Deep Edges | Yuzuru Hanyu

13.

Izumi had breakfast under the watchful gaze of her coach, who seemed to be very curiously watching her every move.

It wasn't even hard to realize why he was like that.

She had been joyful the whole morning, cheerfully enjoying every moment of her day.

The whole thing was so utterly different from her behavior of the previous days that it was only natural that her coach was looking at that so attentively.

Whatever Yuzuru had done, it seemed to have worked, even if only her performance on the ice could show just how big the difference would be.

Izumi was very aware of the man's presence when she first stepped inside the venue. The only thoughts in her head were trying to be as relaxed as possible and ignoring the lingering knowledge that maybe he could be looking at her.

She had this need to impress him but at the same time, it was inevitable to be slightly afraid that her skating wouldn't be good enough. There was no denying that Hanyu would be hard to impress. If anything, and the reports of the men's competition were any accurate, he was already making a ruckus in the scoring, something that didn't surprise her a single bit.

Everyone around her seemed to be pacing nervously, wondering if their tech was good enough to pass his strict criteria. All of it had been expected by her, of course, and for once, spending all of that time fixing her tech might actually pay off for once.

One by one she watched every skater of her group go through their performances.

Obviously, Yuzuru wasn't the absolute power and wasn't at all responsible for the full scores of any of the people at the competition, but it was very clear that something was going on when you looked at the scores.

No one was breaking Season or Personal bests in that competition for sure.

Izumi was finding the whole situation way too interesting and funny for someone who still had to skate. It was just that she didn't even have any hopes of reaching the final either way so the fact that she didn't have that weight on her shoulders was for sure helping her be far more casual about the matter than you would usually expect.

The situation wasn't supposed to be funny but seeing some of those skaters' expressions was for sure worth it all. Some of them really did deserve a nice dose of reality.

Alright, maybe you could think that it was wrong of Izumi to think of it in that way but the thing was that these people had often mocked her for changing coaches and attempting a new approach to her tech. It seemed like she was the crazy one for changing coaches when she was already winning but looking at all of them now, maybe she was right after all.

Well, maybe it wouldn't last too long. The man himself had told her that he didn't plan on doing this often but the mere experience was enough to make it clear that a lot of things could change if merely the tech panel was a bit more strict with everything.

Eventually, it came time for her group to begin and it was only then that the shivers and nerves started hitting her fully.

Rolling her shoulders and jumping a bit in place, Izumi just remembered her motto of the morning: No matter what, all she had to do on that day was have fun and give a good show.

So when she finally removed the Team Japan jacket from her body, all that was left in her mind was how much she wanted to perform for those watching. It was a matter of pretending this was a gala instead of a competition.

And well, that's exactly what she did.

🩵

Yuzuru should've known.

He saw her enter that ice with the same confident look that he had seen before the event started and there was no need to pretend that he didn't do another once over on that sinful body of hers.

You really need to get a hold of yourself, Yuzuru.

As soon as the music started playing, all the remaining doubts about how dangerous she actually was for him were completely gone. Yuzu had no idea what to do when he could barely focus on her technical content.

His eyes were completely drawn to her but the one thing that remained very clear was that he wasn't focused on her feet, at least not in the way that his eyes should've been.

Maybe he did admire the way her feet swayed on the ice for a little while, but there was just something that made his eyes completely focus on her face and the look of determination that was so obviously present there.

It was very clear right then that she was dedicated to making that performance count and well, maybe that was his fault all along.

Wasn't that the whole point of the challenge he had made to her?

Now, however, as he tried to do his job, having an epiphany of how much this girl affected him was probably the last thing he should be concerned with.

And yet, as he thought that it couldn't get worse, his eyes shifted just a little bit, noticing the man at the edge of the rink and his stare.

Yes, because Tsuzuki-sensei wasn't watching his student, his eyes were transfixed on Yuzuru, judging and analyzing in a way that only he knew how to do.

Yuzuru had known he was screwed before, but he was now in trouble for something completely different.

The old man knew.