I thought that it's be cooler to see that what if Max was not only grown up, but muscular too?
Chapter 3: Strengthing
A few minutes later, Max makes his way near Arizona's village and when he showed up, he immediately began meditating as he sat himself down in a lotus position, taking a few deep breaths and lets his mind be clear and focused before he begins training independently. Even though being a kung-fu master isn't his calling, he can still do some training when he needs to and luckily, he's got the support of Arizona, Akashi, Miyo and Sierra...and possibly everyone else in this valley that he's gonna be something someday.
After only 20 minutes of meditating, he stands up and warms himself up to get started and after that...he begins his training. He enters inside the mini-training room where he starts kicking and punching on a punching bag and after that, he went outside, removes his vest jacket and just began doing some serious training as he goes through the wooden gauntlet and kicks, punches and flips around it, dodges some arrows coming at him and even does 10 backflips for every arrow that goes past him.
Then, he does some pullups and sit-ups to keep himself limber and continues on doing some more of his own training skills and after that, he then sees a wooden figure of Master Tigress and he knows that this is one of his favorite things to use as an exercise equipment...ever since that he had split from Tigress as his 'trainer' when he was younger and had always had Arizona to train him.
He takes a deep breath and then does several kicks, punches and amazing amount of flips to punch over that wooden figure and he lets out a smirk and said, "Bet you couldn't do this!"
He jumps up in the air and as he goes all the way down, he demolishes the entire wooden figure just like that. He lets out a few deep heavy breaths and sees that the thing that he feared when he was younger has now been confronted and he smiled and said, "I did it."
He then goes over the pieces of a wooden picture of Master Tigress and said, "Who's the master now?"
"Bravo, Maximus."
Just then, he sees Miyo standing there right behind him and he looks up at her and was surprised that she was standing there and he didn't know whether she was watching him the whole time or if she wanted to see Arizona and company. He lets out a chuckle and said, "Hey...Miyo. Um, how long were you standing there?"
Miyo walks over to Max and sees the entire wooden frame of Tigress broken into pieces and replied, "Long enough to see you gaining your strength and confidence to knock this down."
"Well...it's like Arizona told me; always use whatever she has against me as my motivation." Max answered.
"I can see that." Miyo replied.
Miyo then turns around and notices Max's muscles showing and that pretty much made her surprised that this is the first time she's ever seen Max like that before and she said, "Max...there's something different about you."
"Like what?" asked Max.
"Um...how much times a day have you been working out?" asked Miyo, chuckling playfully.
Suddenly, Max noticed that she was talking about his muscular figure and he felt so awkward and embarassed about bringing that up and he started blushing and things like that and said, "I...I...I, uh...I don't know. I...I-I lost count."
She could sense that Max has never lost that innocent personality and lightheartedness and said, "Still the same Max that I've known since you were a little cub. It's hard to believe you've grown up. How old are you?"
"I'm 22. You?" asked Max.
Miyo glared at him in response and said, "None of your business."
Max scratched the back of his head and realized that he should never have asked Miyo how old she is and said, "Sorry about that."
"I am younger than you though. That's all I can tell you." Miyo replied.
"No, she's 31."
Max was silent for a while and once Miyo heard it, she closes her eyes and sighed in annoyance at this and said, "Akashi..."
Akashi comes out of there and to his surprise, he receives a kick in the groin from Miyo and the white wolf responded with a yelp and a whimper as he held onto his wolfhood and fell down to the ground, looking up at the sky and said, "I think I'm gonna black out..."
Then, he closed his eyes and continued wincing at the pain and Miyo turns to Max and said, "And this is why. But don't worry...you're still much more mature than your uncle Akashi."
Minutes later...
Max walks across the village to get a few minutes to himself and everyone else just waves hello to Max and he waved them back in response and even though he's grown up, he still remains the same friendly, kindhearted and easy going tiger he's always been...just a little muscled up and wiser.
"Maaaaaaaaaxiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee ee!"
Max already know what that sound of someone calling his name meant one thing:
"Ravi."
Out of nowhere comes this bengal tiger; 21 years of age, orange and black stripes, weighs at 178 pounds, stands at 5'8, red eyes, wearing grey sweatpants and a golden brown chinese vest and has a little facial pierce on his eyebrows and spiky mohawk coming in and he said, "Maxie! What up, my dude?"
"Hey, Ravi." Max replied.
"Hey, Max. I've got something that will change your luck and make you say goodbye to the old, lonely days of singlehood and hello to getting some good old bachelorhood!" Ravi said, excitedly.
"Cut to the chase, Rav."
Ravi chuckled at this and said, "You're gonna love it. I, Ravi Zingpai...am gonna place you...Maximus Bushido-Akio...as the valley's bachelor of the year! Where you'll be adored and wooed by several good-looking chicks...all ready for some banging!"
Max looked at him with a very confused, yet weird stare at Ravi at that plan and he asked, "Are you serious?"
"Dead serious, man. In 24 hours, every girl in China will fall for you and make you start mating season really early. I'm gonna give every girl a list about what they would like to see in you, with a date or mate rating. See, if they start to like you, you can date them...but if they win over you...better start mating! I'm like a big genius! A romantic scheming genius!" Ravi exclaimed.
"Hey, genius...there's one simple problem for that." Max said to him.
"Which is...?" asked Ravi.
"If it's about the muscles, forget it. I'm not gonna be cooked up into some of those crazy ideas of yours." Max replied.
Ravi scoffed at Max's rejection of his ideas and said, "What are you talking about? Think of how many girls you'll be wooing over. This could be a big start for us! I mean, you."
"Rav...I've already got one girl."
Ravi scoffs at this and said, "That Saori chick you've mentioned? Why don't you just tattoo her name on your forehead? It's time for you to move on, man. She's old news."
"Ravi...you don't know Saori like I do. We have that special bond that is never ending. I still love her with all of my heart and it's an empty place without her in it." Max replied.
"But when one door closes...another one opens!" Ravi exclaimed.
Max looks up at Ravi in the eye and said, "This is one door that'll remain closed while I stick to the one I've always been on."
Ravi sighed heavily at this and knew that Max still has feelings for Saori, even though she's been kidnapped and captive for years and said, "All right. You made your point. Wanna get a drink?"
"Rav...you know I have low tolerance for drinking." Max said, with a glare.
"Aw, come on! You oughta have some fun!" Ravi exclaimed, laughing.
Just then, Arizona walks past Max and Ravi and he waves at both tigers and said, "Hey, Max. What's up?"
"Nothing much. Just walking and talking with Ravi here." Max answered.
Then, Arizona turned to Ravi and he said, "Whatcha doing?"
"I wanted to ask Max to go out and have a drink with me, but he like totally doesn't want to. It's just a good way to have some fun, loosen up and maybe get some chicks." Ravi said, with a mischevous smirk.
"There's one part you forgot to add; making a fool of yourself when you get drunk. Shouldn't you have something else planned?" asked Arizona.
"Nope. Out the bar is one of those...that and dancing with a lot of girls that I can take home, if you know what I mean." Ravi added.
Arizona then turned to Max with a very disturbed look and asked, "How do you deal with him?"
"I have no clue." Max replied.
Just then, Max looks up to the sky and picks up the necklace that entails a picture of him and Saori when they were teenagers with a little inscription that said, 'Tiger mates forever.'
'Saori...' Max whispered.
For those of you wondering...where is Saori? The answer is coming up next! As you can also see, even though Max is grown up and muscular, he's still the same easy-going, friendly and kindhearted person when he was a cub. Just a much more grown-up sized one. Master of Stories, tell me how I did in this!
