The Legend of Zelda: Only Chosen Love

Chapter 28: The Hunt for Uzuki

Link didn't wake up until eleven. He wouldn't have gotten up either, if it weren't for Sheik and the man knocking on the door.

"Get the door, Link!" Sheik called out to him from the bathroom.

"I'm tired – you get it!" Link yelled, his face smothered into his pillow.

Sheik came out of the bathroom half-dressed, wearing ripped jeans and no shirt, with a towel draped over his shoulders for his shower-wet hair.

"Lazy ass . . ." Sheik grumbled as he passed by Link's bed, heading towards the door. He pulled the door open to be greeted by a tall man with short black-brown hair, a goatee, and sideburns.

"Uh . . . hi?" Sheik greeted him.

"Who is it?" Link called from his bed.

"Hey," the man said. "Uh, you didn't happen to run into a tan girl with curly brown hair and tattoos, did you?"

Sheik shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know anybody who looks like that. Is she a student here?"

"No, she's from Kakariko. She came here to perform at last night's dance, but I haven't heard from her, and she hasn't been answering my calls. Her name is Uzuki."

Link lifted his head from his pillow at the mention of Uzuki's name. He jumped out of the bed and ran towards the man at the door.

"You're looking for Uzuki?" Link asked.

"You know her?" the man asked worriedly.

"Yeah, she's a friend of my girlfriend's," Link answered. "I ran into her at the dance too."

"Do you know where she could be?" The man's expression grew more paranoid.

"Um, no . . ." Link said, scratching his head. "But Zelda might know." He grabbed his cellphone from his jacket and started dialling Zelda's phone number. Link waited for Zelda to pick up, while the man nervously tapped his fingers together.

"Hello?" Zelda finally answered.

"Zelda, do you know where Uzuki is?" Link asked immediately.

"What? No, but I saw her leave with a few other students last night," she replied. "Do you want me to call her?"

"Nah, a big side-burned guy who just showed up at our room already tried that," Link sighed. "He's the one who's looking for her."

"Oh, that's probably Peter. Well, we can search the dorm rooms, if you want. I can't imagine people will be leaving today; a lot of them are too sick from their hangovers." Then she laughed. "Knowing Uzuki, she's probably got a hangover too."

"We should meet outside, in front of the school," Link said. "Sheik and Peter will be with me."

"Okay. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Same here."

They said their goodbyes, and then hung up their phones.

"We're going to meet up in front of the school," Link told Sheik and Peter. "Peter, what rooms have you checked already?"

Peter thought for a moment. "Hmm . . . well, I kind of just started from the first room and worked my way upstairs."

"We're on the third floor," Sheik said. "So there are only a few rooms left to check."

Peter nodded.

Link and Sheik both grabbed their jackets and shoes. They threw on their outdoor clothes, and then left the room, locking the door behind them. The three boys walked quickly down the hall, making their way to the next room.

"I'll handle this one," Link said at the door. "You two go to different rooms; we'll cover more ground that way."

Sheik and Peter nodded, and walked ahead, heading to their own rooms to check for Uzuki.

Link knocked on the wooden door. A tired, grumpy-looking student answered it.

"What do you want?" he sneered.

"Have you seen Uzuki anywhere?" Link asked. "She's dark, with curly brown hair, and-"

"Look, buddy, I don't give a shit," the student snapped angrily.

He proceeded to shut the door, but Link stuck his foot out, stopping the door in its place. He forcefully pushed it back open with his hand.

"Listen, fuckface," Link growled, his temper starting to ignite like a bomb. "A friend of ours is missing, and we have to find her before she cuts someone's throat open. I don't care if your girlfriend dumped you last night – she wasn't good for you anyway."

The student glared at him with eyes that Link could still see sadness in. "Who do you think you are – Dr. Phil? And how do you know about me and Sera?"

"I noticed you two last night, at the dance," Link began. "You were trying to hide it from the people around you, but I could still tell your heart had been broken; I saw it in your eyes. If you ask me, she should have dumped you before the dance – at least then you could have found someone better to go with, instead of wasting your time dancing with her."

The boy stopped. The sadness in his eyes suddenly became clearer, and he hung his head down in shame.

"Now, have you seen Uzuki or not?" Link asked again.

The boy looked back up at him. "Well . . . I saw a girl like that last night, while I was leaving the dance. She was carrying a cooler around with her, and she seemed to be talking to someone, but . . ." He trailed off.

"But . . . ?" Link said, trying to get him to continue.

"I . . . I never saw anybody else walking with her," the boy finished. "And it didn't seem like she was talking to herself either."

Link stared into space, thinking over the boy's explanation.

Talking to an imaginary friend, huh? Link thought. Hmm . . .

"What were some of the things she said?" Link asked curiously.

"Uh . . ." The student started to rub his neck, trying to remember. "She said a lot of weird things, like, "Shut your mouth, asshole" and, "Why don't we play a game of hide-and-go-fuck-yourself?"."

Link tried not to laugh, but in his head, he admitted that her words were pretty funny.

"Do you know which direction she was headed in?" Link asked his second question.

"Um . . . I think she was headed in the direction of the girls' dorm house," he answered.

"Okay," Link said. "Thanks." He was about to leave, but the boy stopped him.

"Uh . . . I'm sorry for snapping at you, and, um . . . good luck. I hope you find her."

Link smiled at him. "No problem. Good luck to you too – I hope you find someone who's actually worth your time." Link stopped for a moment. "Oh, and a little word of advice . . . Don't be afraid to speak about what you believe in. If you strongly believe in something, you should just go ahead and say it; don't be afraid of what other people will think."

The boy stared at him. "You know, I think that's why Sera broke up with me . . . I guess I can second-guess myself with my words sometimes . . ."

"Just be you," Link said with a smile. "Girls don't like guys who don't stick to their integrity."

"You got it!" the boy said happily. Keeping the determined smile on his face, the boy said goodbye, and closed the door.

Link ran down the hall to meet back up with Sheik and Peter; the two of them were finishing up with the last two rooms.

"Has curly hair tan skin, and tribal art tattoos?" Sheik described to one student.

"Kind of short, ugly tattoos that have no meaning . . . gigantic tits?" Peter said to the other student.

They both said no, and shut their doors.

"No luck?" Link asked them.

"No," Sheik and Peter said together.

Why hasn't anybody seen her? Link thought worriedly. She was painting on the walls yesterday! How could anyone miss that?

"It doesn't make a lot fo sense to me," Link sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I mean, she even performed a concert last night; why wouldn't anybody know her?"

"Well, there were a few who knew her by appearances," Peter said. "Whoever did know just didn't know where she went."

Sheik checked the time on his cellphone. "We should go meet up with Zelda; it wouldn't be nice of us to keep her waiting."

"Yeah, let's head out," Link agreed.


When the three boys made it to the school, Zelda was sitting on one of the concrete blocks that lined the sides of the walkway leading to the doors. She was talking on her cellphone. The air was cold outside, enough that Link could see his breath leave his mouth. A fresh blanket of snow had fallen during the night, and the sun was bright in the morning sky.

When the boys made it to Zelda, she was finishing up her phone conversation.

"Yeah, I'll call you back with the plans when I get everything worked out," she said. "Love you too. Bye."

"Who was that?" Link asked after Zelda hung up the phone.

"Oh, just my mom," Zelda replied. "She wanted to know how the dance went; she also wanted to know when I'd come home to visit."

"Oh. I see," Link said. "Do you have any leads on Uzuki?"

"Only a few girls I've talked to this morning are familiar with her, but they don't know where she went," Zelda answered. "I even asked Mom if she went back to Kakariko – Uzuki lives a few houses down the road from us – but she said that Uzuki's motorcycle isn't in her garage; she also laughed and said that if Uzuki did come back, the whole neighbourhood would know."

"Peter, why don't you try calling her again?" Sheik suggested.

Peter pulled out his cellphone and started to type in Uzuki's number. He held the phone to his ear, waiting for her to pick up.

"Is she answering?" Zelda asked.

"There isn't even a dial tone," Peter said, holding the phone away from his ear. He turned the phone's volume to speaker so that everybody else could hear. Link he said, there wasn't a dial tone – instead there was an unclear noise made of snow and static.

"That's weird," Link muttered. "Is her phone broken or something?"

"That doesn't explain why there's no dial tone," Sheik argued.

"I really hope Uzuki is-"

Peter couldn't finish his sentence. From the static on the phone, a high-pitched, ear-shattering screech had erupted. It was deadly, and so painfully loud that it almost made Link throw up.

Peter shut his phone before the scream could get any louder, and dropped it onto the pavement. Everybody slowly backed away from the cursed device.

"That was a little scary . . ." Sheik said quietly, his body trembling in fear.

"A little?" Zelda nearly cried, her body shaking even more than Sheik's.

Peter slowly edged his way towards his phone, and picked it up as if it were fragile and would break at the slightest touch.

"I think it's fine . . ." Peter sighed. He opened his phone; everything was normal. "But I'm not calling her now, that's for sure."

"Should we try calling someone else, to see if it's your phone?" Sheik suggested.

"Uh . . . I'm too scared to," Peter snickered. "I think we should just be safe and say that we shouldn't use my phone; or call Uzuki for that matter."

Link stretched his arms out. "Well, we may as well finish searching through the dorm rooms. We just finished the boys' house, so if there are any rooms left to check in the girls', we can check those."

"I doubt we'll find her in the girls' house," Peter muttered. "It's not like Uzuki to hang out with girls only after a party; there probably aren't any girls here who would dare to play shot glass chess."

"Oh yeah, I remember her saying something about that . . ." Link mused to himself. "Wait a minute . . . guys, I think I might know where she is."

"What?" Peter exclaimed, getting paranoid again. "Where? Where?"

"Who do we know is a trouble-maker and enjoys breaking the rules?" Link asked the group. "A bit of a rebel, with a sense of mischief, and doesn't care if he gets drunk?"

"Oh god, you're not talking about Ganon and Shade, are you?" Zelda cried out in shock. "There's no way Uzuki would hang out with those two idiots!"

Peter shoved his hands into his pockets, and shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, what kind of guys are they?"

"Shade is the stereotypical troublemaker," Link sighed. "And Ganon is the top jock – all brawn and no brains."

Peter sighed in defeat, shaking his head. "Uzuki hangs out with anybody who she thinks she can have a fun time with, even if she hates their guts – it's just that illusion she passes on people."

"She sounds like a real traitor," Sheik said.

"Even I don't trust her one hundred percent of the time," Zelda muttered.

"Oh, it's not that," Peter objected. "She never breaks her word with people – if she makes a promise, she keeps it. But she likes to play around with people's heads. It's a kind of game she likes to play."

"Why didn't you check Ganon's while you were over at the boy's dorms?" Zelda asked.

"Why would we?" Link objected. "I guess I just figured Ganon would have better things to do than hang around Uzuki."

"Well, we should check with them, just in case," Peter said.

Zelda, Link and Sheik all nodded in agreement, and then they turned around and headed back for the boy's dorm house. They entered the building, and walked up to the third floor, where Ganon's dorm room was just a few doors away. The hallways were starting to get a bit busier. Students were starting to leave their dorm rooms to head to their usual spots where they hung out for the weekend; some would be going to visit family, others would go to their friends' dorm rooms, and others would be taking a walk to shake off their alcohol headache.


Link and his friends stopped in front of Ganon's door.

"You know things are wrong when I'm knocking on Ganon's door," Link sighed as he lifted his hand and knocked on the door. A few moments passed with no response; Link knocked on the door again. Finally, someone opened the door, but it wasn't Ganon; it was his roommate.

"What?" he asked. Then he noticed who it was. "What the hell are you doing here, Kokiri?" he growled; his voice had an edge of anger and hatred to it. Link could tell that he was one of the students suffering from an awful hangover; he could see it on his tired and stressed face.

"Is Uzuki here?" he asked. "A girl with tan skin, tattoos, piercings, and curly brown hair?"

The boy opened the door further, revealing Uzuki and Ganon, the both of them keeled over on a small table, a chess board lying underneath them. Shot glasses were spread everywhere, and the smell of hard liquor was in the air.

"Uzuki!" Peter exclaimed. Pushing past Ganon's roommate, he rushed into the room to Uzuki's aid.

"She showed up here last night looking for a game of shot glass chess," the boy muttered. "They sure held their liquor for a while, but they eventually just passed out at the same time."

Peter tried to shake Uzuki awake, but she wouldn't budge.

"Is Shade here too?" Link asked, looking around the room for his twin brother.

The boy pointed his thumb to the bathroom. "He's in there, throwing his guts up."

"It smells disgusting in here . . ." Zelda scoffed as she got to her knees and tried to help Peter wake Uzuki.

Shade finally emerged from the bathroom, the smell of alcohol and vomit floating around him like thick smog.

"Oh, hey little brother," he laughed at Link. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to get Uzuki," Link muttered angrily as he stared at his older brother's disgusting state. He could smell the vomit coming off Shade's breath from ten feet away.

"She's with you?" Shade asked. "Man, can that chick sure handle her liquor. She played two rounds of shot glass chess with me and Ganon, and she didn't go down until she was halfway through the third round.

Peter lifted up Uzuki, draping her body over his arms.

"I guess you were right about her being here," Sheik told Link.

As Peter was walking away with Uzuki in his arms, Ganon started to stir.

"Oh shit, he's waking up!" Link hissed. "We'd better get out of here before he sees us!"

Link, Sheik, Zelda, and Peter hurried out of the room, making it out to the end of the hallway before Ganon could open his eyes.

"Ugh . . ." Ganon groaned. "I've got such a headache . . ." He began to look around, and saw that Shade and his roommate were both looking at him. Then he noticed that Uzuki was gone. "Where's Uzuki?" he asked. "Did she leave already?"

"Sorta . . ." his roommate muttered.

"The magical fairies came and took her to a wonderful place," Shade sang.

"Wait . . . what?"

Ganon's roommate brought a glass of water to him. "Here, buddy. This'll help you clear your head."

Shade looked around the destroyed room as Ganon chugged down the water. "They could have at least stayed to help us clean up the place . . ."

"What do you mean, 'they'?" Ganon asked suspiciously.

"Oh yeah, the magical fairies that I mentioned earlier? Yeah, they were Link, Sheik, Zelda, and some other guy with sideburns; I'm guessing the guy with the sideburns was her boyfriend or something."

"LINK WAS IN MY ROOM?" Ganon shouted. "I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"Calm down, King Kong, they were only picking up Uzuki," Shade sneered.

"But . . . I wanted to play another round of shot glass chess with Uzuki!" Ganon whined.

"I think you've had enough alcohol," his roommate growled. "For all we know, you and Shade could have alcohol poisoning. I'd take it easy if I were you."

"SHUT UP!" Ganon yelled. He picked up a chair and threw it at his roommate.

" . . . Then again, I could be wrong."


Link and Zelda walked together through the snow, both of them tired with boredom. Peter had left for Kakariko, taking Uzuki with him, so all the excitement had died down all at once.

Zelda eventually spoke up to break the wall of silence between them.

"So, um, my mom called me, and she was asking me if I wanted to invite you to our annual Christmas party," she said.

Link smiled. "Party? Sounds like fun to me."

Zelda smiled back. "I figured you'd want to come. You'll get to meet my step-siblings too. I'm sure you'll like Zant; although, he can be a bit of a handful sometimes. But you can talk video games with him." Zelda stopped for a minute. "I have to warn you though; you might want to be a bit careful around him."

"Why?"

"He had a bit of a . . . traumatic experience at Uzuki's house," she said. "Or so my mother tells me. She said she found him in the basement, sitting on the stairs, having a meltdown. So if you talk to him, just talk slow; mom says his mind's been a little off since the incident."

"Well, if it happened at Uzuki's house, I can't blame him for getting scared at whatever it was," Link snickered. "But I wonder what it was?"

"Midna told me she tried asking him, but every time she asked he would get really angry and wouldn't say anything about it – even the police couldn't get anything out of him."

"What was Zant doing over at Uzuki's house in the first place?"

"Zant and Uzuki are good friends," Zelda began to explain. "Mom said that Zant went over to visit her and he found her bloody and unconscious body in the upstairs bedroom. She had called an ambulance, but by the time she got there, she said that Uzuki was awake and feeling fine and Zant was crying in the basement."

"Hmm . . ." Link muttered, thinking over Zelda's words. "Do you mind if we look into this a bit more when I come over?"

Zelda shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, but don't push it – I may not like him all that much, but I don't want Zant to have any more meltdowns."

"Don't worry, I'll try not to upset him," Link assured her. "So, when's your family's party?"

"On Monday," she said. "Kakariko is a bit of a drive away though. It takes at least a day to get there."

Link thought for a moment. "Hmm, how about I take you to meet my uncle Blake?" Link asked. "He's been dying to meet you. He lives in the city, not too far from here. If you want, we could hang out with him and then I could just drive us to Kakariko. I don't have any reason to have my car at school, so I left it at Blake's – but I want to check on it, you know?"

Zelda rolled her eyes. "Oh boy, you want to check on your car, huh?"

"Trust me, she's a real beauty," Link said with a wink. "And I'm not lying when I say that."

Zelda laughed. "Alright, if you say so."