We start to get to know Kenji a little bit.
Chapter 9: Something About Kenji
As Musaki headed over with Lazarus on his way to the barracks for a quick lunch, they seek Kenji sitting on the table, gobbling up some dumplings and noodles very quickly and both of them looked at each other to see Kenji's table manners play out and Lazarus said, "You look pretty hungry, aren't ya, Kenji?"
Kenji looks up and his cheeks were filled with noodles and his chin was drenched in broth and he wiped them out of his chin and he replied, "I came to check and see if they got some leftover noodles and dumplings and they surprisingly did."
Musaki and Lazarus sat down in between Kenji after getting themselves a couple of bowls and proceeded to eat and Musaki asked, "So, how did you guys meet?"
"Man, it's kind of a long story. Both of us grew up here in the Valley of Peace and the first day I met Kenji was when I was a pup, flying kites. He kinda saw me flying one and thought that he would join in with his own and told me that I'd be his best friend if he let me fly with him and he did and we've been friends ever since." Lazarus answered.
Musaki found it hard to believe that Lazarus and Kenji met each other while flying kites and he turned to Kenji and he asked, "It worked, didn't it?"
Kenji chuckled softly and said, "Yeah, pretty much. It looked pretty cool and during that time, I settled in here after my family moved out of Japan. I was hoping to make new friends around here and Lazarus became the first friend I met during that time."
"That's pretty epic." Musaki added.
Lazarus rolled his eyes and he also said to Musaki, "He's always one to keep me laughing and he says something really weird just to make it funnier. But sometimes...I get kinda shy easily because I don't know anyone really well."
"He's always reserved and I would get him to laugh each chance I get." Kenji chimed in.
Musaki then looks down under the seat and he could see Kenji's legs and recognizes that there's some prostetic limbs there and he looks up at Kenji and asked, "What happened to your legs?"
Suddenly, that question soon chimed out of nowhere and Kenji looks down and he looks at his legs and was a little surprised that Musaki completely saw it and he asked, "I'm guessing you saw my prostetic limbs, huh?"
"Mm-hmm. Wanna tell me the story behind it?"
Kenji stares at Musaki and he said, "I was five years old, right? I was wandering around parts of a meadow and I wanted to get a closer view of the mountains of Vietnam, but what I didn't realize is that there was no other pathways and I fell down on the hill and after that, I received a cut on my leg. Man, it was brutal...like seeing my brother licking his own tail for hours. When we went to the doctor's, I felt something wrong in my leg and I began to lose the feeling in it and he told my parents that the cut on my leg is infected. I didn't realize this until he told me that and it was spreading very quickly and the doctor told me that they were gonna amputate my legs. It was the only way to stop this infection and once I got amputated, it was like really weird that I lost both legs. But they said that I was brave to let them do this when I was really freaking out on the inside. And this was before Laz lost his arm when he was seven and when I saw his prostectic arm, I'm like 'welcome to the club, buddy.' I was able to walk, run, jump and do crazy cool things while I got my limbs, so it was no big deal."
Musaki stared at him with a surprised look on his face and never knew how to react after going through something like that and he said, "Wow...I applaud you guys for entering in this kung-fu summer camp regardless of your prostetic limbs."
"Yeah, well...you only live once." Kenji said.
Lazarus sighed heavily and he said, anxiously, "How will the others find out?"
Musaki clears his throat and he replied, "Well...I don't really know. But you two have to tell them eventually because if it's kept hidden...they'll go to extreme lengths to find out."
Kenji looks over at Musaki and he asked, "How extreme are we talking about?"
Musaki shuddered at that question and he said, "Trust me, you do not want to know."
Lazarus swallows hard and figured that the masters will do whatever they're gonna do in order for someone to fess up after hiding a secret from anyone and asked, "That bad, huh?"
"You don't know the half of it."
Kenji clears his throat and thought about changing the subject after his stomach began growling again and he asked Musaki, "You guys got any ice cream here?"
"Why do you need ice cream?"
Kenji started chuckling excitedly at this and he said, "I LOVE ICE CREAM!"
Lazarus and Musaki covered their ears after Kenji's sudden outburst of excitement and Lazarus told him, "Don't say it out loud. Remember what happened last time when we had an ice cream party? You ate 10 gallons of ice cream in 20 minutes before you got sick and threw up."
"I can't help it if I eat a lot. I'm just trying not to have high metabolism." Kenji exclaimed.
"You have no metabolism." Lazarus added.
All of a sudden, the doors opens and they see Shifu standing there and he asked, "I heard a loud noise coming from the hallway. Can anyone tell me who made it?"
"I did, master. I just asked Musaki if there were ice cream here and I just went off. Sorry." Kenji admitted.
Shifu crossed his arms at Kenji for a second and he said, "Well, keep it down here. I'm in the middle of meditating. And Musaki would be happy to show you where it is."
Kenji started giggling like a schoolkid and jumped up and down like he's really ready for the ice cream and said, "Ice cream..."
Musaki didn't know how to react to this and he said, "Come on, Kenj. I'll take ya to it and after this, we're heading back for some more training."
"Oh, we're almost at the end of it today. Just make sure Kenji doesn't eat too much of it because you know how Po is very serious about his ice cream." Shifu added.
Lazarus tilted his head to the side after that comment Shifu made about how Po takes his ice cream seriously and Shifu could identify the young Husky's confused reaction and he said, "He can get serious about ice cream, but he couldn't be serious when it comes to chores and training?"
"Kenji gets very hyper after he eats chocolate ice cream and then pukes after 15 scoops." Lazarus replied.
"I do not!" Kenji shot back.
As they left, Shifu let out a simple groan and he said, "Another Po..."
Well...as I said, you never know what comes out of Kenji's mouth. More coming up soon!