Yara sat uncomfortably in an economy seat between two strangers. After a week-long holiday in Japan, the American was ready to return home. She wasn't looking forward to the inevitable repercussions that her spontaneous out of country trip would bring though. She had left without much planning or notice on her part.

"Is it even worth finding a new job?", she thought.

After a fairly normal take off, Yara tried her best to get some sleep. Just as she was about to nod off the plane shook violently. She had begun to convince herself it was just some bad turbulence when it happened again, this time with a noticeable dip in altitude from the plane.

An older Japanese man that sat beside her shouted while pointing out their shared window. The wing of the plane billowed thick, black smoke.

You've got to be kidding me!

After that it was a blur. The plane was falling. Screaming was the only sound Yara could make out as her ears popped from the dramatic change in pressure. Her's chest felt tight from the fear.

This isn't how I was supposed to die! Eyes tightly shut, her arms wrapped around herself, Yara could only hope that the impact would kill her quickly.

Suddenly silence. Then many panicked murmurs all around her. Yara felt cramped between many bodies. She finally opened her eyes to find she wasn't on the plane anymore, now instead squeezed up against several people. She recognized some of them as other passengers on the plane and one of the flight attendants was being jostled nearby.

Where are we? Wherever they were, it sure wasn't meant for that many people. Bare white walls could just barely be seen in the crowd. She never thought much about what the afterlife would look like, but she sure didn't think it would look like this.

"Oh come the fuck on.", said a noticeably tall Japanese teenager. He had long black hair and was visibly annoyed. Pushing through the crowd, he knocked Yara off her feet.

Tripping backwards, Yara fell hard on something artificial with a loud thunk. It was a smooth black sphere almost coming up to her waist. Something about the ball reminded her of a television screen as it reflected back her image. The large black sphere hummed under Yara's touch.

"Guys, it's over here!", yelled the teenager that had pushed her. He spoke in Japanese, which Yara didn't know much of. But, something about how he was holding himself told her that he knew more than anyone else here. Strangely, he was wearing black gloves under his high school uniform. That same black material peaked under his white collar.

Three men pushed through the noisy crowd towards the high schooler and the ball. Like the teenager, these grown Japanese men were conspicuously wearing the same gloves and neck coverings. Yara couldn't help but wonder if it was a full suit under their daywear.

"Why the are there so many today? A highway pileup?", asked one of the suited up men, this one with noticeable stubble.

"Dunno, but we'll probably hear about it on the news later!", chuckled another man with glasses.

Yara stood in the way of the ball, surrounded by the males in the black suits. She didn't know what they were saying, but they were weirdly jovial for just dying in a plane crash. Maybe they hadn't been on the plane with everyone else? She looked up at them, sheepish.

"Move, foreigner!" said one, pushing her to the side surprisingly easy.

Gaijin, huh? I know that word at least. Being pushed so hard, she practically fell on top of the person to the side of her. A boy with heavy slanted eyes, maybe 13 or 14, grabbed on to Yara and was the only reason she wasn't knocked to the floor.

"Watch it, Yamasaki!", said the young teen angrily.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Oh, my bad, Nishi.", said Yamasaki, the man who had pushed Yara. He was smirking and it was obvious he found the whole situation funny.

Yara leaned on Nishi a bit to get standing again. His face was filled with loathing as she blathered apologies to the boy in a mix of English and what little Japanese she knew.

"Enough already! Stop apologizing!" Nishi practically shouted.

"Wah, oh. Right, sorry, um, I mean. N-nevermind" She was surprised to hear rough but understandable English from the middle-schooler.

"What's going on with GANTZ, Izumi? This shit is ridiculous." Nishi said to the tall teen, after turning away from her. Yara took in that the boy also had a suit on. The five suited up guys looked at the black ball expectantly.

"GANTZ, hurry the hell up. Just how many more people are you going to pull in? Most are just going to die anyway!" Nishi kicked the ball lightly with the sole of his shoe. To Yara's astonishment the black front lit up with green text. Text that she couldn't read.

Along with the text came a strange song that sounded like it came from the 1950s. Despite The cheeriness of the song, chills still ran down her back. She didn't know how the song was coming from the black sphere when it had no obvious speakers.

The few people that could see past the five talked amongst themselves, questioning what the text meant. Many were impatient and tried to push forward to look, but those in suits stood firmly in their place, not moving an inch.

ALL 0F YOUR 0LD LIVE5 ARE G0NE.

I WILL DECIDE HOW T0 U5E Y0UR NEW LIVE5.

THAT'5 THE WAY THE C00KIE CRUMBLE5.

Not long after, the text disappeared, instead a photo of some spider-like creature appeared, along with more writing Yara couldn't read. It was red and yellow with long fangs. She would have thought it was just a normal zoomed in photo of a spider if it weren't for its bulging eyes that had whites and irises like a human. Something told her that this wasn't just some elaborate photo editing.

"Get ready to grab what you can before the newbies start messing with everything.", said Izumi. The five tensed as if they were getting ready for something.

A hiss noise came from the ball. Yara inched as far as she could from it while in the tight squeeze of strangers. Again she bumped into the boy, this time only his shoulder, but Nishi seemed to be blatantly ignoring her. He was dead set on watching GANTZ.

*Thummp!* Three shelves rocketed out from the ball. Several people that were to the sides and behind GANTZ were knocked into the nearby walls. Suddenly the already tight space got even tighter.

Izumi was the first to get to one of the shelves. He grabbed a bladeless sword handle and one of the pistols. Peeking over, Yara saw what looked like guns. But growing up in the rural parts of her state, she had seen her fair share of guns and these didn't look anything like what she grew up with.

The other suited members also quickly grabbed up the guns and handles. Yara quietly grabbed one of the small guns as the crowd gathered to look around as well.

The pistol was front weighted and felt heavy in her hand. Oddly the gun had two triggers. She couldn't find any hammer or magazine on the gun. With it being rounded, maybe it's like a revolver rather than an automatic? She fiddled around with it some more but couldn't figure out how you were supposed to put ammo into it. Yara noticed some passengers taking the guns and pointing them at others, like they were some sort of toy. She hunched down, trying to avoid their crosshairs.

She carefully watched the suited men who, obvious to her, seemed to know what was happening. The thought crossed her mind to ask the middle-schooler what was happening, but social anxiety got in her way.

The suited group didn't even try to hide the fact that they were hogging most of the weapons. Taking only from the two side shelves, the men seemed to entirely ignore the back one. Maybe I should ignore it too then? No, I should at least check…

Slowly, she inched her way to the backside of the ball. The back shelf seemed to be stuffed with dozens and dozens of metal briefcases. Is this stuff from the plane?!

One man yelled out in English that one of the cases had his name on it. More people came up to the back shelf after hearing that and once again Yara was squeezed back against GANTZ. Frick, I'm just going to have to wait my turn…

As Yara watched the others sifting through the cases, hoping to see her name on one, someone screamed out loud. She turned around, only to see the top of a woman's head disappearing in a blue light. Yara let out her own yelp when she saw the middle of the person's brain!

"It's starting.", stated Izumi while holstering his pistol.

"Finally! If I had one more person touching my ass, I was ready to blow some brains in!", said Yamasaki.

"I bet not even 10% of these people make it back.", said Nishi, smirking at the thought.

Yara could feel herself shaking. She clung to the one gun in her hand. What good is a gun without ammo though? M-maybe I still have time to find the briefcase with my name?

She began tossing the cases out, looking desperately for hers. She didn't know what was in it, but there was a good chance that she would need it. Suddenly, a man behind her retched. Reflected in GANTZ, Yara saw that the top of her own head was slowly disappearing into the light. She continued to look in vain, but soon the light transported her eyes. It was too late!