15 Chapter 5. The Capital of the Fire Nation. Part 2.

At school, as it turned out, I was expected. More precisely, I was intercepted at the entrance and dragged to the principal's office. A typical Asian old man with a belly, bald spot, and thick eyebrows. The eye shape here is an interesting story in itself; I barely remember how it was in the previous world, but here it's a total mix. For example, most of the aristocracy do not have narrow eye slits. Yes, they are small, and the eyes are certainly not bulging, but such slits are more common among half-blood Asians than purebloods. So, being accustomed to the European face type, I don't suffer here. Everything is very much diverse.

So, they dragged me to this old man's office. Not literally, thank Agni, note to self - need to find out whom the Airbenders worshipped, it's somewhat unseemly, so not literally. The table there was quite heavy, made of some kind of wood, and no bamboo in sight. They sat me right in front of him, and, of course, didn't forget my parent.

"We've analyzed Akimaru's last year," the principal began from afar, "and his results seemed quite... unusual."

"I said it was too early to send him to the second year," my father pursed his lips, not looking at me, "I think it's possible to keep him on..."

"No, no, you misunderstood me," the principal waved him off, "on the contrary! He shows the best result in the class and, according to his teacher, always finishes everything first, and then pretends to think..."

Oops, as they say. Such an attentive nag, always has to stick her nose everywhere.

"... Therefore, after consulting, we decided to move him directly to the fourth year if he passes the entrance exams we have prepared."

"I have no objections," my parent pursed his lips even more, almost merging them into an invisible line. Does anything ever please him? Or is he perpetually dissatisfied?

Well, they brought me a bunch of sheets with questions on absolutely all subjects. Well, I don't think it will be too difficult.

And I was right. There were no particular difficulties, they simply sent me to another classroom with other children. Well, goodbye, Yoshi, you were a decent friend. The fourth grade isn't much more interesting than the third. At all.

That Sunday, Mai was not at our usual spot. And I even guess why - the country was thunderstruck by the news of the death of the Fire Lord and Prince Ozai's wife. It was just thunder, aristocrats ran around like they were doused in turpentine, there was a scramble for who knows what by whom. But these were just the flowers. The berries came when the second prince became the new Fire Lord. There was no scandal or anything, Iroh simply abdicated the throne.

Oh, the commotion was such that I didn't leave my room without necessity - my parents constantly had guests, and they were always discussing something.

Mai only came the following week, and she was simply shattered. I didn't know what exactly happened, but apparently, because of the events, her parents had said a lot of different things to her. I didn't try to pry; if she wanted to talk, she would. I just supported her, like on the coal island.

Then, the year flew by absolutely unnoticed. Practically, I only marked another week passing by meetings with Mai, during which we mostly discussed various nonsense. Cold weapons, firebending, descriptions of my classmates.

In the mornings, I also ran, though I had to get up very early, at five, to meet no one. Despite Mai's statements that I should take up something else, I was simply too lazy. I liked running - not the rest.

The next year the situation repeated, and I was moved up another grade. Mai got busy, and she could only come to our spot once every two weeks, and even then, it was clear that it was hard for her - very often she came very tired and just kept silent, sometimes just nodding and grunting in time to my story. But still, she always said that she was interested and just didn't have the energy to speak herself.

Year flew by year and, by and large, absolutely nothing changed: I was moved up a couple more times, Mai was still Little and couldn't catch up with me in height, and at school, Chan tried to annoy me by any method possible.

In my room, I tried to somehow develop my bending, and it worked, though, by my feelings, with poor results. But, air blasts started to really become powerful. I'm sure one of those would have knocked down and repelled that wolf far away. The breeze in my head was already very well trained, although it still often slips out of control and expresses emotions when not needed.

Somewhere around the age of thirteen, my parents' talks about my marriage started to bother me. I wasn't introduced to anyone and they weren't even planning to, but words about a profitable marriage sounded more and more often, and somehow, I stopped hearing the joking tone in them.

By the age of fifteen, they were openly saying that they would make me marry someone. I didn't resist - what's the point of arguing? Most likely, I'll just run away because the talk is about some girl waiting for me after my eighteenth birthday. By that time, I would have finished school two years prior and could calmly pack my bags and go... somewhere. I haven't figured out where yet.

And by the way, at fifteen, I finish school. Finally, thank God. There's no system for external studies here by itself, so they transferred me and decided to leave it as is. They didn't want to make too big a precedent. I'll receive my diploma too early anyway - there have been cases of skipping a year. But I studied the last three grades as usual, without any tricks.

Well, it's better than sitting here for an additional three years. Just need to finish this year, and I can start thinking about something interesting to do.

And I even know how to celebrate graduation. It's not customary here to organize anything special, there will just be a ceremony and that's it, but...

It's time to show the local kids what music is. There are music lessons here, but it's a strict orchestra that sings the Fire Nation anthem. I understand why they don't let the Firebending prodigies fully dive into emotions - it could become a huge problem, but can't we have it just occasionally?

That's what I thought too. And it turns out, Airbenders have a very good ear. I only played the trumpet... loudly, true, but well. And I managed to make something resembling good music out of the orchestra. Not rock or pop, but something with drive. You wouldn't party to it in a club, but that's not what we need, right? Let them dance a bit to more-or-less calm music. Of course, besides a couple of different compositions for dances, also a couple for slow dances - it's a sacred duty.

Yes, I also spread the word about the party to the girls' school. Let them gather there, hang out, talk. Just that, I'll have to be the initiator and the master of ceremonies, but it's worth it.

After all, Airbenders are freedom-loving individuals. And with all that, also bringing freedom to others. Well, okay, I just wanted to cause a bit of a stir before leaving. The party is set for Saturday, a suitable place was found - one guy's whole family went somewhere, and this brave hero allowed it to be held at his place. Well, more accurately, his friend pretty much set him up, and when our graduating class's collective meeting ran out of ideas where to hold it, we made him.

It was Friday, or the fifth day, as they say here, and it was the day for us to party. The orchestra gathered in advance, as did the reserve teams, so everyone could enjoy the evening, drinks were set up, snacks prepared - in a word, beautiful.

Gradually, as the evening approached, people started gathering, hesitantly clustering in different corners. As expected.

When there was a decent number of people in the main room, I gave the orchestra the signal to start, and rhythmic music flowed. Of course, no one rushed to be the first on the dance floor. For some reason, a similar scene popped into my head, only in a cave...

And the avatar danced with some girl there, and everyone liked it. One problem: I can't dance. Well, okay, it's worth trying. I know at least some basic movements, we'll improvise. Finishing my drink in one gulp, I boldly went to the center of the improvised dance floor, picking up a pretty girl along the way. Unfortunately, she was half a head taller than me, after all, a three-year difference is significant.

But nonetheless, she clearly didn't mind, just blushed when I smiled at her.

Then I started with some of the most basic movements from my past life. Of course, I did it wrong, but I kept in rhythm. Something like a more rhythmic and energetic waltz.

Not the best and clearly worse than what I remembered, but it helped to ignite the fire, haha, in the hearts of the others. Gradually, people began to move, some even mustered the courage to invite girls.

The party got started and showed no signs of stopping. Discussions flowed, along with buzz and dances, still slightly hesitant at first but increasingly bold over time, and it was cool.

I wasn't in a hurry to step aside either; alcohol slowly seeped into my brain, making the surroundings familiarly blurry, faces around became unrecognizable, and memories of how to behave in such cases, on the contrary, appeared.

How, you ask? Dance and have fun.

After a while, the girl I was dancing with and I were kissing, her not minding at all that I was shorter, alcohol did its job.

And, perhaps, this could have led to something interesting, but I wasn't planning to get involved. It's important to remember that here are all blue bloods around, and it could lead to a significant faux pas.

And we don't need that. In general, the kids got into the spirit, while the host of the house looked on with sadness and pain in his eyes as the interior elements lost their functionality.

Despite the desire to continue, I decided to leave, just as a slow dance started. Some were shy, standing at the edges, some quite tipsy, danced in the center, and some were openly cuddling.

It was getting dark outside as I walked home, even staggering a bit from intoxication. My parents think I'm at home because I sneaked out to the party through the window. Yes, the second floor, but am I an airbender or not?

I tried to return just as quietly, but passing by the living room, where relatives were sitting, I accidentally heard a dialogue:

"Yes, we'll have to sign earlier. It's not very good, it's now customary to conclude marriages only after sixteen. Jiro, are you sure about this decision? It's your son."

"If we don't sign tomorrow, we won't sign at all. With this marriage, we'll be close to the royal family. So yes, I'm more than sure."

I didn't listen any further. I heard all I needed to, so I quietly and carefully sneaked into my room and lay down to think.

The alcohol intoxication was gone, the familiar breeze in my head didn't let emotions take over and allowed me to soberly assess the situation. It turns out the marriage will be concluded any day now. Only without me, they're not marrying me off, so it seems it's time to run away.

I decided to take almost nothing with me - dressed up, put on shoes, took my wallet - by the standards of ordinary people, there was a decent amount of money in it - and all my notes, which weren't that many. It turned out my memory doesn't fail me, and the memories that appeared are not going anywhere. And my notes became essentially useless, but I still kept them, even started to organize them to create a sort of small encyclopedia.

And I need to write something else before leaving. Two notes - one for my parents I wrote quickly and quite simply:

"Thank you for everything, I do not want to marry against my will. Goodbye."

What else to write? That's good enough.

But I got really stuck on the second one and spent a good ten minutes on it. Unfortunately, this Sunday, I'll already be far from here, so Mai will have to learn everything from this note.

After finishing both notes, I left one right on the neatly made bed. Taking one last look at the room I had considered mine for a good fifteen years, I felt nothing. And it wasn't the breeze's fault; I simply didn't care about this house and the people living here anymore.

I slipped out the window just as I had when leaving for the party. The first point on my plan was our alley with Mai. Everything there was just as old and absolutely nothing had changed over time, so I carefully secured the note with a stone and left it right on the bench. Rarely anyone comes here, and I think it will lie undisturbed until Sunday. After all, it's practically tomorrow.

Now it's time to hit the road! Although I wasn't really prepared for this event. I didn't know the map well enough to navigate by memory, nor was I skilled in surviving in the wilderness, but the hope instilled by my bending suggested I'd manage somehow.

So, shifting my bag from one shoulder to the other, I headed down the main street, wherever my eyes led me.

A few years ago, I heard about Master Piandao - a famous swordsman who mastered his art to such a level that he could stand equal against bearers of any bending. True, he's also a renegade, having left everyone behind with a rather unsavory story - turning his sword on allies, but rumors say all attempts to detain him were unsuccessful, no matter how many benders were sent.

And they decided to operate on the principle: don't stir shit, it won't stink.

That's where I'll be heading. After all, I need to learn something truly lethal because, with all my bending, even Mai could easily defeat me.

Classic - airbending is weak in combat at the start. To amount to something, I need to become a pretty good bender, no matter how you spin it.

***

Akimaru's note lay there until Sunday, but the airbender couldn't know that on that very day, Mai decided simply not to go to their meeting spot. The training turned out too harsh, and she spent the entire weekend just in bed, of course, reading something.

When Mai arrived on the following seventh day, she found neither the note nor Akimaru. As well as many subsequent seventh days. Akimaru didn't show up at the meeting place neither a year nor two years later. And by the third year, Mai herself grew tired of making excuses for the boy in her head and finally resigned herself to the fact that the second most important person in her life had left her. First her mother, now him.

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