Hello everyone, Motofan713 here.

This has been a plot bunny that's been wracking my brains for the past couple of weeks now since I finished watching Angel Beats! with my college's Anime Club. Ever since finishing the series, I wondered what would happen if Yui and Hinata's relationship were to be given a chance in real life, and so this popped into my head. Beforehand, I would like to apologize for the rather short length of this first chapter, as I couldn't really add much more to it without it spilling over into the next section of the story. So, without furthur ado, here's Return To Life.

He smiled, replying; "Count on it."

Tears trickled gently down her face as she whispered; "I'm glad that…" She never finished her sentence, as she vanished from view.

Yusuru drew slightly closer to Hinata. So that's what it took for her to pass on… I can only hope Hinata takes it alright. Maybe this really is the way it's supposed to be; at least it feels that way. He asked; "Is this for the best?"

Hinata stood silent for a second, a calm, content look crossing his face as he replied; "Sure was."

Otonashi wasn't so worried about the fact that Yui had just passed on, but moreover what effect this would have on Hinata, now that he was left behind. "So what now? What will you do now?" he asked, hesitantly.

His reply came quick; "I'll help out 'till the end, there are some people here I'm still worried about." Myself included, he added as an afterthought. "They can't be at peace until they're…"

Otonashi understood. "… I see…" Well then, 'till the end buddy. And with that said, Otonashi and Hinata slowly walked away from the baseball field, leaving the equipment there in a way similar to a memorial for Yui, not wishing to completely forget her quite yet.

Meanwhile…

A slight rustle. The sounds of birds chirping interlaced with the steady, humming drone of cars passing by. The sterile smell along with a slight warmth permeated her conscience as she became aware of her existence. Yui slowly opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the growing light in her face that was slowly gaining in intensity. As she let her eyes adjust, she moved her head slightly to the left, letting her hair cast shadows upon her eyes, effectively shielding her from the glare, allowing her to survey the room she was in more closely. She recognized it as the local hospital, and if she wasn't mistaken… Yup, there's the spire, same place as last time, Yui thought to herself, which meant that she was in room 508, because the last time she could remember being here, that spire had shown out, just as it was now, with its odd angle, seemingly penetrating the sky with its spear-tip, which she knew to end at 110 feet (or at least that's what the pamphlet set into the door said). She chuckled quietly to herself. How ironic to end up in the same room she had occupied all those years ago, immediately after the crash that took away the one thing that at the time was her most prized possession. Her mobility. Even now, she yearned for the chance to walk again on her feet, to feel the grass beneath her toes, to be able to run with the carefree abandon she never had the chance to indulge in while in her childhood.

She took a slow, deep breath in an attempt to gather her bearings once again, when her eyes happened to chance upon something she hadn't noticed immediately. Something was sleeping fitfully, with its arms crossed at the foot of her bed, its head resting precariously on its crossed arms. It took Yui a few moments to garner up her thoughts and figure out why this figure in front of her was so familiar.

Hmmm, shoulder length dull red hair, it even kind of looks like me… I wonder why it's so familiar-looking to me? It looked like it hadn't slept in days, if its disheveled appearance was any indication. Maybe I should ask my mother about it lat-oh. Yui then realized that she was looking down at her mother. She snickered slightly as she realized she had forgotten what her mother looked like, which quickly turned to stifled giggles, which then turned into full-blown laughter. Whilst in the middle of laughing, Yui was so consumed by the giddiness she was experiencing that she failed to notice the person at the foot of her bed had already awoken and had a melancholy look upon her face.

"Yui…" her mother said, her eyes welling up with tears. "Yui…"

This immediately snapped Yui out of her happy mood faster than a cat out of water. "Yeah mom, what's up?" she asked, a hint of a confused expression crossing her face. Then, out of nowhere, her mother jumped out of her chair and bear-hugged Yui almost as if in one motion, and then proceeded to bawl her eyes out. Yui, at a loss for words, and feeling a bit awkward at the moment, fruitlessly attempted to console her distraught mother. "Mom, mom? Mom, it's alright, I'm here…" Yui spoke as she wracked her brains in an attempt to figure out what could have caused her mother to unravel so severely. As she pursued this, her mother's sobs slowly subsided into sniffles, though the stream of tears stayed constant throughout. She lifted her head to look Yui in the eyes.

"Do you not remember anything? Anything at all?" Her mother asked, disbelief and despair thickly laced her words as they left her.

Yui, still trying to remember, turned to her mother and replied somberly, "No, I guess I can't remember a single thing. Why, what happened?" Her mother stayed silent. Yui started to worry, so she asked her; "mom, what's-"

Her mother mumbled into the sheets she had thrown her face into. "What was that mom?" YUI asked, slightly on edge. Her mother, even when her first accident occurred had never lost it so completely before, which meant something bad was about to be divulged.

"I said, you were blindsided by a car on the way to your weekly check-up…" Her mother had started to cry again. " You were thrown at least 50 feet out, where you slammed against a, a… a…" Yui could tell she was struggling to keep herself together at this point.

"Against a what, mom?"

"Against a wall. There was steel reinforcement sticking out in a couple places, and it… it went through your back, and, and… and you were stuck there, above the ground, hanging by those…" And so her mother proceeded to break down once again. As she grasped Yui desperately, Yui was somewhat distanced from the current situation, trying to remember what exactly happened that made her wind up in this hospital again. Well, as ironic as that is, it does explain why I'm in the same room again… Yui thought, as she looked down upon the weeping form of her mother. A car, huh? Yui thought, I'll bet I never saw that one coming… as soon as her thought finished, her mind whisked away to another portion of her memory, the one in which the accident occurred.

She remembered it clearly now. Yui and her mother had been leisurely taking a stroll towards the doctor's offices a few blocks from the train platform they had just emerged from. From a distance, she heard the muted scream of a 6 cylinder engine racing down the boulevard some ways off to her left. She wasn't worried though, she was currently on a relaxing ride over to the doctor's why should she bend over backwards frightened of something that was never going to happen? Her memory skipped forward to when the crash actually happened. The walk light had just turned on, and Yui was one of the first people crossing the busy 4-way intersection. That was when she heard that mechanical wail again, but closer, much closer. Still not entirely perturbed by it, she kept her eyes straight ahead, eagerly awaiting her visit with Dr. Komagashi. However, right as she was about to finish crossing, a black coupe came roaring across the pavement, it's rear wheels churning white smoke from underneath. A drifter? Cool, I've only ever heard about these guys, that must be really hard, I WANNA LEARN. Her mind thought, but as she finished the thought, the car struck her wheelchair, sending her flying. The last thing she could recall was the wall looming close behind her as her trajectory shot her towards the ground. And then, suddenly a blue-haired boy's face rammed into the forefront of her mind, and refused to vacate. He was wearing a khaki-colored suit, with the symbol 'SSS' stitched on the left shoulder, his hair was relatively long, but well kept, his sloping shoulders giving way to a thin abdomen, which therein led to a set of long, athletically thin legs. But her focus was mainly on the eyes. They were deep, and showed caring and devotion far surpassing any look she had ever received from a guy her age before.

What the- Who is this guy? She asked herself, wondering why her first memory after that would be of a guy she had didn't even know…

"Yeah, mom. I remember." Yui finally replied, as she continued to watch her mother wring herself dry beneath her. But the only thing truly on her mind at that time was this- Who was that blue-haired boy, and why was he the first thing she remembered? These thoughts racked her brain for the better part of an hour, and then she decided that she needed to sleep, so she simply shut her eyes and drifted off, falling into a dreamless sleep…

A/N: I will attempt to have another chapter up by the end of this weekend, however that may have trouble coming to fruition due to some ahem... circumstances (college exams and homework, grrrr). However, I will do my best to keep this story churning.

Motofan713