Avatar Day
I don't own Digimon or Avatar: Last Airbender
Chapter Twenty Five: Avatar Day
Team Avatar was sleeping in a small clearing in a forest all except for Momo who saw a bug land on a web that had been set up by a spider on Sokka's open mouth. Momo jumped at it and plunged his paw down Sokka's mouth awaking the warrior who then spat out the spider and web from his mouth. "What're you doing in my mouth?" He angrily asked the lemur who was now on his stomach eating the bug merrily. "Momo you have got to learn to respect my boundaries," He told the lemur who suddenly jumped onto his head seemingly ignoring Sokka and Momo stood up tall his ears standing up and he started to chatter which made Katara wake up. Aang and Daisuke however were still asleep on Appa and Flame but they awoke when the ground shook and several rhinos burst into the clearing surrounding the gaang.
"Give up! You're surrounded," a man sitting on a rhino overlooking the camp shouted to them. One of the riders who carried a bow and arrow shot two flaming arrows at Sokka's sleeping bag pinning it to the ground but Sokka crawled away before the third arrow hit him.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Sokka said crawling towards Appa, Katara also headed towards Appa before she turned to see the rider who held a lance imbed it in the tree stump that had the teams supplies on it.
"My scrolls!" She shouted.
"My staff!" Aang shouted shocked.
"My swords!" Daisuke exclaimed jumping off Flame and running to retrieve her Hook-swords. One of the riders sent fireballs towards her and Daisuke dodged them before she leapt over the man and blew a raspberry at him before she grabbed her swords and when the rhino turned on her Flame charged and hit it in the side like a battering ram and the force sent both rider and mount flying. Katara used her bending to freeze the lance to the stump allowing her to grab her scrolls and run back to Appa. Aang ran towards hi staff as another member of the attackers swung his chains around a tree and pulled it down in an attempt to impede Aang but the Airbender just jumped over the tree and another man threw one of his hand grenades towards Aang as he reached his staff but Aang simply swung his staff and hit the grenade into the forest where it exploded, Aang then jumped onto Appa's head and cracked the reins.
"Yip Yip!" He shouted and Appa took off followed by Flame.
"Wait my boomerang!" Sokka shouted looking over the side of the saddle.
"There's no time!" Katara shouted grabbing his arm.
"Oh I see how it is, so there is time to save your scrolls, Aang's staff and Dai's swords but not enough to save my boomerang," Sokka said.
"That's right," Katara cheerfully answered and Sokka slumped.
"Oh," He said in defeat as both Flame and Appa flew over the horizon. Later on as the sun rose both of them landed outside a small wooden house.
"Sorry about your boomerang Sokka," Aang said to him.
"I feel like I've lost part of my identity, imagine if you lost your arrow, or Katara lost her hair loopies," Sokka said before he walked over to the stall where his sister gave him comforting hug.
"Here's your produce ponytail guy," The merchant said handing Sokka a basket.
"I used to be Boomerang Guy," Sokka said sadly as Daisuke, Aang and Katara looked at Sokka with sympathy as Katara paid the merchant for the supplies.
"Hey Water Tribe money," He said looking at the coins.
"I hope that's okay," Katara said.
"As long as it's money," The merchant said as he started to close up his shop. "Have a nice Avatar Day," He said walking off.
"Avatar Day?" Aang asked interested.
"You guys are going to the festival right?" The merchant asked before he walked off and waved as he headed towards the nearby town. The gaang all looked at one another before they shrugged their shoulders and they headed towards the town and were now standing at the front of a crowd.
"There's a holiday for the Avatar, who knew?" Aang asked.
"Hey there's Kyoshi," Katara said as a massive effigy of Avatar Kyoshi was pushed into the town centre.
"And here comes Avatar Roku," Daisuke said.
"Having a huge festival in your honour is great, but frankly, it's just nice to be appreciated," Aang said.
"And it is nice to appreciate their deep fried food," Sokka said taking a bite of some food.
"Aang look," Katara said as a large effigy of Aang was brought in.
"That's the biggest me I've ever seen," Aang said in awe as a man grabbed a torch.
"A torch, now that's a prop, it's bright, dangerous and smells manly," Sokka said.
"What's he doing?" Daisuke asked as the man who held the torch gave a shout as he jumped through the effigy of Kyoshi and set it on fire and the fire rapidly spread.
"Down with the Avatar, down with the Avatar," The crowd chanted as the man set the effigy of Roku on fire and Team Avatar watched with dropped jaws and shocked expressions. Meanwhile far from the village was a small clearing with a cave where Iroh was seen sitting and Zuko walked into the clearing and he dropped two barrels of food making Iroh look at his nephew confused.
"Where did you get all of this?" He asked.
"It doesn't matter where they came from," Zuko snapped angrily to him and Iroh took a cupcake and bit into it.
"Mmmm," He said as some jam dripped onto his chin. "Mmmm," He said in delight as he continued to eat the cupcake. Back at the village the crowd was cheering as the effigies of Roku and Kyoshi burned and the man with the torch then threw it at Aang's effigy and hit it in the eye and it started to burn as Aang had a look of pain on his face. Katara then ran to the front and extinguished the flames by bending the water from two pots nearby.
"Hey that party pooper is ruining Avatar Day!" A villager shouted pointing at Katara and Aang frowned as he airbent himself up onto his still smoking effigy.
"That party pooper is my friend," Aang said as he removed his hat that covered his arrow and the crowd gasped.
"It's the Avatar himself!" A man said pointing at Aang shocked.
"It's going to kill us with its awesome Avatar powers," A villager said scared.
"No, I'm not I-," Aang said raising his hand making the crowd all flew in fear and Aang looked at his hand and hid it behind his back as the mayor of the village crawled back and got to his feet.
"I suggest you leave! You are not welcome here Avatar!" He shouted at Aang.
"Why not? Aang helps people," Katara said as Aang landed beside her.
"It's true, I'm on your side," He said.
"I find that hard to swallow," The mayor said calmly to him. "Considering what you did to us in a past life! It was Avatar Kyoshi; she murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great!" The mayor shouted at Aang.
"You think Aang killed someone, that's crazy," Daisuke said shocked.
"We used to be a great society before you killed out leader," A man who was obviously a drunk slurred as everyone else looked at him disgusted.
"Aang would never do something like that. No Avatar would, and it isn't fair for you all to question his honour," Katara said disapprovingly to the villagers.
"Let's show her what we think of the Avatar's honour," Another villager said before he turned around and shook his butt and blew a raspberry at the gaang and the villagers cheered at his actions.
"Give me a chance to clear my name," Aang said to the mayor.
"To do that, you must stand trial," He told Aang.
"I'll gladly stand trial!" Aang said confidently.
"You must apply to all our traditions, that includes paying bail," The mayor informed him.
"No problem," Aang said and a few minutes later his hands and head was stuck in a wooden panel and Daisuke sweatdropped, Sokka had his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face while Katara had here hands over her face. "How was I supposed to know they wouldn't take Water Tribe money?" Aang asked them apologetically.
"So some people hate you Aang, there's a whole nation of Firebenders that hate you more, now we need to bust you out," Sokka said.
"I can't," Aang said.
"Sure you can you just need a little…." Sokka said waving his arms around making Daisuke and Katara facepalm. "Swish, swish, swish…Airbending Slice and bam! You're home free," He said.
"I think what Mr Swishy here is trying to say is that you can't save the world while you are stuck in here," Daisuke told him.
"I can't let people think I am a killer either," Aang said. "I need you guys to prove my innocence," He told his friends.
"But how, the crime happened like over three hundred years ago," Sokka said.
"And here I was thinking you were a master detective," Daisuke said cunningly.
"Yeah he is, back home he was famous for solving the mystery of the missing seal jerky," Katara said getting the idea.
"Everyone wanted to blame it on the polar leopard, but I figured out it was Old Man Jarko wearing polar leopard boots." Sokka said as Katara held her forehead annoyed by her brother's monologue. "See, a real eight hundred-pound polar leopard would have left much deeper tracks." Sokka then said as Daisuke and Aang made fun of him from behind his back making Katara cover her mouth to avoid laughing, "Okay, I guess I am pretty good." Sokka said.
"So you'll help me out?" Aang asked him.
"Sure, but to do so I'll need some new props," Sokka said to him and a few minutes later Sokka was wearing a hat with a monocle. "Ready," He said as Katara giggled. "What?" He asked as he extended his monocle to look at her.
"This is the crime scene." The mayor said to Sokka, Katara and Daisuke as Sokka looked around with his monocle as the mayor then pointed down at a footprint. "And this is the footprint of the killer, Kyoshi," Sokka squatted down to look at the foot closely. "It was at sunset, 370 years ago today, that she emerged from the temple, and struck down Chin the Great. After that tragic day, we built this statue to immortalize our great leader. Feel free to appreciate it," The mayor told them before he walked off and Daisuke looked at the statue and frowned slightly.
"Well we know that Chin had a big ego," She said and Katara nodded as Sokka examined the statue from every angle and when he reached the bottom he shot off towards the temple and looked at it.
"The statue and the temple were made from the same stone. And we know the statue was built after Chin died," Sokka said running over to the girls.
"That means if they were built at the same time that..." Daisuke was cut off by Sokka.
"Shush I want to solve it, which means Kyoshi never stepped foot in the temple," He said.
"There's a huge hole in the mayor's story, but it's not enough to prove Aang's innocence," Katara said sadly.
"You're right," Sokka said as he blew bubbles from a dragon shaped pipe. "We gotta go to Kyoshi Island," He said.
"Where'd you get that?" Daisuke asked him but Sokka just blew more bubbles from his pipe. Later that day both Appa and Flame were flying back towards Kyoshi Island where all the village saw and they all ran out to meet the gaang and they clapped as the team jumped off their rides.
"Where's Aangy?" Koko asked.
"He couldn't be here Koko," Katara told her and Koko along with the rest of the village sighed in disappointment.
"I wanted to see Aangy," Koko said nagging as the villagers all walked off but not before looking at Flame in awe at the dragon.
"Oyaji! Aang's in jail, the town of Chin said that he killed their leader in a past life, and that it was Kyoshi," Daisuke said to him.
"Kyoshi! That's crazy talk! I'll take you to her shrine, maybe there is something there that can clear her name," Oyaji said to them as he led the team off.
"So where's Suki, is she around?" Sokka asked trying to be casual while Katara and Daisuke looked at him and they both smiled at him.
"No she and the others warriors went off to fight in the war, you lot had a huge impact on her, she wants to help change the world," Oyaji said.
"Oh, that's okay I guess," Sokka said slightly depressed as the group entered the shrine.
"This temple was converted into a shrine to Kyoshi. The clerics tell us these relics are still connected to her spirit. That's her kimono." Oyaji said pointing to a green kimono.
"She had style I'll give her that," Daisuke said looking at the kimono.
"That she did, please refrain from touching anything here though," Oyaji told the team.
"And these fans were her weapons I take it," Katara said picking up one.
"Please refrain from touching those as well," Oyaji said sternly.
"These are her boots? Her feet must have been enormous," Sokka said looking down at the boots.
"The biggest of any Avatar," Oyaji said proudly.
"Big feet, that's it back at the village where the statue is, the footprint is tiny, and that means," Katara said.
"Hey! Hat, pipe these mean nothing to you?" Sokka asked annoyed.
"Go ahead then," Katara said annoyed.
"It means that Kyoshi could not have made that footprint, and that there is now nothing linking her to the crime scene," Sokka said.
"What's the deal with the painting?" Daisuke asked pointing at a very large painting hanging on the side of the wall that depicted Kyoshi and some villagers.
"This is the Birth of Kyoshi, it was painted at sunrise on this day three hundred and seventy years ago when the island was founded," Oyaji told her.
"Wait! Three hundred and seventy years today? Are you sure?" Sokka asked surprised.
"Of course seeing as it is Kyoshi Day on the island, yes I am sure," Oyaji answered him.
"It can't have been sunrise, the ceremony took place at sunset look at the shadows," Katara said.
"What about them?" Oyaji asked.
"They're pointing east. So the sun must have been in the west," Daisuke said looking at the painting.
"So what?" Oyaji asked them as Sokka shoved both Daisuke and Katara aside.
"If Kyoshi was in the ceremony at sunset, she couldn't have been in Chin committing the crime. She has an alibi!" Sokka said waving his pipe around dramatically as Daisuke grabbed the pipe and whacked Sokka over the head with it making him fall to the floor with a bump forming on his head pushing his hat up.
"Well we better get to Chin village before they find something else to charge Aang with," Daisuke said as Katara nodded her head as they dragged Sokka out of the shrine and back towards Appa and Flame. That night Katara, Daisuke and Sokka were confronting the mayor of Chin villager while Aang listened intently from behind the bars of his cells.
"Honourable Mayor we've prepared a strong case for the Avatar, we have some strong evidence," Daisuke told him.
"Evidence? Bah that's not how our court system works," The mayor told her.
"What're you talking about, how does you court system work?" Sokka asked.
"Yeah, how can I defend myself?" Aang asked.
"Simple, I say what happened, and then the Avatar will say what happened, then I decide who is right, that is why we call it justice because it is just us," The mayor said laughing manically as he left the prison leaving Team Avatar who looked at him with their mouths wide open in shock.
"Okay….this sucks," Daisuke said and the others all nodded agreeing with her statement. The next morning in the amphitheatre the whole village had gathered and Daisuke, Sokka and Katara sat in the front row and Aang and the mayor stood before all of them.
"Everyone loved Chin the Great because he was so great. Then the Avatar showed up and killed him, and that's how it happened," The mayor said emotionally to the crowd.
"The accused will now present his argument," A guard said.
"You can do it Aang, just remember the evidence," Sokka said quietly to Aang who gulped and nodded his head.
"Right, evidence." He said nervously. "Ladies and gentlemen ... I'm about to tell you what really happened. And I will prove it with facts. Fact number one is…uhh…" Aang said drawing a blank.
"The footprint," Sokka whispered to him.
"Oh, yeah. You see ... I have very large feet. Furthermore ... your temple matches your statue. But ... I was in a painting at sunset. So, there you have it, I'm not guilty." Aang said smiling and Daisuke facepalmed.
"I knew I should been his lawyer or something," She grumbled. Meanwhile back with Iroh and Zuko, Iroh was sitting in the cave when he heard his nephew approach and he turned to see Zuko drop several bags of various items.
"Looks like you've done some serious shopping, but where'd you get the money?" Iroh asked picking up a gold teapot.
"Do you like your new teapot?" Zuko asked lazily sitting against a tree.
"To be honest with you the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes in a porcelain pot or a tin cup. I know we've had some difficult times lately. We've had to struggle just to get by. But it's nothing to be ashamed of. There is a simple honour in poverty," Iroh said putting the teapot down and walking over to Zuko and he sat beside him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"There's no honour for me without the Avatar," Zuko said and Iroh sighed.
"Zuko…even if you did capture the Avatar, it would not help our situation, not now anyway," He said.
"Then there is no hope," Zuko said sadly.
"No, Zuko! You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength," Iroh said wisely to his nephew who looked at him and abruptly walked away from him,
"Mayor Tong, I want to present one last testimony," Katara said to the mayor.
"What did I say before? It's before me and the accused this is mockery of Chin law," The mayor said.
"Well seeing as you're accusing Avatar Kyoshi, maybe you'd like to hear her testimony," Daisuke said as everyone looked to see Aang wearing Kyoshi's kimono and his face was painted like hers was.
"Nothing's happening," Aang said.
"Give it a minute," Katara said when suddenly as she said that Aang's eyes glowed and a tornado of earth surrounded him making everyone cover their eyes and when they looked again they saw Avatar Kyoshi standing there in Aang's place.
"I killed Chin the Conqueror, a horrible tyrant, Chin was expanding his army to all corners of the continent, all but Ba Sing Se was under his control, one day he came to the neck of the peninsula that we all lived, he demanded our immediate surrender, I warned him that I would not sit by and let him conquer my home, he would not back down." Kyoshi told everyone. "So on that day I made a decision, I split my home from the mainland and on that day Chin stood there like a fool and he fell to his death and also Kyoshi Island was born," And with her message sent a tornado of earth engulfed her and Aang now stood where Kyoshi once was and he shook his head.
"What happened?" He asked.
"You sort of confessed," Sokka told him.
"And I find you guilty! Bring out the Wheel of Punishment!" The mayor shouted and the crowd cheered as a roulette style wheel came out with several pictures.
"The accused will now spin the wheel," The guard said.
"I said I'd face punishment, and I meant it," Aang said as he gave the wheel a good spin.
"Come on Torture Machine!" A villager shouted.
"Eaten by bears!" Another villager exclaimed.
"Razor Pit!" Another villager shouted hopefully.
"Community Service, please land on Community Service!" Katara pleaded as the wheel continued to spin around.
"Uncle I've thought about what you told me," Zuko said to Iroh who was looking over some supplies.
"You did? Good, good," Iroh said.
"I've learned there is absolutely nothing left to gain by travelling together with you, I need to find my own way," Zuko told him walking off.
"Very well Nephew, but think on what you are doing, what would a certain Firebender say about what you are doing?" Iroh asked and Zuko stopped walking for a brief second and he frowned slightly.
"I don't know, nor do I care what she thinks," He said before he climbed onto the ostrich-horse and rode off leaving Iroh all alone. Meanwhile back with the gaang the wheel finally stopped on a picture.
"Looks like it is boiled in oil," The guard said in a monotone voice and the crowd cheered loudly as Daisuke, Aang, Sokka and Katara had a look of shock on their faces when suddenly a bomb rolled into the temple and exploded making the whole amphitheatre shake and everyone looked to see the rhino riders arrive.
"I am Mongke of the Rough Rhinos, and we claim this town in the name of the Fire Lord. Now show me your leader so that I may de-throne," Mongke said as he swung his Guan Do around and he cut the statue of Chin's leg and it fell down and shattered into rubble.
"That's him!" One of the villagers shouted pointing at the mayor who hid behind the wheel.
"You Avatar! Do something!" He then shouted at Aang.
"Gee I'd love to help you, but I am supposed to be boiled in oil," Aang said to him and the mayor turned the wheel to a picture of a sweeping man.
"There community service, now serve the community and get rid of those rhinos," The mayor said to Aang pointing at the rhinos and Aang smiled as he jumped out of his outfit and headed towards one of the riders who readied his weapon and charged at Aang who took the fans of Avatar Kyoshi and he jumped out of the way of the charging rhino and sent the rider off by Airbending with the fans and he went flying off the rhino who growled.
"Hey ugly!" The rhino turned around to see Daisuke with a red cloak in her hand. "Toro, toro," She said waving the red cloak and the rhino charged at Daisuke. When the rhino was about to hit her Daisuke moved to the side and behind Daisuke was Flame who punched the rhino in the face sending it flying backwards "Ole," Daisuke said smiling as Flame licked her and she giggled.
"Rough Rhinos to the town," Mongke said as the archer of the group fired arrows at the town and set some houses ablaze as the townspeople ran for cover. Mongke then used his Firebending to set another house on fire. The bomber of the team tossed a few grenades into a wagon full of hay and it exploded while the member of the rough rhinos with the ball and chain destroyed another house by pulling down its support beams. He then tried to hit Katara with hiss ball and chain but she Waterbent it right back at him and it wrapped around him and Katara hit the rhino with a water whip and the rhino ran off. Sokka ran down a flight of stairs and saw the archer knocking an arrow into his bow and Sokka used the monocle on his hat to blind him and he fired the arrow and hit Sokka's hat and the arrow hit the grenadiers satchel full of bombs and the grenadier tried to throw it away from him but as he did the bombs went off sent him and his mount into a wall and his helmet rolled past Sokka and a bag landed next to the warrior and his boomerang fell out.
"Boomerang! You always do come back!" Sokka smiled picking up his weapon before he tossed his dragon shaped pipe at the archer and extinguished the flaming arrow that was knocked and Katara cut the saddle and hit the rhino which ran off and the archer's foot was stuck in the saddle and he was dragged away. Meanwhile with Mongke he was glaring at Daisuke who had her hook-swords out ready to fight. Mongke then threw a fireball at Daisuke who ducked it and she swung her swords at him but he ducked and Daisuke rolled across the ground as Mongke then charged at her with fire coming from his hands and Daisuke took out a few canisters from her satchel and she lit the fuses and tossed them just as Mongke came at her and they exploded in a massive ball of fire and Mongke was thrown off his saddle and hit the ground as his rhino ran off. That evening fireworks were being launched into the sky.
"From now on we'll celebrate a new Avatar Day in honour of the day Avatar Aang, saved us from the rough rhino invasion," The Mayor said as Daisuke, Katara, Sokka and Aang each held a bowl and they grinned happily before they looked at the bowl and raised an eyebrow at it.
"What is this?" Sokka asked.
"Our festival food, un-fried dough, may we eat it to remind us of the day the Avatar was not boiled in oil," The mayor said as Daisuke took a bite of the dough cookie and half of it hung out of her mouth.
"Happy Avatar day everyone!" Katara said.
"This is by far the worst town we have been to," Sokka said.
"Agreed, let's never come here again," Daisuke said agreeing with him.
The end of the chapter
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