Her Song…
The first time I heard her song…
It reached out to me, as if it was guiding me to the light…
At first I lost my reason in life, everything was boring and dull. I lost a friend, I lost my passion for music…I lost my soul…
Then one day I met her…
It was just a regular night, I was taking a walk outside, needed some polluted city air. *Breathe* Yup it was pretty shitty alright. Oh yeah I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Akiko Oyobu, 16 year old boy, junior; 5"11 weighs about 150 pounds, skinny, has black short hair and blue eyes. Someone who loves music, well use to I guess… I can play almost any instrument but my specialty is the guitar, both electric and acoustic.
I live alone at a one room apartment, reason why I was living alone? Well I guess you can say puberty and like every teenager you start to rebel parents. Long story short, my parents didn't support my dream and wanted me to take over the family business which was for me to become a doctor so I try to avoid my fate by moving out.
I used to be in a band called "Sad Machine" but we disbanded, so now I'm out here alone walking around like a stranger. I walked at an alley around my area to distract me from my thoughts until I heard a song.
My days end as I'm trying to find where to vent my irritation
The sky is gray, I can't see anything beyond
People who act like they have common sense are laughing; what kind of lie will they tell next?
How can they treasure what they obtain with those lies?
But we've got to move ahead, toward tomorrow
So I'm going to sing like this
This song…is it talking to me? How do you know what I'm feeling now…?
You may be crying, you may be lonely
But that's perfect-that's what human is
The tears you shed say
Thank you for giving life to us-beautiful, honest, and real
It was a beautiful song that slowly I was entranced by it. My body started walking toward the song and each time it got louder the brighter the area became.
Having dreams you want to fulfill and dreams you can't reach
Is dream and hope in itself. That's enough for us humans to live on
There's a door, it's waiting there
So I will reach out my hand
There I saw a pink-haired girl with dark red eyes around my age. She was playing an acoustic guitar with such passion. She had something that I lost, music. Her eyes shine with such liveliness and always had a smile on her face. Watching her made me wonder, what happen to me? Soon a smile pop right back on my face and I started to enjoy music again.
I walked in front of her and watched her play her guitar while singing a song that I wasn't familiar with.
For you who have stumbled, I give you this song and the courage to fight once more
The tears you shed say
Thank you for the miracle of allowing us to meet in this sullied, ugly world
When she was done I reached into my wallet and threw a dollar into her guitar case. She grabbed the dollar and handed it back to me.
"Here, you can have it back. I'm not here to play for money." She says as she hands me my dollar back. "I'm here to just play the one thing I love the most" she said with a smile and continues to play the guitar with a different song.
I was surprised by her action, seeing as how people these days would play for money. I smiled again and decided to sit down and watch her play. Slowly a crowd would form around her and saw how talented she was. Her songs were able to get people to forget their troubles and put a smile on their face. When she was done singing, everybody clapped and cheered for her, they even wanted an encore. However it was getting late so she started to pack up. The people around her start to leave and went on to with their usual lives.
"Hey" I said trying to get her attention.
"Hmm? Oh thanks for listening to me" she says getting familiar with me.
"You're really impressive, you got talent" I complimented.
"Nah I'm still a beginner but thanks."
She puts her guitar in her case and throws it over to her back while adjusting the guitar strap to a more comfortable position. She leaves at the opposite direction from me. The further she walked the more I didn't want her to go. I wondered if I would ever see her again. Suddenly my hand reaches out her direction and I yelled at her. "WAIT!"
She turns around confused and stumbled by my action. After realizing what I done I was thinking.
What? What am I an idiot? Why the hell did I say that? Wait she's staring at me I better reply soon, but what do I say?
"Um…Will you come back to this spot and play your songs again?" I said embarrassed trying to cover my face.
She smiled "Yeah I'll come back."
"Awesome! Wait! Can I get your name?" I shouted then realizing that I was asking too much.
"It's Masami Iwasawa" she replied back with a wave.
"Thanks! Oh and get back home safely!" I said as I wave back.
But when I said that I thought I heard her quietly say "home huh?" in a sad tone.
I went back home and wonder if what I heard was my imagination. I went into my room and notice that the time was 23:50. Damn it! I almost forgot, tomorrow is Monday, which meant ugh…school. I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth, getting ready for bed. As I lay on my bed I wonder if I would see Iwasawa tomorrow. I realize that I was getting eager for tomorrow to come. I replay the performance Iwasawa did earlier in my head and slowly sleep overcame me.
Next Day: 7:25A.M.
My alarm clock woke me up indicating that it was time to go to hel-school. To me the noise my alarm clock makes is like nails on chalkboard, babies crying or my favorite cup broke, in other words it's the worst noise trying to wake you up for the worst possible place for you to go…school. I quickly brushed my teeth and changed into my uniform. I grabbed my backpack and stuffed toast to my mouth and made a dash to school.
I arrived earlier than I expected I went into my class to my seat and took a nap. It was 7:45A.M. Homeroom doesn't start till 8 so students who come early can do what they want, which for me is to nap. But even that doesn't last long.
"Oi! Aki wake up!" a familiar girl said as she bang my head with her fist. I open my eyes and face the evil girl who disturbed me from my precious nap.
"Yo Aki! What's up?" she says with a smile.
"I see Hisako Matsurra that's what's up" I replied with a yawn.
Hisako Matsurra, a long brown hair girl who likes it tied up in a ponytail, has silver eyes. She is a classmate of mine, loves to play mahjong, and was a band mate, an expert in electric guitar. She also stopped playing music just like me, but we still get along well even though we disbanded.
"Wow that was a loud yawn, didn't sleep well last night?" she said as she sits on the seat in front of me.
"Well I did have an interesting night" I said as I stretched.
"Wait? What? night? …Congrats Aki I never thought you would be able to do it." She said with a shock on her face as she pats on my back.
"Whoa whoa wait I don't know what you're thinking but last night I saw a girl" I said trying to redeem myself.
"Oh thank god at least I know you're straight." Hisako says with relief.
I swear I'm going to kill this girl… but there's no way that's going to happen. The last time I fought with her, she gave me the German Suplex. I sighed thinking about the pain that put me through. I explain to Hisako about Iwasawa and how her amazing her songs was.
"I see…but the name Iwasawa sounds so familiar." She goes around class and asks around about Iwasawa.
"Huh? Iwasawa? Oh that quiet girl, she's in the class next door. Many people gossips about her and they're not that good either. Some says that she cheats off of others to get what she wants, others says that she steals people's boyfriends etc… There are so many rumors about her, but recently her classmates saw bruises on her arms so now they assume that she's into fights." said a rumor-loving girl.
I thought to myself and wonder about the things that my classmate just said. That can't be true, I mean rumors tend to get exaggerated and it's also possible that it's not the same girl.
Soon class started and for the whole time I kept a tense look as I stared out the window, not focusing on class. Eventually lunch break came, at this time people eat lunch and do whatever on their spare time until it's over. Usually I would run down to the bakery and get myself cheap bread since the line is long but this time I wasn't hungry at all. I went to the rooftop and decided to lie down and stare at the sky.
I don't know why but usually nobody is on the rooftop, I wonder if it's a bum thing. Soon I felt something cold on my cheek.
"Yo Aki, here I got you melon juice" Hisako passes me a can.
I chug it.
"Wow thirsty much? You don't go to the rooftop unless you're in deep thought" Hisako says as she took a sip from her water.
"Yeah, just thinking about Iwa-"
"Iwasawa?" she says finishing my sentence.
"Then do you want to go see her? I'm really interested in this girl since it's very hard for people to impress you."
"Huh but wai-"
Before I can even finish my sentence Hisako drags me down the stairs and we went to the classroom next to ours. We took a peek through the door and saw her eating by herself. She was all alone and quiet, it was a sad sight to see. I wanted to go talk to her and keep her company but going in without thinking might be a bad idea. Suddenly while I was still thinking, Hisako opens the door and shout out is "Iwasawa here?"
At that moment everything went slow motion to me when she did that.
"You idiot, why in the world, do you always act before you think? If you weren't a girl I would smack you. God I can't believe you sometimes, we might cause her trouble you know!" Of course I was thinking this in my head, what you expected me to smack her? I don't want to die this early in the story.
Iwasawa made eye contact with Hisako and right away she knew that it was her. Hisako walked toward her and sat in front of her seat. I slowly walked behind her trying to hide the fact that I knew Hisako.
"Wait is that Hisako?"
"What is she doing here?"
"Why is one of the most populist girls talking to someone like Iwasawa?"
"I bet Iwasawa forced her to come eat with her."
"Wait, look! Akiko is here too."
"Don't tell me that Iwasawa seduced Akiko!"
The students whispered in the classroom exaggerating the rumors.
I guess I forgot to mention but due to our old band, me and Hisako are popular in school, when we were still together we would perform concerts in the cafeteria and in certain events. We would practice after school in an empty classroom and students would stay to listen to us, but we retired, I guess some people still remember us.
"Yo! My name is Hisako Matsurra. Nice to meet you Iwasawa" Hisako smiled as she offered her hand. Iwasawa ignored it and continue eating her meal.
"Who the hell does she think she is, ignoring Hisako like that!" Classmates whispered starting to get jealous.
"Hmm I see…well sorry to interrupt your meal. I'll take my leave. Come on Aki" Hisako says as she waves signaling me to follow her. I really didn't want to leave without saying anything but at the same time I didn't want to make any more trouble as it is.
Just before we leave Hisako shouted "Oh and if anybody bad mouth my friend Iwasawa I'll make sure that you'll regret it!" she demonstrated the German Suplex on me. Everybody was shocked and scared in the room including Iwasawa. Hisako left with a smile as she drags me to our classroom.
I was in a lot of pain and despite all that Hisako had the nerve to yell at me.
"Aki I can't believe you, we went all the way to see her and you didn't say anything." Hisako shouted as she puts me in a joint lock.
My body was dead; it went through so much, that when I said something my body ache. Soon class started and like always I didn't concentrate, but this time I have a legit excuse.
Finally school was over! My body recovered due to how happy I am.
"Freedom!" I screamed as I dash out of school! Unfortunately Hisako caught up with me and wanted to walk around before we separate and go home.
"Man didn't you torture me enough." I said dragging my feet to walk side by side with her.
"Hey Akiko?" she said in a serious tone.
"Yeah?"
"Did you ever thought about starting the band again or start a new one?" she said with a straight face.
I knew she was serious when she said my name like that. I thought this before and believe that we can never go back to the way it was but…it's not like I never wanted to start over. Back in those days it was fun and amazing. To be honest, I miss the rush of it, the feeling, the crowd, everything.
"Yeah I do but we can't start over, it won't be the same without everyone…but we can start a new one."
The reason why our band disbanded was the fact that our leader died about a year ago. Our leader was a close friend of ours but one day she suicide without even letting us know why. We took the blame since we weren't able to prevent her death. We didn't realize what's she was suffering from. We all took it hard, our band members left without a word and Hisako and I never saw them again. However Hisako took it the worst, she and our leader was the best of friends; they did everything together, so to see that she died, made us stop playing music. Playing music would remind of us of the band and would remind us of her. Worst of all it made us wonder why?
When Hisako was asking about to start a band again I wonder if she was ready to move on?
"Hmm I see…Hey Aki, let's go to the arcades!" She cheered up as she grabs me to go.
"Huh? Wait but I'm brok-"
I decided to go with her even though I'm low on cash. I know that she did that to change the depressing topic; she was that kind of a person.
We played Street Fighter Arcade and she used the character Ryu while I used Ken. Of course she kicked my ass by spamming me with hadouken and then finishing me off with a shinryuken.
Damn! I learned the hard way that girls don't play fair, especially with her.
Next we played dance dance revolution in expert mode. We drew quite a crowd since we rocked. We would do some tricks when the song allows us to. This time I was in the lead by a few thousand points, finally a game where I would win. Just when the song was about to end Hisako sweep kick me and I missed all my steps which means she won…even worse the crowd cheered when she won, it's like they didn't see what she did.
We played other games as well such as air hockey but we stayed far away from guitar hero. Don't even ask about the results of the games, all you have to know is that I'm in pain and she's the winner. We stopped playing when we realize it was night.
"Wow that was fun right Aki?" she asked with a victory look.
"…I feel bad for your boyfriend in the future." I said crying as I looked at my empty wallet.
"Hahaha well until then you will have to take care of me!" She laughed.
"If I do, would you care for me?" I asked seeing it wouldn't be so bad to date Hisako.
"Nope"
"Never!" I shouted running away from her.
"Hey wait up!" She chased after me
I notice the area I was running and realize that Iwasawa played her guitar around here. Hisako gaining speed caught up and tackle me to the ground.
"Caught you, now you goi-"
-"We've got to move ahead, toward tomorrow" -
"Wait can you hear it?" I cut her off trying to hear the song again.
-"So I'm going to sing like this"-
"Huh what are you tal-"
"Shhh…Listen…" I said. We heard the song and let it guide us to where she was.
"You may be crying, you may be lonely
But that's perfect-that's what human is
The tears you shed say
Thank you for giving life to us-beautiful, honest, and real"
We found her and she kept her word, she played her song at the same place. I decided to sit at the same spot but this time Hisako joined me. We both were entranced by her song. While Iwasawa was singing, I looked at my surroundings to see people enjoying the song but I was most surprised when I saw Hisako playing air guitar trying to imitate Iwasawa's rhythm. When the song was over everybody clapped and she began packing up her guitar.
"Hey Iwasawa"
"Oh you're the guy from yesterday…" She said realizing who I was. I felt like I got crushed by a ton because she didn't notice I was in her classroom earlier.
"Iwasawa! I want you to make a band with you" Hisako excitedly said as she holds Iwasawa's hands.
"Wait you're Hisako from this afternoon!" Iwasawa said surprised to see her here.
"Your song, your performance, everything was amazing and original! It's like I found my passion again…it's like your song shook my soul. Please I want to create a band with you." Hisako pleaded.
"Wait what about me? Also, how rude of you to cut me off!" I thought.
"Um…uh I'm sorry but I have to go…" Iwasawa grabbed her guitar and ran away.
"Damn I'm not letting this chance get away from me; I'm going to recruit her no matter what!" Hisako chased after her.
Geez once Hisako makes up her mind there's no stopping her.
Hmm I have a few choices, I could A) follow her and make sure she doesn't get into trouble B) go home and sleep C) get laid
Let's see I have to get rid of C cause that would be some miracle for that to happen, B sounds like the better choice but if I get rid of A my conscious would totally haunt me. A, it is then; I quickly followed Hisako and eventually caught up with her. She stopped in front of a house which I assume it's Iwasawa's home.
"Geez Hisako let's go home, it's late and I don't want any more trouble, you can recruit her tomorrow." I said as I try to force her to leave.
"Wait look" she whispered as she points to the window.
I looked to see a drunken man and a woman arguing. "Don't tell me that those are Iwasawa's parents…"
Their fight was something we didn't understand. Why? We thought why have pointless fights? They have such a wonderful daughter; their family is together…they can try to overcome their problems instead of making it worse…and yet why? Their fight started to get aggressive and loud.
"WHY DO I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOU? HUH? YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT ME! WHO IS SUPPORTING THE FAMILY? ME NOT YOU! I CAN BECOME MUCH MORE THAN THIS! NO I HAVE TO WORK TO THE BONE JUST TO PUT A MEAL ON THE TABLE! WHY CAN'T YOU STOP BEING ANNOYING AND LET ME DO WHAT I WANT!" the man yelled as he drinks from his beer.
"STOP! DON'T YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THE ACTIONS YOU'RE MAKING? DON'T YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY! PLEASE STOP DRINKING!" The woman tries to take the beer bottle away from her husband.
Both are struggling but it's obvious that the man had more strength than her.
"STOP IT!" Iwasawa screamed as she rushes in to stop them from fighting however it was no use.
The man got hold of his bottle and…
*THUMP*…*CRACK*
Blood cover the area of the fight…and for once the house became silent…as the blood slowly spread around the floor…
Authors Note: Hello my fellow fanfic readers! This is my 1st time writing a fanfic, the reason why I'm writing is to improve my writing skills, I consider myself as a poor writer after all. I appreciate you for taking your time in reading this, but I would be even more thankful if you took your time to write a review. I want to know what you think! What are the pros and cons in this story and what do you expect in the next chapter. I plan on introducing all the other characters from Angel Beats and their problems. Also if there's any problems please inform me so I can correct them. Angel Beats does not belong to me (no matter how much I wish…) but to their respective companies. THANK YOU!
Trivia:
Hisako- doesn't have a last name since it wasn't introduced so I used her voice actor last name.
Akiko Oyobu- is an OC which this story is about his POV and will eventually connect the other characters together. Originally he was supposed to be a cold person that eventually opens up but I changed it up a bit making him comic relief at times and the type that will become impressive when the time is needed. His name means "brightly reaching out"
German Suplex- an intense wrestling move that Yui saw on tv which she was able to do thanks to Otonashi
23:50- a song from GDM, I used it as the time here to symbolize when Akiko first met Iwasawa
Joint lock- a move that Hinata always used on Yui
Ryu and Ken- from Capcom Street Fighter, Both are incredible fighters and best friends/rivals. Ryu is Japanese and a hardworking fighter. Ken is American also hardworking but also known to be funny and knows how to relax. I used them in a way to connect Akiko and Hisako as best friends.
Sad Machine- A band that helped inspired Iwasawa to become a musician. Also Hisako's playing style is similar to them. I decided to connect them together that way it would be easier explaining stuff.