001 | 1-1. Battle on Ice
【To Our Readers: Welcome to Episode-γ: Afterglow of Green and Purple!】
◆ New to SARAH OF THE ABYSS? Welcome! While this episode can be enjoyed as a standalone story, we strongly recommend reading the Main Story, Episode-Zero, Episode-α, and Episode-β first to get the full, rich experience of this world!
👉 [Read Main Story Here]
→ https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1677037
👉 [Read Episode-Zero: The Origin of the Pearl Here]
→ https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1677412/
👉 [Read Episode-α: Queen of the Ice Flower Here]
→ https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1679376/
👉 [Read Episode-β: Cave of Silence Here]
→ https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1679407
◆ To Our Returning Readers Thank you so much for following the journey all the way here! This “Episode-γ: Afterglow of Green and Purple” is set in May 2023. Let's see what kind of intense developments await you in this chapter.
■ Which Should You Read First? If you have already finished up to Episode-β, you are in the perfect position! Dive straight into the green and purple depths and witness the fierce destiny unfold.
Author: Mina_Underwater
Chapter 1: The Colors of Youth
December 1998.
Anaheim, California.
With Christmas just around the corner, the city felt less like winter and more like a season where the nights simply linger a little longer.
By day, the dry sunlight still beat down, and tourists could even be seen walking around in short sleeves.
Yet once the sun went down, the air abruptly lost its lightness, and a chilly wind carrying the scent of the ocean swept through the streets.
Simple strings of lights flickered on the eaves of the shopping mall, and Christmas carols drifted from the radio.
Beyond the silhouettes of the palm trees, distant waves roared in a low, steady rhythm.
It had already been five years since a hockey team was born in this city.
Five years ago, in 1993, the sport of ice and steel took root in Anaheim.
The NHL—the National Hockey League.
Though it held a proud place among the so-called Big Four sports in America, it had always trailed at the very back in terms of popularity.
Compared to American football, basketball, and baseball, it was understated,
and the notion that "it might even get overtaken by soccer in America someday"
was a reality that, at the time, could no longer be dismissed as a half-hearted joke.
Into this NHL, a brand-new team was born.
And it happened in this city of Southern California, seemingly so far removed from ice.
--The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Their parent company was The Walt Disney Company.
It was a symbolic team born when the massive entertainment enterprise, known for selling dreams and stories, threw itself headfirst into the combat sport on ice.
Sharing the same "parent" as the Angels, the MLB team also based in this city, the words "family-oriented," "entertainment," and "new sports culture"
came together as this team was brought to life.
Bathed in the evening lights, the rink inside the arena gleamed like a thin sheet of glass.
The high-pitched screech of skate blades carving into the ice struck straight to the depths of one's chest.
The dull, heavy sound of bodies crashing against the glass partitions.
White breath expelled from the gaps in protective helmets.
Hard, cold, and fierce--
A scene that felt entirely out of place in a tropical town stretched out before them.
The spectator stands pulsed like a single, massive living creature.
The moment a puck was sucked into the net, cheers erupted, and the air itself leaped and trembled, cascading down from overhead.
It was the moment an icy night was born in Anaheim.
The Mighty Ducks' jerseys were styled in jade green and eggplant purple.
A vivid, almost intoxicatingly bold green.
And a purple that seemed to wrap itself in the depths of the night.
Because they were newcomers with neither tradition nor history, they were allowed such a provocative choice of colors.
Yet that flashy audacity was precisely what struck the heart of the city.
"This is the color of Anaheim."
As if to declare just that, children wore the caps and young people proudly donned the jackets.
Emily Carter and Jennifer Williams, both born and raised locally, were right in the middle of that wave.
The two of them had been coming to the arena ever since they were little enough to look up at everyone.
The slightly damp paper scent of the tickets handed to them at the entrance.
The moment they stepped foot into Arrowhead Pond, the home arena of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the chill clung to their skin.
With red fingertips gripping paper cups of steaming hot cocoa, they spent nights straining their necks to follow the players on the ice until their muscles ached.
On nights they won, the sky on the way home looked impossibly bright.
On nights they lost, even the radio playing inside the car felt heavy.
Whether the NHL was this or that, or whatever rank it held in popularity, none of that mattered to the two of them.
A team just born in this city.
Unknown to anyone. Sometimes laughed at.
Even so--
"Our team."
They could say it with pride.
In those figures colliding upon the ice, Emily and Jennifer overlapped the beginning of their own youth.
Still being nobody, still lacking fixed colors, yet harboring a warmth that was undeniably there.
A winter night in Anaheim.
Amidst that icy radiance, the story of the two of them was also quietly beginning to race forward.
