The Cherry Project - Chapter 4 "Held by the wings of an angel..." Originally appeared in Nakayoshi, January 1991. Translated by Alex Glover. Version 1.0, 8.97. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The clock strikes six the next morning. Chieri opens her Nakayoshi Birthday magazine. "Today's fortune: 'Favorable. It is important that you dare to make challenges!'" She stands before her mirror. "All right, here I go! Today I'll do it!" She feels her chest. "Oh, my heart is beating faster and faster..." She kisses the poster on her wall, and she waves to the picture on her desk. "Bye-bye, Mom!" She sits down to put on her rollerblades, when she spots her ice skates. "Oh, that's right. I have to bring these today." She leaves her house. The sunlight glints off the Tokyo Tower as she arrives at school. "At last... The day of the school festival." She sees a sign on the ground: 2-2 Figure Skating Rink Behind the school building! "We have skate shoes!" "What!? There's a rink!?" She runs to the back, where an ice rink has been built in the vacant lot. "It was completed in the middle of the night, last night. It's a bit small, but we'll make the best of it." "Tsuzuki!!" Chieri says. "You made a rink!? I don't believe it! No way! Then, Tsuzuki Construction... Your folks have a construction company!?" "Yeah, well, sort of..." He looks at her. "Want to try it out? The rink for the class president." She gasps. "For me..." She slips on her skates, and goes onto the ice, skating around. "A turn here... Then this complicated step I did with Tsuzuki... And then..." She remembers the Princess skating. "No!" she thinks. "The performance of the Princess I saw last night is in my head..." She grips the railing at the edge of the rink. "Did you sleep last night?" asks Tsuzuki. "Of course I slept." "I see. You don't have to overwork yourself. You can do it." "That's right..." Chieri thinks. "The program Tsuzuki made will make me succeed. For our school festival." - The three boys enter the room. "You dressed?" "Hey! I'm changing!" says Chieri. "Wait by the rink." She stands in a light skating dress, with bows around her waist, and flowers in her hair. "How cute!" Kouichi says, in English. "You look like another person!" "Isn't she pretty, Tsuzuki?" says Hiroshi. "Yeah," says Tsuzuki. He glances at his watch. "Oh, it's time. I'm going ahead to the rink." He leaves. "What?" Chieri thinks. "'Yeah'? That's all!? He could have said a little more than that..." Yuni laughs. "He's shy." "Tsuzuki really does have a poker face," says Kouichi. "Well, Princess," says Hiroshi. "Shall we depart for the rink as well?" The four of them leave the room and walk out through the school, each wearing a jacket with the words, "The Cherry Project." "She's so cute! That kind of girl was in our school?" "She's the president of class 2-2!" "Class 2-2! That's the one with the skating show! I saw it, I saw it! They even built a rink, right?" "Hey, let's go watch! Let's go watch!" Chieri grimaces. "I can make it myself, we don't need such a swarm." "No way!" says Kouichi. "If we knights can't guide our princess safely, Captain Tsuzuki will be mad." They go outside. "Oh, they're here! They're here!" "Look over here! I'll take a souvenir photo!" They pull Tsuzuki together with Chieri. "All right, here we go!" The girl takes their picture. A crowd gathers in the lot behind the school. Kouichi looks at Chieri. "What are you doing?" he asks. "A charm to stay calm," she says. "Writing the kanji for 'person' on my hand three times and swallowing." "What?" says Kouichi. "I'll tell you one I hear more often. Chant 'Kouichi-kun is really handsome,' three times." "Do what!?" A girl in a black jacket, hat, and sunglasses stands among the crowd. Tsuzuki taps Chieri's shoulder. "Do what you always do." "What I always do..." Chieri thinks. Her heart pounds in her chest as she grasps her crystal pendant. "Oh, calm down, heart..." "And now, what you've all been waiting for!" calls the announcer. "The class 2-2 idol! The skating show of Class President Asuka Chieri! Enjoy!" Chieri skates onto the ice, spinning around. "I'm skating in front of such a large number of people..." she thinks. She spots the girl in black in the crowd. The girl takes off her sunglasses, staring at Chieri. "What!?" Chieri thinks. "The Princess!? Why is she here!? Did she come to see Tsuzuki!?" She remembers the performance she watched on video. "I have to leap! Just like the Princess did!" She jumps into the air and spins. "No! Don't!" Tsuzuki calls. "So high..." the Princess thinks as she watches. "You do one extra spin, and twist your body too much," Tsuzuki said. Chieri sees him skating toward her. "Tsuzuki!?" He grabs her hand as she lands, holding her up. "I did it!?" she thinks. "A triple axel?" says Kouichi. The crowd cheers. "They joined together!" "They're doing pair skating?" "They are!" "So, what now, Tsuzuki?" says Hiroshi. "Now that you're on the rink, it's up to you." "The music's back to the beginning!" says Chieri. Tsuzuki grimaces. "Hiroshi..." Chieri looks up into Tsuzuki's eyes. He holds her from behind. "Since I'll be following, don't cry out if I touch you. Skate like I taught you at the start. Let's go!" They start to skate on the ice. "Is this a dream?" Chieri thinks. "I'm pair skating with Tsuzuki now!? Pair skating with him!?" "With the next music," Tsuzuki says, "lift up your body. Hold tight to my shoulder, and take a spiral posture above." "Huh!? What!?" He lifts her into the air above him. "Okay, now's the finish. A throw jump! Spin as fast as you can!" "What!?" "Spin!!" He releases her, and she spins through the air. The Princess gasps. Tsuzuki watches as she nears the ground. "She's going to crash!?" He catches her in his arms, and they both fall hard on the ice. Cheers and laughs come from the crowd. They breathe heavily. "You spun too much. Foolish." "Ehehe," Chieri laughs. They stand before the applauding crowd. "This feels so good," she thinks. "Is this a real moment of magic?" Chieri picks up the flower bouquets thrown on the ice. She sees some chocolate bananas. "Wow, chocolate bananas!" she says. "Thanks!" "You're surprisingly heavy," says Tsuzuki. "Quit eating those things." "Hey! I am not heavy!" Yuni and Haruna meet them as they step off the rink. "That was amazing!" says Yuni. "All of a sudden? You were great together!" Tsuzuki lifts a flower from one of the bouquets. "Jeez, acting so ridiculously..." he says. He hands the flower to Chieri. "It's been a long time since I've gotten applause. Since I've had this feeling. It's thanks to you." Chieri looks into his eyes as she takes the flower. "This is the first time..." she thinks. "That I've seen his face like this... It's... Tsuzuki's magic..." "I want to skate," she says. "Huh?" "I feel like I can do anything now!" "Hey," says Tsuzuki. "Do the second time like I told you, got it? You don't need to do an extra jump." She smiles. "I got it. I'll do it." "Nothing more than what's necessary." "I want to skate," Chieri thinks. "More and more. Until he accepts me. Until I can skate like Tsuzuki. I don't want this to end at the festival!" Princess Canty stares at her. "What is this?" she thinks. "Why is she pair skating with Tsuzuki!?" "Tsuzuki!!" she calls. "Why are you quitting skating for a long time? Are you serious!?" "There are just... things I want to do," he says. "It's been over a year since then..." she thinks. "I knew he wanted to pair skate a long time ago. So he was searching for a partner... And that's the girl he was searching for! That girl... Her first triple axel. Her form was so pretty, she looked like another person... And when she did the throw jump, she did four turns so lightly. If it wasn't for this small rink, she would surely have landed beautifully. That girl who messed up the figure... That girl which such reflexes, I thought she was just doing this for fun..." "Hey," says Kouichi. "You came. As usual, at the rink from morning to night. Haven't seen you at all." "Does Tsuzuki plan to pair skate with that girl!?" Kouichi looks at her. "You were saying that you wanted a rival," he says. "That there was nobody close who was good enough to compete with. How is the view from the world level? She is the princess." "What club has she entered?" "Heh heh! Far from a club, she just started skating in junior high! She has hardly any experience! We found her. Normally, it takes five or six years to do a double." "She's that special a girl..." Canty thinks. "She's even practicing at Tsuzuki's private rink." "Even I couldn't be in the pair Tsuzuki wanted..." "Calm yourself," says Kouichi. "Losing composure does not become you." They watch Chieri skate onto the ice again. "The second show is starting," Kouichi says. "That girl says she's going to challenge you after the festival's over." "Interesting music," says Canty. "The tempo alternates in the same piece. Mostly just connecting elements. Does she plan to skate to this?" She watches Chieri skate. "But her skating is somehow charming... She's mastered Tsuzuki's skating perfectly. I see it. The manner, the width of her steps, dynamic like a boy... It's like Tsuzuki's skating. No, it's too much like it!" "Cherry will master jumps soon," says Kouichi. "She'll have the triple in an instant. No... With her, the quadruple." "No way..." says Canty. "How many boys do you think there are in the world now who can do a quadruple? I don't know what you're planning, but... Challenging me? Don't think little of me. With those faults she has, she will not be useful. Even if you notice those faults... She'll ruin herself crashing into a wall." Haruna notices the two of them talking behind the school. "I've seen so many girls like her," says Canty. "They clear all the stages up to this one. But the one after this, they can not clear." The crowd cheers as Chieri finishes. "I thought I saw someone talking to Kouichi," says Tsuzuki. "So you came." Chieri steps off the rink. "Tsuzuki?" she thinks. "Where's Tsuzuki? I have to tell him! I want to do figure skating more seriously! Wait till I tell him, he'll be thrilled!" She stops as she sees Tsuzuki and Kouichi, standing with Canty. "The Princess!" she thinks. Chieri's dad walks up to them. "The junior champion, Tsuzuki-kun," he says. "Thanks for helping Chieri out." "I'm not champion anymore," says Tsuzuki. "Nice to meet you. I saw you on video, when you performed in the Olympics." "Your family must have took videos of you, too," says Chieri's dad, holding his camcorder. "Well... My dad doesn't like skating..." Tsuzuki says. "Cherry, that was the best!" says Kouichi. "I recorded it all too. We'll all watch it together!" "Oh, that's okay!" says Chieri. "Hey... You know, I... I want to join a skating club! I want to really learn!" "You do!?" says her dad. "You want to join one too! Then, the closest one is... The Takanawa Wing skating club! Yep, that's what it will be!" "Takanawa Wing..." thinks Chieri. "That sounds... Huh!? What!? That's... the club where the Princess is!" "Please, enter if you wish," says Canty. "It is unfortunate, but now, before the championship, there are no openings in the rink or for coaches. Beginners cannot practice, but if that's fine with you..." "Championship?" thinks Chieri. "Oh, right," says Tsuzuki. "The block class championship is soon." "There's a tournament," Chieri thinks. "The Princess will perform. A championship... If Tsuzuki makes a better program for me, and I practice... Maybe I can't perform there... But I want to." "I'll enter the championship too!" she says. "If I do that," she thinks, "I'll be able to challenge the Princess." "Too bad," says Canty. "You can't." "That's absurd," Canty thinks. "If she joins the club now, what will she do? She has a long way to go to be a figure skater. If she feels bad about being at a different level, and it breaks her, fine." "What!?" says Chieri. "Why!? I can't enter it!?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original manga copyright © 1991 Takeuchi Naoko. English translation copyright © 1997 Alex Glover. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko | The Cherry Project | Volume 1