The new arrivals spilled off their Air Bison in a flood of unfamiliar accents and official-sounding talk, groaning as they stretched out their legs and settled in their beasts. Already the monks and acolytes were moving forward to direct and corral them, and as Kasamatsu sidled through the giant courtyard off from running errands, organized chaos was taking place everywhere.
Some of them wouldn't stay, Kasamatsu knew, swept off instead to one of the other Air Temples, or just here on a visit. He wondered if one of them was the Avatar, who was supposed to arrive any day now: many Air Benders were coming in to see that paragon. One of them caught Kasamatsu's eye, standing off by himself. He was clearly younger than all the rest by a good deal, too young to be caught in the administrative shuffle from temple to temple, young enough to have been set aside as unimportant until the important stuff got sorted out. His head was shaved bald like the very youngest and oldest acolytes, and his yellow eyes took in Air Temple Island curiously. The kid had his glider tucked under his arm, and as Kasamatsu approached him he was leaning into the air that swept the Republic City Air Temple; the gusts from the wind whipping around the towers to pool in the main courtyard, the ice-cold salty ocean air, the billows of smoke and stench which were the legacy of Republic City's factories. It always took the sensitive ones like that at first, the city. He was maybe eleven, maybe twelve, Kasamatsu's own age. He would have been tall for twelve, but the face which turned and smiled at his approach was round-cheeked and innocent, and Kasamatsu rapidly revised his age estimate down a year.
"Hi," he said, and introduced himself. "You staying?"
"I don't know yet," said the newcomer, responding to Kasamatsu's friendly tone and somewhat masterly manner like a flower blooming in the dawn. "I'm Kise. I just came from the Northern Air Temple." His gaze darted around the courtyard. "Elder Takeuchi brought me here."
Kasamatsu nodded. No wonder the kid looked so lost. Takeuchi was in charge of half the Island and was involved heavily in preparations for the arrival of the new Avatar. He wouldn't have much time to do the introductions for a kid newly arrived from what Kasamatsu, city-bred, couldn't help thinking of as the sticks. "You need to be somewhere?" said Kasamatsu, making a rapid command decision.
Kise shrugged casually, but looked crestfallen as Kasamatsu turned away. Everyone was busy, and no one had time for him.
Kasamatsu looked over his shoulder at Kise. "Come on," he said.
Kise brightened and followed, beginning to talk his head off.
"It's not as cold here," he said, trying to explain away his formal-looking robes, long-sleeved and heavy. "The Northern Air Temple is much colder."
"Oh, we're cold enough at night," said Kasamatsu. "But it's summer now, and between being out on the water and the haze from the city, we're pretty lucky, though.
"It's so different from home," said Kise, looking at the seething metropolis of Republic City, watching smoke trail into the air.
"What's it like?" said Kasamatsu, and let Kise talk about his home as they passed into the living quarters for the young boys.
Kasamatsu found Moriyama there, and Kobori frowning intensely over some history homework. Kise was greeted warmly, though not without Moriyama looking him over narrowly first to ascertain he was not female.
"New kid?" said Kobori, nodding to Kise.
"Yeah," said Kasamatsu. "Taking him out for a sweep, you guys want in?"
They both agreed, leaping up to grab their gliders and gleefully abandoning their school-work. It would just be a short run, Kasamatsu thought. Just around the city and back, away from the hustle, it didn't have to take long at all.
"Window?" said Moriyama, a gleam in his eye.
Kasamatsu looked out their dorm window, which overlooked a sheer drop down the side of the island's cliffs, and looked at Kise.
Kise grinned, and said, "Sure."
"I'll go after you," said Kasamatsu. He didn't think Kise would stick the takeoff, but he also didn't want to have to explain to the elders how he'd let a kid hurt himself by throwing himself out a window.
Kobori and Moriyama jumped, followed by Kise, and Kasamatsu's heart stopped in his chest for one long moment as Kise plummeted down, down, down, and it was only at the very last second before the waves reached up and took him that he snapped the glider's wings open and soared, rising to float above the temple with the rest of them in perfect formation.
Kasamatsu waited for Kise to get close enough, then kicked him hard in the shins, catching himself back up with a causal flip; Kasamatsu's supreme confidence was in the sky.
"Ow!" said Kise.
"Showoff," said Kasamatsu, accurately.
"He beat your record, though," said Moriyama, laughing, and they all caught the updraft and went higher and higher, until the noise of Air Temple Island was a distant memory, and Republic City lay before them in a dark sprawling moving mass, like an elephant-termite mound cut open, cars in the streets and streets cutting everywhere, the lights beginning to go on as evening fell.
"Welcome to Republic City," said Kasamatsu, and showed Kise the best spot to do tricks over the factories with their gusts of hot air, pointed out the park and the markets- "Best fire flakes in the city, we'll go sometime,"- and they all flew until the bells rang out for dinner, and they had to go back, racing each other through the clouds.
When they touched down in front of the dormitories to stash their gliders and splash their faces before going in, though, they got a nasty shock: Takeuchi was standing there with his arms crossed, quite clearly waiting for them.
"Er," said Kasamatsu.
"Yukio, Yoshitaka, Koji. You're late," said Takeuchi, perfectly patient. "I see you had a nice flight."
They shuffled their feet. Kasamatsu suddenly recalled he'd been supposed to help the monks settle in the new arrivals, not take off with one new arrival and spend the whole evening goofing off flying, and Kobori and Moriyama went white with the thought of their missed practice. They were dirty with soot, too, and soaked with sweat and water vapour both. Kise tried to tuck himself behind Kasamatsu.
"You do know that tonight is a special occasion, " said Takeuchi. "The Avatar is to receive his mastery tattoos tomorrow, a great many diplomats and important personages will be present on the Island tonight. It is a very important ceremony for all air benders, to welcome another master into our ranks, and to confirm that the Avatar is ready to begin his training in the next element. Air Temple Island is under the scrutiny of the world." They squirmed.
Kasamatsu was surprised, he hadn't seen any other Air Bison arriving today, and no one had said-
"Avatar Kise, do not let me detain you," said Takeuchi, remorseless. "I'm sure the boys will show you where to clean up."
Kasamatsu opened his mouth, and then closed it.
Takeuchi paused. "Now," he said. They ran for it.
They raced to the washing area- Kasamatsu grabbing Kise by the shirt and outright dragging him- splashed their faces in the stone basins and raced back to the main hall, pausing only for Kasamatsu to turn his head and glare at Kise while they waited under the eyes of the nuns to pass muster for entry into a room full of important people.
Kise smiled, with a faint trace of anxiety around his eyes. "I thought you knew," he said, apologetically. "Usually everyone knows."
That was the annoying part, knew Kasamatsu. He should have known. But he hadn't thought to connect Kise, sparkling and sweet and a complete showoff, with the line of silent statues in the sanctuary, with the news that the Avatar had completed his Air Bending training and was coming to Republic City. He hadn't even counted back from the last Avatar's death and realised that the new one had to be younger than him.
"You have your mastery?" he said instead, letting the air whip off his irritation as well as dry his skin.
"A month ago," said Kise.
Kasamatsu rolled his eyes so hard he felt they might permanently roll back into their sockets and fall into the gaping hole that was his brain. Kise was ten. No wonder he'd been showing off, watching them fly, no wonder he'd showed them all up so easily. Kise's head was shaven in preparation for his mastery tattoos, the youngest to wear them since Aang himself, almost three hundred years ago.
Kise had neither the air of ethereal awareness nor the grave impression of secret wisdom Kasamatsu had come to expect from pictures of the Avatar. He did, however, exude an air of self-possessed certainty which Kasamatsu only found annoying: Kise seemed to stand a bit taller now that they knew he was the Avatar, a little more stiffly. He thumped Kise in the shoulder. "You have your mastery but you can't do a triple backwards barrel roll?" he said. "What did you even do for your test?"
Kise pouted and launched into a highly coloured description of his original move, waving his hands around trying to get them to picture it, and Moriyama and Kobori slowly unstuck and started responding to him again, while they waited for the important people- the non-air benders of Republic City, invited to attend this momentous occasion- to actually come in and sit down so they all could eat.
There was an empty place at the high table no doubt meant for the Avatar, but Kise eyed it and refused to go.
"I want to sit with you," said Kise, trying to stare wide-eyed into Kasamatsu's face.
"Tough," responded Kasamatsu, standing up, and having all eyes fasten on him. He'd have to bring Kise there, with the death grip the brat had on his sleeve. He swallowed. "You're the Avatar. Man up."