CHAPTER 88

"Ah… what a pleasant surprise. I had a feeling you'd be back, Johnny." Silver remarked as he watched the man sit in the seat before him, raising a plastic telephone to his ear so they could talk through the prison's plexiglass barrier.

"Terry." Kreese grunted in greeting, once again preparing himself for another conversation with the man. He was guarded, weary of any kind of games that Silver loved to play to try and get into his head.

"What's up, Johnny? You here for another favor? Another paycheck?" Silver asked. "How'd the last one go by the way? The trip for your two champions?"

"Not here for a favor. Just hear to… thank you for organizing the trip for my students." Kreese muttered, having to force the words from his tongue, his entire body fighting him as he said so. Silver smiled kindly at him and nodded.

"Not a problem, Johnny. No problem at all." Silver replied. "How'd it go anyways?"

Kreese smirked.

"You'll love this. My students weren't able to get in with lessons at the actual Miyagi-Do dojo. But they ended up finding Chozen Toguchi's sensei himself to teach them. He taught them the exact same things Toguchi is teaching his students in the Valley right now, so we now know how to use and counter some of them."

Silver chuckled.

"Perfect. That's just perfect." He grinned widely. "Glad to hear the trip went to good use. Better than we could've imagined by the sounds of it."

"Thanks to you. We couldn't have done it without you, Terry. Really." Kreese replied with genuine sincerity in his tone. For a moment, mutual respect lingered in the air between the two of them. They were transported back to the good old days, before the most recent All-Valley, when they were allies. No, they were more than that. They were friends. Soldiers. Brothers. Family. At least, they used to be. And although they wouldn't admit it, both men missed having someone to look over their shoulder for them.

"Don't sweat it. And if you need anything else, don't be afraid to ask. I only want what's best for our dojo, for Cobra Kai." Silver told him.

"Thank you." Kreese said. "Anyways… I also thought you might want to know, I just received a long letter from the Sekai Taikai committee. It describes all the rules and everything we need to know about the tournament."

"Whatever they've told you, I guarantee I already know it." Silver responded confidently. "6 fighters? 2 days worth of preliminaries, a round of 16, quarter final and semi final all with first to 5 point rules? A final with MMA style rules? Plenty of cameras and television networks turning the whole thing into a reality TV show/soap opera? Remember, I've been trying to get Cobra Kai into the tournament since the 70s."

"That last part, the television and everything… that was you, wasn't it?" Kreese asked him. Silver shook his head.

"From what I've heard, they've actually been televising this tournament across Japan for almost a decade now." Silver informed him. "But… in the past few months, a certain company named Dinatox might have come forward and written a small paycheck to help them expand the tournament further. I hear their old CEO was a generous, avid supporter of the sport."

"Nice. So we have a bigger stage for the world to watch Cobra Kai get their asses kicked on live TV." Kreese muttered, to which Silver raised an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't say that. If anything, I'd call us favorites to win." Silver commented. Kreese nodded.

"We are. We have 1 fighter capable of winning in each division. I'm not worried about us beating Miyagi-Do." Kreese replied. "But we have 5 other fighters on the team who are, no matter how much we work with them, subpar at best."

Silver nodded thoughtfully.

"Right. Remind me again, who are the 6 fighters you have fighting for your side?" Silver asked. "It's your male champion, Oliveira. Your female one. Then I assume Kenny Payne?"

"Yes. Mr. Payne and his older brother are both competing for us." Kreese replied. Silver raised an eyebrow.

"Ah. The famous brother. He's finally out of juvie? That's good to hear." Silver remarked. "So that's 4 fighters. Who are the other two?"

"It's between 3 fighters. Kyler Park. Piper Elswith. Mitch Graham." Kreese said. Silver winced.

"That's not good at all." He commented. "My advice?"

"Please." Kreese encouraged him.

"Take Park and Elswith." Silver said. "Kyler might not be the best fighter, but at least he follows orders. He won't hesitate to do what he's told, even if you tell him to injure a Miyagi-Do, to try and eliminate them from contention. And for Piper… well it definitely could be useful to have another female competitor, just in case something happens to the champion you have. Even if she's unlikely to win, at least it'd be better than nothing like it would be if your actual champion had to drop out and you have no replacement."

Kreese slowly nodded, taking in all of this information. Silver was ever calculated. He treated life like a game of chess, always thinking three moves ahead. It had been what had kept both of them alive in times of war and other times of struggle, and it had also what had made him a scary amount of money throughout his lifetime. It was intelligent thinking by Silver, even in only a few seconds of being approached with the problem, and it only reminded Kreese of what a useful lieutenant the pony-tailed man had been.

"You know, there's one other thing you aren't thinking about." Silver remarked. Kreese raised an eyebrow questioningly at him and Silver nodded. "The Senseis' division."

Kreese sighed. He knew exactly what sales pitch was coming. Silver sensed the man's reluctance and the slight annoyance on the sensei's face and Silver shook his head.

"Come on, Johnny. You know I'm right." Silver replied. "Whether you want to face it or not, Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso are two extremely skilled opponents. With just Kim Da-Eun at your side, even with all of her knowledge and wisdom from her grandfather, I don't think you have what it takes to beat them."

"And you think that you would?" Kreese snapped. "Don't forget who saved your ass countless times when we were overseas."

Silver chuckled.

"Come on, Johnny. We both know that you were a better soldier than me. But when we became senseis and went back to Korea, let's not pretend that I wasn't the one who picked up Sensei Kim Sun-Yung's teachings better. You were a man of fierce honor, you still are. Which is why I was able to work the traps - the slippery, snake-like style - a bit better. I know that I have what it takes to beat Larusso or Lawrence, whoever I'm asked to fight."

"Whoever we have to fight, I will be there to beat them. We don't need you." Kreese responded gruffly. Silver sighed.

"Fine. I know that I can't force you. All I can do is advise." Silver said. "And I'd advise you to remember our days overseas. Who was a more lethal soldier? The man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, or the man with nothing to lose? Because right now, I have nothing to lose. I have no way of knowing if I'll even live to see the day of the Taikai. But provided I do, there's going to be no one who will put their body on the line more than me. This I can assure you."

Kreese leaned forward a little, looking Silver right in the eye as he spoke again.

"Let's make something clear, Terry. You will never return to my dojo. You lost that right when you went behind my back. It will be Kim and myself fighting for us in the Taikai. That's it." Kreese replied. A flash of anger rippled across Silver's face, but it quickly disappeared.

"I understand. And once again, I am truly, truly sorry for what I did." Silver replied. "But with or without me fighting, we shouldn't be too worried. Nobody remembers who comes second, or third, or fourth, or fifth, or sixth, let alone those who don't even make an imprint on the top standings at all. All that matters is who wins, and right now, we are most certainly in the driver's seat, especially with the Taikai rules."

"How so?" Kreese asked.

"The disadvantage of our champions never having competed in a Karate tournament goes away." Silver replied. "And not only that, but from what I've heard about your boy, about Oliveira, he's not suited for a point spar anyways. From what it sounds like, he's a lot like you and me. He's a warrior. A soldier. Someone who's willing to lay his body on the line without even hesitating, pushing himself past human limits, all to get that win. That will surely come into play when fighting a continuous, non-point fight. It'll be what, in the end, makes us beat them…"