God's Gift for the Future

God's Gift for the Future (神から未来のプレゼント) is a oneshot manga by Eiichiro Oda, originally published in the October 1993 issue of Monthly Shonen Jump Original.

It was later reprinted in 1998 as part of Wanted!, a compilation of Oda's pre-One Piece stories.

Special Notebook


The series revolves around an unnamed notebook of God, which he it to Bran for one day.



The special effects of the "artifact" will only appear if the user writes with the Pen of Fate (運命のペン). Anything written with it will happen, just like an agenda of the future. To cancel the effects, the user must use the Eraser of Fate (運命の消しゴム); using just any eraser is useless, as the written event will happen anyway.

Plot
The main character, Bran, is a pickpocket who although trying to correct his way of life, just cannot stop his "bad habit". God himself decides to kill him and give his soul a strict scolding to prevent him from doing more bad things in his future lives, then plans to kill him with his notebook, in which whatever you write will happen at the exact date and hour that you specify, but instead of writing "A meteorite will hit Bran's house", he accidentally writes "A meteorite will hit Branchi"; Branchi being a big department store. He only notices his error when an angel tells him.

God then decides to meet Bran himself and to give him the notebook as "a present" without saying anything more. Bran then discovers the uses of the notebook, as casual things of his day were "predicted" inside the notebook. And then he also discovers the last entry: "A meteorite will hit Branchi".

Some hours later, God appears again to speak with Bran, telling him that if he wants to be forgiven and to live, he needs to save the lifes of all the people at Branchi. He also states that only the things written in the notebook with the named "Pen of Fate" will occur. And the only way to reverse it would be to erase what is written with the "Eraser of Fate", but he lost it.

Bran then heads to Branchi, while on the way to Branchi, he is stealing a gun from some bodyguards.

He first tries to tell the truth about Branchi, but the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the department store just laughs at him. He then decides to enter the radio studio and to tell everybody in the building (using his gun to have the right to do so) that there is a bomb in there and to get out immediately.

His plan works so well this time that everybody is out even too quickly, leaving only him inside seven minutes before the arriving of the meteorite, so he decides to come out to talk with the media who are already reunited around the entry. Everybody laughs at him when the CEO of the department store recognizes him and talks about the meteorite, forcing him to use his gun (harmlessly) to calm them down. Then, with only a few minutes remaining, a woman notices that her son, Yoshio, is still inside of the building, so Bran dashes in to save him. Finding him at the sixth floor with thirty seconds remaining, Bran jumps through the window with Yoshio in his arms, falling with the meteorite hitting Branchi just behind them. However, they just land safely, surprising all the people who tried to grab them, and after returning Yoshio to her mother, he just walks away saying that they do not need to thank him because "It's Fate".

Back in Heaven, God and his assistant Angel discuss Bran's good deed and decide not to kill him, God then notices a new entry in the last chapter of the notebook that reveals that Bran had stolen the Pen of Fate from God sometime before returning it and the notebook, and that he had written "Bran jumps and lands with no injury. Happy ending, take that, shitty geezer", leaving both entities impressed with Bran's skills. Bran is last seen continuing his pickpocketing habit.

Trivia

 * This is the first time Oda's joke characters Domo-kun and Nnke-kun appear.
 * Oda claims to have written this story simply for the reason of wanting to draw a large building being destroyed.
 * This is the first manga which Oda drew knowing he wanted to create "a story".
 * The concept of the notebook's power is similar to the Death Note from the series with the same name. It is a notebook belonging to a Death God that will kill the people who have their names written into it. The Eraser of Fate is similar to the Death Note pilot exclusive Death Eraser, both of which can erase and undo anything written in their respective notebooks.
 * This story is the one of the few stories written by Oda that takes place in modern day, albeit still with supernatural elements.

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