CHAPTER 28

The next afternoon, all of the Cobra Kai students minus Miguel and George stood around in the dojo before class, eagerly discussing everything that had happened during the arcade fight.

"I still can't believe Miguel showed mercy to those Miyagi-Dos." Mitch remarked as they stretched before class. "We had them in the palm of our hands and he kicked us out! Like why?!"

"I'll tell you why… he's a pussy." Hawk replied coolly, but still silently seething at Miguel about what had happened back at the arcade. "And he's weaker than you guys realise. That school fight broke his back and he hasn't recovered at all. Think about it… he's been avoiding SO many fights since he got back. He refused to ever spar with me. He was too scared to fight against Miyagi-Do at the arcade and only came when we had already beaten them down. The only fight he did take was a controlled fight with a dumbass with 0 seconds of Cobra Kai training in his whole life."

"Hey!" Kyler snapped. Hawk glared at him and rolled his eyes before turning to the rest of the group.

"You see? He's weak, and he's using his 'leadership' to steer us, and therefore himself, away from fights because he's scared of himself getting hurt." Hawk spat. "That fucker is not fit to be Cobra Kai's leader. Hell, he's not even fit to be in Cobra Kai."

The rest of the group slowly nodded, their doubts about Miguel drilling deeper and deeper into their minds with every word Hawk said. They realised that he had a point. Everything he had said was absolutely true. Miguel had clearly been avoiding fights and maybe Hawk was right. Truth was none of them had seen Miguel fight an actual experienced opponent since the school fight. Maybe he had lost it. Maybe Cobra Kai did need a new leader.

Meanwhile, in Kreese's office, Kreese, Silver and Barnes sat together, scheming, reflecting on the new bet that had just been made. Karate in the Valley had come full circle. They were going back to the same arena they had lost at 35 years ago and were hunting for vengeance with much higher stakes on the line.

"We can't screw this up, you know? Not like last time." Silver remarked. "Johnny, you think your boy is up for this?"

Kreese nodded.

"He will be." Kreese replied confidently.

"Are you sure? I mean by that point, Keene will be back and will presumably be at Miyagi-Do, right? How do we know that with him back Diaz won't have PTSD and choke at the last moment or something?" Barnes said. Kreese shrugged.

"We make it impossible for him to lose." Kreese stated. "We train him so hard he is physically incapable of losing. We let him train with the best fighters in the Valley until he becomes so good he becomes one of them."

"I don't know if he's ready for hardcore training yet though, is he?" Silver asked. "He barely beat that boy on his initiation fight. How in God's name is he supposed to survive hardcore training?"

"He will." Kreese responded calmly. "He will."

However, before they could start training Miguel for the All-Valley, they had more urgent business to attend to first. They weren't blind. They had noticed tension flaring between Miguel and Hawk ever since Miguel had gotten back from rehab, and after Hawk had gone and spoken to them the night before, they knew that they needed to get the situation straightened out soon before it got out of hand. The three men stepped out of the office and into the dojo, where now everyone had arrived and were waiting for class to start.

"Warm them up." Kreese told Silver and Barnes, before turning towards the class and looking at the boy in the corner of the room and addressing him. "Diaz! My office."

Miguel nodded and followed Kreese into his office as the class began to warm up, ignoring the dirty looks he was getting from Hawk as he walked by. He wasn't stupid either. He knew that he and Hawk were barrelling towards a bigger confrontation after what had happened at the arcade with what Hawk had done to Demetri and the aftermath of that. Miguel was absolutely fuming about what Hawk had done. He couldn't believe that Hawk would go so far with someone he used to even consider his best friend. Hawk was seriously out of control and Miguel knew that he needed to be the one to knock Hawk back to reality. He just didn't know when.

He was led into Kreese's office, where his sensei then turned to him.

"How was the rest of your weekend after the hearing?" Kreese asked. Miguel shrugged.

"It was alright. Spent most of it here training." Miguel replied. Kreese nodded.

"Good. That's good." Kreese said. "Look, I'm going to cut the bullshit. I had a certain student come to me the day after the fight with Miyagi-Do at the arcade, and the student tells me you showed weakness and let Miyagi-Do go. He said that you shouldn't be Cobra Kai's leader anymore, and it should be him instead."

Ohhhhhhhh. Realisation dawned on Miguel in an instant. So that was his endgame. It all made sense now.

"Let me guess… Hawk?" Miguel asked. Kreese nodded and Miguel rolled his eyes. "Well first of all, I'm not weak. I was the one who came and saved their sorry asses as Miyagi-Do pounded the crap out of them. I fought all of them until I knew they had been defeated. But I'm not an asshole like Hawk. I stopped there. If anything, Hawk's the weak one, talking shit about me behind my back."

"It's not me you have to convince. Right now, you have almost a whole dojo of students who are doubting you. Who have doubted you ever since your injury" Kreese stated. "And you need to show them why you're at the top of the food chain. I happen to know that Hawk is going to challenge you at the beginning of class today. You need to accept the challenge."

Miguel nodded. This was a new aspect Kreese had installed in Cobra Kai. At the beginning of every training session, any student had the opportunity to challenge another. This could be for any reason: improving skill, warming up for class, but the most common reason for a student challenging another was to sort out petty personal differences. It was Kreese's method for not letting grudges bubble up between students and cause a civil war in the dojo.

"Damn right I'm gonna accept the challenge." Miguel murmured, and the two of them walked back into the dojo, where the warmup was just about being completed. When it was done, the students all gathered around in a circle to create their make their mini arena, a tradition that occurred every training session.

"Good afternoon students." Kreese announced to them as they all got in their circle shape. Miguel stood next to George and looked opposite him in the circle at Hawk, who was still scowling daggers at him. "As some of you might know already, a deal has been struck between us and Miyagi-Do. We will compete against them in this year's All-Valley for the fate of Cobra Kai. If we win, Cobra Kai stays. Forever. If we lose, it's gone. Which is why we're going to have to work TEN times harder than we have ever trained before! Does anyone have a problem with that, because if you do you can walk out of this dojo right now and never come back!"

Unsurprisingly, no one left the dojo and Kreese nodded.

"Good." He grunted. "Now before we start training, does anyone want to challenge another student?"

Almost as soon as the words left Kreese's mouth, Hawk's hand shot into the air.

"I challenge Miguel." Hawk declared. Everyone gasped and turned towards Miguel, who looked unfazed. Miguel merely smirked at him and stepped into the circle.

"Let's do it." Miguel replied, clenching his jaw in determination. He quickly took off his belt and removed his gi jacket, causing Hawk to inwardly gulp in fear.

Miguel looked more muscular and ripped than he ever had before. Day by day, the result of his incessant training was showing more and more and he looked absolutely terrifying. Miguel tossed his jacket aside and hopped from foot to foot like a boxer before a big fight.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Miguel commented, his eyes laser-focused on his opponent. At that moment, he felt nothing but loathing towards his former friend. Hawk had seriously gone behind his back and talked trash about him to the other students and that wasn't okay. Miguel needed to teach him a lesson. He needed to put him in his place and show him who the real apex predator of the Valley was.

Gathering his nerves, Hawk nodded and stepped into the ring too, the two boys facing each other and squaring up. The point flags weren't being brought out for this fight and neither expected to be. One of them would be standing tall after the fight. The other being carried off. It was the only way. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of staredowns and mental games, Kreese stood between the two boys and raised a hand.

"You both ready? And… fight!" Kreese called, dropping his hand and indicating for the fight to begin…

This wasn't a normal fight for either boy. Both of them knew each other so well, knew each other's fighting style so well, so thinking outside the box would be the only way one of them would be victorious. They circled each other for a while, feeling each other out, neither one wanting to make the first lunge, but eventually Hawk did. As the more aggressive fighter of the pair, it was an expected move by him, so Miguel was ready for it. He caught Hawk's kick in midair and used the boy's lack of balance on one leg to grab him and throw him onto the mat in a vicious grapple move. Hawk groaned in pain as he crashed onto the mat in a similar way to how he had landed after Miguel tackled him in the arcade. However, unlike the arcade, Miguel wasn't done with him yet. Miguel lunged towards him to continue pounding on Hawk as he was down, and it took every upkick in Hawk's arsenal to keep him away long enough to stand up. Sucking up the pain, Hawk gritted his teeth, anger clouding his judgement and strategy as he charged at Miguel once more…

And once again, Miguel was ready to receive him. The calm, cool-headed latino once again dodged Hawk's blows and this time managed to wrap his arms around Hawk and suplex him to the ground, causing Hawk to land on the back of his neck and almost cry out in pain. It was an absolutely ferocious move from Miguel, and yet it was so beautifully and smoothly executed it was almost like a dance. Hawk was defenseless, lying on the ground, but unlike him, Miguel wasn't done. Despite absolutely dominating his foe, he needed to send a message to the rest of the group to never doubt him again. Miguel grabbed Hawk by his crimson mohawk and dragged him to his feet, preparing for one last move. Miguel picked up the teenager and threw him to the ground one last time, but rather than going with a ground and pounding striking to end the fight, Miguel decided to end it in an even more humiliating way. He rolled Hawk onto his stomach, sat on his back, and wrapped his arm around Hawk's neck, pulling him into a ruthless rear naked choke.

"Tap." Miguel growled into his ear. Hawk desperately tried to claw out of the choke but it was no use. The combination of Miguel's weight pressing him into the choke as well as his already weakened state from the beatdown before made it impossible. "Tap before you pass out."

Frantically, Hawk tried every last move in his arsenal, struggling until he literally saw black spots dance before his eyes, before finally tapping out. Miguel immediately let go upon feeling the weak tapping against his arm, and then stood up and stood over his vanquished foe. He silently scowled at every student in the room, his gaze so furious it burned a hole into each and every one of them. Don't doubt me again, his eyes told them. And they wouldn't. Any doubt they had about Miguel's strength had instantly vanished and was replaced by a combination of respect and fear for their undisputed leader. He hadn't gotten weaker since the school fight. It was the opposite. He had gotten much, much stronger.

At the side of the circle, Silver turned to Kreese and smirked.

"You know what, I stand corrected. He is ready for hardcore training." Silver remarked. Kreese nodded, stroking his chin as he thought about all of the potential Miguel had just shown with his ruthless display. He had a raw diamond on his hands, and it was up to him to train him to his full potential.

"Damn right he's ready…"

A/N

Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned to find out what exactly 'hardcore' training is.