CHAPTER 122
Tory was the first to lead them into the dojo. She had the most personal experience with him, the most personal resentment and fury to drive her into the familiar dojo. The other teenagers followed close behind, Miguel holding the young child and standing to the back of the group as they stormed inside.
The dojo was mostly empty, without any students as they all had the day off. It wasn't, however, completely vacant. There was one man who the students laid eyes upon immediately, the man who the mere sight of made shivers run up and down their spines. It was the person they had stormed in to see, and yet one they'd hope they'd never have to see again.
"Well. If it isn't the fine students of Miyagi-Do, breaking into my dojo for what I wish was the first time." Silver remarked. "Why do I have a feeling that this visit isn't simply to welcome me back to the Valley after my time away?"
"Away? In prison! Where you should be right now, you abusive piece of…" Tory began but Silver's laughing cut her off.
"Ah, Ms. Nichols. Still got that temper, I see. Glad to see not everything's changed from when I was last here." Silver commented. "By the way, I would suggest you all be a little more polite. We wouldn't want the fact that you've all broken into my dojo to turn into a legal drama, would we? You managed to get away with it without punishment once, but I can guarantee that you won't be so lucky this time."
"Wait a second… what do you mean your dojo?" Robby asked. It was at that moment that all of the teenagers took in the fact that Silver was not simply wearing regular clothes. He was wearing the traditional Cobra Kai gi, to commemorate the fact that he was back in business, a Cobra Kai sensei again. He would get to be a proper member of Cobra Kai as he would eventually get to watch it all crash around Kreese's ears along with Miyagi-Do, no matter who won the Taikai. "What happened to Sensei Kreese?"
"Nothing happened to him. He's still around. " Silver replied. "Him and I simply… resolved our issues."
Sure. That was the story Silver was going with. Who needed to know that he had basically extorted Kreese with the idea of his protege coming back to twist the sensei's arm into letting him return.
"You guys made up? You guys?" Sam asked, disbelieving. Silver chuckled and raised an eyebrow.
"Surely this isn't the audience to question whether or not past issues between rivals can be resolved." Silver commented, his eyes flickering from Robby to Miguel, Sam to Tory, pointing out the fact that just 8 or 9 months ago, they themselves had been at each other's throats. Silver's point was well-taken, as the students didn't think any more as to how Silver had managed to weasel his way back to Cobra Kai. They had bigger problems than that, starting with the fact that the monstrous sensei was back in the Valley, well-prepared to terrorize them at the tournament.
"So… it's a girl, huh? What did you end up naming her." Silver remarked, turning to glance at Laura for the first time.
"Like you care." Robby snapped, taking a half-step to stand in between Silver and his little sister to block any path from Silver to her.
"Cute kid. Such a shame…" Silver's voice trailed off nefariously, provoking Miyagi-Do.
"Such a shame what?" Miguel snapped. Silver sighed.
"Such a shame she'll have to grow up without a dojo to train at." He remarked. "But then again, if you ever want to enroll her in Cobra Kai, the door is always open.
"Listen up, Silver." Robby snapped. "You might be back. And you might be confident that you'll beat us like you did at the All-Valley. But be warned… no amount of money in the world is going to stop us from sweeping the entire thing: boys', girls' and senseis'."
Silver chuckled.
"Funny you should bring that up." Silver responded. "I was actually planning on paying you all a visit to tell you this in person, so I guess you've saved me a trip. I wanted to let you know that all of the referees you face at the Taikai will be genuine referees. I have not, nor do I plan to pay a single one of them."
"And you expect us to believe that?!" Tory scoffed. "After what you did at the tournament?! And at the Taikai qualification fight! You've already paid off one of their referees. We're supposed to believe that you won't do it again?!"
Silver nodded.
"Well first of all, the man who refereed the Taikai qualification fight was not an official Taikai referee. You might have recognized him from the All-Valley. He's simply a local referee from the Valley." Silver informed them. "And still, rest assured, none of the actual Taikai referees have been bought off. It's funny… maybe because I have a lot more faith in this crop of students to get the job done than I ever did in any of you."
"Oh yeah. Kenny Payne, Kyler Park and Piper Elswith are absolutely terrifying." Sam remarked in reply. Silver shook his head, but before he could answer, a voice came from the doorway.
"I believe he was talking about me."
All of the teenagers spun around to see a very familiar figure walking out from the back hallway that led away from the locker room. Marcos had just finished taking a shower after training for a while with Silver, so he walked towards the teenagers shirtless, in only his workout shorts, standing face to face with the Miyagi-Dos for the first time in 3 months.
And boy did it feel great. Seeing the looks of sheer surprise and shock on their faces was absolutely priceless. With Marcos bare on his upper body after his shower, the Miyagi-Dos were also able to see his physical transformation since the last time he had seen them. Marcos had always been a little bit bigger than all of them. He was definitely taller, even if the strength difference between him and Robby had been minimal.
But now… Marcos was built like a tank. The tattoos he had recently acquired - a coiled, striking cobra right over his heart; the longitude and latitude coordinates of his hometown on his forearm; and the writing of the word 'hope' on his back - did absolutely nothing to cover up the massive amounts of muscle that Marcos had gained in such little time. He must've been at least 220 pounds now, a staggering amount given that the vast majority of it was pure muscle. Marcos had always had a menacing aura around him, courtesy of the fact of what they knew he had the potential to do. But now, even if they had never seen him fight before, this was definitely a guy that if Miyagi-Do saw him on the street, they'd avoid at all costs. One thing was clear: whatever Marcos had been doing in Brazil while he'd been away, it surely hadn't been resting. He was primed and ready to go.
"What are you doing here?" Robby stammered, the first of the Miyagi-Dos to speak. Marcos shrugged.
"I'm back." He replied. Even just these two words were enough to have Miyagi-Do absolutely rattled. The boys' division was something that Miyagi-Do had almost internally confirmed that they were winning at this point. Without Marcos, Cobra Kai possessed very little threat, and that allowed Miyagi-Do to grow confident of achieving success there. But now… a 220 pound wrench had been thrown right in their plans.
"I told you." Silver grinned widely at the shell-shocked Miyagi-Dos. "Count us out at your peril. Because we're not going all the way to Japan to come second. Miyagi-Do might have gained control over the Valley during these past few months, but for no longer. Big change is coming."
With that, Silver allowed the other Miyagi-Dos to simmer silently in their shock, still speechless to see not one but two people that they thought, or at least hoped, they'd never be seeing again. Not just Silver, but Marcos now too… any morale boost that Miyagi-Do had possessed for the past few months had surely disappeared. Things were about to get a whole lot more complicated for them, and affairs at the Taikai now looked a whole lot more uncertain.
"Look…" Tory said, the first person to regain their nerve, fearless as she stepped up closer to Silver and Marcos, who stood side by side opposite them. "I don't care who's fighting for you. I don't care whether you pay the refs or don't. The end result stays the same. We're the ones going home with the Taikai, not you. We're the ones surviving past the summer, not you."
"I guess we'll see soon enough." Marcos spoke up in reply. "Taikai's in a few weeks. We'll find out who wins soon enough."
With that, the Miyagi-Dos all turned on their heels and stormed out of the dojo, leaving the two Cobra men behind them. After they were all gone, Silver and Marcos turned to each other once more.
"Sincerely, thank you again for agreeing to return." Silver told him. "I fear to think what John's plan was for the Taikai otherwise."
"I should be the one thanking you." Marcos replied. "You brought me back. I never thought I'd ever be back here, let alone only 3 months after I left, and yet here I am and it's all thanks to you."
"Yeah, well, make us proud. Bring us home a trophy." Silver stated. Marcos nodded.
"I will." He replied, determined. "And that's not even mentioning the fact that you're putting me up with a place to live for the next little while. Like seriously, I can't even start to thank you for all of this. You don't need to do all this for me."
"It was nothing." Silver replied. "Literally nothing actually. Are you sure that that's where you want to live? I could have you somewhere much, much nicer. A hotel or an apartment, whichever you'd prefer."
"Nah, that place is perfect, thank you." Marcos replied.
It was somewhere he knew wouldn't be easy to enter, but somewhere he knew that he had to. If he ever wanted to properly consider L.A to be home, and make it more to him than simply the battleground where his father had abused him, he needed to face his past. He couldn't run from it. He needed to deal with the demons and the ghosts of being back.
Which is why when Marcos left the dojo, he found himself walking home to an extremely familiar location, where he'd be staying at Silver's expense until at least after the Taikai. He entered the familiar complex like he had done a thousand times before, walked up the very same steps that had led him to a night of abuse all those months ago. And with a slow, slightly trembling hand, Marcos unlocked the front door and walked inside of the empty apartment.
Looking around for the first time in months at the completely empty place, a whirlwind of emotions ran through him. His eyes caught a glimpse of the dent in a wall that he had been through against. Faint traces of the stench of alcohol, piss and despair were still deeply set into the place. But above all else, above anything else that Marcos was feeling, the overwhelming emotion that was running through his system was: "I'm home."