Chapter 144 - The Crack in the Porcelain

​The air inside the Shibuya auxiliary rink felt dense, heavy with that frozen atmosphere characteristic of enclosed arenas during a Tokyo winter. There were no television cameras positioned behind the security glass, nor Japanese federation reporters lurking along the rubberized walkways; the isolation was absolute—a sanctuary of wood and elastic ice that Taishi had fortified with military rigidity to protect his pupil's fragile recovery process. The only sound shattering the sepulchral quiet was the sharp hiss of Aibek's blades carving through the frozen surface—a metallic echo reverberating through the empty stands like a steady, weary heartbeat.