Similar to their journey to the South Pole, the ocean gradually cooled, and they encountered some sporadic icebergs along the way. This sight greatly interested the ever-curious Ty Lee.
"Shisui! Seriously, couldn't Jack get to the door next to Rose? You said it was pretty roomy!" the girl exclaimed. Shisui, who was calmly sitting on the edge of the boat with a trickle of water in the ocean, looked at her with boredom.
"You scare the fish away!" the sage complained, causing Ty Lee to puff out her cheeks and move closer to him, shaking his body steadily.
"You can't tell that bullshit ending! What kind of sailor doesn't notice an iceberg? And what captain is so reckless as to speed a ship through dangerous waters?" the girl continued, her annoyance evident in her tone.
"You don't understand the core of the story. It's an allegory that love, though short, can leave a deep mark. In the end, though, we are nothing before the forces of nature." Petra held the back of Ty Lee's neck, lifted her like a cat, and finally pulled her away from Shisui.
"False! It's just Shisui telling a story with a sad ending just because," Ty Lee growled. She shook her body constantly, but her girlfriend's grip was strong enough to hold her.
"Because you were bored and annoyed Shisui by asking him for a story, he got back at you with that ending." Mai's words silenced Ty Lee, who looked incredulously at Shisui. He simply concentrated on his fishing.
"No way! All the endings he's told me about are happy! Like the one about the blonde boy who went on an adventure to find his red-eyed boyfriend only to fight together against a rabbit spirit living on the moon," the girl said dissatisfiedly. But both Mai and Petra looked at her quizzically, not understanding what she was talking about.
"Wasn't that the story Shisui told us when we were little? There was a guy who wanted to be the Fire Lord and was in love with a girl with big breasts. Her supposed 'boyfriend' was a guy who thought he was cool," Petra recounted, remembering the old story. But Mai, sitting next to her, shook her head.
"No, it was the story of a boy whose clan was killed. He was always picked on by a loud boy and an even louder girl. But he didn't waver until he got revenge. However, he didn't find satisfaction in his deeds. It taught us that revenge is never good. It kills and poisons the soul," Mai narrated the version of the story she remembered.
"Girls, you're remembering it all wrong. It was about a Fire Lord who sacrificed his life to protect his nation and his son. His spirit was always there, watching his son grow up and succeed in protecting the nation from outside threats."
Zuko came up to the group, attracted by the commotion on the ship's deck, and told his version of the story.
"They're telling it all wrong! It's the story of a girl who always chased the boy she liked, even though he was so dense that he didn't notice her. He reminds me of someone." Azula, sitting next to Shisui, stared at her fiancé with her golden eyes, making him flustered.
'Fuck, she'll never forget that,' Shisui thought, trying not to roll his eyes every time he heard his friends completely distort one of his stories.
"Likewise, I still prefer the story of the monkey spirit who constantly caused chaos," said Ty Lee, who had been released from Petra's grip.
"You identify with him; you're a troublemaker, too," Azula replied without hesitation, causing Ty Lee to puff out her chest with pride.
"HAHAHA! Of course you do. If it weren't for me, you'd always be bored and silent," the girl said with a somewhat smug smile, making the others want to smack her around a bit.
"I feel like if you had an element, it would be air. You're too restless," Zuko muttered. He always wondered where Ty Lee's exuberant energy came from.
"Speaking of elements, why is Shisui fishing?" Petra asked, causing everyone to focus on the Sage, who hadn't caught any fish during his time fishing.
"I want to catch an octopus—or is it a squid? I have no idea," answered Shisui. Except for Azula, who knew the truth behind his words, the others did not understand.
"Don't mind him. Since last night, he's had this strange idea that he can catch the legendary Kraken," Azula clarified her fiancé's words. Instead of taking it as a joke, however, her friends looked at each other for several seconds before sitting down next to Shisui and the princess.
"Do you think you can pull it off?" Zuko asked with a touch of interest. Azula looked at him as if he were a fool.
"I don't know, but yesterday, Aang used his spiritualization ability to show me the fight Sokka had with Unagi, the giant eel that inhabited the seas near Kyoshi Island." Shisui's answer made the rest look visibly excited.
"Him, the virgin?" Is he that powerful?" Ty Lee asked without any shame or tact. This caused Mai to smack her upside the head with her fan.
"Stop calling him that," Mai warned. Ty Lee looked at her with aggravated eyes.
"Yes, the boy proved to have an interesting technique," Shisui continued, ignoring his friend's nonsense. He went on to tell how Sokka's fight against Unagi went, as told to him by Aang.
How did Aang talk to Shisui without using the spirit world or writing a letter? The Airbenders could travel in spirit form through the earthly world. It could be said that this was one of their sub-bendings.
As the Avatar, Aang had been trying to master this state. However, it wasn't until he stumbled upon a natural entrance to the spirit world from the earthly plane that he was able to use this form of spirituality.
While on Kyoshi Island, a place with a high level of spirituality, probably because of the way it was created under a display of the full power of one of his past lives, the Airbender took advantage of his surroundings.
The first person he decided to visit upon achieving this was Shisui. He traveled on the back of Roku's guide animal, a dragon. The noble creature willingly obliged, which is how Shisui met Aang the day before.
Although Shisui could not do what Aang did, his sensitivity to the spiritual realm allowed him to detect it quickly. After the Avatar made himself visible, the two talked to catch up.
Aang shared his visions with Shisui because he trusted the sage. With this information, the waterbender felt that his trip to the North Pole would not be as smooth as his visit to the South Pole.
What did this have to do with the Kraken? Like Sokka, Shisui wanted to test his power against a powerful creature that could challenge him. As someone enlightened, he did not consider himself the strongest person or being in the world, but he was still powerful.
However, he didn't know his true limits. He hadn't fought to the death since he was young, so he was unprepared for real danger. His fight with Lao Ge was not to the death, nor was his training with his friends, nor the war in Ba Sing Se.
He needed a real test. As if summoned by his unbridled thirst for battle, the sea began to ripple. An ancient, terror-inducing presence approached, its massive body darkening the blue ocean.
"Warn the ships! Tell them to stay away. Don't attack," Shisui said to Zuko before kissing Azula's cheek.
"I'll be right back." After that, Shisui jumped into the water. His feet did not sink, but rather remained calmly on the surface.
The boats of the diplomatic party slowly moved away, giving Shisui enough space to feel calm. He took a deep breath, smelling the salty scent of death hovering over him.
A huge limb broke through the water, blocking out the sunlight and making Shisui look like a small bug beneath its immense size. It was just an appendage, something he could easily discard. However, its sheer size posed a significant threat to the Sage.
Especially since the tentacle was falling on him. Shisui moved through the water, propelled by a wave, and avoided the heavy tentacle that shook the entire ocean upon impact.
Shisui didn't use his water droplets because he was already surrounded by water—he was in his element! A wave covered the tentacle with a clap, and coldness covered the limb, trying to freeze it.
However, the kraken's strength was sufficient to break free from the ice prison. It released its tentacle and disappeared from the Sage's sight.
But not from his perception. Shisui's eyes narrowed, and the whole world changed before him. With his gift activated, the Sage detected a vast amount of aura beneath him—a spectacle of colors that left him mesmerized for a moment before a full smile broke out on his face.
"You will give me the fight I want! Take me to my limits, Kraken!"
As if the creature had heard the man's defiant words, several tentacles emerged at the same time, trying to catch and crush the sage.
With motes of chi floating around and orbiting his body, Shisui spun rings of water around himself. Pointing at the nearest tentacle, he made a cutting gesture with his hand.
One of the water rings flew at high speed. Although it seemed thin, the water pressure was enough to cut the tentacle severely, causing blood to splash out and the limb to fall weakly.
Shisui must have dodged the sudden movements of the other tentacles, but it was clear that the Kraken held a grudge against him for the damage he had inflicted. To tie up loose ends, a thin stream of water emerged from the ocean and traveled directly to the injured tentacle, finishing it off.
Wounding a large creature is one thing; amputating a useful appendage is quite another. The water beneath his feet rippled as if screaming, though he couldn't hear it. Seeing the Kraken's altered aura, Shisui's grin grew even wider.
"Stop playing games. Get out. I know you've got more than that." Shisui pointed his hands down, freezing the water and producing a huge spike of ice that grew larger and larger. It aimed directly at the large sea beast with clear intentions of impaling it.
But when the sharp ice reached the main body of the Kraken, something happened as if the pressure of the seabed suddenly changed. The ice created by Shisui ended up being crushed.
"What a neat trick," Shisui muttered before pulling back. He knew his earlier attempt to make the creature float away had worked.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of tentacles emerged from the water and flailed wildly like trees swaying in the wind. Two huge red eyes stared directly at Shisui.
A massive head emerged from the depths of the ocean, its skin basking in the sunlight after living in the deep sea for a very long time.
Words like 'big,' 'huge,' 'enormous,' and 'colossal' fell short of describing the sight before Shisui. The Kraken and the Sage stared at each other for a few seconds, as if recognizing the threat posed by the other.
"Let's see... Will this be a legendary battle?" Shisui asked in a low voice before performing the most basic waterbending move. He churned the waters around him, generating a colossal dragon made of water.
Its eyes glowed with golden light, its scales were intricately detailed with ice, hot steam rose from its nose, and a cold mist surrounded its body, meandering through the air and sometimes mimicking the surroundings.
The water dragon roared, challenging the beast that owned this ocean. It wanted to fight; it wanted to become the greatest being in this place. It's challenge was met with a horrible shriek.
Shisui smiled, satisfied and ready to start fighting for real.
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AN: TheAnPlayer2 gave me a tip: Promote my original stories every 5 chapters. So, read my original novels: Steam and Heart, and Witch's Adventure. You may or may not like them, but give them a chance. c: