After a very long of day of training which lasted until the eve night, our heroes could finally rest around the village's table alongside all the other pandas. They were covered of bruises, dirt and sweat, but that didn't seemed to bother their hosts the slightest. After all, they themselves were not the cleanest village in China.
Speaking of which, some of the heroes were looking awkwardly as all the pandas (Po inclued) were eating all the food consisting of dumplings, radishes, and other vegetables (probably they were too lazy to prepare a proper meal) with their hands and without restraining themselves. Sure, they were used to see Po eating like this, but not to see an ENTIRE village doing it. Only the young ones found this amusing and followed their example.
Viper twinched as the little Yang ate like any excited kid of his age would do. "Yang! You could have some manners and eat a little slower!"
"Come on, Viper." Koji said with wrapping his arm around the kid. "Cut him a break: he worked really hard today and became really good at Kung Fu. I'm sure that soon, he'll even be able to stand up to me."
"You know, Kasaiori progressed a lot too." Suya remarked with putting her wing on her fellow avian's shoulder. "She's now capable to fight in the air. Mixed with her fire powers, that makes her a huge deal."
"Stop: you're gonna make me blush." The female eagle said with putting a wing on her cheek. She forgot that we couldn't see her blush because of her orange feathers.
"It's true though." Crane backed up Suya's argument. "You managed to stand up to both Suya and I in the air. That clealry means you're a natural." He finished this sentence with showing a few burned feathers on his right wing which were due to Kasaiori's fight against them.
"Sorry about that." She apologized and rubbed the back of her head.
"What about you, girls?" Monkey asked to Tanchi and Mizufusen who were eating right beside him. "Did you progressed a lot?"
"Oh yes!" Tanchi said in excitation. "We worked a lot and we're now ready to fight the bad guys! Right, Mizu?" She asked her friend and nudged her with her flipper. The ninja frog replied with a simple nod and ate a dumpling.
"Tongo also progressed a lot. He almost squashed me multiple times." Mantis remarked which made the huge orange snake lower his head down in shame.
"What about you, Toka?" Po asked after swallowing ten dumplings at once. "I bet you did the most progress!"
The snow leopard looked at Master Tigress who was sitting on the other end of the table, then at his right fist which was a bit damaged from all the fighting he did. "Yeah." He replied and looked at his panda friend with a smile. "Tigress helped me a lot improve over my fighting style: I learned not to rely entirely on my physical strength and to get more technical too."
"What about the fire technique in your scroll?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't got to work on it yet." Toka answered before noticing something. "Hey, where's Neyo? Didn't he came back from his training?"
"I met him before coming here." Alena said. "He told me that he wanted to benefit of the sky to make a drawing about stars or something like that. I didn't completely understood." The black panther answered before eating another radish.
The young hedgehog was sitting on the edge of the highest mountain near the village which he could clearly see from up there. Even though the sight of the Panda Village being lighten up by a few fires here and there, the most beautiful things Neyo wanted to look at was above him. The noctural black sky was completely exposed to him, showing the thousands of little stars scattered across it. Even though he was there to deepen his knowledges, he couldn't help but enjoy the natural beauty of the thing.
He took and unrolled a paper from his pocket and retired a needle from his back to cause a sharp pain which he got used to a long time ago. Plunging the needle into a small bottle of ink he took with him at the start of the journey, the young hedgehog started running the tip over the paper, careful not to cut it open, and taking notes. For the next numerous mintutes, he checked the sky and used many other tools to take notes about the sky, the wind, and many other passionating stuff.
From time to time, he would look toward the village and think about all his friends who were probably a good meal specialty of Po's family together. As much as he enjoyed the company of his friends and teamates, he sometimes prefered to be alone. This way, he could lead his personal studies alone with no trouble. He will go join them later, hoping that the pandas would leave something for him. to eat.
His thoughs were interrupted by a strange noise coming from around him. It sounded like a jet of air escaping a small hole, creating a whistling noise. Suddenly, he was caught from behind by a force that wrapped itself around his neck and head in a Sleeper Hold lock. His attacker was strong, but he managed to break free fast, thanks to his needles-covered back. He rolled away before getting a good look at the attacker in question.
His appearance was pretty odd: his face was covered by a metal grey helmet with some blue streaks and horns aimed at the sky on the sides. His body was covered by an armour of the same colour which seemed pretty light somehow. He had strange machines on his wrists, right above his gloved paws. Another one (it looked like a jetpack) was tied to his back which, now that Neyo noticed it, was covered of needles like his, but longer. Was he an hedgehog too?
"Impressive." The masked hedgehog said with an voice-off, probably because of his helmet. I've rarely seen someone escaping from my clutches so fast."
"Who are you?" Neyo asked with getting in a fighting stance. "And why did you attacked me?"
The man didn't answered immediately and instead, removed his helmet to reveal an hedgehog with dark brown fur and light blue eyes that were reflecting a scary nature. The scar on his left eye wasn't making him more attractive.
"For many generations, my ancestors of the Hedgehog Clan fought as proud warriors against Kung Fu masters. Now, most of the hedgehogs like you dreams of learning this disgraceful martial art instead of following our old ways!" He then smirked. "But luckily, I always believe there is a way to bring you back in the right way."
Neyo looked at him curiously. "Huh, sorry, but I don't understand what you're talking about. I never heard about anything called Hedgehog Clan. Yet, I know a lot of things about China's history and culture in general. And who are you anyway?"
The mysterious warrior slapped the top of his head. "Of course! Where are my manners! My name is Xie Zhen, proud Arritochan warrior, and current leader of the Hedgehog Clan. At your service." He said with bowing respectfully at Neyo. It was kinda hard to think that he attacked him, moments ago.
"Arritochan? What's that?" Neyo asked without releasing his guard.
"You really don't know nothing of nothing, do ya? The Arritochan are a people of hedgehogs founded over 1000 years ago. We were once proud warriors fighting together for honnor, but today, only a small part of the Arritochan people like the Hedgehog Clan still lives on. Our purpose is to restore our warrior's honor."
Suddenly, he took something out of the belt tied around his waist: it looked like the hold of a saber except that there was no blade with it. What was this thing? As if it somehow could have heard Neyo's question, the hold vibrated a bit and what seemed to be a blade made of black chi appeared on the tip of the hold.
"This sword is called Jinshu Jian Jiao (Screaming Metal). It has been created by Master Oogway himself, centuries ago during the Great War. Its blade is made of chi - originally, the blade was golden to reflect its nature to serve Kung Fu, but since it has been stolen by my ancestors, many Kung Fu Masters have been killed by the blade which turned to black ever since." Xie Zhen explained and rose it toward Neyo. "If you can survive against it, I'll consider that you're worthy of becoming a member of the Hedgehog Clan. Ortherwise, you'll simply die."
So he really had hostile intentions toward him. Xie Zhen jumped in the air with a scream and stabbed his chi sword into the ground, right where Neyo was before rolling out of the way. He noticed that the blade was making screeching noises when rubbing against the air.
He quickly forced his weapon out of the ground and charged to swing it at Neyo who, despite his good dodging reflexes, still got a few scratches on his fur, but none of his skin, luckily. Soon, he realized that he won't be able to avoid his attacks forever and took another needle from his back before blocking his attacker's arm after one more swing and stabbed the needle into his side. Unfortunately, the armor he was wearing was too solid and the needle broke at the contact.
"Nice try, but my Arritochan armour is as solid as she is light." He kicked Neyo in the stomach and knocked him away on the edge of the mountain. There was enough space for them to fight, but not too much. Xie Zhen suddenly pressed a button on the machine of his right wrist which made it shoot two ninja stars. Neyo managed to dodge them, but got one of his head needles cut down.
"A machine that shoots shurikens?! I've never seen such advanced technology!"
The armored hedgehog let out a scream as he charged once more. However, Neyo figured out an opening in his stance and kicked his right leg before kicking his saber out of his paws, sending him on the other side of the fighting spot. But if he though that he already won, he was wrong. Xie Zhen punched him hard in the stomach and followed with a knee strike right in his face that knocked him away and caused him to bleed from the nose.
He then ran to take back his sword and Neyo quickly threw two needles at him in hopes of hurting him before he could get it back, but he missed. "I'm gonna show you how to REALLY shoot needles." He pressed a button on his left machine which shot three needles that Neyo managed to dodge by rolling away. Decidedly, this guy was full of surprises.
He then pressed a button on the side of the machine on his back and a jet of fire came out from under it which allowed him to take off in the sky. Neyo was so impressed that he almost missed to see that he charged down at him, his blade ready to strike. This time, instead of rolling away, he jumped and delivered a strong kick right in Xie Zhen's face which knocked him to the ground too.
Once he got back up, Neyo saw that he also made him bleed from the nose. Strangely, this seemed to amuse him. "I see. You are strong. You truly have Arritochan blood in your veins." He whipped the blood flowing out of his noise and made the blade of his sword disappear before putting its hold back on his belt. "If you come with me, I can teach you something better than Kung Fu: I can teach you to be a Arritochan warrior and a member of the Hedgehog Clan. Someone as strong and smart like you could be a great asset for our clan."
"Sorry, pal, but I'm already part of a team and I'm really happy with them. I'm not ready to leave them just to join a guy with a strange weapon and with advanced technology - though it's a bit tempting. So just leave me alone, okay?"
He expected Xie Zhen to attack him for refusing, but he simply turned his back machine on and flew away from the mountain and into the night. Neyo whipped the sweat from his face and started to putting his head together after what just happened. He just learned that there was a whole clan of warriors of the same species as his that were hating Kung Fu and even killed many masters.
Yet...there was something...intriguing about this man. His style of fighting, his incredible gadgets, and even his code of honnor. If he wanted to, he could have come with members of his clan and captured him to force him to become one of them, couldn't they? Yet, he decided to come alone and left him the choice to do it. He wondered what the others would think of...no, he won't tell them about this encounter. He'll keep it to himself.
His attention switched to his scratches left by this awesome weapon and his bleeding noise. He'll just tell his friends that he fell from the cliff because of a misattention error. He then picked up all his tools and the little notes he took to put them all in his backpack and walked away. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about this Xie Zhen, the Arritochans, the Hedgehog Clan, his weapon-
BANG!
...Okay, the "falling from the cliff" lie won't be a lie anymore as Neyo literally fell down because of his misattention.
I hope you liked this chapter.
Xie Zheng means "Blood Needle" in Chinese. Also, for this character and the Hedgehog Clan concept, I inspired myself from Pre Vizsla and the Deathwatch from The Clone Wars as I think they're really cool and I'm pretty disappointed that Disney ruined their image in Star Wars Rebel.