Blue Flames (Yuzuru Hanyu)

The Beginning

It all started with the video. This whole thing, all the trials I would eventually face, the people I would meet, all because of one post.  Although it came with more than I could have ever bargained for, it was more than worth it.

"Hey, guys! It's Miki Nakamura here. Today I'm going to be skating to one of my favorite songs, Notte Stellata. I hope you all enjoy!"

I skated to the center of the ice. I had been skating for about four years now. I had been practicing this very hard routine for the majority of those years. Skating was my life. It pulled me away from the brink. It was my coping mechanism. My passion. I stopped at the center of the rink, arms outstretched. The rink faded away. The camera faded away. I put my everything into my skating. It was one of the things that had gotten me so far. I glided across the ice. The first spin down. I felt the music inside me, a rhythm only I could hear. Very strange, I know. Beilmann; probably my favorite spin out there. (Give credit to Yuzuru for that one.) Delayed axel. Yes! I had worked so hard for that. I turned the triple into a double. Don't wanna embarrass yourself on film, especially after this routine had been going so well. I was able to land the 3A but it wasn't that great of a ratio compared to the double. The final notes of the music swirled around me. Finishing position....

Yes! An almost perfect reenactment of Yuzuru's routine. Although no one can beat the king himself.

I bowed to the empty rink. Success.

My teachers over the years had said that I was "the future of skating" although I was never that into competing seriously. I gradually got into them though. The chills you get after a good performance; seriously, best feeling there is. Slowly, I got more into skating. Now it takes up more than half of my normal weekday. Weekends I work from dawn to dusk. I'm actually a bit of a perfectionist actually. If I don't get something right I work on it until I perfect it. My coaches said it'd get me far. It did.

Now back to that video. I guess I underestimated the power of the internet. Without my knowledge (I have no idea how honestly I spend a lot of time on the internet) The video had been circulating youtube and twitter. News sites got their hands on it. And guess who also saw it? Brian Orser. Yuzuru Hanyu.

And man did that change a lot of things.