'Hmm, this is going to be a bit tough', Toji thought with a frown as he hid on a large blot of dirt with his sandbender cloak thrown over him.
Peeking out from under the cloak, Toji stared at the groups of two to three earthbenders patrolling the inside of the Agrarian Zone which was also the agricultural area.
It has been two days since he climbed over the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se and crossed most of the Agrarian Zone and while he would love nothing more than to just rush over towards the Inner Wall, his speed might draw the attention of the patrolling guard.
However, during the time that he's been here, he has taken note of everything the guards liked to discuss, which included news of how the Fire Nation's siege was beginning to pick up as well as the food shortages in the Lower Ring.
'In other words, give cash to the right people and they'll do atrocious things', Toji thought with a smirk as he stood up a few minutes after the last group of guards passed by, folding up the cloak before placing it in his bag.
With a few hurried steps, he pressed himself against the stone flank of a half-collapsed shack, which was half-burned and still had the boulder in it that was launched across the wall.
Taking a deep breath, he finally ran towards the Inner Wall and his entrance point, which was a cracked drainage pipe that was covered with a rusted sewer grate.
Pulling a spike from his belt, Toji stabbed it into the side of the grate before pushing down on it, popping out the rusted bolts one after the other.
As soon as the last one was popped out, Toji caught the grate as it fell forward, placing the spike back onto his hip before grunting as he lifted it up and walked into the sewer piper.
"Yep, nothing like the smell of ass and shit to wake you up", Toji muttered as the stench of piss and shit hit him like a solid wall and for once, the superhuman cursed his enhanced senses as he punched the sewer grate back into place.
It's a good thing he had bought new boots and clothes too as he stepped into the muck, closing his eyes since he couldn't see anything before placing a hand against the wet stone.
Tapping it softly, Toji smiled as he 'saw' the vibrations rippling through the tunnel, the slow trickling water from the ceiling, the scurrying of rats and the faint rumbling of carts in the city helping him navigate through the tunnel.
'Left…right…climb through the cracked wall…third channel to the left…eight channel to the right…fourth channel to the right…tenth channel right…double first channel left…straight…and climb through the manhole cover…' With a grunt as he opened his eyes, Toji lifted the cover slowly while looking around, smirking at the sight of the empty rundown shop he was in.
"Huh, Yung was right", Toji muttered as he climbed out, taking off his weapons and bag first before taking off his stinking clothes and dropping them down.
Putting on his new green Earth Kingdom clothing that he had bought from the bartender, Toji kept an ear out for anyone that could enter as he looked at his weapons while mulling it over.
"It's time like these that I wish I had that curse here", Toji grumbled as he picked up his butterfly sword and dagger, clipping both to one side before slipping his jian over his shoulder.
Taking out the final piece, Toji threw the sandbender cloak over his body before finally walking out, tuning out the cries of people being bullied by the soldiers as well as the sounds of people trying their best to survive.
'After all, saving people here won't do anything for me', The boy thought as he began walking, his footsteps quiet and movements precise as he began blending in.
'The art of assassination is not just going in, killing your target and getting out. No, one must analyse everything. See what points the Dai Li patrol the most. See where they patrol the least. Which alleyways do they not patrol? Find the guys that look tired with clean boots and a well-fed pet as they are the black market middlemen. The most important, though, is the one I need to look out for the most.'
"Ah, found you", Toji muttered softly to himself with a smirk as he caught sight of a man arguing with a vendor over some fried dumplings.
Normally, he would have ignored a person doing so if not for a few specific things. The first was the fact that the man's clothes were dirty, but it was dirty in just the right places to show that he was filthy while being clean in the spots that wouldn't hinder his movements.
The second was how his answers in the argument led the conversation too perfectly, each of his answers either a perfect answer or the perfect way to lead into another question.
The last and most important, though, was the three guys in the crowd that Toji noticed. Each was dressed in the Earth Kingdom militia armour and was wielding either an axe or a hammer, but none of them were moving like they were patrolling.
Instead, they were standing at specific points on the street where they could look like they were lounging while watching over the vendor's specific location at the same time.
In other words…
'Guards, which means that this guy is either from the Middle or Upper Ring which is not possible…or he's a gang leader for the Underworld', Toji thought as he walked over, finishing the last of his dumplings while stopping besides the man right as he and the vendor stopped arguing.
"Hey, old man! Can I get two more plates?"
"Ya got the cash?", The old man asked and grinned as Toji handed a gold coin to him, making the man besides him raise an eyebrow as the vendor turned and began making the dumplings.
"That's a lot of cash for a little kid like you to be having."
"Bounty hunter, actually", Toji answered, tapping a finger against the stall as the man simply looked amused.
"Oh, really?"
"Really", Toji answered while lifting his cloak and making the man freeze at the butterfly sword and dagger at Toji's side.
"…You're Toji Fushiguro."
"Nah, I'm just a kid with a lot of money and willing to pay for a way inside to the Upper Ring. Preferably with some new accommodation and documents to make sure I don't look out of place", Toji spoke while taking a few coins from his pockets, smirking at the flash of greed in the man's eyes before he hummed.
"It's going to cost you, though."
"Ten gold coins for the entrance and another twenty for the accommodation."
"Head to the warehouse near the Middle Ring's entrance in an hour and I'll have your stuff, but first, paym-!", The man began before stopping as he felt cold steel resting against his neck, holding up a hand to stop his guards from rushing in.
"You'll get your coin in an hour when you give me what I want. If I don't get what I want, well…", Here, Toji's voice dropped to a cold whisper as he finally looked at the man and his eyes widened at the dead look in the boy's eyes.
"I'll slit your throat, kill your guards, throw your bodies in the sewers and no one will even know you existed."
"Hehehe~ Fair enough~", The man said with a forced calm smile, to which Toji just lowered his blade before sheathing his dagger and taking the friend dumplings from the vendor.
"Remember, one hour. I'll be waiting", Toji spoke before he vanished, reappearing above on the rooftops and smiling down at the man before making his way to the destination in question to scope it out.
After all, he just threatened a man in front of his soldiers so there's no way the guy was just going to hand the stuff over.
'These dumplings are really good, though. That old man knows his stuff.'
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'Yeah, he's definitely part of the Underworld', Toji narrowed his eyes from the rooftop across the warehouse, staring down at the place in question that was surrounded by numerous guards.
Parts of the warehouse were covered in grime and moss, one corner of it scorched black like it had been caught in a fire and Toji frowned as he looked everywhere only to find no civilians near the place.
There were also way too many guards for them to just be casual muscle as Toji counted at least thirty guars and they weren't being lazy or slouching.
No, all of them were positioned with overlapping fields of vision, rotating shifts that were done every thirty minutes and all were wearing the Earth Kingdom militia uniform.
"Oh, this is definitely an ambush…and they think they can box me in? Me of all people?", Toji whispered with a smirk as he cracked his neck, standing up and dropping down to the side of the building.
Walking out of the shadows and into the view of the guards, Toji smirked as his cloak's hood was up to cover his face while his hands were under his cloak and grasping both his dagger and butterfly sword.
Instead of walking towards the entrance, Toji stopped a few feet away from the warehouse gates, eyes flickering to the archers on the rooftops and the guards pretending to be unloading cargo.
'And here he comes', Walking out from the warehouse's open doors, the greasy sly demeanour of the man was gone and replaced by the stoic demeanour of a man of class.
Toji's smirk widened as he caught the sharp-eyed and thin smile on the man's face, happy to be correct that the man was not just the average black market boss that he was used to in his past life.
"You bring the goods?", Toji asked, not wasting time as the man smirked and took out a stack of documents.
"Birth certificate, proof of address, proof of ownership and a document that states your parents died in a freak accident along with the keys to your new house in the Upper Ring. Got my payment?"
"Right here", Toji spoke as he took out the pouch, the man's smirk widening as he nodded.
"Very well. Toss it over and I'll do the same."
'…I don't think I'll find any more fun games to do when I get up there so I might as well.' Toji thought with a smirk before he tossed the pouch, rolling his shoulder as the man caught it before shaking his head with a smile.
"I take it you're not giving me the documents?"
"You're a sharp one. You could've been quite the good subordinate, but alas, it is a shame you're going to di-!" The man barely finished his sentence before a crossbow bolt whizzed past his face, slowly turning as one of his archers fell from the rooftop with the bolt stabbed through his forehead.
"Funny, I was thinking the same thing", Toji spoke with a smirk as he loaded another bolt, everyone still shocked before the boy aimed and ricochet a bolt off the ground and into the chest of a guard on the floor.
That snapped them all out of their shock and the man scrambled back while pointing at Toji with a roar.
"The first to bring him alive gets one hundred gold coins!", Toji moved before the man could even finish his command, unsheathing both his dagger and his butterfly sword as he stabbed the former through the first guard's ribs into the heart and using the latter to cut clean through the second guard's spine.
Without wasting a second, Toji rushed forward and past the shocked leader, zigzagging across the ground and making the archers miss before he slit under the first guard's swing.
With surgical precision, the guard behind him fell back as Toji leapt onto him, a dagger through the skull ensuring he was dead before he even hit the ground.
Hopping off of the body and over the first guard that swung at him, Toji spun through the air with a flourish before landing behind the guard, his head and body falling in opposite directions as the boy smirked.
Soon, pained screams echoed in the night air as Toji began to cut through the guards with ease, not wasting time nor energy for flair or flash as he used simple and efficient violence.
The archers on the rooftop tried their best to at least get some hit, but Toji just continued to notch bolt after bolt and sniped them down after the other, spinning around the downwards swing of the last person before stabbing through their throat with his dagger.
Slowly pulling his dagger out and letting the corpse collapse to the floor, Toji turned to the terrified leader with his head tilted and a smirk on his face.
"Y-Y-Y-You!", Without giving the man time to blink, Toji vanished and appeared in front of him, a hand wrapping around his throat before the boy pinned him to the ground and knelt besides him.
"You should have just given me the documents and ran away."
"I-I will! I-I-I'll…I'll even get you a spot near the king's council!"
"Do you have the political pull to do that?", Toji asked, smirking as the man looked hesitant before he was silenced with a dagger through one cheek and out the other.
"I would kill you, but I hear that the Dai Li love hunting down traitors. Good luck~", Before the man could scream, Toji ripped the dagger out while swinging a punch to his jaw with the other, a loud snap echoing in the air as the boy knocked him out cold.
Picking up the man, Toji dragged him to the main gate before walking back to the many crates, searching through them all before grinning as he pulled out numerous stacks of rope that were a few feet long.
'Time for some art work.'
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Toji's eyes didn't snap open with a panic nor was he startled awake by nightmares from his past life.
For the first night in a while, the young boy took a deep breath as he sat up on his luxurious queen-sized bed, looking at the sunlight pouring through the thin paper of the shoji screen.
The air was crisp and clean while carrying hints of fine dust, tasty food and fragrant perfumes.
To most, it would be paradise. To Toji…
'This shit is damn near suffocating', He thought with a grumble as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, hopping down onto the polished wooden floor that felt cool to his bare feet.
The silk sleeping robes clung to his body like he was some pampered heir and the blood and grime on his person had been washed off and replaced with lavender oil when he had his spa day to get himself ready.
All of this though, just made his skin itch as he shook his head.
It's been seven days since he had gutted those guards, taken out their leader and took his papers. Seven days since he had infiltrated the Upper Ring.
The joyous week of smiling at neighbours, bowing to housekeepers, pretending to give a shit about which fork went where, when to use which spoon and what merchant house imported the best wine.
He even had a new name now and one he abhorred above all else.
Toji fucking Gojo.
'How the fuck that name got here, I have no clue, but I am going to find that bastard and I'm ripping his tongue out', However, the new life wasn't all that bad as he had a house big enough to get lost in and servants who didn't speak unless spoken to, but he was also fairly sure the servants probably reported everything they saw to someone else anyway who wanted his 'family's heirlooms' or something along those lines.
With a stretch, Toji walked out onto the veranda while gazing over the quiet street outside, amused at the nobles strolling with their parasols and their voices light and as fake as powdered sugar.
He'd even spent the week listening, observing and looking for any whispers that could show even the slightest general direction of Long Feng or the Council of Five
Unfortunately, the Dai Li ran the Upper Ring like a prison with silk bars as no information got through when they didn't want to and tailing officials went well up until they got to the areas where the Dai Li agents patrolled and Toji was forced elsewhere.
'I need access to information of any kind. Private libraries or something like that that could help me finish this mission and get rid of this Gojo name', Toji thought with a frown as he looked outwards before looking down as he heard a few kids talking.
"Did you hear? Sung Jin memorized the Art of Ba Sing Se Defense line by line and impressed the Council of Five."
"Tch. The scores were rigged. No way he beat Fen, who is a Kyoshi swordswoman's kid."
"Who cares? The Council of Five took notice and they said that they're going to pick a few kids from the new classes to tutor", Toji didn't say anything as he let the gears in his head turn before nodding and walking back into his room.
However, this time, he walked through it and out the other door, walking to his study while ignoring the servants bowing to him.
Opening the door, Toji didn't say anything as he walked over to the house steward that was busy with some work.
"O-Oh, Master Toji. Did you wish to ask something?", The older woman asked and Toji looked her in the eyes before smirking.
"Malia, I'm going to Ba Sing Se Academy. Sign me up."
A/N: …Toji's going to school? …Well, Ba Sing Se was fun while it was still standing. However, now the menace is finally ready to start his mission and just to warn you guys, this is going to be a long mission in terms of years in the story itself.
I'm talking like…ten years at most.
The war was something that took long in the canon universe and this is going to be a long mission. In terms of chapters, like two or three chapters at most excluding this one.
Anyway, next chapter: Going back to School? Toji is regretting his choice already.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next chapter...
Ba-Bye~!