Tea Doesn't Taste That Good

Genji felt like his waterbending abilities had suddenly advanced by leaps and bounds after that single bout of understanding of the essence of waterbending. Not only that, but it affected his other skill, Firebending. Which should make it way stronger than before thanks to this new skill of his.

Genji could clearly feel like his waterbending was a little stronger than before, including his reach. He could control water that was farther away from him.

Now, the only thing on Genji's mind was to think about a style. A style to bend, use his martial arts, or even his pole arts.

Without thinking too much about it, Genji knew that the style had to at least be strong so that he can make full use of it with his system.

Bringing up his hand, Genji waterbent some water over his hand and watched in awe as he froze the water and turned it into ice that was colder than anything he had made before.

Throwing the ice to the side, Genji turned to sense Pakku who was still immersed in his own waterbending and quietly thought to himself, 'Looks like you were of more help than I had expected.'

Genji stood there for a second, and already felt bored so he grabbed his walking stick and walked away, leaving Pakku all alone as he waterbent to his own joy.

...

Whilst Genji was heading to the Healing Hut to learn from Ko, Genji heard an interesting conversation with his Heightened Senses.

"So the princess was punished?"

"Yes! She's going to be locked in her room for a whole week."

"What did she do?"

"I heard she was collaborating with a Fire Nation spy or something like that."

"Really? That's hard to believe considering that she's the advisor to the chief."

"Well, there's always that one corrupt person in a group."

"So... you're a corrupt person?"

"What? No! It's Joe!"

"Who's Joe?"

"..."

...

Genji shook his head as he now had to go out of his way to meet her at the palace. He had expected Arnook and Pakku to try to stop Yue from meeting him, but he didn't expect them to lock her up.

'Looks like I need to start expecting the unexpected,' thought Genji as he continued onwards to the Healing Hut.

...

"Genji? Where's the princess?" asked Healer Ko after she noticed that only Genji was there.

Genji shook his head and said, "I heard from some people that she was grounded by the chief."

Ko furrowed her eyebrows before nodding and having Genji enter the hut before she began to explain the process of healing.

The healing process itself wasn't too difficult.

Genji learned the Healing skill in an instant and under the guidance of Ko, his skill leveled up quickly. Thanks to her, his other skills leveled up as well, Physician and Acupuncture. Even Precision leveled up once because of the accuracy needed for healing specific parts of the body or for acupuncture when striking certain acupressure points.

As soon as he finished learning the basics of healing, Ko explained other processes to healing. Such as healing the mind, the spirit, and even the soul.

Ko was pleasantly surprised that Genji was soaking up all this knowledge rapidly. If she taught it to him, he would learn it in an instant and be able to apply it perfectly.

Which is to be expected.

Genji's skill grants him experience in using the skill, meaning that it's like a master learning basic novice techniques. He instantly learns them and knows how to apply them.

What Genji was mainly learning under Ko, was how to properly use the skills together so that he may gain more experience doing things like this.

Genji doesn't even need techniques because with the knowledge and experience he gains from the skills, he can basically create his own. Like earlier, it follows the principle of a master swordsman creating a sword technique or learning a sword technique and further improving for themself. (A/N: I'm using the same concept as the story 'I Am Loaded With Passive Skills' and the passive skill 'Sword Mastery'.)

It was the same with martial arts and the poleman skill. It gave him the experience and the moves, but it didn't give him a technique, it gave him something much more valuable. It was experience and knowledge, like memories, of someone or various people who had reached the peak level of whatever rank Genji reached.

For example, in the Novice rank, Genji would gain the experience and knowledge of someone, or a group of people, who had achieved everything the novice rank has to offer. Basic slices, running with a weapon, proper stances, etc.

Yet despite gaining knowledge and experience, Genji would still need to get his body accustomed to the knowledge and experience.

It's like how a chef tries to cook a dish he hasn't cooked in a couple of years. At first it would turn out kind of wonky but still taste great, but in the second try, it would come out near-perfect.

And so, the more he puts these skills into practice, the greater his potential becomes.

It was funny to Genji considering he isn't really learning much with Ko. It's still a disappointing thought on how he hadn't learned a proper staff/spear technique on Zuko's ship.

They only taught him how to swing a spear, they never properly taught him a technique for spear wielding.

If Genji had learned a technique, he might have improved upon it and made up a couple of moves.

Today, Genji had learnt a lot on how to properly combine skills.

...

Time passed and Genji had soon learnt quite a bit whilst staying with Ko.

There was one thing he had found out after he had left the Healing Hut. Genji was able to use the healing skill with his firebending. For some reason, the Healing skill couldn't be used by itself and he had to use a medium like waterbending or firebending.

The difference between healing with water and fire was how much heat they produced. The more heat, the faster the healing. But the problem was that water could be manipulated easily and fast while fire required a lot of time and precision.

If he could manage to use both at the same time... Genji wasn't sure what could happen if he did.

Heading back home, Genji felt a pair of eyes looking at him.

He turned back on his Hyper Sense skill and quickly felt a figure not too far away from. Guessing by the intensity of the energy within their body and how much there was, Genji could tell that it was Pakku without sensing his face.

'So... he's keeping an eye on me. Looks like meeting Yue in the palace will be a bit more difficult than I thought,' believed Genji as he mentally smirked before heading into his house.

...

Looking from afar, Pakku was keeping an eye on Genji.

"I see."

Pakku nodded as he looked at the young man who had returned home.

He couldn't shake the feeling that Genji was up to something, but no matter how long he continued to keep an eye on Genji, it just wouldn't disappear. Especially after the fact that he hadn't seen him for the majority of the day.

'Just where did he go this morning,' thought Pakku as he narrowed his eyes and continued to gaze at Genji's house.

Waiting for any movements, Pakku vowed not to keep his eyes off of Genji for the rest of the night.

***

Meanwhile, in the palace…

Yue was taking a bath inside her room. She had been given a large tub filled with hot water and she had soaked herself completely in it. It was a luxurious bath that she doesn't usually take because of her father.

'You won't quell my anger so easily,' thought Yue as she enjoyed her time in the bathtub.

It's not too often that she's able to take nice hot and long baths because her father doesn't want her to become accustomed to such vices.

Shaking her head, Yue immersed herself in her humming whilst she relaxed in the bath and lost track of time. By the time Yue had realized it, the sky had already darkened and the water had gotten cold.

Getting up, Yue lifted her foot and lightly touched the ground with her dainty toes before standing there naked. Feeling cold, Yue quickly moved and grabbed a towel nearby before drying her body and wearing a warm robe.

She walked towards the door and left her personal bathroom before going back into her bedroom. When she entered her room, she was surprised to see a familiar face there.

"Genji? Wha-what are you doing here?" asked Yue in shock after noticing Genji sitting down on one of her chairs with a cup of tea in his hands.

"I came here to tell you what I was going to say yesterday," said Genji as he took a sip of his tea.

Yue looked a bit panicked as she looked around worriedly. Quickly running to the door, Yue opened it and peeked outside.

Right outside her door, Yue only saw the two guards her father had put there and she sighed in relief before going back inside after closing the door. She looked at Genji with a bit of a glare.

"How did you get here?"

Genji smiled and said, "I entered through the window."

"But that's impossible! We're far away from the ground," said Yue as she rushed over to the window and looked out of it. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Sighing, Yue just gave up and turned to look at Genji with one last question in mind.

"How did you know this was my room?"

"I have sensitive ears. After going blind, I was able to hear better than ever before. Hearing you hum was nothing impossible," said Genji as he took another sip of his tea. 'Ugh... I swear. Tea doesn't taste good, but Yue had nothing else to drink.'

"Haa~"

Yue sighed before smiling and looking at Genji with a soft gaze.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" asked Yue as she finally relaxed and sat down on her bed.

Placing down the tea, Genji stood up and walked over to Yue with a serious look on his face.

"Do you wish to waterbend?"

Yue's body trembled after hearing Genji's question and she looked at his face with surprise. The surprise didn't last long before she furrowed her pretty eyebrows and asked, "Are you making fun of me?"

Just when Yue was about to stand up and walk away because of irritation, Genji forced her back to sit down.

"Yue, wait. I'm being 100% serious. Do you wish to waterbend? Your body's chi pathway is in disarray and I can help you fix it," said Genji with a sincere look on his face.

'In order to take over the Northern Water Tribe, I need to first begin with someone influential,' thought Genji as he faced Yue. 'If I can grant her the ability to waterbend, she will trust me. Only then will I be able to continue onto the next plan.'

Yue hesitated for a moment before she answered, "I don't think I'll really be able to waterbend even if you manage to treat my chi pathways. But if you really think I can begin to waterbend, then please, fix my chi pathways."

Genji couldn't see Yue's face, but he could feel the desperate look on her face. Now that he has gone this far in, he can't back out. No matter what, he will make Yue able to waterbend, even if he doesn't take over the Northern Water Tribe.

'I'll make sure it happens,' thought Genji as he began to feel some pity for Yue.

To be in a place where they constantly tell you the various things you can't do just because you are something can really hurt someone. Especially for someone like a woman, who lives in a patriarchal land like the Northern Water Tribe, where even if you could waterbend, you can't learn how to make use of it.

The only thing you are allowed to do is to heal, and in a place like this, being a non-bender woman is even harder. They don't get a lot of chances to do much of anything and can only stay home and take care of the family and the house.

They can't even learn how to fight for self-defense.

"You got it!" said Genji as he raised both of his hands and made a fist. "We will start right away when we get all the necessary items."

Yue smiled and asked, "And what are these necessary items?"

"I need 200 silver needles," seriously said Genji.

"200?!"

"Yes, they're very crucial to your chi pathway being fixed."

Yue gulped and nodded. She knew it would be difficult to get so many needles on such short notice. Especially if she wants to accomplish this without alerting her father about what she's planning to do.