- Judgment -
Scroll of Shodan- One -
Chronicle -One -Fate
Prince Zuko stared intensely across the sea. Then he stared down at his fist, and become furious. He was getting nowhere near the Avatar. He has been searching for him far too long. It seemed as if nature had looked down upon his goal of capturing the Avatar, gaining his honor, his father's trust. His uncle, Iroh, came outside to see his nephew frustrated, as always.
"You seem tired, Prince Zuko," he said calmly. "You should get some rest."
"I'm sick and tired of chasing the Avatar," snapped Zuko. "It seems whatever we do is futile. We're not getting closer at all to him. I can't capture a mere child."
"Don't get too worked up, Prince Zuko. There'll be plenty of chances."
Iroh started to head back inside the ship when he remembered interesting news.
"Oh yeah, Prince Zuko, I got a message from the Fire Nation that to aid you in your search for the Avatar, they're more than willing to let you have a strong firebender. They seemed almost too willing."
Zuko slowly turned around. "That's impossible. Why would they want me to have a strong warrior in my navy? It seems too suspicious."
Iroh shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe the Fire Nation finally recognized your determination in capturing the Avatar. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to check this firebender, would it?"
Zuko still had his doubt for the offer. But he had a small hope that his father had really shined, at least a little, trust to his son.
"Head a course to the Fire Nation!" Zuko ordered. He had hoped that his strong warrior was his trump card to his honor.
"Let me go! I said let me go you smelly jerks! Let, me, go!"
There was a loud clang, possibly the sound of an armor impacting with the metal walls. Zuko and Iroh both sat in room conversing with a commander of a strong unit of firebenders. They were waiting patiently for the new recruit, at least Iroh was. The voice of a female echoed loudly throughout the room, the same phrase over and over. The commander sighed deeply.
"That voice you hear screeching loudly is your new recruit," said the commander slowly.
"You're kidding!" Zuko snapped. "I already have enough trouble capturing a child. I don't need another one to baby-sit."
"This is no child, Prince Zuko. She's actually quite experienced. And this warrior is one year young than you."
"Impossible…" Zuko stammered with much rage.
"I'll be truthful. We really didn't want to give her up at all to any other unit. But her actions and attitude were just too much for us to handle. She constantly attempts to escape the Fire Nation and abuses her talent. Other than her behavior, she is one of our top and most experienced fighters. We were hoping you'd take and use her to your advantage and search."
"But why would you offer her to me?" Zuko demanded.
"We already have recommended her Admiral Zhao, but he refused to take her," the commander explained.
"I would wonder why he turned down such a wonderful offer," Iroh said with a sarcastic tone.
The girl was finally brought into the room, and the guards that escorted her looked as if they had trained for a week straight without sleep. Two of them collapsed, which gave the girl a chance to escape. She held no hesitation to attempt to escape, which backfired bring as to there were more guards. With much struggle, the warrior was brought before Zuko and Iroh.
Iroh leaned over and whispered, "This must be why they were so willing to give this soldier to you. Do you really want her on your ship?"
Zuko closed his eyes and attempted to calm down. He tried to decide whether or not to accept the recruit or not.
"What are you whispering, old man? You had better hope you didn't insult me."
Iroh lowered his eyes. "No manners. Just like a child."
"I'm fifteen, old man, not twelve. And who's the bald head next to you anyway?"
Zuko lost his temper. He stood up and shouted, "Do not insult me, you pathetic fool! I refuse to believe that this thing in front of me is a firebender stronger than I!"
"Prince Zuko, please calm down," Iroh said in a calm tone.
Zuko sat down uncomfortably. "Prince Zuko?" the female repeated. "Oh! My bad, you should be called Zuko-chi!"
There was dead silence within the room.
"What? You'd prefer baldy?" the girl said with a blank stare.
Zuko slammed his fist on the table.
"Enough of this nonsense!" Zuko shouted with much fury than usual. "If you really are my key to capturing the Avatar, then fine, I'll accept you to my ship. But if you end up being a weakling who only stands in my way, you'll be thrown overboard."
The girl lowered her eyes. "Who said I would be your key?" she muttered. "And what manners do you have throwing a lady overboard?"
"Tell us your name first then, firebender," asked Iroh.
"What do you want with my name, old man? Why would it matter?" replied the girl an annoyed tone.
"If you are going to be part of the crew, the least we can call you is by your name. Or do you want to be called ignorant child?" said Iroh with a smirk.
The female paused for a moment. "The name's Yuri. Happy, old man?"
"I would if you would stop calling me old man. I have a name too, you know."
"Like I care," replied Yuri with a bored voice.
Iroh stammered in this stance. Just as he was about to talk back, Zuko stood up made his decision.
"Enough arguing. We wasted enough time talking here. We're continuing our pursuit of the Avatar," Zuko said in a demanding voice.
Everyone in the room stood up as well and followed him to his ship. The guards once again escorted Yuri. She sighed and let them guide her to the ship. Yuri was done and tired of struggling. As they were walking to the ship, Zuko encountered Zhao. Zuko and Zhao exchanged a hateful look at each other, and continued walking to their destination. When Zhao saw that Yuri was assigned to Zuko's ship, he laughed.
"Finally, you're assigned somewhere where I don't have to listen to you whine all day," Zhao said in a nasty tone.
"The fire lord must be out of his mind appointing a stupid middle-aged man to an admiral," mumbled Yuri.
"Watch your mouth, you brat!" Zhao shouted.
"Whatever you say, stupid middle-aged man."
Zhao gritted his teeth with anger. He didn't seem to get along with children or teenagers much. Softly, Zuko chuckled. He thought there might be of some use of Yuri's smart talking mouth and ill-manners. As they approached the ship, the guards still stood by her side until she was in the ship.
"We advise you have someone guard her at all times," one of the guards suggested.
"Have some near her side at all times then," Zuko ordered.
A random warrior was picked to guard her. The ship left the Fire Nation and sailed to pursue the Avatar. Zuko again stepped outside onto the deck and into the fresh air. He breathed in heavily and kept calm. After five minutes Yuri stepped into the ship, there was already ruckus disturbing the peaceful silence. Iroh came out and approached Zuko.
"Sorry to disturb you, Prince Zuko, but no one can tame her properly. Hopefully you can watch over her," explained Iroh.
"I didn't accept her to baby-sit," replied Zuko, trying not to get angry.
"But no one can stop her from her rampage. She's destroying the ship and trying to jump off the ship!"
"Why don't you guard her, Uncle?" said Zuko.
"She'd slip away while I'm asleep. I'm not the light sleeper like you, you know. Besides, she's basically your responsibility."
Zuko growled, and then sighed. "Fine, bring her to me. I'll be her guardian."
Iroh went back into the ship and fetched Yuri. She was brought onto the deck where Zuko was. She put on a bored and annoyed face.
"I don't need a guardian. And someone like you isn't going to be mine," said Yuri in a demanding voice.
Zuko didn't reply, but kept staring out to the ocean. Yuri stood besides him and stared into the ocean. She sighed heavily.
"This is boring. Don't you do anything fun around here?"
Yuri stepped in front of Zuko to see his expression. Although he seemed to have a calm face, it was obvious he was trying his best to not snap. She stared a long time at his scar.
"You're so boring. You stand there like an inanimate object," Yuri commented.
No answer from Zuko.
"Zuko-chi, do something fun."
No movement. Yuri became quite annoyed at his statue-like attitude. Although, Zuko kept twitching at the fact that she didn't seem to show any sings of ceasing to call him Zuko-chi. Yuri gave up and vanished from his view. He sighed with much relief. Suddenly, there was a harsh yanking on his hair. Zuko lost balance and fell back to the ground. Yuri's sweet face popped up from behind with a smile. The prince growled loudly as he jumped and stood up. He turned around to face her and declare a battle when he saw his uncle motioning him not to fight. Zuko turned around once again. Iroh sighed with much relief. Zuko was able to control his anger, for once. As Zuko began calm down, he felt some weight leaning against his shoulders. He turned to see it was once again, Yuri. At this point, Zuko saw Yuri no more than a nuisance.
"Did I mention I get sea sick easily?" said Yuri wearily.
Zuko growled once again. "I've had enough of her nonsense!" He threw Yuri aside and began stomping his way to his room when Iroh reminded him that he had to watch over Yuri. Zuko punched some fire from his fist and grabbed Yuri's collar. He dragged her all the way to his quarters.
"That means you have to share your room with the powerful warrior, Prince Zuko." Iroh chuckled. "How long will you put up with her? And how long will it take for you to remember…"
Author's Rant -
Hello everyone who read this. I am most thankful for you to read this! This is my first written fan fiction that I have planned and for once written down. I'm pretty sure you don't want to read more, but if you could, please read my 'Author's Rants'.
If you have never heard of or watched 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' and plan to flame, please don't comment at all. Yes, I will accept criticism, but no flames. I hope and plan to improve my writing skills. Any questions are welcome too. E-mail me questions if you could. There might be some questions I will not answer due to the fact that I will explain it in later chapters. But please do ask any uncertainties or typos because I tend to type slower than my brain thinks.
The title of this story, 'Judgment', was well, basically random! Of course, then I realized it somehow intertwined with the story as it progresses later on. 'The Scroll of Shodan' literally means 'Scroll of Judgment'. (creative, isn't it? laugh) It supposed to be like the seasons in the show. Since this story doesn't really flow with the original one the cartoon views, I didn't think it'd be good to put 'Scroll One' and all. Then 'Chronicles' are the chapters of course!
I would hate anime-like cartoons. But once my friend forced me to watch this show, I was hooked. I loved this series so much and my heart broke once I found out that the season ended so early. But that didn't stop my obsession. Problem was that I had a regent coming up soon. I was going to draw many fan arts, but I gave up trying to practice the fire navy's uniform. And so, this story was created.
Originally, Yuri was going to be a very calm person who was related to a character from the series. As time passed, I just couldn't create a calm character who was a firebender. So I changed her dramatically and came to the result of what you just read.
I'm sorry for ranting on about stuff. I don't seem to get to the point. Either way, I would thank you once again for reading this story. I'm not too sure of continuing this story after I finish it, but if you happen to like it, please state so! It would make me happy as writer and me as myself.
Thank you!
Zaruki
PS: Just like to clear that I do know that Aang is the main character and all and should play a major role. Yes, but this is just an introduction to Yuri. I'll be sure to put Aang in the next chapter! (by the way, I don't like nor plan to write any romance so there will be no romance here. so please don't get the wrong idea!)