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!
Walking out of the infirmary was one blue-haired teenager who seems to have gotten a new shirt to replace the bloody ripped one he'd been wearing before. Much to his dismay, it was black rather than white but sometimes you can't have everything life can offer... or afterlife in this case. Letting out a sigh when exiting the room, he follows that up by walking ahead to look around the school.
Within one of his pockets was the 'gun' that he tried using last night, he figured that Yuri must've retrieved it since it was placed on the edge of his bed... which he didn't notice until he woke up from his napping session. Thinking about the gun would have to come later though, as he wanted to focus on something else.
From looking out the window, he realized how long he's been 'napping' due to the fact the sun was close to setting now. Truth be told he never thought of himself as a heavy sleeper but then again he doesn't know which parts of his previous incarnation carried over to this life so maybe sleeping was something he'd mastered back then. Watching the sun made him stop in his tracks and he started to think about the dream which he had only moments ago.
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."
Despite his lack of knowledge, he knew well enough that dreaming about a random girl wasn't his style so she must've been important to him before. That 'dream' was also most likely a memory since at that moment, everything had felt familiar.
That left one question: Who was that girl?
Without any way of knowing for sure how to bring back his memories, it might take a while to figure that out and the frustrated the bluenette who wanted to find out the answer. But he understood that patience can take you a long way which meant that for the time being, he'll have to push the matter out of his thoughts. A part of him wondered, Why he was even trying to figure out what happened to Makoto? He's dead now and Minato was just looking into a past that had already met its end.
And yet here he was, trying to figure things out.
Sometimes he wanted to question his sanity with how randomly his decision-making had turned out to be. For some reason, he felt like this was the most agency he had in making choices for some reason though.
"Stupid senpai, I'll make sure to give him a German Suplex the next time he yells at me for just running into him!" A loud and young-sounding voice can be heard through the halls.
Looking away from the window, Minato looked over to see who was the owner of the voice. Unfortunately, he could remember her running past him yesterday since pink blurs weren't exactly common, especially one with.
This young girl had been wearing the same uniform that Yuri, Shiina, and Iwasawa had which made him think that maybe she was a member of the Afterlife Battlefront since they wore clothing different from the ones female NPCs wore. That made her stand out combined with her pigtails held up by dark red laces, the fact her hair seemed to be competing for being the longest with Angel's, those two garters wrapped around her knees, and how there was a handcuff around each of her wrists. Needless to say, her choices in clothing were a bit much since Minato's only now noticed the crosses clipped onto the end of her pigtails, the black choker around her neck, the black ribbons on her legs which crossed from her ankle to her knees, and the demon tail coming out of her skirt.
Compared to everyone else on the battlefront, despite her height, she stood out in the appearance department for having so much stuff on her. Ironically enough she could probably be considered the most lively person he's seen so far... and that's why he looked away and tried walking past her.
Pink-Blur Girl seemed busy pouting to herself and holding a bunch of posters in her hands to notice him so he figured that sneaking past a young easily-distracted adolescent should be easy enough.
Once he's gotten her looks identified, Minato looks away and walks ahead leading to the Pink-Blur Girl passing him by since she simply continued to rant about what happened to herself. From what his covered ears could hear, apparently, she got too excited and didn't pay attention when she tried going down the stairs which led to her running into an upperclassman who scolded her. The two of them shortly got into a short-term wrestling match in which they took turns tapping each other out in submission holds... a part of him felt pity for the guy she ran into.
Right now wasn't the time to dwell on that though, instead, the bluenette needed to make his way to watch an all-girls rock band perform in front of a bunch of teenagers. Suddenly, his footsteps stop when he realized something-
...He didn't know where or when the performance will be taking place.
"At least I'll be able to witness another Girls Dead Monster tonight, that'll be sure to lift my spirit!" From behind he could hear the solution to this newfound problem.
Slowly, he turns his head around and sees Pink-Blur Girl putting up a poster for the band he's conveniently looking forward to experiencing. Oddly enough her tail somehow had been wiggling and a part of him couldn't help but wonder if the girl truly was human. Judging others wasn't something he had a right to do and so he sighed quietly to himself before walking over to the overzealous girl and taking off his earphones.
Before he could speak when reaching her though, the girl turned around first with the posters in her hands.
"Oh, it's you. Aren't you the guy I passed yesterday?" Pink-Blur Girl questions, recognizing the very distinct person standing in front of her thanks to his clothing, aura, and mere existence.
Minato nodded, speaking was typically optional and that's something that the recruit chose to always keep in mind, even in death.
"No wonder why I felt a familiar presence, are you some kind of Death God or something like that?"
Minato shook his head, he was pretty sure that if he was some sorta death god then he wouldn't be here in the first place.
"That's both disappointing and relieving to hear, if you're not a Death God, then what's your name?"
This girl seemed to deeply enjoy asking questions from what he could observe. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to answer her question by actually talking this time around, "My name is Arisato Minato."
"Okay then, I'm Yui! Were you trying to ask me a question or were you trying to get somewhere?" Yui asks, gently placing down the stack of posters she'd been carrying around.
"Are you a member of the battlefront?" Minato took his turn in asking the questions, he wanted to double-check to make sure that this girl was a member of the brigade.
"Yep! I'm specifically a flunky in the Diversion Division, but I'm fine with that as it allows me to help my favorite band: Girls Dead Monster or GMO for short!" Yui excitedly proclaims, now she was looking up and beginning to daydream in the middle of a conversation.
At least the girl seemed like a reliable solution to his problem.
"Would you mind-?" Minato tries resolving this side-quest swiftly before the girl can get involved in her delusions any further.
"My favorite song of theirs is 'Crow Song' which is an exciting, crowd-pleasing, and thrilling rock song that I love singing along with after Iwasawa-san sings the same words! Speaking of which, did you know she composes the music and writes the lyrics herself which adds an exciting personal touch to each song their band performs? Another amazing song of theirs is 'Alchemy' that's a fan-favorite and for great reasons-!"
His attempt at getting an answer from her seems to have failed.
Yui now had her eyes closed and was moving around very vibrantly when explaining all this, sparkles even started to appear around the girl talking about her favorite band. To say she loved GMO would be a criminal understatement with how proudly and excitedly the pink-haired girl spoke about the band.
Although a part of him appreciated the enthusiasm this girl showed about music, she didn't look like she'd help find his location unless he did something drastic. After all, he didn't want the chance to miss a live performance and add another song to his limited library. What could he possibly do that could catch the attention of a young fangirl talking about her favorite band, though?
"...I don't care." Rely on his default answer.
These words made Yui slowly open her eyes and her talking finally ceased for a moment. From the glare she was giving him combined with the fire surrounding her body, it was clear that his words caught her attention.
"You don't care about the-!?"
"I just want to know where they're performing so I'll be able to watch them." Minato quickly shuts down any misunderstandings his answer might've gotten, although from his tone of voice and facial expressions it didn't look like he was worried about the girl taking his words the wrong way. Though that could just be his inability to emote all that well.
"O-Oh! Well, they're performing in the dining hall in about two hours!" Yui regains her high energy to happily answer the blue-haired teenager's question.
At least he knew he wouldn't be running late.
"What kind of music do you listen to with those earphones?" Hearing the question causes the bluenette to blink, he didn't want to drag out the conversation longer than it needed to since interacting with this girl was something he found to be taxing enough already. Plus the topic could potentially lead to her changing the topic to discussing her favorite band once more. Although a part of him felt bad for wanting to abandon this conversation since Yui seemed genuinely interesting in music, he also didn't have the same passion for music that she clearly does and wanted to avoid interactions that could lead to him missing the concert, especially if he could eat food before it... plus, it was exhausting to create social bonds with people like her.
To avoid a longer-than-he'd-like-this-conversation-to-be discussion, he enacted his escape plan.
"Oh look, it's Iwasawa-san." Minato says with no enthusiasm in his voice, pointing to his left when doing this.
"EH?! IS SHE REALLY COMING OVER-?!" Yui, of course, fell for this trick and looked off in that direction before seeing a tumbleweed blow through the hall and outside the window. She noticed that the tumbleweed wasn't her idol and there were no signs of a guitar nearby, which could only mean one thing-!
Her head looked back in front of her to notice the boy no longer being in the same spot where she'd last seen him. Activating her Pink-Blur mode, she ran around the entire hallway and saw that the guy she'd spoken to had completely disappeared. Seeing that she lost him, Yui stomps onto the ground and yelled out of frustration, "HOW DOES HE KEEP DISAPPEARING LIKE THAT?!"
*Academy Main Dining Hall*
Making his way over to the building dedicated to serving food, Minato focused on questioning the strange gun in his hands. Last night he attempted to use it on himself but nothing happened, even he found it strange that he took the actions which he did last night because common sense would dictate you to not shoot yourself. What made things weirder were the memories he regained during that moment which showed him what was meant to happen.
Supposedly it didn't shoot out a bullet but it shot out something else which was meant to break some glass or something like that, and then a supernatural being would show up behind him.
Clearly, he must've not lived a normal life though that much was probably obvious from the moment he arrived in this world. Thanks to the memories of the gun he was able to deduce that it couldn't work in this world since it didn't fire out bullets... which meant that yesterday he threatened Yuri, holding a sniper, using a fake pistol.
An idea popped into his mind to make it a welcoming prank for people who'll meet him for the first time, the first target of this prank would have to be Noda and no one else.
"HIYA!" Somebody loudly made their presence known behind the blue-haired recruit holding his gun.
Minato could feel a gust of wind quickly come up from behind him and deciding that it's probably best for him to not turn around in case the cause of the wind was dangerous, he dodged it. The way he did the action was by jumping to the left, during this jump he finally saw the cause of the wind to be a halberd spinning through the air. With his body out the halberd's way, he rolls through when landing on the ground and gets down onto one knee to look at the person who threw the weapon.
"Crap, I missed!" It was Noda.
Looks like luck's on the recruit's side for once.
"...But I won't." Minato states before executing the new prank idea by aiming the gun right at the purple-haired member.
"Damn, you're going to be harder to take down than I expected." Noda didn't seem threatened by the gun and instead pulls out a functional gun from his pocket. Like always, no facial reaction came from the person who was the target of the weapon.
Although he did some words to say to himself when seeing this...
Luck's just a bunch of gacha bullsh-
"Now's not the time to be screwing around!" A familiar voice rang out which prevents the opposing teens from firing their 'weapons' at one another. Noda scoffed before shoving the weapon into his pocket. Minato stood up on both feet before turning around to look at his savior.
It was Hinata Hideki, of course.
When the other blue-haired teenager reached the two of them, Hideki sighs in relief at the two boys lowering their weapons after dropping his assault rifle.
"Looks like I made a good choice in choosing the area right next to yours, the operation's going to begin in a few minutes and here you two are threatening each other with guns." Hideki shook his head in disappointment at what's transpired.
"None of us got hurt, so it's fine." Noda dismissively says before walking past the recruit.
"Weren't you intending to hurt him?" Hideki watches the purple-haired member who picks up his dropped weapon.
"I was testing his strength and worthiness to join the team, in fact, I'll continue doing that right now!" Noda tightens his grip around his signature weapon and grows a wide smile.
"W-Wait! Just think about what Yurippe would say if she found out you were th-threatening our new member!" Hideki nervously responds and he waves his hand, getting in front of the silent boy.
"Hmph. Fine, I'll save it for another time then." Noda reluctantly agrees, the grip he had on his weapon now loosening before he turns around and starts making his way away from the two blue-haired teenagers. When walking away, Minato's grey eyes and Noda's purple eyes stared at each other, which led to the two of them nonverbally agreeing to continue this elsewhere. After turning his head to look away, Noda finally walked off.
"Glad that's been resolved." Hideki sighed in relief and smiled slightly at how well negotiations had just gone.
Behind him stood a teenager who simply existed when the conversation occurred between the two battlefront members. Considering what's just happened, Minato looks at his gun before looking right back at the guy in front of him.
"This gun doesn't work." Minato decided to spare the fellow blue-haired teen of his prank.
"E-Eh? What do you mean it doesn't work?" Hideki turns to look at the gun inside the recruit's hands.
"It's not created to shoot bullets, so it's a fake," Minato explains, making sure to use the least amount of words to elaborate on what he meant.
"Seriously?! Why'd you aim it at Noda, then?"
"I thought he'd be scared of it." Bluntness seemed like a trait befitting of Minato, so he didn't mind being blunt like he's doing right now.
"You forgot to take into account that he doesn't realize how dangerous guns truly are, he thinks they're more worthless than bows and arrows for crying out loud!" Hideki thankfully informed him of some very useful information.
With this new information gained, Minato shook his head in disappointment and disbelief at just how low the intelligence of Noda could go.
"Well anyway, I need to get back to my station, thanks for telling me about the deal with your fake gun." Hideki looks at the 'gun' that didn't fire out any bullets last night, now it made sense as to why it didn't.
"Don't tell anyone else about it," Minato instructs the battlefront member, he was hoping that the prank would at least work on Fujimaki and didn't want to risk the information getting to him.
"I won't tell anyone, also I'm looking forward to you joining the brigade tomorrow."
"So am I. So, see you then." Minato responds before taking his leave and walking away, the ending of the conversation was abrupt but it was because the two of them needed to take care of something happening quite soon. Hideki accepted the abrupt end and picks up the assault rifle he dropped earlier before realizing something. He turns to look off in the direction in which Noda went off.
"Noda! That's not your spooot!" Hideki calls out, running off in the purple-haired teen's direction.
Minato turns his head and watched this before looking back at the cafeteria and finally entering it.
*Academy Main Dining Hall Interior*
After walking through the door and closing it, he looked around to see a large number of people already present. Looks like the posters placed up by the energetic girl earlier helped out in getting a crowd for this event. Although a part of him wondered what kind of operation the battlefront was planning outside to help them in their battle against Angel, he knew it wouldn't involve him so he shouldn't dwell on it too much.
Throughout the sea of people, he noticed a certain table that had more people surrounding it than other ones did. The reason wasn't too hard to decipher thanks to the instruments being held by the people sitting down nearby. Even if he couldn't make out what they looked like, it was obvious that Girls Dead Monster was surrounding the table and would soon begin the performance.
His eyes search around the place to see if there are any spots open that didn't have people nearby.
Unfortunately, the bluenette noticed that the ground level was filled with people and that the stairs which led to the floors above had many teens occupying said floors. Even if he wanted to go somewhere else, there'd be no way for him to pull this off without coming into contact with people.
Being left no other choice, Minato sighs and simply leans back and takes his spot beside the door.
It was a hassle having so many people nearby and if he wasn't so interested in the performance he would've certainly left by now.
When observing the band who were the cause of the many people here, he saw them waiting for something and were having photos taken of them. Turns out the NPCs were very fond of the band to the point he could safely call GMO the superstars of this place. It was surprising to see a group of teenagers become this popular but perhaps he'd understand how the group got their large fanbase soon enough.
Being left to his thoughts, he reflected on music and how exactly he felt about it.
When he picked out a song, he'd try to understand it before deciding if it was something worth keeping in mind. Not many songs filled that role but he knew that 'Burn My Dread' filled that role and is probably the song he listened to the most when being alive, plus it was good background music. However he never truly felt passionate about music and normally tried understanding them more than enjoying them. Even when he enjoyed a song enough he'd only play it whenever there was time for him to kill or if he wanted to try out dancing... that second part was a work-in-progress. Putting all his thoughts together, the bluenette realized his attachment to music, even the ones he liked, was rather shallow and that even now he just wanted more good background music to play, which he'd achieve by recording the live concert.
This is why he knew that the conversation with Yui would've been one-sided and he abandoned her not only to prevent himself from getting socially tired, but also because he didn't want to half-ass a conversation she seemed genuinely interested in.
Speak of the devil, she bursts through the doors and didn't even notice Minato since her focus were only on one group of people. Yui turns into a blur once again and despite bumping into some people, she made it to the group she cared deeply for and was passionate for.
Minato did admire the girl's dedication and looks down to figure out if he ever felt passionate about anything...
Now, he got lost within his own mind since the only memories he could distinctly make out were of how empty everything had felt for him after his parents died. Oddly enough, he remembers never really minding it, and even now it's not something he views as tragic. Yet that event also led to him being an empty shell of a human being for the next ten years... Why?
No matter how much he could deny it, at this point the boy knew that his time alive affected him more than he's realized and that even though he'd rather not let the past control him in this new life, he will want to seek the truth. At this point, there was little information he was living his current life with, he could remember most things but there were important parts that still weren't there that he wanted to find. Well, if his heart wanted to search around for what happened... then he guesses he'll have to start pursuing Makoto's true self if he wanted to find out the answers.
"We are living our lives-" Minato could hear a new song play loudly from his mp3, but he turns it off since a live performance was going to start. Oddly enough, he noticed a sword laid on the ground beside him...
It must've been a gift from the heartless God because he had no other way to internally justify how a weapon had been left near him.
The next thing he knew, all the lights were turned off.
Girls Dead Monster - Crow Song
Lights turned on to show the group of girls now standing on the floor above where most kids were, on top of one of the flights of stairs. All the people inside this place looked over at the superstars of the school and listened to them playing their instruments to start the song. Minato remained by the door and watched with a blank expression as the song started up.
Girls Dead Monster were performing their concert and he wasn't planning to miss it.
Haigo ni wa shatta ano kabe. [There's a wall of shutters behind me.]
Iwasawa sang into the microphone whilst playing the guitar in her hands.
Yubisaki wa tetsu no nioi. [My fingertips smell like steel.]
Her head searches around the place and she spots the bluenette standing the farthest away.
Susume. Hajike. Dono michi komu desho. [Move ahead. Strum those strings. Either way, the crowd will be there.]
Minato looked back over before closing his eyes to pay attention to the lyrics of the song.
Find a way koko karaaa. [Find a way from here.]
Slowly, the music started to truly process for him.
(Find a way koko kara!)
Sounds of the audience singing along were heard throughout the entire place.
Found out mitsukeruuu. [You'll find what you're looking for.]
The blue-haired teen's eyes opened to look at the NPCs nearby.
(Found out mitsukeru!)
All of them seemed to be loving the performance so far.
Rock o kanaderoooo. [Let's rock out and play on.]
It was infectious seeing the nearby teens sing in unison.
(Rock o kanadero!)
When they did it again, Minato chuckled slightly.
Tooku o misuerooo. [Gaze into the distance,]
He looks over at the girl who was the pink-haired leader of the band.
(Tooku o misuero!)
Quietly, he joined in on the fun and sang with the rest of the crowd.
Ikitsugi sae dekinai machi no naka... [Inside this city where you can't even take a breather...]
Now that the chorus finished, the bluenette shuts his eyes to analyze the song once again.
Hoshizora ga saikou no butai. [The starry sky is the best stage of them all.]
From what he'd seen from the audience, they connected with the song, Why was that?
Karasu tachi kaakaa to naku yo. [The crows cry out, "Caw, caw," above me.]
Opening his eyes, he noticed some bright flashes coming from outside.
Itsu mo omou yo itsu neteru n daro [I'm always thinking of them. I wonder when they'll go to sleep.]
Slowly he looked through the window on the door to see what exactly was causing those flashes.
Find a way atashi mooo, [Find a way - I will too,]
Outside the place, he noticed Hideki firing off a rifle.
(Find a way atashi mo!)
His bullets were aimed at a familiar person-
Song for utau yooo. [In a song for me to sing out.]
Angel, who was using had her Hand Sonics activated already.
(Song for utau yo!)
She slashed any bullets that'd been shot at her.
Rock o hibikaseee. [Rock out and let it echo.]
Looking away, the blue-haired teen looked back at the stage.
(Rock o hibikase!)
Like earlier, the crowd sang with the rest of the song.
Crow to utau yooo. [With the crows, I'll sing out.] (Crow to utau yo!)
Watching everyone having fun, even if they weren't real, was something that Minato treasured.
Itsumade konna tokoro ni iru? [How long will I exist in this place?]
Pushing down on the handle of the door, he goes to open it.
Sou iu yatsu mo ita ki ga suru. [I feel like there were people who once said that.]
Instead of pushing the door open, however, he stops.
Urusai koto dake iu no nara, [If you're only going to say annoying things,]
Finally, the lyrics of the song clicked in his head.
Shikkoku no ha ni sarawareteee-! [Let the jet-black wings carry you away-]
He turns to look back at Iwasawa passionately singing this song, one which was clearly important to her.
Kiete kureee! [And just disappear!]
Minato suddenly gained his interpretation that the song was about making noise to get the attention of people nearby, trying to let people around know that they are here. If you were to compare it to crows then it'd be like cawing out endlessly in the middle of the night and to him, there was a bit of escapism within the lyrics. Parts of the lyrics were about flying away from all the trouble and abandoning all of it for a moment of relief, a moment of singing.
Zenryoku de mou taoresou da... [With all my power, I'm about to collapse...]
Picking up the sword placed down beside him, the bluenette made his decision.
Yubi mo surikirete itai... [My fingers are worn out and in pain...]
Opening the door, he walks out of the place and looks at the white-haired girl.
Demo ne yaru yo konya mo biggu na sutoorii. [But, still, I'll perform. Tonight will be a big story.]
Hideki stopped firing and looked back to see Minato exiting the building, Angel looked in the same direction before taking a step ahead.
Find a way koko karaaa. [Find a way from here.] (Find a way koko karaaa!)
Swiftly jumping away, Hideki watched Angel's and Minato's blades clash with one another.
Found out mitsukeruuu. [You'll find what you're looking for.] (Found out mitsukeruuu!)
Unlike last time, Minato gets the upper hand by pushing Angel's blades away.
Rock o kanaderooo. [Let's rock out and play on.] (Rock o kanaderooo!)
Trying to repay the favor for last night, he swings his sword in the hopes of slashing the white-haired girl.
Luck o utau yooo. [I'll take my luck and sing it out.] (Luck o utau yooo!)
Before it could connect, however, Angel begins spinning around like a mini-tornado which knocks the sword out of the bluenette's hands.
Itsumade datte koko ni iru yo, [No matter how long, I'll exist here,]
Once she stops spinning, Minato kicks her in the stomach.
Toorisugite iku hito no naka! [Within all the people who pass through!]
Angel gets sent flying back but she stabs into the ground.
Yami ni tozasareta suteeji de, [On this stage enclosed in the darkness,]
This causes her to stop flying and she stood up within seconds.
Ima kibou no uta utau yo! [I sing my poem of hope right now!]
Noda, Godan, Ooyama, TK, Takamatsu, and Fujimaki ran over with guns in all their hands.
Anata datte tsukareteru desho, [Even you must also be tired,]
Hideki readies his gun once more before standing with the rest of the battlefront.
Sono senaka ni mo todoketai yo, [I want to send this to that back of yours,]
"Guard Skill: Distortion." Angel simply responded by activating another skill of hers.
Konna kurayami no naka kara no, [From within the pitch darkness,]
Minato started at the girl walking over to them, trying to get into the Dining Hall.
Kibou terasu hikari no uuuta oooo! [The song of light that gleams with hope!]
"Fire," Minato commands from behind in a voice loud enough to be heard, causing everyone nearby to fire off their guns at the target they've all been tasked with taking care of. All of the bullets were currently getting deflected off the enemy's body.
Sono uuuta oooo! [Yes, that song!...]
With bullets flying all over the place, Minato felt a sudden gust of wind and looked above to see a bunch of glowing tickets descending from the sky. Despite the explosions and continued bullets being fired off, he stared focused on the objects before holding a hand out. The ticket which landed in his hand had the words 'Mapo tofu' on it which the blue-haired teenager stared at.
After a few more seconds, all guns stopped shooting and the battlefront members alongside Shiina (who looked like she'd been throwing shurikens instead) ran past him.
"Give you a little kiss!" TK was one of the few people he heard throughout the running, of course, he was incomprehensible to understand.
"Thanks for the help Arisato, but you need to run right now!" Hideki swiftly said when running past his fellow blue-haired comrade. Before the recruit knew it, everyone else had already run away from the scene.
Now that he thought about it, What exactly were the battlefront's plans? All he'd seen was Angel cutting up the bullets shot at her as she'd done the previous night and decided to have a short rematch against her which ended with her blades beating his sword once more.
Did they really do that live performance and use guns on one girl just for food tickets?
Food tickets were used to get food for themselves and students normally used them all the time to get food from the Dining Halls, yet the number of tickets falling like snow indicated that they belonged to all the students inside the building. Technically, that meant they robbed a bunch of people who were having fun at concerts just to get food.
Unfortunately, the bluenette figured he probably gone along with the plan anyway if it allowed him to get this much food. For some reason, he just felt extremely hungry and gluttonous.
Plus, he didn't find himself regretting the decision in the end as it was one he made initially for the many people enjoying the show... to one person who was living out their fantasy and doing what they loved.
Eventually, he remembers the girl standing nearby who stared blankly at the person who she stabbed the previous night. By the time Minato stares right back at the girl, all the tickets finally landed on the ground. All around the two of them were golden objects which could be compared to leaves.
"Why aren't you running away?" Angel asked, tilting her head slightly.
It was a fair question, she did impale him when they'd last met and most people would be cautious of someone who did that. Answering her question was fairly easy for the blue-haired teenager since there was one main reason he wasn't running away.
"Food."
One word was all he needed to say and he reaches down to pick up a reasonable number of ten tickets from the ground.
"Why are you with the battlefront?" Angel seemed almost too accepting of the answer she's received.
This question caused Minato to drop all his tickets before going to look at the girl with those empty grey eyes.
"God."
"I'm not an angel." Angel picks up on the specifics of that answer fairly quickly, it was the same reasons she'd heard from the other battlefront members like Yuri for a long time now. Unfortunately, she could never convince them into believing she had no association with the man upstairs.
"Are you associated with God?" Minato turns and faces the moonlight partially covered by the night clouds.
"...I cannot give you any information regarding them." Of course, the girl didn't answer his question.
The combination of Angel showing a constant poker face and her choosing to neither nor deny the existence of or her association with God made her statements empty or untrustworthy. Figuring out why things are this way between the sides wasn't hard to do thanks to the actions they took against each other. Yuri didn't sound like the nicest person, but Angel seemed more like a robot following her given orders while not giving too many details about herself.
Needless to say, there were flaws on both sides of this conflict.
"You weren't tasked to help out, were you?" Angel responds, her Sonic Hand finally disintegrating and no longer being in her arms.
These words caused a slight reaction from the bluenette who looks down from the sky and right at the girl who guessed correctly.
"Why'd you help out, then?" Angel's eyes drift towards the ground, it looked as if she were trying to figure things out herself.
Minato didn't need to even think about his answer because there was no way he could forget it.
"Iwasawa-san was doing what she loved. I didn't want to see her lose the chance of doing something she cares deeply for and is happily doing."
Looking back at the girl's expressions, she poured effort into the song and was clearly having fun sharing her passion alongside other people and those people sang along to a song they must've related to on some level. Music wasn't the greatest thing in existence but witnessing a live performance where you could see the passion of someone who truly cared about their craft and knowing that something like this must've been a dream for a girl who didn't live the best life before dying early compelled him to just protect it. Perhaps that was all false speculation though, it's not like this teen has the answer to everything and he was probably wrong with assuming something like this to be the case since not all people were what they first seem. Knowing that he could be wrong didn't matter though, all he wanted to do was make sure things kept going and if he needed to hold back Angel while doing it then he'd do it, and that he did.
"Do you know her?" Angel, on the other hand, felt puzzled at the boy's actions since he practically went along with the battlefront's operation just to continue something which held no relevance to him. It held relevance for someone else he'd only met recently and although she got the impression he wasn't willing to trust others easily, like last night he battled her for someone he's only recently met.
"No. But through music, I understood her." Minato shuts his eyes and his mind continues to go back to the event he's just witnessed.
Before all this, all he did was understand the basics of songs and didn't feel anything towards them, or at least that's what he could remember. In this world, that didn't happen and instead, he found himself starting to appreciate it along with how much it could tell you about someone.
"You're a strange person." Angel found herself understanding the boy who stood in front of her. For someone who embraced death to a scary degree, he also acted like someone that somehow both didn't trust many people but also trusted them too quickly despite potentially knowing little about said person. Rather than questioning his logic though, a part of her understood what he meant...
Music could be a way for someone to have fun, and although she was obligated to stop Iwasawa's live performance, she always paid attention to the songs and enjoyed them herself to an extent. It wasn't surprising to know that the boy in front of her realized that something like this made the GMO Leader happy and sometimes music could tell you more about a person than even a novel could.
The golden-eyed girl understood the importance of songs and knowing that the boy did too, made her feel some relief but she also gained curiosity towards him.
"Time for food." Minato ignores the 'strange person' comment to start picking up tickets from the floor.
Angel blinked when watching this, one moment the two were against each other and now they were casually striking up conversations about concerts. She was starting to reconsider if she was the weird one since she didn't want to hurt the bluenette despite what's just happened. Deciding to leave him alone, the white-haired girl turns around and walks away from the premise without saying another word.
During all this, Minato's mind switched to food mode and he kept grabbing tickets... of course, his face somehow still didn't show emotions.
"Hey Messiah, looks like you made it in time for the performance."
He turns around to see the girl who'd been playing a guitar and was the lead vocalist for this event, Iwasawa. There was a guitar case on her back and her other hands were closing the dining hall door. Hearing the girl refer to him by the joke name he'd given earlier to defy Yuri made a defeated sigh exit his mouth, being referred to as someone else would tire him out eventually.
"I'll keep calling you it 'til I remember your actual name," Iwasawa informs, at this point, she was aware that most people would rather be called by their real names. Until her name-memory abilities would get better, however, she'd have to call the boy by his not-real-name until then.
That said boy reluctantly nods in acceptance, he couldn't do anything about memories about himself so helping out with the ones of others was out of the question. Another thought then enters his mind and he looks at the door.
"I'm not sure what happened, but my band decided to distract all the fans to allow me to escape." Iwasawa once again picks up on what was on the boy's mind.
"I DON'T WANNA SIGN ALL THE AUTOGRAAAPHS!"
"WELL, THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR MESSING UP TEN TIMES DURING PRACTICE TODAY!"
"Can everyone just calm down?"
Three female voices could be heard erupting from the place.
They were probably fine, Minato decided.
"Sometimes the group fights, but when it comes to music we always become one." Iwasawa didn't seem to be stressed out about the commotion happening in the building behind her.
Minato had a feeling she just didn't know what was actually with her band. Although he didn't want to know about her band for the time being.
"Where do we rest?" Minato only now realizes he's got no place to sleep and that the only reason he'd gotten a bed last night was due to ending up in the infirmary.
"Boys and Girls rest in separate dormitories, though I take it you don't know where they are?" Iwasawa asks, knowing that if he already knew of the dormitories he wouldn't be asking this question.
Minato nods and realizes that he could've asked more questions to Yuri when he had the chance to.
"Guess I'll be your guide, then." Iwasawa casually volunteers herself to lead the way.
This decision seemed to confuse the boy, which was only evident by the tilting of his head.
"Someone's gotta show you the ropes of this place. Plus, I'd like to get your opinion on the performance, so we can do that on our way there." Iwasawa explains herself before beginning to walk in the direction of the right.
Did she care about what he thought? It was strange but he supposed it made sense for someone to take pride in their musical abilities to want feedback from newcomers, they could have helpful opinions after all. Sometimes to get better at your hobby you needed to hear constructive opinions whether it be good or bad to help you grow because other perspectives can make a world of difference.
Now he wasn't a music critic, but the girl's trusting and relaxed nature was pleasant enough for him to at least try gathering his thoughts on her performance.
"Thank you." Minato simply said before following behind the rockstar, picking up some more food tickets along the way.
Once the two of them had left the premise, the dining hall's doors opened once more to reveal Yuri who closed it and took off the leader hat she seemed to have liked wearing. Her green eyes look off to watch the blue-haired recruit and pink-haired artist walk alongside each other without any hints of tension or nervousness from either side. After doing this, she looked ahead and noticed someone who was doing the same thing.
"..." Angel passively watched Minato and Iwasawa walk off before looking away, closing her eyes, and walking down a flight of stairs.
Yuri looks back at the duo walking off before sighing to herself.
"What are you, Arisato-kun?" Yuri felt the question escape her mouth without even knowing it. This recruit just had a non-violent conversation with the enemy he'd just been holding off from entering the building, told her directly that he lived a tragic life that he didn't seem to be visibly upset about, and now he was being led to his dorm by the cool beauty herself. It was confusing trying to figure out this boy and the purple-haired leader had no idea if she should be proud of gaining someone like him or worried because something about the teen felt... different.
"Would you like for me to spy on him?" An empty voice spoke from the walkie-talkie the leader had been holding.
"Please do so." Yuri accepts the offer. There was one thing she was interested in most about the recruit, one thing that truly made her wonder so deeply about Arisato Minato.
How was he such an enigma and yet someone worth trusting at the same time?
...Also-
"HOW IS HE SO DAMN CHARMING?!"
*Boy's Dormitory*
On their way to the destination, of which only one of them knew the location, silence had initially filled the space between the two of them who didn't seem to mind it. Iwasawa closed her eyes and hummed a different song from the one she sang earlier, the reason for her silence was to give time for the boy to answer the question. Minato's eyes were closed and he tried putting into words what exactly were his thoughts on the performance today.
Like all things, the silence eventually came to an end.
"You love singing, don't you?" Minato opened his eyes when asking this.
"Of course, music's something that stuck with me for as long as I'd lived for, even here." Iwasawa smiled gently when informing the teen of her passion.
"What is it about performing that you enjoy?"
"Everything. From doing it with other people who share my passion, to hearing the crowd sing along and get into music which I've personally created, and even singing itself is such a thrill and is something I'm glad to have the ability to do." Iwasawa opens her eyes before drifting to look at the floor.
The boy beside her found that last point somewhat odd but decided to not pry further.
"What sparked your passion for music?"
"Tell me what sparked yours first, after all, you're the one who's meant to answer the questions." The vocalist turns the tables almost immediately and even smirks slightly at the bluenette.
Now that he thought about it, getting to understand someone passionate about music was different from telling the person about yourselves or your opinions. For the time being, he gives in to the girl's demands since she deserved to know about his thoughts on her hobby.
"I've never taken much interest in it, it always was just something that helped me waste time and although I'd been able to relate to the songs, they never struck an emotional chord with me since I always felt empty." In his usual blunt manner, the blue-haired boy answered her question.
However, the girl in front of him didn't respond and instead looked at him. For some reason, she felt like there was something that was being left out.
Noticing how she was looking at him, Minato sighs at having to speak more but he was a little impressed that she managed to pick up on how he wasn't truly finished answering.
"...And then you girls performed that song of yours, that look on your face during it and your singing made it clear that performing in front of so many people means the world to you. Watching you come alive and the NPCs around you reciprocate and connect to the song you'd been performing for all of them looked like a dream come true for you. The song you sang sounded so personal, you clearly related to what it was about and sang it as if you went through those same feelings you can feel through the song." Ironically enough, the bluenette seems to have gotten carried away in his answer.
Once he finished speaking, the girl stopped walking which led to the boy doing the same.
"I never thought I'd ever hear you speak that much."
Considering how he tends to actively answer in as few words as possible, this was a fair assumption to make.
"I'm... so happy that you got engrossed in our music." A faint blush light showed up on the vocalist's face.
Turns out the boy did almost too good of a job at describing what he enjoyed about the performance.
"Is it safe to assume that Girls Dead Monster just gained a new fan?"
With little hesitation, Minato nodded since he didn't need words to answer this question.
This answer seems to satisfy the vocalist who internally celebrated how GMO gained a non-NPC fan for once. She was sure to tell the girls to add Minato to the list of living fans... which was ironic when phrased like that.
On the outside, her smile simply grew wider at the answer she'd been given.
After their brief exchange, Minato and Iwasawa continued walking ahead with the wind starting to pick up even more. Despite the coldness of it, the boy didn't seem to mind it and just kept remembering the sights during the concert. Just like him, the girl wasn't affected by the wind but for some reason, she does stop walking.
"You want to know how I got into music?"
It took the boy a few seconds to process the question. His mind then remembers the question that he asked moments ago and realized that the girl remembered it. Since he was still interested in finding the answer, he nods.
Placing a hand on her throat, the girl makes sure to clear it before speaking further.
"Every night, my mom and dad used to always fight each other. I didn't have a room to myself so I always had to just listen to the two argue and hurt each other whilst being unable to do anything. All I could do was curl up into a ball and try shutting out all the noises scaring me and hope it could all just go away... there was nowhere for me to go, after all...
One day, I came across a band called 'Sad Machine' who had a lead vocalist that came from a troubled family background as I had. His way of coping with it was by putting on some headphones to plug up their ears and escape into the magical world of music, which I tried out using their music. And then... it felt like all my problems had been blown away in an instant, the person singing spoke for me. The song gave me validation that crying wasn't a bad thing and that common sense didn't matter! The loneliest of people are the most human of all and if society said otherwise then they're wrong, the music spoke for me and all the unfairness set against me was obliterated thanks to that song! People who didn't understand your pain could go take a hike because your experiences matter and some people didn't have a choice in what life gave them, but that didn't mean no one else couldn't do anything about it!
Needless to say, Sad Machine was my salvation. I'd found someone who shared my pain and he eventually got out of his situation to become a big star, and I wanted to do the same thing."
By the end of the explanation, Iwasawa looked to the night sky where there were no clouds. All the stars were reflected in her eyes and some tears seemed to have gathered in her eyes. Recalling what led her into pursuing music had always been exciting for the girl but she oddly found herself to be more empowered when talking about it than usual.
'So that's why I felt like helping her.' Minato knew that although he already had reasons for helping out the Battlefront, Iwasawa herself was the biggest reason for him. Now he understood why he felt so strongly.
Maybe he recognized the earlier song and how it connected to the girl, she started as someone constantly escaping the never-ending arguments and the same toxic cycle repeating. Her way of escaping that was music which could help her get out of the unfortunate situation as it had done for that Sad Machine singer guy.
Deep down, he knew that in the end, that didn't happen. Girls Dead Monster's lead vocalist was here for a reason, after all.
"During one rainy day, I found an acoustic guitar in a pile of garbage that was being left to rot and it was almost like destiny coming across it. Using the little number of yen I had, the guitar had received new strings and belonged to a new owner who was going to travel the world with it. After buying a chord book, I began practicing every single day to become a rockstar someday and my mind was focused only on playing that guitar and singing to convey my emotions, never once did I copy someone else's words or did anything that wasn't specific to me. By the time I'd been able to write my music, this buddy had already become my most trusted partner... my most precious treasure.
It traveled with me all around the streets where people could watch me perform and see me finally utilize a gift that I'd been missing for so long which gave my life a purpose. My school then asked me about my future before telling them that I'll be working a part-time job which would mean there'd be no time for me to attend school, the teachers wanted me to stay but I wanted to make my own money and live off of music rather than rely on my parents any longer. Then, I started to work a part-time job and made sure to save up my money along the way, all the while I'd do relentless auditions for big record companies all to achieve one goal.
From the moment I'd graduate, I would leave home. I would move to a big city. And I would get by on my music alone.
That dream came so close to happening, a record company had contacted me and it was only a matter of time before I'd make my big debut at long last. Finally, I'd achieve my single goal of doing the same thing Sad Machine's vocalist had done for me."
Life certainly had a twisted sense of humor, didn't it?
"Midway through a random day of work... I collapsed."
Iwasawa's eyes drifted to the ground.
Minato's eyes remained firmly on her. From the very beginning of the story, he knew that life didn't end happily for anyone else in this world, which meant that he knew the girl's dream was never going to come true.
"Next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital bed and... I lost my voice."
Suddenly, the clouds covered the moon and some of the stars.
"During one of the fights between my mom and dad, I'd been hit with a beer bottle in an attempt to mediate things and maybe stop them from arguing for once. In the hospital, they diagnosed me with Aphasia caused by a stroke... At that moment, I cursed my fate as there was nowhere left for me to run or even move to... And then my life came to an end."
At this moment, the bluenette realized a difference between the two of them.
He didn't have anything to care for or love within his life, sure he probably had the worst life in this world but it's not something he ever felt any strong opinions on. However, the dead girl in front of him did find something worth living for and cared deeply for it to the point she nearly achieved that one goal.
They might've both died at the end, but a question entered the boy's mind: Was he truly selfish or selfless?
For as long as he could remember there was one distinct reason for him feeling apathetic to life and actively choosing to ignore other people. That simple reason was that death was inevitable and he knew that the closer you normally got with someone, the more it hurts when you lost them. The same could be applied to the human who'd dumped her life story onto him.
What made the girl curse her fate had been due to her not achieving what she intended right when she'd been on the verge of doing so.
Another question entered the conflicted, messy, and selfish/selfless mind of Minato: Is it better to have not loved and lose nothing or to have loved and lost something?
...Wait, hasn't he wondered about this before?
Ryoji.
A name popped into his mind. Was it the name of that blonde-haired girl he remembered earlier?
No. This was the name of someone who knew him better than himself.
All he could gather was this much information, but at least there was a name that he could finally work off on.
Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Minato faced the vocalist who shuts her eyes and noticed her sadness starting to fade away from her face. Instead, she looks back into his grey eyes before laughing a bit.
"Sorry for unloading all that baggage onto you. For some reason, there's this aura around you that makes me feel more comfortable and relaxed than normal." Iwasawa apologizes and smiled once more.
"It's fine."
"Of course, you'd say that." Iwasawa rolls her eyes and turns around.
"Love." Vaguely, the pink-haired girl heard from behind her.
"What was that?" She shifts her body to look back around at the mysterious boy.
"...I hope you continue doing what you love, Iwasawa," Minato repeats his earlier words before doing something the girl thought she'd never see...
.
.
.
He smiled faintly.
For some reason, this tiny and hard-to-see smile made a warmth inside the girl that she's never felt before. Something about seeing this boy in particular show the slightest bit of joy made the guitarist/vocalist stunned at how reassuring and angelic it looked. This single image plants itself within her mind before she could take in the sight beheld to her.
All good things came to an end, though.
That slight smile turned into a neutral mouth and passive face once more.
"Let's get going," Minato instructs the speechless girl before waiting patiently for her response.
Taking a moment to think about what happened, she dismissed the sight of the boy vaguely smiling as a delusion.
"Glad we're on the same page," Iwasawa responds and the two of them went over to the Dormitory which had been in sight.
'What made her hesitate to answer?' Minato himself didn't seem to understand what the girl needed to take in, since she clearly had seen something. Rather than ask her, he chose to just carry on and maybe ask another about it another day for one certain reason...
Human interaction and bonding are tiring.
Plus, he wanted to wake up at the earliest time to consume all the food tickets he received.
"Welcome to your new home, now, I'll head to the Girl's Dormitory," Iwasawa says her goodbyes once the two of them stood in front of a building. This building looked like a typical dormitory, a large place that was only a few floors high and had plenty of rooms for the people attending school to share. Currently, the two teens were standing at the entrance which had opened doors.
"See you next time, Iwasawa." Minato turns to face her before bowing.
"You don't need to be so formal," The vocalist says before lightly chopping the back of the bluenette's head which predictably caused no damage to him. She then turns around and waves while walking away before giving the boy some parting words, "See you at tomorrow's meeting, Messiah!"
"..."
By the time she walked out of site, Minato realizes that he doesn't know where the Battlefront members meet up.
Seriously, What was it with him and missing the chances to ask important questions?
"The location of the Afterlife Battlefront's meeting is in the Principal's Office."
Speaking of questions, the bluenette heard a female voice talk behind him and he turns to look at the girl who'd given him the information he wanted.
One of the things he noticed was the girl wearing the female Afterlife Battlefront Uniform, which explained how she knew where the group is meant to meet up. Her hair was long and blonde and she seemed to have pigtails held up by red ribbons, her skin was fair-colored, and her eyes were red. What stuck out the most about the girl seemed to be her emotionless face.
That made it three people now who didn't often show emotions in this world.
Minato rolls with the given information and nods at the girl. However, this time around he wasn't planning to leave any questions unanswered, "What's your name?"
"My name is Yusa and I work as Yurippe-san's personal operator." Yusa introduces herself without a change in tone. If the recruit didn't know any better, he'd mistake her for an NPC due to her showing fewer emotions than even Angel did.
Which meant that the two of them could possibly relate to one another.
"What time does the meeting start?"
"The time varies depending on the plan, which is why I'll be informing you when it happens."
"Do you do the same thing with the other members?"
"No. They have their own ways of knowing when it's time to meet up due to how long they've existed here."
"How long has the Afterlife Battlefront existed for?"
"Too many years for us to have kept track of, but Yurippe-san would probably be a grandma by now if I had to estimate."
"When'd you join the Battlefront?"
"I can't give a date, but it happened after all my emotions were erased in an attempt to get rid of my violent nature."
"How violent were you?"
"Violent enough to go around killing every boy around with a pair of scissors. Unfortunately, the male NPCs got boring to kill and due to no one being able to die, I was disappointed. After turning down an offer to join the Battlefront, Angel-san tried getting rid of my violent tendencies which led to all my emotions getting lost in the process."
"..."
"..."
An awkward silence washed over the two and they stared blankly at one another.
.
.
.
Unless if Minato was secretly some kind of serial killer in his past life, he doubted the two of them could relate to each other anymore.
"Is there any room for me?" He chose to move past the disturbing new knowledge he's gained. After all, it looks like everything's resolved itself before his arrival and so he shouldn't concern himself with events that no longer had any relevance. There was also the matter of him wanting to maintain his sanity by wanting to forget that a boy-killer was working for the brigade that he'd joined.
"You'll know when you come across a door with your name written on a nameplate, Angel-san typically does that for new arrivals." Yusa the reformed(?) killer explains.
"The more I learn about the girl, the more I feel bad for her."
"While the situation is rather unfortunate, she's the enemy we're dedicated to taking down."
"So it would seem, thanks for the information Yusa-san."
"Thanks aren't needed, I'm just carrying out Yurippe-san's will."
A slight frown formed on the bluenette's face before looking away and he makes his way over to the open doors of the dormitory's entrance. Seeing the boy do this, Yusa turns around and starts walking in the opposite direction. Their little conversation seem to have finally ended and now they were going to carry on with their days.
"I'm a machine, so I cannot understand how it feels to 'live'." One familiar-looking blonde girl spoke in a robotic and instructive tone.
"...Hey Yusa-san?" Minato stops right before he stepped through the building.
Yusa halts her walking and turns around to look at the mysterious boy.
"Don't feel afraid to chat with me whenever you feel like it."
Hearing these words come out of his mouth caused the blonde to tilt her head, "You don't seem like the type to enjoy conversations."
"...I don't." Once these words came out the recruit's mouth, he went ahead and walked into the building.
What the boy said left the girl confused, despite not enjoying conversations with other people, Why was he encouraging her to have one with him? It's clear that he had reasons for saying those words but she couldn't figure out those reasons. Talking to the boy personally made her realize why even people like Yuri didn't know how to completely feel about him... however, she also had to agree that you felt more comfortable around him. You had the feeling that he wasn't going to judge you harshly or put you down for whatever selfish reasons other people did. Something about talking to him made you want to just tell him everything about yourself and watching him walk off felt somewhat disappointing. Did the boy know anything about the aura he gave off? Probably not.
But amongst all the confusion he caused her, she couldn't help but keep his words in her mind...
'What a strange guy you are.' Yusa thought to herself without a single change in her facial expression. She turns around and walks off soon after.
Inside the dormitory, Minato puts on his clip-on earphones now that he was alone before picking out a song on his mp3. After such a long day of chatting with people and getting into music, he needed to back into his comfort zone.
Maybe he should continue to work on something music-related while he was at it and progress on something he'd practiced during his time alive.
Lotus Juice & Yumi Kawamura - Mass Destruction
Instead of starting at the very beginning of the song, the blue-haired boy skipped to the first verse.
Fear's awake, Anger beats loud, Face reality, Never beat charity.
The enemy you're fighting covers all society (Damn right).
Mommy's not here, gotta fight- (All night).
Walking up a flight of stairs, he does slightly move his head with the flow of the song. His top priority was finding his room, however.
Right here, Shadow ten o'clock direction, Seize the moment, destroy the nation.
Your rhyme is slow motion, give me motivation, Freaked out now, and dead on arrival (What!?)
No one seemed to be walking down any of the hallways and he blankly kept searching for a door with his name on it.
Round up around, spit out, All over.
Rhyme like a rolling stone, Comin' a crowd.
Watch out, they move, they diss you loud, Guess what this sound, it bombs whole ground, So round up.
Inside his pockets, the boy began snapping his fingers as memories of listening to the song entered his mind.
Don't ease your pace, 'cuz enemy's brutal, Moment of truth, There ain't no truce,
You're the only one, one world, one love,
But the battle goes on, Shadows of Mass Destruction.
Unlike before, he now understood music and the importance it could have on people. On the outside, his face was the same empty look it always gives, but on the inside, the song made him want to move along with it.
Ooh yeah! Dada-dada, dada-dada. Baby! Baby!
Da-dada-dada, Dada-dada.
His legs kick up into the air and Minato suddenly breaks out into dancing, keeping a straight face as he moved to the beat of the music.
Ooh yeah! Dada-dada, dada-dada. Baby! Baby!
Da-dada-dada.
Dancing along with the song, he did a swift cartwheel. Despite doing this move, something about it felt empty just like many other things in life had felt.
Ooh yeah! Dada-dada, dada-dada. Baby! Baby!
Da-dada-dada, Dada-dada.
Repeating the action he's remembered, he does a smooth cartwheel and lands on both feet. Despite having a straight face, he unironically felt alive more than ever before.
Ooh yeah! Dada-dada, dada-dada. Baby! Baby!
Da-dada-dada.
After a bit more dancing, he ends off by pointing a finger gun to the side of his head and shooting it. Once he did the movement that felt nostalgic for reasons he'll figure out later, the dance session ends. He closes his grey eyes and begins casually walking around again to find his room, deciding that he'd probably try working on improving his moves later on.
Luckily for him, he found a soon nameplate with the word 'Arisato' written on it which meant it could only be meant for him. No other names were written on it and he sighs in relief at not needing to share a room with another person.
Entering the room, he saw that everything inside of it seemed designed for two people to be living there instead of just one. From the bunk beds to a desk that had two spinning chairs already being set up, even the drawers were the sizes of the beds. Much to the bluenette's relief, it looks like he lucked out in getting what's most likely one of the few empty rooms. Much to his displeasure, there seemed to be a camera placed in the corner of the room which was probably made to monitor the students, for the time being, he didn't want to deal with it.
Rather than doing anything else, he lays down on the bottom bed and shuts his eyes.
Although he had some fun dancing moments ago, it tired him out further than he already felt and felt like a fever dream to even himself. Something had definitely been wrong with Makoto because in this world he felt more connected with the things around him despite his life already having come to an end. If he was being honest... maybe dying was the best thing that happened to him.
This entire time, maybe he wasn't accepting death... he was thanking it for ending his empty existence.
There wasn't anyone or anything there for him once his family, who were the people he had the deepest connections with, had been taken from him all the while he couldn't do anything to stop these events. Growing bonds with others would just lead to heartbreak in the end and this mixed with him constantly moving from place to place led to no one ever getting close to him. Due to a mixture of him actively ignoring other people and never staying in one place long enough, there was no one of significance for him to mourn for.
In this world, no one could die though. In this world, Makoto turned into Minato and felt more human despite his views on life remaining the same. In this afterlife, he didn't need to burn any dread because the life before didn't matter and death was a force that brought him here.
Ironically enough, Minato felt like this place was his dreamland and that it was for the best if everything stayed like this for the rest of his life.
Finally, he could perhaps allow himself to get close to other-
.
.
.
No... there were some people who were there for him.
He didn't know who they were, but his heart was screaming at him that his life hadn't been completely devoid of relationships. There were people in his life who he'd forgotten by waking up in this world and those people did have some kind of bond with him. Maybe they were the reason why his interest in Makoto's life had been so high despite him not wanting to pry into his past self's backstory.
Humans were a hassle to deal with, weren't they?
Minato chose to end this moment of reflection because he could think more about it tomorrow, and besides, he had a post-life to take advantage of. Whoever the people in his past were, he'd try figuring it out but his focus was on everyone he's met within this place.
Yuri.
Hideki.
Angel.
Iwasawa.
Yusa.
These are the people he can currently remember and are the people he's chosen to open himself up to for now. Whether more names will be added to that list or not remains to be seen, but here he knew that death no longer loomed over everyone and that his nihilism couldn't apply here. For once he can slowly and safely allow himself to make friends as there was no way for connections to be cut off and they were all stuck in one place forever.
That did raise the question, What was obliteration? Yuri told him about it but he never bothered to ask what it meant inside a life where no one could die.
That was probably a question for another day as another one reappeared in his mind...
Is it better to have not loved and lose nothing or to have loved and lost something?
With these final thoughts, Minato allowed himself to drift into dreamland and rest after this long day.
Messiah Beats!
Author's Notes:
Chapter two has officially been finished writing, I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of Followers and Favorites I gained just from posting the first chapter within a single week. It's been flattering to see and I'm relieved that this story has already caught some people's interests.
As for the reviews... they were quite interesting, to say the least, there were some positive and negative ones but I can safely say that I'm glad to have gotten reviews since they do help motivate me to write more. Speaking of them, I'll be discussing some of the things said in them:
Personally, I thought Angel Beats! was an anime original concept made by Jun Maeda and wasn't sure of the existence of a visual novel for the series aside from "Angel Beats! 1st Beat" (which came out in 2015) which I've incorporated parts of into the story already, like the OP of the game closing out the previous chapter. I've currently got no knowledge on pre-anime Angel Beats! media (unlike Clannad which was also made by Jun Maeda) and have no experience with them unfortunately enough.
Persona Q and Q2 will be canon, but due to the characters' memories being erased on top of Minato's amnesia from the afterlife, he's not going to remember it.
I was more surprised there wasn't more flack for the exclusion of Personas, that said they'll not be used in the story at this point as I believe that Minato/Makoto is already unique compared to the Angel Beats cast. The idea of limiting him to Orpheus is a good suggestion but I've established the in-world logic for him being unable to summon them and need to stick with them for now.
After taking time to think about it, I'll be doing the P3/DAL crossover after this one since the idea could be fun and because that one can focus on the other aspects of P3 this story can't focus on as much. The reason why I didn't do this one first was due to Date A Live still being an ongoing series, at least on the anime side of things, and because I'm bad at finding light novels online.
I'll make sure to not allow the troll comments or the comments made to discourage me to get me down, there are always going to be those people who have certain things they don't like and others who just want attention. I'll refuse to give any attention to the people actively seeking it because I'll always value genuine and constructive opinions over some Twitter post. That doesn't mean I hate criticism, in fact, I've always appreciated the ones which can help me grow or improve the story, but it's obvious when the criticisms aren't like these.
Back to this story, most of this chapter was dedicated to Iwasawa Masami and that's due to her being possibly one of my most favorite side characters ever. Looking back at her character and how she got into music made her click for me, there are times when I'd just wanted to get away from conflict by escaping into the world of music. Her dedication to music made for some entertaining moments in the "Hell's Kitchen" OVA (plus seeing her oblivious to her band member's intentions was fun) and I'll admit that her route inside of the 1st Beats Visual Novel made me cry because of the bittersweet way it ended.
Needless to say, Iwasawa had enough depth for me to explore, and trying to piece together what Crow Song meant wasn't the easiest thing to do, but as a big music fan myself it was fun to see. Plus, "Crow Song" was one of the main reasons I'd gotten into Angel Beats because it played over the Battlefront trying to take down Angel which they just couldn't do, and having this song play over it was goddamn awesome.
This chapter represents something I'm intending to do and is one of the main reasons why I'd chosen Angel Beats to crossover with Persona 3, because of the potential in character building and development alongside all the humor and absurdity both series possess in spades... in Angel Beats, the focus on certain characters made for some of the best moments in the show and is why Episode 10 is my favorite episode.
So I'm hoping to replicate the same thing here and I thought that Iwasawa would be a good character to delve into first, especially since she and Minato are connected by music (and because I need him and Angel to take some time getting to know each other).
Something I'll note here is that there'll be no single OP and ED for the story, just music that plays over events happening that happen to match those songs. Which explains why neither "Burn My Dread" nor "Heartily Song" were used here.
Also, even I'm surprised with how quickly I got out this chapter, I'll probably be unable to keep this pace going considering how spontaneous things can get so I'm just glad that I'd been able to get this out within a week. I'll most likely not have a chance to continue this trend so weekly posts will probably not happen often, but I'm just hoping the quality of the story will make up for my strange posting schedule.
To prevent myself from rambling on much longer than I have to, I'll end this blabber of mine here. Hopefully whoever's reading this has enjoyed the chapter and I'll now-
PEACE OUT!