Hey guys,
So this chapter turned out longer than I thought it would, but I guess that's a good thing considering I wasn't sure if it would have enough content by the end of it (which it did, so yay!) I'm going to try not to make /too/ much Uzuki considering she's not the main character of the story and not everyone likes her. I'm going to have just enough of Uzuki for the story, but not so much that it strays from the actual main characters :) Other than that, that's all I've gotta say about this chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it! ^ ^ Feel free to drop a review if you have the time, I always appreciate the feedback :)
- Shinigami-Zelda-sama
The Legend of Zelda: Only Chosen Love
Chapter 50: The Missing Girl
"Zelda Harkinian?"
"Here."
"Sheik?"
"Here."
"Groose?"
"Here and fabulous."
The teacher rolled her eyes. "Uzuki Kasahara?"
There was no reply.
"Uzuki?"
Zelda looked around, and saw that Uzuki was indeed missing from the class.
That's odd, Zelda thought. Maybe she just slept in . . . it's her first day after all . . . still, it's the afternoon and it's almost lunchtime.
"Well, I guess Ms. Uzuki is absent," Ms. Wyrna sighed as she marked her name on her clipboard. "First day of school this semester . . . not off to a great start for a new student. Let's get started, class."
The first writing class of the semester started like any other first day – the students received their workbooks, were introduced to their curriculum for the semester, and also talked about what they would do in place of an exam, considering writing didn't need one.
The last few minutes of class were spent writing short introductions about themselves, including their name and birthplace, their favorite classes, their personality, strengths and weaknesses, and their hobbies. Zelda was just finishing hers when the bell rang and the students got up for their break.
As she walked through the hallway, Zelda dug out her new schedule and looked over it again. It was the second class of the day – she had Art in the morning for her first class – and she had Biology and Chemistry to get through after lunch.
Zelda followed the rest of the crowd to the cafeteria, and smiled when she saw her friends sitting in the same spot as always, crowded together all at the far end of the room at their own table.
"Has anyone seen Uzuki?" Zelda asked the group when she made it to the table.
"Nah, she wasn't in class this morning," Shade muttered. "C++ is going to be a bitch for her if she misses school like that."
"Have fun failing that," Link muttered. "You can barely even pass English; how in the world are you going to learn a computer language?"
"Don't doubt me," Shade snickered.
"Perhaps Uzuki is not feeling well?" Fi asked. "Her roommates, Hena and Iza, may know where she is."
"Good point," Link said. "Maybe she is just down with the flu. Either way, Uzuki usually comes around. If I find Hena or Iza I can ask where they are, but I don't think it's anything serious."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Zelda sighed. "I just hope she isn't getting into any trouble."
Lunch passed by normally, and when the next bell rang, Link started for his Health class. When he entered the room, he saw that he shared a class with Sheik, Malon, Ren, and Iza.
"Hey, Link! Over here!" Sheik called when he saw Link enter the classroom. Link went over to him and sat at the desk next to his. The desks were arranged so that there were four rows, each with five sets of desks. Each set was composed of two desks pushed together, enough for about forty students.
When the teacher stepped in, Link saw that Mrs. Anju was teaching the class.
"Good afternoon, students," Mrs. Anju said. "Mrs. Uli was supposed to teach this class, but she's on maternity leave, so I will be replacing her for this semester, and she will return in the fall."
"Freaking Uli, always getting pregnant," Sheik muttered. "She always comes here for a year and then ends up having another kid. It's ridiculous."
"Well, at least you know the next generation isn't going to have a lack of children," Link snickered back.
"It's ironic, isn't it? How half of Health class is teaching guys not to get chicks pregnant, and then our Health teacher is doing it every other year?"
Link smiled to himself. "Mmhmm."
Sheik looked around to see who else was in the class. "It looks like Iza's here. You should ask her later to see if Uzuki's around."
"Yeah, I'll wait until class is over," Link replied.
Most of the class, like the others, was spent introducing the curriculum. Link wasn't a fan of Health class, but he needed at least one credit from a Health-oriented class to graduate.
During the hour-and-a-half class, Link spent most of his time doodling through Mrs. Anju's lectures. The class was pretty basic, so he knew it wouldn't take much to pass the course. It was always nice to have a class that he could laze around in, at least. When the bell rang, he had drawn a scene with Godzilla trampling over Hyrule Castle, with Ren between its teeth. Sheik chuckled lightly at Link's drawing before he folded it up and threw it in the garbage.
Once the bell for break rang, Link grabbed his bag and got up from his desk. When he saw Iza, he remembered what the group had asked him to do earlier at lunch, so he approached Iza with a smile and greeted her.
"Oh, hey there, Link," Iza replied. "Looking as sexy as usual, I see."
"Uh, thanks," Link muttered. He was always taken off guard by her direct friendliness towards his appearance. "Iza, I need to ask you something. Uzuki's your roommate, right? She wasn't at school today so my friends and I were wondering if you knew what was up."
Iza looked around and then walked in closer to Link. He could almost feel her large chest touching against his. She whispered softly, "She's gone. All that was left was a note that said, 'Going out for a bit, expect varied results of returning'. God knows what she meant by that last part."
"Do you have the note?" Link asked.
Iza nodded and reached into the cup of her bra underneath her shirt. She pulled out a folded up slip of paper and handed it to him. Link took the note and opened it to find Uzuki's scrawled lettering on the paper, saying exactly what Iza had just relayed to him. Indeed, the note was cryptic, but in the end, it still meant the same thing – Uzuki had left on her own, and neither of them knew when she would be back.
"I wonder where she went . . ." Link muttered.
"She probably just took off for some girl time," Iza said with a smile as she backed away from Link. "I heard some rumors though . . ."
". . . Rumors?"
Iza smiled. "Sorry, unless I see some shiny things, I'm not spilling."
Link sighed. He pulled out a red rupee and handed it to her. "Is that shiny enough for you?"
"It'll do, I suppose," Iza said with a sly smile. "They say that when she was actually in high school, a couple years ago, she always went missing for long periods of time. She'd always return on her own, but whenever she did, she'd have bandages wrapped around places like her arms and legs, and sometimes even scars right out in the open. She always gave excuses like, 'I went on a hiking vacation', or 'I was camping', but the teachers and students were always suspicious."
"I'd be suspicious too," Link replied. "Anything else?"
Iza looked at the red rupee that Link had just given her. "You know, I think this is getting a little dull . . . it's losing its precious red glow."
Link rolled his eyes before handing her another red rupee.
Iza smiled brightly. "She apparently always had knives and other sharp things on her. Knives, nails, scissors . . . and she always walked around with a sketchbook with the weirdest drawings inside of them. Apparently she didn't do much at home either. She always went home and then went online with her laptop, but she mostly just spent her day spending emails and making blog posts. I never found the blog, but I'm sure it must have had some weird stuff in it."
Link nodded.
"Look, I really don't know much more than that, but I'm sure Navi or one of the journalism girls would know," Iza said. "You know them and their news stories. You can probably find them in the computer lab after school. If not, you at least know where Navi's room is, considering she's Zelda's roommate."
"Okay. Thanks," Link said.
"My pleasure," Iza giggled before blowing him a kiss.
When Link walked off, he found Sheik waiting outside the classroom with a sly grin on his face.
"Gee whiz, Link, I knew you were desperate, but paying for that kind of thing right in the middle of class? You really are a hound," Sheik snickered.
Link gave him a funny look. "What are you- Oh, that's just rich, you know that, Sheik? I was paying her to find out stuff about Uzuki, not for that."
"Sure thing, Link, just keep trying to convince yourself of that. Better not let Zel see you up to that." Sheik winked.
"Whatever. Either way, Iza said that Navi and the journalism girls should know more about where Uzuki's gone."
"I thought you said she would be fine on her own?"
"I did, but that's before I saw the note Iza found in her room." Link handed Sheik the note that he still had on him.
After reading over it a few times, he handed it back to Link. "She's probably just gone to run some errands or visit friends. Uzuki's as free as a bird when it comes to that kind of stuff."
He has a point, but the note is still troubling . . . Link thought. Especially taking into account what Iza said about her. "Well, I'm going to ask the girls anyway after school. No harm in it, at least."
"Just don't worry about it too much," Sheik sighed. "She'll show up eventually."
After Link's last class of the day – Chemistry – he caught Zelda just as she was leaving the classroom.
"No word on Uzuki?" Link asked.
"N-No, but you seem to be worrying about her an awful lot," Zelda said. "She'll be fine, Link, she always is."
"I just don't like the thought of my friends going missing," Link sighed. "Sorry if I seem a little . . . on edge. Either way, I'm going to see the journalism girls in a few minutes here. Do you want to come with me?"
Zelda shrugged her shoulders. "May as well. I don't have much else to do today."
Link smiled. "How was your day?"
"It was good, although it's weird being in different classes. This semester is going to go by way faster too . . ." she sighed. "We'll be in grade twelve before you know it."
Link nodded. "I know, right? It's kind of scary to think about. We'll be out on our own and-" Link stopped. The thought of him and Zelda graduating and possibly taking completely different paths crossed his mind and made his heart sink.
"Z-Zel?" Link asked. "What are you . . . you know, doing after you graduate?"
Zelda stopped walking as well and looked at him with a look of certainty. She knew exactly what he was getting at. "I-I'm not sure yet . . . I don't really know what I want to do."
"O-Oh . . . well, I'm sure you'll find something you like soon, right?" Link said with a smile. "You still have time."
"A little, although it's starting to run short . . ." Zelda said softly. "What . . . what about you?"
Link shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know yet either. I've always liked music so maybe something in audio engineering . . . I dunno."
Zelda smiled. "Then we'll find out together what we want to do, okay? But until that time comes between now and graduation, we'll focus on now."
She's right, Link thought to himself. I'm worrying too much about the future and I should be worrying about right now.
"Yeah, you're right," Link said. "I was just wondering."
Zelda held out her hand. "Come on, let's go find my stupid friend."
Link smiled and took Zelda's small, gentle hand. Then they walked together down the hall, their hands never leaving each other's and their smiles never disappearing from their faces.
Navi typed away on her computer while talking to Link and Zelda at the same time, never taking her eyes off the screen.
"Nope, haven't seen her," Navi muttered. "I don't really pay much attention to her."
"Okay. Do you know anything about her though?" Link said. "Iza said you might know a bit more about her history before coming to this school."
Navi stopped for a moment to think. She leaned onto her desk with her hands under her chin and stayed that way while she thought. "I know a bit, yeah, but I don't know if it'll be helpful or not."
"Anything," Link demanded. "It doesn't matter what it is, every little bit helps."
Navi stretched her arms out before leaning back into her computer chair. "Well, I know that she runs a blog online and several other accounts which she uses to stay in touch with people. She's got . . . a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook account – although she hasn't used that account in three years – a Youtube account, and some kind of livestream channel. All five have been used and active within the past month; some more than others, but none abandoned.
"Can you bring any of them up?" Zelda asked.
"I can show you the blog, but Twitter and Facebook are blocked on the school computers – stupid administration – and her livestream account doesn't have much of a live feed. Oh yeah, and she has quite a few Youtube videos, but half of them are listed as private so only people with permission can view them unless she unlocks them . . . and the ones that aren't private are just clips of snowy mess and all sorts of weird clips that make no sense."
"Alright, I guess we have no choice," Link sighed. "Bring up the blog."
"Okay, but I gotta make it quick," Navi said. "I've gotta meet today's deadline and exams made it tough to keep up with everything. I've gotta get my work done."
Link nodded before seating himself next to Navi. Zelda also sat down on the other side of Navi so that all three of them were crowding around one computer monitor. Navi quickly typed in the URL – – and after the page loaded, they were greeted with pages and pages of blog posts. The entire layout of the blog was black with scratchy white text.
"Look, there was a post today," Navi said, scrolling up to the top post. The three of them huddled in to read the post.
My dear Runners, Researchers, and yes, even you, Watchers and Workers,
I guess the shit hit the fan, hmm? Buuuut I'm still alive! And to some of you, I guess that's all that really matters; staying alive.
Now let's get to business. I can't cover too much right now because /they/ are probably reading this and I don't want to put their lives in jeopardy.
So I leave you this Runners, Researchers, Watchers, Workers, and /you/:
47 65 74 20 6f 75 74 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 77 61 74 65 72 2c 20 6d 79 20 6c 69 74 74 6c 65 20 66 69 73 68 69 65 73 20 61 6e 64 20 6d 65 72 6d 61 69 64 73 2e 20 54 68 65 20 63 68 61 6c 6c 65 6e 67 65 73 20 68 61 76 65 20 62 65 67 75 6e 2e 20
Peace be with you, my fellow Runners!
- UZUKI
Link stared at the numbers and mixed up text on the screen. "What the heck is that supposed to be?"
Navi shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. Maybe it's just a glitch or broken code on the blog?"
Zelda shook her head. "No, it's one of Uzuki's stupid codes. She probably knows we're reading this. She always planned ahead like that."
Link sighed before leaning back into his chair and rubbing his head. "She just loves to make things difficult . . ."
"Link, it's obvious she doesn't want us to pursue her," Zelda said to him. "We should just leave this and wait for her to return."
Link nodded. "I hate leaving Uzuki behind, but I guess you're right." Link stood up from his chair. "Thanks, Navi. Do you mind sending me the links to those accounts later so I can check them out?"
"Sure thing, Link," Navi replied. "Always happy to help. Just . . . be careful, alright?"
"Of course."
Navi grabbed his hand. "No, I'm serious, be careful. According to Uzuki's previous history people have tended to . . . disappear around her. She seems like a nice person, but I wouldn't trust her too much. Just watch where you pry; you might run into something that you didn't want to run into."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Link assured her. "Thanks again, Navi." Then he took his hand out of hers and escorted Zelda out of the computer lab.
After Link had dropped off Zelda at her dorm, he continued his way back to his own room. He didn't have any homework, so he could just relax for the rest of the day. He was walking across the field towards the boys' dormitory when he saw a group of boys crowding around something. As he got closer, he recognized Shade in the crowd, a huge smile on his face.
"Hey, Shade," Link greeted his brother when he got to him. "What's going on here?"
"Are you seeing this?" Shade snickered. "Look at this guy! He dresses like a douche but he's got some pretty awesome skills up his sleeve."
Link turned to see what the boys were looking at – a boy with light purple hair, dressed in elegant robes, and creating all sorts of illusions right before their eyes.
"Wait a minute . . . I feel like I know him," Link said.
"That's Vaati," Shade reminded him. "He's picked up all sorts of new tricks. I know it's not really 'magic' but it still makes me wonder how the hell he's pulling this shit off!"
They watched as Vaati pulled out a deck of cards from one of his sleeves. He threw them up into the air, the cards separating and floating down like snowflakes, but then they froze in mid-air when Vaati lifted and locked his hands into a certain position. His fingers bent and twitched, and the cards began to shift and spin. With a few movements of his arms and hands, the cards flew back into a deck once again, landing neatly at his feet. He took his cape and then bowed to the crowd.
"Damn," Link laughed. "That is impressive. Get this guy with Chris Angel and I'm sure they'd unleash all sorts of hell."
"I'm surprised he hasn't attracted any of the ladies yet," Shade murmured to him with a smile.
The group cheered and applauded Vaati as he did a final bow and began to put away his props and tools.
"Great show, Vaati!" Shade yelled out to him.
"Thank you," Vaati replied. "I've been practicing for quite a while . . . I even have a job in this now."
"Wow, that's impressive. You perform at kids' birthday parties and stuff?"
"Even bigger than that. Yes, there are a few birthday parties here and there, but I've even done my shows on stage at some of the bars and restaurants here. I dream of walking the stage of the Hyrule Theatre and captivating everyone with my magic."
"You'll be there in no time with those kinds of stunts," Link said to him. "I'll have to take Zel to one of your shows one time."
"Even Ren would get her socks knocked off by that," Shade snickered. "And she's barely impressed by anything."
Vaati smiled. "I'm performing at that place that has the karaoke next Saturday, if you gentlemen and your ladies are free to come see me perform."
"Gah, that place . . ." Link shuddered. "I'll definitely bring Zel though; but I'll hold on the karaoke part."
"Not going to try and impress Zel with those manly singing skills?" Shade teased.
"Shush," Link growled back.
Vaati chuckled. "I can see the resemblance; I figured you two were brothers."
"Two out of three," Link answered. "But he's the annoying one."
"And he's the baby," Shade snickered. "The last to pop out, and the last to get a real girlfriend."
"You at least seem to get along alright," Vaati sighed. "Either way, I will have to bid both of you adieu; I must practice for next week's show."
"See you later, Vaati," Link said.
"Later, man," Shade muttered.
When Vaati was gone, Link started to head for his dorm once again, but this time with Shade following close behind.
"Hey, Link, you doing anything today?" Shade asked.
"You're wondering if I'm doing anything?" Link replied with a raise of his eyebrow. "What are you up to, Shade?"
"Nothing," Shade said innocently. "I'm bored as all fuck and Ren is in a grumpy mood because she's on her period or something. And Ganondorf is back on the wrestling team so he's practicing with Groose. Either way, I'm bored and my roommate is even more boring than you are."
Link sighed in defeat. "Fine, you can come hang out with me for a bit, but if you do anything sketchy, you're out, got it?"
Shade beamed. "You got it, little bro'," he said happily as he started to follow Link again. "I can beat the shit out of you at some video games or something."
"In your dreams, Shade."
"That's four-to-zero," Shade announced happily before stretching out on his chair. "I guess I must be dreaming, eh, Link?"
Link growled angrily and set his remote control down. "I never was good at that game anyway," he mumbled.
"Oh, don't be a baby, little bro'," Shade laughed. "If there were actual prizes, you'd get one of those cheap participation ribbons."
"Oh, shut up," Link growled. "Racing games just aren't my thing, okay?"
Shade grinned spitefully before relaxing into the couch. "So, your new classes treating you well?" Shade asked his brother as he began to set up a new round for racing.
"Eh, the hardest classes I have are Physics and Chemistry," Link replied. "History won't be too bad, and Health is pretty straightforward. What are you taking?"
Shade selected his character and race car and watched as Link began to select his while replying, "Math, Visual Basic, English, and C++."
Link made an odd look at his brother. "C++? Isn't that a little . . . advanced for you?"
"Not really," Shade mumbled. "I'm good at working with computers. C++ isn't too bad, although it's going to pose some challenges. I'll be fine, though." Shade selected the course.
"Well, just try not to bite off more than you can chew, alright?" Link sighed.
"Like I said, I'll be fine," Shade replied before hitting the start button to begin the race.
Once the race began, Link and Shade took off, racing each other down the track that travelled through a jungle. Link used as many speed-ups and items as he could, but by the end of the third lap, Shade was once again the first to cross the finish line.
"That's five-to-zero," Shade laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Link muttered. It was then that by some random thought, Link remembered that Navi was going to send him the links to Uzuki's accounts. He knew he shouldn't pry too much, but he still felt that he had to know where Uzuki was at least. He didn't have to go looking for her; but if he knew, he could at least stop worrying.
"You set up the next race, I just gotta check my email," Link said to Shade as he got up from his chair.
"Alright," Shade replied, proceeding to choose the characters, race cars, and courses.
Link found his laptop in his room and opened it, activating it from sleep mode. He signed into his email account and saw that Navi had already sent him the links; it was the newest email he had received. He never really got a lot of emails anyway, besides notifications from the school administration and the odd email from a friend usually asking for help with homework or just wondering how his life was going. Other than that, junk mail and website advertisements.
Link clicked on Navi's email to open it. There were five links in the email – one each for Facebook, the blog, Youtube, Twitter, and her livestream – along with a message from Navi.
Like I said, try not to get too involved. Sometimes a girl just needs her space, okay? Be careful, Link, and don't do anything stupid. Some mysteries are better left unsolved.
- Navi
Link read over the message again, taking it to heart before copying the blog link into the URL bar at the top of his webpage. It only took a few moments for the page to fully load, giving Link full site of Uzuki's blog page. The entries dated as far back as five years, leaving hundreds and hundreds of blog posts that he would have to look over.
It's going to be a long night . . . Link thought to himself. He didn't know if it was worry for Uzuki or just plain curiosity, but Link felt compelled to read through all of it, no matter how many entries there were. The entry that he saw first was the entry that Uzuki had posted recently; the same one that had the strange, unreadable code all over it. Link stared at it for a few moments, hoping that if he stared at it long enough, some of it would start to make sense. After a few minutes of this, Link eventually looked away, gaining only a headache from staring intently at the screen for so long.
Getting up from his bed, he heard Shade call out to him, "Link, I gotta use your bathroom. The race is all set up so I'll be out in a second." Then he saw Shade pass his room as he went to the bathroom on the other side.
Link started from his room, leaving his laptop open on his bed, and went to sit down on the couch in front of the television screen. He noticed his character was a larger one, with a larger kart.
Of course he'd pick a car for me that's slow as all hell, Link thought to himself in disgust before pausing the game and selecting the "Choose Your Character" option so he could change it. He hit the A button Shade's controller to confirm the same character he had already picked before, and then Link started to scroll through the character roster to find his own.
He eventually heard the sound of a toilet flush followed by a sink running and then a door closing. He waited for Shade to hop onto the couch with him, but he never showed. After a few moments of not seeing his brother come back to play the game, he turned his head to look behind him and saw that Shade wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Shade?" Link called.
"Yeah, I'm in here," Shade replied from Link's bedroom.
Link sighed and got up from his couch. "Shade, what are you doing in my room?" he asked his brother when he stopped at his bedroom door to see Shade sitting on his bed, staring at his laptop screen. "Come on, stop prying."
Shade stared at the screen with a determined look in his eye. "This is hexadecimal code."
". . . What?" Link asked.
"It's hexadecimal code," Shade repeated. "A type of ASCII code used by computers to translate orders from a user. You know, computer programming."
Link could only understand the 'computer programming' part because he wasn't well-versed in the way of computers. But he was more surprised by the fact that his brother Shade actually knew what he was talking about when Link couldn't.
"So, uh, it's a code?" Link asked.
"Yep, it's a code," Shade sighed. "And here I thought you were just watching porn like a normal teenager." He smiled. "I can translate this for you if you need it."
Link's eyes widened in shock and surprise. "You can read this?!"
"Well, I can't read it like the English language, but I know how to decode it. It'll take me a bit though. There's a lot of math behind hexadecimal."
Oh, so now he's good at math? Link thought in shock. His brother had always been the one falling behind in his studies and coming home with report cards with bad grades, especially in math. The fact that his brother could translate some kind of unreadable computer code was astounding, and it didn't seem like he was faking it either.
"Alright then, knock yourself out," Link said with a shrug of his shoulders. "If you could actually decode that, it would be a huge help."
"No problem, just let me write this down," Shade said as he pulled out his phone. Link watched as Shade went to the main hub of his touch screen phone and then opened a sticky note. He carefully copied in the letters, numbers, and spaces of the code, checking back numerous times to make sure he copied it correctly.
"What is this for anyway?" Shade asked curiously after he was done copying the code in.
"That blog is managed by Uzuki," Link said. "We think she may have gone missing. She didn't come to school today and she left some sort of weird note with her roommates, Iza and Hena."
"Well, whatever it's for, seems like she doesn't want anyone following her," Shade mumbled. "I don't really like pushing into Uzuki's personal life like this, but I'm bored and I enjoy working with code, so I'm only doing this for my entertainment, okay? It's up to you what you want to actually do with it."
Link rolled his eyes. "Everything you do is for your own entertainment," Link sighed.
"Ah, the joys of being me," Shade snickered back. "I guess I'll head back to my dorm now. I'd like to get a start on this."
"Sure thing," Link replied.
"If you run into any more code like this, don't hesitate to send it to me."
"Yeah, I'll be sure to."
Shade smiled a small smile and then left the bedroom. He put on his jacket and boots at the door, gave a final wave to his brother, and then walked out without saying another word.
When Shade was gone, Link let out a tired sigh and plopped down on his couch, staring up at the ceiling above him. He knew that Uzuki was probably fine, but he still found himself worrying about her and wondering where she could be. Was she wandering around a city she didn't know, or was she simply back at her home in Kakariko?
Get yourself together, Link, you gotta stop worrying about things so much, Link thought. She'll be fine.
Link checked the clock on his wall. It was nearly six in the evening. Still lots of time in the day. With another sigh, Link grabbed his cellphone and started to send a message to Zelda.
Link and Zelda were walking with coffee cups in their hands, enjoying the cold weather as they walked together through the snowy pathway leading to the school.
"Okay, so give me one good reason why cranberry juice is in any way delicious," Link laughed at Zelda.
"Well I can't explain why it tastes delicious," Zelda giggled. "It just is. It's cranberry!"
"It's disgusting," Link sneered. "I'll stick to my chocolate milk and apple juice, thank you."
"Sure thing," Zelda laughed back. "It was really nice getting to have a coffee with you. I like it when we can just go out to coffee or to a restaurant and stuff like that. Just to spend the day together. We haven't really gotten to do that the past couple weeks because of exams."
"Tell me about it," Link sighed. "I'm glad you're doing well though, Zel. You were pretty stressed."
"I know, I know," Zelda said with a tone of embarrassment in her voice. "Don't rub it in."
Link stopped on the path and turned to face Zelda. He was wearing nothing but a smile on his face as he looked at her. He leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips before saying, "You." He kissed her again. "Are." And finally, he kissed her a third time. "Perfect."
Zelda giggled lightly. "If you say so. I'm not going to believe it anytime soon."
"Well, you should," Link whispered. He brushed a light hand on Zelda's cheek and looked longingly into her bright blue eyes. He started to lean in, ready to give her a real kiss, one filled with passion and love – everything that he felt towards her – when his phone rang.
Link stopped. He let out a sigh of annoyance before retrieving his phone from his pocket. His caller ID said it was Shade calling. Link grumbled something to himself before answering the phone.
"Shade? This had better be good, I'm on a date with Zel-"
"Link, I figured out the code," Shade said.
Link blinked and stared into space for a moment. He had completely forgotten Shade was going to decipher the code that was on Uzuki's blog, so he was taken aback and slightly confused for a few seconds by Shade's words. In a split moment, he remembered what he was talking about.
"Oh, you did?" Link asked. "Well, what was it?"
Link listened with a racing heart and a worried mind as Shade relayed the message word-for-word back to him.
