Toudou walked me around, showing me all the places that he would frequent with along the team. Under the sakura trees around the school ground, we looked at the beautiful flowers against a clear blue sky as background. The morning air was fresh and a little chilly, it was still spring after all. Regardless of the season was still in the early spring, the school uniform was already in short sleeves for the girls. This morning, I seemed to forget to bring a jacket when I leave the house. Seeing me slightly wrapping my arms around my body, without saying anything, he placed his blazers around my shoulders to keep me warm. Despite the fact that he might be taking care of me in place of my brother (who was also his best friend), I couldn't help myself, my heart skipped a beat. His action and the spring atmosphere almost made me feel like we were on a date instead of touring the school before I mentally slapped myself.

What am I thinking!? I still want to go home, how can I have fantasies with an anime character! I need to get a hold of myself.

The saying "time flies when you're having fun" was true, it wasn't long before the warning bell ranged signaling the start of the first class of the day. Just by spending some time with Toudou, I could tell he was not the narcissistic teen as the anime had portrayed him to be. He really cared for the people around him.

Coming back to the building, we were greeted with the stares of other students. While Toudou was bathing in the praises and adoration of his female fans, I was treated differently. The females were staring intensely at me, almost seemed to wish that I would be burned alive for having the blazer from the object of their affection. On the other hand, the male students seemed to treat us the opposite, meaning the treatment that girls treat Toudou was what they treated me in spite of being more subtle. They would even be looking at Toudou with contempt. I would understand why they, both females and males, would treat Toudou such way, but I don't understand why I was subjected to their attention when it was the first time I ever see any of them. However, it really didn't matter, I just need to be myself and thus I didn't think much of it.

Upon seeing the sign of "Class 1-A", we slowly walked over. All the students being squeezed in such a, usually, large hallway made it seemed like a subway rush hours in New York inside the subway cart, which meaning we moved at a snail pace to our destination in a tightly packed area.

"Thank you for your blazer and the tour." I smiled up to him as I handed the blazer back.

"It's alright. Do you want to have lunch with the team? There are still members that you haven't met yet. I will pick you up during lunch."

Without thinking much about it, I gave a nod. After all, eventually I would meet them all as the manager, so why wait. Giving each other a wave, we turned away from each other as he rushed up the stairs to the fourth floor where the Third year classrooms were located while I walked into the classroom.

On the projector, the names of the students and our seat were shown. Through alphabetical seating arrangement based on our last names, I found my seat to be next to the window. It was a love at first site for me. The large window gave me the most beautiful view of a sakura tree that located just inches away. I could clearly see each pedal and flowers on it. No matter how much I want to continue my own flower viewing, I looked back to the board, trying to scan for a "Manami Sangaku" to see if he was also in this classroom. To my surprise, he was. I wondered if my luck was weird, it was too much coincidence.

First: fall into Yowamushi Pedal

Next: become the sister of Makishima Yuusuke

Then: becoming Hakone cycling team manager

Then: like a Mary Sue, become "couple"-like with Toudou Jinpachi who is the best friend of my "brother"

Last: the six member of the Hakone cycling team is also in my class.

Just what is with my luck? All these events are like a plot from fanfictions that are about "reborn into the Naruto world" or "reborn into Katekyo Hitman Reborn", in this case the Yowamushi Pedal world. It is too much coincidence to be reality.

Not wanting to get lost in my mental rant, I looked around to find Manami, but I didn't seem him. Remembering from the anime, Manami was often late to class and the club to climb slopes (I mean with a bicycle), I quickly put away my worry. Seeing the teacher wasn't here yet, I took out a light novel to pass the time with.

Time skip:

As I was packing up for lunch, I pondered on how to approach Manami to ask him to come to lunch with me and the team. It might be fine since he would join the club soon anyway. Slowly I began to though back to when he enter the class room. It was really surprising when he suddenly came into the classroom when he was late to class though.

FLASHBACK:

I was taking down notes for Math class, the first lesson of the day, when I noticed from the corner of my eyes that the door by the back of the room slowly and quietly sided open. There was only one student that hadn't made appearance in the classroom yet, you can guess it in one try and you will be right. It could only be Manami. He slowly tip toed in all the while bending his body, giving him a classic Japanese theft look. However, no matter how subtle he was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he tripped over his own feet as his eyes were glued to the teacher who was turned to the board with his back to the class, causing a ruckus as he fell. Every single head turned to the source of the noise in unison. Upon realizing that he was in the spotlight, he straightened his posture and quickly stood up.

"Sorry, I'm late." Giving a bright smile to the teacher as if he felt that he won't get in trouble; however, the teacher's face was turning redder and redder like a pre-erupted volcano.

"Manami Sangaku, you're late! Go stand in the back of the classroom."

He whined, but complied while the class laughed at his pouting face.

FLASHBACK END

"Hi Manami-kun, my name is Makishima Tsukiko. I am wondering if you want to eat lunch with me and the cycling team." I walked up to his desk as he was going through his bag to find his bento. Upon hearing the "cycling team" he immediately agreed. Looking in front of the entrance door, there stood Toudou leaning against the wall arms folded on his chest. We walked up to him.

"Jinpachi-kun, did you wait long?" Coming closer to him, I called out. At first there was a warm smile directed at me, but when he realized that I wasn't alone, he narrowed his eyes at Manami. Remembering the anime that Toudou acts a bit childish and jealous toward Manami, I quickly tried to diffuse some of the tension in the air. "This is Manami Sangaku, he will be a great climber and member of the club. Is it okay if we bring him along too?"

"Yeah." Not wanting to be seen as immature, Toudou reluctantly agreed.

Together we walked up the stairs to the roof top. Despite the fact that Manami was a bit obvious to the awkward silence and was talking animatedly with me about this and that, it didn't change the fact that Toudou was looking at Manami heatedly much like a territorial cat. I reached over and held his left hand, the sudden touch, caused him to tense up before a small smile broke out on his face and he gave my hand squeeze. I felt that my action was reward winning, I just prevented a one-sided war from breaking out with the main focus point of Toudou vs. Manami.

The wind gashed toward us as we opened the door, it seemed that the team was already there, even Shinkai Hayato and Izumida Touichirou were there too. It seemed too good to be true, the Hakone representatives of the Inter-High were right in front of me. This image could only appear in my dreams, but now it was right in front of me. Still, I managed my facial expression to not give way for my excitement to show.

"Hey guys!" Toudou yelled out as Manami and I followed closely behind him. "Shinkai and Izumida weren't there when Tsu-chan visited this morning right?" Seeing the group nodded, he continued. "Tsu-chan, the red headed is Shinkai Hayato third year sprinter and the long eyelashes is Izumida Touichirou second year sprinter. Guys, this is Makishima Tsukiko, our new manager."

"What about the other guy?" Arakita spoke up as we sat down.

"This is Manami Sagaku, my classmate. I feel he will do great as a climber, so I invited him to join us and start to get to know our sempais." I answered as I fiddled with my bento bag before I fully pulled it out.

Naturally, Manami had a very optimistic and outgoing personality causing him to be able to speak to the group without a hint of nervousness; I didn't need to worry about helping him to integrate into the group at all. However, upon looking at my bento, really looked at it, I began to worry. There was no way for me to finish the content at all, to top it all, it was also a two layered bento box. Teriyaki tenderloin, tempura, California roll, sashimi, soup, salad, origiries and fresh cut strawberries and orange. I mentally cried to myself, this was the first day of my high school life; the housekeeper must be a bit too excited and made all my favorites at the same time cooked too much. I looked around at the boys and began to plot.

As athletes, their appetites and food intakes are beyond ordinary people as they burn away the calories at a much faster rate. In this theory, I can safely say that I can somehow rope them into helping me finishing my lunch without much problem.

"Jinpachi-kun, will you like to have some of my lunch? It is a bit too much for me to finish alone." I cooed at him while presenting my lunch as I tried to act cute. Despite my acting sucks much like how anyone can tell if someone if terrible at fake crying, it turned out was cute; however, at the same time, the guys looked at me like I was trying to flirt with Toudou. So in order to nip the bud before it bloom, I added in naturally, "Everyone too can try it if you want, just make sure to leave some for me."

Unknown to me, Toudou was emitting flowers in the background at the prospect of tasting my lunch. Yet, when I mentioned that others could also taste it, he went from cloud nine back to earth. However, even if I didn't notice, doesn't mean others didn't. When they saw his reaction, they allowed discreet smirks to grow on their faces, all the while thinking of ways to hold this information against him.

"Oh I almost forgot, Fukutomi-sempai, I already started to revise some training exercises for the team."

"Let's hear it then."

TRAINING STRAIGIES:

Regular Training:

Since it is still spring, the beach will be deserted of people. We will be reusing the old road racers with the old and heavy tires that are stored in the club storage room – I noticed we have a lot of those; using the old tires whiles on the sand will make it hard to move forward thus work on cadence and the leg and thigh muscles as well as stamina. On the beach, there won't be anything that will block the wind, at the same time, the lose sand will make it hard for the bike to move forward. You will cycle from one end of the beach to the other for a given time. This training will make you much faster when you ride on solid ground. By using the old bikes, it will prevent your personal bikes from any damage that they will most likely sustain while training.

Training Camp:

The school calendar shows that the classes will be canceled for two weeks in a week time that's when we will begin the training camp.

5 – 6 A.M: Wake up, morning routine, and breakfast

6 – 6:30 A.M.: Stretches

6:30 – 10:30 A.M.: Regular training

10:30 – 11 A.M.: Cool down and stretches

11 – 12 P.M: Lunch break

12 – 2 P.M.: Muscle training in the gym

2 – 5 P.M.: Special training [The old bikes will be stationed down with weights in a swimming pool. When you sat on the bike, the pool water will reach your throat. You will be cycling while wearing regular t-shirts and shorts which will act as drag shirts and shorts that restrict your movements. At this time you will be forbidden to use "Dancing", it will help build up your lower body muscles and refine your movement and techniques.]

5 – 5:30 P.M.: Cool down and stretches

5:30-6:30 P.M.: Dinner break

6:30-9:30 P.M.: Group study lessons [Hakone has strict rule about grades of its athletes. We have an "All Day Review Tests" on the day we get back from camp. Even though the tests don't affect our overall grade, they are being used as ranking. However, for athletic clubs' members, the bottom 100 aren't allowed to take part in club activities until they show an overall improvement in all of their classes – which is harder to do than get good grades on the review tests. Thus, we will bring all our test books and the tests we will take before the break to see in which area we will need to improve on.]

9:30 P.M..: Free time until you decided to sleep.

Personal bikes:

For your personal bikes, we will give them to bike shops for maintenance for the best performance we will get on the day of Inter-High. We will be using them two days before the Inter-High, you will be able to see a drastic improvement in your timing compared to before. At the same day we will held a race to determine the sixth member.

"So what do you think? Of course, I will put in some times to go to other rival school to get intel's on their members' stats and get some possible strategies for the Inter-High."

"I think that will be fine." Fukutomi said, while the others looked on impressed. "I will talk to the coach to look for a place with an indoor pool and by the beach within the school's properties."

"Tsu-chan is so thorough in our training manual." Toudou said as he lashed on to me with his arms around my shoulders. "But will it be okay? You will be against your brother when we face off." He looked to me with worry.

"Don't worry, I think he will find it more fun when his rival is much stronger."

"Will you cook for us during the camp, Tsu-chan? Even though your housekeeper's food are great, but I really want to eat your food." He immediately brightened up with my answer as well as the prospect of tasting my homemade food.

With my nod, he bounced on me, sending us to the ground, while the others looked on in amusement and not showing a sign of helping me from Toudou's hug attack. And thus it began, my Hakone life.