[ ...Is it still bothering her? In a place like this, where they don't even have the option of it—where it's not really likely that they'll be able to do it?

It's bad; once she begins, she finds she can't stop. ]

A little. More than connecting with the world, it was... [ ...how does she put it? ] When I was a little girl, I'd always get my mom to read me a certain picture book—Chavvot—and the titular character liked to skate. She was deaf and mute, so it was her way of expressing herself in a world where she couldn't use words.

I don't have the same problem as her [ obviously. ] but it was... nice, having another way to do that. People can't understand each other just by talking, no matter how much they try—everyone's experiences'll be too different. We can sympathize all we want—we can say, "That's too bad" or "I'm so sorry," but really understanding why someone's upset, or feeling exactly how they feel?

[ ...She's going to make herself something, even if her hands a little unsteady. ]

It's impossible, but ice skating brought me a little closer to that, and I was crushed when I heard the news. I cried for weeks, I avoided my friends—the ones I'd met through ice skating, people I'd practically grown up beside on the rink—and my family, and eventually, I—

[ Chiyuki does cut herself off there, wordlessly pouring alcohol into a glass and stirring it. ]

I ended up at the bar, and then I ended up here. [ There's a step she's missing, but it's not... ] I'm more bothered about how I acted, I think, but not being able to skate is part of it.

[ And that... was still long, but she's finished her blue cocktail, she'll be fine just sipping it and being relieved it doesn't knock her out. ]