Messiah Beats!

by SinWriter7

Life isn't always fair, that's something he always knew. So what happens when the blue-haired teenager wakes up in the afterlife? An afterlife that contains an "Angel" and a group of kids rebelling against her? All the while he's unable to remember all of his past life and unable to use his Personas? Well then, it's time to let the bullets fly and the music start on a new Journey.

1. Spring of Rebirth

Disclaimer: I do not own Angel Beats which belongs to Aniplex, P.A. Works, and Jun Maeda neither do I own Persona 3 which belongs to Atlus. This story will contain SPOILERS for both Persona 3 and Angel Beats!

---

A pale face had closed eyes and was resting their head against their arms to get some sleep. The person resting was sitting in the very back of the class and right by the window. What helped them tune out any noise from the window were the clip-on black earphones which had on had blue accents, which were especially prevalent on the ear cups portion of them. Parts of the music could be heard by the people sitting nearby but almost everyone in the room was too busy participating in class to even bother the sleeping student. It was a little difficult to figure out if they were sleeping thanks to their blue hair which covered the student's right eye, preventing anyone from seeing if it was closed like his left one.

That wasn't the only thing about this student that stood out amongst all the others.

The clothing he had on contrasted with the all-black gakuran uniform, pants, and shoes every boy in the room wore. Every girl seemed to be wearing a cream-colored button-up shirt over a white shirt, black shirts, long white socks, and black shoes. But, the person's clothing wasn't either of these.

You could even say their uniform looked like it belonged to an entirely different school. On their body, they wore a white shirt with a black tie around the neck tied like a shoelace, over that they wore a black jacket which had no zipper and had some white outlines on it. Below that, they wore black pants held up by a belt which was somehow even darker than the pants, and black shoes covered their feet. On the left side of the jacket was a checkered colored circle surrounded by a red circle, and the last oddity with the clothing is the red armband they had on which had initials on it in black lettering saying-

S.E.E.S.

Suffice to say, this person stood out compared to all the honor roll level students around him, and yet not even the teacher in the room seemed to be bothering him. Even the room had nothing too noteworthy about it and looked like a regular Japanese classroom. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the sleeping beauty was the only thing that didn't seem to fit in with all the teenagers in class with him.

RIIIIIING!

Class seems to have ended, and everyone stood up to walk out not long after. The sound of the loud bell ringing made the resting student finally open his eyes (or at least the one that could be seen) and within them were... indifference, coldness, and apathy. What gave off this impression was how lifeless the bluenette's grey eyes were, yet even with this they indicated that these eyes had also seen too many things in their life.

Around his neck was a strap connected to the mp3 hanging off from him and he skips the current song to play the next one.

Just like every other kid that had been in this room, the mysterious person walked out the room with one song, in particular, playing to accompany their walk.

Yumi Kawamura & Shoji Meguro - Burn My Dread [Spring of Birth ver.]

As the song started up, the bluenette simply walked down the hallway with his hands in his pockets and shuts his eyes to listen carefully to the song he's played. Despite walking with his eyes closed, it looked like he had a clear path in front of him with only a few students being present in the hallway. Most of the other ones have already sprinted out but the mysterious boy took his time.

Dreamless dorm, Ticking clock.

During this walk, he passes by a room.

I walk away from a soundless room.

This room contained a group of girls who were all playing instruments and practicing their musical prowess'.

Windless night, Moonlight melts.

Suddenly, the lead vocalist abruptly stops singing.

My ghostly shadow to the lukewarm gloom.

The girl with pink-red hair and red eyes then looked outside of the room and she notices the bluenette passing by.

Nightly dance of bleeding swords.

"Iwasawa?" Another girl with brown hair and grey eyes questioned. This made the vocalist look back at the rest of her band.

Reminds me that I still live...

"I'm fine, let's just get back to playing." Iwasawa looks back at the rest of the girls to reassure them before they all went back to playing.

I will-!

Back in the hallways, the boy stops in his tracks completely.

(Burn My Dreeead~)

A burning car with people inside it enters his mind.

I once ran away from the god of fear and he chained me to despair, yeah!

"Makoto..." A female voice calls out from inside the burning vehicle, the seven-year-old looked on in horror.

(Burn My Dreeead~)

That same child, who is older now, opened his eyes.

I'ma break the chain and run 'til I see the sunlight again!

However, he didn't seem to react at all to these thoughts before he went back to walking.

I lift my face and run through the sunlight...

He looks at the flight of stairs and started to walk down them.

*Instrumentals*

During this, a pink blur dashes right by him up the stairs before stopping in front of a poster on the floor above. Fittingly enough she had pink hair and hot magenta-colored eyes, and the poster she stopped in front of seemed to belong to a band called 'Girls Dead Monster' which she stares at with stars in her eyes. Her thoughts then randomly go back to the guy she passed on the way over, but by the time she turned around, he already had been gone.

Voiceless town, Tapping feet.

The boy had reached the bottom floor and looked to his right.

I clench my fist in pockets tight.

Within his vision, he saw the door to exit this school and began to walk over to it.

Far mist in a tower waits,

Just like earlier, he shuts his eyes and had a clear path to the exit.

Like a merciless tomb,

Another door is opened up.

Delivering the moonlight.

The person who opened up the door then notices the mysterious boy.

*More Instrumentals*

This person also wore a gakuran uniform, but he also had a mao black cap on right now. His hair was dark green and he had grey eyes which observed the mysterious person walking by him. Eventually, the regular-looking student turns in the other direction and walks away from the bluenette.

I will-!

Again, the silent person stopped in his tracks.

(Burn My Dreeead~)

Standing on top of a dark otherworldly tower was the exact same boy.

This time I'll grapple down the god of fear and throw him into hell's fire, yeah!

His feet slowly ascended off the ground and he floats in front of, what looked to be, a big red eyeball.

(Burn My Dreeead~)

Below him, the entire earth seemed to be trembling.

I'll shrug the pain and run 'til I see the sunlight again!

With a look of acceptance in his eyes, he floats towards the eyeball until he's gone.

Ooooh, I will ruuun,

Two words entered his mind by the time these thoughts ended...

Burning all regret and dread,

Memento mori were those two words.

And I will face the sun,

Finally, he strolls ahead and opens the door he's been making his way towards.

With the pride of living.

Once this happens, the boy opens his grey eyes to look at the sunset. All his attention were directed towards the bright yellow ball which had begun to fade into the ground to no longer be seen for the next twelve hours. Time needed to be taken for the boy to grasp all the thoughts which had entered his mind whilst the light still shined on the entire place.

When he did settle all these thoughts, something became apparent for him and he takes off his earphones to take it in.

"I died..." Makoto spoke for the first time, whispering it out rather than saying it outright. For a brief moment, his eyes had widened and his mouth hung open at how this realization came to him and at how any of this is possible.

Any expression his face had previously shown was gone the very next second as acceptance at the situation he found himself in soon settled in.

He died. But every human had to meet their end at some point, so it wasn't particularly shocking that this happened. The manner that led to his death didn't matter either, he's served his time in life and because he was mortal that time had ended, the results were all that mattered right now.

The only thing that did matter was figuring out how exactly he's exactly alive despite having already bitten the bullet just like his parents had. Many questions entered his scattered brain with three taking priority: Are there other people in the same situation or is he the exception? Is this place the afterlife or has he been reincarnated? and, Why could he only remember fragments of his life?

As far as he's concerned, these were his priorities.

Could there be other people who last remembered dying only to end up in this place? Perhaps this information could help him figure out his situation whilst explaining his purpose for being here, God wouldn't place him here for no reason after all. Interacting with other people wasn't ideal but he supposed that it would be easy for him to pull off.

He lacked any memories aside from the ones involving his death and the death of his parents, so figuring out if he's an outlier or if this is a trend among other teens was a requirement. However, he felt some habits from the previous life stick with him and so he was going to use that to help him navigate this place.

Solving the first question could lead to him answering the other two, so he's decided for that to become his objective.

"Alright heart, guide me the way," Makoto quietly speaks to himself one more time.

Then, he takes his hand off the handle and walks off. Slowly but surely, the door closes itself shut by the time he leaves it. If the blue-haired boy stayed a bit longer though, he would've seen someone watching all this happen with a smirk on their face before talking with satisfaction in their voice,

"Welcome to Heaven, Yuki Makoto~"

---

*Field*

A few hours later, the sun had completely gone out of sight, and the night turns young since it's just begun. In the middle of the sports field walked out a young girl who started looking around the place despite it being nighttime right now. That should've been the least of this girl's worries because from the top of the stairs leading down to the field was a sniper being pointed right at her.

"Perfect, she's out in the open." Spoke the girl aiming this gun at her.

Unlike the female students seen earlier, this girl was wearing a sailor uniform with a pink tie wrapped around it. She wore a blue skirt and thigh-length black socks which led down to her black shoes. This girl had sea-green eyes and upper-back length fuchsia-purple hair which has a headband on it and a green ribbon hanging off the right side of the hair... for whatever reason.

Her eyes then look through the scope of the gun she's holding in her hands.

"Wait! I almost forgot my leader hat." Within a few seconds, she grabs a hat from the bushes right beside her. This hat was a white beret which is placed onto her head before she looks through the scope once more.

Her finger touches the trigger and begins pulling it back to shoot the desired target.

Snap!

A loud sound catches her attention and the girl-with-a-gun swings her entire body around so she could look at the cause of this conveniently timed noise. The first thing which caught her attention is a branch that looks to have been snapped in half, this most likely caused the noise. Something else she immediately notices is that a foot made this happen.

"..." Makoto is revealed to be the culprit.

His head looks down at the branch which made the loud noise and he sighs for having stepped on the object. Awkwardly, he turns his head to face the purple-haired girl who held a sniper in her hands.

"There's no way an NPC could be out here late at night, so you must be a potential new recruit," Sniper-girl attempts to observe the unresponsive teen in front of her.

This 'non-NPC' person in front of her seems to be trying to analyze the girl in front of him, albeit more silently than she was. When putting all the information he could gather from her appearance together, one thing stood out the most... the fact she held a gun.

"If that's the case then it'll be perfect for us, we're running low on members so-" Sniper-girl rambled on with a smile slowly forming on her face.

Makoto chose to ignore whatever nonsense she was spewing to respond in kind. This response was immediate as he pulls out a pistol from his pocket which had the familiar initials of 'S.E.E.S.' on it. Seconds later, he then pointed this gun toward the person in front of him.

"Hold on! Why are you aiming that gun at-?!" Sniper-girl instinctively aims the sniper at the boy in front of her before she swiftly comes to a realization.

Silence ensued as the two parties pointed their weapons at one another and when this happens, the clouds cover the moon above them.

"Let's both just put down our guns, capisce?" Sniper-girl broke the silence to peacefully settle this stand-off they were both having.

Makoto nods before dropping his weapon onto the ground almost immediately. At least this confirmed to him that sniper-girl over here wasn't a murderer... even if murder is probably not possible in this world. Perhaps she could help him clarify if that was a fact, though.

Speaking of who, the purple-haired girl sighed in relief after gently placing down her weapon.

"At least you're different in your reactions, when people usually see this puppy then they're all like 'Is it real?' and it gets annoying to tell them that this gun is an actual gun!" Sniper-girl suddenly begins to rant in front of this complete stranger.

For some reason, this stranger feels like they're used to something like this happening.

"I'll admit it was also quite ballsy for you to point your gun right at me, even if that was a little extreme. I mean, would it kill you to have a bit of reservation against another person with a-?" Sniper-girl comments on the actions both of them have just taken.

"...I don't care."

"...C-come again?" Sniper-girl asks with disbelief at the three words which came out of the bluenette's mouth.

"I'm already dead, so suffering another death wouldn't matter." Makoto bluntly elaborates on why he said those words.

"You already understood the joke before I could even explain it to you?!" Sniper-girl grabs her hair and yells out of frustration.

Instead of talking any more than he wanted to, the boy nods even though he failed to comprehend how exactly her words were meant to be a joke. Now that he thought about it though, jokes were probably never his forte when he'd been alive. Luckily, the girl's reactions informed him that he's not the only person in this world who realizes that at least he's dead, which means she probably died too.

"Well, on the bright side, that saves me from explaining that," Eventually the girl did calm down and tries carrying on with this meeting. After clearing her throat she puts on a confident smile and spoke proudly, "Since you're aware that we're all already dead, I'd like to personally welcome you to... the I-Ain't-Dead-Yet Battlefront!"

Nothing but the sound of the wind coldly blowing through the teens could be heard for a few seconds.

"We're still working on a definitive name for it, it started off as the Afterlife Battlefront but we changed it because we're basically admitting that we're dead, another name we had was the It-Doesn't-Feel-Like-I'm-Alive Battlefront which was replaced within a day."

Makoto couldn't help but feel like that was a smart choice on the Battlefront's part.

"Maybe you could help us figure out a name! You seem to be more accepting of being in the afterlife than other people so I'm sure you'll come up with a better name than someone like Hinata-kun would." Sniper-girl forces a task onto the silent teen, who just stands there with an expressionless face.

"Can I-?" Makoto takes the chance to finally speak up.

"Hey, Yurripe!" Another voice interrupts their conversation and another guy runs toward them with an assault rifle in his hands. A reoccurring trend seemed to be popping up in this afterlife that made it clear this was definitely not heaven, or at least not the one he's heard of.

The guy running to them had royal blue hair which matched the color of his eyes, his choice of clothing seemed to be different from other boys' ones. He was wearing a beige-colored long-sleeved collared uniform coat with buttons on the right of it with hints of chocolate-brown being present on the pockets, outer collar, and sleeve tips of the uniform. Below this was a visible white buttoned-down collared shirt where a redshirt can vaguely be partially seen underneath it. When it came to the lower body parts he simply wears blue pants and brown shoes.

"Speaking of the blue-haired devil," Sniper-girl comments on the timing of the other bluenette's arrival.

"We didn't know you were trying to get a new recruit, not that me and the others mind it, of course." The other bluenette says to the purple-haired girl who turns her attention to him.

"This wasn't exactly in my plans until now, Hinata-kun, he just showed up, and because we'll need another member I've decided to try recruiting him. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've caught your name yet." The leader of the Battlefront looks back at Makoto.

"...Your names first."

"He drives a hard bargain," 'Hinata-kun' remarks to the non-answer.

"This here is Hinata Hideki, Hinata-kun's a slacker but can sometimes do the bare minimum of what's asked of him."

"Hey! Don't make me out like I'm some sorta NEET!" Hideki takes immediate offense to his introduction.

"And I'm the leader of the Battlefront: Nakamura Yuri, they just normally call me Yurippe though." Yuri introduces herself.

"Of course, you just ignore me," Hideki says with a sigh of defeat.

"Would you mind telling us your name, now?" Yuri stretches out her right hand to offer a handshake to Makoto.

Rather than immediately giving his name away immediately, Makoto Yuki stares at the hand while his thoughts on what he should do begin running through his mind. Trusting a group of people you've just met normally wouldn't be that smart of a move to make and honestly, the mysterious boy didn't want to get close to anyone in this life. This group also had more than enough firearms to potentially blow him into another afterlife if they ever wanted to, which made trusting them a truly risky proposition.

Despite those cons, something about the horribly-named group made him want to join them in their quest.

Trust wasn't easy to gain and always should be earned, but this 'Something-About-Being-Dead-But-Not-Really' Battlefront hasn't done anything to make him actively distrust them. Yuri seemed open about her group and didn't withhold much information about the group she's the leader of, and Hideki didn't seem threatening in the slightest as there have already been two verbal shots already taken at him from the leader alone. Whether the bluenette liked it or not, something in his heart made him want to join the group to aid them on their quest which made this decision tougher for him.

His mindset and soul were completely contradicting one another as the only memories he's got involved death and nothing else, and yet his body was making him do things that his brain didn't agree with.

What tipped the scales for him were the first words he said before leaving the school building, he trusted his heart to guide him the way and so he'll let it do so.

Makoto reaches out his right hand and accepts the handshake.

...However, moments before doing this he also made another decision. Within his previous life, he lived and died under the name 'Makoto' and doesn't mind the fact that his time in the land of the living had ended. With him having accepted the fact that his previous life has ended, in this new life(?) he'll be known as someone completely different. Death felt like something he had some kind of deep connection with which is why he's so willing to accept it and move on from his past life. Makoto died. While he might share the same look, voice, and memories as him, that didn't mean they are the same, because as far as he knows, to truly embrace the concept which had sent him to this place and to accept it wholeheartedly, he needed to admit it.

So, How could he truly show how death is something he's accepted and embraced?

"...Arisato Minato."

By giving himself an entirely new name and identity in the process. His mission would be to figure out what happened to Makoto, but he'd do this as someone different. Minato would try putting the pieces together and in the process, navigate his way through this new life.

"That's a random name to have." Hideki gives his not-so-quiet thoughts on the name.

"Well, if that's your name, welcome to the battlefront, Arisato-kun." Yuri seemed to not mind the name which didn't mean anything.

"That was easier than expected, I was honestly expecting us to resort to using more drastic and dirty measures to get our next member. I'm not gonna complain though, nice to meet you Arisato." Hideki wraps an arm around and smiles at the newest member.

"Personal space..." Minato complains, frowning at the invasion of privacy used against him.

"As a fellow blue-haired comrade, I'll listen to your request." Hideki listens to the request and gets his arm out from around the newbie.

"If you've got any questions, then you can save them for later, it's currently too late for lecture hour." Yuri grabs her sniper again before turning around with it in her hands once more.

"Wait, did you tell him about what the battlefront's pur-?" Hideki seems to pick up on something.

"What are you all doing out here?"

Everyone at the top of the stairs goes dead quiet upon hearing the voice devoid of any passion or anything which could be related to an identifiable emotion. All heads slowly turn to look at the feminine short figure which stood right beside all of them.

Just like the girls seen earlier in the classes, the one near them had been wearing the same uniform. Although her clothing looked the same as other girls' ones did, what made her stand out was her waist-length white hair which could be mistaken for a type of blue for anyone with her untrained eyes and those golden eyes of hers. When coming face to face with the girl, Minato noticed the clouds in the sky finally moving past the room.

Now the moonlight had been shining on the angelic-looking girl and he stood in front of Hideki and Yuri to further observe her.

"Right, we forgot to inform you, our mission in the 'I-Ain't-Dead-Yet' Battlefront is to obliterate this girl, Angel," Yuri explains, slowly turning her gun to be directed towards the Battlefront's enemy. Hideki slowly tried the same thing with the rifle in his hands.

Even with those two slowly preparing to blast away at the 'Angel' standing in front of them, the white-haired being kept staring at the most recent member of the group. Minato returned the favor and this led to the two of them having a silent staredown with the moonlight shining on both of the emotionless beings. Neither of them spoke or moved as they tried analyzing one another.

"I'm not an angel. I'm the Student Council President." Angel finally broke the silence to clarify something, her voice not changing one bit during her sentence.

Yuri and Hideki began pulling their triggers respectively, however, Minato puts his hands in front of them in order to nonverbally tell them to stand down. Hideki takes some time to stare at the signal before nodding and lowering his assault rifle. Yuri grinds her teeth but she also very slowly obeys the instructions given by the newbie by gently putting down her sniper.

"Guns are not permitted in school, either. I'll have to confiscate them to make sure they're not to be used against the school or me." Angel lifelessly explains before taking a step toward the trio.

"No can do, we need these!" Yuri wastes no time raising her gun and she fires it off point-blank at Angel.

Despite the bullet getting shot near its intended target, the bullet doesn't hit its target.

"Hand Sonic." This bullet is sliced in half by a blade, causing the halves to fall apart and drop onto the ground.

Seeing this happen leads to Minato reaching to the ground and he picks up the pistol on it before he aims at the girl in front of them. Angel had a blade now coming from her right hand which resembled that of a longsword. Now the two of them were both aware of the danger and damage they could do to one another, one had a blade while the other had a gun.

"I'll take care of this," Minato informs the two members behind him.

"WHAT?! You want to take her by yourself?!" Yuri yells out with a baffled look.

"If you insist. Represent the Battlefront well, Arisato!" Hideki didn't seem too reluctant to follow orders, though that was probably something he found himself used to.

"Aren't I the leader?! Why are you listening to him?!" Yuri, on the other hand, wasn't as willing to lay down her gun.

"You should've brought a better gun, then." Minato bluntly points out a current flaw with the leader's situation.

Yuri looks down at the sniper and now it's processed in her mind that the gun was only useful for long-range, when it came to close range it took longer to reload than other weapons and normally had fewer bullets than other guns. Another fact thing that made her weapon useless was how one bullet has already been sliced by the opposition, it was safe to assume another shot from the gun wouldn't make any difference. When putting it all together, she realizes how little help she could currently be due to only having one weapon.

"Alright then, fire away when you feel like it." Yuri concedes and she drops her weapon again.

Angel and Minato looked into each other's eyes once more, the girl's golden eyes and the boy's grey eyes both giving off similar auras even despite their drastically different colors. The wind gently blew which made Angel's white hair flow to the left and show itself off. During this tension-filled moment between them, Minato's eyes widened ever-so-slightly as he looked at her hair, the girl's hair alone lived up to the name she'd been given.

There were two more things the bluenette had to internally admit. The first was that he felt some kind of kinship with the angelic girl and her appearance did leave him awestrucked with how heavenly yet passive she looked to him.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind while the white-haired girl took a step forward.

"I'm surprised you haven't shot-" Hideki couldn't stop himself from commenting on the staredown. However, what the pistol-holding boy did next stopped him dead in his verbal tracks.

"H-Hey, What are you doing?" Yuri felt herself getting nervous at the action that the pistol-holding boy had taken.

Angel merely tilted her head when witnessing the strange move her opponent's chosen to make.

Instead of pointing the gun at the person he wanted to shoot, Minato instead pressed it against his own temple before shutting his eyes when committing to this action. Everyone around him were left bewildered and confused at this contradictory action, but the dead teenager felt sure about doing this. Some part of him felt like he'd done this action before and so without waiting around further, his finger starts slowly pulling onto the trigger.

"Per-..." Part of a word exits his mouth as if it already knew what to say before his brain could even comprehend the word.

"so-..." A sinister smile forms across his mouth and he opens his eyes to reveal the bloodlust now present behind them.

"-na." Finally, he says the word and pulls the trigger enough to activate the weapon.

.

.

.

Click.

Nothing happened, however, and an awkward silence soon followed.

.

.

.

"Well, that's disappointing." Minato's face resets to its usual look of indifference and he sighs at nothing happening.

"WERE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO SHOOT YOURSELF?!" Yuri bursts into yelling and she swipes the gun out of the bluenette's hand.

"At least the gun didn't have any ammo." Hideki found himself feeling more relief than anything else. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth.

"THAT JUST MEANS HE DOESN'T HAVE A GUN TO SHOOT AT ANGEL WITH!" Yuri points at the white-haired girl who watched the group without ever changing her stance and facial expression.

"Oh crap, that's right!" Hideki seems to process how the gun having no actual bullets made the situation they're in even worse than it initially seemed to be. So, being the only person with something that'll be useful to them, he picks up his rifle from the ground and aimed it again at the enemy.

"Guard Skill: Distortion." Angel simply spoke.

Seconds later, many bullets are shot at the girl whose blade disappears and stood still in front of the oncoming quick bullets. When the bullets seem to hit her body, they instead bounce off of her and continue flying into the distance. None of the bullets pierced the girl and the firing eventually ceases when the Assault Rifle stops firing any more ammo.

Click. Click. Click.

"Maybe I should've brought more than one round..." Hideki nervously chuckles, a drop of sweat rolling down his face upon realizing that he's out of bullets now.

"Hand Sonic." Angel summons her blade once again, this time she had two coming out of both her arms.

"Hinata-kun and Arisato-kun, call for backup! I'll try holding her off!" Yuri directs the boys to do before she rushes ahead to confront the white-haired girl.

"..." Minato looks at his non-loaded gun and shrugs before deciding to use it for something.

Naturally, he chucked it at Angel and it conks the girl right on her forehead which knocks her to the ground. Witnessing this caused both Yuri and Hideki to stop what they were doing before looking at the person who knocked out the girl with disbelief in their eyes. For once, Minato seems lost as to how even he should react since he just blinks at this lackluster plan working out.

"I'll certainly give you points for creativity," Yuri couldn't help but feel slightly amused at the rookie. One moment he fired off a non-loaded weapon at himself without knowing it had nothing in the chamber and the next, he temporarily knocked out their enemy with it.

"When we're playing baseball, we're making you the pitcher!" Hideki declares without much hesitation, already looking forward to playing baseball with the new member.

"I'll pass." Minato turns down the other bluenette's offer. Then, rather than giving another verbal response, he merely settles on giving Yuri a thumbs up to show he appreciated the compliment (even if he didn't really).

"Actually, one of our future plans might involve baseball." Yuri cheekily responds with a slight smirk now present on her face.

"Sounds like you don't have a choice then, buddy." Hideki wraps an arm around Minato's neck and smiled at the information.

"Personal space..." Minato repeats the same two words he said when this previously happened, and once again he frowns. Getting the message swiftly, Hideki pulls his arm away.

"You do know what personal space is, right Hinata-kun?" Yuri randomly tests Hideki.

"Of course I do!" He took immediate offense to the implications the leader was making.

Something then enters the rookie's mind during this conversation, 'Aren't we forgetting or disregarding some-?'

"Hand Sonic: Version Two." A robotic voice echoes.

Minato, Yuri, and Hideki turn their bodies to look at the producer of the noise. Angel's gotten back to her feet and now she had two different blades coming out of both her arms, they were both thinner than the previous ones but they also had a curved-diamond shape tip. As usual, she had an expressionless face but now there was a red spot in the area she'd been hit in.

"Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby! (Yeeeah!) Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby!" Minato's earphones suddenly start blaring out.

"Boys, commence Operation: Me-Holding-Off-Angel-As-You-Two-Run!" Yuri yells out, Hideki and Minato follow her orders automatically by turning around and running away from the area. The leader then pulls out a blade before Angel charges toward her and their sharp objects clash with one another.

Using both her arm swords, Angel gets the upper hand and pushes the opposing blades away from her. Yuri's able to keep herself on her feet before going for a stab, her opponent successfully dodges by moving out the way.

Seeing that her attack missed, Yuri gets into a defensive stance to counter any kind of attack the white-haired girl could muster against her. Taking some time to make her next decision, Angel slashes away at her enemy three times, one time with each hand and ending it by using both her swords.

For the first slash, The purple-haired girl hits the sword away with her blade, causing sparks to fly due to the impact. When it came to the second slash, she ducked below it nearly before the object could properly hit her throat. The third and final slashes formed an 'X' which Yuri tries blocking by raising her arms, however, part of her clothing is ripped open and these slashes caused some cuts on her arms.

Even with this, the battlefront leader held firmly onto her knife.

Wasting no time for a counter-attack, Yuri grits her teeth and tries getting a slash in by swinging her blade overhead. Unfortunately for her, Angel makes an 'X' using both her swords and blocks it once more before pushing it away just like earlier.

Thinking quickly, Yuri swings her left leg so she could try kicking her opponent's right leg. Still having an emotionless face, Angel jumped in the air which allowed her to go over the attempted kick.

Due to her kick missing its target, Yuri's left leg loses balance and she falls onto her back. Although she's now on the ground, the purple-haired fighter looks above to see her enemy falling down with the moon shining bright behind her. Angel spins around in the air before trying to stab her opponent by the time she lands on the ground. Luckily for the battlefront leader, this gives her time to roll out the way which she takes the chance to do seconds before the sword reached her. This left the white-haired girl's left sword implanted firmly into the ground below.

While still laying on the ground, Yuri takes the chance to swing her blade at the girl who had lost one of her blades. Without even looking in her direction, Angel used her right sword to swipe away the attempt. This causes the battlefront leader's only weapon to be sent flying out of her hand and she even tumbles across the ground due to the impact of the counter.

Her momentum stops eventually and Yuri sits herself up to look at the damage she's suffered so far. Parts of her clothing already had been torn, though luckily none of them revealed any explicit areas, what was more concerning were the cuts on her arms and legs. Things could be worse for her but against someone like Angel, she stood no choice without a weapon at her disposal.

"Violence against The Student Council President-" Angel says, pulling her left blade out of the ground as she now can use both swords once again.

"I know, I know, violence against you is forbidden, however, that can't and won't ever stop me from taking you down... Angel." Yuri slowly gets onto her feet with her eyes remaining on the 'angel' in front of her. By the end of her sentence, resentment and determination had filled her voice and it was clear she held a form of anger against the SCP.

"It appears you'll need to be dealt with first." Angel's voice didn't change one bit as it remained monotone, whispery, and robotic all at the same time. In comparison to the emotion-filled girl in front of her, she didn't seem to hold any hatred or concern for the girl's well-being. Whether she was human or not could be questioned at this point and she began walking toward her enemy with only the intention to complete her objective.

Pat, Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat!

Footsteps could be heard from behind Angel and she turns around to counter the person.

Clank!

Sparks fly all over the two people whose swords clash with one another which didn't cause any response from them. Angel looked up into the grey eyes which meet her golden ones, when compared to them she seemed rather innocent and more like she lacked empathy. Minato's grey eyes, on the other hand, made him come off more like he's been jaded by his life and that he was someone who genuinely felt empty on the inside.

"...Run." Minato's eyes look at the purple-haired girl to give her some orders.

"O-Okay," Yuri stutters with surprise and some appreciation for what the boy was doing. Knowing that she would be a hindrance if she remained, she accepted the order before running past the two of them, nearly tripping a few times along the way. Before she runs out of sight, her green eyes take one more look back at Angel and Minato before she too got away.

"Why are you choosing to do this?" Angel couldn't help but question the bluenette who was holding both his hands to hold onto a sword.

"..." Minato simply remained silent.

Both of them kept applying more pressure onto their blades, Angel plants her right leg behind and leans forward to strategically go for the best position. Instead of trying to get into a better position, Minato presses his teeth against each other and opts to just go for pure strength to win and come out on top, even if his one blade was going against the two that the white-haired girl had. This only lasted for a few seconds as some cracks were seen showing up on a sword.

Eventually, that same sword then broke into many mini-pieces.

Minato is revealed to be the loser of the clash who then drops the handle of his now broken sword. His eyes gently shut and he doesn't seem to put up much of a fight now that his only weapon has been destroyed. His feet recover from getting knocked back but they remain in place instead of moving around.

Knowing that she's won the clash and the brief fight in the process, Angel's left blade disappears. Without any hesitation, she swings her right sword and aims it at her opponent's heart.

"...Because I don't care."

Hearing these words, Angel stops her stab attempt.

"You don't care if you're going to die again?" Angel asks as the clouds cover the moon in the sky.

"Stab me and see for yourself." Minato casually suggests, opening his eyes to reveal the emptiness laid within them.

"..." Angel frowned at these words and looks to see the lack of care behind the eyes of someone who she was going to stab. The thing which stood in front of her sounded completely serious about all this, which made it disturbing even for her. He essentially gave her the order to impale him, however, and so she'll follow through on that.

So, with some regret in her eyes and her hand winding up to deliver the final blow, she swings her hand forward and goes to skewer the boy.

At that moment, Minato Arisato closes his eyes, and everything turned black.

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Sometime Later...

After losing his consciousness for some time, he felt something within his soul begin to stir which indicated that he felt like finally waking up. This already told him that he hadn't passed on from this afterlife-world-place-thing but this only raised more questions that slowly floods his mind. Something even he had to wonder had been regarding himself...

Why'd he taken the time to help out a girl he didn't know?

Not only that, but he also agreed to join a group of people he never even knew existed until today because of two people he met. Hideki clearly wasn't the brains of his group and often had shots taken at him by the leader of the group he was in, and yet he told him to get the battlefront's help as he went back for the girl. Speaking of who, Yuri had declared herself the leader of her group and showed the ability to be good with hand-to-hand combat as she held up a hell of a lot better than he did when confronting Angel... knowing that someone like that had been leading such a group all for taking down one girl should've made him reject the mere mention of joining their battlefront...

And yet, Yuri's ability to give out orders and dedication to a fault towards her goal, alongside Hideki's friendly yet looked-down-upon nature both felt familiar to him. He'd never met these people before, that much he knew... but something made him feel nostalgic around them.

From the very start, he's gone with what his heart's wanted, and it convinced him into trusting the group without truly questioning them too much.

Even he had to consider himself a fool for trusting the duo, although he was definitely going to somewhat try preventing them from getting too close to him early on as there wasn't enough information he had on them to place his faith in them. At this point, he's already chosen to join the group and there was no taking that back, especially with what's just happened.

One final thought entered his mind: Why did he feel bad for Angel?

He couldn't answer it and figured that it'll be that way for a while, for now though, he's decided that now would be a good time to wake up.

"..." Minato finally opens his eyes before looking around the place, it wasn't hard to identify the place he's woken up in.

*Infirmary*

Moving his head to look around, he identified that his body is currently laying down on top of one of the beds inside this room. Those ones were probably just in case multiple students got hurt, something which he did notice was the open windows by each of the beds which allowed some wind to get into the room even with the curtains partially blocking it. Normally, a place like this wouldn't be that noteworthy but beside him, he noticed a chair that was currently occupied.

It was easy to identify the person sitting down thanks to the sun from outside shining on her.

"Took you long enough to wake up." Yuri greets him with these words, she was sitting by his bed and letting out a sigh of relief at seeing him wake up. Currently, she didn't have her 'leader hat' on as she did earlier.

Minato nods in agreement and is able to quickly piece together what must've happened after he passed out. After getting stabbed by Angel, Yuri must've came back and helped him to this place with the rest of her group to make sure he completely healed up. If this truly went down then that could only mean one thing, "I really can't die in this world, can I?"

"...You fought Angel without even knowing that you can't die here?" Yuri asks, looking to the floor.

"I already knew, I just wanted to test the theory," Minato answers with nothing but brutal honesty.

"With how you acted last night, it's hard to believe you didn't commit suicide," Yuri remarks, chuckling slightly while still looking at the ground.

Looking back on his own actions he did act like someone who tried everything in their power to get themselves to die. Although he did wonder what made the girl so sure he didn't end himself during his time alive.

"Everyone in this world has died thanks to stuff being out of their control or external forces, we all had our lives cut off before we could truly live them." Almost as if she read his mind, Yuri unknowingly answers the question in his mind.

If that was the case, however, then it made two things clear to him-

"You must've lived a crappy life to be the nihilist you are." Yuri continues to speak, her words and forced happy tone making it obvious she was trying to keep the conversation light-hearted to an extent. To the 'nihilist' he identified this as her way of helping her come to terms with the events of last night and perhaps an attempt to cheer him up.

However, her words weren't something he found to be unreasonable, in fact, from what he remembers from his life, it was a rather grim one that ended before he could turn things around.

"...Why'd you save me?" Yuri drops any happiness previously heard in her voice to finally ask the question circling through her mind from the moment the bluenette had fought Angel for her. Finally, she looks up and right at the boy in front of her with both curiosity and sadness seen in the gateway to her soul. All she's been doing is dancing around the matter and now she found the strength to ask what's truly been on her mind.

"I didn't do much." Minato tries dismissing his action from last night, after all, it did end with him getting stabbed.

"Maybe, but seeing you on the ground after you went back just to make sure I got away safely..." Yuri starts grabbing onto her skirt and she pauses to hold herself back from letting her emotions get the better of her. She clearly had experienced something like yesterday when she was alive and had been reminded of it. When she goes to speak again her tone changes completely, "Y-You better answer me or else I'll m-make sure you're not eating for a w-week!" Now, she was angry at the person laying on the bed in front of her since she wanted answers.

Upon hearing the possibility of eating being taken away from him for a week, Minato abruptly feels obligated to answer her. When he does answer her question though, he just said the first thing that came to mind.

"Because why not?" Minato sits up and ignores the blood on his shirt near the hole which had been created by the stabbing he'd received earlier. Although his expression doesn't change for a moment, he moves his right arm and places a hand on top of the girl's purple hair.

"Listen to you t-talking like you're some kind o-of savior." Yuri pouts and even blushes at getting her hair ruffled by the emotionless-yet-nice boy.

"I don't care, I'll do anything for food." Minato's voice finally evokes some kind of emotion, this emotion being playfulness directed at the flustered girl who threatened his eating habits.

"B-Baka..." Yuri laughs a bit and she smiles at the blue-haired boy before reflecting on how he's acted in the time since she's met him. At first, she had a good impression of him due to his ability to accept the afterlife stuff and the fact he didn't ask if her sniper earlier was real. So, when he joined the group she did feel somewhat excited to see what he could do. Then, when confronted by Angel he tried using a gun on himself only to realize that it was unloaded and thus he needed to retreat with Hideki which made her feel annoyed and baffled. However, when it was all said and done, Minato came back and allowed her a chance to get away from the battle which led to him getting impaled by the white-haired girl.

And now here he was, making it clear to her that he didn't mind dying which did make his actions last night quite reckless but she felt grateful for this attitude of his. Minato Arisato was a strange guy for sure, but she was looking forward to seeing how he'll do with the rest of her group.

"What's obliteration?" Minato suddenly changes the topic of discussion which initially catches Yuri off-guard until she remembers what she told him last night,

"Our mission in the 'I-Ain't-Dead-Yet' Battlefront is to obliterate this girl-"

Although some parts have been pieced together by the bluenette regarding this afterlife, it made sense that he still needed an explanation of other things. From the sounds of things lecture hour is coming early and so the purple-haired girl pulls out her leader hat. Things quickly get formal between them as Yuri stands up to begin her exposition.

"As you know, we can't die here, but that doesn't mean we can forever disappear from this world. We don't know the methods of 'obliteration' but what we know about it is that it's when someone is forever gone from this world which can happen at a moment's notice and when it happens, you'll be reincarnated in life as something else whether it be a person, bug, or barnacle."

"How about the other kids that aren't us? They don't feel real." Minato asks another question, it was almost as if he was checking off a list of questions you were required to act in a video game.

"Sounds like you already know they're not like us, think of them as NPCs whose only purpose is to exist within this world and are meant to be the ideal students whose leads we should be following. Unfortunately for us, we'll be obliterated if we bother to participate in clubs, actually enjoy class, or even pretend to be an honor student, which means following their lead isn't an option. Try molesting them or capturing a panty shot, however, and they'll react accordingly."

Minato nods and he finds the comparison to 'Non-Player Characters' to be useful in wrapping his head around what they are, although it sounds like they weren't dumb and were well-made. One thing made it easier for him to distinguish the difference between NPCs and Real People, NPCs are fated to forever live in this world but can be good students, however, Real People woke up here after their death and don't have the luxury of being decent students.

"How do you know all this?" Now that he thought about it, Minato wondered how the battlefront leader got all this information.

"When you've been fighting as long as I and Hinata-kun have, you figure out things along the way. Although, we've had some help from what Angel's told us."

"Can anyone age here?"

"Nope. Though, I guess that explains why we've lost track of time in this world, the NPCs can't grow up either. I'm honestly surprised you've yet to ask anything about Angel." Yuri responds, most people would want to learn about their opponent or the thing they're fighting and yet the boy didn't seem to try doing so.

"She's passive unless we act and break rules, when that happens she then targets us. All that matters to me is that she's not hostile." Minato tells the purple-haired girl what knowledge he's already got on their enemy.

"...Sometimes you remind me of her," Yuri admits while shaking her head. It sounded like the boy already knew the basics of how Angel functioned which saved the explanation about her, "So, you got any more questions?"

"...Does God exist?" From the seriousness in the boy's voice, this was his last question and it was one she's heard many times before.

"I believe in him, yet I've never met him and Angel's not willing to answer regarding the foundations of this world." Yuri gives the best answer she could have. Her eyes then drift to the windows and she looks at the sky outside the place. From where she was standing, the clouds covered the sun and she rolled her hands into fists, "If he does exist, then we'll make sure to get back at him."

When hearing her words, one name came to his mind: Nyx.

"Indeed we will." Minato declares with newfound determination, something within him felt obligated to join the battle now and made the situation of potentially battling God feel like destiny for him. Now he had another reason for joining the battlefront and this reason sparked a want for him, a want for him to battle against the big man and defeat him. There was still a small part of him that found the road to get there to be a little cruel since he felt bad for Angel still though, but he planned to figure that one out later.

"Nice to see you onboard, now I think the crew's waited long enough and are ready to show themselves!" Yuri abruptly yells into a walkie-talkie she suddenly had.

It didn't take long for the doors to the infirmary to be kicked open.

"Looks like our newest member's finally woken up!" The first person to walk into the room did so while yelling, he had purple hair which matched the colors of his eyes, had tanned skin, and was wearing the same uniform Hideki wore yesterday. What stuck out the most about him was the weapon he carried around on his back, it had an ax blade with a pike head sticking out between the blades and had a long shaft, it was a halberd. Needless to say, the purple-haired guy made a loud first impression and stormed over to the two people sitting down.

"This here is Noda-kun, as you can tell he's a dedicated member of the group." Yuri introduces the boy who stood by the infirmary bed.

"You look a lot scrawnier than I imagined, I'd like to duel to see if you're worthy of all the praise Hinata's been giving you! Because you helped out Yurippe, however, I'll hold myself back during it!" Noda swings his halberd around to provide some visuals.

"Are you a moron?" Minato puts on a stone face even with all the overwhelming presence standing by him.

"What was that, you punk?! Do you want to die a hundred deaths?!" Noda grabs onto his weapon and he lifts it into the air.

"What was the style of houses in the Jomon period called?"

"...What?" Noda stops himself from swinging down his weapon when the question was asked.

"How would you translate the word "pan" into English? How fast does the Earth rotate near the equator? What's the name for water high in calcium and magnesium?" Minato shuts his eyes to ask all these questions.

"STOOOP!" Noda drops his weapon before falling to the ground and grabbing onto his ears, crying out in pain at all the intelligence being injected into his brain.

"Do you want the cycles of Water, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur, or-?" Minato wasn't listening.

"Although this is good entertainment, you'll need to cool it if you wanna meet the other members," Yuri says with a grin already present on her face. If anyone else could see the expression then they'd notice the slight sadism which the leader had.

Minato complies and gladly stops talking, when looking at the downed teenager he noticed that his words must've caused Noda to fall unconscious. Instead of paying more attention to this, he simply shrugs and looks back at the door which had closed.

Seconds later, it was gently opened and closed by the next man who entered the room.

"Sorry for any trouble my friend might've caused you." The next person who walks in stood out physically due to his big and muscular build, and his slit eyes which were too closed to make out their color, there was also his brown hair. Just like Noda and Hideki before him, he wore the same uniform they did which meant it was safe to assume every guy on the battlefront wore it.

"That's Matsushita-kun, everyone calls him Matsushita Godan thanks to the fifth-degree black belt he obtained in Judo." Yuri introduces the polite bulky man who spoke remorsefully.

Seeing and hearing the tone Matsushita was greeting him with, Minato nodded and it seemed the judo expert recognized it as a nod of acceptance for his apology. Afterward, he walks up to the bluenette and offers up his left hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Godan gave a pleasant smile when offering out his hand.

Minato accepts the hand and the two of them shook one another's hands. If there was a way to translate 'Matsushita Godan' into English it'd have to be 'Matsushita the Fifth' because his given name 'Godan' really just meant 'the Fifth' which was an odd choice for a name... but considering this was coming from Arisato Minato, who was he to talk?

"I'll escort this young man out the room." Godan looks down and he lifts Noda onto his shoulders before following through on his words and carrying him out of the room. Needless to say, the first two people to introduce themselves were complete opposites of one another.

Luckily, the next person who entered wasn't too drastically different... or drastic... or different...

"Looks like I was the third closest person to the infirmary, I'm glad to have finally made it, though." Spoke a kid with dark reddish hair and green eyes that were bigger than most others were. Aside from those things, nothing about the kid's appearance stood out.

"Here's our next member, Ooyama-kun, his character is his lack of distinct traits and memorability compared to the rest of us." Yuri casually spoke about the kid.

If this was an anime then Minato would've called that a meta-joke.

"Welcome to the Battlefront, I hope you'll enjoy your time with us." Ooyama bows real quick before waiting for a response from the bed-sitting boy in front of him, he gave no reactions to the supposed lack-of-character comment.

"And here I go again on my own," Another voice enters the room, and the person who enters the room was spinning around for some reason.

"Going down the only road I've ever known." Thankfully for everyone's eyes, the person stops spinning to reveal who exactly the person seemed to be.

"Speaking of distinct traits, this here is TK, we don't know his actual name so we just go with that," Yuri speaks for the man who literally came spinning into the room. He had blonde hair, a red bandanna that covered his eyes, a necklace that held a pair of handcuffs for some unknown reason and is wearing two earrings on each side of his ears.

"...How high is this guy?" Minato bluntly questions, even now his facial expressions didn't even seem to budge.

"He's a really cool guy, it's just hard to understand him most of the time," Ooyama comments at the same time TK continued to move his body and began snapping his fingers.

"I'm hot, sticky sweet. From my head, to my feet, yeah!" TK switches to singing another song before pointing at the blue-haired boy.

"We should probably leave to give Arisato-san some time to take all this in, he's going to need it for the others," Ooyama suggests, walking to the door and opening it.

"And another one gone, And another one gone-" TK changes songs once more and jumps out the open door, it was safe to assume he'd continue this dancing and singing shtick would continue. Ooyama nervously chuckles before bowing once more and exiting the room. From what he's seen so far, the bluenette had been internally surprised at the four different personalities he's met so far.

Barely any time had passed when the next member entered.

"It would appear that I'm the third person to have reached the desired destination." In walked a person who had hair that matched Minato's color and had dark bluish-purple eyes, these eyes were behind a pair of glasses which he pushed up. Although one thing did confuse the rookie about what was just-

"Takamatsu-kun may always push up his glasses but he's actually a moron."

Knowing this made the incorrect assumption make a lot more sense, although even the newbie had to admit the jabs the leader was taking at the members were both informational and pitiful. A part of him wondered if the insult would be acknowledged or ignored.

"We hope you enjoy your time with us at the 'Whatever-Our-Name-Is' Battlefront," Takamatsu states, pushing up his glasses again.

Nope, he wasn't going to take offense to the verbal jabs.

"That reminds me, you thought of a name, right Arisato-kun?" Yuri reminds Minato of what she said last night.

"Maybe you could help us figure out a name! You seem to be more accepting of being in the afterlife than other people so I'm sure you'll come up with a better name than someone like Hinata-kun would."

Honestly, he had no idea how he remembered everything she said and why he'd even taken note of the jab that she'd taken at Hideki. Now, all eyes were on him and he looks down at his armband in the hopes of thinking of a good name.

"The name you choose better be good for us, brat." Someone else said something before the recruit could properly answer the question. This other person had black hair, black eyes which had noticeably small pupils in them, and in his hands was a sheathed sword. A quiet groan escaped Minato's mouth at the guy's first words and the fact he was carrying around a weapon.

"Now, Now, Fujimaki-kun, you don't have to be so harsh on him," Yuri confirmed the guy's name.

"Looks like you were the fourth person to arrive," Takamatsu responds, pushing up his glasses again.

"This kid looks too emo to be polite with, he probably listened way too much to Good-Charlie-or-whatever-that-emo-band's-name-was growing up. Also, I got kicked earlier for coming up with the 'Barnacle Battlefront' so don't think I'm the only threat in here." Fujimaki prepared to pull out the katana from within his sheath.

"As a witness to the kick which Yurippe delivered to him, I can confirm this to have happened." Takamatsu backed up the claim and did you-know-what.

"I second that alibi. Also, do you think you could make sure the name suggestion ends in Battlefront? That part's important." Yuri requests, seeing the blue-haired boy being put on the spot was amusing for her to watch.

Minato shook his head and closes his eyes, it looks like he needed time to think of a name.

"How shallow-minded." One more voice joins the conversation and this one sounded feminine for once, to see who the voice belonged to, he opened his eyes to look over at her. Standing in a dark corner of the room was the person to who the voice belonged, her clothes were the same as Yuri's and she had long dark blue hair above her reddish-burgundy eyes. Clothing-wise, one thing stood out about her and it was the blue scarf she wore that was somehow even longer than her hair.

"Expect to hear Shiina-san say that often." Yuri remarks.

"I didn't even hear you come in, When'd you get here?" Fujimaki questions, looking back and forth between the closed door and Shiina.

"There's more than one way into this room," Shiina very vaguely answers the question.

"...Sometimes you freak me out with how you do crap like this." Fujimaki sighs out before turning to face the door, "Call me back when the brat comes up with a new name for our group."

"I'll take my leave to allow him time to think up something, too." Takamatsu follows the other member out the door.

"..." Shiina said nothing and instead made eye contact with the newest member of the battlefront.

"Am I supposed to understand you telepathically? I'm not psychic." Minato tilts his head and question marks appeared around his head.

"Thank you for helping out our leader, it was commendable for you to do such a thing." Shiina closes her eyes and politely bows to the bluenette, stating what's on her mind.

"I'm looking forward to working with you." Minato disregards the thanks completely to politely return the favor to the assassin-looking girl. Of course, he even bowed in return to show some respect.

"As do I," Shiina responds before a curtain from the wind is blown over her. When the curtain moves away, the blue-haired girl's no longer in the spot or even in the room she was last seen in.

"Now, we've just got one last person to be introduced and you'll have met all the core members of the Battlefront. We've got plenty of other people working with us, but all the boys and girls you've seen will be the group you'll be working with, including me." Yuri elaborates more on the group.

If her words were to be believed, they both were just waiting for one more person to show themselves. Considering how wild and different all the clashing personalities already were, the bluenette did wonder what this last member would be like. There were some he didn't mind like Godan, Ooyama, and Shiina in contrast to Noda and Fujimaki who didn't leave the best first impressions, and then there were TK and Takamatsu who he felt confused about how to assess them. It was safe to say the group was a colorful bunch and that for the time being, Hideki and Yuri are the people he finds the most tolerable to be around based on how they've acted. How this last person would fit into all this was going to be interesting to see.

Right on time, the door opened and closed to reveal the last person.

"Oh, it's you." A girl with pink-red hair and red eyes walked into the room with a smile, wearing the same standard uniform Yuri and Shiina wore.

From her first words, it sounded like she recognized him, so Minato checks through his very limited memories to figure out if he'd seen her before...

Ah, she must've been one of the girls performing in that music room he passed while listening to 'Burn My Dread' earlier. Aside from that, he doesn't remember them ever having met before but it was strange how she remembered him. At the time, he'd been too busy listening to the song he found nostalgia in playing to really say anything to the girl, and yet she was able to remember him.

"Sounds like you and Iwasawa-san already know each other." Yuri comments on the first words which the vocalist had said.

"Not really, I just saw him passing by while I and the band were practicing." Iwasawa corrects the assumption.

Compared to the other people he's met, this girl seemed quite chill in comparison.

"What's the band called?" Minato found himself accidentally blurting, unfortunately, his mouth had other plans from what his mind intended.

"Our band is called Girls Dead Monster, we're in the diversion division for the battlefront but that doesn't mean we slack around when playing." Iwasawa states with a proud smile.

"They're useful for distracting the NPCs thanks to how popular her band's become in this world." Yuri builds off what's already been said.

"So you're the lead vocalist?" Minato just rolled with his accidental speaking, it was too late to back out now.

"Yep, although I'm also a guitarist just like Hisako. There's also Sekine who fills the role of bassist and Irie who's our drummer." Iwasawa explains while leaning against one of the infirmary beds.

"You're an all-girl band?" Minato realized how each name sounded feminine.

"We've all got passions in music, so starting an all-girl rock band was only natural," Iwasawa responds, crossing her arms during this explanation.

An idea then popped into the boy's mind.

"...I'd like to watch you girls do a live performance when you have the time to do one." He requests, grabbing onto his clip-on earphones which had still been plugged into his mp3. Music was something he knew could have an impact on others and he was interested in listening to the most popular band in this afterlife. The leader of the band seemed passionate about her hobby so he was curious to see how it'd translate on stage and see if it could compare to the multiple versions of 'Burn My Dread' he had on his music player... also he wanted to have more songs than that, Mass Destruction, and Kimi no Kioku.

"Only if Yurippe over here allows it." Iwasawa passed off the decision to the battlefront leader.

"I'll allow it if you're able to come up with a good new name for the Battlefront," Yuri answers with a slight smirk.

Note to self: Beware of Yurippe's negotiation skills and power.

"...How about the 'Angel-Challenge' Battlefront?"

"What kind of name is that?!" Yuri didn't seem to like the name.

"Oh, it's because we're trying to take down Angel, right? If we're so against her then it'd make sense to consider her obliteration to be the challenge we're trying to accomplish." Iwasawa tries making sense of the name that the recruit came up with.

"She gets it," Minato confirms, great minds did think alike after all.

"While the name does make sense when you put it like that, it doesn't sound all that cool." Yuri clarifies the issue she has with the name.

"Why don't we try 'Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad', then?"

"Now you're overcorrecting it, also there's no battlefront in the name." Yuri shoots down this suggestion.

"Isn't that what your armband stands for?" Iwasawa looks over and sees the red armband.

"...I guess so." Minato wasn't too sure why that name came to mind, but he figures it was a reasonable assumption that it's what the initials 'S.E.E.S' was for.

"Do you really have no good suggestions?" Yuri groans at the options presented by the recruit.

"...Nothing's gonna top the Afterlife Battlefront."

"At this point, I'm inclined to believe that. Since you can't come up with anything good, it sounds like we've got no choice but to revert our name." Yuri accepts the name, even if it was the group's original name.

The bluenette looks at the leader rather than saying anything more.

"Fine, you can watch Iwasawa-san's band perform tonight, you'll have to be with us for the next mission though." Yuri finally gives permission to the recruit.

"Guess we'll be seeing you at the concert tonight, then..." Iwasawa goes completely silent before she could finish speaking, for some reason it looked like she was forgetting something.

"She's bad with remembering names."

Thanks to Yuri's words, Minato now understood why the girl had stopped speaking.

"I'd say the best options for her to remember your name are: Damn Brat, Proxy, Way Too Iffy Cool Dude, Lolicon, Glasses Comrade, All-Japan Mental Arithmetic Champion, Slasher, or Not-Many-Memory Man," Yuri whispers some name suggestions to the newbie.

Now he knew that she was messing with him by suggesting all these names.

"...you can call me Messiah." To defy the options given to him, Minato suggested a ridiculous name of his own.

"Are you trying to become the next Angel?" Yuri crosses her arms when questioning this name choice.

"Alright then, Messiah, hope you'll enjoy tonight's show." Iwasawa just rolls with the name she's been given before exiting the room. To see someone blatantly accept the name he made up surprised the 'Messiah' who blinked when the guitarist/vocalist left the room.

An awkward silence filled the room for the next few moments.

"Anyway, you've already met Hinata-kun so that's just about everyone in our division. Now we just need to get you one of the SSS uniforms and you'll officially be with the rest-"

"I'd rather keep these clothes on. If I remember correctly, these are from the school I attended when I was alive and taking them off feels wrong to me, especially my armband." Minato looks at the clothes he has on.

"You're asking for a lot today, you know that?"

"I need to draw lines in some areas." Minato let out the faintest of chuckles when saying this.

"What do you remember about your life?" Yuri suddenly switches the topic of discussion to something more personal, taking off her leader hat to reinforce the idea. Her voice suddenly gets serious and her eyes lock in on the boy sitting in front of her. If there was one thing she knew, it was that no one in this world lived a good life and that he wouldn't be any different. When talking about what happened leading up to a person's death, things got almost always got dark and personal but she knew how to keep her cool and reassure the person. However, Minato had barely reacted to meeting the group and had a disturbing lack of self-preservation thanks to his pessimistic views on life... What made him act this way? That was something even she wasn't sure if she wanted the answers to.

Like always, the bluenette didn't seem to mind the question and that's what concerned the leader.

"I've got fragments of them but it'll take a bit for me to figure out my full story as it slowly comes back to me. So, I'll just tell you what I'm sure about so far."

Yuri didn't give any verbal response, instead, she nods and continued to analyze the dead man.

"When I was seven years old, my parents died in a car crash which I'd experienced with my own eyes. I've got no problem with telling others about it since it's what created my view on death." Minato casually recalls while looking out the window to see it'd started to rain outside.

"..." Yuri was already left speechless at how bad the story had already started.

"After that moment, I was an orphan who had no family to adopt me since the only members I had were my sister and grandfather, but that old man just wanted her and that left me on my own." Minato felt a little less sure about this point but figured it was a reasonable guess to make.

"..."

"For the next ten years, I transferred from school to school but found myself ending up back in the place where it all began, Iwatodai. What happened after that, I've got no idea, but what I do know is that it's the place which I eventually died in." Minato looks back at the girl listening to his story when he finished his story.

"...W-Wasn't anyone there for you?" Yuri's voice now had rage and sadness behind it, despite the story being told to her being short, which made it even worse! From her perspective, it sounded like the boy had experienced ten years of emptiness and was abandoned by his remaining family members after watching his parents die. Everything about the 'teenager' in front of her had now made sense, he felt numb for as long as he could remember and no one helped him out during all that time... then he died.

"..." Minato frowns before looking down, he honestly felt like he'd yet to remember important details but he couldn't verify that as of this moment, so he just silently accepts the girl's words as the truth.

"That's so c-cruel, even by death's standards," Yuri states, clenching her fists at the unfairness of the situation the boy had experienced.

"You don't need to pity my situation, I've accepted it, and my only decision left is to move on from life."

"H-How can you say that? How can you accept death and move on so e-easily?" Yuri stares at the emotionless being with disbelief.

"...Because if I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to help you out yesterday."

Hearing these words made the purple-haired girl's cheeks turn red. Outside, the cloudy skies and rain go away to reveal the sun once more which shined on the recruit who was expressing a new emotion. A smug look had formed on his face and he makes it abundantly obvious that these words were intended to make the leader feel flustered.

"My amusement aside," Minato's smug look goes away as quickly as it came and he goes back to sounding serious. "If I'd feared death then there's no way I would've gone back to help you. Call me selfish, but I'd rather see myself get hurt than you and because of my lack of fears about death, it gave me all the reason to help you out after sending Hinata to get the rest of the brigade."

"W-What about y-yourself?"

"As I've said, it's selfish, but at that moment, I only cared about my goal of keeping you safe without any care about myself or you wanting me to be alright." Minato looks at the blood-stained shirt he still had on.

"Did you just turn acting selflessly into acting selfishly?" Yuri's anger had gone away, instead, she felt amused, confused, and happy all at the same time. All while she looked at the bluenette who had the sun shining on him.

"You're damn right, I did." Minato remarks without skipping a beat, causing the girl in front of him to burst out laughing.

"Never thought you'd make me laugh out of all people." Yuri now had a bright smile which she kept on before standing up. She made sure to pick up her leader hat before walking over to the door, "We'll meet again tomorrow, for tonight though..." Before she could leave, she looked back at the boy and gave him some last words, "Make sure to live, just this once."

Minato takes some time to respond, but when he does, he just nods since he's already spoken enough.

'What a strange guy you are, Arisato-kun.' Yuri couldn't help but think to herself before she left the room.

Now that he was left by himself, the newest member of the Afterlife Battlefront lays down back in his bed. Resting a bit more to make sure he's completely healed up before attending the concert sounded like a smart idea to him. With no one needing to speak with him, he takes the time to put on his earphones and listens to a new and random song chosen by his music player.

Lia & Jun Maeda - Heartily Soul [Opening Version]

Donna yume no naka ni ita? [What kind of dream were you in?]

When the music starts up, Minato closes his eyes to let the new song sink in.

Shiawase na mon da to ii nda kedo, [I hope it was a happy one,]

Opening his eyes, the blue-haired boy notices he was now laying down in someone's lap.

Sukoshi dake shinpai. [But I'm just a little worried.]

A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes greets the boy with a smile before making a promise, "I want to go on protecting you, forever."

Mada dokoka ni inai ka? [Are you still around somewhere?]

Hideki was seen trying to run up some stairs, only to come across Noda yelling.

Itsuka kieru hi wa, [On the day when I'll disappear,]

Godan, Ooyama, Takamatsu, and Fujimaki were all working on keeping the vengeful teen down.

Yuuki wo motte fumidasu nda. [I'll be brave and step forward.]

Shiina shook her head while watching all this from the background. Hideki tries taking a step forward, only for a pink blur to run into him and the two of them to tumble down the stairs. All these noises did catch someone's attention-

Minato's eyes slightly opened, only for him to close them and he went back to sleep.

Anata dakara jibun no sei wo, [Being who you are,]

Walking around the place, Iwasawa looks out the school windows.

Atashi ni tsunaide kureta. [You connected your own life to me.]

It was the middle of the day and she carried her guitar case as she observed the sun.

Onaji toki wa ikirenai. [We can't live at the same time.]

"Hopefully we'll get a new fan," Iwasawa spoke to no one but herself, then she opens the door to a classroom before entering it. Inside the room were the other members of their band who cheered at her arrival.

Douyou dekinai, [It can't be swayed,]

Inside a dark room, Yuri walked over to a drawer.

Imasara dekinai. [Not at this point.]

She opens the drawer and pulls out a pistol from it.

Koukai dekinai, [Can't have any regrets,]

The Afterlife Battlefront leader then loads the gun with ammo.

Imasara dekinai. [Not at this point.]

Her hands aim the gun at a nearby target and she fires away.

Donna yume wo egaitara [I know what kind of dream I need to paint]

Standing on top of one of the school's rooftops was Angel who looked off into the distance.

Sotsugyou dekiru ka wakatte iru. [For me to be able to graduate.]

From the view, she looked over at another of the buildings and sees the resting boy she stabbed.

Kokoro kara arigatou. [From the bottom of my heart, Thank you.]

Last night's events played in her mind and she looks at her right sleeve which had some blood on it.

Bukiyou na atashi demo, [Even as awkward as I am,]

As the wind starts picking up, the white-haired being turns around to walk towards the door.

Hontou ni owaru hi wa [I wonder if I can keep myself from crying]

After exiting the roof, she entered a room in the school building which contained a piano.

Nakanai mama de irareru- [On the day when it truly ends-]

Angel walks over to the piano and sits down to play a song on it.

Iwasawa was singing and playing the guitar with the rest of her band.

Yuri now had shells all around her, but she just reloads her gun to keep shooting.

Noda broke from the four guy's dogpile, only for Shiina to throw a shuriken that gets his uniform stuck to the wall.

Hideki and the Pink-Blur Girl were now arguing with each other.

Kanaaa.

Minato mouthed the final word of the song in his sleep before everything turned to white-

Messiah Beats!

---

Author's Notes:

That concludes the first chapter of this Persona 3 x Angel Beats crossover, one of which is a game that I've gotten into to the point of reading many fanfictions of it and the other one is my favorite anime I've watched so far.

I'll admit that doing an Angel Beats fanfiction is something I never expected to do as the story wrapped up perfectly in the anime, or at least that's what I believe, let alone having a crossover. So, What gave me the idea to do this? Rewatching the anime multiple times, I noticed a notable amount of flaws and figured that making those aspects better, which was mainly due to the anime getting cut short.

Then, Why change the protagonist? In the original show, Otonashi Yuzuru was the main character. Believe it or not, I actually did enjoy his character and found him to fit the role of a not-so-wild guy who's quite caring and protective about others to be good, he wasn't one of the best characters but his backstory justified his attitude and he served the story well enough. My reasons for replacing him were to take the story down a different route and to avoid potentially making him feel like an afterthought due to not being the protag (as it's common for original protagonists to feel lesser in crossover stories when someone from another series enters their world).

Now the thing about Angel Beats is that the show starts off mostly comedic and light-hearted with some moments of seriousness before becoming heartbreaking yet satisfying, in comparison, Persona 3's a far darker story with moments of levity but it still concludes in a sad-yet-fitting way. This means one of my bigger challenges here was balancing the tones of each respective game/anime, hopefully, it was done good enough here.

And now it's time to discuss my reasons for making changes to Minato.

In the movies and games, he typically goes under the name Yuki Makoto and I decided to keep that official here where that was his name before. PERSONAlly, though, I do prefer the manga name Arisato Minato and I do think that in media like these Minato is used more often than Makoto which is why I'm jumping on the bandwagon for this one.

To obey the rules of the afterlife that Angel Beats set up, Minato's going to need some time to fully recover all his memories. My reason for giving him the worst memories first is to show what he's been through so far and to potentially draw some parallels between him and Otonashi that'll become clearer later on.

Now we're onto possibly my biggest decision, deciding if Personas should be used in this story.

The Answer I've given is to pass up on that, there are other stories and series which can handle the concept far better than I ever could since I'd rather not botch the titular beings of the game series. I'm not informed enough on Greek Mythology or most other ones to believe that I'll be able to create accurate depictions of them or trust myself enough to not get some wrong information. There are other stories that utilize them better than I ever could and besides, they might show up eventually.

My next reason for not including the Personas is that if I'd done that, then Minato would need to have "The Universe" arcana as he'd been given that moments before his death, and considering how that's the power which did take all his energy away, leading to his death, since death is impossible in this world it'd turn into a constant deus-ex machina which would get boring after a while because it's extremely overpowered and could resolve anything. Also, it's not like Minato isn't already strong without them as he can use a one-handed sword to fight, has led a group of people through over a hundred floors, is shown to be intelligent despite sleeping all the time in class, has no fear in about anything even when it involves guns, and actually, he's got an edge over most AB characters already since he's not an idiot. To prevent him from making any potential threat meaningless, and because he's got enough going for him without Personas, I've opted to not include them.

What are the In-Story explanations for no Personas? Well, Evokers are used to summon Persona by evoking a moment of high stress and terror (which is why it's a gun), it's also used to show the acceptance of death. Minato obviously has the latter, but with no one being able to die, this means any terror or stress that can come out of life-threatening situations are non-existent. If Personas are the "mask" people put on to face hardships, then there's nothing you can physically do to create those hardships if you've got all the time in the world to achieve them. In the afterworld of Angel Beats, the closest things to death are obliteration and becoming an NPC. The first one has nothing in-between as you're either in the afterlife or you're no longer there and The second thing would require a specific thing to happen which doesn't happen until the final arc of Angel Beats. Of course, this is all just my interpretation of the concepts but these are the logic for why Minato will be unable to use his Personas like how Makoto did.

Now that I've spent three "paragraphs" discussing why the titular beings aren't in the crossover, I think I should discuss why Angel Beats and Persona 3 is a good crossover idea.

There's the obvious fact both stories focus on teenagers who've got some traumatizing experiences with death, however, the thing about P3 is that life is worth living and that you can find more than just one meaning in it... in contrast, Angel Beats follows characters who never got the chance to live their lives before passing on. Minato technically didn't have much time to truly live his life but the other reasons for him ending up in the afterlife will be revealed later on, writing him hanging out with other teens whose lives were cut tragically short just felt like too interesting of a plotline to pass up. Logically, Minato died so that already explains why he's in this place instead of being with the rest of S.E.E.S. but he's not the only person who bit the dust in P3, so expect at least two other characters to show up here.

Another thing I'll note is that this Minato is a mixture of his pre-P3 attitude (which is another reason why I'd given him the memories he's currently got) which means his mindset is similar to before the events of the game, but he's also got some of his post-P3 attitude since what he went through will live in forever in his heart (which is why he lets his heart guide the way). So, his mind and heart are definitely conflicting with one another for the time being but he'll eventually grow, for better or for worse.

Now, I also potentially considered a crossover for P3 with Fate/Stay Night or Date A Live due to the interesting dynamics that could be done there, but Fate would lead to me needing to come up with a new angle to adapt either the Fourth or Fifth Holy Grail War and for me to double-check any possible connections between the Servants and Personas, and although I'm still thinking of doing one with DAL, I'll do this one first as there's less thematic connections to that anime compared to Angel Beats.

Anyways, these Author's Notes have gone on for a while so I'll stop it here and hope you readers enjoyed the first chapter, now I'll-

PEACE OUT!