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queenofmoons67 · 2 months ago

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Star of the General: A Warriors Fic (2/?)

Summary:

One minute, Link is fighting a wizzrobe, and the next, he has four hooves and a mane. When Impa comes looking for him, all she finds is the stallion he’s been turned into. A year later, Zelda gifts Link to eight strangers as one of the best warhorses in Hyrule’s stables, with her hope and blessing that he’ll keep them safe. Link will do his best, even if they do all think he’s just a horse.

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Having had the chance to see his boys again, Link allows Twilight to wrangle him and plods along peacefully once more.

The path they’re on cuts through a long field. Once full of farmland, it became a battleground in the middle years of the war, when Cia and Ganon pushed the Hyrulian forces almost all the way back to Castle Town.

The months before they reclaimed the area were probably the darkest of the war. The farmland was razed by the opposing army and Hyrulian soldiers alike—the former to prevent food from being harvested, and the latter so they couldn’t be ambushed by the enemy hiding in the tall stalks. By the time the fighting was done, blood had soaked deep into the earth.

It will likely be years before anything but scraggly meadow grows there again.

While the field’s history is full of death, the traveling group gradually becomes more full of life. It is as though the joking about Twilight and Hoshi has broken the flow of sadness built by the news of Link’s “death.”

In the openness of the field, Link walks side by side with Epona, and the morning sun covers him in her shadow.

Link was not a small Hylian, and he is not a small horse. Judging from glances he has seen of himself in rivers and water troughs, Link knows he is a Kiso* horse, which are bred to be sturdy and quick on their feet, adept at both carrying armored warriors and dodging opponents’ weapons. Impa herself remarked that Link is tall for a Kiso at thirteen and a half hands high.

Epona, however, is a Ban’ei** draft horse, and Link wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she’s a solid seventeen hands. She’s built for heavy lifting, and the heroes have utilized her well, outfitting her with saddlebags and hanging some of their heavier weapons among them.

It makes Link wonder what use the heroes will find for him. The grooms kitted him in armor and dressed his golden mane and tail for battle, but no one has moved to ride him.

Up ahead at the front of the group, Time raises a hand and calls everyone to a stop. They circle up around each other, letting packs slide to the ground and stretching out tired limbs, and Wild passes out what looks like a mid-morning snack of apples, celery, and nut butter.

Epona yawns, then bends her head to start picking through the grass for the healthier, tastier bits. Link follows her lead—

But then Twilight pulls his reins back, stopping him from grazing. Link blinks crossly at him with half a mind to go back to eating anyway. Twilight just smiles, and his fingers start to nimbly pick at the fastenings keeping the bamen on Link’s face.

“There, that’s better, isn’t it?” Twilight says, pulling the bamen away and smoothing a hand down the star on his forehead. “You’re a handsome boy, did you know that?”

Link blows air in Twilight’s face. Yes, he knows. Twilight is just the latest in a long line of people to tell him so, though admittedly his comment is much more welcome than Cia’s cooing or a traitor’s scoffing. It feels more like his mother cupping his cheeks in her hands and touching her forehead to his.

Link hasn’t had much of a family since Tune and Mask both went home, but now his brothers are back and quadrupled in number.

It’ll take time to get to know them all, especially considering Link’s current physical state, but he might actually enjoy this.

Just as he thinks this, a glowing portal shimmers into the air over the trail. Link startles and sidesteps. Epona warned him about the portals, but he didn’t expect one so soon—and neither did the heroes, if the loud cursing from Legend is any sign.

“Whoa, Hoshi,” Twilight murmurs, and the hero’s hand winds its way into his reins and pulls him back to Twilight’s side. But the portal also tugs at him, as if there is a tether between it and his stomach, and between that tether and his reins, Link feels like he might split in two.

He tosses his head, then bucks, unsure what exactly he wants and therefore unsure what to do next.

All his action seems to do is make Twilight pull the reins over his head so they lie on his neck. Then the hero sets his left boot in the stirrups, and Link locks his knees to steady himself.

Weight pulls at Link’s left side, then Twilight settles in the saddle and his weight redistributes across Link’s back. Hands gather up the reins, keeping them short but comfortable, and knees squeeze at Link’s side to urge him on.

Link walks, Twilight on his back and Epona following behind.

The other heroes turn to look at them when they approach the group. They had been gathering their things together, not that there was much when it had only been a short break.

Now, Sky squints up at Link’s rider and asks, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? It’s his first time through a portal; who knows how he might react to it?”

Link huffs, offended on his own behalf even as the leader in him knows it’s a good point, but Twilight just pats his neck and says, “He settled the moment I was in the saddle. He’s a trained warhorse, he’ll do fine.”

Twilight does keep an excellent seat. He knows what he’s doing in the saddle, and his steady calm radiates from him, through the reins, to Link himself.

But the portal continues to pull at Link, and it’s true that everyone reacts to magic in different ways. They won’t know how it affects him until he steps through.

Time studies Link and Twilight, his one eye narrowed, and then he nods and says, “Wild, Epona, and Sky will go through first, just in case. I’m with the rancher. Everyone else, pairs as always.”

The rancher? Link twists his ears, trying to keep track of everyone’s movements, then remembers Epona mentioning nicknames. He assumed those were just the names they used instead of Link, but did they have other nicknames, too? Twilight being a rancher explains why he’s attached himself to Link.

No one has to explain Time’s inclusion in the trio: When he approaches and stretches his hand out for Link to nose, Epona’s meadow-light scent is so strong it almost overpowers Time’s own strange, lightning-infused smell.

Epona is Time’s horse, which makes him suited for helping Link if anything goes wrong in the portal. Not to mention the calming effect of having his younger brother at his side again, Link thinks, and noses at Time’s head affectionately, lipping at his hair before huffing to blow it away.

Time grins at him and his eye crinkles at the corners even as he pushes Link’s head away and, ahead of them, Sky, Wild, and Epona step through the portal. Time wraps his hand around Link’s reins, up close under his chin, and leads him on.

Tether and rein pull him in the same direction, and the closer they get to the portal, the calmer Link feels.

Then he steps through. The heroes had been worried, but Link feels no worse for wear as he exits into a small, sunlit clearing surrounded by trees.

Link sees the bokoblin running up behind him before he hears Sky shout, and he bows and kicks back with both hind legs, praying that Twilight manages to keep his seat.

When he lands on all fours again, the ‘blin lays splayed out on the ground and Time has let go of his reins, leaving them to be gathered back by someone who can only be Twilight.

“Atta boy, Hoshi!” his rider laughs. “Time to see what else you can do!”

Link’s heart gallops in his chest at the challenge, and he screams his readiness around the bit even as he wheels at the slightest touch of Twilight’s heel to his right side, neck arched, ears pinned back, and eyes rolling to take in the fight they unknowingly walked into.

There are four bokoblins, four moblins, and four lizalfos. There’s no sign of a monster camp, but there is a path that cuts through the clearing. The portal must have dropped them right in the middle of a roving monster band.

The lizalfos have surrounded Sky and Wild, but the two heroes are back-to-back and seem uninjured. Epona stands at the tree line, hooves kicking out at any monster that dares get too close.

Time makes a stand in front of the portal, drawing his sword to face-off two of the bokoblins and one of the moblins. The other monsters have started to converge on Link and Twilight, but Twilight drives Link towards them and the ‘blins scatter, shouting, under the half-a-ton weight of an armored horse. Most of their weapons glance off Link’s armor or don’t come close to him, but a few are deflected by Twilight’s sword.

One weapon makes contact, a searing line of heat drawn by a spear that makes it past his armor to his vulnerable belly before the wood handle snaps under Link’s hooves.

If the heroes are going to ride him into battle, they’re going to have to get the proper weapons. Link refuses to get up close and personal with spears again just because the longest weapon his rider carries is a sword.

For now, Link focuses on the path to the portal. Four and Wind have already emerged into the half-circle of grass right at Time’s back, but while Wind immediately draws his own sword and leaps to Time’s side, Four sinks to the ground clutching his head.

The standoff at the portal is two against three, and there are still two more unsuspecting heroes to come through.

Link cuts to the side of the moblin, and Twilight takes the opportunity to slit its throat as they ride by. Link makes note of the kill even while he digs his hooves into the dirt and turns, galloping around the portal’s back edge to rush the monsters regrouping from their first collision with Link and Twilight.

Ahead of them, Sky and Wild have managed to stay back-to-back and killed two of the lizalfos. Four staggers to his feet, still holding his head but now also holding his sword, and Time and Wind stab their blades into the hearts of their opponents in unison.

Then Hyrule and Legend stagger out of the portal, Hyrule collapses, and the portal winks out of sight—but Link barely notices, busy once more using his own body as a battering ram against the regrouping ‘blins.

One of the bokoblins falls under his hooves and doesn’t rise again. The other, along with the three remaining moblins, runs away from him and toward the larger collection of heroes. Twilight curses and guides him in a tight turn.

“After them, Hoshi! Hya!”

Boot heels dig into Link’s sides, the reins go loose, and Twilight leans forward, giving Link his head and urging him to thunder after the monsters. Time and Wind don’t look tired, but they’ve been fighting at a disadvantage the entire time. Legend is battle-fresh, but he’s got an unsteady Four taking care of the fallen Hyrule right behind him.

With Link and Twilight coming up behind the monsters, though, the ‘blins have effectively cornered themselves in a pincer maneuver. It doesn’t take much for the heroes to win the battle as, on the other side of the clearing, Sky and Wild dispatch the remaining lizalfos.

When the last of the moblins disappears, Link lets his head hang, too tired to do much else. This was his first real battle as a horse. He’d been trained in his own world, but never actually seen combat.

It’s different, he thinks, to fight on four legs instead of two. No one looks to a horse for orders. No one expects elegant swordplay, either. Instead, Twilight used his greater height, weight, and speed to his own advantage.

“Good boy,” Twilight murmurs. His rider shifts, leaning forward in the saddle, and a hand pats his neck. “You did incredible, Hoshi.”

Link arches his neck into the hand, happy to take in the praise. He keeps his eyes on the other heroes, though, as they pick their way around the clearing and check on one another.

Hyrule is awake and walking, albeit with his arms slung across the shoulders of Legend and Time. Four and Wind lean against one another for support; the former seems to be unsteady from the portal still, while the latter has a cut across his thigh that’s oozing blood. Neither of them are hurrying, so Link assumes the injury isn’t serious.

Twilight nudges his sides with his heels. Link sighs, but starts to follow the others. His own wound stings anew with the movement, fresh, hot blood trailing across his stomach. Link had forgotten about it in the rush of battle, but now, he wonders how much blood he’s lost. He thought his tiredness was from adjusting to battle as a horse, but how much blood can a horse lose?

Link snorts and picks up speed. On his back, Twilight makes a surprised noise, but ahead, Epona looks up from Wild and trots toward him instead. In seconds, she’s at his side, sticking her huge nose into his wound. He sidesteps and snaps his teeth at her in warning, not appreciating someone being so close to a weak point.

Epona doesn’t move away, though, instead tossing her head and striking the ground twice with a pointed hoof. The commotion draws the attention of the heroes, and it’s a mere moment before they’re all next to him and Epona trying to soothe them. Link tenses, tempted to snap at them as well—don’t they know not to crowd an upset horse?—but if he accidentally makes contact, they won’t be able to shake it off like Epona would. Twilight has a tight hold on the reins now anyway, one fist keeping them down at the base of Link’s mane while his other hand rubs circles over Link’s withers.

“What’s up with them?” Legend complains. He’s stationed himself smack dab between Link and Epona, both hands outstretched so he can scratch both their haunches at once. “They got along fine earlier.”

The two horses share an eye roll, and then Link shifts, purposefully angling his side so the trail of blood is in the heroes’ direct line of sight. It’s probably hidden under all his armor, but red stands out against white-gold, and it’s only a moment before Wild’s eyes widen and he squats to get a better look at the wound.

“Wild?” Twilight asks, saddle creaking.

“Hoshi’s hurt,” Wild signs, body angled into Twilight’s view but eyes still focused on Link’s injury. “Maybe a spear?”

Twilight curses, then says mournfully, “We don’t have the proper weapons to fight from horseback. I had to get up close and Hoshi—“

Wild stands, taps at a strange mechanized box on his hip, and pulls out not just a saber, but also various types of spears and lances.

Link stares at the pile that’s formed at his feet. Well. It would have been useful to know Wild had the proper weapons before he and Twilight charged in with nothing more than a longsword, but the fight had been sudden. They’d have the weapons for next time, at least.

Link gets distracted when Time steps up to his head, fingers grasping him by the bridle.

“How bad is the wound, Wild?” Time asks.

Link has a second to brace himself—then a cloth wipes along the injury, and the pressure burns.

Intellectually, Link knows he’s safe, but the horse instincts flowing through his body insist that pain means danger, danger means run, but he can’t run, he’s trapped—

Link rears the best he can with Time holding him still. He doesn’t go far, hooves stomping the ground instead of lashing out, his stomach and the injury it bears still well within Wild’s reach. Twilight’s weight doesn’t even shift on his back.

Then, suddenly, Wild’s hands are gone, and most of the pain with them. The wound still throbs, but Link manages to steady himself against it in time to catch the flash of Wild signing, “It’s long, but shallow. One potion?”

Twilight heaves a breath out, and his hands—which had held the reins firm and tight while Wild investigated the wound—scratch at Link’s withers.

“Thank Hylia,” he says. “If we lost ya just because I didn’t have the right weapon… and right after…”

Twilight trails off, but the words he doesn’t say are easy to guess. All at once, the ease the group found again disappears at the reminder of Link’s believed death. His ghost stands among them, even when Link himself is right there.

But his presence doesn’t matter. He might as well not be there, for all the good his horse self can do.

* Kiso horses are native to Japan. Once ridden by samurai into battle, they’re now endangered. They typically average about 13 hands in height, ranging from 12 to 14, so Warriors is right that he's tall for a Kiso horse—but he's totally lying to himself about not being a short Hylian or a short horse, lol.

Hoshi is technically in the range for being a pony (10 to 14 hands) and taller horse breeds go all the way to 17 hands. That doesn't even include draft horses, which can reach 19 hands, or Sampson/Mammoth, the largest horse ever recorded who stood at a solid 21 hands. In terms of Warriors' regular Hylian height, I'm basing everyone off @pinkittwice's excellent Linked Universe research.

** Whether or not Ban’ei is a breed depends on who you ask. Japan has a sport called Ban’ei in which draft horses race while pulling weighed-down sleds over small hills.

I hope chapter two lived up to expectation! Any reblogs and comments are much appreciated and will fuel more writing.

While you wait for chapter three, I also want to advertise my new Linked Universe fic, "Bound":

Warriors only joined the Chain a week ago, but Hyrule knows something is wrong. “I’m the Hero, bound by law, just as Artemis is bound by law as Queen. When the Hero breaks the law, the Queen is bound to punish him. Do you understand?”

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#linked universe #linked universe fic #lu chain #lu warriors #lu twilight #fanfic #fanfic update #Star of the General

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yamayamawrites · 4 years ago

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This December

A/N: Hi friends! Happy (almost) December! As a treat this year, I decided to write a short fic (and by short, I do mean around 40k - so not terribly short) about the Dekusquad spending a week at a winter cabin! The first chapter will officially go up on my AO3 page (you can find it here!) tomorrow, with updates coming out every Tuesday/Friday for the next 4 weeks, but I decided to post a sneak preview of chapter 1 here early!! Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, December 01, 20XX

It’s been four years since Izuku graduated from U.A. Four years, and he’s moved three times since then – once, to an agency based in Kyoto, where he lived the longest. He worked many of the smaller cases there, the more personal ones – stopping a villain who’d kidnapped a mother’s newborn; keeping a local corner store from being robbed; catching a stray piece of scrap metal dropped from a crane near a construction site, and saving two children playing tag. He accredits most of his fame to Kyoto, and though it’s certainly not a small city, it feels small when he moves two years later to Hiroshima.

It’s in Hiroshima that Izuku takes on his first major case – ends up working beside Eijirou in the process, and both of them (already well-established and in the high twenties in hero rankings) skyrocket to the top ten after busting the case wide open. It’s a child trafficking ring, where children are abducted and sold for their Quirks. And, just following this case, he has perhaps a hundred offers to other agencies that will pay better or get more exposure. After all, Midoriya Izuku is just past twenty and he’s ranked number four, below Suneater and Lemillion from U.A., and, yet to be overthrown at number one, Endeavor. And while he still hasn’t learned Hiroshima’s roads, nor has he unpacked all his boxes yet, he uproots once more, and heads for Tokyo.

The biggest reason he leaves is because of the agency. Tokyo is crawling with them – agencies nearly on every block – but they’re small, full of sidekicks who haven’t broken one hundred yet, even. But there’s one agency in particular whose letter stands out amongst the rest, because the signature on the offer letter is his old friend Hitoshi’s, and Hitoshi knows just whose names to drop to garner Izuku’s attention – “You would be working side by side with Uravity and Ingenium, and perhaps partnering with Shouto and Ground Zero.”

And now, almost seven months since he’s become acquainted with the Tokyo agency, has climbed past Suneater in the latest ranking, he drums his fingers on Ochaco’s office door. She pops her head up from behind her monitor, still wearing her hero costume from her patrol while she types up a final report before lunch. “Oh!” she says, as though she isn’t expecting Izuku, despite the fact that they always go to lunch together on Tuesdays.

“Ready to go?” Izuku asks, hanging off Ochaco’s door, now. “Tenya coming today, too?”

“Tenya got wrapped up in a petty theft case,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “Seriously. Who tries to steal a dozen watches in the middle of the morning?”

“People who don’t know Tenya exists?” Izuku shrugs, and Ochaco laughs, pushes herself away from her desk on her rolling chair and hops up. “I need to stop and grab my key card before we go. Hold on.”

Ochaco trails after Izuku down the hall to his office, one with arguably the best view in the building. It overlooks the rest of the city, some of the smaller agencies the size of peanuts from way up here. His door is ajar when he walks up, light still on. Along the right wall is a photograph – himself, at graduation, with Ochaco and Tenya to his left, and Shouto to his right. Behind all of them is All Might, having managed his heroic form just for the click of a camera. They all wear navy graduation gowns, though Izuku’s is unzipped and reveals his hero costume underneath. Shouto’s hair is swept back from his face, his graduation cap in his hands, and he’s actually smiling – Izuku thinks it may be the only photograph in his entire collection of pictures of Shouto where he isn’t frowning. And Ochaco and Tenya are leaning into each other, smiles bright and happy, caps on and hands clasped together.

“Can’t believe you still have this hanging in here,” Ochaco muses as she steps into the room, wandering directly to the photograph.

Izuku spares it a second glance before going to his desk and rooting through the drawers for his key card to get back into the building. “It’s my favorite,” he says with a defensive huff, and Ochaco laughs.

“It’s not a bad thing,” she says. “It’s just that my forehead looks huge in this.”

“Shut up,” Izuku chides, “you look fine. You look great, even!”

“I think you hung this one because Shouto is in it,” Ochaco jeers, because she knows it will get a reaction out of Izuku. And it does; Izuku, who had bent down to check under his desk for the key card, thuds his head on the bottom side of it when he tries to sit up too quickly.

“Th-that isn’t it!” Izuku huffs, rubbing his head. “Stop with that, you know I’m over it.”

“How come you’ve been waiting for the opportunity to work a case with him, then?” Ochaco says, and she sounds innocent, but when Izuku looks over he sees mischief in her eyes, the pure evil of a friend who’s been given explicit information to a secret crush that maybe shouldn’t have been told.

“Is it a crime to want to work alongside a friend?” Izuku says back defensively, still searching for his key card. Eventually he finds it atop a stack of reports he’s yet to take down to the accounting department – the longer he waits, the longer it’ll be until his next paycheck, but seriously, he makes way too much as it is.

“Well, no,” Ochaco says, crossing the room and perching herself on Izuku’s cluttered desk. “I mean, that’s how you ended up working here.”

“Exactly,” Izuku says as a means of ending the conversation, grabbing his wallet off his desk as well (he’d forgotten that, too, it seems) and heading for the door. Ochaco follows after him, realizes he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, and thankfully, after being best friends for almost a decade now, she respects that.

The walk down the road to their usual noodle shop is cold. The first snow hit about a week ago, and the temperature has warmed enough and cooled again since then to freeze mounds of slush at the lip of the roads. The sidewalk is clear of snow, busy despite the cold weather with people walking around downtown.

When they step inside the noodle shop, the warmth floods their cheeks and hands. They’re regulars here, and the waitress seats them as though they aren’t the number three and number sixteen heroes – after all, she gets to have this experience every Tuesday. She does, however, comment on Izuku’s latest search-and-rescue, says she’s glad someone like him was there. And it’s the comments like these that always make Izuku proud of his profession, the ones where he’s not being gushed over for his abs or his good looks (though those still make him blush); it’s the gratitude that Izuku’s presence has made a difference on the scene of a crime, or natural disaster, or whatever the occasion. It’s knowing people are glad Izuku was there.

“So,” Ochaco stretches back in her chair after she finishes her noodles. “Tenya and I have been thinking about taking a vacation.”

“Oh?” Izuku says, folding his hands in front of him on the table. He’d finished his noodles a few minutes ago.

“Yeah,” Ochaco hums, twirling her weightless chopsticks around her fingers idly while she speaks. “We were kind of thinking of inviting a few old friends from U.A. to come with.”

“Oh, so not like a romantic getaway then?” Izuku tilts his head to the side, curious. Ochaco and Tenya have been together since their second year of high school, and vacations for the just two of them aren’t anywhere near uncommon.

“More like a, um, reunion?” Ochaco says, dropping the chopsticks now. “What do you think, Izuku? Are you in?”

Izuku blanches. Somehow, even with Ochaco suggesting friends from U.A. accompany them on their vacation, he hadn’t considered that might mean him. Which is absurd, because the three of them have been best friends since high school began – they even chatted on the phone all the time when Izuku was in Kyoto and Hiroshima. “Of course,” he says after he scoops his jaw up from where it dropped, and Ochaco laughs.

“You seriously thought I wouldn’t extend the invitation to you?”

“That’s not what—”

“Come on, Deku,” she giggles, rolling her eyes. “You can’t lie to me. I know all.”

He laughs, shakes his head. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting it, sorry.”

“Well, you’re obviously the first person on the guest list. Tenya and I have already found a place, too! There’s this beautiful vacation lodge for rent on the edge of the Kiso Mountain chain.”

“That’s almost four hours from here,” Izuku says, suddenly a bit afraid of what might happen being so far from Tokyo. “What if a big villain or something finds out we’re all gone on vacation?”

“You act like our class from high school are the only competent heroes around anymore,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “C’mon, if anything happened Suneater and Lemillion alone could take them, not to mention Nejire-chan and that wind hero guy.”

Izuku exhales, forcing himself to nod and agree. “I guess you’re right,” he sighs, his smile a tad nervous still.

“What, worried the public will forget about their favorite hero Deku after a week?” Ochaco reaches across the table and pokes at Izuku’s cheek. “Have some faith! And learn to take a vacation! Seriously, when’s the last time you took a break? Never?”

“Never,” Izuku affirms, though in the past he’s been proud of the fact; now he’s a little embarrassed. “How much would I owe you?”

But Ochaco waves off the question, and she grabs for the bill on the table – Izuku doesn’t even remember the waitress dropping it off. “You know more than any of us that money isn’t a factor,” she says, shrugging. “Tenya and I can cover it.”

“Shut up,” Izuku rolls his eyes. “You guys shouldn’t have to pay for everything. At least let me cover gas and groceries?”

It takes a bit of coaxing, but eventually Izuku convinces Ochaco to let him cover grocery costs; the two of them make plans to visit the grocery store together the night before they leave. Ochaco doesn’t reveal the guest list, nor does Izuku even think to ask about it until after they’re walking back to the office, bumping shoulders and laughing over inside jokes from their high school days. And as they ascend the staircase side by side, Izuku finally does ask, and Ochaco laughs, and that’s the most of an answer he gets.

#yamayamawrites #this december #happy holidays #mha #bnha #my hero #tododeku #iidachako #sneak peek!#ao3

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