| By Manzai | Part of the Avatar: The Heir of Ban continuity. |
Shuurai was a mercenary from the Fire Nation, perhaps best known as one of the assassins hired by Er Shi "One-Eyed" Wu to kill Avatar Zhengyi.
Biography
Shuurai came from a minor noble family in the Fire Nation with connections to the Fire Nation military. At that time the Fire Nation was peaceful, and because Shuurai was the youngest daughter of a large family she was not entitled to inherit any significant land or wealth. She was said to have had violent tendencies from a young age, and showed great talent at combat and Firebending. She was dedicated to her training, and had learned to generate lighting by her late teens. Her stoic and dedicated personality lent itself well to this talent, and eventually she developed her signature technique of channeling lightning through her chain weapon.
Shuurai left the Fire Nation to seek her fortune as a freelance mercenary before her 20th year. The Earth Kingdom Civil War had already broken out by this time, and Shuurai made a good deal of money selling her services to both sides. Generally a combat mercenary, Shuurai also took jobs as a bounty hunter and assassin.
Eventually Shuurai's travels took her to Ba Sing Se. She worked for the Ba Sing Se army for a time, but when One-Eyed Wu made her an offer of ten times what the military paid her she accepted his offer. He assigned her to work with a group of mercenaries and Ban clan retainers--including Aguta, Shi Hua, Dr. Teng, and Bi Junren--whose task was to hunt down and kill Avatar Zhengyi before he could return to Ba Sing Se.
Personality
Shuurai was a born warrior. She excelled at Firebending and fighting with her manriki, and she had a passion for it. She took her training seriously, and was very disciplined. However, she was also violent, emotionless, and cold. When Shuurai became a mercenary she also became quite avaricious. Shuurai fought only for money, and was perfectly willing to work on both sides of the war. To her, money was the only thing worth fighting for, which contributed to her ability to distance herself from her emotions and use the lightning technique.
Abilities
Shuurai was an excellent Firebender. Her abilities made her among the best mercenaries active in the Earth Kingdom Civil War, and allowed her to command any price she wanted for her services. Her signature technique, which she preferred to use, was to wrap an opponent in her manriki and use the metal's conductive properties to channel her lightning into it, shocking the opponent while he remined immobile. This granted her time to make the circular arm motion necessary to generate the lighting, and made the technique particularly effective against other benders.
Trivia
Shuurai is Japanese for "lightning strike," written as 襲雷 in kanji. In Chinese, her name can be transliterated as shǎn biàn, also meaning "lightning strike." Another character, also written as bian in pinyin, means "lash" or "whip," so her name also contains a play on words.
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