Happy New Year!
The Bizarre Saga: Skyward Sword
Chapter 14: To Herodom!
Previously on the Bizarre Saga, Link was being calm, Sali was freaking out, Nami got a thing that lets her use magic as a result of a stupid trial, Eric was also freaking out, Groose probably went camping, people were being serious, more shenanigans happened, and the plot actually progressed.
Now for Chapter Fourteen.
A decent amount of time later, the team had climbed up to the top of the gigantic tree in the center of the woods as Nami had guided them.
However, there ended up being nothing up there except for a sleeping creature.
"What the heck, this isn't the sacred flame!" Nami exclaimed rather angrily. "This is literally an archaic version of a Kikwi snoring like my grandma trying to imitate a lawn mower!"
"Maybe it can tell us where to go?" Link suggested. "I don't thing your powers would just misguide us, they've never done that before."
"Must've led us to plot progression or something," Sali said. "HEY! OLD PERSON! WAKE UP!"
Before anyone could say anything, she picked up a random rock and chucked it at the branch the Kikwi was sleeping on, disturbing it.
"WITCHES! WATSON, THE WITCHES ARE COMING!" the old Kikwi shouted as it woke up, flailing wildly.
The trio looked a bit concerned.
"Uh… hi?" Link started.
"YOU!" the Kikwi began, pointing what looked like a walking stick at Link. "NO LONGER WILL YOUR HUBISTUOUS WAYS PLAGUE OUR COUNTRY! WATSON'S MEGA CANNON SHALL SEND YOU ALL TO THE DEPTHS OF HARPOONIA WHERE YOU WILL NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN BY PENGUIN EYES!"
"I'm beginning to doubt my earlier statement," Sali said.
"MY GREAT GRANNY URSULANIA HAD BETTER MANNERS THAN YOU!"
Even Nami didn't want to try to deal with these shenanigans. "How do we find a sacred flame in this area?" she asked flatly and loudly.
"YEEEEEH WITCHES! YOU SHALL NOT HAVE MY RED YAMS FOR YOUR DEMONIC RITUALS!"
"Hey, what's that thing?" Sali asked her teammates, pointing down off the tree a decent distance away.
It looked like some kind of closed gateway with a symbol on it.
"That symbol looks strangely familiar…" Nami commented.
"WELL OF COURSE IT DOES!" the old Kikwi continued. "THAT'S THE SYMBOL OF FARORE! Behind that thing leads to the great Water Dragon that guards the sacred flame! But it's not like WITCHES LIKE YEH have the blessed sword to open it with! HEH!"
The team looked at each other. Link nodded, Sali sighed, and Nami flat out groaned in annoyance.
"We seriously had to walk all the way up here to identify that gate?" she complained. "We've definitely passed that thing before. Are my powers that dysfunctional?"
"Well… we wouldn't have known what to do with it," Link reassured her. "We can only tell it's a gateway from up here because we can see behind it. It looks like a wall from the ground, right Sali?"
Sali looked doubtful. "Uh…"
"I REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME MY NIECE CAME OVER! SHE BROUGHT OVER SOME OF THOSE RED YAMS AND WE WERE GOING TO HAVE THEM FOR DINNER! BUT THEN THE WITCHES STOLE THEM RIGHT OUT OF OUR-"
"Can we leave?" Sali asked.
"Not arguing," Nami mumbled.
It quickly came to Sali and Link's notice that Nami was not in a good mood. It was odd. She was normally the optimist and the one talking all the time; now, she said nothing, her expression appearing as unamused as Sali's was by default.
Based on her reaction to the trial she had to do, that probably had something to do with it, but another part of it very well could've been the fact that they walked all the way up that huge tree to find nothing but a crazy old guy.
In reality, however, Nami was busy beating herself up because she evidently misguided them, thinking that she didn't try hard enough and that it was her fault that they didn't end up in the exact place she wanted. Neither of her friends held it against her–she was trying to help, after all–but that didn't change the fact that it happened and that it was a waste of time.
"Okay, how do we open this thing?" Sali asked once they reached the gate.
"I would assume blasting it," Link replied, drawing his sword and holding it towards the sky. Light gathered into it, and he swung it, sending the wave of light into the patterned gateway.
It burst with a glow for a moment, but it didn't actually do anything.
"… Wow. I was convinced that would work," Link stated, surprised.
"The symbol doesn't seem to be complete," Nami commented. She walked up and put her hand on the gate's symbol of two juxtaposed half circles, tracing her finger around in a particular spot. "There should be a circle here…"
"What do we do? Use a permanent marker?" Sali attempted to joke, but there was no reaction and her crooked smile fell.
"Link… I think you should maybe try drawing it when your sword is charged up," Nami suggested. "It's just a hunch, though."
"Well, it's worth a shot," Link said. He held the Goddess Sword skyward again, and while it was still charged, he held it towards the door. When it collided, it left a bright, glowing mark. He moved it slightly, and it left a trail like a pen. "I think it works!"
"Then draw a circle!" Nami told him.
Link grinned. "… Wait, hold on, I just want to try something," he said. He carefully took hold of the blade of the sword to steady it and started to draw something.
He drew a bottom half of a circle, two circles above it, two dots inside the circles, a giant curved line below those circles, then drew over the top half, drawing a narrow spike on very top of the larger circle…
"What the heck, Link, are you drawing Groose's face?" Sali asked.
Nami's mouth twitched.
A circle shone under the drawing and THE DOOR OPENED.
Nami burst out laughing. "IT ACCEPTED THAT?!" she exclaimed. "How does that even-OH MY DIN."
Link looked at the open door to see that his beautiful drawing had vanished. "Aw man… I was hoping that would stay there," he said.
Behind the door was an enclosed bridge that lead to a circular platform above the large, clear lake in front of them. Waterfalls poured out all around them on the other side; it was like the calming sound of the single waterfall on Skyloft, except multiplied to the point where no one could hear each other without yelling. On the far side of the circle, there was a small staircase leading up to an open ended section of the platform about a hundred feet above the surface of the lake.
It was like it was asking them to jump off…
"Are you kidding me? I'm not jumping off! That's gonna hurt like Din's Lair!" Sali said, crossing her arms.
"We have to get down there somehow," Nami told her. "With a gateway like this, down there has to be where we need to go. Especially with the whole… you know, water abilities I picked up."
"I don't think it'll hurt if you dive properly," Link said. "See you at the bottom."
"WAIT LINK-" Sali started, but Link dove right off the edge.
"Second's better than third!" Nami stated, taking a running jump off the platform.
"Guys!" Sali ran over and looked over the edge, watching her friends drop into the body of water below. "Guys…"
Sali sighed, briefly looking behind her to notice a flash of orange on the other side of the bridge. She furrowed her brow for a moment, knowing precisely what that was.
She turned her attention back off the edge and let out a huff of air to compose herself before diving off.
When they all had landed in the water, the current of the waterfalls immediately began to push them towards a tunnel in the distance. It was the only direction to go, so they swam in the direction of the current and soon found themselves being dumped off the edge of a small waterfall into another body of water inside a cavern. The top of it was open, fortunately, so it was still easy to see.
"Ack! More humans?!" a creature off in the distance exclaimed, getting their attention. Its appearance was indescribable, but it looked like a small orange octopus crossed over with a turtle and had its body parts moved and changed to the point where it looked nothing like the things it was based on. "Okay, I just… I just have to back away slowly and avoid eye contact…"
"More humans? Was someone here before us?" Nami asked.
The creature ignored her and awkwardly floated away.
"Uh? Excuse me?"
"Don't waste your time, they're probably racist," Sali told her.
"How could someone have been here before us?" Link wondered. "Zelda went through that portal gate, right? Not to mention that gate was closed, so it couldn't have even been Groose, unless he figured out some way to climb over the top of the bridge… and swim…"
"Oh right… Groose is still down here…" Sali said.
"Come on, let's just get going," Nami told them.
"… Yeah…"
After another encounter with the possibly-racist creature involving breaking open a gate with the Water Spin Straight From Super Mario Galaxy, the creature suddenly noticed the emblem that Nami was wearing and identified them as heroes of destiny that had come to receive the sacred flame that was being watched over by the so-called Water Dragon.
However, after discovering this helpful knowledge, they only learned that the dragon had been injured by some 'weirdo' with a gang of monsters. The creature went on to point out that the Water Dragon had been attacked while her guard was down, because she normally has no problem with things like this.
Having no other options, the team followed the creature to meet the injured dragon and see what they could do to help.
After swimming for a decent amount of time, they reached a shrine-like area with a platform in the center. On top of it was some kind of huge tub with what looked like the dragon in it, except she was only about their size for some reason.
"Ah! You there, humans!" the dragon exclaimed. "You have intruded into my home, a sacred place few are permitted to enter! This is no place for the likes of you, and yet here you stand! You will explain how you got here, and quickly!"
"I'm assuming you know about the destined heroes?" Sali asked. "Yeah, that's us. Need proof? I think that thing is important." She pointed to Nami's emblem. "Aaaand that." She pointed to Link's sword. "That's how we got through the gate."
"Hmm… Well…" the dragon began, "those are both items blessed by the goddess… all right, fine, it would make sense that you're the heroes, even if you're a bit underdressed." The team made faces at each other; they were just wearing old clothes for the sake of swimming in them. "But that aside, how did you even find this place? It wasn't that old Kikwi who told you, was it?"
"He was pretty useless, actually. Kinda… extremely senile? I dunno."
"Ugh… whatever, I suppose I can't blame everything on him. I am Faron, the Water Dragon, and I guard the sacred flame, and all those things. Being the heroes of legend, I assume that you're here to receive the sacred flame, correct?"
"Yeah. Where do we need to go?" Sometimes it was easier to just let Sali do all the talking.
"But hold on, I'm not finished yet," Faron said. "I have a small task for you to complete to completely prove yourselves. If you're really the heroes, you should be able to complete this with no issues whatsoever."
"… What is it?" Sali asked, sounding rather disgruntled.
"You see, a pompous creature who called himself Ghirahim barged into my home and left me injured. The wounds he's given me are stubborn things, and I've been forced to recuperate in this basin of sacred water. Unfortunately, the healing properties of the water have diminished, and now I'm in need of another dose to freshen up my healing bath. Bring me the container of fresh sacred water that I require."
"… Um, hold up," Sali began again. "I understand that you want us to prove ourselves, but we really don't have time for errands that literally anyone else could do, especially when we're people who aren't incredibly familiar with the area, like… you know, the residents."
"I'll reveal the location of the sacred flame once you complete the task," Faron said.
"What part of this even has to do with proving ourselves? We might be heroes but we aren't doormats with nothing better to do."
Link and Nami looked around awkwardly, not liking the direction this conversation was going in, especially because this dragon, albeit injured, was the guardian of the sacred flame.
But before anyone could say anything else, they suddenly heard screaming off in a distance; more specifically, far above them.
… Very familiar screaming.
Everyone looked up–Sali looking especially concerned–as the screaming grew closer and closer. Soon enough, the person came falling through the large hole in the cavern ceiling and crashed into the water.
There were a few seconds of silence before the person swam back up out of the water, foot-tall red hair spike somehow still perfectly intact.
"SQUAD LOSER LOCATED!" Groose shouted, deep voice echoing through the cavern, pointing at the team before sinking back into the water.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" Sali immediately yelled in response. "AND HOW?!"
Groose pulled himself onto the platform more dramatically than was necessary. "I HAVE MY WAYS!" he declared. "Anyway, Groose is here and ready to help! I am significant in the metaphorical scrolls of destiny, after all!"
"Oh my Din…"
"Groose, there actually is a mission for you right now!" Link suddenly spoke up. "You see, the Water Dragon Faron right here has been injured needs some sacred water in order to heal! You think you could be a hero and get it for her?"
"Excuse me, I did not-" the dragon started.
"I don't normally take requests from Loser, but this is for the sake of herodom!" Groose exclaimed, saluting. "Groose is on the job! Where shall I find this sacred water?"
"The Skyview Temple!" Nami told him, her eyes purple. "At the very end of it, there's a spring! Tell a gigantic terrifying spider named Derek that we sent you and he'll tell you how to get there because if you don't you'll probably have to go through the whole dungeon because we kind of didn't unlock the boss door."
"Got it!" Groose replied. He took out a grappling hook. "TO HERODOM!" He pointed it upwards and it somehow zipped him out of the cavern.
"… What just happened," Sali said.
The water dragon looked kind of ticked off.
"Water's on the way," Link stated, smiling sheepishly.
"… You crafty humans," Faron growled. "Still taking advantage of conveniences and making everything as easy as possible, just as your condescending species always has."
"Whoa, that is not cool," Nami spoke up. "Do you see us judging you just because you're a dragon?"
"What kind of servant of the goddess are you to see a whole species on the same level like that?" Sali asked. "And to be brutally honest? I'd believe you were talking about yourself if I didn't know better."
Faron's eyes narrowed.
"Okay okay okay," Link said before any of the other creatures in the room could interrupt, standing between his teammates and the dragon. "I understand the moral importance of this conversation, but there seems to be a misunderstanding as to just how important is it that we obtain this flame as quickly as we possibly can. I think that we've misjudged just how little time we have until the impending apocalypse happens and how the destruction of all races is upon us because a certain demon king is going to be resurrected or something and that we're all going to die if we don't do everything we can to stop it."
There was a silence in the cavern.
"So yeah, prompt action is necessary and, as much as I hate to admit this, we all need to act like this is actually going to happen."
Faron let out a huff of air.
"… So be it," the dragon grumbled. "I'll tell you where the flame is so you will get out of my sight. Go out that exit over there. On the other side, there will be a large waterfall, and the dungeon behind it has the flame in it. To get in, you pull a loose slab out of the paved circle next to the bird statue and there will be a control system under it. We never use it because I can easily clear the waterfall without it, but obviously it will be necessary for you humans to get through."
"Thank you, Faron," Nami said sweetly.
"Now leave," Faron ordered.
The trio started to make their way towards the exit, and, hearing the whispers of the water creatures around them, they soon picked up the pace until they were outside in the sun again, away from all of that.
"I can't believe this," Sali mumbled, clearly agitated. "I can't fricking believe this!" She turned to Link. "Can you fricking believe this?"
"No, it's pretty fricking unbelievable," Link replied.
"Why do servants of the goddess have an inexplicable tendency to be insufferable pricks to us? It's like, yeah. We dumped the chore she gave us on Groose for good reason. I almost understand being mad about that. But after that she was just… REALLY?! Is that the reason that creature we met at the entrance was acting like that? I bet it WAS!"
Something occurred to Nami while Sali was ranting.
"Hey… guys?" Nami started, and Sali stopped.
"What's up?" the green-haired girl asked.
"Can you look for that control panel thing for the waterfall and see if you can get it to work?" Nami asked them, looking in a distance towards a narrow path between the cliffs. "I need to… um… do something."
Sali and Link looked over where Nami was looking. There didn't seem to be anything particularly strange about the path, but Sali could already predict what was going to happen from sheer probability alone, and she was sure it had nothing to do with the actual location. Link was wondering if there was something back there, but based on the tone of Nami's voice, he could tell that wasn't the reason she wanted to go there.
"Go ahead," Sali told the blue-haired girl.
"I'll be back in a minute," Nami replied. She darted off into the path.
After a short run, she arrived at a small circular clearing filled with small flowers of multiple types and colors. Nami had to refrain from picking the pastel-colored blooms, knowing that there was nothing she could do to preserve them at the moment. That wasn't the reason she was there, either; she, truthfully, wanted to get away from her teammates just for a short while, but for a reason.
Through educated guessing, she was almost certain that things would go precisely as she hoped in that moment.
"Eric!" she called. "Are you there?"
She heard no response.
"Hellooooo…" Nami called again. Things were still quiet, aside from the occasional chirping bird. "RICKY. DUDE. I HAVE YOUR COAT." She pulled the coat out of her magic pocket and held it up. "GET YOURSELF OVER HERE, PLEASE."
Eric emerged at the top of the cliffs and got down on a knee. "Not to be rude but SHUSH!" he yelled down. "I'm trying to be secretive!"
"Sorry, sorry," Nami apologized. "You're supposed to be sneaky ninja spy who's still lurking among the big bads."
Eric raised an eyebrow.
Nami held her hand up and beckoned him down. He sighed, and much to Nami's surprise, he leapt right off the twenty-five foot tall ledge and landed flawlessly in front of her.
"Geez, and people call me dramatic," Nami commented, laughing. She would have questioned how he was even able to do that, but he was a demon; she'd learned by that point he was much more physically capable than a human. "Anyway, here's your coat. I see you… have multiple? Do you always wear fluffy coats?"
"Yes," he answered flatly, taking the jacket.
He was wearing a hoodless black coat this time. Nami internally acknowledged that he was wearing way too much black now and his raven-colored hair wasn't making it any better.
"Well. When I go out, that is," Eric added.
"Did… did you get back down here okay?" Nami asked him.
"It was fine. I mean, I immediately passed out on the couch for like an hour, but other than that it was fine."
Nami furrowed her brow slightly, having a hard time telling whether he meant he fainted or just fell asleep. But he seemed okay now, so she decided to let it go.
She paused in thought. Did he say 'couch'? She realized that she didn't know where exactly he was normally staying. She assumed that he was just constantly on the move thanks to Ghirahim's motives, but perhaps she was wrong and he did have a living space. She wondered what kind of place it was, what the area was like…
… was it comfortable?
"I-I…" Nami stammered, looking for words. "I need to go back to Link and Sali now so we can get into the next dungeon, I guess I'll see you later."
"… That's how you pronounce her name?" Eric asked, sounding surprised.
Nami looked confused. "You mean… Sali?"
"I've been thinking this whole time that it was just a really weird spelling of Sally," Eric admitted. "Well, I did hear it a few times, but I never really remembered it."
Nami let out a small laugh. "Yeah, accent's on the second syllable. I hear people call her Sally all the time and it irritates her to no end. Good thing I had a chance to tell you, you'd never hear the end of it if you called her that!"
"Uh… yeah…" Eric replied.
There was a really, really awkward silence.
"Hahahahah… see ya," Nami said, turning on her heel and running off.
Not even she could overcome that level of awkward.
When Nami got back, she was surprised to see the paved circle in the path somehow completely opened up off the ground. Under it were numerous buttons and levers, and Link was crouched over it, trying to figure out the controls for clearing the waterfall.
"So, how was it?" Sali asked Nami.
"W-What are you talking about?" the blue-haired girl questioned.
"Your little chat, obviously. Why else would you have left?"
Nami sighed. "Was it that obvious?"
"On many, many levels."
"Here we go," Link said, hands flipping over a number of things. A wall closed over the top of the waterfall, preventing its flow. Water came flowing out of several other locations in the area, indicating that the flow had been changed to prevent flooding.
"Hooray for Link and his puzzle solving skills!" Nami cheered.
"It was kind of stupid for them to send us over here without clear instructions," Link commented. "They should be glad that I understand this stuff. Ah well, at least all the buttons are labeled in Hylian." He rose to his feet. "So, what say we get this show on the road?"
The three of them made their way over to the entrance of the dungeon. As it had been for the others, it was a rather spooky, foreboding staircase. The only difference was, there somehow light at the bottom, and based on what the staircase looked like, it seemed as if dungeon was going to be a lot more colorful.
"… I'm feeling kind of uneasy, to be honest," Nami pointed out. "We're probably going to have to fight. And… in these clothes?"
"I think we'll be fine, as long as we support each other as normal," Link told her.
"All right! Let's go!" Sali declared as she started down the staircase. Her teammates soon followed behind her.
She arrived at the bottom first, only to freeze in place.
"Uh? Sali? What's wrong?" Nami asked her.
Sali held on of her hands up to beckon them down, without even turning around.
Link and Nami reached the bottom, and it was soon clear to them what exactly the matter was.
This was not a normal dungeon.
There were stores.
There weren't supposed to be stores in dungeons.
"What the actual Din's Lair is this," Sali said.
Light gleaming through the tall ceiling, monsters were running about from store to store on the multiple floors that could be seen through the hole in the center, some more hurried than others. The massive, cylindrical room beautifully decorated with a warm color scheme, and tall pillars detailed every wall. At the bottom floor, which was where the trio had come in on, water filled in parts of the floor, pouring from the walls, giant lily pads floating on it. It looked as if gates had been put up to keep anyone from falling into the water.
All of these details, however, blew over the team's head. After all, there was a huge statue of Ghirahim in the center of the room on top of a pedestal that looked like it could be entered, but it seemed to be off-limits; some tall lizard creatures dressed like security guards were blocking it.
"… It's probably been a while since they checked on this place," Link said.
"You don't say," Sali replied.
"Why is there a statue of Ghirahim?" Nami asked, sounding concerned.
For the first time in quite a while, Fi appeared in front of them. "I have detected an anomaly in the dungeon," she said. "I am unable to identify the reason why this has happened, but I can confirm a 98% chance that the best option is to not draw attention."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Link asked the sword spirit, hoping she might actually help them.
"I'd say anywhere we're not supposed to," Sali answered instead. "Like behind that door those security guards are standing in front of."
"I estimate a 77% chance that guarded areas have potential significance," Fi said.
"Well… how do we get in there? It's guarded for a reason," Nami pointed out.
"Maybe we could ask?" Link suggested. "I don't know, some people don't realize we're humans, maybe this will be similar."
"Ask? Are you fricking kidding me?" Sali asked him disbelievingly.
Link took about three steps forward before the guards noticed him.
"Wait a second! You guys are humans!" one of the lizards exclaimed.
"They must be the chosen heroes!" the other one stated.
"Ah crap," Link mumbled.
"Get 'em!" Lizard A said, and the two guards dashed towards the team.
Link and Sali immediately reached for their swords. Nami sighed, seeing the decision that her friends decided to make. Fighting when there were so many other monsters in the area probably wasn't the best idea, but it seemed like they had no choice.
But before any weapons could even be drawn, the trio found themselves being dragged into the base of the Ghirahim statue instead.
"To the Basement Warrior!" Lizard A declared.
"To the Basement Warrior!" Lizard B repeated.
They pushed the team into a large hole in the ground where they landed in a heap even though they only fell about ten feet. None of them were injured either, because for some reason, there was a mattress beneath them.
The three of them quickly got to their feet and drew their swords (well, Nami summoned hers). In front of them, a huge pile of bones somehow assembled itself into a somewhat-armored, really tall skeleton that looked like it wanted to kill them. It pulled two swords out of literally no where and let out a horrendous screech.
"Basement Warrior, we told you not to screech anymore! It's unpleasant and makes us want to throw you into the Evil Bog!" Lizard A told it.
"No! Not the Evil Bog!" the skeleton cried, its voice just about as screechy as the team expected it to be after hearing the sound it had just made. To be more specific, it was akin to Toad's voice multiplied by about four.
"These are the chosen heroes!" Lizard B announced. "Kill them, and we'll give you a raise! Probably!"
"Oh boy!" the skeleton exclaimed. "Imma ded you, bazingos!"
"Let's go get some burgers," Lizard A told Lizard B. They promptly left, leaving the team in the hole with the screechy skeleton.
"Let's just take care of this the easy way," Sali mumbled. "Step aside, guys."
There wasn't time to argue. Link and Nami practically ran out of the way, and Sali dashed towards the skeleton, sword ready. The magic creature attempted to block an incoming slash, but to everyone's surprise, Sali had stabbed straight through its spinal cord, taking the thing in half.
Somehow, it didn't actually die, but it was a magic beast that made no sense as it was. The top half of the body hit the ground.
"Ow," the skeleton said. Sali kicked off its helmet, drove her sword through its skull, and the whole thing exploded into purple smoke.
"Too easy," Sali felt the need to say, sheathing her sword.
There was a quiet moment, everyone taking in the fact that she just owned that thing, even though it looked incredibly tough.
"Can we just…" Nami started, getting Link and Sali's attention, "… talk about the fact that moments like these remind me of how not unified we are as a group?"
"What? Is this about teamwork making things more inconvenient?" Sali asked more harshly than she intended to. She sighed at the looks she received in response. "Okay. Sorry. Not what I meant. I mean, we didn't plan this stuff. Nor am I used to it."
"We don't even have a team leader," Nami added.
"Isn't Link the leader?" Sali questioned. Link shrugged.
"That… was never actually decided, I think. So yeah, we're leaderless, and practical, general decisions have yet to be made."
"That's because we never thought stuff like that would have to be discussed. This whole time, I've just been going with 'we're three people who usually cooperate because we never really have disagreements'. Okay, yeah, we do disagree sometimes, but that never really affects our ability to work together in situations that require it."
"Uh… I kind of beg to differ," Link spoke up.
Sali turned towards him, raising an eyebrow. "What? Has it been bad enough?"
"In a way…" Link told her. "I just feel like it would be more productive to at least set some things straight. Things that we're able to, at least."
"Are we gonna pick a leader?" Nami asked.
"Sounds like someone is excited to be in charge," Sali said.
Nami frowned. "Nooo," she replied. "I just want our group to have an official feel to it. Also, I would be a terrible leader. I'm super indecisive."
"But you're so charismatic," Link commented.
"That's not really enough when it comes to being a group of destined heroes who fight evil," Nami told him with a laugh. "That could maybe lead a team of youth scouts selling cookies."
"What the heck, don't talk about youth scout cookies," Sali whined. "That'll make me want them. Actually, never mind, I always want them."
"Link would probably make a better leader than me," Nami continued, returning to her point. "He's so levelheaded all the time."
"When have I ever done anything that makes me worthy of being a leader, honestly?" Link asked. "We'd be better off without a leader than picking me. The only thing that could potentially put me in that position is the fact that destiny apparently says I'm the 'main character'–the one with the Goddess Sword. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because I've done the least out of us."
"You don't give yourself enough credit," Nami said.
"But it's true," he insisted. "Sali is way more competent than me. I don't know why she's not in my place."
"I what?" the green-haired girl asked, surprised. "N-no way. They picked you for a reason, I'm sure."
Nami had to suppress a giggle; she could clearly see Sali blushing.
The blue-haired girl officially had a new favorite ship.
"What're you making that face for?" Sali asked her. "Stop it."
"Uh, as I was saying, if we're even going to have a leader, I think it should be one of you two," Link said.
"Nami it is," Sali immediately responded.
"Hey! You can't just make a decision like that!" Nami told her. "You'd be a way better leader than me! You're super honest, you're the best fighter, you're analytical, and you always on point when it comes to talking to people and getting things done!"
"Yeah, but I'm not charming like you, and I have zero patience."
"Do we even need a leader?" Link suggested, not seeing this conversation going anywhere. "Let's just make all our decisions collectively. There are only three of us, after all."
The two girls paused in thought.
"… Well, that's probably the most practical solution," Sali said, nodding. "I was half saying that from the beginning."
"But…" Nami started, but then sighed. "Yeah… as long as things get solved."
"Great. We can keep talking about this later," Link said, "because we're kind of in the middle of a monster-filled shopping center and that door over there opened when Sali beat that thing."
"Ahhhhhh right," Sali replied, letting her neck tilt as she said it. "There are way better places to talk about stuff like this."
"Sorry, I brought it up," Nami apologized. "Let's go."