#frozen bite

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 1/7

After escaping from jail, Saejima accidentally crashes his snowmobile and, separated from Baba, is stranded in the mountains. He encounters a bear, but it’s no ordinary animal: it’s twice the size of a regular bear, its eyes burn with an ancient and hungry malice, its fur is encrusted with snow that doesn’t melt, and it appears to be… rotting?

Part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 3/7

Saejima heads up into the mountain and finds Okudera just in time to see that there is something terribly wrong with Baba. Okudera just barely manages to fight off the flesh-hungry Baba, but is seriously wounded. Okudera grudgingly explains that the village has been cursed for the last decade by a strange and terrible plague—zombies! Out of the blue one day the undead bear, called Yama-oroshi by the locals, showed up. Anyone it bit died, and then came back with a terminal craving for human flesh. The villagers have lived with this terror ever since. Okudera has a particular hatred for the bear, for his hunting partner disappeared not long after it began haunting the village.

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 6/7

Saejima pursues his mentor into the mountains, and finds him seriously injured. On the brink of death, Okudera reveals a shocking truth. It wasn’t the zombie-bear, Yama-oroshi, that bit and turned Baba—it was Okudera’s hunting partner who did it! While pursuing Yama-oroshi nine years ago, Okudera’s hunting partner was infected and turned into a zombie. But Okudera couldn’t bear to kill him. Instead, he’s spent the last nine years trying to contain this zombified shell of his former partner without killing him–with varying degrees of success. Some of the villagers over time who were turned or eaten were victims not of Yama-oroshi, but of Okudera’s hunting partner. And now he’s on the loose again.

Given the dire circumstances, the villagers also finally reveal to Saejima that the infection originally started after they over-hunted on the mountain, throwing off the natural balance of the area. As they wrought havoc on the mountain fauna in pursuit of money, the zombie bear came: a creature carrying an infection that made the villagers prey on each other like they preyed upon the mountain’s natural wildlife.

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 7/7

Reluctantly leaving the injured Okudera, Saejima pursues the zombie bear alone. After incapacitating Okudera’s hunting partner, who attacks him suddenly in the darkness, he finally finds the zombie bear’s lair and batters it into submission, upon which Okudera and a few of the other villagers show up. Despite the fact that Okudera has spent nearly ten years trying to keep his hunting partner ‘alive’ despite the costs to the village, Okudera finally decides that this soulless zombie is not his hunting partner; the man he loved so much has been dead for a long, long time. Okudera shoots the zombie in the head, killing it for good, and is finally able to lay the memory of his hunting partner to rest. As for the bear, the original source of the infection, the villagers are pondering what to do with it when they realize that the snowflakes are melting when they land on its body, and plumes of breath are visible coming from its nose!

Okudera has learned to put the good of the village before his selfish desire to cling to the presence of his lost hunting partner; the villagers have learned once more to help and support one another, rather than being ready to metaphorically cannibalize one another in order to stay safe. And accordingly, the bear has become just a regular bear, albeit a very large and dangerous one. Okudera requests that the villagers let the bear live, as a kind of testament to the lives lost over the course of the decade-long curse, and a reminder of the transformations that can be wrought, not only by fear and hostility, but also by solidarity among friends and selfless boldness in the face of danger.

With the main mountain storyline concluded, Saejima has the option either to depart for Tsukimino, or to remain in the village and try to deal with the remaining zombies, including his friend, Baba…

Part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 2/7

After finally scaring off the bear, Saejima is rescued by a mysterious matagi hunter. The hunter, Okudera, brings Saejima back to his village to recover, and heads out after the still-missing Baba. But things are not quite right in the village. Nine years ago, something terrible happened here, and since that time the villagers have been distrustful of Okudera.

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 5/7

Recovering back at Okudera’s house, Saejima notices a strange and unpleasant smell, but Okudera dismisses it. Together, Saejima and Okudera hit Yama-oroshi with a tracking bullet and begin to pursue it. But after Okudera calls off the hunt because of the setting sun, Saejima learns that it was really a ruse and Okudera has set out alone after the bear. To make matters worse, some other villagers come running and inform Saejima that a zombie has been spotted, and it’s heading up the mountain—in the direction Okudera went.

YAKUZA 5 / DEAD SOULS AU, FROZEN BITE 4/7

Distraught by Baba’s fate and eager to do his part to help the suffering village that has done so much for him, Saejima gets properly outfitted for the mountain. Okudera, though still wounded, teaches him not only how to hunt and trap game to survive, but also how to pursue and kill zombies. In the course of this, Saejima tries to save a zombified prize-hunter, Narumi, but ends up having to kill him. Saejima and Okudera’s bond grows as they work together. Okudera has a tough exterior, but he is obviously sympathetic as Saejima struggles to come to terms with Baba’s transformation. Okudera stresses, however, that zombies are dangerous—far too dangerous not to kill on sight, though one might be tempted to do otherwise.