CHAPTER 19

As Miguel walked into the room, he immediately felt all eyes on him, and vaguely watched as every jaw smacked against the ground in shock that he was up and walking again. Well, every jaw but the one of the new students standing in the corner of the room, who was none other than George, who Miguel had managed to hook onto karate and convince to join. Not that Miguel noticed everyone's expressions though. He was too busy staring around the dojo. His first thought… the dojo looked SO different since he had last been there! Sure he had been out for more than 2 months and under new leadership it was bound to have changed a little, but the small karate center looked absolutely unrecognisable to how he had left it. First of all, the dojo seemed to look a lot darker than it had before, with weapons, flags and what looked like military awards adorning the previously blank walls. There were two more senseis that Miguel didn't recognise who were at the front of the room alongside Kreese. But that wasn't what caught Miguel's eye most. His eyes had locked onto the back of the room, where 7 new students stood. As Miguel looked at them and immediately recognised them, his skin crawled slightly. It was none other than Kyler and his whole gang of bullies, the boys who had made Miguel's life a total misery during his first few months in the Valley!

As Miguel finally pulled himself out of the stupor he was in after seeing his former tormentors all smirking at him cockily, he vaguely noticed Kreese asking Hawk to lead the warmup, before gesturing Miguel to join him and the two other senseis in the back office of the dojo. Miguel nodded and slowly walked towards the office of the dojo, walking around the back of the mat so as not to disturb the class. Because of this, he was forced to walk right behind the line of all of the new students. As Miguel walked past Kyler, the asian bully smirked at him cockily, clearly assuming that Miguel would not be at full strength after his injury and he would have dominance over the hispanic boy once again.

"'Sup, rhea." Kyler murmured quietly into Miguel's ear as he walked past, his bullying tone causing Miguel's blood to boil. He wanted nothing more than to pound the stuffing out of the cocky asshole and restore order to their enmity, but he knew he would have to wait for a good opportunity. Little did he know though that he wouldn't have to wait long…

As Miguel walked towards the office, just as he was about to step inside with the three senseis, he turned towards the class once more as his eyes locked on someone in the far corner of the room. It was none other than Tory, his ex-girlfriend. He had done exactly what Sam had done to him while they were dating to Tory. He had cheated on her and he still felt absolutely horrible about it. He would have tried to call her and apologise to her over the past two months had he not been absolutely laser focused on rehab, and pulling himself out of the darkest point of his whole life. Still, despite having SO, SO much on his mind over the past two months, he felt awful for not texting or calling her with an apology. He owed her at least that, if nothing else. Instead, he was looking at the beautiful girl and although she looked identical to two months prior, she looked like a completely different person to him. He knew that the school fight had hit everyone differently in a physical, emotional or even financial perspective, but he actually had no idea how it had affected Tory exactly. She clearly wasn't in juvie like Robby was, but was she still in West Valley? Had she been expelled? Even the thought of that possibility caused an iron grip to clench around his chest. He knew full well all of her family's problems and being expelled would be devastating for her future, if she even stood a chance at having a future now. No! Miguel knew that if anyone knew how to fight out of a corner, out of a disadvantaged position, it was her. She was the strongest person he knew and he knew that no matter what she was going through exactly, she would get through it. But he knew he definitely owed her a long overdue conversation.

But he couldn't have that conversation now, for he had just entered the office and faced the three senseis, the one familiar one and the two unfamiliar ones. One of the unfamiliars, an extremely tall man with a long silver ponytail, seemed to be about Kreese's age, but the other looked to be about Johnny's age.

"Miguel, I'd like to introduce you to our two new Cobra Kai senseis. Two Cobra Kai legends in their own right. Sensei Silver, and Sensei Barnes."

"Nice to meet you." Miguel murmured, shaking both of their hands.

"Sensei Silver is the one who funded your physical therapy." Kreese added. Miguel's expression immediately changed from slightly nervous to incredibly thankful as he shook the man's hand again.

"Oh wow! Sensei Silver, thank you so much! You don't know how grateful I am for…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. That money's small potatoes to me." Silver remarked, rolling his eyes. At that moment, Miguel realised how wealthy that man was, and why even if he couldn't teach a single punch, Kreese would want him part of the Cobra Kai regeneration. Money meant power, and it would be extremely helpful to have that rich a person on their side.

Silver turned from Miguel, a slightly disapproving expression on his face, to Kreese and raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously, Johnny? This is your champion? Some skinny Mexican kid you picked up off the streets?" He remarked. Miguel's facial expression immediately darkened in anger at the slightly racist, definitely insulting comment.

"Actually, I'm Ecuadorian." Miguel replied, forcing his voice to remain calm in front of his three new senseis, especially given that the one who he was talking to had funded the near to hundred thousand dollars it had costed for his miracle therapy.

"Whatever, same thing." Silver snapped, before turning back to Kreese, ignoring Miguel's ever growing scowl. "Johnny, your boy doesn't look like much."

At that moment, Miguel had enough and he decided to respond, extremely cooly though.

"Yeah, well neither did Vietnam, and we know how that ended." Miguel responded calmly. As he had expected given that he had spotted a picture of Silver and Kreese together in Army fatigues on the wall so he knew Silver had served in 'Nam, Silver's face also broke into a massive scowl, and his fist curled into a ball.

"You know what, kid? You…"

"Okay!" Kreese said, standing up and immediately standing between Miguel and Silver, sensing a conflict about to happen. "Terry, Mike, prep the class for the session please."

Silver stormed out of the room and Barnes followed him shortly after, more entertained than angry at the teenager's ballsiness. When they were gone, Kreese turned to Miguel and nodded.

"Ignore him. He's like this with all new students. You just gotta earn his respect by showing him your skills. You think you can fight today? You want a day of rest before you start for real?"

Miguel shook his head vehemently.

"Hell no! I didn't train this hard to get back and just sit out on the sidelines! I'm fighting today." Miguel stated firmly. Kreese smiled faintly and nodded at his student. The boy reminded him so, so much of himself when he was a teenager: a quiet fighter, more than capable of standing up for himself but not choosing to show off his skills.

"Great." Kreese said, and the two made it to the door of the office, about to step back into the dojo. "Well then, let's get started…"

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"All right, Cobras, listen up!" Kreese barked, and the whole dojo immediately snapped to attention. "As you can tell, we have 7 new Cobras among us. You all know what means."

All of the existing Cobras knew indeed. As a way to keep the existing Cobras in top form, any new student who joined had the opportunity to challenge any student in the dojo to a fight. If the new student lost, if Kreese deemed the loss acceptable for a new student, the new student would be let in anyways. But if the existing student lost, they would be kicked out of the dojo forever. Although the method was undoubtedly harsh, it had indeed weeded out the weaker links in the Cobra Kai army such as Bert, Mitch and more.

The Cobras quickly formed a large circle, their makeshift arena for the fights, and Kreese smirked as he glanced at the 7 new students. These teenagers looked to be his best batch of recruits yet on paper, and he was excited to see how well they fared in a fight against actual Cobras.

"Okay, first up… Kyler!"

At the mention of Kyler's name, George - who was standing with all of the other new students - looked up abruptly. Miguel had told him plenty about Kyler and how much of a dick he was, but George didn't realise that the asian boy standing a couple of feet away from him was the same bully who had tormented Miguel for so long. George glanced sideways down the circle at Miguel and noticed a stormy expression on his friend's face. Fists white from the force he was clenching them with, Miguel was practically hopping from foot to foot, almost begging to be able to fight the son of a bitch and put him in his place once and for all. But he knew it wasn't up to him. Kyler could challenge anyone in the room and Miguel knew it was unlikely that Kyler would challenge the All-Valley champ.

"Kyler, who do you challenge?" Kreese asked.

Kyler spun around the circle for several moments as he eyed the group, trying to gauge which one of them would be the easiest target, and after a few seconds, his eyes locked on his target. He knew that if he wanted to become the alpha here in Cobra Kai, he needed to take down the existing alpha. And there was no better time to do that than when the existing alpha was still recovering from paralysis as there was no way the teen was at full strength, right?

"I challenge Miguel."

There was an audible gasp around the room as Kyler announced his challenge and everyone in the dojo spun around to face the hispanic teenager in the corner of the room. All of them knew the power and reputation Miguel brought with him to every fight, but none of them expected him to fight on his first day back in two months. Miguel, however, had different ideas.

"Kyler… you just made my day." Miguel murmured quietly, before stepping into the ring…

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Needless to say, the fight had NOT gone how Kyler had imagined it was going to go.

The challenger, Kyler, had charged extremely aggressively straight out the blocks and for the first couple of minutes of the fight, all Miguel did was defend, getting back in the rhythm of fighting, trying to scope out Kyler's fighting techniques to find the perfect time to lunge his own attack. Kyler seemed to be resorting to attempting a lot of grapples and wrestling moves, moves that Miguel wriggled out of before Kyler could complete the attack. But his all defense strategy wasn't working out for long. Miguel's guard faltered, just for a second, and Kyler capitalized, connecting with a heavy right hand to the side of Miguel's head, sending the All-Valley champ stumbling a couple of steps backwards.

Ignoring the ringing pain in his ears, Miguel clenched his jaws and looked up at Kyler, who was already charging towards him to try and end the fight. At that moment, time for Miguel slowed to a halt. He turned sideways and saw Kreese watching on, a flicker of doubt on the man's face as he watched his champion - the teenager he had spent nearly a hundred grand on - about to be beaten by a complete amateur. Had the injury recovery truly been too much for Miguel?

Miguel then turned back to the approaching Kyler and as he saw the expression on Kyler's face, Miguel felt a shiver run up his spine. Kyler had a look on his face… like he had already won. Like he felt that he was God, and anyone who disagreed would get their ass kicked. It was the same expression he had on his face every single time he had bullied Miguel in the past. And it was that expression that dragged Miguel out of his daze, and it made Miguel's blood boil. He would NOT let this asshole have power over him again. He would not let this asshole plague his mind again.

Suddenly, time sped up back to normal and Miguel was snapped back to reality, now with newfound anger and motivation. Despite Kyler now being mere feet away from him, Miguel managed to dodge his attack, and then send a heel kick to the back of Kyler's head, the kick connecting with a sickening THUD.

There was a collective moment of silence in the room as Kyler went down, taken down with a single kick. All of them were so astonished as to what had happened that, much to Miguel's delight, none of them had stopped the fight. And Miguel wasn't done yet. Far from it. He stood over Kyler, raining a relentless onslaught of punches on the semi-conscious boy's face as Kyler groaned in pain, unable to defend himself as Miguel had his arms pinned. Every punch Miguel through channeled all of the pain, anguish and suffering he had put Miguel through. The dining hall fight had gone by and ended so quickly, so this was the first time Miguel was truly getting retaliation for everything the asian bully had put him through.

He continued laying down punch after punch after punch until he had finally had enough, standing over the barely conscious boy and scowling down at him for several moments, before deeming that he had had enough, and Miguel finally stepped away from the body. At that moment, a mixture of fear, admiration, envy and respect flashed through the eyes of every student in the dojo. Their leader was back, and he was ready to lead them into battle against Miyagi-Do…

Kreese, Silver and Barnes stood side by side, watching Kyler be practically carried off the mat and out of the dojo by two of his friends, watching Miguel silently walk back to his spot in the corner of the room. Silver turned to Kreese, a newfound respect in his eyes as he faced his colleague..

"You know what? Forget what I said before. That kid definitely has something to him." Silver remarked, remembering his now seemingly ridiculous comments about Miguel not looking like a very good fighter. Barnes nodded in agreement as he chimed in.

"Yeah, exactly. Miyagi-Do doesn't know what's about to hit them…"