(i can't remember if i've sent it before or not so rry if i did BUT) "Switcheroo"
meme: closed!
Shimada, now that’s a name everybody’s heard of. One of the most renowned fire nation noble families with a long history in training some of the most fearsome soldiers, the Agni Kai between brothers was a spectacle to behold. Honour is no small matter in the fire nation, to lose it would mean to lose one’s standing in society, and to question your obligation to uphold it - well, that might as well be the same as shedding it entirely. Hanzo doesn’t question his elders’ orders when he finds himself stood opposite Genji, he can’t. Both of them are painfully aware of the duel’s one possible outcome and while it restores honour to the name Shimada, Hanzo wrestles with what comes after the death of his younger brother.
He keeps it inside as long as he can bear, as he knows he should, but the weight of his act wears an aching mind down more and more with each passing day. Hanzo flees the fire nation, believing he doesn’t deserve to be called a Shimada any longer, but in doing so spends years dodging troops of fire nation soldiers chasing his path across the nations. Each technique he had spent hours honing to perfection were turned on his old family and Hanzo continued evading the death that would - by their definition - restore his honour.
At first, an encounter with another firebender assassin isn’t much of a surprise for Hanzo, but as he sends an arc of lightning that would surely draw this battle to a close, it’s redirected with a stance that he hasn’t seen in years. The assassin speaks of a more important fight to the North in a broken voice that rings distantly familiar and is gone before Hanzo can reply. Left with stories of a war machine, ludicrous notions of spirits and another ghost from his past, Hanzo chooses the pursuit of his brother’s aims over finding honour in a world he hasn’t called home for an age.
