Chapter 8 The Tournament

"Ya wanna hear something interesting?" she asked with a slight grin out her face.

"Sure" Kypher was interested of course, it wasn't an every day occurrence for the innkeeper to grin like that.

"The Beifongs are looking for ya..."

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This made Kypher freeze. What did They want? He hadn't done anything against the law, at least not yet, "Well, its more like they were looking for a specific Blind guy. But ya're not blind, are ya?" She asked with a grin, making Kypher flash a grin at her. The sly old woman had seen him without his face band before, and wouldn't shut up about it ."I think its something to do with the princess," She said after seeing Kypher's reaction to hear teasing.

Kypher was not worried much. Although the Beifong family was well known, if a person like Sokka could sneak in undetected, there is no way in hell, he wouldn't be able to sneak out. Still, he was curious for the reason they were looking for him.

"What do you think they want from me." He asked the innkeeper. Her advice oftentimes was useful, so he chose to have another perspective.

"I don't think its a trap. They might genuinely want something from you. That's what my instincts are telling me. And it might be because of that" She responded and pointed at Kypher's head band. She continued, "I've heard their daughter was blind. Maybe after hearing how the 'Blind Master' was able to walk around and fight without needing his eye sight, they might have wanted to know if it was a technique or something"

"Well, I guess, I could make a pit stop." He didn't need much convincing. It was on his way towards his destination anyways, so he might as well. Plus he would might a certain young girl.

And so, after having a drink, and saying his goodbyes to the old innkeeper, he grabbed his ostrich horse and started going south towards Gaoling.

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Gaoling is a large town filled with various types of citizens, some who are extremely rich like the Beifong family, and some who are very poor. To Kypher's eyes the city seemed quite stable and unaffected by the war which was surprising, since it was rare for the fire nation to leave out a few places.

Since the Beifong family head was searching for him. Kypher wanted to make sure of their intentions, so he planned to scout the area, as well as the Earth Rumble tournament.

After choosing his first scouting location he left towards the Beifong house, which looked like an exact if not larger replica of his own back in Ba Sing Se, he looking for anything that hint towards the reason for his summon.

He was aware of Toph' sonar ability and at first, wasn't planning on doing anything about it. That was until he learned sound-bending. After experiment for a few weeks, Kypher had found that if he covered himself in thin layer of air and start vibrating it, he would begin to slightly float. It would be impossible for anybody to realise that he was floating, he was less than a millimetre off the ground. However it would still evade Toph's sonar.

The membrane itself was invisible to the eye, the best part even if he touches an object with the thin membrane around him, he won't truly interact with the object, the membrane does it for him.

It took him a few more weeks but he was able to train himself to keep the membrane always around him even during sleep. It would be an enjoyable entertainment for him to watch Toph struggle so much, trying to find him. In addition to this he had managed to make the membrane noise cancelling, which allowed for silent movement.

After a few hours of scouting, it had turned night, he decided it was time for a break. Ironically, that same night, was a The 4th Earth Rumble tournament, a place he was sure the Blind Princess would go to. Currently she would be 9 years old, if memory served him correct.

The tournament was not that hard to find. It was just a large cliff with a cave. That's all. He walked inside got himself a ticket and sat at the front row. It wasn't like the rocks could hurt him anyway. After a few minutes a tall man jumped out from the ground and announced:

"WELCOME TO EARTH RUMBLE 4! I AM YOUR HOST SHIN-FU!" The crowd seemed to be quite immersed in the tournament, and cheered. "THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. JUST KNOCK THE OTHER GUY OUT OF THE RING, AND YOU WIN!" He continued on earning another loud cheer. Then launched himself into the air and landed on a tall pillar of stone. Then he declared:

"ROUND 1"

And so the tourney start. There weren't many interesting fights. Although he did see a few of the regular contestants. "The boulder", that spoke in 3rd person, "The Fire nation man", who was booed and thrashed around. Even "hippo" was there with his comical 4 teeth. It seemed that the participants usually didn't change too much. It was only after in the finals did the person he came to see, had finally appeared.

"THE BLIND BANDIT!!"

Toph Beifong, a rich, blind princess. Who would expect her to be part of the Gaang later on? It was amusing watching her demolish her opponents. Interestingly he seemed to feel no romantic feelings for her which was nice. It would mean he would be able to speak with her without sounding like a blubbering fool.

After the match ender he had stood up to leave only to halt when:

"IS THERE ANYONE WHO WOULD WISH TO CHALLENGE HER" An idea sprouted in his mind. He deactivated his air membrane and jumped down to the arena.

"I would." He smirked to himself 'Time to bully a princess. HEH HEH'

"Are you sure about this?" Shin Fu asked, although he didn't care that much, he still had to go through the procedures.

"Yeah I'm sure. Start the fight." Was Kypher's response

"Hey Headband, c'mere. Let me beat you into bits." Toph insulted Kypher with a smirk. It seemed like her insults were quite weak. Might be because of her age.

Kyph answered with a grin. He started moving towards Toph, but she immediately attacked. She had tried to do the same thing she did with the boulder. It wasn't that hard to dodge. Just jump in the air, and she loses here sight.

After a few attempts, she tried to switch up her strategy.

"You're quite jumpy. Try this" A wall of stone appeared from behind trying to squish him. Yet once again, Kypher side stepped, evading her attack, and moved closer towards her.

Every now and then he would dodge and weave between attacks until he got close to her and poked her in the forehead. "Boop."

Toph was enraged. Her opponent was underestimating her, insulting her and she hated it with a passion.

"STOP HOLDING BACK. FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN." She yelled at him, while insulting at his manhood. His response though was not what she expected

"Very well" the man said... and vanished from her sonar.

'where? WHERE DID HE GO? HE DIDNT JUMP. I'M SURE OF IT!' Toph was having an internal crisis, she was looking around trying to find her opponent, terrified of what happened.

He appeared once again a few meters on her left, yet vanished immediately after.

"behind you" a small whisper made her body, shiver. She felt fear, for the first time. Primal fear. Yet her surprised did not end. Her opponent appeared back on her sonar, near the edge of the ring.

"I surrender." He announced and jumped out of the ring. The audience was silent, confused. Yet after a bit, they began cheering for their champion who had managed to scare her opponent so bad he had to run away.

Toph on the other hand was having an internal crisis. Her opponent just disappeared, appeared behind her, and then surrendered. He had a chance to win, yet he didn't. Why? WHY? She was pissed, she needed answers, but started running after him, he vanished once again. It was like was a ghost. He appeared and disappeared, whenever he wanted to. It frightening, yet for some reason exhilarating.

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"Well that was fun.." Of course it was. Toph shivering in fear by the time he was done teasing. The whisper trick, was something he invented. He was able to manipulate the direction of his words to bounce of the wall behind her, making it appear like he was behind Toph. In reality he was ran around his side of the ring, while turning off and on his membrane, and watched her, flinch in fear.

"Amusing"

"Oh well, better get to sleep. Tomorrow, I have to meet her family. First impression sure do count..."

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Hey guys,

Hope you are enjoying the novel and the direction I am taking, I wasn't sure if I wanted to make Toph a romantic interest. It still too early in the novel, they are just kids right noe, so yeah...

Special thanks to

Shadow1609, Wynter_0, Austin_Hindman, NoLife_King, Stephen_Minson_, Leonardo_Porto, LucyAzomonia, Splingo_Splongo, SaysoShao for the power stones.

Cya tomorrow...

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