A/N: Welcome to my Angel Beats FanFic. This is my first fan fiction, so please bear with me a bit till I find my place, as I seem to have misplaced it. I will welcome any and all forms of review and critique, so feel free to pour it on!

Disclaimer: I do not own Angel Beats! This is a fan made story.

Chapter One: History Repeats Itself Once More

His eyes snapped open, suddenly finding the searing pain of the flames engulfing his body gone. The sun shone brightly, coming up from the…wait, how was this possible? Mere moments ago he was being roasted alive, yet now he was perfectly fine. The more he thought about this impossibility, the less sane he became. The odds of it being a dream were nonexistent in his mind; he still remembered the agonizing pain. He began to forget who he was. He slowly forgot everything, including own name. He lay there outside for a few hours on a baseball diamond, trying to get a grip. Then when a bell that sounded like the one that signaled school had ended, he got up and began to walk around, and he appeared to be on some high school's grounds. He lifelessly shuffled his feet onward as students passed him by, almost seeming to not notice him. He vaguely noted that he wore the same black uniform as the rest of the male students. Eventually, as he was passing a short, yet elegant and graceful girl with red hair and yellow eyes, he noticed a reaction to his existence from her. This made him stop, as it seemed important. At least, he felt like that was what he should think. The girl wore a tan blazer with a white shirt underneath and a black skirt, white knee-high socks, and brown loafers. She seemed to emit a calm and peaceful aura that reminded him of an angel.

"Where are you going? The dorms are this way," she said, stopping and turning towards him. The boy was confused by her statement. His grip on reality had slipped greatly, and he thought the emotionless voice and the face devoid of any expression of feelings were merely another effect of this. Deep within, his sanity held on faintly. Everything in his life, then his death, and now this threatened to snap his very mind in half. The girl could tell by looking at his eyes. This boy's mind…is very unstable. This is the first time I've seen such an injured psyche.

"Doesn't matter…" The boy replied. He had finally remembered something: how to speak. Other things came to mind along with it; pain, the sound of a hammer striking steel, and screams of ag-

"What was that?" The soft, emotionless voice cut into his thoughts like one of the blades he had forged in life. He remembered now, he came from a family of sword smiths…they died and it was his fault. All his fault; ALL HIS FAULT!

"I SAID IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE! I should be dead! I deserve to die! No, that's not it…I should have never even been born. If I hadn't, my family wouldn't have…" The angry and pained reply the boy gave caused the red-haired girl to take a step back, surprised. His eyes, the color of steel, were filled with desperation and a lonely anger that made them seem to light up as if filled with the red light of the flames he'd been consumed by.

"[Guard Skill: Blast Furnace]," said by a green-eyed girl standing behind the boy, a pretty brunette dressed the same as the golden-eyed girl, except she wore pants instead of a skirt. On her right arm, from which flames shot out engulfing one of the boy's arms, was an armband that said 'Morals Committee'. The boy had a dead look in his eyes for a few moments, before terror became evident. He didn't scream, just ran off towards the sports fields, the fire spreading from his right arm up to his neck, slowly engulfing his entire body.

"That was a bit excessive, Midori-chan." The short girl's detached reaction to the boy's horror was expected apparently, as the flame conjuring girl didn't seem surprised by it at all.

"Sorry Chief. I just kind of said that before I thought about what was going on." The brunette laughed nervously, before the two inevitably began to run after the flaming boy. His oddly long black hair, which had been tied in a ponytail, was shifting across his head as he rolled on the ground screaming in agony and fear. The rolling only served to make the fire burn worse though. "Stop rolling for a second. [Support Skill: Douse]!" The flames extinguished immediately, but the boy began to scream again, this time in anger and confusion rather than pain and fear. "What now?"

"I-I-I should be dead! Why? Why am I still alive?! The fire…it definitely consumed me. Back then too. Why?" The steel colored eyes looked at the two girls, Midori and the one she called 'Chief', with a mixture of emotions; confusion, terror, and again that dead look.

That look…it isn't one that should be in the eyes of someone who came here. Those eyes look like the eyes of someone who wants to die. I should tell him his wish was granted; maybe then he'll pass on, the red-haired girl, the 'Chief' thought to herself. "It's because you are dead. You died, and since you regretted something in life, you came here. We can help you pass on, if you'd like," she said, her red hair flowing in a light breeze seeming like fire in the sun's final rays. The steely eyes looked at her hair, transfixed with some terrible memory. He spoke again after a minute or so.

"Prove to me that I'm dead then. If I'm dead, then I can't die. Kill me, and if I don't stay dead, I'll be able accept this hell."

"Accept it? What, you wanna stay here?!"

"Midori-chan…"

"I doubt my, what was it, regret? I doubt that can be solved. I regret being born."

"Even if it's impossible, we'll still try. And, I'm sorry, but this will hurt quite a bit."

"What? Going to set me on fire again?" Fear openly shined in the boy's eyes. Though he had a good reason, considering the sudden torching Midori had given him. The one called 'Chief' still felt that his mind wasn't quite settled yet, but that it had gotten closer to being at peace. She was still sure that she had seen a faint hope in his eyes when he asked her to kill him, but it couldn't be helped. Most of those who came here had a horrible life or death.

"No. I won't set you on fire. You don't seem too fond of it. [Guard Skill: Angelic Blade]." A sword blade appeared on top of her hand. The boy shakily got to his feet, processing this seemingly supernatural power, only to get put back down on the ground with a hole in his chest and more questions than answers. As his vision faded, he thought he saw tears in those shining golden eyes.

An angel's tears falling for someone like me? She has no idea how undeserving of such a thing I am.