Just as Asha arrived, Siku's mother was leaving. From the parlour, Siku could hear them exchanging pleasantries and she shouldered her gym bag, full of her equipment. She looked to Hiresh and nodded, "I'm glad you're not going in uniform... I hate when you follow me around in that. Feels like I can't talk to anybody and it doesn't exactly make me an easy person to talk to either." Hiresh simply shrugged, "It's fine. Not like I'm on guard duty at the arena - plus, I like a good match as much as anybody. Even if I'm a sucker for traditional earthbending." It was then that Sesi came into the room, eyes glued to a book. She almost tripped over the edge of the rug before catching herself and plopping into the couch, sighing. "It's not fair," The girl of nearly ten years said with an irritated sigh. "You get to go to probending matches and hang out with friends and do cool stuff and papa doesn't even like me watching your matches if he can help it..." Siku grinned as she looked at her sister, "Oh, poor Sesi never gets to do anything fun with her big sister..." She lamented teasingly, waiting for Asha to enter the room with her glider. "Hey, Asha," The young woman greeted cheerfully, "I'd say sorry that you have to sit in this stuffy house while we go out to a match but..." From her pocket, Siku retrieved three box seat tickets to the day's match. "It's a qualifying match and they didn't sell out - between being a competitor and my father's name, it wasn't hard to get a hold of these. Great set of seats, and since papa's gone home for a few days and mom'll be out all day, I figured you, Siku, and Hiresh could tag along." The girl grinned, handing Hiresh the tickets, who was even shocked himself at the quality of the seats. Sesi nearly had a meltdown, dropping her book on the end table and bouncing up and down next to Asha. "Can we go? Can we, can we, can we?!" She pleaded with sparkling eyes. Of course, as the babysitter, Asha was ultimately in charge of whether they went. ---- A Walk Later ---- Hiresh took his seat beside Sesi, opposite Asha in a balcony seat overlooking the arena. From here, they could see everything, including the monitors which showed the fight up close. The angle was perfect, free food and beverages were served, and Siku's match would be one of the last of the qualifying tournament. This particular qualification was more important than any other she'd competed in - this was professional. This would be what determined whether they were just some local team of rookies, or a legitimate team of competitive probenders. He wouldn't show it, but the Metal Corps Officer was ecstatic to get to see it, and when the drink attendant came around, he ordered something with a little more kick than he'd normally have on duty. Match after match, amazing benders from all over the world and Republic City itself battled it out for who would make it into the official tournament. Siku's team had one shot - they were on a side bracket due to their rookie status. Depending on how well they did this year, they'd have more opportunity to rank higher out of the gate. Meanwhile, as the next fight was called by the announcer, Siku and her two teammates were putting together a couple of last minute strategies. One of the teammates was a firebender about her age named Hiro with uncharacteristically sandy-blond hair. His mother was from the former Earth Kingdom, but he inherited his father's bending. The other, Miyuki, had deep roots in the Earth Kingdom and moved to Republic City from Omashu only a few years ago. Siku had met her through school and she was the only reason Siku had been given the space on the team at all. "This is it," Siku said with a grin, pulling her helmet over her head. The Ice Wolves didn't have much of a sponsorship yet, but they had a few local shops backing them, enough that they only needed a couple of patches on their sleeves in exchange for beautiful, icy blue gear with a snarling wolf head on the friend and another full-body wolf howling on the back. Hiro nodded in response, a goofy smile plastered across his face, "Hey, but if we don't make it this year, we just gotta show 'em what we got and try to move up again next year. At this rate, we could have one of the youngest teams in the professional league. Let's just do what we joined the sport to do - have a blast and maybe show off a little bit!" Miyuki simply nodded in agreement - for an earthbender, she was surprisingly shy. Of course, nobody in the world could make her do something she didn't want to, she just wasn't one to argue out loud very often or be too vocal. The waterbender nodded, fastening her helmet under her chin, "You're right, you're right..." The girl inhaled deeply and then let it out gradually. "Let's just do our best. We got this." The bridge opened up and the loudspeaker rang throughout the stadium, "Introducing... The Dynamo Eel Hounds and the Ice Woooollllves!" The two trios faced off at the middle of the arena as the referee briefly explained the rules and stepped away. He rose up on a pillar and waved a flag to mark the beginning of the first round. Siku's lip curled back in contempt as the cheering crowd disappeared from her perception and she opened up the hostilities with a pair of pinwheeling kicks, sending two fast blasts of water at the enemy water and earth benders. The earthbender was not nearly as prepared to receive it as Siku's counterpart and he lost his footing, only to be met in the center of his stomach by a disc from Miyuki, immediately blasting him into the third zone. This was one of their strongest strategies - each fighter attacks two opponents at once to keep them guessing. Unfortunately, this often left them open to attacks and Siku had to roll to narrowly avoid a blast from the enemy firebender, pushing her out of center ring and into the second zone with her two teammates. "Hiro, Miyuki, water," She shouted as the two double-teamed the waterbender with their own attacks. Siku came up between their assaults and knocked the firebender back, her attack full of vengeance. Suddenly, she was tumbling over the ground, her shoulder screaming in agony as she was clipped by the earthbender's attack and sent into the final zone. However, her teammates recovered the space and pushed the remainder of the enemy team back into their last zone, allowing her to advance again. The territory changed hands several more times back and forth, the first round ending in a draw and the second going to the Eel Hounds. The third round was, without a doubt, the most intense of them, of course. After several minutes of pushing and pulling for ground, Miyuki rolled backward over the edge of the ring just after the enemy's firebender did. Then Hiro went down and Siku was left alone with the advantage on ground, but disadvantage on reinforcements. She grit her teeth and dropped into a crouch, narrowly avoiding a disc of rock before launching herself to the side and tucking over her stronger shoulder, sweeping her leg to blast her attacker's teammate square in the chest simultaneously. The enemy waterbender skid to a halt just at the edge of the ring, trying to regain his bearings to redirect any further attack. However, Siku's second deluge was too strong and sent him over the edge too, leaving her alone with the enemy earthbender who had damaged her shoulder at the beginning. Blows were exchanged in rapid procession - dirt and rock chunks blasting every which way as Siku whipped them with water. Mist sprayed as her attacks were deflected by discs. Sweat poured down her face - how long could this guy keep it up? This was exhausting, but they couldn't lose outright, she wouldn't give up after working this hard to reduce them to only one combatant. She could feel her blood pumping as far as her fingertips, the rhythm thumping hard against her chest as she panted, trying to think of just the right way to fight back. If she could crack a whip at just the right time... [I]now![/I] She let loose an attack and the sound of it breaking air filled the arena, hitting the rock just at the edge, reversing its spin and sending it hurdling back at her opponent. Without skipping a beat, Siku spun around and took her whip back, turning it into a blast to follow the disk and sending the earthbender into the air over the water. He hit the pool with a heavy splash and Siku grinned. As she moved to cross her arms in victory, she flinched and let her arm drop, holding her shoulder with the other... Fuck that hurt, they'd hit her square in the joint with that disc in the first round and the agony was starting to seep in. "This brings us to a draw... Since the Eel Hounds are the senior team, we'll let them choose their element," The announcer called out. The other team huddled up and Siku looked to her teammates. They all thought the same thing: if the other team chose water, she'd be out. There was no way she could fight like this. "We choose fire!" They finally decided, giving Siku a thumbs up. They might be enemies, but they didn't lack honour. Hiro and the enemy's firebender stepped into the center ring, which rose above the rest of the ring, giving the two of them the stage they needed to fight one on one. When the bell dinged, Hiro didn't hesitate to begin his attack - he expertly blasted the air with an onslaught of punches and a few kicks, many of which were dissipated by the opponent. The rest were dodged and countered. Fire struck out in every direction from the raised stage before one lucky kick landed Hiro on his back, tumbling off the stage and to the floor of the outer ring. Siku and Miyuki sighed and looked at the ground - it was a bit too much to ask of fate that they get it their first try anyway, right? When Hiro returned, he seemed to be the most dejected of the three, but it could hardly be his fault. Siku punched his shoulder, "Better luck next year. Hopefully they won't get a lucky shot like this in, will they?" She asked, rubbing her aching joint again. "I'd better get a healer on it later... C'mon, let's go. That's the end of our season anyway..." --- In the box seats, Hiresh had been doing well measuring his alcohol intake and tolerance, but he was a little more boisterous than usual anyway. "Oh c'mon, ref! That firebender was bending for an illegal duration! OPEN YOUR EYES!" He called out, the sound getting lost in the sea of cheers and shouts from the rest of the crowd. Was there really a violation? Who could say - a loss was a loss. He looked at Asha and Sesi, "C'mon, let's go to the gate leading out to meet her. Give her a chance to change before we go," The man suggested, gesturing for the exit. It would be a few minutes before Siku joined them, back in her regular clothing, a little damp from a quick rinsing she'd had before changing clothes. She shrugged with a half smile, "Better luck next year, right? That's weird though... I thought Katsu said he wanted to come watch the fight..." She mused passively, sucking the inside of her cheek. It was a bad habit she'd been trying to quit, but at this point she couldn't even tell when she was doing it. Katsu probably dropped out of the plan after being caught last night, for fear of being murdered in public. No, Siku wasn't that stupid, she wouldn't [i]murder[/i] him out here. "What'd you think, Asha? Sesi? You guys like all the matches?" Sesi was still bouncing, "Oh, it was so cool!!" She cried out excitedly, "And you did so good, even after they hit your shoulder! I can't believe papa still beats you when you fight him, you're amazing!" Siku blushed and shook her head, patting the small girl's hair, "Thank you, Sesi, but papa is not somebody to take lightly. He's really incredible." She looked back to Asha, "Thanks again for coming and watching Sesi. I wouldn't trust Hiresh to take care of anybody," She confided teasingly, giving Asha a small wink.