Prepping for Max's 12th birthday is underway...

Chapter 23: Down to the Wire

As Max enjoys his picnic with Saori, back at the Bushido-Akio house, everyone is prepping for Max's birthday dinner while the others set the ambience to make it look amazing, but keeping it simple. Some of the Jade Palace masters and students were assisting with the decorations and just knowing that they're here to celebrate Max's special day with him makes it all the more special for them because it's their final hoorah before the entire family leaves after Musaki's 21'st birthday and they're gonna celebrate it the best way possible.

"You know, I can't believe little Max is growing up. He's really coming into his own." Faith added, putting up the streamers.

"Seems like only yesterday that I played hide and seek with the little guy. Now he's not so little anymore." Kiba said, grabbing a few boxes.

Samurai is busy in the kitchen, but overheard the conversation throughout and said, "He's still little...just not by age. We all joke around every day about Max growing up to be a big tiger. Now...it seems as though it's coming true. You don't really think about it, but we all know one day that he'll be growing up."

"Part of me misses the little guy being so little. Especially when he kicked Ryo in the groin several times in the defense stance." Faith said, giggling.

Skyler was laughing as well thinking about that moment and said, "I almost forgot about that! That was so funny!"

Ryo didn't find it funny because those memories literally made him embarrassed, almost as if his pride was being kicked hard and he scoffs at that and said, "It's not really that funny. He's got a strong foot, but he shouldn't use it on me."

"I would pay Max 12,000 yuan to kick you in the groin for an entire day." Kiba said, laughing.

"How about 20,000?" asked Skyler, smirking.

Ryo growls in response to that and said to both, "I'd pay both of you 1 yuan to shut up."

Just then, Miyo and Akashi showed up to the Bushido-Akio place with the cake coming in alongside three other bakers to lift this up and once everyone looked at the cake, they were awestruck by how it all turned out and Samurai's jaw dropped to the ground as the cake was far more amazing than ever and Kiba asked, "That's Max's?"

"It couldn't be. It looks like the Dragon Warrior would eat it whole." Samurai answered.

The bakers set it down towards the table as Miyo looks at her crazy awesome work and said, "It's pretty cool, right? It took me those seven weeks to develop an idea for Max's cake, but thanks to Max's drawing of the cake, it never looked amazing than ever."

"Wow...you literally outdone yourself." Zoey said, amazed.

They all looked at the cake and it was in two square layers and one of those layers have a picture of the Jade Palace in the center of it with Max standing on the steps among the masters and Akashi said, "I can tell that Max will be blown away."

"Looks so good...I could eat it." Ryo said, mouth drooling over the glance.

Miyo yanked Ryo's tail to stop him from proceeding to do so and said, "Let's wait until the birthday tiger comes over."

"Awwwww!" Ryo whined.

"How many hours we got left?" asked Tsunami.

"We have about 6 more hours left to get this all straightened out. I bet you Max is having a lot of fun with Saori." Mako stated.

"Not too much fun, I hope." Akashi added.

And where's Max in all of this? Find out next...