Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 137 GHORENT

We boarded the ship the Takagi’s had set aside for us. All of us were quiet as we cast off and were on our way. An older gentleman that had lived by the ocean all his life drove us on the ship. The only thing I could compare it to was a longboat from One Piece. That or the size of Dexter’s boat from the show Dexter. There was a steering wheel at the center of the boat with a chair and windshield.

I sat at the front, watching the ocean. Missing the nights on the ocean of One Piece. The Grand Line was dangerous, but it could be peaceful. Nami by my side, Robin in the corner, it had been fun. I wanted to be there, but I also wanted to finish my new quest. 

I guessed that meant we were on the right track for the story. Quests were usually a good sign. I continued to watch straight ahead. The weak motor slowly moving us along as we stuck close to the shore. 

“You can’t be serious about this, kid,” Rika said from across the boat. “I’m sure you want to help, but they were expecting us last time.” 

“They won’t be expecting us then,” I said. “You can wait on the shore with Khota. I could do this myself. Saeko, I assume you want to go with?” She nodded. “Saya?” She hesitated but nodded. “Shizu? Emi?” They looked up, almost surprised I asked. 

“I’ll wait with Rika,” Shizuoka said.

“Good, Emi?” 

“I’ll um go with you,” she whispered. 

“Works for me,” I said. “Let’s get the lay of the land and work up a plan.” It didn’t take long to get to the estuary where the river met the ocean. The fresh water mixing with the salt, it was quite turbulent, but the small boat made it.  

“Can’t believe we got here so quickly,” Saya said, standing up as she pointed to the water. “That’s where we crossed the river, and got to my folks.” 

“Jeez, we were closer than I thought,” I said. “Did your folks make us go the long way to the dock?” She nodded. “Fuckers.” She giggled happily as we continued on. 

“That's where we got off the bus,” Saeko said. We passed under a bridge. I remembered it like it was yesterday. Stuck with the people from the school I stupidly left them all in the hands of Shidou. I regretted it, but I doubted I would have done anything differently. I had been able to stick to the canon pretty well, or at least I thought I had. It had been a while since I read it. 

“There’s Ghorent Pharmaceutical,” Rika said. I should have known. At first glance it appeared normal. But then I noticed that there were actual lights coming from the windows. They weren’t reflections off the moon. “Park it here.” The driver nodded and pulled the boat over. He jumped out and tied off on a rock, waiting for orders. I had brought the man his nephew when the whole thing started. He was loyal. 

As we got off the small craft I studied the supposed Pharmaceutical company. It was a 6 story tall building. A concrete block there were equally spaced windows on each floor, making it appear normal. Dim lights leaking from all the windows I wondered how they had power, and why they would waste the power. 

“There is an entrance from the street, and one from the water,” Rika said. “There are no guards on the outside and the doors are unlocked. But as soon as we came inside we were put on by the big boys.” 

“Zomays,” Shizu corrected. 

“Yeah whatever,” Rika said. “This is stupid. There’s no way we can get in. There are cameras everywhere. If we get in, it’s because they want us to.” 

“Fine,” I said. “Stay with Khota.” I pointed to the man with her gun. My friend had grown quiet with Takashi gone. I assumed he regretted coming with us, but he had been getting chummy with Rika, talking about guns as soon as they met. She had demanded the large rifle we had stolen from her place, and they bonded over it. 

“Why do I have to stay?” Khota asked angrily. “She just said there were no guards.” 

“True,” I admitted. “I had assumed there would be some and you could act as a distraction.” I looked at those with me, they were scared, but they had the Gantz suits. I hoped it was enough to see us through. “Alright, everyone want to go in then?” 

“Fuck yeah,” Khota said. “I want to know what’s happening here just as badly as you.” 

“Sorry, didn’t think of that,” I said. 

“Kid, did you not hear me? We can’t get in without being seen,” Rika said. 

“If we were going in one of the doors, sure, but we will be taking one of the windows.” I pointed up to the side of the building. There just so happened to be another building next to it. A perfect height to reach the 3rd floor of our target. 

“That’s like 30 feet,” Rika said. 

“Trust me honey,” Shizuoka said. “That’s nothing.” She grabbed her shoulder and we all headed to the building. It was some sort of office space. To my surprise there were no zombies whatsoever, which was upsetting. We had driven by this place in the bus. Our people could have stayed there and been perfectly fine. I pushed that out of my mind as we ran up the stairs. 

Labored and excited breathing were the only sound besides our footfalls. Taking the stairs 3 at a time my excitement was getting the better of me as I made my way up to the top floor. Breaking the lock on the door easily we ran to the edge of the flat roof. The building we were going to felt eerily quiet, but that was the world we were in. 

No electricity there were no lights, car alarms, doors shutting, people yelling, or anything that a city should have. There were random screams, or at least there used to be. But those had died down over a week ago. Now the music of the city were the groans of the undead. I could feel it all around us. The deathly silence as we blindly went from place to place to dispatch the dead. All of it leading to this point.

“The trick is to believe that you are stronger,” Shizuoka said to Rika.

“This is crazy,” the tan woman said. 

“No time for a tutorial,” I said. My hand moving to under her knees I picked her up in a princess carry. She yelled. “Shhh, thought you were special forces. Learn to be stealthy.” She glared at me angrily and I flashed her a smile. Moving chakra through my body I ran and jumped off the edge. 

To her credit Rika didn’t scream. She shut her mouth while her throat tried to scream out, but we were flying high. I turned my body to take the glass against my back. It shattered against me as we fell into the window. Skidding to a halt I practically threw her as I moved back to the window. Clearing the rest of the glass from the window I waved the rest over. 

Saeko jumped first. Making it right to the window. Then it was Saya. She overshot a little but I grabbed her before she could fall. Shizuoka and Emi made it just fine, and Khota took the tail. The big man made it just as easy as the others. 

“Holy fuck,” Rika said, seeing us come in one my one. “You weren’t joking.” 

“Told you, bitch,” Shizu said with a wink. Rika flipped her off but I waved my hand for silence. 

“Weapons out. We kill first, ask questions later. Probably a lot of zomays, maybe other evolutions too. Our goal is the basement,” I said. 

“Basement?” Saya asked. 

“This is the villain headquarters, there will be a basement,” Khota said as if it was obvious. 

“Shut it fatty,” she spat. I chuckled. 

“Come on. Let’s see what these villains got,” I said. Pulling out my Jitte I passed the Gantz sword to Saya. 

“Where did you pull those from?” Rika asked as I walked by. 

“Don’t ask,” Shizu said. “Our fearless leader has a lot of tricks.” 

“You’re telling me,” Saya said. “You should see the fun ones.” Saeko smacked the back of her head and they started to fight, I let them have at it. I had tried to stop it in the beginning, but it only got worse as I refused to favor one over the other. I liked both personally, but I loved both of their bodies. I couldn’t say no to either. 

We ran through the office and came to the stairwell. Some emergency lighting on we ran down and down the stairs. I noticed a camera in a corner so I knew we were seen, but by then we were on the basement floor. The last floor we could get to by this set of stairs we tried to step out of the stairwell but were stopped by the locked door. 

We paused for a heartbeat. A swift kick knocked the door off it’s hinges. I stepped out and the trunk worthy fist of the zomay barely missed me. Taking a chunk out of the concrete wall I ducked down more and sliced up. Bisecting it, that was my favorite way to handle them. 

Another zomay pushed it’s way through the 2 pieces of his friend. I jumped forward slicing off the heads in 2 slashes and pushed forward. Noticing more behind me I yelled, “Saeko, behind me.” She nodded and jumped out, getting the zomays at my 6. The 2 of us made quick work of the 10 zomays. The corridor was large for us, but small for the juiced up zombies. They could only attack 1 at a time. We took them down and stood in a field of blood. 

A head gnashed at me as it tried to move its side of the body. Stabbing it the corridor became quiet once more. “Holy-” Rika said but I waved my hand. 

“No time, go,” I ordered. I began running down the long hallway. Large metal doors on each side I felt like there were godawful experiments going on behind each. Always listening I was ready to act without hesitation if anyone moved to attack us. At the end of the hall there was an open elevator. 

I didn’t like the obvious trap, but the other doors were too thick to try to break down. We all piled in and I pushed the bottom floor button. I was ready to skip to the end. Everyone was quiet as we stood in the elevator. It dinged as we passed each floor. 

“We are fucked,” Kohta said. “So stupid.” 

“I agree,” I said.

“Then why are we here?”

“Because, I can beat whatever they throw at us,” I said confidently. I looked to Saeko, she nodded, complete confidence in me. Saya chewed her lip but gave me a smile. Emi smiled widely at me, her cheeks dimpling. Shizuoka gave me a shy smile. Rika was still very lost. We had beaten something that had killed her friends easily. 

The elevator dinged on the Sub-10 floor and stopped. The door didn’t open. I became worried. Starting to pry at the door until I heard a loud thud above us. We all looked up and a small hatch opened. A gloved hand dropped a canister inside. White smoke billowed out of it. 

“Tranq gas!” Rika gasped, trying to hold her breath. 

“Fuck,” Khota said. “So fucked.” 

“Holy hell, holy hell, holy hell,” Shizu said. 

“Guys, calm it down,” I said. They stopped and stared at me. All nervous, all ready for orders. “Let it happen.” 

“What” “Why”

“Because I will get us out of this,” I said confidently. The gas was thick now. “Just relax, I will handle it.”

“I-I,” Saya was the first to pass out, then Emi. Shizuoka was next.

“Are you sure?” Saeko asked, a little fear in her eyes. I nodded. She frowned but sat down, sheathing her sword. Khota passed out. I put my Jitte and the Gantz Sword in my Status Screen. 

Saeko sat with her eyes closed, most likely asleep. Rika fought the sleep. “I can’t believe you got me killed,” she mumbled tiredly. 

“Yep, now sleep, and it will all be better when you wake up,” I promised. Taking a deep breath I watched her pass out. Sitting down I focused my breathing. I had been forced to hold my breath for a long time to clean a mile-long sea turtle of barnacles. I stopped counting how long I could hold it after 20 minutes. Far longer than normally possible. 

I closed my eyes, centering myself as I waited. It took time, but eventually the door opened to reveal just a man. I watched through slitted eyes and waited.