Tittle: Welcome home… or what's left of it
Chapter 2: Pain
Kanade sat herself upright in the middle of a court yard just under a dim light maintaining a steady eye on the silhouette about four feet from her. The dark figure lowered its blade and pointed it to Kanade's chest,
"What are you doing out here after hours?" the figure asked,
"I-I just arrived," Kanade replied blandly.
The figure inched closer and closer to Kanade until it stood just under the light so it may be scene. A male figure in an all-black attire came to view, black cargo pants, black shoes, black shirt, black jacket, and a black face mask, the only uncovered areas of his body were his long orange hair that split through the middle of his head to cover his left eye, and his brown eye that gleamed in the light,
"Who are you?" asked the boy,
"My name is, Tachibana-"
Before she could say anymore, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, she let out an agonizing grunt and looked down at the blade that impaled her heart,
"What is this… pain…? I-I can't bear it," Kanade thought
Her eyes grew weak and her vision became blurry, she fell on her back and felt the blade being pulled out,
"Am I… dying…?"
Her eyes closed and all was silent, she was concealed in an immobilized state in silence.
Kanade slowly opened her eyes about ten minutes later, she looked up at the bright light from a light bulb, and about a few feet away she could hear voices,
"Look we should just leave her out there."
"Well we can't be 100 percent sure of who she actually is."
"Otonashi, she could be a shadow herself."
"Otonashi… it sounds familiar, where, when did I meet him?" Kanade thought
"Can it Clyde-"
"Clyde, that name does not sound familiar."
Kanade sat upright and examined her surroundings, it was a small square room on the far end of the room was a wooden desk where the two boys quarreled, in the center of the room was a glass table and beside it was a couch where Kanade lay, and behind her were wooden double doors. She looked down and looked at her shirt, it had been stained with dark blood and there was a vertical cut in the fabric of the cloth, she felt her chest to discover there was no wound. She looked over to the two boys and was able to get a clear view of "Clyde", he was a young kid, he short black hair and wore a regular school attire, kakis tannish over coat with a white collar shirt and a black tie,
"Excuse me," Kanade called, there was an immediate silence and Clyde peered over to Kanade, "Where am I?"
Clyde picked up a giant cleaver like sword that had been leaning against the desk,
"Maybe you should take another nap," Clyde said sternly as she glared at Kanade. Kanade only glared back,
"Damn that's a cold stare, as if she were looking into my soul" Clyde thought,
"No, its fine," Otonashi declared as he pushed Clyde's hands down causing him to lower the sword as well Tell me miss…" Otonashi hesitated to remember what her name was,
"Tachibana," Kanade finished. There was a short pause before Yuzuru spoke
"Right, look I'm sorry that we had to kill you so suddenly, but if we hadn't killed you the shadows would have and there would be no coming back from it."
"Shadows?" Kanade asked,
"You don't know do you?"
Kanade shook her head in answer,
"How long have you been here exactly?"
"I've been here before, but I don't remember the people being so dark clothed."
"Is she for real?" Clyde whispered to Otonashi. Otonashi pushed Clyde and walked over to her,
"So you're saying you've been here before?" Otonashi asked,
"Yes," Kanade answered. There was a long moment of silence between the three, "Is something wrong?"
"No," Otonashi answered coldly, "Look whether you are batshit crazy or not, but people don't return to the afterlife, especially here."
"Why is that?" Kanade asked,
"Because this place is a dead zone, dark creatures called shadows took over this place, but they only come out at night and they tend to stay away from the dorms so the students are able to attend classes."
"How long has this been occurring?" Kanade asked,
"98 years or so."
There was a short pause between Kanade and Yuzuru,
"Well I need to be heading out, stay here for the night and we'll get you a dorm as soon as possible," Otonashi said as he and Clyde started toward the door.
Once Yuzuru and Clyde exited the room and Kanade could confirm that they were gone by the distance of their footsteps she stood up and examined her hand,
"This was the place where I had the guard skills, I wonder if they still work" Kanade thought,
"Hand Sonic" she muttered. Out emerged a medium sized cybernetic like blade from her hand, she smirked slightly at her accomplishment. She retracted the blade and started for the door, but before she grabbed the handle a thought had crossed her mind. Has anyone seen a guard skill, do they even exist anymore, if not then what would the consequences be if she fought out in the open as such. She retreated back to the couch and sat down gracefully and placed her hand on her lap and started to think, "Why am I here?"
Otonashi and Clyde walked down the dark hallways of the girls dorm building, Otonashi examined each door while Clyde followed with his sword resting against his shoulder,
"Dude, why are we in here, isn't this an invasion of privacy?" Clyde asked,
"Not exactly, there is a room in here that-" Otonashi stopped at a room that had been sealed with multiple two by fours that had completely covered the door,
"So is this what everyone refers to as the forbidden room," Clyde stated,
"Yup, do me a favor and open that will you?" Otonashi asked,
"fine," Clyde answered as he squared up to the door. He brought his cleaver like sword above his head and in one swift movement brought down all of the boards of wood and split the door in half,
"Oh brilliant job you're going to wake up the whole school if you're that reckless," Otonashi whispered,
"You told me to bring it down," Clyde whispered back,
"I meant to take the boards down by hand smart ass, well there's no fixing it now, we'll just have to wait until the four in the morning repair cycle."
Otonashi walked inside, on the left corner was a bed and toward the middle of the room was a desktop computer, and there was nothing else in the room aside from those two objects. Otonashi walked over to the desktop and turned it on,
"What the hell are you doing?" Clyde asked nervously,
"Oh, you don't know." Otonashi paused and looked over to Clyde, "This was the Angel's computer." Just then there was a ding sound from the computer, both Clyde an Otonashi looked at it,
"An error… Huh," Clyde stated. Otonashi grabbed the desk of which the computer sat on,
"Damn it!" Otonashi yelled,
"Dude chill I can fix it."
Meanwhile in the office room, Kanade pondered on what the pain had felt like when Otonashi stabbed her in the heart and why she hadn't died in the process. There was much she had remembered about the school but some memories where skewed and vivid. She wanted to try it again to be familiar with pain, she didn't remember this feeling all too well, and so she raised her arm,
"Hand Sonic," she muttered, the medium cybernetic like blade emerged from her right arm, she placed the edge of the blade against her arm and hesitated on cutting, she closed her eyes and prepared for the pain. In one quick motion she cut a deep wound into her left arm, she let out a sharp and quick yell of pain and her blade immediately retracted, she looked at the dark blood which oozed from her arm. Her arm stung and the blood poured, instinctively she got up to search for something to stop the bleeding. She ran over to the desk and opened the drawer but there were no medical items, she glanced back down at her wound, however there was no wound to look at, the only trace of the cut was the remaining blood on her hand that dripped down onto the floor,
"Pain, how does someone cope with this feeling?" she asked herself