Hey guys, I back! Merry Christmas everyone! It's late at night and I'm tired, but I was determined to get a chapter done this week. I have been busy with a bunch of Christmas stuff, but it's been fun, and I hope you guys have had a good day like I have! I don't have much to say at this point so I'll just get on with the story.
In the countryside of Japan a man stepped out of his car. "Haa, as expected, it's still cold. Now to get information on this mysterious skier."
Yoda had done prior research before coming to Hokkaido, and through it he found only one school that offered ski jumping as a sport. He went to the school's coach under the precedent that he was researching for any talented students.
"Thank you for meeting me on such short notice," Yoda greeted.
"It's no trouble, though I do wonder why you chose our school to interview."
"Well, the truth is I met a talented ski jumper who said they were from Hokkaido, though they did not give me their name. So I was hoping if you knew who they were since they would probably be a member of your team."
The man frowned, "Regarding that, I must say that there were no truly outstanding players on my team. The best, I believe, would have been Nonomiya Yuuta, and even then there was nothing extremely remarkable about him."
"Nonomiya Yuuta?"
"Yep, his family was really committed to ski jumping, even his sister practiced the sport. Now that you mention it, I've been told she was a real prodigy, though she quit in elementary school."
"Sister?"
"His twin, actually. She moved to a new high school in another prefecture. Can't really say I blame her, what with all that's happened."
"Hm?" Yoda's question was obvious.
The instructor scratched the back of his head, " Well, I guess you can say that the Nonomiya siblings are destined for a life of misfortune."
"What are you talking about," Yoda asked, clearly observing that the conversation was becoming more serious than he had expected it to be.
"Haah, where should I start…"
"What was this Nonomiya girl like?"
"I guess you could say Nonomiya Nono was a generally cheerful and well-liked girl. She would never really reveal her troubles to anyone, so I don't believe anyone got to know her that well. I've also heard she was really talented at ski jumping in elementary school, to the point that even in competitions for adults, she would rank high."
"Why did she stop?"
"Though I haven't been directly told anything, it seems to be because women ski jumpers can't compete in the olympics, and for the Nonomiya siblings everything would be meaningless without the gold medal."
"What, why would that be the case," although female ski jumpers were uncommon, Yoda had met a few in his time that did the sport merely because they enjoyed it.
"You see… it's because their father is Yura Yuusuke."
At that moment Yoda's eyes grew wide, that explained it, but he still needed more information. "You still haven't explained to me why she moved."
The coach grimaced. "You could probably say that Nonomiya Nono had finally had enough. One day in her third year, Nono's brother left a suicide note to Nono. She ran as fast as she could, but her brother had already set fire to the shed where all of the ski jumping trophies were kept, along with himself. Something cracked in Nono that day. She and her brother were close, as twins often are. Those two seemed to have a bond that separated them from the rest of the world, as if they could only depend on each other, and Nono lost that person in a moment." The coach then appeared as if he would say nothing more, but at that point Yoda had nothing else to ask.
With that, Yoda stood up and said one last goodbye. He began thinking… 'This explains everything. Why she didn't give her name, why she has no desire to compete. Wait, it's not that she doesn't WANT to compete it's that she simply CAN'T.'
With that last thought, Yoda made himself a promise that he would find Nonomiya Nono.
This chapter seemed to take longer to write for me, but I also enjoyed doing it. As always, I hoped you liked it and let me know your thoughts on it!