The road to greatness was paved with obsession.

All great men had this in common and Sozin knew it too. He could not think of a single great man who didn't have an obsession of some sort, and so, from within all that darkness inside Sozin's soul came a spark, and he came out of his depressive bout with a new and vitriolic motivation in his heart. A black fire that burned with rage and hatred at such a magnitude that he had never experienced it ever before. He had hit rock bottom, and the only way to go from there was up. Sozin had been denied many things in his life. He had been denied everything a human being deserved to have and experience, but now, he was going to correct that injustice as he had corrected his master's and ensure he could always have what he wanted, no matter what anyone else thought. He had been chained down and subjected to the will of others in the past because he was weak. He wasn't powerful. The weak were always at the mercy of the strong, even if given permission within which they could act. But permission was just that—permission and nothing more if the interests of the two parties didn't happen to align.

Sozin couldn't help but think about that. What was power then if not freedom? True and absolute freedom that few men could ever and have ever achieved in this world. The freest man was always the most powerful one as far as he could tell. Men who possessed some level of power always seemed to fight so hard to maintain it because they didn't want to know what it felt like to not be free again. To be less free than they already were. It was a hierarchy of the most important degree, and that was something to aspire to be at the top of. That was what it meant to be a truly free man.

A psychotic grit began to shroud Sozin's eyes in the days to come. He could see it whenever he looked in the mirror at his ever-changing physique. He still had room to grow, like a weapon that could be sharpened into a finer upon finer point. Whenever he thought he had reached the peak of his performance, there was always some boundary that could be pushed even further beyond, and if there was anything he was sure of now, it was that he was going to grind every ounce of goddamn potential out of this prison of flesh and bone that he was confined to even if it broke him. It would become an elegant instrument of the most refined kind, a tool for the pure and unadulterated ambition that had taken over his psyche and reached every corner and facet of his thoughts and concerns.

This was his obsession.

One all his own...

He would not be denied his obsession. No one would take or deny that from him as they had taken and denied everything else.

With all the pain he'd endured up to this point, there was no real purpose he could possibly fathom for his cruel existence other than being a door mat for others. That simply wouldn't do. He had to make one up himself. And so he trained like an animal. Relentless. Cold and calculating as any man ought to be when he went to work and wanted to get things done. Sozin trained until his very bones began to crack. Until the raw of his knuckles and shins began to bleed and scar against the jagged bark of hardwood trees, toughening as his mind had under the weight of his own suffering. Until he grit his teeth and clenched his jaw from the sheer pain his body was in after a long and brutal day. Until his very muscles began to feel like steel cable whenever he flexed and his bones as though they were pure iron, protecting his fragile insides and granting him superior speed, strength, and durability upon which to build the techniques of death and destruction that would define him as a warrior.

Sozin no longer allowed himself any sort of respite other than sleep, but if could've avoided it, he would've stopped sleeping as well. Obsession, if it was to be done properly, demanded severe discipline and he could not compromise. He adhered to a strict diet that would allow him to build the man he wanted to become. The man that he needed to become if he was going to have any hope of achieving the freedom he so desperately desired.

Proud and strong, Sozin leered in silent admiration at his sinewy reflection in the mirror. He grinded his clenched fist into his open palm. "Those who demonstrate devotion are often rewarded for their time..." he murmured in dark satisfaction. "But those who demonstrate obsession will find their enemies falling behind every step of the way."

It took an obsessed man to go where no one else would. At every turn and every corner, the beast deep inside Sozin that fueled his efforts screamed to get out and threatened to frustrate his plans. By itself, rage was a brutish and crude emotion—it was brash, reckless, and imprecise, but it could be refined and concentrated with the right guidance, it's impurities being removed in the process into a higher form of emotion. Wolf's counsel proved useful here. Through sheer willpower and meditation alone, Sozin channeled that rage into something useful, tempering its wild and hot nature like light into a focused beam. The result was something that cut like a blade but hit like a sledgehammer. It's power was invigorating. Galvanizing to the highest degree while still allowing him to maintain control. There was simply no greater weapon to speak of than that of the mind and the emotions, and he would abuse it in his favor rather than just let it crush him as it had before.

It was for that reason that Sozin tried to take good care of his mental health as often as he could. Despite not being a religious man, from that point on, he started to take meditation and prayer with more than just a grain of salt. Even if he didn't buy into the efficacy of prayer and the therapeutic effects of meditation entirely, it seemed to be working for him at least as a placebo. He was also no stranger to meditation in the first place, and as something familiar, it was easy for him to turn to that as a solution to his psychological problems. Ikijo had instilled the habits and methods for training the mind into him long ago, but until recently, Sozin's doubts meant that he would practice it every now and then only as a way to honor his fallen master. He had never really seen a reason to make it a significant part of his life before, but now, it seems, his master was all too right in teaching him more than just physical skills. They were paying off in ways that he couldn't have imagined.

But it wasn't just about mental health. It was only right for Sozin to carry on his master's legacy by following the traditions that Ikijo had anyway, so he would meditate, cross-legged and palms together, in front of a small Buddha idol as his master had done countless times. Sozin had retrieved from the idol from Ikijo's home after returning to bury him years ago. Prayer was the main purpose of the idol but meditation was also another use of it since it was a sacred object that dispelled any traces of bad energy, and as a natural consequence, that made thinking relatively peaceful and easy in its presence, even for someone like Sozin.

When Sozin meditated, he would light a fire atop the hands of Buddha which were cupped together above the idol's head and use the sapphire blue flames of Moujin crystals to help calm his corrupted mind, sometimes practicing his firebending in a relaxing way by turning the fire into orbs and manipulating them around the idol like they were mental stress balls. Moujin was always pleasant to use. Since the crystal was naturally pure, it burned differently from other kinds of fire and felt soothing to handle, both mentally in the mind and physically in one's hand, unlike regular fire which seemed to rage and grow carelessly, consuming anything in its path, no different from his own thoughts and thus uncomforting. Sozin supposed that rage and visceral hatred was part of the reason he was so good at firebending but also why couldn't create lightning for the life of him.

Not only did meditation heal the mind, but it also presented an opportunity for Sozin to train as he couldn't always hone his techniques in the real world. Being the lone wolf had its fair share of disadvantages. Sozin's lack of a sparring partner to practice with often meant that he had to train by himself which wasn't always possible nor ideal with certain techniques. At times, he was forced train in his mind in the spirit realm which was the only place where Wolf could take on a more human form for him and act as an opponent. The only problem with training in the spirit realm was that it was exhausting to put so much mental effort into being there. Since anything beyond just talking or walking around was difficult to maintain, training sessions always ended up being short and suboptimal. Sozin made up for his less than ideal training circumstances by training relentlessly and resting as much as possible.

Training was something that gave Sozin strength which only furthered his progress in the quest for true freedom. He was devout in it like he was with nothing else. As Wolf had told Sozin about his own species, wolves were naturally devoted creatures and fiercely loyal to their pack, but as the lone wolf without any pack to be loyal to, that loyalty had nowhere to be channeled. What was he to do with it then? Loyalty was the cornerstone of any wolf spirit's life, so Sozin had to find something else to place that loyalty in. That loyalty ended up being put towards training. Betrayal was the ultimate insult to the lone wolf, so Sozin took pride in the fact that he knew his training would never betray him, no matter what. It was one of the few truly reliable gifts in his arsenal, and he was proud he could say that it belonged to him.

For the next couple of months, all of this had become Sozin's life. Outside of work, he hadn't seen much in the way of another person until one fateful morning when he heard a knock on his door in the middle of the day.

Sozin had been in bed taking a nap when the sound came clear and crisp, reverberating throughout the manor. He cracked open his eyes. Three hard knocks coming from the front door. The knocks weren't something he heard often, but they were impossible to mistake for anything else. He didn't have any friends. What reason could someone possibly have for bothering a loner like him?

The man dragged himself out of the bed, slipped on plain robes and a pair of waraji, sauntered down the stairs, through the hallway, past the kitchen, and all the way to the front door as whoever it was knocked on the door a few more times. The manor was fairly expansive. In the past few years, he'd done a lot of terrible things to terrible people to make enough money to actually purchase it, but sometimes, that didn't seem like it was such a good thing. Whenever he was depressed, all the rooms and space he had to get through made his heavy limbs feel like they were trying to travel across the world just so he could get something to eat.

Sozin managed to make it to the front door. He lifted up the wooden bar locking it closed and pulled it ajar so that there was just enough of an opening to peek through.

"Hello?" Sozin murmured. He spoke with a depressive softness in his voice that was pleasantly sad and soothing to the ears. The only difference this time was the stoic gaze that had been hardened into his eyes. She didn't remember that being on his face the last time she'd seen him.

Kira's orange eyes looked up from under her bamboo hat at the man peeking through the crack in the door. A chunk of the downwards-projecting brim at the front of the hat had been torn out so that she could see. "Hi..." she said laconically. Her lips fiddled with the thin, red pipe in her mouth.

Sozin recognized the woman immediately when his gaze fell upon her. She had a distinct face that was almost impossible to forget. "Hmm..." he grumbled in contemplation as his muscles relaxed. "Kira, wasn't it?" Bewildered, but feeling a bit more comfortable now that he knew who he was talking to, Sozin opened the door completely with a creak. "What are you doing here?"

The small blaze at the end of Kira's pipe quietly sizzled like firecracker and billowed a rivulet of smoke. With a lazy, half-lidded expression, she took a puff from it before pulling it out of her mouth with two dignified fingers and blowing. "Doesn't sound like you were expecting to see me," she said in that mellow voice of hers.

"Yeah..." Sozin scratched the whiskers on his chin. As a young man, he was only beginning to develop a beard. "I don't recall telling you where I live..."

"You're probably wondering how I found out... Well..." Kira reached into her loose-fitting robes, revealing some of the linen wraps that covered her otherwise bare chest. She pulled out the map that Sozin had given her and handed it to him. "Remember that?" she pointed discreetly. "You kind of marked where you live on there."

Sozin didn't say anything. He merely stared down at the map in his hands and then glanced back at Kira with a wordless expression.

"I know this is rather strange, but believe me, I wouldn't have just barged in like this if I could've avoided it. I didn't really have much of a choice, so I came to talk business," Kira said.

"Business, huh?"

"Do you mind if I come in?"

Sozin let out a thoughtful snort. He cast the woman a scrutinizing gaze for a moment before deciding to relent. "Sure..." he said as he stepped aside, then grumbling, "Not like I get a lot of visitors anyway."

Kira stepped into the hallway. The manor looked just as grand on the outside as it did on the inside. For a young guy, he was doing awfully well for himself. "Nice place you've got here."

"Thanks... I'm a pretty humble person if you couldn't already tell," Sozin said dryly. He heard Kira let out a chuckle as he led them into the large kitchen. The kitchen was traditional in style with an irori in the corner where it was out of the way for cooking and a low table in the center with cushions around it. Sozin drifted over to the sink where he'd gotten a manual pump installed that took from the well outside. A variety of cutlery and cooking utensils hung against the wall above the counter. "Would you like some water?" Sozin asked.

"No, I'm fine." Kira put up a hand across from him. "Thank you though..."

"So, what brings you to my humble abode?" Sozin crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. "Something tells me that this isn't a social visit."

"Are you busy by any chance?"

Sozin sniffled and ran his finger across the underside of his nose. "Not with anything important."

"Good, because I have a proposition I'd like to make." Kira planted a hand on her hip while the other gestured outwards towards Sozin. "I was wondering if you could take care of a certain problem for me."

"What kind of problem?"

"You're familiar with Talro Hirata, aren't you?"

"I don't know him personally, but I worked for him when he hired me to capture you. That's about it, pretty much."

"His son, Takeda..." Kira said. "The man just won't take no for an answer. He's obsessed with me and keeps sending emissaries to get me back. No matter how many I kill, he just won't give up. If I could handle this problem myself, believe me, I would've, but Takeda is heir to the family throne and has his entire clan at his disposal. I can't exactly march up to his palace and deal with him on my own."

Sozin inspected his unkempt nails. With another person in the room, he was more self-conscious than usual. Turning to Kira, his hand fell back down to his side, and he said, "I'm guessing you want me to kill him?"

"Yeah..." Kira said. "Can you do that for me? I don't know any other ninja, and this problem requires a more... surgical approach than I can provide."

"That depends..." Sozin raised his hand and ran his thumb across his fingers in a gesture for money. "How much are you willing to pay?"

"I'm only a vagabond—I don't really have that much money. A thousand sen is all I have."

"One senarii?" Sozin chuckled. "That's quite a task you have for me," he reminded her. "The Hiratas are a high-ranking family. For a job like that, it's going to cost you one-hundred."

"One-hundred senarii?" Kira exclaimed in disbelief. Her voice hesitated as astonishment built behind the brim of her bamboo hat. "I don't have that kind of money."

"Then I'm afraid I can't do the job," Sozin said with indifference. "It's too dangerous otherwise for what I'm getting out of it."

"Is it really?" Kira said. "You got in and out before to help me escape. Can't you just do that again and kill Takeda?"

"It's not that simple, Kira. I was taking a big risk doing that for you."

"Listen, I travel a lot and work as a bodyguard wherever I can. With the war going on, surely you can understand how hard it is to get by doing an honest job these days?"

"You're preaching to the choir. Believe me, I know all too well how hard it can be to just to squeeze out a decent living." Sozin thought back to how people had treated him when he was homeless.

"Can't you make an exception then? I haven't had a peaceful night of sleep in months."

"No..." Sozin shook his head lightly. "I already did that when I smuggled you out of Talro's palace."

Kira let out a flustered huff. Her arms floundered at her sides. "Seriously?" she muttered with a crestfallen face.

"Seriously..."

"Okay, I don't have all the money currently, but what if I paid you overtime. In increments?"

"If the job has to be taken care of now—and it kind of sounds like it does— then you'd need to give me your word that you'll pay me back. Frankly, I don't think that's going to work."

"Why not? You don't trust me?"

"Yeah, I dont..." Sozin said curtly. "I'm sorry, Kira, but I don't know you."

"Does that matter?" Kira said. "Do I really look like a bad person?"

"You look like an angel, but looks can be deceiving. You might just hang me out to dry once I've done the deed. As someone whose had that happen to them before, surely you can understand that on my end, generosity isn't always the wisest choice."

Kira sighed. "There's gotta be something that-"

Just then, there was the sound of something whistling through the air for a split second. The sound was followed by a flaming arrow bursting through one of the kitchen's paper windows and landing right at the tip of Sozin's waraji, nearly taking off his big toe.

Kira gasped and Sozin reeled back in surprise.

"Whoa! What the fuck?" he exclaimed. "Who the hell shot that?" Sozin glanced to the doorway and then to the arrow. His foot was eager to move, but the bundle of tow—coarse, broken fibers— tied just below the arrowhead had been soaked in oil and would burn continuously even if he tried stomp the flames out. He would only hurt himself. Turning to Kira, Sozin spat out frantically, "Kira, put the flames out with some water from the sink! There's cups in the cabinet!" he motioned. "Don't try to stomp it out!"

Sozin bolted out of the kitchen and into the hallway. He threw open the front door and stopped just outside of the doorway.

A flurry of thuds met his ears. It was the sound of pounding hooves against the dirt and it was growing louder by the second.

"You gotta be kidding me..." he said under his breath.

Not too far away, a group of Tamuran cavalry was kicking up a storm of dust as they stampeded their way up the road into his property—a large clearing that housed the full extent of his manor.

"Can you hear me, Ishidan vermin?" the samurai at the helm of the charge thundered as his unit made their way up. "Miura will be united once more! As I breathe, you will not escape here alive! For Tamura!" he drawled in a cry of war.

Sozin's eyes flared. There were several of them, and they were well-armed with spears, bows, and katana. Even worse, it looked like they had spotted him and were heading straight for the lone man with a look of pure bloodlust in their eyes.

A few arrows scattered close by, embedding themselves in the dirt. Without his weapon, Sozin darted back inside to take cover. He slammed the front door shut and threw the wooden bar down to lock it closed. "Want to ruin my day? Come and get it then, you fucks..." he said in dark intensity.

Sozin returned to the kitchen with a calm in his step. By the time he returned, Kira had just finished putting the fire out with a splash.

"What's going on? Bandits?" Kira set the ceramic cup in her hand on the table and turned to Sozin.

"No..." Sozin said with no particular alarm. "The Tamuran army has come to kill us..."

"What?"

Sozin glanced at the twin blades by Kira's hip. "Just get your swords out and make sure the other door is locked. There's another one in the back. I need to go get my own."

Sozin ran upstairs as the orchestra of pounding of hooves came to a deathly stop just outside the manor. Despite being clad in mere robes, he had no time to put on his shinobi gear from where it rested in the wardrobe, so all he ended up grabbing was his master's katana. As the samurai began to pound on the front and back doors, cursing and hollering for them to come out like a raging mob, he ran back down where Kira was waiting for him in the hallway.

Kira gave a worried glance over her shoulder at the front door. "Sounds like the war's finally reached Komasu."

"Unfortunately..." Sozin said in a low voice. "I didn't think it would get this far. Now my home is in danger—can you believe that? I guess that's the price I pay for being imprudent."

"Don't worry," Kira said. "Doesn't sound like there are too many of them. We can take this fight right here in the hallway where their numbers advantage is meaningless."

Sozin narrowed his eyes behind Kira at the incessant pounding coming from the door. The door was heavy and reinforced, but they were trying to kick it down one blow at a time. "Where soldiers walk, an army follows. We need to take care of this and get out of here asap."

"Okay..." Kira said as she turned to face the front door. "I'll watch this end of the hallway, you watch the other."

Thump...

Thump...

Thump...

The first door at the front finally broke down and then the second came right after from the other side of the manor. The heavy wooden doors slammed into the ground with a defeaning clap as they were ripped off their iron hinges and thrown forward by the force of the kicks.

The samurai rushed in behind one another from both ends of the manor. As part of the upper-class, they were more skilled than common footsoldiers, possessing quality body armor—expensive and elaborate—that was colored in Tamuran reds and blacks as opposed to the purples and blacks of the Ishidan military. Unlike ashigaru, they were nobility, and as nobility, were valued and expected to survive in battle, so the armor itself was extensive, covering them entirely from head to toe.

Sozin glanced behind him. The two warriors' backs faced each other. It seems they were in this together even if they hadn't been earlier. He couldn't see any samurai on his end yet, but Kira was already fending off the first man that came charging her way. His lack of enemies was quickly remedied as he found himself busy with several samurai that ran into the hallway a few moments later from the rear of the manor.

The hallway wasn't nearly wide enough for more than one person to engage them at a time which made grinding down the opposition an easy task. All Sozin could hear were air-shattering clashes going off behind him, but since he had fought Kira before, he trusted her to hold up her end of the line as he kept his focus in front of him and cleaved his way through several challengers. As a shinobi who liked to move around, part of Sozin didn't like the fact that he was confined by the hallway, but it was more of a nuisance than anything else. He hadn't been honing his swordplay for months on end to be made a mockery by the likes of a couple of grunts, even if they were samurai.

The walls of the manor reverberated with the exchange of blows and yelling Tamuran samurai. Kira's raw skill and twin blades proved to be deadly during the fight. Unlike her opposition, she struck with calm assurance, her gaze focused like the tip of a dagger. When she finished mopping up everyone on her side, she turned around to see that Sozin was still busy with one, last, stubborn man eager to die for his country. The hallway was too narrow for her to help him from her current position, so she stepped over the dead bodies and ran around through the kitchen to the other side. The samurai had been so focused on Sozin that he didn't notice Kira disappear, but then he sensed a presence behind him, and a look of suprise flickered across his face. This moment was long enough to distract the samurai. Sozin knocked the samurai's sword aside with a slash and delivered a deathblow straight through his neck.

The last samurai collapsed to the ground with a conclusive thud.

"Thanks for distracting him," Sozin said as he sheathed his katana. "He was giving me a little bit of trouble."

"I saw that..." Kira sheathed her twin katanas as well. She chuckled, her mouth sliding into a smug grin. "You're swordplay has gotten better, but it's still atrocious."

"Atrocious?" Sozin's face crinkled in aversion. "Remind me again... Who was it that captured you?"

Kira dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Oh, please. Don't brag. We both know it was a miracle you won that fight." Kira paused, raising her finger. "But..." she said with an enticing smirk, "I could... I don't know... show you a few tricks... if... you kill Takeda for me."

Sozin let out a short laugh. "That's your offer now? You're a real sly fox, you know that? I've never been paid in anything other than money before."

"I'm serious—I'm not trying to con you. As they say, there's a first time for everything," Kira said.

"Maybe I'll consider your offer later, but first things first, we should get out of here while we still can." Sozin glanced to the dead bodies and pools of blood that littered the hallway of his manor now. "Their horses are outside. We can use them to escape."

Kira snorted. "As you wish..."

Outside of the manor was a messy array of warhorses that the samurai had left behind. Their bodies were draped in a blanket of mail that provided some basic protection from the dangers of the battlefield. Bulky and strong, the horses were a bit restless but obediently stood in place as they had been trained to, mindlessly stamping their hooves into the dirt as they awaited the return of their masters. At the sight of two unfamiliar faces walking out of the manor, the horses whinnied and neighed, seeming reluctant to have a pair of strangers grasping so boldly at the reins and settling their feet into the stirrups, but they relented and didn't run off.

Kira gave her horse a few gentle pats. "Easy..." she said softly.

"You know how to ride a horse?" Sozin asked across from her on his own steed.

"All samurai do," Kira said. "What about you?"

"Most shinobi learn how to but for different reasons than samurai. It can come in handy when you need to make a quick escape—kinda like right now—but I prefer to walk."

"Heh... I can see why you're a shinobi then."

"I think it suits me..." Sozin settled into his leather saddle and gripped the reins tighter. "All right, ah... Let's not stick around. We should go."

Kira looked to the sky just as they were about to ride off. Her orange eyes narrowed. Far in the distance, above the forest canopy, she saw many plumes of smoke rising high into the blue sky, thick and dark with the stench of death. Gunfire from matchlocks could be heard, but they rung out short and quick, dissipating as little other than a flash in the pan. It was the sound of sporadic cannonfire that caught her attention. It boomed out into the air—long, low, and deep like a growl of war—punctuating the gunshots and dying with a lingering bellow as it echoed out across the land. The lingering boom was relaxing and beautiful in some strange and morbid way, but then Kira remembered that those were the sounds of people dying. "Wait," she said with concern. "What about Komasu?"

"The garrison isn't enough," Sozin shrugged. "Komasu will fall, and a couple of ragtags like us aren't going to change the tide of battle. Why bother trying to catch a falling knife?"

"We don't have to save Komasu, but we've got these horses. We should head over there and at least try and save whoever we can."

"Are you crazy?"

Kira cast Sozin a disparaging glance before turning ahead. "I'm asking you for help, but there's no time to argue about it. If you're not going to go, then I am." True to her word, at that very moment, she commanded her horse into a jump-start and took off.

Sozin scrunched his brooding eyes as he watched her ride off the property. At first, he didn't know which part of him it was exactly, but something felt like he was making the wrong choice. Then he realized it was his heart, and the heart and mind often disagreed. If he was being honest with himself, he knew he was an asshole that hated people, but regardless of what his rationality was saying, his knee-jerk reaction wasn't to be cold-blooded. Apparently, there was still a warm remnant from when he was young and the kindness hadn't been grinded out of him yet. Damn it, he cursed in his head. The two selves—new and the old—to Sozin's dismay, often found themselves at odds with each other. Was he really going to chase this woman? He dithered in place for a moment before squeezing his thighs and kicking his own horse into action. "Hey!" he yelled. "Wait up!"

Sozin shook his head. He usually sided with his mind more than he did his heart these days since it kept him from getting hurt, a preference that life itself had instilled into him, but the woman was a tie-breaker he hadn't expected. All the way from the outskirts of town where Sozin's manor was, they rode into Komasu using the main road. Townsfolk ran past in the opposite direction. The air bubbled and popped with clamor from people as they fled the Tamurans descending upon the settlement. The town was fairly sizeable, but it was simply a matter of time before all of it was taken and the town was razed to the ground.

Distant flames and plumes of smoke blown by the wind continued to build as more and more buildings ignited on the other side of town from arrows and torches. In the chaos flowing through the streets of Komasu, mothers wept as they searched frantically for missing children. Those who weren't busy running away were trying to salvage their belongings by stuffing them into burlap sacks or scrambling around for loved ones with yells and shouts. Sozin spied one particular family that happened to own a pair of horses cramming their wagon with any valuables they could manage.

Captivated, Sozin turned to the darkening sky streaked with soot. This was the first time he'd ever seen the effects of war firsthand, not afterwards but as it was happening. Until now, his only experiences had been through tales of valor or the news. It was different in person, and with a glance, Kira seemed to be taking it the same way. He fully understood the sense of hopelessness that tended to grip people in the face of impending doom. The Tamuran army would soon erase any memory of their life here.

Sozin gazed on pensively from the saddle of his horse. "How chaotic..." he murmured.

Holding her pipe between her fingers, Kira raised her voice above the commotion. "We have to do something," she said. They'd reared their horses to a stop on the side of the street, out of the way from churning townsfolk.

"What do you suggest?"

"Why don't we start by taking two villagers out at a time? Then we can come back for more."

"There won't be enough time to drop them off in a safe place and then come back. Are you comfortable only saving two?"

Kira's eyes creased in painful sympathy as she stared into the street at some of the hopeless people. It wasn't so long ago that she was in their position. "As long as it's more than no one at all," she spoke up after a pause.

Sozin glanced back to the family tending to their wagon. "I think we can do better. Why don't we find an empty wagon and hitch our horses to it? Komasu is a trading hub—there's gotta be plenty of them around here."

"That's a smart idea," Kira smiled. She cast him a warm expression and nodded lightly. "I'm glad you came along."

Sozin turned away from her, not rude, but faintly aloof. "Don't thank me," he said. "It was a last minute decision..."

Splitting up, the pair went into action and scoured the streets and alleys looking for a wagon of some sort. Sozin went farther down near the center of town where the action was louder. Stray groups of ashigaru that had left the main force were wreaking havoc and slaughtering any stragglers in their path. To Sozin's disgust, whoever was in command of these soldiers had just unleashed them upon the city like a pack of wild dogs. Men fought against them like lions in the street with whatever they could to protect their families and loved ones. Sozin could see some Ishidan colors from the garrison mixed in amongst the Tamuran soldiers but they were severely outnumbered. It was hard for Sozin to see all those pockets of violence and just ride them by with little more than a glance or a passing slash from his katana. He wished he could do more to help everyone but ignored his inner feelings and remained composed. If he wanted to make a real difference, he needed stay focused on finding what he was looking for.

As luck would have it, Sozin soon spotted an empty wagon by a storefront that the violence was just beginning to engulf. The owner of the store, a short and stout middle-aged man with a pegleg, was in the middle of fending off one of Tamura's spearmen with a crude-looking blade. The man looked like he was in trouble, so Sozin made a quick pass on his horse, cutting at the soldier's back just as he had found an opening in the shopkeeper's defense. The soldier let out a gasp and reached behind him at the cut. He collapsed onto his knees, dropping his yari with a clatter and then hitting the ground face first. Realizing it was over, the bewildered man let go of his weapon too and lowered down, trying to catch his breath.

The man glanced up at Sozin as he came back around and reared his horse. "Thank you... Don't know why I bothered trying. I'm not the fighter I used to be," he huffed.

"You're a veteran?" Sozin said as he spied the man's leg. Commotion and chaos continued to run wild around them.

"Sure am, even if I don't look like it anymore. This war's been going on for so long that it's coming back to finish me off." The man brandished his pegleg.

"Shouldn't you be running like everyone else instead of trying to relive the glory days?" Sozin asked.

The man laughed between his breaths. He rose up into a stand. "Yes, that'd be the smart thing for me to do, wouldn't it? Won't be long for me. Half the town's already gone by the looks of that smoke over there."

"Leg injuries are pretty common amongst sailors..." Sozin said.

"Indeed. I used to be a captain in the navy until I lost my ankle to an arrow."

"I suppose you've decided to go down with the ship then?"

"It wasn't my plan," the man said. "I would've left, but some ruffians stole my horses as soon as the trouble started." He pointed to his horseless wagon. "It's a shame... I wanted to save some of my inventory. I would run now, but on a day like this, it isn't exactly the best time to be fat and out of shape."

"I see..." Sozin murmured with a hint of pity.

Confusion crossed the man's face. "What about you? You've got a horse and a mighty one by the looks of it. Why are you here?"

Sozin let out a long, tired sigh. "I honestly have no idea."

The sound of an approaching horse interrupted Sozin's thoughts. He glanced over and it was Kira riding up next to him. "Sozin!" she exclaimed as she reined her horse into a stop. "I was looking everywhere for you."

"Hey, Kira," Sozin said flatly.

"I see you've found what we're looking for," she gestured with relief.

Sozin turned back to the shopkeeper. "Yeah, uh, do you mind if we use your wagon, mister? We can use it to help get you and others out of here. Not like you're gonna need it anymore, right?"

"Sure, but you're gonna have to get those horses hitched up first if you want to do anything." The shopkeeper grabbed Sozin's horse by the leather straps around its muzzle and began to lead it to the wagon. "I'm getting old, but I'm not feeble. Let me help you."

A loud crash shot through Sozin's ears as a cannonball exploded through the adjacent building and sent wood splintering into the street. Sozin nearly had his bones jump out of him. His horse stopped in its tracks, and Kira's head snapped towards the explosion like a frightened woodland creature. With how close the shot was, their horses whined and whinnied, shuffling about. For a brief moment, Sozin thought his horse was about to throw him off, turn tail, and run just like everyone else, but it seemed to calm down. The horse had been bred for war and as more-accustomed to the throes of battle. Certainly a lot braver than many men were.

"I'm no stranger to cannon fire," the shopkeeper said with a jaded expression.

Kira chuckled nervously. "That's a bit too close for comfort if you ask me."

Sozin peered into the giant hole that had just been smashed into the building next to them. "I agree—this is starting to get serious. I don't think we'll be able to stay here much longer. Now would be a good time to start rounding up some people, Kira." Sozin dismounted from his horse so the shopkeeper could finish leading it to the wagon. "Can you take care of this in the meantime?" he said, turning to the older gentleman.

"Yes, yes, don't worry about me," the man said, waving them off. "You do what you have to."

Kira slid off her horse. Catching Sozin's attention, she motioned with her head, saying, "I'll gather whoever I can down the street. You stay here and keep company."

"Be careful," Sozin said." That's where all the commotion is coming from."

Kira nodded. Running down the cluttered street, she blustered past people scrambling in the other direction. Her geta sandals clacked with every step. "Hey!" she yelled, waving her arms as she came to a stop. "We have horses—come with me and I can get you out of here!" she shouted into the chaotic crowd.

Her words fizzled into the air.

Everyone just kept running or clamoring about. Any semblance of order was in shambles and no one wanted to pay any mind to reasonable thought.

Kira shouted once more and again to no avail. She kept trying, but her words were being drowned out amongst all the screaming and yelling and emotion, and even if they could hear her past all of that, everyone was all over the place and none of them wanted to listen, too occupied with their own fright and safety to care much about anything else.

Kira sighed in frustration. Her thoughts were racing at a thousand miles per minute. It was like they were deaf and couldn't see the solution to their problems right in front of them. Maybe Sozin was right, and it was a bad idea to come here. How was she supposed to help people if they didn't want to listen to her?

From the spirit realm, Vesper spoke into Kira's ear. "You're still learning..." she said. "May I make a suggestion?"

"Go ahead, Vixen. I'm not sure what else I can do here," Kira said.

"There's a lot of mass hysteria. Try talking to one person at a time. It's always easier to speak to an individual than it is to a crowd," Vixen said. "Go for the younger people—they're usually looking for some sort of guidance."

As if on cue, Kira spotted a skinny young man in his teens that was just about to blow right past her. "Hey! Hey, wait, wait!" Kira exclaimed. She got in front of him and grabbed him by the shoulders.

The young teenager collided into her grip. "What?" he sputtered out in a panic, his head jittering around and then turning to her. "Are you mad? Let go of me—I need to get out of here!"

"Relax, you won't get very far running," Kira said in a more soothing voice. "You see that pair of horses way over there?" Keeping one comforting hand on the boy's shoulder, she pointed behind her. "Go to them. We're getting people out of here, and if you don't come with us, I can't guarantee your safety."

"You... You're an onna-bugeisha!" the boy realized with a glance to her weapons. "The Emperor must be desperate if he's conscripting women. Are you part of the garrison?"

"Yes," Kira lied.

"I didn't realize," the boy relented. "I'm sorry, I was just so scared. The Tamurans are coming this way."

Kira flashed the boy a soft smile. "It's fine... Just do as I say, and we'll get you out of here alive." Her smile quickly faded into solemn urgency and she ushered him along in the direction of the horses. "Now go!"

"O-okay," the man managed to get out, shaking in his feet. "It's good to see someone who knows what they're doing. Thank you."

A little less unnerved than he was before, the boy headed straight for the wagon. Kira did the same with others that she saw in the street. She talked to them one at a time, reassuring them that everything was going to be all right, and even lied if she had to, saying that there was an official evacuation effort being organized by the Ishidan military. Slowly but surely, the wagon began to fill up with more and more passengers. She had a dignified gentleness about her that seemed to reel people in and ease any anxiety or doubts that they had.

It wasn't long before it was time to go. Glancing back from a distance, Kira could see that the wagon looked like it was nearly full. That would've been uplifting news if it were not for the sudden uptick in screaming at that very moment. Not far ahead, Kira could see that the main force of the Tamuran army had already made its way here and were marching up the street, spilling out from behind the corner of an intersection. The soldiers were heading straight for them. At the front of the march, one soldier was holding up the Tamuran banner—black with a red symbol of a surging tsunami. Any soldiers that hadn't been ordered to run ahead and soften up the resistance were relegated to ransacking the buildings and setting them on fire.

Kira narrowed her eyes in disdain. She remembered being in a similar position as a child and stared straight ahead with a grim, steely-eyed look on her face. She reserved a special brand of hatred for men who followed orders so readily as these seemed to be doing. They slaughtered indiscriminately at the mere beck and call of their commander. Such men had taken one of the very few things that had ever truly mattered to her in life. This time, she was no longer a helpless child. She wanted to fight instead of running away. She could defend herself now and would've been ready to make a stand right then and there if she had to, but she remembered that Sozin was waiting for her.

Kira turned to run, a deep revulsion smearing across her face. In times like these, soldiers were often no different than bandits when it came down to it. Beasts that raped and pillaged with no concern for who they hurt.

A ways down, Sozin was at the helm of the wagon while the passengers sat in the back. There was enough room for two people in the front seat, but he sat on one side only, resting his arm over the spine of the spot where Kira was supposed to sit. The leather reins rested loosely in his other hand. Sozin slumped into the hard wood, trying to find a good way to sit. He imagined how much more comfortable it would be to sit down if he wasn't so lean and bony. Waiting patiently with a bored expression on his face, he'd already gotten used to the explosions, gunfire, and commotion that was really just plaguing his ears at this point.

There wasn't really much to do but wait for Kira to finish what she was doing. Just when he'd found the perfect way to sit, the shopkeeper from earlier knocked on the back of his seat.

"My friend, I don't mean to alarm you, but they're coming this way," the man said calmly. "We need to leave."

Looking over his shoulder, Sozin spotted the soldiers in the distance. In the wagon, he began to see a few faces amongst the assembled crowd start to grow worried at why they were still here, echoing the man's words. They looked at each other with fretful glances, wondering if they had made the right choice in deciding to wait rather than run.

Great, Sozin thought. Where is this woman?

"Not until-"

Kira came sprinting up from the side. "He's right!" she cut in as she climbed into the seat beside him. "Go! There's nothing else we can do!"

Sozin and the shopkeeper both cast Kira a surprised glance. With that, Sozin didn't waste any time and whipped the horses into action at a fast pace. Rumbling along, the wagon pulled away from the formation of soldiers marching down the street. The passengers couldn't help but watch and murmur as they passed by other stragglers—men, women, and children with no hope of what to do or how to save themselves from the army which would only run them down with horses once they were done razing the settlement. Soon, there were no screams nor the clamor of people yelling anymore, only the distant sound of booming cannonfire and ringing gunshots. They had managed to make it onto the main road without any further trouble, the smoke and fires of the burning town fading into the background.

It seemed now that the worst of their problems were behind them, but they weren't completely out of the woods yet. Being a cautious man, Sozin kept an eye out for any cavalry just in case they decided to show up. That was the only thing that could really complicate their plans. Nothing else was going to catch up to two warhorses pulling a wagon of people along like it was loaded with feathers. Looking around, he didn't see anything concerning—the Tamuran horsemen were probably busy taking care of those who'd chosen to flee on foot instead—but then he glanced off to the side, and what he did spot was a certain plume of smoke that wasn't supposed to be where it was.

His manor...

It was on fire.

The sight of it burning hit Sozin like a hammer blow and twisted his stomach into a knot. There were many homes on the outskirts of Komasu, but this one was dreadfully unmistakable. Sozin's eyes flared with emotion as he remembered his master's gear which was still in the wardrobe. Their picture was in the room and the Buddha idol as well. They were all he really cared about.

Squinting desperately through the brush, Sozin could tell that the entire manor had been completely engulfed by the blaze as they passed it by. He would've stopped the wagon right then and there and run into the flames in a heartbeat to save the very things he treasured so dearly, but nothing could be saved at this point. Another group of soldiers must've come across it and decided to do what the first could not.

Noticing him perk up, Kira shifted over to Sozin's side of the wagon and followed his frozen gaze. "Isn't that...?"

Sozin clenched his fist in darkening anger. "That's my home..."