Childhood

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One of the perks of being a prince was access to knowledge and teachers. My father and grandfather didn't like me, but they provided me with teachers. After I began to walk and talk, I was taught the basics of magic, mostly just meditation to help me feel my inner energy and begin to control it a little. I didn't do anything but meditation until I was three. As Azula grew older, she joined me in learning the basics, but meditation was clearly not for this girl.

If I was a calm child, Azula was a devil. She had already been able to use primitive Fire Magic since she was a child, so her resemblance to the fire worms was uncanny. She didn't really need to meditate, she could already create fire, and it was much stronger than mine.

It would be silly to argue that Azula had a clear talent in Fire Magic, but now this little brat was beating me in fire discipline in no time, which elevated Azula in Ozai's eyes, while it undervalued me. Our mum Ursa treats us both rather coldly, which is a bit of a problem for me, but Azula, not feeling enough from her mother, decided to get parental warmth from her father, and showing her success in Fire Magic, she gets approval from Ozai, especially against my background Azula's successes are very much contrasted for the better.

I, on the other hand, could only show half of my strength, if the other half of my strength related to Ice Magic is seen, I'm sure nothing good awaits me.

But my weak ability in Fire Magic was only one of the points why my royal relatives didn't like me. The second item was my appearance, at birth it was not visible, but when I grew up and I grew hair on my head, it turned out that the left half of my head has a normal black hair colour, the same as all the inhabitants of the Fire Country, but the other right half of my hair is completely white, like a grey-haired old man. My right eye is black and my left eye is blue.

The right white side is slightly better at using Ice Magic and slightly worse at using Fire Magic, and vice versa, the left black side is better at using Fire Magic and slightly worse at using Ice Magic. All in all, my strange appearance doesn't please either my grandfather or my father.

This also exalted Azula even a little higher above me, she didn't have any such flaws in her appearance, she looked like a beautiful black haired girl with golden eyes, when she grows up she will be no less beautiful than Ursa. But even though she looked like a little angel, Azula acted like a little devil. She could easily set her teacher's trousers on fire if she didn't like something, she had nothing to fear, her father was the prince of the Fire Nation, and her grandfather was the Fire Nation's Master, and both of them were very happy with Azula, so she could do whatever she wanted.

Azula treated me with disdain because of my father's attitude towards me, and Azula had a great respect for Ozai, and his attitude towards me was passed on to Azula. I understood all the factors influencing the girl's attitude towards me, and I myself tried to treat her like a sister. If my father and grandfather were adults, whose attitude towards me I perceived without distortion, they considered me an unworthy heir, and I considered them assholes, I could understand my mother, it was difficult for her to love children from such an asshole as Ozai, but Azula was a little girl, her attitude towards me was based not on personal feelings, but on the imitation of adults whom she respected, and it was just the father and grandfather.

- Wow, I can't stop marvelling at the beauty of the palace... and how uncomfortable I am here. - I was walking down a huge corridor decorated with columns, and I was on my way from the palace library to my room.

After six years Azula was given to the academy for girls, but I should have been given to the academy a year ago, but they decided not to disgrace the royal family, and not to show such a ridiculous me in front of the children of the nobility of the Fire Nation. Besides, as it turns out, I'm quite intelligent, and although I'm not as good at Fire Magic as Azula, I'm not as good as Azula, but I'm good at the usual disciplines without any difficulty. This fact does not rehabilitate me in the eyes of my grandfather and father, but it really pisses Azula off that I'm better than her.

While Azula is at the academy, I spend time in the library, there are books on the history of the world and magic, mostly on Fire Magic, but there are also references to various techniques of magic of other elements, and how to deal with them. Fire Magic has not so many techniques, various fireballs, fire jets, fire whips and whips, fire waves, and the peak of fire magic is the creation of lightning. To create and control the flame, various stances are used here, which dynamically change, forcing the internal energy to flow inside the body in a special way and burst out in the form of fire. In general, all these movements are similar to the Kung Fu fighting style, here are actively used both hands and feet, as well as various pirouettes in the air.

To create an ordinary fireball, you need to make a sharp lunge fist, and release internal energy, which will take the form of a fire projectile. But if you make a complex pirouette, and end it with a lunge, the resulting fireball will be several times stronger. You can create fire without any preparation, but in this case it will be quite weak, plus, in battle you still need to move actively, and if you move in the style of Kung Fu, you can not only stuff the faces of your opponents, but also strengthen your fire magic.

And one more aspect of Fire Magic is proper breathing, not only do you need to do various somersaults to enhance your magic, you also need to not get out of breath. Azula has a strong yellow flame without using any techniques, and when she moves in a special way, her flame sometimes becomes so hot that it changes its colour to blue, which means that the temperature of such a flame is about ten thousand degrees, while her normal flame has a temperature of five thousand degrees.

I usually have a red-orange flame with a temperature of a couple of thousand degrees, and if I use techniques to enhance it, it becomes bright orange, raising the temperature by a thousand degrees... apparently, the part of my aura responsible for the predisposition to Ice Magic suppresses my Fire Magic, which is why I end up losing to Azula in flame power.

From all of this, it can be deduced that if I develop using standard Fire Mage techniques, I will always fall behind my sister. And right now, I'm just developing techniques that will help me gain an advantage over an enemy that is superior to me in strength. What do you mean, developing? I'm just trying to refine them using my knowledge and imagination, it may or may not work out. Right now, I'm still not developing Ice Magic, I'm focusing on Fire Magic. Ice Magic will have to be trained in a place far away from the palace of the Fire Nation royal family.

After entering my room, I saw Azula there with some girl, probably her girlfriend from the academy that she brought home to play.

- Oh my beloved sister Azula, what an honour to see you in my room... again, I hope you haven't burned any of my things like you usually like to do? - I smiled at the girls.

- Mei, meet my ridiculous brother Hela. Tell me his that black and white hair is disgusting? I suggested to my father several times to cut his hair so that this clown would not walk around our royal palace. - Azula said.

- Your name is May, I greet you young lady, I am amazed by your beauty. - I took and kissed the hand of this pretty girl, she blushed and Azula grinned unhappily.

- Let's go fight, you stupid weak brother, there I will show May that you are not worthy to be called the prince of the Fire Nation! - Azula decided to assert herself in front of her new girlfriend at my expense.

- Well, why fight, my favourite sister Azula? Let's have a threesome with your friend. - I smiled at Mei again.

- Mei won't play with a weakling like you. Come on, Mei. Let me show you the garden, there is a lake with fish, you can see how I hit them with fireballs, and they twitch funny in death throes, before surfacing belly up. - Azula dragged her friend out of my room.

- She's going to be a vicious, bloodthirsty bitch if this keeps up. - I looked after Azula as she left.

≪The main thing is for us to grow stronger than Azula, and then we will rehabilitate her, like Esdeath once did. ≫

- What are you offering me?

≪Yes, exactly what you think, you filthy pervert. ≫

- That's what you are.

≪I'm not denying it. Okay, I thought I'd let you know that enough energy has already been accumulated to restore our Spatial Pocket. The spiritual background is quite intense in this world, and I was able to activate this skill quite quickly, it works as usual, the object itself disappears, but its weight is distributed to our body. Also I have already started to restore the domain, its usefulness is hard not to appreciate, it will be able to increase the volume of our reserve of internal energy.≫

- Great, I'm a little annoyed that Azula goes to my room as if it were her own, I can't get any of my things, that bitch will come and burn them to ashes. - I tried to move the nearest chair into my spatial pocket and it worked.

Now I can have a book, where I will write down my ideas about magic, and it can be stored in the spatial pocket. Now I can also load it up with all sorts of rubbish to start strengthening my body. And now I don't need to eat, I can load food into the spatial pocket, and move it directly into my stomach or mouth, whichever is more convenient. The food here was quite tasty, it was cooked for royalty, but I wouldn't mind some dragon meat... however, my great-grandfather Sozin had announced a dragon hunt decades ago, the one who killed a dragon was given a huge honour and the title of 'Dragon', so all the dragons were killed, and by now, if there are any, they are hiding very well. The last dragon seen in the west was killed by my uncle Airo before I was born, which is why he now has the title 'Dragon of the West'.

Dragons are the true fire mages, and the ancient Fire Nation people learnt this magic from them, in those days they were called the Warriors of the Sun. My great-grandfathers Sozin and Avatar Roku had tame dragons, and here these beasts are quite intelligent... but that doesn't make them any less tasty. And besides, if you eat a dragon, you get a significant boost in Fire Magic, which is why they're being hunted.

Eh, they don't think about their descendants, that's what I need to eat now to increase my magic? Unless there's some phoenixes that still seem to exist somewhere, but it won't be easy to find them either.

So far, my Fire Magic is, let's be honest, a hatful, all of it levelled by some metal shield that can be used to block my pathetic attempts at it. Even Azula's magic, though superior to mine, is still just the usual fairground tricks. It takes decades of practice to achieve truly impressive results, which is why I focused on artefacts in my previous life, some kind of energy cannon I could build in a couple of weeks that would fire projectiles that exploded like rockets. It would take at least a few years of constant practice to learn how to fire such projectiles on my own. Of course, in the long run, having enough power to blow up a mountain on your own is very tempting, but if you know how to make artefacts, you don't need decades of practice, you can get the mountain destroyed in a couple of weeks to create the cannon. I'm not so pressed for time right now, and I can learn how to unleash destructive projectiles on my own with just my magic-schmagic.

My idea for improving fire techniques is quite simple, you take a fireball, squeeze it as hard as you can to make it as small as possible, because big fireballs fly much slower than small ones, but also, you need to pump as much fire energy into this ball as possible. The result is a small, fast plasma blob that can penetrate any armour and then explode like a rocket. It's a technique I haven't seen in the library, and it's not exactly obvious to mages who haven't encountered firearms and missiles.

I have another fire technique, also based on rockets, which is to jet fire from the legs and arms to fly at the speed of rockets. Strong fire mages use a similar principle to accelerate themselves during combat, but they lack the strength for full flight. I, on the other hand, can absorb heat energy directly from the air, and use it to maintain flight... sort of. So far, it's just a theory, but I'm sure I can do it, but now I need a place to try it out. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed out of the palace, and I'm not comfortable experimenting here, under the supervision of my 'favourite' relatives. However, at first I won't be able to do anything, and the initial stages of mastering these abilities will be quite similar to the training of an ordinary fireball and a stream of flame.

Now during training, I was just throwing fireballs and releasing jets of fire from my hands and feet, while Azula was mastering all the techniques of Fire Magic. But as they say, it's better to master one technique that you've trained a thousand times than to master a thousand techniques that you've only trained once.

I had to modify the idea of fireballs a little bit, the projectile had to be made more durable and stable, and the usual fireball is just a blob of fire Qi, which quickly dissipates. The desired effect was achieved by making the streams of fire energy in the ball spiral, the rotating Qi creating a strong and stable spherical shell where fire energy could be pumped in addition. Schizophrenia said that I had invented the Rasengan, and it was not enough to invent it, it had to be mastered, and then further reduced, and pumped with energy.

It took a lot of time to practice, I practically never left the training ground, I ate by moving food into my stomach from my spatial pocket, I replenished my energy from the environment, if I trained near a source of heat, I could discreetly replenish my strength with Cold Magic, taking energy from the fire and adding it to myself.

When Azula finished the first year of her academy, Ozai decided to reward his favourite daughter and take her to Coal Island - it was a resort island of the Fire Country, Ursa would go there as well, and I would be taken along with her. So, we have a holiday there almost every summer, but last summer we stayed in the capital, so that Azula could better prepare for the first year of the academy, she was a talented mage, but she had to tighten the usual subjects with teachers.

The first time I visited Coal Island was when I was three years old, that was the first time I met Uncle Airo, he and his son came to Coal Island from the Earth Kingdom, which he was still trying to conquer. The Earth Kingdom is the largest on this planet, so it will take a long time to conquer it.

On Coal Island, I could sometimes practice Ice Magic, but other than creating ice by absorbing heat from water, I didn't learn anything. It was dangerous to create too much ice for proper training, as the island was quite populated, and I was almost always supervised, I think Ursa noticed my training once, but pretended it wasn't happening. After that, though, she was a little warmer towards me, probably thinking I was an Avatar like her grandfather.

Ursa had developed a maternal instinct and began to treat me and Azula with considerable affection, but Azula was a difficult child, and I didn't really need parental love, but I was beginning to think of Ursa as the closest person to me.

We were leaving for Coal Island tomorrow, and now I went to my room after another training session, where I found Azula again.

- My beloved sister Azula, what an honour it is to have you visit my room, even wearing the Fire Master's cloak. Did you steal grandfather's cloak from the laundry room and try it on yourself? - I asked.

- None of your business, weakling brother! No matter how much you try to train, you will always be weaker than me, and you will never become a Fire Master! Right after my father, I will take the throne! - Azula began to tell me her ambitions.

- Well, grandfather is in good health, but after Azulon, his eldest son, our Uncle Airo, will take the throne. - I haven't seen my uncle that often, but he's made a good impression on me, he'll be more adequate than my grandfather and father, but Airo has his own son Lu Ten, he's five years older than me, and Airo is always busy with him. Airo is in the Earth Kingdom most of the time, fighting a war of conquest there, only a few times a year does he manage to return to the palace to see his son. Lu Ten lives in Airo's manor, which is located within the royal palace. I don't have much contact with Lu Ten, he seems like a nice guy, but I'm not interested in him, neither as a relative nor as a friend.

- That old fool Airo is not worthy of the throne, our father will take it, and after him I will be the Mistress of Fire! - Azula wrapped herself in the Fire Lord's cloak.

- Well done, my favourite sister Azula. - I lay down on the bed.

- You will not be ruler of the Fire Nation! - said Azula.

- Yeah, yeah, I get it. Why do you keep reminding me of that, my favourite sister Azula? - I looked at the little girl.

- Why do you keep practising all the time? To take the throne from me! I've figured out your plan, weak brother! You'll never be stronger than me! - Azula shouted before leaving the room.

- Eh, I like living in the palace less and less... should I do something to get banished from the royal family? Or even easier, just get away from my family when we get to Coal Island? Then I'd better get some food. - I was thinking out loud. I was already eight years old, and I was strong enough to survive on my own. If I wasn't good at magic, I still had the skills of a killer from the last world, and I could beat a grown man if I had to. Plus, my wounds still heal pretty well; I accidentally turned my finger into a coal during training, and a couple of hours later, it was as good as new.

≪Status≫

Life 800/800/40 per hour

Qi 555/555/92 per hour

Characteristics:

Strength 80

Dexterity 80

Endurance 80

Intelligence 216

Soul 300

The capital of the Fire Nation was located on the largest island in the country, the main city along with the Royal Palace was located in the mouth of a huge extinct volcano.

Below the volcano was the port side of the capital, where the less wealthy citizens of the capital lived, and where various manufacturing plants were located, mostly making steam turbine tanks and steam turbine ships. The capital had a fairly large harbour, with frigates and battleships recently launched from the dockyard, as well as warships with the usual fishing boats.

The next day, we boarded our personal steam-turbine metal royal battleship and, accompanied by several other ordinary ships, set sail from the capital harbour for Coal Island.

Our ship differed from the ordinary ships in that the ship's deckhouse was externally decorated with a pagoda like a royal palace.

Fire Nation ships were powered by coal and steam, and if they ran out of coal on the way, the Fire Mages could heat the boilers themselves with magic. The maximum speed of these steam-powered ships is about forty-five kilometres per hour. It usually takes us four days to get to Coal Island, because we have to slow down in some places, but we could do it in three days at top speed. We spend the whole summer at the resort, and by autumn we go straight back to the capital... this time they'll probably return without me.