Hey, thanks for starting the second chapter. This one introduces the second and third main characters, including the Battlefront's newest leader and the Second Angel. It probably isn't too hard to guess who the Second Angel is, haha. It also introduces a few of the Battlefront's members, as well. So, as always, enjoy and please leave some reviews.

Chapter 2

"Damn," groaned Okazaki, "What the hell happened? And where am I?"

"So, you're finally awake are you?"

Okazaki looked up toward the origin of the voice. There was a girl standing over Okazaki's motionless body. She was about the normal height for a girl, she had a ponytail, black as the night sky, going down past the middle of her back. She looked to be quite fit and a slender build.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" Okazaki asked her. He was having a little trouble comprehending such a strange situation first thing after waking. Not to mention his killer headache wasn't helping much either.

"Oh nothing," she replied "just standing over our newest member." She looked quite pleased with herself for some reason.

Newest member?" Okazaki asked here. "Who, me?"

"Duh, dumbass. Who else is around here for me to be talking about? Casper the Friendly Ghost?"

What the hell is Casper the Friendly Ghost? thought Okazaki.

He took a look around after that thought and he couldn't see anyone else that she could be talking about. "So, what, exactly, am I the newest member of?" He was already starting to get tired of this girl. He just wanted to go home.

But something was off about the place he was at. He didn't recognize any of it. Not only that, but it looked like he was at the top of a stadium's stands. Just as he realized this, the girl replied, "The I-Ain't-Dead-Yet Battlefront.

Okazaki gave this girl the stupidest look he could muster. He was stunned after all. He wakes up in an unfamiliar location, with a strange girl standing over top of him, telling him he is the newest member of some strange group or organization know as the I-Ain't-Dead-Yet Battlefront. The day was getting weirder and weirder by the moment.

"Okay then," Okazaki said. "What, exactly, does this 'Battlefront' do and why would be the newest member, let alone having the slightest bit of interest in joining this strange group in the first place?" He was starting to lose patience with this strange girl pretty quickly.

"Because," she said, "you're dead."

Okazaki was so taken aback by how matter-of-fact that she had said it. It took him a moment for his mind to process the phrase that came with too little emotion to be meaning what the words actually mean. By the time he understood fully what she had just said his denial was overshadowed by the way this girl had stated it that he almost started to believe what she just said.

Okazaki cleared his mind and turned to the girl. "So. According to you, I'm dead." he said.

"Exactly."

"Uh-huh." After a pause, he says "Are you some kinda retard?'

The girl didn't seem to be the least bit phased by his remark and replied, "Nope. I'm perfectly sane."

Okazaki sighed and said, "There is no way I'm dead. Look! I still have a body! I'm not some freaking ghost."

She laughed pretty hard at that. "Well, of course," she said. "This is the Afterlife, not Heaven."

He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Afterlife? Was that some sort of crazy joke? He was obviously alive. Something like that wasn't quite feasible to him and he wouldn't accept it.

He looked around and saw a guy walking around inside the stadium's field. "I think I am gonna go and talk to the guy walking around down there," he told her.

She instantly started screaming. "Are you out of your freaking mind? Well? Do you want to die?"

Okazaki just laid there, staring at her, dumbfounded, from her sudden outburst.

"Well?" she asked. "Was it funny?"

"Eh?"

She sighed and straightened up. "It's a joke specifically for this world. Well, since you can't die and all."

That statement surprised Okazaki. "Can't die?"

"Well duh. You're already dead." Again with the matter-of-fact tone.

"Would you just stop it? It's completely obvious that I am not dead. Why are you trying to screw with me? Is this Battlefront thing just some sort of trick to rob me or something?"

Okazaki was really starting to get heated. "I'm gonna go talk to someone same rather than a freak like you."

He got up and started walking down the stairs heading to the field where that other person was walking around.

The girl tried to stop him, yelling that she was telling the truth and the guy walking around down there was a very dangerous person.

"I doubt it, but at least he ain't some sorta freak like you are." He stopped for a second and sighed. "I hope," he said, and resumed walking.

He walked down the stairs with the girl yelling after him the he can always trust her no matter what may happen and that when it does happen, she will be there to help him.

"Stop screwing with me! I'm not dead!"

"If you talk to him," she yelled, "you'll be erased! Do you understand that? Do you really want that?"

He finally reached the guy standing in the field.

"Hey!" he yelled to the stranger. "I need someone sane to explain to me where the hell I am." He lightly jogged up to the guy.

"Yeah?" the guy asked him.

Good, thought Okazaki, this guy seems normal.

The boy had light orange-colored hair, about the same height as himself, but definitely younger. Though something about him have Okazaki the feeling that this man had seen many people just as confused as himself.

Okazaki starts quite quickly for the simple fact that he wanted answers and he was going to get them no matter what.

"Okay, I woke up just a bit ago with no freaking clue where I was and this really weird girl was standing over top of-"

"Whoa, Whoa. Calm down now, and tell me slowly. I'm not getting anything out of that fast, garbled speech of yours. So slow down, start with your name, and tell me what happened.

"Sorry," he apologized, "and my name is Tomoya Okazaki.

So he slowed down and told the guy about how he woke up in an unknown place with some strange girl standing over him. He told him how this girl said that he was the newest member of some weird group called the I-Ain't-Dead-Yet Battlefront and that he was dead and in the Afterlife.

"But you are."

He wasn't expecting that answer and he quickly jerks his head towards the boy.

"What?" he asked.

"You are dead," the boy said. "This is the Afterlife."

Okazaki stood there stunned for a moment.

"You're in on this too, aren't you?" he yells at the boy, pointing his finger at him. "Then prove it to me you bastard! Prove to me that I am already dead and that I can't die. Prove it!"

The boy started to laugh. "You sound exactly like when I first arrived here. I yelled something quite similar to Kanade and ended up in the infirmary." The boy starts to pull something out of his jacket. It was a handgun.

Startled, Okazaki starts to back up. "What the hell are you going with a gun! They're illegal! How did you even get it?"

"Nothing is illegal in the Afterlife, you know." The look on the boys face suggested that he has done whatever he was about to do, or at least something similar, plenty of times in the past. That he was used to it.

"Bull!" Okazaki screamed. "I'm not dead!"

The boys sighed and said, "You'll realize soon enough." He pointed the gun at Okazaki with his finger in the trigger, completely still. It seems he has used that gun many times in the past and has become very skilled with it. He felt that the boy could hit any target, spot on.

"Come on, please." Okazaki was shaking in terror. He didn't want to die. He had just woken up. "Please don't do this!"

"Don't worry," the boy told him. "It'll only hurt for a little bit.

"No," he begged. "Please don't!"

Okazaki was sweating and shaking in fear. He had a terrible life but of sadness only. Never once had he felt any fear for he had never been in a situation where fear had presented itself. The sensation was new too him.

"Sorry." The boy pulled the trigger and the gunshot rang throughout the still, silent night.

Okazaki felt a thud in his stomach and looked down at himself. There was a hole in his shirt and the blood stains were spreading all through it. His vision was fading and his senses were dulling.

He falls to the ground, motionless yet still. But conscious.

Right before he loses consciousness, he hears he boys say, "By the way, Okazaki-san, my name is Yuzuru. Yuzuru Otonashi."

When Okazaki awoke, he was on a cot in what appeared to be a school's infirmary.

He sat up in a split second and checked his stomach for a bullet wound. There was no wound, no bullet, scar, or anything.

He sighed. "Holy hell, it was just a dream."

He looked around for his shirt and found on a chair next to his cot. "I guess I must have passed out drunk and Sanae found me. Guess she brought me back and changed my shirt since it was probably covered in sweat and most likely vomit. Wouldn't be the first time."

He picked up the shirt, and instantly, realization hit him lit a baseball bat to the gut.

The shirt was soaked blood. There was a hole where the bullet had hit him in his dream. Which means, "It wasn't a dream!"

Okazaki throws the shirt to the ground and jumps out of bed, rushing to get dressed, albeit without the shirt. He puts on the jacket that was lying next to the shirt and sprints out of the infirmary running with all his strength. The hallways pass him by at high speeds as he takes off looking for someone, anyone, that can tell him what was happening.

You are dead.

This is the Afterlife.

But you are.

Afterlife.

Dead.

All the things he was told the previous day flashed through his mind in a rush as he sprinted through the hallways.

No way! he thought. There is no freaking way!

You'll be erased!

That single phrase the strange girl from yesterday told him came to his mind.

Yeah, he thought, if all this crazy shit is real, if I really am dead, I'll just get erased and this freaky nightmare will be over! Maybe, just maybe, I can start anew and who knows, maybe I will get Ushio back. Spend those five whole years I acted as a stranger to her as a real father to the poor girl. I left her alone for far too long. She spent the first five whole years of her life without a father. I really am a bastard.

Just as I was becoming a real father to her, she… she…

Okazaki started crying as he ran through the hallways. He wiped his tears and renewed his search.

As he ran through the school, he soon realized that there was no one there. Not students, faculty, or teachers. He hadn't noticed because he hadn't been paying attention. There was no one.

If it's a weekend, he thought, if it's a weekend that would make sense. But if it is a weekend then the principal should be here at least!

He stops and takes a look at the nearby guest directory, and resumes running in the direction of where the sign indicated the location of the principal's office was at.

He was completely drained of energy by the time he had reached the office.

Just as he had grabbed the door knob, well, lo and behold, a massive hammer swung down from the ceiling and smashed him straight through the window. The last thing he remembers before going unconscious, was flaying through the daytime sky.

He woke up in a strange room. In this room there were a few people arguing. He saw the girl from the previous day and a few others all bickering about something.

"Listen to me!" yelled some short guy with long, greased back, black hair. He also had a stocky build, and looked like he could easily beat anyone in a fight. "We almost lost this newbie! If it wasn't for the fact that he was a retard to go up and as Angel to prove he couldn't die, Angel would probably have a new ally! We need a new method of recruiting. One that does not involve us telling them they are dead first thing right to their faces."

The girl from before crossed her arms, agitatedly, and replied, "I don't see any problem with it." She obviously wasn't going to give in, but from Okazaki's experience, the short guy was right. "If they can handle being told that to their face right away, that would just prove their strength. I mean, come on, the First Generation did it!"

"We aren't the First Generation!" yelled a blonde boy with glasses. His hair spiked up in the back, with bangs curving around his glasses. "We're nothing compared to them! They were the highlight of the Battlefront. They had the numbers, supplies, and influence to effectively fight the first Angel."

"Not only that," said another boy with short, blood-red hair and an average build, "we know nothing about the First Generation other than a few basics and the names of the leader Yuri Nakamura and co-founder Hinata Hideki. I'm sure they did more than just blurt it right out to their faces."

The short guy continued to yell. "Right! If this guy wasn't such an idiot he'd already be-"

"You know, I don't really appreciate being called an idiot. Especially not twice." Okazaki decided to speak up from his eavesdropping after he had been called an idiot for the second time, that he knew of.

"I could hear you this entire time, you know. And I'm not an idiot."

"Oh! The dumbass is awake!"

A voice behind him startled him for he hadn't previously noticed her sitting next to his lying body. He then proceeded to glare at her for calling him a moron.

"Now can you guys explain to me what the hell happened when I tried to enter the principal's office?" asked Okazaki.

"You were taken out by the Guardian Hammer," said the girl from the other day.

Okazaki was somewhat stunned by the fact that a school had such an enormous hammer, let alone one at all, guarding the principal's office. "And why is there a giant hammer guarding the principal's office?"

They boy with glasses replied to him, "We believe it was used to guard the First Generation's headquarters of the I-Ain't-Dead-Yet Battlefront"

"Which just happens to be this place and is the reason you got whacked," said the short boy.

"So," said Okazaki. "I really am dead?"

"You're finally beginning to accept the truth?" asked the girl from the previous night.

"Well, after being shot in the stomach and smashed out the window by a giant hammer and still being alive, let one escaping without a single injury to speak of does kinda drill that fact into ya," Okazaki stated.

"Yup," she said. "You finally understand."

"No," he replied, "I don't understand. Not at all. But I have come to terms with things that I have personally experience and can no longer deny."

"Fair enough," she said. "Okay, how about we do introductions first and then you can come with me and I'll give you the rundown on everything I know."

"Hey, just hold on a sec," said the short guy. "You sure we can trust this guy?"

"I'm sure we can. He's experienced the wrath of Angel, Albeit that was totally his own fault, so I don't see him betraying us."

"I never said I'd join you," Okazaki stated, "I just want to know what the hell is going on. Then maybe, repeat maybe, I'll consider it. Either that or get erased."

They all shot him a deathly look simultaneously.

"What?"

"Are you serious?" asked the short boy.

"Guys, guys how about we all calm down and I'll explain that to him later," the girl from the other day said. "Okay? Good. Now lets do the introductions, boy."

He didn't like being called "boy" by some girl who was obviously younger than him by a marginal amount.

"Okay," she said. "My name is Ellie. Ellie Simmons. I'm the current leader of this little rebellion that we all seem to call our home.

Rebellion?

The short guy was the next to introduce himself. "My name is Cory Hampton." He didn't seem to happy. "I don't trust you, you little bastard so don't try anything funny or you ass is cooked. And don't act like you are older and better than us. You're not."

This kids got a hell of an attitude, Okazaki though. Reminds me of myself in high school.

The short girl that was sitting next to him introduced herself then. "Hiya dumbass, my name is Tsubaki Katakawa. Don't even think about something perverted or making a move on me or I'll castrate you myself. A few hundred times over." She then proceeds to pulls out an incredibly large, serrated knife from its sheath at her side. She's got what someone would call, under normal circumstances, a very cute smile and laugh.

Scary chick, though Okazaki. Don't plan on messing with her like I would Fuko.

Okazaki startled himself. He just said the name of someone that he doesn't know. Fuko? Wait. Who is that? I don't even know anyone by that name.

Tsubaki put that crazy knife back into its sheath and sat back down.

Next was the blonde boy.

Next was the blonde boy with glasses.

"My name is Gale Withers. You could basically say that I am the guy that keeps all these people on check. Please, do not add an extra load onto my already stressed self by being some sort of fool."

Okazaki didn't like this guy.

"Well that was rude Gale," said the guy with red hair. "They guy just got here and has no clue what is happening. Cut him some slack, man. I mean, come on, Cory and Tsu-chan are the only ones that really need watching."

"Watch it!" both Cory and Tsubaki hissed at the same time.

He laughs and turns to Okazaki. "My name is Carter Manson. Don't worry, buddy, I'll be nice." He laughs again.

He seems to be a good guy, thought Okazaki. Maybe he'll be of more use than these other people.

Okazaki then spoke up and gave his own introduction. "My name is Tomoya Okazaki. I'm not sure what this place is and I'm not sure that I am gonna join whatever this little group of yours is. I'll consider it after I listen to what you have to say." He sighed, "And stop acting like you are all superior you bunch of high school brats."

Unsurprisingly, Cory got all fired up at that. "Who're you calling brats? You're a high schooler too y'know!"

"I graduated high school a long time ago."

"Oh really. Then how old are you, bastard?"

"Twenty-five."

They all stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing. The only person to stay calm was Ellie.

"You really are a dumbass!" yelled Tsubaki. "No one here is that old. This world is a purgatory for the Earth's youth that couldn't accept their unfair lives."

Okazaki was a little surprised. He wasn't expecting answers so soon into it. A purgatory? For the youth of the Earth who could not accept their horrible, unfair lives. Then why was some like himself who was past the prime of his youth, albeit a horrible youth, but a youth all the same.

"Yes," said Gale. "So don't even try to lie to us."

"But I'm not lying! I really am telling the truth! My youth sucked too but…" That is when he realized something. But for some reason he felt as he should not speak what was currently on his mind so he dismissed it and continued with his argument. "But I really am telling the truth!"

"I believe you."

Okazaki turned to the voice who said those faithful words. It was Carter.

"You're too trusting Carter," declared Gale.

"I think you need to be more trusting, Gale, rather than blocking off your heart off to everyone that you meet," Carter retorted quickly and with great conviction.

Gale pushed up his glasses and crossed his arms but said nothing.

Carter continued, "Until we came first came here, a world like this seemed impossible. Now we are here and its normal for us, but just as when we were alive we are blowing off something we haven't seen before as impossibilities. We thought a world like this was impossible but here we are. Just because something cant be proven through our own senses or scientifically, especially scientifically, does not mean it is impossible."

"You make a very good point," Ellie declared. "I think you are right. I think that humans are too grounded in the reality of what they can prove. They won't believe what they can't see. I believe Okazaki. I mean, he does seem to have a few years on us."

The others sighed and gave in.

"Fine," said Cory. "But I still won't trust him. At least, not until he proves himself."

"And how am I supposed to prove myself?"

"Just like everyone else," said Ellie as she jumps off the desk that she was sitting on. "With missions.