The first thing I decided to do once I reached the barracks was check the soup. I slithered into the kitchen and looked into the pot where I had attempted to mix ingredients. Luckily it was still salvagable so I might as well use it for lunch. I then checked every single room in the barracks. Checking the left room, then the right, moving forward and repeating the process. On the third time of repeating my tactic, I noticed Viper's silouette behind the paper thin door. I knocked gently. Viper slithered over to the door and opened it. Upon seeing me, she scowled and shut the door. This is going to be tough I can already tell.
I knocked again and spoke.
"Viper can we please talk about what happened in the training hall"?
"So now you want to talk, after what you said"? I heard her voice. She was cleary angry. I could even see that on her face despite the paper wall standing between us.
"Viper it wasn't what you think. There was an accident with this... Ying Yang mirror".
That seemed to help the case because Viper opened her door again. Still angry at me but at least she was giving me a chance to explain myself.
"I'm listening". She said flatly.
"Shortly after you and the rest of the five left to go to the Village-".
"It's called the Valley of Peace". Viper interuptted in a "matter of fact" tone. Seriously though, she's correcting me on it now?
"...So once you went to the Valley of Peace"... She gave a nod at me for using the right name for the village. "... I went for a walk, over to one of the artifact rooms in the Jade palace, and I found a mirror that split me in half-". Again I was interuptted.
"Don't you mean split in two? Split in half means you would be ripped into two pieces". That was exactly what evil me had pointed out as well. I nearly groaned in frustration.
"Yes, that. So after I was split in two, good me went to make soup in the kitchen for everyone to make up for what happened between me and Tigress. During which you and Crane found evil me in the training hall and... well you know what happened".
Viper thought about this while glaring at me. After what seemed like forever, she replied.
"So how are you back to normal now"? I gave a small smile at this.
"Tigress stopped evil me, knocked him out and got him to look back into the mirror. Next thing I knew, my senses were back and... well let us just say that Tigress and I are friends now". This caused Vipers eyes to nearly fly out of her head. I then spoke again, knowing what she was thinking.
"Well, maybe not friends but she is less hostile towards me". I could only hope that I could say the same when it came to sparing against her again. Vipers eyes turned back to normal but she still pressed on.
"What were you about to say before saying that you and Tigress were... less hostile"?
"It's not important. I-". Yup. She interuptted me again.
"Yes it is. You were going to say something and decided not to, now tell me". Obviously she wasn't going to forgive me until I told her the whole story. I sighed and came out with it.
"I was planning on leaving the Jade palace". This surprised her as she wasn't sure what to say. Eventually she found her voice and spoke.
"And are you"? She asked with concern.
"No, luckily Tigress talked some sense into me before I did". Viper smiled.
The next thing I knew she slithered up to me, I had no idea what she was doing. She then spoke.
"Close you eyes".
I did as I was instructed, no idea why she asked me to do so. I soon found out as she slapped me in the face with her tail, nearly causing me to fall over.
"That's for being a jerk". She spoke angrily. I rubbed my now sore cheek. Before I could do anything else, she then wrapped her tail round me and hugged me. It lasted a few seconds before she broke it and talked.
"And that's for apologising".
I smiled and nodded.
"Glad to sort things out. I'd better do the same with Crane".
"Sure. See you at lunch"?
"See you at lunch". I then left her and the barracks. Once I did, I couldn't help but smile about being slapped. I know it's a bit weird to smile upon being hit but I never expected to be slapped across the face by a snake, it just seemed funny to me. I just hope Crane doesn't do the same thing in the form of a fist.
I walked round for a bit, walking past Monkey and Mantis a couple of times. I wonder if they knew anything about me being split in half- I mean two. I decided not to and tried to find Crane. After wandering around for ten minutes, I found him. Sitting on top of the barracks. How did I not see him when I was looking for Viper?! I just went around in a circle for no reason! *Sigh* okay, calm down. He's probably going to be the one yelling at me anyway, no need to do it to myself.
"Hey Crane? Can I talk to you for a second"? Crane opened his eyes and noticed me. He then flew doen and landed in front of me. I was confused to see that he wasn't angry. At least he didn't seem it. Even still, I continued.
"Listen, I just wanted to explain that-".
"You looked in the Ying Yang mirror and split yourself in two"?
God, why is everyone interuptting me today? I- wait.
"How did you know that"?
"Well I had a hunch back at the training hall, but I ran into Tigress a little while ago and she filled me in".
"...Oh, I see. Well even still I need to say that I'm sorry for what evil me, myself, did and said".
"Ah don't be. Believe me, Po's done worse than that". I smirked at this. Hopefully I wouldn't get into trouble as much as Po if he sounded that bad.
"Thanks Crane. By the way, why were you on the roof of the barracks"?
"Sometimes I prefer to meditate in high areas. It's peaceful and no one bothers you as much. Especially Po". I suppose that answers that.
"I can understand that. Well I'd better go, That soup isn't going to finish itself".
"Alright. See ya".
HALF AN HOUR LATER
It was now time for lunch. Time sure moves fast when you have an evil side and a good side harrassing others. I had finally finished with the soup at last, Noodle soup in case you were wondering what type, and had begun pouring it in the first bowl when Monkey walked through the doorway.
"Hey Monkey". I spoke upon seeing him.
"Hey". He waved at me before I handed over the bowl of soup to him with my tail, which Monkey took.
"I didn't know you cooked. Makes a change from Po cooking". He joked. I gave a laugh and kept pouring soup for when the rest walked in. It only took two minutes before the room was filled with the Furious Five and Po. I guessed that they were the only warrior that trained here as I had seen no one else other than Shifu. That reminded me.
"So how was your Punishment Po"? I asked upon handing him the noodle soup.
"It was awful. I had to sweep the training hall top to bottom! It was worse than one of Cranes stories abo- I mean, mmmm this soup is good"! I noticed that Crane glared at him before shaking his head and returning back to his own bowl of soup.
I handed Tigress a bowl but she refused, insisting that her small tofu cubes were enough for her. I decided to give her bowl to Po who took it without hesitation. He lifted the bowl up to his mouth and slurped it down, spilling half of it down his fur. It was a little disturbing for me but everyone else seemed to ignore it. I leaned in to Monkey and whispered.
"Does he usually eat like this"? Monkey gave a small "Ha" and replied.
"That's nothing. You should see what he's like during the Winter Feast". Winter feast? Never heard of it. Was that supposed to be like Christmas? I decided to keep my mouth shut about it. It was December back on Earth before I... died, so I assumed that the date was the same here.
"So do you think Shifu will let us off easy with training again"? Mantis asked.
"Mantis, don't be so lazy"! Viper scolded.
"What? I was just asking a simple question, no need to get all hissy with me"!
"I Hope so". I spoke. "I've still got bruises from last time".
"I'm sure you'll live". Tigress spoke, picking up one of her tofu cubes with a pair of chopsticks. She sounded a lot nicer this time round so I take it she's calmer around me.
"I guess we'll find out after lunch". I replied with a sense of humor. I then finished off the rest of my soup and cleaned the bowl out. Everyone handed me their dishes afterwards, leaving me with a huge stack of bowls to clean up. Three belonging to Po, the third bowl came from him having second helpings. I sighed. I hated washing up.
We all then left for the training hall. I was certain that it would go much better than last time.
Our training began for the second time that day. This time, Tigress got a head start on training me. Again it was sparing. However this time, she took things more carefully. When she attacked, she was sure not to hit me too hard. I even managed to get a hit on her, even if she wasn't putting all her effort into her blocks. I then trained with Crane and Viper again, practising the same tactics as last time.
Once I had finished with them, I slithered round, wondering what else to try out. Before I could, I heard a yell above me. I looked up quickly to see Monkey with a staff, aiming for me! Shit. Thanks to my reflexes, I moved to the left just in time as the staff slammed into the ground where I had been standing. Before I could speak to ask why he was attacking me, he swung at me again and I jumped back, and again and again. Was this meant to be training? I improvised, and blocked Monkeys next swing with my tail, making it my own weapon against him. I then gave my own attack and swung my tail overhead. I hadn't much practice in combat so my attack was a little slow. Monkey side stepped to the left with ease and my tail hit the ground with a thump. I then swung in a 360, dragging my tail with me to get more momentum with my swing, acting as quick as I could to prevent Monkey from hitting me first. My tail flew at great speed towards the left of Monkey but he was quick enough to block it. Upon hitting the staff, my tail wrapped itself around the staff. I used this to my advantage and pulled with all my might. The staff flew out of Monkey's hands and I twirled it round once and aimed it at him.
One question came to mind at this point. How the hell did I just manage to do all that?! My heart was beating like crazy from acting so fast so I guess most of my actions had been running on adrenaline. Jesus Christ that was intense!
I then looked round to see that the battle had caused a small crowd of all the other masters and even Shifu. I then turned to Monkey. He bowed which I then returned. Good, so it was just training. I was worried for a second then. The masters dispersed and Shifu walked up to me and Monkey.
"Monkey". He began with a hint of anger. "That was a low, underhanded trick! Well done". He then smiled. He then turned to me.
"As for you Python. I did not expect you to disarm Monkey, let alone win. You've shown me that you may very well have a future here". He then left us be.
"You're welcome". Monkey joked. We then kept sparing, despite how tiring that fight had been, I managed to push on.
"So what was that all about to begin with, attacking me so suddenly"? I asked, knowing that there was more to the story.
"Mantis bet on Po that I could beat you with a surprise attack. five yuan". I looked over to Mantis and saw him handing over a bunch of coins to Po who had a smug look on his face.
"Well I guess I just won with luck". I spoke. Monkey smirked.
"Trust me, if it had been a real battle, I would have won hands down".
I knew that Monkey was right about that, I decided not to let him know. His ego was big enough without me adding to it.
After we had finished sparing, the training session was over. Everyone instantly appeared in front of Shifu and bowed. I arrived a couple of seconds later again. And then Po, sounding just as tired as myself.
"Good work today students. You may go".
Once again, we left the training hall. Crane took the moment to ask me something.
"Say Mike, how would you like to go and visit the valley this time"?
"Good idea Crane. What do you say Mike"? I looked at Crane. I just smiled and nodded. I guess it would be nice to see the town this time round without needing to follow commands from a rhino.
"Then lets get going, last one there's a rotten egg"! Yelled Monkey as he sped through the front doors of the training court.
"Oh no you don't"! Yelled Mantis from behind as he took off just as fast. The rest of us just took our time.
"I can't believe those two sometimes". Viper complained.
"Ah let them be Viper, they know what they're doing". Po replied.
"You mean like that one time you did and challenged them to a race down the Valley steps"?
Everyone held in their laughter except for Po and myself.
"What happened then"? I asked Crane.
"Po challenged Monkey down the steps one time and he slipped on the very first stair. He tumbled down the whole way".
I gave a small laugh, trying to imagine it. We then descended down the stairway which looked like it went on forever.

...

Authors notes: This was the continuing section that I said was from the last chapter. Glad to post it on.

I also want to say thank you everyone for all the views and support I've been getting from writing this story. It's been such a positive boost for me and my writing :)