Chapter 5

"Quan?! What is the meaning of this?!" Shifu yelled in outrage at Quan's attempt in attacking Po. Quan payed no attention as he only continued slashing out series of claw swipes, finally knocking the pot that Po was holding up for defense out of his hand. Quan landed back on the ground before dashing straight up to Po to perform a double downward claw strike to slash from Po's shoulders and down. Po quickly defended himself with a double high block, pushing Quan's arms away to counter with a straight palm thrust only for Quan to push that away with his own defense. This whole punch, defense, counter scenario went back and forth between the two, continuing for the next couple of seconds.

"Everyone move in! We have to help Po!" Tigress and Furious Five were about to leap in before Shifu stopped them, "Master, what are you-!"

"Leave this fight be!" Shifu ordered as Quan leaped up to deliver a falling axe, which Po hopped backwards to dodge, but didn't notice that as soon as Quan's heel smashed into the ground, he immediately followed up with a rising side kick right into Po's gut, sending Po flying into one of the wooden poles from the training ground's front gate, "Gotcha!" Quan smirked only for Po to bounce right off the wooden pole and belly bop right back into Quan, sending him flying backwards and skidding across the training ground. "Po!" Tigress and the rest of the Furious Five went over to their downed friend only for Tigress to immediately look over at Quan, who was getting up. Growling in anger, Tigress leapt forward at Quan, slashing towards him with her own claws, using her Tiger Style martial arts. Quan recovered quick enough to barely block her downward strike but was about to get punched in the gut from Tigress's other fist, only for her hand to immediately stop just before it came into contact. "Your tail?!" Tigress witnessed as Quan's coyote tail seemed to have looped under, in between his legs and wrapped around her wrist to stop the second attack. "Desert Corkscrew!" Quan yelled before leaping up, performing a spinning, double-foot dropkick right into Tigress's chest, making her feet skid back a good dozen feet for Quan to give himself some distance. But before Tigress could get back at him, Master Shifu jumped. "Master, get out of the way!" Tigress pleaded.
"That's enough!" Shifu ordered, making Tigress back off, "I told you five to stay out of Po's fight!" He then turned to Quan, "And you!" Immediately following with a good thwack to Quan's head from his staff, "What were you thinking, attacking Po like that?!"
"H-Hehehehehe…" Quan lightly chuckled at Shifu's question. "Not only is he the Dragon Warrior, but he also defeated Tai Lung, and, I guess, somehow gained Master Oogway's blessing. I had to see this skill for myself."

"You know, you could've just asked for a fight." Po stated.

"But one only fights at their best if they think the situation is life or death." Quan smiled, actually making a solid point. He got up and slowly petted his own tail, "Yikes, you almost made me pull a muscle from how strong that punch was." Quan laughed after looking over at Tigress. "So…the Furious Five. I've heard about you guys from my travels in other parts of Asia before I went abroad. From my little scuffle with her, I can tell you guys are the real deal."

"Well try to attack Po like that again and you'll be wanting to do more than sleep with one eye open." Tigress threatened, prompting Quan to hold his hands up in innocence, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy kitty. I was only testing him. From how hard my head is pounding, I'd say he passed."

"Passed? Passed for what?" Po asked.

"Well…to be my next master of course." Quan smiled much to everyone's shocked reaction.
"MASTER?!" Everyone exclaimed, even Shifu.

In the sleeping quarter's kitchen area, Quan, Shifu, and the Five were all sitting at the kitchen table while Po was making dinner for everyone. Quan himself was happily sipping on a cup of oolong tea, not having his favorite drink since forever. "God, nothing's better than herbal leaf, am I right? You should taste some of the muck that they got over in Europe." Quan joked as not everyone was still in a laughing mood after Quan's little stunt in the training yard.

"What did you mean you want wanted Po to be your "next" master?" Shifu asked, leaning close to the table.

"Mmm, exactly what it means?" Quan shrugged, looking at Shifu wondering how something so simple wasn't understandable.

"N-No, I mean, what do you mean by "next"? You say that like you had other masters." Shifu analyzed.

"Well, I kind of did." Quan admitted. "Actually, believe it or not, Master Oogway was the one who encouraged me to go out and journey into the world."

"Oogway did?" Shifu asked, confused.

"Yeah. It was about a decade after Tai Lung's imprisonment that Oogway told me I had great potential." Quan explained.

"I wonder what he meant by that." Tigress glared.

"Well, he told me I had amazing adaptability, especially since I was able to create my Coyote Style in order to use wily tactics and swift counterstrikes to my advantage. But he also noticed that if I was ever to put my mind to something, I could be able to duplicate it. He thought I had the great potential to be a master of several styles. Then the thought occurred to me…why not just be the master of several styles, instead of being the master of ALL styles." Quan smiled.

"A…master of all styles?" Monkey questioned.

"Yeah, that sounds a little extraneous." Crane interjected.

"Sounds more like a fool's grandeur to me…" Tigress insulted.

"You don't think I can do it?" Quan eyed over at Tigress.

"I'm saying it's impossible. Nobody can be so devoted to so many styles at once?" Tigress argued, only making Quan stand his ground, "Well what's the difference with training your body in one style vs training your body in another. The body training is the same. All one really needs to devote oneself to are the style's motions and philosophies and I know I can be able to find a way to incorporate everything into a Universal Martial Art. That's why I went out on my journey. I have visited monks in the mountains of India to challenging brutal fighters in the boxing dugouts of England. I'm going to fully learn every style so one day, I can leave my name down in history as the "Universal Martial Arts Master"…that's why I want Po to be my next master."

The way how Quan spoke about his dream…even Tigress couldn't deny the passion that was spoken from the Coyote's mouth. "Wait a minute." Po said as he turned to face everyone now. "So…you're a travelling martial artist who goes around the world challenging Masters to see if they're worthy enough to teach you their arts."
"Um…yeah." Quan nodded his head.
"Ah!" Po pointed straight at Quan, "I-I-I know who you are! I've heard about from travelling merchants at my dad's noodle shop! You're the "Hunter of Masters"!" Quan looked at Po with a funny, shocked expression before looking at Shifu, "Is he always this excitable?"
"Sadly yes." Shifu responded with narrowed eyes.
"So…what do you say, Dragon Warrior? Will you take me on as your student?" Quan turned to face Po.

"Seriously? Of course!" Po responded with a smile.