Chapter One: The Awakening
"There's no curtain call, and there's no point in life at all
If each day ends and this bent heart of mine cannot heal" ~Amanda Lee, My Song (English fandub)
A jolt. A twitch. A shudder. A gasp. Then finally her eyes opened. Immediately they shut again, temporarily blinded by the bright sun. She groaned and rolled over, getting up onto her hands and knees to get a better look at the area. It looked like she was on some sort of... track field... at a school...
"You're finally awake." A deep voice, definitely male, said evenly. She spun around and looked up to see a young man eyeing the area carefully. He had medium-length bright orange hair and his face was lightly peppered with freckles. He had big green eyes that seemed to see everything except for her, who he didn't even glance at.
The young man wore a light blue t-shirt and tan khakis with white sneakers. He seemed to be about average height for a guy.
"Am I?" She replied carefully, still unsure of her surroundings. None of it looked familiar.
"It seems so... How are you?" He replied, finally glancing at her, and it occurred to her she was still on the ground. She started to jump to her feet, but grimaced at the splitting pain she felt erupt inside her head. She slowed down and cautiously climbed to her feet for the second time.
"I have a massive headache." She replied honestly, sensing no threat from him.
There was a pause, and then he nodded as though he understood.
"That's normal." He said casually, and I glared at him. Who was this guy supposed to be anyway?
"Is it now? Well, sorry to burst your bubble there, but that doesn't help at all!"
She felt bad for snapping at this guy that she just met, but this headache was really painful. And his remarks didn't make her feel any better.
"Do you have any aspirin? This headache is the worst!"
"No, but I know of something that will help." He replied, and her spirits jumped.
"Well, whatever it is, give it to me-I want to be rid of this damned thing!" She exclaimed.
"Okay then," he said as he turned. She expected him to give her some kind of medicine or drug as he started to reach for some unknown item. But that, apparently, was not what he had in mind. With the speed of a gazelle, he suddenly sped forward and stabbed her in the heart with a knife seemingly pulled out of nowhere. Everything went black as she fell backward in shock. Her mind went dark before she hit the ground.
~((~^*^~))~
She awoke about an hour later, lying on a sofa. She was still a little drowsy, and her chest hurt like hell, but her headache was gone. She rubbed her chest where the stab wound should have been and opened her eyes, blinking to get the fog out from her eyelids. There was noise in the room that she couldn't focus on, and her brain still wasn't working right quite yet.
It wasn't until then that she realized that there was no bump under her shirt. Nothing that would be the telltale sign of a scar. Without thinking, she unbuttoned her shirt down far enough to see the spot where she was stabbed. Nothing. She heard a few whistles and a laugh. She blushed, buttoned back up, and then looked around. Nine people were scattered around the room, six guys and three girls. She blushed more, as she realized what she had done.
"Kouki, do you always have to be such a creep?" A young man dressed completely black was looking disgustedly at a boy with dirty blond hair and gleaming bright blue eyes.
"Maki, why don't you mind some of your own business?" The one who seemed to be called Kouki growled back while shaking his fist at the dark teen.
"You guys are idiots." A new voice entered the conversation, and she looked back to see a girl with short silver hair staring steadily at the two bickering boys.
"Hey... are you okay?" A familiar voice said, and she looked to the side to see the boy from earlier. The one with bright orange hair. He was looking at her with what looked like... concern? She immediately sank back into the sofa, tense and ready for another attack.
"Y-you... You stabbed me!" She exclaimed, and the boy looked embarrassed for a short moment.
"Well... you asked me to help you with your headache..."
"You idiot! You could have killed me!"
She suddenly had the entire attention of the room, and everyone was quiet. Then, the whole room burst into laughter.
"Aw man, that was a good one," the one with dirty blonde hair said, wiping his eyes between gurgles of laughter. One of the girls, one with bright pink hair, was writhing on the ground with laughter. After a few seconds, that laughter died down and "whew's" filled the room.
"You guys are idiots."
"You know what, Shun? No one cares!" The boy with orange hair looked back at the girl on the couch, who was staring at them all like they'd lost their minds. "Sweetie, we're in the afterlife. You can't die in this world. The reason I stabbed you was to reset you. It's the only way I know of to get rid of headaches without meds."
Okay, that kinda made sense, she supposed. "So, uh, where are we?"
"We're in the principal's office of the school."
"At the school? But you guys aren't wearing uniforms; aren't they mandatory?"
"Yes, but we're rebels, like the people before us."
"Like the what?"
The boy in black took over the A part of Q&A.
"There were people here before us. No one knows what happened to them. We only know this because we found a whole bunch of their crap all over the place. It was hard to miss, actually."
"So, what are you all rebelling from?"
"Not what; who."
"Okay, who are you rebelling from?"
"God."
~((~^*^~))~
Yuuki was excited. He finally got to see someone appear. He had always wondered what it looked like, and now he finally saw. It was a little unnerving, but actually quite cool. First a liquidish outline of the body appeared. After a few seconds it built layer by layer the bones, the organ systems, the nervous system, the skin, then finally the clothes. The default clothes are the school uniforms, these ugly tan jackets, pants and shoes with a white undershirt. Well, for boys anyway. For girls, it's a white/tan jacket, a plaid skirt (in the colors white, black and tan), with black shoes.
Anyway, it took her about an hour to wake up, and he knew that he had to protect her from the enemy, so he waited and watched. When she finally woke up, he was there to greet her.
When she told him she had a headache, he knew of no remedy other than a reset. It had helped him during the wars against the enemy, so he saw no real problem with it. Well, there was one problem—he knew he would lose her trust. So when he had reset her, he carried her to the Principal's office for introductions. At that point, he had had the feeling that she probably wouldn't trust him, but he knew that once he explained things, she would trust him again.
Yuuki now leaned against the principal's desk, the one that Maki had apparently found some papers and files in about the whole "God delusion." It wasn't till then that he realized that he hadn't introduced himself to the new girl.
"I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Yuuki. I'm the one who made sure you were safe. What's your name?"
"Uh, my name is..." the new girl put her palm on her forehead and squinted as she tried pulling the information of her previous life into this world. "My name is...E-em-Emi. My name is Emi."
"Well, Emi, it's good to meet you."
Maki, ever the dark and serious one, burst into their conversation.
"Let's cut the crap, shall we? So, we've all gotta know one thing: will you join us?"
"Maki, she needs to know us first. She just got here, for crying out loud!" Yuuki exclaimed, although not entirely surprised by Maki's tendency to skip straight to the point.
"You know absolutely nothing about leading a group, so stay out of this." Maki turned to Emi while Yuuki glared at the boy. "Are you going to join us or not?"
"That depends; what will I be joining?"
"We call ourselves the 'Like-Hell-I'm-Dead Battlefront.' It's named that for multiple reasons, but I think the main one is pretty obvious."
The girl thought for a moment. "And we're rebelling against God?"
Yuuki decided to answer that one. "Not directly. We believe it to be his messengers that we are rebelling against."
Emi's eyes got wide. "You mean...we're rebelling against angels?"
"Well, we aren't exactly sure. They act like humans, but they haven't been incinerated like the rest."
If it was possible, Emi's eyes got wider. "Incinerated?"
Maki cut into the small chat again. "Is there an echo in here? Yes, incinerated. It rhymes with obliterated!"
"Hey, that's a better term, why don't we use that?" Kouki asked, earning a slap on the back of the head by Maki.
"Shut up. Anyway, people who do what the two 'angels' tell them to do disappear. It's strange. We don't want to do that, and that's why we rebel. Anyway, are you going to join us or not?"
~((~^*^~))~
The scary guy, she was sure Yuuki had called him Maki, looked at her. "So, are you going to join or not?"
"You mean, I have no time to think about it?"
"Nope, we have to know right now. You're cutting into valuable meeting time!"
Under pressure, she made her decision. "Uuuuuhhhh, okay. I'll join."
"Cool, recite after me: there is no God, Buddha or Angel."
"What?"
"There. Is. No. God. Buddha. Or Angel." Maki repeated evenly and clearly.
"There is no God, Buddha, or Angel. Now what does that mean?" Emi asked.
"It means you're in."
"No seriously, what does it mean?"
"I don't know. We found it in the drawers. They said it was some sort of initiation."
"Oh."
"Anyway, welcome to the club."
"Um, Maki?" Yuuki asked, realizing something.
"Yes, what is it, Yuuki?"
"Wouldn't our names be important?"
"Well sure. We need to know each other somehow. What's with a stupid question like that?"
Yuuki pointed at Emi to give a visual clue to Maki.
"Oh, right. I guess names would help-"
"I'll do it." Yuuki cut in.
Maki made a face that showed he wasn't happy with that, but said, "Fine."
Yuuki turned towards Emi.
"Okay, you know me; I'm Yuuki Miyamoto. Glad to meet you. The boy I've been..." He looked at Maki. "...Arguing with is Katsurou Maki, but he hates being called Katsurou, so never, ever use it. The girl in the corner whose catchphrase is 'you guys are idiots' is Shun Nakano,"
Shun took the space between her name and the next person's introduction to say, "You're all idiots."
"Yes, thank you, Shun. Now, the cute girl on the other couch is Akiko Kagome, but she prefers to be called Kagome; no one is really sure why. The boy who whistled at you earlier is Kouki Suzuki; the girl still laughing at your accidental joke is Miu Kato, though we use her middle name, Megumi. The tall muscular guy behind the desk is Yoko Koizumi, though he prefers his middle name, which is Rikuto. The guy looking out the window and daydreaming is Noboru Kobayashi, but we call him Koba. And the smart looking guy with glasses is Jorou Shiromaki."
"I told you, I'm God!" Shiromaki yelled, clearly irritated by their lack of following his wishes.
"Pay no attention to him."
"You guys are idiots."
The room went into utter chaos after that. Everyone started talking at once, which soon escalated to the beginning of a fight. Emi looked at Maki, who looked like he could take no more.
"EVERYBODY, SHUT UP!"
The room went dead quiet and stared at the one who'd shouted. Maki glared at them all, and just when Emi thought that Maki was going to say something intelligent, like to 'stop fighting' or 'calm down for a second', he said something instead that shocked her.
"Let's finish this outside!" He charged to the wooden double doors and led the eager fighters outside.
Yuuki and Emi were then left alone in the room. She half-wondered if he would try to stab her again. Seeming to sense her fear, he put his hands up in a non-threatening manner.
"Relax, I won't stab you again." He said truthfully.
She decided to believe him and her muscles relaxed. They sat in silence after that.
"So, I'm dead." Emi said, her eyes narrow and serious.
"Yep."
"But that can't be possible... can it?"
Yuuki looked over at her. "Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you see it... It can, and is, possible. Anyway, I'm sorry about all of them, they're all idiots."
"Like Shun keeps saying?"
"Yeah, she might be onto something."
Emi laughed. "Might be?" She asked as she continued to laugh. Yuuki rolled his eyes at her point but smiled anyway.
"So... since they kind of pushed you into this... Do you have any other questions?" Yuuki asked, watching her carefully. Emi shrugged and leaned back against the sofa.
"I don't know. I mean, what is there to ask? I don't even know where to start!" Emi exclaimed. Yuuki thought for a moment, before smiling.
"Hey, I can show you around the place. We can start there while the others are killing each other."
"I thought you said we can't die?" Emi asked. Yuuki shrugged.
"It's only temporary, and it's more like a reset button."
"Some reset button," Emi said, looking to the side in annoyance.
"So, anyway, what do you think? About the offer, I mean." Yuuki asked, suddenly uncomfortable as he knew what she was starting to think about. Emi thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Alright. Sure." Yuuki smiled and stood, extending his hand to Emi. She stared at it for a moment, but got up by herself.
"I think... It'll take a little while for me to trust you completely. You know... after the whole stabbing thing..." Yuuki sighed and smiled sadly.
"It's okay. I understand." He replied. "So, let's go."
~((~^*^~))~
Emi and Yuuki walked through the halls of the school in silence, the only thing to be heard was their shoes smacking against the floor.
"So... Are there others? Besides you guys?" Emi asked. Yuuki nodded.
"Yeah, but they keep their heads low and avoid getting incinerated. Or...obliterated, if you like that term better." Yuuki explained. She nodded and stopped to look out the window. Emi could see the sun starting to go down in the distance. She looked down to see the track field and a bunch of students running.
"Is that them?" Emi asked, and Yuuki looked over her shoulder.
"No. Those are NPCs."
"NPCs?" Emi asked. "You mean like, Non-Player-Characters? Video games?" Yuuki shrugged and leaned against the wall.
"Sort of. It was written in those notes that we found in the desk. Apparently, they're like fillers. They just fill the gap in this world, so we're not completely alone. At least, that's what I got from it." He explained and Emi nodded.
"So they're just like robots. They move from place to place and do their own thing?" She asked.
"Yes and no. If you talked to them, you might not even tell the difference between them and us. They seem pretty real, but they aren't. They all live here with us in the school dorms. There are probably thousands of them."
"Oh, okay." Emi replied, and looked out farther. She saw a bunch of teenagers fighting, and she grimaced.
"Uh... is that Maki and the others?" Emi asked, pointing to the baseball field, far from the student's eyes. Yuuki sighed.
"Yep. That's where they usually go and fight. I really don't get why they have to solve all their problems with violence." Emi shrugged.
"It definitely gets the point across though."
The two were silent for a short while before Emi's eyes narrowed.
"Who's that?" She asked, nodding back to the baseball field.
"Who?" Yuuki asked, looking again as well.
"Those two. I don't remember them from the Principal's office." Yuuki's eyes suddenly widened and he swallowed hard.
"Crap! Those are the two Angels. The ones we're fighting." Yuuki said, suddenly dashing off down the hallway. Emi chased after him.
"Where are you going?" Emi yelled after him.
"They're going after the others. We have to help them!" Yuuki replied, leaping down the stairs.
"But I don't have a weapon..." Emi said to the now gone Yuuki. She then realized that their base probably held weapons and ran there. It took her a second to find the storage closet, then another few to find one that looked good - she knew nothing about guns, so it was hard to choose. She decided to go with a handgun, figuring it would be easier to hold than a rifle. She chose one that was small, but looked kind of powerful. She looked at the clip to see if there were any bullets, saw that there was, shoved the clip back in, and ran out the door. She hopped down the stairs and ran as fast as possible to the battle site.
Emi raced back out through the Principal's office, through the hallways, and leaped down the stairwell. She didn't bother looking out any of the windows as she hurried to catch up to Yuuki. All she knew was that she had to help. She didn't know how she could, only that she had to. It just wasn't in her nature to leave someone behind, so she was going to do whatever she could to help and keep the others safe, no matter how stupid they seemed to be.
Emi pushed open the double doors and ran across the field, noticing how the other students, uh, the NPCs, didn't even notice that she was holding a gun, and, not only that, but that it was drawn. But that wasn't her biggest concern right now.
Finally, she reached the baseball field, and ran around the last corner. And as she did so, she had absolutely no idea what she was expecting to see. But for all that was certain, it would be anything but expected.
~((~^*^~))~
A/N: Well everybody! That was the first chapter of "Passing Through" the fanfiction for Angel Beats! Me and my cousin, also a writer on fanfiction who goes by the name Dane Kemp, hope you will enjoy this story.
Now, for the readers who are experiencing this story on my page, I have a small, but extremely important message for you. If you review on this story from my page, give the same review on his page. If you favorite this story on my page, favorite it on his page. If you subscribe on my page, subscribe on his page. If you favorite me, you'd better favorite him as well! Now… Here's the proof part. I talk to Dane Kemp every. Day. So I will know if you do not abide by these requests. If you do not, I will send ninjas to your house to force you to follow through! Either that, or I'll just delete this story and you'll have to continue on his page…
Anyways, enough sad talk! I hope you liked this story, please review on both this page and Dane Kemp's page. I'll be posting a link to his wall on my fanfiction profile, it will be at the top. Thank you! Have a nice day, we will update soon. :)