Chapter 34

After the second off-day, the tournament resumed with Round 7. Katara was still mentally not where she needed to be, not if she was serious about winning the title this year. Right now, things just weren't the same with both Yue and Azula when compared to how well they had gotten along at the start of the tournament. At least the tension with Yue was easing with every passing day and the traces of bitterness and resentment about that entire incident were fading, allowing their friendship to survive unscathed. Of course, on a more intimate level, the trust between them had been broken, and Katara knew that it would take far more time for that scar to heal.

When it came to Azula, she also had said some things that had seriously upset Katara, more so than anything Azula had ever said to her, but Katara was determined not to hold on to her anger. Azula had simply been her old inconsiderate self when she had made those stupid remarks about Katara having some sort of selfish interest in helping her. She might have been annoyed at Azula afterwards, but it wasn't going to stop her from worrying about the Fire Nation girl, or stop her from trying to help Azula.

As the matches of the seventh round began, everyone looked fairly chipper and ready to play following the relaxing off-day. Katara and her friends had all slept in the previous morning, taking the off-day very easy and laying off the drinks altogether, spending most of the afternoon on rigorous Pai Sho practice. Toph was about to face off against Teo, who was having a very good tournament, keeping in touch with the rest of them and aiming for a medal himself. Azula looked eager to begin her game against Aang and score her seventh victory in a row. As for Katara… well, she was facing off against an opponent she really was not looking forward to play, and it was none other than Yue.

Eventually, the signal was given and the play began. Katara immediately found herself struggling with motivation. Yue had lost her three previous games and was all but out of the running for a medal. Katara felt wretched about the mere thought of delivering yet another loss to Yue and further decimating her frail confidence. The fact that Katara badly needed the full points if she wanted to keep pace with Azula for the tournament win suddenly didn't seem to matter.

Only a few moves into their game Katara began to feel that Yue wasn't up for a fight either. So, Katara began to offer one tile exchange after another, and Yue accepted them without much thought, a clear and unspoken agreement to play out a draw. It was all over in twenty or so moves, and they rose from their seats, shook hands and then stepped slightly away from the terrace so as not to interfere with the other games, continuing to watch the large game display boards from the sidelines.

"I appreciate you not crushing me, Kat, but this draw really didn't help either of us," Yue remarked as they stood side by side, waiting on their friends to finish their games. Toph had carved out a small advantage against Teo, while Azula was dominating Aang.

"It didn't really change that much for me, though," Katara shrugged. She was now on six points, with Azula on seven if she managed to finish off Aang. "It's going to come down to my game against Azula. If I win that, I'll be set to win the tournament."

"Fair enough," Yue nodded. "And I guess winning this game wouldn't have really changed anything for me either, I'm already out of the running. Three points out of seven is pretty pathetic."

"I think you can still make the podium with a little luck and some of the other results going your way," Katara tried encouragingly. "Just focus on winning your last remaining games, Yue. I know you can do it." She really hoped that Yue could turn this around. As far as Katara was concerned, her dream outcome of the tournament was to win the gold, with Azula and Yue taking the two lesser medals, but right now, that didn't seem to be in the cards.

"Well, not losing for the fourth time in a row does make me feel a little better for tomorrow, so thank you for that," Yue smiled at her. "And I'm going to need every little bit of confidence I can muster against Toph. Still," she added, giving Katara a pointed stare. "We need to do something to make you just a little bit more ruthless, Kat."

"I know, I know," Katara sighed. "But I'm not too bothered about that at this level. It could be a problem if I decided to become a professional player, though. Losing out on the main prize because I decided to play for a draw with my best friend probably wouldn't look good."

"I'll say," Yue rolled her eyes. "There," she pointed at Aang and Azula shaking hands. "Looks like Aang got crushed again. Azula can be seriously scary when she gets into the groove."

"Tell me about it," Katara laughed. Immediately following the conclusion of the game, Aang looked as miserable as if Appa had chewed on him before spitting him right back out, but by the time he and Azula came over to join them, Aang was already smiling brightly.

"Well, so much for tripping up Azula!" Aang laughed while Azula just smiled imperiously. "Looks like I'm going to fall a little behind with my five points now."

"Five points is still a lot better than three," Yue sighed, shaking her head.

"Toph is going to catch up with you, Katara," Azula remarked, observing the display board on which the tournament officials moved large magnetic tiles to mirror the situation on the board in Toph's game with Teo. "You both will be on six points. Hmm, still too close for comfort as far as I'm concerned."

Katara nodded, knowing all too well what Azula was talking about. She, Azula and Toph were yet to play each other, and so much would come down to those three games. One thing had become perfectly clear to Katara, however. If she was serious about heading home with the main prize, there was no more room for error left to her.

Round 8 had been a largely forgettable formality for Azula, since her scheduled opponent was none other than Joo Dee. Even though she had lost to Long Feng's daughter in Ba Sing Se, that game had been a mere anomaly, courtesy of her frail mental state. Azula did not allow Joo Dee to even contemplate thoughts of a repeat performance, crushing her in less than thirty moves.

The other games of Round 8 had been far more closely contested than her destruction of Joo Dee. Yue was starting to get her shit together, even though everyone including Yue herself agreed that it was way too late. Still, Yue had scored an impressive victory against Toph, a development for which Azula felt greatly thankful to the Water Tribe girl because it had seriously dented Toph's chances of repeating her last year's tournament win. Also, Katara had prevailed against Aang in a long and epic struggle, but Azula hadn't been too surprised by that.

This all meant that the field found itself spread out before Round 9. Azula had the maximum eight points, Katara had seven points and Toph was on six, Aang on five, with Yue lagging behind on four points. Round 9 was thus set to become the most important round of the tournament, because Azula was scheduled to face Katara in what effectively felt like the game for this year's title.

Heading into their game, Azula felt reasonably confident, which actually surprised her a little. It wasn't as if she was mentally in a great shape. Her father's plans for her sat on her mind like a dark and menacing cloud. The knowledge that Katara was in love with Yue was what Azula had wanted to hear, or at least she had told herself so. In reality, it had stung more than the worst of her father's beatings. So, all things considered, Azula should have been miserable, however… just being around Katara and her awesome group of friends seemed to somehow prevent her from falling into a dark and melancholy mood. Azula didn't really understand friendship well enough to figure out just what it was about it that was keeping her spirits up high.

That was more or less Azula's mindset as her game with Katara began. Azula was aware that Katara had been dealing with a lot of emotional turmoil of her own during the tournament and was not at her best, although she had played an amazing game against Aang in the previous round. But it had also been a very long game, so Azula knew that if she could stretch their encounter into the endgame, Katara's mental and physical fatigue would likely start to tell.

And so, Azula had adjusted her tactics accordingly. Her and Katara's usual dynamic was that Azula would dominate and Katara would subm-… Katara would be on the defensive. This time, however, with the world title at stake, Azula forced herself to slow down and play a more positional game. She even invited Katara to attack, but her friend was too wary of non-existent traps, refusing the opportunity and remaining within her comfort zone.

It was only after the fortieth move that Katara caught on to Azula's plan, which was obviously to wear her out. Katara immediately adjusted her tactics. She was behind in the standings and she needed the win, yet she had been reluctant to play aggressively. That changed now, as Katara began to press forward, pushing for the exchange of some of the tiles to simplify the position, but doing so in a way that would give her slight advantage heading into the endgame. Azula countered Katara's change of plan by playing even more evasively and denying Katara some crucial tile exchanges.

Azula had to admit that Katara was playing one of her better games, and her aggression was slowly starting to pay off. Despite Azula's best attempts at evasion and distraction, Katara forced them to enter the endgame with her tiles in a much more advantageous and active placement. However, Azula had secured a different and even more crucial advantage. Katara had spent a lot of time to readjust her tactics on the fly, and she entered the endgame with only five minutes left on her timing clock, while Azula had almost a quarter of an hour remaining.

In order to win, Katara now had to play like a speed Pai Sho champion, and Azula was well aware that Katara was not good at speed Pai Sho. Azula simply had to keep evading and countering, not even thinking about forming a harmony ring herself, focusing only on stopping Katara from doing so. And so it was while hastily pondering her ninety-third move, Katara's timing clock reached zero and the tournament official stepped in to declare Azula the victor in yet another absolutely epic contest of wills between the two of them.

Azula was still in the process of shaking Katara's hand following the conclusion of their game when she was taken a little aback from the wild and raucous shouts of the spectators, many of them crying and hugging from joy. Before Azula had realized what was happening, she found herself surrounded by Yue, Toph, Aang and some of the other competitors.

"Azula, you've won!" Aang was the first to deliver the news to her. "The title is yours!"

"Yeah, have fun with my title," Toph grumbled. "I'd like it back next year, though."

"What are you talking about?" Azula blinked in surprise. She didn't think that she could have won the title in this round already. That could have only been possible if Toph had lost to Aang. Azula glanced at the updated tournament standings on the large board nearby. Yue had beaten Kori Morishita, which was nice for her, but irrelevant to Azula. And… oh, Aang had indeed done her a massive favor and had beaten Toph. This meant that with two rounds remaining, Azula had nine points and Katara was the closest follower on seven, while the others lagged behind on six points or less. Even if Azula were to lose her two final games, Katara could only catch up with her, but since Azula had just won the game between them, Azula would still be ranked ahead of Katara. This really was it. She had just won the gold medal.

As the enormity of what had just happened hit Azula, she felt her legs going weak and she sagged back into her seat. After three years of failure, in spite of some having dismissed her as the perennial choker, Azula had done it, coming out on top. The sense of relief was overwhelming, and she could not stop the onrushing wave of emotions, burying her face in her hands as her shoulders began to shake. Her friends were with her, though, pulling her into a tight group hug, and Azula allowed herself to be comforted, at that moment unable to feel shame for such a public display of emotions. And the public seemed to actually love and appreciate her genuine emotions on display, cheering and chanting her name louder and louder.

"I'm so proud of you," Katara's voice was what eventually pulled Azula out of this emotionally overcharged state, grounding her once more. "You really deserve this victory, Azula."

"And tomorrow is another day-off," Yue added with a chuckle. "That means we can really crank up the celebrations in your suite, Azula."

"We can do that, but I want to do you one better," Azula said, having largely recovered and wiped her cheeks clean once again. Years ago, she would have claimed that this victory was all down to her simply possessing the superior talent compared to all of these losers trying to keep up with her and failing. But Azula felt that she had done at least some growing up as of late, and she wasn't as emotionally colorblind as not to realize the role that Katara and her friends had played in her road to success. If Katara, Yue, Aang and Toph had simply decided to stick together and had refused to include her in their ranks, keeping Azula lonely and isolated in a mental black hole, she could have never achieved this. As selfish as Azula often was, she could not deny that a part of this victory belonged to her friends, and she felt an obligation to share her success with them. "Tonight, I'm taking you all out to the best restaurant in the city. Let's see how large a bill we can work up to between the five of us, alright?" she said with a smile on her lips.

Azula was glad to see her friends looking excited, all as one. "Azula, I have to tell you something. I wasn't sure I would enjoy being friends with you quite this much. But you are one seriously cool bitch, let me tell you that," Toph said, playfully (and really painfully, not that Azula would show it) elbowing her in the ribs, the rest of their friends happily echoing the touching sentiment.

Even though the public's interest in the final two rounds of the tournament had faded after the hometown favorite had secured the gold medal early, the other contestants still had plenty to play for. Katara and her friends had celebrated Azula's victory in style, partying hard after Round 9 and the celebrations had carried over a little into the tournament off-day. This meant that on the morning of the penultimate round, the five of them had arrived at the large open air terrace a little worse for wear, slightly tired and not in the best physical shape to play Pai Sho.

Katara and Yue were fortunate because they were facing easy opponents, Joo Dee and Meng Li, respectively. They both scored easy victories. In the battle of two hangover girls, Azula defeated Toph. A very tired looking and yawning Aang lost to Kori Morishita. At the end of the tenth round, Katara could celebrate another silver medal for the second year in a row. She was on eight points and untouchable because Toph and Aang had really started to slip towards the end of the tournament. Even more astonishingly, their failures had allowed Yue to storm right back into contention. Ahead of the final round, four players were tied for the third place, Aang, Toph, Yue and Teo all locked on six points. This tight race had forced the tournament officials to come forth and declare that if at the end of the final round, more than two players would be tied on the same amount of points the deadlock would be resolved by a quick round-robin of speed Pai Sho.

So, the final day of the tournament finally arrived. Katara was scheduled to play Toph in a game that meant nothing to her, but meant a great deal to Toph. Katara wasn't going to throw it intentionally, of course, but she found her motivation to be lacking. Azula was facing Kori Morishita in a game that didn't mean much to either of them, but Azula was very keen to preserve her record of wins only. When she had won her first title four years ago, at the age of thirteen, she had done so with a perfect record. She was highly motivated to repeat this accomplishment.

Aang was playing Meng Li in the final round. He wasn't about to lose this game, even if he clearly felt pity for Meng because the young girl had the embarrassing tally of ten losses from ten games. She was not a terrible player by any means, but she was the least experienced among the contestants and still had much to learn. Yue's final round opponent was Shoji Nomura, while Teo Guyuk faced off against Kei Lo. Both Yue and Teo were heavily fancied to win their games.

The final round began. At this stage of the tournament, all of these young prodigies were dealing with massive physical and mental fatigue, and most of them just wished for the tournament to end, especially those contestants who didn't have much to play for. As a result, the matches of the final day didn't last very long. One by one, those highly motivated players with a shot for the bronze medal began to close out their games. Yue was the first to force Shoji into surrender, followed by Aang's defeat of Meng. Azula dealt a deathblow to Kori, and a few moves later Teo won as well. The game that lasted the longest was Katara's contest with Toph. And while Katara had not intended to make things easy for her young friend, the reality was that she was exhausted and unmotivated, while Toph was determined and desperate. Katara just couldn't force herself to play at the level that was necessary to withstand Toph's assault, and even though it took Toph more than fifty moves, she finally forced Katara to surrender.

So, at the end of the final round, four competitors were tied for the third place, and they would now be forced to play a quick round-robin of speed Pai Sho. This was something quite unprecedented. Katara could not remember witnessing such a nail biting tie-breaker in any of the major finals within her lifetime. The spectators appeared quite excited as well, their numbers having swelled for this dramatic final round. Katara spotted Sokka standing next to Suki in the press box, his reporter girlfriend jotting down remarks in her notebook and appearing as excited as the fans. All the other competitors had gathered at one end of the open air terrace to give the four contenders for bronze some room to breathe, but they all watched the proceedings with rapt fascination. Azula came to stand side by side with Katara as they both watched the boards being set up for the upcoming decisive games.

"Who do you think stands the best chance?" Azula asked quietly. "I've no idea how skilled either of them is at speed Pai Sho."

"Well, I know that Aang doesn't particularly like speed Pai Sho, he prefers to have the time to think, just like me. And I think Teo is kind of the same," Katara mused. "Yue is pretty good at the speed game, but I think Toph is better. Toph can really hammer away those moves with very little thinking, a bit like you do."

"Yeah, I think Toph has it in the bag," Azula nodded in agreement. "But I don't have to ask who you want to see winning, right? You're in Yue's corner."

Katara wasn't certain if she had only imagined slight bitterness in Azula's voice, but a quick glance at the other girl did not give anything away. "I am not rooting against anyone here, I'll be happy for whoever wins this," Katara replied honestly. "But if I have to pick a winner, then yes, I would prefer Yue to win."

Soon, the signal was given and the first round began, Toph playing Teo and Aang facing Yue. Contrary to their predictions, Toph made several costly mistakes and lost quickly. The game between Aang and Yue lasted longer, but Aang inevitably ended up starved for time and it led to a fatal mistake, giving Yue the win.

"Toph looks really tired," Katara realized, having observed their young friend for a while. "I guess I pushed her harder than I thought I did."

"She's also playing scared and nervous, you can't win like that," Azula agreed. "Teo looks cool as a cucumber, though. I won't be surprised if he takes the bronze. I bet none of the so called Pai Sho experts saw that coming," she added, rolling her eyes.

"He looks delighted just to be here," Katara smiled. "That's a very liberating feeling. He can play with no pressure."

"I think it's the same for Yue, though," Azula mused. "After your game ended in a draw, she seriously thought that it was all over for her. She looks pretty relaxed, too."

"Yes, I think you're right about that," Katara said. The second round began shortly afterwards. Toph was playing Yue, and the pattern of the first round repeated itself. Toph again made crucial mistakes and Yue punished her with no mercy. The game between Aang and Teo went down to the wire, the two of them trading mistakes and the game balanced on a knife edge until its very conclusion. In the end, it was Aang who made the last mistake, and Teo could celebrate his second surprise win in a row.

"Whoa, who could have predicted before the tournament that Teo and Yue would be fighting for the bronze?" Azula sounded genuinely impressed.

"It's really exciting, I'm so nervous!" Katara exclaimed, watching Teo and Yue preparing for their epic showdown for the bronze medal. Katara felt like she was going to literally start bouncing up and down on the stage, so in order to anchor herself, she slipped her hand into Azula's, holding tightly onto it. Azula gave her a slightly conflicted look, but made no move to withdraw her hand, eventually giving Katara's hand a slight supportive squeeze as the final round began.

With nothing to play for, Aang and Toph made a couple of token moves before stopping the clock and shaking each other's hand, agreeing to a draw. The eyes of every spectator were on Yue and Teo, anyway. The Earth Kingdom boy was clearly sensing an opportunity here, a chance for a major upset. From the outset, he began an impressive assault on Yue's position. The girl from Agna Qel'a, however, remained cool and collected under pressure, fending off every attempt by her opponent to pierce her defensive tile structure. Ever so slowly, the tide began to turn. Yue played with great composure and conviction, as Teo began to grow nervous and lost heart. His attack stalled, his tiles retreating or getting swallowed up as Yue launched her counterattack. It didn't take long for the game to be over and Yue rose with her arms raised and a massive grin on her face, as her fellow competitors rushed to congratulate her.

A few minutes later, as Azula, Katara and Yue were being led away to prepare for the victory ceremony, Katara could not stop feeling impressed by Yue's amazing comeback. She was already known around the world of Pai Sho as a great tournament player and a strong finisher, and she had just cemented that reputation with another bronze medal. Her appearance truly was quite deceptive, and Katara wondered whether that was a big part of what pulled her towards Yue so strongly. At the first shallow glance, Yue came across as soft, harmless, overly friendly and rather girly. In reality, underneath all that, there was surprising mental toughness and nerves of steel.

As soon as they were left alone to get themselves ready for the victory ceremony, the first thing they did was to lean into a lengthy and comforting group hug. Yue had been reigning in her emotions for a while now in order to maintain control, but now she let these emotions pour forth in a flood, breaking down in tears of relief and happiness. Katara had spent a long time comforting her best friend while Azula had tried to join in, being adorably awkward about it. Eventually, after Yue had calmed down, they had begun to get ready for the medal presentation. Yue's makeup needed a lot of retouching, and all three of them looked a little ruffled following all the excitement and the hugging.

"This really is my dream pedestal as far as I'm concerned, and I don't want this to be taken as a knock on our younger friends," Katara said, having made herself look acceptably presentable. "But Aang and Toph will have two more years to win the U18 title while this was the final year in this bracket for the three of us."

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy about my haul at this level," Yue smiled. "What about you, Azula?"

"Eh, I should have won last year in Ba Sing Se," Azula frowned. "But there's no use crying about it. It's… not bad overall, I suppose."

"I'm quite pleased as well, even if I had expected myself to win at least once," Katara said. In truth she wasn't particularly disappointed. Over these three years of competing at the U18 level, she had scored two silver medals, Yue walked away with two bronze medals, while Azula also had two medals, gold and bronze respectively. It was quite the remarkable haul of medals. Katara was aware that the whole Pai Sho world was mired in speculation about what these three highly talented players would do next. As far as Katara herself was concerned, she wasn't going to turn professional any time soon, her plans for full time medical studies were too important to her. As for Azula and Yue… well, their futures were uncertain and depended on the plans of their strict and controlling fathers. But this line of thought had the potential to make Katara seriously depressed, so she decided not to go there. This was, after all, the time to be merry.

"I must say, I didn't expect you to crush us this badly, Azula," Yue smiled at the Fire Nation girl. "In retrospect, offering you that bet was a terrible idea."

"Indeed," Katara said. "It's such a shame that there's no time for us to go and buy those maid outfits as per our bet," she added with relief. Playing the role of Azula's maid, and doing so publicly, would have been extremely embarrassing. But it would also be kind of thrilling, wouldn't it? Katara sighed, frowning at her own treacherous imagination.

"Ah… about that," Azula spoke up. She looked frighteningly smug. "Katara, you should know that after I won our game and secured the gold medal, I called the governess of the Sozin's Island estate and asked her to send two of the prettiest maid outfits for you and Yue. They arrived late last night."

"Spirits," Katara groaned. "We're screwed, aren't we?" she looked desperately at Yue.

"Oh yes," Yue giggled. "There's only one way to avoid feeling utterly embarrassed about what's to come."

"And what way is that?" Katara asked.

"Why… the way of getting completely shitfaced," came Yue's amused answer.

Next chapter: You guessed it, it's the after-party. And it's going to be a wild one.