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 sixteen: The power of dance is a difficult one to master
The zombie girls of the actress troop Franchouchou, with the noted exceptions of Sakura and Saki, were in the kitchen area of the Saga mansion, enjoying a late lunch together. The girls who were present, all of them in their zombie forms, after they saw some of Kotaro's men pass by the open doorway that led into the kitchen area, were conversing among themselves, although it was clear that Ai and Junko, the two zombie girls that had been idols in life, were commanding the conversation as they were talking about their respective past lives as idols.
As the talking went on, the former idols proceeded to talk about what they heard happened to people that they had respectively known back when they were still alive. "Hang on a minute there, Ai," Hikari said as she looked at the Heisei idol zombie girl, "One of the girls in the idol group you used to belong to had died during a live outdoor performance, that you all were doing during a thunderstorm, because she was struck by lightning while on stage?"
Nodding a few times in the affirmative, Ai remarked, "It sounds like a very brutal way to die. Granted, my own death via dying in a concert hall fire is horrific in and of itself, but what my old friend in the idol group suffered sounds just as bad, especially if you consider how it was a lot quicker than a fire, and death was probably instantaneous."
"I got it that one of the producers that I worked with back when I was a living idol died in a plane crash while he was flying out to meet with a new client that he could have represented," Junko remarked, "Me dying in a car crash was scary enough. I'd hate to see it as I was going down in a plane crash." The Showa idol zombie girl then gave an involuntary shudder as she thought about what her old producer must have gone through.
"All of this talking of people dying in various ways wouldn't even be possible back in the time that I was alive in, you know," Yugiri remarked, "Talk of flying machines and whatnot. But then again, I was killed over a century and a half ago, during the Ancient Saga Coup D'état."
Ai, with a curious look on her face, was about to say something to the courtesan zombie girl, but she was cut off when the girls all heard Sakura call out, making all of them turn to see Sakura, followed by Saki and Kotaro, walk into the kitchen area. The two returning zombie girls were in their human forms when they entered with the manager of Franchouchou. There was a look of mild annoyance on Saki's face as she was clearly chewing Kotaro out for something.
Giving an annoyed scoff, the delinquent zombie girl said to Kotaro, "Seriously, Shades! This is something that I'm pretty sure I speak for all of the girls when I say that we should have been in the know about from the get-go!"
The other zombie girls, aside from the unawakened Tae who was mindlessly chewing on some dried squid snack, all turned to look at the returning trio. "…I assume that the elfish man has just revealed to you that he had pertinent secrets that he kept from us?" Sigrid asked, arching a wry eyebrow at Saki and getting her and Sakura to turn to face her. The returning girls, seeing the rest of their fellows in their zombie forms, released their monster glamour to show their true selves as well before joining them.
Saki gave an incredulous scoff as she plopped down next to the half-foreign zombie girl. "Egghead and I just learned first-hand that Shades has raised more than just the ten of us here as zombies," Saki began to explain, "He brought us along as he visited some lady whose daughter Tomo he raised as a zombie because she died." Arching an eyebrow, Saki added, "Strangely, that Tomo girl died from the same cause as Hikari."
"Mrs. Takino has been invaluable to the Saga Stories project, so bringing her daughter back was the least I could do," Kotaro defended. With the other zombie girls all looking at him, the manager saw that he had a bit of explanation to do. Letting out a mildly bothered sigh, Kotaro remarked, "Yes, it's true. You ten are not the only ones who I had brought back into the land of the living as members of the living dead. There are other awakened zombies out there that I have had a hand in raising from the grave."
Sakura, from where she sat next to Lily (who was sandwiched between Sakura and Ayumu), had a bit of a worried look on her face. "…Umm, Kotaro-san, exactly how many more zombies aside from me and the other girls here are out there did you have a hand in raising from the dead?"
"Counting Mrs. Takino's daughter Tomo and the ten of you girls, my group and I are responsible for a grant total of sixteen zombies thus far," Kotaro explained, figuring that it was best that he just give the girls the info that they were clearly hungry for. Holding up all the digits on his right hand, Kotaro went on, "That means there are five more for you all to potentially meet."
The girls of Franchouchou all had surprised looks on their faces, aside from the very obvious exception of Tae. "Will we meet all of the other girls you raised from the dead at some point?" Lily asked, a look of curiosity on her face.
"Actually, among the five that any of you have yet to meet," the eccentric man began, "There are actually three who are male. Not all of the humans I raised from the grave are girls like you all."
"Wait a minute," Junko began, a hint of curiosity on her face, "Humans?"
With one of the driest looks on his face possible, Kotaro pointed down to the floor, making the girls all look and see Romero, the zombie Japanese Chin, sitting on the floor right next to Kotaro on his right. "…Romero here is the only non-human who I brought back," Kotaro explained, "But then again reanimating animals is a different scheme than reanimating humans, so all that was involved with Romero shouldn't be cause for alarm for you ladies."
As the girls all relaxed a bit from what bits of alarm they felt over non-humans being brought back as living dead, Kotaro crossed his arms over his chest. "Anyway, now that I have all of you girls here, there is some business that I have to go over with all of you, concerning the next big thing we have to do to spread the Franchouchou brand." Pointing dramatically at all ten of the zombie girls, their manager declared, "We're going to be doing a commercial to advertise the big upcoming anime convention that will be held at the center in Tokyo!"
"An anime convention commercial?" Hikari said, her interest piqued right away. Some of the other girls all looked interested/excited as well, although it was clear that Hikari, the gamer zombie girl who was also a bit of an otaku (still is), was by far the most excited to do anything related to an anime convention.
"Oh yes," Kotaro replied in the affirmative, a hint of smug self-amusement on his face as he nodded a few times, his arms crossed over his chest, "But this won't be any old commercial. For you see, this one will require all of you girls to do a song and dance number while dressed in identical outfits!" Kotaro, in a moment of his trademark eccentricity, whipped out a red short-sleeved dress that looked like something Ai or Junko might have worn in their respective careers as idols back when they were alive.
Speaking of the undead idol girls, both of them perked up a bit when they saw the dress that their manager had whipped out, memories of their past lives as idols flooding back. "Well about time that Ai and I will be able to put some of our experience as idols to use that would specifically need said experience in that field," Junko said, "Doing a song and dance number while wearing a cute outfit is right up the ally of idols such as myself and Ai." The Heisei idol zombie girls gave a nod of agreement as she followed along with her Showa counterpart.
"Indeed, the respective experience that you two have as idols will serve us well in the process of shooting the commercial for the anime convention," Kotaro replied, "But given that the other eight girls have only their experience from the Drive-In Tori commercial, they will need a great deal of help to get them caught up to an acceptable level." Lowering the dress that he was holding, the eccentric man said, "Luckily for me, I called in an old friend of mine to help out. He will be here by tomorrow, at which point you girls will learn under him to get the song and dance routine down pat for the commercial."
"An old friend of yours, Mr. Kotaro?" Ayumu asked, a bit of a curious look on her face.
Kotaro nodded once in the affirmative. "Indeed. He is already brilliant at the singing skills that he will impart to you all, and as for his awesome dancing, he learned all that under grandmasters of dance that he studied under while he was touring the Land of Fire." The zombie girls all felt that this whole song and dance t raining that they would all get for the commercial that they had to shoot for an upcoming anime convention will be an interesting experience, even more so since they were going to be trained by an old friend of Kotaro's.
Junko and Ai both felt that they would have the training in the bag.
Later that night, actually very early in the morning like around two-fifteen or so, all of the zombie girls were fast asleep in the futon room. Ai and Junko both had happy looks on their respective faces as they slept, no doubt having pleasant dreams about being able to use their specific talents from life to shine. Lily had actually rolled over close to Ayumu as all the girls were asleep. Sigrid slept with Ulfberht, her cherished metal baseball bat, in case she was woken up in the middle of the night because there was something she had to attack.
All in all, the ten zombie girls were fast asleep, not a hint of worry, fear or alarm to be seen among any of them. So then, it goes without saying that when the door leading into the futon room was suddenly thrown open in as loud and boisterous of a manner as possible as someone made their presence known while standing in the now-open doorway, all of the zombie girls had been very clearly stirred from their slumber by their flamboyant and honestly rather rude visitor in the middle of the night/very early morning.
The visitor was a man, with fair skinned that was very lightly tanned. He had chin-length shiny black hair in something of a bowl cut, and he wore a white suit with matching pants and slick, shiny black shoes. For some odd reason, both his white pants and his white suit top were covered in what looked to be zippers. The man, as he stood in the open doorway that led into the futon room, struck a pose that had him hold his right hand over his right eye in such a manner that the index and middle fingers were on either side of the eye, while the left hand supported the right elbow. Also, the man seemed to be emanating actions lines.
"Behold, ladies!" the mysterious man proclaimed loudly as he made his dynamic entrance, "I have come to you all in your time of need! No longer do any of you have any reason to fear, for I shall see you all whipped into shape with ample time to-"
"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Ayumu screamed in fear at the top of her lungs as she scrunched up into something of a fetal position while covering her hears with her hands. As the teen actress zombie girl's screaming cut the mystery man off, Lily and Sakura, both similarly as frightened by the surprise visitor's sudden appearance, started throwing random objects, basically whatever they were able to get their undead hands on, right at the mystery man, scoring a good number of hits on the late night/very early morning visitor.
After the mystery man took a good few hits from the thrown objects, he saw Sigrid rush at him, Ulfberht in hand. Swinging her favored weapon, the half-foreign zombie girl struck the mystery man on his right side, just under the bottom of the right side of his rib cage. The powerful blow from Sigrid knocked the mystery man over, just in time for Saki to march over and proceed to kick the man in his ribs a good few times as he laid helpless on the floor. Saki was also joined by Sakura and the zombie idol girls in kicking the floored mystery man.
The zombie girls continued their rattled assault up until Kotaro, summoned by the noise, came rushing over and made all of the zombie girls back off. Helping the mystery man off of the floor, the eccentric man scolded at the girls, "What in the name of Gilgamesh were you girls all doing? This is your song and dance instructor that I told you all about! He's here to help you all train to get ready to shoot the commercial for the anime convention!"
The zombie girls, with Yugiri trying to get Tae who was growling like a dog at the mystery man to calm down, all looked at their manager and the mystery man, who was the old friend of Kotaro's that they had been informed about. "Well in our defense, Shades," Saki began, "This jerk burst into our room in the middle of the night, loudly proclaiming stuff and waking all of us up in the process. He scared the absolute shit out of all of us, for crying out loud!"
"She…she is right, Kotaro," the mystery man said, slowly recovering from the surprise beat-down he had just been on the receiving end of, "In my efforts to make a dynamic entrance into the lives of girls that I would be helping on the dank and awesome path of dance, I unknowingly scared them into attacking me. The fault here is mine, I will admit."
With a mildly resigned look on his face, Kotaro looked around on the floor, where all of the various objects that had been thrown at his friend now laid. Pointing to the mess, Kotaro said, "Well can you girls all at least pick up this mess before going back to sleep? We can get down to business at a much better hour, after you all had have sufficient rest." Some of the zombie girls, Sakura, the idols and the child and teen actresses, all sheepishly cleaned up the mess that had been made. As for Saki, Sigrid and the others, they all went right back to their futons, with the resident tough girls both eyeing Kotaro's mysterious friend suspiciously.
The following morning, as all of the girls sat in metal folding chairs down in the basement of the Saga mansion, Kotaro stood before the ten of them, with his mysterious friend standing next to him on his left. "Ladies, please allow me to formally introduce you all to my friend who will get all of you up to snuff for the song and dance that you all will have to do for the commercial that you all will be shooting," Kotaro began. Gesturing to his friend with both hands, the eccentric man said while still facing the girls, "This man right here is Brycen Joborno, an Italian man who has traveled all over the world to learn the secrets of the dank and awesome powers of dance!"
Nodding once in confirmation, the mystery man, now revealed to be called Brycen, stepped forward by a step to be closer to the ten zombie girls, most of which were still a bit wary of him due to how he had made the late night/very early morning dynamic appearance. "I hope that you ladies are ready to learn the sacred secrets that are shared only amongst grandmasters of dance and their chosen acolytes," Brycen began, "Because by the time that I am through with all of you, there will never be a performance that any of you won't be ready for!"
The ten zombie girls had no idea just what to make of Brycen. Even so, if Kotaro had every confidence that his Italian friend would get them all ready for the song and dance number that they all had to do for the anime contention commercial, then they figured that they might as well work under him while he was there to teach them. Sakura, with a bit of curiosity, raised her left hand, and waited until she was called on by Kotaro. "Umm, I actually have a question for Brycen," the long-haired zombie girl began. Turning to look at the white-clad man, Sakura said, "Kotaro-san said you had traveled all over the world. Is that true?"
"Indeed it is," Brycen replied, a bit of smug self-amusement on his face, "There is only so much that Japan on its own had to offer me in my pursuit of gaining experience in the dank and awesome ways of dance. Therefore, I sought out the secrets all over the world, traveling in style until my journey led me close to the home you girls have all come to know. I found the secrets I had sought in one of the elemental nations, located close to Japan. The Land of Fire, if you all want to be specific."
The girls all looked at Brycen as he crossed his arms over his chest, closed his eyes as he nodded solemnly. "I found a trio of grandmasters in a Land of Fire village called Konoha. Harold Fisher, Inoichi Yamanaka. Tsume Inuzuka. Those three epic legends had started up a workout facility where they use the power of dance in the truly noble endeavor of helping those with excess weight to slim down. An acolyte of theirs, a woman by the name of Tenten Hyuga, is their first story of success and runs the facility when they themselves are busy. It was under them, that trio of grandmasters, that I had learned the secrets of dance!"
Brycen then pointed dramatically at the ten zombie girls. "Under my guidance, you ten shall be taught the dance routine that shall be required of you all for the commercial that Kotaro has lined up for you all to take part in! It has been made aware to me by Kotaro that two of you, the ones by the names of Ai and Junko, already have notable dance experience from when they walked as members of the living. That experience will be a great deal of help, and the other eight of you must not be afraid to ask those two for help if need be!"
"Hang on a minute," Sakura began, a look of mild surprise mixed with some suspicion on her face, "You know that Ai and Junko are zombies? Do you know that all of us are zombies?"
Brycen turned to face Kotaro, who gave him a single nod that signaled some manner of approval to act. Nodding in understanding to his friend, Brycen then struck a pose that had him shoot his arms up into the air in a sort of swan pose, his head turned to his left. As he was in that pose, that seemingly had actions lines come from it, an energy that the zombie girls all recognized as what is seen when one releases monster glamour, emanated from the white-clad man.
Over the course of a couple of seconds, Brycen's skin changed to a grayish-blue color, and he looked to have a few small holes on his person; two in his chest and one in his forehead, if the cloth wrapping around his head were any indication. After he was done releasing the monster glamour, Brycen came out of the pose he struck and looked at the ten zombie girls, opening his eyes to show that his eyes were now a notable and familiar color of red.
"You ladies did not think that you all were the only ones that Kotaro and his fellows saw fit to raise from the grave, did you?" Brycen asked, arching a wry eyebrow as he saw all ten of the girls become surprised as they saw him.
"No fucking way," Saki remarked, her tone making it clear that she was very much surprised. Turning to look at Kotaro, Saki said as she pointed at Brycen, "He's one of the zombies that you brought back too?"
Nodding a few times in confirmation, Kotaro said, "Well I did say that some of the sixteen zombies that the lads and I are responsible for raising from the grave are male. My good friend Brycen here is one of those very few lucky men."
Brycen, crossing his arms over his chest, nodded a few times. "And who better to train a bunch of zombies in the dank and awesome ways of dance than another zombie? You girls are about to be given a crash course in secrets so sacred that you will all feel that you are being granted the very knowledge of gods! You all will be feeling very much humbled by the time that I am done with the lot of you, rest assured of that!"
"Oh my, this is all sounding more and more exciting," Yugiri remarked, "I'm actually wanting to get cracking on the dance training that you will be putting the girls and I through, Mr. Joborno."
"Before you girls can get started working under Brycen's tutelage," Kotaro remarked as he crossed his arms over his chest, "You all need to get into your outfits that you shall be wearing for the commercial. There may be some need to do size adjustments for some of you girls, so the process may take us a while."
Ai and Junko, being experienced in singing and dancing thanks to their past lives as idols, nodded along in agreement. "That sounds fair, Kotaro-san," Junko remarked, "Although I am a bit curious. Who was used as a size reference when you had that dress that you had previously shown us yesterday?"
"I was the model that was used for making that dress," Kotaro explained, "Counting the one that you saw me show you all yesterday, there are ten dresses of equal size, all of which are sized to fit me." Looking at the ten zombie girls, the eccentric man said, "Now you all see why I said that it may be necessary to adjust the sizes of a lot of the dresses."
The ten girls all looked at Kotaro with varying looks of confusion. "You…" Saki began, a look of confused shock and mild surprise on her undead face, "…You used yourself as a model for all of the dresses, Shades?"
"There is nothing that I won't be willing to do when it comes to making the Saga Stories project a success!" Kotaro declared, "Even if it means that I have to model some dresses for you ladies to make sure the designs are right!" After the girls were given the rundown that would be needed for the dancing that they had to do, they were herded into one of the dance studios upstairs where they would be fitted for their dresses for the dancing they had to do for the commercial.
Eventually, all ten of the zombie girls were in their respective dresses. Some of the girls, such as Sakura, the idol girls, Lily and Ayumu, all liked their dresses, thinking that said dressed looked really cute. Saki and Sigrid looked mildly annoyed to be gussies up like dolls, and Yugiri, Tae and Hikari were all indifferent to how they looked, but were okay with putting up with it. After the girls were all ready with their respective dresses, Kotaro and Brycen got a good look at the ten of them all together.
"Hmm, yes," Brycen remarked, "Yes indeed. You ladies all look ready to learn the mystical skills of dance that shall be imparted to you. Once your dance t raining is complete, you all will cover the singing portion of what you need, at which point I believe Ai and Junko can take over as they both are more experience in singing than I am."
The zombie girls, aside from the unawakened Tae, all looked a bit apprehensive as the zombie man before them talked about the training that he was going to take them all through. Even Ai and Junko, experienced in dance due to both being idols in life, were a bit apprehensive as to the kind of training that Brycen had in mind for them and the other girls. Once the girls had all been put into position in the dance studio that they were all in, Brycen got right to work.
…
After they worked nonstop for an hour or so straight, the ten zombie girls were all allowed a break, which immediately saw some of them fall over onto the floor on their respective rear ends. Not even the experienced Ai and Junko were able to get out of the hour or so of training scot free, as they were among the girls that collapsed onto their butts on the dance studio floor. None of the zombie girls were quite prepared for what the white clad man had in store for them.
"Clearly you girls are in need of greater inspiration to motivate you all into taking to my teachings with gusto," Brycen remarked, "Because even Kotaro on one of his low-energy days would be more than able to dance circles around the lot of you as you currently are! Hell, I bet that he would be more than glad to demonstrate his dancing should I ask him for the assistance!" Over where he stood in the corner of the room looking out into the room and at the girls, their manager, his arms crossed over his chest, nodded in agreement with the white-clad zombie man.
"Hey, not all of us are natural dancers, you know!" Saki snapped, "Hell, most of us don't have any experience outside of the Drive-In Tori commercial that we shot a while ago!" Looking down at herself, the delinquent zombie girl went on, "And we're all expected to wear these skimpy little outfits? You cannot be serious!"
Looking over to Ai and Junko, the two of them looked troubled as well, not to mention a bit worn out from Brycen's dance training. "I'm…going to have to agree with Saki here," Junko remarked as she somewhat shakily raised a hand, "Not on the part involving the outfits because I personally love the outfits we're going to wear for the commercial, but the part involving the dance routine that you're running us all through. Isn't it a little bit on the extreme side?"
Brycen, doing the 'tsk-tsk-tsk' motion with his right index finger, replied, "Clearly you girls have not experienced the true nature, the true power, of dance. Otherwise you'd all realize that the training you all are doing is par for the course." Brycen, straightening up a bit, looked down at where most of the zombie girls were sitting on the floor (only Saki and Sigrid were standing up). The white-clad man had a contemplative look on his face as he considered all of the girls as he sized them all up.
It wasn't until a few seconds after that where Brycen spoke back up again. "…Did you girls ever hear from Kotaro the story of how the power of dance aided him and myself in our efforts to mow down the remains of the last major crime family in Italy?"
Sensing where this was heading, Kotaro got up from where he was leaning against in the corner and walked over to stand next to Brycen. "…He's got a point, ladies," Kotaro began, his tone carrying a lot more of a serious hint than it normally did, "I myself have seen sights all around the world, often right alongside Brycen here. He and I were, and to this day still sort of are, quite the daring pair…"
(FLASHBACK)
(DATE: UNKNOWN)
Over in Italy, Kotaro and (a still living) Brycen were running through one of the hallways of an elaborately and exquisitely furnished mafia don's mansion, pursued by a group of four mafia grunts. Under Kotaro's arm was a vase roughly the size of the average American football, but the vase was made of solid jade. "Get back here with the don's prized family heirloom!" the lead grunt in the pack shouted as he dashed forward and tried to swing at the fleeing men.
Brycen, sensing the danger, quickly turned around and, in a very fluid dance-like movement, kicked the grunt's weapon out of his hand, then spun and kicked the grunt in the face, sending his knocked-out form reeling back into his fellows. Kotaro then pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, ran back over to where all of the grunts were sprawled out in a single big pile, shoved the grenade into the shirt of the one on top of the pile, then quickly ran back to join Brycen before the took cover in a room, quickly closing the ornate double-doors behind them, locking it as well for good measure.
The two men, with Kotaro carefully checking to make sure the jade vase he and Brycen had was unharmed, jumped up when they heard the grenade go off, along with the pained shouts and cries of the four mafia grunts who were chasing them. "I…think that we should wait until they had a chance to shampoo the carpets before we try to sneak out," the eccentric man said to his white-clad friend as they relaxed a little.
Gently shaking his head, Brycen said, "There's no need for that." Pointing to a window that was in the room, Brycen gestured for Kotaro to follow him. Opening the window and looking down, the two men saw that there was a white screen wall that flowers were growing along. "We can climb down here and make our escape with the mafia don's jade vase," Brycen explained, "We'll be home free in next to-"
*CRASH*
Kotaro and Brycen both turned around to see the double doors leading into the room that they were in get busted open, and in walked a blonde man wearing a yellow jacket that was open in the front, under the jacket was a similarly colored shirt (although the current lighting made it difficult for Kotaro and Brycen to tell), a pair of pants that went with the jacket, and brown shoes. The blonde man, his hands on his hips, walked into the room to confront the two guys.
"You thought that the don would send more of his grunts after you," the blonde man declared. Jerking a thumb at himself, the blonde man went on to say, "But it was I, Derek!"
The two men both eyed the now-identified Derek with careful, mildly annoyed looks on their respective faces. "Derek Brandish," Kotaro remarked, "The head of the don's security. I know that you are strong, but how were you able to bust the doors clear out of the doorway?"
"Kotaro, look!" Brycen exclaimed, pointing something out to the eccentric man. Looking over to where his friend was pointing, Kotaro saw some of the door hinged that were screwed to the doors that had been blown out of the doorway. The hinges looked old and rusty; they also had action lines emanating from them, and colored Japanese kanji also floated near them.
"It cannot be!" Kotaro exclaimed out of shock, "The hinges on the doors were old and rusty! It made them weak enough so that Derek was allowed to bust the doors clear out of the door frame, thus letting him walk into the room!"
Derek stepped into the room a few feet to confront the men that were in possession of the don's prized jade vase. Pointing dramatically at Kotaro and Brycen, Derek said, "You have caused quite a bit of trouble for the don, you thieves! You killed ten of his men! As well as twice that number in the don's guard dogs!" A scene set outside of the mansion showed a bunch of mafia grunt men, as well as numerous guard dogs, all lying dead on the ground, with action lines coming from the deceased, and colored kanji floating around the scene.
Kotaro and Brycen both looked confused at Derek. "We…only killed four men that were chasing us just now," Kotaro explained, "We have no idea about the other six dead men, or any of the dead guard dogs."
This time, it was the don's right-hand man's turn to look confused. "…What the hell are you thieves talking about?" Derek asked, "If you aren't the ones who killed the other six men or any of the guard dogs, then who could it-" Derek was cut off when a large explosion rocked the mansion, making it clear another party was in the middle of besieging the don's mansion. "Of all the times I have to deal with thieves," Derek snarled, "Another group is here to try and take the don and his family down!"
Seeing that Derek was distracted, Kotaro moved to open the window and climb out of it in order to get to safety with the jade vase. Seeing this out of the corner of his eye, Derek pulled a gun out and tried to take aim at Kotaro, but Brycen moved to shield Kotaro's escape, even though he took two bullets to the chest and one to his forehead for the trouble. Kotaro, as much as he had wanted to cry out for his friend who was slain, knew that he needed to take the time to get away with the jade vase, a mission that he could not afford to fail.
Kotaro quickly scrambled down the white wood wall, choosing to fall the remaining five feet or so and landing on top of a bush. Derek would have moved to gun down Kotaro, but he was cut off when a loud draconic roar came from behind him; Kotaro was actually saved when a large blast of fire burst out of the window he had just crawled out of as he scrambled down the white wood wall to safety. A safety, sadly enough, we wasn't able to share with his good friend.
…
"Thanks again for the save, Boromir," Kotaro said as he addressed a fair-skinned man that he stood in front of outside of the don's mansion; Boromir had long white hair, with the bangs braided and linked at the back of the man's head, deep sapphire blue eyes, and he wore a dark leather jerkin over a long-sleeved dark brown tunic, light-armored leggings, boots, and there were even shoulder guards covering the man's shoulders. All of what Boromir wore had colored trimming, with the trimming being the same shade of blue as his eyes.
…Kind of like a certain enhanced man trained to hunt and kill monsters, if you think about it.
"The vase you handed over to me is a treasure that belongs to the people whose lands that my people are about to look into annexing," Boromir replied, "Thanks again for assisting my sons and I in the search for the Jade Vase of Mayakashi." As Kotaro and Boromir spoke, a teenaged boy came walking over, carrying the dead body of Brycen. The teenaged boy wore a grim look of sympathetic regret on his face.
The teenaged boy was fair-skinned, had hair that was jet black and long enough to reach halfway down his shoulder blades, he wore a long-sleeved shirt under a baggy t-shirt that resembled the German flag, a pair of black tripp pants with red threading, and a pair of black boots (either work or military grade) that had red laces. The teenaged boy's eyes were a piercing shade of red, much unlike the blue eyes of Boromir.
"I found the vanquished human that was helping us, father," the teenaged boy remarked, his tone mildly somber as he gently laid Brycen's body on the ground.
Boromir nodded a few times in acknowledgement to the teenaged boy, who was apparently his son. "Thank you, Draco," the blue-eyed man remarked. Boromir then turned to face Kotaro, saw a look of contemplation in his eyes. "…I recall what you and your late friend here told me what you plan to do to save some prefecture in Japan, Kotaro," Boromir began, "How you plan to bring a selection of humans back as standard zombies. I know not what makes you think that a number of low-tier undead-types like standard zombies will be of use to you, but I hope that you know what you are getting yourself into." Casting one last look at Brycen's dead body, Boromir turned his gaze back to Kotaro.
"…Those raised from the dead are never quite exactly the same as they were when they were still living humans."
Kotaro understood, even appreciated, Boromir's words on some level. Even so, he had to do what he knew the blue-eyed man figured out what he was considering on doing. It simply just wasn't fair to leave so awesome a person as Brycen dead, not when he still had so much that he was looking forward to do. The eccentric man wanted to give his friend his future back, even if he would have that future as something that he wasn't quite expecting himself to be.
…
Back in the Saga mansion after Kotaro was able to spirit Brycen's body back, Kotaro was standing in the basement room, where an unawakened Brycen, returned to the land of the living as a zombie, was trying to walk into a wall. Kotaro, with a resigned look, turned to a table that was in the basement room. On the table was only one thing, a radio that had the cassette tape port open with a cassette tape placed in there.
Kotaro needed to get Brycen awakened as soon as possible, and he figured that there was only one real surefire way to awaken the white-clad (now a) zombie man into the person that he was before he was shot and killed by Derek Brandish, who Kotaro had learned had been killed by Boromir's son Draco. Letting out a resigned sigh, Kotaro walked over to the radio, closed the cassette tape port, then pressed the play button, starting up a certain music number that Brycen had always loved.
"AYAYAYAYYYY!"
As a truly epic score began to play, Kotaro was looking at the radio, a somber look on his face. As he looked down at the radio, hoping against hope, he heard Brycen's voice call out to him, "Oh, I see that you saw to it that I returned to life as much as you were able to manage, my good friend. Thanks for seeing to my return." Gasping in shock, Kotaro turned around and saw that Brycen was now a fully-awakened zombie; he was also doing a pose as action lines emanated from him, and some colored kanji floated overhead.
Relief instantly flooded right into Kotaro as he ran over and threw his arms around his now-returned friend, hugging him tightly. Brycen, with a knowing look of appreciation on his face, returned the hug, making it one of the bro-est of bro-hugs in the history of bro-hugs.
(FLASHBACK OVER)
"A few months after I had awakened, Kotaro started his plan to save the Saga prefecture," Brycen said as he and Kotaro finished the story of their past that they were telling to the zombie girls, "And the rest, well…" The white-clad zombie man gave a few self-amused chuckles as he thought about what happened after that point. "…The rest is history."
The ten zombie girls all looked at Brycen and Kotaro with looks of amazed wonder, very much entertained by their story. …Well, most of the zombie girls were entertained by the story. Tae, due to still being unawakened, just mindlessly sat there, and Saki and Sigrid both looked at their manager and the white-clad zombie man with curious, mildly suspicious look. "…So let me get this straight," Saki said, "You were killed due to being shot because you and Shades were in the middle of helping someone raid the mansion home of an Italian mafia don?"
Waving a hand at the delinquent zombie girl, Kotaro said, "The who, what, where, why and how here is not important. What is important is that Brycen was too much of a treasure to allow to remain a victim of the cruelty of Derek Brandish. Brycen is a skilled dancer eclipsed only by the very grandmasters who taught him the craft! To allow Brycen to remain dead would be like if one had a load billions upon billions of yen but never did anything with it!" Kotaro pointed at the zombie girls dramatically. "Now do you see?! See the value of the power of dance?"
"Hell no," Saki replied right away.
"Too bad! Because break time is over!" Kotaro declared. Clapping very quickly, the eccentric man declared, "Let's go, ladies! Brycen is far from through with all of you! Get off your lazy undead asses and bust a move!"
"Being undead hasn't stopped me," Brycen boasted, "And I refuse to allow any of you to allow it to stop you! Let's go through the whole routine! From the top!" The zombie girls all moaned out of complaint as they rose off of the floor and got back to their feet. Tae moaned in her usual tone that came with her being unawakened, but even then one could hear a hint of exasperation in her tone as she got up with the rest of the zombie girls.
A few days later, the zombie girls had gotten the dance routine for the commercial down pat, and were able to move on to the singing that they had to do for the commercial as well. Brycen stuck around to keep an eye on things with Kotaro, but since singing was more up the ally of Ai and Junko, they had more of an active hand in helping catch the other eight zombie girls up; Ai got to play an especially big part in this, as she was part of an idol group thus had more experience in doing group performances, compared to Junko who was a solo idol.
Eventually, the girls were able to go through the dance routine while singing the song that they had to perform. After a couple takes, most of which had to be called for because Tae kept messing up here and there, not to mention one incident where Sakura and Lily scolded Saki and Sigrid for sending Ayumu into a bit of a panic (it wasn't intentional but the tough girls both still apologized), Kotaro got a take that he felt would be satisfactory for the commercial.
The commercial then hit the airwaves of Japanese television, and it not only got hype up for the convention itself, but it also garnered more renown for the girls of Franchouchou. This was even more helpful for the girls, as Kotaro had actually scheduled them to have a booth at the very convention that the commercial was advertising. Given that it was an anime convention, they had to rely on the expertise of Hikari, the otaku that she was, as anime conventions were uncharted lands for the rest of the group.
The girls got to check a few things out before they were called back to their booth by Kotaro and Brycen, the latter in his human form. The girls, all of them in their zombie forms, didn't garner a lot of focus as everyone thought that they were in costume, but soon many people who saw them passing by realized that they not only passed by real zombies, but that said zombies were famous actresses on TV, when they all saw the Franchouchou booth up and open for business.
In addition to a number of anime fans, the girls also saw fans of Saga Stories specifically. Some of the girls were surprised when still-living relatives of theirs from when they were living humans came by to visit the booth. Sakura and Saki were surprised to see Sakura's kid brother Sasuke and Maria, the daughter of Saki's friend Reiko, come by and see them. Lily practically burst into tears of joy when her father Masao showed up to see her as well. Ayumu's mother Minamo also visited, as she was worried the atmosphere of an anime convention may be a bit too overwhelming for her autistic daughter.
As they watched the zombie girls greet friends, family and fans, Kotaro and Brycen both wore amused, approving smiles on their respective faces. "…I would certainly say that your efforts to save Saga are going swimmingly, Kotaro," Brycen remarked. Turning to face his old friend, the white-clad zombie man remarked, "Will you be needing my assistance any further?"
"Not for the time being, no," Kotaro replied, "But I do hope that I can call upon you should the need to whip the girls into shape for another dance routine that they need to do ever arise."
Brycen let out a self-amused hum that clearly sounded like a chuckle. "Oh Kotaro, you should know me better than that. I am always available should you need my help. All you have to do is shoot me a text or call me, and I'll be packing my bags to fly back out to Saga." The eccentric man, arching a wry, self-amused eyebrow as he looked at his friend, held out a hand to him. The acolyte of dance, himself also smirking, accepted the handshake from Kotaro.
Bromance at its absolute finest, indeed.
END, SAGA STORIES CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Author's notes;
Ties to other works aside, this chapter helps to establish something that I've been wanting to do for this story for quite some time; in the series proper, the only known zombies are the seven girls in Franchouchou and Romero the dog. Here, even though the count of zombie girls in the aforementioned group was bumped up to ten, many would still fall under the assumption that they and Romero are the only zombies.
That would be a wrong assumption to make. Here, I'm exploring the idea that Kotaro, along with anyone in cahoots with him, had raised more than just the Franchouchou girls (and Romero) as zombies. Two such zombies were mentioned in this chapter, with one of those two even being the main center of focus for the chapter. The other zombies will pop up as time goes on, but until we get there, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter.
Also, I hope that I had captured the Jojo's spirit just right. Please don't hate me too much if I screwed anything up in that regard too badly.