Po woke up a few hours later to Song shaking him awake, saying dinner was ready. The master was a little shocked that he had slept the whole afternoon away, but he didn't really have time to ponder over this as he felt his stomach growl in hunger. He quickly got up and followed Song to the kitchen where the rest of the masters and girls greeted him and let him set down at the table. Po was still a woozy from just waking up and his head felt a bit heavy, but he didn't think much of it as he tried to wake himself up and have a decent conversation at the table. However, he soon admitted that he was still pretty tired and went to bed almost as soon as dinner was over. Naturally Shifu considered this a bit worrisome and had zero problem with letting Po turn in early. Everyone else stayed up to talk and play a few games with each other (Weiqi was out of the question), though they kept the fun confined to the kitchen so as not to disturb Po. The masters didn't stay up for long as they needed to get up for training the next morning, but the girls stayed up for a bit to talk about the fun they would have with some of the kids the next day, how did Tigress teach them, how much fun it would be to spend the day with Po and the kids, who Po might develop a crush on, and so on. Afterwards, they all turned in so that they could be well rested for the following day. 

The next morning, Lam awoke early, as per usual, and began to make breakfast. The masters woke up around the same time and were happy to have a nice hot breakfast so early in the morning. Soon the other girls woke up and joined them and immediately began to dive into a nice conversation about the weather and how they had been thinking about potentially fun activities that they could do with Po. Po, however, had not shown up to eat breakfast at all. Ordai and a few of the other girls offered to go and get him, but once again the masters assured them that Po would get up on his own time and continued on eating. However, when he didn't show up after breakfast was over, the masters and the girls all wound up heading over to the barracks to check up on him. Po was awake, but not by much, and he looked and sounded absolutely terrible. While his friends asked him what was wrong and if he was okay, Jai-Rong took one look at him and immediately began to apologize.

"I was feeling perfectly fine when we did the kung fu sparring stuff and I completely forgot I just got over a cold!" she cried apologetically. "Sorry, Po! I didn't mean to give it to you!"

Po sniffled. "That's okay," he promised, trying to smile through the weariness and head pressure. 

"You poor thing!" Ordai cooed. She shot Jai-Rong an offended and angry expression (which thankfully the colubrid didn't notice) before dashing off to get Po some medicine and some breakfast, saying she'd be back soon. 

"I suppose this explains why you were so tired yesterday," Shifu said simply. Once he had noticed Po was sick, he forbid the rest of his students from entering the room who in turn forbid the girls from entering. "We'll keep an eye on you to make sure you recover, but until you do I don't want you to step one foot outside this room, am I clear?" 

Po sniffed. "Yeah," he said. He then quickly added, "Master." 

Shifu stepped out of the room and informed the group that they'd need to keep distant from Po unless they were assigned to take care of him. (Shifu didn't want to risk anybody getting sick). The grandmaster didn't want Po up and about either, so it was important to keep him in his room in quarantine. 

"What about the children's session this afternoon?" Song piped up. "Should we postpone that?'

Shifu looked confused at this, but Tigress explained that Po had suggested the girls help her with her kung fu classes as a way to see them around children and she had agreed to it. "It doesn't means plans have to be put on hold because Po has a cold," Tigress told them. "You can still help me out this afternoon if you wish. I'll make the report to Po."

The group walked out of the barracks to give Po some space to rest and Madame Zhou asked Tigress about her teaching group.

"Po said his kung fu classes were more demanding than yours," she noted. "What's the difference?"

"My focus as Dragon Warrior is making sure I'm prepared to defend the whole of China at the drop of a jiao," the master explained. "Teaching children to have confidence and have an understanding of basic kung fu stances is just something we do to encourage excellence as children grow. The idea is that the more balance a child has, the more balanced they'll be as an adult, and the more it'll encourage good habits or practices rather than bad."

"Not that the parents don't do anything," Crane added quickly. "It's just something Oogway enjoyed doing. He liked helping children to gain confidence and that's something that's been passed down." 

"Po's classes focus on constantly changing kung fu techniques, skill and emotional well-being, and potentially training children to be advanced kung fu warriors, and that'll take years, if not the rest of his life," Tigress finished. "And because he's also protecting a highly vulnerable area, he can't just leave when he wants. There has to be planning involved." 

"Ah, I see." 

"The kids and I will be by the training hall after lunch," Tigress told the girls as a last reminder before walking in the direction of the training hall herself. 

The rest of the masters followed after her with Master Shifu giving the group a final goodbye. They were then left on their own for the morning with a sick beau in the barracks. 

"What should we do?" Lu-Shi asked. "Po's gonna' be laid up for a while, and all we have planned is an activity that he can't participate in." 

"We'll think of something," Leopard promised. "In the meantime, it gives us plenty of time to sightsee. I haven't gone through the village in quite some time." 

"I'm sure there's plenty we can do around here," Song agreed. "Plus we can get to know each other better too. I hardly know anything about you guys aside from whatever conversations we had at the breakfast table."

"Well in that case, I say lunch is on me!" Madame Zhou announced. "Not today since we have plans in the afternoon and I know masters train pretty quickly after a meal, but perhaps tomorrow or the day after."

Leopard eyed her. "Were you a master at some point?" she asked. 

"Not quite," Madame Zhou admitted. "It's a little complicated to explain for now...."

"We have all day," Leopard pointed out with a frown. "I'm sure it won't be an issue." 

Madame Zhou patted her shoulder with a big smile. "You're so precious, sweetheart," she told her. 

Leopard didn't look amused at this gesture. 

"Could someone open the door for me?" came Ordai's voice from close behind. The girls turned around to see her trying to open the barrack door with her back but having a tough time as the tray kept tipping here and there. (Though since she had multiple items on it this was understandable). 

Lam walked over behind her and opened the doors, moving aside so that Ordai didn't have to worry about stepping on her. 

"Po! I have breakfast!" Ordai called out after thanking Lam for her assistance. 

"Oh, Ordai, Tigress said we can still do the children's kung fu thing this afternoon!" Lam told her before she was out of earshot. 

"Okay! I'll let Po know!" Ordai said. She then went into Po's room and gave him the medicine and the tray of food. Po thanked her and apologized for having to sit out of the kung fu session with the kids. 

"Tigress said we could still do that," Ordai assured him. 

"I heard," Po sniffled. "She was saying something about it on the way out." 

"I'll tell you how it goes. In the meantime, you get some rest, you poor thing." 

She went to leave the room when Po weakly told her to hang on. "I wanted to show the kids my action figures," he said, pointing to a small bag he had in the corner of his room. "But maybe Lu-Shi can show them off today instead." 

"Why Lu-Shi?" Ordai asked, looking through the bag for the action figures. 

"She knows all the names. She collects them too." 

Ordai rummaged through the bag for a moment. Paused. Looked again. "Po, they're not in here."

"What? What do you mean? I keep them in the bag so they don't get scratched." 

Ordai held the bag up to show Po that it was completely empty. The master glanced around the room hoping to remember where he put them, but in vain. Everything else Po had in the travel bag had been neatly placed in his room for the time being and the bag itself had no pockets. So there was no possibility of something hiding. Ordai offered to check the chest of clothes but Po told her it was fine. 

"I might have left them at dad's," he said thoughtfully, laying back down on his pillow. "I'll check when I'm feeling better. Thanks anyway." 

Ordai smiled sadly at him and walked out of the room, telling him to feel better soon. She then rejoined the rest of the group of girls who had retreated to the kitchen for tea. (Leopard and Xiao-Niao wanted some focus fuel for when they actually did the kung fu with the kids). They didn't want to wander too far away from the kitchen since they had to accompany Tigress after lunch, so they wound up just hanging out around the main arena and swapping some stories. (A lot of them were about people being sick, with the main being told by Jai-Rong whose family had a tendency to catch weird sicknesses from the places they visited during their mail run). The conversation soon switched to what they would do while Po was out of commission, and this took up the rest of their time until the masters returned to lunch just a few short hours later. Lunch was prepared, talking commenced, laughter went around the table, some condolences and thoughts were Po were given, (as well as lunch which Viper offered to do despite Ordai insisting she would), and before everyone knew it, it was time to leave. Tigress lead the large group of women across the grounds towards the training hall while Shifu went to collect the kids and guide them to the training grounds. (Though since most of them knew where it was, there was hardly any need for direction. It was more that Shifu didn't trust them to wander around unsupervised). 

As everyone waited for the children to show up, Tigress got busy with showing them some brief exercises they would do.

"The kids only stay here for an hour," she explained curtly to everyone as she set up some small games on the one side of the grounds. "So I want you all to know exactly what you're doing so we don't waste any time." 

She stopped and looked over at Leopard sheepishly. "I meant that in a nice way," she corrected, a little more politely. 

Leopard smiled. "I'm sure you did," she assured the master. "No need to apologize, Master Tigress." 

Tigress cleared her throat and quickly went back to setting up the stations and directing each person to a specific station. "Today's exercise is going to involve strategy and teamwork," she said. She asked for a volunteer for three board games: Go, Chess, and Checkers, which Leopard, Madame Zhou, and Xiao Niao all volunteered for in that order. Tigress continued, "The goal is to help them learn to build confidence in their strategizing and leadership skills, and also to teach them how to look at others strengths and weaknesses and use them to the advantage of the whole team. Nobody gets left out." 

The other side of the training grounds featured multiple flags which were either purple or brown and a small maze with what looked like blindfolds (how she had managed to do that eluded some of the younger girls). Tigress then asked for volunteers to do the Flag Attack and the Blind Runner. Lu-Shi and Song were assigned to the first game with Lu-Shi being brown and Song being purple, and Tai-Lin being assigned to do the Blind Runner. Tigress said they would split the group in half and have each of them work on strategies on one side of the arena. After a half hour, they'd switch. The remaining five girls would then swap places with the first six volunteers and Tigress herself would step in and take over. (She already planned to be the brown team's coach, just before anyone started volunteering). Her opponent coach wound up being Destiny (which Destiny got so excited for it was a wonder she didn't faint), and Tai Lin's replacement would be Ordai. Kay would coach Go in the second half while Lam took over chess and Jai-Rong took over checkers. They had just finished strategizing when Shifu opened the gates and let the class of kids into the arena. They had clearly been forewarned about the new coaches they'd have since the majority of them didn't look too surprised. (Though some of them clearly recognized Master Leopard and got about as excited as Destiny tended to get). 

"I take it you've planned everything out?" Shifu asked.

"Yes, sir," Tigress replied. 

"Alright then. I'll leave you to it. See you in an hour, Dragon Warrior." 

When he closed the door, the kids immediately asked where Po was since they had seen him back in town some days after he had first arrived. Tigress immediately explained that Po was sick, so he was being kept in quarantine. But she added that he said hi and would have loved to come and hang out if he was well. Ordai took another glance at Jai-Rong and then back at the kids, almost as if to point to them who the culprit was. But the kids didn't really notice this and instead focused more on Tigress' instructions, which were just an explanation of what they would be doing that day. 

"Nobody is going to tell you what to do," Tigress added when she had finished explaining everything. "This is about figuring out your own strengths and weaknesses and trying to improve what you can with what you can see. And don't try and trick any of today's volunteers. They're just here to help guide the lessons along and make sure no one beats each other up. And just in case you get any ideas, remember what happened the last time." 

"Yes ma'am!" the kids cried in unison. 

"Thank you. Now, I'm going to split you into two groups. One will go over to the board games to learn individual strategy while the rest of you take some time on the other side to learn teamwork. In a half hour, you'll swap sides and work on the other games." 

The master then pulled out a small list from her pocket and began to read off of it, directing each kid to each side of the arena. She then directed some of the girls to start going to each station to monitor each game while she immediately leaped to the top of the roof to monitor everyone. Jai-Rong looked a bit surprised at this level of strength, but then remembered Tigress was the Dragon Warrior, so she shouldn't have been too surprised by this.

"Can all masters leap onto the roof like that?" she asked Tigress as she sat on the stairs. 

"It depends on their skill level and technique," the Dragon Warrior replied. "Some masters can. Others need help. Others couldn't even if they tried." 

"Ah. I see." 

With the half hour started, everyone on the stairs sat there and watched all the activity. Lu-Shi and Song were quick to start the flag game and the children were quick to latch onto their enthusiasm and start trying to tackle the flags from one another. The girls seemed to follow Tigress' instructions pretty well as they simply offered encouragements from the sidelines and always congratulated everyone regardless of who scored a goal. 

"That's nice sportsmanship," Tai Lin admitted as she watched from her station when one of the games finished. "My gym teacher was a lot more competitive...."

"Sorry to hear that," Song told her out of sympathy. "I don't know much about pushy teachers, but they sound like a nightmare." 

"Those teachers are the worst!" Destiny spat with an irritated frump and a loud "Ugh!" and the other girls on the step agreed with her. 

The class was pretty small, no more than 15 to 20 kids, so there was a very small amount on each side split up between games. This meant that there were only a few kids at each station, but it also meant that the group wasn't too noisy and that each person could handle their group relatively easy. Because of this, it was also pretty easy for everyone to hear one another if they were having a conversation, including whenever Madame Zhou kept telling the kids at her station to not hold back and show no mercy while they were playing chess. 

"Let them figure out their own strategy!" Tigress snapped from the roof. "Quit talking!" 

Madame Zhou looked a little offended at the remark, but continued to monitor her station. Leopard and Xiao Niao stayed pretty quiet at their station, though Xiao Niao did accidentally help a kid here or there since she couldn't resist the pleading looks of I'm stuck! Help me! After switching the games up a little and having each kid take turns with some of the other games, Tigress finally announced that it was time to switch sides. She then hopped down from the roof and walked over to the flag game with Destiny, avoiding a few of the more energetic kids who were running like banshees between one side and the other. 

"These blindfolds are pretty!" Ordai gushed when she got to her station. "Where did you get them?"

"The store," Tigress replied which caused half of the girls to crack up. (Mostly Lu-Shi who had doubled over on the training hall stairs). 

"I figured as much," Ordai told her with a frown. "I meant where specifically. Are they custom made?"

"No. They're just from a local store. Mind you station, please." 

The kids who came over to Ordai immediately took one of the blindfolds and started the exercise with their friends. It was a simple one which involved directing their teammate through the maze Tigress had set up and which traps to avoid (which was just the Adversary flying up to hit someone in the face) and a couple of sticky or slimy food buckets. Tai Lin watched the kids from the side lines with Lu-Shi and suddenly said, "We should try these. They look like fun! Obviously not right now, but just as a suggestion for the future." 

"Oooooh! Yes!" Lu-Shi squealed. 

Madame Zhou laughed and said it wasn't for her, what with her hearing being what it was, but the younger ones could try it out themselves if they so pleased. "When Po's up to it, obviously," she added matter-of-factly. 

A sudden crash came from the other side of the arena and everyone looked over to see Kay jumping back in terror as one of the kids angrily threw the go board at the wall. She was saying something, but it was difficult to tell what exactly it was. The kids close enough could hear her, though the angry kid didn't have much interest in listening. 

"Some kids are real brats," Destiny noted to Tigress, though she did it quietly so as not to let the angry kid overhear. 

"There's a difference between brat and sore loser," Tigress told her firmly. "I know brats, and they act nothing like him. He just needs to learn to control himself whenever he gets frustrated. Which is the point of this exercise. And self-control can take a long time to get the hang of." 

"Yeah, I guess. But it doesn't make it fun for other kids. I didn't like playing with those kind of kids growing up. Nothing was ever fun because we knew she'd always get mad over something completely random. It was like walking on eggshells!" 

Tigress said nothing, but her face darkened ever-so-slightly at the comment. 

Kay, in the meantime, watched the angry kid huff off to the corner and picked up the board game for the next group of kids and let them start playing. After a second, she walked over to the piglet who was still steaming in the corner and sat down next to him. It was still impossible to hear, but the kids were more interested in playing than watching Kay talk to him, so everyone's attention was soon drawn back to the games at each station. Finally, the second half hour ended, and Tigress called everyone to the center of the arena to talk about what they had learned. Surprisingly, the angry piglet had at some point gone back to playing the board games, which no one had noticed until he started walking along with the rest of the kids. As she asked each individual kid what they had noticed about themselves with the games they played, Shifu came back and opened the gates as a signal that the parents had arrived to take the kids back. Tigress kept the kids talking though, soon coming to the piglet kid who had lost his temper. He seemed embarrassed. 

"What strengths did you learn about yourself, Donghai?" Tigress asked him. "What are  you good at?" 

Donghai scuffed the ground. "Um..." he said quietly. "I guess...listening to directions?"

"That's a good one. How do you listen to directions?"

"When people tell me to look out for booby traps, I don't step on them." 

"Good. That's good teamwork. What about weaknesses?"

Donghai squeezed his hooves. "I get mad when I can't play board games really well," was the answer. And he added that he needed to be better at playing so he didn't look so stupid. 

"It's good to practice, but let's come up with something more positive," Tigress told him. She immediately hushed Xiao-Niao when she started opening her mouth to offer her own opinion. 

Donghai thought for a second and then added, "Next time I get mad, I can get up and sit in the corner to draw?"

"That's a good idea. Let's work on that for next time, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." 

A couple more kids went after him and then the group was finally led away by Shifu to go home, right after Madame Zhou handed each kid a piece of fruit candy and told them to keep up the good work.

"He's cute," Kay commented quietly, thinking about the little piglet. "He kind of reminds me of Tigress." 

The girls all turned to look at her in slight surprise, causing Kay to turn bright red and stare at her feet. 

"What did you tell him?" Destiny asked. "When he was in the corner?"

Kay shrugged. "Nothing," she said, almost inaudibly. "I just asked why he was mad. I don't know about how to help kids, so I just...winged it...I guess. I'm not good with expressing myself, so we just drew in the dirt for a bit." 

"Well, I think everyone expresses themselves in different ways," Leopard told her with a smile. "And not always in a good way. So I think drawing will be good for him." 

Kay said nothing. 

"Not to cut the fun short, but Shifu will be back soon to start training and I have to clean up," Tigress told them. "I'll tell Po how it went later. Thanks for the help."

"Thanks for inviting us!" Xiao Niao exclaimed happily. "I love working with kids." 

"I like the idea of it," Song admitted, since she found she had some difficulty understanding the strange ways that children's minds worked. 

The girls all then waved goodbye and headed out of the arena to do something else before the day ended as Tigress started to clean up before another round of training.