'I hate this. Why did I decide this was the best thing to do?', Toji thought with a frown as he stood in front of a pair of grand stone gates, the Ba Sing Se Academy looming in front of him as numerous students walked around.
It's been a month since Toji arrived in Ba Sing Se and a week since he became Toji Gojo, the new name that he still despised to this day because it reminded him of the white-haired bastard that took him out.
He had expected at least a few people to be suspicious of the kid that got an entire mansion and services to himself, but apparently, no one in the Upper Ring cared for such things as they mostly kept to themselves.
'I guess the nobility is not all that different from the Three Clans back in that hellhole?' Toji thought with a hum as he looked at the Academy, remembering the three weeks of meetings and interviews he had to do in order to just earn a spot in the Academy.
Even then, since his family wasn't part of the original noble families of Ba Sing Se that have been here since the city was formed, he had been placed at the classes fit for those of the lower ranking nobility.
'Politics, no matter the world or era,' Toji thought with a shake of his head as he stepped through the gates, ignoring the curious glances from the few students he passed.
The polished stone floors and the murals depicting battles and coronations made Toji smirk as he had found out that the Earth Kingdom do love to be grandiose people and the jade columns stretching to the high ceilings didn't help either.
'However, many will not see it for what it is: A fortress for earthbenders designed as a school,' As he walked through the main hall, Toji could pick out numerous spots from the top of his head where Dai Li could be hiding or where earthbenders could fortify themselves in the school should the invasion make it this far.
'Oh, looks like it didn't take me long to be singled out by the crowd,' Toji hummed as he continued walking, his black and green uniforms looking crisp and untarnished compared to the few scuff marks on the clothes of those that have been here for a while.
It didn't take him long to find his homeroom class on the eastern wing without any guidance, walking into the chamber with open windows that overlooked the koi ponds in the central courtyard.
None of the kids seemed to care for him when he entered, but he did not care for that as he stared at the one that did.
A girl with a short bob-cut of black hair and an immaculate uniform sat in the second row, ignoring the groups of girls whispering excitedly as her eyes flickered to him with a calculative glance.
'Zhen Yi, daughter of General Khièu who is one of the Council of Five members. Top of her class and utterly untouchable in terms of social standing amongst the students and faculty,' However, she was only a key for him to use, not to just the General but also understanding how to move within the Academy's dangerous hierachy.
Toji didn't say anything as he took his eyes from her and continued walking, slipping through the crowd before sitting down in the second row right besides Zhen Yi with a hum.
"Excuse me? You're in my seat."
"Go find a new one," Toji answered, not caring for their gasps or surprised looks as he continued to take out his books and notepad.
"Okay, listen. I'm not sure you know how this-!"
"Ri Yan, right? Daughter of Councilman Ra Yan," Toji cut off the annoying girl talking to him, subtly rolling his eyes at her smugness before looking at the brunette with a smile.
"In a few hours, your dad is going to get a message. It'll say that you caused a commotion on your first day back and tried to assert dominance over a new student from a less-established noble line. Now, while your dad will just shrug it off as a once-off spat between children, he will keep getting letters the more you annoy me and that will show his political enemies ammunition to ruin his career. After all, if the councilman can't handle his daughter, how can we trust him with our beloved city, right?", Toji asked with a smile to the class, Ri Yan looking a bit pale now as there were a few murmured agreements before Toji turned back with a smile.
"Now, what was it I said again? Ah, yes. Go find a new seat," With his statement finished, Toji turned back to sit properly in his seat before slouching with a hum, stopping his subtle smirk as he saw Zhen Yi glancing briefly at him in intrigue and amusement.
Ri Yan just gave a huff before she turned on her heel, walking to the desk besides him as the occupant of said seat quickly scrambled to make way for her.
"That was bold, but risky," Zhen Yi murmured, her voice soft and low so as to not draw attention.
"Only if I care what others think."
"Everyone cares. What matters is who you're trying to impress."
'Only the daughter of a general would say that.'
"No one for now. I'm just here to take what I want and let others deal with it," He answered with a smirk, to which she didn't respond as silence reigned before the heavy stone doors to the class opened.
A man hunched over slightly with gold and green robes draped over his body and a cane in his right hand walked into the room, his sharp eyes sweeping across the room before lingering on Toji.
Watching as the man simply nodded before continuing onwards, the boy sat up as the teacher cleared his throat.
"Settle down, students. As of today, I am your new teacher on etiquette. My name is Prof. Seng Haung and I wish to see how much you all really understand about the world you wish to rule."
'Right, I forgot about the lessons. Well, time to work for a living,'
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'No Dai Li there…Okay, there's two there, but they're shifting so I'm guessing they're on patro-Yep, there's another one. Okay, so there is also a patrol pattern,' Toji's eyes were closed as he laid down on the courtyard, his satchel behind his back while the soft grass was on his back.
His ears and nose however were being pushed into overdrive as he focused them around the area of the courtyard, hearing the Dai Li agents shuffling around on the pillars, the rooftops and the shadows.
Their patterns were sharp, he'll give them that. However, one thing he noted was that they were a bit predictable, but it may have been a bit too predictable.
'Ah, I see. They want someone to think there's no gaps since they follow a set pattern when they actually make a few deliberate gaps at random to catch a spy off-guard. Not bad, Dai Li. Not bad.'
"That's him?", He didn't open his eyes as he heard the first whisper, suppressing his smirk as another voice responded with hints of awe.
"Y-Yeah, man. That's him. The guy managed to shut up Ri Yan. Ri Yan, man! You know how hard that is to do?!"
'I guess her dad being a councilman helps a lot in letting her do what she want,' Toji thought as he sat up, opening the scroll from his lap and pretending to read as he focused on the group in front of him.
While most of the kids only had parents in the lower ranks of noble society and were thus seen as fodder, it was the one at the far back of the group and being hounded by the other students that was the main target.
'Ping Luo, nephew to General Sung,' Staring at the chubby black-haired boy who was also the son of a member in the Ministry of Agriculture, Toji focused his hearing as he saw the boy speaking.
"And get this, Father says he's not even a real general. He says that he just brown-nosed his way through court and only got a battalion because he was allied with the Grand Secretariat."
'So, even his family doesn't like him that much, huh?' Toji thought with a hum as he stood up, dusting off his pants and putting his scroll away ashe began making his way to class.
The kid really needs to learn how to shut up, but hey, at least it looks like he's found his first target.
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As the night sky began to form and stars became visible, Toji stood outside one of the public tea spots at the edge of the Upper Ring and close to the Middle ring, which was also a place for any aspiring noble to be at.
It was also quite the weird spot for a general to get tea since Toji was fairly sure they all drank tea in the palace, but General Sung preferred to do public displays over real strategy so as to flaunt his power.
'And if my source is correct, he also enjoys drunken speeches the moment the sun sets,' Toji had seen the man do it for the past month since he first began tailing him.
The man would stand under the stone arch near the top of the bamboo ridge path, flanked by two aides who barely pretended to care as they stood just far enough to be out of danger.
Other than the two aides, he saw no Dai Li or any personal guards, which was arrogant for a man that was the only non-bender of the Council of Five and that was rich coming from Toji himself.
'Still, though, the guy is stupid to not bring guards,' Toji thought as his hands brushed against the stalks of the tall bamboo on the side trail, lockig on the base of a crooked shoot that jutted over the path below.
'Cracked halfway up. It looks a bit rotted near the cracks and it is quite weak…Perfect,' Pressing one hand gentle against it, he hummed as he felt it give for a brief moment before stopping nodding as he began walking along the side trail while his fingers touched each support with a soft yet firm poke.
"Hahahahaha!", General Sung's boisterous laughter echoed in the air and Toji smirked as he watched the aides faking their laughter, waiting patiently before pushing hard on the rotting stalk right as the General stepped back for a dramatic pause.
The next moment, chaotic screams erupted as the stone arch came down, the General's last moments being that of stone falling before Toji nodded as he saw the man's head being crushed under the stone.
'And just like that, we're one down.'
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"They say the general's death was not an accident."
"You kidding? Of course, it wasn't. Didn't you hear that the man was a Fire Nation sympathizer?!"
"Really? I thought it was because he was incompetent or something like that."
"Well, that too, but it's also because he was allied with General Khieu and Duanmu and they both are members of a political faction that is against the Grand Secretarial."
"Sshhhhhh~! You trying to get us killed by the Dai Li?!", The other voice hissed and Toji smirked as he heard the first one giving an apology.
It's been a week since he killed General Sung and there have been nothing but conspiracy theories and speculations thrown around by the regular nobles since the man died.
Some speculated it to be General Khieu and Duanmu since they are allied against Grand Secretarial Long Feng and the other two Generals.
Some speculate that it was the Fire Nation, but that theory quickly vanished after people remembered that the Fire Nation was still outside of the city walls.
Some even thought it was the man's brother since the General was killed in an efficient yet brutal manner, very similar to that of how the man's brother took out his enemies in the Ministry of Agriculture.
However, Toji was not done as he wanted to take out the second target that he's been scoping out for as long as he did Sung, a target that's unfortunately going to take a bit more than the General Sung to take out.
'No one said this was going to be easy,' Toji thought with a sigh as he took out a gold coin to pay for the tea before standing up, making his way back to his house to get his gear.
After all, tonight is going to be the return of Toji the Assassin.
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'General How. War hero, the leader of the Council of Five and only the Earth King and the Grand Secretarial have more political pull than him,' Toji mused to himself as he narrowed his eyes, sitting at the top balcony of the Central Academy Library.
Unlike Sung, How was not careless. The man was respected and celebrated as a tactical genius, especially by the elites of the military and the Academy instructors.
In the six months that Toji has been here since Sung's death, he has already heard the man's name coming up in lectures and/ or the so-called 'student dues' when someone quoted a line from the man's famous Four Stances Doctrine novel.
You know someone is bad ass when they got a whole novel that people is quoting from.
'However, the problem isn't that he's just smarter than Sung. He's also a lot more paranoid than the other general was,' That made sense considering how many people see the man as a symbol of home, but if Toji was going to kill the guy, he needed more than just bamboo and a dramatic push.
'However, every man has their flaw. I just need to find his,' Toji thought with a hum as he stood up from his seat, walking back into the library and slowly making his way to the ground floor.
Time to go do some recon.
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'The man doesn't sleep at home. Instead, he goes to a woman in the middle ring who runs a little gardening shop. She's real quiet and real private as their relationship have been going on for years,' Toji recalled every bit of information he had learned over the past month after giving out a few coins here and there and listening to the war veterans grumble to themselves.
It didn't take them much to speak either. Toji just had to give them some wine, a bit of food and before he knew it, he had found someone trying to drown their sorrows that told him everything.
'And there's the shop,' Toji thought with a hum as he crouched behind a cart, watching as the general dressed in only a dark green robe entered a tea shop that was half hidden by willow trees.
As he watched the man walking in, Toji smirked as he saw the man looking relaxed, shaking his head as the boy kept still while waiting.
'You just showed your weakness, How. You still think this city is worth saving at the cost of your life,' An hour passed and Toji waited patiently as the woman lit all the garden lanters before moving in right as she entered the room.
Moving fast across the street and into the back alley, Toji scaled the walls with ease and dropped besides the flower beds, staring at the couple right as How continued speaking.
"I know the city is rotting, but I want to be a part of the cure. That's why I can't walk away. Not yet," The way the man spoke with conviction, it was almost enough to make the boy hesitate before he moved right as the second cup was poured.
Taking a small pouch of dust that he had made himself, Toji threw it into th eair above the lantern flame and turned the smoke acrid, How standing up right as the woman began coughing.
With ease, a single steel bolt sliced through the air and in between the General's eyes, the last thing he saw being that of Toji standing up before the man fell backwards and Toji walked closer.
'Sorry, man, but you're standing between me and a crap ton of money. Honestly, I'm not really sorry. I just wanted to make you feel good somewhat,' Toji thought with a smile as he hooked his crossbow to his side, taking out a dagger and killing the woman before looking to the cart where he had hidden what he needed to destroy the evidence.
'Well…', Toji trailed off as he took out a can of gasoline and a flint and steel he carried in his backpocket.
Time to make this look like an accident.
A/N: And this part is done~! I was going to make it a general every chapter, but I've decided to make it two geenrals a chapter and next chapter, we're doing a bunch of time skips again.
It's not going to be the ten years that I was expecting, but I think I have something planned for that that I might do as the final time skip before the canon stuff begins.
Anyway, next chapter: Let Chaos Ensue.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next chapter...
Ba-Bye~!