CHAPTER 53

At that point, the beginner group all left with Sensei Barnes, headed to the nearby second dojo for their beginner class, and that left Silver with the advanced group. That was just for today, as Barnes would normally be with Silver for training apparently, and the beginner classes would be at a different non-conflicting time with the advanced group. This time, however, Silver was the only sensei leading the advanced group, and he faced all of the new and old students with a smile on his face.

"Now… let's get down to business, shall we?" Silver remarked. "Everybody, form a circle. We're going to do some good old-fashioned sparring."

The group all quickly made a loose circle in their traditional sparring formation. It gave all of them the opportunity to eye their new teammates. Miguel was no longer the big man, the alpha, size wise at least. He was pretty much average size and build, and that said a lot about the behemoths he was now standing among.

"Fighting first… Diaz." Silver started. Miguel's face didn't show any emotion whatsoever as he stepped into the center of the circle. If it were up to him, he'd not have wanted to fight first. He wanted to gauge just how good or bad these new recruits were. He wanted to analyse their fighting styles so he would know what to do or not to do. He didn't need to do this normally when facing a new opponent (he hadn't, for example, in the All-Valley), but he felt it necessary here as these were no karate students. And nor were they brash teenagers. They were aggressive young adults whose lives had gone down the shitter, and Miguel could make an educated assumption that Silver was paying to be here.

"And fighting Mr. Diaz will be… you."

Miguel turned around to look at the person Silver had pointed at and he had to raise an eyebrow. He was half-expecting Silver to have picked the largest man of the group for him to fight. The leader of the old guard vs. the leader of the new guard or something like that. But no. Instead, Silver had picked out the smallest of the new students, a girl even smaller than Piper. She seemed latin american, but that's where the similarities with Miguel stopped. She was pretty petite, slimmer than Sam and Tory but a bit bigger than Devon. Her long black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She seemed to be older than him - 19, 20 perhaps. Out of high school but not having graduated by the looks of her. Not someone Miguel would find attractive but he knew that others probably would. That didn't change the fact that he was perplexed as to why Silver had put him against someone seemingly 50 pounds lighter than him.

"Sensei… are you sure about this?" Miguel asked him quietly. Silver didn't reply.

"Alright, take your corners!" He barked, completely ignoring Miguel and the girl who was now scowling daggers at him after his comment to his sensei. "Bow. Ready… Fight."

As Miguel approached the girl, he moved with his hands slightly lowered. He hadn't expected that much of a fight, and even if she attacked him, he could always raise his hands to block. That's where he was wrong. He didn't even have time to blink, let alone block, before he felt a roundhouse kick come slapping against the side of his cheek, sending him stumbling a few feet backwards.

An audible gasp filled the room as the girl landed a kick on the champion within mere seconds of the fight starting, and none were more surprised than Miguel. That kick was faster than he could've possibly imagined, speed he hadn't seen in any fight he had been in before. Not from Robby. Not from Hawk. Not from Kenny. Not from Sam. Not from Tory. No one. Even if he had seen the kick coming, there was no chance he was getting his hands up fast enough to block it.

"1-0 Maria." Silver called, no semblance of bias, shock or any other emotion in his voice. Nothing to make it seem out of the ordinary that his champion was being convincingly beaten right now.

The girl smirked at him cockily as the two retook their places on either side of the circle.

"Who's the bitch now, huh?" She murmured quietly in Miguel's ear, smirking at him as he walked past her and took to the left side of the circle, ready for the fight to continue. Miguel gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw when he heard this, narrowing his eyes at her. Fine, if that's that's how you want to play it, he thought.

"Ready… and fight!"

Miguel had fought plenty of fast opponents before, most recently with Kenny, and he knew that fighting someone like that had a simple formula. He needed to smother their speed, not allow them a chance to use it. So Miguel let loose a vicious roundhouse kick not to the head like the girl had, but to her stomach. He took advantage of his height advantage and long legs and instead launched the kick at the side of her stomachs, right at her kidneys. Of course the kick wasn't exactly unexpected, and it wasn't exactly fast either as Miguel had gone for pure power into the kick, but it meant that the girl needed both her arms to block the kick. As both arms moved left to block the kick, that was when Miguel made his second strike. As the very same leg was hitting the ground, he lifted it again and unleashed a hook kick to the other, undefended side of her head. It was a brutal blow and it knocked the smaller girl to the ground. She was dazed for a moment, but the look quickly transformed into one of fury. Which was why as Miguel walked over to her and held out a hand to help her up, she slapped it away and jumped up on her own.

"Fuck you." She growled quietly. Fine, suit yourself, Miguel internally commented as he slowly retook his corner.

"1-1." Silver announced, still no traces of emotion in his voice. "Ready… fight!"

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The fight ended 3-1 in Miguel's favour but even in victory, it had served as a pretty hefty wake up call for him. These new kids… they were good. Like really good. The reason Miguel had beaten them now was because he had had formal karate training, but as the session went on, he realised that the new students' potential was far greater than his ever could be, as their raw material so to speak was much more valuable. They were faster. Stronger. More agile. Miguel was smarter, for now at least, which gave him the temporary upper hand. But he knew that with formal training, they were going to be monsters. All of them.

At the end of the long, most exhausting training session of the year - though it had only been 2 hours long - Miguel found himself packing up his duffel bag at the side of the dojo, sitting beside Kenny as they did. As hard as the session was for Miguel, it had been much, much harder for Kenny, but that also meant that Kenny had been even more satisfied with himself by the end. He had managed to keep up with the rest of the group to an extent, and he was extremely proud of himself for it.

"Hey, Miguel?" Kenny suddenly asked as Miguel pulled out a water bottle and began to drink some water. "You're pretty good with girls, right?"

Miguel very nearly choked on his water when he heard this, and he couldn't help but laugh at the comment.

"Well, I've dated 2 girls in my life, and at one point they started a fight to the death over me. So I guess the answer to that question is either no not at all, or yes very." He joked. "Why, what's up?"

Kenny took a deep breath before explaining.

"So there's this girl, okay? This girl in school." He said. Immediately, with that single sentence, Miguel felt himself dragged back a year and 7 months ago, when he first started crushing on Sam. He remembered that conversation he had had with Johnny way back when.

"Well there's a girl at school." Miguel explained nervously as he walked into Johnny's office during training. This was the first time Miguel had come to Johnny with non-karate related advice, and he was pretty nervous as to what the man would say. I mean Miguel had no idea what to expect with girl advice from his sensei after the advice he had gotten about too much homework conflicting with training. He highly doubted that banging Sam's head against a locker until she agreed to go out with him was the best advice in the same way that banging a teacher's head against a table until they gave him a homework extension was awful advice too.

"She hot?" Johnny asked, smirking at him.

"She's super smart." Miguel continued, ignoring him.

"Hot?" Johnny asked again.

"Funny and cool." Miguel added.

"Hot?" Johnny persisted. Miguel sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, she's hot. Super hot." Miguel admitted.

"Nice." Johnny grinned.

"I think you'd really like her." Miguel remarked. "I mean she knows karate and everything. I want to ask her out but I just don't know how…"

That had been the first time Johnny had given Miguel some non-karate and yet still successful advice, and it had been a massive stepping stone in his relationship. At that moment, Miguel had known that Johnny truly had his best interests at heart. He wasn't just some student or just some neighbour. It couldn't help but make Miguel wonder if the man might still…

"So she's really kind and funny and amazing." Kenny continued, pulling Miguel back to the present.

"That's great, man. You ask her out?" Miguel asked. Kenny smiled faintly and nodded.

"I did. And she said yes!" Kenny exclaimed.

"Wow, that's awesome man. I'm happy for you." Miguel murmured. Kenny smiled at him again.

"Thanks. We're going out tonight and I, uh… I kind of need some advice because I've never taken a girl out before. Where do you think I should take her?"

Miguel couldn't help but grin faintly at this as once again, he remembered that other conversation he had had with Johnny right before he had gone out with Sam for the first time…

"Come in!" Johnny called, and Miguel walked into his apartment. They could both sense the nerves coming off each other as both of them embarked on situations they found equally terrifying and out of their comfort zones. It was ironic, if the roles were reversed, the situations were perfect for one another. Johnny going on a first date with a girl, and Miguel debating and public speaking… it would've been perfect, but the universe said no thank you. Instead, they had been dropped into their kryptonite of a situation.

"Hey. You nervous for your meeting?" Miguel asked as he walked over to his sensei.

"I'm not nervous. I'm pissed off." Johnny snapped, although his stressed tone told a completely different story. Miguel sighed, knowing how easily his sensei could fly off the handle and how much it could cost Cobra Kai.

"Look, you have to be nice to these people." Miguel said, practically pleading with Johnny to retract the claws. "So if you get pissed off, what are you going to do?"

"Usually I just punch the guy." Johnny remarked, and Miguel winced. This was going to be an absolute shitshow, and the only consolation Miguel had was that he wouldn't have to be there for it.

"Yeah, that's not going to work." Miguel murmured. His mind whirred as he thought about any way he could potentially calm Johnny down. "How about this? How about whenever someone makes you angry, you make a fist like you're gonna punch them, but you don't punch them?"

Shockingly, Johnny actually found the advice useful - very surprisingly as it was pretty garbage advice. But he accepted it all the same, and all Miguel could do was pray it worked. He knew there was no other option. It was a hail mary. And it gave Miguel a temporary problem to think about and distract himself from the nerves of the upcoming date.

"What about you? You nervous for your date?" Johnny asked, as they moved away from his problem. Miguel sighed, feeling the anxious come crashing back.

"Yeah. Um… a little. A lot." Miguel eventually admitted. The pair then had a quick back and forth, where Johnny gave Miguel yet more advice: kiss the girl. He somehow managed to push more and more confidence into Miguel's terrified body, while making him more scared at the same time.

"Where are you taking this chick anyway?"

As Miguel internally recounted the story, a smile graced his lips as he remembered the advice. Back in those days when his life was peak. He had some semblance of a father figure in his life. One who wasn't obviously trying to use him as a figurehead in a war. Or literally trying to kill him. Just a middle-aged man with anger issues, just like any other dad!

"Yeah. Yeah, I know where you should take her." Miguel eventually replied, telling Kenny about the old arcade that Johnny had told him about, and now he in turn was telling the next generation of Cobra Kai about where to take a girl on a first date. When he told him, Kenny nodded eagerly.

"Thanks, Miguel." He said. Miguel smiled.

"Yeah, no problem." Miguel replied.

"Hey, are you doing something tonight?" Kenny asked him. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Now, Kenny, when I gave you that advice it wasn't for you to ask me out." Miguel joked. Kenny laughed and shook his head.

"No, I, um… I was wondering if you would be able to drive me there tonight. My mom's working long hours tonight so I don't exactly have a ride."

Miguel nodded at him and stood up.

"No problem. Just text me when and I'll be there…"