As was to be expected, everyone was utterly relieved and excited to see Po once he emerged from the spirit realm. Mr. Ping was even excited to see Po flying, though this was short lived when the portal closed and Po found himself dropping hard onto the ground with a loud THUD! However, any pain was short lived the moment he saw both of his dads again. They were both just as happy to see him, engulfing him in a tight hug that only a concerned parent could give, and before long Po found himself engulfed in the hugs of his friends, now free from Kai's pendent, and so many pandas that Po lost count. The odd one out was, of course, Master Shifu. But this wasn't much of a surprise since he had already made it clear he wanted to maintain as much decorum and dignity as possible. Hugs were out of the question.

"Master Shifu!" Po cried happily, both relieved and excited to see him.

Shifu seemed to share the same expression, but kept himself more composed. "The student has truly become the teach-" he began, having noted the mass amount of panda power used to take down Kai. However, his thoughts were interrupted when he noticed what Po was carrying. "Wait, where did you get that?"

"Oh this?" Po asked, holding up his new staff. "Oogway gave it to me in the spirit realm."

Master Shifu sighed. He shouldn't have been surprised. He knew Master Oogway since he was a kid; he probably had some foresight of this and had expressed it in a phrase of wisdom he didn't understand. "Of course he did," Shifu muttered, more to himself.

"I think I mastered chi," Po noted, gently tapping the tip of the staff.

"Of course you did," the grandmaster muttered again. However, he was quick to recover from his usual grumpy observation and gave Po a pleading look. "Could you teach me?"

Po smiled in slight amusement, but he was quick to let Shifu know he would. Not that he thought it would be incredibly difficult. Shifu had already started getting the hang of mastering chi, as evident by him making an early spring flower bloom in full. Po didn't think it would take him that long to figure it out fully like everyone in the panda village had just done.

Of course on the other hand, now that Po was seriously thinking about it, Shifu did have a tendency to compare himself to others. Especially Oogway, whose shoes he had to fill for the past several years. So maybe that was why. And Shifu always liked doing things the hard way. So maybe that shouldn't have surprised Po very much.

Chi training would have to wait though. They had just defeated Kai, everyone was now safe and sound, and Po was honestly very hungry from the whole day's events, and he could use a break. Before he could even open his mouth and say anything though, Li called for a big celebration and for food to be made for everyone in honor of Kai's defeat and everyone learning to use chi. All the pandas in the village immediately dispersed, some of them taking the de-jombied masters with them and catching them up to speed on what had happened while they had been down for the count. Eventually, Po was left alone with Li and Mr. Ping, though the later decided to make his special ingredient noodle soup to celebrate the occasion and left Po with his father for the time being.

Po's stomach almost immediately growled, causing Li to laugh. "Same," he agreed. "I figured you were hungry. Thought we could all use a rest."

"How'd you guess?" Po asked with a smile.

"I'm your dad," Li answered immediately. "And we haven't eaten in almost an hour. I know I'm famished!"

Po just chuckled.

"While we're waiting," Li said, glancing at all the retreating villagers and guests. "Why don't we hang out by the lake? I need a moment to sit down."

Po agreed and soon he and Li had walked over to one of the small rivers running through the village. This river emptied out into a little wading pool of sorts beneath cluster of trees, which Po found out was his dad's favorite spot to visit during the night when he needed to relax. Po wasn't sure what it was about water that made it a good meditation spot, but all masters seemed to have come to that conclusion at some point in their lives. Even Shifu sat by the moon pool for hours without eating, though Po couldn't fathom how he managed it.

Li and Po eventually reached the little lake and sat down the two of them, Li dipping his feet into the water with a contented sigh. "This is nice," he said, more to himself. "It's been a couple of days since we've been able to really relax."

"I hear that," Po agreed. He followed his dad's example and dipped his feet into the water, resting Oogway's staff next to him in the grass. The two were quiet for a little while, hearing nothing more than the bustling from the villagers off in the far distance and the gentle lapping of the water by their feet. The two sighed, breathed deeply in and out, and eventually just laid down in the grass. Po opened his eyes and stared up at the sky, the blue and the white clouds finally back in full color. Apparently one could even take chi from the environment, dulling everything in color and vivacity.

Vivacity?

Ah, great, Po thought to himself. Now I'm turning into Shifu. I better put the kibosh on that before Tigress starts making comments.

Po thought about his friend and suddenly found himself laughing out loud.

"What's so funny?" Li asked curiously, turning his head to look at his son.

"I was just thinking," Po admitted. He paused, then asked, "What do you think of people who use big words in every single sentence?"

Li thought for a moment. "It depends on the person," he replied. "And the situation I think. I think there are plenty of words that can better describe a situation or feeling or...anything else much better than simple words. It's like...the word itself is the feeling! And you know, we definitely get the hang of learning more complicated and appropriate words as we age."

"Fair enough."

"But I definitely do think some people do it for show. Why I don't know, but it makes them come across as condescending in some cases."

Po held back a smirk. "I'll be sure to forewarn Master Shifu then," he joked.

Li looked at him. "Ah! That's what you were thinking of," he said. Laughed. "Well, I don't think I'd mind him. He seems like the kind of person who needs to use big professional words."

"Ah. Good to know. I don't mind either, but sometimes he phrases things in a way I don't understand. So I was thinking about that, and me being a kung fu teacher....could you see me being a Dragon Teacher and using big words?"

Li chuckled at the idea. "Hard to say," he admitted. "Can you?"

Po smirked, but then thought. He thought hard for a good minute or two before slowly saying, "Weirdly enough...yeah, kind of. I mean, I can't see myself being confusing or old and wise...but I guess that's not the point, huh? I'm my own teacher."

"Your own best self," Li agreed, and the two fell back into silence looking up at the sky.

Both of their stomach's growled loudly as the aromatic smells of dinner began to float through the village and reached their noses, and Li finally suggested getting up to see if any food was ready. Po agreed and followed suit. As they walked back through the village, Li glanced over at his son and asked, "So...what now?"

"What do you mean?" Po asked with a look of confusion.

"Well, you found us, learned to be a panda, defeated this Kai guy...learned chi and became a great kung fu master...." Li trailed off, and stopped walking. Po stopped and looked back at him.

"Dad?" he pressed.

Li looked at him, a little sad. "I...guess this means you're leaving us," he finished.

"Leaving?" Po repeated. "But I just found you! Or...you found me, I guess."

"I know. But I know you have to do kung fu teaching, and you can't really do that from here. Plus your dad has his restaurant to run....."

"Yeah, but...why don't you guys just come back with us?"

Li did a double take and blinked in confusion. "Leave?" he asked. "Again?"

"Dad, there's plenty of room in the valley for you guys! And plenty of rivers for farming...we could build a lift into the Jade Palace mountain so you can come up and visit me!"

"Well...I...son, that sounds great, but there's so many dangers to us out there. We got attacked by Lord Shen when you were a baby! That's the whole reason we got separated! Why your mother's not here!"

"Oh!" Po cried. "That's right! You didn't hear, did you?!"

"Hear what?"

"Lord Shen's dead, dad. We kicked his butt almost three years ago now! He won't be coming back to hurt anyone."

The look of fear on Li's face melted into a look of relief. "Really?" he asked, hopefully. Almost pleading. "He's gone."

"Gone, dead, buried, destroyed by his own creation, whatever you want to call it," Po promised.

Li took a big sigh of relief, but then asked worriedly, "But what if something else comes up? Something worse than that? Or something like Kai?"

"Then we'll be ready for them," Po promised. "And we've all learned the basics of chi! Any guy coming through to kick our butts is going to be in for a rude awakening! Besides, if you guys come back with us, I could help you with chi! Shifu probably has a gazillion scrolls on it! Trust me, he's a pack rat!"

"I thought he looked more like a red panda."

"Dad, it's an expression....."

Li laughed. "I knew that," he promised.

"And we'd be together and have more time to catch up," Po added as a last minute incentive.

Li thought for a moment. Then smiled. "I think we can manage that," he relented. "Just...are you sure you don't mind a bunch of pandas just randomly showing up?"

"Are you kidding? It'll be great!"

Li smiled a huge smile and reached over to hug Po as best he could. Po received the hug and gave his dad a big squeeze before they both finally started walking again to see what food was available for afternoon lunch.