AUTHOR'S NOTE (and disclaimer):

The Angel Beats! Characters finally appear! Again, Angel Beats! Is not mine. It belongs to the genius Jun Maeda *bows down

-Verse 4-

Tenshi's PoV

I could feel a light breeze blowing, and a pressure applied to my side. It felt cold, like metal, and had a faint smell of gunpowder. Wow, my head throbbed like crazy. I heard a few voices in the background. I tried opening my eyes.

"Oi, don't poke her!"

"She kinda looks like Kanade."

"Hey, you're right!"

"She's waking up!"

My eyes were met with fourteen pairs. Well, thirteen, if you don't count the closed ones of the floating ninja girl. Wait – floating?

A girl with purple hair and sea-green eyes stepped forward. "Welcome to the Afterlife War Front. I'm Yuri.", she said, while holding a pistol. Oh, so that was what I felt earlier.

"Afterlife War Front?", I asked, maintaining a carefully emotionless facade. I was pretty confused. Where am I? I peered around and saw that I was inside some sort of office. That's weird - the last thing I remember is a dark forest...

"Yes. You're dead.", said a blue-haired boy with royal blue eyes and a cheery smile. "I'm Hideki Hinata. Welcome to the afterlife."

Wait... I'm dead? "If I'm dead, why am I here? And how can I be dead?", I warily asked them. The situation we were in seemed a bit suspicious.

"We don't really know, you're supposed to find that out for yourself. Most of us lose our memory when we arrive in the afterlife...", said a red-haired young man with burgundy eyes, while smiling shyly.

"Now that you mention it, I don't remember much...", I said. "That's alright. Naoi here can help you remember through hypnotism.", said Yuri with a smile. "Okay.", I replied.

"Sheesh, you're almost as emotionless as Tachibana.", remarked a boy with black hair and a ShiraSaya. Yuri elbowed him and scolded him for being impolite.

A short boy with rust-colored hair and green eyes offered me a hand, which I accepted. I stood up, but when I did, they all stared at me with shocked eyes and gaping mouths. I felt something involuntarily stretch behind me.

"What's wrong?", I asked. I twisted my neck 90 degrees and saw pure, white wings. I'm starting to remember a few details...

Normal PoV

Everyone was surprised at Tenshi's wings, but quickly recovered and pointed their guns at her. "You're an angel! How can you be here?", shouted Yuri.

Tenshi looked at them with no emotion whatsoever on her face. "I don't know.", she deadpanned.

"Tell us where God is!", commanded Hinata. "I don't know.", she replied again. "Are you dead?", shouted Noda. "I don't know.", she said yet again. "Why are you here?", asked Fujimaki. "I don't know." , she said, stressing the word don't.

Yuri's eyes narrowed, and she said, "Shoot." A barrage of bullets went flying towards Tenshi, but she quickly reacted by shielding herself with her near-indestructible wings.

"Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. All I know is that my head hurts, and I definitely wasn't in any school when something hit me.", said Tenshi exasperatingly.

"Stop. TK, Matsushita 5-dan, bind her. Let's see if she's telling the truth.", said Yuri.


"Okay, now, tell us your name.", said Yuri calmly. "Tenshi Kanade..", said the girl."Where are you from?" Tenshi sighed, "I already told you, I don't know. My memory's hazy." Yuri nodded, and signaled for Naoi to come closer. "Naoi-kun, can you use your hypnotism on her?", inquired Yuri.

Tenshi's PoV

The boy named Naoi nodded, and as soon as he said that, his eyes glowed bright red. Something in my mind rung a bell when his pupils changed color. Hitan... Then, I felt like I was dreaming. Memories of my past flooded back to me.

Everything was clear.

Normal PoV

"Looks like she's not an enemy, Yuri. What do we do now?", asked Otonashi. "Introduce ourselves, of course.", she replied.

"Tenshi-san, forgive us for suddenly attacking. We thought that you were an enemy.", apologized Yuri.

"Let me introduce ourselves. As I mentioned before, I'm Yuri, leader of the SSS. Otonashi and Tachibana will explain that to you later.

"I'm Otonashi, nice to meet you!", said the redheaded boy. "This is Hinata,", said Yuri. "Hi!" "Takamatsu," "How are you?" "Noda," "What's up?" "Shiina-san," "..." "Fujimaki," "You reeeally look like Tachibana.." "Matsushita 5-dan," "Hello, miss!" "Oyama," "Good afternoon!" "TK," "C'mon, let's dance!"

Tenshi interrupted, "TK-san can speak in English?" Hinata replied, "He can, but he's useless at it."

"Naoi-kun,", said boy nodded, "Yui," "Hey!" "Takeyama-kun," "Please call me Christ." "...and Tachibana Kanade."

Tenshi's Pov

A girl of about 16 years of age stepped towards me. "Pleased to meet you, Kanade-san.", she said in a soft voice while bowing respectfully. "Pleased to meet you too, Tachibana-san.", I said with equal respect.

We didn't look exactly like each other, but we do have some semblance. She had long silvery white hair, while mine was ivory white. She had golden eyes, while my own were silvery-blue. I was also about 3 inches taller than her.

We stared at each other for quite a while, when Yuri-san cleared her throat to catch our attention.

"Well then, Otonashi-kun, Tachibana, I'll leave the explaining to you, okay?", said Yuri-san. The said couple nodded, and Yuri and the rest left the room.


After they were done explaining what the SSS was, where we were, what were NPCs, and such, I excused myself and headed outside. I found my way to the rooftop to clear my head and let all the information sink in.

The sun was setting, and the students were just preparing to leave. Suddenly, my facade came crashing down. A tear escaped from my eye, and, before I knew it, I was crying once more.

I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't budge. It turned out to be Otonashi-san. I quickly wiped my tears away and bowed. "Otonashi-san.", I greeted. "Call me Yuzuru. As in "to bind strings".", he said with a smile.

We both stood in a comfortable silence, until he broke it. "You know, me and Yuri were in this situation before." "Pardon?" "I was also depressed upon regaining my memories. Knowing that I was dead didn't help either."

Silence ensued once more.

"... I know I could've done more to save the only people in the world whom I truly cared for...I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to my brother... My life was useless...", I said with a bitter smile – the only detectable emotion I've shown since I got here.

Yuzuru looked at me and handed me a can of KEY coffee. I looked up at him curiously. "Try it - it's really good.", he said. I raised an eyebrow – wow, I've been expressive lately – but opened the can anyway.

I smiled at him, and asked, "...Would you... tell me your story, Yuzuru?"

And I found a new friend that afternoon.

-Verse 4-