2. Meeting Pakku

…

Lee silently followed Lady Tokka around her house. Just a few minutes ago, she had told him that someone was here to meet him.

They entered the living room, where he found a half-bald old man sitting on a block of ice and drinking tea. He was skinny, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s.

Lee hid behind Lady Tokka, peeking at him.

The old man did not look up immediately. He held the teacup with both hands, letting steam curl slowly into his face as if he were studying it. The block of ice beneath him did not seem to melt under his weight.

Lady Tokka gently caressed Lee’s hair before folding her arms beneath her breasts.

“He is Master Pakku,” she said, a hint of respect in her tone. “He is the one who rescued you from the firebenders that attacked your village.”

She gave him an encouraging nod.

Lee hesitantly stepped forward and bowed to the old man.

“Tha… thank you for saving me.”

The old man finally lifted his gaze. His eyes landed on Lee and stayed there. They were not the cloudy eyes of age; they were bright, focused, and unsettlingly alert—like a hawk measuring the distance to its prey.

He took another quiet sip before speaking.

“It was my duty,” he said, his tone authoritative and cold like a block of thousand-year-old ice. “Your father was once my student. Sadly, his talent was average at best. The fool abandoned his training when he realised he wasn’t progressing as quickly as my other students and fled to the outskirts in shame.

“It seems he ended up settling in one of the villages and built himself a family there. When he discovered that you had a talent for waterbending, he wrote to me. …Alas, I arrived too late. I’m sorry for your loss, child. I wish I’d arrived sooner so I could’ve saved the others as well. It’ll remain one of my regrets in life.”

Lee lowered his gaze, unsure what to say to that. He was grateful to him for saving him. As a reincarnated person, he didn’t hold any grudge against the man for not arriving sooner, but the same wasn’t true for his body. He not only inherited the body’s memories, but also its feelings, and the child didn’t understand why he couldn’t have arrived sooner.

He clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking.

Master Pakku watched him for a few quiet seconds, his sharp eyes studying every small movement.

“Can you teach me waterbending?” Lee asked in a soft voice.

“I can,” the old man said, setting his teacup aside on the nearby table. “Why do you want to learn waterbending? Is it for revenge?”

Lee shook his head, his face twisting with a multitude of emotions.

“They killed everyone. Father. Mother. Sister Nana. Uncle Kuro. Everyone. I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to save them. To protect them, but… I’m weak and alone.

“There were so many of them. All of them had swords. Some of them could breathe fire. Father was strong, but even he couldn’t defeat them. You can. You did.

“I don’t want to remain weak. I don’t want to watch as they hurt people. I want to protect. …Will you teach me?”

Master Pakku didn’t answer immediately.

The old man leaned back slightly on the block of ice, his fingers resting on his knee as he studied him in silence. The room seemed to grow quieter around them, broken only by the faint crackle of the brazier and the soft hiss of melting frost beneath him.

Lee forced himself to hold the man’s gaze, though his heart hammered in his chest.

At last, Pakku spoke.

“Revenge is a flame that burns the one who carries it,” he said calmly. “Strength born from hatred is brittle. It breaks the moment the wind changes.”

His sharp eyes narrowed slightly.

“But protecting others… that is a different matter.”

He rose to his feet. The ice beneath him melted into water and joined the icy floor. Pakku slowly walked toward Lee until the old master stood only a step away from him. Up close, the old master seemed even taller and more imposing.

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“You have talent, but it alone means nothing,” the bald man said, his voice firm. “Waterbending demands discipline. Patience. Control.”

His gaze hardened slightly. “Tell me, child… do you have them inside you?”

Lee hesitated before nodding.

“Very well,” Pakku said. “I’ll teach you. Show me if you can even bend water yet.”

Lee swallowed and glanced around the room. His eyes stopped on the cup the old man had just been drinking from. Based on the vapour still rising from it, there was still some tea left inside.

He stepped toward it slowly, aware that Pakku’s sharp gaze never left him.

He extended his hand over the cup and concentrated. The recent memories of the body stirred inside him—faint impressions of movement, of breath, of the pull and push taught by the child’s father.

Water is malleable, he remembered.