Kung Fu Panda: The Hunt For The Heir (OC x Tigress fanfic)

Chapter 11: Downtime

Everyone else was already there and prepared to make their way down the thousand steps. "Ready?" Shifu asked with a smile, looking forward to eating at Mr. Ping's once again and spending some time with the Five outside of the Palace and their usual routines.

However, Po seemed rather down compared to usual. "Yeah." he nodded while looking at the ground.

Monkey looked at Po and realised he wasn't his normal bubbly self. "What's up?" Monkey asked him, concerned.

Crane scoffed at that. "Yeah, you're not as excited as usual about the prospect of food." he pointed out in addition.

Po seemed to snap out of it then. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing. I just wanted to see if Hunter would join us to eat, but he declined." Po spoke, looking back up towards the Hill, hoping to see him running after them or at least looking down. Nothing.

Tigress then dropped down next to the group. "Good." She snarled out. "I wouldn't want to eat with that freak of nature anyway. Honour-stricken thief." Tigress gave her thoughts on the matter, her tone conveying some amount of anger towards Hunter.

Viper, ever the cool-headed member of the Five, shook her head at what Tigress had said about The Hunter. "He may be a thief, but he did save Mr. Ping's life, and the lives of The Chi Kuan Crane Clan members without thought of reward, he even paid Mr. Ping for any damages. That counts for something. Does one act of selfishness take away many acts of kindness?" she asked the others, all of whom looked away in slight shame at forgetting he had indeed done some good things for the Valley and maybe even other places... Even Tigress looked thoughtful at Viper's words as they all began walking down the steps together.

Shifu sighed deeply, showing agreement with Viper's wise words. "It may be unwise to judge someone by the one act of selfishness you know they've committed without knowing the good they may have spread through the world." he spoke to everyone as they continued walking down. "Master Oogway used to tell me that. I have to wonder if he had this exact situation in mind when he did..." Shifu once again stroked his moustache thoughtfully. "If Hunter proves to keep his word tomorrow and does in fact get the Sword back and submit himself willingly for judgement, I may consider his punishment served." Shifu said to everyone, to their surprise.

Tigress' rage flared up at the thought of him being let off the hook, but she thought about it a bit more and realised that he didn't have to return with the Scroll and submit himself to their mercy. Despite that fact, it still filled her with rage, knowing he betrayed Oogway's trust and dared steal from the Jade Palace, her home of many years and the place that had taken her in. She used the breathing techniques Shifu taught her to calm her rage before it got out of paw.

They all made their way to Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop and found the body and blood had all been cleaned up and the place was once more as busy as ever, if not even more busy apart from the one table that was reserved for the Jade Palace guests that had just arrived. "Ah! My boy!" Mr. Ping hugged his son as well as the other guests who arrived with him. As usual, Tigress just accepted the hug with a slight grimace.

Po noticed the tables and chairs were now of much higher quality than they had been when they were here earlier... "Hey dad. What's with all the new stuff?" he asked the Goose as the others all took notice of what Po had.

Mr. Ping chuckled happily at that. "That large man who saved my life earlier, the money he left did more than pay for the clean up! It was gold coins, Po! Gold! Coins!" he exclaimed in excitement. "I had enough to move to a new country and start a whole new life if I wanted to!" he informed the group of masters with no small amount of glee, a huge grin on his face.

Everyone was very surprised at being informed of this. They assumed the coins were at most bronze or copper. But no, they were actual gold coins he'd paid with. "Someone who must be quite wealthy, and yet he lives such a simple life..." Shifu seemed to contemplate this as they were seated and each ordered whatever they were eating that night. Po Dragon Warrior-sized his order for obvious reasons.