Flameheart | Zuko

THIRTY-TWO

For the rest of the day, Homura walked around Ba Sing Se, taking in all that had changed in her absense. Not much had changed but if possible, she thought more people had become criminals over time and the citizens of the Lower Ring seemed to be even more poor than she remembered them being. Still, Homura walked on, passing through alleys and narrow passages before she reached a wider street. There were no paths made of cobblestone in the Lower Ring, just bare ground beneath her feet. She schooled her features as if she were wearing an expressionless mask and kept going.

She bought some food later on in the day and ate while walking, taking in every inch of her surroundings as she did. It didn't take her long to find the place she remembered most shops were, and as she had expected, they were open. She passed by a small tea shop, didn't spare a look at a man selling cabbages standing beside the road with a cart full of cabbages next to him, she walked by a cart with fruit and finally stopped in front of a place she remembered her mother had taken her to have dinner once or twice, when her mission was going well and they had some money to spare. She remembered it had been a rather good place for a pub. With a determined nod at herself, she straightened up, squared her shoulders and got inside.

Only to risk being hit in the head by a bottle.

Homura ducked right in time, her eyes widening dramatically as she turned to the wall behind her and noticed the thousands of glass shards littering the wall and the floor before she turned to her front to examine the chaos inside the pub.

Tables had been upturned, chairs had been thrown aside - she could spot a broken one too - and about a dozen men were yelling at each other and fighting among themselves, throwing glass bottles at each other occasionally. She noticed a few men on the ground, evidently unconscious, and her eyes trailed over to the counter in the side of the shop, where she could see a rather short man hiding behind it, trembling from head to toes. Keeping a mindful eye on the quarelling men, she approached the man behind the counter.

"What happened here?"

"The Xu brothers, that's what happened," he sniffed as he glanced at the men. "They got here at the same time with their gangs and got into a fight. They're wrecking my pub!"

Homura couldn't help but agree with him as she took in the state of his pub. The men were still fighting. "Can't you make them stop?"

"Are you insane, young lady?" he exclaimed, ducking behind the counter once more as a bottle was thrown at him. Homura winced at the crashing sound as the owner of the pub peeked over at her. "Do you need a drink or something to eat?"

"Actually," she licked her lips as she turned to the men, "I came here to work."

He blinked. "You want to work here?"

She nodded, "I do. I want a Yuan an hour."

His eyes widened. "That's too much, young lady!"

She shrugged, "Doesn't seem to me like you've got much help running the pub."

One of his eyes was starting to twitch in clear annoyance as he glanced at his customers and then back at her and sent her a nod. "I accept your proposal if you manage to get them to stop fighting."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "If I do it, you'll pay me a Yuan an hour and I get to have my sword with me at all times. If I can't do it I'll leave you and your pub alone."

The pub owner nodded, "Deal. Don't be discouraged if you don't manage to make it, though."

Homura nodded as she turned her attention to the fighting men. With a short nod directed mainly at the pub owner, she pushed herself away from the counter and walked over to her customers. For a second she thought of covering her ears - their yelling was obnoxious - as she took a while observing the two groups that had formed behind two men that were almost identical if one excused the fact that one of them was bald and the other had long hair.