Somewhere around a day and a half after the close call at the dance party, Appa and his riders came across a brown river and began to follow it.  Kouji, apart from the others, made a face when Aang promptly stripped down and jumped in.  The sailors on Zuko's boat might have taught him to swim as a precaution, but he would never do so voluntarily.  On top of which, the water was horribly muddy — to the point where the mud was sticking to Appa's fur.

"Blegh," he muttered, turning away.

Aang, oblivious to Kouji's disgust, was teasing Momo, calling for him, the ducking back under the water. When the lemur finally caught him, he leapt back up onto the saddle. "Hey, guys, I think this river's polluted." And then he blew the mud all over them.

Kouji joined in on the revolted outcry of the others, wiping the sludge from his eyes.  "Do you think?"

"Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish," Sokka, the only one of them who'd stayed clean (being behind the others on the back of the saddle), pointed out. "Because normally, my fishing skills are off the hook!" He grinned and held one up. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?"

"Too bad your skills aren't on the hook," Toph said, dryly. And then the others laughed.  Even Kouji smiled before  turning back to the river.  He always took care to remain as far from Katara as he possibly could, made difficult by the small saddle.

"It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to get food," Katara said, staring into the icky water. "Assuming that fits into Sokka's master schedule," she added, watching as he unrolled it.

"Hmmm..." he said, studying it. "It's doable. But that means only two potty breaks today."

The colonist rolled his eyes and let his head fall forward to slam on the edge of the saddle.

"Hey!" Aang said. "Maybe we can get food there." He pointed ahead of them, around a slight bend in the river, at a dilapidated little town on stilts.

I don't know, Kouji thought, frowning at the river.  These little towns often rely on the rivers as their sole source of food and income.  They may not even have enough to spare for visitors.  He remained silent, however, not wanting to arouse Katara's ire.

None of the others objected, so they made a camp behind a bluff, made sure Appa was hidden, and prepared to head for the stilt-town.

"I don't feel anything," Toph said. "Where's this village?"

"It's in the middle of the river," Sokka explained.

"Sure is!" called a voice from below them.  Looking down, the five of them could see an old man wearing a vest and a hat.  "My name's Doc!  Mind if I ask who you are?"

"We're, um, from the Earth Kingdom Colonies," Katara bluffed.

"Yeah," Kouji agreed from behind Toph.  "New Sozin."  Inwardly he was cringing.  No doubt the "colonies" excuse would be used to explain any deviation from Fire Nation behaviour.

"Wow, colonials!" Doc exclaimed.  "Well, hop on!  I'll give you a ride into town."

They climbed down the cliff and settled aboard Doc's raft. After a few minutes, Katara asked, "Why do you live on the river?"

"Because we're a fishing town," the old man explained, raising his pole from the water and moving it to the other side to propel a bit.  Kouji just groaned and tried not to be sick.  "At least, that's how it was before the factory moved in."

Kouji raised his head to look at the break in the riverbank, where the factory could be seen belching black smoke.  Doc went on, "Army makes their metal there.  Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river.  Now our little village is struggling to survive."

"Want to see my surprised face?" Kouji muttered under his breath.  He knew Uncle had been the exception!

The village, once they got there, was even worse off than some refugee villages in the Earth Kingdom had been. The people sat around listlessly for the most part, staring at their lost river.

"Look at this place," Katara whispered. "It's so sad… We have to do something to help."

Sokka's cold practicality cut through his sister's idealism. "No, we can't waste our time here. We have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own."

Would he have said that if it was Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom people in need of help? Kouji thought sourly, glaring at Sokka.  He said nothing, however, afraid that agreeing with Katara on this would make her change her mind.  New Sozin is much better than this place, and we had pirates and the Earth Kingdom soldiers to worry about!

"These people are starving," Katara snapped at her brother. "But you'd turn your back on them? How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"I'm not turning my back, I'm just being realistic! We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the Firelord."

Toph slammed her hand over Sokka's mouth. "Hey, Loudmouth! Maybe we should be a little quieter when we talk about taking out the Firelord."

Kouji put his head in his hands.  I should have just stayed with the warriors.

"Come on, Katara," Sokka said, quietly. "Be reasonable about this. You know our mission has to come first."

"...I guess so," she finally said.

"Let's just get what we need and go," Aang said, a little too cheerfully.

"If we can get anything," muttered Kouji, waiting for them to start moving before he followed.

They wandered for a while before finding a food stand. Sokka rang the little bell, and blinked a little at the man behind the counter. "Hey, Doc. You work here, too?"

"I'm not Doc," said the old man cheerfully.  "I'm Xu!  Doc's my brother."

The others stared at him for a second. "But...we just saw you," Aang insisted. "You're even wearing the same clothes! The only difference is your hat!"

"Doc works on the docks!" Xu explained.  "That's why they call him "Doc".  And I work in the shop.  That's why they call me Xu."

…well, if you wrote 'shop' phonetically, it might make sense, Kouji thought.  In bizarro-land.

"I… don't get it," Aang said.

"Me neither!" proclaimed Xu cheerfully.  Kouji's right hand flew up to slap against his forehead.  "Now, what can I get you?" the old man asked after performing an odd manoeuvre that ended with him ducking out of sight and reappearing with a box, which he set on the counter.

The box was full of odd-looking clams and fish with various numbers of heads. It was, on the whole, a highly unappetizing sight.  Xu seemed not to noticed.  "Hey, I'll give you a special deal!  If you buy three fish, I'll throw in a clam for free!"

Sokka poked at a clam, which spat up river sludge. "We'll just take the fish," he said, trying to hide his nausea. "Mind telling your brother we need a ride back to shore?"

Xu wrapped up the fish, vanished behind the counter, and then reappeared with Doc's hat.  Or maybe Doc had been out of sight behind the counter the entire time for… gods knew why.  Slightly creeped out, Kouji edged closer to Toph as the man proclaimed, "Hey, colonials!  My brother says you need a lift."

He hopped over the counter and walked back to his boat.

"…I think he's been drinking river sludge," Kouji murmured to Toph.

She giggled a little, then followed the others to the boat, Katara stopping to give one of the local kids one of their fish.

While Katara was separating water from sludge to make dinner, Sokka started complaining. "Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule. It's gonna take some serious finagling to get us back on track."

"Finagle away, O Schedule Master," Toph said, sarcastically.

"Well, for starters, it looks like we're going to have to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day."

Kouji groaned softly from where he was seated by Appa.

The others continued to fuss over the schedule for a while longer, concluding with Sokka announcing that they had to leave first thing the next morning.  Kouji ignored him to curl up on the sky bison's tail and fell asleep.

He woke around midnight, with his stomach growling — he'd forgotten to eat, and Toph had been distracted by Sokka's finagling.  Muttering curses, the boy carefully picked his way over to the pot to dredge out some leftovers, then tiptoed his way back to the bison.  He was eagerly drinking when he realised Katara was missing.

…probably a late-night bathroom break, he decided, setting his bowl down and curling up on Appa's tail again to sleep  the night through.

He woke to Sokka yelling. "What?! Appa's sick?! That's awful!"

"Not the biscuits!" Kouji cried, sitting up straight.  Then Sokka's words registered, and the boy quickly scrambled off of the sky bison's tail.

"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water," Toph was saying.

"He doesn't look sick," Aang said, hopefully. "You okay, buddy?"

The bison groaned, revealing a tongue stained purple.

Kouji's eyes narrowed.  What kind of disease does that?

"His tongue is purple!" Aang said, sitting down with it. "That can't be good… Katara, can you heal him?"
"It looks like he needs some medicine," she replied, studying the tongue. "Maybe we can find the right herbs in town?"

Kouji put his head in his hands.

*          *          *

A couple hours and a ride from Doc/Xu later, they were back on the docks of Jang Hui — the town had apparently been named for the river.  Toph was hanging onto Kouji's arm today, causing the younger boy to turn almost the same colour as his belt.

"Is it just me, or does this place seem… different?" the other earthbender asked, wondering.

"Yeah," Aang said. "Are the people… happier?"

On cue, a little girl ran by, playing with a ball.

Kouji turned his head to watch her go.  Aang was right.  They were happier, more energetic.  Something must have happened.  Maybe the factory shut down! he thought hopefully.

"Hey, Xu," Sokka asked, as they meandered up to the stand. "What's going on with everyone today?"

The old man finished drinking from a ladle with some kind of mould on the bottom — Kouji gagged on seeing it — and turned to them.  "Ah, something amazing happened last night.  Food was delivered to our village last night by a mysterious and wonderful person: the Painted Lady."

Kouji's grey eyes widened.

"The painted who now?" Katara asked.

"The Painted Lady," Xu repeated himself.  He put a statue down on the counter so they could look at it.  "She's part of this town's lore.  They say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need.  I always thought she was just a legend… until now."

"So did I," Kouji whispered.  So much for Ichi-ni's opinions on the spirits.

"See?" Sokka said to his sister, ignoring Kouji. "We don't need to help these people. They already have someone to help them." He then turned to Xu. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend."

"Medicine?  Sorry, all the medicine we have goes to the factory," Xu explained.  "That's why there's so many sick people in our village."

Kouji didn't even realise that he had started growling until Toph elbowed him in the side.

"Looks like we need to stay another night, so Appa can rest," Katara said, turning to her brother.

Sokka sighed. "I guess you're right." He turned back to Xu. "You got any more food to sell?"

Once again the decidedly odd man vanished behind the shop counters and reappeared, this time with a fish in each hand.  "Would you like the one-headed fish or the two-headed fish?"

"Oh, gods, I'm going to be sick," Kouji moaned.

"Don't do it on me," Toph said, shoving him away.

"Two-headed!" Sokka said. In response to the others' disgusted looks, he continued, "What? You get more for your money that way!"

Kouji was sick then, over the docks and into the river of sludge as Sokka chased the others with the two-headed fish.

They made it back to their camp without further incident, and Katara was able to make the fish look at least mildly less unappetizing after she cut it up.

Kouji lay on his back by Appa, staring up at the sky and wondering about the Painted Lady.  Something didn't exactly add up — but then, Doc/Xu had said that she watched over them in times of need…  "If this isn't a time of need, I dunno what is," he decided aloud, rolling onto his stomach and watching the Avatar and his friends.

After eating, they all went to bed, Kouji again curled up on Appa's tail.

*          *          *

The next morning, Appa still seemed to be sick, so back to Jang Hui they went.  They went straight to the food place. "Hi, Doc," Sokka said. "Is Xu around?"

"Let me check," the old man replied, tossing the cloth he'd been using on the Painted Lady statue into the air and running back behind his shop.  He ducked out of sight, and then reappeared in the Xu hat before re-entering his stand from the other side.  "Hey there!  Back again, are you?"

Toph shoved Sokka out of the way, no longer trusting him to do the shopping. "We need more food. Our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better." She slammed some money on the counter and turned around.

Xu grabbed the money and set a bowl of five clams on the counter.  "Oh, well, that's too bad," he said sympathetically.  "Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will come in the night and heal your friend."  He drank some more sludge.

"And maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack and we'll all have a sing-along," Sokka said sarcastically, picking up the bowl.

"Yeah, maybe!" Xu agreed, not having picked up on the sarcasm.  Kouji walked away from the stand and stared into the river.  Ichiro…, he thought sadly.  For a moment, Sokka had sounded almost exactly like his brother.

Meanwhile, Xu continued on.  "You know, last night she visited us again?  Healed most of our sick folks!"

"Is that why this place seems so festive?" Aang asked.

"Yep!  It's all because of the Painted Lady," the old man said, pointing them at the town centre where a large statue of the river spirit was being erected to cheers.

"Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady?" Katara asked, eyes shining. "I mean spirit?"

Kouji dragged himself from his self-pitying reverie and looked over at the Water Tribe girl.  Why the correction?

"Well, I hope she returns every night, otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was," Sokka said.

"Why would you say that?" Katara asked. "Look how much better off these people are!"

"Yeah, now, but without her, they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves! If she really wanted to help, she would use her spirit magic to blow up that factory. Ooooooo." He made a fake explosion noise, too.

"Spirit magic doesn't work that way, Sokka," Aang said. "It's more like oooooooo." He made his own explosion noise. Annoyed, Katara stalked off as the boys repeated their silly noises and gestures.

"You two are jerks," Kouji snapped at them.  "Maybe she can't blow up the factory.  Spirits can only do so much."

Aang had the grace to look slightly ashamed, but Sokka just grinned. "I'm just teasing my sister, geez."

"It obviously means something to her," was the angry reply.  "I wouldn't do it to my sister."

"Yeah, well, that's you," Sokka said, unconcerned. "Come on, let's head back.

Kouji snarled at him and stalked back to the boat.

*          *          *

The rest of the day and night passed much as the last two had, but when Kouji woke in the morning, both Aang and Katara were gone.

The others were already awake and had also discovered their absences. Katara and Aang showed up within a minute.

"Just… out on a morning walk," Katara tried to explain.

"Oh, really," Sokka said. "A morning walk?!" He shook out her sleeping bag, full of grass.

Kouji rolled his eyes and went to go pet Appa, letting them argue it out.  At least the bison wasn't really sick.

Sokka's plan to leave right away was interrupted by retaliation from the sabotaged factory, heading straight for the village.

"What did you do?" Sokka snapped at his sister.

"I… kind of destroyed their factory?"

"You WHAT?!"

"It was your idea!"

"I was joking! I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises!" His hand met his head. "Did you even think this through? The army's gonna blame the villagers! They're headed there right now to get revenge!"

"Well, what was I supposed to do?"

"Leave! Do nothing!"

He'd gone too far. "No. I will never ever turn my back on people who need me!" She stood up. "I'm going down to the village. And I am gonna do whatever I can."

The others, led surprisingly by Sokka, followed quickly. After a brief time planning — Katara insisted Sokka tie Kouji up and leave him in Appa's saddle, not yet loaded onto the bison — they got into position to save the village.

"Why can't I help?" the angry, sulking boy asked Momo, who had been left behind with him.  "She's going out of her way to save a village full of my people, so why does she still act like I personally killed her hedgepuppy?  Bitch."

After some time, Toph came to collect him to help clean out the river. "You can help with the fun part," she said.

"At least I can help with something," he snapped, still angry.  He rubbed his wrists and followed her down.

Katara had already been found out by the village, and the ensuing fallout had already been dealt with. Doc/Xu had put on yet another hat, playing as a third brother, Bushi, who "loved cleaning rivers."  Kouji didn't say anything, just stood on the docks and helped Aang, Toph, and Katara separate sludge from clear water.  After a long day's labour, the river was finally clean again.

In deference to Sokka's paranoia, they left as soon as they were done, without waiting for the next morning.  Taking his normal place at the opposite end from everybody else, Kouji sighed and watched the blue water speed below them.

Current Location: ARC Cafeteria
Current Mood: cold
Current Music: I Won't Say (I'm In Love) - Hercules
Tags: au, avatar, fanfic, sf gaangline, small flame