Sometimes, I wonder what the Spirits were thinking when they created this world.
They brought life into it, gave us humans the ability to manipulate the elements, yet still allowed things like this to happen. It wasn't fair—no, that wasn't the word. If anything... "equally balanced" was the better word here, as Thanos would say.
Watching Toph struggling to walk hurt my heart.
Poor kid.
It's been four months since the start of the new year, and Toph has finally begun to learn how to walk. The process has been rough, to say the least.
She falls and falls, then falls again for every step she tries to take. For every shaky step she managed, there were a dozen more reminders of how fragile her lack of sight was. I did what I could, catching her before the worst of the impact came, mitigating the damage, but the teacher responsible for guiding Toph on how to walk blind disagreed with my actions.
It would damage her foundations in the future, she would say. As a blind woman since birth herself, this advice was proclaimed with deep experience. Even the Beifongs held back their protectiveness—a miracle, I'd say—so that Toph would learn and adapt to her disability.
But Toph was a strong girl. Every day, as she continued tumbling at every step, she never gave up, giggling with glee as she shakily got up to take another step towards her point of interest blindly.
That much made sense. Relentlessness was practically a defining trait of Earth Benders.
Yes, I had tested her aptitude. I was curious, so I let my impulsive thoughts win. And yes, she had potential. An absurd amount of it. Her Chi pool was larger than mine, and I was years older than her. She was still a baby, for Spirits' sake!
Truly, the world was equally balanced.
The strongest Chi I had ever felt—even if my sample size was limited to two Benders, myself included—belonged to a blind child. Meanwhile, whatever little Chi I had been given was clearly compensated for by the handsome gene.
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A whole quarter of the year later, Toph finally learned how to walk without falling. It'd take some more time for her to walk around the estate, but it was a start.
And as for me, the whole time while she was learning, I was learning as well.
On how to fight, that is.
At the ample age of five, I was at the age where my body was strong enough to learn how to protect myself and Toph without stunting my growth. Lord Beifong gave the green light after having a doctor examine my body and instructed the current head guard of the estate, a large Earth Bender by the name of Baon, to train me in the art of martial arts.
Taught he didn't, as he simply gave me one lesson when teaching me.
"DODGE!"
I barely had time to react before a boulder the size of my body hurtled toward me. I leapt aside, landing on all fours as it slammed into the ground where I'd stood. Feeling a sense of danger, I threw my weight sideways, rolling just in time as jagged shards of rock tore past me.
Breathing heavily with sweat pouring down my face, warning signals blared throughout my head. I raised my guard. A heavy blow crashed into my arm, sending me flying several feet back. I hit the ground hard, skidding before barely managing to stop myself.
"You could have dodged and countered! DODGE!" Roaring at me, the Earth Bender fluidly got into a stance before slamming his foot on the ground and punching the levitated rock forward.
I had to jump out of the way; the rock narrowly sliced and whistled past my face. Blood slowly dripped from the small wound as I struggled to dodge another rain of rocks hurling towards me.
"I—Woah—I need a break—Shit!" That one clearly aimed at my nuts! This son of a—
"The Lady's enemies will not give you a break! DODGE!"
The air screamed as pellets of little rocks spread and fired from a large boulder like a shotgun slug. The thought in my mind flashed before my eyes as I raised my arms and took a deep breath.
Tracing the rocks with my eyes, I predicted the parts of the body that would be hit and got to work. Pushing my concentration and reflexes to the maximum, I did my best to surgically remove the streaking rock-like bullets out of the way by punching and kicking them away.
Well, I tried, managing to deflect almost all of them, but in the end I shielded my body as best as I could, bombarded by them after getting too overwhelmed by the sheer quantity.
"O-Oogh!" The pellets gorged into my body, and I let out a weak groan as I flopped onto the cold tiles, hissing. "T-Time out...!"
Baon, who walked to me, clicked his tongue.
"Useless, as expected from a Fire Nation spawn. Fine, we'll stop today. But this will be reported to the Lord."
Oh, and have I told you, dear reader, that this guy was part of Elder Pahur's faction? Yeah, it sucked.
"B-Bitch..." I muttered as I slowly sat up, hand on the abdomen. Ah, this'll leave a dark bruise. Me and my masochistic ego, wanting to train without using any Chi to learn how to fend for myself without relying on it like a crutch!
I laid my head on the tile floor of the estate's dojo room, sighing with a heave.
This is all for your future, Renji; you can't stop training halfway! One day, you'll look down on their surrendering bodies and laugh with a villainous laugh once you're strong enough... I doubt that I'd be doing that, though, but the thought of doing it was nice.
Haaa. Small mercies.
Hyping myself up, I winced as I stood up, ready to leave.
"Stay firm, Renji; a few more years to go until you stockpile enough for a hermit life." I mumbled to myself as I slowly limped away to freshen up.
A few more years until the Avatar defeats Fire Lord Ozai and restores the balance!
Just a few more years!
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Sorry about the late update, I had a family emergency that had me out station. I just came back home an hour ago as of writing this.
NEXT UPDATE: Yu-Gi-Oh GX: It's Time To Duel! Chapter 29 (25 Jan, Sunday)
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