Xiang Wei wasn't your ordinary muscle for hire; he climbed up the criminal ladder through his strength alone, while his talent for numbers allowed him to stay on top. He was in charge of the protection rackets in Shangren Zhen and the surrounding villages, a rather prestigious position within his Dao Fei. Wei knew that dealing with the old veteran would've been tricky, but he never accounted for whoever this woman was. He lamented at the extra work.

The woman had led Wei into a forest, no doubt a ploy to trap him. It was smart fighting an Earthbender in the woods, with lots of cover and verticality and not much ground. Wei was slowly catching up to her, though; she was adept at riding the Ostrich horse and proved an elusive target. Wei launched sharp rocks at the woman, who zig-zagged around the forest, narrowly missing tree trunks and branches. No matter, her luck will run out soon.

Something catches him in the neck, halting his advance and pushing him off the Ostrich horse. He falls on his back on the leafy ground, and once he recovers, Wei catches a glint of light between two trees. It was a thin rope. Had she prepared a trap for him, how did she have the time? Unless the woman knew of him and his ilk and prepared beforehand. Dammit all, he lost sight of her. He wasn't paid enough to handle this; it was time to cut his losses and-

"Awww, leaving so soon?" A voice spoke out within the trees; Wei frantically looked around to find where it came from, "but we only just met!" There was a burst of light in the corner of his vision, he dodged effortlessly as he noticed the tree to his right had gained a scorch mark. Did she shoot a fireball? That meant Firebender, damn. "Do that rock thing again!"

"You mean this!?" With a grand sweeping motion of his hands and feet, a confluence of body and will, he summoned pillars upon pillars from the ground, denting the trees around him. The forest canopy shook violently as the leaves rustled as one, shifting the sun's rays. It was like viewing from under the ocean's surface, how the light penetrated the deep blue, only here it was green. Wei sighed; he hoped the move would unbalance her, assuming she was high on one of the branches.

"Yes!" the voice said ecstatically, "how do you do that?" He perked his ears up but got nothing. There was no single direction to pinpoint the sound's origin. It was as if the forest itself was speaking to him. But it was speaking to him; he just needed to tune the woman out. Wei closed his eyes and breathed deeply, listening to the whispers of the leaves flowing across the canopy like an ocean's current. "Oooh, are you powering up?" The winds caressed his cheek, and he could hear the branches creek and shake. Then came a discordant tone, or at least the absence of one. He opened his eyes to see a tree sitting still while its siblings swayed with the wind. It was an eerie sight, one that defied the natural order of things. He wasn't sure how it was possible, but he reckoned she had a hand in it.

With a sudden loud roar, Wei threw a large rock into the tree. It splintered against the tree's now invincible bark, shooting sharp rocks all around the canopy. "Whoah!" Yes, got her! Wei threw more, launching a barrage strong enough to tear down a castle's wall. Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! The tree seemed unharmed by it, but no matter, he knew where the woman was now.

"Amazing..." the voice came from behind him. How?! He turned around and launched a boulder at her. It broke as it landed on her flawless figure. Just what the hell is she? Then Wei caught sight of her, properly this time. He ignored it before, back by the veteran's house, but it was difficult now that he had a closer examination. She was, in every sense of the word, beautiful. He was lured in by her sensuous, piercing gaze and stayed for her captivating smile. "Hey!" she spoke, annoyed, her face crinkled into a scowl, "focus on the robes, not the eyes. It's easier for you to fight that way."

Wei did just that, focusing on the yellow bamboo patterns, and he felt that hypnotising spell recede from his mind. "Are you a spirit?" he asked, for no mortal woman could have such an effect, "A goddess?"

The woman tapped her chin in thought, "Well, I am part god, but also part human. Or wait..." she paced around, "No, I think it's more like one-fourth human and one-fourth immortal. Yeah, that makes more sense," in her reverie, Wei launched a sharp stone into her chest. It penetrates! Gouging deep into her heart and out the other side.

The woman seemed unfazed and pulled the spike with such nonchalance it boggled his mind. "What!?"

She theatrically posed her arms, "Magic! Speaking of, how do you do that rock thing? I'll let you go if you can teach me."

What the hell was she saying? "Can you Earthbend?" Wei asked, thinking of ways to kill her. Maybe if he crushed her between two stone walls...

"I'm gonna guess no."

"If you don't know how to answer that, then you probably can't," With a roar, he lifts his leg up, willing walls of earth to rise and crush her. They smack, but no blood splattered on his face.

"Hmmm, is it a thing you inherit? Like a magical bloodline?" That damned voice was behind him again! Just how fast is she? Once Wei returns to the others, he will make sure no one runs to whatever this person is. "I think I could work with that? Ok, how about this."

Kaguya approached the bandit before her. Ever since she saw Suwako bend the earth to her will, she desired to have abilities like that. The more toys at her disposal to use the better. Collecting powers needn't any justification but the act of collecting itself. Usually, most magics could be learned with time and innate energy, which Kaguya had plenty of. It was a neat quirk of her powers, being able to condense a hundred years' worth of training into a single second. Now, she never was able to inherit an ability passed down through blood, but there's a first time for everything. It was time to experiment.

Kaguya held him in a vice grip; he tried to resist initially but stopped once it proved futile. That was when Kaguya tapped into her powers. Parallel histories. A single second had within it an infinite aggregate of instants. Instants that can diverge and converge however Kaguya wanted. A hidden world of possibilities made itself known to her, timelines that became active only under her personal observation. Her powers had something to do with Quantum mechanics, Eirin had once mentioned, though Kaguya had forgotten the exact words. What matters most to the princess is that she can live through every possibility of this meeting with the bandit while simultaneously experiencing the "present". From there, she could try to merge these possibilities to her liking. Powers like that were what made her the OP isekai protagonist after all, not that she wants to act the part all the time.

She saw backwards and forwards, living multiple lives at once. Once she saw what the man saw, she immersed herself in his parallel history, which ran alongside hers and saw it go past their present. Here goes nothing. Kaguya tried merging their parallel histories together, aggregating all the instants in each timeline and condensing it. Maybe this way, she can assimilate his history, personhood, and this so-called "Earthbending" power. Time shattered with a scream until she finds herself in the forest again with the bandit convulsing on the ground. Power get? Kaguya waved her arms around, trying to move the earth around her.

Nothing.

Maybe it's a concentration thing. She moved her arms, but very intently this time.

Nothing.

Kaguya sat on the grass and sighed; maybe her power wasn't as OP as she thought. It could be that she was lacking in resonance. Kaguya posited that their histories couldn't merge due to a lack of commonalities and sympathetic connection. What if she were to have a kid with those powers? Nothing beats the bond between a mother and child; assimilation would be guaranteed. If what Kaguya thinks is true. But the princess couldn't bear children, another quirk of the Elixir, that meant farming affection points with an Earthbending woman and using Lunarian superscience. But if Kaguya does go through with it, is the power worth all that work knowing everything else she's got literally in her sleeves instead? Hell, would she want to subject a kid she might care about to-

Wei shook and shivered, his eyes wide while his mouth stretched into a silent scream. His pupils darted everywhere, seeing things that weren't there. An infinite, starry vision of the heavens lodged itself into his cosmic speck of a brain, a mere particle to the neurons of the universe. The visions pushed ever deeper into his ill-fitting container, threatening to fry his neural folds. A million visceral feelings and images, so little context. Blood spilt from his eyes and nose, the horror of it all.

Something shattered. Wei saw...his world, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, everything. There were...looming towers of glass and concrete, carriages without a horse, and a tan woman in blue. Visions of a night that lasted years, spirits invading from the poles, followed by a deep dark black swallowing the world whole. The world will end...the world will end!

-well, that.

Perhaps there was some spillover from Kaguya's history into his mind, or worse, Kaguya's potential history, too. That'd be overwhelming for a mortal but short work for her. It was natural, then, that some of that man's history spilt over to Kaguya's mind. The bandit's life flashed before her eyes, but Kaguya missed most of them since it went by fast. She blinked and saw him, old and dead, lying on his deathbed. What led to that was probably deep in her mind palace, assuming she cared to dig it up. Kaguya grumbled at the thought; she didn't like spoilers and vowed not to do it again, or at least to someone important. Having people's lives laid out to her just made things so dull. It's a good thing the guy didn't give off main character vibes; that's the kind of person Kaguya would hate to get spoiled about.

The Lunarian reached into her sleeve, retrieving a needle filled with a sedative possessing healing qualities. She then added a small tracker to put into his system. Kaguya wanted to continue the bandit questline since the potential for mindless fun through fighting couldn't be ignored.

But she wanted to deal with that later, once she checked up on Honghui. She found the old man sitting on his porch with bandages stuck to his wounded leg, his good eye widening in surprise. Kaguya gave a perfect bow, "Their leader will not be a problem. I made sure of it." Honghui nodded, grim respect shining in his eyes. Kaguya smiled, almost preening; she looked around to find the other bandits she knocked out, "and his cohort?"

Honghui smiled a reaper's smile, "Sent them running," Kaguya eyed his leg incredulously, "A-after Su stitched my leg up." He gestured towards the open door to his house, "Come on in, got a hero's lunch for you." That got Kaguya's attention, who sped right in. She found Su, who held Kaguya in a death grip and checked for any injuries. After finding none, the woman wrapped her arms around the princess tightly, whispering muted thanks. Kaguya gradually returned the embrace, something warm swelling in her heart. Then came an empty feeling; she wanted to share this moment with Mokou and Eirin.

The three of them sat down to eat, and Kaguya hit it off with them instantly. Lunch turned to dinner to tea by the front porch. The moon watched over them, its gaze welcoming rather than oppressive. This was a new world.

Kaguya recounted her fight with the bandit leader, omitting the more disturbing details to her rapt audience. She gestured theatrically how it went, her voice rising and dipping, giving the story momentum. Then the story turned into how difficult it was to ride the Chocobo, or ostrich horse as they called it. Honghui gave Kaguya's back a pat and said she was a natural before asking where it went.

"Must've run off when I went to fight that man," Kaguya shrugged, her language growing more lax. It was a shame. She wanted to tame it.

Su chuckled, "It helps to always keep an eye on them; they're free spirits, those things."

Honghui nodded, "That's why me and the other soldier boys had to double lock the stables every night back then. They always found a way to jump out of their enclosures." He let out a sudden laugh. It sounded like a dog's bark: "There was this boy, Shen, was always good to them. Ostrich horse whisperer, we called em. One night, I remember one of the Ostrich horses jumping out of the stables and sneaking into his tent to peck him awake. We teased him about how he's finally got a lady friend. The beast was male, by the way," he quickly added. Honghui took a sip of his tea, his eyes growing sombre, "The fool died with em. Stables were burning from a Fire Nation ambush and he rushed in to save what he could." He shook his head, "ended up saving none and dying with them. I had only saw my fifteenth summer then, and I learned the folly of giving your life up for others."

"Until you met me," Su gave a small smile and a cheeky stare.

Honghui barked another laugh and held Su close, nuzzling his face into her hair, "till I met you." He whispered.

Kaguya stayed silent, letting the scene play out. This feeling of missing something important was starting to sink in. But she needed to move on. It was a new world.

After some time, it was just Honghui and Kaguya on the porch; Su had gone to clean up and sleep. "What was the war like?" Kaguya asked delicately, curious about what kind of world she was in, "if you don't mind me asking."

"It was a different war back then. We were confident we could win. To us, the Fire Nation was this squabbling patchwork of islands that had been infected with pride. That thought, in hindsight, was more a reflection of us than it was for them. A hundred things went wrong, and now everyone's just waiting for it to be over. Whether by the Fire Nation falling on its own weight or the Earth Kingdom keeling over." He shrugged, "It's not my fight anymore, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom...I stopped caring about what flag flies over the town hall anymore."

Some more time passed, and Kaguya moved to leave. "Where are you going next?" the old veteran asked.

"I'll be hunting some more bandits. After that, we'll have to see." Kaguya replied.

"Wait here." Honghui moved back into his to retrieve a rather shoddy mask; it was basically a wooden bowl with holes for eyes and some strings, "used to wear this during my Garsai days." He gestured at Kaguya's face, "Someone like you is bound to turn some heads, and I reckon you wouldn't like the attention. Take it, I don't really need it."

Kaguya smiled and took the mask; she gave her thanks before leaving. The morning after, Honghui and Su would find a single jewel from the Hourai branch on their sons' bed. A month later, an unknown, masked vigilante terrorised criminal organisations from Shangren Zhen to Hujiang. Tales of this vigilante would find itself in the ear of Azula herself.