[Finished] On the Way to the City

["Casimiro"]

"We've received reports of a dangerous man or group of men in the area..."

A pair of Metal Bending police officers was addressing a small group of people on a farm road just outside of Republic City. The road lead from the agriculture community to the City proper, a frequently-used route by the farmers to take their goods to market. It was also used by people leaving and entering the city, both the innocent and less-innocent.

"If you have any information, please come forward."

"Does this have to do with the break-ins that have been occurring around here?"

The moment the police officers mentioned "a dangerous man", the group of people became that much more agitated and chattery. Before they were rather calm since officers occasionally come by to deal with petty vandalisms or kids being... kids. But now the mention of something quite a bit more than that took them by surprise. Never before had they had anything or anyone more dangerous than some cow-tippers or kids on a joyride on a Satomobile.

The officers tried to calm the group by saying that the break-ins and the criminal they were looking for might be related, but they would still appreciate any information they might have.

But they knew better...

Their reports did not just mention a vague "dangerous man or group of men". The reports listed a trail of criminal activity and violence leading from somewhere out in the Earth Kingdom towards the City. There were reports of break-ins and robberies, assaults and a few murders. The farmers should indeed have been worried if this trails was going through their community. But panic would not have helped anything. They should have felt lucky that break-ins were all that were occurring around them, and that news had yet to reach them about all the other incidents.

They should also have felt lucky that the the danger was only one man, and that the one man had moved on from their little corner of the world. Though he had also moved on with some of their money, and had eaten a lot of their food. Also he had seduced one of their daughters in the hay loft.

[Later that night...]

"Dammit. That dumbass didn't have much on him. He's was hardly worth knockin' out like that, and this was hardly worth fightin' over."

Behind him on the road lay a facedown man, unconscious and bruises all over his face. Casimiro had just finished his version of "mugging", which pretty much boiled down to punching the victim until their wallet fell out of the clothes. This particular man had decided that he was not going to give up and Casimiro had to beat him unconscious and search his body then. There was not much money on him.

However little money the man was trying to keep from Casi, he took it anyway and walked off without even trying to hide the body. It was dark and there were no witnesses, to the best of Casimiro's knowledge, and he was feeling kind of lazy that night as he continued to walk toward Republic City.

[Kiyei Zhayuk]

Kiyei had taken the mountain pass to Republic City. She’d therefore donned her thick Water Tribe parka to warm her against the chill high altitudes, but now she was beginning to feel too hot as they descended back down to ground level. Kiyei and her bags were slung across the muscled back of a Polar Leopard as she rode on towards Republic City. It was late, and she should have stopped and set up camp, but Kiyei was naturally a creature of night and she was so close to the city that she could almost taste the smog. There was no point in stopping now when in less than half an hour she’d be in the city proper and she and the hulking Polar Leopard could find a place for the night. Even if she didn’t have the right kind of money. She had a few Water Tribe coins with her, and most of her money was in Earth Kingdom currency. She had only a few yuans on her from her travels through the United Republic. She would need to find a bank in the morning and get the money converted. Hopefully inns would take Earth Kingdom money too, otherwise she was a little screwed.

"Hey, hey," she murmured, patting the Polar Leopard on the neck. The animal slowed to a stop and Kiyei dismounted, pulled off her parka, and tied the garment around her hips. By now she could see the light pollution, the golden glare of thousands of city street lamps lighting the sky above her. Over this ridge she’d be able to see the city in all its metropolitan glory. Soon. She was so close now.

But Xiao was getting restless, and it wasn’t because he’d been saddled all day. His thick fur was enough to guard against the chafing of the saddle, and the weight of her bags was nothing to the huge creature. The Leopard was instead sniffing at the ground and the air.

"You smell something, boy?" She received no answer. She wasn’t expecting one. But she talked to the animal anyway because the alternative was talking to oneself and that, apparently, was a sign of insanity.

["Casimiro"]

Unlike more level-minded and even-tempered people, Casimiro had absolutely no problem with talking to himself, whether he was alone like now or even in a crowd or group. In fact, it was probably one of his favorite a past times and the one of the few predictable things about him. Some other predictable things about him were his tendencies to use violence first, that he never tipped during the occasional instances where he actually paid for food, and he was easily distracted by pretty girls with nice asses.

Not that the last one was what was distracting him now. It was instead the sounds coming from behind him as he walked away from his latest mugging victim. It sounded like something breathing hard and another something talking for a second. Spinning back around, Casi did not spot anyone other than his victim, and he could not see over the ridge beyond. So he assumed the guy was coming back to the world of the living.

He let out a single "Ha!" of impressed surprised at the still unconscious body. Normally it would take much longer for someone beaten by him to wake back up, and then he would be much farther away, or Casimiro was walking slow this night. Whatever the case, Casi crossed his arms and started talking to the body.

"So you're comin'-to, sir? Noooot bad. Not bad at all!"

The body continued to not move, other than the gentle rise and fall from breathing. So at least the man was still alive.

"No! Don't strain yourself. Just stay down there. Don't know why it had to come to that, sir. You coulda just told me you were dirt-ass poor and maybe I'd leave ya alone!"


Another predictable thing about Casimiro: He liked to gloat.

"But nooooo, you had to be all fightin' back and shit. Look where that got ya!"

The man responded by remaining unconscious.

"Yeeeaah... That's right..."

[Kiyei Zhayuk]

A few seconds later Kiyei heard it; a voice on the wind. So that was what the Polar Leopard had smelled, there was someone else nearby. The speaker seemed to be talking so someone, but there was no voice in response.
Kiyei frowned lightly to herself, seized the reins of the Leopard’s saddle, and began to walk towards the crest of the hill-ridge, Xiao falling loyally into step behind her.

As she began to reach the top of the ridge, she began to see a man standing in the path before her, and, once she stood at the top, she could see from the raised ground where she stood that there was another man laying face-down on the ground. And there was the speaker, a young man victoriously trash-talking the unconscious man.

Now, Kiyei was not an expert on such things, since she wasn’t a trash-talker herself - she just gave her enemies infuriating smirks and walked on by - but in order for the words to really be cutting, the point in saying them in the first place, the other had to at least be conscious and capable of hearing you. Otherwise you might as well sass a brick.

"You know, I don’t think he can hear you," Kiyei said, beginning to walk down the path towards him.

["Casimiro"]

Casimiro would have either continued gloating to the body or just started walking off again had some random girl not shown up with what looked to be a giant cat(?) of some kind. Looking up to the origin of the voice, he saw that it had come from some skinny girl in Water Tribe clothing. He kept his arms crossed and only lifted an inquisitive eyebrow when her words started to sink into his head.

"Well, we'll just see about that."

Without a second's hesitation, Casimiro took a few large strides up to the body and gave it a swift punting kick to the ribs, causing the body to roll over. When the only response was a quiet flop of the body, he could only nod in agreement.

"Whaddya know. You're right."

Now that he was closer to the girl, he could get a better read on her than before. Definitely Water Tribe and not nearly as many curves as Casi preferred. Her lack of breasts was pretty much the deal breaker. The girl had nice hips, and therefore might have had a nice butt, however Casimiro was a chest man.

Aside from her appearance, her confidence in just coming up to him meant, or could have meant, a couple of things. Maybe she was fortunate to not be suspicious of him, or she was just very confident in herself. Whichever. It meant Casi could belay his first impulse to "get rid of witnesses".

"So is there somethin' you want from me, babe? You ain't typically my type but look tight and I could always go for that, I guess."

Holding up his hands in front of him, Casi used his index fingers and thumbs to make a "hand camera" to look at the girl through. He made not effort to hide the fact that he was looking her over.

"Why don't you turn around. I wanna see if you got good ass."

[Kiyei Zhayuk]

A sharp kick to the ribs caused the unconscious man to roll over. Kiyei’s frown twisted as she raised one eyebrow. Well, that was just uncalled for. She didn’t have much empathy for other people, but also believed in treating others with basic respect. This man couldn’t even do that.
Kiyei sighed, mentally shrugged it off. She had an idea of what she’d be getting into when she came to Republic City, gangs and scumbags just being the tip of the iceberg. It seemed she’d have to get used to all that sooner, rather than later. No sense in sugar-coating things.

And now the guy was framing Kiyei with his hands, placing her within a picture frame of his flesh. Kiyei was used to being stared at. If she wasn’t wearing Water Tribe getup it’d be impossible to tell where she came from. She looked peculiar, her face the result of genetics from all over the planet. Having the man scrutinise her so didn’t faze her.

And when he asked her to turn around, Kiyei smiled a Mona Lisa smile. "Asses are that important to you? It’s the face you’ll have to look at, chest if you can get away with it. The ass’ score doesn’t even count." She arranged Xiao’s lead in her grip and proceeded to walk on past the man and his unconscious victim in the road.

"Now, let’s be honest here. I’m pretty odd-looking, and I’m not packing much in the boob department. If my face and chest aren’t doing it for you, I doubt my ass is going to make you change your mind."
She continued on past him, then without looking back she added, "Also, be a dear and leave the unconscious man alone, won’t you?"

["Casimiro"]

"Hell yeah asses are important to me, honey!"

There was no change in Casimiro's expression no matter what the girl said to him. It continued to be a smiling, toothy maw with eyes that made no attempt to hide what they were looking at. They darted all over her, twitching like they could not decide what to look at for how long. Casi was a strange one for sure, and the girl was taking him in stride.

Now conventional wisdom told people that they should ignore people, or children, like Casimiro. That giving them attention would only fuel their bad behavior. Now the girl had indeed already given him attention, but she was walking away from the situation. Too bad that Casi would have bothered her even if she had said nothing to him in the first place.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. I didn't say I was turnin' you down..."

As she and her cat-thing walked past him, he continued to take mental snapshots of her body, even "adjusting" his hands to make different angles and sizes. By now he had completely forgotten about the man, and was now happily running up after the girl. Ignoring the cat-thing as well, he took up a spot right in front of her, looking down at her with a devilish grin and a mischievous glint in his golden eyes.

"Hows about you ditch the tiger and come with me?"

He was close enough to be almost right on top of her. Without a second's warning, Casimiro swung a hand around low and made a grab for the girl's behind, to pull her right up against him.

[Kiyei Zhayuk]

What she really wanted to do right now was just get into the city. She didn’t even care if the guy was tagging along after her by now. He was less of an insult to the human race and more like an annoyance at the moment. Even if he was leering at her like a predator, he lost that upper hand when he started following her down the path. Once she had control over where he went, where he followed her to, who became the predator and who the prey?

"Ah, so I do tickle your fancy?" she said without looking back. "I’m flattered," - she didn’t sound it - "but no thanks."

He chased after her. Kiyei took no notice, even going as far as to close her eyes superciliously as she kept walking on towards the city. She should have set up camp by now, but with the city in sight it would have been a sleepless night anyway. She wanted to settle down somewhere for the night, and Agni forbid he slow her down.

"He’s a Polar Leopard, and I think I’ll pass."

She heard his footsteps come nearer, and Kiyei opened her eyes, turning to glance over her shoulder. His hand touched her rear, and an ice-cold chill shuddered through her bones. In a second, she uncorked the water pouch at her hip, turned, and directed a razor-sharp blade of water at his arm. It was night time, her bending was at its strongest, and should he pursue her she had a half-tonne feline companion that would tear through anyone who threatened her.

"If you touch me again I’ll have the giant cat give you another facial scar to match the first set."

["Casimiro"]

The familiar sound of water being bent into an ice weapon could be heard as the girl did the obvious and defended herself from Casimiro's touch. When she whipped around to face her molester, his arm was still outstretched towards her rear, his hand was still warm from touching it, and that all-too-familiar grin was still on his face. He had not budged or flinched an inch when she drew her aquatic weapon on him, but merely froze in place, holding eye contact with her. If anything, his eyes seemed more bright and full of fire than before.

He was enjoying this.

There was a moment of stillness and silence after she made her threat. Casi just looked into her eyes, smile slowly growing in size, showing more sinister teeth. His hand wiggled its fingers, trying to get back into contact with her, but remained in place. His other arm was held up as well. To her throat. In his hand was one of his knives, threatening her as she was him.

He openly licked his lips as he lowered his head slightly, bringing his face closer to hers. It looked like he was not even blinking anymore.

"Watch how much of a f**k I give, sweety."

Casimiro slowly brought the knife away from her throat, and placed the tip right up against the top of one of his scars. Without even flinching, he drew the tip down, tracing the scar until it met the top of his eye, then put it back in its position at her throat. He had reopened his own scar, and now blood was slowly dribbling over the right half of his face. He continued to not blink, even as blood ran over his eye.

"Now why don't you put the water away, and reconsider my suggestion..."

[Kiyei Zhayuk]

So he had a knife. She had whatever she wanted to do with the water in her pouch. She’d only drawn out a small amount of the liquid, and had compressed the water into a thin blade sharp enough to cut through solid rock and metal. She could form it into a blade of ice if she willed it, or could transform it into a mist of vapour to cloud his vision while she kicked him in the nuts... the possibilities were endless.

She took a half-step backward, rooting her footing in her favoured waterbending stance. Light on her feet, more agile, able to react defensively and strike out offensively. She’d heard of the sharp, fast styles here in Republic City but hadn’t learned it yet. Therefore the traditional one would have to do. She recalled her water and brought it back into her hand, gathering moisture from the air into the stream of water as she did so.

She watched him reopen his scar with nothing but disdain in her gaze. He was a fee brain cells short of sea prune stew, it seemed, since he didn’t seem nearly sadistic enough to think this would actually affect her, and only a moron would risk giving himself an infection just for the shits and giggles. Kiyei, having studied the human body for years, now travelling to Republic City to find a medical school and become a surgeon, found the sight of his gored, bleeding face to be quite a mild one to behold.

"No," she said, dancing out of the reach of his arm and his blade, going for his hand with a water whip to fling it away from him. With the other hand she called forth the rest of the water from her pouch and went for his neck with a blade of pressurised water, "and no."