I do not own any of the original Legend of Korra characters.
Ba Sing Se
Sado chuckled as he watched Kai walk past Bumi, who he had easily taken down with his airbending, fanning himself with Bumi's wallet as Bumi was looking for it.
"Give me that you little thief!" Bumi shouted, chasing him.
"Didn't you have a rule against that?" Korra asked.
"If he tries to keep it, I'll enforce that rule," Sado said. "Right now, he's just playing around."
"Fair enough," Korra said, turning to Tenzin. "What's the Earth Queen like?"
"I've heard she can be quite...demanding," Tenzin said.
"This is it Mako!" Bolin suddenly shouted, sprinting to the railing beside Sado. "We made it! This is where Dad grew up! Come here! Look! Look!"
"Okay, calm down," Mako said, walking over to stand beside his brother. "I'm looking."
Before them, Ba Sing Se's inner wall stretched off to the side almost to the horizon. It was taller than Sado expected, though from the descriptions he had heard, shorter than they'd have you believe, since it didn't really stretch into the clouds like some of the stories he'd heard.
"I wonder how many airbenders are down there," Korra said.
"I'm guessing three," Sado said.
"In the whole city?" Korra asked.
"How big could it be?" Sado asked, just as they passed over the wall, Sado's eyes widening. "Oh, that big."
It stretched for at least three miles, packed with more houses than Republic City and with tram ways running through it like veins. He stared down at the city. There was the lower ring, which was almost fifty percent of the city yet was also the city's slums. It smelled like body odor, sewage, and filth, even from the air ship, everyone but Sado had to cover their noses, Sado not particularly caring. People in the lower ring were lined up to get food from homeless shelters, and charity places, or they sat around in alleyways.
"The lower ring looks terrible," Korra said.
"Yeah, I can smell it from here," Mako said.
"No wonder Dad left," Bolin said.
"It's the slums of the city," Sado said. "That's to be expected."
They passed over a smaller wall into the middle ring where the houses were nice and it was less crowded, people dressed like the average citizen in Republic City, except all in green, and the smell of the lower ring faded.
"Hello middle ring!" Bolin shouted.
Then, they passed another wall to the upper ring. Here, there were mansions with huge plots of land, and anyone walking around was wearing expensive clothes and had servants following them around. Sado sighed, shaking his head. He hated the upper class. Always so holier-than-thou because they had more money, yet also more greedy than a man with no money. Finally, the passed over the last wall into the palace grounds, finding four green airships hovering in the courtyard, which was so massive that a quarter of Republic City would almost fit in it. They headed for the palace, and Sado glanced at Kai.
"Someone's going to want to have a field day in the upper ring and palace," Sado said.
"Probably," Korra nodded.
The pilot landed their airship and they all headed down to exit. As they reached the bottom of the ramp, a servant from the palace bowed.
"Avatar Korra, Master Tenzin, it is a pleasure to welcome you and your party to the upper ring of Ba Sing Se," the man said. "I am Grand Secretariat Gun."
Sado raised an eyebrow. Apparently he wasn't worthy of a greeting just for being Sado Matsuda's grandson. Finally.
"Thank you," Korra bowed.
Just then, Bolin walked off the airship with Pabu and Naga and the Grand Secretariat stared at him like he was insane.
"Ah, it's got that upper ring smell," Bolin smiled.
"Oh no, the queen hates animals," Gun said. "We've got to get them out of sight."
"Well, I can just stash Pabu in my shirt," Bolin said, then nodded to Oogi and Naga. "These two are gonna be a little tougher."
"Come with me," Gun said, turning and walking away quickly. "Hurry! I'll take you to your quarters!"
After a few minutes, they reached a garden, Gun beginning to give them advice.
"Now, when you meet the queen, make sure you bow low enough, that's very important," Gun said. "And don't look her in the eye, she can't stand that."
"How low is low enough, exactly?" Sado asked.
"About waist level," Gun said.
"Right," Sado said. "She's one of those."
"What do you mean?" Bolin asked.
"How low they make you bow shows how superior they think they are," Sado said. "For example, for Fire Lord Izumi, you only have to bow enough to show respect, so a little more than an incline of your head. For Lord Zuko, you have to bow about the same. You should bow so low you can kiss his feet."
"Lot of respect for Zuko, huh?" Korra asked.
"He saved my grandfather's life," Sado said. "A few times. Including when they first met."
"Fair enough," Korra said.
"As I was saying," Gun continued. "If any food is served, don't eat before she eats. Oh, actually, I have to taste the food first, then she eats, then you can eat. Better yet, just don't eat."
"Seems like an awful lot of rules," Korra said.
"You have no idea," Gun groaned as a fat woman with several pieces of gold and gemstone jewelry and a bag of gold hanging from the back of her belt passed in the other direction, Sado's newly thief-trained brain instantly seeing how easy she would be to steal from. "And I'm the one who gets in trouble when people don't follow them, so please, please, for my sake just try not to upset her majesty."
They continued in silence for a few minutes before stopping at a building that was three stories tall with a tiered orange roof.
"Here we are," Gun said.
"Ooo, very swanky," Bolin said.
"Bolin, english," Sado said as they all walked to the door.
"Now go in and make yourself comfortable," Gun said pleasantly before snapping, "and keep those animals out of sight in the back yard! Avatar Korra, if you'll follow me. We don't want to keep her Majesty waiting."
Korra glanced at Sado, who shrugged and motioned for her to go. Then, he turned, looking around, his smile dropping.
"Kai's gone," he said, everyone looking around before groaning, Sado sighing. "Mako, Bolin, let's go."
The brothers nodded, walking out of the building with Sado before splitting up, Mako and Bolin heading one way and Sado the other. Sado wandered around for close to an hour with no luck before finally sighing and sitting down, thinking. If he were going to go on an airbending pickpocketing spree in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, what would he do with the money? He stood, snorting and shaking his head. He walked to the nearest rental agency and walked up to the desk.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for my little brother," Sado said. "He said he was going to rent us a house with some of our parents' money, but he's not great at budgeting, and he likes going overboard, so he probably spent all of it. He's about this tall, brown hair, shaved on the sides."
"Yeah, he was here," the man said. "Third house down on the left with the green roof. He rented a servant for the next couple days too."
"Thanks," Sado said.
He walked out, walking to the building and opening the door, Kai, who had been ringing a bell, sitting bolt upright, eyes wide. Sado crossed his arms, grinning and shaking his head.
"You really are predictable," Sado said. "What you should have done is saved the money, or bought food. Or new clothes. Something you can turn around for a profit. Or you could have bought a nice necklace for Jinora."
"So...you're not mad?" Kai asked.
"Not really," Sado said. "I'm going to punish you, but I'm not mad."
Kai jumped, up, sending an air blast as Sado, only for Sado to duck out of the way, catching Kai by the wrist and spinning him, pinning him to the wall by his hands.
"Now, I'm going to give you a choice of punishment," Sado said. "Spanking like the child you're acting like, burn your hands like a lot of places do, or I train you like I was trained until your rental of the house runs up. Your choice."
"Spank me, I dare you," Kai said.
"Sure," Sado said, bending Kai over his knee in the blink of an eye, grabbing a plant with the word "Home" written on it and paddling Kai with it, Kai shouting in pain.
Sado let Kai up and Kai stumbled, catching himself on the wall and rubbing his rear.
"That hurt," Kai said.
"It's a punishment," Sado said, hanging the plank back up. "It's supposed to hurt. Now, let's go outside for your training."
"My what?" Kai asked. "You already punished me!"
"Yeah, for stealing," Sado said. "This punishment is for lying to us all and going back on your word. If there's one thing you will learn as a part of this family, it's that your word is everything."
"I don't want to be a part of your stupid bullshit family!" Kai snapped. "You're not even actually related to any of them!"
"No I'm not," Sado said, grabbing Kai by the back of his collar, taking his wallet back from him as he did. "But I already told you family is about bonds, not blood. And as far as I'm concerned, you're never going to be a part of our family if you don't stop stealing. Right now, you're just a selfish brat that we're stuck babysitting. Which is too bad too, because Jinora really likes you." He pushed Kai out the door and closed it behind him. "Run."
"Excuse me?" Kai asked.
"I said, run!" Sado snapped, shoving Kai, who began to run. Sado blasted the ground behind him and Kai shouted in surprise and fear, sprinting away, Sado catching up and following. "Good. Now hold this pace all the way around the upper ring and we'll be done our warm up."
"You're insane!" Kai shouted.
"I'm just getting your cardio to improve," Sado said, blasting the ground again as Kai began to slow. "Keep running!"
Kai grit his teeth, glaring at Sado, but continued to run.
Sado dropped Kai onto the bed, turning and walking out of the house. Just as he opened the door, two Dai Li agents stepped through.
"Where's the boy?" one asked.
"Who?" Sado asked.
"The airbender boy who's been stealing money," the Dai Li agent said. "We know he's here. He rented this house with the money he stole. Where is he?"
"Sado?" Kai asked, stepping into the room, barely standing from all of the training Sado had subjected him to the last day and a half straight. "Who are you two?"
"We're members of the Dai Li," one of them said. "We have a few questions to ask you. You'll be coming with us."
"I don't think so," Kai said.
"Kai!" Sado said, Kai freezing as he was about to make a break for it. "Go with them for now. We'll see you again soon. I promise."
Kai stared at him in silence.
"Kai, family matters more to me than anything," Sado said. "I promise you that we'll see you again soon."
Kai sighed and nodded. "Okay. I'll go."
The Dai Li used their stone gloves to restrain Kai's hands and led him away and Sado left, heading back to the others at a sprint to tell them what happened.
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