I know this seems to be going slow so far, but to be honest there's so many elements I want to incorporate into this story that I get overwhelmed and stop for a bit, lol. The benefits of using an open world video game as the source content is that you can to ANYTHING but the downsides are that you get overwhelmed easily, lol. But I think its cool to include mechanics in this fic that aren't in the OG game, so I'm having fun. There's a few more funny scenes I want to write before getting to Katsuki yoinking the paraglider and wind bombing immediately to AFO to kick ass.
My brother has also started to play BOTW for the first time, so watching him play and figure out problems for solutions is really inspiring. I'll do my best in future chapters to portray what I mean!
The afternoon turned hot on his back as he slugged across the plateau, stepping carefully around bricks that had been overturned by a century of neglect and wild bushes that bloomed through the cracks in the pavement. His shirt and pants had long since dried after his quick swim, but his shoes still had an uncomfortable squishing noise to them. They picked up the dust and grime of the ruins he was walking in.
The old man had shown him with ease how to navigate the map function and add little pinpoints to the map that he could follow. Katsuki had mostly let him get close enough to the thing in hopes that he could attempt to snag the paraglider again, but the man kept to his left. Admittedly, his advice was helpful.
When the old man suggested getting a higher vantage point with a telltale twinkle in his sunken eyes towards the top of the newly risen tower, Katsuki just rolled his eyes. He shoved the slate back onto its holder, and stomped away. The old man only chuckled.
A monster camp crawling with numerous bokoblins was using the skull of some giant beast as a barracks of sorts. With two watchtowers on either end of the entrance and lined with explosive barrels and the beady eyes of the sneaky little bokos. That looked interesting, but instead he crawled up the side of the steep hill to avoid the gaze of the red monsters. He had a mission, and he made a promise.
Promises must not be broken.
This world that he awoke in seemed to have few other people like him. All that he knew was the old man whose name he purposely had not given, and the lad who awoke him from his slumber with only a few whispers.
And he needed Katsuki's help.
He kept the sheikah slate in his hands, occasionally looking around through the screen on the front to see if anything metal was nearby. The boulders near the shrine where he tried to steal the paraglider from the old man highlighted from far away, but he forgot to get them while he was over there and didn't feel like walking back.
Katsuki glowered at the smooth screen in his hands. It was cold, at odds with the warm sunlight filtering through motes of floating dust that rose from his footsteps. The screen glowed bright despite the sun's bright rays.
He trekked towards the glowing icon, but as he raised his head to squint into the sun, he saw that the green grass ahead of him was broken by sheets of stone, too regular to be natural. The shape of grand stone stairs rose from the ground, overgrown with grass and little vine-like creepers. The edges were speckled with lichen. A small breeze carried the edge of the day's heat off of his skin.
Some steps were broken, though the broken edges were overgrown as well. Guardians, bigger than the singular one in the shrine, as overgrown as the stairs. Their segmented legs laid broken in the grass, the shiny substance that formed their pot-like shells mossy and faded, like a forgotten memory. They had one singular eye that was long clouded over in death. Somewhere, a bird was singing.
A quick movement of bright red caught Katsuki's eye, and he had enough time to hurriedly stow the slate and raise his shield as a screeching bokoblin dashed its bulbous head against it, its wooden bat clattering wildly. And, with a grimace, Katsuki swiftly drove the point of his blade through it, and it was blessedly silent again, as the monster crumbled to ash and dust. The smell remained though, thick in his mouth and clogging his nostrils. He dug his nails into the leather grip of his sword.
Another squawk, followed by high pitched squeals. Katsuki frowned. They had wasted their surprise with that inexperienced charge. Katsuki dispatched the new enemies quickly.
He blew the foul-smelling dust from his nose. Disgusting. With those pests out of the way, he turned his attention to the hollow remains of the guardians. The one in the shrine was rigged to explode upon death, but these bigger ones clearly did not suffer the same curse, as their corpses were left in the elements for years without any decomposition or scavenging. Why?
His first thought was to climb one. He raised his arms and braced a leg on its curved armor, but, as it tipped slightly from his weight, something rattled inside.
He froze, eyes darting to the movement of something grey and shiny by the foot still planted on the ground.
A spring of shiny coiled metal glinted in the sunlight.
A few minutes later, Katsuki walked on, the jingle of screws and springs in his pockets singing a song of satisfaction.
The afternoon turned hot on his back as he slugged across the plateau, stepping carefully around bricks that had been overturned by a century of neglect and wild bushes that bloomed through the cracks in the pavement. His shirt and pants had long since dried after his quick swim, but his shoes still had an uncomfortable squishing noise to them. They picked up the dust and grime of the ruins he was walking in.
For the sake of time, he avoided the few monster camps he saw, but made note of their locations on the slate. Their weapons looked crude, made of splintered wood and twine made of cypress bark, but if his sword failed him it would be useful to have another weapon on hand.
The second shrine was marked in the ruins of what was once an enclosed building, the wooden roof long rotted away but the stone walls remaining. He could just see the point of the shrine, smoothed and glinting in the sunlight. The slate had the area marked it as an abbey, but it looked more like a long abandoned inn from a distance. Katsuki readjusted his grip on his sword and shield. The area from where he was hiding to the abbey had little cover. Although he could see none of those little red monsters around, they could easily be hiding in the grass. The monsters were short, and so was Katsuki. The grass easily came up to his chest.
Well, he'll just have to hide too.
Lowering himself into a crouch, he began to walk slowly forward. He could now barely see the walls of the abbey over the height of the grass, but as long as he had a general sense of direction he would be fine. If worse came to worse, he could always stand up and make a run for it.
The smell of the dirt was calming, and the afternoon sun beat at his back, warming him to his bones. A breeze gently rustled through the blades of grass, covering the sound of his footsteps. Although he stayed on high alert, he lost himself in the rhythm of moving one step forward and the slight burn in his ankles from the abuse. When the abbey walls were within a few steps, he stood fully. Looking behind him revealed a still empty plain.
He ran a hand against the crumbling stone. The weathered bricks were cool but rough, biting into his newly-healed hands.
Although the roof of the abbey had long since rotted and caved away, the main doorway remained. It arched high above his head, and Katsuki confidently walked through them. Inside what may have once been a welcoming hall of sorts was now a shallow room, splattered with a few guardians half buried in the ground. A few wildflowers grew in the shade of the abbey's strong walls.
Feeling more safe now that he was in an enclosed area, he stretched and slowly walked towards the shrine, where it rested behind another similarly built wall.
The sun was shining, Katsuki was warm, his belly was full from the mushrooms he had eaten earlier, and he had plenty of leather scraps to sew a sturdy bag later if he wished. Despite his day being pretty weird, he felt confident in the future ahead. Nothing could stand in his way, especially when the only things seeming to try were bokos that were dispatched and killed near instantly with his sword.
A loud clang sounded through the air, and Katsuki whirled around, sword and shield in hand to reveal a squirrel looking at him quizzically. A fat walnut sat in its hands, and it was using the guardian's hollow shell to open it. The thing tilted its head to the side, inspecting him. Katsuki thought briefly of killing it for meat. It ran off, walnut in hand, before Katsuki could make up his mind.
To his right, a thick, nonorganic gong sounded though the hot afternoon air. Katsuki whirled around, dropping a bundle of leather scraps and screws he was bouncing back and forth in his hands. One of the guardians, covered in moss and ivy, swung its head towards Katsuki, its blue eye shining bright. Its body was encased in the ground by years of being exposed to the elements, but its head was suspended on a gear that allowed it to swivel it around with a loud grinding noise. It whined, before letting out a series of beeps that frantically increased in pitch.
"Katsuki! Move!"
Without thinking, Katsuki quickly ducked to the ground, and the guardian fired a solid beam of light that vaporized the wall he was just near. It exploded into a cloud of dust, instantly blinding Katsuki and sticking to the sweat of his skin. He coughed, stumbling out from under the cloud as the guardian started to hum again.
He raced to the other end of the abbey, climbing over the wall and falling into the room where the shrine was housed. The guardian fired another beam, close enough to his head that Katsuki felt the wind shift with heat and smelled the disgusting taste of singed hair.
Katsuki held his breath, his lungs aching and his legs trembling from the rush of adrenaline. His heart hammered in his clenched jaw, and a roaring sound filled his ears. . The day was silent, the birdsong and chitter of small beasts that he had taken for granted had ceased, and there was only the grinding sound of the Guardian's head turning, the dirt of decades grinding in its gears as it's unblinking eye searched for him.
Slowly, he raised himself to his feet, ignoring his scuffed knees as he climbed the wall once more. He peeked over the wall, ready to duck if the guardian prepared to fire again.
The guardian had turned its head away from him, but still glowed faint blue along the seams. Cautiously, Katsuki ran his hands along the top of the wall, not taking his eyes off the guardian. His fingers caught on the overgrowing moss before curling around a sizable pebble of rubble, and threw it at the guardian, hitting it on the back of its head. It rotated threateningly right back around and started to frantically breedle when it caught sight of him. Katsuki dropped back to the ground and waited a few precious seconds with baited breath.
No beam of light came. He popped his head back over the wall. The guardian began to power up again, but stopped once Katsuki ducked out of view once more.
He did this three more times, with the same results.
The guardians didn't have object permanence.
Covered in scrapes and bruises and dust, Katsuki began to laugh. His chest was sore from his heavy breathing, and he was exhausted and felt like he was about to pass out, but he couldn't stop laughing. He clutched his side, water leaking from his eyes as he cackled madly. Panic struck him as he tried to inhale, fighting against his very lungs to breathe. His eyes widened, his pulse quickened.
Bile rose in his throat and he upended the contents of his stomach into the grass. He panted heavily, catching his breath. Saliva and chunks slowly dripped out of his mouth. He luckily didn't get any on his clothing. Once he felt like he wasn't going to vomit again he leaned back against the wall and sighed, closing his eyes. He breathed deeply. The smell of vomit masked his stench of sweat and grime.
Then, he opened them. The voice from the castle had spoken to him again, and he didn't even notice.
He cursed himself internally, pursing his lips. If the voice could give warnings, perhaps it was watching him. And it just saw him upchuck some mushrooms and burnt meat into the grass from adrenaline, like some kind of loser. If he really was going to save that sweet little voice, he couldn't lose his lunch at the sight of one near-death experience.
The shrine shone in the late afternoon light. He pushed himself to his feet and dragged himself up the shallow stairs.
The door opened up in the same way the Oman Au shrine did, but Katsuki was less impressed by it as he had seen it before. Perhaps all shrines were built in this manner and this was once a common technology. He should not show much admiration for it, for in the end a door is a door. Technology is technology and should not be worshiped. An ant would not bow to the sight of a sword, nor a squirrel in the face of a torch. Katsuki will not be impressed with any basic technological endeavors.
He stepped onto the platform, and only stumbled a little as it sank into the ground.
The room opened up into a vast cavern with the same designs and structures as the last shrine as well. It was more enclosed, with four darkened walls and one lit ceiling high above Katsuki's head. A set of stairs led down into two blocks alongside the bottom of the wall that looked weak and could be destroyed if he used enough force. Before going back up to check out the guidance stone, Katsuki shoved the blocks with his shoulder. When that did nothing, he activated the Magnesis rune to see if they were secretly metallic. When that did nothing, he just rolled his eyes.
He could still not decipher the writing that appeared on the guidance stone as it dripped a new rune into his slate. If he had a notebook or something to write down the pictures with, maybe he could show it to someone and they could decode it.
But who? The old man? Katsuki shook his head as the guidance stone finally dripped the last of the data ink onto the slate.
He picked it up, inspecting the slate. Two new icons were added next to the magnesis rune, depicting a square and a circle.
"Remote Bomb. A bomb that can be detonated remotely. The force of the blast can be used to damage monsters or destroy objects. There are both round and cube bombs, so use whichever best fits the situation."
Remote.
What does remote mean?
He fingerspelt it once. R-E-M-O-T-E. Then again, quicker this time. He was getting used to fingerspelling and signing in general. It felt more natural then attempting to use his throat and tongue to form sounds. Save for the laughter from earlier and yells in the heat of battle, he seemed unable to use his voice at all.
It doesn't seem like a big issue, though.
"Remote" sort of looked like the word "Remove." They both had the "Remo" sound and letters in them. Removed.
A removed bomb? That didn't quite make a lot of sense.
He knew what bombs were, however. The thought of one filled him with excitement. Not-quite memories flooded into his brain at the very mention of the word. Red barrels, laced with gunpowder. Loud sounds that sent excitement rushing through his whole body. The red-hot heat of a fire blast before the whip of cool air rushing back into empty space. Light shimmering off of glinting metal. Dirt under his fingernails, thunder during a storm.
He looked at the slate, and the runes on the page. Carefully, he tapped the square shaped rune and activated it.
A glowing blue cube popped into existence. He scrambled backwards in surprise, dropping the slate. The cube fell to the floor. It appeared to be lightweight. Katsuki nudged it with his foot, and it scooted across the floor with little resistance.
Was this the bomb?
Katsuki picked up the slate and inspected the page again. Another prompt had flashed across the screen.
"Detonate."
He tapped it without thinking just exactly what "detonate" meant, and immediately was thrown backwards by the force of the blast. It left no dent in the floor or in the surrounding structures, but it sure left a dent in him. Katsuki hit his head on the floor and he let out a whine as he clutched the base of his skull.
Ouch.
Then, a maniacal grin split his face. Maybe he will be impressed with some technological endeavors after all. He switched over to the circle rune and activated another bomb. This time it was more of a ball like object, with the same glowing blue hum the cube shaped bomb had. He threw it at the cracked walls, and detonated it from a distance. They cracked into dust, revealing a passageway he could walk through.
So that's what remote meant. From a distance, activate. He puffed out his chest in pride at figuring out another word by himself. He formed another bomb, this time a cube, and threw it away from him and activated it again.
Bombs were fun. Although they weren't very powerful, he could probably use them to destroy that guardian outside the shrine. All he had to do was keep chucking bombs at it until it stopped moving, right?
The guardians were shekiah technology too. Katsuki wasn't sure how he knew that, but it made sense. The guardians and shrines and his slate were all made out of the same material. Two were orange and didn't try to kill him and gave him gifts and hints of the life he once had. One was pink and tried to kill him. It was an interesting little mystery.
He likened it to plants. Some plants could be eaten while others could be poison. Technology must follow the same principle. At least these were color coded, so he could tell which was which.
Katsuki wondered if the voice coming from the castle was imprisoned by those pink guardians. The malice glowed with a pink and purple light, so perhaps the malice was present in the guardians as well. Like a sickness, or a disease.
Should he be allowing the guardians so close to shrines, if that was the case? What if he came across a diseased shrine? A diseased tower?
He shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts. It was cold in the shrine, and he wanted to get out as soon as possible.
He had to go to the castle. It felt vitally important, somehow. Maybe it was because he's only ever heard two people speak. Maybe it's because he could somehow hear the castle's captive from across miles of land, as if he was right in front of him. Unable to touch, unable to see.
That person was special to him.
He wishes he knew their name.
The sun was just beginning to set when he climbed out of the shrine and into the fresh daylight. The humidity of the land blanked him like a well worn cloak, and he instantly felt warmer. The shrines were cold, and he had very little in the ways of clothing.
Across the abbey, he could see the leather scraps he dropped, and the guardian that awoke from its death now slumbering. Positioning himself and the slate to sit just below the wall, toes digging into the crumbling mortar, he prepared to bombard the guardian with these bombs until it killed them.
One bomb did not do very much damage to Katsuki. It mostly just flung him away and the actual harm was from hitting the ground at such speeds. Since this guardian was embedded in the ground, that meant that he would have to throw a lot of bombs to get it to die.
He chunked one, detonating it when it collided with the protruding head of the guardian. Its face swung around, frantically searching for Katsuki, but he was already throwing another bomb and ducking back behind the wall, denoting it.
He repeated it a total of six times before he got tired. Five more times before he allowed himself to uncoil himself and relax. The guardian showed some dents and the fresh glint of metal scratches gleaned from debris impacts, so he continued.
Shouldn't the guardian have figured out what he was doing, and destroyed the wall he was hiding behind? Katsuki had positioned himself near the shrine in case something like that happened. But why couldn't the guardian figure out where he was?
He tossed another cube like bomb idly and wondered if there was a limit to the bombs he could make. He summoned the spherical one as he detonated the first.
There was now a considerable crater both in the guardian itself and in the soil where his bombs have been slowly digging the guardian out. The sky went from a light golden to a vivid orange as he continued diligently his task, bored as hell.
He tossed about two more bombs before he realized the guardian was dented beyond repair and couldn't swing its head around anymore. He jumped down from the wall, slate in hand, approaching it carefully.
When it caught sight of him it let out that telltale charge of its light beam thing, but stopped when Katsuki stepped out of view.
An idea struck him.
Quickly stuffing the slate away and grabbing a handful of loose soil, wetting the soil with his saliva to make mud. Before he lost his nerve, he shoved his hands into the eye of the guardian, smearing the mud over its smooth eye, which hummed with heat. The guardian let out an almost confused-sounding beep, before letting out a grinding sound. Katsuki realized it was trying to turn its head, but the material of the guardian was so warped the joint no longer functioned properly.
It couldn't shoot him if it was blind, right?
Letting out a triumphant little "Hmf!" at his handiwork, he began to gather up his dropped items. The guardian whirled sadly. He would almost feel bad for it, being paralyzed and blind, if it had not tried to kill him before.
Katsuki turned and walked out of the abbey. The guardian let off one final blast of light and Katsuki booked it for the exit before it could figure out how to turn its head around.
The monsters were more active at night.
Katsuki dodged the lunge of a skeleton-bokoblin's spear, before summoning another bomb and flinging it at the boko's exposed skull. The thing's eyes rolled around in its sockets as he knocked its head clean off. The explosion of the bomb scattered the rest of the skeleton's bones across the ground, where they turned into little wisps of the sulfer smelling miasma.
Katsuki picked up the spear. It was a bit light in his hands and could probably be snapped with a good thrust, but he strapped it onto his back anyway. He now carried so many wooden weapons that it was hard to turn now, but instead of risking the chance of a weapon breaking he could just chuck a weapon directly at the skeleton's heads before blowing up their remaining bodies.
He could see the next shrine far in the distance, perched high upon a cliff at what looked like the ceiling of the world itself.
And below it, a cabin. Backlit by the flickering flames of a cooking fire and overrun with moss. It could barely be called a cabin, built from a lean-to of rocks and a canvas stretched between them for a semblance of a ceiling. The stones had gaps that would allow the elements inside. When Katsuki approached, he could hear the old man humming as he stirred something in a cast-iron pot. Katsuki's mouth watered from the smell of meat.
"Hello, my boy." The old man said when he finally noticed him. He had a skinned rabbit and a basket full of greens next to him. "Are you hungry? I doubt you've had a bite to eat since you woke up."
Katsuki shook his head as his stomach rumbled. The old man let out a chuckle.
"I have eaten," Katsuki defended himself.
"Oh yes, I had forgotten." The old man's smile had a hint of ornery. "You had taken my baked apple before I could even enjoy my delicious treat."
Katsuki stubbornly crossed his arms. He did not look at the delicious rabbit stew simmering in the cooking pot. His stomach did not rumble a second time.
The old man rolled his eyes. "Boy, I have asked you for a favor in return for a proper payment. It is in my best interest to keep you fed and well enough to complete that favor. I wish no harm upon you. Come sit by the fire."
Katsuki considered his words. Truthfully, the man has not tried to harm him intentionally throughout the day. He had only properly defended himself when Katsuki tried to rob him, and offered only a few harsh words after an initial thrashing and substantial swim in the pond.
Plus, whatever was in these shrines could have some importance to the old man. Like he said, it is in his interest to not harm Katsuki.
So he sat down next to the fire. The old man offered him a cup. He regarded the poorly carved thing, and held his hand up in an "I'll pass" gesture. He pointed to the rabbit carcass itself, which was only sloppily carved so the best juicy bits of the meat could get in the stew, leaving the entrails and the belly fat behind. The old man raised an eyebrow, but handed it over anyway.
"I hope you won't eat the entrails raw. It's terrible on the digestive system."
Katsuki took out his sword and, using it as a knife, cut the rest of the skin away from the remaining meat. The sword was just a little bit too long to be used in such a manner but he was a hard worker. Stabbing the meat into the spear he just took from the boko, he rammed it into the ground so the meat would begin to cook. It almost immediately began to sizzle from the heat of the flames and the freshness of the kill. The fat made a delicious aroma. With that job done, he began to work the pelt of the rabbit away from the fatty under-layer so it could be used as a fur. He'll have to find an oak tree stump later to fill it with water and allow the skin to soak in the tannins.
"Your skills are immaculate. I am impressed with your combat skills and your survival," The old man admitted as he added some herbs to the pot. "I watched you fight those pesky skeleton-bokoblins a moment earlier. Although you acted as if you had never seen such creatures before, you figured out quickly that the head is their weak point.
Katsuki paused in his task, before setting the sword down. "Help me next time, asshole." He signed with a glare.
"I doubt my old bones and rickety frame will help in a fight. I have long since given up the art of combat, anyway." The man pushed back his sleeves to reveal arms that were bone-frail, scarred with sickness long healed. "Do these look like the arms of someone who can raise a sword?"
"They look like the arms that pushed me into a pond."
The old man shrugged. "The fight or flight response can do amazing things to the body, even in ancient age. Besides, you needed a bath."
Katsuki formed a sign that he felt was a very rude word. Then he continued to scrape the sinew away from the skin.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. The stars above them gleamed and the calls of the bokos dancing around their own campfires far away echoed in the night. Eventually the man deemed the soup to be cooked enough and labeled the thick broth into two wooden cups, offering the second to Katsuki. Katsuki watched the man take three sips before he took one of his own.
The flavor of the rabbit was strong, but not overpowering. The herbs combine well with the gamey taste. It was just almost on the side of spicy and sour. It was good.
A meal cooked with love.
Immediately after that thought crossed his mind, Katsuki's eyes began to water. The emotional toll of his long day had caught up to him in this moment's stillness. He has never shared a meal with anyone before, much less a meal made with love. He isn't even sure he has done anything before today.
What had happened to him? What made him forget everything and stuck him in a hidden away shrine, away from the sun and this beautiful world? What left him with only impressions of memories and an affinity to lash out with such anger?
Swallowing his tears with a shuddering breath, he looked to the sky for comfort. Unlike the day, the night brought a slight chill. The sea of stars stretched into infinity, cementing his place in the world.
He was small, and the world was big. Somehow, that was a comfort to him.