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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The second run-through rehearsal on Friday, during which photos were taken again, ran smoothly and almost without any problems from the start. There were a few hitches here and there, still the transitions. Once the band missed their cue. But these were minor issues. And finally all the costumes were back!
Yuzuru had slept soundly all night and was very well rested. He was much more relaxed at the rehearsal than the day before.
After the asthma attack, he had contacted Toshiro-sensei and consulted with him.
The doctor had not been enthusiastic, but had diagnosed from a distance that the attack had obviously not been too severe, as it had passed quickly and Yuzuru had even been able to finish the rehearsal. He had had chest pains, but that was not unusual.
Toshiro-sensei praised the new medicine, it had worked very well! He recommended that Yuzuru continue to take the higher dosage of his long-term medication, which he had already been using for a while. And he should always inhale the new acute spray as a prophylaxis before the most strenuous parts.
Yuzuru had already thought of this himself and, in consultation with Toshiro-sensei, he now felt reasonably safe with it.
So he ran almost everything in full on the second run-through, didn't mark anything and only reduced the rotations on a few jumps. You wouldn't be able to tell from the photos.
And he was good, really good!
His body coped with the exertions today without any problems. It was hard to believe how he managed it! So the rehearsal was a complete success for him!
***
"You seemed amazingly fit today and so much calmer than yesterday," Ayame remarked as they took a bath together in their hotel in the evening.
She was resting on his chest again. Yuzuru lay completely relaxed in the bathtub and they both enjoyed the intimate closeness to each other and the warmth of the water.
Ayame sensed that his energy level was unexpectedly high, which she found surprising - especially after such a strenuous rehearsal.
He just sighed. "I got myself into this crazy situation," he grinned. "So now I have to deal with it! It almost all went smoothly today, so I have no reason to be upset."
"Mmm, you were incredibly good on the ice today. But how do you manage that?" Ayame wanted to know. "Yesterday you had an asthma attack, and today you skated like you'd been on vacation for a week. I still don't understand it. You're a phenomenon!"
Ayame knew that Yuzuru had felt pain in his chest after the seizure. She was impressed by his strength and willpower, but she was also worried, as any loving woman would be in this situation.
She knew by now that he had an incredible amount of potential to tap into whatever resources were left. Even when he was in pain or felt ill.
Nevertheless, there were limits and he had regularly exceeded them in the past. That had gotten better, but in the current situation he was falling back into his old pattern a little.
