Author note: I don't own Yakitate! Japan or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

If you haven't read the rest of the fics in my crossover "Trials Of The Wild" series, PLEASE do so. This fic is the second-to-last fic in the series, and I highly recommend you reading up to the previous fic, "A Hard Decision," since this fic takes place immediately after that one.

Warning: Yakitate! Japan spoilers, BOTW spoilers, established Mipha/Kuroyanagi, Shachioko/Urbosa, and Meister/Sidon, and a whole ton of baking-related shenanigans!

Building Bridges

Summary: The bakers now have a slightly better idea about the bread that once took them to Hyrule, and attempt to recreate it as a way to bring them home. But…the results might be more explosive than anticipated.

"What do you mean, you're gonna stay here in Hyrule with Sidon!?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU AND URBOSA WERE DATING!?"

"WAIT, YOU AND MIPHA ONLY JUST GOT TOGETHER NOW!?"

All of the bakers stared at Meister, Shachioko and Kuroyanagi with wide eyes, and Meister wondered if he should regret telling them about this at the same time Kuroyanagi and Shachioko shared their news.

"It's true, though. If our efforts to go back home are a one-way ticket to Japan with no chance of returning, then I'd…like to stay with Sidon." Meister swallowed lightly. "I know it's sudden, considering everything, but I do want to continue being part of his life, and his a part of mine."

"If that's the case," Kawachi asked, tilting his head, "Does that mean you two are getting married?"

The General Manager felt his own face flush. "We've started discussing it already, actually."

"WHAT!?" Kuroyanagi's jaw dropped. "Already!?"

"We haven't reached any specific conclusions, but…it's something we're considering. Anyway," Meister shook his head lightly, "That's what's going on with me. And I felt it best to tell all of you since we're starting to actually focus on getting back home."

"Well, I appreciate the heads-up." Monica tilted her head. "I am going to miss seeing you around, though. Is your sister going to be okay with this?"

"I imagine she'll be angry, but I'll do my best to write a letter for her or some kind of message before all of you go." Meister managed.

"What about the earlier idea you and Sidon brought up?" Azuma asked, looking towards him. "About how we can focus on trying to bridge our world and this one? If we can do that, you won't have to miss going back to Pantasia and Sophie and you can stay with Sidon!"

"That's in the best-case situation, and I hope it turns out that way. But if it doesn't, I want to be prepared." The General Manager answered him, before noticing the spark in Azuma's eyes light up.

"I'll make a bread that can definitely bridge both worlds! I remember a bit of the recipe that I made to get us here in the first place, so there should be a way to make an equivalent!"

"Wait, what?" Kawachi stared at Azuma. "You know how to do it?"

"Yeah." Azuma nodded. He remembered it all now, which was good. "The thing is, I need to find the Hyrulean equivalents of some of the ingredients, since I'm not sure if it'll be the same. But overall it should be similar enough."

"Making a Japanese bread with Hyrulean ingredients…" Kuroyanagi trailed off, before he closed his eyes, nodding. "I can see how that would work. But who would be the taste tester?"

Azuam directed a look towards him. "You, of course! And Kawachi, too! You both are the two people with the biggest reactions."

"But," Shachioko pointed out, brows furrowing, "None of us have had reactions to anything, and I mean anything we ate. How can we be sure that we'll eat something and suddenly generate some portal or something to get back home? Or a bridge, if we're trying to bridge both worlds?"

"I don't know." Azuma admitted, and he generally didn't know. Most of the reactions that happened with his bread were non-deliberate, after all, save for a few. "But I can try. And if we all put our heads together, we probably think of something that can work!"

The rest of the group fell into silence. Azuma wondered if the others had doubts about whether it could work, but…

He felt Kawachi lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see him grinning. "Well, if that's the case, then we gotta get to work! Right?'

"Right!" Shachioko called, pumping a fist in the air. "Let's make the best bread Hyrule's ever had!"

Monica chuckled as she looked towards Kai. "Looks like we have some baking to do."

"Hm." Kai nodded, looking towards her, before looking towards Azuma. "You said that you remembered all the ingredients, and we have to look for Hyrulean equivalents. Where do we start?"

Azuma took a deep breath. Everyone else had done so much for him – looking after him when he first got amnesia, protecting him when things got rought with Ganon and his troops, and so on. This time, it was his turn to give back, and get everyone home.

"Okay, so…"

Monica examined the ingredients they had on hand.

"We have Goron spice, Courser bee honey, eggs, Tabantha wheat…what else can we use? This is supposed to be a spice bread, right?"

"We can probably get some cane sugar from the kitchens." Kuroyanagi noted, looking towards her.

"Yeah, but…if it's supposed to be a spice bread, we need way more spices." She looked towards Kai. "Any way we can find a whole bunch of fruits and stuff to crush with our bare hands?"

Kai blushed lightly, much to her amusement. "Too bad we don't have blenders or mixers in Hyrule."

"It would make the process faster, though." Meister tilted his head to the side, though a slight smile appeared on his face. "I'm sure the kitchens would have a pestle and mortar to grind ingredients finely."

"Could we add any savoury spices?" Shachioko asked. "Like pepper?"

"I'm not sure if pepper is going to be a good idea…" Kawachi trailed off, shaking his head. "It may be a spice bread, but I don't think we want our tastebuds being destroyed."

"We could combine sugar with Goron spice to make it more like cinnamon, maybe? Is that how it even works?"

Kawachi glared at him. "How can you not know where cinnamon comes from?"

"This is not the time to fight!" Monica glared at both of them, and she noticed them immediately shrink in terror. "We need to make a bread that's going to get us back home, not argue about ingredients!'

"Right…"

Monica took a deep breath, scanning her fellow bakers, before declaring, "Let's get baking!"

The baking ensued with mixed results.

They made melon bread, croissants, French bread, braided bread, and even unleavened bread.

They even tried roasting some bread dough on a spit, per Shachioko's suggestion, so he was very disappointed when nothing happened after Kuroyanagi ate it.

"Nothing!?"

"Nothing." Kuroyanagi confirmed, shaking his head. "It's very delicious, but I don't sense anything otherwise."

"Maybe we fed you too much bread." Meister slumped against the closest wall. "I'm just surprised that you still don't have any reactions."

"Maybe we need to feed someone else." Azuma frowned, shaking his head. "Maybe…oh!" He snapped his fingers. "What about Link!? He can eat anything!"

"Anything?" Both Monica and Shachioko echoed, while Kawachi's jaw dropped.

"I-is that why we've seen him trying to eat those Rock Roasts at times?"

"Yeah." Azuma nodded quickly. "That's why."

"Then where is he!?"

After searching the entire castle, they eventually found Link, promised to feed him as long as he was their taste tester, and brought him straight to the kitchen to eat all the bread they baked so far.

At least seven loaves of bread later, Link gave no reaction.

"Wait." Kawachi snapped his fingers. "I have an idea. What if we combine the dough for all of the breads we baked together? To make some kind of ultimate spice bread?"

"Is that even possible?" Kuroyanagi stared at him, eyes widening. "Then again…" A sigh left him as he shook his head, "We ought to try whatever we can, I suppose." As far as he knew, the impossible usually happened when everyone took a risk on what the heck they were baking, for better or for worse.

"Okay!" Azuma looked around the kitchen quickly, "Does everyone have spare dough? We should try to mix it all together to make one bread."

As everyone grabbed their bowls of leftover dough, hoping that they didn't have to make new batches after this, Kuroyanagi sincerely hoped they didn't do something as disastrous as blowing up Hyrule with any potential reactions.

Several efforts at mixing the various doughs together, braiding it into a beautiful loaf of bread before baking it, and taking it out of the oven at the right time later, Link was presented with a gorgeous, braided spice bread.

"Did you use melted goat butter or eggs to coat the top of it before baking?" Kuroyanagi asked Azuma, who nodded.

"Yep! I gave it an egg wash on top before baking it to give it a nice sheen." Azuma smiled wide. Kawachi took a deep whiff of the bread and instantly found himself drooling. He also noticed Kuroyanagi drooling, and Link looked ready to pounce on the bread and just eat it immediately.

"Here!" Azuma cut Link a slice, before handing it to him. "Want to try a slice? We can try it when it's cooled down, too, but it's best eaten when fresh."

Link quickly took the slice, thanking Azuma, before shoving the entire slice in his mouth.

What the heck!?

Kawachi couldn't believe it. He knew Link was a ravenous eater, but…this was a little much. And that was saying something considering that Link literally ate rocks before. Link blinked, swallowed the slice of bread he had in his mouth after chewing a couple times, and he looked around, as if hoping something would happen.

Nothing happened.

Azuma swallowed. Had he failed? Was serving Link the bread a bad idea?

He didn't want to give up, but with all the attempts they already tried, plus this one, every chance of success lessened. Did I fail everyone?

That was when the earth suddenly rumbled once.

"Huh!?" Everyone else leaned against the closest counters or walls for balance, but that was when a servant ran in.

"Princess Zelda!" The servant panted. "A whole other town or kingdom suddenly appeared at the edge of the horizon from the Faron Sea!"

"What!?" Everyone else burst into their own screaming, but the servant had more to say.

"Th-that's not all! A giant bridge appeared between the shore of the beach where the Faron Sea begins and stretches all the way to the kingdom on the other side!"

"WHAT!?"

Link's jaw dropped in silence as everyone else exchanged weird glances.

"We have to check out that bridge!" Kawachi exclaimed, eyes widening. "Do you think that city could be…?"

"Tokyo?" Monica breathed. Or at least some part of Japan?

Well, there was only one way to find out. The entire party decided to go investigate this bridge immediately.

The entire crew of bakers, Champions, and their other companions rushed straight to the beach shores of the Faron Sea. Indeed, a literal stone bridge appeared from the water where it was just water, and it seemed to stretch far into the horizon, reaching the other side where the city was.

"I-I think that's literally Japan over there." Azuma heard Shachioko stutter. "What have we done!?"

"Created a giant reaction, that's what." Kuroyanagi breathed. Azuma wasn't sure if he'd seen the executive member of Pantasia look so stunned before in his life.

"Oh my Hylia." Azuma heard Zelda breathe. "You created a literal bridge from Hyrule to Japan!"

All of our combined efforts working together made something to bring us home. That clicked in Azuma's mind immediately. This is it? We're home?

"We did it!" He heard Shachioko holler. "We ACTUALLY DID IT, EVERYBODY!"

A tired, but loud cheer came up from the other bakers, and Azuma couldn't help but join in.

"Azuma, we did it!" A hand on his shoulder made him look up to see Kawachi grinning. "We all did it! We can go home!"

"Yeah." Azuma smiled back up at him. "We can go home."

And home they went.

Azuma entered the port that clearly belonged to Japan and looked around. There were quite a few people staring, but that was to be expected considering that they never saw a bridge appear out of nowhere before and connected to an entirely different world.

Despite that, however, this was home. Azuma knew it. This was Tokyo, Japan, and he was home.

"Azuma! Kawachi!"

He turned. He saw a familiar face – brown hair, those hopeful eyes, along with a few other people; three men, one with an afro and a burly figure, a second with pink hair, and a third with mushroom-like hair.

His fellow coworkers, he realized. They were all here.

"Everyone!" Kawachi rushed over to the group first, and Azuma ran over to them. "We did it!"

"You were gone for months. The police has been looking everywhere for you and the others on behalf of all of Pantasia." The afro-haired man rumbled, and he looked concerned. "Are you both okay?"

"We're okay." Azuma offered Ken Matsushiro a smile, before the pink-haired coworker spoke up.

"Welcome back, Azuma and Kawachi." Kanmuri smiled at them. "I'm glad you're back."

"I'm just glad to see you!" Kawachi couldn't help but laugh. "We could've found a way to get back here faster if you were stuck in Hyrule with us!"

"Hyrule?" the mushroom-haired man asked, and Azuma regretted being forgetful about that guy's name. "Is that where you were?"

"Yeah." Azuma nodded. He sucked in a breath, before letting it go. "I…even got amnesia, for a while. But I have my memories back now."

"Are you sure?" The woman asked, and he turned to face her. Her hopeful eyes turned worried as she folded her hands together in front of her chest, fidgeting on the spot. "Do you…remember me?"

Azuma looked Tsukino Azusagawa in the eyes, before he offered her a smile and a nod.

"Yeah! I do!"

And as Tsukino smiled, Azuma smiled right back at her.

Author note: Thank you to everyone reading the "Trials Of The Wild" series so far. Whether you have been keeping up with each new fic and/or update to the series as it went, or you're just discovering this series now after it's completed, I am grateful for all of the love and support you've given to this series. The next fic, "The Coronation," will be the final fic in the series and I hope that you enjoy reading it.