CHAPTER 32

"Sober my ass. You're lucky there were no cops on the road." Daniel laughed as him and Johnny got out of Daniel's car at his mansion in Encino Hills.

"Still sober enough to kick your ass." Johnny remarked, not violently like he definitely would've a year before, but playfully to his old rival. In a weird way, by building back their respective relationships with Robby, as well as working together to try and get Kreese out of the Valley, the two had sort of become friends. Kind of. Sorta. Little bit.

"Hey, I didn't say yes yet!" Daniel replied. That evening, Johnny had challenged Daniel to a friendly fight to finally put the argument between them about who was the better fighter to bed.

"Come on, one time! You know, like at the end of Rocky 3!" Johnny said.

"Yeah, yeah, when Rocky and Apollo fight for fun. Yeah, I remember." Daniel murmured. "Alright. One time."

"YES!" Johnny quietly exclaimed to himself as they walked into the house and into the back dojo. They then stepped on the mat, bowed to each other and got into fighting positions. However, before either could throw the first punch, they heard a loud banging on the door. The two of them walked over to it and when Daniel opened it, he almost passed in alarm. He was staring at a severely beaten up group of Miyagi-Dos carrying a barely conscious Demetri into the house. Leading the pack was Sam, who after Demetri looked the most beaten down, and she practically collapsed into her father's panicked arms as they poured inside. But Demetri looked by far the worst of all of them. His nose was for sure broken, and a steady stream of blood flowed out of not only his nose, but also from various gashes and wounds across his face.

As they stumbled into the house, Johnny watched them, speechless in absolute shock as he watched them carry Demetri into the living room.

"What the fuck…"

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Demetri and the Miyagi-Dos were quickly led into the living room, where Daniel and Johnny immediately set to work on Demetri.

"This is going to hurt." Johnny grumbled at him as he stood over the teenager.

"Huh?" Demetri grunted, still not fully conscious and aware yet. Suddenly, Johnny raised his arm and punched Demetri in the stomach, not as hard as he could, but still REALLY hard. Demetri groaned in pain but before anyone could react, Johnny then grabbed Demetri's nose and reset it, a sickening CRACK filling the air as the teenager's nose was realigned.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" Daniel shouted. Johnny shrugged.

"You're supposed to distract the person before you set their nose. That's like first aid 101, dumbass." Johnny shot back.

"So you had to punch him?!" Daniel exclaimed, before raising his hands in defeat and turning to Sam. "You know what, I give up. Sam, what the hell happened?! Did Cobra Kai do this?!"

Sam slowly nodded her head, and Daniel's face immediately filled with fury.

"What the actual hell! They have gone WAY too far this time! The way Cobra Kai attack now… it's fucking gang assault!" Daniel spat vehemently. Sam shook her head.

"Not really. This time… this time it was just one person." Sam replied quietly, her body aching in not only pain, but also in the humiliation of having been bested in a 6 on 1 fight.

"Seriously?! Who the fuck was it then?!" Daniel demanded. "Hawk? Tory? Kreese?"

"Miguel." Sam murmured, causing Daniel and Johnny's eyes to widen.

"M… miguel did this?" Daniel stammered.

"No way." Johnny mumbled in disbelief.

"Yeah, we were at Applebees, and Miguel walked in and he overheard Demetri calling Cobra Kais assholes. Miguel took it personally and as soon as we walked out, ambushed Demetri, knocked the rest of us out, and then beat the living shit out of Demetri."

There was a long, drawn-out silence in the room as Daniel and Johnny truly took in what Sam was telling them, and the silence was finally broken when Johnny inexplicably started chuckling and guffawing. Daniel turned to him and stared daggers.

"Something funny?" Daniel snapped. Johnny covered his face as he continued laughing for a while, and when he finally stopped, shook his head.

"Sorry. Sorry. I'm just finding it hilarious that you, the supposed 'best dojo in the Valley' had your asses handed to you in a 6 vs. 1 fight, against a guy who went I first met him, was having diarrhea Pepto being dumped on his had, and was complaining that I was doing too much genderising." Johnny remarked.

"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, this is a very fucking different Miguel." Demetri snapped.

"Yeah, a more badass one, that's for sure." Johnny commented, half terrified, half impressed by the antics of his former mentee and protege. Daniel scowled at him.

"Not helping." He growled, before turning to his students, who although were now no longer bloody, were still extremely bruised and battered from the assault.

"Don't worry, guys. I swear, we are going to make sure this never happens again. We're going to go to the police station first thing tomorrow morning and…"

"Woah, woah, woah! What?!" Johnny exclaimed, holding up a hand to cut off the Miyagi-Do leader. Daniel looked at him and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"What? Of course we're going to the cops. What else would we do?" Daniel stated firmly. Johnny stood up, sudden alarm on his face, and practically dragged Daniel out the room.

"We need to talk." Johnny said lowly as he shoved Daniel into the home dojo.

"You know you could show these kids some more compassion." Daniel grumbled at Johnny as they walked into the empty room. Johnny shrugged.

"Why? If anything, I'm kind of proud of Miguel. I mean, the dude took on 6 Miyagi-Dos and won, with ease by the sounds of things." Johnny remarked. Daniel glared at him.

"And you don't see anything wrong with that?" Daniel snapped. Johnny rolled his eyes.

"Look, of course I'm not happy that Miguel beat up Miyagi-Dos, dumbass." Johnny responded. "What I'm proud of is the fact that he's gone from such a weak, wimpy-ass nerd to this amazing badass fighter in like 2 years. Imagine how great of an addition he'll be to your dojo when he eventually joins."

Daniel sighed, part of him absolutely enraged at Miguel for what he did, but part of him was just exhausted. It seemed to be attack after attack by Cobra Kai, with no visible end to the onslaught of ambushes and fights.

"Look, if two months ago, you told me Miguel wanted to join the dojo, I would welcome him with open arms. But right now, in my living room, I have a boy with a face as smashed in as a pug, my daughter who looks like she's been beaten unconscious, and 4 other students who I care about almost as much as I do my own kids. All of these innocent teenagers harmed at the hands of one guy, who clearly has lost his mind. I can't afford to keep watching these kids get the living shit beaten out of them, in hopes that maybe, possibly, at some point, Miguel realises that he's gone down the wrong path and u-turns, because clearly that isn't working right now. I'm sorry, Johnny. I'm going to the police tomorrow."

Daniel turned around and was about to leave the room, but Johnny caught his arm and pulled him back.

"Wait. Don't call the cops. You can't!" Johnny declared, worry clearly evident in his voice and causing Daniel to raise an eyebrow.

"And why not?" Daniel asked. Johnny sighed.

"Look, if you've seen Miguel recently, you'd know that he looks nothing like he used to. He's huge now. Shaved his head into a buzzcut. He's got tattoos all over him."

"Yeah, so?" Daniel asked. Johnny took a deep breath.

"So, if you go to the cops, they're not going to see who Miguel truly is, which is the best person I've ever known. All they're going to see is a latino kid who looks like he's in a gang, brought in on assault charges. They'll take one look at him and revoke his green card, which'll mean him and his whole family will be kicked out of the country. This isn't like if it was anyone else in that living room, where all that would happen is they'd need to pick up trash on the side of the highway. You go to the cops and you ruin not only Miguel's life, but his whole family's too."

"You don't know that for sure." Daniel said, although extremely unsure now as Johnny brought up, blunt as it was, a valid point.

"I do." Johnny said, firmly, before taking in another deep breath. "There's another thing. Miguel's dad…"

"What about Miguel's dad?" Daniel asked, extremely curious now. He didn't know anything about the boy's father at all, and by Johnny's grave tone, clearly anything he had to say about the man wasn't good.

"The guy's a piece of shit." Johnny remarked. "One of the biggest pieces of shit in the world. The man fucking recruits kids to join the cartel in Ecuador."

Daniel's jaw dropped.

"Wait, seriously?!" Daniel exclaimed. Johnny nodded.

"Yeah. Miguel's mom told me some time last year. Miguel doesn't know I know. He doesn't talk about it at all, so please don't tell anyone about this. But that, combined with everything else… if Miguel's brought into the police station, he's not going to still be in the country in a month."

Daniel put his head in his hands, torn. He could definitely hear how strong Johnny's point was, but at the same time, his top priority was, and always would be, his children and his students.

"So what do we do now? Because clearly what's going on right now isn't working." Daniel said. Johnny nodded.

"Give me one more chance to convince him." Johnny declared confidently. Daniel looked at him, reluctant. "Come on, trust me. One last shot. This time I swear I won't get it wrong. Please, trust me."

The two stared into each other's eyes for a few long moments, the two silently feeling each other out, Daniel trying to gauge whether he should trust Johnny and take this leap of faith or not. Eventually, Daniel took a deep breath and responded.

"Fine. One more shot…"