Monday 26 June 2017, Glastonbury, England
After the arrival of Diana Cavendish, it was already a huge shock for Akko, noticing the tremendous ability of the two sisters, in the more creating a desire to want to win the oldest, but with a championship that was a month away from starting. On Friday she spent the rest of the day with Amanda and her team relaxing a bit, playing videogames, still a little tense with this championship thing, mainly because she was playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 against the girls, kind of ensuring herself there. In the days that came to be the weekend Kagari returned to her house, where she was telling her mothers about how was spending the week, quite anxious of all the news, both were even a little surprised, but at the same time they were happy to see that their daughter was enjoying every second in Luna Nova.
5:30
The sound of a horn echoes outside the house, it was Ursula who arrived at Akko's bedroom window and tried to wake her up, patting her on the shoulder a few times.
" Huh? What are you doing here so early? " Akko asked looking at her watch and noticing that it was five thirty in the morning.
" I can go in, I will tell you, get up from there Akko " Ursula said through the window and with that the sleepy Kagari agrees with her head.
She walks to the door of the house, unlocks the lock, and with that Chariot walks in, sitting down in one of the dining chairs as Akko yawns and sleep"dead sits down in another, still quite tired.
" Well I came at this time because I want you to have a chance against Diana, the championship will be imminent and I saw you a lot of potential for that and for you to have a chance, nothing better than a training, so I Ursula will train you, also Croix will be part of it, we saw the Chariot in you, who knows this year we can finally break the dominance of the Cavendish sisters " Said Ursula to Akko who was just yawning, but soon rubs her eyes and is somewhat surprised.
" Training is? I don't want to compete like that, I want it to be something fun... I don't want to pull myself that hard " Atsuko answers Ursula who just keeps smiling at her.
" I knew you would say something like that, identical to Chariot itself, so I know this can help you, but if you do well in this championship and train, I can give you clues to where Chariot is, I have many of them, I know you will love to know " At this time Akko stops being sleepy to become extremely active.
" Yes! I agree to train! If it's to find Chariot! " Said Akko agreeing with her head and also waving Ursula's hand that keeps the smile.
" So let's get started, first with your first meal of the day to start warming up," Ursula said and with that she opened the fridge.
At this she returns with a glass full of raw egg, as well as a bowl of cereal with milk, which Kagari stares at the glass, trying not to drink, but simply surrenders, with the motivation of seeing Chariot, she covers her nose and begins to swallow raw egg quickly, which was already a little familiar with the taste for having lost many challenges to Lotte and Sucy in which the loser had to drink raw egg, the Japanese even managed to drink half, until she left the glass on the table and became a little breathless.
" Come on Akko, you can do it! " said Ursula.
" Seriously, I hope this is worth every second, because I'm already getting disgusted " Akko replies.
She quickly goes back to finishing the cup of raw egg, then goes devouring the cereal, they were chocolate balls, at least it was something that managed to alleviate the taste of raw egg and with that she could feel more relieved.
When she finishes eating all the cereal, Kagari shows an expression of relief and at the same time disgust, sitting down on a chair.
" Who said the training is over? This is just the beginning of your diet, now we are going to start with something else, first, go pack your bags and get ready, put on an outfit more suitable for your physical training, you don't want to leave the house in your pyjamas " Ursula said and Akko rubbing her eyes only nodded.
The Japanese girl was organizing the bags, besides leaving a message on her room, telling the mothers that she had already left, with that she returned to the room where Ursula was waiting for her, with that Kagari with the bag in hands and wearing a shorts and a shirt of lighter fabric, with her hair tied in a ponytail, they left to the street.
Arriving at the van where they are taken, and with that Akko
's bag is left there.
" You can go Croix, we'll see you at Glastonbury Tor in a while, now let's give Akko a hand " said Ursula, who patted the van's bodywork and Atsuko got even more confused.
" Aren't we going to Luna Nova? " Akko asked confused.
" The warm"up starts now, we are going to stretch, besides preparing the muscles with polichineles and push"ups, come on Akko, come with me " Ursula started stretching herself and Kagari also followed what the older girl was doing.
Trying to stretch as much as possible, of course she still didn't have that much flexibility, that's when Ursula was also giving a hand, giving a push to help the Japanese girl to achieve more things in each part of the exercise, then she arrived at the part where they went for the polichineles, jumping a few times, followed by push"ups, which was already making Akko tired.
After these exercises, the Japanese girl takes a small bottle of water that was with Ursula which she gives to the brown girl, who then stays the same way.
" Well, we're not done here yet, if there's a reason for us to be here, it's because we still have to take a nice walk, we'll run a bit until Croix comes to get us, so let's go," Ursula said, and with that Akko was already showing an expression of regret.
Ursula started to run, Akko was also trying her best to follow her, already managing to keep up, at least at the beginning, they were both running in a rhythm that was maintained, without going too fast, but also without going too slow, the one with blue hair just kept looking at her mobile phone to see how far they were going.
" Do we really have to do that? What does this have to do with skateboarding? " said Akko already starting to run panting.
" Look, take it from me, having your body prepared for the wear and tear can give you a huge advantage over the girls, especially because the championship will be all in one day, you will already be well worn out in the last heats, so yes, this is very necessary if you want an expressive result, besides that you will need this strength to train more during our training mornings, the more strength, the more you can train, the more you will have ability " Ursula answers Akko who was still trying to keep up.
" Do we really have to start like this? I'm getting tired of all this running " Akko said.
" We have not even run 300 meters and you are already tired? That's breathing, you have to breathe better, you have to hold on more, go at a pace, breathe with your nose, keep calm, you will reach a point where you will no longer give in to tiredness, we will only do five kilometres of walking, I guarantee you that the other parts of the training will be fun.
4700m later...
Akko was already dead tired, both arrived at Glastonbury Tor, that was not very far from the house of the Japanese, it was 2400 meters away, what they were practically doing the rest of the walk in the 2600 meters remaining in the park walking in the surroundings, until the end of these 5 kilometers had arrived in a walk of almost one hour, which Atsuko saw that Ursula told her to stop.
Relieved the Japanese woman sat on the nearest bench and went devouring the water as if it was a single drop in the desert, already Callistis gave a call to Croix to fetch them.
" What tiredness, I feel like my legs are going to die here, I used to walk all this, but it was by bike, now running like this is totally different " said the panting Japanese woman.
" You did well, at least in this part you didn't turn yellow once, you didn't keep asking for help and you didn't even ask for water.
" At least I can get some rest now, can't I? " Akko said.
" Oh naive, you really think that's all? This is just the warm up, now we are going to start your skateboard training for good, you are going to be as fucked up as Chariot once was, I remember how she trained with... " At this point Ursula almost ends up talking too much.
" With? You know Chariot lady Ursula well enough, how do you know so much about her? " The curious one keeps asking.
" I was also her colleague, we were very good friends... Now let's go " Ursula tries to roll a little, until they hear a van horn.
The two go walking to the van where Croix was waiting there and with that they go towards Luna Nova, with Kagari resting what she could, already quite sweaty, she was getting some questions hammered in her head.
The van soon arrives at Luna Nova, the movement was still none, there was almost nobody besides Hellene that was at the skateboarding track going from one side to the other at the ramps, showing a little of her dedication.
" The one you have to worry about is the youngest, not the oldest, she is the most skilled, she is the one who dedicates herself and tries the hardest " said Croix pointing to Hellene.
Akko just shrugged, they followed inside Luna Nova, strangely enough, which Kagari had no idea, even thinking it would be to get her skateboard from her room, but on the contrary, they followed to where was the maintenance basement, from there Chariot pulls a lever, which lowers a gate being a false wall, leaving Akko awestruck.
" A secret passage in Luna Nova? " Said the impressed Japanese woman.
" That's why we don't let too much get here, that's not all, come with us " Ursula said gesturing to Akko and giving her a lantern.
They made their way down the corridor, using a torch, they came to yet another barrier, this time a gate, it was a bit of a light walk, pulling them open to another place that was dark, at least until Croix pulled a lever on the inside down emitting the sound of lights coming on and fans starting to work, which turned out to be an indoor skateboard track, almost as big as the one above, that was what left Atsuko awestruck.
" There's... There's a skateboard track hidden in this place, just this big and you hide it from us? " said Akko indignantly.
" We will only inaugurate this year with the skate championship, we spent 10 years building this place, it was a tremendous maintenance and work to get to this point and you will be able to have the advantage of the terrain, study the best lines, know every inch of the skate lane, but that is not what we will train now " Ursula answers.
Croix arrives with what looks like a cylinder, which she leaves on the floor of the track and a shape, placing it on top of this cylinder she jumps on top and shows one of the parts of the training, balancing a little until she takes a tumble and with that she even laughs.
" I'm not really made for skateboarding, but do you understand what you're going to do now Akko? This is for you to test your balance " Croix said and with that Akko was already getting excited.
" Hey I've done that a few times, a board on top of a log, it was a challenge I used to do with Lotte and Sucy " Atsuko jumps on top of the shape and goes off balance.
In the first one it lasts a little more than 3 seconds until the shape touches the ground and with that the Japanese girl was getting used to it, with short attempts that last seconds, but even so with time it was possible to notice that the balance was increasing, with Ursula holding a stopwatch analysing everything.
" You'll be practicing this for half an hour every day, we'll increase the circumference of the barrel and also make the conditions more slippery, that's exactly how we went. I mean, Chariot was trained by none other than Bernadette Cavendish's wife, it was Laura who introduced her wife to skateboarding, an introduction that made history, she is as good as Chariot, she just doesn't like to show it " Ursula was telling the story and with that Akko was becoming impressed with what he had heard.
30 minutes later...
Akko was simply already managing to hold the skateboard in the middle for much longer without touching the edges, even holding on to one of these in 5 minutes and 13 seconds, until the end of the half hour Ursula pressed the stopwatch and with that Akko left the shape, even wanting more.
" Boy this is too much fun, I love it! " Akko said in amazement.
" This is just the beginning of the training, there is still more to train, well now it is Ollie's training, you will learn to jump higher and higher and higher, you have to perfect those jumps more and more and so we are going to spend an hour on this practice of jumping obstacles, starting from the most basic " Ursula said bringing a rope.
" If you manage to jump 3 times in a row then we will increase the height and difficulty, it will be the demonstration that you are managing to perfect your obstacle jump, it will serve to get more strategic lines " Completes Croix and Akko was just laughing at the rope.
Akko thought the rope was being short, but she was still too out of time to jump a single rope that was left on the ground, incredibly she would go straight through or the wheels would pull over. What she was noticing that she needs more concentration and patience, that she has to have more rhythm and that's what she did, starting to jump without going so much in the emotion, she could notice the difference getting the first jump over the top after 13 attempts, she was starting to lower the attempts, in the second she got in 6 attempts, the third in 3 attempts and with that she was in less than five minutes getting to jump that rope in three attempts in a row already celebrating.
" I would have sworn this would be easy, but it's not, you have to have rhythm, I have to jump like it's another sense of notion and space of skateboarding " Akko said impressed.
" Well we still have 55 minutes and we are going to introduce another obstacle that is perfect for this training come with us " said Croix, where she pointed to a thing on the floor and with that Akko was just shrugging.
" What is it? A scratch on the floor? " Said Akko pointing at the ground until that same scratch opens up, revealing what was a plate that rose a little.
" Now you have to jump a fixed obstacle, a bit bigger than the rope, it's not that easy " Said Croix to Kagari who was just observing the small barrier well and getting impressed.
" Woah, that's a technology for a barrier that increases in size. " It was just then that Kagari noticed that the thing had risen to almost the height of her head, leaving her stunned.
" Well even though a five foot Ollie is impossible, we have a wide variety of training, now let's go! " Meridies replies to the Japanese woman who was amazed until the barrier returned to the size it was.
With that was what Akko was starting to focus on doing the jump on that barrier, but she had already practically prepared herself psychologically for that, knowing about the rope, she was starting to give the first attempt and it was even with success, but in the second that didn't work very well and the skateboard ended up with her passing straight, which she was only left with a smile on her face.
" Ah so it's quite different from the rope, I have to actually jump and even get close, that will be challenging, but I'm loving this training," Akko said excitedly.
Akko started to try more times, this time it took her a few more tries to manage to fit three perfect jumps over the barrier that had 8cm of height, which may not seem much, but it was already showing that Kagari was progressing, so much so that it was increased to 10 centimeters.
Croix and Ursula just watched everything with a smile on their faces, seeing how Akko was motivating herself and trying to overcome those obstacles.
" It's impressive to see how the training is modernizing and improving, in our time it was a skateboard stacked on top of another, it was practically a tower of skateboards, it was a challenge to jump and still not overthrow the thing, we even played games among us to see who jumped more hahaha " Said Croix.
" Wow that was very nostalgic, good to have these technologies today, the girls can have a much better training than we ever had, Akko really has a huge potential, she doesn't have the psychological block that every skater has with obstacles " said Chariot while Croix increased the height of the obstacle to 15cm after noticing that Akko managed to jump over it three times in a row.
The training is not over yet, there are still many elements to take into account, but Akko is already showing how she has an aptitude and focus when it's something she really wants, having a lot of help from Croix and Ursula, Kagari will be able to go far, improving with every jump she takes, being able to notice already some changes since she arrived, the potential to achieve something big in this championship is huge.
See you, trained witches...