Chapter Text
Genji hummed a tune to himself as he made his way down the bustling main street of Goaling city and back toward the Air Nation District, where he and his friends had agreed to meet back up. He had a bit of a bounce in his step after having met his parents, his mood having improved drastically for it. It was all worth it after all, even despite his earlier apprehension.
He’d almost forgotten about the tournament, but he had a few days, so he figured he’d sign up tomorrow. He was confident he could at least make it to the semi-finals. His goal wasn’t to win, but to learn, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to give his all.
Arriving in the main square of the trade district, Genji noticed his friends were already there waiting for him. Nico and Hano seemed to be in a deep discussion – with Nico looking a little concerned, and Hano waving him off dismissively. It didn’t strike Genji as odd, because Eri – usually so loud and boisterous and taking over the conversation – was hanging off to the side, fidgeting but oddly content.
Nico broke off the conversation as soon as he spotted Genji and gave him a wave over. “Hey! The Air Nomads at the inn here are friends of my grandparents, so they offered to let us stay for free in town. Unless things with your parents went… okay…?”
“It went great, actually,” Genji grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets and swaying back and forth on his feet. “They were a bit worried at first, because I’m a Sandbender… There's a lot of propaganda coming from Ba Sing Se about them. And about me. But we talked it out. It’s great! They’re very sweet, the estate is huge, it turns out I have two younger brothers too! Twins!”
“That’s awesome, Genji!” Nico grinned. “I’m really glad you got to reconnect with them. Family’s important. Are you gonna stay with them whilst we’re here?”
“ We’re gonna stay with ‘em,” Genji replied, nudging Nico playfully on the shoulder. “They’ve invited us to dinner – you very specifically, Nico. They wanna meet you ‘cause you found me in the desert.”
“They wanna meet me because I’m your taxi driver,” Nico rebuked sarcastically, although there was no malice behind it. “I’d be honored.”
Realizing the strangeness of the conversation, Genji looked over to Eri who was only half paying attention, staring off into space. “What’s up with you?”
Before Eri could respond, Hano’s teasing voice cut in. “Eri’s in loooove. ”
“I am not! ” Eri snapped, swiping a hand at Hano, releasing a few sparks of fire; Hano jumped back, although it didn’t remove the sly grin on his expression. “You’re such a child, Hano!”
“Eri met a girl whilst signing you up for the Earthbending tournament,” Nico replied, with a slight disdain in his voice; clearly he wasn’t impressed about sending Genji off to the tournament. “She’s coming along with us to watch it.”
“You signed me up for the tournament?” Genji said suddenly, rounding on Eri.
“Did you miss the part about her new crush?” Hano added.
Shooting Hano a warning look, Eri just shrugged nonchalantly at Genji. “Speaking as your teacher, I think it’s a good opportunity to practice your Earthbending skills against a real opponent in a non life-threatening situation.” A cunning grin slid across her face, her yellow eyes lighting up with excitement. “I also wanna see your butt get kicked.”
“I’m not lecturing you,” Genji responded, pounding his fist in his palm. “I’m glad you did. You’re gonna see a master Earthbender at work.” Sure, he was joining for the reason of learning and practicing… but Genji couldn’t deny his competitive nature.
The group killed time as the late afternoon shifted into evening, and began their walk back to the Yamada estate to attend their dinner invitation. Everyone seemed in good spirits, chatting about their day’s adventures and excited about what was coming tomorrow. Nico, as Genji expected, was quiet about his reunion with his mother and only quietly shared it with Genji in private on the way to the estate.
“My Dad is still looking for me, apparently,” Nico said in a quiet voice to Genji, glad that Eri had the intuition to loudly chat with Hano to cover their conversation. “Won’t be long until he catches up to me.”
“Well, we’ll send him packing back to the Air Temples if he does,” Genji replied firmly. “How about your mother? Did it go okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” Nico said, although he was averting eye-contact. “Bit emotional, that’s all. It’s a lot of history.”
The guards at the gate let the group in, and standing at the entrance of the estate to greet them were Asuna and Takeshi Yamada, who had taken the opportunity to dress in some smarter nobility robes for the occasion. They bowed to their guests and looked them over.
“It’s a pleasure to have Genji’s friends with us for dinner,” Asuna said. “Thank you for accepting the invitation.”
“Let’s see…” Takeshi scanned over their faces, landing on Eri. “Red hair, yellow eyes – you’ll be Eri, his Firebending teacher?”
Much to the surprise of Team Avatar, Eri was able to knock off her usual cocky attitude and give a clearly well-practiced small bow. “Pleasure’s mine.”
“And you will be Hano and Nico, his Airbender tutors,” Asuna said, and the two Airbending boys each gave a polite greeting. “Which one of you is Nico? Genji told us it was you who found him out in the desert. We have a lot to thank you for.”
“It was nothing, really,” Nico replied, sheepish at the gratefulness; as far as he felt, the whole situation had simply been Nico stumbling in at the right time and place, then fumbling his way along to keep the Avatar alive. “I’m just very glad he managed to make it home.”
“Well, please come in,” Asuna said, gesturing for the guests to enter first. “We’d love your company. Haru and Taru are already waiting.”
And it became quickly apparent that they were waiting just beyond the doors, because the instant they jumped out they grabbed Genji around the shoulders and gave him a hard noogie.
The dining hall had been dressed up for the occasion, clearly with the design of everything from the table runner to the utensils specifically chosen to match the prestige of the Yamada family and their emblem. Plates and rows of utensils for different types of food were set-up, and a sound system coming from somewhere they couldn’t see was quietly playing some classical Earth Kingdom instrumental. Takeshi took his seat at the head of the table, and the Yamada family settled in near. The guests took what was remaining, with Genji having Haru on his left and Nico on his right.
“Love’s in the air tonight,” Nico said quietly to Genji, nudging him and nodding at Taru. Genji grinned – his brother was eyeing up Eri, his elbow on the table and chin in his hands; the Firebender caught his eye and raised her eyebrows skeptically.
"Hey, I’m Taru,” he commented. “Are you a doughnut? Because you're all sugar and curves.
"Loser," Haru muttered, pretending to cough. Genji snorted with held back laughter, and Nico had to hide his face with the crook of his elbow.
“Taru,” Asuna lectured with a stern expression. “I don’t appreciate that kind of behavior to our esteemed guests.”
“It’s alright,” Eri replied with a pitying grin. “I'm actually impressed that he impressed me with such a terrible pick-up line.”
The conversation was light and easy as the starters came out – crab urchin stir-fry, and a ginger-infused pea tendril and hibiscus-root salad for the vegetarians at the table – as the Yamada family introduced themselves and their history to the group, then invited their guests to share their own stories. Eri told them about her own wealthy family – the Tamao’s, residing on Ember Island and well-known for their brewery that earned them high respect in the territory, and how she’d ended up in Republic City whilst looking for her own way. Hano had a lot of stories about growing up in the temples and around Air Temple Island; being a descendant of Avatar Aang, he had a lot of stories about growing up amongst very prestigious Airbenders. Although slightly uncomfortable, Nico shared his past of growing up in the Southern Air Temple, being trained by his mentor and how he only just started traveling alone as a nomad before meeting Genji.
The main meal turned out to be something of a buffet, with the center of the table lined up with all types of primarily Earth Kingdom-based dishes: braised turtle duck, crab puffs, dragon dumplings, seared Kyoshi elephant koi, spicy pickled kelp, sushi and tofu. Some vegetarian variations were kindly reserved for Hano and Nico. The conversation was scattered across the table whilst the main meal was consumed. Genji took Nico out of his discussion with Eri about meditation techniques to pick at something that had been bugging him for a while.
“I wanted to ask you again why I can’t Airbend,” Genji said, after finishing a bite of his turtle duck. “When I was trying it out at that lake before we went to Zaofu – I had nadda. Nothing. Earth, fire, water, I’ve been able to manage – but I can’t produce so much as a puff of air. What’s the deal? D’you think the Avatar Spirit forgot to take it off Korra?”
Nico swallowed his oversized helping of dumplings and frowned, contemplating Genji’s concerns. “That’d be funny. But no, I don’t think so. I’ve been thinking about it a lot myself. I thought for a while it might come easier to you; Sandbending and Airbending have a lot of similar movements. But at the end of it all… all elements have their opposites. Fire versus Water; Earth versus Air.” He reached over and gently rapped Genji’s head with his knuckles, who scowled and ducked out of the way. “You have an Earthbender’s mind. You absorb and overwhelm the enemy; an Airbender evades or deflects. You’ll need to think like an Airbender – that might involve a journey towards mindfulness, and spiritual enlightenment.”
“But I’m not spiritual at–”
“At all?” Nico rolled his eyes. “Listen, Genji…everyone has the capacity for spirituality, even if they don’t think so. Everyone possesses a spirit and a soul, and yours, as the Avatar is unique. That means, even at your spiritually weakest, you still have a stronger connection than most people do. And don’t worry about Airbending too much right now. You’re still working on the first two; master those first. We’ll know when you're ready to learn Airbending.”
Genji snorted as a smirk graced his lips. “First two? Psh, I’d say I’ve got Earthbending all but mastered, but point conceded,” he replied and turned back to his meal. Still, what Nico had said gave him something to contemplate. A sympathetic expression softened Nico’s features, and he made a strange movement like was going to put a hand on Genji’s arm – then retracted, blushing slightly. “Every Avatar has an element they struggle with. Sometimes two! Aang’s weakness was Earthbending, but Firebending wasn’t easy for him either. Even Korra took a long time to swing her first Air Punch. It’s natural, don’t beat yourself up over it, alright?”
“Okay,” Genji said, but then offered a short smile, looking a little more assured. “Thanks, Nico.”
“So – Nico.” With their discussion over, Genji’s father took hold of their attention. “We wanted to thank you again for finding Genji in the desert. It’s nothing short of a miracle that you and your friends brought him home. How did it all happen?”
Conversations across the table, especially from the Yamada’s, died off; everyone wanted to know the story, and those who knew it enjoyed a retelling. Feeling the pressure of everyone’s eyes on him, he swallowed. He wasn’t a good deceiver, but he didn’t want the topic of his runaway from the temple to become involved.
“I was on a trip through the Earth Kingdom at the time, so it was mostly luck that I ended up there,” Nico explained. “Mao Zheng fascinated me. It was a complete opposite environment of an Air Temple. When I arrived there, I… I just ran into Genji, and kind of connected.”
That was something else that had bothered Nico, occasionally – how had that happened? Nico could blame it on curiosity on making friends with someone his age, or interest in Genji’s unsanctioned mining – Spirits above, he could even blame it on some phony love at first sight stuff. Yuck. But that wasn’t the case at all. Nico had just felt a strange sensation in his gut that this was someone… important. Someone he should follow. In a weird way, it had given Nico the feeling of passing by an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. But that couldn’t be right… Was it just love? Or something spiritual? Had Nico somehow known Genji was the Avatar?
“Nico’s covering himself up,” Genji grinned. “He was following me around like a lost lamb. It was annoying at the time, but now I think it was adorable.”
“Okay, I admit – I was a little annoying,” Nico said sheepishly. “Anyway, Genji and his – uh, well, I ended up around for dinner. We went sand sailing and stuff. But when we came back to the village, it was under siege by Earth Kingdom troops. A fight broke out. And somehow within that skirmish…” Nico glanced over to Genji, who seemed to be listening yet had a strange distant look in his eyes. “The Avatar State triggered.”
He wasn’t sure how much everyone else knew about Yun, Genji’s relationship with him, if he’d even told them how Yun had died in Genji’s arms. But he didn’t feel it was his place to share such details.
“The Earth Kingdom troops saw; even though we wiped them out, I knew Genji wasn’t safe staying in territory like that. So the town encouraged us to go.”
“We saw the attack in the news,” Takeshi responded. “We didn’t know what to think of it. Ba Sing Se news made it out to be a peacekeeping mission that ended with the Avatar attacking troops.”
“Peace keeping my ass,” Genji spat suddenly, his expression turning cold. “It was an invasion. The Earth King has it out for my people. Once I learn all the elements, I’m going to take out the Earth King to save my hometown. After that…” His anger faded and he leaned back in his chair, shrugging. “The world can take care of itself, I’m sure. It doesn’t need the Avatar anymore.”
“You are about that?” Haru chimed in. “There’s a whole mess in the Poles right now.”
“And there are a lot of rumors that the Red Lotus is coming back,” Tarou added. “And that terrorist group in the Fire Nation.”
Genji shrugged again, his chair leaning on the back legs. “So what? The Blue Lotus is right – the world has changed a lot in the last hundred years or so. We’ve got embassies and diplomatic organizations; the world can sort itself out now.”
“But isn’t that exactly what your role is, Genji?” Nico insisted, abandoning his plateful of grub to involve himself further. “When the nations are out of balance. The Avatar is meant to represent the side of good – not their nation. That’s what the balance part is all about. None of the other nations can get involved in others politics without causing potential war – but you can.”
Genji couldn’t help rolling his eyes at Nico’s lecturing. He pulled out Yun's journal and tossed it onto the table. Maybe he was a bit biased, since Yun, a Blue Lotus, raised him, but he rather liked their philosophy either way.
“I’m kinda on two sides of the fence,” Eri added, who had been busy devouring her food to not get involved thus far. “Nico’s got a good point in being someone who can represent an unbiased side. But at the same time – well, the world’s had to do its own thing without an Avatar for a couple decades now. And we haven’t dissolved into murder yet, so… maybe it’s not a bad time to renounce the position of Avatar.”
“We’re clearly not perfect though,” Nico rebuked. “That’s why there’s a mess in nearly all the nations right now.”
“Well, according to the Blue Lotus, I should have a say on what my destiny is,” Genji replied, his tone holding a measure of finality to the matter. “And to be honest, I’ve not got much interest in sorting out its own messes. That matter is closed. I'm not gonna have people telling me what to do.”
"Well, you're the Avatar, so you do you," Haru replied with a smirk, shrugging his shoulders.
Nico glowered in his seat, biting his tongue. It wasn’t his position to dictate what Genji could or couldn’t do… yet it still stung to hear the Avatar discard the position he’d been granted. Even despite all the pressure, he had the ultimate opportunity to fight for peace and justice in the world. How could one stand by and guarantee other people could sort out problems? If the Avatar wouldn’t act, who’s to say anybody else would?
After rounds of wagashi desserts on platters, they all retired to their rooms for the night. Genji followed Tarou out of the dining room, grabbing his bag on the way out. He followed Tarou through a hallway, and then up a flight of stairs, then down another hallway. Tarou stopped before the door to what Genji assumed to be his room, and pushed the door open. Genji stepped inside and stared a little bit in awe. There was a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall with an entertainment center, complete with speakers and various gaming consoles. On the other side of the room, was a walk-in closet, beside an elegant bureau, and a canopy bed, and another door that led to his own personal bathroom.
"Holy… I don't even know what to say," Genji muttered. Tarou snickered in amusement and stepped inside behind him, patting his shoulder.
"Mom and Dad were certain you'd come home one day but they had no idea what you'd like. So… they kinda covered all the bases," Tarou said with a laugh. Genji snorted in amusement, flashing a grin. "Anyway, welcome home, brother.”
Patting Genji on the back once more, Tarou left Genji alone in his room, closing the door behind him.
With the tournament only a few days away, Genji was confident that he’d be able to make it far in the line-ups. Unfortunately, Eri and the twins had other plans: they didn’t want Genji to just take part, they wanted him to win. Or to get his butt kicked. Firebending training was put on pause so they could focus on Earthbending. As Haru and Taru informed Genji over breakfast the next day, Gaoling was a fairly neutral state in regards to the Sandbenders and the Si Wong dispute, but they doubted a Sandbender would be particularly welcomed in the Earth Rumble arena.
“But that’s a load of crap!” Genji exclaimed. “Sandbending’s still Earthbending!”
“Not to some of the event owners, and the audience,” Haru replied uneasily. “They don’t consider it ‘real’ Earthbending. If you kick up a sandstorm, the best response you’d get is a lot of boo’ing from the audience.”
“So, what?” Genji grumbled angrily. “Am I just not allowed to Sandbend at all?”
Taru shook his head and gave a slick grin. “Oh, big brother, you don’t know how the Yamada family rolls. If there’s a rule, we’ll find any way we can to bend it.”
“Your brothers find a way to bend the rules,” came a quick, stern amendment from Asuna, who was passing by the dining hall. “The rest of the family are perfectly reasonable.”
“Dad was trouble in his youth, too, believe it or not,” Haru snickered under his breath. “Anyway, we’re not suggesting you take your best skill out of your arsenal, Genji. You just have to be slick about it. Instead of making a sand tornado… make a little sandpit trap.”
A small smirk went across Genji’s expression as he fondly recalled his first meeting of Nico back in Mao Zheng, and catching his friend in a sandpit trap to shake off his tail. Finishing his breakfast with gusto, Genji replied: “Oh, I can do that, no problem.”
Most of the household occupants had gathered outside to enjoy the day, which was sunny and fairly warm. Hano and Nico were spending some time practicing their Airbending movements, swaying in slow and rhythmic movements in unison; Eri was content to sit back and watch Genji and the twins ready up in the stone practice field on the estate’s grounds.
“We’ve been to the tournament loads, so we pretty much know the regular’s and their shtick,” Haru said as the three warmed up with stretches. “One word to describe them? Relentless. Not only can half of them tank a hit, but they know how to bombard you with enough rocks to leave you bruised.”
“Have you two either taken part?” Genji asked, stretching his arms above his head.
“A couple times,” Taru replied. “We used to go in as a 2-v-2, but the audiences prefer 1 on 1’s. If we can’t go together–”
“Then we don’t go at all,” Haru finished, fistbumping his twin with a sly grin. “Alright, bro – think you can take two of us on? Let’s see what you’ve got.”
It turns out the Yamada twins weren’t at all all bark and no bite. Not only did they make formidable foes on their own, but as a team of two it was no picnic to break through their defenses. It was as if they really did share the twin psychic connection; when one defended, the other attacked, and they easily swapped those roles without a second of hesitation.
Knocked down onto his back for the second time, Genji grunted and leapt back up to his feet, stubborn and determined to not lose. Summoning a pillar in front of him, Genji swept his arms as he sent thick disks of stone one after the other towards his brothers. The pair leapt and kicked at each disk, shattering it into pieces. Frustrated, Genji kicked the pillar towards them which shattered against Taru’s fist.
Haru leapt forward and encased his feet into stone, rising on the earth and skating towards Genji with overwhelming speed. Surprised, Genji rose a circular wall of stone around him and began to kick chunks out towards Haru. Some skidded on the ground behind him, off-mark, whilst others were deflected by walls from Taru.
But that left Taru undefended… Genji moved his body, looking as though he was about to strike Haru – then thrust a palm forward, hurling a chunk towards Taru.
Instead, Taru easily swung his arm up and rapidly summoned chunks of rock to encase the front half of his body, protecting him in a case of stone armor. Crossing his arms in front of him, the rock Genji hurled shattered easily against Taru’s body.
“What the–?”
A heavy force suddenly caught Genji around the wrist and he was flung to the ground, careening forward into the dirt face-first. He struggled in panic for a split-second before realizing what had happened: a metal band was caught around his right wrist, pinning him to the earth. In the background, Haru and Taru were laughing.
“I think poor Genji needs a time-out,” Taru grinned. “Nice shot there, Haru!”
“Y’need some help getting it off?” Haru teased.
“No,” Genji said stubbornly. “I’ve got it.”
He hadn’t practiced in a while, much less in a physical position that had him pinned to the ground, but he was equally too confident and too stubborn to let Haru get the better of him again. Genji tightened his fist and focused on the earth still sitting within the metal… and with a grunt of force, he snapped the steel band in half.
“Wow, check it out, Taru!” Haru said, running over and offering a hand out for Genji to take. “Genji broke my steel band!”
“Who gave you those? That’s cheating!” Genji snapped, still taking Haru’s hand up anyway.
“It’s not cheating if we didn’t lay out any rules in the first place,” Taru smirked, picking up the band. He examined it, clearly impressed, then nodded and bent the metal back into a circular wristband. “Who knew our big brother was a Metalbender too, huh? Did they teach you that stuff in the desert?”
Genji rolled his eyes. “No. I learnt from Nika Beifong, actually.”
“Good old Nika!” Haru exclaimed, slapping Genji on the back. “She was our mentor when we studied Metalbending! When we quit Earth Rumble, we got into Power Disc tournaments instead.”
“Never mind that,” Genji said, turning on Taru now. “How did you do that stone armor thing?”
Taru snorted derisively, folding his arms. “You’ve never done stone armor before?”
“Of course I have! But it usually takes me some time. I’ve never done it that quickly.”
“Yeah, you have!” A voice shouted out from across the grounds. Nico, who was sitting on the steps of the estate with Eri and Hano and enjoying some late morning fruits together, continued: “In Mao Zheng. You were in the Avatar State, you would have forgotten.”
“Well, that definitely doesn’t count,” Haru grumbled.
“It’s tricky, I’ll give you that,” Taru said. He spread his feet outward, digging his toes into the ground hard enough that they actually sunk into the stone a millimeter or two. “Most people stomp on the ground to summon stone, but that can be too slow. It might give you more precision but it also takes a second longer. In a real fight, a second could mean win or lose. Practice with me.”
Genji huffed and focused, pressing his feet into the ground. He closed his eyes, focusing his Seismic Sense. He was so used to stomping on the ground when he used the sense, it was tricky at first to calibrate.
“It’s a simultaneous process,” Taru was saying. “Feel the earth, shape it and summon it all in a second. The only thing your arm does is bring it up.”
Genji’s arm struck upward and a stone block summoned in front of him, slightly misshapen and too thick, but just the right measurements for armor. With Haru joining in, the three practiced for another half hour before Genji had it perfected. Whereas before it took a couple seconds to summon rock, now he could do it within milliseconds.
“It’s a great defense tool,” Haru commented as they cooled down for their exercise. “Something you’ll need in the tournament. You have to defend yourself faster than they can strike.”
“But it’s not good for offense,” Taru added. “You’ll find your mobility limited.”
“Thanks, guys,” Genji smiled. “With your advice, I’m gonna knock this tournament out of the park. Now, I’m just gonna go over there, ‘cause those fruits look really–”
“OI! Beach Boy!” Eri’s loud, dulcet tones made Genji jump out of his skin and he whipped around to see Eri right behind him, her fists on her hips and a wild look in her eyes. “Just ‘cause you’re doing an Earthbending tournament doesn’t mean you can totally slack off Firebending training!”
“C’mon, Eri, lemme just have a–”
“HORSE STANCE!”
Genji groaned and bent his knees, hitting the horse stance. A scowl spread across his face as the twin brothers backed away, leaving him to his fate.