As soon as Master Shifu disappeared over the horizon, the Furious Five all stared at Po with baffled looks on their faces, all of them wondering what exactly happened.
However, while Po was just as confused as everyone else, he really felt that he needed some time to reflect on what was going on with him over the past few hours, so he began heading off in the opposite direction of where Shifu was heading.
"I need some time to think, you guys." he said as he walked off, leaving the Five confused as they watched the retreating form of Po.
"Wait, what just happened?" asked Mantis.
"I don't know, Mantis. I don't know." said Crane, continuing to stare at the panda as he finally disappeared as well.
Po briefly considered just heading over to his room and closing the door, thinking that he would at least be able to get some guaranteed privacy in there, but he soon remembered that his room wasn't exactly the biggest thing in the world, and spending time inside that cramped space really wasn't going to help matters.
Eventually, he decided to head over to the Peach Tree of Wisdom, figuring that the fresh air would do him some good. He also considered trying out some meditation while he was there, but with how much his thoughts were swimming after what happened today, he immediately threw that plan out, knowing that it was never going to work.
Once he finally reached the tree, he decided to grab one of the peaches and take a bite as he sat down against the base, staring out into the distance as he reflected on his time spent here.
Admittedly, Po was still a little worried that Shifu was leading him on just to end up kicking him out of the palace, even after trying to convince himself that if Master Shifu was going to kick him out, he would have done it already. Still, he felt strangely relaxed about the whole ordeal despite the feeling in the back of his mind that he should be panicking about his status as a resident of the Jade Palace.
"Wow, this thing really does you some good." Po said to himself as he studied the half-eaten peach. "Maybe I should eat these more often."
Po's thoughts soon began to drift as he spaced out, remembering the weird vision he had during the battle at the village.
At first, Po was unsure as to what it meant, thinking that it may have been a side effect of the rage-induced rampage he was going through at the time, but after giving it some thought, he soon realized something was amiss.
Who was the old female panda who was in front of him? Ever since he could remember, he'd been led to believe that he was the only remaining panda left, a fact that led to a lot of scorn when it came to his days as a cub. Seeing this new panda in his vision, though, made him confused.
Po played the vision through his mind multiple times, trying to see if there was something he missed, but the only thing that he could think of that sounded vaguely important was the fact that the female panda was running away from a bunch of wolves after leaving…
"Wait a minute…" Po said to himself, realizing something else he might have missed.
After quickly collecting his thoughts, Po suddenly remembered that, while his initial focus was on the female panda that was in front of him, around the edges of his vision were two small black furred arms.
Po was initially unsure of how the arms tied into the mystery of who the panda was, but before he could try to process the new information through his head, he was suddenly wracked with a splitting headache.
As he clutched at his head to try and relieve the pressure, the same vision went through his head again, and this time he clearly heard the sound of a baby's cry, and the answer to Po's questions suddenly clicked in his mind.
"Mom?"
Po was shocked to say the least, but as he weighed the pros and cons in his head, he soon realized that it was most likely his own mother that was the panda in his vision.
This led to some further questions in Po's mind, though. Where is she, if she's even still alive? And why did he not realize until now that he actually did have panda parents?
The question of his real parents never really came up between himself and Mr. Ping, mostly because when he was young he actually believed that he came from an egg. Now that this came up, Po really felt that he needed to talk to his dad about it.
"That's certainly not going to be awkward." he said to himself, scoffing.
Unfortunately, as much as Po wanted to head down to the village right now and talk to his dad, he soon realized that it was getting close to the time when Master Shifu expected him, so he quickly stood up, slightly panicked, and began quickly jogging his way up to the Dragon Grotto.
Thankfully, Po managed to make it to the Grotto before his time was up, although he did end up having to pick up some speed near the end of his journey.
As he held the stitch in his side, Po looked into the darkness of the Grotto and found Master Shifu in the middle of the lake, balancing on his staff as he meditated.
"Master Shifu?" asked Po, wincing when his voice echoed throughout the grotto.
Thankfully, this ended up catching Shifu's attention, and after opening his eyes, he immediately backflipped off of the staff, landing on his feet and catching the staff in his hand just seconds later.
"Ah good, you're here."
It was then that Shifu noticed the worried look on Po's face.
"Something wrong, Dragon Warrior?"
Caught off guard, Po's open eye widened for a second before realizing that he needed to answer the question.
"No, I'm just…you never really gave me a straight answer about me still staying here at the palace. I mean, isn't what I did kind of against the kung-fu code or something?"
Shifu was forced to listen as Po launched into a long-winded explanation about how what he did would end up constituting banishment from the palace, but eventually the red panda had enough.
"Po!"
Po immediately shut up upon hearing Shifu's admonishment, his expression faltering when he realized that he might have done something wrong. However, to the panda's surprise, Shifu actually didn't look mad at all. In fact he looked positively pleasant, which came as a real shock from someone who knew Shifu as well as Po did.
"The only reason I wanted you to come up here is because I wanted to show you something…something that I think will help with your…anger problems."
Po was admittedly curious to see what Shifu had in mind, choosing to remain silent as he watched Master Shifu position himself in the center of the rock he was standing on, slowly breathing in and out to prepare himself for what he was about to show.
After a few seconds of silence, Po continued to watch as Master Shifu moved his right leg in a half-circle, his hands smoothly moving along with his foot as his eyes remained closed. Shifu then raised his right hand high into the air, and as Po looked up, he noticed a simple water droplet drip off of one of the stalactites inside the cave.
Po's eye widened once again, this time in wonder, as Master Shifu caught the raindrop in his outstretched hand, letting it travel all along his hands and sleeves before finally letting it roll on to a small plant next to him, the water droplet never breaking once.
"Whoa…" Po said, breathless as he watched the water droplet fall off of the plant into the water around Shifu.
Po immediately wanted to know what Master Shifu had done, his old fanboy tendencies coming through despite his time spent away trying to stamp that side of him down.
"What was that?" Po asked as he looked up at Master Shifu, a smile on the red panda's face.
"That…was Tai Chi."
"Aw, really?" asked Po, disappointed a bit by the sheer normalcy of Shifu's answer. However, what Shifu had to say next brought Po back up to his excited state.
"That wasn't just normal Tai Chi, though."
Master Shifu paused for a second to pick up his staff, Po listening with bated breath for what kind of cool thing the red panda would say next.
"This was one of Master Oogway's final teachings. Inner Peace."
"Inner Peace?" Po asked, slightly confused.
"Yes…Inner Peace. This is the next phase of your training."
"Oh, really? That's so cool! How do I learn that?"
Master Shifu paused, unable to resist smiling for a moment as he watched the old Po shine through, however temporarily.
"Every Master must choose their own path. There is no specific way for one to achieve Inner Peace."
As Master Shifu continued speaking, he immediately backflipped off of the rock, landing on top of his staff as it balanced on top of the water inside the cave.
"Some may choose to meditate inside a cave just like this one for fifty years, without the slightest taste of food or water."
Po considered trying that method out, considering he had some experience doing that kind of thing during his time away. However, even though Po had managed to curb some of the voracious appetite he used to have, as part of his path to getting to how he looked today, he didn't think he would be able to make it fifty years without food or water. Eating was still in his nature, being a giant panda and all.
"Or?" he asked, hoping that Master Shifu had another option for him to use.
"Or…some find it through pain and suffering, as I did…that day that you were chosen-"
"Okay, okay! I get the point!" said Po, stopping Master Shifu before he could launch into his story about how the day Oogway chose him as the Dragon Warrior was the worst day of his life.
While Po's memory of his time in the Valley before leaving on his journey was pretty fuzzy, he could clearly remember being forced to listen to that story on the day when he left, and it annoyed him back then as well.
"Anyway…" said Shifu, clearing his throat as a signal for them to move on.
"So…you're telling me that I need to go through some form of suffering before I'm able to find Inner Peace?"
"Those are just examples, Po. As I've said, each Master must find their own way to achieve Inner Peace."
"Great. As if I haven't had enough problems." said Po, sighing exasperatedly.
"I'm only doing this for your own good, Po. I really can't afford to have someone with a hair trigger temper like yours continue to reside at the palace. It's not safe for anyone else!"
Po opened his mouth to argue before he realized that Shifu was pretty much exactly right. There's no telling how many times he could let his anger get the best of him before he ended up getting someone hurt.
"Okay, Master Shifu. I understand, but I don't even know where to start. What can I do to achieve Inner Peace?"
"That's for you to find out, Dragon Warrior. Now, if you wouldn't mind giving me some privacy, I would like to spend some more time meditating."
By this point, Master Shifu had hopped off of his staff and was currently next to Po as he was talking, but he soon began making his way over to the rock that Po found him on top of when he came in.
However, before he could make it back to the water, Po suddenly realized that he needed to ask something else.
"Master Shifu!"
Shifu didn't answer, instead looking back at Po in annoyance as he was about to make his way across the water.
"I need to ask you about something really important."
Shifu considered simply telling Po to wait until he was back at the palace before asking, but curiosity came over him, and he walked over to where Po was standing as the panda was busy drawing something into a patch of dirt near the exit of the cave.
"Do you have any idea what this symbol means?"
Po pointed with the stick he was using towards the drawing, and Master Shifu stepped forwards to get a closer look at what turned out to be a large eye with sun rays poking out around the outside of the eye.
"I'm not sure." he said, his small hand against his chin as he tried to figure out what the symbol meant. "I seem to vaguely recall seeing something along these lines once or twice in my travels, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was."
Po frowned, disappointed at not being able to get an answer out of the one person he believed would have it.
"So you don't know? Man, this sucks!"
"Where did you learn of this symbol anyway?" asked Shifu, staring at Po curiously.
"I saw it on one of the bandits that we fought at the Musician's Village. He had it on his shoulder pads."
Po chose not to mention the fact that the symbol triggered the vision he had that lead to him nearly breaking his jaw, but thankfully Shifu was more concerned with what Po had actually said.
"Hmm, that's interesting. If I had to guess, they must belong to some kind of army of some sort."
Shifu fell silent once more as he thought things through.
"How about this? You can head down to the scroll room when you get back to the palace. Maybe it might have something about the meaning of this mysterious symbol."
"What about you?" asked Po.
"I'll meditate on the matter for a little while. I might be able to remember where it is I have seen it before."
Although Po was a little skeptical about how meditation could help recover long buried memories, he decided to follow along with Shifu's plan.
"Okay, Master Shifu. I'll head down there right now!"
Excited that he was finally getting somewhere, Po quickly ran out of the cave and down the pathway, heading towards the palace.
As for Master Shifu, he watched while Po disappeared before humming in approval, hopping over to the rock in the pool as he prepared to meditate.
Back at the Palace, the Furious Five were keeping themselves busy with some sparring matches outside on the grounds while the weather was still as beautiful as it was.
Crane and Monkey were currently duking it out, having finally gotten their own match between each other after their initial match was interrupted by the attack on the Musician's Village.
However, they were soon once again interrupted by Po barreling through the grounds, almost plowing through Mantis and Tigress, who were watching the sparring match as they effortlessly dodged out of the way.
"Hi, guys! Bye, guys!" Po said quickly, in a massive hurry to get to the scroll room.
"Po, where are you going?" asked Mantis, slightly annoyed at nearly getting squashed.
"To the scroll room! I need to look something up!" said Po, stopping in his tracks for a few moments so that he could tell them what was going on.
Luckily, Po stopping also had the added benefit of Tigress being able to catch a glint out of the corner of her eye thanks to looking in the general direction of Po.
Tigress immediately looked towards where the glint was coming from, and her eyes widened when she found that what the object was, and it was heading straight in Po's direction.
"Po! Get down!"
Tigress launched forwards on all fours, speeding her way towards Po and immediately tackling him to the ground before he could continue running towards the scroll room.
"What the heck was that, Tigress?" Po said, angry that he was suddenly thrown to the floor without warning.
"You should be thanking me, Po. I just saved you from getting shot in the back with an arrow." said Tigress, dusting herself off as she picked herself up from the ground.
Po, meanwhile, was slightly confused at what Tigress meant, but when he finally got a chance to look ahead of him, his eyes widened in shock when he noticed an arrow buried in the ground ten feet in front of him.
"Whoa…thanks, Tigress. I didn't even realize that was coming." he said, clutching at his scarred chest in an attempt to calm his rapidly beating heart.
"It was my pleasure. Now, do you want to read what that note says, or should I grab it?"
"What note?" Po asked, confused.
Tigress sighed, realizing that Po was still as oblivious as ever.
"The note attached to the arrow."
Po looked back at the arrow and noticed that there was indeed a roll of paper attached to the shaft of the arrow. Quickly rushing over, he pulled the arrow out of the ground and unrolled the note as he began to read.
However, as the Five watched Po read the note, they all noticed that his non-scarred eye was getting wider and wider after every few seconds, the panda shocked as he took in what the note said. Eventually, Po's paw went up to his face as he covered his mouth, the note calmly dropping to the ground as he fell to the ground in a seated position.
"What does the note say?" asked Crane, concerned after seeing the turmoil Po was going through.
Po didn't answer immediately, his brain still in the middle of processing the contents of the note. Eventually, though, Po managed to look up towards the Five, and they all knew something was horribly wrong when they noticed the haunted look on the Dragon Warrior's face.
"Master Thundering Rhino…he's dead."
Sorry for the random note after the downer ending, but I just wanted to tell you guys that Lord Shen will officially be coming into the story next chapter, so look forward to that.