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 twelve: Regaining what was lost

"Okay, then…" Saki began, the hint of strained exasperation in her tone rather obvious as she, along with Ai, Junko, Lily, Yugiri, Tae, Sigrid, Ayumu and Hikari, all stood around the unconscious Sakura in their zombie forms while Sakura was in her human form due to having monster glamour up at the time she was knocked out, who laid on top of one of the rolled-out futons in the futon room of the abandoned mansion. Earlier that morning, as the girls were talking about something big that went down over at the Shirayuki ski resort and lodge, Sakura at Yugiri's request, had run out of the mansion to see if the morning paper came yet.

…It was then that Sakura was hit dead-on by a vehicle of some sort, knocking her out instantly and sending her flying a bit until she landed on the ground and just laid there. Sakura was soon found by Romero the zombie Japanese Chin, and he pawed at her forehead while whining in a worried tone for a good few minutes until the long-haired zombie girl was found by Saki, who scooped her up, brought her back into the abandoned mansion, and laid her out on the futon that she was on. Fun fact, it was actually Saki's futon that Sakura was laid on, but that's another bit for another time.

Given the time Sakura had left when she was sent by Yugiri to try and recover the morning paper and the time Saki found Sakura being watched over by Romero, Hikari estimated that Sakura had been laying outside for at least a good ten minutes or so until she was discovered by Saki and sub sequentially brought inside, with Romero trotting along after the delinquent zombie girl. As it stood, Romero was currently sitting next to Saki on her right, whining as he and the zombie girls all looked over the knocked-out Sakura.

Gesturing to where Sakura laid, Saki said in her continuing strained tone of exasperation, "…Why the hell did we allow something like this to happen to Egghead? It's bad enough that she doesn't remember anything of her life prior to becoming a zombie. What if getting hit like she did also erases from her head what she's done since she awakened?" Scoffing as she crossed her arms over her chest, Saki remarked, "I am not looking forward to having to try to re-explain everything to her."

"In our defense, Saki," Yugiri began as she faced Saki while gesturing to where Sakura laid, "None of us could have predicted Sakura here getting struck by a vehicle while she was fetching the morning paper." The courtesan zombie girl let out a resigned sigh as her expression shifted to likewise show some degree of guilt. "…I suppose that, if anything, that I am at fault here," Yugiri said, "If it had not been for me asking Sakura to go see if the morning paper had come in yet, then she would not have been struck by a vehicle and rendered unconscious."

Ai and Junko both turned to face Yugiri, who stood next to Saki as all of the zombie girls stood around their unconscious troop-mate and friend. "Yugiri, you said it yourself," Ai pointed out, "There was no predicting that Sakura would get hit by a vehicle. You shouldn't go beating up yourself over something you had no control over."

"I'm going to have to side with Ai on this one," the Showa idol zombie girl remarked, "Things are simply out of our control sometimes. We shouldn't be upset, or try to assign or take blame, when there's nothing along those lines to do." Yugiri, as she faced the idol zombie girls, smiled a bit in an appreciative manner.

"…Thanks for trying to reassure me, girls," Yugiri remarked, thankful that some of her fellow undead weren't using any and every excuse that could be rustled up to jump down her throat.

Gesturing with her right had to where Sakura laid on Saki's futon, Lily said, "We should tell Kotaro about what happened as soon as he gets back from whatever it is that he's out doing right now. I'm pretty sure he'll know how to fix this."

Saki let out an exasperated sigh before saying, "Once again, Shades is off doing who knows what at who knows where at a time where we could use his crazy ass for once." Gently shaking her head, the delinquent zombie girl said, "I just hope that whatever it is that Shades is doing is a hell of a lot more important than Egghead's injury here…"

…

Kotaro was holding his right hand over his chin as he held his right elbow with his left hand, a look of serious contemplation on his face. The eccentric man gave a hum of deep consideration as he looked at what sat before him. "…I must select the best option," Kotaro said aloud but to himself, "There will be no going back once I make my move." Seeing things from Kotaro's point of view would show what he was contemplating.

He was looking at two bottles of scented shampoos for men, one that was ocean breeze scented and one that was some sort of vanilla scented. Kotaro deeply considered the two scents of shampoo that sat before him on the shelf in the hygiene aisle at the local grocery store, having already stood there considering the two men's shampoo options for at least the last ten minutes up to this point.

And given how staunch he looked as he stood there, Kotaro probably wasn't going to be moving anytime soon. "…Gilgamesh, give me guidance in making the right choice," Kotaro muttered to himself as he was stuck in trying to make his decision on what shampoo to get.

…

Gently shaking her head, Saki scoffed. "Bah, forget that idiot," the delinquent zombie girl said as she waved a hand in a dismissive gesture, "If he's off playing tidily-wings in Bumfuck City, Mexico or whatever, then to hell with him. We'll figure out something to do to get Egghead back up to snuff in next to-"

Saki was cut off when she, as well as the rest of the zombie girls that weren't unconscious, heard some moaning coming from Sakura. Looking down, they all saw her stir a bit as she laid on Saki's futon, a sign that the long-haired zombie girl was starting to come to. The rest of the girls of Franchouchou all let out sighs of relief, Saki especially. After a few seconds of stirring in her slumber, Sakura finally opened her eyes and, as such, saw the girls all looking down at her.

"Egghead!" Saki said in a bit of a cheering tone, "Boy, am I glad to see that you're finally-"

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs in very obvious fright as she shot right up to her feet and ran as far as she could to get away from the zombie girls. This action confused the other girls and causes worry to some; Sakura's screaming at so high a volume also made Ayumu cower a bit as she covered her ears with her hands.

The others had no idea of what to make of seeing Sakura act in such a manner as they watched her press her back up against the wall along where the fireplace in the futon room was located. As she stood there, Sakura, in something of a panic, felt for something, anything, which she could grab, as if she wanted a weapon to defend herself from the undead that she saw standing before her, as if she was unaware that she was an undead herself. As such, the long-haired zombie girl ended up grabbing onto the handle of a fireplace poker. With her improvised weapon in hand, Sakura held it in front of herself as if it were a sword, ready to fight back against the approaching undead if absolutely necessary.

The instant she saw Sakura swing up that fireplace poker, Ai held the sides of her head with her hands, a look of frightened panic on her face, as she turned to face away from Sakura. As she and the other girls looked at the panicking Sakura, a look of realization flashed across Saki's face as something dawned on her. "…Aww geez," the delinquent zombie girl said in a troubled tone of realization, "I think her memory's been scrambled." This comment from Saki drew surprised looks from most of the other girls; Ai even stopped cowering in panic when she heard what Saki had just said.

"H-hey, Sakura," Junko began in a concerned tone, "Are you okay?"

Sakura panted a bit as she tried to catch her breath, having been rattled by seeing so many undead. A resigned look appeared on her face as her grip on the fireplace poker went slack, then the fireplace poker slipped from her grasp entirely, clattering to the floor as a result of being dropped. "I…I can't do it anymore…" Sakura said in a resigned, somewhat depressed tone as she slipped to her knees, "…It doesn't matter what I do…nothing I do is good enough. Mom and Sasuke were right. All that I've succeeded in doing is wasting Nikuko-sensei's time…"

The other girls of Franchouchou were worried about their long-haired companion and troop-mate. "…Geez," Saki said in a worried tone as she crossed her arms over her chest, "What can we do to help Egghead here?"

"Maybe a good slap might bring her back to her true self?" Yugiri suggested as she began to raise her right hand back.

"I thought we agreed that you would cease doing that, harlot draugr," Sigrid snarled in an annoyed tone when she turned to face the courtesan zombie girl.

Gently shaking her head, Yugiri explained, "No, I am not about to steal an epiphany from Sakura. She isn't even having one anyway." Gesturing to Sakura, Yugiri explained, "Giving someone a good slap to the face has been known to help others come to their senses."

Holding a hand up to hold Yugiri back from delivering a slap, Ai said, "I'm going to have to ask that you belay that slap, Yugiri. I think that I have an idea about what's going-"

Ai was cut off when Tae rushed forward, drifting a bit on all fours as she slightly overshot her landing, before turning a bit and jumping right at the prone Sakura, who looked too tired and resigned to whatever fate may have in store for her at this point to even try getting up and getting herself out of there.

"…I'm incapable of doing anything right…" Sakura thought as she saw Tae rush at her before the unawakened zombie girl collided into her, knocking her back out.

A few moments later, Sakura came to again. By now, her monster glamour had turned off on its own for some odd reason, revealing that Sakura was still very much one of the undead. When she opened her eyes, Sakura gasped a bit as she propped herself up into a sitting position on the floor of the room she was now in. Sitting across from her, Sakura spotted Ai, who was using monster glamour to appear human.

"…What in the name of Amaterasu just happened…" Sakura muttered to herself as she gently shook her head. After a few seconds, Sakura finally noticed that Ai was sitting next to her.

"Ah, good, you're awake," Ai remarked.

Sakura looked at the Heisei idol zombie girl for a few moments, as if trying to remember something. "…Hey, hang on a minute," the long-haired zombie girl began. Pointing her right index finger at Ai, Sakura asked in a mildly curious and surprised tone, "Aren't you Ai Mizuno, the center performer for the idol group Iron Frill?"

Ai's eyes widened a bit out of piqued interest by what Sakura had just asked her, but she decided to put that to the side for the time being. "Look," Ai began, "I don't suppose that you remember what you name is, do you?"

Sakura was a bit surprised that someone as famous as Iron Frill's center performer was asking her if she remembered her name. "My…" Sakura said, still a bit confused as to exactly what was going on, "…Name?" After a second, Sakura replied, "Yes. My name's Sakura Minamoto." Ai then asked Sakura if she also remembered her address, phone number and family, all of which the long-haired zombie girl replied in the affirmative, even going so far as to say that her father worked a post job abroad so it was usually just her, her mother and her three-year-old younger brother Sasuke.

"I see…" Ai remarked as she considered all of the pieces that were starting to fall in place for her. After a few moments of consideration, Ai turned to look directly at Sakura. "Sakura, look, here's what's going on," Ai began in a serious tone, getting Sakura's full attention, "I can tell you everything that has happened, but I need you to stay calm for everything. A lot of what I have to say may rattle you a bit, but I need you to bear with me." Letting out a resigned sigh, Ai said, "The first big thing that I need to go over with you is the fact that you're now a zombie."

Sakura just looked at Ai for a few silent moments, staring right into the Heisei idol zombie's eyes. After a few seconds had passed in silence, Sakura said, "…Que?" Gently shaking her head, Sakura said, "That's a pretty funny joke. I didn't know the girls of Iron Frill were into jokes like that. But then again, I've been more geared towards following popular actresses rather than idols. Ayumu Akarui is especially popular right now."

Ai placed her right hand on Sakura's left should, a gesture that got Sakura to take pause and give her full attention over. "…Eleven years ago," Ai began with a hint more seriousness in her tone, "You died. I have no idea how, though."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit in surprise. She looked at her hand, saw that the flesh on her hand, as well as her arm that trailed from her hand, was a grayish-blue color instead of a healthy living shade. Sakura gasped in shock as her eyes widened a bit more, with a memory of her being hit by a bluish van crossing her mind at that moment. Sakura clearly recalled as she was sent flying for a bit, up until she landed on the ground with a sickening thud.

A single trail of nervous sweat (she was surprised that she could even do that) streaked down Sakura's forehead as the enormity of everything began to hit her.

The other zombie girls were in the dance studio room as they waited around for Ai to try and do what she could for Sakura. "What's going to happen with Sakura now?" the child actress zombie girl asked in a worried tone as she turned to face the older undead girls, "I'm really worried about her, everyone."

"We need to have faith that Ai will have some measure of success with Sakura," Yugiri said in a reassuring tone, "Just give her time."

Saki, over where she leaned next to Sigrid against one of the walls in the dance studio, pounded a fist into her hand. "Of all the times for Shades to be off doing fuck knows what at fuck knows where," Saki growled in an annoyed tone, "It just had to be when Egghead's got a serious issue with her memory." At that moment, the door leading into the dance studio opened, drawing the attention of the zombie girls inside. As such, they saw Ai enter the room.

"What's the prognosis, Ai?" Lily asked when she and some of the others walked up to the Heisei idol zombie girl, "Is Sakura okay?"

Ai breathed in through her nose, gathering her nerve before she told her fellow undead what was going on exactly. "…Yes and no," Ai began, "You see, although Sakura is physically fine, well, as physically fine as she can be for someone who is undead, getting hit by that truck outside earlier made all of her memories from when she was still alive all come right back to her." This made the other zombie girls gasp in shock, but they were thrown for a real loop by what Ai had to tell them next.

"Furthermore," Ai went on, "Sakura ended up losing all of her memories from when she first woke up as a zombie."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" Saki said, a bit too stunned by what she heard to be her usual brash and bold self.

The Heisei idol zombie girl nodded a few times in agreement. "I tried to explain a few things to her," Ai went on, "About how all of us are undead, and how we're all in Franchouchou as well as what Franchouchou is exactly." Ai pushed the door open to the side a little bit more, revealing that Sakura was standing there. Turning to face Sakura, Ai said, "Hey, these are the other girls that I was telling out about from before."

Sakura gasped a bit in shock as she looked into the room, seeing so many of (what she now knows to be) her fellow undead. When Sakura's eyes fell on her, Lily asked, "You mean to say that you really don't remember any of us, Sakura?"

Sakura was a bit taken aback before she looked down to the floor at her side a bit. "…No, I don't," the long-haired zombie girl admitted in a resigned, troubled tone.

"Hold on," Saki said, clear concern and worry in her tone, "Does this mean that she can't act in 'Saga Stories' anymore?"

"And the elfish man did say that we're about to begin work on filming for the finale for season one," Sigrid remarked, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the one wall in the dance studio.

"Hang on…" Sakura said in a mildly troubled tone, "…Saga Stories? Finale for season one?" Turning to face Ai, Sakura asked, "What…what exactly is going on here?"

Giving Sakura a serious look, Ai began to explain, "Us girls, who make up Franchouchou, are the cast for Saga Stories, a new but popular TV show that premiered a short while back. We're gearing up to begin work on shooting the finale for season one. We've also been greenlit for a second season, as what Kotaro told us, so it's all the more reason for us to get the season one finale ready to air."

Sakura let out a mildly surprised sigh as she considered everything that she had been told up until now. "…Look, Sakura," Ai continued, "I know that you must be rather confused, but all of us have worked really hard on bringing 'Saga Stories' to fruition. You've worked hard on it as well, probably harder than any other three of us combined. I know that you're confused and have no recollection right now, but I know that you'll be ready when the time comes to get to work with the rest of us."

The long-haired zombie girl stood there as a few more flashes of memories from her past crossed her mind, one of which was an envelope that she was planning to take to her to an audition to become an actress on a production that Nikuko-sensei was working on. "Wow," Sakura thought, a bit humbled by the weight of realizing what Ai and the other girls in the room were talking about, "I guess I really did accomplish my dream of becoming an actress." …However, another memory of Sakura's flashed across her mind, one where she was hit by that bluish van that was the reason she died a little over a decade ago.

Sakura, with a troubled, resigned and somewhat depressed look on her face, looked away from her fellow undead, her gaze on the floor to her side. "…No," Sakura said in a lame tone, "You girls ought to do it without me."

"Oh come on, Egghead," Saki said, "I'm sure it will all come right back to you if you get a little practice in. You'll be back up to snuff in next to flat."

"…I said I can't…" Sakura replied, a hint more firmness in her tone.

"You don't know unless you try," the delinquent zombie girl retorted.

Sakura, getting a bit frustrated, snapped, "I said I don't want to!" Sighing a bit, Sakura lamented, "Me and succeeding…don't exactly go hand in hand. I just don't have what it takes."

Saki's eyes widened a bit as Sakura's words sunk in. "Have what it takes…?" Saki repeated, sounding like what she was hearing didn't quite sit right with her, "What do you mean by that?"

"…No matter what I do," Sakura began as she looked straight down at her feet with a downcast expression, "Everything that I try to do, everything I try to do to succeed in, always blows up in my face. It's like the world itself has no desire to see me do well at anything at all." Bowing her head to her fellow undead, Sakura simply said, "Sorry," before turning around and leaving.

"Hey, wait!" Saki said as she called out to the long-haired zombie girl, a troubled look on her face as she was worrying all the more about Sakura. Saki was not the only zombie girl that was troubled by what Sakura was going through right now, either; Ai, Junko, Lily and Ayumu were more worried than most, if going by how all of the girls of Franchouchou looked.

Letting out a troubled sigh, Junko said, "And just when she was reaching the end of the first season with us, too."

"Indeed," Yugiri remarked, "This is a rather troublesome development."

Turning to face where those girls stood, Saki said, "Now's not exactly the time, you two! If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Sakura just resigned from Franchouchou!" The girls all exchanged concerned looks between the lot of them, worried about this latest blip in their goals as an entire actress troop.

Later that evening, Kotaro was sitting at a bar, one that was more western in nature than the traditional Japanese bar he was at previously. A shopping bag containing a bottle of shampoo and a few other personal care products sat on the floor at his feet as he sat on a stool at the bar. Kotaro took a sip from his sake cup as the bartender, a man with long grayish hair and a moustache, came walking over as he polished a drinking glass. "So, how goes that little project of yours," the bartender said, "What did you call it now…The expanded universe project?"

"The 'Saga Stories' project," Kotaro corrected with a troubled sigh.

"Mmm," the bartender said, "So that's what it was called." Pointing casually at Kotaro, the bartender said, "Just don't go doing anything wrong by Yugiri. I still owe her a hell of a lot from way back when." The bartender shrugged a bit before adding, "Although even I will admit that girl needs at least some work."

Kotaro just sat there in silence, contemplating his near-empty sake cup for a bit before pouring a bit more in. "…Just how old are you, exactly?" Kotaro asked.

"Old enough," the bartender replied cryptically. Blowing out a whistle, the bartender said, "Man, I had some good times back then."

"Is it so wise to dwell on days gone by?" Kotaro asked as the bartender took a bite out of what seemed to be a tentacle from a bag of dried squid snack.

The bartender growled a bit as he ripped a piece off of the thing of dried squid snack he was eating. "…Excuse me Mr. Kettle, but Mrs. Pot called," the bartender snarked, "She asked me to tell you for her that you're black." Kotaro did not respond, not that he necessarily wanted to, mind you. All that he could think of was days from his past way back when, well before he had ended up as the eccentric man that he is today.

The pot calling the kettle black, indeed.

The other girls of Franchouchou were still milling about the dance studio room, all of them in something of a funk over Sakura's actions due to her losing her memories since she had first come to as a zombie. "Man, this suck big major ass," Saki remarked in a resigned tone as she laid face-up on the floor, "I can't really get into much of anything right now. I just don't have it in me, you know?"

"Girls," Lily began in a worried tone that sounded like Lily might start crying at any moment, "Do you think that Sakura might forget me forever?"

The others weren't too entirely sure, given how they were all feeling; even Tae, who was still unawakened, had enough wherewithal to have some idea what was going on. As such, her moaning sounded a bit on the resigned side of things.

"Look, everyone," Ai began, "I know that this is upsetting, but we have to remain strong. If we don't, then everything we're working on will fall apart at the seams." Tapping a fist into her hand, Ai continued, "The show has to go on. It's not like our viewers are aware of anything that goes on behind the scenes for us."

The other zombie girls looked to Ai, giving her various looks. Gesturing to the Heisei idol zombie girl, Hikari remarked somewhat dryly, "You speak as if everything is going to turn out A-Okay for us, Ai."

Giving her fellow undead a confident smile, Ai remarked, "That's because it is going to all be okay, Hikari. We've just got to have faith in Sakura, is all."

The other zombie girls had no idea what to make of Ai trying to reassure all of them. The other girls of Franchouchou still had their worries about the long-haired zombie girl; Lily whined a bit as she sat on the floor, Junko looked deeply concerned as she sat on a folding chair in the dance studio room, and even Tae moaned a bit in atone similar to that which Lily was currently using. Saki, as the leader of Franchouchou, was the most worried about Sakura, thus compelling her to want to set things right as soon as possible.

Later, as the girls all laid in their futons as they tried to sleep, most of them had trouble dozing off due to worried over Sakura. Only Tae (due to her mindlessness), Ayumu (who very much liked keeping to a schedule), Sigrid and Yugiri were all fast asleep, with Tae even snoring a bit. As for the others, they were still awake. Saki in particular had an annoyed grimace on her face as she stared right up at the ceiling in the futon room.

"…Man, this sucks," Saki said quietly to herself, "Egghead's gotten one hell of a raw deal here. First she doesn't remember anything from when she still used to be alive, and now she got back all of her living memories but lost her unliving memories in return." Letting out a resigned sigh, the delinquent zombie girl continued saying quietly to herself, "I really wish she would come back to being the girl we all know her as. The girl that eagerly threw herself into becoming an actress, the girl who went through such lengths to help the rest of us whenever any of the rest of us had our own troubles, the girl who like to write about all of her exploits in that little-"

Saki stopped short in her quiet mutterings to herself as her eyes widened in surprise as a look of realization spread across her face. Getting up from her futon, Saki walked over to a bin that was on one of the shelves in the bookshelf in the futon room; it was a bin roughly the size of a small trash can, and it was a solid plastic pink color. A light purple strip of construction paper that had Sakura's name on it was taped to the front of the bin.

Saki pulled the bin out from the shelf a bit to look into the bin. What she saw were all of Sakura's belongings; there were some clothes such as Sakura's Drive-In Tori t-shirt, a few little odds and ends, but Saki ignored all of that. The delinquent zombie girl rummaged through the bin of Sakura's belongings for a few moments until she found what she was looking for; a hand-written journal that the long-haired zombie girl kept.

Taking the journal out, Saki flipped it open to the first page and read the first entry, which went over Sakura waking up and being scared out of the mansion by the other girls, who were all unawakened at the time. The first entry finished with something on how Sakura was waiting for Kotaro to set things up so that she could play out a scene in the tail end of the series premiere episode where she woke up in bed from a zombie nightmare.

Saki read on, going over more and more of Sakura's writings; Sakura wrote about how she was rather embarrassed by her losing herself when she got into that rap battle against Junko back at Saga castle, she wrote about how the girls all filmed a commercial for that hot springs and soon after learned about Ayumu being autistic, she wrote how she was amused by how happy Saki herself was when they did the commercial for Drive-In Tori…

The delinquent zombie girl was actually rather amazed that Sakura had written so much about what she had done since first awakening as a zombie. Sakura's journal covered pretty much everything that Saki was awakened for, as well as a few things from before Saki had awoken as a zombie. The long-haired zombie girl even wrote about how she admired all of her fellow undead, as well as what all about them that she liked (as well as a point or two there that she didn't like all that much, such as Yugiri's now-dropped habits getting on her nerves and how she was scared by how Saki and Sigrid can both be a little violent from time to time).

Saki was further surprised to see what all Sakura thought about them, that despite their flaws, the girls of Franchouchou were, as a whole, a team effort, and that she was glad to be a part of it, glad to be a part of being able to finally achieve her dream of becoming an actress, not caring that she had to be raised from the dead as a zombie in order to accomplish said dream, and that she had lost her memories from when she was still a living being.

…Until now, that is, Saki realized as she gently closed Sakura's journal. Saki had to admit that Sakura made a good point on how she (Saki) had a tendency to favor violence as a solution, but Sakura still cared deeply about her, about all of the girls of Franchouchou. Saki wanted nothing more right now than to get back the somewhat ditzy but still lovable Egghead that had helped to bring all of them together over the times since they had awakened.

Looking at the journal that she held in her hands, Saki got an idea on something that may work.

…

Sakura was sitting alone in a room that was barricaded off to keep others from getting inside, but that did not stop a former Kamikaze squad leader like Saki. After a bare minimal amount of effort, Saki was able to tear down the pathetic excuse of a barricade that Sakura had set up to try and keep others away from her. Sakura looked over when she heard her barrier being torn down piece by piece, just before Saki made her way into the room.

Giving Saki a resigned, mildly depressed look, Sakura said, "I don't really care what you have to say. I'm not going to change my-"

Saki, who walked over gently to Sakura with a worried, sympathetic look on her face, cut the long-haired zombie girl off by holding out her journal to her. Sakura, with a look of barely piqued interest on her face, looked at the journal that Saki was trying to hand to her, coming to recognize the writing on the cover as her own handwriting. Sakura looked at (what appeared to her to be) her journal for a few second before looking up at Saki.

"…You can start on reading this while I set things up so we can binge watch the episodes of 'Saga Stories' that had aired so far together," Saki said, her sympathetic and concerned tone showing a degree of firmness that would not take 'no' for an answer, "I can even make up some popcorn for us to munch on if you want."

Sakura did not know what to make of the delinquent zombie girl's offer, of her trying to hand this journal over to her. Slowly and a bit tentatively, Sakura reached out to grab the journal, relaxing a bit when Saki allowed her to take it. Saki smiled a bit as Sakura received the journal that she (Sakura) had put so much effort into. "…It's a surprisingly good read, if you don't mind the fact that I read your journal," Saki remarked to Sakura, "You got a lot of things on a lot of us pretty down pat." Turning around to walk out of the room, Saki gestured for Sakura to follow her as she said, "Now come on, you. Let's go fix us up a bowl of popcorn to munch on while we have a 'Saga Stories' marathon."

Saki walked a few steps away before she turned back around, having noticed that Sakura wasn't following her right away. Saki saw that Sakura was simply looking at the cover of her journal with a resigned, somber look. The delinquent zombie girl gave a sympathetic, mildly worried look as she regarded her troubled troop-mate. "…Sakura," Saki began in a concerned tone, for once in a rare while referring to Sakura by her actual name to her face. Sakura looked up to see Saki's face. "…Please," Saki continued in the same concerned tone.

Sakura turned her attention back down to her journal, stared at it for a few moments. "…Can I get something sweet to snack on instead," Sakura began, sounding like she was warming up to the idea albeit barely, "Rather than something salty like popcorn? I'd also like some soda as well, if that's not too much to ask."

Saki cracked a rather big and clearly amused-looking grin. "Heh, sure thing," Saki replied, happy to have reached a good point with Sakura, "I'm certain that we have some mini powdered donuts in the cabinet in the kitchen, as well as some leftover muffins from the food tables that we often have on set while we're filming scenes for the episodes we pump out. I'm also sure that Sigrid won't mind it if we sneak some of her Moonberry Cola, unless that Sunhoney Root Beer that we have is more your speed."

"We have Sunhoney Root Beer?" Sakura asked, sounding like she was perking up just a little bit more. Hearing that increase gave Saki more and more confidence that she was starting to reach on through to the long-haired zombie girl.

"Hells yeah, we do," Saki replied in an amused tone as she walked over to Sakura, threw her arm around Sakura's shoulders, then proceeded to semi-drag Sakura off so that the two of them can have their little late-night TV binge fest.

…

Kotaro walked into the abandoned mansion after his time at the bar that he was drinking at. After walking in and closing the door behind him, the eccentric man sat his shopping bag down on the floor off to the side by the door before straightening up. Kotaro wanted to make sure than none of the zombie girls were awake when he came in late, mostly because he'd rather avoid having to deal with at least one of them chewing him out for being gone for so long.

But as luck would have it for him, Kotaro, after walking a bit further into the abandoned mansion, saw some light emanating out of one of the rooms. Going over to investigate, Kotaro peeked around the corner. What he saw actually surprised him a good deal, thought he kept up a stoic air all the while; Sakura and Saki were sitting together on a sofa as Saki was using a laptop setup to play episodes of 'Saga Stories' on the TV. The girls had some snacks and sodas, and Sakura was even reading from what Kotaro recognized as her journal.

Neither zombie girl had noticed him, or otherwise heard him come in, so Kotaro gently inched away from peeking through that doorway. Despite knowing little for certain, Kotaro was able to deduce that Sakura somehow lost her zombie memories, and that she was given her journal by Saki to read as the two of them binge-watched the episodes of 'Saga Stories' that they and the others had gotten out thus far in an attempt to try to jog Sakura's memories.

Kotaro had an itching feeling that he shouldn't have been as gone from the abandoned mansion for as long as he was. One of the zombie girls, and one which was overall one of the best actresses out of the whole troop no less, was in less-than-stellar shape, and so close to when they had to begin production on the finale for season one. Kotaro dared to sneak a peek again, taking a look at the expression on Sakura's face.

Kotaro saw that the long-haired zombie girl wore a look of determination, a very specific look that he had not seen on her in quite some time…

(FLASHBACK)

(DATE: APRIL 2ND, 2008)

"I'm going to show them!" Sakura declared to her friends as they were in a classroom over at the school that they attended, Azu-Daioh High. Tapping her fist into her hand, Sakura went on, "I'll show my mom and my brat of a kid brother that I have what it takes to become an actress!"

"You can do it, girl," one of the girls that Sakura was friends with, a mildly underweight girl with long black hair in twin braided ponytails and she wore a pair of large round glasses, said as she gestured to her friend.

A number of the other students in Sakura's group of friends all agreed with the glasses wearing girl. One of the boys in that group, whose face we never see, walked up to Sakura and handed her something; a DVD set of a live-action TV series that had a somewhat younger Ayumu on the cover. "I got this since you told me you love this show but you don't have the first season on DVD yet," the boy explained, "Happy Birthday, Sakura."

"Oh!" Sakura remarked as she saw the gift that her friend was handing to her, "Thank you, Inui! I actually forgot that today's my birthday, since I got all caught up in how I'm going to that audition that Nikuko-sensei is having to get a cast for the new project that she's trying to throw together." Crossing her fingers, Sakura said to all of her friends, "Fingers crossed, everyone!" The rest of the group all chuckled a bit as they joined Sakura in hoping for her success.

(FLASHBACK OVER)

Kotaro sighed to himself as he remembered his days as a student over at Azu-Daioh High, back when he was in the same class as Sakura. He never thought of Sakura in a romantic sense, mind you, but she was still a good friend of his that he cared about nonetheless, and hearing of her being killed by a careless driver just five days after she turned seventeen had still stuck a railroad spike right into his heart. Cut down in the prime of her life as she was off to at last realize her dream of becoming an actress.

Kotaro had never forgotten that ditzy and somewhat chronically unlucky but still lovable girl that was determined to achieve her dream of becoming an actress, regardless of what life may have tried to throw her way. It's one of the reasons why Kotaro chose Sakura as one of the ten girls to raise from the dead as a zombie for the 'Saga Stories' project. He had his reasons for all of the others, but the eccentric man knew that Sakura would return, would be given the chance that she had long since earned.

Had he known that something had apparently happened to Sakura, Kotaro would have returned back to the abandoned mansion right away; as the manager of Franchouchou, he would not allow anything bad to happen to any of the zombie girls if he could help it. Kotaro cursed himself for this lapse in his otherwise near-flawless attention to detail. However, he was also grateful that the girls themselves had taken to caring for one another as they had; seeing Saki trying to do her part to help jog Sakura's memories was proof of that.

The eccentric man, carefully and quietly, made his way up to one of the upper floors of the abandoned mansion, never alerting Sakura and Saki to his presence. Likewise not alerting any of the zombie girls that were upstairs as well, Kotaro made his way into his office room, sat down on one of the sofas, and simply fell asleep sitting upright like that.

The following morning, the zombie girls aside from Sakura and Saki all made their way down stairs for breakfast; regardless of the fact that Sakura was still in no condition to shoot some scenes for the season one finale of 'Saga Stories', the rest of Franchouchou still had to do their part. "Hey, Sakura wasn't in the room she's taken to holing herself up in last night," Junko remarked to her fellow undead, "I got up in the middle of the night hoping to speak with her and try to do something to get her to remember us, but she simply wasn't there when I checked."

"I tried checking on Sakura as well," Lily admitted with a mildly worried whine, "But I didn't find her in her room either."

Yugiri gave a single nod before she turned to Lily and Junko before saying, "I guess that my attempt to jog Sakura's memories to get her to remember us must have occurred after both, because I had also failed to find Sakura in her room." As Yugiri spoke, she and the other seven zombie girls that were with her turned a corner to go into the kitchen. When they did, those eight zombie girls spotted Sakura sitting at the counter table across from where Saki sat.

Sigrid, with a mildly amused look suggesting that she had a feeling that she knew what was going on, remarked, "I believe that the reason you three all failed was because Saki had the same idea as all of you, but she acted before any of you." When the half-foreign zombie girl spoke up, Saki turned her head to face Sigrid and the others; Sakura, with a mildly tired and downcast expression, merely kept her focus on the bowl of cereal she was eating.

"Morning girls," Saki greeted. Jerking a thumb at Sakura, Saki said, "Try to go gentle on her, alright? She's had a long night and is still not up to snuff right now."

"Is Sakura feeling better?" Ai asked.

Saki opened her mouth, as if she was going to say something, but before the delinquent zombie girl could get one word out, she was cut off when Kotaro, wearing a hat that looks like the turban that Jafar wore in the original animated movie, came bursting right in, carrying boxes of curry in each of his hands.

"We just got the curry we're supposed to product place in the season one finale for 'Saga Stories'!" Kotaro declared in something of a sing-song tone, "Who here wants to try some before we get cracking on filming some of the first scenes for the season one finale?"

Saki, with an annoyed scowl on her face, snapped, "I was in the middle of something here, Shades! Can't you-"

"I would love some curry," Yugiri said, unknowingly interrupting Saki in the process as she made her way over to get one of the things of curry from Kotaro. Saki merely sat back down in her seat, her annoyed scowl remaining.

Later, the zombie girls, aside from Tae as she was not in the current scene and Sakura because she was still out of commission, were working on a scene where all of the girls were together for some big dinner party, in which the curry that Kotaro wanted to product place in the episode was one of the food items. They were all seated around a big table that was at Sigrid's character's home; the table resembled one of the long tables known to have been used at Viking dining halls, a change that was made at Sigrid's request.

"Wow, this curry is really good," Junko remarked as she and the others were in-character. Turning to face Saki, Junko asked, "Where did you say the makers got the idea for this pre-made curry that can be made with hot water from?"

"It's supposedly inspired by curry from India," Saki replied after eating a spoonful of the curry that she had, "It really is good, isn't it?"

As the zombie girls acted out the scene, Kotaro, who was filming everything, could not help but feel that something was off. Don't get him wrong, Kotaro felt that the girls of Franchouchou that were in the scene were doing perfectly thus far. It's just that…that something was missing, you know? Like something was missing that would have otherwise tied everything together in a nice neat little bow.

Kotaro let out a silent resigned sigh. He continued to film up until some of the men that's in cahoots with him caused a bit of noise that prompted Kotaro to yell, "CUT!" With the girls all stopping mid-scene and looking over to where the noise came from, Kotaro himself also turned to see what the hell was going on. Spotting two men trying to handle a large support structure that looked similar to metal-framed electrical support towers, Kotaro snapped, "Can you please try to keep things quite, you two? I swear to Gilgamesh that you could have ruined the scene if I hand's called for cut!"

"Heh, sorry about that, sir," the first man said, "It's just that Shino here and I are trying to move this over to-" The first man, as well as his companion Shino, lost focus on the structure that they were trying to move. As such, it slipped from their grasps and began falling over like a large tree that had been chopped down. Due to the way that it was aimed, the structure fell right at Ai right where she sat.

Seeing the large structure, especially given that it resembled the one that fell on top of her right before she perished in the concert hall fire that killed her so many years ago, fall as it was aimed right at her, made the Heisei idol zombie girl go wide-eyed with rattled fear. Too scared to even think of anything else, Ai merely scrunched up as she covered her head with her hands as she cried out in fright. The other zombie girls, some of which were trying to move to save Ai, called out to their fellow undead out of concern and worry, as they themselves also saw that Ai was going to get struck by that falling support structure.

…A hand reached out quickly, grabbing one of the bars that made up the support structure. This lone hand proceeded to try and pull the support structure back as much as possible. Although the support structure wasn't set back right up, it was kept in place long enough for the girls to all see that someone had grabbed and stopped it, had effectively saved Ai from suffering a really terrible accident on set. The girls of Franchouchou, even Ai when she calmed down upon realizing that she wasn't going to get crushed by a support structure (again) all looked to see who it was that had arrived to save the day.

To their surprise, it was Sakura who, by the time they all saw her, had both hands on the support structure as she tried to keep it from falling on Ai. "Everyone get Ai out of there now!" the long-haired zombie girl cried out as she strained to keep the support structure from falling, "I'm not too sure about how long I can keep this up!" Without even thinking about it, Yugiri and Junko had both moved to collect Ai and whisk her away from certain danger. After Sakura saw that all of the girls had cleared out of the set, she let go of the support structure, allowing it to fall and crash, partly wrecking the table that was being used in the scene.

As the other zombie girls began to gather around her, Sakura turned to regard Yugiri and Junko. "Thanks for moving quickly to save Ai as quickly as you did, Junko and Yugiri," Sakura said with a nod, "It would have been disastrous if she had gotten slammed like that."

"It was no issue, Sakura," Yugiri remarked with a casual bow of her head, "I would never let anything happen to any of the other girls if I could-" Yugiri stopped short and, along with all of the other girls of Franchouchou, looked at Sakura with wide-eyed bewildered looks; only Saki did not act as her fellow undead did, but none of them noticed. They all then pointed at Sakura and went, "EHH?!" in unison out of sheer surprise.

Giving the other girls a curious, mildly confused look, Sakura asked, "What's wrong, girls?"

"You…" Lily began, "…You remember us?! You actually finally remembered all of us, Sakura?!" Realizing what the child actress zombie girl was so worked up about, Sakura merely gave a single nod in the affirmative, a calm but reassuring smile on her face. "This…" Lily began as she started to tear up. Running right towards the long-haired zombie girl, Lily threw her arms around her to drag Sakura into a hug, crying right into her chest at the same time.

Sakura, still smiling calmly and in an understanding manner, gently patted Lily on the back. "Yes, I finally remember all of you girls," Sakura replied, "Remembered all of my memories since I had first awoken as a zombie. I also still have all of my memories from when I was still a living human, so I got everything now, I guess."

The other girls (aside from Saki, not that any of the others noticed) all looked surprised to see that Sakura had not only regained all of her zombie memories, but was able to keep all of her living memories as well. "This…" Junko began, "…This is incredible!" Looking at Sakura more directly, the Showa idol zombie girl asked, "Since when did you-"

"Since last night," Saki said, cutting Junko off and making her and all of the other zombie girls turn to see her. With a mildly amused smirk on her face, Saki explained, "I found Sakura's little journal and handed it to her while telling her to read it, also I had her binge watch the episodes that we got out so far." With a nod, the delinquent zombie girl remarked, "I guess that having her read about everything that she did with us, as well as watch all of us in action on TV, went a long way to jumpstart her memories."

Nodding in agreement, Sakura remarked, "Everything did sort of start clicking for me at around the point where I was reading my journal when I got to the point where Lily, Ayumu and I went to that Nagi lady's place to learn more about Sigrid."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Sigrid remarked, "Ah, yes. I remember that." Turning to face Kotaro, Sigrid remarked, "You know, I still want to know why you gussied Sakura up to look like an obese nerd, as well as gussy Ayumu up to look like one of those dark magic girls."

Kotaro, after giving an indifferent shrug, simply replied, "To be completely honest here, I was having a little bit of fun dressing Sakura, Ayumu and Lily up in those disguises. I don't get a lot of opportunities to make use of my skills in disguises, so when the girls wanted to go out to learn more about you, I figured that it would be the perfect opportunity for me to dress all of them up in elaborate disguises." With a self-amused look on his face, the eccentric man said as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I sure did fool both you and Saki with how I dressed Sakura, Lily and Ayumu up, didn't I?"

Chuckling a bit, Saki said, "Yeah, you did alright, Shades."

"Hang on," Junko began, a look of suspicion on her face, as she turned to regard Saki, "You seemed to have played a big role in helping Sakura to recover her memories, so you were there when it happened. How long has it been exactly since Sakura got all of her memories?"

With a shrug, Saki replied, "Egghead's had all of her memories since a few hours before you and the others found us eating breakfast in the kitchen earlier this morning."

"A few hours before the girls and I all-" Junko began, but stopped short out of shocked surprise due to needing to gather her thoughts. Pointing an accusing finger at Saki, the Showa idol zombie girl said, "You mean to tell us that Sakura had all of her memories back by the time we all found the two of you eating breakfast earlier this morning?!"

After Saki gave an affirmative nod, Ai said, "Hang on, we all assumed that Sakura's zombie memories were still missing." Putting her hands on her hips, Ai said, "When the rest of us found her with you in the kitchen earlier, she looked tired and you said that she wasn't 'up to snuff' as you had put it."

"…Yeah," Saki replied, sounding like she's a bit confused that the others didn't quite get it "Egghead wasn't up to snuff because she had a long night, like I said."

"Well why didn't you tell us that Sakura had regained all of her memories?" Lily practically demanded of the delinquent zombie girl.

Pointing a somewhat accusing finger right at Kotaro, Saki said, "I was going to, but Shades here burst in before I could have gotten a word out about it, as he wanted to go on about the curry deal that he had gotten for us."

The other eight girls of Franchouchou all turned to look at their manager, giving him a collective dry, unamused look. The eccentric man chuckled nervously under all of the gazes that he was getting from the undead girls. "Heh, heh," Kotaro laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head in a gesture that further conveyed his nervousness and slight embarrassment, "Whoops. Sorry that I had burst in on such an important moment for you girls." The zombie girls aside from Sakura and Saki as they both still stood off to the side all began to shout in annoyed tones at Kotaro, with Sigrid even threatening to 'strike him as she would the harlot on occasions when she got on her nerves'.

Although she did so as she watched her fellow undead chew Kotaro out for his bad timing and stupidity, Sakura chuckled a bit. She still felt terrible about how she acted while she had lost her zombie memories, but now that she had not only those but her living memories as well, Sakura let out a quiet sigh of relief. All things considered, Sakura was glad that she had achieved her long-held dreams of becoming an actress, and that she had a group of solid, reliable friends that would stick by her through thick and thin.

…Who would have ever guessed that becoming a zombie would be pretty ballin'?

END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER TWELVE

Author's notes:

And there we go, Sakura had her big, end-of-block character development arc. Sorry that I had to condense her two episodes into one chapter, but with what I saw, I wasn't going to need to use that much writing. Besides, I gave Lily two chapters, and a chapter that would have gone to Sakura to an extent was instead given to Yugiri. All in all, this story is now at the same point as the series proper, where the girls are all now a united group force, and Sakura now has all of her memories, both living and undead.

Anyway, I know that the second season either will come out or has come out by the time I finished this chapter, but regardless of what happens in the beginning of season 2, chapter 13 is going to be completely different. It will start out with Saki taking Sakura out to celebrate her getting all of her memories back, and the two of them will talk a bit about their respective pasts, only for an event that will occur as a main major point in one of my other stories to go down, prompting Sakura and Saki into action to do what they can to help who they can.

It'll be a chapter that will bring a lot of the points I have in mind together.