Time continues to pass. Slowly by slowly days went by and before I knew it, it was winter. I'm not sure what triggered it –but suddenly people started appearing in this world of ours. It was kinda funny… We went months without anyone passing to this world and now that it's winter we're getting at least one or two people a week. At first I didn't make the correlation; I guess it makes sense though. It's only natural that more people would die in winter. It makes me cringe to think about it that way, but a horrifying fact is still a fact. No matter how tragic.

Now that I think about it, I'm still not sure how this world's supposed to function. Even now I'm only speculating. To be entirely honest I have no idea whether more people appearing in winter is an explainable occurrence or pure coincidence. Truth is, I honestly don't care.

The only things I can be sure of is what's in front of my eyes. I know that Mapo Tofu really grows on you, that the snow is a bitch to walk in, that the people who pass through this world are deeply disturbed, and -most importantly- I am certain that Naoi will never leave me.

We've grown closer and closer recently. I guess that's what happens when you have no one else for company and get hauled up in a school…

Getting people to pass on is actually very easy. So far only a couple of people put up a fight. One of them was an aggressive dropout and the other a drug induced pre-teen. Though in the end, they -like everyone else- came to pass. I've seen someone of everyone at this point. I've seen people who were abandoned, kids that lost everything, teenagers lead astray by sorrow, guilt, revenge or anguish. I've seen the mental cases, the lone wolfs, the gangsters and the trigger happy fuck ups. I've seen them all.

I don't think it would be half as easy without Naoi's help. His ability to read minds meant that I knew exactly what to say and exactly what to do. Perhaps it counts as manipulation- hell, if it wasn't for the circumstances I would be completely against it. But in this particular circumstance, I believe that the end justifies the means.

This one, however… was not so easy. She was a young girl –a year or two younger than myself. She was actually quite beautiful, but also very stubborn. Her eyes burned with intimidation… I could honestly feel her eyes piercing my skin.

I remember standing at the side of the classroom with Naoi as we watched her. He whispered to me all her thoughts. Every idea, every influence- all of it. Deciphering her thoughts was difficult. All I could gather from what he told me was that she felt unfulfilled. Which doesn't really say much considering this is a place where unfulfilled people go.

He told me about her tragic past, that didn't help. He told me about her death, even that didn't help. The only noteworthy thing he told me was her 'yearning to help people,' but I failed to come up with a way of helping that.

As she stood there screaming at me I tried to remember what Naoi told me. Though it was difficult to concentrate with the girl's distressed yells and flapping arms… I couldn't really hear what she was yelling; I seem to recall her yelling something about 'God' and a lot of swearing but the rest was lost in her shrill voice. I looked across the room at Naoi desperately as if to say 'what the fuck do I do?' Naoi looked as if he was contemplating something when suddenly his eyes brightened. Naoi quickly came up to me and the girl whilst all I could do was try and figure out what's happening.

"Excuse me, could I please speak to Otanashi for a moment?" The girl's outrage was replaced by a puzzled gaze. She nodded slowly. Naoi pulled me to the side of the classroom and spoke in a low tone to avoid prying ears.

"You have to convince her to join SSS." My eyes widened and I blinked a couple of times. "What? Why?" I asked. "Think about it, Otanashi," Naoi began. "Do you remember what I said earlier? That she yearned to help people? Well, maybe this is her chance to help people." I started to understand and couldn't help but beat myself up for not thinking of that earlier.

I nodded and without another word stepped over to the girl. I tried my very best to explain everything to her. Honestly, I'm not sure if she actually believed me or if she just wanted to. But nevertheless, she agreed.

I immediately started to regret my decision. Rethink it at very least. Something about her just didn't seem right. I realise this is paranoia; probably caused by my isolation. 'So we have another member now…' was all I could think of for the next hour. I wasn't really sure what that would mean, nor whether it was good or not. Naoi seems to have reacted very calmly…. Maybe I should try to mimic that…

We arrived back into the office and briefed her over everything. Still she retained her cold and collected attitude. I can't help but wonder if that's just a coping mechanism or whether she's really like that.

Beyond what I can only assume was a façade of attitude, I couldn't help but notice a hint or something else. I'm not entirely sure what it was… Maybe it was anger, resentment, fear or loneliness. Though it's probably just confusion.

She told us she was going to get something to eat. She was probably overwhelmed; I know I was when I first came her. I watched her flowing hair as she left and lay on the sofa. Suddenly, time slowed down for a moment. Everything with that girl had happened so quickly, but now he had time to breath.

Naoi came over and lay on the couch besides me. He lay his head against my chest and I stroked his silky hair that I knew all too well. We had reached the stage where words were no longer required. Before, we talked constantly. But after a month or so, we learned to read each other's actions. When I was hungry, I'd pull lightly on his wrist a few times. When he needed to pee he'd stand up and sway a little until I got up. When I got chest pains I'd sit up and he'd hand me painkillers. Little subtleties like that. And when Naoi got tired or even just wanted a hug, he'd lie on the couch using me as a head rest.

I found out that he likes it when people touch his hair. Which isn't a problem… Especially since I love touching his hair.

My hand got slower and slower until my hand laid on his hair motionless. I felt myself getting closer and closer to sleep, when….

"She's pretty, isn't she…?" It took me a moment to wake up and realise what he'd just said. All I could do was blink a couple of times. It didn't sound like a question. But not an accusation either. More of an innocent statement. "Urm… I guess. Why?"

Naoi said nothing for a while before mumbling "no reason."

I could tell something was wrong, but didn't know if I wanted to press on the subject. I decided to say nothing. Instead I just closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.

Notes:

So I know it's taken forever, and I'm aware this chapter is less then adequate for the time it took. The truth is I wrote this chapter as over 3,000 words but my laptop crashed leaving me with just over 1,000. So instead of rewriting everything with probably half the quality- I decided to just upload what I have. So I just wanna go over a couple of things quickly...

I'm aware that the added character sucks. I won't even try and pretend. The truth is I simply had a massive writers block and needed to use something to further the plot. She is completely unimportant and only exists for plot reasons. To emphasise her unimportance, I've decided to not give her a name. I realise that adding her in was kinda a horrible thing to do, especially since I'm against the use of objectification and token females. So I apologise for that.

Another thing is that I know there isn't much Otanashi x Naoi in this chapter. In the full version there was a LOT more. So in part 2 there will be much more lovey stuff.

One final thing is actually kinda a confession. I don't actually like angel beats all that much... I realise that may sound extremely bad coming from a fanfic writer of it, but I've kinda grown apart from it. Because of that I haven't seen it for a long time which may cause severe plot holes or OOC, so I'm very sorry about that. The truth is this hole story is actually probably the worst thing I've ever written. I'm actually not that bad of a writer, but this one is exceptionally awful. I'm not sure why, but no matter how hard I try I just can't make this story good. But nevertheless I'm going to continue writing simply because I love writing it and I love the people who read it.

Again, many apologies for how long it took.:)