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On her way back to Baolin's house, she came upon a small gathering of nobles outside of a dojo. She pushed her way through the crowd until she was inside. In front of her was a battle of two earthbenders. It looked somewhat serious and, from the intensity with which the nobles were watching it, she could assume that there was a large pot of money on this battle.

As she moved towards the sidelines and blended in as best as she could with the crowd, she noticed that it looked like a Agni Kai with a slight smirk. The two threw a simultaneous punch at one another. One created a sheild with earthbending while the other dodged it unsuccessfully. Tsuzuki turned to one of the people standing next to her in the crowd and asked, "What are they doing?"

"They're having a new sort of duel invented by the leader of this dojo. It's something where they can only throw one earth attack at each other and whomever falls first loses."

Tsuzuki grinned; she had a loophole for herself. The leader of the dojo stepped up and declared that the match was over. Then, he looked into the crowd and called out, "Are any of you brave enough to take on the winner."

Tsuzuki cried from the crowd, concieling her voice, "What are the rules?"

The leader nodded and smiled, "Each participant has only one earthbending move that they may send at one another. Whomever is standing last is the winner. If both are standing, the match is declared a tie and will be figured with new matches. These matches will continue until one person has fallen. Once a match begins, it cannot be stopped until both people have given their earthbending moves or one person is on the ground."

Tsuzuki grinned and stepped out of the crowd, "I'll do it! I'll fight him!"

She had decided to wear the green robe she had perchased previously from the markets that day so her firebending was inconspicuous. She stepped into the ring with a smile. The winner looked incredulous as the 'little girl' dared to challenge him.

She took a faulted earthbending stance a prepared to change as soon as the match began. The leader raised his arm in the air and dropped it rapidly, signaling the beginning of the match. Tsuzuki immediately shifted her stance to that of a firebender's and smiled, awaiting the warrior's move.

He seemed to be confused by her stance but thought of it as an advantage on his part and sent a large rock from the ground barreling towards her. She smiled and blasted herself upwards with her fire, narrowly missing the rock. She grinned as she said, "According to the rules, you're all out of moves."

Tsuzuki went running towards the earthbender, setting the air around her hands on fire as she did so, and shot out five jets, one right after the other. The movement of her palms and wrists were so easy, she barely felt like she was doing anything at all. The earthbender tried unsuccessfully to dodge the attacks and fell within a matter of minutes.

There was a moment of silence as the crowd looked on with complete shock. The leader looked at her and was about to reply when she smiled sincerely and said, "You said we only had one earthbending attack," before skipping out of the dojo.

After a few minutes of skipping down the streets, she found herself back at Baolin's steps and went inside. She smiled and sat down next to him as she said, "Hey-lo, what're you doing now?"

Training Post 17, [LB]-6

Tsuzuki smiled as she recounted her tale, "Well, at first I went looking for something to do in the city to get my mind off of the empending doom that follows me now. That didn't really work as I fell asleep and had this horrid dream about how the fire navy was attacking this Earth Kingdom port. Then, I found my way to this dojo where they were having a new earth battle. But, see, the rules are that the person can only throw one earth attack at the other. So, naturally, I entered and I won. It was a feeling of. . . well. . . renual. You should try it some time."

She was happy that she had won but the nagging feeling of battle came at the back of her mind as she finished her story.

Tsuzuki threw out onto the table a small pouch of golden pieces and mused, "I don't know what it is. Beating a system is fun, showing people things that they've never seen is fun too, and winning is definately an 'everyone thing'.

"I got the gold," she said as she nodded to the pouch, "because no one bet on me against the 'best earthbender' in the dojo."

She sighed and remembered fondly out loud, "Ah for the days of hussling the people of the Fire Nation ports of their money."

(I have been busy with essays and such at school)
Consider Vade in Jail for the moment.

She frowned as she walked through the crowd, a straw hat over her hair, the shadow over her face. She kept her head down and it was hopefully enough to keep her hidden.

"I knew this was stupid." She muttered passionately. However, she couldn't say she regretted it. Will was her friend, and the only person to believe in her, she needed to try to find him at least.

She decided to try the market place first, but was nearly constantly aware of the Guards and Dai li in the streets. It made her nervous, and as a result, made her clumsy. When she saw a Guard she turned away and collided with an old man, as it happened, her hat fell, and so did her disguise. "Hey you!" She heard, and in the corner of her eye, she saw the Guards start a fast walk towards her, the crowd clearing.

"Oh damnit!" She cursed ruefully and rolled over onto her feet while still crouched down. Collecting her hat quickly she placed it on her head and took a deep breath. There was only one way to take down a Guard in the Earth Kingdom, especially if they were told she was an ordinary commoner.

She opened her eyes when she was prepared and saw they were almost upon her. "Take this!" She said exutantly as she raised her fist in a commanding gesture then pushed suddenly outwards as Will taught her. A large rock rose from the solid street and then propelled towards the Guards with impressive speed and force, hitting the first in the chest and knocking down several others behind him, she decided to leave.

She rose, turned and sprinted within a few seconds and was out of sight of the market place soon, taking to the roofs as she had done with will all those months ago when they used to steal pies from shopkeepers and eat them in the evening.

I revealed myself, was all she could keep thinking. They knew she was here, and if they did not already know, she had revealed her amateur Earth-bending skills aswell! This day could not get much worse she realised as she sat on the rooftop with a sigh of distress. Tears welling in her eyes...

Tsuzuki sighed, "I don't know how the Earth Kingdom is with foreign crime but, from what you've said, it's a lot worse in the Fire Nation. See, we have a saying there:
'Ignorance for the law is no excuse for not obeying it.'
In fact, if you're ignorant of the law, it's taught to you twice as hard."

She let out a small, grim laugh and continued, "Besides, won't it seem awkward that Duke Baolin is hanging around some firebender. Look at page four."

She turned it for him to reveal a large sketch of the Earth Kingdom war room. The headline read: Earth Kingdom Preparing for War? It wasn't on the front page so it obviously wouldn't be taken seriously by most of the people that read the paper. But Tsuzuki knew better, "We're going to war against you. What's going to happen when it starts? Are they just going to brush over me and say 'Oh, it's just a firebender'?"

She stopped for a moment, letting the worry she felt for herself flicker to her face for only a moment before saying, "I'm scared for myself and you and everyone else involved. Whomever that may be on your half, I can only guess but my family could be punished for their insolence."

Baolin sighed and shut the paper.

"I suppose your fight at the dojo makes it difficult to disguise you as a maid," he sighed. "But even so, we technically never did anything wrong. We can always plead ignorance because it's true, and here, the people who were misled often have the advantage.

"And as far as me hanging around with a firebender, that's hardly going to be considered unusual for me. My father tried to keep it a secret, but I ran away from home about seven months before I was to become Duke, and the rumor has been seeping around that I spent those months with a girl. I'm not quite a scandal, but most people consider me to be a confusing politician."

"Hm? Oh, no, no," Baolin laughed. "I didn't meet Zayiya when I ran away. She and I were raised together. No, the girl I met was a wanderer named Miro. In fact, she was the one who convinced me to return home at all. I doubt we'll meet up with her. As far as I know, she's probably in Omashu right now. She's a traveling performer. No, Shuro's going to meet with Zayiya in Amayen and hopefully bring her here. Zayiya's the one with the cool head."