"We'll ask once again! State your name and reason for wanting to enter Omashu!"
"I'm Toji, a bounty hunter, and I know how ludicrous that sounds considering how young I am."
"If it sounds ludicrous, what makes you think we'll believe you?!" The head of the gate guards asked and Toji climbed down as he saw the earthbenders on the wall readying to attack.
"Because…" The boy trailed off as he reached into his jacket, raising his free hand the moment the earth around him trembled before taking out a small pouch and throwing it towards the head guard.
"That's about eighty gold coins, ten coins for each of you."
"Are you bribing an officer of Omashu?" The head guard spoke with a frown and Toji rolled his eyes as he closed his jacket and shook his head.
"Not in the slightest. Think of it more as a hunter giving back to the brave warriors protecting our cities."
"…Very well. You may proceed but we've got our eyes on you." The man spoke with a frown and Toji nodded as he climbed back onto Iron only to blink as a stone wall appeared in his path.
"We won't ask how you got the rhino, but it's eight extra."
"Got it from a Fire Nation Sergeant's dead body after I killed him." Toji spoke with a smile as he took out the eight coins and handed it over to the head guard, who nodded as he signalled for his men to open the walls.
"Alright, Iron. Go." Toji ordered and the beast rumbled as it began walking forward, the boy humming as the walls slowly closed behind them before raising an eyebrow at the sight that greeted him.
Numerous stone chutes and pathways that made up the Omashu delivery system stretched across the entire city and Toji hummed as he watched the earthbenders expertly moving around the stone carts that followed said chutes.
'It is sent downwards through simple pushing, but sharp and steep turns are made by earthbenders. I can see why this city is so well-liked amongst the rich folk.' With these many skilled earthbenders, the city did not have to worry about much protection considering each earthbender is most likely equal to five firebenders.
'Actually, considering how Tu Zin was able to hold off a battalion of about a hundred or so firebenders off, I'd actually make it to be a dozen or so firebenders for every Omashu earthbender.' Toji thought before blinking as he heard Iron huff, looking down only to raise an eyebrow as the beast nodded its horn forward.
Looking at what it was pointing at, the boy frowned slightly as he saw a couple of posters on a wanted board, staring directly at the one that had a sketch that looked very similar to him down to his spiky hair.
Putting his hood back on, Toji's frown deepened as he caught sight of a couple of people wearing red cloaks with a grinning black skull on the back, shaking his head as he began leading his komodo rhino away from them.
First things first, he needs to make a few changes.
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"Welcome, all of you wondrous contestants to the annual recruitment test for the Dancing Nobleman Fleet!" Excited cheering echoed in the large warehouse that sat at the edge of Omashu as hundreds of people stood on the ground floor.
Up above on the walkways, a dark-haired man with brown eyes and a scar across his neck grinned as he nodded, the two men in red cloaks with black skull masks staying silent as the man raised a hand and silenced the warehouse.
"It is truly a pleasure to see that there are so many new faces that wish to join our ranks and I see some older ones that believe that this year would be this year. Isn't that right, Maku?!"
"Yes, Liu sir!" One of the older men in the crowd shouted with a grin and Toji hummed as he saw some of the other older guys smirking as well as the amused smirk on this Liu's face as he nodded.
"Glad to hear it! Now then, I'm sure you all have heard about the disaster that stuck the Crimson Sails Armada about a week ago, correct?" Toji hid his smirk with his hand as he heard that, watching as most of the crowd nodded before looking up as Liu cleared his throat.
"The demise of the Renegade Phoenix is truly a tragedy to some of our men in the army, but! This opens up the avenue to bring in many new members that truly wish to embody the name of our armada! However, we do not wish to enter just anyone into our group. Therefore!"
'Well, this is crap.'Toji thought with a frown as he looked at the exits, where dozens of men and women in red cloaks stood with swords while Liu gave a malicious grin as he spoke.
"We can't allow anyone to learn of our presence in Omashu and we only have one hundred spots available. I'm sure you guys can figure out the re-!" Before Liu could finish his sentence, he turned his gaze as he heard the sound of choking echoing to the right.
Toji just hummed as he took off his hood, revealing his now short hair as well as the fresh jagged cut on his left cheek while looking at the shocked people around him.
"Do you mean like this?" Toji asked as he looked up at Liu, gesturing towards the three dying men on the floor with his bloody dadao and Liu's shock vanished as he smirked.
"Just like th-!" The boy didn't waste any time as he rushed forward, stabbing deep into the heart of another before leaping off of them as chaos ensued.
Flaming fists, water whips and boulders were everywhere as everyone tried to kill the other, some hesitating and getting killed without a second thought while others were gleeful in making sure their chosen target was dead.
Toji however was at peace as he ducked in between the groups of people fighting, thankful for his small size and his immense physical prowess as he sheathed his dadao before cracking his knuckles.
"There's the little shit!" One of the men shouted while punching outwards, but his eyes widened as Toji grabbed his wrist with one hand and his shoulder with the other, the flames shooting from his hands sputtering out as Toji broke his arm with a rising knee.
Before the man could scream, the boy flipped over him while unsheathing his butterfly sword and dagger, cutting his neck open and leaving the man to choke as he rushed towards his next target.
Sliding under an earthbender shooting a rock at him, Toji threw his dagger before leaping through the air with a corkscrew, rolling upon landing and ripping his dagger from the earthbender's head as he ducked under a pair of legs.
'This might take a while.'
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"Huh, not as long as I was expecting." Toji muttered as he cleaned off his crossbow bolts, placing them back onto their holsters and making sure the rest of his weapons were secured as he stared at the devastation around him.
"Oi, you." Looking up at Liu as he spoke, Toji raised an eyebrow as the man hopped down and landed with a grunt right next to him.
"You're pretty skilled for a kid that only uses weapons. What element do you use?"
"Weapons."
"I didn't know there was an element like weapons. Did you guys know?" Liu asked his squadron with a smile, shaking his head at their chuckles before turning back only to raise an eyebrow at the dagger held against his throat.
"What are you going to do with that?"
"Kill you."
"And then what?"
"Escape." Toji answered simply and Liu raised an eyebrow at the lazy confidence the boy had while raising a hand to stop his group from attacking.
"You think you can escape from not only dozens of Crimson Sails Armada pirates, but also your fellow recruits that would see this as a chance to get an instant promotion."
"Many underestimate me and think I'm just a little kid. Then, I sent them all to Hell and continue on my way. You and your men might have bending, but everyone dies when they get a dagger to the head." Toji spoke with a smirk and Liu matched it as he nodded while standing up straight.
"What's your name kid?"
"Toji Zen'in." Toji spoke and Liu hummed with a smirk.
"Sounds eerily similar to a kid we're looking for called Toji Fushiguro. You fit the description too except for the shorter hair and the scar."
"And? What's that gotta do with me?" Toji asked with a raised eyebrow and Liu couldn't help his laughter before speaking.
"I like you, kid. You got balls. Most wouldn't even think of talking to an officer of Captain Mosi like that."
"Most are too scared to even think of doing it. I'm not." Toji answered with a shrug as he sheathed his dagger before spinning around Liu's fist, the flames from it grazing his shirt as the boy leapt with a spin and landed a vicious spin kick to the man's jaw.
However, he raised an eyebrow as Liu only stumbled a bit instead of getting knocked out and the man in question smirked as he rubbed his jaw and nodded.
"Here." Liu spoke as he reached into his jacket and held out a card, Toji taking it and humming as he read the information before tearing it up.
"Got it." Toji said as he walked past the man, Liu gesturing for his group to let him through before shaking his head with a chuckle as he clenched his fist.
'Looks like we may have a found a diamond in the rough, after all.'
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'It's a good thing he didn't recognize me…or maybe he did?' Toji thought with a hum as he walked on a building's rooftop, hopping off of it and dropping into a laundry cart before relaxing as he let it carry him up to his hiding spot.
Now, one may wonder why Toji would do such a thing as to invade the very group he was hunting and doing so afterhe had already sent a messenger of his exploits to their leader and to that, he has one very simple answer.
'If I can't make my target move as I want, then I have failed as an assassin.' Toji was never going to wait until Kangana came after him with her armada and get caught with his pants around his ankles.
No, the messenger was simply a diversion with fake information that he was a bounty hunter from Omashu and that it was also where his base was, which is why he was sure the large gathering of pirates were here.
The next step was to join them under his old alias and make sure to get a high enough rank and status to where he could have a meeting with Captain Mosi and reveal his identity.
'Then, there comes the final step. Either persuade Mosi of the plan to place him at the top in exchange for Kangana's head or take him out and then systematically take out the entire Armada on his own.' The latter was a plan he actually wanted to avoid as that would take him years to complete and he wasn't willing to spend that long for a single bounty.
'Even if she is worth almost 120 gold coins now, that's too much time and money to waste on a single person.' Toji thought with a frown as he hopped and spun out of the cart right as it passed his hiding spot, dropping down from the chute and landing outside a small house near the centre of Omashu with a grunt.
"Woah~ Mom, can I have one?" A kid asked as he stared at Iron, who was snoring away on his front doorstep as Toji walked up and rubbed the beast's belly.
Snickering at how the mom tried to placate the child, Toji snapped his fingers and burst out laughing as Iron stood up with a loud bellow, terrifying anyone in the vicinity and making them run away before the boy rubbed the beast's horn as it turned to him with a confused look.
"Go back to sleep. Just wanted to play a prank." Iron huffed with narrowed eyes as it laid back down, to which the boy smirked as he shook his head and walked into the apartment.
"Sheesh, should have told me you got a spot in Omashu." Raising an eyebrow at the voice, Toji smirked at the sight of June sitting in a chair, the teenager looking amused as she sipped at her coffee.
"How the hell did you get in here?"
"Easily. Your traps need some work." She spoke and Toji looked at the two machetes hanging from the ceiling before sighing as he saw that one of the railings of the second floor had snapped slightly and forced the trap to activate.
"I'm still paying for the house, you know?"
"Really?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and he smirked as he shrugged and sat down.
"Well, someone is still paying hard-earned money for the house."
"I heard you took out the Renegade Phoenix." June spoke as she dismissed their previous topic and Toji snorted as he nodded while sitting down, taking off his crossbow from his back before leaning back into the soft cushions of the chair.
"Yeah, they were a bit hard, but pretty fun."
"You can't say it was hard when you dragged back sixty heads."
"Technically, 48 full heads and 12 that were split apart." Toji added and June rolled her eyes as she placed her cup down.
"And now, I also hear that you're joining the Crimson Sails Armada after taking out their top enforcers. Are you perhaps stupid, slow or just straight-up idiotic?"
"It's called using my brain."
"Yeah, what little you have of it."
"What exactly are you doing in Omashu?"
"To see the sights…and to see if you need a partner for this job."
"You want part of the cash or the recognition?" Toji asked with a raised eyebrow and June smirked as she shrugged.
"A bit of both."
"Wanna let me kill you for a bit of both? You could become one of the bodies I leave behind?"
"Wanna see how fast I could kill you?" June asked as she placed her whip on the table, Toji placing his swords before grabbing his crossbow and aiming it at her head right as she dropped down and threw a dart at his leg.
Immediately, his eyes widened as he felt his entire body going limp, falling face first onto his sheathed dagger and listening as June walked around the table and leaned down next to him.
"That's a bit of Nyla's venom. You might be a strong kid, but it would still take you a few hours before you-!" The teenager gagged as Toji's hand shot up and wrapped around her neck, his other arm quickly reaching up to his table and unsheathing his dagger with one hand as he held it against her neck.
'Damn, that venom is potent.' Usually, the only poison that worked against him was from cursed spirits and even those didn't last long as his body's lifeforce was too potent after he had exposed his body to a myriad of different toxic materials in his past life.
However, it appears that the creatures of this world had toxins on the level of that of cursed spirits, which made him wonder just how potent the toxin from a spirit itself would be.
"You're quick on your feet." Toji spoke as he took away his dagger and let go of her throat, watching as June coughed while pulling her knife from his chest as well.
"H-How in the hell are you moving?" She asked as Toji stood up, to which the boy shrugged while hiding his frown and struggle as he hopped from foot to foot.
'Okay, that shit messed up my muscles and nerves. It is definitely a lot more potent than I thought.'
"I guess I'm just good with handling venom." Toji spoke with a smile as he stopped hopping and watched as June put her whip back on before sheathing her dagger and walking to the front door.
"You know what? I don't think a job is worth me nearly getting killed because you can't share."
"What can I say? I'm a greedy bastard." Toji spoke bluntly with a shrug, watching as June rolled her eyes before frowning the moment she walked out of the room.
Picking up the dart she threw at him, he took a sniff of the lingering venom residue at the end of it before blinking as his vision spun with that one sniff, smirking as he took out a piece of cloth from his pouch and slowly wrapped the dart inside of it.
After all, if he can make himself immune to something that takes the average person hours to get used to, then other poisonous material would be nothing for his immune system.
Looks like it's torture training all over again.
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KNOCK…KNOCK KNOCK…KNOCK KNOCK
"Password?"
"Blood for the Crimson Seas." Toji answered and there was silence behind the solid steel door before it slid open, the masked person in the red cloak behind it nodding as he pointed further in.
"Down two doors and through the third on your right, through the first door on your left, straight down to the fifth door and drop down through the hatch before going straight until you reach it." The person spoke and Toji nodded as he walked into the building, following the man's instruction as he began making his way to the meeting point.
'Two doors…the third…first door…the fifth…down the h-The meeting's in a sewer…Hah, of course it is.' Toji thought with a sigh as he stared at the open hatch, looking at the two masked people standing besides it before gesturing towards the hatch.
"Isn't there another way that doesn't result in me smelling like shit?"
"Leave." The one on the left answered and Toji groaned as he walked forward and dropped down, hopping from wall to wall and doing a split as he got to the bottom before grabbing the bottom edge and flipping himself onto a pipe on the side.
Looking at the filthy water rushing through, the boy shook his head as he began making his way down the only path available as the path behind him was blocked off by a gate, humming and ignoring the stench in the air before smirking as he saw bright lights at the end of the tunnel.
"Huh, you're the first one here…and you're not wet." Liu spoke with a slightly disappointed look as Toji hopped from the pipe, balancing himself on another before grunting as he hopped out and onto the raised rocky surface surrounded by sewage.
"Did you actually just do this to see people covered in sewage?"
"Trash belongs with other stacks of trash, doesn't it?" He asked with a smirk and Toji rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, waiting patiently along with watching at how the large group of pirates stood at the entrances.
"Tell me, Toji. Do you believe in coincidences?"
"I do…not." Toji answered with a shrug as he sat down, humming while drumming his fingers on his legs as Liu smirked.
"Well, I do somewhat. You see, I did believe that it could be a coincidence that you may have the same first name as the kid that took out the Renegade Phoenix. Then, I started getting a bit suspicious of the second coincidence that you looked exactly like the kid we're looking. Finally, coincidences fell away when I noticed how you kept your weapons on your person. Dagger on your left side, dadao on your right. Crossbow on the back with the bolts on the upper left thigh and a butterfly knife horizontally across your back."
'Hmm, guess he knew.' Toji hummed as he let the man continue speaking while taking note of how the groups now shuffled around to make sure every exit was blocked.
"And? What are you getting to?"
"Nothing much to be honest. I'm just now stumped as to why Toji Fushiguro decided it would be a good idea to try and join the exact group that he's exterminated a crew of."
"So, you would take me seriously." Toji answered with a shrug and Liu rose an eyebrow at that while gesturing for the boy to continue.
"If we kept every interaction exactly the same but removed any sign of me being the killer, would you have let me join?"
"Not in the slightest. Unlike the other crews, the Dancing Nobleman Fleet live by the code of never involving others that aren't of age."
"Precisely. Now, do you understand why I did?" Toji asked and Liu looked at him before nodding with a hum.
"I do. Now, I have one question for you? What makes you think that you're going to join us or escape here alive?"
"Oh, that's simple. You see, I have paid a few people off. You have about ten minutes before I have to notify them all that I am alive. If I don't, they will go to the ruler of Omashu and inform him of this location. Then again, with the stories I've heard of the Mad Genius, he probably already knows and is just waiting for the right chance."
"You'd die in the process."
"Eh, I would, but not before taking you and about 50% of your crew with me." Toji answered with a shrug as he stood up, stretching his limbs and body before raising an eyebrow as Liu chuckled while sitting back down.
"Not bad, Fushiguro. Not bad. However, even if we do die, my men can still escape and get away."
"Would they?" Toji asked as he pointed towards one of the entrances and Liu raised an eyebrow only for his eyes to widen as he heard voices coming from all of the pipes.
"They're down here!"
"We've already apprehended your lookouts! Stand down and surrender!"
"I have a way out, but only for you if I can join. Are you willing to do it?" Toji asked, smirking as he watched Liu look back to him with a frown before his smirk widened as Liu gave him a matching smile.
"Let's go, new recruit."
A/N: Anyway, Toji's journey as a pirate! Next chapter, a quick series of time-skips before we move on to the real target: Kangana!
Yes, I know this arc is very long and boring, but I needed to do some world-building and give Toji some fame before we move to where a member of the characters in the canon timeline meets up with him.
Spoiler for the character: Vine~
And now, like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!