The early morning chill filled the entire rink. Outside, it was still dim, and only the low hum of the ventilation fans broke the silence. The ice of Ice Castle Hasetsu gleamed cold and pale, a perfect mirror untouched by anyone. 　At the rinkside, there were only two spectators. [gentle] "Everyone's so early, aren't they?" 　Nishigoori Yuuko rested a hand on her slightly rounded belly and smiled softly. Her shoulder-length black hair was tied back in her usual style, and her gentle, drooping eyes surveyed the rink. Beside her, Victor Nikiforov stood with his arms crossed, his long silver hair swaying. His clear blue eyes were utterly serious now. 　On the ice, three skaters already stood. 　Katsuki Yuuri. Alexei Bradov. Yuri Plisetsky. 　No one spoke. Only the small sounds of blades biting into the ice—shh, shh—echoed unnervingly loud. [playful] "Now then, let's decide the skating order. Fairly, by drawing lots." 　Victor clapped his hands cheerfully. At that, Alexei shouted, "Leave it to me!" and proudly pulled three handmade paper lots from a bag he'd left by the rinkside. [excited] "I prepared these properly! Now draw, Yuri!" 　Yuuri accepted his nervously, but froze when he opened it. Yuri also furrowed his brow and opened his own lot. [angry] "You bastard, all three of these say 'Number 1,' don't they?!" 　Yuri crushed the lot in his fist and lunged at Alexei. [angry] "This is rigged! You idiot!" [angry] "Because I should be the one to skate first! The first skater gets watched the most by Victor-sama!" 　The two grappled with each other, nearly tumbling onto the ice. [scared] "S-Stop it, both of you! It's dangerous!" 　Yuuri tried to step between them, but Alexei's elbow grazed his face, and Yuri's kick passed right by his stomach. His legs wobbled from the lack of sleep since the night before. [surprised] "Here, let's decide with these." 　Yuuko pulled three small candy sticks from her pocket. Their lengths were slightly different. "Whoever draws the longest one skates first, and so on. There's no way to rig this, right?" 　Alexei and Yuri reluctantly drew one stick each from the bundle. Yuuri took the last remaining one. The result: the skating order was Alexei, Yuri, then Yuuri. [serious] "...I'm first. Please watch me, Victor-sama." 　Alexei pressed his lips tightly together and glided out to the center of the rink. 　The music began. He had chosen a heavy, dramatic classical piece. It was a high-difficulty program built around a quadruple toe loop. The first jump. Spin, spin, spin, spin—four rotations in the air. 　Crunch! 　His edge bit deep into the ice, and he landed beautifully. Technically, it was near perfect. But. 　(Right now, Victor-sama is...) 　As the music swelled, Alexei's gaze flicked, again and again, toward the rinkside. Victor stood with his arms crossed, watching without a single change in expression. Every time Alexei chased that gaze, his body's axis wavered by just a millimeter. His expression grew stiff with desperation. 　The step sequence. His footwork was flawless. But his eyes were desperately trying to capture Victor's blue eyes. 　The music stopped. Alexei, breathing heavily through his shoulders, struck his finishing pose. Immediately, his expectant blue eyes turned toward Victor. 　Victor clapped gently. [gentle] "Yeah." 　Just one word. That was all. 　Alexei's shoulders visibly slumped. His freckled face wilted before their eyes. [sarcastic] "...Just one word, huh." 　Yuri muttered under his breath. Yuuko let out a small "pfft" and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Alexei shouted, "What's so funny?!" but his voice was already close to a sob. 　(Victor... that was a little cruel.) 　Yuuri thought it in his heart, but couldn't say it aloud. 　The atmosphere shifted. 　The second skater was Yuri. The moment he stood at the center of the ice, the air grew taut, as if the rink's temperature had dropped. His waist-length blond hair seemed to bristle. His sharp, cat-like green eyes stared straight ahead at nothing but what lay before him. 　He had chosen an aggressive rock-style piece. 　The moment the music exploded, Yuri's body launched into motion. 　Zah, zazazah! 　The sound of his edges carving into the ice was painfully sharp. A single stroke devoured the distance from one end of the rink to the other—a terrifying acceleration. Overwhelming speed. A quadruple Salchow. He sprang up like a coil, slicing through the air as he spun. [scared] "...Scary." 　Yuuko hugged her belly tightly and murmured quietly. Even Alexei, arms still crossed, watched Yuri's every move in silence. 　It was less a performance and more an act of domination. Anger, intensity, pain—he slammed all of it into his blades, and Yuri ruled the rink. 　(So this is... Yuri Plisetsky.) 　Yuuri felt his fingertips growing cold. 　(And next... I have to do this?) 　A cold lump dropped heavily into the pit of his stomach. He hadn't slept a wink the night before. The words Yuri had thrown at him—"you spineless pig"—kept echoing in his head. The number on the scale. Victor's memo. Everything had churned chaotically in his mind until morning arrived. His legs were trembling. 　Yuuri stared hard at the laces of his skates and clenched his fists. The trembling in his fingers wouldn't stop. 　That was when it happened. 　He sensed someone softly standing beside him. [whispers] "I believe in you." 　Silver hair hovered close enough to almost touch Yuuri's cheek. Victor whispered just those words, in a voice no one else could hear. The same five syllables as the memo from last night. 　Yuuri couldn't lift his face. His voice caught in his throat, and he just gave a single, small, deep nod. 　Yuri's performance ended. Breathing heavily through his shoulders, Yuri returned from the rink. As he passed by, he growled low into Yuuri's ear. [angry] "Don't you dare chicken out." 　It was unmistakably an insult. But Yuuri had a faint inkling. This person, in his own way, was encouraging someone. 　(...Thanks.) 　Murmuring it only in his heart, Yuuri glided out onto the ice. 　Silence enveloped Yuuri. The piece he had chosen was a quiet piano solo. 　He took a deep breath and entered the approach for his first jump. A quadruple Salchow. He built up speed and launched. 　—Not enough. 　The rotation was clearly insufficient. His body unraveled in midair. 　Thud! 　He fell clumsily onto the ice. Cold ice particles hit his face. [scared] "...Yuri!" 　Alexei's voice, close to a scream, rang out. Yuuko instinctively started to rise. Yuri remained silent, arms crossed. Victor's expression was as still as ice. 　(Ah... as I thought, I'm just...) 　Yuuri couldn't move, his hands still pressed against the ice. His knees stuck to the cold surface. Only his heart pounded noisily. He couldn't stand up anymore. He just wanted the rink to swallow him whole— 　At that moment, in his mind, the words from last night's memo replayed in Victor's voice. 　"I believe in you." 　Katsuki Yuuri slowly lifted his face. He pressed his hands against the ice, got his knees under him, and stood up. 　(Believe. Believe in me... in my skating.) 　He skated again. His blades regained the sensation of tracing the ice. A single bar of the music seeped into his body like the beat of his own heart. It was never technically perfect. But his arms, his fingertips, his downcast gaze—everything began to color the air of the rink with an almost painfully poignant emotion. 　It was a "color" that no one else could imitate. 　Alexei pressed his lips firmly together. Something he had desperately chased but couldn't grasp just moments ago was now filling the rink before his eyes. It wasn't about dominating the rink like Yuri. It was simply becoming one with the rink itself. 　The final note of the piano quietly faded. 　Katsuki Yuuri collapsed to his knees on the spot, drained. His ragged breaths echoed through the rink. 　Clack, clack. 　Footsteps on the ice approached. Long silver hair swayed at the edge of his vision. Victor had come onto the ice before anyone else. 　He stood before Yuuri, who was on his knees, and said just one thing. [gentle] "That was good." 　It was a heartfelt statement, carrying a weight entirely different from the earlier "Yeah." That difference was painfully clear to the three at the rinkside as well. [angry] "'Yeah' and 'That was good' are completely different!! What's the meaning of this, Victor-sama?!" 　Alexei, his face bright red, began protesting furiously. Yuri grumbled, "What a noisy brat," and Yuuko lightly tapped him on the head. 　The tense atmosphere unraveled all at once. 　Laughing, Victor gathered the three of them at the rinkside. Then, his usual carefree expression shifted to something slightly more serious. [serious] "All three of you did well. I'll be honest." 　Victor first looked at Alexei, who was still pouting. [serious] "Alexei, your technique is genuine. There isn't a junior skater who can stop your jumps. But as long as you skate to be acknowledged by someone, you can only use half of that technique." 　Alexei's blue eyes flew open wide. "...I'm only using half of my skating?" 　He repeated the words quietly, like a broken record. 　Victor then turned to face Yuri. [serious] "Yuri, your intensity is world-class. No one can skate before you. But a performance driven only by anger delivers fear before it delivers emotion." 　Yuri deepened the furrow between his brows. [angry] "...What's wrong with anger?" 　He retorted, but his voice was much quieter than usual. 　Finally, Victor's blue eyes caught Yuuri's directly. [serious] "Yuuri, you fell. But your performance after you stood back up was the most 'you' I've ever seen." 　Those words spread a gentle warmth through the center of Yuuri's chest. 　In the silence of the rinkside, Victor looked over each of them in turn and spoke slowly. [serious] "Rivals aren't enemies. They're mirrors that reflect yourself, another version of you that helps you grow. That's how you'll become stronger." 　Alexei glanced up at Yuuri's face, almost shyly. Their eyes met. He quickly looked away, but his freckled cheeks were faintly red—not with anger, but with something like embarrassment. Yuri snorted, "Hmph." His face still looked angry, but the tension had left his shoulders. [gentle] "Alright, everyone must be hungry, right? Let's go back to Yu-topia Katsuki and have breakfast!" 　Yuuko's bright voice gently dispersed the strained atmosphere. 　Together, they silently left Ice Castle behind. The sky had begun to lighten completely, and the morning sun was starting to shine over the quiet town of Hasetsu. 　Victor walked right beside Yuuri and said, as if to himself: [gentle] "Tonight, want to take a bath in the hot spring?" 　Yuuri, still facing forward, answered quietly. "...Yeah." 　None of the three had fully digested Victor's words yet. Alexei, especially, was gazing softly at his own palm, lost in thought. 　What would they talk about in the hot spring tonight? No one knew yet. 　But in the quiet morning light, there was only a premonition that the gears, which had been creaking and grinding, had just barely begun to mesh together.