Ikigai

Chapter 14: My Bad, Your Bad

"I need two more workers, over here!" she roughly shouted. 

She was drained and she was hungry. 

Hours of earthbending and a few crumbling walls later, a hectic mess had ensued from the rather large holes she had created.

"Th-the southern wall is falling!" someone's voice echoed in the distance.

"Cho-san, tell them to get out of there. I'm about to close it down."

"On it, K-hoss."

"And tell them to hurry, cause' I'm not going to be able to hold it forever."

Perhaps she should have waited before she decided to pull out multiple stones from the side walls at the same time. 

Perhaps.

But, she found out the hard way that it was even harder to earthbend around other people who clearly couldn't bend the rocks away themselves. 

She was left with having to carefully reinforce walls and manage to preserve what precious stones she had already gathered in a pile.

No one said she couldn't multitask. 

"Ma'am!"

"Finally! What took you both so long?"

The grimy workers fidgeted before Kintsugi, their frantic eyes watching her hands as she seemed to move erratically in an effort to keep up with the falling walls. 

"I need you two to get me more lumber, pipes, anything you can find."

"Yes, ma'am!"

As they shuffled off into the darkness of the tunnel, Kintsugi was once again left to the mess she had created.

"K-hoss!" 

The older woman came running along with the southern crew, dirt, and dust covering their bodies like a second skin.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

A low rumbling could suddenly be felt and heard from the southern tunnel as she collapsed it, bending the oncoming wave of dust back so that they didn't suffocate from the fallout. 

They held their breath's as the added strain on the rest of the supporting beams could be heard with a creak and moan.

"I have a solution," she said, turning to look at Cho once the sounds seemed to settle.

Crash.

A rather large, rather sharp rock had fallen a foot short from where they were standing. 

"Did you see that?"

"Um..."

"The correct answer is no Cho-san, no you didn't. Now let's get going."

"This is all your fault."

"It wouldn't be the first time I hear that phrase and I can assure you it won't be the last."

Despite the near annihilation of her whole crew, Cho was feeling rather calm and collected. 

Sure, Kintsugi offered no words of encouragement, no promises of safety, no sign of regret for her actions, and yet her spirit was inspiring. 

There was no doubt that this was Kintsugi's fault, but in those moments of panic and imminent danger, she pushed forward, she corrected it, she kept everyone safe, and she would be better. 

It reminded her of her late husband really.

"Ma'am, we found the leftover lumber and pipes you needed."