A Joke
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Avatar: Awakened Gamer
🕑 Added 2021-11-03 14:30:12 +0000 UTCChapter 33
***
What Sokka didn't know was that his words stroked a part of their feelings that he never thought about. Compassion, they were putting themselves in his shoes and wondered; How could such a man be so forgiving?
In their eyes, anyone whose mother got killed by the enemy would make them hateful. Yet the young man in front of them didn't hate them… it made the soldiers feel shame they hadn't felt in their whole lives. They were reminded of their own families.
Sokka had a calm exterior, they knew he had the strength to fight and possibly even kill them all. Yet the man stood there, calm as if he had predicted what had happened.
He was… like a saintly figure untainted by the sins of mortal men. Sokka stood tall and looked at them all with a calm gaze.
***
-Sokka POV-
Holy shit, holy fuck! I planned in case I fail, but not when I succeed like this. What do I even say here?
Now that I had all of this momentum, failing now would suck. Well, when you don't know what to say, saying nothing is better than saying anything.
So I just stayed quiet and looked at them with a serious, but sincere look. These things were so out of my league. How will they react to this gaze I was making?
I had about zero experience with these things. Still, though, I was at least prepared if the people here decided to attack me again. So, with that in mind, I calmed back down. Thankfully I hadn't shown anything outwardly due to [Gamer's Mind].
"Should you be apologizing to me?" I calmly stated. "You have done nothing against me. You do not carry the crimes of your fellow Fire Nation soldiers, so you shouldn't carry their guilt either."
That was when I noticed something even stranger. The people had tears in their eyes as they bowed, in forgiveness and regret.
FUCK…
Oy, oy, oy, the Luck stat was supposed to put me in a favorable situation. Why the fuck isn't it working? Because the situation just went way out of my league.
"Why are you guys bowing?" I asked them, trying to be calm outwardly. The thing I needed the most was information. What were they thinking? This was irrational behavior in my opinion.
"We… we were just blinding ourselves," said one of them. Pulling their head up, I saw that it was a man with a goatee and dark hair. He seemed sad at something. "I thought that as I followed orders… no, that was just my excuse so I wouldn't feel guilty."
So he was just a guy stuck on a battlefield that he didn't want to be in. Most of the military was like this, it was either people who had no idea what they were getting into or those that had no other choice. Though some knew that being in the military would offer a free scholarship. I doubt the Fire Nation offered even the latter.
These fire benders seemed quite aged. So they probably knew to think for themselves. No, it would be more correct to say that they just needed to hear someone say it.
This was lucky of me to meet all of these people… Luck… was unpredictable. Something that I had barely any control over. The only way I could control it was by controlling my actions and trying to incite a lucky event to happen.
But Luck could be dangerous. Because a lot of people who were considered Lucky sometimes lived a very tragic life. So I have to be careful with it. Especially to stop me from relying too much on luck.
Heroes were lucky… Greek heroes especially had great Luck, that's what everyone will say. Heracles was born as the son of a God, yet, his life was so tragic. I don't want to have a life like that.
Still though, for the soldiers to be so willing to ask for forgiveness. This means that I have been very lucky. Understanding that was fundamental, and while this could be considered good luck, things could develop worse if the "lucky opportunity" wasn't grasped.
Do you know what happens to a Hero who fails? That heroic tale can easily turn into a tragedy with one mistake.
I took a deep breath and channeled Chi into the tip of my spear. Something I had been able to do since getting [Spear Mastery] past Level 20 and sunk the tip of my spear in the metallic deck
Clang!
That drew everyone’s attention back to me. Now wasn’t the time to mull over whether I was good at public speeches or not, instead, I had to come up with something on the fly.
"I am not someone who can forgive anything, but if you follow me. The best I can do is to lead you into a path of redemption," though I said that. I had no idea how to go about it, that was why wording it in such a way was important. They will be expecting something in the future, but for now, I am safe.
They nodded, and the man with a goatee, that seemed like their temporary leader, looked at me intently. "Then, what should we do now?"
The fuck. You are an adult, don't ask stuff like that to a teenager like me. Seems like I will have to say something vague and dodge the question completely. Saying a concrete answer and then failing might turn them into hateful enemies because I deceived them. "What should you do? Shouldn't you decide that yourself? Forgiveness isn't something I can give, but something you must earn."
Take that sage-like advice and fuck off.
Those were the thoughts in my mind as I smiled at them gently. Can't these guys think for themselves? "Your commander was a bad man, so how about you take care of him? He was the one who has given orders that have resulted in thousands of deaths."
Though the words I used were soft, these guys would have to take care of Zhao. Not only would that end up with him dead, which was one of my own goals, but the ones who would kill him won't be able to ever return to the Fire Nation.
That was two birds with one stone. Because after these guys did that, then they will have to fight against the Fire Nation.
After saying that, I just walked off as I saw Appa diving through the air and landing next to me. Looking back at the soldiers, I waved at them. "You know what to do already and have no need for my help. So just do what feels right in your heart."
"""YES!!!""" They yelled out enthusiastically, a flame of blood lust was lit in their eyes.
This was what was scary about people. They would kill someone just to prove that they were in the right. Tribal mentality was there too, as even the ones who weren't convicted by me would have to follow.
We flew off, and I just looked at them, rushing into the ship to look for Zhao. They will probably fail and die as the other Fire Nation soldiers from the rest of the ships come and kill them all.
There was no other choice. I couldn't stay back with them or would have gotten killed too.
But, who knows, they might be successful and able to escape all of this. Even though I think that had a very low chance of happening.
I feel kinda sorry for them. They were used by Zhao, and now me. But sadly, I wasn't going to risk my life for them.
Also today I learned something incredible. Luck… could be dangerous. Right now, when the people were listening to my speech, it should have been effective. It was too effective and the people gathered there were the ones who fell for it too easily.
Having people like that in one place wasn't easy, and very rare. So Luck played a huge part in it.
Well, things worked out well in the end. For me at least.
"I didn't see anything as you said, and I quote; badass. All you did was just talk." Katara found this moment to send a snide comment at me.
Deciding to not fall to her word traps, I kept quiet.
"I think that is even more impressive," said Aang suddenly. "He was able to do all that just by using his words. Using violence is easy, but convincing people to not fight is even harder."
Oh? Right, a pacifist like him would be more impressed with me talking my way out of a situation than fighting a hundred people off.
"Katara, you should be impressed by my charisma," I said smugly. But in reality, both Aang and Katara knew that between the three of us, usually only I did the talking when it came to situations that required it.
“If you didn’t brag so much about yourself, then maybe I might see you as someone cool.”
I smiled at her. But that would be a problem, little sister. After all, as siblings, if I am not expressing things like these to you then we will slowly start drifting apart. When the time comes that you have to try and actively make yourself seem without faults and not speak your mind in front of me easily, then that will be when our relationship will be over.
Sometimes, relationships can be complicated, and not understanding them can be quite disastrous. I and Katara were brother and sister, there was no need for me to act like some kind of casanova with her, since we aren’t dating, nor am I trying to woo her. It doesn't matter if your family sees your bad side.
After all, if you can’t be your true self with your family and trust them, then who can you even trust in this world?
***
By dawn, we arrived on a crescent-shaped island, and on top of it was the tower. The temple, the one where Avatar Roku’s status lay. One of the stupidest avatars of his time, though they were all kind of very unsuited to be Avatars, maybe Kyoshi being the only one who understood her responsibilities.
Aang's weakness and inability to kill someone would create a lot of problems, even for the Avatar after him. Men with consciousness were good people, but horrible leaders, someone that no one should allow to make decisions. Because he will base everything on emotion, and that was worse than even corruption.
Appa went and got a well-deserved rest on the outskirts of the island, while I, Katara, Aang, and Momo went towards the temple.
The five Fire Sages were there, waiting for us. It seemed like they had already gotten news of what was happening.
“Welcome, Avatar,” one of them that seemed the oldest bowed towards us and he rose, a small smirk on his face. “How may we help you?”
“You know about me?” Aang inquired, surprised that they already knew about him and how he looked.
“Of course,” the oldest Fire Sage smiled gently.
Well… these guys know that they can’t defeat Aang head-on and decided to do this. That’s very interesting, let’s see how they act.
**
The Fire Sages continued talking with Aang as I discreetly went and checked the Dimensional Chat and saw that Zabuza and DemonicDragon had a chat while I had been fighting on Zhao’s ship. And there were a couple of messages that caught my eyes.
One of them was about Zabuza describing how to use the Transformation Jutsu, and DemonicDragon wasn’t able to use it. Even someone from his world who could use Chakra had tried, but couldn't use the Transformation Jutsu either.
Seeing this, an idea came to mind. Also, DemonicDragon’s identity has become clear now. With almost 100% certainty I can assume that DemonicDragon was Vali Lucifer, from DxD and the person who he said had chakra in his world was probably Kuroka.
***
A/N: What I loved about Avatar is the humanity they displayed in enemy soldiers and even prisoners. They are all human and have feelings. Nobody wants to be the bad guy in their own story.
