Silent Love

Otonashi was walking around the school campus one day. Normally he'd probably be in the SSS's headquarters or helping one of the members out with something but today Yurippe decided to give them a break. After all, everyone needed to rest sometime; otherwise they'd be useless in a future operation.

He wasn't entirely sure how to spend his precious break from all the craziness so he decided to start with some coffee. As he turned the corner to the machine's hallway, Otonashi spotted something unusual.

Yusa was at the machine getting a drink as well. This wouldn't look like an odd scene for normal students but he was surprised to actually see her. Otonashi had neither talked to her nor even met her to begin with. He'd only heard of her existence from other members of the battlefront who had said that she was pretty quiet and acted as Yuri's "eyes", letting her know when anything strange happened quickly.

She usually stayed "behind the scenes" so he never saw her because he worked on the front lines. Perhaps it was a good time to finally become acquainted.

"U-um… Hello?" greeted Otonashi as he gave the girl a wave while walking towards her.

Yusa looked up towards the stranger and responded with an emotionless face, "Hello, Otonashi-san." She looked back up towards the machine, debating over which drink to order.

'Not much of a talker, is she?' thought the orange-haired boy becoming a bit nervous from the sudden silence.

Yusa felt this awkwardness then turned to him asking, "Is there something you need? I can move if you want."

"N-No, it's fine. I can wait," he answered the blonde girl.

"Are you sure?" she insisted.

"Yeah… Oh! By the way, Yusa, how do you know my name?" He was very surprised she knew who he was before even talking to him.

She turned back to the machine and pushed a button, "I keep tabs on everyone here, even NPCs due to Yurippe-san's request to do so."

Otonashi began to feel a little scared, not of her information but of Yuri's request to have tabs on everyone in the school. 'So this is how she knows about whatever happens here!'

Yusa grabbed the drinks from the machine and handed Otonashi a can of Key coffee while keeping another one in her other hand.

"Thank you," he thanked as he took the can from her.

"Don't mention it," she responded, turning away from the boy to walk away.

"H-hey, Yusa!" Otonashi yelled out before she walked away.

She turned back towards him, "What is it?"

He gave her a smile and requested, "Do you want to chat later if you have some spare time?" He still didn't know too much about her even after this small encounter and since he may never get a chance like that again, he thought it'd be a good idea.

"Sure, after I finish something we can talk on the roof," she agreed, walking away towards her next destination.

'T-the roof? Why there of all places?' He couldn't understand her choice of meeting places but decided to just let it go. 'She's got to have her reasons,' he concluded. Otonashi opened the coffee can and began to drink it as he walked away.

xXx

It had been around half an hour after his encounter with Yusa and Otonashi was sitting on the roof of the school building. He was wondering about the girl's character; she was pretty mysterious after all. Not even older members of the battlefront knew much about her.

Was she actually a scary psychopath with an unpleasant aura around her? Or maybe she was actually a cute little girl who suffered Yuri's abuse and was turned into a silent person? The last thought made him feel sorry for her although it was highly unlikely. Still, you never know with this crazy world. People can make weapons from dirt, it's impossible to die and angels make you disappear from the world. If anything else out-of-the-ordinary happened there, he wouldn't be surprised.

"Nice to see you made it, Otonashi-san."

Otonashi jumped, he was too busy pondering over the "rules of the world" and forgot about his surroundings. "Oh. Hey, Yusa!" he greeted with a smile and wave.

"Did you wait too long?" she asked since he got there before her.

"Not really," he answered her.

"Okay." She sat down and looked up at him, "So what did you want to talk about?"

He thought for a moment and said, "Well, if don't mind my asking, can you tell me where you went after our talk a while ago?"

Yusa turned her face towards the sky, "I was delivering the coffee to Yurippe-san."

"On our break?" he started. "You know you don't have to do that today, Yuri said it was okay not to work."

"I know that," she answered. "But if Yurippe-san ever needs something done, be it official SSS business or just getting her a drink, I'll do it for her."

Otonashi became silent, he never knew that someone like her would have such a fierce loyalty to SSS, more specifically, Yuri.

"You sure care a lot about Yuri," Otonashi blurted out. Yusa grimaced a bit at his words but the gave a small smile.

"It's only natural. After all, she did help me out when we first met…" she trailed off, staring at the sky.

"Can you tell me what she actually did for you that you're so loyal to her now?" Otonashi was really interested in her past when she joined the battlefront now.

"Well," she started, "It was a long time ago when the SSS was just established…"

xXx

Yusa was sitting on the rooftop of the school building, looking down at the students below. She was wearing the school's standard uniform and looked a bit depressed compared to her usual self.

'This isn't real, it can't be. I'm sure that I died. But…' She looked up towards the cloudy sky, 'Why am I here?' She stood up and began to walk back to the dorms. 'I don't understand… What's the point of even going to class?' she questioned as she descended the stairs.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, a certain white-haired girl was waiting for her. "You're late for class," she said. Yusa walked past her, ignoring her words. "Where are you going?" she questioned.

"The dorms," Yusa answered simply.

"But school's not over yet," she argued.

"I see no point in staying. Besides, it's boring here," she explained while walking away from the student council president. The girl stood there, emotionless. She decided to let the girl be, head back to class herself and let the teachers handle her.

When she was far enough away from the other girl, Yusa leaned herself against the wall of the school building. Of course, she'd get caught if she went back to the dorms but she didn't want to stay at the school either. The girl sighed as she tried to think of what to do next and began to walk around again.

When she walked by the principal's room, for some odd reason she heard yelling. Curious to know what was happening in the room, Yusa cautiously opened the door slowly. Her eyes grew wide when she saw what was beyond the door.

Seven students were sitting in the office, one of which, was sitting in the principal's chair with her legs crossed. She had short purple hair with a black hairband and a green ribbon in it. She wore the same uniform as Yusa as did the others.

'Why aren't they in class?' Yusa couldn't help but ask. She silently observed the students continue their argument.

"How about we go back to the 'Afterlife Battlefront'?" suggested a blue-haired boy.

"No way!" the purple-haired girl argued. "That's like letting everyone know that we're dead! Geez, you're so stupid, Hinata-kun!"

The boy called Hinata let his blood vessel pop, "Hey, I don't see you coming up with any good ideas, Yurippe!"

Another boy with purple hair and a halberd put the blade up to the young man's neck, "Leave Yurippe alone, moron! She's doing her best to think of a name as well!"

"Damn it, Noda! You'll end up killing me with that if you keep swinging it around!" Hinata yelled at him.

"You're already dead, idiot!" Noda yelled back.

"I know that but it's still scary to have that thing by my face!"

"Coward!"

"Say that again, bastard!"

Two other girls were sitting on one of the couches in room, one with brown hair kept in a small ponytail and the other with short red hair kept down, both smiling nervously at the scene.

The girl known as Yurippe gave a sigh. "What idiots…" she muttered.

Another girl who stood in a dark corner simply commented, "How shallow-minded." She had long dark blue hair and wore normal clothing prior to the school's uniform.

"G-guys, please stop fighting," a small boy with brown hair said, trying to break up the argument.

"Like hell I will! This fool started it!" Noda shouted as he pointed his halberd at Hinata accusingly.

"I did not! You were the one who put the axe to my face!"

"It's not an axe, it's a halberd!"

"Same difference!"

"No, it's not!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU IDIOTS!" Yurippe yelled loudly to silence the bickering. The room grew quiet once again and she gave a sigh, "Honestly… You guys are such trouble."

Amazed that she was able to singly calm the two bickering boys down, Yusa leaned a little bit closer to the door to get a better look at the girl. However, she used too much pressure and ended up falling through the door. She yelped out as she fell onto the floor's carpet.

Hinata became shocked that someone was actually able to get in as he stared at the fallen girl before glaring at Noda, "Noda! You were in charge of setting up the traps! How did she get in?"

Noda snorted and looked away from him, "Hmph! I was guarding Yurippe from harm, I can't trust you with her, who knows what you'd do to her?"

"What the hell? What kind of guy do you think I am?" Hinata shouted at him.

"The kind I don't like," Noda simply answered.

"Why you-" And with that, the two resumed their fighting.

Yuri sighed at them, "They're hopeless…" She brought her attention to the girl that had made it into the room and walked up to her. "Here," she said to Yusa as she held out her hand to her.

Yusa looked at her hand, then up to her face, then back to her hand, "Thank you…" She held Yuri's hand and stood up.

"Don't mention it!" she exclaimed with a smile on her face.

Yusa looked around the room and examined it. It was obviously the principal's office but said person wasn't even there. Did these people kick him out of his own office?

"May I ask who you people are?" asked Yusa. "I also overheard one of you saying something about being dead and the 'Afterlife Battlefront'," she continued. Yusa was rather curious about what they meant. Were they like her, knew for sure that they died but ended up here?

'Crap!' thought the current members of the SSS. They had been found out. Hopefully this girl wasn't an NPC or someone who aided Angel.

Yusa felt the sudden silence and decided to add on to her question, "This may sound unusual but I woke up here one day after dying in a 'dream' I had."

Immediately, the battlefront knew what she was and sighed in relief.

"That's a relief…" Yurippe replied with a laugh. She looked at Yusa directly and said, "We're all the same and that wasn't a dream you had." Her face darkened, "You really did die…"

Yusa remained silent as she tried to piece everything together. She wasn't sure what to feel. Happy that she was right or sad that she died without fulfilling her one regret? A single tear fell from her eye, whether it was a cry of happiness or regret, she never knew. All that she did know is that she felt a powerful emotion and couldn't suppress it.

Yuri gave the girl a hug and wiped her tear away, "It's alright, we're here for you." Yusa grabbed Yurippe's back and continued sobbing into her shoulder. Yuri responded to this by brushing her hair back with her hand and comforting her.

"It'll be okay, I promise," Yuri comforted, still holding Yusa in her arms while she continued to sob. At that one moment, all quarrels broke away and sympathy filled the room.

After finally calming down, Yusa returned to her regular self and Yuri began to explain even further who they were.

"We are the Afterlife Battlefront, a group of humans rebelling against God. Our goal is to erase our enemy, Angel, also known as the student council president and take over this world," she explained their motifs.

Yusa understood most of what she said, "I only have a few questions, Yurippe-san."

"What are they?" Yuri asked.

"When you say 'humans', what do you mean by that? Aren't the other students humans as well? Second, why is the student council president the enemy?"

"Good questions!" said Yurippe. "First off, the other students aren't entirely real. They're basically there to take up space, I haven't really seen any purpose in them… I call them NPCs."

"NPCs?"

"As in non-player character," Hinata explained with his arms crossed. He still didn't really care for the name and reasoning Yuri gave to the students but he knew he couldn't talk her out of it.

"Correct. Good job, Hinata-kun!" she praised him.

"I'm glad that you praised me but why do I feel like some sarcasm was added in it?" he muttered under his breath.

"Okay and secondly, since we have yet to figure out her name, we call her Angel. It's a lot less confusing and since she probably is one, it works. She tries to make normal humans like us follow the school rules and live a normal school life but if that happens, we will disappear from this world and be reincarnated," she explained. Yusa's face showed that she began to question why that was a bad thing but Yuri went even further into the topic, "Who knows what we may become? We may end up as an ant or a dog, maybe even a barnacle!"

Hinata sighed, Yuri had some pretty abnormal examples.

She turned to Yusa and said, "And so, would you like to join us in our fight against Angel?" She held out her hand to her.

Again, Yusa looked at Yuri, her hand, then back to her face. She reached out to it but before grabbing her hand she warned, "There's one problem, Yurippe-san." She looked at Yuri in the eyes, "I'm not really suited for fighting. I'm more like someone who sits on the sidelines and observes."

Yuri gave her a big smile, "Wonderful! You can be my eyes!"

"Your… eyes?"

Yuri shook Yusa's hand to establish the bond, "Yes. I'll always be busy working on our operations and helping new recruits so I won't really have time to keep an eye on everyone, I need someone to keep a tab on everyone and make sure everything is working out fine."

Yusa understood, "I understand, Yurippe-san."

"Oh, that's right! I haven't introduced all of us yet." Yuri pointed a Hinata, "This idiot is Hinata-kun."

"Hey! That's not nice, Yuripp-"

She cut him off and pointed at Noda, "That's Noda-kun." She brought her attention to the boy with brown hair, "That's Ooyama-kun."

"It's a pleasure," Ooyama greeted Yusa with a smile.

"Indeed," Yusa agreed.

"Shiina's over there in the corner," Yuri added as she pointed to the girl in the corner. After introducing Shiina, Yuri looked over at the girls on the couch, "And these two are new recruits!"

The brown-haired girl with the ponytail gave a grin and waved saying, "Yo, I'm Hisako."

The other girl with red hair gave Yusa a soft smile, "And my name's Iwasawa."

"Which reminds me, what's your name?" Yuri asked, turning to Yusa.

"…Yusa. My name's Yusa," she introduced.

"Well, Yusa, welcome to the battlefront!" Yuri greeted as she gave Yusa a headset. "I look forward to working with you!" she said with a wink.

Yusa gave a barely visible blush and took the headset.

"Starting today, you're a member of the SSS!" Yuri happily said.

"By the way, Yurippe, didn't we have this meeting to rename the battlefront?" Hinata questioned.

"Ah! I completely forgot!" Yuri yelled as she held her head with her hands. She grabbed Yusa's hand and sat her down onto the couch. "Now let's discuss what to rename the battlefront to!"

As more absurd names came from the members and a few more arguments ensued as well as Yurippe losing her temper once or twice, Yusa became more comfortable and became happier as the meeting went on. Although she didn't show it to them, she was happy to be with them in that office.

"And that's what happened," Yusa ended her story.

"Wow, that was a bit unbelievable. I wouldn't have ever thought that Yuri would be that kind to a complete stranger," Otonashi said after her story. Even back then, Yuri was taking care of her members.

"Yeah…" Yusa trailed, she looked back up to the sky, "She was the only person here to tell me the truth and she even comforted me despite just meeting me… That one simple act of kindness was enough to make me become eternally loyal to her and the SSS.

Otonashi looked away and gave a soft chuckle, "Yuri's a pretty good person. She makes a such fine leader, so I can understand why you all follow her."

Yusa gave him a nod, "Right." She stood back up and said to the boy, "I'll be leaving now, I need to run a few more errands for Yurippe-san."

"Okay then, it was nice talking to you, Yusa!" he replied with a wave goodbye.

Yusa gave him a gentle wave back and turned away, walking back to their headquarters. When she was at the door to go downstairs, she looked back and said, "I refuse to lose to you, Otonashi-san." With that she walked down the stairwell and onwards to Yuri so she could be of use to her once more.

End