The Return

"You came here without a plan. Whereas I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do if you don't stand up, walk out of here, and follow me home. I'm going to collapse this building and kill everyone in it."

— Jianzhu threatens Kyoshi inside the teahouse.

"The Return"
Information
Novel	The Rise of Kyoshi
Authors	F. C. Yee Michael Dante DiMartino
Chapter	31/32
Word count	5,223
From page	414
To page	433
Chapter guide
Previous	"Farewells"
Next	"Hauntings"

"The Return" is the thirty-first chapter of The Rise of Kyoshi.

Overview

Jianzhu sits beside Hei-Ran, who is still unconscious. The Flying Opera Company buries Lek and makes plans to avenge him. Kyoshi meets Jianzhu in a teahouse in Qinchao. As Jianzhu attempts to collapse the teahouse, Kyoshi counteracts his bending. Yun enters the unstable building and drives a stone through Jianzhu's chest. Kyoshi enters the Avatar State as she struggles to stabilize the teahouse, but exits and leaves Jianzhu to be crushed inside it. Kirima, Lao Ge, and Wong rescue Rangi. Kyoshi comforts Rangi as she cries in her arms.

Synopsis

Inside the infirmary, Jianzhu sits beside an alive yet still unconscious Hei-Ran. Though he feels little remorse for poisoning Hui, his servants, the sages, and himself, he sees Hei-Ran's suffering as a difficult sacrifice. He is not worried about how Ba Sing Se will react and is pleased with the way that Hui played right into his scheme. Still shaking from the effects of the poison, he stands up and brushes a strand of hair away from Hei-Ran's face. He tells himself that once he has the time, he will devote himself to ensuring her recovery. However, a part of him is relieved that she is still asleep since she would have otherwise killed him. He decides that preparing for an upcoming meeting is currently more important.

The Flying Opera Company buries Lek outside the borders of Zigan's cemetery; Kirima explains that Lek would not have wanted to be buried too closely to law abiders. Following Si Wong traditions, they do not mark his grave with a headstone and replace a eulogy with silence. Kyoshi thinks about how she should have dedicated herself to destroying Jianzhu, knowing that she will suffer until she takes him out. When Kirima asks Kyoshi what she is going to do now, she promises to the group that she is going to end Jianzhu. Wong asks what they should do now and Kyoshi answers that it is time for them to go their separate ways.

Kyoshi remembers when she visited Qinchao a long time ago as a servant, remembering how she felt a sense of apprehension when she entered the gates and walked to the town center. She walks down the main street and attracts attention due to her war paint, headdress, and heavy armor. She steps inside a grand teahouse at the center of the town. Kyoshi takes a seat at a table facing the door while the tea shop customers and staff fearfully avoid her. As she waits for Jianzhu to enter through the front door, those inside the shop eventually loosen up. Jianzhu arrives and takes a seat across from Kyoshi. She notices that his face seems wan and haggard, looking much older than she remembers. After staring him down, Kyoshi comments on how awful he looks. Jianzhu returns the insult and points out that the shirshu poison is still clearly in her system. He reveals that the shirshus were not tracking Kyoshi's scent, but were instead given Rangi's from the start. After Jianzhu confesses that he hunted Rangi for leverage over Kyoshi, she says that he is just as bad as the daofei. He frowns and replies that her viewpoint proves how uneducated she is and tells her to come home. She ignores his plea and sternly asks where Rangi is. Jianzhu shouts that Rangi is currently at home in Yokoya. Kyoshi's anger toward Jianzhu prompts her to involuntarily shake her knee, causing a round stone on the table to wobble. Jianzhu asks about the stone's relevance, to which Kyoshi replies that it belonged to someone that should take part in Jianzhu's demise, implying that it belonged to Lek. Jianzhu snaps at Kyoshi and asks how she possibly plans on disobeying him. Kyoshi refuses to verbalize her plan for vengeance and remains silent as she fears that giving a voice to her hatred will make her hesitate. Jianzhu threatens to collapse the tea shop whilst killing everyone inside if she refuses to return home with him. Kyoshi knows that he is not bluffing and focuses on how he would actually do it. Jianzhu subtly informs Kyoshi that the stone building could easily fall from an earthquake. The Avatar looks around and notices how many people are currently vulnerable to Jianzhu's attack.

Kyoshi insults Jianzhu, telling him that by destroying the tea shop, he would be living up to his daofei name. He freezes, places his hand over his mouth, laughs hysterically, and then pounds his fist on the table. He tells Kyoshi the story of how he forced five thousand Yellow Necks to dig their own graves, he explains that he tortured the earthbenders among the Yellow Necks to death, and that he threatened to kill the members that did not dig a trench before sundown, chuckling when he remembers how the remaining Yellow Necks frantically dug trenches before jumping into them. Kyoshi is disgusted by how Jianzhu relishes his massacre of the Yellow Necks. Jianzhu tells her that since she refuses to bend to his will, he will have to go home and kill Rangi. Lek's stone bullet flies toward Jianzhu's temple, freezing just before it makes contact with his skin. He counteracts her bending and places the stone back on the table. When he asks Kyoshi how she is now able to control such small pieces of earth, she answers that she joined a different group. He says that because of what she is now capable of, she has doomed every present bystander. He reaches up and begins to pull the roof down. Using her war fans, Kyoshi counteracts his earthbending and forces the roof to stay put. As witnesses begin to notice their bending poses, Kyoshi wants to tell them to run but instead has to use every bit of energy to stop Jianzhu's destruction. Kyoshi is not alone in her exhaustion and notices that Jianzhu is struggling just as much as she is. Jianzhu is angered as he points his leg to the side in an attempt to blow out the supporting wall. Kyoshi screams silently, as her effort to keep the wall intact tears a muscle along her ribcage.

As they fight over the fate of the building, a cloaked figure enters the tea shop and walks over to them. The figure takes off its hood, revealing himself to be Yun. Kyoshi considers the situation to be a dream and a nightmare, questioning how he had survived. Jianzhu is also shocked at Yun's reappearance, nearly losing his hold over the building. The Avatar notices that Yun has a healthy glow on his skin, stubble, and a familiar twinkle of mischief in his eyes, as well as a blinding, nauseating sense of wrongness radiating from his body. She feels that he is missing something human, while the customers in the tea house recoil away from him in terror. Yun is pleased to see the rock on the table and takes it from Jianzhu and Kyoshi's grasp. Kyoshi is shocked by Yun's ability to overpower the combined bending grip of the two earthbenders. The boy remains silent as he shows the stone to them before pushing it through Jianzhu's chest, causing the Earth Sage's eyes to bulge and gag on his own blood. Yun winks at Kyoshi and turns around while she struggles to uphold the restaurant's structural integrity as Jianzhu's pain channels into earthbending. While standing in front of the door, Yun notices that the building is about to collapse and grins. He bumps the table, causing the foundations of the building to rise and fall, and vanishes from the teahouse. The roof begins to crumble and pieces of stone fall to the ground. Kyoshi watches it fall, no longer able to stop it.

Kyoshi recalls a day when she joined Lao Ge for one of his longevity exercises. In this memory, she considers she does not need to learn the secrets of immortality and sees the concept as absurd, though her mentor insists she practices. They rest in a meadow on the way to Taihua. He tells her this is not spiritualism and that she does not have to believe in it just to train, explaining she should not ignore what is around her like during normal meditation, but take it all in and observe every blade of grass at the same moment. She tells him she would need a thousand eyes for that and he answers that an infinite amount of time would be just as good. Lao Ge tells her to divide her body in two while she is breaking a piece of metal and then to keep dividing it, asking what she will be left with. Kyoshi replies that there would be a mess and he says she should put the pieces back together. She tells him human beings are not blocks of stone and he disagrees, stating that the illusion of self separation from the rest of the world is what limits people's potential and that when she realizes the self is not special in any way, it will become easier to control.

Back in the teahouse, as Kyoshi's eyes glow, she feels a special connection to the stone and lets go of her fans, preventing the building from falling. Kyoshi watches as every customer scatters from the teahouse before she gets up, maintaining the form of Crowding Bridge with one hand as she sticks her fans in her belt with the other. She decides to leave Jianzhu's body under the ruins of the building as her path to him has ended. Kyoshi finally relieves her power over the building and allows it to completely collapse. Suddenly, officers crowd the square outside the teahouse and order Kyoshi to drop her fans. Instead of being arrested, Kyoshi dust-steps onto a roof and then further into the sky.

Outside of Qinchao, the Flying Opera Company returns from successfully recovering Rangi. Rangi, who now has short hair, races toward Kyoshi and cries in her arms. Kyoshi notices Hei-Ran lying down under a tree and wrapped in blankets. Rangi trembles as she explains to Kyoshi that they found her dying mother in the infirmary and that she feels guilty for abandoning her. Kyoshi tries to comfort Rangi, ensuring her that Hei-Ran will be alright. Kyoshi strokes what is left of Rangi's hair as she mourns in her arms. The firebender is ashamed of her short hair and comments that she should be covering it up to prevent Kyoshi from seeing it. Kyoshi unconditionally cares for Rangi and is just glad that she is alive.

After Kyoshi and Rangi mourn together, Kirima, Wong, and Lao Ge join them to discuss their successful operation. Kirima tells Kyoshi that since Jianzhu did not expect her to have other allies, rescuing Rangi was easy. Wong shows off the riches that he stole from Jianzhu. Kyoshi, who is fine with Wong's scavenge, asks if there was a struggle during their mission. Wong replies that though there are no casualties, he did have to force a few mercenaries to speak. He smiles at Rangi, who is still in Kyoshi's arms; he says that they already lost Lek to Jianzhu and he could not allow him to take Rangi as well. Kirima asks where Jianzhu is and if it is over now. Though Jianzhu is now deceased, she has no answer to give Kirima. Yun is alive somewhere and Rangi's mother is in critical condition. It is not over yet.

Production notes

Series continuity

• Jianzhu predicts that his murder of Hui and the other Earth Sages will weaken the leadership of the northwestern coast of the Earth Kingdom, create aftershocks that alter the landscape of the continent, and not be felt by the common populace for some time. All prospects come to pass in the ensuing years and centuries:
  • During Kyoshi's era, Chin begins his conquest in the northwestern Earth Kingdom. As seen in "Avatar Day", Kyoshi stops him and physically alters the landscape forever by separating Yokoya from the mainland to create Kyoshi Island.
  • During Aang's era, the Fire Nation occupies large swaths of the northwestern Earth Kingdom. As seen in "Welcome to Republic City", Aang and his friends stop the Fire Nation and politically alter the landscape forever by transforming the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations.
• In killing Hui and the other Earth Sages by poisoning their tea when they show up on his doorstep unannounced, Jianzhu makes good on his warning in "Obligations" that things would end badly for Hui if he acted on Jianzhu's information about the Avatar too quickly and carelessly.
• In addition to occupying the same general location in the Earth Kingdom, the description of Qinchao Village, from its bizarre customs and towering effigies to its circular walls and teardrop-shaped town center, bears a strong resemblance to Chin Village, as seen in "Avatar Day".
• Jianzhu's use of earthbending to collapse the Qinchao teahouse over Kyoshi and himself is foreshadowed in "The Fracture" when Kyoshi mistakes his bending gesture in the Avatar mansion infirmary as an attempt to bring the ceiling crashing down over them.
• Kyoshi compares the feeling of Yun tearing the stone out of her and Jianzhu's earthbending grip to removing the moon from the sky, a feat Zhao achieves in "The Siege of the North, Part 2".
• Consistent with the depiction of masterful use, Kyoshi enters the Avatar State for the fourth time by allowing her eyes to glow in a brief pulse.

Character revelations

• Like Yun, Jianzhu received poison training from Amak, which allows him to survive the poisoned tea.
• Jianzhu confides the truth to Kyoshi about his actions at Zhulu Pass, admitting that he buried 5,000 Yellow Necks alive.
• Yun is revealed to be alive, marking his first appearance since Father Glowworm abducted him in "The Spirit".

Trivia

• Chronologically, the Prologue and the interlude chapters of The Shadow of Kyoshi precede this chapter.