CHAPTER 4

A free man. That's what the judge had declared. And that feeling of having his cuffs removed once and for all was one that Kreese would cherish forever. A part of him couldn't believe it. When he had broken out of the prison, he figured that this was it. This would be his last shot. He wasn't stupid. He knew the authorities would be on his tail from the moment he broke out of prison, and he wouldn't have long, only time for one final shot at revenge on Larusso and Lawrence for what they had done. Little did he realize how little time he would really have. It took less than an evening out from behind bars before he was seen and caught by the authorities, and sent right back to jail.

And those 4 days behind bars that followed felt longer than the months he had already spent locked up. Kreese was almost… afraid. Not of a person, because he feared absolutely no one. But he was scared that he had overplayed his hand, relinquished any miniscule chance he had of getting out of jail before he died and failed his plan before it had even really began. Seconds turned to hours as Kreese sat in a holding cell in the county jail, waiting for anything, any scraps of news as to what would become of him next.

But then… a miracle. An incredible gift from out of nowhere. Silver had been arrested! Stingray, along with everyone else, had testified against him, sending that old bastard to rot in jail for the rest of his living days. And the best part… by use of the veteran card, the mental health card and the age card combined to justify his 'escape', all of the charges had been dropped against him. ALL of them. Every single one. It was deliciously ironic. It had been Larusso and Lawrence's fault he was still in here, and now it was their efforts against Silver that had led to him being let free. And he was going to make them pay. By God he was going to make them pay. He had the time now. He didn't have to rush it, like he would've if he was a fugitive. He could be calm and calculated, just like a Cobra, and strike in the most lethal way.

But for now, Kreese put that temporarily to the back of his mind. He didn't remove it completely from his thoughts, but merely pushed it back a little as he relished in the feeling of the calm and quiet of the Valley for the first time in months. He walked up and down the streets of the Valley, breathing in the midnight air, for hours. It was only when he approached a neighborhood named Panorama City, that he finally came to a halt. It was pretty late, and he had been walking for hours, so he decided to take a break and try to find something to eat. That's when he realized though… he had no money! Well of course, he didn't. After all, he had just gotten out from behind bars, and all of his stuff had been taken away and repossessed by the government. As his stomach growled, not having eaten a proper meal other than prison muck for the past few months, he knew that he needed to find money quickly. He had one option…

The roads were empty, and the nearby houses were all silent, as it was pretty late at night. The only light on the streets came from dim streetlights that were scattered around, few and far between. It wasn't the safest neighborhood to be walking around at night in either, and for that reason, there was only one person left that Kreese could spot on the road. Just one person for as far as the eye could see, and that was perfect. They were on the same pavement as him, a couple of meters ahead, and walking in the opposite direction. They both walked closer and closer to one another, neither making eye contact with the other. And at the very last moment, Kreese froze, right in the middle of the sidewalk. His sudden halt caused the boy to accidentally walk into him and knocked Kreese to the floor. Throwing himself to the ground, Kreese instantly let out an audible groan in pain, and the other person scrambled to help him up.

"I'm sorry." The boy quietly mumbled, taking Kreese's hand and helping him to his feet, appalled that he had accidentally knocked over an elderly man. From his accent, Kreese gathered that he was from out of the country, and when he helped Kreese up and Kreese got a closeup of his face, Kreese realized that this wasn't a grown man… it was just a teenager. It was almost too easy, Kreese thought. As the boy had pulled him up, Kreese's fingers had slipped into the boy's jacket pocket and pulled out a wallet, the older man quickly pocketing it before the teenager could see it.

"It's all good, man. Don't worry about it." Kreese reassured him in reply, before the pair nodded at one another courteously, and then continued to walk in opposite directions. Kreese thought to quicken his pace a little, as he knew it wouldn't be long before the teenager realized what was missing, but he decided against it. He was the best fighter in the Valley… what was some teenager going to do to him?

The former sensei made it almost a block before a loud shout sliced through the air.

"HEY!" The boy behind him yelled. Kreese walked a little faster, but there was no point now. By the sounds of the heavy footsteps behind him, the boy was sprinting after him. There was only one outcome now to this situation, and it was one that brought a genuine smile to Kreese's face. Too long it had been since he had exchanged fists with someone in the brisk, midnight air. Fighting in prison… it was a completely different feeling. It was a chore, not a pleasure like this fight was about to be. Kreese slowly turned around, just as the boy made it over to him. What he didn't expect though, was the boy to not hesitate to go flying at him with a double-footed drop kick…

It was a kick so powerful that when it connected with Kreese's chest, it sent him stumbling backwards and nearly falling to the ground. The gasp of pain he let out now, unlike when the boy had "tripped him over", was actually a genuine one. The boy wasn't done yet either. As soon as he landed on the ground, he charged at Kreese once again, this time with his fists outstretched.

These blows, Kreese managed to block and then shove the boy backwards, the two of them then taking a second to regroup and regain their bearings.

"Give me back my wallet." The boy growled at him. Kreese chuckled at him, even reaching into his long coat to pull out the black wallet.

"You want this?" Kreese asked, truly enjoying himself now, as he tucked it back into his coat. "Come and take it then."

The boy let out a snarl of fury, before lunging at him for the third time…

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Kreese's first thought was… HOLY SHIT! This boy was truly fearless, not waiting even a second to allow nerves to catch up with him, before he attacked Kreese. And as he threw an opening combination of both staggering punches and kicks, Kreese realized that he was also good. Like really good. This wasn't just some chump who had been in one or two street fights. Each one of his blows were razor-accurate and deadly powerful, his striking seemingly better than anyone his age that Kreese had ever met. Not only that, but Kreese could tell this boy was a fighter, that this boy was a Martial Artist, by how incredible tactically he fought. Very quickly, the fight had gone from clobbering opening blows to a delicate chess match, both of them thinking 5 moves ahead, no move made without a clear purpose. And it was actually the boy who landed the next significant blow of their exchange…

As they continued to fight, Kreese immediately understood the teenager's strategy. With his punches and kicks, he was targeting Kreese's body over and over again, hoping that it would draw Kreese to drop his hands from his head to his body to protect himself, thus exposing his head. Well that wasn't going to happen, Kreese thought to himself. Preparing to counter it, as soon as the boy unleashed another vicious kick at Kreese's liver, the elderly man managed to pick his leg out of mid air, and now that the boy was stuck balancing on one leg, Kreese prepared to take him down. However, before he could, with acrobatics and reflexes to rival even the greatest of circus performers, the boy had somehow jumped off of his planted foot, into a backflip, and with that trailing leg, connected right in the sensei's jaw.

A seriously powerful hit that would've probably knocked a lesser man out cold, even Kreese stumbled backwards and fell to his knees, letting go of the boy's other leg. For a moment, he stared at the boy, slack-jawed. He had not seen fighting like this his entire life. He seemed to have a combination of everything: speed, power, athleticism, IQ. And for one so young too… Kreese's aggression in the fight momentarily faded and was replaced by intrigue. Who exactly was this kid? Did he fight for a dojo? Because this did not look like Karate. Nor did it look like any singular Martial Art - that was what was so interesting. The boy seemed to have created an arsenal of a variety of different Martial Arts, and seemingly seemed to flow through all of them, using whichever was most effective at any given moment during the fight. That type of maturity took years, decades of training to achieve. It wasn't just something any random teenager could do.

However, Kreese was forced to be pulled from his train of thoughts, as he couldn't spent much longer pondering this. The boy was already approaching him, ready to finish the fight. Kreese was still on his knees, and being the old man that he looked like, the boy dropped his guard a bit, figuring that the fight was over. Big mistake. Just as the teenager made it over to him, Kreese suddenly rolled into a sweep, connecting cleanly with the back of his legs and causing him to go crashing to the ground, landing in a heap.

Kreese slowly got to his feet, victorious, and he looked down at his vanquished opponent, cracking the faintest of smiles as he saw him lying there on the ground, trying to stumble to his feet but unable to as he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him.

"Sorry kid. Maybe next time." Kreese told him, before turning around and walking away into the night, the wallet still firmly in his pocket…

Although later that night when Kreese opened the wallet, he had found literally no money in it, the fight had definitely not been for nothing. Because as he had exchanged blows with that kid, trying to sense his strengths, sense his weaknesses, it had reminded him of what he was truly good at, what he truly loved: being a sensei. Not only that, but returning to the top as a sensei was the ultimate revenge on Larusso and Lawrence. He knew full well that if he went that night and beat both men until their last breath, it wouldn't truly break them. Because their weaknesses weren't physical: they were emotional. More specifically, their weaknesses were their children, and their fear of Cobra Kai hurting their children. A plan was already starting to take shape in Kreese's head. He was ready to take back Cobra Kai and rebuild his army stronger than ever. They would obliterate all of Miyagi-Do, and seeing their children so beaten down by the Cobras, that was what would break Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence once and for all.

Well, while Kreese already had a new Cobra Kai champion in mind, that person's wallet still in his pocket as a souvenir from their recent encounter, he knew that he couldn't hunt him down and approach him just yet with the offer. First thing's first, he needed to wrench the dojo out of whatever slimy grasp it was currently in, so he could retake the throne once and for all…