Chapter 12.2- And so the Dragons Danced

98 AG

I looked at myself in the mirror, intensely studying my appearance. It was, perhaps, going to be the last time in a while that I’d be getting the privilege. It was why I’d spent close to an hour in the shower making sure every square inch of my body was groomed to perfection. My uniform lay on the bed behind me, immaculately steamed and straightened for what would be the most important event of my career. It was my commissioning c ceremony, the day I and the rest of the graduating class would receive our commissions, marching orders, and then be shipped out all across the world. For some of us, it was to battle spots in the Earth Kingdom, or contested sea routes with the northern tribes. For others, it was to be life in the colonies, acting as overpaid and overdecorated guard dogs. A few unfortunate fellows would even end up as staff of the boiling ring or the dozen other detention centres across the world that the fire nation ran for Prisoners of War, or the few homegrown dissidents that were allowed to live long enough to find themselves in detention. Usually, they’d end up in unmarked graves far from the homeland. I was tense. It was easy to see. 

Zhufu had left me in the room near the beginning of the day, even before the sun rose. My tossing and turning had probably given her a night as restless as my own. I needed to be on the front lines. I hungered for it. Sure, I got to choose my spot in the Army, and I even got a brand new rank and everything, but none of that meant Jack. I could be sent to Colony police or anything equally stupid. That was where a good portion of the army was stationed, in all honesty. But that would not suit me. No, I’d trained for years. At this point, I’df spent my entire life training my mind and body to perfection to ensure that the second I hit the battlefield, my presence would be felt. I had a ticking clock. Two years until the war would end and the Avatar would put an end to the fire lord. I had to prevent that. For not just m y good, but that of all my friends. We were all in the Military now, and one way or another, if the fire nation lost this war, there was no guarantee that things would end up well for them. 

Instead, I could work and work and maker sure that they’d be taken care of no matter what. That was what had spawned my goal. Make the rank of General before Avatar Aang wakes up from his slumber. That was what would give me the widest sphere of impact. Sure, as the Best graduating Student from the Academy I got the privilege of beginning out as a Captain. Captain Natsu Wu of the Fire Nation Army had a nice ring to it. The rest of them were stuck of Lieutenants. But still, all that meant was that instead of having Seven ranks between me and my goal, it was now Six. Six promotions. I had to somehow secure six promotions in two years, and the last one was to one of the most coveted positions in the Fire Nation period. Nobility or not, everyone knew to respect a General when you saw one. 

That was my goal, and whether by hook or by crook, I was going to see it through. Everything hung in the balance. “What are you brooding on about now?” Toji asked, entering my room without bothering to knock on the door or even otherwise announce his presence. He was dressed. Fully, sans the helmet. I could already tell that he was going to get in a lot of trouble with his commanding officer because of how much he hated the damn thing. Hopefully, he’d get the chance to fight before then. Whatever irritation or doubts one had about Toji always disappeared once you got to see him fight. He’d always been dangerous, but spending the last three summers under the tutelage of the most expensive swordsman tutor in the fire nation had taken him to an entirely different breed of danger. I wondered who’d win between Toji and I if we both tried to kill one another. I gave myself good odds because of lightning, but I’d seen the way he handled that sword of his, or played with his throwing knives when he thought no one was looking. 

“Are you not even going to bother covering up? Have some decency, man.”

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before. Is it?” I said referring to met present naked state. When I’d said undressed, I’d meant it. I returned to staring at myself in the mirror while Toji came forwards and began messing with my uniform. 
My hair was beginning to grow too long, I thought to myself as I pulled at a black loc before letting it go and fall towards my lower back. I had as much hair as the girls did. Keeping it long had become a statement of sorts. Whenever one of the Masters commented about the fact that I kept it so long and made unspoken, or even sometimes spoken, requests for me to cut it, I preened and ignored it. It was my rebellion. But now that I stared at the helmet that I was supposed to put on, I began wondering how exactly I was going to fit it in. Maybe the Masters had been on to something. 

“Need help cutting your hair?” Toji’s voice rang out across the room. I looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“Reading my mind now, are you?” 

“I’ve always had that power, Natsu. We practically grew up as brothers” He said, moving to one end of the room and picking up the ceremonial blade. I had no idea what it was doing there, and what he was planning until he actually began to approach me. 

Toji will always tell the story differently, but that is because he is a Liar from the pit of hell. I definitely did not scream in my highest pitch voice while tossing a fireball at him to get him to stop approaching my naked form. I promise I didn’t. 

XXXXX

“Captain Natsu, don’t you look spiffy.” Maki said to me as I finally 3alked out of the room, dressed in my uniform. She was being slightly sarcastic, but her words did have a grain of truth in them. I looked damn good. Sure, I’d been born handsome, but everyone in this world was practically a supermodel when it came to looks. Now though, any body was lean, muscular but not bulky. I had a gymnast’s physique. Years of practicing all the exercises that had taken me to the olympics in my first life had made sure of that. The armour made sure to highlight that. 

As a Captain, my uniform was quite a bit different from that of Toji and the rest. For the first thing, I didn’t have the gauntlets around my arms. In fact, my arms were left practically bare apart from the bit of sleeve that the undershirt had. Around my hands were black gloves. Thick and plated in the back to ensure that whoever I ended up punching would be feeling it for days. The rest of it was like a regular fire nation army uniform. Thankfully, instead of a leg armour piece, I’d gotten a simple pair of combat trousers and boots. My flexibility was not being compromised in the slightest.

The only armoured part of my body was the chest piece. I wore it well, but the weight was impossible to ignore. It was bad, but looking at Lee, or Toji made me grateful that I’d been bumped up a rank. It was almost like the higher one got in the military, the less armour that one was forced to wear. I guess it made sense. Higher ranked soldiers were almost always higher ranked. And unlike in the other regions of the world, metal was easy and cheap for the fire nation to produce. It had no qualms arming her lowest infantrymen in full plate. So a way needed to be3e invented to tell the wheat from the chaff, I guess. And this was it. 

“Is everyone ready?” I asked, noting the smile on Maki’s face as I ignored her words. 

“You were the last, pretty boy” Zhufu said, walking forwards and placing a kiss on my cheek before walking into the room. Her hair flowed down her shoulders so I guess she was going to find her hair pin to do something about that. 

“Pretty boy indeed. That’s a mighty fine haircut, Captain Sir” Maki said, continuing g the teasing. I reached up to my head, feeling the shorter hair. It was like part of me had been taken away from the second that Toji placed the knife through the first few locks of hair. It no longer reached down to my back. In fact, it would be a stretch to say I had shoulder-length hair. Where before, my hair had been kept in either a neat ponytail or allowed to lay free, now there was a very short list of things I could do with it. Toji had even been precise enough to cut the sides of my hair to give me a nice fade. 

“A nice haircut, but not noble looking at all” Zhufu’s nose was scrunched as she stared at me after she left the room. Her hair was now in a high ponytail, nearly folded around her uniform. 

“Yeah, no need advertising to every Earth Kingdom soldier from Omashu to Ba Sing Se that there’s money or advantage to be gained from capturing me,” I said with a smile on my face, accepting the compliments for what they truly were. It was actually true that nobles had been targeted by enemy warriors at a higher rate that the regular rank and file. It also probably didn’t help that we all looked so similar. I’m not going to accuse anyone of inbreeding or anything but there wasn’t a single family with some degree of history or wealth that my family had not intermarried with at some point in time. That was why surnames had mattered less and less until they were almost entirely phased out from casual speech. We were all related in more ways than we could ever care to count. That made it slightly problematic that we all still were going to only marry within ourselves for at least a generation or two more (that I could foresee, at least)

“Well, if we’re all done, then our ride is waiting” I said, standing up and leaving the room. The group of ostrich horses that were to pull our carriage stretched out for metres. A quick count showed six horses. I turned to Toji with a raised eyebrow, and his only reply was a snarky “There’s a lot of us”

A/N; Not too certain about this. It’s the next part added to the first, but still incomplete.