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 eight: A giant is reminded of his late little princess
Over at the abandoned mansion in Saga that the zombie girls resided in, they were all looking at a magazine that Saki had procured. "Damn it," the delinquent zombie girl swore, "Those idiots at Sagazine Today just won't leave us the fuck alone, will they?" The girls that were immediately next to Saki on her left and right respectively, Sakura and Junko, could see what Saki was talking about; the issue of Sagazine Today that Saki held had a few more articles about their actress troop, Franchouchou, including the now usual article that goes on about how Junko, Ai, Lily and Ayumu all resembled late idols and actresses.
Saki gave the page that she had the magazine open to a light smack with the back of her right hand before saying, "Apparently, their investigation started as far back as shortly after our gig over at Saga Castle." Scoffing in a clearly annoyed tone, the delinquent zombie girl swore, "Will they just leave us alone already?"
"That's one of the costs of being a famous celebrity, Saki," Junko remarked, the hint of knowingness in the Showa idol zombie girl's tone suggesting that all of this that was going on wasn't her first rodeo. Taking the magazine away from Saki, Junko said as she held it open to the page that Saki had it on, "Once one hits the big time, there will undoubtedly be people coming out of the woodwork aiming to learn any and everything that they can about you for whatever reason, most often having something to do with lining their own pockets."
Junko passed the magazine back to Saki who, when she saw that Sakura wanted it, handed it over to the long-haired zombie girl. "…There's this one short article that states a few theories about us," Sakura remarked, "Submitted to Sagazine Today by some fellow whose name was withheld at his request. Apparently, what little he shared with the magazine was approved ahead of time by his village's governing body." The picture that accompanied the article that Sakura was pointing out showed a rather handsome-faced man with jet black hair that spiked back aside from some face framing bangs; the man in the picture also wore a headband that had a metal plate with a stylized leaf engraving in the center.
"Still, there is no denying that we are all on the fast track to fame," Hikari pointed out, "Sure, we're dealing with some negativity in the form of certain persons trying to look into us to learn what they can, but it's overshadowed by how many fans that 'Saga Stories' has garnered ever since the airing of the series premiere." Looking up from where the magazine was to the rest of her fellow undead, the gamer zombie girl said, "All of the things we've done on the side, such as the various commercials and that meet and greet panel we did very recently, has only served to further boost our popularity as a household name in Japan."
Gesturing to Hikari, Sigrid said, "She's got a point. There's no denying that we've commanded a lot of admiration for a bunch of draugr." Pointing to one of the pictures in the open magazine, the half-foreign zombie girl said, "In fact, this photo that was taken at the meet and greet panel states that 'Saga Stories' has quickly become one of Japan's top ten non-anime shows, and one of the top fifteen shows in Japan overall."
"And we do look pretty good pretty good," Saki remarked, a hint of amusement in her tone, "Whoever took this photo of the nine of us got us at a pretty good angle."
"Nine of us?" Sakura repeated, her tone sounding mildly confused, "Saki, there's ten of us."
After shooting a mildly confused look at Sakura, Saki replied, "Really?" Turning her attention back to the photo in the magazine, the delinquent zombie girl continued, "Sorry, but when I last saw, I swore that I couldn't see Shrimpy anywhere in-" Saki stopped short, looked at the photo for a moment, then said with a hint of knowingness in her tone, "Oh, there she is." Turning to look at Lily, Saki said, "Sorry Shrimpy, but I guess that you're so small that I just couldn't spot you at first."
The child actress zombie girl was clearly rather unamused by Saki's joking around at her expense. Lily pouted a bit as she turned her head away, huffing a bit as she said, "Did it look like I was asking you for your opinion, Saki?"
"Oh, don't mind her," Sakura reassured Lily, "I think that you did fantastic at the meet and greet. Also, you look really cute in the photo of all of us."
Hearing the praise from the long-haired zombie girl, Lily perked right back up as she turned to face Sakura. With a bit of a happy giggle in her tone, Lily asked, "Do you really think that I was cute?" Sakura gave an approving nod in the affirmative as she hummed in a likewise one.
"I have to agree with Sakura," Ayumu said to her child counterpart, "You looked downright adorable at the meet and greet, just as you do right now. Also, that star ornament that you wear in your hair suits you well Lily, given that you're a star yourself and all."
Lily was happy to the point of bashfulness as she was being doted on by Sakura and Ayumu. Sure, some of the other zombie girls liked to mess around with her and each other, but at least the child actress zombie girl could count on her Big Sis and Sakura to be kind and respectful to her. Lily was thankful, as well as a little bit amused, that there were people who would regularly tell her how adorable she was. Adorableness was something that Lily wanted to maintain about herself on a regular basis, and the fact that, as a zombie, she was stuck at her current biological age, would make it so that Lily would remain small and cute.
Just the way that she wants things to be.
…
In a smaller office building somewhere in Saga, a few men were seated at desks as they worked away. All of them wore light bluish men's dress shirts, black pants and black shoes, although one particularly tall and rather large bald-headed man in the back wore a white towel draped around his neck and shoulders. One man with wild, yellowish-orange hair turned to a man with black hair and glasses and said, "Yamamoto, what do you want for lunch?"
"Sicilian rice," the black-haired man, apparently named Yamamoto, replied as he picked up a remote and used it to turn on a TV that was in the office room. The TV briefly showed a weather report before it returned to a morning news show.
"In local news," the news anchor said, "People here in Saga are going wild over the results of the tournament between U.A. High School and Vulcan High, two of the top hero high schools in Japan. The tournament ended with first, second and third places all occupied by U.A. students. We here at Saga News tried to get an exclusive with one of the winning students, but none of the reporters that went to the school were able to get in as they were turned away by the pro hero…"
As the news went on, the large man that sat in the back of that office work space got up from his desk suddenly. When the large man got up, the man with the wild hair turned to look at him. "How about you, man?" the wild-haired man said to his tall and large co-worker, "What will you be having for lunch?" The large man at first said nothing; instead he merely sighed and gently shook his head.
"Nothing for me," the large man replied in a mildly subdued tone as he turned to leave, "I'll be back soon."
As the large man lumbered out of the office work space, the wild-haired man said, "Okay…" After the large man had left, the wild-haired man turned to Yamamoto and asked, "Does he leave for lunch every day or something?"
"It's because he doesn't like TV all that much," Yamamoto explained, the somewhat tired hint in his tone suggesting that this wasn't the first time that he had to explain the large man's aversion to television to someone.
With a shrug, the wild-haired man said, "Man, it seems like a lot of folks are leaving TV behind, what with all of the advances in streaming and information sharing now and days, huh?"
"That's not exactly his reason for loathing television so much," Yamamoto replied, a hint of dry knowingness in his tone. As Yamamoto spoke, the Drive-In Tori commercial that the girls of the actress troop Franchouchou shot played when the news went to commercial break.
…
Over at a nearby park, the large man sat on a bench as he read a magazine. He took a bite out of a roll that he had as part of his lunch, more or less eating the whole thing in one bite. As he chewed, the large man looked over a bit and saw a young girl over near a slide; the young girl was playing with a stuffed turtle plushy, her white toy ball laying on the ground at her feet seemingly forgotten. Judging by the young girl's height, the large man figured that she couldn't have yet reached a double-digit age.
By no means was the large man seeing the young girl with undue thoughts. Rather, the presence of the young girl in and of itself made the large man take pause, as if simply seeing her reminded him of something from his past. As the young girl gently tucked her turtle plushy into a side bag that she was wearing, she bent over to pick up her ball. When she got back up, the young girl saw that the large man was looking in her direction. Surprisingly, the young girl was not worried; in fact, she shot him a friendly smile.
A few seconds later, a woman came over to the girl. "Sweetie, there you are," the woman said to the girl, surprisingly not even noticing the large man, "Come along now. We're going to get lunch at the nearby Taco Queen before we go visit your father over at jail since he got arrested by those Special Forces that came here from Konoha."
The young girl smiled and giggled a bit as she said, "Okay, mommy! Daddy is really nice since he bought me Mr. Turtle here!" The mother and daughter pair left the park, although the young girl shot a good-bye look to the large man as she left with her mother, a look that the mother did not notice her daughter give.
After the mother and child left the park, the large man went back to reading the magazine that he had brought with him. The large man was done reading the page he was on, so he flipped it over to the next page. However, when he got a look at the photo on one of the next pages, he stopped short, given that what he saw had shocked him, had taken him by surprise.
It was a picture of the ten girls of the actress troop Franchouchou; to be specific, it was a picture of all ten of the Franchouchou girls together that was taken at the open mic performance that occurred back at Saga Castle, shortly after number one totally thrashed number four in that epic but rather impromptu rap battle. The large man's concentration was focused specifically on one of the girls in the photo.
As he looked at that specific girl, the large man looked like he had just seen a ghost. He couldn't believe what he was seeing as he looked at the specific girl in the photo that he was looking at. His eyes widened a bit as he slowly gasped out of shocked surprise. "No…no way…" the large man said as his hands trembled while holding the magazine that he was reading, "…There's no way that…that it could be her…"
Later in the basement room of the abandoned mansion, the zombie girls were all seated in a row in front of Kotaro, who was blowing on a seashell trumpet of some sort. "Good morning, ladies!" Kotaro greeted the girls, his early morning eccentricity drawing befuddled looks out of most of the zombie girls.
"Good morning, Kotaro-san," Sakura replied, being one of the few of the girls who wasn't confused enough to not know what to say.
"It's…it's nice to see you," Junko said, a bit unsure of what to make of what Kotaro was doing with the seashell trumpet.
Gesturing to the zombie girls as a whole, Kotaro said, "You girls have certainly rustled up a lot of great press in recent events, what with the meet and greet panel we did and all. You girls are riding on a wave of popularity as we speak."
Junko blushed a little from the praise that the eccentric man was giving her and the others. Seeing this, Sakura couldn't help but give a small but sincere smile. "I'm glad to see that, even with all of the recent trouble we've been having in regards to various people trying to dig into us," Sakura thought, "That Junko is starting to do better again."
"And how about you?" Kotaro said as he turned his attention to Sakura, getting the long-haired zombie girl to turn to look at him.
Sakura, who was caught by surprise, wasn't exactly sure on what to say. "Oh, umm," Sakura began, "I don't know, umm, aren't you going to say don't get-"
"DO GET COCKY!" Kotaro exclaimed loudly, cutting Sakura off. Getting right up into her face, Kotaro said, "You're all over TV, aren't you?! You got to ride this popularity wave, girl!" With a bit of an amused smirk, Kotaro added as he nudged Sakura with his elbow, "Surfs' up, little kahuna! Heh." Sakura was only made more confused by Kotaro's behavior here; she had no idea what to make of the eccentric man's eccentricity.
Kotaro then turned his attention over to Lily, who he walked over to. "And how are you enjoying your rise to stardom, Lily?" Kotaro asked, "That star decoration on your head getting any bigger by any chance, hmm?"
Lily, a bit flustered by Kotaro talking about her hair decoration, promptly covered it with both of her hands. "No, that's dumb," the child actress zombie girl replied, "It's made of plastic, so it can't grow any bigger!" Lily cowered back a bit when Kotaro suddenly got more up close into her personal space than she appreciated.
"Hmm?" the eccentric man asked, a hint of mild amusement in his tone, "Oh, is something wrong? Did I hurt your feelings?"
"Mr. Kotaro, I'm going to have to ask that you not tease Lily like that," Ayumu said in a firm tone, with a similarly firm look on her face, as she looked over and saw how Kotaro had Lily cowering a bit, "It's very obvious that you're making Lily feel very uncomfortable." Kotaro looked over in Ayumu's direction for a bit before he returned his focus to Lily. After he stared at the child actress zombie girl for a bit, he stuck his tongue out at Lily in a teasing gesture.
…
"Anyway," Kotaro said as he finally got the meeting underway, "If we're going to do more to amass as much fame for you girls as possible, we're going to have to do what we can to make 'Saga Stories' a household name in not just Saga, but all of Japan. We've got to be in the words of every man, woman and child out there. If there's an open eyeball out there, I want at least one of you girls in it. Do I make myself clear?"
"And how in the name of Vishnu do you propose we do that?" Saki asked, shooting Kotaro an inquisitive look.
Pointing dramatically at the zombie girls as a whole, Kotaro said, "We've got to have a good old-fashioned zombie outbreak!"
"I'm pretty certain that everyone will freak out if draugr such as us suddenly ran roughshod out in the streets," Sigrid pointed out, her tone similarly as dry as the one Saki was using.
"That's not what I meant," Kotaro replied, "We need to get you girls out there as much as possible. Pop-up shows. TV spots. Meet ups. If there's an event where we can get you girls out there to meet the populace, then we've got to scoop that chance up like an eagle swooping in over a lake to catch a fish in its talons!" Kotaro then held his seashell trumpet up and blew into it again, making the same trumpeting noise that he made the last time he did it. In the opinion of some of the zombie girls, the trumpeting sound sounded as if the seashell trumpet itself was in the middle of being tortured.
The girls of Franchouchou went through a series of appearing at small events; they did one or two singing performances on stage where Ai and Junko shone particularly well, the girls went to a video game convention where Hikari blew everyone that faced her out of the water with her sheer skills as a gamer, and the girls also went to a traditional Japanese summer festival, and they even went on an event at an outdoor mall where they starred alongside some people in large suit costumes to put on a show for children.
That last one didn't go exactly smooth as at one point Tae, for some odd reason that could only be explained by her unawakened instincts driving her, attacked a guy that was wearing this cartoonishly cute kappa costume. Even so, the rest of Franchouchou was able to smooth all of that business out and not only save the event, but go on to mark it as another success for their efforts in trying to spread the name of 'Saga Stories'.
However, it was at that event at the outdoor mall that a particular someone was watching the girls of Franchouchou from a distance. It was the large man that had something of an aversion to television. He stood partly behind a pillar, and nobody noticed him, mostly because at the time he was hiding there, everyone that was watching the performance was distracted by how Tae was attacking the kappa guy while Sakura, Lily and Ayumu worked to try pulling off the unawakened zombie girl while Yugiri, Ai, Juno and Hikari looked on with shocked looks of surprise on their faces while both Saki and Sigrid pointed and laughed at what Tae was doing.
The large man, as he focused on one of the girls of Franchouchou specifically, had a look of seriousness on his face, as if there was something he could not help but suspect.
…
At a later event, Kotaro stood on stage with the girls as the girls themselves stood behind him. The eccentric man spoke into a microphone as he addressed the gathered audience. "Alright, people," Kotaro began with a hint of egging on in his tone, "Who here is ready with a photo op with their favorite member of Franchouchou?" The crowd went wild with excitement as they were all eager to get their picture taken with one of the ten actresses that star in 'Saga Stories'.
"By the way," Kotaro said to the audience as he reached into a pocket on the inside of the jacket top he wore. He pulled out some photos and held them in a sort of hand of playing cards manner, revealing all of them as pictures of Tae. "Number zero is unfortunately a bit under the weather at the moment," Kotaro explained, "But if any of you still wanted to get a photo of her, I have some right here that were autographed by number zero ahead of time."
As Kotaro gave his explanation to the audience, Sakura looked over to where he stood and smiled a bit; given that Tae was still unawakened, there was no predicting how she would react at any given moment. Thankfully, Kotaro had taken this into account and had Tae spirited away to a lounge room located in the performance center that they were all at; a few of the men that were in cahoots with Kotaro were keeping an eye on Tae. There really were very few instances where the eccentric man dropped the ball, after all.
…But Sakura did have to question some of the choices in the photos that Kotaro had signed ahead of time for people who wanted a photo of Tae. One had Tae sitting on the floor and looking around mindlessly, one had Tae chewing on a dried squid snack, one had Tae biting down on Junko's head for some odd reason, one had Tae trying to climb up the inside of the brick wall that surrounded the abandoned mansion the girls all lived at, and one had Tae being slugged in the stomach by a very steamed-looking Sigrid. And those were just the five that the long-haired zombie girl saw; she had no idea what other photos of Tae that Kotaro had prepared ahead of time.
After he put the photos away, Kotaro said, "Now remember, touching is prohibited. Please don't try to be creepy to the girls, alright?"
The photo op was going pretty well since the girls began to have their pictures taken with the fans that came to see them. Sakura assisted in taking a picture where Junko stood next to a teenage boy that was a fan of 'Saga Stories'; this boy had fair skin, although there was a rather bad burn mark that covered the area of his face around his left eye. His medium-long length hair was crimson red on the left side and snow white on the right, and he had heterochromia that had his left eye look turquoise and his right look somewhat gray. As for his outfit, the teenage boy wore a long-sleeved casual dress shirt over a white t-shirt, a pair of jeans held up with a belt, and a pair of black shoes.
As Sakura handed the teenage boy the photo of him with Junko, his somewhat stoic looking façade melted a bit as he gave a small but sincere and appreciative smile. "…Thank you, girls," the teenage boy said to Sakura and Junko. Turning to face Junko, the teenage boy continued, "Especially you, number four. You're my mother's favorite actress on 'Saga Stories', and I figured that she'd like this since she's still in the hospital and thus couldn't make it."
"Aww, you actually used your one photo to take a picture with me to get for your sick mother?" Junko remarked, touched that this boy would use the only photo that he would be able to get to instead take a picture with her, rather than whoever was his own favorite actress on the show.
"Umm, number four," Sakura said as she turned to Junko, "Everyone here can potentially have their photo taken with all of us. Who told you that everyone was allowed only one photo with one of us?"
Junko, with a mildly embarrassed look on her face, turned to face Sakura and said, "Sorry, I just assumed that we were giving a one photo per person deal." Turning to face the teenage boy, the Showa idol zombie girl said, "I guess that you can get into another line to have your photo taken with whichever one of my co-actresses is your favorite on the show."
The teenage boy nodded once in acknowledgement to Junko before saying, "I'd have to say that number nine is my favorite. The whole gamer vibe her character gives off reminds me a lot of some of my classmates over at U.A." The teenage boy nodded once in thanks to both Sakura and Junko before he turned around and took his leave to go get into the line so that he could have his picture taken with Hikari.
When the teenage boy was gone, Sakura turned to face Junko. "Wow, Junko," Sakura remarked, "You're doing pretty well for someone who used to be an idol in the Showa era that didn't like to meet with fans up close."
"We're in the Reiwa era now," Junko replied, understanding what Sakura was trying to get at, "And we're actresses, not idols." Nodding once, the Showa idol zombie girl said, "Both the era and the profession are different for me, so I figured that it would be best for me to approach this with a different mindset."
Sakura nodded in acknowledgement of Junko's reasoning. The long-haired zombie girl was glad to see that Junko had developed so much as a person, had grown past some previous insecurities that would have otherwise held her back as an actress. Sakura would have praised Junko for her advancing as a person, but before Sakura could get one word out, she was cut off when Saki and Sigrid came quickly walking over to her.
"Don't look now Egghead, but we've got trouble," Saki said, her tone carrying some mildly worried warning.
"Trouble?" Sakura repeated, looking a bit alarmed, "What happened?"
Sigrid jerked a thumb over her right shoulder, prompting Sakura to follow the direction that the half-foreign zombie girl was pointing out to her. As such, Sakura ended up seeing the large man that was at the outdoor mall performance (not that any of the Franchouchou girls noticed him, due to what Tae was doing at that time). "Apparently, the elfish man that manages us didn't decide to warn us ahead of time that some of those who would have their pictures taken with us here were jötunn," Sigrid remarked, her tone similar to that of Saki's.
Seeing so large of a man approach one of the lines took Sakura by surprise. "Whoa," Sakura said in a hushed tone so only Saki, Sigrid and the nearby Junko could hear her, "That man's giant!"
"That's what I said," Sigrid remarked somewhat dryly, "He's a jötunn."
"My guess?" Saki began, suspicion clear in her tone, "That man is part of a yakuza gang. No doubt about it. Shades probably got into some trouble, and Mr. Jötunn over there as Sigrid calls him is here to collect what Shades owes."
Sakura moaned a bit in a clearly worried tone. "Oh, that sounds really bad," the long-haired zombie girl remarked. Looking around, Sakura tried to find Kotaro, but she failed to spot even one sign of the eccentric man. "…Hang on a minute," Sakura said, "Where is Kotaro-san?"
Scoffing, Saki remarked, "He must have run off with his tail between his legs."
"As cowardly as such actions may be," Sigrid began, "The elfish man cannot be truly faulted for such actions. Not everyone can face a jötunn in battle and live to tell the tale." Rolling her shoulders a bit, the half-foreign zombie girl said, "By the gods, what I'd give to have Ulfberht on hand with me right now, if only to have to deter the jötunn from taking any foul actions."
Sakura, Saki, Sigrid and Junko all watched as, to their mild surprise, the large man got up to one of the lines. Getting the attention of the person in front of him, who was holding up a sign that said 'end of line for number six', the large man got the sign and held it up himself. "He's here for Shrimpy?" Saki asked rhetorically, surprised that the large man was apparently at the photo op to get a picture taken with Lily.
"I guess's he one of Lily's fans," Junko commented, a hint of worry still in her tone.
Gently shaking her head, Saki scoffed as she said, "I wouldn't count on it, Junko. We're all well aware that there are some weirdos out there ever since Sagazine started putting out all of those articles about us. For all we know, he probably came here because he wants to kidnap Shrimpy."
Junko's eyes widened in alarm as she said, "We've got to do something!"
Sakura looked like she was thinking of something for a moment. After she looked like she had come up with something, the long-haired zombie girl said to Saki, Sigrid and Junko, "You girls keep an eye on Lily. I'm going to go find someone that I hope can help." Before Junko or either of the former delinquent girls could stop her, Sakura took off, leaving them to do as she asked and keep an eye on Lily to make sure the large man didn't do anything.
…
"Your show is amazing!" a young teen boy said to Lily, "I can't wait for next week's episode!"
Lily, smiling a big smile, said, "Thank you so much!" The young teen boy turned to leave since he had his photo taken with Lily, but when he turned, he stopped short when he saw who it was that was behind him. Regaining his composure quickly, the young teen boy left just in time to avoid the large man, whose mere presence made the young teen boy feel mildly unsettled at best. After the young teen boy left, Lily, who still had her eyes closed as she was smiling big, turned to face forward, as she could tell that whoever it was that was next in line to see her had walked up. "Hello!" Lily greeted, "I'm number six! It's nice to meet-" The child actress zombie girl was cut off when, as she opened her eyes to see who it was that came to meet her, she was surprised by just who it was.
Lily looked more than a little shocked to see the large man, but not because the large man had towered over her so much that the shadow he cast completely covered Lily. Rather, Lilly looked like she was shocked due to seeing something/someone from the past, a past that she thought that she wouldn't be dealing with again.
"You…" the large man said, his tone sounding with disbelief, "…You really…" The large man knelt down as he reached forward, putting his large hands on Lily's shoulders. Lily was too surprised to move out of the way, too stunned to see this large man that she was very familiar with. Over where Saki, Sigrid and Junko were watching, Junko looked alarmed that the large man was so close to Lily while Saki and Sigrid both looked like they were ready to go to war.
Rolling up the right sleeve of her short-sleeved red and white jacket as she saw what was going on, Saki swore, "Oh fuck no!" With Sigrid at her side, Saki began to run towards where Lily was facing off against the large man as she said, "I don't think-"
The delinquent zombie girl was cut off, as well as stopping with Sigrid mid-stride, when she and a few others in the surrounding area saw the large man suddenly encased in a large hunk of ice that encased all of him except for his head and hands. Due to sheer surprise to being frozen like that, the large man couldn't help but remove his hands from Lily, allowing her to back away over to where she spotted Saki and Sigrid, who were soon joined by Junko.
As she and her fellow undead who were with her looked at the ice-encased man, Sigrid remarked in a confused tone as she gestured to the frozen large man, "What manner of sorcery be this that had encased the jötunn in this ice?"
"Over here, girls!" Sakura's voice called out, making Sigrid, Saki, Junko and Lily turn to face the direction Sakura's voice came from. When they did, they saw Sakura run up to them, with the teenage boy that had his picture taken with Junko earlier as a gift for his hospitalized mom. Gesturing to the teenage boy, Sakura explained to her fellow actresses, "I remember that this boy who got his picture taken with number four earlier said that he goes to U.A.," Sakura explained, "So I was hoping that he might have been able to help with that large, scary man. He's the one who created that ice to capture the large man."
"I hope that I didn't cause too much of a disturbance by using my quirk to stop that man from doing whatever it was that he was going to do," the teenage boy remarked.
Saki and the others turned from looking to the teenage boy, to looking at the large frozen man, then back to the teenage boy, and they kept that up for a few turns before settling on the teenage boy for a few seconds. Turning to look at Sakura, Saki said while pointing to the teenage boy, "Get this guy a picture taken with all ten of us. He is awesome!"
"Umm…" Sakura said, "…Well number zero is still a bit under the weather…" Sakura saw out of the corner of her eye that Lily slowly walked towards where the large man was frozen in ice. Quickly getting Lily, Sakura said as she led the child actress zombie girl away, "Lily, don't go near that guy. He looks like bad news."
"But…" Lily said as she was led away, her neck turning a bit so that she could look over at the large man for as long as she could, "…But that man is my…"
…
Kotaro came walking out of a bathroom, singing a little song to himself as he dried his hands on a cloth towel he had with him. When he left the bathroom, Kotaro was approached by a panicked looking Junko. "Excuse me," the Showa idol zombie girl said, "But we got trouble." The smile that the eccentric man had going soon faded into a mildly unamused frown, a bit concerned over how there was apparently some trouble to deal with now.
In a backstage office room, Sakura, Kotaro, Saki, Ai and Sigrid all had the large man (who had since been freed from the ice he was trapped in) sitting on a chair as they all stood around him, all of them on guard; Tae was even growling angrily at the large man, as if she were a guard dog of some sort. Lily was outside of the backstage office room with Junko, Yugiri, Ayumu and Hikari as they allowed the others to deal with the large man.
"What in the name of the All-father is your deal, you oafish jötunn?!" Sigrid snapped angrily at the large man, "It was made clear that touching me and my fellows was prohibited!"
"Exactly, dumbass!" Saki snapped at the large man, "Number eight here is right! Just what the hell were you thinking?!"
The large man, clearly humbled, let out a sigh. "…I'm sorry…" the large man said, "…It's just that…that girl looks like…"
"Shrimpy looks like what, exactly?" Saki demanded, "Spill already!"
As Kotaro and the girls in the office room dealt with the large man, Lily and the other girls that were outside waited around, listening in on what was going on inside. The child actress zombie girl had a particularly troubled and resigned look on her face. Junko, Yugiri, Hikari and Ayumu all regarded their clearly troubled younger co-actress with looks of concern; Ayumu seemed to be particularly worried, due in no small part to the big sister-little sister dynamic that had formed between her and her child counterpart.
Inside of the office room, the large man began to explain what was going on to Kotaro and the girls that were inside with him. "…Eight years ago," the large man said as he began to explain things, "There was this famous child actress on TV called Lily Hoshikawa." The girls that were in the room, as well as those who were listening in from outside, all had surprised looks on their faces when the large man mentioned Lily's true name, shocked that the large man had not only recognized Lily, but even knew what her name was. This was something that none of the girls had even anticipated, so they weren't exactly prepared for what to do.
Later that night back at the abandoned mansion, the zombie girls, aside from Lily who wasn't in the room at the time, were all sitting around in the futon room, all of them dressed in what they all had for sleepwear. "What happened to Lily earlier today could happen to any one of us," Ai said to the others in a tone of warning. Looking over to where Junko sat next to Ayumu, Ai went on, "Especially me, Junko and Ayumu."
"You raise a point," Junko remarked to her Heisei counterpart, "We don't use names, but are faces can be recognized." Crossing her arms over her chest, Junko added, "I blame that blasted Sagazine Today magazine, what with them trying to dig into our pasts and all." Letting out a resigned sigh, the Showa idol zombie girl remarked, "But even if that blasted magazine wasn't trying to look into us, some of us would get recognized eventually."
"It appears that there are dangers to being famous," Yugiri remarked, "Especially since we're all zombies but some of us have those who remember us from when we were still alive."
Scoffing as she stretched her arms into the air, Saki said, "This is one hell of a fucking drag." Falling over onto her back so that she laid on her futon, Saki continued, "And who's to say that this won't happen to any of us again?"
Sakura looked around the futon room at her fellow undead, but stopped short when she noticed that Lily wasn't in the room. "Hang on," the long-haired zombie girl began, "Shouldn't Lily have been done washing up by now?"
…
Outside at a public park near the abandoned mansion, Lily, wearing her sleep outfit, was sitting on one of the slides. Lily had wisely used monster glamour to make herself look human, even though there was very little chance that someone would randomly see her at this time of night. It was here that Sakura and Ayumu, both of them also using monster glamour to appear human and also wearing their respective sleep outfits, found Lily sulking to herself.
"There you are, Lily," Sakura said, sounding relieved as she and Ayumu approached the troubled Lily, "You weren't in the bathroom when we checked on you, so we got a little worried."
Lily turned her head to look back down at her feet, her somber expression unchanging. "Sorry for making you both worry," the child actress zombie girl replied, "But I just can't help but feel confused." Letting out a sigh, Lily said, "Confused by that large man from earlier today."
"You want to talk about it, Little Sis?" Ayumu asked, the concern in her tone clear.
Lily perked up a bit when she heard the teen actress that she idolized refer to her as 'Little Sis', instantly making her feel a little better. As such, it made Lily more willing and open to talk. "Big Sis, Sakura," Lily began, "You see, that large man from earlier was…" Letting out a resigned sigh, Lily said, "…You see, he was actually my papa."
Both Sakura and Ayumu were a bit taken aback by surprise by what Lily had just told the two of them. "That was your dad?" Sakura nearly exclaimed, "Your dad is a yakuza?"
"Wait a minute," Ayumu said, a confused look on his face, "I thought that Sigrid said that the man was something called a jötunn."
Lily turned to look at Sakura and Ayumu and said, "Huh? What, no. My papa is just really big, is all. I take more after my mama." Lily looked back down to her feet, her somber expression unchanging. "It never occurred to me that my papa might attend one of our fan events," the child actress zombie girl said in a somber, resigned tone.
The two older zombie girls nodded in agreement and sympathy for Lily, with Sakura even adding, "I bet that it feels weird."
"To be honest…" Lily said as she sounded like she was about to tell a story about her past, "…I've actually been trying to forget about papa, but now I can't…"
(FLASHBACK)
(DATE: JULY 11TH, 2009)
The flashback showed a scene of Lily sitting with her dad at a table in their house, eating dinner together. A side shot of that seen showed an in-home Japanese style memorial shrine that had a framed photo of a beautiful woman whose long hair was in color similar to that of Lily's hair; the framed photo was somewhat hidden behind a bowl.
"You see, it was usually just the two of us, papa and me," Lily said as her story narrated over the flashback, "But even so, I never really ever felt all that lonely. I knew that mama was watching over us from up in the sky. We also had a TV set, and papa's favorite thing to do was to relax in front of the TV together. He'd used to say that the only thing that made watching TV better was if you watched it with someone else, to cry and laugh along with them." The flashback then cut to a scene of Lily and her dad sitting on the sofa together, laughing at something that they saw.
The flashback then showed Lily sitting at the table while she was writing something out, probably for homework, while her dad sat on the sofa. "Papa would always want me to come join him on the couch to watch TV with him," the child actress zombie girl said, "Even if I was working on some homework." The flashback then showed Lily having joined her dad on the sofa, before cutting to another scene where Lily walked up to her dad as he was crying over something that he saw on TV which had moved him to tears. "Seeing how much papa enjoyed TV made me really happy," Lily said as she continued to narrate, "So I thought that it would be nice if I could make him smile from inside of the TV."
(FLASHBACK OVER)
Lily sat in silence for a few seconds in that public park with Sakura and Ayumu. Turning her head slightly to face Ayumu, Lily said, "Wanting to make my papa happy like that is one of the other things that inspired me to go into acting, aside from me wanting to be like you, Big Sis."
"Aww," Ayumu remarked, "It's really sweet that you wanted to do something that would make your father proud, Lily."
Nodding in agreement, Sakura remarked, "I have to agree with that, Lily. The fact that you wanted to do so much for someone else says a lot about how good of a person you are."
Lily nodded once in thanks to the older zombie girls. "Thanks," the child actress zombie girl said, "Anyway, I ended up singing on with a child's talent agency, and papa resigned from his job so that he could be my manager. Papa was always right there with me whenever I had work." With a bit of pride in the smile she made, Lily said, "Due to how cute and talented I was right off the bat, everything I got involved in ended up being a huge success."
Lily paused for a bit, letting out a resigned sigh as she did so while her previously smiling expression morphed into one of resigned somberness. "…However," Lily went on, "Once I had made it to the top, something really bad happened…"
(FLASHBACK)
(DATE: NOVEMBER 30TH, 2011)
"Why don't you understand how I feel, papa?!" Lily screamed from inside a dressing room that was set aside for her at a filming studio; Lily and some others who were filming shots for either a few commercials, a scene in a TV episode or whathaveyou, and a lot of them, Lily included, were on break at the moment. Lily's dad stood outside of Lily's dressing room as he heard the sound of something soft hit the door. Judging by the soft 'thump' sound that it made, the large man guessed that it was one of the stuffed animals that Lily kept in her dressing room.
"Lily," the large man called out in a mildly concerned tone, "It's been over a month since that teen actress died in her bath. You can't be upset about it forever."
"YES I CAN!" the child actress screamed, her tone sounding mildly distressed as she threw yet another one of her stuffed animals against her dressing room door, "HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU HEARD THAT SOMEONE WHO MEANT THE WORLD TO YOU HAD DIED?!"
Lily's father just stood outside of his child's dressing room, letting out a mildly resigned sigh as he didn't quite know what to do with the troubled Lily. As the large man stood there, a stage crewman came walking by; he was a young adult in his very early twenties, and had an overall look that made him seem like one of the cool guys that girls of a similar age as him would swoon over. Seeing Lily's father standing outside of the child actress's dressing room like that, as well as having heard some of Lily's shouting, the crewman looked up to Lily's dad.
Patting the large man on the side of his left arm, the crewman said when the large man turned to face him, "She's not the only person in Japan that's still devastated by Ayumu Akarui's death. She was pretty much the country's most popular teen actress, after all."
"I'm just worried about how all of this depression will affect Masao's acting, is all," the large man replied, concern clear in his tone.
Nodding in understanding, the crewman said, "It's a parent's prerogative to be concerned about their child's emotional well-being at times such as this, I suppose." Gently shaking his head, the crewman continued, "But you've got to understand just how much Ayumu meant to your kid. It's always going to be a serious blow when a kid hears that someone who means a whole lot to them dies." With a shrug, the crewman added before he turned around and left, "You need to give the kid as much time as needed to recover."
As the crewman left, Lily's dad turned his attention back to the door that led into Lily's dressing room. The large man had to admit that the crewman made an excellent point on how Lily was going to need as much time as what was needed in order to move on from the death of that teen actress girl. Even so, Lily's father was still very much concerned for his child. "…I hope that you can recover from this soon, Masao…" Lily's dad said, more to himself than to his upset child.
…
Lily, after managing to successfully sneak past her dad, was standing in an alleyway between the filming studio building and the building next to it on it's right (if you're standing outside and facing the filming studio). Looking up into the sky, the child actress let out a resigned, troubled and mildly frustrated sigh.
"I still can't believe how papa isn't taking how I feel seriously," Lily muttered to herself, a mild hint of resentment in her tone, "Ayumu was the coolest person to ever live. I wanted to be just like her. I still do, in fact." Letting out another sigh, Lily said to herself as she looked up while a single tear fell down the side of her face from her right eye, "And now that coolest person ever is dead." Whimpering a bit in a way that suggested that she may start full-out crying again, the child actress said in a voice that was breaking in places here and there, "That just isn't fair. It's just way too cruel to be fair…"
As Lily moped to herself in that alleyway, a door along the wall Lily leaned against, a door that led back into the filming studio building, opened up, and an adult wearing a large pink costume in the shape of a stylized heart came walking out. "Feh, that stupid commercial for the romantic sweets store it borderline degrading," the person in the heart costume muttered to themselves; judging by the voice, it had to be a woman wearing the costume. "Why the hell couldn't my son get that role instead of that Lily brat that everyone's clamoring over?"
As the woman in the heart costume reached into her costume to pull out a pack of cigarettes, she stopped short when, looking over a ways, she spotted Lily leaning against the wall, moping to herself. Due to a mix of how far away Lily was and how quietly the woman was muttering to herself in annoyance, the child actress failed to hear what the woman had said. In fact, due to her moping, Lily didn't even notice that the woman had entered the alleyway at all. As soon as her eyes had fallen onto the child actress, the woman's eyes filled with a fiery, venomous rage.
It was that brat's fault that the woman's son failed to get a role that would have led to his own rise to stardom, which would have allowed the woman herself to get out of having to take bit parts in random commercials such as having to dance around while wearing this near degrading heart costume for the romantic sweets store. In fact, that blue-haired brat had scored a number of roles that would have otherwise gone to other child actors and actress, but the producers and other directors found Lily to be bar none the cutest of the lot, so she frequently scored a lot of roles; oftentimes, Lily was guaranteed to get a part simply by showing up to an audition.
The woman, pure unadulterated fury taking over all of her reasoning, slowly reached into a back pocket on the pants she was wearing inside of her heart costume. After a couple of moments of fiddling around, the woman was able to pull out what she was trying to pull out, a pocket knife with a blade that was at least two and a half inches long. It was a fairly big pocket knife, one that some would say might even be illegal to carry around freely due to how long the blade was.
Uncaring for anything else, the woman, with her knife in hand, went right up to Lily…
…
A few hours later, a lot of onlookers, some of which were paparazzi, were gathered outside of the filming studio building as a few police cars were parked outside of the entrance to the alleyway that Lily was cooling off in. Two relatively young looking police officers were standing off to the side as the two of them were talking to Lily's dad. "What's going on here?" Lily's dad asked the two police officers, "What's with all of this police presence? Masao will get scared if there's a crime scene near the studio."
The first officer, with a mildly confused look on his face, quickly checked the clipboard that he was holding, scanning the top page that was clipped to it. "…Ah, you're Takeo Go," the first officer said, a hint of casualness in his tone, "Yeah, I don't see how all of what's going on here will frighten your kid."
The large man, identified as Takeo Go, asked with a look of mild suspicion on his face, "What do you mean by that?"
"Well the kid was actually in that alleyway, see?" the first officer began as he gestured to the alleyway that Lily was in, "From what we could tell, she was just trying to cool off emotionally."
"Uhh huh," Takeo replied, showing that he was following along.
"One of the women wearing those large heart-shaped costumes for that one commercial that's being shot here at the filming studio entered the alleyway as well," the first officer continued.
"Mmm hmm," Takeo said as he nodded once.
"The woman saw your kid," the first officer remarked.
"Okay," Takeo replied.
"The woman went up to your kid," the first officer explained.
"Yeah," the large man said.
"And then she stabbed your kid thirty-seven times in the chest," the first officer finished, stating what had happened in as casual a way as what anyone could assume was possible.
Takeo, when he heard what had happened to his child, went wide-eyed with shock. He fell to his knees, slowly gasping out of shock as the full weight of realizing just what Lily's fate entailed exactly meant. Tears began to well up in the corners of the large man's eyes as his large, strong form began to shudder noticeably.
The second officer, with a mildly exasperated look on his face, turned to face the first officer. "Caaaaaarrrrrrl," the second officer said, sounding like he can't believe what his fellow had just done, "Why didn't you try softening the blow for him?"
"Well hey, he asked me what happened," the first officer, apparently named Carl, said to the second police officer as he (Carl) gestured to where Takeo was overcome with shock, "And you know me. Honesty is the best policy."
"You just told this man that his preteen daughter was killed in a fatal stabbing in the bluntest way possible, Carl," the second officer complained, sounding very unamused.
Arching an eyebrow at the second police officer, Carl asked, "Are you sure about that? I could be blunter."
"Please don't," the second police officer replied, sounding like he wouldn't look forward to it if Carl went through with what he was talking about.
"I feel like I've been issued a challenge," Carl remarked in a casual, mildly amused tone.
"Don't you dare, Carl!" the second police officer half said half demanded, sounding like he was giving his fellow officer a stern warning.
The two police officers, as they got caught up in their bickering conversation between the two of them, more or less left Takeo there forgotten. The large man still couldn't believe it, even though things were straight up confirmed for him just now; Lily, his only child, his precious little girl, was now gone. The last person in the world who meant anything and everything to the large man was now lying dead in an alleyway, stabbed to death by a vile woman who Takeo would later find out carried out the deed out of extreme jealousy over Lily getting at least one role that would have otherwise gone to her (the woman's) son.
"Masao…" Takeo said in a hushed, somber tone, wishing that this was all some cruel prank and that his child was actually alive and well. But he knew better, knew that there wouldn't have been all of this police presence if there wasn't an actual crime that had just taken place. The large man remembered the last words that he heard his child say, asking him how he'd feel if he just found out if someone who meant the world to him had died.
Well…now Takeo knew.
(FLASHBACK OVER)
In the public park where she sat with Sakura and Ayumu, Lily let out a resigned sigh. "That was the last time that I saw papa while I was still alive," the child actress zombie girl said, her tone very much regretful that her last words to her father while she was still alive was her yelling at him about how she felt he didn't understand her.
"Umm…wait a minute," Sakura began, "What…happened exactly?" Looking up to the night sky a bit, Sakura put the tip of her right index finger to her forehead as she said, "I'm pretty sure that you said you died when someone stabbed you in your chest multiple times." Gently shaking her head, the long-haired zombie girl said when she turned to face Lily, "I'm sorry, but this Masao guy you mentioned a few times. Who is he, exactly?"
"Yeah, I kind of want to know who he is as well," Ayumu admitted.
Lily didn't face either of the older zombie girls; instead, she simply continued to look forward. "…It's what my name used to be," Lily explained, sounding more or less indifferent on the matter. After a few seconds of consideration, both Sakura and Ayumu sounded like they both understood what Lily was getting at. However, not one second after that, both of them turned to look at the child actress zombie girl, looks of sheer surprise on their respective faces.
"Wait, what?!" Sakura and Ayumu practically exclaimed in unison.
END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER EIGHT
Author's notes:
I wanted to put an especial amount of effort into Lily's time in the spotlight as she's one of my favorites among the main seven zombie girls. However, by the time I got to where Sakura and Ayumu were surprised to learn a certain something about Lily's past, I noticed that I had been dragging this chapter on for way too long. Likewise, I just realized that, in order to properly do Lily's character justice, I'm going to have to give her a two-parter deal here.
The rest of Lily's time in the spotlight will be continued and concluded in the next chapter where, due to the AU nature of this story, Lily's gesture to reach out to and forgive her father to help him move on from her death is going to be rather different than what she did in the series proper. Even so, the other zombie girls will be putting their hands in to help the youngest among their number pull the stunt she's going to be coming up with off. And with ten zombie girls here instead of seven, things should be going a bit more smoothly thanks to the extra help.