Ignoring the Reality of Things

"No! Appa dodge!"

Appa quickly responded to Aang's order and quickly moved up and off to the side but it was still too slow.

Bang!

The fire blast hit Appa's back right leg and a part of his tail, instantly putting him on fire. The shock of the fire blast and Appa's sudden rise in elevation had shaken Genji off of Appa and his smile quickly faded off his face.

'Shit…'

Trying to reach out for something, Genji failed to grab anything as he fell backwards.

"Ahh! Fuck!"

Aang reeled in the pain from his abdomen and looked over to the side and didn't see anything but water.

'Did he… fall?' Aang began to feel anxious, his heart beating fast as he hyperventilated a little. 'Did I kill someone?!'

Grrugg!

Aang didn't last long thinking this and eventually focused back on Appa who was groaning in pain.

"Appa! Quick, get down to the water!" said Aang, fearing for Appa's life and safety.

Groaning, Appa slowly went down to the water.

They had long since disappeared from Zuko's vision and had already traveled far away from the ship.

Pff-woosh!!

Appa touched the ground a little before he eventually landed in the water. Moving quickly, Aang quickly splashed Appa with some cold freezing water.

Gruuggg!

Continuing to groan in pain, Appa slowly relaxed as the fire was put out and he was doused in cold water.

"That was frightening," said Sokka as he was holding on tight to Appa's saddle.

Nodding at Sokka's words, Katara turned to look at Aang in worry, "Are you alright Aang?"

"Yeah…" said Aang as he looked at Appa's fire injury in anger. He clutched his stomach in pain and looked over to the water in the distance. 'I wonder what happened to that firebender…'

Katara, who was looking over at Aang noticed the sort of dull look on his face and felt like something was wrong.

"Aang?"

…

"We need to follow them!"

A fierce shout erupted from a Fire Nation ship that was slowly sailing through the open sea, slowly leaving the South Pole and following behind where the flying bison had flown off to.

On top of the ship was a fierce young man with a scar on the left side of his face. He looked into the distance as his eyes revealed a trace of worry within them.

Seeing this, the chubby old man next to the fierce young man was slightly astonished.

"What's the matter, nephew?" asked Iroh, rubbing his belly.

He had come out rather late and had only contributed to landing a blow on the flying bison earlier. After that… there was no after that, Iroh had run back inside to get his tea that was burning.

Sadly, he didn't make it in time and his own tea had gone bad.

Zuko turned to look at his uncle and frowned, "My… follower had managed to get on the Avatar's creature. He could be fighting them further into the sea, or worse, he had been thrown off the flying bison…"

Stopping mid sentence, Zuko seemed to truly care for Genji's well-being. Although they literally had little to no talk between them, Zuko felt like he had lost someone who could be of great help to him.

Not only that, Zuko was the captain of his ship and needed to take care of every soldier of his. With one of them being taken away, he wanted to go after them and look for at least the dead body of the young man.

Iroh sighed, even he didn't expect Genji to be 'hotblooded' enough to jump on the flying creature just to catch the Avatar and bring him back.

Looking over to the seemingly endless sea, Iroh shook his head, "I'm afraid we won't be able to search for him, nephew. Besides, that young man can survive by himself. I've seen him fight, and a warrior reveals a lot about who he is more when he fights than when he speaks."

Staring at his uncle for a while, Zuko decided to believe in his uncle before storming off, "I'll be meditating."

Watching the disappearing back of his nephew, Iroh smiled cheerfully, 'He's shaping up to be a great person.'

…

Far away from the ship, a figure laid down weakly on the snow.

Genji, who was completely bruised, had barely managed to survive when he fell off of Appa. Just before he had completely fallen, lady luck had shined onto him and he had managed to grasp onto Appa's leg at the most crucial moment.

He would have escaped unscathed, but when Aang ordered Appa to go down to enter the water, Appa had briefly touched the ground. In order to not break any bones or even lose his arms, Genji had let go of Appa and only rolled on the snow for a brief moment.

"Ugh…" lying weakly on the snow, Genji looked at the blurry white beast in the water. Genji stared directly at the beast until it had suddenly decided to fly away.

'That… was Appa…' thought Genji with a groan as he felt his hurt body.

Slowly pushing himself up to his feet, Genji stretched his limbs a little as he felt his body's pain suddenly disappear.

'Hm?' frowning, Genji didn't feel like anything about his body was off.

He felt normal and even checked his data panel to double check and make sure he had no ailment status or to see if he had level up.

Name: Genji

Level: 0 (2 / 5 XP)

Power: 7

Vitality: 6

Energy: 2

Stat Points: 0 (+4 per Level)

Experience Storage: 0 (Can increase Character Level or Skill Level.)

Skills: <Adept Poleman> (Lvl. 20)

<Adept Firebender> (Lvl. 21)

<Acting> (Lvl. 14)

<Danger Sense> (Lvl. 19)

<Novice Martial Artist> (Lvl. 1)

Storage: (Common) Airbender Staff/Glider x1

Reality was cruel however, he didn't even manage to increase his character level. The only thing that increased in level from that fight earlier was his Firebending skill that was now at level 21.

"Why is my level so hard to increase?" mumbled Genji with a sad sigh.

Looking around, Genji instantly realized where he was.

Lost in the snow.

'Great,' mumbled Genji as he looked around.

Then, he began walking, not knowing where to go.

"Wait! I know the best thing for this," yelled Genji excitedly as he pulled up his storage and brought out the only thing he had in there, an airbender staff.

Looking at the airbender staff in hand, Genji smiled before suddenly realizing a problem.

Gazing at his arm and then down to his abdomen, Genji realized that he was wearing fire nation armor in an era where every single place hates the Fire Nation, wearing this is a bad idea.

'Damn. I have to strip down to my normal clothes and get rid of the layer of warmth,' through Genji as he removed anything that would show he was from the Fire Nation.

Which was only the armor.

Soon, Genji was standing in the snow with nothing but a black shirt and black pants on. Besides that, Genji was wearing white socks that went over the bottom half of his pants and were tied with a black string.

Genji was rather happy about such a design since it at least gave him some warmth in this freezing cold. Lastly, he was glad he never wore the army boots they gave inside the Fire Nation ship or else he would be walking around with his bare feet.

With his black slip on shoes on, Genji set out on his journey after throwing his Fire Nation armor away.

Since he had no use for it since Zuko knew him and he had firebending, Genji decided not to keep it in his storage. Especially when it doesn't offer any defense or protection in this bending world.

At this point, Genji looked like he was wearing simple chinese clothing in a terrible manner whilst holding a staff in his hands. If he was even a little dirty, everyone would regard him as a beggar in just a single glance.

Warming up his body with his Firebending, Genji readied himself.

'Okay, which direction shall I go now,' thought Genji as he let the Airbender staff fall to the ground.

Pa!

Looking towards where the staff was pointing at, Genji simply nodded with an impressed look on his face.

"Great, that way it is then," mumbled Genji as he walked forward after picking up the staff.

…

"Aang, are you really alright?"

High above the clouds, a large animal with some burn marks on it's tail and right hind leg, was flying through the sky like magic. On it's back was a large saddle with two people on it and on the head of the flying creature was a young and bald monk.

"Come on Katara, leave the kid alone. If he doesn't want to talk, just wait until he does," said Sokka as he looked at Katara, a bit annoyed by Aang ignoring Katara and Katara continuing to ask the same question over and over for the past 10 minutes.

He also wanted to ask Aang what was up with him, but even he realized that Aang just wanted some time to think about some things.

Katara on the other hand didn't like waiting and is really meddlesome in this manner. And although Sokka doesn't like this side of her, he's sometimes glad she shows this side.

Too bad this wasn't one of those times.

Katara turned to look at Sokka and scoffed, "Right, like if you know anything about waiting."

"Katara!" said Sokka in a slightly stern voice.

Katara ignored him with an indignant look on her face and pout.

Turning to look at Aang, Sokka sighed and said, "Are you worried about that guy that punched you in the stomach?"

Suddenly, Aang perked up and turned to look at Sokka with wide eyes and a look of conflicting emotions on his face.

"He's alive, but as for how injured he is, I'm not too sure," said Sokka as he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

Feeling as if something was off his shoulders, Aang cheered up a bit, "It's good he's alright, but how did you know that Sokka?"

Sokka smirked and chuckled a little, "When you told Appa to head into the water, in the brief moment Appa touched the ground, I heard an 'oof' and wondered what it was. Then I remembered the guy that fell off of Appa earlier and realized he hadn't fallen into the water."

"..."

Aang went quiet after Sokka finished talking and only looked down at the sea now, his mind wandering off.

Two hours later, Aang was all joyful again as he smiled and turned to look at Katara with a cheeky smile.

"What is it Aang?" asked Katara, a bit confused about Aang smiling at her.

Aang raised his eyebrows and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, why are you smiling at me?" asked Katara, a bit weirded out by the 12 year old monk.

"I am? Sorry, I must have spaced out," said Aang as he rubbed the back part of his bald head.

Katara furrowed her eyebrows and decided not to ask anything before turning away.

"I hope the monks can prepare me a new glider!"

Suddenly hearing Aang's chirpy voice, Sokka and Katara both turned to look at each other with a determined and sad look on their faces respectively.

Sokka opened his mouth, ready to tell Aang about the truth of what happened in the Hundred Year War. However, Katara had cut him off before he could even utter a single word.

"Aang, I don't think you should get your hopes up… I… There might be no one there…" she said, hoping to not end up hurting the young monk's feelings.

"Haha, they should be there. The temples are never empty!" said Aang, laughing at Katara's words, thinking she was joking.

"Aang, I know you're excited about going to the air temple, but you should expect some changes," said Katara as she looked at Aang with a worried look on her face.

Aang chuckled and nodded, "I know, and that's why I want to see what changes. I want to see it for myself."

"100 years have passed Aang, you should expect many things… and people to be… missing," said Katara, afraid of what's to come after feeling like her words were a little more harsh this time.

Aang froze at that moment, then suddenly smiled and turned to look at Katara, "I'm sure they will return after a while once they hear I returned."

After hearing Aang, Katara revealed a helpless expression on her face as she turned to look at her brother who was just shaking his head as if he also didn't know what to say.

The only thing they could do at this point was to cross their fingers and hope for the best as Aang went onwards to the Air Temple.

Meanwhile, Genji felt like he was completely lost in the large expanse of white land as far as the eye could see.