Disclaimer: I don't own Gantz or any of the original characters from it. The only things that I claim ownership of is this original story idea and the original characters that I came up with. However, I'm not making any financial profit from this.
Author's Note: This is an original work by me, that is mostly going to focus on my own characters, but may include the original characters from the manga and anime later on. This will be graphic, say some harsh things and may contain harsh language, gore, and more adult situations throughout the story. If any of that's not for you, then you may want to back out of this FanFic, and find another one.
Chapter 1: The Day That It All Changed
"Hey, did you do the math homework from yesterday?" My buddy Griffith asked, as we walked down the sidewalk in front of his house, as the sun beat down on his dark skin, causing sweat to build up on his forehead.
"Nah, man. I'm just going to copy off of Hobbit before class starts." I replied, with a grin.
Hobbit was a kid that we tormented pretty much everyday. There was really no good reason to. Griffith and I are just kind of jerks to some people. But, that's life, I guess.
"Good idea." He replied with a chuckle, to which I nodded.
After walking without speaking for a few moments, just listening to some rock music play on his phone, he spoke again.
"So, what do you think of the new transfer student that started yesterday? What was her name again… Saika something?"
"You mean, Sayaka?" I corrected him.
"Yeah, yeah. Her."
Sayaka is a gorgeous Japanese girl that just transferred into our school through the Foreign Exchange Student Program. She has short black hair, wears glasses, and is pretty petite and short. Totally adorable, to be honest. Her English is overall pretty well, but you can tell that it's not her first language. But, that just adds to her "cuteness", as my younger sister would say.
"...She's pretty cute...and she seems like a sweetheart." I admitted, as I felt a faint blush creeping onto my face, which I knew I was about to get hell for from Griffith.
"You look like such a girl when you do that." He cackled.
"Screw you, jackass." I shot back with a laugh.
Earlier, when I said that we were "jerks", I meant to each other as well. All in good fun, though. I don't think that we'd ever actually try or even want to hurt each other. We're pretty much the same person in different bodies. We're actually so alike that it's a pretty crazy. From taste in music, to shows, and even our mindsets. It's awesome, really.
"You're right, though. She is pretty cute." He agreed.
"Heck yeah, she is." I nodded, whilst getting more "pep in my step".
This is how all of our normal days started; with us just shooting the breeze as we made our way to our high school. Nothing special ever really happened. Just good ole, uneventful days...It honestly seems like a tragedy.
After a few minutes of chatting and walking, we arrived at the decent-sized brick building that was our school. There's nothing special about it. It's just like any other old red brick school that there is, which just made it even more of a drag than it already was.
The warning bell rang as we made our way through a crowd of other students and into the building, with hella people bumping into us.
"Get the hell outta my way." I muttered, as I bumped into a familiar face.
"Oh. Hey, Zane!" The beautiful short-haired girl said with an angelic smile.
After realizing who it was, I instantly felt like a jackass and felt a fierce blush creep up onto my face again, all while hoping that she didn't hear me.
"H-hey, Sayaka. How are you today?" I felt so lame, as I stuttered and continued maneuvering through the crowd.
"I'm good. And, you?" She asked, gracefully.
"Me too."
"That's good to hear." She slowed down as she brushed the raven hair out from in front of her eyes.
Damn, she is gorgeous. I thought to myself, as time seemed to slow down for just a moment.
"Well, I'm this way. So, I'll talk to you later." Sayaka said warmly, and waved, as she took off to her homeroom.
"What a loser…" I heard Griffith tease, just a few steps behind me.
"...Shut up." I said, as we continued on to our own homeroom class.
After another long, uneventful day, the final bell rang and everyone began to gather up their items to go home.
Griffith and I walked down the long, white-and-blue tiled hallways, that was once again crawling with students and faculty, to go to our lockers to leave all of our stuff like we normally do. Because, let's be real, who honestly takes all of their books home and actually does homework?
Once we were finished cramming most of our belongings into our respective lockers, we decided to go on a walk by the creek that was in the woods, that wasn't too far away from the school.
Throughout the school day, I'd had a weird feeling that was just unsettling, like something really bad was going to happen. Once we got to the woods, it intensified for some reason…
"Yo, Zane. Watch out, man." Griffith warned, as I almost stepped into a steep, muddy hole.
Snapping out of my trance, I barely caught it in time to avoid plunging into it, with my foot just a couple of centimeters away from the gaping spot in the ground.
"Dang, man. What's got you so out of whack today?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow.
I shrugged before replying, "I'm honestly not sure. I've just had an unpleasant feeling since I've woke up this morning…"
"I see...That's gay…" He said, in a dull tone, as he pressed on through the tall, wet grass.
I laughed a bit, "It really is."
As soon as the words left my mouth, he came to a sudden stop, to which I mimicked.
I looked at him, who was staring intently in front of us, so I followed his gaze and seen Hobbit, who was standing about 15 feet in front of us, just staring, with a look of sheer resentment.
I smirked, slightly amused.
"Hey, Hobbit! I'm really glad to see you," I said, as I took a step forward, "I've been having an off day, and I could really use a stress-reliever."
"Shut up." He said, without hesitation or fear of us, like he usually has.
"What the hell did you just say?" Griffith interjected, taking a couple of steps towards the shorter, chunky, brown-haired boy.
"I said shut up." He said, with his fists shaking.
We chuckled.
"You have a 'tude, but you look like you're about to defecate yourself." I popped off at the mouth, as I took another step forward, and habitually put my hands inside of my pockets with a grin, "Trembling like a young girl…"
Griffith and I circled around him, as if we were lions preying on a small, wounded gazelle, about to tear it apart and feast on its flesh.
Honestly, this feeling is my favorite one. Power. The feeling of having complete control of the situation and person(s) involved. Do you know the actual definition of power? It's "the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events."
As we made our way fully around him, we met back up on the opposite side of where we were standing before.
"I've had enough of you guys…" The prey said, as tears rolled down his cheeks, with his fists still quivering.
"Oh. Is that so?" I asked, narrowing my eyes, with adrenaline flooding through my veins, accompanied by the same unpleasant feeling that I've been dealing with all day.
Honestly, I was looking for a fight, and it looked like he was too. It's pretty convenient. This might just be what I need to shake this feeling, but it only seemed to get worse the more the tension rose.
His tears fell to the ground, as he reached into his backpack.
Griffith and I laughed at his actions.
"What are you gonna do? Grab your phone and call your dad or something?" Griffith asked, sarcastically.
"Are you gonna try to mace us with your perfume or something?" I laughed, but my gut was turning, which only made me want to pound this guy even more. This feeling was just making me even angrier, and this guy was about to be the target of it all.
But, what he pulled out wasn't a cellphone to call for help, mace, or any type of body spray. It was a gun.
Honestly, I wouldn't say anything out loud, especially to Griffith, but my heart dropped when I seen it. After all, this is the type of crap that you only see on the news from halfway around the country or in movies. I mean, who would ever seriously think that they would be in this situation? Then again, I guess that's how anyone in a bad situation feels…
Besides, now that I think about it, maybe we deserve to be punished, but this seems like too much. It's not like we ever physically hurt him...too much.
Griffith and I looked at him, as he lifted the gun up and pointed it directly at me, with a quaky grip.
Griffith laughed, causing me to turn my gaze towards him, a bit surprised by his boldness, even when facing a scenario like this.
"What? Are you trying to scare us? We'll take that gun and beat you to a pulp with it!" He said, whilst laugh maniacally.
Which helped me feel a bit at ease, but my instincts were telling me that this was definitely not a scare tactic.
"Hobbit...put that away before we really beat your a-" I was threatening him, but he cut me off.
"Shut the hell up, I said!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
His interjections were really starting to tick me off, but I kept my cool.
We all stood still for a moment, I guess we were just waiting to see how the situation was going to play out.
"That's it. I'm kicking your-" Griffith started talking, but was cut off by an abrupt and loud popping sound, that left an echoing sound in my ears.
That was the sound of the hammer on his pistol clicking and igniting the gunpowder, sending a bullet through my best friend, that was closer to me than a brother.
My heart stopped and time stood still for a moment, followed up by an inhuman rage filling my being, causing me to see red and charge forward with the intent to utterly crush the guy that just caused harm to my friend.
Despite all of the animosity that was built up in me, and the hell that I was about to unleash on this poor soul, another two pop sounds rung in the air. Trailing behind them was a warm wet feeling creeping onto my chest. Before I knew it, I was tumbling roughly to the ground, knees first, then my face slamming against the moist, muddy ground.
As my vision blurred, I looked at who was suppose to the prey and then to who was suppose to be the other lion, that was looking back at me, with a pool of blood welling up under him.
Neither of us could even mutter anything, though. Each of our lips were faintly trembling, but no words escaped. Only wet, jagged breaths. We were both probably still too shocked by what was happening, as it still didn't feel real.
I couldn't even feel any physical pain, just the same nagging feeling, though it seemed like it was peaked now. "Is this helplessness?" Is the line that ran through my head, as I thought about it.
Looking at my friend, who now had lost consciousness, I thought to myself, "How could the two proud lions become the prey?" Then, the "Fight or Flight Response" ran across my mind, causing me to realize that we pinned him into a corner, and to our surprise, he chose to "fight".
Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned my attention back to Griffith, and I tried to crawl over to him. Though, life isn't always kind, and proof of that is when my consciousness faded before I could even move an inch.
About a second later, the warm wet feeling and the uneasy one were both gone, and I felt normal again. Completely fine, in fact. Like a million bucks, as some would say.
Confused, I opened my eyes to a bright white room that caught me off guard.
I looked around, and next to me was Griffith, who looked just as bewildered as I felt, and around us was a group of people that I didn't recognize at all.
"Is...this the afterlife's waiting room or something?" I asked, muddled.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading the first chapter of this story!
I hope that you enjoyed what you've read so far, and will continue to follow the story and see how it all unfolds, though, this first chapter is short.
Gantz is definitely one of my favorite manga that I've ever read. It kicks major butt, and I'm sad that it's completed. So, that's one of the reasons why I decided to write this.
P.S. If you hate the main characters, good. You're suppose to. If not, well, that's okay too.
Anyways, I'll see you next time!
2nd Disclaimer: If you're a victim of bullying, please don't go shoot up a school, your bullies, or anyone else. This Fic is meant for fun and entertainment. Not to inspire a scenario like the one mentioned in this chapter.