A/N: The situation in Japan seems to fluctuate between good news and bad. I know that right now the only thing I can do is hope for the best for them.
This chapter contains some inappropriate words and themes that were written down before this accident in Japan occurred. I wanted to change it in order to respect the Japanese people with their current disaster, but as I had placed too much emphasis on it, it is my regret to inform you that I was unable to omit those parts.
I implore you readers to read this in only the lightest of sense and if you feel offended or feel as though I had intentionally offended the people in Japan or any other related, I apologize for it and swear that it was not intentional.
As for why I chose to post this chapter now rather than waiting for this disaster to die down is simply because I do not see any reason to hold back posting new chapters. And as stated above, the situation in Japan seems to be moving from good to bad and back to good. Now is probably the time to release this chapter or else I would not post anything till a month after the situation in Japan has been stabilized. My time to write this story is limited and I am hard pressed to finish it as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding.
Disclaimer warning: This chapter may contain inappropriate themes that may and will offend some readers. THIS CHAPTER IS NOT INTENDED TO OFFEND. Reader discretion is advised.
Angel Beats!
What We Live For
Operation 6
Poison Best Served Warm
To most of the new recruits, it was like being sent to hell. The training they did under the great lord of hell, Enma (read as Fujibayashi Kyou), was something out of a Spartan training textbook. They had to run around the obstacle course of death for five rounds, resulting in everyone dying at least once. Katsuragi heaved a sigh of relief once their demon instructor had decided to let them rest for the moment. Looking around, he noticed that most of the recruits had collapsed onto the ground in pure exhaustion. Holes dotted their now blood-stained uniform and though most of them were terrified of seeing their own blood, after a few more times of dying and running, everyone was simply too tired to bother. It wasn't like they were completely immune to it though, even Katsuragi looked down to see his singlet tattered and riddled with holes. He had actually lost count how many times he died. He remembered getting over the log wall and losing balance, thus falling straight into the spiked pit. That hurt, it really did.
"Alright recruits, up on your feet."
Kyou called out as she walked over to them. For some reason, her fist was red and smoking. The recruits all groaned and grumbled complaints, but still got to their feet nonetheless.
"Right, all of you, get your fire-arms ready. We'll start with the basic shooting practice."
Katsuragi remembered that some of the guys were rather excited to use their weapons, but now that they were all drained of energy, no one seemed to be excited about anything.
"What's this? All of you lack spirit and energy! Put some guts into it!"
Kyou shouted and forced everyone to their feet.
"Right, we'll go through the basic weapons training. Follow me to the range."
Kyou led all of the recruits out of the field and down another narrow path. What Katsuragi noticed during his short break was that this open field in the middle of the forest was only one of the major clearings in this place. He had overheard some assault members talking about the other clearings and other training areas. This wasn't a simple exercise camp, this was a fully built and operational military camp. Kyou led them down the short path and they soon reached the second clearing. The buildings in this area were different. Closer to the entrance of the clearing was a fully operational shooting range, where a couple of assault members were practising their shots. Next to the range was a large building structure of some sort. Katsuragi spotted a group of assault members, dressed in their training fatigues, readying by the door of the building. They then opened the door and charged in almost similar to the way police conduct raids.
"Go go go!"
"Clear left!"
"Enemy right! Firing!"
Voices echoed from within the structure as well as gun shots and explosions. That was a simulated training building? Just what was going on in this place? Kyou gathered the recruits by the side and got them to take out their weapons. While most had pistols, Katsuragi noticed that some were given knives. Kyou separated the two types of weapons into groups.
"Those with knives are going to train more with their bodies and foot work. As for those with pistols, I need to instruct you on weapons safety and usage."
Kyou began, taking out her own pistol.
"This flip here is the safety. Turn it on and the gun will not fire, turn it off and it will. Simple? Good. This is the magazine reload. Those with revolvers, do it like this."
Kyou took out another gun, a revolver, and she pushed the cylinder out from the gun, showing everyone how it was done.
"Now, those with magazine fed guns, you need to be careful with loading in a new magazine. It is not as easy as it looks and you need to be careful not to do it so hard that you damage the gun. Slide it in with some force, and pull back the slide to chamber the first round."
Kyou showed by example.
"When firing, use both hands to hold the gun, I don't want any heroics and stupid idiots who fancy themselves as movie gunmen. Line up your sights to the enemy, squeeze the trigger firmly and always remember... DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES."
Kyou stressed that last part to the point where Katsuragi thought that she must have had some bad experience with closed eyes shooters before.
"Focus on where you're pointing your weapon. Do not loosen up your shoulders and do not lock it too tightly when firing."
Kyou went on for another five minutes, mainly about gun maintenance that Goudatera Takako from Guild had already went through. Apparently maintaining your weapon is something that is taken rather seriously in the SSS2.
"Alright, enough with the lessons. You will all now line up at the range. Your seniors will be standing by the side to watch your progress. Ask if you are uncertain about anything. As for the close range members, you will follow me. I'll get you a special instructor to teach you."
Katsuragi looked at the pistol in his hand and then to the range. It wasn't like he was used to using the gun, but it somehow felt natural to him. He walked over to a booth at the range and looked to his left and right. The other recruits were all taking up positions. The assault members who were using the range before were now standing behind them, observing them as the recruits tried to get their weapons to load.
"You're doing it wrong!"
"Chamber the round before firing!"
"You're shoulders are too stiff."
"Aim! Look at what you're shooting!"
"That's your own eye you're going to blow a hole through."
"You want me to hold your gun for you? Are you nuts? ! What are you, five? !"
The comments were the seniors were increasingly getting nuts, so Katsuragi simply concentrated on his own range. He trained his sights on the target at 50 metres. He squeezed the trigger, but did not expect the recoil from the weapon to be that great, resulting in his hands flying somewhat high up.
"You need to lock your elbows."
A young familiar voice spoke from behind. He turned around and saw that same young girl who helped him in the cafeteria. She was dressed in training fatigues and was clearly not amused by what was happening.
"Don't look at me, idiot, look at the target."
She snapped, forcing Katsuragi to look back. He trained his sights once more, but this time the young girl reached out and corrected his posture.
"You need to widen your stance. The way you're standing your centre of gravity is centred too high. Aim lower. You have a tendency to aim too high."
After awhile, she stepped back.
"Now shoot."
Katsuragi did not think of whether he wanted to question about her pressing her body to close to his during her 'corrections', since he sort of figured out that questioning seniors is a huge 'no-no'. He squeezed the trigger and fired the shot. He was surprised that this time, his hands didn't fly upwards, and he hit the target dead-on.
"See? You can do it if you tried."
She sighed.
"Er... Thanks..."
He said, turning to her.
"... It's Mana."
"Huh?"
"My name. Ryougi Mana."
He did not know if she was wanting him to call her that, or because she did not want to be referred to as 'you'.
"... Okay, thanks, Ryougi-senpai."
Dinner was always such a sadistic game, at least for the older members of the assault division. The recruits had no idea what was going to head their way. Fujibayashi Kyou was not in-charge of making dinner as Ein had assigned a separate division to do it. Yes, the assault division relied on one other group to help support them. While Yuki did specify that every division was meant to cooperate with one another most of the time the different divisions stuck to their own things. This borrowing of a group was Ein's way to show Yuki that the assault group was getting other divisions involved. However what most people knew was that this group did not exactly make 'food'. Kyou could only watch as her assault division members all dragged their feet unwillingly towards the mess hall. She could only pray for their deaths to be swift.
"Ah, Kyou-chan."
Kyou jumped a little upon hearing that voice call out to her. She slowly turned around and saw the one person she did not want to meet.
"... Na-..Nagisa."
The young student cook was dressed in some sort of apron from hell, with blood splatter all over her apron and she carrying a large pot of bubbling purple liquid that seemed to give off a smell that was impossible for the human nose to identify.
"You're skipping out on dinner again? You can't do that!"
"I-I'll get my dinner later."
Kyou tried to excuse her way out of it, though Nagisa did not seem to be convinced.
"You always say that! What, is my cooking really that bad?"
In a word, yes. But Kyou knew better than to say that out loud. Kyou knew that Nagisa wasn't always a bad cook, rather she cooked extremely delicious meals when she was first assigned to be part of the cooking group. But as time went by, some how or rather her cooking skills deteriorated to the point where the pot she was holding onto disintegrated and the purple contents spilt onto the floor, causing the grass to smoke, sizzle, whither and die. Was that acid? That had to be acid. That wasn't food at all.
"Oops, there goes another pot. I'll make sure you eat, Kyou-chan, so don't run off."
Nagisa stared at Kyou before running off to find another pot. Kyou knew better than to stick around. She needed to run away. Kyou guessed that Nagisa's bad cooking skills was mainly due to the appearance of two things. One was her discovery of her mother's recipe for incredibly dangerous bread, and the second was by a strange glowing jam that was brought together by two other members; Tsukimiya Ayu, and Minase Nayuki. While Kyou does not know much about Minase Nayuki, only knowing that she was part of the runner's group for Guild, she does know that Nayuki took this recipe from her mother's bread with intentions to sell it as some sort of biological chemical weapon against shadows, and that she herself was wary to use it.
Then came the leader of the medics, Tsukimiya Ayu, whose tastes buds were somewhat off whack. That young medic kept eating sweets to the point where she probably couldn't tell that the glowing jam was dangerous. Thus, she thought of it as good, combined it with Nagisa's extreme-super-ultra-hyper-rainbow bread to form some sort of radioactive bomb, affecting those who were in the kitchen that day, which meant the cooking group. Thus the cooking group's food is anything but edible. Kyou even swore that Nagisa still uses that radioactive combination in her cooking, even today's dinner. Kyou managed to make it back to the commander's shack, where Ein was already tucking himself into a nice bowl of udon he got a runner to buy for him from the cafeteria.
"... Where's mine?"
Kyou asked, raising any eyebrow. Ein pointed to the side where a packet of fried noodles were. Kyou wanted to complain, but held back. She knew that anything was better than whatever the cooking group was making.
"Sho? Fat's shash foofing fup foing?"
Ein asked, mouth filled with noodles.
"... Swallow before talking, or else I'll make a second hole for that noodle to disappear into."
Kyou warned, sitting down with the fried soba noodles in hand. Ein swallowed his food before asking.
"So what's that cooking group doing?"
"... Same always, making acidic radioactive poison. I swear that thing is getting more dangerous by the day. Sooner or later no one is going to be able to revive from that."
Kyou replied, snapping her chopsticks apart and starting to dig into her meal. Ein shivered at the thought of the food, going straight back to his meal. It wasn't long before a group of assault members entered the shed. The squad leaders were all late in coming here, and apparently they were dragged off by some cooking group member, as their faces were quite off colour.
"Died?"
Ein asked, pointing them to the stash of packet food.
"Five. Each. Ryusei died only once."
One of the guys said, grabbing a packet food to eat.
"My condolences to all of you. Remind me to buy flowers for your funerals."
"Put a sock in it, Ein. Hey! Ryusei! That's mine!"
Just as one of the guys said that, his head had a large hole in the centre of his forehead and he fell backwards, dead. The smoking gun was none other than a long hunting rifle in the hand of the silent squadron leader of the snipers, Ryusei Suou. No one was surprised by the scene, carrying on eating as though nothing happened.
"Suou, you need to learn to stop drawing your rifle in this place."
Ein said.
"Exactly! That hurt!"
"Oh, you're revived? That's fast."
Kyou muttered.
"Kyou-san! Can't you stop being so cruel?"
"Nope."
"Immediate answer? !"
"Sit down and eat, you idiot. You're making my soba taste funny."
"Ein! say something!"
The squadron leader pleaded. Ein sighed, scratching his head as he stood up.
"Suou, you need to put that rifle away."
"Exactly! You tell her-"
"You nearly shot my precious manga collection."
Ein pointed to where the bullet was lodged in the wall slightly off from Ein's collection of books.
"EIN? !"
Suou looked at Ein and nodded silently, putting away her rifle.
"YOU ACCEPTED THAT REASON? !"
"You better pipe down or else I'll be the next one to shoot you. And I promise you that it will hurt a lot more and longer."
Kyou warned, forcing the squadron leader to sit back down in fear.
"... Anyway, how are the recruits?"
Ein asked, changing the topic and hopefully the atmosphere of the room.
"They'll survive."
Kyou replied shortly.
"Well, the close range batch need more time to train. Their footwork are still in a mess."
One of them said.
"I saw some of them shooting at the range. Half of them blew themselves up before actually aiming the gun at the target."
Another muttered.
"Ah, I saw Ryougi Mana actually teaching someone."
"What? 'That' Ryougi? I thought she would not teach anyone anything."
"A lone ranger... do you still think she's still holding a grudge against Division 6's Sakamoto?"
"Who knows."
Kyou wasn't interested in the conversation, slowly eating her noodles. Ryougi Mana, a solitary existence. Coming to this world while holding onto a grudge. Who would have guessed that Ryougi Mana and Sakamoto Shiki knew each other while they were alive, not to mention that Shiki was the very focus of revenge for Mana. But no matter how many times Kyou asks about it, neither were willing to say why. Shiki clearly knew about it, and it seemed to pain her slightly. Everyone had their secrets. That was true, but sooner or later, those secrets would need to surface.
"Kyou."
She looked up and saw Ein staring straight at her, his eyes showing that he was serious.
"Tell me, Kyou... how are the recruits."
Kyou looked at Ein for that moment, her memories flickering back to 'him'. Ein was somewhat similar to 'him'. It was such a distant past that she almost forgot about it. Maybe it wasn't that she forgot about him. She wanted to forget him, but could never do it. He was always there. He would never leave her mind. Ein wasn't 'him', however, and she knew that better than anyone. Because of this, she knew that her past will keep on haunting her. She looked back to her noodles, digging her chopsticks into it.
"... They'll survive..."
They will survive. She will make sure of it.
A/N: Oh yes, check back to chapter 5 since i made some minor alterations, mainly to two parts because the grammar was completely off.