She....exists! Not in a bad way, though? Like, she's literally my age if she was real, so in my "future/post-canon" musings, I tend to picture her with similar vibes to me and my fellow generation-mates. But I was in high school when I read the story the first time, so I literally wasn't interested in the "little kid" character because I could not relate to having some smart little kid being in the same grade as me (same goes for any shows or movies that have a prodigy btw. Just not a trope I enjoy). I got my hands on Vol 2 of the manga first because of Tomo and Yomi. Chiyo, despite being on the cover, only got a "Oh hey! I've seen her on a DVD cover before!" reaction from me