18. The Symbol of Honor

Ravan's ears were still ringing from the loud bang of the explosion. When finally, only a slight whistling went through his auditory canal, he slowly dared to take command again. He jumped onto a low strong branch and surveyed the chaos. Most of the other ninjas had recovered and struggled to their feet again.

The leader let out a snarl of anger, his anger was building in his stomach more and more with every second. He still had Shen's withering glare burned into his memory, and that was reason enough for him to take it as a battle requirement.

"The pale bird can't be so far away yet!" the panther thundered over the heads of the others. "Spread out and look for him!"

One of the ninjas, who must have been hit in the back somehow, raised his paw shyly. "Do you really think that's wise? This bird easily took on our whole squad. Maybe we'd better start looking for another creature for our fight dances before he kills us all."

Ravan thought he had misheard. Angrily, he jumped at the feet of the person. "Are you already fed up if someone kicks your butt just once?! If we could take on the samurai back then, then even more so with a sword-wielding fowl!" He grabbed his colleague by the collar. "So go now! Search him! Torture every passer-by you can find! But find him!" His pupils narrowed. "And we'll get back our Tori again! I swear to you!"

"Shen, could we slow down maybe?"

Shen turned to Po, who was still carrying Dao through the undergrowth. But instead of waiting for an answer, Po put the still motionless peacock down on the grass and perched himself on a rock.

"Why don't we try to sober him up?" Po suggested. "Maybe he can walk on his own now."

Shen narrowed his eyes skeptically. "I don't think so."

He walked over to Dao and gave him a searching look, but Dao was still apathetic and unable to speak as before.

"What was that explosion?" Po wanted to know. "Was that in the glass?"

Shen looked up, then he lifted the right corner of his beak in a crooked grin. "A capsule filled with a powder and a liquid. When the glass breaks, these two components react to form a very explosive mixture and it..." he snapped his finger feathers, "...everything blows up."

Po raised his eyebrows. "How do you know that?"

Shen folded his wings and looked away. "I just know it."

The panda's mouth twisted. Such an answer was rather uncharacteristic of Shen. Apparently, he just didn't want to say it.

"Okay," Po admitted defeat. He was exhausted enough. He was getting too tired even for a chat. "Is it still far?"

"We're already there," Shen announced calmly. "Koyosho is over there."

"Huh?" Po lifted his head with a jolt. Then he quickly got to his feet and joined next to Shen, who could see the illuminated port city from a hilltop position.

Po breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, what a stroke of luck," and plopped down on the grass. "Hopefully this guy is already on board. Then we can leave here immediately."

Shen looked at him in surprise. "Who are you talking about?"

"Well, the python that stole your sword from you." Po looked at Shen in surprise. "Have you forgotten that again?"

"Let's go." With that, Shen hurried down the hill. Po almost forgot Dao. He hurriedly turned around, picked up the second white peacock from the forest floor and ran after Shen.

They stayed close to the coast to avoid densely populated residential areas. Although it was already several hours after midnight and there were almost no people on the streets, they marched as close to the harbor as possible in order not to take any risks, so that they finally reached the ship without any problems, which someone couldn't overlook with his red sail.

It was empty at the dock. After Shen had made sure that they were completely alone among themselves, he waved the panda over to him with Dao and together they hurried across the bridge onto the ship.

"Phew," Po breathed a sigh of relief. "That went better than I thought."

"Maybe," Shen murmured suspiciously, looking around the ship's deck carefully.

Suddenly, someone jerked open the door of the ship's cabin. "Who's there?!"

"Don't you dare threaten me!" Shen scolded and held the katana in front of him, which he was still carrying.

The antelope backed away, startled. "Oh, my lord. I didn't even recognize you."

Shen did not elaborate further on this incident. He pulled the katana back and looked down at the captain demandingly. "Did anyone come on board while I was away?"

Po was expecting a "yes" and then setting sail and steaming away from the ninja horde, but the opposite happened.

"No, my lord," the antelope answered, which even made Shen's limbs tremble for a moment.

"What?!" Stunned, the peacock looked at the captain. "Would you repeat that again?"

The captain looked at Shen in surprise. "Were you expecting someone else? So no one has come forward until now."

There was silence for a moment, then Shen stamped his food on the floor furiously. "I knew it! Never trust a snake!"

Po immediately protested. "Hey, that wasn't nice," and put Dao down somewhere on the ship's deck. "My friend Viper is a snake too and she would never do that. I might as well say whether I should trust a peacock."

Shen turned to him, scowling, and Po immediately ducked his head. "That was just an example," the panda explained sheepishly, but then he immediately straightened his back again. "Anyway, we should see that we get out of here."

"Not without my weapon!" Shen interjected.

Po let out a deep sigh. "Oh, Shen. Let it be. It's just a piece of metal. You can replace that."

"Don't say that again!" the peacock cried. "You will seek it now and bring it here!"

Po thought he had misheard. "What?! Are you seriously asking me to look for it now? Even though we run the risk of the ninja finding us after all?"

Shen lifted his head in affirmation. "That's exactly what you're going to do!"

Po's mouth fell open for a moment. "Why me of all people?"

"You didn't prevent him from taking it!" Shen enlightened him gruffly.

"What should I have done?"

Shen nudged him toward the ship's bridge. "You brought that on yourself, now you can eat your spoiled noodle soup again, panda!"

The panda pouted. "And how should I do that? He can be anywhere."

"Find him!" Shen demanded angrily. "You don't come on board until you find it!"

Po frowned. "So what now? The snake or the sword? What am I supposed to be looking for now?" He stopped when Shen's peacock crest started to tremble until his anger fully vented again. "Get lost! Find it now! Do it without delay! Right away! Right away! Right away!"

Po sped off the ship and into the harbor. He came to a brief standstill behind a few wooden crates. "Great. What should I do now?" Groaning, he rubbed his forehead. "My goodness, he is so pig-headed. I would love to know who he got it from. Who am I supposed to ask here? And anyway. Is there anyone who speaks Chinese here?"

Pondering, the panda leaned against a stored cargo and thought so hard he thought his head was spinning. Then an idea came to him.

"Er, sorry - Konnichiwa... Have you seen this one?"

Shyly, Po held up a self-scribbled picture which he'd painted in a hurry. However, this looked more like a worm with sharp teeth than a snake with fangs. The old ram was standing in front of him, who was just about to get some fresh air in front of the door of his house. He looked at the panda with half-open eyes, tired but also uncomprehending.

Po smiled wryly and pointed to the scrawl. "Seen?" He held the picture higher, shrugging violently to indicate he was at a loss.

Finally, the ram seemed to have guessed his clumsy request and shook his head. He said something else in Japanese, then he disappeared back into the house.

With disappointment, Po dropped his shoulders. "This will probably be more difficult than I thought."

So the panda set off again through the dark streets of the port city. He did the same to every citizen he met, although there weren't even many of them. One had just come from a night shift; the other was sleeping off his intoxication somewhere in the corner... But they all had one thing in common: no one could give him any information. No one had seen a snake of this species, nor did any of them speak Po's language.

"AHHHH my goodness!" Po whined as he shuffled through the back alleys of Koyosho. "It could be years before we can get away from here."

The dejected Dragon Warrior paused. He was near the port again, but Shen had made it absolutely clear to him that he wasn't leaving until he came back with what he wanted.

With a deep sigh, the panda sat down on a low stone wall and thought about what he could do now. It was quiet around him. But then he pricked up his ears. Howling voices could be heard in the distance. Since Po had nothing better to do anyway, he left his seat and followed the loud calls. Finally, he even heard soft accordion music.

"Mm, who can that be at this late hour?" Po wondered. "Or is someone throwing a party?"

His path continued to the edge of the harbor where he came to a wooden house that led down a stone stair near the dock on the harbor wall. The house was not in bad shape, but looked in need of a little renovation. The paint was old and a wooden sign dangled askew on just one chain. It seemed to be some kind of harbor pub. Po was about to turn back when a whiff of food caught his nostrils, clearly wafting out of the pub to him. Po felt his stomach speak up again. But Po's joy was suddenly stifled when he remembered that the ninjas had stolen all his money. After some back and forth, Po decided to venture into the small, run-down restaurant to at least do another small round of surveys there.

Hesitantly, he opened the door. Inside it was still very busy, despite the late hour. Maybe it was a 24-hour restaurant, but who cared? Po, on the other hand, ignored the guests, who were probably all sailors, as much as possible. Some even wore fisherman's clothes and didn't mind that it was so late. Probably no one was waiting for them at home either. Some of them drank in a friendly group of men, others played Mah-jongg and other games of dice, while two more dozed in a corner and gradually downed a drink from the bottle.

Quickly, Po rushed to the bar, where the landlord, a fat old sea lion, was wiping the table with a rag.

Po sat down on a wooden stool and smiled brightly at the grumpy sea creature. "Er, sorry, Konnichiwa."

The innkeeper raised his head sullenly. "Good night, freshwater twerp," he mumbled somewhat impolitely. "Besides, it's called 'Konbanwa' around this time, if anything. Though it's almost morning," he said, glancing at an hourglass.

Po's mouth dropped open in surprise for a brief moment, clearly puzzled that the innkeeper spoke Chinese, but it seemed he often came into contact with travelers from China.

"Uh, yeah, okay," Po said after a period of blackout, "I'll keep that in mind. But since you speak my language so well, have you seen this snake here?"

He dug out his sketch, which was already a bit crumpled. The innkeeper only gave it a cursory glance.

"Never seen," he replied briefly and succinctly.

Po raised his eyebrows inquiringly. "Are you quite sure?"

"Listen, black-white marshmallow," the sea lion growled, tossing the rag in a corner, "I've been running this pub before you were dry. I always know who's crawling in and out of here, even when who I'm kicking out, and if something like that had been scrambling under my roof I'd know."

Sobered, Po put the paper back in his pocket and let his ears droop. It just can't be that nobody saw anything. So, this python didn't even seem to have come to town, but then where was he?

Po's ears perked up again as Chinese words caught his ear. He turned around, where he saw several animals at a table eating dumplings. One of them, a burly bull, had a whole bowl in front of him and was stuffing himself dumpling after dumpling, betting how many dumplings he could put in his mouth.

"Where do they come from?" Po asked the innkeeper.

"A crew from the Chinese provinces," the sea lion replied, brushing the few hairs on his head, "brought a shipload here. They come here every month."

"So, so," Po murmured, tapping his empty stomach. Then he got up spontaneously and went to the happy group. The bull had just finished his dumpling stuffing and seemed to be making fun of his comrades for not being able to put as much in their mouths.

"Hey everyone!" the panda greeted. The group of animals, consisting of two pigs, the bull, and three ganders, looked at him in amazement. "Bet I can stuff more dumplings in my mouth than he can?" Po claimed.

The bull, apparently the spokesman for the team, looked at him in surprise. Then he laughed. "You can't do that anyway."

Po raised an eyebrow defiantly. "Wanna bet? If I win, I can eat the dumplings which I put in my mouth."

The animals peeped at each other for a moment, then they nodded. "Why not?"

The landlord raised his eyebrows in surprise as the loud cheering at one of the tables grew louder and louder. His eyes widened as the panda's big wide mouth poked out from under the Chinese sea crew.

"And one more!" Po shouted with full cheeks and stuffed the next dumpling in his mouth. The animals around him cheered him on and then finally… the last dumpling was in! Po threw his arms in the air in triumph. Someone slapped him hard on the back and Po couldn't help it, spitting out all the dumplings. The balls of dough rolled across the table and across the floor. But the panda didn't mind.

"You really are a rock-hard guy," the bull praised him appreciatively.

"Really?" Po looked at him in surprise. People had sometimes told him something different in his home country. "Oh yeah," Po finally said, chest swelled with pride. "After all, I'm the Dragon Warrior."

"The Dragon Warrior?!" Everyone looked at him in amazement. "The same Dragon Warrior that won the championship?" a pig wanted to know.

Po nodded. "Yup."

The bull frowned. "But what brings you here to Japan?"

"Oh, that's for private personal reasons," Po explained in a casual tone, "not that important. Actually, I'm currently looking for someone. Perhaps you could do me a favor by answering a question."

The bull leaned towards him with interest. "Speak, champion, what do you want to know?"

It was quiet on the ship, and although Shen wasn't alone, he felt utterly alone. Maybe even more alone than he'd ever felt before. The white peacock remained watchful on the railing and kept glancing over the dark harbor. He felt the urge to leave as soon as possible too, but he definitely didn't want to leave without his lance sword. The panda just couldn't understand it. This sword was worth far more than the so-called Dragon Warrior could have imagined. The white peacock sighed and looked up at the moon. The darkness around the white disc gradually faded. It wouldn't be long before dawn and still there was no sign of the panda.

Shen had to accept that the panda might be staying away longer than she had hoped. So, Shen left his vantage point and paced up and down the ship's deck. His eyes fell on Dao, who was still silent and lifeless leaning against a wooden wall. Only now the white lord noticed that he was still wearing his black robe, and Dao in turn his red and white one. Since Shen was sure that he no longer needed the role reversal, he walked over to Dao and gently removed his robe. Since he wore feathers on his body, Shen didn't have to worry about that he did something shameful. Then Shen took off the black robe, hung it over a railing and put on his red and white robe. But when he proceeded to put the black robe on his brother, he paused for a moment. He looked thoughtfully at Dao. Though they were both past childhoods, the lord somehow wondered what would have become of them if they had met earlier. Shen would then have been the big brother. He was quite young when he had to leave Gongmen City back then, but Dao would have been a baby. Would everything has turned out differently if Dao had been born before the panda massacre?

Lost in thought and almost mechanically, Shen guided Dao's wings into the robe sleeves and then he tied the robe closed. Then he leaned Dao against the wall again, where he continued to sit like a lifeless doll. The sight brought tears to Shen's eyes again. Then he gently pressed his forehead to Dao's and whispered to him: "Please. Come back to me."

"Shen!" suddenly a voice called from outside. Shen immediately let go of Dao and jumped onto the railing. In front of the ship stood the panda with a bowl of dumplings in his paws. Po grinned and waved up at Shen. "I have good news and bad news."

Shen folded his wings. "The good one would be better, then I'll know if I'll let you on board."

"Well, the good thing is, I know where your sword is," Po announced proudly.

"Where is it?" Shen asked immediately.

Po's shoulders sagged. "Well, that brings me to the bad news."

Horror spread over Shen's face and he imagined the worst possible scenarios until the panda finally replaced the nerve-wracking silence. "We have to go to sea for this."

"And you're quite sure, panda?" Shen asked suspiciously.

In the meantime, they had left the harbor with the ship and were sailing south.

Po nodded persistently. "Yes, the people in the restaurant told me how they overheard a couple of comrades how a crew from the south-east would have had quite a row with a big snake. There would have been a fight and they would have overpowered the snake and put it on their ship. They were only able to leave recently because a part of the crew was involved in a brawl in a restaurant and only now got out of the drunk tank. As far as I know, they took the snake and sword with them and wanted to sail towards Thailand."

Po kind of expected praise, but instead, Shen just lifted his beak. "You're lucky it's on the way, otherwise I would have you..."

"Okay, okay", Po waved him off, "I can already imagine what you want to say. The bitching isn't going to do us any good either."

As an exception, Shen had to agree to this. "Sail faster!" he ordered the crew.

Po, on the other hand, could only shake his head at that. "All because of a sword. I'd much rather go out to eat now."

The sun's rays slowly lifted the dark veil on the horizon. Also above the ship, which had already moved several nautical miles from the Japanese coast. The crew consisted mainly of walruses and several rabbits, which looked anything but nice and friendly. Some had disheveled fur and carried several knives on their belts. The walruses didn't look exactly meek either. The captain even had multiple scars on his chest and carried the longest saber of them all. Even the morning sun couldn't light up his grim face. He stood at the bow of the ship and looked at the sea until a rabbit interrupted his observation.

"Captain," the disheveled mammal reported. "Our guest passenger is making a racket again. Apparently, he's about to walk the plank overboard."

The walrus let out a derisive snort. "Without paying for the overseas voyage? That'll be the day!"

He pushed the rabbit aside and went belowdecks, where there was a large steel cage. The giant snake, squatting there, received him with an evil hiss. "Do you want to let me out of here?" the reptile yelled.

The walrus laughed. "Like right now? Do you want to swim to the mainland? We are on the high seas. You better be thankful we're taking you all the way to Asia."

The giant snake glared at him angrily. "You will certainly not release me there."

The captain twirled his mustache. "That's right, we don't have any tickets available for release on land. The black market is more interested in you." He let out a mean, throaty laugh, which now drove the snake to despair.

"I just wanted to see Africa. Why don't you just let me go?!"

The walrus spat on the ground. "You should have thought of that before you stole from me on the country road."

The boa snake gritted its teeth bitterly. He had to admit that it had been a mistake, mean as the mammal looked, but at that moment he would have done anything to get money. But the captain paid no more attention to the moaning and went back on deck.

The rabbit that had spoken to him earlier wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "Hey, boss. Why don't we kill him now?"

"Oh, don't talk so stupidly," the walrus rebuked him. "Fresh skinned snake skin locally is still the best quality."

"Gosh, waiting doesn't come to an end", Po complained.

"What do you care?" Shen asked with a raised eyebrow. "You don't miss anything."

Po stopped pacing. "But what about the venomous giant snake?"

"What about that one?" Shen said derisively.

"We agreed that he would come with us," Po explained.

Shen raised his beak in the air. "He's just a nefarious land thief. A guy like that doesn't deserve any extra treatment."

Po raised his eyebrows in annoyance. "That may be true, but that's still no reason to break a promise."

Shen turned to him indignantly. "You discussed it with him! I had no part in your foolish recklessness."

"Yes, because you were suffering from acute shortness of breath," Po countered.

Shen furiously raised his peacock comb. "Just don't push it too far! Otherwise, you can swim to China in the barrel again!"

"I see a ship!" the captain announced.

But before Shen could leap forward, Po grabbed his sleeve. "Okay, then let's do it like this: You get your sword and I'll get the snake. That's a good compromise, isn't it?"

Shen glared at him, then he jerked away. "If you like. But don't stand in my way!"

With these words, Shen went to the front of the ship, where he hung onto the ropes and when they got close enough to the strange ship, he shouted loudly: "Throttle your ship at once! And immediately give me a lance sword that is illegally in your possession!"

The walrus captain of the ship, who at first was quite surprised by the peacock's announcement, now burst out laughing. "What does the chicken want?" he scoffed. "Shove yourself somewhere else with your nutshell. Chickens shouldn't be playing with knives anyway!"

Now the rest of the walrus-rabbit team was laughing, too. Po swallowed hard. These guys had no idea who they were dealing with. Admittedly, he himself hadn't thought at first that Shen could become a dangerous beast in a figurative sense - if he wanted to. Outwardly, he seemed so frail and harmless. But that was so extremely deceptive, like a beautiful flower that actually hid a deadly poison. From this, the panda knew that offending Shen was always a bad mistake. And that was not long in coming. Shen was so extremely annoyed by these outrageous statements that his tail feathers began to tremble. But when the sailors still didn't comply after being asked again, Shen, to Po's surprise, swept to the side of the ship and deflated a cloth, revealing a small cannon. At the sight of this heavy artillery, Po's eyes widened. "Hey, I thought Master Ox specifically forbade you from owning weapons in Gongmen City."

"Not to attack," Shen admitted, jumping onto the cannon, "but to defend!"

Po looked at him in surprise. "And I thought, we are attacking."

"This is my final warning!" Shen yelled over, deliberately ignoring the panda's words. "Either you hand it over or we attack!"

But instead of an answer, there was only a mocking laughter, whereupon Shen started to prepare the cannon for firing.

Po raised his paw shyly. "Er, don't you want to fire a warning shot first?"

"Creatures with little respect deserve no less!" Shen snapped at him.

"But Shen," Po pointed out, "if you attack like this, the ship may sink and your sword with it. You don't get anything from that."

Shen let out a loud growl, but that advice curbed his aggression somewhat. "Fine!"

With that, he shifted his weight on the cannon so that it pointed at a different angle. Then the peacock lit the fuse and a cannonball smashed a hole in the top of their opponents' hulls.

"Hey! The rooster is wrecking my ship!" the walrus complained.

In the next moment, Shen jumped to the helm, having to give the captain a rude shove and knocked the ship against the other ship, locking them together.

Then the peacock just jumped over, stood imperiously on the railing and looked grimly at the faces of the somewhat sobered crew of walruses and rabbits. But this intimidation was short-lived. In the next moment, the walrus called to attack.

"Massacre that ship's kobold!"

Immediately, everyone pounced on the white peacock. But Shen, who now had Dao's katana strapped on again, immediately swung the long sword and knocked the saber from the hands of each attacker.

While the battle raged on deck, Po slowly dared to go aboard as well. Here and there, he saw one of the opposing team fall to the ground. Po couldn't tell if the ruler had seriously hurt anyone, but it wasn't his assigned job anyway. The panda quickly descended a wooden staircase below deck. He didn't have to search long and found the caught python in the cage.

"Hey, buddy! I think, you went on the wrong boat," Po greeted cheerfully.

The snake looked at him in surprise. "You here? How did you get here?"

"Oh, not that important," Po said soothingly. "But the ship inspection here is a bit too dangerous. Better we leave this boat."

He swung his fists and smashed the cage's padlock. "There you go," the panda cheered. "I knew I could do that."

He opened the cage door and let the snake crawl out.

"Why are the guys so mad at you?" Po wanted to know.

"I ambushed him once on the way," the python admitted. "When I came into town, he must have recognized me."

Po rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, but I hope you learned something from this and never do it again. Roger that?"

Shen was pretty much done with the crew. The only one who put up a lot of resistance was the captain. But he soon had to realize that he didn't stand a chance against the skillful peacock. Even his long saber didn't help him. Eventually, Shen even managed to get him onto the plank. Once there, he threateningly held the katana in front of his face. "Say now! Where did you hide it?!" Shen demanded.

The walrus swallowed. The marine mammal had great respect for the katana and gave up voluntarily.

"In the cabin," he answered, sucking in his stomach hastily as Shen held the point of his sword in front of him.

"Woe to you lying to me!" the peacock growled.

"No, no," the walrus said. "See for yourself...AHH!"

Shen had given the walrus a shove and it fell into the sea with a loud smack. Without stopping, Shen pushed open the door to the captain's cabin. As the light spilled into the room, the lance sword flashed, to Shen's relief, intact on a table in front of him. Shen sheathed the katana and then he looked down at the lance sword in awe. Finally, he picked it up from the table and stroked the wavy blade. "My victory."

With that, he dived out of the cabin, jumped onto the roof of the captain's house and held it triumphantly over his head.

Po, who had also just come on deck with the giant snake, grimaced in boredom at Shen's pose. "Show-off." But then he jubilantly waved the giant snake over to him. "Come on buddy! Let's go to freedom!"

Immediately, Po swung over the double railings of the two ships and landed on the Gongmen ship with a skillful leap. "Wow, that was so cool..."

In the next moment, something jumped over him and the giant snake accidentally buried the panda under itself.

Shen, meanwhile, had also swung aboard his ship, again holding aloft the recaptured lance sword. "Set sail and full steam ahead to Gongmen City! Right away!"

In the meantime, the panda had wriggled his way out from under the giant snake and rolled onto his back, groaning. "And people always say that boat trips are relaxing. Well, at least we go back to China now." Shaking, Po raised his fist in the air and cried out in an exhausted voice: "Hip-hip hooray."

With difficulty, the fat walrus climbed back on board his ship, where he was received by a completely battered crew. Groaning, he rolled onto the deck.

"And people always say peacocks are harmless," he grunted exhausted. "From now on, I will change my world view. – Uh, such a stupid rooster."

Sorry for the little interaction between Shen and Dao. There's more to come in the next chapter. I promise.