Second Chances

"Second Chances" is the twenty-third chapter of The Shadow of Kyoshi.
== Overview ==
Kyoshi travels to Yangchen's sunken island and dives into the water in an attempt to find Kuruk. After a while, she starts drowning and loses consciousness before waking up in the Spirit World and seeing her predecessor in the Avatar Cycle. She lets out all her anguish from what happened in the previous days, as well as her hatred toward him, before deciding not to allow her pain to affect her. Kuruk holds out his hand toward her, intending to show her something, but she smacks it away. However, upon touching him, she sees a bright light before beginning to witness his past.
== Synopsis ==
Kyoshi needs a means of transportation and asks a palace minister for a ship. She leaves the palace the following morning to go to the harbor and, on her way there, notices that the streets are mostly empty and that the Festival of Szeto has been forgotten after Zoryu lied to the population about the Saowon clan conspiring with Yun.
She sees a lone, closed shop amid open ones, a luxurious apartment with no clan banner and wisps of smoke rising in the distance close to each other, knowing that the other clans mercilessly attacked the members of the Saowon. Kyoshi is embittered to see that people resorted to violence as they thought that small skirmishes were better than open war.
Upon reaching the docks, she sees a well-made sloop with the words "Sulan's Smile" inscribed on the side of its hull waiting for her. She is surprised by that name but thinks that, like Huazo said, Sulan is not to blame for the inception of the Camellia-Peony War. As she boards the vessel, Kyoshi tries to ignore a team of Fire Navy sailors scraping off the stone camellia designs of a cargo hauler. The Avatar muses that any means of transportation are slow compared to flying while the crew sails in the direction she told them. She decides against using waterbending to increase the speed of the craft as it is possible to damage it.
When she notices a dark patch of ground under the waves, she orders the sailors to stop the ship and asks Joonho, the captain, to remain there and not come after her under any circumstances. The man inquires as to where she will return from as there is nothing there, to which she replies that there used to be, before jumping into the water. Kyoshi starts swimming toward the sunken island of Yangchen and, after a while, she remembers that she is a waterbender and uses her ability to increase her descent. As she dives deeper, she only sees blackness before her eyes and feels intense pain in her lungs as she is running out of air. Kyoshi keeps moving on but begins drowning shortly after, and, as she starts losing consciousness, she tells Kuruk to show himself as she would come after him in the Spirit World if she dies here.
She wakes up as she hears Kuruk's voice and takes in her surroundings, noticing they are sitting in a green field near a forest and a tall mountain in the Spirit World. The Avatar sees that her predecessor wears only a light blue Water Tribe summer tunic without the furs he was dressed in when he first appeared before her, but that he still has his hunting trophies around his arms and neck.
Kuruk smiles at her, saying that he has been trying to reach her for a long time and that the communication between two Avatars requires the willingness of both. Kyoshi asks him what he wants to talk about, and he replies that he can help her with the matter of Yun and Father Glowworm. She thinks that she was right to travel to North Chung-Ling to get Kuruk's help and observes the unsettling silence around them, asking him where the spirits are. He responds that they tend to stay away from him as he used to hunt them.
She recalls that Lao Ge said Kuruk is the best hunter in the world and that if he got bored hunting in the physical realm, he must have started killing spirits for sport. She sheds tears as she releases all her pain and guilt over what has happened recently, as well as her resentment toward the Water Tribe Avatar, which increased at the thought that he relished in destroying spirits. He tells her that this is not what she thinks and begins talking about Yangchen, but Kyoshi cuts him off, stating that he should not mention her as neither of them is worthy of her legacy. She considers that both of them are horrible Avatars and, as the rush of agony goes away, she says that nothing of what is happening is fair.
The ground beneath their feet begins rippling and cracking from the horizon toward them. Kyoshi thinks that someone's feelings in the Spirit World manifest through the surroundings and that this was a reflection of her suffering. As she yells that she hates Kuruk, the earth tears even deeper, revealing an abyss of indiscernible color. She proceeds to say that he had everything handed over to him through Yangchen's legacy and that he let it go to waste, leaving her a world taken over by pain and misery.
As the crack comes even faster toward them, consuming everything in its path, Kuruk gently tells Kyoshi that she has every right to feel this way. The fissure stops right in front of them as the Earth Kingdom Avatar considers that she does not have the right to lash out in anger and that she will keep her feelings under control, not letting the struggles and challenges she faces affect her.
Their surroundings start reforming, coming back to their state before being consumed by the rupture. Kuruk states that she came here for answers and that he has something to show her, but Kyoshi tells him not to touch her as she smacks his hand away. Right then, she remembers that she is not wearing her gauntlets and notices that the scars on her hands are gone as if they are not part of her memory of herself. She realizes she does not know what would happen upon touching Kuruk's form in the Spirit World as she sees a flash of light before beginning to witness his past.
== Production notes ==
=== Series continuity ===
* Kyoshi's prolonged underwater submersion triggers her inherent Avatar abilities to keep her from drowning, similar to how Aang's body instinctively goes into the Avatar State to save him from drowning in "The Storm".
=== Character revelations ===
* Kuruk used to hunt spirits.
== References ==
Category:A to Z
Category:Kyoshi novels chapters
Category:Real world
Category:The Shadow of Kyoshi chapters