CHAPTER 10
As Marcos stared at the old man standing opposite him, half of him was filled with rage. Half of him wanted to charge at the man right now and get revenge for what the man had done to him the night before, what the man had stolen from him the night before. However, the other half of him was consumed with confusion, and a little fear. He knew already that this was someone who had the ability to kick his ass, and the fact that he somehow knew where Marcos lived, made Marcos freeze on the spot for a while.
"How… how did you find me?" Marcos eventually asked, deciding against starting a fight right then and there. Kreese reached into his coat and pulled out a familiar wallet, Marcos' wallet, and he tossed it at the teenager, who caught it easily. That's when Marcos realized… on a small card in the wallet, Marcos had written 'if found, please return to' and then his address.
"Word of advice, kid: don't have your address in his your wallet; use a phone number instead. All that adding your address is going to do is allow any thief who takes the wallet to know where you live, so they can rob you there too."
"Is that why you're here then? You gonna try and rob my house?" Marcos snapped, readying himself to fight off this man at all costs to prevent him from burgling their house. He knew his father was inside, and he debated shouting to the man, but he figured that his dad was sleeping and definitely wouldn't appreciate being woken up for nothing. He was better off waiting to see if a fight actually kicked off, and sure enough, it wasn't long before Kreese raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Relax, kid. That's not why I'm here." Kreese reassured him. "I'm only here to talk. I wanted to ask you about the fight last night."
"What about it?" Marcos murmured, puzzled by the sudden turn this encounter had taken.
"The way you fought… it intrigued me. It isn't the way people normally fight on the streets." Kreese commented. Marcos shrugged.
"Yeah, what do you want me to say? It's not my first time getting into a fight." Marcos responded, vaguely. This man didn't need to know about his background, about where he came from, about his prior training, about his future dreams.
Kreese shook his head.
"It's more than that though, isn't it? Some of those techniques you were using… I've dedicated most of my adult life to Martial Arts, and I recognized many of the moves you used. Capoeira, boxing, BJJ, was it? You don't just gain those through fighting against thugs on the streets. Those take years to master."
Marcos sighed and nodded. He might as well tell the man now. It might get him to fuck off and go home after all.
"Alright, fine. I grew up in Brazil. In the slums in Rio. Over there, you don't have many opportunities. You basically have 2 options: Football or Martial Arts. I chose Martial Arts, and I fell in love with iy. Whenever I could, I would train. I would practice with friends every day while my parents were at work. I would even watch it on TV to try and see how the professionals fight and I could learn from them. My childhood dream used to be to become a UFC champion."
Kreese raised an eyebrow.
"You don't want that anymore?" He asked. Marcos shrugged.
"Don't get me wrong. If someone offers me a hundred thousand dollars for a 15 minute fight, I'm not about to say no." Marcos remarked. "But I'm also realistic. It's pretty much impossible for me at this point. My dad and I just moved up here from Brazil last night, and we barely have the money for rent, let alone training at a gym."
Kreese held back a triumphant expression from his face. This couldn't have been more perfect if he had scripted it.
"What if I told you that your dues were on me?" Kreese offered him. "That free of charge, I could make you a champion?"
Marcos stared at him, perplexed, and Kreese reached into his pocket once more. This time, he pulled out a paper pamphlet, and handed it to Marcos. After glancing at it for a second with blank eyes, Marcos shook his head and handed it back to Kreese.
"I don't understand. What is this?" Marcos asked. Kreese cocked his head, slightly confused. The leaflet was pretty clear. If Marcos had read it, he would know exactly what it was.
"This… is an advertisement for the Sekai Taikai. It takes place in June, and it's the premier Karate competition in the world. It is televised globally, with many fighting organizations and sponsors attending the event. I'm sure that if you won, you'd be able to drum up attention from at least 1 semi-professional fighting organization. Then if you do well there, who knows how quickly you could make it to the UFC?"
Marcos slowly nodded.
"Look, that sounds great and all, but why are you doing this? Why would you want to help me?"
"As you can probably tell, I'm not a young man, Mr. Oliveira." Kreese said. "I used to think I could live forever. That I was, like a God, immortal. But recently, I was shown just how quickly my life could be taken away from me. I'm not a young man, I don't have my entire life ahead of me to look forward to. So I want to spend whatever time I have left doing what I really love."
"And that's training the guy who you just robbed last night?" Marcos commented, still at a complete loss.
"That's being a sensei." Kreese stated. "Being a Karate Sensei… it's who I am. My entire life, I've felt no greater honor than seeing my students become champions. 6 Championships have been won by students who have trained with my dojo - Cobra Kai - at one point or another. I intend to add more to that number, and I can't do it without you."
A long silence overtook the pair, as Marcos stared Kreese in the eye. The man seemed mostly sincere with his aspirations, but he wasn't sure… something just seemed a little off with him. However, Marcos shook it off. Even if that was the case, right now he was being offered free Martial Arts training and a sliver of a chance, even if it was just a sliver, of realizing his dream of being a professional fighter.
"And you really think I could win?" Marcos asked, still a little torn. Kreese chuckled.
"Mr. Oliveira, I've been a sensei for a long time. And before that, I fought in the military. Please believe me when I say this, but I have never met someone so young with your skill, maturity and intelligence in combat. If you join, I guarantee that I will make you a champion."
After another long silence, Marcos eventually nodded.
"You have yourself a deal, sir." Marcos told him.
"That's brilliant to hear." Kreese stated. "Here is the address of the dojo. I expect to see you there bright and early tomorrow morning."
Kreese handed him a slip of paper with the address of the Cobra Kai flagship dojo on it, and after he did so, he turned on his heel and walked away. Once he was out of Marcos' line of sight, Kreese's face broke out into a malevolent grin. It had almost been too easy. With a male champion of such caliber on their side, they would finally be able to wipe out Miyagi-Do once and for all…
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The next morning, when Kreese arrived at the dojo, to his surprise Marcos was already there, sitting on a step outside and staring at his watch, waiting.
"You're early." Kreese remarked, as he walked up to the front of the dojo, his key in hand. Marcos nodded.
"Yeah, I wanted to get a head start on training, but I didn't realize the dojo would be locked." Marcos replied. Kreese smiled to himself. A champion with a warrior's work rate. This was better than he could've imagined.
"Remind me to give you a key when we get inside. It'll give you access to the dojo after hours to train if you wish to." Kreese told him, as he unlocked the dojo and the pair walked inside. Once again, Marcos was rendered silent by just how extravagant this place was. Over a decade of Martial Arts training and he had not once actually stepped inside a specialized Martial Arts gym. He had trained in his neighborhood, making use of gardens as their practice space and handmade punching/kicking targets to train on. But this… this was totally different. Silver's investment in Cobra Kai's flagship dojo meant that there was nothing but top-of-the-line equipment spanning every inch of the room. Everything from punching targets, to weights, to cardio machines, to 3 sets of Martial Arts mats to practice on.
Last night, Kreese had come to the decision to close all of the Cobra Kai dojos across the Valley, apart from this one. He had identified that this was the problem. He was so focused on expanding that he had forgotten the most vital step: to strengthen the core of the dojo. Rather than spending his time training the best students to get better, so they'd be able to eventually win the Taikai for Cobra Kai, instead he wasted too much time on people who weren't achieving anything in the grand scheme of things except putting money in Silver's pocket. Kreese had decided to bring Cobra Kai back to its roots. They would be staying in this dojo as Silver had bought the property rather than rent, so it now legally belonged to Kim, who would soon be passing it on to him. However, with everything else, they were reverting back to their origins, the methods that had earned them so much past success. There would be no more 9 dojos, but instead just the 1. There would be no more smoothie bar in the dojo to distract the students. No more secretary. And as for the students… well, Kim was making her way around the Valley at that very moment, knocking on the doors of the students she believed were the best Cobra Kai had to offer. Kreese hadn't seen any of them train in months, so he trusted her to find the best students possible to lead Cobra Kai into the new era.
As Kreese and Marcos stepped inside, Marcos followed Kreese into the back office of the dojo, where Kreese was retrieving him a keycard for entry.
"So I was doing some research about the Taikai last night." Marcos said as Kreese walked over to the safe. "I never realized that the tournament has 3 different divisions. I thought it was just one."
Kreese slowly turned around and looked at the student, perplexed.
"Three?" He asked, and Marcos nodded. "It's just an Under 21 male division and a female division I thought."
"There's also a third division." Marcos added. "Every competing dojo can send in 1 or 2 senseis of any age or gender to compete in that third division."
Kreese's eyes widened for a moment in shock, and he could immediately feel a little bit of fire begin to course through his veins again. He felt like he had just won the lottery. Not only was he now going to have his male and female champion beat the living crap out of Miyagi-Do's champions on the world stage. But he was now also going to be able to deliver the killer blow to Larusso and Lawrence himself.
"Is that so?" Kreese asked, a smirk beginning to appear on his face. "Well then I guess we're going to have three trophies returning home with us from Japan. Not just two."
Marcos nodded.
"Speaking of… I figure if we want Cobra Kai to gain the most exposure of possible so I can get a sponsorship or offer or something, we need to win all three divisions, right? I've got the male one covered, and I assume you'll be fighting in the adults' category. We still need a female champion though."
Kreese nodded, knowing exactly who he had in mind for the role. However, Marcos had other ideas.
"So I know this girl who used to train kickboxing for a long time. I think I can convince her to join, if that works." Marcos suggested. Kreese rested a hand on Marcos' shoulder.
"By all means ask her. The more, the merrier. But don't worry so much about all of that. You just concentrate on yourself, and let me concentrate on everything else." Kreese responded. "Besides, we already have someone, a proven champion with the Cobra Kai gi wrapped around her."
At that moment, Kreese reached into the safe and finally pulled out a keycard, handing it to Marcos.
"Here you go. Now you can train to your heart's desire. Any time you want, you're welcome here." He told him. "Let's not waste anymore time though. The Taikai is less than a year away, and you haven't officially trained in Karate yet. We need to get started."
Within 5 minutes, Marcos had changed into a black and red Cobra Kai gi that Kreese had found for him in the dojo, and the pair then walked over to in the center of the dojo and stood opposite an old-fashioned human-shaped punching dummy.
"Let's start with the very basics." Kreese instructed. "The Cobra strike. The most basic strike in all of Karate. It consists of two parts: the lunge, and the bi…"
All of a sudden, Kreese was interrupted when the doors of the dojo swung open, and no less than 15 teenagers stepped inside, led by a middle-aged, asian woman, presumably another sensei. As Kreese watched them all shuffle inside, he grinned wickedly. Finally. For the first time since his arrest, Kreese felt like he was well and truly back on top. He now had a full dojo again. With a champion capable of winning it all and not just putting Cobra Kai on top of the Valley, but on top of the whole world.
After brief introductions to the few students who weren't familiar with Kreese as they had been Silver's recruits, Kreese ordered them to not step on the mat yet, but to instead keep their shoes on. Training hadn't begun yet for today, as there was something they had to do first. Although Kreese was now confident that they would win the Taikai now, that was only half of his plan. Because it wouldn't be enough to simply see the faces of Miyagi-Do as they held up their runner up trophy, or wherever they ended up finishing in the tournament. He needed to make the blow really sting, rub salt into the open wound. His plan wouldn't be complete until Miyagi-Do had shut down once and for all, and Larusso and Lawrence never taught a day longer in their lives. He needed to make sure that was the case, so he decided that the entire dojo needed to pay a quick visit to Miyagi-Do Karate…
A/N
If you're missing the main characters of the show, don't worry. The next chapter transfers back to Miyagi-Do