The day after honing his airbending skills, Akashi found himself back at his office. As much as he wanted to stay on the temple island, probably the safest place in the world, he had duties to fulfill and money to launder.
Akashi gazed at the pile of cases on his desk. Not only did he have to solve a few, but he also had to coordinate teams of detectives and officers under him, leading them through the complexities of their investigations.
"Seriously, the crime rate in this city is alarming," Akashi muttered. "I should retire within five years, maybe even less."
He sighed deeply, pen in hand, diligently performing his job as usual. The system hadn't categorized his detection skills as part of a skill tree, suggesting they were more of a personal trait than a skill, according to the system's criteria.
After finishing his work, Akashi stood up, grabbed a timer, and began doing burpees. In twenty minutes, he completed around 100, leaving him panting but not sweaty.
[Stamina +1]
He clenched his fists happily. Achievement was the best source of happiness, and saving a half level felt overwhelming. At his current level, leveling up was challenging unless he defeated numerous opponents, and he needed to face high-quality benders.
Moreover, the more stamina points he had, the higher his recovery rate would be. He would no longer need to mask his exhaustion with a silly poker face in front of the chief.
"Not even workouts exhaust me like draining my stamina. I wonder why?" he thought.
At any rate, he shook off stray ideas and continued working. After creating a schedule, he handed it to his lieutenant and headed straight to the evidence chamber to review the evidence in Tarrlok's case. Since his transfer to the Homicides department, he shouldn't have been involved in this case, but as the arresting officer, he was allowed to review the evidence again.
Akashi smiled when he found everything as it had originally been. There was no extra evidence, and no evidence he had planted. The earthbenders must have bent the earth to enter the place undetected, their skills being exceptionally high to avoid alerting the police. They were likely orphans trained since birth to serve her majesty.
"Her Majesty my ass," Akashi thought. "But a figure that shouldn't die by my hand. If I kill her, chaos would rise, leading to civil wars and countless deaths due to power-hungry people. Not to mention, one of those power-hungry bitches is the daughter-in-law of my sister-in-law…"
Akashi rubbed his head, muttering, "Sister-in-law... since when did I use that term to address the chief's sister?"
He decided he had worked enough and deserved a break, as did his boss's boss. Akashi hummed a song as he left the evidence room, aware that he was a target and could be killed by highly trained assassins who might think he was unaware.
"If there's a chance that a man goes to the afterlife, he should go with no regrets."
-x-X-x-
Akashi smiled at Lin, who held up his supposedly urgent report. They sat across from each other, and Lin mused, "It's empty." She turned the paper, adding, "For a second, I thought it was a serious case."
Akashi was about to speak, but Lin put her finger on his lips. "Why do I have a feeling you're about to say something from a cheesy romance novel?" she asked.
"Usually, a man brings a flower to the woman he wants to bang in those novels," Akashi replied. "But in reality, those flowers are just colored paper shaped like flowers. I have no intention of tricking you, which is why I gave you a white paper."
Only an idiot would believe that. That paper was just an excuse to ask for a private meeting with her under the pretense of a report.
Lin moved the paper up and down. "So, this is supposed to be the flower you give to fuck me?" she asked, her tone interrogative.
Akashi smirked. "Guilty as charged."
"Very well. Guilty needs to be punished." She stood up and waved her hand, locking the door.
"What's the sentence?" he demanded, getting comfortable and slowly removing his coat.
She put her foot on his leg. "He won't be on the receiving end today," she said teasingly.
Akashi looked forward, and with a twitch of her body, the metal armor was removed. Underneath, she wasn't wearing any underwear. It seemed she had been anticipating this as much as he had.
"So, no blow job?" he asked.
"You've got to enjoy your meal," she replied, putting her hand on the back of his head.
"I guess it's only fair," he shrugged.
For the next hour, the justice system in Republic City was on hold as the chief had her fun. After finishing, Lin adjusted her hair and put her armor back on. Akashi got dressed again.
Looking at his stamina bar now,
[100/300]
He clenched his fists happily. The best news was that he would recover the lost 200 points in just two hours, according to his recovery rate.
"Must say, I was surprised today," she replied in a very gentle tone. The chief before and after having sex wasn't the same person.
"What surprised you?" he asked. "Is my visit a surprise?"
"No, not that. What I meant was…" She smirked at him.
'Wonder what her reaction would be if I put 10 points in Stamina and fucked her again,' Akashi thought, smiling back.
"Anyways," she said, standing up to kiss him on the lips. "I believe we had our share of fun, and we have a job to do."
"Yeah, I was leaving. By the way, when would you get a vacation?"
"I never thought of taking one," she replied.
"Really, you've been a chief for…"
"Well, for personal reasons, I was too focused on my job," she shrugged. "But why are you asking?"
"Thought we might have some alone time for ourselves," Akashi suggested. Life wasn't just work and arresting criminals; he needed some time for himself. Dating other girls didn't click for him, as he might end up having a lot of enemies, and those enemies would target those around him. The Police chief seemed more capable of protecting herself.
"Seriously, asking me for a date?" she tilted her head and looked at him, her cheeks turning pink.
"Why not. Are you afraid you'll fall in love with me?" He teased.
She looked back at him with a challenging gaze. "I'm afraid I may exhaust you to death."
"Won't be a bad way to go," Akashi nodded.
"I'll think about it. Now… I have a job to do," she opened the door.
"Yes, chief," he replied.
-x-X-x-
After finishing his work for the day, the first thing Akashi did was wait in front of the station, where a flying Bison appeared in the sky.
Akashi jumped high into the air, and as it started descending, he kicked backward, bending the air up and down. Below him, he bent the air to be more resistant, so kicking it while pushing air down allowed him to perform a high jump. At the same time, he removed the resistance from the air above him, allowing him to cross 2 meters with each jump.
Apparently, the system allowed him to learn this at level 16, and he could feel the air through his skin. The higher his level, the less movement and mental effort it required for him to use airbending. But Wisdom was still an important stat.
Tenzin, who had been with Akashi the day before, didn't seem surprised. After Akashi's impressive speed in the race against the kids, removing resistance, they had a nice talk. It seemed that ancient Airbenders had a similar technique when they moved, pushing the air in front of them and backward, partially removing resistance and gaining momentum.
But due to a lack of understanding of physics at their time, they never tapped into the full potential of that technique. Akashi, however, had created a more perfected version, allowing himself to slip through the air and remove resistance almost completely. In theory, no matter how fast he got, he would never hit the sound barrier.
"I was quite surprised to see you wanting to get to the temple today," Tenzin said.
"I felt quite guilty for deceiving the kids with the gifts you gave me, so I decided to bring real gifts today," he replied.
Tenzin chuckled. "Is that all?"
"And yeah, I felt bad for teasing them too much," Akashi added.
Tenzin laughed, feeling that he had picked a very good person to train as an airbender. But there was something Tenzin didn't know.
Akashi had asked him to pick him up for a reason. 'Ain't no way I'm facing earthbending assassins with a low stamina bar,' Akashi thought. 'By pretending to train for a few hours on the island temple and returning, I'd have full stamina recovered and some points allocated. The earthbenders, if they had been watching my pattern, would think I'd do the same thing as yesterday. They would be waiting for me at my coffee shop. That would be the best time to attack them.'
-x-X-x-
At the same time, around 8 elites were looking at the sky, watching the Flying Bison.
"He's repeating the same thing from yesterday," one of them said.
"Must be happy with himself after killing one of our own," another replied.
"We must avenge our fallen friend," a third added.
— Flashback —
Yesterday, they were 9. Today, they were 8.
After their 'fallen friend' grabbed the book from the evidence room, they reviewed it together, page by page. At first, they couldn't understand why Tarrlok said the author had committed blasphemy against her majesty. They thought it was just petty revenge, as the book only described the life of the bloodbender who had been commissioned to kidnap the airbender.
But at one point, the bloodbender was pegged by her majesty. The scene was so overwhelming and humiliating to their Earth Kingdom that they barely could turn the page. And when they did, they found the page that Tarrlok didn't even dare to read.
It was after she finished pegging him that she asked the whole Dai Lee agency to fuck her in front of him while verbally humiliating the bloodbender. At that moment, they understood that the queen would execute them for reading such a thing, regardless of their loyalty.
Yet, they had been trained to report to her. So, they did what they had been trained to do whenever there was a political issue: find a sacrificial lamb. The one who brought the book was to blame.
So, in that instant, the one behind him killed him.
"Without saying, we'll deliver the book to her majesty under his name, stating that he alone read it," he said. "After that, we'll report that the man was killed by the airbender, and we'd be after that airbender and take him back with us. No one will admit to having read that book, and all of us would pretend ignorance."
That's what they decided, and they agreed on it, burying their teammate under the ground that instant.
And now that Akashi had left for the island, they decided to wait for him at the place he would visit next—the coffee shop that he had closed yesterday.