Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)

"Excuse me, do I know you?" I asked.

"Seems so, since you placed all of your money on me. Well, most of your money. But didn't you think I wouldn't see through you?" she said.

I forgot. She was a lie detector. Guess if I wanted to lie to her, I'd have to go the old school route. Half-truth, half-lie to throw them off. Or maybe just twist the truth.

Let's put that to the test.

"That never happened," I blinked twice.

Well, she could never have seen me placing the bets.

"Hmm... forget about it," she said. "I'm the blind thief, and you can call me Toph. I won't beat around the bush. How the hell did a waterbender invent metalbending?"

"I've seen a cute girl do it," I replied.

"Who is she?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact, she has the same name as you," I tilted my head and smirked.

Toph looked at me, confused for a second, as she tilted her head.

"Tell me. Are you a psychopath?" she asked.

"What?" I blinked twice. "No!"

But honestly, I was wondering myself.

I had been an ordinary man in my previous life. Someone who had been mentally conditioned by society. Killing was like a taboo. Our brains had been programmed to shake and act out of place in case we made a crime, even by accident. Yet, you know that policemen feel no hesitation when they pull the trigger and kill someone on their first day, and act as if they did something wrong.

Here, in this world, I had killed consistently.

I had started with the snitch.

And I ended up with many bodies on my hands.

But to be honest, I didn't believe I did something wrong. At the same time, I didn't know why I wasn't acting as dramatically as I'd thought I would. That made me think there was something wrong with me.

Well, it's not like I considered it a big deal in the first place.

"Okay, you're not, and I don't know what made you believe so. So, you were not lying," she demanded. "But it doesn't matter. Hand me the method for metalbending now."

Somehow, her comment made my eyelids twitch.

Hold on a second. If I said I'm not a psychopath, and that makes me not one because I was lying… what the hell! But hey, if Toph said so, what would it matter?

I shrugged.

Now, she was demanding the method to train in metalbending, and not in the most indirect or polite way.

I sighed at her.

Despite being older than the show, she was acting like a child.

I decided to tease her a bit.

"What if I don't?" I crossed my arms.

She put her hand under her chin as if thinking. "That's a good question. I have many answers for that. Would you like to give me a rating?"

"I'm not a scholar," I replied dismissively.

"Okay, get down to the ring," she said. "I'll smash the shit out of you. Then, you'll be a good boy and do what you're asked to."

I rolled my eyes.

Katara was looking at me strangely at first, her eyebrow narrowed. She had been told that I was here to pick some guy and spread the metalbending teachings.

Yet now I was acting reluctant.

Now that Toph was threatening me, Katara was shooting her glares.

"So, you're saying I should teach you because you're going to beat me?" I replied.

"Yes, easy peasy," she replied.

"Okay," I sighed. "How about this then? Let's have a bet. If we fight and I lose, I'll teach you."

I could somehow feel something she was trying to hide.

I may not be good at reading emotions from the vibrations of the ground, but I could tell she was quite desperate.

No. More than that, her ego was hurt.

She, who considered herself the best earthbender in the world, couldn't achieve what a bunch of old people had achieved.

It was also fun to tease her.

"You're smarter than you look," she nodded.

"Yeah, as if you looked at him and came to that conclusion after a careful examination," Katara interjected. "Why don't you go away and play with the other earthbenders while you've got time, before I stand up and beat you up?"

I raised an eyebrow and kept nodding, somehow feeling proud that she was standing up to Toph's teasing.

"Wait up there, little girl. I've got business to finish with your man. Don't worry, I won't steal him."

Katara was about to stand up, but I held her still with a pat on the shoulder.

"Okay," I said. "And what if I win?"

"Hahaha. You still think you have a chance after what you saw?" she mocked, then got nearer and whispered in my ear. "To be honest, I was holding back, not to make things boring."

"What if I win?" I asked again.

"Like your girlfriend said then. Anything," Toph said, very confident she wouldn't lose to me.

I resisted the urge to smile. "You heard us?"

"I read your lips," she replied. "Now, get to the ring."

"Sorry, won't do," I rejected and waved my hand.

"But you just said you would fight!" she frowned.

"Yes, I did," I nodded.

"Why are you backing out now?" she asked loudly, putting her hands on my shoulder. Damn, she was strong for her size. I could already feel some pain in my shoulders.

"If I win, I'll lose my money. Go there, finish the tournament, and we'll have a fight," I said.

"I just have one more fight left. Don't move from your place. It'll be quick," she furrowed her brows. I could tell she was a little pissed off. Well, it wasn't a problem to me if she had to delay her business with me.

Wait a second. Could she be losing on purpose because I teased her and she was in a hurry? She was already rich, so the tournament money wouldn't mean anything to her.

I handed the gambling ticket to Katara and said, "Change the bet. Quickly."

Katara nodded, not understanding why, but she did as she was told.

Toph's next opponent came.

Toph raised her hand.

"I give up. I'm too tired. You win."

"Huh?"

"You heard me," she said, then jumped off the ring.

There was an uproar. The referee, the competitors, and everyone else were in an uproar.

My eyes were on Katara. She gave me a thumbs-up.

-x-X-x-

"Okay," I smiled.

Currently, we were outside.

It was getting late, and it was night.

"It's getting late, shouldn't you be at your parents' house?" I asked her.

"I'm on the run," she replied. "Not the first time."

'Too much detail,' I thought but didn't voice it.

If memory didn't betray me, at the show, when she was 12, she was frustrated with her parents treating her like a disabled child and overprotecting her to the point that people didn't even know they had her as a daughter.

Most of the earthbenders I knew had tanned or slightly tanned skin.

But Toph was so pale she could be called white.

Her skin looked like it could be eaten alone.

I raised my head, looking at the sky, thinking of a pink elephant to wash away the impure thought. I didn't want her to feel my blood pumping somewhere.

"Okay, we're going to start," I declared.

"Just so you know, there's no water source nearby," she said.

"You're afraid that it won't be fair for me."

"I just don't want to hear you nagging after you get beaten up. Well, nothing will change, with or without water."

"Okay."

I placed my hands in my pockets.

Toph took her bending stance, and I looked straight at her.

My saliva started gathering in my mouth.

At the same time, I decided to use some of my saved-up experience points.

[Steaming up to level 10]

[Steaming up to level 11]

[90K accumulated experience points have been used]

Waterbending wasn't deadly because it could just freeze, or it could be easily manipulated, pushed, or pulled. But also, with the right pressure, water could be sharp, and it could even slice metal. The most common problem for a waterbender was the volume of water. But with steaming, that volume can expand significantly.

"Seriously, spitting at me?" Toph furrowed her eyebrows, clenched her fists, and stomped on the ground.

A big wave of earth flew from her feet, making the earth tremble while dust flew off the ground in a straight line heading in my direction.

I thought about stomping back. Yes, I had been around earthbenders a lot, to the point I knew how they bend, but that wasn't my style.

The spit I had sent earlier didn't fall on the ground or touch Toph's face yet.

It floated in a straight line toward her.

At the same time, I was in a bit of trouble myself.

I had to dodge.

So, I jumped to the side.

Toph, seemingly having predicted this, waved her hand in a chopping motion, sending a flying rock toward me.

Thanks to my martial arts skill tree, I tilted my head backward a bit. The rock grazed my skin.

"I'm still going easy. Don't you want to give up yet?" she asked.

"Well," I replied, "I'm gonna cook you now."

"With what? Those small eggs?" she taunted.

I pointed at her with my hand, unaffected by her useless taunt.

The spit I had floating next to her suddenly vaporized.

Toph, who could see through the ground, couldn't see what was flying in the air.

So, a wave of sudden heat must have startled her.

What started as a small drop of water expanded largely, putting her in an oven-like state.

I pressed the steam as I clapped my hands, pushing it forward. The steam moved in a straight line. She crossed her arms. I focused the steam on certain parts, making cuts in her arms around the corner and one cut on her cheek that caused blood to start flowing. Scalds appeared on her skin instantly. If I had wanted, I could have focused all of the steam around her head. Also, it seemed I had underestimated the heat of the steam after leveling up twice in a row.

"That was one of a kind spit roast," she yelled in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. She raised her hand, "Seems I'm trapped in this hot thing. Steam?"

"You got it," I replied.

"No wonder that spit took forever to fall," she sighed.

Despite her best effort to appear tough, she groaned and flinched in pain.

I walked to her, grabbed a bottle of water from my waist.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Are you going to abuse a lady in pain?"

"Shut up," I replied as I bent the water to move around her and circled it around her body.

"They're healing," she said, blinking a few times. "It tickles as well."

"So they always say," I replied, focusing on her wounds. The scalds vanished into thin air. The skin didn't regenerate; instead, it went back to its place and became normal and healthy.

"It even helps with the bones," she added as I held her hand and circled the water around her arm.

"You know, I can help with that too," Katara, who was standing on the side, said all of a sudden.

"No need," I pulled my hand away. "I've already finished."

Then I stood up to my full height.

Seeing that I was on a winning streak when it came to bets, I decided to tease the girls.

I'd won two bets in one day.

The price was obviously...

"So, anything, huh?" I smiled smugly.