Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Water, Earth, Fire, Air. Long ago, the 4 nations lived in constant fighting. Then everything changed when the Avatar arrived. The last airbender and master of all the elements, Aang restored harmony to the 4 nations with the help of his friends. He built the United Republic of Nations from former Fire nation colonies in the Earth kingdom, a place where anyone from anywhere and bender of any or no elements can coexist. This paved the way for the rest of the world to follow, and for as long as my great-great-great zhumu (grandma) can remember the world has lived in harmony.

Today is my 9th birthday. It's not really that important to the story, I just wanted to let you know that I turned 9 today. Then about two weeks later I bent fire for the first time.

It was two days before New Year, the biggest celebration on ground, water, and air. All of Gaoling was abuzz with preparations for this year . it was my parents turn to host the new year’s eve dinner party for the entire family (678 heads and counting). They've decided to rent out every restaurant in town and hold an outdoor hodgepodge for the entire town because why the heck not. My father had been preparing the fermented foods for six months and baking from the moon’s zenith to sundown since last week. My mother was still on the road, the next town over on her way home from honouring the family tradition of personally delivering invitations to the closest relatives (which is about 175 people in 38 different towns all across the Earth kingdom).

That morning I was at the swords/blacksmith helping her with an order of cast iron tea pots.

“I'll take that hammer, Guang-Hong,” said aunt Tie, grabbing the large metal-pounding hammer from my hands.

“Aww,” I pouted, turning on the puppy eyes.

“You know I can't see those eyes.”

“It was worth a try…”

“You're too young, and still growing. You'll throw out your back using this hammer,” aunt Tie went to put the hammer away. “What would I say to your parents?”

“You could say an army of anti-benders came through and ransacked your shop. And that I fought valiantly to defend our family’s honour.” I punched the air a few times in mime.

“But your efforts proved futile!” A third interjected.

I turned around, then round again. I turned full circle before I realized the voice came from above me. Too late.

“Haiiiiii yah!”i tightened my shoulders and hunched myself smaller. They landed behind me with a gentle tap to the crown of my head. “Oh boy, you have a lot to work on if you wanna fight anti-benders!”

“Hey!” I covered my head with my head. “Just you wait ‘till I start bending! You won't be able to sneak up on me then.” I spun around to face a boy a head taller than me. He had brown skin, brown eyes, and a neat mop of black hair. And an eyebrow game. A strong one.

“I certainly won't.” He said it like a statement.

aunt T was then beside us, “Good morning to you, Phichit.” She bowed slightly.

The boy--phichit--bowed back deeper, “Good morning, Master Tie. I'm sorry for being so late.”

I glanced out the window. It was about almost nine, indeed a late hour for an apprentice to show up for work.

“Indeed, I do hope you have a reason for being almost an entire month late.”

I inwardly cringed. Outwardly too. I have been late for school before, but never this late. Oh dear, what's the punishment for being a month tardy? Banishment?
I held my breath for Phichit.

“I'm sorry, mam, it was my first time traveling alone and I decided to take the scenic route. It was so beautiful that i lost track of time,” His eyes lit up as he talked faster. “I cannon-balled from a waterfall, got lost at sea and nearly died in a storm with a fisherman, got stuck in a cave built by two lovers, solved the hundred-year-old mysteryofthisgeneralguy---”

“Phichit Chulanont, I was not asking for an excuse.”

Yikes

“But you said, and I quote, ‘I do hope you have a reason for being almost a month late.’”

“It was not a question. And if it were, it was rhetorical anyway.”

“So you're going to sentence me without a trial?” A genuine question.

Panic was setting in even though i wasn't the one talking back to my aunt , but it dissipated as soon as I saw the twitch in the corner of her lips that drew into a smile.

Phichit squealed as he was lifted up into an embrace even though they height difference between them were just a few inches. “You are going to make a fine swordsman.”

The rest of the day we made cast iron tea pots. Phichit is an earthbender, and at the age of twelve is a master bender, at least to me. He made every chore he was given into a trick show. My hands were red from not just work.

Aunt Tie let us go at around four, telling me to show Phichit around town. But when we left the shop he dragged me to the hills outside town, stopping only once to buy a few red bean paste buns. We sat down beside a stream. Phichit sculpted toy soldiers from coins and marched them back and forth as we ate with our hands. As the tiny stomping went on, he asked me to show him my bending.

“What?”

“Your bending! Oh, you haven't come into your bending yet?”

“Um…No...I haven't.”

“Oh, well do you know what you're bending is gonna be?”

“No…”

He leaned close and pressed his face close to mine. Excitedly, “Want me to tell you?”

Whoa. “You can do that?”

“Sure can, I felt your aura as soon as I got to town. Your fire really wants to be let out, I'm surprised you’ve never felt it.”

“Fire.” I felt giddy. Most people in my family are Earth or Fire.

“Wanna try bending?”

“The sun is the original fire bender, and it is from its warmth that humans learned to harness fire,” explained Phichit as he led me through some warm up stretches. “All life responds to sunlight, good or badly. I want you to focus on the tingle of your skin where the sun touches it.”

“Is that why you wanted me to take my shirt off?”

“Hush, my pupil. How can you focus when you're mind is busy talking?”

“I can’t focus when I’m freezing either.”

“I said hush.”

Breathe in. Breathe out. Shivering in just pants in the middle of winter, I did as I was told. It was just like morning school meditation, and I soon fell into the familiar trance of sleep and awareness. Take the tingling and apply spark. I know you’re cold, so use the sun for warmth. The first thing humans learned to do with fire was stay warm. But how do I make a spark inside myself? I thought of the gadgets my cousins in the Fire Nation used to light fireworks and fire crackers. Lighters, they called them. I imagined myself as that, but it didn’t work. Later I would realize, late one night unable to sleep, that it was because lighters weren’t sparks. Sure, it had sparks inside them, but what they made were fires. I had to think more...sparky. So I wandered to the rocks my dad still used to make fires in the bakery. I felt for the earth I had within me, born in the Earth Kingdom to earthbenders. Once I found them I struck sparks out of them with practiced ease.

“That’s good, Guang-Hong, but could you keep the fire within for now?”

I opened my eyes and panicked for a sec. My hands were on fire. I got up to put them in the stream when Phichit stopped me.

“It’s okay, you’re not burning. You’re not burning.”

I stared at him.

He grabbed my arms, holding them up. “See?”

He was right. My hands were warm, sure, but nowhere near burning. I took a big breath and blew the fire out.

Phichit grinned, “Wanna keep practicing?”

The next morning, I waited by some cherry bushes at the West-facing town gate with dad. I stared at the horizon until I had to blink, and kept doing that for hours until I saw a figure riding on moving earth. I ran towards her. She got off and ran as well, meeting me halfway, catching me when I leapt into the air. We stayed like that for a moment, I was the one who pulled away.

“Mom! Mom! I have something to show you!” I pushed at her gently to let me down.

“What’s all the hullabaloo that you don’t even have the time to say ‘Welcome home’?”

“Welcome home. Now I have to show you something!” She let me down. I prepared my spark rocks and got into the starting position Phichit taught me yesterday, two feet steady on the ground, centre balanced and strong. I drew my body back tight like an arrow and released with the strength of my entire body in one kicking motion. Whoosh, roared the fire, tiny though it were.

Chapter Text

New Year's came and went all according to plan. Dad’s plan. The kind of plan that required three metre long scroll of paper. He even named it sanmiji, Three Metre Plan. First the whole entire town was decorated in reds and yellows, lamp posts set up six metres apart on every street, lanterns strung up everywhere, calligraphy script glued to each side of every door, and so on. All. Over. Town. Gaoling’s not a small town either.
There were acrobatic and musical performances as well.

I got to use my firebending helping out with the food, keeping the water steaming below all the dumpling bamboo baskets. And at the end of the night I got to light our house’s fireworks, half-tonne of it. All in all, the fireworks alone cost a small fortune.

Phichit was introduced to the whole family at dinner. Well, he introduced himself. One of the acts was a fire nation sword dance, but the performer got sick at the last minute, something about dairy. Dad was freaking out, mumbling nonsense like disgrace, failure, family laughing stock. So Phichit took the performer’s swords, got on stage, and danced, incorporating Earthbending where Firebending was.

After the show I found nainai and waipo (grandma on dad and mother’s side respectively) doting on him. They pinched my cheeks as well before they left two days later, telling me to tell dad to stop being such a worry wort, that everything was lovely and he and mom are going to be a hard act to follow.

Honestly, all this expense for a dinner party, and I don’t even get a pony for my birthday. Maybe I could probably buy one myself if mom didn't take my red bag money. I asked her once why she took the money and where does she keep it. She replied that I was too young and the money’s buried for safe keeping, and that I will be allowed to dig it up once I'm old enough.

“Like a pirate on a treasure hunt?”

“Mmh-hmm.”

“But when am I old enough?”

“I haven't decided yet.”

The rest of New Year’s break was spent learning the Fire Nation sword dance from Phichit and playing games with the other kids. He won every game of hide and seek and echo echo.

“Nine...ten! Echo!”

“Echo echo!” We parroted back.

Blindfolded Phichit spun around and grabbed my shoulders. “FOUND YOU!”

I giggled, “Yep!”

“You weren't even trying, Guang-Hong,” said one kid.

“Yeah, what gives?” said another.

Phichit immediately interjected, “Who cares, he's it now.” Taking off his blindfold and tying it on me, “Count to ten!” He ran off on bare feet; I heard the other kids scurry off to hide as well.

As a firebender, I was at a disadvantage. Echo echo is normally played in an open field or swimming pond, but we're currently playing it in an old, narrow street neighbourhood with more dead ends, nooks, and crannies than we can count, and we've incorporated hide and seek into it without removing the blindfold aspect of it. See, Phichit had been winning so much at echo echo and hide and seek that everyone made this game up. If he easily won this game as well, then they'll know that something’s up. They might not know that it has something to do with his bending, but they won't play with him anymore, and I won't get to see everyone struggle to beat Phichit at these games anymore. The fun’ll be all gone. And that is how I found myself struggling blindly around town until Phichit came and took me home at before the sun set.

Chapter Text

I came to know many things about Phichit. He is twelve, his birthday is middle of the first growing season, and he was born in the UR to two non-bending, civil engineering mothers. He love hamsters very much and has three as pets, and is considered a prodigy earthbender. He hates tomatoes, like crêpes (whatever those are), eats all the mushrooms in his bowl first if there are any, and--I learned one afternoon as we walked to Aunty’s workshop together, me from school and him from running errands with Aunt Tie--that his favourite fruit is the snow pear.

“My favourite fruit is the earth peppercorn,” Aunty said, coming up behind us. She grabbed a brown pepper from the basket Phichit was carrying and popped it into her mouth, swallowing it whole, then burped out a little fire and smoke. She rubbed her belly, “Mmmm, toasty.”

“Eww, Aunty.” I hated spicy food and couldn't fathom why anyone would subject themselves to being burnt, even as a Fire bender. Phichit, however, was amazed.

“How do you do that, Master T?” he asked excitedly. “Earth peppercorns are one of the seventeen peppers that only Fire benders can eat without getting ill.”

“It's all in the gut. Earth peppercorns are called such because they come from the earth kingdom. They grow high on the mountains and carry earthen qualities. I just imagine that earth in my stomach and bury the pepper before it explodes like fireworks, so instead of kaboom it just burns and warms the body.”

Phichit picked one up, it looked bruised and ill and poop-like with a green stem sprouting from the top. She took it out of his hands, “But unless you're a Fire bender you'll destroy your taste buds,” and ate it.

I was about to ask her how she knew that when she explained, with another smoky burp, that she learnt it the hard way.

That explains her food preferences.

“Ahh, good morning to you and welcome, welcome, Phichit Chulanont,” the Earth bending master said, strolling towards us.

Phichit had received an invite yesterday to join the Gaoling Earthbending Academy and be a student. We are here (super early Sunday morning, mind you) because he said it’s rude to refuse invites from bending masters through carrier hamsters. The only way is in person and that's why we're here in the courtyard of the academy. It's quite an old style, the school, which is four-hundred-years-old. Built in a square all around the courtyard with white plastered bricks, wooden support pillars, red ceramic roof tiles, angled roof tips, and metal carvings laid along the rooftops of some J-shaped thingy. The courtyard was clean and laid out with rows of large stone vases.

“When I had heard that the UR’s prodigal Earth bender was in town and studying under Master Tie I was appalled.” He did not greet us with a bow when he got near, instead continuing, “For such talent to be used for metal smith of all things is a waste.”

Though he did not greet us respectfully, Phichit still did, holding his hands together in a fist before himself and bowing the head. Then straighter himself and, without a hint of contempt, said, “With all due respect to my wishes, Master Yang, I am studying swordship, not just metalsmith, and it is by no means a waste.”

The master harrumphed. “Swordship. What need does an Earthbender have for the sword?”

He rattled off from his textbooks, “Discipline and honing the mind. Strengthening the bod---”

Yang cut him off with a flick of his hand and a poke to his nose, “I've read that very same book when I was young. Now tell me, what do you want to do with learning the sword?”

“Dance,” he responded after a moment of silence and silence. “Fire dance. I want to be the first from the Earth kingdom, a non-firebender, to compete in Firedancing. And to represent my family in the Nation Games.”

We left after he told Master Yang that he'll not be his student. It was then little past seven in the morning, so we decided to get dumplings for breakfast.

“‘N’ ‘en ‘e wa’ ‘ike, ‘Oh ‘o you ‘i’n.’ ‘N’ I wa’ ‘ike,” He rambled as we ate. It's like our elements are reversed when we eat, me not daring to touch my food until I was sure it had cooled and him gulping down the piping hot dumplings like it was served cold. Well, maybe not cold. Cold dumplings are gross. Ick.

I blew on my food, nibbling on it slowly as I half listened. He really does look like a hamster when he eats--and also when he’s smiling or concentrating or bending or sleepy or anytime, really. He looked like a hamster, a really cute hamster, cutest in the world, but especially when he's eating something he finds tasty.

An excited, puberty voice interrupted the chatter of the small restaurant. “Isabella! There you are!” A boy I recognized as JJ from the grade five class ran in and came to a stop in front of a black-haired girl couple tables from ours. He leaned one arm on the table and striked a pose. He said, calmly this time, trying to seem cool and casual and like he didn't just run all over town looking for her, “I knew I'd find you here.”

“Well, I did tell you I was gonna get dumplings after morning training,” said Isabella, finishing her last piece and putting down the chopsticks.

“Oh, yeahhhhh. You did!” A pause, “But anyway, I wanted to ask if you if you'd come watch the pro bending tournament tomorrow with me. I have an extra ticket.” He looked nervous.

Isabella stalled a bit by wiping her mouth with a handkerchief, then smiled, “Sure, I'd love to.”

His face split into a huge grin, “Awesome! I'll pick you up at eight?”

“Actually, how about we meet at the arena?”

“Sure, at the main or the North entrance?”

“Um, neither.”

“Huh..?”

“I got my own tickets, actually. Just find a seat and I'll find you before the first round, ‘kay?” She got up to leave.

“Oh, okay. Yeah. Sure. Um…” he looked nervous again.

“I'll see you then.”

“Huh? Don’t you have lessons with my mom this afternoon?”

“Not tonight,” she said over her shoulders. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

JJ slumped after she left, then a moment later he shook his head violently and straightened, looking hopeful and excited once more. He took a step towards the door but stopped mid stride when he noticed us. Or noticed Phichit, more specifically. Jean-Jacques “JJ” Leroy is from a martial Earthbending arts family, meaning using bending for fighting. His parents teach, but unlike Isabella’s dad, Master Yang, they only accept one or two pupils at a time, like Aunty with Phichit. He’s one of Gaoling academy’s students and probably recognized Phichit.

“You!” He approached our table.

Who, me? said Phichit, mouth still full and words unrecognizable.

“Yeah. Oh, hi, Guang-Hong. Mornin’”

“Mornin’,” I replied.

“You're Chulanont, aren't you? UR’s Earthbending prodigy.”

He nodded.

“Wow! It's nice to meet you! I'm JJ, I've heard so much about you from Master Yang, most of them good stuff. You met him today, right? So are you gonna be joining the academy?”

He swallowed before shaking his head no.

“Oh...that's too bad. Master Yang’s a really good teacher, though you're probably a bending master already and don't need a teacher, but I think that no matter how old or experienced, there's always more to learn. Say, while you were there did Master Yang notice my handiwork? The J’s along the roof.”

“That was you?” we asked at the same time.

He shaped his hands into two J’s, posing them in front, “Yep!”

“Nice!” and “You can bend metal now!”

“Hehe, yeah! So, did he notice them? How did he react?”

“He didn’t see them, I don’t think,” I told him.

“Really? Aww, man.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m gonna go over there right now. See ya around, Guang-Hong, Phichit.” Before he left, Phichit asked him about the pro-bending tournament. He gave us a pamphlet and some directions to the underground arena.

The next day, luckily, there was no school because of a grasshopper infestation. We had read over the pamphlet and decided to go watch. Phichit, especially, was really excited. He said he’s been to a few pro bending tournaments in the UR and always wanted to participate but his moms were against it. Gaoling is far away and small enough, though, that they won’t know if he fought one round. But I didn’t want him to.

“Will the people running the tournament let you join, though?” I asked him. “It’s happening tomorrow. Don’t you have to register or something?”

“There’s a registration, but here, see?” he pointed to a line on the page. “Here it says that audience members are free to challenge the winner afterwards.”

“But isn’t it dangerous?”

“Young pupil! Are you doubting your teacher?”

“Yeah, I am. Just because you’re good at bending doesn’t mean you’ll be good at fighting. This isn’t a talent show, Phichit. What if you get hurt?”

“Come now, I’m an Earthbender! I can dig myself out of any grave. Literally. You’ll also be there if I need help.”

I stared at him, unconvinced.

“If things get dangerous, I’ll forfeit. Alright?”

I remained silent.

“Guang-Hong, please. I’ll only fight one round, and I could learn something that could be useful one day.”

“Fighting’s useful?”

“It’s self-defence.”

“You could learn that from the Leroy’s!”

“I already have. They visited my school a year ago.”

“Then you don’t need to learn anymore.”

“What if I meet anti-benders? You always wanted to fight them”

“That’s different!”

“How so?”

“Their...danger levels...are different…”

“What?” He was genuinely confused so I spelt it out for him.

“Anti-benders can’t bend. The pro-fighters can and are masters too.”

“Who says anti-benders can’t bend?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Why would a bender be against bending? But this isn’t about them, this is about you.”

“Guang-Hong! Please! Let! Me! Fight! One! Round!” He clapped between every word.

There was a long moment where I held on to that no. Now that I think back, why did he even ask me for permission? I’m not his moms, I can’t punish him or ground him. I think I know now, and I’ll understand one day. Ascfor now…

“Fine,” I acquiesced only because I knew who he would be fighting.

Chapter Text

As I had said, school was cancelled due to a grasshopper infestation.

Typical of the Earth Kingdom, the arena was located within a mountain, a little ways out of town. However, it did not resemble Earth Kingdom architecture in that it was unstable, or at least looked that way. The entrance into the mountain was like the mouth of a worm, toothless and agape, frozen as it gasped for breath. Into the mountain, parts of the tunnel walls were caved in, only the rubble piled underneath supported it from further collapsing. Deeper the tunnel went on a flat slope, and I would have been scared if not for all the other sport spectators walking the same way, even with Phichit there. Gradually, the scenery changed to viney plants, live and breathing and sprouting leaves even in the fire-lit darkness, weaving along the contours of the wall, supporting it. The deeper we went, the less it resembled the architecture of the region, until finally our destination was reached.

A bright cavity in the heart of the mountain, the Beifong Arena, though staged like a regular bending arena with a raised square platform as the fighting area and rows of seats that are basically stairs around, is irregular because it’s not a naturally formed cave. Entirely dirt, this place that can seat ten-thousand people would need the constant attention of an Earthbending master--if not for those same viney plants snaking across the walls. It’s earth, but not stable, and that reason had every newcomer wowing, including us two.

“How--What---Who?” Phichit struggled to express. I was feeling the same. I’d heard about this arena, never paid much thought to it, but seeing it in---wait, have I heard about it? I mean, a lot of places in the Earth Kingdom are named after Toph Beifong, and Beifong Arena would be no exception.

Phichit dragged me out of my thoughts, saying the good seats are being taken up quickly, so we rushed to grab a place.

The spectator’s seats are divided unequally in two. The third row and beyond is protected by a large-latticed net, again from vines, while the first two rows are unshielded from the stage. I wondered why most people sat behind the net until Phichit pointed out that everyone, except for me, in front of the nets were Earthbenders.

“Boulders probably come flying into the audience often, since this is a strictly pro-Earthbending tournament,” I realized.

Phichit nodded.

“This place though…”

“Yeah, it’s really…”

“Kinda cool,” we said at the same time.

“Jinx!” he jumped in with immediately, grinning.

“Ah, huh?”

“Oh, do you not know what jinx is?”

I shook my head.

“How…”

“Isn’t that, like, a curse?” JJ came up from behind us, hopping down the last row to plop beside me. “Best seat in the house, am I right? Anyway, isn’t jinx a curse? Where my gramps comes from they use it like, ‘I’ll put a jinx on you!’”

“And where’s that?” I asked

He thought for a moment, “It doesn’t really have a name, I don’t think. Gramps just calls it village or home. It’s south of Hei Bei’s forest and used to be a stronghold and quarry for the Fire nation in the old war.”

“You’re right, though,” said Phichit. “Jinx means curse. It’s a Fire Nation slang. Your grandpa’s village probably absorbed the word into their dialect during the war.”

“Huh.”

“I still don’t get why you cursed me!” I pushed my way back into the conversation.

“Because you owe me a cup of tea,” he grinned.

“Huh?”

“Remember, thrice-brewed green tea, hold the milk, and honey-boba instead of sugar-boba. On ice.”

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. “Well in that case you’re buying me a jiangbing too.”

“Sure, no problem. A jiangbing only costs one yuan. Whereas boba tea costs five,” He held up a hand displaying all five fingers.

“I think he wins this round,” JJ whispered to me. Ugh. He continues, to the both of us, “I heard you two talking about the arena. Pretty cool, eh, this place?”

We nodded.

“Well?”

“Well what?” I asked.

“Go ahead, ask me about it.”

“Ok...Umm, what’s up with all those vines everywhere?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” he said confidently. I was about to yell but he continued, “This arena was actually built just two days ago. The tournament, too, was announced then.”

“That tells us nothing.” Though it was a strange piece of information.

“Sorry, sorry. Though in my defence I didn’t say I knew anything, I just told you to ask me.”

“Would the guests like to know more about the Swamp Arena?” Someone asked from behind us.

We turned around. A lady in green sat on the row behind ours. Everything about her could be summed up in two words, from her plain, modern clothing that said ‘I am one of you,’ to her hair that’s just the right amount of not-too-silky and not-too-frizzy that’s more special than super-silky/frizzy but stands with a crowd more than anything else, to her facial features that cannot be described with words not because they are too beautiful but because it’s like they’re not there and as soon as you look away you’ll forget even whether she had a nose or not. In other words, she’s a Jane Doe. Coincidentally or maybe not-so-coincidentally, her name is Joo Dee, meaning Jane Doe in the standard dialect of the Earth Kingdom.

She explained how the place was built. A Waterbender from the Foggy Swamp who can control plant growth and movement by manipulating the water within plants shaped the mountain’s plants’ roots to the shape we see now, then an Earthbender was able to dig out earth without the mountain collapsing. Classical Swamp architecture, she finished with. So that’s what those vine-thingys are.

We voiced our individual amazements that Waterbenders could bend plants that way, the control it takes to bend a mountain-worth of flora, and the uniqueness of this water-earthbending technique. Then the MC came on stage and announced the start of the tournament.

As he explained the rules (excitedly exclaiming every sentence) I happened to glance around the arena. It’s filled up since we sat down. All the seats are taken now, even the front rows.

Two contestants came on stage. “Here comes our first two fighters of the day! One last thing before they begin, allow me to introduce myself! I am the creator of this arena! And I am honoured to be your MC for this city’s first ever UR style pro-bending tournament!” He then introduced the contestants on the stage, told them to bow to each other, announced commencement, and leapt off the stage.

How this tournament is set up, every fighter will fight everyone once in a round-robin, and whoever wins the most wins it all. The first duel was won to a giant of a man named Chien-Po, the second to a women in bear skin and fur named Ah Xiong. When the third began, I realized what ‘UR style bending’ was. It’s multi-bending, not just earthbending as I had thought. Really, though, it should be called Avatar style bending. That should be a thing! Masters of all elements face off. Oh, but that might get too dangerous. And painful…

“What’s up with that face you’re making?” Asked Phichit.

I looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“You look like you’re in pain. Are you feeling bad for the fighters? No, is it the violence? Is this too violent? Did you get hit by a rock?” Coincidentally, a huge boulder came flying at us, and which Phichit bent into dust before it hit us.

“I’m fine,” I was about to say when I noticed JJ standing up in his seat. Phichit noticed too.

We told him to sit down in unison. He didn’t.

“I’m looking for Isabella,” he explained.

Oh.

“She’s never late to anything…” he continued.

“You mean you didn’t know?” I told him.

“Know what?”

While we were talking, the third duel had ended and the fourth pair were making their way on stage. The MC introduced them, exclaiming excitedly as previously, Ou Baoyi, water, and Isabella Yang, earth and fire!.

JJ froze and turned towards them. Standing on his seat in a stupor he watched her and the Waterbender duel. She only used her bending once, grabbing her opponent in a headlock and slamming him face down. Then, holding a flame where the Waterbender could see, she said something and the duel was over. All the while, JJ’s jaw was on the ground.

She turned and gave him a wave. It prompted him to rush onto the stage but the MC stopped him in his tracks with root vines. He protested that he needed to talk to the victor, who shook her head at him from onstage and mouthed, “I’ll talk to you later,” and left the way she came. The MC released him.

He slumped onto his seat, dejected.

“Isabella is famous among us younger grades because she beat up a bully. A bully who was even older than her. For that there’s a fanclub who basically knows everything about her, including her partaking today in the tournament,” I explained. “I only knew she was entered in a tournament, not this one specifically. Though, this being the only tournament going on, I guessed...this was...it…”

I trailed off because Phichit and JJ were looking at me funny.

“How did you know about,” JJ waved his hands around to signify everything I said, “All this.”

“Well...I….”

“You’re in the fanclub!” Phichit called out.

“Am not! I just go to meetings sometimes.”

“Guang-Hong’s a fanboy!”

“I came out here to have a good time and I am honestly feeling so attacked right now.”

JJ laid himself down on the ground, drawing our attention to him. He mumbles to himself, “Why did she never tell me...I thought I was getting to her….becoming friends....” and the likes.

“JJ, you okay?” asked Phichit.

“No.” He rolled his eyes up to us then to the ground, pouting. “I always wanted to have a bending match with her but she never agreed. Here she is, fighting pro-benders. Maybe she thought I was too weak for her…”

“You might get to duel with her today,” I said. I was starting to wonder if he had a depressing streak. “Audience member can challenge the champion.”

He bounced back up, eyes shining with the beginnings of excitement, “You’re right!”

“If she wins, though,” Phichit interrupted.
“She will,” I replied confidently.

“Is she really strong?”

I nodded, and I was sure JJ nodded too. “She’s an Earth and Firebender. You saw how she took that Waterbender only using fire once? It’s because she’s conserving her bending for a secret weapon she’s been harnessing.”

“Yep! My parents even brought in a firebending master and a dual-bender to help her master it,” JJ added.

“It’s an original technique done by merging Fire and Earthbending! Kinda like what you do.”

I caught a gleam or a sparkle in his eyes, but when I took a second glance he had his head turned to the stage in rapt attention to the far off. I then got dragged into a conversation with JJ about Isabella’s coolness, which I happily engaged in. We half-spectated the fights unless it was her’s, and in the end we were right. She won all her duels. Sometimes using earthbending, sometimes fire, but not yet both.

As the MC strode towards her on stage, JJ got up and dusted himself off and slicked his hair back with some spit. He took a proud soldier step forward as the MC held up the champion’s arm, “Would anyone like to challenge the champion?”

I felt a gust of wind beside me. It was Phichit, using the earth to catapult himself into the air. “Me!” He exclaimed, landing before them. “ I would like to challenge the champion.”

“Hey! But I wanted to---” JJ protested, but I pulled him back. To me, “Dude, Isabella and I friends, we go to the same cademy yet we’ve never dueled before so I should get to challenge he--”

I rushedly explained, “You’re not a firebender. Phichit is. Well, I think he is. I mean, I don’t think he knows that---”

“Little dude, what are you talking about?”

“Phichit’s always trying to earthbend like a firebender. It’s hard to understand unless you’ve seen him bending, but right now he and Isabella are the only ones matched inability.”

“Like I care! I wan---” He’s cute off a third time when the MC announced the duel commencement. Bow to your opponent, starting position, begin!.