Time: during episode 7
Characters: Yuri, Angel
Through the process of founding and building up the Battlefront, Yuri never lost sight of her goal. No matter what kind of weirdo joined her side, her intentions have always been clear and simple, and none of them called her out for it. No one questioned her near-obsessive fight with the Almighty, and no one dared to question her drive, even back when her past life had been a mystery. They all respected her perseverance, her intelligence, her leadership...those qualities made it hard to see her as anything other than a girl chasing a dream. A very ambitious and far-fetched dream, but a dream nonetheless.
But though her goal was strong and easy enough to understand, she always had the feeling she wasn't fighting for it in the correct way. In the beginning, Yuri had assumed that Kanade Tachibana, aka student body president, aka Angel, was the closest connection to God because of her authority position and seemingly supernatural powers. Yet as time went on and the Battlefront's operations of infiltrating Angel's power began to roll more and more smoothly, she couldn't help but to reconsider her strategy.
The big kick in the face had come on their second attempt to decipher Angel's computer. The program Takeyama had pulled up proved that the defensive abilities Angel used didn't come from God; she wasn't an angel if she didn't have some kind of divine power.
Angel was no angel.
She was Kanade Tachibana, a human being like them.
And that unleashed a torrential downpour on her merry God-hunting parade. She would be lying if she said that she hadn't been expecting some kind of dead end eventually. But what now? What could the Battlefront do to rebel now that there was no physical authority figure to fight against?
Well, Otonashi had temporarily fixed that problem for the day: run a soup kitchen.
Yuri sniffed, glaring down at the river from the tall bridge that ran over it. Only a few hours ago, the riverbank had been full of activity, everyone fighting to see who could catch the most fish. She had been a part of that activity, pulling up enough fish to pack their fridges and make them dread another fish-centric meal. But the whole operation had been turned into a redundant waste of time when Tachibana fished up the legendary guardian of the river and made everyone's catch look like useless pebbles.
It was hard to associate Tachibana as an equal, much less a friend. She had always been the face of the enemy, and it was hard to see her and not reach for a weapon. By having fun with the former president, Yuri felt as if everything she had fought for was just a joke. If she allowed herself to laugh with Tachibana, if she allowed herself to enjoy spending time with her, she knew somewhere deep down, her pride would be ripped to shreds by the claws of betrayal. As terrible as that sounded, she knew it would take a while for her to get used to Tachibana.
Unlike...well, some people.
Yuri frowned and stared harder at the water far below. She didn't like the feeling that bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. Was it...was it jealousy?
Oh, it most certainly was. And it ate at her like a disease.
She had confidence in her people skills. Of course, she did have a forawrd attitude a lot of the members considered forceful. But she had made vast improvements from the early days of the SSS, back when she used to kick Hinata off the roof on a daily basis and intimidate Ooyama to the point of tears. She wasn't one to brag, but she could say with some amount of confidence that she had become an excellent recruiter.
Otonashi was a difficult but not impossible obstacle that she had managed to handle. Sure, he had resisted her at first, deeming her crazy, and asked to be left alone so he could be obliterated without a fight. Even when he initially joined up, Yuri knew that he was just using them as a shield from Angel until he regained his memories. But he had eventually warmed up to them, and Yuri was glad he decided to stay even after his amnesia was hypnotically lifted. Now he was as much a member as everyone else, which was a relief since he seemed much more practical than the others.
It was still undeniable that it had taken him considerably less time to warm up to Tachibana, even when she was techincally a potential threat. He'd been the first to befriend her, to see her as something more than a disciplinary officer, to invite her to a Battlefront operation...
Not only was she jealous because he had befriended Tachibana so quickly, but there was also the fact that he seemed much more spirited around her. He looked happy with her. It wasn't like Yuri wanted to be in her place. No, she was just fine being Yuri, the stubborn leader with the sharp knife work and an even sharper tongue. But there were days, like this one, when she wished she could have unlimited fun and feel some form of regret.
She sighed and looked up at the darkening sky. The sun had set a while ago, and the last traces of the fading sunlight was being overridden by the blackness of night. She figured that the soup kitchen ordeal would be winding down soon, and decided to head back before they notice her absence.
The last thing she expected to see when she turned around was Tachibana, standing silently about ten feet away. They stared at each other for a while, Yuri with an expression of shock and Tachibana with no expression at all. Yuri broke the silence first.
"What are you doing here? Why aren't you with Otonashi and the others?"
Tachibana smiled creepily in response. With a muttered word and a flash of light, she activated her Hand Sonic.
"What d'you think you're doing?" Yuri exclaimed, drawing her gun.
"Students are not permitted here without supervision," she replied without emotion. "Anyone caught outside the school boundaries will be punished."
"'Punished'? What...What are you talking about? You're not the student body president anymore!" Yuri leveled her weapon as she came closer and closer. This isn't right. She was perfectly normal an hour ago, setting up the cooking station on the field.
Tachibana suddenly charged, and Yuri reacted without hesitation, firing two rapid shots at her legs. The bullets were easily deflected by the blade and ricocheted dangerously close to Yuri's head. She tried to get around to Tachibana's blind side, but the little girl was no amateur. They dodged and weaved under each other's weapons until Yuri's gun flew out of her hand, cut cleanly in two.
"Guard Skill: Delay," Tachibana muttered as Yuri whipped out her knife. The disorienting ability was a nuisance to deal with, but Yuri had trained herself to focus in on the physical body instead of the afterimage. Her knife stabbed into empty air but she turned to dodge under the surprise attack aimed at her back.
Damnit, she's strong. Almost...too strong. What the hell, it's like she turned back into Angel, but worse. Yuri parried a fierce slash to her chest, stumbling slightly from the force of the blow. Tachibana kept pressing forward, forcing Yuri back away from the school. I thought she wanted me to go back to the school. What's with her? She's stronger, faster, and more...violent. It's like she's Angel's evil twin...
Yuri froze.
Angel's evil twin.
Images flashed before her eyes. The computer. The program. A list of Angel's defensive abilities. The listed ability they haven't seen.
Harmonics...
Everything clicked into place and Yuri snapped out of her thoughts to find Tachibana...no, Angel inside her reach, thrusting the blade forward. As Yuri dodged late to the side, she finally saw the significant difference between this Angel and the old one. Her eyes were red. Blood red. The old Angel's were a soft amber.
"AH!" Red-hot pain flared into existence high on her arm. Angel pulled back the bloody blade and prepared to deliver a deathblow. In a whirl of panic, Yuri jumped backwards to avoid the surefire death and stumbled over her own two feet to land hard on her back. She rolled out of the way of Angel's frightening dropkick and got to her feet just in time to block a second deathblow to the gut. She caught Angel's extended arm and twisted violently to lock it in place. But Angel was too fast. She threw out an elbow, forcing Yuri to duck, and swung her blade an inch away from her nose. Then she jumped, snapped out her foot, and kicked Yuri just above the knee, forcing her to release the lock and fall to the ground.
Yuri sucked in a breath through her teeth and tried not to scream. Her leg had gone entirely numb from the kick, but she knew the pain would slowly build up to an unbearable throb. Her arm stung like crazy, and she could feel the blood trickling down to her wrist. This was bad. She was on the ground, beaten down by an evil clone, and she had little to no chance of winning. Being immortal, Yuri didn't exactly fear death, but the human nature of survival was still etched deep in her soul. She didn't want to die.
Angel stood over her with a remote expression. Yuri felt her stomach flip a couple of times. This Angel wasn't fighting her because she had broken the rules; she was fighting her because she wanted to. She was enjoying the pain she inflicted, which explained why she stood in between Yuri and the school. She was planning to keep her here until she was dead.
"Like hell," Yuri spat, reaching for her grenade. She pulled the pin and chucked it at Angel's feet before racing past her towards the school. The explosion came quicker than she expected, and she felt the searing heat from blast hit her back. She staggered but kept running, following the lights that led to the school while rubbernecking constantly. When she was a good distance from the bridge with no sign of Angel, Yuri slowed her pace. Her leg was on fire now, and her running turned into limping. She clutched her bleeding arm and grit her teeth at the pain. Her uniform was dirty and ripped from her time on the ground.
She couldn't bear to imagine everyone's faces when she showed up like this.
At first Yuri debated sneaking past them to the infirmary to patch herself up. But then she thought of Angel showing up and cornering her again. Alone. Without any help. As much as it hurt her pride, she needed to surround herself with armed allies for protection.
She limped onto the field and saw the group cleaning up by the steps on the opposite side. Tachibana was there, acting civil and absolutely ordinary.
"—probably watching us from somewhere up high." That was Fujimaki's voice. "She's not the type to help out with volunteer work. Now get your butt in gear!" he said to Noda, who was sitting around doing nothing.
At that point Yuri couldn't take another step. Her leg gave out and she fell gracelessly to the ground, attracting everyone's attention. That wasn't exactly the way she had planned her entry, but it was hard to care at that point.
"Yurippe!"
Footsteps raced towards her. She felt someone lift her up from the ground, and she held her arm pathetically with a grimace.
"Yurippe! Who did this to you?" It was Noda. Of course. Protective of her as always. She opened her eyes and found them all standing over her, wearing mixed expressions of anger and concern. Otonashi held her up, eyes full of worry.
"Angel did," she hissed.
Otonashi's eyes widened. "Angel?" As she expected, he turned to look at Tachibana, who was standing innocently with a stack of dirty dishes. No, you idiot, she wanted to say. Not that Angel. The evil clone that she unintentionally activated. He turned back to Yuri. "Wait, but Kanade's been with me the whole time!"
Kanade? Oh, so now you two are on a first-name basis?
Yuri fixed him in an angry gaze as her jealously slowly transformed into annoyance. Why do you have to defend her so desperately? Why are you even friends with someone so reserved and passive? Why?
Why do I even care?
A movement caught her eye and she bared her teeth. It was Angel, the evil one, standing high above them on the roof like some guardian avenger. The moon shined brightly behind her, enveloping her face in shadow and enhancing the red flash of her eyes. Otonashi followed her gaze and gasped at the sight, clearly astonished to find a duplicate of his new friend. His voice was full of disbelief and fear.
"Angel..."
