It was his first day actively exploring Republic City. The first few hours of this "exploration" had gone well enough, if being hopelessly lost within the first thirty minutes counted as "well enough". But it wasn't as though he'd been injured or mugged, so Kazuo-Ren figured that was a plus. But it was over seven hours since he had left the house. Four of those hours had been spent sightseeing. Three of those hours had been spent trying to find his way home.

He thought it would be more than a little humiliating asking directions. Not to mention, he had already decided that quite a few people in Republic City were rude, if not all of them. They didn't want to help him. So he would trudge along and tied to figure it out. What was the name of the street he lived on, again? Kazuo couldn't even remember. He slumped rather hopelessly in a park bench. His feet ached. Hell, his bones ached. After walking so much for one day, he felt like an old man. Stooped and limping. He kicked his legs out in front of him, staring at his feet, feeling a bit of irritation creep into his mind.

He hadn't even seen anything all that interesting. Just buildings. Quite frankly, he had known from the beginning his sense of direction was faulty at best, and on top of that, he didn't have any idea what sort of attractions Republic City had had. Half the reason he had gone out was in search of some form of trainer. But what had he been thinking? That he would just run into a mentor on the streets? Someone wearing a sign that declared he was willing to train unstable young benders? Ha! Optimistic thoughts! Feeling increasingly pessimistic, Kazuo-Ren stood up again, stretching. He felt his joints pop, and he continued down the sidewalk, dragging his feet.

Where was he? Why was he still walking?

The farther he went, the busier the sidewalk seemed to become. The buildings were more cluttered, and more satomobiles were driving down the streets with more frequency. Kazuo-Ren went to cross the road, at a particularly unfortunate time, for one of those satomobiles came roaring around the corner. He jumped, and it took quite a bit of coordination to get out of the way in time. The driver cursed him loudly--in his haste to get out of the way, he ran directly into someone--