Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 5 BETTER

It wasn’t long until Maasaru and Nishi were teleported with me. Kurono wasn’t teleported with Maasaru. The taller man was still bent over as if cradling his friends body. 

“He’s gone dude. Get over it,” Nishi said. The middle schooler was pissing me off. Maasaru continued to cry, staring up at him. “Gantz will start giving out points now. 

He and I turned to the black orb. White words appeared on the ball again. 

TIME TO SHARE THE POINTS

I noticed then that the dog had survived as well. Nishi, the dog, and I walked over to the orb. A mugshot of the dog appeared on the orb. With the name Dog it received 0 points. My face was next displayed. By my picture was the name Know-It-All. I earned 0 points as well. Kato had his name listed as Crier and he had no points. Nishi was listed as Mr. Nishi and he had 3 points. The surprising thing was he had a total of 90 points listed under his mugshot. I was impressed. 

“Only 3?” Nishi asked. “Barely worth my time.” He acted bored, but he had been hiding the whole time. The kid knew how dangerous it could be. 

“Gantz, show me the reward list,” I said. Nishi gave me another surprised look. 

1. You will be freed along with your memories erased. 

2. You will be given an extremely powerful weapon. 

3. You will be able to revive a human being from the memory.

“Maasaru, look here,” I said. The man wasn’t listening. Walking over I grabbed his shoulder My suit kicking in I picked him up. “Read those.” 

The man did reluctantly. As he read the last line his eyes widened. “What? Really?” 

“Yes,” I said. 

“Is Kurono in the memory?” 

“Gantz, show the memory list,” I said. The orb populated with mugshots of those dead. The last icon was that of Kurono’s face. 

“H-How?” Maasaru asked. 

“If we get 100 points, we can bring him back to life,” I said. The man’s eyes sparkled. 

“Are you serious?” He asked, his lip quivering. 

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“I am,” I said. “I’ve seen it done. We will be summoned back here. Have to kill aliens. But some day we should be able to earn 100 points.” 

“Why? Why would you do that?” He asked, hesitant. 

“Because he deserves to live. I didn’t mean to kill him. We will have to risk death, but I promise. If you work with me. We can earn enough points to bring him back,” I said. I really wanted to do it for the quest. Nishi was a lost cause, but Kato was an asset. 

“Okay,” he said simply. Drying his eyes as he snorted up some snot. “How do we do that?” 

“We train,” I said. “We could be summoned back here tomorrow night for all I know. We need to get used to these suits.” 

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “Whatever. I just, have to bring him back.”

“I know. And again, I’m sorry for shooting. I-I was scared too,” I admitted. When I originally read the comic I thought they were always stupid. Standing around as people got eviscerated. But here now I had locked up and done the same thing. I needed to train. Get used to the suit, I hoped that would help. 

“You’re idiots,” Nishi said, drawing our eyes. “Don’t waste you points on other people.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s why you showed up all on your own. You guys get a bad mission last time and you let everyone else die again?” 

Nishi’s face contorted in rage. But he didn’t say anything. No retort. Just a simple tsk and he turned and left. The door slammed as he exited. Maasaru was quiet as we stood alone. The dog whined at my feet but I ignored him. 

“Do you really mean it?” Maasaru said hesitantly. 

“I do,” I said. “I am willing to risk it. I need to make up for this mistake.” 

“You know, Kurono was the most fearless kid I ever knew,” he lamented. “I was so happy to see him. He stepped up to help me pull someone up from the train tracks before this.”

“You will see him again,” I promised. “Keep the suit and the gun with you. Let’s exchange numbers.” We did so and we were soon walking out of the door. The dog ran off when let out and I headed in the opposite direction of Maasaru. 

I was left with my thoughts as the memories of the person I had taken over led me to my apartment. I lived the classic impossible Japanese kids life. My parents rented me an apartment, like they had Kurono. The place to myself I grabbed some food with the meager money I had and headed inside. 

I would like to say that memories of my past life plagued me. Those of my wife and kids. But in all honesty I sat on the couch and passed out. Terrible dreams of blood and gore plagued me. It wasn’t till I awoke that I realized I had slept in my Gantz suit. 

Taking it off I threw it in my backpack. It was already 9 in the morning. I didn’t bother going to school. I spent the day thinking. Was I really cursed to have to go to the worst of the worst of animes? The most dire of situations thrust on me. What was the point of this? Why me? Could I get out of it? 

It was sad to say but Gantz gave out more information than whatever entity had decided to put me through this. Either way, I needed to focus. Ignore those from my last life as I tried to survive. Letting out a sigh I got up and made myself some food. 

Familiarizing myself with the new life I checked out the mirror. I really did look like my younger self. But I was Weston Watanabe now. Some half-Japanese kid with my same unruly hair. But I also had some opportunity. Gantz was a world where aliens would keep attacking. An apocalypse event would happen and they would need me, Kurono, Maasaru and everyone else I could save to survive. 

I began to remember back to what I knew of Gantz. Writing everything down in a notebook. It was late when I got a call from Maasaru. We met up and began working with the suits and guns. Out in the middle of nowhere we practiced jumping as far as possible. First on the ground, then between brick walls. Only a few feet off the ground, but still. It was hard to land on the correct spot but we did. 

After that we tried punching. As I hit the wall I didn’t feel anything too tough from it. Each punch getting stronger until I punched straight through the bricks. Maasaru yelled in excitement as he tried as well. Eventually doing it we shared stories and laughed as we continued to practice. I only told stories from this version Weston, but they were my memories too, so I felt fine with it. 

When it started to get dark a ringing went off in our ears. “What’s that?” Maasaru asked. 

“That’s the signal to go back to the room,” I said. Butterflies in my stomach. 

“We will have to do this every day?” Maasaru asked as we headed toward the train station. 

“No idea. Think it’s random,” I admitted. We talked and headed to the apartment. 

When we got there the dog and Nishi were waiting next to the ball. People began appearing as I pulled up my Status Screen. 

“Oh thank god,” I said aloud. Maasaru gave me a look. “Fuck this. World Escape.”