Chapter Eleven: The Four Moons
Normally it took Toph's bending to wake Sokka up in the mornings and then he only stopped grumbling once the morning was over. Today was out of the norm and Sokka had slept lightly the whole night, waiting in his sleep for dawn to creep out and tell him he could start his new training. He crept out of bed as quietly as he could, got dressed, collected his weapons and tried to leave quietly and failed as the floorboards creaked. He eventually gave up and just walked out.
It was barely dawn so there was very little light. There was dew throughout Kenji's garden, which caught the light and made the whole garden seem like it was made of crystal. Kenji was sitting under a little tree, waiting for him.
Kenji spoke in normal voice, "I assume you're Sokka." The voice sounded younger than the body.
"Yes master, thank you for teaching me."
"Don't thank me until I've actually done something for you. Now, what has your training been like? I need to know where you need to improve."
"I've trained in the North and South Poles and I'm still learning the style of the Kyoshi Warriors."
"And practical experience, battles I mean, not one on one."
A little of Sokka's pride forced itself through, "Well, I've been travelling with the avatar so I've had plenty of practice. I was in the coup in Ba-Sing-Se, it's recapture, the liberation of Omashu, and I've also fought in the small invasion of Kyoshi Island,"
"You haven't mentioned the Siege of the North yet."
Sokka forgot that it was morning and yelled, "How do you know that?"
"Keep your voice down, people are still sleeping. I'm very well connected. True I didn't know about it until probably a week or two after it was over, but I did hear things."
"I didn't really fight in that battle. I had a mission away from it, but I failed." Sokka's eyes became downcast. The memory still stung badly.
Kenji's eyes opened in shock, "You knew Yue?"
Sokka's eyes sprang open just as fast but he managed not to yell, "Seriously, how do you know all this stuff? There is no way you could know about that!"
"You'll find out in a little bit. Now we can begin, take these." Kenji held out a pair of puppets.
Sokka got a curious look on his face but took them and held them, not really knowing what to do with them.
"Attach the strings from their limbs to your fingers. Arms on the middle two, legs on the outer two. Once Sokka had attached both puppets to his hands Kenji took out another and did the same to his own hand. He also produced a fold out table.
"All right, try making them walk."
Sokka figured what the puppets were for then. They were for controlling the swords. If you could control the puppets than you could change the path or the way in the swords moved. Sokka tried to get the puppets to walk with gusto once he realized what they were for. The puppet's walk was like a drunken retard.
"Could I just use one to begin with?" Normally Sokka could multi-task fairly well, but this was difficult and doing two at the same time was practically impossible.
"No, the movement patterns for the crescent blades are symmetrical. If one hand is more dominate over the other you will lose control of you swords. Keep going, you'll get it, everyone starts out like that." Kenji proceeded to make his puppet sit down cross-legged and turned the head with its hands so it watched Sokka's pair. Kenji had been right, by noon Sokka had become far more adept at manipulating the puppets. Their gross motor skills had become easy enough, but the finer motor skills still proved difficult.
"Okay, time for a test." Kenji made his puppet stand up and extended its arms, "A puppet fight. Let's see how proficient you really are."
Sokka stared blankly for a second then tried to make his puppets mimic the stance he used when he trained with Suki. When Kenji said to start Sokka had both puppets move forward to try and grab Kenji's arms. Kenji let his puppet drop and pushed the two of Sokka's away.
Seeing that two at the same time didn't work Sokka tried to make one do a low sweeping kick. Kenji made his puppet jump over it and Sokka tried a diving tackle with his other puppet when it was still in the air. Kenji kicked it away and hit the other in the head once he landed.
Kenji was clearly enjoying himself as he had a big smile on his face, Sokka didn't. He was getting more and more frustrated as nothing he tried worked at all. Then for the first time in the match Kenji threw a punch. Sokka bent one of his fingers as far back as it could go and managed to avoid the little wooden fist, then had to dodge another attack immediately after as the other puppet was attacked.
Kenji was slowly herding the two puppets closer together until he was attacking them both at the same time. Within a minute of this Sokka's fingers were flying in every direction as he worked frantically to avoid and block all the attacks. Then something clicked in his head. He started to see the little wooden fighting each other in a new way, almost like he had two minds. He could manipulate both without thinking about it and do so seamlessly. With this in mind a new plan came into his head. He flicked one of his wrists making one of the puppets jump into the air as he sent the other to try and attack Kenji. The attack was avoided and as Sokka's puppet missed he made it push the other into the air. The result was it becoming tangled in Kenji's strings.
Right when Sokka started to attack with the other Kenji stopped him, "Okay, we can start now."
"I just got how to do this though; don't I need to master it?"
"No, your mind leapt and you got what you needed. When the mind gets pushed and has to work faster and faster it eventually gets an epiphany and some new talent is discovered in most cases. Your mind started to see the puppets' movements as your hand movements making it very simple to control them. You're also slightly ambidextrous so that will speed you along slightly."
"Sorry, what was the last part?"
"It means that you are equally skilled with both your sides. You aren't left or right handed. Now then I have some theory behind the sword work before we start and you have a choice to make. There are four different styles to practice in this art. There is the New Moon, Full Moon, Blue Moon, and Harvest Moon.
"The New Moon is strictly offensive and focuses on your attack speed. Once you've mastered it the swords will travel so quickly it is difficult to see them, hence the name. The Full Moon is the most defensive. You keep your blade perpendicular to your opponents while moving it so there attacks can be deflected easily. The Blue Moon focuses on control of the swords. Where the other styles only two or three strings a hand, the Blue Moon uses five a hand, which allows for excellent sword control if it is mastered. If you haven't mastered it the strings end up getting tangled or cut and you lose control.
"Finally the Harvest Moon involves using one hand for defence and the other for offence. You use your defensive hand to block and create an opening and the offensive one for a vertical or horizontal circle to go for their arm. This is the style that makes it obvious why crescent blades are used. Normal blades strike in a short arc or a direct line. The Crescent Blades always use circles so the blades need to be curved so they come into contact with your opponents weapon or the opponent at the same time. Now…I'll have to get your answer later, it looks like we have company." Kenji was looking past Sokka's shoulder at his other student who was hurrying towards them.
"The navy's been sighted; they'll be here before nightfall."
"All right then go tell the avatar and his friends. Let's hope they get the message this time." Kenji stood up with a grim expression on his face and headed towards the harbour.
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The gangplank on the front running ship came down with a clang and a robust man walked down with a company of soldiers behind him. At the bottom of the gangplank Kenji, Sokka and the rest of the gaang stood waiting. The gaang had been given new clothes so that they wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. It worked as the man's eyes passed over them just as they did Kenji: with little real interest.
He reached the bottom and started to speak, "We've run into some problems in the Earth Kingdom colonies and came home to regroup. We would appreciate any supplies that we need being brought to our ships as quickly as possible."
Kenji's voice was harder than stone when he answered, "That is unfortunate as we've just got out stores back to their minimums from you last visit."
"Well then you'll certainly be busy refilling them won't you?" The man seemed oblivious to Kenji's tone.
"You don't seem to realize that there is none to spare." Kenji enunciated each syllable.
"Your duty is to your country and a little hardship is nothing compared to the soldiers laying down their lives on the front lines."
"Assuming what they're dying for is justified and that there is no other option."
"You doubt that more of us are sacrificed than are necessary?"
"I believe Prince Zuko said something those lines as well a few year ago and he's grown into a stronger person for it." Katara glared at the back of Kenji's head.
"And he wound up in exile with a scarred face." The admiral's voice was threatening.
Seeing his strategy wasn't working Kenji tried a different tact, "Admiral Qin-Xing, your most common strategy is to bait the enemy with fresh soldiers then move in with a pincer tactic when they are so absorbed with beating your bait they don't notice you. Yes I believe numerous lives could be saved."
"You know a lot about military tactics…but you couldn't have been in the military unless you were a deserter…" The implications were left hanging.
"I was the munitions master for the main fleet but I learned that from my son!" Even before he was done speaking Kenji struck. The blades left his sides in a flash and the admiral was on his knees from the blow Kenji had landed on his helmet.
The rest of the gaang attacked as soon as Kenji moved. Toph sent the rest of the soldiers around Qin-Xing back into the boat with a rock pillar while Aang and Katara froze any of the soldiers that came off the other two docked boats. Sokka and Suki were dispatching any soldiers that had managed to get off the boats before Aang and Katara had started. The admiral stumbled back onto his boat when his head had stopped ringing and the boat moved away from the dock.
He appeared on the deck moments later, "You've allied yourself with the enemy but I am kind. We'll come again at dawn tomorrow. Give the supplies we want and the traitors and benders and we'll spare you pathetic village from being burned to the ground! This is my ultimatum. Denying me is pointless!"
"Shut it big mouth!" Toph yelled as she launched a stone at the sound of his voice. She heard a satisfying clang a second later followed by a 'thunk' of his body hitting the deck.
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The gaang and the town council were sitting in the house from the night before, this time with Kenji present from the beginning.
Katara was the first to speak, "What are you going to do once they tell the Fire Lord? He'll send troops to get rid of all of you."
"You mean if we survive tomorrow?" Kenji let out a dry laugh.
"Pphfff, those guys are bigger pushovers than Twinkletoes is." Toph waved a hand through the air to emphasize her point.
One of the council spoke up after that, "We may be the hardest hit but we aren't the only ones. I'd say a good three quarters of this province is ready to break off from the Fire Nation. If they send troops they'll need to cross water and another town will block them there. If we can survive this we won't have any other problems."
Aang heart jumped, "That's great! You can help when the invasion comes on the Day of Black Sun!"
"No we probably won't actually. Most of the cities around here just want to protect their home and getting rid of the capital isn't needed to do that in their eyes. You won't get much support that way. I'd still go with your first plan."
"All right, with that out of the way, I got a plan that's fool proof." Sokka laid a hastily drawn sketch of the town and started explaining his plan to everyone else. After a few minutes of explaining what each of the scribbles was supposed to be Sokka started to explain his plan.