Shen lunged his spear forwards several times in a blur, impaling the helpless sack in front of him. Punctured full of holes, the sack slumps over, imitating someone passing out from blood loss.
Or simply dying, That could work.
But as Shen has discovered and seen for himself, people were a lot more durable and resilient than that. Including himself. Which, he found out the painful way. Honestly, this was no way for a lord to be treated. At least, that's how he personally felt. Though it's likely that among the people he currently hangs out with these days, he's probably the only one who feels this way. No, actually, he knows he's the only one who feels this way.
The eccentric company he keeps has little to no real care about the position of lords and royals, as they've shown zero hesitation in fighting and attacking those with such a status. He has yet to see such an extreme example like Po punching out the Emperor when he pissed him off. Shen doubts he'll ever see anything to top that.
Though considering that it's Po he's talking about, he's certain the panda will find a way to surprise him. It's been a very consistent element of who he is. It makes him both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. At this point he knows the panda will do something crazy, but simply doesn't know what kind of crazy thing he'll do. If there's anything, anything he could take out of this, it's that Fenghuang taught him well.
"What are you, you, you doing all by yourself, Mr. Prince?" He heard a resounding hoot all around him.
Speak of the demoness...
Shen sighed as he could hear Fenghuang fly over to him, landing on her feet. "What do you want, Fenghuang? I am busy honing my skill."
"Really? Seems more to me that you're just poking dummies with a pointy stick." Fenghuang deadpans. "In what way can your strength and skill grow against something that can't fight back? Hm?"
A vein pulsed on Shen's head as he angrily turned towards her. "Can I help you, owl? I have no patience for your snark right now."
Now a vein pulsed on Fenghuang's head, and she smiled maliciously while she slowly pulled her wing back. "Yes. As a matter of fact...you can." She swiped her wing as a trio of feather blades flew towards Shen. His eyes widened as he swiftly deflected all three of the flying blades with his guan dao. He had little time to prepare as Fenghuang came flying at him talons first. A brief swing of his blade clashes with the talons, causing a brief spray of sparks to burst from the impact.
"What in the world are you doing, woman?!" Shen exclaimed as he parried another trio of feather blades. Several swings of his blade kept him on the back talon, with Fenghuang slashing at him with her sharpened feathers.
"Whatever do you mean? I'm giving you a proper opponent to practice against, rather than something that can't push you back." Fenghuang grinned as she she slashed her feathers towards him, then swiped across with her talons. There was another brief clash and spray of sparks from Shen's iron claws against those same talons, and he had to duck against another. He swiped against her, which she avoided by flying upwards into the air.
She came down quickly, and Shen had to dodge out of the way as quickly as he could. The impact of her talon left a deep crater in the ground, with rocks surging up around her landing spot. She let out a evil cackle as she flew towards him again. Shen clicked his tongue and swiped across with his ironclaw, then thrusts forward with his guan dao. She flipped once in midair to avoid his claw, then used her talons to kick his lance up into the air. Briefly stunned by the loss of his weapon, Shen was quickly kicked into the ground, gasping as most of the wind was ruthlessly knocked out of him.
She landed atop him, pinning him down with her feet. She pulled back and thrust her talons towards his face, his eyes widening from how suddenly she managed to overpower him in but a moment. Her talons stopped but mere inches away from his face, one of her talons just barely stopping in front of his eye. Barely an inch apart. If he moved wrong, he'd find himself losing an eye.
They stared idly at one another, before Shen narrowed his eyes at her. "Why don't you finish it?"
Fenghuang smiles at him with a chuckle. "I could say the same to you."
If one would observe them from afar, they'd see that Shen pulled a throwing knife from within his robes, and currently had the tip of the blade poised against her throat, enough to briefly draw blood.
A stalemate.
"There. You see? You were pushed into a corner, so you were forced to draw upon more of your potential." Fenghuang hummed with a curious tilt of her head. "Much more worthy of a practice than against motionless dolls, don't you think?"
"So you just decided to attack me out of the blue to tell me this? More and more, I'm beginning to see where the panda's recklessness is born from." Shen grumbled, struggling slightly under her. "Ngh, you're heavier than you look, despite moving lighter than a feather."
"Mocking a woman over her weight? How rude!" Fenghuang mock gasped, before letting out another cackle of amusement. Though soon enough, she calmed down, and focused solely on Shen.
Shen was already disliking the vibe she was setting down, mostly because he had little idea of how to respond. "What do you want?"
"Nothing. Just curious. Morbidly curious, not like my apprentice's more innocent and carefree curiosity. I do have a feeling that if I poke just hard enough, I'll find something interesting. You've been following about with Po's adventures for a while now, and now that you've got a taste of how things outside your worldview works, I have a bit of a question for you." Fenghuang hums again, lightly sweeping her wings aside. "What kind of person do you seek to become, now that you've been reduced from riches to rags? You're on the same level as the rest of us, and yet, it seems like you still have not a concrete idea of what you wish to do or who you want to become."
"Whatever do you mean?" Shen grumbled, noticing how the owl's pinning over him has lost most of it's hostility, and it now seemed...slightly teasing.
"What do you seek? What is your purpose? What do you want to do? Who do you want to become? I know you don't want to be nobody, and you clearly wish to be somebody. So how will you build yourself back up from the throes of despair and tragedy?" The owl hoots as she gracefully lowered her wings. "Do you seek to continue on a path of atonement? To seek a high position to regain your former glory with honest effort and tenacity? A life of adventure? Or perhaps ensure you can live the rest of your life in peace? Perhaps find a special someone to reignite the warmth in your cold almost dead heart?"
It was now impossible for Shen to not notice that Fenghuang was pinning him down in a more intimate manner, with her chest gently being pushed against him. Bewildered by the owl's games, he shook his head. "This is pointless nonsense, get off!"
"Make me." The owl dared with a dangerous smirk. The peacock cursed to himself, as they both knew that he could not. While their overall combat skill was rather close, she had him far outmatched in sheer physical strength. He wasn't getting free until she allowed it. "You cannot hide behind my apprentice and his friends forever. The time for stalling is near it's end. Sooner or later, you're going to have to take a deep look at yourself, the current you of the present, and ask yourself a very important question."
Fenghuang eased closer, their faces now inches apart. Shen could feel her heartbeat from how close they were, and he stared into the deep violet of the irises of her yellow eyes. Against his better judgement, he found them...calming. Fenghuang then asked him:
"Who is Lord Shen?"
After whispering her question, she finally eased herself off the currently stunned peacock, brushing herself off and tucking in her wings. Shen eventually got back on his feet, coughing slightly and catching his breath. He turned towards the owl, narrowing his eyes. "What's your game? Why do you care so much about where I am in my life?"
"To be brutally honest, I could care less about who you want to be. A part of me still resents you for being a catalyst for my student's most traumatic sufferings." Fenghuang sighed. "But Po clearly cares for you, more than his big stupid heart should. He's too compassionate for his own good, despite the ruthlessness I tried to beat into him. He's not going to ask you these questions seriously because of that and how stupid he can be, meaning I have to do so in his place. And I know that he wants you to be happy with your life, to make the best of it however you can. He simply can't bring himself to abandon you no matter how much easier it'd be, to the point where he lost an arm over it."
Shen flinched at that reminder. He remembered his utterly dumbfounded expression when he watched the panda innocently stare at him while uncaring of the fact that one of his limbs was gone. Sure he could now makeshift an arm out of his immense chi reserves, but the fact remains that he maimed himself to save the life of his clan's murderer.
It weighed down on Shen all at once. Just how badly he hurt Po and yet the panda continued to care about him as much as his other friends. Despite inheriting some of the more coarse and audacious mannerisms from his mentor, at his core Po was still too kind for his own good. He wouldn't have gotten into nearly as many conflicts with others across China if it wasn't for the enormity of his heart.
And that heart drew people to him.
Fenghuang turned around with a sigh. "You can't keep coasting through all of this, Shen. The time is approaching for you to decide: What do you want to live for?"
With this, the owl flapped her wings and flew away, leaving the peacock by himself, with only his thoughts as company.
It slowly began to dawn upon him. All he was doing at this point was following the panda. It hadn't occurred to him that he hadn't really thought about what he wanted to do with his life, the life that Po chose to spare, when absolutely no one would have blamed him for letting him die that day. Shen would consider it an even graver stain on his honor to not repay that immense moment of mercy that cost the panda a limb, than the scars that blackened half of his face as punishment for his cruelty.
Right now, Shen was feeling a true sense of complete aimlessness. He was flying with no destination or purpose. No true drive to push himself forward, rather than being pulled by everyone else. After all his life trying to fulfill a purpose that would never come true, and after being saved from certain death by the one he was hell-bent on killing, he never tried finding another one. And as he looked towards the sky, he realized and remembered something, and someone, important to him.
"Soothsayer...can you hear me? Are you listening to me? Do you see me?" Shen asked, to no one in particular. "If you were here with me right now...what would you do? What would you say? If I asked you 'what do I do now?' How would you guide my troubled soul? What would be my fortune? What would be my fate? For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm in complete control of my own fate...and I'm too terrified and filled with shame to know what to do with that much power. Something everyone else around me can do with ease. So please, tell me...what do I do now?"
The only answer he got was come silence, followed by a gentle breeze causing ripples in his feathers and billowing his robes.
He never thought he'd miss the aggravating sensation of an old goat trying to eat his robes, just to tick him off.
"...Bah. I'm going mad. I'm speaking into the wind, where no one is listening but myself, hoping someone I've mostly treated as a last would answer me." Shen muttered as his talons scraped across the ground. "Curses. Even now, I'm reaching out to someone long dead for guidance towards my next path, instead of trying to form my own. How rubbish am I, for letting that specific freedom of choice terrify me more than death itself? Tai Lung knows what to do and how and why he wants to do it, even if he was hindered by outside forces! Why am I the one who can't seem to find ANYTHING?!"
His infuriated caw echoes through the area, and even reached further outside, where several villagers idly wondered what the commotion was about.
Breathing heavily after his outburst, he unclenched his wings and gazed towards the sky once more, his expression much more melancholy.
"...I don't know what to do..."
He barely noticed the tender tears rolling down his cheeks.
"...Well, shouting out your frustrations is a start. Maybe not a good start, but it's something to begin with."
Shen shot his head around, and noticed a smiling Mr. Ping looking at him with a small smile, his arms hidden in his sleeves.
"I should know. I did it quite a few times when little Po was having particularly bad days and there wasn't much I could do about it except hug him and kiss his cheeks, gently pleading with him not to cry as the storms raged above us." Mr. Ping said as he waddled up to Shen, looking him in the eyes. "We weren't always lucky, but we kept pressing on, for each other's sakes."
"What are you babbling about?" Shen blinked, not understanding what Mr. Ping was getting at. The goose smiled again, shaking his head.
"I'm saying that shouting out your frustrations does feel a bit good, as it leaves less anger to blind you with. Don't you feel a bit better now?"
"...Perhaps." Shen admitted, as he hastily wiped his tears, that he did feel a bit better releasing his frustration towards the sky. But that still didn't answer why the goose was currently bugging him.
"Ah, yes! Very good!" Mr. Ping clapped. "Now, if you're feeling a bit calmer, perhaps you'll join me for a fresh bowl of dumplings, paired with a bowl of noodles? I noticed that you've been on the thin side for quite a while and that's not too healthy. You'll need to eat a bit more."
Shen nearly scoffed. "You're going to overfeed me like you do your son?"
"Po's a growing healthy young man with a healthy appetite for a panda. Of course he's going to eat a lot!" Mr. Ping laughed off the jeer, much to Shen's confusion. He was even more confused once the goose turned and began waddling away. "Come along now, lunch will get cold if we just stand around here!"
Shen could hardly believe that he was lured out of his depressing mindset from this silly goose's antics. He can't allow himself to get distracted again, so he depressed that and was prepared to call him out.
"Life is not always going to go your way, Shen."
Shen was stopped cold as Mr. Ping calmly declared this, briefly stopping without turning around.
"Life, is like cooking." He raised his wing as he did turn around. "When you're an expert chef like myself, a lot of what I make turns out to be fantastic! But every once in a while, I tend to stumble, and quite a bit of the food is ruined and spoiled as a result." He hung his head and shook it with shame. "With my pride as a chef, that's such a heavy blow that's pretty hard to recover from." He then raised his head up and smiled. "But eventually I do, and I always try again. Because my pride as a chef won't allow me to give up after a single failure. With a failure I fall into once in a while, I grow a little bit. I won't grow as a chef if I don't experience success AND failure."
"W-What...?"
Mr. Ping hummed and nodded at Shen's confused look. "I struggled as a chef, I struggled as a noodle shop owner, and most difficult of all, I struggled being a father for Po. There are some things I wish I did better, but I can't take those moments back. I can only learn from them and do better as I move forward in creating the best life I can for the both of us. Because Po will always be worth every struggle I face."
Mr. Ping waddled up to Shen, much to the Peacocks confusion. Why? Why is he...?
"Don't give up, Shen. You're allowed to be frustrated. You're allowed to be angry. You're allowed to rage and cry. You can do all of these things and no one will shame you. Just don't give up. You'll eventually find your way. Like Po and friends continue to find theirs." He hides his wings back in his sleeves. "Self-pity can only take you so far, Shen. At some point, you'll have to want to pick yourself back up and create the resolve to keep going. It's the only way you're ever going to move forward in your life, rather than staying in the past and continuing to suffer."
"Why are you saying all of this to me?" Shen couldn't help but ask the kindly close who went out of his way to speak with him. Mr. Ping smiled sadly.
"Because I can't just stand by while someone with regrets curses their past so much that they blind themselves to the possibility of having a future. Despite everything you've done, you CAN have a better future, Shen. A happy one." Mr. Ping softly says as he holds out a wing. "But you have to want to create it, first. A future created without heart and soul is no future at all. Just like a bowl of noodles made without passion and effort is bland and flavorless."
Shen wondered what was it about this silly old goose that possessed him to say such things. He didn't seem like the type, yet here he was, surprised. He was so surprised, that he let his guard down completely, as his wings reached down to the ground.
"But...I don't know how." Shen whispered, with trembling wings and a shaky talon. "I...I killed many. Destroyed many Rendered homes and people to burning cinders. I scarred many with my reprehensible actions. I scarred the panda for life. I took everything from him. I cannot take any of those actions back."
"No. No you can't. Yet despite that, my precious Po still made a new, happy life for himself despite everything you've done to him. The struggles you put him through helped him better himself snd become the panda he is today. He made the decision to save you, at the cost of his arm. He's done his part, now it falls to you to do yours. He provided you a path towards a better life, Shen. To be a better person. Now, you can either squander that opportunity and continue to wallow in self-pity and potential self destruction...or you can put in the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to become someone who deserved it."
Mr. Ping turned around and began walking, gesturing for the peacock to follow.
"As for where to start. How about we begin small and work our way upwards? Let's start with a nice, fresh bowl of noodles!"
After contemplating Mr. Pings eccentricity once again, his eyes wide and blinking in astonishment, Shen shook his head, made his decision...
...and quietly followed Mr. Ping.
Su Wu purred as she and her sisters marveled at their potential return to form, with all sorts of scum and degenerates running for their lives at the sight of them. It brought a sense of power upon the trio that they dearly missed. The good old days was something they cherished quite a bit, and were it not for current circumstances, they would be milking this for all it was worth.
Alas, they had a mission to continue. And they've already been tempered much by raising their daughter, Lian. As much as Su wanted to indulge in nostalgia, she had to focus. Though a smirk did come to her face.
Nothing said she couldn't do both.
"Alright, gawking is over. We need to get a move on, people." Su stretched her arms and scratches her ear slightly before focusing her eyes. "We'll do things like this. My sisters and I will go looking for information on this Chairman Qing fellow and see what he's up to regarding how he's running things around our new home." She soon pointed to Monkey. "You and your friends should focus solely on finding your brother as soon as possible, and break him out. Depending on how all of this goes, we may have a prison break on our paws."
"It's the most grandiose kind of breaking you can possibly get. If you go through with it, let us know so we can join in on the chaos!" Wing exclaimed with clasped paws.
"Now hold it, we're not going to just go around causing wanton chaos for the sake of a cheap laugh." Ox declined the scenario, which made Wing fold her arms.
"You're such a wet blanket."
"Better a wet blanket than a remorseless thug."
"Pfft, you'd really rather be a wet blanket?! Well, that explains you're utter lack of fun hobbies! You just walk around with that perpetual serious frown on your face all the time, huh?!" Wing cackled with her backlash to her muzzle. "What a boring ox you are!"
"Quiet, witch!"
Wing smirked as she raised her paw, her class unsheathed. "Come over here and make me. We're in a city where the rules don't mean shit. I can use any method I want to make you plead for mercy."
"I'd never plead for mercy from the likes of you!"
"Hey, cut it out already?" Monkey jumped in-between them, pushing their faces away from each other while balanced on his tail. "We don't have time for this! We gotta get a move on and help my brother!"
"Precisely. Save the banter for when after we succeed in our endeavors, for better or worse." Rhino informed while attempting to calm the duo down. Wing shrugged and lazily backs off.
"Least Rhino tries to make things sound interesting."
"You're impossible."
"I'm gorgeous."
"That doesn't even make any sense!"
"It doesn't have to, because I simply wanted to say it." Wing shrugged. "Wettest blanket in China."
"Why you!"
"Ox. Please, don't let her keep provoking you like that. She'll only grow more amused." Croc sighed, pushing his friend back while turning to Fung. "Fung, I'm very serious. Stay close to me. This place seems like it hasn't changed a bit, so I need to be absolutely sure that you're close by."
"I got it, Master. Staying close as close can be, for a Croc like me." Fung hummed as his tail swayed gently. "So, what are we gonna be doing?"
"We'll be accompanying the Wu Sisters and seeing what is the current happenings of Hubei. Song will come with as well."
"Ooh! I get a fun job!" Song clapped as she swirled and opened her parasol over her head. "Can't wait to see how many suckers I can pick-pocket-I mean how many nice and lively people I can meet here." Song smiled as several of her friends eyes gazed towards her suspiciously.
"Pickpocket the innocent and I'll punch you." Tigress deadpanned while holding up a fist.
"H-Hey, let's put that away, Tigress. I-I'm not that kind of woman anymore. I don't pick pocket from the innocent!" Although stealing from some bad guys will be fair game, right? Maybe? Habits are hard to kick.
"Po. You take the Five with you in another direction and help Monkey search for and rescue his brother." Shifu sighed as he wiped his brow due to what he was going to say next. "And Tigress. Please try to keep yourself and everyone else from causing too much mayhem. We are already walking into a city that's rife with it, we really do not need to add even more into the mix. It's bound to cause rather problematic issues."
"I...shall make the attempt, Father." Tigress responded, quite unsure. She probably knew there was absolutely no way she could reliably keep that promise. She has become quite resigned to the fact that she was in a group that when put together, was chaos incarnate.
"That's about as good as I'm going to get, isn't it?"
"Fu-Fi, they're going to break Monkey's brother out of prison. If that isn't trouble with a capital T, I don't know what is." Mei Ling lightly patted his shoulder, her fox tail swaying excitedly. "Besides, it DOES sound fun!"
"Do not encourage this!"
"Well, looks like I'm going to be a bit worse than usual." Mei Ling, the golden cat, smiled as she stretched her arms with a gentle sigh. "We're gonna get in a lot more trouble this time around, Crane! Wonder how the guys back at the Lee Da Academy are going to feel about this?"
"Forget the Academy! How's my mother going to react to this!?" Crane squawked, having just thought about the personal implications of what they were about to do.
"Her baby boy's growing up so fast. He went from being a janitor, to becoming a member of the New Furious Five, to breaking a friend's bro out of prison." Mantis faked a sniffle, wiping his eyes of tears. "Not too shabby, Crane! You've come a long way from being all wimpy and stuff!"
Crane was fuming with irritation.
"I'm gonna step on you."
"You'll try! Those Long Legs are too slow!"
"Why you little-"
"Enough." Tigress pushed Crane away and knocked Mantis off his foothold, ignoring his complaints as she folded her arms. "We chase down our objectives knowing full well that there are potential consequences to every choice we make. We make them regardless, because that's the path we chose to walk." Tigress looked up ahead. "Wu Kong is Monkey's sole remaining family member by blood. We can't let him die. Letting a family member of a friend die in a place like this is unacceptable."
Crane calmed down a bit, Mantis eased up, and Monkey looked at his friends with newfound appreciation. "Thanks, guys."
"Then our mind is made up on this." Po narrowed his eyes as he adjusted his hat on his head. "Let's get a move on!"
"Right!" With this, most of the younger members of the group moved out. Po, the Five, and Mei Ling went deeper into the crime addled city in one direction. Some of the elder members of the group saw them off with a bit of care, especially Shifu, who seemed the most worried about them. Even more than the ones who knew Hubei Volcano better than anyone.
"They'll be fine, Fu-Fi. They've proven themselves time and time again. I'm sure they'll do so again." Mei Ling comforted as she lightly reached out to hold his paw. "And besides, breaking a friend's sibling out of prison can be such a precious bonding activity!"
"We can vouch for that." Wan and Wing raised their paws with mischievous grins on their faces, with Su folding her arms and nodding in agreement, a sly smile on her own face.
"You all are utterly horrible influences on the new generation." Ox growled dully.
Su Wu tilted her head, as a brief image of a smiling Lian passed through her head. She smiled a bit more genuinely. "Maybe. But I'd like to think there is one good deed we actually managed to do properly and true to form."
"Besides, what does that say about you, allowing a prison break to happen at all?" Wing pointed at Ox with a fist on her hip.
"To be fair, they're only intent on freeing Monkey's brother. Just one person. Seems extreme to go for an execution and going out of their way to announce it." Fung shook his head. "Though, knowing our luck, something probably went down, and something big is going to go down..."
"For now, let us proceed on our own path, and find Chairman Qing. Depending on what we find, he has things to answer for." Croc deduced. Everyone eventually agreed and followed the Wu Sisters, who along with their mirror trio, knew Jinzhou inside and out. They just had to find out where Chairman Qing was stashing himself away. Though while the atmosphere still allowed for small talk, Croc curiously turned towards his pupil, while catching a brief look at Shifu. "So, Shifu has a significant other in Mei Ling, who is a gifted thief."
"Yup."
"While your comrade, the golden cat also known as Mei Ling, was the top student of Lee Da Academy."
"That's right."
"I see. Does it not get confusing to try and see which one is being called on?"
"Oh, it gets incredibly confusing sometimes, which is why on certain occasions, we call them Golden Cat Ling and Fox Ling to tell them apart. Though sometimes we still get mixed up."
Croc laughed as he lightly patted Fung's back. "That certainly makes things slightly less confusing, in exchange for a slight increase in awkwardness."
"Yeah, heh. I guess."
Their conversation was cut off by abrupt screams of agony.
"What the?!"
"What in blazes?!"
"Wan! What are you doing?!" Rhino was heard gasping in shock.
"Hey, that stupid pig came at me with a knife! I defended myself!"
"You just snapped his whole leg! Could you not do it more quietly?!" Mei Ling shouted, as Shifu was pinching the bridge of his nose, his ears folded against his head. Taotie was currently facepalming.
"Well, there's no sense in trying to may low now!" Su cackled with glee as she cracked her knuckles, more thugs were beginning to charge at them. "I respect your bravery! Come at us with everything you've got!"
"Ooh! I can even see some soldiers coming along! Looks like we're in for a brawl, girls!" Wing grinned as she licked her lips.
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE SHITTING ME!" Ox could be heard screaming in frustration at how quickly things got out of hand.
"...That's kinda how I feel right now." Fung muttered. Even when Po wasn't around, chaos still found a way to reach everyone. It's now become a syndrome that's attached to everyone he meets at this point. There's no other explanation.
"Ah, we'd better help them. Take care to stay by my side. I don't want to lose sight of you." Croc requested of Fung as the both of them charged into the fray, the street brawl intensifying in the span of seconds, despite how quiet it was before.
Yep. Croc is confirming it right here and now. This place hasn't changed one bit.
As the street brawl quickly grew more chaotic, something was going down just several blocks away. A black and white face peeked around the corner, looking both ways for a moment, before stepping into the fray with a sigh.
"Whew. We finally made it." Mei Mei stretched her arms as she and Li had entered Jinzhou City, and it was just as sketchy looking and dark as they've heard. "Geez, haven't these people heard of sunshine?"
"I imagine that the light like they gain from the nearby volcano seems sufficient enough for them." Li shrugged as he hoisted his pack over his back.
Mei Mei shrugged as she rolled her arm. "Those horses were pretty helpful. I'm glad we hitched a ride with them when we could. Now we just gotta find some transport that'll take us to Imperial City."
Li blinked, and looked around. Something...was off. There was two giant presences that he could feel within the entire city, and only one of them seemed familiar enough for him to notice. The other one...was darkly malevolent and seemed to be somewhere deep within the heart of the city. But he was more focused on the more familiar feeling he got. The kinder, nicer, warmer feeling signature he felt.
He understood it instantly.
"He's here...my son is here somewhere..." Li slowly realized with widening eyes.
"Wait, you can sense him here? Well that's fantastic! That certainly makes things easier on us!" Mei Mei beamed as she clapped her paws. "You hear that, Lei Lei? We're gonna find Little Lotus sooner than we thought!"
Silence.
"...Lei Lei?"
Silence.
"Are you taking a nap? Lei Lei?"
Still silence.
Worried, Mei Mei quickly checked the pack that they placed Lei Lei in. Only to find that aside from their supplies, there was no adorable panda fun inside. Mei Mei's eyes slowly widened in ever growing fear, as did Li's.
They only just now noticed that their pack has gotten slightly lighter.
It's because Lei Lei wasn't in it.
"WHERE'S LEI LEI?!" Mei Mei and Li shouted in unison as they faced each other with their paws on their chubby cheeks.
"How did we lose her?!"
"We got careless!"
"We should have kept a closer eye on her!"
"She could be anywhere in this seriously dangerous and messed up place! What do we do?!"
Li stopped their shouting as he took a breath and calmed down. "Okay, calm. Panicking isn't going to help us find her faster. We need to think of some scenarios. We didn't pay enough attention and we allowed our senses to lax. That's on us for letting our guards down when we're headed to someplace this dangerous, despite intending to be a shortcut. Now, where could she be and how could she possibly get there?"
Mei Mei nodded, taking several calming breathe so she could think properly. "Well, I remember us taking a nap once we passed by the gates, so our senses were still kinda sluggish. And we reached the stop, we got off and gave our regards and gratitude, and we walked here. We assumed Lei Lei was napping in the bag, so we didn't-" Mei Mei's eyes widened in growing realization.
"...You don't think...?" Li blinked as Mei Mei's expression grew angrier by the nanosecond. Those two horses were gushing about how adorable Lei Lei was. By a lot, the entire ride there. And then Mei Mei and Li took a nap, allowing their guards to relax just a bit. Now that they fully woke up and regained most of their senses did they notice Lei Lei was gone.
This could only mean one possible thing.
"Those rotten cubnappers pulled a fast one on us! After we trusted them and even paid for the unexpected trip!" Mei Mei clenched her fists as her blue eyes blazed with rage. "They are in for the most brutal of panda smackdowns if they so as touch ONE fur strand on her cute little head! I'll introduce them to the Dance of Death!"
"Who's that screeching over there!?" A pudgy croc came pushing out a door and towards Mei Mei, carrying a sword in his paws, which made Li defensive. "Hey! Cut the damn noise out before I-"
His jaw was introduced to Mei Mei's fist, which laid him out across the ground...into a house. That was several yards away from them. And there was a grave series of cracks in the road created from how forcefully he was sent flying.
"DON'T TELL ME TO SHUT UP WHEN MY PRECIOUS LEI LEI MIGHT BE IN DANGER, YOU DUMBASS!" Mei Mei growled with grinding teeth, her fist outstretched. Li sweatdropped. Their journey had been going quite smoothly so far.
He immediately surrendered to the fact that it was going to get rougher from here on out.
Chairman Qing was a crane of strict tastes.
Being left in charge of a cesspool of crime and villainly like Jinzhou City was a heavy responsibility to take on, but he accepted it nonetheless. Such a place of chaos needed to be balanced with order, and he continues to enforce order whenever that chaos grew out of control. He did consider it fun in a way. As it always have him something to do.
Petty thieves? Beaten and stolen from.
Litterers? Beaten and thrown in the trash.
Street thugs? Beaten even worse than the others for their pointless fighting.
Gangs? Divided and conquered, where all the spoils go to him.
There was no end to it, and that suited him fine, for he would always have something to gain. Jinzhou was a perfect place for him to enforce his rule and have much to gain from how brutally he punishes wrongdoing. And since wrongdoing was everywhere, he could gain anything from everywhere. It was a pleasant position to be in.
Well, except for one instance.
He raised a wing to his permanently scarred cheek, which was gained from a brutal sword wound. He narrowed his eyes and snarled at the memory.
'Take back what you said about them. Take it back! Apologize!' The demanding shouts echoed through his mind, and he could still see the intensity in the young simian's eyes. 'You can say whatever shit you want about me, but don't insult my dead mother and little brother, you BASTARD!'
"He dared to strike me with a blade. Me. The sole person keeping this city from falling into complete uncontrolled anarchy...all for his fellow scum of a family. Pathetic." Qing spat at the memory, a glob of spit hitting an unresponsive guard in the back of his head. "Clean yourself, you're filthy." The rhino guard grumbled and immediately excused himself, while another took his place. His mind went back to the simian who not only insulted him, but permanently scarred him. He was going to enjoy following through with his execution. It would be a lesson to all who cares get so close to him with such blatant defiance. He had almost died from the encounter.
Fortunately for him, his most powerful soldier protected him and beat the instigator down. He'd have to call him out more often.
"Chairman Qing! We're back from our route!" He raised his head from his vengeful thoughts as two horses stormed into his room, uninvited. He sighed. He'd discipline them later. Several dozen lashes will be enough.
"What do you want? I'm busy planning for...what in the world is that?" Chairman Qing stared blankly at the ball of fluff they carried with them inside.
She waved her cute little arm and smiled. "I'm Lei Lei! Hello!"
"Can we keep her, Chairman?" His servants pleaded with him as the panda girl giggled in their grasp. She hadn't yet realized that she's been cubnapped. "We found her with some traveling pandas that were making their way here! We took her as payment! Can we keep her? Please!"
Chairman Qing blinked, wondering just how he was going to approach this. He was quite certain that the panda clan was killed off by Lord Shen, but apparently that was false. Looks like he didn't get them all after all.
That still didn't help him figure out what the heck he was supposed to do with a small panda cub.
Though after some contemplation, a soft spread across his beak, and he lightly pressed his wings together. "You buffoons might have actually provided a grand opportunity."
"We have?"
"Indeed. There's been a chaotic force going around China, doing whatever it pleases without any regards for order. With this recent find, I may have found a way to lure that force here..." He looked to the side and gently picked up a knife, running a feather across it. "...so I can destroy it." With this, he threw the knife towards a wall, into a scroll.
A poster scroll of Po, right through the forehead.
For the first time since she got here, Lei Lei's smile vanished, and she curled into herself with a concerned whine.
"Get her in a cage as I prepare our lure. I don't need her crawling around unsecure when I'll be so busy." Qing waved them off, and Lei Lei was carried away. She didn't resist, too paralyzed by the fear that suddenly gripped her heart. She closed her eyes as tears began leaping from them.
"Miss Mei Mei, Mr. Li..." She softly called out to the guardians she was separated from, as the realization of her danger now left her reaching for their warmth, which was currently not present.
This realization made tears run down her cheeks while the light faded from the room she was just in. As she was dragged deeper into the dark, she closed her eyes and whimpered.
"I'm scared..."