"Damn cold," Azula complained, spitting out a blue flame in an attempt to warm herself, but the small snowflakes falling across the deck of the ship seemed to mock her attempts.
"But you're the one who said, 'I want to test my endurance so that I won't wear a coat,' and now your butt's freezing," Ty Lee said, standing next to her friend, then had to quickly move her head to avoid the princess's blow.
"That's good training, you should try it," Azula said sarcastically, looking at how covered Ty Lee was.
Likewise, Mai and Petra were equally warm, while Zuko was like her, only in normal firebender clothes, though strangely he seemed much more accustomed to the cold temperatures than his younger sister.
"How do you do that?" asked Azula, jealous and intrigued, not knowing how Zuko could be on the deck of the ship without even using fire to warm his body.
"How do you mean? I just did this," Zuko showed his hands, in which two rings of red fire could be seen that seemed to have a solid consistency.
They hadn't been seen before because the bracelets were made of a thin thread of fire, which made them unnoticeable if you didn't look closely. Zuko's breathing was another area, he had done his best to get used to keeping it still even when walking or doing any other activity.
"That... is a lot of effort on your part," Azula said with surprise and admiration.
"I've made an effort to use everything I can, and this helps a lot to control the intensity of my techniques. Sometimes I feel like I use too much energy.
Even if it looks great, that big burst of fire, if it's not controlled, it's just an unnecessary waste of chi," Zuko said, explaining the reason for his training.
He had gotten this idea from Shisui, who had done something similar years ago to improve the manipulation of his element. Speaking of Shisui, he was the one who had adapted best to the cold environment near the South Pole.
So much so that he didn't even have a shirt on, and he was performing basic waterbending moves on an elevated part of the ship that was transporting them to the South Pole.
The waves around the ship were controlled by Shisui's invisible 'hands', he even made the ship sail a little faster than expected, but without breaking out of the fleet formation.
The seawater then rose, the scattered droplets refracting the light and creating a small rainbow for the spectacle of the people who had the opportunity to observe it.
"How beautiful," Mai said, a little excited to see the rainbow Shisui had accidentally created.
"Do you think he can control the creation of a rainbow?" asked Petra suddenly, causing the others to become interested in the topic.
Zuko then channeled Chi into his legs and jumped, rising several feet into the air and landing next to Shisui, who turned to look at him with interest.
"Petra asks if you can control the creation of a rainbow?" Zuko's golden eyes looked curiously at Shisui, who seemed to pause for a moment before smiling.
"Something so simple... and I've never tried it," Shisui slapped his forehead, mentally complaining about why he had never tried it.
Why did he ignore the abilities regarding light that water possessed? Shisui felt a pang of embarrassment as he realized that he had missed out on the great potential that this section held.
To correct this mistake, Shisui manipulated the seawater surrounding the ship, this time without using any particular style of movement. Long streams of water approached him and began to swirl around him.
Soon, small droplets of water separated from these strips of water, and by focusing on the angle of the sunlight, he managed to create a better rainbow. It was a bit blurry at first, but he soon made adjustments until he managed to create a vivid rainbow over the boat.
This brought a smile of satisfaction to Shisui's face, knowing that a new area of exploration and research had opened up for him. Earlier, he had thought that he had reached the limit of what he could do.
He could bend water, either changing its temperature to turn it into hot mist or steam, or cooling it to turn it into cold mist, snow, or ice. He could bend mud, plant roots that contained a lot of water, and finally bend blood.
He could write letters with ink! Even, because of an innocent remark by Kiyi, Shisui knew that if he ran out of water one day, he could use his urine to fight, or purify it for later consumption... as a potionist, he had to verify this in the flesh.
He had come up with some gruesome techniques, such as using the enemy's sweat to envelop him in hot steam or stirring up the cerebrospinal fluid to wreak havoc on both the outside and the inside, so yes, he had explored the war branch of his element quite a bit.
He had even touched on the concept of 'life' in water, aside from healing wounds or purifying various types of corruption or contamination with it. He could draw water from clouds, plants, and moisture from the air.
He could even, against all logic, compress water, with the latter he was trying to achieve the ideal of a sci-fi weapon concept in the future, the 'Super Dense Water Drop', a crazy idea from his previous life, but one he might be able to replicate in this new one.
It just never occurred to him that water could also interact quite well with light, and not only that but also with waves such as sound. He also remembered a certain aspect of water, making it more or less 'viscous'.
Some ideas came to him as if they had always been there, but he only noticed them now. Shisui had to resist the urge to smack his forehead or run off to write down his ideas, first, he had to give the fleet members a rainbow show.
...
"Every time... Every time! Every action always shows how powerful and capable he is!" shouted a person using a spyglass to watch the rainbow from another ship.
It was Zhao, who was in his room, wisely not sailing on the same boat as the royal family group to avoid awkward moments. He had learned what was going on from the exclamations of the sailors, who suddenly saw a rather detailed rainbow appear without any storm or particularly bad swell.
Then he became curious and wanted to see. Zhao was an educated and rather curious man he had even written some academic papers, such as the strange situation of some animals on certain islands.
No one had paid much attention to this detail, but some creatures were different depending on where they were found. Turtleducks that were small on land were giants on certain islands, and similar birds in different places had slight differences in their beaks.
So Zhao was curious as to what had created such a rainbow, but he already had an idea of what or who might be responsible. Still, he had a small feeling that maybe it was just a strange occurrence and worth investigating later.
No, it had to be Shisui. Jealousy burned in Zhao's heart, but he kept his composure even when there were no humans around. But he was still very upset and angry, so he put down his spyglass.
Turning around, he saw the pile of scrolls on his desk, especially one that looked quite old and clumsy. There was a struggle in Zhao's eyes as if he was doubting something, before his eyes filled with determination.
"If I can't defeat the Sage, then... destroy his element," Zhao muttered ominously, allowing his capable mind to devise plans and schemes.
This time he would not fail, he could not fail.
...
"Let's see if I can do this, I can try my best..." Shisui created a sphere of water and tried to project something with it, but he only managed to create some shapes of strange lights.
"Do you want to make a prism?" asked Petra, who was surprised to see for the first time that Shisui seemed to be unable to create anything with his element.
"It's just that I had never thought of such things. With small drops, it's easy to create a rainbow, but if I want to use a sphere of water to create a prism..." Shisui scratched his head, shaking his long, disheveled black hair.
"Reminds me of when we were kids!" exclaimed Ty Lee, causing Shisui's left eye to twitch.
"Right, remember that time he tried to manipulate a vine? He gave himself whiplash," Mai added to the conversation, opening a floodgate of embarrassing stories about Shisui.
"I remember when he tried to manipulate a geyser once when he didn't visibly accomplish anything, he went over to look, then water splashed on his face and sent him flying," Zuko said, making Azula burst out laughing, she was there at the time.
"Right! It was so funny that day, he ended up looking like a wet chick," Azula added, only causing Shisui to lower his head to hide his embarrassment.
"Remember the day he ruined Lady Ursa's flowers by sucking the water out of them?" asked Petra, and Shisui shivered visibly, remembering how angry Ursa could be when her plants were damaged.
Why did all the older women seem to be so fanatical about gardening and so overprotective of their little plants? That day, Shisui understood one thing: he was not allowed to practice Waterbending in the garden.
"Mom got really mad that time, it was the first time I ever saw her like that," Zuko said, remembering the moment with some surprise in his voice.
"But then Mom forced Shisui to plant flowers and plants with her, I helped and it was quite rewarding," Azula said with nostalgia in her voice, she wanted to see her family again, especially her younger sister Kiyi.
"But Shisui, what do you hope to achieve by playing with light and water?" asked Ty Lee curiously.
As far as she knew, Shisui was always looking for something practical to do with water, not only in matters of warfare but also as an aid in everyday life. Like writing homework or letters with waterbending ink, or cooking with the temperature control that water allowed her.
"I want to make lenses with water," Shisui said, looking up at the sky, now completely covered with clouds dropping snowflakes.
"You want to make magnifying glasses with water?" asked Zuko, but Shisui shook his head.
"No, well, yes, but more things. Magnifying lenses, reflective lenses, it would be cool to create an invisible cloak," Petra's eyes lit up at these words.
If there was anyone who could try to replicate this kind of light-related application, it was Petra, who could use crystalline minerals for a variety of purposes. Then she and Shisui plunged into a conversation that became increasingly confusing to the others.
"Oh no, they entered the 'I'm going to ignore you while I say confusing things' state, how boring," Ty Lee said, causing Mai beside her to nod.
"Of everyone, only Petra can follow you on such topics, even if I know some of the things they talk about, sometimes I get lost," Azula said, who was a woman who was quite curious about knowledge, but didn't have that intellectual 'spark' so to speak.
"I only understand until they get to those math formulas, who put letters in math?" asked Ty Lee with anger in her voice before glaring at Shisui.
"I remember, it was you!" pointed Ty Lee at Shisui, who turned to look at her with a strange look in his eyes.
"No, Ty Lee, he just popularized it, there was this form of math before," Mai put her hand on Ty Lee's head to stop her from doing something stupid.
Mai had been trained as an assassin herself, she knew quite a bit about throwing projectiles, but when she tried archery, she realized that learning math would help her quite a bit.
Her teacher, a retired Yuyan archer, taught her such strange things as how to calculate airspeed, the influence of gravity on arrows, and even concepts related to physics.
So Mai knew about mathematics, and she knew that its more 'complex' part was reserved for the intellectual or privileged few. The retired Yuyan archer who taught her archery told her that calculations were part of what made their group quite skilled.
"By the way, we're coming tomorrow, aren't we?" asked Zuko, trying to change the subject.
"Oh yeah, we'll be approaching the South Pole soon," said Ty Lee, effectively distracted.
"I can already see the ice blocks," Mai said, pointing off into the distance where a large iceberg was floating.
"So... we're about to meet the Avatar and his team," Azula said quietly, her eyes shining brightly.
Even though she was not on the opposite side of the Avatar, she had a special interest in that figure, as she wanted to fight the being that could bend the four elements. Her interest was shared by her brother, who tapped the handle of his weapon, eager to exchange ideas with Team Avatar.
...
As if the world itself was welcoming the South Pole, the snow that had begun to fall earlier that day had turned into a blizzard that night, and even with that, the entire fleet was slowly approaching the South Pole.
"Sokka, you have to sleep or you won't have any power tomorrow," Katara said worriedly to her brother, both of them standing in the open outside of the village, covered by the snow as it fell.
"I can't do it Katara, I can't be calm knowing they're so close, even if they don't come to fight...you know it's the Fire Nation, and Zhao is a worse bastard than I thought according to Sage Shisui's letters," Sokka replied to his sister who just shook her head before manipulating the snow around.
Unexpectedly, Sokka was enveloped in a blanket of snow that pressed tightly against his body as Katara began to pull her brother away. Though Sokka made a feint at breaking free, it was only a vague attempt before he gave up.
"You're too stubborn, Sokka, if you don't sleep, your mind won't be at its best tomorrow," Katara said, noticing the questioning look in her brother's eyes as he remained silent as he was dragged away.
"Thank you..." Sokka murmured, looking up at the cloudy night sky, the coldness he felt now nothing compared to the warmth of his sister's gesture.
It was true, he had to sleep because tomorrow things could get serious, and although things could go wrong, he had two great characters on his side. So he would do his best to do his part.
'The good thing is that I finished creating my technique, but I couldn't practice with it as much as I wanted to, but... just give me an excuse, Zhao, just a little excuse,' Sokka thought as he longed for the dawn.
Tomorrow, he would probably start to make a name for himself.