Another reason to hate Gantz

[demonicmuse]

Post-Mission 2, Room 1

Lance couldn't shake the feeling that he knew that Mariko woman. He tried to sleep it off, but he was still too pumped from the mission. Then something twigged. She'd been in hospital clothes. He knew her 'time of death' and her name. He also figured that if he knew her, she would have been in a hospital nearby. All he had to do was check the databases of those hospitals, and then go from there. If his girlfriend came by, he'd tell her he was working. He got up and went to his computer.

Hacking into a hospital database isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, and he had several to go through if he didn't get the right hospital. Still, after three hours, four cups of coffee, two toilet breaks and a jam donut he'd found what he was looking for. Name, address, the works. Then he noticed the cause of death. He froze. Liver pierced by a tree after falling from a balcony.
"No way,' he muttered to himself. It couldn't be. He then decided to try different searches, see what he could find out about her.

An hour later, he had discovered that both her parents had been killed, and she had been left with a huge debt. She had also won a national kick boxing tournament. The pieces fell into place neatly. Mariko Tokiwa was the burglar that had killed him. The kick boxing explained how she had kicked his ass so easily. The huge debt explained why she had been stealing from him. It also explained why she avoided him in the mission. She was the reason he was fighting for the black ball.

That gave him an idea. He started searching for information on the black ball. He hadn't been the first in that room. Maybe someone had posted something. As he knew exactly what he was looking for, he found it quite quickly. It was titled: The Black Ball's Room. Reading down, he found out that it's name is Gantz. He kept reading. It had information on everything, the guns, the items, the suits. He found out that you died if you went out of the boundary, and if you told anyone about Gantz.

"Lance! There you are." Lance closed everything on his screen and turned to face his girlfriend, Yukimi, who had just entered the apartment. "Where the hell have you been?"
Shit. He couldn't tell her. He'd die if he did. -Think Lance, think!-
"I had to go get a copy of my files from the computer at work," he replied. Yukimi's face went dark and she glared at him. -Oh Shit.- he thought.
"I've been looking for you. I called your work about ten minutes ago. Security said they hadn't seen you, so just where the fuck have you been?" she yelled.
"I can't tell you Yuki."
"Bullshit. You mean you won't tell me."
"No, I mean I can't. I want to, but I can't."
"Why, you going to die if you do?"
"Something like that."
"If you can't tell me, Lance, you can't trust me. If you can't trust me, I can't be with you. So tell me right now, or I'm leaving." Dead silence met that last statement. Lance spoke a couple of minutes later.
"I'm sorry Yuki."
"Then this is goodbye." She stalked off into their room. He could here the sound of her packing up her things. Lance just sat there with his head in his hands. When she had finished packing, she left the apartment, slamming the door behind her. Tears ran down Lance's cheeks. Because of Mariko, he'd been sent to the black ball. Because of that black ball, his girlfriend had left him. Another reason to hate the black ball. Another reason to hate Gantz. Another reason to hate Mariko.

[demonicmuse]

Post-Mission 3, Room 1

...

With all that had been happening in Gantz lately and the effect it had on his life, Lance just hadn't been overly focused on his work. Needless to say, his boss had noticed, and wasn't very impressed at all. Lance looked up from his computer as his boss walked in.
"I've given you a couple of chances already, Lance, but your work has still been slipping lately. Quite frankly, this is unacceptable. You're fired. I want you and your things out the door by the end of the day." Then his boss turned around and left.

Lance just sat their for a minute, letting the information sink in. Normally, he would have been pretty angry and told his boss exactly what he thought of him. Maybe he would have screwed around with the network. But too much had happened lately, and things were anything but normal. Besides, he had been doing other things apart from work. He just sighed and started packing up the things on his desk. Great, just great. He and his box left the office, went down the stairs and out the building. He went home to his apartment, dumped the box on the kitchen bench and grabbed a beer out the fridge. He then looked over to what he had set up in the main room a week ago.

Several game consoles were placed around the room connected to an equal number of TVs. Cables connected to light guns snaked around the room. He had taken to playing multiple shooting games at once before the last gantz mission, several days earlier. His aim and reactions had improved quite a lot. It was one of the reasons his work had dropped. He was training to improve his chances of survival in Gantz. Though what exactly he had to live for now, he wasn't quite sure. His ability to fire guns quickly and accurately had been mastered to his satisfaction. He know needed to learn to fight in close combat. Now that he didn't have a job, he could focus completely on his fighting skills.

He had done Brazilian Ju-jitsu with his little brother a while ago, but had to give it up when he started university. He would take it up again. He went to his computer and looked up the nearest dojo. There was one close by. He could start right away.

...

A couple of weeks later, he was looking through a electronic goods store looking for a new shooting game when a video playing on a screen on one of the walls caught his eye. He looked closer, and grinned. It was about Miki and Sayumi. It looked like they had been training to improve their skills as well. Though what Sayumi had told her agent to get them to let her learn to snipe was beyond him. He watched for a little longer, then went back to his browsing. He found a couple of games he wanted, bought them, then returned to his apartment. Until the next mission, he would alternate between training his shooting skills and training his martial arts skills. One day he would play shoooting games, the next he would go down to the dojo. Now, he could complete Time Crisis 3 and Crisis Zone 2 at the same time, both in record times.

When Gantz called him, he would be ready.