Chapter 95
Round 16 results:
Ozai Nakamura 0 - Yue Taqqiq 1
Zhao Sakamoto 1 - Long Feng 0
Gyatso Jetsun 0 - Katara Enuaraq 1
Standings after Round 16:
1. Katara Enuaraq – 11
2. Yue Taqqiq – 10
3.-4. Gyatso Jetsun, Ozai Nakamura – 9.5
5.-6. Long Feng, Zhao Sakamoto – 4
Round 17 results:
Ozai Nakamura 1 - Long Feng 0
Katara Enuaraq 0.5 - Yue Taqqiq 0.5
Gyatso Jetsun 0.5 - Zhao Sakamoto 0.5
Standings after Round 17:
1. Katara Enuaraq – 11.5
2.-3. Yue Taqqiq, Ozai Nakamura – 10.5
4. Gyatso Jetsun – 10
5. Zhao Sakamoto – 4.5
6. Long Feng - 4
Round 18 results:
Ozai Nakamura 1 - Zhao Sakamoto 0
Katara Enuaraq 1 - Long Feng 0
Gyatso Jetsun 0.5 - Yue Taqqiq 0.5
Standings after Round 18:
1. Katara Enuaraq – 12.5
2. Ozai Nakamura – 11.5
3. Yue Taqqiq - 11
4. Gyatso Jetsun – 10.5
5. Zhao Sakamoto – 4.5
6. Long Feng - 4
Katara was in an elated mood on the morning of the penultimate round of the Pai Sho world championship. Back in the sixteenth round, Yue had scored an amazing victory over Ozai Nakamura, perhaps the most astounding game of the tournament ending with a long combination of eight moves and involving quadruple tile sacrifice. Yue had been overjoyed, and so had been the two other girls, because that defeat had kicked Ozai Nakamura way behind Katara in the standings.
And even if Ozai had rebounded with a couple of wins, he was still a whole point behind Katara with only two games left to go. Also, Katara had won two of her games with Ozai and drawn the third, which meant that should they finish on the same number of points, Katara would place ahead of Azula's wretched father. Besides, Katara's opponent in the penultimate round was Zhao Sakamoto. She had won one of their previous games and drawn the other two, but now that the title of the world champion was at stake, she was brimming with confidence. If Katara won her game against Zhao, she would be crowned as the new champion prematurely because her final round game against Ozai would no longer matter. Katara was absolutely determined to not leave everything to the final round.
Indeed, it wasn't only Katara herself who was worried about leaving the business unfinished until the last minute. Sokka and Zuko had called her on the eve of the penultimate round, Sokka to offer his well wishes and express his unwavering support, Zuko to repeat the same, but also to warn Katara to be particularly mindful against any last moment tricks that Ozai might decide to employ now that his back was truly against the wall and he had suffered so many humiliating setbacks throughout the tournament.
In theory, Yue, and even Gyatso Jetsun could still take the title with two rounds left to play, but it was highly unlikely. Katara would have to lose to both Zhao and Ozai, and Ozai would have to lose to Gyatso to open the doors for the other pretenders, and the chances of that happening were quite remote. Because of this, Yue was by now firmly committed to support Katara in her quest to become the world champion, although her support would have to be merely of the moral sort. With Yue's last two opponents being Zhao and Long Feng, she couldn't really influence the outcome in any way. If anything, she was struggling with regret of having drawn her game with Katara in the seventeenth round, wishing she would have simply lost and made things easier for Katara. Needless to say, Katara had scolded Yue for being too hard on herself as a couple of rounds ago Yue would have had every reason to believe that she could still win the whole thing. Even now, if the stars aligned in a certain way, Yue could still do it, and in any case, they had promised to play one another hard and Katara still stood by this agreement.
Katara thought that it was rather amusing how nervous Azula had been in the morning before the matches of the penultimate round began, far more nervous than Katara or Yue. Azula had been incredibly tense, snapping at everyone more so than usually and she just hadn't been able to relax at all. Katara knew that Azula was really struggling not to put her under any additional pressure, but even so Azula was not quite able to hide just how much Katara, or Yue, winning this tournament and defeating her father meant to the Fire Nation girl. And not wanting to disappoint Azula was definitely a big part of Katara's motivation as she sat down at the Pai Sho board to face off against Zhao Sakamoto.
The match began and Katara got off to a good start, not giving Zhao a single whiff at seizing the initiative. Katara was serious about not leaving everything to the final round and her match with Ozai, so she was going for a win against Zhao. Ozai's right-hand man managed to create some distractions and vague counter play on the left wing, and it took Katara a while to deal with it, but it did not change the overall trajectory of the game, with Katara in steady ascendancy. As the game approached the fortieth move, Katara had both the initiative and the material advantage of a flower tile. Also, while Katara still had eighteen minutes on her timing clock, Zhao was desperately starved for time, only a couple of minutes left on his clock. The clocks would be reset after reaching the fortieth move with additional time being added, but to Katara it looked as if Zhao might run out of time and give her a win by default.
With her last move before the clock reset, Katara put Zhao in a serious bind. She played a very tempting tile sacrifice, knowing that calculating all the variations whether to accept it or not would take a lot of time, and time was something that Zhao did not have. Accepting the sacrifice would lead to a defeat in six moves, but even not accepting it was tricky. There was only one way to retreat and avoid defeat, and Katara was sure that Zhao would not spot it while he was starved for time. With Zhao's time about to run out, Katara felt a little annoyed when Zhao eventually took his White Jade tile and made the only valid move. However, Katara then noticed that the little flag of Zhao's timing clock had fallen before he had made his move. This was it. The victory was hers. Smiling, she extended her arm for a handshake.
Zhao gave her a perplexed stare, full of fake incomprehension. "Are you surrendering?" he asked, his words stunning Katara.
"What?" she blurted out with incomprehension. "You ran out of time! I'm the winner."
"I beg to differ," Zhao replied with an oily smile on his lips. "The flag clearly fell after I had made my move. You should know that it often happens when you press the button with too much force."
"I saw it fall before you made your move," Katara insisted vehemently. Zhao's only reaction was a shake of his head as he continued to smile at her. Katara wanted to scream at this blatant attempt of cheating. She looked around for the tournament officials, who all but one seemed to be looking elsewhere instead of at the table where she and Zhao were playing. It was especially infuriating because the two other games had finished by now. Ozai had beaten Gyatso and Yue had drawn her game with Long Feng. The officials had literally nothing else to pay attention to than her game with Zhao, and yet they didn't seem to be doing that.
Eventually, one of the officials reluctantly made his way over to their table after Katara had been trying to attract their attention for a while. "Mr. Sakamoto exceeded the time limit and should be awarded a loss," Katara said as soon as the official walked up to them.
"This is false," Zhao argued. "I made my final move within the time limit. The flag fell afterwards only because I hit the button with some extra force."
"Well, that does happen a lot," the official seemed quite amenable to Zhao's explanation. Katara didn't know whether to scream or cry, or do both. She had literally never seen the flag dropping that way throughout her entire career of playing Pai Sho.
"Well, that's not what happened this time, because I saw with my very own eyes the flag falling before Mr. Sakamoto made his move," Katara argued.
"The young lady is mistaken," Zhao did not relent. "Perhaps the stress is becoming a little too much for you, Ms. Enuaraq. It can sometimes lead people to seeing hallucinations."
"That's a very good point," the tournament official gladly jumped onto Zhao's attempts to gaslight her. The rotund man took Zhao's notifications and studied them for a bit, then comparing them with Katara's notifications. "How very dramatic for it to happen on the fortieth move," he remarked jovially. "Well, since it's just your word against that of Mr. Sakamoto, I'm afraid you'll just have to play on, Ms. Enuaraq."
"What? No, I refuse to play on!" Katara protested.
"Uh… does that mean you are resigning?" the official blinked at her like a demented owl.
"No, I've won this game, and I demand that you acknowledge it!" Katara insisted. She was quickly losing her cool, unable to stop herself from becoming outraged. The unfairness of it all just felt so overwhelming. That someone would cheat so blatantly in world championship finals seemed almost unthinkable.
"Well, I'm afraid we can't do that, Ms. Enuaraq," the official gave her an apologetic stare, looking like he was about to start crying crocodile tears. "Either you continue playing, or we'll have to award you with a loss."
"This… this is unbelievable," Katara was one step away from starting to scream. Somehow, with superhuman effort, Katara managed to calm herself down. She was still in an advantageous position against Zhao. Perhaps she should just play on and defeat him for the second time? Katara had no idea what to do and her inexperience at this level was starting to work against her. Yue was no longer around, probably already talking with the press. Katara looked for Azula in the crowd, spotting her girlfriend, but Azula only looked nervous and freaking out herself, clearly at a loss about what was happening on the stage. "Alright, fine, I'll play on, but I will be launching an official protest after the game," Katara finally decided.
"That is well within your rights, Ms. Enuaraq," the tournament official replied. He quickly reset the clocks, giving both her and Zhao another hour for the next forty moves and then pressing the button to put Katara on the clock.
Katara tried her best to gather herself and push past this outrageous and blatant attempt at cheating, but Zhao had clearly succeeded in destabilizing her. Katara found herself too upset to fully focus on the game again, and by now she had forgotten all of her carefully laid plans, having to rediscover them anew. Zhao seized on her lack of mental sharpness right away and he managed to even out the game during the next fifteen moves. By the time they had reached the sixtieth move, Katara could no longer see a path to victory. When Zhao now magnanimously offered her a draw, Katara saw no other option but to accept it, having to bite the insides of her cheeks to stop herself from crying, she was that upset about the unfairness of it all.
"Do not despair, Ms. Enuaraq," Zhao said in a taunting voice as he offered her his hand for a shake. "You have truly earned this draw."
"You really have some nerve, don't you?" Katara hissed at the man, refusing to take his hand. "I would spit on you, but you are not even deserving of that," she added angrily, turning around and walking straight off with the intent to not give the reporters even a minute of her time. Katara knew that she had been dealt a heavy emotional blow, and she had very little time to recover from it if she truly wanted to claim the coveted title of a world champion.
The day following Katara's ill fated encounter with Zhao had been tense. It wasn't just Katara herself who had been disappointed, angry and on edge. Azula and Yue were absolutely outraged as well, and they were all struggling to calm down and maintain their cool, despite understanding the importance of Katara pulling herself together mentally before her final round encounter with Ozai. After all, Katara hadn't actually lost anything yet. She was still half a point ahead in the standings, and a draw in the game against Azula's father suited her, not that Katara had any intentions of playing passively and hoping for a draw. Katara wanted to wipe the floor with Ozai for what his disgusting crony had pulled against her in the previous round.
Come the afternoon, Azula decided to take both Katara and Yue all the way across Shuhon Island to a secluded, rocky beach. It was an amazing place, but because it was not suited for swimming or sunbathing, the crowds of tourists left it well alone. The three girls had spent a couple of hours scaling rocks and just wandering about before watching the sunset together while emptying a bottle of Pinot Grigio and sharing a couple of bags of crisps. Despite everything that had happened the day before, as they made their way back to the hotel, Katara once again appeared quite relaxed, both Yue and Azula having managed to set her mind at ease with their comforting and reassurances.
Come the night, however, and events took a strange and unexpected turn. They had only just turned in for the night, when the phone had started to ring, with the hotel receptionist for some reason checking in whether they wanted something at 1am during the night. After Azula had shouted at the receptionist the calls hadn't stopped, random hotel employees suddenly starting to call them for no reason after regular intervals of about half an hour. It was half past three in the morning when Azula finally became sick of it and cut the line to disable the phone.
Katara was just about to fall back asleep when suddenly out of nowhere a group of drunks had showed up right outside of the hotel and decided to spend the rest of the night serenading loudly next to their window. Azula had yelled and hurled insults at the drunkards. When that hadn't helped, she had hurled the cut phone at them, followed by other objects, including the contents of the minibar. She had managed to hit one of the drunks with a water bottle, after which they had wandered off, only to return less than an hour later to promptly wake them all up again. This time, Azula hadn't even bothered to shout at them. She had quickly dressed and ran down the stairs, telling Yue and Katara to stay put and try to continue sleeping. Soon after, Katara and Yue had heard the roaring of a car's engine, followed by the howling of brakes and loud screams for help, after which the commotion had died down. After Azula had returned to the room, she wasn't willing to elaborate on what had happened, only remarking that the 'drunks' probably wouldn't be back because they were busy taking their friend to the nearest hospital. Apparently, she had ran at least one of them over, but Katara had been too sleepy to inquire any further.
After an hour of uninterrupted sleep, at around 5am, they had been woken up by sounds of drilling somewhere nearby. The idea that renovation works in the hotel would be carried out at such an hour felt absolutely preposterous to Katara, and Azula had agreed wholeheartedly, seeing this for what it was, yet another attempt to deprive Katara of sleep before her big match. Azula dressed once again and ran out of the suite to track down the mystery driller. She was gone for good ten minutes and when she returned, her knuckles were scraped and leaking droplets of blood, but once again Azula had insisted that instead of worrying about her, Yue and Katara needed to get back to sleep immediately. The most Azula would speak about it was that she had eventually managed to find the guy responsible, and after a brief and violent scuffle, she had managed to knock out his front teeth with his own drill.
Following all that excitement, Katara and Yue finally managed to get at least an hour of uninterrupted sleep before the alarm set for seven in the morning woke them up. Sleep deprivation wasn't something that would stop Katara, though. She knew that she could handle this from how little she sometimes slept when her studies or their Pai Sho prep became super intense. Still, knowing that Ozai Nakamura had arranged something to disgustingly underhanded grated on Katara's nerves. She decided to take an extra pill of Tofranil this morning, something she hardly ever did, but Katara wanted to make sure that she wouldn't fall to pieces on this most important day of her life.
Katara was still holding up reasonably well by the start of her match against Ozai. Azula had stayed with them until the very last moment, offering words of support, but quite obviously dying of anxiety on the inside. Yue had stayed by her side until she had to sit down with Zhao Sakamoto for their game, Yue having promised that Zhao would rue the day he had dared to cheat so blatantly against Katara. Ozai arrived with barely a minute to spare before the start of the game, sitting down with a smug smile on his face. "Best of luck to you, Ms. Enuaraq, and I hope you are as well rested as I am," he grinned at her. "There's nothing worse than facing such an important game on the back of a sleepless night."
Katara's only response had been a cool stare as she had refused to rise to Ozai's bait. The advice she had received from Azula and Zuko was to not engage in Ozai's bullshit, and she was determined to stick with this advice as the game finally began. For the first twenty moves, everything hung in balance. Katara's confidence was starting to grow with every move she made, and she was successfully ignoring Ozai's burning stare aimed at her at all times. On the twenty-third move, Ozai made an oversight and left two of his flower tiles too exposed. Katara managed to trap them with her Knotweed tile and gobbled up the Chrysanthemum, as the Rose tile beat a hasty retreat. Five moves later, Ozai failed to spot the combination Katara had prepared to entrench her Orchid tile deep into Ozai's left flank, where it could potentially wreak havoc on any isolated tiles. The situation on the board was slowly but inescapably turning into Katara's favor.
On her thirty-fourth move, Katara finally went on the offensive, playing her Boat tile in a way that opened up three clear threats to Ozai's position at once. Ozai had several options open to him, most of them bad with one exception. Ozai could lose his Rhododendron tile or retreat with his Orchid and cede so much initiative to Katara that it was almost tantamount to losing the game, and finally, Ozai had one good option before him, to temporarily sacrifice his White Jade, which would then open a new, much better avenue of retreat for his Orchid. The White Jade sacrifice was a very difficult move to spot, however, and Ozai was starting to run out of time.
When Ozai reached out and touched his Orchid tile, Katara almost let out a loud cry of jubilation, sensing that victory was as good as hers. But then Ozai Nakamura did something unexpected and completely unforgivable. He released his Orchid tile and instead picked up the White Jade, playing the only proper move in his situation.
Katara blinked, astonished at what she had just witnessed, unable to believe Ozai capable of doing something like that while still grinning so smugly. Ozai had just broken the touch-move rule, the most basic rule in the game of Pai Sho, the first thing that everyone picking up the game learned. Once you touched a tile, you had to make a move with that tile. To break this rule… Katara had never experienced such flagrant disrespect not just towards her as an opponent, but disrespect towards the ancient art of Pai Sho itself. To do what Ozai had just done would be unthinkable for every other Pai Sho master. It was almost like defiling a sacred vow.
"You violated the touch-move rule," Katara said, glaring hotly at Ozai.
"Watch your mouth, little girl," Ozai replied, glaring right back at her. "Don't think for a moment that I will tolerate such insults. You might suffer repercussions."
Katara immediately raised her arm, trying to alert the useless tournament officials. One of them reluctantly waddled over to their table and sighed. "Mr. Nakamura violated the touch-move rule," Katara repeated her accusation.
The tournament official looked shocked. "That is a very heavy accusation. In fact, it is almost unheard of. I'm sure Mr. Nakamura would never do something so disrespectful," he turned to look at Ozai. "Would you, Mr. Nakamura?"
"Obviously not," Ozai replied smugly. "This is slander."
"I am tempted to agree. Violating the touch-move rule, at this level? Surely not!" the tournament official shook his head, looking affronted on Ozai's behalf.
"Ask around, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who saw it," Katara insisted. "It was flagrant and obvious!"
"Ms. Enuaraq, surely you understand that we can't stop the match and conduct that sort of investigation during the final round of the Pai Sho world championship," the official looked rather unhappy with her.
"The event is being televised, you can check the recordings," Katara suggested. Only later had she realized that she should have asked for that to be done for her argument with Zhao, but in all honesty, the quality of the broadcast was not very good and the little flag of the timing clock was so small that Katara wasn't sure if the moment of it falling could even be seen on a tape. However, Ozai taking a tile and then releasing it was a very obvious and easy to see gesture.
"That would still take a lot of time," the official still didn't seem happy. "Although in the spirit of transparency…" he was now starting to hesitate.
"Is that sort of method for settling disputes acknowledged by the tournament rules?" Ozai asked suddenly.
"Well, no, but I was thinking-" the tournament official tried meekly.
"You were thinking that you would enjoy a conversation with the best lawyers that money can buy as they sue you for everything you have?" Ozai asked in a threatening voice.
"You were clearly speaking out of turn, Ms. Enuaraq, and I urge you to forget these wild accusations," the tournament official spoke, cringing in fear. "Play on," he said, withdrawing in haste.
The order to play on wasn't something that Katara could follow at this very moment. Everything just became too much, the swelling unfairness of it all pressing heavily down on her chest. Katara wasn't sure if she could stop herself from breaking out into tears, so she rose from her seat and all but ran to the nearby ladies' room, leaning over the sink and starting to bawl like she couldn't remember crying before.
Katara had no idea how long she had been standing over the sink and crying, when Yue came storming into the restroom, running straight up to her and embracing her. "Spirits, Kat, what happened?" she asked, sounding anxious.
Katara was so upset that she struggled to speak, opening her mouth several times but failing to produce a sound. "He… he touched a piece… and then moved with another," she finally managed while hiccupping frantically.
"He didn't!" Yue exclaimed. Her eyes were wide with shock. "That… that…" she stuttered, failing to find a suitable expletive to describe Ozai's monstrosity.
"He did," Katara wept into Yue's shoulder. "And nobody believes me, but I saw it, he really did!"
"I believe you," Yue spoke softly. "I want you to tell me exactly what he did and I'll tell the officials that I saw it all. I'll corroborate your story, Kat."
"But… did you actually see it?" Katara pulled back a little to look into Yue's face.
Yue frowned. "No, I was too deeply invested in making Zhao suffer," she sighed. "But it doesn't matter, Kat. I would lie for you, and that's the truth."
Katara shook her head vehemently. "No, Yue, if they found out that you're lying, you could be disqualified and even banned from tournaments for months, or years. I won't have you risk that."
"Fuck the tournaments," Yue exclaimed, looking very upset. "Spirits, I hate this, and I hate those men in particular," she sighed. "Do you think you can play, Kat?" Yue asked.
"I have to," Katara replied. She wasn't sure if she could. The idea that Ozai and his horrible cronies, these disgusting rich and powerful men could be this sick and twisted to do something like this to a young girl of only twenty-two in her first finals, it was just… Katara wanted to scream and cry and grab whatever was at hand and throw it at them, the unfairness of it all was driving her insane.
"How much time was left on the clock?" Yue asked softly.
"I don't know, twenty minutes or something," Katara shrugged.
"Okay, I think you should have about ten minutes left," Yue said. "Let's get you a bit more presentable, and you should have enough time left to make it to the clock reset. If you get that far, you might be able to gather yourself."
"I hope so," Katara managed weakly. She already knew that she was no longer in any state to play. Every nerve end within her was trembling with anxiety from this injustice. Her rational mind had all but shut down and she was a complete emotional mess bordering on a full nervous breakdown.
Katara's hands were shaking so badly that she had to let Yue do all the work to fix her ruined makeup to the best of her ability. It wasn't just her hands that were shaking, however. Her nervous system was overloaded to the point of breaking and her entire body was vibrating, legs trembling and making it hard for her to walk. Some of Yue's attempts to comfort and steady her registered, but most simply went over her head, and she would have preferred to continue hiding in the restroom until it was all over instead of facing the shame that awaited her back outside, but Yue somehow managed to coax her into leaving the restroom and Katara unsteadily made it back to her seat with seven minutes left on her timing clock.
It might as well have been seventy minutes, however, and it still wouldn't have helped Katara any. She was in such an inconsolable state of mind that she was incapable of any rational thought and all the variations on the Pai Sho board appeared as if hidden in the thickest of mists. Katara didn't believe that at this point she would have been able to beat an amateur player who hadn't been playing for more than a month. It wasn't much of a surprise that Ozai dispatched her with laughable ease, now that she had already been broken. And as the grinning Ozai Nakamura waved to the cheering Fire Nation crowd, he dared to raise Katara's arm as if to ask them to applaud for her as well, acting the magnanimous victor, when Katara knew all too well that she had just been humiliated in front of the entire world.
To say that Azula Nakamura was angry in the wake of what had happened in the final round of the world Pai Sho championships would be to say nothing at all. Azula was full of murderous rage and violent intentions, and quite a few hapless bystanders had already felt the full fury of her wrath. Azula hadn't been able to quite understand what had happened between Ozai and Katara on the stage, but she had watched her girlfriend clearly becoming upset and all but running to hide in the ladies' room. And once Katara had emerged, she had lost in seven appalling moves, which had made it clear to Azula that something had clearly happened and she was now forced to bitterly observe her father prancing around the stage like a disgusting preening peacock.
It was only a while later when Azula caught up with Suki as the latter was on her way to the official press conference that Azula had learned that Katara had accused Ozai of violating the touch-move rule. When Suki had also told Azula that some of her colleagues who had been closer to the stage thought that they had actually seen Ozai violate this sacred rule of Pai Sho, Azula had wanted to scream bloody murder.
The press conference had been a complete disaster and had elevated Azula's murderous mood even further. Katara had broken down in tears during the first question inquiring about her perplexing collapse, and she had then been forced to sit there and cry for almost the entire half an hour. Yue had absolutely embarrassed Zhao in her final game to claim third place, so she was also at the press conference and she had yelled at the reporters to leave Katara alone and stop addressing her with their inane sensation seeking questions. Even Ozai had seen an opportunity to pretend that he cared, asking the reporters to show some pity for the poor girl who had clearly been overcome by the stressful occasion.
After the press conference, the organizers had arranged a photo shoot with Ozai, Katara and Yue, but Azula had had enough by then. She had forced her way into the backstage and forcibly dragged Katara out of there, aided by Yue, the two of them shouting accusations and obscenities at the tournament officials. At least the officials hadn't dared to object to Katara being escorted away, some of them actually looking ashamed, but their discovery of conscience had come much too late for anything to change. Ozai Nakamura had retained his title of a world champion yet again and he had done it in the most underhanded way yet.
Azula was deeply concerned for Katara's state of mind. By the time they got Katara back to the hotel, she had simply shut down almost entirely, becoming catatonic and unresponsive. Azula had never seen Katara in such a state and it frightened Azula out of her wits. Yue wasn't faring much better, but at least she had retained enough rational thought to come up with the idea to try and coax Katara into taking some Valium so that she could get some sleep and hopefully feel a little better tomorrow. As Yue and Azula nervously paced around their hotel suite and waited for Katara to finally fall asleep, Azula still could not believe what had happened. Katara had always been the stable rock in her life on which to rely on, and to see her like this was incredibly disconcerting. And it made Azula hate her father so much more, more than she had ever thought possible.
Later in the evening, when Katara had finally fallen into fitful slumber, Azula decided to leave the room. With Yue remaining in vigilant watch over their suffering girlfriend, Azula went out in search of her father. Her anger hadn't cooled off any, and Azula was looking for a confrontation, hopefully a violent one. The receptionist had told Azula that her father and his companions were currently celebrating his success in the hotel's fancy restaurant, so Azula balled her fists and marched straight over to seek Ozai out.
It didn't take long for Azula to locate her father, sitting in a secluded booth with Zhao Sakamoto, Long Feng and a couple of women who looked like the most expensive escorts that money could buy. Azula walked up to her father's booth, choosing her path so that her approach wouldn't be immediately noticed by Ozai and his cronies. She stopped a little distance away to take one final deep breath and steady herself, Azula's location giving her an opportunity to overhear the voices coming from the booth without being noticed herself.
"My friend, I think in light of my amazing achievement, I think we should celebrate it with the launch of the second phase," she heard her father saying.
"I'm tempted to agree, Ozai," it was Long Feng who replied to her father, making Azula wonder what second phase Ozai was referring to. "Once I get back to Ba Sing Se, I'll discuss it with Kuei. He usually comes around to seeing my point of view, if you know what I mean," the head of the Dai Li chuckled.
"Excellent, I knew I could count on you," Ozai said, after which the conversation died down, so Azula decided to make her move, walking up to the table. "Azula, my dearest daughter, it's so lovely to see you!" Ozai grinned at her. "Have you come to congratulate daddy on his success?"
"Oh, you bet," Azula snarled. "Here, I have a free drink for you. This one's on me," she grabbed Zhao's glass and threw its contents into Ozai's face, eliciting an angry roar from her father as he rubbed at his burning eyes. "You are pathetic, and what happened today was that you humiliated yourself-" Azula's words were cut short as Ozai silenced her with a heavy backhanded slap across the face. Still, as she doubled over, clutching her bruised cheek, Azula felt vindicated by this response. She had wanted Ozai to reveal his violent nature in front of everyone, and the restaurant manager was already making his way towards them.
"Watch your mouth, Azula," Ozai threatened her. "I know that we have our little agreement, but I just might decide to call your bluff on it. Don't think that you're completely safe from me, my ungrateful offspring."
By now, the restaurant manager had reached them, looking both a little frightened yet defiant. "Mr. Nakamura, I'm afraid that we have a very strict policy when it comes to physical altercations," the man dared to address Ozai. "I must insist that you and your companions leave the premises immediately."
"How dare you?" Ozai glared at the restaurant manager. "She started this confrontation," he pointed at Azula.
"And we will ask the young lady to leave as well, but a spilled drink does not justify physical assault." Azula had to give it to the young man. Either he had no idea about the power or influence her father wielded, or he was cut from the same cloth as Katara and simply had these deeply ingrained and inflexible values of right and wrong.
"Don't make me laugh," Ozai glared at the man. "I can buy this whole hotel and fire all of you!"
"Then please do so, but for now you still have to leave," the young man insisted in a somewhat suicidal way. Buy now, two members of the kitchen staff had run up to them as well. One of them was a younger girl and she pressed a towel with chipped ice into Azula's hand, a makeshift compress to hold against her cheek. The other kitchen worker was an older man, whispering into the ear of the hotel manager. "If you are still set against leaving, Mr. Nakamura, then you should know that our kitchen staff has refused to serve you any more food."
Ozai rose, throwing his glass to shatter at the feet of the restaurant manager. "You will rue the day you decided to anger Ozai Nakamura," he growled, turning around to leave, but not before casting a withering glare at Azula. Despite the side of her face still burning from the heavy slap, Azula couldn't help but feel a touch of satisfaction at this outcome. She had managed to humiliate her father, although it could still not measure up in any way to what he had done to Katara, and Azula swore that she wouldn't rest until she had utterly destroyed her father and his precious reputation.
Next chapter: I guess we'll be dealing with the fallout from this whole horrific nightmare. As you can imagine, poor Katara won't be doing well at all for a while.