CHAPTER 60

Miguel was at his home alone that evening, his mom having already left for her night out with the other adults when all of a sudden, he heard a loud knock on the door. It wasn't so much a knock as it was someone banging with all of their might at the thin piece of wood, and Miguel winced at the sudden sound. He stood up, putting down the ice he had been using to ice his bruised side, and walked over to the door.

It had been a long day for Miguel. Taking a loss during the Fight Night, his first time ever conceding 3 points in a point spar, wasn't ideal. He felt like he had been dethroned, knocked off his perch a little, and now only more determined to reclaim his spot at the top. However, he knew that the reason he lost wasn't entirely based on merit. He had froze up, not purposefully, but his mind had refused to cooperate in the most crucial stages of the fight. He couldn't stop thinking about Robby and what he was going through, and that had rendered him unable to continue fighting, unable to even contest the final point of the fight let alone score it.

Miguel knew it wasn't Sam at the door. She wouldn't be picking him up for the party for another little while, so he was genuinely perplexed as to who was knocking on his door at this time. It took him longer than expected though to find his answer, as when he opened the door, he found nobody standing on the front porch, but instead only a hand-scrawled message on a small note. The note read…

Come to the Miyagi-Do dojo now - Sensei

Miguel raised an eyebrow. This didn't seem legit. There was no way his sensei had written a note, knocked on the front door and then scampered before Miguel could make it over to open the door. This was the exact opposite of everything Sensei would do, so it automatically caused the hair on the back of Miguel's neck to stand up on its end. He was instantly wary of an ambush or an attack from Cobra Kai of some kind, however, Miguel couldn't help but drag himself over to his bike to ride to the dojo anyways. It was in his nature. If someone was invading Miyagi-Do right now, he needed to get there. Another message could've been written to another student in the dojo, a more naive one who had actually decided to heed its message, so he needed to get there first in case he needed to help them.

Miguel quickly knocked on Robby and Johnny's apartment door but as he had expected, it was empty. He figured that Johnny was also already gone on his night out, and Robby was somewhere with Tory or someone else before the party. This left Miguel alone as he got on his bike and quickly cycled to Miyagi-Do…

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As he parked his bike outside the dojo, his suspicions only increased further. It was quiet outside. Too quiet. The birds had mysteriously stopped singing. The wind had completely died. The dojo was also pitch-black, only adding to the eeriness of it all. After all, the dojo relied almost entirely on natural light, and the sun had long set by now.

Miguel was reassured to see that the gate was still locked, not broken or unlocked in any way, no signs that someone had forced their way inside. However, he still unlocked it himself and walked deeper into the dojo, trying to make sure there was definitely nobody else here before he left. There wasn't. He walked into the back yard… empty. He walked into the dojo itself… empty. Miguel was about to turn around and leave when all of a sudden, he heard it!

Voices! Loud and unmistakable! They were quite distant so Miguel couldn't tell who it was or what they were saying, but as he stood in the center of the dojo, he could still hear them extremely clearly. There sounded to be two of them, and their voices seemed to be getting closer and closer outside, until all of sudden they went silent. Dead silent. The only sound Miguel was able to hear was his pounding heart rate and the faint creaking of the floorboards beneath him. He had no idea how closeby they were, or if they had even left entirely, relying on his hearing but that sense letting him down as all he heard was the deafening silence. There was a light switch a couple of feet away, tantalizingly close, but he forced himself to remain away from it. In case this was Cobra Kai, on the off-chance that they hadn't seen his presence yet, he couldn't light this room up like a firework and broadcast his location freely to all of the bloodthirsty Cobras.

Miguel remained immobile on the spot until a couple of moments later when all of a sudden, the door to the dojo swung open. And before Miguel could react, he saw the shadow of a figure lunging at him, roughly tackling him to the ground. He fell backwards, landing ass-first on the ground on his back, groaning quietly in pain from the harsh impact. Before he could throw this person, whoever it was, off of him, a light finally came on. It wasn't the light switch to the dojo, but was instead the faint light of an iPhone flashlight. But that was all they needed to illuminate the fallen Miguel and the person who had tackled him: Tory of all people. Standing and holding the phone was Sam, and they all stared at each other, utterly confused to see the other person there.

"Argh. What the hell?" Miguel murmured as he slowly rose to his feet. "You guys got the notes?"

"Yeah." Sam replied. "Came to our doors and everything. Figured it was Cobra Kai or something. Thank God it's just you. What's going on anyways?"

Miguel shook his head.

"Don't get so excited. I didn't send the notes." Miguel remarked, pulling his folded note out of his pocket. "It came to my house a little while ago."

"So you… me… Tory… all got sent notes by a random person for whatever reason." Sam slowly went over the facts. "Who do you think sent them?"

"I did…" A voice from the doorway of the dojo suddenly broke all of them out of their conversation, and they all cried out in shock as they spun around to see who was there. Once again, it thankfully wasn't a Cobra. Rather, it was a former Cobra, one that all of them were very familiar with.

"Robby? You sent the note? Why?" Tory asked, perplexed, as Sam walked over to the light switch in the corner of the room and turned it on so all 4 of the teenagers - Sam, Tory, Miguel and Robby - could see each other clearly.

Robby did not immediately respond, but instead made a beeline for one of the people standing in the dojo. Nobody knew what to do. Nobody knew what to say. They all stared at Robby, puzzled, waiting for an explanation that was still yet to come. So they watched as he stormed over to Miguel and with full-force, shoved him to the ground.

As Miguel hit the ground with a THUD, a combination of bewilderment and anger now etched on his face, Robby quickly found himself standing face to face with Tory, who pushed him backwards none-too-gently either.

"Robby! What the hell are you doing?!" Tory exclaimed, echoing everyone's thoughts as they stared at him, in shock. Miguel had risen again to his feet, so was now face to face with Robby as the boy opened his mouth to speak again.

"Am I seriously just a charity case to you?!" Robby snapped. "You think just because you won 1 All-Valley tournament over a year ago, you need to gift me free wins?!"

"What are you talking about?" Miguel asked, although he knew exactly what the boy was talking about. Robby had clearly realized what had happened at the dojo earlier that day, and had misinterpreted why Miguel had done it.

"Don't play dumb! I know you threw the fight on purpose!" Robby spat vehemently.

"I… I didn't." Miguel stammered, to which Robby chuckled mirthlessly.

"Come on! There's no way you actually made that mistake on the final point! Bert and Nate wouldn't have even made that mistake! You purposefully choked!"

"Robby, what, are you high or something? There was nothing like that." Tory snapped.

"Yeah, Robby, you won fair and square. Just take the win." Sam added. Robby ignored them. He didn't even hear them to be honest. His eyes were locked on Miguel, waiting for a response from the Ecuadorian teenager, waiting to be proven correct about what he already knew. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Miguel slowly nodded.

"Okay, fine! Okay?! Yes, I might have choked the last point." Miguel admitted, to the great shock of both Sam and Tory, and the fury of Robby. He damn near punched a hole through the Miyagi-Do wall as he heard this, as he heard how little his teammate and rival thought of him.

"Why?!" Robby snarled. "Do you know how insulting that is?! Do you seriously think I'm incapable of winning against you without you having to throw me some pity points?! Do you seriously think that you're that much better that you'd stoop so low and lose so much honor that you would rig the fight?!"

"No! Robby, I swear, I didn't do it on purpose!" Miguel exclaimed. "I just… I heard about what you're going through with your mom, and I couldn't really focus on the fight after that point. My problem. Not yours. You won fairly."

A long silence overtook them as they all glanced at Robby worriedly, apprehensive to see his reaction, Sam and Tory still standing between Robby and Miguel just in case.

"No. I didn't." Robby eventually replied, looking down at the ground as he said so, clenching his jaw. "How many points?"

"What?" Miguel asked.

"How many points did you throw away?" Robby asked. "Was it just that last pitiful 'mistake' that you made? Or did you do the same thing with the other points I scored? Did you even have other opportunities to score that you didn't take advantage of because you felt bad?"

"No! It was just that last point, I swear!" Miguel exclaimed. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. I just… I figured you could use the win more than I could today."

Another long silence before Robby finally spoke up once more.

"Alright, this is what's going to happen." Robby declared. "I asked Tory and Sam to come here because I wanted a rematch of the fight today. The adults are out partying, so I wanted Sam and Tory here to referee."

Everyone's eyes widened as they listened to Robby's proposal, Miguel being the first to respond.

"Robby… we're not going to redo our whole fight right now." Miguel remarked. Robby nodded.

"I know. You said you only choked that final point. I'll take your word on that. I'll believe you. Remove that final point then and the score of the fight is still 2-2. One more point, right here, right now, to decide the winner."

Once again, dead silent as Miguel contemplated this, torn between two sides.

"Look, I'm just going to say this… this is a stupid idea." Tory remarked.

"Yeah, as much as I hate to agree with Tory, she's right. This isn't going to end well for either of you." Sam added. Robby, however, was still dead-set on this happening.

"Come on, Diaz. We've had an uncontroversial, uninterrupted fight to the finish maybe once in the past 2 years. Every time we fight, something happens that completely marrs that fight from the record. You have the opportunity to change that right now. You have the opportunity to turn the record in your favor. One point. That's all it is. One point, and the winner is decided. The better fighter is decided. You in or not?"

Miguel knew exactly what Robby was trying to do. He was trying to push him into a fight. He was trying to goad Miguel into accepting the offer, playing at the competitive side of him. But the thing was… it was working! The fighter, the competitor, the champion inside Miguel wanted nothing more than to shut up any common sense within him and accept the offer. This time last year, if he had been in this position, he would have dived at it with both hands. He remembered what it was like to be in that wheelchair. That frail and helpless. Unable to even move his legs, let alone stand and fight with one of the best fighters in the Valley. He remembered how he used to dream every night of regaining the ability to fight and reclaiming his place at the top of the mountain. Right now, Miguel felt himself become that injured teenager again, channeling all of the determination and willpower inside him, before nodding at Robby.

"You're on…"