CHAPTER 10
Hearing that scream of agony was what made Johnny finally snap: this asshole wasn't his son anymore. There was only so much he could blame himself for in Robby's life, but this was crossing a line. Johnny lunged at the group, saving Miguel the only thing on his mind, and he beat up all four of them. Even the four strongest Cobras didn't stand a chance against Johnny. A flurry of tornado kicks and uppercuts sent the Cobras flying backwards. But Johnny didn't stop there. While Tory, Shawn and Kyler started to slink away, Johnny grabbed Robby and threw him against the wall, pinning him there and sending massive blows to his face. THUD! THUD! THUD! Johnny lost count at the number of blows he had sent Robby's way. He was more angry than he had ever been in his life and he was just about ready to kill the four Cobras, starting with Robby. He continued pounding on Robby's face for several moments before he felt someone pull him back. He spun around, ready to swing at one of the Cobras, when he realised that it was Miguel.
"Sensei, enough!" Miguel spluttered, before falling back to the ground in pain. The distraction gave Robby the opportunity to slink away and join the rest of the Cobras.
The Cobras looked at Miguel, who was silently crying in pain on the ground, and then they looked at Johnny, who was steadily advancing towards them. They realised that if they wanted that night to be a success, they needed to leave NOW. That's exactly what they did. They hightailed it out of there, leaving Johnny to tend to his fallen student.
As soon as they were gone, Johnny sprinted over to Miguel and he knelt down beside him.
"Kid! You okay?" Johnny asked.
"My shoulder is fucking broken! My nose is probably broken! Of course I'm not fucking okay!" Miguel snapped, coughing up blood and spitting out a cracked tooth from his mouth. Screw Coyote Creek, this was the worst he had ever been beaten before. Johnny slowly helped him to his feet and practically carried him over and into his car. Once Johnny climbed into the driver's seat, he turned to Miguel and gave him his phone.
"Call your mom, kid." Johnny said, as they quickly reversed out of the driveway. Miguel tried but with no answer. He groaned and sat back in his seat.
"She's not answering." Miguel murmured, before letting out a gasp of pain. His shoulder was sending sharp sears of pain up his body. He knew it was definitely dislocated, if not broken, and would probably keep him out for a while. He couldn't stay out for too long though. He had an All-Valley to win. Secretly, Johnny was terrified at the sight of his student so beaten down, but he forced himself to stay calm. He had to…
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Daniel sat in the living room of his house with his family, and he sighed to himself as he closed his eyes and thought about Miyagi-Do. He knew that Johnny was party right: he had treated Johnny like an employee, not like a partner, and he had effectively pushed out a valuable part of the team for petty reasons. What would Mr. Miyagi say if he was there? Probably give him some speech about balance. God, what he would give for one of those speeches right now!
His train of thoughts were cut off when he heard a car roar down the street and into his driveway, paying no attention to the speed limit whatsoever. Daniel groaned and stood up, listening to the subsequent banging on his door. He knew EXACTLY who that was. He walked over the door and glared at Johnny.
"What do you wa… OH MY GOD, MIGUEL!" Daniel shouted as he then noticed the boy Johnny was supporting with his non-knocking arm. Miguel looked like he was only just hanging onto consciousness. Bruises and cuts covered every inch of him, and his left arm was sticking out at a sickening angle, clearly broken.
"Help. Please." Johnny grunted, desperation in his eyes. Immediately, Daniel ignored his resentment towards Johnny, and he helped Miguel into the house.
"What the hell happened?" Daniel asked, as Miguel was practically shoved onto the living room couch by Johnny and Daniel, both of them wary of his broken shoulder.
"Robby." Miguel murmured as Johnny slapped an ice pack onto the side of his face, where a massive black eye was flowering.
"Robby did this?!" Daniel asked Johnny, appalled and shocked that his former student could do such a thing. Johnny looked down and nodded. Both men felt slightly responsible for Robby's actions, but they couldn't dwell on it now. Not when Miguel was lying half-dead on the couch in front of them. Suddenly, Sam and Anthony walked into the room and their eyes widened when they saw Miguel on the sofa.
"Oh, my god! Miguel, what happened?!" Sam cried, running over to him.
"Cobras." Miguel mumbled, too tired to go into the gory details, but it was more than enough for Sam to be able to put together a story.
"Damn, someone kicked your ass!" Anthony - Sam's little brother - remarked, slightly rudely and insensitively. Sam scowled at him but Miguel raised an eyebrow and chuckled.
"Yeah. You should see the other guy though." Miguel responded tiredly. Sam's eyes widened.
"Wait… you beat up all four of them?!" Sam asked, confused. Miguel laughed and then winced in pain.
"I didn't." Miguel smirked, glancing tellingly at Johnny and causing everyone to turn towards the blonde in shock, most of all Daniel. Daniel was scared. Johnny himself had attacked students. Was that enough to warrant Kreese pulling out of his deal, and him, Barnes and Silver coming after their students.
"What?! I didn't have a choice!" Johnny snapped, defensively. Daniel nodded, thinking back to when Mr. Miyagi defended him from four Cobras back in his youth. Clearly Johnny had acted in self-defense, just like Mr. Miyagi did. Suddenly, there was a hard knock on the door: the paramedics had arrived. They walked into the house and immediately noticed Miguel. The two medics rushed over to him, and as they started to gauge the damage, Daniel turned to Johnny.
"We need to talk." Daniel murmured quietly to him. Johnny nodded and followed Daniel into their guest room/dojo, leaving Miguel in the care of Sam and the paramedics…
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Daniel and Johnny walked into the dojo, and Johnny immediately started looking around the room, searching for something.
"What are you looking for?" Daniel asked.
"Booze." Johnny grunted in reply. Daniel's jaw dropped in shock and disapproval.
"Didn't realise it was still happy hour." Daniel remarked. Johnny looked at him and shrugged.
"It's always 5 o'clock somewhere." Johnny winked as he replied, and Daniel merely glared at him. Johnny sighed. "Come on! It's been a long day!"
Daniel nodded in defeat, and he walked over to the corner of the room. He lifted up the Miyagi-do banner on the wall, revealing a small hole in the wall, and he pulled out a bottle of scotch and two glasses. He poured Johnny a glass, who accepted it gratefully. After a long silence as the two men sipped their drinks, Johnny finally spoke up.
"Look, Larusso, about the crap I said about your sensei…"
"It's fine." Daniel grunted. "And it was mostly my fault. Truth is, I haven't been treating our dojo like a partnership. I treated it like it was still Miyagi-Do, and you were my employee. I should have let you have just as much of a say as me when it comes down to decisions. I mean, you did also win the All-Valley twice as a student, and then once as a teacher."
Johnny shook his head.
"No." Johnny grunted, to Daniel's confusion.
"No, what?" Daniel asked.
"No, you shouldn't give me more say. You should just give yourself less." Johnny explained. "You remember what our kids said at that All-Valley hearing? They're the ones fightings. They should also have a say. This isn't Cobra Kai, where you treat your sensei like God. We need to loosen the reins on them. Let them have a say in their training."
Daniel nodded and chuckled.
"Why are our kids smarter than us?" Daniel remarked. Johnny shrugged.
"I mean Miguel was probably smarter than me when he turned 7 in all fairness." Johnny remarked. Daniel laughed.
"Yeah, I believe that." Daniel nodded. Johnny raised an eyebrow, indignantly.
"Hey!" Johnny snapped, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, you said it, not me. I'm just agreeing with you." Daniel stated. "You know, when I found out that my daughter was once again dating the former Cobra Kai top bully and your mentee three months ago, I was just about ready to go down to your house and kick your ass for letting it happen. I assumed that given what I had seen of him in the tournament, and heard about him from Sam after they broke up, he was basically a mini-you."
Johnny chuckled.
"Yeah? You then realise that I would destroy you and you're better off staying home?" Johnny asked. Daniel shook his head.
"No. I actually had a conversation with him for the first time, and I realised something… he must have been an awful Cobra."
Johnny raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me? That 'awful Cobra' kicked your student's ass in the All-Valley final!" Johnny stated. Daniel shook his head.
"No, no. You misunderstand me. He's an amazing fighter. I just mean that he's nothing like you and your gang back when we were in high school."
Johnny literally laughed out loud when he made the comparison in his head.
"Yeah, he's pretty different, huh? You should have seen him when I first met him. I called him a pussy on his first training session and he started coming at me about genderising and some shit. He went against everything I stood for."
Daniel laughed.
"If he was such a nerd, why did you agree to train him?" Daniel asked.
"Because he was a good kid who was being bullied."
Daniel raised an eyebrow and Johnny understood what he was thinking immediately.
"No. No. No. This is nothing like our time in high school! Johnny snapped. Daniel raised his hands in surrender.
"I didn't say anything!" Daniel exclaimed.
"No, but you're thinking that Miguel is similar to you in high school, which he isn't!" Johnny declared. "Miguel is ten times the man you were. You know why Miguel ended up fighting Kyler in his school? It wasn't because he was being bullied like you did. He would have been just fine living his life normally, with the karate training under his belt just in case. He got into a fight against that gang because they were being assholes to your daughter!"
Daniel's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He didn't know that.
"Wait, really?" Daniel asked. Johnny nodded.
"Yeah! And that crane kick in the All-Valley… my idea, not his. He's a good person, much better than either of us, which is why I've been training him for so long and I haven't given up on him. Which is why… if it's okay with you… I could rejoin the dojo?" Johnny asked. Daniel nodded immediately and held out a hand.
"Partners?" Daniel asked. Johnny nodded and shook Daniel's hand.
"Partners." He replied. The two men nodded at each other again, before walking back towards the house to see how Miguel and the doctors were doing.
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"Does it hurt when I do this?" The medic asked, prodding a certain area on Miguel's shoulder, trying to assess the injury done to him. Miguel shook his head.
"No." He replied.
"What about when I do this?" The medic asked, poking another area. Miguel shook his head again.
"Nah." He responded. The medic nodded and smiled, reassuringly.
"What about this?" The medic asked, poking another area. Miguel hissed in pain. Sam squeezed his other hand, comfortingly.
"Yeah, I can feel that." Miguel murmured. The medic slowly nodded.
"Okay." The doctor said. "I need to pop your shoulder back into place. It's going to hurt a fair bit but only for a moment, okay?"
"Gotcha." Miguel murmured as he braced for the pain. It came a moment later, not as bad as he thought it would be, but still extremely painful. Miguel groaned in pain and closed his eyes as his shoulder was reset, the abrupt pain shooting up his arm. Suddenly, Daniel and Johnny walked into the room.
"Come on, doc! Give us the good news!" Johnny exclaimed. The doctor sighed.
"Well, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" The medic asked.
"The good news." Miguel said, hopefully. Please let him not be out for too long! Please let him be able to train again in a few weeks! The All Valley was in mid-June and he needed every bit of training he could get!
"Well, the good news is that there's nothing broken. Your shoulder was dislocated and I just reset it now."
"That's great! So he'll be able to fight again soon?!" Johnny exclaimed. The medic clenched his teeth together and sharply inhaled. Miguel closed his eyes. Oh, God. Something was wrong! Everyone noticed the same thing as Miguel and they all took a deep breath.
"What? What's the problem?" Daniel asked. The medic looked at Miguel when he replied.
"Although there are no broken bones, you do have a lot of ligament damage. You're going to be in a sling for at least two months, and it is going to be tender for another month, at least. Definitely not ready for a fight. You'll be able to fight in like July hopefully, provided you get the right physical therapy and treatment."
Everyone slowly absorbed what the doctor had just told them. Johnny was the first to react.
"Wait… July? That means that…"
"I'm out of the tournament..." Miguel murmured.