He stopped in front of that door for 5 minutes, but for him it was an eternity. Will he find the right words? Will he accept? These and more question were making it far more difficult.

"Nova don't push yourself so much. It's okay to wait and..."

"I'm going." Yui's words helped him indirectly to take a decision. He pushed the door and disappeared inside.

Candles all around the place to keep the darkness away from there. "You're still meditating..." Nova said approaching to a giant panda sat on the floor. Legs crossed and his arms slightly raised in midair. "It's nighttime, you know, sleep."

"A good leader never rests. He must watch over everyone else."

"Yeah, sure..." He tried to end that useless conversation as fast as he could.

"Son..." He sighed showing disappointment.

Nova contained himself "I'm here to ask you a favour." He tried to appear as humble as possible "Father."

He stood up "I know what are you going to ask me." He moved right in front of him showing how different their sizes are and their clothes too. From a golden one, rich, highly decorated to a poor, common one, lacking of everything. "You want my permission to let the masters teach them Chi."

He wasn't a dangerous panda, but his presence felt quite intimidating to him. "Y-yes."

"I could allow it." He said moving around the place.

"What are you going to ask?" The panda crossed his arms waiting for the real deal to come out.

"You refused to train enough already. You took a couple of lessons and suddenly...you decided to quit."

"Father I'm not going to learn Chi, I'm sorry." He turned away.

"At least give me a good reason!" He appeared upset "Learning it will only HELP you. What's the problem about it?"

"Let's simply end this." He took a deep breath. "I want to leave the village." He stated trying to look as serious as possible.

He widened his eyes shocked "Wh-What?!"

"I know that you will leave your role as leader to me as soon as I'll learn that technique."

"And...aren't you proud?" He putted his paws on his shoulder "You are clever, smart, charming, everyone trusts you and believes in you! You can do great things here."

"This village is perfectly fine!" He shouted struggling free "I want to travel! Meet new people, help them, I want to be useful..."

"Listen, son. Your mother always wanted..."

He interrupted him "Don't drag mom in this! I'm sure that she will never keep me in here against my will!"

The giant panda tried to stop him from leaving, but he rushed outside slamming the door behind.

"Nova..." Yui came closer when he exited the house.

He was staring into the ground. He lifted his face to her when she called him. "I'm fine, really."

"But...you..." She eavesdropped the conversation.

He grabbed her hands "I need your help more than ever now."

She blushed "I'll do what I can."

"Thank you."

I woke up when someone shouted at me upset. "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

I thought was Nova. When I opened my eyes it was clearly morning, but then I realized... "Dawn had already passed by..." I said yawning enjoying my extra sleep time obtained.

Kai kicked me on the ground. "Why was I..." He blushed embarrassed remembering how he woke up.

His reaction brought back every memories connected to it. He doesn't remember anything else except for the hug. Can we say I'm lucky? "Next time you'll contain yourself instead of drinking like that without control!"

The bull hearing it understood that the hug wasn't the only thing he did and it turned the situation even more awkward for him. "Can we just...forget about it?"

I laughed mocking him "I can, but I don't know what Nova will say about it..."

He putted his paw on his cheek "No...not him too..." He gasped "let's just learn that stupid Chi thing and leave this place at once!" Kai muttered pushing me out of his way and walked outside.

I followed him to the kitchen where Yui was waiting for us, but something wasn't right. Nova didn't show up at all and I felt like the village was...empty. Kai noticed too, but we simply didn't cared about it. It wasn't our business. "What shall we do today?" I asked looking Kai literally throwing himself inside the bowl.

She smiled with the worst trying to cover my sadness to you ever and said "You have only one important chore to do."

I felt weird again. It shouldn't bother me, but, maybe it does bother me. I nodded to her and waited for Kai to finish his breakfast. "We must find out what's going on." He said when the panda parted ways from us after telling where she will be waiting. "We can use this situation at our advantage." He added dropping down the empty bowl.

"Are you sure about that?" I couldn't believe at what I was going to say. "We don't really need to know...we're going to learn it anyway so..."

"I know...I don't care either." He stood up from the chair "I'm sick of this place..."

He didn't understand what I was really saying. "Yeah you're right" I stated, but I didn't know if I could agree on that last phrase.

We arrived where the panda was. She was standing in front of a house. A simple, normal house. Nothing really different told us this is a special place or something "I thought we fixed already every single house here." Kai complained thinking the same thing.

"You are not going to do anything related to it." She said pushing the door.

What appeared was...kinda predictable since Nova told us the first day we arrived here, but I never thought we would actually do it.

"Oogway, listen." Kai said staring inside "I can't take care of children. Would you..."

I smiled "You'll do something else. Leave this to me."

"Before you go take this." Yui handed me over a scroll "Make sure to read it before you start" She told me as fast as while I walked inside leaving them behind.

I started to read thinking it will contain some sort of advice. 'Dear Oogway, I finally took a decision who will change my life entirely. I was afraid, scared and I hesitated to take action. When you came here I understood that you were just like me. Someone who never had a choice. They putted and forced us into a life without even asking us is this what you want? I'm going to leave the village. By the time you'll read this I will be far away already. I don't know your feelings and what you will think about this I'll simply give you a choice. Would you like to try to understand? Would you like to find something new? Something different besides...this? You can refuse, go to Yui and ask her about my actual position. Bring me back and they will thank you teaching our secret technique. You can say yes and try to understand the real meaning of my message. Do the chore Yui assigned you and, as I said before, ask her about my position. Did you see? In the end you will eventually get what you wanted. I'm not stopping you. I really wish for you the best. See you soon. Nova.'

This was the perfect opportunity to obtain what we were looking for and leave. I don't need to do it. He decided to give me a choice and I choose to get him back.

...

...

But my body wasn't moving towards the exit.

What's wrong with me?

Since when did I care? Since when did this bother me?

Wasn't I a warrior?

Someone who doesn't care about the others except for himself?

Kai is the only friend I needed.

I tried to convince myself, but it didn't work.

I raised up my head from the scroll and saw countless baby pandas turned towards me. "Hello...?" I said awkwardly.

Maybe I should give it a try. There's nothing wrong with it. Kai doesn't know I can skip it. I thought putting the scroll on a table next to me.

I felt so out-of-place. There isn't a word to describe that feeling. They surrounded me led by their naive and childish instincts to know, to explore and to understand who I was. Why was I so different etcetera etcetera.

Questions over questions upon questions with questions.

I decided to turn it into a game and started to question them back "And do you love your family? Will you do everything for them? You should make a present!"

It was...nice. First impressions can be wrong sometimes.

"Did you know how bad it feels like? Every people you kill...has a family. Can you imagine the pain? The tears dropped by their children?" Suddenly Nova's words echoed in my mind.

I didn't understand it at first. I reacted pretty lightly about it. Now I'm starting to realise that exist a pain even worse than the physical one.

"Aren't they...beautiful?" Yui's words brought me back to reality. She sent Kai somewhere and reached me.

"I guess so..." I replied reluctantly.

"I'm happy that you decided to try." She smiled at me. "You should...no nevermind."

"Where can I find him?" I said, but I was filled with doubts and questions. I didn't know what pushed me to continue.

"In the middle of the forest. Under the biggest rock you can find. There's our secret place where we go every time we can. He's waiting for you there."

"Can you..."

"Take care of your friend?" She nodded "Of course."

The message he left didn't specify about going with Kai or not, but...I felt like I needed to go there and met him alone.

My body was moving on his own. He was looking for the place she described when my mind was lost...wondering between the countless questions I have. I never cared about being good or being bad, I just did what I thought was right. I found myself sitting on a rock, observing the landscape. The white blanket covering the trees...I never realized how astonishing it was. It was snowing. I could stay there all the day staring at the snowflakes falling on us from the sky. "NOVA!" I heard multiple voices calling his name throughout the entire forest.

I waited.

My reason? I have plenty of reasons...

If I have to tell you one...

I liked the atmosphere.

I wanted to do something different and I decided to enjoy that masterpiece created by the nature. When the voices disappeared I finally stood up, climbed a tree and easily found the biggest rock. Right in the middle of the forest. I used that wooden stuff he gave to me the first day we met to lift the rock enough to reveal a hole into the ground. I jumped inside welcoming the darkness.

"This isn't how I imagined to meet you here..." Someone spoke, but I couldn't see a thing.

"Nova? I'm sorry...do you have something to..." he turned on something weird-looking not so far from where I was who created a little light...like a candle. "Thank you, but where are you?"

"Under."

I laughed "I thought you putted a pillow to make a comfortable landing!"

I stood up and helped him. "I usually don't bring outsiders in here..." He picked up that light source to give me a better view.

I took a look around, but there isn't so much to say about it. I don't know if they created this cave digging under the rock creating an underground home or they simply find it. "I know it's nothing special here..." he muttered when he noticed my curiosity "I'll build something better when I'll finally leave this place."

"I need to ask you a couple of questions..." I stated, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answers.

He grabbed a backpack and walked towards the exit "Don't say anything because I won't help you." He brought me outside again. "You must find your own path alone." He waved his hands and shouted for help luring the closest pandas towards us "You still have some time. Think about it and decide." They reached us. He told them that I saved his life, that I deserved to have a reward. They accepted to teach us.

I felt bad.

Isn't it what we wanted from the start?

Maybe I feel bad because it isn't what we wanted.

It's what Kai wanted, not what I wanted.