Melody of You | Yuzuru Hanyu

50.

The move to Japan went as expected. In the midst of all the chaos of Yuzu's competitions, they managed to get everything settled before the NHK Trophy.

Sophia couldn't believe just how fast things changed for them, the move incredibly quick given how it could very well be a permanent one.

Somehow, in the mess of it all, Yuzuru found time to keep training, even if his now training hours were far different than what was usual. Given the availability of Ice Rink Sendai, he was forced to train at night after every single other session. It didn't bother the skater that much, but it took some time to get used to the new schedule.

When NHK came, he was feeling as ready as ever. It was fair to say the skater was a bit worried about the proximity of the Final with this competition, but it was what he had to do.

With his girlfriend by his side, carefully hidden in plain sight among the rest of the team, he went into the competition with the goal to win as always.

No matter how many times Soph saw Otonal, the step sequence hit her deep every single time. It was one of her favorites out of all the programs he did. It was so fast and intricate that from a musician's point of view, was hard not to love.

Yuzuru ended up winning both the short and Free programs, bringing the Gold home and assuring him a position in the Grand Prix Final. There seemingly wasn't anything better for Yuzu than winning on his home soil, in front of thousands of fans that followed him everywhere.

Sophia loved his mood when he won, he was always over the moon and it showed in the way he carried himself and how he spoke with everyone around.
His silly smiles were her favorite thing in the world.

They celebrated in more ways than one, privately and with his team. It was during these times that she doubted he would ever retire.

Yuzuru strived on winning and conquering medals and records. He needed purpose for his skating and he found it with the medals and different goals he set for himself.

Soph would occasionally watch his training sessions in Sendai and took a lot of pride in seeing him do program after program flawlessly. Still, once he recently started including his quad axel practices in almost every single session, she cringed every time he fell.

It was very hard to see him do that. She knew it was one of his goals, but it still hurt every single time the loud thud of his body hitting the ice echoed in the rink.

The bruises on his body were crazy. She had seen black spots on his skin more often than not, his fair skin bruised very easily, but nothing like he had now. Sophia wondered how much they hurt. Yuzuru wasn't one to ever complain, but she still wanted to know if he was hurting.

Fall after fall after fall, he seemed to be able to rotate more every week, but still far from his goal of the 4.5 rotations. Truth be told, Sophia didn't understand his apparent obsession with the jump. It was a childhood dream of his instigated by one of his coaches. No one even knew if it was humanly possible to achieve it, but this was the man writing a whole thesis on AI in figure skating and correct technique... If he believed it was possible, who was she to even question it?

The Final came in a blink. It seemed like they had barely settled in Japan and were already traveling to Europe. Sophia was tired from all the trips and she couldn't even imagine how exhausted he must have been.

The final started out terribly. Ghislain was Yuzu's assigned coach for this competition but couldn't get to Torino on time for the short program because of passport issues.

Seeing Yuzuru alone at practice wasn't something that concerned Sophia that much. He had been training mostly alone for the past three weeks and everything seemed to be okay.

The one problem was how crazy he was. Once she saw the first attempt of the dreaded jump and resulting fall, Soph could only hope that he didn't try it again on that day. Of course, knowing Yuzu, that wasn't happening...

He shocked most of the skaters present with a few attempts of a jump people assumed to be impossible. He took the practice session for the short program and assumed it as his Quad axel practice session, making everyone astonished at his actions.

Sophia honestly expected him to injure himself at the rate he was going and miss the whole thing but thankfully he managed to escape healthy.

Yuzuru went into the short program coachless and Soph worried. Not because she didn't trust him, but because she knew it was something that always had an emotional impact.

It started out great, his Salchow and triple axel breathtakingly beautiful. It was only in the combination that a step out made it impossible to do the triple.
When Yuzuru finished, he was clearly pissed, and mad with himself and there was nothing that hurt Sophia more at that moment than watching him alone while receiving the scores.

The number of points would be hard to make up for without a mistake from Nathan and it was easy to see the disappointment on his face.

That night, Yuzuru cried in her arms like never before. He was his biggest competitor and it was hard to get out of the negative thoughts that filled his head at that moment. She knew how easily he cried, it wasn't a secret he ever managed to cover up well, but his sensitivity was one of the traits that made him so incredible.

The only thing Sophia could do was console him and encourage his mood for the free Program.