This volume was an interesting change of pace because there was a more priority focus on Hikaru rather than Inori. As seen in the previous volume, it is switching from Shinichirou to Riley Fox in terms of officially coaching her. Of course, Jun is still the actual one coaching Hikaru. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Hikaru is trying to move forward by cutting the past behind her. After all, that can be the easiest way to proceed with things. It would be very much the Jun way of how to approach it.
However, in Hikaru’s heart, that is simply not easy. Her time with Rioh & the Sonidori family was a special time for her. Cutting herself out of Rioh’s life isn’t suddenly going to make him not love her anymore. Or how Rioh’s parents come to look at her as their own daughter. Rioh can tell that as Hikaru spent more time with the family, her smile continued to be more and more genuine. As Hikaru is walking the path of Jun, could this be the indicator that she might be as cold as Jun and is closer to Tsukasa?
Though Jun’s outlook on Inori compared to Hikaru’s outlook on her is interesting. Hikaru looks to her as her main rival, while Jun never saw much in her and was more interested in Tsukasa. Which actually shows that Jun thinks of Tsukasa rather highly. But of course his remarks about Inori struck a chord with her. One thing that is clear is that Hikaru sees Inori as a rival, but she also hopes for Inori to become a rival and improve. So it really brings up the question: will she be able to live up to Jun’s expectations? The more interesting question is why did he choose Riley for Hikaru?
As the All-Japan Junior Girls competition begins, we get a bit of a hit of reality for both Hikaru & Iruka. Hikaru actually made a mistake, and Iruka hurt herself in practice. The reality of sports is basically that it is impossible to be perfect, and mistakes happen. With Iruka sometimes accidents happen, and injuries are a part of sports, as we’ve seen with Inori previously in this series. It is about pushing forward with whatever challenges that you have.
Which highlights Iruka trying to make sure Inori isn’t rattled by her injury before she performs. Their dynamic has slowly developed very nicely in a sisterly manner. Though unlike Mika, who is more of the overly caring sister for Inori, Iruka is more of the sister who is tough on her, but you can tell she really cares for her. In many ways, the love Iruka gives Inori is the missing time since she and Mika went on their own paths. Of course it is quite different from how their friendship was because Iruka has been through a lot.