CHAPTER 56

The next fight had arrived, Sam vs. Tory, and the stakes were very much higher than ever between them. It was on neither fighter's mind about the score of the Fight Night so far. Neither of them gave a damn about that. In that moment, in both Sam and Tory's eyes, it was just the two fighters in the entire universe, and that was all that mattered.

The two girls had a long and drawn out rivalry, visualized by the semi-permanent scars that were on Sam's arm. They had fought in almost every possible situation and circumstance before: at the school, at the house, at the prom and at the tournament. And each of these circumstances had bred a completely different outcome and result. Sam had unequivocally taken their first fight at the school, kicking Tory down a staircase in the grisly brawl. Tory had come back stronger in the second fight, only to draw the fight in a stalemate in the Larusso mansion, the fight getting interrupted by Miguel, Hawk and Demetri running in. Sam had managed to disarm her of her weapon, but Tory had been prepared to do the same to her when the others had run in, hence the unsatisfying tie.

Then came a long period of nearly 6 months where although they had many confrontations, none of them came to blows. Until the Prom fight. That day, everything had happened in reverse in comparison to their other fights. Sam had instigated the conflict, and Sam had struck first and escalated the conflict into the fight. This fight also didn't have a clear winner either, as it had been Robby who had shoved both of them, along with Miguel, into the pool. And then finally, the tournament…

In the tournament, things took another turn for the unexpected. Tory had been shocked to see her opponent go entirely on offense, had been put completely on the back foot, and yet somehow she had still walked out of the arena as All-Valley champion. Well, she knew exactly how. In a fake, bogus, cheap way, courtesy of her former sensei. The win had been illegitimate, but there hadn't been a follow-up bout between them to prove that either of them was the deserved champion.

Both girls felt more than anything that they deserved to win. For Sam, as she looked at her opponent on the other corner of the sparring deck, she saw the person who had traumatized her for so long. The person who had haunted her dreams for years, who had made her fear to even step outside her house at times, and then ever fear to be in her house at others. The scars on her arm prickled, reminding her all of the pain this girl had caused her, both physical and mental. And although they were no longer feuding, which is something Sam was more than delighted about, that didn't mean that all of Sam's harboring resentment had gone away. As much as Sam wanted to win to prove that she should've won the All-Valley tournament, that was only a fraction of what was going through her mind. The vast majority of her was thinking about how winning this fight would finally allow her to let go of her lingering animosity. She needed some way to unload some of her trauma.

Meanwhile, Tory was just as determined to win than ever, as she knew that there wouldn't be a better opportunity for her than right now to win the fight. Because for the first time during one of their encounters, Tory's mind was completely clear. She wasn't clouded by anger or hatred, like she had been in their first few encounters, and had costed her dearly. Because she knew that she had been dominating both the school fight and the house fight. She had Sam against the ropes in both of them, but her aggression, her bloodlust, had made her hesitate to try and draw the suffering out longer, and Sam had managed to take advantage in both situations. Then with the prom fight ending in a draw, and the tournament being rigged in the way it was, Tory knew that she was yet to have beaten her former nemesis. She was very much underdog in this fight, but with her new knowledge in Miyagi-Do offense and defense that she had learned from Chozen, she knew that this would be her opportunity to finally win. Now or never.

But it wasn't Chozen who was in her corner today. It was Johnny, and he had a different plan. He had trained Tory for a while back when she was in Cobra Kai, so he knew exactly what he wanted her to do.

"Listen up, Nichols. Do what you do best. Get on the offensive and stay there. Force her to defend." Johnny instructed. Tory nodded, but the person standing beside her in the corner of the sparring deck shook their head.

"No. Don't do that." Robby spoke up. Both Tory and Johnny turned to him, confused. "Look, Sam's specialization is her defense. We trained in Miyagi-Do a hell of a lot longer than Sam trained with Eagle-Fang. You blindly attack her, and all you're doing is playing to her strengths."

"So you want me to just defend? Just use Miyagi-Do? Robby, I've barely trained here, remember?" Tory shot back. Robby nodded.

"I know. But everyone else here, Sam included, has just learned Miyagi-Do defense with Mr. Larusso, and then Eagle-Fang offense with my dad. Unlike us. We train with Chozen, so our style incorporates both offense and defense together."

"What's your point?" Tory asked.

"My point is that they haven't done a style that incorporates both offense and defense at once, which means that that middle point between them - offense and defense - is going to be Sam's weak spot. Don't just stay on offense or stay on defense or you're going to be playing to her strengths. Stay in the middle between the two and you'll be playing to her weaknesses and you can properly capitalize."

Tory slowly nodded, starting to understand what Robby was saying, and her head turned slightly towards Johnny for reassurance. All he could do though was shrug. He knew that Robby and Tory would be the two people he probably couldn't coach too well right now, as their actual sensei who was in charge of both their offense and defense training was not here right now. Chozen had decided to go back to Okinawa for a week, taking advantage of the holiday to go back and make the final arrangements necessary at his dojo to prolong his stay in the Valley until the Taikai. Not only that, but he was spending some much needed time with his friends back in Okinawa, having not been back for almost 5 months now.

This meant that Tory and Robby's regular sensei wasn't around, so there was not much more Johnny could do than shrug, implying for her to just fight however she wanted to. As Tory processed Robby's idea and saw the determined look on his face, she nodded decisively.

"Alright. I'll do it." She said, turning to step onto the sparring deck, but before she did, she felt Robby catch her arm and stop her. She turned to him and saw not a shred of happiness or emotion on his face. It was deadly calm, devoid of any kind of feeling, a worrying sight.

"Good luck." was all Robby said, exactly the same thing as what he had said before Tory's All-Valley final all those months ago. But back then, Robby had said it almost warmly, whereas this time it was icy cold. Not that he had any problem with her. But his emotions were already in such turmoil that he couldn't bring himself to sound any kinder than that right now.

Meanwhile, Sam stood on the other side of the mat, talking to Daniel and Miguel. Unlike Tory, Sam was being coached by the sensei who had been around from day 1 for her. Daniel was very familiar with Sam's fighting style, so he knew exactly how to coach her.

"Tory's going to go on offense." Miguel pointed out. "She's been in Miyagi-Do for less time than any of us. She's also being coached by Sensei Lawrence. She's definitely going to go on the offensive from the beginning."

"So I'll just beat her on defense then." Sam replied confidently. Daniel nodded, smiling at his daughter.

"Look, there's not much I can tell you. You've fought with her before. You've beaten her before. You should've beaten her at the tournament too if not for the ref." Daniel said.

"Yeah. Sam, you know that the All-Valley tournament was your rightful win. You and I know that you deserved to have won. Now you can show everyone else in the dojo that fact. You got this." Miguel said. Sam nodded, determinedly, and without another word, she turned around and stepped into the center of the sparring deck, ready for the fight to commence…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

When the fight began, right out of the gate, it was a whole lot of… nothing. Neither one of them came bounding out of the gate, but they were instead a little bit more reserved in their approach. This was almost unrecognizable from the first two encounters where Tory had come straight for Sam's head from minute 1. Now, she had learned to be a bit more calculated and calm with her approach, courtesy of the past few months she had spent at Miyagi-Do.

That didn't mean that Tory sat on her heels though. She did indeed throw the first strike of the fight, sending a roundhouse Sam's way that the girl was able to parry, and then a front kick that Sam also managed to block, but still sent her stumbling backwards a step. However, if anything, these kicks reassured Sam more than anything else. Tory striking first reminded Sam that this was indeed still Tory who she was fighting. Part of her had been scared that Tory had changed her fighting style during her time in Miyagi-Do, but seeing the familiar aggressive onslaught of kicks eased her mind a little. Her first mistake…

Because as Tory proceeded to attack once more, Sam prepared her first Miyagi-Do counter of the fight, planning to wrap an arm around Tory's outstretched one when she struck and then sweep her to the ground. However, the problem was, as Sam prepared for this, as she had done so in the past, that arm just wasn't there from the blonde girl. Sam had miscalculated, figuring that Tory would include another strike to her combination, and that hesitation as she realized it wasn't going to come gave Tory the impetus she needed to take Sam down herself and land the first point of the fight, a strike to the abdomen.

Sam 0 - 1 Tory

Neither girl said a word as they both rolled to their feet. They hardly even looked at each other. It was almost completely silent in the dojo, thick with tension, so much so that you could hear a pin drop. The only sound that filled the air was Johnny and Robby's clap as Tory scored the point and returned to her side of the mat.

When the fight resumed, Sam decided to switch things up. She figured that if she pushed Tory with some offense, it would force Tory to rely on her defense. And Sam knew that in all likelihood, given the amount of time Sam had trained with Eagle-Fang and Tory had trained with Miyagi-Do, Sam's offense was better than Tory's defense.

She wasn't wrong. Pushing Tory into defending did put the girl on her back foot for a moment, and caused her to eventually give up a sliver of an opportunity. A few inches of exposed target on Tory's side. And that miniscule amount was all Sam needed. One kick was enough to pull Tory's arms further away from her body to block the kick, and that allowed Sam to capitalize with a punch to that exposed side of Tory's.

Sam 1 - 1 Tory

Back to equal level. The fight back to scoreless in essence. Sam and Tory were once again on level terms, and by now, neither of them was willing to give away a point at any cost. Tory knew that she couldn't repeat what she had just done. She couldn't relinquish complete control of the fight to Sam, or the girl would make her pay. When she went on defense, it needed to be strategic defense. If not, she needed to rely on her offense.

And the latter option was a lot more enticing for Tory, who had spent only 3 months of defense-focused training, as opposed to over a year of offensive focused training. Her offense was her strong suit, it was what she was good at. There was a problem though and that was exactly what Robby had foretold… Sam knew how to defend Cobra Kai attacks better than Tory was able to throw them. Not that Tory was incapable in any way. But that seemed to just be how things worked when it came to Cobra Kai's style against Miyagi-Do's. A certain man in 1984 could go and train Miyagi-Do for only a couple of months and beat a Cobra Kai who had been training for 5 years.

Cobra Kai's strategy simply didn't work, unless it was applied with a mixture of both offense and defense, as the all-out offense just left you too exposed to a counter. As Tory would find out once more, as another wave of offense towards her opponent caused her arms to once again inch too far away from protecting her, and Sam was able to again land a strike to Tory's exposed body, this time a sidekick right to the solar plexus.

Sam 2 - 1 Tory

Tory's first instinct was to kick the ground in frustration as she felt Sam's contact, feeling her lingering anger and resentment bubbling up once more. It was happening again. It was all happening again. Her and Sam would fight. Tory would dominate in the beginning. And then Sam would suddenly come from behind and salvage the fight. This wasn't happening again. It couldn't be. Tory couldn't let it.

One point. That's all Sam needed to win. One point, and the entire controversy surrounding the All-Valley, the entire controversy surrounding Tory walking out of the Taikai qualification fight, would be buried. One point and she would be able to hold her head up high and be called winner, writing a successful note in the final chapter of her tumultuous rivalry with Tory.

Tory shuffled back to her corner as Johnny called timeout, seeing the aggression on her face and knowing exactly what was going to happen next. He had seen it many times before by now, first in himself, then in Miguel, then in Hawk, and in almost every other student he had taught at some point in Cobra Kai. She was about to let her anger take control, and he knew instantly that that was going to be her downfall. He needed to stop it in it's tracks.

"Okay, you need to calm the fuck down." Johnny told her, none-too-politely. "You getting angry isn't going to help anyone. So this is what I want you to do…"

As Johnny told her the game plan, both Robby and Tory looked at him in shock.

"What?! How the hell am I supposed to score like that?!" Tory exclaimed.

"You're not. That's the whole point. Not initially anyways." Johnny remarked. Tory shook her head.

"Sensei, this is a stupid plan." Tory remarked. Johnny shrugged.

"Don't do it if you don't want to. I'm telling you it'll work. There's a rhythm in this fight right now that you need to break. This is how you break it."

Thinking about this for a while, Tory eventually nodded and returned to the match, ready for the fight to resume…

When it did, Tory did something that absolutely nobody in the entire dojo could've expected. She did a kata! And not just any kata, but the exact kata that Sam had done in the All-Valley final all those months earlier. It didn't look like it was supposed to be mocking in any way either. It purely looked like Tory was planning to use this strategy, to fight like Sam to be able to beat her. It was one of the intermediate level katas that she had learned in Miyagi-Do, and Tory knew that Sam knew this kata like the back of her hand. In fact, she was counting on that fact…

Sam was initially taken aback by this bizarre sight, her rival who had bled Cobra Kai for so long, doing a Miyagi-Do kata. But she didn't allow that to cause her to hesitate. If anything, this was a good thing. Tory was trying to beat her by fighting like her. But that wouldn't work, because nobody knew how to beat Samantha Larusso better than Samantha Larusso. She knew exactly what she needed to do to cause her opponent to fall.

Unfortunately though, Samantha Larusso was not fighting Samantha Larusso. She was fighting Tory Nichols, a girl who fought in a style that was nothing like hers. So as Sam approached Tory, she tried to anticipate the girl's next move in the blocking kata, but that simply didn't work as before she could, Tory had already ducked under Sam's strike and slithered downwards to sweep Sam's leg and cause the brunette to learn flat on her back, a scoring punch landing a second later.

Sam 2 - 2 Tory

2-2. Match point. Of course it was completely even going into the match point. Was it ever going to be any other way between them? Tory had been just as shocked as Sam that Johnny's unorthodox strategy had worked, and not only that, but it had been exactly what she needed to quash her anger and aggression during the fight and instead turn that into genuine hope that she could win this fight.

Sam, meanwhile, was shell shocked at the blow Tory had just landed. It represented so much more than just the singular point Tory had scored. Tory had just shown her how well she knew her fighting style, and that she could beat Sam at her own game. Sam needed to shake things up once more if she wanted to win this fight, and she was extremely thankful for all of the training she had done with both styles to help her come up with an idea for this final phase of the point.

As the fight resumed, Tory had decided to throw all strategy she had left out the window and purely rely on instincts. She honestly had no idea what was coming from Samantha for the final point, so she figured that she was better off relying on reflexes, as her reflexes would be faster than trying to come up with another pre-planned strategy. And that theory was proven right, as this time, neither one of them gave anything up and were extremely solid on both offense and defense, not allowing their opponent even a second to break. This point lasted longer than any of their other points of the fight, as after nearly 6 months of not fighting each other, they had finally come to understand the other person's fighting style and how to defend against it. It was all about not making mistakes now, as whoever made a mistake first would undoubtedly lose the fight.

It ended up being Tory who cracked first, making the mistake that everyone thought would deem costly. She didn't get hit by Sam, but one of the brunette's blocked kicks ended up causing Tory to stumble backwards and completely lose her footing, slipping over and falling onto the sparring deck on her stomach, the worst position possible as now her back was to Sam. She knew the girl was right above her, and it wouldn't be long before she struck the final blow of the fight, so Tory knew she just had a split second to think. Luckily though, it almost felt like time had slowed to a halt to allow her a moment to gather her thoughts and think to herself if there was even a possible way she could win this fight. Well, there was one possible way, one that brought back memories of a month ago.

"Robby, I don't know what you expect. There's no way in hell I'm able to do that." Tory stated. The two of them stood in the field where Chozen had taken them to train, but the sensei hadn't arrived yet, so the two were left to warm up by themselves. As they did so, Robby tried to help teach Tory a technique, one of the first major techniques he had learned in Miyagi-Do, an extremely powerful one at that.

"Come on, Tory! I was able to do it after only training for a few months. You've been training for more than a year now. I'm sure you've got this easily." Robby remarked. Tory scowled at him.

"That's because you spent your whole childhood skateboarding, you moron! I can't even balance myself well enough to ride a bike properly!" Tory snapped back. Robby shook his head.

"Don't worry. It's really not that hard. And worse case scenario, you land on this pile of leaves. Not so bad." He said. Tory look at him, still unsure, but she decided to give the kick a try anyways.

She couldn't have failed it more miserably than she did. Tory never even got her legs in the air, let alone extended in a kick, and instead almost immediately landed on her head and rolled harmlessly onto the fluffy mattress of leaves and soft dirt as she fell. It took her nearly 10 minutes to shut Robby up, who was actively rolling around in laughter after such a tragic attempt at the kick…

This is a horrible idea, Tory thought to herself as she laid face-down on the mat. If she couldn't do it that way with Robby, how the hell was she supposed to do it now?! But nevertheless, Tory knew that she didn't have another choice. It was now or never for her. Literally, as Sam was closing in on her extremely quickly and would be on her in an instant. So saying a silent prayer, Tory put her hands on the ground and pushed upwards as hard as she could, miraculously able to balance on her hand and unleashing a powerful two legged kick that connected perfectly, right in the middle of Sam's chest. It was the very move Robby had used in the All-Valley when Miguel had him on the ropes, but unlike that day, this was the kick that won Tory the fight!

Sam 2 - 3 Tory