Chapter Four: Pain Does Not Exist
…
Author's Note: All OSTs I included in this chapter are directly from the second season of Cobra Kai, third in one case, and I cannot stress more how much they've helped me write this fic.
Guys. Please listen to at least the second to last track I included "You're the Champ". Robinson and Birenberg deserve some sort of award these tracks are so good.
...
…
The entire class was stretching and getting warmed up a little.
"So hold on," Hawk asked me, stretching his arm. "You challenged some random guy. To a fight, just to join our dojo?"
"He's not random. He looked tough, we're around the same height, but he's a bit bulkier."
"Bulkier than you?" scoffed Doug. "Okay."
I adjusted the white and red flags on the windowsill of the dojo as I watched Johnny exit from the backroom and speak to Kreese in a very familiar way.
"I gotta go take care of something today, I won't be back until tomorrow morning. Can you run the class for me?"
"We've been arguing a decent bit Johnny. Sure that's the right idea?"
Johnny chuckled. "We might have our disagreements and I might be the Sensei. But no one knows this place better than you. I come back tomorrow morning and hear good things. We'll see if we can make this a partnership."
I smiled.
"Good." Kreese said.
Johnny bowed onto the mat, and said something to Robby before leaving.
He bowed off the mat, put his shoes on and then left the dojo.
"Class!" Kreese said. "Fall in."
"What about Sensei Lawrence?" asked Hawk.
"You're with me today," said Kreese.
This hadn't happened before, everyone looked at each other and muttered a bit.
Hawk looked excited.
Doug and Edwin looked a little unsure of this but I gave it my approval. I nodded to them and everyone took their positions, kneeling on their shins, except for Tory.
Kreese stood at the front of the class and spoke.
"A student of ours was almost touched inappropriately at a local mall lately. For that, Sensei Lawrence and I have determined she will be given a white belt for properly defending herself."
With a spike bracelet?
"The newest addition to the Cobra Kai dojo. Ms. Tory Nichols."
She walked out from the backroom already in uniform and took her spot in the line of girls to my left. Aisha already had earned her uniform first.
"The rest of you must take after her. As we begin class, I have to make something clear to all of you. Sensei Lawrence has the authority as Sensei here because I trained him. I was Sensei Lawrence's Sensei."
A few people sort of suspected this and I could tell from their reflections in the mirrors their suspicions were true.
"In this very room for years, I trained Cobra Kais. I trained Sensei Lawrence, and I trained others. This lesson will be about returning to our roots. Because physically, that is exactly where we are right now. Where Cobra Kai began. So. Let's warm up."
…
Class ran pretty straightforwardly.
I warmed everyone up with forward strikes. The jab punch, reverse punch to the body, front kick, and side kick.
Then we did stretches and jogged around the mat for about twenty minutes.
For ten minutes we did the standard grappling and rolling drills, submissions such as rear chokes, arm and wrist locks. Then we began with the fundamentals of sparring, basic counters and fundamentals the meat and bones of how to strike like a Cobra Kai really.
Then Mitch appeared. "Uh. Excuse me. I'd like to try out."
He was wearing a backpack over his shoulders and stood in the empty waiting area.
"Well sure." said Kreese. "Combat! Aits!"
Everyone knelt around the combat square and they all clapped their hands onto their knees instantly.
Robby and I grabbed a pair of white and red flags from nearby and stood on each corner of the combat square.
"Take your shoes off. Bow when you step on the mat," instructed Kreese as Mitch did so. "And stand on that line over there."
Already Mitch looked a little intimidated.
"Okay let's see here." Kreese looked around at the square of Cobras. "Miller."
Mikey stood up and bowed, walking over to face Mitch.
"Alright. Bow to me."
They did so.
"Face off and bow."
Mitch and Mikey bowed to each other.
"En garde!"
Mitch raised his hands in a sort of weird boxing stance, didn't look too shabby but he left his chest exposed a bit.
"Fight!"
Mikey struck first right off the line, or as combat began.
Mitch copped a front kick directly to the stomach above his belt line.
He winced and Kreese acknowledged the obvious and the white flags in the air. "Point Miller. Aits!"
Mitch looked a bit more prepared this time and somehow got lucky enough to tie up Mikey at close range. He used his bigger body, and despite probably having far less formal grappling training he managed to land a punch to the ribs.
It wasn't a point, not in a tournament anyway. But I raised the red flag for Miller anyway.
"Okay. I've seen enough." Mikey rubbed his chest as Mitch knelt awkwardly on the mat. "Take your spot."
"Thank you, sir. I mean, Sensei." Mitch smiled. "I mean." he shook his head of curly hair and walked over to the combat square.
"Alright. Nichols and Keene."
Man was this going to be absolutely impossible for Tory to win. She only won against Miguel when she tried out for having naturally good fighting ability and decent kickboxing training and that he let his guard down.
Robby was going to win this pretty easily. He handed his flags to Dieter who took his spot and Tory and Robby faced off.
They bowed to Kreese, who just nodded to them and they bowed to each other.
"Ready!"
They got into their fighting stances.
"Ait!"
Robby and Tory circled each other for a bit, and then as Tory started to attack Robby instantly overwhelmed her.
To her credit, she held out for a bit but ultimately was scored on with a punch to the chest. I was surprised by his lack of remorse when hitting a girl.
Tory stumbled for a bit and I raised a red flag for Robby as did Dieter.
"Very nice job Mr. Keene. Now finish the fight."
Everyone was a bit surprised, except for me, and Hawk, Doug, Mitch, and a few others who loved the lesson.
Robby didn't know how to react.
"Hit her again. This time don't let her be able to get up." said Kreese.
Robby laughed in surprise. "But she's a girl. Isn't that. Wrong?"
"Wrong." Kreese said blankly. "Let me explain something to you all. Nichols used a spike bracelet to disable her attacker."
No surprise there.
"Maybe she could've slashed part of his eye off or something and ended up facing a lawsuit. But why? She was being assaulted, that was self-defense at its purest. All of you here reserve that exact same right." Kreese pointed at every single Cobra Kai.
He walked forward, speaking. "When a man confronts you. He, is the enemy. And the enemy deserves no mercy of course. Even Sensei Lawrence, who wants to give Cobra Kai a more modern spin knows that. But does anyone know why?"
I didn't say anything, but I bet Kreese knew I did.
"Mr. Schwarber. Do you know why?"
"Because as long as your enemy is still in combat in a real fight. He can still hurt you. Or worse."
"Correct. It doesn't matter if Nichols is a girl. Or anyone. If they're fighting you, they mean harm. You have every right to not give them a chance. Let's run this again shall we? This time, with Schwarber taking Nichols' place."
Kreese beckoned me over right off the combat square.
I walked over to Kreese and he muttered to me as quietly as he could as he spoke in my ear. "I'm gonna include a little surprise at the end of the first point to drive this lesson home, so I need you to absolutely get it."
"Do we understand each other?"
I nodded. "Yes Sensei," I muttered back quietly.
"Good."
I looked over to Robby and made way over to the line.
"En garde! Aits!"
Off the line Robby started to dodge as I threw a front snap kick. I blocked a few punches from him and swept his leg at close range so strongly he flew onto his chest and then scored.
"Point!"
After I chopped him in the shoulder blade to score a point, we both began to walk towards our lines to start combat, I back kicked Robby directly in the stomach. Nothing too damaging, just to knock him onto his back again.
I rushed over to him and yelled. "Aii!"
My knife hand hovered directly over Robby's eyes, the edge of my left hand about two inches above his eyes. The class all stood silent, in an actual fight, this blow would've been severe. Robby would have trouble seeing for a few hours and maybe more, let alone being able to fight.
Everyone understood but still waited for Kreese to speak. "This. This! This is why we must show no mercy." he pointed directly at my frozen knife hand above Robby. "The point was scored. Combat is over right? In a tournament. Sure. But in the real world, in a real fight with someone who intends to harm you?"
"Absolutely not!" yelled Kreese.
"That is why it's our third rule." Kreese sighed. "Schwarber could've had a knife hidden in his uniform, or jacket in a real fight when the fight started. Let's say he wins a point. And he knocks Keene down. And then, because he's not his friend because they've never met before and are fighting for real, and they're not in class doing sparring."
"He decides he needs to kill him with a real knife, or blind him temporarily as he's currently showing. Why? Because in the real world. Life shows you no mercy. Who knows who's outside those doors." Kreese pointed to the dojo entrance. "The average person might be kind and harmless sure. But in a back alley or a bar fight? When their safety and possibly friends and family are threatened?"
I nodded as did almost the entire class. "They will do anything to protect what they have, most importantly their very lives. All of you deserve that too. However. You all deserve the same, except to actually win the fight. We don't strike to harm for no reason. We strike first, and hard, and without mercy for our own safety actually. To ensure none of you let your guard down and let that happen." Kreese pointed over to the scenario Robby and I were demonstrating. "Is that understood?"
"Yes Sensei!"
Kreese noticed that Mitch, who had joined a few minutes ago, struggled to say this on time with everyone else.
"I said. Is that understood!?" barked Kreese as loudly as he could.
"Yes Sensei!" we all repeated in unison.
"Your opponent can kill you if they win a fight if given the chance. Do not give them that chance," said Kreese. "One hundred knuckle pushups and squats. And we can wrap up class."
Kreese taught us the same lessons Chozen taught Daniel in the third season, with ironically even the same weapon. You can't let your guard down in a fight, defense took on many forms. Offense mainly in a real fight.
They were just very different in the manner in which they spoke and how kind they were when saying it.
…
At the end, all of us sweaty and finished with class, Kreese stood and spoke as well all were in lines. "Cobra Kai is about victory. For that reason. Your only objective in the world, is to seek victory. To improve who you are and what you do."
"Shut out everything else when setting a goal, a goal that's for you, for what matters to you in life. And seek out a victory that accomplishes that goal. And I promise you, the lessons of this dojo. Can do more than save your life. It can improve it and change your whole life for the better. Attention arms out!"
We all stood in Charyot, all our hands clapping to our sides.
"Bow!"
For Kyung-Nae we all bowed to Kreese and the front of the room to show respect to both him as a Sensei and the dojo.
…
I leaned on my motorbike chatting with Hawk and Mitch as Robby walked over to me chuckling a little. "A uh. Pretty crazy lesson right?" said Robby.
"Not at all. You've been in your fair share of street fights before, you must know what it's like."
"Never saw a knife in one of those fights. Or a knife hand to the eye either."
"Then you must've gotten ridiculously lucky. Remember those douchebag friends of yours. Trey and Cruz? I had to kick their asses by a pier last summer?"
Robby nodded. "How could I forget?"
"If I didn't move quickly enough. They could've pushed me down to the sand and taken out a switchblade. Your friends came across as the type to do that, they were criminals. What would I have done then huh? Begged for mercy and then probably died."
"So then every fight on the street. Anywhere, at any time. There could be a knife hidden?" asked Robby.
"Or worse. A gun." I said. "Just the risk of that in a real fight isn't worth my life. Hawk. Do you agree?"
"Hell yeah dude." he popped his bubblegum.
"Mitch what about you?"
"No doubt about it."
I looked to Doug, Mia, Edwin, Aisha, Mikey, and Tory nearby. "You guys liked the lesson?"
They all more or less agreed with me. Only Aisha hesitated at all, even then, she shrugged.
I shrugged at Robby. "You make a good point man. But. The average guy you're going to face on the street if he wants to fight you isn't there to tapdance. He's there to beat your ass as badly as he can. So why let him? This is karate. Not ballet."
Robby scoffed. "Okay but. I thought you did kata? That stuff doesn't sound like kata."
It's literally the origin of kata. Defeat your opponent as efficiently as possible or be killed.
"I do kata to improve counters. Same way I do this stuff to make sure to be ready when a real fight comes." I smiled. "Speaking of which. I have a fight of my own to attend to tonight."
Robby smiled. "Which is?"
"You know. I think beating up some random guy at a beach party who can't fight his way out of a paper bag." For the time being I'm sure. "Is the most useful way to apply Cobra Kai karate. The best way. Is to kick some ass. You'll find out when we get there tonight."
…
Bobby, Tommy, Jimmy, and Johnny all agreed to meet at the overpass near Seven Oaks.
"Been ages come here." Jimmy and Johnny smiled and shook hands.
"Tommy!" Johnny and Tommy gripped hands and had a strong side hug, patting each other on the back.
"Let's do this!" Bobby smiled, rubbing his hands.
Soon enough, Johnny led his old Cobra Kais towards a nearby bar to talk.
…
They parked their motorcycles after reminiscing on the way past Big Bear Lake itself and chatted over drinks.
"That dishwater we thought was beer." Tommy smiled as Johnny sipped his beer and chuckled. "Man what a night."
"I'll never forget Dutch puking his guts out in the bushes outside while Johnny was pretty sure he needed to go to a doctor or something." Bobby said as Johnny and Jimmy chuckled.
"What a guy Dutch was. Besides the few points Tommy and I got on him." Johnny said. "That inside outside crescent kick." Johnny smirked. "Beautiful. LaRusso fell right for that one."
Bobby cleared his throat. "I think I could've scored three on him actually."
The air at the table of four old best friends changed.
Johnny nodded slowly. "Yeah. What's your point?"
"I think that um. We were robbed that night. We had what it took to beat LaRusso, and more importantly, fight fair. But that, monster, Kreese stole us of that right."
Johnny nodded. "Maybe."
"He did Johnny. Pure and simple."
Jimmy and Tommy eyed each other quietly as Bobby continued. "I was glad to hear you started your own dojo for that tournament last month. Truly I was. But you went and reopened Cobra Kai with Kreese."
"It'll be different now."
"You opened it up with the exact Sensei who taught there. Who taught us. In the exact same location where it once was too for crying out loud!"
Tommy sighed. "What so much religious school does to a man's brain. Makes ethics number one always."
Jimmy and Johnny laughed uncomfortably as Bobby continued. "No, I'm serious. That man should not be allowed to be near kids. He never should've been allowed to in the first place."
"I thought the same thing too." said Johnny.
"So? Why do this then?"
Johnny explained. "Because of Luke Schwarber. Convinced me Kreese has changed for the better."
"Johnny just because he won the same title he couldn't at your age. And broke all these records and showed up on TV-"
"No man. He's not just special. He's." Johnny sighed. "He's Ali's kid man."
Jimmy, Tommy, and Bobby all looked at each other in silence. Billiard balls clacked against each other on nearby pool tables quietly.
"What?" asked Jimmy.
"Yeah. I checked, I drove him to his grandparents. Same place I used to pick up Ali from."
Bobby nodded. "I get that she was the love of your life or something but-"
Jimmy noticed the look of complete rage on Johnny's face for a moment when Bobby said this.
"This is my second chance Bob, to teach Cobra Kai the way it was meant to be taught. Do you think I'm making a mistake by doing a favor her kid asked me to do?"
"I think you're making a mistake regardless of what happened. Or who asked who what." said Bobby.
Jimmy chimed in. "I get it about the kid. Truly I do. But how can you forget man? You got it worse than any of us. He tried to kill you."
"He apologized for that. I never would've let him help me at the dojo if I thought he didn't truly mean he was sorry."
"Johnny. How can you possibly know for sure?"
"All the kids there are honest and most of them are genuinely very smart and nice people. My son included," said Johnny. "I gave him one class. If the majority of the kids don't trust his teaching when I get back. Then I'll tell him to get lost."
Bobby looked scandalized. "Meaning you left him alone with a group of several teenagers for longer than ten minutes!?"
"For a holy man you really seem to not like forgiveness."
Tommy already started to look tired of hearing his friends argue and was about to say something but Bobby did before he could.
"God might be forgiving." said Bobby honestly. "But must also be fair. Children, especially, deserve forgiveness the most. John Kreese had as much forgiveness and mercy in him for children as, a bloodthirsty rottweiler did."
Tommy finished his beer. "Oookay. Are we here to have some fun. Or argue all night? Can we play some darts or something?"
Johnny smirked. "Yeah let's play some darts."
Bobby threw his hands up in disbelief after Johnny wrapped an arm over Tommy and they walked away from the table.
Jimmy shook his head and sighed as Bobby rubbed his bald head and shook his head too.
Tommy began to speak. "Oh did I mean darts? I mean I wanted to prove to you two." Tommy looked at Jimmy and Bobby. "Why Johnny has every right to open Cobra Kai back up again. With Kreese or not."
"How Tommy?" asked Bobby.
"By having some real fun!" Tommy said, the troublemaker as always. "Like this!"
He said by punching a random biker playing pool in the face.
…
Cobra Kai OST: The Cobra Effect
…
Five leather jacket wearing Cobra Kais walked through the darkness of a park towards Shawn Payne and his friends.
Shawn leaned off the back of the baseball diamond. "I thought you pussied out."
"Put up your hands Payne," Lucas said quietly.
Shawn chuckled. "The karate boy wants to learn what the streets are like? Okay man. I'll show you."
Lucas took off his red jacket, revealing strong muscles as Shawn did the exact same, revealing he was slightly more muscular than Lucas while being just as tall.
They began circling each other at first, neither of them throwing anything at all. Then they started to fake punches.
The other boys cheered them on. Robby looked a bit nervous.
And then Lucas struck first, and he struck so hard everyone heard the blow land.
Lucas landed a straight right cross directly on Shawn's chin and he went staggering back.
"Oooh!" Doug smiled and laughed with Hawk as Shawn's friends winced.
Johnny, Jimmy, and Bobby pulled Tommy apart from the random bar biker.
"What's wrong with you!?" yelled Jimmy as they restrained Tommy.
"You need to control your buddy!" said another biker as his friends restrained the biker Tommy had hit.
Johnny sighed. "Look he's just a little stupid sometimes."
"A little ugly's more like it. You gotta teach him some manners. He looks like a baby doll was left out to burn in the sun for a week." Johnny was shoved back by the biker. "Get outta here! Okay!?"
Johnny nodded slowly. "Okay," he said quietly and slowly.
Seeing trouble build, Bobby failed to stop Johnny from hitting the biker so hard in the face with a right cross he broke his nose.
About eight bikers all began to fight against Johnny and his friends.
Shawn was barely landing anything significant at all on Lucas.
While Shawn had great punching speed, he mainly relied on hook punches and his overwhelming upper body strength.
Lucas was far faster and more skilled, and easily matched the level of muscle power Shawn had.
Shawn realized very quickly Lucas knew how to box. How to keep his hands up and tight on his forehead, how to dodge, how to counter.
Jab punches, right hand reverse punches, left hand hooks to the liver, Lucas' punch combinations overwhelmed Shawn quickly.
Landing a sudden uppercut to the chin, Shawn was about to fire another punch as Lucas shook his head after the clean blow landed and swept Shawn's leg with ease right before it landed.
As Shawn fell, Lucas used his training and instantly mounted Shawn's chest and began to beat the daylights out of him with punches directly to the eye, nose, chin, and cheek.
It was over, Shawn had no idea how to fight flat on his back or how to remove someone fully mounted on his chest and attacking him.
Lucas stood up as the Cobras roared and cheered and taunted Shawn's friends who were watching. "Didn't he tell you? He just joined Cobra Kai." Lucas said rubbing the only two bruises he had on his face.
He just had a cut on his lip and a slight bruise on his face while Shawn had withstood a very strong beating.
As one of Shawn's friends made some sort of whistling sound, the whistling sound was returned from the nearby neighborhood.
Other teenagers began to rush toward Lucas and his friends in the park and they were attacked from all sides.
Tommy, having only just begun medical treatment for his illness and still remembering his training, made quick work of his biker opponent.
He struck first with an elbow to the jaw and a knee to the chest.
Bobby redirected a biker trying to tackle him to a nearby bar table and he rebounded off of it by his head.
Bobby then hit another biker rushing towards him loading up a haymaker punch with a front kick and knocked him over.
Robby was doing the exact same move one of against Shawn's sudden legions of friends.
The Cobra Kais, the new Cobras, fighting behind a baseball diamond and near some basketball courts in the darkness of a park. And Johnny's friends, fighting bikers in a bar near Big Bear Lake, all fought as one.
They all struck first, and hard, and without mercy.
Against numerically superior but untrained opponents, they swept legs and chopped opponents in the nose or chest, struck chins with their knuckles in clean straight punches like karatekas, or kicked their opponents away.
And none of them stopped striking. Every counter or block was a strike, all they did was attack and landed almost everything they threw so long as they kept moving.
Even with a single month of training, Hawk, Doug, and Mikey were able to help Robby and Lucas win.
They kept running at the Cobras. Nothing stopped them. They all moved with fury just like Johnny's friends, despite the years in fighting experience difference.
It all kept building, the strikes. The number of opponents that attacked them.
They would not stop striking and landing hits. If an opponent snuck up on them they were hit with a back kick or an elbow without even needing to change direction.
…
I looked around at the eleven knocked out or unable to fight any more friends of Shawn, or friends of friends of Shawn who had attacked us. They rolled around on the ground in pain or just laid there, panting or wincing.
And then Shawn Payne himself. "Well then." I rubbed my chin, I think I might've actually gotten hit more than once but I knew I had barely gotten hit. "That's that."
Shawn coughed, rising slowly from the ground. "Did you all really just do that?"
I shrugged as Robby and the others were equally as surprised we pulled that off as he was. "Do you think you're hallucinating or something?"
"Yeah, I think I might be. But you know what. Okay." Shawn chuckled. "Okay. Okay, you've convinced me. I'll join your Cobra gang."
"It's called Cobra Kai." Hawk said proudly.
"Sure." Shawn nodded. "I'm in."
"See you in class then," I said as Shawn nodded to me. "Don't take it the hard way. My kind of karate. It basically doesn't exist until I came up with it."
"I won't. Respect." Shawn said.
He had fought well, he just didn't stand a chance considering a very large portion of my training under Kreese included basically nothing but boxing training. The first thing he taught me was how to throw punches without exposing your chin or face by keeping a tight guard when you struck. To keep your chin tucked when you jabbed, and fired that right cross with good timing.
Hawk smiled as did Doug, Mikey, and even Robby.
We walked back towards our motorbikes and I spoke to Robby. "Do you get now why Cobra Kai is so important right? Why no mercy is so necessary? We took care of those guys sure. But we didn't seriously hurt them. We just stopped them from having the chance to hurt us."
Robby nodded. "Yeah man. I get it."
We smiled at each other and laughed.
"This has all been. Awesome." I said as the others agreed. "Rickenberger. Miller. You've earned your white belts for sure."
"Sweet." Doug said.
"Awesome indeed." said Mikey.
…
Cobra Kai OST: You're the Champ
…
"Still pack a punch huh?" Johnny laughed.
Tommy nodded, drinking his beer and looking into the fire pit as Jimmy and Bobby slept off a few punches they took and plenty of beers too. "Bet you still do."
"You should come by the dojo. Show the kids your stuff."
Tommy shook his head. "My fighting days are over."
"You really kicked ass today."
"I know. That was to prove a point. A point I won't be able to make very soon."
Johnny listened to the campfire crackle. "And why not?"
"Because I have to be honest about why Bob and I put this thing together tonight," Tommy said. "I have to tell you something."
"What?"
Tommy was quiet.
"I'm gonna die John."
"We're all gonna die Tommy, so what?"
"No. I mean I'm going to die pretty soon. Within a year."
Johnny was shocked. "What?"
"They said it was some sort of liver thing or some such. It just um. It can't be fixed. Whatever it is. All I can do now, is enjoy the time I've got left."
Johnny was holding back tears.
"Is there nothing you can do?"
"Just about," Tommy said plainly. "I wish I was joking for once. But this is gonna be it for me."
Johnny laughed sadly. "I can't um. I can't believe it. I can't."
Tommy was crying too. "I know man. I won't be able to 'cause I'll be gone. But I'll miss the hell out of you too."
It was at that moment when two grown men cried as much as they could. Quietly, but soulfully. And together.
Johnny hugged Tommy for what seemed like an eternity.
It hit Johnny harder than anything else in his life that within a year. He'd never see one of his best friends alive ever again.
"Tell me Bobby took it worse than me." Johnny pulled away from the hug.
Tommy chuckled, wiping aside his tears. "No man. He took it like a champ. Said he'd pray for me."
"Classic Bobby." Johnny chuckled quietly and finished his beer.
"Considering these will be the last few things I'll ever ask of you before around next summer when I er. Pass. I need you two to come to some sort of understanding."
Johnny sighed. "Bobby's been a stickler for ethics and his own way of doing things since we've been kids man."
"Find a way. At least to find out which one of you two is right." begged Tommy. "Let my last few memories of you guys be happy ones."
"They are happy. All that at the bar. We can do this more often too. But. How can I ever fix what I have going on with Bobby? He looks. Mad."
Tommy sighed. "You need to let him find his own way with karate the same way you are. The same way we weren't allowed to as kids. These students of yours, are they troublemakers?"
"They're worse than us man. They make us look like saints."
Tommy laughed very loudly, but Jimmy and Bobby were both still well out of earshot and heavy sleepers.
"I'm sure there's some poor kid or two somewhere that got the shit beaten out of them already. Humiliated. The same way you were humiliated by LaRusso, same way you humiliated him a few times. Let Bobby find that way. The same way you are."
Johnny sighed. "The worst part is. I know one of them. They live across the hall from Robby and I. Name's Miguel."
"Get them in touch with each other. At least as a pastor, Bobby's the best there is he can help. Who knows how much good he could do as a Sensei?"
Johnny nodded. "I'll tell him tomorrow morning."
"Johnny. Are you gonna be okay? With everything? With your kid and the dojo? And everything else?"
Johnny exhaled quickly. "Yeah. What about you?"
"I already know how I'll be. It's just the rest of you I'm worried about."
Johnny smiled. "I'm gonna miss you like hell on earth."
"Thanks Johnny."
…
Jimmy woke up on his sleeping bag listening to two of his best friends arguing.
"I've had it with this. I wanted to do it at first. But if you're still going to be with that maniac I'm not bothering with karate anymore." said Bobby angrily. "Whatever I do. I don't do it out of pettiness. Or anger. Unlike you!"
"Tommy proved we could still kick ass. Last night at the bar. That we're still a team! We're still brothers man!"
"Then why do you need John Kreese!?" yelled Bobby. Johnny looked down at his feet as Bobby spoke. "Huh!? For everything Daniel LaRusso got up to when he went to school with us. He never once deserved to get his leg popped out of his knee socket. Or for you to get the life choked out of you for losing a match!"
Johnny yelled back. "Yeah well maybe we all needed him!"
"No. No." he repeated Bobby shook his head quickly and repeatedly. "No we never did Johnny. He was never a father to us. Fathers don't do what he did. Whether they're tough as hell or not."
"He's changed! I've seen it with my own eyes."
Bobby laughed. "I can't believe this. You still think underneath a scarred violent person there's hope. That there's any emotion or humanity at all left."
"You preach only forgiveness in your religion. What is this?"
"We preach fairness and compassion too. You'll see Johnny. You'll see. And when you do, it'll be too late. Because I'm taking you up on that offer now. To show you your way, as long as it's with Kreese. Is the wrong way."
Tommy sighed. "Guys-"
"No Tom. I'm sick of this shit!"
Jimmy and Tommy were shocked. Bobby only cursed or completely lost his temper on very special occasions.
"This man tormented us for an entire third of our lives at one point. And he comes back and is allowed to infect dozens of kids with more of the same filth! The exact same filth. It's not right. This is the exact same man who convinced me evil was real and I had sinned. Who began my pursuit of Christianity. And you think he won't hurt those poor kids. Or you again." Bobby scoffed. "I don't even know who you are anymore Johnny."
Johnny's hands balled into fists.
"Say that again." Johnny said.
"Or what? Why bother with some teenagers? Let's have a little rematch right now. Right here. Remember '83? Our final match? The one we never got in '84?"
Jimmy knew he had to do something. Bobby Brown was not the kind of person to challenge someone to a fight.
"Of course I do. So bring it on."
Jimmy and Tommy realized it had gone too far.
Both Bobby and Johnny knew they needed to act quickly or their friends would intervene.
They hit each other directly in the face and chest with kicks and punches.
As Tommy began to pull Bobby apart from Johnny a round kick connected right on Bobby's temple and he completely lost his center of balance.
With Tommy trying to stop the fight and the confusion of everything, Bobby tripped and hit his head hard on the ground.
Everyone instantly rushed to help him.
"Bobby?" asked Johnny.
He was completely unresponsive.
"Bobby!" Jimmy yelled.
…
Kreese looked at a picture of his students from the eighties when one of their sons walked into the office. It was a picture Johnny had on his desk since the day the dojo reopened.
"Hey Sensei Kreese. Er. Mr. Kreese. Can I call you Sensei? Dad said I couldn't."
Kreese looked up from the picture. "Mr. Keene. Whatever you decide is fine. He's back later today."
Robby sighed as the class stretched and warmed up through the window of the office on the mat nearby.
"Look yesterday I doubted your lessons outside to Luke after class. I probably shouldn't have done that. My dad said a few of your lessons were too extreme and um. I thought there wasn't any validity to it. And I'm sorry."
Kreese smiled for a moment and shrugged. "Johnny is your father. Having loyalty to your father isn't a problem. He's as much of a Cobra Kai as you're becoming. Don't worry." Kreese put a hand on Robby's shoulder. "One way or another. All of us will learn the same lesson."
"Which is?"
"I'll explain it in a moment. Get everyone to fall in."
Robby nodded. "Yes Sensei."
"What happened to your face?"
"We got into a brawl, we won pretty well though. That new kid out there. Name's Shawn, he can scrap really well but Luke beat him really easily as they settled an argument. I think Shawn just lacks technique. His friends got involved, and then more of his friends got involved. And. We won, we won using what both you and my dad taught us."
Kreese nodded. "I'll explain that all too a little better. Does this Shawn person have any meaningful fighting experience?"
"He apparently got into street fights since he was little."
"Good. Then I think it's time."
Robby was confused. "Time for what?"
"For this dojo to become whole. And united behind your father and I, so long as Johnny thinks its best which I'm trying to prove to him."
Robby watched as Kreese removed multiple Cobra Kai GIs from a drawer in the desk in the dojo office and placed him on his desk. "It's time. To show our strength behind Johnny Lawrence. So I can earn my spot at his side as Sensei."
Robby nodded quickly before he left the office.
…
Cobra Kai OST: The Show Must Go On - Queen
…
"Bobby! Bobby! Bobby wake up!" shouted Johnny.
Tommy checked his pulse and gave a sigh of relief. "He's just unconscious."
"What did you do!?" barked Jimmy.
"It was an accident you saw!" Johnny said.
"Call an ambulance who knows how badly he hit his head." Tommy muttered.
In the Cobra Kai dojo, Kreese stalked the lines and yelled over the Cobras as they struck. All were wearing white belts now and in uniform.
"After a month and all of you proving yourselves. It is time. It is time for the most important moment of your young lives so far."
Kreese walked past by Bert and Aisha striking, throwing a jab punch followed by a right cross with their rear hand.
"As you were told on the first days of this dojo being open. Cobra Kai is not a hobby! Or a club! It is an art! It is a way of life! You must ingrain it into the very fiber of your being!"
Jimmy waved over an ambulance as Johnny looked seriously worried and Tommy looked grim.
Daniel and Miguel faced each other on a small wooden platform in Mr. Miyagi's home. Practicing his kata, trying to build his legacy and honor his memory together. They did kata facing each other, their hands spinning from horse stance.
"Cobra Kai becomes a part of you when you join! And when you leave this dojo. It follows you to your grave!"
A paramedic checked Bobby's neck with gloved fingers and nodded, giving the thumbs up that he was still conscious.
In the exact same way Johnny led strikes in 1984 when Daniel first walked into the dojo and looked over at the same place where he stood, Lucas Schwarber was becoming the ultimate Cobra Kai.
He threw his jab punch with precision, technique, power, accuracy, and fury.
"When you learn Cobra Kai. You all slowly but surely become Cobra Kai!"
Kreese walked past Tory. Hawk. Robby. Doug. Shawn and everyone else.
"Cobra Kai is your sisters and brothers. You are one entity. One mind. One unit. For now and forever. Every single one of you are one thing. Cobra. Kai."
Mitch struck the air in front of him, throwing the one two jab punch following Lucas' lead like everyone else.
Johnny, Jimmy, and Tommy watched worriedly as an unconscious Bobby was placed onto a stretcher and placed into the back of an ambulance.
"It never leaves you. It strengthens you. Whatever doubts. Or hatred. Or fears. Or worries. Or any weaknesses you may have become your strength." said Kreese. "You learn one thing in here. Cobra Kai Karate!"
Lucas kept leading strikes, the class mirroring him perfectly as Kreese continued speaking. "When you learn Cobra Kai and learn to strike. You strike at the world. You strike at everything. You strike at everything you ever wanted. That gives you victory, and that is all that matters in your life."
"For right here and now, and always!"
Bobby's unconscious body was flying through the forest in the back of the ambulance as Jimmy covered his face, Tommy kicked a rock away in frustration, and Johnny looked down at his feet.
"In every single part of who you are!" Kreese said as he passed Robby. "You are. Cobra! Kai! Because while all of us are mortal. Cobra Kai is not. And the reason is simple. Cobra Kai."
The class continued to strike in perfect unison, technique, speed, and power.
"Never dies."
…
Jimmy turned to Johnny as the ambulance siren wailing grew smaller as it left the forest. "That should be evidence enough that John Kreese is bad news Johnny."
"Look man I've told you. People can change."
"Not people like Kreese." Jimmy said. "Trust me I've seen it."
"Do you trust him Johnny?"
Johnny nodded. "Yeah Tommy. I do."
Jimmy sighed. "There can't be any shred of humanity left in him at all. He's probably just. Some. Cold, dark, empty husk pretending to be a man. That's how I remember him."
"What just happened might be an accident," said Johnny. "But I think you might be onto something Jimmy if Bobby can still suffer from this years later."
...
I didn't know if Johnny accepted Kreese to co Sensei the dojo from now on. So I went in person to ask Kreese himself by going to the homeless shelter he lived at in Pacoima.
At nighttime, I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway.
I walked up the steps to the homeless shelter floor where Kreese slept and found his room.
It was slightly open and I heard him mumbling.
"Earth angel. Earth Angel. Will you be miiine? My darling dear, love you all the tiiime!"
I closed the door behind me and saw John Kreese drunk for the first time in my life, wearing his green beret uniform again.
"I'm just a fool. A fool in love with youuu!"
I think he might've been the worst singer I've ever heard. Drunk or not.
He was sitting at a table in his room with an old picture of a beautiful woman on it. Kreese clinked his glass with the one he had poured in front of it and drank from it.
"Sensei Kreese." I said.
Kreese smiled. "Hey. Hey hey Schwarber hey. Just honoring the dead on the day they passed. It's a special. Anniversary y'know. I did it for a man who abandoned me and left me to teach his son when he couldn't. Why wouldn't I do it for her?"
I realized who the picture was of.
Betsy.
"I never would've expected-"
"What? A man can't drown his own sorrows in the warm embrace of alcohol? Every man has that right. You think just because I'm a...tough. Son of a bitch. I don't have feelings?"
That was the point of you as a Sensei and the impression you gave. Yes.
"Well you made this whole speech about how Cobra Kai is the toughest thing on earth today so."
"Ha! Cobra Kai," Kreese exclaimed very loudly and drunkenly. "I talked to the Sensei of Cobra Kai. And you know what he said? You know what he said?" he slurred as he repeated. "He said. That I'm a bad influence. My whole life, I wanted nothing. Nothing! But the best for this kid. And he says I do more harm than good. Pah! Just my luck. Just my rotten luck."
Johnny had every right to do that because he didn't know what I knew. But I strongly suspected he just learned of Tommy's illness and that was a factor.
Kreese poured a drink into an empty glass. "Have a drink with me son. To her." he raised a glass to the picture he was singing to. "To Betsy." Kreese turned to me.
"To Betsy," I said lifting the glass with him and then downing it.
It tasted like burning hot magma. I had only had some beer with the guys on occasion, this was hard liquor of the hardest possible sort and I coughed out hard. Some sort of whiskey, probably American knowing Sensei.
"Ah. Ah god. Good stuff. Good bourbon." I lied, it was painful but I laughed through it.
"It's good indeed." Kreese laughed. "Pain does not exist. But you seem to be having fun even when you're hurting."
"Yup. That's me. And what you taught me." I sighed, wincing as I think whatever liquor this was burned its way down my throat. "What were you singing?" I knew the song I think, still wanted to know.
"Earth Angel. Betsy's favorite song. We'd go to the sock hop every Saturday night. And forget about life you know. And then! And then. Only four men, four, in my whole unit come back with me alive from the war. And she should be there to welcome me back right?"
Kreese turned around. "But she's not!" he roared at the top of his lungs and flung the glass against the wall before it smashed to pieces loudly.
I watched him sigh and speak. "I give my life for this country! And it can't even keep the only person I ever loved safe. Alive even. Huh! I dedicate my life then to Cobra Kai. To find something new to love and enjoy. And then the greaaatest fighter it used to have."
I had to catch Kreese from stumbling right out of his chair.
"Tells me. I was a bad teacher. That I was bad. And I'm still bad even if I was and I'm trying not to anymore. And he wants to...push me away from it. From his son, and his students. And even you."
Kreese shook his head and looked at me. "Why?"
"I don't know sir."
I actually had a really good idea why Johnny would say something like that but still. There were two sides to this.
"You're nothing like your mother. You know that? Ali Mills was always selfish as a girl. Vain. A heartbreaker. You're fierce, you're great, you're. Strong! If she tells you, you're no good. She's wrong. She always is, she sure was with Johnny, so trust me."
I helped lay Kreese down on his bed.
"Good night Sensei."
"Wait." Kreese gripped me by the elbow part of my blue sweatshirt before I left. "Wait. Wait. Did I ever tell you what you did for me Schwarber?"
"You have. Plenty of times sir."
"No. You um. You gave my life meaning again."
I nodded. "Yeah." I said.
"No, I really mean it. I was a shell of a man. I had no purpose at all except to find the next odd job in who knows which part of town to maybe buy enough groceries to last a month. Maybe, or else I starved. And you brought me back to life. You did the unthinkable. And brought Cobra Kai back to life with me."
Kreese laughed as I saw what laid underneath the man I respected most in the world.
"You're so talented. And smart. And strong. And loyal. And dedicated to the karate I teach. And you're only fifteen! Just turned fifteen. I truly could not be more grateful. That you are becoming, slowly but surely. The best and most well known karate fighter who ever lived. And all I did was start you on that path. And I could not be prouder of the young man you're becoming."
He did start me on that path. And I respected him more than anyone for it.
"Lucas." he used my full name instead of 'kid' or 'Schwarber' like always. Or even 'Luke' like most of my friends called me. "There has never been. A more loyal student of Cobra Kai. Than you."
"Thank you Sensei."
"I mean it even if I'm." Kreese laughed. "Far too drunk to remember this tomorrow morning. I mean it. I don't care what kind of karate you fight with. With Cobra Kai, or Miyagi-Do. Or both. Or neither, or whatever you decide. You've made a difference in my life for the better. And I always will want you to." Kreese swallowed. "To be only you. And only be you. Always."
I was shocked that somehow he could speak to me almost the exact same way Daniel spoke to his daughter during the fourth season. As if I was his family. It almost didn't feel like the John Kreese I had known from the three Karate Kid films and Cobra Kai series could ever say something like that.
But he did. Because I had connected that much with him. And he was human. This was a man I looked up to like a father or a grandfather, he wasn't some drill instructor Sensei with a Cobra out front of his dojo. He was one that was a man not an utter monster, a man I respected beyond words.
I nodded. "Again. Thank you. If you'll excuse me. I need to forget any of this ever happened. So I'm gonna go get drunk with the rest of the dojo at the party at the canyon." I said, knowing he wouldn't be sober enough in the morning to remember I told him or do anything about it.
This moved me. What he had said moved me. But I couldn't show it. Because just like him, the dojo creed didn't allow pain. Pain was weakness. This was just what he had to hide and turn into his strength.
And I would always do the same out of respect for him.
Chuckling, Kreese rolled over. "You go ahead and do that."
Before I turned away, Kreese said something I never would've expected him to.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For having to see me like this. This drunk. This, open. About how I feel, I shouldn't have done that. For turning my back on you before the tournament. You deserved better than that."
"All of us deserve what our actions produce Sensei. You taught me that."
Kreese raised a finger behind him. "Which is why. You'll become a better Sensei one day perhaps than I'll ever be. You live and die by the creed Schwarber, better than any of 'em. Better than Nichols, Keene, and Hawk, and all of them. You might as well have our motto tattooed onto your mind. And I'll always respect you for it. Always."
I mean for fun. I used Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy to recruit people like Shawn Payne into the dojo. So he was right.
"This conversation never happened. I'll forget about it. But I'll still always call you my Sensei."
"You can go ahead and do that," Kreese muttered as he rolled over. "Go do that."
Kreese didn't snore. But I was completely sure he was asleep now.
I saw the newspaper Betsy's photograph was on top of on the table.
I read it carefully after seeing the picture of the wreckage in the newspaper. It looked very gruesome, but there weren't any bodies in the photo.
Thursday, June 20th, 1968
Local Reporter Loses Life in Tragic Car Accident
Reporter Betsy Dyer was driving on Fifth and Marie-Costa Avenue yesterday morning in Bakersfield. Police investigation reveals brake failure on the part of a large Filman's Co. garment factory truck approaching the intersection. Upon reaching the stoplight, Dyer made a left turn directly into the oncoming truck at almost full speed in a head on collision. Dyer's car spun out of control and struck a tree. The coroner reports Dyer died painlessly within seconds. Dyer wrote numerous articles for the Baker's Weekly and several other papers and was active in several parts of the community. Including the Bakersfield Women's Club, the National Society for Press Welfare, and Journalists United.
Dyer's mother Marianne reports that her daughter was trying to visit her in Pasadena. Marianne Dyer also is a valued and beloved member of the community, who thanks everyone who came and gave support for the loss of her daughter. Marianne said Betsy was someone who always, believed in "Truth. Love. And community."
I saw a small wooden box on the table, opened it, and saw his medals.
John Kreese was awarded the Purple Heart, as well as four other honors I recognized for combat service.
I lifted the Purple Heart he was given and looked at it up close.
This was his version of Mr. Miyagi's medal of honor. His pain. His past. His war.
His honors.
I put it back into the box and this reaffirmed what I already knew.
This was a man who had been scarred. Who had trained his students and wanted what was best for them despite with the boundaries he overstepped. He was the American Mr. Miyagi. He would always be my Sensei.
He did favors for old war comrades. He did favors for me. He did favors for his country.
Miyagi did well in protecting Daniel and saving him. But Kreese's students were attacked, he would have done anything to defend them. Despite what it ended up costing him.
Drunk, on the death day of the only person he ever loved. Rejected by the person he basically saw as the son he never had. And he had the strength to not shed a single tear, but instead reminded me to be tough. To be me.
I turned and bowed slowly to Kreese asleep atop his bed. I had said it before and I think I would say it for the rest of my life.
I never respected a man more than him. I promised myself without words that he would always be my Sensei.
...
...
...
A/N: Okay. Next chapter is the canyon party the Cobra Kai students all throw. Then I focus on Miguel and Daniel as well as Bobby too for his character to factor into the plot.
Thanks for all the comments and support everyone, see you all next time.