50: Ghost affairs.

"So your friend joined Vaatu just because he wanted more power? What a cliché," Shisui muttered, looking disdainfully at the fire lion before him, who kept roaring at Musu.

Musu, who was acting as a translator for Shisui, simply licked one of his paws to swipe it across his face, ignoring the lion's roar of complaint, how dare Musu translate such rudeness? He was curious, not stupid. 

Meanwhile, the flames in the lion's body flared up when he realized he was being ignored he wanted to take more drastic measures, but soon he felt a terrible pressure on his back that made him crouch down on the cold ground in fear. 

With difficulty, he raised his eyes to meet Shisui's, whose golden eyes seemed to glow from the moonlight, or perhaps from the exuberant energy the young man possessed. For the spirit who was weaker due to the loss of his corrupted energy, this kind of pressure was unbearable.

Even though he showed a proud expression like a lion, to Shisui, he was just a dumb spirit who was inexperienced and did not know how to fight, so he did not have a good view of the creature. 

He could put up with Musu because although he was a cat, he was part of the family and another friend, but this spirit at first fought to kill him, and even without Vaatu's corruption, it refused to reveal its past actions or the purpose of them. 

Shisui could sense that 'something' this spirit had done in the village, but he lacked some clues and details to know exactly what. Although he knew Vaatu, maybe it was just actions to caused him headaches, so Shisui didn't pay much attention to this spirit. 

Especially since spirits don't have to be corrupted to harm humans, otherwise there wouldn't be so much fear of them in the general culture, especially coming from lullabies and the like. 

The lion roared at him, and Shisui did not need to hear words to understand the intent behind the sound, a taunt. Even under the pressure Shisui put on it, the spirit was truly a being devoted to Vaatu. 

"Give me a reason not to kill you, I am not the Avatar, and even Kuruk killed many spirits, don't tempt me," Shisui said, showing his right hand.

Ice formed on his fingertips and turned into claws. The gesture was obvious, and the lion understood it, but continued to show an arrogant expression and even tried to join in, with obviously hostile intentions. 

"I can't be nice to you, can I?" Shisui shook his head before tensing his body. 

He was not a bloodthirsty person or a person who would kill for the sake of it, he was a soldier and fought in wars, but if he could, he would not resort to drastic methods. But when he saw the evil intentions in the lion growing more and more, he made that decision. 

Without hesitation, Shisui lunged at the spirit, the ice on his fingers glowing brightly as if the water-purifying trait had been activated in them. With a rather powerful blow, ugly wounds appeared on the spirit's neck. 

"Meow~" Musu simply meowed, and although he seemed quite calm with the situation before him, he looked away slightly, not wanting to see the end of one of his kind. 

The lion didn't have much of a chance, even though he was a being that could supposedly live forever, that didn't exempt him from the ability to die from injury, especially in the earthly world, a world that didn't technically belong to him. 

In the end, the lion's body began to turn into small pieces of golden energy that began to dissipate into the air. He didn't know why, but seeing such a being die made Shisui's understanding of life grow a little. 

Feeling uncomfortable, Shisui did Waterbending to wash his hands, but he felt that he was still dirty, so ignoring Musu who was staring at him, Shisui doused his body with water again, causing it to glow. 

At that moment, Shisui could hear the roar of a lion, although it seemed to be far away, and soon, the dirty feeling in his body had disappeared, and he even felt light. 

"I never thought that a dead spirit would leave a resentment," Shisui muttered, understanding a little bit of the phenomenon that had happened. 

For the past two years, he had been constantly purifying himself, which allowed him to understand other spiritual aspects of this world, such as bloodlust, murderous intent, and some phenomena related to the dead and the phenomena associated with them. 

Shisui had realized that although reincarnation existed in this world, not all souls went through reincarnation, some of them ended up in the spirit world, like his own mother, and others became 'resentment' or ghosts, as they were known in their past lives. 

Grief, despair, pain, all those bad emotions could disrupt a person's spiritual state, and at the time of death, someone could experience that, as well as other things, in large amounts in that brief flash before they died. 

So even though it was rare, wartime had brought about the appearance of 'ghosts,' and even though people were generally unable to see them, how could Shisui, as an Enlightened Being, not be able to see them? 

Even before that, he could indirectly experience the existence of such things, such as the sudden chill he felt when he went to an abandoned battlefield, or when he saw a veteran soldier fall into madness. 

Although they were not very common and were very rare, Shisui realized that elemental purification could allow them to pass into a better life, as if they were contributing to the cycle of reincarnation. 

Shisui never expected that spirits could form something like this, so his first choice was not to purify himself, but to wash his hands. But now, the sage felt as if he had gained strange knowledge through this special experience. 

"Meow" Musu approached Shisui and rubbed his head on his ankle, this was the cat's way of comforting Shisui and making him smile. 

"Come, let's go back to sleep," Shisui bent down and took Musu in his arms while he yawned.

Tomorrow, he would investigate what had happened. After some things Vaatu had said, Shisui had some ideas about the possible actions of this spirit; he just hoped to find enough clues. 

...

"Looks like you didn't sleep well," Ty Lee said, watching as Shisui yawned again and again during breakfast.

Although the boy didn't have any dark circles or anything, he looked a little lethargic, so Ty Lee gave Azula a playful look, even raising one of her eyebrows, which made the princess blush a little. 

"It's not what you think," Azula complained, causing Ty Lee to burst out laughing.

"What did you think I was thinking, I just thought Shisui was having a nightmare!" said Ty Lee teasingly, making Azula sigh uncomfortably. 

"I wish it was," Shisui said, yawning again. 

"What happened?" noticing the seriousness in Shisui's words, Petra raised her guard and looked around. 

Although they were having breakfast at one of the tables in the South Pole's only bar, there were still a few people present, also having breakfast. Being sufficiently secluded, they all had the confidence to listen to Shisui without anyone eavesdropping.

"I killed a spirit last night," Shisui said simply, but his words caused some surprise among his friends. 

"Why?" Mai asked with a somewhat urgent but interested tone in her voice.

As an assassin, even though she was a No-Bender, she wanted to have her methods for certain troublesome entities, so Shisui's experience, being troubling, could give her a lot of inspiration in the future. For her, who wanted to be the best assassin? 

Yes, knowing a little about Lao Ge's history, she became even more interested in the art of assassination, so her golden eyes looked at Shisui, urging him to speak quickly. 

Shisui recounted his experiences of the previous night, including his interaction with Vaatu, the actions of the Water Element Spirits, his attempt to have a calm conversation with the spirit, and his conclusion that he should eliminate it.

Not only that, but he also told them how he finally discovered that spirits were not so different from humans after death, and was able to confirm the fact that they could turn into something like resentment. 

"Now I'm jealous, can we No-Benders get rid of a spirit?" asked Ty Lee a little annoyed, causing Musu, who was sitting on Azula's lap, to growl at her. 

"I think so, whether we want to or not, the world is ruled by subtle balances, even if sometimes we can't find those points, if the elements share things, who's to say a No-Bender doesn't have special means?" Shisui replied to Ty Lee before an idea came to her. 

"Hey, have we researched where the bending abilities of humans come from?" Shisui's question made the others think. 

"Humans have always been able to bend, haven't they?" asked Zuko, causing Shisui to narrow his eyes.

Though the Avatars had told him many things, others had been hidden, such as the existence of Raava or the famous Turtle Lions. But Shisui was a reincarnate, and although he did not like to use the 'meta' knowledge he possessed, he at least knew the origin of the ability to bend in humans. 

But why not find out for himself? Remembering a place where he could find this and other related answers, Shisui looked at his friends with a broad smile on his face. 

"Oh no, why are you smiling?" Petra pointed at Shisui, who had that strange smile on his face. 

"Do you remember the records about a library in the desert? Which is said to contain all the knowledge that ever was and ever will be in this world," Shisui blurted out, ignoring her friend. 

"Yes, some Fire Lords of the past had gone there, but it's hard to find, as if it keeps changing locations, the only standard thing is its location in a desert of the Earth Kingdom. 

"First we go to a super cold place, now we want to go to a desert? I'm melting already," Ty Lee muttered, though she spoke loud enough for the others to hear.

After she dramatically leaned on Petra's shoulder and blew out the air with one hand, the others just burst out laughing. 

But the idea of getting more information about the origins of Bending, as well as some techniques a No-Bender could use against spirits, penetrated them, especially Ty Lee and Mai, who felt that they might need such means in the future. 

"Shisui, what do you think got Vaatu's attention?" asked Azula, causing the happy atmosphere to return to its tense state. 

Shisui's story was not only about his crushing battle against that corrupted spirit or his spiritual discoveries but also about his conversation with Vaatu, the most important point of his whole story. 

Knowing that they had a potential enemy that would not be easily stopped only added to their sense of urgency to complete their mission at the South Pole, where it was time for the Fire Nation to finally find the Avatar after a century.

"I don't know, but we should be more aware of nearby threats," Shisui didn't say the name of the one he was referring to, but they all knew who it was.

"Oh yes, the jealous one," Ty Lee said, without her usual cheerful attitude, but looking particularly annoyed at having to refer to that man.

If Vaatu wanted to cause them trouble, there were only a few 'tools' he could use, Zhao being one of them. It wasn't something they were 100% sure of, but knowing the man's tendencies and some deep thoughts, his threat level was just as high. 

Speaking of Zhao... How was his awakening today?