Captain Aki. For the valor and honor you have shown on the battlefield, for completing the tasks and missions assigned to you, you have been promoted to major. Happy service, Major!
Aki, now unofficially, first of all, congratulations! I'm sure the next promotion will not be long in coming; unfortunately, jumping through ranks will no longer be possible. You cope very well with the role assigned to you. The results are excellent, my agents report that life, even where you were not, is getting better, rumors about you as the Inspector and Kira, for some reason, seem to be about two different people, but nevertheless they very well restrain their different... desires , so to speak.
But many people here in the capital are interested in you. Including the Fire Lord. Be prepared for surprises, pleasant or not. There is nothing I can do to help here. You understand. But they became interested mainly in a positive way. There was one family here who was dissatisfied with the arrest of their son, but I resolved the direct conflict.
Further, the official letter carries the necessary documents and a challenge. A lot of unemployed people right at the front are thrown to a new front - to the northern tribe of water. I want to say there is more meat planned there. But I can't do anything. Thank you Agni, they are putting you there not as a simple Major, but taking into account all your activities, the Fire Lord himself sent you as an inspector. You will be assigned to Admiral Zhao and will be required to report all his actions. But, unfortunately, this is being done officially and the Admiral himself is aware of it. I don't like his politics, which he has in mind for the tribe, and your idea about medicine is very good. Try your best in this matter, I will support you if anything happens.
That's all. Good luck and successful service, Major!
It was a letter from General Lee, as you might guess. Now I'm Major. And I'm going to the North Pole. To the fucking North Pole. But this is a good chance to prevent the massacre of an entire people. Or our fleet, depending on the avatar. I don't remember how he did it, but I remember the fact itself. The avatar won then, as well as in subsequent events.
Now official letters. Well, yes, the necessary regalia, documents, and so on. And the request that Lee was talking about, officially noted by the Fire Lord's office. They say to come to the capital for additional personnel and transfer to another direction.
Fuck.
"Did something happen Aki?" - asked June, sitting next to her.
We were now riding quietly in a cart in a convoy to the main headquarters. Next they had to return to the old tactics, reconnaissance and then a wave of arrests.
But apparently not fate. More precisely, I will most likely leave the Kyoshi girls here and even give the go-ahead to slowly clean up the area, but there are too few of them. And Suyuki may have purely legal rights to recruit locals, I didn't look at the document that Lee gave her, but in fact questions will arise. And we don't need it.
"I'm being transferred to another front." Most likely temporary, but still," I explained.
- And where will the difficult time take us this time? - June asked ironically.
By the way, I still don't understand why she's following us around. There is no money coming from this, not that the best mercenary has problems with this, but nevertheless, there seem to be no other bonuses either. So why?
"Unfortunately, or fortunately, it was just me and the poor guy, our people decided to take the Northern Water Tribe. Many free officers are being transferred there.
- This is what happens if you fail...
"And you're a pessimist, madam," I chuckled, "but yes, if by some miracle everyone, or most, die there, then there will be a huge crisis." The fleet, a bunch of high-ranking officials and so on, we will lose all of this. But I think everything will be fine.
- Why are these hermits bothering you so much? - June sighed, - what is the point of all this?
"Who knows," I shrugged, "most likely they are somehow involved in the war, plus they're just an annoying element." So they sit there and don't stick their noses out, you noted correctly, but in reality, who knows. The General doesn't report to me, but the Fire Lord does to him. So, only Ozai knows what's in Ozai's head.
"And that's true," the mercenary sighed, "so what next?"
- What's next? — I didn't understand the question, "I'm leaving the girls with you here, and I'm sailing with the poor fellows to the capital." There is no third.
"Mmmm, I see," June answered slightly dissatisfied, "then I'll probably go on a free voyage too."
"It's up to you," I shrugged, "won't you tell me why you spent so much time helping us?" Don't take it for rudeness.
"I wanted it and helped," June muttered, in a very dissatisfied voice, "I'll go ride Nyla."
- And what made her so angry? - I asked myself, - women.
The poor guy sitting nearby who heard our dialogue chuckled. They got completely insolent.
The farewell turned out to be rather crumpled. That first with June, whom I thanked, gave money and she again left dissatisfied with something. Maybe menstruation, huh? Having muttered this question again out loud, what kind of bad habit had begun to form, someone nearby chuckled again. Yes, he's sick of it! I'll rot on watch!
With Kyoshi, the farewell was more understandable. Everyone hugged everyone, wished them luck, said goodbye, but again at a fast pace. We need to hurry, we were given just enough time before arriving in the capital to load up and go, and they don't give a damn that at that moment we were a day's journey from the city. Well, at least Uli chuckled and promised to finish it on time. And he keeps his words.
"Look, Suyuki, I give you complete approval for any action, you have proven your prudence in all... almost all actions," the girl became depressed at these words, but what can you do? I will hold her "by the balls" for a long time at this moment. There is, of course, friendliness and empathy towards her, but most of it disappeared when I found out that she decided to rat me out. My revenge will be unnoticeable, but long-lasting.
Well, maybe someday I'll take pity, maybe even soon, because I'm honestly tired of looking at her sad face. My conscience burst out of the grave and grabbed me by the throat more than ever, wanting revenge. But for now I'm ignoring it.
- Just please be careful. Remember that there is no reinforcement in the form of poor fellows. It would be ideal if you worked only as intelligence, but knowing your character, I very much doubt it. And most importantly, most importantly, do not try to build locals. When there were poor fellows behind us it was one thing, now it's something else. You are alone and please be careful.
"Yeah," she nodded and rushed to hug him.
Well, maybe this really is the last time we'll see each other, we're not going on a picnic, we might as well hug.
"Come on, don't hang your nose," I chuckled, "I'll see you soon."
Ueli Maurer keeps his word. We were in the capital on time. But, bitch, how. We flew, mother, don't worry, the engine was chugging, and the poor fellows were so tired of throwing coal that the magicians even had to help with fire in huge quantities. So we approached the capital, squeezed like lemons, but on time.
And the first thing they did was, of course, go to the general. I had to put on the helmet that I so disliked. I've already forgotten about him, but he's a bitch, not about me.
"Hurry up," he greeted me with these words, "and I've already prepared the necessary excuses to wait for you."
"Uli knows his stuff," I shrugged, "they flew like birds, only across the sea." But the squad needs rest, even me.
"Yes, I guess," the general chuckled, "you have a few days." By the way, you can wear the mask that is on your belt. I already told you, but I'll say it again, the helmet can be customized to suit you. Who will have any complaints about you wearing a helmet? In general, it's better to meet the new additions with them now.
With these words, he rose from the table and walked with a brisk step, just as he had done when I first came to him. Although this is the second one, it seems. Hmmm.
What should I do? Having removed the hated pan, he followed along, enjoying the freedom on his head.
My poor fellows were just on the site, we were all locked in here, after all, there weren't so many people, taking into account the losses and the absence of Maurer's men, who involuntarily also came under my command on the ground with the approval of Uli, of course, and Kioshnits.
They greeted us by standing side by side and making a traditional greeting gesture. And a bow, where would we go without it?
"It's not worth it," Lee waved his hand, "so, here's the fresh meat."
Deja vu. The general waved his hand to the site where a dozen people were training. And their jumping around a dummy with a halberd, which they held like a stick, looked traditionally pathetic.
- Fighters! — the general said in a loud voice, "R-a-a-a-a-aaaa!" Smi-i-irno!
The new poor fellows, by the way, sound inconvenient, it's time to raise mine to at least some rank, they are no longer so poor, the personal elite, one might say... let there be nukers. It's a stupid name, taken from some book, but it will do. And the poor fellows are new now.
Although it's somehow illogical. Why should I call them "nukers and poor fellows" now? Well, that's stupid. Then, let everyone remain poor fellows, but the old people will be nukers, and the new ones will be wretches. Why not?
So my nukers stood there, waiting for the show, and the general and the unfortunates did not disappoint.
"So, meet me, Major Aki," General Lee introduced me, I took a step forward and waited for further words, which I could see from the eyes that were shining through the helmet.
- What, another golden boy who needs to be protected? - one of them said.
From the troubles... nukers, ugh, you have to get used to it, a distinct chuckle was heard. Well, at least this time on topic.
"Now we'll check," Lee grinned openly.
"Take your weapons and attack all at once," I said with a sigh.
The circle of Samsara is some kind of goddamn thing, and now teach them everything again. Well, after I drive it into the dirt, of course.
***
No official events or approval for the battle followed, thank the gods. That is, everyone was happy that I was instructed only by General Lee. Therefore, I had several days to instill in the unfortunates the basic concepts of our Akimo gang... detachment.
What exactly did my nukers do? They, too, are no longer made with a finger, they scatter the poor thing only in this way and immediately immediately bring them up to speed. This is right.
But in any case, you will need to get to know the team. This time, old Uli remains somewhere in the rear out of work. His specialization is still completely not for attack. And a different type of ship. Not for battles.
Therefore, I went to old Uli to say goodbye, he will be given another task and who knows when we will meet. Finally, we, of course, grabbed a little from his bottomless reserves and went in our own directions.
As it turned out, the poor fellows can't take too much with them. Five to seven people in the personal guard or something like that. There is a feeling that this rule was invented on the fly, so that the inspector wouldn't struggle too much while on the move. Zhao-Zhao, what are you up to so that you insure yourself from all sides?
To be honest, I'm already scared of the ideas of what he could have planned. Well, purely theoretically, what? Slaughter the entire tribe? In my opinion, no one will even look askance. Well, I cut it out and cut it out, so it had to be this way.
Of course, I'll squint, but I'll do the same. Avatar wants to be caught in the process? The flag is in his hands, what am I against? Or someone else?
In general, a chill sensation goes down the back, it's not without reason that Bzzz, it's not without reason. Well, never mind, we'll decide on the spot. Zhao apparently is not very aware that the poor fellows are more of an addition to my main weapon than the main striking force of my nano-army.
We were assembled a few days later, I, as expected, will go on the main ship of the army and my role is simple - to monitor the situation among the officers. I still don't control Zhao, I now act as a counterintelligence officer and make sure that no one has crazy shit lying around in their head.
Besides me, Zhao himself was on the ship, and, of course, Prince Iroh himself. This is what he's doing here, I don't give a fuck in my heart. I hope I can talk to him one on one. For such a task, the leading officer ship even gave me a cabin.
True, just before sailing, General Lee called me again. In his office he sat incredibly thoughtful and read some message.
"Aki, it's good that you came," he saw me, "I categorically don't like what's happening, Aki." But I can't do anything about it. Officially, if something happens to Zhao, all command passes to you.
- To me? - I was seriously surprised, - what the hell?
"I don't know," Lee shook his head, not looking up from the text, "the letter came from the office of the Fire Lord." It seems they took you on board and are very, very pleased with your command. So much so that they decided to entrust control to you, and not to Prince Iroh or anyone else of higher rank.
- How is this even possible? I am a Major, I simply do not have the right to command such an army!?
- Yes, but you are not just a major, Aki, and you know it. Purely legally speaking, everything doesn't look so scary; in theory, by virtue of your position, you should be aware of all the admiral's plans and your goal, upon the death of the current commander, is to take command while holding positions. Roughly speaking, only you must be completely aware of everything and must stupidly bide your time until new instructions arrive.
- Looks like an excuse.
"Exactly," Lee sighed, "They just found a reason to use you as backup." And they hope that you can handle it if anything happens. And now I hope too. Should I cope?
- Yes, nothing! - I flared up a little, - who came up with this? I led a detachment of a couple of dozen people, well, at most fifty, and the work was done effectively, but I knew the weaknesses of my different parts of the detachment and their strengths; even a fool would have figured out who and where to send. And then there's the fucking fleet.
"That's why I hope that if something happens, you will really listen to the words of the Dragon of the West." I think he can take on these kinds of moments.
"Uf-f-f-f," I exhaled, falling into a chair in front of the general, "let's be honest, do you know what plans they are making for me?"
"No, but it's not difficult to guess," the general finally lowered the documents. "Given the news about the avatar, a decision was made to force the war and bring it to the end, I think this is already obvious."
- Yes, that's understandable.
"But we suddenly came across that "our people" are crammed everywhere and sending them on especially important missions... is not the best option. In general, the army turned out to be thoroughly worm-eaten with bribery and nepotism. But it smells like kerosene. That's why they search, they dig with their noses, they sort through the grains in order to find not only a beautiful figure for greater PR and intimidation of enemies, but also smart commanders. And then, out of nowhere, rumors spread throughout the entire continent of the earth about such a Kira, who cleaned out almost all the pirates and went through the colonies with a fine strainer and brought intelligence from the capital. Understand? Perfect option.
- And what? Will they pump me up with some kind of magic, call me Captain Fire, dress me in a flag of fire, give me a shield and carry me around like an exhibit? — I was scared, listening to these revelations.
- No no. They'll just give you a position that speaks better and launch a PR company wherever I can. So that everyone knows that there are such secret weapons and armies of Fire. And the most dangerous tasks will be assigned to your squad. Something like this: intelligence from Basingse, capture an avatar, and so on. Got it?
"I just realized that I want to get out of here, preferably to the moon," I said, "but there's nothing to do." But what will happen if Zhao calmly ends his campaign and I don't have any complaints.
"They'll come up with something," Li shrugged, "if you don't mess things up, you'll get a lot of medals, even if you just stand next to Zhao and look at it all." Maybe even more than Zhao himself, he is needed now, of course, but not in such a way that he messes up too many times. If he does something wrong now, he will definitely be demoted.
- That's piss...
We left a day after that conversation, which left me uneasy for a long time. They're making me into some kind of superstar, at least for the army. And they're blinding me, I'll have to do something with Zhao, because I'm too worried about him and his habits.
The fleet, by the way, was huge. Our ship was ahead and we were just standing on the observation deck.
We are me, Zhao and Iroh.
In front there was a cold winter and clean view, just pristine. At least sketch this, it's very beautiful. I'm more sorry for the various nonsense than for the beautiful landscapes. Although you can try.
Actually, said done, and within five minutes one of the poor fellows brought me everything I needed for drawing.
Both of my "neighbors" glanced sideways at me, but kept quiet. Everyone has their own quirks, why not draw.
But I wanted to capture not only the virginity of the polis. But also what kind of mark we leave on it. Hundreds of ships releasing a ton of steam into the air leave behind black snow, gray clouds and a lot of smoke. To be honest, I'm not sure that the back column doesn't need to wear some kind of masks so as not to inhale all these fumes during the journey.
Half an hour later, both commanders were already looking respectfully, because I quickly and with experience drew with brushes and initially only scribbles were visible, but over time the picture acquired its intended appearance.
When I was already finishing the picture, Zhao decided to vote. God knows why and why, it was somehow unexpectedly sharp.
- This will go down in history, General Iroh, imagine in a century people will remember the great Admiral Zhao, who destroyed the civilization of the Water People. "You're both lucky that you're here," he said in a whole speech, playing with intonations and pauses.
What a poser, huh.
"Be careful what you wish for, Admiral." History is not always kind to its heroes.
Yes, by the way, his plan is to destroy the entire tribe. That's it. I can't say or do anything against this; here he was given freedom. Oh, the admiral stumbles a couple of times, oh, he stumbles and right on a long thin pointed piece of iron. It will fall straight down several times.
I desperately need watermen. Or rather, their healers. This is really necessary, I asked a little around different people and they say that good healers are water magicians and can heal fractures in a day. So this is not a replacement for brilliant green, but some kind of magical piano from the bushes for the entire Fire Nation. You just need to be able to use it.
But the admiral doesn't even want to think about anything else. Here to destroy everyone and everything. Stubborn sheep.
- Exactly. "We all just heard about the one who commanded the destruction of the airborne aircraft," I sarcastically, "what was his name?" Mmm, it doesn't seem like it. No one cares about the instrument, only the one who directs it. Therefore, everyone will remember that Fire Lord Ozai destroyed the Water Tribe.
"You say this from your own experience," he ignored my teasing when answering Iroh, "but don't worry, it won't be like your famous defeat at Basings."
"Of course it won't," I assented, "there the army was three times smaller and there were five times more enemies behind the huge wall." And to lose now with such a fleet, you have to be an imbecile.
"What did you just call me, Major?" — Zhao finally drew attention to my teasing, highlighting, of course, the last word.
"Are you going to lose, Admiral?" - I did not remain in debt, - in any case, if I were you, I would not share the skin of an unkilled platypus. According to my assumptions, water workers now have an avatar, and you yourself know what this entails.
By the way, all this time I was not open to the drawing process. Therefore, most likely, this made Zhao incredibly angry. Here he is pushing a speech, and the one who should listen to him is busy with his own affairs.
"Of course, I know," the admiral said with a grimace, but nevertheless changing the topic, "tell the captain to prepare for the attack."
This is what happens, our admiral does not want confrontation with me. Apparently, having also been in the capital, he sensed that I was in someone's favor and they needed to establish contacts with me. Still a slug.
- Who are you talking to? - I continued to tease the admiral, - I am not obliged to carry out your orders, I'm sure you know that, Prince Iroh - even less so. He is your advisor, not your servant or subordinate.
It seems that the avatar himself heard the grinding of this turkey's teeth while sitting at the North Pole. But nevertheless, he remained silent and turned on his heels and went inside the ship himself, giving orders clearly.
"It's not worth it," Iroh breathed out, "I could go, it's not difficult for me."
- Break off this pompous turkey who dares to order the Dragon of the West, the prince of the Fire Nation? — I asked ironically, "Of course it was worth it." I'll probably even indicate this in my report. You need to be more respectful, more respectful. I suppose when you captured Basingse, I was at an age when I listened to every news from the front with great interest. Especially about your direction. And now what an important turkey.
"Ehehe," the prince breathed out, "it was a long time ago...
And he fell silent. Apparently, he did not want to raise the issue of the topic of Zhao's speech. Well, I'm not a timid person, I'll say then.
"As I understand it, the master and you warned me about this particular trouble?" About Zhao's plan to slaughter another nation?
"No, no," Iroh shook his head, "we didn't know what exactly would happen." But the news indicated that something was moving. Even without an avatar it would move. That's why we asked you to save as many lives as possible. Here in such a situation.
- Do you know that if something happens to the Admiral, command will pass into my hands? - I asked.
"I know," Iroh answered simply.
And what did I expect? That he will now split about how he knows who did it, whether it was me on the pencil. Yeah, and then he himself will offer to soak Zhao, throw away the corpse and announce that the admiral has escaped. Swim.
"You make very beautiful paintings," Iroh said, coming up to me and looking over his shoulder, "I bought a couple of works." Hanging... hanging in my cabin. Unfortunately, the ship was blown up by pirates... along with Prince Zuko - yeah, of course, he wants to test the waters.
"Hmm, these pirates have become completely insolent," I said unnaturally indignant, "so our ship was also attacked." At night they killed a lot of people. But they simply didn't have time to deliver the explosives. Agree, the handwriting is familiar.
"Yes, yes," Iroh nodded again broadly, "yes, yes." Okay, we started talking about something, I'll go and have some tea.
After waiting ten seconds for the general to move away from the door through which he entered, I snuck in after him. I remember Prince Zuko, he survived for sure and ended up at the pole. And it seems to me that our Dragon is far from being a tea drinker.
But nothing terrible happened, with my magic I only felt that he was unnaturally close, approached one of the guards, apparently whispered something in his ear and then went about his business. I have a subtle suspicion. It remains to check whether, as they say, I was right or wrong.
***
After some time, literally a couple of hours, the north pole was already visible on the horizon. And the closer we swam, the more tension we felt.
Yes, on paper, everything is really simple, numerical superiority, technological superiority, surprise, and so on and so forth, but in pure text it sounds like it's going to happen for twenty minutes.
This is a full-fledged assault, when people will be in direct conflict and losses are simply inevitable. And if you consider that Avatar is there, then in general it all sounds so-so. Therefore, there was excitement, even among Zhao, which was expressed by tightly clenched hands behind his back and pursed lips a little stronger than usual.
But what can I say, it turns out that I'm worried too. I realized this when I noticed excessive touching of the rapier behind me. I'll rub it, then I'll pull it out and look at it. In general, moments that are unusual for me.
When we had already sailed up, I decided to throw in one very interesting topic.
"I propose to send a truce," I said, when the three of us once again stood on the observation deck and this time stuck at least not into the distance, but into the settlement of the watermen, "not to attack right away."
"These are savages," Zhao snorted, "they have no idea what a parliamentarian is and will simply kill him." I'm not going to devote people and time to this.
"And I agree with Major Aki, Admiral," Iroh said, "whether they know it or not, the main thing is the fact itself." History loves such gestures.
"They are attacking the envoy, I will not allocate people for this," Zhao concluded.
"Yes, I can go myself," I interrupted him, don't let me continue the thought and get off this topic. For some reason, he didn't want to send any envoys, but he couldn't directly send two important people, so he tried to play around.
Apparently he was afraid that the watermen would give up?
Is there an objective chance of this? To be honest, there are some. Even the most backward cavemen should understand the futility of this battle. And the water workers seem to be of a higher level than these. But these chances are absolutely slim. Therefore, I myself, personally, will go to persuade. I have a little plan.
Three people loaded into the boat - me and two military men who rowed the boat with a white flag. When there were about fifty meters left to the wall, we froze, waiting for the oncoming envoy, but he still wasn't there.
Then I decided to go all-in, kind of. I tore a white rag from a local flagpole, jumped up and flew with a snap of my fingers. From the outside it looks like it's being propelled by jet propulsion, but in reality it's using air magic.
It just masked my big jump, supposedly helping with the blue flame. I flew straight into the wall and landed immediately with my arms raised and a white flag in one of them.
A bunch of icicles or a small volume of floating water immediately appeared around me, in short, they were ready to act.
- I am a parliamentarian. Bring your boss to me, we'll discuss the main points before the battle.
It is worth saying that I was fully in my uniform, including the mask. Therefore, I looked as if I had come for the souls of the locals, like fucking death, only with a rapier, not a scythe. The cloak unfolded epically behind my back while I was flying, and I landed with my legs slightly bent, but nevertheless looking straight and immediately raising my hands, showing that I was not dangerous.
Although I lifted my limbs, of course, not much, just lazily, so that it's clear. From the outside it was clear that I was not afraid, but was only indicating that I was not aggressive.
At least I hope so, judging by their faces.
- Who? Parlater? - one of the watermen with a blunter muzzle than those around him yelled something and rushed at me with a spear.
I intercepted his weapon and simply fixed it in place, but from the inertia after the run, he jerked forward, where I simply hit him in the nose with my iron forehead.
The rest were somehow in no hurry to repeat the feat of their comrade, as I was afraid, and I continued, sighing heavily:
"I'm here to talk to your leader to avoid unnecessary bloodshed." Come on, get moving.
Well, maybe someone suddenly had their brains in their skull, or I don't know what happened, but it worked. And despite the hubbub around, a few minutes later the leader arrived with a retinue of various people. I think the most experienced water magicians and a couple of advisers.
- What do you want on our land!? - he asked the question pathetically.
"Let's not throw around pompous words," I simply answered, wincing under the mask, "this is an obvious action." There is a war going on, during which you sit at your pole and quietly bargain with the Earth Continent, supplying them with various resources. It's logical why we came. Finish with you one way or another. As you can see from the number of ships behind me, this will not take much time. A day, maybe two, or at the very least a week.
"We will fight for our home as long as necessary!" — the local chief spoke pathetically again. Does he know how to conduct a constructive dialogue at all? Okay, let's try further.
- Why is all this? - the time has come for the key sentence - we are not demons or devils, we do not need your destruction. Become part of the Fire Nation, then no one will get hurt, then your standard of living will increase," with these words I took off my mask to try to show my interlocutor that I was human, "together we can raise medicine to a level never seen before. We can do a lot and no one will have to die. Your life will not get worse, if you want it, it will hardly change at all...
- This is Kira I was talking about! - my old friend from the avatar team got out of the crowd standing behind - Sokka, how he made his way straight to the leader is a mystery - he keeps lying, he always lies! You can't trust him, they will come here and kill everyone. We've seen this before!
No, well, it's just crazy, they piled on some fucking idiot, but the Leader was already thinking, he saw in his eyes the right dots connected, oh how they could use our steam technologies, and there are no line resources. My words found a response in his heart, but the fucking idiot with a ponytail decided to just yell random general phrases that boil down to the fact that we are bad and it worked.
The leader apparently ran around ideas in his head for a couple of seconds, but I already understood where everything was going and began to fill the air with a combustible mixture.
I was, of course, right, and literally a couple of seconds later the Leader made a decision, and it was clearly not in my favor. Well, what the hell are you doing, killing so many people and why? Let's win.
"Nice try, Kira," the Leader said almost contemptuously, "but we won't buy your sweet talk." Take him!
"Well, of course, I knew that they hardly have any idea about the laws of war," I rolled my eyes and walked up to the edge, retreating from the approaching soldiers, lastly showed my middle finger, well, that's what I wanted, and jumped with my back down.
I jumped harder than an ordinary person and clearly, but not so much as to suspect me of an airbender. My goal was to jump approximately to the level of the boat that was waiting for me.
And in flight, he snapped his fingers, which caused a rather strong explosion of blue flame all over the top of the wall. It's unlikely that I hurt anyone really strong with this, water magicians are strong guys, but at least I gave a signal. Immediately after this, our shells rained down there, and I twisted in flight to fall on my feet and clicked again, masking the jets of air, on which I descended into the boat.
"Let's swim," I said to the guys and seeing their questioning glances, I said, "no chance, apparently there are no brains there, and all of them at once."
The walls were thrown with burning stones until the evening, and to be honest, what at first seemed too easy, especially after seeing the walls of Basingse, in reality turned out to be not so easy. The holes were quickly restored by water magicians and the whole work was done again. Another thing is that we are not fools either, even Zhao and these projectiles can be thrown as much as you like, but the magicians there are clearly tired of doing magic.
The bad thing is that it's getting close to evening, and I made some inquiries and know that Water magicians become stronger at night. An interesting fact about local magic. It turns out that fire magicians are stronger during the day, water magicians at night, and earth and air magicians? Although, it's not for nothing that I felt so good in the mountains.
Well, then it's just not fair, earthbenders have an eternal boost when they're near the ground…. Or maybe that's why they hold the entire continent? They don't have "weaknesses" like others. Near fire - at night, near water - during the day, near air - always except for rocks. Hmm, we need to think about this carefully, but then.
"Evening is approaching, Admiral," General Iroh interrupted our silence and thoughts about his own, "as your military adviser, I recommend that you stop the attack." Waterbenders draw strength from the moon, and it is full today. You must wait it out and continue at dawn.
"I know this problem very well," the admiral said, without even turning towards the prince, "and I'm trying to solve it." But you're right. Before dawn.
The command was given further and all the ships dropped anchors and for some reason stopped firing. I'm not going to get involved in this, maybe he wants to give rest, maybe there's really little sense in this, but nevertheless, our expansion completely froze and, as I understand it, exactly until dawn.
But I absolutely didn't give a damn about it, the admiral very clearly emphasized that he wanted to solve the problem of the power of water magicians during the full moon.
The question of how arose for exactly a second, and then the images of two fish at this very pole flashed through my memory, forming a yin-yang. These are two spirits, one of which is responsible for the moon.
Something inside me just desperately wanted to kill the admiral right now so that he wouldn't even dare to think about such things, but with a slight effort of will I threw away such thoughts.
Looking at Iroh, who also caught this phrase, I realized that it was not only in my head that the admiral moved into the "still living corpse" section. True, the prince apparently had no time for this, because he quickly went off and sniffed somewhere.
I decided that this time I would find out exactly what the general was hiding and carefully followed him. To find him saying goodbye to Prince Zuko, hugging him. And our scar-headed one, in turn, was dressed in some warm camouflage clothing and was preparing the boat for departure. Although the face was decorated the same way as mine was at one time after being captured by the strawberries. And it could be even more beautiful.
"Hm-hm," I showed myself, entering the room, "can I find out what's going on here?"
***
Zuko, as soon as I entered the room, immediately took a fighting position, preparing to attack or who knows what. In general, he definitely reacted negatively to my appearance.
Iroh, in turn, tensed a little, immediately moving away from Zuko, but nevertheless did not show obvious aggression.
- Major Aki? - Iroh asked in a neutral tone, - what are you doing here?
The question was asked in such a tone, as if I had not caught him doing... what I had found him doing, but had simply walked into his office without an invitation. He knows how to hold his face.
- Stay still or I will burn you to the ground! - Zuko shouted overly expressively.
"Well, let's shout again so that everyone can definitely hear your voice," I said sarcastically.
- Aki, I hope you don't plan to notify Zhao that...
— That the prince survived and is clearly planning something? — I raised an eyebrow, "of course I don't plan." Just dedicate it to your plan.
- There is no plan!
Well, what a temper, it's harder to light a match than him.
"Prince Zuko plans to get there and steal the avatar," Iroh hastened to say, again acting as the person smoothing over the corners for Zuko.
"I advise you to kill him right away," I nodded, "firstly, it will be easier to drag the corpse as evidence, and secondly, in the ten years until he is reborn and begins to get used to it, we will end the war." And knowing that he will be reborn as a water mage, of which there is nothing left, it will not be difficult to figure him out ahead of time.
"Killing an avatar is not such an easy task," Iroh sighed, "the defense mechanisms in the form of his avatar state always work, even when the avatar is sleeping."
"Hmm," expressed everything I think about this. The regime shouldn't protect him from a quick blow to the neck, he'll just have time to wean himself off, hypothetically, of course - okay, but what exactly is the plan? Do you know where the avatar will be? Or how to catch him quickly and quietly.
"I'll figure it out as I go," Zuko muttered, turning back to the boat and preparing the necessary equipment.
I may be very wrong now considering what Zhao is up to, but I have to say, I don't care. Iroh should leave him behind if anything happens, but catching the avatar is a much more priority task. That's why I put forward this idea.
- I will swim with you and help.
- Excluded. "I'm used to working alone," Zuko said without the usual fuse this time, continuing to pack something into the boat.
"I don't claim any honors, all I need is to catch the avatar," I said, "and then you don't have to mention me anywhere at all." But the extra help of a good magician, I think, will come in handy?
It was clear that in some ways he liked the idea. Apparently he really doesn't want to go straight into the enemy's lair without extra support. And I seem to have only a positive reputation in terms of combat. Sometimes even too much.
- Hmm, - The fucking Uchiha, honestly, - but don't kill the avatar! We'll just tie him up and knock him out.
"Oh," I rolled my eyes, "okay." But if I see that I can't catch him, then I will act for sure.
This is what we agreed on. The boat that I prepared was a single-seater and there was no way I could have gotten into it, it's good that in the same room nearby there was a second one, which I had already prepared within three to five minutes. The plan was simple to get to the base of the walls under cover of darkness, and then... depending on the situation.
Yes, like a Swiss watch, but what can you do? I think somehow I'll break through and take Zuko with me. It's true, by hook or by crook, I can then convince him that I'm not an airbender, it's a fair wind...
Okay, anything is better than standing next to this pompous turkey and hearing how he is an excellent commander and how he will be included in the history books. He seems to be absent from the command bridge and goes to jerk himself.
I also had to dress appropriately for our secret exit: I took off all the Fire Nation armor and, in principle, all the red elements of clothing. I replaced it with white ones, but left my cloak on top; of course, it was dark shades, so it fit. I had to take my rapier off my belt and wrap it in a bundle and put it behind my back. But I left the mask in place. It won't be superfluous, especially since your face won't freeze.
We swam to the wall without any problems, in just five minutes. The first problem arose quite expectedly, but no less offensive.
"How to get to the other side, there are too many guards there," I asked my guide in a whisper.
Zuko remained silent, only beginning to turn his head around. His attention was attracted by the sounds made by seal-turtles, which purred and took turns jumping into some hole in the ice.
- Look where they are going? - the prince answered me in the same whisper, - where do they find air?
- Are you suggesting that you jump into some hole with water for good luck? - he is idiot?
"If you don't want to, swim back," our dropout simply answered and jumped with bated breath.
"You idiot," I said, sighing and jumping as well.
To my surprise, it was not so difficult and in a couple of minutes we swam to the resting place of these animals.
Zuko immediately began to bask in his fire. And I picked up a little flame from his flashes and blew it to myself, starting to warm my hands and body next to him, to the prince's questioning look, answer:
"I can't create flames myself, and my gloves are wet," I explained.
"Warn me next time," he said, starting to look further. And, of course, his gaze began to fall on a small waterfall coming from some hole. Does he have claustrophobia as a class?
Although Fire magicians have developed lungs and very, very strong ones. They can go ten minutes without breathing, their lung capacity is so huge. And I'm an airbender, I just leave a bubble of air near my mouth, just in case.
- Us…
"There," I finished for him, "I understand." Let's climb.
Breaking through the streams of water hitting you in the face, while crawling along a rather narrow gap is quite an activity. Well, at least not yet in complete darkness, but very, very close to it, in fact.
In general, I respected Zuko, because I myself remained calm only because of the wind in my head, let's accept a full-fledged one. As an airbender, I felt very uneasy in such a confined space. Very straight forward.
We swam for a good five minutes and I realized that Zuko was already running out of air, judging by his more jerky and even slightly desperate movements. But it was at that moment that we swam out into some large body of water and Zuko quickly swam upward, where an air gap was visible. I'm following him accordingly.
- Ha... ha... what if there wasn't this layer here, you thought? - yes, literally, a second after I surfaced, I started bawling and making claims.
You can understand me, I am an airbender in a very closed space.
"It had to be," answered the prince, "it's rare that the ceiling of a cave does not leave some bubbles." We swam further.
And he didn't even listen to me, he immediately dived and swam. What an asshole. Well, this time, just in case, I stocked up on a little more air and swam after him. This again took a decent five minutes, but this time everything didn't go according to plan and we ran into ice. Even though it was clear that the ice was recent and that they were constantly cutting through it, it was of no use; there was a good twenty to thirty centimeters of ice there.
Zuko tried to beat his hands against it, but as expected, there was almost no effect. I took out the hatchet and tried it too, but the water slowed down the movement too much for anything normal to happen. I was already thinking about spitting and using air magic, when one thought came to me - there seemed to be no air around.
I was so used to the fact that there was always enough air that I didn't even think about what was under water - there was no air, except for two bubbles with it adjacent to my body, but this was desperately not enough.
Although from the outside air magic looks like the magician creates air, but in reality: I don't know. Somehow it was impossible to work at all in conditions of lack of air. And I hope it never happens again.
While I hovered for a couple of seconds, realizing all of the above, Zuko moved me with his shoulder and rested his arms and neck, bending his head forward on the ice and began to warm his hands.
Thank Agni, the effect was five to ten seconds later and the ice cracked, releasing first Zuko, and then me.
We got out in some strange round passage that led to the water. It actually looks like a sewer, but I didn't notice anything indicating this, other than my guesses, so I decided to drop this question. It doesn't stink, thank God.
Zuko and I sat there in silence, looking in different directions, but not at each other, for about ten minutes, then without saying a word we began to move and carefully climb out. Most of the residents were in their homes, and the warriors were near walls or important objects, but I have no idea where to go next. And judging by the prince's appearance, so is he.
The exit from this round corridor was surprisingly well decorated, with various carved arches, a small balcony and a staircase to the door above. What kind of architectural genius built this? Apparently Zuko had the same thought, because looking around at his surroundings, he raised an eyebrow, most likely both, but the second one was simply not there, in bewilderment.
I shrugged my shoulders and waved two fingers somewhere deep into the city. By all logic, this is where the most important objects should be, and that's where we'll start combing the city.
Zuko shook his finger and pointed at some multi-story temple, saying we need to go there. Having assessed the structure, I decided that why not. Looks like a place for an avatar. We headed there, just like real ninjas, I don't know why, almost no one goes anyway, but we climbed onto the tops of buildings and moved along the roofs towards this temple or whatever it was.
We approached this temple from the side, which allowed us to see the walls behind this building, which looked like a corridor somewhere.
But the most important thing is the avatar walking along it. It's not difficult to recognize him, he was in his yellow-orange monk outfit, when I wanted to point this out to Zuko and turned in his direction, I realized that he had already noticed what I needed.
"We have to wait ten minutes for them to come in and then go in," he whispered.
I just nodded, and what could I do? Zuko turned off whiny child mode and turned on fucking shinobi mode. Okay, we still need to get there first, and there we will most likely face a difficult battle.
***
We came in, as they say, quietly and on the clock. Carefully stepping from toe to heel, we walked inside, through this small door, Alice in Wonderland, damn it, and climbed further.
The place turned out to be some kind of oasis in the icy desert, not only was it warm there, but also the greenery was blooming and there was even a strange little pond.
At first, we both sat on our butts in fear, because the avatar was sitting with burning tattoos, and we had both already learned that this light never leads to good. But it's good that Katara is a talkative girl and, before she left, she discussed with the princess that Aang had gone into meditation.
This is very good!
"He's my friend, and I can protect him myself," Katara said after the princess.
And what cannot be taken away from Zuko is the ability to appear beautifully. Right at these words, the prince, without even notifying me, got up and went to the water driver.
- What? And now you can? - he asked mockingly.
"Oh no," the girl said, turning her head towards Zuko.
- Yes! - he frowned, - give it to me and I won't touch you!
And seeing how Katara got into an attacking position, he sent a light ball of fire at her. To our shared surprise with the prince, the girl began to repel the shells quite well and even began to push the prince a little.
Then it dawned on me, damn it, it's night! Of course, water magic is stronger. Although it is strange that a girl who has only recently begun to properly engage in water activities is so good at crowding Zuko. No, he would have won at night, but still the level is clearly not bad.
Nevertheless, I decided to intervene and, jumping sharply forward, fought off another water projectile, which Zuko most likely did not have time for. And now completely different dances began, where I calmly beat her water with fire and almost began to get there.
- Kira! - Katara was surprised and even scared.
Basically, I was ready to kill her. A girl, a girl, but the world leaves its marks and I was ready for such an act. But I made a very unexpected mistake, without letting go of Katara from my airy worldview, I glanced at the avatar and the fish for a second. A second and I already feel my body falling over, and I myself am rushing somewhere. It's a strange feeling to separate yourself and your body. But with all my being I felt as if I was being torn out of my body and being pulled somewhere.
Well, fuck!
- Aang, this is nonsense, Kira cannot be an airbender! - Katara tried to explain to her friend once again, - he is a fire magician, he throws fire, he is not an avatar to master two elements.
"But I saw," without pressure, the avatar simply stated the fact, he was simply tired of proving something to the girl, "if he were a fire magician, he simply wouldn't be able to do that." I couldn't.
"Oh, most likely it was just your imagination," Katara continued to argue, "you turned around for a couple of moments, you yourself said, you never know how he was able to slow down his fall." Maybe it's not necessarily magic, remember Sokka told about the Mechanist's balloon?
Sokka wasn't around right now, so he couldn't confirm or deny, the guy went for a walk with the princess.
And the avatar and Katara took a break between training in the element of Water. And we decided to start the old organ again. The three of them discussed this many times, probably this was some kind of protective effect, because all three of them were scared by Kira.
It was as if he was following them, as if he was always somewhere nearby and as if he was not a person. He does not speak during the battle, does not try to somehow break the spirit, he silently and attacks at great speed using his strange sword and blue hot fire.
They flew away from the mechanic as if they had been spat on. It turned out that this cool guy works for the Fire Nation. And even more than that, he handed them over to Kira! And he almost dealt with Aang, even in the air!
The miracle in the form of Soki's boomerang that hit him saved the avatar from the end. As the guy himself later admitted, he had never thrown his weapon at such distances, let alone hit it... but here it was clear and where it needed to be.
- Yes, I remember, but it was definitely magic. "I saw such techniques among the monks in the temple, Katara, and I'm afraid you won't convince me on this issue," Aang said.
- Well, tell me Aang, how, how could an airbender end up in the army of the Fire Nation? Where did he learn airbending? This is impossible. "No way," the girl tried to defend her opinion.
And even though she spoke the right words, only Aang felt that what he saw was air magic. And sometimes feelings are much more important than words. Therefore, despite the rather logical, but muttering nearby, the avatar stared into the distance, looking at the ocean and thinking about different things.
Glory to the spirits, we flew further to the North Pole without any problems, just as Katara and Aang were accepted as students without any problems. Except that the old bastard, characterization from Katara, was indignant at first, but over time he accepted the girl and is now incredibly pleased with her.
By and large, Aang felt safe here, no matter how you look at it, but it's unlikely that Fire Mages would come here.
How wrong he was. Literally, a few days after this thought, a flotilla of ships attacked the North Pole and a war began. The front walls began to be shelled, and the water mages, of course, restored them, but to no avail.
And Aang also felt that Kira was there. He is out there somewhere and he is following him. The confidence was almost one hundred percent.
However, the idea came quite quickly - meditation. Aang needed to find out what the Fire Mages needed here and how to resist them. And for this, the idea came to meditate near the place where the spirits float.
At first, Aang didn't succeed. The body just didn't want to go into meditation. But slightly stuck on the fish, the avatar did not have time to realize how he ended up somewhere far away in the jungle and clearly not at the North Pole.
The closest monkey spirit behaved very strangely and somehow not spiritually strange. The Avatar imagined a completely different picture when it came to spirits. This monkey seemed to be pretending to be wise, but that was all. But in any case, he showed the way, which Aang followed.
He jumped over tree roots and rocks, following the firefly, until he was interrupted by a sharp sense of danger from the side. He managed to stop and something flew right in front of his face, smashing into the bark of a tree nearby.
What?
- Crap! Crap! Crap! - Zuko cursed through his teeth, looking at how for some reason Kira, who had just been well pushing this nasty girl, suddenly began to sink to the floor, as if the doll's strings had been cut.
The prince didn't know what happened to him, but he didn't have much of a choice: now he had to defeat the water driver and only then help his comrade in arms.
But despite the slight respite, it was night and the village sorceress very deftly wielded water. Zuko barely had time to fend off her attacks. According to the prince, it's not just the night. Most likely the source itself strengthens Katara.
Well, to be completely honest, the prince did not want to kill the girl. Zuko has never killed children and does not plan to, so he tried to attack with low-intensity fire, which would leave a maximum burn.
But all these factors played a cruel joke on the prince, and after a few minutes of battle he found himself shackled in an ice trap. And I was exhausted enough to just enjoy the temporary respite.
True, it was at that moment that dawn began and Zuko, literally, with all his guts, felt how power began to fill him. And apparently Katara understood this, but it was too late. A couple of seconds and the girl flies away from a not too strong clot of fire, and Zuko comes up to check on Kira.
Stable pulse, as well as temperature, no signs of illness or coma. Something strange, but we can't leave it here. Just like the avatar. Sighing, Zuko promised to remember this to Kira and demand compensation from him, and from local scrap materials he began to make something like a sleigh, where he decided to load the avatar and Kira, tying them up.
It's time to get out of here and deliver this little bastard to his father.
***
For a second, while I was "flying" somewhere, my consciousness seemed to be cut off.
It was fun to fly, it was like I was floating in some kind of emptiness. At the same time, almost without realizing what is around. Maybe Aang, as a wind mage, learned to make the wind of killer grass and I was over-covered?
Because one option arises in my head, where I "fly" after admiring the swimming fish and I don't like this option. Okay, two options, either they saw my blackest villainous soul, which is not such, but is only extolled as such by various idiots, or I, like the avatar, meditated and am flying somewhere into the world of spirits.
Why the hell?
It was approximately with this thought that I passed out for a second, and I woke up somewhere in the forest. Naked.
A strange red-red forest mixed with a swamp, where the sun is almost invisible behind the clouds, and the nature is so diverse that I already heard the howl of a wolf, the roar of something incomprehensible and the vibration of something huge underground.
The worst bullshit.
And yes, for some reason I was naked. Well, that is, completely naked. I didn't have anything on, not even my underwear, let alone weapons or gloves.
First of all, I listened to myself and felt the familiar breeze with relief. Next he summoned a wind wave, which... was stronger than usual. Not by much, I would say about two times maximum, but more like one and a half times, but still!
True, the tree into which I threw the wave had nothing. And before it would have been demolished just like that. So I came closer and tried harder. No, absolutely nothing, as if I was blowing on this small tree, and not throwing wind blades, which in the ordinary world would blow away a small forest.
Hm.
"Well, fucked up," I cursed out loud. And perhaps this was a bad decision, because after a couple of seconds some animals jumped up at these sounds and rushed at me.
It was some kind of arithmetic mean of a monkey, a squirrel and an octopus. In general, something indistinct, but they moved on horseback.
This is the only way my magic worked on them; I quite calmly cut them a couple of times, dodging the incomprehensible attacks of the tentacles on their faces.
Brrr.
True, after looking at their woolen bodies, the idea of becoming Tarzan came to mind. But what should I do? I would like to cover my groin area, to be honest. Therefore, with the help of air, I began to cut off the fur part from one of them, trying not to peer too closely into what was inside this little thing.
But what can I say, spirits are spirits, but the organs seem to be there. Strange crap, to be honest, and even makes you think. In any case, I cut out the skin and even quickly dried it with hot air.
Now we need to find something as a belt. Well, that wasn't very difficult either, there are a lot of vines here. A very strange forest, both coniferous and equatorial trees grow here. In any case, I wrapped the dry skin around my waist with a vine, tying it around my waist with a vine.
"It'll do," I nodded to myself.
No, they are definitely following the sound, this time some animals, clearly of a cat theme, jumped out at me from behind the forest and I decided to run away from them, fortunately my air control allows me.
I still don't understand a damn thing, so I have zero desire to kill everyone. You never know.
Goal number one is to get out of here. But in my heart I don't know how to do this. How did the avatar do it in the cartoon? If I remembered, damn it.
In any case, speed allows, so I decided to try to run circles around the place where I appeared. If you follow the logic, which, of course, is not the best solution in the world of spirits, but nevertheless, then I fell into this world not far from the avatar, which means he is somewhere nearby. I think I'll be able to sit on his tail and decide something on the spot. To be honest, I don't have a better plan.
True, how else to maintain the radius in the same forest, there are almost zero landmarks. In general, I chose a tree not far from the "spawn" place that was more noticeable and started jumping through the trees.
To stumble upon the end of the forest after a while. I turned about three circles of different radii and on quarters I came to a sharp cliff and the end of the forest, below it felt like a canyon, but in reality, God knows, a very thick fog hid the lowlands of this depression and even the other end. Through the fog, only a huge tree stretching somewhere upward was visible. To which they led from the forest "shore" stone pillars sticking straight out of the fog.
And I couldn't believe my eyes, which one bald guy in clothes was jumping around, by the way, directly following some kind of firefly.
Bitch, in clothes! This upset me the most. Why the hell am I not in my gear? And like a primitive man, he must cut some crap in a belt made of skin, while this asshole even took his staff with him.
True, but why does he need to go to this huge dried out tree? Maybe there's a way out? And that is very similar. With these thoughts, I jumped on the big side to those thresholds. And there I galloped along them after Aang, trying not to get fired. I don't need him to see me ahead of time.
When he galloped to the tree, and I followed him, stopping a little further, I, like the avatar, saw some kind of scary hole, even a hole between the roots, and the firefly clearly indicated to Aang to climb there.