When Ichinose Honami opened her eyes again, her senses adjusted to the shifting light.
The metallic tang of blood faded, replaced by the stale, familiar air of the Black Sphere's room.
"We're back..."
After a brief moment of disorientation, she swept her gaze around the room.
She found Shiranami Chihiro and Shiina Hiyori — both pale, both glassy-eyed — but standing. Upright. Intact.
The heart that had been lodged in her throat finally dropped back where it belonged.
"Thank god... Thank god."
"Ichinose!!"
Before she could fully collect herself, Shiranami Chihiro crashed into her arms, voice already breaking into sobs.
"It hurt so much — I thought I'd never see you again..."
Feeling her friend's body tremble against hers, Ichinose Honami wrapped her arms around her and rubbed slow, gentle circles across her back, murmuring soft reassurances.
But inside, she was anything but calm.
Yes, they'd made it out. But that also meant both of them had burned through their extra lives. No more margin for error. No more safety net.
Their lives were now a candle guttering in the wind.
Next trial... what then?
Classmates would probably sign up for the points — after all, everyone had one guaranteed slot. But there was still that completely unpredictable wildcard pick...
If Shiranami Chihiro got pulled in again... or someone who'd already lost a life...
She was still frowning, anxiety threading through her thoughts, when a voice — unhurried, faintly lazy — cut through the silence.
"Back sooner than I expected..."
Sakayanagi Arisu had apparently already composed herself at some point; she was watching them now with an expression that hovered somewhere between a smile and not quite one.
"Given how thoroughly post-traumatic you all look — does that mean the hidden monster was found and put down?"
Ichinose came back to herself. She gave a small nod.
Then she released Shiranami, stepped forward, and bowed — properly, deliberately — toward Chris.
"Just now — thank you. Truly."
"If you hadn't stepped in at the last second... I'd probably be walking around with a Parasyte in my body right now."
"Don't."
[Ichinose.jpg]
Chris glanced away and deactivated the Omniscient Eye without any particular fanfare.
"Save the gratitude."
"Just don't come after me for stealing the kill."
"Of course not!" Ichinose shook her head quickly.
"Honestly, it wasn't really stealing."
Katsuragi Kohei rubbed his shaved head. He still looked a little shaken, but his assessment came out measured and fair.
"Our X-GUNs were either mid-charge or locked in firing delay. If you hadn't moved, the whole thing would have fallen apart at the finish line."
"Hmph."
Ryuuen Kakeru leaned against the wall.
Said nothing. Just radiated contained irritation.
His brain knew perfectly well that Chris had made the right call. But somehow, no matter how he looked at it, Class D had come in at the last second and scooped up the decisive kill.
This round had cost him. Badly.
"Heh~"
Sakayanagi Arisu caught the look on his face and let her gaze linger there with quiet amusement.
"It sounds like Chris-kun has once again stolen the show."
"Would you mind walking me through what exactly happened? I'm quite curious~"
Chris held up two fingers.
"Luck, mostly."
"One thrust. One extension. Like I said — I was just there to pick up the scraps."
"Luck?"
Sakayanagi gave a soft, skeptical laugh.
"Wielding a blade that extends and retracts at will — with that level of control — isn't something you explain away with luck, Chris-kun."
Chris neither confirmed nor denied it.
Not that Sakayanagi was wrong.
Most people can't reliably aim a pistol under pressure, let alone pull off something that approximated Ichimaru Gin's Shinso — a divine spear fired at near-impossible speed and range. To land that shot, he'd had to run the Omniscient Eye's future-prediction sight to plot the trajectory in advance, then layer telekinesis on top to physically guide the Parasyte mid-air.
One input feeding into another, back to back, all at once.
God, that was a lot of micromanagement.
"None of that matters right now."
A cool, precise voice entered the conversation.
Horikita Suzune noticed that the black weapon had vanished from her hand. She turned toward the Black Sphere, something anxious flickering in her expression.
"If the exam is over — shouldn't we be tallying scores?"
As if in direct response to her expectation, the surface of the silent sphere rippled to life. Streams of light coiled across it — and then rows of sharp white text bloomed outward.
[Well then — time to tally up~]
[Contribution Rankings for This Trial:]
[Individual Score Rankings]
[1. Chris: 7 points (Cumulative: 10 points)]
[2. Ichinose Honami / Katsuragi Kohei: 5 points]
[3. Ryuuen Kakeru: 3 points]
[4. Horikita Suzune / Kamuro Masumi / Sakayanagi Arisu / Shiranami Chihiro / Shiina Hiyori: 2 points]
And then, the data that actually mattered — class standings.
[Class Rankings and Point Bonuses ——]
[Class A: 1,030 points (940 base + 9 kills × 1000%) — Bonus spending points awarded to all class members: 9,000 points]
[Class B: 702.5 points (650 base + 7 kills × 750%) — Bonus spending points awarded to all class members: 5,250 points]
[Class C: 515 points (490 base + 5 kills × 500%) — Bonus spending points awarded to all class members: 2,500 points]
[Class D: 90 points (0 base + 9 kills × 1000%) — Bonus spending points awarded to all class members: 9,000 points]
[*S-Points may be additionally spent at a 1:10 ratio to increase class points.]
"9,000 points..."
Horikita Suzune bit her lip. She dragged her finger across the sphere's surface and tapped her own profile.
[Horikita Suzune: 2 points]
[Evaluation: Big moves, big energy — and a grand total of two-point-fi... wait, just two points. A textbook case of wanting everything and achieving nothing. Classic.]
Horikita stared at the brutally snarky assessment.
The corner of her mouth twitched. Heat crept up to her ears. She couldn't argue with a single word of it, and that made it significantly worse.
"Um..."
Shiina Hiyori leaned in, studying the pitifully small individual score with a look of genuine puzzlement.
"We literally put our lives on the line out there... and each person only walks away with a handful of points? Compared to the difficulty of what we just went through, isn't the payout kind of... underwhelming?"
"Not quite, Shiina-san."
Sakayanagi Arisu studied the rankings with visible satisfaction and offered her explanation in a pleasant tone.
"Setting aside the class score system — which rewards overall group performance — just the fact that Black Sphere points can be converted into class points at a 1:10 ratio is itself significant. It's a mechanism that places individual performance above collective rules. That's not a small thing."
"And more importantly..."
She paused deliberately, letting her gaze drift toward Chris.
"Has everyone already forgotten?"
"The very first thing the system told us when this all started."
Chris didn't move. He wore the expression of someone who had already worked out the punchline and was simply waiting for everyone else to catch up.
It was Ryuuen Kakeru who stepped up to the sphere.
"...Points can be spent to purchase equipment."
"GANTZ. Pull up the equipment catalogue. Let me see exactly what your S-Points are actually worth."
The words had barely left his mouth.
The sphere's surface flashed — and a full exchange list spread open across it.
[Gantz Suit (Combat Reinforcement Suit): 10 points]
[X-SHOT GUN (Reinforced Rifle): 10 points]
[Controller (Command Unit / Radar): 40 points]
[Z-GUN (Gravity Gun): 100 points]
[Hard Suit (Full Reinforcement Armor): 100 points]
[GANTZ Mecha (Giant Combat Frame): 100 points]
...
"Oh my~"
Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes landed on the absurd mech illustration at the bottom of the list, and something genuinely delighted crossed her face.
"They even have a giant robot? Now this is starting to feel like proper future technology."
Katsuragi Kohei, by contrast, approached it with complete pragmatism.
He tapped through each item one by one — found that none of them had detailed descriptions — and eventually fixed his gaze on the cheapest entry: the combat suit.
"At first glance... this reinforcement suit looks like an introductory reward for newcomers. Only 10 points. That's actually not too bad?"
Chris, standing nearby, gave an internal nod of approval.
Yeah. I was pretty generous with that one.
In the original GANTZ, the suits were free — handed out to anyone who showed up. But dropping something that broken into a modern point-economy without any gating would've been chaos. The suit was worth thirty points minimum. Honestly, a base price of thirty wouldn't even have been unreasonable.
And GANTZ's original rulebook had that infuriating clause — find gear worth 100 points, and it automatically unlocks for all future sessions.
Absolutely not.
How was that ever considered balanced? What did that leave for people who actually grinded their points the hard way?
Such was the burden of being the one running the game. No one would ever truly understand the thankless complexity of it all.
For the sake of fairness, he'd had no choice but to enter the era of the Great Patch.
You can use the gear. But nothing is free.
Power only means something if you paid for it. Right?
"Um — GANTZ?"
While everyone else was absorbed in the equipment list, Ichinose suddenly spoke up.
"I have a question. Since 100 points can be used to buy back our own lives..."
"If one of our teammates actually dies during a mission — can we use points to bring them back too?"
The room went silent.
A beat later:
[But of course (^_^)/]
[For just 100 points — anyone, no exceptions. Even if all that's left is a pile of scraps, even if it's nothing but ash — I'll bring them back, completely whole.]
"It can even trade in death?"
Shiina Hiyori covered her mouth, eyes wide with something between awe and horror.
Ryuuen Kakeru let out a short, cold laugh. His voice was all edges.
"Reviving a few humans? That's nothing."
"Our lives have been its playthings from the very start, haven't they?"
The words were acidic. But every single person who had died at least once in these trials went very quiet — and couldn't find it in themselves to argue.
Only Shiranami Chihiro was unaffected by the cynicism.
She looked at the girl beside her, eyes warm and full.
She already knew exactly who Ichinose had asked that question for.
"Ichinose... you really are the world's best little angel."
Ichinose looked slightly embarrassed.
She happened to glance over — and noticed Horikita Suzune standing off to one side, phone raised, photographing the equipment list displayed on the sphere, fingers flying as she typed up notes.
Ichinose pulled out her own phone and suggested:
"Should we all exchange contact info? It'd make it easier to reach each other if we need to put a team together later."
"No need for that."
Sakayanagi Arisu stepped in gently.
"Didn't Kushida-san already create a group chat? Just have her send the QR code — everyone joins the group. Information sharing, the occasional points transaction — all of it can happen there."
"As for personal contact info..."
Her tone carried just the faintest implication. "That should stay reserved for people we're actually close to."
No one objected.
The group spent a few more minutes clustered around the sphere, asking questions about equipment durability and the finer mechanics of resurrection — and then, one by one, people began drifting toward the door.
After everything they'd just survived, all any of them wanted was to return to reality and sleep for a very long time.
Before long, only three remained in the room: Chris, Sakayanagi Arisu, and Kamuro Masumi — who had been kept behind as the involuntary cane-substitute.
Sakayanagi watched Chris with a quiet, smiling gaze.
She said nothing. Just... watched.
That particular brand of eye contact — the kind that felt like being examined — made Kamuro Masumi profoundly uncomfortable where she stood.
"So, um..."
Kamuro finally cracked, turning to Chris with thinly veiled urgency.
"Why are you still here? Everyone's gone — want to just... head out together?"
Chris didn't answer her.
He crouched in front of the Black Sphere and tapped idly at the screen a few times.
Hmmm——
With a shimmer of teleportation light, a sleek black hard-case materialized on the floor beside his feet, labeled with his name.
He picked it up and shot a glance at Sakayanagi, who was still doing her best impression of an enigmatic riddler.
"I've got enough points. I'm going to test out a reinforcement suit. Unless the two of you are planning to stick around and watch me change."
"Heh~"
Sakayanagi gave a soft laugh — utterly unbothered by the attempt to chase her off.
"Why don't you take a guess at why I'm still here?"
Chris gave a quiet roll of his eyes. He had no interest in playing word games with this woman.
Instead, he directed his question at the sphere.
"GANTZ. Healing a congenital physical condition — how many points would that cost?"
[Only 30 points, meow~]
The composed, unruffled expression on Sakayanagi Arisu's face flickered — just barely.
And then the curve of her smile deepened, slowly, into something quieter and more genuine.
Chris didn't look at her again. He lifted a hand in a casual wave.
"I'm out."
And as that retreating figure gradually disappeared from view, the girl slowly lowered her eyes.
She touched the tip of her tongue to her lips — which had gone unexpectedly dry.
"Kamuro-san."
"...What?"
"Don't you think..." Sakayanagi Arisu murmured softly, "we really are terribly well-matched?"
Kamuro Masumi: "..."
Someone's caught feelings.
I'm not saying who.
——End of Chapter——
Monster Point Values:
Malevolent Spirit: 1 point each. Three-in-one composite Parasyte total: 10 points — since it wasn't a single independent entity, broken down it's 3 points per component, with the actual finishing kill worth 4 points.
Also — there's a lot of GANTZ equipment, and inserting images here tends to clutter the reading experience. I'll open a dedicated chapter for it when I get the time.
____
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