CHAPTER 105

SMASH!

As Kreese arrived at Marcos' apartment, he kicked the door clean off his hinges. He didn't even think twice. His blood was boiling to the point where all he saw was red. He didn't have to see Marcos' limp body in the hospital bed, all he needed to hear was Sarah's story to propel him to a level of rage he had never felt before. The despicable acts that Marcos' father had committed… They were something that no child should have to experience at the hands of their parent.

Kreese was no stranger to a rough childhood. His dad had walked out before he was born, and his mom had committed suicide when he was young, so Kreese was alone for most of his life. And that loneliness he had always felt, the way he was ostracized by everyone around him for it… Kreese would have chosen to repeat that in a second in comparison to what Marcos had had to go through. Even despite Kreese's tough, impenetrable character, hearing what had happened to the student he had grown to care so much about… it filled him with a rage that he hadn't felt for years.

The Cobra Kai sensei burst into the apartment and it didn't take long for his eyes to lock onto their target. Marcos' father was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on a glass of scotch, holding an ice pack to the back of his head from when Marcos had pushed him away from him and into the wall. Upon seeing the sudden intrusion, the middle-aged Brazilian man slowly stumbled to his feet, but he wasn't fast enough. Before he could even drop the ice pack and raise his hands in a fighting stance, Kreese was already on him like a flash, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and throwing him against the wall.

Normally, Kreese would never have been able to manhandle a man who was easily bigger than him so easily. But right now, with the amount of fury ripping through his system, he didn't feel like a Karate sensei in his 70s. He was back in his 20s, back in the Army, fighting to protect those he loved, even if that meant permanently 'eliminating' whatever threat came in the way of this.

"What the hell…" Marcos' father grumbled as he clambered to his feet, but not before Kreese raised a boot and connected with a vicious front kick to the face, knocking Marcos' father back to the ground.

"Is this what you did to him?!" Kreese snarled. "Kick him until he could no longer stand?! Beat him down until he was too hurt to get up?!"

A few seconds later, realization dawned on the face of Marcos' father, who had never seen the sensei before but recognized him all the same.

"Oh… you're the karate teacher, aren't you?" Marcos' dad remarked as he rose to his feet, moving to face the Sensei.

"I am. And I'm not going to let you get away with what you did to him." Kreese snapped. Marcos' father laughed, before getting into his own fighting stance.

"Is that so?" He chuckled. "Forgive me if I don't seem to be very afraid. It's kind of hard to be when it looks like the person threatening you belongs in a senior home somewhere."

Kreese curled his hands into fists. As he looked around the decrepit apartment, he could practically feel the despair reeking from the walls. He could feel the pain that Marcos had felt in this very apartment emanating from every corner, and that was enough to ready himself for a fight. This man was going to learn a lesson. He was going to pay…

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In that moment, Kreese wanted nothing more than to end this pathetic excuse of a human's existence. However, what he quickly found out was that that was going to be harder than he initially thought. Much harder, because sure enough, Marcos' father was also a well-trained Martial Arts too.

Like father, like son, Kreese thought to himself as the other man tactically lunged at him with a flurry of punches and kicks. Marcos' father fought just like his son too, unyielding waves of calculated offense to put pressure on the opponent, forcing the enemy to eventually slip up and allow him to capitalize. Both Marcos and his dad fought in an absolutely fearless manner, throwing every ounce of energy into every single strike.

Unfortunately for him though, Kreese wasn't just any other opponent. With 75 years of experience under his belt, Kreese had fought opponents of all builds, sizes and skill levels. He had fought opponents like Marcos' dad, so it didn't take him long to understand his fighting style and begin to plan his own assaults. Anger drove Kreese into a hurricane of combinations, punches and kicks targeting every inch of the other man's body. With each one, Kreese pictured the way that the enemy had unleashed a similar blow to the innocent teeanger, and that only motivated Kreese to attack harder.

Sooner or later, after minutes of the two men exchanging clobbering, lethal blows with each other, Kreese finally landed the one that stuck. A hook punch to Marcos' father's already damaged cheek was enough to drop the man to the ground, and allow Kreese to stand over him, victorious.

But Kreese wasn't done yet. Far from it. Simply knocking the man down wouldn't even come close to doing justice for everything he had done to Marcos. No… he needed to suffer like Marcos had suffered. Pay like Marcos had. With one hand pulling Marcos' father upright by the neck, the other began to rain ruthless strikes at the man's defenseless head.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Punch after punch, Kreese threw, eager to wipe the man from existence right now. The 'father' didn't deserve to live for even a second longer, and Kreese was going to see to that, as he didn't dare stop throwing brutal hits at him. At one point, a sickening CRACK filled the air as Marcos' father's nose broke, spurts of warm blood beginning to gush out and drip into his mouth, causing Marcos' father to cough and retch.

He was a sorry sight, beaten to a mere inch of his life. Already, Kreese had done some crushing damage to him. Anything more would probably kill him. And for a few seconds, Kreese was very much about to do it. He raised his fist in the air once more, the experienced fighting hand smeared crimson from the blood of his enemy, but before he could bring the fist down on Marcos' father, Kreese found himself hesitated.

As he stared down at Marcos' helpless father, something changed in Kreese. His whole life, he had lived by one philosophy: no mercy. No mercy on anyone, least of all a foe. Kreese had killed people abroad and severely injured many at home and yet right now, he couldn't bring himself to deliver that final blow to Marcos' father. He refrained from doing so because in that moment, he realized that this wasn't what Marcos would've wanted. Even after everything his father had done to him, Kreese knew the unbreakable bonds that tied family, even when you least wanted them too, and so if he killed Marcos' father right now, he risked Marcos never forgiving him for it.

Shockingly, that was enough to get Kreese to lower his hand. That's how much Kreese had changed in the past half a year. That's how much Marcos had changed him. He had reopened an old side of Kreese that the sensei had kept firmly locked away since Betsy's death all those years ago. It was a side of genuine affection for the teenager. He cared more about remaining a part of the teenager's life than he did getting retaliation on the son of a bitch who was lying barely conscious beneath him.

Besides, it wasn't like Marcos' dad was going to put up any more of a fight. He lay motionless beneath Kreese, not even trying to fight him off anymore. As Kreese raised a hand to deliver the killer blow, Marcos' dad closed his eyes, preparing himself for it.

"Go on. I'm not afraid of dying." Marcos' dad murmured. Kreese nodded, slowly lowering his hand and not hitting him anymore.

"I know. Which is why dying isn't punishment enough for you. You deserve much, much worse than that. You deserve to suffer, rot away in a jail cell for the rest of your life, seeing everything, everyone on the outside flash before you, but you'll be unable to follow them. That's the punishment you deserve. I hear they treat child abusers real nice in prison…"

Upon saying this, Kreese reached into his pocket and did something that he never in a million years expected that he would ever do: he called the police…

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Within 15 minutes, police were swarming around Marcos' father's apartment and the wicked man was finally in cuffs, unable to do his son any more harm for the rest of his living days. By the time Kreese was done giving all of his statements to the police, it was already dawn, so it was time for a new day to begin. A more bright, hopeful day in the eyes of everyone who knew about the horrors that had occurred the night before. Newfound optimism rose with the sun that morning for not only the Cobra Kais, but the Miyagi-Dos too, who had been involved in the brawl at the canyon that now felt like an eternity ago.

Rather than going straight to the hospital to visit Marcos, Kreese decided to stop by the Cobra Kai dojo first. His clothes were still partially covered in Marcos' father's blood, a sight that he knew Marcos wouldn't necessarily appreciate seeing when his sensei came by to visit him. He needed to change into some clean clothes, so Kreese quickly found himself driving to the dojo.

As he walked inside, to Kreese's surprise, the dojo was unlocked. That was weird. Who could possibly be at the dojo at this hour? He found his answer soon enough, as a figure walked out of the back office as soon as they heard the dojo bell ring. Kreese found himself face to face with Kim Da-Eun, and he relaxed a little as he saw her.

"Oh. It's you." He murmured. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Oliveira comes in here every morning before school for an hour or two of extra training." Kim remarked. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

Kreese took a deep breath, before nodding.

"I have. He's not going to be at training today." He replied. "He's in the hospital."

"Oh?" Kim raised an eyebrow in curiosity, though she already knew what the reason probably was. It was so horrible that Kreese couldn't even say it for a moment, shuddering to himself before walking into the back office, Kim following close behind. They sat opposite one another at the desk, as Kreese poured himself a stiff drink, almost downing the entire thing before he finally managed to speak.

Kreese told her everything. She deserved to know, he thought. He told her all about the abuse, and Kim maintained a stoic face throughout. Almost like… almost like it was a story that she had already heard before. By the end, Kreese had finished his drink and took a deep breath.

"No kid should have to witness that." Kreese finished. Kim slowly shook her head.

"Maybe. But it might have been a blessing in disguise that he did." Kim replied. Kreese's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What?" Realization dawned on him a few moments later. "You knew. You knew… didn't you?"

Kim nodded.

"I did." She admitted honestly.

"And you didn't tell anyone?! You didn't try to help him?!" Kreese shouted, his anger level rising.

"Why would I? What good would that do?" Kim responded. "All of this… it only made Marcos stronger. It pushed him to train harder. Pushed him to be more ruthless. Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy. Like a real cobra."

"How dare you?!" Kreese growled, rising to his feet, Kim doing the same. "How dare you keep something like this from me?!"

"I had to." Kim replied. "You're too close to the boy to be objective. This was the best thing for him. I know what's best for my students, even if they can't see it themselves, or other people can't see it either. I knew it with Mr. Oliveira. I knew it with Ms. Nichols. I knew it when…"

"What did you do to Nichols?!" Kreese's voice rose louder and louder, until it was almost at a bellow.

So Kim told him. She told him all about her rather… harsh method of punishment that she had initially used with Tory and later used with Marcos, and by the end, Kreese's ears were steaming with fury. As he stood up straight, standing over Kim's diminutive frame, he spoke in a voice deathly cold.

"Leave." Kreese snarled at her. Kim raised an eyebrow, taken aback.

"What?" She snapped.

"I said… LEAVE!" Kreese yelled. "I don't ever want to see you around here, or around any of my students again! Do you understand me!"

"You're making a big mistake." Kim warned him.

"Get out of my dojo!" Kreese demanded, and Kim eventually nodded. She walked towards the door as she felt Kreese scowling a hole into her back the entire time. Just before she opened the door though, she turned on her heel once more and looked at Kreese.

"You're too close to all of this." Kim told him. "You can't see the whole picture anymore. Your mind is narrow, and it's going to cost you, your students and this entire dojo at the Taikai. And when that happens, don't say I didn't warn you…"