PROLOGUE

Bystander: Kami

Kami watched the last human soul depart from the Afterlife school as dawn broke. Following the departure of his first and only love, the person once known as Otonashi Yuzuru had cried deep into the night till his tears were dry. It was the grand finale, the end to his life, death and afterlife. Otonashi was well aware of this himself – thus, as first light glazed across the sky, he looked upwards with a bittersweet smile and disappeared.

It was quiet. Almost too quiet.

Kami breathed a sigh of... was it relief? A sense of accomplishment after having guided another group of lost souls to rest? Or was she too, sad to see good times coming to an end?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a flying ball of white fluff which hurtled against her head.

"PETT! What was that for? I'm being melancholic here OI!" Kami yelled, half annoyed, while rubbing the sore spot against the backside of her skull. If she had been human, she would also have fell from the rooftop fence she had been perching on. Luckily being a god means you can fly (along with everything else you can also do).

Pett was ecstatic. "Time to play! Kamiiii!" He bounced up down left right against thin air, all the time trying to headbutt the young girl with great enthusiasm.

"The group of souls this time had all graduated right? Right? Riiight? So let's play~~~"

A sparkle glanced through Kami's dark red eyes and she smiled. True that, she should take some time off before the Boatsman brings more lost souls to her world. The most recent bunch, particularly Nakamura Yuri's 'Afterlife Battlefront' group and 'Angel' Tachibana Kanade had been quite a handful to work with – not only did their backgrounds make catering peace harder, the battlefront had also somehow managed to tap into the lifestream by sheer will and made a whole arsenal of guns, explosives and goodness knows what else. All that to 'fight' against a single little girl (while wrecking chaos through half the school in the process). Kami had to admit, however, she might have catalysed this by giving Kanade a modified version of the 'Angel Player' software. Her intentions were really only to level the playing field…

"Kami?" Pett stared at Kami with big round eyes. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, of course," replied Kami, "I was just thinking about what an interesting group we had this time…funny how they were trying to lure me out…what did you think of them?"

Pett made an attempt at pouting (it looked more like he ate something super sour). "Pett doesn't like the big bang bang kabooming they were making! And those big shadowy shadows you released at the end were scary!"

Kami laughed. "I had to do SOMETHING to move things along, you know? That kid Otonashi had the right idea, but going through all those people would have taken too long unless there was an incentive – so I had to give them a nudge somehow…" Although, she thought to herself, maybe I could have let them play on a bit longer…the 'Angel Player' event could have waited…

"Is Otonashi is the soul you asked the Boatsman to find from Heaven? So the little girl with white hair can find peace?"

"Yup. Tachibana Kanade, receiver of Otonashi Yuzuru's heart…" Kami gazed over the school as the artificial souls (referred to as 'NPCs' by the Battlefront group) started going about their usual business following their predetermined settings. It won't be long before more lost souls will come in order to find peace.

Kami thought about how cruel the Elder Gods have set the 'living' world. Some souls live easy lives while others are tortured by circumstances beyond their control. Others have a blind pulled across their eyes such that they cannot see their own happiness until it is gone. What were they thinking? What is the meaning of creating such a world? Is there a purpose in creating and destroying life? If there is, then what does that make this afterlife world? Some kind of compensation to the souls tormented by the Elder Gods?

She shook her head, an attempt to make these riddle-like thoughts disappear and stop bothering her.

But still they persisted.

Why?

Why? Why? Why?

...

Who am I?

In a world between the living and dead, a young girl with silky black hair and dark red eyes drifted aimlessly in the air. The gentle wind brushed against her soft white wings and played with her long white dress. She closed her eyes. If anyone or anything had seen her, they would say she looked almost…angelic.

Pett's ears suddenly perked up. "Kami! You have a new assignment!"

A letter sealed in wax dropped from the sky. Kami swiftly caught and opened it with practiced ease. As she read the rune-like squiggles, excitement diffused across her face and her eyes sparked with renewed enthusiasm.

"Pett!" she exclaimed, "We have a new job! Time to go to the living world!"

With that, an angel named Kami and her baby dragon familiar opened a gate in the sky and disappeared.

In an alternate dimension far far away, a boy named Otonashi Yuzuru opened his eyes.

...

A/N: HI! This is my first fanfic *excite!* I've just finished watching Angel Beats and it's left me thinking...THERE MUST BE MORE! So heres my version of what shall happen after the end of Angel Beats! Season 1 XD Please read and review! Thankyou~~