Chapter 6. Determination
"I understand." Leon stated after hearing his daughter's wish, crossing his arms.
"So, will you help me papa? Pleaseeee." the black-haired girl decided to use her puppy eyes.
The two of them were in a restaurant in town. The weather was warm, the morning sun shining brightly and few people were chatting happily around them. Tsubasa's ice-cream was melting as she was too concentrated on her father's reaction.
"How do you plan to join Kaleido Stage?" Leon opened his eyes and looked at his daughter with a different expression. It was like he was seeing her as a stranger, which made Tsubasa's enthusiasm slow down.. for a moment. The determination appeared again in those big, light-blue eyes .
"Well.. I.. " she looked around stressed, what must she do to be accepted? "What did you do to join, papa?"
"The director invited me due to my career, it was a special cause. But you are not a special cause Tsubasa, you must take the audition like any other performer." his eyes were still cold. "I tell you this as I am your father. I know you have talent, to be honest, you are something I have never seen; you have so much potential." Tsubasa smiled confident, her father wasn't the kind of person to praise someone easily, moreover when it came to performers. "Yet, you don't have the necessary training. The auditions are in two days from tomorrow on. Even if I'd train you, there is no enough time."
"But we can start right now! Two days are enough, I will do everything you say without complaining." Tsubasa fast answered, trying to stop her father from saying the words she feared the most. She knew well that once her father said 'no', there was no way to convince him.
"This is not a joke Tsubasa; if you choose this path, you will have many obstacles to overcome. You are still young, are you sure you will be able to face all of them without ever saying you want to give up?"
Without a second thought, Tsubasa answered confident. "Yes." her lips curved into a confident smile.
Leon's serious expression changed; he smiled gently at his daughter. "As expected from my daughter."
Tsubasa smiled brighter. Her father believed in her all along.
"Follow me." Leon said as he put some money on the table and left. Tsubasa did so, walking behind her father excited. She looked at his back and realized how much he changed. She saw a photo of him in his younger years, when he first came at Kaleido Stage; his hair was almost as long as hers now back then, but for a while now he kept it short.
"Where are we going?" Tsubasa asked after her father has driven some time without saying a word.
"Cape Mary Ice-Skating Center." he answered he stopped the car in front of a big building. Tsubasa was ready to take off the seat belt, but she stopped.
"Papa, what about-"
"I will talk with her about this." Leon cut her off, knowing that his daughter worried about May.
"Thank you." she smiled and climbed off of the car.
"Oh, one more thing." Leon said before the two of them would walk to the building. Tsubasa raised an eyebrow. "No questions. Understood?"
Tsubasa blinked in surprise but nodded.
Walking next to each other the two of them entered in the building. As they headed to the lobby, Leon spotted a familiar figure on the ice, helping a little kid.
"Meryl." he stated.
A blonde woman, around the age of 45 turned her head and looked at the two of them. "Leon." she also called out. The woman stepped out of the ice and looked at Leon smiling. "Long time no see. What brings you here?"
"This is my daughter, Tsubasa." he said pointing to his right side where Tsubasa watched confused.
Meryl looked at her surprised. "So she is the little Tsubasa May told me about. God, she's bigger than I expected, it makes me feel old." Leon and her smiled at the small joke. "My name is Meryl, it's nice to meet you Tsubasa."
"I-It's nice meeting you too!" the teenager said taking her hand and shaking it.
"I have a favor to ask of you Meryl." Leon continued.
"As I figured out. So, what is it?" the blonde woman asked. To Tsubasa, she seemed a gentle person but she still couldn't understand what were they doing here. Maybe Leon is gonna use this rink to train her and wants Meryl to rent it to him.
"I'd like you to train Tsubasa. She wants to take the audition for Kaleido Stage."
Tsubasa's eyes widened in surprise, didn't Leon say he will train her?
Meryl looked at Tsubasa suspicious, from head to toe, making her nervous. "Oh, I understand. I guess it's not surprising since she's May's daughter that she wants to learn ice-skating. How much experience does she have?"
"None." Leon answered short, making Tsubasa embarrassed.
Meryl sighed. "How come I knew you're gonna say this? Anyway, I'd like to see her skating. I shall decided then if I will train her."
Leon nodded and then looked at Tsubasa, both of them waiting for her answer. "Y-Yes!" she answered fast. "But, I don't have my skates here."
Meryl walked out of the lobby and came back in a few moment with a pair of white skates, just like Tsubasa's. "Are these fine?"
Tsubasa sat down and put them on. They were fitting perfectly. "Yes, thank you." she smiled back.
As the black-haired girl stepped on the ice, she observed that the rink was empty. Though, there still were people on the lobby. Still dressed in the pair of shorts and the blue blouse, she went in the middle of the ice.
As she realized she should have already started, Tsubasa figured out that she had no idea what she should do, how she should skate to satisfy Meryl. Before she could get panicked she decided to just do as she did at Kaleido Stage. And so, Tsubasa begun imagining herself as being a swan. Graceful, gentle, beautiful.
She put her hands up her head, in an 'O' position. Moving her legs, Tsubasa begun skating backwards. She made two lutz and a camel spin. It wasn't that her jumps were that great, but something about her performance made Meryl unable to blink. The blonde woman couldn't see anything but a swan; a beautiful swan taking its flight, a swan hurt, falling down, a swan standing still.
As Tsubasa stopped in the middle of the ice-rink, arms wrapped around her and her chest going up and down. As soon as she opened her eyes and looked nervous at Meryl, she had a satisfied look on her face. Tsubasa felt her heart lightening.
"H-How was it?" she asked looking at Meryl.
"Awful." she said with a serious look. Tsubasa was stunned, was her performance that horrible? "Listen, whom were you performing for ?"
Tsubasa thought for a bit. "For you.." she answered insecure.
"That was the mistake. You thought that if you perform for me, I will be entertained and made everything to entertain me." Tsubasa nodded, Meryl was clearly reading her mind. "It's wrong. You have to perform for nobody else but you. Wether you are at a contest or at Kaleido Stage, if you want a future in ice-skating, you always have to perform for you." Tsubasa listened confusing. "Do you like skating?" Meryl asked crossing her arms.
Tsubasa nodded. "Yes, I love skating." a smile appeared on her face.
Meryl smiled. "That's good. If you perform for you and you are happy, the audience will also be happy. Don't get me wrong, the audience is what makes a performer a professional, but if you want a happy audience, you have to make happy yourself first. "
Tsubasa listened carefully and Meryl smiled. "We're starting right now."
The teenager's eyes widened. "Do you mean you are gonna train me, miss Meryl?" a hopefully smile appeared on her face.
The blonde nodded. "Yes, but you better be ready. Oh, I have three rules." the brunette nodded. "First, no questions. Second, I don't ever want to hear 'I give up' from you or see you running away. If you can't promise me that, you'd better leave now. " Meryl said turning around.
"I promise!" Tsubasa said fast.
Meryl smiled satisfied. "And the last one; no formalities. Call me Meryl." she said turning back around, facing the girl.
Tsubasa looked at her father and they smiled at each other. Leon gave a nod and left, while Tsubasa shouted a 'thank you'
"Now, go back to the ice. We are first gonna see how high you can jump and your body's state." Tsubasa nodded, though she didn't understand what she was supposed to do. Seeing her getting confused, Meryl sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Show me your highest jump."
"Oh, sure." Tsubasa said and went on one corner of the rink.
She speed up and jumped, making a spin and half. She had no idea how high she jumped, but she knew this was the highest she was able to do at the moment.
"Not even half a meter, that's the highest you can?" Meryl shouted from the other side of the rink with anger. Her eyebrows narrowed.
Tsubasa didn't answer but tried another spin. She put her hands in front of her chest in X and focused her strength in her legs.
"Too low again." the girl thought as she landed on the ice.
"What are you doing?" Meryl asked as Tsubasa tried to stop and try another spin.
"Try again." the brunette answered.
Meryl nodded and continued watching the girl as she tried many times landing a higher jump. She lost count at thirty.
.
.
.
At the end of the day, Tsubasa's jumps got better. She could jump almost a meter above the rink, but she could barely stand on her feet.
"That's enough of it." as soon as Meryl said this, Tsubasa fell on the rink.
Her legs were trembling and her hands froze on the cold ice, but she couldn't move. She was exhausted.
Tsubasa couldn't exactly tell what time it was, but she knew she came here early in the morning and now it was twilight.
"Come here." the woman shouted as she was at the entrance on the rink. Hardly, Tsubasa got up and approached Meryl. "You don't have a good body state. Take off your skates."
The brunette sat on a bench and did so. She was so relieved believing that she could go home now.
"Follow me." Meryl said walking out of the room where the ice-rink was. Tsubasa followed her confused as they stepped in a room, smaller than the other but still big. It looked like a gym full of strange machines. "Make pull-ups."
Remembering her promise of never giving up, Tsubasa nodded. "Yes."
After three hours, Meryl finally allowed her to stop. As soon as she stopped and tried to get up, Tsubasa felt dizzy. It was not until she made a step that Tsubasa felt herself falling.. and she lost consciousness.
XXX
"Tsubasa." she heard her name and recognized the voice; it was her father.
Tsubasa slowly opened her eyes, the bright sun was making it hard for her to fully open them. As she took a few moments for herself to recall the last memory she had, her father put his hand on her forehead.
"Looks like you're not sick, it seems that Meryl indeed kept her promise."
At the sound of this name, Tsubasa opened her eyes wide and jumped from her bed, throwing the blanket away.
"What time it is?!"
"10 am."
Tsubasa fast took out her usual pair of blue shorts and dark-blue blouse, put them on and grabbed her father's wrist.
"Why didn't you wake me up earlier dad?! No, don't tell me, not now. Come on, you have to take me to the ice-skating center!"
Without a word, Leon nodded and went downstairs with his daughter. The road was fast as Leon told her what happened last night. It seems that she collapsed due to the exhaustion and Leon carried her home.
That day, Meryl didn't say too much. She didn't look mad because Tsubasa was late, but she was even more strict. She taught Tsubasa a lot of new jumps and didn't let her have a single minute until she nailed them all. At the end of the day,she didn't collapse anymore but neither could she move. Leon had to take her home again in his arms.
"Thanks for all Meryl." he told the blonde woman.
"No problem." she looked at the sleeping girl in his arms. "Do you remember? I used to think Mirai was something supernatural. She was so close.. I really thought she could become The Ice Goddess."
Leon smiled sadly. "I thought so too."
"But this girl.." she said, putting a hand on Tsubasa's head as she gentle patted it. "I think this girl can surpass her sister."
Leon looked in Meryl's eyes. "I know, I'm sure she will."
"Well, tell her I wish her luck tomorrow at the auditions." Meryl said turning around as she prepared to leave. "Oh, one more thing. Tell her that I won't ever forgive her if she doesn't pass the audition."