CHAPTER 70

Hawk and Barnes made a deal. Just like what Robby and Tory were doing with Chozen, Hawk would still train with the entire group under Johnny and Daniel at least once a week. However, for the other days, Barnes would train him privately on the side. It was honestly a brilliant arrangement and it only made their dojo stronger. By this point, every student was training with the sensei that suited them and their fighting style the most. There was never the feeling that they were being forced to do a style that they didn't want to, so they were inclined to work harder and get even stronger.

Hawk's first lesson with Barnes occurred right after their conversation and by the end of it, Hawk could hardly stand. Barnes was not taking it easy on him, that was for certain. The man wasn't afraid to throw clobbering blows at the student, forcing him into action to block them and throw counter strikes of his own. The vast majority of their training session was spent on the sparring deck, with Barnes instructing Hawk as they sparred, punishing the teenager for the mistakes he made during the fight by landing heavy shots on Hawk. Nevertheless, even in just an hour or so of training with Barnes, Hawk already felt a massive improvement. He felt more like himself again. He didn't feel like he was being restrained by Miyagi-Do. He felt more free, unshackled, able to fight the way he fought best. He could use his aggression and athleticism to good use, leaps and bounds from the fighter who lost to Demetri in the Fight Night a few days earlier.

After their lesson, Barnes left as he knew that Hawk still had training with the rest of Miyagi-Do to focus on today. Shortly after he left the dojo, the other Miyagi-Dos began to arrive. Robby, Sam, Tory, Miguel, Demetri all filed in one by one, followed by the rest of the students and then Johnny and Daniel. After everyone had arrived, they briefed their senseis on everything that had happened in the past 48 hours.

The senseis were outraged to hear about what the Cobra Kai champion had done to Hawk. Relieved to hear that Robby had saved him. After their initial reactions, they turned their attention to the next steps that needed to be taken after this fight: more specifically, whether or not they were going to go to the police and report Marcos. It was a controversial topic, one that split the dojo into two sides.

"I think we should report him." Miguel said. "He nearly killed Hawk. He deserves to face consequences for that."

"I agree." Sam echoed. "Not only that, but if we report him, it gets Cobra Kai's biggest threat out of the picture."

"Seriously? Being scared to fight someone isn't a reason to report them for assault." Robby shot back reproachfully.

"Yeah, you're effectively ruining his life if you report him." Tory said.

"It's not like we're framing him for something he didn't do. He committed assault. Nearly killed one of our friends. We'd just be giving him what he deserves." Miguel commented. Tory sighed.

"Look, other than Robby, none of you know what it's like to get charges pressed against you." Tory said. "Even if what you did was a mistake and you want to move on from it, that tag of being a criminal never really goes away. It handicaps you in almost every way. People treat you differently, even long after you've served your sentence. You can't get a job because nobody wants to hire a felon."

"So what? He deserves it! Are you forgetting that he almost killed Hawk?!" Sam exclaimed. "Not pressing charges just means that he gets away with it, stays on the streets, and puts all of us at risk. We're doing this for the safety of everyone in this dojo."

"Bullshit." Robby responded. "You're not trying to do this to keep each other safe. You're trying to do this because it's in your own self-interest."

"That's not true." Demetri stated, to which Robby raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Because if we press charges, what happens then? There's not nearly enough to convict him of anything. If anything, based on the message that Hawk texted Marcos - which is obviously going to come up if we try and get him convicted of assault - it was Hawk who started the fight. There's nothing to say that Marcos wasn't doing anything but just defending himself."

"We can all say that that's bullshit though." Miguel remarked. Robby laughed.

"Who? Us? The people who have already been caught fighting in a school-wide brawl? Half of us with criminal records already. If anything, pressing charges could seriously backfire against us." Robby stated.

"Robby's right." Miguel eventually admitted. "We can't press charges against him to the police."

"Maybe so, but that doesn't change the fact that he deserves consequences for his actions!" Sam stated. "We can try reaching out to the Taikai Committee and telling them about this. Maybe they'll ban him from competing. That would be punishment enough, even if we're not reporting him to the police."

"Oh, my God! Shut up, Larusso! We're not going to do that!" Tory spat harshly. Both her and Robby were beginning to get seriously frustrated with the rest of the group. As the only two who had faced serious long-term repercussions for their past actions, they knew just how damaging they could be. And the fact that Miyagi-Do, a dojo that was supposed to be all about forgiveness, was willing to inflict all of this punishment on a teenager, mostly out of fear of his fighting ability rather than because he actually deserved it… it was rubbing them both the wrong way.

"We're not going to report someone out of pettiness. To the police or to the Taikai committee." Robby snapped. "That goes against everything Miyagi-Do stands for!"

"Why are you so intent on defending him?" Demetri asked. "He beat the living crap out of Hawk."

"You mean, the same way almost every single one of us has done over the past 2 years?" Robby responded. "Tory broke into Sam's house and attacked her with a weapon. Sam started a brawl that got Demetri's arm broken. Hawk was the one who broke said arm. Miguel started plenty of fights of his own. I have too. Why didn't we press charges or get reported for any of these? Why is Marcos different? It's only because none of you know him and you're scared of him that you want to do this. Not because you genuinely think he deserves it."

There was a long silence that overtook the dojo as they all thought about this, they all took in what Robby was saying, and they realized that he and Tory were right.

"I think the final decision is up to Hawk." Daniel spoke up for the first time, allowing the students the freedom to argue amongst each other without intervening, treating them like the adults they nearly were rather than bickering children that he needed to parent.

Everyone's head turned towards Hawk, who had remained oddly silent during this entire conversation. They knew that Hawk was likely to want retaliation of some kind against Marcos for what he did to him, so none of them would've been surprised if he said that he wanted to press charges. In fact, they all fully expected him to say so.

Which is why everyone's jaw dropped in shock as Hawk shook his head.

"No, I don't want to press charges against him." Hawk replied. Immediately, murmurs of dissent rang around the dojo from some of the students, and Robby silently shot Hawk a look of gratitude.

"Are you sure, Hawk? None of us would judge you either way if you wanted to." Daniel said, and Hawk shook his head.

"What happened was just as much my fault as it was his. And like Robby said, we haven't been going to the cops on each other up until this point… why start now?" Hawk responded. "Let's just use it as extra motivation to beat him at the Taikai."

Everyone was in shock. This Hawk was almost unrecognizable from the pent up ball of aggression that he had been less than 24 hours prior. That was the unique thing about training with Barnes for even an hour… it was like Barnes had been able to unwind him of all of the anger, or rather fought the anger out of him, and this allowed his mind to finally think clearly again.

"Alright. Guys, it's Hawk's decision. Let's all respect that." Daniel eventually replied, indicating for the rest of the Miyagi-Dos to stop their quiet murmuring in disagreement. The group then began to fall into lines to begin warmups and as they did, Robby stood beside Hawk, grabbing him by the arm to stop him from walking away, and to cause Hawk to turn to face him.

"Hey. Thank you." Robby sincerely told him. He was genuinely ecstatic, if a little surprised, that Hawk had decided not to press charges against Marcos. Robby knew just how rough Marcos' life was from the snippets that Marcos had told him the day before. He didn't deserve to have his miseries compounded so heavily by having charges pressed against him for the mistake that he made.

"No problem. Least I could do right?" Hawk said. "You kinda saved my ass last night."

"I would've done it for anyone here." Robby replied. Hawk nodded.

"I know." Hawk responded. "And I'm sorry I ever called you a traitor to this dojo."

"Forget about it." Robby told him. "Besides, now with all of this petty fighting out of the way, we can finally start training to win the Taikai, right?"

Hawk smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. I need to be ready to go 2-0 against you." He responded cockily, to which Robby laughed and rolled his eyes.

Training began a few moments later, with the students working tirelessly for nearly 2 hours before Daniel and Johnny finally called it quits and told them that they were done. Midway through the training session, Chozen and Barnes had both arrived, and for while the four senseis all disappeared to discuss something in the indoor dojo as the students all remained outside, confused. They stood around, raising eyebrows at the closed door of the Miyagi-Do dojo, their curiosity mounting as they saw their senseis all walk out together and face the group.

"QUIET!" Johnny bellowed, immediately shutting up every student and snapping them all to attention.

"Look, Johnny and I just finished telling Chozen and Barnes about what happened last night." Daniel told them. "We all agreed that it would probably be worth it to get out of the Valley for a little while. Get away from everything that's been happening with Cobra Kai, hopefully giving everyone a bit of time to cool off."

"Where are we going?" Miguel asked, confused.

"Camping." Daniel replied. "We can go for maybe 2 or 3 nights out in the forest. It would give us a chance to do some karate while out in nature, as well as bond as a team. It'll be a great way for us all to reset before heading into this next term, when I know there are going to be a lot of stresses with schoolwork, colleges and the Taikai. Don't worry, you'll all still have nearly 2 weeks of holiday left after we get back to relax and do whatever you want. What do you think, guys?"

The Miyagi-Dos all looked around at each other, nodding approvingly.

"Yeah, let's do it…"

A/N:

I'm really sorry if this chapter wasn't the best. It's been a really, really shitty day. Unfortunately, a classmate and friend of mine took his own life late last night so my mind hasn't really been in the best place all day. Writing's helped distract me from that a bit, but the quality probably isn't really up there on this chapter