.chapter ten, versus Guai, and the decision.

As the five men closed in on Hayate, a dome of water surrounded him and froze solid in seconds. The sound of the knives against ice filled his ears as the boy suddenly felt very cold.

He looked up and smiled broadly upon realizing that he would live to see another day. His leg screamed with the bold rush of pain that seared through every fabric of his limb, but he was far more unnerved by the fact that the enemies kept on increasing in number.

"It's just ice, we'll cut through it in a few strong hits!"

Almost as he said that a blade managed to cause a significant crack on the orb's surface. Hayate gulped and closed his eyes again. More blows came to the sphere and shards of ice began flying in every direction.

Farther away, Kiro cringed while spinning several times. During his body rotations he would occasionally stop abruptly to thrust out his palm, or lean down on his leg and raise his arm, then continue rotating. Beads of sweat fell off his forehead and Sukai hissed at him. "Hurry up, they're gonna break through!"

"Shut up!" He retorted, still rotating furiously. Because they were all attacking at different parts of the frozen sphere, it was difficult, perhaps even impossible, for him to repair them all. Once he mended one area, two others would get pierced. Seeing the massive amount of stress and trouble Kiro was dealing with, Sukai took a deep breath and proceded with her own attack.

She released the frozen wave and watched as it slowly washed people to the back of the boat. With a huge sigh and a bit of a wince, she forced her fists open, releasing the water into a mist. Drained of all energy, she fell to her knees and began breathing deeply.

Back on the ship, Hayate sneered as the smoke cleared and he saw the mass of foes tied up with a surprisingly long coil of rope. The sphere around him vanished and, mentally, he thanked Kiro.

Suyin yawned, holding the other end of the rope, which was collected in a barrel. "Sorry about that, Hayate." She said. "But I don't think we should kill these guys. That's why I found this rope, which there always is on a ship and…" She pointed to a very small, wooden, probably seaworthy craft. "…This emergency escape boat!" She smiled. "That's all of them, right?"

"I'm afraid not, madam."

From above, Guai fell towards Suyin, his blade outstretched in his right hand, ready to impale the woman from the top. Almost as though she anticipated the assault, Suyin fell on her back and kicked the air with her right leg, redirecting Guai's arm and swinging her left, hit him in the chest and sent him flying. Surprisingly he recovered from the attack quite easily and stood up once more, barely fazed.

"Name yourself!" He shouted.

Suyin chuckled. "Name myself? Why so formal?" She charged towards him and rose her right arm in a powerful uppercut, nailing him in the stomach. He didn't make any attempt to avoid it and only grinned, despite the fact that he was once more shot backwards across the deck.

As he rose again, he sneered and spoke in a hauntingly whiny voice. "That's all you can manage, madam? How disappointing." He punched the deck and from across the river a huge block of earth disconnected itself and landed with a thud on the ship. He took his blade and thrust it into the block, sneering. Suyin and Hayate were both curious as to what he was doing.

A moment later he pulled it out, and they were stunned to see that it now took on a shimmering cutting edge. "My blade absorbed the minerals in the earth and," he sprinted towards Suyin, "can now cut anything!" He swung it in a manner to behead Suyin, but she ducked and his oversized butter knife only tore at air. Reaching down, she grabbed a dagger that one of the soldiers dropped, and slit the man's upper body clothing. The fabric fell apart then and fell to the ground, and Suyin grinned in satisfaction.

He was wearing a form of chain metal weaved out of minerals in the earth; she'd seen the technique before. It took most, if not all, of the brunt of physical attacks. But there were countless ways around it, and now that her hypothesis had been thoroughly validated, she rolled backwards and stood up.

"This is a waste of time." She grabbed her bo staff which, until recently, had been tied to her back. Removing it, she spun it once or twice for good measure and in a stunning display of fancy footwork, appeared behind Guai and slammed the weapon into the back of his skull- a very vulnerable and unprotected part of his person. He screamed in pain and fell forward on his knees.

"Bitch…" He cursed, rather uncharacteristically for someone so courteous. Suyin seemed surprised that he was still awake. Swinging her staff quickly and powerfully, she rammed it into his left temple. This blow succeeded in rendering him unconscious, and he fell with a thump to the floor.

After a while, the yelling soldiers and their motionless commander were put on the escape boat and were well on their way to, judging by the tide, the Eastern Air Temple. Suyin sneered at the thought. The Air Monks would be more than pleased to deal with such ruffians.

Hayate took in deep breaths as Mizai slowly rubbed ointment on his leg, which had finally stopped bleeding. He was lying down on his sleeping bag in his room at the teahouse- Suyin, Sukai and Kiro all seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, but he didn't mind or really notice, for that matter. Just as he was about to ask Mizai if he was going to be alright, he felt a painful rush of ice that chilled his lower leg. He winced and Mizai shushed him.

"Don't make any physical effort now- This medicine will only work if you're not moving an inch." Reluctantly, he nodded and closed his eyes, not moving anymore.

What was that whole ship thing all about?

Inside Suyin's room, Kiro sat cross-legged beside Sukai as Suyin leaned against a pile of old clothing. They were all quiet when Kiro couldn't help but blurt: "Why are we here again?" Sukai hissed at him subtly while Suyin bit her lip.

"I was thinking…" She stood up slowly. "You remember Vu? The Earth Nation soldier that died here a few days ago? Well, he mentioned someone named Senator Bao and it turns out that Grandma knew the guy." Sukai and Kiro suddenly seemed interested. "Yeah. Apparently he popped in to the Teahouse a dozen years ago- He was only a teenager at the time and was protected by a few bodyguards as well. Regardless, she remembered that he was next in line to be the city of Haifon's senator- their system still works like a monarchy and that once his father died, he would be taking his place."

Sukai intervened. "City of Haifon?"

Suyin nodded. "Haifon's a port city located in the eastern Earth Nation. The Earth Nation is massive- It's so large that it's actually divided into three provinces, The Mind Province, Tham Tu, The Soul Province, Thaun Thei, and the Body Province, Linh Hon. And each of those provinces has about three major cities, who elect a Senator, although a few, like Haifon, still use the system in the likeness of a monarchy. Those three leaders are the Councils- Mind Council, Soul Council and Body Council. They are the second highest in positions of power- with the highest being, of course, the Earth Lord himself, who has the power to overrule any decision made."

Kiro raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "So they got all of the Earthbenders in Haifon to attack Sakuramura? Why's that? What's their motive?" Suyin sighed, and was about to speak when Sukai cut her off. "Who knows? Maybe they're just jerks?"

Suyin chuckled a bit. "Who knows is just it- And we're going to be "Who." That boat that popped up in the river's got our names on it- express trip to the city of Haifon. I haven't gotten out of this place in forever and even the old lady'd agree that it would do me some good to see the world again." Kiro and Sukai were both a bit dumbfounded. "You want us to go to Haifon? With you?" Suyin nodded.

"You guys grew up and lived in Sakuramura your whole lives, right? So logically you'd want to know why exactly it was destroyed. The Earth Nation isn't particularly known for being vicious and bloodthirsty. They attacked for a reason and that's what we would figure out." She paused for a minute. "You in?"

Sukai chimed in without much hesitation. "Yeah. Definitely." She felt a bit nervous seeing as she'd begun to think of the Teahouse as a second home, but lifef would have to go on and in her eyes, this was the best way for it to. Both girls turned to Kiro who scowled. "Sure, but only on one condition. We leave Hayate behind."

Hayate limped as he slowly stood up, Mizai smiling. "All better, right?" Hayate blushed and, while he hated being patronized, wasn't about to critisize someone that might have saved him from a potential fate of exsanguination. He thanked her and asked her how exactly she knew so much about medicine, to which she blushed herself on turn.

"When you get to be as old as me, you pick a couple of things up, especially when you're constantly in contact with people from all over the world." She laughed.

"Also, I went to a Waterbender's Academy in Sakuramura myself when I was a girl, and back then, girls could only learn healing techniques and it was the man's job to fight." She laughed and Hayate was surprised at this ancient concept of sexism. "Of course, no one really cared and we picked offensive bending up ourselves. In the end, the girls were better than the guys because we could heal too." She laughed, and Hayate couldn't help but smile.

After a minute of silence or two, Mizai spoke again. "And so… Mitsukai and Kiro- how do you know those two? Old friends of yours?" It was now Hayate's cue to chuckle.

"Nah. I met Sukai the same day the city was torn down, but apparently she was pretty famous so I probably heard her name before. As for Kiro… We weren't on the best of terms. Since we were kids our paths to school always crossed and he had fun tormenting me every time I was within sight." Mizai smiled and pat Hayate on the back.

"You've both been here for two weeks now- trust me, Hayate, I'm sure he doesn't hate you quite as much."

"I'm not going anywhere if that turd is coming."

Kiro's vicious statement left an astounded silence on the behalfs of Sukai and Suyin. Sukai was more shocked while Suyin seemed to be thoroughly disgusted, and when neither of them said anything for a good minute, Kiro took the initiative. "Do I need to re-iterate myself? Hayate is a useless turd. We don't need him weighing us down, nor do we need his retarded personality everywhere we turn."

Suyin calmly got up and walked towards the boy before crouching down and flicking him in between the eyes. He screamed melodramatically as her nails forged a cut that began leaking blood on his forehead, and Sukai cringed.

"If there's anyone we're not bringing along, it's going to be you, you heartless, selfish, overconfident bastard. Get a hold of yourself or else I'll have to beat more sense into you."

All of a sudden the sliding door to the weapons room pulled itself open and Hayate appeared at the entrance. Every head spun around to face the newcomer, who suddenly felt very awkward with six piercing eyes staring him down. "I… Heard a scream from outside and I just thought that I should maybe come and…" Suyin laughed, suddenly gaining back her usual composure.

"Don't sweat it, but hey, there's something I wanted to mention…"

She proceeded to explain the whole plan to him, and even before she finished he was nodding his head overenthusiastically. Kiro groaned, but Suyin gave him the evil eye and he was promptly shut up. "Tomorrow morning then, we'll leave right away!" With everyone's agreement, the four of them walked out of the weapons room and dispersed.

Suyin entered the main tearoom and immediately hoisted herself up on a table, then lay down on her back, her bangs convering her eyes as she yawned, putting her palms behind her head. Mizai sneered as she walked by the waitress, and joined Suyin by sitting down beside the sleeping warrior. "So you're going then, eh?" Mizai asked curiously. One of Suyin's eyes peeked out of the veil of black hiding her pupils. "You heard us?"

Mizai sneered. "Nah, but I could guess. I mean, how are you, of all people, supposed to resist an opportunity to navigate a ship again?" Suyin laughed. "You know me I guess, grandma. But still- Even I'm a bit curious, and these kids are growing on me. It might even be fun."

Mizai got off the table. "Don't take too long to come back though, mind you. What with all these customers, I don't think I can handle everything by myself!" Suyin laughed again, motioning to the empty teahouse.

She would miss it here.

Sukai sat lonely upon a stone in the hot springs. Aside from the teahouse, the steam-filled pools had become her home. This really was the only place for her to be alone, without the constantly prying eyes of Mizai, Suyin, Kiro and Hayate. Even when she was in her room- the walls were paper-thin and everyone could hear everything, so she didn't dare.

But now, where she was absolutely and utterly alone, she could let loose.

Shrouded by a thick, inpenetrable veil of steam, Mitsukai Sakurajin cried.

Although at first the tears were just a trickle stream, quickly they became a river that created a small puddle at her feet. She whimpered slowly and steadily, her breaths arrythmic and essentially random as she struggled to inhale, sadness overflowing from her two dark optics.

After about five minutes, she stood up and wiped her now-red eyes with the sleeve of her kimono which was slowly becoming worn. She once more thought of the disaster that struck her, her family, and her city, and broke down into tears again.

Her wails filled the air, that night.

Hayate was outisde of the teahouse as well, armed with his sharpened kusarigama, and began slashing at a tree that was now quite worn from so many days of being attacked mercilessly by the slicing blades. Hayate had made it his personal goal to try and topple it- probably wouldn't be something so far-fetched, considering that the trunk itself was considerably small in diameter and was already quite tattered.

He swung once, twice, three times, chipping away at the wood and sap sticking onto the cutting edge that he continued to wield without much finesse- regardless, he had definitely gotten better at it. When he stepped back, the moonlight allowed him to see the extent of the damage he'd caused. He was actually a bit imperssed himself- he had managed, over the course of the week, to make the tree mildly concave.

Pleased with himself and glad that his goal might actually be attainable, Hayate charged towards the tree again with the sickles outstretched and swung them viciously, his only goal being the destruction of the organism staring him in the eye.

He waved and waved, taking on different stances from the few that Suyin taught him, stabbed and sliced, but while the tree took so much punishment, it simply refused to tip over. Chunks of bark flew off and landed haphazardly, strewn at Hayate's feet but never did it show any sign of collapsing even slightly.

Frustrated, Hayate took a step back and assumed a pose that Suyin taught him most recently- the idea was to deal as much damage as possible by swiping the blade on the left to disarm and weaken the enemy's guard, then stab forwards with the right to impale the target and defeat them.

He put his weight on his back leg and, holding his left arm out with its respective sickle, took in a deep breath. Within two minutes he let loose a primal scream, swiped the left blade against the tattered wood, removing a massive chunk, and forced forward with all the strength he could muster and stabbed the immobile enemy with the edge of his crescent-shaped weapon.

The latter was now entirely stuck inside the tree, which, despite Hayate's efforts, hadn't moved an inch. Infuriated, Hayate removed the right sickle with a bit of trouble, and began slashing madly and randomly at his foe, only carving it further and creating chinks, by no means did it budge at all.

Yelling, he raised his right arm and forced it with all the pressure he could muster right into the side of the bark, but only recoiled from the pain that spread across his entire leg, then his body, from the shock. Cursing under his breath and abandoning the cause, he turned back and walked towards the teahouse.

When Hayate re-entered and the door closed, Kiro stepped out from behind the tree, sneering. He then proceded to think out loud:

"Useles, useless." He laughed. "That loser's nothing but a burden. Come to think of it, even if he does have to come, he'll just die within the first few hours. Probably will get seasick and jump over the edge or something." He laughed again at the thought and drew some water from a small puddle. In a second, he stomped on his right leg and waved his right hand with amazing speed, turning the whip of water that he created into a fatal weapon. It soared through the air and in a second, spilt the tree Hayate's futile efforts had scarred. Both halves of the tree fell slowly, and Kiro just kept on laughing to himself.

"Stupid kid." He repeated while walking over to enter the teahouse.