Today during breakfast, Katara sat with Nami instead of luffy. They had entered after the boy had started demanding early food, which was early in terms of when everyone else showed up, "Nami! Tell sanji to give me food!"
"No luffy. You need to wait." She took a ceramic bowl from the cabinet and then went back to the dining table.
"Fine! Katara! Tell sanji to give me an appetizer like last time!"
Sanji smacked him with his swatting spatula, "That was a one time thing! Don't make me regret being kind to you!"
"OWUH NO FAIR!"
Katara bent some seawater in from the window, causing luffy to stop arguing for a second and look at the unnatural looking serpent of water.
"Great. You're already one step ahead." Nami said to her new pupil, scooting over the bowl so Katara can focus on their conversation and not keeping the water blob in the air. "Do you know how clouds are formed?"
"They trap the water around them and just chill up there until they have enough of it to rain."
"Pretty close."
"So what happens is that the sun does this thing called evaporation where it kind of burns up the body of water, putting the pure water molecules into the air. It keeps going up and up until lots of them join together and create clouds."
"What does the sun choose to evaporate?"
Nami laughed lightly. "It just does its thing. As scientists, we can prevent the evaporated water from escaping though a complex system of heat and glass. But instead, we can just use you."
"Okay?" She wasn't too sure if she could do such a thing, but nami seemed to belive in her and that was enough reason to try
"Step one, make it hot. Imagine the water as less calm and more excited. Jumping around everywhere like luffy."
Said boys head spun around, "Hey! I don't do that!"
"You're standing on the counter! Get off!"
Sanji grabbed his swatting spatula again.
Katara easily made it boil. She's done it before to purify freshwater, so this wasn't that hard.
"Great, you got it to boil. Now do more. We want the water to evaporate. It's going to look like steam since we're forcing it to do this. What you want to do is trap as much steam as possible. That will be our freshwater."
"Oh, I think I get it now."
"Yay, keep going, you almost got it."
With her left hand, she placed it above the bowl, letting the steam hit her hand as her right hand continued moving in small circles, resembling the whirlpooling effect that happens in a pot of boiling water. Nami couldn't help but wonder if she learned that through observation or just did what felt right.
Trying her best to concentrate on bending two things, she wisked her left hand to create a bulb of evaporated freshwater. "Woah, I'm doing it!"
"Keep going you're almost done with the bowl."
Katara put more energy into the right hand, trying to get the water hotter, but let out a shriek when the bowl cracked and water splashed all over the table and her lap. "Ow ow ow hot." She stood up, momentarily forgetting that she could bend the water off. Once she did, she heated it up once more to make it evaporate, not finding any convenient places to put it.
Nami smiled with pride at Kataras action. She taught her that and she was using it already for basic tasks.
Katara looked up, noticing namis expression, "You're smiling at me."
"I like having a student."
—-
Breckfast was to die for and went along well. There were still a few days on the island left before the log pose recalibrated. Katara got caught up on that whole ordeal and decided to train her bending. She had no idea that she could trap steam for the purpose of drinking water. What else was she not thinking of?
Katara and Ussop were the ones stationed at the sunny to watch over it while everyone else explored town and caused trouble.
She thought back to her home, how Sokka and her used to dock their canoe on a large chunk of flat ice when fishing or wanting to stretch their legs. Maybe she could make the same thing here.
Sitting down on the deck, in between two of the posts for the guard rail, she dangled her feet, seeing that the drop wasn't too far if she were to land on ice.
She froze a thick layer of the sea water below with her bending and then slid off the edge of the boat, landing with two graceful feet.
She then bent the water in front of her to do the same, connecting the new ice with the one she had already made to create a path out to sea. Confident in her boots and abilities, she continued on until she was a good ways away from the ship.
Ussop, a little stuck in his own inventing time, felt a little parched, "Hey Katara, if you're going to the kitchen anytime soon, can you get me water?"
Not used to the lack of response, he looked up. Huh. No Katara. He got up and looked around the boat, "Katara!" He called out but no answer came. "That's weird. I swear I didn't hear her hit the deck." He referenced, thinking she must have not gone to shore.
After looking for another minute, he started getting a little more worried than confused. He went to the guard railing where she was last and looked around and soon saw the path of ice that led to a figure out in the distance. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE?!"
Katara heard the distant shout dispite the strength of the wind and sea, whisping around her like a call. She waved, "I'm exploring!"
"Don't you die out there! I'm not going to swim over! It's way too far!"
"Okay!!"
Ussop sighed, sort of relived that she was on the water rather rather than in it. What he didn't appreciate though was the familiar dorsal fin of a sea king heading torwards her. "Uh oh." He scrambled to the cannon, preparing to fire if it ever looked like it was about to eat her. "Fuck fuck fuck fuuuuck. I gotta call themmm" his hands waved over the table next to him. There was a snail transponder last he checked. Picking it up once he felt the slimy skin, he shouted, "Luffy! Come over and help us! Katara is out in the middle of the sea and going to fight a sea king!"
Eyes from nearby ships went out to the sea upon hearing the transmission on the Sunny's speakers. That was no private call.
Another pirate crew had brought out their captain from his chaimbers once they saw it for themselves. The big guy couldn't belive it though. Must have been some old prank, but oh my what a sight he saw. A young girl standing tall on a block of ice, looking out at the incoming wave which below they could recognize as a pin striped sea king, "Woah. Someone's really out there."
"Are they really going to fight it?! I've never seen anyone try to take them on their own!"
"Who knows, boy. But what I know is that we're going to watch this bafoon! Gehehehehe!"
Katara has seen dragons before so she thought this creature must be similar. Especially with the way it was swimming up to her like this. She sensed hesitation. She didn't get the feeling she was going to be eaten. Perhaps if she continued standing strong and acting fearless, it'll let her be on her way without any conflict.
Looking into its eyes, she saw a sort of hurt and anger deep inside. But if this creature is so frustrated, why was it coming to her and acting like this?
"What do you want from me?" Katara spoke. All spirits were able to understand her and her friends back at home. Maybe beings like this did too. Clearly there was a level of communication all nature had. Even with her lack of experience and knowledge here, she knows that all animals could speak to chopper and be understood.
The beast swam upwards, the first half of its long body up in the air, looking down at her from a few stories up. It roared out a cry, making the water around it ripple with the sound waves, Katara's block of ice bouncing up and down with the wave.
"It's so gonna eat her." One of the crew mates laughed.
The sea king swam around her, Ussop feared that it was going to constrict her like an serpent.
Katara watched and was cautious of the center where she stood getting too tight, but she was happy to realize that the king gave her much room. In front of her, on its back, she saw a huge gash, probably from a jagged spear. 'Hunters.' She thought sadly. Checking in with the beasts face, she saw that it was looking at her, watching what she would do. She rose water from the sea and brought it on to the large gash. It looked around a day old but was still bleeding in some areas. She focused on the energy, water glowing around her hands. The area was large, but she had no doubt that she could handle it. Time passed, and the reachable parts were finished. All that was left was the top of its back, where it was too high for her stature. That's were brunt of the injury was located, so she couldn't just waterbend her torso higher while healing. "I'm going to go on your back, okay?" She patted the kings large scales, looking back at its head again. It did nothing to dissuade her, so she water bent her way up to the back, straddling it like a horse. She couldn't see it before but the wound was nasty and there was a giant iron spear top still imbedded into its flesh. "Oh spirits..." It had large barbs that curved out so it would make taking the piece out nearly impossible without ripping out a chunk of its flesh. "I don't know if I can help you without it hurting." She admitted. A large huff was heard from the creature.
Maybe she could try wiggling it out?
Grabbing the iron, she tried pulling on it, as precise as she could, not wanting to hurt the creature. But as she could have guessed, it was painful. The sea king roared in pain and dove into the sea, deciding it didn't like the foreign feeling of the girl on it anymore. Katara didn't let go however. She had to help this creature.
She held her breath as it dove under water, it's body rising up and down to propel itself forward. Taking breaths when it rose it's body above the surface, she looked forward, seeing that it was heading for the town.
Was it the town that harpooned it? Is it angry? Why is it going to the one island in thousands of miles of water? Shouldn't it feel safer in the deep sea?
Katara jumped off its back and used her water bending to propel herself forward, in front of it, where it was probably going to attack the town.
She rose a wall of water up and up, much higher than the sea king that was in front of it.
"I know your upset!" She shouted, as she hardened the water to become ice so it would have a harder time getting through. "But violence is not the answer! I want to help you! Taking it out on others is not going to help anyone!!" She finished creating the ice blockade, looking down at the serpent from the top of it.
The people of the town gasped in fright at the ice wall before them. Was Aokiji here? No, it couldn't be. This wall was made out of water before it became ice. His devilfruit couldn't do that. So what was happening here? Who is protecting them from this sea king?
It roared in dismay, huffing and puffing, pacing a little back and forth as if contemplating on what to do. "Leave the town alone, I'm sure most of them didn't mean any harm! I don't know who hurt you this way, but I'll figure out how to help you! I promise!"
The sea king looked at the town in the distance and then at Kataras determined expression and then it dove back into the water.
She sighed in relief and melted the ice back into the sea, the waves crashing on the island and back out to sea.
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