Eikichi Hyodo/History

## Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie

### Chapter 1

Eikichi is a high school boy who works as a farmer on the family onion farm. After an injury sidelined him from his baseball team, he considers his life monotonous and mediocre. His sister tries to encourage him by telling him that his work as an onion farmer helps fight Saga's evil and protect Eikichi's ordinary life. He gets angry when she reminds him how ordinary her life is, saying that he's had enough of it. To calm down his brother, Yuko feeds him an onion.

A week later, his sister is found missing, and his mother is angry because she thinks she got sick from the smoke from the cigarette he was smoking. Someone knocks on the door of the house and Eikichi's mother receives them. They are a group of 3 girls wearing dark glasses who show up at the residence and kidnap Eikichi. Later, he wakes up in a mysterious mansion and the girl group shows him that his sister turned into an onion. Eikichi is confused, as they tell him that he will now be Yuko's replacement. The girls introduce themselves as the “Saga Sagako Busters” and inform him that they are hunters of curses called “Sagako”.

The alarm sounds at the mansion warning of a new outbreak of Sagako and the girls enlist. The group reaches Ureshino, where the alert came from. Eikichi gets distracted and thinks that the girls are crazy, so he goes to an onsen. Upon arrival, he is welcomed by the elders at the hot springs. It doesn't take long for him to realize that something is wrong, and he is surprised by the Sagako from the hot springs. Eikichi now understands that what the Busters were saying was true and realizes that his sister's injuries were from her constant battles. Gaining courage, he attacks the Sagako, and saves the elders. Anna and Hanako bring him the onions, and Eikichi throws them into the Sagako until he seals him. Unfortunately, the Sagako escapes and leaves the place smelling of onions.

The group returns to the mansion, where they decide what to do with Eikichi. He tells them that he also has his sister's power and that he could help them. Together with their leader, Tae Yamada, the Busters go to train Eikichi to become a new warrior of the “Saga Sagako Busters”.

### Chapter 2

At the Busters headquarters, Eikichi will be trained to fight the Sagakos. The Busters boss appears on the TV and welcomes Eikichi as well. The group received the approval of her mother, who allowed him to stay after Tae convinced her. With his new trainers, he will learn to control and gain the power of the Misogi, along with the discipline he must have to fight the Sagako.

His training is going well, but he's still not gaining enough power. In those, Hanako pranks him by making him think that cleaning the house is part of her training. Eikichi still feels that he can't be as good as his sister, despite everything. As he is about to clean the bathroom, Anna tells him that the whole house cleaning part was a prank on him. And that if he wants to increase his power, he should start studying what his sister was doing.

With Anna's advice, Eikichi becomes familiar with onions and can communicate with them. Later, when leaving the mansion, he finds a Sagako and tries to seal it. But not using the onions from his house doesn't turn out to be successful. Tae, who was following him, helps him with the special onions from his farm and thus Eikichi manages to seal his first Sagako.

### Chapter 3

Anna warns of a problem with Sagako at Saga's club. In those, Jofuku confirms to Eikichi that the supernatural activity that he hears on TV and radio is caused by the Sagakos that torment Saga.

Arriving at the club, their plan to catch the Sagako failed because the Sagako produced music that drove women crazy and attacked anyone. After this incident, the Busters discover that what Sagako wants is a triple A man: High height, high education, high income. So, they decide to transform Eikichi into this kind of person through special treatment and training. Hanako uses a machine to stretch him to make him look taller, Tae uses sleep learning through her voice to make him smarter; Anna takes him to a club where she works, so he can learn hosting skills.

With all that, Eikichi is now ready. The Busters arrive at the club and Sagako appears. To their surprise, the Sagako detects something wrong and rejects him. Fortunately, Eikichi was already ready and managed to seal Sagako with an onion sour that he had previously prepared.

### Chapter 4

Eikichi is looking for a part-time job to pay for a game console he wants to buy. In his search for this job, he finds a very nervous Tae serving customers at the burger joint and her father, Jofuku, whom the team calls MJ. Jofuku and Eikichi help Tae with her purchases at the store, while Jofuku tells Eikichi about the store's history, he also reveals that Tae lost her parents due to the Sagakos and that's why Yuko was so important to Tae.

Back at the food stall, customers have not come to the place since Yuko is gone. Despite Eikichi's attempts to imitate his sister to attract customers, they inevitably fail. Tae is depressed by her failure, and Jofuku comforts her by telling her that she can't fight fate. Eikichi says that maybe it's the fault of the giant pet above them, but the pet was actually a Sagako who was attracted to prosperity and was negatively affecting the business.

Thanks to Eikichi and MJ, the group of 3 manages to defeat the Sagako and bring prosperity back to the place. Tae is grateful for both their help and to keep the place where Yuko worked. In those, a customer arrives, and Eikichi instinctively makes Tae smile, causing her to punch him.

### Chapter 5

With MJ back on the team, the group is eating at a local while drinking and celebrating. Eikichi gets a little jealous when Tae mentions that she is getting married.

At the mansion, Hanako is on top of Eikichi, very drunk. He remembers that after the party he had to take her back to her room. Hanako injects Eikichi with what she says is “a love potion” to make Tae fall in love with him. Eikichi tries to deny that she has feelings for someone as aggressive as Tae. But what he didn't know was that Tae was behind the door, and that comment of hers really pissed her off to the point of beating him up.

After Tae's beating, MJ talks to Eikichi about the Busters' secrets and important information about Sagako and the curse. With no Yuko on the team, it is Eikichi's duty to protect the failed stars of Saga. In the morning, the group receives news of a Sagako at the Minami school, along with a picture of the presumed Sagako.

### Chapter 6

In the end, the possessed human the Busters were looking for turned out to be Takeo Go, a high school student who studies at the school MJ said Sagako came from. With no choice but to apologize, they leave the man alone. Before they leave, Eikichi decides to ask him about the injuries he has all over his body, to which Takeo replies that the school seems to be cursed. With that answer, the group is back in action.

It turns out that the school is cursed, as every student who confesses either ends up failing or strange events happen that prevent it. Takeo also suffers from this curse, as he is unable to declare himself to Sachika and is brutally beaten with each of his attempts.

The Busters are willing to help him and set him up with Tae dressed as a schoolgirl and Eikichi pretending to confess. In the performance, Eikichi blurts out that he didn't like Tae getting married. But luckily for him, it was a lie from Tae to keep MJ quiet. Inadvertently, the Sagako they were looking for appeared in front of the mirror where they were, and the hunt begins and quickly ends with the Sagako falling in love with Eikichi for Hanako's love potion.

### Chapter 7

Eikichi and Anna search for a Sagako at the Karatsu Train Station. As the two talks about how MJ's Sagako detector sucks, Anna sees a mysterious man and distracts Eikichi by telling him there are aliens. Eikichi now can't do anything, since he can't find Sagako, the aliens or Anna. He returns to the mansion, where he tells the others about Anna's disappearance from the team. Shocked, they begin to find out more about who Anna is and how important she is to the Sagako Busters team.

The next day a Sagako appears and without Anna's intervention, Eikichi realizes her importance as he sees the chaos caused by the difference of opinion between Hanako and Tae.

### Chapter 8

After Anna's disappearance, Eikichi goes looking for her because he knows that something bad happened to her. When the two finally meet, Anna wants nothing to do with the Busters now, and she tries to get away from Eikichi, but not before being stopped by him trying to resolve this conflict by talking.

Anna tells him about her past life as the daughter of a family of professional thieves or phantom thieves in Tokyo. After running away searching for a “normal” life, she meets Higashino and the two work together to prevent muggings. However, in one of the raids things get out of control and Anna runs away again, leaving her past life in Tokyo. With Eikichi convincing her that she will be able to deal with her problems in her group, she decides to go back to working with the Busters. Anna defeats the Sagako they had previously fought, leaving Eikichi with the final job of sealing it away.

### Chapter 9

At the headquarters, Anna gives details of what happened and the issue with Higashino. She asks MJ about what would happen if someone used firearms on a Sagako, and he, not pleased, gets up from the table, saying that doing that will only make the curse stronger. In other words, if it's not sealed in an onion properly, the curses will become much more powerful. With a clear objective, the group splits up to search for Higashino and stop him before he runs into more Sagakos. Eikichi decides to go through the woods on the mountain while the others go through the city.

In the woods, gunshots catch the attention of Eikichi, who quickly realizes what is happening and sees in horror the unpurified bodies of Sagako on the ground. Angry, he goes to confront Higashino about what he did. Not only is he not helping at all, but he is destroying his sister's dream by not purifying those souls and making the curse more powerful. Keiji wastes no time and punches the high school boy, leaving him on the floor and insulting the entire legacy of the Sagako Busters group by calling the group fake heroines of justice who think they are “helping the world.”

### Chapter 10

The other Sagako Busters girls are in shock after finding Eikichi in the forest and looking for answers about what happened. Tae tells them that she managed to convince MJ to talk to Eikichi, and he told her that Higashino had attacked him when he was trying to protect the Sagakos. A week later there is still no improvement regarding Eikichi's situation and the group begins to look for solutions and alternatives to counteract the problem of the curse without Eikichi within reach.

Alone with him, Tae talks to Eikichi from the other side of the door about his current situation. She tells him that if he wants, she can sue him for what he did to him, but Eikichi is in a state of depression where he tells himself he's worthless. Tae tries to encourage him by mentioning all the moments where, regardless of the situation, Eikichi always managed to get ahead despite her aggressive attitude. Working hard to take his sister's place in the group because of his love for her. Thanks to him, Tae feels more comfortable and is managing to change her way of doing things thanks to the fact that Eikichi's strength is to carry the feelings of those close to him behind his back.

Tae didn't think he could be hurt by human evil, and since the Sagakos will get stronger in the future, she won't let Eikichi get hurt again. And tells him to stay put while the group finds a way to fix it. Contrary to what she thought, Eikichi takes the message in an awful way and leaves the room in tears, running away from the mansion. From his perspective, what he needed was a “We need you” from the group to feel that they needed him.

Depressed and broken, he begins to question his place in Saga and search for a place to belong, since he is not like Yuko who helps everyone. He just needs a place where he can feel that he is really needed. Unaware of his negative thoughts clouding his mind, he accidentally finds himself in the path of a blonde girl who is about to run him over with her bike.

### Chapter 11

After being hit by Saki, he remains in his state of negativity and only regrets what happened. Saki gives him a reality check and tells him to start deciding what he wants for himself, not letting others decide for him. Words that motivate Eikichi and remind him of when his sister encouraged him to continue being a baseball player even though he felt that he was no different from others.

Realizing his mistake, he runs into the rain to apologize to the Busters, realizing that he is the only one who can help his sister. But on his way, he sees a gigantic creature coming out of a cloud of dust from where the mansion was previously.

### Chapter 12

When he finally manages to intercept the creature, he is surprised by Higashino's body in a pool of blood and a gigantic spider-like Sagako. Tae appears behind him to attack the creature, while Eikichi can only watch as she desperately fights. After the battle, the group takes refuge in a park while Tae's wounds are tended to. Eikichi is confused by Jofuku's state, as he seems to have aged overnight and Jofuku just stammers to be Saga itself.

The group finds itself homeless, penniless and in the rain. Eikichi decides to take them to his house along with his family, so they can at least spend the night there. Eikichi's parents kindly attend to the group, welcoming them without any problem.

### Chapter 13

The group of Sagako Busters leave the Hyodo residence after spending several weeks there following the destruction of their headquarters. Eikichi says goodbye to his family and assures them that they will be fine. Meanwhile, the media is talking about mysterious disappearances in the prefecture and criminal activity is suspected. The Busters arrive at a temporary hotel, where they go through newspaper articles to find out what happened to the giant spider after the battle with Tae. Eikichi manages to find an article that talks about a mysterious giant spider near Takeo, and now the group heads towards this area. Without the van they previously used, they are forced to request transportation to a nearby area.

Upon arrival, Tae sets up the place as their temporary headquarters while the rest of the team splits up. Eikichi has more intimate intentions, since apparently he needs to find a bathroom. Tae says that he must accompany him for his safety, something that annoys Eikichi.

Hours later, both try to contact Hanako, since apparently she disappeared and does not answer the radio. Tae and Eikichi are left alone at the top of the mountain while Anna goes looking for Hakase. With nothing else to do but wait, Eikichi realizes that this is the first time he's been alone with Tae, as if it were their first time meeting. So, he decides to break the ice and talk to her casually, something that is difficult for him because of Tae's attitude, but which he finally manages. Tae, who has been in Saga all her life, barely knows Saga despite her years as Sagako Busters and traveling around the prefecture. But who is she besides being someone from Saga?

Eikichi previously dreamed of becoming a professional in some sport, so he constantly played baseball until he injured his shoulder one day while playing dodgeball. Tae laughs at the absurdity of the situation, making Eikichi blush, who asks about Tae's dream in response. Inspired by Junko Konno, she wanted to make an idol group together with Yuko just like Junko Konno did, since they would look cool and cute. Eikichi just bursts out laughing at hearing something so absurd and that her sister also had the same dream, which earns him a beating from Tae. At the same time, the radio announces that more women have disappeared in the area, causing both of them to go on high alert and start to worry about Anna and Hanako.

### Chapter 14

Eikichi and Tae return to the city, searching for clues about the disappearances that are occurring throughout Saga. They both suspect that the incidents are related to the Spider Sagako that previously destroyed their house and that Saga is witnessing an unprecedented disaster. Searching for help, they go for Araki, who is a policeman. They both ask him if he knows more about the disappearance cases. He tells them that all the disappearances are of women and that many occurred in different places at the same time, so a criminal organization is suspected. Even knowing the existence of Sagako, he refuses to believe them that these creatures are involved and informs them that he wants to forget everything related to that “incident”.

By his own, Eikichi writes down the last locations of the missing women given by their relatives. The given locations are at Ureshino Hot Springs, Cape Hado, Karatsu Burger in Nijinomatsubara, and the Karatsu Coast near the Busters' headquarters. Upon arriving at his old mansion, he checks that the onions with Sagako are fine. 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, both go to a place of great prosperity. A touristic place.

The chosen place is the Arita Porcelain Park, where Eikichi cross-dresses as a woman and pretends to be a woman so as not to endanger Tae. Despite being in a tourist spot, no one shows up, apart from a mysterious little girl. When Tae goes to warn her of the danger, she is attacked by Magatsuhi, and Eikichi quickly goes to save her from danger. Although both are captured anyway.

Waking up, both find themselves in a mysterious amusement park and find the missing women locked up and asleep. One of them tells them that Hanako and Anna were taken to the back, so Eikichi and Tae go looking for them in the park. They arrive at a statue of a squirrel where strange music seems to be coming from. Upon entering, they find children's toys in what appears to be a makeshift room and a photo of Tae's parents.

### Chapter 15

Tae is determined to stop Sagako, even if she has to do it alone. Eikichi feels that he must do something, but at the same time he knows that the fate of Saga rests on Tae's shoulders. Knowing that he cannot stop her, he requests that before they kill Sagako, they try to talk to her. Even if Tae doubts that it can be done, Eikichi feels that there is a purpose behind Sagako. While Tae doubts it will work, they have nothing to lose if they try it.

Sagako appears behind them both, surprising Eikichi, but not Tae, who immobilizes Sagako from a fit after distracting her with her parents' photo. Still immobilized, the Sagako manages to attack Eikichi and Tae, leaving Eikichi injured in the leg. It is there that Eikichi yells at Sagako, trying to talk to her and find out her motives. The Sagako answers, but her words are unintelligible. Already in a final attempt, Eikichi shows her an onion and approaches the Sagako. When Sagako touches the onion, she immediately gets scared and confused, attacking again. Eikichi notices it, but they can't do anything else. After all, all they can do is fight.

Surprisingly, Anna, Hanako, and the other Sagako join the battle. Sagako had previously helped Anna and Hanako escape from Magatsuhi Prison. It turns out that Yuko's love for onions with Sagako inside had passed her feelings to these now purified curses. And thanks to Eikichi putting a blanket on them to keep them warm, Sagakos would have been “born” from onions. Eikichi questions if it was that easy all along with his sister's onion, but Hanako tells him that maybe what she needs is to feel her brother's feelings to break free.

### Chapter 16

Behind the dust and smoke, a new Magatsuhi heart form emerges completely unscathed. Tae throws herself at her and her battle is fierce. Eikichi tries to go after her, but Anna stops him because of his leg injury, as it would be a burden to her. Fortunately, they were already prepared with an anti-spider Sagako cannon that Hanako had prepared shortly after they were released.

Now, the group is badly injured after Magatsuhi's attack in response to the cannon. Eikichi meets Hanako, seriously injured, but she tells him that she is not worried about the situation, since she knows what Eikichi should do; he must tell Tae his true feelings. That is the power of him.

Tae continues to fight with all her might, but is interrupted by Eikichi, who decides to help her. Eikichi tells her that he doesn't want her not to be like this and that he wants her to be happy. Tae has only had one purpose all this time, and that is to take revenge on Sagako, who killed her parents. This being the only thing that has existed in her heart all this time. It is at that moment that Yuko's onion reacts and releases its power to Eikichi, making him glow. He now has the power of his sister and his own power together, so he hugs Tae so that now she has all that power combined. Now it is Tae who has all the power of the brothers to seal this last curse. Tae asks Eikichi for one last favor to break the curse.

Eikichi climbs up Sagako's legs to the top, where Tae meets Magatsuhi and seals her inside her, dying in the process.

### Chapter 17

While Tae is sealed together with Magatsuhi, Yuko frees herself from her onion, but with the particularity that she now has the antlers of the Sagako with whom she shared the onion. Now both are merged. Yuko sees her brother after a long time, and she breaks down crying, since she was always afraid of getting trapped inside the onion. Even as an onion, she could see and hear everything, watching her brother take care of her and fight for her. As Yuko hugs Eikichi, she realizes that he is taller than her now, even though they were both the same height when Yuko was sealed.

5 years later, the Sagako Busters crew reunites for their “promised day”. Eikichi is in the cemetery where Tae's grave is. In her absence, many things happened. Eikichi graduated from school and is now the farmer of the farm, Anna has reconciled with her parents and has become a police officer, Hanako has continued her investigations; her sister has married and started a family. But Eikichi feels that he hasn't achieved anything. While the others have advanced and Saga has been saved, he feels trapped and feels that there was a person who couldn't be saved that day.

In that, an old man arrives and speaks to him and tells him not to blame others and go ahead on his own. After all, that's what Tae would say. Eikichi is confused by the old man, who reminds him that he is Master Jofuku. Although Tae's body received a curse, her spirit continues to protect Saga, so Eikichi doesn't have to worry about her. Confident that Jofuku is watching his back and that Tae is still protecting Saga, Eikichi now feels that the weight he had on him years ago has been released, and he can move on with his life.

The rest of the group arrive at the graveyard, where they are reunited with MJ and Eikichi for their “promised day”.