CHAPTER 5 BETTER
It wasn’t long until Kato and Nishi were teleported with me. Kurono wasn’t teleported with Kato, despite the bigger man cradling and crying over his body. The taller man was still bent over as if Kei’s lifeless form were still in his arms.
“He’s gone dude. Get over it,” Nishi said. The middle schooler was pissing me off. Kato 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 zero points. My face was next displayed. By my picture was the name Know-It-All. I earned zero points as well. Kato had his name listed as Crier and he had no points. Nishi was listed as Mr. Nishi and he had three points. The surprising thing was he had a total of ninety points listed under his mugshot. I was impressed.
“Only three?” 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.
- You will be freed along with your memories erased.
- You will be given an extremely powerful weapon.
- You will be able to revive a human being from the memory.
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 Kei’s face.
“H-How?” Kato asked.
“If we get one-hundred points, we can bring him back to life,” I said. The man’s eyes sparkled with hope.
“Are you serious?” He asked, his lip quivering.
“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 one-hundred 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-I 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 manga I thought the characters 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, understand what was happening, do everything I could to survive to figure it all out.
“You’re idiots,” Nishi said, drawing our eyes. “Don’t waste your points on other people.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s why you showed up all on your own. Did you get a bad mission last time so you let everyone else die?”
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. Kato was quiet as we stood alone. The dog whined at my feet but I ignored him.
“Do you really mean it?” Kato 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 of the apartment and I headed in the opposite direction of Kato.
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 kid’s life. My parents rented me an apartment, like they had Kurono. The place to myself, I bought some food with the meager money I had and headed inside.
I would like to say that memories of my original 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 ran through my mind. 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 nine 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 anime? 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 choice of doors and worlds. 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, Kato 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 Kato. 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 our best.
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. Kato yelled in excitement as he tried as well. Eventually succeeding we shared stories and laughed as we continued to practice. I only told stories from this version of 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?” Kato 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?” Kato asked as we headed toward the train station.
“No idea. I 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.
| Name
| Weston Watanabe
| |
| Current Quest:
| Revive Kei
| |
| World 1:
| High School of the Dead
| |
| World 1 Quest:
| Escape the School
| |
| World 2:
| Gantz
| |
| World 2 Quest:
| Revive Kei
| |
| Passive Skills:
| Memory Meld
| |
| Usable Abilities:
| Status Screen
| |
| World Escape
| 0:00:01
| |
| Items:
| Keychain
| |
| Bonuses:
| N/A
|