Korra was quiet the entire way back to her living quarters, one of the identical bleak houses that were dotted along the island. Many other firebenders glared at Korra, wondering why she wasn't gone by this point, but Tatsuo told them that the Master had agreed to personally train her. Then, there would be the initial eyes widening and mouth gaping open, before a look of pure could contempt would attempt to scare her away.
Korra just kept her head down most of the time, but she did notice one thing; no-one travelled in groups at all, apart from the odd pair of combustion benders. Her curiosity was definitely aroused, but she couldn't help but feel a bottomless pit of regret in her stomach.
Korra had just promised to give Azula, the person who had infiltrated and taken over Ba Sing Sae at age fourteen, her firebending back. For the sake of learning to combustion bend as well, when it was common knowledge that they were the type to die young.
Azula regularly defeated Aang in the Avatar State in her prime, and she ran a whole society of elite firebenders who would obey her every word, despite not having been able to firebend herself for three decades. Korra realised on the way back that Azula had probably planned out the entire conversation right up until the end. She wouldn't have sent Tatsuo out of the room if she wasn't completely sure of herself.
Tatsuo had acted shocked, but Korra realised after that he was in on it, with how easily he accepted it, given that she had received a fairly hostile reception upon arrival.
"Don't you dare be late for the Master," Tatsuo warned, then shut the door behind Korra as she walked inside. The interior was barely nicer than the outside. She was downstairs, and here there was a table, one chair, a bath with no pipes connected to it, a bucket labelled 'Drinking Water', and a pot. She went over to it, and then snapped her head back, holding her nose. It reeked; the purpose of the pot was fairly obvious.
Next, Korra climbed the ladder leading to the only other room. There was a bed, a wardrobe, and surprisingly, a mirror. There was an oil lamp in the far corner, and no window. Korra jumped onto the bed, which threatened to break upon receiving the extra weight, and buried her head in the pillow, musing over her thoughts. Kalla, somehow, didn't come into her mind once, for the first time since she'd been born and Korra had been alone.
After half an hour, someone knocked loudly on the door. Korra rolled out of bed and hurried down the ladder. She rested her hand on the wall, feeling for vibrations, and only sensed one person out there. The person outside had something in her arms, so Korra opened the door. A regular firebender, who barely looked fourteen, was holding a pile of red clothes.
"I've been told to give you these," the girl stated nonchalantly, as if she'd been forced to clean graffiti off of a wall, and dropped them at Korra's feet. Korra looked down at the pile of clothes, and then back up to give the teenager a piece of her mind, but she was already walking away.
"Come back here!" Korra demanded.
"Piece of advice," the girl said without looking back, "don't go wearing those hideous clothes you have on right now every day, seal!" The girl flipped Korra off, and Korra felt her blood rising. She wanted to go and pummel that girl into the ground for using a racial slur against her, but this was the one place on the planet she wouldn't get away with it, unfortunately, and the girl knew that.
"I'll have my way with you eventually," Korra muttered, then reluctantly picked up the clothes and shut the door. She locked it using the bolt, which she hadn't noticed earlier, and used airbending to blow the clothes up into the bedroom. She went through them, and then changed. It took her a few minutes to put them on the right way, but when she fitted the headpiece in, giving herself a traditional Fire Nation bun, she wasn't too sad to be switching clothing.
(This is what I have in mind - https//r/legendofkorra/comments/hm0nxi/korra_in_fire_nation_clothes/
"It's certainly could've been worse," Korra said out loud, and put on the boots. They were a little hard to get her foot into, but with a little wear-and-tear, that'd all change. She lit a fire in the palm of her hand, and posed a little more. Then, Korra remembered that she would be getting up early the next day, and decided to get an early night. She'd probably be wearing these a lot, so she concluded maybe it wasn't the best to look at it so much already. She got changed for bed, and went to sleep.
Korra arrived in front of the doors at the top of the stairway she'd gone up the day before, just after dawn. Azula was waiting there with a black cloak. Korra naturally woke up with the rising sun, but she'd learnt to ignore it as she had with the moon at night. She groggily walked up to Azula in her new Fire Nation clothes, rubbing her eyes.
"What the matter with you?" Azula demanded as a bolt of lightning streaked into the sky from far away. This seemed to be a popular training time. "Has your enthusiasm worn away already?"
"No," Korra answered. "I'm just tired. Can't I have breakfast first?"
"You can have something to eat when you've earned it," Azula replied, giving Korra a slap on the head. "Follow me." She walked away briskly, leaving Korra staring at her moodily before following. There was a natural path around the mountain, and Azula started going along it briskly. Despite her appearance the day before, she was actually quite mobile.
"That's where Roku Temple once stood," Korra noted as they passed the halfway point. She was referring to a flat stump in the otherwise uneven mountainside.
"Yes," Azula said. "Destroyed over seventy years ago by Avatar Roku himself, supposedly."
"Wasn't he dead by that point?" Korra asked.
"Do you always ask so many questions?" Azula asked, not in the mood for a nice little conversation.
"Alright then," Korra said, deciding not to follow through with her question. They walked around the other side and found a large Agni Kai arena carved into the rock. Korra saw that Azula was heading for it, and used airbending to hop over her and landed softly with a somersault. Azula, however, was not impressed.
"Why are you using airbending on my island?!" she demanded, furious.
"Sorry," Korra apologised, putting her hands up. "I didn't think it was such a big deal."
"IT IS A BIG DEAL!" Azula shouted, spitting in Korra's face while she gave out. "I'd rather have the reputation of my island held to its rightful standard and not get my bending back, than have the Avatar dance around with airbending whenever she feels like it!"
"Sorry, Azula," Korra apologised again. "I won't bend anything other than fire while I'm here.".
"Master Azula," Azula corrected her. "If you're going to refer to me by my first name, then you should also respect the fact that I am your teacher."
"Master Azula," Korra corrected herself, bowing and putting all her pride behind her. "I'll behave better in the future. If it's okay with you, I would like to begin training."
"Very well," Azula agreed. "But first, I need to talk about some other things. From now on, we will spend three hours at dawn and three hours at dusk every day training, to accelerate your progress. You can get breakfast, lunch and dinner simply by showing up to the designated buildings, but seconds are strictly forbidden. The average combustion bender in training spends two hours a day, usually at dawn, but I am going to squeeze every ounce of potential out of you."
"Sounds good," Korra said, looking up, not daunted by the extreme schedule.
"There is one big rule for those learning to combustion bend," Azula continued. "The ability to combustion bend requires detachment socially, so you are not to make any friends while here, even though you wouldn't anyway, being water-tribe. If we're only talking about blue fire, your desire of negativity must be clear in your mind, although a few friends are fine. Complacency will stop you from moving forward completely. Once you've mastered combustion bending, you can have normal friendships and relationships so long as your hatred doesn't wither. If you don't hate someone enough, you won't be able to follow through completely on the explosion."
"How do I start, Master Azula?" Korra asked.
"Slow down," Azula told Korra. "There are several stages to learning combustion bending. But I think that since you were trained under the White Lotus, you should surely have at least some of the starters down. Shoot your most power bolt of lightning into the sky."
"Lightning?" Korra repeated, pursing her lips nervously.
"No, thunder," Azula said sarcastically. "Of course, lightning!"
"No problem," Korra declared after a moment, her eyes darting to the side, and then she walked to the edge of the arena, facing the sea. The breeze whipped her hair around, and Korra got into position. She glanced back at Azula, who was standing there, with her arms folded.
"I'm waiting," Azula stated, and Korra nodded with a gulp. She started to go through the motions, touching her index and middle fingers together. When she felt ready, she extended her right arm out to the ocean, and concentrated her chi in a violent, sharp burst out of her fingers.
The space just in front of Korra's fingers exploded, and she was thrown back from the shockwave. Korra cried out as she landed on her back painfully. She lay there as Azula stalked over her, memories of trying to produce lightning with her old firebending teacher, Mu Zhao, coming back. All the memories of her failing, to be more precise.
"What was that?!" Azula demanded. "That's even more pathetic than my brother back when we lived together!"
"It's been a monkey I can't get off my back," Korra confessed, sitting up. "After I learnt to redirect lightning, Katara insisted that I didn't need to know how to produce lightning so long as I could defend myself against it."
"Katara…" Azula muttered, then fell deep into thought. Korra didn't realise that Katara and Azula had personal history together, so she kept quiet while Azula brooded. Then, after a minute, Azula said; "I despise that old hag! I would've been Fire Lord, if it weren't for her!"
Korra kept her mouth sealed shut, even though she felt strongly like defending Katara. She knew that sometimes it was better not to say anything at all, rather than whatever you had on your mind. She brushed herself off, and stood up.
"Do you have any tips for me then?" Korra asked, and Azula came back to the present.
"That is disgraceful!" Azula scolded her. "If any other student showed that to me, I'd kick them off the island, end of discussion!"
"Well, we're stuck with each other," Korra replied, and drew a dirty look from Azula. "What's something more basic?"
"Well," Azula began, thinking. "If that's your best attempt at creating lightning, we'd better start from the very beginning. Lightning exercises your ability to direct the chaotic stream of energy, but what I have in mind will be as good a starting point as any. I want you to raise a wall of fire as far away as possible from the ground, and hold it for as long as you can."
"How will that help me?" Korra asked.
"The longer you can hold it up properly," Azula explained, not exasperated with this question, "is a good indicator of how far you can reach with combustion bending. The ferocity of your fire shows how explosive your combustion bending can be. That's not too hard to grasp, is it?"
"Ferocity…" Korra mumbled with her eyes shut as she memorised it all, and opened them a few moments later. She turned away from Azula, took a deep breath, and splayed her fingers out in front of her. She tried to reach out ten metres in front of her, but even that was too much. So Korra decided to start off very short, and concentrated on one metre in front of her. She let her fingers limply point to the ground, then brought her hands up. She was greatly tempted to earthbend, but she focused on burning the chi as hard as she could.
A twenty foot tall, twelve foot wide wall of fire erected itself in front of Korra. She grinned and held it up for thirty-five seconds, before finally dropping it and looking to Azula, seeking praise. She didn't get any though.
"The raw power is there," Azula admitted, "but the distance you set for yourself is pathetic! Do you hope to blow yourself up too while you're fighting? I want you to raise a wall as far away from your body as you can. Don't focus on the power just yet, we have a few hours to burn your chi, I want consistency the entire time in your output."
"Understood," Korra said, and held her fingers out limp once again. She reached as far away as possible, but she found very quickly that even a metre extra took up a fair bit of energy. She got to six metres, when she realised, she couldn't go any further, and raised another wall of fire.
The wall, even though Korra was putting in a third of the energy she had put in for the first wall, was only four foot tall and three foot wide. Even worse, it didn't roar, but meowed weakly. Korra tried her best to keep it up for as long as she could, but after fifteen seconds, she gave in.
"Spirits," Azula mumbled, putting a hand on her forehead. "This could well take longer than I'd anticipated."
"How long?" Korra asked, slightly offended, but also knew that her wall had looked prettier than it was harmful.
"With the amount you'll be training…" Azula started, calculating in her head. "It will probably take up to a year until you can combustion bend at your current amount of training, if that's really how far you can erect a wall right now."
"A year?" Korra repeated, dismayed. "But won't it be overkill if I train for six hours every day for a full year?"
"Stop whining!" Azula told her off, having no problem exerting her authority, and held out a lock of white hair. "It'll be worse for me, I don't know how much longer I have left to live! Take a small breather, then get right back into it."
Korra sat down on a bench on the edge of the arena, while Azula got herself a foldable chair hidden behind a rock, and sat in it, her legs crossed. Korra waited a minute, then got up again. She hyped herself up, then went again. The same result occurred, but she didn't give up.
Korra kept on trying for another half an hour, then kicked he ground in frustration. Azula, who'd been watching carefully, walked over to Korra. She'd made what seemed like no progress, and her walls of fire weren't too big, as she had to conserve energy.
"UGH!" Korra moaned out loud, frustrated. "This is so fucking annoying! I've been trying for ages, but I haven't made one tiny bit of progress! There's got to be a better way of doing this."
"There is no 'easy' way," Azula told Korra. "But there are one or two places where you could be doing better. They're very subtle, but over the course of an extended period of time, they could make a huge difference."
"Really?" Korra asked, perking up. "Where?"
"Your stances are probably a result of that probending nonsense, aren't they?" Azula noted.
"How did you know I used to probend?" Korra asked, thinking that Azula was holed up the most of the time.
"I didn't," Azula told her, "but I've seen it in the newer recruits. The modern style seems to be stay light on your feet with little regard for the proper technique, wasting your chi."
"But that's better for combat," Korra countered. "If I stood planted during probending, I'd get wiped out in an instant."
"Because from the photos I've seen, you're close enough to kiss your opponent!" Azula exaggerated. "It certainly suits benders with less chi overall to draw someone as naturally powerful as yourself closer in, but the last thing a combustion bender wants is to have their opponent up in their face."
"Can you show me the 'proper' technique then?" Korra requested, sceptical.
"I'd be glad to," Azula obliged. "Copy me." She planted her feet shoulder-width apart, and splayed her hands out in front like Korra had. "The only powerful bender I've ever faced that preferred to fight in close quarters was your predecessor, and that's because he was an airbender."
Korra got into the stance as she saw it, and prepared to raise another wall, but Azula wasn't happy with it. She went right up to Korra, and stomped on her feet.
"Ow!" Korra exclaimed, noticing that Azula had heels on for the first time. "What was that for?!"
"These are the basics, for crying out loud!" Azula complained. "Drive your heels into the ground and keep them there! If you were at a weight-lifting gym, you wouldn't be able to squat your max weight on your toes, now would you? Maybe if you're squatting something lighter, you can get away with it because your leg muscles are still capable of squatting with that form, but you're not performing to your maximum potential! Then, when you're competing, the person you're against with proper form will be able to squat more than you. You have a confrontational personality, I can tell by the small amount of conversation we've had already, so that should help. Does all that add up for you, or do I need to simplify it even more?"
Korra brooded over what Azula had said. Even though she was fairly abrupt with it, what the old lady had said was very straightforward, and hard to argue with. Korra planted her feet in the ground, and closed her eyes, concentrating hard.
"You have to be firm, but delicate at the same time," Azula taught. "Fire, although you're raising it from rocks, will still ravage and destroy everything in its path. If you don't make it respect you, you'll be swallowed up and incinerated. It is growing all the time. You need to tame it, like you would tame a wild animal in a circus. Let it roar, but keep a firm grip on the leash."
Korra soaked up all this information and focused on the same spot she'd been practicing with so far. She implemented what she'd been doing wrong into her technique as she input the same amount of power as before. She stood firm, and instead of dragging it up, she mentally wrenched it upwards and raised another wall of fire.
The wall soared upwards, nearly as big as her very first wall, and blazed brightly in stark contrast to the others, which had been flickering. It was thicker too, about a metre or so more. Korra controlled her breathing, and held it there, with much less effort, despite how much bigger it was. After a full minute, she finally dropped it, and looked over to Azula.
"What do you think?" Korra asked, her frustration almost disappearing at her sudden progress.
"That's much, much better," Azula admitted. "But that's what I expected of you before we came here! Don't think that you going to start flying through this now, because you always had that power, you just haven't been using it right!"
Korra flopped down on her bed, exhausted. She had been sweating buckets by the time she got home, not being able to waterbend the sweat off until she was sure no-one else was watching. She'd finished her second training session of the day nearly an hour ago, and had spent the meantime getting her food from the storehouse and devouring it in her new home. There were three meals a day, and they were actually decent. You got breakfast, lunch and dinner, then were allowed to do whatever you wanted after morning training. There was a library and Pai Sho hall for leisure. Korra was told that most people here left after they finished their training, but ready to return to fight for the Fire Nation if necessary.
Word had spread fairly quickly about her arrival, even though most of the time people avoided each other. In secret though, they'd start up conversations (she could sense them through the earth) and chat to each other. She always felt a pair of eyes on her whenever she passed by anyone. They didn't trust her, which was to be expected, she supposed.
The training was brutal, but at the end of the second session, her fire was half a metre further away than at the beginning of the day. Azula may have been a strict teacher, but Korra physically felt an improvement already. Azula didn't beat around the bush when instructing, and Korra nearly learnt as much as she improved. There were so many finer details that the White Lotus had never gone into, or maybe they hadn't even known, perhaps. Korra had even managed to get a complement from Azula when they were done:
If we keep up this pace, Korra relayed from her memory, you might finish in eleven months. That's only if you train as hard as you did today though. And not taking into account rest days, which you will inevitably want.
Thanks so much, Azula! Korra had said, much to the irritation of her teacher. I mean, Master Azula.
Don't expect so complements many in the future, Azula had retorted. She wasn't very good at being friendly, and didn't hide the fact for one instant that she was only in it because it would benefit her so much.
Still, though, Korra reckoned she could break down that wall over the next while.
I just want to thank im-caelli for letting me use her art. It is brilliant, and I'd definitely recommend to go and see her other work. I'm not just saying that either, it really is top-notch!