Two Students, One Teacher NEO
A Side-Story to the 30 Worlds: Royal Megaforce Series
by William "Blissey" Raymer
Based on the Sony Pictures Television/Hurwitz & Schlossberg Productions/Overbrook Entertainment for YouTube Red television series Cobra Kai
Created for Television by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Based on characters created for the Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. motion pictures
The Karate Kid (1984)
Written by Robert Mark Kamen
and
The Next Karate Kid
Written by Mark Lee
Based on Characters Created by Robert Mark Kamen
The following story is an updated version of my 2005 story Two Students, One Teacher, in which Daniel LaRusso meets Julie Pierce (the protagonist of the 1994 film The Next Karate Kid) and bond over their shared grief over the death of Mr. Miyagi. It has been readjusted to fit the Karate Kid world as depicted in the YouTube Red television series Cobra Kai (and to serve as a prequel to my 30 Worlds: Royal Megaforce stories set after Season One of Cobra Kai) but is largely the same story as it was written back then.
Unaligned World of Cobra Kai
LaRusso Auto Group Dealership
Reseda, California USA
November 15th, 2011
It was a day like most others in the life of Daniel LaRusso. He had a business that was doing well, a family who loved him, and he them. And it was all because of one man...a man Daniel was about to lose forever.
There was a knock on Daniel's office door. An employee came in, a concerned expression on his face. "Mr. LaRusso, your wife is on Line 3. She sounds upset," he said. Daniel nodded his thanks, then picked up the phone handset on his desk and dialed the extension. "Hello?" Daniel asked.
"It's Amanda," the voice of Daniel's wife, Amanda, said. "I just got a phone call from the Army. Mr. Miyagi is dead." Daniel sat silently for a moment, then looked at a newspaper clipping in a frame on his desk. It was headlined "Mystery Dojo with Single Student Defangs Cobras." "I'll be right there," Daniel said before hanging up.
He then pulled a piece of paper from his notebook and wrote some words on it. "Everyone, go home," Daniel said. "I have to close up early today. Family emergency."
As the employees and customers left the dealership, Daniel taped the message to a door. It read: "This dealership is closed today due to a family emergency. Please visit one of our other dealerships if you wish to shop."
Halfway across the country in West Newbury, Massachusetts, Julie Pierce woke up in her apartment to a beeping from the phone on her bedside table. Unlocking it, she received a message from one of her Facebook friends.
You know that karate teacher you told me about, Nariyoshi Miyagi? Well, I read on the website for the Reseda Times newspaper in California that he died last night at a V.A. hospital in Arizona. His body is being brought back to Reseda for full military burial. You should be there.
A couple of weeks later, at Mr. Miyagi's old home, Daniel led a memorial wake for Miyagi. Friends and family of both Daniel and Mr. Miyagi gave their condolences. Finally, at the end of the line, stood Julie.
"Excuse me," Julie asked Daniel. "Can you tell me where I may find Daniel LaRusso?" "You're looking at him," Daniel said. "You must be Julie Pierce."
Julie nodded. "Mr. Miyagi told me a lot about you," she said. "And me of you," Daniel said. "I pictured you a little taller," Julie said. "That's what my wife said when she met me," Daniel said, gesturing to Amanda. "When Mr. Miyagi taught you, what was the craziest chore he had you do to teach you karate?"
"Well, one time, he taught me how to waltz under the cover of teaching me a new kata," Julie said. "And you?" Daniel closed his eyes as he remembered. "Wax on, wax off," he said in a whisper. Julie smiled. She too was admonished, "Wax on, wax off" during her training.
"I'm gonna miss him," Daniel said as he looked at a bonsai tree on the table they stood next to. "Me too," Julie said. "Mr. Miyagi was one in a million."
Their eyes then were drawn to an American flag on the mantle, folded in a triangle, customary for American servicemen who have died. A brass plaque attached to the frame read:
SGT. NORIYOSHI MIYAGI
UNITED STATES ARMY
1925-2011
Gone but not forgotten….
"Listen, Julie, thanks for your being here today," Daniel said. "I'm sure that Mr. Miyagi would have been happy to have you here to help celebrate his life. He sure changed mine."
"Mine too," Julie said. "Mine too."
Seven Years Later
As the sun rose over Reseda, Daniel made his daily visit to the grave of Mr. Miyagi. Daniel promised Miyagi's spirit that he would use Miyagi's teachings to bring an end to the threat of the Cobra Kai dojo once and for all. Bowing to Miyagi's gravestone, Daniel set out for the flagship car retailer that bore his name.
Robby Keene, Daniel's top student, greeted Daniel as he walked in the door. "Good morning, Sensei," Robby said. "Robby, here you can call me Daniel or Mr. LaRusso, but not Sensei. Is that clear?" "Yes, Mr. LaRusso," Robby said.
Daniel gestured for Robby to get to the repair department to do some polishing. As Daniel walked through the dealership, checking the various employees' work. "But, Sofia, we need a new land vehicle," a man looking at a Jeep Grand Cherokee said. "After all, the last one we had was destroyed when Basco took out Gavan's Glory in the Unaligned World of Fire Emblem."
Daniel didn't hear a response to the man's cryptic words. "He must be talking on a Bluetooth headset to one of those LARPers I've heard about," Daniel thought. Nevertheless, Daniel walked up to the man. "I see you've got good taste," Daniel said to the man. "Got one just like it at home."
As Daniel talked to the mysterious customer, he had no idea that—just like his life had been changed by the late Nariyoshi Miyagi 34 years before—his life was about to change forever...all because of a customer looking at a silver Jeep...a customer he would come to know as King William of Cinnabar.
The story continues in
30 Worlds: Royal Megaforce, Episode XXVIII: "Fang of the Cobra"
Coming June 2018!
and
30 Worlds: Royal Megaforce, Episode XXXIX: "Balance of the Crane"
Coming July 2018!