It was a rare chance for Zuko to come out with Uncle Iroh, and he headed straight for Kahn's house with the key Iroh had given him. As for Uncle Iroh, he seemed to be going to find someone to play a board game with and had not come back with him.
Tea tasting, board games, and music-this was Uncle Iroh's ordinary retirement life. He enjoyed it himself, and there was nothing wrong with that.
As soon as Zuko entered, he saw his friend sitting cross-legged beneath a tree in the courtyard, meditating.
Though he was in a meditation pose, his head was tilted to one side and his body was slack. With the sound of his steady breathing, he was clearly asleep.
"Kahn, what are you doing?"
Hearing Zuko's voice, Kahn jolted awake and instantly straightened his posture. Keeping his eyes closed, he pretended to be absorbed in meditation as he answered:
"I'm meditating. Can't you tell?"
"But you were asleep just now, weren't you? Why did you suddenly start meditating?"
"Because it's one of the fundamentals, and being in a meditative state helps you think."
Pretending not to have heard the first half of Zuko's remark, Kahn explained as though nothing had happened.
He thought Iroh's advice was quite good, because he had effectively joined the monastery halfway through life. By the time he transmigrated, the original owner of his body had long since passed the stage of practicing the fundamentals.
Although his extraordinary talent had allowed him to quickly inherit the original owner's skills after inheriting his memories, and he had progressed rapidly ever since with a consistently solid foundation, there did seem to be something missing when it came to the fundamentals.
So he had decided to experience fundamental training all over again, starting with meditation, while also thinking about firebending development. He had not expected to accidentally fall asleep.
He did not know whether meditation helped with thinking, but it seemed quite helpful for sleeping, except that he woke up aching all over.
"You've already started training to become a Firebending Master..."
After hearing the whole story, Zuko sighed in envy.
Still, he was already used to it. After all, Azula had overshadowed him his entire life. Now there was just Kahn as well. It was no big deal.
That was how Zuko consoled himself.
He soon perked up, picked a leaf off the ground, and said:
"Speaking of fundamentals, I think this is more interesting."
As he spoke, a thin wisp of smoke began rising from the center of the leaf, and then it started to burn.
But that was all. No flame appeared. It simply burned outward from the center, and after a large hole had burned through the middle, the burning stopped advancing at the edges.
He neither burned the leaf completely away nor let the burning stop. It was as though time had frozen at that moment, and it looked quite magical.
"Oh, that."
Images of the original owner's childhood training also surfaced in Kahn's mind. This was an exercise to train a Firebender's control, ensuring they would not hurt themselves when using bending later on.
Interested himself, he picked up a leaf and made it burn slowly, holding it steady once it reached the limit. He kept the edges of his leaf at the point where only a thin line remained. Even the slightest bit more would have burned the entire leaf away, offering a glimpse of his mastery.
In terms of controlling fire alone, Kahn might already have deserved the title of master.
But something else interested him more:
Making something burn this way did not seem like simple firebending. It was more like the heat control he had once envisioned.
As he had mentioned before, fire was a phenomenon in which burning matter released light and heat.
Leaving aside the possibility of controlling light, this point alone was enough to excite Kahn.
Theory was theory, and reality was reality. He knew it would be difficult to bring all his wild ideas to life through imagination alone, but having one of them become reality still showed him considerable possibilities.
Could this be the starting point Iroh actually wanted me to focus on?
He had no way of guessing Iroh's thoughts, but he had already decided that, whether he succeeded or failed, his first step in researching and developing firebending would begin here.
Zuko did not stay long before leaving. It was not that Kahn had chased him away, but that Zuko still had to hurry over to Mai's. He had very little free time each day now, so he had to make every moment count.
Under those circumstances, it was already quite good of him to spread the rain and dew evenly and stop by Kahn's place on the way.
"Tsk, tsk."
Kahn made a disdainful sound.
Come to think of it, Zuko was not the only one. Azula seemed to have gotten busy too, and he had barely seen her lately. Thinking back to what she had said before, she was probably hard at work practicing that secret technique.
It looked like he needed to work hard too. At the very least, he had to maintain his current standing in strength. He could not let Azula knock him off his perch!
He went inside and brought out a cup of cool water-doing experiments indoors was still too dangerous-and, recalling the rate at which he had output chi while burning the leaf, carefully channeled chi into the cup.
After a while, steam began rising from the water, and then it boiled. He had successfully heated a cup of cool water into scalding-hot boiling water!
It really worked!
The success of his first experiment invigorated Kahn again, and he proceeded to the next experiment.
Bending meant control. If he could only impart heat, the importance of this ability would be greatly diminished.
Kahn tried controlling the heat in the cup as he would control fire. Once he felt he more or less had it, he cautiously touched the cup-
It was not hot.
He picked up the cup. Its sides felt ice-cold, yet the water inside kept bubbling away at a boil!
It had worked, and far more smoothly than he had imagined-so smoothly that it was almost unbelievable.
He knew he was extraordinarily gifted, but was being gifted to this extent not a little excessive?
Could this actually be very simple?
Amid his happiness, a flicker of doubt could not help crossing Kahn's mind, but he soon cast it aside.
Better keep experimenting. Kahn was in high spirits.
That evening, perhaps because something good had happened, Iroh seemed to be in a fine mood. After coming home cheerfully, he discovered a steaming cup of tea right beside Kahn and became even happier.
"Did you work out when I'd be back and prepare this especially for me?"
"Yep."
Kahn answered with a beaming smile.
Iroh picked up the tea and savored a delightful sip. Kahn had lived with him for so long, yet his tea-brewing skills remained mediocre. It seemed all his talent had gone into firebending.
Even so, Iroh drank it happily. After all, Kahn had prepared it especially for him.
I haven't taught this boy for nothing. How filial!
Feeling rather pleased, Iroh failed to notice that Kahn's smile was different from usual today. Instead, it was exactly like the smile Azula wore when playing a prank.
"Uncle Iroh, I made some new discoveries about firebending today. I'd like to show you."
"New discoveries?"
Iroh's attention was still on his tea, but his interest had been piqued.
Just then, Kahn reached out toward the cup in Iroh's hand and made a pulling motion through the air. At the same time, the hot tea's temperature suddenly plummeted, and it froze solid before their eyes!
"What is this?"
The bone-piercing chill coming from the teacup made Iroh shudder. As he looked at the cup in his hand, now covered in frost, the astonishment in his eyes nearly overflowed. Kahn truly shattered his understanding time and again.
But rather than expressing shock or praise, what Iroh most wanted to say at that moment was-
"You unfilial student! Hurry up and thaw my tea!"
Before you continue