The Winter of the Ubume

An LLS Production

開幕: 初雪

❅Yuuri❅

"My name is Katsuki Yuuri," I said, or tried to say. "I'm a figure skater certified by the Japan Skating Federation. Currently... twenty-three years old. Please take care of me!"

"Hi, Yuuri!" Everyone around me spoke up in this open-air pavilion in Kamakura, Kanagawa.

"My name makes me sound strong, but I finished last at my first Grand Prix final. I still can't accept what happened!" My mouth moved by itself, spilling my entire life story up to being forced to get out of Hasetsu by my sister to this awkward party of- "I even moved to a training facility in Detroit and worked hard to make it to the final. But the pressure had me binge-eating before the match, and our family dog died, so I was at my worst both physically and mentally!"

"Ah, I see," the host of this pot-luck party smiled at me. She was extremely elegant in her ginkgo-leaf furisode. That is, if you wanted to knowingly sleep with a life-eating yōkai. "That's sad. Did you not have faith in your strength? After all, you inherited the Ôbō-Jikara. I'm fairly sure you could have managed any physical feat."

Yes, this is a party of yōkai. I'm the only human here! I'm seriously scared! Mari-neechan, why'd you make me come here?! Why did I have to magically go from Hasetsu to Kamakura? Even for yōkai there's got to be a limit!

"Yes, this is my first time coming to Kamikakushi. Thank you for having me, Kyō-sama."

"Not at all, since Kuchisake-san brought you along." Kyō-san paused. "This is a great opportunity too introduce professional sports, anyway. It's almost like cheating. After all, there is no human who could match a yōkai in feats of strength, speed, magic or intelligence."

"Yes, I agree," I smiled. "But I'm human, Kyō-sama. Mari-neechan... might have abandoned the human world for the yōkai world, but I'm going to live as a human."

"With the Ôbō-Jikara?" Kyō-sama smiled. I was even more terrified under her smile than I was on the rink, in front of a huge audience. "That would be hard. I heard that you're searching for a job."

For everyone who cheered me on just because I'm from Hasetsu! I can't explain this to each of you, but I'll go ahead and explain this in my head, okay?

It started in the Showa era with my maternal grandfather, the founder of the family onsen, Yū-topia Akatsuki. In a deep winter of the post-war years, he took in out of kindness a baby from an Ubume.

For people who don't know, an Ubume is a type of scary yōkai born when a woman dies in childbirth. The legend of the Ubume was generally as follows:

When walking along the road at night, you would find a beautiful woman holding a baby and she would ask you to hold the baby. Now, if you refused, the Ubume herself would kill you. If you held the baby, it would grow heavier and heavier. And if you couldn't keep it up to the end, you would be crushed to death by the baby's weight.

Isn't it scary?

Luckily, my grandfather survived the terrifying trial, fleeing through a blizzard and typhoon to his house with the baby all the way to his house.

The Ubume, moved by his kindness and determination, gave him possession of the good fortune that let him create our family's Yū-topia Akatsuki. She also gave him and his descendants a special power, the legendary Ôbō-Jikara.

There are a number of sayings about that power, like that it gives you great strength enough to uproot even the tallest trees, and that it gives an illusion of four arms when used.

They're all true. Speaking as that man's grandson, I know for a fact that yōkai exist, that my grandfather faced off against a yōkai and won, and that, from the moment my mother married my father, the Katsuki family would never be able to escape that floating world of shadows and the strange.

Mum and Mari-neechan have the same power as me, which is useful for manual work in the Onsen. And, for some strange reason, we always gain weight easily when it's cold.

I guess it's Grandma looking out for Dad, haha... before you think I'm lying, that child grew up and married my mother. So he's my father, and the mysterious Ubume that no one knows is Grandma!

So the Ubume is my paternal grandmother, and the baby rescued was my father.

Owing to a yōkai, the Katsuki family gained a fortune. Due to that same yōkai who was our saviour, the Katsuki family also became a family that would forever stand apart from humans.

The gift of strength turned into a curse when I accidentally broke Nishigori's face with a stray punch on my first practice.

I moved to singles specifically not to touch any partner on the ice.

On the ice, my strength has no purchase or anchor to exert a force on anything except myself, and strength meant nothing compared to the grace and flexibility that I had to work so hard for.

"Do you like figure skating?" Kyō-sama asked me again.

"Yes," I replied positively. "I'm in a slump, but I'll definitely continue onwards with skating on my own!"

Eleven months ago, I screwed up in front of my idol, and flunked my way through the skating season. It would be nearly a year now. I'm going to do it!

...Grandma, why'd you have to let us gain weight so easily?

Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !