"So, introduce yourself," the teacher said dryly, when my father (I'll remind him of this bitch) almost pushed me into the class."Akimaru, son of Jiro," I said and joined my hands in a traditional gesture. Fist and palm."Nice to meet you, Akimaru," the teacher nodded briefly, "you can sit in the third row."Class, this is literally the second desk. I planned to quietly move to the back desks and not sit there. Anyway.- So, children. Let us repeat the oath of the Fire Nation.All the children stood up as one and turned to the opposite wall, where there was a huge portrait of Azulon."I will give my life to my people," all the students began to take an oath or whatever it was, standing in a traditional bow."I'll fight for the fire lord with my bare hands," heck, am I going to have to learn this rubbish? It doesn't even rhyme!Then for another couple of minutes everyone read out the text of the oath, while I simply opened my mouth, sometimes saying something when the text was repeated. Well, you know that feeling when you know the chorus of a song, but not the song itself? It's the same here.After this far from cheerful action, the children sat down in their places and stared at the teacher. She nodded gravely and began to speak:- So, let's start with the philosophy test. Let's write it down. The Fire Warrior's enemies stole his weapons. As you know, enemies always lie. The captured enemy stated that he was the one who stole the weapon. Is he guilty of theft?Oh, don't get up. What is that? And where there were four apples, they took two, how many apples were left. What's this?It may well be that I underestimated the school. Second grade, and such problems. Even I will have to scratch my turnip for about five minutes before answering. And this is not bragging, we remember - I am a degenerate, an adult with an adult mindset, probably with some kind of education.Although, of course, I may be going a little overboard. Just such a task does not require much math skills or knowledge of how to solve. Everything here is based on banal logic, with a bit of propaganda. So, we know that the enemy always lies. It turns out that if he really stole the weapon, then he told the truth, but this cannot be. That's why he didn't steal the gun and lied.- Next, we'll write it down... You'll decide later. Let's write it down first. Three Fire Warriors came to the Fire Lord asking him to decide which of them was the strongest.The first warrior said: "I am the strongest."The second warrior said: "The first one is not the strongest."The third warrior said: "I am the strongest"The first warrior said: "The third warrior is not the strongest."The second warrior said: "I am the strongest"The Lord assumed that all the arguments of the strongest warrior were true, and all the statements of the other two were false. Has the Lord made a decision about who is the strongest warrior?Okay... the tasks are really childish. Well, it's at least a little more fun than if there were just elementary mathematical examples.- This is all. You have half an hour to solve these problems so that I can make sure that you haven't lost the remnants of your brain over the summer," charming woman, "and then we will conduct a lesson."Well, writing down the answers took no more than a couple of minutes. Where the writing itself took most of the time, because I'm just practicing calligraphy.And then he sat down in silence. I don't want to give up or say what I did. All around me are still children, not teenagers, so problems can be avoided, which means I won't somehow stir up the situation. After all, a year isn't really that big of a difference.Somewhere in a school there were six and seven year olds studying in the same class and it was fine. The only problem here is that I'm alone for six years. And not so long ago, six years. And everyone is already seven, some even eight. If you say it's not critical, then I'll look at you in a few years. Thirteen and fifteen are, in my opinion, very critical.But that's okay.And the plan went like clockwork, I sat and looked at the gloomy and desperate faces of the other children, but apparently I got very confused."Akimaru," a voice said next to me at the moment when I turned away to look at another stupid face, "I see you have nothing to do?" Maybe your parents rushed to send you straight to the second year, - with these words, this vixen grabbed the paper on which the answers and calculations were written (almost) in calligraphy, as I got to this point, - let's see if you did at least something?What a bitch, I take my words back, the teacher is like a bullet out of her. If all of their teachers here are like this, then it's clear that all the fire mages in the canon were problematic in one way or another. Here you come out of school with such complexes that it's better to remain stupid, bitch."Hmm, everything is correct," the teacher stated, trying to hide her surprise, "why didn't you pass as soon as you did?""I checked," I seemed to smile openly.That's the old hag. Why would they give you sour milk for being harmful? Bitch. So that they put salt in your tea instead of sugar all your life. They lied. It doesn't fucking matter."It's not for nothing that your parents sent you straight to second year." Maybe it was necessary even higher, you have very good progress in logic and calligraphy for your age... unlike some," the teacher became generous with something that in her head apparently was praise.And now I can directly feel several glances that are directly looking at my back with displeasure. And there is a clear feeling that one of them is my cousin, to whom this old woman was so actively hinting. He studies very poorly.Alright, let's see how things go in this wonderful kingdom named after an inept teacher. Or maybe skillful? In the end, the Fire Nation and humanism are somewhat different things, and this may be a very clear approach of the school: if you show off, then prove that you are worthy.After some more time, the teacher walked through the rows and collected everything, sometimes tearing it out of her hands - so someone wanted to finish writing something.G's paper was covered in blots and there were clearly almost no answers there. And what happened can hardly be called correct. The same thing happened to several others sitting in the back desks. They had a small get-together there.It's clear that it's nothing serious, they're just toddlers, but they can already go and bother the same children.Actually, at recess, after a math lesson, which did take place, and I listened to what long-term multiplication is, these kids decided to come up to me. They stood in a small procession in front of my desk, Chan came forward, clearly as the leader of this gang and began to rub some shit at me:"Well, hello, new guy," walking in front of everyone was a rather strong boy, who had already begun to develop some handsome facial features, "I'm Chan, Chan's son," the boy introduced himself. But now it's clear that he will probably be the local "authority" here, after all, the only thing higher than Admiral Chan is the royal family - why didn't you get up to greet your brother when the lesson ended?- For what? — I asked, turning my gaze to the meanly grinning Gee."Because I said so," Chan instantly became angry, even stomping his foot.It is clear that mastering fire magic is a transition to the active use of fire in kata. Unstable behavior, mood swings. Well, at least that's what they say in the book. It seems to me that the very fact of using magic plays a role here. Plus apparently a slight feeling of permissiveness.Or maybe it's just childhood fluctuations.De jure, all aristocrats have equal rights, and if I punch him in the eye, then we will be considered the same from the outside, but de facto - he is the son of Admiral Chan, as I already mentioned, only the imperial family is above him, and I - the second son of the head's brother from a middle-ranking aristocratic family. Moreover, he is the main heir for Chan and, apparently, also decided to slightly humiliate me.The conclusion is simple - hitting is not an option. And who said that I could? After all, I wasn't taught anything, unlike them."Well, you never know what and who said," I shrugged, "I have to listen to everyone now, or what?""You should greet your older brother as expected," Chan continued to press his line, "after all, he is your future head.""Firstly, the key word is "future" - as long as we have the same rights and responsibilities, and secondly, this is our family matter," I continued with the same light smile.- Do what I say! — Chan hit his hands on my desk.- No."Go and look around," said the little one, gritting his teeth.And this is our future... and somehow I'm becoming confident that his father is not much better and looks at it from the perspective of "let him learn to manage people.""You're in vain," said the boy who was sitting at the desk next to him in a whisper, "this is Chan, the son of that same Admiral Chan."- So why should I bow at his feet now? — I chuckled, "let him catch up first." By the way, my name is Aki."I already understood that," the slightly plump boy still whispered, suppressing a laugh, "and I'm Yoshi." And the second one, G, is this your brother?- Cousin. Yes, and this doesn't really affect it, after all, relations in our family have never been particularly warm."Yeah," Yoshi nodded sadly, apparently remembering his family."Okay, I'll go look around the yard or something," I stood up, easily interrupting the dialogue.- What are you doing? Chan will be waiting for you there," Yoshi's eyes widened, apparently already sharing his own experience."Well, let him wait," I smiled.I have a very strange kind of confidence in my abilities. If you think about it like that, it was stupid, because older children can easily spank me, especially those who are training, and no adult consciousness will help, but as soon as I went outside, some kind of feeling immediately settled inside and has not yet evaporated. All problems seem empty. Even if they beat me up, what do you think? For some reason, the moment of pressure on me from Chan triggered me into some kind of incomprehensible detachment.With these thoughts, I went out to the local kindergarten for teenagers. The garden in the crater of an extinct volcano is, of course, purely symbolic, but this is what they called a place for schoolchildren to relax in the fresh air. And of course, Chan, Ji and a couple of guys were waiting for me here, who immediately surrounded me."So, now will you greet your future head and his friends properly?" — The little one, who responds to Chan, smiled evilly."Nope," I answered innocently, mentally taking their words and the fact that I was about to be beaten extremely easily. Even more than that, from the outside one could say that I was "having my head in the clouds""Okay, it's your own fault," Chan rushed forward, trying to hit me.And I didn't hit it. Once again. Once again. I easily dodged each blow, simply moving slightly from the trajectory. I didn't even touch Chan himself, and I didn't move much. It's just that these blows were felt so clearly that it was easy to dodge. By and large, I didn't even try, it was still as if I was not here, I was watching all this too detachedly, despite the fact that it was I who was acting.At a certain point it even became absolutely boring. I was so indifferent to everything around that it's simply impossible to describe. Absolute lack of emotions and a modicum of interest in life. Because of the desire to quickly finish this boring task, options began to come to mind on how to kill Chan so that he would get rid of it as quickly as possible.And here I begin to understand that something is wrong. And despite this misunderstanding, the state of indifference does not go away and in fact it was very scary and at the same time absolutely indifferent to what was happening. What the heck? Continuing to evade the already tired Chan.I began to urgently remember at least something that would evoke emotions in me. What nonsense. And, listing more and more of my life, I realized with a horror that does not exist that nothing really grabs me in this life.So, has the world now decided to "give birth to me back" or what?It's a bit early, I haven't yet found out what my past life was like! And after this thought, I felt a response of interest and resentment. I was very upset that I forgot, and very interested in WHAT I actually forgot.From the emotions that surged, it was as if some kind of corset loosened around my sternum, and I was able to breathe deeply, feeling the sweet smell of oxygen. The world around me acquired colors, grayness as if in an instant of glass, the chirping of some visiting bird reached my ears, as well as the rest of the hubbub of the crowd around, which was enthusiastically looking at the baby.Phew, how good, huh?Chan, tired and sweaty, stood opposite me, resting his hands on his knees and glaring at me. The look really didn't inspire, it was still too small, but it was boring.And I, absolutely not tired, not sweating, standing opposite and for everyone else as if floating in my thoughts, just began to look back at the crowd.But okay, it doesn't bother me much, I'll somehow survive this "popularity."I fucking care more about what happened to my feelings?- What kind of fight at school? - the loud voice of our teacher sounded... sorry, teacher, behind the backs of the schoolchildren surrounding us. They, of course, hastened to part, revealing a clean me and a breathless Chan under the eyes of the stern madam.- There is no fight, Chan just decided to show me a couple of techniques. "He's learning Firebending after all," I said. Let this be a conditional extension of the hand of peace to this gang.- Hmmm... Apparently you take me for a fool, Akimaru? — this old witch narrowed her eyes, fixing her heavy gaze on me.- No, of course not, what are you talking about? He really showed the tricks - perhaps I made my eyes too honest. I wouldn't believe it myself."Okay," the hag inhaled and pronounced a verdict, looking around the place of "training," "don't be late for the lesson, it will start soon."And turning around, she walked decorously back towards the entrance. Following her, a frowning Chan, without looking in my direction, shook himself off and went to class. He was followed almost single file by his band of sing-alongs.I, looking at this action with a raised eyebrow, went to the classroom in the same way. Well, our second lesson is history. I, of course, read the books, but to be honest, these are purely propaganda booklets, like everywhere else. So it's unlikely that I'll wait for some kind of true story, but in general, it will be interesting to hear about the same airbenders in detail.The class was almost empty, except for Chan and the singers, who stared at me slightly frowningly. Without paying much attention to them, I sat down in my seat.After a couple of minutes, all the children, one way or another, slowly entered the classroom and took their seats. By the time the bell rang, everyone was already in the class, and exactly after the bell rang, the teacher entered. No other than waiting at the door.- So, today we have the history of ancient tribes...Oh-oh-oh no, really, damn it, even in the second grade everything starts from the very fucking beginning. Ancient Tribes is also a story about turtle-continents, pre-Avatar era. This is an extremely uninteresting story, because it was a long time ago, little has reached us, and this knowledge gives absolutely nothing. Assumption upon assumption.Okay, what's up? Let's hear about turtles. I wonder if this is a form of speech called "turtle continents" or if they actually believe? Although the world is more than crazy, there may be turtles.
* * *
A year has passed of my severe overcoming of boredom from studying. Just a few days ago my first school year ended, and what can I say other than that it was incredibly boring? Teachers are flowing around me. They don't call him a genius yet, but he should already respond to an extremely smart young man.And it didn't lead to anything good. Yes, like something very bad, to be honest. It still didn't work out to somehow blend in with the surroundings, so there was nothing to do.Gee never told anyone in the family that we had and continue to have very good graters. He and Chan have clung to me and even if they don't try to fight, they really pester me about little things. Either they make a funny "joke", or they somehow ruin your homework between lessons... in general, they crap in a good way, but not critically.My new ability, or whatever it is, helps a lot with all this. The apathy and indifference into which I fell at the very beginning, then unexpectedly fell on my head for a very long time. The only thing that saved me was the thought of my past life and how interested I was in finding out what was there. And it just so happened that this began to really dampen my emotionality. In fact, I showed almost no emotion. Only if it's artificial.And it was very bad. But I still haven't figured out what to do with it. It's good that at least the interest in the past life does not wane under the yoke of this nonsense. Otherwise, my emotionality would be at the level of a log, or even less.Along with this indifference against the backdrop of the "arrivals", another trait began to emerge - I am too simple about, literally, everything. This doesn't sound bad, until you realize that if, say, all the children at the academy around me die right now, my everyday smile will not leave my face. Most likely I will feel sorry for the kids, but then I will shrug my shoulders, saying, "that's the way life is" or "that's their fate."Although on the other hand, this is really not so bad, especially considering the upcoming events. After all, I'm not an insensitive piece of wood. It's just that emotions and what is happening are perceived easily.Although, to be honest, it's not like it was any different before. Even from scraps of some memories from a past life. Rather, it's just that what would have previously caused a shock, now I also perceive it quite easily, like all other things. Although this is only in theory.In short, roughly speaking, the psychological cushion of simplicity in perceiving the world has greatly increased, but has not changed my character.Well, it's all bullshit, now our family is going to the Coal Islands. Either I still don't understand something about the status of my family, or all the aristocrats really have their own plots there, but we have a pretty decent house there, in which we will relax.So the father and uncle decided to reward their eldest sons for their success in studying fire magic. I still don't understand where these successes are, but they said it, which means they know better. Everyone conveniently forgot about me, the last time they asked me something about my studies, this was probably the case before admission, when they decided to enroll immediately in the second year. After that, all the older relatives, satisfied with their decision, left me to independently comprehend being a schoolchild.Is it possible that the father began to treat him even more coldly, although it would seem where else? But no, he succeeds. Apparently, the elder brother's success in Fire Magic really does take place against his background, I'm completely lost.The house on the resort islands was almost the same as on the main island. Except that there were fewer steampunk devices and lighter architecture, so that the buildings did not look too massive and did not put pressure on the people around them. It's a resort after all. That is why the colors here were moderate, the redness faded into the background, thank Agni, because only when I went to this island nature I realized how tired my eyes were from the red surroundings.The ship took us to the island itself, and then we walked to our residence. The servants began to sort things out, and everyone split into pairs based on their interests. Uncle and father looked at the older children's attempts to do something and tried to teach them, mother and aunt sat and discussed something, laughing periodically, and it's not difficult to guess who was left sitting on the sand under a palm tree?Well, I didn't mind. After all, it's nice to talk to an intelligent person. It's just a pity that there are no books here and you couldn't take them with you. There was absolutely nothing for me to do here.It was almost evening, and the first day of my stay on this boring island was coming to an end, and therefore I decided to leave my relatives, who were sitting around the fire, and go look around. There was still plenty of time before darkness, so I was definitely not afraid of getting lost.Even in the afternoon, when we were sailing along the shore on a ship, I saw one very interesting place: a wild beach. Well, in a sense, it was not a beach for people to relax, because it was located at some, small distance from the estates of various people.In the sand there were heaps of various natural debris such as branches, logs and other such things, and it was even a little dangerous to go into the water, because the coastal area had not been cleared, and anything could be there. Although, of course, it is not as dangerous as it sounds. In the end, in the worst case, you can stumble upon at most some large fish, sharp corals and debris, or Cthulhu. Kidding.Surprisingly, as I approached the beach, I noticed a lonely small figure sitting on a rotten log near the water. As I got closer and closer, I was able to see the girl. Yes, exactly a girl of about six years old.Apparently, she was also one of the local aristocrats, because the look screamed exactly that. Is it even worth mentioning black hair and regular facial features? The only thing that stood out slightly were the golden eyes, which had been looking at me with displeasure for several seconds as I approached the stump.- Hello, little one, why are you sad? — I decided to immediately unsettle her and at the same time entertain myself a little.- I'm not small! — the girl exclaimed, narrowing her eyes, but immediately lost interest in me and stared at the water, "I'm just enjoying nature.""Yeah, I'll enjoy it here next to you then," I shrugged, after all, this is her business, and sat down next to her on a rotten, fallen tree trunk, and who just dragged him to the shore? - otherwise it's incredibly boring at home.We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then the girl collected her thoughts and supposedly casually asked:- What about the parents?- What about the parents? "They're not very interested in me," he chuckled, "after all, I was unlucky and was born without the gift of magic... unlike my older brother." So I represent the blank space of my family's name. I'm not sure they even noticed I was gone.The girl again did not respond to this attack, losing herself in some thoughts of her own. And this time more thoroughly, we were silent for a good half an hour, during which the girl reminded that she was alive only with her breathing."Me too," the girl whispered barely audibly, "I'm also not sure that anyone noticed that I left."What could I say to this? In response to this, I just hugged the girl with one arm, trying to express support. From contact with me, at first she froze like an idol, and misunderstanding appeared on her face, but it quickly passed, replaced by slight satisfaction and a hint of panic. And no, I haven't suddenly become some kind of master in facial expressions, it's just that this cutie shows all her emotions so clearly on her face that her thoughts are in full view.In general, apparently, it's a complete disaster, and the child completely lacks tactile contact. A popular problem among many, many children of aristocrats. Everyone just compensates for it differently. And then people who don't know how to express affection grow up and their children turn out the same. Wheel of Samsara, plaque."It's interesting what they, as a whole, led by the Fire Lord, expect from this generation, if almost everyone I meet, one way or another, has some kind of trauma or improper upbringing."- The Fire Lord always has a plan! — the girl jumped up sharply, expressively jerking her hands and staring at me with eyes burning with righteous anger."Maybe," I said in a conciliatory voice. She's too young to understand that what she said was nothing more than an oxymoron, but somehow she still reacted harshly, she should have changed the topic, "Anyway, what's your name?" We've been talking for so long now, but we still haven't learned this basic fact about each other.To this seemingly innocent question, fear flashed in the girl's eyes for a second, then anger, and then determination mixed with cunning.