"Hey, Link!" Ghirahim called from across the pavilion. Link rushed to meet him.

"Have you seen Zelda today?"

"Funny, I was just wondering if you had."

This would obviously seem trivial, Zelda's one day of truancy, if the situation had not been so dire. As it was, Zelda's absence could mean anything, from a cold to her death. As far as they knew, she could have been kidnapped as Ms. Maxwell was suspected to have been.

"I suppose we'd better not be overly paranoid," Link noted. "We'll only rile ourselves up."

"I'm just surprised they haven't cancelled school. I would think that, with all the turmoil surrounding Ms. Maxwell's disappearance, they would've just sent us all home by now."

Link had to agree. "You'd think that would occur to them." A white-clad Sheikah walked by, eyeing them suspiciously, before heading toward the office. The first bell rang. "So what are we going to do with our time?" Link asked. "You and Zelda usually spend it clashing heads, but since she seems to have stayed home today, it looks like we're going to have to get creative."

"Two hours to kill...you know who else has two hours to kill?" Ghirahim grinned. Link knew the answer, but he didn't feel like dealing with Nabooru right now. After yesterday, he needed some rest. "You know what else she'll kill, according to you, if we don't act quickly?"

"That was a sick joke," Link chided. This seemed to serve, however, as an agreement that they were going to see Nabooru after all. They headed toward the library, where she usually spent her time. Having no real friends, she wrapped herself in books, tucked away in an obscure corner of the building. Nobody talked to her when she secluded herself like this, none but Link and Ghirahim, who were shy in approaching her.

"Yes?" she asked softly as they sat near her.

"Just wondering if you want to, you know, hang out, since we've got so much time on our hands," Ghirahim suggested.

She hid behind her book. "You don't have to be charitable. I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"No, really," Link said. "We'd like to spend some time with you, if you'd like to with us."

She closed her book and put it back in her satchel. Link wondered why she didn't use her tablet. Maybe she was one of the types who liked the feel of paper, the smell of new, or old, books. "Fine," she conceded. "But you have to promise me one thing. You have to be straightforward about why you're doing this. You're sorry for me. You see me as out of place, as abused, as a victim. You heard me tell that Sheikah that my dad and I have fights every week. That I've never had a true friend in my life. You don't like me. You just feel guilty about listening in to that interrogation."

"That's not true," Link said. "And though we are worried about you, we're also, genuinely, your friends."

She stood up, hoisting her satchel onto her shoulder. "You disgust me," she said, before stepping over the both of them and out of the library.

This continued for some time; Link and Ghirahim, over the course of a couple weeks, made several attempts to provide Nabooru with what she needed most: kindness. But she refused, determined that their only intention was sympathy; she wanted to be emotionally dependent on no one. Link wondered what he could do to help her. What could draw her from seclusion when she was insistent on staying so utterly alone? Perhaps something, or someone, that had drawn Link himself out of seclusion, who had straightforwardly yet tenderly breached his most solidly constructed barriers, who could glean from him what he hadn't even told Zelda. Fi hadn't shared Nabooru's experience, as she had Link's, but it was worth a shot. How to approach it, though?

Eventually, Link decided to forget his tablet in Boom's room again. The ploy was cliche, but it worked: he found Fi in the room, but Boom was nowhere to be seen. The opportunity was perfect. "I suspect this is what you're here for," Fi said with a sly smile, holding out his tablet.

"Yes, I am," he replied.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"You don't think I'm that dumb, do you?" She grinned cleverly, holding Link's tablet as if tantalizing him with it. "I don't think you're that forgetful. You don't seem the type to make the same mistake twice."

"You'd be surprised," he muttered, sitting by her. "Now, hand me that tablet and I'll tell you my true intention." She handed it over with expectant eyes. "Now, do you know a girl named Nabooru?"

Fi's eyes narrowed. "That's a Gerudo name."

"Exactly. And the crowd here hasn't been kind to her. She's on the verge of suicide. Trust me. I know."

Fi looked away. "I don't want you to involve me in someone else's business."

Link ignored her. "She seems to think the entire school is either against her or feels sorry for her. And I'm trying to convince her that's not true. To prove that suicide is not a worthwhile option."

"And you think my sympathetic nature will appeal to her."

"Just maybe. Nabooru seems to think every move of mine is one of mercy. Especially after I overheard-"

"You mean eavesdropped?"

"Sure, if you want to call it that." Link was surprised at Fi's quick and perceptive wit. "I eavesdropped on an interrogation. You know how we've got Sheikah patrolling the school after this supposed kidnapping."

Fi's eyes grew worried. "What did she say?"

"You mean what questions were asked? Well, I don't remember all of them, but I'm pretty sure masturbation habits have nothing to do with national security." Fi clapped a hand over her mouth. It almost looked as if she were suppressing a giggle. Link didn't blame her. When people don't know how to react, he had discovered, they laugh. "To synopsize, she's being harassed by everyone around her, is friendless, and feels the only way out is death. She refuses help from her peers, but you...you helped me express what I never would have dared to. Never before had I told anyone of my specific role on the Gerudo pirate ship. I had been tortured. But you..."

"We shared a common experience. I don't know how I'd approach this situation."

Link could think of many possibilities. Why was Fi resisting? Was she nervous? Worried about seeming intrusive? Or worse, was she frightened of seeing the sharp, angular Gerudo features again, the blazing yellow eyes, as Link had been when he first saw Nabooru? Which brought him to another painful thought: did Nabooru detect Link's uncomfortable air the day she met him? Was this the real reason she refused his companionship, not because his friendliness had seemed contrived?

Link put these thoughts aside. "Be here when she's in class. Take an interest in what she's doing. Make casual conversation with her. I know it's not my problem, and it's not yours, either, but I can't see someone, anyone, do away with herself as a result of prejudice. And shallow prejudice, at that."

Fi smiled. "You're sweet, Link." She stood up and started somewhere, seemed to forget where she was going, and sat back down again. "I'll try my best. I'll do it for a friend."

"Thanks," Link replied. "I suppose I had better be going, now."

"See you soon."

"Alright."

He left the classroom in higher spirits than those with which he entered.