Chapter 3
Tickets flew from the building, distracting Raphael from the battle at hand. He turned away from a second, before feeling sharp intense pain in his chest. He looked to see a knife lodged in his heart.
Gasping for air, the blade was removed by his attacker, as he slowly collapsed to the ground, and the world around him faded to black.
Where... Where am I?
His eyes parted. Kenta Kiyoshi had the most vivid dream: he was bested in combat by the orange haired kid that showed up three days prior.
He nearly leapt up, realizing his uniform lay torn on the stool next to him.
"Looks like that newbie got ya pretty good, wouldn't you say?"
"Great, I wake up from dying and the first thing I get is teasing from the president himself." Kenta's eyes rolled, and he spoke up again "That kid got lucky is all. Still, I gotta admit, I have seen skill like that in their ranks before. This could be a problem..."
Kenta broke his Raphael attitude. Right now he was Kenta Kiyoshi, and he wanted to beat that boy now.
Otonashi observed his pretend angel, and broke into uncontrollable laughter "Is the great "Raphael" concerned about something?"
Kenta's cheeks burned red, embarrassment took hold in his tone "N-no of course not! Don't be insane Otonashi. I'll make sure next time that kid doesn't land a cheap shot like he did yesterday."
Kenta scurried over to his desktop "I'll create more skills for me, he won't see it coming; next time we battle, he's all mine!"
Otonashi groaned audibly "Don't forget, you're not allowed to engage unless they attack first. No instigating them into fighting you either. We can't have them walking around constantly prepared for a fight. That's not gonna help them pass on at all."
"Not a problem. I'm sure they'll just wet themselves if I even show my face."
"Maybe not" The president replied "Perhaps now that they've seen you lose once, they won't fear you quite how they did prior to yesterday evening."
Kenta ignored the statement, eagerly awaiting his Angel Player to initiate.
Meanwhile at the SSSII HQ
"Guys, you gotta come down to the hospital wing!"
Aina questioned "What's the matter Hikaru?"
"It's a girl, I found her passed out in front of the cafeteria!"
"Meeting dismissed. Isamu, Neku, come with Hikaru and myself. Everyone else carry on with whatever business you have."
The group of four made their way to the campus cafeteria. The building stood out from the rest: the ceiling was a huge skylight, allowing the students within to enjoy a meal under natural lighting, the outside surrounded by ornate columns made in pairs, wrapping one another in double helix formations.
It was as Hikaru said, on the ground lay an unconscious petite girl. She had on glasses and had short black hair.
The group approached the girl "Damn, she's a cute one."
Minako growled at Isamu "Now is NOT the time to check out girls. Hikaru, Neku I want you to bring her to the infirmary. If she wakes up beforehand call me."
Minako lobbed a walkie talkie at Hikaru, which he caught skillfully.
"Isamu, back to HQ with me, we'll fill the others in."
"Aw come on, I wanted to spend some quality time with her." Isamu grinned.
"NOW ISAMU!" The blonde seethed.
Isamu and Minako left, with the latter pulling the former by his ear.
Neku and the energetic boy each took hold of one side of her, with Hikaru carrying her legs and Neku supporting her from under her arms.
They hoisted her up into a comfortable grip, and began their trek to the medical building.
After a while, Hikaru erupted into giggles out of seemingly nowhere.
"Hey kid, what's so funny?" Eyes focused on the turns they needed to make to reach the hospital building.
Hikaru was dying from the humor "Neku, you're groping her."
He froze. Slowly, he turned his head. Dare he look? What if he was? He couldn't be, surely Hikaru was playing a joke on him.
Curiousity getting the better of him, Neku turned his head anyways. His eyes ready to jump out of his sockets.
Neku couldnt believe what was going on. His hands were firmly gripping an unconscious girl's breasts. His knees felt weak.
Oh dear God, I know we're fighting you and all that but PLEASE don't let her wake up!
His grip slackened "Neku! What are you doing! You're gonna drop her like that! I know it's weird and all, but if we wanna get her to someplace safe, you're gonna have to make due with it." The giddy boy announced.
Neku was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If he let go, he'd drop her, and possibly hurt the girl, but if he kept holding on like this he would be a pervert...
"It's not much further, just deal with it! You can set her down in the elevator once we reach the building."
Swallowing nervously, and fighting back the impending nosebleed, he continued on what seemed to be the longest 2 blocks of his life.
Please don't wake up, please don't wake up, please don't wa-
"Ugh..."
GOD DAMNIT.
The girl didn't wake up however, fortunately for Neku she was in a deeper sleep than they had thought.
After finally reaching the medical facility, Neku gently set down the girl, and sighed a breath of relief, as Hikaru chose the floor they headed to.
The doors closed, and the boy stood next to Neku, patting him on the back "It's alright Neku! I won't tell everyone that you're a total pervert! Pinkie promise!" Hikaru held out his pinkie, smiling childishly like always.
Ordinarily Neku didn't care for such silly things, but he hastily agreed to the promise. Anything to put the whole incident behind him and forget it happening.
The doors parted, revealing a corridor leading to several rooms, Neku took to carrying the girls legs this time in case the incident repeated itself.
After selecting a suitable room and settling the girl in, the duo wondered what the next step would be.
"Well, we're gonna need a class SSSII uniform in case she decides to join us, I'll go fetch that, keep an eye on her Neku!" Hikaru skipped off to the door, before abruptly stopping "And no touching, you crazy pervert!"
Neku stood there, unresponsive.
"It's not like I meant to! It just happened!" He announced loudly, however his childish companion was already several paces down the hallway.
That could have just as easily been Hikaru in my situation. I'm a victim of circumstance!
Breathing deeply, Neku attempted to regain his normal composure. He pulled up a chair next to the girl's bed, and leaned back.
Why am I stuck babysitting anyways? Can't Hikaru tell I'm not exactly a people person?
He gazed at the girl before him, studying her features. She looked like she was his age, probably a second year just like himself.
Her face was slender, spectacles complimented her eyes well.
Neku sat there a while.
The girl finally began to stir, her eyes slowly opening and adjusting to the lighting of the room.
She nervously looked around "What is this place..?"
Neku was caught off guard. He wasn't prepared for this kind of situation. He himself had only been in the afterlife for three days, there was no way he could explain to a complete stranger that they were dead.
And there's the earlier incident.
Reaching for his walkie talkie, Neku patted himself searching for the communication device.
Upon further inspection, he realized he didn't have it- it was with Hikaru the whole time.
Great, I'm stuck with the new girl...
"Um, who are you?"
Neku was taken aback by the question, as if he didn't see it coming.
"Well.. I'm not very good at this but I guess I don't have a choice. My name is Neku Sakuraba. You're here cause you died. This is the afterlife."
You're not doing half bad so far Neku!
Fully awake now, the girl listened intently to Neku, as he rattled on about the world they were in, and about their fight against God and the angel Raphael.
Neku finished speaking, and finally caught his breath. "You talk a lot, don't you?" She asked playfully, smiling.
Neku's eyes widened. He didn't realize how he had begun ranting. That was unlike him.
Stuttering "Y-yea well, I kinda had to explain everything to you. I haven't been in the afterlife for more than three days so I'm really not the best person for the job, but I was the only one around."'
"Well, I guess I wouldn't mind joining you guys. I can't remember anything, so better safe than sorry!" she laughed.
"Got a name, girl?"
"Shiki Misaki."
In the room of Kenta Kiyoshi, the large boy stared triumphantly at his computer screen.
For four hours he had been tinkering with the finer workings of his Angel Player program, trying to construct an ability worthy of his new adversary.
The angel spoke to himself "I'll win next time."
Kenta shut down the program, closing the new menus he created.
He exited his room, and began his daily patrol of the campus. First, he would pass by the art center, then the cafeteria and medical center, going through all subsequent buildings in the order that he pleased.
As he passed by the cafeteria, he noted some graffiti drawn on one of the walls. It had various designs and looked as though a gang had taken serious effort into marking the wall.
Could those students have done this? No, this is unlike them, they've never drawn graffiti before. What purpose would it serve them to start now?
He also caught a glimpse of the boy that laid dead in the floor before he engaged in combat the previous day. He was walking towards the cafeteria, and had some sort of bag with him.
Well suppose that's not really that suspicious. He's just getting food or bringing something to someone.
The angel continued on, passing by most buildings and having no problems at any of them. His last stop today was the medical center.
When he arrived on scene, he noticed the boy from the earlier night conversing with some girl that Kenta had never seen before.
Is she an NCP? If he's talking to her she's probably one of them now, which means one more person to worry about getting in my hair.
Kenta hung his head in disappointment. He did agree to help Otonashi by acting as an angel, but even though he could win easily most of the time a fight erupted, it was still a pain to have to worry about another gun pointed at you.
May as well go report this to him..
Kenta redirected himself; he began to travel back to the Student Body President office.
Later, Neku and the new girl Shiki were on the rooftop of a building, overlooking the track field. It was late that day and the sun was setting.
The pair are just staring out into the horizon, before being disturbed by a third voice "Ah, there you two are, I've been looking everywhere for you."
The voice belonged to Minako "So you're the new girl huh, did Neku explain the whole situation to you?"
"Yea I'm pretty sure he covered everything. I think I'll be joining you, like Neku I have pretty bad amnesia."
"Great! I'll introduce you to the rest of the gang tomorrow."
A chuckle was heard "So that's the new girl?" a figure walked through the door, and Neku's blood began to boil "Well you're cute, I can tell you that much. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Yoshiya Kir-"
Joshua was abruptly cut off.
"Just call him Joshua." Neku spat venomously, turning away from the platinum haired boy.
Josh frowned "Yes that is what everyone around here calls me. Would it kill you to be polite, my dear Neku?" He snickered "After all, we're on the same side here, right?"
The boy said nothing, choosing to instead slip on his beats and walk off with his face buried by his collar.
"I'm sorry about those two Shiki" Minako apologized "I hope you don't pay them too much mind."
Shiki smiled and nodded "I think I'll be fine." Yawning "I don't suppose you guys could set me up somewhere for the evening, could you?"
"I'll take you to the dorms. There should still be a few unoccupied rooms in the girls section."
The two left Joshua alone on the rooftop, as he gazed off into the glowing skyline.
Following his report to Otonashi, Kenta was traversing the campus to make certain no student was disobeying the curfew rules. He arrived at the cafeteria, and saw a medium height figure at one of the walls.
The person was in an all black costume, and had a can of spray paint in hand. He was painting onto the wall what looked like the word CAT.
Kenta slipped on his crimson contacts before confronting the person "What do you think you're doing?"
The figure turned to him. The would-be angel spoke, standing tall and putting on his Raphael persona. "Not only should you know students are restricted to their dorms after school, but you're defacing school property as well. This is unacceptable."
"And what would you do about it?" the mysterious figure inquired. "I hope you're not planning on fighting me."
"Guard Skill:Handsonic"
The steel blade formed along Raphael's arm, extending out roughly 2 feet in front of him.
The kid in black giggled "Well that's not good." confidently he announced "You're outclassed my friend."
The boy in black pulled a knife from his belt and pointed it at the angel.
"Guard Skill: Disto-"
Before he had the time to activate the defensive skill, Kenta had been slashed by the boy. He fell to the floor, trying to recover.
How fast is this kid?
I tried to get up, but he had no feeling in his legs. He looked down and gasped at what he saw.
His torso had been severed at the waist down, the lower half of his body lay on the concrete oozing his blood onto the ground, staining it a deep red.
The boy in black laughed to himself, almost uncontrollably "I did warn him that he was unmatched." Looking over at Raphael, the two locked eyes.
Raphael glared at his killer. He studied his eyes, and everything began to fade.
The final thing he could see was the violet irises mocking him.