Disclaimer: I do not own Zombie Land Saga, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Saga Stories: A tale of Zombie Land Saga
Chapter five: Of zombies and bonfires
Over at the Sagazine Editorial Department located in an office building somewhere in the Saga prefecture, the people working in that office room were hard at work trying to gather what information that they could scrape up on their latest task. One of the people working in that office room is a young adult man with shoulder-length light brownish hair, and he wore a long-sleeved white shirt under a green somewhat baggy t-shirt, a pair of tannish slacks held up with a belt, sock and shoes. This young adult man stretched a bit as he leaned back into his chair, a bit stiff from slaving way at his computer station for as long as he had been doing.
"Oh, for crying out loud," the young adult man said aloud, a hint of mild frustration in his tone, "We're just running around in circles here. How can none of them have any presence on any forms of social media?" The young adult man leaned forward a bit as he looked at the web page that was pulled up on his computer's monitor; it was a fan-created website dedicated to the girls of the actress troop Franchouchou, the stars of the latest hit TV series 'Saga Stories'.
Letting out a mildly exasperated sigh, the young man said aloud, "There's no pictures of any of the girls other than ones taken of them from past events, and the only videos of them circling around on the internet are the commercials they shot for the hot springs and Drive-In Tori, plus that one popular video someone recorded of numbers one and four having that rap battle against each other during the open mic performance at Saga castle a while ago."
As the young adult man kept airing his frustrations of failing to find anything on Franchouchou out loud, one of the higher-ranked members of the team working in that room came walking over; it was a slightly older man, with somewhat scruffy black hair that reached his shoulders, and he wore a faded dark blue long-sleeved dress shirt with a pocket over the left pectoral, and under that he wore a faded light blue shirt. The man also wore a baggy pair of denim jeans held up with a belt, white, somewhat clunky-looking sneakers, and a pair of socks under those.
"I actually kind of like that about those girls," the older man remarked to his slightly younger fellow in a conversational tone, "It shows that they aren't exactly ones who like to blindly follow trends like most other young girls who get into fame tend to do."
Giving his superior a mildly lost look, the younger man said, "Sir, I know that you wanted us to try and dig up what we can about those girls, but there's nothing to dig up about any of them. I mean, you'd figure that after the month or so that we've been trying to learn as much as we can about them, we'd have at least something to show for it."
The older man nodded once in understanding to his underling. "I know, but the people of not just Saga," the older man began to reply, "But all of Japan, want to know just who exactly those girls are." The older man leaned forward slightly when he saw a photo of all ten of the Franchouchou girls appear on the monitor; the photo had all ten girls standing up, and it showed all of them fully. The older man, with his right index finger, specifically pointed out Lily, Ayumu, Ai and Junko in that order. "Specifically, we're hearing a particularly high demand for information about numbers six, seven, three and four, and how they resemble two deceased actresses and two deceased idols."
"To be honest, I'm just as curious about them as well," the young adult man said, "Just as I am about all of those girls. But there's still jack squat about them that's available." Leaning back in his chair, the young adult man crossed his arms over his chest, letting out a mild sigh. "I just can't help but wonder…" the young adult man began, "…Just who are all of those girls?"
Over at the abandoned mansion in Saga, the zombie girls, while all of them were in their true forms as zombies, were sitting around at a counter table, eating whatever any of them were having for breakfast. On one of the walls in the kitchen area there as a TV mounted to the wall, which the girls were all watching as they ate breakfast.
"…Leading to an anticipation of slight overcrowding in Azu-Daioh High School as they gear up to accept the student populace of Yokai Academy who needed to vacate from their campus for the time being while there's mass reconstruction and fumigation," the news castor said as he wrapped up a news story, "In other news, the various locations for Drive-In Tori have seen a significant boost in customers since they aired their most recent commercial, where the ten actresses who star in Saga Stories performed. The increased popularity of the classic Saga staple was boosted even further when take out from Drive-In Tori was seen being eaten in one of the scenes in the latest episode of Saga Stories to air."
As the news went on in the background, the zombie girls all turned to regard each other, other than Tae who, due to being unawakened, was mindlessly chewing on some dried squid snack. "I already knew that Drive-In Tori was the best," Saki said in a practically bragging tone, "But it's about damn time that the rest of Japan sees that as well!" Raising her glass of the drink that she was having with her breakfast, the delinquent zombie girl said, "Here's to us, and how much ass we kick as actresses!"
The other zombie girls all cheered a bit as well when led into the toast by the leader of their actress troop. When the girls all settled down, Sakura clapped her hands together, getting all of the others to turn to face her. "Saki's got a point on how we've been doing well," Sakura began, "What with how Saga Stories has been dominating in the ratings, along with how all of the commercials that we've been in have helped to get everyone tuning in. As such, I think that we ought to throw something of a little party to celebrate our success."
"Yay! A party!" Lily cheered, pumping a fist into the air.
"Quick question, Saki," Hikari began as she raised a hand, "What kind of party will we be having, exactly?"
The gamer zombie girl's question prompted Saki to fold her arms over her chest as she gave the notion some thought, concentrating a bit for a few moments. After close to a minute, during which time the other zombie girls looked at Saki in silence (even Tae, although the unawakened zombie girl wasn't exactly zoned in at the time), Saki, with a look of inspiration on her face, tapped her fist into her hand as she said, "I got it! We'll have a bonfire party on a beach!"
"A...bonfire party on a beach?" Sakura repeated, looking a bit confused and like she wanted an explanation.
Nodding in confirmation, Saki proceeded to explain, "You got that right, Egghead. Back when I was still alive, the girls in Dorami and I would occasionally have little parties to ourselves where we would go to a beach shore somewhere at late evening to early night, set up a bonfire, and basically just camp out, eating munchies, drinking soda, tell stories and just laugh the night away." With a slight chuckle, the delinquent zombie girl added, "I remember this one bonfire party where my old friend Reiko roasted a marshmallow over the bonfire for so long that the marshmallow ended up catching fire and making her freak out a bit."
Sigrid, with an amused look on her face, replied to Saki, "That actually sounds like one hell of a gathering, now that you mention it. And such a celebration would also see meats such as burger patties and hot dogs being cooked over the fire as well?" After Saki nodded in the affirmative to Sigrid, the half-foreign zombie girl turned to the rest of the group. "I say that we all go for it," Sigrid remarked, "We still need to do some sort of activity for us to learn and get to know about one another. This banquet on the beach that Saki speaks of sounds like the perfect chance for us to work that bonding time in."
Sakura nodded in agreement with Sigrid, happy that more and more of her fellow undead were not only interested in the idea of having a party amongst themselves to celebrate how far they've come thus far, but that Sigrid pointed out that such a party would be the perfect chance for all of them to learn more about one another, something that Sakura has been wanting to do ever since she, Lily and Junko learned a bit more about Ayumu from Kotaro. Getting up so that she stood at the table, Sakura said, "Then it's settled. We'll go for the bonfire party. Now all we have to do is find a suitable beach where we can-"
"Don't sweat it, Egghead," Saki remarked, cutting the long-haired zombie girl off midsentence, "I saw during one of my solo outings a few days ago that the usual beach where my old gang and I would have our parties at is still good to go. We can just use that."
Sakura, with a bit of an appreciative smile, nodded in acknowledgement towards Saki. "Thanks, Saki," Sakura said, then continued when she turned to face the rest of the girls, "Now we just need to gather what we'll need for the party. Various foodstuffs like marshmallows, burger patties, hot dogs and other things commonly eaten at camp outs should be on the list. We're also going to need to bring sodas, a cooler to put said sodas in, some roasting sticks to put the food that we stick in the bonfire on, maybe a few folding cha-"
"Is having a party where we're all going to be outside and potentially risk being outed as zombies such a good idea?" Ai interrupted, making Sakura and the other zombie girls all turn to face her. Letting out a sigh, the Heisei idol zombie girl continued, "Maybe we can just stay here and have a party in the mansion instead. No need to go outside at all." Out of the other nine zombie girls, only Sakura, Lily and Junko were able to pick up on a slight but (to them, at least) noticeable hint of alarm in Ai's tone.
Scoffing in a casual tone, Saki said, "All of us aside from Tae can use monster glamour, and we can just get Shades to give Tae the makeup treatment before we go. There's no need to worry about any random persons or whatever seeing us and learning that we're zombies. Also, there's some rumor going around that Tae being able to separate parts of her body from herself is some sort of power called a quirk, so if any of us have parts of our bodies such as our heads or an arm pop off, we can just pass it off as us having superpowers." Turning to face Sakura, Saki said with a look of mild amusement on her face, "I think that we have you to thank for coming up with that cover for us, Egghead. Way to go, girl."
Sakura nodded once in acceptance of the thanks from Saki, but before Sakura could actually say something, Ai said, "Well I still think that starting a fire out on the beach is a bad idea. I mean, what if a policeman catches us and has issue with us having a bonfire on the beach at night?" Once more, Sakura, Lily and Junko were the only ones who noticed the hint of alarm in the tone of the Heisei idol zombie girl. Furthermore, those three specific girls were able to gleam that most of Ai's alarm tended to come up when she specifically mentioned any form of fire by name. Thinking quickly, Sakura got all of the girls' attention.
"How about we try to keep the bonfire as close to the shore as we can make it," Sakura began, "That way if we need to put it out quickly, we can just dash really quickly to the water with buckets that we can fill up and carry over to douse the flames?"
"We can just use the sand on the beach for that, Egghead," Saki remarked, a look of mild confusion on her face as she folded her arms over her chest.
Turning to face Saki, Sakura said, "Well, we all don't necessarily have to stay around the bonfire that we start up, do we? We can spread out on the beach a little bit."
"…Yeah, we don't technically have to stick around the fire nonstop," the delinquent zombie girl remarked, a bit more confusion entering her tone and expression. Gently shaking her head, Saki continued, "But we can go over the finer details of the party later. For now, we ought to write up a list of what all we ought to bring with us to the bonfire. Oh!" To the zombie girls as a whole, Saki said, "Since we're going to the beach, we ought to bring some swim suits with us in case one of us feels like going for a swim in the-"
"Oh geez!" Ayumu said in a clearly worried tone, sounding like she had just suddenly realized something, "The beach is next to the ocean, or near some large inland body of water, isn't it?"
"Ayumu has an excellent point!" Ai declared, seemingly trying to take advantage of the teen actress zombie girl's suddenly panicking air that she was giving off, "The waters can be just as much of a danger as well!"
Letting out a resigned sigh, Saki said, "Relax, I know that Ayumu has aquaphobia. She doesn't have to go anywhere near the waters if she doesn't want to." With a look of mild consideration on her face, Saki continued, "In fact, I think that it would be best if we kept the bonfire as close to the threshold between the road and the beginning of the beach as possible." Hearing that the bonfire wouldn't be anywhere near the waters made Ayumu breathe a sigh of relief.
However, it could not be said that Ai was similarly as relieved as Ayumu. In fact, the idea that she was more or less having to go to an outdoor gathering where there would be an open fire had the Heisei idol zombie girl nervous, although once again only Sakura, Lily and Junko were able to pick up on this.
Those three zombie girls, having also noticed that Ai looked like she was trying to take advantage of Ayumu's aquaphobia in order to shoot down the idea of the bonfire party on the beach, figured that Ai was actually trying to avoid the bonfire party, similar to how Ayumu tended to avoid bodies of water that she could get submerged in. Sakura, Lily and Junko all looked to each other and, without a word, nodded once in a group as they looked each other in the face, silently agreeing to seek Kotaro out to see if they could gleam anything about Ai that would help explain her so staunchly adamant about shooting down the bonfire party as an idea.
Out of the other zombie girls, only Saki noticed the silence exchange of agreement between Sakura, Lily and Junko.
Later that morning, Sakura, with Lily and Junko following her, proceeded to make their way over to Kotaro's office room in the abandoned mansion. Along the way, they ran into one of the men that's in cahoots with Kotaro; when Sakura and the others asked him if Kotaro was in his office, the man said that Kotaro was actually in one of the studio rooms that's used for sets for the filming of scenes in episodes of 'Saga Stories'.
When they got from that man what specific studio room Kotaro was in, Sakura and the others thanked the man before turning around and heading off in the appropriate direction. However, as Sakura, Lily and Junko were about halfway over to where the eccentric man was supposed to be at, they were met up by Saki, who wore a look on her face that strongly suggested that she was looking to get some answers.
"You girls looked like you had some sort of private agreement amongst yourselves during breakfast earlier," Saki began, her tone carrying mild accusatory hints and showing that she would not have any wool pulled over her eyes, "What sort of game are the three of you playing? You all aren't planning to shoot down the bonfire party idea, are you?"
"Junko, Lily and I all actually want to go for the bonfire party idea, Saki," Sakura informed the delinquent zombie girl, "We're only looking for Kotaro-san because we were hoping that he could fill in a few blanks for us concerning Ai."
Saki, taken a bit back in confusion by Sakura's explanation, said, "Ai? What about her?"
"I'm not sure if you noticed it, Saki," Junko began, "But Ai is rather adamant about us not having the bonfire party on the beach, and that she was particularly alarmed when she talked about the fire in and of itself." With concern for her fellow undead idol on her face, Junko went on, "I remember Ai saying something back when we were at the hot springs about how she has pyrophobia for reasons similar to why Ayumu has aquaphobia."
Folding her arms over her chest, Saki said to the girls while pointing to Lily, "Oh yeah, I think that Shrimpy here said something about Ayumu's death stemming from falling asleep in the bathtub while taking a bath and drowning as a result." After the child actress zombie girl gave an affirmative nod, Saki continued, "So you girls think that Ai's death has something to do with fire, and that's why she's so rattled by the prospect of having to go to the bonfire party?"
"We believe so, but we want Kotaro-san to confirm for us," Sakura replied, "He knows a lot about all ten of us, so he should be able to tell us for certain about how Ai died." Saki, after she considered what Sakura, Junko and Lily were up to for a few moments, nodded twice while she had her arms crossed.
"…Yeah, let me tag along with you girls," Saki said, "I want to know more about Ai myself and why exactly she's so rattled by fire." Sakura and the others, thankful that the leader of their actress troop was being so cooperative with them, agreed and brought Saki along with them for the trip to the studio room that Kotaro was working in at the time.
To say that Kotaro was surprised to see Sakura, Junko and Lily seek him out again to get some info on one of their fellow zombies out of him wouldn't exactly be true. However, his interest was piqued when he saw that Saki was part of the group this time. As some of the men that were in cahoots with him went about setting up a set for a scene in a 'Saga Stories' episode that they were gearing up to produce, Kotaro decided that he had some time to spare to answer whatever the four zombie girls that sought him out had to ask.
"I take it that you girls are looking to get something out of me on one of your fellow zombies from back when they were still alive?" the eccentric man asked, a hint of seriousness in his tone that showed that he was going to take the girls' questions seriously. After both of them nodded once in the affirmative, Sakura and Saki proceeded to explain to Kotaro everything that had taken place since breakfast; from the girls settling on a bonfire party on the beach to celebrate how well they've been doing as of late, right up to Ai's seemingly trying to avoid the bonfire party, as if driven by a deep-seated fear.
After he got all of the details from the four zombie girls, Kotaro let out a sigh. "…First off, I'll approve the bonfire party," Kotaro began, "You girls do have a point on how you all deserve to celebrate your recent successes, as well as how you all really need to get some bonding time in and get to know one another better so that you all can work together better. Also Saki, thanks for taking Ayumu's aversion of bodies of water that she could get submerged in into account by assuring her that she doesn't have to get anywhere close to the waters."
Crossing his arms over his chest, the eccentric man continued, "You girls are also in the right to seek me out to try and gleam into Ai's reasons for wanting to avoid anything having to do with fire." Looking up at the ceiling in the studio room that all of them were in, Kotaro said after he let out a mildly resigned sigh, "Ai's death wasn't exactly a pleasant one, let me tell you…"
(FLASHBACK)
(DATE: AUGUST 4TH, 2008)
The concert hall that the idol group Iron Frill was performing in at the time had caught on fire in the middle of their performance. All of the audience members all scrambled in something of a panic as they tried to stampede their way out of the concert hall as the flames began to consume everything that they came into contact with. The audience members weren't the only ones trying to flee in that panicked state, either; the people running the idol performance, as well as the idols themselves, all tried to run outside of the building where they would be safe from the flames.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Iron Frill's center performer, Ai Mizuno. The center performing idol, as she tried to run with her fellow members of their idol group, tripped and fell over, laying face-down on the stage as a support structure fell over and landed on top of her long ways across her back. Although nothing in Ai was broken when that support structure fell on top of her, it did keep her pinned, unable to get up and run out of the burning concert hall before it was too late to escape the all-consuming inferno.
Ai, as she laid pinned under that support structure, watched with eyes that were being filled more and more with fear as the flames began to surround and get closer to her. The center performer idol was so overcome by her fear that she wasn't even able to cry out in fear. She did eventually cry out, but it was a mix of fear and searing pain as the flames of the concert hall fire finally got to her and began burning her alive, igniting her cherished Iron Frill uniform as she was wearing it. The pain of the fires was so great that Ai, as she was screaming in pain, passed out, never to get back up again.
Ai's charred remains would not be recovered until the concert hall fire was finally put out. It was a pair of green firefighters fresh out of training at the firefighter academy, two young adult men named Shinra and Arthur, who were the ones who found the deceased remains of the late Iron Frill member as the rest of the firefighters went into the destroyed concert hall to see if there were any survivors or remains of deceased to be taken out. Neither Shinra nor Arthur were exactly amused when they were badgered by numerous members of the press, as well as some paparazzi, who all wanted an exclusive scoop from them on their discovering Ai's remains from the incinerated remains of the concert hall.
(FLASHBACK OVER)
"…So as you four can see," Kotaro remarked as he addressed Sakura, Saki, Junko and Lily while he wrapped up his story explaining why Ai had such an aversion to fire, "Your fellow zombie Ai is not exactly the biggest fan of fire in the world." The four zombie girls that stood there all wore looks of shocked horror on their respective faces, all of them having been left speechless by what the eccentric man had told them about the Heisei idol zombie girl.
"That…" Saki began as she was finally able to find some words, "…That is one really messed up way to die, Shades. And you're telling me and the girls here that Ai went through all of that?"
Kotaro nodded a few times in the affirmative, leaving Saki and the other girls that were there truly shocked. Granted, all of the zombie girls' respective demises were shocking, given that it's in the nature of the instance of a person dying to be shocking. But to think that one of their own had suffered so frightening and painful a death as Ai having been trapped in that concert hall fire and was burned alive for her troubles. It was Saki who first turned to face the other zombie girls that were there with her.
"…Girls," the delinquent zombie girl began, a hint of mildly worried concern in her tone, "What are we going to do with Ai? Should we do something different for the party altogether so that she doesn't have to get rattled by seeing any fire?"
Junko gently shook her head in the negative before saying, "That would be a bad idea given how many of the others are all looking forward to it. It would be in bad taste if we had to cancel plans that the majority of us are looking forward to just because one of us is rattled by a specific thing that happens during said plans."
"That didn't stop Shrimpy and Egghead for calling our hangout at the local park to a sudden end because Ayumu had an episode," Saki remarked with a mildly annoyed scoff, her arms crossed over her chest, "I mean, it's not like there was a pool or something similar at the park."
"Big Sis had a freak out when I surprised hugged her because she's autistic," Lily explained, "But that's getting off the subject here." Looking up at the older zombie girls, the child actress zombie said, "We need to think of what to do to both accommodate Ai so that she won't get overcome by her fear of fire while we're having the bonfire party on the beach and avoid having to cancel it because most of the rest of us are looking forward to it."
Kotaro, stepping forward, laid a hand on Saki's left shoulder, making her turn around and see him looking right at her. "…As you're the leader of Franchouchou," Kotaro began, "As well as the one who came up with the idea for the bonfire party at the beach, it's up to you to help your fellow zombie feel at ease at a gathering that has her apprehensive. You owe it both to Ai and to the other girls who unlike Ai don't have pyrophobia."
The delinquent zombie girl wore a look of mildly somber consideration on her face, feeling a bit guilty over getting everyone on board with an idea that has one of them freaking out terribly. Saki felt especially guilty as she remembered that she had been told, by Ai herself no less, in an earlier encounter that Ai had pyrophobia. As she stood there, going over a lot of things in her head, Saki snapped her fingers as she said, "I got it!"
"Hmm?" Sakura replied, her tone sounding with piqued interest, "What do you have, Saki?" In response, Saki gestured for Sakura, Junko and Lily to all huddle up and join her in a group huddle, telling them about a few ideas that she had in mind for when they and the other six girls all go to the beach for the bonfire party. Although they were all ideas that Saki had, just at that moment, come up with, Sakura and the others thought that some of them were actually really good; Lily even said that one of the ideas would be really cute if some of the girls working that specific idea wore appropriate outfits for it.
Seeing some of the zombie girls so readily working together to not only continue on with a plan that all of them were looking forward to but also taking into consideration some of the specific needs of a select few among their number, Kotaro could not help but smile. It was a small smile, but it just as well carried sufficient sincerity. The eccentric man knew that the ten specific girls that he selected for the 'Saga Stories' project were the right choices, and seeing displays like this from those very zombie girls just served as further validation for his ultimate plans.
Since a lot of the zombie girls were all working simultaneously, they were able to get everything for the bonfire party ready to go. As such, they ended up driving down to the beach that Saki had used in the past when she and her old delinquent gang would have parties on the beach. The sun was setting as the girls got their party set up; Saki made a comment about this, saying that it was the perfect timing as it reminded her of the similar parties that she took part in back when she was still alive.
At Saki's instructions, a few circles of seats had been set up on the beach, one about ten feet from where the bonfire was being set up, another about twenty feet away from the bonfire, close to where Kotaro (yes, he came along as well, even bringing Romero the zombie Japanese Chin) had the van parked in a small parking lot located between the beach and the road, and a third and final one located approximately twenty feet to the left of the second one; the three sitting circles formed the points of something of a triangle.
After she and Sigrid had finished bringing the cooler of sodas and set it down near the now roaring bonfire, Saki turned to face the other girls that were standing close to the third sitting circle. The delinquent zombie girl saw the look of fearful apprehension in Ai's expression, as her gaze fell upon the large open fire behind Saki and Sigrid. "Okay girls, here's what's going to go down here," Saki said as she and Sigrid approached the rest of the girls, "You all will take some seats at the circles that had been set up while Sigrid and I will handle the cooking."
"I hope you girls don't mind roasted meats," Sigrid remarked.
Nodding in agreement with her fellow undead delinquent, Saki continued, "While you girls sit and chat it up while Sigrid and I handle the cooking, Shrimpy right there-" Saki paused so she could gesture to Lily, who wore a cute beach-themed waitress uniform, "-Will take your orders and relay them back to me and Sigrid. This way, there aren't a bunch of us all crowded around the bonfire, which would make things more dangerous for all of us."
The other zombie girls all looked like they thought that Saki's set up sounded logically sound; that went much more so for Sakura, Junko and Lily, all of which discussed this with Saki earlier. Ai seemed particularly relieved that she didn't have to go anywhere near the fire, letting out a sigh of relief as she followed Sakura and Ayumu over to the third sitting circle, which Sakura had chosen as it was one of the ones located furthest from the fire.
…
The bonfire party on the beach was going pretty well, Sakura had to admit. It didn't take long until she, Ai and Ayumu all had their food and some sodas; Ayumu was particularly happy that Saki and Sigrid had honey mustard as one of the condiments for the burgers and hot dogs. Sakura explained to the teen actress zombie girl that Kotaro told her (Sakura) and Saki that she (Ayumu) liked honey mustard over all other condiments, so Saki had made sure to bring along a bottle of honey mustard for the food.
Every so often, Ai would look up from her food and over to where the bonfire was going, shudder a bit before putting her attention right back to her food. On Ai's fourth time doing this, Sakura had taken notice. "…You're still worried about the fire, aren't you Ai?" Sakura asked the Heisei idol zombie girl.
"…Yes," Ai admitted in a defeated tone, sighing in a resigned tone as she did so, "I'm really sorry, but the idea of being so close to a large amount of fire like that has me scared."
"I understand how you feel," Ayumu remarked, getting Ai to turn to look at her. With a single nod, the teen actress zombie girl continued, "I mean, we're also really close to the ocean, and that has me feeling very uncomfortable. But even so, the ocean is too far away to hurt me, and I don't have to go anywhere close to it." Pointing over to where the bonfire was located, Ayumu continued, "The bonfire is too far away from you to hurt you, and you are under no obligation to get close to it. That being said, you don't have to worry about it too much. At least I don't think so."
Ai, after hearing what Ayumu had to say, looked a bit surprised by the sudden wisdom that had just come from Ayumu's mouth. Ai looked to relax a bit, having been comforted by Ayumu's reassuring words. As Ai, Ayumu and Sakura sat around and talked, they were joined by Saki, carrying a plate with a burger and a hot dog in one hand and a can of cola in the other. "Hey, you girls don't mind if I join you all, do you?" the delinquent zombie girl asked as she sat down.
"Thanks again for suggesting this idea, Saki," Sakura remarked, "A party on the beach is actually pretty fun, all things considered."
"Now you girls know how I felt back when my old gang and I would party it up on the beach back in the day," Saki replied, a bit of self-amused pride in her tone. The delinquent zombie girl turned her attention to Ai; Saki, when she sat down to join Ai and the others, sat in a spot that made it so that Ai couldn't be able to see the bonfire without having to lean to one of her sides enough. Realizing that the fire was being blocked from her immediate field of vision, Ai relaxed a bit more.
Seeing the Heisei idol zombie girl visibly relax, Saki said in a casual yet sympathetic tone, "How are you holding up, Ai? You seemed to have relaxed just now."
Sighing, Ai said, "Yeah, Sakura told me about how she, you, Lily and Junko asked Kotaro about me and how I died in that concert hall fire." Gently shaking her head, Ai continued, "Sorry that my pyrophobia nearly ruined the party here on the beach before it even began."
"Pfft, don't sweat it, Ai," Saki replied, completely understanding, "It's partly my fault anyway, since I forgot that you told me earlier about how you're afraid of fire." Turning to face Ayumu, Saki added, "Also, sorry that I didn't take you being afraid of water into account when I first came up with the idea to have our party here on the beach, Ayumu."
The teen actress zombie girl nodded in acknowledgement of Saki's apology. "It's okay, Saki," Ayumu replied, "It's not like you or any of the other girls here are forcing me to go anywhere near the ocean."
Saki nodded once to Ayumu, thankful that she was so accepting of the apology. "…Oh, by the way, Ayumu," Saki began in a casual and conversational tone, "Shades mentioned to me that you have something called autism." With a curious look on her face, Saki continued, "What does that mean, exactly?" Sakura immediately looked alarmed that Saki would so blatantly bring the subject up, as the long-haired zombie girl was under the impression that it wasn't exactly something that Ayumu would be all that comfortable discussing with others. However, and to Sakura's mild surprise, Ayumu didn't seem to be all that bothered by Saki's question.
"Oh, there's no one cover-all answer, as autism is slightly different from person to person that has it because it tends to affect people differently," Ayumu began to explain, "But to put things in simple terms, having autism means that I'm wired a little bit differently from others that don't have it, meaning I do things and tend to act in certain ways that other people usually don't do or act in said ways."
Saki, with a mildly amused smirk on her face, remarked, "So you essentially just march to the beat of your own drum." Saki's comment drew a confirming nod from Ayumu, who agreed with the comparison that the delinquent zombie girl had just made. "Yeah, I got no problem with folks who like to do things their own way," Saki said, "Just glad to know more about what makes you tick." With a mildly concerned look on her face, Saki said, "Umm, sorry if me bringing this up made you feel uncomfortable in any way."
"It's no problem," Ayumu replied in an understanding tone, "Although now that you mention it, I'm surprised that this wasn't something that Mr. Kotaro covered with the rest of you girls. I mean, I distinctly remember from back when I was still alive that my mom told the various assistants that she hired to look after me that I have autism." Looking at Saki, Sakura and Ai, the teen actress zombie girl asked, "Don't you think that this should have been covered earlier?"
"Me, Junko and Lily already know, but none of the others do," Sakura explained, "We ought to look into letting the others know soon, though." Ai, Saki and Ayumu all nodded in agreement with the long-haired zombie girl, but their plans would happen at a later time. For now, they and the rest of the zombie girls had a bonfire party on the beach to enjoy. With the camaraderie that was being spread around, Ai felt very much at ease, even forgetting that there was an open fire about twenty or so feet away from her.
The Heisei idol zombie girl was glad that her fellow undead were being understanding of her and patient with her as well.
The following day over at the office building where the Sagazine Editorial Department was located, the slightly older man that was in charge of the operations was sitting at his desk in his workspace, with the young adult man that worked under him standing off to the side, as he was talking to a male high school student that had come by to seemingly deliver something to them. The high school looked to be either late first year or early second year.
The high schooler had medium-long ink black hair and he wore a red headband, and he wore a green long-sleeved blazer over a white dress shirt that had the first few buttons from the collar undone, revealing a little bit of his chest but only enough to also show a pendent with a charm in the shape of a wolf's head. The high schooler also wore light tannish pants and black shoes. The neck strap of a moderately high-quality camera rested around the boy's neck as the camera said strap was attached to hung casually over the boy's torso, between where his chest end and his stomach began.
"So, Mr. Sagazine," the high schooler said to the slightly older man, the hint of amusement in the high schooler's tone suggesting that he was playfully referring to the slightly older man by some manner of nickname, "I don't suppose that these photos that I got will be sufficient for the article that your news magazine and blog here wants to put out, are they?" The high schooler then took out a yellow envelope, the kind flat things tended to be put into before being mailed, opened it, and took out a few photographs that were inside, handing said photographs over to Mr. Sagazine as he was apparently called.
Mr. Sagazine, and his slightly younger underling when he came over to take a closer look, looked at the photographs that the high school boy had taken out. To their surprise, all of the photos showed the girls of the actress troop Franchouchou hanging out on a beach, seemingly having a bonfire party. Of all media that displayed any of the Franchouchou girls that wasn't released by their managers, these photos were by far the highest quality.
The men that were working in the Sagazine Editorial Department couldn't believe it; all of their efforts to get even one bit of outside info on even just one of the Franchouchou girls ended up being moot, but this random high school boy that was interested in the pay that they offered for photos on those actresses was able to get clear, unfuzzy images of the ten girls relaxing and having an all around good time. Mr. Sagazine was particularly happy with one photo that showed numbers three and seven with numbers one and two, along with one other photo that showed numbers four and six with number nine.
"…This is incredible," Mr. Sagazine remarked, amazed that a kid who was still a high schooler was able to do on his first try what Mr. Sagazine himself and the rest of the Sagazine Editorial Department staff failed to do multiple times in a row, "You have a talent with getting photos that those who have been in the business longer than you could only dream of, young man." Looking up at the high school boy, Mr. Sagazine asked, "What school did you say you go to again?"
"My classmates and I used to go to Yokai Academy, out in the country," the high school boy explained. Gesturing to the outfit he wore, the high school boy continued, "In fact, this is my uniform from Yokai Academy." Gently shaking his head, the high school boy went on, "But my classmates and I recently had to evacuate the campus for reasons our teachers have yet to fill us in on. As it stands right now, my classmates and I have resumed our classes over at Azu-Daioh High School."
"Oh, I actually heard about that on the news," the young adult man said to Mr. Sagazine, "I heard that the campus had to go through mass reconstruction and fumigation."
Gently shaking his head, the high school boy said, "That does sound logical, but if that was the truth then my teachers would have informed me and the rest of the students from Yokai about it by this point. This story of reconstruction and fumigation sounds like it was made up on the fly."
Leaning back in his chair, Mr. Sagazine remarked with an agreeing nod, "Well this certainly does sounds like it would make for a rather interesting story, but right now we've got to focus on uncovering as much as we can about the girls of Franchouchou."
"Oh, I actually heard a few snippets of what some of the girls in this photo said," the high school boy said as he leaned forward slightly and used his right index finger to tap the photo that had numbers one, two, three and seven, "I couldn't hear everything that the girls in this photo said as I didn't want to risk getting closer to hear better, which would have run a high risk of my cover being blown. However, I was able to make out that number three said that she has pyrophobia, and that number seven says that she has autism."
The information that the high school boy had provided to Mr. Sagazine and his underling made both men go a bit wide-eyed with surprise. Mr. Sagazine turned slightly to his side to face his computer, typing away a bit in order to pull up some documents he whipped up; these documents had every theory about all ten of the Franchouchou girls that he and his men in the Sagazine Editorial Department was able to come up with. In particular, one of those documents went over how numbers three, four, six and seven greatly resemble late idols and actresses that died at various points over the course of the last two and a half decades or so.
"…Number three closely resembles the late Iron Frill member Ai Mizuno, who died when the concert hall her group performed in at the time was destroyed in a fire," Mr. Sagazine remarked, his tone suggesting that he found a lot of coincidences here, "And number seven closely resembles the late teen actress Ayumu Akarui, who was confirmed by interviews with old Akarui family assistants to be autistic." Turning his attention to the young adult man that worked under him, Mr. Sagazine said, "Seems rather suspicious that the girl that resembles Ai is afraid of fire, and the one that resembles Ayumu is autistic, don't you think?"
Nodding in agreement, the young adult man said, "It would be an even greater coincidence if number four had amaxophobia, and if number six is wary of people armed with knives." This time, it was Mr. Sagazine who nodded in agreement. After he nodded in agreement with what his underling said, Mr. Sagazine turned to face the high school boy. The head of the Sagazine Editorial Department, while keeping his eyes on the high school boy, opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out a letter envelope that seemed to bulge a little bit, closed the desk drawer, then handed the envelope over to the high school boy.
As the high school boy took the envelope and peeked inside, seeing a rather generous amount of paper yen bills, Mr. Sagazine said, "The photos that you've brought here, as well as what little bits of information you were able to gleam from listening in on the Franchouchou girls, is worth more than what I'm able to pay you for here. However, if you're able to do something like this again, I won't object to it. Your services in helping us uncover just who exactly the girls of the actress troop Franchouchou are is invaluable, umm…" Chuckling a bit in an embarrassed tone, Mr. Sagazine said, "I don't think that I ever got your name, young man. Sorry about that, by the way."
"It's alright, sir," the high school boy replied in an understanding tone, "My name's Ginei Morioka."
"Well, Mr. Morioka," Mr. Sagazine replied, "You've been a huge boon to our efforts here. Thanks again." Ginei nodded once before he took his leave from the Sagazine Editorial Department. He strolled through the building until he walked outside, walking right over to a bench where another male high school student, wearing a uniform similar to what Ginei himself was wearing, was seemingly waiting.
This male Yokai Academy student had shoulder-length black hair that was in a slightly more formal style than the casual and somewhat wild looking mane that Ginei had going. Looking up to Ginei, the other male high school student said, "So Ginei, how did things go in there?" In response to his fellow's question, Ginei pulled out the envelope that held the payment that he got for the photos of the Franchouchou girls that he submitted to the Sagazine Editorial Department.
With a somewhat self-amused look, Ginei replied, "I don't know, Tsukune. You tell me."
With an amused chuckle, the other male high school student, apparently named Tsukune, got up from the bench and walked the few feet to where Ginei was standing. "It still strikes me as odd that all of those Franchouchou girls are being as secretive as they are," Tsukune remarked, "I mean, with all of this cloak and dagger stuff that they're doing, you'd think that they all belong to various races of monsters, instead of all of them being humans like everyone thinks they are."
"About that, dude," Ginei said as he put his envelope of money away, a hint of curious concern in his tone, "While I was hiding nearby where the girls were having their bonfire on the beach, I was able to catch brief wisps of what they all smelled like. I was too far away to get a clear cut idea of what they all are specifically, but I have very strong reason to believe that all of the Franchouchou girls are all some manner of undead-type monsters." Gently shaking his head, Ginei continued, "That theory got more strength when the guy who paid me said that four of the girls in Franchouchou all look like idols and actresses who died in the past."
Tsukune crossed his arms over his chest, a look of contemplation on his face. "…You think that this will warrant some further investigation?" Tsukune asked.
Nodding in agreement, Ginei replied, "We can get Yukari and Ruby to divine some info on those Franchouchou girls, given that the two of them are both skilled in using magic. Mizore would be useful as well, given all the stealth practice she gets in when she secretly follows you around."
"Heh," Tsukune remarked, a hint of embarrassment in his tone, "Please don't remind me."
"Our new guy, Draco, will also be very useful," Ginei replied, "Given his superior stealth skills, as well as his sense of smell that far exceeds even mine." Nodding once in the affirmative, Ginei continued, "I bet that Draco will be able to confirm if what I believe about those girls that are in Franchouchou being some manner of undead-type monster race is true. He may even be able to confirm their specific race, assuming that they are undead-type." Tsukune nodded in agreement with Ginei and, with their business there done, the two high school boys both took their leave.
END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER FIVE
Author's notes:
Although Ai's cause of death here is different than what it is in the series proper, along with the fact that this chapter features a bonfire party on a beach whereas there was no such party in the anime, this chapter is still essentially the counterpart that explores Ai's past, as well as give the Heisei idol zombie girl some much-needed development along with the other girls learning more about her thus being able to understand her better. Additionally, this chapter shows that Reiko and Nagi from the previous chapter are far from the only people that interested in the girls of Franchouchou, and how said girls resemble deceased girls from the past; this chapter also puts a bit more effort into showing that Sakura and her fellow zombies are all part of a larger setting than any of them currently realize.
Anyway, this chapter had a mix of plot points from episodes six and seven, and overall was tailored to be about Ai. The next chapter I'm aiming to base more around Junko, as she received a similar amount of attention during the same time frame. I've also been wanting to go over Junko's death in this AU story's setting, which not only is different than what Junko went through in the anime, but said death in this story has been hinted at in a few of the chapters thus far. It's something that I'm looking forward to getting cracking on.