Chapter 1

An Odd encounter.

Disclaimer- I do not own the anime and characters.

….

Another weekend visiting akihabara is different now, not only to save money from the train. It was also my training for the cycling team at my school. I never expected to be accepted or meeting so many interesting people in the cycling club. Let alone they would be become my very first set of friends that I will cherish. Joining the cycling team isn't some easy job, I always have to keep training just to keep up with the team.

When the first year race had come and gone, I only won the mountain climb but fell down only half way. It proved that I would need to keep getting stronger for the future as the inter-high was coming up next. They will pick three rider's to join the third years in their struggle to win no matter the cost and to be able to join the team. Of course that would be for another day, today was my day off to enjoy the sights.

The wonders of figures, maybe a new DVD box set, manga, or a new video game! This was one of my passions in life, despite many not into the lifestyle at my school. I really hope that my friends would come around to see the joy of anime, so we all can come out here and hang out. Everyone had their own choices after all, but I will keep trying to convert them!...maybe.

Searching around the stores, nothing really grabbed my attention because I owned lots of the merchandise. It took about an hour, but something had grabbed my attention in a store's bargain bin. They were having a big promotion about a rare figure hidden somewhere in the store and everyone was fighting to find it. I mindlessly looked around the bin, finding it at the very bottom under a large box of battle-bots. Once I pulled it out from the bottom of the bin, everyone was staring in my direction with death glares.

The rare figure shined like a heavenly angel from the sky, everyone was amazed at what I found. Before I knew what was going on someone was pushing past the crowd, trying to grab at the figure from me. Many others joined in, but all I could do was try to get away from them. Soon the entire store was rioting, they tried to dog pile me into the floor. Luckily for me, I was small enough to crawl through the pile.

Right before I reached the opening, someone had elbowed me across the face. Rushing towards the counter the employee had given me a bag to hide the figure and I rushed out as security had came in to break up the riot. Many of them resisted, until they pulled a taser out and aimed it out at the crowd.

"Don't tase me, bro!" It was the last thing I heard, before they opened fire upon the crowd girlish screams could be heard throughout the shopping complex. Deciding that I was far away enough from the crime scene, I took a seat at a nearby cafe to lay low for a while.

Cupping the area that was elbowed, I felt a slight bruise on my left cheek. It stung a bit, but was bearable to say the least. So that's how it feels to be in a fight? This is why I prefer to be the little guy, instead of the one that searches for constant battles over manhood like all those good animes that keep repeating themselves! My spine shivered for some odd reason, like someone was ready to pounce on me at any moment to take me down.

Turning my head around to see a demon right in my face, I fell over from the chair and hit my head against the table. Another scar added to the collection, trying to get a grip over the pain. Looking for the person that had scarred me, she was still looking at me with a frown on her face at my actions.

"What is wrong with you?" The voice snapped me back to reality, now that my vision had cleared up it was tachibana. It was strange meeting her anywhere other than school, but she had her own personal life as well.

Picking myself up from the floor to acknowledge her. "I wasn't expecting someone to sneak up on me. I'm sorry." Tachibana tilted her head at my words, before she reverted back to normal pondering something.

She was never fond of me since the first time we met, she had called me a creepy otaku. Since that day when I tried to bring back the anime club to the school, she has changed her attitude towards me...I hope so anyway. Yet, a idea had circled around my head about her. Maybe, just maybe she was a secret otaku that hide her real persona from her friends and comes out to embrace the little things.

"So what are you doing in Akihabara?" I asked unsure of her response, she snapped out of whatever she was thinking of.

"One of my friends wanted to check out a cafe that was famous for it's sweets and forced me to tag along with her. Being around here by myself gives me the creeps with all these weirdos around the area."

"Oh I see, well that's good to know" I said laughing nervously.

"It's no offense to you, anyway she left me because something came up and now I'm just finishing up the sweets. I was surprised to find you here in the booth behind me and here we are talking." She said nonchalantly, coming over to my booth now with her hand on her hip.

"That's cool, I'm just hanging out and enjoying my time here." Turning my head away from her view, I didn't want to show her my bruise it was my problem anyway.

We only each other from school and friends, so I shouldn't include her in my personal issue's right?

"Onoda, are you okay?" She asked, staring at my face intensely.

"Yeah, nothing is wrong." I tried to cover up hesitantly, looking away from her gaze.

It was then that her hand caress over my left cheek, causing me to flinch from the sudden pain. During that time, I noticed that her hands were soft and she was touching me. It was such a strange feeling, but I liked the warmth that radiated from her hand. When things were getting strange, she flicked my forehead causing me to come out of my stupor.

"Owwww, what was that for?" I whined about her rough treatment.

"Because you lied to me, you got into a fight didn't you?" She said with a pissed off expression on her face because of my recent actions.

"Kinda, it was more like a riot at one of the stores and I got elbowed in the face. I'm fine, the cops dealt with it already."

"Why didn't you tell me in the first place, hiding it won't make you look tough." she said confidently.

I nodded to her and waited for her to move so that I could get up. The next action struck me as odd, she had pulled a band-aid from her school bag and placed it over the bruise with a smirk on her face. "You need to take care of yourself, are you going to fall behind to your other friends in the cycling club because a little bruise."

"Well no."

"Good, than you know what to do from here on out." It was the last thing she said, before she started to walk away.

I quickly rushed out of my seat and walked up next to her without even thinking.

"Umm, Tachibana. Maybe I can show you around, since your friend left?"

Her expression looked surprised at my offer, even I was surprised at what I said.

"Are you going to show me all your favorite stores?"

"No, there are plenty of other stores in akibahara that aren't for otaku's. What are you looking for in a store?"

"How about cute accessories and clothing?"

"I know a place, plenty of girls come and go out of it."

"I bet all you guys just love to watch?" She said in a sarcastic tone.

"I've just been around here a long time, how can I not notice. Just check it out, I'll wait outside." She smirked as some idea came to mind, why was it always me.

"I'll check it out, but you're coming in with me."

"What, I can't do that." I trying to cover the blush coming from my face.

"Sure you can, it won't take long." She didn't say anymore as she waited for me to lead the way.

I decided to go with the flow and took her to the shop, many girls were checking out the shop and noticed me. Of course they would stereotype me to being an otaku, but that didn't matter as Tachibana was looking around like a girl in a candy shop. It seems that she didn't know of this place, it was a diamond in the rough like the expression goes. I only stood right next to her, as she tried on bracelets and earrings. So this is how women acted on their days off and inside a store? It's so strange, but I couldn't complain because of how I get with anime. It was about an hour later, when she was done with her shopping and we were already at the train station.

"Onoda, your not so bad."

"Thanks, I guess."

"Oh don't be so stiff, it's a good thing." She stated with a an odd smile.

"It was interesting, I was embarrassed to be in there with you. I think everyone was watching me."

"Yeah, they thought that you might be doing something weird. It was a good thing that you were with me, oh else they would have called security."

"Yeah, lucky I was there or else they would have taken you away." I shuddered at the very idea, while tachibana chuckled at my misfortune.

We didn't really talk much after that as her train came along, we did decide to keep what happened between us a secret from the others. It wasn't like we did anything bad, but keeping a secret felt really fun for once...I just didn't know why. When her train came along, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. Biking the way back to my home was something else, I had some much energy that I broke my usual record. It gave me hope that I can get stronger as a rider and decided to strive for that goal even more.

….

Author Notes-I just had an idea for a story, I liked Tachibana and Onoda as a couple. Why you ask? Because I'm rather unlikely, but hope to grab some readers to follow my story. Hope you all enjoyed it, more goodies to come along and all that jazz.