CHAPTER 23

After they finished talking, it wasn't long before the rest of the dojo began to shuffle in for class. First came Sensei Kim, around 15 minutes before the start of class. Then came all of the other Cobra Kai students. Marcos thanked his sensei for the advice that he had given him, new fire inside him to reinvigorate him. He very much liked what Kreese had told him. Work harder, become so strong that nobody can even touch you, and enemies' words will very quickly become meaningless.

Before long, everyone was ready so class began. As always, Kreese and Kim stood at the front of the room to address their students. However, before either of them could say anything, the door to the dojo opened once more and someone else walked inside. They all turned around to face it, half-expecting to see members of Miyagi-Do storming in for a confrontation of some kind. But it wasn't. Instead, it was someone only Marcos recognised, and he couldn't help but smile as he saw her. She wasn't a Cobra Kai student so wasn't wearing their gi, but she still looked absolutely gorgeous in her leggings and sports bra.

"Can I help you?" Kreese asked. Sarah nodded as she walked further into the dojo.

"Yes, please. I'm Sarah Gledhill. I want to join the dojo." She replied confidently. Kreese raised an eyebrow, slightly taken aback by the boldness that this girl had.

"I'm sorry but unfortunately, we're not taking new students right now." Kreese replied. He was happy with his current crop of students. Sure he still needed a female champion, but he was still certain that Tory would return home to the dojo at some point, so they didn't need to rely on whoever waltzed into the dojo, asking to join. "Maybe in a couple of months it'll be different. You can come back then."

Sarah's head turned slightly to glance at Marcos, cocking her head in confusion. That's when Marcos spoke up.

"Sensei. Let her join. She's good." Marcos said to Kreese, who was standing directly opposite him. Kreese looked from Marcos to the girl, and it didn't take a genius to realize the fact that the two had some kind of relationship outside the dojo. Kreese wasn't thrilled that his champion was getting distracted with something as frivolous as romance, but he did trust his student, so when the boy vouched for her, Kreese was inclined to nod as he turned to the prospective student again.

"Okay. Take your shoes and step onto the mat." Kreese instructed, Sarah immediately complying and doing so. "Now, if you want to be a Cobra Kai, first you need to prove yourself. Prove that you are worthy of wearing our gi, donning our crest."

"What do I need to do?" Sarah asked. Kreese didn't immediately respond, but instead turned to face the rest of his students.

"Class! Prepare for combat!" He barked, and instantly all of them moved to form a circle around the outer edges of the mat, creating a large makeshift ring in the center. He then looked at Sarah once more. "You are to spar with an existing member of this dojo. Score 3 points before your opponent and you are accepted amid our ranks. Lose, and you won't be. Simple as that."

Sarah nodded, understanding what was happening. Though she wasn't trained in Karate, she knew the general rules of a spar of this type. Score a point by kicking or punching your opponent anywhere from the waist up. Score three points and you win the fight.

"Now, as for your opponent…"

"I'll do it, Sensei." All of a sudden, Kenny's voice spoke up from the far corner of the mat. Everyone turned towards it, and Kreese glanced at the student, confused by his sudden declaration. However, he eventually nodded and Kenny rose to his feet, stepping onto the mat to face Sarah. He didn't care about who he was about to fight, but what he cared about was sending a message. Silently, Kenny was still seething, jilted that he was no longer the leader of the dojo. He needed to make a statement, show that even with Marcos' addition to the dojo, he was still a leader amongst them. He wasn't just second fiddle. He was number one.

Sarah was unfazed by Kenny's eagerness to fight. After all, she had nothing really to be afraid about. She was a few inches taller than Kenny, had a reach advantage over him, and had 8 years of kickboxing experience under her belt, even if she was rusty after years of not training. Marcos shot her a faint, reassuring smile as she hopped from foot to foot, waiting for the fight to start, staying completely loose as she prepared to unleash her striking-based fighting style on her opponent, to earn her spot in the dojo.

"Bow to each other." Kreese ordered. "Ready… fight!"

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When the fight started, Sarah didn't really mount any early charge. Not that she could've, because as soon as the bell went, Kenny lunged at her like a bull to a matador.

It was actually good for Sarah, as it threw her right into the thick of the sport again, not allowing her even a moment's hesitation and forcing her to push her prior training and knowledge to the forefront of her mind. From the first second of the fight, Kreese realized that Marcos had not been lying. This girl really was good, was the real deal. Even if she wasn't at Nichols' and Larusso's level just yet, she surely wasn't too far from it. There was something different about Sarah to many of the students of the recent past… she had a fighting IQ not dissimilar to Marcos', even if hers was a bit inferior. She was not starting from square 1 like Diaz, Nichols, Moskowitz and all of the other champions in the Valley had. She had a foundation already built that Kreese knew he could help build on.

As Kenny unleashed punch after punch at Sarah, and the girl blocked them all, there became a bit of a rhythm to the fight. Their contrasting styles of fighting were evident. Kenny, as always, relied on speed and agility, but he also had a slight strength advantage over her. Sarah, on the other hand, was very experienced, so her strength was thinking a few steps of Kenny to avoid being caught by any of his attacks.

This wasn't a brawl. It was a point spar, which meant that all Sarah needed were 3 light pokes to win the fight. She wasn't trying to knock Kenny out, which was good, as she didn't know if she physically could. The aggression and bloodlust that Kenny fought with implied to Sarah that he wouldn't go down easily. That being said though, Sarah used her skill advantage to dance around Kenny's attacks, weaving her way around the strikes like she was sprinting down a freeway and dodging cars. She waited patiently for an opening and soon enough, she got one. As Kenny let loose a right punch that narrowly skimmed by her ear, the boy accidentally put a bit too much weight into it, ever so slightly losing his balance. That was all Sarah needed to then grab the extended arm and pull Kenny forwards, moving the off-balanced boy towards her, right into Sarah's waiting other hand.

"Point red! 1-0!" Kreese barked, raising the red flag in his left hand as the two fighters backed away from each other a moment, giving one another a chance to breathe before the fight continued.

Sarah cracked a grin at Kenny.

"Uh oh. Any regrets about taking the challenge so quickly?" Sarah remarked. Kenny scowled at her.

"Enjoy it. Because it's the last point you're going to get." Kenny snapped back as the two retook their sides and the next round began…

To Kenny's credit and to Sarah's slight surprise, he didn't make the same mistake again.

Kenny was certainly calculated when it came to cleaning up errors. That was how he had improved so drastically since he had started to Karate: he never made the same mistake twice. Immediately, this was the telling sign of Kenny's potential in Karate. The way that he corrected an error midway through the fight without doing any drills to patch it up, was commendable. He was much more careful now with his balance, not letting a sudden urge to lunge affect his control over his lower body. The two circled for a while, both trying to figure out a next move, waiting for the other to strike. It was a mind game, a game of patience, as they both waited for the other to crack and attack. Sarah ended up winning, as it was Kenny who broke his defensive formation and decided to attack first. Sarah went back to dodging Kenny's strikes as she came up with an idea to use against him.

Kenny threw a kick at Sarah, one that the girl dodged pretty easily with her arm. However, as she blocked it, Sarah fell to the ground from the impact of the kick, dropping to her hands and knees. Kenny grinned, sensing an opportunity to score his point on Sarah so he charged at the girl, his defense completely falling in his haste to score.

But as soon as Kenny came close, Sarah suddenly unleashed her own left foot, a sweep that sent Kenny crashing to the floor, followed by a punch that landed perfectly against Kenny's abdomen.

"Point red! 2-0!" Kreese announced, trying to hide the contempt in his tone as he raised the red flag once again. While on one hand it was nice to see that he had a solid recruit in the making, Kenny's performance was utterly embarrassing. He was considered to be the second best fighter in the dojo, and yet he was being utterly outclassed right now. Even though he knew that he only needed one male champion for the Taikai and Marcos was that guy, it would be foolish to think that his dojo and Miyagi-Do wouldn't come to blows before then. And with all of the depth that Miyagi-Do had in their team, Cobra Kai having just 1 good fighter was far from enough.

Kreese's expression of being less than impressed was evident to Kenny, who pounded the ground a few times before pulling himself up. As Sarah rolled to her feet, she grinned at him. She might not be as fast or as agile or even as strong as this guy, but it was clear that she had trained for much longer than this guy, and she managed to keep emotion from clouding her judgement, so she was fighting a lot more intelligently.

"Damn. What happened to that whole 'I'm not going to score another point'?" Sarah grinned at him, not trying to mock Kenny, but indeed trying to get into his head. She knew well that mind games and the opponent's mental state were just as important as their physical state in a fight. By getting into someone's head, you get them off their game and it's impossible for them to perform at their peak level.

When the fight restarted, Kenny was completely off his game. He was distracted, thrown by the way this fight was going, how he was being beaten so easily. Was there something wrong with him?

While Kenny could've fought with his mind elsewhere if he was fighting 90% of this dojo, he already knew that it wouldn't be possible when fighting against Sarah. His strikes got sloppy, only split seconds later than they would normally be, but even those miniscule margins made all the difference. He wasn't fully concentrated, which meant that he was forced to make in-fight decisions that he wouldn't normally make. A half-assed Silver Bullet that Sarah easily parried led to him eventually being trapped and forced into a brutal punch to the abdomen by the girl. It was not the most powerful punch, but it was absolutely perfectly placed, knocking the wind out of Kenny and causing him to sink to his knees, gasping for breath.

"Point red! 3-0! Winner!" Kreese declared, before turning to Kenny, disgusted. "Get off the mat."

As Kenny was practically dragged off the mat by Kyler, Kreese then turned to Sarah, nodding at her, impressed.

"Ms. Gledhill. That was impressive. You have proven yourself worthy. Welcome to Cobra Kai." He said to her. Sarah beamed widely and bowed to him, before she too stepped off the mat and instead moved to stand beside Marcos in the line of Cobra Kai students.

Here it was, Kreese thought to himself as he stared at all of the students standing before him. This was the team that he was going to use to conquer the world, and conquer Miyagi-Do once and for all. It wasn't the best team, there was no doubt about that. Miyagi-Do, with their 5 best fighters, definitely had more depth within their team than Cobra Kai did. But Cobra Kai had what mattered: 2 champions capable of winning everything. And as for the others… Kreese was confident that all it would take is the right guidance to get all of them back on track.

Before they could continue the class, the automatic bell connected to the dojo bell rang once more, as someone pushed open the door and walked inside. Once again, not a Miyagi-Do. But this time, not a Cobra Kai either. It was just the postman, holding in his hand a white envelope.

"Is one of you John Kreese?" The postman asked. Kreese nodded, and the man held out the envelope. "This is for you."

Kreese thanked him, and the postman left as Kreese slowly opened the letter. He hadn't even read its contents yet, but he already wanted to burn the letter. He recognised the handwriting on the back of the envelope. He could've recognized it from a mile away. Kreese debated whether or not to even open the letter, open that chapter of his life once more. But against his better judgment, he did so, seeing a short page of text handwritten in the very tidy scrawl of a man who had thought extremely carefully about what he wanted to say, and had taken a lot of time to write out the letter. So Kreese gave him a favor that he didn't deserve and read the letter all the way through. Twice. He read once, and by the end, he could hardly believe what he was reading. The second time, he was still in disbelief, although this time the contents of the letter truly did set into his mind.

Kreese knew that he was still among all of his students, students that were watching on, confused. So he forced himself not to show any shred of emotion as he turned to Sensei Kim.

"Could you take class for the rest of the day? I have to go somewhere." He told her. When she nodded, Kreese hurried out of the dojo, getting into the first cab he saw.

"Where to?" The taxi driver asked him. Kreese took a deep, shaky breath to calm himself before answering.

"California State Penitentiary…"