Assassins on Ice!:
After Nagisa killed Koro-sensei, he fell into a hole. His end of the year book made by Koro-sensei helped him get out of it, but only marginally. Koro-sensei knew Nagisa would end up being the one to kill him and also the problems that would cause for him. So, Koro-sensei suggested he take up something from his childhood he had given up to attend Kunogigaoka middle school.
Nagisa knew he would never manage it without a name change. Luckily the nice couple that had taken him in in Hasetsu (his mother had been found unable to care for him, so he had been placed with foster parents) was nice enough to formally adopt him and make sure he was rehabilitating by giving him a whole new name. Taking the train every week day to Tokyo (which was barely manageable to Nagisa) to attend a prestigious high school like Koro-sensei had encouraged him to do was also tiresome next to taking up ice skating and ballet once more. (Ballet had been forced down his throat by his mother, but he had found it fun after a bit. Ice skating was his guilty pleasure until he had been forced to give it up when he started attending Kunogigaoka.)
Shiota Nagisa ceased to exist and in his place stepped Katsuki Yuuri, who attended a good high school and did figure skating in the ice rink up the hill from his new home after hours because he had become fast friends with the owner's daughter. After getting back into practice, it was easy to adapt the moves he learned in combat to dance on the ice and disguise them as normal dancing to even the most keen eye trying to find any hint of training in his forms. Ballet made sure he stayed flexible (one of his best weapons was being able to bend any which way he liked. He wanted to keep that without it looking suspicious. Minako the dance instructor loved his dedication to both ballet and figure skating, so made sure he practiced like hell in ballet. As a result, he leaned more heavily on spins and footwork in ice skating, which suited him just fine) and could do the spins on ice that were more commonly used by women.
Yuuri dyed his hair black and cut it short regularly after he got adopted. He had passed some of his old classmates a few times while strolling down the Tokyo streets and they had not looked at him twice. Yuuri still did some assassinations during holidays for the government, but not often and only when he was in the country for a competition. They respected his decision to not become a professional hitman for the government, but were glad Yuuki did take the occasional hit for them when it was convenient for both of them. Yuuki was after all the best of his class and could by now even take down his former teachers in their respective specialties.
After graduating high school, Yuuri was offered a sport stipend over in America, specifically for ice skating. His coach loved his dedication and that his stamina made it possible to do all kinds of fun stuff for him while in the rink. His coordination was also something to behold. Phichit, his roommate and in the year below him, was regularly jealous when Yuuri stretched and trained for hours without needing as many breaks.
Yuuri held back on going for worlds for a bit, not wanting to become world famous until Celestino practically bullied him into entering. Yuuri did not want to though, so made it harder until Celestino convinced him a week later.
"If I'm going to do it, then I want my short program to be a good bye to my late teacher of middle school. Without him, I wouldn't be doing as well as I am doing in school. Especially not as easily. He was the best teacher I have ever had the pleasure of having. No offense meant, but I don't think anyone can ever rival Koro-sensei and his crazy but effective ways of helping us out. Not to mention, if he didn't encourage me to go back to ice skating, I would have never picked it back up after giving it up for school." offered Yuuri and Celestino nodded slowly to show he understood the motive. Yuuri smiled sadly, no one would ever understand the turmoil he went through to get over the fact he killed his beloved sensei.
"I'll see what I can get put together for you." offered Celestino, seeing as Yuuri had never really wanted to choreograph something for himself before. Yuuri nodded, then paused.
"Actually, I already have a free program. I might just need to adjust it a little bit to fit the me of today better. It was choreographed in middle school, you see." mused Yuuri. Thinking about using the free skate program he had created with Koro-sensei once when he had mentioned he could do figure ice skating. Koro-sensei had been so enthused he had made the most complicated free skate program he could think of that was still humanly possible but needed crazy stamina levels to pull off. "I need to work on my quads more to actually pull it off, stupid Koro-sensei giving me something so difficult to do!" muttered Yuuri thoughtfully and Celestino sweat dropped.
"This Koro-sensei person sound like a strange character." muttered Celestino.
"You don't know half of it!" griped Yuuri in frustration. Koro-sensei had gone and taken 'Eye of the tiger', then made it a program that was heavy on jumps, held together by spins and not to mention pure aggressiveness. Yuuri could pull it off, barely, but he could only land it in full half the time he practiced but then he needed a break, it was that stamina stealing! Yuuri had created a few less strenuous versions he practiced from time to time, but he still knew what the original was supposed to be like (he had it memorized perfectly). It was truly insane. And Yuuri planned to give the judges the less heavy version, then decide on the spot if he felt confident enough to skate the full thing. If he got famous, it needed to be done with a bang!
Yuuri had skated flawlessly in all the preliminary rounds he needed to participate in and won gold twice with a carefully calculated short program and free skate so he placed just barely ahead of his competition. Skating had nothing on assassination training, after all.
Just before the finals he got a call from his adoptive mother (who he considered his true mother by now). His therapy dog had an accident while out on a walk and had died. Yuuri was frozen, then forcefully relaxed his body. The most he could do for his beloved Vi-chan (named after Victor Nikiforov, whose skating he admired quite a bit both when he was younger and when he took skating back up) was to dance his short program in her honor and say good bye that way. He had originally gotten Vi-chan because he had frequent nightmares and a dog would help him get over what had happened according to... a certain red haired someone who shall remain nameless! Yuuri gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised when he found himself getting better and better, until he could enjoy life once more as it was meant to be enjoyed due to caring for Vi-chan.
When Yuuri stepped on the ice, his thoughts centered around Vi-chan and how he would love to hold her one more time in his arms, go on a walk with her, and how he would miss her. The last quarter he was skating blind because he was crying and mourning his precious Vi-chan too much to properly see through his tears.
When Yuuri finished, he didn't hold pose for long. He wiped his tears away, then straightened and slowly moved off of the ice. Celestino hugged him, knowing how much Vi-chan meant to Yuuri. "I think she got your message." whispered Celestino soothingly. Yuuri just hiccuped.
"I don't think I can skate my free program. Not with the way my heart wouldn't be in it." murmured Yuuri. It was full of aggressive passion, not sadness and regret. "Shame, I had such a nice surprise planned for everyone." whispered Yuuri, then walked to the kiss and cry, curling in on himself, looking miserable for the whole world to see. He had wanted to skate the true program tonight, after all.
His amazing score that put him second just behind Victor himself did nothing to cheer him up.
"Mr. Katsuki, can you tell us why you were crying? And why did you refuse to skate your free skate after the amazing short program you put on?" asked a crazy news reporter in a conference after the Grand Prix had finshed. Yuuri squared his shoulders, then looked at all of them coldly, causing them to flinch back. Yuuri was normally very approachable and kind, this was a very new side to him no one had ever seen before.
"I did not feel up to it. To be honest, if my short program hadn't already been dedicated to say goodbye to someone very close to me, then I would have refused to skate at all. Draw your conclusions from that by yourselves!" said Yuuri coldly, then turned and left with Celestino having an arm around his shoulders to support him in his overwhelming sadness.
Yuuri ignored the curious look he got from the Russian party, especially the disgusted look of the young Yuri Plisetky.
At the after party, Yuuri decided to get drunk to forget about Vi-chan. He slipped away from Celestino, then drank until he was buzzed. Finally feeling a bit happy again, Yuuri decided to have his own version of revenge against the finalists. He stalked right up to them, then pointed a finger at both Victor and Chris, who were standing together.
"I challenge you to a dance battle! Looser had to take one order from the winner, no matter what!" declared Yuuri as loudly as he could. Victor looked stunned, but Chris looked excited.
"Very well, then I chose pole dancing as my battle!" declared the man right back. Yuuri smirked. If there was one thing he could do, it was dance. It had always been a fun thing to do for him. Minako had a best friend who didn't mind teaching him how to pole dance and another friend who taught him dance offs when he said he would be interested in learning all kinds of things about dancing to his sometimes sadistic ballet instructor. Yuuri was also confident in his skills, so he snorted.
"It's your loss!" stated Yuuri plainly, then two poles were produced from somewhere. Yuri loosened his tie and unbuttoned the two top buttons of the button down he wore, then put a hand on the pole. Immersing himself in the pole dancing lessons he had taken a while back, then put Bitch-sensei's training on top to make sure he would kill Chris.
When Yuuri moved, he made sure to use movements to attract attention and give his face a rather seductive look while twirling and hugging the pole in this pole dance as required. He even did some positions that required him to hold on to the pole tightly with his hands, elbows and or knees. A real shimmy up and down was not possible due to the type of clothes he was currently wearing, but the same could be said about Chris. Yuuri 'killed' Chris and a good number of other people who had to hold their noses to stop them from bleeding about halfway to three quarter through the dance off. Yuuri finished alone, Chris having stopped to watch him.
"Damn, why did you not show those kind of moves on the ice?" demanded Chis in shock. Yuuri shrugged.
"I was going to do something crazy in my free skate, upping the ante so high no one would ever scratch it again in a lo~ng time, but I couldn't. Not without ruining the emotions I would have needed to portray as part of my routine." declared Yuuri boldly. "If I ever decide to do worlds again, I might do it then." he added with a slight slur.
"What do you mean, 'might'?!" asked Chris in alarm, similar shouts following him around the room. Yuuri shrugged.
"I didn't even want to participate this time. Coach Celestino had to threaten me to do my best, really." mused Yuuri, looking over at his exasperated Coach. "This year I graduate from university, though. Which means he can no longer threaten me into trying to win." mused Yuuri, tilting his head and adopting an innocent look on his face.
"Fine, then I want my dance off." declared Victor. Yuuri shrugged. "I want us to perform the planned free skate as well as possible while not on ice!" he declared with a mad twinkle in his eyes. Yuuri paused, then looked Victor dead in his eyes.
"It's your funeral." decided Yuuri, then looked over at his coach expectantly. Celestino perked up.
"Will I finally get to see this so called insane program made by your Koro-sensei?" asked Celestino and Yuuri gave a half shrug.
"I need to edit it a little, I can't really to the same spins off of the ice, but it will be close." agreed Yuuri blithely. Celestino smiled.
"I can't disagree, then." he mused and walked over to the DJ for the evening. "Oi, clear some space, Yuuri is going to dance first! I need a space approximately as big as an ice rink!" he shouted, which got people moving. This seemed so much more interesting than whatever they had done before, so the guests complied easily. If the pole dancing thing was anything to go by, this would be good.
Yuuri stepped confidently up into the middle of the space, his shoes off. He was a prima ballerina, he didn't need shoes to stand on the tip of his toes. The dress shoes would only hinder him. The tie he had dropped off with them. Yuuri got into his starting stance, then closed his eyes. The very second the first beats came from the sound system, his eyes snapped open and he launched into a demanding sequence of steps, adjusting slightly as he went. His arms could not raise higher than shoulder level without risking his shirt and jacket ripping. His spins needed to be adjusted to be off of ice and thus with a higher friction to the ground. He did complete three different quads, downgrading the first and third to a simple triple jump. It was still two triple, two double and then a spin with a short step sequence to get into position for the 'first' quad, which was after a triple jump, then another double jump.
When Yuuri came to a stop in the middle of the 'rink', breathing slightly heavy, he noted he might have been able to use four quads even on this traction rich floor. Shame.
Heavy silence greeted Yuuri when he finished. He growled in annoyance after holding his position for ten seconds. He dropped his arms from where he held them in a ready fight position and ruffled his hair in annoyance. "Damn, that was still not right. Not the needed emotion, too slow in the spins. It really is a shame I'm not in costume and on ice. I might have actually pulled off the full version tonight." mused Yuuri, then looked over at Victor. "Your turn." declared Yuuri, pointed finger and all.
Stalking over to where Celestino was waiting with a satisfied smirk on his face next to Yakov, Victor and Chris, he couldn't help but feel a little exhausted.
Plopping down in a seat, he turned slightly to look at Victor. "Well, I'm waiting for your turn!" ordered Yuuri and Victor just stared at Yuuri speechlessly.
After a minute of staring, Yuuri grew annoyed. "What, you too chicken to take me on in a dance off?" asked Yuuri in Russian just to see Victor jolt in surprise, as did everyone else that heard Yuuri, who just rolled his eyes. "You didn't seem capable of English anymore." offered Yuuri, then pointed over at the still free 'rink'. "Well? Aren't you going to try and beat me?" asked Yuuri and Victor sighed, then ruffled his own hair.
"I did not expect something so magnificent." murmured Victor and Yuuri sighed.
"That was nothing. The original is much more demanding and these clothes too constricting to even try and completely recreate it. Not to mention one or two moves I have jet to figure out completely that I simply replace with spins and step sequences. Honestly, the choreographer was mad when he did it. No consideration for the poor athlete trying to do it!" lamented Yuuri.
"Why try so hard to manage it, then?" asked Chris. Yuuri felt this eyes go distant and a soft smile come to his face.
"Because it was written for me, with me in mind, and by the person I might just respect the very most." mused Yuuri, looking up at the ceiling. Victor sighed, then stepped up into the 'rink' under much applause.
"Can't promise I won't make mistakes, I never really tried to do this outside of the rink." mused Victor, but Yuuri picked it up. Seemed like he put Victor outside of his comfort zone by performing as well as he did. Serves the ass right. Offering for a commemorative photo while he was still feeling down! Jackass!
Yuuri found himself darkly pleased when Victor stumbled a and fumbled a few times and didn't do a single quad, only managing a triple at most and only once.
Back in Detroit, Yuuki could only shake his head over what he had managed to do at the party, but felt gratified to actually have done something to get back at Victor. He packed his schedule full of classes to cram as much as he could into the little year he still had left with university while leaving his weekends and three afternoons per week free to train in ice skating. He did not want to slack off in the thing he had come to love most. Ice skating is the one thing he had left over that helped him unwind. He also helped Celestino train the newbies after he got over what happened to Vi-chan.
Victor did come and bug him once or twice, but Yuuri brushed him off because he had better things to do than cater to a stuck up athlete. He had university to finish! Maybe after he was finished, he would be open to the other, Yuuri did have to admit he was stunning in his own right. But, right now it wasn't good. Besides, Karma would bug the hell out of him if he started anything with the gorgous skater. Nagisa had turned Karma down a few times when the boy had asked him out while training to be assassins and even after, when they had graduated. Yuuri was not ready to have those two clash, that promised to be a headache he wasn't ready for.