The Cherry Project - Chapter 2 "Held by the wings of an angel..." Originally appeared in Nakayoshi, November 1990. Translated by Alex Glover. Version 1.0, 6.97. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Class President Asuka Chieri "Skate at the school festival!? I'll do it!" Akiyama Kouichi - Project brain "That's the spirit! Leave it to me. I've got a plan to make this the best show ever." Class Vice-President Nishimura Yuni - Costumer "Me, me! I'll make a really cute suit for you, Chieri!" Sakurada Haruna - Homeroom teacher "Wait, wait! By skating, you mean figure skating, right? We don't have a rink at school. Besides, since you just transferred to this school..." Tsuzuki Masanori - Project captain "Don't worry, sensei. The president is interested too. If you leave things to us, we'll do all the backup." Fujiwara Hiroshi - Music arranger "I'll be in charge of the music. I can make it." The students of the class cheer. "We'll let you do it! Everything!" "This is so cool! Doesn't this feel like the greatest project ever?" "We begin the Cherry Project!" says Kouichi. - Chieri walks down the hall as the bell rings. "Cherry! Good luck skating!" "We're counting on you, Cherry!" She leaves school, her face red. "Cherry!" calls Yuni. "I'm looking forward to this. Figure skating! We've got to keep this all to ourselves. Good luck!" "Everybody's calling me Cherry, Cherry!" says Chieri. "Quit it! Wishing me luck... I said I'd do this somehow, but I wonder if I can..." "What are you saying!" Yuni says. "You'll have those three backing you up, there's nothing to worry about. You have to do it!" "Everyone's talking about this in the teacher's lounge, too," says Haruna. "Oh, Haruda-sensei!" "That's Haruna," she says. "Work hard together on this. I'll try to help out as well." "I'll do it," says Chieri. "We'll do it!" says Yuni. "That's right." "But what are we going to do about a rink?" says Haruna. "I wonder if we could use a pool." "I said I would because of that Tsuzuki Masanori," Chieri thinks. "I don't believe it. I'm so lucky that he transferred into the same class as me. The stars must be shining on me lately." She feels the crystal pendant hanging from her neck. "But still, I'm a little... uneasy. Skate at the school festival...?" - "The first stage is clear," says Hiroshi. "She must be able to figure skate like a pro as well. Let's hurry and get this festival over with, and begin practicing as a pair." "This is not something to rush," says Tsuzuki. "The school festival is a good opportunity for her to understand skating in total. She has natural talent. Look at her. She will be captured by figure skating. First of all, we must adjust the schedule for what we'll do now." Students all around the school talk about them. "Did you see them? The transfer students in class 2!! They're amazing!" "Those three are in the same class, are they!?" "They're doing a skating show with Chieri for the school festival!" "What!? Skating!?" "They said they're going to take care of everything!" "They're setting up the project team!!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The alarm clock rings at six o'clock. "...unnhh..." "Cherry!!" Yuni calls. She sits up dazedly in bed. Yuni and the three boys call her from outside. "Cherry!" "Wake up!" - Chieri runs with them in the brisk morning air. "I'm tired..." she says. "I want to sleep a little longer..." "Come on now, Chieri," says Yuni. "I'm no good at mornings..." "What are you saying!" says Kouichi. "From now on, we get up every day at six and go jogging." "Every day!?" "Six is normal for morning exercise," he says. "Guess you've never done any school activities." "I haven't! I do things after school." "Speaking of which... We've seen your sports test data." "What!?" He holds up a report sheet. "Apart from flexibility, your muscle strength and cardiorespiratory function are weak. They must have approved it thinking it was merely for the festival. That's no good for our president. We're being thorough in what we do. Now, the foundation is running." "Y- You tyrant, Akiyama Kouichi!" she shouts. "I- I can't take this anymore," says Yuni, gasping for breath. Hiroshi flies by on skates, grabbing her arm and pulling her. "Fujiwara Hiroshi!" Chieri shouts. "This isn't fair! Roller skating!" Tsuzuki jogs at her side. "Come on, keep trying," he says. "Follow after me." She looks at him. "W- Well..." she thinks. "If Tsuzuki Masanori says to..." "We're passing through Shiba Park now. Less than three kilometers until we're back at your house." "Oh man..." "This is just the beginning. Here." He hands Chieri a pair of rollerblades. "What are these? Roller skates? They look weird." "Speed skaters use these to skate on land. They're very popular in New York. To give you the feeling of skating, you'll put these on every day and skate around. You do have a lack of practice, after all. You have to skate as much as you can to find the feeling of skating." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri skates into school. "Out of the way! Out of the way!" she calls as she passes through the crowd of students. "Yahoo!" "She's here, she's here," says Hiroshi. "What, she's skating." "Cherry loves places where she can skate," says Yuni. "Skater Cherry's big finish!" Chieri calls as she comes to a stop. "You look happy skating," says Tsuzuki. "Are you in the habit of skating while relaying?" "Hey, hey," says Chieri. "Am I going to be skating with these roller skates? We don't have a rink at school. What are we going to do?" "It's a secret," says Tsuzuki. "Do you like the roller skates better?" "Th- That's not it!" she says. "I'm going to figure skate! I want to see you skate. You're going to be skating with me at the festival, right!? I saw you a long time ago, at a skating exhibition." "I don't do that anymore," says Tsuzuki. "You'll be skating by yourself at the festival." "What?" He turns and walks away as the school bell rings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Wh- What... He was talking like he didn't even care about it... I have to skate alone at the festival? He's not going to skate at all?" "I don't do that anymore." "So... has he quit that?" She lies on the floor watching television. "Should you always be watching TV?" her dad asks. "You're waking up at six tomorrow to practice skating, right?" "Not skate!" she says. "Jogging!" "I heard from Yuni-chan that you're skating at the school festival. That's great. You've got that junior champion Tsuzuki-kun as a coach? And he transferred to your school? This is your chance, Chieri. You can get into a skating club, and be a champion." "I- It's not like that!" she says. "Cut it out, Dad." She lies her head on a pillow. "A person who quit won't be my coach," she thinks. "He seems so cold, that Tsuzuki Masanori." She sticks her tongue out at the poster on her wall. "Fine!" she says. "But... If he quit skating, why would he do this festival?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The alarm clock rings at six o'clock. "...unnhh..." "Cherry! Wake up!" - She jogs through the streets with the others. "Don't be such a baby about getting up early." "Nobody else will be skating at the festival but me, right?" Chieri says. "Why is everyone doing this?" "Cherry, look at this," says Kouichi. He shows her a schedule. "First of all, we've set up this exercise program with the goal of giving you a foundation for physical strength." "This is no different from joining a skating club!" she says. "You're not joining a club, you're joining the project team," says Kouichi. "That's right," says Yuni, riding a skateboard. "Don't worry about a thing, Cherry, just leave it to us." "No fair, Yuni, you've got a skateboard!" "We can let you loose now." "The second stage of the foundation for physical strength is also a problem of time," says Tsuzuki. "Oh..." Chieri says as she puts the roller skates on. "I'm tired of this foundation every day, every day." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tsuzuki writes an algebra problem on the blackboard in front of the class. "Perfect, Tsuzuki," says the teacher. "Very good. Take your seat." "When am I going to practice on a rink," thinks Chieri. "There's only one month left until the festival." Tsuzuki drops a folded slip of paper on her desk as he walks back to his seat. "Huh!?" she thinks. She opens the note up. 4:00 PM - At the front gate --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bye Tsuzuki!" a student calls. "Bye," he says. Chieri approaches him. "Shall we go?" he asks. "Go where?" says Chieri. "Where is everyone?" "Today it's just the two of us." They board a train. Chieri's heart pounds as she stands next to him. "Where are we going?" she thinks. "There are so many things I want to talk about, but... Where should I start? I don't know..." They get off at the Takanawa Wing Skating Rink. "A rink?" "What shoe size?" Tsuzuki asks. "I take a 22 cm." He goes to the skate shoe stand. "Twenty-two," he says. "Oh, we're going to practice at the rink today!? Wow! I have to go home to get my suit and shoes!" "Your jersey will work for the suit," says Tsuzuki. "You had P.E. today, so you have that, right? Go change. The lockers are over there." "What!?" "Hurry up." She changes into her gym suit. "Ohh! I have to skate in my jersey! I want my suit!" "Come on," says Tsuzuki. "You'll skate for as many weeks as it takes for you to get used to it." He pushes her onto the rink, where little kids are skating. "Wh- Why do I have to skate with these little brats..." she thinks. "Okay, line up!" a woman calls to the kids. "These little kids are learning to skate?" she thinks. "Wow..." Tsuzuki waves to the woman. "I see..." Chieri thinks. "I wonder if this could be the rink where he learned to skate long ago..." "Well now," says Tsuzuki. "Have you ever done a compulsory?" "No," she says. "That's drawing a figure on top of the ice, right? I heard they don't do those at competitions anymore." "Well, they're plain, they don't get spectators, and they take a toll on the rink, as well as time. But compulsories are the foundation. If you can't do those, free skating is impossible." "Oh! I can do one!" says Chieri. "My dad taught it to me before! The shape of an eight! Look, look." She skates on the ice, forming an eight. "A figure eight," Tsuzuki thinks. "She traced it nicely. No... She's making a two... four-turn bracket. A paragraph bracket. That has the highest number of difficulty points of the compulsories. Her tracing is perfect at high speed. Does she have the foundation?" Chieri bumps into one of the kids on the ice. "Oh, sorry." She looks around the rink. "It's so small," she thinks. Two girls call from the side of the rink. "It's Tsuzuki-kun!" "Long time no see! This must be your first time here since you quit the club." "Who are they?" says Chieri. "They're not related to the club." "Hmph," says one of the girls. "So this is the kid you're practicing with?" "I'm getting a bad vibe from them," Chieri thinks. "The public skating time is over now. It's time for club use." "I see. Then we should be going..." The kids thank their teacher. "Is it over for the kids too?" says Chieri. "Yes," says Tsuzuki. "They're still in the beginner's class, they can't enter the club. Wait here a sec, I'm going to the office..." The clock strikes six. "Oh! It's time for the Princess to perform!" "The Princess?" thinks Chieri. "Everybody's cleared the rink." "Hey," says one of the fans. "You get off the rink too. You're in the way." A girl with short blond hair, wearing a black suit, skates gracefully on to the ice. "Whenever I see her," says the fan, "it takes my breath away. Her skating is beautiful. The Princess!" The girl jumps, landing in a back spin holding her torso and leg out horizontally. "A flying camel spin..." She lowers toward the ground, holding out her leg in front as she spins. "Then a sit spin..." She leans backward. "A layback..." "What? She's still going?" She arches her back, pulling her free leg up behind her head. "A biellmann spin..." "She's pretty," thinks Chieri. "Taking off like a butterfly... She looks like she feels so good skating. She really is a club member. Lifting her legs so lightly..." Chieri lifts her leg up behind her back. "But, but, I can reach my shoes too!" The skating girl turns. She skates past Chieri. "The play time is over!" she says in English. "Wh- What!?" thinks Chieri. "English? Just now..." Tsuzuki walks toward them. "Tsuzuki!" says the girl. "I was surprised when I heard you were coming in the office. Are you going to begin training here again?" "What, she's speaking Japanese," thinks Chieri. "She's blond like Akiyama Kouichi. Hmm." "I'm an attendant," says Tsuzuki. "To that girl." "That's the girl you brought," says the girl. She turns to Chieri. "If you don't have a suit, I'll lend you one. You don't look very good in that." "Th- That's all right!" Chieri says. "I'm not serious about skating like you guys, for the school festival I have no choice but to practice!" The girl brushes past her. "You should not do sacred skating!" she says in English. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri hugs her pillow. "Wh- What!?" she thinks. "Why is she lecturing me? I haven't done anything!" She reads her Nakayoshi Birthday magazine. "'Whatever you do this week, obstacles will come along with it.' Obstacles!? 'Especially on the 17th, you will have a strong love rival...' The 17th... Today!? L- Love rival? Could it be, that girl!? Speaking of which, she was familiar with Tsuzuki Masanori. Ah! Is that why she was bugging me? That stung me." She continues reading. "'As a charm so you can wake up in the morning, before you go to sleep, hit your pillow the number of times for the hour you want to wake up. You must not be late.'" She hits her pillow five times. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri's dad stumbles outside to meet the three boys. "What?" they say. "She left a long time ago?" Tsuzuki smiles. "The rink," he says. "According to plan... So the third stage, the chance meeting with the Princess, is a success." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri enters the skating rink. "Like I thought, there's no one here this early in the morning. The Princess... I don't know who she thinks she is, but... I know. English sounds like gibberish to me, but she makes me feel like a fool. If I could do what she did..." She skates on to the empty rink. "Hmm... How's this?" She holds her leg up behind her head and spins. "Ah, I feel like I can do anything now. Wow, amazing... Skating on the rink all by myself. It feels so good! Skater Chieri's special, the triple axel!" She jumps up, spinning through the air, and crashes to the ground. A snicker comes from the stands. "Owww...!!" Chieri cries. "Ahahaha!" The girl sits at the side of the rink, laughing. "Y- You're so cruel!" says Chieri. "L- Laughing!" "Are you trying to challenge me?" the girl asks. "My jump now..." thinks Chieri. "If she practices, maybe she could do a quadruple..." "Who are you?" the girl asks. "What's your relation to Tsuzuki?" "Tsuzuki is my coach!" says Chieri. "I don't intend to challenge you. I'm just trying to be as good as I can." "You've got a lot of confidence. But people who figure skate just for fun are the kind I hate the most. With that limit, you won't rival me in a million years. Don't show your face in front of me again, you loser!" She turns and walks away. Chieri starts to run after her. "Wh-!" Tsuzuki and Kouichi hold Chieri back. "Hey now." "Why does she say things like that!?" Chieri says. "Is this how great it is to be in a skating club!? What's with that girl... I don't want to give in to her! Treating me like a fool, and just walking out." "You have the school festival, right, President? You shouldn't worry about others' affairs. We're not at all ready for the festival yet, do you know that?" "That's right," says Kouichi. "We have to make the festival a success." "It will be a success!" says Chieri. "It will definitely be a success! And then, I want a match with that girl!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original manga copyright © 1990 Takeuchi Naoko. English translation copyright © 1997 Alex Glover. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko | The Cherry Project | Volume 1