Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 297 SAVE POINT

“Okay, from what I can tell this stupid ass thing takes your lifeforce,” I said kicking the Gantz ball. 

“Lifeforce?” Kishimoto asked, worriedly. She was sitting against the far wall, holding her legs to her chest. “That sounds bad.”

“It is for that guy,” I said pointing to the Gantz clone that appeared to be slowly dying. He was breathing in ragged breaths, laying in front of the balcony glass window. Absorbing daylight for probably the first time in years. “And probably you 3.” Pointing at Reina, Kishimoto, and Sei they didn’t appear to like the news. 

“But not you?” Sei asked. Chewing on a candy bar she had liberated from one of the many dead bodies my shadow clones were disposing of. She appeared a little bored. 

“I have a skill called Nen. Basically it is my lifeforce. As long as I channel Nen into these knobs the Gantz orb works off that. Nen is an acceptable amount of lifeforce to use. I can’t use so much that it would hurt me. And it would replenish in a day. Gantz here was making bodies to refill his stock and teleporting a bunch of people here each night. Using too much at once like that will hurt you, but a little at a time isn’t an issue,” I said. 

I had been playing with it and already made some fun toys. The interface for the Gantz orb was fairly simple. Pick and click, channel some Nen into the handles, and it would 3-D print whatever you wanted. 

“So what are we going to do with it?” Reina asked. 

“Take over the world,” I said, thinking. 

“How’s that?” 

“I could make an army of my clones,” I said. “They should have all my powers.” Except probably my status screen. My shadow clones didn’t have access so I doubted that these clones would. “Then again I doubt we want a thousand me running around. We would have the same libido. And you 3 are mine.” I didn’t want to deal with the drama that happened in the Gantz manga, where there were 2 of the same guy and they fought over the wrong girl. 

“Make a clone of me,” Sei said standing up. 

“Really?” I asked. “Do I get some identical twin action?”

She blushed. “Maybe not. That might be weird.”

“What? It’s basically masturbation,” I said. Remembering my last time doing it with Nami, I shivered. Pushing the thought out of my mind. “I’d love an army of all 3 of you. My own Gantz Harem.”

“God you’re insatiable,” Reina laughed. Getting up she moved to the orb. “Who can you bring back to life with this one orb?” 

“Got a point there, it has a memory,” I said, thinking. “Hey Gantz? Can we link our life memories to all the Gantz balls?” The man didn’t respond. “Nevermind. If you die, I promise to bury you in a meadow.” Moving back inside the ball I played around with the menus until I found what I wanted. 

“Interesting,” I said, clicking the button that read ‘scan delay’. Moving over to the Gantz clone I grabbed his arm and pulled him to in front of the orb. 

I set him in front of the orb and moved out of the way. A red light shooting from the orb scanned the clone's body. Once it was done I moved back into the orb. Moving screens I clicked Resurrect and held onto the handles while I channeled Nen into them. 

Starting at his feet the very pale Gantz clone began to be printed. Naked as the day he was born he stumbled as the printing finished.

“Where am I?” He asked. 

“I made a copy of you,” I said, bending down in front of him. “You’re still right there. I assume you’re back to full health now?”

“Wh-why did you do that?” The clone asked, fear in his eyes as he looked from me to his dying body. 

“Because you’ve been trapped all your life in here. You deserve to go out in the sun and live,” I said. Slowly he began to relax and I noticed some hope in his eyes. “...And I need answers.” 

“O-of course,” he said, standing back up as he flexed his body, feeling his reinvigorated strength. 

“How can I link the life memories of us to all of the Gantz orbs in the world?” I asked.

“This button here,” He said pointing to a small blue one. “Push it and it will update every Gantz orb. A long time ago there was a Master Gantz orb that used to update our weapons and armor. But it hasn’t updated in a few years. I’m not sure why it stopped. Just push the button, do what you want, and the memories should go to all orbs.” 

“Awesome,” I said. Filing the information about the Master Gantz Orb away for later. A quest didn’t pop-up so I doubted it was important yet. “Any other cool buttons I should push?”

“Don’t push the red one. It self-destructs the orb,” he said.

“I assumed.” It was big and red and said Destruct on it.

“This unlocks the doors, this one sets the temperature inside, this…” he explained all the little buttons and knobs I had been scared to touch.

When he was done I brought the girls up to speed. “Alright, I am going to teach all of you how to use this thing. This could potentially save our lives someday. Gantz is pretty much a save point. As you just saw I scanned his body, and the Gantz clone here had all the memories of his original body,” I said. The healthy one was sitting by the sick one. Consoling him as he died. 

“So we won’t be hurt if we bring each other back to life?” Kishimoto asked. 

“No. I would stick to 2 people a day, and there should be no lasting effects. I have a lot more lifeforce so I can handle more. I will train you later on how to use your Nen, alright? So Kishimoto you first,” I said. I scanned her body and moved to the other girls. I watched as their picture icons were added to the list. Exiting out I accessed a new master list update I had made and all 3 were on it. “Perfect, you should all 3 be able to be resurrected from any Gantz orb.” 

“And you?” Kishimoto asked, stepping up. 

“Me, yes I would like to add me next, but I have to warn you of something,” I said. Exhaling slowly I tried to think on how to put this. “You all know I have skills normal people don’t have.” They nodded, a couple rolled their eyes. “If for whatever reason I drop dead, or simply disappear without warning. Wait a little bit and bring me back to life.” 

“Drop dead?” Reina asked. 

“Yes. Like I could be standing there and drop dead. Or disappear in a cloud of smoke,” I said. “I might do that to other people for fun, but you 3 I will always warn you if I am leaving. If things don’t go the way I want, it might happen. It is related to my skills. I can’t divulge more than that.” 

After some more prodding questions that I dodged I stood in front of the orb. The red light scanning me slowly made it all go black. My vision slowly returned to me. I was standing in front of a Gantz orb but was in a different place. 

Looking around I noticed a few dozen people around me. Large black Gantz orbs scattered in front of me I felt my heart begin to beat quickly. Noticing a scared face in front of me, I registered it as Kishimoto. Sei then popped her head out of the Gantz orb in front of me, and Reina moved closer. 

“Wh-what happened?” I rasped as I slowly understood they brought me back to life. 

“You just disappeared,” Kishimoto said, tears forming in her eyes. “You mumbled something, then poof you were gone.” 

“How long ago?” I asked. 

“20 minutes,” Reina whispered. 

“Fuck!” I yelled. Feeling strength in me I tried to pull up my status screen but it didn’t appear. “World Escape,” I said, nothing happened. “World Escape. World Escape. World Escape.” I repeated over and over. 

“What are you saying? I can’t hear you,” Kishimoto said, resting her hand on my shoulder. 

“World Escape,” I whispered as tears came to my eyes. Memories of Boa Hancock flashed in my mind. Toru and Reina as well. Women and people that I would never meet again as my World Escape failed to activate. They too would have been talking to me and I would have simply disappeared. No explanation as to why. 

I tried to remember where I had left people last. Hancock, Nami, and Robin had my Chikyugi Link. They could have felt my disappearance. Toru, I thought I was at the Provisional License Exam. I would simply cease to be. I had no idea where any of the worlds were when I died. And they would simply have to move on without me. 

I felt the guilt of my actions then. In High School of the Dead I was riding off into the sunset with the girls. Berserk, girls were counting on me, and I had most of our gold. One Punch Man my trio would have to live on without me. Would they have to have episode after episode until they used their strength and killed someone?

“Weston,” Kishimoto whispered, resting her hand on me. “It’s alright.” 

“It’s not,” I said, truthfully. “I failed.”

“What did you fail?” She asked. 

“My Ch-” My voice locked up. Slowly my heart began to beat faster. “Status Screen,” I whispered. It popped up, far more filled than I remembered. “W-World Escape,” I said and it all turned black.

—

I breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar red glow of the lights over the doors illuminated the room. Looking around there were 3 doors with green lights over them. But I still had no idea how long I had been dead. I had apparently cleared the Naruto World at some point, but the last thing I remembered was being scanned by the Gantz Orb. 

“Congratulations, you cheated death, again,” a familiar voice said. I turned to see L standing by the entrance into the room.

“Moderator, right?” I asked. Breathing in and out slowly. 

“First things first,” he said. With a snap of his fingers my body was racked with pain. My skin had pins and needles sticking in it and my mind had memories flood in. 

I remembered it all, beating Naruto, my vacation, MHA, DBZ, One Punch Man, everything. Including my death. “That fucker!” I yelled. “Fucking killed me. That no good son of a fucking cunt weaving-”

“Yes, yes, you died and that person that killed you will pay,” L said in a bored tone as he walked up to me. “I must say, welcome to the land of the living. You have died, what? 3 times now? Once in your original world, once in Gantz, and now during a challenge. Weren’t you warned not to make it a habit?”

“Very funny,” I said recovering. “Fuck, why did that hurt more than normal?” 

“You have a whole new body now,” L said. “No scars anymore. Gantz doesn’t see the point to print those. Your body isn’t used to the pain like your old one was.” 

“Fuck, but I’m good to keep going?”

“Yep,” he said. “You aren’t the first person to cheat death from a Challenge like this. But be warned. They only work once. You die in a Challenge again, your memory will be stricken from the Gantz orbs. And I don’t mean once for you. No one can use the Gantz orbs to be revived after dying in a Challenge again. Someone was already wished back with the Dragon Balls. About 3 people were brought back with different methods from Supernatural. All of those methods will be lost, and you have no way of knowing which will and will not work.” 

“So what happened?” I asked. L looked at me confused as I sat on the floor. “What happened in the other worlds I’ve been to?”

“You simply disappeared. Time went on without you. But now that you are back in the room, time has stopped once more. I am sure you will have many fires to put out in these worlds.”

“I bet,” I said, shaking my head but letting out a long sigh of relief. I had done it. I had beaten death. I hadn’t sought to do it because I didn’t think it would work, but my one failsafe had paid off. 

“Don’t celebrate quite yet,” L said in his bored tone. I looked up at him. “You still lost your challenge.” 

“But I didn’t forfeit,” I said. 

“True, but you lost. Because of that you will only have half of the penalty,” he said. Waving his hand a pop-up appeared. 

“What?!” I asked looking to MHA World. The light above the door turned from red to gray as it turned off. “That’s not fair!” 

“The world is still there, Weston,” L said. “Simply you cannot access it at this time. There are ways to bring it back, and the world will stay frozen until you die or open it back up.” 

I grumbled but brought up my Status Screen. 

The My Hero Academia world was stricken out, as well as my Conqueror’s Haki, but I didn’t lose my Challenger Slot. If I could earn it back in One Piece World then I could recover from this. I was doing my best to look on the bright side of the whole situation. 

“Now your winnings,” L said. 

“What’s this?” I asked. 

“The rarest of skills. This one is locked to you, and won’t need a Challenger Slot,” he said. “It’s true use won’t become apparent until later, but for now you will be harder to kill.”

“Great,” I mumbled. 

“It is great, Weston,” L said, drawing my eye by how serious he was. “It is very great. You have beaten death more than once. So many thousands of people came here, and they are dead now. You are one of perhaps 20 that have been brought back from Challenges. Keep getting stronger. Keep being entertaining. You could win this. Learn from your mistake and continue on.” 

Before I could ask him another question he disappeared. Letting out a long sigh I sat back down on the floor. Beaten by an old friend. I should have known better. This place is life or death. All of these people are fighting for lives they created beyond the doors. Not just me. I had to be more ruthless with them. No more friendly Weston. I had to get serious. 

Groaning, I got up and looked around. I had hoped to venture out after the challenge, but I had gotten too used to my Conqueror’s Haki. Earning it back was the only solution before I continued on. As I took a step toward One Piece a new pop-up appeared. 

“Fuck,” I said. That was barely any time at all. I sure as shit wasn’t close to wrapping up any more worlds with MHA gone. I looked to One Piece, I needed Conqueror’s Haki. It was time to see how far I could get there in 15 days. Luckily things moved rather quickly in the world. With some perseverance maybe I could wrap up more quests and get some good rewards.