Kyoshi island
Tanza
Tanza let Mifei lead her deeper into the cavern. She navigated a dense crowd of kids circling makeshift rings, where pairs clashed in friendly scuffles. Boys, girls, mixed pairings—it didn't matter. Everyone was laughing, practicing their own forms and katas.
Tanza paused by one ring, noticing a familiar rhythm. The boys faced each other using a rough, unpolished style that looked exactly like Muay Thai—a form she had seen in passing during her first life. It made sense. The island's elite defenders, the Kyoshi Warriors, were strictly female. The local fishermen and boat captains likely had to forge a combat style of their own.
A sharp cheer snapped her focus back to the cave. Ahead, dozens of teens rested on piles of rubble, logs, and loose stones. Mifei finally stopped at the exact vantage point Tanza had peeked at earlier, right where Nihlo and Kyiki sat waiting.
"Hey! You made it!" Kyiki cheered from her perch on a log. Beside her, Nihlo stood with crossed arms. She lazily scanned a nearby ring of boys with a bored expression before finally shifting her gaze back to Tanza and Mifei.
Nihlo glanced sideways at Kyiki. "Well, you're the one who suggested earlier I should go invite her," she mused dryly. Tanza raised an eyebrow. So they had already been planning to invite her?
Part of her wondered if she would have accepted. She probably would have. She needed to test her training against actual, willing sparring partners, and see her progress.
Kyiki giggled. Mifei shook her head and stepped forward. "Actually, it was my idea when I was talking to Kyiki. But then Mom called me back to finish cleaning the dojo." She shrugged, resting her hands on her hips.
Tanza let herself smirk a bit now, "Well, no use worrying about it now. I'm here, aren't I?" She couldn't help but appreciate the irony.
"Oh hey, there you are!" a familiar voice called from Tanza's left. She turned to see Meimei and Mung approaching. The slightly older pair finally reached her, wearing amused expressions. Mung massaged his shoulder while Meimei spoke up. "I thought I heard you over the noise in our ring."
Mung rolled his eyes. "And I almost had you too, since you were distracted," he grumbled with a smirk. Tanza raised an eyebrow.
Meimei pivoted on her hip to face him, smirking. "Hah! You should know better than to think you can catch a Kyoshi girl off guard!" She playfully slapped her own bicep. "I was hyper-alert the second I heard Tanza's voice!"
"Hmm." Tanza smirked, drawing their attention. "Impressive. Keeping yourself aware even while distracted." Her comment earned a collective nod of agreement from the group.
Mifei beamed. "You bet! My mom puts us all through the ringer to keep us in top shape. She's the captain of our warriors, after all—and the absolute best, if you ask me!" she gushed with pride.
Shortly after, Meimei took a seat on a log, while Mung collapsed onto the dirt to catch his breath.
"Whew," Mung sighed, looking up at Tanza and the other girls. "So, who's next? I mean, who wants the circle next?" He thumbed toward the empty space, but it was immediately occupied by two Kyoshi teens who jumped straight into a scuffle. "Well... after those two are done, anyway," he added with an awkward smile.
Mifei let out a thoughtful hum and turned to Tanza. "Well, Kyiki and I already had our turns playing in the rings—I mean, fighting." She then grinned conspiratorially at Nihlo, who had been silently observing the match. "But Nihlo hasn't gone in yet."
Mifei giggled as Nihlo snapped her head around. A flash of utter betrayal cracked right through Nihlo's otherwise stoic, bored expression.
Nihlo let herself make a dark grimace, "Whatever…" she muttered, only for Mifei to walk up to her and pat her on the shoulder, "Oh come, Nihlo, you're the best learner out of the three of us!" Mifei gestured to herself, Nihlo and then Kyiki. "You always learn quickly and leave when my mom lets you! Plus, you always win here against us and the other girls our age!"
"Hm…that's cause it's all easy, and you all bore me…" she bluntly stated with a dry look, and huffed with a wry smirk.
Mifei marched right up to her and patted her on the shoulder. "Oh, come on, Nihlo! You're the best learner out of the three of us!" Mifei gestured between them and Kyiki. "You always pick things up so fast, and Mom lets you leave early. Plus, you always win against us and the other girls our age!"
While this late-night fight club hadn't been on Tanza's agenda—especially when she only came out to practice her Wind Run before hitting the hay—the opportunity was too good to pass up. Facing someone who was apparently a fellow prodigy at mastering katas was exactly what she needed.
Even though Nihlo was around her own age, Tanza knew they could push each other to their absolute limits. It was the perfect chance to test her airbending katas without actual bending. She wanted to see if the style could still work purely through physical movement: constantly avoiding resistance, shifting directions, redirecting an attacker's force, and slipping behind their guard.
"So what do you think, Tanza? You wanna face Nihlo?!" Mifei's voice broke her out of her thoughts.
Tanza looked over at Mifei, then traded a long glance with Nihlo. She offered a simple, calm smile. "I think it would work perfectly for me. I've yet to test my airbender katas against an opponent without using actual bending," she explained. "In fact, now that I think about it, this would be my first real fight."
At that, Nihlo let out a heavy sigh and furrowed her brow. "Well, that's boring," she complained, disappointment clear in her eyes. "It already sounds like I'd win if you've never even sparred with your forms before."
To Tanza, the familiar sting of underestimation felt like the Imperial Academy all over again. In her second life, the men there had constantly written her off due to her size, her gender, and her orphan status. But in this third life, she had been practicing her forms nonstop since the very day she could stand and walk.
She had the theory, the steps, and the mechanics down perfectly. Putting them into live practice against a real opponent was a different matter, but Tanza took pride in knowing she could easily put Nihlo in the dirt and wipe that smug confidence right off her face.
After all, she still possessed the brutal CQC training memories from her years as an aerial mage.She had kept it up her sleeve this entire life, though she had yet to blend any airbending into it. She had been so hyper-focused on testing how airbending combined with the Fire Sage forms and the Southern Style waterbending she picked up during her travels, that she had completely neglected her past.
In fact she had been so preoccupied with learning this world's martial arts that she had forgotten the lethal combat forms of her previous life.
Meimei's voice soon cut through her thoughts. "Well, tough luck. I haven't seen you fight yet, Nihlo," she said, smirking at the girl. "So what if she's never fought someone with her forms before? Just go have fun."
Nihlo let out a sharp huff, shaking her head as she looked directly at Tanza. "Fine. Just try to last more than a few minutes then."
Mifei turned to Tanza with a kind smile. "Is that fine with you, though? I don't want you to feel pressured to fight if you don't want to. You can back out anytime—no one is forced to jump in the ring."
Tanza though looked back at Nihlo, she was more than willing to knock the girl down a few pegs, if anything, just to humble the prideful girl.
Stepping into the circular arena, Tanza shed her shawl and tossed it aside, leaving her in a yellow sleeveless shirt, shorts, a sash, and knee-high boots. She reached her designated spot and seamlessly shifted her weight. Her arms rose in fluid, circular sweeps before settling into a grounded, defensive airbender stance.
Her lead foot anchored into the dirt of the cave floor, pointing slightly inward, while her back leg remained coiled like a spring. Both arms lifted in a soft, asymmetrical curve, her palms facing outward.
Nihlo rolled her shoulders and sighed, walking into the ring with an unhurried, bored stride. She didn't seem bothered by Tanza's perfect posture. To her, it was just another newcomer trying to look impressive before getting swept off their feet.
But as she reached the center of the ring, the casual indifference vanished from her limbs. She dug her feet into the dirt, dropping her center of gravity into a rock-solid, low stance. Her left arm extended forward, fingers tense and ready to parry, while her right hand tucked tightly against her ribs, coiled like a loaded hammer. It was a flawless Kyoshi Warrior stance—compact, unyielding, and engineered for maximum defensive power.
She offered Tanza a sharp, challenging smirk. "Your move, airbender."
Meimei stepped right up to the edge of the circle to referee the match. She caught Tanza's eye, pointing a warning finger. "Remember, Tanza—no airbending allowed in this ring. Keep it strictly physical."
Tanza gave a brief, focused nod.
Satisfied, Meimei raised her hand high into the air, holding the tense silence of the cavern for a split second. She chopped her hand down violently through the air. "Begin!"
The word had barely left Meimei's mouth when Nihlo lunged forward immediately. She drove off her back leg with explosive speed, closing the distance to test Tanza's airbending katas right out of the gate. Nihlo threw a sharp, straight strike, aiming to pierce right through the center of Tanza's guard.
Tanza didn't panic. Her body moved with the fluid grace. As Nihlo's strike closed in, Tanza used a soft, circular sweep of her arm to deflect the punch, redirecting the girl's force harmlessly out to the side.
Simultaneously, Tanza pivoted on her anchored lead foot. She smoothly circled around Nihlo's flank to a perfect degree, slipping entirely behind her guard in a seamless blur of motion.
Nihlo stumbled forward slightly as her strike hit nothing but empty air. She quickly spun around to face her opponent again, but the bored look in her eyes was entirely gone. A spark of steady interest lit up her face as she reset her stance. Tanza was faster and more precise than she had anticipated.
Quickly after, Nihlo unleashed a rapid flurry of strikes, transitioning into a far more complex multi-strike combo. She pushed forward with relentless momentum, mixing sharp jabs and low sweeps, all while taunting her opponent. "Come on, airbender! Stop running and strike back!"
Tanza didn't take the bait. Moving with effortless precision, she slipped, ducked, and maneuvered around the incoming storm of blows just as easily as the first time. She floated through the dirt arena like a leaf in the wind, completely unbothered by Nihlo's aggression.
As Nihlo reset her stance to try yet another heavy combination, Tanza finally responded. "You know, without my airbending, I still have plenty of moves," she remarked, her tone cool and relaxed. "But, right now, this is just a perfect opportunity for me to test my airbending katas against a decent opponent." she reasoned with a calm smirk as she bobbed and weaved through Nihlo's strikes.
Nihlo's eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine annoyance cutting through her focus. She realized Tanza wasn't just defending—she was actively playing with her.
Nihlo let out an annoyed grunt, abandoning her previous caution as she unleashed a flurry of even faster, sharper attacks. She pushed forward, her strikes blurring as she demanded, "At least throw an attack! I haven't had a match last this long in my life!" Suddenly, her annoyance melted away, replaced by a fierce, competitive smirk. She realized the truth—no one had ever lasted this long against her before. The thrill of a real challenge was finally waking her up.
In response, Tanza decided to give her exactly what she asked for.
Slipping beneath Nihlo's next high jab, Tanza stepped deep inside the girl's guard. Her hands moved in a flashing sequence of traditional airbender katas, completely weaponized through physical torque. She drove a rapid succession of open-palm strikes directly past Nihlo's defensive line, following up with a lightning-fast open-hand chop that clipped Nihlo right across the chin and throat.
The unexpected offense caught Nihlo completely off guard. Gasping for air, the local prodigy stumbled backward, her tight defense completely shattering. Tanza didn't hesitate. Seizing the opening, she pivoted on her lead foot, channeled her momentum, and drove a powerful, final palm strike squarely into Nihlo's chest. The impact launched the undefeated girl off her feet, sending her crashing hard onto the dirt floor of the cavern.
Tanza immediately reseted her weight, readying herself the moment Nihlo began to move. On the ground, the girl picked herself up, shifting to a sitting position while staring at Tanza with slightly wide eyes. She wiped a trail of spittle from the corner of her mouth, her initial shock quickly melting into a competitive grin. "Hm... not bad," she smirked.
On the sidelines, the crowd was buzzing. Mifei stood frozen, completely surprised by how incredibly fast the two girls were fighting. Beside her, Kyiki began jumping up and down in pure excitement. "Whoa! Nihlo finally got beat!" she cheered loudly, earning a brief, sharp side-eye glare from Nihlo on the floor.
Meimei stepped forward into the ring, looking between the two. "Alright, do either of you want to go for another round, or are we calling it?"
Nihlo didn't answer right away. Instead, she looked up at Tanza, silently waiting for the airbender's reaction. Tanza gave a calm nod with a calm grin. "I still have a few more moves left in me to practice with," she replied smoothly.
Nihlo raised a skeptical brow at the implication that Tanza was still holding back. A wide smirk spread across her face as she finally stood up, brushing the cavern dirt off her clothes. She dropped right back down into her solid Kyoshi Warrior stance, her eyes locked onto Tanza, fully ready for the next round.
Tanza made the first move, choosing to test how the girl would handle the close-quarters combat of an Imperial Mage. The military strikes felt a bit raw and unpracticed—hardly surprising, given that it had been an entire lifetime since she last used them. That slight edge of rust was exactly the opening Nihlo needed.
Nihlo skillfully weaved through the unpolished sequence, reading the unfamiliar rhythm. "Where did you learn a form like that?" she demanded, both curious and confused by the form.
But Tanza did not answer as she pressed the attack, Nihlo anticipated the trajectory, snapping her hand out to catch Tanza's fist. Gripping her hand tightly, Nihlo pivoted, loaded Tanza onto her hip, and attempted a powerful over-the-shoulder throw.
Tanza instantly reverted to her airbending forms. Using the momentum of the throw, she glided and redirected her own body seamlessly through the air. Instead of crashing into the dirt, she fluidly flipped, landing squarely back on her feet.
Because Nihlo refused to break her iron grip, the sudden shift pulled Tanza right back into her space. Their arms tangled, locking both girls in a tense, face-to-face grapple as they struggled for leverage.
While their arms were locked, Tanza maintained her composure, looking directly into Nihlo's eyes. "It's just a bit of a form I came up with myself," she explained. It was a half-truth. The combat style was hers, but it certainly wasn't new—even if it was brand new to this world. "Though I haven't focused on practicing it in a while." That part was completely true, even if she left out the detail that 'a while' meant an entire past life.
With both of them trapped in the tight grip, Nihlo braced her weight, trying to force Tanza down. But Tanza was already shifting her center of gravity. Relying on the brutal, mechanical leverage of her old mage combat training, she completely countered Nihlo's balance.
Before the girl could react, Tanza stepped deep into her guard, wrapped her arms securely around Nihlo's waist, and lifted the girl straight up into the air.
With explosive power, Tanza arched her back and executed a raw, textbook German suplex. She slammed Nihlo backward over her head, driving the undefeated champion's shoulders violently into the cave dirt.
"Ooh..." A collective murmur rippled through the growing audience of onlookers. None of the local youth had ever seen a throw that sudden or brutal before.
Nihlo coughed, pushing herself up from the dirt floor with a slight wheeze. She fixed a light glare on Tanza, but her frustration instantly turned into utter confusion. Tanza had already dropped out of her previous stance. She fluidly shifted her weight, resetting her body into the loose, rhythmic sway of a Southern Style waterbending form.
Nihlo stared at her, completely bewildered. "Just how many forms do you know?" she demanded, dusting off her arms.
Tanza maintained a calm, knowing smirk. "A few," she mused smoothly. "But it's about time I put everything I've learned into some actual, practical practice."
Nihlo let out a sharp huff as she finally got back to her feet. The confusion faded from her eyes, replaced by the fierce determination of a prodigy who refused to lose on her own home turf. Smirking right back, she dropped low and settled into an advanced Kyoshi Warrior stance—tighter, faster, and ready for whatever strange style Tanza threw at her next.
"Fine by me. I can use the challenge," Nihlo retorted with a calm look and growing smirk.
She dropped low, resetting her posture into a completely different, highly advanced form. Her movements became incredibly compact, her arms tucked tight to her torso like solid shields while her hands flared outward like heavy metal fans.
On the sidelines, the change in stance caught the eyes of the older teens. Meimei's jaw dropped slightly, while Tefei, an older girl who had just joined the crowd, leaned forward in disbelief.
"Wait, why does Nihlo know the Shield and Shatter form?" Tefei asked, her eyes wide as she recognized the high-level warrior kata. "Isn't that strictly for the active ranks?"
Meimei crossed her arms, a look of sudden realization washing over her face. "Oh, right! I remember now. I saw one of the adult Kyoshi Warriors giving Nihlo bonus private lessons about a year ago."
Hearing this, Mifei let out a loud whine of pure jealousy. She stomped her foot on the dirt floor and shouted toward the ring, "No fair! Why didn't I get bonus lessons?!"
"Because she's eight, and you're only seven," Meimei pointed out with a chuckle. "She has an extra year of training ahead of you." Meimei reached over and playfully ruffled Mifei's hair.
Mifei grumbled, swatting Meimei's hand away with a pout.
Meanwhile, the playful banter faded into background noise for the two combatants. Inside the ring, Nihlo and Tanza locked eyes and faced each other down. Both girls remained completely poised, wound tight like springs, waiting for the single spark that would launch them into the final round.
Nihlo exploded forward, attacking first with the terrifying precision of the Shield and Shatter form. Her forearms smashed outward like heavy iron fans, cutting off Tanza's angles of escape. Tanza immediately threw herself into the rhythmic, swaying flow of her Southern Style waterbending form, but she was operating on a razor's edge. Because she had only started learning the style less than a year ago, her muscle memory wasn't flawless.
Nihlo's strikes came like heavy, bone-crushing hammers, resulting in several terrifyingly close calls. A brutal open-palm strike grazed Tanza's collarbone, the sheer wind of the miss biting at her skin, followed immediately by a low elbow that nearly took the breath from her lungs. Tanza had to forcefully twist her hips and bend her torso at unnatural angles to let the momentum of the waterbending forms carry her safely past the deadly precision of Nihlo's advanced kata.
She was surviving, but she was completely on the defensive. Nihlo's extra year of elite training was on full display, and the girl wasn't giving her a single inch of breathing room.
Realizing she still needed a lot of work on her waterbending form to make it truly viable in combat, Tanza abandoned the loose, rhythmic sway. She immediately switched back to a style she knew like the back of her hand, the fluid, evasive mechanics of airbending.
As Nihlo lunged forward with a brutal, final strike meant to shatter her guard, Tanza didn't try to block it. Instead, she stepped directly into the path of the attack, using a sweeping, circular airbender kata. She caught the edge of Nihlo's forward momentum and fluidly redirected the force, spinning the girl completely around in a seamless blur of motion.
Before Nihlo could even register that she was hitting empty air, she found her back fully turned to Tanza.
Tanza didn't waste a single second. Stepping deep into her stance, she drove a powerful, double-palm thrust straight into the center of Nihlo's back. The explosive kinetic force launched the undefeated girl forward, sending her flying entirely out of the makeshift ring to crash onto the dirt.
Nihlo let out a muffled grunt from the dirt, but it was quickly drowned out as loud cheers erupted from the watching crowd. Mifei and Kyiki rushed straight past the ring to her side, both gushing over the incredible display.
"Those moves were awesome!" Kyiki beamed, offering a hand to help her up.
"Yeah!" Mifei added, while Tanza watched from inside the ring, "I can't wait to learn what you just did!"
Nihlo gave a brief nod, accepting the help and brushing the dust off her clothes. She stepped back into the makeshift ring, her sharp eyes locking onto Tanza. Any lingering tension or annoyance from earlier was entirely gone. Tanza could feel that the true competitive edge of their match was over, replaced by mutual respect as the girl offered her a genuine, slight smirk.
"I haven't had a fight that good since the adults started teaching me," Nihlo admitted, crossing her arms but keeping a smile. "You're not bad, airbender."
Tanza coolly smirked back. "Hmm. You're not bad yourself," she countered, her voice carrying a faint trace of acknowledgement of the girl's prowess. "But try not to underestimate an opponent. Next time, it won't be so harmless." Nihlo's grin widened slightly at the warning.
Before the moment could linger, Meimei stepped directly between them, waving her hands toward the edge of the circle. "Alright, alright, wrap it up, you two! It's someone else's turn to get in the ring now. Clear out!"
The Next Day
Tanza woke up feeling a bit sore and groggy in her makeshift bed of hay and bison hair. A crisp ocean breeze drifted through the stables, carrying the soothing sound of soft, rolling waves to greet the morning. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and sat up, letting out a long yawn as she stretched her arms high above her head.
Despite the stiffness in her muscles, she felt significantly less wound up after last night's brawl against Nihlo. It had been her first real fight in what felt like an eternity. Calling it a mere sparring match didn't feel entirely accurate; it had been a highly competitive clash to see whose body possessed the sharper, more reliable muscle memory.
She looked over to find her master missing. The sight didn't concern her; Kelsang had likely seen fit to let her rest a bit longer after her late-night 'training'. Nearby, her own bison, Hachi, was still snoring softly, alongside the rhythmic, deep rumbles of Kelsang's bison.
She shook her head with a faint smile and stood up, brushing loose strands of hay and stray animal hair off her clothes. Stepping out of the stables, she was relieved to find it wasn't too late in the morning. The sun still sat low on the horizon, painting the sky in early shades of gold and orange.
Scanning the shoreline, Tanza spotted Kelsang down at the docks. Her master sat comfortably alongside a local fisherman, quietly chatting as he cast his line into the gentle surf. As if sensing Tanza's gaze, the female airbender glanced up toward the stables, checking to see if her apprentice was awake yet.
A smile crossed Kelsang's face. She gave Tanza a welcoming wave, said a quick final word to the fisherman, and stood up to make her way back up the path.
Tanza waited for her to approach, using the extra time to stretch a bit more of the lingering morning tightness out of her joints.
"I didn't want to wake you! You looked like you trained all night!" Kelsang hollered up toward the stables, her voice carrying easily over the sound of the crashing waves.
Tanza simply offered a knowing smirk in return, ready to face whatever the new day had in store.