This is the story of Ayame, a young artistic gymnast who, due to a stroke of fate, can no longer practise her sport. In search of a new purpose in life, she comes to Sendai from her home town of Sapporo by chance to work in the house of a famous fig...
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No matter which way she looked at it. He needed help. Yuzuru was in a veritable crisis, and she had seen it coming.
He had released his fourth solo ice show with the meaningful title "VIEW... to nowhere?" in the winter of 2025, after which he had toured with it into the spring, including outside Japan for the first time, in China and Korea. 15 shows in total...
Yumi still couldn't believe he had managed to do it. Because the tour schedule had been embedded in television appearances, interviews, media appointments and Yuzuru somehow found the time in between to attend other appointments as an 'earthquake ambassador'. This reduced his regeneration phases to a dangerous extent...
Yumi recognized his slow decline, he was now visibly completely exhausted and it was only with great difficulty that she was able to convince him in March to at least reduce the "Fantasy on Ice" shows in the summer of 2026, in which he wanted to participate. Since then, things had only gone downhill for him.
"I'm seriously worried about you, son!" Yumi sat opposite him at the breakfast counter in his kitchen.
"Hm, if you're already saying 'my son' to me, I know how I feel." Yuzuru replied. He had dark circles under his eyes and was sitting on the high chair with his back bent as if he wanted to put his head down on the counter to sleep in the next second. He knew there was little point in resisting his mother when she spoke to him like that, no matter how old he was by now.
Deep down, he knew it himself. He had no strength left. No strength to go on his beloved ice, no strength to give a single interview. No strength to visit any more destroyed earthquake villages and see the suffering of the people there. It had all become too much. He could take no more.
"I've watched you completely exhaust yourself over the last few months. Now it's over! We're canceling everything that's possible. And you rest and let me organize everything. And I won't tolerate any arguments. Remember what Toshiro said to you two years ago!" Yumi said in the kind of commanding tone that only a mother can use.
Yuzuru remembered immediately! Dr. Toshiro Yashida had been his personal physician since his youth. A gifted sports physician and surgeon who had patched up Yuzuru's body more than once when he had been injured. And he had become a good friend of the family, a confidant who never minced his words when it came to Yuzuru's health and well-being.
***
When Yuzuru celebrated his 30th birthday with his family and closest friends after the premiere of "ECHOES OF LIFE", this trait was on full display. Toshiro-sensei took him aside at the party to have a serious word with him.
"Yuzuru," he began then, "you know how I feel about you doing an exhausting solo show, running one FaoI show after another all summer and now pulling the rabbit out of the hat with this new show!" He raised his eyebrows and Yuzuru knew that he was being very serious.
"Toshiro, I canceled the last FaoI dates in Aichi and only did the one charity for the earthquake victims before I started planning the new show more intensively..." Yuzuru replied in a weak voice.
"Yes, and in between you had a lot of photo shoots for the professional anniversary, not one, no, two photo books, one for each year! Then all these interviews, video shoots, and you only canceled the few dates in Aichi because I insisted. Otherwise you wouldn't have had a summer break at all. 'RE_PRAY' completely drained you. It's a miracle you were able to perform at FaoI at all! And it was too much, you know that! Now you've just started the new solo show and I've seen what you're doing... I don't know where this is going to take you," said the doctor, quite agitated, but immediately became serious and calm.
"I can only tell you again and again that your body won't be able to take it in the long term. And your soul probably won't either," Toshiro-sensei concluded.
Yuzuru looked down at the ground. He felt like a schoolchild who had been reprimanded by his teacher. But he also knew that the doctor was right! Twice at "RE_PRAY" he had collapsed crying from exertion after a performance, and once an asthma attack had left him prostrate on the backstage floor. It had been very close... and yet he had got up again and somehow managed to finish the show.
All of this had clearly been too much.
But the worst thing was the loneliness he kept feeling. And he didn't know how to escape it as long as he couldn't skate on the ice in front of his fans.
For weeks afterwards, he had slept through most of the summer of 2024, interrupted by a few appointments that were important to him, sponsor meetings and TV appearances that he couldn't or didn't want to cancel. How he then managed to produce a charity for the earthquake victims of Noto and finally "ECHOES OF LIFE" was honestly a mystery to himself.
He had already felt a certain emptiness in him at the time, but he didn't want to disappoint the fans.
The enormous success proved him right! The Fanyus were so enthusiastic and that gave him a lot of strength again. They celebrated him even more enthusiastically with "ECHOES" than they had with "RE_PRAY".
And somehow he just kept going...
In the winter of 2025 came "VIEW... to nowhere?" and the tour through Asia. He broke all previous boundaries for solo ice shows. He had chosen the title very deliberately, because Yuzuru knew that something had to change if he wanted to survive somehow.
He was now 31 years old and his body was giving him unmistakable signs that he couldn't go on like this for much longer. He was still at the top of his game - a true miracle, as Toshiro-sensei repeatedly confirmed to him, shaking his head. But Yuzuru needed so much more strength to maintain his level and get through the tour that now, in the early summer of 2026, he finally felt it was over!
***
All of this was going through his mind as Yumi lectured him in his kitchen and he virtually silently took note of everything she told him. He had no energy left to say anything back. Especially when it was clear to him that he was at the end of his rope.
"I agree with everything you're planning, Mom!" he finally said.
Yumi was surprised. She hadn't imagined it would be that easy with her stubborn son. For some time now, she had been nagging him to get help, to at least allow himself some help in everyday life. He had always refused, saying that he absolutely needed peace and quiet within his own four walls. But now it seemed that he readily agreed to everything Yumi suggested.
"Very good, Yuzu! In that case, I'll get you a housekeeper shortly so that you can concentrate on your regeneration here, in your own home."
"And to plan the fifth show!" added Yuzuru with a faint smile.
"Aahh! Of course... I knew you wouldn't drop this crazy plan. But you're not going on another tour of Asia, is that clear?" Yumi emphasized unequivocally. She wouldn't allow him to go to such lengths again. Fans or not. What good would it do if he couldn't get back on the ice? The Fanyus certainly wouldn't want that.
