Angel Beats – Arpeggio of Souls
Chord: A combination of three or more notes that blend harmoniously when sounded together.
Chapter 2 – Daydream of the Dead
I feel my body. Am I alive?
"Get up, the class is starting." A voice echoed in my ears, a soft voice devoid of emotion.
I opened my eyes and see before me a woman with hair that blends in with the sky, eyes that possess the color of a noble metal. "Are you an angel?" I asked dumbly, it looks like my head hasn't fully operational yet.
"I am not an angel," She responded as if she has been asked that question a thousand times. "I am the student council president." Now that is strange. It seems that I am inside an educational institute of some sort.
"Is this heaven?" I asked just in case. I'm sure I'm engulfed in a fireball just a while ago.
"This is the afterlife." I fall silent at that statement. Yes, that is the most logical conclusion to this situation. I remember the race, the fireball, the pain. My mind just unconsciously rejected all those to be the truth, the tragic truth. Even if I survived the fire, I wouldn't remain unscathed like I am now. This is indeed a world after death.
I don't know why, suddenly I feel really angry. I am mad and I feel the desire to express it to the world.
"Why? Why did you do this to me, God?" Pain is felt, not the ones received by my nerves but by my mind. I just lost everything and suddenly sent here, an afterlife of departed souls. The absurdity of this situation craves my path into insanity. "Why did you prolong my suffering by throwing me into this twisted afterlife?" I shouted as loud as physics allowed me to. I don't care how that 'student council president' reacts. "Anyone! Please explain to me this madness! Who the hell wanted to be thrown into the afterlife after losing everything in his life?" I don't want to be myself anymore. I turn around, facing my back to that girl, "Goddamn it… I'm useless to the very end.
"I don't want to be the failure known as Takuji Ishikuro. "I feel no reason to remain living, take my life, God."
So I am here, in the class in a school. But what purpose does a school serve? It is to educate. But what remains to be educated to a dead man? What knowledge can be earned by someone who is dead? I am already dead, so I cannot be dead again. That reason was why I didn't die after being mysteriously stabbed by that girl. It's not "death" in a literal sense; it's a period of unconsciousness between being killed and revival in this anomalous world.
On a recent topic, that girl is ridiculously blunt. She didn't have to take my words literally and kill me. I'm having psychological breakdown for God's sake, not a death wish! Her seat is near to mine (in front of me), to make things worse.
After talking to a few of the students, I find that they're… somehow different from that girl whom stabbed me. They're generic, to be as blunt as that girl. They act like a normal student, which does not compute with a school after death. The students should be aware of the situation; they're humans too, right? This is the afterlife, so logically all people who died should come here, and in my case, retained their memories.
My conclusion is that I am a special case. Unlike all other 'students' (people who died) in this school, I retained my memory when I was alive.
In the other hand, that blunt girl is a 'watchdog' of this world; someone who maintains the stability of this world by directly interfering with it. Her sense of emotion also seems to be imperfect. An NPC, to say. She is also aware that this is afterlife.
I think this world is also made by God, and therefore that girl is a servant of God, an Angel.
Of course, there are flaws in my logic. An Angel is a servant of God, whom is the Ultimate Good. An Angel should not kill, but she did a moment ago. And again, this is a world where people cannot die, so it doesn't exactly qualify as 'killing' either. This is just too confusing.
Another contradictive point is that she said she is not an angel, but angels can't lie under the Ten Commandments. If what she said is truth, than she is a human, too. But if she is a human, there's a chance that she was lying and she is really an angel. Okay, enough screwing with my own logic. I'll take a cheap guess, she is not an angel and that's final. I need someone, a guide of some sorts that can lead me through this world.
And all I can come up with is, 'That girl who stabbed me'. Asking her is not a good idea. Due to her overwhelmingly blunt nature, I might get stabbed if I asked a strange question. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I need a weapon, any weapon just in case.
After the first period, I come across a pile of dirt in the backyard of the classroom building. How I wandered there is something not worth discussing (well, I am planning to skip the rest of the lessons and wandered here during break time). So there are plants here, too. I didn't notice earlier because I am too absorbed at that girl. I need a weapon, a simple weapon. A stick made of metal would be sufficient.
I lean against the wall of the pool building and begin to think.
That weapon generated from the right arm of that girl. How that is humanly possible? Perhaps… the laws of this world are more lenient than in the real world? Hell, I don't even know if the afterlife qualifies as real. Perhaps it is the power of an angel? No, if she is an angel she would wipe me out with a humongous energy blast from the gates of heaven just to show how awesome God truly is, although that would qualify as an overkill.
That girl is the student council president, right? So she must be a paragon of how a student acts (seriously, she shouldn't kill if so). This means she will make people abide the rules of this school, and remembering how I am here skipping classes, she will be searching for me soon. Not the time to think about that, anyway. To take a load off my mind, I take as much air as I could into my lungs and breathe it out.
This world is too absurd. The afterlife, humans are trapped in an endless circle of reincarnations, or so I believed. Then, is the afterlife a part of that cycle, are they not? The souls sent here lost their memories and become a normal student, whose act like a normal human does. Still, there is something amiss about those students, they lack something important that humans should possess.
Diversity, that's it. Everyone is different in their own ways, but the students here are pretty much the same. They're like individuals who are described in elementary textbooks, as blank as a white paper. Or if two analogies are needed, those characters generated from filled bios. The 'behavior' part of their report card will say all the same, maybe. Hell, the teacher let me to take a nap during the first period, and that's when I sat on the front row.
My earlier theory is wrong. The students may be physically human, but they are not fully human. They're a simple character with well-made dialogue trees. NPCs, if I must be analogical. From that logic, another question arises. Am I the only human here?
An hour felt like a minute. All of a sudden, my stomach growls in agony. Wait, dead people needs food? I can't die again of starvation, right? Just to be on the safe side, I decide to search for the café, every school should have one and because this is an especially large school, the range of foods available must be wide, wide enough to fit my western tastes. Finding a weapon comes first, so no food until then.
I look at the fence near me. One of the steel poles is quite literally hanging; one side cut by something and only held in place by barb wires. A sharp blade, perhaps? But no, this is a regulated school and the existence of a weapon is questionable. I walk to the fence and pulled the steel pole with all my might; that pole is quite durable, and the cut barbwire adds some dangerous look to the soon-to-be-weapon.
It is just as I thought, pulling that thing off is harder when you have an empty stomach, or the fence just did its job well, a little bit too well. So I reorganize my list of priorities and the topmost of that list is to get something to eat. After that I can try to pull the pole again.
I started to walk with heavy steps. The damn problem is that I don't know where the café is, I would trade my clothes with a map by now. The second period has just finished. Presumably, the student council president will be hunting me down now. I wander to the big building, which seems to be the café.
"What… in the world?" I totally don't expect this to happen, the girl is right in front of me with a hard-to-detect stern expression.
"So, what are you planning to do?" I am foolishly trying to be polite here. I already knew this isn't going to work out; she's your emotionless student council president. Expect to be dragged by the collar to the classroom.
"I will bring you into the class." A blunt answer alright. Still, it is spoken softly that you can't tell if she's going to accompany you nicely or drag you mercilessly to the class.
There's only one thing to do if I doesn't want to attend class and waste my time, run. Until the third period bell rang. She has to attend classes herself as the student council president. I should run until the bell of salvation ring. She just stood there for several seconds. Good, she is aware that she can't catch up to me. I'm pretty athletic after all, so I doesn't expect her to pursu…
Hey, this is cheating. The girl gives a chase without breaking a sweat; it is very surprising that she slowly catch up to my position. Her agility isn't normal. She's covering meters in mere seconds and will get me in ten seconds or less.
I said to her, or more like taunting her, "Cut it out, you'll strain yourself!"
That must hit a nerve, although her expression is unchanging, her speed is increasing steadily into inhuman levels. I take a turn to the right to the shades of sunset beside the classroom building and lose her there. Ah, she forgot to brake and is having a hard time cornering, great speed comes with great consequences.
She's still on my tail although her cornering has restored the distance. Entering this downhill road, I quickly formulate the means of my escape. Entering the classroom building is suicide, I don't know the insides and most likely to run into a dead end. Alright, I'm going to make it into the bridge to the left and jump from it, I can swim, after all.
Heavens, I tripped.
So I'm back in the classroom and I'm sure that girl is now keeping an eye on me. This sucks, even suckier than my life, if I am allowed to compare. Doing nothing during the break time like I am now is simply boring. The fourth period will start soon and my hunger are getting worse per second, I wasted too much calorie running from this girl.
Another student approaches my desk, he is quite stylish with his black hair and sharp pair of green eyes. I envy green eyes; they look nicer compared to my eyes of brown. I have a nicer hair color than him, though, that is dark blue.
"So you're the newcomer this time, huh?" He asked me.
"Yeah, a student out of nowhere." I replied to the boy. That girl is a watchdog of this world; I still stand on that opinion. So if I cause instabilities in this world, such as letting the NPCs know that this is the afterlife, she'll fix it. Possibly by killing the NPC and me.
The boy sighed, "We masquerade no NPCs here. You're dead and you know that." That triggered a switch of happiness, I just found someone who is actually human. "I would like to talk to you, after school. If we talk now it would take too long and Tachibana will get mad."
"Tachibana?" I asked spontaneously.
"The one in front of you, who else? I won't bother to remember an NPC's name." That caught me by surprise. That girl could get mad? Nah, his sentence hints that he is only aware of three actual human beings here. Me, himself and this Tachibana girl. But the first order of business is to excavate more information.
"That is pretty rude of you to not introduce yourself."
"Ah, sorry about that. My name is Tsumemasa Homura. If you wouldn't mind, call me the Programmer." He said in haste. Homura, his first name means flame, which is the rate his mouth is spitting words at.
"Huh? The Programmer?" I asked without a clue of what he might mean.
"Creator of Angel Player, you won't understand anyway. I want to ask you, what is your regret when you are living?" He asked me impatiently but fluently, as if he is trained to ask that question. His body is well-built; he is still in his early twenties from what I can tell. A shame he died young. Well, I died when I was eighteen, so that is my current age.
"Hey, hey! It won't be impolite if I don't introduce myself as well. My name is Takuji Ishikuro, nice to meet you." I smiled gently; first impression is a key to making frien…
"I said details are not important. What is your regret? Answer me." He cut off my train of thought just like that.
This young boy is a tad too energetic and rushed, "Okay, my regret is not being able to help my girlfriend from her incurable sickness. Not be able to live happily with her. And I never get to say goodbye to my friends and families."
"Hmmm, the last one is standard. But the first and second one is strong… Yep, you should do as the last member."
"Standard? Strong? What those had to do with regrets?"
"Duh, your density is above steel. Standard regrets are family, friend, property and such. The only strong regret is love."
"What's the difference?"
"Only love-related regrets capable of keeping us here even if we are happy, because we can never be truly happy with that kind of regret."
"I have to disagree in that line of thinking. Love precedes friendship and family precedes love. What would happen if we find our love here, anyway?"
"…" The boy fell silent at my reply, "Than, things would turn out very messy." I noticed a trace of sadness just now. Must be my mixed-up feelings. "Tell me, why do you think you're here?"
"My life sucks and that's why I'm here." I give him a joke reply. Surprise surfaced on his face.
"Huh? You are absolutely correct! I never expect someone like you to get it on the first day. Yes, you're definitely the one we need." He just becomes 120% more hyper than before, evident by his louder voice.
He turned his body as the bell rings, sending waves of sound throughout the afterlife. "Come with me after school, we will meet again in the main dining hall."
I never expected that my death will be a beginning of an entirely new adventure.
A/N: Yep, we're getting closer to the point. Sorry I cannot get to the point where the Protagonist actually interacts with Kanade. I had a little writer's block (more like writer's fear) of getting the geographical setting wrong during the chase scene, luckily I found a handy map of the school.
Thanks for reading. Leave a review if you want, it would be much appreciated.
