Ohyaho London! Konnichi wa New York! Konban wa Tokyo! CJzilla here, bringing you another chapter! Enjoy.
As I tear this city to the ground, alls CJzilla has to roar is this: R&R! Love on me, hate on me... I don't care.
Pick Up the Pieces
Layla balled her fists in a show of frustration.
"Layla," Shifu said, "to Oogway, you had nothing to apologize for. He'd be happy with your return home."
The vixen stood, anger lighting up her yellow eyes.
With Layla's angry outburst a wave of wind blew through the room, dousing the candles and causing scrolls to violently flutter. Shifu forgot how powerful she'd become under Oogway's mentoring, even though she'd been gone for so long.
"Layla," the Red Panda Master walked off of the rise, "calm yourself. There's nothing to be angry over."
The vixen glared at Master Shifu.
The vulpine was known to have a mysterious and painful childhood. To her, her best was never good enough and caused her to go to extremes to slate her ideal. Even Oogway couldn't convince the young vixen that if she put her whole heart into something, that was her best.
Layla's eyes fell to the floor as she sighed. She paused again, eyes cast to the painting of her deceased master. The Red Panda held his eyes to his old friend's pupil. Oogway's death was hard on the entire Valley, not to mention the aged turtle's closest friends. Shifu inhaled, the stab of mourning still pricking his heart.
"There is nothing wrong with grieving, Layla," the Red Panda voiced. "Let your tears flow and your heart ache. Mourning cleanses the soul and allows forgiveness."
Then he moved down to Layla. Her face stiffened and her eyes sharpened.
"Tears are a waste of time," the vixen's intelligent yellow eyes concealing wretched tears. "There is nothing accomplished by tears other than a wet face and the pity of others."
Shifu was taken aback. Layla's heart was still stony and unyielding.
"Layla," the Red Panda tapped his staff on the floor. "Repressing and dismissing emotions is not what Master Oogway taught you. If you withhold sorrow, happiness and humanity all that's left is a heart blacker than coal."
Layla's eyes were not on him any more. She was firmly staring at Oogway's staff held in his little paw. Shifu traced her eyes to his staff, then shot his eyes equally rapidly to hers. The vixen's yellow eyes were glazed over with thought.
"You are now Supreme Kung Fu Master, Shifu," her tone was abandoned with a hint of fury.
The Red Panda feared her thoughts and her next words.
"You are nothing," Layla spat. "So you deserve nothing! You took it from Master Oogway!"
Something in Shifu's gut told him to keep his body loose and ready for an attack.
"No I didn't, Layla," the Red Panda immediately voiced. "Master Oogway left me as Supreme Kung Fu Master."
He read the vixen's face and saw fury. As her fists tightened and she gritted her teeth, the room began to vibrate.
"You were power hungry and self righteous," Layla growled as objects began to levitate. "Look at what you did to Tai Lung! He's marked for your presumptuousness. You filled his head with fantasies of ultimate power! You tried to buy your way into Master Oogway's position and when you couldn't, you took it!"
Shifu stood his ground and gave an authoritative tap of his staff.
"Layla, enough!" The Red Panda barked. "Your accusations are weak and unfounded. I did not take anything from Master Oogway nor did I want his position. But in light of events beyond my control, I was forced into Oogway's shoes."
Layla's expression remained but the vibrations and levitating ceased. Shifu glared at her.
"You are dismissed from my sight, Layla," the Red Panda pointed his staff to the door, slightly disgusted. "Your anger blinds you. Clear your mind and you may talk to me."
The vixen's scowl grew deeper as she reached into her tattered robe. Seizing a smoke bomb, she threw it to the ground. When the smoke cleared, the vulpine was gone.
Letting out a shaky breath, Shifu held his throat to see if she'd tore it out or not.
Just then the doors burst open and the slurping of noodles could be heard. In walked Po, his face at the bottom of a bowl of noodles. Shifu couldn't have asked for a better distraction and he could kiss the panda for his timing. Po slurped up the last of his meal and laughed.
"Who were you talking to?" The chubby panda burped, closing his eyes as he rubbed his nose. "And I'm not angry any more. I ate and I forgive you for the cookie test."
Shifu rolled his eyes as Po swiveled on his hips.
"I wasn't talking to you Po," the Kung Fu Master returned, leaning on his staff returning his eyes to where Layla was once standing. "I was talking to someone else."
The panda glanced around the Hall of Heroes before he gave his master a funny look.
"Who? Cause I don't see anyone here but the two of us," Po returned. "Maybe, in your old age, you're talking to dead people."
He then gasped.
"DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!" Po cried falling to his knees.
In a flash of a second Master Shifu's hand was over the panda's mouth.
"There's no need for a yelly fit," the wise marital artist told his student. "One of Oogway's old students has returned to the Jade Mountain."
Po gave his master a nutty look, like Shifu had just grown an extra head.
"Whaddya mean Master Oogway taught another student?!" The panda's arms were in the air.
Shifu gave him a conk with his staff.
"She was the last Master Oogway ever mentored," the Red Panda grabbed Po's lips with his little yet powerful hand. "I know her as Layla, but you shall call her Lady Layla."
Po nodded.
"Layla has been traveling abroad for the last twenty years and is finally back at the Jade Temple," Shifu added.
The panda blinked.
"Twen-y years?" Shifu still had a death grip on his lips. "Dats a long, long f-ime!"
"Such is the path of a warrior," the Red Panda Master returned nodding at Layla.
Shifu took his hand off of Po's mouth.
"I see Lady Layla has improved her disappearing technique," the Kung Fu Master thoughtfully tapped his staff on the floor. "I wonder what else she's perfected over the years…"
"Okay…" The panda drawled. "Well, if you make a habit out of talking to people who aren't there, just don't start arguing with yourself."
Shifu pounded the bottom of his staff on Po's foot. As the panda danced around, whimpering in pain and holding his foot, Shifu kept his eyes on the window he was sure Layla fled out of.
"She is as angry as I remember," the Red Panda Master held his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, Oogway. What would you do right now?"
"See?!" Po pointed. "You're talking to people who aren't there again!"
The Red Panda turned to his student but glanced at the empty noodle bowl on the floor.
"How many times must I tell you, Po?" Shifu scolded. "The Hall of Heroes is a sacred place, NOT a mess hall!"
The panda glanced at the bowl.
"Hey!" Po went defensive. "Technically that's just an empty bowl! The food was in my mouth when I walked in!"
The Kung Fu Master gave his student an unimpressed stare at his horrible excuse.
"Does one deny the existence of wind when it's not blowing?" Shifu tapped his staff on the dirt. "NO! And if I ever catch you eating in the Hall of Heroes again, I'll put you on dish duty for a month!"
Po gasped.
"All right! All right!" The panda scrambled toward the bowl. "I'll never eat in there again! I swear! NOT THE DISH DUTY! PLEASE! I've been a good Dragon Warrior!"
Now the panda was blubbering, making Shifu groan.
"F-fine!" The Red Panda face-palmed. "Just… just put that bowl away and let's get back to our focus lesson."
"Sure! Sure!" Po scrambled to the door, tripping and smacking his nose on the floor. "OW! I'll put the bowl away and get back to the training yard! I'm practically there all ready!"
"GO!" Shifu ordered pointing his staff at the panda.
Po then kicked the bowl accidentally, sending the bowl sliding on the floor. He chased it but kept kicking it. He dove for it but bit his tongue in the process. With a yelp of pain, the clumsy panda scooped up the bowl and ran out the door. But when he snapped the door shut, he mashed his hand. With another yelp of pain, Po was gone.
Shifu popped his lips and turned back to the Hall's pond. Perhaps he could figure out what to do about Layla.
Po shook the pain from his nose, hand and tongue. Why did various body parts get hurt in the most painful places? First he got his foot stuck between some loose boards in his bedroom, then he got his face stuck in the cookie jar and finally he slams his hand in the door. And that was just within the half an hour! Gravity seemed to have it out for him.
"You got nothin' on me!" Po then yelled into the sky. "You hear me gravity?! Nothin'!"
The panda put the noodle bowl on his head and crossed his arms as he looked into the nearest cloud.
"You have no control over the Dragon Warrior!" Po went on, the bowl spinning on his head. "I am supremely awesome, Master of Awesomness! I am the fighter who defeated Tai Lung with a single finger!"
Po wiggled his pinkies at the universe.
"Who are you talking to, Po?" Came a voice from in front of the panda.
Po tripped at the sudden voice and came to a stop in front of Tigress' feet.
"Oh," the panda rolled around on the ground for a second before he managed to get to his feet. "H-hi Tigress. I was just… doing an ancient and sacred… Dragon Warrior… uh… I was just practicing my trash talk. Am I getting better?"
The female tiger grinned, fighting off a laugh at how endearing this pudgy panda was.
"A little," Tigress answered. "Maybe you should puff out your chest just because you can intimidate so well."
Po nodded, smile tripling in size. He sucked in his gut and puffed out his chest before his pants promptly dropped to the floor. Embarrassed and with Tigress' gut busting laughter not helping, the panda scooped up his pants from around his ankles and ran toward the kitchen, bowl spinning on his head.
Layla stood at the Peach Tree of Infinite Wisdom, her Master's favorite spot. Gloom set in her heart when she saw the once brilliant peach tree withered and dead. This was no doubt the work of that power hungry Shifu. He always wanted Master Oogway's knowledge and probably put the aged turtle in his grave.
Setting her hand on the weak tree memories hit the vixen's brain like a wall.
Layla was a little vulpine child no more than nine years old when her real family cold-heartedly tricked her into waiting for them at the top of Jade Mountain. Layla was helpless and alone. She'd never forget that day when those big red doors opened and that kind-hearted turtle stood there with a welcoming smile. Though it cost the aged turtle several sweet rolls to the almost feral fox child, Oogway got her into the temple. At first the Kung Fu Master gave her a job as a dishwasher, her work in exchange for a roof over her head and food in her belly.
But that all changed when she met Tai Lung. The cocky twelve-year-old snow leopard boy constantly teased her as she cleaned around him. All it took was one punch across Tai Lung's smug face and Master Oogway sensed the young vixen needed guidance to her anger more than anything. Thus began the training as a Kung Fu warrior.
As she grew so did Layla's anger. Though she was older than normal when she started training, by the time she was sixteen Layla could put Tai Lung to the mat. She was talented but still Oogway disapproved of her anger and temper. Layla saw how her anger had caused a rift between her and the only person to ever care about her, so in the dead of night she ran away. Hoping that she'd learn to control her anger, the vixen traveled.
But when she heard that her beloved Master had passed away, Layla dropped everything and traveled tirelessly back to the Jade Mountain. Imagine her distain when she found the arrogant Shifu in Oogway's unequaled position. The conniving little sneak must have taken the title as Supreme Kung Fu Master from the aged turtle! Shifu didn't deserve that staff nor to be a Kung Fu master. He'd never replace Oogway. Layla would make sure of that.
R&R! LONG LIVE ROCK!