A/N Sorry for the delay, I was having too much fun brainstorming for the side stories. Brainstorming, mind you, I have to sort through the garbage that I wrote down in order to filter out those that are acceptable to be written down and those that are just utter... rubbish. This chapter isn't really that interesting, but I guess it is necessary.
Angel Beats!
What We Live For
Operation 33
Conviction
Three hours before
Number 00, Katsuragi Rei, had a lot of time to think about things as he walked along the tunnels of Guild. A lot of things that included about himself. While he had accepted the ultimate truth of his existence, he still had doubts about it. It all came so fast that not all of his mind had fully accepted it. Maybe it was best to get Otonashi to take a look at his programming once this was all over. All over? Now that he thought about it, what was going to happen once this was all over? Would he still be part of the SSS2? Or would he return to Otonashi's side?
His two 'siblings', Amatsukai Ichigo and Amagami Futayo, were the reason behind this large scale war but they weren't behind the creation of Shadows. They were, however, responsible for the creation of Angels. They are the cause behind the 'abnormality' that occurred in the Angel Program five years ago that resulted in the Battle of Big Site. Not that he should be the one to say it, since he himself was the cause of the abnormality when he first came here. It felt odd to consider himself as an abnormality.
He hated that word. Made every circuit, every byte in his body itch with irritation. Ever since he remembered his past and his role as an NPC, Rei became rather conflicted with himself. His body was of an NPCs, but he still had a human's soul (Kurogane Kei) within him. Not to mention his mind was still torn into half, one bit as his old NPC self and the other as his human self, an 'alter ego' so to speak. In other words, Katsuragi Rei was like a piece of jigsaw with pieces that never fitted with one another yet somehow or rather still managed to work together and create a picture. He really needed to talk to Otonashi about this.
Speaking of which, where did his eccentric creator run off to? Eccentric was a rather vague term to use to describe Otonashi but it more or less described him as a whole. As Katsuragi mulled over his own confusing facts about himself, he seemed to have failed to realize that he had just walked into a group of Angels. The said Angels noticed this oddity walking into their rankings with his arms crossed and muttering incoherent things to no one in particular. Oddity was something they would use to describe something that they had some hard time to determine its relation to their current programming. Katsuragi, as it so happens, was registered as both an NPC and as a SSS2 (enemy). In such times, the priority command would take over and instruct them on one thing.
"Enemy confirmed. Eliminate target."
The Angels all charged straight for Rei, who was still somewhat lost in his own World. Rei, however, was no ordinary messed up mishmash jigsaw of an NPC/human. He was a messed up mishmash jigsaw of an NPC/human with administrative rights in the Afterlife. In one were to describe what administrative rights were, it would be troublesome to describe the intricate details of what a computer program does and how only administrators of the computer would be able to alter its finer details or to access information that would normally be inaccessible to normal users.
In a simple form, however, having administrative rights to a World with rules like a Computer, much like this Afterlife, would be somewhat comparing it to God. And so what can God do in this case? Well, a lot of things. He is, after all, God. But God does not exist in the Afterlife. There is only one NPC by the name of Katsuragi Rei. Before the attacks could connect with him, Rei disappeared completely. This resulted in the Angels' attacks simply hitting nothing but air. Perplexed, the Angels all looked around in confusion. Rei then appeared behind one of the Angels, placing a hand against the back of the NPC.
"... Begone."
Rei muttered. A sudden blast from Rei's hand exploded, sending the Angel flying into the air and crashing into another Angel. Rei disappeared again, reappearing right in front of another Angel and grabbed the NPC by the face.
"... Corrupted beyond repair... Delete."
At Rei's command, the Angel slowly started to dissipate, his body disintegrating into pixels and then nothingness. This... This was the power of the Angels of Type A and above. It was a horrible feeling for Rei, destroying his own 'siblings', so to speak. A dark cold feeling spread out throughout his entire existence yet... it was somewhat warm... addictive. Rei shook his head, getting rid of the thought. It was the corruption that was messing with his mind. So it was even beginning to corrupt his core, despite it being isolated from the rest of the system. But Rei had no time to mull over such things as the remaining Angels managed to regroup and go in for another attack. Rei lifted his hand into the air and muttered,
"Defence skill: Time Warp."
From his hand a strange shimmering object expanded rapidly, creating a giant sphere around him and engulfing his attackers. The moment an attacker entered this sphere, they were slowed down in movement and soon they froze. Even if they were in mid air, they still froze in place. Rei had effectively stopped time. This was the administrative power. This was the power of an EX type Angel. But it had its own problems. In order for this program to work, it must also access the main system as well as the cores of every single NPC which enters its domain, meaning...
"Ugh!"
Rei clutched his chest as a burning sensation started to seep into him. Darkness, hatred, despair. The corruption, the madness, the insanity. Because of this skill, Rei would be three times more susceptible to the corruption if any were present and it seemed that some of these Angels were corrupted. So much was this madness getting to him that Rei was forced to cancel the skill, releasing the time-frozen Angels which also meant that their attacks were going to hit Rei. Rei had no other way to defend himself, the corruption inhibiting his movements.
"Get down!"
A voice shouted just as daggers flew out, piercing the Angels and averting the attacks away from Rei. Rei looked up and saw a familiar face, one he was surprised but glad to see.
"Saya!"
The tired and stressed out face of the Assault division member was a blessing to Rei. Following right behind Saya was Second Lieutenant Kai who went over and helped Rei to his feet.
"Are you alright?"
Kai asked, to which Rei nodded.
"Y-yeah. I was just being careless."
"Careless? An NPC like you should not even use that word."
Saya said, walking over with her guns drawn, emitting a presence of pure hatred.
"Saya-kun, I told you that Katsuragi is not our enemy-"
"Shut it."
Saya snapped, raising her gun to Katsuragi's head. This made Kai extremely worried but he was supporting Rei's weight, therefore unable to stop Saya. Rei, on the other hand, merely smiled.
"And what do you plan to do with your gun to my head?"
He asked. Saya narrowed her eyes at Rei, clearly angry at him.
"... I am a member of Edge... the shock troopers of the Assault Division of this proud SSS2. I must kill all of our enemies."
"Saya!"
Kai shouted at Saya, but to no avail.
BANG
Saya pulled the trigger, her gun smoking in her hand... And an Angel behind Rei falling dead with a gunshot to the head.
"But... I would not be able to consider myself human if I dismiss those I call 'friends'... even if they are different from what they seem."
Saya sighed, putting down her gun.
"Saya..."
"Don't get me wrong. This is also to repay you for rescuing me."
Saya added sternly, turning the other way. Rei merely smiled, reaching out and patting her on her head, making her jump a little as he gently rubbed her head.
"Yeah... thanks. You did a good job."
Rei smiled. Saya did not do anything but Rei could see that she was trembling slightly.
"... Idiot."
Was all she muttered.
"Alright, now that we've regrouped, what are our plans?"
Kai asked. Rei turned and looked back down the tunnel.
"There are a lot of enemies between us and Guild."
Rei commented, getting off the support from Kai.
"So what do you suggest? Try to find reinforcements?"
"... Not exactly."
Rei smirked. He slowly walked over to one of the fallen NPCs and placed a hand on the body.
"Hmm... The corruption has not seeped all the way down to the core. Good."
Rei smiled, nodding to no one in particular.
"Access system override. Code 0000000."
.
.
.
System override confirm
"Application installation. Program 05Xfv145a. Initiate."
.
.
.
Installing
.
.
.
Program installed
Reboot system? Y/N
"Yes."
Rei lifted his hand off the body and stood back. The Angel's wounds slowly healed back and his eyes opened, sitting up straight and causing Saya and Kai to reach for their weapons but Rei stopped them. He looked straight at the Angel, who stood up and stared blankly at Rei.
"Do you understand who am I?"
Rei asked the Angel, who nodded.
"You are the administrator."
"Good. What are you current directives?"
"Current directives are as follows. 1) To follow administrator's commands 2) To Ensure the rescue and survival of any SSS2 personnel 3) To eradicate any corrupted Data."
The Angel answered back with a sort of friendly tone, which was rather creepy for Saya and Kai, but with this Rei had his plan all set.
"If we cannot fight while being outnumbered-"
Rei said, bending down and applying the same thing to another Angel.
"-Then we will just have to make sure we outnumber them."
Rei smirked as the second Angel got to her feet.
With an army of Angels with them, Saya and Kai felt rather odd as they made their way down towards Guild. Sure, these Angels would not attack them and would more or less sacrifice their existences to make sure they survived, but somehow it all felt... wrong. Katsuragi Rei assured them that once this was all over he would revert their original programming and personalities back though that was really the point. The point was that these were their former enemies besides being souless-beings-made-from-human-darkness-and-functions-like-a-robot-besides-looking-exactly-like-a-human-being. And with each new batch of enemies they meet, Katsuragi would convert more of them, meaning that their numbers would never decrease. At least not by a whole lot.
"It seems like the enemy has been able to change the composition of their weapons."
Rei muttered, squatting down to examine one of the latest Angel's sword. He gingerly traced a finger along its blade and immediately pulled his hand back like the blade was extremely hot. He looked at his hand and noticed a little bit of black substance on, spreading slightly. He shook his hand and the black substance dissipated.
"... Black Essence. They are getting smarter."
Rei said, getting up to his feet.
"So? What did you find?"
Kai asked, unsure of what Katsuragi was actually looking at.
"The enemy has started to make use of Black Essences either as coatings or as the very foundation of their weapons. As you know, Black Essences have the strongest ability to kill, meaning if one of us, including humans, gets attack by one of these weapons, they would either take a very long time to heal... or never wake up at all."
"T-that's impossible!"
Saya shouted.
"No, not impossible. The Black Essences in the weapons used by the SSS2 have the same properties, able to completely erase an NPC from this World until the system reboots the back-up data. But since humans do not have the same type of back-up system as NPCs, the recovery period is very much different or impossible all together."
Rei explained before looking down at the Angel who wielded that weapon.
"It would be hard for me to convert those NPCs who use these weapons as they have to be configured from the core to use such corrupted weapons. Looks like we need to erase this one."
Rei nodded to several other NPCs who stepped forward to erase the NPCs by means of-
"... Are those grenades?"
Saya asked. To which Rei merely smiled.
"Bingo."
BOOM
All that was left of the Angel was a large crater.
"Sadly there isn't any other better way to restart the core without getting my hands dirty with the corruption."
Rei muttered, sounding almost like an upper-class woman who doesn't like to get her hands dirty. In a strange way, Rei was starting to act different after he realized that he was an NPC.
"Hm? Oh, it must be the soul that I'm housing in me. Though my creator assured me that there wasn't going to be any personality changes, he can be wrong from time to time."
Rei muttered.
"Soul?"
Kai wondered.
"Yes. Though I am an NPC, as you would call me, I do house a human soul. While it is to help me enter the SSS2 by masking my presence as an NPC, it is also the root cause of my... distinct personality and thought-processing."
Rei explained, though that wasn't really helpful as both Saya and Kai were still confused.
"... Imagine a cyborg."
Rei tried to use this other way of explaining
"Oh! I see! Like a tank, right? Outside is metal but driving it is human."
Saya said excitedly. A tank would not be so accurate. But maybe somewhere along those lines. Still, what sort of girl would use things like a tank as an allegory?
"Anyway, back to this soul. It seems like from time to time, I take on the personality of its original host. Sometimes it just gets irritating."
Rei muttered, having a complete character change. It was almost like talking to a completely different person altogether. Maybe split personality?
"If it is awkward for the two of you, I can change it."
Change? Change what? Your personality? You can't just switch your personality just like that! Even as a computer program you can't just switch it on/off like some light switch! What are you, a host club member who can change his character to suit which ever woman he is wooing at the moment? This was a masterful art of the gigolo
"No no... t-there's no need to change it, r-right?"
Kai looked nervously to Saya who wasn't very paying attention.
"H-huh? Er... sure."
Saya simply said. Rei raised an eyebrow at their awkward answers, but let it slide.
"Anyway, back to our main problem. Since the enemy has started to use these new weapons, the number of allies I can convert are limited and few. This is rather troubling."
Rei muttered, rubbing his chin in thought.
"So what do we do? Simply defeat them as per normal?"
Kai asked, to which Rei shook his head in disagreement.
"No. Doing like we've been doing before will only lead us to more danger. It is hard to know what sort of weapon the enemy uses, so it would be best to simply aim to destroy them completely. I will deal with those that I think are not corrupted."
"... You 'think'?"
Saya pondered on that word that Rei used.
"Yes, 'think'. What, you think that simply because I'm not human that I'm incapable of rational thought? That I don't need time to actually formulate my plans? That I am always a 100% sure? You have got to be joking, even an idiot wouldn't think that."
Rei shot back, which Saya did not take kindly to, having a nerve snap.
"Ehh? For a mere bunch of pixels, you sure act like some big-shot. Only hours ago you were wailing about like one of us 'frail' humans."
"Only hours ago, I really thought I WAS one of you 'frail' humans."
With lightning and fire shooting out of their eyes at one another, Kai wondered if it was a good idea for him to intervene. He certainly did not want to die so maybe he should just leave the two be. While he let the two bicker it out, Kai looked on down the tunnel. It wasn't much further to Guild. The number of enemy encounters had only been on a rise, which led Kai to confirm his worst suspicions, that Guild was completely overrun. If he knew Yuuko, which unfortunately he did, she would have retreated back into Big Site.
Ever since the battle of Big Site more than five years ago, there has only been one way in or out of Big Site. It was both perfect for defending... and also a death trap. But Big Site has enough supplies and stockpiles to last a two year siege with maximum capacity of people. Big Site would not fall that easily. Not when Yuuko was around. There was no one in this World that loved Guild and Big Site more than Yuuko. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Guild and Big Site ARE part of Yuuko. Yuuko would never fall as long as Guild was around and vice versa. While it was good against their enemies, it also made things complicated for Rei and his group.
Kai knew that Rei sought to end the madness of the SSS2, to let everyone pass on without regrets or suffering. Rei was doing his job as an NPC, to absorb their darkness and let them leave this World in peace. But such madness was a double edged sword. As Kai could see, NPCs who were corrupted too much would end up being Shadows or worse, Angels. Rei himself had to have a limit. And since Yuuko will not fall as long as Guild was around, it would mean that Yuuko was connected to a large portion of madness that was the SSS2. That large part of the darkness was within Yuuko, the one who represents Greed. Were they going to fight someone so powerful from the get-go?
"Don't worry about Yuuko."
Rei's voice suddenly broke Kai's thoughts. Turning around he saw that Rei and Saya had stopped arguing and were both facing him.
"Don't worry?"
"I don't plan to fight her yet. For now, we have to deal with the problem of my two 'siblings'. We can worry about the SSS2 later."
Rei assured him and Saya nodded in agreement.
"If that wasn't the plan, would I have stopped in shooting a few rounds in this guy's head?"
Saya quizzed with a sort of sadistic smile on her face. An evil, yet rare, smile. Kai blinked at the two of them, before sighing with a smile.
"I just can't beat you guys any more. And to think, I was the teacher not too long ago."
Kai muttered before looking back down towards Guild's tunnel.
"Right then, let's go."