Chapter Text
“Where is Master Crane?”
His pupils eye each other, their eyes flickering to the empty spot among them briefly before looking away once again. None of them answer for a while, and Shifu sighs tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. One day. One day where they can actually get to training on time is all he asks for. But, knowing this group and his own terrible luck, that day will never come. One can hope, at least.
“I think he went out for a quick fly,” Mantis pipes up suddenly. He frowns, thinking for a moment. “That was, uh, this morning though.”
“And you haven’t seen him since?”
No reply. But that’s all the answer Shifu needs.
“Whatever. We’ll carry on without him. I’ll have a talk with him later.” The red panda does not miss the way his pupils ripple and wince at his words, but they manage to keep themselves relatively composed. They’ve accomplished that at least.
So, yes, they continue on with training without the avian. Shifu ignores the warning bells tolling in the back of his head and the way he knows Crane would never skip a day of training. He’s far too much of a people pleaser for that. But Shifu ignores the fact. The others are here after all, and he can see more than a couple of things they can improve on. So the red panda focuses on the pupils in front of him, pushing down the gnawing feeling that something is wrong.
0-0-0-0-0-0
Crane does not show up at any moment for the remainder of the lesson, much to Shifu’s dismay. He’d been hoping that the avian would show up at some point or another, but he hadn’t. Odd.
Viper blinks when Shifu announces the end of the training session. She casts an expectant glance at the sky, eyes searching for a familiar shape to appear and drop down beside them. “Crane—he didn’t come? I thought—maybe—“
“He might’ve gotten caught up with something,” Tigress says doubtfully. “Or lost.” But even she can’t hide her concern, and Shifu’s grip on his staff tightens as he realizes this.
“No matter.” His voice is even and strong as he says this. “I will be having a very thorough talk with Master Crane when he returns.”
“Aww, c’mon, Master Shifu,” Po pleads. “Can’t you go easy on him just this once? I’m sure—I’m sure he has a good reason for missing training.”
Shifu signs, leaning on his staff. He’s getting too old for these shenanigans. These damn kids. . .
“Perhaps,” he says decidedly after a moment. “We’ll see what he has to say for himself.” He turns away from his students and towards the Jade Palace before continuing, “Come along now.” As he begins forward, his ears twitch as his students hurriedly scramble after him, already delving into fervent whispers. He pointedly ignores them.
The journey back to the Jade Palace is far quieter than the old master is used to; he knows it’s Crane’s absence that’s at fault. He’s thankful for the quietness—who wouldn’t be with this group?—but he frowns as he thinks about his avian student. It’s unlike him to be late for a lesson, much less skip one all together. Could Tigress be right? Could Crane have gotten caught up in something far beyond his abilities?
No. Shifu has full confidence in his pupil’s abilities. Whatever is keeping Crane away, he’s certain the avian will come back to them. Sooner or later. Preferably sooner, but that’s neither here nor there.
Shifu and his students are no more than halfway up the steps when a frantic voice calls out, “Master Shifu! Master Shifu!”
Shifu’s head snaps up, eyes darting across the sky until they latch onto a dark, fast moving shape. Sooner than he’d expected it to happen, a messenger goose lands roughly beside him. He’s rough looking, with feathers sticking up randomly and his hat askew atop his head. A scroll is clutched tightly in his wing, and Shifu briefly wonders what its contents hold.
“M—message for you—for you, sir,” the goose pants, holding out a shaky wing. Shifu nods in acknowledgment, taking the scroll from the messenger. The poor thing all but collapses after that—he appears to have traveled for so long so fast. The red panda can only imagine the kind of pain he must be in.
Shifu supposes the group will catch up with him if he sends the goose back to the Jade Palace, so he makes a vague gesture that represents a kind of ‘stay here’ message. He unfurls the scroll, eyes scanning it quickly—
His staff falls from his hands.
“Master Shifu?” Tigress says hesitantly. “Is—is everything alright?”
The red panda can’t find the right words to answer her. Because, yes, on the surface everything appears to be fine, but there’s so much unknown, so much unsaid, that it’s impossible to know if everything is truly okay or not.
Shifu instead hurriedly reads through the letter again—what else is there to do?—but nothing changes. The words do not magically change themselves, and the handwriting remains painfully familiar. His hands begin to tremble as the realization that, no, this is not some horrible joke being played on him, and that yes, this is real, and this is very much happening.
“. . . Master Shifu?” Tigress says again. Her voice is much softer, but still hesitant. It’s almost as if she were unsure on what the correct action to do is.
“I—I—“ The old master clears his throat, leaning down to pick up his staff. His hands do not stop shaking. When he’s straightened up again, he says, “We need to hurry back. Now.”
0-0-0-0-0-0
No time to explain. A situation has come up. I’m going under cover. It’s too risky to send anyone after me. Do not look for me.
Crane.
The words are hastily written, almost scribbled onto the paper, but they’re legible enough for them to make out the words. The scroll is pinned to the wall, and Shifu paces in front of it, frowning deeply. His pupils simply watch him, too nervous to say anything.
“What do we do?” Viper blurts out suddenly, worry evident in her face. “It’s not like—he doesn’t—we can’t just do nothing!”
“We can’t look for him either!” Mantis yells back. “He said not to look for him! And we don’t even know where he is!”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything! We have to—we have to do something!”
Their yelling is making it hard to focus, but Shifu chooses to grit his teeth and fold his ears back. They’re all on edge, he knows, so he’ll smother his frustration and grin and bear it. He has more pressing issues to worry about.
For starters, what is the situation that Crane has gotten caught up in? What could possibly be so dangerous that he thought it’d be too risky to send someone after him? And where is he now? Is he safe—?
Something in Shifu’s chest tightens as this thought strikes him. Despite his wishes, the world will never be truly safe for his pupils. There will always be some kind of danger looming over them, and he can only pray that the avian isn't in much danger and that he’s got the situation under control.
(Deep down, Shifu knows that something is horribly wrong. But he’s desperately latching onto whatever fleeing hope he has. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to live with himself if anything happens to one of his students.)
Monkey mutters something about ‘a quick fly’, before Tigress elbows him in the ribs, scowling fiercely. “Not now,” she hisses through bared teeth. Monkey simply holds up his hands in a surrendering gesture, but his shoulders remain tense and his tail flicks around in the way it does when he’s anxious.
“He’s okay, isn’t he?” Po’s voice comes out loud, and he winces. “Sorry. But, uh, Crane? He’s—he’s alright, right? I mean, he’s not in any life threatening danger or whatever, right?”
“I don’t know,” Shifu snaps, his patience finally run thin. He inhales deeply, his claws digging painfully into his palm. “I don’t—I don’t know, okay?! There’s too much up in the air to know for sure!” His pace quickens, and he throws his hands in the air. “He could be dead! He could be alive! He could be halfway out of the country for all I know!”
They fall silent at his words for a moment. Shifu breathes heavily, not once stopping in his mission to pace a hole into the ground.
“He’s okay,” Monkey says firmly after a moment. Shifu does not point out how it sounds like he’s trying to convince himself. “It’s Crane. He’s—he can go undercover easily. He’ll be fine.”
He has to be, is left unsaid. The others sit on Monkey’s words for a moment, the tension in the room rising.
“This is stupid.” Mantis huffs, antenna twitching slightly. “He’s a kung fu master for crying out loud! Of course he’s fine!” He waves a leg vaguely before continuing, “Watch. He’ll come waltzing in, like, a week later, proclaiming how great he was on his secret mission or whatever.”
And the tension dissipates at the mantis’ words. He watches as his student’s shoulders ease, and they begin muttering amongst themselves.
Po shakes his head, chuckling under his breath. “Got worked up over nothing. Crane’ll come back soon. Like Mantis said, he’s a kung fu master. One of the Furious Five even! It’ll take a lot to take him down. He’s fine, I’m sure of it.”
Shifu can only wish he could convince himself of that.