dive and disappear without a trace (ATLA x BNHA)

Chapter Eleven

Shouto watched as Katara, Aang, and Sokka struggled in their binds. The warriors who had marched him in held their golden fans out warily, halfway surrounding him, while Shouto stood in the center of the half-circle. "May I?" he asked, miming the removal of a blindfold on his own face.

The leading girl eyed him cautiously, but nodded. "If you pull anything, we won't hesitate to attack." Shouto nodded, then approached the rest of his group.

Sokka turned his head towards Shouto as he grew closer, likely notified of his approach by his footsteps. "Show yourselves, cowards!" Shouto suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, slipping off Sokka's blindfold first and then Katara and Aang's.

"Shouto?" Katara exclaimed. "Why aren't you tied up?"

"It's a long story," Shouto answered, sighing. "I'll tell you later. I've talked with the warriors who captured you, and they've agreed to consider letting us go if we agree to leave the island and not start any trouble."

"Hey, first I want to talk to the men who ambushed us! I want to give them a piece of my mind!" Sokka said obnoxiously.

"There were no men," the leader of the warriors spoke up. She stepped forward, gesturing heavily. "We were the ones who ambushed you. Now tell us, are you willing to leave peacefully, or will the Unagi be receiving a nice, big meal tonight?"

"Hang on," Sokka said, shaking his head. He glanced at Shouto with an amused look in his eye, as if seeking confirmation. "You're telling me that a bunch of girls took us down?"

"Sokka," Shouto said sharply, shooting him a warning look. If they ended up having to fight these people all because of Sokka's inability to keep his sexist comments to himself, Shouto was going to throw him to whatever the Unagi was himself.

"A bunch of girls, huh?" The leader gripped Sokka's shirt in her fist angrily, mouth curling in a frown. "The Unagi's going to eat well tonight."

"Wait!" Katara shouted before Shouto could step in. "Please don't hurt my brother, he's just an idiot sometimes. He didn't mean it!" The leader of the warriors hesitated, but released Sokka's shirt, stepping back with anger still in her face. Shouto let himself relax slightly.

"It's my fault," Aang piped up, his gaze cast. guiltily at the ground. "I brought us here to ride the elephant koi. I'm sorry, we'll leave."

"That still doesn't assure us that you aren't spies for the Fire Nation!" An older man, who Shouto assumed to be the chief of the town, objected. "Kyoshi has stayed out of the war thus far, and we intend to keep it that way!"

At that, Aang's face brightened. "Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!"

The man's face darkened with disbelief. "How could you possibly know Kyoshi? She has been dead for centuries!"

"I'm the Avatar," Aang explained calmly. As expected, there was pushback as the townspeople reminded Aang that he was the last of his people. Perhaps even more predictably, the town's chief called for Aang to be thrown to the Unagi once more, and Shouto felt that these people were a little too eager to feed people to this ravenous beast.

"Aang, do some airbending," Katara muttered as the civilians grew more agitated by Aang's perceived lie. Without further ado, Aang leaped into the air and performed a graceful arc over a tall statue of Kyoshi, her painted face and large fans giving away her identity at a single glance. Aang sliced his ropes on one of the statue's fans, freeing himself of his bonds.

As Aang landed, the townspeople stared in awe. "You are the Avatar!" the chief cried in shock. 

Aang nodded, then beamed his pearly whites at the crowd. "Now check this out!" he declared, performing the trick that had garnered such disinterest from Katara merely a few hours previous. The gathering of civilians went wild with cheers, one man frothing at the mouth in excitement. Shouto grimaced. This place was weird.