Yuzuru Otonashi

''This article is dedicated to the fan-made continuation of Angel Beats, A Step Closer. For the official page of Yuzuru Otonashi, click here.'' "Once you do something significant in your life, especially at this age, you may not think about it right now or think of it as something serious. It's all about your personal perception. Once you do something, you're never really rid of its existence."

- Yuzuru Otonashi

Yuzuru Otonashi (音無 結弦 Otonashi Yuzuru) is the main protaganist of Angel Beats! A Step Closer, serving as one of the newest members of the revived Afterlife Battlefront and an impromptu vigilante. Resigned from the XTE Medical Center as a cardiologist, he now has rejoined the Afterlife Battlefront, using his expertise in the medical field to participate as a medic and as of recently, became Shiina's partner.

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

In his Afterlife Battlefront civilian uniform, he wears the standard white long-sleeved polo shirt under a sandy brown coat and black slacks. The sandy brown coat holds a velcro Afterlife Battlefront patch on the left shoulder. He has forsaken the tie, leaving a more delinquent look.

In the written story, he will often wear a hoodie, either in a black or white color and a pair of blue or gray skinny jeans with casual shoes. Compared to his visual novel appearance, Otonashi would instead wear a gray sweater with a white shirt, gray pants, and brown shoes.

For jewelry, he wears a watch on his left wrist.

Combat Gear
As Otonashi is a combat medic, he is required to carry a backpack full of medical supplies in order to effectively treat members of the top brass, and is thus unable to carry heavier types of weaponry like machineguns, rocket launchers, and similar weapon systems. Otonashi prefers his combat uniform to be a black or black multicam combat shirt and combat pants. However, both his gear and combat uniform can change colors depending on the operation. When conducting missions, he wears a combination of a plate carrier, battle belt, and helmet. His preference is the battlefront uniform standard Striker XT Gen.2 Combat Shirt and Striker XT Gen.2 Combat Pants, both products by UF Pro.

Headgear
The helmet he wears is a EXFIL Ballistic SL by Team Wendy in all black and is pre-configured to hold communication items such as a microphone. For night time operations, he attaches a rhino mount that holds a PVS-14 night vision goggle. If he deems the helmet as unnecessary, he instead opts for a black cap that has velcro in order to attach patches. He also would prefer to wear sunglasses.

Plate Carrier
The carrier he wears is a black CAGE Plate Carrier that changes with mission type and environment. As a combat medic, typically he carries six magazines pouches at the front alongside two tourniquets pre-staged under his left armpit. Previously, his radio pouch alongside a AN/PRC-152 radio was placed on his right flank beside the magazine pouches, but is now mounted behind his left shoulder. For long-term operations, Otonashi carries a drinking pouch on his back above his carrier rig in order to remove the need for a canteen. He also carries extra batteries in a small MOLLE pouch for his radio.

Battle Belt
The specific battle belt Otonashi chose for his operation is a SafeLife Defense Tactical Belt, which is extremely sturdy and has MOLLE webbing around it for modularity. He carries a rifle and two pistol magazine pouches on the left of his belt, while on the right side he has trauma shears, and a Ragnarok holster to hold his sidearm. Going towards the back of the belt is a velcro Infantry First Aid Kit and a dump pouch.

Weapons
For all deployments, Otonashi runs a M4 Block II, typically with a angled foregrip, suppressor, IR laser, and flashlight. Recently, he was given a SU-230 with an MRDS to function as his sight. His sidearm is a Glock 17 Gen 5 with an RMR and SureFire X300U, which he conceal carries when not wearing a combat uniform. There are times where he may mount a suppressor, but is rare as it requires a different type of holster which he finds difficult to replace.

Concealed Carry
Otonashi appendix carries a light-compatible T-Rex Arms Sidecar 2.0. Having switched from the 1.0, he finds the spine system more comfortable as it contorts to his body.

Personality
Following the events of the Angel Beats! anime series, Otonashi holds a stronger viewpoint of responsibility and resolve. Due to his extreme studies and hardship faced when going through medical school, he has become more analytical and tends to use logic to solve problems. Eventually, Otonashi spirals into a depressive state following the death of his sister once again, even after many attempts to save her life and finally achieving his dream of becoming a doctor.

After his continued work as a doctor, Otonashi himself has noticed his inability to sympathize with others, usually in the face of death or serious illness. This inability to sympathize most likely stems from his work as a doctor, which he was exposed to many events inside a hospital setting that many would call traumatizing. The numbness makes it difficult to empathize even in other situations, such as when someone is experiencing pain. He often questions himself if his humanity has disappeared.

It was discovered by Yuri that Otonashi despises the use of drugs, questioning his support for the group when they participated in illegal activities. However, convinced by Yuri's choice of words, he chooses to hold no more regrets when he makes his decisions.

As more and more information and interactions had become centered around Shiina, there was a notable change in personality noted by Yuri. In combination of being under the influence and direct care of her, he began to adopt her cold and ruthless methods, even to the point of committing murder. Since Shiina had moved in with Otonashi, he had more of a caring and brotherly attitude toward her.

However, when around other people, he seems to retain a happy and gung-ho attitude, which constrasts his humor and comedy which marks some kind of instability or coping mechanism for him.

Completed

 * Operation Kill The Puppeteer
 * Operation Breaking Even

Ongoing

 * Operation Tornado
 * Operation Serpent's Guard (ongoing)

Miscellaneous

 * Operation Medical Watch (target of operation)


 * Investigation of APT51 (Officially identified as APT51-2, target of operation)

Memorable Quotes

 * "I was the only one left, and despite what I've done, I felt incomplete." (Otonashi to Iwasawa)
 * "Simplicity is a sin. Perhaps that's why things are never simple as they seem, yet I find the simplest solutions to be the best ones."

Trivia

 * A running gag in the story is that most of the females Otonashi has met find him attractive. This is inspired by a scene in the official Angel Beats visual novel, 1st Beat, where Yuri claims that Otonashi has a following in the student body, which is also confirmed by Yusa.
 * So far, Otonashi has been caught in two suggestive positions by females. One when he decided to use the briefing room as a place to change when Yusa walked in on him, and the other when Sekine walked in on Hisako fixing his tie.
 * Otonashi is one of the only two people that ride a motorcycle, the other being Iwasawa.