Po sullenly walked into the kitchen to find the Five at the table waiting on him to arrive and make their food, as well as Master Shifu himself. "Po! Good to see you. I was worried that Mantis might have to cook." Shifu said to the Panda, his tone serious, but his look conveying mischief his words did not...
It worked as intended as Mantis gasped in indignation. "Master Shifu! Are you saying I can't cook?!" he asked the old Master incredulously, shocked that he would say such a thing.
Monkey chuckled at his friend's reaction to Shifu. "No offence pal, but you cannot cook." he agreed with Shifu on that, teasing Mantis a little bit more. "I'd rather trust Tai Lung in the kitchen than you."
Mantis looked to the others for backup. "Guys! You have my back right?!" he asked Viper, Crane, Tigress and Po. "You know I can cook!"
Tigress was the first to speak up. "No comment." she simply stated to Mantis in response.
Viper held her tail up. "I abstain." she stated.
Crane nodded at Viper's reaction. "Ditto."
Mantis sighed in frustration and looked over to Po. "Po, come on, the great Dragon Warrior has my back, right?" he asked before seeing Po's downcast look as he stood in front of the cooking equipment, leading to concerned looks from everyone present as he seemingly ignored Mantis.
Shifu cocked his brow in confusion at his student's demeanour. "Po? Is everything alright?" he asked with mild concern in his voice.
Po seemed shaken from his stupor then and got to work cooking the food. "Oh! Oh, err yeah, sorry, I was just... Errm... Thinking." he chuckled to everyone as he quickly began work on breakfast. He was cooking Zongzi currently with walnut fillings, or walnut and tofu fillings for Tigress.
Everyone at the table looked at one another. "About...?" Monkey gestured for him to continue further with the explanation.
Po seemed unsure as to whether to say anything, but decided it wouldn't do any harm to discuss what had happened with the Five and Shifu. "It's just The Hunter, he-"
Po was cut off by Tigress who stood up from her seat very suddenly. "What did that beast say or do to you?!" she asked with a vicious snarl on her face, apparently ready to confront him right now if needs be. The rest of the Five and Shifu all looked in slight shock at her readiness to go after him, although after this morning they supposed it made sense...
Po turned around and shook his head. "No no, he didn't do anything! It's just that I tried to convince him to eat breakfast with us outside earlier..." he spoke and Tigress wearily sat back down in her seat, guessing Hunter rejected Po's offer that led to him feeling disappointed. Honestly she thought the rejection was worthy of a celebration more than anything else. "You can guess his response. And it looks like he's already decided he's leaving at the end of the week." Po added with disappointment evident in his voice as he went back to cooking the rice and preparing the stuffing with less enthusiasm than usual, although from the looks of it Tigress was slightly pleased at this news.
Shifu's ears dipped lower at hearing that in sadness. Hunter was about as good at Tigress at shielding his emotions from others, but despite his valiant attempts to hide it, he could sense the pain within the man. He'd hoped that Hunter might be considering his offer at the very least... He had the makings of a great Kung Fu Master within him. Seeing him punish himself so harshly reminded Shifu of himself, and of course Tigress as well in many ways... Of course, he and Tigress had made great strides in working through their pain and finding their inner peace, with Shifu having achieved such peace, and Tigress was well on the way to doing so herself. Hunter however had seemingly accepted his pain as a fact of life with no end to it in sight. Shifu wished Oogway were here to guide him, and to continue helping Hunter in ways he felt only Master Oogway could.
While Shifu was lost in thought, Viper slithered over to Po and put her tail on his shoulder. "You can't control how people feel about us Po. If he doesn't want to stay at the Palace, that's his choice." she pointed out to him with an encouraging smile.
Po shook his head in frustration then. "I just wish he'd stop being so impolite and eat with us! It's not like we're gonna poison him!" he pointed out to the others, his annoyance getting the best of him as he continue prepping the food.
Crane scoffed at that, leaning forwards on the table. "It's not like he'd appreciate your food anyway. He'd just take it for granted without even a thank you." he added in his two yuan to the conversation.
Mantis agreed with his avian friend. "Yeah, guy like that doesn't appreciate shit thrown his way." he spoke derisively about The Hunter with a scoff.
Monkey shrugged then. "He just expects things to fall into his lap. 'A week at the Jade Palace?! Great! Vacation time!'" He did a poor impression of Hunter, although it was clearly meant to be mocking anyway.
Viper hissed in hesitant agreement. "He didn't even take a room. He just decided to camp out by the Peach Tree like he owns the place. You'd think he'd show more gratitude, being offered a room in a Palace." she shrugged.
Tigress also nodded showing her support. "He doesn't know humility. How hard we push ourselves each and everyday to do what we do. He might be able to take on bandits with some amount of skill, but that doesn't make him our equal. We've each suffered in different ways to get where we are, while he seems to think he can just waltz in and out of the Jade Palace on a whim." she added to the conversation and everyone nodded in agreement with that.
"...Is that what you think?" came a voice from the door behind the group. Everyone turned to the source with a gasp, except Shifu and Tigress, although Tigress' eyes did widen at realising they'd been caught talking shit about Hunter behind his back, and Shifu had a look of disappointment in his students' conduct. Hunter was currently wearing what looked like some form of training clothes. It looked to be some kind of black hooded Gi uniform. He did not look at all pleased, and had likely heard most of not all of the conversation. "That I don't know humility? That I've not suffered?" His voice was dark and cold, and Monkey gulped at seeing the dark expression on his face. "That I'm such an ungrateful prick and that I don't appreciate anything given to me?"
Mantis decided to try and salvage the situation before it got out of hand. "Look, buddy, we were just jokin' around! That's all! Just... Joking.." he trailed off realising Hunter wasn't buying it at all.
Hunter's now fierce gaze pierced through each of them, even Po was left standing stock still. "You all have no fucking clue do you?" He asked, his voice filled with bitterness and steadily growing anger. "How damned privileged your lives are. Do you have any... ANY FUCKING IDEA how hard I've had to claw, bite, scratch and fight my way to get where I am now!?" Hunter raised his voice at them all, his gaze burning into each of them as they noticed his body language becoming more aggressive. He then grabbed a knife, laid his hand on the table and stabbed the knife through his hand in front of them, part of the blade going straight through and piercing the table itself. They all stared in horror at the display of self-inflicted violence happening before them. "Suffering?! You want to talk about suffering and pain?!" He asked, twisting the knife in his hand with no reaction from himself apart from the boiling rage in his eyes. "Have you ever, EVER been so hungry, so starved for food that you can't sleep from the sheer fucking pain of feeling your own body eating away at you night after night? Do you at all understand the concept of having to fucking FIGHT everyday just for scraps of food in the street with other kids?!" when he said 'other kids', their expressions contorted into a further mix of shock and horror, which was saying something. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE TO STEAL FOOD JUST SO YOU DON'T FUCKING STARVE TO DEATH AND WASTE AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WHILE YOU SLEEP ON A FILTHY BLANKET IN THE DIRTY SHIT-COATED STREETS?!" He truly yelled at them all now, passion and vitriol laced into his words while everyone gawked at his display and what he was revealing to them about his past.
Crane went to stand and speak some form of an apology. "W-we didn't mean-"
Hunter's expression of pure rage then turned solely to Crane as he pulled the knife from his hand with a sickening sound and threw it, the force sending it almost clean through the table right in front of the avian Kung Fu Master, making him jump in fear. "SIT DOWN!" Hunter yelled which made everyone flinch away as Crane stopped speaking, meekly returning to his seat with a terrified expression and trying to shrink himself as much as avianly possible. Hunter's calm darkness returned then and he continued to speak. "And you know what? When I did get food? When I stole it or won the fight over the meagre scraps we brutally beat each other over? I still shared it with those hungrier than me, to those who needed it more, to those who'd gone longer without anything to eat. To the same kids who spat at me and called me a freak, who told me the world would be better off if I was dead. Who kicked me while I slept." His tone was nothing short of a low growl, the pain in his tone evident and on show... but the pain was not from the knife wound... "Never did I ask for anything in return. Never did I brag or hold it over any of them. And never, not ever have I bothered any of you for food or whined about sleeping out in the cold, or bitched about not being included in anything. I look after mydamnself, as I always have." he pointed out to all of them, his voice shaking a little at saying that part, some amount of true emotional pain shining through for once. "I'm so sorry if that offends the great Kung Fu Masters." Hunter spoke in vitriolic sarcasm. "I made a vow to myself long ago that I'd never, not EVER go that hungry again. Nor would I let anyone else I came across suffer like I did. So don't you fucking dare call me ungrateful, or impolite or even try to imply that I haven't ever suffered or felt humility, you overstuffed bunch of fancy dancing cunts." He snarled and turned, walking out of the room while taking another bandage out to wrap the other hand with as well since it was obviously leaking blood.
After the chewing out Hunter had given them, the entire table sat in shocked silence. Not even Mantis could slice through this tension with one of his jokes. All they felt was shame and shock at the outburst from the usually emotionally devoid Hunter. Even Tigress was wide eyed and silent. Shifu was staring at the door Hunter had left through and felt he understood him more now. That outburst may have inadvertently been a good thing in some ways...