Chapter 14: If Our Town Prospers, It Will Die. Decline, Recede Like Plants and Trees

**Chapter 14: If Our Town Prospers, It Will Die. Decline, Recede Like Plants and Trees** (**栄えば枯れるわがマチよ。衰え、退くサキにあるものは。**, *Haeba kareru waga Machi yo. Otoroe, shirizoku Saki ni aru mono wa.*) is the fourteenth chapter of the spin-off manga series of Zombie Land Saga, titled “Zombie Land Saga Side Story: The First Zombie”.

## Synopsis

The mysterious disappearances of women in Saga continue. Only Eikichi and Tae remain in the team, and it is their responsibility to discover who is behind this.

## Plot

Eikichi and Tae return to the city, where women are reported missing around the same time. They both suspect that the incidents are related to the Spider Sagako who previously destroying their house and that Saga is witnessing an unprecedented disaster.

Searching for help, they go to Araki, who is a policeman. He tells them that the Saga police stations are flooded with cases of missing women and that the only thing that is known is that there are cases of disappearances that happened in two different places at the same time. Therefore, criminal activity is suspected. Despite being aware of the Sagakos, he decides to ignore the issue, arguing that no one would believe that and exclaiming that he wants to forget “that incident”.

Without Araki's help, they go searching for the missing relatives to learn their last known location. The locations are Ureshino Hot Springs, Cape Hado, Karatsu Burger in Nijinomatsubara, and the Karatsu Coast near the Busters headquarters. Arriving at their old mansion, Tae checks that the onions with Sagakos inside are in good condition, and luckily, they are. Since they are not in any danger, they decide to leave them there without worries. Eikichi also makes them a blanket made from the mansion's curtains, prompting Tae to joke that they are his own children.

With the information collected from the disappearances, Tae begins to realize something: the Sagako only appear in prosperous places, with large gatherings of people or places that will be prosperous in the future. The disappearances also happened in these places, so it is not a single coincidence, and it must be the spider Sagako going from place to place searching for power. With these data, both are heading to a place of great prosperity. A touristic place.

The place chosen is the Arita Porcelain Park. Eikichi cross-dresses as a woman and poses as a woman. Tae wanted to lure her, but Eikichi strongly opposed her because it would pose a danger to her. Still, she gets annoyed at how vulgar Eikichi is as a decoy, to which he tells her not to worry because the only thing that matters is that the decoy looks like a woman. Despite being in a tourist spot, no one shows up. Not even Sagako.

A girl is alone in the place, so Tae goes to talk to her. To her surprise, she was never a normal girl. As soon as she approaches her, she is attacked by Magatsuhi, who tries to kidnap her. Tae manages to dodge the first attack and is saved by Eikichi before the second, only for both of them to fall into a fountain and pass out.

Upon awakening, both find themselves in a mysterious amusement park and find the missing women locked up. All the women are asleep inside a cage made of Sagako's limbs. Even so, one tells them that their companions were taken to the back of the place and that this girl must be looking for something. With no reason to suspect a girl, multiple people were kidnapped, falling for her tricks.

They both arrive at a statue of a squirrel, where strange music come from. Upon entering, they find children's toys in what appears to be a makeshift room. There, Tae finds a photo of her parents with the mysterious baby and realizes that this girl is just another form of the Giant Spider Sagako.

## Features

### Characters

* Saga Sagako Busters
	+ Eikichi Hyodo
	+ Tae Yamada
* Araki
* Sagako Curses
	+ Magatsuhi

### Locations

* Saga Prefecture
	+ Takeo City
		- Takeo Ureshino Marchen Mura Village Amusement Park
	+ Arita City
		- Arita Porcelain Park
	+ Karatsu City
		- Saga Sagako Busters' Mansion
		- Cape Hado
		- Niji-no matsubara
	+ Ureshino City
		- Hotel Kasuien

## External Link

* Gaiden Chapter 14 Unofficial English Translation

## Trivia

* It is revealed by a missing person report that this chapter took place in November 1989.