CHAPTER 43

By the time the two boys faced each other and began to circle like lions, a crowd had begun to form. The Miyagi-Dos had finally managed to lead the senseis and referees all over to the place of the fight, and the Cobra Kais had followed close behind. None of them broke up the fight between Marcos and Robby, but they all apprehensively stood a few feet away, ready to step in at any moment if things crossed a line.

Every single eye was on them. The 4 senseis of both dojos, the 4 extra referees, as well as all of the students of both dojos. Neither Marcos nor Robby noticed the attention though. The only thing they were focused on was on each other. And just as well too, as if they got distracted for even a moment, the other fighter would surely capitalize and win the fight.

While Marcos' fight with Hawk had gone from 0-100 in a matter of seconds, the fight with Robby began a lot slower. Robby was a lot more calculated, a lot more cautious of his opponent. His Miyagi-Do instincts also instructed him to wait for the opponent to strike first. Eventually, Marcos did just that…

For a moment, Robby didn't even see the kick coming. The fighter in front of him moved so quickly, it was like Robby had blinked and suddenly there was a vicious heel kick flying at his head. Robby knew he didn't have time to raise his hand to parry the kick, so he was forced to duck it instead, a move that left him slightly off-balance, and allowed Marcos temporary control over the fight. He sent a front kick at Robby's solar plexus, this kick blocked but still so forceful that it sent Robby stumbling a few steps backwards.

With Robby on the back foot, Marcos debated rushing forward now and trying to finish the fight early. However, he opted against it. He hadn't even landed a hit yet on Robby, so rushing him now risked Robby countering and putting him in a vulnerable position. He needed to wait until Robby was a little more worn because he could do that. So Marcos allowed Robby the few seconds it took him to regroup, and then the two resumed fighting.

As they did so, Robby realized something: the odds of him winning this fight were nearly impossible. And it wasn't because Marcos was stronger, faster or more skilled in his style. It was because somehow, the boy seemed to be able to predict everything Robby was going to do before he even did it, and was able to move himself to be two steps ahead every time. It was a very peculiar feeling. The only time Robby had ever felt it before was two years ago, when he had first joined Miyagi-Do and so that style was the only style he knew, meaning that whenever he sparred with Mr. Larusso, Mr. Larusso knew every move that was coming and was able to counter it. After all, the man had taught him himself. That wasn't even the case anymore for any of the students as by this point, most of them had trained in multiple dojos, under multiple styles of Karate, which meant that they all had their unique, unpredictable fighting style. But it clearly wasn't as unpredictable as Robby thought, as every punch or kick he threw seemed to be not only blocked, but countered with Marcos' own attacks.

Robby knew that he was fighting a losing battle, but that didn't stop him from keeping on going. Not only did he always stand a chance of winning, however small it might seem now, but he was also intrigued to keep going. He wanted to see whether Marcos' predicting Robby's every move was just quick reflexes and smart fighting, or if there was something bigger going on. It seemed to be the latter. Robby made sure not to telegraph his next moves in any way, shape or form, and yet Marcos still somehow managed to see them coming and avoid them. It was like they had fought a hundred times before, definitely not that this was their first time fighting. Marcos was maneuvering Robby into exposed position after exposed position, raining down heavy blows, until finally, he hit the one that stuck. Marcos had spent the vast majority of the fight kicking, it being his greatest strength, so Robby had made sure to stay too close for him for Marcos to be able to effectively kick. A big mistake. With the two boys just a couple of feet apart, Marcos parried yet another one of Robby strikes, and finally connected with the hammer blow he had been waiting for. It was an absolutely lethal uppercut to the chin, one that practically knocked Robby's soul out of his body. But as powerful as the strike was, it wasn't enough to completely down Robby, thus was the immense durability he had. It dropped him on one knee and turned him away from Marcos for a moment, but he wasn't knocked out.

Robby didn't know what happened next, as his eyes were temporarily off Marcos as he looked down, clutching his chin, trying to relieve himself of the throbbing pain. However, what he did hear though was a collective gasp ringing around the entire group. Robby immediately braced himself for an impact from Marcos, but it was one that never came. Not until he pulled himself back up to his feet, and slowly turned back around to face Marcos. He didn't even have time to react before he caught a foot right to the face. Marcos had done the signature move of the Miyagi-Do sensei: he had hit Robby with none other than the winning move from the 1984 All-Valley Championship, the Crane Kick.

THUD!

With the immense impact he had taken to the chin, Robby hardly felt the pain of hitting the ground in a heap, and as he lay face-down on his stomach, he didn't even roll over or stand up as he felt Marcos remove his headband and hold it aloft. Although Robby wasn't looking at him, he could tell that Marcos was still standing over him, and even felt the boy lean down slightly so that he was closer to Robby.

"If you want to leave the people who don't give a shit about you and want to rejoin Cobra Kai, , the offer is still valid." Marcos murmured into Robby's ear. "Think about it. I'll be at the Moonlight Diner in Panorama City at midnight. If you want to join, meet me there and let me know…"

That was it. The game was over. Marcos and Cobra Kai had won. However, in Robby's mind, it was less about the loss that was worrying for them. It was just how Marcos had gone about winning that was the more worrying thing, Robby thought to himself as he felt Johnny slowly lift him up to his feet. Something wasn't right. Something wasn't right at all…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The drive back to Miyagi-Do was completely silent that night. Nobody amongst the students or the senseis said even a single word. Daniel had tried to tell them how well they had done, and how they should be proud of the fight they all put up, no matter the result. However, none of the students had really been in the mood to hear it. They were all silently simmering after the loss, none more so than Robby, who sat beside Tory at the very back of Johnny's van. He felt Tory's hand gently on his shoulder, a silent message that he shouldn't beat himself up about the loss.

Well he wasn't beating himself up, because he knew from the moment the fight had begun, there was no chance he was walking out on top. He was indeed deep in thought about what had just occurred. There was no way that it was physically possible for Marcos to have countered every one of Robby's moves purely on reflexes and instincts. There was no way. Nobody was that good. Their senseis weren't that good. Hell, even professional fighters weren't that good. And he would've needed a crystal ball and a fortune teller to have predicted, by chance, every single punch and kick Robby threw. There was only one other alternative. One that Robby didn't want to think about, as it made his opponent more dangerous than ever, but it was something he knew they couldn't ignore.

The silence that had overtaken all of Miyagi-Do was like a dormant volcano. It was clear all of them had a lot of grievances to air out, some of which were with each other, but it wasn't until they arrived back in the dojo that they finally spoke up. And when they started speaking, things immediately erupted…

Almost every single member of the dojo was playing the blame game. Some blamed Cobra Kai. Some blamed their respective rival in Miyagi-Do. It was just a whole lot of yelling and shouting. Robby didn't say a word as they were all doing this, but internally his blood was boiling as he was listening to all of this. All of them had completely forgotten about the matter at hand, and had instead reverted to arguing about their squabbles with each other. And what's worse, as they all argued about this, Robby did not hear a single one of them taking any kind of responsibility. For anything. They were all blaming one another, not a single person throwing their hands up and saying "sorry", or "it was my fault." Marcos' words from earlier were still resonating through Robby's head, and as Robby stewed on them for a while, he began to realize that Marcos had a point. Why was he the only person having to take accountability for mistakes and losses, when all of them were clearly content not to, and in some cases, were content to blame him for it.

Eventually, Robby couldn't stand the arguing any longer. From Hawk. From Tory. From Sam. From Demetri. From Miguel. From the senseis. From all of them.

"GUYS, ENOUGH!" Robby's bellowing voice stunned them all into silence, and they all turned to him, shocked. "Can we PLEASE just stop this bickering for one second?! We have bigger things to worry about right now!"

Everyone realized that Robby had a point, so they stopped arguing for a moment, but that didn't change the fact that tempers were running very high in the dojo right now, and it would only take the slightest misstep to cause an explosion.

"Robby's right." Daniel said. "We shouldn't argue right now. We need to reflect on what just happened and then move on."

Robby nodded.

"Yeah, uh… look, there was something I noticed when fighting Marcos." Robby told them. "I think he knows Miyagi-Do."

The entire group was taken aback.

"Huh? We were watching the same fight, Robby. He wasn't doing any Miyagi-Do." Daniel told him. Other than the Crane Kick, that was. Robby wasn't convinced though.

"I know he wasn't doing it himself, but it was like he knew exactly what I was going to do." Robby said. "He knew exactly how to fight me before we had even started fighting."

"I don't know. Maybe he picked it up from fighting Miguel and Hawk." Johnny replied. All of them shrugged it off as that, not really paying much attention to it at all, but Robby persisted. He knew that this was more than that, and the fact that nobody was listening to him was seriously frustrating.

"That's not it. Miguel and Hawk both fight more like Eagle-Fangs than Miyagi-Do. They use more offense than defense. I fight differently from them. He knew specifically how to counter Miyagi-Do."

"Yeah, well maybe it's because a certain Cobra Kai leader decided to go and teach them all of our moves." Hawk suddenly remarked. Robby slowly turned around to face him, knowing exactly what Hawk was implying, and a sour look appeared on his face.

"What? You're blaming me?" Robby asked him.

"He didn't mean it like that, Robby." Daniel said. Hawk shook his head.

"No, I meant it exactly like that, Mr. Larusso. Robby is here complaining about Cobra Kais knowing Miyagi-Do. He himself taught Miyagi-Do to Cobra Kais. Are we really that stupid that we can't make the connection?"

Robby shook his head.

"No, look, if I haven't apologized for that enough already, I'm sorry for doing that. But that's not what this was. Trust me. I only taught Cobra Kais the very basics, the fundamentals. The moves that Marcos was somehow able to predict… we learned those in the past few months, AFTER I had returned to Miyagi-Do. Not before then."

"Well then maybe there's a spy in our midst." Hawk remarked.

"Who? Penis Breath? No way he learned enough to be able to teach." Johnny remarked. Hawk scowled at him.

"Not Penis Breath, sensei. Your son." He replied. Robby's eyes narrowed even more as he took half a step towards Hawk. He couldn't believe it. Everything he had done, everything he had done to regain Miyagi-Do's trust, to prove his loyalty to them, and they were still accusing him of being a double agent.

"What are you saying?" Robby snapped at him. Hawk shrugged.

"Come on. I can't be the only one suspicious about how when Cobra Kai knocked you and Miguel out, they took his headband and not yours." Hawk remarked. Robby shook his head.

"No, that's a misunderstanding. That's…" Robby started, but he was quickly interrupted.

"And the fact that you apparently walked right over to them to have a chat with your mentee, who is one of the leaders of Cobra Kai."

"Look, that's…"

And now you're standing here, complaining that he seemed to know exactly what you were going to throw at him. Almost like the fight had been planned in advance…"

"Are you serious?!" Robby exclaimed, his head snapping around the dojo in disbelief at what he was being accused of. Not many people in the dojo agreed with Hawk right now, but they had all been put into silence as they processed the idea of what Hawk was saying, which meant that none of them were speaking up in support of Robby.

"Are you going to deny it?" Hawk asked. Robby scowled daggers at him.

"Of course I'm going to deny it!" Robby snapped. "Look, the reason they took out Miguel but not me, is because Marcos wanted to talk to me."

"We believe you, Robby. But you're not making the case for yourself you think you are." Johnny remarked, even though he trusted the fact that his son wasn't back in Cobra Kai, wasn't a spy for the other side. "What did he want to talk to you about?"

Robby sighed. This wasn't going to sound good. He already knew it.

"He wanted to talk to me about joining Cobra Kai." Robby admitted honestly, and a bit of quiet muttering echoed around the dojo from the other students upon hearing this. "But I told them I wasn't interested!"

"Yeah? Bullshit. I think you were interested. In fact, I think you never left." Hawk snapped. Robby rolled his eyes.

"This is stupid. You're bitter at how quickly you were eliminated today, and you're taking it out on me. You know that I'm not a spy. All of you know that!"

"We're not saying you're a spy, Robby. We trust you. But is there a chance that back when you were with Cobra Kai, maybe you taught them a little more than you realized at the time? It's an honest mistake." Daniel asked, calmly. Robby was beside himself now, as Marcos' words continued to rattle through his head. They treat you like the bad guy, he had told him. And while Robby had disagreed with him at the time, he was starting to see exactly what the boy was talking about. He had spent longer with Miyagi-Do than most of this dojo, and yet they still were convinced that it was him. He knew for a fact it wasn't him! He was telling them it wasn't him! And yet they still did not trust him!

"You know what?" Robby murmured, biting back any insult or profanity that was coming to the tip of his tongue, and forcing himself to stay calm. "I don't need to take this shit."

Robby turned on his heel and began to storm out of the dojo, but he could hear voices calling behind him as he left.

"Robby! Where are you going?!" Johnny called to him. Robby didn't respond, practically kicking the gate open in rage, and storming out into the night.