Chapter 2: Conceptual Bending

Zaofu

Suyin raised a circular platform beneath them. Each of them positioned on the other end. She had known that Damian was strong before he left, surely now he was much stronger. She had trained him and another sandbender for three years before he went out to challenge the world. At that time he was fresh out of the desert and looking for a place to learn more bending. I took him in and taught him how to both properly metal and earth bend. Since then Suyin could only assume he’s gotten better. Even when he was here Damian was an absolute prodigy. His potential could only be measured against someone like her mother Top Beifong. His love for the theory of bending is what strove him further and why he eventually had to leave. She had had nothing left to offer him. He was a student she could truly be proud of, and now that he was back she couldn't wait to see how far he had come.

Suyin took a stance, one traditional of the Beifongs and waited. Damian took no stance and simply stood still. No anticipation to move, or attack, or defend. What was going on?!

“Damian, you must initiate if you intend to win this fight” Suyin said mockingly to the sandbender across from her. He simply stood there and smiled. Still no intention of movement could be seen in his posture. This went on for a few minutes without anyone taking any action.

Suyin had had enough. She made to step forward when it hit her. The weight of a mountain bore down on her in an instant. Damian had still not taken a single step. A look of intense concentration could be seen on his face. Suyin fell to the ground flat on her stomach as she could not bear the weight.

“What is this?!” she pleaded in desperation. Damian just stood there, still not moving with that look of intense concentration still on his face. Suyin tried everything she could just to move, yet the pressure still bore down on her. She couldn’t move. Breathing was now becoming difficult. Just as the force on her was about to make her pass out, it relented.

Suyin gasped for air as it filled her lungs. She looked up to find Damian panicking and rushing towards her.

She may have been short of breath, but she knew this was her chance. Just as Damian reached her and was about to help her get up she pressed on the earth and bent an angled pillar. This pillar hit Damian in the back as a look of astonishment came across his face. He went flying was knocked out of bounds. He quickly recovered with a tuck roll and stood before her.

Suyin finally got up turned furiously, “What was that! You could have killed me!” Damian stood there with a blush on his face. He looked down shamefully as he said “Sorry, I’m still new to that one. Look advanced earthbending techniques are difficult alright. Especially when you are doing it with your mind.”

Suyin’s expression changed to one of contemplation. What did he mean bending with his mind? How was that even possible? You need to move to be able to bend. That’s how it’s done.

Suyin put her hand to her face as she felt a migraine coming. “Alright, whatever that was, it’s over, I won,” she smirked, “and now you owe me a favor.” Damian opened his mouth to refute, but quickly shut it and hung his head in defeat. “Okay, yeah, I went too far. You win this time Master.” Suyin knew she deserved that win. Especially after what she just went through. “You better not make me do something outrageous though. I will hold it against you” he said in a clearly sarcastic tone.

Suyin replied “Yeah, yeah. Let’s head inside. I'm sure there’s plenty for us to talk about. Ooo, have you heard from Bella lately, she has recently been making waves in Ba Sing Se…

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Okay, so I may have gone too far with the gravity bending. I also really wanted to show off and show her how much I’ve changed. I really only made a fool of myself though. Still, it sucks that Suyin won. I know that owing that woman a favor is gonna bite me in the butt later.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I ended up explaining how the bending worked to her. She was surprised to say the least. It was something I had conceptualized before I went into the spirit world along with some other styles of bending and was part of the reason I even left in the first place.

Leaving was part of my journey to become the best earthbender ever. I explored the world and learned everywhere I went. Unfortunately because of the 100 year war knowledge was destroyed without care. I knew that if there was one place I would be able to find ancient bending knowledge it would be the legendary sunken library also known as Wan Shi Tong’s library. Getting there would be the problem. The spirit world was not accessible expect to the select few.

The library was said to be last explored by Avatar Aang before sinking from the physical into the spiritual world. Finding Wan Shi Tong’s library was a lifelong dream of mine and I knew the knowledge it held could help me become a better bender so I sought it out. Despite the new knowledge I had when I found the library the new bending didn’t come about until later.

Harmonic Convergence. This changed everything. The merging of the two worlds released large amounts of energy in both the material and spiritual worlds. I harnessed this energy and added it to myself, with a little trick of mine, which had the added effect of making my bending stronger. Now I could pull off impressive feats of controlling gravity. I was the first bender in recorded history to be able to harness this power as I developed it into an intricate bending style.

Now, as for how it works. I’m an earth bender so of course I can only bend earth. However it goes further than that. What is earth? Obviously we can bend dirt, and rocks, and sand. Those aren’t all the same thing though. They all have different atomic structures and are made of different elements. So how can they all fall under the category of earth?

That is when I made my greatest discovery yet. Bending is belief. If you believe it and can connect it back to the idea of your main element it can work. There is a caveat however. Even if you believe if you are a firebender, if you are an earthbender you still can only bend earth. Everthing else is fair game though. I’ve certainly taken advantage of that. Another issue is with how absurdly difficult conceptual bending is to make work. It require power of epic proportions and the mental gymnastics of an Olympian just to get your foot in the door. Luckily for me, I had harnessed extra power during Harmonic Convergence and my spiritually was much more than the average bender. Now that that’s understood, gravitybending can be done one of two ways. The first way is by applying the concept of pressure that the earth makes when turning coal into diamonds and emulating that. The other is more complex and leads into multiple even more difficult applications of the concept. Earth is essentially mass and a big enough mass creates a gravitational field. So by mass bending I can bend gravity directly. This version is better as with the pressure method I can only exert downwards force. With the mass bending method I can apply force omnidirectionally and make myself float and fall sideways and all that cool anti-gravity stuff. The second method is just ten times harder than the first.

As for the mind bending. Well that’s another can of worms. For now, after staying with Suyin for a week, I was finally heading back to Republic City. Tenzin would be there for another month and I wished to meet up with him to discuss some of my discoveries. Him along with his daughter Jinora were the two who helped me get into the spirit world. I was also hoping to meet the latest Avatar. I want to fight her if I can. Suyin has told me of all of her amazing feats. Hopefully she is as powerful as her legends reflect. If I am to be the greatest earthbender then I have to be better than even the Avatar.

Regardless, before I meet up with Tenzin I have to check up on my business. In my youth, before I left, I set up a mining business based out of the city. I trained some earthbenders to use seismic sense, which Suyin had reluctantly taught me, which they use to survey pieces of land where there might be large mineral deposits. I also hired other benders just for excavating and before I left we were raking in profits. I hired a CEO and left myself as the owner. Hopefully the business has done well in my absence.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Republic City

I would love to say that the city hasn’t changed, but that’s difficult to say when a giant beam of light is pointing into the sky in the middle of the city. Regardless, it seems that my business relocated and I had to use my seismic sense around the city just to find the familiar vibrations of my CEO. This was made increasingly difficult by the spirit vines sprouted around the city which gave out a confusing frequency. None the less, I made my way to my new building.

I entered and went to the reception table. I wasn’t recognized of course, I had been gone too long for that, but I told the receptionist to tell the CEO that the owner of Shard Industries was here to see him.

Shard Industries was the main company which handled all of my financials. Shard Mining Co was a branch of the main company headed by one Jack Guille. I was quickly escorted to the top floor where the CEO was happy to see me. “Mr. Shard, welcome back! I knew you would be back, but you certainly took your time” he joked.

“Well I just had to make sure you could run the company without me. It was merely a test of your qualifications. That test I have now come to grade. How has the business been in my absence?” The only reason I could talk to my CEO like this because he was a good friend of mine. I met him on my journey in a city in the Earth Kingdom and his business savvy quickly caught my eye. Once I set up in Republic City I recruited him and asked him to head my company. So far that has been an excellent decision and he knows it too. I’ve brought him more wealth than he could imagine compared to working out of that rinky dink shop I found him in.

“Well, we are now the biggest mining company in all of Republic City. We supply just about every tech company with our ores and have deals with the local government for metal supplies for further construction to help rebuild after the recent spirit portal opening.” This was all great news!

My smile reached my eyes as I looked on him in joy. “Well Jack, I’m glad I hired you all those years ago. I’ll still be looking through the books to verify everything, but if what you said is true we will be looking to supply more than just Republic City.” He smiled back at me. Hopefully this was a good omen for what’s to come.