Hello, People.
Chapter 5 is here, this chapter is heavily inspired by Anime Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 episode 7
A tribute for a great Anime that I watch and love.
Hope you find it as entertaining to read as it was for me to write :)
"What do you mean you quit?" Aang asked, his voice betraying him and showing how angry he is for the first time.
Zuko however remained composed as he said, "This is beyond what I can do, this is beyond my skill set, I'm not cut to be a defender of mankind, I thought of the glory at first, and how great I would like in front of the public if we did make it through, I thought of how I'd finally be able to say that I'm better than my sister Azula at something, I thought I could prove to my father that I'm better than her, but I was wrong, I'm just a simple teenager with a scar on his face who couldn't even defeat a lower-class dark spirit." Zuko said.
"Nobody expected you to defeat them overnight, we all took our time until we made peace with the fact that we're fighting stronger beings than us." Aang said.
"Not you. You're the avatar, you're basically one of them, you could take their entire world down in the blink of an eye, you've never experienced humiliation or a dark spirit looming over you, attempting to kill you in cold blood. don't compare yourself to us." Zuko basically shouted at his best friend.
Aang was silent, he couldn't respond to this one, it was at this point that he realized how selfish he was being, when he thought about it, he couldn't put himself in Zuko's shoes, he's not someone who would require special training to kill spirits, his normal bending moves would bring a dark spirit to its knees, he only requires spiritually-modified bending when he's facing a higher-class dark spirit.
After some considering, Aang finally relented when it came to this approach, "Okay… you're right, I couldn't put myself in your shoes… but have you thought what your uncle would think? He basically vouched for you in front of all those elders, would you really want to disappoint him?" Aang asked.
It was Zuko's turn to be rendered speechless, he couldn't respond right away, however he did muster up a response, although it wasn't truly how he felt,
"My uncle is going to die soon, probably before he gets to know I've quit anyways, so what's the point of taking him into consideration?" Zuko asked.
Aang's eyes widened, he wanted so bad to punch him in the face, but he wouldn't hit a person in the infirmary bed,
"You're not being serious, are you?" Aang asked, just to double checked if he heard him right.
"I'm being dead serious, I've realized that this is beyond me, I'm a lost cause, I'll only slow you down." Zuko said.
Aang was beyond disgusted by what Zuko just said, he couldn't bear to continue talking to him,
"Apparently, Iroh isn't always right, your uncle would be ashamed of you." Aang said, even though Zuko said he wouldn't put Iroh into consideration, he didn't truly mean it, he just said that to make Aang stop trying to convince him.
And that's why, Aang's words struck a vulnerable chord, he never stopped for a second to consider how ashamed Iroh would be of him, especially after vouching for him in front of the order, Aang as well will be reprimanded for bringing Zuko along and singing songs about him.
It's true, the songs Aang's sung about Zuko were all true, which made Aang all the more angry, Zuko was simply wasting his potential without even knowing it, maybe Aang hasn't told Zuko about it,
But he's one of the only three benders in the world that could one day be on par with him, Aang didn't want to tell that to Zuko so not to give him false hope that this could be achieved without hard work and dedication, and so he would slack off thinking that he'll get to that level eventually anyways.
The other two people that could one day reach a level where they could be on par with Aang are Petu and Miki, the children of Raava, Petu lives in Northern Antarctica where he's basically the defender against dark spirits that are coming from the north, he's a child of Raava and as skillful against dark spirits as Aang, the only difference between them is Aang's total possession of the avatar spirit, while Petu only has a portion of it.
Same could be said about Miki of southern Antarctica, who is the defender against the dark spirits coming from the southern portal.
Zuko was going to be one of them as well, alas, he was wasting his potential and Aang couldn't do anything about it.
Aang stood up and left the room in a hurry, unable to hear or say any words to Zuko.
As he left the room, he found Katara, Toph and Sokka standing outside of the infirmary, they saw how angry he was and so Katara decided to ask what's happening,
Aang looked sad as he said, "Zuko decided to abandon everything we've been building for the past month."
"Are you saying he wants to quit?" Sokka asked, and Aang nodded.
"What a wimp." Toph said, with a hint of anger to her voice.
"Toph, just don't." Katara said.
"It's my people who got burned in that explosion not his, he should be grateful he came out of there alive, unlike the people who died in that restaurant." Toph said.
"I think I've had enough debates, I'm going out." Aang said.
"Where are you going?" Katara asked.
"Iroh needs to know what's happening, I'll go inform him of Zuko's decision, and seek his advice as well." Aang said.
"Okay, but be careful, dark spirits are looming by." Katara said, her motherly voice showing up.
Aang chuckled, "Don't worry about me, Katara. I'll be fine." He said, not minding the fact that Katara is worried about him of all people, in fact, he thought it was sweet.
After the laughter subsided, he had a request from them, "Zuko told me that I can't put myself in his shoes as I've never struggled in my spiritual training, and I guess he's right, when it comes to his current situation, you could familiarize with him better than I do, he'll trust your judgement better than mine, go talk to him, please. Try to get him out of his misery." Aang said.
"You want us to kill him?" Toph asked.
"I said get him out of his misery, not put him out of his misery, Toph. There is a huge difference." Aang said.
"Ah, Bummer. You're no fun." Toph said sarcastically.
Aang kept staring at her for a while, he then turned his face around to Katara once more, "Don't take her with you, please." Aang requested.
"I wasn't planning to." Katara reassured.
"Thank you." Aang said, He then spared Toph a look before he left.
"Let's go, Sokka." Katara said, as her and Sokka entered the infirmary room to speak with Zuko while Toph stayed outside.
"a bunch of nancies." Toph said, as she stood outside waiting for Katara and Sokka to finish their pep talk with Zuko.
Aang hopped into the car to make with Fung in the driver seat, Fung was surprised that Aang decided to leave again this early as he's just come back from a long trip, but Aang told him that it's urgent business and so they left together making their way to Iroh's hospital.
As they were on the way, Aang was thinking over Zuko's words, he couldn't believe Zuko would say such words about his uncle, Aang knew he wasn't genuine, he also felt it, however it still sounded strange coming from him, which is why the avatar's response was just as harsh, because he did feel hurt when Zuko said those words about Iroh.
After all, Iroh wasn't only a father figure to Zuko, he's also a father-figure to Aang, the avatar would take it if people slandered him, but he would never take it if someone slandered Iroh or Gyatso, he felt betrayal when Zuko was the one to do that, because he felt helpless, he couldn't put him in his place as he knew Zuko was just voicing out words of depression, but he hated the outcome all the same.
Aang's train of thought was cut short as he felt something on the way, spiritual energy… No, Strong spiritual energy.
"Stop the car." Aang said to Fung.
Fung did as he was told, they were in the middle of nowhere, just a road that led to Iroh's hospital but on the right, there is a forest, the place looked completely abandoned, a convenient place to murder someone under the nose of the police.
Aang came out of the car and he closed the door behind him, "Go to Iroh's hospital, Fung. I'll follow you shortly." Aang said.
"What's it, Master Aang?" Fung asked.
"Just do as I ask, please." Aang said, although his words with that of a request, his wording was that of an order, he wasn't playing around with Fung, he was simply telling him to leave.
Fung caught on to what's going on and simply left.
Aang waited there for a couple of minutes, investigating the area, scanning with his eyes, he realized where the spiritual energy is coming from… right from above.
"Ahhhhh!" Someone shouted what sounded like a battle cry, as they jumped from above with a ball of spiritual energy that almost landed perfectly on top of the avatar.
If it wasn't for Avatar Aang being much, much quicker and jumping out of harm's way before the ball of energy made contact with him.
"Who exactly are you?" Aang asked, as he looked unamused by the antics of the attacker.
He looked like a disfigured human, but Aang knew it wasn't a human, it was a dark spirit, but it apparently it could speak, so apparently, he's quite strange for the average bender.
"I'd tell you but we're not here to talk, are we?" The dark spirit asked, before it attacked Aang again with a dark spiritual beam, and this time, the beam made contact with the avatar, completely consuming him.
The dark spirit was pleased with his work, "Wow, and the princess thought I'd be killed, this… this was so much easier than I thought." The dark spirit said, as he left with a triumphant smirk on his face.
"What was easier than you thought?" Avatar Aang asked as he came out of the ball of energy completely unharmed and without as much as a scratch, holding up one arm in the arm to clear out the dark spiritual energy that was all around him, addressing the spirit as he was leaving, "you thought it would be easy to leave without introducing yourself to me?"
The dark spirit was confused as he found that Avatar Aang was completely unharmed by his attack, the smirk that was plastered on his face completely fizzled out, but he still managed to say, "Such arrogance. You think you're powerful enough to beat me?" The dark spirit asked Aang.
"That's not the answer to my question." Aang said.
The dark spirit was getting angrier, "I'll tell you the answer to your question!" The dark spirit shouted, as he decided to show to him who he was, not just voice it out, he did an evasive maneuver that caught the avatar off-guard, he then jumped up and landed with another spiritual beam, he then attached the beam to another spiritual beam that represented a rocket, he then launched the rocket at the avatar, making it harder for him to jump away from harm's way.
The rocket of spiritual energy landed on top of the avatar, completely taking him by surprise and it landed right on top of his head.
The dark spirit laughed so hard, "Is that all it took to beat the great avatar Aang? he sounded so arrogant I was getting discouraged for a second there. It's now time for our plan to be set in motion." The dark spirit said.
"Now, that's another question of mine, What kind of plan is that?" He heard a voice asking from behind, the dark spirit turned around to find Avatar Aang, again, completely unharmed, putting away the fires that erupted from the strong energy beam.
"What's going on here?" The dark spirit asked, as he stood completely dumfounded, looking at Aang with wide eyes that were looking for answers.
"Oh, to put it simply, your attacks didn't connect." Aang said.
"That's false, I'm one hundred percent sure that last attack landed, I could see and feel it making direct contact with your head."
"The attack was nullified by the spiritual energy field around my body, it protects me from any spiritual energy attacks, pretty neat technique, right? I learned it from the lion turtle. Here, you don't believe me? Try another energy attack on me, I'm right here." Aang asked, as he extended both his arms, awaiting the attack of the dark spirit.
The dark spirit wasn't impressed and just looked at the silly avatar making fun of him with unamused eyes.
Aang then persisted, "Come on, just one more attack, please." Aang asked, he sounded very condescending which angered the dark spirit.
"You little prick!" The dark spirit said, as he became really angry by Aang's antics and launched another spiritual attack on the avatar, he then decided to supervise the attack from there himself.
It was nullified. The attack stopped right before the avatar, and the after effects scattered all around him, like he's hiding behind an invisible brick wall.
What's going on? The dark spirit asked internally, but Aang was quicker than his brain functions as the avatar was right on him before he could blink and he landed a strong punch to the dark spirit's groin.
So fast! I couldn't even see him coming and I'm the fastest out of all my brothers. What's going on? This isn't power, it's a hack. The dark spirit thought as he was the one about to be punished for his stupidity right now.
"You think you're powerful enough to beat me?" Aang asked, mimicking the dark spirit's tone of voice, making fun of his earlier statement.
He then followed with a series of punches to the abdomen, making the dark spirit wish he wasn't there, he then followed with a strong kick that launched the dark spirit into the forest beside them.
"If I were to guess, I would say you are one of Vattu's children, aren't you? I've been looking for a strong match for a long time, let's see how powerful you are." Aang said, before he used his airbending to launch himself in the air after the dark spirit, and he stopped right above him mid-air and was about to land on top of him.
The dark spirit was able to dodge the contact with the avatar, and he rolled out of harms' way, and he launched another attack at the avatar, as the attack was cleared, the dark spirit found the avatar on top of him.
Aang held the dark spirit by the chin and he cleaned the entire forest with his body, dragging him around like a rag-doll and pulling him around like his personal toy.
The dark spirit was most confused at the fact that the avatar was able to affect him using simple combat moves, how could a human even touch a spirit? This is beyond comprehension.
Eventually, the dark spirit was able to break free of the avatar's grip and he tried launching another spiritual attack at the avatar to break his line of defense.
But the avatar was quicker to dodge, and a millisecond later he was flying behind the dark spirit with a large smirk on his face, his eyes flashed white for a second before they turned off again, and that was followed with a huge punch that sent the dark spirit flying back on the ground and it landed with a thud.
The dark spirit fainted, not from the landing, but from the avatar's painful attack, so Aang decided it was a huge opportunity that he wouldn't want to waste.
"Oh, this is great." Aang said, before he departed for a couple of minutes.
Giving the dark spirit time to regain consciousness and reflect on his past mistakes,
"The Avatar isn't an easy target to kill, Voccak. You'd have to think of a better solution."
That's what Princess Azula told him, and he didn't listen to her.
"I think Voccak is stupid for even implying that he could match the avatar in terms of power, but I'm not one to tell my older brother what to do, I just think it's stupid to go after him when we can think of an alternative…"
That's what Tengen told him, and he didn't listen to him.
He deserved the humiliation he just got, because he was the one that was too arrogant, thinking he could face the avatar in a one-on-one, he stood up and held his head, and he looked forward.
"I'm back." The Avatar said from behind him, Voccak turned around sharply to find the avatar standing with…
Is that Princess Azula's brother? Voccak thought as he looked at the person standing with Avatar Aang.
"Aang! What's going on?! What did you bring me here for?! Who's this ugly guy?!" Zuko asked, as he was brought here right from the hospital by Aang in mere seconds to watch the battle.
Aang however ignored Zuko's questions, and he addressed the dark spirit, "This is Prince Zuko, son of Japanese Emperor Ozai, he's here to watch our battle." Aang introduced him to the dark spirit, without paying attention to Zuko who was still ranting beside him.
Voccak was confused, did Avatar Aang discover their plans? Did he bring Prince Zuko here to shove it in his face that he knows?
"Why would you bring him here? Bringing an extra weight to make yourself slow?" Voccak asked.
"It's not something I would frit about against a weak foe like you." Aang said sarcastically, making fun of the dark spirit.
The Dark spirit was so fed up with his arrogance that his head just erupted with a very strong spiritual beam that could take out an entire city, "You little arrogant brat! I'll show you who is weak?!" The dark spirit said, as he was preparing for his next attack.
Zuko was taken aback, not just by the display of power by the dark spirit, but by Aang's words,
This guy is weak? He asked internally.
He then felt a hand on his shoulder, that hand belonged to Aang who said, "It's alright. Just stay close to me." The Avatar reassured with a smile, Zuko had no other choice but to nod.
The dark spirit's attack was an inner technique, he shaped both his hands up and they formed a purple dragon, it could fly upwards and it will keep attacking its target until he's dead,
Even Aang was amazed by the technique, it could only mean that the dark spirit was a firebender when he was a living human being, this isn't an easy foe, so Aang decided to get rough, he stepped in front of Zuko, he removed his bandana and all of a sudden, his entire body flashed white, especially his eyes and tattoos,
"Let's put an end to this." The Avatar said, along with a thousand angry voices.
The dragon attack was nullified before it even hit, and it turned to fairy dust, he then ran towards the dark spirit and he punched him hard that he was buried ten feet deep into the ground, Aang then jumped into the pit he created after punching the dark spirit into it, he grabbed the dark spirit and he brought him up, slamming him to the ground, he then used his pure strength to detach the dark spirit's head from its body, he threw the body away and threw the head on the ground, with his leg settled on top of it.
And all this happened in a matter of seconds, Zuko was amazed by Aang's display of power.
He's earned every bit of reputation he has, his power is just on another level. Zuko thought as he watched Aang humiliating the dark spirit.
Of course, the dark spirit wasn't exorcised by having its head detached from its body, as detaching its head wouldn't achieve that, they can only be exorcised by being hit with enough spiritually-modified bending, of course Aang could have done that easily, however he wanted to speak to the dark spirit.
"Now, back to our earlier questions, who exactly are you? And what plan are you talking about?" Aang asked, as he was stomping on the dark spirit's severed head.
"Like I'd tell you, you little brat." The dark spirit responded.
"Let's be nice here, shall we?" Aang said, as he stomped harder on the severed head of the dark spirit.
"Go to hell!" The dark spirit said.
All of a sudden as Aang was standing on top of the dark spirit and Zuko was beside him, he found himself getting charmed, and his head moved towards the forest, there were voices in his head, convincing him that there are other spirits in the forest,
"Beware of the children in the forest." The voices kept saying, Aang turned around after beating the curse, but by the time he did, he found that the dark spirit's head disappeared from under his foot, when he looked up, he found another dark spirit running away with the head of the dark spirit he just defeated, and disappeared into the forest in the blink of an eye.
When he looked at what was happening, Zuko was having the same effect as he was hallucinating about children in the forest.
"Zuko, wake up!" Aang said, slapping him on the face, which made Zuko wake up immediately.
"What happened? Are we dead?" Zuko asked.
"Apparently, we've been manipulated by another dark spirit who came in here to rescue this one, I assume that's one of his brothers, his brother's powers are going to be problematic, I'm sure. Interesting." Aang responded.
"Who is he? Who are his brothers? What's going on here? Do you plan on explaining what's going on here, Aang?" Zuko asked.
"I brought you here to show you what's at stake, what you just saw was a child of Vattu, he was trying to kill me to execute a certain plan that I know nothing about, and his brother could also manipulate our minds, and based on What Katara said, Princess Azula is also involved in this, what if those are the same spirits who are plotting with Princess Azula? He did mention something about a plan." Aang said.
"What do I have to do with any of this? I told you, I don't want to be involved anymore. I'm out." Zuko insisted.
"The world needs you, Zuko. I can't do it all on my own, What you just saw me do, you could do even more than that, you have the potential for it, Iroh saw it, and I saw it. we use our powers to protect those in need for protection, I know it might not mean much to you right now, but I've been doing it for as long as I could remember and I can tell you the results are going to be worth your while, also I need you by my side, that's all there is to it." Aang said, saying the last bit in a low voice, he couldn't believe he was being vulnerable to someone other than Katara, but for some reason, he does feel safe with Zuko beside him.
Zuko was silent for a second, he heard Aang's urgent calling even though Aang was trying to mask it, he couldn't believe that someone this powerful would require the help of someone other than himself, what he saw Aang do to that dark spirit was out of the ordinary, why would Aang feel the need for someone like Zuko? He must be feeling something for real.
"I spoke to Sokka and Katara, they advised me not to make a decision without first speaking to my uncle, and they were right, I need to speak to my uncle first, and then I'd be able to make a decision regarding this, you were headed there anyways, right?" Zuko asked.
"Yes, I'm looking for advice." Aang said.
"I guess we both need it right now, I'm coming with you." Zuko said.
Aang smiled, "that's a good idea."
"I'm sorry for what I said about him earlier, I wasn't thinking straight." Zuko said.
"It's okay, just remember to be careful next time, because you being his nephew doesn't excuse your actions at all, I'd still punch you if you say as much as a bad word about Iroh." Aang threatened.
"Gotcha." Zuko said, he couldn't complain as he would do the same,
both of them walked away, trying to find a transportation that could get them to Iroh's hospital at this late hour after Aang dismissed Fung.
Thank you for reading.
Please don't forget to review, and have a good one :)