Chapter 194 - The Murmur of the Pines and Distant Voices

​The first three days at the Karuizawa villa passed in an isolation bordering on the surreal. After the whirlwind of lights, television cameras, and crossed calls that had shaken the team's headquarters in Tokyo, the silence of the mountain initially felt dense, almost heavy. It was a crushing contrast against the frantic pace of the metropolis: up there, between the slopes of Mount Asama and the thick maple forests, the wind produced a distant murmur as it crossed the treetops, as though nature were attempting to muffle the echo of a storm that still resonated strongly in the headlines of the international circuit.