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.

Fishing and a Proposal

Otonashi finished fiddling with the camera. It was positioned where no one would notice it, but it could see everything. He looked into the horizon and noticed that the company was coming up, so Otonashi realized that he had to get away without getting noticed. Despite that, he also noticed that they weren't carrying anything. "They forgot fishing poles. Wow." Otonashi walked over to a bridge that was next to the stream. Swinging under it, he landed next to a large tent positioned beside the stream. After fiddling around with the opening, Otonashi carried out two fishing poles. He noticed that there was a pole that was set up already. After scattering the two poles, he checked the line to see a decent sized salmon on it. Otonashi put it in the tent and re-cast the line. He started to climb back up, but a hand grabbed him. Before dropping down, Otonashi took out a gun and pointed it at the person holding him.

"Daiki doesn't hate you, and I trust his judgment. I see no reason to harm you; in fact, I'm helping you. Everyone's already here. You can hide in the tent; I'll make sure no one goes near." Otonashi turned his head to see a very familiar face.

"Hatsune!?"

"Umm. No, I'm sorry," the girl looked away from Otonashi as she started to breathe a little heavier. "I'm Mochizuki Mariko, member of the SSS."

"Are you alright? You don't seem well; fever maybe? Should I bring you to the infirmary?"

"Ahh! No! I'm just shy." She looked down with extremely red cheeks. Otonashi noticed that this girl only resembled his little sister. She was taller, had thinner lips, longer and lighter hair, and a slightly thinner nose. Since she was here, she must have also been a high school student. "They're here, you should hide."

"Sure, but how much did you see?"

"Since you got here."

"We all made it safe and sound! We should celebrate!"

"Ayaka, we're doing an operation."

"Riku! You didn't have to remind me!" The whole crew reached the stream, so everyone but Ryouta and I fell down to rest their legs. "Ahh! Even after death, it's still so tiring to walk so far!"

"Yeah, but Ayaka, how many detours did we go on because of you?"

"Don't blame me, Kouhei! I would have gone straight if you carried me. Riku, you're at fault too!"

"It's completely your fault. Where's this Mariko person anyways?"

No one answered, but Daiki looked around before stating, "Mariko is shy. There is a high probability she is hiding from you." I started to walk around looking for a good fishing place. I really don't know too much about fishing, do I? I hope someone here knows how to fish well. I reached a bridge and was going to lay down on it to soak a little sun before seeing a girl nimbly swing up from under the bridge. I rolled away and pulled out my sword. "Who are you?"

"Umm…I'm Mariko, Mochizuki Mariko. C-could you put that away please?"

I put my blade back while looking at the girl. So this is Mariko. She resembles Otonashi a little bit. "Ahh, sorry about that. I was just surprised," I put my hand out to offer a handshake, "I'm Inagaki Kouhei; just call me Kouhei. I'm a new member. The others told me a little bit about you already." I gave a friendly smile knowing that she was a shy girl. She took my hand while averting her eyes from mine. "Mariko, come on, everyone else is over there."

"There are some fishing poles over there if we need some."

I looked over to where she was pointing to see two poles on the ground. I grabbed them and we walked back to the group. When we got there, Daiki was telling people what to do for the operation. I realized that we were pretty much going fishing, so I saw no reason for such orders, but Daiki was the leader so I said nothing. Much to my surprise, Mariko spoke up. "Daiki, we're fishing. There's no need for such useless orders. Also, we only have two fishing poles. No one here can make fishing poles, I'm assuming, so we should at least make some spears." I looked over at her in a new light. She's supposed to be shy, yet she's willing to speak up like that to Daiki. Interesting.

"I guess you're right, Mariko. We have two poles, so who should get them?"

Riku responded by saying, "I know how to fish pretty well, so I'll take one pole. I also imagine that Ayaka will want one, since she's quite scared of getting in the water and swimming."

I pondered Riku's statement for a second before thinking out-loud, "Ayaka can't swim? Is that why she wanted Ryouta and me to come?" I was just met by an extremely flustered Ayaka being teased by Ryouta. "Anyways, let's start!" I shouted.

Everybody proceeded to where Daiki suggested, and everyone excluding Ayaka and Riku made spears to fish with. We waded several yards into the water, and started to spear at the fish. I looked around me to check out the surroundings. Despite the sun being high in the sky, the rushing water managed to create a cool air around us. There weren't many trees in the area, but as I looked farther away, I saw a green forest rolling up a mountain. Inspecting the water, I noticed that it was a very light color, just a shade darker than the sky, and the white water splashing up only helped to lighten the water. More offshore into the water was a sudden lack of white water and a darker shade of blue. I looked down to see that the water was a little past my knee, and when I stuck a spear into the ground, about a yard protruded from the water. I grabbed a spear and threw it in an arc to the darker water. No one else noticed, but it made a clean splash and completely disappeared underneath. The water's clearly deeper over there. It appears to be a sudden fall too, because the current slope that the bottom is descending at wouldn't create such a large gap. Maybe that's where the operation's name came from. Someone who couldn't swim took one step too much and fell into the water, "eaten" by the monstrous drop in the stream. Of course we can't die here, so I wonder what would have happened. I looked over at everyone else. Ayaka and Riku caught about six fish together, Nanami caught two, Ryouta caught one, but he was swimming more than fishing. I looked beside me to see Daiki struggling with catching anything. "Daiki, why don't you take off your eye-patch? It would increase your coordination immensely."

"What would I gain?"

Oh, here goes another round of questioning. "You would become more coordinated, catching more fish."

"How would I become more coordinated?"

"Umm…you would have two pictures of the scene in front of you, and your linear perspective would allow you to pinpoint a point in space."

"Therefore, my coordination comes from seeing two pictures of the same thing?"

"To be very basic, I guess you're right."

"Is that desirable though?"

"What? Of course better coordination is desirable."

"Are you so sure?"

Looking from the eyes of a normal person, I'd be sure, but Daiki's practically a philosopher. What's so philosophical about this though? What has he asked me so far? What would I gain? How would I become more coordinated? Therefore, my coordination comes from seeing two pictures of the same thing? Is that desirable though? That's it! What's being desired though? The ability to see two pictures of the same thing. Looking at the coordination, it's practically necessary, but what about in life, saying he's a philosopher. What would happen if I saw two different sides of the same argument? Does Daiki believe that seeing both sides would cause indecisiveness? I wonder. "I am sure that seeing two pictures of the same thing is desirable when talking about coordination."

"Now you have added extra information, saying it is desirable only for coordination. Does that mean it is undesirable when talking of other topics?"

"I believe it is still desirable. My best deduction is that you believe seeing both sides will cause indecisiveness in a battle."

"You are correct. I do believe that."

"I'm going to ask some questions now, Daiki."

"Continue then, Kouhei."

"Will seeing both sides really create indecisiveness?"

"I would imagine so."

"Are wars bad things?"

"I would consider them bad, but I don't understand the direct link between the two subjects at hand."

"How are wars usually ended?"

"They are generally ended through treaties."

"What do treaties do?"

Daiki paused for a moment before answering the question. "Treaties create a compromise that both sides usually agree to."

"Emphasis on 'that both sides usually agree to'. That means the person or people who created this treaty had to make something agreeable to both sides."

"That is correct."

"And in order to do that, then we must know what the other wants, in turn, looking at the war from the opponent's side."

"I suppose you're correct. Then seeing two pictures is desirable for coordination and making treaties."

"That's a narrow way of looking at it. We could keep on going with other topics."

"Could you keep on going if we were talking about the topic of war?"

"Of course I could! Let's look at the Prussian-Austrian empire."

"What about it?"

Before answering, I randomly thought about the situation. Daiki isn't leading this conversation. I'm not exactly leading it either, but either way, that's strange. Daiki keeps coming off as the main leader figure, because Ayaka doesn't really seem to be the leader figure. Is Daiki only pretending to take the part? If so, why? "The Austrians lived by the quote, "Let others make war; you, fortunate Austria, marry." This pretty much means, while everyone else is making war, we will make very decisive, political marriages to keep peace."

"And how does that help your argument of two pictures?"

"A political marriage would not work unless we looked at what both sides wanted. Austria wanted peace, and whoever's country was being married wanted an alliance with Austria."

"As simple as the concept may seem, I understand your argument. I don't know if it's applicable in all cases though. I no longer wish to speak of this topic."

Have I struck a chord in Daiki? Ahh, whatever. I wonder how Mariko's doing. I looked back at Mariko to see something that completely blew me away. She was walking towards shore carrying a spear and a bucket that was filled with at least thirty fish. "Mariko! How did you possibly catch that many fish?!"

"Hmm! Ahh, Kouhei! Err, it's nothing too much. I guess, I just-umm- had some luck today. Yeah, lucky haul! Maybe a little bit of n-natural t-talent. I have a bit of skill in a lot of things! I used a few concepts from everywhere. I guess I'm just a-well-jack of all trades!"

I was about to believe her when I saw Daiki let out a snicker from the corner of my eye. He proceeded to whisper to me, "Yeah, Mariko could be described as a jack of all trades. A super talented, super coordinated, super human, jack of all trades. She can pick up anything that requires use of arms, hands, and coordination in minutes."

"Is she really that amazing?"

"She became a professional markswoman in two weeks."

"That's crazy." I looked back at Mariko who was sitting at the shore. She let out a sigh and lay down. I noticed that her jean shorts were soaked from the water, but only the bottom of her black t-shirt was damp. She looked back to where Daiki and I were standing. Mariko waved and smiled at Daiki, but immediately blushed and looked away when she saw me. She has some relationship with Daiki. She's supposed to be shy, yet she interacts with Daiki like good friends. Daiki also talks like a normal teenager when the topic is Mariko. He's usually talking like a philosopher, but I could only see a teenager talking about his past when Daiki talked about Mariko. Maybe I'll ask about that later.

"Yo, Kouhei! You wanna try swimming deeper?!"

My train of thought being broken, I looked over at the source of the voice to see Ryouta treading and waving at me. "Do you know how deep it is over there?"

"No idea, but I can touch the bottom here. It only seems to get deeper from here though!"

"How can you tell?"

"Just a random guess!"

Feels like something Ayaka would say. Before I could swim over, Nanami, who was standing closer, started to walk over to Ryouta. She was about an inch taller than Ryouta, so Nanami was standing fine where he was. "Let's see how far we can stand," she declared.

She took one step forward, and her shoulders were in the water. She took another step; her neck was in the water. Nanami took one more step and screamed. She tried to stay afloat and in place, but the current was pulling her under and away. Ryouta reacted pretty quickly. He dove over to where she appeared to be. After a second, he came up shouting, "A little help?!" I threw off my polo shirt to reduce drag, and I sprinted over to him. I knew it would take me about ten seconds to get to where they were, so I decided to use the time to figure out the situation. Obviously Nanami's drowning, so I guess she's not a strong swimmer. Ryouta's arms seem to be tied down, so I'm assuming that he's holding onto Nanami. He's treading to stay up, but he can't hold his place, so he's floating away from me, but the current is also helping me speed up. The fact that Ryouta managed to grab Nanami so quickly meant that she probably wasn't flailing around, so she's calm right now which is a good sign. The swimming power of Ryouta and me should be enough to get all three of us to shore. By then, I had reached Ryouta and grabbed onto Nanami. We first brought Nanami up to breathe, but Ryouta and I suddenly froze. Ryouta looked over at me with eyes that obviously showed fear, and I returned the same eyes towards him. I didn't know if Nanami would notice, since she wasn't a very water oriented person, but Ryouta and I felt a very strange and very strong current coming beneath us. In a second, we were thrown into the air.

Otonashi was crouching in Wakahiko's tent, but he saw Kouhei, Nanami, and Ryouta fly into the air. "What the hell? No one can possibly jump that high without overdrive! The only time anyone else has thrown us that high was when we found the monster fish, but that was Tachibana in overdrive doing the throwing." As if he was being answered, Otonashi saw a huge fish come up after the trio. "Dammit, it's definitely smaller, but apparently it can jump out of the water by itself." Otonashi jumped from the tent, but realized that he couldn't do anything in the situation without showing himself. "If only my relationship with the SSS was like Tachibana's."

Daiki realized something was amiss when Ryouta and Kouhei stopped swimming, so he ran over to the land in order to prepare for anything. Not knowing anything, he grabbed his shotgun and pointed it near the three, just in case.

Ryouta, Nanami, and I were thrown into the air by some huge force in the water. Nanami spun around first, and her gasp alerted Ryouta and I to look behind us too. We landed in the water, but a huge splash next to us immediately submerged the three of us. I didn't get a great look of what we were up against, but it looked like some huge fish. There's no way a fish can be that big though. This should be a realistic world. Then again, we have this Angel Player. I resurfaced, and Ryouta was up within a second. I was worried that Nanami drowned, but her flailing arms revealed her location. Ryouta and I swam over to her, but we were thrown into the air again by the fish. This time, the three of us turned around simultaneously. I took the initiative and threw Nanami backwards towards the land, and it seemed as though Ryouta caught on because he gave a tiny push too. I thought that Ryouta and I could possibly swim to shore when we landed, but it turned out he had other things planned. I felt a huge blow to my side, and I looked over to see that Ryouta kicked me away. The fish and Ryouta were falling down, and they were aligned perfectly so that Ryouta couldn't possibly escape being eaten. He'll just revive. Right? Oh god, this'll be gruesome. Before I heard the smack from the water, I heard a gunshot from the land. Ryouta's body spurted blood, but he flew away from the designated course. He landed somewhat near me, so I grabbed his body, which was dead by then, and dragged it onto the land. I thought that the fish wouldn't possibly jump towards the land, so I assumed we were safe. I decided to see who shot the gun and saw Daiki with a smoking shotgun in his hands. Another thing I noticed was that his eye-patch was pulled up. He didn't have heterochromia, and the fact that he took the patch off meant that his eye wasn't blind either. So he really wears it in order to be less decisive; that's symbolic at the least.

"Ryouta's dead?" Nanami was looking over at me. I had Ryouta's dead body on my back, so I didn't answer. I just nodded at her. Nanami kept on staring blankly while saying, "He saved me."

"Yeah, he did. How are you going to repay him?"

"I don't know."

A huge fish. I'm not sure what it was trying to do, but as stereotypical as it may seem, it was probably trying to eat us. It must have been as big as a whale, but it was able to jump that high out of the water. I don't think physics should have let such a bulky thing swim fast enough to jump out of the water. My best guess is that it's some monster that can defy the laws of physics. Monster; monster in the stream; operation monster stream; makes sense. It can defy the laws of physics, or maybe the laws aren't the same here. This is the afterlife; gravity, inertia, resistance, and whatever feels the same. Maybe there's something off though. Something divine? After thinking of the word divine, I looked over at Nanami again. I remembered my small talks about everyone; I started to remember bits and pieces of information. Divinity means God. This group of people gathered together because they hate God, right? Nanami blamed God. On the other hand, didn't Ayaka blame herself? And what about everyone else? I looked around at everybody, and it was only then I realized how little I knew about everyone here.

Daiki broke my train of thoughts by announcing, "It appears as though there was really a monster in the stream, and thus we get the name Operation Monster Stream. Would it not be beneficial to be more cautious of the other operations from the first SSS?"

Riku, who was calming Ayaka, looked up and asked, "That's probably true, but do remember that the description of this operation was just like a normal fishing trip. Why didn't it say anything of an actual monster?"

I decided to barge in and state, "They didn't necessarily know of the monster either. All the operations seemed to have normal descriptions and ridiculous names. There's the possibility that this one just coincidentally described the stream itself."

Everyone was quiet for a little bit, but Ayaka finally pierced the silence. "All is over! We should just go back to school!"

Nanami, who resumed her bored countenance, responded with, "No detours this time?" A few people chuckled, and we started to walk back to school. A few minutes down the road, and I started to think about the crazy story. I ended by thinking, "And in the end, Ayaka, Riku, Daiki, Ryouta, Nanami and I walked back in a good mood." It was only then I realized that Mariko wasn't present. She's not here? She easily could have snuck away, but why and where? She's a member of the SSS, so where could she go? Then again, where did she come from? She swung up from under the bridge. Why was she under the bridge? I decided to shout out, "Hey guys, I'm going to turn around and go back to the stream, I want to check something out. I'll come back later!" I started to jog back before anyone could respond, and no one tried to stop me either.

"Mochizuki, right?"

"Umm-yeah. That's correct. Otonashi?"

"Yep. I'm sorry about the situation, but thanks for the help."

"No, it's nothing."

"Everyone left?"

"I believe so."

I was eavesdropping from above the bridge, but I decided that I could trust Mariko and Otonashi. I let my presence be known by exclaiming, "Everyone but Kouhei!" and jumping down next to them. I looked at the scene. "Mariko, are you friend's with Otonashi?"

"No, we met just before you arrived for the operation."

"I see. And it appears that you are on good terms with him."

"Yeah, I guess so. Do you need something?"

"Answers."

Mariko didn't respond to that, but she didn't seem startled either. I knew that she was a very physically adept person, but I had no idea how intelligent she was. I decided to take my bet on outsmarting her to get what I wanted.

"Mariko, how long have you been here?"

"I don't know how time works here and in the normal world."

Good way to avoid the question, but why would she want to avoid it in the first place? Did she even mean to avoid it, or was it a coincidence?

I continued by asking Otonashi a question, "Do you know if it's possible for two people in life to meet again here?"

He pondered the question for a second before answering, "I don't recall it ever happening before, but I see no reason why it can't happen either."

"Coming off of that, Mariko, did you know Daiki in your past life?"

There was no answer, but rather an intrigued look in Mariko's eye. She slowly started to smile a bit more before shaking her head. Instead of responding with a yes or no, which is what I expected, she said, "Daiki has been a friend of mine. I still think of him as a friend, but it's hard to imagine he's the same person. He's just so different than before."

Different from before. So different that he appears to be an unrecognizable person to a friend. Right now he's a philosophical, well thought-out, leader. What's the opposite? An uneducated, un-thought-out, follower. That sounds like someone who couldn't make choices; an indecisive person. Daiki was so adamant that indecisiveness was a bad thing. Is it because of his life experiences? Was he an indecisive person? And if he hates it so much, does it have to do with his regret? Maybe, but I've made a lot of assumptions, it's nothing good to base an opinion off of.

I left my mindset to see Otonashi looking at me with curious eyes. "Kouhei, could I speak to you in the student council office soon?"

"Sure, why not?"

Otonashi and I were sitting in the office. I was surprised to see the person we met on the road there. "Hey Otonashi, that's the vice president, right?"

"Nope, he's the secretary."

I was surprised. I had a decent memory, but thinking about it, I remembered that Jordan didn't say vice president; he did say secretary. "If he's the secretary, then I'm assuming there are also other positions, vice-president and treasurer. Am I right?"

"No treasurer, but there is a vice-president."

The guy from the road picked his head up from his book and asked, "Hey prez, who's this?"

"Inagaki Kouhei. That's all you need to know now. Kouhei, this is Wakahiko Sakune."

"Sup Inagaki. I don't know what you have to do with prez, but do you want to check out the girl's locker room afterwards? I've seen you in the pool before, so just say you accidentally went to the wrong locker. You might be able to check out some chicks." After winking, Wakahiko was shot by Otonashi.

"Dammit Sakune," muttered Otonashi. He put his gun down and sighed.

I stared at the two of them in disbelief. "Otonashi, NPC's don't revive! Isn't it a bit strange if your secretary just disappears?!"

"Who said he was a NPC? He's a human. This isn't what I brought you here for though. I have a proposal to make. I think you've realized a few things. The group of people you hang out with is the head of the SSS. I'm not too sure why you were immediately put into the head, but you were. The SSS is a force fighting against me, but you have probably realized that a lot of them actually have nothing against me. I'm not sure if you realized this though; the SSS is much, much larger. There are other factions; you guys are just the head of the system. Virtually the rest of the SSS hates me."

"Alright, that's understandable, but what's your proposal?"

"I want you to join the student council. You're not going to be a formal member, because you'll probably get kicked out if you do, but more of a helper."

"So you want me to be like a double agent?"

"In the end, I am trying to help everyone, but you could say that. I understand that this actually is a pretty big step, so feel free to take some time before answering."

"I'll obviously be working under you; therefore, I want to ask you one question. You're human; I think it's safe to assume that. So what's your regret?"

"My regret? I think in the end, I just wanted to be genuinely thanked."

"You've been freeing people from this place for a while. Have you never been thanked before?"

"There was one girl who genuinely thanked me. I like to believe that her thank was enough to let me move on, but if I moved on, I would have had another regret."

"That girl was the former Angel, wasn't it?"

His voice became more and more melancholic, but Otonashi continued to explain. "Yes, she was." Otonashi looked over at the wall. There was a picture hung up on it. It was a picture of several students who I assumed were Otonashi's friends. Otonashi himself was sharing the middle with a shorter white haired girl. "Kouhei, the girl in the middle was the last Angel. I love her. Her regret was never meeting her heart donor, me. She came to this world and tried to help everybody move on."

"I'm guessing she wanted to thank you. Do you ever wonder that she may be sad that her heart donor was the only one who didn't move on?"

At that, Otonashi actually laughed. "I never thought about that. Maybe you're right, but I have to stay here to keep some semblance of order."

"Is there anyone else in that picture that I should know of?"

"See the girl with purplish hair? That's the last leader of the SSS. The laptop in the SSS room is hers. She co-founded the SSS with the blue haired kid right there. I mentioned his name, Hinata."

The founders of the old SSS are both there. Does that mean that this picture is… "Otonashi, this is the last SSS, isn't it?"

"The head of the SSS, at least."

"So the last Angel was part of the SSS."

"See the kid with the black hat, he acted as student council president, was the vice-president, and God."

"That kid was God?!"

"He had a God-complex. His philosophy was interesting though. He said that the fact that we suffered in our lives gave us the opportunity to be God."

"Then God would just be a title. That's an interesting way to think about it. One last thing; if you were in this picture, you were part of the last SSS."

"Yes."

"History tends to repeat itself, doesn't it? I accept your proposal. I'm not too sure what I'll have to do, but we'll see how fate turns this time."

Otonashi seemed surprised at my decision. "I'm surprised you accepted so quickly. Welcome, Inagaki Kouhei."

And that ends chapter 4. Kouhei unofficially joins the student council. I still have virtually no idea what's going to happen, but instead of making this a protagonist vs antagonist story, I'm thinking about making this a story with an overlying theme, but antagonists come and go in arcs. Could I get some feedback on that? Or on anything? I want to feel like someone is actually reading this.

I'm endlessly accepting ideas for characters, plot ideas, or anything. PM or review.

On another note. Oh my God, huge writer's block. I had to stop this for a good four weeks. I've finished my major writing assignments, so I might be able to quicken the pace a little bit. Who knows though? Until next time.