"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the match of a lifetime."
The announcer's voice boomed across the packed auditorium. The crowd roared and shook the cage that separated them from the leitai (1).
Why did I agree to go through with this? Jinyi thought to herself as she stepped into the cage and walked to the edge of the platform. As the announcer continued, she watched her opponents step up, one by one, onto the other corners of the ring.
"In this corner, all the way from the South Pole. He's as cold as his icy homeland. Give it up for Iklak!"
The waterbending master was a thin, wiry man. His face was covered in traditional Water Tribe war paint. Iklak carried a tiger-seal skin pouch at his waist, from which he bent out a long tentacle of water to salute the crowd.
"In this corner, from beautiful Ember Island. He really knows how to turn up the heat. Please welcome Hajime!"
The firebender was large and muscular. He wore nothing from the waist up, so Jinyi could see his well-defined abdominal muscles suck in before he blew out a jet of flame to the cheers of the crowd.
"Next, you've seen him in many matches. He's the undisputed fan favorite. Put your hands together for Ba Sing Se's own Hundred-Coin Wai!"
Hundred-Coin Wai got his nickname from the stone disks that he used. Like the currency of the Earth Kingdom, they were circular with a square hole cut in the center (2). But each of these "coins" was the size of a human head. As he stepped onto the platform, the disks flew up behind him in a helix before settling gently to the floor of the ring.
"And finally, she may be new to this arena, but she's certainly made a big impact. Let's hear it for Jinyi!"
Now that it was her turn to step onto the leitai, Jinyi realized just how high off the ground it was, about one and a half times her own height. She bounced off the padding at the base of the platform, vaulted over the top, and landed gracefully in a crouch. Jinyi didn't have any flashy bending techniques to show off to the crowd with, so she settled instead for a simple salute with a clenched fist against an open palm.
"Jinyi will be competing against the bending masters for the grand prize: three hundred silver coins," called the announcer. "Will her skill and agility win the day, or will she be overwhelmed by the masters' elemental attacks? Folks, this is a show you can only see in this arena."
The announcer's boast was more than empty marketing. Three benders against one small non-bender? It was madness. It would never be allowed in any of the city's officially sanctioned fighting rings. But this seedy underground arena in the Lower Ring was far from official. Jinyi had fought benders in this arena before and won every match. She was less confident that she could take on three at once. The promise of three hundred silver coins had a way of overriding such reservations, however.
"Fighters, get ready," said the announcer.
Jinyi crouched, readying herself to move quickly. The gong sounded and she leapt forward with all her might. Earth coin, water whip, and fireball all collided in the spot she had occupied a mere second before. Jinyi jumped, ducked, and weaved as more missiles flew at her. In zig-zagging leaps and bounds, she approached her first target, the firebender Hajime.
She landed slightly to his left. Hajime cocked his right arm to throw a fire fist, but Jinyi preempted the blow with a punch of her own (3), the extended knuckle of her index finger hitting the pressure point on Hajime's bicep. The arm batted harmlessly against Jinyi's shoulder, limp and flameless (4). For a split second, Jinyi could see the shock in Hajime's eyes. Jinyi had fought countless benders before. Every one of them reacted the same way when they found the abilities they'd spent so long developing instantly neutralized.
She couldn't stay long. Already, she could hear the flutter of a flying disk and the sloshing of water behind her. With a sidestep and a twist, Jinyi moved behind Hajime and slammed her elbow into the small of his back. Hajime grunted and stepped forward, right into the incoming attacks. A stone disk hit him in the gut, and a ball of ice broke across his face, throwing him back towards Jinyi again. She stopped him with the palm of one hand and formed a crane's beak with the other, pressing the thumb and fingers together (5). She reached up and struck Hajime in the shoulder, paralyzing his left arm. The firebender spun around, his chest puffed up with air and his eyes full of rage. Jinyi ducked as a cone of flame spewed out from his mouth. The heat was so intense that she could feel it on her scalp. She pushed up with her legs and thrust the base of her palm into Hajime's chin in a devastating uppercut. The firebender's jaw slammed shut with a sickening clack, and he fell senseless to the wooden floor of the leitai. Jinyi hoped for his sake that he hadn't been sticking out his tongue.
Jinyi started moving again. She'd hoped to use Hajime as a human shield for a while longer. With him down, closing in on her other opponents would be harder. She barely managed to dodge one of Iklak's water whips, the droplets on the end glancing across her face like ocean spray. Wai tossed another disk at her. Jinyi stepped to the side, but as it passed, she managed to catch it by the edge. Jinyi spun with the captured projectile and tossed it at Iklak. The waterbender easily knocked it aside, but the distraction was all Jinyi needed to close the distance.
Jinyi's fist surged forward, but just before it met Iklak's face, something cold and damp closed around her wrist and pulled her upwards. As Iklak's watery lasso lifted her above his head, Jinyi desperately wrapped her legs around Iklak's neck.
The waterbender shouted his frustration into Jinyi's belly, his cries muffled by her thick cotton shirt. Jinyi gasped in pain as the water lasso tugged at her hyperextended arm, threatening to pull the joints out of their sockets. She grabbed her forearm with her free hand and pulled the arm back to a less painful angle. Iklak twisted around to face the edge of the leitai and tried pulling in the opposite direction. Jinyi could see Wai preparing to throw another disk, the oversized coin hovering above his hand. She was trapped now. Loosen her leg lock on Iklak, and he'd toss her off the leitai. But stay put and Wai's projectile would almost certainly knock her out. There was only one way to escape, and she'd have to time things perfectly.
Wai swung his arm and the stone coin sailed across the platform. Jinyi pulled down with her arms and abdomen. The disk barely missed her head and instead cut through the water, spraying it over her head and shoulders. Her hand now free from Iklak's watery grip, Jinyi doubled over backward and delivered three quick strikes to his spine before releasing her leg lock and flipping back onto her feet. Iklak slumped to the floor, his body completely limp.
On the other side of the leitai, Wai bent some earth coins into a ring around himself. He stomped his foot and the coins shattered into many pieces. Wai brought the pieces inward and formed them into a suit of armor that covered every part of his body except for his eyes.
Jinyi slid cautiously toward Wai, and he came to the center of the leitai to meet her. She considered her next move. Wai's rocky armor made it impossible for her to knock him out or chi block him. Her only hope of winning was to either unbalance him and push him off the leitai or force him into a submission. Wai lunged at her with his rock-covered fist. She ducked under the punch and tried to sweep his leg, but the earthbender's low stance could not be broken so easily. Jinyi jumped to the side as Wai's fist came down like a hammer trying to smash her head. She grabbed his wrist with one hand and pushed his elbow with the other, twisting his arm into an elbow lock (6). Wai grunted in pain, but then the earthen armor around his arm bulged outward, pushing Jinyi's hands away. Jinyi jumped back as Wai's armor reformed and he swung at her with another hammerfist.
Jinyi and Wai circled each other just outside of striking range. They were at a stalemate now, neither having a technique that could defeat the other. Jinyi could hear the crowd loudly expressing their impatience. Her left eye twitched as a bead of Iklak's water dripped from her hair and ran down her face. She snorted in frustration and pulled one hand back, making sure to keep the other one out in front of her and her good eye trained on Wai. As she wiped the water away, she was struck by an idea.
Jinyi moved into range of Wai's arms, baiting him to attack her. Wai took the bait, throwing a straight punch. Jinyi pushed the blow aside and stepped off Wai's center line (7). As he turned his head to face her, Jinyi brushed her hand across her head, collecting a few drops of water, and flicked them at the one unprotected part of Wai's body: his eyes.
Wai flinched and turned his head away. He instinctively brought up a hand to wipe away the water, but his own earth armor was blocking the way. No longer having to worry about a counterattack, Jinyi moved up close to Wai and positioned herself for maximum leverage. She shoved him, her waist twisting to lend power to her arms. The earthbender staggered backward, completely thrown off balance. There were still quite a few paces to go until the edge of the leitai, though.
Jinyi pressed the attack, not letting up to allow Wai to regain his balance. She stepped forward and delivered a powerful side kick to Wai's chest. The earthen armor softened the blow, but it pushed Wai closer to the edge. She leapt up and landed a flying kick to Wai's head. The earthbender stepped back in a daze. His back foot was now right next to the edge. It was almost over now, just one more. Jinyi stepped up and launched a final front kick. A feeling of triumph surged within her as her foot connected and Wai began to pitch backward, but triumph turned to horror when she realized Wai had managed to grab onto her leg.
The earthbender fell from the platform, dragging Jinyi with him. She twisted in the air, making a last-ditch attempt to grab onto the ledge. But the leitai offered no purchase for her fingertips, and Wai's earthen suit made him too heavy. The two landed heavily on the pads below.
Jinyi pushed herself back onto her feet. The arena was as quiet as the caves of the Kolau mountains, the crowd stunned into silence by the unexpected turn of events. Wai stood up as well, shedding his earthen armor. He wiped the remaining water from his face and looked at Jinyi.
"Huh," she said. "Well, now who gets the money?"
AN: Hello, everyone, zhemao here. Hope you've all enjoyed this first installment of Secrets and Daggers, co-written by myself and TsunColoredPuppeteer and edited by lalalandiki. This is my first time writing Avatar fan-fiction and fan-fiction in general. Like many others, I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time this year when it was re-released on NetFlix. I fell in love with its storytelling, characters, and Asian-inspired setting, which reminded me so much of the Chinese legends and classic wuxia (Chinese martial arts fantasy) fiction I consumed as a kid. I later read the excellent Kyoshi novels by F.C. Yee, which takes the wuxia elements of Avatar and dials it up to 11. This work is based on an event referenced in those books but features our own original characters, rather than the ones in the novels.
One of the great delights of the Kyoshi novels for Asian history buffs and wuxia fanatics like us is the copious amount of references to historical events, mythology, traditional martial arts, and classic wuxia fiction. We hope to continue that tradition in this series by drawing upon our own collective knowledge of East Asian history and culture. For those that share our fascination with these subjects, we will be including explanations of these references in these ending notes. Look for the parenthetical numbers in the chapters to see what these refer to.
Chap. 1
1. 擂台 Readers of Rise of Kyoshi will recognize this from Rangi's match with a daofei and Kyoshi's duel with Xu Ping An. These are the traditional stages for Chinese martial arts matches. Leitai fights feature heavily in wuxia stories. Today, they are used in the modern Chinese kickboxing sport known as sanda.
2. These are like the earth disks used in Legend of Korra's pro-bending. Metal coins with a square hole in them date back to 350 BC in the Zhou Dynasty. The holes made it convenient to carry the coins around by looping a string through them.
3. Preempting the opponent's attack with your own attack is a characteristic feature of the Chinese martial art Wing Chun and its derivative, Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Wing Chun is our primary influence for Jinyi's fighting style, along with White Crane Kung Fu. Both systems were invented by women and designed to allow women (and smaller men) to overcome larger, stronger opponents.
4. Chi-blocking in Avatar is based on the pressure point striking techniques in Chinese martial arts known as dianxue in Mandarin or dim mak in Cantonese. In wuxia fiction, these techniques are taken to fantastical levels, with pinpoint attacks capable of paralyzing victims or even stopping their hearts. The extended knuckle fists are, of course, the ones used by Ty Lee in the TV series and feature in some styles of Chinese Kung Fu and Okinawan Karate.
5. Crane beaks are another one of the strikes Ty Lee uses in the TV series. They are also used in many forms of Kung Fu.
6. Joint-locking techniques are called qin na in Chinese. Some styles, like White Crane, make more extensive use of them than others.
7. The concept of the center line is used throughout Chinese martial arts but is a special focus of Wing Chun.