#bet you didn't expect Tanjiro and Nezuko to take the place of Zuko and Azula except unwillingly and less insane

[chaotickasugaicrows]

Now for the Fire Nation and uh some worldbuilding politics. (Part 1 of Avatar AU here)

The Fire Lord is none other than Muzan Kibutsuji. He is a tyrant, a dictator, a manipulative jerk, and oh yeah a fire bender. His family died in a convenient accident (cough assassination) leaving him to ascend the throne uncontested. Of course what he didn’t realize was that his younger brother Kagaya, a non-bender, escaped death, changed his last name, got married, and is now leading the White Lotus. Anyway, Muzan implemented a number of reforms to distract from the sketchy way he got the throne, including the creation of F.N.I.S. (Fire Nation Internal Security) built upon the foundation of a previous, much smaller and less invasive, internal security network. F.N.I.S. is run by Douma and does a number of things like making political dissenters disappear, putting all educational institutions under heavy surveillance, and ensuring the nation’s propaganda machine runs smoothly in regards to the war. Before we get to the war, however, first we’ll explain Muzan’s actions regarding the Avatar. In this AU Avatar Roku passed away when Muzan’s parents were in charge of the Fire Nation. Then he took the throne and promptly decimated most of the Air benders groups in a semi-secret campaign that resulted in Aang’s death before he found out he was the Avatar (rip Aang). Next, Muzan turned his attention to the Water Tribes and managed to kidnap the next Avatar and promptly attempted to train them for his own use but only killed the kid instead. Knowing that the next Avatar would be born in the Earth Kingdom, that becomes Muzan’s main focus. So for a couple decades, Muzan has been gathering power and reforming the Fire Nation into a more centralized state ready for (open) war. Despite attacking several other nations, the Fire Nation is not openly at war until Tanjirō Kamado is about 10 years old.

Time to switch to Tanjirō, Nezuko, and the Kamado family. The Kamados live in a more rural village in the Fire Nation. Tanjuro and Kie aren’t unobservant people and notice discrepancies such as the fact that some members of their community were getting subtly conscripted against their will. Also, news traveled about opportunities to supply coal to their government as ships use coal for power. The truth about military actions against the other nations including the decimation of the air nomads had been suppressed within the Fire Nation itself. Most of the population had little clue what their leader had been up to. The Kamados start questioning things within their village and get unlucky when a visitor from a neighboring town reports them. Usually F.N.I.S. would handle things but Muzan sees an opportunity to finally make the war public. He stages a massacre, hiring benders and non-bender mercenaries to mix in with Fire Nation soldiers all dressed in uniforms from other nations. The Kamado family’s entire village is killed as are the Kamados except for Tanjirō and Nezuko, age 10 and 9, who are captured by the in disguise forces and brought to Muzan because both of them are fire benders. Muzan subsequently erases the Kamado family from official records and hands Tanjirō and Nezuko over to his general Kokushibo to adopt/train.

So long story short, Tanjirō and Nezuko Kamado become Tanjirō and Nezuko Tsugikuni, Michikatsu/Kokushibo's unwillingly adopted kids, after their entire family and village are killed in a plot organized by Muzan. Those deaths are then claimed to be the fault of the other nations and the entire thing is used to launch the Fire Nation into a very public and larger war, galvanizing the citizens to support the war effort because it is now justified as retaliation. This is how these two are forced to work for Muzan against their will and Tanjirō gets sent to hunt down the Avatar and crew while his sister is held hostage back in the palace to ensure his cooperation. They also end up participating in the war itself, usually separately because Muzan tends to keep at least one sibling close so the other doesn’t get any ideas.