Jin wasn't in a hurry to reach Lin's house. On one hand, he was chatting with Inkasha, not caring if he looked like a lunatic talking to himself. On the other, he was retrieving secret accounting books and other incriminating documents from different hiding spots across the city.
Those too delicate to move, or better secured, could be copied perfectly by him later.
If anyone happened to raise their head to the night sky of Republic City in hopes of seeing the stars, they would notice that instead of shooting stars, several scrolls, books, and papers were drifting in the same direction like a celestial white river.
Not only did he gather dirt on criminals and collaborators of the Triple Threat, but he also picked up some scandals involving various politicians and members of the Council. The only one who came out clean, at least for now, was Tenzin. But Jin suspected that was because the man was far too rigid and obsessed with the spiritual way of life he had chosen… or that had been hammered into his head. Maybe his skeletons were simply hidden somewhere else.
In any case, Jin focused on low-level corruption, criminals who had successfully gone to ground, and a few moderately important people—just enough for his niece to warm up before things got serious.
He placed particular emphasis on rapists, drug dealers, murderers, and human traffickers. The evidence was enough to sentence most of them to death, with no loopholes or misinterpretations to twist in their favor. Yes, here it meant the death penalty.
"This amount should be enough to keep Lin and her department busy for a while," Jin thought. "Too much evidence at once will raise red flags. I can copy the rest so that if, after the first batch, they decide to destroy their records, I'll still have a backup to release little by little."
Taking advantage of the night and the fact he was nearby, he also made sure that in some warehouses belonging to the Triple Threat and other gangs, their money was "swallowed" by the earth before moving it into a hollowed-out underground chamber.
Just that amount of yuans would allow him to do quite a lot, and it was far better that he put the money to use than those vile people who thrived on others' suffering.
"Having so much chi abundance is really handy." Jin would have felt a bit exhausted doing all this simultaneously seventy years ago, but now, at most, he only needed to keep his focus steady to move things around.
He wasn't worried about being a bad influence on Inkasha. Everything he did was "just," and nobody had gotten hurt. Yet.
Besides, despite her behavior, one had to remember that the spirit had lived for decades and had access to Wan Shi Tong's library. She'd already spent enough time watching humans at their best and at their worst.
Inkasha even shared a few anecdotes about times she decided to intervene to help someone—like tripping a thief as he tried to run away. Small things that seemed like coincidence, but weren't.
"What are you thinking about, Dad?"
"Mmm, just considering whether I need to take some precautionary measures ahead of time," Jin replied, fully accepting his new role.
Tokuga, the man who had taken over as leader of the Triple Threat after Viper fell, was in the city. Between the dragon eel spirit incident, the gas bomb, and that greedy bastard Wonyong Keum…
He wasn't sure if taking Tokuga out of the equation early would accomplish much. He was the classic kind of leader who killed anyone who contradicted him and used fear as a weapon. In other words, easy enough to get rid of, but unpredictable in just how insane he was.
But if they were talking about problems, Wonyong Keum was the one most likely to cause real headaches. As CEO of Keum Enterprises, he had wasted no time—barely after the spirit portal appeared, he was already planning to turn the area (which conveniently belonged to him) into a theme park offering tours into the spirit world.
"I need to know if we still own the property," Jin narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure Toph dealt with complaints over my past actions."
Knowing that Republic City would eventually appear and develop, Jin had legally acquired, through trade, all the lands and plots for kilometers around during his era, well in advance and at good prices.
Even with the city's current size, Jin could say he still held a margin of land in the outer ring that was within his acquisitions.
The only part not included in his properties was Air Temple Island, where Tenzin and his family currently lived.
"Looks like Lin hasn't gotten home yet." Jin sensed no one inside the apartment, and frowned. "The condition of this building is barely acceptable. Why doesn't she live somewhere better?"
Well, he could understand. To Lin, a house was just a place to eat, sleep, and do laundry. She probably spent so much time at the precinct that she barely had time to clean the place properly.
With a flick of his wrist, the lock opened, and Jin stepped into his niece's home.
"Metalbenders exist, and people still don't worry about their locks. Incredible." Jin shook his head. "Maybe making platinum locks isn't possible and wooden ones would be too fragile, but there are still other options."
"Dad, metalbenders are pretty rare. There's a reason my cousin's squad is understaffed," Inkasha pointed out while curiously looking around her cousin's human apartment. "In the whole city, it'd already be a lot if there were fifty or sixty metalbenders. I doubt it even reaches eighty."
"Really?" Jin was genuinely surprised by the low number. "But Toph founded the Metal Academy. Logically, there should be plenty of metalbenders."
"Most of them prefer to stay in Zaofu." Inkasha shrugged.
Ah, yes, that made sense…
Besides, metalbending required specialized training and a certain talent.
Take Bolin, for example.
An earthbender who wanted to bend metal but couldn't, yet unexpectedly turned out to have talent for lavabending—a sub-skill even rarer. Counting both Aang and Korra's eras, there were fewer than three people able to use this type of sub-bending.
The Avatar, Bolin, and Ghazan of the Red Lotus.
Oh, and a girl Toph had supposedly discovered in underground fights.
That made four.
Two hours passed before Lin finally arrived at her apartment, removed her armor, and slipped into comfortable clothes.
"You got off work late," Jin greeted from the sofa. There wasn't even a television, though to him, a TV and a radio were basically the same thing. And the quality of the radio stations?
Pretty boring. Quiet music, meaningless gossip, irrelevant news, and a frequency dedicated exclusively to Pro-Bending, the sport he had "invented" years ago.
But Lin's eyes froze on the mountain of books, scrolls, and papers stacked on the table in front of her uncle. All of them were clearly cataloged in some fashion.
"Tenzin had a broomstick stuck up his ass, as usual," Lin said flatly. "I practically had to kick him out of the station to make him leave me alone. Is this…?"
"Tips from informants all across the city, apparently," Jin laughed, fanning his arm dramatically. "Have you eaten? I can—ah, of course, I should've expected that."
Lin wasn't even listening to him anymore. She was already diving into each piece of information and evidence. After a couple of minutes, Jin realized something.
"Lin," he called loudly enough to snap her out of her trance. "Didn't my sister teach you inkbending?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.
Even if nobody had mastery like his, reading through this much information shouldn't take more than an hour. But Lin was clearly reading with her eyes, the slowest way possible.
"She tried," Lin admitted with a grimace. "But since we can read normally, well… we didn't see the point." She glanced at the pile of documents on the table. "In retrospect, my younger self should've shut up and learned."
Back then, she had no idea how much paperwork she'd end up dealing with…
"I can teach you," Jin offered—he was never stingy with his family. "After all, I'm the one who invented it."
"Aren't you a little too young to—? Oh, never mind." Lin facepalmed, realizing her slip. "I think I'm just too tired. I'll make some coffee and—"
"No, you'll go to bed and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, you'll start reading everything," Jin stopped her cold. "Right now, your mind isn't at full capacity, and this—" he gestured at the papers on the table—"will give you work for weeks. So eat something, shower, go to bed, and tomorrow you can start."
"But—!" Lin tried to protest.
"Mmm?" Jin narrowed his gaze.
Lin shrugged helplessly when her uncle turned and "looked" at her silently.
"Damn it! Why does he intimidate me so much?" Lin could only surrender, her pride a little bruised.
If there had been any lingering doubt about their blood relation, it vanished in that instant.
It was the same feeling she had whenever her mother got serious—it triggered an instinctive reaction.
No, with her uncle, it was even worse!
"Fine…" Lin didn't have the energy to argue. She convinced herself she was only giving in this once, and turned to make herself a quick meal.
To her surprise, knives were already chopping ingredients she was certain she didn't have in her kitchen, and the pot was beginning to boil.
Lin slowly turned, stunned.
How could he control so many scattered things with such precision?
"Is that the ability Mom used to mention?" she wondered aloud. "What was it called again… Chi Sight, or something like that?"
While Lin stood there pondering, Jin called her back to sit down.
"Anything else?" Lin asked, a little irritated, with her arms and legs crossed.
"Just one little thing." Jin slowly stretched a smile. "I thought you might like to meet your cousin."
Lin was dumbfounded.
"But I thought… you know…" She didn't want to bring up something so delicate.
"Oh, let's just say it was a surprise for both of us today." Jin made a gesture, and his spirit daughter appeared before the head of Republic City's police department. "Lin, meet your cousin Inkasha. She's a spirit."
"Hi, cousin!" Inkasha had returned to her adult form, thinking it would make an older woman like Lin feel more comfortable.
Lin stared at the spirit in her apartment—then collapsed backward, eyes rolled white.
"Does she not like me?" Inkasha asked, tears the size of beans welling up in her eyes.
"I think she was just really tired and got so excited to meet you that she fainted from joy," Jin quickly comforted Inkasha.
Inkasha thought about it for a moment and nodded. That made sense.
She was very happy to meet her too!
Jin carried Lin to her bed and looked at the half-prepared dinner.
Well, he could still eat some of it—no point in letting it go to waste.
He knew technology had reached the point where cold-storage rooms were used in meat warehouses and the like. In Aang's time, they'd already shown the technology was fairly advanced during Suki's rescue.
But did people already have refrigerators, or had they not reached that point yet?
And, was Suki still alive? It would be nice to see her on Kyoshi Island…
"Want me to teach you how to cook?" Jin asked his daughter, who was watching with keen interest. "We could make Lin breakfast together. She'll be in for a surprise."
Inkasha was instantly enthusiastic. Although she had read plenty about cooking in Wan Shi Tong's library, for spirits the concept of food was different, and human gastronomy seemed fascinating.
Inkasha and Jin checked Lin's kitchen to take stock, but most things were expired or bland. Inkasha even found packs of instant noodles three years out of date shoved at the back of a cupboard!
"Well, looks like we'll have to go out early to the morning market," Jin shook his head.
His niece had really been settling for anything as long as it filled her up. That wasn't healthy.