Aokigahara Zombie versus CJ O'Donnell

Aokigahara Zombie was never really that good at remembering numbers. He knew about the grand scheme of things but never the exact little details. He matched the apartment building that was in front of him to the picture Kimitsu Zombie sent him of herself standing in front of it. He was at the right place and the area seemed just like she described it over the phone. It was not the best or safest neighborhood in the world but the good people looked out for each other. It reminded her of home and that was good enough for him. He stood around with his bag around his shoulders and stared at the numbers on the buzzer but couldn’t remember her apartment number. He went back onto the street and yelled out her name.

“Kimitsu! Zombie! Kimitsu!” Aokigahara yelled with his rough voice. It must have sounded grating because a flower pot crashed on the pavement next to him. He didn’t flinch but looked at the man who threw it shaking a middle finger at him.

“Shut up, ya bum! It’s two in the morning. I’m trying to go to sleep.”

Aokigahara bent down and picked up one of the shards of the broken pot. “I understand, friend. I apologize. How about I go up there and stick this piece of pot into each of your pupils? Then you can sleep forever.”

The man went back inside. A window four panes down on the fire escape opened up. It was Kimitsu. She waved for his attention. “Uncle over here. It’s 4G. I’ll buzz you in. Sorry Steve.”

Aokigahara went up making sure to give Steve’s door a smack as he was sure the guy was staring through the peephole. 4G opened up before he got to it and Kimitsu ran out and gave him a hug. They haven’t seen each other in four years primarily due to her teacher’s orders but partly due to the distance. Now that they were both in the U.S. and she was on her own they made it a priority to get together. They walked into her apartment and he looked around. It was as messy as a young man’s was with the furniture laid out in a random pattern and empty bottles and clothes everywhere. She was like a young boy instead of a girl in her early 20s. The only clean section of the space was the training area. Something passed down from Tokyo Sensei.

She led him to the kitchen and they sat on her dining table. He set his stuff down. “So how are you adjusting to this freedom?”

She grabbed a beer from the fridge and served it to him. “It’s great. I miss the support sometimes but I like being able to handle my own affairs. It’s scary and liberating.”

“Yeah just be lucky you are 21. I was left on my own when I was just a teen like you but I stayed that way. A person is not molded yet at that age and the world is not made for that.”

“I know, Uncle. I am grateful for what you guys have done for me. I’m also glad I could be a part of it too.”

“Oh that brings me to why I came and decided to finally meet face to face even with Tokyo’s ban. Since you are now one of us you can know about my full story about how I was reborn.” He grinned and set out some objects and visual aids on the table.

Kimitsu frowned. “You don’t need to do that. I already know some things.”

“You must know it all if you are to see me as a partner. We have become family now. There are no secrets.”

She straightened up in her seat. “Ok. Show me.” She tried to remain stoic but got a shock when he showed her the first of three items on the table.

Aokigahara Zombie held up an old decaying rope tied in a loose noose so that they looked at each other through the whole. “This is the rope I used when I tried to kill myself.”

“Fuck.” She got a beer for herself.

“Yes. I remember tying this knot and putting it up in Aokigahara. I thought I picked the perfect location but Master Fuji found me and cut the branch shortly after I jumped.”

“Did you leave a note?”

“I was convinced no one would read it. Anyway he found me and gave me a new life. Alife with a purpose.”

“Saving the others?”

“Yes.” He put the rope down and picked up a photo album. This is a chronicle of my work. Tokyo and Master Fuji tasked me with looking for others on my path and taking them off of it.”

He sets the album of the lost in front of her and she looks through the pictures. “ They let you take the pictures after you help them?”

“A picture is a small thing after what they have been through.”

“Why are some of them beat up?” Kimitsu points of pictures of men and women with black eyes, bloody noses, and busted lips. A few even have arms that are bent all wrong. Most still smile.

Aokigahara shrugged.”My job is not to try and save people from offing themselves. It is to save them and I will succeed.”

“Oh.” She nodded and glanced at the plastic bag holding the third thing he set down.

He opened the bag and took out a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of Jack. He lit up a cig and passes the bottle to her for opening “So those two things are the most important objects in my life.” He sighed out a big puff of smoke into the air.

She looks up at him as she gets some glasses. “So, Uncle… what did it feel like... When you were hanging up there?”

Aokigahara admitted that he dreaded this question. Not many people would understand going through something like that unless they went all the way. He looked around the open floor plan of the apartment to gather his thoughts and delay when his eyes got to her camera. There was only one thing to do when answering a dreaded question. Make it have worth. “Kimitsu-chan. Set up your equipment. I suddenly got the urge to address something.”

She was absentmindedly examining one of his cigarettes waiting for the answer but darted up to set her camera up.




They are in the clean and bare training area of the apartment. She sat behind him in her bosozoku uniform. He took off his leather jacket and taped up his hands. They saluted to the camera.

“This is a message for O’Donnell. See I think all this time you have been fighting this idea of me. I must seem like just some freak to you. I am so much more. I'm your answer to your problems.

“That is the only reason I decided to chase you after you first attacked me. I figured out what life is all about after I became a Zombie. It came to me like a shot of lightning when I was hanging from my tree in my sacred forest. What I figured out was that nothing in life really matters. All my problems went away after I was so close to death

See the only real things we have in this world are our minds and our bodies. I tend to lose my mind every now and then but my body is always useful. I use it to spread this message and recreate that moment when my neck almost snapped and I was choking to death.”

Aokigahara dramatically points as Kimitsu spins and shifts to his other side in a mocking ceremony.

“The only thing that came close was when I was in a death match with someone in my wrestling past. So I will show you so much pain that you forget your sins, losses, and all wins. You will just be a human experiencing something pure. Please do the same to me.”