Clearing his mind was one of the hardest things Po had ever tried to do. He lowered himself carefully on the bamboo mat and closed his eyes and just…breathed. In, out. In, out. Breathing was starting to feel a little odd. Had it become uneven? Po focused on getting it at a moderate tempo, as if he was breathing to a metronome. The bamboo mat was also a little uncomfortable. It was starting to numb his backside and he wriggled from side to side to gain some feeling back. In, out. There was a moth. Or a fly, or a bug, or some small insect making an annoying buzzing sound. It pierced through any ounce of mind clearing he'd achieved. Po huffed. Focus! He laced his fingers together to stop himself from fidgeting with the loose strands on his shorts. In, out. Were his nails getting a little long? In, out. The mantra ran though his mind, until stopping after suddenly realising that he wasn't supposed to have anything in his mind. In, out. Breathe, in out, inner peace, in out, in out in out in out IN OUT

Impossible.

Po opened his eyes and collapsed in a heap. This was impossible and he quit trying. Meditation was stupid anyway. It was probably useless. How did it have anything to do with kung fu?

There was a knock at his door and Po sprung up.

"Good afternoon master." He said croakily, the words still feeling foreign in his mouth.

Shifu looked at him sceptically. "I know you think meditation is stupid." He deadpanned.

"No! Not – not at all!"

Shifu held his hand up to stop his rambling. "Students must always respect their master, therefore, no lying."

Po didn't know what to say, he only deflated slightly at the dropped façade.

"It's normal to find meditation boring or pointless," Shifu carried on. "it takes years to accomplish and master perfect meditation, and inner peace."

Po almost frowned, the Five had made out Shifu to be formidable and unforgiving, but Shifu stilled his momentary anxiety over meditation.

After a pause, Shifu beckoned him to follow his lead. "Come out to the courtyard with me."

The courtyard always gave Po an odd feeling. It was the place he'd first caught Ying and exposed the secret of the Furious Five. It was also the place Shifu had punched him in the face and knocked him unconscious. As well as the place Cong had also hit him unconscious with his bo staff. What was it with kung fu masters and blows to the head? Despite all this, he liked the courtyard. It was barely decorated, almost desolate in character, with only a few trees and small bushes around the exterior, hiding the rough wooden fence that kept it hidden from prying eyes. The fact it was an open, outside space helped Po. It didn't hold the claustrophobic feeling he always imagined he'd get from training in a kwoon. They were stuffy and full of sweating bodies, which didn't seem like a very pleasant experience to train in. But now, out in the courtyard with a soft breeze in the air and warm sun shining down, Po was ready to learn.

"Do you know the proper way to salute your kung fu instructor?" Shifu asked, turning to face him and suddenly seeming much more intimidating than before (if that was even possible).

Po quickly pushed his left fist into his open right palm and bowed. Staring at the ground he steadied his breathing, thank god he was nerdy enough to know that.

"Good." Came Shifu's voice, and Po looked up.

"In kung fu there are five basic stances," He began. "Gong Bu, Ma Bu, Xie Bu, Pu Bu and Xu Bu. These are known as the contemporary wushu stances and you must know them off by heart and in muscle memory."

Po nodded quickly, and repeated the names in his head in a panicked rush, knowing him he'd forget and Shifu wouldn't be happy about that.

"Pu Bu is known as the crouching stance," He dropped down to a crouch suddenly. "follow my lead."

Po hurriedly bent his knees and almost lost his balance trying to get as low as Shifu was, and copied his one bent leg and one outstretched.

"Keep your feet turned out to create a more secure stance and put them two shoulder widths apart."

Po turned his toes out and shuffled his feet along the gravel until they weren't uncomfortably close together. This allowed him to bend down more, feeling a numb stretching along his inner thighs.

"Put your back straight and rest your fists at the side of your waist wrists up."

Struggling to keep his balance, Po lifted his eyes from the floor and straightened his back, resting his hands firmly on the sides of his hips.

"The proper stance requires the heel of your bent leg to be on the ground, however it can only be achieved with sufficient flexibility in the leg muscles." Shifu said, looking pointedly at Po's heel, which was definitely not on the ground. "Pull back your shoulders and elbows in." He added, eyes raking over Po's form.

Po corrected himself instantly, feeling a touch of sweat developing on his back.

"First rule of kung fu, step before you strike."

Shifu stepped forward with his outstretched leg and his fist flashed out like lightening. "You must always step first with perfect posture, stances are how you generate power and maintain balance." He said, as if reading from a textbook, though Po was hooked with every word. "Now you try."

Po blinked nervously. "Err… okay, so I just –" He took a step forward, making a rather lame attempt to look like Shifu. " – and then I…" He stretched his fist out, knowing full well there was no power behind it.

Shifu drew a long wooden flute out from nowhere and whacked his elbow with it. "Elbows in!" He demanded, and hit him again but on the side of his legs, drawing a yelp from Po. "And bend lower! Now go again and have power behind your fist."

Po tried again, focusing heavily on bending and keeping his elbows in. This time he didn't wobble, and his fist even looked slightly more menacing.

Shifu nodded his approval. "Elbows are a bad habit to have, it took Ying years to get out of it."

"How long have you trained Ying for?"

The question left his mouth before Po could even bite it back. He was curious yes, but with all the secrets and the complicated lies he didn't feel it was his place to ask such a question.

To his surprise, Shifu answered. "Since she was about nine."

Po gaped at him. "Wow!" He gasped. "No wonder she's so good!"

"I taught her as best I could," Shifu's expression was a mixture of proud and slightly lost. "though she still has quite a few technical issues she needs to work on." He added as an afterthought.

"What about the others? When did you start teaching them?"

"Not till much later." Shifu replied.

"How did you recruit them?"

Shifu raised his eyebrows at Po. "You ask a lot of questions, Po."

"It's the only way to get any answers, Master." Po shocked himself at his brave response and prepared himself for a whack from the wooden flute.

Instead, to his surprise, it never came. "Touché." Shifu said simply.

Po's gleeful surprise must have shown on his face because Shifu quickly hit his forearm with the flute, drawing a yelp from him. "Although, you ignored rule one of kung fu, always respect your master." He continued in his calm tone. "Get down and give me fifty push ups."

"Yes master!" Po said quickly, though he couldn't contain his small smile, there was no malice in Shifu's voice, not like he would have expected a week ago.

He hurriedly got into a plank position and started making an attempt at push-ups (he still had little to no upper-body strength), not quite believing his lucky day.

Fan fidgeted restlessly. He folded and unfolded his arms, rested his hands on the hard gravel, changed his crouching to kneeling and swapped the leg he rested on. Butterflies flew frantically around his stomach, flapping their wings so incessantly he couldn't relax the pit of anxiety forming deep inside him.

"You alright bro?" Cong nudged him gently.

They were kneeled behind a rather large bin at the back of an alleyway. From where they were situated, they could get a good view of the slightly desolate street in front of them, where they watched carefully. Yu and Jia were about two miles away, on the other side of the derelict neighbourhood. And Ying was just outside of it, where there was civilisation and busy streets. They were all given a physical description of the man they were looking for, and their eyes were glued to the look-out spots they were given. Well, most of the time anyway.

Fan looked up from the ground. Cong's face was etched with light worry. "Yeah, yeah I'm good, all totally fine." He said quickly, clearing his throat and putting on his usual cool demeanour.

"You sure? You're usually never like this."

Fan forced a laugh. "What are you talking about?"

"You know –" Cong gestured to nowhere. "all… nervous and that, it's kinda Jia's job to get like this."

"I'm not nervous!" Fan laughed again, playing off the trembling in his hands.

Cong gave him a knowing look but quickly changed the subject. "How do you feel about, you know the whole… you know…" He drifted off aimlessly, but they both knew what he meant.

"Tai Lung?"

Cong made a face and tilted his head slightly. "Yeah well... the Tai Lung problem and the whole thing of Shifu not wanting us to fight him yet Ying thinking it's a good idea to stalk and fight him…" His voice trailed off as if he didn't know how to end the phrase.

Fan wasn't sure how to respond. Yes, the prospect of Tai Lung scared him. He was mature enough to admit that. Nervous wasn't the right way to put it, anxious was probably more accurate. There was a rising feeling bubbling in his stomach that what they were doing was a very bad idea. Shifu didn't want them going after Tai Lung for a reason, and as much as Ying was going through her teenage phase of wanting to rebel against him, he usually had a lot of well-thought-out logic and their best interests at heart. So this was maybe a bad idea. Possibly, surely, definitely, absolutely a bad idea. Tai Lung was deathly dangerous, and everyone knew that no matter how many years he'd spent in prison, once a kung fu master always a kung fu master, the pure talent he was rumoured to have would never leave him. As much as they'd protest this, the five of them didn't train nearly as much as they should, with possibly Ying as the exception, but she still didn't practice kung fu as intricately as Shifu would like. They couldn't possibly compare to Tai Lung.

"I just hope that we all make it out alive." He said finally, the statement heavy in his mouth.

Cong grimaced. "That's a big ask."

Fan snorted. "I know, but at least we go down in blazing glory or whatever."

"I'll bet we'll be so spoiled at our funerals."

"Shifu will feel so bad he'll give a eulogy."

"It might even be a pack of lies about how great we are."

"Then if he's feeling nice he'll shed a single tear."

Fan and Cong sniggered, despite the situation they were in.

Suddenly, there came heavy footsteps, approaching the entrance of the alleyway, and they both shut up immediately. They exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing, and Cong carefully stood up, still hiding behind the bin. And the man of the hour walked past the alleyway, completely unbeknownst that he was being watched. He wore a dark coloured jacket and trousers, hood up and almost slouching as he walked past. As if to hide his impressive muscle and broad shoulders. As a result he looked, for the most part, very inconspicuous. His footsteps started to quieten as he walked away and Cong ran silently to the edge of the alleyway and peeked round the corner.

Cong looked back round to him, mouth agape. "Do you think…?"

Fan nodded firmly, too nervous to speak.

"I'm following him," He whispered, eyes wild and determined. "stay here just in case."

"Wait – Cong –!" Fan hissed, but it was too late, he was already off.

Fan had wanted to protest further, pull him back and form a better plan but he just gritted his teeth and stayed put. Great, he huffed, splitting up never did any good. He watched as Cong rounded another corner and they were both lost to his sight. That same anxious feeling came back and he breathed deeply, ignoring it and taking gentle steps back into the shadowy descents of the alleyway. Everything would be fine. Cong was perfectly capable of taking on Tai Lung if it really was him. Especially since he had the upper hand, Tai Lung would have no idea he was being followed. And all Cong was supposed to do was trail his steps, Ying had strictly instructed they were not to try to initiate a fight unless it was all five of them. Everything would be fine. They'd be totally fine. Fan breathed, in the safety of the alleyway.

Something dull and hard made brutal contact with his head.

Lights flashed before his eyes and his brain ricocheted against his skull.

Fan's body hit the ground instantly.

I understand this chapter is crazy short compared to the others, and it seems like I've been on a slew of short chapters recently lol. But the structure is getting really hard to do so shorter chapters are my go-to at the moment.

1. I don't really have much to add to this except the five share one brain cell
2. Shifu WILL be redeemed, don't worry

As I keep saying I'm trying to get chapters out sooner but I'm afraid uni and work takes up all my time haha. I would usually post on a Saturday night (it's Sunday evening right now) but yesterday I was travelling halfway across the country and if you hadn't read about it on the news storm Eunice hit England and none of us knew how to handle it. So that left me stranded in London yesterday after 6 hours of travelling because no trains were going down south. After that I had a long nap and rest lol, I had a real ordeal yesterday lmao...

Anyway! Thank you so much for all the continued support! You all are amazing and each comment makes me so so happy!