A/N: After more than 4 years I have finally...not uploaded the 2nd chapter but changed the 1st one! Yatta!~ Please read the story in 'Story width 3/4' as the story was structured for that width.

Disclaimer: I do not own Angel Beats!/エンジェルビーツ! or any of the characters. This is purely fanfiction.

Now start reading!

1. Kanade

A purple-head girl sighed, "We won't be able to pull off any big operations during the ball game tournament with the band in this state."

"Ball game tournament? They have those here?"

She nodded. "Of course. This is a normal school, after all."

"Will we just be spectators then?" a blue-haired boy asked.

The girl turned around and smiled at the blue haired guy. "We'll be participating, of course."

"Won't we disappear if we do that?"

The girl started to walk across the room. "We'll be participating illegally, of course. This is the plan everyone. Go and gather people to make teams. Any team which performs worse than the regular students...will be subject to a punishment more fearsome than death."

"Isn't she just desperate for action since we can't do anything right now?"

The blue haired boy closed his eyes and nodded with a slight smile. "It's part of our duty to stay in shape. This is just a test. Otonashi..."

"Huh?"

"I need you."

"Are you-"

"No!" he spat at me with an angry look on his face, "I'm talking about the team! Let's form a team, Otonashi! It'll be bad if we lose. Yurippe is serious about this stuff."

"Do you have other members in mind?"

He laughed, "Leave it to me. I practically live on my popularity! I'll form the strongest team!"

Otonashi Yuzuru's POV

"Wake up!"

Huh? Who was that?

"You'll be late for your job interview! Onii-chan!"

I opened my eyes slowly to an energetic girl. This girl's name was Hatsune. She is my sister. Someone who treated my life as important as theirs, maybe even more important than hers.

"Good morning Hatsune," I cheerfully greeted her.

She smiled back at me. "Good morning, Onii-chan! Today is the day! It's your job interview! You shouldn't have slept so late, now you'll be tired."

Hatsune always puts everybody before herself, especially me. It's something that I always appreciated. She revealed the happier, nicer side of me. I smiled, "It'll be fine. You sound more worried about my job interview than I am."

The light red haired girl laughed, "Why wouldn't I be? I'll go make breakfast for you while you get ready." So she ran out of my room and down the stairs.

I stood up off my bed and got ready. I cleaned my teeth, took a shower, got dressed, all the things a normal seventeen year old kid does in the morning. The reason why my sister is making breakfast is because we don't have parents. They passed away a few years ago in an accident when I was thirteen. Eventually I had to drop out of school before a single year of senior school. Now I'm getting ready for my job interview. I need a part-time job to take care of my little sister. She may be my little sister but she does everything an older sister does. She supports me, cooks for me and takes care of the washing and you name it, she's there for me whenever I need her.

I picked up my one strap bag and brought it with me downstairs into the dining room. I placed it on the chair next to me and watched as Hatsune brought me my breakfast. It was beef ramen with an egg and a dried slice of meat. Next to it was a glass of plain milk. It's not the fanciest breakfast but better than I could make and I like it anyway.

"Aren't you going to have breakfast?" I asked my sister as she sat down on the chair opposite to mine.

She smiled. "No, I was actually going to talk to you now and have breakfast after you leave."

I smiled back. "Oh right then, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well I think you know what dreams I want to know about...right, Onii-chan?"

"Oh..." I sighed as my sister got comfortable to tune in. "Well this time it was different. I don't remember much of the dream. But it had some of the same people. A guy with blue hair around the same age as me, and the purple haired girl. They were talking about some kind of ball game. We had to form a team of some sort, but that's all I remember."

My sister looked like she was deep in thought as she put her finger to her lip and looked down. "I'm still not sure why you're having these strange dreams."

"Well they aren't really dreams..." I stated to her as I took a bite out of some ramen, "They are more like...um...visions maybe?"

Hatsune tilted her head in confusion. "Visions? So they aren't really dreams? Maybe it's the future?"

I sighed again, "Nevermind we'll talk about this after my job interview." I finished up the rest of my meal and put the dishes in the sink for my sister to wash up for me. We said our good byes as I walked out the door. Still thinking about the 'visions' I had, I walked down the main pathway to the station straight ahead. At the moment my life wasn't too interesting apart from the 'visions'. Having no school made things boring, but if I get this part time job things are hopefully bound to change. I didn't have so many friends like everyone else. I have about one friend and that's it. We have some kind of connection, it's strange really. The visions I was talking about before, she has them as well. Her name is Iwasawa Masami. I've known her for a long time now, since our childhood days.

Masami is a person who is usually an introvert around strangers, she isn't shy but she doesn't like to talk to people she doesn't know very well. Ever since I was growing up, her parents would fight and so she would end up staying over at my place, where my parents would take care of her. But since my parents passed away, she hadn't been able to stay over. Also now that I've dropped out of school, I probably won't see her very much anymore. Especially because she has band practice. Masami was always confused about what she wanted to do in life. But after listening to music, she found something she loved to do - sing and make music. I was proud of her.

My plans for today were firstly, the job interview, then go home to Hatsune, then go see Masami's band practice. Plain and simple. Usually I'd be nervous about something like this, but for some reason today was a calm day, there was something special about it, like something...happy was going to happen.

Iwasawa Masami's POV

Today was a perfect day for a street performance, not too cold, not too hot, it was just right. I walked out of the cafeteria after having my breakfast. That's right, my parents were fighting again so instead of having breakfast at home, I went out to eat it. As usual, I brought my guitar with me. I didn't really do street performances for money, it was more for getting better and getting used to performing in front of crowds, although the crowds that watched me were quite small.

Yuzuru promised me that he'd be at my band practice tonight. I hope he shows up, because I haven't seen him for about two weeks now. I told him I'd support whatever decision he had to make but I didn't think he'd drop out of school. Besides him, the only people I talk to now are my band members, but I'm not nearly as close to them as I am to him. My parents were fighting more than ever so I can't have them coming over my house. To be honest, I am hoping they separate soon so the drama can finally end. Although it doesn't sound too nice coming from their daughter, I had to deal with this for far too long. But music has recently been my way of escape and form of expression of my emotions and stress, so I've been trying to sing as much as I can.

I headed down to the busiest area in the town on a bus so I could perform on the streets. My dream to be a singer existed for about two years now, but for some peculiar reason it feels like I've wanted to do singing for all my life. I looked out the window of the bus to see many street dancers, singers and instrument players. My guess was that they all had a similar dream to mine. It was like that in this place, many people had sad lives and regrets, wishing that could live it all over again. I had no regrets, I was risking all my time and my education for this.

Twenty minutes later I arrived and went to my favourite place in the city-next to a popular bakery. The bread smelt crisp and fresh, which made the scent around the bakery a nice place to play my guitar. Also many people that were coming out of the store would see my performance and maybe stay around to watch. I was planning to play, 'My Song' a song that I was writing up for ages these past few weeks, it was quite short, cause it was only a preview, but it would do for now. I had put a lot of thought into. Here goes nothing...

The strum of my guitar started. I closed my eyes and started to sing.

oh-ho~

iradachi o~ doko ni butsukeru ka sagashiteru aida ni owaru hi~

sora wa haiiro o shite sono saki wa nanimo mienai

joushiki butteru yatsu ga waratteru tsugi wa donna uso o iu?

I opened my eyes. A few people stopped and listened. Good.

sore de erareta mono daiji ni kazatteokeru no?

demo asu e to susumanakya naranai

dakara kou utau yo~

More people crowded around me and tuned in, surprisingly it was a lot more than expected. Actually this was probably the most people I'd ever had watching me on a street performance. I smiled and continued to sing.

naiteru~ kimi koso~ kodoku na kimi koso

tadashii yo ningenrashii yo~

Many people started to cheer in the background and I heard small compliments like a 'she's good' and 'wow amazing'. Then one by one, two by two, people started to clap along. This had to be a dream come true. No, never did I ever dream that in a street performance there could be this many people. There had to be at least fifty.

"Purely amazing..." I thought to myself as the strumming of the guitar continued. "Alright the last part is coming up, here goes!"

otoshita~ namida ga~ kou iu yo

konna ni mo utsukushii~ uso ja nai~ hontou no~ bokura o~ arigatou…

The last strum echoed into the streets of the city and everyone began to applaud me. I smiled and bowed. Almost every person who watched took out some change out of their pockets, bags, wallets and purses. They threw it into my guitar case in front of me. I thanked everyone and bowed again. Many of the people who watched me were staying, waiting for me to play more. One in particular came up to me.

"Hey there!" she greeted me in a friendly manner.

I smiled. "Hello, did you enjoy the performance?"

She nodded. "Yep, I definitely did! In fact," she took out a ukulele, it was actually the same colour as my hair, coincidently, and a permanent marker, "can you sign my ukulele? Pretty please?"

"I'd be honoured," I told her with a smile. She handed me her ukulele and I signed my autograph on it slowly and handed it back with care.

The little girl's eyes glittered in awe. "Thank you so much!" She then looked up from her ukulele. "I first saw your performance on a singing app. Did you submit yourself on there? Because wow did you get a lot of votes!" She laughed excitedly.

I was confused. "Singing app?" I asked her, not following her words anymore. "What do you mean? What's the name of it?"

She seemed surprised. "Really? You don't know about it? I thought you would have known, because it seemed like you were really popular on there. Maybe it was a fan made account! She then wrote something down and handed me a small piece of paper. "Here is the name of the app."

"Saiko no Utauyo" I read aloud,"Okay, thank you, I'll check it out. I love the support."

Just as the young girl waved bye and ran off, I heard someone over there say something. Then it was a few more. It sounded like, 'please sing more'.

"Wait they want me to sing more?" I thought to myself, "I never knew I was this good... it's going to be a long afternoon." I picked up my guitar and started my next song, "A really, really long afternoon."

Otonashi Yuzuru's POV

"Phew..." I sighed with relief as I walked out of the supermarket and out into the city.

The interview went amazingly well. I got the job as a worker in the supermarket. I've been saving quite a lot of money so I decided to head over to Shibuya 109, not too far from here. It was one of the most popular shopping districts around in Japan, and it sold stuff that was perfect for my sister, so why not take a look around. I could definitely find something she liked.

"I'd probably better get something for Masami as well, I haven't seen her for a while, and I've never really gotten her something..." I thought to myself as I approached a taxi. It was too crowded to walk so I put a hand up to signal the taxi driver to stop, and sure enough, he did. He gestured me to come on in. I opened the door, slid in and shut the door.

The driver looked behind the seat and smiled at me. "Hello there," he greeted me, "where would you like me to take you?" Where did I want to go again? Ah yes, that's right...

"I'd like you to take me to Shibuya 109 please..."

"Sure."

As he started to drive, I buckled up and rested my head against the back of the seat and thought. I thought about where my life was going. What I wished to get out of life. I didn't really know to be honest, but I needed money to at least take care of my sister and so that was my temporary main goal for now. I didn't actually have a specialty in anything, well, not one that I knew of anyway.

Before I knew it, I was drifting off to a little nap.

"Hey, - - -e..." I placed my hand at the back of my head. "Want to stay here?"

"Eh?" she gasped. Judging by the look on her face, she seemed surprised or horrified by the idea.

"I kind of just realised it..." I turned away. "You know...There are others like Yuri and Hinata and the rest, who couldn't find peace in life and will find their way here, right?" I turned to her to look for a reply.

"I suppose..."

"And they might end up staying here, like Yuri, and be sad and keep suffering, and keep resisting life," I continued on.

She repeated herself. "I suppose..."

"But...if we stay here, we can teach them, like we did this time...about how good it is to be alive, and help them graduate." I looked at her straight in the eye. "Maybe I came here to play that role..." I looked down again. "So...won't you stay with me? If you stayed here, I wouldn't be lonely, even in this world. I might have said it before, but I want to be with you. I want to walk forward together with you. Because, I...I really..." I hesitated for a moment, "...love you."

At that moment I ran up to hug her. "I love you," I repeated.

The short girl just closed her eyes and snuggled her head against my chest, and didn't reply a single word. I got confused.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" I asked her, desperate for an answer.

She didn't open her eyes. "I don't want to."

"Why not?"

She opened her eyes slowly. "Because if I tell you my feelings, I'll disappear."

I was really confused. "Why...?"

"Because," she started, "I came here to say thank you to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I was able to stay alive," she put her hand on my chest, "because of your heart."

I gasped. No way, she couldn't have meant that- that meant...-

"Even now, your heart is beating in my chest. My one regret was being unable to say thank you to the person who saved my life. I wanted to tell you so badly that I got lost and wandered here."

"No way..." I couldn't really believe it, "But how did you know it was me?"

"I realised it the first time I stabbed you. You didn't have a heart."

I gasped again. "But just from that..." I was searching for reasons now.

"You regained your memories when you were sleeping on my chest. Your body recognised the sound of its own heartbeat."

"No way...: I gasped once again. There was silence. Then she spoke.

"Please Yuzuru." She turned around to look at me. "Say what you said earlier once more."

I refused to..."No I can't! You'll...you'll disappear!"

"Yuzuru! Please!"

"I just can't do it!"

"Yuzuru!"

I looked up at her.

"Let me believe what you've always believed! That living, is wonderful! Yuzuru..."

"- - -de..."

We both leaned forward and embraced each other.

"I love you," I confessed to her once again. "Let's be together forever..."

"Thank you, Yuzuru..."

"Stay with me forever!"

"Mhm...Thank you..."

"I love you - -ade!"

"Mhm," she nodded, "Thank you so much..."

"- -nade!"

"Thank you for loving me."

"Please don't disappear! -anade. -anade!"

"This gift of life you gave me...Thank you so much."

She left her last words with me and left...she disappeared and left me crying, alone.

"Kanade!"

Hinata Hideki's POV

"Ah, that was a good day of baseball practice." I stated as I looked up at the sky.

The boy next to me grinned. "Definitely was. It's always fun to get a good workout before going out to eat."

The guy next to me was Eisuke, one of my good teammates in baseball and a good friend. I pretty much spent most of my week with this guy. He had abnormal dyed blonde straight hair and dark brown eyes. His parents abandoned him back when he was four so he was adopted by an orphanage that found him. Now he lived in the boy's dorm of Aoi Kaze High School, with me. We eventually started to become friends due to our passion of baseball.

We had just finished a morning of baseball practice and were going to go eat lunch in the city. Actually, not really we, I was, but Eisuke was going with his girlfriend separately. We were just catching the train to the city together, then splitting up.

I wish I had found Yui already. Yeah, that's right, Yui. I still remembered her. When I first started playing baseball my memories of the afterlife returned...well most of them. I knew why my memories were lost but I didn't know how to get them back. I tried hard to remember but it just gave me a headache. But the person I remember clearly, is Yui. I remember how I told her that I'd hit a baseball through her window and that's how I'd meet her. I've been waiting for that day. I didn't even know if she went to my school or not. I was so desperate to find her that I had even purposely hit a baseball through a window. The only result I got was paying money for some new glass.

"Hey Hinata!"

Huh?

"Hinata snap out of it."

Whoops. "Yo, whats up?"

Eisuke stood up. "The train to the city is here."

I got up and stretched. "Oh yeah sorry, I was daydreaming..." I told him. "Darn it, Hideki, stop thinking about her. You even said it yourself, it's like a one in six billion chance you'll see her again." I thought to myself, angry, not at the fact I kept thinking about her, but at the realisation about how slim the chance to see her again was.

As I hopped onto the train, I was for once not comfortable with regaining my memories. What if I didn't have my memories? Maybe I wouldn't be so depressed about finding all my friends...finding Yui.

Otonashi Yuzuru's POV

"Kanade…" the words breathed through my mouth as I gently opened my eyes. Tears stained my cheeks as a slowly awoke. "Another vision..." I thought to myself as I finished my nap. I seemed to only get these visions when I was asleep. Maybe they really were dreams. Nothing more than dreams. I'm probably overthinking it, as well as my sis. I didn't think they were visions of the future or anything like that. I was probably just fantasising subconsciously. "Urgh, I should just stop thinking about this completely," I mumbled, looking out the window.

The driver seemed to hear me. "Are you okay back there? Don't worry we're almost there."

I sighed. "Nah it's not that." Should I tell him? I just told myself to stop thinking about it but I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell a stranger. "I've just had weird dreams...about...how should I put it? Weird dreams about certain people. Sometimes they're the same dreams. Most of the time they have the same people in it. Also, the dreams are really...realistic, it feels like I've somehow actually known the people and experienced what happened in the dream." Please don't laugh. Please.

Once we stopped at the traffic lights, I saw through the front mirror as the man raised his eyebrows. "I think I have a theory of what's gotten into to you." He seemed to think for a few seconds. The green light shone and he started to drive again. As we turned a corner he asked me something. "Do you believe in alternate universes?"

"Um...not exactly. I'm not really the scientific type..."

"Well let me fill you in," he began, seemingly wanting to teach me more, "It's not really science. In our world, some people believe that after we die, we can be given another chance as the same person in an alternate world. Sometimes they can be put in the same family, look the same, and their personality can be the same. Other times, they can be a total different person, different looks and personality and be born in a completely different situation."

"Is that so?" I muttered. I was actually starting to get it here, but there was no evidence to make me believe it.

"And I think, that your dreams are memories...," he continued, "memories from your past life."

"But...can that be possible?" I asked him, wanting to believe what he told me.

He smiled. "That's for you to decide. You can either ignore it, or believe it and find out more about this 'past life' of yours. Look, we are at Shibuya now."

I looked outside and the car seemed to come to a stop. I saw the large three numbers on the building, shining with colourful lights, '109'. "Thank you," I told him with appreciation, "for not just the lift, but the information you gave me, it helped me a lot."

He seemed to chuckle a bit. "Don't mention it. Who knows, maybe I'll see you again someday."

I gave him a friendly smile. "Thank you again." I gave him 1500 yen for the ride, shut the door and started to walk. As I watched him drive away, my attention slowly shifted to the sky. "It's still bright. What time is it?" I looked at my phone. '12:27 PM'. Really? This was already a pretty long day. I had a job interview, which went for a while. It felt like an eternity. Looked like I had plenty of time to spare then.

As I strolled down a pathway casually, I heard a noise that caught my attention, but I kept walking. It sounded quite...familiar. It was whistling. But where had I heard that tune before? I kept walking and thinking, while the tune was getting softer and softer. Wait, that was it! The song Masami sang. It wasn't recent though. It was from my dream...my vision...my past life! I instantly stopped and turned around. Then I saw it. A petite girl with a straw hat. She had light silver-purple hair, which was done up in a pony tail. A sky blue small jacket and an angelic white dress that came down to her knees. Her eyes, her gold eyes. I couldn't forget those. All my visions of her were suddenly just memories. I remembered...

"Kanade."

A/N: Please Rate & Review! You do not know how much it means to me! I hope you enjoyed!