The day eventually wore down and soon it was time for everyone to eat dinner. Once again, the emperor and his family were eating upstairs in the Sacred Hall of Warriors, so Po was obligated to cook for his guests. Lam offered to cook with him, but since the masters needed their own food, one of the palace servants needed the other side of the stove for the task. The only time one of the masters even bothered to show up in the kitchen was when Tigress came to collect a covered cake pan that had been placed high on the shelf. She had quickly taken it off to make sure no one got into the frosting which immediately caused the entire group to gawk at the size and beauty of it. It was a tall cake with a white frosting on top which dripped in beautiful stripes down the side. It consisted of twelve very thin layers of alternating color which gradually changed as one looked around the outside parts which were not covered in white frosting.

"That's the fanciest cake I have ever seen!" Lu-Shi exclaimed, eyeing the six different colored flowers on top before the cover was put back on.

"This is twelve crocus korolevsky cake," Tigress explained, and made her way out of the kitchen before anyone could ask her further questions.

"Oh, that's a shame," Madame Zhou commented. "That looks delicious! But I suppose with all the special guests, we won't be getting a piece."

"That's okay," Po said. "Maybe she can make it another time."

"It kind of looked too pretty to eat," Xiao-Niao noted. "She made it look really nice!"

"I say we make our own cake," Ordai suggested. "Since there probably won't be any leftover. Why not have our own happy slice of rainbow cake for dinner?"

"A rainbow cake?!" Destiny shrieked excitedly, startling Kay and Lam who were sitting next to her. "That sounds like fun! How do we do that?!"

"I'll show you once Po's done at the stove."

The rainbow cake Ordai had been thinking about was fairly simple to make since it mostly required making a vanilla cake batter, poking holes throughout the softened consistency during the baking process, and then filling each different section with different colored dripping icing. What came out was a gooey rainbow lava cake which Destiny had no problem gobbling up along with everyone else at the table. (Except for Lam and Jai-Tong who were not a fan of overly sweet desserts). Afterwards, they stayed and talked for a bit while some of the palace servants wandered in and out of the kitchen, cleaning up after the meal in the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Eventually, it got a bit late in the evening and everyone decided they should head off to bed. Po wasn't very tired, but he definitely wanted to rest his head from the mental exhaustion of the past few days and allow himself time to brace for whatever Ming and Ella had in store while they were here. (Fortunately Ming wouldn't be there much longer. They were just waiting on the emperor to have a chat about state laws and wait for Superintendent Woo to reinforce them before departing, which wouldn't take more than a week).

As he was laying there, his door suddenly opened and the master was startled by Tigress' sudden appearance in his room.

"Sorry," she apologized after seeing him nearly jump off his bed.

"Hey!" Po exclaimed, sitting up to face her. "What brings you in here? Looking to chat?"

"Nope. Looking to train," the Dragon Warrior corrected, and before Po could react, she had thrown a thin heavy object at him and caused him to fall off the bed and onto the floor. The master laughed and added, "I noticed today you needed some more practice, and since I've had a very long day, I figure we could both use some good old fashioned venting."

She reached behind her and pulled out the metal fan, though it remained closed in her paws at the moment.

Po eyed her. "You want to practice with the fan?" he questioned.

"You heard what the empress said. Getting the hang of both halves takes a long time. And I'd rather figure out this ridiculous fan sooner rather than later. Plus you could stand to brush up on how to use the fire staff."

"Yeah...that's true. I was just sort of guessing when we were doing the match earlier."

Tigress grinned. "Thank you for not throwing the match," she said. "I'm very glad to know I can still kick your butt whenever I feel like it."

Po felt a small tingle shoot through his body and ride to his face in the form of a small blush, but he brushed it off in an attempt to not look embarrassed in front of his friend. He hoped the emperor and Shifu hadn't noticed his initial attempt to throw the match either, but knowing Shifu, he probably did and just chose not to say anything. The emperor hopefully didn't even notice. Po got up and followed Tigress out of the barracks, holding the fire staff tightly in his paws, and headed over to the training hall. They were quiet on the way over, though this was mostly because Po didn't really know what to say.

"You're being awfully quiet," Tigress noted as they headed inside the training hall. She twirled the fan a bit in her paws before letting it rest between them. "Nervous?"

"Uh...no. Sort of? Sorry," Po apologized. "I guess I've got a lot going on in my mind right now."

"If it's about Shifu, don't worry. He's not going to scold you."

"Huh? Oh. Uh...thanks. Good to know."

He was quiet for a moment as he and Tigress made their way into the center of the building, but then stopped and asked, "Was it obvious at all that I was trying to throw the match?"

"To a trained eye," Tigress replied. "And some personal experience." She gently squeezed his shoulder and added with a smile, "If it's of any consolation, you looked more out of focus than you did deliberately going back and forth over whether or not to fight me fairly. I don't blame you. It was sort of a weird situation for both of us. But also a great learning experience."

She let go of Po's shoulder and immediately kicked him into the spiral beams, adding, "Apparently I need more work on my...passive...side...."

Po wheezed from the kick and from the heavy staff falling onto his stomach and managed to get to his feet with a wince. "Well...I'm pretty sure kicking me isn't a great way to start off on that," he told her. "I'm just assuming we need to learn each other's kung fu styles."

Tigress smirked. "You better start practicing then," she told him. "Hard style isn't really your strong suite."

"I thought you said directing the cannonballs was hardcore."

"It was. But you don't do hardcore moves very often. You're more squishy. Nothing personal."

Po gasped in fake offense. "Squishy?!" he cried. "I prefer the term huggable, Dragon Warrior! It's an effective soft-style move, which you better get the hang of to figure out that fan!"

"All in due time," Tigress countered. "In the mean time, I think we need to revisit all 126 lessons."

She immediately went flying at Po who attempted to swing up with the staff as Tigress did, but he wasn't used to it and his slowness caused him to get kicked once more into the spiral beams.

"Lesson 12!" the master shouted.

Po groaned but quickly rolled out of the way, pushing the staff ahead of him to get out of Tigress' attack path much faster. "Never copy Tigress or else she'll kick your butt?" he repeated, quickly getting up and dragging the fire staff with him.

"Close enough," Tigress replied. She leaped from within the spiral beams, catching hold of the swinging clubs and launching herself overtop of Po and landing on him with quick precision. The two masters toppled to the ground as Tigress triumphantly pinned Po and then immediately started trying to figure out how to comfortably hold the fan. Po made an effort to grab the staff with the tips of his paws and upon pulling it closer to him, took out the iron middle and set the staff on fire. He then swung it up at Tigress upon which the master proceeded to block it and give Po just wiggle room to throw her off of him and give him time to collect himself.

"Lesson one," Tigress said, pointing the fan at an angle and hitting a button.

Po yelled in terror and ducked underneath the Jade Tortoise to avoid the hail of knives. "Expect the unexpected?" he called back.

"Lesson two."

Po took the fire staff and wedged it between the two sides of the bowl (with extreme difficulty) and then held on tight and braced his feet against the sides. "Cowardice is exploitable," he recited. Immediately the bowl flipped over and Po grimaced as he held on tight and braced for the inevitable impact, though he still managed to slip off and collide with the bottom of the bowl. He groaned and rubbed his head before standing up, taking care to not hit his head on the side of the bowl. The bowl suddenly shook violently and began to spin, catching Po off guard and forcing him against the staff he had wedged against the Jade Tortoise. The master held on tightly as the bowl spun wildly around, thankful that he had digested dinner hours ago and thus had no risk of throwing up or getting too sick. Eventually the bowl stopped and Po let go of the stick and wobbled back and forth for a bit before catching hold of the staff for a moment and listening for Tigress. He wasn't sure if she'd come for him, but he was more than willing to take the brief pause to try and catch his breath and stop being dizzy.

"Lesson 15!" came Tigress' voice from outside the bowl.

Po reflected, glanced up, and smirked. "Actually, I think lesson 104 works better!" he called over.

No answer. Then the bowl violently jolted once more. However, Po had grabbed onto the fire staff and waited to get hit again by some other spot in the training hall. Both forces wound up unsticking the fire staff from the bowl, forcing Po out of it and back onto solid ground, albeit still very dizzy and somewhat disoriented.

"Lesson 15: embrace the inevitable," Tigress told him firmly from in front of the swinging alligator limbs. She leaped into the air as Po smirked.

"Yeah, I remember," the master recalled. "But like I said-"

Tigress came down hard on the ground, causing a violent vibration to ring out on the floor, which knocked Po off of his feet. However, when she landed and came running towards him, Po gleefully swung out of the way and tumbled about dizzily, wildly swinging the staff around which forced Tigress to do more ducking than anything, and eventually resulted with her getting knocked into the side of the training hall wall.

"Lesson 104," Po reminded her. "Never underestimate your opponent."

"Very funny," Tigress remarked. "Your turn. Lesson 82."

She ran over to him at lightning speed and kicked up towards his face. Po tried to swing the heavy club at her, but was too slow and wound up getting knocked to the ground instead. Tigress then came at him with a series of quick and powerful punches and kicks which eventually sent Po sailing under the spiral beams with a frustrated groan. "Be observant of everything."

Tigress leaped overtop of the beams, but Po took the staff and used its weight to move him quickly out from underneath and back onto his feet. Tigress came flying back at him but Po belly-bumped her into the rafters. The Dragon Warrior was quick to regroup and simply ran across them and back down the pillars to reengage him in a fight. She moved over to the alligator limbs and kicked them in Po's direction, forcing him to duck and attempt to use the staff as a kind of blockade. The master lit it on fire as she came back to deliver more punches.

"Lesson 45."

"Don't be afraid to fail?"

"Lesson 68."

"Pain is your best friend. Though I don't get that one. I can't take pain to dad's restaurant or pull a few good jo-OWWWW!"

"Lesson 69."

"Don't joke during training or else some bad guy will punch your lights out for not staying focused."

"Right."

"Sure it's not just because you can't take a joke? OWWW! That was a joke!"

"Lesson 72...."

"Tigress knows how to joke, but not during something serious like training."

Po spun around in an attempt to blind Tigress with the mirrors on the staff, but to no avail since she anticipated his and was quick to shield her eyes. She then proceeded to run over to the alligator limbs and jumped on top, spinning her up towards the talon rings where she grabbed hold, spun faster, and then leaped into the air with an unraveled one and threw it like lightning at Po. It took the master a second to realize that she had grabbed hold of the head on the way up in the air to use it as an airborne weapon. He was quick to dodge out of the way, and when Tigress came down, quickly somersaulted over and kicked her hard in the knee, causing the Dragon Warrior to buckle for a brief moment. Po attempted to swing the staff at her and knock her completely to the ground, but the weight of the staff wound up accidentally pulling him to the ground instead and gave Tigress the opportunity to run back up to the ceiling.

"Lesson 12," Tigress called over, calculating her next move.

Po quickly rolled out of the way and yelled out, "Have a plan for every letter of the alphabet and beyond in case all else fails." He dodged another airborne strike from the Dragon Warrior and took her arm and belly-bumped her over to the alligator limbs, knowing it would keep her occupied for at least a few seconds. He watched her for a moment and frowned as she charged at him, the fan still held tightly in her paws.

"I have one," he suggested, ducking out of the way and lighting the staff in an effort to dissuade any unwanted punching contact. "What's lesson 97?"

Tigress gave him a quizzical look. "Don't skip practice or else get drop-kicked?" she replied, but she didn't have much time to think it over as Po ran over and, using the staff as a launch point, propelled himself forward and double kicked Tigress through the alligator limbs and against the wall on the far side.

"I thought we were doing this to get better with our worse halves!" Po called over to her with a frown. "Don't leave me hanging, Ti!"

"I'm practicing!" Tigress protested angrily. "I'm just...taking my time."

"Maybe we need to review lesson 111 too."

"Don't you even dare use that on me! You know that one was because you wouldn't get your grubby paws out of the cake!"

"Hey, I didn't know!"

Tigress got to her feet and stretched out her back before looking Po in the eye. "You know what, Po Ping?" she said coolly. "I've decided to give you a new lesson."

"Oh yeah?" Po asked, raising an eyebrow curiously at the remark.

"Yeah. Lesson 127: Never tell Master Tigress she's skimping on kung fu or face getting your butt kicked!"

"Ooh! A challenge! Bring th-OWWW!"

Tigress didn't wait for Po to get to his feet from getting violently punched into wall of the training hall before extending the darts on the fan and just as violently throwing it at him. Po wasn't sure what her intention was, but he was just barely able to maneuver out of the way, causing the fan to get stuck in the wall behind him. He quickly grabbed it, aimed the darts at the master as she ran in his direction, and then left it on the ground and slowly somersaulted away with the staff. The point of the sparring session was to practice getting better with their worse halves, not just beat each other. Tigress in the meantime had managed to scoop the fan up and launched the darts in his direction.

The Fan of Yin had eight different sleeping darts hidden within which were simultaneously attached to four different blades. Depending on which mechanism you pushed, you could either bring the darts just to the tip of the fan or launch them in an opponent's direction. The blades didn't leave the fan but they could be used as a deterrent for anybody attempting to get too close to the user while they went on the offensive. None of the masters had gotten a hang of these new extensions since the blade didn't seem particularly useful for anything except maybe a sword fight (if you really wanted to even attempt that) so at this point it was a guessing game of who would become the expert fan wielder first.

Once Tigress actually started to implement the Heart of Yin into her combat technique, the fighting between herself and Po started to even out a lot more. The staff made Po incredibly slow and since he was also sensitive to pain, the heat from the fire made holding it a little bit difficult if it was on too long. Perhaps with time his paws would callous, but now was not that time. Tigress was more into continuing her kung fu style techniques while practicing with the fan, but hardstyle was too much for the delicate fan to handle and often times she had to run back up to the rafters to try and fix it whenever it started to bend from her slamming it against the fire staff too hard. Tigress would get plenty of jabs in but then get hit pretty hard by Po. Po would get tossed around a bit but eventually figure out how to work in a good swing. The two traded blows back and forth each time trying to keep the other pinned and beaten but always failing since they couldn't figure out which techniques to use with the strange weapons they had. And the longer they kept practicing and continually failing to get a decisive victory, the more secretly frustrated the two silently became.

Po admittedly did more thinking than hitting, sometimes trying out a new tactic here or there and then retreating when it definitely did not work with the present situation.

Yin and yang, he kept thinking to himself as he kept trying to dodge Tigress and ultimately kept failing. Yin and yang.

A small triumph for Tigress and more running around the training hall with very clumsy and yet very ferocious matches as the two kept getting more and more frustrated.

The fan is more evasive. We use it to be on offense. That's why Crane uses it easier than the fan. It's designed for more graceful kung fu styles, which is why Viper has an easier time with it. And it's designed to go with the flow, be passive, which is why I have an easier time with it. Why do Tigress and Mantis and Monkey have an easier time with the staff? What's so polar opposite that they find this easier than the fan?

A hit to the nose. A kick to the stomach. Some ricocheting off the walls, and some angry noises when the fire field did more damage than they did to each other.

Monkey and I have a lot of the same interests. We like jokes and pranks and running with the crowd. But Monkey is more limber than I am and his kung fu style involves a lot of climbing and being quick. And the staff lets you blind people...eh, that doesn't say much! What's the difference?

Tigress tried a surprise attack, but Po swept up and blinded her to the ground, though she immediately swept her legs under his in retaliation and tried to attack him on the ground. Po blocked her and the two became embroiled in a deadlock with neither weapon giving way under the pressure of heat or brute strength.

The staff has hidden buttons and Monkey likes to play sneaky pranks. I guess that works? And Mantis is really pushing himself to lift heavier things and has a surprise attack kung fu style, so I guess that explains a few things. Plus he can be surprisingly aggressive with this thing, though Tigress is worse. Though she's more logical and hardcore, so that makes sense. But the fan has surprise dust! Though it's more to help me escape. The blinders on this staff I guess let me have the upper hand for a few seconds?

Po heard the fan start to bend and considered getting up to prevent it from getting stuck but decided Tigress could destroy it herself and then he'd win. However, Tigress noticed this and broke the deadlock by retreating to the sidelines and up to the top of the training hall rafters to try and fix it before Po got to her.

She can't use the fan very well, but she can still predict practically my every move.

Po glanced at the staff.

Logical.....the opposite is intuitive.

She had been testing his "logic" Tigress had remarked several weeks earlier. Several weeks earlier he could barely hold the stupid thing and Song was alive and well enough to make remarks on the sidelines with everyone. He was going to miss her. A lot.

Intuition....logic. Evasive...defensive...Passive...active.......what are they good at doing that I struggle with? Making plans? Punching through walls? Nah, I do that already. Not getting tricked? Getting up early? Expecting the unexpected?!

He heard the creak come from the fan as Tigress bent it back together. And then a thought came to him:

Malleable.

Maneuver.

Manipulate.

He needed her to do exactly as he planned.

But Tigress was not easy to trick.

Illusions.

With all the magic tricks Po had observed and even attempted growing up, he knew that there were certain keys to trick the mind into believing or doing something. The staff had a bunch of buttons which did certain things. All he needed to do was figure out how to manipulate it to get Tigress to not go on the offensive and take him out. He knew she didn't need the fan to kick his butt. He wasn't concerned about that. He just needed her in one specific spot and all his senses to keep himself from getting tricked. So he thought, stared at the staff for a bit, and then waited for Tigress to finish fixing the fan.

Once Tigress was finished, she stood up to fight Po, only to stare at him and cock her head to the side in thought. She knew Po pretty well, so it wasn't difficult to guess that she knew he was up to something. She watched him carefully. Waiting. Po got a sudden flash from when she had fought Ordai and waited for the panther to strike first. He wasn't sure if she was baiting him, but Po knew exactly what he needed to do to trap her, so he held his ground, giving an equal stare right back. Eventually, after who knew how long, Tigress broke the stare-off and quietly and casually climbed down the rafters and walked over to Po with a curious and suspicious look on her face. She didn't say anything though. Po just watched her carefully. All he needed to do was move her right where he needed her. And where he needed her to be was all the way across the training hall. Po wasn't the greatest at getting Tigress to do anything, but there were two things he did know: she did have a tendency to underestimate him at times, and she was very logical. If he did this correctly, he could use both of those things against her. Tigress knew him pretty well, but he knew that. Or maybe she knew him well enough to know that he'd know that and then try to- no, he couldn't overthink the plan. Now was not the time get overwhelmed. Focus! Like everybody kept telling him.

Tigress got closer to him. She didn't attack, but she held the fan up in readiness for Po's defense. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

Come on...he thought. Make the first move.

But what if she didn't?

Tigress grew closer. And then Po had a thought. What if he could make her have the first move? Just like an illusionist. Make her think he was attacking first! But how? Po thought that over for a brief second, thought about what he needed to do to get Tigress to move over to the training hall, and then turned on the fan and swept up, launching the detachable swords in the master's direction. He didn't need those right now. As expected, Tigress blocked the incoming attack with the fan, though she had to close it to do so, giving Po time to use the mirrors to blind her. Tigress blinked and tried to rub the light out of her eyes while Po reengaged her in combat, forcing the master back in the direction Po wanted her to go in. Tigress kept swinging at po with the fan, clearly attempting to throw him off track with the dust and some of the darts, but Po kept the staff firmly in front of him and made sure to stay clear out of the Dragon Warrior's line of fire. A few flashes of light here, some swings, and even a fake running for his life eventually got Tigress right next to the Jade Tortoise. Po sparred with Tigress for a bit before allowing her to get in a few swings, knocking him painfully to the ground. Just like he had done with Snow Leopard, Po patiently waited and listened as Tigress came flying back to throw the fan back at him, more than likely trying to use the darts to her advantage. However, Po quickly rolled out of the way, causing her to slip and fall to the ground. He then quickly leaped up and crashed down hard on the rim of the Jade Tortoise, forcing it to flip over and land upside down overtop of the Dragon Warrior. Po then quickly landed on top and used his weight to keep Tigress from escaping her prison. (Which admittedly was not easy to do since Tigress was pretty strong).

"PO!" Tigress yelled from underneath the Jade Tortoise. "Let me out!"

Po was never sure what direction she was going in since she was very good at being quiet, but he kept himself in the middle so that, wherever she popped up, he could quickly maneuver and keep the bowl firmly on the ground. She knocked the bowl several times before it went quiet, and then she kicked straight up in the middle. Po felt the bowl go flying for a moment but somehow managed to keep it from flying too high in the air. He could hear Tigress' growls of frustration, and then suddenly it went quiet. Po knew she was thinking. He also knew he couldn't keep sitting on top of the bowl forever. At some point he needed to let her out so he could beat her. But he wasn't quite sure how to do it. He quickly slipped off of the bowl and braced himself for an attack, but to his surprise, Tigress didn't kick the bowl off of her. Yeah, she was definitely planning something. The question was what?

Po suddenly heard the fan quietly squeak open. He couldn't tell if that was because Tigress didn't fix it all the way or if his hearing was getting better. She sounded like she was standing right next to the very edge of the bowl, though with her body low to the ground. He had a feeling she was going to attack him, though he didn't know how. With the fan? By herself? Well he wasn't about to get blindsided again. He was going to have to put in all of his tricks to get this to work. And as it happened, he suddenly had a brilliant idea. He quickly lifted up the bowl and, as expected, Tigress came flying out. However, seeing that her fan was open, Po opened up the mirrors on the fire staff and lit it, shining the light directly on the reflective metal surface on Tigress' fan and causing her to get blinded. As the master stumbled and tried to rub the light out of her eyes, Po quickly swung the staff and knocked her into the side of the wall.

"I did it!" Po cried. "Whoohoo! Yay! Finally!" He took a deep breath and picked up the fan Tigress had dropped and walked over to her. "Hey, we did pretty good despite struggling with this stuff," he noted. "Let's go again!"

Tigress glanced at him and just groaned. "Fine," she grumbled. "Just...give me a minute."

Po looked confused. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

The master eyed her and then decided to sit down against the wall next to her. "That scowl means you're mad and you don't want to discuss it," Po reminded her. "Now we just did a whole training session to get better at these yin yang hearts and you're giving up?"

"I didn't say that."

"Master Tigress never says Give me a minute unless she's not looking forward to round two. So, what's up?"

Tigress gave him a glare but then sighed. "How do you do this?" she asked.

Po looked confused. "Do what?" he asked.

"Figure this stuff out so quickly? We've been practicing with these weapons much longer than you have and yet in just a few short sessions you're better than all of us. Here I am supposed to be this mighty new Dragon Warrior with all this extra training and all you've done aside from run around like a banshee is train with babies. How do you master all these new things so fast?!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy! I didn't master anything!" Po said. "I'm just barely figuring out how you guys are using the staff. And you're doing great as Dragon Warrior! You've been running circles around me all night! Besides, I thought lesson 44 was about you not being mad about me beating you every once in a while."

"It is." Tigress sighed. "It is..... I just...it isn't you. I just...am so used to getting the hang of kung fu in a short period of time....and this is just really frustrating me. That's all."

"Oh," Po said. He thought for a moment. "Well, usually when I've been training with these, I've just been thinking about what's so opposite of each weapon and why you guys probably have an easier time with the staff than I do with the fan." He picked up the fire staff and placed it carefully on his lap and added, "For example, I was thinking while we were sparring that Monkey likes to use the staff probably because he likes to pull pranks and be sneaky. And you like to use it because you love protocol and all that, and Mantis is just scary. And that kind of reminded me of magicians and illusions and I thought maybe the staff works by manipulating people into doing what plan of action you had in mind."

Tigress laughed lightly. "You really are good at this," she noted.

"Hey, you're the thinking planning one," Po told her. "You can do it too. You just might do what I do and run around screaming a lot."

"Oh trust me, Master Po, I will not be doing that. My days of screaming and running away from Shifu are long over."

Po laughed.

Tigress took the fan from Po and stood up. "Since you're so good at this," she offered with a smile. "Why don't you teach me, Teacher of Children's Kung Fu?"

Po blinked for a second in surprise but then returned the idea with a big grin and said, "Yeah! Yeah that'd be fun! I can try my new skills on you and you can grade me!"

"As long as it's better than flying kites and sleeping on top of training equipment, I think I'll be alright, Master Po."