Deep Edges | Yuzuru Hanyu

12.

Yuzuru, in his own room, woke up a bit late, as he always does but at the same time, with a different feeling than most days.

There was something about the challenging look that she threw at him after he tried to tease her that made him very excited to see what she had to show.

Back when they were both competing, he had to admit that he rarely took it upon himself to watch other disciplines. Yuzu always feared that allowing himself to do that could result in breaking his focus, something that he never wanted to risk in his competitive life.

Now that he was older and maybe wiser, he realized that maybe he should have. You could learn a lot from watching others carefully. 

All of this to say that his memories of her skating were scarce and almost inexistent, making him even more curious to see her on that day.

Deep down, it also meant that his focus probably wouldn't be on where it should be. Thankfully, he didn't plan on being a tech specialist often enough to even care. Maybe that's why there was more than one person on that panel, after all, to make sure there were no mistakes.

One thing was true, however. He didn't plan on being nice to anyone.

Yuzu knew that from the moment he took this responsibility, he would do it seriously and if that meant calling every single wrong edge and underotated jump, he wouldn't flinch before doing so. And no, he couldn't care less about what everyone thought about it.

That ruthlessness would be obvious as soon as the men's competition started in that morning.

From the first moment that each skater took that ice, Yuzuru showed zero mercy to any possible calls to be made. So much that they were barely halfway into the skaters and he had already made more calls than ever seen in a GP event. Calls that the second specialist wouldn't dare to refute, because well, they were right.

Most people didn't realize how much money was usually behind the scenes and the sheer fact that the people sharing the tech table with him knew that they had to ignore whatever payout was waiting and do things properly showed the respect he had gathered in the skating community.

Maybe his research work at the university wasn't in vain after all.

For Yuzuru, using AI to help do this job would be the absolute best call. Computers could have bugs and problems, but they were completely unbiased, something that was impossible for a human.

And yes, that accounted for him as well, even if he tried to remain as unbiased as he possibly could. Preferences were always there, no matter how much you tried to hide it.

Truth be told, as the rest of the men's event happened, he couldn't help but eventually feel bored.

Why did everyone follow the same thing, over and over again. The music could change and yet, for most skaters, he felt like it was all part of the same formula.

As he watched them, he couldn't help but remember when he was a kid and watched competitions excitedly, pinpointing each of the skaters' strengths and weaknesses.

For the current field, the only thing that seemed to matter was how many quads they could add to the same program, not caring in the slightest if that meant abdicating on everything else.

Given just how much care Yuzuru had been taking in showing new types of skating in his professional career, all of this just felt like a huge bore-fest and he couldn't help but think he would probably be more entertained with the girls, they usually had the gracefulness that made it enjoyable, even if the crazy tech content wasn't as high.

By the end of the men's event, he was sure that even if he wanted fairness to be present in the sport, he probably shouldn't be the one on that table. It just hurt to see the point his beloved sport had reached and judge these skaters for merely caving into a system that they mostly had no control over.

As they were telling him that there would be a small break before the ladies' event, his eyes found the woman who had been on his mind since the previous day. The makeup on her face and styled bun contrasted with the woman he had seen on the previous day as she was just lounging and getting ready to go to bed.

Her eyes never focused on the table of the tech panel but you could see a far different look on her face than he had gotten used to.

Izumi looked confident and ready for the challenge that she was about to face. The look of a strong woman who didn't allow anyone to tell her what to do.

Just to think that this was the same person who seemed too stunned to speak to him at first was crazy but it merely showed the power of psychology. 

He found himself way too distracted by her looks to think of anything else, his eyes casually looking at every shape her figure made. One would even think he was attracted to her from the intense stare his eyes made as he appreciated the body in front of his eyes.

She had the muscle that you would associate with a powerful skater, one with jumps that looked effortless but at the same time it wasn't too much to overshadow her natural beauty. Maybe it was the complete balance that she had, the gracefulness filled with power, the beauty, and the aggressiveness all at the same time.

Yuzuru thought of an interview that he did a few years back, one where he said he liked women with muscle and was mocked for it over and over again.

Well, maybe younger Yuzu was onto something after all.