Yuzuru Hanyu.

.

   At the age of four, Yuzuru Hanyu had fallen in love with the ice. 

   The very moment that his pair of figure skates had met the cool, hard surface of the ice rink for the first time, Yuzuru knew that the ice would forever be with him. The boy quickly became entranced with the feeling of speeding across the rink on his figure skates, wind blowing in his hair. It made him feel alive and free, like a bird soaring through the bright blue sky on a clear day. 

   As he became increasingly well versed with the world of figure skating, Yuzuru became more enchanted by the feeling of freedom that being on the ice brought.

   The spins were one thing. Oh, how he enjoyed performing spins. Layback, camel, Biellmann, you name it, Yuzuru loved it. His spins were always the most solid technical element in his routine. And no, Yuzuru didn't just use boring, generic spin positions. Oh no, he spun in the most unique but elegant positions possible. That was part of the beauty of the ice prince's spin sequences. The fans loved them, and Yuzuru loved them too. Performing spins had always made Yuzuru feel like the whole world was whirling around him, as if he were on the best carousel ride of the century. 

   Choreographic sequences and step sequences were like dancing on the ice. Yuzuru got the feeling and style of his choreography by studying the appropriate dance style for his music. It helped him understand how he should move on the ice to communicate his message and feelings, and part of the reason why his PCS was always so high. The additional elements such as hydroblading or the layback Ina Bauer perfectly tied the ice prince's routines together. That was how Yuzuru Hanyu created art on the ice. 

   And of course, Yuzuru couldn't forget the jumps. 

   The quadruple toe loop, his reliable pal. As the very first quad jump to have been added to Yuzuru's jump roster, it served the ice prince very well. It was the most stable of his quads, too, always there to catch him if he stumbled a bit. 

   Quadruple salchow. Although Yuzuru loved all his jumps, he didn't like this jump as much as his other jumps. His consistency with quad salchow was not the best, so his quad toe loop always had to help pick Yuzuru's score back up. Still, Yuzuru had to give the quadruple salchow its credit, being a valuable gift from his good friend Javier, even though it had betrayed him in his Beijing 2022 short program. 

   Then, there was one of his signature jumps, the quadruple loop. Being the jump that Yuzuru was the first to land cleanly, Yuzuru had to love the quad loop. After all, he had worked so hard for success, and he'd achieved it! The quadruple loop was Yuzuru's baby, for sure. 

   The quadruple lutz was one of the hardest jumps that Yuzuru had in his repertoire. He'd only started landing it rather late in his competitive career. Nonetheless, it was a jump that served him wonderfully. Now if only Yuzuru was able to jump the quad flip, then he could have used the quad flip and quad lutz in tandem to make his technical points skyrocket. But it was fine. The flip was best left to Yuzuru's countrymate, Shoma Uno, who landed the first clean quad flip in competition. 

   And of course, the axel, by far Yuzuru's favorite jump, in many different ways. The triple axel, graceful yet powerful, one of Yuzuru's most consistent jumps. The quadruple axel, elusive and mysterious, and one of the greatest challenges that Yuzuru had ever faced. Even the single axel, a jump Yuzuru used mostly in exhibition programs, so beautiful and elegant, like a swan on a spring day. Yuzuru adored the axel. That was as clear as day. 

   It was not only performing his programs that Yuzuru loved. The costumes, the music, the cheer of the crowds, his friends. All of it, everything that came with the package of figure skating, Yuzuru relished it. Yuzuru relished it all.