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Keeping a Secret chapter 10

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About half of the group was quiet and somber as they solemnly marched up the steps towards the Jade Palace. Shen and Xun had the feeling that they were about to get kicked out, as they would naturally be the ones to get the blame for a disappearance like this, and Kurisu was paralyzed in fear of Master Shifu's bamboo rod; she was hiding behind Shen, with her tail tucked between her legs and shielding her rear. She kept tripping over the peacock's long train, and when he finally snapped at her to stop it, she shrank back and settled for just walking at his side. He didn't think that he'd be in any position to protect her from punishment, though.

Po, Lady Biming, and the soothsayer didn't seem too concerned about what would happen when they got home. On the contrary, Lady Biming seemed the most cheerful she'd been since leaving her old village, and Po was too excited to be scared. Shen detested the way that his Nana looked so smug, though. She clearly knew that she would be the last person that anyone would reprimand for anything, and was probably still convinced that their abrupt departure was Shen and Po's fault despite the fact that she had tagged along uninvited. Well, that was his Nana for you. And if he dared to point this out to her, he'd probably just get threatened with the switch again.

Going up the stairs was torturous for him. Normally Shen didn't care much about the hike up, seeing as he would always fly, but if there was one painful lesson he had learned from being sick so often, it was "Never fly while recovering from an illness." A painful number of crashes from midair blackouts or near-blackouts had taught him that. So he was stuck with trudging behind everyone else, although he was really in no condition to walk so far either. Absolutely everyone was huffing and puffing when they reached the top, but none so much as Shen, who was back to coughing after every other deep breath. He thought that he probably had a low-grade fever, too.

He would have liked nothing more than to go to his room and lay down, but they had the grandmaster to deal with first. And clearly they were going to waste no time in getting punished, because no sooner had they all stopped at the top of the stairs to catch their breath when Po dashed forward, still panting, and eagerly called, "Master Shifu!"

Shifu had been standing out on the front steps of the palace, probably having heard their not-exactly-silent ascent. His expression was unreadable from this distance, but they all clearly heard him bark out, "PANDA!" and start running towards them with his near-impossible speed. He raced towards Po, looking almost as if he were about to hug his student, and…

WHACK!

"Owww!" Po stumbled back, instinctively rubbing the spot on his enormous stomach where the bamboo rod had connected. "Master Shifu – I can explain!"

WHACK! WHACK!

Po was hit again, but he managed to block the second strike. "Wait! Master Shifu – you'll never guess what happened!" he cried.

Shifu snarled. "I have no words to describe how angry I am right now, panda!" he shouted, getting in another hard smack with the rod. "You – have – been – gone – for – TWO – WEEKS!" And as he said each word he inflicted another blow upon Po, who managed to block or dodge most of them. Turning to everyone else with venomous rage in his eyes, he growled, " I am VERY disappointed with you – ALL of you!"

Shen, Xun, and Kurisu all immediately bowed to their knees and dropped their heads. The soothsayer had the decency to lower her head and look shamefaced, at least. Biming looked like she didn't know what she was supposed to do or what was expected of her. Fortunately, Shifu had taken no notice of her yet.

"Two weeks!" the red panda ranted, pointing his bamboo rod at Po. "YOU, going off somewhere without telling me a thing! YOU – " The tip of the rod was pointed at Shen now, who flinched. "Taking a student – a CHILD – from the palace unattended and without permission!"

"She wasn't unattended," Shen tried to say, but he was interrupted by a murderous glare and an inconvenient cough bursting from his beak.

"And where's that insubordinate cat?" Shifu demanded.

"Hiding behind me," wheezed Shen, whose lungs and throat were closing up from fear as well as physical exertion.

Growling, Shifu dragged the kitten out into the open, where she whimpered pathetically and made herself look as adorable and helpless as possibly. Her master was not to be placated by the act, and he readied his rod.

"Shen, save me!" Kurisu pleaded.

Shen shook his head. "You're in trouble, itty bitty kitty," he managed to get out.

"You're next, peacock." Shifu drummed his fingers against the rod thoughtfully. "You're older than the kitten and panda, so…run 10 times up and down the thousand steps!" He gestured extravagantly to the direction they had just come from.

Shen's eyes widened, his face going gaunt. He began to suck in almost hyperventilating breaths, which whistled as they pulsed up and down his throat. There was no way he would be able to survive that…

"Um, excuse me," Biming piped up cautiously. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea for a punishment right now. Shen has pneumonia, so running up and down the steps…" She trailed off.

Master Shifu blinked, his eyes settling on the female panda for the first time. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

She bowed. "My name is Lady Biming."

"She's my mom," Po added, rubbing at a particularly sore spot on his arm.

"Lady Biming?" Shifu sounded incredulous, but not angry in the least bit. "Why, I haven't seen you since…"

Biming's brow furrowed. "You've seen me before – oh!" Suddenly realization dawned on her face. "That's right, I remember now! That was over thirty years ago…"

"Wait a second…" Po was rapidly looking back and forth between his mother and his master. "You guys know each other?!"

"Not exactly." Master Shifu hesitated, his rage seeming to be momentarily curbed. "In her heyday, Lady Biming was known as one of the greatest healers in China…"

"I wouldn't go that far," muttered Biming, although she looked rather pleased.

"Master Oogway was friends with her. Long ago, I was traveling to Gongmen City with him, and we made a stop in her village. We saw her newborn son …" His eyes flitted up to Po.

"You didn't know her son was me, did you?" asked Po.

"No…only now is it dawning on me. You were Bao Yu then."

He nodded in confirmation, turning the name around in his mind not for the first time. Bao Yu…in a way, it was almost fitting for him to have two names, as if one was his past self and one his current self. Bao Yu was the baby that had grown up in a village of pandas with his biological parents, caused some trouble for the prince of Gongmen City, and lost everything in a horrible catastrophe; Po was the adult panda who was still a child at heart, but was also a kung fu master, the Dragon Warrior, and someone who had a huge and extensive family.

"It's all coming back to me now. You were only a week old at the time…cute little fluff ball. What on earth happened to you," he muttered.

"Hey, that was mean!" Po protested.

"But that's beside the point." Shifu whirled around, jabbing his rod in Po's face. "You have thirty seconds to explain why in the gods' name you thought it was a good idea to leave for two weeks and not tell anyone. GO."

"That wasn't – ! I mean it's – !" Po took a deep breath. "Okay, so, the morning of the day that I left, peacock here told me that he hadn't killed my mom, so she might be alive."

Shen's crest flattened, and he didn't look up to see if he was being stared at. He hadn't expected any of this to happen when he'd made his confession. One second he'd been blissfully ignorant of the fact that Po and Bao Yu were one and the same, and the next, he had braved his phobia of looking into his former enemy's eyes, and…then they were off. And that had only been two weeks ago. Good gods, now it felt like an entire past era of his lifetime.

"And I just…I can't…I can't describe how I felt!" Po blurted. "That whole day, all I could think about was finding my mom. You remember how absent I was in training, Master! And finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I knew I had to leave."

"You should have told me what was going on!" shouted Shifu.

"But you would have thought I was going nuts! Everyone else did…"

Shifu growled. "You should never, ever put words in my mouth, panda. And what – you convinced everyone else to come along with you? THEY didn't seem to think you were crazy!"

Here Shen slowly got to his feet and interrupted, "Po didn't ask us to go anywhere with him, Master Shifu. We went after we realized he was missing."

"And didn't tell me!" the grandmaster got out through clenched teeth.

"It was very abrupt." Shen coughed, clearing his throat; at least he was breathing more easily now. "Kurisu came to my room that night and told me that her brother was leaving. Apparently, she'd caught him on the way out, and he'd told her that he was going to find his mother. She DID think he was crazy, actually. But I didn't, because of what I had told him before. So I submitted myself to the two of us trying to catch up with him…if I'd forbid her, she would have snuck out afterwards and probably gotten into mortal peril, as you very well know."

"…true," Shifu grumbled in reluctant agreement. "Continue."

"After that, Nana and Xun…" He glanced back at where the soothsayer and the wolf were both watching the conversation shamefully. "…followed me. We caught up to Po later, at Lady Biming's house. Please understand, Master Shifu, I had to go…to protect Kurisu, and to pay off another part of my debt. I had to…"

Shifu's face was tight, and his grip around the bamboo rod was so tight that it looked like it was about to snap in half. "That would have been fine, but none of you told me!"

"We're sorry…" said Shen. "We were trying to catch up with Po…"

"And PO never – !"

The peacock shrugged. "I don't know how to explain that…"

Master Shifu turned to his student. The anger in his eyes hadn't wavered, but now there was something else fighting towards the surface. Pain?

Po lowered his head. "I'm sorry, master…"

For a moment, Shifu stood there, breathing heavily. Then, without a word, he abruptly turned and stormed off.

***
For several seconds, everyone just stood there, all unsure of what had happened…except for Po, who hadn't lifted his head. Then Biming told Shen that he should go lie down, and he welcomed the opportunity with open arms. Gradually, the rest of them all returned to their rooms as well, glad to be home at last but still unsettled over the fact that no one had really been punished.

Lady Biming managed to find Master Shifu in order to tentatively ask about her living arrangements. He called up a weak smile for her and said that it was lovely to see her again, he didn't blame her for what had happened, and that she was welcome to stay; there were only two extra rooms left in the bunkhouse, but she was welcome to either one of them. So she selected a room, opened up her crates, and began the long task of moving in and settling down.

Po's buzz had been officially killed; seeing Master Shifu so upset had been enough to put cold flutters in the pit of his stomach. That night, he cooked a very late supper and went around greeting the rest of the Furious Five and introducing them to his mother, but his heart wasn't in it. He knew that he would have to apologize before the night was over, or else he wouldn't be able to get a wink of sleep. Finally, he nervously went outside, hoping to find his master and reconcile.

Shifu was sitting beneath the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, not meditating and not trying to, just glaring into the night. He heard the heavy footfalls making their way towards him long before they reached him, but he didn't turn around.

"Master Shifu?" Po spoke up cautiously. "Master Shifu, I just wanted to say again that I'm sorry I let you down, and if you wanna punish me, I can take it…"

"I've beaten you enough…" Master Shifu stood, although he still didn't turn around. "And it won't get out my anger."

"I didn't mean to make you mad, master…"

"Well, you did, panda."

"But wouldn't you have done the same thing if you'd suddenly found out that someone who meant everything to you, who you thought was dead, might be alive?" Po pleaded.

"I DID do something similar when I was younger, but I told my master!"

"If I had told you, you would have thought I was crazy!"

"No, I wouldn't have!"

"Everyone else did…"

The red panda finally turned to look at his anxious student, keeping his eyes narrowed but a notch softer than a glare.

"What you did was wrong, Po," he growled.

"You know the last thing I'd ever want to do is disappoint you, Master Shifu," said Po desperately. "I just had to take a chance this once! I didn't think I'd be gone for as long as I was…"

Shifu snarled and clenched his fists, but that didn't stop the slight beads of dew from forming in the corners of his eyes. "You don't know what you put me through! Having to wait for two weeks not knowing if my children were dead or alive! Not knowing where they were – where YOU were!"

Far beyond shock, Po stammered, "I…I never thought you'd…be that worried…"

"Well, you don't know me well enough, then!" Shifu wiped the dampness out of his eyes angrily. "When I sent you all to Gongmen three years ago, I was worried even knowing where you were, and not knowing – !"

"But I didn't think you ever got worried…" Po whispered.

Shifu's ears lowered immediately, his eyes widening in hurt and shock.

"You…you always seemed like a super strong and awesome master..." Po continued tensely. "You were always chill about everything…I've never seen you really worried."

Shifu sighed softly, looking towards the ground. "You really know nothing about me, panda…"

"Well, you're kinda…closed up."

"Not as much as I was…"

"As you were when?" Po asked. "When I first met you?"

"Exactly…" Shifu raised his eyes again, visibly calmer. "I care about all of my students, but you especially. I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack these past two weeks. Although my chest was hurting…probably anxiety."

Po wasn't sure what to say; all words seemed to have suddenly deserted him. So instead, he took a page out of his mother's book, and reached down and hugged the grandmaster.

Shifu stiffened, and his first impulse was to slip away. He knew he COULD slip away, he had done it before. But for some reason, he let the embrace go on this time. There were worse things than being hugged by someone who you hadn't seen in two weeks.

Eventually, Po pulled away, and was happy to see that his master had a familiar wry smile on his face. "You are forgiven," he stated. "Now, dismissed."

"Thanks, Master Shifu!" Po hurried away, grinning, feeling that same sense of contented tiredness he'd had at the first night at Lady Biming's house. Once again, he couldn't imagine a better way to end this stressful today. And tomorrow was going to be even better. He had his mother…he had the rest of his family…and his inner peace seemed somehow rejuvenated, stronger than it had ever been before. Of course, trials such as this were supposed to make you stronger. And now…

And now, everything was perfect.

***

For several weeks after Lady Biming's arrival in the Valley of Peace, Mr. Ping was secretly concerned that he'd become a third wheel now that his son had his real mother back. But in fact, exactly the opposite seemed to happen. Po made a point of seeing his father at every opportunity, bringing Biming so that the two of them could interact and get to know each other better. After three weeks, the two of them found that they had become very good friends, united by a common cause: caring for their son. At first it had been somewhat awkward, with both of them being parents from two different families, but they learned to work around it. Eventually, they forgot that things had ever been uncomfortable between them at all.

Po didn't go back on his word to Shen that the air had been cleared between them, and eventually the last of the awkwardness vanished between them as well…not forgotten, but rendered hopelessly obsolete. They weren't really friends, per se, but it became infinitely easier for the two of them to cooperate. Shen felt like he had been forgiven at long last, and this made him much more relaxed and content. His nightly meditations were so much simpler to get into. Sometimes he wondered if what he was feeling was inner peace, and he figured that someday he'd try that Zen technique with a drop of water…or deflect a cannonball. Whichever came first.

And life in the Valley of Peace became peacefully once again.

The tale of the struggle between the peacock and the panda seemed to have come to an end at long last. They had given up on hostility, given up on tenseness, and Shen realized with somewhat of a shock that he had tied up all of his loose ends. Not being able to reform, stabbing Xun, leaving Lady Biming alive…everything had been cleared away. Of course there were still terrible things that he had done in the past, but he accepted the fact that he had to leave them alone. They couldn't be changed, and it was senseless to try. There were better things that he could be doing – after all, he still had his future.

He knew when he was. He was in the moments of enjoying the present and letting go of the past, and having a family to care about and protect. He had an itty bitty kitty who was pleased with him, and a Nana who was proud of him for turning things around, once and for all.

He knew who he was. He was Master Sheng Li, a formerly insane and genocidal lord who had devoted his life to repaying his debt, and now had the chance to sit back and relax, because it had now been repaid completely.

And most of all, he knew where he was…he was home.


THE END
Final chapter of the final story. I won't be doing another one for a while; it's not worth it.

You'd better comment and tell me what you thought of the series, or else you're evil.


Kung Fu Panda (C) Dreamworks
Kurisu (C) ~Cryssy-miu
© 2011 - 2024 turbomun
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