CHAPTER 27

"WAIT!"

The voice echoed around the mostly empty courtroom, the single word slamming everyone in the chest as they realised exactly who it was. They all turned around to see none other than Miguel walking into the courtroom, being followed closely behind by Kreese. The tension automatically shot up in the room as the Miyagi-Dos saw Kreese, but they were forced to ignore him as they saw Miguel approach the judge.

"Your honor, may I say something?" Miguel asked.

"Go ahead." The judge nodded and Miguel took a deep breath. Unlike Johnny and Daniel, he didn't have a plan what to say. Hell, he had just found out this whole thing was happening about an hour ago. But that was okay. All he had to do was speak from the heart…

"My name is Miguel Diaz. I was in the school fight. I was the one who got kicked off the second floor. You know… everyone thought I was going to die in the coma. Days, weeks past without me waking up so how was anyone supposed to think otherwise? Hell, my family even had a priest come in to bless me in the hospital in case I died at any moment. But then I woke up, and somehow everything was so much worse. I was told I was never going to walk again. That I was going to be paralysed and forced to be pushed around in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. My family couldn't afford surgery, let alone proper rehab from the injury so my options weren't just limited, they were non-existent."

As Miguel said this part, he felt the harsh glares of the Miyagi-Dos that was currently fixed on him soften a little. For the first time, they were truly understanding what led to him joining Kreese's Cobra Kai. It wasn't just a random decision that could be reversed at any moment.

"I was pretty much done with life. With everything." Miguel continued. "But then one night while I was in the hospital, Sensei Kreese came to visit me. He helped pull me out of a really dark place and make me realise that my life was far from over. He even paid close to a hundred thousand dollars for me to have the proper surgery and proper rehabilitation from my injury. I can tell you with full certainty if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't be walking around and standing like you see me today. And what's more… he didn't make my family pay a dime. He didn't have to do any of this. I believe Mr. Larusso and Mr. Lawrence have led you to believe that Kreese only cares about those who he has use for, and those who he doesn't get cast aside. That's not true at all! As far as he was concerned, I would never walk, let alone fight, again. But he still paid for everything, because to quote him 'Cobra Kai is family, and you always take care of family.' He took me under his wing and treated me like the father figure I never had."

As Miguel said this last part, he glanced sideways and looked straight at Johnny, who winced in pain as Miguel's words stabbed him right in the chest. On one hand, Miguel felt slightly bad, but the majority of him felt no sympathy. Johnny had promised that he wouldn't lead him down the wrong path and yet it had been his path that had sent Miguel over that balcony. Although Johnny was rendered speechless, Daniel wasn't, and he gathered himself enough to argue back.

"No, no, no. Your honor, Mr. Diaz is manipulating the facts. Just a few days ago, some of MY students were injured by Mr. Kreese's insane students at an abandoned recreational facility!" Daniel exclaimed. Miguel raised an eyebrow, not losing his cool at all before responding.

"And who started that fight, Mr. Larusso? If my memory serves, it was your daughter and Miyagi-Do. Not us. You."

Daniel's face flushed with anger and he opened his mouth to respond.

"But…"

"And let's look back a bit further to that school fight." Miguel continued, interrupting Daniel. "Your honor, those two men behind me are trying to make you believe that Mr. Kreese is manipulating some of his students into going, as Mr. Larusso called it, insane. That is absolutely not true! Hell, it's the opposite, and those two men are the LAST people in the world who can say anything. Look at the school fight, and those inflicted with the harshest penalties: Tory Nichols and Robby Keene. Tory Nichols might have been a member of Cobra Kai at the time, but there is no way that it was Sensei Kreese who 'manipulated her'. If anything, it was Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence kept using us, his students, as pawns in a massive rivalry he had going on with Mr. Larusso. Sensei Kreese was the only one with his eyes open enough to realise that this was going to end in a fight, and he tried to warn us. However, as he did, Mr. Lawrence decided to kick him out of the dojo completely. Mr. Lawrence was the main sensei in the dojo. Blame lies on him, not Sensei Kreese. And as for Robby Keene… well he wasn't Sensei Kreese's student, was he Mr. Larusso?" Miguel asked Daniel, whose face grew redder and redder with rage at every passing moment.

"Now you just wait a minute…"

"Your honor…" Miguel continued to address the judge, completely ignoring Daniel's outrage. "Those two men tried to tell you that Sensei Kreese is unfit to be a sensei but if you look closer, you'll realise that it was them who weren't fit to be senseis. Sensei Kreese spent decades as an Army Captain, training and leading soldiers, and he took the best qualities he got from that into running his dojo. If you can even call it a dojo anymore, because what Sensei Kreese did is he turned it into a family. We rise together. We fall together. And he's ALWAYS there to guide us. Surely this isn't the kind of man who should be banned from teaching children, right?"

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"You did great, kid." Kreese remarked as they walked out of the courthouse moments later, Kreese having been proclaimed innocent much to Miyagi-Do's outrage.

"Thanks." Miguel grinned. They walked through the car park in relative silence, both of them feeling extremely high right now having proved Kreese's innocence and having pulled yet another one over Miyagi-Do. However, their silence was broken when they heard voices behind them.

"Well… you guys must be happy with yourselves…"

Miguel and Kreese turned around to see Daniel, Johnny and Sam scowling at them. Miguel and Kreese merely smirked at them, knowing that staying calm would piss Miyagi-Do off more than them getting angry.

"Well… yeah I am actually." Miguel replied, laughing.

"I can believe you did this, Miguel! Can't you see what you're turning into? You're becoming just another Cobra Kai monster!" Johnny spat at his former student, not holding back now.

"Funny you should say that Johnny. Because based on what was said in the courtroom, I don't know if we're the ones who are the monsters."

Johnny started to charge towards Kreese but Daniel quickly held him back and then turned to Kreese.

"We're never going to stop trying to get you behind bars, you know that right?" Daniel growled. "Whether it takes days, weeks, months, we are not going to stop. Ever."

Kreese chuckled.

"Now, now, gentlemen, you can try that. I honestly highly doubt it would work but you can try. Or you can take up my other offer."

Daniel and Johnny looked at each other, taken aback by this sudden revelation and the calm with which Kreese said it, before gathering themselves and answering.

"What's the other option?" Johnny snapped, curious now.

"Well… why don't we settle this the old-fashioned way?" Kreese suggested. "The tournament. We lose, and I'll leave the Valley forever."

"Sensei…" Miguel started, but Kreese held his hand up to cut him off.

"If you lose… I stay in the Valley forever, and it's open season on all of you." Kreese continued.

"We won't lose." Johnny growled back at him, still completely driven by anger and not thinking clearly. Daniel, however, didn't have clouded judgement so he looked at Kreese and asked…

"How do we know you'll actually leave if we win?" Daniel asked. Kreese shrugged.

"I give you my word." Kreese replied, with such firmness in his voice that led Johnny and Daniel to believing it was actually true. "So… what do you say?"