Hibiki

Chapter 11 | The Roots Of Fear

Fear.

It's the emotion that I wanted to feel the most. Because fear can include other emotions like sadness.

          "Good evening, Hibiki." A woman's voice greeted me as she entered the pink themed room. Chairs, tables, the dollhouse. Even the walls are pink.
          There stands a 'little girl' in front of the window in the room. A 'girl' with long white hair, wearing a puffy white dress to her ankles. Holding a teddy bear on her left hand.
          Clenching it tighter as she turned to look at the woman who is now smiling widely at her.

"Good evening, mother."

⁰-⁰

          "Good morning, Hibiki," I can hear a woman's voice call, but I need to focus more with the memory I'm finally remembering.
          "Little snow, are you okay?" Ms. Celene shook me, holding both of my shoulders.
          "O-oh. Yes?" I uttered, it's hard for me to speak just after remembering something.
          "Come now, stand up." She said. I realized that I'm squatting down near the place we were meeting at.

          After a week, we finally met up at this place to practice, to teach me. It looks a little old, the put up name of the place is a little run down. We're currently waiting for the other student to arrive.
          "Ah, she's always late. Let's wait for her insi-"
          "Ms. Celene!" A girl's voice cut her off.
          "Oh, she's here." Ms. Celene greeted her with a little wave.
She looks familiar.
          "You look familiar," She said right when she approached us. That felt like she just read my mind.
          I looked at her up and down and she's wearing a really light outfit. It's just casual, nothing special. But she's really pretty which makes her stand out.
          I just wore my big orange jacket. The usual. Underneath it though, I'm wearing a black compression shirt that I stole from Kaede a year ago, also wearing white loose thin pants.
          It makes me look even taller because of the pants, and skinny at the same time because the compression shirt's showing every part of my body. Kaede's compression shirts are almost see through even though they're black.
          "O-oh! Wait, it's you! Hibiki! Hello!" She looked surprised but made a smile. "We've already met before right?"
          "Indeed. It was the day you were gonna confess to Ka-"
          "Aaaaaand thank you for remembering me," She quickly put her hand on my mouth but took it off. Walking beside me to get between Ms. Celene and I. "Please don't say that. Embarrassing." She whispered and intentionally showed me a sour expression.
          She continued on walking and entered through the door.
          "You know each other? What a coincidence," She laughed. "I guess there's no need for introduction." She tapped my back and showed me the way inside.
          The look of the inside is actually quite shocking. It looks bigger inside compared to the small door on the entrance.
          There's an ice rink, a big one. It's just as big as the ones that I see on TV's. The girl that confessed to Kaede just sat at the nearest chair and looked at us.

          "I'm sorry if it's a little old. This is private property though, it's where I practiced everyday when I was younger," I just continued on staring at the ice rink.
          She said that it's old but it's very well maintained. No wonder the door that leads to this big room is made of some kind of metal.
          "You go talk to Yua while I prepare the stuff you'll need." She said with a smile and walked off to the side.
          I looked back at the rink. It's my first time going somewhere like this, or something involving sports. Well, I can't remember anything since the accident.
          I approached the girl who confessed to Kaede who is still staring at me, smiling while gesturing at me to come close.
          "Good morning." I greeted.
          "Oh yeah, of course," She smiled. "So yeah, you might be thinking that I'm the one who confessed to Kaede and yes, that's me." She prattled.
I wasn't, just now.
          "What a coincidence though, that we met here. Oh, since you're here it's also because you're gonna be having her as a mentor too right? Oh by the way don't think too much about how I know your name, it's just because you're always with Kaede. My name is Yuano Tae Kanaho, you can just call me Yua," She prattled on, again.
          She smiled and put her pointy finger close to me. "Nice to meet you!"
I like her already, she'll be talking all the time and I'll just listen.
          "It's nice to meet you." I just touched her pointy finger with my pointy finger and replied.
          "You know, Ms. Celene shouldn't be here right now. I mean before, her age is definitely just right for being a mentor," She looked around and checked if Ms. Celene's anywhere near.
          She turned back to me. "Her career was cut short because of a fake scandal when she was younger. Oh, I'm telling you this because they already took care of the media about it, but she wouldn't be able to go back because those rumors will just resurface again you know." She turned to face the ice rink, so I faced it too.
          Her face is serious. "People didn't want to be involved with her whatsoever, all because of that, fake whatever. I'm here because I believe in her. I want to achieve her dream for her," She smiled a little. "C'mon it's not that cold, you can take off the jacket."
          I stood up and did as she told. I took off the jacket but it made my hair go in front of my face. I pushed back my hair a little and tucked my hair behind both of my ears.
          "Damn." I looked back at her, Yua who is making a weird face that I can't even describe. "Smash, wait no." She playfully slapped her face which made her stop talking.
          This girl probably escaped the mental hospital with Xyla.
          "Haha, anywayyy." She said as she stood up, still staring at me. She averted her gaze to Ms. Celene who is walking towards us. Her hands behind her back.
          "Here," Ms. Celene said, showing us a pair of shoes. "Hibiki, these are figure skates. I'm giving you this one. Haha, you can even decorate them like Yua did." She put Yua's skates higher for us to see.
          "Okayyyy," Yua took her figure skates. "Thanks Ms. Celene. I figure that Hibiki is new to this so you can focus on teaching him first. Can I just sit out for today? I wanna see his first time here."
          "Oh, sure." Ms. Celene agreed with a smile.
          Ms. Celene helped me put on the skates while Yua just sat from afar where she could clearly see the whole rink.
          She gave me a smile and a wave.
Ms. Celene helped me walk carefully towards the entrance of the rink.
          "Hold my hand and carefully enter." Ms. Celene said, with an encouraging voice.
          I stepped with my right foot and it's already slippery. I stepped again with my other foot.
          I'm standing right now, I can't move or else I might slip..
          "Now try to move. Try like, um walking but push."
          I followed what she said and I successfully did it. She let go of my hand and I moved towards the middle of the rink.
          "You have good balance," Ms. Celene said as she followed me. I didn't even realize that she's also wearing skates. "Try going from here in the middle, towards the far left of the rink and back here where we're standing."
          I followed her orders and moved towards my left. It's really cold, it feels like the air is moving with me as I go.
          I stopped when I reached the end and turned back. When I arrived Ms. Celene looked like she's thinking about something.
          "That's very good little snow. But when you turn, try to.. Um wait, I'm better at demonstrating," She made some distance from me. "Try to mimic my movements."
          Yes, mimicking is what I'm good at.