Well, I am reporting from the Tokyo Athletics Stadium Ice Rink back to the Station on this great night, the All-Japans Competition. I think she is really going to go through with the Competition, we can see her, standing in the middle of the rink, which means that she has committed herself to this round. Personally, I don’t see her doing very well, I mean, just look at the way that she has just skated out, she seems so tired and worn out that I can’t imagine seeing the same vitality that we saw from her in the trials. Frankly, it would be a great surprise if she was to even get through to the Expression in Song II in the first ten places.
    After her trials, she was placed in number 47 because she was still considered fairly new, although we did expect her to get into the first ten after this round when they re-order the skaters’ listings. But, if you just notice that dejected expression when she was coming out, like she doesn’t even want to skate. I think that she will bomb, but then, miracles will happen, just like pigs might fly…
    And, here she is, in the same white skating skirt as in the trials. She’s given the big nod… that’s it… she is really going to do it.

    Ami nodded at the control panel to tell him that she was ready to start skating to the song “Swan”. She had heard the gasps when she first stepped out, clearly, no one had expected her to go through with this skating business, but no one knew her well enough to know that once she started with something, nothing could stop her.
    The music started, the tinkering of the soft notes of the piano, she remembered the first time she had heard it, she thought that it was merely a beautiful piece, now, she thought differently. It was a ghost haunting a room, a shadow of what she once was, watching life go by without her. A widow, sitting by the window, watching silently, children play, lovers walk by, each playing a part in her life, but none in hers.
    Ami lifted her right arm, almost demurely, like she was gesturing up to heaven. As her arm swept over her head, it seemed to shield it, it truly looked as if the heavens were about to open and cry with her, and she was merely shading herself from the tears of the Gods. Her knees bent, and she took off from the ice, a double-luntz, she winced slightly when she landed, the pain from the hit from Asuka had not yet subsided. The playfulness of the jumps that she had displayed from the trials disappeared. The peaceful swan was no more, left, was now a lonely swan, trying to resurrect the past, a widow jumping off the edge of a cliff.

    The judges looked at her, the form that she displayed right now showed them was something entirely different to that they had seen previously. It now screamed of pain, wailing tears and sadness. Her spin just then was like she was reaching, deep inside her to correct the hurt. In every move, every curvature of the arm, imaginary tears dripped to the ice. Almost as though she yearned to touch the ‘other side’ she held her arms out, reaching for something which was not there, a non-existent being.

    As her feet left the ice once again, she thought of all the times when she could have jumped at the chance to express herself, to let others know what she was feeling. She had never told Kunki of how much she treasured his understanding, and of Asuka, how much she had to thank him for bringing her out of her shell. Three of the most important men in her life had disappeared, she wondered if it was because of her.
    Her body moved from memory, not from her conscious wish and instructions. Her mind was on something else, something much more important. With her eyes closed, her body spun, her back arced and her arms danced above her, but beyond it all, pictures of the three men flashed in her mind. Her father, Kunki, and Asuka.
    Her father had physically disappeared from her life since she was five, the divorce had affected her greatly, and she never had the chance to tell her father how much she adored him, looked up to him, and most importantly, loved him. From that one moment on, the word ‘love’ disappeared from her vocabulary.
    Then Kunki, the one day that they were supposed to meet after seven years of writing, telephoning… she had looked forward to putting a face behind all those kind words, but he had never returned home. From then on, she had lost the support she had leaned on for all the years that she had been alive.
    Last of all, Asuka Akiyama, from the moment that the Negaverse had taken him, her inspirations and spirits went with them.

    This girl had no idea what she was doing. Not that it meant that she wasn’t skating well, no, she was skating fantastically. What they meant was that she was in a trance, she hardly knew what step she was up to. Her memory was leading her body, not her consciousness. Her mind was somewhere else, far off. Several times, they had caught her skating with her eyes closed, and when they were open, there was a mystic abstraction in her stare.
    They could not penalize her for this lack of concentration, because there were no adverse effects to her skating. This girl was showing hurt, deep hurt and self-condemnation in her movements. There was nothing wrong with doing that. Not to mention that they sympathized with her, the disappearance of her friend, they understood that she was upset, and with this dance of the “Swan”, she was expressing it beautifully. The type of expressionism that they wished all competitors had.
    One of the judges pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, pulled of his glasses, and wiped his eyes. Although the others didn’t want to admit it, their hearts ached for her as well.  This poor girl who seemed to be trying to shed the burden of pain as she was skating. Tears of despair seemed to float in the whole stadium, the lone swan swimming in the same sea of tears, wanting to escape with every jump and leap yet never quite managing it.

    The last notes of the music came haunted the stadium, Ami hardly heard them. Her mind was too fully on her own thoughts, of the three men. She slid towards the center and braced herself for a tight spin without knowing it. The music came to a stop, the stadium came to a stop. Not a single sound could be heard throughout, time froze, breathing stopped, heartbeats skipped several beats. Ami opened her eyes to a sea of silence, shocked audiences. For a moment she wondered what she had done, had the skating just then, the skating which she completely forgot about doing just then, been so atrocious? She took a cautious bow, her hand unconsciously met her cheeks as she realized that she had been crying. She wiped the tears away and looked at her hand. Although it was merely tears, she saw them as blood, straight from a wrung heart.
    She was startled when suddenly, the whole audience erupted in applause. Her heart felt momentarily light, and she smiled broadly at them. She found her mother and caught her eye, communication flowed through that brief contact. They let their souls meet, the unspoken communication that worked best. Her mother was proud of her, and she adored her mother. Raising her arm, she waved to her audience, turned, and joined Sensei Narai from the sides. Sensei Narai was there to meet her, and led her towards the couch where they waited for the results of the second round.

    “Did you managed to tape that?”
    “Of course I did. Don’t think that I am an idiot.”
    Avarice turned away to mutter “I don’t think you are, I know you are,” under his breath. Raising his voice he looked at Ossify’s shadow, “we cannot afford to fail, we have to present this to Lord Takechi successfully, otherwise, all our efforts will be wasted.”
    “And we will know who’s fault it is won’t we?”
    “Shut up and do your job! I will go to see his assistant to make sure that his Lordship is still prepared to receive us. You, make sure that the ending of our previous encounter will not be shown, that will completely wreck our presentation, do you understand?”
    “Then you might want to make sure that you get all the facts right Avarice. If I remember correctly, you nearly lost your head last time you spoke on behalf of us.”
    “Listen to me, you do your job, I’ll do mine. Don’t overstep the lines all right? One wrong step, I will wring your head personally.”

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