Azuma no Yōsei

Chapter Twelve: Fairy Thoughts

I am so, so sorry for how long this has been in coming! Also, I still don't own Fairy Tail or AtlA! This is part one of your birthday present from me to you - I turned twenty-one yesterday!

"So, you're telling me that the Avatar came back, after a hundred year absence, joined forces with two Water Tribe siblings, a blind noble-girl, and a banished prince, took down the forces of the Fire Nation, and brought about a time of peace and prosperity between all the Nations – all in the last seven years?" Lu Blendy asked in shock, once Kiyi had finished her tale.

"Well, yeah."

Lu ran both hands over his face, and scrubbed at his eyes. "Spirits! No wonder you want to get back so much more than we do!"

"You don't want to return to your families?" Levy asked, worrying at her bottom lip.

Lu held out both of his hands. "Don't get me wrong, we're all homesick. Many of the men under my command were young soldiers with sweethearts at home who have no doubt moved on, most of the Earth Kingdom battalion had no true love of the Lower Rings of Ba Sing Se, and of those who still had family who would miss them… well, it has been a decade. Most of us have moved on, too."

"But what about your parents, your siblings?!"

Lu's voice became even softer. "I would love to see my father and cousins again. But this is my family now," here he gestured to his wife and daughters. "My girls' are no more of the Fire Nation than I am of the Earth Kingdom, and my wife is a successful and valued member of the community – I couldn't take them all away from their home. It is the same for many of the others, who have started families in this world. We would love to go home, but realistically, it just isn't possible for us anymore."

Kiyi smacked her hand down on the table, rising sharply. "Who says it isn't possible? What have you tried to get yourselves home?"

"We have contacted mages and Councilmembers before, little one."

"But what kinds of magic!" Kiyi exclaimed. "Have you chased every angle? Have you looked at the Spirit World – the one that we knew, and the one of this world? Have you spoken with the Exceed, who are from another world as well, to see what they know about these sorts of things?!"

Lu stared at her in shock. "…How old are you again, little one?"

"I'm ten – I'll be eleven after the solstice. Zuko was going to throw a party for me after we got back from the South Pole, though I wasn't supposed to know about that."

"And you've been here not quite a week, and already you have thought of more avenues to explore than many of my soldiers!"

Kiyi blushed. "W-well, Avatar Aang always says that looking at something from a different angle helps him figure stuff out better, so I just… um…"

"Hime's bein' modest." Gajeel grunted, resting his forearm on her head. "She's pretty clever – been figuring out her magic an' bending on the fly, all week."

"… I have heard that the Lady Ursa was a formidable woman." Lu said softly. "It would seem that you favour your mother, young Kiyi. Now, you have raised some fair points: we did, briefly, look into the Spirit World, and indeed some of the younger members of both battalions have gone forth in search of great Celestial mages to ask them for their help, but to no avail. Unless there is another mage on the other side, the Celestial Spirits have no way of opening the Gate for us."

Levy hummed in agreement. "I've been conducting research myself, to try and help Kiyi. From what Lily and I have been able to figure out, the Anima is out of the question, since its job was to suck magic from other worlds and deposit it in Edolas. Even if we were able to make a reverse Anima, one which sucks up benders and sends them somewhere else, there would still need to be a copy of the machine in the Avatar's world to receive you. I haven't yet scratched the surface of teleportation or alternative reality magicks in my research, so I'm not sure yet how well we could use them, either… But Lu-chan and Loke have already told me that using this Spirit World is impossible. Is there anyone in your battalions who might know more about your version of the Spirit World?"

Everyone in the room blinked in surprise.

"It would seem that the women of your guild are all above and beyond the norm," Lu said to Gajeel in awe; the Dragon Slayer grunted, ears lightly pink. "No, Miss McGarden, there is not. If there was, we would have followed this line of enquiry already."

Levy nodded, then turned to Kiyi. "You've said that the Avatar was the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world, and that he was best friends with your brother. Surely you must know a little bit about your own Spirit World?"

Kiyi hesitated, thinking. "It is possible to pass between the two worlds and back again – Avatar Roku did it. So, we should be able to too! But, um… I don't know if we should look for places where the borders between the worlds' is at its thinnest or not, but I'll try meditating, and see if I can't cross over that way? Or, my spirit, at least…"

"You think you can cross over into the spirit world?" Ilah demanded. "You're a kid!"

Kiyi scowled at her. "So what? I've done it before, and besides, if anyone can, it will be me; I was born close to the Solstice, in a town that borders the forest of the Mother of Faces, so maybe if I meditated on it long enough, my spirit might be able to pass back to the Avatar's world. Then I could ask Aang and Uncle what they think."

Lu nodded. "A sound plan, Kiyi. Though, please be careful when you try to crossover – don't do anything on your own."

"Ya saying we can't look after our guild mate?" Gajeel growled.

"Of course not," Lu said, placating. "But, I have heard that the Fire Lord was rather impatient and headstrong in his youth, and I would hate for anything to happen to Kiyi if she took after her brother."

Kiyi scowled at him, as well. "I'm not that much like Zuko! Besides, he's the one who's always telling me to think things thr–!"

The door suddenly flew off the hinges with a familiar roar of "IGNEEL!" knocking into Gajeel in the process.

"Show yourself!" Natsu bellowed from the doorway, Happy and Carla at his shoulders and Wendy peaking from behind his waist. "Eh?"

Sharon rose from her place beside her husband gracefully, saying in a casual sort of voice, "That door was an antique. Doll Attack! Door Doll!"

The Avatar and the Fire Lord had spent the last few hours locked away in the royal library, trying to find any further information on spirit-travel – Katara and Mai had taken Appa to the Western Air Temple, and were searching for any hints in what remained of the libraries there, with Suki taking an eelhound to help Sokka search the Northern Temple and then make their way to the Ba Sing Se University.

"You're sure Roku said he'd been there before?" Zuko asked tiredly.

"Yes," Aang frowned. "Two years before he died, Roku was travelling through the Spirit World, and was accidentally sucked into an Anima, which took him to Earthland, where he met the founders of the Guild that Kiyi has joined. I don't know how he came back though, so maybe if we could find that out, we'd have a better idea on how to get to Kiyi…"

"You can't just ask him in the Spirit World again?" Zuko demanded.

"I'll try," Aang nodded wearily, folding himself into a lotus position and taking a calming breath. After a few moments, a blue mist came from Aang on the exhale, taking the shape of Avatar Roku.

"Aang. Zuko," The old Avatar greeted. "I'm afraid that I cannot help you. I do not know how I returned to the Avatarverse from Earthland."

"How can you not know?!" Zuko exploded.

"When I was pulled from our Spirit World and into Earthland," Roku began quietly. "I had become lost, and disorientated, whilst trying to return home. A storm had started, with a bright light at the centre, and before I knew it, everything had warped and sucked up into the eye of the storm. When the storm had passed, I found myself washed up on the beach of Magnolia, the town that housed the Fairy Tail Guild. Mavis took me in, and I stayed with the guild for a few weeks, desperately trying to return to Ta Min and our family. Mavis and her friends Yuri, Precht and Warod, threw themselves into researching different ways to send me home… and eventually, they came across a scholar called Yeoleum. I blacked out after we first met him, so I don't know what strange magic it was that he used to send me back to our world. I'm sorry."

Zuko and Aang exchanged looks.

"Can you contact Kiyi again?" Zuko asked. "And tell her about Yeoleum? She might be able to find some of his works."

Roku nodded. "I will try my best. Good luck, Aang, Zuko."

With that, the Avatar was gone.