so... me and my sister were wondering. Who would win in a battle? Riku or Toph? and then... I went ahead and wrote this.

and... i don't have any idea why Riku wears a blindfold. i just made this crap up. don't hold me to it.

"And now, your champion, the BLIND BANDIT versus-" the announced paused, obviously there was a disturbance. "Umm, that guy." That guy happened to be Riku, but they didn't know that. "I have no idea who he is." He turned to one of the people sitting behind him. "Seriously, do you guys even know who he is? Where he came from? No?"

Riku frowned, this was certainly getting no where. All he wanted to do was fight the Blind Bandit. He had heard a lot about her on his way here, and apparently she was good. He was here to see just how good she was. He slowly lifted up his blindfold to get a quick look at her. She was small, probably only 12 or so. Her hair was black and short, not even falling to her shoulders. A confused look was clearly etched on her face. He let the blindfold fall back over his eyes, and couldn't help but smirk. As bad as he felt for beating on a little girl, this was going to be easy.

x

Toph blew a piece of hair out of her face, getting ready for the battle. But she didn't quite get it. Just who WAS this guy? And why was he here? She couldn't tell much from the vibrations she was getting. From his build, he didn't seem like an earth bender. He was tall, though probably only a few years older than her. He moved! What was he doing? Was that- a blindfold? No way! Why in the world was he wearing a blindfold?

She decided rather quickly that it didn't matter. If he wanted to fight blindfolded, let him. She doubted he was any good blind. Not as good as her, anyway.

Finally, the announcer gave the signal, the gong was sounded, and the battle began.

x

Riku decided to wait a minute before he got any dark attacks out. The likes of this world probably hadn't seen the likes of him, and he didn't want to cause an uproar too soon. He would wait until the crowd got drawn into the battle, then they wouldn't care what he pulled. They would just want to see the fight.

"Are you ready for this or what?" the girl shouted, egging him on. He frowned. He was usually the one that made the snarky remarks.

"Ready for what?" he taunted. "What's a little girl like you gonna do?"

He spoke to soon. For with those words, the girl smashed her foot into the ground, and the earth moved from where she kicked, spiking up in a path straight towards him. He dodged out of the way in time, as a large spike of rock now stood where he had once been.

He paused a second, wondering, if she could control the earth like this, then she wasn't going to get close for any melee attacks. He had better luck running at her then letting her run at him.

He rushed forward, dodging quite a few more of those earth spikes. His blade was already in his hand, and he chopped through one of the rocks thrown at him. If anyone was surprised to see a sword on the field, they didn't show it. He leapt for an attack, and the girl slid smoothly out of his way, causing another rock spike to rise up and hit him.

It hit him square in the stomach, and he was knocked back, but quickly recovered mid-air with a back-flip.

x

Who WAS this guy, seriously? That's all Toph could wonder about. But more importantly, WHERE was he? She had lost sight of him as soon as his feet left the ground. She had calculated for when he SHOULD have hit again, but there was no impact of body to ground. She had felt her rock HIT him, so where'd he go?

There he was!

She turned on him quickly. Something about this guy didn't make sense. She could feel him wearing the blindfold, and yet he was dodging her attacks like he could see them. Did he see like she did? No, that was crazy. This guy wasn't an earthbender. Even if he was, how could he see through shoes like that?

Speaking of which, he was on the move again. He was quick, freakishly quick, actually. But he wasn't light on his feet, and she could hear him. That's all that mattered. She kicked up a wall of earth to quickly stop one of his blade slashes and she backed up. Which reminded her, since when was a sword aloud? Seriously?

"We're going to get no where if we keep at it like this," he said, pausing. She kicked up a spike of earth where he was standing, which he avoided.

"Then why don't you do something about it!" she shouted.

"You want me to do something about it?" he asked. "Fine." He leaned back, as if ready to throw something. She couldn't really tell. The crowd gasped, but that didn't help her. What was he throwing? It wasn't earth. She would feel it if it was. He threw it, finally, whatever it was. She quickly got out of the way, and felt the thing wiz past her. And it didn't feel like earth.

"What's your problem!" she shouted at him.

x

Riku gasped, surprised he hadn't seen it before. It had been STARING him in the face this entire time. She was blind. Literally blind. He had given her enough time to see that Dark Firaga coming, and she hadn't budged until the last second. It was because she couldn't.

But that raised more questions than it answered. If she was blind, then how could she see him coming? See him moving?

Then it dawned on him. What was he wearing right now? Blindfold, dur. He forgot it was there sometimes, mainly because it didn't affect him. He was relying mainly on hearing. Hearing, and a few other things. Maybe she was just doing the same thing he was. He would have to ask her, if they ever got a chance to talk.

Well, that meant dark attacks were definitely out. If she couldn't see them, then it gave him an unfair advantage. Normally, he'd take that, but he didn't want to beat her up too bad. Though, that didn't seem like an issue. Currently, he was dodging many earth spikes that she was causing to rise beneath his feet. He had to admit, she was good.

He rushed toward her, deciding it would be best to just shove her out of the ring now, and get this battle over with. He had seen enough, now he wanted to ask her a few things.

Toph backed up as the guy threw a couple of punches at her. She raised a rock wall to stop him, which he quickly got rid of. She dodged another punch, and threw one at him, just to see how he liked it. He avoided that one, but not the second one she threw, which hit him square in the jaw. He gasped, and she smirked.

But, he was insanely fast, and shoved her out of the ring before she could even recover. She skidded on the ground and glared up at him. Crowd was already cheering. He had beaten her. Annoyed, she got to her feet and headed off. No need to hang around any longer. She was even more annoyed to hear his footsteps behind her.

"Just leave me alone," she told him. He grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. She tried to shrug him off, but his grip was firm.

"Listen, I know you have some questions," he said, quickly and quietly. "Meet me outside the tea shop. I'll be there waiting, answers ready. Whether you show or not is up to you, but I'm only going to be there tonight." He let go of her shoulder with that and was gone before Toph had time to think about what he had said.

XXX

"Who are you?" was the first question she asked.

"No one you would know. I'm not from around here."

"Where are you from?"

"No where you would know."

She sighed. He couldn't help but smile to himself. She was fun to watch.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"Can't tell you. But I heard rumors you were good, and I wanted to see how good. Which reminds me, you are really good."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks!"

Riku paused a second, seeing if she would ask anymore. Of course, there were a lot of questions she could ask, and she probably would end up asking them all if he gave her the chance.

"What's with the blindfold?" she asked

Riku was taken aback. That wasn't a question he had been expecting. And he didn't know how to answer it either. She wouldn't get the reason why. "Umm… that's complicated…"

"Are you ever going to give me straight answer?" she said, sounding very annoyed. It was as if she had somewhere to be, and Riku realized he better start asking his questions soon before she decided to leave.

"To prove that I don't need my eyes to see," he told her. "Eyes can be very deceiving. You're lucky." He added this as an afterthought, and then almost wished he hadn't.

"I am?" she seemed very confused. He sighed. But, he had started the conversation, he might as well continue it.

"Well, you're blind, right?"

"Yeah…" she replied slowly. "But how does-"

"Then you're eyes have never deceived you," he said quickly.

She frowned, thinking about that. "Have your eyes ever deceived you?" she asked him after a moment. Riku felt that she would have turned to look at him, if it would have done her any good. He turned away.

"Yeah," he answered, not to happy about that. "They have."

She said nothing after this, apparently deep in thought.

"Can I ask you something now?" Riku said slowly.

"Go ahead," she shrugged.

"So, if you're blind, how can you fight so well?"

She grinned, and then her smile fell. Riku felt bad, instantly feeling as if he had said something wrong. But her smile had fallen for a different reason. She had no idea how to explain to him. She sighed and figured she might as well get on with it.

"I don't see the way other people see…" she said slowly. "I can see, but I see using my feet. I feel the vibrations in the earth. I can 'see' you, and the buildings around us. Simple as that, I see with my feet."

Riku raised his eyebrows, quite impressed. That was some skill.

"Listen, is that all?" she said. "I need to head back home."

"Yeah," Riku replied, and she walked away. After waiting a minute he opened up a dark corridor behind him and left himself.