Author note: I do not own Yakitate! Japan and/or The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.

This is another fic in the "Trials Of The Wild" crossover series! If you haven't read up to "A Matter Of Pride," please do so now as this fic takes place immediately after that fic.

Warning: BOTW spoilers, Yakitate! Japan spoilers, already-established Sidon/Meister Kirisaki, some Ryou Kuroyanagi/Mipha

Considerations

Summary: The group tries to figure out where Yukino might attack next (Goron City and/or Gerudo Town) as well as WHY she's taking the Champions' signature items. Meanwhile, Kuroyanagi and Mipha try to sort a few things out…and it doesn't quite work out so well.

"Okay, okay, okay. Just…give me a second to understand." Shachioko leaned back in his seat. The party had once again decided to head back to Zelda's Castle and talk things out after Revali's defeat and Yukino avoiding capture, as well as her stealing the Great Eagle Bow. "Why the heck is she trying to take the items belonging to the Champions?"

"We've discussed before that it could be for evil magic purposes." Monica tilted her head to the left. "But what if it was for evil baking purposes?"

Cue all the Champions staring at Monica. Mipha cleared her throat, before asking, "Evil baking purposes? How so?"

"The thing is," Monica wrinkled her nose, "Back in our world, we often had a lot of baking contests and duels against rivals. And remember how we mentioned people having wild reactions to eating the bread? Sometimes it depends on what ingredients and tools we use in the baking process. Yukino has the Blizzard Hands ability, which is really good for keeping pastry dough cold when preparing it and kneading it. She fought Azuma in a tart-related match but she lost."

"If that's the case, why don't we have Azuma go up against Yukino in a baking match?" Urbosa asked. "He won last time."

"It might be different with her being possessed by Ganon, though." Kai frowned. "Do you know if he has any baking ability whatsoever?"

All of the Champions immediately shook their heads. Imagining Calamity Ganon baking was like trying to imagine a Moblin trying to be a genuinely nice person to Hylians instead of straight-up attacking them.

"I don't want to imagine Calamity Ganon baking." Revali stated bluntly. He looked more disappointed at such an idea than anything else, and Shachioko figured he was still bitter about losing the Great Eagle Bow to Yukino recently. "Why bother with a baking match when we can just destroy Ganon outright by fighting him?"

"Maybe the reactions we cause by baking in a baking match can destroy Ganon." Shachioko piped up. "Right?"

Revali shook his head quickly. "What are you going to do, poison his bread and shove it into his mouth? Or Yukino's mouth!?"

"No!" All the bakers half-shouted at once, eyes widening with horror. Shachioko could only sigh afterwards as he slumped back in his seat, shaking his head.

"That just sounds like a recipe for complete disaster…"

Zelda cleared her throat, trying to take control of the situation. If she didn't, things would absolutely get out of hand at this rate. The bakers…no offense to them, but they had some strange ideas. And maybe some were a bit too risky.

"I'm sure we don't have to defeat Ganon by murdering him or Yukino, poison or not." She managed. "Wearing them down in battle obviously didn't work last time, and last I checked, Ganon can't just be poisoned, even if he is using Yukino as a host of sorts."

"What would you propose instead?" Kuroyanagi asked, looking towards her. "Sealing her away?"

"I initially put Link in the Chamber of Resurrection for a hundred years." Zelda managed. "If we can at least seal away Yukino and Ganon in there, or find some way to do something akin to that, we can give Hyrule the peace it needs."

"But that's not permanent, though." Urbosa pointed out. "Calamity Ganon could just break out if it's not weakened enough."

"Then we just have to weaken him to the point of him never regaining his full power." Kai spoke, and everyone looked towards him. "If Yukino is potentially using the weapons of the Champions to give Ganon further power in some way, what if we just destroyed the weapons? That way, Ganon can't use them to power himself up in any way possible."

"That means we have to hunt down Ganon, though. In the meantime, Daruk and Urbosa haven't lost their weapons…" Monica trailed off, before looking towards them. "Neither of you mind if we have to destroy the weapons you use the most, right?"

Daruk shrugged, taking out his own Boulder Breaker. "Well, I'll miss it, but I can always craft a new one."

"Same goes for my scimitars." Urbosa managed, taking out said weapons. She glanced down at them, and then up at the others. "If this is how we have to beat Ganon, I'm more than happy to do it."

"What about Link's sword?" It was Azuma that asked the question. "The Master Sword?"

Link paused, taking out the mentioned sword. He knew that it was supposed to be the weapon he wielded to beat Ganon, or so he was told back then, but…

"I don't think it can be destroyed." He heard Zelda speak, and he looked towards her. Zelda frowned, swallowing lightly before she continued speaking. "I've never heard of anyone successfully destroying the Master Sword. Any other weapon can be broken, but that sword…that's impossible."

"If that's the case, I guess we just have to keep it safe." Shachioko scratched the back of his head, looking towards Link. "Are you gonna be okay knowing Ganon could try to snatch it up?"

Link found himself nodding. In all honesty, he'd used numerous types of weapons before picking up the Master Sword for the second time in his life. He could work without it again if he needed to, or at least hide it somewhere on his person.

"I can hide it in the Shiekah Slate." He managed quietly. "I don't have to have it in my hands at all times."

"That will do for now." Zelda managed, offering him a soft smile. She looked towards the others. "What about Revali and Mipha's weapons? Should we recover them or at least find them and destroy them?"

"That might be the best course of action." Mipha admitted with a nod. "I just hope that the other Zora in the Domain aren't upset that my trident is permanently broken."

"You can always get it fixed afterwards." Revali muttered.

"It's not just that." A sigh left her as she looked towards him. "You know that…"

"That your brother voluntarily went into exile for the sake of his lover, who he exchanged the trident for in the first place. I get it." Revali frowned, shaking his head. "There's no point thinking too hard about it, Mipha. It's asinine."

Link knew Revali had a point, but he also recognized that Mipha wasn't exactly happy about the results of that situation. Not only did it make little sense for Sidon to be forced to choose between being with the man he loved and staying in the Domain afterward, but Sidon and Meister had only tried to do the right thing at the time, or what they hoped was the right thing.

How were they supposed to know at the time that Yukino had serious plans for Mipha's trident?

Link tried not to think too hard about it. It was already done, after all, and thinking of it further was currently, as Revali put it, asinine.

Mipha found herself trying to stay good distance from the others after that brief meeting. Daruk and Urbosa were off getting their weapons destroyed for now, and Zelda encouraged Mipha and the others to get some rest before they went to locate Yukino and Revali and Mipha's weapons.

"Mipha?" She looked up to see Kuroyanagi approach. He paused, swallowing lightly, before asking, "Can we talk?"

"S-sure." She hated how hesitant she sounded right now, but Kuroyanagi was probably one of the few people she could get herself to talk to right now.

"It's just…I'm sick of it." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I knew that Sidon and I were often compared to each other since we were young, Kuroyanagi. When I came back to life…I realized how bad it was. Everyone saw me as this saintly figure, and meanwhile Sidon was just my replacement."

"I don't think the comparison was completely that bad, or at least not as I saw it at first." Kuroyanagi frowned. "The people love Sidon as a whole, it's just that the elders…"

"Are too stuck up to being more accepting of Hylians because of what happened a hundred years ago, save for Muzu and a few others." Mipha shook her head. "They're a stubborn lot. We Zoras have our pride, and I've been aware of that since I was young, but…seeing Sidon get raked over the coals simply because he gave up my trident to save Meister wasn't fair."

"Would you have done the same?"

"Yes!" Her voice came out in a near snap but she didn't care right now. "If it was someone I deeply care for being stuck in that situation of life and death, like you for example, and all I had to do was hand over my own weapon to free them with no other choice, I'd absolutely do it. And I have no doubt that the elders would have approved or wouldn't mind, even if it was for a Hylian or human. But because someone else did it…just because it had to be my brother…"

She didn't want to finish that sentence.

"Wait." Kuroyanagi sounded stunned, and her gaze snapped towards him to see his eyes freezing over a bit as he stared at her. "You…care for me?"

Mipha faltered. This wasn't what she wanted to say aloud. That hadn't been what she meant, had it? But… "I…"

"You said for example, if it was someone you deeply care for…and you used me as the example…" Kuroyanagi stumbled over his own words, shaking his head lightly before looking her in the eyes again, "Mipha…do you…have a crush on me?"

It was like the world went still.

Mipha went silent. Kuroyanagi wasn't sure what to do.

He knew it might be bad timing to ask. She was still grieving over Sidon being exiled from Zora's Domain and rightfully so. But for her to so explicitly say something like that…

Has she had a crush on me the entire time? And I didn't notice?

The dancing at the ball. The way they naturally got along. Why hadn't Kuroyanagi seen the signs earlier? He knew he had his own crush on her, but he'd assumed it was unrequited since Mipha never made a move and also because she was moving on from Link. But now…

"I can't do this." Mipha stood, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I can't!"

"Mipha–" Kuroyanagi started, but Mipha's gaze snapped towards him, tears in her eyes.

"I can't do this, Kuroyanagi!" She repeated. "I've already lost my brother because he fell for someone. And I can't lose more people. If my father or the elders found out that you wanted me in your life romantically, then…"

"But you also want to be with me, right?" Why bother denying it? Hiding these feelings wasn't going to help either of them in the long run, was it? "What are they going to do, exile me from the Domain as well!? Exile you? That would be bad for all of the Domain! They already lost their Prince and I don't think they can try to remove their own Princess that they've idolized for a literal century!"

"I do, but I can't!"

Her voice echoed through the hall, but what registered most to Kuroyanagi was how strained Mipha sounded. How scared she was.

How terrified she looked.

Kuroyanagi realized he shouldn't have pushed. He shouldn't have asked… "Mipha…"

"Just…don't." She took a step back, shaking her head. "Kuroyanagi…we can't be together. Not like this. It's only going to be worse for us both."

"But…"

Mipha already left as swiftly as she could, and Kuroyanagi was alone. He balled his hands into fists by his sides, before he opened them with a sharp exhale, burying his face in his hands. What was he supposed to do now?

Did I just screw it all up?