Chapter 1: Fulgur
Reincarnation or transmigration stories were always the popular sorts that could easily attract the attention of people because they were, perhaps, the most common form of escape fantasy. There was no shortage of wayward souls that longed to run away from their mundane existence and enter a fantasy world where they could be the main character of a grand, epic story. I can't exactly distance myself from those thoughts, as though I had never wished for such things at a point in my youth, but that was not the man I currently was.
Sure, in the past, I also wished for fanciful things like waking up in a fictional world and embarking on quests and adventures. But growing up into a father and a husband knocked those silly thoughts right out of my head. I learned to be satisfied with the life I was given, and to improve it for the benefit of my loved ones, instead of wasting time with fantasies.
Living a full life, filled with loved ones, happiness, and hope for my children, were my final thoughts as I died peacefully in my sleep next to my family and friends. I died old and gray, and without a single regret.
I was not dissatisfied with my life in the slightest, and I couldn't really ask for more at this point, I was content.
I was never extremely religious, but even I hoped for an afterlife of sorts, this however was beyond what I had envisioned.
One moment there was all-consuming darkness and the next, blinding light that seared my eyes as though they had never been exposed to light so bright.
Trying to shut my eyes did me little good, so I instinctively reached out to my eyes to cover my eyes with my hands, but the effort was wasted as my arms instead choose to flay around as though my motor skills had completely vanished. For a moment, I panicked, thinking that I had lost control of my arms due to a spinal injury, but I was reassured by the fact that even though I was having difficulty with precise movement, I still had control over my arms.
That didn't help the searing pain in my eyes, but the sensation was beginning to ease off as I was getting used to the situation. Not feeling any strength in my legs, I quickly wiggled them as best I could to make sure that there was still sensation in them. Satisfied that they still reacted to my thoughts, I began to calm down and think about what exactly was going on.
I couldn't open my eyes yet, the light was not as intense as it had been a few seconds ago, but it was still strong enough to force my eyes shut. Fortunately, my ears were still seemingly in working order, and I managed to hear a conversation nearby.
"I had heard of such things happening, but to think even the Fire Nation would abandon their children so far from their country," the voice of an old woman spoke in a sad tone, "I imagine that this child was a burden, but I can't help but think about the mother, her circumstances could not have been great either."
Orphans were always a sad thing to think about, and orphans not knowing about their real parents was always even sadder. But for once, hearing about orphans brought me joy, as it meant that there were people nearby who could help me.
Gathering my strength, I filled my lungs with air and tried to call out for help, but I immediately noticed something was off. The sound of my voice was replaced by the cries of an infant, and the change was beyond jarring, so much so that it took me a second to process what exactly happened.
Thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with my throat, I once again filled my lungs with air and tried to shout for help. My efforts were rewarded with the wailing of a child, but soon enough my entire body was lifted by an unknown force.
The sudden event scared my eyes to open wide despite the pain, and I was greeted by a giant woman dressed in strange green clothes.
"You poor child," the woman spoke out in a gentle tone, and it was enough for me to understand the situation a bit better.
As impossible as it was to think about, the woman was no giant, but rather I was in the body of an infant.
I could not see my body, but now that my eyes were opened, I glanced at my hands and the truth was undeniable. Instead of my old wrinkled hands, I had tiny, undeveloped baby hands.
Despite not wishing to escape my reality, I had somehow been reincarnated.
Why?
-90 AG-
"Pass the ball!"
The joyous laughter of children could be heard all throughout the empty clearing in the forest, and even though many small kids ran around with smiles on their faces, I alone stood in the back under the shade of a distant tree.
At the tender age of six, I had already gotten accustomed to the world I had been reborn into, though that did not mean that I was happy in the slightest. There were many problems with my situation, problems that ran way further than simply being reincarnated into a fantasy world.
The looming issue with this world was the giant war that was currently being waged by the Fire Nation against the rest of the world. I had been reincarnated into a strange world that only held four nations despite the seemingly low technology level, though one of those said nations had been long gone thanks to the efforts of the Fire Nation.
Back in my world, it would have taken a lot more effort to separate the world into four separate sections, but this world was aided by the supernatural, or in other words, bending. Each nation seemed to have the innate ability to control either water, fire, earth, or air. Though the ability did not manifest in every single citizen, it was common enough that entire armies of benders could be made.
My situation was a bit difficult for me, and it was all due to the nation I found myself in. I was an orphan on a small island slightly away from the Earth Kingdom mainland, which was called Kyoshi Island. The small green piece of land was surprisingly peaceful, despite the war that had been waged for the better part of a century, and that was due to its neutrality and free-trade policies.
While those were the official policies of the island, the people themselves despite the Fire Nation, something I thought was not an anomaly in the world. It was easy to see that such nationalistic people as the Earth Kingdom would hate the Fire Nation in a time of war. The issue I had with this was that I was in fact a Fire Nation orphan who had washed up on shore when I was only a few days old.
I do not know much about what exactly was said about my situation at that time by the village leaders, but I had been given a small shed on the outskirts of town and brought daily food. The village had stopped caring for me and raising me as soon as I was able to walk and talk, which occurred much sooner than they had expected thanks to my reincarnated mind.
I had heard from the older kids in the village that I was supposed to be killed when they found me, but an old woman elder had advocated for me to be spared. She had allegedly died a few years ago, so I owed my life to her.
The rest of the adults were content to ignore me and sneer at me with hateful eyes, though they never physically hurt me. The kids were not so kind, and I could handle verbal bullying just fine, I was much more mature than the surrounding kids after all, but the physical beatings were just painful.
Getting beat up by several kids older than me on a weekly basis was not the highlight of my week, but I comforted myself by thinking that it was better that such a situation happened to me rather than a normal kid. Life for me wasn't easy, but I managed. I couldn't imagine how lonely and hurt a normal kid would be in my situation.
It wasn't all bad, though, there was plenty of excitement to be had in books. I had been an avid reader in my previous life, and that interest included fiction and nonfiction books. I didn't mean to be boastful, but I was somewhat smart among my peers in my previous life. That meant even adults didn't have a fraction of the knowledge in my head at the moment.
I had been rejected from the local school, but the local librarian had given me permission to read her books during the night hours in exchange for doing chores for her on occasion. I saw no problems with that arrangement, and I quickly began to read everything that was available.
That library was my main source of information on this world, and everything was fascinating for me. I dreamt of leaving this small village to see the wonders of the world, like the Northern Water Tribe's ice architecture, the Impenetrable City, Ba Sing Se, and the Fire Nation's Imperial City.
Lost again in my own thoughts, my superpower suddenly alerted me of an incoming beating.
"I think Hiru is near the old tree again, let's ambush him!"
The voice of one of my bullies ran through my ears as though he was whispering right next to me. I wasn't aware of when this started to happen, but I realized that I was able to hear the conversations of everyone on the island. It was incredibly awkward at first, and very difficult to control, but I managed to filter out all the nonsense and instead focus on the things that were useful, like the mention of my name, Hiru.
Despite me being related to the Fire Nation in some capacity, I had been given an Earth Kingdom name by the village. Not that it did any good to me, as I was still seen as an outsider by most of the village.
I had considered my super hearing to be a type of power that was native to this world, but that did not seem to be the case, as there was no mention of anything like that in any book I found. Either way, it was useful in helping me avoid bullies as I could easily tell where they were whenever they spoke, and I was able to gather plenty of information from the villagers and the traders that came daily.
It was easy to learn more about the state of the war, and also anything of interest like gossip. For a man like myself, who came from the age of technology, this power was indispensable.
Knowing it was time to go, I got up from the shade and quickly made a break for it into the nearby forest. I had to be careful not to run into one of my bullies, even with my power, as I was only able to locate them when they spoke or made some noise. It was still possible for me to run into them by accident.
Running away for a few more minutes, I was satisfied when I heard the voices of my bullies sound confused regarding where I was.
Taking a look around me, I noticed that I had arrived at a nearby beach with plenty of open space. Knowing that I couldn't slack off in my training, I started to run through the forms I had seen the local Kyoshi warriors perform. Sure, I wasn't a woman, but the style didn't seem to be overly geared toward women, so I practiced what I could remember.
Unlike my old world, where I never had to fear bandits or an enemy army coming to attack my home, where there was constant danger around the corner. Even the villagers were dangerous to me.
Now I had never received formal training, and I doubted the village would allow me to ever learn how to fight, so the practical utility of my efforts was likely not all that great, but every bit helped.
"Are you copying the Kyoshi Warriors again?"
A voice called out during the middle of my training, but recognizing the owner of the voice, I relaxed and turned to face a small girl with short auburn hair, and traditional Earth Kingdom green clothes called Suki.
I recognized her and knew her to a certain extent. She hung out with a group of girls who looked up to the Kyoshi Warriors and wished to grow up to become part of the warrior group. She and her friends were like me in the sense that they also spied in on the Kyoshi Warrior's training and tried to mimic their movements. I had caught them practicing in the forest when I was sneaking away from a couple of the older kids.
She was also a bit special due to the fact that she was one of the more mature children, at least for her age, which was around the same as mine. She had initially treated me the same way other children did, but as the years had gone by she seemed to mellow out, and she would occasionally approach me to ask me questions. Something that no other kid would do, not even her best friend Mingxia.
I felt she could become my first friend in this world, but I always pushed her away in any way I could. I knew that if people saw her as my friend, she would certainly face hardships similar to my own. Other kids would bully her and adults would scold her for befriending one of the enemies.
"Well, I think they are cool, so I would like to learn how to fight as they do," I responded plainly, though I knew she would continue the conversation.
"They are very cool, but you know that only women are allowed to become Kyoshi Warriors?" She retorted with a faint smile as she advanced to where I was practicing.
She wasn't wrong about that, the Earth Kingdom was rather progressive for the time period, at least compared to my old world.
"I know," I replied while I went back to practicing my form, "But that doesn't mean I can't learn a bit from them, right?"
Something about my actions turned her faint smile into a full-blown smirk, and she continued to walk toward me while observing my actions.
"I knew it! You are also a fan of the Kyoshi Warriors," she beamed at her internal conclusion, but she was not exactly wrong, so I did not correct her assumption, "I had seen you try to copy their form, so I came out here to see how well you had progressed."
Cocking my eyebrow at her, I noted her haughty attitude, as though she was judging my performance thus far.
"But! You are doing the forms a little wrong!" She shouted out as she delivered her verdict on my form, "Your arm should not extend fully like this since it leaves you vulnerable, and your legs should be a little further apart, and your…"
I had spied on the Kyoshi Warriors a bit, but not enough to be confident in what I saw. Unlike me, Suki was a Kyoshi Warrior fanatic who would not go a day without declaring that she would be a Kyoshi Warrior when she grew up. If she said my form was wrong, I would not doubt her.
Letting her adjust my body took a bit longer than I expected, but that only meant that I was doing a lot of things wrong. Still, after about a minute or so, she finally stopped and took a few steps back to get a good look at me from several angles.
"Perfect!" She cheered at her own work.
I could not suppress the smile that came out as a result of her childish jubilation, "Thanks for the help, Suki, I didn't know I was doing it so wrong."
"It's not a problem, I couldn't stand to see someone practice the Kyoshi Warrior forms so wrong, even if they were an outsider," she responded but this time her tone held a hint of hesitance, raising my eyebrow, I could not figure out what she was thinking.
"Well, is there any way I can return the favor?"
Jumping at my offer, the hesitation on her face disappeared as she looked at me with excitement, "Well, if you are offering, how would you like to be my sparring partner?"
The question caught me off guard, and apparently, my confusion made its way to my face since Suki was quick to clarify, "I try to practice as much as I can, but my friends can't help me spar all the time, and there could never be too many sparring patterns, so I thought that maybe you could help me out with this if I helped you out, besides you will also benefit since I can teach you what you don't know."
Her verbal assault and quickened tone was enough for me to understand that she was lying about her motivations, not to mention that I would hear her practicing every day with her friends who were just as enthusiastic about the Kyoshi Warriors as she was. Not having enough sparring partners was definitely a lie, but even so, there was no real downside to this deal for me.
"Sure," I responded, while Suki seemed to light up as she got into a mirrored stance.
Communicating with our eyes, the sparring match began as Suki rushed to strike at my chest with an open palm. I had never been much of a fighter, even in my previous life, but even I could see through a child's attack, so I waited for her open palm to close into my chest where I had more leverage and caught her wrist while giving it a twist with all my upper body strength to throw her off balance.
Had Suki been a normal child, she would have been thrown on the sand, but she had the fighting sense to follow the force of my move and use the momentum to throw herself over my head and land on her feet behind me.
Taking advantage that I was still holding onto her wrist, she pulled her entire body backward to throw me off my feet, but I quickly let go and spun on my heel to face her head on.
Kyoshi Warrior techniques relied on using your opponent's power against them, so attacking recklessly would only serve to further her fighting style.
Knowing that I underestimated Suki, I solidified my stance and readied myself to give it my all.
Suki seemed to have reached a similar conclusion, as her eyes grew focused, and she once again lunged at me. This time, however, I was ready.
-Suki-
Landing on my back after being thrown over Hiru's shoulder was a painful experience, and feeling myself getting winded from that last hit, I decided to stay on the sand despite still having the strength to get up.
When I approached Hiru on the beach, I was not expecting things to go down like this. I was over-confident and thought that I would show Hiru some moves he could use to defend himself against the boys that hounded him daily, but somehow he was the one that ended up showing me a little bit about fighting.
His technique was worse than mine by a mile, but his fighting sense and overall power were greater than mine, so I ended up losing despite it being a close fight for the most part.
Raising my head from the sand, I took a glance at Hiru and was satisfied to see that he fell on his butt and was taking deep breaths. He was just as tired as I was, and that made me feel a lot better about losing.
With a bit more practice, I was sure that next time I would beat him soundly.
While I ended up having fun with the spar, a lot more than I thought I was going to have, it did leave a question on my mind. Why was he always running away from those older boys who barely knew how to throw a punch if he was this good? If he stood his ground and punched those boys in the face, they would leave him alone for sure.
Lacking the social skills to subtly point the conversation in the direction that would result in an answer to her question, Suki instead asked what was on her mind directly, "If you know how to fight, then why are you always running away and getting beat up by those older kids?"
Hiru looked at me with strange eyes, as though something had clicked inside his head at my question, and he quickly answered my question with a question, "Is that why you asked me to be your sparring partner? So you could teach me how to defend myself?"
He had seen right through me thanks to my question, so I didn't bother to hide my intentions, "I don't think they should beat you up just because you are part of the Fire Nation, I mean you have spent all your life in Kyoshi Island, just like everyone else here."
Paused by my statement, Hiru got up from where he was sitting and slowly made his way toward me, and sat down next to me.
"You're a really sweet girl, Suki," he said with a straight face while looking directly into my eyes. The sudden compliment caught me off guard, so I didn't manage to say anything before he started talking again.
"You don't know me at all, but you still wanted to help me," he said, "But you're probably the only person that feels that way. I could fight back, but if I so much as hurt one of those kids, I am sure that the villagers would not stand for it and even Oyaji would not be able to save me. At the very least, I would be kicked out of the island."
As his words clicked in my brain, I realized how shortsighted I was being when I approached Hiru to help. Thinking that I could teach him how to throw a punch or two and be able to help him out was incredibly foolish of me. I was just thinking about the short-term solutions.
I was never the smartest in the village, and while Hiru did not attend classes, I always assumed he was rather smart judging by the amount of time he spent at the library out of his own will. This only solidified the image I had of him.
"Oh, I hadn't thought about that…"
He smiled at this, but there was no happiness in his eyes. Realizing that I was not exactly as equipped to help him out with this issue as I thought I was, I decided to change the subject as fast as possible.
Getting up from the ground, I ran to the water and jumped into the swallows to cool off after the fight. I had gotten sweaty and there was no faster way to cool off than getting into the cool sea's embrace.
I had thought that Hiru would come follow me, but I had forgotten that we were not exactly close friends.
He had not gotten up from his position on the beach, so I called out to him, "Aren't you sweating? Come on, the water is really cold right now!"
As he stood up, I could see palpable hesitation on his face as he looked at the ocean and shook his head before he shouted out to me, "I'm not that sweaty actually, thanks for teaching me how to spar, but I think I should get going now."
Not understanding why he was so hesitant, I quickly ran out of the water and caught up to him before he managed to leave.
"Is everyone from the Fire Nation scared of the ocean?" I asked with genuine interest, but was met with a faint chuckle from Hiru as I somehow managed to make him laugh.
"Do you really think that people from the Fire Nation are scared of the ocean, or are you just teasing me?"
Understanding that I had asked something he thought of as dumb, I felt my face get hot with embarrassment, "Hey, I don't know much about other nations, much less the rest of the world, so I was being serious, but it's not like I'm stupid or something!"
He nodded at my words but did not drop his smile, "Well, you should spend some time at the library, there are plenty of books that teach you about the rest of the world there."
I deflated at his words. Reading was never my strong point. I wasn't dumb, and I got around the same grades that everyone else in my class got, but I never felt the urge to go read a book in my free time as I would rather use that time to practice my fighting stance.
As if he read my mind, Hiru's smile widened, "Well, you did do me a favor today, so I don't mind helping you out by teaching you a bit about the things I read about in books. If you are ever interested in something, I'm sure I could help you out."
Avatar Kyoshi had decided to separate Kyoshi Island from the rest of the world for a reason, and I had no intention of going against that by leaving the island, but that did not mean that I wasn't curious as to what lay beyond our shores. The thought of learning about the outside was enticing, and I did not hide my excitement.
"Okay! But in exchange I'll continue to teach you how to fight," I said while puffing my chest, "I know I lost today, but I will become a Kyoshi Warrior in the future, so I think it's a very fair deal for you!"
A small smile was all the response Hiru gave me.
-99 AG-
Right hook, then a roundhouse kick after a quick spin.
Suki's right arm shot out like a snake as it made its way to my exposed chest, but I had no issue deflecting the blow with an open palm.
The next moment, Suki used the momentum from her failed strike to spin on her heel as her left leg released a powerful blow that I managed to preemptively avoid by stepping backwards.
Not able to connect her hit, Suki fell forward but used her years of training to roll into my strike zone as a final Hail Mary to deliver a solid strike against me.
Today was like many others where Suki would come see me after her training to have a spar with me, an event that had become a daily occurrence despite my protests. In truth, I had little interest in fighting beyond knowing how to defend myself, but Suki's whole life was about being a warrior. Naturally, she was more devoted to learning martial arts than I was.
After I performed my duties to the village, I spent most of my free time lazing around while I waited for trading boats to bring more books to the library. In fact, the only real time I spent on learning how to fight was the time I was forced to spar with Suki.
It would be fine if I was a normal human being, but unfortunately, there was something strange with me. When I began to spar with Suki, I soon started to hear voices all around me. At first, it was very scary and confusing, but with practice, I managed to control this phenomenon. Unlike my enhanced hearing, these voices were more like intents and presences that I could feel all over the island and even beyond.
The neat part was that I quickly learned that I could use these intents to predict the immediate actions of others. I could hear and see what every person on the Island was doing and if I focused on someone, I could even see what they planned to do in the next few seconds.
It went without saying that knowing what your opponent was going to do next was incredibly useful in a fight, and my spars with Suki were no different. My skill and technique were not as great as Suki's, I was several notches below her level, but despite this Suki had not managed to land a single blow on me for the past several years. This little fact irked Suki beyond belief.
"Got you!" She yelled out with enough glee that I almost let her strike hit me, but just like I avoided her last strike, I simply step back to just barely get out of her reach. Letting her fist swing by my chest, I saw that Suki was overextended and took the opportunity to swipe her feet with a swift kick that tripped her up and made her face land in the warm sand.
The spar had been going on for a while, so I knew that Suki was already tired and was not likely to get back up.
Knowing we were done, I sat down next to Suki in the sand as she got up and dusted herself, "Tell me the truth, you do plenty of practice outside our sparring, don't you? You don't have to lie, you know?"
I could understand Suki's frustration, I too felt disheartened in my previous life when I put in so much effort into learning when others seemed to innately understand subjects like calculus and physics. From her perspective, I was some kind of fighting genius, but the reality was that I had an, admittedly, unfair advantage.
"Well… I do practice sometimes," I lied with a small smile. At the end of the day, I understood that such situations could easily create tension and jealousy among friends, and Suki was my only true friend in the world.
A sad, but true fact.
It wasn't as though I didn't try to make other friends. The other boys, those around my age and older than me, hated my guts and would try to beat me every time they saw me. Even with my skills, I would still get beaten every other week or so when they caught me asleep.
As for the girls, they didn't attack me as the boys did, but they also didn't want anything to do with me. Even Suki's friends only acted cordial with me, but talked about me behind my back. The ringleader behind those conversations was always Mingxia, Suki's best friend. She had a particular distaste for me, but I understood that this hate stemmed from her feelings toward Suki.
The adults, minus a few here and there, also made it a point to ignore me and made sure I knew I wasn't welcomed in the village. Suki was the only outlier in the village in this regard.
"I knew it!" She exclaimed as she gave my shoulder a light tap with her fist, "There is no way you can be this good without practicing a lot. You don't have to hide your interest in being a warrior, Hiru. I actually think it's good that you practice outside our sparring, I think you can be a great warrior if you keep this up."
Not feeling great about lying to my friend, even if they were white lies, I didn't elaborate on her point and instead looked out into the horizon where a faint trail of dark smoke could be seen.
"Fire Nation."
My tone was even and merely used to change the subject of the conversation.
Suki followed my line of sight and found the smoke over the horizon. The ship was still far away, and they would not arrive until later in the day. Even though they were so far away, I was still able to sense them and hear their conversations.
Over the years my sensory abilities had become quite great, as I found out that I could spy on people even if they were far away from the island. Normally, there isn't anything to hear in the middle of the ocean, but when ships approach, I am able to sense them before they even get close to Kyoshi Island.
"Are you ever interested in talking to them?" Suki asked in a quiet tone.
I knew what she was talking about, and admittedly I did have some interest in talking with them, but my senses had already told me all I needed to know about where I came from.
"Maybe you could even find your parents if you asked around the merchant and navy ships," she continued while gesturing out to the nearby port where several Fire Nation merchant ships were anchored.
I shook my head, "I have done my research on this," I began to explain as Suki settled in for another one of my world knowledge lessons that always came after our sparring, "I have told you that Kyoshi Warriors are an exception in the Earth Kingdom as women are not really allowed to join the army, but the Fire Nation allows both genders to join their fighting force. That includes the Navy. Even though both men and women are allowed to be together on the same ship, they are not allowed to have relations with each other."
I turned to face Suki and saw that she was paying close attention to my lesson. It was surprising how interested Suki was towards the outside world when she herself was an isolationist, but I did not comment on my thoughts.
"Those that end up having relations will face demotion and even be released from the Navy, so it's not an uncommon practice to throw away the evidence of any relationship into the sea. Children are no exception. It doesn't happen a lot, but there have been several reports of Fire Nation babies washing up on shore drowned. I can only assume the same happened to me, though I was lucky to be alive when I reached the shore."
As soon as I was done speaking, I realized how morbid something like that must sound, especially to someone so young.
But before I could say anything else, Suki stared me in the eyes, "Hiru, I don't believe someone would abandon you like that," she said as she reached out to hold my hand with a gentle squeeze, "And even if your theory is true, I don't believe that your parents made the decision so easily, I'm sure that it wasn't easy on them, and it's possible that they regret what they did to you."
I gave her no response.
She was trying to cheer me up, but I wasn't sad about my situation. I was sure that my theory was somewhat accurate, and even if it wasn't, I had no desire to meet my parents because I already had a mother and a father in my previous life. I was in no rush to replace them.
Still, I did appreciate her efforts.
Returning the gentle squeeze, I turned back away to face the smoke in the distance as I replied, "I suppose you might be right, there's no real way to know, but either way, thanks for trying to cheer me up."
Even without looking, I could sense her smile at my words, "No problem, that's what friends are for."
Sensing that this moment was strengthening our friendship, I let the comfortable silence drag on for a few seconds before I released my grip on her hand.
However, Suki seemed to be still lost in the moment and continued to hold my hand for a few seconds longer, so I quickly snuck in a jab to break up the snappy feelings, "Alright, sweaty hands, time to let go."
My light teasing made her realize she was still holding on to my hand, and she immediately let go with embarrassment obvious on her face due to the red ears, "My hands aren't sweaty," she quickly defended, "That was your sweat!"
Unable to hold back my laughter at her excuses, I was soon met with a light punch to my shoulder as Suki was infected with my laughter, "Stop laughing at me, It was honestly your sweat, I swear!"
It was moments like this that really helped me through my otherwise mundane life on the island, but these moments were fleeting and never lasted.
"SUKI!"
The shout snapped Suki out of her laughter, and I pretended to be surprised as well, despite the fact that I had already known someone was coming to find Suki.
In the near distance, a figure that, looked nearly identical to Suki, shouted and waved to catch our attention. It was Mingxia, Suki's best friend.
They had planned to practice their moves with each other, and Suki was already late for their meeting. Something that greatly angered Mingxia from what I could gather from the curses she sent to me on her way here. I would have reminded Suki that she had no time to practice with me since she was supposed to meet with Mingxia soon, but the problem was that I was not supposed to know about that, so I kept my mouth shut.
The sudden appearance of Mingxia was enough to jog Suki's memory, and she quickly got up and turned to face me, "I totally forgot that I was supposed to practice with Ming, I'll see you tomorrow?"
I give her a silent nod as she gave me a quick bow as a form of apology before she sprinted to her friend.
My face turned to the ocean, and the smoke over the horizon. I had a small boat ready, along with some supplies. Perhaps it was time I set sail.
Though I would have to be careful not to fall into the water. Without anyone to come to save me, I would surely drown.
I wasn't sure how, but I quickly learned in my youth when I tried to go for a swim that the ocean was not somewhere I could be. It was just another of the many mysteries within my body.
There was a lot of nuance to how water affected me, but I had spent the last few years making sure I understood what type of water caused me to lose my strength. Rain had no effect on me, neither did water below my knees, but when it went beyond that I would immediately grow weak.
Naturally, I did not reveal this information to anyone, even Suki.
Thinking back to sailing away, I spent the remainder of the day dreaming of the world outside Kyoshi Island.
-Xolen-
Deep in the dark, I carefully sneaked out the window of my bedroom as my older brother, Bomo, was already getting impatient with my slow pace.
"Hurry up, we don't have all night," his hushed voice chastised me, as I had taken a few minutes to even gather the courage to even commit to sneaking out.
I would not call myself a goody-two-shoes, but I did not get into as much trouble as Bomo did. He had a reputation for being a troublemaker, but I knew that he was a good person at heart, just a bit childish. He certainly had more courage than me, since it took him a while to convince me to join him in his hunt for the local Fire Nation kid, Hiru.
I never interacted with Hiru, mostly because he seemed scary to me, but I didn't have a particular problem with him. He mostly kept to himself outside of when Oyaji asked him to do some chore or another for the village.
Despite my better judgment, the only real reason I agreed to come with Bomo was that I felt I was not really bonding with my brother as much as we used to when we were little kids. Granted, I was still a kid at the age of 13, with Bomo only being a few years older than me, but I knew I had to reconnect with him before we became adults.
Additionally, I did not expect we would actually catch Hiru, as he had a pretty big reputation for avoiding the other kids who tried to beat him up. Sneaking out to beat on the Fire Nation kid had sort of become an activity that ended up playing out like tag than an actual fight, so I was not exactly worried about doing anything bad to the kid.
"I'm going, just stay quiet so mom and dad don't wake up," I said with an even lower voice. I was seriously scared of our parents waking up to us gone, so I wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, yeah," he replied with no worry in his voice, "Trust me, this will be the best thing ever."
Not wanting to bring his mood down, I simply nodded my head as he made a sprint to the forest, and I followed behind him. I had no clue where we were going, but Bomo seemed to have a location in mind.
"Where are we going, Bomo?" I managed to ask when we were sufficiently away from home. I didn't like how confident he was in where we were going, since typically Hiru didn't sleep in his house to avoid things like this happening to him.
"Oh you're going to love this, just wait," he replied with a cryptic tone, and knowing he was not likely to explain more, I simply kept quiet as we continued deeper into the forest.
After a few minutes of running in the dark, with only the moonlight as a source of light, we finally saw a faint light up ahead in a clearing.
I was worried that it was Hiru, and we somehow got lucky, but as we got closer the sound of several conversations dispelled my conclusion. The clearing was filled with kids, some I knew, and others who were older than me and outside my circle of friends.
While I was surprised to see such a gathering, Bomo was not, as he looked into the crowd of over a dozen kids and found one of the kids I had seen him hanging around with.
"Lee!" He exclaimed with a big smile on his face as he approached the boy, while I followed shortly behind him.
The older boy turned to face us with a smile to match, he waved at us, but my eyes were fixated on the stick he was holding in his hand.
"Bomo! We were waiting for you!" he said as he turned to see me who was slightly hiding behind Bomo, "And you brought your little brother, that's great. We can get started now."
Seeing as how everyone who was supposed to be here had arrived, the older boys, Bomo included, huddled up and spoke in whispers before they turned around to face the crowd as they began to hand out large sticks.
I was uneasy as Bomo placed a stick in my hand, and he said, "Told you this would be awesome."
I wanted to question him, but the surrounding atmosphere didn't feel like it would allow me to voice my questions. There was a palpable tension in the air, but it was veiled with excitement, as though we were about to venture out for an epic quest.
But deep inside, my stomach was churning with anxiety. I had heard of two or three kids getting together to go hunt Hiru, but never in such a big number. I didn't have a good count of everyone that was here, but it certainly felt like every boy above the age of ten was here.
It felt overkill, and now, more than ever, I wished that we didn't find Hiru at all.
My wish however went unanswered, as the older kids suddenly told us to keep quiet and follow them. For some reason or another, they seemed to be sure that we were going to find him.
Sleep was a comfort that was hardly enjoyed by me, not as bad as it was years ago, but even now I find it hard to fall asleep. I enjoy sleeping, but I hate being vulnerable to others. Thanks to my abilities, I find comfort in knowing just about everything that happens on the island, but those abilities are worthless when I'm asleep.
I can never sleep in my house because I never know when the next local hunting party will be after me, so I end up in unusual spots that will be difficult to stumble upon. It's not the best for my posture, but it beats getting bruised by the local bullies.
Which is why I was shocked to be woken up from my sleep by a heavy blow to my head. Unlike the fists of children, this attack seemed to make my brain bounce around my skull and left me feeling disoriented.
Before I could get up or even put up my arm to defend myself, another blow came from a different angle. Now that I was awake I could tell that it wasn't the fist of a man but rather a robust stick.
It was the first time that these kids had used a makeshift weapon on me, and that surprised me, but not enough to stagger my instinct to get away as fast as possible. Tensing my muscles to protect myself from another attack, I jumped to my feet in one fluid motion before I tried to jump back and away from my attackers.
Unfortunately, yet another blow targeted my back and delivered a sick thud as it struck my exposed skin.
My eyes were not adjusted to the light, so everything was a blur except for the few torches that my attackers were carrying on them. I was able to count four torches as I stumbled forward from the hit on my back, but the light illuminated several figures in the dark.
Even with just a glance, I managed to count over ten people, a number that far exceeded what I had grown to expect from these sorts of events.
Realizing that I was in more danger than I had initially thought, I tried to make a quick dash to the side and run for the forest while I tried to read the intentions of the surrounding kids to predict the next attack.
However, my mind was racing a mile a minute and filled with adrenaline, so my ability, which required a calm mind, was unable to warn me of the sweep to my leg that brought my escape plan to a quick end.
Falling into the ground, I managed to use my hands to stop a severe blow to my head, but a small mob that shot out painful blows to every part of my body quickly surrounded me
Even with my training, I could not take on over a dozen kids that were armed, even if only with sticks. And without my ability to predict the actions of my opponents, I was not likely to get away.
For the first time in a while, it seemed that I had been cornered. I had gotten too complacent with the status quo, and maybe even a little arrogant.
My hindsight did little to help me think of a way out or stop the blows that were clearly leaving a bruise.
Defending my face, I tried to open my eyes, despite how swollen I felt them become. A sight that brought a chill down my spine greeted me.
I could tell that the kids around me didn't like me, but that was in the usual us vs them way, and not in the I am going to murder you way. But right now there was little to no light in their eyes, and all that shone through was hate and anger.
There was no glimmer of thought or critical thinking on their faces. I had heard of this before; it was called mob mentality, a phenomenon that forced individuals that would not otherwise act a certain way to give up their individuality and move along with the flow of a crowd. Notably, it could even make murderers out of otherwise peaceful individuals.
Suddenly, the blows stopped coming as I felt a weight get on top of me. Even though I was in a lot of pain, I tried my best to push off the kid that had gotten on top of me, only to be stopped by two other kids who held my hands down.
I didn't need powers of prediction to see the balled up fist launch itself to my face, but all I could do in response was to grit my teeth. The first hit was the worst, as I felt the inside of my mouth cut itself against my teeth. The subsequent hits were not as bad as most of the damage was no longer hurting me, but I knew my body was still getting damaged, and I would likely die if I did not get out of this soon.
It was hard not to panic, and even as my body become numb to the pain, a flash of searing hot energy ran through my body. At first, it was brief enough to be chucked up to be a trick of the mind, but as yet another fist made its way to my face, at this contact, yet another pulse of energy travelled from the core of my stomach into every inch of my body.
With each blow, the energy grew angrier and hotter as it seemed to want to burn everything around me. It wanted to be released, but I did not know what it was or if it was even real at this point.
Before the next hit came, a voice broke through the crowd, "Bomo! Stop! You're going to kill him!"
My eyes were too swollen to be opened up, but from the voice, it sounded like a very young kid. It was perhaps foolish, but I hoped that this intervention would snap everyone out of the stupor they had jumped into.
Alas, that voice of reason was like an ant in a sea of hate and fists, and I heard the little boy either get hit or pushed back, judging from the small yelp he let out, as the man on top of me shouted out to him, "Don't be a coward, Xolen!"
The next blow to my head was the nail in the coffin.
It was an inexplicable sensation, but it felt as though the whole world stopped for a second as my body heated up with enough energy to blast away everything in front of me. For a single moment, I felt like there was nothing I could not do.
And then everything went white.
I had seen it at a distance before. A bolt of lightning that was sent down from the clouds with such tremendous energy that increased the temperature of the air and the pressure to the point where air rapidly expanded and created a thunderclap.
All living things knew that nothing good would come of coming in contact with something like that, and if you were lucky, you would only ever see one from afar in the comfort of your shelter.
But now such lightning bolts came out of every inch of my body as massive lightning arcs connected to every kid around me and rogue bolts shot out to the nearby trees to light them aflame.
The pain had stopped. For a moment, I felt so much relief. Happiness to be alive after nearly being killed, but soon a sickening smell invaded my nose. The pungent smell immediately left a taste in my mouth that made me heave out in disgust, but I managed to stop myself from throwing up as I stumbled away from the scene.
Looking back, I managed to open one of my eyes and saw the charred remains of several kids. Now they smoldered and looked only vaguely human. No traces of what their faces looked like before my power struck them.
Any elation left my body as I realized that not a single kid had made it out of there. I was confused as to what exactly had happened and why, but there was one thing I knew for certain; nobody was going to believe me.
Even if I escaped death here, the villagers would surely hang me for whatever had happened here.
Knowing that there was no future for me on this island, and hearing the chatter of people in the nearby village, likely woken up by the thunder, I ran for my stashed away boat.
It was far from how I envisioned I would leave Kyoshi Island, but I needed to leave now.
Offering a quick prayer for the lives I had taken, I made a break for the ocean, hoping that the harsh journey ahead of me would distract me from my guilt.
AN: Grammarly is my editor, so blame them for any mistakes plz. Also, every name that I made up (including the main character OC) came from a random name generator for "Earth Kingdom" names, so take them with a grain of salt.
