00:28:32.

"Kato!" Kishimoto cried as she raised her gun and shot several times at the alien that was attacking Kato. Kato, Kishimoto, and Hojo had split up from Kei and Tetsuo to defeat the aliens near a row of houses on a main street. Kato gritted his teeth, eyes wide and arms held stubbornly by his sides; he still refused to kill. "Kato, shoot!" Kishimoto ran toward Kato just as the alien opened its mouth and then exploded. Kato relaxed with a sigh of shame as he looked at Kishimoto, not quite believing her determination; now she had protected both him and Kei by killing an alien.

"I'm sorry," Kato said quietly. "I just-"

Kishimoto lowered her arms and avoided his guilty gaze. "Kato, you have no choice. I know how you feel, and I know you don't want to shoot anyone, neither do I, but it's just how it is. I don't want anything to happen to you, so I'll keep shooting to protect you, but if you want us all to be safe, then you have to do the same." Kishimoto looked up with a small smile. "Okay?"

Kato opened his mouth in slight surprise to reply, but a shout from their other teammate interrupted him.

"Hey!" Hojo ran toward them, gun in his hand. "I got one back there," he said and pointed behind him. "I was a little worried when I turned around and you guys weren't there."

Kato nodded and slightly bowed apologetically. "Sorry about that, we chased some down this way to make sure they didn't get away."

Hojo placed a hand in his pocket. "Great. That's all of em on this side then."

Kishimoto frowned for a moment. "Wait a minute," she said before looking at the controller connected to her arm and revealed the map. "Weren't there five?"

Kato looked at her map. "Huh?"

Kishimoto nodded and pointed to the area they were in. "Remember? There were five around this part."

Hojo nodded. "And we got em." Hojo tilted his head when Kishimoto and Kato exchanged worried glances. "Right?"

Kato looked at Hojo. "How many did you kill?"

"Just the one."

Kato gasped lightly. "Just one?"

Hojo immediately became defensive. "Yeh well, at least I actually got one Mr. I can't shoot anything. Screw you!"

Kato hunched his shoulders. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean – I just meant that we only got two – I mean, Kishimoto did."

Hojo's annoyance relented, and he grew concerned. "Only two? Then that means two got away somehow?"

Kishimoto nodded and expanded the map. "There," she pointed further away from their position. "There's one there, and another in this shadowy part."

Kato looked at his own device and nodded. "I see them. It looks like that shadowy part could be a building of some kind."

Hojo frowned. "They're pretty far off now, and I think there's a restaurant around that area, so the shadowy part could be a parking lot."

Kato jogged a few paces and turned back to them. "Come on, if their that far, we better get moving."

Kishimoto and Hojo nod before they all ran in the new direction.

…

00:15:03.

"So, this really isn't a normal situation," Tetsuo said as he and Kurono walked side by side.

Kurono scoffed. "You can definitely say that again."

"What happens after we kill all these alien things? Do we get to go home or what?"

Kurono frowned and looked at his device. It should be around here somewhere, not far now.

"Oi, you gonna answer me?"

Kurono sighed and looked straight ahead as they turned a corner. "Once we kill all the aliens, we'll be sent back to the room."

"And then?"

"I'll explain later."

Tetsuo stopped and stepped in front of Kurono with an angry expression. "You'll explain now!"

Kurono narrowed his eyes, looking up at the biker. "We don't have time right now. The quicker we get these aliens, the quicker you'll get your explanation."

Tetsuo scoffed. "You know a lot for someone who claims to have only done this once."

Kurono didn't falter. "I adjust well."

"Is that so."

"You followed me this far, didn't you? So something must have told you to trust me."

"Shut up. Just lead the way, okay?"

The two were quiet for a moment.

"I have a family waiting for me," Tetsuo said after a moment. "The guys, they don't get that. But I feel like I betrayed them somehow."

"All of us have someone they wanna fight for, or in your case, return to. How you'll survive depends on how much your family means to you."

"But doesn't my survival also depend on trust?"

Kurono grinned. "Maybe, but you're with me now, so that's a pretty good start."

"What's that supposed to mean? You're that confident?"

"It means the friends you think you betrayed are more likely to betray you; after all, they already ditched you." Kurono's grin widened as he looked at Tetsuo. "And I'm very confident." The two turned the corner off the road, but the moment they did, Kurono's confident grin disappeared when he saw a hole already in the roof of the former restaurant where Kei knew the other aliens were hiding. "What the fuck?"

00:29:15.

"Ryota, should we stop and get a little something to eat on the way home?"

"But I want something now, I'm hungry, and I'm tired."

The old woman sighed sadly. "I know dear, but I just don't know where we are at the moment, but I'm sure there's a cab service around somewhere and they can help us. You can wait until then, can't you?"

Ryota shook his head vigorously. "No! I want food now, I'm hungry grandma!" Ryota knelt down and held his face in his hands, and began wailing loudly. "Grandma!"

The old woman stopped and looked back at her grandson, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Oh, Ryota, don't cry dear, we'll get help soon, and you'll be home with a full belly before you know it." Just as she bent down to the boy's level, she heard a noise. The old woman looked up, and her expression changed to deep worry when she saw the alien that looked a lot like the one from earlier. "Ryota, I need you to get up," she whispered.

"No, I'm tired!"

"We need to get up and run."

"But I'm too hungry."

"All together now," the alien suddenly spoke, causing Ryota to look up and turn his head.

"Grandma, it's – it's the robot."

"Oh dear. Ryota, go, run."

"But grandma-" The alien lifted off the ground and headed directly toward them, mouth open to attack. The old woman wrapped her arms around the boy to protect him. "Grandma!"

Before the alien could reach them, however, its body blew apart without warning. The woman's eyes widened, and she covered the boy's eyes. "Don't look Ryota…"

"Why not, is the robot dead?"

She smiled down at him as he looked up at her. "You're safe now."

"Not for long," they heard a voice say. When the two stood up and turned around, Nishi appeared with a static field around him before it disappeared.

"Thank you very much young man," the old woman smiled. "You saved our lives."

"I didn't save you," Nishi sneered before turning to face them. "It was easy points, that's all." Nishi narrowed his eyes at Ryota when the boy clung to the old woman before hiding his face from him. "You have a one percent chance of survival as long as that brat clings to you. Even that gives you too much credit."

"Oh, but he's just a child. He's my grandson, I have to protect him."

Nishi rolled his eyes and turned away. "He's a brat, and that's your fault. And as for protecting him, it's rather pathetic if you simply just die." Nishi looked over his shoulder. "You have to kill to survive, and the same goes for saving a person."

Nishi walked away, leaving the grandmother and child alone in the middle of the street as he turned the end corner.

Ryota tugged on the old woman's arm. "Grandma, I wanna go home." Ryota looked up at her. "Can we now?" The old woman looked back to where Nishi had disappeared. "Grandma?"

"Did I ever tell you about a young lad in my unit, dear?"

The old woman looked up from pouring the tea into both their cups and smiled. "There were many young lads in your unit, Jiro-chan."

Jiro chuckled. "Yes, but I've been thinking about him as of recent days. He was quite stubborn, and sometimes hard to get along with, but he always came through for us, and never gave up, no matter what we faced. He had good surviving skills, even though he was young."

"I don't remember you speaking of this boy before, sounds like you were fond of him greatly, I bet you took him under your wing."

Jiro took a sip of his tea. "I tried, but he often refused to follow, a sort of, survival of the fittest kind of lad. I could tell, though, that I had his respect. I wonder, perhaps in time, our grandchild might turn out like him."

"Is he a survivor of the war?"

Jiro smiled. "Yes."

The old woman looked down at the boy and smiled, stroking the top of his head. I'm sorry you turned out this way Ryota, it's not your fault. You're so precious to me. "We'll go home soon, and I promise, grandma will protect you."

00:23:17.

Nishi frowned at the device on his arm, looking at the map as he walked through the medium-sized open parking lot. Five more points. That alien fuck is around here somewhere. I just have to catch it off guard like before. Too bad those other idiots aren't around to steal points from. Big tits would make a good distraction. Nishi stopped when he heard a small squeak and lowered his arm to see a small bird under his foot. "Fuck, where did that come from?" Nishi lifted his foot, and the bird twitched for a moment before trying to skitter away. A noise to the left of him caused him to turn his head, and three more tiny birds appeared from between two cars. Nishi's eyes widened when the alien he had searched for followed after them, looking extremely angry. "Shit," the teen mumbled with a glare as he disconnected the device from his wrist; Nishi was about to disappear when he remembered the robot could see him before somehow, so he placed it in his pocket and raised his gun.

"You're dead!" Nishi fired his gun multiple times, taking aim every time the robot moved. Nishi's aims blew up a car's rear and hit a nearby column, missing the robot by inches. Nishi narrowed his eyes, but fear clouded his confidence as the gun began to shake in his hand.

When Yoko faced her killer seven months ago, it was hard to understand why she feared him when she had the perfect opportunity to take revenge on the one that killed her; but as the alien closed in, Nishi understood perfectly, and even though it wasn't the exact same one that killed him before, the comparison was. "Just once," Nishi gritted out. "You'll only kill me once, you fuck!" Nishi pulled back his fist and sent it flying into the already broken column, causing some of the ceiling to collapse. Nishi grinned. "Finally, one hundred points." I'm coming home, mom. Nishi turned around with a scoff. "If Kei and those idiots got rid of the rest that is. The transfer hasn't started yet." Nishi pulled the device from his pocket. The timer hasn't stopped either. Does that mean he hasn't got to the boss yet?

Nishi suddenly stopped when he heard the robot's voice, and a chill ran up his spine. Nishi gripped his weapon, turned around, and shouted, "Die!" Nishi gasped when he realized the alien was almost right in front of him. "Ah!" Slow to react, Nishi was knocked off his feet by the alien's sonic attack, and his body made an impact with a car's windshield before rolling off to the ground. Nishi quickly shifted to his knees and shuffled across to lean against the car out of sight from the robot to check himself over. My suit's still intact. Nishi then realized as he looked at the caps on his hands. "Where's my-" Nishi peered across the lot; he could see the robot walking toward him and then glanced behind to spot his gun. Nishi cursed as he backed up against the side of the car, positive the alien probably noticed him anyway when he had landed. I should have taken two. Nishi felt a dull ache in his shoulder, but the suit would hopefully protect him from further damage, so long as the robot's attacks didn't hit him again.

"They're quick, so unless you catch it off guard, the best thing to do is to use your suit's strength to kill em and not your gun."

Nishi frowned. I can't even get close to it without risking that fucking energy hitting me, and its sonic sound hurts like hell. "Wait." Nishi pushed away slightly from the car and lay his hands on the side of it. "I wonder."

"All together now," the alien droned. "Ha, Ha-"

BANG.

A car suddenly smacked into the alien full-force, trapping it under the car's weight.

"You don't get the last laugh this time," Nishi breathed heavily while nursing his shoulder. "I can't believe that worked." Nishi walked past the car to retrieve his weapon with a grin. "Thanks for the tip, Kei." As Nishi stood up, his eyes widened when he heard the sound of the alien's sonic attack behind him, extremely close. Reluctantly, Nishi slowly turned around once more; it was too late to run, too late to fire his gun, and if that attack hit him at close range…

The memory of the pain he felt when the attack damaged his senses and severed his spine flashed in his mind. Nishi took a step back, his fist clenched by his side, wondering if maybe he had time to punch it. Nishi winced; damn, his ears were starting to hurt. Shit.

The alien stopped abruptly when it was lifted from the ground. Nishi watched in surprise as the robot thrashed around harshly in reaction to becoming trapped.

"Grandma!"

Nishi glanced to the side behind the pair in front of him at the kid ducked behind a car.

"Stay back Ryota," the old woman said slowly as she kept a firm grip on the robot.

Nishi watched in fascination, utter disbelief that the old woman could even accomplish such a thing.

Soon, the robot screeched, and its head split open to reveal a large bird from inside. Nishi stepped back in surprise, not expecting another creature inside it. That would explain those little birds before. So that means the place Kei was talking about is probably some kind of nest, and since it looks like the old woman just stole my points, that's where I need to be now.

When the old woman dropped the alien, they watched the bird struggle as if fighting for breath before its eyes glazed and mouth hung open with its tongue showing.

"Looks like it needed that robot form to survive our atmosphere," Nishi said, inwardly feeling relieved. "It was using it as a shell."

The woman turned and smiled at him. "Are you alright?"

"I guess you're not as pathetic as I thought." Nishi walked past her and checked his map before heading toward the exit.

"Oh, you don't spend most of your life with a soldier without learning something," she replied, but Nishi was out of earshot by then. "Come on Ryota."

Ryota stood up and ran to catch up. "Grandma, you beat the robot, that was so cool!"

Nishi frowned as he walked ahead, wondering why the hell the two were following him. I can't believe that old fart actually killed an alien. Nishi was conflicted, unsure whether to feel grateful or annoyed. Now I still need five points. Nishi looked at the map once more. And it looks like the only one left is probably the boss.

"Can we go now grandma? I wanna go home, and I'm still hungry."

"Not yet Ryota, soon."

"But you already said that, I'm tired!"

Nishi gritted his teeth; the boy was annoying the hell out of him. "Damn brat," he muttered.

"I know you are dear, I promise, not much longer."

Ryota stopped walking and knelt down. "No, I can't walk anymore grandma." Ryota began to cry loudly. "I wanna go home!"

Nishi suddenly stopped and whirled around. "Shut up!"

Ryota stopped immediately, his eyes wide at Nishi, but it wasn't his abrupt yelling which caused him to stop; it was the gun aiming at him. "Little brat, just shut the hell up before I shut you up permanently, got it?" Nishi glared at the old woman before lowering the gun and walking ahead.

The woman shook her head and then smiled at Ryota. "Don't cry dear, grandma is here. Why don't you climb on my back and sleep a while, and we'll be home before you know it."

Ryota smiled widely. "Great!"

Nishi sighed in frustration; god damn it, he almost wished he killed them.

00:19:16.

"I wasn't always like this you know," the old woman spoke as she managed to keep close behind Nishi, her grandson comfortably on her back, who had now fallen asleep. "When my husband died, I became lonely."

Nishi rolled his eyes, trying his best to ignore her and the increasing frustration of being followed. The fuck did he care about her reasons for spoiling the damn brat.

"He always told me, 'spoil him too much, and he won't grow up right.' I agreed with him, but losing him so suddenly… I didn't want to be lonely, and I showered Ryota with attention and became quite forgetful. A bumbling fool I suppose you could say. My husband was a soldier back in the day, but even a veteran succumbs to old age eventually. You see, my husband was hit by a truck nine months ago, such a tragic accident."

Nishi stopped suddenly.

"My name is Jiro Sugihara, I'm sixty-five, and retired. I'm actually ex-military, and as for my possible death, I was hit by a truck."

Nishi's eyes grew wide when he finally realized and turned to face the old woman, but she faced the ground with sadness.

"Jiro-chan became forgetful too sometimes; he got on the wrong bus once, and he started going for walks at night, always claiming to forget why. He even brought a dog home, but it ran away when Jiro-chan died. The dog who appeared in that room looked a lot like him too.

Nishi stared at her in disbelief; all this time, the old woman and brat were the wife and grandchild of someone whom he had fought side by side with, who had almost gained enough points to free himself, and who had even saved his life. No fucking way, what the hell are the odds of that.

Nishi clicked his tongue and continued to walk on. I should say something, but she'll probably die by the end of this mission anyway. Nishi glanced behind him at the two following him; he couldn't care less about them, but the respect Nishi had for Jiro wanted him to at least tell the old woman how Jiro really died and that all those times she thought he was going senile, he was merely covering himself because of Gantz. Nishi wondered if he had known who they were when he first met them, would he have said those things before?

00:17:05.

"A truck was not the cause of Sugihara's death, at least, not at the end." Although it's ironic to know that's how you died.

"How can you know that? Did you know him?"

"When you and the brat died earlier, you came into the room, brought there by the black ball."

"I remember one of the others mentioning something like that, but what does it have to do with my Jiro-chan?"

Nishi tried his best to remain calm. "Nine months ago, Sugihara was hit by a truck, but Gantz, the black ball, brought him to the same room, including myself, and three others. The first mission, one died, but the rest of us, Sugihara included, survived. We survived three other missions together, we were a team, I guess." Nishi turned around to face the shocked expression on the woman's face. "Sugihara wasn't senile, he died fighting a strong alien in order to return to you." Nishi shrugged and inclined his head sardonically. "The sad part is that he could have freed himself if he had survived that mission. Pity." Explaining the truth sympathetically wasn't Nishi's style, so he didn't care if he came across harshly, just as long as she knew the truth about Jiro; Nishi figured he owed him that much.

Nishi walked on without another word, leaving the old woman to stare after him.

"Jiro-chan," she muttered through tears, but they were tears of happiness because she had learned the truth and was happy his death had meaning. She then remembered the letter she had received and the brief explanation of asking a friend to post it should something happen, and now she knew it must have been one of the other people the boy spoke of just now.

"I think you should try to track him down. It might be nice for you to get reacquainted; it's been quite a few years since you've had any contact with any army friends."

"It's quite alright, dear."

"Jiro-chan started to speak of a young soldier from his army days, I could tell he was quite fond of him, but it was only recently a couple of months before he died. But now I realize that the soldier he was referring to, was probably you."

Nishi couldn't help but groan slightly. Well, that's nothing short of embarrassing. "Gantz doesn't allow those who survive to talk about it to anyone outside, so if he was talking about me, then I imagine he used the army reference to compensate."

"Jiro never did tell me your name."

"Nishi," the teen replied bluntly.

"My name is Kayo. I'm happy I know the truth, thank you Nishi."

Nishi clicked his tongue, annoyed by the sentiment. "I didn't tell you to be nice, but Jiro had our respect, that's all."

00:16:01.

I guess that's the building, and it looks like Kei isn't even here yet, that boss is mine, and then I'll have a hundred points for sure.

"You're not going into that building on your own, are you?" Kayo asked worriedly, expressing concern for someone other than her grandchild since she arrived in the room.

Nishi rolled his eyes. "I need the points. Even Sugihara realized you have to kill to gain them." Nishi then grinned as he looked at them; Ryota had woken up by now and was holding Kayo's hand. "I would advise that you don't follow if you don't want to die."

Nishi entered through the front and disappeared into the building.

"Oh dear."

Nishi looked around the building's lower level before heading up the stairs. He was beginning to think Kei really had already gotten the boss and had just moved on to help the others. "Point hogging-" Nishi stilled when he finally saw something in the far room opposite. Is that thing supposed to be a bird? Nishi grinned and walked quietly toward it, raising his weapon once he got closer. Nishi's fingers slowly pressed against the two triggers. Mine. The sound of creaking behind him halted Nishi from firing, and he glanced back to see the doors on either side open. Nishi frowned before letting out a gasp as not one but six of the robot aliens stepped out of the rooms. Nishi almost dropped his gun when he saw them. He was positive Kei hadn't mentioned that there was more than the boss to defeat. "Fuck, what now?" Beads of sweat trickled down the side of Nishi's head, and his grip tightened on the gun. "I'm trapped." Nishi suddenly heard the large bird move behind him and whirled quickly to face him, staring up in fear as it towered above him. Nishi yelled angrily and tried to shoot the bird but missed its head and a hole eventually blew open in the roof above, causing the large bird to become angry. Nishi tried to step back to avoid the bird's wing, but the space was too narrow, and he was thrown off his feet, and once again, lost his gun as it skidded behind him out of reach.

Nishi gritted his teeth and pushed up on his elbows to get to his feet, but he soon realized the six robot shells were closing in on him, looking down with anger.

00:15:03.

At least they're alive, Kurono thought with some relief as he and Tetsuo ran toward them. I wonder what happened to the roof. "Have you two seen anyone else from the room around?"

Tetsuo was shocked to find the old woman and kid alive, given how many had shown on the map before they had split up. Strange.

Kayo nodded, and Ryota explained, "We ran into a scary boy, and he helped us."

Kurono tilted his head and then gasped. "Nishi helped you?"

Kayo smiled. "That's right, he said he wanted more points, I don't entirely know what that means, but we were grateful anyway."

"Grandma killed a robot too!"

Kurono smiled. "Good work."

Tetsuo didn't fully understand the points either, but he was curious and would ask about it later. "So, where's the kid now?"

Kurono still couldn't believe Nishi had actually helped them. I guess he didn't completely ditch us after all.

"He's gone in that building," Ryota told them.

Kurono's eyes widened. "He what?"

"I guess he wanted even more points," Kayo replied. "I shouldn't worry too much, I'm sure he'll be out soon."

Kurono grew angry. "Dammit! I should have known he'd go after the boss!" Kurono turned to the biker. "Tetsuo, I might need your help, there's more than just the boss in there, you in?"

"Yeh, alright."

Nishi covered his face with his arms as his body was struck with the robot's energy. Based on their build-up length, the attacks weren't as strong as they could be, but if he didn't get out, he wasn't going to last much longer; his suit would surely fail soon. Nishi's eyes clenched shut as he gritted his teeth in pain, hoping the aliens would let up long enough so he could try and escape.

This was the biggest risk he had taken, and he regretted it.

A/N: I've only just discovered the old woman's surname (I didn't know it was known) I was always hinting in my first sequel that she was married to an OC of mine, so for anyone who has read the first one, this detail has been changed to match up.

Anyway, I hope the chapter was enjoyable!