NOVEL NEXT Not a saint, but still a good guy
''So anyway, I told this guy to- OH Aang! Finally you're here!'' Kunyo was telling a story to his newest buddies as he got bored from all the waiting until he saw Aang coming through with his friends.
''Continue, Continue.'' his newest friend no.1 insisted.
'This guy stopped right at the most intense moment!' he thought in resentment.
''We welcome you, Avatar Aang. Anyways, what happened next?'' newest friend no.2 asked after formally greeting the avatar.
''Forget it, it was nice to meet you guys.'' Kunyo said with a casual smile before turning his attention to the Avatar and his friends.
'Come on man, don't blue ball your brothers like that.' whined the guard no.2 on the inside, but kept his mouth shut on the outside. He couldn't delay the Avatar if he didn't want to get punished severely.
Aang and Katara looked awkward while Sokka looked interested.
''Um, I don't mind if you continue, we can wait.'' Aang said.
''Psst, I said forget about it, it wasn't that funny anyway.'' Kunyo said with a smile.
'Aang without his energy is kinda awkward huh.'
''Anyways, let go to the Spirit Oasis. I want to properly greet the divine spirits, the spirit of the ocean and the spirit of the moon.'' Kunyo wawed his hand, dismissing the argument.
''This much should be enough of an evidence, right?'' he asked to the guards.
It was pretty much confirmed that he was the famous ShenLong anyway. He was just asking for formalities sake.
Guards nodded with bitter smiles, they really wanted to hear the end of the story.
'I knew it! There is no such thing as a good fire bender. Look at him, he's the devil for sure.'
They slowly made their way into the Spirit Oasis as they chatted.
''Bro will you ever tell us your real name? Come on, I think we're way past that trust point huh?'' Sokka asked casually as they entered the Spirit Oasis.
Kunyo sighed.
''It's not that I don't trust you guys. It's just that, you know the ground has ears idiom, right? There's no harm in knowing me as ShenLong, but I would have to deal with some insects- I mean, headaches if my real name and my actions got around.''
He shook his head with a helpless smile on his handsome face.
''I don't intend to be a wanted man like you guys after all. Sorry for not sharing your trouble, but there is no point in me suffering together with you haha'' he laughed sheepishly
Sokka shook his head as Aang nodded.
'That makes sense.'
''So, ShenLong'' Sokka chuckled ''I'm sorry, I will just call you bro, that's okay with you?''
Seeing Kunyo nod with a smile, he continued ''What bring you here?''
As Kunyo opened his mouth to answer, Sokka cut him off.
''Sorry sorry, wrong question. We know why you came here. I mean, why are you still here?''
Katara was still silent throughout the whole conversation.
'He is a good guy... BUT HE IS A FIREBENDER!'
Her brain was already numb from all the contradictions.
'There's no such thing as a 'good firebender'.'
'But he helped us...'
Kunyo ignored her obvious distress. It affected Aang's mood as well, but they would get over it soon.
''I heard the Avatar wanted to master the four elements to defeat the big villain fire lord Ozai! I want to teach you firebending.''
Aang's eyes widened in surprise and happiness.
He not only found a firebending teacher, but found a really strong firebendending teacher!
'Something inside me feels uneasy though...' he thought. 'It must be because of...'
He secretly took a glance at Katara, seeing her like this pained him, but she had to get over it soon.
He knew firebenders did atrocious things, but not every firebender was a bad guy.
At least he wanted to believe that.
''And what do you get from that mister spirit dragon?'' Sokka said skeptically with a half-joking tone before even Aang could accept his offer.
''Sokka! Don't be rude, he just wants to help us.'' Aang, said trying to protect Kunyo.
''I will be honest, I'm not much of a saint myself. I just want to help you because it's obviously the better thing to do. Ozai is destroying the world with his war. War hasn't ended in years, and it looks like it won't ever end.'' Kunyo gave a sad sigh ''So many innocent people died in this 100 year long war and if we don't stop it, many more will. It's time to put an end to this.''
Kunyo gestured at Aang ''Seeing the Avatar, I felt like this was our chance to take him down for good and end this pointless war.''
Aang's eyes were watery. ''S-Shenlong...'' he sniffed before continuing ''I promise, I won't let your trust down! I will bring down Ozai!'' Aang swore to himself loudly.
Kunyo gave a warm smile.
'I kinda feel bad for this. Does this count as tricking him? I mean, it doesn't hurt him in any way, so it should be fine.'
Kunyo was really going to teach Aang how to bend fire properly, but his reason was different than what he told them.
He couldn't care less about Ozai or his war. It would be good if the war ended and the war stopped taking lives pointlessly, he would be genuinely happy about that. He wasn't a monster that fed on the suffering of random people after all.
But his main reason was to gain Aang's trust.
'If I become his trusted friend and teacher, he would protect my father with his life on the line and I can leave this planet with reassurance.'
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[An: You wanna know why this chapter came out so late? Because I was deciding on making this ending or the ending below. Wasn't a hard choice actually. But it took me 3 hours to decide because of a nasty little thing called procrastination.
Why did he choose this ending instead of the lower one? (you will see in a few paragraphs)
I felt like being honest would be better but scrapped the idea since Kunyo would be more cautious when it comes to his father. He wanted to make sure of his protection, so instead of coming clean, he said white little harmless lies.
Was it the better choice? I think the lower one would be a better choice, Aang is a good guy, he would take care of his father even if he came clean like that and revealed his teachings wasn't from his golden heart but an exchange.
But Kunyo felt like the choice above the better one because it was more likely to work. Aang wouldn't see through it, he had a justifiable reason, and he could easily become Aang's lifelong friend like that.
Logically, the choice above is the better one imo (that's why Kunyo chose that) but I probably would have gone with the lower one lol.]
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''No, Sok-'' he tried to defend ShenLong, but he was cut off by the person he tried to protect.
''You're right.'' ShenLong's hands went above his head. ''You caught me. I want a favor from you. Not now, but in the future. Don't worry, it won't put your or your friends' lives in danger.'' after all of this ended, he would ask Aang to protect his father.
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[He won't spend much time teaching Aang btw, he still has his places to be. This mostly to gain his trust since Aang doesn't need a teacher anyway. He can just open hax and win the fight with Avatar Mode lol.]
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