The Legend of Zelda: The Ryouga of Time

Deep in the heart of Hyrule lies a cursed forest, the Lost Woods.  These woods are said to be impossible to navigate.  Few know the true reason behind the disorienting force of the woods: the Great Deku Tree.

For centuries, this tremendous, sentient tree has watched over the forest, keeping order within.  By its power, outsiders stay out, natives stay in, and the population of monsters stays under control.  But there was one thing it didn't count on.  The effect of its power upon someone who was already constantly lost.

0o0o0

Ryouga Hibiki, age 10, had been wandering for days.  This was not unusual for him.  Like both of his parents before him, Ryouga had been born with a terrible sense of direction.  To him, it seemed like the world around him moved whenever he wasn't looking.  Consequently, he spent a good portion of his time lost.

This time, however, Ryouga had gotten particularly lost.  He suspected he was somewhere around Kyushu.  In actuality, he wasn't in Japan anymore.  He wasn't even in Asia.  In fact, Ryouga Hibiki was no longer on Earth.  He was in Hyrule.  And he was in the Lost Woods.  And he was tired and hungry.

As soon as he entered the woods, Ryouga noticed a strange feeling.  It was one he hadn't experienced very often.  It was almost as if he knew where he was going.  Even though everywhere looked the same, he felt drawn in a particular direction.  And soon enough...

"Hey!  A village!"

Ryouga Hibiki found himself at the outskirts of a village.

0o0o0

At the heart of the Lost Woods, the Great Deku Tree stirred from its slumber.  "Navi... Navi, where art thou? Come hither..."

Immediately, a small, blue fairy flew up to the tree.  Like all of the inhabitants of the Lost Woods, Navi the fairy treated the Great Deku Tree with the utmost respect.  It was, after all, the protector of the forest.

"Oh, Navi the fairy... Listen to my words, the words of the Deku Tree..." stated the Great Deku Tree.  "Dost thou sense it?  The climate of evil descending upon this realm...  Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land of Hyrule..." The tree almost seemed to sigh, despite not having lungs.  "For so long, the Kokiri Forest, the source of life, has stood as a barrier, deterring outsiders and maintaining the order of the world...  But... before this tremendous evil, even my power is as nothing..." 

A tremor passed through Navi.  Despite being literally rooted to the spot, the Great Deku Tree was indeed quite powerful.  For the tree to describe the evil force as such, it must be mighty indeed.  That, or the Great Deku Tree was exaggerating slightly for the sake of being dramatic.  It did occasionally do that.  Regardless, even if the tree did occasionally exaggerate, it did not outright lie.  Thus, the threat was to be taken seriously.

"It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey..."  Or not.  "The youth whose destiny it is to lead Hyrule to the path of justice and truth... Navi... go now!  Find our young friend and guide him to me..." 

Apparently, the Great Deku Tree was facing a threat so dangerous that only a small child could hope to handle it.  With a sigh, Navi took off.  Even if the Great Deku Tree was apparently going somewhat senile, it was still the protector of the forest, and it was important to treat it with the utmost respect.  So Navi needed to accomplish this task as quickly as possible.

In her hurry to do the great tree's bidding, Navi missed the rest of its speech.  "I do not have much time left.  Fly, Navi, fly! The fate of the forest, nay, the world, depends upon thee!"

0o0o0

Mido, the self proclaimed leader of the Kokiri, was having a good day.  He'd hit on Saria, made someone cut the grass in front of her house, made someone pick up the rocks from in front of his house, and best of all, that fairy-less loser Link hadn't been around all morning.  In fact, he was feeling so good that he was considering hitting on Saria again.  In his good mood, he almost missed it.  

From the entrance to the Lost Woods, a stranger stumbled into his village.  Had he not been alert, he might have mistaken him for a Kokiri.  However, this stranger had unusual clothes, a yellow shirt and black pants, with some sort of odd pack attached to his back, as opposed to the uniform green tunics that all Kokiri wore.  He also had strange ears; they were short and rounded, as opposed to long and pointed like everyone else's.  Perhaps he'd been in an accident of some sort?  But strangest of all was his hair.  Unlike the bright colors of Kokiri hair, this stranger's hair was black as... something really black.  Clearly he was some sort of invader.  Which meant it was time for Mido the Great to put his foot down.

"Hey you!"

The stranger, who had been slouching under the weight of his pack up to this point, abruptly stood up straight and looked at him.  At which point Mido noticed The stranger was a good half a foot taller than him.  It didn't sound like much, but that's quite a difference when one is barely breaking the three foot mark.

Fighting the urge to swallow nervously, Mido stomped over to the stranger as threateningly as he could.  "Who do you think you are, coming into our village like that?" 

"What?" Asked Ryouga.

"You know what I mean!" yelled Mido.

Ryouga didn't, and looked confused.  

"This village is the home of the Kokiri, and visitors aren't allowed.

Ryouga's confusion shifted to despair.  "I'm sorry!  I didn't mean to intrude.  I was just looking for somewhere to rest from my travels.  I'll be going now.  But before I leave, could you point me in the direction of Tokyo?"

Mido did not know where Tokyo was.  He had never been outside of the Lost Woods, and wasn't aware of the geography of Hyrule, much less how to get to other worlds.  Nevertheless, Mido was not one to admit his flaws, so he did the first thing he could think of.

"Tokyo is that way, " he said, pointing toward the entrance to the Lost Woods that Ryouga had just come out of.

"Thanks, " replied Ryouga as he started walking deeper into the village.

"Hey!" yelled Mido.  Already he could tell this was not going to be a good day.

0o0o0

Navi flew into the Kokiri village.  She had never met this 'Link' character, but she had heard of him.  He was the only member of the Kokiri that did not have a fairy.  As such, he wouldn't be too hard to find.  Kokiri were never separate from their fairies.

As she flew over the village, the sound of Mido yelling drew her attention.  Looking, she saw him chasing someone in odd clothing.  Someone without a fairy.  "Bingo."

Flying over to the fairy-less child, she went straight to the point.  "I'm Navi the fairy!  The Great Deku Tree asked me to be your partner from now on!  Nice to meet you!  The Great Deku Tree has summoned you!  So let's get going... right now!"

That stopped both Mido and 'Link' in their tracks.  "What?!"

Oh great.  He's also stupid. Navi repeated herself, this time speaking slowly.  "The Great Deku Tree has summoned you.  Please come with me."

"Uh... okay, " said Ryouga to the talking ball of light with wings.

Mido, on the other hand, was speechless.

Stunned, Mido could only stare dumbly as the outsider left with the fairy.  The same fairy that had just informed said outsider that he was being summoned by the Great Deku Tree.  

Him.  

An outsider.  

Not Mido.  Not Saria.  Not even that loser Link.  Some random moron who stumbled into the village.  It had to be a mistake.  

...

Of course!  That must have been it!  There must have been some sort of mistake!  Breaking free of his bewilderment, Mido rushed to catch up with the duo.

0o0o0

Eagerly, Ryouga followed Navi.  He didn't know who this 'Great Deku Tree' was, but anything was better than getting kicked out of the village.  Maybe he'd even get a meal out of this.  It had been a while since he'd last eaten, and the local flora was unfamiliar to him.  He preferred not to put together a meal from his surroundings without knowing what he was eating.  Doing so had led to more than a few poisoned meals.

Lost in his thoughts, Ryouga failed to notice Mido approaching from behind.

"WAIT!" shouted Mido.

With a start, Ryouga spun around.  Navi just groaned.

"What's your business with the Great Deku Tree?" demanded Mido.

"Navi says he summoned me, " replied Ryouga.

"He did, " confirmed Navi.  "Now hurry up!  Let's go!"

Turning, Ryouga started to follow Navi through a narrow path between two rocky walls.

Frustrated, Mido fumbled, looking for some sort of excuse.  "I don't believe it!  You aren't even fully equipped yet!" Mido knew he was reaching for straws, but he didn't care.  How dare a mere outsider be more important to his leader than him!  "How do you think you're going to help the Great Deku Tree without both a sword and a shield ready?" In all fairness, it was a legitimate point.  The forest had grown more dangerous as of late.  Monsters had even begun appearing near the village.

As if they had been waiting for Mido's cue, three monstrous plants abruptly burst from the ground around Ryouga.  They looked somewhat like gigantic weeds, each ending in a humongous indigo bulb.  Which were parted down the middle by snapping purple beaks.

"Link, watch out!" yelled Navi.  Ryouga, busy dealing with the suddenly present monsters, failed to register what the fairy had just called him.  Mido didn't, and would have said something, but he was too busy running.

"Those are called-" Navi started to say, but she was interrupted by three loud thumps as Ryouga landed three solid blows on the man-eating flora, soundly dispatching of them.  "...Wow!  No wonder the Great Deku Tree wants your help!"

"Er... Actually, what does he want my help for?" asked Ryouga.

"He'll tell you himself, " replied Navi cheerily as she silently amended her opinion of 'Link'.  "The Great Deku Tree is right around the corner."

"Alright."  Instead of moving, however, Ryouga stared down at the dead plants.

"Is something wrong?" asked Navi.

"No, " replied Ryouga as he continued staring.  "It's just-" Ryouga's own stomach interrupted him with a loud rumble.  "Are these things edible?"

0o0o0

"Great Deku Tree... I'm back!" shouted Navi.

Ryouga held back a gasp.  When he had been told that he had been summoned by the Great Deku Tree, he hadn't actually expected it to actually be... well, a tree!  (Ryouga was not the brightest crayon in the box.)

Before him stood a massive tree, the trunk of which somehow resembled the face of an old man.  A sad, tired old man that was had lived far too long and been through far too many sad experiences.  Ryouga almost expected it to begin talking.  And then, much to his shock, it did.

"Oh... Navi... Thou hast returned..." said the tree in a tired, sad voice.  "Link... Welcome..."

Ryouga stood quietly, too stunned to speak, let alone correct the giant talking tree.  Or even process the mistake, for that matter.

"Listen carefully to what I, the Great Deku Tree, am about to tell thee...  Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless and full of nightmares..."  As Ryouga's brain rebooted, he had the distinct notion that he had just missed something important.  "As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it...  Verily, thou hast felt it...  Link...  The time has come to test thy courage..." Ryouga's brain hit a new stumbling point.  His name wasn't Link.  "I have been cursed..."  Navi gasped, finally grasping the depth of the situation.  Ryouga gasped as well, having just realized that he was being mistaken for someone else.  "I need thee to break the curse with thy wisdom and courage." There was a pause, and as Ryouga tried to figure out how to tell the Great Deku Tree that he wasn't this Link person, the point was made moot.

"...Wait... Who art thou?"

"Uh... Ryouga Hibiki, sir."

"WHAT?!" yelped Navi.

"Navi... It seems an outsider has made his way through the Lost Woods..." Nervously, Ryouga scratched the back of his head.  "Verily, every moment my powers weaken further...  Navi the fairy... Thou must return to the village and retrieve Link..."

"Great Deku Tree, no!"wailed Navi, on the verge of panicking.  "There's no time!  We have to help you now!  We can just get Ryouga to help instead."

"Don't I get a say in this?"

Ignoring Ryouga's complaint, Navi desperately forced her way onward.  "If I have to go get Link, arm him, and bring him back here, you might not make it!"

To the Great Deku Tree, the denizens of the woods were like children.  If it had the power to do so, it would spare Link the hardship it knew he would have to go through to achieve his destiny.  It would spare Navi the heartbreak of knowing that she was too late to save him.  And it would spare the Kokiri the grief they would feel from hos death.  But no such power existed.  Link had to leave the village, perhaps permanently, to save Hyrule.  The Great Deku Tree had to die.  And poor Navi had to go back and retrieve Link so that they could break the curse, even though it was already too late to save him.  

Unless...

"Very well...  Ryouga, thou may indeed possess the power necessary to break the curse that has befallen me...  It may not be fair, but I must ask thou; dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?"

Ryouga paused.  He was tired and hungry from his journey, and there was no guarantee that he would be able to find his way back to the village when he was finished.

"Ryouga, please!" begged Navi

If he were a smarter person, he would have considered that what was being asked of him sounded rather dangerous.  If he was a more pragmatic person, he would have asked for something in return.  There was nothing to gain from doing this for free, and he might end up hurt or worse.

But Ryouga was neither smart nor pragmatic.  He was a marial artist.  And it was a martial artist's duty to help those in need.

"Alright, " Ryouga agreed.

"Then enter, brave Ryouga, and thou too, Navi..." said the Great Deku Tree, the 'mouth' of the tree sliding open to permit entry to within.  "Navi the fairy... Thou must aid Ryouga...  And Ryouga... When Navi speaks, listen well to her words of wisdom..."

For some reason, Ryouga suddenly felt that he would come regret the decision he had just made.  Ignoring that feeling, he began walking forward.

"Wait, where are you going?!" shouted Navi as Ryouga began walking to the left of the tree.  "Ryouga!"

"Oh, well, Ukyo cooks better than your Jupiter, Shampoo is prettier than Venus, the ditz has her own Endy-whatshisname, and I'm neither into nerds nor nuns. So, should you try to be 'charming' or whatever, it won't work on me."

"What do you mean, 'should you try'? We already had!"

"Really?"

Oh, well, Ukyo cooks better then your Jupiter, Shampoo is prettier then Venus

"Can I kick him in the balls already?" Haruka asked between clenched teeth.

"Hah! And Akane already can do that for me, too!"

Michiru kept on smiling, although her right eyebrow quivered just so slightly. "You'll hear no protests from me, Haruka."

Ranma was hyperventilating, and well as in shock. Like Akane, he had walked in on a naked Makoto. Unlike the tomboy though, she did have some curves.

"Son, there's nothing wrong with that. You are husband and wife; you are permitted to see each other naked."

"Tell that to Akane. Whenever I accidentally walked in on her, or she on me, I got pounded for it. I…" Ranma jerked as a pair of arms encircled him in a hug.

Makoto spoke up from where she was, her head sitting on his shoulder, leaning against his own. "Ranma… all you did was startle me is all, I know it was an accident and well…you're forgiven."

Ranma walked out of the furo feeling refreshed. The bath had helped him; as had Makoto's talk with him. He was still uneasy around her. But with time, he knew he could come to accept and even love her. She was definitely not like Akane. He headed for the kitchen again, and saw Makoto cooking with his mother. He was shocked to see her hold a bowl up for Nodoka to sip; she nodded, and they continued on.

She can cook?

Oh yes, definitely not like the tomboy!

In the years since the Jusenkyō Guide had first taken up his post, many a lost traveler had come knocking on his shack's rickety door, and every one of them brought a unique flavor of trouble. From time to time, ignorant tourists sought out the spring ground, expecting that they could train atop bamboo poles over the dozens of cursed pools below. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this idea—that was their thinking, at least. Ranma was one such person, but the Guide excused him for it, since he'd been led into trying by his reckless father. The Amazons liked to train there, too, but only with disgraced warriors who, in the Tribe's judgment, deserved the punishment if they fell into a spring. Ambitious martial artists weren't the only ones to come by the small shack on the edge of the spring ground. The last visitors to drop in had been vicious bird-men, and they hadn't bothered to knock. It was all the Guide could do to get his daughter Plum to town and out of their reach, and the ensuing conflict had almost dried up the springs completely.

After that debacle, the Guide dug out the old books his predecessor had left behind on the tribal peoples of Qinghai—just in case more natives stopped by—and wondered to himself if he should've stayed in Beijing to drive horse-drawn carriages. The money wasn't nearly as good in the city, though, and with the remoteness of Jusenkyō, there was a certain appeal to being immersed in nature. Indeed, the Guide had never had problems with the animals. Only when people arrived did bad things tend to happen.

Then again, when the Guide had received a call from Tōkyō earlier that week, he knew mayhem and chaos were well on their way. He just didn't expect them to come pounding on his door—rap, rap, rap—quite so soon.

"Who's that, Daddy?" His daughter Plum looked up from a doodling pad, puzzled. "Is that Honored Guest from Japan here so soon?"

"I doubt it, " said the Guide. "If it were, he'd be days earlier than he said he would be. Hide yourself for a moment. Let's not have a repeat of what happened last time."

Sighing, Plum crouched behind an icebox, taking her drawing pad with her. "You're worrying too much, Daddy."

Rap-rap-rap! The door rattled on its hinges again, and the Guide went to the knob. He collected himself for a moment, making sure Plum couldn't be seen, and called through the door. "Yes, hello? Who's there?"

"We understand you are a guide to this place, that you direct visitors around this spring ground."

It was a girl's voice, cold and serious. The Guide didn't recognize it. "That's right, " he replied. "Who are you?"

"Visitors."

The Guide inched the door open cautiously, and with the first slivers of light from outside, he studied the strangers. There were four of them, all relatively young—around age twenty or so he guessed. Their clothes were solid black—short-sleeved shirts and long pants for each one. Three men and a girl stood before the Guide's door. The Guide guessed the girl was the leader, and despite her stern expression, he thought her fairly pretty, with her straight reddish-brown hair extending halfway down her back.

And lastly, each of the four carried a stick—thin, slender, and nearly as tall as its wielder. These weapons were capped with blunt, cast iron tips.

"So, " said the Guide, eying one of these dangerous staves, "you would like to visit the spring ground?"

"We have questions for you, " said the leader, the girl with the reddish-brown hair. "What happened here twenty-two days ago?"

"Twenty-two days?" The Guide laughed. "Are you sure you don't want to ask about twenty-one days ago—or twenty-three? Saying exactly twenty-two seems a bit precise, don't you think?"

The leader blinked, but her stony expression didn't waver.

"Ah, you must be talking about the interruption to the springs' water supply, " the Guide concluded. "If it's that you're asking about, I can assure you, nothing of the sort will happen again on my watch. The culprit has already been dealt with."

"Who?" asked the leader.

"I'm sorry?"

"Who is that—the culprit you speak of, who is he?"

The Guide hesitated. A sweat broke out on his brow. To find strangers on his doorstep asking extremely specific questions was unsettling, even more so considering just what and who they were so curious about. If only he'd had the presence of mind to read that book on the natives of Qinghai Province a little sooner, he might've known what they were really after!

As it was, the Guide decided to be cautious. "I'm afraid I don't quite know, " he said. "Some wandering martial artist took care of the problem; I really had absolutely nothing to do with it, I promise you."

The leader narrowed her eyes. "This wandering martial artist—where do we find him?"

"I really couldn't say. He left in a big, big hurry. So sorry!"

And with that, the Guide slammed the door on his visitors, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Daddy, I hope you're more convincing than that when you tell the army men no one came by the springs, " said Plum, who scribbled away at her notepad nonchalantly.

"What do you mean? I don't think they suspect a thing!"

"Then why are you trying to block the door?"

The Guide jammed a chair under the doorknob, hoping to stall the door before it could move inward more than an inch. Truly, there was no hiding anything from a perceptive child, so the Guide didn't bother arguing with her. Instead, he cleared his dinner table of scattered bowls and plates, and from the back wall of the shack, he retrieved a set of scrolls, books, and parchments. He flipped through pages and notes frantically. Men with fighting staves—that was pretty unique. There had to be something in all those papers about them. Though he heard nothing from the visitors outside, the Guide searched for even a fragment of information about their kind, just in case they returned. Sure enough, in a dusty hardback from the 1960s, he found a crude drawing of warriors like the ones at his door. Their metal-tipped staves were distinctive, but what caught the Guide's eye most were the jagged, colorful bolts of lightning that emanated from the warriors' hands.

"You found something about those people?" asked Plum, coming out from her hiding place. "What does it say?"

"Hm?" He stepped back from the book, his brow furrowing with confusion. "It says they use magic."

Ka-PAM! The door splintered in two; the chair holding it there bent and shattered. A wave of air pressure pushed into the shack, and it shoved the Guide forward with all the gentleness of a sledgehammer. His body catapulted through the table. The texts ripped, spreading papers over the floor, and the Guide lay sprawled atop the shredded texts with stars in his eyes. He worked his jaw repeatedly, trying in vain to get his ears to pop.

The visitors entered through the broken door, the leader in front with her staff in one hand. She watched as two of her comrades took the Guide by his arms. They turned him on his back and pulled down his shirt by the neck.

Shink. The last visitor plunged a hollow bamboo needle into the exposed skin by the Guide's shoulder blade. The Guide went woozy and glassy-eyed. He slipped from the visitors' grasp, keeling over face-down on the floor, and the visitors took him by the arms once more to carry him away.

"Hey!" cried Plum. "Where are you taking my father?"

The leader of the visitors thrust an open hand toward the girl, and from the stranger's fingers, ripples of golden energy emanated. Plum shied away from the stranger, half-hiding behind the icebox once more, and the visitors ignored her. They left without a word, and indeed, the shack was eerily quiet.

Until a black rotary phone on the Guide's desk rang.

The Guide's feet dragged on the ground as they carried him out, and Plum didn't dare give chase.

The phone continued to ring.

Two of the strangers took the Guide on their backs between them, and with him firmly in their grasp, the Guide's feet left the ground. His captors levitated and flew, and Plum stepped through the broken doorway, staring in awe.

The phone stopped ringing, and a bulky piece of machinery spun into motion, playing a magnetic tape. "Hello, Honored Guest! You've reached the phone line of the Guide to the mystical training ground Jusenkyō! Please leave your message after the beep, and if I haven't drowned and turned into a cat or some other voiceless animal, I'll be sure to get back to you. Pleasant journey!"

BEEP.

The visitors soared skyward, taking Plum's father with them and becoming small dots in front of a blue backdrop. Only their leader remained, listening intently as the call came in.

"Hey, Guide, it's me, " said the voice on the answering machine. "I was just calling to see if the weather's good at Jusenkyō. I should be there in a couple days, so if it starts to rain, maybe you could prepare another cask? Yeah, I know I didn't explain what happened to the first one or why I'm back so soon. It's a long story."

Plum blinked, turning around. Her eyes focused on the black rotary phone in the shack, which sat neatly on the Guide's desk, but the leader of the strangers saw it, too. The girl gripped her weapon tightly, and even from outside the shack, one swing of her battle staff launched a shockwave, piercing the walls and shattering the telephone and the desk it sat on. Satisfied, the leader followed her men, flying past the trees.

And with her only link to the outside world irrevocably cut, Plum could only watch the strangers go. On the horizon, wispy clouds began to roll in—the first portents of a coming storm.