.chapter seven, the ambush
Sukai turned around and bent her mouth into a displeased sneer. "Yeah, like that'll happen." Extending her palm and mildly bending her back knee, she froze the whip in mid-air. Picking it up, she tossed it haphazardly into the hot springs and Kiro watched, frustrated, as it evaporated under the extreme heat.
Sukai yawned. "Looks like I recovered from yesterday…" She stared blankly at the sky, and then turned to face Kiro. "Are you still on your period, or do you want to keep learning attacks?" Her voice pierced the air and Kiro, outraged, crouched down and slowly began rising, his arms at his sides. As he did so, a huge wall of water began growing behind him. Sukai didn't seem fazed in the slightest. The boy swung both of his arms forward, causing the water to collapse as a giant wave. Sukai pointed her index finger at the incoming wave and caused a large portion of it to evaporate in a mass of pure vapour. The rest fell pointlessly to the ground. Kiro was fuming.
"You're…" He reached into the water, cringing as his hands were burnt by the contact with the boiling liquid, "…really annoying!" As he pulled his hand out a ball of pure water, about the diameter of his hand, was tossed at the Petalbender. She frowned and sidestepped it casually, before falling into her own stance. Crouching, she crossed her fingers on each hand and thrust her digits up, causing two pillars in the shape of double helixes to emerge and tower a good three feet above Kiro. He turned backwards and opened his mouth in terror, but Sukai, unwilling to complete the technique, uncrossed her fingers and resumed a normal standing stance. The helixes collapsed onto Kiro, who was now drenched from head to toe.
"Can we be done yet?" Sukai inquired. Kiro was still furious. "It's not over 'till I say it's-" But Sukai interrupted him by causing a veil of water to cover his big mouth, as she had done a while ago. "Damn it, Kiro, listen to me!" She walked towards him and poked him in the forehead between the eyes. "I'm the class four. I'm the teacher, you're the student. I taught you those two moves in the past hour, and I've been practicing them for years. Don't be stupid and think you can beat me." She sighed. "Okay, are we calm now? Do you think you're ready to learn a new move?" Kiro grumbled subtly, and while Sukai knew full well that he was looking forward to it she shook her head in disdain. "Come on, let's go."
She smiled. "Well, you won't always have access to water. That's a Waterbender's biggest problem because without water, we're completely powerless." She saw that Kiro was about to speak up. "Yeah, I know there's water in the air but you also know how difficult it is to draw it out, and how little you get for the amount of energy you spend. Which is why there's a special technique." She turned around to face the basin of boiling water and lifted the right sleeve of her kimono to her shoulder.
Crouching, she touched the surface of the water and closed her eyes. Water danced up her fingers, slowly creating rings around each one except for the thumb. The ring finger bore two. In addition, the water created three bracelets around her right wrist and snaked up her arm to her neck, surrounding it and creating a watery pendant. In a moment Sukai froze all of the organic jewellery. Kiro frowned. "Won't it just… you know, melt?" But Sukai shook her head. "Of course not. If the phase swapping's right, it should stay frozen for a long time… And if you notice it getting wet, just freeze it again. It doesn't drain you much and it's not a tough concept"
Kiro was sceptical. "Yeah, and does this really work?" Almost before he could finish, the five rings on Sukai's fingers turned to a surprisingly large mass of water, which was shot to him in a painful water whip, burning his right upper leg. He swore. "Admittedly, you asked for it." Snapping her fingers, the water around her neck and on her arm evaporated into steam.
"You give it a shot." She said. Kiro shuddered. Class two was basic phase swapping; it was difficult at his level to get room temperature water to ice or gas and took quite a large amount of concentration. Not willing to admit this to Sukai, however, he dipped his fingers into the boiling water as she and focused hard, eventually creating a crude, not quite circular ring around his index finger. Removing it, he focused to attempt to have it freeze. He still wasn't even noticing a change in the water's temperature, though, which frustrated him immensely. He closed his eyes and slowly felt the area where the ring was getting cooler, was it perhaps working?
As he opened his eyes he noticed, unfortunately, that he had not focused well enough and instead of freezing shifted the phase to gas, the ring having evaporated entirely. He frowned, but Sukai walked over. "Don't sweat it, it's not that tough and once you get phase swapping it'll be the easiest thing."
They spent the next hour or so practicing more moves, ones that Kiro had never heard of before. For one, they learnt the Double Helix that Sukai had semi-demonstrated earlier; although the true use of that was to trap a foe inside of the helix, then freeze it to have them at your mercy. Although, when they were trapped inside the helix they were helpless either way so an ally could finish them quickly at that point. Kiro mastered this quickly.
He also perfected the creation and throwing of simple water balls, which were convenient and quick attacks. A few easy attacks were also learnt, as well as simple binding techniques. Simple, yet effective.
Kiro took a break and sprawled himself on the stones. Sukai rolled her eyes. "C'mon, you're not that tired already, right? We didn't do anything yet." He didn't say anything, though, and instead continued panting, his dark hair falling in front of his eyes and hanging damply off of the rock. After a moment, Sukai spoke once more. "Anyways, I'm gonna get some tea. You want any?" Kiro shook his head. "I… hate mint." Shrugging, the girl opened the door and walked back into the teahouse.
Hayate took another sip of his tea and continued his conversation with the waitress. "So, um… Suyin?" He didn't want to seem rude, but this question had been prodding at the back of his mind for a good while. "Do any people ever come here? It's completely empty…" Suyin shrugged. "Depends. Sometimes travellers that are going to Sakura stop by in big groups or alone. Then again, most of the time it's completely abandoned, the old lady's owned the place for as long as I can remember, so it's not like she pays rent or anything." She yawned, and pointed at the vacant teacup. "You done with that?" She asked, to which Hayate nodded. Getting up, she picked up the glass and proceeded to wash it.
As she turned her back, the door slid open and Sukai entered. She looked down and noticed the seated Hayate. "Oh, hey!" She quickly took a seat beside him. "How's it going?" Hayate asked insincerely. Sukai didn't notice the lack of enthusiasm in his voice and answered honestly. "Kiro's a pain, but he's picking it up at least. I dunno how well he'd last in an actual fight, but hopefully we won't have to get into one." Hayate nodded. He was still a bit paranoid and afraid that Earth Nation soldiers were stalking them from the siege of Sakuramura.
"Hey, do you know how I could get some tea? Waitress… Uh, waitress?" Hayate whacked her subtly on the arm. "Use her name, Sukai." Remembering that she didn't know it, Hayate whispered it to the little girl. "Her name's Suyin." Sukai nodded, but found the name a bit strange. It just didn't seem like anything she'd heard before, it sounded… foreign. Regardless, she beckoned the waitress. "Um, Suyin?" She messed up the "i" sound, making the name come out as "Suyeen". Either way Suyin recognized her name and turned around. "Yeah?" "Can I have some tea, please? It's… tiring out there." Suyin smirked. "Sure thing… But you've only been out there like, an hour." As she poured the tea, she continued her lecture. "I'm guessing you've never been in an actual fight before?" She smirked, walking towards them. "It's way different than practicing. A fight doesn't last hours on end, which is why people might think that it's easier because you lose less energy… Wrong." She lay the cup down on the table. "In a fight, everything is on the spur of the moment. You don't have hours to think up a strategy, so often attacks are used recklessly. You move, duck, parry and doge, attack at the same time. You get drained really quickly, and all of a sudden you lose track of how tired you are, get caught by surprise and it's… the end for you."
A loud slapping sound was heard as Mizai stood on her toes and smacked Suyin. "Stop scaring the kids, Suyin! They've had enough to deal with… With their destructive "family"." Suyin and Mizai chuckled, leading Sukai and Hayate to stare at each other uneasily. What was so funny? Mizai explained. "The walls are thin. It's not exactly difficult to hear late-night conversations, regardless of how much you actually intend on eavesdropping…" Their faces flushed bright red out of shame. "We're so sorry…" Began Hayate out of reflex, breaking into a cold sweat. "We didn't want to lie to you, and I didn't intend to, for the record, but Kiro just did what he thought was best on the spur of the moment. Please, punish him if you must but we've got nowhere to go!" Mizai smiled. "Don't worry, I won't kick you out; feel free to stay as long as you like, in fact. However, it would be good to know that there are no more secrets in between us- is there anything else you need to say?"
Thinking nothing else important was hidden from them, Hayate and Sukai responded "no". Of course, if Mizai were still curious she could ask whatever she liked at any moment. Finishing her tea, Sukai politely excused herself and returned to the hot springs to continue training. Feeling awkward with Suyin and Mizai now that their position had been truly revealed, Hayate joined her after a refill, of course.
As he opened the door to the hot springs, he was met with a blast of steam to the face. Coughing, he dropped his cup and shuddered as it shattered against the floor. When the steam cleared, he saw Sukai in a powerful stance, her palm open and facing him. He frowned. "What the Hell was-" Yet was ignored as Sukai turned around and spoke to her pupil. "Eventually, that's what you'll be able to do as well. But… Phase Swapping takes a really long time to learn, and I don't want to teach it to you yet."
After another heated argument which, unsurprisingly, Sukai won, Hayate took a seat on a stone and watched them teach and learn. The next few moves Sukai taught were very interesting, and his personal favourite was the creation of a large sphere of water over a foe which would shatter and fall apart, causing a million droplets to rain down from the sky on the targets. While it was more of a nuisance at Kiro's level, when Sukai demonstrated it she froze every single raindrop, causing countless pikes of rain to fall out of the sky.
Another hour or two passed. It was now well into the day, although they still weren't sure what time it was since Mizai had no clocks in her teahouse. Looking up, however, they came to the conclusion that it must be about early afternoon due to the sun's position.
Hayate was getting quite bored now, after watching Kiro get stronger and himself… Sitting down doing absolutely nothing. He almost considered asking Sukai to try and teach him Waterbending again, but he knew it would be completely futile. There was absolutely no hope for him in this field, unfortunately.
As the Sun began to set over the horizon, he re-entered the teahouse for dinner, eating a sort of roast that Mizai had prepared. The meal felt amazing going down, warm and welcomed by his starving stomach. As Kiro and Sukai entered, wet and tired, Hayate entered his and Kiro's room. He noticed, for the first time, that he still had his schoolbag with him, and he'd tossed it away in a corner. Due to its composition, it was waterproof and seemed to have survived his adventures, although it was badly torn and shouldn't be used for aesthetic and practical reasons. He unzipped it and pulled out some school papers, including some incomplete homework, and sighed as he reminisced. He was certain that the full shock of this phenomenon hadn't quite hit home yet and he'd burst into tears or an uncontrollable fit of anger soon enough.
For the next little while he looked over papers and schoolbooks. Thinking he could be the brains of their impromptu group, he frowned in disdain upon the realization that Kiro was smart as well. His Academy still provided amazing education on top of teaching Waterbending. But… If Kiro was the smart one, Sukai the strong one, what was he? The one that sat on the sidelines and watched?
As he opened his world history book, he smirked as he came to the "weapons in battle" page. Pictures of ornate and deadly armaments from around the world adorned the sheet, glistening in the lantern's eerie light. He analyzed each one and wondered if they would be practical. His mouth watered at the sight of the swords- elegant killing machines with glowing edges. Some, such as regal katana that took months to forge, virtually made his mouth water. The concept of wielding one was something of a dream for the boy. Others, more commonplace, such as jutte and sai, were less impressive and he contented himself on turning the page.
He was at this for a while as well; eventually, the Sun had completely set. Sighing, he closed the book, put it under his arm and entered the tearoom again to converse with Suyin out of boredom. The woman was sprawled out on a table, with her hands behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. Unsurprisingly, Mizai was still knitting. Upon hearing the door slide shut, Suyin's eyes focused themselves on Hayate. Seeing him enter, she got up. "More tea?" She asked, almost reluctantly. "Nah, no thanks." Hayate responded. He took a seat and yawned, then opened his book up at the table. "Just wanted some company is all. Sukai and Kiro are training, of course, so I'm pretty much alone right now."
He opened it to a page full of sickles and began reading the small blurbs of information underneath each one. Suyin seemed interested and she approached. "Weaponry?" She asked casually, to which Hayate nodded. "Yeah. I don't know how I'll ever get a weapon but it seems like it's the only way I can fight at all, or help Sukai… and Kiro if they ever need it. I'm pretty useless otherwise." He turned the page. Suyin smirked. "Oh, really? Boy, do I have stories for you, Hayate… Hey, you know what? Meet me outside the teahouse tomorrow morning." She smirked, and turned around. "Old lady," she began, addressing Mizai whose eyes never left her knitting needles and yarn, "I'm gonna hit the hay. It's still pretty early, but I worked longer than usual today, huh?" Knitting with her right hand, Mizai removed her left and motioned a "bye bye" to Suyin, who bowed casually and walked to her room.
Hayate continued reading with only Mizai for company. She would hum old tunes every so often, but otherwise they were both immersed in utter and complete silence. After countless minutes of reading, he turned around and bowed at Mizai, who offered him some tea again, to which he was prepared to refuse but decided to indulge in the end. Now, with mint tea in hand, he made his way to the room and sat down cross-legged on his sleeping bag.
"It's all in the stance, Kiro!" Screamed Sukai. Kiro had conjured the double helixes again, but they were crude and not smooth or strong enough to be able to contain anyone should the need arise. His stance was shoddy; he was far too focused on getting it done quickly. Kiro dropped his arms to his sides out of frustration, and Sukai watched the helixes collapse in a pathetic heap. Turning around, Kiro panted. "Can we… take a break? I'm tired as Hell…" It was completely out of character for Kiro to stop asking to train, to stop getting stronger, but he had been working all day. Sukai shrugged. "Sure… It's your funeral, when you can't hold your own in battle, anyways."
Enraged and ready to challenge Sukai to a fight again, Kiro decided against it and followed the girl into the teahouse. Instead of getting a drink in the tearoom, he entered his sleeping quarters immediately. Hayate seemed to be drinking tea peacefully.
Being taller than Hayate, he flicked on the hanging lamp above them that the other boy couldn't quite reach. It lit up the room, and Kiro lay down, yawning. Not a word was exchanged between the two and Kiro was exceptionally tempted to bend the tea in Hayate's cup and make it jump out or crawl into his nose, but he decided against it.
Eventually, he grabbed a pen and walked over to the desk, while Hayate continued drinking his tea and reading the pages with weapons on them in his history textbook in front of him. He smiled, then after a while, looked over his shoulder to see what Kiro was doing. The boy responded even before Hayate could pose his query.
"Poetry."
This made Hayate chuckle. Poetry? What kind of idiot wrote poems to pass the time? He was about to make a snide remark, but Kiro promptly shut him up with a firm "If you say anything I will rip off your toenails in your sleep, Hayate." Shuddering, mainly because he knew Kiro would do it in a heartbeat, Hayate returned to his book.
Sukai changed and sprawled herself out on the sleeping bag. She quickly thought of the day's events and the minor progress Kiro had made today, then got up and flicked off her lamp. Afterwards, she tucked herself in and went to sleep peacefully and in complete comfort.
The boys did as well not long afterwards, although Hayate was still a bit nervous and worried for his toenails before he did.
The next morning, Hayate was up before everyone. He remembered Suyin's words strongly from last night, and was eager to see what she had in store. He had an itching feeling that it would be a weapon, a sword, perhaps? That would be amazing. Regardless, he ran a hand through his hair and got up, slid open the door and waved quickly at the knitting Mizai, denying her offer of more tea. He shot himself out the door, and realized this was the first time he'd been off of the teahouse's property, really outside for a while. The air smelt worse out here than the attractive incense indoors.
Suyin poked him from behind. He spun around and was amazed at what she held in her hands. "You like 'em?" She asked. "I've had them in my room for a while, and I figured I'd never use these since I never really loved them anyways… I'm more of a sword girl myself. I washed them off and everything."
What she was holding, of course, was a pair of Kusarigama. Two sickles attached by a chain, weapons that Hayate never thought he'd be able to handle. Picking them up, he slashed them awkwardly in the air once or twice for good measure. They were light, but still heavier than he imagined. It was difficult to keep them balanced, and Suyin pointed out that they were difficult to control. Still, Hayate mentioned that he would train. When asked if she could tutor Hayate, Suyin shook her head and said that she was far too occupied with her job. Hayate doubted it but wasn't about to argue.
For the next week the routine was the same for them all. Hayate would go outside and slash up trees with his Kusarigama, improving little without proper mentoring. He did learn a few flashy moves, though. Sukai and Kiro would practice Waterbending, Mizai would knit the days away and Suyin would either lie down on a table in the tearoom or do God knows what in her room, which no one had seen the inside of.
One morning at around noon, Hayate was tired of swinging his sickles and decided to see how much Kiro and Sukai had accomplished over the past week. Stepping inside and denying Mizai's offer for tea almost before she spoke, waving at Suyin whose hair covered her eyes as she slept, he walked to the hot springs.
Once there, he watched Sukai and Kiro practice a few attractive moves, and the boy had almost mastered the double helix from what he could see, even though Sukai's was far superior. He clutched his Kusarigama and the two, upon noticing him, stopped practicing and took a seat on the stones. They began discussing random topics, but the real controversy began when Kiro affirmed that he was ready for a real fight. Sukai scoffed. "Not yet, you're not." Hayate added that he definitely was, at which Kiro just laughed out loud. "You've barely had the things for a week… Can you even pick them up?" He chuckled, and Hayate fumed.
The minute he said that and Hayate was about to retaliate with words of his own, a crashing sound was heard from the building's direction. Turning around to face it, they were dismayed at the fact that they could only see a shadow behind the veil of thick steam. Striking a pose and clenching her fists, Sukai turned it to liquid, causing it to collapse on the floor below and reveal the form of the intruder; someone clothed entirely in black, their face covered by a bandana, shrouding all but their eyes.
"Who is that?!" Hayate asked, clutching his Kusarigama. Kiro smirked. "Dunno, but looks like an opportunity to me." He crouched near the water, and Sukai was about to comment but instead shrieked "LOOK OUT!"
The figure had vanished with speed unbelievable and charged towards Hayate. The boy instinctively raised his guard for protection to the face, but the assailant raised his right leg and attempted to hit Hayate in the head with a vicious kick. Attempting to parry, Hayate ducked and swung his Kusarigama at the foe's leg, trying to ensnare them in the chain and hopefully injure them in the process. However, the mysterious offender simply sidestepped to avoid the attack, and, using a knifehand attack, knocked Hayate against a rock about five feet away.
Kiro smirked. "My turn." The assailant faced him now, and Sukai bit her lip. As the attacker charged towards Kiro, he crouched to avoid a kick and grabbed the water with his hand, forming a water ball which he tossed with determination at his foe. However, it didn't move excessively quickly and the assailant dodged it as well. Kiro avoided a few more attacks, and then attempted to trap the foe in a double helix. The attack failed as well though, for the assailant managed to avoid the slow-forming shape. Kicking Kiro in the solar plexus, he was sent flying into the hot spring.
Just as the boy went soaring, Sukai had blasted five quick water whips at the foe. Taken by surprise, two managed to hit, tearing the dark clothing to reveal fair skin underneath. The foe was unfazed, though, and jumped towards Sukai, extending a fist. Prepared, Sukai created a barrier of ice which was promptly shattered, sending shards of frozen water in every direction.
Sukai cursed immaturely and fell to the ground, picking up a shard of ice. As she rolled, she tossed it like a knife towards the attacker, who instinctively raised an arm to stop it. At the last second, though, Sukai turned it to water and made it navigate its way to the back of the assailant's head, then freeze again to hit the skull. The offender dodged it, though, and Sukai rose, attempting it again with this time three frigid shards of ice.
Tired of running away, the assailant grabbed the shards of ice, two in one hand, and shattered them to powder with reflexes unbelievable. Sukai now attempted her own double helix, causing a DNA-shaped structure to rise out of the water and charge towards the attacker. That person, however, made the most of Sukai's vulnerability and approached from underneath, weaving between the segments of the helix and opening his palm, struck Sukai underneath the chin, sending her reeling into the hot springs as well.
Hayate woke up, groaning. He noticed Kiro and Sukai swimming in the hot springs, barely conscious and looking quite exhausted. The black figure was still standing. It smiled, and with a shard of ice on the ground, shredded the bandana that covered its face, revealing its true identity.