(Summary: Man is inserted into the body of an Earth Kingdom child in ATLA.)

— ? —

*BOOM*

I dodged the stone the old man threw, glaring at him as he grinned at me.

"What's the problem, Ryushi? Are you giving up already?!" The old man laughed, pausing to snort as he bent another giant rock and sent it my way.

*BOOM*

Once again, I dodged the rock instead of bending it. I had learned already that bending in defense of this old man was a bad idea; he had taught that lesson well.

"I'm thinking." I frowned, inspecting his ripped body, his bare feet feeling the ground beneath us, and his crooked teeth showing in a fierce grin.

"First rule of Earth Bending; Don't think!" He kicked the ground, breaking it apart and sending two rocks toward me. I jumped over them and sent a few pebbles toward the old man. He grinned, reaching his hand out and bending them away, but that was what I had been hoping for!

"You're mine, old man!" I shouted, landing and punching my hand into the ground, making the earth beneath me rumble in a straight path toward my opponent; the attack landed, forcing him into the air, but as I went to close out and end this fight, he sent a pebble right between my eyes. "Argh!" The hit launched me back, and my body skidded against the ground several meters before stopping.

"Haha *snort* good try, kiddo, but you're a hundred years too young to defeat me!" He stretched his arms with a goofy grin, walking over to me. "Although, who knows, with your desire to train so young, you may end up halving that time, little Ryushi."

I took a deep breath, rubbed where the rock hit me, and sat up. "It's not fair; you're ancient, great grandpa."

"Ancient? I suppose you're right! Hehe!" The old man broke out again in a fit of laughter interrupted by the occasional snort. "Though, is that any way to talk to your king?"

"We both know you don't care for such things." I deadpanned, and he grinned, running his hand through my black hair.

"Caught me!" He held his hands up in surrender, "Now then, where's Flopsie?"

The giant gorilla goat ran around the rocks in the room, weaving its way over to us before slamming hard into my great-grandfather, King Bumi.

"Hehe! Have you had fun, Flopsie? Oh, I know you missed me, dear!"

I watched on with slow, blinking eyes. I never did get used to Flopsie. To someone like me, his entire existence was cursed. The merging of animals from my world was something that should never have been done. That shit was learned well whenever NFTs came out where you could merge two animals.

Ever seen a fucking shark horse? Its creation was a mistake and, in my opinion, is grounds to exterminate the human race as a whole!

I rubbed my temples tiredly, thinking about everything that had led me to this moment.

I was but a 15-year-old boy, a mere freshman high-school student, before I got fucking eviscerated by a nuke. There was no actual warning either-

Just a loud *KSSSHHHHHHH* Followed by a *BOOOOOOOOM*

Didn't even feel pain (except for the bursting of my eardrums); one second, I was watching the atomic winds approach me; the next second, I was opening my eyes and getting hit by a fucking rock. The rock came from my father, King Bumi's grandson, and boom; my soul had been stuffed inside the body of a five-year-old child in the world of Avatar, the Last Air-Bender.

That was five years ago, and while the wonder had hit me hard at the time, it had thoroughly died out.

This place fucking sucked. Not the city, but the world. Maybe I'm just venting because every day, upon waking up (earlier than any self-respecting human should be awake), King Bumi, the smug fuck, decides to drag me out by my collar and light me up with rocks!

So here we are. My daily 4 am beating had just finished, and now it was time to start our day.

And by starting our day, I meant I would have to follow the old man around as we acted like children all day.

"Hey, Ryushi." Bumi grinned from below Flopsie. "Wanna go mess with the cabbage man?"

I ran a hand through my hair, and I hated how I returned his grin with one of my own.

"Let's do it!"

— Later —

"Please, King Bumi, the nobles require your presence!" The old man's advisor begged of him for the nth time since my existence.

"Oh, alright, quit being a buzz kill; I'm going." He frowned, kicking a small rock to the side like a kid who was told to put something he wanted back on the shelf at the store. "Ryushi, have enough fun for the two of us, alright?"

"Of course, great-grandpa." I waved, watching as the two older men walked away. I made my steady-paced trek to the library when they were out of sight.

I had no intention of having fun; what I needed was progress.

Since coming to this world, I had quickly learned I was an earthbender, more out of necessity than mindless experimentation, and from that, I attempted to branch off. Putting it simply, I tried to sand-bend, metal-bend, hell, I even tried to lava-bend, and when that didn't work, I tried to bone-bend.

Nothing worked. I either didn't know enough about how to do such things, or I didn't have those sub-bending abilities, which left me fearful of the future.

I had plans, plans I strived to complete ever since my father was killed three years ago in the war. His death…devastated my mother, and less than a few months later, she too had fallen from the grief.

I won't lie and say I had been overly attached to them, but they were good people whose deaths had lit a fire in me that had quietly sizzled ever since I was brought to this world. The Fire Nation was closer to victory than many in the Earth Kingdom were led to believe, and I could see it every day in Omashu's walls. More and more people were living less and less lavishly. The middle class had become the lower class, and the higher class had become the middle class, for the most part.

This war was chipping at us slowly; the Fire Nation had no intention of a quick victory, or at least that's how it has been for as long as I can remember.

This was Fire Lord Azulon's strategy. It is a war of attrition, not one of intense action. He wanted to bide his time; by no means did he intend to see this war finished during his lifetime; no, he knew it would take many years before its conclusion, and if things continued at this pace, Avatar or not, the world would never be able to recover.

Thankfully, though, I knew things would improve in the future. The second prince, Ozai, if things continued the same, would kill his father and take the throne of Fire Lord for himself. His methods were more…brash; they didn't have the same slow killing effect that his father had laid the groundwork for, and that would give the Earth Kingdom a chance to breathe and recover, just in time for the Avatar's return.

I needed to prepare for that day, the day Aang would come to the Earth Kingdom with intentions of bolstering its defenses-

But I didn't want to be on the sidelines until then. No, I had plans to join the Earth Kingdom's Army, much to Bumi's disapproval. I knew if I let things continue as they were, Aang would beat Ozai, and the war would come to an end-

…But how many people would die in the time leading up to that? Fire Nation, Water Tribe, and Earth Kingdom people would all die in the name of a foolish war started by an even greater fool's ambitions and a lax avatar whose blatant favoritism led to this.

So here I was, reading up on the theory of Earthbending.

Through my years of studying, I realized that specific minerals that existed on Earth were what typical Earth Benders could bend. There were several minerals that Earthbenders couldn't bend, like platinum, wood, or diamonds. Of course, they also couldn't bend metal, but that's because no one has had the drive or mind to try such a thing.

Reading up on all this made me wonder…are there Earth Benders who can bend those unbendable minerals, but they just haven't tried? It would make sense if bending those specific types of minerals and elements was a sub-bending ability with which only a few rare Earthbenders were born.

Branching from that, could those sub-bending abilities be mine?

I frowned as I looked at the diamond on the table before me. There was no harm in trying…

I reached forward, holding both hands over the diamond, my mind, and hands straining as I tried to bend it.

No movement…

I didn't give up, continuing to strain myself in hopes that I could bend it. My eyes clamped shut as sweat beaded down my forehead. My hands were shaking from the exertion-

Then I felt something.

I opened my eyes to see a pyramid of light in my hands, just above the diamond I was trying to bend. I raised an eyebrow as the pyramid started to glow-

*BOOM*

The table and the entire library glowed brightly before exploding. I was blasted back, out of the now blown down wall, and slammed hard against the ground. My ears were ringing from the intense blast, and a strong sense of PTSD hit my mind like a truck as I recalled my death.

"Prince Ryushi!" One of the many guards in Omashu shouted as he ran over to me. He was trailed by four others who quickly jumped into the cloud of dust that was once a library.

"What happened?! Are you unharmed, my prince?!" One of the royal guards I had come to know, Kusko, kneeled with a worried look, his eyes shaky. "Please speak to me, prince!"

"...I-I'm okay," I said, shoving my finger into my ear, trying to stop the ringing. "I…was experimenting with my bending…something happened."

"This-" Kusko asked, gesturing to the destroyed library behind him, "-was your doing?" I could tell he couldn't believe my words, and had I not done it, I wouldn't have either.

"Yes." I rubbed my head, standing.

"Kusko!" King Bumi called, running around the corner with Flopsie in tow. He paused in his stride upon seeing me before speeding up. "Are there intruders? Fire Nation?"

"Interior and perimeter are clear, your Majesty!" One of the guards reported.

"Young Prince Ryushi says he was the cause," Kusko said in a professional tone, standing up from kneeling.

"Oh?" Bumi asked, the seriousness leaving him in a split second as he eyed me, a grin slowly creeping on his wrinkly face. "Seems you're quite the troublemaker, ey, Ryushi?"

— Chapter End —

Author's Note: ATLA is one of my favorite series of all time, and Infoticus' fic has me wanting to make one myself, so ima cook.

MC is an Earth Bender with a sub-bending ability of particle-bending, which is just particle release from Naruto nerfed a bit.