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 nine: A princess sends a message to her giant from afar
A few minutes after their talk at the local park, Sakura and Ayumu had gotten Lily back to the abandoned mansion. In the futon room, the other seven zombie girls sat at their respective futons as Sakura, Ayumu and Lily stood in front of them, with Sakura explaining something to her fellow undead. "…Well, there you girls have it," the long-haired zombie girl remarked as Lily stood between her and Ayumu as she (Sakura) had just finished telling the other girls about what she and Ayumu had just learned over at the park, "Lily here used to be Masao."
The girls all looked at Lily with a mixed variety of expressions. "Geez, Shrimpy," Saki said, a look of sympathy on her face, "Can't believe that you died because some jealous bitch was pissed at you. Sorry you went out in such a manner, kiddo." With a looked of piqued interest on her face, the delinquent zombie girl asked, "Hang on, you said you had a completely different name, right? What was it again?"
Lily, with a dry and unamused look on her face, remarked, "Yeah. It was Masao Go."
A snorted back laugh sounded in the room, making the other girls look around to see where it could have come from. To the confusion of the other girls, the snorted-back laugh had come from Yugiri. "My apologies, girls," the courtesan zombie girl said as she apologized, "But such a masculine name sounds totally out of place to belong to a young lady like Lily-san here."
"Shove it, Yugiri," Saki scolded. Turning to face Lily again, Saki asked, "What about your dad's name? What did you say it was?"
Her dry, unamused look persisting, Lily replied, "It's Takeo Go."
"Ah, now a man with a name like that sounds better," Yugiri remarked, sounding a lot more accepting of what she had just been told.
Sigrid, with an unamused snarling expression on her face, turned to face where Yugiri sat and said, "You're starting to piss me off with your talking, harlot draugr." Raising a fist up, Sigrid half asked half threatened, "You want I should send you back to Helheim?"
"In her defense, those are both pretty manly-sounding names," Saki remarked as she turned to address the half-foreign zombie girl, "Granted, Yugiri is still being kind of a dick, but it's due to seeing things from the lens of the time period she lived in. That being said." Turning back to face the courtesan zombie girl, Saki said, "Yugiri, girl, seriously. We have got to get you more caught up with the times."
Nodding in understanding, Yugiri replied with a hint of regret in her tone, "I understand completely. Apologies if I've caused any undue offence due to my lack of understanding of the culture of modern times."
The other zombie girls looked like they didn't quite know what to make of what they had just learned of Lily; Tae was actually asleep so she didn't hear anything (she probably wouldn't even understand what was going on if she was awake, mind you), Junko looked on with a look of stunned surprise, the look on Hikari's face suggested that she wasn't bothered by what she had just learned, and Ai let out a sigh as she turned to face where Lily stood in front of everyone else with Sakura and Ayumu.
"So…" the Heisei idol zombie girl began, her tone mildly unsure, "…Now what?"
With a reassuring smile, Lily replied, "I'm still the same Lily that you girls have all known since we've all awakened. Always have been and always will be, especially since as a zombie I won't be growing up." Giving a single nod, the child actress zombie girl remarked, "There's no need to worry about anything."
"I guess that's the case, then," Sakura remarked.
Holding up a hand, Ai asked, "Hang on, did Kotaro know about this?" Ai's question made a lot of the zombie girls exchange a few mildly confused looks as they looked around at each other, the point that was just raised by Ai being a rather pertinent one.
…
When the girls all confronted Kotaro in his office room, they found him wearing a pink bathing cap that would be more at home worn by a woman. The eccentric man was also strumming the strings of an acoustic guitar as he sat on a sofa. "…Of course I knew about it," Kotaro said as he played a few notes on his guitar. Turning to look at the girls, Kotaro remarked, "I knew from the get-go that Hikari is inbred."
Most of the zombie girls instantly had shocked looks of surprise on their respective faces as they heard what Kotaro had just told them. "We…" Sakura said, her tone sounding mildly unsure due to what she and the others had just heard, "…Were actually going to ask you if you knew that Lily used to be Masao."
"…Oh," Kotaro replied, sounding just vaguely like his unbreakable façade had slipped just a bit. Quickly regaining his composure, Kotaro said, "Yes, I also knew ahead of time that Lily used to be Masao." Kotaro turned back to face the direction he was facing previously as he resumed his guitar playing. He even stuck his tongue out a bit in a playful, somewhat mocking tone.
Yugiri, with a rather crossed expression, remarked in a firm tone as she crossed her arms over her chest, "We are trying to be serious with you here, Kotaro-san."
"What?!" Kotaro exclaimed suddenly as he shot right up to his and began berating the courtesan zombie girl, "Are you're trying to tell me that you girls have room in Franchouchou for Lily, but Masao isn't allowed?!"
As the eccentric man was trying to scold Yugiri, Lily piped up with a hint of annoyance in her tone, "I'm Lily now! I don't even know a Masao!"
"Right! It's just as she said!" Kotaro said to the other zombie girls as he pointed at Lily, "I'm not familiar with any Masao either! In fact, you nine are all Masao!" Pointing to the door in his office room, the eccentric man said, "Anyway, if you brain-dead brats all have time to ask dumb questions, then you all have time to go to bed! You have a big event tomorrow, and you all need to get some rest for it!"
Getting the cue, the zombie girls all proceeded to file for the door, although Yugiri, Junko and Tae stuck around, the former two because they still want answers and the last of those three because she had no idea what was going on and was actually just standing there mindlessly. This did nothing but irritate Kotaro a bit, mostly because he wanted the girls to go to bed.
…
Sakura, Lily, Saki, Ai, Ayumu, Hikari and Sigrid all stood in the hallway outside of Kotaro's office as the door was open. One by one, the eccentric man quite literally threw Junko, Tae and Yugiri out of his office in that order; Junko landed in a sitting position next to Ai, Tae landed in a face-planting position where her butt stuck up in the air, and Yugiri ended up face-planting into Tae's butt before bouncing off and hitting her back against the wall that Kotaro's office's door was located along.
Once all ten of the zombie girls were in the hallway, Kotaro slammed the door to his office closed, making it clear that he didn't want to be disturbed for the rest of the night. "Well, girls," Sakura said as the girls that were thrown out got themselves up off of the hallway floor, "We might as well go back to bed. There's nothing else we can really do." The others all nodded in agreement with Sakura (aside from Tae for obvious reasons) as they followed her back to the futon room.
A few minutes later, the zombie girls were all in the futon room. Lily was the only one who was asleep, and the child actress zombie girl looked rather adorable as she snoozed away in her futon. She even had the hood of her sleep outfit up, which further showed that Lily's sleep outfit was a Lily-sized version of the sleep outfit that Ayumu wore, aside from how the green that Lily's had was replaced with lavender on the one her teen counterpart had. As Lily slept, the others looked on, finding the sleeping Lily to be rather cute.
"I've never thought about it until now, but Lily is rather adorable," Junko remarked as she and the others watched Lily sleep.
"It's surprising what you can learn about those you work closely with for a long period of time, you know," Ai added, her tone showing she agreed with her Showa counterpart's thoughts.
Scoffing a bit, Saki said, "Who cares what sort of gear Shrimpy has?" The way that the delinquent zombie girl stated what she said drew some looks of shock from some of her fellow undead, although a few agreed with Saki.
Jerking a thumb at Saki, Sigrid remarked to the others, "Saki here has a point." Crossing her arms over her chest, the half-foreign zombie girl continued, "I fail to see how what we have just learned about the little one should alter our perception and judgment of her. She has proven that she can handle the same business as us, so why should anything else matter?" A look of curious wonder crossed Sigrid's face as she remarked, "Although if the little one hadn't yet chosen her new name, I would have done so for her. Astrid would have been a rather good choice for the little one, now that I think about it."
"We're all dead, so there's still that tying us together," Saki remarked, her tone showing that the idea of continuing to remain being bothered by what was learned of Lily wasn't something that sat well with her.
"There's still a fair bit about being undead that we still don't know about," Hikari pointed out, "All that we got right now is that we all bear scars or other similar markings that give others a clue as to how we originally died, and that as zombies we won't age." With her fellow undead all looking at her, the gamer zombie girl remarked, "Although one has to admit that the idea of not aging sounds rather appealing. Kind of a nice thought really."
The other zombie girls, aside from Tae who had clocked out by that point, all resumed watching on as Lily slept, finding her sleeping like that to be adorable and happy for her that she won't be changing, something that the child actress zombie girl really liked.
Takeo was sitting in his living room at his house alone, looking at the house memorial shrine that had been set up. Next to the framed photo of a blue-haired woman that was obviously his wife and Lily's mom was a framed photo of Lily herself. The large man continued to look at the setup as his mind drifted back to past memories that, in light of what happened to his late child, now filled his heart with regret.
…
Takeo recalled one time how he was excited over some very high ratings Lily had gotten while the television in the living room was showing an interview where the lady who was hosting had Lily on as the guest of honor. Next to Takeo on the sofa as that interview on TV played was Lily, who was actually asleep on the sofa, although she was stirred from her light slumber by her father's excited talking about how her career was shooting off like a rocket.
The large man recalled that Lily asked if the two of them could go somewhere together, but he was too caught up in trying to further boost his child's selling power to make her an even bigger star. He absentmindedly agreed to take her to a park, but he was so focused on her career that he more or less didn't even realize what Lily was asking him for; he only heard enough to tell Lily that they could go to the whatever after they finished shooting her next big scene for what she was doing at the time.
Takeo's mind then went to a memory that pained his heart every time it crossed his mind; seeing Lily's dead body lying on the table in the operating room. The doctor, accompanied by a nurse, standing behind the large man felt sympathy for the grieving father. "She had suffered a total of thirty-seven stab wounds to her chest," the doctor explained in a tone showing that he was at a loss on what to tell Takeo, "At least five of which pierced her heart. There was simply just no saving her, I'm afraid." Gesturing to where Lily's remains laid on the table, the doctor went on, "That woman who killed her was arrested and is going to be tried, if that's any consolation."
It was not any consolation to the grieving Takeo, however. The large man remembered that, the night he got back from the hospital where the doctor told him that Lily couldn't be saved, he sat somberly on the sofa as something that Lily starred in played on the TV. As he watched the show, Takeo thought he heard his late child call out to him. He turned to look next to him on the sofa but, as could be predicted, there was no Lily.
Takeo began to cry out of sadness, shaking as he sobbed. "This…this just can't be…" Takeo muttered to himself as the tears flowed freely, sad that his child was no longer with him, no longer with the world. Overcome by the sheer grief, Takeo let out a roar as he got up, gripped the TV on both sides and yanked it up and out, throwing it with a smash against the wall, leaving a dent in said wall as the ruined remains of the now unfunctioning TV just sat on the floor. It was a fairly expensive TV, but Takeo didn't care. There was no way that he could find it in himself to enjoy TV anymore.
Not with his child gone.
…
Takeo came out of his recollection of memories as he returned to the reality that he now lived in. He continued to look at the framed photos of his late wife, his late daughter. The large man sighed to himself as he continued to look at the in-house memorial that was the only place where he could see his lost loved ones.
"…You have got to get a hold of yourself," Takeo said bitterly to himself, "There's no way that girl could be Masao. There's just no way that she could be." Takeo shed a few tears as he forced himself to come to terms with the obvious, his crying having no sound. The large man continued to sit in front of that shrine for a little while longer, wishing that there was no need for it at all.
The next day at another venue, the girls of Franchouchou were autographing photos of themselves for fans of 'Saga Stories' that came by. They were also giving away some 'Saga Stories' t-shirts, ranging in size from small to 3XL; a previous event similar to the one that the girls were doing had just small to large t-shirts which only really worked for most of the slimmer women that came, and many had asked for larger sizes anyway. Remembering that, Kotaro had added XL, 2XL and 3XL sized t-shirts to the lineup.
As Sakura finished autographing a photo of herself that she handed to a fan, she, along with Saki and Junko, looked over when they saw that Takeo was standing in front of the spot along the table that Lily was seated at. Despite what happened the last time she saw him at an event for the show, the child actress zombie girl was not worried about her dad. As a matter of fact, she smiled as she looked up at him.
"Hi again," Lily greeted the large man, "Sorry about how you were frozen last time. I'm pretty sure that high school boy that number one got to help out didn't really mean to do any harm."
Nodding once in acknowledgement, Takeo replied, "It's quite alright. It was completely my fault anyway." Gesturing to the selection of t-shirt, Takeo asked, "Well anyway, can I please get one of these t-shirts?"
Lily nodded once and said, "Sure, but just so you know, we only go up to 3XL." With a mildly unsure look on her face, Lily explained as she gestured to her dad, "I'm pretty sure that even the biggest size that we have available at the moment won't quite be enough, since you wear a size 5XL and all."
"Heh," Takeo remarked, not a shred of sounding offended in his tone. If anything, the large man sounded a bit amused. "Now how did you know what size I wear?" Takeo asked the girl that sat in front of him, unaware that said girl truly was his late child.
Thinking quickly, the child actress zombie girl said, "A lucky guess, I suppose."
"I see," Takeo remarked, "Well anyway, can I get the smallest size you have, then?" Seeing the confused look on Lily's face, the large man explained, "You see, I used to have a kid around your age. I…wasn't exactly an exemplary model of what a father should be, given that I was too caught up in work to focus on what really mattered." The large man clenched his hands into fists for a bit before relaxing them. "…I'm sure your own father has to be a nice man, though," Takeo said, unaware that he was giving himself (what he would see as) an undue complement.
Lily, having to play along because of the circumstances that she found herself in, said, "My father is the sweetest, kindest man ever. He's really great!" Lily then handed Takeo a tube that contained the t-shirt that he asked for.
"Thanks again," the large man said, "Also sorry again about frightening you before. I won't be a bother to you again. I just came here to apologize." He gave the child actress zombie girl a single nod of acknowledgement before he turned to walk away, saying, "Goodbye." Lily looked on as she watched her father walk away, a look of longing on her face. Lily had no idea what to do at that moment, but she was brought out of her thoughts when Sakura came over to her.
"Are you going to be okay, Lily?" the long-haired zombie girl asked, having a strong feeling that Lily's encounter with her father just now must have done something to shake her up at least a bit.
Turning to face Sakura, Lily replied somewhat hastily, "Oh yeah, totally! Why wouldn't I be alright?" Lily then turned to do a count on the t-shirts that she still had in front of her to give out to fans. Sakura knew that Lily was wanting to avoid the subject, but that still didn't change how there had to be some manner of discussion about the matter. Sakura decided that, later when she and the others all got back to the abandoned mansion, they had to throw a game plan together to help Lily do something for her dad.
Back at the abandoned mansion, Lily was sitting along in one of the rooms when she heard the one door open. Turning to look, Lily saw Sakura walk into the room to join her. "I take it that the scripts for the next episode that we have to shoot are ready for us to go over?" Lily asked.
"No, not quite yet," Sakura answered as she walked over to join Lily on the sofa that the child actress zombie girl was sitting on. "Are you sure you're doing okay?" Sakura asked, "We can still give you some more time to yourself if you feel that you need it."
Lily let out a resigned sigh as she looked up at Sakura. "…You know," Lily began to remark, "I think that I would have been better off if I had no memories of my life before I awakened as a zombie, sort of like you."
Letting out a chuckle, Sakura said, "No way. It sucks that I don't remember anything about my life before I awakened as a zombie. Why else do you and the others think I've taken to writing about everything I've done and seen ever since I awakened in that journal that I keep?" Giving a gentle shake of her head, Sakura continued, "It's great that you remember your dad. You would not be able to deal with your feelings if you didn't remember him."
"My papa…" Lily said, a hint of somberness in her tone as she gripped the hem of her skirt, "…I've been dead for such a long time, but he's never forgotten about me. And I still…I still…" Unable to hold her feelings in anymore, Lily burst into tears as she flung herself into Sakura's arms and proceeded to soak Sakura's shirt with her tears. The long-haired zombie girl was not going to hold this against Lily; on the contrary, Sakura allowed Lily to cry as much as she felt that she had to. The two of them simply sat there on that sofa, Sakura comforting Lily as the younger undead continued to cry.
After Lily had cried her eyes out and had that purge of her emotions, she went with Sakura to go talk to the other zombie girls about what to do. "I can't help but think that there might be others out there who were busted up by the rest of us kicking it," Saki remarked, "I mean, Shrimpy here can't be the only one among the ten of us who had loved ones. If not any family, than at least a few close friends, you know?"
Sakura nodded in agreement with the delinquent zombie girl, although she couldn't quite shake the feeling that she (Sakura) herself didn't exactly apply to that. Even though she could not for the (un)life of her remember anything of her past prior to awakening as a zombie, Sakura got the feeling that there wasn't exactly a whole lot of people in her prior life that she was fond enough to miss now that she was out of their life, and them out of hers. This lack of being able to recall memories of her past life as a human was all the more reason she's taken to writing everything she experiences down in her journal.
However…vague trickles of one memory managed to work its way through the undeath-induced fog blocking of the rest of Sakura's memories. A memory of a woman in her early fifties; this woman wore a long-sleeved white buttoned blouse with a pastel orange ascot around her neck, a pair of khaki pants that ended about halfway down her shins, a pair of black slip-on shoes, and a beret hat on her head. The woman, who sat in a director's chair and held a megaphone in her right hand, had long, platinum-blonde hair worn straight, and she was admittedly rather on the well-fed side of things. Sakura did not know who this woman was, but seeing her pop up in her memories brought some measure of comfort to the long-haired zombie girl, as if this woman was someone important to her, someone who treated her kindly, like a mom to her favorite daughter.
Ai, noticing that Sakura was deep in thought, looked over and asked, "Are you okay, Sakura?"
"Oh, I'm fine!" Sakura replied somewhat hastily, a bit surprised due to being brought out of her thoughts so suddenly.
"Look, girls," Saki began, "We need to figure out something to do here." Pounding a fist into her hand, Saki continued, "We have to send that big guy a message!"
Lily, with a troubled look on her face, remarked, "But what can we do? I mean, we're zombies now. It's not like we can just go to papa straight up so I can tell him something."
Sakura placed her hand on Lily's left shoulder, a comforting gesture meant to reassure the child actress zombie girl. "Don't worry, Lily," Sakura said, "I'm sure we'll think of something that we can do. All we have to do is put our heads together and brainstorm a bit until we come up with an idea that would work."
Lily nodded once in acknowledgement to Sakura, thankful that the older zombie girl had her back on this one. As the ten girls of Franchouchou began to think about what they can do so that Lily can send a special kind of message that only her living father would get and understand, Junko clapped her hands together and said, "By Jove, I think I've got it!"
"Who is this Jove fellow of which you speak, white-haired draugr?" Sigrid asked as she turned to face the Showa idol zombie girl.
Gently shaking her head, Junko explained, "There is no Jove person, I was using a figure of speech to let you guys know that I've come up with an idea that could work. An idea that we can only do since we're Franchouchou."
"Well either way, we should run it by Kotaro first," Ai pointed out, "He'd probably get mad if we acted without his knowing." Junko and a few of the other zombie girls nodded in agreement before all ten of them got up and decided to seek Kotaro out.
…
As it turned out, Kotaro was very much on board with the plan that Junko had come up with. With the okay from the eccentric man to proceed, the girls all went about getting everything for Junko's plan to help Lily reach out to her father ready. They worked out a script for something, Kotaro even pitched in by trying to write up some piano music, and the girls even worked out some acting for a scene that they were going to do.
Through it all, Lily never lost her smile, a smile that showed that she was very much looking forward to what she and her fellow undead were going to do.
Sometime a few days after the girls all started prepping to help Lily with the thing, Takeo and his co-workers were at their office building when they were looking at some copies of a flyer that had been passed out around the Saga prefecture. It was advertising a live performance of a scene set in the setting for the 'Saga Stories' TV series that Franchouchou was going to throw on stage in a nearby mall. The performance was set to be held later that day, November 15th, 2019.
"Hey, that came in the mail earlier," the wild-haired man said as he saw Takeo hold and look at one of the copies of the flyer, "I would go, but I just bought a new video game that I'm eager to play the hell out of, so I'm going to have to skip going to the performance. It's a shame, but I've been dying to play the game I got ever since it was announced in February."
The wild-haired man turned around and walked back to his desk, leaving Takeo be. The large man continued to look at the copy of the flyer that he held, a look of consideration on his face as he thought about what to do.
…
Later that day over at the mall, a large crowd of people, a good number of which were holding shopping bags from a video game store, were gathered in front of a stage in the mall, on which a living room scene had been set up. Sakura, Lily and Ayumu were gearing up to throw on an act, but lily was looking around, a mild look of worry on her face as she was seemingly hoping that a certain someone would show up.
"Hey Sakura," Ayumu whispered to the long-haired zombie girl, "The show is almost about to start, but I don't think that Lily's dad is here yet."
Sakura shared the teen actress zombie girl's worries, understanding that there might be a chance that all of the effort they put in to help Lily send a message to her father may end up being moot, even though they would still have some success with entertaining the crowd that had gathered here before them. Lily seemed to realize this as well, and she had a somewhat downcast look on her face, a good sign that she was a bit disappointed.
…However, Lily perked up when she heard the stomping of mighty feet. Looking over in the appropriate direction, the child actress zombie girl saw her father come running up. Takeo held a somewhat crumpled copy of the flyer that was passed out around Saga prefecture. When the large man had reached the crowd that came to watch the live performance, he panted a bit out of exhaustion, showing that he had run a great distance to get her.
Lily, upon seeing her dad, smiled a bit and discreetly pointed out her father's arrival to Sakura and Ayumu. Seeing the large man for themselves, Sakura and Ayumu both nodded before Sakura held up a megaphone to call out to the gathered audience. "Okay everyone!" the long-haired zombie girl called out, "We're ready to begin the performance of a scene in 'Saga Stories' where number six's character and number seven's character visits my character with a really special surprise!" The audience clapped and cheered as the three girls that were on stage proceeded to get into position for the act; this saw Lily and Ayumu open a front door in the set and walk through it, waiting behind a wall as Sakura sat down in an armchair and picked up a book that her character was reading.
The scene began as Sakura, while in character, hummed happily to herself as she read her book. A few seconds after her humming started, one of the two girls waiting behind the wall that the front door was located long knocked on the door, getting Sakura's attention. "Now who could that be?" Sakura said, using something of a (practiced) Akita accent as she got up and walked over to the door to answer it. Sakura stepped to the side as Lily and Ayumu walked in, each of them carrying one end of a flat screen TV.
"Ta-da!" Ayumu said as she and Lily sat the TV down, "When we were here last time and saw that you didn't own a TV, we thought that it would nice if we got you this. That way, you won't have to miss any of your favorite shows!"
"Well wowee!" Sakura said in amazement as she saw the TV that Lily and Ayumu had brought into her house, "This looks like one of them fancy plasma TVs that I heard about back before I moved out here to Saga from my family's home back in Akita!"
Lily nodded in the affirmative before saying, "I can't begin to tell you how awesome having a TV is. One of my favorite things to do is to watch TV with the people that I love, laughing and crying along with them as we enjoy the highs and lows of all of our favorite programs. It really helped to bring my family together, you know." Lily paused as she closed her eyes, letting out a mildly resigned sigh. "My family wasn't all that big really, just me and my dad," Lily said as a single tear ran down the right side of her face, "But the time that we spent together watching TV was some of the best time that I have ever had, because I was spending it with my dad."
The audience that had gathered were touched by Lily's emotional performance, with some of them even shedding a few tears themselves. As for Takeo himself, he couldn't quite put his tongue on it, but he felt that this performance was somehow trying to talk to him directly, to send him a message, a message that to him sounded like it was coming from his late child, like she was trying to tell him something.
"Please stop hurting, papa. I love you."
The following day, the guys working at the office building were simply going through the workday. "Hey Yamamoto, what are you having for lunch?" the wild-haired man said as he sat a handheld game system to the side before picking up a phone.
"Sicilian rice," Yamamoto replied.
With a mildly surprised scoff, the while-haired man said, "Again? Man, you never change." The wild-haired man was about to dial up a number on the phone, but he stopped short when he and Yamamoto both noticed Takeo sit down at the same table that Yamamoto was sitting at.
"Hey, can you get some chicken for me?" Takeo asked.
"You…" the wild-haired man said, looking mildly surprised, "…You're having lunch here?"
Takeo nodded once in the affirmative, drawing surprised looks from some of his co-workers before he and Yamamoto both turned to look at the TV that was set up in the room, which was playing a weather report before cutting to commercial break. Surprisingly, the first commercial that played was the Drive-In Tori commercial that the Franchouchou girls had shot. "Man, those girls are pretty good," Yamamoto remarked, "They not only have a successful show, but they've done a number of commercial shots as well."
Takeo simply nodded in agreement before he turned his attention back to the TV, watching the commercial play out; it eventually came to a part where Lily, with a big, closed-eyed smile, jumped up a bit as she threw her arms into the air. Takeo thought that he'd never watch any manner of television again, not since the circumstances that resulted in him losing his daughter, the only family that he had left.
But now…now the large man felt at ease. He felt okay with moving on.
Ginei Morioka and his friend Tsukune were sitting in a classroom at Azu-Daioh High alone together, a few sheets of paper on the table that they sat at. Some other material that was also on the table at the time suggested that the boys belonged to their school's newspaper club. There was also…something else, something about Tsukune, which was clearly different from before; his hair was now hair a purplish-silver color, and his eyes were now a bluish-purple color. He also seemed to be radiating a sort of chilling air about him.
"You've got to admit, dude," Ginei remarked to Tsukune, "Given the pain spasms that you had occasionally, plus what would have happened if you didn't have this change, that things for you are looking pretty damn good."
Nodding once in agreement, Tsukune remarked, "My cousin is pretty happy since I no longer use any hot water when I take a shower." Tsukune picked up a hand mirror that was laying on the table and looked at himself in it. Letting out a sigh, Tsukune continued, "But then again, I'm not really good with a lot of heat anymore." As the two boys talked, they heard the door leading into the classroom open from behind them.
When they turned, Ginei and Tsukune saw a boy walk into the classroom; this boy was about Tsukune's height, and he was a fair-skinned fellow with jet black hair long enough to reach halfway down his shoulder blades. He wore a long-sleeved shirt under a baggy t-shirt that resembled the German flag, a pair of black tripp pants with red threading, and a pair of black boots (either work or military grade) that had red laces. This boy's eyes were a piercing shade of red. When the boy walked into the classroom, both Ginei and Tsukune turned to face him.
"Word up with thee, Draco?" Ginei greeted with a wave of his hand.
"I just came back from the investigating that you sent me on," the boy, revealed to be named Draco, replied to Ginei with a strong hint of German in his accent. The words that Draco spoke to Ginei suggested that Ginei maintained some high position in the hierarchy of his friends. Letting out a sigh, Draco remarked, "Those famous girls that you took photos of that you sold to Sagazine Today…you were right about them."
Both Ginei and Tsukune leaned back in the chairs that they respectively sat in, with Ginei giving a 'humph' before saying, "So those girls do belong to one of the races of undead-type monsters."
Nodding once in confirmation, Draco explained, "Not only that, but I was able to confirm that all ten of them are standard zombies."
Tsukune arched an eyebrow as he and Ginei looked at their German friend. "…And how were you able to tell without getting caught?" Tsukune asked, a wry look on his face.
Tapping the right side of his nose, Draco replied, "My people have bar none the strongest sense of smell out of all of the monster races. I could tell that all of the Franchouchou girls were all standard zombies simply by standing at a safe distance away, aiming my nose at them, and take a couple of careful, attentive sniffs of the air coming from them."
"Well it's a good thing that actual zombies are nothing like what human pop culture tends to portray them as," Ginei remarked. Focusing on both Tsukune and Draco as a whole, Ginei went on, "The humans who were on the field trip with us to the ski resort that Mizore's folks own all agreed to keep the fact that we from Yokai Academy are all monsters a secret. The last thing that monsters like us need is for word of the truth about us to get out, because no doubt there will be some humans who will do what humans in monster movies do."
Scoffing to the side, Draco remarked as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I would like to see a human try to vanquish me. I'll incinerate them alive."
"Let's just try to put all of that stuff to the side for the time being, guys," Tsukune suggested, sounding like he was hoping to change the subject. Gesturing to his friends, Tsukune said, "Well regardless of the fact that those Franchouchou girls are all zombies, they're still pretty damn good actresses. 'Saga Stories' actually became both my mom's and my cousin's favorite show. And given how accepting they are of the fact that I became a Snow Fairy, I'm pretty damn sure that they won't flip if informed that their favorite actresses are all zombies. Especially if we take the time to explain a few things to them."
Ginei and Draco both nodded in agreement with their friend. With nothing else keeping them there, the three boys took their leave from Azu-Daioh High.
END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER NINE
Author's notes:
With this, I have concluded Lily's character arc, which I'm a little surprised even became an arc rather than just stay as a single chapter. But then again, I wanted to do right by Lily since she's one of my favorites among the main seven zombie girls. I also took some effort to further build up the world that is occupied by more than just 'Saga Stories', but the big payoff that I have in mind for all of that still won't be for a while yet. Well anyway, next time will be seeing a certain delinquent zombie girl have her time in the spotlight, something that was hinted at as early as the fourth chapter.
I would have done Saki's time this chapter, but Lily's time ended up spilling over a bit. Hey, this is just as well, as I was planning to condense something else that occurs later on down the line either way. Regardless, I feel that I'll be able to maintain the same general pace that a number of folks may be familiar with. Also, I still can't wait for season two to come out; maybe we'll get to see Tae awaken finally. Sorry if this chapter was a little bit on the short side compared to what has since become the standard for this story, btw.