CHAPTER 18

The next morning, the first person in the entire Valley to awake was Daniel Larusso. He could barely sleep the entire night and by 5:30, he just gave up and got out of bed. His body was a bundle of nervous anticipation. Today marked a new era in the rich history of Miyagi-Do karate. Sure it was an era that he had wished with every fiber of his being that it wouldn't come to, but it was a new era all the same. It was an era where his students would be better trained than ever as they'd be learning from not one but two Miyagi-Do senseis, but it was also one that could potentially have them fighting for their lives at some point. Daniel truly wished that he didn't have to be doing this, that Miyagi-Do had won the tournament, and he shouldered a lot of the blame for that. Sam was right. If he had just found a way to work with Johnny, in addition to better-equipping their students in terms of skills, their dojos would've been combined and their points combined, which would've made them win over Cobra Kai in the tournament. Not to mention that sparring-wise, teaming up had clearly proven to be the right call. The two Miyagi-Do students to make the final: Sam who had been actively training under Johnny; and Hawk who had trained under Johnny for 8 months. Maybe with the right training, Demetri, Miguel, or even that Devon girl in Johnny's dojo could've pulled off a surprise upset over the Cobra Kai students to grant Miyagi-Do victory.

Although Daniel was up before the sun even rose, he had to bite the bullet and bear the agonizing wait of 3 hours before he could start getting ready for Miyagi-Do training. He went through the lesson day for that day in his head - not that he needed to given that it was virtually all he had been thinking about all night - and the ghost of a smile creeped onto his face. Chozen had agreed to help him! Miyagi-Do had more of a chance than ever to stand up to Cobra Kai and stay safe.

At around 6:30, as Daniel sat in the living room, sipping his cup of coffee, he heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Looking up, Daniel saw Amanda walk into the room and he smiled at her, getting up and kissing his wife.

"Morning." He murmured.

"Morning." She said, raising an eyebrow. "You seem cheerful."

Daniel smiled wider.

"It's a beautiful day. How can I not be?" Daniel remarked. Amanda shrugged.

"I don't know. Just the past week, the whole losing the tournament thing kind of seemed to have gotten you down slightly. Then the whole daughter sneaking off to the murder capital of the world… that seemed to have annoyed you a little." Amanda remarked sarcastically. Daniel's smile thinned slightly at the reminder of these things but he shook his head.

"You know what? Sam's safe. Miyagi-Do's entering a new era. Everything's great." Daniel replied, his grin returning. "How is Sam doing by the way?"

Amanda's smile at seeing her husband so happy faded at the mention of their daughter, and she shook her head.

"I don't know, Daniel. I've never seen her like this before." Amanda murmured. "When we grounded her last night… she just kind of took it. She didn't even put up a fight. I've never seen her so defeated. I think something happened to her in Mexico."

"You don't think someone… did something to her over there, did you?" Daniel asked, worriedly. Amanda shook her head.

"I think that if that happened, Sam would be in a much worse state. And I think you'd probably be able to see on the news Miguel and Johnny waging war on the entire country of Mexico." Amanda replied. Daniel nodded.

"Well given that Sam seemed really upset last night, I'm going to guess that Miguel decided to stay in Mexico." Daniel suggested. Amanda raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know about that. If Miguel had decided to stay in Mexico, I think Sam would also still be there right now unless something went wrong between them." She commented. "Maybe they broke up."

"No way. No way they broke up. Miguel wouldn't do that."

"You're right. He wouldn't. That's why it so happens that I broke up with him." A voice came from behind both Amanda and Daniel. The pair spun around to see Sam behind them. But it wasn't the same Sam they had seen last night. No, any trace of that tear-streaked, devastated, defeated face had been washed away and in its place stood a clean, smiling Sam.

Daniel and Amanda looked at each other in shock, and then at their daughter in confusion at the weirdly happy look on her face.

"You… you broke up? Why?" Amanda asked, slightly upset. She had always liked Miguel, a lot more than either Kyler and even Robby to be honest. Sam looked down and her smile dimmed slightly, before she shook her head.

"I don't feel like going into detail right now." She mumbled. Daniel nodded.

"Okay, fine, but why do you look so happy about it?" He asked, suspiciously. "Miguel didn't try anything with you, did he?!"

Sam scowled at him.

"No! Dad! Why is that always the first thing you ask whenever I break up with someone?!" Sam exclaimed angrily. Daniel shrugged.

"Sorry. It's just… have a daughter, then you'll see." Daniel responded.

"Well so if it wasn't that, how come you two broke up?" Amanda asked, curiously. Sam sighed, staring at her feet.

"We just had different interests, I guess. He wanted to stay in Mexico longer. I didn't think I could handle that worry much longer without going mentally insane. That's the jist of it." Sam murmured.

"Sam, I'm… I'm so sorry." Daniel said softly, his voice filled with sympathy. "I know how much you liked him. Do you need anything?"

Sam shook her head.

"Dad, I'm fine. Trust me. I just need to get him out of my head so I need to get to training as soon as possible. That is, provided I'm allowed to go, given that I've been grounded for how long? Oh yeah, until every brown hair on my head turns snow-white, isn't that right Dad?"

Daniel chuckled, remembering his outburst the night before, and he nodded.

"Of course you can come train." He replied. "Come on, let's get going now…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"The hell is this?" Miguel murmured, walking into the living room for training that morning to see a wall in the center of the room. Literally. A brick wall of about 6 feet had been built and painted on it in thick white paint was the outline of a stick figure. The figure contained a long body, legs, arms, and even a face complete with eyes and a smile.

At that moment, the door swung open again and Manuel strided into the room, smiling as he saw his son already there.

"Ah, you're awake! And here I was thinking you were physically incapable of waking up before 12 pm!"

Miguel laughed and shrugged. Normally, that was indeed true, but last night he hadn't slept a wink. He had been too busy coming to terms with the bombshell that had been breaking up with Sam. His body had been wracked with grief. It had been numb in shock. It had been trembling with anger. A whole host of feelings had rushed through his body like he was withdrawing from an addictive drug. However, while this all felt like he was going through a tunnel, when he came through the other side, at around 3 am that morning, he realised something. The guilt that had weighed so heavily on his shoulders since he left the Valley had lightened considerably. Sam had been a main reason why every night, when his head hit the pillow, he would begin to contemplate whether he should go back to L.A. Well now, that main reason was gone, he had realised, so the reasons to stay by far outweighed reasons to leave. Who was he going back home to? The mom and yaya who he had spent 17 years with, or should he stay with the dad he had only gotten to spend 2 weeks with? It was obvious choice in his eyes, but all of that thinking had kept him up the entire night. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that look of pure, unbridled devastation on Sam's face when he had told her he wasn't coming home and he was looking for any opportunity to get it out of his head, even just temporarily. That was why he was so thankful for his father training him. It would give him a temporary distraction as he prepared to take on the tall task of getting over her.

"What can I say? I'm just that excited for today's training session." Miguel murmured. His dad raised an eyebrow.

"That right? Because I'll be honest… I wasn't expecting to see you awake this early. Heard you had a rough night last night."

Miguel's head shot up and he looked at his dad, shocked. How did he know about Sam and what had happened between them?

"Huh?" Miguel grunted, confused.

"Well I heard through the grapevine that you had a run in with a few goons last night in an alley." Manuel stated. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, I was walking home last night and they tried to jump me in an alley." Miguel replied, before looking at his father worriedly. "Wait… you didn't… you didn't hurt them, did you?"

Manuel chuckled and shook his head.

"I didn't have to. I went to go find them and they were already shitting themselves. Apparently you hurt them enough yourself to send them a message to back off."

Miguel nodded and Manuel looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Well… you and 2 friends apparently." He continued. "You didn't tell me you were making friends here."

Miguel sighed and shook his head.

"I'm not. They were friends from back in L.A. My best friend and my girlfriend." Miguel replied, before remembering something. "Well… ex-girlfriend. Got dumped last night."

Manuel placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. You want to talk about it?" He asked. Miguel shook his head.

"Not really. Not much to talk about. She gave me the choice: come home or stay here and get dumped. Not much else to talk about." Miguel mumbled, much to Manuel's shock. "What I would like to do, however, is start this training. Provided the training isn't just painting a person on a wall like you've done here."

Manuel laughed and shook his head.

"What? No, of course it isn't! What kind of fighting training involves painting walls?!"

Miguel couldn't help but smile faintly at the comment, thinking back to Miyagi-Do training all those months ago. It felt like an entire lifetime ago when he was being coached by Mr. Larusso on "painting the fence."

"You'd be surprised." Miguel murmured to himself. Manuel shook his head.

"No, what we're going to work on is accuracy and strength of striking." Manuel explained. "You can hit a man a thousand times and he won't even bat an eye. That is for two reasons: lack of accuracy and lack of power. We're going to work on both right now. Take a look at this man…" Manuel said, pointing at the painting of the man on the brick wall. "If you got into a fight with this man, I want you to focus on striking these following areas: jaw, throat, kidneys, back, groin and knees."

As Manuel explained this, he pointed at the various places on the brick 2D mannequin's body. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"Wait… what about the stomach? The nose? Aren't they like the most common places to hit someone?" Miguel asked. Manuel nodded.

"Sure, if you're trying to start a fight. But if you're trying to finish it, I want you to be aiming at only these 6 places." Manuel replied. "Come on. Try it. Hit the guy's throat."

Miguel nodded and curling his hand into a fist, he let it rip with a massive punch. However, the only effect the blow has was causing his hand to let out a sickening CRUNCH as it made contact with the wall.

"AH! FUCK!" Miguel cried, clutching his hand, feeling his knuckles send throbs of agony up and down his entire arm.

"Come on! Come on! Hit it again!" Manuel demanded. Miguel looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Dad! You have me punching a fucking wall! This shit hurts!" Miguel exclaimed. Manuel shook his head.

"It won't in a second. Because as you hit it again, this time I want you to think about someone who's hurt you! Times where you have felt helpless! Or in excruciating pain! Both physical and emotional! Think about the lowest times of your entire life! The worst people! Channel that anger! Let it fuel you! And then when you've done so, when you feel that anger reaching a climax, like the crescendo of an orchestra, that is when you strike…"