Considering that they could very well be on a tight schedule if the Avatar was actually present in Gaoling at the moment, the girls' wardrobe change didn't take more than a few minutes. Truth be told Xisheng had heard something a little incriminating before getting out of earshot, but out of politeness he had removed himself further from the area so he wouldn't accidentally hear anything else personal. This placed him significantly further away from the Overlord than he had intended to be at first, but it gave him a bit of space and time to dwell on the situation at hand.
He was essentially in charge of security after all, being the only Royal Guard present here. The problem was that he was the only Royal Guard present here. There was very little he could plan for with that being the case. If their identities were discovered while in Gaoling, they'd have an entire Earth Kingdom battalion swooping down on them within an hour. With a lack of their own manpower, Xisheng's party had a very limited number of maneuvers to employ if escape became necessary. Normally enough manpower would call for a fighting retreat with each rear line of defense falling back as the Princess got further away from the danger, but since Xisheng was the only soldier here...
Well, he supposed he could attempt it anyway all by his lonesome. He'd probably die, but if it came down to it he'd have no choice but to try and distract the enemy so his allies could escape.
That said, it was really a matter of whether or not they would be discovered in the first place. As far as he knew Gaoling didn't have any thorough security checkpoints or anything, but even with their Earth Kingdom disguises there were risks to consider in the fact that most of the group didn't look like Earth Kingdom natives.
He said most because Ty Lee had nothing to worry about. She honestly had no outright 'Fire Nation' qualities, at least not as far as the general stereotypes went. Realistically Xisheng would probably be fine as well, since his eyes bore no resemblance to his nation (technically he was half Earth Kingdom anyway). But that was where the conveniences ended. Both Azula and Mai bore distinct features that could give them away to anyone who was decently informed or just a keen observer.
Azula's eyes were the most obvious risk, since her pure shade of amber was unique to the Fire Nation royal family. It was unlikely that any random Earth Kingdom soldier would know that in particular, but most everyone knew that amber eyes in general were rare outside of Fire Nation genetics. On top of that both Azula and Mai had very dark hair, and even though that wasn't unheard of outside of the Fire Nation, outright midnight locks like Mai's were generally assumed to be a rarity in the Earth Kingdom where most people sported various shades of brown. It wasn't a dead giveaway by any means, but it could arouse suspicion nevertheless.
There were plenty of other little things that could give them away as well. Xisheng had no idea how good the girls were at acting. For all he knew they were all terrible at it, and all it took to endanger them all was one tiny mistake. A figure of speech that was specific to Fire Nation culture, a mannerism no one in the Earth Kingdom used, even a seemingly harmless comment about how it was colder here than they were used to, implying that they were from a warmer locale. Any of those things could land them in trouble.
OK, so someone would have to be ridiculously astute and more than a little paranoid to connect the dots on that last one, but the point still stood. As a soldier Xisheng didn't like going into enemy territory without superior or at least equal numbers.
Of course, the lack of numbers on their part was probably what Azula was banking on. Being one of the few prosperous Earth Kingdom cities outside of Ba Sing Se still free of foreign control, the population of the city was rather large. What was four more people in shades of green amidst a sea of people in green? As long as they stuck to the crowds it was unlikely they would be picked out visually by anyone for any particular reason.
Hoping that would indeed be the reality for their upcoming venture, Xisheng was nevertheless drawn out of his musings when the group's usual spokesperson made herself known with her ever energetic voice. "See? Gohan was so polite that he went far enough away to not hear something scandalous even by accident. Maybe he didn't hear about your-"
There was a grunt of minor pain that was probably the result of an elbow to the ribs, but the mental acknowledgment of the girls being ready brought just one more risk to Xisheng's mind.
They wouldn't blend in very well if they were all dressed like nobles. Even wearing green in a sea of green, exquisite tastes would stand out, and Xisheng couldn't imagine for an instant Azula being alright with donning peasant attire. Would narcissism negate their own disguise...?
Turning to hopefully deny his suspicions rather than confirm them, Xisheng was moderately relieved and more than a little awed by the change in garments. In a world where three primary colors mostly ruled the fashion industry, it was always enlightening to see someone in a color they practically never wore.
Ironically, there was still plenty of black to go around. This was fine, since black wasn't an unheard of color in the Earth Kingdom, but Xisheng still thought it would have been better to dispose of the color completely.
That said, Xisheng found it rather amusing that the three girls had essentially color coordinated with one another. Whether it was intentional or because Azula simply liked the idea of her troop being in concert, either way they were still all equipped with tops that had black torsos and dark forest green sleeves and leggings. They each bore the emblem of the Earth Kingdom on their chest, and also sported an almost lime green sash around their waists that served as little more than decorative pieces. In truth, Xisheng would have assumed them to be some sort of actual group of some sort, though whether it was of a militant or social nature could have gone either way.
But despite their similarities in dress, there were small things that still set them apart. Mai's sleeves were longer and looser than her friends, likely for the sake of hiding her weapons. Unlike the fuller forearm gloves Azula and Mai wore, Ty Lee had cloth wristbands not unlike the ones that accompanied her usual outfit. And as for Azula, she obviously couldn't tote around the symbol of Fire Nation royalty that was her usual hairpiece, so it had been temporarily replaced with a simple green ribbon that was almost just enough to make her look like a normal girl. Normal being relative since she still put the average attractive teenager to shame.
In short, Xisheng found himself captivated by the contrast of their appearance to the norm (at this point Ty Lee having her midriff covered almost seemed like an affront to nature), and needless to say this resulted in a more fixed gaze than he had intended. As usual, Azula was quick to point this out. There was rarely any mercy from her barbs.
"I understand that you have less experience with class than the rest of us Lieutenant, but I at least expected you to know that staring is considered rude."
Ironically, Xisheng found that Azula's mildly stinging words tended to have the opposite of the intended effect. Normally he would have been flustered, but being constantly reminded of Azula's determination to make him exactly that, he managed to calm his nerves enough to appear composed, not to mention voice his thoughts more genuinely than a bunch of babbling could provide.
"My apologies. I was just caught off guard, you all look very good in green."
While his comment could have possibly scored some embarrassment out of his audience (he didn't count Ty Lee because she obviously enjoyed the compliment), the reminder that she was indeed wearing green only made Azula scowl. "What you meant to say was that the green looks good on me. Such a droll color could only be made attractive if someone of my caliber was wearing it to begin with."
"O-oh, I see..."
Azula didn't immediately understand why Xisheng seemed put out by that unless he had some strange fondness for green, but an obviously faked cough from Ty Lee got Azula to look in her direction, and the acrobat was subtly gesturing towards her eyes. The implication of her gesture was obvious.
Admittedly Azula felt a little bad about it, but only because she had let a small detail slip from her mind, which therefore resulted in her choice of words. Oh well, it was Xisheng's fault for not having a pair of more gloriously colored eyes. She was hardly to blame for that.
Still, it would have been awkward to just leave it at that, so Azula decided the best course of action was to simply move forward. "Well, I daresay we have wasted enough time dawdling. Your attire is still in the footlocker Lieutenant. We'll depart as soon as you are ready."
Immediately discarding whatever injury he may have felt at Azula's unintended insult, Xisheng made sure to point out one important thing before he left to change so it could be fixed while he was doing so. Efficiency was kind of the job of every soldier, after all.
"Of course Princess. But before I do, I think it would be best if you changed your hair, Mai."
The girl in question merely cocked en eyebrow at him, seemingly not offended so much as curious. "Why?"
"Well, we are trying to blend in, I assume... your hairstyle is very distinct, and definitely a cultural standout."
While he had tried to be as logical in his answer as possible to avoid accidentally insulting her, it seemed like Xisheng didn't even need to bother. Mai merely shrugged. "Good point. I'll change it."
Glad that his input had gone over so easily, Xisheng shrugged as well, moving to the opposite side of the Overlord so he could don his Earth Kingdom disguise.
He was unfortunately not surprised to see that his garb did not match the upper middle-class level of his compatriots, but at least the clothing was not the dull brown and green of the peasantry. If anything, anyone that saw him walking around with the girls would think him a well-off servant or some such.
It could have been worse was what he told himself, and by the time he was dressed in a simple forest green tunic with beige accents he admitted that he made for a passable Earth Kingdom citizen. Now properly adorned, he made his way back to the girls on the opposite side of the Overlord, only to find that his suggestion to Mai had sort of backfired.
Being someone that didn't put effort into anything she didn't care for, Mai had not bothered putting her hair into any particular style. Instead, she had simply allowed her raven locks to cascade freely, their length causing the strands to accent her form all the way down to her lower back. Perfectly straight and streamlined, Xisheng could only compare the sight to a flawless black waterfall, and even that wasn't doing it justice.
He was back to thinking the hair might have been the most attractive thing again.
On the other hand, there was an issue in the fact that the problem had not been averted. The whole reason he had suggested that Mai change her hair was to avoid being noticed. She'd have every guy with good taste flocking to her like this.
That said, he had to say as much or the potential crisis would still remain. "Ah, er... M-Mai, that doesn't really, uh... solve the problem..."
This time Mai really did seem confused. "I'll admit you had a point the first time, but I doubt just having your hair down is patented by any one nation. What's the problem?"
Apparently the other girls were in agreement with Mai, because they looked equally confused on the point Xisheng was trying to make. Still, he wasn't ready to come out completely clean, so he would try for subtlety one last time.
"L-like I said, the point is to avoid attention..."
Unfortunately no one caught his drift, least of all Mai. "And my hair being down draws attention how exactly...?"
Seeing no way to make his point without being straightforward, Xisheng decided to simply say it. "B-because you're... v-very beautiful, is what I'm saying. People are bound to notice you. And I mean, for the sake of the mission concealment is key, so..."
Xisheng petered off when he noted that the reactions he was getting were different from what he had expected. To be fair, that was because he had expected Mai to not react at all, but to his great astonishment she actually appeared... shocked. Maybe out of surprise, though Xisheng supposed it could have been disgust or something. This was a compliment coming from a 'commoner' after all.
He was actually more surprised by Ty Lee and Azula, both of whom appeared displeased by what he had to say. He wasn't dumb enough to not understand why, but he was still confused. Why be jealous of the attentions of someone beneath their stature? Besides, he did have an actual practical reason for making his statement.
Unsure of how to proceed with this turn of events, Xisheng was not saved at all when Mai almost smiled at him. "So are you implying that I'm not attractive when my hair isn't down?"
Getting the distinct feeling that he was being teased by the least likely member of the group to do it, Xisheng found himself at a loss for words. On a technicality, this could be construed as very subtle flirting. He doubted Mai meant it as such, but either way the potential implication flustered him more than anything Azula had tried to catch him off guard with.
"N-n-not at all! I was definitely not saying that! I-It's just that there's a certain allure that would, uh, get the attention of anyone with good taste, is what I was saying!"
Apparently amused by his fumbling, Mai's almost smile evolved into a smirk at his expense. Strangely enough, that sight still challenged his cognitive ability.
Yet the moment was lost the moment Azula got fed up with it. "I think we'll manage to avoid too much trouble from the people that actually matter. Let's head out before I hurl."
Xisheng thought he might have heard some sort of muttered amusement from Mai regarding jealousy, but unlike her he was actually worried that he had offended the others. He still couldn't see it as fair, but that did not stop the awkward silence that reigned over them as they proceeded as one to the gates of Gaoling on foot.
The roughly fifteen minute trek reached its conclusion when they came across what was essentially the only security checkpoint to bother with. Naturally any wartime city worth its salt didn't let just anyone in, but fortunately the huge population of the Earth Kingdom meant that the nation kept relatively poor tabs on people. They relied a lot on paperwork, and forging that was easy enough.
Even so, Ty Lee was entrusted with making the presentation of their actually genuine documents, since she was the least suspicious among them and definitely the only one of them that no one would assume to be Fire Nation for any aesthetic reason. It was actually rather sad that infiltrating Gaoling was as easy as that, but Xisheng imagined that it was a matter of branch competence. Ba Sing Se would no doubt be much harder to infiltrate in such a fashion, at least as far as getting beyond the Lower Ring was concerned.
Either way the four Fire Nation infiltrators made it into the boundaries of Gaoling with no trouble whatsoever, and the moment they were within Ty Lee voiced the most obvious question at hand.
"Now what?"
Azula probably had an answer for this, but since it was an easy question Xisheng decided to spare her the trouble. "The person we are looking for is the Avatar, the last Airbender, is one of the only people that wears orange, and travels around on a flying buffalo. If he's here, someone will know about it."
While these were very good points, Mai sought to point out the questionable validity of them. "I can't imagine any reason for the Avatar to hide that he's here, but the fact remains that he could be."
"That's true, but even then his companions have skin complexions that will stand out here. Just inquiring about unusual visitors could yield results."
Azula cut in before the exchange could continue. "While I highly doubt it will be as simple as asking around, discreetly taking in the latest rumors could nevertheless prove useful. For now, we should split up and see what we can learn individually."
She was almost ready to dismiss them with that, but Xisheng had to counter. "We should at least split into groups of two Princess. Going anywhere alone while in enemy territory is tempting fate."
Unfortunately, his sound advice did not sit very well with the young ruler to be. "Are you implying that we cannot take care of ourselves Lieutenant?"
"I'm implying that the point of a team is to have someone at your side you can rely on. Trust me Princess, I've seen plenty of great warriors slain on the battlefield because they didn't have someone to watch their back. The skill of one person alone can never handle every eventuality."
"I assume this is some Army doctrine you're spouting at me?"
"It's from personal experience Princess. I will follow whatever order you give, but I beg you to let us divide into two teams. It's safer for everyone."
It almost looked like Azula would object further, but in the end she simply rolled her eyes. Still, she wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. "Very well then. Who do you want to go with Lieutenant?"
While some men were utterly lacking in common sense regarding women, Xisheng was not one of them. He knew damn good and well what a dangerous situation was when it came to women. Choose? There was no right answer when it came to a choice like this. Any choice he made would anger someone. He knew that all too well.
"You know the capabilities of everyone here better than I do Princess. I'll submit to whatever placement you have for me."
Azula mentally cursed at his exceptional answer. She had to admit, Xisheng was very good at this. She would even go so far as to say that he was better at wordplay than he was at fighting. Yet it just made her more determined to win at some point or another.
"You're not mistaken there. Very well, you and Ty Lee go together. There's no point in having the two of us on the same team with similar skill sets. If that's the last tactical input you have for us, then we should all be on our way."
Xisheng felt the urge to bow but didn't for obvious reasons, instead simply nodding and turning on his heel to lead the way into Gaoling with Ty Lee at his side, the latter looking a bit more sour than usual. It was ironic, since Mai still had that smirk on her face that symbolized positive emotion in one way or another. For some reason (she actually knew what it was but refused to acknowledge it) Azula found it irritating.
"What are you smiling about?"
Fully aware of what was bothering her younger friend but ultimately just amused by it, Mai's expression didn't fall. "He gave a clever answer is all. Most boys are dumber than rocks when it comes to this kind of thing. Relatively speaking it's kind of impressive."
"Well considering that Zuko is the only other boy to see anything in you I'd hardly call it a fair comparison."
Azula's petty cruelty returned Mai's expression to the usual, though not because she was offended. She had long since become mostly immune to her friend's venom, mostly because she knew the younger girl tended to spit it at anyone and everyone if she was in a foul mood. This was especially true if the foul mood was brought about by being overshadowed. She'd always detested that, from the very first day Mai had met her. It had never bothered her as much as it did Ty Lee because Mai didn't really care to stand out above anyone else. She'd been raised to be unassuming, so her desperation for attention had been snuffed out relatively early in life.
And finally, she had to admit to herself that she felt too good about the original compliment that was pissing Azula off to let the latter's displeasure get through to her. She'd practically never received praise of that nature, at least not genuinely. Nobles spouted crap like that all the time, but only because it was considered polite to compliment the daughter of the person you actually cared to impress.
And Zuko had of course always been too dense when he was still around. It never occurred to him that certain girls might have wanted a compliment or two from him. But he hadn't even been a teenager at the time, so Mai cut him some slack on that one.
So instead of getting irritated, Mai simply decided to drop the whole matter and urge the objective forward. "Fair enough. Where do you want to look first?"
Azula looked a little put out by the lack of a hostile response, but she at least managed to see that it was childish to try and spur a fight for no real reason. "Word travels rather quickly around places where people are forced to gather frequently. The marketplace sounds like a good place to start eavesdropping."
Not honestly caring where they went since this was all Azula's mission anyway, Mai merely shrugged and allowed her younger compatriot to lead the way, though she couldn't imagine how Azula could have known where she was going all things considered.
She almost thought to ask, but her desire to do so waned when a slightly stiff breeze graced the city streets and forced her cascading hair into a gentle wave.
Did she really look that good like this?
---
From the moment Xisheng had entered the perimeter of Gaoling, he was all business. He couldn't afford not to be, because this was arguably the most dangerous situation he had ever been in, and that was saying something considering the battles he had waged on the EK defensive line.
The reason this situation was more dangerous than those was because the numbers were so drastically different. In those all out battles Xisheng had the benefit of hundreds of allied soldiers at his side. At this exact moment, he only had one person to count on. And while he certainly had faith in Ty Lee's abilities, Xisheng knew two versus a thousand was still abysmal odds. If push came to shove for any reason, both he and Ty Lee would probably die. With the numbers of the enemy so far beyond their own, one boulder would eventually paste them against the cobblestone ground or the pale white walls of some fancier building. Maybe their guts would place a macabre painting on one of them? There was far too much white anyway.
His tension led Xisheng to eye everything suspiciously as he struggled to maintain a casual and relaxed gait that wouldn't seem suspicious. The myriad array of green clothed civilians were suspicious. The obviously poor ones would not hesitate to turn in a lead if it got them rewarded by the military. The middle-class citizens adorned in richer shades of their nation would no doubt report something unusual if they thought it was some sort of threat to their relatively cushy lives.
Even the buildings seemed suspicious at the moment. There was too much white stone that reminded him of chalk. Too many wooden railings and paper walls that would spread fire too easily if a stealthy engagement was required. It was ironic that it was all so unsettling, as objectively speaking Gaoling was a very nice city. For the most part it was clean and well built and populated with decent (legally speaking) people.
The thing that gave Xisheng the greatest amount of concern however was the heavy presence of soldiers. Every other street had at least one squad of Earth Kingdom soldiers maintaining an idle watch over their flock. They were lax in their watch though, clearly not thinking that anything really bad was out and about, least of all the Fire Nation. After all, Gaoling had not been attacked by the Fire Nation even once during the last one hundred years of war. There had been no reason to really take over a city with no strategic importance while other more important targets still stood.
But even the high command of the Earth Kingdom army must have realized that wouldn't be true for much longer. With Omashu now occupied and an attack on Ba Sing Se likely postponed until the arrival of Sozin's Comet, there was nothing better for the Fire Nation to do than take over Gaoling. They knew their Firebending enemies would come eventually, but they didn't think there was anything to fear for now.
But just because they weren't manning their posts with great astuteness did not mean there was no danger. In fact, Xisheng knew that people were more likely to notice something out of place when they weren't specifically looking for it. All it took was one guard thinking something looked a little unusual, and then he might feel the need to ask questions. And all it took was one good question to reveal the true nature of their presence here.
And yet, despite all of his very professional concerns about the lives of both himself and his allies, Xisheng still couldn't bury the platonic concern he felt for Ty Lee at the moment, because something was clearly bothering her. She was not a frowner. She did not frown at all unless there was something to actually be upset about.
Xisheng kind of had a guess as to what could possibly be the matter, but he didn't want to extrapolate on a hypothesis, especially since he would appear full of himself if he were mistaken.
But either way he got the feeling Ty Lee's current doldrums was his fault, and technically speaking it would be a good idea to rectify the issue if he could anyway. Being in a bad mood wasn't conducive to efficiency, which was kind of critical in the current situation.
For a moment Xisheng wondered if it was safe to utter a very not Earth Kingdom name at all, but considering the cacophony of a bustling merchant city all around him, he was fairly certain he could lower his voice and not allow anyone to meaningfully overhear anything.
That said he figured he was better off probing for the problem as gently as possible. He didn't peg Ty Lee as a very temperamental girl in general, but Xisheng knew every woman had the potential to be volatile.
"Is something the matter Ty Lee? It's off-putting to not see your usual smile. I miss it already."
There was a very strange conflicting expression that crossed Ty Lee's face upon hearing that. She wanted to be mad. Oh, she wanted to be so mad right now. But he was just so damn good at making her smile. How could she possibly stay mad in the face of such smooth praise?
Yet somehow she managed. Probably had something to do with the fact that the thing drawing her ire at the moment wasn't that far in the past. "Right, something like that couldn't possibly get people's attention, could it? Not like Mai's wonderful hair I'm sure."
While Xisheng had theorized that this was the problem, he was still surprised for many reasons. For one it seemed kind of petty, which didn't really seem like Ty Lee's thing. But two, he couldn't see why she cared. What did it matter what a nobody like him thought of her? What was there to even be jealous of really?
Even so, she clearly was, so that was what he had to fix. That said he didn't know how to do that other than being honest, and in the same sense as being a little blunt. "Are you really upset just because I complimented someone else?"
"Well yeah, it sounds shallow when you say it like that. B-but it's just... you always have so many nice things to say about Mai! You compliment her all the time, but you never say anything about me! Don't I have anything worth appreciating?"
Actually puzzled by Ty Lee's question for what he thought was a very obvious reason, Xisheng ceased his spy's tour of the city to level his gaze directly at his companion. The folded arms added to the sense of incredulity emanating from him. "Really? I never say anything nice about you?"
With the somewhat stern look on his face, Ty Lee was forced to look back over their brief experience together. "W-well, I guess there was the heap of praise you had after the stuff I did in the forest...and the thing you literally just said about my smile I guess... b-but that's beside the point! You haven't given me any... y'know, girl compliments!"
Xisheng for one liked to think that telling a girl she had a beautiful smile counted as a 'girl compliment,' but he supposed that was up to interpretation. Truth be told Ty Lee did consider it a 'girl compliment' and it made her really happy now that she thought about it, but she couldn't really take back her point now.
All in all, Xisheng wasn't sure what his place here was. Just what was he allowed to say, taking status into position? Surely there was some distinct line he could not cross lest he overstep his boundaries. Yet, of everyone in their strange band of Avatar hunters, Xisheng felt the most at ease with Ty Lee by far, at least as far as social convention went. She didn't seem to care too much for it (he just assumed that, but she had run off to join the circus), and so far she had interacted with him like anyone would with a peer of equal status. She certainly didn't seem to look down on him and she didn't act as though he was supposed to look up to her.
Taking all of that into account, along with the fact that the two more stringent members of the party were absent, Xisheng decided there was no real harm done if he pretended there was no distinction between soldier and noble for a brief moment. Besides, she evidently wanted him to say something that was beyond his position, so who was he to deny her?
"So... you're under the assumption that I don't find you attractive?"
Ty Lee had not expected him to be so upfront with the assessment, but she knew how to roll with the metaphorical punches. No point in hiding it. "Well you haven't made it as blatantly obvious as you have with Mai if you do."
Something about bringing a blush to the cheeks of a girl out of his reach thrilled Xisheng more than he cared to admit. To have that kind of effect on someone that was just beyond his rstation was exciting in that taboo kind of way that could easily evolve into something dangerous. Still, to know that he had the ability to make someone so out his league embarrassed only fueled his confidence on the matter further. Was this the kind of skill and charm he had been hiding under a Fire Army helmet all these years? If so, he had to make up for lost time, and he could hardly think of a better situation to exercise in than this one. Just because he could never have the affections of the people he was currently spending time with didn't mean he couldn't tug on those strings from time to time.
"I'm sorry I came across that way Ty Lee. I just didn't think it needed to be said."
The arguably most agile girl on the planet could practically feel a shift in Xisheng's overall atmosphere. Then again, considering her unique perception of the world, she could literally tell that something had just changed for him. His usually yellow and red blend of color took on a very distinct stream of orange just now. Whatever had happened, he was feeling confident about something.
"D-didn't think what needed to be said?"
Apparently pleased that she was too curious to let his words pass by without clarification, Xisheng donned a charming blend of smirk and smile, and Ty Lee could have sworn that she lost feeling in her legs for at least half a second.
"That I find you attractive. It's really more a matter of how I possibly couldn't. You're sweet, kind, and gentle. You have a brilliant smile, warm eyes, and confidence in yourself that's charming. And of course, you're extremely pretty. I consider myself lucky that a girl like you even talks to someone like me."
Ty Lee couldn't stop a massive smile from coming to her face, but honestly she didn't try very hard. Even so, she didn't miss the flare of color in Xisheng's aura when he saw her do it.
Oh my God, did he just get really happy just because he made me really happy? Dammit, he's so perfect! Where have you been all my life?!
To say this was the first time Ty Lee considered Xisheng really good boyfriend material would have been a complete lie. The problem was, she wasn't sure enough of the situation to act on it.
For all the things about Xisheng's personality that she just really liked, it wasn't a matter of him only treating her like that. The sweetness, the smooth talking, the overall interest in others as people, none of those were specific to her. He treated everyone like that. And while Ty Lee certainly had nothing against being so wonderful to everyone, it made it difficult to discern how he really felt about anyone in particular, including her. After all, if this was how he treated everyone (or every girl at least), who knew what it looked like if he actually liked someone?
After all, Ty Lee was usually pretty good at discerning people's romantic preferences, and if she had to hazard a guess in regards to what she had seen so far, she would have assumed that Xisheng really liked Mai. He really did have a lot of nice things to say about her, and he seemed really bummed out by the idea of her disliking him.
Even so, that was just an assumption, and even though Ty Lee usually didn't mind operating on assumptions, this wasn't the case when it came to her friends. She didn't want to act on anything that she wasn't sure of, lest it cause some sort of animosity among them.
Of course, it wasn't just about not acting on her own uncertainties. While Azula would probably deny it, it was obvious to Ty Lee that she was jealous of Xisheng's growing attachments to people other than her.
Well, maybe jealous wasn't the right word. Possessive was probably more like it. Ty Lee didn't like to talk bad about her friends, but Azula had always been the kind of person to stop others from using anything that was hers even if she didn't really care for it. After all, Ty Lee highly doubted that her childhood friend felt anything romantic for anyone, since it was apparently just a sign of pure weakness. But that wasn't the problem she had. She just didn't like sharing.
And of course, Ty Lee being the kind of person that she was, she didn't like upsetting her friends, especially not for her own gain. She had only done that once, and even though she had never really regretted leaving the Fire Nation to join the circus in practice, she had always had trouble reconciling the fact that she had abandoned her friends for her own happiness. Mai probably hadn't minded, but she knew Azula had felt more or less betrayed.
So she really, really didn't want to do anything that would upset the people important to her again. Unfortunately that only added more uncertainty to the situation, and ultimately it meant Ty Lee wasn't going to act on any budding feelings.
That sucked, but she'd go out of her way to clarify how everyone felt about each other at some point, and if it ended up being in her favor she'd be on it in a heartbeat.
It occurred to Ty Lee that she had mustered several moments of silence in response to Xisheng's words just now, but before she could think of anything to say the man in question had already reached some obviously erroneous conclusion about what her silence meant. Suddenly his aura was a very nervous and abashed mix of pink. Auras were weird since the same color could mean many different things depending on just a few differences, but Ty Lee knew the difference in her general happy pink and its bad counterpart.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds..."
Needless to say Ty Lee was massively confused by this apology. What bounds was he talking about? Did he think he had offended her or something? Why would he ever think that?
"What on earth are you talking-"
Before she could finish questioning the almost humiliated expression on Xisheng's face, someone practically forced his way in-between them. Ty Lee forced down a very sudden (and potent) urge to chi-block him in the neck for daring to interrupt what she thought was a vital conversation with a friend, and instead chose to identify the rude individual.
A quick once over revealed nothing special. He was a young man about their age with brown hair and dull green eyes, wearing a brown tunic that was in decent condition but still symbolized a lack of overall wealth.
And before either she or Xisheng could ask why he was intruding on their personal space, the young man put two flyers in their face. "Nothing is more important than self-defense in these times of war and strife! Master Yu's Earthbending Academy is the place to go if you want to learn to defend yourself for a reasonable price! I'd give you more information, but I'm not getting paid by the hour! Just be a good person and check it out would you? Please?"
With that, the man ran off to hand out more flyers to anyone he could manage. For some reason Ty Lee found this more strange than her companion did.
"That was... unusually desperate for someone just handing out flyers..."
Glancing down at the parchment he had been given, Xisheng shrugged. "He probably gets paid on some arbitrarily perceived notion of advertisement success."
"But he literally didn't even ask if we were Earthbenders!"
"I guess he figures he'll rope in more people if he casts a wider net. Either way, we should check it out."
"What? Why?"
Glad that there were actually directions on the flyer he had been given, Xisheng looked around for some sort of landmark or something he could use to determine where he was right now.
"We're looking for someone that wants to learn Earthbending. It makes sense that he'd check out an Academy. It's unlikely that we'll just conveniently run into him or anything, but if he went there at all someone will probably remember him or his friends."
Ty Lee had to agree with that assessment, but despite the relative urgency that demanded they act on a potential lead as swiftly as possible, the noble turned circus performer didn't want to let the conversation they had been having just sink into the background. Xisheng had clearly misinterpreted something, and Ty Lee didn't like the way it apparently made him feel.
But he was already following the route on the map, walking away from her with the obvious belief that she would follow, and that the conversation they had been having was no longer relevant now that they could continue on their actual mission.
Ty Lee didn't like the fact that he didn't consider his own feelings important enough to talk about, but she would get him to reveal what had just transpired here later. Once all of this espionage business in Gaoling was done she'd find out why he thought he had done something wrong and set him right.
After all, she couldn't let him believe that being nice to her was some sort of crime.
---
Master Yu's Earthbending Academy was nothing particularly special. Like the rest of Gaoling, its walls were comprised of mostly white stone with terracotta tile on top, and those walls formed a nice, large square that served as the training grounds for young Earthbenders. The school itself was an obviously nice building, but not one Xisheng bothered investigating, since everyone that attended the Academy appeared to be on those grounds right now, practicing basic forms he had seen used in his battles with the Earth Kingdom many times before.
Nearly everyone present was younger than both Xisheng and Ty Lee, most likely because they were enrolled here by their parents and not because they cared for the martial art themselves.
There was one man beyond their years though, and Xisheng could see the resemblance to the face on the flyer. Subconsciously he noted that it was a very detailed advertisement.
Naturally this Master Yu would be the person they wanted to speak to, since he would know if anyone matching the description of the Avatar or his allies had stopped by, and since Xisheng wasn't the type of person to wait around, he made his way towards the man overseeing the exercises here. He hesitated to call him a teacher, since he hardly seemed to be doing any actual teaching at the moment. It wasn't like there was nothing for him to say, what with the sloppy forms of at least four students. Then again, he was only paid to teach them, not to make them perfect.
Xisheng approached Master Yu with Ty Lee close behind him, and he did his best to suppress a frown as he bore witness to the unseemly facial hair that was his long goatee and mustache. Facial hair was pretty much a sign of prestige or wisdom or something throughout most of the world, but Xisheng had personally never been enthralled with the idea. He didn't plan on growing out a beard or anything until he was old enough for his hair to be white.
He briefly wondered how the girls would feel about that notion. Considering how widespread the consideration of facial hair as 'manly' was, was it even considered attractive to lack it once reaching a certain age?
He was honestly curious, but he was quickly reminded of the farce that had been his earlier flirting attempt with Ty Lee, and that was enough to quell his thoughts. How any of the girls felt about such a thing was irrelevant. He wasn't good enough for them in any form, so why worry about something like that?
That said, he decided to simply focus on the far too stringy hair of the Earthbender, the hideousness of which he did not appreciate until the man in question noticed the approach of newcomers and turned to face them. There was a brief moment of confusion on his face as he took in the appearance of the visitors, but it cleared with only a few moments of thought.
"Welcome to Master Yu's Earthbending Academy. I am Master Yu, renowned and, in my own humble opinion, most talented Earthbender in all of Gaoling. Welcome to my school."
With that less than great introduction given, Yu bowed, but only to Ty Lee specifically. Xisheng had no idea why this was the case, but even after the man rose he only even bothered looking at her. "So, I assume a lady such as yourself is here to get lessons for her servant? A great deal of people have realized the benefits of having an Earthbender at their command. In fact, I even have special courses for-"
It didn't take Xisheng more than a second to see that the disparity in the clothing between Ty Lee and himself was giving an impression of servitude to her, but he supposed it wasn't far off from the truth anyway.
As for Ty Lee, she had stopped really listening to Master Yu when she noted Xisheng's aura twisting with negative color at the mention of being a servant. In fact, the blend of colors were very similar to whatever emotion had struck him in their earlier conversation, and even though Ty Lee wasn't entirely sure what it was, she knew she didn't like it one bit. So she donned the brightest smile she could manage, then wrapped both of her arms around one of Xisheng's and pulled him into her embrace.
"Oh, Gohan's not my servant. He's my boyfriend!"
There was an expression akin to incredulous disbelief on Master Yu's face that made Ty Lee kind of angry (he obviously thought she was playing a joke on him, which implied that he thought the prospect of the Ty Lee and Xisheng being an item was laughable), but she was more focused on the flare of confusion and joy that Xisheng had at both her words and her touch. Part of the reason Ty Lee enjoyed making other people happy so much was because she could actually see the effects of her own handiwork.
Even though Master Yu still seemed to believe himself to be the victim of a prank, he decided that it didn't really matter. The identity of whoever came to him was irrelevant compared to whether or not they could pay for his services.
"My mistake then. I see you have one of my flyers. There's a coupon for a free lesson on it. I suppose if you're both here to learn I'll let you both make use of just one. Oh, and before we even begin, would you like to hear about my promotional program? You get bumped up to the next belt automatically if you pay for a year of lessons in advance."
Ty Lee gently nudged Xisheng in the side, prompting him to be the one to answer. She honestly wasn't all that good at lying unless it came to a very particular set of things, and this was not one of them. She didn't know how to explain why two people that weren't Earthbenders were at an Earthbending Academy without sounding suspicious.
Still reeling a bit from the declaration of being Ty Lee's boyfriend even if he knew it had been for the sake of false appearances, not to mention the feel of her body against his without any armor to get in the way, Xisheng miraculously still managed to focus on the task at hand. He was technically on a mission here.
"Actually Master Yu, we're not here looking for lessons. My little brother was supposed to stop by to sign up for Earthbending lessons today, but he wasn't looking forward to it. I just wanted to check in and see if he actually showed up. Mom will have both our hides if he spent the day fooling around."
Of all of the explanations for investigation that Xisheng could have given, this one did bear the least amount of suspicion to it, but it was entirely possible that it wouldn't work. If the Avatar had actually come into this city as, well, the Avatar, then it was very unlikely that this line of questioning would bear fruit. However, there had been no evidence of a the return of a prodigal spiritual figure in this city, so Xisheng had every reason to believe that the Avatar was keeping a low profile for now at least.
As for Yu, he didn't seem to suspect anything too out of the ordinary. Besides, Xisheng had wisely picked a lie that played to his greatest weakness, that being material gain. Allegedly there was supposed to be someone signing up for lessons who maybe had not, meaning that there was money on the line.
"I did have someone come in earlier today looking for prospective lessons, but he wasn't very good at it... called it quits after taking just one boulder to the chest! I even offered him the same promotional as you two, and-!"
With little interest in hearing about any of that, Xisheng cut the man off as unobtrusively as possible.
"Was he short and gangly? Around thirteen looking?"
Master Yu donned a knowing smirk. "He might have been."
Xisheng immediately got the implication that Yu wanted some sort of recompense for his information. As expected, the man was greedy beyond hope. Unfortunately Xisheng didn't actually have any substantial amount of money on him, and he doubted Ty Lee was just carrying around a bunch either. Thankfully the acrobat in question was good enough at playing off of the story that had already been presented.
"C'mon now mister, you're getting good business here. His mom is gonna force him to attend no matter what, but we have to know if it was his little brother in the first place so we can know if we have to keep looking or not."
While lamenting the loss of any type of monetary gain, Yu figured that the payoff for cooperation was bigger anyway. Not to mention that he had to wrap up this conversation quickly regardless, since he needed to head over to the Beifong estate in about an hour for his special teaching position there.
"Well, I suppose any parent that can afford such ridiculous tattoos for a child so young will probably be able to afford the curriculum as well. Yes, I saw your brother earlier today, just an hour or two ago in fact. I've no clue where he went after the fact though."
While the math was already starting to add up in every way that mattered, Xisheng wanted to confirm without a shadow of a doubt that they were all talking about the same person.
"Yeah, those blue tattoos were always ridiculous..."
Master Yu did not seem confused by this statement. In fact he agreed with it, and that was confirmation enough of the truth. "Quite. Now, if you don't mind, I still have a class to finish teaching. Good day."
With that, the somewhat unsavory teacher bowed to them before turning on his heel to return to his class. Now that they were away from any potential eavesdroppers, Ty Lee gave him a beaming smile. "Great work Gohan! Azula would be proud."
This was only half a joke really, as both she and Xisheng knew that Azula would probably compliment him for his decent degree of manipulation and subterfuge, simple as it was. She did enjoy fighting, but she also tended to prefer the quiet approach when it could be used.
"Well she can compliment me after we tell her the news. She'll probably want to know that who we're looking for is actually here as soon as possible."
"Yeah, but she didn't specify where to actually meet her and Mai again if we found something out..."
"The most likely place to rendezvous is near the gate we came through."
Xisheng thought this was obvious, but apparently Ty Lee wanted an explanation on this. "What makes you think that? She didn't say anything like that."
"It's typical military practice. If no specific rendezvous was mentioned than the best place to try and regroup is the location that you separated at."
Mention of the military served as a reminder for Ty Lee that her current companion was in fact a soldier. That sounded dumb when she thought it considering that he was usually wearing a uniform, but he didn't seem like someone who had fought on the field of a life or death battle when she talked to him. She'd overheard that part of his conversation with Azula in which he had claimed to be willing to kill anyone.
She'd buried the ill feelings that news had brought to her since learning of it. She'd always found killing to be deplorable and senseless and an indicator of cruelty. To hear that Xisheng was willing to kill anyone and concluding through common sense that he had probably killed people before had severely jumbled Ty Lee's thoughts on him for a short while.
That he had taken such great enjoyment in her performance in the forest the next day had admittedly alleviated her concerns somewhat, but either way it was still a matter of her burying her real misgivings on the matter. With her mind where it was, they were brought to the surface now, but she wasn't sure if it was fair of her to make assumptions. She hadn't heard the entire conversation he had with Azula. It was possible that she was misunderstanding something out of context. And even if she wasn't, surely there was someway to reconcile Xisheng's willingness to kill with his personality. He was a good person, Ty Lee at least knew that much.
Despite telling herself that, she still didn't reach a definite conclusion before the path they were taking back to the gates of Gaoling allowed them to hear a plaintive cry for help from down an alley.
She and Xisheng exchanged looks of confusion before glancing down the alley where the pathetic cry had emanated from. It was kind of weird to be hearing such a thing, considering that they were literally less than a hundred feet from Master Yu's Academy. Had no one heard anything until they had just now?
Either way such a strange occurrence demanded investigation due to curiosity if nothing else. Thankfully the chalky alley didn't take very long to reveal the source of the disturbance, as Xisheng and Ty Lee came across the extremely peculiar sight of two young boys frozen to the sides of the walls, with their heads pressed together.
Ty Lee looked mortified by the act of abuse, but Xisheng merely scoffed. "Gee, I wonder who could be responsible for this?"
The frozen boys, unable to see their rescuers with their heads forcibly pointed at the ground, were ecstatic that someone had finally found them. "H-hey! Whoever's there, y-y-you're gonna get us out of here right?!"
Ty Lee was quick to offer an affirmative, naturally. She wasn't the type to hold back assistance for those that needed it. "Of course! We'll have you out in no time!"
She immediately looked over to Xisheng, who was quick to give her a look that communicated why this wasn't going to work. Obviously there could be no Firebending. "I-I mean, we'll tell the guards you're here. They can get you out!"
Xisheng stopped her movements before she could actually fetch said guards. "Before we help you guys, I have to ask how you got here. Who did this to you?"
While the boys were certainly unhappy with having to wait, they figured they would be rescued faster if they just answered any questions instead of arguing or expressing their distaste. "S-some dark skinned witch in blue! C'mon man, we've been up here for half an hour!"
"Half on hour? Geez, she could have killed you guys like this. Why'd she do it?"
At this, both boys fell silent, but only for a moment as they decided that getting warmth back in their bodies was more important than keeping a secret about their attendance at an underground and technically illegal fighting tournament. "S-she wanted to know about Earth Rumble Six! It's an illegal Earthbending tournament! I don't know why she wanted to know, she didn't say! S-she just froze us up here and threatened to freeze our heads too if we didn't tell her where it was! Come on man, we're freezing, just get us down from here!"
"Calm down, we're going to get you down. Just as soon as you tell us where this Earthbending tournament is."
"W-what?! Seriously-"
"If you want the girl who assaulted you to face justice, the guards are going to need to know where they went. You tell us, and we tell them at the same time we tell them to come get you down from here. After all, you said this tournament was illegal right? You want to be the ones to tell the guards you knew about it?"
Had the boys in question been in their right minds at the moment, they probably would have asked questions that debunked everything Xisheng was getting at. After all, there were many ways in which it didn't make sense. However, they had been frozen parallel to the ground for nearly an hour and a half now, and they couldn't feel an inch of their bodies. What was logical wasn't exactly what they cared about at the moment, and that was why Xisheng and Ty Lee were leaving said alley with the information they required shortly after the question was asked, looking for any guards they could inform of the crime that had taken place so those poor sods could be rescued before they froze to death.
Ty Lee for one had a very sour look on her face. "You know, I think that Waterbender girl is meaner than Azula is."
Xisheng wished his companion would be more careful about uttering the name of the Fire Nation's Crown Princess while in an Earth Kingdom city, but she was keeping her voice low enough that no one would hear.
"You say that like our mutual friend is unspeakably cruel or something."
The acrobat at his side leveled one of the most serious expressions Xisheng had ever seen at him. "You haven't known her that long Xisheng. I'm not saying she's some monster or anything, but she can be seriously vicious, even to her friends. But it's usually just words. She finds more enjoyment in breaking people's spirits than their bodies."
"And you think that's not as bad as this Waterbender?"
"Well hurting people with words is just a matter of being smart and clever, and it only hurts as much as the victim lets it. But you can't do anything to protect yourself from someone physically stronger than you are when they use their strength to bully you. That Waterbender assaulted those boys just because they wouldn't do what she wanted."
Fully agreeing with the sentiment, Xisheng smirked to himself. "Well be sure to tell her what a hypocrite she is the next time she spouts some nonsense about being one of the good guys. Might want to subdue her first though, since she seems prone to violence."
"Tell me about it. You know she almost killed me with that icicle to the face, and I bet she would have acted like it was righteous or something..."
---
Thankfully Xisheng had had been right about reuniting with their lost allies at the gates of Gaoling. Surprisingly, he and Ty Lee hadn't even needed to wait very long for Azula and Mai to show up. Xisheng had expected a much longer wait since they were lucky and gained critical information very quickly, but apparently Azula had found a reason to keep her own investigation short as well.
It was a minor bummer, because Xisheng had actually been enjoying the conversation he had started with Ty Lee regarding their enemies. He had just been about to unleash a philosophical lecture on the duality of morality when he had been interrupted. He imagined Ty Lee would have been thankful for Azula's intervention though. When it came to the human condition Xisheng always had a mouthful to say. Maybe he could become a philosopher one day, when this war was finally over and people were free to explore the truth of thought outside of what the Spirit World forced upon them?
Either way, Azula had been greatly pleased to learn of Xisheng and Ty Lee's acquired intelligence, as she and Mai had supposedly learned nothing of import during their own investigations. For some reason the Avatar wasn't making his presence hugely known. According to Master Yu he wasn't really hiding either, but even so it was strange that he had not made his presence common knowledge for a beleaguered Earth Kingdom city.
All in all, Xisheng had quickly relayed what he had learned and Azula had them on the move immediately, heading for the location of this allegedly brutal 'Earth Rumble Six.'
Xisheng had been initially concerned that the rather 'middle class' look of his cohorts would be suspicious to the people running the underground fighting ring, but when they reached the unassuming side of a mountain on the outskirts of Gaoling, the somewhat filthy person standing watch at the cave entrance to the arena didn't even question it. After all, they had money. And he didn't care what anyone looked like if they paid the fee to enter, because that was the source of his paycheck.
So within an hour of meeting up at the gates, and only three hours of being in Gaoling overall, Azula's infiltration team was already hot on the Avatar's heels. Apparently coming to Gaoling had been a good idea.
Still, while walking through the earthen halls that would lead to the arena for this underground fighting ring, Xisheng was left fretting over the potential for disaster. If the Avatar was here in this ring right now, there was a chance that he or his friends could identify them. They had only had one encounter, but the fact that the girls he traveled with were all very striking and memorable remained.
It could come down to a lot of things. He didn't know how large the ring itself was. If it were small, they could find themselves in very close proximity to the enemy, and in that case they would likely be recognized with little trouble if any of the kids were paying attention. Their odds would be better if the arena were large, since it was unlikely that they would be recognized from a distance after their one encounter and while dressed differently from that encounter.
The possibility of danger always made Xisheng on edge, but it was especially true now that there were other people he absolutely had to keep safe. Not to mention that, if they were discovered and a fight broke out, it was very likely that any Earthbenders present would join the Avatar and attack. He doubted Fire Nation sentiment was very positive here in Gaoling, even if the city itself was one of the only Earth Kingdom settlements to be spared an attack so far.
Xisheng would of course be fine as far as remaining incognito. He had been masked during the scuffle with the Avatar, so no one would recognize him. Honestly Azula stuck out a bit, but mostly for reasons beyond her control. Her features were sharp and elegant and unmistakable, but hopefully the lack of identifying garb and accessories would keep their prey from actually focusing on her face too much.
As for Mai, while she was subjectively gorgeous, objectively she was currently unassuming. She would have little problem blending into a large crowd of people, as there was little to draw singular attention to her. Ironically she was the most noticeable when she was by herself, but that implied that there was no one around to notice her in the first place. A real shame, since Xisheng got the feeling her beauty was not nearly as appreciated as it should have been.
That only left Ty Lee. And while Xisheng had earlier concluded that she had the best chance of blending in with the Earth Kingdom, he realized that right this second she was the most recognizable of their group to the Avatar.
"Ty Lee, let your hair down."
The acrobat had to glance over her shoulder to make eye contact since Xisheng had taken to the rear of the group as soon as they entered extremely hostile territory, but the angle of the view didn't mitigate the obvious confusion and strange amount of hope on her face. "Really? You think I should?"
Xisheng got the feeling that Ty Lee would be put out if she learned his suggestion was for the practical reason of eliminating a defining aesthetic characteristic. He wasn't an idiot of course, so he knew why this was the case. Or at least he thought he knew. Obviously she wanted the same kind of praise he had afforded Mai earlier that day for the same scenario. But that didn't add up with just a few hours ago where his compliments had only been met with silence. At this point he couldn't help but wonder if he had gotten turned around somewhere in his perception of things.
Was he misinterpreting something important? All of these conflicting signals implied that he was. Still, now wasn't the time to ask. They were about to step into an extremely volatile situation that could get them all killed. Even so, on the very real possibility that Xisheng had completely misread the situation thus far, he figured it couldn't hurt to leave his more practical motives in the dark.
"I do. I find that today has been a good day to break from the norm, all things considered."
Xisheng felt bad seeing Ty Lee take his words at face value, but it wasn't like he was lying or anything. Everyone was dressed differently, pretending to be people they weren't. It was a pretty good premise to do something a little differently today.
That said his agile comrade wasted very little time in undoing her usual braid, and considering the complexity of the knots she was remarkably swift about it. Good thing the walk to the Earth Rumble arena was decently long.
When the process was done, Ty Lee gave her now loose locks a flip and eyed the only man in the group somewhat bashfully. Unbeknownst to him she was attempting to recall the phrasing he had used earlier that day.
"S-so, um... am I...alluring?"
Naturally Xisheng inwardly questioned if it was his place to utter anything along the lines of outright appreciation for the physical to someone beyond his stature in life. But he got the feeling that trying to hold back any praise in this instance was futile.
Unlike Mai, whose hair was almost perfectly streamlined, Ty Lee's was unusually wavy any bouncy out of its braid, which Xisheng hadn't actually been expecting. Even though it may have been just as long as Mai's, it fell a little higher on her back due to this, and he couldn't help but think that the bounce of her locks from every step accented her energy and bubbly atmosphere almost perfectly.
She was undoubtedly prettier than nearly every girl walking the face of the Earth at the moment, but Xisheng couldn't find it in him to utter words that brazen, so he settled for the best his faltering cognition could muster.
"Y-yes..."
Xisheng immediately berated himself for the lack of complexity in his response, and he was afraid that he had only succeeded in insulting someone again. However, Ty Lee seemed downright ecstatic to hear him say something so simple. Maybe she knew that he had simply been too outright dumbfounded to say anything else.
The moment was lost when Azula cut in. She tended to do that a lot.
"If you two teenagers are done flirting, we do have a mildly dangerous job you should be focusing on."
Both Xisheng and Ty Lee refrained from pointing out that Azula was in fact the youngest teenager there, mostly because they had finally reached the end of the hall that opened up into the arena that was their destination.
There was no door. Just a big, empty hole that led into a massive space in the belly of a mountain. Unconventional and definitely far from ornate, but that said it also fit the Earthbender mentality of simplicity in execution. If it worked they usually didn't bother making it nice.
A perfunctory glance into the area revealed nothing immediately obvious. The action hadn't started yet, and people were either milling around conversing with one another or simply finding the seat they wanted the most. More importantly, Xisheng was relieved to see that almost everything here was in their favor. The arena, which consisted of little more than stone stands and a large fighting ring in the middle, was huge. The scope of the place meant they were less likely to be noticed.
Furthermore, the crowd here was large enough to easily hide in. Roughly half the stands in total were taken already, with, oddly enough, the top half of the seating being taken and the bottom half left almost completely empty. Considering that the lowest seats were level with the ring, Xisheng easily deduced why this was the case. There would be no spectacle to enjoy if you were flattened by an errant boulder.
That said he found it pitiable for fighters to have such a lack of control. With the power benders wielded, it was their responsibility and duty to keep a tight leash on their abilities and avoid causing unintentional damage. In an Agni Kai, somehow managing to wound or even just endanger the audience would be just as dishonorable as losing the duel, if not more so.
Of course, it could have just been because he was a soldier. The Fire Nation military trained all of its soldiers to be disciplined and controlled, as their element posed the greatest threat of collateral damage to both ally and environment. Being unable to control the wild force of flame on the field of battle was not acceptable.
Either way, Xisheng imagined they would be better off in the higher stands. He also imagined they would be better off taking caution even if the odds here were in their favor.
"We should enter one at a time. Larger groups are more likely to draw curiosity."
Azula gave him a look that was a weird mix of irritation and admiration. Xisheng didn't even know those things could blend. "I'm not sure if your ability to give advice on the most minor of details irritates me or impresses me."
"Entire battles can hinge on the understanding of very small details, Pr-,er, Milady."
"Fair enough. And here I thought I went unusually far out of my way to consider the small things. Very well, I'll go first. Don't dawdle for too long."
The young ruler to be made her exit with that, allowing her to take the first gander at the arena as a whole. Thankfully no flames started flying or anything, so she hadn't come under immediate attack, and soon enough her comrades started filing in at sporadic intervals that weren't inherently suspicious.
Azula had been smart enough to choose a spot that was blocked by other audience members in both the front and the back, providing them with plenty of shielding from both detection and actual physical attack. How she had managed to appropriate enough seating for four people was a mystery, but probably had something to do with her ability to intimidate.
Ultimately Xisheng was faced with a new uncomfortable situation as he entered this scenario. Naturally, being a guard by nature, he entered the arena last, since holding the rear was his duty. Because this was the case, he had expected to be on the end of the line of people his little group would form on the stands, and with quite a considerable distance between them at that. Yet Ty Lee had chosen to intentionally take the end for herself so he would only be able to sit between her and Mai. He could tell it was intentional because of the cheeky smile if nothing else.
Now this was not a problem in and of itself, but despite Azula's ability to scare people out of their seats, it was still cramped up here and they weren't going to get a lot of elbow room regardless. By extension, he possessed less than an inch of space between him and his lovely feminine compatriots (he essentially had no space on Ty Lee's side, but he wasn't complaining about her intentional proximity), and that posed a problem because he was supposed to be paying attention to their surroundings, which was difficult in this situation.
Thankfully Mai was awful at perpetuating sexual tension, at least unintentionally. Based on his experience with her so far, Xisheng was almost positive she could make anyone hot under the collar if she wanted to, but when she didn't she was so apathetic to everything that it was difficult to even feel awkward around her. It was weird that she could be so neutral as to make other people feel comfortable (she couldn't judge you if she didn't feel anything about you in the first place), but also kind of nice.
That said her singular focus on the task at hand only mildly served to calm Xisheng's nerves in this situation. After all, he couldn't help but admire the way even complete seriousness only accented the acuity of her beauty. Never had he thought before meeting her that a frown could actually be attractive.
Thankfully he managed to avoid gawking blatantly like an idiot due to the beginning of the night's entertainment. A shower of boulders blasted forth from the center of the ring, some of them smashing into the lower stands, reinforcing why it was a bad idea to sit there. The man that had created the reckless display introduced himself as the announcer for the tournament, Xin Fu, and with a fair amount of bravado that accompanied all events of this nature, he wasted no time in getting things underway. After all, the longer this business dragged out, the higher the chance of the authorities ruining it.
Xisheng recognized with a great deal of dismay what kind of spectacle this ordeal was going to be when the first two fighters made their entrance, with the announcer labeling them as 'The Boulder' and 'The Hippo.' Silly gimmick names that meant this tournament was just as much about mindless entertainment as it was was about skill. Possibly even moreso. Mai summed up the feeling remarkably well.
"This is going to hurt me on a soulful level to watch."
Naturally Ty Lee was more optimistic about it, but she was a performer, so this was kind of up her alley in that regard. Admittedly Xisheng would have much rather seen a display of her talents over this Earthbending tripe. In a completely non-carnal sense, of course. It was just that Xisheng had already seen a lot of Earthbending in his lifetime, and he imagined that many of the moves used in this tournament would be over-the-top, dramatized nonsense that would never work or just be an awful idea on the battlefield.
The first show of drama was actually the very first move, in which The Boulder launched a similarly named projectile right at his overweight foe, only for the latter to simply tank the hit and crush one of the rocks within his disgusting maw. Tactically speaking there was no reason to ever take a direct hit in real combat if you could avoid it, so it was for shock factor only. Though Xisheng didn't consider it very shocking. An Earthbender negated an earth-based attack; what was so amazing about that?
The retaliation strike was equally ridiculous, with The Hippo leaping up and down to heave the entire ring and throw the Boulder off-balance. Admittedly it was a pretty appreciative display of raw power, but such a tactic would be less than useful in a real fight and even throw off your own allies if you had any.
In the end The Boulder saved himself from falling off of the battleground with a slab of stone, and he made short work of his opponent after that by picking him up in a cradle of earth and heaving him out of the ring altogether. The bravado after his victory put exasperated scowls on the faces of everyone in Azula's group save Ty Lee. Just one fight in and they were all sick of this already.
The brief pause between matches gave Xisheng some time to scan the audience around him, but he didn't spot their prey anywhere. It was possible that they could be on the opposite side of the arena, but from this distance he couldn't pick out anything truly distinguishable about anyone over there.
His subtle analysis of the people around him was cut short when the entire crowd started jeering at The Boulder's next opponent, and returning his gaze to the ring, Xisheng saw why this was the case. Probably had something to do with the moron waving around a Fire Nation flag and speaking about the glory of the Fire Lord and all that.
Azule scoffed at the presentation. "This man is going to get killed. Lynched maybe. What a moron..."
At first Xisheng agreed, but after a moment of thought, he saw through the ruse. Azula was right in saying that this man would have been long dead by now if he were a true and open supporter of the Fire Nation in Gaoling. After a hundred years of a losing war, the Earth Kingdom nursed an unhealthy degree of outright hatred and bitterness for anything Fire Nation related. This guy would have been hung, mauled, drawn and quartered, or something by an angry mob of people by now.
But this was entertainment. Xisheng had no doubt that this 'Fire Nation Man' (was that the best they could come up with?) was simply an Earthbender getting paid to pretend to support the Fire Nation so the crowd would have someone to collectively hate, and so they would have someone to cheer for as one in the form of the 'patriotic Earthbender' facing him. A good marketing tactic really. Everyone liked to see their boogeymen get destroyed.
That was why it was no surprise when The Boulder not only defeated Fire Nation Man in mere seconds, but with a ridiculous level of dramatic flair, prompting everyone to cheer as the 'loser's' body was flung into one of the boulders that had crashed into the stands earlier, courtesy of Xin Fu.
The uproar of applause and cheering was deafening, and Xisheng found it kind of sad that such an obvious stunt was enough to boost the spirits of these people. What had just happened was essentially war propaganda, and very obvious war propaganda at that. He hoped no one here was stupid enough to really believe it would be that easy when the Fire Nation really descended on this city for the first time.
But while he thought of this, apparently Mai had been doing something more useful, as she informed all of her allies of something important under the cover of the overly loud cheering around her. "Our 'friend' is here. Other side of the ring, where that moron just landed."
Xisheng directed his gaze where Mai had specified, but for him he couldn't outright identify the trio of people sitting foolishly in the front row seats on the opposite side of the arena (seriously, assuming none of them knew Earthbending, they were literally risking their lives sitting there). Still, now that Mai had pointed them out, he thought he could make out the blues of the Avatar's Water Tribe friends against the slate gray of the stone behind them.
"You have remarkably good vision Mai."
"Thanks."
Considering that he had expected her to shrug off the compliment immediately, Xisheng considered it a victory that she had responded at all, even though she wasted no time in questioning Azula.
"So? Now what?"
The princess of the Fire Nation seemed remarkably pleased, yet she also didn't look too eager to do anything at all.
"Now? We do nothing. We've acquired the most important thing of all; undeniable evidence of his presence. We can hardly start anything here in the open anyway. Now we observe and wait."
The mention of more waiting, and by extension more boredom, only gave rise to a sigh out of the eagle-eyed member of the team that has spotted the Avatar in the first place. "Great. My absolute favorite."
Since Azula had a very good point in saying that they couldn't do anything now, the quartet of quintessential spies was left with nothing to do but continue watching the Earth Rumble VI 'tournament.' Thankfully it did evolve from mindless entertainment to actual fighting at some point, as it became obvious that The Boulder's opponents were actually attempting to defeat him. For the record, Xisheng recognized that The Boulder was actually a very good Earthbender. He had more power than the average bender, and many of his attacks were actually kind of creative. He was above the average mark for an Earthbender at any rate, and he made it all the way to the tournament finals in relatively short order. In little time at all he was facing off against the champion, who turned out to be... a little girl. A very little girl, no older than twelve at the most.
The diminutive figure, clad in unusually high quality greens and beige, would have earned looks of confusion from normal people, but everyone in Azula's retinue simply accepted the situation. After all, Azula had been far more talented and skilled than the average Firebender at that age. Who was to say that an Earthbender couldn't be the same?
Either way, this girl, dubbed 'The Blind Bandit' (by far the best name of all these hooligans so far), exchanged some practically obligatory bravado with The Boulder before their fight started. Unfortunately for her opponent, when it did start it didn't last very long. The Boulder took just one step before the girl he was facing countered with a swift shift of the earth under his foot that forced him into a painful split.
Xisheng was the only member of the team to cringe at the phantom pains the sight provided him. Mai didn't seem to care, Azula probably thought it was amusing, and Ty Lee probably just thought such a lack of flexibility was sad. That said, Xisheng decided then and there that he would work on his flexibility just in case this kind of scenario ever happened to him. After all, he figured Ty Lee had to know some really good stretching techniques to be as limber as she was. There was no reason not to ask her to share.
Despite the overwhelming wave of sympathy for The Boulder, he was subsequently launched from the ring with three pillars of stone from the Blind Bandit. She received a decent modicum of cheering, but apparently more than a few people had hoped the reigning champion would actually be defeated.
As Xin Fu started talking incentives for other people to challenge the talented young girl, Xisheng questioned the nature of her victory. In the end, he wouldn't have necessarily called it a matter of skill so much as very quick reaction time. The Boulder had presented an obvious opening, and the girl had taken advantage of it swiftly. Besides, he always found it difficult to truly judge skill in battle during contests like this. All she had to do was launch her opponent from the ring. In a real fight, who was to say that he wouldn't have gotten back up, thought of a new strategy, and actually beaten her? Then again, who was to say that the girl's first blow wouldn't have just killed him in a real fight?
Xisheng put his thoughts to rest when he saw that someone had taken Xin Fu up on his offer to face the Blind Bandit, and as fortune would have it, it was the Avatar himself. He recalled a certain notion of the Avatar not being very subtle at some point in the past, but this was ridiculous. Knowing that he was arguably the most wanted man in the world, did he really think it was a good idea to put himself out into the open like this? Even in an Earth Kingdom city, he still had to worry about mercenaries, bounty hunters, and anyone that thought (rightfully so) that they could score a cushy life in the Fire Nation for turning him over to them.
Perhaps he was just not experienced enough yet to realize the danger that was stalking him every waking moment of his life.
It was obvious (to his hunters at least) that the Avatar was not challenging the Earth Rumble champion for the prize money involved in winning. Considering that he was likely still looking for an Earthbending teacher, it seemed that he wanted it to be this girl.
Unfortunately it was impossible to confirm this, as the Avatar didn't shout his intention as loudly as all of the fighters before now had. Whatever he said though, it didn't allow him to hold a conversation with the Blind Bandit, who attacked him outright. He was allegedly challenging her title after all.
Honestly, Xisheng was surprised that people didn't recognize the Avatar as an Airbender as soon as he started evading attacks. True, he wasn't wearing his usual outlandish attire, but the way he floated about the field of battle was unnatural, and definitely beyond the ability of any other bender. The way his body suddenly decelerated when gravity demanded otherwise was testament enough to his manipulation of the nearly extinct element.
But apparently no one caught this, and the fight carried on in a similar fashion for a whole thirty seconds, ending when the Avatar chose to counter an incoming boulder rather than avoid it. It was debatable whether or not he had intended to do it, but either way the blast of air he used to defend himself launched the Blind Bandit out of the ring, leading her to be officially defeated.
Amid the cries of astonishment and cheering in the crowd, Azula's group stayed focused and watched the ensuing actions of their prey. The Avatar wasted no time in pursuing the girl he had just bested, no doubt attempting to get her to listen to his pleas, and his obvious determination to get her attention was enough for Azula to decide on a risky but advantageous plan.
As she dwelt on the possibilities of knowing the objective of her own prey, Azula almost blew their cover by donning a smirk so calculating and malicious that anyone looking would have known she was plotting against them. Thankfully everyone was too busy cheering for the mysterious stranger that had bested the Blind Bandit, and the group of Fire Nation infiltrators suffered no difficulties as they made their inconspicuous exit from the arena of Earth Rumble VI.
How strange it was, to leave a place with a plan for another's demise that you had not possessed before then.