Well, who would have thought.
All that remained was to put the plan into action, so we gave instructions to everyone on the spot and went back towards the hotel, where the poor fellow had already listened to us.
And then he went to the "shops" flashing his money and unsuccessfully entered a dark alley. Where there was a lot of blood left, his bag with documents and some gold. And the poor fellow himself had already changed his facial features and was instructed on what and how to do.
In general, the most complex epic was completed, all that remained was simple - in a week, manage to send another similar instruction to the middle ring and then the final one, before the agents entered.
Tomorrow the poor fellows will come here, slowly seeping into the layers of the population of the outer circle, just as the punks are getting weapons in decent quantities, which will be enough for our warriors.
So far the plan is going quite well.
And Azula and I, having collected our belongings, set off for the middle ring. There were not so many of them, in the sense of belongings, but not few either. The princess managed to buy various clothes and trinkets "for camouflage." I'll give her credit, they really were different clothes. Both me and her, in some cases you can pass for both a poor person and a decently dressed person. I couldn't find anything really good that you could even walk around the middle district in, looking at everyone like crap under your feet.
By the way, instructions for other news about "freedom" through June's gang were also issued.
To be honest, at the border my asshole tightened slightly; in my memory, between the inner and middle it somehow passed faster and easier. But, on the other hand, it is understandable, it is in the outer circle that all sorts of marginalized people work, and so on and so forth. Therefore, there may be much more smuggling and dangerous items.
- Purpose of the visit? — the border guard asked us without hesitation. Do they know that they are not just one country, but one city?
"Accommodation," I said, to which the frontier chuckled slightly.
—Are you bringing something forbidden?
- Apparently not.
- Great, fill out the form and send your things here. We'll check.
God bureaucracy. How I hate her. Write everything down for them and tell them everything. But oh well, sticking to the current legend was actually pretty easy. Therefore, I did not see any dangerous moments in filling. I've laid out everything order by order, but you'll never get to the bottom of it.
Well, actually they didn't get to the bottom of us and let us pass further. And of course, on the main street along which we walked about two hundred meters, there was a hotel. The same one we lived in, but a higher class. Exactly the same, only everything is a little better. And of course, smiling Judy sat behind the reception desk.
Eh, well, but the bed is softer.
***
Waking up not to a girl bouncing off you is actually quite nice. Now she brazenly used me as a pillow and slept peacefully.
But there is also a minus: now she refuses to wake up. I don't know what kind of daily routine she had before, but somehow she became unacceptably relaxed on this task.
Okay, I'm just grumbling, it doesn't make sense to do something outside the locals' schedule, and they get up around ten in the morning. How much now? Pu-pu-pu, six in the morning.
Well, controlling my bending at my level allows me to get enough sleep faster. Maybe. I guess so at least.
In any case, we need to think about what to do now in the new stage. We have three more weeks, we have a week for this city, but even if we spend the conditional two, nothing will happen. More likely.
I just don't see an option to get into the internal level, because if anything, the prices there are such that we need to take all the money right now and go there to survive for a week. Maybe I'm exaggerating, of course, I don't have exact data, but people aren't allowed into an "elite" area just like that.
And how do you "earn" a pass there? There are no gangs here, you won't be able to repeat the last trick and subdue the local robbers. Unfortunately. No, of course, you can search and search, but the feeling is that nothing good will come from this.
In the end, what do we have in the bottom line? I'm a good blacksmith and... that's it? I don't know what Azula can do, but it's unlikely that anyone here needs a person who trained to be a princess? Although, who knows, in fact, what she can do. At a minimum, count and write at a very decent level. What can already give a job... probably? I don't think there are very many people here who are so educated.
But it won't be possible to achieve such a result even in two weeks to get noticed/promoted so that you can get into the inner layer. And if you can, you will most likely arouse unnecessary suspicion. And we are already on the pencil, very quickly we penetrated into the middle one. And when might visitors have the right amount of money? When they brought them with them. Where did they get them from there?
In general, there are a lot of questions anyway. Adding new ones is like death. That's why we need to think about it. To begin with, somehow find out the local schedules.
In my thoughts, I didn't notice that I was slightly quiet again, and it was Azula who woke me up. There was a certain amount of causticism, which I simply tolerated.
You didn't have to go far to get food - there was a canteen or a restaurant nearby, so similar to the previous one, but also a little better in everything.
There the princess and I fell, ordering food for ourselves.
- Any ideas? Azula asked simply.
"None," I chuckled, "only the bad ones."
"As if you have others," the girl habitually sarcastically, "speak it out."
"It's almost impossible to get in while still looking like a peacenik," I lowered my voice another half tone, the establishment was almost empty, according to the classics, but caution won't hurt anyone, "so we have two options: first, we find ways to get there before the X day." , illegal, and we're just hiding for a week. The second option is that we don't go there at all. Only when the time comes, we break through, albeit quietly, just get to the palace and do our business. Both options have their pros and cons.
"I meant information about the local boss, but oh well," Azula rolled her eyes, "the first option." The second one is too dangerous, although we do everything the same as in the first one...
"You don't understand," I shook my head, "the second option is a one-way path." We, trying not to make any noise, simply clear the way for ourselves, leaving no witnesses and reaching the palace. We will have some time before the news spreads about us, during which we must manage to reach our goal. Otherwise it won't be very good for us. The first option is an attempt to somehow penetrate into the inner layer. I don't know how, but without leaving corpses and acting very carefully.
"Hmm," was all the princess said, thinking, but then leaned back and sighed heavily, "I don't know." Getting there is still a challenge in any case. But in the first option we will have no information at all.
"Well, we're not easy people either," I chuckled, "no, purely in theory, there could be very cool earthbenders there - but I doubt that there will be so many that we can't cope."
"Okay, let's leave this," the princess decided, "let's go back to the head of this area." We need to find him and find out at least something. How are we going to do this?
"That's also a good question," I sighed, "now we don't have free labor." Therefore, something needs to be decided. But in general, as if you can find out who is in charge by simply asking the locals?
"Well, in theory, yes," Azula shrugged, "but it should be done casually...
- Don't you catch deja vu from our dialogue? — I chuckled, "let's just go have a drink at the local bar for young people and meet some company." And there we can talk.
"How simple is everything for you," the princess snapped, just for the sake of marking, "last time, we seemed to have decided that you would be responsible for this?" It's the same this time too. I'll sit and wait at the hotel. I'll think of a better plan than: we climb into I don't know where, most importantly, killing everyone along the way!
"Okay," I answered and supposedly began to think, "I'll have to join different companies myself." Hmm, it's most logical to meet girls," the princess's eyebrow twitched at this phrase, "after all, they are more talkative, and the opposite sex is an excellent choice."
"I changed my mind," the princess said, narrowing her eyes, "let's both focus on your method," and when I thought that my plan worked, she continued, "I'll focus on the guys then." To make sure you don't miss any necessary information.
It seems that now something twitched in me, and judging by the princess's appearance, she noticed it. That's it... a bitch.
Well, okay, okay, let's play this fun.
Unlike the external level, here such an institution was found quite quickly, well, who would doubt it, there were more young people here who had nothing to do with anything.
In my head I imagined, despite all the surroundings, a typical club and in fact I was not far from the truth. The music was upbeat and catchy, although the dancing on the dance floor was more distinct than the jumping that I remember, the lights were dimmed enough to create the right atmosphere, but at the same time you could see the surroundings and there was a typical bar counter.
There were quite a lot of people present, some sat at the tables in a group and smoked something like a hookah, some at the bar, in general, you could say there was a crowd. And it was great, because Azula and I immediately went in different directions, trying not to let each other out of sight, but at the same time being at a distance.
Our script, roughly speaking, was different. I had to roll the balls to some demonstrably lonely sitting lady, and on the contrary, she had to be this sitting lady.
My attention was attracted by a girl in some rather beautiful dress, even revealing by local standards, who was decorously sucking some kind of cocktail. I'm sure if there were phones in this world, she would be sitting in it, but what's not there is not, so she just looked at her surroundings.
Well... the goal is set. All that remains is implementation.
And it turned out to be easier than I thought; having a cute, but at the same time slightly exotic face for these places was beneficial. They generously agreed to the cocktail I paid for, and my topics of conversation were happily supported.
The girl turned out to be the daughter of some local merchants and came here "just to see what kind of club this is." Judging by the look of the bartender, who accidentally warmed his ears, I'm not the first to have such a successful noodle hang on my ears.
The girl is a regular local, I bet you.
Ideally, it would be if she was a typical honey trap, light hints, let's go out and get some air, look what a nice alley, and a stone to the head. Then there will be gangs here, and it will be possible to crush someone very easily.
In general, everything went as well as possible, except for one moment. Some local bull was already hovering around Azula like a snake. And it infuriated me incredibly.
She never smiled at me like she does at him now!
But the girl, whose name I both learned and forgot at that very second, was very good at discussing topics of dialogue. She easily shared quite a lot of useful and interesting information.
Which I immediately sorted into shelves in my head. To start with something interesting, there are two local leaders. Well, conditionally, of course.
There was one in the outer ring - he was responsible for both the soldiers and the civilian part. By and large, that's why what's happening there is happening; the city's resources would be enough not to create a pure ghetto out of such a huge region. What is missing is at least one more normal Mayor, responsible for civil affairs, or better yet four more, and divided into districts.
But, apparently, no one cares, and we will deal with this. It is enough for them that spies do not penetrate.
This is not the case here, there is a local army general in charge of the soldiers on the second wall and the garrison, and a mayor who is in charge of local affairs.
And they are located at a decent distance from each other, the general is in the military unit, and the Mayor is in the city hall building. Incredibly logical, but how inconvenient. I'll have to discuss this issue with Azula.
Maybe even dress up and transfer another unit to this level, but I won't decide for myself, considering that I'm also slightly under the influence.
Well, and emotions, of course, because at the moment, out of my peripheral vision, I'm watching Azula laugh very sweetly.
Incredibly infuriating.
I also just found out the local layouts and, as far as I can tell, the spread here is actually quite large. Considering the insecurity of the external level, everyone who had the slightest ability to do something crawled here. At least they tried. But at the same time, there are those who moved here from the inner circle due to slight deprivation, their desires, or some other reasons.
And there are indigenous locals.
Therefore, you can meet a person who survives from bread to water, or you can meet someone who wastes money like candy wrappers.
"Oh, and the general also has a son," the lady said somehow just casually, "an annoying guy who tries to look under everyone's skirt, you just have to look around a little and you can easily find him... here he is," she said frivolously, poking just the guy who was actively "sticking" Azula.
"Wow," I said silently, "so what happens?"
"More often yes than not," the girl shrugged, "he has a lot of money, and to have business with his father... there are a lot of different rumors going around." That's why his impudence is through the roof.
"It's okay," I answered, but immediately switched the topic so that she wouldn't feel my interest, "it's good that I'm not like that." At least I don't seem to be too impudent, no?
"I think it's just right," the girl smiled slyly, her eyes aging, "although maybe you need to be a little more impudent..." she said spatially, shooting a glance.
By and large, the hint is clear - I'm ready, let's take further steps.
But now is the time to jump off this topic. Because that guy really has too much arrogance, Azula has already changed her vector of behavior and is trying to gently get rid of her persistent admirer. And he, without hesitation, even lets go of his hands quite well. Either he will try to put it on her knee, or touch her face.
The princess still endured all this, acting gently and saying that there was no need to rush, but, apparently, the guy knew a lot at least about his father's affairs and talked a lot.
The finale for me personally was that the two of them went somewhere, where the son grabbed Azula's hand. She may not have resisted, clearly counting on information, but somehow it seems to me that the princess is not completely cutting off reality. He's clearly not calling to talk more.
Sometimes I forget that there are some social planes that Azula simply, due to experience, does not fully understand. And it seems this is one of those.
We'll have to intervene.
That's why I'm definitely not jealous.
***
It turned out to be easy to follow them, he led her into some alley right at the entrance, and I followed right after, seeing how the guy, without hesitation, began to pester Azula. I know she could have taken care of herself, but that was my logical part of my brain talking.
Emotional made me jump out and break this guy's jaw with one blow, knocking him out.
- Well, why? "Azula asked, "I would have knocked him out myself."
"I've already found out, everything we need," I tried to answer calmly, slowly moving away from the attack of anger, "we can go."
"I'm sure you learned clearly less than I did, because this is the son of the target," the princess chuckled.
"Let's go check the information and find out whether it was worth it or not," I drew the line, turning to the side.
Apparently, by and large, the princess was pleased with what had happened, so she did not try to leave the last word for herself, but only chuckled and caught up with me.
We headed to the hotel because it was already evening. And it's time to go to the hotel, discuss what we found out and go to bed. After discussion, it turned out that I had obtained more information.
It's elementary because the guy I knocked out was praising himself very much, so literally everything he said was not very useful as information. Some grains that, in the absence of another source, we would have to look for.
And considering that we have another source of information...
- So... you screwed up? — I summed it up boldly.
- Oh, did I screw up...? — Azula raised one eyebrow, clearly preparing to give out a monologue, but I decided to sleep today without a share of poison in my blood.
"Well, that's all, actually, I was just lucky," I waved my hands, telling the truth by and large.
It could actually be exactly the opposite, so is it worth making some kind of conflict out of this?
"...okay," Azula breathed, "I'm tired too." So let's go to bed.
Apparently, communicating with that idiot tired the princess enough that she simply passed out, not starting a game called how to lie down closer without showing interest.
I just passed out after that.
* * *
For some reason, when I woke up, I didn't feel either a soft bed or Azula on my shoulder.
Moreover, my arms and legs were tied, and my body felt somehow too flimsy. However, this began to pass quickly, fortunately my bending was with me and this feeling went away as quickly as it went away.
But it's worth paying tribute to them, they used good poison, it knocked me out pretty good. It felt like ten minutes passed. For which we were quickly packed into some suitcases right in our room and dragged out onto the street. Through the air I calmly felt where we were.
We rode on some kind of chariot to who knows where, to be honest, we drove for about an hour and a half and left the urbanization somewhere to more or less private houses.
During this time, I managed to start thinking, where did we screw up? In theory, I need to run away right now and I would have done so, if not for one thing. They dragged us not to the place where I was tortured last time, moreover, somehow it all looked... frivolous. Yes, we were poisoned with some kind of sleeping poison, this hints that a person at least has access to such things in this city. But sneaking out of a completely state-controlled hotel, as Judy hints at at the counter?
In general, I decided that if I had time to escape, I would take Azula with me. I'm not the same as before, and I have an ace up my sleeve called: I'm already awake.
As I expected, we were pulled out among private houses and dragged into one of them, straight into the basement. I expected different things, maybe they just wanted to get money out of us, or in the end they uncovered a chain with a gang outside, but it's not like one son's dad got his head beaten.
In a fairly decent-sized basement there was this same guy with a bandaged jaw, apparently I didn't even break him, since apparently his father can talk, I can't assess his appearance yet. I recognized the guy only by his voice, with a speech impediment characteristic of a bruised jaw.
There were also two chairs and a bed.
For some reason this all makes me happy. With every second, the danger for Azula and I only decreases, because all the guards have left the premises or who was it that brought us? Of course, after we were dumped on chairs.
Absolutely irresponsible, no, I understand, according to the information that we managed to dig up in just ten hours, we are just people, absolutely civilians, but to tie our legs and arms with a rope and put us on a chair? Without even being tied to him?
What's next?
Will they just pityingly ask?
And then they poured a bucket of cold water on us, starting with me. I didn't have to feign surprise; I didn't expect it and actually jerked in surprise. If more experienced people were in their place, they would easily understand that I was no longer asleep. But it passed.
I finally got a look at the local largest toad. A thin man with some strange-looking beard.
Next they woke up Azula, and now she had clearly gotten a serious dose of adrenaline. True, she was in no hurry to open her eyes and react. In that regard, she behaved like a professional, supposedly starting to wake up slowly, although in reality she was already trying to understand where she was and what was happening.
I think when she realized that I was in the same room, and there were two of us against her, she felt better.
This is a classic when prisoners are tortured, they must be taken to different rooms. Otherwise, it is done very rarely or by amateurs.
- Why do you think you are here? — the man asked the question in a rather calm voice.
"We... we..." I was "confused," "we will complain!" Let's contact the police!
- Let's shout! Azula added.
We intensively made frightened faces and generally tried to act as if we were in a panic.
- Oh, I think you know who I am, don't you? - the man clarified, - so no complaints will help. I wouldn't advise you to shout. You are in my private sector, there is no one around. At all. Except my trusted people.
- And... and what will happen to us? — Azula asked, trying to squeeze out a tear.
"At the discretion of my son, of course," the man smiled, yielding slightly and letting his blood flow forward.
"I'll fuck you right on this bed while your boyfriend watches." And then I'll break his face right in front of your eyes! - he even said somehow childishly, stuttering once.
- Hm... - I even burst out laughing through my sad face, - it's funny.
- And what's funny, let me ask you? — the local chief raised his eyebrows, clearly feeling that the situation was completely under his control.
- You brought us far from the city, leaving us almost alone with ourselves, and you ask what's funny? — my face suddenly stopped being sad, and a grin appeared on my face, "what's less work for our guys."
They didn't have time to answer me, I just broke the ropes with a slight effort, like Azula, although apparently I had to use a little fire.
I quickly tied up the general, who didn't even have time to understand what had happened, and the princess - his son. And now they were sitting on the same chairs, and we were in front of them.
Azula was warming up slightly, and I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at them.
"As far as I understand, we are at a fairly decent depth, so even in the building they are unlikely to hear us," I answered Azula's silent question why they don't have gags in their mouths, "so I see you're so in charge here that you can afford to steal This is how the citizens of Basingse organize entertainment for their son?
"You won't get away with it," the general replied, still trying to remain calm.
- Yes! - the son shouted, "you won't even leave this house!" There are a lot of powerful earthbenders there who are personally devoted to their father!
"Uchi-bose," Azula said, "a little boy is hoping that someone will save him." "I'm afraid not," the princess continued, smiling sweetly and gesturing with her eyebrows and eyes. Perhaps it's not normal that I think a girl who is preparing to be tortured is cute?
"I think we need to show our seriousness first," I said, supposedly thoughtfully, taking the only knife that was lying here on the table and quickly walking up to my son and plunging the blade into his leg. The scream could be heard throughout the room: if he didn't get help, he would bleed to death within two hours.
- Who you are? — the man finally asked the right question.
- We? - I asked, - we are your death, my friend. We would have killed you anyway, but your prank with your son moved our meeting a couple of weeks earlier. Oh, and she also killed your son. Maybe. If you tell us everything we need to know, we'll let him go.
And then a banal interrogation began, during which we gradually extracted the information that we needed to know. To begin with: getting into the internal level is not so difficult, there are temporary passes. Which are valid until a certain date. And there are even such in this house, although they are all quite short, for a maximum of a month.
There was also a lot of information on the structure of the army, which we carefully memorized, so that we could then put it in a book and convey it in the next letter. This will all be very useful to the next group.
After we finished, the general's son still had his ear cut off, and the general himself was pretty well beaten.
Well, I want to say, they deserve it; by and large, we are not the first to whom they do this. In principle, this is their regular practice. This is not to mention the crap the man did to get to his post and is already at his post. In general, we were morally justified, at least to ourselves.
"Before I die, I think I deserve to know who you are?" - asked the man.
"If you want to delay death, then I think we can talk, why not," I shrugged, grabbing the knife more conveniently, "I'm quite known under the name Kira, and this is Princess Azula," it might be somehow dangerous to talk about it out loud , but if we were noticed doing this activity, then there is no difference, and this way they will find out who we are. And if you haven't noticed, then what to talk about.
- What? - he exhaled.
"What did you think," I leaned sharply in front of him, "war is a joke?" No. So she came personally to your house, - and then he straightened up and walked at a leisurely pace to the son of this piece of shit, it turned out that he stomped to the younger piece of shit, yes, - so, in a couple of weeks Basingse will fall...
"Ah-ha-aha-ha," the general laughed, slightly madly, realizing that he and his son were in deep trouble and would not leave here alive, "you already tried a few years ago, so what?" Walls…
"As you can see, we are already here," the princess chuckled, "we are beginning to clean out dirt like you from the future colony."
"Speaking of dirt," I picked up, standing next to the failed rapist, "after what you did, according to our laws, there's only one sentence...
"No, no, no, no," the man began to gasp full of horror, looking at us.
The guy was passed out from pain and so much the better. Now he won't wake up.
"Death," Azula stated soullessly looking at the guy's body.
The father followed his son.
- So, now clean the house and you can go home? — the princess clarified somehow casually.
Yes, except for those in the house, no one knew that the general not only stole two people, but in theory could do such a thing. He is a good man to everyone.
- What is home for us? - I turned on the great philosopher, pulling the corpses from the chair and throwing them into the corner. We still have to drag the others into this basement so that at least for some time the stench does not spread enough to be noticed - a hotel? Maybe homeland? Or maybe there is a place where we feel most comfortable? Or are they still people?
"Tch," the princess rolled her eyes, "get it together, Akimaru, we still have a whole house of earthbenders to clean out, making sure no one runs away."
"Uh-huh," I muttered, "that's kind of disgusting." In our place there could be, and there were, ordinary people. At first I thought that at home, among the people, there was no such Fire, but I thought harder and realized, but definitely not? Can you vouch for all the old men in power that there is not a sadist inside one of them?
"I can't," Azula admitted, "if you don't know, Zuko ended up on Angi Kai with his Father precisely because he was outraged by one of the general's plans." A very disgusting and shitty plan.
"It's not for me to judge," I shrugged, "but I think this is too harsh a punishment for a child for trying to save people."
"He was no longer a child, but a prince," Azula snapped, "and he must answer for his words."
"Yeah," I said simply, "let's go clean it up?"
It turned out that a dozen other benderss were on duty in the house, if you can call it that. In fact, they were almost resting, they were sleeping, two were playing with something, and another three were wandering around the house or territory. It was not difficult to quietly kill them all and drag the corpses into the basement.
How to find the necessary passes, as well as a bunch of gold and other documents. In fact, it was early morning, around six in the morning, and it was still dark enough on the street that we could grab most of the stuff and run away in the direction of the hotel. We simply buried about half of the gold, all the documents and letters in a certain place that we wrote down. I think Zuko and Iroh can handle the decryption.
"Surprisingly, the kidnapping played into our hands and very strongly," I said when we were already in the room, which we climbed into through the window just in case. Who knows these Judys, they decided to do this just in case.
"Yes, minus one, there is still a mayor left, information about whom we need to get and go to the internal level," Azula nodded, falling onto the bed. For her, sleeping pills did not come so easily and most likely she feels very tired.
"We already have enough information from the words of this idiot," I shrugged.
"Yes, but we don't have so much money to push further almost so much time before the deadline," the princess dripped with poison, but then still exhaled and continued, "in any case, we need to at least sketch out the general features and then we can move forward." .
"I suggest we take a walk around the residence during the day, let's understand the main points," I put forward the idea, "anything more is stupidly not required of us." And then move forward.
"We would like to meet with my brother and uncle," said the princess, "so that we can go into details in normal words."
"Nobody forbids us to return," I shrugged, "we'll just go here, discuss it, talk and come back." We have enough money to spare, after what we took from the general's house.
"Great," the princess nodded, already falling asleep, "we'll do that then."
And she seems to have fallen asleep. At least she pretended, like, don't touch me, Aki, I'm sleeping. Well, a lady's wishes are law, right?
* * *
The daytime walk bore fruit, we were able to see what we needed and in the evening we wrote it all down in a notebook. Of course, with pictures. After which, I personally went to the first level and handed it over to one of the thieves, who would deliver it to the poor guy outside.
That same evening, considering that someone had slept for half the day and therefore had a decent amount of strength, we decided to move into the inner layer, fortunately we did not have much belongings and getting ready was not a problem.
The checkpoint didn't have any questions for us, other than the standard ones, and of course we ended up in the very center of the city. This is where we will spend the next two weeks.
In fact, a very beautiful place with huge luxurious houses, neatly tidied streets, trimmed gardens and in general everything was polished to a shine.
It's very reminiscent of the street from my parents' house to the school. The faces of everyone around are the same, decorous and noble, it's fucked up.
Who would have thought, but here was the same hotel, right on the main street, where exactly the same Judy stood behind the counter. Oh, I'm actually glad about this fact. Their service is quite convenient; they should somehow hint to the local mayor that this needs to be developed and supported.
In general, everything is classic, the rooms are more spacious, better, richer, but they also cost accordingly. With the amount we paid for two weeks of living, we could live for four years in the outer layer and a year on average, without much luxury.
Let's see what the most mysterious place in this city will bring.
***
The Lost Library opened Aang's eyes to the fact that there was opportunity ahead, but there was also threat. There will be a day when all the Fire Mages will be without strength, and there will be a day when Sozin's Comet flies by, a day on which the Fire Mages will gain incredible power. In general, some purely theoretical victory acquired exact deadlines that seemed incredible, so much so that Aang simply tries not to think about it.
The eclipse will be coming soon enough, and then the firebenders will lose all their powers. For a while, of course, but this is the best moment to attack.
Only then, after a while, a Comet will fly, which, on the contrary, will strengthen all fire benderss by several orders of magnitude. And Sokka assumed that this would be the final point in the war. It is under this comet that the Fire Nation adjusts its plans in order to end the war in one day.
Even more responsibility fell on Aang's shoulders, simply too much, in Aang's own opinion. He almost physically felt how the burden of responsibility lay on his shoulders. But there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Who, if not him?
This phrase was repeated in different variations by everyone around.
Also this Kira... the whole team already has a nervous tic. It's as if he's always there, you just have to forget a little, let go of the anxiety in your heart a little, and Kira or his team appears. And each time they leave is hardly a miracle.
Recently something incomprehensible, iron and fast was chasing them. It rode constantly, never lagging behind Aang's command, following Appa's fur. Everyone on the team was tired and losing their legs, until in the end Appa simply refused to take off or even move.
I had to put up a fight, and the Avatar still remembers how he waited until the last moment for Kira to appear with this mad princess. But they were not there. They tried to win the whole battle as quickly as possible, just so that Kira wouldn't have time to get help, but as it turned out, there was no help.
They were simply able to defeat all the attackers... well, how to defeat. It's more likely to end up escaping when they were crushed by fire and Appa finally took off, but even so, this is already an achievement. They were able to escape on their own, Aang didn't destroy everything around them, and their friends didn't lose anything.
But okay, the Fire Nation is bad, and they must be defeated by any means, but what Aang did not expect was problems NOT from the Fire Nation. His faithful friend, transport and one-of-a-kind animal, Appa, were stolen.
Simply and brazenly stolen. And now it turns out that all roads lead to Basing Se. Where the friends headed, this time on foot. Which was unexpectedly hard. Katara still used water as a prosthetic, but it wasn't the ultimate option. In fact, the girl became no help in many things.
We managed to get into the city with almost no problems, except that we had to go through the Snake Pass, which turned out to be not so difficult. Compared, of course, to a regular meeting with Kira.
The team was somehow completely indifferent to the problem with the huge snake, literally bombarding it with different elements. Perhaps he even died, but this is not certain. True, their fellow travelers got in the way - a girl giving birth and her husband, but there was nothing to do, this was just another pebble on the Avatar's hump. He had to help.
Then there was a huge station where various trains ran, and the Avatar and his friends boarded one of them and rode it to the city.
Personally, Aang was surprised by the simplicity of this part of their journey; frankly speaking, he personally still expected that from around the nearest corner Kira would attack him with her sword and have to fight literally to the death again. But it turned out that everything was not so bad, so much so that the friends even relaxed a little.
For which they received it immediately when they got to Basingse. The smiling girl Judy, who her friends immediately liked, turned out to be not so kind, and the very next day the three of them woke up tied hand and foot, and opposite them stood the same Judy, smiling the same way, and around them were warriors of the earth and some kind of a man who is missing half his face.
Literally no. Something red, like one big scar, where there wasn't even a cheek, teeth were visible instead. Also black and charred.
For some reason, Aang managed to remain calm, but at the same time his thoughts somehow did not add up to anything other than the blind confidence that Kira was to blame for this situation.
"So, here comes the supposed Avatar," the man in front of Aang smiled creepily on one side of his face, "There are quite a lot of people chasing you, and I was wondering what you could do to earn the impression that the Avatar is you."
Aang was still overcome by some kind of calm, seeping right into his head. He didn't care, he was already very, very tired, and why some dumb guy considered him Not an Avatar, he wasn't interested.
Unlike Sokka, who immediately began to grunt through his gag, clearly indicating that he wanted to say something.
"Take the gag off him," half the police noticed.
- Why do you think that he is not an avatar? - the guy was indignant, - he is a real avatar and he needs your help?
For some reason, it seemed to Aang that Lump just rolled his eyes doomedly at this, preparing for death.
"I met the real Avatar," the man pursed his lips, "and he left me this." Do you think I can tell the difference between a boy with tattoos and an adult warrior from the Fire Nation?
Well, Aang had no doubt, yes. Kira's ears and blue flames stick out everywhere. But, nevertheless, he decided to intervene by blowing out the gag.
"Didn't he happen to have a fancy sword and blue flames?"
-What do you know about him? — the man immediately bent down to Aang's eye level, glaring at him with one eye. There was nothing else, just a bandage.
"This is Kira," Aang said simply, "and he is not the Avatar." "I'm an avatar," the guy said, starting to manipulate water, air and stone at the same time. Considering that these were minor manipulations, there was no difficulty in this, just a little air, water and stone swirled at Aang's eye level.
- And who is Kira then? - the half-faced man said, thoughtfully, - he masters fire and air, I was convinced of this personally.
"We don't know," Aang answered, "until now we weren't even sure that he definitely mastered the air." But he wants to kill me anyway, because I want to defeat the Fire Nation in this war.
"Hmm," the man thought, "that means we have common goals, don't we?"
"It seems so," the Avatar said, still maintaining some kind of incomprehensible composure.
"My name is Long Fen, and this is my Dai Li squad," the man finally introduced himself, "I propose an alliance to defeat Kiroi and over the Fire Nation."
"My name is Aang, and these are my friends, and we agree," the Avatar said in response, easily untangling himself from the ropes and shaking hands with the half-faced man.
From that moment on, everything went much better. It turned out that the Dai Li were in royal service, and Appa was quickly found. Very quickly, Appa was dragged directly under the Avatar's temporary home, saying that they had taken him away from very bad criminals. Long Fen also personally began to educate his friends about how life is in the city, while simultaneously giving a tour.
Here they don't specifically tell people that there is a war going on, so that they can feel safer; they tell them what good people are responsible for each of the city's districts.
He told me what bad gangs live in the outer city, because of which all the problems, but at the same time it was somehow impossible to figure them out.
True, for some reason it was not possible to find one of the main ones in the middle ring. Which apparently bothered Long Fen, so he whispered to a couple of soldiers who were following them, and one of them immediately headed somewhere.
It turned out that the second manager of a medium-sized city had not been in touch for almost two weeks. Aang didn't understand what was happening, but apparently something serious, because within a few hours Long Fen, followed by the Avatar, went to some country house.
Which seemed completely normal until they went down to the basement. Where Aang vomited, because there were corpses laid out in neat stacks. As the Avatar was later explained, the general and his retinue were there along with his son. And they were tortured.
What kind of monster did this? There was only one question in the Avatar's mind. How can you treat people so inhumanely? For what?
After some time, Long Fen led his friends to some large house in the inner part of the city. They were seated there comfortably and asked to wait.
Well, considering that this happened in the evening, about twelve to fourteen hours passed when in the morning Aang saw something strange and red flying upward. And then a second time from a slightly different place.
An already familiar feeling began to tingle in Aang's head.
It was Kira.
***
Well, I was expecting something more...more uh dangerous? We have been here for several days now, and the most dangerous thing that happened to us was when some old man started shouting and swearing at us. The old man was rich, so in theory it could have been dangerous, but we just left. What was he unhappy about? Who knows.
In any case, I expected some kind of survival on the brink of a foul, but in reality, it was just a very comfortable life. No, seriously, you feel like the top of the world and like the devil in your bosom. The food is top quality, served like you're a king, no less.
What can I say if even Azula, being a princess, flows around, which is actually as strange as possible. No, I understand, the Fire Nation itself is so difficult. But wasn't our princess treated in the same way? Overall a little strange.
But what's even stranger is that we feel absolutely calm. Which confuses me, honestly. I was expecting something incredibly complex, like a spy movie every day. Honestly, the first days were more stressful than now. Although in theory we are closer than ever to the very ass of this city.
But the bells began to ring slowly. Here and there.
There were suddenly more Judy around us. Roughly speaking, we couldn't stay alone at all, except in a hotel room. And then we didn't risk discussing anything on business there, only in private, which from the outside looked like flirting.
At the same time, we did not need to take any active actions. No more letters or anything like that, we just wait for the moment and go kill the king and all the top people we can reach. Of course, it would be possible to explore the territory, but now I don't want to run into trouble at all, but suspicious fermentation near the palace will simply raise questions one hundred percent.
So after a while an idea came to my head. In the end, we need to stupidly loiter around for another week. Why not try it?
One day, when we were fooling around in the room, I was reading some local book, and Azula was simply playing around with some kind of puzzle trinket, bought at the local bazaar.
"Azula," I said, calling on all my courage.
- Mmm? - the girl drawled.
- Would you like to go on a date with me? - I asked.
To which Azula did not respond, but only froze, stopping swaying on the chair opposite the desk and loudly knocking it when the front two legs touched the floor. She looked down for a few seconds and turned towards me.
- Are you talking about a date? — she asked in a thoughtful tone, examining me.
Roughly speaking, yes, this is the first voiced proposal related to relationships. Before this, kisses or hugs were with general silent approval. Like, what we don't voice doesn't count. Somehow we both thought so slightly cowardly.
But you can't hide an awl in a bag, and so I decided to take the bull by the horns. Because it's time to sort of decide, and preferably before our day X. Well, to be honest, the excitement is slowly starting to blow the roof off. I understood that Azula's virginity is supposed to be an important thing, but there are other options, right?
But the princess herself did not allow us to go beyond hugging the eighth-graders. And I hoped that by moving the relationship to some more meaningful level, something would work out. In the end, I myself am not sure that this adventure of ours will end well.
- Yes. "Date," I shrugged.
- And where? Azula raised one eyebrow.
"I suggest going to the local theater," I answered, because literally every second person talks about theaters and praises them very much, "and then you can eat in some good place."
Azula was silent to this, just looking at me and thinking about something.
The pause dragged on.
"Okay, I agree," the girl said after a while, "and when?"
- Now, I think? - I said, - it's still morning, I think we have enough time.
"Okay," Azula nodded.
And it finally dawned on me why she was so... dumb, one might say. She has no course of action for this case. Well, she just doesn't know what to answer, to put it bluntly, so she breaks down a little. Both literally and figuratively, ha.
In general, there were almost no preparations. Azula, of course, bought clothes, but she refused to wear something in the colors of the people of Earth for such an event. Therefore, we had to go in rather plain clothes, but the most expensive ones that we could find to suit our requirements. I also had no desire to wear green clothes.
The path to the theater itself did not take much time, in fact, exactly the opposite, it was very close to us. We live on the main street, after all.
Halfway through the journey, the girl graciously took my arm, which made me happy. The ticket office was almost classic, with a disgruntled aunt behind it, so both Azula and I had to hold back our anger a little.
The point was that we were too interested in what was being shown at the local theater. Let's be honest, all Fire Nation theaters are about the war and our heroes. Like me. But what do they say in a city where "there is no war"?
We settled down in comfortable central seats in the stalls. And they sat down to see what was happening there.
Well, I liked our theater much more. At least from the humor side, considering that I know the real outcome of events. And here, well, a simple medieval fantasy on the theme "The Hero and the Dragon."
Absolutely bland porridge, which cannot even serve as a bedtime story for a child. Because there is no sensible conclusion.
The hero saved the princess by defeating the dragon, and they lived happily ever after. What conclusion can be drawn from this for the child? And most importantly, this is not a traveling theater, I could say that they specifically push such masturbation for Basingse, and they have better stories in stock on current topics.
But no, this is the main theater of the city, and all the actors from there live right there. Apparently, this is exactly what the local viewer needs? As if not, most people absolutely did not understand what was happening, and some were even indignant, and quite loudly.
It was very strange, and I started looking around. And here I didn't like what was happening at all; there were guards at the exits, looking around. There were also more and more indignant people.
However, judging by the events, there was not long left until the end. And everything would be fine if at one moment some spinning crap didn't appear behind the heroes. I didn't pay attention to her, thinking about what was happening, although for some reason my head started to hurt.
But, at one point, the disturbances around became less and less, until there was complete silence. Then the actors moved away altogether, and something spinning moved forward.
"There is no war," one of the actors began to say, "you love your city, you love the king."
And so time after time. When a drill literally appeared in my head, I finally came to my senses and, without changing position, closed my eyes, imperceptibly grabbing Azula's hand and pinching very hard, so much so that even a little more would have pressed the skin in general, and tissue death would have begun .
Well done princess, she didn't react with any sound, and I just whispered, leaning slightly towards her:
"Close your eyes, urgently," and continued supposedly "watching."
This all lasted about half an hour, and then everyone was ordered to consider the theater the best in the world and advise everyone to come here.
And then came, as if nothing had happened, the end of the performance, after which everyone jumped up and began to applaud so much that my ears began to stop.
Holy shit, what was that?
In any case, we didn't stand out from the crowd, we still smiled and clapped, and then we went out with everyone else, praising the performances among ourselves.
- Oh, let's go to the hotel, did I forget something? - Azula said at one point.
"Hmm, better follow me," I answered, grabbing her hand, and while there was a crowd, I dragged her into the alley further away and immediately hugged her, whispering in her ear.
- Who are you?
"Yes, I remember everything, I remember," she hissed in response, "it's just fucked up!" What is this? You distracted me at the right time, I directly felt how I was beginning to forget who I was and where I was.
"This is just fucked up," I agreed, "this is hypnosis." They hypnotize people en masse through theater! That's why everyone praises him. That's why people don't know about the war. They drive people through hypnosis en masse, in huge groups. Did you see how at the beginning they were bored, and at the end they clapped as if they had experienced the best event in their lives?
"I saw it," the girl exhaled, "it's terrible." And Judy wasn't around...
Remember the ray, here comes the sun, without even hiding much, Judy appeared around the corner and came up to us.
- Are you okay? — she asked with her slightly creepy smile, "maybe I can help you with something?"
"No, thank you," I smiled, "maybe I can help you with something?" Otherwise, why did you go into the alley?
"I just saw that you had turned off the path and were extremely pale," the girl deftly extricated herself, "and I went to check if everything was okay with you."
"Well, as you can see, everything is in order, you can go," I just didn't give up and, it seems, with this sentence I broke her.
- But... let me still help you get out? - the girl regained her composure, - you are quite pale.
- No thanks. Go," I pressed. I was just wondering where this would lead.
"But..." for the first time I saw Judy's smile falter and her eyes dart, "but..."
"We're fine, you can go," I added.
"But... okay..." she said and somehow lostly turned around and left.
— Do you think this information should be passed on to our people? - the princess said excitedly.
"I don't think so," I answered, realizing that somehow Azula pressed herself very tightly against me, so much so that I felt all the curves of her body, "it's unlikely to help them, and they won't go to the theater."
"Okay, but at least... wait, what is this," the princess was confused when she felt my boner pressing into her, "Akimaru," she said angrily when it dawned on her.
"It's just a reaction of the body," I hissed, "you know, it works like that when you've been making out and kissing a beautiful girl for a week."
"Hmm," Azula responded to this, breaking away from me, and even despite the slight redness on her face, she managed to make an angry expression on her face, "get yourself in order and let's go."
"Uh-huh, easy to say," I muttered, starting to calm down using the breeze, "let's go."
However, in the future everything went without problems. We ate quietly in a nice restaurant, talking about literally nothing. Some interesting topics are difficult to discuss when Judy is sitting at the next table. You can't even discuss something like the past or different dreams.
Therefore, we had to discuss literally some kind of nonsense like comparing different levels of Basingse, prices and quality of the hotel. In principle, we were also able to find interest in this, but with difficulty.
"To sum it up, it wasn't a date, but some kind of crap," I said afterwards, when we were walking home through the evening city.
In fact, it was quite a beautiful sight: the road illuminated by oil lanterns, rare lights in someone's houses and open shops that continued to trade even at night.
The atmosphere of some fantasy city is just amazing.
"I liked it," Azula shrugged, "but Aki... I understand what you want, I'm not stupid, you know." But... but, like I said, this is all an experiment before we possibly die. No more. I could have blown you off in my style and that's what I planned, but somehow I changed my mind after today.
- Can I find out the reason? — I asked calmly, although there was a storm inside me.
"The reason..." the princess was thinking, apparently, whether to tell me or not, "I love someone else."
"Well," I exhaled, "it happens." It's a pity, of course, to receive a refusal before possible death, but I understand. I myself put pressure on our incomprehensible relationship, and there were only two outcomes left.
"It's good that you understand," Azula nodded, "I hope this won't affect our mission in any way?"
"No," I chuckled, "I'm not fifteen to be offended by such a banality." So let's go to the hotel.
"Great," Azula nodded.
I won't lie, something broke a little inside me. I won't dramatize, I didn't love her more than life itself, I wouldn't even say that I loved her in principle, but I liked her. I liked it a lot. And such an unexpected twist, slightly unexpected.
I wonder who this mysterious lover of hers is, that, apparently, she did not kiss or hug him? We will need to find out and make sure that he is normal. Otherwise, I will challenge Azula to Agni Kai for Azula's hand and heart, and then give it to her. I hope this is possible, but the strong in the Fire Nation can do anything and even more.
Okay, let's break through.