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Literature / Angel Notes

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Angel Notes is a short story by Kinoko Nasu set After the End. A fan translation can be read here.

There was a war between modified humans, A-rays and Liners, in the dead Earth, now known as the Land of Steel. That very war is interrupted by the eight Aristoteles, which descended to the Earth after Gaia pleaded for them to hunt down the remnants of the human race.


The story begins with "Gun God" Godo, as he flies with the corpses of his comrades above the troposphere. Eventually, he snipes and kills a winged Aristoteles with his Black Barrel, a gun that is capable of killing gods.

Five years pass.

Gun God now lives in the last city on Earth with plant life. In one of the few cities left in the Land of Steel, the last true human walks into his house and meets an angel named V/V. She tells him that she is here to cook, clean, and play the guitar. She is very bad at all of this—heck, her guitar's untuned—but she's pretty and impossible to kick out, so Godo eventually learns to tolerate her.



Angel Notes sets the foundation for some major concepts of the Nasuverse (and is probably set in the distant future of the Fate/EXTRA timeline, or the Dust of Osiris' timeline, or the alternate universe from the main Prisma Illya verse. Although it could also theoretically happen in any timeline), such as the Earth being a living being (Gaia), and the concept of the Ultimate Ones.

Tropes found in this short story:

  • After the End: The story takes place after Gaia was killed.
  • Badass Normal: Gun God, since he's the last remaining normal human on Earth.
  • BFS: The Ether Liners fight using demonic swords emanated from their own bodies. The Slash Emperor wielded by Ado Edem is absurdly huge. Incidentally, see that ravine in the picture? The Slash Emperor did that.
  • Big Bad: The Aristoteles/Ultimate Ones, Eldritch Abominations out to kill humanity. Also introduces Gaia, the spirit that embodies Earth, as the Overarching Villain of the Nasuverse. Because humanity is growing out of their "nursery", so to speak, Mother Earth, who can't stand that Alaya (embodiment of humanity) becomes independent from her, does her best to destroy humanity's progress. In the actual story, she continues to do so despite being effectively dead by summoning her "siblings", the Aristoteles/Ultimate Ones, to aid her, making her more of a Greater-Scope Villain.
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  • Bittersweet Ending: Godo dies in averting Type-Saturn's descent, while Ado Edem kills Type-Saturn. However, there are other Ultimate Ones still waiting to descend onto the Earth.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Godo's entire family was annihilated along with the Western Continent by Type Jupiter.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: They don't call him the Gun God for nothing. His gun kills gods. It's designed for killing gods, because its power is proportionate to the density of Grain in its target. Godo, as the last man on Earth, is the only one who can use his Black Barrel safely. Then there is Ado Edem, strongest of the Ether Liners, who slew Type Jupiter with his demonic sword, the Slash Emperor.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Aristoteles. Type-Venus is a Humanoid Abomination.
  • Fantastic Racism: Implied to be the reason behind the war between the A-Rays and Humans (who are eventually replaced by Liners).
  • Gaia's Vengeance: The Earth was terrified by the fact that her children could survive her after they killed her, and called for the other planets to destroy humanity after her death. According to the angel actually type:Venus, Gaia didn't mind humans killing her, it was the outliving part that terrified it. However, in the later written parts of the Nasuverse, Gaia is trying to off humanity long before dying, even having created a creature known as Primate Murder, designed solely to off humanity.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: A-rays, humans engineered to cross with other species, like lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my. Liners are just as engineered, being merely a subset of A-ray that happens to look more human. Both are designed to survive in the harsh world of Over Count 1999, to breathe the toxic, Grain-infused air and to eat food concentrated to levels that are toxic to normal human beings.
  • Humans Are Survivors: the main reason why Gaia sent the other planets against us - she was apparently utterly terrified of humanity being able to survive without her.
  • Last of His Kind: Godo is the last actual human. Even the Liners are a subspecies of the A-rays, which merely happen to look the most human.
  • Meta Origin: The Earth's death has resulted in the abundance of poisonous Grain/Ether fairly obviously renamed mana, released from Gaia's decomposition, or "space dust", which has amazing energy density. Users of Grain can unleash amazing amounts of energy, and this results in conventional warfare becoming obsolete. One of the normal A-rays can apparently unleash force equivalent to that of a nuclear bomb by herself. She happens to look like an angel as well. The Aristoteles are the Ultimate Beings of their planets, essentially representations of their planets, and thus have the most Grain. They are absurdly powerful in a world where humans are walking nuclear bombs.
  • Our Angels Are Different: One of the A-ray subspecies are Winged Humanoids who look like angels. Then there are the angels around the World Tree, who are basically seen as pests equivalent to wild dogs. They are actually spores of Type Venus. Godo gets paid to hunt them and keep their numbers down. An A-ray angel friend of his gets annoyed at him because of it.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Everybody except poor Godo. He makes up for it by killing gods.
  • The Red Baron: Gun God.
  • The Stoic: Godo
  • The World Tree: Two intertwined trees that rise for hundreds of meters above Godo's home city. They are actually Type Venus's wings, and the source of the annoying angels that flock around the city like pigeons.
  • Ultimate Life Form: The Ultimate Ones are the most powerful life forms in their respective heavenly bodies.
  • Winged Humanoid: V/V, as well as an unnamed A-Ray woman.


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