Hey everyone,
What, another chapter? Wow, and that quickly too? Yes, I have been working on chapters bit-by-bit while on my hiatus (does that sound about right?), so I'm getting chapters done ahead of time that will be published faster. I'm hoping that this system will work for me, and won't end up biting me in the butt later. As usual, please R&R, and enjoy the very-quickly-released (and a bit shorter) Chapter 7 of Adult Chapters!
Uzuki Cheverie
A message I've thought too much about
Maybe it'll reach somebody, who can say?
Certainly, I've always been this way
A patched up, crazy matryoshka
A package sung by a headache
Time may pass, but the hands are at 4
Don't tell anyone;
The world will turn upside down.
- Matryoshka (English Translation)
The Legend of Zelda: Time Gate
Chapter 7: Time Keeper Zelda/Assassin Zero
". . .Link, you can stop glaring at me, I'm not going to say anything."
"I still don't get you."
"Well, glaring isn't going to help a thing. Don't you know it's rude to stare at women?"
I scowl at her as I look away, tempted to glare at her again but keeping my gaze focused ahead of me as we walk through the crowded streets of Castle Town. But even as we walk through here, in broad daylight, no one seems to notice Zelda walking beside me. Maybe they just don't recognize her? Maybe they actually don't recognize her; it would make perfect sense. The Princess Zelda always used to walk through the market, wearing a royal dress and headdress, with Impa trailing behind her. Impa isn't even with her this time around, which strikes me as a surprise, and Zelda isn't even wearing her regular dress. Instead, she's wearing this big trenchcoat and a pair of white pants that travel to her knees, with a pair of sandals. Attached to the sleeves of this particular trenchcoat are multiple buttons, seams, and even slips of paper, almost like she's a walking day planner.
"Why would you even want to join the Time Keepers anyway?" I ask curiously.
"Why does it matter to you?" she hisses.
"It matters! Princesses don't just suddenly join a group of fighters trying to protect against the forces of evil for no reason! What, is it like when you were Sheik? Is that it?"
"That was a different matter."
"Why is it so different?"
". . . I'm just sick and tired of it, that's all."
"Of what?"
She doesn't reply, and walks ahead of me into the main plaza of Hyrule. The crowds are as thick as ever, and the commotion is just as loud. I don't like all the noise here; it makes it way too hard for me to even think. I need a quiet place, some place where people aren't yelling, laughing too loud, or screaming things to other people from across the market.
I finally spot the empty park where I used to go all the time. That place never has anyone there, and frankly, I have no idea why. It's not like it's haunted or anything. . . I mean, that group of idiots may still be there – the guys that picked a fight with me last time – but that's nothing to get too worked up over. I bet they're not even there anymore, especially after their encounter with Zero.
"Zelda, mind if we go to the park?" I ask her. She's staring up at a building at something that isn't even there. "Zelda?"
She blinks, and then breaks her gaze with the sky to look at me. "What?"
"Want to go to the park? It's quieter there, and I'll be able to think better."
"O-Oh, sure," she stammers as she turns in the direction of the small park. She looks back up at the building before looking forward again. I look back myself to see if anything's there, but there's nothing. It's just the top of a house.
What could she be staring at? I think to myself.
When we get to the park, I sit down on the swing that I always used to sit on, and I gesture for Zelda to sit on the swing next to me. She hesitates at first, but then she sits down, and we both watch the people go by as we let our thoughts recollect themselves.
"You said you were sick and tired of it. What do you mean?" I ask, hoping I don't regret my question.
"It's nothing, they're just words," she replies.
"Words hold a thousand meanings. At least, that's what I think."
"Well, these words hold no meaning. So drop it."
I begin to stare at her again, trying to understand the strange thoughts that are going through her mind. Unfortunately, I can only read auras, not thoughts. If I could read thoughts, I would have made it a lot farther into the conversation by now.
"Zelda, you're my friend. My best friend. You know if there's anything bothering you, you can tell me, right?" I ask.
She turns away. "It's nothing even worth knowing."
"Well, it's making you act all weird, so it's obviously worth knowing."
"I'm not acting weird."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not! I'm fine Link!"
I groan under my breath as I look at the gravel beneath my feet. I see a cat sitting next to a tree from here, minding its own business. A few kids are playing with wooden swords just across the street, having fun. People are trying to buy worthless items for extremely high prices at the local auctions, all of them crowding around to get to the item first. I can read all of them, all of their auras, and I understand them. But when I look to my left, there's Zelda, who's aura is clear, but meaning is blurry. It's like she's managing to hide the truth from me, in both her aura, and in reality. A kind of truth that she wouldn't want me to know, maybe not even those closer to her, like Impa. Is it a dangerous truth, or just a secretive truth that she doesn't want anyone to know? Why is it apparently not important?
"Uh oh. . ." I mutter under my breath, my ears perking up when they hear the faint crunch of gravel from the distance, and the very quiet snickering. I look at Zelda, who's apparently noticed the sound too.
"What is it?" she asks.
"They're here. . ." I groan, remaining on my swing.
"What? Who's here?"
"Them." I look back to see the three boys from before, the same three boys who had deliberately attacked me and chased me through Hyrule Castle Town, resulting in their leader getting thrown into the pavement. I can't believe those bastards aren't in jail yet. . . don't they have anything better to do than hang around this stupid park? And considering they got their butts handed to them by Zero, they should be too afraid to come back here again.
"Would you look at that, tunic boy is back!" the leader cackles when he sees me. He's the one with the spiky blond hair and the buff arms, although now that I've gotten a few muscles and grown a few feet, he doesn't look as intimidating as he used to. And at least now he remembers who I am. But how could he forget? If you don't remember, I punched him into the ground the first time I met him, and his so-called 'friends' left him behind in fear of me attacking them next.
"Aw, he musta' missed us," the second boy laughs. He's the small scrawny, pencil-like kid that couldn't lift up a textbook if he tried, and has the white hair that hangs over his eyes from underneath his hat.
I don't respond. Neither does Zelda. We just both continue to stare forward, not looking at the boys in fear of provoking them any further.
"And he still doesn't talk," the third boy mutters. "He may not be able to talk, but he should at least remember that this place is ours." This guy is also scrawny, but not as scrawny as the white-haired boy, and he looks like Shuto with his spiky black hair and his medium-length height. Either way, they still all look like kids. And now that I'm older, I'm positive I can kick their sorry butts.
"Jackasses," I mutter.
"What did you just say?" the leader yells.
"Jackasses," I repeat, louder this time.
"Look at that, the tunic boy does talk!"
"What do you think we are, idiots?" Zelda joins in. "Well, they say birds of a feather flock together. I guess you three runts are all of the same level."
Wow, Zelda knows how to insult people, I think.
"Runts? Who are you callin' runts?"
"You. Get out of the way before you get hurt," Zelda continues.
But she may be pushing it a little too far. . .
"Zelda, just ignore them, they'll get the message and leave soon," I sigh. "It takes a while for their brains to transfer the simplest things."
Great, now I'm doing it too.
"You're asking for it, tunic boy!" the leader yells in anger.
"Yeah, you're asking for a fight!" the second member joins in, pretty much repeating the same thing the leader just said.
"Well, hurry it up, you're talking too much," Zelda snickers. "Fight or not? We're waiting on you."
"That does it! Boys, get them!" the leader orders. The two scrawniest boys of the group, the black-haired and white-haired ones, charge at us, but they barely look like they know what they're doing. I sigh, and before the white-haired boy can get too close, I spin the swing so that I spin towards him, extending my leg and kicking right in the face with the heel of my foot. He lands on the ground, his mouth bleeding, but he manages to get back up. He runs back at me again, and I flip the swing, kicking him in the jaw and sending him flying upwards as I flip over and land on my feet, the swing landing behind me. The kid is out cold.
I'm more worried about Zelda though. The silver-haired one was a pencil, how would she deal with the black-haired one, the second-strongest of the group?
According to what I'm seeing, she's doing just fine.
The boy is already knocked out, laying on his back at her feet. She has this innocent look on her face, like she hadn't done anything and he had just passed out on his own. Unfortunately, I had no idea what had happened because I was too busy fighting the pencil kid, so I hadn't seen any of the action.
"Ugh, dammit man!" the leader cries. "You two are screwed!"
"Aw, what happened to all that tough talk from earlier?" Zelda taunts, sticking her tongue at him and winking, almost as if she's making a victory pose.
"That's impossible!"
"Link, what do you say we do with him?" Zelda asks me. "I don't like him, I think he deserves to be punished."
"Huh? Um. . ." I stammer. I'm really not the type for taking revenge out on people. "He can go, he's no use fighting," I decide.
Zelda frowns. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, there's no use wasting time fighting no-good trash like him," I sigh.
The leader scowls at me, and then turns and flees, leaving behind his friends.
"What do you think we should do with these two?" I ask Zelda, looking down at the pencil kid and the black-haired boy. "We can't just leave them here."
"Oh, I can take care of that later," she says.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it. We should get out of here before that guy gets more of his friends."
"Uh, y-yeah."
Had she really taken that kid out all by herself? I knew she had been training secretly, but I didn't think she was that strong. Have I just underestimated her again, or was this another one of her secrets? I can't help but stare at her, trying to figure her out as we leave behind the two boys. When I turn to look back at the two kids again though, they're gone.
"Huh?" I stammer nervously. "W-Where did they go?"
"I took care of them," Zelda says in a very low voice. I widen my eyes at her, wondering what in the world she could be talking about. I open my mouth to speak, but my words are soon drowned out by the loud gossiping chatter of the city as we step back into the town square. Zelda looks around, as if looking for something, and then she looks at me.
"Sorry, I gotta go grab something. I'll be back in a second, okay?" Zelda tells me.
"What is it?" I ask suspiciously. I don't really want to leave her on her own after all that's happened today.
"Oh, just an errand I've been putting off, something that I need to get for the castle," she answers. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."
Hm, she had known I was worried about her. Of course, it can clearly be seen in my worried expression.
"Just don't get into any trouble," I warn.
"I'm just going to run an errand! What trouble could I possibly run into?"
A Short Interlude
Zelda walks away from Link, a hidden smirk growing on her face. She pulls out a pocketwatch, looking at the two hands pointing at the roman numerals. She looks up from the clock, turning slightly to look at Link, who's distracted by the countless amount of people shoving past him to get by. She smiles to herself again, and takes a right, becoming hidden amongst the shadows of the alleyways. She closes the pocketwatch and puts it into her coat pocket.
"Tick tock, Zelda, you're late," a mysterious yet familiar voice snickers from above. Zelda looks up to see the short black-haired boy sitting on the roof of an alley building, his legs hanging off the edge.
"I didn't expect the mission to take this long," Zelda sighs. "Link can be quite a hassle. . ."
"Well, annoying tunic boy aside, have you completed the mission?"
"Yes. The group of three boys that have been harassing nearby citizens have been stopped. Mikoshi saw to it that their bodies wouldn't be found. However. . . the leader got away. But something tells me he won't be causing anymore trouble. If he does start causing trouble again, I'll see to it that he joins his two friends."
"Good," the boy mutters. "Then we shouldn't have any more troubles in District One for the next little while. You did good."
"Thank you. But what should I do now? Keep hanging around with Link? Because to tell you the truth, he really doesn't know how to talk with women. He's seriously starting to bore me."
"Heh, I understand how bored you must be. Just hang in there a little longer. Mikoshi will meet up with you in about an hour or so. Just continue your 'scouting' until then, Miss Time Keeper."
Zelda sighs, holding her forehead in annoyance as she looks to the ground. When she looks back up at the building, the boy is gone.
"Always leaving without saying goodbye. . ." Zelda sighs, snickering under her breath. "Oh well, you're too busy to be bothered, I guess. Why should I care?"
She looks up at the building one last time before leaving the alleyway to rejoin Link.
Chapter 7 (continued)
Zelda finally comes back from a completely different direction, greeting me with a wave and a strange smile.
"What was it that you had to do?" I ask again.
"An errand, Link, I told you a million times!" Zelda exclaims. "It was something that I had to do today!"
I don't respond. I still don't believe her. There is definitely something up with her. If only I knew what it was!
Zelda and I continue our scouting mission for the next hour, mostly without speaking and just watching the people go by. Of course, there wasn't much to watch considering they were there one second and gone the next. They just didn't seem to want to enjoy their time here. . . however, being the guy I am, taught by the Reapers, I've learned a lot of depressing things. Uzuki, the most depressing of us all, and probably one of the Reapers I look up to the most, once told me that she never got to enjoy life very much before she died. Things went too fast for her, and before she knew it, she was dead. But Uzuki told me that before she had died, she had started looking at the world in a whole different view, and dying only made that view a lot more accurate, stronger to be more precise. Before she died, Uzuki started to realize that the world wasn't really what it appeared to be, that human beings were cursed beings that weren't grateful for their right to live. She said that every human in the world is born for a reason, and that nobody is born for the sole purpose of dying; but she also believed that human beings should realize the sins of the world and that they will eventually die. As Uzuki had also stated, humans seem to live their lives without thinking twice about death. They see other people die, and they take it for granted, but before they know it, they're dead. Uzuki had always thought about death when she was alive, and she wasn't scared to face it. She didn't think it was something that wouldn't happen until she was old and frail. She knew that she would probably die before she got old, or at least, she had the same chances of dying each day, and that she faced death each day, sometimes knowing it, sometimes not. But regardless of knowing she would die, she still doesn't know exactly how she died. That still remains a mystery to us all. So you can bet I hate secrets. And I just dislike human beings for being so dense and clueless about how precious human life is.
After a while, Zelda and I get bored, and we end up going to the shooting gallery to pass the time. We pay twenty rupees each, Zelda allowing me to go first. I take the bow that's provided, along with the arrows, and I ready the arrow as the large rupees start to appear behind the shooting line. I fire multiple arrows at once, and it doesn't take me long to shoot each one of them down. I look at Zelda, who apparently hadn't been watching. She was too busy chatting it up with the guy behind the counter! So apparently that fatass is more fun to talk to then to play a simple time-passing game!
When I fire the last rupee, the man congratulates me, and hands me fifty rupees as a prize. I hate that prize, you pay twenty rupees just to win fifty. I only got an extra thirty rupees. How cheap.
Zelda walks up to the platform, taking the bow and arrows from me, and she signals the man to start the game. The rupees start to move across the floor, and she manages to fire each one of them down in less than a minute. She walks to the man for her prize, and he hands her a purple rupee, the exact same prize I had gotten.
"Impressive," the man behind the counter compliments. "Gotta say, not many people around here with skills like yours."
I don't know if he's talking about me or Zelda.
"You two come back again, you hear?" the man chuckles. "It's no fun when I gotta watch big-shot amateurs fail miserably at this game. I like it when an expert comes in every once in a while. You two have a good day now!"
"Uh, thanks," I say as I open the door, allowing Zelda to leave first before I follow. We walk back into the square to continue our scouting mission.
"Hm. . ." I grumble. I want to ask her where she learned to shoot like that.
"Stop being so suspicious, would you?"
"I have every right to be suspicious."
"Of course you do," she snickers. "And it's a good thing too."
"See, that's exactly why I'm suspicious!" I yell, hoping that I don't accidentally cause a scene. Of course, I highly doubt that will happen either considering the volume of the chatter around us. "It's like you're telling me all your secrets without me knowing! And it's seriously scaring me how you're always being so secretive all the time! Just what are you hiding? You have to tell me!"
"Don't get so upset, I just have things that I keep a secret, that's all. Everyone has a few secrets. Mine are simply of no importance."
I draw my mouth into a tight line, getting angrier with her by the second. "It's not good keeping secrets. I know that from years of experience being stuck with the always secretive Reapers."
"My secrets aren't as dangerous as theirs."
"And how do I know that?" I grab her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. "Zelda, whatever this is, you need to tell me. I really hate secrets; I hate it when people keep secrets from me, because the truth always ends up biting me in the ass later on. Please, just tell me."
She opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out before somebody interrupts us.
"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt," the mysterious voice cuts in.
Zelda and I look at the tall black-haired man with the black jacket and the strange hat.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything personal," he says in a rather formal tone.
I release my grip on Zelda's shoulders, and we both turn to look at him as if nothing had happened.
"Who are you?" I ask.
"My apologies, my name is Mikoshi Kasahara," he says, bowing.
"You. . .! You're Uzuki's older brother! You're an Assassin aren't you?" I immediately get angry, my expression becoming hostile.
"Yes, I admit that I am an Assassin. However, I am not hear to fight you, so you don't have to pull out your weapons."
"What do you want?"
"I have a message for you two. Do you accept the message?"
"Hm. . ."
"Link, let's hear him out," Zelda suggests. "It may be something important."
I bite my lip, considering his offer, and then I sigh, nodding at his request.
"Thank you," he says. "I am actually not supposed to be here at this time, especially when I'm in contact with two Time Keepers, so I shall make this quite brief. As you know, the Assassins have declared a battle with you. This means that our leader, Mimitra Takumi, and more so our co-leader, Makoto Takahashi, want to challenge you, to find out who is the better organization. However, because I know we're currently winning, and I like to make things fair, I shall give you Time Keepers a chance to raise the stakes a little; put you on top a little more. Do you know of the Angels of Kalasia?"
I gasp, the old faces of Emily, Samuel, Matsuda and Kurenai Kai coming into my head, followed by the faces of the Osmont family.
"Wait, the Kalasians are Angels?" I ask, confused.
"Yes. Hylians, Zora, Gerudo, Deku, Goron, Kokiri, Goddess, Reaper, Oocca, Deity, Sage, Twili, Interloper, Skull Children, Demon, Angel, Fallen Angel, and finally the humans. . . there are a lot more races than you would imagine, Link. The Kalasians – or better yet – the Kais, are a family of long-lived Angels; you could consider them the 'Royal Family' of the Angels. And rivaling them are the Takumis, the Fallen Angels, a group of Angels that had judgement passed upon them and their wings cursed with darkness. As a result of their feud, the land of the Takumis, where the Fallen Angels reign, was recently destroyed by an unknown force, but the Fallen Angels are causing a riot, claiming that it was the Angels that destroyed their precious homes."
"What does this have to do with me?" I ask, getting impatient with his constant rambling. I'm also a little pissed that I didn't already know this. I read lots of history books; so why hadn't I figured it out sooner that the Kai's and the Kalasians were Angels?
"It has a lot to do with you, Link. Because of the Fallen Angels' growing suspicion, the Kalasians are now in distress. Who knows what could be happening to them at this very moment. . . I expect the King, Samuel, to be impaled, hung, drowned, or stabbed by now."
I grit my teeth in anger, wondering how in the world this man can talk about such horrible things without even batting an eye.
"You know the Kalasians, don't you Link? Is there someone there you want to protect?" Mikoshi asks me, almost as if to tease me. "It's all up to you of course. I'm just an Assassin, so I don't make any bit of difference to your decision. Just know that the Kalasians are in trouble – deep trouble that may cease their existence forever – and that their kingdom may be getting destroyed at this very moment from the same thing that destroyed the Fallen Angels' home." He turns around, and starts to walk away, before looking back at me. "Just food for thought." Then he leaves, heading in the direction of Hyrule Field. That guy reminds me too much of the Masked Salesman.
"What an arrogant. . ." Zelda begins, but then stops before she can insult him any further with words she dare wouldn't say. "People like him disgust me. . . Link?" She looks at me. "Link? Are you okay?"
Why can't I stop trembling? I think. Why am I believing the Assassin's words?
"I-I have to go. . ." I stammer. "The Kalasians need my help. . ."
"Hold on just a second, Link," Zelda says, grabbing my arm to stop me. "Shouldn't we think of a plan?"
"There's no 'we' in this, it's just me! I need to help Samuel and Emily and their family!"
"Link, I'm not letting you go alone!"
"Since when do you care about what I do?"
"Link. . . I'm not that heartless. . . please, I want to help you."
I sigh, and remove my arm from her grip. "So be it, I don't care what you do. As for a plan. . ."
"Let's go to a nearby empty cafe so we can sort out our plan first."
"Alright. . ."
