Chapter 2: Welcome to Agoda
"Don't do it, Asami."
"What? I'm not going to do anything." Asami folds her arms defensively.
"I want to look for her as badly as you do but we've been through this."
"So you're saying we should give up?"
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying there's a reason why we can't find her. She sends letters to her parents so we know she's alive, at least. She doesn't want to be found. And we should respect that."
Asami is about to say something when Mako reaches out and places his hand on top of hers, cutting her off. She purses her lips.
"Today is exactly one year since she left the Southern Water Tribe alone. I understand that emotions are high. We can go around chasing every rumour we hear."
Asami recalls the conversation the night before over dinner. She's been on the back of a jeep for the past 2 and a half hours and she's getting antsy. She barely got any sleep in the past 2 days and her nausea is getting worse. Just as she's regretting leaving her comfy apartment, she spots a crossroad and a signboard.
- Haiyan - 55 miles
- Agoda - 18 miles
The jeep takes a sharp turn to the right and she fights to keep what's left of her lunch in.
The sun had set by the time she arrives in Agoda. It was a quaint town with dirt roads and two storey shophouses along the street. The driver drops her off in front of an inn in the town centre and she pays him handsomely.
"Do you know where I can find the underground fight clubs?" She asks, only to find the man giving her a strange look and then sputtered a low chuckle.
"I don't know anything about that sort of thing. Even if I did, it aint't a place for a pretty young thing like you." The man says before driving away. She sighs heavily and carries her duffel bag with her into the inn lobby. The young receptionist looks up from his magazine and gives a double take at the new customer. He quickly straightens up and puts on his most charming customer service. If Asami wasn't so exhausted, she would've put the boy down.
"Your room is across the courtyard. May I ask what's a beautiful girl like you doing in our little town?" The boy, Pi, asks as he leans to put one elbow on the counter. He had to be, at most, 17 years old.
"Just passing through." She says, thinking it's probably better if she lays as low as possible. "So what do the locals do around here to blow off some steam?"
"We have a mover theatre down the road. And our very own little casino but it's pretty shady if you ask me."
"That's not really what I was thinking about." She says, leaning closer.
"Are you looking to go dancing? There's a good one my friends and I always go to two streets over. I'll be happy to bring you." Pi says, wiggling his eyebrows.
"That's really nice of you, Pi but I was thinking of fun more of the bending kind. I heard Agoda has a sick earthbending fight scene." Pi grins and looks around the empty lobby.
"You heard right, Miss Asami. Are you a bender yourself?" He straightens and sizes Asami up.
"Nope, but I love to watch."
Asami drops her bag at the foot of the queen sized bed and then drops herself on the mattress. It firm but as her eyes close, she was happy just to be lying down in silence. Pi said the fights don't start until later in the evening so she drags herself into the hot shower. After she's dressed, she lies back on the bed, not caring that her hair was still wet. She picks up her jacket and pulls out the letter. She reads through it one more time.
Dear Asami,
How are you? I hope everything went well with your move to the apartment. I can't wait to visit you there. I'll bring Naga and we'll both give your place a good house warming.
She falls asleep with the letter in her hand.
There is a rapping on her door that startles her awake. Her head is heavy but she feels much more refreshed. She peeps through the curtains and opens the door. Pi stands there with his hands behind his back and a quirky smile on his face. They had agreed to meet after his shift.
"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" He asks, after a short silence. Asami runs her hand through her hair and realises they were sticking up a little.
"No, no. I just took a nap. But I'm feeling much better now."
"Great! Shall we?"
They ate noodles at a sidewalk stall before heading 15 minutes out to a wide street where they entered an alleyway. They stop in front of a big metal door and Pi knocks on it a few times. Words exchange through a small hole in the door before it opens. Once inside, the sounds were similar to those in a pro-bending arena. Yells, bangs, groans. But the size of the room made everything louder and closer.
The space was intimate, accomodating maybe 40 to 50 people and it was packed. There was a cage in the centre of the space, where the ground dipped 30 feet. There Asami saw 2 shirtless men bending the earth beneath them and hurling rocks at each other. Outside the cage were men cheering and waving yuans in the air like their lives depended on it. The seats elevated every row around the circular cage.
"So what are the rules?" Asami asked loudly, trying to get her voice from being overpowered. She and Pi sit in the back rows where they can watch the fight more clearly.
"Tap out or pass out." Pi says, already watching the fight.
"That's it?" The smaller fighter dodges a giant rock that hurled at him. Suddenly, the ground protrudes behind the large bald fighter and knocks him behind the knees and he falls. His opponent sends a fast shot and it meets Baldy's forehead. Baldy's eyes roll back and he drops on his face. The ref calls it and the crowd goes wild.
"Welcome to Agoda, Miss Asami."
Asami sits through a few more matches and she did find underground fighting slightly more entertaining than pro-bending. It was getting late and she decides to walk around to see of she can find who she was looking for. She finds a door that leads to the lower floor which guard had wandered away to watch the fight. She slips in easily and walks through the short hallway before finding what looked like a locker room. She spots some of the fighters from the previous fights. One of them was being treated with waterbending. Asami's heart raced. The healer was facing away but it was definitely a woman with dark hair tied in a pony tail.
She enters the locker room and stands behind the healer. She's been waiting for this moment for over 3 years and for a second she can't bring herself to call out the woman.
"Hey girlie." She hears and she turns around. A skinny man with glasses was looking at her up and down. "Are you new?"
"Uh… no. I was just… looking for the bathroom." Then from the corner of her eye she see's someone coming into view from behind a row of lockers. She's tying white cloth tape on her knuckles.
"Well the bathroom's outside and this is a restricted area. So better get moving before I get someone to do it for you." Glasses say but Asami's eyes are looking over the man's shoulder and at the short haired woman in green. But the eyes are unmistakable.
Upon hearing Chow's shrill voice, Korra looks up to see who was the cause of the commotion. Then her heart stops. Her jaw hangs open. For 2 seconds, they stare into each others eyes, as if not even believing that the other is there.
