“Usako-chan, do you think it would be terribly insensitive of me to go and talk to Ami about what happened?”
    “Mamo-chan, I don’t know how Ami is taking it, she’s being very quiet, secluded. Can’t Luna help with whatever it is you want to know?”
    “She wasn’t there when it happened, not to mention that I have doubts about how much Ami has been keeping to herself. I think she knew about Asuka, and what was going to happen. There’s also something I want to ask her, call it women’s intuition that I am looking for, but Luna can’t help.”
    “Why not? Luna is kind of a woman...”
    “But Luna wasn’t here when what I want to know about happened, she was a kitten locked in a capsule... not to mention... how much of a woman is a female talking cat?”
    “Then why not me? I’ve got some woman’s intuition.”
    “Because you, Usako, won’t know anything about what I want to ask Ami. It’s not like you read the news?”
    “I’ve been listening to it on the radio this year.”
    “I’m looking for something that happened a few years ago, you probably don’t even know of it ok?”
    “Well Ami only came to Juuben four years ago, so if you want to know something before that time…”
    “She was in Tokyo when it happened, I want to see how much she remembers, and what her opinions to it are. Prod her mind a little bit. Do you think she will mind?”
    “I don’t know, maybe we should give her some time to cool down after what happened today. Anyway, I’ve tried to call her, well… all of us really, but she’s not at home, Makoto has even tried the library and she’s not there.”
    “What about the skating rink?”
    “Narai-sensei doesn’t know where she is. She hasn’t turned up at The Rink.”
    “I see…” Mamoru picked up his coffee and took a meditative sip. Usagi had said that Ami wasn’t in the competition grounds, naturally, Narai-sensei had assumed that Ami would appear at the Tokyo Athletics Stadium Ice Rink, and Usagi had assumed that when Narai-san had said that she wasn’t in the rink, she wasn’t at either of the rinks. He gently replaced his cup on the saucer and pushed his chair away from the kitchen bench. “I need some fresh air.”
    “Wait, I’ll get my coat.”
    “Usako, I think I’d prefer to go out on my own. You know, just have some thinking space. I’ll be back in a moment, we’ll have dinner together? Are your parents expecting you back?”
    “No, we’re going to watch Ami in the Competition remember? That is, if she does decide to go… We can have dinner right here. Let’s see what I can whip up. What do you have in your fridge?”
    Mamoru tried to hide a smile, he hadn’t forgotten the mess that was otherwise called Usagi’s last cooking experience. “Urr… no it’s ok, we’ll go out for something when I come back. Grab something fast and easy, you know, nothing too formal. Try get some of your studies done, so that you won’t get into trouble with Haruna-san ok?”
    “Okay.” Usagi stood up as Mamoru slipped his jacket on. Giving him a peck on the lips, she watched him leave. His brows locked in a sea of thought. “I’ll see you later Mamo-chan.”
    He absent-mindedly mumbled some sort of a reply and left.

    “Ami? Can I talk to you for a moment?”
    She turned from where she had been sitting, in the audience section of Rink 1, where she had been practicing the day before. She smiled softly, “hi, how did you know I was here?”
    “A criminal always returns to the scene of crime.” Mamoru smiled at her.
    “A criminal? Is that what I am.” Ami sighed inwardly.
    “Not referring to you specifically, of course.” He gave himself a mental kick. It had slipped his mind for a second just what it could have been associated with. The youma yesterday had just called her a murderer, now he goes around to call her a criminal? Not a smart move Mamoru, he reminded himself.
    She broke the eye contact and dropped her gaze to the ground and smiled ironically. “There’s no need to reprimand yourself for it. I’m not going to fault you for that, a mere slip of the tongue. The saying goes I believe, sticks and stones can hurt my bones, but words can’t hurt me.”
    “Don’t say that, you know that’s not the truth. You are too smart to take the words at face value. It’s words which are the most hurtful weapon of all. I guess I better come straight out with why I came, I’m not exactly here for the specific purpose of comforting you. I came to talk with you about something else.”
    “What do you want to know?”
    “A case, five years ago, a guy disappeared, rich enough to be ransomed but never extracted money… his name was…”
    “Kunki Saito-Sato.” They said together.
    Mamoru reeled backwards, shocked that Ami would have already know whom he was talking about. He had hoped that Ami knew a little bit about him, but…
    “I know what you are thinking. He was my friend.”
    “You’re friends? How? I mean, you weren’t at Juben when he was doing his final year, and when you came, he had already been kidnapped by then. You couldn’t have met him in real life.”
    “From birth… my birth. Why are you so interested?”
    “He was my classmate, my close friend, my best in fact. I was thinking about him all last night, it was five years ago, to the date, of the Japanese calendar. I still remember it vividly, as if it was yesterday. First day of university, he disappeared, like into thin air. We all thought that he had been kidnapped, but, there was never a ransom note. He studied so hard to get into Law at Tokyo University, but he never made it there. It’s almost as if all his dreams and ambitions went down the drain, his last year on Earth was spent studying, and the year for him to relax just that little bit, he goes…”
    “I remember him, in my memories. I have only ever seen him as a photograph though, on the front page of a newspaper and as the son of a distraught mother.”
    “You mean you’ve never met him?”
    “I was only five when I left, he was ten years old. He was very kind to me, very very kind, he treated me as someone who was his age. When I left, he was my best friend, he always called me to make sure that I was ok, and used to talk, a lot. In the last year, even though I was in Tokyo, he was so busy we never met up, but we would still talk. You see, I knew about you before I met you, but I never knew your name.”
    “So you think the two cases are connected?”
    “Definitely.”
    “I’m glad we think the same way. I should leave you to your own thoughts now, I hope you didn’t mind my intrusion. We’ll talk about it in our next meeting with the rest of them. See what we can do about it. You should go and get ready for tonight, you might want to contact Narai-san to tell her you are alright as well…”
    Ami touched Mamoru’s arm lightly, “can you call her for me? I’ll turn up for the competition, she doesn’t need to worry about that, and I will do my absolute best to not fail her dreams and wishes, fail A…”
    “Sure. Don’t think about too many things, we’ll all be there to cheer you on tonight. You expressed yourself so beautifully yesterday afternoon, if you concentrate, you can do it again. You can cast this spell again on to the audience, although not necessarily the same one, you can do it, we all know you can. There is no doubt that with what you are able to do, you can move the whole audience, and gain the understanding from all of them, just by expressing your emotions, your hurts. We all know that you are good enough, and I know you well enough to know that if you want something, nothing, and I mean nothing can stop you.”
    “Thank you for that. I want to win, I want to skate to win, to try and triumph over everything, even defeat the Negaverse with it.”
    He patted her shoulder gently as he stood up and left her to her solitude, “good luck, I know that you will do it. The only thing which can stop you from winning is yourself, and this new found determination of yours will most definitely see you through. Trust me, no… trust yourself.”
    She looked up at his retreating shadow and smiled at him. In her mind, she could remember every word that Asuka had said to her… Skate for me, for all the things I could have achieved but didn’t have the time to. Yes, tonight, she was going to take the first steps to fulfil his dreams for him… she would never give up…

Next