Izumi closed her eyes, enjoying the quietness of the train and the soft rhythm of music that played in the background. It was something she desperately missed when she had moved from Japan to America. In America, public transportation was more rowdy and loud, there was always constant movement of people leaving and entering the bus every couple minutes. It was not something she would miss.
She couldn't help but give a sigh of relief and a small chuckle to herself, she was excited that she was moving back to Japan with her mom. She missed the warm feeling of returning home and seeing her mom smile with the smell of warm food drifting over the stove waiting to be served; most of all, she missed the feeling of someone asking how her day was. It was hard to live in America, since she lived by herself, there was no one there for her. It wasn't cheap to live there either because almost all of her savings she saved in Japan was almost gone. Even though she had a full time job at a restaurant, her savings still kept depleting at an alarming rate. To society, she was a failure. She was twenty years old, living on fast food and minimum wage for the past two years, it was not something she was going to miss nor be proud of.
Here she was waiting for the train to arrive to her destination, glancing around, the train was surprisingly empty with only as few as eight other people including herself. She recognized the sight of overworked businessmen laying collapsed over the chair in exhaustion, the sight of a family probably returning from day care and the couple struggling to hold hands for the first time while blushing profusely. She wondered to herself, how did they view her?
Izumi examined herself from the glass and stared at her reflection.
No longer did she have the same physique nor the looks she had two years ago. She had gained between anywhere from twenty to thirty pounds since has left. The one thing she regret before moving out was not learning how to cook and because of that, she depended on take out for almost every single day of her two year stay at America. In comparison America and Japan had quite the difference when it came to food, it was much easier to stay slim when she lived with her mom.
Her hair no longer was short and curly, instead, it reached down to her waist. It wasn't maintained either, it was more on the greasier and untamed side.
She had really let herself go.
"Mom will really be surprised to see you Izumi," She sighed, displeased of how she turned out the past two years.
We have just arrived in Shizuoka Prefecture terminal. Passengers headed for the Shinzuoka district please take the main entrance of the platform.
Retrieving her bags, Izumi stood up and headed outside the train and into the station. She walked towards the barriers that separated her from leaving the station and the outside world. Shoving her hands inside her pockets, she retrieved the crumpled ticket from earlier and scanned it, allowing her to bypass the barrier and to be one step closer to home.
"Hey Izumi! Over here!" A voice yelled from nearby her.
Glancing around, Izumi met the eyes that were a peculiar color of yellow and a friendly smile that stretched from ear to ear.
"Mei? How did you know I was arriving today?" Izumi said confused, shuffling her baggage to the floor and walking towards her.
"You can't hide anything from me. Beside I'll be picking you up and dropping you off home! You don't think I won't rush to see you after you've been gone for so long?" She said, giving Izumi a tight choke hold of a hug.
"I missed you too," Izumi struggled to get out.
"Wow you looked different last time I saw you. That's not the Izumi Midoryia I know, nor the body of an ice skater," Mei said as examined her.
Izumi froze on the spot, she wasn't mad that Mei was ignorant about the way she was talking about her body but the last two words that came out of her mouth.
"That's Izumi Midoryia?" A voice she heard from behind.
"Didn't you hear? She failed a competitive tournam-" Izumi glanced behind her, watching bodies of people bending over and talking in soft voices.
"Not only that but her partne-" Another comment came nearby, causing for her body to shake violently.
Izumi was starting to go in a state of panic, she couldn't breathe, and slowly the world was dispersing into darkness. She hasn't felt this is in a long time, but she understood why, she was in America for the last two years, no one knew where she was born nor the person that she was. In Japan, it was a much more different story, a story that she wanted to forget. For once, a lot of people knew her, especially those in her home town. At one point, they celebrated and cheered for her, in return she only let them down. A sudden shift of movement brought her attention back to reality. Her body was moving, not by herself, but by Mei. Mei's other hand was holding her bags and the other one dragging her towards what she presumed to be an exit.
"I'm sorry Izumi..." Mei said, shuffling as quickly as she could towards her car.
She looked down at her feet, letting the tears drop to the pavement, "It's okay,"
"It's not, sometimes I forget how ignorant I am at times," She replied, placing her bags into the back seat and opening the door for Izumi. Izumi sat down buckling herself up and waited for Mei to do the same before they drove off towards Izumi mother's house.
The drive was silent, Izumi didn't want to say anything, instead she fiddled with her bag trying to think of an apology for her behavior from earlier. Glancing up, Mei was quiet, in deep thought as she was driving before she decided to speak.
"Izumi, there are quite a few things that have changed since you were gone." Mei said, hoping to break the tense atmosphere.
"Like what?" Izumi replied, no longer fiddling with her bag, but giving her devoted attention. She was curious, although two years was quite a bit of time to be gone, it should have not caused such a drastic change to occur.
"I mean, what could you handle?" Mei replied, turning on the radio to some casual modern music in a low volume.
"I- I don't know," Izumi replied, truthfully, her heart couldn't handle much. She was a sensitive person, and it was hard for her to listen to the truth at times.
Mei took a small glance analyzing her before taking her eyes back to the road, "There are some changes for the rink, business was going bad when my old man owned it, but now it belongs to me," She grinned before continuing, "You're looking at the new owner of Hatsume skating rink,"
"Wait! Are you for real!" Izumi shouted in excitement, it was the first place where Mei and Izuma had met. Although Mei was her superior at first when it came to skating, and could have surpassed her. However, her devotion was more towards mechanics. She was the one who taught her the basics.
"Mhm, the old man decided to retire so I get to do whatever I want with it," She said happily, drifting off way to close to the side of the road for Izumi's liking.
"Anything else?" Izumi said, she reached for the wheel and straightened it out so that they were in the middle of the road.
"Sorry about that," Mei replied, shifting her full attention back onto the road before continuing, "Really, that's as much as I can tell you for now-beside your mother missing you terribly,"
"Oh shush, I know that" Izumi laughed, punching Mei on the side of her arm before comfortably retreating back to her seat.
By the time their conversation was done, they were in front of Izumi's house, her mom waiting in front of the door.
"Speak of the devil," Mei said, as Izumi's mother ran outside her house and into the arms of Izumi, who had just gotten out of the car to greet her mom.
"My baby! I haven't seen you in two years. Letters and calls are not enough to fix of how much I missed you!" She cried into Izumi's shirt.
"Momma, I missed you too." Izumi said, tightly hugging her.
"I was about to start on dinner, I planned on cooking your favorite! Mei you can join too!" Inko said.
"Sorry I would love to join, believe me I would love to, I wouldn't miss your cooking for the world, but I have work extremely early in the morning, so I have to pass on this too," Mei sighed depressingly, "How about tomorrow?"
"Same with me mom, I'm a little exhausted from traveling and I would like to go to bed, tomorrow could work for the both of us," Izumi agreed, only causing for her mom to sign.
"Alright you guys. Thank you, Mei, for driving Izumi home," She said, getting the bags out of her back seat and closing the door.
"It's no problem, I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?" Mei said grinning, as she waved goodbye, reversing out of the parking lot and back into the road.
"I missed you Izumi, your room is still the same as you left it when you left, do you need help with your bags?"
"It's okay mom, thank you for letting me move back in," Izumi said, walking inside to the familiar house, the house where she had lived most of her life.
"It's no problem, don't forget you always have a home here. Goodnight Izumi!"
Closing the door, Izumi examined her room which was filled with posters of her favorite ice skater who went by the name of All Might. The old medals that she had won from figure skating still remained on her desk in which she shoved inside whatever drawers were empty. Mom was right, most of her belongings remained the same as she left it two years ago.
"I might as well go to bed, I'll just finish unpacking tomorrow," Izumi muttered before laying down, letting sleep over take it.
Izumi felt like an anxious mess, her routine was almost over, and she needed to do one last turn to be qualified for the next round.
It wasn't helping that she was now tense, she knew it was all or nothing. This was figure skating, not ice skating, if she were to cause a mistake, it would not only bring herself down, but her partner as well. Izumi could tell her partner was thinking the same, his expression was sprawled with annoyance and a permanent scowl due to her mistakes from earlier. He zoomed past her. A simple axel that could land them into the safe zone as long as she landed it and if he could catch her.
She caught up, trying to match his speed. Izumi angled her foot out, ready to do her turn before a cold-memory surged through her mind causing her to blank out. No longer the stadium was full of surging people that cheered for their favorite team, and no longer her partner was in front of her, it was only to be replaced by a harsh memory that caused the world to go dark for her.
"It is rather simple; your daughter has a genetic physical trait known as flat foot. Flat foot is when your foot is flat instead of curved like most. Flat foot is usually occurred due to injuries when they were young, otherwise, the curve has never developed as they grew up," He said.
"So, what does this mean for Izumi?"
"I would suggest that she would stick with light exercising and sports. You see, those with flat foot cannot do as many physical activities at the same rate as others and usually those who do rigorous activities are more prone to permanent damage. Exercising for a long-period of time will cause pain making it much harder to do an activity like ice-skating, I would suggest she would quit now and focus on other activities,"
"Mommy, I don't understand what he is saying," Izumi muttered as she tugged onto her mother's cardigan.
"Sweetie, it will just take one moment, I will explain everything,"
"How do you feel about golf instead?" The doctor said to Izumi.
"I don't want to do golf. I want to ice skate!" Izumi said out loud, "I want to meet all Might when I get into the Olympics!"
The atmosphere turned quiet before her mother broke down onto her knees, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Izumi!"
Izumi had felt as if the music had stopped on her, the atmosphere went dim. The masses of people who were seated were turning into dark shadows, looming over her, turning bigger and bigger as the seconds went by.
"No.." Izumi muttered frighteningly, covering her face, as her form slowly deteriorated for the turn.
When the shadows only worsened, she fell onto the side of her body, flesh meeting ice as her body was being scraped along the ice. It hurt so much, but it did not hurt as much as the reminder knowing that she was a failure from the start. For after that, she heard nothing beside a buzzer and a familiar voice ringing in her head.
"I suggest you quit now,"
Izumi woke up the sound of her phone blaring from underneath her pillow.
Izumi struggled to open her eyes, she was grateful yet exhausted from the sudden call. Exhaustion hit her from the dream before and she wanted to lay there, trying to forget a dream that purely derived from a memory from the past.
"This dream... How is this possible, it's been two years," Izumi mumbled reaching for her phone, she glanced at her alarm that was nearby.
"It's only six in the morning... Who is awake during this time on a Saturday?" She mumbled as she answered the call.
"Izumi, I need your help!" A voice blared from the other side which only caused her to wince.
"Mei...? I can help you, but why are you calling me so early? Izumi said, re-positioning her pillow into a more comfier position.
"It's terrible! I need to work on maintenance for the arena, but I have a class scheduled during the same time! Could you please cover me, I know you just got back, but I really need this,"
"Mei.. you know I don't figure skate anymore and I don't want to in general. Why can't any of your other coworkers' substitute for you?" Izumi replied sleepily.
"Izumi you're the only one who can do this, no one else. Trust me, you're not doing anything difficult, today, you'll be teaching the more younger ones and they just need to learn how to skate and stand on the ice, please, some of the parents threatened to leave because of how often classes are being cancelled recently, we can't afford to lose any more business," She replied frantically.
"Okay.. I guess I'll come. But under the condit-,"
"Great! See you soon!" Mei hurriedly said as she ended the call.
"Great.. I just came back and I doing what I promised myself I wouldn't.." She muttered before glancing at the picture framed that was on her cabinet.
The picture was of her and partner in their first competitive competition together. Their routine may have not been the best, but their expressions as they held a gold metal proudly told otherwise. It was taken when she was around the age of thirteen or fourteen. A time when there were no problems in her life. She was happy, and there was nothing that could stop that. It only caused a sense of dread to loom over, and slowly Izumi reached over, letting her hand rest over the frame to stroke the face of her partner, before she set the frame down with the picture facing down.
If figure skating has taught her anything, it had taught her nothing could last forever. She didn't have time for games like this anymore.
Izumi felt cold as she entered the arena. The familiar blast of coldness was nostalgic. Glancing around, nothing really changed, it was all the same yet cleaner and for example, the skating rink was more pristine from being recently tended to, the cabinets were filled with a couple of ice skates in which she assumed to be those of a younger age around the ages of six to sixteen and there was a bigger wooden surface area for people to watch from afar.
It bugged her, it was all there, as if it was waiting for her to return.
"Izumi, are you okay? Mei said, patting her shoulder in reassurance.
"N-No I'm fine, it's just I have not skated for quite a while now, I guess I'm just trying to get into the swing of things again. " Izumi muttered, pulling her un-groomed tangled curly hair to a messy bun.
"I'm really thankful you're substituting, it's just lately I've been caught up with work and the new changes that we're trying to make to this place, it just made us swamped," She sighed.
"Just keep it the way as it is, I see no reason why to change the lay out, you basically already have what you need," Izumi examined, glancing left and right at every single object which remained the exact location for the past couple years.
"I understand you completely, but it's a new era, no one wants plain wood designs and a simple skating rink. They want buzzing lights and loud music to entertain themselves. Skating isn't the same as before, if anything it is a dying sport, no one wants to skate anymore. That's why you need to bring the sport back and into it's proper spot. My babies will attract this place to its former glory and with you here we'll be flooded with customers in no time," Mei grinned, letting her thumbs out towards Izumi.
Izumi laughed, although Mei at times was eccentric, she knew how to make Izumi feel happier- as if she had an importance and a place in the world.
"So, when does the class start?" Izumi said, glancing at the clock, it was around seven in the morning, far off from usually when she wakes up.
"It starts at around ten, you're here quite early so maybe you can practice a bit before you start," Mei replied.
Izumi was not going to lie, after a year or two of not skating she was confident she had forgotten some aspects of it. She was quite unsure if she could still do the same skills she has possessed a while back, and it only caused her to be more nervous.
"It's okay, I'll probably help you a little bit before class starts,"
Hello! I'm sorry if you saw this earlier, I uploaded the wrong one. This one has much more content in it though, so I don't believe it really matters. I would prefer in the comments if you guys told me some of the parings you guys like beside for Izumi (Izuku), I already have hers in mind. Also, if you would prefer her hair to be short or long. Thank you for reading.