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 eleven: A courtesan's learning in the mountains
It was a normal enough start to the morning for the zombie girls of Franchouchou. Aside from Tae who was chewing on some dried squid snack off to the side, all of them were seated at the counter table, eating what each of them had for breakfast as the wall-mounted TV was playing the local news. Not that the girls were exactly paying attention to the news, mind you; it was more or less there just to serve as background noise while they all ate.
Some of the girls were even having a conversation amongst themselves. "…It was a rather terrifying thing to go through," Hikari remarked as she finished off a story that she was telling to Sakura, Saki, Ai and Junko, "Being unable to breath at all as I slowly fell to my knees and rolled over on the floor in my bedroom. I ended up passing out after a few moments, although I have since come to learn that I didn't merely 'pass out'."
"I guess that deaths that happen to us slowly rather than something that happened instantly and before we could even think about what was happening are rather unsettling," Ai remarked, having some sympathy towards the gamer zombie girl as she knew full well what it was to not suffer an instant death that saved one the trouble of being scared as they died. In fact, Ai felt that Hikari's dying from a fatal asthma attack was more unsettling in how much it was lacking in the flashiness department, compared to Ai's own death in burning alive in a concert hall fire.
Giving a single nod, Sakura said, "Ai's got a point." With a mildly unsure look on her face, the long-haired zombie girl poked herself in her forehead, keeping the end of her right index finger pressed against the large scar that ran right down through her forehead. "I still don't remember how I died," Sakura confessed, "Likewise, I still don't remember anything of my life before I woke up as a zombie, although I for some reason get the feeling that I'm not missing all that much by not remembering my past life." With an affirmative nod, Sakura said, "That being said, I'm doing what I can to remember everything that happens in my new-"
Sakura was cut off when she was slapped across the face by Yugiri, who reached over to give the long-haired zombie girl (what Yugiri at least saw as) a much-needed slap to bring her back to reality. "You need to stop dwelling on the fact that you cannot remember anything about the life you once had," the courtesan zombie girl said to Sakura in a firm tone, "What you ought to do is put effort into making sure that you do not forget the memories that you make in the life that you now find yourself in."
"Umm…" Sakura said as she and most of the other zombie girls all looked at Yugiri, "…That's what I was trying to-" Sakura was cut off again, but this time it was because Sigrid grabbed Yugiri by the collar of her kimono top, turned her around forcefully so that she faced her, then gave the courtesan zombie girl a rather staggering punch across her face, sending Yugiri reeling back a few feet and landing on her butt on the kitchen floor.
"What in the name of Odin is wrong with you, harlot draugr?!" the half-foreign zombie girl bellowed at the prone Yugiri, "Once again you insist on stealing another's thunder! How many times must I have to throttle you before things finally begin to sink into that head of yours?!"
The other awakened zombie girls were a bit shocked at how suddenly Sigrid was being violent with Yugiri; Ayumu was even cowering a bit as she covered both of her ears with her hands, but that was mostly because the volume Sigrid was using was making the teen actress zombie girl feeling rather distressed. As Lily turned to try and reassure her teen counterpart, Sakura got up from her seat and walked over to Yugiri, giving her a hand up which was accepted.
After the courtesan zombie girl stood back up, she dusted herself off a bit. "…Thanks for the hand up, Sakura," Yugiri remarked, "Although I still-" Yugiri was cut off when Tae suddenly came running over on all fours, growling and snarling randomly at Yugiri and making her back up a step or two. "Tae, please!" Yugiri said as she was a bit frightened of what might have made the unawakened zombie girl act in such a manner, "Whatever it was that I did to offend you, I'm very sorry!"
Tae still continued to snarl and growl at Yugiri. Furthermore, when Tae stood up to be level with Yugiri, Tae covered her rear end with both of her hands, as if doing so to protect her rear from something that did not sit all that well with her. "…Oh!" Saki remarked as she watched Tae act in such a manner. Turning to face Yugiri, the delinquent zombie girl said, "I think that Tae is still mad at you about how you landed face-first in her butt when we grilled Shades about Shrimpy's life before she died."
"In Yugiri's defense," Ai began as she got the attention of most of the other zombie girls, "It wasn't technically her fault. It's how things just ended up happening when Kotaro threw us all out of his office." Turning her attention briefly to the still-growling Tae, Ai turned her attention to Yugiri and remarked, "That being said Yugiri, I still think that you ought to apologize to Tae properly. Your fault or not, Tae's still unhappy with how you landed face-first in her butt."
Nodding in agreement towards the Heisei idol zombie girl, Yugiri then turned to face Tae. "I am very sorry that how I landed in your rear end made you feel very uncomfortable," Yugiri said as she bowed her head to Tae. The unawakened zombie girl just stood there for a few moments as she tried to understand what Yugiri was doing exactly. Thankfully, Tae was able to get it that the courtesan zombie girl was being apologetic to her. Correctly assuming that Yugiri was saying sorry over touching her (Tae's) butt with her (Yugiri's) face, Tae calmed down a bit. Her hands were still covering her butt, but Tae did stop growling and snarling at Yugiri.
Most of the zombie girls were glad to resume eating breakfast, thankful that the situation between Yugiri and Tae had been diffused. However, some of the zombie girls, Sakura and Saki in particular, still had a few reservations. This wasn't the first incident where the courtesan zombie girl had gotten her fellow undead riled up, had done or said something that offended one of the other girls of Franchouchou. The zombie girls all returned to their breakfast, but it went unnoticed by the rest of them when Sakura and Saki exchanged a silent agreement between the two of them.
Later that evening, Kotaro was sitting by himself at a table in the corner of a traditional Japanese-style bar. The eccentric man took a small bottle of sake and poured some into a sake cup for himself. He contemplated the sake for a bit before he drank the small cup's contents in a single gulp. As he placed the sake cup back down on the table, he heard the door to his left open up, letting him know someone was entering the bar.
Kotaro wasn't the only one who heard the door open either. "Ah, welcome," the barman said as he looked over to greet the new patrons, "Welcome to- Oh!" The barman, as well as a few of the guys sitting at the bar, all turned to see who it was that entered. The barman and the men all sitting at the bar were surprised to see not one, but two girls walk into the bar. In this case, it was Sakura and Saki, both using monster glamour to look human, that came into the bar.
"Sorry to bother you guys," Sakura said in a mildly worried tone, "But we're just here to speak with our manager about something." Saki merely gave a mildly growly hum of agreement to the barman and the men at the bar before she and Sakura turned to face Kotaro.
"…Is there something that you ladies want?" the eccentric man asked, never bothering to turn to face Sakura and Saki.
Saki led Sakura over to Kotaro's table, where the two of them sat down. "Look Shades," Saki began in a serious tone, "We're here to talk to you about Yugiri."
Kotaro said nothing until he poured himself another cup of sake and drank it down before setting the now empty cup down on the table. "…Is there something the matter with her?" Kotaro asked, sounding like he had a feeling where this conversation might end up going.
Sakura nodded twice in the affirmative before she spoke up. "Umm…" the long-haired zombie girl began, "…With all due respect to her, Yugiri isn't exactly the group favorite. Don't get me wrong, we can't exactly hold a whole lot against her due to how she grew up, as well as what time period she grew up in." Letting out a resigned sigh, Sakura went on, "It's just that we really need to get Yugiri caught up on how things are handled in current time."
"Do you know how many times she's slapped people across the face while they were having epiphanies, only to tell them what they were already realizing in those moments?" Saki said more than asked, "How many instances there has been of Yugiri pissing on the shoes of the rest of us girls in Franchouchou?" With a shrug, Saki continued, "I've lost track of how many times Sigrid has threatened to send Yugiri to straight to Viking hell. We really have to do something to get Yugiri on the right track and fast."
Kotaro merely sat there as he listened to Sakura and Saki air their grievances. "…So what do you girls propose?" the eccentric man asked.
Clapping her hands together, Sakura said, "I was thinking of a trip up to Mount Tenzan." Nodding once in confirmation, Sakura explained, "I think that if the ten of us were to go up on a camping trip to Mount Tenzan, then the bonding time would give us what we need to work with in order to reach through to Yugiri so that we can work on some of her less positive traits."
Kotaro sat there as he contemplated what Sakura was suggesting. "…A camping trip up to some snow-covered woods in the mountains?" Kotaro said, sounding like he didn't quite get what the long-haired zombie girl was up to.
"Egghead's got a good point, Shades," Saki remarked, "A trip to a place that remote will have very little chance if any of someone spying on us like what happened at the bonfire party that we had on the beach. Besides, we've been to mostly warm locals thus far, so a trip where we'll be in a snow-covered wonderland may be just the thing that we need to shake things up."
The eccentric man conceded that the two zombie girls sitting before him had an excellent point on how a trip to a remote snow-covered area would run a significantly lower chance of anyone from the paparazzi spying on them to snap a few photos. The girls of Franchouchou still had to get in a bit more bonding time in order to truly function like the well-oiled actress machine that he wanted them to be, and Kotaro will admit that Yugiri was a squeaky wheel that was in great need for some of that oil.
"…Very well," Kotaro replied, "Just try not to draw too much attention to yourselves. Also, don't forget to pack essential items that you'll need for the trip. You girls are going up to some snow-covered woods in the mountains, after all."
Sakura and Saki both nodded once in thanks to Kotaro, with Sakura even saying, "Thank you, Kotaro-san." The two zombie girls then got up and left the bar, happy that they were able to get Kotaro to agree to their plans to ultimately help hammer out the not-so-glamorous aspects that made up Yugiri as a person. Kotaro merely sighed to himself as he poured himself another cup of sake, pulling out a tentacle of dried squid snack to eat as he enjoyed his drink.
The zombie girls of Franchouchou, accompanied by Kotaro who brought along Romero the zombie Japanese Chin, were walking up the first few dozen feet up in the snow-covered woods located on Mount Tenzan. To the bafflement of some of the zombie girls, Kotaro was not only wearing a green alpine hat that had thin yellow and red stripes along the base of the cap part, but he was rather insistent on wearing it, claiming that his hat fit the setting that they were in both naturally and perfectly. He also yodeled every few meters or so that they walked thus far.
And the eccentric man's hat and yodeling wasn't the only reason why he was getting some considering looks of mild confusion from some of the undead actresses, all of which were either using monster glamour or a very good makeup job from Kotaro himself to look human. "Hey Shades," Saki began in a dry tone, "Why did you make Junko drive us from the mansion all the way here to the mountains for our camping trip?"
With a somewhat smug, self-amused smirk on his face, Kotaro said, "Oh, Saki. As the manager of you girls, I take your emotional well-being and development very seriously." Tapping his fist into his hand, the eccentric man continued, "As you girls having various fears is of great concern to me, I feel that it is my duty to do what I can to help you girls get over said fears. As such, I had Junko drive us all here to the mountains to help her try to get over her Amaxophobia." Wagging his right index finger at Saki, Kotaro said, "Baby steps, my dear Saki. It's all about taking baby steps."
"She was screaming in fear at the top of her lungs from the time we left the mansion to the time she pulled up in the parking lot at the base of the mountains," Saki pointed out dryly as she jerked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing out a still shuddering Junko, hunched up with her left hand on her right bicep and right hand on left bicep as she wore a shell-shocked look on her face. There was a bit of alarm on Ayumu's face, although it wasn't all that much; the teen actress zombie girl was also wearing a pair of noise-canceling headphones.
"BABY STEPS!" the eccentric man exclaimed loudly, a hint of riled up excitement in his tone before he calmed down. After relaxing a bit, Kotaro said, "Anyway ladies, we'll set up camp about one-thousand and forty-six meters above sea level. That should make the camping nice and remote for us, so as to avoid any potential paparazzi that may want to spy on us and take more photos to sell to bastards like Sagazine Today."
Junko, having heard Kotaro mention Sagazine Today, was able to effectively calm down from her amaxophobia-induced hysteric shuddering, although her panicking air was replaced with a very bemused one, which saw the Showa idol zombie girl cross her arms over her chest as she wore a very unamused scowl on her face. "Yeesh," Junko commented, her tone sounding mildly bitter, "Please don't remind me of those media hounds."
Later, when the group got to about eight-hundred meters, Sakura turned to face Saki, who was walking alongside next to her. "…Hey Saki," the long-haired zombie girl began, "You think that we'll be able to reach a good point with Yugiri by the time this camping trip is over?"
"The hell if I know, Egghead," Saki replied. Turning to face Sakura, the delinquent zombie girl said as she raised a fist up a bit in a somewhat threatening gesture, "But if this doesn't do enough of a job at fixing some of Yugiri's problems, then I'll just knock some much needed sense into that skull of hers the hard way."
Sakura, paling a bit, let out a bit of a nervous chuckle before saying, "I…don't think that striking Yugiri physically is absolutely called for, Saki. I mean, Yugiri already gets plenty of that sort of treatment from Sigrid anyway, so throwing you into the mix would just be overkill." Saki, with a look of indifference on her face, merely shrugged her shoulders in a likewise manner, deciding that she wouldn't even bother.
…
Ai was holding a map of the area that clearly looked like it was hand drawn/written out by Kotaro; the labels for 'Karatsu', 'Nanamagiri Pass', and 'Tenzan', as well as a scrawled out bit saying 'Somewhere around here, I think' were all clearly penned in the eccentric man's own handwriting. "It looks like we're here," the Heisei idol zombie girl remarked aloud, a hint of very mild uncertainty in her tone as she, along with Junko and Hikari, looked around the area that they and the other zombie girls found themselves in.
"Why didn't Kotaro stay with us to handle the map instead of going off on his own for some odd reason?" Hikari asked rhetorically.
Junko gave a confused shrug as she said, "Maybe he wants to relive a moment from his childhood by building as big of a snowman as he can manage? That's my guess, at least." The Showa idol zombie girl then flumped down on her butt onto the ground, letting out a tired sigh as she said, "I would have probably died here if it wasn't for the fact I'm a zombie. I'm so tired."
"I feel like a popsicle over here," Lily moaned in complaint as she laid on the ground, propped up slightly against a rock formation.
Pounding her fist into her hand, Saki declared to the rest of the girls, "Well ladies, since we got to as good of a spot as any, I say we get cracking on setting up camp. Then, once we have things established on that front, we can get crackalackin on some group exercises to work out a few of the issues that some of us have with one another, as well as work on a couple of problems that we have with ourselves."
"I…" Ai began as she raised a hand, sounding like she had a bit of trepidation, "…I would like to try roasting some food over the campfire once we get it going."
Ai's saying that she wanted to try to cook some food over the campfire that they were going go get set up drew some surprised looks out of the other zombie girls, especially Sakura, Saki and Ayumu, all of whom sat with Ai during the bonfire beach party they had a while ago. Saki had a mild look of being impressed on her face as she regarded Ai. "Well, look at you, Ai," Saki began in a mildly amused tone, "Trying to take charge to conquer your fears. Girls with guts like you are A-Okay in my book."
The Heisei idol zombie girl smiled a bit in appreciation as Saki flashed her a smile and a thumbs up. "Ai…has a point on how we ought to try to conquer our fears," Junko remarked, sounding a bit nervous, "If it's okay with you girls, I'd like to try driving us all back when we're done here with our camping trip in the mountains, so I can try to do some work on getting over my fears of being inside of moving vehicles."
"Just try not to scream in fear too much like what you did on the drive to the mountains," Yugiri remarked to Junko. Keeping her eyes on the Showa idol zombie girl, Yugiri continued as she gestured over to Ayumu, "We still need to fix what's wrong with Ayumu, and you screaming a lot at the top of your lungs isn't going to help the effort all that much since it makes her freeze up all the time." All of a sudden, most of the other zombie girls all looked at Yugiri like she sprouted a second head; even Tae was looking at her, although the unawakened zombie girl had no idea what was going on exactly. Only Ayumu wasn't looking at Yugiri; the teen actress zombie girl was instead looking away, towards the ground with an ashamed look on her face, her noise-canceling headphones now around her neck.
Yugiri was not blind to how (most of) her fellow undead were looking at her with looks that Yugiri rightly assumed to be accusatory. "…What?" the courtesan zombie girl asked, sounding worried that she did or said something offensive.
Lily, with a very angry looking pouty expression, scolded, "There is nothing wrong with Big Sis, Yugiri! Apologize to her right now!"
Yugiri got the message that she had screwed up big time by saying that something was wrong with Ayumu. Turning to face where the teen actress zombie girl stood, Yugiri bowed her head to her and said, "My apologizes if what I said came across as offensive to you."
"Listen, Yugiri," Saki began in a mildly exasperated tone, "We all still have a few points of issue that all of us have to cover here and there." Giving Yugiri a serious look, the delinquent zombie girl continued as she pointed an accusatory finger at Yugiri, "But in all honesty, it's you that we need to do the most work on by far out of all ten of us. There's a lot of differences in how things are done between the early eighteen-eighties and the late twenty-tens. One of the main goals of this camping trip is to get you in touch with how things are done in the current era."
"One such valid point," Lily continued with her same pouty expression as she crossed her arms over her chest, "Is not saying things like what you said about Big Sis just now." The child actress zombie girl's comment drew a few nods in the affirmative out of some of the other zombie girls.
Nodding in understanding, Yugiri remarked in a mildly humbled tone, "I understand full well that I still need to be made aware of how things are done in the time that we all find ourselves living in." Bowing her head respectfully to her fellow undead, the courtesan zombie girl said, "I hope that you girls will be able to set me straight by the time all things are said and done."
"Heh," Sigrid scoffed as she let out a chuckle, rolling her right shoulder a bit, "I can always knock a bit of sense into you, harlot draugr."
Turning to face her half-foreign counterpart, Saki said, "Sigrid, no." Crossing her arms over her chest, the delinquent zombie girl explained in a casual tone, "That's the backup plan." Sakura was relieved, at first, when Saki seemingly was shooting down the violent idea that Sigrid was offering, only for the long-haired zombie girl to pale a bit when Saki confessed that Sigrid's plan was a backup if things came down to it.
Sakura sighed to herself in a resigned tone as she thought, "Saki's and Sigrid's tendency to use physical violence as a method to solve a problem is something else that ought to be addressed on this camping trip." Sakura gently shook her head as she and the other zombie girls got to work setting up their campsite in Mount Tenzan, hoping that some progress will be made by the girls all working together to get camp set up.
The girls were able to get their camp set up without a hitch, despite them needing to relegate Junko and Ai to keep an eye on Tae since the unawakened zombie wasn't going to be of much help, along with the fact that Kotaro was still missing in action doing Gilgamesh knows what. Indeed, the girls getting their came set up without issue was the first bit of good news they had.
…Unfortunately, that bit of good news it was immediately followed by a bit of bad news. As it turned out, Yugiri, who was responsible for making sure all the right foodstuffs was packed for the trip, forgot to pack the burger patties and hot dogs, but also at the same time somehow managed to remember the burger buns and hot dog buns, resulting in the fact that the girls only had buns for burgers and hot dogs. Saki was particularly annoyed that there wouldn't be a whole lot of meat for her and the rest of the girls to enjoy roasting over the campfire.
There was as also a few boxes of graham crackers along with a couple of bags of marshmallows for roasting s'mores that Sakura had packed in, but it turned out that Tae had gotten into where the s'mores supplies were kept and ate all the chocolate that Sakura had procured, meaning that the s'mores would be without chocolate. The only consumables that were brought along on the camping trip that remained untouched were the four two-liter bottles of Moonberry Cola and two two-liter bottles of Sunhoney Root Beer that Sigrid had taken the liberty of bringing along; she also brought a thing of red plastic drinking cups.
"Well this stinks," Lily pouted, her arms crossed over her chest, "Now we can't enjoy s'mores or fire-cooked burgers and hot dogs. Some camping trip this turned out to be."
"We can still roast marshmallows over the campfire," Ayumu pointed out to her child counterpart. Ayumu then pointed out to Lily how Ai, with a mildly nervous look on her face, was holding a marshmallow roasting stick with a marshmallow on the end over the campfire. The Heisei idol zombie girl, despite being mildly rattled by how she was working with the very thing that she was afraid of, was not going to let her fears conquer her.
Nodding in approval, the teen actress zombie girl said to Lily, "We can still enjoy a few classic staples of camping. Lily."
Lily let out a mildly resigned sigh as she conceded to her Big Sis's point. "I guess you're right," Lily remarked, "Sorry about pouting so much just now."
Ayumu simply nodded once in understanding, saying, "It's alright. I was also looking forward to the chocolate in the s'mores myself."
As some of the zombie girls were roasting some marshmallows at the campfire, some of the others had taken to going out into the woods to try and rustle up some meat. One such example came in the form of Junko using a makeshift fishing rod to try and catch some fish, which is where the Showa idol zombie girl was found by Sakura and Yugiri. "Might I ask what you are doing, Junko?" Yugiri asked in a curious tone, making Junko turn to see Yugiri and Sakura had come up to her.
"Ah, I'm trying to fish," Junko explained. Turning back around, Junko further explained, "It's a good role for me, as I get to sit quietly."
"I see," Sakura remarked. The long-haired zombie girl noticed the gray metal bucket sitting next to Junko. Walking up, Sakura looked into the bucket, but saw that all that was inside was enough water to make it about half-full.
Seeing that Sakura had taken a mild interest in her bucket, Junko elaborated, "I'll put any fish I catch in the bucket. The water is meant to help keep the fish good to an extent, and it helps that the water is cold."
"Sakura and I walked past Hikari a bit further up the stream," Yugiri said in a conversational tone to Junko, drawing a nod of confirmation from Sakura, "She was using a makeshift bow to fire makeshift arrows into the water for some odd reason, though."
"Bow fishing," Junko replied as she explained to the courtesan zombie girl what their gamer counterpart was up to, "It's a fishing method that some people use." Turning back to face the direction her fishing line had been cast in, Junko said with a hint of mild concern in her tone, "Although to be quite honest, I'm not so sure how successful either Hikari or I will be in our endeavors to catch some fish."
"Well keep at it, Junko," Yugiri replied, "The rest of us are counting on you and Hikari to find some measure of success."
Yugiri did not notice it when Junko scowled a bit in annoyance, given that Junko had her head turned. But Sakura was able to pick up on an annoyed hum from the Showa idol zombie girl. Sakura gently shook her head, realizing that Yugiri had unknowingly put pressure on Junko, and Hikari to an extent, to succeed in something that was more or less up to chance. "Umm, Yugiri," Sakura began when she turned to address the courtesan zombie girl, "You were kind of being a bit pressuring on Junko just now. Hikari as well to an extent."
Yugiri, her eyes widening a bit in realization, understood the point Sakura was trying to get across. "Oh, my apologies," Yugiri apologized, "I guess that me and some of the other girls wanting some form of meat is driving us a bit."
Junko let out a sigh before saying, "It's alright, Yugiri. I'm sure you didn't mean to deliberately put pressure on me to-" Junko was cut off when she felt a tug on the line of her makeshift fishing rod. She pulled it back as much as she could, and Sakura even came in to help Junko reel in the big fish that she had apparently just hooked. After a minute or so, the two zombie girls working in tandem managed to reel in a relatively large river fish.
As Junko unhooked her catch and placed it in the bucket of water, Sakura pumped a fist into the air. "Alright, Junko!" the long-haired zombie girl cheered, "You're more than just a legendary Showa era idol, you're also a legendary fisherman!"
Junko giggled a bit at the praise and good humor that Sakura was showing her. "Thanks, Sakura," Junko replied with a nod. Turning her attention back to the river, Junko continued, "I should try to catch a few more fish because, as big as the fish I just caught is, it alone won't be enough to cover all ten of us." Junko sat back down and cast her line back into the river. "If you girls would like," Junko began, "You can stay and keep me company, in case I get another catch that I need help reeling in."
"Sounds like a plan," Yugiri remarked as she and Sakura joined Junko in sitting by the river as the Showa idol zombie girl fished.
…
About thirty minutes passed since Junko caught her first fish. Since then, she caught two more that, while neither of them were as big as the first, were still relatively sizable fish nonetheless, and would go a long way to put some measure of meat in the food stores for Franchouchou on their camping trip. "Hey Yugiri," Sakura began as she and the other two girls looked over that river in the woods up on Mount Tenzan, "There's something I'm curious about."
"Oh?" Yugiri replied, her tone sounding with mildly piqued interest, "And what might it be that you're wondering about, Sakura?"
"Sorry if talking about this might make you uncomfortable," Sakura remarked in a somewhat hesitant tone, "But I was kind of curious about how you died." Seeing Yugiri's eyes widen a bit in mildly shocked surprise, Sakura let out a sigh. "I knew it," the long-haired zombie girl said in a resigned tone, "It's not something that you're-"
Yugiri held up a hand to cut off any further argument from Sakura. "No, no," Yugiri replied in an understanding tone, "It's quite alright to be curious about that." Yugiri turned her attention to look up into the air, her gaze going past the snow-laden branches of the trees overhead. "My death back when I lived in the Meiji era was not what one would say was a pleasant experience," the courtesan zombie girl began, "Granted, all methods of dying are not pleasant, but mine had a particular degree of cruelty to it…"
(FLASHBACK)
(DATE: DECEMBER 28TH, 1882)
Although as an Oiran she specialized more in providing entertainment (probably why she was brought back by Kotaro as a zombie actress in the late 2010s) than straight up providing physical pleasure, Yugiri was still very much skilled at providing those pleasures, given that Oirans were still technically a subgroup of prostitutes. And given the reputation Yugiri had for being at the top of her profession in the area in which she lived, men from all over would come to see her for whatever pleasures that they wanted.
To Yugiri's mildly piqued surprise, one such patron who came to pay for her services was a local lord's son. Being professional about it, Yugiri agreed to service the local lord's son, who was even kind enough to not only pay her in advance but give her more than she would have charged him in the first place. The local lord's son was also surprisingly kind and courteous to her, giving her better treatment that she would have expected from someone so far above her socially. Yugiri felt that she was going to have a rather enjoyable night, pleasuring one of the most gentlemanly patrons that she has serviced to date.
…Unfortunately for Yugiri, that night also just so happened to be the night that the local lord's jealous half-cousin, having hired a large clan of ninja, carried out a coup d'état to seize control of that province from the local lord. As Yugiri was in the middle of providing the local lord's son with the services he paid her for (Yugiri was also seriously contemplating accepting the offer she was given by the local lord's son to become his betrothed), a party consisting of four ninja, all of them bearing the symbol of the Uchiha clan on their respective persons, burst into the room.
The lone woman in the ninja party rushed forward and jabbed an ancient model kunai into the back of the local lord's son's head as he was laying on top of Yugiri, killing him instantly and making his body fall over to the side somewhat, keeping Yugiri, who was screaming in fright and horror, somewhat pinned. One of the three men in the party of ninja, this man having long but relatively straight hair that reached the tips of his shoulder blades, drew a katana out from his scabbard that he had over his back as he rushed forward.
"No witnesses," the Uchiha man said grimly as he raised his sword up and, in a single fluid motion, brought it down towards Yugiri, slicing clean through her throat to decapitate her. Yugiri did not see it since she was dead by that point, but the four ancient Uchiha ninja, seeing that their job was done, left the room without any further fanfare. It was just the local lord who ruled in that province, as well as his immediate family, that were the targets of the ninja clan hired by the local lord's jealous half-cousin.
Yugiri was killed simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
(FLASHBACK OVER)
Nodding somberly a bit, Yugiri said, "After we had all awoken as zombies, I have since come to learn from reading about it in history books that Kotaro has at the mansion that the event in which I was killed ended up becoming known as the Ancient Saga Coup D'état, which was one of the last major conflicts in which the Uchiha clan had taken part in prior to the founding of Konohagakure." With a resigned sigh, the courtesan zombie girl remarked, "To think that my death occurred as part of so violent a period in history."
"You…you were killed…" Sakura began, a look of mild surprise on her face, "…While you were doing the deed with someone…who was paying you for it."
Giving Sakura a mildly wry look, Yugiri pointed out, "Well I am a courtesan, Sakura. Though specifically an Oiran, I'm still well-versed in the general aspects of the profession as a whole." The two of them looked at each other for a bit, exchanging silent looks for a while before Yugiri let out a resigned sigh. "…But I have come to understand that such aspects of my skillset are not only unnecessary in the modern day, but in some cases are actually illegal. At least my skills in regular entertainment can still be used for the actress role I now find myself doing." Yugiri then turned her attention over to Junko.
To the courtesan zombie girl's surprise, as well as the surprise of Sakura when she had also turned to look, Junko had fished up two more fish, one the general size of the second and third ones she caught and one about the same size as the first. "My goodness, Junko," Sakura said as she and Yugiri saw the Showa idol zombie girl's success in fishing, "That's a lot of fish that you had caught! This looks sufficient for all of us to eat tonight!"
"I agree," Yugiri remarked as she marveled a bit at the sheer amount of food that Junko had been able to acquire, "And this was all your fishing. Imagine what Hikari may have to throw in."
Junko nodded once as she reeled her line in. "I'm pretty much out of bait, so I think that it's a good time to pack it in for now," Junko remarked after her makeshift fishing rod was reeled in. Standing up, Junko used her left hand (the right one held her rod) to pick up her bucket of fish. "We ought to go check on Hikari before we all head back to camp," Junko said, "Then we can all head back as a group." Sakura and Yugiri both nodded in agreement as they proceeded to follow Junko back to camp.
As the three of them made their way back to camp, Sakura, Yugiri and Junko came across Hikari. Using her bow fishing method, she had successfully shot a total of seven fish, two more than Junko. However, she didn't get any really big ones like Junko, so it could be debated on which one between the Showa idol and gamer zombie girls had better luck in fishing. Either way, the girls of Franchouchou had plenty of fish; Yugiri even made the comment that Saki and Sigrid, the resident tough girls of their group, would probably lay claim to the two big fish that Junko had caught. It was a point that none of the others were necessarily going to argue.
"There is still much that I have to learn about the time that all of us now find ourselves living in," Yugiri remarked aloud as she, Sakura, Junko and Hikari made their way back to camp, "But I'm starting to understand a few of the points that you girls and the others have made about me in regards to things I've done or said that don't sit right with all of you. I'm still, as Kotaro would probably say, a 'work in progress', but I would like to think that I've learned at least a few of the things that you girls and the others are trying to get across to me."
"Like how it's in very bad taste to say out loud something that's along the lines of how there's something wrong with an autistic person?" Hikari remarked somewhat dryly, "And while said person is within earshot, no less?"
Yugiri, seemingly looking like she was a bit humbled, nodded once as she replied, "Yes, Hikari. I now understand that there are just some things that are at the height of rudeness to say."
"You also have to stop it with your habit of slapping people across the face while they're having an epiphany before telling them what they themselves are already coming to realize," Junko said, "That little habit of yours is one of the big reasons why Sigrid gets as heated as she does towards you." The courtesan zombie girl nodded in agreement with Junko, as well as looking a bit on the rattled side by being given a reminder on how she (Yugiri) isn't exactly the half-foreign zombie girl's favorite person in the world right now.
As she and the girls got close to camp, Sakura remarked, "Well I think that our camping trip has been a major success so far. Yugiri has learned some of what the rest of us have been wanting her to learn, and with another day or two, I firmly believe that Hey wait a minute, why does the air smell like someone's roasting pork over an open fire?" The long-haired zombie girl went off track midsentence when she caught the smell of someone roasting pork or other meat that came from a pig over a fire. Yugiri, Junko and Hikari also caught that smell as well, a smell that only got stronger when the four girls got closer to camp.
…
To the surprise of Sakura and the others, a notably large wild boar was laying off to the side of Franchouchou's camp near the same rock formation Lily was laying against earlier. The large boar was very clearly dead, and chunks of it were carved off. Looking over to the campfire which Sakura and the other returning girls saw had been upgraded a bit from a simple campfire to an open bonfire at least as big as the one from the beach party, they saw a roasting spit with chunks of boar meat was slowly being turned over the now larger fire, the meat sizzling in a very alluring manner that Sakura would admit stirred some hunger in her.
Saki, with Ai standing by to help her, was turning the roasting spit, a look of amusement on the delinquent zombie girl's face. A few of the other zombie girls sat around the fire but not close enough to bother Saki while she was cooking; the returning zombie girls saw Lily take a bite out of a roasted pork chunk placed in a burger bun, and Sigrid was seen taking a bite out of some roasted meat on a leg bone, before chasing it down with a large gulp from a cup of some of the Moonberry Cola that she had brought along on the camping trip.
"Umm…" Sakura began in a mildly surprised tone, alerting the rest of Franchouchou that she, Yugiri, Junko and Hikari had returned. Gesturing to what was going on in front of her, the long-haired zombie girl asked, "…What all is this? What are you girl doing?"
"Spit-roasting some meat from the boar that Sigrid and I killed," Saki replied.
"Eating a pork burger," Lily said.
"Eating roasted haunch of boar," Sigrid answered. The half-foreign zombie girl's interest was piqued when she saw the combined twelve fish that Junko and Hikari had caught between them. Sigrid pointed this out to Saki, who grinned a bit more in amusement.
"Well alright, girls," Saki remarked, "You got us some fish as well. That will go nicely if any of us don't want pork."
As Junko and Hikari sat their caught fish down, Sakura gestured to Saki as she said, "What I would like to know is why and how you and Sigrid even killed a boar."
"Funny story," Saki replied as she turned her attention back to the meat she was currently spit-roasting, "While you, Yugiri, Junko and Hikari were off, that boar-" Saki paused to gesture to the dead boar laying over at the rock formation, "-Randomly wandered over towards our camp and tried to bother both Ayumu and Shrimpy. I jumped in front of it and grabbed it by its tusks while Sigrid was attacking it from behind with the shovel that we brought. After a couple of moments, while I was still gripping its tusks, I turned the boar's head like I would the wheel of a car that I was driving. I ended up twisting the boar's head so much I snapped it neck, killing it."
Lily giggled a bit as she kicked her feet while sitting, enjoying the pork burger she was eating. "Serves that mean boar right," the child actress zombie girl remarked before taking another bite out of her meal.
Sakura and the other returning zombie girls did not quite know what to make of all that they had been told went down in their absence, although Junko, after getting over the initial shock at least, failed to be surprised by the fact that the resident tough girls of Franchouchou managed to kill a wild boar, making her feel that her efforts in fishing were now a bit redundant. As Sakura and the others settled down back at the camp, she, Junko and Hikari told the others that they had been successful to a degree in making the necessary progress with Yugiri. This had drawn some cheers from the other zombie girls.
"Well alright, Egghead!" Saki remarked, "I'm glad to hear that this little trip of yours ended up proving to be a good idea! Just wait until we tell Shades that we've finally managed to get through to Yugiri to an extent!"
"Hey, that reminds me," Hikari began as she looked around the camp, "Kotaro is still missing in action." Looking back to her fellow undead, the gamer zombie girl asked, "Where exactly did he go off to, and what exactly is he up to?"
…
While still on Mount Tenzan but a good bit away from the girls of Franchouchou, Kotaro was in the middle of gathering up some snow, packing it together, then packing that onto what must have been a larger pile of snow, or something that he was making out of snow. As he worked, the eccentric man hummed a little song to himself. After a few more packs onto the large snow structure that he was building, Kotaro decided that he was finished, so he backed up a few steps to take a look at his work.
"Ah," Kotaro remarked in a satisfied tone as he beheld what he had made, "Nothing short of absolutely flawless." A quick turn to see things from Kotaro's point of view revealed what he had been building out of snow while away from the zombie girls; surprisingly, it looked like he had made a statue that resembles ancient stone-carved statues from long dead/forgotten civilizations. Specifically, the snow statue that Kotaro had built resembled a statue from the ancient Sumerian civilization of what they thought the demigod Gilgamesh looks like.
Kotaro held his left fist over his chest while stretching his right fist straight up into the air. "All glory to the great hero Gilgamesh," the eccentric man said to himself as he performed his action in front of the snow statue that he had built in the woods on Mount Tenzan. A sudden gust of wind that blew through that area tried to make Kotaro's alpine hat fly off, but Kotaro quickly and skillfully caught his hat, saving him the trouble of having to pick it back up from off of the snowy ground. "Whew, that was a close one," Kotaro said to himself.
The morning after the girls and Kotaro all got back from the camping trip up to Mount Tenzan, Sakura could be seen writing something in her journal. By the time she was found like this, she was just about done; indeed, after a few more lines, Sakura stopped and closed her journal up before putting it away. With her writing done, the long-haired zombie girl made her way down to the ground floor of the abandoned mansion, where her fellow undead would be having breakfast in the kitchen.
By the time that Sakura had entered the kitchen, she saw that the other girls were all in deep discussion with one another; the exception was Tae, as she was off to the side mindlessly chewing on some dried squid snack. Seeing how talkative and seemingly worried the others were, Sakura could not help but have her interest piqued. "Hey girls," Sakura greeted, getting the others to all look up and notice her, "What's going on?"
In response, Hikari pulled out her smartphone, used it to find any news report related to what had her and the other zombie girls all up in a tizzy, and showed the screen to Sakura. "There was some big attack over at the Shirayuki Ski Resort and Lodge," the gamer zombie girl explained, "Believe it or not, a bunch of large, muscular humanoid monsters attacked the place, causing all sorts of damage in their efforts to find the wife and daughter of Hatsuharu Shirayuki."
"Wait, wait, wait…" Sakura said, getting Hikari to slow down. Giving Hikari a questioning look, the long-haired zombie girl said, "What do you mean 'monsters'?"
Going back to her smartphone, Hikari said, "According to what was gathered, the large muscular humanoids weren't overly brutal bodybuilders, they are all straight up monsters, like what you'd see in fairy tales. Specifically, the large muscular monsters were all identified as orcs, ogres and trolls." Looking up from her smartphone and back to Sakura, Hikari said, "Remember back when we were all learning to use monster glamour, and Kotaro said that zombies are one of the races of monsters?" Gesturing to her phone, Hikari said, "Well, I guess that a whole bunch more races have just cropped up."
"It wasn't just those large muscular brutes that attacked the ski resort and lodge that turned out to be monsters," Lily spoke up from where she sat over at the counter table with Ayumu, "You see, at the time of the muscular monsters' attack on the ski resort, a local high school called Azu-Daioh High was having a field trip there. Azu-Daioh High is the high school that had recently received the mass influx of students from Yokai Academy, which had to vacate their school for a while as repairs and fumigation was taken care of."
"And as it turns out," Saki spoke up, "All of the students from Yokai Academy are various kinds of monsters!" Listing things off of the tips of her fingers, the delinquent zombie girl said, "There were a few witches spotted, a vampire, something called a succubus, some snow fairies, a Yasha, a Crow Tengu, a werewolf, something called a Jiang Shi, and there was even a friggin' dragon!" Giving Sakura a serious look, Saki said, "I knew that, as zombies, we were some kind of monster since that what Shades told us, but he completely failed to mention what other kinds of monsters are out there!"
Nodding in agreement, Ai said, "According to what sources say on the matter, the rest of the people at the resort at the time were going to keep quiet on the matter out of gratitude for the monster students from Yokai Academy saving them." With a sigh, the Heisei idol zombie girl said, "However, two human students at Azu-Daioh High, called Tomo and Osaka, ended up revealing everything when Osaka posted a video clip she recorded, while Tomo took to getting the word spread after the video came out."
"You…you've got to be kidding me," Sakura said, looking very much alarmed as she took a step back. When she had first awoken as a zombie, Sakura had thought that zombies such as her and the rest of the Franchouchou girls were the biggest deal out there in terms of monsters. But now she and her fellow undead, as well as the rest of Japan and quite possibly the rest of the world at large, are now aware that there are other things out there that can go bump in the night.
"Oh, Sakura," Yugiri began, "There might be something in the local paper about what went down at that ski resort, but the paper wasn't brought in yet. Would you kindly go get it?"
Sakura nodded once in agreement as she turned around while activating her monster glamour; even though the monster masquerade was, for the most part, undone by those large muscular monsters attacking the ski resort and the sub sequent postings of those Tomo and Osaka girls, nobody had it for certain that the girls of Franchouchou were zombies. As far as Japan at large was aware, Sakura and her fellow undead actresses were all still human. As such, the long-haired zombie girl figured that Kotaro, despite what had happened, would still want the girls to keep it up with the 'pretend to be human' thing for as long as can be managed.
…
Sakura, after she ran out the front door of the abandoned mansion, ran out the front gate, hoping to find the morning paper. She spotted it, rolled up and tucked into a semi-transparent peach-colored plastic bag. Smiling to herself, Sakura dashed over to the morning paper, bent over to grab it, then straightened herself back out when she had the morning paper in her hands. "There we go," Sakura said to herself, "Now all I have to do is-"
*SCREEEEEECH*
*WHABAM*
*CRACK*
*KAHTHUD*
Due to a mix of Sakura not paying attention to her surroundings and a person driving a white truck somewhat recklessly in that part of the neighborhood, Sakura was, in an instance of déjà vu, hit dead-on by a large vehicle, sent flying as a result. She landed with a thud on the ground as the truck driver, panicking over having hit someone, quickly drove away before he or she could have been seen at the scene of the crime.
Sakura was not vanquished by that hit and run, but she was knocked out, laying prone on the ground just outside of the abandoned mansion. Romero the zombie Japanese Chin came walking out from the gate, spotted Sakura laying on the ground knocked out, and dashed over to her. He sniffed at the knocked out long-haired zombie girl before pawing gently at her forehead. Romero whined a bit in a clearly worried tone before yapping a few times, hoping that his efforts would have some success in rousing Sakura.
TO BE CONTINUED…
END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER ELEVEN
Author's notes:
Yugiri will still have a hiccup or two here and there, but for the time being, she's not going to do or say most things that would have otherwise taken place if it were not for this chapter. Likewise, Yugiri will no longer slap people across the face while they are having epiphanies and tell them what they were already in the middle of saying, a habit of hers from the series proper that, with all due respect, I am by no means a fan of. Yugiri is not exactly perfect, but a good bit of her rough patches have been smoothed over in this chapter; a few more ought to give her enough time to (reasonably) fix the rest.
As a side note, it should have been obvious by now that 'Saga Stories' is part of a much larger setting than what the girls of Franchouchu were aware of. …At least before the tail end of this chapter. The attack at the snow lodge mentioned near the end here is an event that takes place in my Rosario Vampire story, a world that has made a few showing here and there thus far. That connection, believe it or not, is actually rather important to 'Saga Stories', as it will be playing a very big role later down the line, especially after Sakura has her special time in the spotlight. For those who are worried about when Sakura will have said time, don't worry.
It'll be in the next chapter.