After placing a considerable amount of his savings on the boulder and betting that he is beaten by the blind bandit in the final he returned to Aang, Katara and Sokka.
"Where where you?" Katara asked and Akira smiled.
"I placed bets" he said "trust me this is a good way to make money"
"You did what? Why are you wasting our money?" Katara asked and Akira just sighed.
"Just watch and enjoy the show for now. Later we go back with a bag of gold" Akira said and finched as the champion of the fire nation crashed to the ground right next to them and Sokka insulting him to no end.
After a few fights the boulder stood undefeated in the arena and Akiras money was growing with every match.
"Aaaand here is the current champion, the bliiiiinnnnd baaandiiiit!!!" the announcer said and a small blind girl with a green champions belt appeared.
"She isn't really blind right?" Katara asked.
"Oh she very much is but that doesn't brother her the slightest" Akira said "Aang meet your earthbending teacher. The best earthbender besides mabye king Bumi"
"What? This little girl is as powerful as king Bumi you say?" Aang asked sceptic.
"Just wait and see" Akira said and grinned.
Then the fight started and when the boulder was just about to launch his first attack Toph bended the ground beneath him to shift and let him perform a painful looking split.
After this he was ruthlessly knocked out of the ring by dulled earth spikes.
"Ruthless precision" Akira just said and grinned "I'm collecting my money"
Five minutes later he had a fat sack of money in his arms and stored it inside his inventory in a quiet isolated corner.
When he came back Aang was already fighting against Toph trying to persuade her to become his earthbending teacher.
After Aang defeated Toph with airbending she stormed out of the Arena.
Sokka quickly collected the prize money and they them made their way to the Beifong residence.
Yes,Akira had told them about it he was a bit impatient.
They climbed over the small wall of the Beifong residence and were launched into the air by a quick wave of earthbending.
"What are you doing here twinkle toes?" Toph asked and Aang gave a really confusing rambling about the reason why he was here.
"What Aang wants to say is that he is the avatar and he needs an earthbending teacher" Katara said.
"I don't see where this is my problem. Fuck off or I'll call the guards" Toph said.
"This war concerns us all, everyone has to play their part..." Sokka began but was interrupted by Toph.
"Guards!!! Help me!!!" she screamed and they quickly jumped back over the wall to not get caught.
After this they tried the direct approach and ask to meet the Beifong family and it worked.
After a few minutes they were allowed to enter and recieved an invitation for dinner with the Beifong family.
"Avatar, it is a great honour that you've come to visit us" the father of Toph said and Akira just sighed. This will be boring.
Well the antics of Toph and Aang during dinner were also pretty funny.
So after the whole drama they went to sleep in a room of the Beifong residence.
Then before they went to sleep Toph appeared and took Aang for a walk outside into the garden while Akira just wanted to sleep.
"Hey Akira, wake up!!! Aang and Toph were kidnapped by some crazy earthbenders from the Arena" Katara said and shook him.
"Hmm? Did that really happen?" he asked confused not really remembering all the details.
"Whatever let's just beat their ass and go back to sleep" he said and changed his clothes to his combat armor.
"We know where Xin Fu is come on" Sokka said and they ran to the Arena together with Tophs parents and thsi weird earthbending teacher whose name Akira forgot.
"Here is the money, now give back Aang and Toph" Sokka said and Akira really wanted to just slamm them into the wall but he needed to wait.
This match would show how awesome Toph was even to her parents so he just sat sown on one of the seats in the Arena and made himself a cold fruit drink with his ice manipulation.
Just how Iroh loved tea he had grown quite fond of colder more fruity drinks.
"Aahhh, that's the taste!" Akira said after taking a big gulp of his iced orange-lemon mix.
"Hey Akira, what the fuck are you doing? Help us free Aang!" Katara screamed enraged but Akira just made a rejecting geasture.
"Nah, I'm sure you'll handle it" he said and slurped on his drink.
After asking him Katara convinced Toph to fight and free Aang and oh boy...
She absolutely destroyed them.
"Woah, that was amazing Toph" Akira said jumping down "see? I told you you would be fine"
That was amazing! Your daughter is awesome. She is the best eartbender I have ever met" the no-name earthbending teacher said to Tophs father.
They then returned to Toph's house and stood there as the legendary face off between Toph and her repressive parents happened.
"I know it is propably hard for you to see me this way but I'm not the helpless little blind girl that you think I was" Toph said "I love fighting and earthbending and I'm really really good at it"
Toph raised her head to ger father.
"I know I kept my life secret from you but you were keeping me secret from the whole world. I know you did that to protect me father..." Toph said bitterly " but I am now 12 years old and never had any friends. So now that you saw how I really am I hope your feelings about me haven't changed"
"Of course not, it just made me realized that I left you far too much freedom. From now on you will be guarded and cared for 24 hours a day" Tophs father said sternly "escort the Avatar and his friends outside"
"You dare!" Akira shouted and all eyes snapped to him.
"I know you have a shit ton of money and you are an aristrocratic family but this doesn't give you the right to treat your own daughter this way!" Akira said pointing at Toph "she is the greatest earthbender in the whole world and you want to lock her up in your residence like a nice trophy to look at? Real parents support and guide their children in what they want to do and they don't force their own expectations on them!"
Silence...absolute silence.
Tophs parents were too shocked that someone would speak to them in such a way even lecturing them how they should handle their own child.
The shock turned to anger.
"Toph is my daughter and I know whats best for her, not some stranger that bareley knows her for a day" Tophs father said enraged.
"Then why is it that even when you are daughter and father you are still total strangers after all these years?" Akira said looking between Toph and her father.
He then clicked his tongue annoyed and walked out of the room with Aang and the rest following them.
"Are you crazy? What if they would decide to imprision us because of such a disrespect?" Sokka asked.
"Whatever I could have escaped anyways" Akira said and walked out of the residence.
"Just wait a bit and Toph will join us" he said smirking.
"But her father forbade her to come with us" Sokka said.
"Oh she is a very rebellious person" Akira said and sat on an ice block he created.
They made themselves ready for departure loading their proviants and luggage on the back of Appa when Toph came running to them.
"Haha!!! See I was right!" Akira said triumphantly pointing at Toph.
"I am comming with you. My father suddenly rejoiced and said I should go ahead and travel the world" Toph said and Akira shook her hand.
"Welcome in the team" he said warmly.
"Oh right. Aang can you come down? I am your earthbending teacher now and would like to show you something right now" Toph said.
"Oh really? Okay!" Aang said innocently and jumped down just to be launced into a tree by a boulder that shot out of the ground.
Toph smirked and stretched out her hand.
"I'll take the champions belt back if you don't mind" Toph said and Sokka threw the belt down straigt on Tophs head.
"Are you okay?" Akira asked and helped her up "If you are hurt I can heal you"
"I'm fine, I can take care of myself" Toph said.
Akira just sighed and rememered the words of his father.
"I helped you up because I wanted, not because I think you can't take care of yourself" Akira said to her "for no other reason. After all that's what friends are for no? To help each other. I help you but I also expect you to take care of me when I am sick or injured later"
Toph froze and thought about his words then just nodded and jumped on Appa's back.
'Oh this will be a bit annoying' Akira thought and jumped after her.