Chapter 59: Qualifying Fights
James's POV:
I felt numb talking to the police. I felt numb exchanging contact info with Sandy. I felt numb leaving the beach. I felt numb as Brian left and I went back to my house.
"James? Are you okay?" My dad asks. I say nothing. I enter my room and pass out on my bed.
Later…
It didn't really register to me that I had slept until the next day. I woke up, face down on my bed, still wearing my jacket and shoes. I look at my watch and my eyes widen. The Sekai Taikai qualifying fights were in an hour. For a second, I consider not going. I didn't really feel well after what had just happened yesterday. I still felt…weak, like I couldn't move. However, I repress those feelings. I slowly get out of bed and change into my Miyagi-Do gi. Everything still feels numb. I should be excited or nervous. Instead, I feel nothing. I haven't felt this way since…my brother passed away. I slowly exit my room.
"James, are you okay? You seemed…off when you got home last night." My dad says.
"To be honest, I'm not okay. But I have to pretend to be. Something….something horrible happened yesterday. I can't talk about it right now. Miyagi-Fang is fighting for a spot in the Sekai Taikai tournament and I have to be supportive. I promise, I'll tell you what happened when I get back. I'm done hiding secrets." I say. My dad nods. I then leave the house, ready to get to the Miyagi-Do dojo.
Later…
The last thing I expected was to be inside the Cobra Kai dojo. Terry Silver offered to host the fights here. Brian and I entered in our Miyagi-Do gis while Chase and Emma entered in their Eagle Fang gis.
"This place is insane." Miguel says.
"Cobra Kai definitely got an upgrade since I was here." Chase says. Emma, Brian, and I had all seen the dojo before so we kept our cool. We walk over and stand on the left side of the mat.
"James, you okay?" Brian asks. He noticed that I had begun to stare off into space.
"Uh…not really, no." I confess.
"I understand. I can't get that picture out of my head either." Brian says. I try to push what happened to the back of my mind and focus on the upcoming fights. Even though Eli and Sam, two of the best fighters in Miyagi-Do, were competing, I still felt nervous.
"Good luck you two." I say to Eli and Sam. They both nod at me. I look at the Cobra Kai side. I see Kyler, Kenny, and Aaron. Aaron seems to have a bruise on his face. What happened? On the girls side, I notice Tory, Devon, and Violet. Violet also has a bruise on her face. It sucked that those three were in Cobra Kai. They were good people who did bad things. It honestly hurt a lot. I remember how nice Violet was before she got corrupted. That's when I notice Kenny approaching Robby. I decide to listen in on their conversation.
"Now that's some messed up shit. You're training the kid who bullied me." Kenny says.
"Heard you're the one doing the bullying now." Robby says.
"Oh, he deserves everything that comes to him." Kenny says.
"I don't think you actually believe that. Listen, I know how things can get bigger and bigger until all you feel is hate. I've been there." Robby says before looking at Miguel. "I'm telling you, it is so much better to let that hate go. You and Anthony might actually get along if you got to know each other, you just got to hash things out." Robby says.
"Right, he made my life a living hell. He's the reason I came to you in the first place!" Kenny says aggressively. He pauses before speaking again. "You know what, you're lucky you're not on the mat today. Guess Hawk will have to do." He says before walking away. I'm a little surprised. I had no idea Anthony used to bully Kenny. Without thinking, I follow Kenny to the Cobra Kai side.
"Hey." I say. Kenny glares at me.
"What do you want?" Kenny asks.
"Listen, I understand perfectly what you went through." I say.
"Yeah, you don't know shit." Kenny says.
"The whole reason I joined Miyagi-Do was because Steve and Cobra Kai were bullying me. I wanted to get back at him, hurt him. I was mad at myself for not being strong enough that I pushed myself to exhaustion multiple times. I also started to become an angry person, just like you." I say.
"What's your point?" Kenny asks.
"I…I fought Steve several times and won. But winning didn't make me feel better. It might have, in the moment, but things didn't really change. It was only after I started to let go of my resentment that I began to feel whole again." I say.
"Cool story. Do you think this excuses you from what you did to us?" Kenny asks.
"No, that's not what I'm saying." I try to explain.
"The reason I target Anthony is because he deserves everything that happens to him. You attacked and hurt people who didn't do anything to you! Brian and that Cobra whose hand you broke, they didn't deserve it. You thought they were bad people just because they were in Cobra Kai. Steve was in juvie, yet you still went and hurt innocent people." Kenny says.
"Kenny, you're not listening." I say.
"Oh, he heard you." Violet says before approaching me.
"Violet…" I begin to say.
"You're a monster. You hurt Brian for no reason. Your friends, Emma and Chase, got Aaron and I assaulted in a parking garage. All you Miyagi-Fangs are monsters." Violet says. I scowl. I turn and notice that Tory is looking at me. She quickly looks away.
"Fine, but don't come crying to me when Cobra Kai crumbles." I say.
"You better watch your back, Evans." Kenny says.
Third Person POV:
James's dad was taking a jog around the block. He had a lot more free time as he was still searching for a new job. It was hard to find one due to Steve's false allegations. He finally makes it back to his house only to see a group of men standing in front of it.
"Hey." One man says. Suddenly, two of the men grab Mr. Evans and pin him to the ground. Mr. Evans looks up and recognizes the main guy. It was the man who Steve lied to at the party and the same man who confronted James outside the house and got aggressive with him.
"Your son is a criminal." The man says.
"No! Nothing was proven! That kid lied! He and his friends ambushed my son and stripped him!" Mr. Evan's shouts.
"Yeah, sure." The man says. The man then raises an object he had been holding in his hand. A baseball bat. With one swing, the full force of the bat slams right into the head of Mr. Evans. The remaining men who weren't pinning Mr. Evans to the ground also raise their bats and began hitting Mr. Evans as well. Occasionally, a man would stop just to kick Mr. Evans a few times. Eventually, Mr. Evans was bloody and bruised, barely able to move. His left eye was swollen shut and blood was pouring out of a wound on his head. Mr. Evans begins to cough out blood.
"It's your fault this happened! You raised your son to be a monster!" The main man shouts.
"Don't…talk…about my…son." Mr. Evans stutters as more blood comes out of his mouth.
"You hear that? I think this asshole wants some more." The main man says. He raises his baseball bat in the air, ready to swing it down again.
"Oh my God! Let go of him!" James's mom shouts. Mrs. Evans runs over to her husband and kneels beside him. The two men restraining him to the ground finally let go.
"Come on, let's go before the cops show up." One of the other guys says. The main man glares at Mr. and Mrs. Evans before fleeing with the rest of his goons.
"Honey? You're gonna be fine. Please stay with me." Mrs. Evans says. She picks her husband up and begins carrying him inside the house.
James's POV:
Eli's and Kenny's fight starts. Kenny scores the first point and the point that Eli scores is invalid due to the ref claiming Kenny was out of bounds. As the fight continues, Kenny elbows Eli in the knee. We all get concerned.
"Are you okay?" Mr. LaRusso asks.
"It's fine, he just caught me off guard." Eli says.
"Are you sure, Eli?" Mr. LaRusso asks.
"No more Eli, it's time to uncage the Hawk." Hawk says. Hawk steps back onto the mat, ready to face Kenny. However, Kenny gets into a weird stance, his face filled with rage.
"Ready? Fight!" The ref shouts. That's when Kenny hits Hawk in the chest. Hawk collapses to the ground.
"Point! 2-0, Payne!" The ref announces. Suddenly, Hawk groans in pain.
"Hawk?" Miguel asks, terrified. Sensi Lawrence and Mr. LaRusso run over to him.
"Hawk? What's wrong?" Sensi Lawrence asks.
"Can't…can't breathe." Hawk says weakly. Seeing Hawk on the ground, unable to get up, reminds me of Frank. I can still see his corpse in my head. I close my eyes and tilt my head down to prevent anyone from seeing how much I'm being affected by what just happened.
"Can you continue?" The ref asks. I think I can hear Hawk struggling to get up.
"That's a forfeit. Winner, Payne!" The ref shouts. I don't open my eyes or look up. My face turns into a scowl.
"What?" Miguel asks in disbelief. I can hear Cobra Kai celebrating. I finally compose myself and open my eyes.
"Looks like you got a new name…Fauxhawk." Kenny says. The Cobras then begin laughing at Hawk as he's carried away. I then notice Kenny looking in my direction while smirking.
Later…
Sam and Devon's fight was off to a rough start. For some reason, Tory just bailed, leaving Devon to take her place. Despite Sam landing a kick on Devon, the ref refused to give her the point. When Sam blocked a kick, Devon somehow got the point. Sam calls a timeout and runs over to us.
"I blocked that! And I swear I just got her below the shoulder!" Sam shouts.
"All right, look. Not every point is gonna go our way." Mr. LaRusso says.
"Those calls put me down a point and I should be up one! If I lose the match because of it-" Sam begins to say,
"Sam! You're the better fighter, okay? Everyone knows it. The ref might not be doing you any favors, but you've got us in your corner. All of us." Miguel says.
"You're one of the best fighters in Miyagi-Do, you can do this." I say.
"I wasn't good enough to win the All Valley. Because I lost…Cobra Kai has been horrible to all of us. Especially you. And it's all my fault." Sam says.
"No, you can't blame yourself for that. It's my fault that Cobra Kai targeted me. I let my aggression take over. Listen, I know you can beat Devon. She isn't half as good as you. I'll be right here supporting you." I say.
"Referee is moron. Must not leave room for error." Sensei Toguchi says.
"He's right. You make every point undeniable." Mr. LaRusso says. Sam gets back to the center of the mat and continues her fight. She manages to score the next three points, winning the match.
"Winner, LaRusso." The ref says while holding up Sam's arm. We all cheer.
"Holy shit, that was awesome!" Emma says.
"This get you excited to compete in the future?" Chase asks.
"I…I'm not sure about that…" Emma says. Once Emma finishes speaking, the Sekai Taikai officials finally stand up.
"We have an announcement to make. While we were impressed by both of these matches, we have come to an agreement that we simply don't have enough information to make a decision at this time." The official says. I look at my fellow teammates in surprise. I can tell that Cobra Kai is shocked as well. "That is why, we're going to have two more matches. We've analyzed both your dojo's fighters and we've chosen one boy and one girl from each dojo who we think will be evenly matched. We want to see how well each dojo can fight while being completely unprepared." The official says.
"Oh, shit…" Emma says.
"What's wrong?" I say before realizing.
"I'm the only other girl here. Holy shit, I'm gonna have to fight." Emma says as her breathing gets heavy.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine." Chase says.
"We'll start with the boy's fight. We believe these two fighters to be around the same level in terms of skill. Chase Carver and Kyler Park." The official says. Chase's face goes pale.
"I…uh…" Chase says.
"Come on, it's Kyler. I'm sure you can kick his ass." I say. Chase looks over and sees Kyler stepping onto the center of the mat. He's cracking his knuckles.
"Things didn't work out like that during the All Valley." Chase says.
"Come on, I'm sure you've got this. You now have the trainings of Mr. LaRusso and Sensei Toguchi to help you as well." I say.
"Okay, maybe I have a chance." Chase says nervously before stepping in front of Kyler.
Author's Note: I am so sorry for the lack of updates. Shortly after the release of chapter 58, I got into an accident which resulted in my right hand (dominant) getting broken. I lost all motivation to write. However, I'm back and ready to wrap up season 5 of Cobra Kai: James's Story. With the announcement of Season 6 being the final season, I'll need to begin preparing for the end. Will James be able to move on from Frank's death? Will Chase win his fight against Kyler? Will Emma win her fight? What's going to happen to James's dad?