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.

3. Demon Picnic

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!

---

Waking up from the deep slumber he let befall his body, the blue-haired protagonist opened his eyes to look at the place he found himself resting in. One of the first things he noticed had been the bed above since he made the lazy decision of not climbing onto the top bed to rest due to how tired he'd been. He supposed there were worst first sights to see when waking up, like a classroom.

Because he was always asked to answer questions whenever he'd been woken up temporarily.

There was this one student who constantly asked him for the answer and tried taking credit for it, the guy was wearing a hat and seemed like a pain in the neck. Clearly, he didn't study anything and tried taking the glory of answering a question when he had a sleeping cheat sheet near him. Why'd he helped that guy back when he was alive? Couldn't he have just not answered the guy like he'd done with other people or even given him the wrong answer just to embarrass him and have the guy suffer for being such a nuisance? Despite all these harsh words, he had a feeling that the hat-wearing guy wasn't someone he disliked in life.

Perhaps he was one of the people there for him when he was still living?

...Probably not.

Getting up from his bed, he looks around the room and observed how empty it looked thanks to how it'd been built for two people. This wasn't something he minded too much and his head turns to look through the sliding door which had been the gateway between the room and the small porch outside, thanks to the glass being transparent he could see the sun was up.

It was morning and time to go do whatever.

'Maybe I could spend some of my food tickets in the Dining Hall.' Minato thought to himself, reaching into his pockets before pulling out an estimated number of twenty tickets.

To normal people, this would be excessive since the meals provided lived up to their titles by giving students the desired food in abundance. Obviously, this dead teenager wasn't normal and he felt that this much food would at least suffice... for lunch. Dinner was an entirely different matter since he'd probably have run out of tickets by then which could only mean he'd have to find a way to somehow get more food.

One thing he could do is probably search around in the same area where all the tickets fell last night to see if there were any leftovers that he could save for dinner. Unless if he got carried away during lunch which wouldn't all that unlikely since he felt his metabolism was higher than the ones most people were even when alive. So many factors could come into play regarding this world's food to the point that even the bluenette began getting a headache while looking at the tickets.

Maybe he should focus on lunch first. Dinner could be dealt with when night arrives again.

Now that he thought about it, maybe he should get a move along and start making his way over to the food-serving place of this post-life before it's too late. Today's the day he'll officially join the Afterlife Battlefront and assist them in their battles against a certain white-haired girl who possibly served under God.

There were many thoughts he had on Angel but none of them were hatred or resentment towards the girl, he doubted that she even worked for such a divine being. Until he had evidence to prove otherwise, there was no way for him to prove that for sure, however, which meant that changing the Battlefront's minds was impossible for the time being.

What made him join the group despite not holding any ill-will toward the girl which everyone there is against?

Because he felt a closer bond with specific members of the brigade and felt more obligated to join their group rather than working alongside a girl who seemed too focused on completing objectives. If the girl had a goal in mind, it wasn't one that he could figure out since she seemed like someone focused on reinforcing the rules and didn't seem to even try verbal communication with the other side. Both sides were stubborn, but until he learned enough about Angel, he'd rather stick with a group of people he knew the intentions of.

Realizing that he got lost in his mind again, Minato stood up and shoves the food tickets back into his pocket. He looked at the camera in the corner of the room and noticed that it faced his bed, which probably filmed him as he slept. There wasn't any time to deal with the objects, so he decided to take care of the camera when he returned.

Seconds later, he exited his room to go get some delicious food.

"It's time. Please report to headquarters."

...So much for all that planning.

When the recruit had started walking out of the Dormitory, a voice from his left was heard and it was easy to figure out who the voice belonged to thanks to the distinct tone. He turns and looks at Yusa who stood just off to the side of the entrance, she had informed him that now was the time for the meeting he thought would come later in the day.

The girl did impress him in the sense he didn't even notice her until he'd heard her abruptly speak up, maybe he could learn a thing or two on the art of sneaking around from her. It didn't freak him out that from his perspective she appeared from nowhere since he figured she simply was good at concealing her presence and had made her way over here by walking as any normal person would. Either that or his mind was just overly focused on food.

"Thank you for informing me, Yusa-san. I'll be on my way." Minato responded as he bowed, he'd been taught it was polite to do and that he didn't need to do it around Iwasawa.

"You don't need to thank me. I'll inform Yurippe-san of your arrival." Yusa says without any hint of emotions or confusion at the bowing.

Minato stands up straight again and nods at this information, then he turns around and walks off with his earphones on while Yusa stood there and watched him do this. Eventually, the boy walked out of sight before the blonde spoke into the earpiece she had on.

"Arisato-san is on his way."

"Excellent! Time to get today's operation prepared, then." Yuri's voice could be heard from the earpiece.

Yusa nods in agreement before walking away from the Dormitory with one thought going through her mind, 'He didn't freak out like people normally do... Somehow that boy keeps getting more and more stranger.'

---

Making his way to the meeting place, Minato looks up and sees two big doors which have a sign over them that says 'Principal's Office'. Now that he's reached his destination, he walks over to the door and goes to reach one of the knobs to open it. When he grabs onto the knob, an entirely new song he's never heard plays through his earphones.

"Itsumo hitori de aruiteta, [I was always walking alone,]"

He faintly heard a loud noise to his left and he turns to face it.

A giant hammer was swinging down at him.

"..." The bluenette remains stone-faced like always but one thought did come to his mind before the hammer could hit its target:

Now the music made a lot of sense.

The recruit closes his eyes and braces for impact to prepare himself against the giant hammer swinging at him. His body is launched off the ground and it crashes through a nearby window which causes him to literally go flying high off the ground. Before anything else could happen, the blue-haired boy fell unconscious mid-air.

---

*Anti-Angel Operations Headquarters*

Once some time passed, the recruit felt him beginning to stir and he could hear some voices talking to each other.

"FINALLY! I'VE GOTTEN ONE OVER THE NEWBIE!"

"If my calculations are correct, there's no way you planned to get him with that."

"NOPE! THAT WAS PLANNED ALL THIS TIME!"

For some reason, he doubted that.

"Don't you think doing all of this is a little excessive?"

Without opening his eyes, the somewhat-conscious teen begins identifying who each voice's owner is. That one sounded like it belonged to Hideki.

"I NEEDED TO SHOW OFF MY BRAINPOWER SOMEHOW!"

Much to his dismay, the person yelling was the easiest to figure out as it was Noda. From the sounds of it, he was the maker of the giant hammer which knocked him out. Now, the recruit began forming plans on getting revenge on the annoyance.

"Oh, it looks like he's awake." Someone who sounded normal and non-eccentric spoke.

Minato opens his eyes and notices that Ooyama had been the person to point out that he's recovered from the hit he'd taken. He notices that he'd been laying down on one of the three couches in the room, the other two smaller ones being right across the one he's sitting down on and there was a table in-between them. There were pictures and writings all over the walls, but what else stood out to him was that by the windows, there was a desk being leaned onto by someone in front of a spinning chair occupied by someone else he recognized.

"Enjoyed the flight Noda-kun made for you?" Yuri was the person sitting on that chair and she looked at the recruit.

Minato shook his head.

"It looked cool, that's for sure." Iwasawa spoke casually, she was the person leaning on the desk.

Now that he's gotten confirmation that the purple-haired annoyance for sure made that trap, Minato turns his head and glares at Noda who had a wide grin.

"That'll teach you for thinking lowly of-!"

"What's the activity today?" Deciding that the loud person wasn't worth the time or attention right now, he stood up and goes back to putting on his impartial expression which has become his signature. A part of him was hoping that whatever mission they were going to be sent out on, could be an opportunity to get back at the annoyance he's chosen to ignore.

"WHY YOU-!" Noda raises the halberd in his hands.

"Calm the hell down! Don't you think the hammer was enough?!" Hideki shouts and he wraps his arms around Noda's mid-section to hold him back.

"We don't need any more violence!" Godan calls out, locking Noda in a full nelson in an attempt to hold him back too.

"Looks like the brat know how to get on your nerves," Fujimaki comments with a look of amusement at all this.

"How shallow-minded." Shiina had been heard speaking from one of the dark corners of the room.

"Freakin' crazy," TK said something somewhat-relevant to the situation and he danced over to Hideki, Godan, and Noda before trying to pull the halberd out of the hands of its owner. It wasn't working since Noda kept swinging the object around even with three people against him.

Needless to say, what the recruit was witnessing was messy chaos which started to make him regret the choice to join this group of people. All it took was him to trigger one of the members and three other members were trying to restrain the easily-triggered halberd-swinging manic, meanwhile, the other three members of Fujimaki, Shiina, and Ooyama were watching it go down. Once he'd analyzed the group's dynamics, the recruit looks over at the leader who had a vein popping out on her forehead.

"HEY! STOP THE DAMN FIGHTING ALREADYYY!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look over at Yuri, who caught everyone's attention by yelling. In a blink of an eye, everyone got back into their previous positions except for Minato who looked at the leader with eyes that were slightly wider than usual. Iwasawa clapped silently at the notes that the leader was able to hit by screaming this loudly.

"Now, is everybody ready for today's operation?~" Yuri questions with closed eyes and enough passive-aggressiveness in her voice that even the dumbest person in the room could identify.

"Yes, we are, leader," Minato speaks for everyone in the room. Getting stuck in a group of teenagers who weren't the brightest bunch felt similar to him and so he tried speaking respectfully to the leader since he felt pity for what she had to deal with, also it didn't hurt to do this. It wasn't a guarantee if the respect would show itself in his voice due to his tone not sounding any different but it was worth a shot.

No one refuted or disagreed with what he said, so that was a good sign.

"Wise answer, Arisato-kun." Yuri states before standing up from her chair. Iwasawa walked away from the desk and chose another spot to lean on, right next to Minato on the couch.

Before the recruit could question the vocalist, all the lights in the office suddenly shut off, and the blinders on the windows block out the light outside. Some of the laptops on top of smaller tables set against the wall turn on and a projector screen is pulled all the way down by the leader. A projector on the desk turns on to begin the presentation that's been set up.

If the bluenette was honest, he thought it was a bit much.

"As most of you know, Golden Week will be coming up very soon." Yuri declares, putting on her leader hat and a logo appeared on the screen. The logo was in the shape of a red badge which had the letters 'SSS' diagonally inside the shape, those were the important parts that the recruit could make out about it. Now that he thought about it, wasn't that the same logo on everyone's left sleeves? If so then it made sense now.

Sounds like this world also had the same events that Japan back in the living world had.

"During the week, we'll be initiating Operation Demon Picnic!"

Taking a quick look behind him, Minato noticed Ooyama's eyes sparkled probably due to the 'Picnic' part of the name while Takamatsu and Fujimaki had notably less excitement probably due to the 'Demon' part of the name. It was a strange name but it would probably make sense soon enough.

"In that time, with approval from Angel, we'll be having a picnic in the mountains which she'll be observing because it's us."

Makes sense, now that the 'Picnic' had been explained, Minato wondered how the other part of the name came into-

"...Everyone's jobs will be to kill off each other to make sure one of you will be possessed by a Demon!"

And there it was.

"EEEHHHHH?!" Everyone else in the room spoke in unison.

Except for two people, one of them being Minato who just remained silent and simply accepted the existence of demons. If this world had a 'God', it would only make sense for demons to be present... This thought process stops when he realizes that one person here will be possessed.

"Eh?" Finally, he gave a response at the same time Iwasawa did that was far more subdued than what everyone else gave. It seemed like the two of them were the calmest about this reveal.

"Is there even anything good that comes out of that happening!?" Fujimaki was the one who asked this.

"Of course, but that's for me to know and you guys to figure out when it happens," Yuri answered without answering.

"This is happening in one w-week, right?" Ooyama shows signs of nervousness when speaking.

"Yep, though guns aren't allowed as they'll be confiscated by Angel," Yuri continues to explain the plan to everyone.

Hearing this knowledge made the recruit wonder if he could find some kind of loophole around that.

"Iwasawa-san, can you make sure that Girls Dead Monster will participate in this?" Yuri turns her attention to the pink-haired girl.

"Yeah, got it." Iwasawa answered with little hesitation.

Considering the reactions from everyone else, Minato and Iwasawa both didn't seem to mind this operation which made a few of the members around them gulp. For the members of the battlefront, it wasn't unusual to see GMO's lead guitarist/vocalist keep a level head during all this but seeing someone else act the same way was a disturbing sight to behold. To make the prospect even more worrying, the other person was someone who'd just joined the brigade which made him more unpredictable.

"I and Yusa-san will be monitoring Angel, so don't bother us." Yuri didn't seem to care about the recruit's lack of reactions.

"You're the real demon here!" Hideki yells out.

"This coming from one of the people who'll need to deceive the other people in this room? Because until the event happens, you're all free to fool each other and make things easier for yourselves to kill another."

"Sounds like this mission's going to be a bloodbath," Noda comments like a normal person for once.

"Oh, it absolutely will, and if you're not willing to participate then you'll most likely get killed by the other people in this room... meeting over!~" Yuri abruptly ends the meeting.

All the lights were turned back on, the computers were closed, the projector screen was pulled back up where it belonged, and light from outside came into the room. Most of the members sigh at the assignment they've been given before most of them exited the room. Hideki, Minato, Iwasawa, and Yuri were the last people left in the room.

"Do you guys often do these missions?" Minato questions the only other guy left in the room.

"Unfortunately so, Yurippe isn't the kindest with the assignments she gives us," Hideki explains at normal volume.

"To fight against God, drastic measures are always required." Yuri creates a reason that the recruit finds logical enough to make sense.

"We can't die here anyway, so it's not like we're at any real risk." Iwasawa nonchalantly states her perspective.

All three of them had a point, Hideki didn't need to necessarily like missions he's been given but to battle against the creator of all life did require plans of Yuri's levels which could be accomplished eventually thanks to the inability to die as Iwasawa said. Within this war against the man upstairs, mortality no longer played a factor which allowed for many things to become possible, and yet that all raised a new question.

What kind of power does God hold over them in this world?

Death was something he's learned to accept to the point of it being a detriment to his happiness since the always looming threat of connections with others getting cut short was always present in the living world. Things were different here, a concept like disappearing from this world through normal means didn't exist, and although this place is the post-life section of their lives, something like dying didn't matter which made his acceptance of it pointless. Another question then enters his mind.

Was being more willing to accept how your life ended better or worse? It allowed him to be unbothered by how it ended like it's done for others here, but such a concept didn't exist in this world which nullified that.

Suddenly, Minato realizes he's getting lost in thoughts again and tries focusing on the operation they've been given.

"Well, I'll do my part in whatever comes next. Hinata and Iwasawa, good luck." Minato addresses the only other members participating in the upcoming bloodbath.

"Sucks that we'll be enemies, but I'm sure you can handle yourself, so good luck right back at ya," Hideki returns the verbal favor whilst giving Minato a thumbs up.

"Same to you both." Iwasawa casually responds.

Afterward, the three members walked out of the Headquarters in order to start preparing for the week which lies ahead for them. This left Yuri by herself in the room who took off the leader hat she'd been wearing and places it down on the desk.

"Wasn't today's operation meant to be Guild Parachute?" Yusa's voice could be heard from a walkie-talkie that was also on the desk.

"I know... but I'm curious about testing how valuable Arisato-kun is, he always has a straight face but I'm wondering how much can he pull off himself. Yesterday, he showed us that he can handle the basic missions so I'm confident in throwing him into the deep end for this one. I've also got a sneaking suspicion that God has some connections to him, an anomaly like him doesn't end up here for no reason." Yuri picks up the walkie-talkie to explain herself.

"Do you consider him an anomaly because he hasn't been obliterated yet?"

"Exactly! Even if he doesn't have all his memories, it makes no sense for him to have never minded his death and still be in this world. There must be some reason for him to be here and if that reason is related to God, then there must be something about Arisato-kun that makes him special aside from his poker face."

"Are you sure about doing this?"

"Not completely, but it's too late to turn back now!" Yuri ends the short conversation by shoving the walkie-talkie into her pocket. The decision had already been made and now she just needed to prepare the operation which the Afterlife Battlefront will be taking on.

---

*The Mountains*

In the end, all the setup had been finished and the trip they've decided on for Golden Week was approved by the student council president herself. Now that everyone's had time to prepare over the week, they stood by the woods they were going to enter. Yuri, Yusa, Hideki, Noda, Godan, Ooyama, TK, Takamatsu, Shiina, and Iwasawa looked at the place they were entering. Alongside the lead vocalist for GMO were three other girls who Minato had vaguely remembered seeing before if his memories served him right, they were the other members of Girls Dead Monster who wore the same Afterlife Battlefront female clothing.

One of them stood at about the same height as Iwasawa who had long brown hair and grey eyes. If he remembered correctly she also played the guitar in the band and from how close she was standing near her bandmate, he figured she was probably best friends with the vocalist.

Behind the guitarist and vocalist were two smaller girls. One of them had quite the spiky honey-colored hair and deep blue eyes, this girl must've been the bassist for the band... though the devious grin on her face made it clear she must've been a troublemaker too. In contrast, the other girl had long lavender hair and purple eyes, she was probably the band's drummer and seemed significantly more nervous about the operation.

Now that he could observe the band outside of a performance, their dynamics were quite the sight to behold.

From what Iwasawa informed him when they first met, the girl who's the closest to her must've been Hisako due to her being the guitarist. This meant that the troublemaker is most likely Sekine the bassist, and that left the shy girl whose name is Irie.

Finally, that took care of any confusion on who the other girls were to the recruit.

"Okay, everybody... Have fun and create memories you won't forget!" Yuri exclaims, raising her right fist into the air.

Hearing this made most of the other members around the leader mutter some complaints to themselves or roll their eyes.

For the recruit, his opinions on the entire mission were almost scarily non-existent for reasons only someone like him could have. There was no reason to turn down the mission for a group he joined of his own accord and because of that, he felt the need to follow the leader's orders because of the lack of negatives he found from this. No one could die permanently in this world which meant that you could do anything you want to someone else, If a demon did possess one of the temporarily-dead members then maybe someone like Angel could deal with her, and There was still that side of him that wanted some revenge on Noda for creating a decent trap that worked on him.

"Yeah, Yeah. You ready to head out on this... picnic, Arisato?" Hideki asks the recruit standing next to him.

Minato nods.

"Okay then, let's get going," Hideki instructs before making his way into the place where their mission will be taking place. Minato, Noda, Godan, Ooyama, TK, Takamatsu, Shiina, Iwasawa, Hisako, Sekine, and Irie followed him into the woods which could lead to the death of most of these people. This left Yuri and Yusa to stand at the entrance of the mountains to look on.

---

Because it was Golden Week still, the group still wanted to have fun and no one seemed prepared to start off a killing spree this early on in the mission. All of them were laying down on some tarps and staring at the sun with the breeze gently passing through them. One of them had all the boys on a blue tarp while all the girls were laying down on a pink tarp.

"This feels like a picnic now." Ooyama happily declares.

"Agreed, this feels great to do." Godan agreed with the sentiment.

"We love the earth." TK randomly says.

"Although we're all dead, I feel alive right now." Hideki ignores the random comment to compliment the scenery.

"Hey, does anyone know where Arisato is?" Takamatsu asks upon sitting up. Once all the other boys noticed the recruit's lack of presence, they all sat up to look around.

"Should we send someone to search for the brat?" Fujimaki creates a reasonable suggestion.

"I'LL GO SEARCH FOR HIM!" The worst person possible volunteers himself for the job. Noda held the halberd tightly in his hands and had the widest grin he could possibly have. It was safe to assume he'd do more than just 'search' for the missing person.

"I don't think that's-!" Hideki tries protesting against the purple-haired maniac.

Before he could have even spoken, the violent teenager disappeared from their sight and ran off.

"W-where's my volleyball?!" Takamatsu starts freaking out after taking a peek into the backpack he'd brought along.

In comparison, the girls were oblivious to the boys' antics since GMO's members were having a discussion about music in which Shiina wasn't involved. Hisako and Iwasawa were specifically talking with one another, the other pair was Sekine and Irie whose conversation seemed more one-sided on the bassist's part. Shiina leaned against a tree and slightly looked over to watch the boys.

'What foolish things are they doing?' Though the girl wasn't participating in the guys' shenanigans, she chose to observe them partially and from a distance. The next thing she'd seen was them running off in different directions.

---

Minato strolled around the woods with his earphones on and blasting 'Crow Song' into his ears. A nice walk around the mountains sounded like a nice thing to take and he figured it'd be best to catch a breather from his new group to get some alone time. In his hands was a volleyball that he observed intently with his grey eyes that gently tossed it into the air a few times.

When the boys were setting up the tarp, he noticed this ball inside Takamatsu's backpack and chose to steal it.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even bother to steal such a normal item but something about it felt off to the recruit. Something else had been planted into this ball that made a strange noise that was louder than even the music playing from his earphones. Naturally, the decision he made had been to take the item and inspect it for himself by playing around with it all alone because the others would help little in the inspection.

Was the ball directly his business? Not really. Did he want an excuse to get away from people whose tasks were to temporarily murder each other until a demon possessed them? Absolutely. Though, it's not like he planned to have hung out with the group in the first place aside from a select few people he trusted.

There was something peaceful about thinking to yourself and making up internal monologues like what the recruit did quite often, it was becoming a new trend with him. Thinking about the world around him, his past with people who knew him, the group of people who occupied this world, and various other topics he found questions and answers for. Unfortunately, the number of questions outnumbered the answers but he figured that wouldn't matter much more.

Beep.

During one of the times that he catches the ball, a strange noise came from the ball that stopped Minato in his tracks.

...Did the ball just beep?

Turning off his earphones to test his ears, he tosses the volleyball into the air and catches it.

Beep.

The ball just beeped.

Normally there'd be no reasons for beeps to even happen, unless-

"RAAAAAGH!"

Suddenly, a familiar challenger yells out from behind.

Turning around to look at the screaming maniac, Minato's legs accidentally bump into each other and he feels them collapse as a result of this. Getting caught off-guard by this, he throws the ball into the air and focuses on catching himself onto the ground by using his hands. This plan works and he's able to prevent his entire body from falling onto the ground whilst looking at the volleyball he threw.

"NOW DIE!" Noda screams out before jumping into the air with his halberd still in one hand.

Hold on, isn't the ball that Noda's trying to hit the one that beeped twice already?

Beep.

By the time the purple-haired maniac's hand touches the ball, it beeps one more time when his right-hand goes to smack it at the recruit.

BOOM!

An explosion goes off from inside the volleyball that covers the maniac who tried hitting it and reveals its true form to the thief. It took no time for Noda's body to fall from the sky and land motionlessly on the ground with burn marks all over his body and clothing. Considering the steam coming from the guy's body, it was safe to assume that he was officially dead.

Minato got back onto his feet and remained stone-faced throughout that entire event. In fact, the only reaction he now gives is...

Patting himself on the back for getting his revenge on complete accident because of the corpse lying in front of him belonged to an idiot who thought a volleyball would be an effective murder weapon. Turns out it was, just not for the reasons he expected.

It was a surprise to be sure and the bluenette didn't entirely feel good for having earned the achievement of 'First Blood' or being responsible for a person's death, even if it's temporary. However, there was some satisfaction in watching the events transpire and he'd be lying if he said it wasn't enjoyable in the least.

Maybe he had more issues than he realized.

"It would appear you've successfully used Attack Killer." A voice interrupted the deadpanned boy who turns around to look at him.

Even before he turned around, he already knew it was Takamatsu who was predictably pushing up the glasses in an attempt to make a more dramatic entrance. This attempt earned him no reaction as usual from the boy who had no emotions present.

"I'll bet you're wondering how I've made such a weapon-" Noticing the stone face, Takamatsu carried on in the hopes that he'll be in awe at his next words.

Meanwhile, Minato had no interest in learning how an exploding volleyball was created.

"It was built from The Guild who helps supply us with weapons for our operations, so in preparation for this, I've chosen them to help me accomplish the explosive weapon you've just taken!" Takamatsu didn't care and just explained the creation of the Attack Killer anyways.

So the group did have people creating the many guns they wield... perhaps the glasses-wearing teen did have some useful information for this bluenette, and he did create the weapon used to kill Noda.

Death in this world didn't exist and the more Minato thought about this, the more he found himself being okay with what just went down since no one could be permanently gone here. Everyone here wasn't too opposed to the mission and although they did take issue with it, in the end, everyone agreed to participate which shows they're fine with life-threatening situations. Plus, it didn't seem like Takamatsu himself minded the corpse behind the two of them.

Taking all this into account, the recruit decides to give the glasses-wearing member a reaction in the form of a thumbs up for having created Attack Killer.

"A-ha! I knew you'd like it!" Seeing that he finally got a reaction out of his blue-haired comrade (who was not Hinata) made him cheer. This celebration is short-lived when his nose smells something rotten and burning, "Th-Though that smell is a-awful."

"Is that a dead body I can smell?!" Right on time, Fujimaki could be heard talking from wherever he is within the many trees.

"Everybody! Follow that awful smell!" Godan loudly calls out a perfectly logical plan.

In just about no time, the rest of the boys soon came across and surrounded the unmoving body which attracted all of them to this location in particular. Minato and Takamatsu joined the group and helped form a circle around the fallen member who'd died from his goal blowing up in his face. Maybe this entire scene could be a metaphor for-

"Arisato, Did you kill him?" Hideki turns to face the recruit who looks back at him.

"It w-wasn't intentional, he used the Attack Killer created by The Guild which Noda hit and died from," Takamatsu answers for the newest member, taking credit for the kill.

"So the moron killed himself?"

"Unsurprisingly enough, he did just that and fell to my weapon."

While the two longtime battlefront members talked to each other, the newest blue-haired member observed the dead body with one question in mind:

When's the demon gonna possess Noda?

"Looks like the demon won't choose Noda as its host," Godan comments once he noticed how long time has passed and how the purple-haired boy had yet to get back up. Normally, a demon would choose the person it wanted to take over within ten seconds and if the dead person remains dead for longer than that many seconds then the chances are that the demon didn't choose to possess that person.

This fact being confirmed left Minato both relieved and disappointed.

"I think we got lucky on that front, but let's continue if Takamatsu over here doesn't have anymore traps left." Fujimaki stares at the glasses-wearing member.

"Nope, that was all." Takamatsu immediately dismisses the possibility of having anything else set up, if this was the case then it means he only prepared one trap in the week they've had leading up to this.

"We don't look to the past anymore," TK utters out something that's somewhat relevant.

"Great suggestion, let's move on and play Badminton!" Ooyama swiftly and excitedly suggests. Taking off his backpack, he opens it up and pulls out the rackets required to play the game.

"Should we mix volleyball with it?" Godan suggests upon noticing the many rackets contained inside the backpack.

"Doesn't that mean we'd be playing Badball? If so, then I'm in." Fujimaki asks, putting down his sheathed sword in the process.

From the description the group just gave, it sounds like they were all going to play Badminton with everyone involved in hitting the object to each other like in Volleyball. If there was one criticism that could be leveled at the name 'Badball', it's that they're not hitting a ball but that probably didn't matter.

Looking at it from his position, Minato counts the number of rackets and deduces it won't be enough for everyone here.

This speculation is proven to be true when everyone except for him is passed one of the objects used to hit the shuttlecock. The game was like that Tennis thing he'd seen during his life and although there was no net for them to play with, that didn't mean they couldn't play without it.

"It doesn't look like Arisato's got one to play with us," Hideki calls attention to the only teen with two currently free hands.

Honestly, the recruit wouldn't mind if he didn't play-

"Sorry! How about you take mine to play? I'll be the referee." Ooyama tosses over the final racket A.K.A. the one he was supposed to use.

Sounds like the recruit had no say in the matter.

Minato caught the object and accepts the kind offer with a nod, turning down the offer against someone who looks like they could've put on a good puppy face wasn't ideal. Following orders is something he feels comfortable with doing but when you combine that with someone showing their desperation for wanting you to do something made it more difficult to not do what they said. Needless to say, puppy faces were a weapon that he's planning to keep looking out for.

"Alright then, whoever isn't able to hit the thing when it's passed to them is eliminated," Ooyama informs everyone with the shuttlecock in his left hand.

"Got it!" Nearly the entire group responded.

"Okay, begin!" Ooyama announces right before gently passing the ball over to the group.

Godan stepped up and hit the object into the air first.

Hideki noticed it falling in his direction and he jumps up to spike the shuttle.

TK spun around before hitting the object before it almost hit the ground beside him.

Fujimaki stood in place while watching the object go to him and he grins before hitting it into the sky once more.

Seeing that it was falling in his direction, Minato jumps into the air to intercept the shuttlecock and starts swinging his racket casually yet smoothly. Having made the internal calculations to time the hit perfectly, he looks around to see who should target with this next attack. Godan, Hideki, TK, and Fujimaki already had their turns so he figured it was fair for the glasses-wearing member to get his turn.

"Oh wait, I forgot-!" Ooyama randomly yells out.

This went ignored by the bluenette who'd been too focused on making sure he was going to successfully pull off this stunt he's put a ton of thought into. Something did feel weird about his right hand which he'd been holding the racket with though...

Once the object connected with the shuttlecock, Minato blinks and looks over to see that the object in his hand has suddenly grown a bunch of rocket thrusters that launched it forward. No expressions were visibly available and he just made a noise when realizing what's just happened, "Oh."

Seconds later, Takamatsu's hit right between his eyes, and the glasses he's always wearing break into two once the shuttlecock smashes through them. It could be estimated that the shuttle had practically reached terminal velocity with how fast it'd been hit forward and this is evidenced by its vaporization after it hits the battlefront member. Naturally, he collapsed onto the ground and went completely still when this happened.

Minato then lands on the ground and slowly looks over to analyze the racket he used.

"I forgot to warn you that I asked the Science Club to help out by creating this special material engine-powered racket..." Ooyama explains whilst nervously chuckling.

That sounded like a BIG detail to miss.

"They called it... Receiver Crusher!" Ooyama finishes his explanation by announcing the weapon's name.

Now that the recruit took a good look at the weapon, one thought entered his mind-

"The Science Club is amazing!" Hideki excitedly comments.

Blue minds truly did think alike.

"Sorry for not telling you earlier, Arisato," Ooyama says, rubbing the back of his head when saying this apology.

"Add you to the list of people we need to keep an eye out for." Fujimaki picks up his sheathed weapon and points it at the creator of Receiver Crusher.

"E-E-Eh?!" Ooyama looks to be somehow surprised by these words.

Minato took the time to think to himself, wasn't this the second kill he had inadvertently caused? What made this even stranger was how none of these had anything to do with the preparations he made within the week and just all happened coincidentally. There were some thoughts he had about his accidents but he decided to suppress any opinions.

Their mission was to kill the others and all he's doing is fulfilling that task even if it's not on purpose. All he needs to do is move on and continue with the operation like the rest of the boys seemed to be doing.

Death was only temporary here and so any sorrow or regrets for being responsible for it shouldn't be focused on.

"Iwasawa!" A female voice catches the bluenette's attention.

"Should we go fishing?" Godan suggests to the rest of the boys' group, it didn't seem like any of them noticed the voice.

"That sounds nice, let's see how Arisato-" Hideki turns to face the silent member.

Somehow, he disappeared and no longer was in-sight of the group.

"No way! Did he just disappear again?" Ooyama asks, recalling how they lost the bluenette moments ago.

"Damn brat. We should carry on without him, I'm sure he'll mysteriously show up at the river anyway." Fujimaki informs everyone of his idea.

"Do it, Do it, Do it." TK agrees to the plan despite how strangely worded it sounded. Ooyama nods in agreement to the plan because fishing was something he found to be an enjoyable activity like everyone else here does. Godan wastes no time in giving a nod of approval because he did suggest for everyone here to go fishing in the first place. Hideki remained the last person who's yet to go along with the suggestion... after a little bit of thinking, however-

"Alright then, let's get going." Although he did feel a little hesitant about leaving the recruit behind, Hideki figures that the other blue-haired teen would come out fine. Besides, it's not like he wouldn't come across him anytime soon.

Seconds later, the remaining five boys walked off to make their way toward the river.

---

"Huh? Who's there?" A brown-haired girl stops in her tracks to look into the distance. A person in the distance seemed to be approaching her, they didn't seem to be running away from anyone and instead was just coming towards her. The closer this person got, the easier it had been to make out the approaching person's appearance and thus identify who they were.

This emo-looking kid couldn't be mistaken for anyone else and the girl squints her eyes to see what kind of expression this person had on. Her action proved to be fruitless when she catches the only eye that wasn't covered by this teen's dark blue hair was grey which summarized the aura she could feel around him. Standing still to watch someone who looked like they were imitating a human wasn't the most pleasant feeling to be sure, and normally she'd want to stay away from such an inhuman human.

...And yet something about this guy made her only want to stay and continue looking.

"...Hisako?" Stopping in his tracks, the teenager finally spoke up.

Hearing him say her name snapped the girl out of her trance.

"O-Oh, How do you know my name?" Hisako questions, she figured that he was on the battlefront but she doesn't remember meeting him personally.

"You're a member of Girls Dead Monster."

"O-Oh, right." Hisako internally facepalmed herself, being a member of the only popular band in school made your name public knowledge to everyone. That combined with him being a member of the battlefront led to her identity most likely being easy to solve.

"Why were you calling out for Iwasawa?"

"Let's just say I was walking around with the rest of my band before they just disappeared." Hisako summarizes the situation before looking around once again. Perhaps it wasn't a smart move telling someone she's just met that she's alone in an operation where the members are tasked with killing each other, but something about the guy seemed trustworthy.

"I see... Think she'll be okay?"

"Considering that she's alone with Sekine and Irie, she should be-" Finally, a realization hits the guitarist whose entire body freezes up.

Her best friend was alone with the two youngest members of their band. If it was just Irie with Iwasawa then there'd be very little to worry about due to the drummer's pacifistic nature, however, Sekine was an entirely different story. That troublemaker would often force her friend to do things that are out of her comfort zone and if the bassist had things her way-

"I've been waiting for this." Suddenly, the boy in front of her pulls out a gun and says these words...

For some reason, she felt that that line should've had more energy behind it than the empty tone in which it'd been said.

Also, WAS HE HOLDING A GUN?!

"W-Why do you have a g-gun?" Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be strange to be seeing a battlefront member wielding a gun, but they were specifically taken away before they headed out by Angel herself. This left the obvious question: HOW DID HE SNEAK THE GUN IN?!

The boy blinks with a blank expression.

"Maybe I should abandon this gun prank." Any confusion is cleared up with these words and him aiming the gun at a nearby tree.

Click.

By the time he swiftly pulls the trigger, nothing comes out of the weapon and most of her questions were answered.

"Why did you bring a fake gun?" Hisako asks one of the few questions she's got left.

"Entertainment."

Somehow the girl found herself able to understand his intentions at hearing this word. From the sound of things, he brings the fake gun around for entertainment purposes by seeing how other people will react to it. Luck didn't sound like it was on his side since her reaction didn't express many facial expressions or freak out as he'd probably been hoping for.

"Guess that explains a lot, anyway, I need to go look for Iwasawa so-" Hisako turns around to continue her search.

"I'd like to join you." From behind, the boy bluntly responds.

"And why is that?" Hisako turns her head back around, hearing the request was quite odd and she was unsure how to feel about it.

Initially, there's no immediate response and it sounds like the blue-haired fake-gun-wielding teenager's thinking about what to say.

"...Because I care about her." When the answer comes out of his mouth, the aura around this guy shifts in a second.

His tone hadn't changed, but something about these words, in particular, was unmistakable for the truth and nothing but the truth. Whenever people would recognize their band, they didn't take much interest in them beyond music because the other kids that were their ages either had a surface-level interest in their music or were NPCs. Despite being a member of a popular band, there were very few individuals that cared deeply for anyone in the GMO crew.

Now that she paid attention to the bluenette standing in front of her, she noticed the earphones around his neck. The boy seemed to listen to music, acted like a person (though she was using that term loosely), wore mostly-black clothing despite being a member of the battlefront, cared for the leader of GMO, and radiated an aura that switched between apathetic and genuine. Putting all this together, the guitarist shuts her eyes and begins remembering someone talking about a person who had similar traits to the boy she's interacting with.

Yeah, didn't Iwasawa talk about someone when the band met up last night?

"What's your name?" Though this guy seemed to match the description of what she remembered hearing from the vocalist, it didn't hurt to double-check.

"My real name is Arisato Minato. Iwasawa refers to me as 'Messiah' though." Minato finally introduces himself, putting the fake gun back in his pocket.

Hearing that he gave the vocalist an easier name to remember didn't surprise Hisako whatsoever.

"That checks out. Anyway, Are you sure you'd like to search for her with me?" If the boy really had been the kind of person that Iwasawa described him as then having him help her in the search didn't sound like a bad idea.

Minato nods.

"Feel free to follow along, then," Hisako says before walking aimlessly into whatever direction she's going.

Wasting little time, Minato walks up to the girl and makes sure to position himself right by the guitarist.

The two of them walked off in their search to find the rest of GMO's members alongside one another.

.

.

.

Sometime during the silent walk sometimes interrupted by Hisako calling out for the girl they're both searching for, the recruit begins toying around with the fake gun in his hand. Normally, he'd put on his earphones and just blast music but that would probably hinder his searching abilities by taking away his ability to listen. Playing around with the non-lethal weapons had been the only thing he could do as a result of that.

"What music do you listen to?" Hisako asks, her head turned away and her eyes squint to look further into the woods.

"Depends on my mood, my default songs when I'd been alive were Burn My Dread, Mass Destruction, and Kimi no Kioku from what my mp3 started off with here." Minato tosses the weapon he has into the air just to catch it during this explanation.

"One of those things is not like the others." Hisako swiftly faces the emotionless boy when hearing his answer.

"I'm bilingual."

She supposed that made sense, he did move around a lot before his death so he probably got used to multiple languages. Although if she had to be honest, music wasn't limited by one specific language and technically could count as its own thing.

Hearing that he did have an mp3 did raise some curiosity now that she thought about it.

"How does your music player work? They're not common here."

"Ever heard of Spotify?" Minato doesn't answer the question immediately.

Though if she had to guess what he meant by that, it sounds like he randomly plays music until hearing one which he can save to listen to later on. This assumption was from a combination of her knowledge of the radio and the information given to her. Listening to music online was something she didn't do often since she always listened to CDs and other ways of physically obtaining music, which meant she was taking a shot in the dark with this guess.

"Not really, but do you listen to music randomly and save the ones you like?"

Minato confirms the guess to be true by giving her a thumbs up.

What she could pick up on is how the bluenette didn't like talking too often unless it was necessary to answer other people. Chatting with others could get tiring especially when they repeat the same mistakes over and over and find new ways to make mistakes-!

Wait, what was he-?

"Per-..." Minato now had started to speak.

"so-..." He was now pressing his gun against his temple...

"...na." Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to try again, he begins to pull the trigger-

"DON'T DO IT!"

Before he could pull it all the way back to fire off a non-existent bullet, this likely-to-fail attempt is halted by the girl who seemed desperate to stop this non-lethal action. Hisako had snatched the gun out of the boy's hands and after looking at it with regret evident in her eyes, she throws it away from the two of them using both hands. Now the gun had practically disappeared into the trees and grass that surrounded this entire place when it is thrown.

Minato keeps his eyes on the gun until it's out of sight, then he turns to face the girl who threw it.

She was panting and had a wide frown planted on her face with more emotions running through her than there normally had been. Two of the main ones she could feel were anger and shock caused by different things, her anger wasn't the normal kind she showed off to her bandmates but it felt more like the scene she just witnessed unsettled her on a deep level, in contrast, her shock had initially been directed at the boy's abrupt move of pointing a weapon at himself like it was nothing but now it shifted to how drastic her reaction to such a sight had been. Maybe she underestimated her feelings regarding the past more than she expected... or maybe she always knew it was this strong but tried burying it.

It wasn't hard to piece together the girl's reasoning behind her actions on the recruit's part, it was a moment of the girl remembering something due to his actions and in the heat of the moment, she had an emotional reaction. Everyone in this world had some baggage and the person catching her breath was no different which meant that she'd seen someone do the same action he's found to be mundane for much darker reasons. From what Yuri had told him, no one here had done themselves in, which could only mean that Hisako knew someone who did because only certain people did what the recruit did.

A sigh comes out of his mouth and the boy finds himself feeling some regret over reopening some wounds that affected Hisako quite deeply.

"Sorry for that." Minato tries atoning for this mistake by bowing and apologizing to the guitarist.

Turning around, she notices the boy making a clear attempt to show remorse for his actions and seemed to understand why she had responded the way she'd done so. Hisako calms down her breathing and stares at the boy, rather than getting upset he seemed to take responsibility for her outburst and was respectful in his response. It was little wonder why her best friend spoke positively about this guy.

"Nah, that was on me for overreacting more than you." Hisako lightly chops the back of the recruit's head while giving her response. It was hard to get upset with him considering the circumstances, though it did somewhat disturb her that he did what he did like it was nothing, fake gun involved or not.

"If you insist so. Now, Should we continue our search for Iwasawa?" Minato straightens his back and reminds them of their side mission.

"You don't need to ask me twice." Thanks to this reminder, Hisako shrugs off any bad memories that had flooded her mind and turns around.

Before the two of them could continue their search, however-

"ARISATO!" A familiar voice calls out as footsteps ran through the woods.

"Hinata?" Minato almost immediately identifies the screaming voice.

"...Who?" Hisako, on the other hand, didn't even recognize the name.

In the distance, Hideki's running in the duo's direction and is starting to slow down now that he's found other people. Thanks to the heavy breathing and lack of concentration he's got to the world around them, it's clear that he's been running for a while and has run out of breath at this point. By the time he's almost at them, an electronic small stuffed puppy falls onto the ground from above.

Minato tilts his head at the fake puppy's appearance and watches Hideki's right foot slowly come down onto it, it didn't seem like the running blue-haired teenager didn't notice his foot about to step on something cute.

...Or at least he would've if a certain someone didn't drop down in front of him.

"SHII-?!"

Hideki's unable to finish saying the person's name before that same person swings a kodachi using their right hand which cuts off his sentence and slashes him. His body soon dropped onto the ground and quickly becomes another dead body once this happens. Turning around with blood falling from their small sword, the person who killed the battlefront member is soon recognized by Minato when he sees their hair and eyes facing him.

It was Shiina.

From his perspective, it was hard to tell what happened to Hideki's body but he knew that whatever the female blue-haired teenager did, added to the body count. Shiina drops the murder weapon to pick up the fake animal that she prevented the fallen member from stepping on which she places by a nearby tree.

Seeing as the girl had temporarily killed someone that the recruit found trustworthy, his grey eyes stare into the red eyes standing across from him.

Noticing the look he's giving her, she turns around to return the glance he's giving her.

"What do we do now?" Hisako asks without showing many signs of fear.

"I'll catch up," Minato answers vaguely, continuing to have a staredown with the ninja-like girl.

"Oh..." Hisako initially seems taken aback at the statement before thinking more about the implications, if the boy was going to battle with ninja-girl over here then it would be smart for one of them to continue searching for GMO's leader. Though she'd preferred it if the male bluenette would avoid this confrontation, she didn't feel too concerned over his chances of survival for reasons she couldn't identify. After thinking things through she nods at his suggestion, "Alright then, good luck 'Messiah'."

With these parting words, the guitarist walks off to find the rest of her band.

This left Minato and Shiina all alone with no words being spoken between the two of them.

"You're the last man standing," Shiina spoke these five words to the newest member of the battlefront.

So all the other guys were dead now, he wasn't too sure how but it sounds like Hideki had been running for a damn good reason.

"I've only stained my blade with his blood, no one else's," Shiina informs before looking at the body laying behind her.

Accepting her information with a nod, he puts all the pieces together on what happened. Once he left, the boys went to go fishing where nearly almost all of them died thanks to inventions or plans they set up in advance for this operation. Shiina witnessed all this and didn't target Hideki when he initially ran away until, for some reason, she took down the lone survivor of the fishing massacre.

Even after figuring out everything that happened, Minato stood still since that still didn't change how the girl had intentionally killed someone for an unknown reason he couldn't figure out. From the fact that no demons are running around this place, it seems like no one had been possessed, and with the number of people left standing, that left very few candidates for which of the sacrifices will bring in a hellspawn. He still had some reservations about temporarily murdering other people but without knowing any of the reasons why Shiina had just murdered Hideki, this made her a threat he felt the need to fight. There was only one issue with this plan of his created to avenge the fallen member and take out a threat...

.

.

.

He doesn't have a weapon.

"How shallow-minded, Do you not have a blade to draw?" Shiina shakes her head while pointing her kodachi at the boy who's challenging her.

His head looks around the place in the hopes to find something that could help him in battle excluding the tree branches that won't do anything for him. Looking above, in the sky he noticed something falling down that wasn't a stuffed animal or human, but something else.

"..." Shiina goes completely silent after taking a brief glance up, she grips her weapon tightly and looks at the luckiest man in the afterworld.

Minato slowly raises his right hand and opens it up wide to catch whatever is falling. Even with his hand raised in the air, his eyes remain on his opponent who stood there and waited for him to finally catch the object he'll be using to battle her. The moment he's catching the random object, both of them will finally commence their battle...

.

.

.

"Now, let's begin." A whisper came from the recruit's mouth.

Clank!

The battle had quickly gone underway and with a katana in his hands, Minato was able to hit away the attempted slash that his opponent tried getting on him by swinging it down. Sparks briefly appeared and disappeared due to the clashing of the metal that's occurred. Using the momentum his deflection has given her, Shiina does a full rotation and tries to hit her opponent from the other side.

Clank!

This fails when the male bluenette swings his sword to the right and knocks the weapon away before it could deal any significant damage to him. A wave of nostalgia rushes through his body and despite his eyes helping him in countering the girl's attacks, his instincts were what was driving his actions. Before he could capitalize on the counters, his opponent creates some distance by jumping away.

In front of the blue-haired creature appeared to be an unidentifiable creature that had on a blue mask connected to many arms that were carrying swords in each hand. This thing had no body, no mind, and no soul as far as he could tell. Whatever the thing was, it uses an arm to throw one of the many swords at the apathetic boy observing it.

The next thing he knew, a shuriken is sent flying in his direction at high speeds.

Schwing!

Reacting quickly, he swings his sword up and strikes the small but deadly object which is sent flying into a different direction. Due to the size of the shuriken, it didn't cause much noise when it'd been hit and got stuck in one of the many nearby trees.

What made the hit more impressive was how Minato hadn't even been looking at the projectile that he knocked away when he hit it.

Seeing as throwing one shuriken didn't work, Shiina brings out five more which she efficiently fires off at her target as if she's firing off bullets from a gun.

This caused the boy to look at the bullet-like objects heading for him.

Schwing!

Quickly and smoothly, he swings down his sword that knocks down the first shuriken.

Schwing!

Without letting up for even a second, he swings away once again and slices the second shuriken in half.

Schwing!

Squinting to make sure he's seeing right, he times the next swing perfectly and smacks away the third shuriken.

Schwing!

His eyes then widened slightly and he successfully deflects the fourth shuriken right before it could stab him, although this hit seemed more sloppy than the previous ones.

As soon as the fourth object is dealt with, the fifth one has almost reached the target. Its target was Minato's head and he tries ducking below the bullet-like object since his katana was too far away to help him out.

Whoosh!

This attempt just barely works out for the male bluenette who has one strand of his hair sliced off by the shuriken that misses him. Having survived the potentially fatal throws directed at him, he looks ahead of him to see his opponent.

Shiina returns the gaze and the two blade-wielding opponents observe how the other one seems to be doing.

On the boy's side of things, holding the sword felt familiar and he figures that he'd been proficient at utilizing it. Whatever that creature in his memories was eluded him but the fact he'd even come across such a thing when alive probably explained his lack of surprise at most things in this world. In front of him stood another person who didn't seem slow in combat and wasn't a mindless monster without a face, so treating her like one wasn't something he should do. Though he definitely planned to use whatever past experiences he's received to battle against the ninja girl.

When it came to the girl, she felt herself finally gauge that the recruit had fought battles before with blades due to the precision he displayed when cutting down five of her six shurikens. With this newfound knowledge, she internally chuckled at the irony of the situation since her opponent must've had a similar mindset to the one she's gained during her lifetime: Focus on your enemy and don't waste your time on words that won't hurt. Both of them were silent and rather than throwing any insults or comments at each other, their weapons made more noises than either of them did. The more she figured out about the newest member of the brigade, The more respect and interest she gained in him. Unfortunately for him, however, the time to gauge his abilities had finished.

With his right hand, Minato gripped tightly onto his katana and kept his left hand empty-handed.

With her left hand, Shiina readies her kodachi and pulls out three shurikens with her right hand.

"Why'd you kill Hinata?" Before they could clash again, Minato decided to ask the question on his mind. Though he wasn't expecting her to answer, he figured it wouldn't kill him to at least try something called 'talking' for once.

His opponent's red eyes look at the toy animal she placed down earlier before responding with-

"He almost killed the cute puppy."

.

.

.

After blinking a few times, Minato finally processes the answer she'd given him. What he just heard left him baffled by how ridiculous and unbelievable and stupid it sounded. There were many levels of idiocy his mind needed to comprehend to remotely form any thoughts on the motive for temporary murder.

"How shallow-minded, is it a bad thing to want to protect something cute?" Shiina picks up on the feeling of bewilderment the blank-faced boy had been giving her.

Now that he thought about it, the girl used traditional weapons rather than guns and had a more reserved attitude than most other members of the battlefront. She seemed to not understand that the wind-up toy wasn't a real animal probably due to not experiencing many inventions or having much technology during her time alive. Putting all this together, all the ninja-like attributes she shared all made sense.

"You're a kunoichi, aren't you?" Minato tests if his theory is correct by asking it.

"Indeed. I go by one name specifically: C7." Shiina confirms this theory to be correct.

If his knowledge was correct, kunoichi is the female term for shinobis which were ninjas hired to be mercenaries. What this meant was that the girl in front of him must've been dead since the times of Ancient Japan which were hundreds of years ago. If she's been in here for this long, that would explain her being unable to tell that the cute puppy had just been a toy.

Now he could let her go due to this battle itself being a series of misunderstandings... or at least he would if this fact changed anything.

"Alright then, I'll take you down for Hinata's sake, C7." Minato didn't care and still felt the need to avenge his fallen friend.

Seconds later, they resume the battle when Shiina sprints toward him.

Clash!

Their metal weapons collide and Minato took a step back before countering the attempt to prevent himself from receiving any whiplash from the impact. He focuses on the girl while staying on his feet and stands still.

Within a blink of his eyes, she disappeared from his sights. But he swings his weapon again and this time he turns around.

Clank!

Preventing another hit, Minato's able to knock away the blade that his opponent tried using on him from behind. Just like he'd done before, he tries keeping track of the girl's movements after countering another attack.

Rather than using her melee weapon, Shiina slides away before throwing two shurikens out of the same hand. Somehow they started spinning in a circle once they were sent at their target.

Swish.

Reacting accordingly, the recruit takes care of both projectiles in a single swing and knocks them into the air due to the direction he'd hit them in.

Before he could reset his stance, his eyes widened upon seeing the kunoichi already swinging her blade right after appearing in front of him.

Gritting his teeth, Minato swings down the katana he's wielding with both hands-

Clash!

And this causes him to just barely get away with striking away the smaller yet quicker weapon. In the short time frame he has to think, the newbie realizes how he's been on the defense and that at the rate things were going, his chances of winning were non-existent. Despite gaining some memories of using swords, his experience couldn't possibly compare to someone who's had plenty of time in the afterlife to hone their skills in this area. There was also the obvious speed advantage she held over him that he couldn't find any way to counter for when taking into account just how athletic and efficient ninjas were meant to be. Continuing this swordfight would only continue the likelihood of him slipping up and losing this battle.

Suddenly, the girl turns into a blur thanks to her speed and begins launching a barrage of attacks in rapid succession.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

At this point, his eyes couldn't keep up with the swings anymore and the recruit just focuses on his opponent's eye movements which foreshadowed where each hit would go. Due to her speed, his counters weren't precise, and had less control over them than how the battle had started.

It was unclear how much longer the recruit could keep this up for.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

With sweat now dripping down his face and narrowed eyes, Minato begins putting a lot of visible effort into trying to at least survive this encounter. Although the slashes were still blurs to him, he'd been able to knock back even more of them.

For once, his opponent kept a calm expression and seems far more focused than even he was.

Clatter! Clatter Clatter!

How many slashes he countered couldn't be counted anymore but internally he felt himself close to slowing down which would lead to him losing. It was only a matter of time and he needed to think of a way out of this now.

Noticing that he'd been showing signs of weakness, Shiina jumps above her opponent and throws down the shuriken aimed at his head.

Minato reacts just on time and is able to just jump out of the way before the bullet-like object could reach his head. After dodging this sneaky attack, the recruit rolls through and looks around to see if there's any he could utilize to somehow defeat the kunoichi. An idea then pops into his mind and he notices a small rope circle that looks to be some kind of trap.

All he could do is survive and this unspecified plan was his best chance of doing so.

Wasting little time, he rushes ahead to a specific tree to put his plan into action.

Swish

Not forgetting about his opponent, he ducks below an attempted swing without even looking at the girl who tried getting him from behind.

Her red eyes widened slightly at the perfectly timed dodge and this simple action led to her legs stumbling for a bit. Quickly getting rid of her surprise, she regains her balance and tries slashing at him again.

Clash!

Pouring a lot of effort into the counter, the recruit turns his body and swings behind himself with more strength than he's shown so far. If there was one advantage about being a defender over an aggressor, it's that your opponent likely isn't anticipating your moves like you are with them.

The next thing the female bluenette knew, her kodachi had been hit with so much force that it's launched out of her hands and goes flying into the air. Seeing as this small sword had been the only weapon she had left, there's little hesitation in her decision.

Seeing that his opponent had started jumping up the trees to retrieve her weapon, Minato turns around and picks up the wind-up toy that the girl had placed down by a tree. Knowing that he had little time, he runs over to the trap he'd seen earlier and goes to throw the fake animal.

"NOOO!" Shiina cries out while standing on top one of the tree branches.

Once the cute toy had left the palm of the recruit, everything fell into place for his plan.

Shiina forgets her weapon entirely and instead, she jumps straight onto the ground with little hesitation. At this point, she only cared about saving the cute thing and runs over to it utilizing her full speed just so she could save the object from the fate that'll befall upon it. Her body became a blur and her red eyes were laser-focused on the only thing that mattered to her which had been practically falling in slow motion. Once the object had been close to being within her grasp, she jumps up and hugs it tightly to make sure it was not going to fall out of her grasp. Unfortunately, she realizes too late that this was her biggest mistake.

When landing on the ground, her right foot lands inside the small rope circle which activates a trap. Her body is pulled off the ground by her foot which is held by the rope she'd stepped into. From the ground below the trap, a net is also pulled up which wraps around the ninja girl and basically traps her inside of it off the ground.

Minato sighs in relief at seeing this plan of his working out before laying against a tree to look at his opponent who he'd barely outsmarted.

"Well played, Arisato-san." There wasn't any trace of anger or sarcasm in her voice, just respect.

If the boy was being honest, he thought she deserved more credit than he did since she'd been close to winning that battle. On his part, he just got ridiculously lucky by being given a katana from the man above and being put into a situation where he could take advantage of their surroundings. Maybe luck would be on his side more in this world thanks to the creator of life... but if he did exist, Why did God help him out?

Somehow he had a feeling that God wouldn't be available to answer that question for now and decided to focus on the kunoichi he's trapped.

"Now, we're even," Minato comments before slowly making his way over to the defeated opponent. Right now, he didn't want to accidentally add another body to his kill count and after hearing out her reasons for temporarily killing Hideki, he didn't hold any hatred for the girl. Unfortunately for him-

Whoosh.

A bunch of weapons stab the defeated girl throughout her entire body and cause her to become another short-term casualty in this operation.

Stopping in his tracks, the last man standing looks at the third person he's accidentally killed before slowly turning his head to look at the ground. On the ground, he found one of the many weapons that had impaled the girl...

A dip pen.

"The Manga Club is amazing." Minato gives some compliments to the group that invented this trap. Even if he'd hoped it didn't murder the female bluenette, the effort put into a trap and using pens as the murder weapons were admittingly creative.

"Looks like you and Girls Dead Monster are the last members standing."

Someone spoke behind him and the monotone sound coming from it made identifying the person easier.

"You've seen the others die?" Showing no surprise at Yusa suddenly appearing behind him, he turns around to face her.

"Matsushita was killed by the Theatre Club who set up vines that ripped him apart, Fujimaki got dragged into the shallow waters of the river by the Synchronized Swimming Club and drowned-" Yusa starts listing off how every other death the boy hadn't witnessed played out.

"How shallow are we talking?"

"The water level was about the height of Yurippe-san."

Now that was just embarrassing.

"TK became the next victim when he got killed by the Radio Communications club who burnt him alive via helicopters after pushing Ooyama out of the way."

Knowing that the man of mystery had done a noble thing made the bluenette grow newfound respect for TK, even if he's confusing to understand.

"Ooyama then got pulled into the river by the Fishing Club before the Synchronized Swimming Club made sure he drowned in the water by drowning him themselves, unlike Fujimaki."

In retrospect, maybe the recruit could've prepared more for this event beyond bringing in a fake gun that's no longer with him. Everyone else had called in other clubs to slaughter one another and most of them worked on each other.

"Hinata escaped, but you know the rest."

By the end of the recap she's given him, Minato nods and internally celebrates that his normal strategy of staying away from larger groups allowed him to survive the series of unfortunate events. Sometimes it paid to be an introvert and favoring one-on-one conversations over group hangouts.

"Thanks for the information, Yusa-san." Showing some respect to the battlefront leader's scout, he bows while thanking her.

"You can just call me Yusa, also there's no need to thank me for doing my mission." Yusa felt slightly puzzled at the respect being shown by the boy in front of her.

"Just thought you deserved it, Yusa," Minato responds before the wind gently blew and leaves from the trees slowly fell off. The timing of the wind caught his attention and looks to the left to look at the direction of the wind with confusion.

Her eyes slightly widened when looking at the boy now, the wind and leaves were timed perfectly alongside his words which wouldn't be so weird if it didn't make the recruit seem more inhuman. Of course, she should be the last person to describe someone else as 'non-human' but to her, it was more of a compliment than anything else. This new member started to seem out of this world since his appearance didn't look too shabby and unlike many of the other people she's met, he seemed to possess a brain and was able to take down Shiina who Yuri considered a 'final boss'.

Reflecting on everything he's done so far, her interest in the boy who had somehow been both more and less emotionless than her increases further.

"Any idea where Hisako-san is?" Minato asks when the wind eventually stops blowing.

"RAAAAAAAGH!"

A loud monstrous voice breaks the sound barrier and the noise penetrates the ears of the recruit who turns around to look in the direction he heard this roar from. Suddenly, the skies above are filled with dark clouds and begin turning purple thanks to all the lightning which could be seen sparking inside them. Another gust of wind rushes over the duo who tried standing their ground.

Yusa did this by plowing her hands into the ground and keeping them there. Despite doing something that could be considered painful, she didn't seem to show any pain and just focused on looking at the strong wind.

Minato starts off his attempt by repeating the same thing the girl did and he raises his katana to stab it into the ground. Unfortunately for him, the wind abruptly got stronger and it launches him off the ground before he could do this.

Once the wind calms down, gravity pushes down on the recruit who rolls on the ground after falling onto it. Compared to the girl, it was safe to say he got the worse of the wind's damage since it caused him to land quite harshly on the ground. His body does eventually finish rolling and he slowly pushes himself onto both feet using the sword he'd held onto.

If he had to take a guess, whatever caused this place to act up must have something to do with GMO since no one else was alive.

"Are you okay?"

Looking at Yusa, the bluenette nods before watching the girl pull her hands out of the ground which were now bleeding.

"...Are you?" Minato turns the question around on the girl.

Yusa nodded.

Considering how she had all emotions taken away from her, it wasn't too surprising to see the girl not feel any pain or show any visible signs of hurting. He also found this answer to be acceptable since the fall he'd taken was comparable to the damage done to the girl's hands. Besides, there were more important matters to deal with.

Minato and Yusa look at each other and despite neither of them showing emotions, they felt like they could understand what the other person was telling them.

The boy wanted to take care of the being which caused everything to change so drastically. Even if it had nothing to do with Iwasawa or Hisako, he knew that it would eventually affect them and needed to take care of things now. Whether or not he was physically prepared for the confrontation with the creature that was clearly very dangerous didn't matter. All he wanted to do was stop this new threat no matter what pain or torture it'll put him through. There's no way it could scar him more than his previous life had, after all, because he wouldn't care enough to let it do so.

The girl found herself getting confused at the illogical decision to battle against something that's clearly out of their league. She knew that the recruit wanted to take down the being but in the condition he was in, the chances of defeating the creature were non-existent on his part. Did he just want to play hero? No, it's clear to her that the bluenette wasn't taking himself into account here. It all started to make sense now, the recruit didn't care about his chances of winning or even if he'll survive the battle and just wanted to fight the threat. Despite always seeming to be affected by anything or caring about his past, it's been made clear to the emotionless girl that he's been deeply damaged and affected by his life in ways that were more subtle yet disturbing than other people who showed their pain.

Because he's gotten numb to it.

Though this mindset was amusing to Yusa to an extent since it's such a different one from the one most people had seen from him. Most people would find him to be scary because of how he's been traumatized to the point of lacking all that many emotions that people normally possessed, but the true extent of this effect wasn't something most people could comprehend. She, however, could comprehend it and found the boy to be contradictory in the sense he's smart and practical yet unwise and reckless...

Minato truly was a fool.

Because of this, she finally decides to let the boy carry on by nodding at him. The thing about fools was that they were very stubborn and whenever they made up their minds about something, it usually couldn't be easily changed because of how deeply they believed it. So making this decision was rather easy for the girl because convincing him otherwise would be pointless... and she felt like he was a justified fool.

Seconds later, Minato took off with a sword in his right hand to search for the cause of all this.

---

"Hand Sonic."

While running in the general direction of where the entire place had changed, he heard a familiar voice speak up.

Sounds like even Angel herself was getting involved in this situation and this fact alone could be good or bad depending on what her current goal is. There was a good chance she was battling with the Afterlife rebels since whatever is going on is partially their fault, but that'd just mean he'll have to deal with her which he wasn't sure if it was possible. Though, the possibility of her working alongside them to stop whatever caused this drastic shift in atmosphere was another possibility, from what he knew of her it's not like she actively targets them and doesn't mind not fighting the battlefront.

Guess he'll have to see for himself if they're going to get lucky or unlucky with their enemy's involvement in all this. It sounded like it wasn't going to take long for him to figure that part out, after all.

Tightening the sword in his hands, the recruit continues running until coming across something that completely catches his attention.

Up in the sky was a familiar white-haired girl who currently seems to be falling with style rather than flying. Angel's body is seen spinning around and the blades sticking out of her hands disappear, a sight like this was certainly an odd one to witness. What made it even weirder is how unaffected the person falling down wildly seems to be by their current predicament. Somehow their expressionless face remained and the student council president only blinked during her flight.

Quickly getting over the unnatural sight, Minato takes action and drops the sword he'd been holding to run towards the spot in which the girl will land. His chances of being able to catch her safely were unlikely but when standing in the spot where he approximates she'll land, he jumps into the air and reaches out his hands. Off the top of his head, this was the best plan he could formulate.

Crash!

That didn't mean it was foolproof, though.

Much to his dismay, Angel crashes into the ground a few good inches in front of him. Her fall causes a crater to form in the ground thanks to the impact with which the girl had rammed into it. On the bluenette's end, it looks like he forgot to take into the wind that blew her off course and made him unable to catch her.

Today was just not his day.

"It would appear the demon's not going down easily." Suddenly, the girl who'd just fallen rises up from the ground with these words to say.

Now, he could question how Angel just shrugged off what happened and how nothing about what's occurred seemed to have affected her current mood. Wasting time on those questions wouldn't help out, so instead, he thinks about the confirmation that a demon has been brought into this world.

Sounds like the original plan to bring the otherwordly creature into this afterlife has worked out and that someone in the group has been taken over by the hellish creature. Thinking more about it, he wondered what was the point of doing that and what Yuri could possibly be doing now that the being's been unleashed into this world. One question did take over his mind the more he thought about it: Who could've been taken over by a demon?

"Can you take me there?" Quickly realizing the shortlist of people who could be possessed, Minato swiftly picks up his sword while questioning the Student Council President.

"Aren't I your enemy?" Angel sounds puzzled by the boy immediately asking for her cooperation. Most other members of the brigade would hesitate before even considering the possibility of working with their enemy, so seeing someone be willing to ask for her assistance was uncommon.

"I don't care about that, I'm more focused on dealing with the demon problem right now," Minato responds with the katana tightly held in his right hand.

"Why are you so willing to confront the demon?" Although she shouldn't be surprised at this point, Angel finds herself having a hard time understanding the strange boy she's been chatting with quite often.

"Because I'd love to send them back into the fiery pits of hell if they'll hurt anyone in my group."

Hearing such an answer even Angel surprised, despite being only a recent member of the battlefront the boy seems already attached to some members within it. One of them was obviously GMO's lead singer which she knew from what he said to her yesterday, but it clearly wasn't just her only that he feels close with. Normally, people like the recruit didn't allow themselves to grow attachments or willingly get along with others quickly, and yet here he seemed to act otherwise.

When he was alive, the boy knew something always held him back from truly forming connections and bonds with other people. Death played a big role in that in more than one way, the fear of losing people closest to him was one of them, however, throughout his life he also always felt dead on the outside. He was an NPC himself that had long forgotten what it'd been like to feel human. This time around, that feeling no longer existed and although he was desensitized to many things, Minato knew he could get close to other people now, and now he didn't feel dead on the inside.

If there was one thing the two overly-calm individuals could agree on, it's that the boy wasn't normal.

"If you wish for it, I'll lead you the way." Angel finally concedes and she turns around to lead the boy to his destination.

Minato nods before following his temporary ally.

.

.

.

"You're going to attack the leader too?! Please have mercy on meee!" In the distance, someone familiar begins yelling out whilst running for their lives.

From the voice and the distinct appearance of the person, it took no time for Minato to identify who the screaming person was. Taking no time to strategize or figure out some kind of plan, the recruit charges ahead to help out the person which he could see in the distance.

Of course, the person running for their lives was the girl he expected: Yuri.

"Arisato-kun?!" Yuri asks with surprise at seeing the boy run towards her general direction. She didn't expect to come across the last member standing and to see him going towards the dangerous demon she'd been running away from. Though she did appreciate the convenient timing, a part of her wondered how much of a death wish did the recruit have.

Suddenly, the thing chasing her stopped which Minato noticed and this caused him to stop running as he now got a good look at the demon.

Hisako's eyes were not ones of a human, but they contained the demonic color of yellow that occupied the entire space with no hints of a pupil or iris. Some kind of purple and dangerous aura radiated from her, with each movement she made, zeros and ones could faintly be seen coming from her. All the clothing on the newly-possessed guitarist had now turned completely orange which added to the demon's otherworldly appearance and presence. You could tell this thing wasn't human in any way... and yet Minato didn't feel scared by the being for reasons he couldn't figure out right now.

"What are you doing? GET AWAY FROM HERE!" Yuri tries warning the boy who just stood there to nonchalantly observe the threat. Once she's reached him, she even tries grabbing onto his left wrist and dragging him away.

"What's the point of this operation?" Minato just stood his ground and questioned the leader without showing any panic or fear.

"I-It was made so Angel would summon God after coming across a creature not from this world, but as you can see that didn't work!" Yuri continues to try pulling the recruit away when answering his question.

So all of this was done just so they could summon God?

"That's a cruel reason to have everyone kill each other over." If the boy was being honest, the whole concept of everyone willingly going on missions that kill them frequently just to battle a being they have no idea if it exists still wasn't something he was comfortable with. Sure he joined to battle against the man upstairs but knowing that Yuri was willing to throw them into these kinds of situations did make him question the decision.

"I know! Don't you think it hurts me too?!" Suddenly, the attempts to pull him away got weaker.

Hearing the pain in the leader's voice finally got the recruit to look away from the unresponsive demon and he turns his head to look at her.

"I'm not proud over sending my friends on deadly missions and watching them die EVERY SINGLE DAY! Especially when it reminds me that I can't protect the people that I-I care for!"

With a mixture of sadness and anger erupting from the normally calm leader, she spoke with passion and her body starts tensing up during her speech.

"Sure, I've sent everyone on this mission... but, that doesn't mean I enjoy doing this."

At this point, the bluenette felt some guilt over misunderstanding the leader's stance on all this since it's been made clear that she doesn't want to send them on these missions.

"Every time we do things like this, all I'm doing is hoping that maybe... one of these days... we'll get our revenge on God and make him pay for the cruel things he did to all of us... after all, he's the reason we're even doing all this crap..."

Yuri's voice continues to grow quieter until it just turns into her whispering at this point, her head was facing the ground and now she wasn't even trying to pull away the boy. Currently, she was holding onto his left hand and her eyes were covered by her purple hair. Watching the girl turn into this state made the recruit feel even worse for thinking she didn't care about their lives.

He felt the need to cheer her up now because he made her like this, even though he felt like it was going to be a hassle.

"You really care for the others, don't you?" Minato gently closes when asking the girl holding onto him.

Now that he thought about it, wasn't it ironic that everyone else on the battlefront seems okay with dying constantly as long as they're alive by the end of the day? Though he supposed it was more of them accepting this new world and the chance to live forever with other people similar to them, however, they were not accepting their own deaths in the way both he and Yuri had done. The reason they could be alright with dying is because they're happy to be free of eternal death and the other negative aspects of their previous lives... though they were battling against God, it was almost like this place was heaven to the others. He and Yuri thought otherwise, however.

For Minato, it was because he's long since accepted his fate and is only interested in figuring out what led him to this point. For Yuri, it's because she's the most resentful over how her life ended and has been scarred by witnessing the death of people close to her. They were disturbed by the potential to die over and over again for different but similar reasons, both were traumatized by people who were close to them dying... but whereas the bluenette let it create a nihilistic mindset for him, the purple-haired girl used it as fuel for revenge.

Having realized all of this, the recruit knew what to say next.

"Well then, you don't need to blame yourself over what happened to them."

"H-How can I-?"

"Because you can't always protect everyone, sometimes you've got no way to save people... but other people can."

After making this declaration, Minato pulls his hand out of the girl's grasp who fell onto her knees once he'd done this. His right-hand grips tightly onto the katana he's got and he turns to face the creature who now seemed ready to pounce on them.

"Grrr..."

Despite the intimidating aura coming from the demon in front of them, the recruit stood his ground in front of Yuri.

"W-Wait! You can't-!" Yuri tries reaching out to him.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that I ain't gonna die, after all, I need to learn how to do one thing..." Minato then opens his eyes to utter a word that meant so much to him, "Live."

For some reason, the leader stops reaching out when hearing these words and her eyes watch the boy who's sworn to protect her from the monster in front of them. Something about his words made her truly believe that somehow and someway, he's not going to go down as everyone else had. It felt like Minato could do something not many other people could do... pull off a Miracle.

"RAAAGH!" Not wasting any more time, the demon-possessed Hisako jumps off the ground and flies straight toward the recruit.

"Hand Sonic."

Suddenly, Angel appears in front of Minato and she swings her right arm blade at the creature.

Before the slash could connect, the demon flips in the air which causes it to get above everyone and it flies over the trio's heads. Turning around, Minato and Angel take off to chase after the creature which had still been soaring through the air.

'Sorry Hisako-san, but we need to defeat this monster.' Minato states in his mind.

Yuri stays in place and watches the battle that's going to happen in front of her.

Eventually, The Demon lands on the ground and it glares at the two people running toward her.

Minato and Angel both prepared their blades while charging at the only enemy they've got at the moment. As this happens, the random music-playing mp3 that the bluenette has on him plays a song.

Nagi Yangagi & Jun Maeda - Burn My Soul

Oooh-Oooh-Oooh-Oooh!

Iwasawa walks over to the battlefront leader, it looked like she was confused about what was happening.

Oooh-Oooh-Oooh-Oooh!

Irie followed behind the vocalist with nervousness present on her face.

Oooh-Oooh-Oooh-Oooh!

Yuri finally got back onto her feet and she clenches her fists.

Oooooh!

Iwasawa, Irie, and Yuri watch the upcoming clash with different expectations.

Toku ni sainou mo nai shi, [I'm not particularly talented,]

Minato runs ahead of his temporary partner to swing his weapon.

Nani wo tsukamitore to iun darou na? [What am I supposed to grab onto?]

The Demon rolls under this attack before jumping off the ground. Angel jumps up to slash the possessed guitarist, but the creature spins in the air to avoid this attack.

Munashiku chuu wo kaite, [Vacillating in vain,]

Angel and Demon both land on the ground soon after.

Karamawari no hibi dakedo maa ikka. [I'm spinning my wheels, but that's okay.]

Minato tries stabbing the creature while it had its back turned to him. Unfortunately, the Demon moves out the way and grabs onto his sword.

(AHHH! It's her wish, crazy for me!)

She yanks the sword out of his hand before jumping at him.

Iki wo suikonde iza mairimashou, [Breathe in and let's start the show,]

Thinking quickly, Minato forms a fist with his left hand.

(AHHH! It's her wish quest for me, undying!)

Before he could do anything, the Demon kicks him in the face.

Soko wa suteeji de inochi toshiii. [There you risk your life on top the staaage.]

This kick sends him flying into the air.

Kimi wo wasuretemo, [Even if I forget you,]

Suddenly, he felt someone grab his hand.

Boku wa tsureteku yo. [I'll take you with me.]

Minato opens his eyes to see the person who stopped his momentum.

Kodoku no hate kyosuu no umi, [The End of Solitude, The Sea of Imaginary Numbers,]

Angel looks into the recruit's grey eyes.

Toki ga tomatte shimattemo. [Even if time stands still.]

Without saying a single word, they nod to one another.

Matsu no wa tengoku? [Is it heaven to wait?]

Angel spins around in the air.

Sore tomo jigoku ka na? [Or is it hell?]

Minato tightly held onto her hand as she did this.

Kono shinzou wo sasagetemo ii, [I'd dedicate this heart,]

The Demon tries jumping up to counter whatever the duo was doing.

Kimi to moetsukiru no nara. [If I'm going to burn with you.]

Eventually, the spinning girl lets go of the bluenette who is sent flying down.

Mebuku inochi ni shukufuku ageruuu. [Here's my blessing to the budding life.]

The hellspawn is unable to react to Minato's speed at which he's soaring through the air. This leads to her getting a slap right across her face which is followed by the possessed girl crashing to the ground.

Landing safely on the ground, the bluenette picks up his sword once more.

Tayori nai ashidori de, [With my unsteady walking,]

Seconds later, the Demon charges toward him on all fours.

Doko made tsukisusume to iu darou? [How far would you like for me to go?]

Right as the possessed girl tries clawing his face, Minato swings up his sword and impales the creature.

Guruguru onaji tokoro, [Some place in a roundabout way,]

That did little to stop the hellspawn whose yellow eyes glowed brighter.

Mawatte kizuitara mata asa da, [I turn around and the next I know, it's morning again.]

Suddenly, the recruit's head is grabbed by the monster who slams it into the ground below.

(AHHH! It's her wish, crazy for me!)

The Demon smiled as the bluenette had let go of his katana.

Kaze wo hikanu yo ni atatakaku shimasu. [I'll remain warm so I'll never catch a cold.]

A loud screeching noise then catches the monster's attention.

(AHHH! It's her wish quest for me, undying!)

Angel stares down the Demon after making a loud noise with her blades.

Haritsumeta kumo kara wa ame gaaa! [Rain pours from the dark clouds!]

In just about no time, the demonic creature and the angelic girl launch themselves at each other.

Kimi ga warau nara, [If you laugh,]

Using both blades, Angel creates an 'X' shaped slash.

Boku mo warau darou. [I will laugh with you.]

This slash causes a big 'X' shaped mark on the Demon.

Owari no nai fuyu ga kitemo, [Though the endless winter is coming,]

Even with all the damage done to it, the Demon gave a wide smile.

Ikinokotte miseyou ka. [I'll show you how we'll survive.]

Unfortunately for the demon, the katana is ripped out of her stomach.

Kami ni misuterare gouka ni yakarete. [Abandoned by God, Burned by Hellfire.]

"GRAAAAAAH!" The demon screams out in pain, leading to a circle of red fire surrounding the three of them.

Sore demo ii sa nando datte, [No matter how many times you repeat it,]

Minato glares at the creature before slashing at it from behind.

Kimi wo mukae ni iku kara. [I'll come get you.]

Angel looks at the creature with indifference before slashing it from the front.

Kakae kirenai hodo hana tsundeee! [I've picked up more flowers than I can hold!]

Both their blades are caught by the Demon who crushes both of the weapons swung at her. Doing this leaves Angel with her left blade which she uses to stab the monster from behind. However, This left Minato defenseless right before he's kicked into the circle of fire surrounding them by the possessed girl as she's getting impaled again.

Tooi tooi kioku da, [Inside a distant, distant memory,]

Laying in the fire, Minato feels his body becoming entirely numb from the burns.

Utaitakatta hazu da, [Someone's voice is calling,]

"She's my friend, that's why I have to care."

Aa mou wasuresou da, [I'm starting to forget it,]

Hearing a familiar shy-sounding voice in his head, Minato slowly moves his hands.

Demo mada koko de myaku wo utsuuu! [But it still stays in my soul!]

From the fire, he slowly gets up to his feet and limps his way out before the burns could affect his body any further.

Iwasawa, Irie, and Yuri watched this happen with amazement.

(AHHH! It's her wish, crazy for me!)

The Demon pulls itself off Angel's blade.

Kyou no choushi wa minasan ikaga ka na? [How is everyone doing today?]

She starts running to the bluenette with the intention to take him out of the fight.

(AHHH! It's her wish quest for me, undying!)

Her hands wrap around Minato's neck and starts choking him.

Amari muri wo sezu yarimashou. [Let's make sure to survive this.]

Before she could go all the way, Angel grabs the monster from behind and throws her away from the boy.

Minato's body finally runs out of stamina and he collapses onto the ground.

This left the two beings to finish the battle.

Kimi wo wasuretemo, Boku wa tsureteku yo. [Even if I forget you, I'll take you with me.]

"Version Two." Angel's remaining blade turns into its second form.

Kodoku no hate kyosuu no umi, [The End of Solitude, The Sea of Imaginary Numbers,]

"Grrr..." The Demon pulls an electric guitar out of the flames.

Toki ga tomatte shimattemo. [Even if time stands still.]

With their weapons ready, they begin their showdown.

Onaka ga suitara, Nanika tabe ni ikou. [When you get hungry, let's get something to eat.]

The demonic creature swings the guitar which the angelic girl slices in half.

Kono shinzou wo sasagetemo ii, Kimi to moetsukiru no nara. [I'd dedicate this heart, If I'm going to burn with you.]

Suddenly, the white-haired girl's feet dig into the ground.

Kimi ga naku no nara, Zenryoku de warawasu. [If you cry, I'll cheer you up with a laugh.]

Angel's entire body then turns into a mini-tornado to launch a flurry of slashes.

Nani wo ieba tsutawaru ka na? [What can I say to get across my point?]

More slash marks show up on the possessed girl's body who's failing to block the attack.

Modokashii na kono koi wa. [This love is frustrating.]

The Demon's yellow eyes begin to flicker.

Akuma ni tsukarete, [Possessed by the devil,]

Eventually, the slashes do stop.

Yami ni nomaretemo, [Though the darkness has consumed me,]

The possessed girl begins stumbling around.

Tada ikirun da mae wo mukun da, ["Just live and look ahead,"]

All the purple in the sky begins going away.

Sore dake ga torie dakara. [That's the wish I have for you.]

Seeing as the demon's power is starting to weaken, Angel looks at the monster.

Hoshi ga matataku shizuka ni, [The stars are shining brightly,]

While the purple aura and orange clothing on the demon's body begins going away, Angel readies her blade.

Kataritsugare itsuka shinwa niii! [They tell tales of mythology!]

Taking the chance to finish things off, she launches her blade ahead and gives the Demon one more stab for good measure.

Shukufukuuu wo ageruuu. [I give my blessing.]

This action causes all the fire around them to slowly fade away and it turns blue before disappearing completely. Finally, the angelic girl pulls out her weapon and Hisako's no longer possessed body then falls onto the floor.

"H-Hisako! M-Messiah!" Iwasawa runs over to her fallen friends once all is said and done, she went over to the guitarist's unconscious body first. Truthfully, she had no idea what happened as all she remembered was explaining her love for music to Irie and Sekine before Hisako turned into... a demon? She wasn't too sure about that part since she'd classify whatever took over her friend more like a monster... though she supposed that did fit with the band's name of Girl's Dead Monster. That aside, it looks like her fellow band member had taken quite the assault before she could be turned back to normal, even though no one could die, it definitely pained her to see her friend end up this way.

And then there was Messiah who seemed out of his league during a battle between an Angel and Demon, during it, he visibly got burned and seemed to be drained of all energy. It concerned her to see him in such a state but something else about his actions during the battle stuck out to her... he'd been playing music that sounded similar to the type of song her band would play. Call it selfish, but knowing he's starting to grow an appreciation for the kind of music she had been passionate about made her glad and reminded her of their chat yesterday. There wouldn't be any other reason for a song like having played if it had nothing to do with his current interests.

Now that all was said and done, she wondered about how long will her friends be out for since they took quite the damage during that battle.

"If only there was something I could've done." Irie had an entirely different mindset from her fellow band member's one, instead, she felt disappointed by her inability to have done anything as the people all around her got hurt. Hisako was the biggest culprit and the drummer began feeling awful at knowing she got roped up in the plan that Sekine created that had Iwasawa as the main target, to make matters worse, Sekine was brutally killed when Hisako did turn into a demon. It was a horrific sight to see and in the end, nothing she did mattered and she couldn't do anything. She wanted to do something right for once, not for fame or pride, but because of what happened during her life.

Though, the blue-haired boy who had been called 'Messiah' did surprise her. Unlike her, the boy didn't seem to hesitate in his decisions and a part of her felt astonished by the things he had pulled off already. Knowing that someone who's just joined the group is already contributing more than she did makes this girl feel more inferior and hopeless than she already was. Perhaps the only thing she'll ever be doing is helping out her best friend and playing the drums, nothing more.

Even with all this pessimism running through her, Irie looks over at the Student Council President who finished off the creature. Deep down she respected Angel and didn't hold any hatred for the girl because, in all honesty, the white-haired girl was someone who the drummer aspired to be. To her, the enemy of the battlefront was the ideal person Irie wishes herself to have been.

But what does it matter what she thought?

"..." Yuri's eyes were covered by her hair and no one nearby could see or know the emotions coursing through the leader.

Finally, Angel begins moving around now that the battle has wrapped up and her head turns to face the unresponsive girl.

"What's his name?" The angelic girl asks with little hesitation.

Hearing this question, Yuri bites her bottom lip and after processing the question, she comes up with an answer.

"...Messiah." Right now, the leader of the battlefront continued to hide her eyes and there wasn't any hint of remorse or malice heard in this answer. It was obvious to anyone nearby that this answer was clearly a lie.

"Make sure you take care of Messiah, then." And yet, Angel accepted the answer as if it were the truth. After giving these cryptic words, the Student Council President walks away from the Afterlife Battlefront. Although they did start this mess, she decided to let them go this time thanks to the real threat of the hellspawn already having been dealt with thanks to the newest member of the battlefront.

'Messiah, I look forward to our next meeting.' With these words going through her mind, Angel walks out of sight.

"...Irie-san and Iwasawa-san, take Sekine-san and Hisako-san to the infirmary." Yuri gives orders to the only other standing members.

"What about-?" Iwasawa notices one name excluded from the list.

"I'll take care of Arisato-kun myself, let's just say we've got some things to discuss." Yuri swiftly answers the emotions she's feeling still being undeterminable by the two girls nearby.

"O-Okay then." Irie accepts the orders on hers and the vocalist's behalves.

Seeing as there didn't seem to be an option, Iwasawa follows the direction they've been given and she picks up the guitarist's body which had stab wounds and slashes all over it. Irie, on the other hand, ran off to find the bassist who had a look of terror on her face and something that was too gross to describe stuffed into her mouth. After picking up their respective best friends, both the vocalist and drummer ran off to help their friends heal from this chaotic day.

This left Yuri all by herself to walk over to the unconscious member.

His clothing had many tears all over it and there were tons of burn marks present all over his body, which combined with the bruises on his face made for a not-so-pleasant sight. From this alone, it was easy to see that the recruit had been through a lot today and yet he hadn't died on his first mission like most of the members had. How in the world he survived all the stuff he went through today was hard to figure out.

After taking this fact in, Yuri went down to her knees by the unconscious boy. Her mouth then opens to begin their conversation, "Looks like you're worthy of being in the main group."

"?" Opening his eyes, Minato soon woke up to confusion at the leader's words.

"I've made this your first mission to test if you're as special as you've been making yourself out to be without even trying. You're not like the rest of us so I figured it'd be nice to see what you're capable of, and maybe you'd be the key to helping us summon God." Yuri's green eyes begin to reveal themselves and she looks down at the boy with obvious signs of guilt in them.

Rather than responding, Minato remained silent and looks up with a blank face like always.

"Turns out you've exceeded expectations by snatching three kills today and assisting Angel in taking down the Demon. You also kept that usual 'I-don't-care' attitude throughout it all which shows me you must've seen a lot already." Yuri suddenly felt the breeze of the wind slowly settle in now that everything's calmed down.

Minato looks to the ground and continues to give no verbal response.

"And yet you're probably the most stupid member I've ever seen! Seriously, Why'd you take on that demon!? Are you willing to die that badly here!? Do you have that little regard for your own well-being!?" Yuri then begins unloading her verbal frustrations about the boy.

The boy looks up to notice the leader's eyes, they now had some fear behind them.

"I've told you that sending everyone to their deaths on a daily basis, even in this world, pains me to do! But here you are throwing yourself into life-threatening situations as if you've been doing deadly missions your entire life! WHAT WAS EVEN THE POINT OF ALL THE STUPID CRAP YOU DID TODAY?!" Yuri continues to let out all her emotions and she even shuts her eyes to prevent herself from crying. She didn't want to cry in front of anyone and right now she was trying her best to hold back any tears whilst being nothing but brutally honest with the person responsible for this.

This time, she goes completely silent and waits for the boy to give a response.

Knowing that he needed to speak now, Minato looks into the distance and noticed that the sun had been setting.

"You can't save everyone-"

Within his vision, the bluenette watched a man laying down in a puddle of blood holding the hand of a child who was standing over him. Other people seemed to be there with the other most emotional person being another guy with silver hair. Despite the child and silver-haired guy being the most upset over the dying man wearing a black beanie, everyone else around the teen including Makoto himself was feeling heartbroken by what was happening.

They were all losing someone that they've held a connection with, no matter how big or small it was. This was still someone they each had some kind of bond with and right now that bond was going to be severed.

"Aki... take care of him..." The dying man spoke to the boy with silver hair.

"I will." 'Aki' responds while holding the man's bloody hand.

This dying man's name was Aragaki Shinjiro. And his death slowly reminded Makoto of the first time when this happened, ten years ago, with his parents. Just like back then, he was losing someone and all the other people around him were feeling pain over this.

Somehow, Shinji had been smiling as he uttered out his last words,

"This is how it was meant to be..."

Then, no one said a single thing as everyone went silent at the sight of someone's life ending in front of them. This was until the kid who was watching this in front of him let out a scream which destroyed the silence,

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"That's something even I've yet to accept, but it's a fact that you won't be able to always protect the people closest to you."

Minato spoke without any emotion like normal, however, remembering what happened to Shinjiro had started to fill him with guilt and sadness once more. That night was probably the hardest one to truly process because of how much pain he could remember feeling at that very moment. Not everyone could be saved and the man who died on that night was one of those people.

Though these words weren't helping Yuri's current state and she shakes her head at this.

"If you've yet to accept this fact even though you've lived with it for so long, What makes you think I can?" Any anger she previously had started to subside now that she's let out most of her frustrations.

"I'm not. Every time someone I care for gets hurt emotionally or physically, I've always felt obligated to help them out." Minato then starts looking at the ground once another memory comes back to him.

"Hmph. Well, you're just Mr. Perfect. Nothing ever fazes you. And now you've got the nerve to tell me how to feel!?" Standing on a beach during the night, Makoto was confronting a distraught brown-haired girl who started to lash out at him.

"You think you know me!?" She was now glaring at the boy who she called 'Mr. Perfect' who stood there, unfazed.

"You don't know anything!"

"Honestly, I'm not even sure why I did all that. All I know is that like you, I'd rather not see people I care for get hurt." With nothing but the utmost honesty, Minato continues to explain his actions.

Now that he thought about it, Wasn't this situation familiar to the one he remembered?

"I'm sorry..." After letting out her emotions, the brown-haired girl turns around and looks at the sandy ground. Remorse over yelling at the boy who'd done nothing to her began to overtake her mood.

"My head's a mess... I'm so afraid... I don't know what to do anymore, I'm totally lost..." Tears began to build in her eyes as she continued to vent out everything.

"Tell me... What should I do...?"

So it was sorta like that one, Minato wondered if that situation could help him here because he had no idea what to say.

"What did you want me to do, then? If we're just going to create an endless circle of wanting to prevent each other from getting hurt, What in the world do you think I should do?" Yuri still had her head directed toward the ground. Right now, this conversation wasn't helping her and nothing would be resolved if they kept going at this rate.

Finally, he remembers the answer he gave that girl on the beach.

"It's okay to not know."

Now he understood what to say.

'Thank you for giving me the answer... Yukari.' Of course that was her name, How could he forget the name of the girl who fell for him? Or rather the girl that fell for Yuki Makoto.

"It's okay to not know what to do. Sometimes, we just do whatever the hell we want without thinking things through." With the slightest smile he could have on right now, Arisato Minato started to give his answer.

"...Hah?" Yuri asks with confusion, she didn't know what to make of these words.

"We're both stubborn and want to protect other people, but always remember that sometimes other people can help us out." Today, the bluenette could believe these words as someone did save him just moments ago.

"Just because Angel saved you doesn't mean-" Yuri shook her head and tries denying these words.

"Don't bare the responsibilities of others all onto yourself, you may not be able to save everyone but that doesn't mean other people can't save them."

"What about God then, huh?! He's got the powers to save other people and yet he does NOTHING!"

"...What if he doesn't exist?"

Yuri suddenly felt no words come out her mouth when she goes to respond, the mere thought of the sole person she blamed for what happened not existing registers in her mind. If there was no one to blame then all the missions she's made the battlefront go on, all the times they've attacked Angel, all the guilt she's had over what happened before her death... all of that would be for nothing. It was a cruel thought that's crossed her mind throughout the years but never one she considered.

"H-He needs to... b-because if he doesn't..." Once again, she stops speaking entirely.

However, the boy hadn't finished speaking yet.

"But if he did, then I'll make sure to help you take him down."

These words cause the battlefront leader to finally look away from the ground and she looks over at the boy who reached out his scorched right hand. At this moment, What he said finally made sense to her. Perhaps the boy himself had a grudge against the creator of life as he's responsible for doing nothing as many other people died, meanwhile, people like Yuri weren't able to help out those same people they harbored deep connections with and so whoever died in the previous life weren't her fault.

It was a little needlessly complicated and she still found some holes in his logic.

"You say that other people can save us, but if you had the choice, would you let yourself be saved rather than be the savior?" She took some time thinking of how to word the question before asking it.

"...Fair point." Despite the boy's best attempts, it looked like he still wasn't able to think of the perfect answer.

"You'll stay in the battlefront, but until I'm able to deal with the whole God issue, don't think I'll be fine with you going on suicide missions during missions that are basically suicide."

"Sounds like we're both more stubborn than I expected."

Yuri could feel a smile grow on her face because she felt the same way, "Great minds think alike."

Afterward, the recruit finally sits up once he's felt enough of the pain from his body go away for him to be able to move. Meanwhile, the leader got up from her knees and finally took a good look at the sunset which had been almost finished by now.

Deciding that now would be a good time to catch a break, the purple-haired girl chose to sit back down and admire the beautiful sight signaling the end of the day. If the bluenette was being honest, it felt refreshing to finally take in the nice sunny days since nighttime was something he felt more attached to than he liked himself to be.

At this moment, the two of them sat in silence and finally give themselves some time to calm down after everything had gone down. There was nothing left to do for the day and after that conversation, they felt completely at ease even if nothing had changed during it. All that mattered to them at this point was admiring the view both of them had found themselves unfamiliar with.

"It looks pretty," Yuri spoke without thinking of what to say.

"...Yeah, it does," Minato responds while the slight smile on his face grew slightly at these words.

Despite the two of them being dead, right now they felt alive.

---

Author's Notes:

Chapter three has finally been finished now, now if you've watched Angel Beats then you'd know that canonically this isn't the first mission but is instead the mission given in the 2nd OVA, Why'd I go with this? Unfortunately the original mission of "Guild Parachute" would limit the amount of new content or scenes I could add to it and I'd rather not spend an entire chapter focusing on retelling something that's already happened in the show, the most amount of changes I could get away with is adding more interactions and changing up the death order but I've figured that the "Demon Picnic" operation would get across enough points established there while giving me more freedom with what could happen. Plus, battling against a demon sounds like a solid enough way to kick things off since things will calm down here, but if you know Persona 3 then you know that the stakes can ramp up much higher and the same will apply to this story.

Also for those of you keeping track, the last chapter took one week for me to finish... this one took me two weeks so I'd say it's safe to assume this one was harder for me to write since it had more action and attempts at comedy than previous chapters (I'm not too sure about the later, actually) and that combined with my goal of wanting to at least explore the characters created for me to balance more than the previous chapters. There was also the matter of getting across Minato's strengths in the group without making him seem overpowered with the biggest one he has is... actually being smart as in Angel Beats it's constantly reinforced that the characters are all still teenagers and because of that they're not the brightest bunch.

Now, I'll discuss the song I've used for the Minato and Angel vs Demon battle scene, "Burn My Soul" which isn't a track from either Angel Beats or Persona 3. It's instead from a game called "Heaven Burns Red" created by the same person who made Angel Beats, Jun Maeda (and yes I'm using the English ordering of names in the AN rather than the Japanese ordering I've been doing for the story). Why'd I chosen a song from outside both series despite sticking with songs specific to each media? This is because I thought it was too good to not use as the title "Burn My Soul" sounds like a perfect mashup of the Opening Songs of both series (those songs being "Burn My Dread" and "My Soul, Your Beats"), the fact Jun Maeda had involvement in the creation for the song, there's also how it sorta sounds like a Girls Dead Monster song (at least to me), and overall I just thought it would work as the best song to accompany the battle which happened.

Also if you're confused about Minato's feelings regarding death in the afterlife, well technically he's accepted death but death in the afterlife is only temporary and so it's less like death to him and more like eternal punishment (no Persona-puns intended) which is sorta why he's not completely okay with it as opposed to the real world where death is the definitive end.

Boy is that a bunch of words I've typed, I'll now get to responding some of the reviews:

I figured that the decision to exclude Personas would turn some people away since they're literally the titular beings of the games and are there to represent the characters' progressions and states, I do apologize for not making the exclusion of Personas obvious in the summary so I've updated it to at least warn the people who care about that. I'm not upset over the review and I'm glad you chose to elaborate on why exactly you're not interested in following the story, it's a consequence that I'll just have to deal with for most of the story (as I've said previously, they might show up eventually but they're not going to be a big part of this story and won't be showing up for a while) which I'm fine with.

I'm glad to see that a good amount of you enjoyed the previous chapter as I've been starting to incorporate what's been made clear in the manga which is indeed a prequel to the anime (though the light novel might take me a while to get around to), it's okay if you thought the VN came first as when anime adaptations do usually tend to come after their games (for example: Persona 3, which had a movie quadrilogy recapping the game's events). The reference to "Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight" was also fun for me to write and there'll be more of this in this story as there are other moments from that game that I think will work well here. And if it's been a while since you've last read an AB fanfic, then hopefully you're enjoying this as I'm trying to make the both for the fans of Angel Beats and Persona 3 fans (It's probably a little confusing if you only one of these things when reading this story which is why I try to include or vaguely mention stuff from each series), of course, I really love both but not everyone knows both series so hopefully, you can follow along well enough... and if you don't know either series then... I hope you're enjoying this story despite your possible confusion.

As someone who's watched the Date A Live anime, the only other media I've experienced the series in is the mobile game "Date A Live: Spirit Pledge" (which introduced me to A Certain other series) though I'll make sure to search for other games and spin-offs that can help me catch up with the series while not missing important details from the Light Novel which the anime did exclude. I'm not sure where to start, but I'll certainly start.

Compared to the previous chapter, I'd say these reviews were more positive although I'm hoping this chapter won't be too different from the previous ones as it's definitely got more things going on and is sorta the payoff to the build-up... though I'd say that Act One isn't finished yet since there are still other important moments left to go, so I hope you'll be looking forward to that.

These Notes' were definitely more piled-up than previous ones, so I should probably end this here.

PEACE OUT!