A week after Viktor forced the divorce on his husband, Yuri, the Japanese man disappeared. He simply vanished off the face of the Earth. A missing person report had been filed by his parents, but it quickly turned cold, after the young man's worried older sister went into his room and found a suicide note on his desk. The moment the media caught wind of what had happened, famous figure-skater, Viktor Nikiforov, had been pounded relentlessly by the hatred of the entire planet. They claimed that it was his fault, his forceful breakup, that had driven his ex-husband to suicide. And the guilt was more than overwhelming. It was deafening, blindingly bright, like constant cameras flashing in his eyes.
The one thing that truly broke everyone was the fact that they never found his body. They had scoured every river and crevice of Hasetsu, searching, hoping, wishing, for any sign of their child. They wanted to know what happened to him, even if they knew it would probably only cause more pain.
Six months after the tragedy, a new face showed up in the figure-skating circle. His name was Kurai Akahoshi. A 26-year-old Japanese man with a rather intimidating appearance, and a striking resemblance to Yuri Katsuki.
Viktor watches in complete and utter shock as a black-haired young man rises from his spot in the row of chairs currently occupied by this year's competitors. His skin is pale, covering his slim, yet well-built figure. His black hair is cut in an undercut, with the ear-length mop swept over to the right. At least ten black and silver piercings coat each of his ears, as well as one at the end of his perfect left eyebrow. A blank, serious expression graces his face as he pulls the number five from the bag. The crowd claps, but he seems to ignore them, moving back over to his chair and slumping heavily into his seat, crossing his legs with a bored expression. It's then that Viktor gets to see his eyes. They're a blood red colour, the right iris adorned with a few specks of dark brown. They're terrifying, but Viktor finds them mesmerising at the same time.
"He's rather handsome," Chris whispers, leaning toward his friend a little.
"Hmm..." Viktor replies quietly. "'Kurai Akahoshi'... I wonder what he's like..."
"I wonder what he's going to be wearing for his short program..." Chris agrees breathlessly. "He holds himself with a rather... seductive confidence. And his eyes are amazing."
"His full name means, roughly, 'Dark Red River'," a voice comes from behind them.
They both turn to see Yuri Katsuki's sister sitting in the seat behind Chris.
"I looked him up, but there are no records of him before a few weeks ago, when he got caught up in a violent street fight in Kabukicho," she tells them. "He's lucky they're even allowing him to perform, he stabbed two people with a metal chair leg."
"W-What?" Chris chokes, while Viktor remains in a shocked silence.
"I even found some rumours and theories that he's actually Yuri... just possessed by some kind of evil spirit."
She scoffs at her own words and earns light chuckles from the two men. Little do they know, that could very well be what has happened...
Yuri Plisetsky has just finished his short program, and now the new, mysterious young man that is Kurai Akahoshi is up.
"Last but not least, Kurai Akahoshi, could you please make your way onto the ice."
Kurai draws in a deep breath, before quickly pulling off his dark gray and red jacket and tossing it into his coach's hands. Lindsey gives him a small nod and hands him the Steampunk goggles. His whole outfit is a stunning, lightweight, subtle version of one of the traditional Steampunk tailcoat outfits. It consists of a plain white dress shirt, a tan coloured tie and a dark brown, scuffed and torn tailcoat, along with dark grey trousers and brown leather, fingerless gloves. Along the both arms of the tail coat are three golden buckles, and fixed on his hairline are a pair of gold and wooden goggles, keeping his hair out of his eyes at the same time as completing the outfit.
Slowly, he makes his way out to the centre of the rink, his tails billowing out behind him.
"He'll be skating to 'Roundtable Rival' composed by his coach, Lindsey Stirling, a violinist," the announcer says calmly as Kurai takes position. "His outfit was handmade."
The moment the music starts, the audience is completely awestruck by his smooth, seductive way of moving. His performance has the audience caught in a death-trap of mockery. It's almost as if his very presence is tainting their pride and innocence. His eyes flash with amusement as the music's tempo begins to rise. Viktor and the other skaters see Kurai shoot Lindsey a smirk, before the bass finally drops and he performs a perfect quadruple axel. The moment this happens, the onlooking skaters are shocked into silence. His dramatic performance continues, with Kurai then moving into a triple toe loop, single lutz, triple flip combination, followed by a bent-leg layover spin into a donut spin. A ghost of a smile graces the young man's coach's lips as he goes into a dramatic and violent step sequence. She remembers the day he came to her with a request to use her music for both his short program and free skate. She agreed, of course. Being a sort of contemporary dancer herself, she taught him elements of the dance from the music video. She had fallen completely in love with the way he moved, and watching him now, performing an official program in a competition? She couldn't be prouder. He had become like a son to her. It has only been seven and a half months since they met, and a month since he posted that cover of Transcendence into the public's eye. They have no idea who this mystery man is, no idea what he had been through, no idea what pain he had felt... but she does. He's told her. She knows everything. She knows what had happened, what had changed him from the loveable Yuri Katsuki, into the violence- and sarcasm-filled Kurai Akahoshi. The boy with eyes that matched his name and his broken heart. Red. He had told her that all he saw after that divorce was red. The need to either die or become a completely new person overwhelmed him to the point where he had faked his own suicide and disappeared. The man they knew as Yuri Katsuki was dead, and he had been for almost eight months. He had trained his body to move in different ways; Yuri's usual style was gone. He cut his hair; Yuri's shaggy hairdo was now sleek and well maintained. He'd had no power over the way his eyes changed, nor did he know why, but Yuri's chocolate brown irises had been all but swallowed up by the blood red hue. The piercings only added to his hardened nature. He had gotten them shortly after becoming Lindsey's student, claiming he liked the weight of them on his ears.
The performance comes to an end. He completes a sit spin with a twist variation, then he stops moving, effectively ending the program. One knee on the ice, his head leaned back, his right arm out to his side, his left palm covering his mouth, he stares up at the ceiling. For almost an entire minute, the audience is completely silent, until Kurai drops his arms and brings his other knee down onto the ice with a thud. That's when the crowd goes completely insane.
He shakily gets to his feet and glides over to the edge of the rink, crushing Lindsey in a tight hug that she easily returns.
"You did it, baby," she laughs in her native language, English, before pulling the goggles off his head and planting a quick, but firm, kiss on his right temple.
They quickly make their way over to the kiss and cry, Kurai sliding his tailcoat off and replacing it with his gray and red jacket, before sitting down and clicking his blade covers back onto the skates.
"Kurai Akahoshi scores a huge 129.76, putting him in first place!" the announcer practically screams. "He's just shattered the record of every single short program in the world!"
Yet again, the crowd goes absolutely wild, and the other skaters, non- and retired alike, fall into another silence.
Lindsey turns to Kurai, who has a look of utter disbelief on his face.
"Kurai, you did it!" she breathes, still in English. "That's the highest score there has ever been for a short program... you beat them all!"
"Yes!" he shouts, thrusting his hands into the air, above his head.
He then turns to look at his coach, tears brimming in his eyes.
"I did it, Lin," he chokes in English, leaning his forehead against hers whilst closing his eyes. "It feels amazing... I... I... Thank you..."
Lindsey smiles warmly at this, bringing her right hand up to his cheek and telling him to take a deep breath. "You did amazing!" she corrects, pulling away.
As they move apart, two young girls in sparkly purple leotards walk up to them and push two bouquets of blood red and black roses into Kurai's arms.
"Thank you, girls," he tells them in Japanese, planting a quick kiss on both of their foreheads, making them both blush madly, before scurrying off, hand in hand.
After that day, Kurai is dubbed 'Prince of the Black Ice', as voted by the public. Another popular one is 'The Blood Prince', in reference to his magnificent eye colour.
But he isn't worried about his nicknames, he is worried about his Free Skate program, which he would be performing first thing the next day. This was the program set to be the most emotionally exhausting. The theme itself is unknown to the public, only he and Lindsey know what it is truly about. The song and dance are a recount of what sort of things he experienced right after Viktor's forced divorce. His confusion, his depression, his lack of self worth, every emotion that manifested within his heart. He had told Lindsey about the program, but no one, not even she had seen it. It was a true mystery as to what it comprised.
Silently, he glides back out onto the rink. Having removed his jacket, he reveals a pair of simple black pants and a dark gray dress shirt with an untied, white bowtie hanging around his neck, under the folded collar. Most of his earrings have been removed and his hair has been left to fall where it wants to. A strange aura fills the building. He's radiating confusion and hopelessness.
"First up, Kurai Akahoshi," the announcer says quietly. "He'll be skating to a cover combination of 'Hurt' and 'Isolation', piano compositions by Lucas King. His coach has told us that no one, not even she, has seen this program being performed, so this will be the first viewing ever."
Kurai takes position, crouched in the centre of the ice with his pale hands covering his face. Then the music starts and he begins by sweeping his right leg out and spinning in a low circle. His hands remain over his face as he slowly rises from his crouched position and his hands fall from his face. His expression is one filled with defeat and utter misery and confusion. Lindsey brings a hand to her mouth as tears begin to brim in her eyes. She knows this story off by heart, and yet she never thought it could be incorporated into a figure skating program. Not even the announcer says anything as they watch Kurai in his moment. Almost every single person in the room is crying by the time he lands his second combination. His movements are slow and filled with emotion. Viktor can't help but notice some of the more delicate movements mirror those of Yuri. It makes his heart ache all over again. He glances over at Kurai's coach. She has a sad smile covering her lips and tears streaming down her cheeks. A delicate right hand is placed over her heart and her left and is wrapped around her stomach, her fingers digging into the fabric of her peach coloured knitted jumper. He turns back to look at the skater on the ice. The program has slowed down and is clearly ending. When the music stops, the silence remains. His ending position is even more heart breaking than his starting position. He's on his knees, leaning forward with his left arm laying on the ice. His forehead is resting on his wrist and his right hand is gripping the front of his shirt, over his heart. He's panting and sweating, but Viktor doesn't need to strain to see that the liquid dripping onto the ice is tears, not sweat. Lindsey is first to snap out of it. She rushes out onto the ice, ignoring the tears that are still falling down her cheeks and pulling Kurai to his feet. He looks completely and utterly numb. His eyes look dead and his skin is so pale it almost looks gray. She has to hold him up as they walk to the kiss and cry. The crowd is still too stunned to react.
"Everyone after him is done for," Chris whispers. "He may as well have taken the competition right then, whilst he was still sitting on the ice."
"I can feel it," Phichit sobs. "I can feel his pain."
Silence washes over the group again, before Viktor says something that shocks every single person in the room.
"It's Yuri," he states.
Somehow, the entire audience hears it. As soon as it registers within them, the cheering starts. And it is truly deafening, almost loud enough to drown out the score announcement. Almost.
"Kurai Akahoshi scores 243.17 points, smashing all outstanding records on Earth!" the announcer exclaims. "He even beat Yuri Katsuki's miracle score from two years ago at the 2016 Grand Prix Final!"
The big screen that displays the kiss and cry shows Kurai looking far more depressed and lost than a record breaker should look. Suddenly he stands up and walks over to the commentators' booth, taking the microphone from the announcer's hand and bring it to his lips.
"I'm sorry," he chokes.
These words silence the entire room. No one even dares to breath. Their waving arms frozen in midair, their banners fluttering to the ground, their eyes going wide in shock.
"I'm sorry for leaving," he says. "I'm sorry for changing. Yuri Katsuki once resided in this body, but after too much heartbreak, his soul shattered, and he now goes by Kurai Akahoshi, The Prince of the Black Ice, as you named him. To those of you who may have hoped and believed he didn't die like his family announced, I assure you that the suicide note Mari Katsuki found lying on top of the 'Yuri on Ice' track CD was real. Yuri Katsuki is dead."
And with those final words, he gently places the microphone back on the desk and leaves the building with his head bowed. No one sees when the tinge of brown in his right eye disappears completely.