Four months after Korra's arrival on Crescent Island. Korra is 23 years old now. The story is one year, three months and about three weeks on from Chapter 1 by this point.
Korra slowed her breathing down as much as she could. She was sitting on a rock just outside the arena where she had spent much of her time training ever since she arrived. The twenty-three-year-old was definitely having second thoughts now, despite the fact that she was so much better at firebending than before. She desperately wanted to see Kalla, but Azula forbade her from leaving the island. Korra would've partially understood Azula's decision as visiting Kalla might have looked like a way to get out of training, but that didn't seem to be the case. Why? Because Azula was bringing up Kalla every chance she got.
Korra had accidentally let it slip one day, and ever since then, Azula was trying her hardest to piss Korra off. She was clearly trying to create a rift between them, and boy, was she succeeding. All of their conversations were snappy and threatened to break out into a fight any minute now. Azula had now appointed at least three guards to watch Korra training with Azula at all times, in case Korra attacked her. Korra had been on the verge of snapping and lashing out physically at Azula multiple times, but she knew that if she laid a finger on Azula, the entire island would come for her head. She already got plenty of snide remarks from passer-by's wherever she might be, so she wasn't under any illusions about her popularity. As a result, she had become quick to return any insults.
Korra did the normal rotation routine as she gathered lightning at her fingertips. Azula had made slow but steady progress with Korra, making sure the Avatar never got ahead of herself. Time wasn't an issue on the island, that being why Azula wouldn't tell Korra how long she'd been training. It felt endless to Korra, but she just grudgingly accepted it. Korra touched her two fingertips together, the familiar feeling of power coursing through her body coming back. She straightened out her arms and pointed at the sky.
Lightning blitzed out of her fingers, a bolt big enough to envelope an entire car streaking out across the sky. It kept on shooting out for two or three bursts, before Korra was sure that it was all gone. Korra took at extra second anyway to make sure that it had all left her body, before she relaxed.
"Not too bad, Avatar," Azula remarked. For a short while before Korra had leaked accidentally that she had a daughter, Azula had kind of started to call Korra by her name and not 'Avatar', but that had long since passed.
"What do you mean, 'not too bad'?!" Korra retorted. "That's the most powerful bolt of lightning I've seen on this island so far, and you just tell me it's 'not too bad'!?"
"Hush," Azula taunted. "I think it's for the best if you just calm down. You can't expect to be a good mother if-"
"WOULD YOU EVER SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" Korra screamed. "THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"
"Just saying," Azula remarked, rolling her eyes. Korra fumed, and turned away from her teacher.
She's just trying to get a reaction out of me, Korra thought as she once again started gathering electricity. She was breathing quite heavily to try and control her anger, but it wasn't working. I'll make her stare in awe at this next one, she vowed.
Korra brought her forearms around twice as many times as usual, gathering up as much power as she possibly could. When she touched her fingers together, her body shook with the tremendous rush. She pinpointed one particular cloud in the sky, and demanded from herself that all her power be directed at that white puff in the distance.
Korra whelped as all of her energy exploded right in front of her. She was thrown back way past Azula, landing roughly on her back. After a moment of laying in the dirt, she moaned, frustrated.
"That's utterly pathetic," Azula stated, walking up and standing over Korra. "Letting your emotions get the better of you like that."
"All you've done for the past few weeks is constantly belittle me!" Korra retorted. "You're probably just waiting for the perfect moment to tell everyone my secret to piss me off even more!"
"That's preposterous, I respect the fact that it's private information," Azula teased. She had bragged on numerous occasions of how nice she was to not tell anyone. Korra wasn't particularly inclined to believe her, but one time she sensed for Azula's heartbeat while she said that, and it didn't speed up in anyway whatsoever when she told Korra, so the water-tribe woman decided to believe her.
Korra was ready to toss that out the window at any time, though.
"I feel like the only reason you even bother coming anymore is just to get a rise out of me!" Korra gave out. "It clearly isn't worth your time to be patient with me despite the fact that I'm one of your fastest learning students ever! Why don't you just let me leave now?!"
"You will complete your training," Azula stated calmly. "I have never failed a student, and I won't let you ruin my perfect record. I am a woman of reputation, and I won't let a petulant Avatar spoil it because one thing out of a hundred doesn't go her way."
"It's not the setbacks!" Korra cried. "You're the most toxic teacher I've ever had! You find joy in making me angry for the sake of it! I have tried time and time again to be patient and ignore your comments, but six hours a day of listening to you make fun of me isn't something I can just brush off!"
"Are you challenging my methods?" Azula questioned.
"YES!" Korra shouted, slashing fire at the ground to emphasize her point. "I AM!" Azula reared her head back.
"Any firebender must learn to control their temper!" Azula scolded. "We're done training today, including the session later on at dusk! There will be severe consequences for you tomorrow, unless I think that you have realised how out-of-line what you just did is!"
"Whatever!" Korra replied, turning and stomping away back to her house. As she walked around the mountainside and back down the stairs, small embers sparked out of her nose. She didn't try to calm herself.
Everything about the island annoyed Korra, from the strict training, to the treatment she got from everyone else on the island. She cursed everything she could of about the island every name under the sun.
As she was walking back, a small man, who looked like he was in his early thirties, spat at Korra as she walked by. If she'd seen it, she might have managed to control her temper by avoiding it, but it landed right in her eye. She automatically waterbent it out and flung it back at the man, enraged.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Korra demanded, squaring up to him. He glared back, and they butted heads.
"I'm learning to protect my country," the man responded coldly. "I don't know why the Master has allowed you to be taught here! You'll never be welcome on this island, Avatar!" This man, like most, clearly didn't know that Azula couldn't firebend anymore, or of her and Korra's deal. Korra wasn't allowed to spread the word before she restored it, or else Azula would have her killed.
"It's none of your business why Azula's decided to train me!" Korra told him. "Besides, don't treat her like a god! She's been nothing but a hag to me for the past while!"
"How… how dare you insult the Master?!" the man asked, shocked. "Learn your place, you little piece of shit!" With that, the man brought his hand back. Blue fire seared out of his fingertips to form a blue fire dagger, and he brought his hand forward to impale it in Korra.
Korra was too quick for him though. She recognised what he was about to do, knelt down on one knee, and created a fireball in her palm. She planted it in his belly, and it exploded. The small man flew back into a house, and smashed into the hard concrete. He groaned, but still managed to get up. Korra got into a fighting stance with one palm facing the sky, the other one open towards the man. A few other firebenders who had been close, got into fighting stances too. Korra prepared herself for an ugly fight. She was done taking the abuse.
"Wait!" the man called out, pushing himself up. "Don't attack!" He got several angry looks from the other firebenders, and a confused one from Korra.
"What's the matter, Shinji?" one asked. "She just attacked you, we should kill her now!"
"He started it!" Korra defended herself, getting another angry glare from the other person.
"No, I want to settle it with an audience," he declared. He pointed at Korra menacingly. "I challenge you to an Agni Kai! To the death!"
Korra inhaled sharply. That was a straight up duel to the bloody end. At first, she was going to deny it, but after a few seconds of reconsideration, she changed her mind. She didn't want to let the others one up her, and it was considered incredibly cowardly to decline an upfront challenge.
"Fine!" she accepted, making her voice heard. "At the Takefusa Kubo Arena at dusk today!"
"I'll see you then," he warned maliciously. Korra harrumphed and walked past him with her head held high. She began to mentally psyche herself up for what would surely be an intense battle.
Pale sunlight streaked across the island, casting long shadows across the ugly mountainside dotted with houses. Korra dropped her cloak, rolling her shoulders back. She had a plain dark red tank top on, a pair of black shorts, and her everyday boots. She yawned, although she was anything but tired. It was her body mustering all the energy it could before a fight.
About 180 people were crammed in along the edge of the arena on all sides. The rest of the islanders were on lookout duty. Korra didn't sense one supporter on her end. Not even Azula, who was perched on the highest seat, her legs crossed. Korra's opponent, on the opposite side of the Agni Kai arena, rolled his head in anticipation.
"This is an official Agni Kai!" the referee announced. "The rules are simple, but I will go over them anyway! This is a challenge to the death, so very little is not allowed. Lightning is permitted, but any form of attack must come from your own body. You may use any means to defend yourself, so long as it does not include myself, or any spectators." What the ref meant there was that neither of them could raise a wall of fire underneath the other, but that they could raise one to defend themselves.
"Advice from spectators is allowed. If one contestant wishes to forfeit during the match, they shall be beaten severely as a consequence." That was no joke, Korra had heard a story or two from Azula, who'd created the rule to stomp out weakness, apparently.
"Only firebending is permitted," the referee added, looking at Korra. "This match will be concluded when one is rendered incapable of continuing, or dead. Do you accept this challenge from Shinji Nakemura, Avatar?"
"Bring it!" Korra shouted, signalling her enthusiasm. Shinji just smiled back sadistically.
"Begin!" the ref declared, and jumped into the crowd, eager to watch too. His only job from now was to disqualify either of them if one tried to walk away.
"Die, Avatar!" Shinji screamed, taking a deep breath. He pointed his fingers at Korra, and a large blue fireball started to gather in front of him. It grew to twice the size of his body, then he unleashed it at Korra.
"He's powerful," Korra muttered, backing up fifteen metres to avoid it. Shinji had shot it towards the ground so it would explode at her feet. It connected with where Korra had been standing, and an eruption of blue flames lit up the crowd's faces. It went from nearly both sides of the arena, so Korra couldn't tell what Shinji was doing for a few seconds.
Shinji wasn't waiting though, and came through the fire as it sizzled out. He kicked sideways at her with both legs, two more fireballs flying at Korra. These weren't nearly as big though, and Korra decided to stop them head on as a signal of intent. She held out her open hands, fingers shut, stopping both fireballs as they halted in front of her. They rushed around her body, momentarily taking up all her surroundings. When the initial force had been stopped, Korra circled her hands above her head, then thrust them both horizontally. The fire began to twirl around her for a brief second, before it all expanded outwards. It was beautiful for a second, before the blue fire died mid-air.
"That's pathetic!" Korra taunted as Shinji waved away the harmless flames that came at him. "You're weak!" It wasn't a life-ending insult, but it certainly riled up the already agitated spectators, not to mention Shinji.
"Kill her, Nakemura!"
"Wipe that smug look off of her face!"
"Don't take that!"
"Put your last four years here to good use!"
"You'd better watch your mouth, Avatar!" Shinji shouted aggressively, as Korra got tons of verbal abuse from the crowd too. No-one attacked her physically though, so she was able to ignore the insults.
Shinji lashed his arm out, a whip of blue fire appearing in his hand. It elongated to twenty metres long, and Shinji snarled. He whipped it at Korra with all his strength. Korra kept her eye on the whip the entire time, as she brought her hands up, still open. One was flat facing the sky, while the other was facing the whip. Korra slapped the whip as it bore down on her, and it recoiled. Korra repelled his fire whip countless times for the next minute, trying to read Shinji's strength. After he started to get a bit closer to landing a hit on her with his attacks, Korra stopped stalling. She beat away his whip so hard that it flew across to the other end of the arena, then created her own.
Korra whipped relentlessly at Shinji as he struggled to keep up, barely parrying her attacks. It was like two flimsy giant swords, one orange and one blue, were fighting to the bitter end. Korra edged closer to him until she was seven metres away as she continued attacking. Blue fire was normally stronger than regular orange fire, but Korra was being very offensive at the moment, while Shinji was barely able to keep up with her tempo.
Then suddenly, Shinji's body was opened up while her whip was temporarily beaten away. His attention was diverted, and Korra used the momentary distraction to pounce on him. She brought her free arm around in a curling arc, a second whip forming as she swung. It grew and grew, just becoming long enough to hit him. It swiped at his legs, and the small man fell hard on his side. His whip dissipated into thin air as Korra's first whip crashed down on his ribcage right after she landed a hit with her second whip. He cried out in agony as Korra didn't hold back.
Shinji didn't lie down easily though, and pointed two fingers guns at Korra, reaching over his body to get them side by side. He blasted out twin blue flamethrowers out at Korra as he lay there. Korra released her whips immediately, and got into the proper stance for twin flamethrowers, with her own finger guns. Not a second too early, Korra's own two streams of orange fire met Shinji's joint flamethrower half a yard in front of her. She gritted her teeth, staring right on as she poured plenty of juice into her flamethrowers.
Shinji growled as Korra's now large flamethrower slowly started to push back his. He howled, as he poured plenty of effort into his, but Korra's stance gave her the upper hand, despite blue flames naturally being hotter. This was because Korra was able to take in more oxygen, as a result of her good posture.
Shinji realised as Korra's flamethrower threatened to swallow him completely that he wasn't going to win like this. So he kicked out, still lying down. A fireball arched around to connect with Korra's back. Korra saw it out of the corner of her eye, cursing as she realised that she wouldn't be able to keep up the flamethrower and counter the fire kick simultaneously. She was putting too much weight on her front leg to be able to twist properly in time.
Korra acted immediately, stopping with her large flamethrower and dropping the ground on her belly. The fireball passed over her head harmlessly, but Shinji's blue fire roared back at her with a vengeance. Korra managed to push herself back up onto her feet.
Not enough time! she realised, and acted instinctively.
Korra clapped her open hands together, fingers straight and tight. She thrust them forward to meet the flame, then started tracing them loosely in a circle. The flame parted just in front of her, then started spiralling out harmlessly. Korra kept the motion up for another few seconds, controlling the onslaught without a huge degree of difficulty. Shinji kept it up for another fourteen seconds, before it suddenly stopped. Korra kept her hands as all the blue flames evaporated into thin air, wary for a quick follow up.
Shinji stood up, breathing hard. The continuous, intense flamethrower had taken a lot out of him, but he hadn't expected Korra to still be standing, not harmed in the slightest, after such a powerful attack. Not only that, she had done it without even an excess of effort. He pushed himself up back onto his feet.
"You're decent, Avatar, I'll give you that!" he admitted. "But you're still dead meat!" Korra couldn't think of anything witty, so she kept her mouth shut and her eyes on her opponent.
Shinji yelled suddenly, slashing two vertical fire uppercuts with his index and middle fingers. He got on one heel and spun with his leg outstretched, following up the two fire uppercuts with a fire roundhouse kick. He cut diagonally with both arms, creating a blue X that followed the fire roundhouse kick. Then, he bellowed a huge fireball out of his mouth.
I'm done if they hit me, Korra thought. So she held her hands out limp, fingers pointing to the ground, and planted her feet shoulder width apart. She tugged her fingers up.
A five-metre thick wall of fire just wide enough to cover Korra's whole body soared up in between her and Shinji. It clashed from below into Shinji's barrage of attacks, resulting in a wrestling match for a few seconds while Korra ate up his attacks. The fireball managed to crash over the top, but Korra was able to roll out of the way by that point. She felt the ground shudder slightly as a wave of heat accompanied a small boom right behind her. Shinji was definitely going for the kill.
Shinji was panting really loudly now, a sheen of sweat coating his face, visible even from Korra's position. Korra smirked, knowing now was the time to go on the offensive.
Korra pointed her two fingers guns at Shinji. He prepared to counter her attack, but Korra just shot a flashy fireball a yard in front of him, instead of at him. It exploded, temporarily blinding Shinji and sending up a cloud of dust. Korra sprinted forward into the dust cloud, just barely able to make out his silhouette. The crowd started shouting warnings for Shinji, but there wasn't nearly enough time for him to register them. Korra got right up in front of him, then kicked at his head. A fireball followed her toes, illuminating the dust just in time for Shinji, who tried to raise an arm to protect himself. It wasn't nearly enough though, and Korra's fire head-kick smashed into his temple.
Shinji was thrown a few metres to his right. He tumbled onto the ground, moaning, and rolled onto his back while clutching his head. Korra wasn't nearly convinced though, crouching down. She extended her leg and swept her foot at Shinji. A carpet of fire rushed to meet him, connecting with a sickening sizzle, and flipped him onto his front.
This revealed extensive burns where Korra had fire-kicked him, plastered all of the right side of his face. She wasn't done yet though. Korra front-flipped, a column of fire coming out of her heels, and the resulting column smacked into Shinji. He spasmed with the attack, crying out in pain, and crumpled.
Korra didn't dare give him any chances however, given how intent he was on killing her just a few minutes ago. She marched over to the small man, grabbed the back of his collar, and hoisted him up. He had a black eye now too, from slamming his face into the dirt. In stark contrast, the only injuries Korra had were the scratches she'd accumulated from training earlier. Korra dug her knuckles into the sweet spot just in between his abdomen and rib cage. A dazzling display of flames erupted from her fist, burning his shirt off and scaring his chest badly as he went flying to the other end of the arena.
Korra walked over to him again, Shinji lying motionless on the ground, but not yet unconscious somehow. She glanced at the crowd, who had gone completely silent now, apart from Azula.
"Kill him!" she demanded violently. "Use the technique I taught you in training! Finish him! Be ruthless!"
Korra saw all her anger from her time on the island lying in the shape of the small man that had spat on her earlier. All the frustration, death threats, anger, distrust, hate, shunning, everything. All the negativity. She could let out all her pent-up rage and send a message to everyone who gave her shit right now. It was so tempting.
And in that moment, Korra decided what she was going to do.
Korra stood over Nakemura, who was barely capable of lifting in his head. She culled all emotion and began to rotate her forearms three times each. Electricity sizzled out of her fingertips, as she looked him dead in the eye. He sneered at her, but Korra saw through to the genuine fear. She wasn't gathering too much, because any half decent strike would kill him from this range.
Pierce through the forehead, Azula's voice bounded through her head. One clean strike that doesn't require too much power, and is painless, if that's what you desire.
Korra inhaled deeply. Shinji tried to move out of the way, but he was way too badly injured for that. He coughed up blood as Korra finished her rotations and brought her fingers together. Her conviction grew as the power flooded her veins, and she pointed her fingers out.
The small but dense lightning bolt zipped out of Korra's fingers. It connected with her target perfectly, and left a black mark where it zapped. Perhaps she had used a little bit too much power, but she just regarded what she'd done calmly, and began to walk away. There was only stunned silence from the crowd.
"This match is over," Korra told the referee. The ref looked at her with an unreadable expression. Korra just ignored him and kept walking, intent on going back to her house to rest. She had training with Azula tomorrow, as usual, but she was emotionally drained too. She needed to brood over whether or not she'd just made the right decision in the heat of the moment.
"Why?" a voice called out from behind her. She turned around, regarding the person with a neutral expression.
"Why what?" she countered.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Shinji asked, his head looking down his body at her, one eye shut. The black mark that Korra had created was smouldering harmlessly right beside his head, above his shoulder. The only damage he'd got from the lighting was that the flash had temporarily blinded his left eye, which was clenched shut.
"I didn't feel like it," Korra told him truthfully, speaking loud enough for the entire court to hear. Azula glared at Korra, practically foaming at the mouth.
"You don't have the guts to kill me, it's obvious!" he taunted, trying to get something back on her from his fragile condition.
"I know what it's like to be beaten up badly," Korra stated, thinking of Zaheer. "And I've been on the verge of death numerous times too. Because of that, I think twice when I hold someone's life in my hands."
Korra's mind flashed back to when she very nearly jumped off a cliff after losing her fire, earth and waterbending. To when her uncle tried to damn her soul to suffering for the rest of eternity. Zaheer almost succeeding in suffocating her. The fear she felt as Kuivera's laser bore down on her. Most recently, to when Tokuga would've ended her life if she hadn't bloodbent him. Too many times to just do it to someone she'd met for the first time today.
"You're a coward!" he shouted across the tense Agni Kai arena. "The weak always get crushed by the strong, and one day someone won't be as scared as you were just now, when they're in your position to be decisive!"
"I just showed you mercy," Korra reminded him. "You ought to be a little more grateful." She turned back, and strutted out of the courtyard.
She kept a poker face on, but inside, Korra was in turmoil. She had desperately wanted to give everyone an example of what happened when you messed with the Avatar, but just a tiny string of self-constraint had held her back. Just a tiny sliver of advice had kept her from ending someone's life. She was extremely surprised that the lightning hadn't blown up in her face and humiliated her, given how split she'd been. The onlookers definitely all had an opinion of what she'd just done, but none of them stopped her as she walked through the crowd. Apart from one, of course.
A hand yanked at her shoulder and spun her around. A furious Azula was glaring at Korra, baring her teeth.
"What was that?!" she hissed. "You're going to be in deep shit tomorrow, young lady, just you wait. Ten laps of the island will be your warm up!"
"You can tell me tomorrow then, I'm tired right now," Korra informed Azula nonchalantly, walking away.
"Come back here right now if you don't want it to be worse!" Azula ordered Korra, but it fell on deaf ears.
I'm not in the mood for Azula's bitchy attitude, Korra thought, putting thoughts of what lay in store for her tomorrow in the recesses of her mind.