The Cherry Project - Chapter 13 "Only one angel..." Originally appeared in Nakayoshi, October 1991. Written by Takeuchi Naoko. Translated by Alex Glover. Version 1.0, 3.98. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tsuzuki stands in the observation room above the rink, looking at Chieri fallen on the ice. Kouichi and Hiroshi look up at him. "Tsuzuki!?" "Tsuzuki..." They turn and leave. Tsuzuki looks down at Chieri. "Keep trying..." he thinks. "You must be able to surmount this." "I have to get to the side of the rink..." thinks Chieri. "Stand up, Chieri. Once more, from the beginning..." She tries to stand. "My legs won't move... I'm all alone, on this wide rink... The railing is so far away..." She falls on her side. Tsuzuki clenches his fists. "You must be!" he thinks. "Cherry!" Wataru runs into the room. "How long have you been here!? It's pitch dark outside! Have you been doing this all by yourself!?" Tsuzuki watches him put his arms around Chieri. "Cherry-chan..." says Wataru. "I heard, about your not being able to skate... You should think more comfortably about skating. Say, Cherry-chan... When you're skating, what kind of things do you think about? I pursue nothing but my program. I decide with plenty of time about the height of my next triple, make sure my eagle form is pleasing, and finish at the end of the music with style! You know?" "When I'm skating..." thinks Chieri. "I never think about anything... Nothing..." "I'll skate with you, Cherry-chan. Let's split your pain in half!" He looks into her eyes as he holds her. "I want to pair skate with you, Cherry." "Somewhere, these serious eyes..." thinks Chieri. "Oh... This person's eyes... They look like Tsuzuki's... Tsuzuki..." "Even skating isn't scary if you're with someone," says Wataru. "Don't you think skating with someone is a wonderful thing?" "Yes..." she thinks. "It is... Compared to singles... It's much more wonderful... Maybe I can skate with this person..." Tsuzuki turns away from the rink. "If Wataru-kun is with me," thinks Chieri, "I will be able to skate. I know it..." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wataru holds Chieri's hands. "All right, close your eyes again," he says. "Let's remember the time you first stood on the rink. It's all right, don't be scared." "Dad, I'm going to skate! I want to be able to skate like that boy! Tsuzuki Masanori!" "Cherry-chan?" "I remembered something dear..." she thinks. "I have to forget it now." "It's all right," says Wataru. "I know you can do it, Cherry. Because I'll be skating with you. Okay? Keep at it. I'll stay with you." They start skating together on the rink. "Working hard, I see," says Kouichi. He enters with Hiroshi. "Kouichi! Hiroshi!" says Chieri. They look at her legs. "You're always covered with scrapes, Cherry." She continues skating with Wataru. "I'm really glad she's become able to skate," says Kouichi. "But it's too bad it's thanks to that guy," says Hiroshi. Chieri skates, following Wataru's lead. "So high..." thinks Wataru. "She's matching my speed exactly... I've never seen a girl like this before." "I work well with Wataru-kun's skating," thinks Chieri. "Cherry-chan!" says Wataru. "You're skating so easily! Have you pair skated before?" "Oh," says Chieri. "Umm... Yeah, kind of... With Tsuzuki... Well, it was a fluke. It was only one time. Really, a little bit..." "Hmph," says Wataru. "I'm going to forget about Tsuzuki," thinks Chieri. "I hope we can perform in pairs starting next year," says Wataru. "To prepare for that, you should accumulate achievements in singles. Keep at it!" "Right," says Chieri. "I have to keep at this!" she thinks. "I'll become as good as I can... For Wataru-kun, as well." Yuni watches from the side of the rink. She turns away. "Yuni," says Kouichi. "Somehow... This is wrong..." she says. "It's wrong somehow..." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Kikuchi Wataru went back to Kobe?" says Hiroshi. "Yeah," says Kouichi. "This weekend is the west Japan tournament." "So next week is the east Japan tournament..." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The west Japan tournament is on TV," says Mori. "I'm really glad you can skate again. Think you'll be all right for east Japan?" "Yeah," says Chieri. "Sorry for worrying you, Coach. I'm okay now." They watch the television in the office. "And last in boys singles," says the announcer, "is Kikuchi Wataru!" The crowd cheers loudly. "Listen to that amazing support!" says the announcer. "Together with Canty Akiyama in girls, his ability represents Japan! A 13-year-old youth!" "Wataru-kun's skating..." thinks Chieri. "It looked just a little like Tsuzuki's from a long time ago... Like Tsuzuki's... Is that why I'm able to skate so easily?" She shakes her head. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- East Japan Championship Figure Skating Tournament. Day 2, girls' free skate. "Where's Cherry?" "The waiting room." "So she took fifth place in the original program yesterday? Then her problem will be the free skate." "She has to get at least 12th place, right? To go to all-Japan this year." Chieri sits nervously in the waiting room as Canty skates. "I can skate," she thinks. "I'm not scared. It's all right. I'm going to skate with all my might." "Number 18," says the announcer. "Asuka Chieri-san. Her music is from West Side Story." "Oh! Look, this is the girl who skated just like the Princess, with the same music. She changed her music!" "She isn't very good... Such a low level, this girl..." "Didn't she go better with the same music as the Princess? With 'Emperor.'" Tsuzuki watches Chieri skate. Canty stands next to Wataru. "I hear you're the one who made her able to skate?" says Canty. "She seems appealing. But, even Tsuzuki gave up on her. I wonder, can you fix that girl's fatal defect? We'll see how the match challenge goes." Chieri finishes her performance. "I wonder if I skated well," she thinks. "I wonder it was all right. There isn't much response..." Her scores appear on the board. "Her artistic marks are pretty low!" "We really do have to do something about your presentation ability problem," says Mori. "Presentation ability..." thinks Chieri. "What's her total rank?" says Kouichi. "Just barely... 12th place." "So she can go to all-Japan!" "Good job, good job!" says Wataru. "If you can keep working like this, you'll be all right." Tsuzuki watches them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What, you're here this early?" says Chieri's dad. "How unusual." "No practice today," says Chieri. "Since yesterday was the tournament... Even Wataru-kun said he was going back to Kobe for a bit." Her dad looks through the mail. "There's a letter for you, Chieri," he says. "There's no name, and no stamp on it." She takes it. "Hey, who's this from? There's no sender's name." She opens the envelope. "A ballet ticket? But... Just one...?" "Must have come to the house and put in in the mailbox personally," says her dad. "Wow! First row center! Who is this flashy guy? Must be some boy." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri enters the auditorium carrying her large stuffed bear. "I'd feel helpless by myself," she thinks, "so I brought it with me. 'Cherry' number 2, from Wataru-kun. Oh, that Wataru-kun... Doing such a flashy thing as this. I'll have to thank him." She takes her seat and looks at the program. Swan Lake, by Tchaikovsky. Starring Sakurada Fuyuna. "My being able to come this far, as well... It's all because Wataru-kun was there." She watches as the ballet begins. "This is the story of Princess Odette, who was turned into a swan by an evil spirit's magic, and the prince who fell in love with her. But the prince fell into the evil spirit's trap and chose Odile, who looked just like Odette. The prince's betrayal... Odette's sorrow... But in time, they defeated the evil spirit, and vowed their love to each other." Chieri's eyes water. "Seems I'm so susceptible to tears lately... I want to have love like that, too. Love like that..." She walks through the crowd after the ballet. She sees Tsuzuki leaving the auditorium. "Why... even with this many people here... can I find Tsuzuki easily...? Even though I've tried to endure this... Why am I seeing him...? Maybe... it's destiny... My heart is in pain... I want to skate..." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chieri skates on the ice. Wataru enters and watches her, seeing the stuffed bear propped up on a chair beside the rink. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Morning," says Wataru. "It's early. Are you still skating?" "I couldn't skate like I thought..." says Chieri. "When I get that feeling, I want to skate more and more." "Why don't we skate together for a bit?" He steps onto the ice, and they start skating. "Our tempo's off?" thinks Chieri. He reaches out for her hand, but she misses it and slides away. "Sorry," he says. "You all right?" "I'm fine, I'm fine." "Our timing doesn't match," she thinks. "Strange... We matched perfectly before, buy why? What is it... Something's missing... We skate and we skate, but it's not satisfying... My heart isn't fluttering..." "Oh, that reminds me," she says. "Thanks for the ballet ticket, Wataru-kun. It was so beautiful and moving. I brought the bear Cherry with me, too." "Ballet?" says Wataru. "Huh, what do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. Did someone give it to you?" "Um, yeah, in the mail..." "Could it have been Coach Mori?" he says. "It... wasn't Wataru-kun?" thinks Chieri. "She was saying it would be good if you learned from ballet or something," says Wataru. "It makes your movement fluid. Everyone's doing it. And it would help with your power of expression. But, power of expression... You wouldn't pick it up so soon. Anyway, while you're pair skating with me, I think it's better if you don't pick it up." Chieri stares at him as he takes her hand. "Instead, I'd like to train you more with boys' level speed and jumps. I know it will work for you, Cherry-chan! I mean, that quadruple..." She pulls her hand away. "If it was him..." she thinks. "He would have said, 'Let's see it together.' He wouldn't do something like sending me just one ticket." "Tsuzuki...?" she says. He looks at her. She covers her mouth. "What is this..." he says. "It's always Tsuzuki with you!" He puts his arms around her. "No! Tsuzuki!" she says. She backs away. "This person isn't him..." "Sorry..." she says. She runs from the rink. Her heart pounds. "He's nice, but... He's always been by my side, but... His skating was kind of like Tsuzuki's, but... Wataru-kun... isn't Tsuzuki." She runs through the locker room. "I want to see Tsuzuki's skating. Right now." She runs to the other rink in the building. "Tsuzuki...!" Tsuzuki stands on the ice. He starts skating, jumping and spinning in the air. "Oh..." she thinks. "I can see angel wings... Two sets of angel wings..." He stops and looks at her. "Tsuzuki," she says. "I..." "What do you plan to say, Chieri?" she thinks. "Tsuzuki isn't my coach, or my classmate, or anything anymore. Tsuzuki's pairing with the Princess..." "I... I..." she says. "With you..." The doors to the room burst open. "Tsuzuki doesn't pair skate anymore!" says Canty. "Leave here right now! Tsuzuki is giving up on you. You're in the way!" "But," thinks Chieri. "Why are these two doing so well together!? Tsuzuki doesn't pair skate anymore!? Why!?" "After junior high, he will be forced to stop skating," said Hiroshi. "But there's still a year left," she thinks. "Did he give up on his dream? Have you given up, Tsuzuki?" "Do you want Tsuzuki to coach you again?" says Canty. "You have quite a bit of self-confidence. If you want to get close to him whatever it takes, do it after you beat me! You've been talking about a 'challenge', right? Let's see once and for all! At the all-Japan tournament!" "Whoever wins..." says Tsuzuki. "I'll pair skate with. How about that?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original manga copyright © 1991 Takeuchi Naoko. English translation copyright © 1998 Alex Glover. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko | The Cherry Project | Volume 3