Due my provocation of a challenge, it seems that it had lit a fire inside Aoi as his cadence and overall speed had increased tremendously, because of this he was gradually gaining on me. Cadence being the speed in which one pedals.

“Not really one of the smartest ideas out there Kyousuke to challenge a bike fanatic to a race” Angelica says as she holds on tightly.

“Well, I don’t deny that, but it’ll be fun though.” I say in a playful manner

“Hey…”

“Yes? Kyousuke?”

“Can you show me a map of the lake?”

“Hmmmm… but that would be unfair, you know?” she says in a sarcastic tone

“Okay, how about you at least turn back to your tiny angel form, you are kinda slowing me down.”

“Don’t wanna…” she says in a childish and spoiled tone as she tightly squeezes my stomach as a show of defiance.

I sighed and looked at the my phone attached to Tesla via a widget that had the GPS app open, which showed a dot (that is me!), it was kind of like a mini map you would see in games, so it was limited. 

“Robi? Show me a satellite overview map of the lake of Kazegaura and the area around it.” I leaned my head forward as I slouched a bit, to make sure that the device heard it.

*BeepBoop!*

The sound of the phone was hear as it said in a robotic voice 

“Here you are, Sanada- sama”. 

When you first install the application called Roogle, the largest internet browsing software of this world which is in no way ripping of a certain company back in my world, you have to type in a user name and Robi, the voice recognition part of the app, will give what you asked for whilst mentioning your username.

After hearing Robi finish, a map appeared on screen

“Hmmm… it seems that Robi is much more useful….” I said, purposefully out loud with a cheeky smile so that a certain someone will hear.

 “than a certain all powerful angel-sa-“ I added as if to taunt her, I was suddenly cut off by a familiar pain as I was once again bitten. 

‘Is  she becoming more violent as of late?’ 

“Ouch… You have gotten more vicious than before, I see.” I let out a light groan at the pain.

“Hmmpf! As if! And whose fault is that you think?” suddenly the weight on the back of the bike disappeared as a tiny angel rests on my shoulder. With a wave of her hand, materializing in front of me was a semi transparent 3D model of the site, with an also tiny 3D me, colored yellow, and a red colored Aoi in it. She had taken the bait and actually a given what I wanted. I mentally give myself a pat on the back for my deception. 

I chuckle, and then looked to the 3D map which seemed to move around and focus on specific point depending on what I wanted to see. I zoomed out, to look at the course that I wanted me and Aoi to race through, while also, of course, keeping an eye on the road. 

‘Wouldn’t want to be faced with a speeding truck-san again, if it could be helped.’ I sighed inwardly at the thought as I nodded to Angelica, who was still sulking for some reason, to show that I was done. Not even reacting while she was looking away from me, the semi transparent map merely vanished and appeared at the bottom left of my vision in a smaller form.

“See, you can be useful if you want to.” I say with a smug grin.

“hmmpf! You could have just pushed more and I woulda helped, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. But teasing you is much more fun.”

To this she once again sulked, to which I had to concede because I still need her help, so I sighed and said “I’ll buy more ingredients for the chocolate pancakes you love so much… So, don’t be mad, okay?” I say in a gentle tone as to calm the angel down.

“Hmm… don’t forget the strawberries.”

“Yes, Hime-sama” I say sarcastically.

Then turning with a bright smile she giggled and leaned herself on my head.

“It’s a promise, okay, Kyousuke?”

“Yup.”

“Good Now this all powerful angel-sama grants you forgiveness. Hehehe.” With a giggle and biting into the bait called chocolate pancakes. I got her to help me with Aoi.

…

I had planned to race all around the lake, though it seems that the only hill parts inside the planned 11km route of the lake, which was cut into two by a bridge, was Windmill Hill itself, and a few forested areas, which totaled to about a fourth of the route. Judging by the terrain it was obviously in my favor because a road bike is fastest on flats, which most of the course, indeed, was. So, I was a bit skeptical whether Aoi would accept, well, there was only one way to find out, as he was almost within earshot range. 

…

“Aoi!” I shout behind me seeing the sight of him right on my tail, I had not changed gears in the mean time, only going for a low gear, as to previously just enjoy a nice ride along the lake. After slowing down a bit, until we were close enough to each other that I could be heard.

 I shouted “Do you know the strange building that is always locked off in this area?!” 

He nods in understanding, seemingly not wanting to talk, which I found strange but oh, well. 

The Strange building I was talking about was the future base of the Soaring Club. It was a underground hangar that is owned by the Board Chairman of Keifuu High, also owner of a huge company that more or less controls the area, the head of the Kazato family, as of how it will be given to the Soaring Club? 

Well, In his youth he used to build planes with his friends for the same reason as the said club, to soar through the sky. That dream that he left long ago seemed to have been inherited by his grand daughters, who in fact he spoils too much. So, when Asa became part of said club, she offered them the rights to use of the hangar in exchange for her membership. But that is all in the future, so no need to dwell on that just yet…

“First one, there after going around the lake following the bridge, wins!”

And seeing as he heard my challenge, without even a slight bit of hesitation he gave a firm nod. He almost looked like he was stoic at this point, of how quiet he was but…

Smiling at his determined expression I shouted “Show me what you got!” and stood up from my bike...

_________________________________________

…

“Show me what you got!” as if this was the starting pistol signaling the start of the race, Kazuya changed gears as sparks fly off while his bike chain jumped from sprocket to sprocket. Then he suddenly stood up then held the drop handle bars, and started sprinting a technique used on bikes to climb hills or generally just accelerate, by standing up right on the bike making it easier to  pedal. But this also depletes his stamina faster.

Because of this, he suddenly bolted off, his back disappearing over the last hill that marks the exit of Windmill Hill.

‘He’s fast!?’ I exclaimed inwardly not expecting him to rush from the start.

“But this was to be expected from Mr. Perfect who excels at everything.” As to not to be left behind, I clicked the shifters the left for the chain rings or front gears and the right shifters for the rear cogs. The gear I set was best used for a downhill road with high chain rings and low rear cogs. 

As I reach the summit of the hill I could already see he had put quite a distance between us, though he had stopped sprinting, but this was because he had the lead for the start that he was ahead, plus the fact he was using a tried and tested winner road bike. Though it seemed like he was fast he probably hasn’t trained cycling,.

‘He was probably more used to kendo.’ I thought as my confidence soars.

‘This is my chance to prove that Mr. Perfect isn’t so unbeatable!’ I feel a smile forming on my face as I felt my favorite moment when biking the downhill rush. Pushing my legs to the limit, I sped down at breakneck speed. 

…

And then 20 minutes had passed as we passed a small bridge over a river and ride through a residential district at the half way point. As we sped through, there were familiar houses of all colors, shapes and sizes on one side and the lake on the other, because of me being native here and one to frequently ride around town, sometimes people would wave at me. To them I just smiled and carried on…

 In time, the distance between us had definitely narrowed, but I had underestimated him and his seemingly abnormal stamina. Because of this my respect of him and the distance between us suddenly became apparent. But then as if he was taunting me whenever I got close, he would look back at me as if sensing me, which was totally not normal, then he would smile mischievously, wink, and then suddenly sprint off leaving a large gap between us.  

This happened many timed as we cycled. Doubt had formed in my mind if I could truly beat him; it was as if he was toying with me.

‘Does he have infinite stamina to keep up dashing like that? Do I…’

 But every time this thought would creep up on me, he would suddenly…

Slow down to where I could see his back then find a way to taunt me…

‘Kazuya!’ I was fuming

So, I kept going ‘Think you could get away with that Kazuya! I will definitely beat you!’ and steeled my nerves as I shifted gears and increased my cadence…

_________________________________________

I was catching my breath after pushing him for a bit and sprinting off, we were barely at the half way mark of the 10 km race around the lake, I was feeling fatigue in my legs after doing several mad dashes to get him off my tail, and keep myself ahead. As we were cycling in the 20 minutes that had passed, Angelica had notified me about the changes in Aoi’s heart, specifically his fighting spirit as he had instances he would slow down. So to keep those thoughts away from him and keep him focused. I was cruising at a reasonable speed as to regain some stamina, probably should have held off on jogging today…

“So? This was your master plan?” Angelica asked with as skeptical look as she gestures to me breathing heavily.

“Well, yeah pretty much?”

“Does that also mean agitating Aoi?”

“Yup”

 “And why is that?”

“Well…” I said in a playful manner

I had deduced he was probably feeling down because of me, seeing as he was down when coming home from Ageha’s house yesterday; he ignored me and seemed to be deep in thought, as I left. It was probably because of not being able to save Ageha? That or me stealing her first kiss when I performed CPR and or getting too close to her in the span of two days? But he is an understanding boy, so I was willing to bet more on the first, though I was still not sure... because reading people involved a lot of guesswork.

And after today seeing him lose motivation at my sprints, I had was lost as to why he was frequently losing his determination, when he was quite the unyielding person in the game. So this may also be a chance to beat some sense into his wishy-washy demeanor, also let him win for him to gain confidence in himself again… 

“I had challenged him to a race, an easy way to A, get close to him, B to build some rapport with him to actually let him open up, and C for the fun of it”

“Is that so… you sure it isn’t really just for C?” She asked as she gives me a quizzical look.

“Maybe?” I chuckled

“You know this is gonna bite you in the Be-hind right?”

“Perhaps” I shook my head at her attempt at a joke only to receive a tiny punch to the face, it didn’t hurt but it did bring the message…

“Kyousuke there’s trouble, there are hills up ahead…” Angelica says cutting off my train of thought

“Huh… this is going to be interesting.” I muttered as I steeled myself for a hard time…