The Gamble (Japanese: ギャンブル Gyanburu) is the seventeenth chapter of the Medalist manga.
Characters[]
(flashback)
Story[]
The night before the Chubu Block Tournament, Koichi finds Tsukasa staying up late, making final checks to ensure their setup is good. Tsukasa is engrossed in analyzing data from previous meets, finding them fascinating. Before leaving Tsukasa to his work, Koichi recalls his previous apology for his failures despite his support.
During the skating order draw, Inori draws 14, putting her in group 2. Another skater, Rinna Sarukawa, draws 1, much to her dismay, as the same thing always happens to her. The skating order is determined as follows:
- Group 1
- Rinna Sarukawa
- Sakina Anaguma
- Yotsuha Ushikawa
- Sana Niwatori
- Kurumi Risu
- Manaka Roba
- Waka Umitsuki
- Group 2
Elsewhere, Yoh Kago spills her drink on the stairs. When Inori hurries down, she slips on the spill but is caught mid-air by Koichi. After making sure she's okay, Koichi asks Inori which club Coach Tsukasa works for. Excited to meet a fan of Tsukasa, Inori introduces herself as Tsukasa's student. Koichi immediately knows her name, and is glad to finally meet her. Tsukasa himself then arrives and is surprised to see Koichi, as he's never shown any prior interest in skating.
As Inori leaves to change, Koichi explains that while his wife Meiko suffered from illness, Tsukasa's hard work helped uplifted not only her but he as well. He once dreamed to watch skating in person with his wife, which was never fulfilled to due to her hospitalization. However, after witnessing Tsukasa's renewed energy pursues a new dream last night, he too felt motivated to move forward and make his own dream come true. Brought to tears, Tsukasa vows to give it his all as a coach today.
Nearby, Tsukasa spots Rinna Sarukawa on the phone with her mother, crying over her number 1 which will make her mother and cousin miss her performance. Concerned, Tsukasa checks on her and has a brief run-in with Meikoh Wind's assistant coach Shoya Kijita.
Practice time for group 1 soon begins. In the audience, Koichi struggles to understand what's going on, and Yoh grows bored because she doesn't know the rules for winning. Koichi turns to the person behind them to ask about the rules, who happens to be Mamoru Sekoma. Mamoru is momentarily put on the spot, but attempts to explain that the fun of figure skating comes from the skaters' constant gamble on whether they can keep from falling.
As Rinna begins her program, Mamoru explains the required elements and the scoring system for jumps. Rinna opens with a successful Triple Lutz, earning praise from Shoya for her strength despite her earlier distress over going first. However, Rinna falls in the second half of her program on a Double Salchow. Awaiting her score at the kiss and cry, she is frustrated by her mistake, but Shinichiro Sonidori assures her that she performed superbly and set the bar high. Shoya then surprises her with a large bouquet of flowers, addressing her as "princess." Her score is announced as 70.04.