Eri Shiina

''This article is dedicated to the fan-made continuation of Angel Beats, A Step Closer. For the official page of Eri Shiina, click here.''

"When we became free of our eternal battles, we only went back on his word. Now we're deciding on bringing him back for another round."

- Eri Shiina

Eri Shiina (椎名 枝里 Shiina Eri) is character in Angel Beats! A Step Closer and an assassin of the Afterlife Battlefront. A lot of details about her are not disclosed, however after being given her second chance, she reunited with the Afterlife Battlefront, working primarily as an assassin and a scout. On occasion, she'll train members of the top brass who need to top off their close quarters combat skills. She is Otonashi's combat partner, primary trainer, and roommate.

Appearance
Shiina has multiple sets of appearances in A Step Closer.

In her Afterlife Battlefront civilian uniform, she wears the group's normal uniform, along with a long black scarf covering the bottom part of her face and her neck (usually seen during operations). Her skirt is slightly different from the usual, as it has two short slits which are probably to aid her in movement. She is also the only female character who has short sleeves. Shiina wears black coloured arm guards on the back of her palm that extend to her elbows, as well as lower thigh guards. Black bandages can be seen under those guards, right below her knees and near her elbows. Her shirt is often left unbuttoned at the bottom.

In a more formal attire, she wears a black skirt with black stockings and a white dress shirt. In casual clothing, she wears shorts and a black shirt with brown boots.

Combat Gear
While she prefers her more cut-down version of the civilian uniform, Shiina enjoys the extra pockets and design of combat clothing during operations, especially if the clothing can disperse heat easily. Therefore, during operations or on assassination missions she wears the battlefront standard combat uniform of the Striker XT Gen.2 Combat Shirt and Striker XT Gen.2 Combat Pants in full black, both products by UF Pro.

Headgear
Shiina dislikes any form of headgear, including hats, calling it, "bothersome".

Plate Carrier
Shiina dislikes wearing any form of plate carrier and instead either goes for a chest rig with no armor plating or no form of carrier at all, citing that she'll only slow down in combat.

Battle Belt
Needing the ability to quickly take on and off her battle belt, she wears the Alonso Defense Group Emmisary Gun Belt during operations and assassination missions.

Weapons
Her weapons are tucked into 2 slots on her back, hooked by a belt-like strap. It was brought to the attention of Yuri that her visible weapons may cause problems. Much to the dismay of Shiina, she conceals her weapons on her person whenever she leaves the base. She typically fights with traditional Japanese weapons such as dual-wielding kodachi and shuriken.

Shiina carries a suppressed FN Five-Seven and sometimes may have a device attached to her that shoots grappling hooks.

Other
In addition to the rest of her gear, she dons a strong wire exoskeleton when conducting operations that require extreme manueverability. When wearing it, it dons throughout her body and requires special straps and tie down points in order to achieve it's effect of distributing force as equally as possible to allow manuevering. On her back rests a container that contains fuel for the grappling hook device.

Personality
Shiina's personality can be compared to a highly trained assassin, who not only maintains her cool but is able to quickly analyze situations and respond to them in an efficient manner. She maintains her strict training that focuses mostly on stealth, parkour, observation, and the art of assassination. Because of this, she was assigned to act as the main scout and assassin of the battlefront. She hates wasting time and resources to unnecessary objectives.

Reminiscent of the afterlife, she still holds the tough and quiet personality even after her revival. She is known to get a bit upset if she fails to succeed when conducting an objective, even if it's minor. When Shiina gets upset, she often heads to the training center, presumably to blow off steam.

Shiina remains silent when she's with others, often talking only when it's required. She doesn't add onto casual conversations and keeps to herself. While she had a more easy-going attitude as she conducted more activities with the Battlefront in the Afterlife, her attitude had began to shift to a more quiet type when Otonashi made his appearance. Shiina believes in the 'eye-for-an-eye' concept. While Yuri kept everyone stuck in the afterlife, Otonashi was the only one to set them free from what both Otonashi and Shiina call, "eternal battles." In her eyes, he did more than enough for the battlefront and therefore has the right to live his life the way he should.

There are times where Shiina can appear extremely stressed or at a loss. During these times, she may have an unpredictable personality which may result in actions that are out of the ordinary (such as breaking into someone's house. ) However, this particular trait seems to be only observed with someone she holds deep respect or care for, which would be Otonashi and possibly Yuri.

She remains fond of cute things and was recently given a toy puppy by Otonashi, which she keeps on her bed. However, she tends to stay away from actual animals like puppies and kittens.

Completed

 * Operation Medical Watch
 * Operation Kill The Puppeteer
 * Operation Breaking Even

Ongoing

 * Operation Tornado
 * Operation Serpent's Guard

Miscellaneous

 * Investigation of APT51 (Officially identified as APT51-3, target of operation)

Trivia

 * In artwork created by Shiredora, it is depicted that Shiina's harness is a modified form of the Attack on Titan Survey Corp's 3D manuever gear. This allows her to swing and transport herself quickly over large distances if gas is used very conservatively.
 * Adding onto her ability to manuever, she is still at high risk and may be prone to injury. This is due to the nature of the harness not fully extending through her body, which may cause overstretching of certain body parts or extreme tension to her harness. It is also prone to overheating and damage, which requires constant maintenance in order for daily usage. It is also relatively heavy, with the actual wire and gas tank itself taking up more weight than the mechanisms itself.
 * Prior to Chapter 14, Shiina had lived relatively close to Otonashi. It is unknown if it is a result of Operation Medical Watch or her personal investigations, but there is a likelihood she was aware of his existence way before Yuri was aware.
 * Shiina had broken into Otonashi's house during his isolation.
 * Shiina's apparent backstory was partially inspired by Kill Bill's O-Ren Ishii.
 * Shiina had apparently threatened to leave the Afterlife Battlefront. While the direct conversation wasn't shown in Chapter 7, it was confirmed by Yuri in Chapter 17.
 * While the other characters constantly refer to her as Shiina, they are aware that it is not her real name. This is added onto by the fact that following her revival, she instead woke up in the middle of a park in Tokyo, rather than resuming whatever life she had previously. It is to be assumed that she has no record within any form of government, making her the only character that lacks any form of official identification.
 * Shiina does not have any siblings.