CHAPTER 87

As Daniel finished reading out all of the information, a long silence ran through the group. It was a LOT of information to process all at once, so it took them a while to finish committing all of it to memory, but when they did, they knew a long conversation was in order. There was so much to discuss, so the likelihood of them actually doing any physical training today was pretty low.

"So… should we go about all of this in order of how it's written in the letter?" Daniel suggested. The Miyagi-Dos all nodded and Daniel went back to the letter to read all of the important points again. "Well like they say, first off, congratulations to all of you for helping us get this far in the first place. We couldn't have done it without any of you and…"

"Okay, shut up Larusso." Johnny snapped, snatching the sheet of paper out of Daniel's hands and reading it for himself. "First thing's first… dojo name. That's easy: Miyagi-Do."

"Yup, alright, what's next?" Barnes asked. Daniel raised a hand to stop them.

"Woah, woah, woah, what?" Daniel stammered. "We're calling ourselves Miyagi-Do? What? What about Eagle-Fang?"

"We'll still train Eagle-Fang. I'll still train our students to be badass, to be offensive. But for the tournament, in terms of just a name, it should be Miyagi-Do. Miyagi-Do has a legacy, and had a pretty good past record against Cobra Kai from the past… we should continue that."

The certainty with which Johnny said this took Daniel aback, even more so when he heard every single voice in the dojo agreeing with the statement.

"All in favor to use Miyagi-Do as our official dojo name for the Taikai?" Daniel asked. Every hand in the dojo was raised and a large smile spread across Daniel's face.

"Wow, guys, I'm honored." Daniel said, truly shocked by how easy it was to come to the decision. There was no fierce arguing as Daniel had anticipated when he first read out the letter. He had expected a ruthless showdown between the name Eagle-Fang and Miyagi-Do, and then eventually coming up with a stupid-sounding middle-ground compromise like Miyagi-Fang. But no… everyone had voted for Miyagi-Do, so that was what they were going to go with.

"Whatever. What's next?" Johnny asked. Daniel read what was next on the list and he winced, sharply sucking in air. This next part, he anticipated, would be much more complicated.

"The next part is about fighters." Daniel said. "The letter says that we get 6 under 21s. Well there's 11 people here in the dojo right now."

"5 won't be able to come with us." Johnny added. "How are we going to sort this out?"

"Remember, for anyone who doesn't come this year, there's always next year." Daniel began, looking at all of the students, who watched on with apprehension about the decision. "All of you are incredible fighters, and have improved so much in the past year. It's not going to be an easy decision to make, so I figure all of us senseis should go away after this and discuss this at length. We can sleep on it too and maybe give you an answer tomorrow."

"Why?" A voice suddenly spoke out from the group of students, and everyone turned to see Anthony, who had been the one to open his mouth.

"Sorry?" Daniel asked his son.

"I said why do we need to do all that? We all already know who you're going to choose. We already know who deserves to go." Anthony replied.

"Yeah, it's Tory, Sam, Miguel, Robby, Hawk and Demetri." Devon chimed in.

"They're the ones who have been training the longest, and the only ones who have made it to the Semi Finals in the All-Valley. They should be the ones to represent us." Anthony said.

"Yeah, besides, most of us are still young enough to compete in the All-Valley too. These guys aren't." Bert added.

The senseis glanced around the dojo, trying to gauge the reactions to this from the other students. To their credit, the students mentioned all kept a pretty straight face, fearing that too much of a reaction would make them seem cocky. Demetri, however, looked outright shocked that his name had been mentioned among the rest, having been used to being labeled at least a tier or two down from the others. Daniel still remained unsure though, fearing that some of the students might have a problem with this but were too nervous to speak their minds in front of the whole dojo.

"Mr. Larusso, we all want this." Anthony said. "For most of us, we're going to be in the Valley for the next few years anyways. We have plenty of chances to compete. Also, If we want Miyagi-Do to still remain open after this year, we need to win this tournament and win the bet with Cobra Kai. Those 6 are our best chance of doing that."

"All in favor, raise your hands?" Devon said. Although none of the big 6 names raised their hands, the rest of the students did immediately, settling the motion immediately.

"See. We all agree." Devon pointed out. Eventually, seeing the satisfied faces on all of his students, Daniel nodded.

"Alright. If that's what you really want. Sam, Miguel, Robby, Hawk, Demetri, Tory… congratulations. You 6 are coming with us to the tournament."

The big 6 students allowed themselves the reaction of a faint smile, emotion breaking through their wall of humility for a moment. Miguel, however, didn't smile as widely, as his mind was already on the next thing on the list.

"Coming with who exactly? Only 2 senseis are allowed to fight. Who's it going to be for us?" Miguel directly asked the senseis, whose faces grew troubled as the four of them thought about this fact.

"Well, Toguchi's gotta be one of them, right?" Barnes remarked to nobody in particular, just stating a fact. It was almost common knowledge that Chozen was the most skilled fighter of all of them, so he was definitely the first name they wanted on the list. "But out of the 3 of us, who should be the other fighter?"

There was a long silence as they deliberated this, trying to balance each sensei's strengths as fighters and their weaknesses. All of them secretly wanted to volunteer themselves, but didn't speak up yet out of respect for the others. They all had their arguments to back themselves: Barnes was a proven tournament fighter, having won tournaments all over the country back in the day; Johnny knew Cobra Kai better than anyone given the amount of time he spent learning and teaching it, so he could sense their traps better than anyone; and Daniel had an unmatched resiliency when it came to big fights such as these. It was, however, Chozen who broke the silence.

"It should be Daniel-san and Johnny." Chozen declared firmly. "Not me. Not Mike."

"Us? Why us?" Johnny asked, almost shocked to hear this. "But you're…"

"This fight is not my fight. It is not Mike's fight either." Chozen stated. "It is both of your fights. For that reason, it should be you who fight for us."

"Chozen's got a point." Barnes commented. "This all started with the two of you. You also know Cobra Kai better than anyone. If there's anyone who deserves to fight for us then, it's you."

"Are you sure you don't want to fight? Either of you?" Daniel asked. Both Chozen and Barnes shook their heads.

"It should be you." They replied, effectively ending the conversation.

For Miyagi-Do, the roster was confirmed for them. Fighting in the U21 Boys' division were Demetri, Hawk, Miguel and Robby. Fighting in the U21 Girls' Division were Sam and Tory. And fighting in the Senseis' division were Johnny and Daniel. It was a formidable team, with 7 All-Valley championships and 10 All-Valley finals appearances between them. Cobra Kai certainly weren't going to be thrilled with how powerful a team Miyagi-Do were, that's for sure.

"Alright, is there anything else left to discuss?" Daniel asked.

"Rule changes." Johnny stated. "What is this bullshit about changing the rules for the finals?"

"Apparently, it says it's tradition." Barnes said, reading the letter again himself now. "Been going on for all 49 of the past Taikais."

"Well it's a load of crap." Johnny snapped back. "They can't just change the rules for the finals! That's so stupid!"

"Pretty smart actually." Daniel murmured. "This whole thing is televised. They realize they can probably earn more viewers and money with UFC type rules rather than a simple point spar. Makes it more of a fight and less of a spar."

"Doesn't change the fact that it's absolute bullshit." Johnny muttered. "They expect us to train with different rules, after training for years with different ones?"

"It's our first year competing in this." Barnes reminded him. "If we don't like the rules, we don't have to come."

"Sensei, the rules are fine." Miguel replied. "I mean sure these rules might play slightly into Cobra Kai's hands, but that just means we'll work harder to match them."

Johnny nodded. Nothing really they could do about that one. The rules were set in stone. And although none of the senseis had said it, Miguel had the balls to point out the fact that these rules played right into Cobra Kai's favor. The biggest advantage right now that Miyagi-Do held over Cobra Kai, at least between their dojos' best fighters, was their experience. Although all of the Cobra Kais had been fighting for a long time, some much longer than the Miyagi-Dos, the Miyagi-Dos possessed experience fighting in point spars that the likes of Shawn, Marcos and Sarah didn't. Most of them had experience fighting in the finals of these fights, so knew a lot of strategies to employ, strategies that wouldn't work if they made the final of the Taikai. Instead, rather than things being solely based on technique, they would also be based on speed, strength, agility, stamina and other key attributes that would make them successful in this more drawn-out, brutal final.

In this regard, Miyagi-Do had taken a little bit of a hit. Not much though, not nearly enough to lower their spirits in this extremely exciting times. With this letter, the Taikai felt more real than ever. They had been granted a small taste of what this massive event was going to be like, and they all were brimming with excitement about it. Less than 6 months. Less than 6 months and they'd be on the plane to Tokyo, Japan for the extravagant event. And that day couldn't come soon enough!