Ryan, who had spent most of the night in Max's empty house, was about to leave when someone knocked on the door. Curious, he wondered who it could be.
Since Max was still in the shower, Ryan decided to answer. Upon seeing the man who had interfered in the fight earlier, he smirked.
"What brings you knocking at the door?" Ryan asked.
"Is Max here?" Daniel asked, wanting to talk to Max about what had happened that night. He hoped to reason with him and point out that Cobra Kai wasn't an ideal path for learning karate.
"What do you want with him?"
"I just need to talk to him."
Ryan, already suspecting where this conversation was heading, responded bluntly:
"Whatever you're planning won't work. Just between us, Max is the most unhinged of all of us."
"What's his problem?"
"He's always angry, even when he doesn't show it. He's worse than the bullies we so kindly gave a lesson to." Ryan made it clear to Daniel that Max wasn't someone to lecture about morality or how to be a better person—it simply wouldn't work.
While it was true that Max had been trying to change, he hadn't succeeded yet. At the moment, Max was like a ticking time bomb—a silent one. Who knew when he'd explode?
Thankfully, he found outlets for his anger by training, fighting, and driving late into the night. But when it came to life lessons from strangers? Max had zero tolerance for that.
"Are you part of Cobra Kai too?" Daniel asked, recognizing Ryan as one of the most aggressive during the recent altercation.
Ryan nodded slightly. "You're Daniel, right? I've seen your old fights. They could've been better, but here you are."
"Cobra Kai isn't a good path," Daniel tried to argue, hoping to make the students see the flaws in Cobra Kai's philosophy.
But Ryan wasn't having it. "I've heard about your beef with one of Cobra Kai's martial arts masters—pretty interesting story. But if you think self-defense isn't a valid path, you clearly don't understand martial arts."
Daniel was caught off guard, unsure how to respond or even begin explaining the philosophy behind his own dojo.
"Since the official opening of Cobra Kai's MMA school, it's taken a completely different direction. It's not just karate—you can learn all kinds of disciplines there. Ever heard of MMA?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm saying the world keeps moving forward. Don't think Cobra Kai is evil—it's the path of the fist, ideal for dumb people like us."
With that, Ryan bid Daniel goodbye, leaving him standing at the door, utterly confused.
Daniel's dream of opening his own dojo felt more challenging than ever. He needed a student—a potential apprentice—someone who could expose Cobra Kai as a harmful force in society. He had hoped Max could be that person, but it seemed he was too late.
...
Meanwhile, Max sat in the bathtub, deep in thought and silent.
He felt restless, consumed by anger—a simmering rage he hadn't been able to shake since hearing the news that one of his parents' killers had been murdered in prison.
Since that day, Max couldn't stop asking himself, Why wasn't it me who killed them?
As their son, he believed it was his responsibility to end the lives of those bastards and their entire lineage. But those men had no families; there was no one left to take revenge on.
He knew he needed to find a way to release this anger. Otherwise, the old Max—the one he'd worked so hard to suppress—would resurface.