Hey guys. This chapter is somewhat different. It, along with the next few chapters will mostly be a unique recap of essential events of the Angel Beats series for anyone who had yet to see it (which I highly recommend doing), or is just going to get a refresher on it. But, there are things that happen in between that will be foreshadowing to later parts of the story, so I still highly recommend reading it.

Chapter 9

Beautiful Music

The climb down the ladder seemed endless. As if it went on forever. Minutes passed by, but they felt like hours. It was as if time had no relevance here.

After about a half hour climb, they reached the bottom of the cave. Most of the group was exhausted, still worn out from the battle hours before. Fortunately, Otonashi seemed more willing to let everyone rest.

"Okazaki!" Ellie called over to him, waving him over to her. Grunting with effort, he pulled himself up off the ground and strode to where he was standing.

"What?" he asked.

"It's time we got some answers from Angel, er, Otonashi."

Okazaki raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You aren't calling him Angel anymore?"

She bit her lip, pausing for a moment. "Well, some things he said have been making me doubt who he really is. Whether or not our assumption about him was wrong."

"Well, you know what they say about assumptions." She shot him a dirty look, but didn't say anything back. This whole event was greatly stressing her out. Right now, all of her beliefs were being challenged.
"Otonashi!" Okazaki yelled. Otonashi looked up from the Guard who's wounds he was expecting.

"It's nothing that won't go away after a short while," he told the Guard and strode over to Okazaki and Ellie.

"What do you want?" he asked them.

"Answers," Ellie demanded. She wasn't in the mood to be playing around. "Where the hell are we?"

Otonashi sighed, but gave in. "Come with me," he told them.

They followed Otonashi a short ways off and sat down.

"Okay, this place is the tunnels leading to the Guild."

"And that is?" Ellie asked impatiently.

"The Guild is where the First Generation would build their weapons. It was a massive underground fortress of factories and housing for the engineers. They would spend the entirety of their time building weapons and making ammunition for the combat forces of the Battlefront."

"Underground factories?" Ellie asked in shock. "A fortress? Just how huge was this place?"

"Absolutely massive. I was in absolute awe when I first came here with Yuri."

"Yuri?!" Ellie yelled. "As in Yuri Nakamura?! The first leader of the Battlefront?!"

"The very same."

"Why would she take you to their secret underground fortress. You're the enemy!"

Otonashi sighed. "You must think of me in the same light we thought of Kanade. At least, until we learned the truth. Let me guess. You believe that I am an Angel sent by God to erase all of you. Am I wrong?"

"No, you are spot on."

"Well, you are wrong. There has never been such a being in this world. I am a normal human just like yourselves. I lived a terrible youth, and came here. Well wait, that isn't accurate. But, that is for later. There are other things I have to explain first."

Okazaki and Ellie stared at him, waiting for his explanation, but he remained silent. Contemplating what to do, he silently sat there.

"Okay," he finally spoke. "This is the gist of how it all started."

Otonashi suddenly awoke to find himself lying on the cold, concrete ground.

"Where am I?" I don't remember anything.

"So you're finally awake are you?" spoke an unfamiliar voice. "Since you are here, I guess that means you are dead."

"Um..." he paused. He was having difficulty believing what he was seeing and hearing. In front of him, was a girl with medium length hair in a sailor uniform. Holding a gun, and telling him that he was dead. It was like something out a cheesy movie. "Is that a real gun?"

The girl sighed, taking her eyes away from the scope and said, "Everyone who come's here says that." Looking back she continued, "You need to be more flexible accept things for what they are." After a brief pause she returned to her scope and said, "And fight."

"Against what?"

"That," she replied, pointing to the game field ahead of them. "Angel."

In the field stood a petite young girl. Looked like maybe a first year. Long, silver hair flowed, shining off the light of the moon. She looked mesmerizing. Something about her appearance was utterly beautiful.

No matter how you look at it, that's just a normal girl.

"Uh, I am gonna go down there."

The girl whipped around in a split second and pushed him down. "Why would you want to do that?! Do you want to die?!" She just stared at Otonashi and he stared back. "Well?" she asked. "Was it funny?"

"Huh?" The look Otonashi had was a hardcore "say what" look. He looked a bit funny.

"It's a joke in this world, since you can't die and all."

"My opinion on the joke aside, I think I will have better luck talking to someone who doesn't point guns a girls."

The girl stood up and put her hands on her hips. "I am your ally. You can trust me. If you don't want me to shoot her, I won't."

Otonashi was just about to calm down when a man suddenly came running towards them. Carrying a gun as well. He though he had seen it somewhere before. The guns that the terrorists in the Middle East liked to use against the American soldiers. A something-47. "Yurippe!" he yelled. "Did you get the newbie yet? We got to recruit him no matter what dirty trick we need to... er." Seeing Yuri facepalm, and Otonashi giving him a dumb look, he stopped mid-sentence.

Otonashi proceeded to stand up and walk down the stairway to the field. "I'm going down there," he told them.

"Damn!" the girl yelled. "I failed! What went wrong?!" She continued to scream as he descended the stairs to the field.

Approaching the young girl who was curiously still standing exactly where she was moments ago as if she was waiting for someone, he told her, "Hey, there is someone pointing a gun at you. She called you an Angel or something.

"I am not an Angel," she replied. Her voice was very monotone, yet at the same time had a melodic ring to it.

"I knew..." but was interrupted.

"I am the Student Council President."

Otonashi sighed. "Dammit!" he yelled. "She was just screwing with me. I guess I will go to the hospital and see if they can do anything about this amnesia."

But, before he could walk away, the girl told him, "There are no hospitals here."

"What?" He didn't see why there wouldn't be any hospitals. Those are a bit of a necessity that most people need. "Why?"

"Because no one gets sick."

"Huh? And why is that?"

"Because," she said, with a slight pause then continued, "everyone is dead."

Bells started ringing in Otonashi's head. "You're in on this too, aren't you?!" he yelled at her. He was getting quite angry by now. "Let me guess. Are you the reason that I have amnesia?! Are you the reason I am here?!"

"Amnesia is quite common among the people here. When many die, they hit their heads and lose their memories."

Otonashi was fuming now. "Then prove it! Prove that I can't die since I... am... already... dead." The expression on the girl's face was unmistakable. She was planing to do something. As he was contemplating what she was going to do, the girl spoke.

"Hand Sonic." Suddenly, a blade materialized out of her right hand. Long, and obviously sharp. Otonashi suddenly realized what she was going to do. She was going to prove he was dead. Which obviously meant killing him.

"Hey," Otonashi said, slowly backing away. "Wait a sec..."

But, before he could finish his sentence, the girl charged forward at inconceivable speed and lodged the blade deep into his chest, bursting his heart. He blacked out instantly.

"Wait, wait, wait," Okazaki stopped Otonashi. "Are you telling me this little girl was the first Angel?" He found it hard to believe.

"She wasn't a little girl, just petite," Otonashi explained. "Small frame and the like. But here is the thing. She wasn't an Angel, as you should have noticed from my story, she was a normal student just like us. But..." Otonashi paused for a moment, probably trying to decide what to say next. "But she knew the real reason behind this world and chose to oppose us."

"What real reason?" asked Ellie. She was obviously very interested in this. She was learning everything about the enemy she had been fighting for so long. While she was taking everything he said with a grain of salt, she was still quite interested.

"I'll get to that eventually, just let me continue my story."

Otonashi continued to tell them of the things that had happened after. Waking up in the Battlefront headquarters. His first mission, Operation Tornado. Their descent into the Guild which lead specifically to it's destruction as it's location had been discovered by Angel. Not to mention that all but Yuri and Otonashi had been "done in" during that mission.

He also described the horrible events that lead to Yuri's creation of the Battlefront. Her hellish life. How a few men broke into her house looking for money. They were unsuccessful, and in frustration told her that if she didn't find something of value, they would kill one of her siblings every ten minutes.

Rushing through her house, she looked in every room that she knew where things of value may lay, but should could not find anything. Then she spotted it. The clock read ten minutes past from when she started looking she was out of time. She tried to take the first thing she saw. A very large vase with very detailed patterns on it. Something this heavy should be worth money, she had though. But, going down the stairs, she slipped and fell. The vase shattered on the floor. And the police arrived thirty minutes later.

Yuri's story was over, but Otonashi didn't stop there.

A beautiful voice rang throughout the headquarters. Iwasawa was singing. Nothing new. But today was special. What she was singing wasn't your standard pop punk that they normally sung. This was a ballad. It's meaning difficult to understand, yet it still resonated with those standing there, listening.

After she finished, Yuri asked her, "Why is your new song a ballad?"

"Is that a problem?" Iwasawa asked back.

"For a diversion, yes." Yuri was firm on her decision, and even gave a logical reason behind it. Otonashi felt a bit sad that her hard work was about to be crushed. "We won't be able to go all out for our missions if the normal students are quietly listening to your song."

"Gotcha," Iwasawa replied. She was very good at hiding her emotions, but just a little bit a sadness shown through on her face. Otonashi barely noticed, but her could tell she was very dejected. "Ill scrap it then."

"Fine," Yuri stated, finality in her voice. "Our next operation, we will be infiltrating Angel's lair."

Everyone was shocked to hear this. And they definitely voiced their complaints. However, the operation was set for a few nights later. This was the first time that GirlDeMo had ever pre-advertised one of their concerts, due to the fact that the teachers might wall them off, but because of the importance of the mission, they needed the best distraction they could muster.

Later in the day, Otonashi was walking aimlessly through the school. He stopped at the vending machine to buy a Key Coffee and soon noticed the sound of music blaring from the nearby classroom. Peaking inside, he saw that it was the room that GirlDeMo was practicing in. As he watched a closeup, firsthand experience of their music, he instantly recognized the passion that they had for what they did. Hisako, the lead guitarist on her Fender Jassmaster pouring out amazing riffs. Miyuki, hitting the drums with amazing vigor and passion. Shioi, producing an almost soothing, yet energized sound on her G&L L-2000 Bass Guitar. And last, but not least, Iwasawa, pouring her heart out into the most beautiful lyrics Otonashi had heard, and producing an amazing rhythm with her Sienna Sunburst-Maple Fender Stractocaster.

"Shoot," Hisako exclaimed when her string broke. "I'll have her re-stringed in a moment."

Iwasawa sighed, and said "Take five then, everyone." That's when she noticed Otonashi standing outside the room, watching them practice. He lifted up the hand holding his coffee in greeting.

"So," Otonashi said after Iwasawa moved out into the hallway and sat down for a rest, "you guys were amazing. I can see why the normal students love you so much."

Seemingly ignoring the comment, she states, "Must be nice not having any memory."

Glancing over at her, Otonashi asks, "Are your memories as bad as..." He stopped before continuing, not sure if Iwasawa knew of Yuri's past and if Yuri wanted to keep it a secret. Something she only told him.

"You heard someone's past?"

Giving in, he told her.

"Ah," she said, sighing. She took a drink from her water bottle and continued. "Yuri's were the worst. Mine? I just wasn't able to the sing the songs I wanted, that's all."

My parents were always fighting. My dad got drunk and would hit my mother.

I didn't have my own bedroom, so I would curl up in a small corner and cover my ears, trying to block out the constant screaming.

One day, I was in a store and saw a rack of music. Rock, to be specific. I put the headphones on and it hit me like a wave. I had never heard anything like it. It spoke to me in a way I had never experienced in my life.

The singer was from a bad home environment like me. Whenever things would happen, he would put on his headphones and lose himself in the world of music. He was right. What he sung of, was right. Those who pretended that the world was this happy little place were wrong! Those who suffered and cried and lived just to survive were right! The lyrics urged me on like no other. I love them. And I did as he did.

And that is when I found it. An old, beat up acoustic guitar, sitting in the trash during a rainstorm. It called to me, I swear. I took it and ran home. Teaching myself to play, I started doing street performances. I was getting better, and more and more people stopped to listen to me. After middle school, I never went to high school and I lived off of part time jobs and street performances. But that didn't stop me from going to auditions for music labels as often as I could. I would play, be turned down, play, be turned down. Such a vicious cycle. But I didn't lose my hope. I still played and knew that one day, I would live off my music.

But then it happened.

I was working at a local restaurant, when I suddenly got very dizzy. I told myself that I would have to cancel the street performance if I was sick. And I fainted.

When I woke up in the hospital, I could not speak. The doctors told me what happened.

A few days before, my dad came home especially drunk. He got into another fight with my mother and starting beating her. I tried to get in and stop him, but... he smashed in my head with the alcohol bottle.

Turns out, that the injury had left me with a head trauma that destroyed some of my basic functions. Including my ability to speak.

How would I sing now? How would I live my dream now?

Thing is, I couldn't. I stayed there in the hospital bed. I lost my will to live. The only reason I stayed alive, was because of the IV drips the doctors kept putting in me. Eventually, the lack of will to live outweighed the nutrients my body was receiving. My mind died, and my soul with it.

Otonashi couldn't help but stare. This girl had just told him her life's story, and it was not a happy one.

"Iwasawa!" Hisako called from the classroom they were practicing in.

"Oh, Hisako," Iwasawa replied, standing up. Just as she was about to pass through the door she turned around called, "Amnesia Boy!" and passed her water bottle to him. "Take that." Then she walked inside and their practice resumed.

That night.

"Operation start!" Yuri yelled, signaling the beginning of the infiltration of Angel's lair. Otonashi didn't really know what he was expecting, but he went with them regardless.

Girls Dead Monster, however, took off for the stage in the gymnasium for their concert.

Kneeling before her acoustic, an exact replica of the one she had in life made by her own hands, she spoke to it with a tender voice known by no one else. "This is the special stage just for you." Smiling, she stood up and grabbed her electric.

Standing behind the curtains of the state, holding her guitar, she turned to her band and said, "Let's bring this place down!" Thrusting down her hand to strum the guitar, they blew through the stage with Crow Song.

However, by the time the song was finished, the gym wasn't even a fourth of the way full. Damnit! Iwasawa yelled to herself in her mind. This is not enough. Not anywhere near enough!

Then, she made a shocking decision. She decided to play Alchemy as the second song. This was usually the song they used to get the crowd as heightened as possible, but she was willing to risk it. They needed more people.

As Iwasawa started the intro, Hisako shot a shocked glance at her. Alchemy?! This early in?! Pushing her own thoughts aside, she began to play her part.

This drew a crowd.

Otonashi and the others just finished picking the lock into Angel's lair. As they went inside, Otonashi noticed something that was quite... evident. Flipping the switch one and scaring the wits out of everyone there, he yelled, "This is just a normal girl's room!" Matsushita put Otonashi in a headlock and told him to shut up because they were in the girl's dormitory.

Takeyama, the team's hacker, then began to hack into Angel's laptop, as Otonashi continued to protest the act. Until Noda but the spear end of his halberd in his mouth, telling him to shut it or he's done.

This soon revealed some shocking evidence of something only Yuri was able to surmise. Otonashi soon learned of it, as well as Hinata. It was the first hint that Angel, was actually not an angel. She made her own powers the same way the Battlefront made their own weapons. She didn't get them from God. She made them herself. Yuri believed that this to be the worst case scenario. That there was no God.

All while that was happening, disaster hit the concert.

Teachers burst through the door, plowing through protesting students and stopped the concert. The help down the band members and started to clear away the equipment. "You got cocky because we overlooked this before! But no more! Now, you will only play during school festivals!" Walking over to the acoustic placed on it's stand of a pedestal, he picked it and asked, "So what? Can we just trash this?"

Iwasawa started shaking. "No." She said, her voice cracking. "You will not touch that guitar!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, broke free from the teacher restraining her, tackled the one holding the guitar and backed against the wall holding it to her chest.

At the same time this was happening, Hisako headbutted the teacher holding her down and ran for the sound room. Bursting through the door, she upped the pickup on the hanging mics so that they could pickup the sound of Iwasawa's acoustic. She knew what was about to happen. She also relayed the sound throughout the school's PA system.

As the teachers slowly closed in on her, Iwasawa began playing.

Something about the sound froze the entire room. All eyes focused completely on her. Even the teachers stopped their advance.

Jerks feigning common sense

Are laughing at us

What lies will they tell us next?

Can they lovingly display

What they've gained from all that?

But we must keep walking towards tomorrow

That's why I'm singing!

The look of shock on the faces of everyone in the room was apparent. The song spoke to them, even those with no real soul, in a way that nothing had ever before. Many started shaking, emotion building up like no other.

Because you're crying!

Because you're lonely!

You are right!

You are human!

The tears you shed!

Are saying,

"Thank you for the beautiful, real me!"

That is not just some lie!

Thank you for the miracle.

There was not a single person in that auditorium that didn't shed at least one tear.

There was something different about the way she sung. Sure, before she sung with amazing passion and vigor, but there was something all round different about it this time. This time, she sung with the voice of an angel. As if her entire being was dedicated to singing this one song.

I did it. She thought. These people. They love my music.

Images of her life flashed before her eyes, emotions poured into her voice. Finally.

The sound of a thud reverberated throughout the auditorium as the guitar fell to the ground. The normal students will never understand, but anyone with a true soul knew what just happened. Iwasawa was gone. She had disappeared.

She had been obliterated.

"Those," Otonashi finished, "were the first two clues we had to the truth of this world."

Okazaki and Ellie stared at him, shocked. But Okazaki noticed something that didn't add up. "How did you know what she was thinking?" he asked. "I understand you knowing what had happened, as someone could have told you, but what she thought. That makes no sense."

"A few years ago," Otonashi returned, "I found a room full of long rows of boxes. Each box contained files. Each file contained the thoughts and actions of the people that lived here. After reading a few I was incredibly curious about, in hopes that it would allow me to find better ways to further along those who come here's happiness, I soon found that the room could be very dangerous should the wrong person find it. So I destroyed it." He thought for a moment and continued, "Well, more accurately, I buried it."

"Huh," Ellie sighed. It seems that she was very interested in this particular room. But Okazaki had to agree with him. A room like that could be dangerous. He wondered why such a room would even exist.

"Well, let's keep on with the story," Otonashi said.

He told them of the baseball game that nearly obliterated Hinata. Of how it was an absurdly similar match to the one that basically had ruined his life. After missing a catch that would have won his baseball club an insanely important match and being crucified by his upperclassman, he was thrown into sort of a shocked depression. That's when it happened. Someone offered him something to help "dull the pain." His life spun downhill from there, and he eventually died, ending up in the Afterlife.

He also spoke of their attempts at removing the original Angel from her seat as Student Council President. They sabotaged her tests and this lead to her dismissal. However, the vice president took power, and this is where the next story begins.