The Tales of the Dragon Warrior

Dragon Style is Born and The Five Return

(The image above is Mr. Ping. He's not in this chapter, I just wanted to get all the reference pictures for this arc out of the way)

The next several days passed by in a blur for Jade. a blur filled with doing sit-ups on trees, having to dodge Shifu trying to whack her with a stick of bamboo, doing push-ups over hot coals with only one finger, practicing kung fu forms with bowls of water on her head and hands while trying not to drop them, and learning how to perfect her use of the Sword of Heroes. If she wasn't utterly jacked by the end of everything, she would be seething.

Even getting food was a challenge, because whenever Shifu cooked, he would hide the food and guard it, and she had to find and steal it before it went cold. It was the only food related exercise Shifu made her do, because unlike Po, Jade was already very motivated. Thankfully, Jade's determination and stealth was great enough that she never went hungry.

When she wasn't training physically, she was training mentally. Shifu brought all one thousand scrolls of kung fu with them on their trip (how he had managed to fit them all into one backpack, she would never know), and had been trying to speed-run all the knowledge of them into Jade's head. Jade, miraculously, had managed to memorize nearly all of the scrolls. And when they weren't reading the scrolls, they were trying to create Jade's style of kung fu.

Jade had thought long and hard about what she wanted her kung fu style to be like. She wanted it to have the stubbornness and raw strength of Tiger Style, the fluid motions and flexibility of Viper Style, the preciseness of Praying Mantis Style, the acrobatics and trickiness of Monkey Style, and the gracefulness of Crane Style. She wanted her kung fu style to have the best aspects of every kung fu style ever made. She wanted it to be the ultimate style of fighting, fit for the ultimate warrior.

It took a lot of hard work, but eventually she was able to create her dream fighting style, something that was unique to her. She was ready to be called a master.

But she couldn't become a master until Shifu deemed her worthy, and for that to happen, she had to pass his final test.

The test came one evening after a long day of reading scrolls and training. Shifu brought a bowl of dumplings out to a large rock, and sat the bowl upon it. Then he sat on the rock, in front of the dumplings, and smiled deceptively at Jade, who stood across from him in nothing but her black yoga pants and matching sports bra, drenched in sweat from her strenuous day.

"After you, Jade.", he said, gesturing to the dumplings with a pair of chopsticks. Jade stared at him suspiciously. She remembered this scene from the movie. She was not going to be fooled.

"Just like that? No ten mile hike? No playing 'Where's Waldo' with the food?", she asked. Shifu's smile widened.

"I vowed to train you, and you have been trained. You are free to eat.", he said, gesturing to the dumplings again with a flourish. Jade continued to look at him with suspicion, but sat down cross-legged and picked up a pair of chopsticks anyway. She then carefully picked up a dumpling. Shifu's smile began to look more like a smirk.

"Enjoy.", he told her.

Jade made no move to bring the dumpling up to her mouth as Shifu moved almost faster than she could see, and took the food from her chopsticks. Jade's eyes narrowed as Shifu appeared back in his seat, still chewing on the dumpling he had stolen. He gestured to the dumplings again.

"I said you are free to eat. Have a dumpling.", he reminded. Jade, deciding to play along, went to pick up another dumpling, only for Shifu to kick it out of her hands and into the air. He caught the food with his chopsticks and ate it faster than lightning. Jade didn't react.