Finding their way out of the cave proved to be challenging, but with some trial and error and Kira's apt guidance, they managed to make it out safely without running into harm's way again. Once they were free, the warriors returned to their original route walking from bridge to careening bridge. The Great Serpent was nowhere to be seen. Their encounter with the creature had cost them their supplies, but fortunately, the Valley didn't continue on for much farther, and by the end of the day, they had crossed into Tamuran territory beyond enemy lines.

Since they were on the outskirts of Tamura, what was formerly Ishidan territory, there wasn't much to see beyond the wake of destruction that the Tamuran army had left behind for its citizens to clean up. In all honesty, Sozin had to admit to himself that he had no idea where they were. They'd lost their only map along with the rest of their supplies back in the Valley. Despite that, he did know what direction they had to head in if they were going to find civilization again. The sun set in the West, and West was where they wanted to go. For what seemed like forever, they walked in that direction along a deserted road that led through a shady forest, passing by burnt buildings and destroyed settlements. All of them were casualties of war. Scorched-earth tactics.

As beautiful as it was to be in the countryside, especially for a farmgirl like Kira, it would do the pair no good if they remained for longer than they had to. The war would not wait for them and every minute not spent ending it was a moment wasted and an opportunity lost. With those hurrisome thoughts on Sozin's mind, he wasted not a single second. The pair travelled from dawn until dusk at a brisk pace. They needed to get into town where they would be able to take a train towards the more populated areas of the nation. That's where a difference was to be made in ending the Iron War.

Being an incredibly large country, a few uneventful days went by in Tamura as they travelled across the land. Their lack of supplies from the run-in with the snake was unfortunate, but it wouldn't do to march on an empty stomach. The bounties of the woods made for good hunting practice on Sozin's part, much to Kira's admiration. She got to see a glimpse of his shinobi survival training and what it meant to persist on your own in the untamed wilds.

Progress was good and they were making excellent time. Eventually, the warriors found themselves stopping to rest beside a creek running amongst the thickets and brush. It was winter and all but the evergreens had already shed their leaves. Unfortunately for them, it was still too early in the season and it hadn't snowed yet, otherwise they wouldn't have had to make this stop. With water being the only thing Sozin couldn't provide, they needed to take this opportunity to drink.

As Kira kneeled down to take a sip from the creek, golden sunlight bathing her form, some distance away, Sozin leaned against the rough bark of a tree, taking in the sweet scent of the brisk seasonal air. Except... the only problem was it didn't seem so sweet right now.

Crossing his arms, Sozin listened to the running water's soft hum and the sound of birds chirping until Kira returned to his side. The man had a look of sad ponderance on his face. Having gotten a feel for the man's energy, Kira noticed and immediately knew something was wrong, but she couldn't read thoughts and wasn't sure of exactly what was going on in his head. However, she could make a few educated guesses. To her eyes, this time he was slightly different, off in some strange respect, but having seen so much of it before in their time together, she was inclined dismiss it as another one of his typical brooding sessions.

Something told her not to.

Kira wiped the dampness of river water off her mouth with the broad of her wrist. "Are... you ready to get moving again?" she asked tentatively. His shadow seemed two shades darker than usual and thrice as cold.

"Not yet..." Sozin murmured. The man's eyes filled with a vague sense of heaviness. Foreboding currents seemed to gather around him. It was clear that he wanted to have a discussion. Contemplating something, the man took a brief moment to collect himself before deciding to speak any further. "So we're here... We finally made it, huh?" he continued.

"We did," Kira said, shrugging with a silly smirk as she rolled her head to the side. "Bit of a rough journey, but I think the hard part is over."

"The hard part..." Sozin's lips lingered in dark mystery. He wagged his finger with a flair of intent. "That's just it, Kira..."

"What is?"

"The fact that it isn't over... Now that we're in Tamura... I have to ask you something important," Sozin said. "Something incredibly important."

"Okay..." Kira said. "Is something wrong?"

"In a way..." Sozin admitted casually before turning serious again. "Before we set off on this journey, I told you the reason I wanted to come here in the first place. I told you it was because I wanted to end the war, but now that we're here... now that I've gotten to know you better... I don't know you if you can follow me along this path of hatred I'm carving for myself."

"Path of hatred? What are you talking about?" Kira's face eroded into concern. "Are you all right?"

"For a man in my position, I'm perfectly fine, Kira..." Sozin said with eerie intensity. The psychotic swirls within his demonic red eyes drew her attention in like a moth to a flame. He wanted to reveal this part of him to her. He wanted to see how she reacted. "In fact, things have never been more clear in my life..." he added lowly.

Kira's lips tensed together. "You don't sound fine to me."

"That's because my whole life has been filled with nothing but suffering and misery, but believe me..." Sozin warned, "soon it will all come to a head." The man gestured openly with his hands in sincere honesty. "That's why I want to talk to you, Kira. I want to make sure you understand me completely before we go any further down this perilous road."

"I'm listening then..." Kira said. "What is it that you want to tell me?"

Sozin's eyes flickered between her and the ground, perhaps questioning the wisdom of his current decision to reveal himself, but then they narrowed in grim determination. It wasn't like he could turn back now anyway. He had to commit.

And so he did.

"I just hate this fuckin' world, Kira..." he spat with as much vitriol as he could. Enough to make even the Devil himself shudder. "I hate everything about it, and I especially hate the fucking human worms that make this shithole their home..."

Kira blinked. Her gazing orbs inflated in surprise, but she kept them steady on Sozin's own. The man had raised a steady hand to his temple, as though he was trying to keep a vein from popping as he stared at her. She hadn't expected to see or hear any of that. With the way he said it, she felt a pang of dismay shudder through her heart. He could've killed someone with how much venom he had injected into those harrowing words.

"You... what?" she said, doing a double-take.

"You heard what I said..." Sozin uttered menacingly. "I know you did..."

"W-why?" was all Kira uttered back.

"Because every day... is a terrible day for me, Kira..." Sozin drawled in a terrible murmur, nodding slowly with spine-chilling intent. He leaned forward off the tree and started stalking back and forth, pacing around like a contained madman, a dictator with his hands clasped behind his back. "I am so tired... of waking up every day and feeling like I am surrounded by apes that do nothing but throw shit at each other and play petty social games!" he blurted out, rising into a quick yell before falling quieter again. "War... society... life... if you break it down, it's all one big rat race. The world is funny like that, isn't it?"

Sozin lulled into a short but menacing pause. He wanted to speak more, and so he began to a little faster this time. He began to go off like the trigger of a gun let loose.

"And I am a victim of that rat race," he continued. "An underdog. A loser! With the way people have treated me, I should be a mass murderer," he seethed, clenching his fists in front of him and digging the nails into his palms with an angry grimace, "and that would be well within my right, but I just don't understand it. All these... sorry excuses for human beings... they act in a certain negative way, they constantly bring others down to raise themselves up and establish a hierarchy, but then, suddenly, when those at the bottom complain and decide to rise up, they get mad. Everyone is guilty of it in some way or another. From rebellions against the state to vengeful murderers and hateful psychopaths like myself, neglect happens at every level of humanity until it explodes and manifests as something worse. No one seems to want to accept the fact that we create our own monsters, and as far as I'm concerned, we deserve everything we get as a result of that ignorance. You don't get to complain in that situation!"

"Where are you going with this, Sozin?" Kira murmured. She was solemn and relaxed in a way few could ever be in the face of such insanity.

"Where I'm going is—you think anyone had any sympathy for me at any point my life?" Sozin said. "One person!" he shouted. "One! And he was taken away from me! I'll be damned, even if it's the last thing I fucking do, I am going to show this world exactly what a man is capable of when you back him into a corner with no pleasurable way out. Don't you see? People are the same everywhere you go, and those in charge of this country are no different. As much as I would love to kill the people who've hurt me, it doesn't truly matter who I get because they're all in the same goddamn boat! I am going to slaughter them all like vermin because that is what they are and that is what they fucking deserve. I have always been treated like a villain, and if that's what everyone wants me to be, then I'm going to be just that. The best villain! They've groomed me for this position whether they intended to or not."

Kira's orange eyes, pensive and composed with a touch of sorrow, studied Sozin carefully. "Is that what you really think?"

"It is..." Sozin grinned, chuckling toothily with a cocky, charming arrogance. There was a hint of insanity to his mannerisms. "This is my true self," he said. "You think I am what I am because I want to be? You might think I'm crazy, and maybe that's true, but we live a mad world. I might as well be the sanest person alive."

"That's... a peculiar way of looking at things," Kira said in deep consideration, brows creased and eyes down. She had never seen him this charged up before and it was unpleasant to say the least. "How can you be so sure you're not deluding yourself?" she said.

"I can't..." Sozin said. "Maybe I am just insane. I can't dismiss that possibility, but if I am, no one can really blame me after what I've been through, can they? Then again," he chuckled with devilish flare, "maybe I'm not."

A brief silence weighed down upon them. Sozin couldn't help but take note of how Kira was watching him. Suspecting something, his rough features softened, and he put a hand on Kira's shoulder, taking solace when she didn't tense up from the touch of his hand. From that alone, he could tell she was really as open to him as she seemed.

"You know... it just hit me," Sozin said in realization. "You want to know what I like about you, Kira?"

"What do you like about me, Sozin?" Kira played along.

"Your attitude..." Sozin remarked, letting his hand fall off her shoulder. "I've noticed that you've spent this entire time not necessarily judging me as much as trying to understand where I'm coming from. Your first reaction was not to interject with your own opinion, but to be inquisitive and try to understand my own." Pain from a troubled past flickered across Sozin's face. "Somehow..." he said in pensive wonder, "you can just stand there and listen to me spout all these crazy, wild things and genuinely try to understand without an emotional response. You know, I really like that about you. You see, that's rare. That's a gift. Most people would've either left by now or started going off on me and calling me insane right off the bat... but not you. No, not you..."

Kira let out a thoughtful exhale. He was the first person to ever notice that about her. "I suppose I've always been that way," she said, remembering how people used to treat her as a kid. When she wore a different mask.

"You're a very intelligent woman, Kira... which is... why I want you to join me on my mission. As someone who has been neglected as well, I'm willing to bet you understand at least a glimmer of what I'm talking about."

"I do... And I believe in ending the war, although, I don't think your mentality is very healthy."

"That's a fair point. I'm willing to admit that."

"Sozin, look..." Kira said. "I'm trying my best to understand, but if I'm being honest with you, you're really scaring me and I'm worried."

"I know..." Sozin said softly, a glum expression coming over him as his eyes averted and he relented. "I understand if you no longer want to be around me, so I'm going to leave it up to you. Now, I've brought you all this way Tamura as you wanted and you're out of reach of those men that were chasing you, but it's your choice if you want to stick around with me or not. Even though I think I could do it by myself, my goal is to dismantle an entire country, and it would be nice to have your skillset and expertise... and maybe... just someone by my side." Sozin stuck his hand out for an agreement. "What do you say, Kira? Will you join me?"

Kira wallowed in her thoughts. Her dignified demeanor could make her difficult to read at times, but Sozin supposed that was simply the nature of the fox. Her face was like murky water and the thoughts behind it were much like what churned beneath the surface of a lake. Like many things, the water had to eventually calm down and settle. After a moment of heavy thought, something compelled Kira into action, and she reached out and gripped Sozin's extended hand.

"I'm in..." she declared firmly.

She's in...

Great, she's in...

She had taken it better than he thought she would. An uneasy wave of joy shimmered across Sozin's face as he let out a trembling exhale. Another part of him came to light. He grinned with a vulnerable sort of delicacy to his smile, as though she was going to revoke their agreement in the next moment, his fingers shifting warily within the porcelain softness of her hand. Their comforting smoothness was the mark of an elegant fighter that relied on her weapons more than her fists. As quick as it had come, any trouble within his heart found itself washing away along with his doubts about the woman when he saw her lips curve up in response to him.

"Surprised or something?" Kira asked with a hint of playfulness.

"No, no, I'm just..."

Sozin's voice trailed off. This was a big milestone. There was a mutual understanding between them as they exchanged gazes. They had both suffered, but while the wolf had turned his suffering into anger and hatred, the fox had turned it into apathy and disgust for the world, choosing to wander without aim. They would both meet here in the middleground with a common goal and purpose, that much was clear.

"I'm just happy I won't have to do this alone..." Sozin finished as he snapped out of his trance and slipped his hand away from hers. "I would've respected your decision either way, but I'm glad I don't have to lose the only friend I've ever had."

A thick haze, redolent of understanding, crowded Kira's pained face. "I'm your first friend?" she said, her head cocking slightly to the side.

The warmth on Sozin's face faded like dust in the wind. "Yeah..." he breathed out in pitiful shame. There was a great exhaustion to his voice that no young man at his age should ever be carrying.

Kira gave a wince of empathy as the man spoke. She was right in making this decision—someone ought to keep an eye on him, and she was happy it was her. Much like him, she was also tired of many things in life and that could be a dangerous thing. Her own voice was reminiscient of a weary traveller coming across another on the same path. "Seems we're in the same boat then..." she murmured back.

Sozin smiled weakly, returning her sentiment as best as anyone in his position could. "Seems we are..." he said.

And so it was settled.

It felt more than good to wipe the proverbial brow. Words could not describe how relieved Sozin was to have that matter taken care of and behind him already. Fairly quickly, they were on the road and moving again, leaving that place in the woods behind as two shadows reaching out over the ground with every inch the sun began to move across the sky. Walking wasn't always the best way to get around though. There were more modern methods to take into consideration, so, after hitching a ride with a travelling merchant heading in the same direction, they managed to make it into the nearest Tamuran town around midday during the hustle and bustle of commerce.

It was a bright and sunny day in Tanoshi. Compared to being under the chilling shade of the forest canopy, the open streets made the cold of winter that much more bearable with the sun's rays to help tolerate it. At this time, the town was quite busy and teeming with a messy kind of life. Boisterous kids played with each other in the alleyways, the conversation of business was in the air, and a river of people constantly moved throughout the wide channels of road carved all around town. According to the locals, the train station was all the way on the other side of where they were, so they decided to explore a little as they made their way over.

Even though he kept to himself, as a shinobi, Sozin was a naturally nosy person and liked to eavesdrop whenever he could. At the street corners, robed heralds were constantly working the crowds, calling out for any young men willing to join up in the war effort in between the litanies of news that they spouted. Sozin kept his ear out, but aside from them, few people here seemed to care much for the events that were unfolding beyond the distant horizon at the end of the sky. Tamura seemed to be a lot different from Ishida in that respect. There was a stark lack of concern. Sozin supposed it was only natural to be that way if you were standing on the winning side of a conflict. Before the war, the town had been situated on the outskirts of Tamura, but now it was far removed from the action taking place on its country's endlessly-encroaching, ever-expanding borders.

Kira's half-lidded eyes drifted lazily, relegated to scanning the streets in search of some source of entertainment. Glancing over to her side, she saw Sozin with his head down and unfocused eyes glazed over in thought as they walked. He did that often. He was clearly busy ruminating, and at this point, she had gotten a bit of a feel for the man, so she didn't want to bother him when it looked like he was thinking about something important and might make a revelation. That meant she was by herself for now. Not like that was anything new.

Kira did her best to ignore the aches and pains in the soles of her feet. If there was one thing she didn't like about this leg of the journey, it was that the walking never seemed to end for them and there was nothing to really do. She was used to seeing new places like Tanoshi as a wandering samurai, so the novelty of most new locations had quickly gotten old and boring for her as she had pretty much seen it all. In her experience, the battle against boredom was an often vicious and recurring one.

Kira narrowed her eyes.

So it seemed. She would have to use her trump card.

Underneath the brim of her hat, there was a tiny loop where she secured her pipe for safekeeping. The hat and her pipe were Kira's most prized possessions, second only to her swords, and she didn't plan on losing either of them anytime soon. Since there was nothing to do, she decided to light a smoke to stave off some of that nagging feeling in the back of her brain and the boredom along with it. Two birds with one stone. If she didn't catch a few puffs, it was like skipping lunch or breakfast.

Kira took a few whiffs from her pipe. Her face remained bored and aloof until she spotted something strange amongst the line of establishments framing the street with their obnoxious advertisements. Her face instantly lit up.

"What the..." Kira started under her breath. She removed her pipe from her lips in astonishment and exclaimed out of nowhere, "What the hell is that?"

Sozin was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Kira's shocked voice. Confused, he snapped to attention to see what the problem was and had the look of a fish on land. It wasn't until he saw exactly what Kira was staring at that all his confusion instantly melted into grinning amusement.

"Holy shit, is that a person?" Sozin blurted out.

Amongst the row of many storefronts, there, behind the window of one, just standing out in the open, was what seemed to be a naked woman blatantly putting herself on display for everyone else in the street to see. She was frozen into position, glamorous and posing like a geisha that had gotten a little too full of herself. Unsure if his eyes were deceiving him, Sozin began to move in closer, curiosity getting the better of him. He brushed past other people and veered off from the crowded middle of the street towards the edge where the window was.

"Hey! Where are you going? Don't get closer!" Kira said to him, but her words fell on deaf ears. Watching Sozin leave her side made her legs move on their own, and she followed him without thinking.

With no social inhibitions left to speak of, Sozin marched right up to the window of the store without the slightest hint of propriety in the world. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the woman behind the glass wasn't actually real at all. On the contrary, she seemed to be a mannequin of some sort but was incredibly life-like and realistic to the eye. Much more so than anything he'd ever witnessed before. It was a lot like a giant doll and had the outlandish proportions of one too.

The doll sported a buxom set of knockers with pink nipples, and Sozin stared shamelessly at them. It would be ridiculous to think any woman could possess the insane proportions that the doll had but the lack of realism didn't make it any less interesting to look at. Quite the opposite, actually. Sozin was curious about what kind of establishment would have such a culturally heinous thing on display, so he tore his eyes off the voluptuously fake body and darted them to the sign hung up in front of the store with red kanji painted on it.

"Sex shop..." Sozin read aloud. "Well, that's pretty self-explanatory. Never seen one of these in public back home. I guess they do things different here."

Kira couldn't take her eyes off the doll, not out of interest but from the sheer disgust. The face was discernably fake, a clear imitation of a human being, although it was close enough to a real person that it gave Kira the shivers. One plastic eye was staring straight ahead while the other had been loosened out of place inside the skull and was crossed. Kira could only imagine what sort of activity could result in that happening. "It looks so life-like," she said. "It's creepy, isn't it?"

Sozin grinned with a sideways glance. "Yeah! Let's go inside and check it out!"

"No..." Kira drawled in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"Oh hell yeah I'm serious," Sozin said with a look of pure and determined enthusiasm. He gestured towards the doll. "I mean, just look at that thing. I gotta find out what this is all about. Besides, it's cold and crowded out here."

From the caves and now to this strange place, it seemed Sozin was the one taking point on this particular expedition into uncharted territory. The chime of miniature bells jingled to the ear as the door to the shop opened and he entered with Kira reluctantly tailing behind. The only other person in the store, an old, balding man sitting behind the wooden counter in the far back of the shop, merely glanced up from his newspaper before returning to reading whatever page piqued his interest. Sozin figured that the man was the shop owner, although he wasn't sure what a guy with his age and libido was doing running a place like this.

The store had various sections to it, each dedicated to a certain kind of item: lingerie, clothing, magazines, dildos, odd sex toys, and more. From the walls on either side to the rows of shelves inbetween, every spot in the store seemed to have something it was selling in one color or another. It was a lot to take in for sure, but there was only one thing on Sozin's mind. Almost immediately, sans a few perusing glances, he went back to the doll on display at the window for a second but more thorough rear-view look.

It was right in front of him within arm's reach. At this distance, the plump and round curves of the doll's ass wouldn't have failed to impress any man taking in an eyeful of them.

"Oh my god. Stop staring at it," Kira scolded. She jabbed Sozin in the ribs with her finger. The second-hand embarrassment was reeking from her voice. "Why did we come in here?"

"Ow!" Sozin laughed with a vicious squirm. He reeled away from her finger, grinning all the while. " Don't be so mean!" he said. "Hey, I wonder if this is like a strip club. Do you think they have a 'don't touch, just look' policy?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Kira said. "This place is disgusting."

Although he was wary of any more finger jabs from Kira, Sozin's attention darted back to the doll. Hung around its neck and draped down the back was a necklace with a tag attached to it. Sozin picked it up between his fingers. Sex doll, the front of the tag said in red kanji. On the back, it read, Made with rubber.

"Rubber..." Sozin pondered in mystical fascination. He had heard of this amazing material before but had never seen it personally; they didn't have it in Ishida. Wide-eyed, he stroked his chin like a wizard. "I see... So this is the power of Tamuran technology."

"Okay, you've had your look now. Are you done yet?" Kira said with crossed arms.

"No, not yet," Sozin said. "I must investigate further. I need see how it feels."

"You what?" Kira blurted out.

Without hesitation, Sozin reached down and grabbed a handful of the doll's ass, earning him and Kira a few weird looks from passerbys in the street.

"Sozin, what the fuck are you doing?" Kira said. She couldn't believe how this grown man was behaving as though she wasn't standing right there next to him. This level of indecency was unheard of!

Sozin laughed heartily and replied, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm testing out the merchandise," he replied casually as he dug his greedy hand into the doll's rubbery haunches. "Hmm..." He thought about the sensation for a groping moment. It was a perky, bouncy sensation that molded slightly to the press of his fingers. He liked it a lot. Even more curious now, Sozin hovered his other hand by Kira's waistline as he continued to grip the doll. "Hey, you're a real woman, Kira. Could I grab your ass too? For comparison's sake?"

Unamused, Kira's eyes flicked to Sozin's awaiting hand. "Did you really just ask me that question? Why don't you grab your own?"

Seeing her face, Sozin returned his free hand to his side. "I'm a guy though. It's not the same. Mine is pure muscle."

"All right, well, what do you think my answer is?"

"No," Sozin guffawed. He let go of the doll. "C'mon, Kira," he said cheerily. "I'm just messing around. Don't be such a prude. You could at least lighten up a bit, y'know. Have a little fun. I know you wanna grab something too." Sozin looked around. He hadn't payed that much attention to the shelves walking in, but now he realized that they were stocked with an array of dildos coming in a whole variety of sizes. One of them was 9 inches long and looked like it belonged to a horse. Thinking she would like that size, he snatched the rubber phallus off one of the shelves and tried to shove it in her hands with the dexterity of a thief. "Here! Grab this penis!"

"What? No!" Kira blurted out, swiping his arm away.

"Whoaaaahohoahhh, just look it," Sozin admired. He flipped the rubber penis into the air like a juggling pin and caught it as it was spinning, the sudden stop of the catch causing the rubber to jiggle to a hilarious standstill that put a smile on the man's face. "Damn! Kira, you should sit on this thing. It's as thick as your wrist."

Kira orange eyes lulled into a dry gaze. She stared at a corner of the wall. "You have no idea how to handle women, do you?"

Sozin laughed and grinned wide. "Nah!" he said proudly. "I don't know if you realize, but you're talking to a guy who was never really given the chance to learn." Sozin planted the dildo on top of his groin, pretending it was his own member. He swiveled his hips around in an arc like he was peeing. "Psssssssssssssss!" he crowed, laughing again. "This shit is huge. You think you could take one this size?"

Kira shrugged. "How would I know? I'm a virgin."

"What? You're a virgin? No, you're not," Sozin said in stark disagreement.

"Yes, I am," Kira said.

"You?" Sozin said with pure disbelief at the elegant woman before him. His finger was pointing lazily at her.

Kira gestured with her head. "No, the woman in the street that's staring at us because you're making a scene. YES, ME!" she yelled. "WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING IN THIS STORE?"

Sozin began to laugh heartily at her annoyance and that seemed to do it. Keeping her arms crossed, Kira looked the other way with a haughty flourish, choosing to ignore Sozin's inappropriate behavior.

"This is ridiculous," she said, exiting out of the conversation.

Well then... Sozin thought. If that's how she was going to be, then he was just going to have to step up his game. A lightbulb lit up in Sozin's head, beaming onto his face, and he aimed the rubber phallus at the woman like a sword, grabbing it by the curiously rotund base. "Kira..." he murmured dangerously. Now that he put up a threat, she would be forced to respond to it or suffer the full breadth of his attack! If his experience in battle thus far had taught him anything, it was to put the ball in the opponent's court if they were incredibly defensive. A tried and true tactic! Only an absolute genius could think of such a thing!

Sensing a mischievous intent in the man's voice, Kira turned back to look at Sozin. That couldn't be good. Not good at all. As soon as her eyes flickered up, then she saw the way he was grinning at her, daring and full of devilish stupidity, and then what he was aiming in her direction too. Kira planted her hands on her hips, taking one off to point aggressively at the phallic-shaped object he was wielding like a fencer about to strike. "Sozin, I swear to god, if you poke me with that thing, I'm going to beat your fucking ass."

"You sure about that?" Sozin challenged in amusement. He raised his eyebrows a few times with that toothy, charateristic grin of his and said, "Martial arts is my specialty and you're too close to pull out your sword. It's game over, samurai! The shinobi has won!"

Kira didn't say anything back. She tried to analyze the situation, searching for a bluff but there was none to be found. This man was serious. So serious in fact that he had come full circle and couldn't stop himself from giving into bouts of childish giggling as he had a staring stand off with the one and only, Kira Tomoe. This clash of titans was sure not to end well. There was a seemingly permanent grin plastered onto Sozin's face like an idiot and his eyes were filled to the brim with cheeky buffoonery that would not yield in the face of her dignified annoyance.

The intense air tickled the back of Kira's neck as she bore her gaze into the heart of the man's soul. "Sozin..." she warned a second time. Without wanting, a perilous grin of her own was sneaking up on the corner of her lip like a bad itch. She tried to silence it, but some of his crude humor was beginning to rub off on her and mix in with the annoyance, filling the void an ample amount of boredom had left behind.

In that moment, Sozin had another bright idea.

"All right, all right—fine, fine..." Sozin relented. He lowered his dildo-wielding hand. "Imma chill, Kira. Imma chill for you..."

"Thank you..." Kira said in irritated relief. She turned her attention away from Sozin and looked out the window. "Can we get out of here now? I don't want people to-"

Slap!

Sozin whacked Kira on the back of the neck with the dildo as hard as he could.

"You motherf-" Kira lunged for the dildo.

Sozin yelped like a little girl. "Hey, hey, hey! "I'm playin', I'm playin'!" he desperately shot out, laughing as a he shrunk back from her assault.

"Give me that!" Kira demanded. She struggled with a grinning Sozin, grappling with him as they vied for control of the phallus. Sozin couldn't keep his compsure as he fought against her. He was hooting like a monkey as he found himself being reduced into giggling pile of smithereens by the second. As they struggled, Kira tried to rip the phallus out of his hands, and in her anger, she gripped the shaft of the phallus a little too hard and it made a squelching noise. A stream of milky white came shooting out that went flying over her shoulder and onto the floor.

Both of them froze.

Sozin locked eyes with Kira.

Sozin's face was now stuck wide open. His grip loosened up and his hands relinquished the dildo without meaning to. He wanted to laugh so bad that he found himself physically unable to speak, his voice hitching in amusement like a broken record player. Hiccups of laughter were all that managed to come out from his choking voice. He couldn't breath it was so funny.

"Oh my gahhh! Oh my gahh!" Sozin cackled, trying to speak. "What—what is happening?"

The man was dying at this point, laughing so hard, he had turned into the hyena spirit.

Dropping the dildo, Kira pinched the bridge of her nose, her head falling with a groan. She went beet red. "This man..." she muttered to herself. For some reason, she was grinning too, if only half-heartedly. Suffice to say, she was no longer bored, but had gotten a lot more than she'd bargained for.

"Jeez..." Sozin said, his laughter calming down somewhat. He inspected the dildo in amusement. "I wish they had more places like this back in Ishida," he chuckled, speaking a little louder than he should've.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" the store owner called out over the shelves and from the other end of the room. "You two are from Ishida?"

Kira picked her head up in alarm.

It was the owner! He must've tuned in to the conversation after hearing the ruckus they were making!

"Oh, shit! Time to go!" Sozin exclaimed in an amused murmur. He shrunk down, picking up and placing the source of their conflict back on the shelf after realizing they had been discovered. Whispering frantically, he shared a worried look with Kira and ushered her with along his hand on her back. "Go, go! Out the door!" He began pushing her in the direction of the exit.

"Hey!" the owner shouted.

Sozin heard a chair grate against the floor. The sound someone standing up and then the churning of footsteps came quickly after. He was most certainly going to check on them in the aisle.

The pair hurried out the door, the chimes ringing again as Sozin lead Kira by the wrist.

"Sorry about that!" Sozin shouted as the door closed shut behind them.

Sozin warily glanced back to the window of the storefront. The old man saw them leaving and gave them a dismissive wave. He was probably wondering why he should even bother to chase after a couple of young delinquents. He was too old for that, and the man's gesture had said it all.

Despite the wave of relief he felt, Sozin immediately went into scanning mode. Across the street, he saw a few robed men with swords talking amongst each other—law enforcement, no doubt—but they were unaware. Just in case the old man decided to change his mind about them and report their little incident, Sozin decided to pull Kira into the nearby alley. They appeared out on the other side into a different street that was just as busy as the last. Blending into the crowd wasn't difficult, but Sozin continued to laugh in the wake of their escape. If someone was still chasing them, they would've easily stood out and been caught.

"Phew..." Sozin breathed as they walked away. "That could've gone really bad. That old guy gave up on us pretty fast though," he chuckled nervously.

"You're... an idiot..." Kira muttered, but her words only sort of matched her face. There was a thinly-veiled smile, and she gave a lighthearted shake of her head.

"Thank you, thank you very much," Sozin said with a smug grin.

"You had me worried there for a second. Aren't you supposed to be good at keeping a low-profile?" Kira teased.

"Yeah, but in that case, I kinda got caught up in the moment. From now on, why don't we stick to getting our train tickets?"

"Please..." Kira said with mock snobbery. "You're going to get my blood rushing and not in the fun way."

Sozin laughed, grinned, and said, "No regrets though."

From there, it was a long walk to the train station. The town was fairly big, but it wasn't like they were in any rush.

When they got there, they made their way onto the train platform and up to the ticket booth. Money was in short supply—Sozin had spent most of it on his gear before they'd left for Tamura and Kira was as empty-handed as any other vagabond—but it seemed they had enough for two one-way tickets and few coins left to spare. The Tamuran capital, Asakura, was their next destination. With the tickets in his hand, the small coin purse affixed to Sozin's torso was feeling rather drafty now. He would have to find work once they got into the city. He would ensure that a lack of funds wasn't going to be an obstacle in the success of his mission.

According to the schedule posted on a signboard, the train wouldn't be arriving for some time, so they sat outside on a bench looking out onto Tanoshi's busy streets. Sozin had reverted back to his usual, brooding self, and was slumped forward, hands clasped together with an unwelcoming look on his face much like his father's before him. Next to him, Kira smoked her pipe with a lazy expression on her face from beneath her hat, an arm thrown over the spine of the bench and legs spread casually apart.

Kira's stomach grumbled. She placed a hand on her stomach and chimed up, "It'd be nice to have a bit more money. I hope you don't plan on trying to take over Tamura on an empty stomach, cause otherwise, I'm out," she grinned.

"You're hungry, huh?" Sozin said with a serious glance. "Listen, I don't want you to worry about money, Kira. We'll have enough for plenty of food soon. Asakura is a big city. Where there's people, there's bound to be work for a guy like me in the underworld. I'll make enough money for both of us so we can focus on the task at hand."

"Ooh, the underworld? Is that what you call it?" Kira remarked, feigning mystery and fear. With an impish tone, she said, "Must be fun being a criminal."

Sozin grinned with a laugh. "Well, it sure does pay well, but the fun is a nice bonus. You meet a lot of interesting characters, I can tell you that much."

"I bet... Got any good stories?"

"I, uh... Yeah... I got a few..." Sozin voice trailed off. He was squinting off into the distance.

"Well, don't be shy," Kira said. "Lay 'em on me!"

Sozin didn't respond.

His eyes had locked onto something.

Something horrible.

From the bench they were sitting on, Sozin could see straight down the alley on the other side of the street. He squinted harder, trying to get a better view as the people passing by blocked his line of sight. Two lone figures—a mother and a son—were in the alley just outside the fenced-in enclosure of their apartment's small, square backyard. It was too far for him to hear what was going on with his ears or to be able to read their lips without a telescope, but he watched them carefully from afar.

It was clear the mother was yelling at her son.

Had he really seen what he thought he did?

It seemed the mother had the boy by a clutch of hair on the back of his head. Her grip was rough and tight as she shook him to attention with a level of anger that no parent should ever have for their child. She wanted her son to look her in the eye. He couldn't have been any older than ten years old. He was meeting his mother's gaze with a frozen, shocked face, but then the mother's hand knocked it out of him with a hard slap across the cheek.

But it didn't stop there.

It never stopped even as Sozin begged for it not to continue.

And so too did Sozin's eyes freeze into a deadly stare. They froze as they had when his own mother used to abuse him as a child, much like this boy was getting abused now, but instead of fear, there was only the darkening anguish of anger and inferno. He felt a boiling in his veins, a deep raucous that would no longer be silenced in the face of injustice. Sozin's clasped hands turned restless, fumbling terribly with each other as they conspired to take action. Without realizing it, he started feeling the scar on his cheek with two tentative fingers, reminded of his own past ordeals as they flashed through his head. He would never forget them no matter how many years went by.

Watching the scene unfold in the distance, Sozin quickly pieced things together. On the cobbled ground, there was a sack of rice spilling out into the alley by the entrance to their apartment's tiny enclosure. No doubt, the boy was carrying it and had dropped it on accident, earning him an undue amount of his mother's ire.

How could anyone do this? All of it angered him beyond control. He could not sit still. It was just another sick way the strong abused the weak, another form of the injustice he was ultimately going to avenge en masse by killing the deserving, but that did not mean he would allow this to continue. Not by a longshot.

"Sozin...?" Kira said with a sideways look. Her brow creased in worry. She'd been gazing into the street until she realized the man wasn't talking anymore. His face was another thing entirely. He had the most demonic leer in his eyes that could clear a room full of even the most fearless men. A slight, demented gape parted his lips and he was silent like the calm before a storm.

Sozin stood up and Kira's eyes widened.

The darkness from before,she thought. There it is again.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kira said in alarm.

Sozin turned to look at Kira, slower than usual and more menacing like he was trying to hold something back. She found it hard not to avert herself from his penetrating stare. "Whatever I'm about to do..." Sozin said in a low, threatening voice, "Do not intervene..."

"Wait, what are you about to do?" Kira said in alarm, spurring up onto her feet. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You'll see..." Sozin murmured darkly.

Sozin's attention was back on the alley again, laser-focused with only a single purpose in mind. Kira understood his anger when she saw what he was looking at but didn't say anything, merely tagging along behind him as he wordlessly cut through the crowd, across the street, and entered the alley like a reaper in the night. People had made way for him, sensing a purpose in the man's step like no other before it.

As they entered, the alley gave way to a narrow intersection of four adjacent buildings. The mother was facing in the other direction, still scolding her child with hard slaps across the cheek. The message had gotten through—it was written all over the boy's expression—but the mother continued anyway, as though it wasn't about the message but instead teaching the boy a lesson he'd remember for the rest of his scarred life.

It was never about the physical pain and Sozin could already tell it was the same for the boy too. Sozin had got used to that pretty quickly himself, but what he could never get used to was the idea that not even your own parents loved you—the idea that the only two people in the world who were supposed to in spite of everything and who brought you into this world then only to suffer from their hatred. Like it was all for one, big, cruel joke.

Sozin grinned with malevolence, giggling as he walked forth.

But the funniest part always was...

When they had the nerve to look at you and regret telling it.

"Look at what you've done!" the mother screeched in a tantrum. "I told you it was heavy! Why didn't you listen to me?"

"It was too heavy! I couldn't help it!" the boy whined.

"Do you know how hard I worked for that? Can't you just-" With a growl and shake of her head, the mother reeled her hand back for another blow.

Sozin seized her by the wrist with the cold grip of an undertaker.

Startled, the woman craned her neck back. The anger on her face disappeared the instant she saw a man looming over her, a man who looked like he wanted nothing more than to drag her into the abyss and into a place where she would never return from.

Without so much as a single word, Sozin delivered a vicious slap.

The woman was sent tumbling off her feet and onto her robes, all to the horror of her son.

Sozin gestured into his chest as he loomed closer to the woman's fallen form. "Excuse me, is there something I'm just not understanding here? Am I the clueless one? Have I failed to notice the elephant in the room?" he said, speaking with a precarious calm. He crouched low to the ground, getting in the woman's face, and broke that calm at the drop of a hat. "I don't think I have, because if I'm not mistaken, I believe I saw you hitting that child! Tell me!" he said, his voice rising into a harsh yell. "What the fuck did you think you were doing?"

Kira stood not far behind Sozin. She met the uncertain eyes of the young boy and then returned to the mother. Her lips began moving on their own. "Sozin, I-"

"Kira, shut the fuck up!" Sozin snapped, throwing his head back like a wild animal. His voice boomed with anger.

Astonished, Kira immediately put her hands up and backed off with a downwards nod. She settled into a heavy silence. When Sozin returned his attention the woman, she quietly drifted over to the boy and took him under her wing, guiding him away from the commotion.

"Come along now. You shouldn't see this..." Kira said softly. She stopped at the entrance to the enclosure. "Is this where you live?"

"Yeah..." the boy said, glancing back just before they disappeared beyond the tall, gated bamboo fence.

Although his attention was on the mother, Sozin was vaguely aware of what was going on behind him. Like a true lone wolf. Always silent and always observing. Deep down, he was glad Kira was here because he knew he had his own way of doing things and it wasn't always the best way. Now he was going to feel less sorry about this.

"I'm not happy..." Sozin said. "Not... Happy..."

"My son... I was just trying to discipline him," the woman blubbered. "I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't mean to what?" Sozin cut in with fury. "To hit him over and over again? To treat him as less than the dirt under your feet? What exactly did you not mean?"

The man gave a growl of disgust. She was averting her fearful gaze, already raining tears and on the verge of completely breaking down.

"Stop stop stop stop, stop your fucking crying!" Sozin jabbered with an annoyed grimace, sticking his hand up like he was going to smack her again. He restrained himself, however, and leaned in hauntingly close. "Look me in the eye and tell me that's not what you did."

"It is, it is..." the mother admitted shamefully between her scared, sobbing voice. "I shouldn't have, but I did..."

"Telling a young boy to carry something that heavy," Sozin laughed darkly. "And then blaming him when he drops it... You set him up for failure... What greater crime can you commit as a parent? Seems you forgot you were one in the first place..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me," the woman said.

"Oh, I know you are..." Sozin murmured. " I know you fucking are now that I'm here, but you know what? When my father used to beat me for my failures, you know what he always used to tell me? You can always be sorry after the fact..."

The woman swallowed. Her fingers were digging into the hard cobblestone as Sozin wracked his brain. She wanted to recoil away from him. He could feel her immense tension.

"Listen closely because here's what's going to happen. If I come back here," he murmured, pinching his fingers, "and I will... Maybe not tomorrow... Maybe not next week... Maybe not even next month... but if I come back and find even a single scratch or bruise on that boy... I'm going to beat you to death with my own hands. Are we clear?"

"Y-yes..." the woman choked up.

"Are we clear?" Sozin said again in a firmer voice.

"Yes..." she said a little louder and with more clarity.

"Good... Now, about your son..."

There was a rush of hurried footsteps. The boy came running out of the backyard and back into the alley with Kira chasing behind. With a huff of exasperation, Kira reached a hand out as though to stop him through sheer willpower alone, but it was too late, and she gave up.

"Ah, there he is. Right on time..." Sozin said, turning his head before returning to the mother. "He still cares about you."

"Please don't hurt her!" the boy begged, wedging himself inbetween his mother and the strange man accosting her.

"Well, would you look at that... Fascinating..." Sozin murmured with a raspy voice. It was like he was looking at a reflection of his younger self, and he felt a pang of remorse hit him hard in the chest though he didn't let it show. In Sozin's eyes, a son's love for his mother was unlike anything else in the world. It was probably the purest form of love, and that was why it hurt so bad when she betrayed him. He had long since forgotten what it looked like, let alone felt like, and so he relented, if just a little. "I'm not going to hurt you mom, boy..." Sozin assured him. "We were just talking, that's all..."

"Go back inside the house, Mako" the mother said, collecting herself.

"No," Sozin stopped her. "That won't be necessary. I was just leaving..." Sozin gave the woman one last, scrutinizing look, making sure he was truly happy with the verdict. He found that he was, and so he reached into the coin purse around his torso and retrieved the last few coins he had left, roughly stuffing them into the mother's palm and clamping her hand shut around it with his own. Rising to his feet, he said, "I hope you know you don't deserve that boy, and it's a miracle he still loves you..." Taking his exit, Sozin brushed past Kira like a gust of dark wind. "Let's go..." he muttered under his breath.

Kira's gaze lingered on the scared woman and her son before taking her leave as well with Sozin.

Kira caught up to the man just as he was leaving the alley. His hands were stuffed angrily into the pockets of his hakama. They were heading back towards the train station. She didn't say anything, not a word, until the urge to speak out was too much to bear. They were crossing past another back alley when Kira locked her grip around Sozin's arm and started pulling him towards it.

"Okay," she said with more than just a hint of admonishment. "C'mon. We're going this way."

"Hey!" Sozin uttered as she yanked him hard. "What are you doing?"

"I can't take this anymore. We need to talk." Kira pulled Sozin into the alley and away from everyone else in the street. She cornered him against the wall in a blindspot behind a stack of vegetable crates. "What the hell did you do to that woman back there?" she asked.

"You're still thinking about that?" Sozin said coldly. "I stopped her from dying alone in a nursing home is what I did."

"Are you insane? How can you say that? It looked like you traumatized her."

"I sure hope I did. Rather it be her than the child who doesn't know any better and didn't ask for that."

"What?" Kira said with a grimace of disbelief.

"Necessary evils, Kira," Sozin said. "Necessary evils..."

"There's no such thing as a 'necessary' evil."

"I'm sorry, but the world isn't going to be fixed with kindness."

"That's your idea of fixing the world? You're off the rails," Kira said. "What is wrong with you?"

"I don't think you understand just what that kind of treatment can do to a child," Sozin said.

"She gave him a slap on the cheek. So what?" Kira said. "You made things worse. You didn't have to go over there and make a tragedy of it."

Sozin's lip curled, not in anger but frustation for her lack of understanding. "Yes, Kira..." he said, bringing himself into a lethal quiet. "I believe I did..."

"Give me one good reason why," Kira demanded.

"Me..." Sozin snarled lowly. "Me!" he yelled in her face. The man began to chuckle morbidly, light and quick pitter patters of laughter, his hardened exterior cracking like it was all one big joke. "You think I just decided to do that out of nowhere? Do you think these things just happen? Because they don't! Tell me, does this look like a slap on the cheek to you?" Sozin jabbed his finger at his scar and raised his voice. "I used to be that boy! I was him! And now look at me! Look at what I've become!"

Unmoved, Kira raised a harsh, critical eyebrow. "Is this about your family?"

"My fuckin' parents..." Sozin seethed through clenched teeth. His nostrils flared, breathing coming out in heavy snorts, his head jittering with unstable emotion. "I hated my parents for what they did to me, but I hated my mother the most for betraying me when she was the only one on my side... The only one I had left in a world full of shit and pain..." the man spat. "You don't know what that boy is going through. He shouldn't have to come home to what he did. If there is even the slightest chance that I kept him from becoming something he shouldn't, I'm glad I made a fucking tragedy of it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had the chance," he said, going wide-eyed.

They stared at each other as Sozin breathed heavily through the nose, barely containing himself. As a young boy, it wasn't typical of him to get angry. He felt his anger was something the world had forced upon him, and it had been. Sozin's features shrunk back into his face, morphing into a grimace of vulnerability then and there as he was being torn apart from the inside.

His expression filled the woman's soul. Realization shot into Kira like a ghost had phased through her body. These were real emotions.

"A-are you..." Kira uttered as she finally understood. It all made sense now.

Sozin couldn't bear to look at Kira so he turned away, embarrassed by himself and the fact that his eyes were watering. "Why do you think I killed my own family?" he quavered in painful emotion. "I killed them because they were awful... I killed them because they deserved to die."

Kira gripped Sozin by the shoulders. Overwhelmed and drawing nothing but blanks, she felt up his arms before sliding her hands behind his back and pulling him into an apologetic hug. Her eyes were alive with thought, trying to process what he had said. Sozin's arms wrapped weakly around her and Kira pulled him tighter. She panted, relieved once she had him in an embrace as though he would've fallen apart if she wasn't there to hold him together, but cursed in her head at what was happening.

"At least with my father, I knew what to expect, but my mother... My mother..." Sozin sneered tremulously. "She stabbed me in the back as soon as I became an inconvenience to her relationship. I was a disappointment for the family, and father never left her alone about it. She started blaming me. Like I had asked to be born."

Kira felt one of Sozin's hands squeeze her lower side, the other fidgeting against her back with nothing to grip on to but the robe.

"Have you been keeping this inside you the whole time?" Kira asked. "I had no idea..."

"I've never told anyone besides Wolf, but my mother knows the full story too. She's still alive... the only one that survived my retribution..." Sozin's eyes fluttered, lulling into a deep, considering pause. "I don't know why I spared her. I suppose... it was in the name of our past relationship... What once... was..." The man's voice trailed off like a leaf being taken by the breeze.

"Oh..."

"That was four years ago..." Sozin said. "But if feels like yesterday to me..."

Kira took note of Sozin's worn down voice. He always had it whenever they spoke, but in a moment like this, it was shining through more than ever. "So, how old are you now?"

"Twenty-two... Why?"

"Twenty-two!" Kira said in astonishment. "That's... worrying..." she remarked. "In my travels, I've gone to a lot of places and talked to a lot of people. I've even talked to a lot of old men before. They have a weary voice, the kind that only comes with age or experience. You have that same voice, Sozin. I hear it every time you speak, and you're so young."

"I've never noticed... but... that's sad, isn't it?"

"No... It's not your fault."

"And what about you? How old are you?"

"Twenty-three."

"Twenty-three, huh? I guess that makes you the mature one," Sozin chuckled, an ounce of glee in the pool of dejection that was his voice. "Life can really get you down... If you're not careful, it'll grind you away until you're nothing but an empty shell on the inside."

"Is that what you think you are? An empty shell?"

"Yes..."

"Well, you're not," Kira said, leaning back to reveal her comforting smile to him. "Empty shells don't have feelings. You're still a person, Sozin. Even if you don't think you are."

Sozin smiled. "The depths of my misery know no bounds," he murmured.

Chuckling, Kira pulled back from their hug and ruffled Sozin's black hair with a grinning sigh. "You're such an edgelord..."

They absorbed each other's expressions for a few, tantalizing moments, falling into a short silence. But silence would never last between them.

"Is it bad that I enjoyed it?" the man asked out of nowhere.

"Enjoyed what? Killing your family?" Kira said with surprise.

"Yeah..."

"I don't know..." Kira said. "I'm not even sure what that feels like... to hate your own family. I don't know if I can imagine it."

"As much as it bothers me, I know I'm glad I killed my father..." Sozin murmured darkly.

"What did he do to you?"

"You wouldn't like him... He was a real... patriarch of a man—tall, forbidding, and strict..."

"Sounds like the kind of guy to be leading in the military," Kira said.

"Yeah. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit his height," Sozin chuckled in sad, morbid amusement, "but I'll never forget the look on his face he would always give whenever he saw me. The same, fucking, look of disappointment... day, after day, after day... It was tiresome..."

Unsure of what words to provide, Kira almost stayed silent. "That's... terrible, Sozin."

"I know..." Sozin murmured. "But it's the truth, and it's nice to finally have someone to tell it to for once. Frankly, I enjoyed killing him with my own hands. It was like I had finally been freed. That day... I knew I could stand up to anyone. No man... will ever scare me as much as my father did..." Sozin said. He lingered on Kira's bewildered face, the face of someone who didn't know how to help him before he was compelled to change the subject. "We... should get moving. Otherwise, we're gonna miss our ride."

"Right," Kira replied. Stepping back, she gave Sozin a few love pats on the chest.

Sozin stuck his hands back into his pockets. They started out of the alley together, but as they walked out, Sozin wanted to say one more thing. "Hey, Kira..." he spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry for cursing at you earlier."

Kira snorted. There was that meeker part of him again that was usually hidden by his hardened exterior. She found his consideration sweet, if a bit late. "It's all right..." she assured him. "I understand why you were so angry now. You can be pretty scary when you're mad."

"I suppose I get that from my father..." Sozin said, uncertain of whether that was a good thing or not.

In the distance, the loud steam whistle of a bustling mass of metal went off and it spurred them to move at a faster pace. By the time they got to the train station, they were greeted by the raucous, metallic shrieks that signalled the arrival of a hunkering machine upon the railway, one of the greatest feats of ironworks to have graced the world by way of the great minds across the southern seas. Right on time! They had made it just as the passengers were getting off and new ones were getting on. The metal carriages carrying the cargo of this machinery were numerous, attached to each other like the segments of a giant worm except it fed not off dirt but off coal. Black coal that polluted the air with thick plumes of ash and cinder.

"Incredible..." Kira said in awe. She glanced to the front of the train where the raggedy engineer was leaning out of the driver's compartment. He pulled on a cord just outside the compartment window and the steam whistle sounded a few times more, as if the operation of the train by itself wasn't enough to tell people that it was here.

Sozin was impressed as well. This was the first time either of them had ever been in the presence of such a magnificient and complicated contraption. They watched impatiently as all the old passengers disembarked along with everyone else who was standing around to board. The system for boarding worked in waves with the passengers with the most expensive tickets getting on first and the least expensive last, so that meant they had to wait. When it was finally their turn, the Tamuran conductors greeted and directed them to the rear carriages with a polite and refined smile, wearing fine uniforms that stood out like a sore thumb amongst the funneling crowd. Their dark red button-up coats, pants, and signature conductor's cap—the color of an exquisite wine—were rather strange in comparison to the robes that were typical of Miuran culture as a whole.

Sozin squeezed into one of the carriages with Kira and made his way down the narrow aisle, finding a hard, wooden seat for them near the back of the carriage. Unfortunately, a pair of cheap tickets didn't afford them much seating space, so they would just have to deal with it. They took off their swords and hung them on the shoulder of the seat before cramming themselves into the small space that the inventors of this contraption seemed to have somehow considered fit for a grown man and woman.

Having taken the window side of things, Sozin shifted around, manuevering his knees away from the seat in front of them that was blocking his legs in. He made his best attempt at getting comfortable. "Damn, this shit is tight."

"Ha!" Kira smirked. "That's what he said."

"I'm sorry?" Sozin grinned in half confusion and half amusement. Considering her usual temperament, he cocked his head at her joke.

"Nothing," Kira said. "I was just saying—it pays to be small sometimes."

Sozin chuckled. "You're telling that to a shinobi?"

"No, I'm telling that to thee shinobi," Kira said with some verbal flair. "You've got our tickets?" she asked.

"Of course," Sozin said, pulling the tickets out from underneath his cape and flashing them. "Right here."

Even though they were boarded, they still had quite a ways to go and many stops before they got to Asakura. They were in for the long haul on this one. Kira did her best to get settled in, especially since she didn't have the window seat.

Departure was fairly quick after the train was boarded. With a lurching groan, the wheels started to turn and it began to inch forward in a stalwart march, slowly but surely picking up a hefty kind of speed. In almost no time at all, they were chugging along merrily, driving down the tracks and across the countryside, deeper into Tamura. Telegraph lines had been erected along the path.

Eventually, the conductor came to punch their tickets. The railway made for a comparably smooth ride as opposed to a horse or a boat. From grasslands to forests, the land either stretched on for as far as the eye could see or sheltered them in the shade. Conversation kept them occupied. Sights and towns seemed to pass them by like the pages of a flipbook as Sozin revealed more and more of himself to Kira than he ever thought he would to anyone other than Wolf. She was a good listener, much like himself, and there were moments where he wondered what he had done to deserve the company of such a person. He was grateful to have her. Having a fresh ear to talk to was one of life's simpler pleasures that he wasn't going to take for granted, not when he had been denied that for all but a few times in his entire life. He supposed that was part of the reason why he didn't hold back when talking to her, not just because he trusted her now with his person and his mission, but also because he could learn something about himself by bouncing his past off of her as he had with Ikijo.

And for a while, it was nice.

Many a word later, they were on the side of a small mountain, overlooking hills of rice terraces as the train chugged along the tracks. Sleepy energies had gathered far above in the pleasant sky. It was dark and cloudy, cooling an orange sun that was bleeding between the hills in the far distance.

"That's a beautiful view," Kira said, gazing out the window in wonder. Half of her wanted to doze off into slumber while the other wanted to just look and do nothing but.

"Wanna switch seats?" Sozin asked, noticing her interest.

Kira lit up and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "'Bout time you offered, ya window hog!"

"It's kinda cramped in here. Move so I can get out," Sozin said.

"No, it's fine," Kira said. "I'll slide over. Lemme just..."

Without hesitation, Kira clambered off the seat and began to slide over Sozin's lap. Instinctively, Sozin began to shift in the other direction, but in the process, felt the soft perkiness of her rump gliding over the top of his legs and nearly his groin as well. If he had felt it, surely she did as well. With a grunt, Kira then casually plopped herself on the other side of him. The maneuver was no big deal for her. The nature of it didn't even seem to register in her mind. Was he going crazy? Maybe it was because he was a man. For a man, touch was as scarce as gold and all the more serious.

His member down there seemed to think it was serious too. The sensation was over as quickly as he had felt it, but it lingered in Sozin's mind like the afterimage of a bright light. He shut his eyes, swallowed, sighed, and proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose in disappointment at himself as Kira gazed outside, seemingly unaware of what she had just caused to transpire inside the man mere seconds ago. Great, he bemoaned within the comforts of his thoughts. Now I know what her ass feels like.

It was much better than the doll, that was for sure.

But he was a monk, and he had consigned himself to celibacy! He shouldn't be thinking like that, especially not about his friend. At first, ignoring the memory of the sensation was no problem at all, but like a hot pepper that took a second to kick in, restless desire flooded through shortly thereafter, and the more he thought about it, the more it filled his thoughts. He wanted to fill something else too. As discreet as a suffering man could be, Sozin gripped the edge of the wooden seat with enough force to turn his knuckles white. He crushed the ball of his foot into the back of the seat in front of them in an attempt to let the energy out. But it wasn't working so well. There was only one way to let this kind of energy out and being a monk wasn't starting to sound so good anymore.

Fucking hell, I don't need this shit right now, Sozin thought.

Kira turned her head from the window. "Are you all right, Sozin?" she asked, picking up on his tension.

Sozin cursed in his head. Why is she so perceptive?

"Yeah..." Sozin said innocently. Maybe a little too innocently. He relaxed his muscles and continued with as much naturalness as he could muster. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Kira pursed her lips, eyes tracing away, rolling left, up, and then down before meeting his again. "I don't know..." she said with thinly-veiled awareness. She gave a plain smile and added, "Just thought I should ask."

Kira looked away. Sozin burned his eyeballs into the back of her head before returning to himself.

Himself...

Maybe not the best place to be right now.

He thought about it again. Her plump legs had grazed him, firm but soft in all the right ways as he would've expected from an athletic woman. In that sliver of time which he had been given to savor their feeling, hardly any time at all, he was instantly excited, but was that it? Was he so touch-starved that this was all it took to get him riled up on the inside? It was pathetic and he knew it.

"Are you gonna make a move on her?" Wolf asked, sensing the man's feelings.

"No! Oh, hell no!" Sozin murmured within the forest of the spirit realm.

"Why not?" Wolf asked.

"Because..." Sozin said. "Kira's the first real friend I've ever had. Out of respect for our relationship, I'm not going to do that. If my gambling days have taught me anything, it's not to risk something good on the chance that you might get something better. I am content with what I have, Wolf."

Wolf nodded in approval. "You are wise beyond your years, brother. I applaud your answer with my imaginary hands, but you still have much to learn. Count on that, if anything."

Night was approaching, and with it, so was their destination. Passengers would get off and even fewer got back on. With every stop the train grew more and more empty. By the time it was completely dark out, they were the only ones left in their carriage.

Asakura was the last stop for today's schedule.