9: Expectations

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"Hey."

Hiko had drifted off, his head slightly tilted. Hearing the voice, he stirred immediately and looked behind him to see Jinora.

"Oh... Hey." Hiko responded shyly.

"Can I sit beside you?" Jinora asked gesturing the spot beside Hiko on the bench. Nodding slowly, Hiko scooched over to make some space.

"That explosion looked pretty bad." Jinora was smiling slightly.

"Yeah... I'm embarassed you had to see that."

"No it's fine. Why did it happen exactly?" Jinora asked curiously. She rarely saw Lightningbenders so she was definitely curious to the principles of it.

"I- was distracted, if you don't focus enough your mind becomes unstable thus  you won't be able to seperate the positive and negative energies properly."

"That's interesting, I don't really know much about Lightningbending as much as I know about the other elements."

"If you want you could always watch me train Korra." Hiko looked to his side at the person that had distracted his mind for the first time. Jinora smiled widely.

"Yeah sure!" Jinora stood up facing Hiko.

"I'm Jinora." Jinora smiles at Hiko and offers him a hand.

"Hiko." They smile at each other before Jinora walks away back to the temple. Hiko watched as she walked away.

"Damn it Hiko." He muttered to himself before walking back to the training grounds.

Hiko was helping Korra polish her stance which he had labeled as "fragile and sloppy".

"Alright now bend your knees, keep your back straight, make sure your hands move in sync." Korra was being barraged by instructions before extending her arm producing Lightning.

"You can do better." Hiko said with his arms crossed observing Korra's stance.

"I'm doing exactly what you do!" Korra exclamied.

"I'm not as slow and sloppy as you Korra. Now do it again, keep your back straight." Hiko turned around. Korra sneered before doing the sequence again.

"A little bit better, I think that's it for today, tomorrow we'll learn more."

Korra gave a sigh of relief before walking toward the temple.

"Bup bup bup bup." Hiko stopped Korra.

"I thought we were done?" Korra asked.

"Our training is done, now we start our duel." Hiko said before getting into a stance.

"What?!"

"Every after training we duel to see your improvement. My father used to this when he taught me." Hiko was now circling Korra.

"That's crazy!"

"Calm down. Since you haven't learned redirection I won't attack. You have to try and hit me."

"Fine." Korra submitted before getting into stance.

"Alright go."

Korra began producing Lightning trying to see where Hiko was going. So far, the boy was moving to her left with his arms raised.

Korra struck but Hiko evaded jumping over the bolt Korra sent. Hiko landed getting back into stance immediately. Korra threw more bolts but was still geting dodged, ducked, evaded or jumped over by Hiko. Korra was getting frustrated and impatient. Damn this kid. Korra started producing Lightning again, Hiko watching her. Korra now had a plan. She aimed low before extending her arm. A bolt of lightning approached Hiko before he jumped over it. But as soon as the lightning flew from Korra's fingertips she had already began producing another one. The second bolt hit Hiko mid air. Hiko who did not expect Korra to produce Lightning that fast was blind sided. He caught the Lightning with his left arm, letting it pass through his body before releasing it through his right arm as he landed on the ground.

Producing lightning that fast had exhausted Korra.

"W-woah... h-how did I d-do that." Korra was gasping in between words, Hiko simply smiled at her.

"I expected nothing less from the avatar."

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