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Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 23
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 00:50:23 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
April 10th 2xxx – Izumi PoV
Today was the first day of school, but that didn't stop me from following my routines, and that involved getting up before dawn. I ignored Taylor's moan that came from next to me where I was still lying, I changed from my sleep clothes to my training clothes, took the ceremonial sword and left the room.
As I was about to leave the building I stopped momentarily, interestingly, I wasn't the only one awake so early, I opened the door only to find Azula who also seemed to have just left and was getting ready.
“…Miyamura.” Azula frowned as she looked at me.
"Good morning Azula, welcoming the day?" I asked as I approached, I was still barefoot and the floor was cold, but it didn't bother me in the least, I approached the grass where Azula was.
"...greeting the sun," Azula corrected me with a grimace, and I nodded.
"Same here then," I shrugged, and began to breathe, after the first breath of air I began to dance, it was something I had been doing since I was little, welcoming the sun by dancing. Normally I did it for an hour without stopping, except on New Year's when I danced from the sunset of the last day until the sunrise of the first day of the year.
It certainly wasn't something I had acquired from Yoriichi's template and it really wasn't necessary in any way, but it was nice, I liked it.
"Are you... are you dancing?" Azula asked incredulously at my side, I smiled as I spun without stopping.
"Hinokami Kagura, Dance of the Fire God, is my way of thanking the Fire God for all his blessings, for warding off threats and diseases," I recited while watching Azular grimace.
"Boys," she muttered to herself, but I heard her loud and clear, I laughed lightly, Azula ignored me as she began to meditate several meters away from me, she was breathing and curiosity got the better of me, I used the Transparent World on Azula while she was breathing and... curiously, her way of breathing was much better than almost anyone I had seen so far.
Azula had positioned herself in the middle of the building's entrance, on the paved path, it quickly became clear to me as she began to do her katas and flames of blue fire came out of her limbs.
Hot, even from several meters away I could feel its heat, as expected.
Mmm, it definitely resembled kung fu, I wasn't an expert by any means, but I would acknowledge that some movements were completely different from the discipline, now I was curious, their fighting style was definitely not created imitating dragons, it was too rigid, militaristic and offensive, but it was definitely polished over generations, it was incredible.
Elemental quirks were fairly common in this world, and it was practically common knowledge that there were correct ways to use them, yes, there were some differences from person to person, but the movements generally worked for anyone, ways to move to correctly direct the quirk.
Now I wanted to know what would happen if I taught Azula the dancing dragon, or better yet, Sun Breathing or Flame Breathing, would it serve to enhance her quirk? In fact, could anything improve her quirk like the firebending in the series?
"Does your quirk improve with the sunrise?" I asked Azula, Azula paused momentarily, just long enough to break her Katas, Azula grimaced and glared at me before clicking her tongue.
"I'm surprised you noticed," I hummed, that was an affirmation, now, could her quirk improve by imitating dragons, or the sun? Even if she couldn't, it didn't hurt to try.
"You wanna dance?" I asked as I finally stopped and looked at her, Azula looked at me like I was stupid, I rolled my eyes "Come on, it's to thank the sun" I urged, Azula seemed about to retort, but for some reason she swallowed her words, it seemed like she swallowed bile in the process.
"...fine" Azula said while clenching her teeth tightly, okay, something was going on, but it wasn't the time to analyze her behavior.
"Excellent," I smiled widely as I approached her. "The dance is made up of twelve segments that are repeated throughout the dance. I'll demonstrate some of them to you." Azula grimaced before sighing and nodding.
"Let's continue," she said resignedly.
"Hinokami Kagura: First Form – Dance, is a singular downward movement in an arc motion, like this" I did the movement slowly under Azula's watchful gaze, she frowned and didn't move, I looked at her expectantly as I handed her the ceremonial sword, Azula seemed to fight against herself before sighing and taking the sword, she got into position and performed Dance.
I whistled in amazement, it seems this Azula is also a prodigy, she was able to imitate the first form with quite a high accuracy, much higher than the copies Taylor made when she tracked me with her insects, terrifying.
Azula stopped when she finished the movement while she frowned and looked at the sword, without saying anything she performed Dance again. This time to my surprise orange sparks came out of the sword, I smiled widely, it worked.
"What the hell..." Azula muttered in disbelief as she looked at her arms.
"This is Hinokami Kagura: Second Form - Clear Blue Sky, spin and twist your upper body in a circular motion like this" I again demonstrated the next form slowly, Azula stared at me almost without blinking, once I finished she repeated the movement, her eyes widened as a small flare of orange fire joined her sword.
"How are you doing that?" she asks incredulously, I smile widely without answering.
"Hinokami Kagura: Third Form – Raging Sun," this time I didn't bother to explain, I just moved, Azula's concentrated gaze never left my body, once I finished she did it immediately, after that I showed her Burning Bones, Summer Sun, Setting Sun Transformation and Solar Heat Haze, the fourth, fifth, and sixth form, with each new form Azula imitated, the flames of fire grew stronger, hotter.
"From the beginning" I said as I started Dance again.
"No! What about the final six?!" Azula said quickly, I stopped, looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"When you perfectly learn the first 6 and how to breathe between them correctly we'll continue" I shrugged, Azula seemed genuinely offended by the last insinuation, I rolled my eyes "Follow my movements and watch my breathing," this time I did the six forms consecutively joining one another in a dance. I exaggerated my breathing, mainly for Azula's benefit. Azula gritted her teeth but never looked away, I repeated the 6 form dance several times until I stopped and looked at Azula. She tightened her grip on the ceremonial sword.
Azula had good lung capacity, excellent I would say, but it was not the same as total concentration breathing, her physique, although certainly impressive I must say, was not the same. Even with her training, the strange physiology of this world and aura supporting her, it was not a surprise when she failed horribly in her first dance, in fact, much worse than when she performed them separately, the sword barely threw sparks from it.
Azula looked at me incredulously as if it was my fault, I raised an eyebrow in her direction while smiling, she gritted her teeth and tried again, it failed again.
"You're too tense, calm down and breathe," I told her, she glared at me before making a face and doing as I told her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her frustrated expression left her and she began to move.
This time it was much better, her movements were more fluid, her breathing was in the right place, but it still wasn't enough, however that didn't stop flames from coming out of the sword, her eyes shone with victory, but she didn't flinch, she simply started again.
Again and again she danced the 6 forms, each time with more precision, with more strength and her fire showed it. It was still orange, but it was more stable, hotter than before, hotter than her blue fire, not by much but definitely hotter, that made her stop.
"It's not blue," Azula said with a grimace, I tilted my head confused "My fire, it's not blue but it's hotter, why? What is this dance? " she asked, piercing me with her eyes, I smiled at her.
"Hinokami Kagura, also known as Sun Breathing, you're imitating the sun" I said simply, her eyes widened as she looked at the ceremonial sword, interestingly the sword hadn't been burned, it was made entirely of wood, it looked like a tree branch that had been clumsily polished and had ornaments tied onto it, and it was exactly that, but it was completely intact.
"Sun Breathing…the sun? Imitating the sun? What does that mean?," she asked incredulously, I smiled slightly at her.
"It means what it means," I said mockingly before taking the ceremonial sword into her hands.
“…show me the missing moves” she demanded, I hummed lightly.
"No" I said simply, she wrinkles her nose almost furious "you didn't learn the movements correctly" that stopped her dead "besides, until now I taught variations to Taylor, my fiancée, Ruby, my girlfriend and my brother," in everything except blood, but brother anyway, "why should I teach you?" I asked raising an eyebrow in her direction. I really didn't mind teaching her, my curiosity to see when she would improve was definitely great, but I didn't want to teach it to a psychopath either.
Okay, canon Azula was never crazy, she just had a mental breakdown at the end of the series for obvious reasons. Mostly due to the actions of others, things that Azula certainly didn't deserve, but like every series, they needed to punish the bad guys and Azula was the one who received all of it.
Although Azula was never 'bad', she was simply on the opposite side of good, abandoned by her mother in favor of her brother, abandoned by her brother out of jealousy, abandoned by her uncle in favor of her brother, and then betrayed by her best friends in favor of her brother once again.
Was it weird that she followed everything Ozai told her when he was the only person who 'believed' and was 'proud' of her? Even if it's just because of her firebending skills? No, in fact, it was expected.
Basically everyone screwed her up and still pointed her out as bad, her mother saw a copy of Ozai in her, and she thought Ozai was a monster so Azula came to the conclusion that her mother thought she was a monster.
Her uncle was even more pathetic, Iroh… he was a hypocrite through and through, he had the same attitude as Azula for most of his life, he was a general, a murderer and a conqueror, he only changed with the death of his son and for some reason he believed he had the right to judge Azula for her actions when they were exactly the same, he never made the effort to help her. Zuko also resented his uncle for 3 years during exile, but still, Iroh stayed by his side despite everything Zuko did to him.
Plus he told Zuko that he had to defeat Azula when he hadn't been able to face his own brother for the throne, pure hypocrisy.
And then Mai and Ty Lee, the final straw , seeing Mai choose her brother, like all the other people who should be 'important' to her, broke her mentally. That's why she started seeing illusions of her mother, it all started with her and Mai reminded her of that enormously.
Coming back to this Azula, I didn't know what she had been through, she was older, 18 years old and she certainly shouldn't have gone through the same thing as her canon counterpart, but I still felt quite a bit of anger and rage coming from her with my observation haki, so, I still had doubts about her mental state.
"I'll give you a helping hand though, watch carefully," I performed the 12 forms once more consecutively, but this time it was true Sun Breathing, I didn't slow down nor the temper the force behind my cuts once. I stopped, looking at Azula who was staring slightly into space.
Just in time when I felt Taylor's bugs settle on my clothes.
"Good talk Azula, it was a pleasure welcoming the sun with you" I smiled at her, Azula blinked a few times and looked up at the sky, her eyes widening when the sun had risen enough, we had been practicing for an hour, "now I have to-" Ruby walked excitedly out the door with the breathing mask in her hand, a beaming smile on her face, Taylor followed behind her in her training clothes "-go run with them." I pointed in the direction of the girls, I didn't expect her to return my greeting, I simply left the ceremonial sword on the park bench we had and joined Taylor and Ruby.
"Good morning Taylor, Ruby" kisses both of them on their lips softly, Ruby laughed softly and Taylor sighed lightly
"Good morning Izumi!" Ruby blushed slightly, but smiled widely.
"Good morning Izumi, let's go?" Taylor asked with a smile, I nodded also smiling, Taylor looked over my shoulder "Were you busy?" she asked, more out of curiosity than jealousy I felt from her emotions.
"I'll explain on the way, come on, we have a route to complete, Ruby, the mask" I push her before stretching slightly, Taylor and Ruby followed quickly and in no time the three of us were running through the UA campus. Ruby with the mask to reduce the air in her face struggling to keep up, when we got far enough away so she couldn't see us, I could feel Azula grab the ceremonial sword on the bench, I smiled widely.
