The man in Ozai's service finally arrived at an empty room. After casting one last glance around, he entered without making the slightest sound.
The door closed immediately behind him.
Azula had hidden herself, having noticed the suspicious man checking if he was being followed.
Fortunately, the man dressed in black hadn't detected her before entering.
After a short moment, he emerged, but the boy he had been carrying was no longer in his arms.
Azula concluded that the strange individual had left him in the last room he'd visited.
Once the man in black had vanished, Azula slipped silently into the chamber.
The pale moonlight filtered through the open window; on the bed, Fang Yuan lay motionless.
The young man still had immature features on his face, but there were traces of muscle on his body.
After all, Yu Dao was a city conquered by the Fire Nation, though it originally belonged to the Earth Kingdom.
It wasn't surprising, then, that the boy's way of life was influenced by Earth Kingdom culture.
Her gaze filled with uncontrollable curiosity, young Azula was drawn to the boy's distinct features.
Azula slowly approached Fang Yuan, then touched his immature abs with her finger.
Fang Yuan didn't react.
Azula found this uninteresting and began playing with the unconscious boy's cheeks.
Just as she grew bored of poking at him, Fang Yuan suddenly grabbed her forearm.
"Ah! Let go of me, you—you brute?!" The sudden attack startled Azula.
She struck at Fang Yuan with her other hand, but her desperate attempt didn't damage the boy's grip.
'W-why isn't my fire working?'Azula was confused.
All her life, she had been known as a genius in the art of bending.
Yet, her fire seemed to hesitate to obey her when it came to harming the unconscious boy.
Perhaps because of the insults or the commotion, Fang Yuan released Azula's hand.
From beginning to end, the boy's body had merely reacted to the stimuli from Azula's touch.
Fang Yuan remained unconscious.
Azula rubbed her sore palm, stinging from the encounter.
She wanted to kick him twice to vent her anger but remembered the anomaly with her firebending.
The young Fire Nation princess was no fool.
On the contrary, Azula was a highly perceptive girl for her age, unlike her brother Zuko.
"Tch… you'll see next time," she muttered to herself before hurriedly slipping out through the window.
She had heard movement outside the room and decided to flee, as she didn't have time to dwell on the anomaly.
After her departure, two young palace maids pushed open the door and entered abruptly.
"I definitely heard someone talking earlier," said a slightly chubby maid, looking around, perplexed.
"Alright, His Highness Ozai wants us to take care of young master Fang Yuan. Hurry up and light the lamps," said another slender maid, carrying a basin of hot water as she entered.
While the two maids busied themselves with their tasks, Azula returned to her room and pressed herself against the wall.
Lying on her bed, she pondered the anomaly Fang Yuan had triggered during their contact.
"Tomorrow, I'll make him pay," she muttered as sleep slowly overtook her.
Azula had never suffered such a loss in her life; she couldn't stand it.
As she reflected, drowsiness finally claimed her.
Azula closed her eyes and sank into a deep sleep.
…
In a slightly dazed state, Fang Yuan finally opened his heavy eyelids.
He sat up slowly, his eyes scanning his surroundings.
Around him stretched an infinite space, dimly lit, with water gently rippling beneath his feet.
A manga fan, Fang Yuan couldn't help but think of the place where Kurama resides in the Naruto universe.
"Where am I…? How did I get here…?" he murmured, analyzing every detail of this strange space.
He had just been fighting bandits; how had he ended up here in the blink of an eye?
As his mind pieced together all available information to make sense of the situation, memories flooded back: the voice, then the explosion of a pillar of fire.
'The last thing I saw… was my mother, collapsed in a pool of blood and flames. '
Painful images surged, and a sense of helplessness gripped his heart.
He clenched his fists, knowing regret would change nothing.
"I was arrogant and vain… from now on, I'll train harder," he said in a faint voice.
"Yes… I'll become the strongest."
His immature voice echoed in the vast space as he stared at his small fist.
"Do you truly wish to become stronger?"
A feminine, ethereal voice suddenly rang out.
"Who's there?"
Fang Yuan raised his hand and assumed a firebending combat stance.
At that moment, dozens of lights, like tiny fireflies, appeared in the dark void above him.
Soon, they swirled and took the form of a crimson bird, enveloped in red flames.
The darkness above Fang Yuan lit up as if a sun had appeared. The immense bird floated before him, like a fiery mountain descended from the heavens.
Yet, around the creature, Fang Yuan felt no change in temperature; everything seemed normal, as it had before its appearance.
'Its control over fire is terrifying,' he thought as the beast observed him.
"I am the Vermilion Bird."
(Image)
The ethereal voice resonated directly in his mind.
"Please lower your guard. If I had ill intentions toward you, you would already be reduced to ashes, like the murderers of your parents."
Fang Yuan searched his mind for information about the Vermilion Bird but found no trace of the name beyond Earth's myths.
"Vermilion Bird… What's your purpose? Why did you bring me here?" he asked, choosing his words carefully.
The being before him hadn't lied about the bandits, and he felt incapable of fighting such an immense entity.
"This place is your sea of consciousness."
The Vermilion Bird folded its wings and landed gracefully on the ground.
"My brothers and I reside here temporarily for certain reasons," it said calmly.
"But why are you and your brothers in my sea of consciousness?" Fang Yuan asked, perplexed.
He pressed for more information from the unknown creature in his mind.
"My brothers and I do not belong to this world. Thus, it is impossible for anyone to know of our existence."
The voice echoed in his mind.
"At your birth, we descended into this world, but it could not meet our requirements for manifestation. We needed a vessel. You were the best choice… but you were too young and weak at the time to bear our full power."
The voice carried a hint of disdain, but Fang Yuan chose to ignore it.
What could he do against a bird the size of a mountain?
"We had no choice but to seal our power and slumber in your sea of consciousness… but your weakness disrupted our rest."
The Vermilion Bird seemed frustrated.
"Wait… you're saying I was the best vessel for your descent into this world? Why? I don't feel different."
Fang Yuan hesitated, uneasy at the thought of multiple entities residing in his mind.
"Your previous life came from the same world as us. Your soul and body are thus our best refuge."
The response surged in his mind.
"You must have noticed, haven't you? Those memories from another world that keep resurfacing."
The Bird spoke casually of a secret Fang Yuan had carried since birth.
It was also the key to his understanding of fire; he had never spoken of it to anyone.
Since he was old enough to understand, memories that didn't belong to him had constantly appeared.
All those memories belonged to a single person, a human from a world called Earth.
There, bending, spirits, and monstrously gigantic beasts didn't exist.
'Did I recover my memories because of their presence in my mind?'
The revelation seemed insane, but it made more sense than the idea of "I'm the chosen one."
Fang Yuan had simply been in the right fictional world, at the right time, when divine entities were searching for someone with a recent past life from Earth.