Hey guys, thought I'd make my first attempt at the 'Angel Beats!' fanfic archive! While I thought my first project would be Pokémon related, I was suddenly blindsided by this gem and just had to write something about it, especially since there aren't enough 'AB!' fanfics around here.

I thought 'Another Epilogue' was pretty cool, but also rather depressing. This story takes place in the same continuity and is set a long time after Another Epilogue. It won't be very long, but I hope it's good enough for a first attempt.

Disclaimer: 'Angel Beats!' doesn't belong to me. Otherwise, the series would've been much longer.

—^v—Angel Beats—

Chapter 1: Heart and Soul

As he sat in the empty Student Council office, Otonashi Yuzuru wished, once more, to forget. The thought made him wince, as his mind was assaulted by memories of the days long past. Back when the Shinda Sekai Sensen, SSS for short, recruited him, when he went on crazy and often deadly missions with his old friends. While most people wouldn't consider things like lifting meal tickets more than playground bullying, they'd always found a way to make everything complicated and dangerous. Granted, the operation names were quite hyperbolic and always left him slapping his forehead in frustration, but they'd managed to turn simple things into complicated plans involving diversions, weapons, deaths, at least one instance of Yurippe screaming her head off at someone (usually Hinata) and…her. Always her. The one who took his heart and soul with her.

Kanade.

Once upon a time, he'd seen her as the scariest being in the Afterlife. She could make blades appear out of her wrists, deflect bullets and grenades, fight better than trained combat experts, unflinchingly take wounds which could kill grown men, display feats of unnatural strength and move faster than the human eye could process. Because of her supernatural powers, ethereal looks, emotionless disposition and strict adherence to the rules, she was long thought of as an angel sent from God to wipe humans from the Afterlife. Fittingly, the rebels named her Tenshi. Accordingly, they trained themselves for combat and set up weapon factories to counter her power. Acting in self-defense, she'd wiped entire battalions of SSS members with apparent ease, all due to a simple misunderstanding on everyone's part. A poor, awkward girl stuck in a world she should've never entered had turned into a target for armed combat, simply because her dedication to prevent others from living in a world full of regrets had been mistaken as divine retribution from God Himself. She didn't really help matters herself, acting beyond awkward and often confusing people with her actions. Otonashi still remembered his first meeting with her, which began with him warning her that someone was trying to shoot her and ending with him getting stabbed through the chest. Because of that misunderstanding, he'd joined up with the SSS and prevented himself from passing.

Today, living in the same loneliness Kanade had suffered through and wishing he'd forget everything, he sometimes wished that he'd just let himself vanish the day all his friends 'graduated'. Trying to be a hero, he remained in the Afterlife after Kanade passed on. He wanted to help others leave this world, thinking their gratitude would be enough to sustain him. Sitting in his lonely office, with nothing but haunting memories to accompany him and regrets accumulated in the past years which prevented his passing, he realized it was never the words, but the sincere love and gratitude behind them which truly mattered. And now, he was too late. He was stuck in his miserable existence, perhaps forever. He now had to suffer from the same problem that Kanade did; alone and friendless for decades, he'd forgotten how to express human emotions, to the point he'd been considered an NPC by some students. Now he understood the silent girl's pain and her reluctance to stay behind. For a few years, he'd resented, maybe even hated her. However, years of loneliness had shown him why she left. She spent her days surrounded by programmed human simulations and lost all her friends one by one. Truth be told, maybe even he would run at the first chance of an escape.

Taking another deep breath, he looked around the office, once occupied by the love of his life. It was once devoid of memories and had stayed that way for a long time, but he'd eventually decided to surround himself with memories, like photos of old SSS members and a pot of Kanade's favorite flowers. While the memories pained him each day, they also kept his mind and heart awake. After all, he had a job to do, and he needed the pain to keep himself from giving up and snapping like the last man who spent too much time alone in the Afterlife.

Suddenly, his office's door slammed open. Gasping in the doorway with a horrified look on his face was a green-haired student with eyes to match. He was one of the few students who'd refused to leave him alone, choosing to linger on for a while because of his regrets. The boy was Miyamoto Satoshi, Vice-President of the Student Council, leader of the Afterlife Defense Force and one of his most confusing cases to date. The reason he was here? Well, he left his younger brother alone when he died, and now couldn't pass on if it meant that Otonashi would remain without a companion. Wiping his mind clean of the haunting memories, he sat straight and looked his only friend in the eye.

"Otonashi-san, there's a new arrival which you need to deal with. She…" he hesitated for a moment, "she has memories…of here." That shocked him out of his thoughts quicker than a blade to the chest. In his entire stay here, he'd never run into someone who kept their memories of past lives!

"You can tell me the entire story on our way out," Otonashi said in a flat, emotionless voice. He walked out of the office, with Satoshi closing the door behind them and catching up, trailing behind him. Otonashi sighed at this display of formality. "Satoshi, how will you lead me to the destination if you're behind me?" Blushing, the boy took the lead and gave his report.

"Fifteen minutes ago, a new student appeared at Departure Point." Ah, the infamous 'Departure Point', the place which still haunted his nightmares from time to time. "A member of the ADF decided to guide her around the place, but she acted like she already knew the school, as if she'd been here before." For a moment, he held his breath, as if unsure of what to say. "Otonashi-san, I got this information from Ishikawa, so there may be some hyperbole in it…" Okay, that was worrying. Satoshi never came to him with unreliable information, which means:

a) It was important enough to warrant Otonashi's immediate attention, even if it was unreliable.

b) The information was 100% fact, and Satoshi was trying to soften the blow.

"Don't mince words, Satoshi…there's no use in wasting time." The boy nodded, collected his breath and continued:

"The girl…she wants to see the Student Council President directly." he said softly. "She…wiped out the entire Retrieval team within a minute when they tried to use force. I don't know any details, but Ishikawa told me that you need to use…that." he said, nodding towards my wrists. Otonashi instantly knew what he was talking about. It was a power he'd never wanted, a strength he always thought he'd hijacked from its original owner. Nevertheless, he knew it was time to use it if even Satoshi and the hot-headed Ishikawa were scared.

"Guard Skill: Hand Sonic, version 2." he whispered, and a long blade materialized.

—^v—Angel Beats—

As he stepped out of the school building, Otonashi immediately went towards Ishikawa Takeshi, one of the most hot-headed people in the ADF. He was almost like Noda, but he carried an axe instead of a Halberd, had red hair instead of purple and considered the idea of worshipping his leader laughable. As soon as he saw his superiors, Ishikawa ran up to them and inclined his head towards them. Well, at least he inclined his head towards Otonashi. He merely sneered at Satoshi.

"Otonashi-san, and…Satoshi," he spat, "The girl hasn't moved after her last attack. We've left her alone…for the moment." He then looked at Otonashi's wrists, specifically at the twin blades coming out of them. "You'll need those." Then he abruptly turned and led them towards Departure Point, where the girl with memories of the Afterlife waited. The tension between Satoshi and Ishikawa could probably be cut with a knife, and Otonashi didn't see that changing anytime soon.

A few minutes later, they reached a place just above Departure Point, from where they could see what went on below. The entire floor was covered in blood and the small memorial Otonashi had erected for her had an officer of the ADF speared through it. Normally, he'd punish the student who dared to do so. However, as soon as he looked at the girl everyone was so worried about, he couldn't care less about anything else in the world.

You'd think she would've changed between so many rebirths. However, everything about her was the same. Her silver hair, set in the same style as when she left. Her eyes, filled with desperation and anxiety, were the same shade of gold. She wore the same NPC outfit she'd worn the last time, and her hands were hidden behind two demonic claws coming from a purple vambrace.

"I made it like this because you told me I'm playing the cruel Tenshi," I remembered her saying, "so I had to make it look mean."

Unable to wait any longer, Otonashi unfurled his wings and jumped off the railing, straight towards the ground. With a few mighty flaps from his wings, he landed safely and waited for her to notice his rather flashy arrival. Unsurprisingly, she turned around, rushed towards him and aimed her claws at his chest, all on instinct. However, as soon as she saw his face, she let out a gasp and stood still. By now, all the ADF members had raised their guns towards her. Otonashi merely raised his hand and they relaxed, ready to shoot her if she made a wrong move. For a moment, both of them just stared at each other, as if in shock. Suddenly, she started to shake as if her body was going in shock and reached out towards him, as if in a dream.

"Y-Yuzuru?" she asked, still shaking. He nodded.

Suddenly, as if a dam had broken within her, she grabbed him in a hug…and started crying! It was the first time he'd seen her emotions explode like this, and it shocked him to the core. For a moment, he stood still as a rock, letting her cry out. Slowly, he reached out and hugged her, frightened that she would vanish once more. He put his arms around her, and pulled her close. Then, he felt it. It wasn't just her appearance that remained the same; her heart, the heart he'd given to her, still beat inside her with the same intensity as before. He tightened his grip around her, as he felt tears flow down his cheeks for the first time in centuries. His soul once more resonated with her heart, and he finally felt complete. As he cried, he could only choke out a few words; words he never thought he'd ever get to say again.

"I missed you, Kanade…"

—^v—Angel Beats—

And that's it for the first chapter! I know it wasn't perfect, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless :D