13. A Hopeful Track

Po blinked. It was getting light, but the sun was far from appearing. There were even a few stars still twinkling in the darker part of the sky. The panda stretched himself on his makeshift sleeping place and turned to the side. His gaze fell on the spot where Shen had been lying yesterday evening. Po jumped up. The place was empty!

Still half asleep, he got to his feet and looked around. "Shen?! Shen!"

But there was no sign of Shen far and wide. Quickly, the panda raced down the path. Luckily, he found the peacock. He was standing with his back against a tree and just seemed to have been waiting for the panda. But as soon as Po had arrived panting, he just kept going.

"Do you have to scare me like that?" Po complained, gasping for air.

Shen wrinkled his beak. "I woke you up a few minutes ago and you just fell asleep again."

Po looked at him in surprise. "Really? That was you? I thought, I dreamed that." He tilted his head back and looked up at the sky. "It's not even light yet. Do we have to leave so early?"

Shen didn't reply, he even seemed to ignore the panda's complaint deliberately. With a peeved expression, Po put one foot after the other, all the while scrutinizing Shen.

"Are you still mad because that poisonous python took your sword?" Po asked with annoyance. He raised his eyebrows when Shen slowed his pace for a millisecond on that phrase. Po shrugged. "And if so. If you don't get it back, you can just buy a new one or someone could make you another one... AHH!"

Shen had turned with a bound, his feather knife jerking and holding it precariously close to the panda's throat, glaring at him with red, twinkling eyes. "That worthless item, as you call it, was the symbol of my honor!" Shen snarled.

Po ducked his head in surrender. Not wanting to start a fight with Shen, he hesitantly raised his paw. "Okay, if so, but how exactly do you mean that?"

But the white peacock only lowered the feather knife a little and avoided his gaze.

"Explain it to me," Po offered forgivingly. "Maybe I will understand it."

Shen turned away. "Let's go on," he said in a strained voice.

With disappointment, the panda let out an annoyed groan. "Okay, then you won't explain it to me."

Po pouted and trotted after the peacock.

"When do we reach the village?" he asked after a few steps.

Shen stroked his beak thoughtfully. "According the map... in... two hours."

The panda stopped in horror. "Two hours?! Without breakfast?!"

"If you don't like it, you can run back," Shen rebuked him harshly. "In any case, I'm moving on."

At that moment, Po regretted a little bit that he had sneaked aboard the ship.

The first rays of sun shimmered over the treetops. But with them, Po's stomach growl got louder, and that in turn sent hungry messages to his head. Around every turn, Po craned his neck hopefully, expecting to see a house at any moment. But all he saw was only forest and trees.

"What would I give for a delicious noodle soup now?" Po murmured to himself. Shen heard his monologue, but he didn't react to it.

"Or the delicious rice balls," Po kept talking to himself. "Or this soda noodles... or even better the…"

"Panda!" Shen curbed Po's food fantasies. "Could you do something else in your free time?!"

Po paused for a moment, then he bowed his head ruefully. "Okay."

For a while everything was quiet. Shen thought he could take a leisurely stroll when a whistle reached his ears. The peacock squinted backwards. The panda had pursed his lips and was emitting a whistling song here and there, taking turns dancing his feet a little to the tune. This all went on for more than two minutes, until the peacock finally lost patience.

"Would you - PLEASE - stop doing that?" Shen scolded.

"What?!" Po exclaimed in frustration. "When I'm hungry, I have to do something to keep myself busy. But when I'm quiet, I always have to think about food..." Suddenly, he lifted his nose. "Mm, that smells like yummy..." He looked around searchingly, always nose ahead. "It comes from there!"

Before Shen could stop him, the panda ran down the path.

"Panda!"

But Po didn't even listen to the peacock. He only trusted his nose and it led him behind a clump of dense trees. Po's heart leaped for joy as he spotted a few houses below.

"Breakfast, I'm coming!"

Po quickened his pace, eager to take a shortcut through botany. Suddenly, he tripped over a rock and rolled down the hill. Around Po, the world was spinning until he finally bumped into a hard, low stand. When the world finally came to a standstill again, he lifted his nose and looked into the eyes of two foxes who looked at him in amazement. Po groped forward. He had slammed into a wooden terrace that had slowed his rolling way. His gaze wandered further up to the two foxes, who were holding a kind of small trays in their paws. Several small dainties were lined up on it.

The panda got up with difficulty and looked apologetically at the two foxes. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't want to go like a bull at a gate."

His gaze fell again to the small dishes on the trays. "Erm... may I taste some of that?"

The two foxes looked at each other. Finally, one of them said something what sounded like a question, but Po couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Oh, of course, you speak Japanese, but maybe some Chinese as well?"

He looked at the two foxes hopefully, but neither of them seemed to understand his question. Po scratched his chin briefly, then his face changed into an "aha" gesture and bowed briefly. "Konnichiwa."

Suddenly, the two foxes ran away in a hurry, even dropping their trays. Po looked after them in surprise. "Was that the wrong greeting?"

A white figure ran past him. Po recognized Shen. The peacock made a few long, elegant leaps and the two foxes struggled under his claws. The foxes tried to fight back, but then Shen pressed their heads to the ground. "Shut up!" he rebuked them in Japanese.

Hesitantly, Po approached while Shen continued speaking in their language. Po just stood there blankly.

"Could I ask you to translate it into my language, please?" Po asked.

But Shen paid him no attention. Finally, he released one of the foxes. This one ran away in a hurry while the other was still under Shen's claw.

"What did you tell him?" the panda asked, frowning.

"He should send the village elder to me," Shen answered with a somber expression.

"Wouldn't a polite 'please' have sufficed?" Po objected. "And anyway, I didn't know that you can speak Japanese."

The peacock raised his beak in the air. "Panda, I had an expensive education."

Po looked at him in surprise. "Really? So my education was for free."

Shen narrowed his eyes disdainfully. "It shows."

At that moment, the fox came back accompanied by an older one. Shen released the other fox as well. Then he smoothed his red and white robe and folded his wings together. The older fox bowed his head and narrowed his eyes at him. Apparently, he couldn't see very well anymore.

Shen bowed briefly, then he asked a question, which Po again didn't understand.

"Is this the village Kimura?" the peacock asked.

"Yes, it is," the old fox replied in a shaky voice. "But why are you still here? You've already taken everything from us!"

Po was getting tired of the whole question mark in his head. "What did he just say again?"

The older fox raised his eyebrows. "Are you from China?" he asked this time in Chinese, which sent a ray of light into the language thicket in Po.

"What luck!" he cheered with relief. "Finally, the universe has some understanding with me. But I'm not just any Chinese. I'm the Dragon Warrior and this year I'm even the kung fu champion..."

Po choked on the rest of the sentence as Shen raised his wing admonishingly, "Panda, we're not here to discuss your fame."

The Dragon Warrior's mouth twisted. "I just wanted to introduce myself. In addition, you forgot to say that you are from China as well."

This seemed to confuse the village elder. "The ninjas are from China?"

Po immediately raised his paws. "No, no, that's… well, a little complicated. Because you know, it's not him here." He pointed at Shen. "Well, not really. At least not directly. That was his brother..."

"We're going to assume that he is," Shen corrected.

Po let out a deep sigh. "Okay, then just assuming, but the one who is standing in front of you wasn't here. But we are looking for him."

It sounded a bit confusing from Po's mouth, but the village elder seemed to have enough of his old wits to understand what the panda was trying to tell him. The old fox rubbed his chin and examined the white peacock. Finally, he pushed his nose forward and sniffed. "Mm, expensive clothes, expensive soaps... The ninjas are not destitute, but they probably have no use for such accessories."

Shen gave the panda a gleeful look, pleased that he was being recognized as a nobleman, which Po, in his country clothes, was less likely to say.

"Hey, and what about me?" Po asked indignantly.

The old fox raised his head questioningly. "Have you been in a barrel?"

Po's jaw dropped, then he sniffed his armpits. "Do you really smell it that clearly?"

"If you weren't the one who raided our village," the old fox continued, "then what do you hope to find here?"

Shen looked around. The village wasn't very big, and farther back he could see houses that had been badly damaged.

"I heard there was a robbery," Shen said. "Where exactly did the theft take place?"

The village elder inclined his head again. "If you really want to see it, come with me."

He exchanged a few words with the other foxes beforehand, then he motioned for the peacock and panda to follow him. They walked past the houses. Some of the villagers, who were also all foxes, looked at Shen as if he were the god of death himself, just looking for someone for his underworld. Shen even thought, he saw in some of them the great fear which he had seen in the panda village. Po was a little uncomfortable with this welcome and he wanted to make people a little happier by continuously handing out a "Konnichiwa" and putting on a good-natured smile.

Eventually, they came to a multistory red house that towered far above the other village houses.

"What were they looking for here?" Po wanted to know after they had reached the tall building.

"Our village kept an old art collection here," the old fox explained to him. "They are hardly of any value to a layman, but to those who are familiar with it."

"What kind of objects?"

"Paintings and sculptures. We may not be the most important village, but we have cherished these art treasures for hundreds of years. One of them even comes from the emperor, who later donated it to a relative in this village." They stopped. Not far away was the front door, which, however, looked anything but neatly installed. There were splinters of wood everywhere.

"There had been a fight in there," the old fox said. "Our custodian initially denied the intruders entry. But then he showed up."

"Who?" Po asked. Shen, on the other hand, seemed to know what the old man was getting at, but he was careful not to bombard him with questions. He was sure that he would receive answers soon and this happened promptly. Because in the next moment a fox, also older, stepped out of the building. He wore a black and gold shirt, only all the bandages around his arm and head seemed to be quite fresh. When he saw the peacock, he let out a startled cry and ran back into the big house, filled with fear. The village elder directed some other foxes to follow him.

"My goodness, he's really all of a tizzy," Po said, which was supposed to be a little joke. However, no one could laugh about it.

It took a while until the foxes came back with the fugitive. Apparently, he had been calmed down and enlightened enough that he dared to go out again. For as soon as he was over the threshold, he was still shaking.

The village elder struck up a conversation with him. Shen, who knew Japanese from a young age, listened intently. Much to Po's frustration.

"What are they talking about?" he wanted to know impatiently.

The oldest fox raised his ears. "Permit me to translate for you?"

"By all means, please!" Po said quickly, even before Shen could speak back.

The village elder nodded and turned back to the custodian. "Say what you saw," he asked him in Japanese.

The other elder hesitated, then he went on to talk about being there when he was mugged.

"A white peacock would have appeared," the village elder translated. "At first, he just stood in front of him and stared at him like a ghost. Until an order came."

Po frowned. "What order?"

"He suspects the leader shouted something at him, after which the peacock violently pushed him away from the door. Then he hit him with such a violent blow that he crashed into the nearest tree. The door would then have been free for a moment, but then our servant appeared. He mastered karate, after which a fight ensued between the two. He was able to watch the peacock pushing him into the foyer of the building. It splintered, cracked and rumbled mightily. He was afraid they would demolish the whole interior. Meanwhile, the other ninjas would have smashed the windows and carried out the art objects, while the fight continued to rage in the entrance hall. He was able to drag himself to the door. There he could watch the fight."

Po craned his neck with interest. "Really? It must have been quite spectacular from what it looks like here."

The village elder ignored this and continued to translate the custodian's words. "The peacock fought with a sword. The servant couldn't stop him for long. The leader just stood by and continued to instruct the peacock on how to move because our associate was quite good at karate."

Po raised his eyebrows. "He was?"

The village elder looked down. "At some point, the leader called out to the peacock to cut off his opponent's head."

The panda noticed that he was getting dizzy. "And?"

"He did it," was the older man's only answer.

Po swallowed hard and rubbed his own neck. His eyes wandered to Shen, but he didn't change his face.

"How did he behave?" Po wanted to distract from the previous topic. "Nobody can be so cold-blooded that he just..." He made a slashing motion with his hand.

The elder put the question to the custodian in Japanese, who thought for a moment, then he waved his hands frantically.

"He would have just stood there and did nothing. After carrying out the cruel act, he simply turned away and stood there as if nothing had happened. He just stood there and didn't move from the spot. Only when the leader called for retreat, he quickly disappeared, too. He only moved when he was ordered to do so."

"Mm." Po frowned and rubbed his chin. His gaze wandered to Shen. Should his brother really be more cold-blooded than he is? Po knew the pictures of Shen's raid on his village. There wasn't that much cold-bloodedness to be seen there. Or maybe it was because the wolves had done most of the bloody carnage. Rather, Shen had coordinated and given orders. But even in a fight, Shen hadn't been squeamish about bringing someone down.

At that moment, everyone heard a loud growl. All eyes went to the panda. Po bowed his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, haven't had anything to eat today."

The village elder raised his eyebrows. "If you want, we can offer you something..."

"Oh, that would be very, very nice!" Po exclaimed enthusiastically and pushed his way to the elder, who led him to a house.

Shen, on the other hand, preferred to look around and turned to the custodian. "May I come in?"

The older fox didn't mind. "If you want. But it's not a pretty sight in there."

Shen waved him off. "I'm used to worse."

With these words, he climbed up the small steps and walked through the front door. The door panels hung loose on the floor. The peacock looked around carefully. The walls had been partially slashed open by sharp sword cuts. Further back, old bloodstains adorned part of the wall and a dried pool of blood on the floor, which seemed to be from the victim. Shen walked slowly across the soiled floorboards. Then he suddenly stopped. Among all the blood, he saw a clear bird footprint. His brother must have stepped into the pool of blood after the execution and left a clear footprint. Shen studied the print carefully. Then he slowly lifted one foot and placed it gently on the footprint. They were exactly the same size. At that moment, it seemed to Shen that his reflection came alive. Then his gaze wandered to the sword cuts in the walls. He lifted one wing and pretended to hold a sword. Then he performed swinging movements and tried to retrace the course of the sword fight. Like every notch, he mimicked the sword motion. He tried to put himself in his brother's mind, how he might have moved. He turned, whirled around his own axis, tried to follow the cuts in the wood...

"Hi."

Shen stopped. Po had appeared in the room and looked at the peacock in amazement. The peacock quickly retreated to a normal position.

"Did you find out something?" Po asked, looking at him intently.

"I was just checking something," Shen explained in an arrogant tone.

"It looked very profound," said Po, examining the damage to the walls. "It's been pretty rough here." His gaze wandered to Shen. "Your brother?"

Shen said nothing.

"Can you feel that?" Po asked, which only elicited an annoyed hiss from Shen.

"It was just a question," the panda apologized. "I've never had siblings. Maybe I would have if you hadn't..."

Shen raised an eyebrow admonishingly.

"Well, you know," Po said sheepishly. He rubbed his paws together. "You and your brother don't have very good relations with villages, do you?"

For Shen, these comments became too much and he angrily approached the panda.

"It's okay," Po said and backed away. "I'm worried, too. I mean, about your brother. What do you actually want to do now?"

Instead of an answer, Shen turned away from the panda and went back to the village elder who was standing outside the house.

"Do you know in which direction they went?" the peacock asked, but in Chinese so Po could understand it, too.

"Well, to know that," Po said, "it would need a miracle."

"In that direction," the old fox replied, to his surprise.

"A miracle," Po breathed, impressed.

"Then I'll go there," Shen decided and said goodbye.

"Hey, don't you want to eat something?" Po called after him. "Remember what the old goat told you!" Then he leaned towards the village elder again. "And where exactly did they go? With what goal? I could imagine they didn't just walk straight ahead."

The village elder shrugged. "Who can tell that, stranger?"

"Well, theoretically we have to keep walking in this direction until we meet someone who saw this fleeing group," Po commented as they both hiked along a forest path in the indicated direction. As always, Shen went first. Po carried a bag over his shoulders, stuffed with new provisions. Still, the panda was less optimistic about their new journey. "But honestly. Ninjas are masters of camouflage. Who is supposed to have seen them?"

At that moment, Shen slowed down so that Po was very close behind him.

"Somebody is watching us," the peacock whispered to him softly.

"Who? Where? Wh...?"

"Don't turn around!" Shen instructed him in a firm but quiet voice. "Just keep walking."

Po tried hard to remain silent and stiff, but with every step he got more and more wobbly with excitement. Who should follow them? Was it an attacker? A robber?

He tried to focus on the peacock. He admired that peafowls had such good senses. Sometimes he wished he could do it, too.

Po inhaled sharply. His hands started shaking. He would love to turn around now and send his pursuer fleeing with a scream of attack.

Noticing the panda's growing anxiety, Shen hissed at him annoyed, "Could you finally act normal?"

"Shall I whistle again?" Po asked in a tight whisper.

"Do something!" Shen hissed softly.

"Okay, then I'll just hum to myself." With that, the panda clasped his paws behind his back and put on the expression of an innocent lamb.

"Follow me," Shen said eventually, turning into a group of dense shrubs. Po followed him as unobtrusively as possible until he, too, had disappeared behind a thick bush.

At first, all was quiet in the clearing. Until something landed on the ground and bounced towards the dense thicket. The figure was dark and small. It craned its neck and slowly crept up.

Suddenly, the white peacock jumped out of the bushes and pinned the small black figure to the ground, pressing a feather knife to its throat. A loud scream erupted, closely followed by a hysterical chatter. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I only knew Xiang briefly, only very, very briefly!"

Curiously, Po looked over Shen's shoulder and took a closer look at the black figure lying on the ground.

"Takeo?" he said in surprise. "You here?"

The black crow lifted his head in relief. "The Dragon Warrior! My rescue."

"How did you know that we are here?" Po wanted to know.

"Word gets around quickly with us flying birds," Takeo explained. "And when I heard in a chirp chat that you guys are in Japan, I flew here."

"Why?!" Shen pressed menacingly. The fact that Takeo was a messenger in his town at the time did not change the guilt that the crow had taken upon himself at the time. Or at least almost. After all, Xiang had instigated him to kill his unborn children, but the crow didn't have the heart and hid the eggs. Shortly after it was all over, he fled to Japan.

"At least not to be impaled like a criminal," Takeo said a little more sheepishly and pointed to Shen's feather knife. "Or are you still mad about..."

He let out a choked scream as Shen pressed his foot to his chest.

"But Shen," Po objected, "if he weren't there, your children wouldn't be alive today..."

"Alright!" Annoyed, the peacock let go of Takeo.

The crow flapped up briefly and perched on a low hanging branch, looking guiltily at Shen. "I never meant to harm you. I just wanted to emphasize that again."

"Fine," Shen said venomously and put his feather knife back in his plumage. "Then goodbye."

He turned his back and was about to continue on his way when Takeo's next words made him freeze.

"And what if I can tell you where the ninjas are?"

Po jumped up. "You know where they are?... Wait, how do you know about that?"

"Like I said," the crow explained. "With us birds, word gets around quickly in the air. Almost everything. Which is why I know where the bandits are headquartered."

"Really? And where?!... Hey, Shen, say something?!"

But Shen still stood there, frozen. Finally, he turned to Takeo with a somber expression. "How should I know that you're not playing the wrong game with me again?"

"I have no reason for that," the crow replied, slightly offended. "But if you want. I haven't been in your service for years. So I'm not obliged to give you any information." He turned on the branch, but Po held him back.

"Wait a moment! He didn't mean it like that. Where did you see them?"

"On an island, near the coast," Takeo replied, clearly pleased that at least one of them showed interest. "Further north from here."

"And you can guide us there?" Po asked jitterily.

The crow nodded. "Of course, I can."

Po looked excitedly at Shen. "Then let's go! Shouldn't we?"

Shen narrowed his eyes suspiciously, which Po didn't like at all. "Oh, come on. What have we got to lose?"

Shen looked at him skeptically. "Maybe our life? Especially if it's a trap?"

"Oh, I don't think so," Po said. "Shen, this is about your brother."

Shen's wings spasmed. Did the panda always have to hit a sore spot? His eyes wandered back up to Takeo. "Should this be an attempt to bring me down," Shen spat. "Then I swear, it will be your last."

Takeo shook his feathers. "Mmpf, fine with me. So, does that mean you're coming with me?"

Po looked at Shen pleadingly until the peacock finally nodded.

Then the crow flew up. "Then follow me."

"Great!" Po cheered and wanted to run, but Shen held him back.

"Panda, if a life has to be sacrificed in the end," Shen whispered menacingly, "then not mine, but your life first."

With that announcement, Shen released him and ran after Takeo. Po was stunned at first and just stood there like paralyzed for a moment.

Finally, he nodded. "Oh, good suggestion." But then he had to start running in the next moment, because Shen was really chasing after the black bird, so that Po had no choice but to stay close on his heels and somehow, he could understand Shen's eagerness, too. Perhaps they were as good as there.