CHAPTER 37

Miguel woke up the next morning, a massive smile still etched on his face as he remembered the events of the night before. He was infinitely happier. He finally had a reason to get out of bed again every morning. The hopelessness he had felt about the future had instantly vanished thanks to Cobra Kai, and he now had an extremely strong chance of having a future that last week he couldn't have even dreamed that he'd be able to have. Not only that, but he also had the chance to grow as an individual and as a fighter, away from everyone he used to know. For so long, he had just been "Johnny's student", copying not only his sensei's karate but also many other parts of Johnny. Johnny's protege, Sam's boyfriend, Manuel's son… all labels that he had now shed, and he was ready to find his own way.

Walking out of his room, he found his mom already in the kitchen and he took a deep, nervous breath. He had made the decision late last night that he wouldn't tell her about him joining Cobra Kai yet. He knew the negative connotations the dojo had, and he wanted to at least wait until his mom could visibly see him doing better before he told her the reason why.

"Hey, mom." Miguel smiled at her as he entered the room. Carmen's head shot up when she saw him, and she eyed him, confused. She hadn't seen Miguel after he left the apartment the night before. He had gone for a walk and had come back long after she was asleep, and given the atrocity that was dinner, she had expected him to be upset. Angry. Frustrated. In a huff. Definitely not beaming at her like he was.

"Hey… you look… happy." Carmen remarked, suspiciously. Her son looked happier than she had seen him in an unbelievably long time, and she had no idea why. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah… yeah, I am. It's a great day." Miguel remarked, grabbing an apple and chomping on it happily. Carmen was left even more confused.

"Um… what?" Carmen stammered, completely at a loss.

"How could I not be happy? It's the summer. Got no school."

"Yeah, sure, but what about… what about last night with Johnny and Robby?" Carmen said, almost afraid to ask. Miguel's face darkened a little, but he quickly hid it by widening his smile.

"Well, I don't have anything against Johnny wanting to support his son. He needed to choose a side and he chose the right side, I guess, finally siding with his kid."

"Miguel…" Carmen murmured, worry in her eyes at Miguel's statement, and at how casually he said it. Not only was it not true, but the amount of calmness in his voice… it was like he didn't even care.

"No, mom, honestly, it's okay." Miguel replied, the smile still not leaving his face. "Besides, I got some great stuff going on in my life. I ran into my work manager when I was on my walk last night and he promoted me! Assistant manager at the restaurant now."

"Oh wow! Congratulations!" Carmen said, the vast majority of her still deeply confused about this interaction.

"Yeah, better hours. MUCH better pay. I'm actually headed to work right now so I'm sorry I can't stay and tell you more about it but I've got to go."

With that, Miguel stood up and tossed his apple core in the garbage, before kissing his mom on the cheek and hurrying out the door, leaving behind his mom who was more confused than ever…

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"So… who do you think Sensei's going to make Cobra Kai's new champion?" Piper asked as her, Kyler, Kenny, Stingray and the other Cobra Kai students met up outside the dojo before training that morning.

"What do you mean?" Kenny asked.

"Well the tournament's over, Tory and Robby are gone. That means that Sensei's going to have to choose a new student to be the leader of Cobra Kai." Piper pointed out.

Well, it's gotta be me. I'm the best fighter here." Kyler remarked cockily, causing everyone to roll their eyes at his attitude.

"Hate to break it to you, Kyler, but it's going to be me. You're all about to enter the year of the Stingray." Stingray remarked, stroking his beard. "I've been spending the past 10 months training hard for this moment. I'm back and I'm ready to kick all of your asses."

"Haha, yeah okay big guy." Kyler rolled his eyes as he replied. They all argued for a couple of minutes, all of them making their pitches as to why they deserved to be Cobra Kai's next champion, though one person didn't speak up: Kenny. The youngest member of the dojo stayed quiet. Secretly, he wanted nothing more than to be Cobra Kai's newest leader. The dojo was singlehandedly the most important part of his life, and he wanted nothing more than to lead it into the next generation. All of the old fighters in the Valley were graduating at the end of this year, so Kenny was hoping that he could be the next champion.

The Cobras all entered the dojo together and to their surprise, there was already a student there. He was dressed in a Cobra Kai gi, but he was someone that they knew very well as one of the key members of their opposition.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing here, 'Rhea?" Kyler snapped, storming over to Miguel, who didn't say a word and merely looked at Kyler, the faintest hint of a scowl still etched on his face.

"Yeah, who the hell let this traitor into our dojo?!" Stingray spat, glaring daggers at his former teammate who had betrayed them for Miyagi-Do.

"I did." A voice came from the back of the room, and they all turned to see Sensei Silver emerging from his office. "Mr. Diaz is our newest student. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

"Sensei… he's not Cobra Kai material." Kyler stammered, his head flicking from Miguel to his sensei, hatred for Miguel in his eyes but afraid to say anything to his sensei that would get him kicked out of the dojo.

"Miguel is a proven champion." Silver replied calmly. "He's won the All-Valley championship with Cobra Kai at the age of 16, something all of you failed to do even at 17. He's trained with all three dojos so has the strengths of all of them. It's a gift to have someone of his experience training with us."

"Yeah, he was fine before, but then he broke his back and then rather than getting revenge on Miyagi-Do for it, he went and joined them." Stingray stated. "And he isn't that good either. He only made the semi final this year. Couldn't even make the final."

"Well if you hadn't been on probation and had actually been at the tournament, you would have seen that Mr. Diaz was well in control of his semi-final fight before his back went out. And he has assured me that the injury isn't an issue anymore and I trust him."

"He's not trustworthy, Sensei!" Kyler exclaimed. "Rh-miguel is literally dating the leader of Miyagi-Do, Samantha Larusso! He'll never be loyal to us when she's around."

Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Kyler, didn't you date her too?" He remarked, before rolling his eyes at the asian boy's stupidity.

"Also, according to Mr. Diaz, him and Daniel Larusso's daughter are no longer an item. I can assure you that Mr. Diaz's loyalty remains fully with us." Silver replied, ending the discussion there. He had no interest in telling them his money deal with Miguel. They didn't need to know that, and it would only cause more trouble than it would ease.

Despite the conversation ending, Kyler, Kenny, Stingray, Piper and the other students all scowled at Miguel, untrustingly, and Silver noticed. He knew that his dojo would never be able to fight off any enemies if they weren't able to trust one another, so he nodded. But before he could open his mouth, someone else cut him off.

"Okay, you guys don't think I'm Cobra Kai material? How about this? All of you against me." Miguel suggested. "If you can score even one point against me, I'll go."

Kyler scoffed.

"No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing this shit again like we did with Robby!" Kyler snapped.

"What's the matter, Mr. Park? Are you afraid? Because as I'm sure you know, fear does not exist in this dojo." Silver drawled. "If any of my Cobras are afraid of confrontation, then I'm afraid I have nothing I can teach you so you can turn around and leave right now. Mr. Diaz's challenge stands. He will fight everyone in this room, and those unwilling to fight can turn around, leave this dojo and not come back."

As expected, nobody headed for the hills. Instead, they all shrugged their backpacks off their shoulders, took off their shoes, and stepped onto the mat, ready for the fight…

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Just like when they had fought Robby, the first person to make a move was Kyler. He charged aggressively at Miguel, and Miguel met him in the air. Instantly, from that moment alone, the Cobra Kais realised that this would be a very different fight though to Robby's. Because while Robby had just come from Miyagi-Do, the most defense-oriented dojo in the Valley, Miguel had come from Eagle-Fang, which had a lot of parallels to Cobra Kai's style. Miguel didn't let them come at him, let them control the pace of the fight. Instead, however, Miguel decided to lunge and make the first move, something that would surely catch them off-guard. Rather than using any karate move, he decided to go with something his dad had taught him, catching Kyler in midair and throwing him to the ground in almost a rugby-style tackle. Him and Miguel hit the ground with a loud THUD, Kyler taking all of the impact and groaning in pain. Miguel meanwhile, quickly rolled away and out of the line of fire, before getting up and facing the other students.

From there, it was an absolute shitshow for the Cobra Kais. Miguel had them covered every step of the way, making it as uneven of a match as Silver and Miguel were the night before. Miguel shocked even Silver with the brutal yet calculating nature the teenager fought with. He refused to step back, not even for a moment, to catch his breath, as he knew that that would only give his opponents time to regroup and recharge. Instead, Miguel had the gas pedal lead footed the entire time. The second person who lunged to fight him was Stingray, and this took even less time than Kyler to finish off. The man was a fat, clumsy, arrogant fool whose karate was absolutely awful. Miguel had no clue why Silver had allowed Stingray back into the dojo. He was admittedly a good presence for morale and comedic relief in tough situations, but that didn't change the fact that his karate skills were non-existent. Miguel ducked his first punch, and let the poorly placed strike swing over his head, causing Stingray to spin so far his back was soon to Miguel. Miguel took advantage, sidekicking the man's back as hard as he could and causing him to go stumbling into an incoming Piper and sending them crashing to the ground, Stingray landing on the smaller girl and taking them both out of the fight.

With Stingray, Piper and Kyler all out of the fight, Miguel then turned to take out all of the unfamiliar members of Cobra Kai. The ones who were always just there to train, but never really made a name for themselves. Sweeping the front of the leg of the first person to come at him, as the boy fell onto his hands and knees in a tabletop position, Miguel took advantage of this, running and putting a foot on the boy's back, launching off it and landing two strikes in mid air to take out two more people. It was an absolutely ridiculous combo and was definitely not something Miguel would try against any top-level fighters like Robby and Hawk, but at this point he was just showing off. He was asserting his dominance as Cobra Kai's new top student, and like a true Cobra, he picked off his prey one by one, not taking a single hit in the process. Soon, there was just one guy left standing… Kenny.

Miguel had never fought the smallest guy in the dojo before. He hadn't been there a year ago when Miguel was in Cobra Kai, and he hadn't fought him in the tournament either, so there was a big question mark over the boy's head in Miguel's eyes. He had seen the guy score a point on Robby in the tournament quarter finals, and then had seen him get his ass knocked out by the older Cobra right after, so Miguel really didn't know what to expect from him. That being said, Miguel didn't turn complacent and he kept himself well-guarded as he inched towards his opponent. Just as well too, as Kenny proved a much tougher opponent than any of the people had faced yet. The boy didn't show any of the hesitation or fear that the others showed when approaching Miguel. Fighting Robby all those times in training had wiped away any fear he had about sparring someone bigger or more skilled them him. Focus on your strengths, that's what Robby had told him. And for Kenny, that was his speed and agility. He whizzed around Miguel, dodging and weaving all of the strikes the former All-Valley champion was throwing at him. He blocked them all and even unleashed a few of his own. Provided they missed the target, they still got Miguel slightly off-balanced and uneasy. He realised that he was going to have to approach this particular opponent differently, use his adaptability to create a new battle plan to the one had used for the others.

Miguel knew that to beat an opponent, you needed to use the opponent's strategy against them. That was just about the only thing he had learned the same from all three dojos. This kid was incredibly quick to be able to slip all of his normally laser-accurate punches, so Miguel decided to try something else. It was ironically something he had learned in Cobra Kai of all places, in the short time he had trained under Sensei Kreese when Johnny was away. Kreese had taught them all about how to fight someone stronger and how to fight someone faster. Miguel needed to use the advice from the latter, which was to continue to push the opponent in one direction, only to quickly counter and change directions later and catch them off-guard. So what Miguel was was he threw a barrage of strikes to Kenny's right, forcing the boy to shift away from them in that direction. Miguel kept forcing him more and more right, the punches and kicks coming in thick and fast, leaving Kenny with no chance to do anything but run away from them. He kept pushing him in the one direction until suddenly, Miguel spun around hit a spinning heel kick. It was a kick that as Kenny continued moving right, ending up connecting with him right in the head, knocking him to the ground.

So Miguel stood tall, standing over all of the fallen students as Silver watched on, impressed. And at that moment, nobody dared to continue doubting Miguel.

"Alright…" Silver called. "Everyone up. If nobody has anything else to say, let's begin the class…"