Worlds 2018

Chapter 1: The beauty of Uno

24 th of March, 2018. 

The crowd cheered as the figure on the middle of the ice bowed to the audience. Several canadian flags were raised to show the support for the canadian skater. "From Canada, Keegan Messing" sounded from the speakers. He bowed again before skating over to the rink exit. The screens started showing the replay of his jumps and spins. The sound of the crowd slowly died down as the scores were about to get announced. Placing Keegan in fifth place, with a combined score of 252.30. 

The girl sat at the edge of her seat, clutching the white and red piece of fabric in her hands, as the next skater stepped on the ice. The skater took a lap around the rink. She could see the reflection from the golden embroidery adorning the dark blue upper body piece. 

"From Japan, Shoma Uno". 

The crowd erupted in cheers once again, as he lifted his arms towards the audience in a greeting. The girl let go of the fabric, clapping together with the rest of the crowd. The cold who earlier had threatened to freeze her fingers off, was replaced by a warmth running through her body. Her heart beat increased as he stood into his start position.

 She had wanted to see him skate live for what felt like an eternity, and now it was finally happening. It had been approximately a year since she first saw him in the tv, getting entranced by his movements, as she watched him skate to the ferocious tango program. To be honest, it wasen't just his skating there had caught her interest, she thought he looked really cute. It hadn't taken a long time for her to get into the Figure skating fandom, and as soon as she could, she had gotten on the ice herself. 

The music started playing, and she could feel the tunes resonate within her body. The way he skate, so effortlessly and beautiful made it hard for her to take her eyes of him, not that she would anyway. She wanted to savour every moment of watching him skate. Yet her heart dropped, as he fell on his first jump, his quad loop, a jump he normally never fell on. He managed to smoothly stand up and continue his program. The next jump he had planned was his famous quad flip. He went into the proper entry, skating backwards on his left foot, his right foot elevated behind him, ready to plunge it into the ice. He fell again. Her nails started to dig into the palms of her hands, creating small red crescent shaped marks. 

Memories of the recent rumors crossed her mind, the rumors of how he had left practise before time the other day because of a bad fall. 

The third jump was coming up, triple loop, he landed it perfectly and went straight into his flying camel spin sequence. Her worry was still evident, even though his flying camel spin and the following sit spin was perfectly executed. He skated out of the spin and started the step sequence. The tempo in the step sequence were relatively slow, compared to the high tempo he used for the connecting steps between his jumps. The violine fit so well to his movement as he glided over the surface of the ice. He stood in the middle of the white lake, turning around, towards where the girl was seated, and raising his hand in the air. The heavy italian opera voice rang through the stadium, and made her skin prickle. The next jump was a triple axel, he made a step out of the landing. 

At this point the thought of getting him on the podium was not the important thing. If only he didn't end up accidentally killing himself, falling on his weak ankle. She curse his crazy determination and stubbornness, yet those are some of the things she admire most about him. Quad toeloop, another fall. The fact that he already was halfway through his program, and yet he still hadn't been able to land a single quad, was showing the incredible mental power he possessed, as to finish the program no matter what. Quad toeloop, double toeloop combination. Cheering from the audience was heard, though she was too fixated on him to clap along with them. Landing a triple axel, loop, triple flip combination, the program seemed to be improving. It seemed like he finally had managed to collect his thoughts, and focus on the next jump istead of the previous falls. He immediately went into a triple salchow, triple toeloop combination, finally landing his jumps with a positive GOE (Grade of execution) score. He went into the last part of the program, going into his signature move, the cantilever. Finishing the programme of with another beautiful spin sequence, stopping abruptly with his fist in the air. He stumbled a couple of steps as he went out of the pose. 

She started to clap, amazed by the comeback in the last half of his free skate. She unfolded the fabric in her lap, raising the japanese flag, along with approximately half of the audience. People rose from their seat walking as close to the rink as possible, before throwing flowers and other gifts onto the ice. 

He slowly skated into the middle, his hands on his hips, breathing heavily. He was clearly exhausted from the tough program. He bowed to the audience in all directions, taking his last bow in the girls direction. On the screen they showed a close up of him, as he went to step of the ice. His mouth was agape, and his forehead was glistening with tiny pearls of sweat. He went straight into the open arms of one of his beloved coaches, coach Mihoko. She was holding his water bottle in her left hand, and his black and purple skate guards in her right. 

It hurt her to rewatch him fall again, as they showed the highlights of his skate on the screen.She carefully folded the flag into a small square placing it on her thigh. She breathed out, not realising she had been holding her breath for some time. Her nerves was slowly starting to get back to normal, happy that he at least didn't seem to be badly injured. 

The camera changed and we were taken to the kiss and cry, where he and Mihoko was siting. He waved with both of his hands at the camera before giving a polite bow to the audience. The background of the kiss and cry was a picture of some famous cathedral, the bluish image, matching his costume. In the left corner next to the bench, was standing a sign. The sign read 

"World figure skating championship 2018, Milan". 

As she was watching him talk with his coach, she realized that she had forgot to film or even take pictures of this once-in-a-lifetime moment. She mentally scolded herself for forgetting it. An elderly american woman who sat next to her, talked to her friend, saying "He has no chance of getting on the podium, with that quality of program". The friend agreed and added "Nathan is gonna win this with ease". 

A small spark of irritation rose within her. Whenever someone spoke negatively about Shoma, she had to fight the urge to defend him, no matter what they would criticise him for. Typically it would be for things like cheating with his scores and small details, as what part of the edge he takes off from, when he goes into his salchow. The only reason why he sometimes end up as the target for hate, is because of his high rankings. It still had only been around two months since he has competed in the 2018 winter olympics, where he after a close run, had been able to get the silver medal, only a little over one and a half point from getting the bronze instead. 

She rubbed her hands together again, the cold starting to return to her body. The small marks on her hands, now bleeding slightly. The voice of the female announcer was heard from the speakers again. 

"Shoma Uno, with a score of 179,51 for the free skate, and a combined score of 273,77, which currently brings him in fist palace". 

She was surprised by the resultats, very surprised, and so were the woman sitting next to her. The woman bitterly accused him for cheating again. This time she would agree with the terrible lady to some extent, he shouldn't have been able to get this many points with a program like that. The scoring system is still not the best, and it makes his image looking bad, when they overscore him. There were still three skaters left, and his medal hopes were looking dire. The next skater was announced. "From China, Boyang Jin". 

At this point the blood on her palms has increased. She looked into her jacket pocket after some paper, but did not find any. Deciding that it was bleeding a little bit more than appropriate, she collected her things into her black messenger bag and squeezed her way past the other seated people. In the background the music of Boyangs starwars free skate started to play. She jumped down the stairs in sync with the music. She was careful not to get any blood onto the door handle as she went out of the main rink and into the hallways. The halls were vacant, everyone was currently in the stadium watching the last couple of skaters. She went towards the hallentry, where the toilets and a couple of vending machines were standing next to the wall. On one of the two toilet doors a sign was taped on the wooden surface. The sign told her that the toilet was temporary out of order. The other door were occupied. She sighed and leaned her shoulder against the vending machine, praying that the person soon would come out. Why did she also have to hurt herself. Now she coulden't watch the rest of the skaters.

Unknown to her, this little incident would end up bringing her even closer to the person she admired.