Oh hey, I actually moved the story along so it'd be faster.

Sorry you don't get the 2 or 3 chapters of exposition first, but I'll make sure to showcase everything in due time.

Enjoy~

~ Ten Years Later ~

Things had changed.

The family moved from the rural countryside to a small town.

The boy grew up and became bitter, cynical of the world around him.

The girl lost her naivete and childish emotions.

The two of them were quiet, contemplative people.

But, besides their one harrowing experience, the siblings grew up fairly normally.

~o~o~

"Ne, are you and him going out this weekend?" Anzu looked up from her schoolwork. Kojima, who sat in front of Anzu, had turned around in her chair and was leaning heavily on the back, looking expectant.

It was late in the school day, and most of the students had finished their work already. The teacher at the moment, Asano-sensei, was sitting in her chair, feet pulled up, reading a romance novel. She rarely cared about her class, 2B, talking amongst themselves this late in the day. It was a Friday, there wasn't a half day tomorrow, and it was the middle of June for Pete's sake! She couldn't be expected to enforce order in this dreary weather...

Anzu blinked a bit sluggishly at Kojima. It was easy for her to guess what Kojima was asking, but suddenly jumping into a conversation like that... A personal conversation... She didn't even know Kojima that well.

But, she knew that Kojima's interest was harmless. Just natural teenage girl curiosity/nosiness.

Putting her pencil down, she answered with a sigh, running her fingers through one of her black pigtails, "Eh, I guess so," she paused, thinking a bit before continuing, "There's a movie we wanted to see coming out, I think?"

Kojima giggled and bounced in her seat. "I'm so jealous, Konishi-san! I wish I had a hot older boyfriend like you!".

Anzu quirked an eyebrow at this. She agreed with Kojima's description of Montaro, but she wasn't too happy that another girl called her boyfriend 'hot'. She cleared her throat before going to back to her schoolwork. She only had five more questions left, she could probably finish before clean-up if she-

"You know, I want a boyfriend, too!" Not lifting her eyes, Konishi made a grunt that might've sounded encouraging, if one took it that way. Kojima did. She grinned, swinging her hips in her chair, before continuing to chirp, "There's just so many cute boys in this school! I can't even decide whose fanclub to join!"

Anzu looked up at this, her pencil eraser poking her bottom lip. Taking this as further encouragement, Kojima started talking once more. "Yeah, but the thing is, boys don't even take the initiative to like you anymore! They're always too absorbed in video games," she shot a contemptuous glare to the boys on their DSes sitting catty-corner to her, "and even if they did like you, they'd never tell!" The girl huffed and rubbed her hand up the side of her bob-cut, gripping her hair like the obtuseness of boys physically pained her.

Staring neutrally at her, Anzu muttered a distracted 'yeah' before grabbing her papers- she still hadn't finished grumble grumble - and shoving the into a folder in her bag. It was almost clean-up time, she'd just complete those last few problems at home.

~ 30 Minutes Later ~

After finishing up, it was 3:30 in the afternoon, and Anzu wasn't expected at her parent's shop until 4.

She worked at the convenience store, named 'Konishi Konbini' (usually abbreviated to 'Kon-ni'), every weekday from 4 to 6, barring special circumstances. She didn't have a club, so she usually spent the time before heading over- the walk was only 10 minutes - with her boyfriend.

But Montaro had to leave early today, something about a cousin's birthday, so she had twenty minutes to kill. She supposed she could always walk there early, but she was tired and didn't feel like working immediately.

So she stood at the entryway of the school, having seen Montaro off, pretending to fiddle with her phone so people wouldn't wonder what she was standing around for. As she scrolled through her Contacts, she checked off a mental list in her head of things she could do.

'Eh, Mochizuki's at track and Taro-kun just left... Damn, I need more friends. I guess I could grab a snack at a store? But, I could always do that back at ours... Maybe I could go watch Mochizuki for a while. Oh, wait, his captain said not to visit the club anymore.

Huh, I guess I'll just head to the store and start early.'

She pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on, and turned to start her trek to Kon-ni.

But as she took a step forward, a small shape ran out of the school in front of her.

Blinking, she watched as the shape, a small boy, dressed in black and white, turned around and laughed loudly, his large afro bobbing with each guffaw. Further back in the courtyard, there was some yelling and cursing, and the sound of running footsteps.

The little boy just laughed harder until he suddenly paled and let out a strangled cry. Anzu was surprised when the toddler ran towards her and hid behind her legs. She glanced down at him in confusion, then her attention was brought to the ground in front of her as some things landed with dull -clack-s.

Strange cylinders were on the pavement, with attached strings on fire. She recognized them immediately, of course, but her brain took a few seconds to recognize that, 'holy shit, this actually happening!'.

'What what is is that- is that dynamite?' Horrified, she blindly grabbed onto the kid's hair and fell backwards, right as the bombs detonated.

For the second time in her life, time slowed as she stood in the face of a fatal situation, and for the second time in her life, she screamed like she would never do so again.

~o~o~

*wiggles fingers* yeh

The original plan was that actual plot related stuff wouldn't happen until mid-July (in-story). It's mid-June, both in- and out-of-story, so it would have taken some chapters to get there.

But, I figure if I just kept writing about high-school friends having fun and goofing off, people would be confused as to why it was labeled a Reborn! story.

So, nudging the plot first, and exposition later. (though I did get a good chunk of info shoved into your face, you know about the bf and Kon-ni.)

Review or don't~