Fight of the Champions

Epilogue - Jira

Jira stared at herself in the mirror, not for the first time in the month that had passed. For the first time in a long time, she didn't wear armor. Instead, she wore loose fitting pants tucked into her boots, a dark navy blue shirt that covered her arms and showed off her sternum, showing scars that hadn't seen the light of day since the day she'd received them, and nice looking tunic that fit loosely over her hips, her old scarf and a belt wrapped around her waist. She'd also cut her hair, it barely even touched her shoulders. On her right hand, a mechanism she had built out of ancient parts was strapped over her two stumps of the fingers Bahuma had cut off, it acted as a prosthetic, except that Jira could actually use it, her brain communicating to the machine as if it were tissue.

It wasn't her appearance, though, that caused her to stare. These days, ever since they had defeated Bahuma, Jira found herself wondering who had she become? Before she was a scholar, a loyal disciple to her ancient culture. Now, she was a Champion of the realm, everything that she'd ever wished for before was simply given to her, and she was finally accomplishing everything she dreamed of.

But... it didn't feel right.

She was surrounded by her life's work, a library wrapping around the walls, holding every last book she'd ever read or found, a table was in the middle of the room with books and journals and maps and random ancient parts spread out. She had buckets upon buckets of random Sheikah tech she'd scavenged, including what was called a gun, the vicious weapon that she'd used on—

She cut herself off and ran her fingers through her hair. She should be happy, knowing that her life's efforts wouldn't be for nothing.

She heard a beeping and whipped her head away from her reflection. The Sheikah Slate she'd found had started beeping. She tapped the screen, and a map of the entirety of Hyrule popped up, marking herself as in Akkala, and showing several blue icons. Her mind immediately started racing, this was all brand new to her, those symbols looked familiar. Thinking hard, she plopped the Sheikah Slate onto her deck and ran over to the opposite side of the building, digging a medallion out of another bucket of junk. The symbol on the medallion perfectly reflected the symbols on the map.

With it in hand, she sprinted back to her desk, shoving aside several papers and her journal — in which she had tasked herself of documenting everything that happened — and put it down next to the Sheikah Slate.

Before she could mess with it further, there was a knock at the door. She frustratedly jumped to her feet and marched over there, opening the door.

It was the general store owner from Tarrey Town, his name was Lyru or Liro or something, holding a basket of food.

"I brought your food—" He said

Jira cut him off by grabbing the basket and slamming the door in his face. She set it down on a random table nearby and hurried back to her desk.

The more she looked at the medallion, the more she remembered reading about a travel medallion somewhere in one of her hundreds of books. It mentioned that she could place it anywhere in the world and instantly travel there. If that was true for the medallion, what about the symbols on the map?

Tucking the medallion in a pocket, Jira touched one of the symbols. After a moment of waiting for something to happen, she heard a slight ringing. Then she felt her body disapparate into wisps of smoke, just as she blacked out, she felt herself come back together, fully reformed and standing right before Hyrule Castle.

A Castle Guard called out to her, "Lady Jira, welcome back!" he said, "Would you like us to alert Queen Zelda of your arrival?"

"No, I won't be long," she told them, still processing what had happened. She instantly traveled halfway across the world in a second.

Already the applications of this kind of technology raced through her brain. Feeling the medallion in her pocket, she got an idea. She hurried through the gates of Hyrule Castle and searched eagerly for a good hiding spot.

Half an hour later, she traveled back to her base in Akkala, slamming open the door and tossing the Sheikah Slate back on her desk. She sat down on her bed, feeling it bounce beneath her.

What was she doing? What had she done? Across the room, she caught her reflection again in the mirror.

She knew exactly what she was doing. It was the missing piece in her life, the one thing preventing her from ever finding happiness from her work. How could she ever be happy if she could never escape the regret and guilt that rushed through her, the thing that kept her up at night, the first thought she had in the morning.

How could she be standing there, relishing in the benefits of being a Champion when the one person who deserved it the most had been left to be punished for the rest of her life?

Jira looked back at the Sheikah Slate. Tonight, she would go to Hyrule Castle. Tonight, she would find her old friend.