Chapter 5

"Ah~" I yawned. Today was the first day of Rinato- I mean Reborn and I's training to survive, if Ieyasu's ('IT'S GIOTTO!' they said) words had anything close to the truth. But the important part was that we were safe, for now.

"Good morning, Gioia~" Giotto appeared at the doorway, carrying a... bucket of water... Weird.

"Good morning Ieyasu-san. What's with the bucket?" I asked, getting off the bed.

He grinned, "I was going to dump some on you first, but then you were awake, so..."

I smiled devilishly in reply, "May I?"

*Splash*

"C-COLDDD!" Rinato screamed and rolled off the bed. "GIOIAAA! IT'S 4 IN THE MORNING!"

"27,771 points to the amazing Gioia, 27,770 points to the sleepy Rinato."

"Everyone's already awake, Reborn, Joy, so whenever you want to come down and discuss your schedules, you're free to do so, in the next 5 minutes." Giotto took out his pocketwatch and tapped it, "I'll be watching~"

After a mad dash for getting our clothes on, we stumbled downstairs, muttered a good morning, and plopped down onto the cushions next to two happily-eating-gohan (Boiled rice) children.

"Ieyasu-kun, it's their first day here," Rebiko scolded Giotto, "Don't put them through more trouble than yesterday."

"They need to get used to it, Rebiko, they're going to stay here for a while." Giotto whined.

"I-it's okay, Rebiko-san," Rin- *ahem* Reborn-nii waved his hands in front of his body, embarrassed. "W-we're fine..."

After breakfast, we talked about our weekly schedules for the next year.

"So, you both have to practice..." Rebiko paused to make some more calculations on the abacus, "50 hours of flame control per week for Joy, and 49 for Reborn. Considering how far ahead you two are, educational-wise, 7 hours per week of each subject (Math, ELA, Science, History, Foreign Languages) should do. You two should also choose a project to work on, which would take up 10 hours per week, not to mention 3.5 hours per week to eat, and so you two have 10 hours of sleep per day, and finally would amount to... -0.5 hours per week of free time, !" She beamed, not noticing our deadpanned faces.

"Ummm... Biko-chan? You can't have -0.5 hours of free time..." Ieyasu said hesitantly.

"ARE YOU INSULTING MY SKILLS?!" She raged at Ieyasu, before exclaiming, "Oh, you're right, Ieya-kun! Sorry for shouting at you." She cheerfully patted a windblown 'Ieya-kun's' head before making corrections on her scroll.

"Talk about being bipolar..." Reborn-nii muttered. Inwardly, I whole-heartedly agreed.

"Okay! I've taken half the time of your project off for free time, so you'd have 5 hours to work on your project, and 5 hours to have free time~ For today though, let's get your schedules done, and Tsu-kun ('Tuna-fishy', they said) and Na-chan will show you around. Later, we'll get you two your supplies from the market. Oh and one more thing. Ieya-kun here likes to mess up my schedules," Rebiko glared at a sheepish Ieyasu for a minute before continuing, "So he can wake you two up anytime, but he must start with your first class, and you can sleep earlier according to the time that Ieya-kun cut out. If he wants to pull you out of a class for flame training, he must return you to the class so you can finish it." Rebiko beamed, and handed us her scroll that she wrote out.

In the end, Reborn and I requested for one more class, and another 7 hours to do chores, to thank Ieyasu and Rebiko for letting us stay. They reluctantly agreed, and changed the 35 hours for 5 classes, to 35 hours for 7 'classes'. We also asked for more time for chores, by cutting off some time for sleep. After a discussion, they reluctantly approved of the time management.

In the end, our schedules looked like this:

8:00 - 8:10 Wake up and get ready for the day

8:10 - 8:40 Eat Breakfast

8:40 - 12:40 Mon. ELA, Tues. Math, Wed. Social Studies, Thurs. Foreign Languages, Fri. Science, Sat. Home Ec. Sun. Project (Weaponry and Tools 101 for both of us)

12:40 - 1:10 Lunch

1:10 - 7:10 Flame Training

7:10 - 7:40 Dinner and Dessert

7:40 - 8:40 Flame Training (On Saturdays, there's one more hour of flame training for Joy, and one more hour of Home Ec. for Reborn)

8:40 - 9:00 Chores

9:00 - 10:00 Free time (Sat. and Sun. Chores until 10:20)

10:00 (10:20 on weekends)pm - 8:00 am Sleep

Everything seemed really complicated and jam-packed. It took the rest of the morning to figure that out (Today was Sunday, so the schedule would be effective, tomorrow), so after lunch, we went out to get Rinato and I's supplies and food for the week. While Rebiko was fussing over us, Ieyasu met one of his old friends. I couldn't help but wonder who he was, and if he knew about flames.

~Natsuko~

The next day, after lunch, Rinato and I went over to the clearing, where we saw Ieyasu, Natsuko, and Giotsu.

"Natsuko and Giotsu will be training alongside you two to... um, motivate you two." Ieyasu cheerily said.

Reborn and I sighed before shaking our heads.

"Motivation, as in comparing Natsuko and Giotsu to Joy and I?" Reborn drawled.

"Exactly." Ieyasu nodded. "Now, the first thing you need to know, and this will take a few days, mind you, is resolve..."

~Means~

"H-how the heck," I panted, chin planted into the ground, "Do you do this?"

Natsuko and Giotsu, both with orange flames on their foreheads, shrugged.

"It's been 3 hours!" Ieyasu sang, "Time to take drastic measures~ Na-chan, Tsu-kun, you know what to do~"

'This can't be good...' I thought, face quickly turning pale.

Natsuko then lifted me up, and tossed me into the lake. A second splash confirmed that Reborn was thrown into the water as well.

"C-COLDDDD!" I yelled, but all that did was make me choke on water. I tried to swim up, but the water somehow froze! How was that possible!

A jerk on the leg made me aware of Reborn attempting to swim up. I pulled him up to my level, but I could feel my strength fading, I was quickly running out of air, and Reborn was drowning too! H-how could it have come to this?! I- I'd rather die because I couldn't control my stupid flame-!

Oh. There it was. A orange flame... with sparkles around it?

I lost consciousness once again.

~Child of Summer~

Note to self- Don't go outside during the winter only wearing a T-shirt and jeans.

I got sick over the holidays :( Of all times, why can't it be during the school year?

Sorry if this chapter bored you a little, considering it was a bit of a filler. ^^'

Anyway, REVIEWS!

Rozetta kreuz lilith- IKR? And the prosecutor's expressions when they're shocked when you point out a contradiction! I just finished that episode, and I really dislike the girl- Dalia Hawthorne. Who poisons another person just to get a necklace? And don't worry, I though Ieyasu's name was spelled with a t in it... ^^"

R&R Pweeze