To Live Life Fully

Chapter 10: A Life Story

Disclaimer: Angel Beats!'s characters, setting, and plot do not belong to me. Even Mazui's subs, to which I have his subs extracted to form this FF.


While Kanade played on the piano, Otonashi decided to make ramen again, given that he had not yet went to the store. The accompanying music felt good to hear while Otonashi prepared the meal, as it added a taste of atmosphere throughout the house. When it was prepared, he called Kanade over to the meal table, where she sat with Otonashi and ate the noodles.

"They're as good as last time," Kanade commented. "How do you cook so good?"

"Very carefully," Otonashi said. "I actually just have the patience to do so. Everything had been so frenetic over the past weeks, not to mention the month-in-a-millisecond lifetime in Afterlife. Things have settled for me, as of now..."

"But what about Yuri? Isn't she a big deal to think over?"

"I have everything thought over. You'll jump in to protect Yuri, I'll shoot away the guns, and Naoi uses hypnosis to make the robbers turn themselves in. Yuri's too important to have her life torn away from her a second time." Otonashi ate the last of his ramen, then took his and Kanade's empty bowl to the sink. "I just realized, you haven't met Yui yet. Do you want to go visit for a while?" Kanade nodded. "Then we could go to Hiramishi to meet Iwasasa, would you like that?"

Kanade nodded again. "We could have takeout Mapo Tofu and have it for dinner!"

Otonashi chuckled. "Okay, we'll have Mapo Tofu for dinner." Kanade went to get her shoes on as Otonashi rinsed the bowls and stowed them in the dishwasher. Kanade was out the door by the time Otonashi shoved his shoes on.

Remember to lock the door, he told himself. The door responded with a click. Satisfied, Otonashi walked the way to Yui's house. Even though Kanade was somewhat far away, Otonashi could still hear her singing the tune of My Song. Iwasasa would be very happy to hear that...

Kanade waited for Otonashi at the porch. When he had arrived, she tapped the doorbell, then waited quietly. "Do I have to apologize to her for taking her guitar?" Kanade asked.

"If she demands it," Otonashi replied. "Either way, she can't do anything about it except if she tells Hinata to. Just delay or something, because this place isn't Afterlife anymore." Kanade nodded her head to show she understood.

The door swung open, then a voice, "Huh? Tenshi and Otonashi?" Otonashi looked to see a confused Hinata at the door.

"Yo," Otonashi said.

"Why is Tenshi standing behind you, looking as if she's scared?"

"It's the same thing as during our graduation ceremony - she's afraid of you. She hid behind Yuri when you complained about the Mapo Tofu segment, or saying what it was supposed to mention. Right, Kanade?" The girl looked up at Otonashi and nodded her head.

Hinata face-palmed. "Why do I get the hate all the time...? Anyway, the only reason you're here is to visit Yui, right?"

"I want to apologize for taking her guitar in Afterlife," Kanade admitted. "I also hope she doesn't hate me for doing it."

Hinata ushered the two inside, where Yui's mother was at the kitchen, reading a newspaper. Otonashi and Kanade followed Hinata up the stairs, to which they entered Yui's room. Yui was looking out the window, which Otonashi was unsure of what she was looking at.

"Yui," Hinata said, "Otonashi and Kanade came to visit."

"Kanade?" Yui asked, then saw Kanade. "Tenshi! What is she doing here?"

Kanade bowed and said, "Sorry for taking your guitar. Otonashi made me do it."

Yui became surprised. "It was to help me?"

"I fired a rock to help score your goal. That isn't enough?" Kanade rose from her stance.

Yui giggled. "You came to apologize? I was thinking you were just going to talk on how many times you killed the SSS members or something."

"When I stabbed Otonashi, he didn't have a heart." Otonashi stared at her when she said that.

This time, Hinata joined Yui's confusion. "Huh?"

"I had a heart transplant and Otonashi gave me his heart."

Otonashi sighed. "Okay, do I have to tell you my life story?"

"Yes!" the three said, except Kanade didn't answer with as much enthusiasm as Yui and Hinata.

Otonashi took a deep breath as he took the swivel chair and sat backwards in it. Everyone got comfortable as they prepared for the listening of Otonashi's background, and how he came to Afterlife. No one said anything. "Okay... so, it was some few weeks before Christmas. I had a job which involved me controlling traffic on a street. It paid very little, but it was enough to pay for my everyday needs. With the extra money, I would go to a bookstore, pick the first manga magazine that I saw, buy it, then give it to my little sister Hatsune.

"She was bedridden, because of some sickness that made her very weak. She had to stay at the hospital because of it. Whenever she received the manga, she would smile at me and say thank you. At the time, that thank you was enough for me to keep going on. So I would work harder for it, and always receive the thank you from Hatsune every time she got the manga.

"During Christmas, when the doctors wouldn't let her go out to see the Christmas lights, I snuck her out of the hospital so she could see them. She thanked me for it..." Otonashi felt tears come to his eyes, but wiped them away. "...and she died the next morning. The doctors couldn't handle the sickness, for some reason, and she left." Kanade stood up and started patting Otonashi on the shoulder.

He went on, "I felt no meaning to live after Hatsune left. But during one of my strolls around the city, I saw a child whom was discharged from the hospital, and she thanked the nurse whom took care of her. That's what I wanted: someone to thank me. It was all I ever needed to keep going.

"I experienced the first rebirth of my life. I went to school, studying medicine and the doctoring career. I went to school to study, receiving top marks in those classes. I received a scholarship to attend a medical college, to which... I went to take the entrance exam.

"You know the train accident from five days ago, when they finally found the survivors. The first thing that happened was this. I was waiting in Train Car six, looking at my ID. Then I felt a rumble, and everything went black. The lights went out, and the screams only lasted for a few seconds.

"I came to find myself in Afterlife, which I got stabbed by Kanade when I wasn't convinced that you couldn't die in there, since people there were already dead. After the harmonics clones, Kanade was bedridden again, and I watched over her as she recovered." Otonashi wiped his eyes again. "Then I remembered. What I had forgotten and wandered to Afterlife.

"I was a survivor of the train accident. I looked at the wreckage of the ordeal, seeing all that I had planned out had been shattered. It was very dark, but there was enough light, from the plants that grew in the dark, to see. I helped a man, my first friend Igarashi, out of the train first. His forehead was bleeding, to which I made a tourniquet for. The two of us helped fifteen other survivors, seventeen including me and Igarashi. I was proclaimed the leader, because I knew medicine. Igarashi distributed food and water amongst the people. That was Day One.

Day Two was a bit more of a depression than having to stay alive. I went to the tunnel end, hoping to find a way out, but rubble had also blocked that area, and there was still no reception from my phone, and in addition, I learned I was suffering from internal bleeding. I relayed this message to the others, to hold out as long as we can until rescue comes, but I didn't tell them of my condition. Two people questioned this stall, and my leadership was formed.

Day Three came sluggishly. I woke up to the scream of a survivor, and I hurried to help one of the survivors. He had lost his breathing when he slept... I tried to save him... but... he was gone." Otonashi bit his lip to refuse the flow of tears. "I felt that feeling again, being powerless... and unable to control... the things in my hands... things that were... entrusted to me." Otonashi shook once, and Kanade patted his shoulder again.

"I was taking a nap, after I had cried myself to sleep after wrapping the dead man in bandages. I woke up to Igarashi yelling, which I saw the two traitors running with the water bag. I walked over just as Igarashi and another survivor pinned them down, bit not after two bottles of water had been wasted. The thieves said that there was no hope and they would all die before rescue would come, and the other survivors demanded that the thieves paid for their actions. I calmed them down and told them that it was my share of the water, and that they would all be alright.

"The other days were sluggish. I barely remembered them because I was so hungry and thirsty. But I remember counting the days... I was in the train, lying on my back with Igarashi in the train. I asked him if I could borrow his pen, and I used it to fill out organ donor-ship. I signed up all my organs, and Igarashi told me that the others were doing it too. The last thing I knew was Igarashi calling my name, and the ID card slipped out of my hand. Then there was a large flash of light... and then, what I would guess, is when I landed in Afterlife. I was supposed to have been thanked without knowing it." Otonashi turned and faced Kanade. "That's what was supposed to happen."

Hinata rubbed his eyes. "I couldn't stop crying..." he whined. "I only knew how I died, and that 'fly ball to second' event..."

"Senpai, don't cry," Yui said, "my eyes are dry enough as they were after listening to Otonashi! Don't make cry more...!"

"Sorry," Hinata said.

"I didn't know all of the details until now," Kanade answered.

"Wait," Hinata said, "shouldn't I have known why I went to Afterlife, because I'm alive right now? What did I regret?"

"Maybe it was because you never had any friends," Kanade said, cocking her head.

"Why you...!" Hinata lunged at Kanade, but she delayed at the last second and sent Hinata crumpling to the floor. "Ow..."

"At least she didn't hand sonic you," Otonashi said.

"It hurts..." Hinata said, gripping his head in the place where he had hit it.

Yui giggled. "At least you added to the sad atmosphere with your usual humorous personality."

"I was gonna put her in a swastika!"

"Can you swastika an angel?"

Hinata rose to his feet. He sighed. "So have you thought about Yuri? How we'll save her?"

Otonashi face-palmed. "You weren't paying any attention to what we said in the ball park?"

"That was the plan?" Hinata asked.

"It was. Now I would just suggest you just come back to Yui's house."

"I'll still try to come! I'll be on time!"

"I wouldn't bet on it..." Yui said, smiling. "But at least I would have company!"


AN: I'm sad! No one reviewed for Chapter 9!

I get it. I'm in a bit of a Writer's Block. I'm taking a very crappy detour. Read and Review, anyway...

-1caiser