I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

Side note: I will be using the Japanese tradition of using first or last names to resemble closeness, but I won't be adding honorifics mainly because I'm not 100% sure how they all work. The only Japanese I've been exposed to is anime, forgive me.

Questions, Weapons, and Mapo Tofu

I woke up in the morning to the clamor of students' feet walking by me. I sat up and looked around. I decided to just sit there until most of the students were gone, and when they left, I jumped up. I accidentally bumped into a NPC, and he fell over. "Oh, hey, sorry about that!" I reached my hand out and helped him up. "Sorry about that, are you ok? I jumped up rather quickly there."

"Ahh, yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He began to walk away but walked right into someone else. This someone else had pale, aquamarine hair which was an unnatural color, but his most prominent feature was his eye patch. He wore a deep purple eye patch over his left eye, so I knew he was a human before even noticing his SSS uniform. The bell rang which meant that classes started, and both of us were officially tardy, assuming we don't choose to become absentees. He started to talk, and after just one word I was compelled to listen. He had a deep, resonating voice that almost commanded to be listened too. His aquamarine eye which was just a shade paler than his hair stared right at me. That along with his voice made it feel like he could gain control of my very thoughts. "I believe you heard something just now. What did you hear?"

"The bell which signals the start of class."

"What did I hear?"

"The same thing, unless you're deaf."

"I shall inform you that I am not deaf nor blind. What did I hear?"

"The bell which signals the start of class followed by my response to your first question."

"What do you see?"

"You standing there." What's with this guy? It's obvious he's a human, but does he know if I'm a human, or does he just do this to random NPC's?

"What do I see?"

"Me standing here."

"True, what else do I see of that standing person?

"My clothing, my facial features, and any other of my physical aspects."

"I see a human, meaning I do not see a NPC."

"Wait, how did you know? I didn't let out any tell-tale signs. Did someone else tell you?"

"No. What did I not see?"

Alright. I need to figure out this guy. This is probably some riddle, so let's see if I can figure it out. I quickly started deducting possibilities. He hears a bell, sees me standing here, and that means I'm a human. He asked about hearing first, so maybe what he heard was the first sign saying I'm a human. Or maybe not, since he did have to start with something, so it's a fifty-fifty between hearing and sight. He knows I'm a human, which means he knows I'm not an NPC. NPC's are normal students who aren't really humans. I look just like a normal student, for I don't have an SSS uniform. I look like a normal student. I am not a normal student. What's the difference though? Ahh, I see. "You heard the bell signaling the start of class. You saw me standing here. Normal students should be in class though, but I could just be late, for that's normal. I look like a student, but I don't act like one, for a normal student would run to class after the bell rings. I don't hurry to my classroom when the bell rings, therefore I only look the part, but I don't act it. Everyone here is human or NPC, so since I'm not an NPC, I'm a human."

He looked at me for a few seconds with a blank glare. "Correct. Everyone here is human or NPC. Do we believe that?"

What else can there be. He is part of the SSS, but we have no evidence that God's here or in some other world. I've only heard of humans and NPC's here, unless Angel isn't a title. Maybe the SSS believes he's seriously an angel. "Allow me to rephrase my statement. Human, NPC, or Angelic."

"You are right from the eyes of the SSS, yet you don't naturally think of that, therefore you believe Angel is either a human or NPC."

"I see no reason why Otonashi can't be human, but I cannot be sure either."

"You also call him by his name instead of the title we bestowed upon him. I understand now. Thank you and goodbye." With that, he walked past me to the edge of the forest where I could barely see him. The realization that I still was supposed to go to classes came upon me, and I ran into the school. I thought that I didn't know what classroom I was in, but I decided to go with my classroom in real life. I walked up to the door of room 2-2 and reached for the door knob before I heard someone shout, "No! Wait!" I quickly collapsed to the floor in attempt to dodge any huge mallets from smashing into me, but nothing came. I cautiously looked up to the face of a boy who was appeared to be a good three inches taller than me. "Ahh, the last time I heard that warning was in front of the SSS room. You could guess what happened. I'm guessing someone told you I'm a human, or else you wouldn't have shouted any warning. What did you warn me for though?"

"Tch!" He positioned his body to face away from me, but I could tell he was watching me through the corner of his eyes. "Nanami told me. I was also told to warn you not to attend classes. It might make you disappear." He began to turn away and walk, so I tried to remember his face as best I could. He immediately turned around, threw a spare SSS uniform at me, and then began leaving again. "Hey, I'm Inagaki Kouhei, who are you?"

"Jor-never mind," he mumbled before turning at the end of the hall and leaving my sight. Another strange figure. Is he a mean, antisocial kid? Whatever, I'll figure out who he is later. I walked into the nearest bathroom and changed, which made me feel like I was being coroneted into the organization. I walked back out and headed back towards the classroom, but then I remembered the kid said I shouldn't attend classes. I debated what to do, so I decided to take a stroll over to the SSS room again.

"OH! Hey there Kouhei! How's your day been going? I heard you attempted to attend a class! That's so daring! I wanna try with you next time Kouhei! What class are you in? I'll go with you!" Even though I was looking away from the source of the feminine voice, I could tell from the peppiness that it was Ayaka. "Yeah, I didn't know it was so dangerous. I probably won't try again. Sorry Ayaka. You're here again though; do you ever leave this place?"

"You're here again too, so maybe you don't leave this place either. Of course you do though! I leave, but this is pretty much my dormitory."

"Dormitory? You weren't assigned a dorm room?" When I said that, I wondered if I had a dorm room, so I pulled my keys from my pocket, and saw a new key that had the inscription "201" on it. I'm in room two hundred one in the boy's dorm. I wonder who my roommate is.

Ayaka followed up my question by pulling out a picture. It was of a NPC girl hugging Ayaka tightly and Ayaka looking slightly disgusted but trying to pull off a smile. "This is my NPC roommate in my dorm. She's so stupid. She barely has a personality, and she only talks about stuff like school, sports, and love. It's not too fun. Because of that, I sleep and hangout here a lot."

"Hmm, maybe I'll come visit you more than. This place doesn't seem to have too many visitors. Oh, another question. I met two people before coming here today, but I didn't manage to get either of their names. Could you tell me who they are?"

"Sure! What do they look like?"

"One had pale blue eyes and hair along with a purple eye-patch. The other had short, silvery-white hair, amber eyes, and very pale skin. The second said that his name started with 'Jor', but then he cut himself off."

"Daiki and Jordan! Actually, Inoue Daiki and Ryoichi Hayata. Daiki is one of the two leaders of the SSS. He's very…philosophical, I guess. He likes asking questions and screwing with my mind and it's annoying! But he's actually a very good leader when it comes down to it, so he has my respect. Hayata prefers to be called Jordan, no one ever asked him why though. I'm assuming he blew you off, because he comes off as a pretty cold person. He's actually kind on the inside though. He'll help you if you need it, and he'll kill anyone who hurts his friends, even Angel. He can even manage to pull it off, because he dual wields kodachis and was trained in the art when he was alive by a tutor and his granddaddy, I think. He's really, really good. I think Riku's the only kid who can beat him in this afterlife."

"Riku's that good with his sword? Why doesn't he get sent to kill Angel and find God then?"

"Riku never talked about his life, but I think that he refuses to kill or fatally wound anybody because of his regret, except he'll whack you with his sword if you do something stupid. That's usually me though. It hurts a lot."

"Those cuts on you, they aren't from Riku, are they?"

"Only one or two. They're mainly just cuts I got here and there. I'm weird. Everyone heals when they get hurt or when they die here. I only heal when I die, cuts and wounds don't heal unless I die first."

"Can't you go commit suicide?"

"I only do it once a week. Doing it after every injury is a bit much."

I can't believe I just suggested something so ridiculous and she just smoothly carried it on. "Hey Ayaka, you want to go eat?"

"Why? Have you eaten yet?"

"Nope. I still haven't eaten since I got here."

"Nothing?! We should go get you some food so you can become big and strong to protect everybody! Then I can be even lazier! Sleep is fun too. "

"Ok Kouhei. Here are the rules. In front of us is one plate of the mystery meal each. We both also have one cup of water and one bowl of rice. First to finish the mystery meals wins."

"Umm, it may be a little spicy, seeing it's red, but it's just tofu, right? Why did we make this a competition? And what happens if we win or lose?"

"If I win, you spend more time with me. If you win, I'll pay you for this meal."

"So you did have money?"

"Maybe," she said as she tried to make an innocent smile and look away from me, "alright, when my phone's alarm goes off, we start." I saw the alarm timer to be at one minute. I wasn't sure why we needed so much time to prepare ourselves, but I didn't complain. Eh, I already said I'd visit her more, so it's not like I have anything to lose. 5…4…3…2…1…0. The alarm went off and I started to shove the food into my mouth. I covered my nose, so I wouldn't taste anything in case that her plan was to disgust me in order to win, but it actually tasted quite good when I released my nose. I finished the plate in about fifteen seconds and looked up at Ayaka. She was slowly eating some rice, and I stated, "I win." She looked up in disbelief, and after seeing no more food on my plate, she started to look scared.

"Kouhei, I'm sorry."

"Sorry, why? It tasted fine, and tofu's pretty healthy."

"Have the rest of my rice and water."

"Wait, why? I'm fine."

"3…2…1" I just smiled at her skeptically, but after she said one, I figured out what she meant. "AH! Oh my god! AHHHH! What is this!?" I poured one cup of water into my mouth, and poured the other one on my face, but nothing was helping. "What did you just have me eat Ayaka!? This hurts! What's possibly this spicy?!" Ayaka just covered her ears and looked away from me while shouting apologies, but I just wanted more water. I decided to eat the rice, and after eating one bowl, the spicy feeling completely disappeared. "Ayaka, wow, this after taste is amazing. This is blissful. You have to eat some of this. It's actually great. Maybe it's worth the pain, just maybe though."

"You're trying to trick me! I didn't think you'd actually manage to do it!"

"No really, try some!"

"You can eat it if it's really that good!" And so I did. Ayaka looked at me with the face of a mother watching her daughter drown, but I had a slight understanding why. "Kouhei, isn't it spicy?"

"Yes. Unbearably." I said as I put my head on the table and started to cry. "The after taste is amazing though!"

"You are human? Right?"

"To my knowledge, yes." As if on cue, Angel walked into the cafeteria after that question. Ayaka looked down to avoid his gaze, and he walked by our table. He stopped after seeing the two empty bowls before me.

"Umm, you're Hamano, right? If Kouhei crying?"

Ayaka looked up at Otonashi, but then looked away again before saying, "umm, yes Otonashi, I'm Hamano. I think Kouhei's just tearing up."

"Why is he tearing up? Did you just reject him or something?"

"He just finished two plates of mapo tofu in less than two minutes."

"Is he tearing up or is he dead?"

"I'm not too sure anymore. Isn't he already dead though?"

"Haha, yeah, I guess he is. Two plates of it; that might be a record."

"Congratulations Kouhei! You set a record!"

"Thanks Ayaka." I sat up and smiled. Isn't the SSS against Otonashi? Why does Ayaka talk to him casually? "Hey Ayaka, you ready to leave yet? I'll wait for you to finish that bowl of rice, or I can buy something else. Or you can buy something with your own money that you refused to use."

"I'll just finish this rice." After that, Otonashi looked at the other tables in the room and sat down with the rest of the student council. I looked back at Ayaka, and she just let out a big sigh of relief. "Kouhei, Angel's scary. Can you protect me from him?"

"What? I come off as a strong guy, but that's because I'm toned for swimming, I don't know how to fight too well. I only have this gun Nanami gave me."

"We can grab a weapon from the SSS room later then!"

"Whatever. Just a question, what do you think of Otonashi?"

"I don't know. The SSS seems to hate him, so I should hate him. He doesn't seem like a bad guy though. He's friendly when we're not fighting. I wish we could all be like that. Wouldn't that be nice?"

I thought about what Ayaka said. So she doesn't hate Angel either. Why is she here though? Angel is how to get to God, shouldn't she want to get to Angel and force the passage to God? Unless she's like me. "Ayaka, why are you here?" She looked up at me with a depressed look on her face. Her ever-lasting smile was turned into a frown, and the glisten in her green eyes disappeared. She just looked at her rice and nothing else. "Ayaka, I'm sorry! This must be a touchy subject. You don't need to talk about it!"

"I'm here because I was mean. That's all." Because she was mean. That means she doesn't blame God. So why did she join the SSS, since it was made as a warfront against God, which was in turn a war against Otonashi. Ayaka finished her rice and nodded her head at the exit. We both got up, and left the cafeteria. I was walking in front of her, but I decided to turn around and say something to her. "Ayaka, I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it," I grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it as I said, "but if you ever want to talk to someone, you can talk to me, alright?" Her eyes began to show a few tears, but she smiled and made a sound of acknowledgement.

We went back into the SSS room, and Ayaka, returned to her normal self, announced, "Inagaki Kouhei! This is the SSS room. We have a lot of random stuff. You are part of the SSS. Feel free to take some random stuff from this stash of random stuff!"

I nodded and looked for some type of melee weapon. There were a lot of blades, but not many stood out. I picked up an axe, but it felt too clumsy and I put it down. I found a dagger, but the hilt felt too short for me to hold. I rummaged through, and found a two handed long sword, but it just felt too long for me, so I dropped it back on the ground. I began to become conscious of Ayaka watching me, so I turned around and asked, "Hey, do you have any tips for what to pick? I've never used a weapon before. Guns are simple enough, aim and shoot, but do you have any tips for close range weapons?"

"I prefer guns; I only use my bokken to create a little distance or when it's just a small thing between friends! Because of that, I'm not too great with close range. For the best advice, ask Jordan or Riku, but I will say that you should probably pick something that isn't too heavy or big, since you don't have much mastery with blades."

"Thanks Ayaka." With that, I kept on searching. As I went through the room, I noticed a weapon that caught my eye because of how amusing it was. I picked up the huge halberd, and admired it, even though I had already denied the idea of me using it. As I looked at the handle, there was a small engraving on it. I peered closely at it and saw "Yurippe-Noda-SSS" I pondered it for a few seconds, and I thought that maybe it already belonged to someone. "Hey Ayaka, do you know who Yurippe or Noda are?"

"You're not the first person to notice the engraving. None of us know who Yurippe or Noda are. Our best guess is that they were part of the first SSS, but we don't have much information on them. The only information we have is what was in this room when we first arrived."

"We first arrived? So you were one of the original members of the second SSS?"

"Yeah! With Daiki! It was so boring back then because Daiki is all like, "What do you see? What do you want? What do you hear?" and I don't know what to say because it's too much thinking! Kouhei! Do you think Daiki's annoying?"

"Wait, you and Daiki?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm not dating him or anything."

"There are two SSS leaders."

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? It's a lot for one person."

"You're the other leader of the SSS?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm not that lazy or anything."

"Yes you are."

"Ok, yes I am, but I don't really lead as much as create. I know I seem to have no attention span and not too smart or anything, but I'm actually the person who creates almost all of the team's tactics and war plans. I'm good at it too; I've never lost a game of chess, shogi, or anything before." A little girl who looks nine is actually a genius at tactics, war, and board games. I feel like this girl should be enough for Nanami to stay amused. "That's actually really surprising Ayaka. I'll be honest; I wasn't expecting that from you."

"We don't have many large scale missions where I'm needed, so I spend a lot of time lazing around. It's so much easier than what Daiki does."

"That's probably true. You said we don't have any information on the SSS, right?"

"Yeah, except the room and the items in this room." That's ridiculous. The SSS was a serious organization, because we were based on them. How could they leave such a small impact? "Then how did you guys know about the existence of the SSS in the first place and its goals and such?"

"Well, the second time Daiki and I, actually Jordan and Nanami were there by then, went in, there was a note on the laptop. It talked a lot about the SSS. I don't know who gave it to us though. All the SSS members are gone to our knowledge, unless one passed on the day Daiki and I arrived. The note even said that the original SSS was bigger and better than the current one!" There has to be more. Such an organization couldn't possibly have just disappeared without a trace. There may be relics like this halberd, but there has to be more. Written records. "Ayaka, what was in here the second time you came?"

"Nothing much. The halberd, a few dolls, the table, the coffee table, a few sofas, the projector, and laptop. Why?"

"Was there anything in the dolls or laptop?"

"We checked, nothing in the dolls, and we only found a few documents that obviously showed that it belonged to the principal. It was recently used though, so it couldn't have been too long since the last SSS left."

I quickly started deducting possibilities. Nothing at all? That can't be right, there's no way. My best guess would have been the laptop, but it belonged to the principal. The principal's a grown man, and all humans are high school students, so the principal must have been an NPC. NPC's don't understand weird things though. The laptop belonged to the principal, so obviously the principal used it. The laptop was recently used. I won't ask how that was possibly figured out, but I'll trust it. Therefore, the principal was at his desk using it. Maybe the principal did have something to do with the SSS. "Ayaka, maybe the principal knows something about the SSS. His computer is in the SSS room and it was recently used."

"We asked him. He said that he never heard of such a group, so either he forgot because he has to be normal, for he's an NPC, or he truly has nothing to do with the SSS."

It's better to assume he has nothing to do with it, because it's useless if he forgot. The principal has nothing to do with the SSS; therefore he would only know things that non-SSS members know. This room has all the information of the past SSS in existence. This room is the principal's office. The principal's office is famous for having people flying out the window. People fly out of the window because they don't know the password. The password is SSS information. A non-SSS member would not know the password. The principal is a non-SSS member. The principal cannot enter this room. His laptop is in this room. It has been recently used. The principal was not the user.

"Ayaka, did the laptop have a password?"

"Of course it did, but Riku's really good with computers actually! He just hacked in, but when I looked, I just found principal junk."

"How hard did you look?"

"I looked as hard as I could!"

"Did Riku look?"

"No, he trusted me. Do I not seem like a trustable person?"

"You did trick me into eating a plate of mapo tofu, but I want Riku to check on this."

"Why? Riku's good with computer, but we comprehend information the same."

"True, but what if you didn't get all the information?"

"What do you mean?"

"This room is protected by that password and hammer. Why did they need protection though? There was nothing valuable to be stolen outside of weapons, but there weren't too many stocked here. There's no point in protecting ourselves from injury and death because we cannot die here. So what is it? Information. Where is that information though? I think it's in the computer. This information was hidden though, and someone put up that principal's computer identity as another layer of protection. We need someone who can hack into computers. Riku can do that apparently."

"He told me not to bother him today, so I'll ask him tomorrow! Kouhei, you're interesting. I'm one of the two leaders because I can make plans and tactics, but you can solve problems. I overheard your conversation with Daiki earlier today too. You may have been the first person to figure him out. You may be an important asset to the SSS; we may have to rely on you a lot. Be ready for that. Back to our first problem though, have you found a weapon yet?"

"No, I haven't; I'll start searching again. I noticed something else too. You're not acting like your usual self. You're more serious than you usually are. Why?"

I picked up a musketeer sword, but it just felt way too cumbersome to carry around in the first place. "I get more serious when the topic actually matters." I put it down and started swinging around a nunchaku that I found lying around. "I'll get more serious at stuff like the first SSS, death stories, or battles." I wacked myself with it, so I put it down and picked up two katanas, thinking that I could try dual-wielding too. "In fights too, I'll take out both my guns in seriousness and shoot!" As she said shoot, she actually did shoot both her guns right pass me. Instinctively, I dropped the katana in my right hand, reached for my gun, and jumped forward. I spun in the air and landed with one katana in a defensive pose in front of my face and the gun pointing at the source of the gun shot. "Woah! Kouhei! That looks so cool! We have a few people who wield two swords or two guns, but you look so awesome with one sword and one gun at the same time! You can do cool stuff like run up at Angel, jump, do a 360, and slice his gun in half! Then you can just shoot him point blank on the spot! You'll be so cool! Keep it Kouhei! It seems natural for you too!"

"Ahh, sorry about that. It was instinctive. You're right though, this feels right. I'll keep it. I see you're back to your normal self though. Did my little jump there inspire you that much?"

I found a sheath and latched it onto my back. As I put my new katana into it, Ayaka confessed, "When I see something that looks really cool or cute or something, I can't always help it. Not a good trait for a leader, right? Hehe…"

"Don't worry about it. You're good with people, and apparently you're good with planning. I think you're probably a great leader."

"Thanks Kouhei. I'm gonna play outside. See ya!" As she left, I wondered about what to do. I heard a bell ring, so I checked the time. It appeared as classes just ended. I appeared in this world at the swimming pool, so this place probably has a swim team. I'll check it out. Maybe I can get myself recruited.

I walked over to the pool, but I only saw one kid swimming in it. I thought that he was probably just a recreational swimmer, but I decided to talk to him. I walked over to the edge of the pool, and tapped his back when he touched the wall. He looked up at me and kept silent. "Umm, hello. I'm just wondering if there was a swim team in this school."

"So you're a human? SSS uniform and doesn't even know if this school has a swim team."

"Oh, are you human too?"

"You'd only imagine so if I know what the SSS is. I'm Yamamoto Ryouta. Do you swim?

"Yeah, why?

"See that small building over there?" He pointed at a small complex that looked I never noticed before. "It's the male locker room. There are new suits in there; now get in here and race me."

I looked over, nodded, and walked in. It was a small locker room, but it was kept quite well. I noticed that everything seemed pretty new, so I guessed that there wasn't a swim team. I saw a box near the corner, and opened it to find swimming gear. I found my size and opened the packaging to find a purely black jammer. I undressed, threw my clothes into a locker, and put it on. I found a pair of goggles in the box too and went back outside.

The air was a bit chilly, so I jogged over to the pool and jumped in. The pool was freezing, but I knew that was normal. A little warm up would make me feel fine. "Hey Ryouta, I'll warm up a bit first, alright?"

"Yeah, sure. I want to win a fair match."

I started swimming a few laps, and found that I was still in great shape. After swimming around twenty laps, I got up and asked Ryouta, "Hey, what's the pool length?"

"It's a twenty five yard, six lane pool." I thought it was a yards pool, which I found interesting because most Japanese pools were in meters. "Is this an American school? We use the metrics system in Japan. Or are we not technically in Japan anymore?"

"I seriously have no idea; I can only say that this is the afterlife. You ready to race?"

"Sure." We both jumped out of the pool and shook hands. As I stood in front of the block, I touched the rough surface of it, and felt the familiar prickle of the start to all of my races. I inhaled the cool air deeply, smelling the dank smell of chlorine and the pleasing autumn foliage. I felt the breeze blow through my hair as it cooled my body before the race. The turquoise water rippled as I dipped my goggles into it, but the ripples subsided after the perfect circles grew. The white lane lines bobbed up and down, up and down as the water rocked back and forth, but the four pool walls held sturdy in place as the water splashed onto its sides. Ryouta and I walked up to lanes three and four respectively, and Ryouta announced, "Event number 1, this will be the first and last event of the meet. This will be a one hundred yard freestyle race. In lane three is returning swimmer Yamamoto Ryouta and in lane four is new swimmer, umm, what's your name?"

"Inagaki Kouhei."

"New swimmer Inagaki Kouhei! I will set press the timer which will beep about five seconds after pressed. The beep will be the signal to start. Take your marks!" Ryouta pressed the timer as we both went down to get into starting positions. I snickered a little bit at Ryouta's attempt to act like an official, but when the timer beeped, we both leaped off in full seriousness.

"Dammit! I didn't think there was a single person who could beat me in the place! I have to be the fastest! Dammit."

"Apparently I can beat you though. Don't get so mad though."

"Eh, sorry. I get really mad when I lose. No hard feelings though, it's my motivation. I think you did that in forty three second right there though. That's ridiculous for a high school student! Were you a professional before you died or something? "

"You probably got a forty four, which isn't bad by any means either. No, I wasn't a professional. You?"

"I wish."

Both Ryouta and I were walking back to the main building after our race. We were both surprised that somebody this fast happened to be in the afterlife school at the same time, but we took it as a good source of competition. I won against Ryouta by about half a second, but we both crawled out gasping. We just lay in the cold air for a minute, but we both realized that we were going to catch a cold, so we shuffled to the locker room and wrapped ourselves in towels that also happened to be in the box. After we were dry, we got back into our SSS uniforms and started walking.

"So Ryouta, is there a swim team here or not? You never answered me"

"Yeah, but they use the indoor pool. I said I wouldn't join unless I could get a more individualized practice since I was a lot faster than anyone there, but the coach said he would only individualize practices for groups of two or more. If you come with me, we might be able to. You want to?"

"Later, I'm a little worn out. He'll want to test how fast I am, and I'm a bit too fatigued to go another forty three second."

"Alright, I'm going to go eat. How about you?"

"I'll head to the SSS room. I said I'd spend more time with Ayaka, and that's probably where she is."

"She spends a lot of time in there, but not all of it. Don't get too lovey-dovey. See you."

"Hey, I just got here. I'm not in that type of relationship."

"So you're gay?"

"Shut up."

I got to the door and looked at it for a few seconds. "No God, No Buddha, No Angels." I opened the door to the leader.

"Daiki! I didn't expect you here."

"Why did you come?"

Oh God, another series of random questions. This'll amuse me until Ayaka comes back though, so why not? "I came in search of Ayaka."

"That is not what I meant. I shall guide you to the correct answer this way. How do you know Ayaka?"

The correct question? He asked why I came, why I came, what other answer could I have besides my motive for coming? "Umm, I ran into Riku who introduced me to Ayaka when we entered this room."

"How do you know Riku?"

Does he want to know about all of my relationships now? What does he want? "When I appeared here, Nanami found me, and she told me where the SSS room was. As I opened the door, Riku tried to warn me about the password and mallet, but he was too late. I got to know him a bit after we woke up."

"How do you know Nanami?"

He really does want to know about all my relationships. "She was the first person to find me as a human when I appeared in the pool."

"Why were you in the pool?"

How am I supposed to know why I appeared in the pool? Maybe because I died by drowning. "I died by drowning, so I guess it is appropriate that I came here in the water."

"True, but why were you in a pool belonging to this school?"

I was starting to get a little confused. He was asking me these questions because I couldn't correct answer why I came here. What does this school's pool have to do with me coming here at all? Or any of the other questions at all? I quickly started deducting possibilities. There's a difference between a pool and the pool belonging to the school because Daiki had to add that on to make me answer correctly. What's special about this school? It's a normal school with classes, clubs, students, teachers, and such. If the school itself isn't what Daiki was talking about, then maybe it's the school's situation. It has two pools, so it's probably a rich school, not like there's anything to buy from in this world. In this world. This school is in this world. This world is not the normal world, it's the afterlife. This isn't where everyone goes, only people with regrets. There's no way Daiki could know though, is there?

"I was in the pool belonging to this school because I died with regrets."

"That is what I originally wanted. Now here is the follow up. Do you believe what you just said?"

"Yes."

"I don't believe you, nor does Otonashi."

"What!? You were talking with Otonashi?!"

"I will keep all I found out and all you said a secret. I don't believe you're truly motivated in the SSS. You don't have a regret."

Well, there's the second chapter. A little more than six thousand words. I must say, writing and thinking of my own ideas is hard. Ten thousand words in less than a week might not be a great idea. I sense a huge writer's block coming up. That with a huge load of school work that just got on me is going to have my update much, much slower. Man, this chapter had a lot of dialogue though. Consider these two uploads in such close time a grand opening event :D

I'm not a supremely creative guy when it comes to creating characters, so it'd be nice if you guys could help. If you want to help, here's a format for how to make a character:

Family name-Given name

Description of personality and any special skills (like how Kouhei's a swimmer or Nanami has very fast reactions)

Weapons (probably a side arm, melee weapon, and maybe a normal firearm.)

Physical description

Regret in life

Special facts (Yui was paralyzed in real life)

You can also always give ideas for what should happen in this story. I have very little of the story thought out, only a few important events. Feel free to review or PM anything. Thank you for reading!