12: Relax in the school.

Six years had passed since the day Shisui had cut his hair, he was 14 and in his last year of school, not that he needed it, but he wasn't complaining. 

If he wanted an important position in the army, he had to have a formal education, even if he was technically a member of the royal family, that didn't change anything because they had to set an example for others.

For this reason, he, Zuko, and the others did not enjoy "privileges," so to speak, but respect from teachers, staff, and students came naturally, not because of one's background but because of what one accomplished in school.

Adding to the growing atmosphere of Fire Nation society, an 'idol' trend was beginning to emerge in the nation. The new newspapers only furthered this situation.

Not only did the Fire Nation improve technologically and culturally, but even the conquered territories began to see gradual improvements, causing a phenomenon no one expected. 

Instead of rebelling, the colonies had grown accustomed to the Fire Nation's presence and even praised the changes it had brought. For the first time, the desire that led Sozin to initiate such a fierce and savage war became clear. 

In just a few years, even trade relations had partially resumed, and even with the sporadic fighting that reminded everyone that the war was still going on, many people wanted to get their hands on the Fire Nation's new products. 

A cultural upsurge was brewing, the arts were no longer the province of nobles or special people. Artists of all kinds began to emerge, and it was not uncommon to hear someone humming a famous Fire Nation song in Ba Sing Se.

Books as entertainment had begun to take on a certain relevance, people were more literate enough to understand the stories being told, though an interesting phenomenon was emerging. 

Prototypes of fanfiction began to emerge. Avatar and You' became the most famous fanfiction book, perhaps the idea that one could choose any Avatar of which there was little record and write about them sparked the minds of these writers. 

Aside from censoring an attempt to publish a book called "SozinXRoku," the Fire Nation encouraged this cultural development and exchange with other cultures. Though rare, caravans of other peoples could be seen in Fire Nation cities, and even fish from the South Pole had become a luxury item. 

Sure, there was always the reminder that the war was not over, but there was a kind of proto-peace, the war was not over, but now... it was no longer everything in this world. 

However, outside problems did not affect the atmosphere of the school that Shisui and company had to attend. Perhaps being 14 years old and amid all the hormonal rush of teenagers affected Shisui's mind, but he had found that the school had become more than just a place of learning. 

Yes, the academic atmosphere was very strong, and no one neglected their studies, but there was an extra layer to the place, and the fact that many of those attending were the young sons of military men, merchants, and nobles reinforced that idea. 

Although this situation did not completely affect Shisui's social environment, he was inevitably peppered with what went on at the school, such as gossip, rumors, and even challenges, which led to many somewhat interesting situations. 

"Did you hear? Lee-Lee wants to invite Shisui to watch the fireworks," one teenage girl muttered to another, both sitting at a table in the school's dining hall, surrounded by other classmates in the classroom. 

"He's going to reject her," said a boy dipping his French fries in ketchup, who never thought tomatoes could become such a tasty thing. 

"Shh, Lee-Lee is beautiful, if she invited me, I wouldn't turn her down," said another boy, enjoying his slice of 'pizza', one of those dishes created by Shisui and spread all over the world. 

"But everyone knows he and Azula are getting married," the other teenager replied, causing the one who started the conversation to chuckle. 

"Until they're married, Shisui doesn't belong to anyone, you know?" the girl said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. 

"I think... look, it's Lee-Lee, looks like she's approaching Shisui," the other teenager pointed off into the distance, and everyone in the dining room took in the spectacle that was about to unfold. 

Lee-Lee could be described as a stereotypical Fire Nation beauty, with golden eyes, black hair, a body with a trace of training, and the Fire Nation insignia on her left breast, indicating that she was a Firebender. 

Every firebender was required to wear such a mark on her body, both as a sign of her abilities and as a sign from the Fire Lord of future accomplishments. 

The girl approached Shisui's table with a small smile, though her eyes scanned the others with unusual attention. Kiyi, the newest member of the royal family, was old enough to attend this school and enjoyed a small muffin with satisfaction in her eyes. 

Mai and Ty Lee were recognizable, both sitting together eating their lunch while Zuko talked to the former. The prince was an enigma to many people, always with a sword at his waist that he would not let anyone touch. 

Petra seemed to be playing with a stone in her hand, giving it different shapes for Kiyi's amusement, while Shisui sipped the contents of a glass bottle that emitted cold steam, 'Refreshment' this strange drink was called. 

But Lee-Lee's attention was more focused on Azula, the Fire Nation princess and supposed mate of Shisui. Perhaps the biggest annoyance to her at the moment, she was confident in her beauty. 

"Excuse me, Shisui," the girl called to the young Shisui, who gave her only a cursory glance before concentrating on the straw he was sipping soda from. 

"Lee-Lee? What's wrong?" Shisui asked with some boredom. 

Shisui's body had changed from his 14-year-old one, but that was what puberty did. By now, the growth spurts he'd gone through had turned him into a 1.64-meter-tall boy with a tendency to get taller and taller. 

But what was interesting was his musculature, perhaps because he was from the Water Tribe, his physique was leaner than many warriors of the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation, his muscles seemed to be compressed, but that did not make him any less strong.

In the martial arts competitions held by the school, Shisui was one of the most outstanding, although the physically strongest was Petra, the boy was like a snake, and with fluid and smooth movements, he defeated many. 

By the way, every week he had this kind of physical fight with Azula, who had become a little monster in strength, sometimes even defeating Shisui. And it was Azula who watched the incoming Lee-Lee like a hawk. 

Azula knew how attractive Shisui was, she had grown up with him, but technically there was nothing she could do about it, because although they were to be married in the future, they were not 'lovers' like Ty Lee, who sometimes teased her about it, which made her boil with rage, but she understood the situation well.

Shisui was a genius at many things, but... he seemed to lack insight into clues, especially female clues. It didn't matter if Azula cut her hair, wore make-up, or even hugged him inappropriately, the boy didn't seem to notice at all. 

Zuzu is more aware than you, Shisui, I never thought that would be a real thing,' Azula said to herself as she watched Lee-Lee invite Shisui to meet later to supposedly watch fireworks.

When Lee-Lee left, the conversation around the table quickly turned to what had just happened, all initiated, of course, by Ty Lee, who gave Shisui a teasing smile. 

"Wow, Shisui! You're like that character, Casanova? You charm everyone!" the girl joked, making Petra and Zuko laugh, while Mai just drew a smile and Azula visibly gritted her teeth. 

"Shisui is cute," Kiyi said out of childish ignorance, not quite understanding Ty Lee's implied joke. 

"No big deal, she wanted to show me the fireworks her family makes, she says they can adopt characters, it's nothing like that" Shisui stopped drinking his soda and looked at the bottle, noticing it was less cold than before. 

With a flick of his fingers, the fog began to rise from the glass, indicating its low temperature. Something Shisui had practiced was controlling the water with his fingers, it was difficult but much faster and more subtle when needed.

"Isn't this a cheap excuse for a date?" asked Petra, hitting the nail on the head, the stone in her hand quickly transformed into two figures kissing, and Azula felt jealous that it was her as she saw the female figure. 

"Shisui and Lee-Lee will kiss under the stars~" Zuko didn't miss the chance to tease Shisui, and his little song was followed by Ty Lee. 

"See ya" Azula abruptly got up from the table and left, leaving everyone silent for a few moments before continuing to taunt Shisui. 

"Careful Shisui, your wife got jealous, what a dilemma~" teased Ty Lee as she watched Azula leave, the trust between the group was enough to make this kind of joke. 

"Jealous why?" asked Shisui, not paying much attention to Ty Lee's comment, causing Zuko to pat his face. 

"Dude, Azula's drooling over you, can't you tell?" asked Zuko in disbelief, even he could see that his sister loved Shisui, but the latter seemed ignorant. 

"Sage Shisui doesn't know everything, interesting," Mai added with a raised eyebrow. 

"Aren't we too young for that?" asked Shisui and made Mai black with her head. 

"No, they used to get married at 14, a few years ago at 16, and now they've raised the standard to 18, but falling in love can happen since we're young. I'm surprised you can joke about it but not notice a girl has a crush on you."

"Does Azula have feelings for me?" Shisui finally synced and asked quietly. 

"Yes!" everyone replied, even Kiyi, who joined in the fun. 

"Oh..." Shisui scratched the back of his neck and shook out his short hair, this time he had chosen a lighter style for his hair, although he planned to get some braids when it grew out. 

"Now that you know this almost universal truth... Are you going on this obvious date with Lee-Lee?" asked Zuko, making Shisui hesitate to speak for a few moments. 

"First of all, how do you feel about Azula, do you like her?" asked Mai, making Shisui stop his attempt to speak and fall into a longer silence this time. 

"I'm going to the meeting with Lee-Lee to explain that I don't like her, it would be rude not to go, I promised her. As for Azula..." Shisui remained silent and looked at the now empty bottle. 

The others looked at him curiously, but seeing that the boy was slow to react, Petra had enough and threw a pebble-sized piece of rock at his head while yelling at him.

"Hurry, you fool! Do you like Azula or not?" the girl asked, annoyed by Shisui's tardiness. 

"I haven't thought about it, okay? I like to think about things," the boy complained, but Petra just threw another pebble at him. 

"DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! You don't think about these things, you react, you act. Don't think about it, Shisui, just say it," Petra advised, but instead of answering what everyone wanted to hear, Shisui went back to his teasing, something he did when he was nervous. 

"Come on, as if a rough girl like you knows what it's like to be in love," Shisui expected annoyance from Petra, but the smile on the girl's face made him feel strange. 

"But I am, Shisui, and I thought less than you. You're supposed to be the wise one here, but you were beaten by a brusque girl like me, I have to write this down," Petra said and took a notebook out of her backpack, in which she wrote down this matter. 

"How spiteful," Mai muttered, not knowing that she also had a similar notebook with her.

"Don't look for excuses to deflect the issue, answer, Shisui," Ty Lee said, and this time Shisui did the mature thing a 14-year-old teenager would do, he got up from his chair and ran away.

"He just... ran away?" asked Petra incredulously. 

"Yes," Mai said doubtfully. 

"That's more over the top than those novels," Ty Lee commented, while Zuko just plopped down on the table. 

"Mom won't stop laughing at Shisui because of this and she'll use it against me," Zuko said with some weariness in his voice, but Mai's hand fell on his head and stroked his hair. 

"Relax," Mai whispered in his ear, and the lord visibly relaxed. 

"You two should make it official by now," Petra said with a touch of envy but subtly made a pair of rock figures of Zuko and Mai, surrounded by a big heart. 

"Maybe they could give Shisui advice, now that would be a unique event," said Ty Lee with a smile on her face as she watched two of her closest friends interact. 

"Giving Shisui advice? Now that would be unique!" Zuko's mood immediately returned, hoping for such a situation. 

A while later, an absent-minded Shisui was kicking rocks near a cliff with a beautiful view of the capital. He had been summoned here by Lee-Lee and had arrived early to be alone with his thoughts. 

He was no fool, he knew that Azula had a more than normal interest in him, he could even see it with his special ability, that pink aura of Azula's that only surged at the sight of him had to come from somewhere, right? 

But his mind had been elsewhere, giving it more importance than a simple curiosity during the battle. Even though they would be married in the future because of an old man's trickery, he did not think much about it.

But why? Simple, even though he knew it wasn't the case with Azula, the last woman he had a relationship with betrayed him, and not only that, she killed him. It was another life, another him, but the mistrust ate at him constantly, so his way to feel better was to ignore it. 

Now it was all in front of him and he couldn't help it. Did he like Azula? Yes, he did. Did he find her attractive? Yes! His teenage hormones were already reacting to Azula, and while he wouldn't go into much detail about the physique of a 12-year-old, as a 14-year-old Azula was within his range of what was 'sexy'.

During his time alone with his thoughts, kicking rocks at the edge of a cliff, Shisui concluded that maybe he shouldn't be so careless. The Avatars said it, this was a new life, he should enjoy it as such, not as something else, unafraid of things from his past. 

You don't go back to being 14 all the time, and although he had his memories of the past, his mental maturity was linked to his physical maturity, so there was nothing creepy about an old man in a young man's body. 

New life, new body, new mind, that's why he ran out of the dining room, that's what an immature teenager would do. And as an immature teenager, he was already thinking about how to reject Lee-Lee without hurting his feelings. 

"Sorry, I like someone else...no, not good, too general, it's not you, it's someone else? No, that would make her feel bad," Shisui tried to choose the right words until he remembered something he hadn't thought of before. 

"Why watch fireworks in the evening, wouldn't it be better at night? Wait..." Although his memories did not give him maturity, they did give him a lot of experience in many situations, and this particular situation set off the old alarms, alarms that had been dormant for 14 years. 

Without hesitation, Shisui activated his present, currently, the confused view was much clearer than before, the world became black with dense white lines around it, outlining everything in a standard way.

But what caught his attention were the dozens of auras he saw, all of them a mess of changing and different colors, but there was one that made his body tense. 

The blood red color showed that whoever these people were, they had a strong murderous intent. The black color seeping into all the colors indicated that they had murdered people, and the orange tint on all the edges separating the colors indicated the fear they had caused others. 

His body tensed, and he adopted a slightly crouched posture as his fingers twitched and three drops of blue water floated around him. His control had increased to five drops in all these years, but using three in battle was best for his concentration, also as a trump card. 

"Wow, looks like you spotted us, Sage Shisui," a man stepped out of the trees, but his body was Lee-Lee's, indicating that he was in disguise except for his voice. 

"What happened to Lee-Lee?" asked Shisui, causing 'Lee-Lee' to give him a mischievous smile.

"A waterbender worried about a firebender? Truly worthy of a sage. Don't worry, something in her morning tea made her sleep and allowed me to make my task easier," as he said this, Lee-Lee's body cracked and her skin suddenly turned to sand. 

"I must say that you were an inspiration for this, Shisui. Your words 'We are what we do with our elements' inspired me greatly, why not imitate Earth, the most diverse of the elements? Along with some special crystals..." The naked man brought his hand up to his eyes and pulled out two golden crystals, showing his green eyes to the world. 

"You see Shisui, we are interested in you, we think you are too valuable to waste your talents for a monstrous nation like this, how about joining us?" figures in normal clothes jumped out of the trees, and one of them handed the man's clothes to the speaker. 

"Sorry, I like this thing called 'freedom', I feel like I'll lose it if I listen to you," Shisui refused, searching for something unidentifiable on them until he saw it, a hand made of stone. 

"Dai Li, right? To think they came out of their walled rat's nest to kidnap a teenager," Shisui scoffed, unconcerned that he might be in front of Ba Sing Se's secret police.

"But that's the interesting thing, Sage Shisui, you're not just any kid. You changed the world, and that's saying a lot, even for some avatars in history. We Dai Li believe we can use your wisdom for something greater," the man didn't bother to hide it, because there was only one outcome for the evening. 

Shisui will come with them whether he wants to or not.

"You know, years ago, I saw Avatar Kyoshi, she was one of those who gave me the title of 'Sage'," The Dai Li was visibly uncomfortable at the mention of this Avatar, but he let Shisui continue to speak, it was another sign of his mercy. 

"I don't know what ideas you have about Sages per se, then let me prove to you and the world... just how dangerous a Sage like me can be," Shisui's golden eyes seemed to emit a faint glow as his Chi flowed through his body. 

His past life was a memory... but as I said, it gave him experience in many situations, especially killing. Killing perhaps hundreds of people to survive in a world gone mad, and now he would resort to it, even if his fight would only be against a dozen.

Shisui then took in the special sight of his gift and noticed a familiar aura that made a smile appear on his face. He would not fight alone. A fire missile started this chaotic battle, Azula joined this battle, what was she doing here? 

It didn't matter, there was a fight to be had!