Chapters Nineteen:
My friends and I found a place to stay, while we searched Omashu. We all gathered in a room and looked over a map. "This is the places of Omashu we searched." I said as I pointed "Let's check here."
"I heard those parts aren't safe." Kaze remarked.
"Well that's where criminals would hide."
We travelled among the narrow alleyways in the lower city. Most people there glared at us when we went by. The ones we approached for info mocked us when we tried to question them. We quickly grew disappointed.
After more wandering we saw a group of people running. There was a man they were chasing. We hurried after the group to see what was going on. The man they were chasing was backed into a wall and the group surrounded him.
"What do you want with me?!" the man cried.
"He's not here to protect you." said a voice from the group.
The group surrounded the man and raised there fists and pieces of rock. "What do you want with him." I demanded.
The group turned and faced us. "Go away!" one of them shouted.
"Nice try." Sela replied. "We don't tolerate people like you."
The group threw there rocks at us, but Tetsu flung them back at them. Sela jumped at one, and knocked him out with a series of punches.
Kaze swung wide gusts at the group and dispersed them with fireblasts. Genji hit one in the back with a shock glove and he collapsed. The group then ran away, leaving two of them behind.
The man grabbed a rock and walked up to of the men on the ground. Tetsu stopped him and pulled the rock from his hands."That's enough, he is down."
"You don't have to live here." he replied.
I ignored the topic. "Who were they talking about? Who's not here?"
"My friend Gansu." the man replied. "He would always protect me."
"Where is Gansu now?" Kaze asked.
"I don't know!" he cried. "Just this morning I could not find him. I tried to look for him, asked the wrong people, and they went after me."
"We were over in the Fire Nation investigating people going missing." I said. "Kidnappings committed by the Iron Assassins."
"Oh no! I heard they kidnap people and turn them into assassins." he said. "I don't want that to happen to Gansu."
"Then help us help you." said Sela.
The man sighed. "Gansu went on one of his walks. It was just last night. He wanders around the area."
"That's the last time you saw him?" I asked.
"Yeah, he never got back. I woke up and didn't see him."
"So let's try to trace his steps." Tetsu offered. "Go over were he walked, and find out where he was grabbed."
The man lead us around the alleys. We spoke to people about Gansu, and got an idea where he had walked.
"So he vanished around here." I suggested.
"That doesn't tell us where he is." the man replied.
Tetsu stamped the ground. "I don't feel anything."
"The tunnels must be deeper." Sela suggested.
Tetsu stamped again. "I think I feel something." he pointed. "Over there."
We walked into an alley and Tetsu stomped again. He pointed to a wall. "Look at that thing."
We looked where he pointed and saw an engraving of a pierced eye. Tetsu pressed his hand on the symbol and a passage opened up.
"So this is where Gansu was taken, can..."
"No" I interrupted.
We walked down the passage into the darkness. "Any light down here?" I asked.
"There blind." Sela replied.
"Oh yeah."
I summoned fire from my hand, and Genji activated his spark glove. Extending forward was a bleak tunnel. We faintly saw other tunnels intersecting the one before us. "Everyone stick together, and stay near us." I said.
We crept along down the dark passages. We stepped slowly and softly, so we would be felt. We snuck from corridor to corridor, not finding much in the darkness.
Gansu knelt on the rough sandy floor. His eyes still felt sore from having them stabbed. He could not see a thing, but felt through the stone floor. Several people kneeling beside him.
He heard grunts of pain coming from the people beside him, getting nearer. Tsume walked back and forth carrying a metal rod. He stopped with each person and took a swing at them. He heard the person next to him cry out. He was next.
He took a deep breath and prepared himself. The rod hit his back and sharp pain coursed through his body. He collapsed forward, but quickly pulled himself up. Tsume leaned forward. "Bend!" he said in a cold snarl.
Tsume moved on towards the rest of the people. He heard gradually quieting grunts and moans of pain with each strike. He trembled in anticipation of Tsume coming back to him. Soon the cries in pain came back towards him, and he felt the sting of the rod again.
He tried his hardest not to cry out in pain. Not to show weakness. But he gave in, letting out a whimper. Tsume again leaned in and said the same one word mantra to him, in the same icey cold tone.
This ritual continued, with each blow feeling more painful then the last. His desperate attempts not to show his pain failed every time.
Gansu took a deep breath. No he was not going to let Tsume win. He wasn't going to show weakness. "I will survive. I will endure." he told himself.
He went over those words in his head over and over. Let them distract him from everything. He couldn't listen to the pain of everyone around him, nor Tsume's words. He just had to listen to himself. "I will survive. I will endure."
Each time a blow came, he shouted the words to himself to drown out the pain. "I will survive! I will endure!"