shoulders and walking back out onto the court. Then looks back at his team with a broad smile, “we’re turning up the pace, and we’re going to drive at top speed from now until the end, we’ll beat these glorified streetballers. After all, we’re better than them.”

As the game begins Kousuke steals the ball and dashes forward juking past several of the opposing players. Then as he jumps to take a shot he scoops the ball backwards to Capt for a three pointer.

The cheerleaders were slightly saddened that Yuki was in the declining state, but one of them still tugs her arm a little. "Well Soccer doesn't start til spring semester right? You could still do it in the winter." she states, but then with the game picking up, the cheer squad gets back to work trying to motivate the crowd.

Sophia's influence begins to fade, as things return to normal. Embarrassed couples begin to feel self-conscious about their behavior and they begin to reign it in, while the black haired guy and friends seems to snap out of his daze, even if he still found Yuki quite interesting. He watches her, and makes eye contact for a moment during one of Yuki's inevitable 'looking around' moments.

As Juuban gets it's fighting spirit back, Sensuji has trouble adapting to the heavier pace after having been able to exploit the languid behavior they had moments ago. In fact, it was confusing enough the other team wondered if this was some kind of ploy that they were doing to make them look foolish. Angered, the captain of Sensuji leads them in a counter-drive, stealing a ball from a underclassman of Juuban while knocking the poor boy down in an overly obvious foul play that even the idiotic refs had to call, as the two sides assembled for penalty shots. The underclassman was nervous. When given the ball, he misses the first one causing a booing reaction from some poor taste members of the crowd...which keeps the anxiety up enough to the point where the second shot is sloppy, but manages to bounce about the rim enough to land...bringing the scores back to an even 40-40 for the moment.

As the crowd and team returns to normal, Juuban equals the score. Sophia can’t help but smile a little. At least, the team was doing well. So long as this is what made them happy. But why did people’s happiness have to come with such aggression… Maybe everything in moderation. However, she can’t really determine the best way to practice that ability.

She vaguely realizes that this a tense time for the game. Both teams being equal. However, she never really was a sports fan. She more just wanted to support Kousuke and the team. And they seemed to be doing great especially with Yuki’s display of spirit. And she could use a snack. “I am going to concessions. Do you want any food or drinks?” she asks Yuki.

Valdis was stopped by the girls sobbing. She rolled her eyes and sighed she hated when they cried; they took all the fun out of destroying their lives. Placing a hand on her hip she stared the girl down, obviously not in the mood to deal with this now.

”Fine your spared…for now. “

With that Valdis left, it was time to go home and have a nice bath…she was exhausted from today’s events. She would spare the girl, but as soon as she raised one more nasty finger Val would bring her down without mercy. This brought a smile to her face, fully knowing that the cheerleader would likely revert to her old ways by morning.

”Uh...well I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try it out,” Yuki was generally the type to always try something first before knocking it…she just never thought she would have to apply that mentality to cheerleading of all things.

As the game started to ramp back up, Yuki cheered loudly, helping the cheerleaders to motivate the crowd. One couldn’t just sit and watch idly when I game reached its crucial peak. As she looked over the crowd, Yuki caught the eye of a black haired guy looking at her and she smiled at him, fairly oblivious, before continuing to cheer.

When Sophia asked her about snacks, Yuki looked over at the other.

”No thanks, I’m all set. But you should hurry back though…wouldn’t want to miss the end.”

As the game continues Kousuke calls a time out and walks over to the coach. After a brief exchange Kousuke gets the coach to let the full regular line up onto the court, and Kousuke grins as the full national level line up steps onto the court. In fact, his wide grin seems to infect the other members and pretty soon the entire Juuban line up was smiling.

“We’ve only got a little bit of time left Kou. What do you want us out here for?” One of the other regulars, Kojiro asks.

“Oh come on, if these streetballers want try and hurt our cute juniors it won’t be right for us to leave the final score close.” Kousuke replies as sweat drips down his face and a dangerous look enters into his eyes.

“Jeez you’re such a sadist Kou, well I agree these bastards should be taught a lesson.” Sighs Juuban’s other starting forward, Alex, an attractive blonde boy who’s charisma draws a large portion of the female spectators to the games.

“Stop saying such disrespectful things. We need to set an example for our juniors.” Scolds Capt as he takes his position out of bounds for the toss in. “Defense will be a box and one as for offense, crush them.”

“Yes Sir!” the other four respond as the full strength of Juuban takes the court for the home stretch.

On the court, the Sensuji team retreats to their corner when the Juuban team called for a time out. They try to pump themselves up when one of the seniors draws attention to the fact that the primary lineup had been summoned and assembled. The Sensuji team re-enters the game when the timeout is called, but in light of the higher skilled group on the field, they begin to be made to look incredibly inept by the rapid pace that Kousuke had started. Steals, 3-pointers, and outplaying all around, Sensuji found itself with a fifteen point deficit quite quickly.

Meanwhile, when Sophia departed from Yuki, the black haired male took it as a chance to swoop in and introduce himself to the sporty girl. He tucks his hands into his pockets and flashes a handsome grin as he casually strolled up to Yuki.

"Hey, you looked really good out there just now when you took over the cheerleading squad. That takes some guts to be able to go in there like that and do their job better than them." he says, paying the girl a compliment to see where it went. When Yuki looked up, she'd see a rather well built and handsome black hair man wearing designer style clothing. Many young women would melt at the sight of such a young man, though there was a slight darkness in his eyes reflecting a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.

“I’ll be back before the end of the game,” Sophia says before walking off. Concessions had a line forming since the Juuban team called a time-out. She keeps making glances to the court, score, and time. She really just wanted a soda. While sitting close to the court gave them a good view, it got pretty warm there.

By the time she gets close to her section of the bleachers, she arrives to see a black-haired boy talking to Yuki. Her friend had done well because he was pretty cute. And it happened after the love magic, so he was probably really interested. She decides to hang back toward the edge of the bleachers to give her and him some time to talk.

Although Yuki wasn’t one hundred percent familiar with Juuban’s team, it wasn’t hard to figure out that they had sent out their starting lineup.

”Wow…well there goes the game…” Even Yuki was impressed by the skill of Juuban’s players.

When the black-haired man approached, Yuki looked up at him a little surprised that such an attractive person wanted to talk with her. She supposed he could just be one of those friendly, outgoing types...she was herself after all.

”You think so?” Yuki grinned in response to his compliment. ”Well I don’t know if I would say I did anything better than anyone else….sometimes people just need somebody to help motivate them. An excited crowd makes games more fun don’t you think?

“Ah! My name’s Takamora by the way. Yuki Takamora. Glad to see you’re enjoying the game. Do you go to Juuban?”