Because of You│Zelink BOTW & TOTK modern AU fanfic

Lawsuit - Day II

Impa's POV

Today, it's Mipha's turn on the witness stand, then mine. The courtroom quiets down as soon as Mipha takes her seat. She looks calm but serious. AKA professional.

She states her name and takes the oath. Out of the two attorneys, Kirby is the first to question her. "Can you tell us about your relationship with Link Miyamoto?"

Mipha nods. "We've been friends since childhood. Our families are very close, so I've known him for as long as I can remember."

"And were you present on the day of the attack?" Kirby asks. He's gentle with her, probably to show the judge that this is a sensible topic and that people were actually affected by Karusa's actions.

"Yes, I was there," Mipha confirms.

"Can you describe what happened from your perspective?"

Mipha takes a deep breath, her hands tightly folded on her lap. "I remember seeing Link and Karusa arguing. It escalated quickly. Suddenly, there was a fight. Link was knocked down. When I rushed over to help, he was not breathing."

The courtroom is silent, everyone's solely focused on her.

Kirby lets the calm settle in. He wants everyone to feel the pain of those memories. After a few seconds, he asks her, "What did you do next?"

"I performed CPR," Mipha says. She is being formal with her answers, but there's definitely a lot of emotion behind her eyes. "I did everything I could to keep his organs alive until the paramedics arrived."

"That must have been tremendously difficult to bear," Kirby says and pulls a sad face to get some more sympathy points from the judge. "Did you witness the extent of Link's injuries?"

"Yes," Mipha replies, some emotion hanging onto her tone this time. Unlike Link, she does not dare to look at Karusa. She keeps her eyes on her hands. Sometimes she pauses to look up at the attorney or Link, but her eyes never settle for long. "He had severe head trauma, four broken ribs, a torn ACL, chest contusions, and internal bleedings."

"Running onto the field to help you childhood friend... What an admirable act of courage... Are you aware that you were one of the few lucky people on that field who left without a mark?"

"That is not true. I might not have been physically affected, but emotionally..." She stops herself and looks at Link again. "For a moment, nobody knew what was going to happen. It's a miracle that Link survived."

"From a medical standpoint, how grave was his condition at that moment? How close was he to losing his life?"

"It was extremely serious." Her voice catches briefly in her throat but she pushes the words out. "When I reached him, Link's heart had fully stopped. At that point, he was clinically dead." A tear rolls down the side of her face. She doesn't notice it at first, and keeps going as if nobody was staring at her flushed cheeks and tight shoulders. "If I hadn't started CPR immediately, he would have suffered irreversible brain damage or worse. Thankfully, the paramedics arrived in time to take over. Still... there were moments where I wasn't sure if he would make it."

Kirby looks emotionally affected and I can't tell if he's just acting or if this is actually hard to hear. "As someone who has spent a lot of time around athletes," he starts slowly, "would you say the level of violence Karusa used was typical of sports-related altercations, or did it seem far more dangerous?"

Having noticed the tear, Mipha quickly wipes it with the sleeve of her blouse. "I'm sorry," she whispers, but Kirby reassures her that there is no need to apologize. "It wasn't a shove or even a hard hit," she answers. "Karusa's attack was vicious... it felt deliberate. As if he had planned it. The amount of force he used—it was clear he wasn't trying to just win a fight. He wanted to hurt Link, and he did."