Eclipse (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Chapter 25: It-Girl

Miyuki closed her eyes, despite the blindfold she had around her eyes, and took a deep breath as she focused on sensing her opponents. Two of them were thirty-seven degrees to her right, then one person was ninety-two degrees to the right, one forty-six to the left, and four of them were a hundred and twenty-nine to left. She had the benefit of making the first strike. After that, it was a free-for-all according to the rules of the challenge. She wanted to do this in as few steps as possible though.

The group of four would be anticipating her strike. She'd deal with them second then. The closest to her was the one ninety-two to the right. Okay. Right ninety-two with a sweeping motion then left two-hundred-and-twenty-one with something quick. Meaning forty-six to the left would be the last man standing. If she were Toph, she could probably determine who was where, but they were all too far away for Miyuki to even dream of attempting to guess at who they were. There was no use thinking about it further. No one was shifting, so she could not glean who was who. Not that it made that much of a difference to begin with. All that was left now was to take action.

Without warning, she swung her arms and sent a long, arcing water whip exactly one ninety-five to her right to be safe, and she heard two people fall and she froze them in place. She immediately shifted her stance to face the largest group and freeze them in place from the knee down. She could hear the last person charging at her with a war cry. Sokka then. She ducked, heard him take a tumble, and froze him in place as well. Then she took the blindfold off and opened her eyes. She blinked a couple times in rapid succession as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

"Not bad, It-Girl. Not bad." Toph began to clap. "Now you're starting to fight like a real earthbender."

"Great! The genius masters something flawlessly again. Now would you mind unfreezing me?" She could practically hear Sokka rolling his eyes.

Miyuki glanced at him and found him frozen to the ground mid tumble, his head centimeters from the ground and his feet almost directly above his head. She unfroze him, knowing that he would fall straight to the ground and hit his head the moment that she did. She had little sympathy for him when everything played out exactly as she had predicted a moment later.

"Ow!" He sighed deeply. "Guess I deserved that one."

At least one thing was for sure, Sokka was not the one the fortune teller described to her all those months ago.

Miyuki took the small stack of coins that was put up for the bet that she would not be able to successfully launch an attack on all of them without getting touched while blindfolded. This money would go to funding some fodder knives she could throw around for a new technique she had come up with. She had the thought the other day that if she froze small bits of water to objects with her bending, she could make them suddenly shift directions mid-flight. It was more of a gimmick than an actual technique in her mind, given the numerous ways around it once her opponent figured out the trick, but it would throw her opponent off at least once, which was more than enough to turn the tides of battle.

She'd practice, much like she practiced detecting enemies with her eyes closed, and when this little trick was ready, she would unveil it too. She thanked Toph and the others for participating before heading towards what became known as the "hawk nest" on the ship. In other words, it was a place for her messenger hawks to roost after arriving. She collected the newest message and skimmed over it before tossing it into the fire. A pair that went by "Pipsqueak" and "The Duke" respectively were confirmed to be traveling the Earth Kingdom westbound as she had predicted they would. If they continued on the path that Miyuki had projected, they would be right on course to pick them up without any redirection.

She glanced at the next message. It was an update from Saizo about Zuko, who she had on the prince's tail. The summary the man wrote detailed Zuko's movements throughout the palace, but gave little to no specifics as to the content of the prince's conversations. Probably because Saizo could not get close enough safely with the Dai Li agents lurking around the palace. Furthermore, he discovered where they were detaining Iroh and confirmed that they had no intention of moving the elderly general anytime soon. That was good to know. She produced a fresh sheet of paper and wrote a message to Saizo telling him to come back. There was something else she wanted help with if he could not get close to Zuko safely.

She sifted through the messages one by one after that, carefully categorizing and cataloging each new piece of information in her mind before getting rid of the physical messages. She had forgotten such a vital piece of information in Ba Sing Se, and it ultimately contributed to the fall of the last great Earth Kingdom stronghold. All because she was distracted by something else. Someone else.

She would not let it happen again. She could never let it happen again. The thought weighed on her a little, but if anyone could shoulder this burden, it would be her, and she would do it flawlessly enough that no one would even consider it a burden to begin with.

She froze a little when she read through an inquiry that she expected to be fruitless. Once, twice— She wasn't sure what threw her off more, the fact that something useful actually came from this or the decision that she would have to make next.

When she burned the last of the messages in the fire, she found the Water Tribe chief waiting for her. "Ah, Chief Hakoda. Were you waiting long?"

"No, not at all. You went through them pretty quickly." He looked a little impressed with her work, but she brushed it off with ease.

"Ah, that's nothing. I'm just used to going through a larger volume of updates in one sitting. Especially after needing to catch up on all the intel I was getting during my time in Ba Sing Se. I'm sure you didn't come here just to compliment me though. What can I do for you?"

"As it happens, I was hoping that you'd join us for the strategy meeting in an hour."

"Yes, of course. I'd be more than happy to. As a matter of fact, I was thinking about the invasion plans last night, and I came up with some potential solutions to some holes that I found in our strategy."

He nodded approvingly. "I know you don't agree, but you really do have the makings of a fine leader, Miyuki."

Coming from a man who was quite the capable leader himself, it meant a lot. She only hoped that she could live up to such high praise. The truth was that she threw herself into work like this because she was avoiding certain things. "Could I trouble you for some advice, Chief Hakoda?"

"Of course. How can I help?"

"Would it be selfish of me to leave?"

The man raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Leave? Where are you thinking of heading to?"

"The Fire Nation. The capital city, to be exact."

"An interesting choice."

"I want to do some scouting for the invasion," she began, "but if I'm being honest, I have some unfinished business there that I'd like to sort out."

"I see. Well, far be it for me to stop you."