Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 98 HELLO

The alien was a little taller than me. Wearing jeans, a white/black striped shirt, and a rounded helmet he stuck out like a sore thumb. His face was in a constant smile as he walked straight at me. 

I sharpened the water around my Jitte to a fine point. Then as it walked past I sliced. Using every muscle like Saeko taught me I was pleasantly surprised as the body cut in half from shoulder to chest. 

The top half slid off to reveal a black gooey center. It looked like how I remembered. The exterior was a body suit. The interior was an alien. From the feathers it looked like a bird type of alien. I thought I remembered Kurono having to fight a lot of them. 

“Woah!” Someone said. I noticed the people from the room close by. Kato stared at me wide eyed. 

I walked toward them. The 3 that I had pissed off started running. “Where’s the girl?” I asked Kato. I noticed a man began to appear behind him. As more of him teleported it was revealed that he was in the middle of taking his pants off. 

Then the girl appeared. Underneath the guy she was trying to fight him off of her. I growled. As soon as the man appeared I kicked him hard across the face. He cried out as teeth flew from his mouth. 

“Your buddies ran that way,” I said. “Follow them or I break your arms.” His eyes wide he began pulling up his pants and started running. “You alright?” I asked Kishimoto as I helped her up. 

“Um yeah,” she said, pushing hair behind her ears. “When the room was empty he just attacked me.”

“In this suit,” I said pointing at the black suit she was wearing. It clung perfectly to her. Making her way hotter. I tried to ignore that. “You are maybe 5 to 10 times stronger. Just simply think about going faster and becoming stronger. And the suit will react.”

“Huh?” She asked. 

“Do it. Think about becoming stronger. Using all your strength and then some.”

She slowly nodded. Then her suit bulged with veins. She stopped, shocked. “Alright. Now come here.”

There was a metal railing next to us. “Think about pulling this out of the ground. And use all your might to make it happen.”

“What?”

“Are you deaf? Do what I said,” I ordered. She frowned but did so. Grabbing the metal railing, slowly she pulled and pulled. Then the veins of the suit bulged out. She kept trying and trying. Then the metal broke. Ripping it off she let out a gasp. 

“Very good,” I said. “You see. Stronger.” She nodded, in a daze. 

“Kato, are you confident with the suit?” 

“I mean, a little,” he said. “We practiced.”

“I know. But I figured out the trick.  Confidence. Have complete confidence that you will become stronger. And you will.” I extended my arm out. I showed that I could bulge out the veins then slacken them. Bulge and slacken almost instantly. 

“We will practice more later,” I said. “Right now we need to deal with the aliens.” My words were a signal as men began screaming out. I started running. 

“Weston, you don’t have a gun!” Kato yelled. 

“I learned my lesson last time, no more guns,” I said. My chakra sharpened around the Jitte. Kishimoto and Kato soon caught up to me as I jogged. 

We found the screaming and came upon a dead everyone. Well not everyone. The couple on the motorcycle weren’t there. But the men I ran off and Nishi were. They laid bloodied and missing limbs around 5 of the android aliens. The alien’s mouths had opened up and were alight as if they were going to shoot off an energy beam. 

“Dodge them!” I ordered the duo as I ran at the suited birds. Their mouths glowed more. But instead of an energy beam some type of sound attack was let out. I stumbled, losing my balance as my eardrum ruptured, but it was too late. 

4 slashes and the bodies were split in 2. I breathed out as the sound disappeared. Looking back the other 2 were fine. 

“Poor Nishi,” Kato said as he walked up. The middle schooler was bleeding from his mouth and eyes. Tears of blood streaked down his cheeks. 

“Yeah, trust me, kid was a psycho,” I said. I was pretty sure he tortured cats or something. “We haven’t teleported so there are more.”

I noticed movement. One of the suits of armor was running across the street. I pointed and we ran after it. I noticed it running into an apartment building down the road. We jogged after it. 

As we got closer I noticed another couple down the road. “You 2 think you can get those?” I asked. 

Kato hesitated but nodded. Gun in hand the Kishimoto girl hesitated but followed. I walked into the apartment. Inside were dark rooms with doors wide open. 

“Come on out!” I spat. And they did. One by one they came out. None knowing what hit them as I sliced heads clean off. There was a pile of 7 when I was done. Black blood oozing out where heads should have been, all in a nice pile. 

“Any more in here?!” I yelled. I walked around the pile I had made. My senses working all around me. Feeling everything. 

I was 3 doors down when I heard the stomp. A dark room straight ahead I knew it came from there. Another stomp happened. Then another. Taloned feet appeared in the lighted hallway. Another step and an 8 foot tall hawk man appeared. 

He had long wings at his side. A large beak. Black eyes. Feathers everywhere. It opened its mouth. Chomping it as it it was a threat. 

“Dude compared to a Jinchuriki, you aren’t that big,” I said. It let out a screech then was rushing at me on taloned feet. 

I focused and cut it from groin to neck in a smooth motion. The 2 sides splitting in half and falling to the side. 

“Anyone else?” I asked. “A bigger boss perhaps?” There was no answer as I began to teleport away. I appeared in the room first. Swiftly followed by the couple riding the bike, Kato, and Kishimoto. 

“What the fuck!” The guy said. The girl was close to him but had her face hidden by her hair. I noticed then how beautiful the guy was. He looked like a model. 

“Talk later. For now we wait,” I said. The guy didn’t appear to care. He was still in shock. The Gantz orb dinged and revealed words. 

TIME TO DISTRIBUTE THE POINTS

An image of the guy on the motorcycle appeared. Above his image was the name HOMO and 0 points. The girl was next. Above her was the name STALKER with 0 points. I remembered them then. The guy was really a male model and the girl was his stalker. She jumped on the back of his motorcycle and turned them into oncoming traffic. I felt bad for the guy. 

Kato was next. His name was still Crier. This time he had 5 points. After him was Kishimoto who Gantz named Tits. She had 10 points. I was impressed. They’d actually killed stuff. 

My face was last. This time my name was Weston instead of Know-it-all. I must have gained Gantz respect. I’d gained 48 points. 

“Nice,” I said. “Almost half way to saving Kurono.” I really wanted the Gantz armor from finishing my quest. 

“That’s amazing,” Kato said. “It could really happen.” There were tears in his eyes. I felt bad for killing his friend. 

“Alright, people,” I said. “I am only going to explain this once…” so I explained Gantz and the items I knew once again. I got the model guy's number but the stalker girl was soon running off. I hoped to plan to train with everyone. I wanted a nice team set up. 

“Till next time Kato…” I said but thought about it. “Hey um are you still saving up for an apartment for you and your brother?” 

He and I talked a little the day before. His parents were dead and his aunt took care of him. She pretty much hated them though. Always belittling them and making them do chores. 

“Yeah,” he said. “Not much has changed since I talked to you earlier today.” I forgot we had trained with the suits that day. 

“Right right,” I said. “How much money do you need?”

“I uh have a job,” he admitted. “I just started. But I hope to have first and last months rent saved here in a month or so.”

“How much is that?” I asked.

“300,000 yen,” he admitted. I nodded. Turning around I pulled the money out of my inventory while pretending to get it from my pants. 

“Here,” I said. 

His eyes bulged. “Wh-I can’t take this,” he said. 

“You can and you will,” I said. “Get that place for you and your brother. Now. Don’t need to pay me back. Consider it a favor, alright?”

“No-“

“Yes,” I said. “Dude we died. Life is short. Take care of your brother.” The man had tears in his eyes. Before I could stop him he hugged me. 

“Thank you, Weston,” he said. “For everything.”

“Yeah yeah, I still feel bad killing Kurono. So once I bring him back to life we can be even. But I do want that favor.”

He nodded. Pulling away he wiped his eyes. “I can’t believe it. Are you serious?”

“I am,” I said. “There’s enough pain in this world. Go be with your brother.” He nodded and was soon running excitedly home. 

“That was nice,” Kishimoto said. 

“Holy fuck, I thought you left,” I said. The girl wore the black Gantz suit since she didn’t have any clothes when she came. 

“No I uh came back,” she said nervously. “I’m still a little freaked out.”

I nodded. “I’ll walk you home,” I said. 

She blushed but didn’t say no. We left the apartment and walked in the cool night. The suit was surprisingly breathable. I hardly noticed it was there. 

“How did you die?” She asked. I guessed she was starting to believe me. 

“Hit by a train. You?” I asked. She apparently didn’t expect me to ask. She stammered. Then stopped trying to answer. “Suicide?”

“H-how did you know?”

“Well when you appeared you were naked. And looked like you were in a bathtub. Pills or wrists?”

“Both,” she said. 

“Jeez double suicide. Must really hate your life,” I said. I didn’t see the point in being tactful. 

“I do,” Kishimoto said. She didn’t elaborate. 

“You can talk about it if you want.”

“I um I don’t know. I honestly can’t tell you why I did it now. My mom was stressing me out. She only cared about me doing well on exams. I was spending every waking hour studying. Then I hit a breaking point. My brain stopped working. I failed a test. A normal one. Nothing I couldn’t make up for. You’d have thought the world ended for my mom.” She chuckled with no mirth.  

“I snapped and thought suicide was my only option to get away from her.”

“And now?” She turned to me. Confused. “Do you still think it’s the only answer?”

“No,” she whispered. “No. I saw you killing those things. And I thought. I want to be able to do that.”

I laughed loudly. “Really? That was your thought?”

“Well not at first. At first I thought I was hallucinating from the pills. Then you did it again and those other guys were dead. I wanted…I wanted to be as confident as you looked. You looked like you could take anything on.”

I smiled. “Thanks, but trust me. I was scared.”

“Why?”

“Because these aliens are strong,” I admitted. “We will keep having to do this, Kishimoto. I don’t think every night. But a lot of them. And if we make a mistake. We are one step away from death. There is a reason Gantz picks dead people. We have already lost everything.”

She was quiet as she walked. I simply followed. My eyes drifting to her ass and ever jiggling tits. The girl was supposed to be eye candy in the manga. And she was. I didn’t understand why she had to study. She would make a great trophy wife for some guy. 

“Here it is,” she said.

“The lights aren’t on. You sure your parents are home?” I asked. 

“Oh my god. Is my dead body still inside?”

“I don’t think so. When I died I never heard anything about someone getting hit by a train in the news. I think Gantz teleports the body.”

“Oh,” she said. “I don’t have keys. Do you have a phone? I can call my mom since it looks like she’s gone.”

“Sure.” I handed her the phone. I knew what was about to happen but didn’t have the heart to tell her. 

“Hey mom…it’s me Kei…no I’m right…that’s imp-“ she was cut off as the phone beeped. Lost in a daze for a moment. I let her have it. 

“My mom is…at the hospital. With me,” she said in a daze. 

“Someone,” I said. She jolted awake with the word as she stared at me. “Someone must have found your body. And they brought you back to life.”

She gulped. “So…”

“So there might be 2 of you,” I explained. “Your original body. And you. The copy.”

Her eyes widened. Slowly she asked as tears welled up in her eyes, “what am I going to do?”