CHAPTER 35
"All right! The time has finally come to announce the matchups and the bracket for the quarter finals of this year's All-Valley!" Ron announced. The 8 fighters and their respective senseis all stood on the mat, waiting nervously to hear who they would be fighting.
"The first quarter final will be none other than the All Valley champ himself Eagle-Fang's Miguel Diaz against a first-time competitor, from Cobra Kai, Shawn Payne!"
Both Miguel and Johnny winced. After Robby, Shawn was probably the worst person Miguel could have drawn. Shawn was almost definitely on steroids or something. He had become insanely muscular in an extremely short period of time, his new build and height not dissimilar to that of Lebron James. Kreese and Shawn both leered at Johnny and Miguel, and Miguel closed his eyes, trying to stay calm but in reality, he was freaking out. Johnny put a hand on his shoulder.
"You got this." Johnny murmured to him. Miguel nodded.
"The next quarter final matchup…" Ron announced, opening a slip of paper. "Ooh, this one's going to be good! We have got our two remaining female competitors, Samantha Larusso from Miyagi-Do and Tory Nichols from Cobra Kai, the winner of whom taking on the winner of the Diaz vs. Payne fight in Semi Final 1!"
The Eagle-Fangs' jaws dropped and they all looked over at Sam and Daniel, whose faces had paled, and then looked at Tory, who looked extremely hungry for the fight. That was NOT going to be a clean fight.
Up in the stands, as soon as Amanda heard the matchup, she was about to stand up and object but she quickly felt herself pulled back by Carmen.
"Don't do it. You'll make it worse." Carmen whispered to her. Amanda shook her head, furiously.
"I can't let my daughter fight that monster!" Amanda exclaimed.
"There's nothing you can do. Don't worry. It's all very controlled. You've got a referee, 2 senseis from your dojo and 2 senseis from Miguel's that will step in if something is about to happen. Samantha's going to be fine."
Amanda took a deep calming breath and nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. It'll be fine." Amanda mumbled to herself, before turning her attention back to the mat.
"Those are the left half of the bracket. The first quarter final matchup of the right half of the bracket is… from Eagle-Fang dojo, one of last year's semi finalists, Hawk!"
Hawk nodded and looked on extremely nervously. There were three people he could be facing, and two of them are people that he had hoped he wouldn't have to fight until at least the semi finalists. Please let him draw Xander. That Topanga pussy was his best bet at making it to the semis. He knew that Robby was a better fighter than him, and he knew that fighting Kyler would bring back all of those freshman year bullying memories and possibly compromise his performance.
"Fighting against Hawk, from the Cobra Kai dojo, Kyler Seo!"
Hawk clenched his jaw in anger as he stared down at Kyler. Kyler's grin slightly faded when Hawk locked eyes with him. Hawk's beatdown of Brucks was still fresh in his mind.
"Leaving the final quarter final as Cobra Kai's last year's finalist Robby Keene, against Topenga's Karate Xander Stone, the winner of whom to fight the winner of Hawk against Kyler in Semi Final 2."
As each dojo took in their various matchups, one thing was clear: Kreese had clearly rigged the matchups in his favour! Why else would Sam, Hawk and Miguel be fighting the mentally and physically toughest opponents, while Robby took on an absolute wimp?!
"Okay, we're going to take a 10 minute break, but after that, Miguel Diaz and Shawn Payne are going to battle it out here on mat 1. See you in 10 minutes folks!"
Once they were officially on break, the Eagle Fangs turned to each other, furious.
"This is fucked up!" Miguel exclaimed. "Kreese clearly picked and chose each match up to be best for the Cobras."
"Excuse me?" A voice came from behind them. The Eagle Fangs spun around to face Kreese, and Johnny immediately shoved him, his face red with rage.
"Was this your plan all along?!" Johnny shouted. "Threaten the All-Valley into rigging the matchups in your favor?!"
"I resent that accusation." Kreese said, calmly and calculated. "I would never disgrace the name of this great establishment and…"
Johnny didn't let Kreese finish his sentence. He shoved Kreese backwards again, and Kreese stumbled back, but the villain didn't lose his evil expression. He merely chuckled.
"Now, now, Johnny. I recommend you don't lay another hand on me. You wouldn't want to get thrown out and force your students to fight without a sensei, would you?"
Johnny forced himself to calm down as he knew Kreese was right. Now that they had a bracket, there was no chance in hell he was leaving his students alone. Kreese smiled.
"Good choice. Besides, Diaz doesn't seem to be complaining. He looks a little… preoccupied."
Johnny turned around to look at Miguel, and his eyes widened when he saw the expression on Miguel's face. Miguel did NOT look okay. His face was as white as a sheet, and he looked like he was about to hurl. His eyes, wide as saucers, were fixed on one person in the front row of the stands. Johnny followed Miguel's gaze to the person he was looking at, and when he saw who it was, his skin crawled…
It was Miguel's dad! Somehow, he had gotten out of jail, and he was sitting right in the stands.
"What's… what's… what's he doing here?" Miguel eventually stammered when he got over the worst of his shock. Johnny scowled.
"I don't know. Son of a bitch is meant to be in jail." Johnny growled, and he stormed over to the man.
He made it over to Miguel's dad moments later, who smiled and waved at him.
"What did I tell you would happen if I ever saw you again?" Johnny snarled, as he drew his fist back, ready to punch the crap out of the man. Before he could though, a guard stepped in front of him. That's when Johnny realised… Miguel's father was still in jail. He was wearing handcuffs that proved just that. But somehow, he had convinced the prison to let him out for the day.
Johnny turned around and saw Silver, who had now rejoined Barnes and Kreese, and the tall monster blew him a kiss mockingly. Johnny's hands balled into fists again.
"Oh hell no." He growled, and he took off across the arena. However, rather than charging at the three Cobra Kai senseis, he stormed straight into the All-Valley committee office at the corner of the room.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys?!" Johnny shouted. The All-Valley committee looked at him, shocked.
"Mr. Lawrence? Is something wrong?" One of them asked. Johnny scowled.
"You're damn right something's wrong! Why the hell is a convicted felon in the stands?!"
"Is this about Mr. Diaz? Yeah, the prison let him out for a day to watch his son defend his All-Valley crown, less than a year after breaking his back. It's great, isn't it?"
"Yeah, great." Johnny chuckled mirthlessly. "You seriously think it's good idea for a man who traumatised his child and was arrested on numerous charges of child abuse to be allowed within 5 feet of said child? You don't think this is taking a toll on my kid?"
"He was arrested for child abuse?" One of the All-Valley members asked in a small voice. That's when Johnny realised…
"You don't know, do you? What he did to Miguel." Johnny stated. "That man terrorised my step-son. He even tried to kill him. You don't know how many nightmares Miguel has had about that man, and you just let him out of jail and let him back into Miguel's life?!"
The All-Valley committee members looked at each other, nervous and in shock.
"I guess we could ask him to leave." One of the members eventually said.
"Hold on one moment." A voice came from the entrance of the room, and Kreese himself walked in. Johnny scowled at him but forced himself to keep his hands to himself. "Esteemed All-Valley committee. My name is…"
"John Kreese. Yes. Cobra Kai sensei. We know." One of the members said. Kreese nodded.
"Yeah. I don't know how many of you know this but I was in the Vietnam War, and I was actually taken hostage by enemy forces so I know one or two things about being imprisoned. I remember sitting in my cell in 'Nam, watching and listening to screams of pain from my fellow captive soldiers around me as they were being killed. You have a single light bulb on the ceiling, your only source of light in the dark, dank hole. You watch it as it flickers. Flickers. Flickers. You are captivated by it. It is your only source of entertainment and will be until the day the Vietnamese finally show mercy and just pull the trigger on you. Slowly, day by day, you feel the cell getting smaller. Shrinking. The walls closing in. It becomes harder and harder to breathe. That last string of sanity inside you finally snaps, and you go completely insane. But the worst part… there is nothing you can do. You are never going to leave that cell. You eat there, sleep there, shit there, die there. Mr. Diaz is going to die in prison, there is no doubt of that. He has life without parole. And his last wish was to see his son do karate one time before he died. As human beings, don't we owe him that at least?"
Kreese was an expert spokesperson, there was no doubt about that. The way he spoke so manipulatively yet eloquently… it was definitely unrivalled by Johnny. Sure enough, Mr. Diaz was allowed to stay, and Johnny slammed the door as he stormed out of the room. He walked over to Miguel, who looked at him hopefully.
"So…?" Miguel asked, tentatively. Johnny sighed and shook his head.
"I'm sorry, kid." He murmured. "I tried."
Miguel nodded and put his head in his hands. He was a mess, but before he could say anything and start to process this, he was called back to the mat for his quarter final match with Shawn. Miguel's heart was pounding even more now, and he felt like he was about to throw up. As he walked back towards the mat, Johnny looked at him, extremely worried. He could tell his student's head was NOWHERE NEAR in the right place, and he was probably not even at his half capacity.
Miguel said a quick silent prayer before stepping onto the mat, listening to the cheering of the crowd. Shawn joined him moments later, a ref and the announcer immediately stepping between them to prevent an early altercation. Meanwhile, the other dojos had taken their seats in the side of the stands. As Daniel and Sam took their place in the stands, they watched on nervously. They knew exactly who was in the stands, and they couldn't believe he had been allowed out. However, a more pressing thing on their minds was Sam's upcoming match with Tory.
As Miguel and Shawn stood facing the audience, the announcer held the microphone up.
"ITTTTTTT'S TIMMEEEEEEEE!" Ron exclaimed gleefully. "All right, before we start, Miguel, Shawn, do you two have anything to say about each other and your upcoming fight?"
"Miggy Mouse, you want to start?" Shawn spat, trying to insult Miguel. Miguel merely rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"No, please. Ladies first." He coolly replied. Shawn's face flushed red with rage.
"All I'm gonna say is I'm gonna thank him that he and I have never properly fought before, because if we did, he'd be in a box in the ground and I'd be in a cell." Shawn snarled. Miguel chuckled.
"Mate… shut the fuck up." Miguel drawled in reply. The announcer quickly pulled the mic away from them as he could tell things were getting heated.
"All right! Are you guys ready for the fight?!"
The crowd all cheered, but Ron shook his head.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you guys over the sound of a butterfly flapping its wings. I said ARE YOU READY FOR THE FIGHT?!"
The audience cheered a lot more. This year, the All-Valley were clearly making the tournament less of a competition, and more of an event. It was a lot more of a spectacle, with the trash talking, the announcing and everything. However, there was absolutely nothing more to do than fight, so the referee and the two fighters prepared for the fight ahead.
"All right. Bow!" The referee instructed. Miguel and Shawn rather reluctantly bowed to each other, and moments later, the fight began…