AN: It's time to meet the first new student to the academy, as well as see some of the many clubs at the school!


In the auditorium of the school was were many of the musically inclined students gathered for after school clubs. The dance club took the main floor, with Viper as the club president.

"Alright, let's take role to make sure everyone is here," Viper said, grabbing a clipboard with her tail. The roster of the club was as follows: Viper, Koji, Suya, Mei Mei, Ayeka, Mei Ling, and surprisingly Toka.

"Wait, Toka? You're joining the dance club?" Koji asked his friend.

The snow leopard sighed. "You know how we have to have an arts credential to graduate? This was the only club open after I got kicked out of art class."

"…Do we want to know how that happened?" Suya asked cautiously.

"I don't want to talk about it," Toka said. "Let's just say that I need to work on reigning in my strength.

Meanwhile, over in the art room, Crane was lying on the floor crying as broken art utensils laid strewn across the floor, with Fung and Alena standing there awkwardly and trying to comfort the bird.

"Anyway, I brought in another student to play accompanying music for us," Viper said. "Let's give a welcome to our newest student, Soma Flemming!"

The other students clapped as a female wolf entered the room. She had yellow fur with red highlights that contrasted her blue eyes and was wearing a black leather jacket with blue shirt and mini-skirt.

"Sup everyone! Hope I blow some minds with my awesome jazz skills," Soma said with a grin.

"Thank you, Soma. Today we're going to do some jazz dances," Viper explained. "Toka, since you're new you can sit this class out. We'll determine what dance style you favor next time."

The snow leopard nodded and took a seat in the auditorium, where he watched as Soma played a jazz tune on her saxophone. The wolf was a master with her instrument, playing a swinging jazz tune as the others danced.

"They're pretty great, right?" Karasu asked, suddenly appearing in the seat behind Toka.

"Dude! Don't scare me like that," Toka shouted, turning around to face the raven.

"Sorry, it's my natural ninja skills," Karasu said while taking a mock ninja pose. "Anyway, I was wondering if you had my textbook I loaned you last week."

"Oh yeah, it's in my bag," Toka said, reaching into his backpack and pulling out Karasu's history textbook.

"Thanks. If you need help with anything else, I'm here for you," the raven said, getting up from his seat and turning to leave.

As he left, Karasu looked over at Soma, meeting her eyes. Time seemed to slow around them, both of them stopping what they were doing as their vision became hyper-focused on each other.

'Wait, is he…?' Soma thought.

'Is she also…?' Karasu thought.

"Soma!" Viper called, snapping the wolf out of her trance. "You stopped playing. Are you okay?"

The wolf turned to see where Karasu was, the raven having disappeared out of the auditorium. "I just… spaced out a bit," Soma replied, shaking her head. 'This might complicate my plans of a ninja goes here,' she thought as she went back to playing her saxophone.

[***]

"Alright, let's get started on video club!" Po said, clapping his hands together.

"Po, I think there's only the two of us," Xing said, looking around the empty computer lab.

"Oh," the panda sighed, sitting down in his chair. "I didn't really have anything else to do for our first meeting anyway. I heard there was a big fight last night, but it was way past curfew for me to go out and film it."

"Lucky for you that I was there then," said Jintien, coming into the room and handing Po a thumb drive. "I was at my parent's dojo last night looking for new students and caught the fight on my phone when I was going back to the academy."

Putting the thumb drive into the computer, the panda pulled up the video file, watching the Furious Five and Tai Lung facing the Legendary Warrior.

"No way," Po said. "Someone was able to pull the Sword of Heroes?!"

"Not just anyone, a panda," Jintien said. "Look, you can see that they have a bear body type and black and white fur."

"That's so awesome!" Po shouted with stars in his eyes. He turned to the komodo dragon. "You should join our video club. This footage is really good."

Jintien turned away. "I don't know. I'd rather focus on training rather than video work." She brightened up. "However, we could use these videos to help teach others Kung Fu. If I join the club, we can make everyone the best they can be."

"So, will you join?" Po asked.

Jintien gave a thumbs up, which made Po jump out of his chair and hung the komodo dragon.

"Let's take a photo to commemorate the start of our club!" Xing exclaimed. The wolf grabbed his camera and took a picture with Po and Jintien.

[***]

It was nearing the end of the day when Tai Lung hit the gym, not holding back in his intense training regimen. The snow leopard couldn't believe that someone else had pulled the Sword of Heroes out of the ground. There was also the fact that his sister had been named the Dragon Warrior, which only furthered his anger. His name literally meant "Great Dragon," the title was practically made for him!

Shredding one of the training dummies with his claws, Tai Lung growled as his ears picked up sound behind him. Turning around, he saw a group of people standing there: Junjie, Huli, Fenghuang, the Wu Sisters, and Shen.

"What do you want?" Tai Lung spat, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"We're here with a proposition," Junjie said. The fox adjusted his glasses then opened up a notebook on the table. "With the advent of there being a Dragon Warrior, I've determined that there are four possible candidates for the title." He pointed to four pictures that were glued into the notebook: Tigress, Karasu, the Legendary Warrior, and Tai Lung himself.

Fenghuang spoke up next. "While Tigress may have the title now, the other three put into question which one is the true Dragon Warrior. The raven has shown skill in summoning dragon attacks, and the Legendary Warrior- Well, you don't think being able to wield that sword isn't significant, do you?"

"The reason we're here is that we believe that you are the strongest (physically at least)," Huli said. "Strength is what's going to win the inevitable fight for the title, so we want to make sure we're backing the right side."

Shen gave an audible cough. "I'm only here because you invited me, Junjie. I'd rather not make alliances until all the cards are on the table. Tell me who the Legendary Warrior is, and then we can talk." With that the peacock walked out of the room.

"Anyway, what do you say? Are you in?" Su asked.

Tai Lung thought about it, then smiled, shaking Junjie's hand. "Let's show this school who's really the strongest."

[***]

Underneath Jade Palace Academy, there was a vault that is said to hold unimaginable power and weapons. Guarded by warriors of limitless stamina, it is said that no warrior would be able to get in.

'Good thing I'm not a warrior then,' thought a figure as they clambered between the basement rafters. They were clad in a green ninja suit and expertly avoiding the living jade statues that patrolled the ground below. With excellent agility, the ninja dropped a rope line down to the vault door, a pick in hand to open it.

What they didn't expect was for the rope to suddenly go limp, sending the ninja unceremoniously down onto the floor. Looking up, they only saw the glint of a sword before turning tail and running out of there before the jade warriors could investigate the sudden noise. When they got back up to the surface, Karasu was there in full ninja garb with his sword resting casually behind his head.

"Hello, 'Soma Flemming.' I believe before you go stealing things that don't belong to you, we should have a talk, ninja to ninja," the raven said.


Author's Note

Allow me to formally introduce the academy's newest student, Soma! Thanks to Phantomwriter for giving us the Jazz playing wolf by day, secret ninja by night!

In other news, we saw some of the clubs, as well as an alliance forming between the traditionally villainous characters. The true question, though, is who the Legendary Warrior truly is?

There's still one more spot open for a male student, so keep sending in potential students to join!