The chapter opens with a discussion of bonding feelings between two people. It's clear that the two men are on the same page. They're discussing the fact that they've formed a team to compete in the Tour de France, and they're planning to use only Japanese members to do so. They don't want to use a clueless Japanese as part of the team, because they'd think it's a waste of time to use someone who doesn't speak the language of the country they'll be competing in. They also want to make sure that they have the strongest team possible, since the tour de France is a long way away. They decide to go to Onda and ask her how far she can go in the race. Onda says that she'll go beyond what's possible, and that's why she's going to go with only the strongest members of her team. She's not going to let the shadow of Asahina get in the way of her pursuit of the tour. She says that if she beats the shadow, asahina will know who she is and she won't be able to catch up to him. She tells him to go ahead and take on the shadow himself, because he's the one who can beat him. He says that as long as he is there, he'll just be happy to die climbing uphills. He'll happily kill Asadahina if he can. He tells Maria to tear him to shreds if she needs to, because as aahina can't even shake him off. He also tells her to do whatever she wants to leave behind during the climb, because it'll look like an assist to him if he leaves behind. Maria asks what happened to the other guys, and he says that they were just beginners, and now they'