With Coach Ubochi’s introduction, he adds a new dynamic to coaching that we haven’t seen before. As most of the time, Tsukasa and the others guide their skaters. Though it is worth noting that it comes with practice. The special harness can be thought of as something similar to assisting someone when they are lifting weights. While you aren’t doing the moves on your own merit, you are getting your body used to it. Thus, it will allow your body to be able to process what it is like. Thus, it makes it easier to perform the move without the harness. Though the harness itself is not as difficult to control, Tsukasa hurts his ribs because he is not used to it with Inori. Ubochi mentions there are risks in using it, but, of course, for Tsukasa the reward of Inori’s growth is worth it.
As Inori and Tsukasa head to Niigata, it is very interesting that Ubochi mentions for Inori to go for the quadruple Salchow. It does give her a weapon to go against Hikaru, and she can always come back to working on her fundamentals for the triple Lutz. Though in contrast to this, we are introduced to Miku Ahiru. Unlike with Tsukasa where he wants Inori to be the one making the decisions, and he will go with what she wants. With Miku, she has two coaches in Kohei Kamogawa and Juna Shiratori. With Kohei serving as her strategist and Juna as the one who helps with her choreography. They make for an interesting 3-person team, which we haven’t seen yet. Though it makes sense given that Niigata doesn’t have many skaters. It is interesting with the comments of Miku being a golden egg ready to hatch into her true potential, and she thinks about quitting. It is a sad reality since I assume they can’t keep the rink open just for her. But it is sad when where a person lives can decide if they can continue with their passion.
For Tsukasa we have known that when it is for someone else’s sake, he is willing to go the extra mile. But this volume emphasizes that even more. Between showing that he is putting everything into Hitomi’s final performance and making sure Inori will be able to execute the quadruple Salchow on her own. Though Jun being aware of them going for that is quite interesting. It does make seeing how Inori and Hikaru do in the next competition the most interesting.