The following morning arrived unmoved by the events of the previous night, and everyone was having breakfast—everyone except two people.
"Jin, are you feeling okay?" Korra asked, worried as she looked at the earthbending master, whose face was pale.
"I just have a bit of an upset stomach, that's all," he replied while rubbing his stomach and trying to avoid sudden movements. "I already took some medicine for it."
Moving quickly the night before had been a terrible idea; his stomach had churned too much, and by the time he had barely returned to his room, he had to rush back to the toilet.
He could withstand electric shocks, was blessed by multiple spirits, could manipulate chi to affect his body, and was the only living person immune to shirshu neurotoxin, but no matter if it was seventy years ago or now, the food of these frozen wastelands always tore his stomach apart.
How he hated Water Tribe food!
"Should I make you some sea-meatball broth?" Korra's mother suggested kindly, concerned by how pale their guest looked. "It's good for the stomach."
Jin felt his belly tremble in fear at the mere mention of another local dish.
"NO! I mean, that won't be necessary, but I appreciate the offer," he declined as politely as possible. If he ate anything now, he feared he would vomit on the spot. "It's not the first time this has happened. Water and letting the medicine do its job is best. I'll be fine."
Korra's mother nodded, but secretly decided to prepare a thermos anyway, so she could give it to her daughter and have her deliver it to Jin later.
It was the least she could do for someone who had been teaching and taking care of her daughter.
"Has anyone seen Unalaq?" Tonraq asked, looking around in confusion at his brother's absence—he was usually the first one at breakfast.
Desna and Eska exchanged glances.
"We thought Father was with Uncle," they said in unison. "Discussing tribal matters."
They definitely practiced that behavior.
"No, I haven't seen him since last night's attack," Tonraq said, frowning as he began to feel that something was wrong.
"Should I go look for him?" Mako volunteered. He had enjoyed the festival, but now he just wanted to return to Republic City as soon as possible, away from all the snow and ice. "Which room is he in?"
"He's not in any of them. He sleeps in the cabin of the ship we arrived on," Desna commented. "Isn't that obvious?"
"Brother, you shouldn't be so harsh with our cousin's friend," Eska said in a tone flat as her twin's. "It's not his fault he has the attention span of an otter-penguin."
"You're right, Sister," Desna agreed while looking at Mako. "Don't worry, you're excused."
Mako felt they were mocking him, but decided to let it go as a courtesy to their hosts. He wasn't intimidated by the twins at all…
But Bolin was definitely going to answer for that barely contained laughter!
"He's not on the ship," Jin said before taking another sip of water to calm his hunger and stomach acid. "I know what that man's chi feels like, but I can't sense it on his ship or on the dock."
"You can sense someone's chi?" Korra's mother asked, surprised.
"Well, I have to know who's who somehow," Jin explained as he waved a hand in front of his blind eyes to make the point. "Chi is unique to each person, spirit, and animal, so when I meet someone, I memorize their chi the same way others memorize a name or a face."
"Could you try finding my uncle?" Korra asked, taking advantage of the topic. "It's not normal for him to skip breakfast, fasting or not."
"It shouldn't be difficult," Jin nodded. "From what I noticed, your uncle has a strong and striking chi—evidence of constant spiritual practice. Give me a minute."
Everyone tacitly stopped eating and fell silent while Jin pretended to concentrate (except Bolin, who kept eating in secret).
One minute. Three minutes. By the fifth minute, Korra couldn't stand it anymore.
"Well?" she asked, impatient and increasingly worried.
"That's strange…" Jin said as he feigned confusion in his expression, posture, and voice. "He's not anywhere."
"What do you mean 'he's not anywhere'?" Tonraq asked.
"The most literal meaning possible," Jin clarified, frowning. "Unalaq's chi is nowhere in the Water Tribe. Not on the docks, the sleeping quarters, the plaza, the palace, the stables, the residential district, the kitchen, the fair… nothing at all." He drank a little more water.
Once again, he cursed Water Tribe food in his mind.
Tenzin raised both eyebrows upon hearing that—Jin's range of perception was far wider than he had calculated.
"Maybe he went outside the tribe for a morning walk?" Bolin considered the most innocent possibility as he took a bone out of his mouth after finishing the meat on it.
"With dark spirits wandering around? Seems unlikely," Mako refuted. "Even if he can deal with them, he doesn't seem like someone who'd do something as reckless as going out alone."
Jin restrained himself from rolling his eyes.
Mako had no idea how reckless Unalaq could be.
Just as everyone exchanged worried looks, Korra noticed Kyoshi appear before her, standing at the window and pointing toward the dock.
"I saw him," Kyoshi said, no longer needing to hide now that Unalaq was "missing" while playing his role in the act. "The man headed to the docks in the middle of the night and boarded a ship—but it wasn't his…"
Jinora watched quietly, and Korra latched onto the clue without hesitation.
"Alright, everyone listen!" she interrupted every conversation as she stood up. "I have a lead—let's go."
Jin sighed. Korra was still as impulsive as ever.
"Korra?" Tonraq looked at his daughter, confused about how she had suddenly come up with a lead from nowhere.
"Kyoshi's spirit is pointing me toward the docks," she explained as she began to walk. "She says Unalaq boarded a ship last night, but not the one he used to come here!"
Desna and Eska rose to follow her—it would be troublesome if something happened to their father. They had little interest in running the tribe in his place despite being more than capable.
"Avatar Kyoshi?" Tenzin blinked in surprise.
He went to leave the children with Grandma Katara while the rest of the group and Tenzin's siblings joined. Once at the docks, Korra stopped in front of a ship.
"Does anyone know whose ship this is?"
"It belongs to Iknik Blackstone Varrick," Tonraq said. Seeing his daughter's confused look, he added some context. "You know, Varrick. One of the richest men in the world—mostly due to exports—but he's… crazy."
And he also didn't pay taxes properly thanks to his creative accounting. If he did, the tribe would be much richer thanks to him alone…
Wait a moment.
Why didn't Korra know one of the most prominent men from her own tribe?
These White Lotus guys don't know how to teach!
Korra began to board the ship, right behind Jin who was already climbing up, when Mako called out to them.
"Wait!" This was the moment his police training would shine. "We need a search warrant to—"
A wave of water froze him mid-gesture right there on the dock, courtesy of an Avatar who seemed one second away from growling at him.
"You should learn to read the room," Bolin whispered, shaking his head as he followed the others onto the ship, leaving Mako to melt the ice from the inside.
He was a firebender—ice wasn't exactly a big problem.
While the group questioned the staff about where to find Varrick, Jin frowned as he carefully examined the ship beneath his feet. The previous night he couldn't take a good look because of the rush, but…
"Why does it have so many parts in common with my old main ship?" he wondered, baffled.
Back in Aang's era, since he didn't like traveling by sea, Jin had built—with his ideas and the Mechanist's skills—a state-of-the-art ship (for that time).
Faster, safer, greater capacity, etc.
Less time traveling = Less time at sea.
He could point to multiple places on the ship where the designs weren't just similar—they were his designs.
"Now that I think about it, I didn't see the ship on Ember Island, and Toph didn't mention anything about it," he said while rubbing his stomach again. "I get that it couldn't last running for so many years, but… did someone study the vessel or use our designs to build this ship?"
"Hey, are you okay?" Bolin asked, patting him on the shoulder.
He had just seen Jin rub his stomach again and was worried he was getting worse.
"How are you not sick?" Jin couldn't help but ask Bolin, especially since he had eaten several times more food than him since they arrived.
"I ate worse stuff growing up," Bolin shrugged. "I guess I just have a good stomach?" he said proudly as he patted his belly.
Suddenly, Jin no longer wanted to discuss it.