I have returned! :D Look at that, I actually went a whole TWO DAYS without writing anything! Yeah, that's what I call a break. LOL
I've had this one in mind ever since I started watching Angel Beats!. It's set around the beginning of the AB! series, and after the end of Soul Eater. It's also not on the same timeline as my previous SE fics. I'll warn you now; it's not supposed to be a happy fic. Enjoy anyway. XD
By the way, each chapter is named after a fitting song. Usually the whole song fits the chapter, but I shall choose the most suitable lyrics. I'd recommend listening to the song to get the mood. ;) Anyway, that's enough of my pointless yakking.
TotalGamer98 presents to you:
My Soul, Your Beats!
Chapter 1
In The End
"In the end...
As my soul's laid to rest, what is left of my body?"
In The End, Black Veil Brides
The Next Life
Everything began normally that day. No one was suspecting the event that was going to rock their world and turn everything, and their way of life, on its head.
They all walked to class together, ready to be generally disruptive to survive, as they always were. That was how things worked; the perfect ones always disappeared. If you wanted to defend yourself, you had to act up.
TK spotted him first, oddly enough.
"Dude ain't standin'…" He said slowly, pointing ahead of the group. Following his finger, the rest of the Afterlife Battlefront that had been walking with the hippie-like teen then noticed the boy on the ground. They rushed to him, crowding around him and voicing their opinions.
"What is he doing just lying there?"
"It's weird for them to show up in broad daylight."
"That's the second one we've found in a week. Is there a war or something going on?"
"I told you I don't remember."
"White like the snow..."
"TK's right; his hair's white, like Angel's!"
"This is so stupid..."
It was then that the teen's eyes suddenly snapped open as he inhaled sharply. He stared at all the faces around him, confused.
"He's awake," Otonashi looked down at him, offering his hand. "Stand up slowly. You might be a bit unstable."
The white-haired teen reached out his hand to take the redhead's palm and was slowly lifted off of the ground. He stared around, not speaking. He didn't remember seeing any of these people before. Upon further probing, he found his memories totally blank.
He stumbled a little on his feet, prompting a blue-haired teen to catch him. "Whoa, easy there, buddy. Did you stumble around this much when you first got here, Otonashi?"
The ginger shook his head. "No, I don't think so," He looked into the new teen's face. "What's your name?" He asked gently.
The boy probed his mind for memories again. All he could find were three words;
"Soul Eater Evans." He spoke slowly. His own voice surprised him.
"That's a strange name," The blue-haired buy mumbled, but smiled at the new teen. "I'm Hinata."
The others started speaking out their names, but all the noise was starting to get to Soul, and he clutched his hand to his face to try to press down a growing headache.
"Guys, give him some space," Ordered a magenta-haired girl. With Hinata and Otonashi still supporting him, the girl approached the white-haired boy. "You probably have no idea what's going on," She began. He shook his head blearily. All of this felt like a dream, as if his body and mind were in two different places.
"We found you lying here on our way to class," Hinata said.
The pink-haired girl thrust her face into Soul's. "Basically, you're dead."
Soul was then led up to an office room in the nearby school building, otherwise known as the Battlefront's headquarters. After walking with Hinata and Otonashi's support for the first few flights of stairs, the boy slowly began to walk on his own. However, he gladly accepted the couch in the headquarters when it was offered.
"Yurippe, I don't trust him," A cold-looking purple-haired guy muttered, pointing a large halberd at Soul. "He looks awfully suspicious."
Hinata chuckled. "So do you, Noda, swinging that weapon around."
Noda glared at him, pointing the halberd in his blue-haired teen's face instead. "Say that again. I dare you," He growled threateningly.
"Well," Spoke an overweight-looking teen in the corner as he munched on a granola bar, "He does have red eyes and sharp teeth."
"Ward 'em off with garlic, man," TK suggested.
"TK's right!" A brunette boy exclaimed, pointing at the newcomer fearfully and hiding behind a teen named Fujimaki. "He's a vampire!"
Soul's red eyes followed each member of the group as they spoke, trying to make sense of what was going on. He had been told he was dead, but he was skeptical. In addition to that, he was feeling very overwhelmed with the sudden increase in people and information.
Hinata turned to the pink-haired girl that was currently sitting at the desk at the end of the room. "What do you think, Yuri?" He asked.
Yuri's sea-green eyes swept around to Soul. She looked the teen up and down, inspecting him carefully. True, he did seem to resemble a vampire, but she didn't believe in such creatures. "What memories do you have, Soul Eater Evans?" She inquired.
Soul leaned over and sighed, shaking his head. "None," He said one of his first words since waking up in this new place as he tried to get his mouth used to talking once again. "I don't have any memories," He spoke again, leaned back in the couch, bringing his arms behind his head in a relaxed position. He turned to Yuri once again before questioning, "So you say I'm dead?"
She nodded calmly. "Of course. Why else would you be here?"
Soul chuckled a little, closing his eyes. "I don't even know where 'here' is," He murmured. "For all I know, this could be a sick dream."
"No, it's not," Otonashi spoke up quickly. "Believe me. That's what I thought, too. But you really are dead; you can't die here."
"He's right," Yuri continued, before motioning to the group unfamiliar to Soul. "This is Afterlife Battlefront, though our group's name changes often. That's Otonashi, Hinata, Fujimaki, Matsushita V, Ooyama, Noda, Shiina, Takamatsu, Takeyama-"
"Please call me Christ."
"TK, and Yui." Yuri continued pointing to each member accordingly, despite Takeyama's interruption. The magenta-haired girl then turned back to Soul. "And I'm Yuri. We in the Battlefront seek to combat god in return for our unfair lives."
Soul's mind was just beginning to process his situation. "So... You're all dead here?"
Otonashi nodded solemnly, causing the red-eyed boy to sigh and turn so he was lying on his back across the couch. "I just need some time to process things," He murmured. He abruptly let out an "OOF" as the wind was knocked out of him, caused by Noda stabbing his gut with the dull end of his halberd.
"You don't get time!" The purple-haired teen shouted in Soul's face. "You get your butt of the couch, you get your butt out that door, and you get your butt on the battlefield!" He shouted.
Soul's eyes became hard. Acting on instinct he didn't know he had, he quickly grabbed the sheath of the halberd and swung both it and Noda around before releasing at the precise time that resulted in Noda being slammed into the wall next to Takeyama. The purple-haired boy looked dazed, staring at the ceiling.
"Man, Yurippe… The new guy's strong…" He moaned.
Yuri found herself smirking. "We could use that strength," She grinned.
Soul's eyes widened. "Wait, hold up!" He exclaimed. "I never said I was joining you! I don't even know if this place is real or not!"
Yuri rolled her eyes. "Do I need to explain it again? You're dead. This high school is where teenagers who have had unfulfilled lives go when they've died. Your lingering emotions keep you here. If you let go, that's one way to get obliterated," She declared. "Our job in the Battlefront is not only to defy god, but to preserve ourselves. We refuse," She slammed her hand on the desk for emphasis, "To get obliterated."
Soul frowned, staring at his hands that were currently folded in his lap. "If that's true," He said quietly, "Then why am I here? What lingering emotions do I have? I don't remember anything."
Otonashi sighed. "I wish I knew. I can't remember my life, either," He murmured. "But… The Battlefront's become my home. We're like a family."
"Aw, that's sweet!" Ooyama cooed. "Thanks, Otonashi!"
"I suppose I'm your brother, then?" Hinata chuckled, throwing his arm around Otonashi's shoulder as he grinned.
Soul slowly began to smile. He wanted his memories back, of course, but right now being dead didn't seem too terrible. If he really was dead, anyway.
This Life
I awoke to the sound of a monotone, drawn-out droning beep. I found this strange as I rubbed sleep out of my eyes and sat up. I had evidently fallen asleep while sitting in a chair, leaning over onto a bed. The sunlight streaming through the window had woken me. I didn't understand why I was here, and not in my bed at home. All the while that beep droned on in the background; a never-ending, dead note.
Dead.
My emerald eyes suddenly widened. The events of the previous evening were coming back, hitting me with the unbearable shock and trauma that we had experienced.
I stared down at the white-haired boy on the hospital bed I had been sleeping against. My breath became ragged as I began to have trouble inhaling. I grasped his wrist, desperately feeling for a heartbeat. However, the droning beep sounded on, screaming at me that my efforts were futile. But I'm a stubborn girl. I refused to believe that machine, even after I felt the lack of a pulse myself.
I refuse to believe it.
Tears unwillingly began to trickle down my cheeks and splatter the white bed sheets. I clutched his lifeless hand, as if that would cause him to open his eyes and flash his signature cocky grin at me once again. But no such thing happened.
My tears were to the point of clouding my vision as I heard the dispensary door open.
"She's awake," Stein's voice reached my ears. I made out the sound of designer shoes clacking hastily against the tiled floor, growing louder as their owner rushed to my side and threw his arms around me.
"Maka… My sweet Maka… I'm so sorry…" My father blubbered, his arms tight as he hugged me while he knelt in the floor next to me. For once, I didn't push him away. I needed someone to touch right now, reminding me that not all was dead in the world.
But all was dead in my world.
I leaned over once again as Papa let go of me, and I wrapped my arms around the boy on the hospital bed before me. I hugged him to my chest, his head falling down over my shoulder, allowing his white hair to brush my face. I sniffed, trying to push down my sobbing.
"I'm so sorry, Maka," My father repeated. "He left while you both were asleep. We didn't want to wake you."
I shook, my every breath pained knowing that someone dear to me could no longer breathe as I did. "Y-you didn't let me s-say goodbye," I whispered, my grip on his shirt tightening. "Why d-didn't you let m-me say goodbye to him?!" I screamed suddenly. I had lost him. I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest, now that my Soul had been ripped out of my arms.
Papa put his hand on my shoulder as I continued to sob. I heard slight clicks, knowing that Stein was standing in the doorway and twisting his bolt. Maybe he was trying to figure out something to say. My presumptions were confirmed when he spoke after a while.
"Soul was very brave. He held on for much longer than we thought he would," He murmured, taking a drag from his cigarette despite the rules against smoking in the school. "As he was going under for the operation, he said that he was glad it was him and not you."
My professor had just said the wrong thing. As Papa reprimanded him, I began sobbing harder, staining the shirt of the boy in my arms with my tears. It wasn't like he was going to be using it anymore…
An agonized cry burst from my chest and split the air as I sunk ever deeper into my regret and sorrow.
"SOUL!"
So, there's the first chapter. How is it?
In case you haven't noticed: The first section of each chapter, titled "The Next Life," will be in 3rd person and about Soul and the Battlefront. The last section of each chapter, titled "This Life," will be in 1st person and from Maka's point of view about what happens after the living world finds out Soul's dead. I'll leave it a mystery as to exactly how he died, though, but it'll be revealed soon. ;)
I hope you continue to read "My Soul, Your Beats!", and I shall see you next chapter!
