'Damn, they really did not go down without a fight.' Toji thought with a frown as he walked towards the remains of Tu Zin with the rhino following alongside, the beast now calm after Toji smacked it around for a bit to make sure it listened.
He didn't want to as he has developed quite the liking for animals, but he also had to establish who the true leader was between him and the beast and sometimes that required beating the shit out of them.
Thankfully, he was focused on more important things as he walked towards what remained of the small town, a bit surprised at the fact that parts of the outer walls were still intact and standing after the Fire Nation soldiers had tried to make it seem like a big battle.
Numerous Fire Nation soldier corpses lined the outside of the makeshift village walls, the bodies either having been littered with arrows or crushed under large boulders that were scorched on the bottom.
Although, it seems that the soldiers had also put up the best fight they could as most of the walls had been destroyed by fireballs while those on top of it were either shot down or burned alive as seen by the deeply charred spots on top of the walls.
'If I remember correctly, the last house I saw them in was the one at the far back.' Toji thought to himself as he wrapped the rhino's chain around a large boulder before looking it in the eye.
"You stay here, understood?" He spoke and rolled his eyes as the beast snorted, rubbing one of its ears with a smirk before shaking his head as he began making his way back into the destroyed town.
'There's that one guy from the betting place and there's the guy that keeps betting against me. There's the lady that kept giving me sweets and…Dr. Fing-Hur.' Toji thought with a stoic gaze as he saw the old man's body sitting on the porch of his house, which was now missing its roof and walls.
The old man himself looked to be at peace despite the gory cut drawn across his neck which was also cauterized along with the charred stab wound where his heart was.
Walking over, he picked the man's body up before throwing it over his shoulders with a soft grunt, walking over to the spot where the villagers had been burned alive and softly placed the man in the middle of it.
"Rest at peace, old timer." Toji spoke as he stood up, continuing his walk to the house that had been torn apart by powerful torrents of fire as one could see from the holes with charred edges.
The moment he stopped in the doorway, he simply stared at the devastation in front of him, the walls themselves barely being held up by the earth spires, boulders and walls sticking out everywhere from the ground.
In the middle of the entrance, though, laid the corpse of his mother Anah, her eyes nothing but bubbling holes as they had been burned away by either fire daggers or burning fingers to the point that he could see the ground behind her head.
Looking further into the house towards the living room revealed his father lying spread-eagled on the floor, his hands having large nails driven through them to keep him pinned to the ground while the word 'Traitor' was burned onto his chest along with a fist-sized hole where his heart was supposed to be.
However, they had not gone out without a fight as Toji could also see nearly two dozen or so corpses lying around the house, the corpses either having rock spikes through the chest, boulders on their heads or severe burn wounds on their necks that showed the flesh still bubbling.
'…I can't believe this, but I think I'm actually proud of them.' Toji thought with a smirk as he walked forward, ripping the uniforms from two soldiers that still had theirs intact before walking over to the corpses of his parents.
Wanting to do his mother's first, he wrapped it around her body while tying a sash he had taken from one of the shoulders around her face to hide her eyes, grunting as he picked the woman up and walked her corpse over to where Dr. Fing-Hur's body was.
Doing the same with his father, Toji kicked out a few of the rocks before leaping back right as the house collapsed in on itself, making his way over to their house before picking up a shovel and a pickaxe.
After all, he's got a night of burying ahead of him.
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"And that's! The last one!" Toji grunted as he picked up and threw the last of the dirt over the final grave, looking out at the numerous graves he had already made whilst stabbing the shovel into the ground.
"Hah, do I need grave markers? No, that would just attract grave robbers. Yeah, you all deserve to rest in peace." As a former victim of eternal torment in the afterlife, he knew how painful the afterlife was and while he was a bit of a bastard, he didn't want anyone to go through that pain.
"You think they're going to hell?" He asked as he looked at his komodo rhino before sighing as the beast snorted and shook its head.
"Look at me. Talking to animals like they can understand me. Hah, maybe I have gone mad in the time that I've been in Jigoku." Toji muttered as he picked up both the shovel and the pickaxe before dropping them near the entrance of the village.
'Two barrels of water, one of which is half-full, and a large of provisions that are mostly dried fruits and vegetables, bread and/ or salted meats.' Toji thought as he tied the water and bag down onto the small sled he had made out of one of the building's walls.
It was really just a wall with a pole stabbed through it with numerous nails holding the two things together and as he linked the rhino's chains to it, Toji was pleased with his new mode of transportation.
"I've got the ride and I've got the food needed to last me long enough to get somewhere. Now…what the hell do I do now?" Toji muttered with a frown as he took out the map he had taken from the sergeant.
Placing it on the ground whilst unfurling it fully, Toji broke off parts of the walls before using the splinters as nails to pin the map down to his new sled, humming as he traced different paths from the marked Tu Zin.
'Southeast has nothing but quarries so that's out. Southwest has Gaoling City, which I believe is home to one of the wealthiest families in the Earth Kingdom so we'll leave that up for a maybe. Wait, if I want that maybe to be a yes, I may need to be a bit older and with a reputation to back up my skills. Yeah, I guess that leaves one spot open.' Toji thought with a smirk as he looked at the third location marked off.
"Looks like it's the Misty Palms Oasis."
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It's been a full day since Toji had finally decided to leave Tu Zin village as well as the life he had there in search of a new purpose to what he does…or the first paycheck since money does make the world go around.
Whichever ones comes first if he had to be truthful.
He had gone through the area where the Sandbenders had fought against the Fire Nation and this was also why he was currently seated on a half broken sand sailing boat that was missing the pipe in the middle.
It had an area where he could store his provisions and water, he had enough rope and wood to make a real harness for the rhino this time and considering he used some of the remaining cloth for the sailing to make some shade above his head and a comfortable seating/ sleeping area…
'The life of a bachelor on the sand for me~' Toji thought with a pleased smile as he relaxed on his seat before growing as he heard loud whistling, sitting up and looking around the corner of the storage area only to be confused by the sight of…men riding ostriches?
'No, those are not ostriches. An ostrich-horse? Damn, this world is confusing.' Toji thought with a frown as he stood up on his sand sailer, wrapping cloth around his head to hide his face along with picking up the chain lying besides him.
"Iron, slow down." Toji called out to the rhino and the rhino snorted as it began to jog slower, the boy spinning his chain as he waited until they got close enough to hear him.
"Oi! You wanna tell me why the hell you guys are charging at me like this?"
"Give us your loot and no one-!" Toji didn't even wait for the one at the side to finish speaking as he swung and whipped the legs of the ostrich the man was riding on.
As he did so, he swung his chain whip to the side and cracked the skull of the second ostrich, taking a deep breath as he crouched lowly before leaping from his sand-sailer with a grunt.
Spinning the chain above his head and swinging it down, he slapped the ground to kick up a dust cloud before landing right on the back of one of the three ostriches that were running at him.
"Hey, what are we all looking at?" Toji asked with a smirk as he kicked out and stopped the rider from stabbing him, knocking their sword to the ground before he wrapped his chain around the neck of the rider and leapt over to the next.
The second rider was quick to unsheathe a sword and swung it at Toji, but he pulled at his chain to block the attack while also pulling the first rider from their seat.
The force of the attack, though, knocked him forward and he smirked as he rolled in the path of the ostrich, pulling the chain taut and tripping the ostrich while sending its rider flying head over heels across the sand.
Letting go of the chain, Toji turned his excited gaze to the third rider who was quick to turn and run after the sand-sailer, a mad cackle escaping Toji's lips as he crouched down with a smirk.
The next moment, the ground exploded as he dashed towards the third rider, quickly catching up with the rider who turned with a victorious grin only to be greeted with a boy leaping onto the back of his ostrich-horse with a smirk.
"Did you really think you can run from me?" Toji asked before quickly leaning back as the man swung a dagger at his neck, kicking up and landing a kick to the man's jaw before hooking his raised leg behind the man's head.
With a grunt, Toji rolled them both off of the ostrich-horse while also pulling the man's dagger away, a scream escaping the man's lips as he fell awkwardly on his left leg while Toji raised the dagger and stabbed deep down into his shoulder.
"Alright, listen up. You're going to tell me how many of you there are and how much cash you got."
"F-Fuck…yo-Argh!" Another scream came from him when Toji ripped the knife out and stabbed it into his already injured leg, the boy looking unfazed as he pulled the dagger back out with a raised eyebrow.
"The more you scream, the more this hurts. So, how many of you are there?"
"J-Just us three! We're bounty hunters!"
"Oh, really? Where's your base?" Toji asked before rolling his eyes with a sigh as the man stayed silent, stabbing down with the dagger once more but this time, the man gave a silent scream as he felt nothing but severe pain between his legs.
"You know, this is one thing I really hate doing to another guy, but you guys also have money so I have no worries about making this far worse than it already is. So, base location now or I'm sticking this up the other end."
"…S-S-South…east…big cave…" The man gasped out and Toji nodded as he ripped the knife out before slicing the man's throat open, leaving him to gargle on his blood as he ripped a piece of cloth off from the man's shirt and cleaned the dagger.
'Huh, not a bad make. Reminds me of a really jagged kitchen knife.'Toji thought with a hum as he searched the man before pulling off a leather sheath with a grin.
"Now, that's more like it." The boy whispered as he hooked the sheath to his own belt before sheathing the dagger inside of it.
'Okay, now then. Time to see if he was telling the truth.'
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"…Just us three, my ass. There's at least thirty of them." Toji muttered with a hum as he laid flat on a hill, looking out at the numerous ostrich-horses and sand-sailers parked around a large encampment.
Most of the people inside the camp were dressed in multiple layers of cloth while the rest wore cloaks over their bodies, the boy watching as a group patrolled the outskirts of the camp before frowning as he saw a teenage girl tied up in a cage.
Long luscious black hair covered her right eye as part of her hair was done up in a bun while the rest fell past her shoulders, the girl herself dressed in some kind of battle armour with arm guards with fingerless gloves that went up to her upper arm as well as a red tattoo on both upper arms.
Turning his gaze to where six or so guards stood, he rose an eyebrow at the rather peculiar mole-hound-bear animal sitting in its own cage, but it looked to be at ease as it wasn't thrashing around in an attempt to get out.
'Okay, so that probably belongs to her and from her relaxed look, she let herself get captured. However, no one lets themselves get captured by bounty hunters…unless…one of them is her bounty.' Toji thought with a smirk before standing up and dusting off the front of his clothes.
After all, if there is a bounty, then he may need to take it for himself.
Walking down the small sand hill and making his way over to the camp, he could already see some of the guards outside immediately turning to him as he walked closer.
"Stay there!" One of the guards barked out towards Toji, but he smirked as he took off the cloak around his neck along with the cloth around his neck, letting both drop to the ground while slowly unsheathing the dagger at his side.
A moment later, the same guard let out a gargling noise as Toji slipped past them before spinning around, the other guards still shocked to see a fellow member falling to his knees with a deep cut on his neck right before they snapped out of their shock as another member got a knife through the back of the skull.
Quickly pulling it out and throwing it at one of the men right as they went to earthbend, the bandit froze as the dagger stabbed into his chest while Toji leapt away with the sword of one of the men he killed right as an earthbender tried to impale him with a spike.
Cracking his neck to the side, Toji grinned as he charged forward, dashing from side to side in a zigzag to dodge the following earth spikes before leaping up and over a sand tornado.
However, Toji quickly swung it front of him to block an arrow to his neck, spinning the sword in a reverse grip to block a rock thrown at him before the force of it pushed him back.
Landing with a flip, Toji was already gone by the time the Sandbenders sunk the ground in, deciding to take random directions and spins instead of going straight for them to confuse the guards.
The guards were trying their best as they unleashed boulder after boulder and spike after spike in hopes of hitting the boy only for each attack to miss as Toji went with the unorthodox method of using their attacks as platforms as well.
It was just as he went to attack that his eyes widened with the sound of a whip rapidly cracking the air, quickly jumping back and frowning as he saw all the guards falling forward while looking as if they were frozen.
Noticing the large mole-hound-bear animal from before retracting a whip-like tongue, he turned his gaze to the black-haired girl standing behind the guards with a terrified man thrown over her shoulder.
"Thanks for the distraction. Helped out a bit." The girl spoke as she threw the frozen man over the hound's back while tying him down, Toji relaxing as he realized that she was indeed a bounty hunter just here for her quarry.
"No problem, but I expect payment for next time." He spoke and smirked as she snorted and nodded.
"Sure~ Next time."
"Hey, how'd you become a bounty hunter?" Toji didn't exactly know the in-and-outs of this world as it could be something similar to his old life or something completely different.
"You go to Misty Palms Oasis, you ask for a bounty to bring in, you bring that bounty in and…there you go. You're now a bounty hunter."
"Huh, you're a lot more cordial than I thought you would be."
"Because if you had not distracted them for me, I would have had to wait until nightfall before I could get my target. Figured being a bit nice sounds like a good trade-off."
"…Okay, think you could point me in the direction of this oasis?" Toji asked and the girl smirked before climbing onto her beast.
"Better yet, how about I show you?"
A/N: And Toji finally meets a new character who might also become a special friend.
…Not that kind of friend. Just a close ally that he can call on…for a fee, of course. No one works for free.
Anyway, next chapter, Toji the Mercenary makes his debut~!
And now, like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!