Birds chirping harmoniously along with the sound of leaves rustling from a gentle breeze. The air was clean and fresh, unlike that of the city’s. A silhouette laid under the shade of a cedar tree next to a traditional-looking shrine. Unmoving, but healthy. A droplet of morning dew, encumbered by gravity and its own weight, slid down a young branch onto the cheek of the young man.

“AHHHH!” screamed Ryuuji as he was awoken by the stimulus. Immediately after springing back to life, he placed his hand on his stomach, only to realize that it was devoid of any blood or injuries. Laying back onto the cool morning ground, Ryuuji let out a long sigh.

“That was some crazy dream. I could have sworn I was dead.” he said as he turned his head to the direction of the shrine. “But where am I now? Tokyo shouldn’t have any temples like this near the middle of the metropolitan area.”

Ryuuji was visibly confused. Waking up at an unfamiliar temple with no recollection of how he got there. Proceeding to check his clothes for his belongings, he realized that he was not wearing the monochromatic, every-day black suit that he had previously worn to work. Instead, what he donned was what looked like a type of Japanese school uniform, fitted with a white dress shirt under a black vest, buttoned all the way up, secured with a tie. His pants and shoes held similarities with his work attire, formal, but uncharisterically comfortable.

“Was I drugged? But what kind of a sick pervert would dress me in a boy’s school uniform?” Ryuuji pondered. “And of course, they didn’t even leave me my wallet or phone. I guess I’ll have to go visit Nana after I sort things out.”

After gathering his thoughts, Ryuuji got up on his feet and headed towards the tori-i to find that the shrine he woke up in was, in fact, on top of a hill. Taking a couple of steps down the concrete stairs, he noticed a small plaque to the side reading “Namimori Shrine” in Kanji.

“Namimori? I’ve never heard of that shrine near Tokyo before. Or in all of Japan for that matter.”

‘But why does that name sound so familiar?’

Descending down the flight of stairs, a small town could be seen not too far off in the distance. A slight salty smell filled the air as Ryuuji turned to the left to see a beach and ocean. Not seemed too out of the ordinary for him. Just different.

Reaching the base of the hill, Ryuuji was able to get a better feel of the town. While it looked like a normal town, he could tell that he was in the outskirts of the city, the countryside even, from the lack of towering skyscrapers that he was used to seeing on a daily basis. Deciding on the most reasonable course of action, Ryuuji looked for any indications of a police station so that he could at least get some information as to where he was currently.

Heading deeper into the neighborhood that bordered the exit of the shrine, Ryuuji was again lost in his thoughts. “Who would want to kidnap him? What purpose did they have?” Questions of these sorts came to his mind, but the only reasonable explanation would have been debt collectors going after him due to his late parents’gambling debt. But that brought up another question: “Why did they drop him off here instead of extorting him for money?”

Whilst deep in thought, Ryuuji neared an intersection, unbeknownst to him that there was someone rushing in from behind the corner.

*Crash*

Ryuuji, taking the full force of the collision, flew to the side landing on his bottom. While it looked like the crash didn’t do much damage to Ryuuji, it broke his concentration and directed it towards that situation that was currently at hand.

Looking up, he saw a young teenage boy with spiky brown hair, also on the ground, rubbing his head as if to ease the pain. From a brief glance, Ryuuji could tell that the uniform that this boy was wearing was unmistakably the same as the clothes that he was wearing, causing many more questions and suspicions to flood his head. As the boy regained his strength, he stood up and immediately rushed to Ryuuji’s side, panicking.

“Oh no! Hey! Are you alright? You’re not hurt are you?”

While he was slightly agitated at the manners of the boy, not even using teineigo1 when talking to someone that he just ran into, Ryuuji felt a sense of familiarity coming from the boy.

‘Is it something about his demeanor? His looks? One thing’s for sure: kids nowadays have really flashy hairstyles.’ Ryuuji thought to himself.

Soon after, the boy stood up and offered Ryuuji a hand, helping him off the ground. Grabbing onto his hand, Ryuuji could feel a slight warmth radiating from his grasp, but paid no attention to it as he was assisted off the ground.

The boy then spoke in a hurried manner. “I’m so sorry about this. I’ll make this up to you, but I’m in a huge rush right now. I’m in class 1-A. My name is Sa-!”

Cut off mid sentence, the spiky-haired was suddenly drop kicked by… A BABY IN A BLACK SUIT?!

'What the hell is going on here?'

As Ryuuji painstakingly tried to come to terms with what just happened in front of his eyes, a crazy realization came to his mind. And as he was about to delve further into his thoughts, the answer seemingly presented itself to him on a silver platter.

"Get up, No-Good Tsuna! You're gonna be late for school!" Said the dapper toddler as he pulled out a pistol and fired at the boy's feet.

"Alright! Alright! Just stop shooting at me, Reborn!" Cried the boy, apparently named Tsuna, as he bolted in the opposite direction to escape the onslaught of the baby’s bullets.

As they disappeared into the distance, unbeknownst to Ryuuji, Reborn made a slight glance looking back, with the faintest smile on his face.

As for Ryuuji, he was awestruck to the point where it looked as if his eyes would suddenly burst out of their sockets.

'Did he just say "No-Good" Tsuna? And that toddler. Did that boy just call him Reborn?!'

Unable to fully accept the scene that had just played right in front of him, Ryuuji was taken aback, being forced to lean on the brick wall nearest to him.

'This can't be real. I must still be hallucinating from the drugs. Or I'm still dreaming. That must be it! How else would you explain two characters from a manga appearing in front of me?'

As Ryuuji was internally screaming, he suddenly heard a voice ring inside his head.

"Oh, you ain't dreamin', pal. This is reality!"