A Legend of Korra Fanfic
By Sakura Martinez (aka SMTsukishiro)
Summary:
A promising engineering student. A mysterious woman capable of controlling the four elements. When their paths crossed, the resulting collision not only changes their lives and themselves, but the fate of the entire world as well. [Korrasami AU]
The Legend of Korra
The Schism
Chapter 5. A Study on Spiritology
It took hours—the early, golden rays of dawn descending upon Republic City—for Opal to be satisfied with the answers she acquired. Asami—who had ended up falling asleep as soon as she had finished cleaning herself up, an hour through Opal's questioning of the Avatar—found her friend slumped on the dining table, dozens of books, parchments, papers, and notebooks splayed around her when she awoke. There were even unfinished Flameo Insant Noodles and an untouched coffee-filled mug, already gone cold.
On the other side of the room, near the opened windows that led to the small balcony, was the Avatar. She sat on crossed legs, fists touching, and eyes closed. Asami called out to her, asking if she would like to have some breakfast, but Korra provided no answer. Nor showed any sign that she had heard the Prodigy.
That's a strange way to sleep, Asami thought to herself, observing the Avatar from the corner of her eye as she prepared to brew coffee and make pancakes—the only things Asami could cook that did not threaten to burn the entire dormitories down.
As she was mixing the pancake batter, the brilliant, young woman turned on the radio—as she always did during mornings—hoping that, if anything else, it would bring some small comfort or even a smidge of normalcy.
A soft jazzy tune accompanied Asami for a few moments. She recognized the song as the popular record from Tahno and the Beatniks, and softly hummed along to it. The Prodigy was so into the song that she did not notice she already had an audience.
"You humans can't live in silence, can you? It's like you can't go on without some sort of ambient noise. Like you're searching for meaning in them, never once wondering if it's not just drowning you."
Korra's sudden talking gave Asami a fright, so much so that she accidentally flipped the pancake with much force than was necessary. The pancake somersaulted high in the air, almost touching the ceiling as it did so, before landing flat on the sleeping Bei Fong's head. The Prodigy cringed and the Avatar found hilarity in it as Opal, instead of waking, merely murmured about wanting five more minutes to sleep in.
"You are also very jumpy." The Avatar finished vocalizing her observations.
"You surprised me, that's all." Asami responded as she plucked her ruined breakfast from Opal's head. "I apologize if the music woke you up. I thought the volume was low enough not to disturb."
The young inventor then settled the spoiled pancake by the sink before taking another measured cup of batter and splaying it on the heated pan. Korra watched the other woman as she worked, an inquisitive look on her face as she spoke, "It didn't. I wasn't sleeping. I hadn't been. As the Avatar, I don't need to."
"You don't need to?" Asami arched an eyebrow, looking at Korra over her shoulder. "How can you have no need for sleep? And before you say anything, being the Avatar doesn't count as an explanation."
"The Four Elemental Spirits sustain me. I don't need to eat, or drink. I seldom, if ever, get tired. And I don't need to sleep either." The dark-skinned girl shrugged as she moved closer to Asami, peering at the contents of the bowl. The inquisitive look had turned into a frown upon seeing the bowl's contents. Korra wrinkled her nose before taking a step back as though she had just assured herself of something. "I had mentioned that to your sleeping friend before, but I suppose sleep had claimed you by then."
Asami made a mental note to check with Opal and ask her friend about the things she had learned about the Avatar. Maybe ask for a detailed explanation to what the Avatar actually is. The Prodigy was certain the young Bei Fong would be able to satisfy her curiosity, and maybe answer the curious remembrance she had of having heard the word before.
So instead of having Korra expound on the things she didn't understand, Asami inquired of a different—yet related—matter. "If you weren't sleeping, what were you doing on the floor a couple of minutes ago?"
"I was meditating. Or trying to, at least." The Avatar replied, as she picked up the mug that held Asami's brewed coffee, sniffing it and blanching at the smell before settling it back on the countertop. "Your city is much too bright, too loud. There are so many things going on at once. Add that to the distress and restlessness of the spirits, it makes it difficult for me to concentrate and meditate."
Just then, the radio played a different tune. A loud, trumpeting sound signifying the start of the hourly news report that caused Opal to stir awake.
"Asamiiiii!" the short-haired girl whined as the jingle went on for another half-minute. "Make it stooooop!"
Instead of lowering the volume further, Asami turned the knob to raise it. The promising, young engineer apologized as Opal groaned some more.
"Welcome to Radio Republic's Hourly News Update!" the familiar voice greeted the program's listeners. "I am Shiro Shinobi, bringing you the latest news of the hour and boy is it a whopper!" Another ten-second music played before Shiro Shinobi spoke once more. "A break-in occurred at the Great Republic University late last night. Yes, folks. You heard that right! A group of unidentified miscreants broke in our city's most prized jewel! How they did it, or why, we don't know—and neither does our esteemed Republic City Police Department. According to Chief Lin Bei Fong of the RCPD, who was called to the scene of the crime, the University Council—headed by Councilman Tarrlok—believe the perpetrators to be students of the very same institution and have opted not to ask the police department for any assistance!"
"A break-in? That was the trouble at the University?" asked Opal as the news report wiped away any remnants of sleep that she may have been feeling. "Who would be stupid enough to do that?"
"When asked for the reason behind it, Councilman Tarrlok stated that the evidences left and gathered at the scene of the crime had led to the discovery of the culprits' identities." Shiro Shinobi's report went on. "When pressed for information, however, the respectable member of the University Council has this to say…"
A recorded voice—a voice Korra could only describe as 'pompous' in nature—played soon after that.
"We cannot divulge the names of these perpetrators at this time," the Councilman said. "Rest assured, however, that they will be brought to answer to these crimes, which includes an assault on five of our security personnel."
"Can you believe that, folks?" Shiro Shinobi's voice went back on. "Five, well-armed, well-trained men beaten to a pulp by students! You have to wonder just how that could be possible. These men are said to be the cream of the crop after all! Thanks to last night's delinquency the Great Republic University will be closed off. You heard it right, students! No classes until further notice! The energy sector would also like to announce this week's scheduled power interruption will be pushed to an earlier time slot and will last for two more hours than normal. This is Shiro Shinobi bringing you the latest of the hour."
The trumpeting tune played once again, and with the news report finished, Asami turned the volume back down.
The Prodigy tried to keep her hands from shaking. She didn't want to show that the report about their break-in affected her. Especially since only the Avatar and herself knew they were at the heart of the matter.
"Wow, five Great Republic University security guards…those students might be idiots but they must have been really strong idiots." Opal stretched her arms up before grabbing a plateful of breakfast.
"I do not appreciate being called an idiot," Korra huffed, crossing her arms. "And neither do I appreciate being mistaken for a human."
"Oh, of course not, Lady Avatar," Opal was quick to assure Korra. "I was talking about the people who thought it was a good idea to—"
When the Avatar continued to glare and act offended, Opal began to suspect. When she looked over at Asami, hoping that the young inventor had some insights to share, Opal remembered the disheveled state she had been in the night before. Slowly she began to piece two-and-two together.
"No…way…!" the brilliant Historian and Literature and Arts major gasped. "You can't be serious. It was the two of you? You're the felons?"
"I wouldn't call us felons. That's way too harsh," Asami said, looking away and busying herself with cooking.
"You beat up five people—and from the sound of it, you beat them up badly!" Opal was maddened. It bothered her that Asami did not seem worried at all.
The Prodigy didn't want to discuss what had occurred in the underground sewers, but it seemed as though her friend didn't wish to drop the subject. "It was all Korra's doing. I just knocked two of them out. Besides, they attacked us first and didn't give us any chance to explain."
"They were fortunate I wasn't able to give them more than a beating." Korra said at the same time. "If Asami had not been around to stop me, I could have finished the job; made them pay with their lives for what they were doing to the spirits."
"That's not something you should be saying with such disappointment either!" Opal was on the verge of a panic attack and had forgotten she was speaking to the Avatar. The youngest Bei Fong sighed, "Please tell me you have a perfectly reasonable explanation for almost murdering someone, Avatar Korra."
"I'm curious about what this whole mission of yours is about as well," Asami admitted, sipping on her brewed coffee. "You keep saying something about spirits and a disturbance."
The Avatar's expression visibly darkened. There was a lull in the conversation as both Asami and Opal waited for Korra to speak. The two university students looked at each other. It was not hard to tell that whatever the Avatar was going to say, would be big. Her reasons would not be petty.
"The spirits are weakening and dying, their numbers diminishing." Korra began, her voice shaking in anger that made the Prodigy worry that something might catch fire, get frozen, or be blown away. Asami didn't even think it impossible for the Avatar to cause an earthquake or tsunami out of anger and frustration. "I came here to learn what is becoming of them, since Republic City is where their cries are loudest, and your so-called Great Republic University is where the disturbance is greatest."
"And you said the uproar with the spirits is stronger in the Garage—the factory." Asami remembered.
The Avatar nodded grimly.
"The Great Republic University's factory? Why there?" Opal asked.
"We never found out." This time, it was the emerald-eyed prodigy who answered. "We only got as far as the entrance to the Garage from the underground sewers before we were attacked."
"Hold up!" Opal's head shot up, her hand gesturing for Asami to stop talking. "The sewers? Both of you were traipsing around the sewers? Huh, that explains the smell…But, how did you get inside, there is some very sturdy grating there, if I remember right."
Korra snorted. "That grate was hardly any trouble. Bai Hu and I did not even consider that a warm-up."
Opal's questioning look heralded Asami's quick explanation. "She bended the metal and created a large hole in it."
"What?" the surprise was only momentary, before Opal shrugged it off. "Well, I suppose that's possible, she is the Avatar."
"That's it? That's all you're going to say about that?" Asami was hoping for something more akin to a hysterical reaction. "Korra re-formed the shape of the metal, Opal. Metal."
"The Avatar has Bai Hu, so…" another shrug from the Bei Fong girl.
Asami could only groan as she wondered in vain if, perhaps, she was the only rational person in the room. Then again, she did help out a strange girl to break in to her school so perhaps she wasn't entirely sane either.
Shaking her head, the young, aspiring engineer steered the conversation elsewhere to placate her curiosity and lack of knowledge in the particular field. "Why do these other spirits matter, they don't sound all that important? I mean, they don't seem to be as powerful as these Elemental Spirits that you always boast about."
"What?" Korra's question boomed and shook like thunder, as though she couldn't believe to hear such a thing. "Do you have any idea what you are insinuating, human? Every form of spirit is important, regardless of their title. The Elemental Spirits and all the other spirits are all equal. Everything that exists—everything that will be—the spirits all have a part in that. They have an important role to play—not just in the mortal world, but their own realm as well."
While the Avatar was speaking, Opal had rushed to the table where all of her notes were and quickly rummaged about. She returned several seconds later holding a worn book with several dog-eared pages.
The short-haired girl quickly flipped through the pages. As she sat down, she began to recite: "'Spirits shall range over heaven and earth, and from their travels, birth forests and seas. Man shall respect spirit, and spirit shall attend unto man. The twain shall be one, their souls ever linked. Heed well the endless cycle of man and spirit. Forget not the dependency betwixt thee.' Avatar Wan supposedly said those words as a reminder for all the generations after his time."
Asami waited patiently for the explanation for those words to come—something she knew either of the two other young women with her would expound upon.
"Everything in the world is connected. It is the spirits that give life to the mortal realm. Everything that you see, hear, touch, taste, the spirits have a hand in making it live and thrive." The words came out slowly as Korra tried her best to explain in words that a mortal could understand. "They dictate the hue of the sky, the warmth of the air, the fertility of the earth, and the changing of the seasons. If the spirits become scarce and eventually disappear, the world will become imbalanced, life will slowly decline, and eventually all will cease to exist."
The Prodigy frowned. She felt as though there was something familiar about the words Korra had uttered. It was as if she had already knew of it, though in a different context. It was Opal who reminded her of what the Avatar's words sounded like.
"It's really no different from your study of the world's energy," Opal said. "The energy you said could be harvested and used as an alternative power source? The topic of your dissertation? I suppose you can say that and the spirits are one and the same."
"I…what? Why didn't you tell me sooner, Opal?"
"Well, it was just a study. Besides, it didn't seem like it was important to discuss them with you at the time. It wasn't as if you're interested in Spiritology either." Opal replied with a shrug. "And as far as I know from what you told me, there isn't a technology present and alive that could harness them. You said so yourself that it was all just a supposition."
"Still, I would have liked to have known if my studies pose a threat to the entire world. I wouldn't like to be the girl who set the destruction of the world in motion with her research and theories." Asami finished off her brewed coffee with a pointed look on Opal and with the quandary as to whether the dissertation she wrote would now actually hold any merit.
"What could have been causing the spirits to be restless, though?" Opal wanted to know, though she asked without really thinking anyone would provide an answer for it. She had spent such a lot of time reading, researching, and studying about the history of the past and the myths that were twined with it that being able to actually converse with a (supposed) mythological person made it impossible not to try to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"I honestly don't know. But when we fought with those men in the sewers, I felt the very same disruption with the spirits as I could sense from that place you called 'the Garage'." Korra's eyes were focused elsewhere as she spoke, as though recalling the actual events as they happened. "The feeling intensified when they started throwing fire and tried to incapacitate us with those glowing gloves of theirs. It was then that I heard the cries of the spirits as they died."
"That's why you went berserk…why you wanted to kill that man." It was not a question, though with the way Asami had spoken it appeared as such and had warranted an affirmative answer from the Avatar.
The young Bei Fong felt as though the conversation was akin to a whirlwind. From her discussion with the Avatar throughout the whole night—or what was left of it, anyway—Opal had learned to expect the unexpected. Hearing what her roommate and friend said, however, made her remember that there was nothing even remotely normal about what was going on.
"Okay, I will just continue to pretend that I didn't hear you just repeat the fact that the Avatar tried to kill someone and am just going to focus on the part where you said the guards were throwing fire…That is what you said, right, Avatar Korra?"
"It is," Korra nodded. "They were wearing these strange gauntlets. I had thought them conceited to try and challenge me barehanded, but then they started bending as though they had made a pact with the spirits themselves. If I were unable to sense the pained cries of the spirits, I would have been none the wiser."
Opal was acquainted with the word. 'Bending'. There had been few ancient and historical texts written that explained it. It was the ability bestowed upon the Avatar and the ancient peoples that allowed them to influence the elements; given through a pact between ancient spirits of old. Looking at her friend, however, Opal could tell that Asami was still lost. She couldn't help smirking. It wasn't every day she saw the stumped look on the young prodigy's face.
"Sadly, how they were capable of such a feat and why the spirits were dying around them, I was not be able to determine. Whatever knowledge could have been gleamed had we not fallen back is now lost." Korra sighed, dejected. "Much as it pains me to abandon the spirits here, I may need to return to the Hallowmount; search for a different course of action…"
There was a lull in the conversation as each person in the room contemplated to themselves the weight of the knowledge and the circumstances they had found themselves in.
For Avatar Korra, the fact that there was something she didn't know, unnerved her. She was the Avatar. She was supposed to be omniscient and omnipotent. It was the only way she could be that allowed her to keep balance to the world; be the bridge that was needed.
For Opal Bei Fong, her mind had begun compartmentalizing everything she had learned—including the truth behind the events that had transpired at the Great Republic University. As wondrous as it was to be in the presence of the mighty Avatar, she also felt worried for her friend who had been caught up in all of it. Her aunt, the Chief of Police, was undoubtedly going to look into the matter, even though the university hadn't asked for her and the RCPD's assistance. If Lin Bei Fong learns of the identity of the culprit—and if Asami and Korra's identity had, indeed, already been compromised…Opal didn't want to think of the consequences that might befall the brilliant engineer.
For Asami Sato, she was seriously considering her role in all of this. Once more she found herself questioning the sanity of her decision. The fear that the University already knew of her involvement was also steadily creeping into her mind. She knew that if they found out that she had a hand in it, all her hard work and the promise of a brilliant career would be over. She didn't even know if her father would allow her to work for their company.
Still, as fearful and worried as she was, Asami couldn't let something as momentous as the spirits dying be. Especially now that she knew the dire outcome that would befall the land if they all disappeared.
But what? She wondered as she watched the dark-skinned brunette who had immensely piqued her interest; whom she couldn't help but trusting even though the rational part of her mind told her otherwise. Avatar Korra was an unknown, and Asami Sato did not know how to deal much with unknowns and illogical idiosyncrasies. What could I possibly do to help? We need more information, but…with how that went last time, I don't think it wise to go back there to investigate so soon…
As she was wondering about these things, her eyes wandered to the bag she had left haphazardly near the sofa. It was as dirty as she had been when she returned to the dorms, and belatedly she realized the sofa would also need cleaning because of it. She would also need to purchase a new bag, not thinking it would be possible to clean her old one.
It was at that moment Asami remembered the glove she had taken from her assailant. She had thought the thing interesting and wanted to learn the intricacies of its inner workings. That was the only reason why she thought of picking it up; why she stuffed it in her bag even though she knew perfectly well it belonged to the University and taking it was considered stealing.
Yet, she did it anyway. And she was glad that she did. They may have just a way to unravel part of the mystery because of it.
"I think I may have a way," Asami said, and seeing Opal getting ready for the protest she knew would escape the other girl's lips, she added, "without having to commit any kind of crime in the process."
He was watching the grainy security footage, scrutinizing every detail he could find. It was what made him good at the job; it was what made him the best. Already, his hours of work had gained him quite a number of things—things that would be useful for what he needed to do. Still it was not enough. He still needed more information.
As he was reviewing the material, the Lieutenant arrived.
He didn't know what the Lieutenant's true name was, or what he looked like under the mask he wore. It was one of the things the Agent had not bothered trying to uncover. He had tried once, a long time ago. All he got for his trouble was a stern warning—a very stern warning—and so he was forced to let the matter be.
The Lieutenant was a cold, calculating, and cunning man; a mirror of the person he served—another mysterious masked individual who goes by the name of 'Amon'. That was all he knew about the Lieutenant, apart from his prowess in fighting.
"Found anything useful?" the accent from the Lieutenant was strong, the Agent had long guessed he hailed from the Fire Nation. "You've been at that for hours now."
"Nothing useful yet," he lied. He would rather have his hand hidden. It was another thing he learned from being in the job for too long. Especially if he wasn't just working for one side.
The Lieutenant grunted before leaving him alone in the room again. The Agent knew the other man was displeased, but he cared not about what the other thought.
Once more, the Agent rewound and replayed the footage. His face was close to the monitor now, illuminating it. It took a while before he finally saw the features of one of the two who had broken in. He committed it to mind, glad that his search—actual footwork with a dose of mingling with the locals—will finally be underway.
Post Chapter Notes:
I couldn't help adding Tahno in this chapter, even if it was just in a small (passing) capacity. Much as I am annoyed by the guy's arrogance, you couldn't really help but feel for him when he got his bending taken away and he was asking Korra to make Amon pay...or the fact that he turned into a member of a band.
Anyways, I had fun writing this chapter way back when. And I'm happy and thankful to all those who are enjoying this fanfic as well, especially those who have written a review, added it to their favorite and alert list.
Anyways, that's all for now. Next chapter will be up on May 8. Until then, dream on; fly on!