parallel lines

chapter xxvii

Word Count: 3, 827 words

CHAPTER XXVII. 残り物には福がある

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Walking wasn't a fun activity if one has been doing it for the majority of the night. In a few minutes after, they all got out of the bushes from the woods they were just in. The trip towards where they were headed has taken them more than a week, after having too much fun making fools out of people who tried to fool them and a fool who did make a fool out of them.

There were a lot of obstacles along the way and a lot of cheating and in a way, blood, Sokka's never ending fascination with facial hair as a disguise, Appa being the hero of the day, "look it's a train", came to the situation they kept digging themselves into.

Their minds were on a whim, doing whatever suits their boredom whilst heading to the direction of the rendezvous point. She remembered running to a headache problem that caused the man to explode, two things: forehead and explosion.

She remember also distinctly remembering the banter between the two girls of the group, slowly emerging to be another brawl like the first days when Toph had joined them in their travels.

"Hey, I only cheated because he was cheating." Natsuko remember the smirk Toph had, "I cheated a cheater."

She remembered how Katara tried to reason about how it was immoral or somewhere between the lines. With all the yapping and Momo language that all seemed like in her head, she did agree to what Katara was trying to point out.

Until she also remembered, "Weren't you the same person who robbed from pirates?"

Katara's glare was too intense. Natsuko kept her mouth shut the entire day/s Katara was in a bad mood. She had seen how the girl turned into something unlike what girls typically looked like and zoned out from the bickering, hearing the Momo language once again.

At that point, she snapped out of it before she goes in too deep, "Aang, let's just train."

There was always the side of every town where the people with intentions to break norm rules are, the likes of the whole fake accident victim situation, a sugarcoated term for gambling on public streets, and the very slim chance of being on a wanted poster.

Coincidentally, the rest of the group had done all of that in the span of 2 days to the nearby town, the third day was the so called "Ultimate Scam" that Katara and Toph tried to pull off.

Keyword was try. Unfortunately, unlike every scam, this has been well planned out by the dubbed Sparky Sparky Boom Man who was chasing them every chance he gets. He has a third eye on his forehead which sends explosions at a long distance, she had seen the first works of a hereditary disease; at least it was what it was labelled as during the old days; and seen how innovative it had turned out to be.

During their many talk and back with many foes they had faced, his grunts before attacking was a scary sound to hear and the explosions were always too loud for their poor ears. It was like, he has been Zuko's replacement their entire trip in the Fire Nation.

It wouldn't be a surprise if that was the actual as to why he has been chasing them around, but she shouldn't jinx it.

That wasn't the last of Mister Boombastic, later renamed Combustion Man, they've ever seen, however, it was the last time right before they were approached by an old lady in the middle of the night and in the middle of the forest.

It was the typical time when they were trying to scare each other and Sokka wasn't doing well with the story he came up with. Of course, Natsuko was also, in a way, forced to tell them stories.