Ozai stepped out of the ship. He looked around the place with wide-open eyes. He saw some houses made of wood, and all the people smalling all kinds of fishes. Behind him was Ty Lee, who only saw him with a warm smile.
Ozai stopped to wait for Ty Lee to be with him, and she finally arrived; a man got close. "Ms. Ty Lee, the chief, let us know that you will be arriving and asked us to take you to her. But We were unaware you will have… company". The man looked at Ozai, frowning. The red color of his clothes was something he did not like, and prejudice was something that had not died out.
Ty Lee smiled at the man, "he is my niece and is coming with me. And if something or someone mistreats him, I will be in a terrible mood." The thread of Ty Lee did not match the calming and smiling face of the older woman, but it was strong enough to make the man gulp.
After that minor incident, Ty Lee and Ozai went to the central part of the village where the Kiyoshi was. The small boy took his head from the carriage and saw the Avatar Kiyoshi statue. It looked so big and imponent.
The place was in the past a small village of some houses. Now it became a different place where only the Kiyoshi trained. No men were allowed except for any diplomatic visit.
The older woman tapped the boy's shoulder so he could sit down again. "Once we stopped, please, remain next to me at all moments. At least, until I tell you that you can move freely". Ozai nodded and remained sat inside the carriage.
When they got out of the carriage, Ozai looked around but remained in his place, walking next to Ty Lee. They entered the most prominent house. As soon as they entered, Ozai saw how different girls practiced some fighting style with fans in their hands.
The girls stopped practicing when they saw the newcomers, especially Ty Lee, who had become a minor celebrity inside the Kiyoshi warriors. But their faces were also of confusion when they saw the kid next to her.
The instructor was a woman in their thirties who went to Ty Lee. "Please do not stop practicing," said Ty Lee with a smile. The instructor smiled and nodded, "You hear her! I want you to keep practicing the move again while I speak, Ms. Ty Lee".
"Ms. Ty Lee. Let me take you with Chief Suki," said the instructor, but Ty Lee stopped her. "No need, I know the way," said Ty Lee when she was about to keep walking but stopped when she remembered what she needed to talk about with Suki.
"In fact, could I ask you for a favor?"
"Of course!" said the woman enthusiastically.
"Could you let this young man train with you?"
"This kid? But… Ms. Ty Lee, the Kiyoshi training is only for women."
"Really? I remember a story when the chief teaches a man about Kiyoshi techniques."
"But that was different. He was Sokka, ex-leader of the Republic city, and the hero who helped the Avatar".
"He becomes that later on, but when he trained with the Kiyoshi warriors, he was still only a young man, not older than Ozai here."
"Who?" asked the instructor wide-eyed when hearing the name.
"Ozai, this young man."
The instructor looked at the kid and took a deep breath. "Very well. I'll do it."
"Thank you," said the old lady while smiling. She then turned to see Ozai, and while close to him, she said, "please wait for me, and do not hurt any of them."
Ozai nodded, and Ty Lee walked out of the room to another room.
When Ty Lee left the room, Ozai turned to see the girls and the instructor, and most looked at him with mistrust; only two behaved differently and giggled when he saw them.
The instructor clapped to get the attention of everybody, "Ok, he is a guess from Miss Ty Lee. I guess we can show them a little about our fighting. It may help, as none of you had fought with someone with a different style."
Ozai smiled and bowed respectfully to the girls, using the old fire nation sign. Meanwhile, the instructor smirked, and some girls understood her plan. The only one against that idea was the leader of the young trainees, but she said nothing.
"Lian, what don't you go first?" said the instructor. The leader of the Kyoshi warrior in training stepped up.
"Listen closely! This will be a friendly match. Aim to put your opponent's shoulders touching the floor at the same time. Understood?"
Ozai and the girl named Lian nodded. "Very well, Go!"
Ozai did not wait a moment as he remembered his mother telling him he should end the combats quickly and efficiently. The instructor smirked as she waited for the young kid to start to run at her disciple. By watching the kid's robes color, she concluded that he would be like the fire benders who ran to attack as soon as possible.
Lian was waiting for a punch or a kick at her head, but suddenly the kid disappeared, and then she felt falling and saw the ceiling. Ozai, instead of attacking her to knock her, decided to sweep her legs.
She was surprised that the kid could do it fast enough for her to be unable to see when he made the sweeping kick. Then suddenly, he saw the kid in front of her giving her a hand to help her stand up. She smiled and took it. Once up, both bowed to each other with respect, using their different signs. The Kyoshi girl used the earth kingdom sign, and Ozai used the old fire nation sign.
After that, the sparring continued.
Meanwhile, inside the chief's room, Ty Lee talked with Suki.
Ty Lee was walking from side to side while Suki was reading some papers.
"Out of the people from the reports, there were some girls from the earth kingdom. Interestingly, these girls were not good at another style of fighting but primarily used Chi bocking. "
Suki was nodding, and then she stopped suddenly, "wait, what are you insinuating?"
"I've done my research. The number of people defecting from the Kyoshi warriors has increased, with the number of attacks having a similar pattern. These people are non-benders, and it seems they found the place to learn how to fight one on one against benders."
"Do you think that we teach them?!" Suki threw the papers to the floor and studded up suddenly, frowning at Ty Lee.
"I think that you did not keep your side of the promise and teach this only to trusted people!" Ty Lee stopped walking and looked at Suki's eyes.
"You know the code of honor we work with!"
"Yes, but I know you don't do anything about the people trying to leave! Taking with them the techniques to do whatever they place!" screamed Ty Lee with open arms.
"Just like you did when you traveled with Azula?!" accused Suki while pointing at her with her fingers.
Ty Lee frowned at Suki now, "So, you did it because of pity revenge?!"
"We did nothing of the like! You, on the other hand,"
"I used it while traveling with Azula, but she did not ask me to train her, nor Mai. They knew that it was a family technique. They knew the dangers, so they did not ask me to teach anyone."
The two old women stared at each other for a few seconds until Ty Lee spoke first, "even Azula told me that this was a mistake."
"Yeah. Maybe it was a mistake that you were a Kyoshi!"
"Maybe!" Ty Lee turned around, walked to the door, and said quietly, "maybe the mistake was to betray Azula in the first place."
Ty Lee left the room with a door slam. Suki only let herself fall in her chair with her hands around her head.
When Ty Lee arrived in the practice room and saw the girls talking with Ozai, it seemed they were intrigued by his hair, which had some parts that remained standing no matter what. Ty Lee sighed a little to let her bad energy disappear and smiled again.
"Ozai!" called the old woman, but everybody turned to see her.
"It's time to go," said Ty Lee. Ozai nodded, but the girls looked surprised. Lian was the one that got closer to Ty Lee, "excuse me, but we were wondering if you could teach us some of your moves. We are having troubles with the Chi Blocking training".
Ty Lee's eyes went wide. The instructor didn't seem to be bothered for the request, so Ty Lee realized that the training seemed normal, even for young trainees.
"I am sorry. I won't be able to teach you. In fact, Chi blocking won't be in your training anymore", said Ty Lee sternly. It was uncharacteristically for her, and Lian realized that.
Ozai got closer to the older woman, waved at the girls, and left the building.
While outside, the driver of the carriage was sleeping in the front. He got awakened by the slamming of the door.
Ozai looked at Ty Lee, a little worried, "did something happen?"
Ty Lee tried to smile and shook her head. "Nothing you should worry about… well, maybe one thing. I won't be able to teach you Chi Blocking, but I will help you defend from it and understand it."
The young boy nodded and looked at the window, "so… are we going back already?"
The old woman thought for a moment, and at that moment, she decided, "no. I guess that you need to learn from it all started."
Ozai did not understand the answer but only raised an eyebrow and started to scratch his head. Ty Lee giggled a little when she saw that, as she saw Goku when he was his age. Ozai just kept thinking about the answer.
Ty Lee looked at him while the carriage moved. "You have until we arrive at the docks to guess where we are heading next."
Ozai started to think. Maybe she was talking about where Kyoshi was born, but data about it is scarce, and as long as he knew, no one knew the exact place. But then he remembered that the earth bender Avatar did not create the Chi Blocking, so it shouldn't be about her.
He started thinking about the information about Ty Lee. He remembered she was part of a set of seven girls. She escaped to the fire colonies, now known as the Republic, to be part of a circus.
He tried to remember where the city was. But before he knew it, the carriage stopped.
"We arrived already?"
Ty Lee smiled. Ozai opened the door and helped Ty Lee to step out. Ty Lee looked around, and then she walked to one of the ships. It was not the biggest nor the smallest; it did not seem luxurious or poor. It was a well-maintained ship, with people around cleaning the ship while chatting.
Ozai and Ty Lee walked to that ship, and the ship's captain saw them and ran to present himself to Ty Lee.
"Good afternoon, Miss Ty Lee. I am Capitan Shen, at your service!" said the man with a big smile while bowing.
"Hello. How much will it be for a trip that may take 2 or 3 days?" asked Ty Lee.
"No, please. We will take you for free."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. My crew will be an honor", said the man with a smile.
"Very well. We will take your word; we will need to go as fast as possible", said Ty Lee.
"That will be no problem. We are ready to leave at this very moment!" said the man dramatically.
Ty Lee nodded and walked to the ship. When both stepped at the boat, all the eyes were fixed on them.
"So, where are we going, Miss Ty Lee?" asked the ship's captain.
Ty Lee smirked and looked at Ozai, "to the Fire Nation!"
Ozai's eyes lit up, and a big smile was drawn on his face.