Okay, so another chapter! This one is basically an overall view of some of the characters' reflections on staying in the Afterlife or not. I do realize the last two chapters have not focused on one or two characters specifically, so I will toss one in next. I can see that Hinata and Yui are a popular match, so the next chapter will be about them. But for now, enjoy!

Chapter 11: Caged Freedom

It was the beginning of one of the tensest nights in the Battlefront's history when Yuri slipped off the edge of the stage in the Performing Arts Center after delivering her speech. After having a brief word with Otonashi and the others, she disappeared from the room.

Everyone dispersed as well, either shaking their heads in wonderment or arguing amongst themselves about what their leader had just told them. It was an event unprecedented in their history, after all. But Takeyama still disapproved of their reaction.

The prodigy hacker had watched the presentation from afar, at the back of the crowd, effectively hidden by the forms of those two band members, Sekine and Irie. He had been listening to the speech, but also was trying to reopen the beta to his online diary. It was one of the few things in this world that he cared at all about, and he didn't intend to lose control over it.

After everyone had cleared out of the PAC, Takeyama emerged from the shadows at the rear of the auditorium and crossed over to the stage. Hoisting himself (and his beloved computer) up, he sat on the edge of the stage with it in his lap. He'd finally gotten the beta open, and Takeyama began to type, humming softly to himself as he composed his biography on the internet.

He stayed typing like that for a good half hour, and he was almost done when he heard the sound of a door being opened. Narrowing his eyes and pushing his glasses forward, Takeyama surveyed the far wall. Who was there? Hopefully not a shadow, but if it was a person, Takeyama did not wish to be disturbed when he was working. Thus decided, he stood and carried his computer to the back of the stage, where a flight of steel stairs were positioned.

A lone figure entered the PAC when Takeyama reached the top of the stairs and walked to the center of the walkway which hung suspended over the stage. It could be dangerous to sit here, but he really didn't want to be disturbed. So he found a chair and resumed his work, completely ignoring the person far below him.

Until he began to dance.

Takeyama's eyes flitted from his screen to survey the intruder's erratic movements, and mentally concluded that it was that American pop culture dope, T.K. The one always quoting Bob Marley and breaking out in dance. Why did that nincompoop have to come here and practice?

He tried to resume his typing, but failed because of T.K. Narrowing his eyes further, Takeyama settled down and watched T.K glide across the wooden floor. It was, he admitted, an interesting technique. Probably something he himself was not capable of, at the moment.

Closing his laptop, Takeyama thought for the first time about Yuri's speech. Leaving the Afterlife. What would it be like? Whenever he made decisions, Takeyama based them on evidence, facts, statistics. But there were none of those around. Not for whatever lay beyond the Afterlife.

Death is the only thing humans will never understand, he thought, looking back down at the dancing T.K. The boy looked so confident in his movements, yet serene and not arrogant at all. Dancing for the sake of dancing. Nothing double layered or hidden to it. Unlike Takeyama, whose every action involved double meaning.

Maybe the world itself is one huge irony, Takeyama mused once more. Perhaps God is only toying with us, his playthings, the pitiful humans.

This was very unusual behavior for the stoic Takeyama, as he was not the philosophical type, nor was he one to use the word maybe. But strange tides called for strange answers.

Ignoring T.K for now and looking up at the shadow hidden roof, he thought, If I leave here, will I still understand the world as it is? Or will it change?

There was really no way of knowing, and for once Takeyama had to accept it.

Below him, T.K snapped and pose and said, "The End."

Meanwhile, far on the other side of the school, a certain ninja was sitting in her favorite corner of the storage room. If one were to enter the girl's domain (and they couldn't have, without dying once first) he would have seen Shiina's back to him, surrounded by her beloved dolls.

Shiina ran a gentle hand over one of them, heart aching as she felt the soft, plushy fur. She's made all of these, from pure scratch. Such divine cuteness was her own creation. She'd come a long, long way from the wordless savage who roamed the caves which ran under the school, killing anyone who came along. Shiina remembered finding her first doll at this school. Remembered falling in love at first sight, something she'd never done or thought of doing before. Thousands of years she had spent here, literally. Shiina was the type of person who believed in long term investments. Putting effort into something until it bore fruition. A large part of her life was stored in this Afterlife, this crazy World controlled by a God. Heck, her only real existence had begun here. She had been less than nothing before.

Picking up on of the dolls, Shiina cranked its handle and set it down so it could continue waddling around like the others, not wanting it to be left out. Can I take such a chance? Shiina thought. Can I throw away everything I know, everything I believe in and understand, to escape something that will make my current life a living hell?

It was definitely the hardest decision Shiina had ever fought with. She had been raised to destroy, not to let go. Stealth and assassination were her allies, but they were allies who couldn't help her now. In the end, everyone's fate was chosen by themselves.

In a rare moment, Shiina let herself become lost in her own cogitations. In her distraction, al of the puppy dolls walking about in front of her ground to a halt. She didn't notice until she snapped herself out of her own reverie. The dolls stood disturbingly silent on the concrete floor, not looking up at her or even at eachother, but empty. Dead. Over. Gone.

Gathering her precious treasures up and storing them back in the cabinet, she thought, Maybe I can take a chance, after all. I just hope it won't cost me too much.

It already had, though, because a lone tear stained the floor as Shiina left the storage room.

Outside, the night air was cool and forgiving against Noda's skin and his axe. Although he knew the Kage were lurking outside, and even inside, everywhere in fact, he paid no heed. He was standing at the bridge which spanned a portion of the river, where he could see the full moon make its journey across the sky and the stars that inhabited it.

He could see those things, but he chose not to, instead giving his attentions to something he held in his hand.

It was a small, wallet sized picture of a girl. The picture itself looked and felt old, worn, and battered, but the person it depicted was still beautiful to him. The girl in the photo had her elbow on the edge of a railing, like him, chin cupped in a small hand. Sharp eyes, like chips of emerald, glared out from her lovely face, beholding an intelligence not many people could hope to match in this world. Yet there was also caring, and professionalism, compassion in those eyes. Fear, worry, and anger were also present. The things that made a person whole. But to Noda, the things that made this person perfect.

For once, Noda's hard, chiseled features slipped away as his eyes adored the photo of Yuri he held in his hand. He'd forced Hinata to take it for him with his automatic camera. He was glad he had.

I always promised I would protect her, Noda thought in a rare philosophical moment. I said my blade would always stay in front of her. Facing away. But if she's gone from this world, what will my purpose be in life? Who, what will I be? If there is no answer to that question, there's no point in existing here anymore. It would be better to die.

Thinking this, he smiled down at the picture, trying to make up his mind.

"Yurippe!"

Yuri stopped in her tracks when the heralded nickname was called out to her by Hinata. Before it had only made her angry, but now it seemed like something she couldn't live without.

A small smile appearing on her lips, Yuri said, "What a silly nickname. But, maybe that's why you guys followed me."

There was a silence behind her.

Raising a hand in farewell, she said in a soft voice, "Thank you," and took off into the darkness.

As she ran, Yuri knew she was leaving something behind that had become as much a part of her as her own heart and mind. But if she didn't do this, not only she, but her loved ones would be obliterated again. She would not let God do that to her a second time.

And I gave everyone a choice, she thought sadly. A luxury I never had. At least, although I didn't have a choice, I was able to give something that precious to the people a met.

And that, she concluded, was her most precious treasure.

Please review! They keep me motivated.