And here's the answer!
Chapter 4: Meeting the Contestants
Musaki and Shao walked their way to some parts of the Valley to find where they'll meet the contestants and they were talking on the way there, just sharing each other's jokes and stuff. Shao then asked, "So you looking forward to coming back to Secluded Valley next year?"
Musaki hesitated to even answer that question and only said, "I don't really know. Part of me would love to come back to my roots, but another part of me wants to stay in the Valley of Peace for a while...and it would be really sad to leave the Jade Palace behind."
Shao nodded his head in understanding about the latter part of his choice and he said, "Well, I can't tell you what to do, though. Just choose in what you believe is right in your heart and it'll take off from there."
Musaki knew that this will be another point in his life he'll face where he will eventually turn 18 and make some decisions on his own. It could be a little scary for him because he just got used to be 17 for a short period of time, but he's starting off on the right track to independence. But whatever will happen...he's got the support of his Jade Palace family. That's how he sees them as...his family.
Just then, they entered inside the Shanghai Valley Temple and to Musaki's surprise, there are a whole lot of contestants there; all between the ages of 12 through 18 around to participate in this kung-fu competition and he's never seen a number like this before and it was a little bit intimidating for him, but there was no need for that because he's already honored to be in the same boat as all of them, despite the fact that he studied kung-fu for part of his life.
"Whoa...there are so many of them." Musaki said, in astonishment.
Shao chuckled softly and said, "It's awesome, isn't it? I'll let my dad know you're here."
As Shao walks off, Musaki took some time to walk around to meet a few of them because he knows that there's gonna be some stiff competition coming in and some of those could be opponents, so he has to kep himself in the game while still staying true to himself. Just then, a white and blue wolf; 16 years of age, wears a chinese vest with a picture of a moon in front of it, grey shorts, has wild spiky hair, about 5'6, weighing in at 170 pounds; came behind Musaki and when he looks at him, he asked, "Are you new here?"
"No, this is my hometown...well, away from my current hometown." Musaki answered.
The young wolf turned to him confusedly and didn't quite get the full gist of what it meant and asked, "What is your current hometown?"
"The Valley of Peace." Musaki replied.
That widened the young wolf's green-hazel eyes to hear this and he lets out a chuckle and asked, "Are you like one of the kung-fu masters from there?"
That was random for him to ask and all Musaki could do is chuckle nervously as he didn't want to give it away and he replied, "In training."
The young wolf chuckled softly and he said, "Well, this is my first time here in this place and I gotta be honest, I'm a little bit nervous about it."
"Sometimes it's good to be nervous...at least that's what I thought I heard. But it kinda helps when you're doing something really big, but you get through it really well." Musaki answered.
The wolf puts out his paw and said, "Name's Taji. What's yours?"
Musaki shook Taji's paw and replied, "Musaki."
"Nice to meet you, Musaki. I'm completely excited about this tournament." Taji said, happily.
Musaki chuckled softly and asked, "So...where ya from?"
Taji clears his throat and replied, "My family's originally from Tokyo, but I've been in China for pretty much 12 years now."
Musaki chuckled softly and added, "That's really awesome."
Just then, Shao comes back and brough Shin Hai with him and Shin was definitely happy to see Musaki come by and he said, "There's the future champ! Glad you could come, kid."
Musaki smiled a little and replied, "Glad I came too."
"You getting to know the contestants a little?" asked Shao.
"Yeah, I just met Taji."
Shao and Shin Hai looks at Taji for a second and then, Shin Hai tells Musaki, "You should see this guy do kung-fu. He's been interested in this at a very young age. Kinda makes yours look really simple."
Musaki looks up at Taji and he asked, "You good at kung-fu?"
Taji looks down on the ground to his feet and he softly replied, "Y-Yeah...I guess you could say that."
Musaki totally analyzed this kid and he could tell that he's really shy and he understood what that feeling is very easily and he said, "There's no need to be shy about your skills."
"Musaki's right. You don't really know how many people will come to see those skills." Shin Hai added.
"You think so?" asked Taji, a little hopeful.
Shin Hai chuckled and said, "I know so."
"I hope you're right."
Just then, the four of them sees a young boar, between 17 and 18 years of age, brown eyes, stands at 5'9, weighing at 198 pounds, wears a ripped grey t-shirt and some black pants and has a tattoo on his arm with a picture of a knuckle on it and said, "What up, non-fighters? Mojag is in da house, ready to eat up the competition!"
Then, he shows off some of the kung-fu moves to let everyone know who's boss and winks at some of the ladies, but only receive a scoff from them and said, "You'll fall for this winner."
Musaki looks up at Shin Hai and asked, "Who's he?"
Shin sighs exasperatedly and replied, "That's Mojag. This guy is good at kung-fu, but sometimes he uses it to show off his macho bravado to get girls and make everyone else's kung-fu a little bit more like making fools of themselves. The ironic thing is that the meaning of the name is 'Never silent' and judging by his appearance and his cocky smirk, I don't think he'll ever be silent."
Taji looks up at Musaki and he asked, "Why is that?"
"From what I heard, he said that he's obsessed with winning and his own muscles and abs, saying that he'll mate himself if he looks in the mirror with those attributes." Shao added.
Musaki rolls his eyes at that and he said, "That doesn't sound good. I think maybe he might need some attention."
"Too much of attention is never a good thing." Shin Hai said.
Shin Hai and Shao headed out for a bit while Taji looks around for a little bit, leaving Musaki walking around to meet some of the other contestants and suddenly, he accidently bumps into Mojag and he quickly said, "Sorry, didn't see you there, man."
Mojag groans exasperatedly and angrily said, "Why don't ya look where you're going?"
Musaki didn't know how to react to that outburst and he only said, "Okay..."
The young boar groans again and then, he stares at Musaki for the first time and he was pretty much shocked to see that this is the first time that he ever met a skinny panda before and he asked, "Where's your fat? Is it hidden underneath all this skin and bones?"
Then, Mojag started laughing at that and Musaki could see that this is obviously an immature joke he's playing and he just stayed calm throughout and all Musaki could say, "Nah, this is how I'm born with."
Mojag noticed that Musaki isn't that mad or offended by it, but rather let it slide and he said, "Dude, you should fight me for that verbal assault I just gave you."
"No, thanks. I'm good." Musaki said, smiling.
Mojag growls at him for not being mad in the first place and he said, "Come competition time, your panda butt is gonna be mine. And you'll be crying boo-hoo when I win and all the ladies will love me."
"Are you sure they won't run away from you after that attitude?" asked Musaki.
Mojag twitched his eye and wanted to take him down with his tusks, but wouldn't want to consider tiring himself out even before the competition starts and only said, "We'll have our time."
Musaki just smiled at him and he said, "Good timing too. Later, bro."
As Musaki walked away, Mojag was a little offended by how Musaki's taking it all in stride with whatever insult he threw in and felt like he was gonna break him no matter what once competition starts.
Later on, as he went on his way, there was a little argument comning in between Shao and an unknown person on one side and when he saw it, he sees a jackal, 18 years old, standing at 6'1, weighing at 200 pounds, wearing on black t-shirt and some dark blue jeans and wearing a bandana on his head going off at Shao about when the competition will start.
"Listen, we don't start off the competition until the opening ceremony comes in. You'll have to wait until tomorrow morning." Shao said, in the calmest way possible.
The jackal wasn't gonna take any measures for his impatience and said, "Dude, I didn't come all this way to Korea for nothing! And you have the nerve to tell me you don't start today?"
"Sorry, competition rulebook."
Just then, Musaki steps in and plans to stop this fight and he said, "Is there a problem here, Shao?"
Shao was relieved when he saw Musaki come by and he said, "No probs, Musaki. This guy was just making his way here."
The jackal snarls at Musaki for a minute, but gets shocked when he found out who he really is...Xing-Fu Musaki Ko-Kanji Bushido-Akio Meng Cheng Xi-Wang...the person 'rumored' to be the 20th bloodline of participating in the kung-fu competition after his father and that severely pissed him off and he walks up to him and asked, "You're the person that plans to win the entire competition?"
Musaki calmly answered, "I wouldn't say that exactly. I'm just honored to be here."
"I just wanna let you know...nobody is better than me...Kang-Dae. If you think you're gonna take me down because you're next in line for your father's line, you've got another thing coming!"
Musaki didn't really know how to react after Kang-Dae notices of his presence and was a little curious to know how he even figured it out for himself, but even something like that didn't really deter him for doing what he's setting out to do. He only said, "By any chance, is that really bothering you? You seem a little tense."
"Dude, you do not know me! I always take down the losers and I end up winning every fight! I'm the real badass here!" Kang-Dae shouted.
"I see the bad. Is it attached to the latter part too?" asked Musaki.
The jackal growled at him, pertaining to it as an insult and he grabbed Musaki by the shoulder and he said, "You need to learn some manners, youngling! You do not want to see me pissed and that is usually a death wish!"
Shao immediately came to him and said, "Put him down now!"
"This is none of your business!" Kang-Dae exclaimed, angrily.
Shao growls at him lightly and he said, "This is your second warning. Put him down otherwise you'll be immediately disqualified."
That didn't sit well with Kang-Dae when he heard the term 'disqualified' come out of Shao and with a slight growl, he sets Musaki down, but not before he says to him, "This isn't over! Just be lucky you got saved by this wolf dude. Prepare to get your ass kicked by me and this will prove that I'm still a badass!"
Musaki nodded his head and just shook it off like it was nothing, which left the jackal a little surprised that there was no signs of fear or intimidation in him and he asked, "Why aren't you shaking?"
"Should I have to? There's nothing you could do to make me back down from this competition. I have to honor my father's legacy. So I don't have to respond to your childish games." Musaki said.
Kang-Dae was really outraged that he took those shots as nothing and just walks away angry and all Musaki could do is just roll his eyes, then he turned to Shao and asked, "You good?"
Shao took a deep breath and he was also surprised at how Musaki was never confrontative nor combative towards him and only kept his cool throughout this ordeal and replied, "Yeah. You handled that really well, Xing-Fu."
"4 years of dealing with Tigress' anger issues helped me to understand that there are some people that just wanna break you down. You could make them cry, but you can never make them quit." Musaki responded.
Those words definitely stuck with Shao and he said, "I think I might use that for later in life."
As Musaki heads another way, he sees Kang-Dae shoving off someone else and Musaki was quick to find out and put a stop to it and to his surprise, Musaki sees that the jackal was knock down a young lion, 14 years old, dark orange fur, only wears khaki shorts, about 5'8, weighing in at 195 pounds and wears a chinese necklace; and tried to get away from the jackal, but keeps getting yanked by the tail by him.
Musaki comes behind Kang-Dae and he said, "Leave the guy alone."
The young lion took a deep breath of exhale and said, "I didn't come here to cause any trouble. I just wanted to know if this was the place."
Kang-Dae eventually lets go of the young lion's tail and only stares at Musaki begrudingly and walks off the premises and he comes to his aid and asked, "You okay?"
The young lion sighed again and he looked at Musaki for the first time and he said, "I think so. I just came to Shanghai Secluded Valley to find where I can meet the contestants of this kung-fu competition."
"Yeah, this is the place. I'm Musaki. What's yours?"
Musaki stuck his paw out and the lion was quick to shake his as well and replied, "I'm Liu Shang."
"Nice to meet ya, man. You from around here?" asked Musaki.
Liu Shang sighed softly and he said, "Nah. I just left my home behind...for good."
Musaki was surprised to hear this come out of Liu Shang and he asked, "Why's that?"
The young lion tried to hide his personal secret from Musaki and somehow, Musaki already got the message down pat that it might be a little too soon to see the reasons why. Liu Shang then told him, "But the real reason why I'm here is that I just want to show that even though I'm a lion, I have a chance to be something that I'm destined to be...just a somebody, you know?"
"Are you good at kung-fu?" asked Musaki.
Luiu Shang laughs softly and he responded, "Sorta. But I don't really brag about it too much. I don't really show off my skills like everyone else here...just because I'm the youngest one around here."
"That's saying something." Musaki added.
"You from around here?" asked Liu Shang.
Musaki cleared his throat and said, "Well, I was originally from here...but now I live in the Valley of Peace. I do get a chance to come here every now and then."
"That's cool. I just hope that my skills will get me somewhere I need to be." Liu Shang added, in a hopeful voice.
Musaki smiled at him and said, "Hey, just be grateful for your skills, man. And don't let anything or anyone tell you differently or stop you from anything you can accomplish. I think if you stay true to yourself and achieve what you want to achieve, I think you'll be on the right track. Just believe in yourself and your skills no matter what."
Liu Shang never expected to hear some words come out of Musaki before and he immediately gained some self-confidence within himself and it brought him to a point that no matter how far he'll come, he'll accomplish what he'll set out to accomplish. The young lion chuckled softly and said, "I'll remember that."
Just then, Musaki and Liu Shang just kept talking throughout and Shao could definitely see that there's a growing friendship between the two and never expected that a panda could be friends with a lion, but as long as he's there, anything might be possible.
Just then, Oak Sung stepped in and he stood towards the stage, capturing everyone's attention and said, "Everyone, listen up. We start the opening ceremony early tomorrow morning, so get some rest later tonight. You're gonna need it and just remember, that it doesn't matter about what you got, it's what you will gain after this endurance which is heart, honor and integrity while staying true to yourself and your ability."
The words definitely resonated with all of the contestants as they despersed out of the temple and as Musaki headed to his grandparent's house, he sees Liu Shang coming from behind and said, "Excited about the competition?"
"Very excited." Musaki replied.
He comes closer to him and he stuck out his paw, in hopes that the competition won't get in the way their new-found friendship and he said, "It's for good luck. No matter who's gonna be the winner, we'll always be on top."
Musaki accepted that and he shook Liu's paw and said, "May the best warrior win, my friend."
A little help from Joe 'Po' Navark on developing the characters (although I should point out that Taji was developed on my own, hope you're cool with it) where you have Liu Shang, the modest and humble yet skilled fighter lion, Mojag, the cocky boar and Kang-Dae, the egotistical winning obsessed jackal. And with that...the competition is coming!