Deku of the Wind

Chapter 4: A Leaf in the Wind (part 3)

Izuku was sitting in the prep box of his team, trying to meditate to alleviate the anger he was feeling. The reason for his anger? Hasook had abandoned the team. 

Soon after, Korra rushed in, worried for the team, and volunteered to take Hasook's place. Mako was skeptical at first, but Bolin and Izuku both overruled him, causing him to simply sigh and go along with it. 

Now, Izuku was explaining the basic rules of pro-bending to Korra. 

"You can't cross the line of your zone, you can't knock your opponents off any edge except for the rear, and you absolutely cannot use any element other than water." Izuku continued to help her suit up in the gear as he explained. 

"Is there something against the rules of me using other elements?" Korra asked. 

"No," Izuku said calmly as he wrapped her wrists and hands. "Because there's never been an avatar in the pro-bending scene before. But I don't think you want to risk Tenzin finding out where you ran off to." 

"Ah," Korra nodded. "Yeah, that'd probably be bad." 

"Anyways, I'd stick to small amounts of water if I were you. Precession beats massive attacks." 

"Got it," Korra nodded once again, and strapped on her helmet as Izuku finished her wrappings. She then put on her gloves before smiling at Izuku gratefully. "Thanks, let's do this." 

Izuku nodded, and patted her on the shoulder before lightly turning and shoving her towards Mako and Bolin, a slight blush on his face. "Break a leg Korra, just not yours!" 

Korra chuckled and nodded, before heading onto the stage. 

As they entered the stage, Korra immediately noticed that the Platypus Bears' fire bender seemed to be different from most people she'd met, and soon realized that he was a mutate. Mutate's were people who had been attacked by a spirit and survived, but their bodies had been physically altered. Attacks had been heard of before, but used to be common place. But with Harmonic Convergence approaching, it seemed as though the attacks were becoming more frequent. 

All things considered, Korra thought Ojiro got lucky. He survived, and his mutation was a massive, muscular tail. It wasn't like he was in danger of dying because of it. But unfortunately, mutate's tended to be discriminated against in society, and Korra hated it. She quickly pulled up some water from the field and sliced a thrown cup before it could hit Ojiro, and smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry people are jerks," She called. Ojiro only smiled sadly and nodded in thanks. 

The Earth Bender for the enemy team was a large man with broad shoulders and a scarf covering his mouth and jaw. A jut of white hair fell across his right eye, blocking it from view, and his steps were strong, and purposeful. Every movement of his made the ground shake, and Korra got a feeling he was using Seismic sense. She racked her brain for the name Izuku had told her, and eventually remembered him as Shouji. 

Izuku's notes on the boy stated that he liked to create whips out of the disks. Since he kept them in close for defense, the referee's allowed it, but he could only fire them off one at a time. He's going to be a problem getting through, Korra thought to herself, but kept her smile on her face. 

"Hey, new water bender, ay?" the Platypus Bears' water bender called out to her. "I've never seen you before ma'am, is this your first match?" 

Korra nodded as she remembered his name to be Sero. He likes to use water whips, but unlike most people who use them from the ground or their hands, Sero flings them from the elbow, Korra remembered. It makes it harder to predict him, so I'll need to keep an eye out.