Am I the only one that saw how...cruel...Angel Beats' ending was? Perhaps I'm mistaken, but hopefulyl this drabble/storetry will shed some light onto the subject.

Yes, storetry. It's kind of an experiment to inject poetic verses into scene breaks. Let me know what you guys think.

Enjoy.

~MS

Chapter 1

The Heart of Otanashi

Do you know how strange it is, to be the one person amongst the many? To be the only sentient being amongst the seas of students, taking their classes and doing their homework like the good people they are? I suppose its hard to understand the concept of life with no life, but once the idea is understood, you feel all the more alone, the one unique, shining star amongst the tide of templates and molds, defining who you should have been in life.

That's right, should have been. Not like we had much of a choice in life as it was. Here we see normality, the idea of a perfect world. And yet here were were, screwing it up and defying the laws of the world, if only to prolong our own existence. We fought an enemy, the one person that we could only hazard a guess of her intentions. And yet she was marked as one, perhaps not out of spite, but out of direction. Human's need direction, after all.

Why screw up a perfect world, you ask? Everything needs a little chaos, after all. What more do you want after you hear the stories of their previous lives, shunned into dark corners by abusive parents, or perhaps murdered alongside your siblings as your parents were out of town. There are always regrets in life, but is a normal life always the answer? Nobody wants a normal life after such an event. The mere idea of trying to live normally, forgetting all the atrocities against you, accepting a life in a world that you know nothing of...can anyone follow that logic? Every action has a perpetrator, and some acts are so heinous that revenge is inevitable. Such were the factors of reality, things that we simply could not change or understand. I tried to make a difference, and what happened to me? The crash, the pain, the dust and echoes.

And yet, in the end, my fulfillment was achieved. To save a life, to give my existence to another. Did I know who, or why, or how? Perhaps not, but the simple action of my name on a card made all the difference in the world to me. In the end, I was happy. What more did I have to lose?

It was only after I came to the Afterworld that I truly understood how far I could fall.

A God's decree of happiness

the eternal youth, thirsting

for the normalcy of emotion

moving on to new frontiers

the unfinished vengeance, lying on the table.

Do you know how strange it feels, for two mutually exclusive lives to exist together in one world? She would not live without my heart, and I could not live without mine. And yet here we were, locked in an embrace that I swore would never end, tears streaming down my face as the sun set behind us. It all felt so real; the flowing waters behind us, the heat of the sun on our backs, her warmth against my chest. But it was her heart, my heart, beating for the both of us as we muttered the only words we could find, our arms getting tighter and tighter with every passing moment. Two hearts cannot beat as one, but perhaps one heart can beat for the both of us.

And in the end, what would any of this matter? Everyone is gone, moved on to the new lives given to them, be it sea barnacles or a resurrection of their mirror image. Perhaps they are there in body, maybe even in personality, but body and looks does not make the person. The loss of the memory is the loss of the person. If she vanishes...she forgets about me. She leaves my heart behind.

I keep wanting to stop her, to stop those words that escape from her lips. But she continues, her gratitude muffled by the uniform I wore. But who was I to say anything about that? My tear-induced babbling was barely coherent as she continued her words, but she paid it no mind. The seconds felt like hours.

No...she takes my heart with her. And she won't even know whose it is.

Look, friend.

Towards the setting sun,

the rays of normalcy gracing your mind and body

as you wake from the dream you never had.

The memories of evil gone

and taken with are the times of happiness

laying prone in the wastebaskets of memory.

She had finally graduated.

Little but my hands and head caught my fall as all the weight, the warmth, the crutch of my entire being, vanished in the blink of an eye. The pain mattered little as my hands instinctively shot outwards, trying to grab onto whatever felt like her, knowing that she couldn't have gone far if I was holding her that tightly...

Whipping my head around, all I could see was the setting sun, and the various students...no, NPC's, playing soccer, and doing their track exercises. Perhaps it's not so bad becoming one of them. After all, they get to see their friends every day, do things together, finish homework, take tests, and play games after school. The life of an NPC seems so amazing.

Were we not nearly the same? Put behind the tragic pasts, and we were just a bunch of friends that hung out, did homework, played games...what made us so different? Why make us leave when they get to stay forever? Call it graduation all you want, but at least alumni get to remember their friends and keep their memories.

Breathing heavily, my head continued its swivel, trying to find some hint, some clue as to where she had gone. The back of my mind immediately knew what happened,d but the rest of my body could nto accept it. My brain could not fathom the logic, my arms could not understand why the warmth was gone. And my heart...well, there was no heart to understand with.

My friends, my love, and my heart, are now gone.

Perhaps Yuri was right. Someone had to build this place. Someone had to give the illusion of normalcy. What kind of sick mind gives the opportunity to make friends, influence a school, and redeem their lost life, only to take it away when peace and acceptance finally set in?

They were gone. Sent off to new lives, with no recollection of the evils they experienced...or the good times that happened.

Look at me, God. Look at me, and realize what your world has done. Arriving, I was a lost soul without memory. And now I leave without a heart.

And in the end, what changed? Friends that stood by my side no longer walked these cobblestone steps, cracking wise jokes about the most recent prank that we pulled. NPC's will go about their daily lives like nothing happened. But perhaps most of all...they wont' remember. None of them will.

At least there was a chance in my life. Perhaps there, someone remembers me as the guy that saved lives when the train met its untimely end. Perhaps there I'm known for something, that my name will live on for some reason.

But here? Nothing. All that happened will suddenly be as if nothing happened. My friends, my family...Kanade. All of it. Soon to be nothing but dust in the wind, kicked up and away to be needlessly discarded.

How cruel is it, God, to finally find your goal, your meaning in life, only to have it viciously ripped away from your hands?

I think you should know; you've done it to me once already.

You think you're saving me, doing this? Forcing me to part with my goal, after working so hard to achieve it? Months, years of work...in both worlds! Only to be torn away by your ridiculous transcendence. And what did I accomplish here, if I do not remember? What does it matter, if I have a good life here, or a bad life there? None of it will be remembered, as I transfer to a new life of sin.

But what do I have the right to complain about? I'm no God, after all.

I will vanish. But not for your petty reasons. My heart is out there somewhere, and I will find it. That is my vengeance to you, for offering me a false illusion of peace, and yanking it away to throw me back into the harsh realities once more. So I swear to you, God. My heart is out there somewhere, and I will find it, and my memory, once more.

The heart of a man

in the body of an angel.

Two souls, one world

this new body is not my own

but with mind and soul

I will find my Angel's beat.

The echoing scream hung in the air like a final crescendo, and though several students turned to investigate the source of the sound, they found nothing but the flowing fountain and the sunset beyond.

Unbeknownst to them, a single star rose high above the Afterworld, shining in the evening sky as if it were one last act of defiance, before blinking out of existence.

I will find you, Kanade. I will find you again.

Story end.