'Poor sacrificial lambs…' Akashi exhaled deeply and closed his eyes, floating while being held by two bloodbenders.
'Thanks to them, the Earth Queen would shift her target from me to her. He's losing his followers, and most importantly, the radio I have left will lead to this location. I take the whole credit, and clear my name for allying with the Equalists under the name of a secret operation.' He thought. 'Now all that's left is gathering as much experience points as possible.'
Akashi opened the panel of the system, increasing his vitality by 5.
[A new perk has been unlocked]
[Minor Regeneration: Can regenerate from any minor non-lethal damage]
Both of the bloodbenders were applying only necessary force on him, not their best. So, by increasing his vitality, he could resist and catch them off guard, without them realizing it. His eyes flickered left and right, choosing the right target.
'Tarrlok has experience in dealing with me. So, it's better to make him my target.'
Using all of his force, he aimed at Tarrlok and clapped. His target was Tarrlok. The latter lurched backward. The amplified, controlled shockwave hit him in the ear. Akashi kicked forward in the air, creating a very strong current, pushing him to the wall.
[Exp…]
Tarrlok wasn't even worth a level anymore. It was expected since Akashi was getting stronger with each level, and thus, it required more for him to gain more. But even then, Amon still held strong. The winds didn't push him back, as if he was using bloodbending on himself to eliminate the effect. He glared at Akashi and increased his control over the latter's blood without even having to move a limb.
Just as Akashi opened his mouth to scream, Amon mocked, "To master such techniques, yet you still can't bend with your mind. It's useless if you give me clues before you attack."
Akashi found himself spinning in the air and screaming in another direction. He then got hit to the ground, before slamming against the roof.
Akashi's eyes darted as he thought. 'Are you watching it?'
'And fuck, I didn't want to use more attribute points.'
-x-X-x-
On some airship heading to Ba Sing Se, the leader of the Dai Lee had a deep frown on his face.
He was already in a bad mood, not knowing how to explain that Akashi had died.
That was already bad enough.
But what they discovered had changed a lot of things.
"The Forbidden book, volume three." There was a book held by a man who was sweating.
And worse, there was a letter from Akashi, left in their pocket.
That letter was to be delivered to her majesty, for she was being played.
-x- Flash Back -x-
Few weeks before Akashi's supposed death.
During one of Korra's matches.
Akashi was sitting next to Asami, the sponsor of Korra's team.
"By the way, Asami. I need to ask you a favor."
"Huh? Sure, what is it?"
"Can I meet with your father?"
"My father. May I ask why?"
"I have an invention that I wish to share with. I call it a film." Akashi grabbed a series of frames from his pocket. "If you put it in a light display and move it so fast, you'd have a real-time imitation of what happened in reality."
Asami, being an inventor in the show, took the linked frames and looked at them, seeming to be able to understand the idea.
"Hmm… I can grant you a meeting with my dad. Thursday is good?" she asked.
"Great." Akashi nodded.
He smiled widely at her.
All he wanted was a meeting with the one who believed most in Amon's proficiency. He'd give him a way to invent the filming camera, which he believed would be better than what another entrepreneur might make. As for why Akashi believed that, it's simply because Sato Hiroshi was someone who could invent robots, planes, and tame electricity. It's not exaggeration to say that he's ahead of his time. And so, Akashi was granted a meeting with Sato Hiroshi by his daughter.
"Hmm… If I may ask, how did you come up with this idea?" Asami asked curiously, looking at the film. "A camera that's taking pictures so fast to make a real-time picture…"
"Yeah, I had that flip book. And I thought that could be done with modern science." Akashi replied.
"That's really a good idea." She praised.
-x- Back to Today -x-
Lin was at her office, fully in a daze, staring at the roof. You know, when you lose someone dearly, the first thing you'd do is to question if it's real. The denial is real, and then, you accept reality eventually, for there is no changing it.
But for Akashi to be eaten by a shark after falling into the water, that seemed to be an absurd stroke of luck. And then, there were those Akashi's words. No matter what happened, believe that I'm not dead.
"Too confused to be too sad." She muttered to herself as she stood up and walked to the Homicides department, to Akashi's office, missing him already.
The desk was empty as no one yet took over his place. His death were big news, and they had been looking for remains to bury him. But they had never found them.
Lin, touching his desk, swept her hand over it and under it.
But then, her hand touched something.
She squatted to find a letter pinned to the underside of the table.
Without hesitation, she grabbed it.
[Dear Lin. If you are reading this, it means that I'm dead…]
Lin could no longer hold it and put her hands on her nose, tears welling up.
[Don't believe that I was drowned by the Equalists. It's just a part of my plan. There is a reason why I told you two days ago that never believe that I'm dead.]
The tears that welled up got confused and went back to where they came from.
[By now, I am in the Equalists base. I have left a radio device there with the following frequency. Ask the experts, and they can help you locate their base through the radio.]
[If you want to keep it a secret, I'm in a secret mission to locate the Equalists base. I was in a temporary alliance with Amon, helping him take bending from the triads, and I knew about him having something fishy, e's Noatak, Tarrlok's brother… Anyways, I'm in their base. I don't know if I can beat that bloodbender, but given that there are two of them, it's unlikely. But I would manage to hide at the worst case.]
[PS: Take Korra with you, and don't tell her that I'm alive. I need her to go full Avatar State]
With that, Akashi's letter was concluded.
"Why the hell is he sure that Korra would go into Avatar's state on him."
Lin, no longer sad, had her face flushing red.
The special letter that was meant for her was ruined by Korra's name.
"Fuck it. He better be dead or else I'll make him wish to be." She fumed as she stormed out of the office.