The Iron Sole Alchemist in the Benders' World (Chapter 12) Concluding Jinora's Training
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
Opal was a quick study, picking up air bending techniques almost as fast as we could show them to her. Suyin and her sons took a few days to really grasp the theory behind lava bending, and another week before they managed it for the first time. As for our metal bending training, Suyin had us barefoot and blindfolded for a week, developing our seismic senses before she showed us her meteorite collection. Sensing and grasping control over the impurities in the metal, Sloth and I didn't have any trouble metal bending the meteorites. From there, it was just a matter of bending increasingly pure metals in increasingly complex ways.
"I'm holding you back, aren't I?" said Opal after we'd been working together for about a month.
"You're making excellent progress," I assured her.
"But you're done," said Opal. "You've mastered metal bending, you've passed on lava bending. At this point, you're only staying in Zaufu for my sake."
"If you want to stop your training, you can," I said with a disappointed sigh. "I want my students to fully master their abilities and realize their potential, but I understand not everyone feels like it's as important as I do."
"I don't want to end my training," said Opal, taking a seat. "I want to become a true air bending master. I just... Can you keep a secret?"
"I may not like keeping them, but over the years, I've learned enough secrets that could lead to disasters that I've gotten professional training at keeping them. What's wrong?"
"I want to go to the air temples," admitted Opal. "Mother wants her family with her all the time in Zaufu, but want to get out, see the world, maybe try out the Air Nomad lifestyle and see if it's right for me. I thought, if you left, going to the air temple would be the only way I could study air bending, and she'd have to let me go."
"You're your own person, Opal," I said with conviction. "If you want to go to the air temples, you shouldn't have to have an excuse. I'd be happy to bring you to the air temple of your choice and provide an introduction if you don't want to stay and study in Zaufu."
"I just don't want to disappoint my mother," said Opal.
"Your mom's always telling stories about her time traveling the world," I noted. "Having the chance to do that meant a lot to her. Do you think she'd begrudge you the same chance?"
"No. Not really," she said with a sigh.
"If you really think me leaving is the best plan, I will, but I don't see any reason you can't leave on good terms with her blessing. Likewise, it's not like you can never come back once you do."
After my talk with Opal, I headed down to Huan's sculpture garden. Though they had very different styles and mediums, Sloth and Huan had hit it off over their mutual love for art. When I arrived, I found Loki enjoying an afternoon nap in the shade of one of Huan's sculptures next to a rune inscribed bowl sitting on the ground."
I looked into the surface of the pensive and saw the Southern Air Temple. Touching my nose to the surface of the bowl's contents, I fell into the memory being shown. In the path away from the temple, I saw Sloth and Huan. Sloth had a canvas and paints out while Huan was metal bending a hunk of raw material that would eventually become his next sculpture.
"So, how long have you been hiding here with this hansom young artist?" I teased.
"Just since you've been busy with his athletic younger sister," Sloth teased back.
I leaned down and kissed Sloth then took a look at her canvas.
"Using the pensive to capture moments you weren't planning on painting at the time was a brilliant idea," I said with a smile at her painting of the temple.
"So, how are things going with Opal?" asked Sloth.
"She fired me," I said.
"She what?" asked Huan. "I don't think I've seen Opal happier than these past few weeks studying air bending. What did you do to her?"
"Nothing like that," I assured Huan, who cautiously set down the heavy metal sculpture he'd been levitating threateningly. "Opal's decided she wants to visit the air temples and study there."
"I can see why she'd want to go," said Huan. "Sloth's been showing me her memories of the temples. I'm surprised mom okayed it, though."
"Opal was worried about that too, but Suyin came around pretty quick once Opal explained how much it meant to her," I said.
"We're going with and checking on Jinora's progress while we're there, right?" confirmed Sloth.
"That's what I was thinking," I replied. "I did promise her fulbring once her soul reaper powers settled."
The resources of the White Lotus made chartering an air ship from myself, Sloth, Loki, and Opal much simpler. We'd radioed ahead to make sure the temple we were headed toward was the one Tenzin and his family were at for the moment. Over the radio, Tenzin expressed his eagerness to meet Opal and his hope that she'd find what she was looking for among them.
When the air ship docked, the family came out to meet us. Jinora tried to surprise me with a quick flash step, but while she was in mid stride, I flash stepped into the spot she'd started in and gave her a wave. After fielding a dozen questions from Ikki, greeting the rest of the family, and introducing Opal, I took Jinora aside.
"You've been leaving your body to visit the spirit world a lot in the past month or so, haven't you?" I opened.
"How did you know?" asked Jinora.
"Spirit energy grows fastest when the soul is put in danger of termination," I said. "While you're in your body, the worst that can happen is you'll die. Your soul isn't in any danger at all. When you're in spirit form, those minor risks that are a part of daily life effected the soul and not just the body, so spirit energy grows faster."
"How long do I have to spend out of my body before I have more spirit energy than you?" asked Jinora.
"Human souls have a built in strength limit," I said, shaking my head. "I've exceeded that limit through technological means. The same alteration that made me vulnerable to Vaatu removed me strength cap."
"Oh," said Jinora, disappointed.
"The actual strength limit is actually pretty ridiculous," I hastened to add. "People can train hard for thousands of years and not come close to the limit. Honestly, once you can casually vaporize a mountain, exact numbers stop meaning much."
"If they don't mean much, why'd you do it?" pressed Jinora.
"I was nowhere near the strength limit when I underwent hollowfication," I said. "It represented a quick, immediate boost in power and unlocked abilities that I otherwise couldn't learn. If you want to get a hollowfication, you'll need to talk to your dad about coming back to my world to attend our boarding school. I simply don't have the tools to do it here."
"When are you leaving?" asked Jinora.
"In a few days, I think," I replied. "I think I've learned everything I can from this world, so it's nearly time to go home and share the wonders I've seen with my people."
"Can we talk about it with my mom and dad?" asked Jinora.
"Of course," I said. "Barring cases of child abuse and the like, we require permission from parents or guardians to attend."
"It sounds like I'd learn a lot," said Jinora, "but leaving everything behind..."
"If you do decide to go, it won't be forever," I said. "There are breaks and holidays you'd be able to come home for, but we can go over the details when we talk to your parents. For now, I have a gift for you."
"What is it?" Jinora asked brightly.
"By bonding with a zanpakto, your soul has taken on characteristics of humans and soul reapers," I began to explain. "This process makes it possible for me to transfer a power called fullbring to you. Are you ready?"
"Yes," said Jinora, carefully controlling her excitement.
I took out my substitute soul reaper combat pass. With an act of will, green flames flickered from the pentagon shaped badge to envelop my entire body. When the flames vanished, I wore a black bodysuit with bone white bands of armor, giving me a skeletal appearance. My right arm was covered in a shell of black and red armor with a large protrusion along the shoulder. My left arm was covered in white and red armor. I was holding a curved short sword with my substitute badge as its cross guard.
I bowed my head in Jinora's direction and green flames consumed my armor and weapon, then leaped to Jinora where they reformed into the same style of weapon and armor. While she looked over herself, I took a dispenser out of my utility belt and swallowed a red pill. My spirit energy pulsed as the backup of my powers made before I came to this world overrode my current powers and restored my fullbring. I took another substitute badge out of my belt pouch and armored up once again.
"I feel so much stronger," said Jinora.
"You should," I said with a smile. "When I transferred over my fullbring, I also transferred over as much raw spirit energy as your soul could handle. You're at the strength limit now, as powerful as an unmodified human soul can be. Learning to use that power will still take time but..."
"You planned this," she said, playfully hitting me with a blast of wind.
I tried to catch and dispel the blast, but found my air bending inaccessible. The blast struck and knocked me through a nearby mountain before I managed to stop and return with a flicker of green bringer light as I chose to use fullbring assisted high speed movement. A lot of people had gathered to stare.
"It's okay," I said as I turned to try and steady the collapsing mountain with earth bending, that also didn't work. "I just gave Jinora a boost to her spirit energy and she'll need a little time to get used to it."
When the crowds started to dissipate, Jinora could no longer hold back a grin as she said, "I knocked you through a mountain."
"You can do all sorts of things to a stronger opponent when his guard's down," I replied. "I think using that pill lost me my bending. I'll have to have Sloth energy bend it back and make a new set of backup pills tonight."
"So... um... what does all this stuff do?" asked Jinora.
"I'll show you."
Fullbring was one of the hardest spiritual powers for me to learn. Jinora had learned the basics of summoning her powers in an afternoon. When she learned one of the abilities I'd granted her was Book of the End, which I'd used to study under the old air bending masters, Jinora took me to a place called Lahima's Point.
"According to legend, an air bending master named Guru Lahima discovered the secret to unaided flight like the sky bison," explained Jinora. "No one's managed it before or since, so no one knows if it really happened or if it was just a myth."
We both stabbed the ground and inserted ourselves into the past where we met Guru Lahima. His abilities were no myth. The old master was happy to explain how to do it as he levitated in a lotus position.
The secret of weightlessness was total detachment. You needed to let go of all your earthly tethers to achieve it. Back in the present, I walked Jinora through the process of storing your memories in a container, reversing the change to history, and restoring the memories to your mind.
"It's really true," said Jinora excited.
"It's easy to see why no one followed in his footsteps," I said.
"What do you mean?"
"I own a sword that digs tentacles into its wielder's arm and consumes their spirit energy, potentially fatally. I've used it in battle because I needed the temporary boost in power it gave. I'm intimately familiar with the idea of power at a price, and more often than not, I'm willing to pay it. But this? No friends? No family? No earthly attachments of any kind? Not worth it."
"When you put it that way, it reminds me of a story about Grandpa Aang. He met a man named Guru Pathic who promised to help him master the avatar state. He went through almost everything, but when he was told he'd have to give up his attachment to Grandma Katara, he had a vision of her in danger. Even if it meant never mastering the avatar state, he wouldn't let anything happen to her, so he left the guru and went to rescue Gran-gran."
"It sounds like Avatar Aang was a very wise man indeed," I said.
"He died a few years before I was born," said Jinora sadly. "Daddy and Gran-gran told me stories, but I never got to meet him."
"I'm glad I could help you meet him," I said.
Jinora looked puzzled for a moment, then realized what I was talking about, took out her badge and stared at it. "I can meet him, can't I? I got used to the idea Korra was the closest I could get, since she's Grandpa Aang's reincarnation."
"It's really satisfying to see Book of the End being used positively like this," I confided. "I originally took it from an evil fullbringer who used it to manipulate one of my friends and trick him into a trap."
"If she goes, how long would she be away?" asked Pemma.
Jinora was seated between her parents on a couch. Sloth and I were seated on a couch opposite them with a short table between us.
"The full program is seven years," I said. "There's a two week holiday around the winter solstice and a two month holiday during the summer, during which she can come home to spend time with her family."
"And what would she be leaving at this school of yours?" asked Tenzin.
"Our program covers every form of science and magic we've encountered on our travels between worlds," I explained. "There's the advanced alchemy native to our world, a wide variety of spells and potions taken directly from the curriculum of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the more combat oriented magic taught at the Seireitei's Spiritual Arts Academy, and a solid grounding on both conventional physics and what we've been able to derive from Incubator technology thus far. After this trip, we'll be adding all four forms of bending to the curriculum."
"And you expect to fit all of that into seven years?" asked Tenzin skeptically.
"That will depend on Jionra," said Sloth. "All of that is an offer, but it will be up to her where she focuses her studies. We do employ a number of education aids to help students interested in learning more than time would usually allow, and we have more aids working their way through the Assembly mandated safety tests."
"I want to add that there is no commitment," I said. "If at any time, Jinora doesn't want to continue with us, she can be disenrolled and will be returned home immediately."
"This sort of private boarding school sounds expensive," noted Pemma.
"The citizens of Liore, the city where it's based, have a legally mandated right to attend free of charge. The Amestrian Civil Assembly provides a number of generous scholarships to its citizens, as well as setting aside funding to allow individuals from friendly worlds to study there in the interests of building diplomatic ties."
"If there were any barriers or requirements other than your agreement, Greed would have brought them up before making an offer," noted Sloth.
"Well, Jinora?" prompted Tenzin.
"I want to go, daddy," she said after a moment.
"Then it's settled," said Tenzin with a proud smile to his eldest daughter. "You can go. Learn a lot and teach it to the rest of us when you get back."
"Take good care of her," said Pemma. "If anything happened to her..."
"We'll make sure she's safe," I promised. "As the school's new bending instructors, watching out for the safety and welfare of all students is literally part of our job."
"It's one of the safest schools in the known multiverse," said Sloth. "Since its founding, we haven't had one attack my a self styled dark lord, one infiltration of the faculty by a would be god intent on his own agenda, or interference with the students by a dangerous, extraterrestrial intelligence."
"We aren't kidding," I affirmed. "Every one of those things was an issue in a school we ran into in one of the worlds we've explored."
"What's the worst thing that's hit your world?" asked Pemma.
"Centuries old immortals performing mass human sacrifice rituals that destroy entire cities," I admitted. "We're also, as far as we can tell, the only world that's been invaded by organized military forces from another world. Neither has happened since the school's founding, and we have precautions in place."
"I suppose we're in no position to judge," said Tenzin. "The great spirit of darkness and chaos did very nearly destroy this world recently."
That evening, Sloth and I had retired to our room. She'd restored my bending abilities and I was working on a suitcase sized device to produce a new set of red power backup pills. Sloth was having a playful tug of war with Loki using a piece of rope while I worked.
"It's hard to believe our trip to this world's almost done," noted Sloth idly. "We'll end up spending more time teaching bending back home than we needed to master it here."
"You can't blame the Assembly for being cautious about knowledge implants," I said as I adjusted a dial on the device. "It works fine between us because we trust each other absolutely. You wouldn't accept an imprint from just anyone, not even from certified school faculty."
"I know," said Sloth. "It's just after running ourselves ragged on our last teaching job, I guess I was hoping for a longer trip."
"We did go for an easy world this time," I reminded her. "Maybe the next one'll be a years long challenge."
"As powerful as we've become, a challenge like that seems unlikely," said Sloth.
"We could ease up a little on the requirement that all our powers have to work in the next world," I suggested.
"I'm okay with that," said Sloth contemplatively, "but keeping our alchemy's non-negotiable. I don't want to risk getting stranded like we almost did in the Nazi world."
"Sounds reasonable to me," I said as I put away my new set of power backup pills.
"At least we shouldn't need to time turn while teaching bending," said Sloth with a sigh. "Even teaching two elements each we'll have plenty of time to ourselves."
Over the next few days, we fielded a lot of questions. Air Nomads don't tend to accumulate many possessions, so Jinora was able to put a few favorite books in a bag with her clothes, grab her glider staff, and she was packed. Before we left, Sloth and I gathered the whole family together for a photo. We developed two copies using a potion that made the figures move. One we left with Tenzin and the other we gave to Jinora.
The whole temple came to see us off. Sloth, Loki, Jinora, and I stood away from the waving group of Air Nomads.
"Gate travel can be disorienting," I warned Jinora as we prepared to go. "While we're inside the Gate, your mind will be flooded with all the knowledge of the cosmos. While you're distracted with that, amorphous creatures made of shadow will try to steal your limbs and organs. Sloth and I have made this trip many times. We'll protect and guide you through.
Jinora swallowed nervously and said, "Okay."
"Thank you for everything," said Sloth to the gathered Air Nomads. "We'll see you soon."
I clapped my hands, and a sophisticated transmutation circle drew itself in blue light above my head. The circle swept down over us and the four of us were taken before the Gate. I took a steadying breath before the enormous carved double doors swung open and absolute knowledge slammed into my finite mind. I clapped and deconstructed the tentacle like arms reaching out for us as I guided us away from the world of the benders and back to my home town. We approached the Gate from the inside and I forced it open with my combined physical and alchemic power. Sloth, Jinora, Loki, and I were deposited in a circular stone room with a painted sign prominently indicating we'd arrived in Liore and what the local time was.
Jinora'd been staring wide eyed since we entered the Gate and dropped to her knees now that stable ground was beneath us and the infinite knowledge of the Truth was no longer being forced into her mind.
"That was... I saw... Everything was in there," Jinora said after a long moment of processing.
"It is," I agreed. "Come on. Let's introduce you to the mayor while we make our report about your world. Then, we can see about getting your school supplies and getting you enrolled."
We headed out of the fortified arrival area and stepped outside into the bustling desert city of Liore. A handful of blue uniformed Amestrian soldiers were walking the crowded streets attracting little attention. I saw more than a few people openly displaying the purple, slitted eyes of their homunculus forms to equally little concern.
"This is more crowded than Republic City," said Jinora looking around.
"You'll have plenty of time to look around later," said Sloth. "Stay close to us for now."
We led the way to the mayor's office, occasionally pausing to greet someone along the way. We were let in right away by security and soon found ourselves in the office proper.
"Jinora, this is Rose, the mayor of Liore. Rose, this is Jinora, daughter of Master Tenzin, leader of the Air Nomads," I introduced the young air bender to the brown and pink haired woman responsible for so much of Liore's success. "I've offered Jinora a place in our school."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Jinora," said Rose, offering her hand and shaking Jinora's with a bow. "So, Greed, Sloth, I take it things went well in this new world."
"It was mostly what we were hoping for," said Sloth. "Safe, stable, and containing a new kind of magic we could bring home. This time, a method of manipulating the four classical elements through martial arts called bending." Sloth demonstrated, setting he dial on her bracelet and producing a small flame in the palm of her hand.
"Jinora's family were kind enough to take us in and help us get our bearings in the new world, and since she had natural spirit energy, I wanted to give her the chance to master it as a way of repaying that kindness," I said.
A few hours later, we left Rose's office and brought Jinora up to the school. She was provided with books, potion ingredients, pens, papers, additional clothes, and the like as well as being matched with a wand. Finally through with the basic enrollment process, Jinora took a deep breath and looked around her, taking in the campus.
"This is where you teach everything?" confirmed Jinora. "All the science and magic you talked about before we left?"
"That's right," I said.
"Good," said Jinora. Then she took her substitute badge off her belt, turned it into a short sword with a burst of green bringer light, and stabbed the ground.
Sloth and I stared at her in surprise for a few seconds before twin grins spread on our faces. Jinora finished repeating the process I'd used to learn bending by extracting her memories of the altered timeline where she'd already attended this school, reversed her changes by stabbing hte ground again, then stuffing the memories back in.
"I knew I liked this girl," said Sloth.
"So, you've finished our whole curriculum?" I confirmed.
"I still need to hollowfy in real time and develop my relationship with my inner spirits," said Jinora, "and I haven't made a homunculus body for someone and opened the Gate on my own yet, but otherwise, yeah."
I kept smiling and led her back up to one of the administrative desks and made arrangements for her to take the appropriate tests to skip the material she'd already learned.
"Since you haven't taught the classes yet, I'll still need to learn the other three elements the long way," noted Jinora as the tests were being prepared.
"We still aren't one hundred percent sure what makes it safe for me to hold more than one element," I noted. "We'll run some tests and once we're sure, we'll give you the other elements. As for hollowfication, once you pass your tests, I'll get out the hogyoku for you to use."
As expected, Jinora easily tested out of all the classes we'd previously taught. There weren't any shortcuts to a good relationship with your inner spirits, and there were still the new bending classes, so she wasn't completely with nothing to do, but she'd definitely bought herself a lot of free time. It took a few days to organize the bending lessons and perform the necessary tests.
My theory that my inner spirits helping share the strain was what allowed me to hold multiple elements was borne out by the experiments. An unmodified human, with or without spirit energy, could hold at most one element. Add a zanpakto and the number of elements increases to two. After undergoing hollowfication, a person can handle all four elements.
While truly mastering any bending art could be the work of a lifetime, we were able to get students up to the level of competence we'd seen from most benders from the skill's native world inside a week. By the end of a month of dedicated instruction, our students were at the level of professional soldiers with their bending. When it was time for winter break, our bending students could have passed for elite warriors in the armies of any of the elemental nations.
When Sloth and I went to pick up Jinora for her break, there was an unexpected,familiar face waiting with her. Loki yipped happily and ran up to greet Winry Elric. The world's best automail engineer easily shifted her heavy bags onto one shoulder as she kneeled to greet the excited dog.
"Winry, what are you doing here?" I asked. Then hastily added, "not that we aren't happy to see you."
"I'm coming with you, of course," declared Winry. "You finally found a world where they independently invented automail. I want to go to the Fire Nation and study it directly."
"We're only staying for two weeks," I warned. "If you want, we can leave you and pick you up when we drop off Jinora after her first year's done."
"I've already read all the material you brought back from the libraries," said Winry. "A couple weeks talking to their engineers directly should be plenty."
"We are making a stop along the way," said Sloth. "Before we go to the bending world, we got permission from the Assembly to visit the quarantined Incubator world."
"After what happened to you there, I'm surprised you want to go back," said Winry.
"Madoka and Homura should be holding the Incubators in check," said Sloth, "but we have something that might convince them to abandon the magical girl project altogether."
"So, a quick review of the quarantine procedure for this world," I said. "No Incubator gets anywhere near the Gate, no one agrees to any Incubator contract or makes any sort of wish. We don't want them gaining knowledge, power, or resources, and we especially don't want them spreading to other worlds."
"Right," agreed Winry and Jinora together.
Sloth clapped her hands and the intricate transmutation circle Hohenheim had developed to keep outsiders from observing the Gate flared blue above our party and swept down. After navigating the metaphorical space of the Truth, we emerged on a sidewalk in Mitakihara. I inserted the Mad Eye into my socket so I could see the Incubator that hopped off a nearby building and padded over to us.
"Hello, Kyubey," said Sloth as he approached. It was clear from eye contact that Jinora could see the little alien while Winry couldn't.
"I'm curious to hear if your alternative wish project was a success," chirped Kyubey cheerfully.
"It was," I informed the creature.
"We found something while exploring a new world we thought you might find interesting," said Sloth, taking out a small box. "Give me your paw."
Kyubey offered a fore paw, sitting up in a calculatedly "cute" way. Everything about this thing was designed by a superhuman gestalt intelligence to put young girls at ease and off their guard to facilitate harvesting their souls. I suppressed the urge to stomp the Incubator body in front of me flat under my boot while Sloth took a ring of green crystal out of the box and skid it onto Kyubey's fore paw.
"What is this?" asked Kyubey as he tried and failed to slide the crystal ring back off to examine it closer.
"It's called jenomite," said Sloth. "Also known as creeping crystal."
The crystal ring expanded and covered Kyubey's entire foreleg.
"As far as we've been able to determine, jenomite violates conservation laws, producing matter and energy from nothing as it grows," I elaborated.
"That is interesting," agreed Kyubey as the crystals began to cover his chest. "If you're right, they might be viable as a secondary power source for combating entropy."
"Secondary source?" asked Sloth. "You're not contracting magical girls again, are you?"
"No," said Kyubey in that same cheerful voice. "As we said before, human emotions are too dangerous and unpredictable. However, the grief cubes we collect from the existing magical girls represent an energy source millions of times more rich than this crystal is likely to be able to produce. On the plus side, we should be able to keep using jenomite after all the existing magical girls die."
At this point, Kyubey was fully encased in the green crystal and a second Incubator arrived to look over the crystal.
"Was it necessary to do that to one of my terminals?" asked Kyubey in the same chirpy, cheerful tone he always used. "You know I have plenty of spares, so it doesn't really hurt me. It's just wasteful."
"I know how much you hate waste," said Sloth. "It's the closest thing I can do to hurting you. I wanted that little emotional satisfaction as a precondition to helping you by showing you the jenomite. It's petty, but I'm okay with that."
"I expect to see a sky filled with stars made of burning candy the next time I come to this world," I said before clapping my hands and causing our party to vanish into the concealing array and enter the Gate.
When we'd passed through and were all once again standing in the courtyard of one of the Air Temples, it was safe to talk about what happened.
"It's hard to believe something that small and cute is as powerful or dangerous as you say it is," said Jinora. "I mean, I believe you, but it's weird."
"That's part of how it tricks people," said Sloth. "If something like that ever visits this world, make sure people aren't fooled."
At that point, a boy around Jinora's age wearing Air Nomad clothes emerged from the temple. I didn't recognize him.
"Who are you?" asked the boy.
"I'm Jinora," she replied. "These are my friends from another world. Who are you?"
"My name is Kai," said the boy. "Jinora, your dad told me you left to study magic."
"That's right," she said, drawing her wand and producing a small shower of green sparks.
Kai looked unimpressed. "You don't expect me to believe that's actually magic, do you? I've seen street performers do better than that."
"Street performers?" demanded Jinora affronted. "Can a street performer do this?" Pointing her wand directly at Kai, Jinora called out an incantation and turned him into a toad.
"I think you made your point," I said, snapping my fingers and untransfiguring Kai.
Kai showed no sign of being upset, saying, "Okay, that was impressive. How did you do that?"
"Magic," said Jinora in a tone that made it clear she was stating the obvious.
"So, what's your story?" I asked. "You aren't one of the Air Acolytes I granted bending to."
"Nah, I got my air bending from harmonic convergence," said Kai. "The Earth Queen kidnapped a bunch of us, took us away from our families, and forced us into her army. Tenzin and Avatar Korra rescued us and offered us sanctuary at the air temples."
"Speaking of Tenzin, is he here?" asked Sloth. "I'm sure he's going to want to greet Jinora."
"Right, I'll go get him," said Kai running off.
The family reunion was a happy one. I was able to proudly report that thanks to Jinora blatantly abusing her powers, we expected her to conclude her studies with us in the next semester. I hoped Jinora's demonstration would help motivate the Assembly to authorize and regulate some of our speed teaching options.
It was a simple matter to charter an air ship to get Winry to the Fire Nation. Tenzin offered to let Sloth, Loki, and I stay at the air temples again, which we accepted. Despite the warm welcome, Sloth and I largely kept to ourselves. This trip was to give Jinora and her family time together, and we didn't want to intrude.
We were available if anyone had questions, which was why Pemma was able to come to us on the third day.
"Blood bending?" asked Pemma. "That's really on the list of things you're planning to teach Jinora next semester?"
"That's right," I said. "Blood bending isn't illegal in Amestris, and in the interests of providing a thorough education, we offer training in a number of subjects that are taboo on their native worlds."
"She's already been taught about horcruxes, how the hogyoku, Oken, and Philosopher's Stone are made, and how to perform human transmutation," said Sloth. "Just because she has the knowledge doesn't mean she has to use it."
"Even so..." began Pemma.
"There's one application of blood bending I expect you'll be grateful she knows," I said. "It takes knowledge of blood bending to break another blood bender's hold on you."
"No one's forced to study subjects they aren't comfortable with," said Sloth. "If Jinora doesn't want to take this class, she doesn't have to. But we'd really rather it be Jinora's decision."
"You don't see anything wrong with blood bending, do you?" confirmed Pemma.
"Like any power, it can be used for good or bad ends," I said. "Still less evil than love potions."
When Jinora returned to school, she had permission from her family to study anything we were willing to teach her. She mastered the bending sub skills, lava, metal, lightning, healing, blood, and energy bending over the course of her remaining few months with us. She'd gotten no further with her zanjutsu than shikai, and no further in her hollowfication than what she could do with just her mask. She was a ways away from confronting her inner hollow for resureccion. Her quincy abilities had been fully mastered thanks to her continuing abuse of Book of the End.
Jinora was the one who led us through the Gate on her return trip to her world after she passed her exams. Sloth, Loki, and I came along to reaffirm our congratulations and answer any final questions for her family. When we arrived, we learned Avatar Korra was waiting for us.
"What can we do for you?" I asked as Sloth, Loki, and I stepped into the meeting room where Korra was waiting with some White Lotus guards.
"From what I've heard, we won't be seeing you again for a while," said Korra.
"We've taught Jinora everything we know and she has the tools to teach others," I said.
"I could use an outside prospective on something before you go," said Korra gesturing to the chairs.
"Of course," said Sloth as we sat down.
"It's the Earth Queen," said Korra. "She's been gearing up for a war with the United Republic. I want to keep the war from happening, but I don't see a way to do it without going and attacking the queen myself."
"International diplomacy isn't something we have much experience with," I admitted.
"Ten thousand years of past lives doing almost nothing but international diplomacy are being a lot less helpful than you'd expect," said Korra with a sigh. "The United Republic was the compromise Aang used to resolve the issue of Fire Nation colonies established early on in the hundred year war that couldn't be peacefully reintegrated into the Earth Kingdom thanks to how long it had been and how deep the roots people there had put down. The queen's father agreed to the compromise, and the Fire Nation has treaty obligations to protect the Republic if the Earth Kingdom tries to renege."
"What have your past lives been suggesting?" asked Sloth.
"A lot of them think I should just kill the Earth Queen and warn her successor not to step out of line," said Korra. "Aang understands I don't want to do that, especially when she hasn't made the first move on her invasion, but he doesn't know how to stop this any more than I do. He discredited Fire Lord Ozai by beating him in a fight and taking his bending, but the Earth Queen's an old woman who was never a bender to begin with."
"How far are you willing to go to accommodate her?" asked Sloth.
"What do you mean?" asked Korra.
"You could raise new lands out of the ocean as payment for the lands Aang took for the Republic," suggested Sloth.
"If I could trust that to be the end of it, I'd got for that in a heartbeat," said Korra. "The real problem is I don't think I could trust any deal she makes. She's put too much time and money into getting ready for this war."
"Ask Jinora about something called the Unbreakable Vow," I suggested. "It's a nasty bit of magic ideally suited to sealing agreements between parties that don't trust each other."
"What's it do?" asked Korra.
"Anyone who breaks an agreement sealed with an Unbreakable Vow dies," I said.
"So, she orders the invasion anyway and she drops dead?" confirmed Korra.
"And you give her one square foot less land than you agreed to, you drop dead," replied Sloth.
"That might work," said Korra.
"It is still a death threat," I reminded her. "It just makes the consequences more sure and immediate, and it doesn't leave any room for changing your mind or granting mercy."
"I won't take it lightly," promised Korra, "but it does open up options I didn't think I had. Thank you."
"You're welcome," said Sloth.
"So, where are you three off to next?" asked Korra, changing the subject and offering us a genuine smile.
"We have no idea," I said, returning her smile. "When we leave this world, it's back to exploring."
"We got everything ready before we set out with Jinora," said Sloth.
"I hope you'll come back and visit us soon," said Korra. "If I have anything to say about it, the world will still be at peace when you come back."
After our meeting with Korra, we shared a few words with Tenzin and his family before everything that needed to be said was said. With Korra and the family waving goodbye, I clapped my hands and Sloth, Loki, and I vanished into the Gate.
Author's comments:
The Avatar's task of maintaining the balance is a never ending one. While our travelers from another world have finished their time here, there will be no shortage of adventures for Korra to experience. Jinora will have quite a task ahead of her, helping Korra master her new abilities, spreading the knowledge she's obtained, and making decisions about how that knowledge is distributed that will have an impact on the world for generations. Fortunately, she's up to the challenge.
