CHAPTER 137
After all of the events that had just occurred between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, after all of the tension that had built up between the two sides, they were finally separated.
The next thing on their schedule, the very last event of the night, was an annual welcome banquet dinner that the Taikai traditionally threw on the first night. It was the one and only black tie formal dinner, where every single competitor and sensei would come together, as well as all of the organizers and sponsors of the competition. The dinner was planned for 7 pm, which meant that the students had around an hour to go back to their dorms, settle and get changed and ready for the evening's events. So Miyagi-Do retreated to their dormitory and Cobra Kai retreated to theirs, changing and getting ready for the dinner that was to come that night, agreeing to meet their senseis at the Great Hall at 7 on the dot.
In the Cobra Kai dormitory, Marcos lay on the bed, already changed into his suit for the evening's events, trying to fight off the impending sleep as exhaustion was beginning to catch up. It felt like an eternity since they had been on the plane, even though it had been less than 7 hours ago. He forced himself to stay awake though. The longer he stayed awake for, the better he'd sleep that night, and the easier it would be to adjust to the time difference.
That proved pretty difficult though as he lay on the bed so comfortable it was like he was floating on a giant cloud. Him and Sarah were sharing a room, and the girl was currently in the bathroom, readying herself for the evening. She was putting on her gown, her makeup and doing up her hair as Marcos fought off the urge to nap in the next room. He very nearly succumbed to it and closed his eyes when suddenly, he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder.
He had fallen asleep. There was no doubt about that. The only question was for how long. Feeling the hand gently shaking him, Marcos slowly opened his eyes and when he did, his jaw went slack in shock. Standing before him was an angel, a treasure sent straight from heaven in the form of his 18 year old girlfriend. For a moment, Marcos thought he was still asleep and this was a dream. Because Sarah looked so drop-dead, stone-cold gorgeous that there seemed to be no other explanation than that this was a fantasy. She was wearing a lilac dress that contrasted her fair skin and dirty-blond hair beautifully. Her delicate hair and makeup made her look regal, like a princess.
It was far from the first time in Sarah's privileged upbringing that she had needed to dress up formally, but it was the first time Marcos had seen her like this. He was immediately rendered speechless, his mouth gaping open and shut like a goldfish, trying to regain function in his brain enough to find the words to respond. It was a long while before he was finally able to do so.
"Marcos?" Sarah asked, eyeing his reaction. Almost an entire year together and she was still slightly nervous to hear what Marcos thought about how she looked. She had no idea why. It definitely wasn't in line with the strong-willed individual she was. She also had no reason to ever think that she wasn't enough for Marcos, as he never failed to tell her how incredible she was every single day. But still… insecurities couldn't help but creep up as she feared that Marcos would eventually find someone else.
The silly fear was nothing but exactly that: silly. Marcos was head over heels for the girl standing opposite him, and it had nothing to do with her looks. She was the best part of his life by a long shot. Even in moments where it was just the two of them against the world, Marcos never felt discouraged because he knew that she was there. She had showered him with an unconditional love that he hadn't felt since his mother had died more than 5 years ago.
Eventually, the boy finally regained the ability to speak, though it was only a faint stammer.
"Wow. You… you look stunning." Marcos stammered. "You look like an angel."
"Thanks." Sarah blushed, kissing him as they stood in their bedroom, the other Cobra Kais either in their own rooms or in the living room outside. "You look pretty handsome yourself, gorgeous."
Marcos shook his head.
"No, but you… you… wow." Marcos was still having trouble speaking. "Hands down the second most beautiful outfit you have."
Sarah already knew the end of the sentence, knew what was number one, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Let me guess… birthday suit?" She giggled. Marcos smirked.
"Birthday suit." He confirmed. Sarah kissed him again for a long while before eventually pulling away.
"Well, if you behave tonight and not cause any kind of trouble with Miyagi-Do, who knows? Maybe you'll get to see that too tonight."
At that moment, there was a loud banging on their bedroom door and the couple both jumped out of their skin in shock.
"Hey! If you two are done fucking in there, we've got to go! It's almost 7!" Piper called through the door. The couple groaned as they were forced to break apart and walk towards the door. As they did, Marcos watched Sarah walk in front of him and he couldn't help but smile as he stared at her from behind.
"How did I get so lucky?" He murmured, not very loudly, but loud enough that Sarah ended up hearing him, and a permanent smile ended up remaining etched on her face as they headed to the Great Hall with the rest of the Cobra Kai students…
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"So… this hasn't been going great." Demetri was the first person to speak up that evening as the 6 Miyagi-Do students sat around on the couches of the living room, all of them dressed up in their formal attire, ready to go to the Great Hall for the banquet. But before they did, they knew that they couldn't leave without discussing the elephant in the room: Cobra Kai.
"I can't believe Silver's doing this. He's trying to paint us as the bad guys in front of everyone!" Tory snapped. "The man's lying his ass off! He said that I chose to do his psychotic training methods?! They locked me in there until I obeyed, I swear!"
"We know. We believe you." Miguel murmured. "I still can't believe that guy's back. That after everything he's done, they allowed him anywhere near the dojo."
"What do you expect? He's Kreese's number 2 and has been for like 50 years. Even after whatever they did to each other, that kind of loyalty just doesn't go away so quickly." Robby said.
"So what do we do?" Hawk snapped. "Because I don't know about you guys, but I'm not about to just sit around and let them drag our name through the mud! If they keep doing that, by the end of the tournament, even if we win, we still lose as we'll be the villains portrayed on global TV! We need to fight back!"
"How? You heard when they talked about etiquette. If anyone starts a fight with another dojo off the mat, every single member of the guilty dojo gets sent home." Sam pointed out.
"Not if we make it look like they started it." Hawk remarked, probably the most fuming of all of them at how the press conference shitshow had unfolded.
"Hawk, stop. We're not fighting them." Robby told him firmly. "At least not physically. But nobody said anything about verbally not being able to fight back."
"What do you mean?" Demetri asked.
"Well what's the first thing we learn in Miyagi-Do?" Robby remarked. "That you can have all of the moves and skills in the world, but none of that matters if you don't have…?"
"Balance." Sam finished.
"Exactly." Robby nodded. "And the way I see it, that applies in two different ways: our balance and their balance."
Everyone was starting to understand where Robby was going with this. Miguel was the first to catch on.
"Robby's right." Miguel said. "Starting with our balance… we CANNOT let Cobra Kai get into our heads. Whatever they say, whatever they do, we take it with a pinch of salt. We simply remember the fact that inevitably, at least one of us are going to end up fighting a Cobra Kai and when that happens, we can show the world who the true villains are. If they choose to fight dirty? Great. Let the world see who they are. We'll just be exactly who we are, stay true to our roots, and we'll be okay. We can't let Cobra Kai ruin this experience for us. This is something none of us are ever going to do again. This might be the last time all of us are together as a group for a long period of time in… well, ever. We're all going our separate ways afterwards. This is it. This is the last dance. We should enjoy every second of it. Not let them infect our minds. That's how we maintain our balance."
Miguel was right. They all knew that for certain. However, it seemed that what Robby had been talking about was a twofold idea. This was for sure one of the prongs, but what was the other?
"So that's our balance. Robby, you mentioned their balance?" Tory asked. Robby nodded.
"Right. Well I was thinking about this the other day actually before we left. It's no secret that we're going to be up against people bigger than us, stronger than us, more skilled than us. People who have trained for much, much longer. Look at Cobra Kai as an example. Marcos has trained for 10 years; Sarah has trained for 8. Those are the type of people we're up against, even though we've only trained for like 2 years."
"What's your point?" Sam asked.
"My point is that we need any kind of advantage we can get." Robby said. "Like Miguel said, this is it. There are no do-overs. If we lose, there's no 'let's get them next year'. We can't just rely on fate. If our opponents have a lot in their favor going into the fight, we need some way to swing the balance a little."
"Oooh, I see what you're saying!" Hawk grinned gleefully. "We need to knock them off balance to give us an advantage! A bit of trash talk, a bit of fucking with them before the fights… is that what you're talking about?"
Robby sighed.
"Look, we're not going to do what Silver's doing right now. We're not them. We're better than them. Better people. We're not going to abandon that to try and win, or that risks us losing our own balance." Robby said. "Let's make that very clear."
"So what are you suggesting then?" Tory asked.
"I'm suggesting we show them that we're not just a bunch of weak little bitches that will take whatever they throw our way." Robby stated bluntly. "We don't strike first. That's not our dojo's way, physically or verbally. We don't talk back to anyone who doesn't try to trash talk us first. But we do say and do whatever it takes to get in their heads and knock them off balance."
"Is this like… allowed? In Miyagi-Do I mean?" Demetri asked, unsure. Robby shrugged.
"I don't know, but it sure as hell is allowed in Eagle-Fang." Tory replied. "But I personally believe that Miyagi-Do wouldn't be against it, given the situation. I can't believe I'm about to quote Silver right now, but do you know what he said to me to try and justify paying off the All-Valley ref?"
"What did he say?" Robby asked.
"That we were fighting for survival, and we did what was necessary to survive." Tory said, quoting the pony-tailed sensei's words from the previous summer, almost exactly one year prior. "Shockingly… he's right. Right now, we're also fighting for our dojo's survival. We're fighting not really for us as we're no longer going to be in school after the summer, but there are still so many kids in the Valley, kids across the country, who are going to have their lives completely torn to shreds by Cobra Kai if they win, if Silver gets his grand wish and expands the dojo all over the map."
"Yeah. We're fighting for all of them. We owe it to all of the innocent teenagers, the kids who are about to spend years being tormented and bullied if we lose. We owe it to them to do whatever it takes. And I think Miyagi-Do and Mr. Miyagi would understand that." Sam agreed.
"So what's the plan exactly? What are our rules of engagement or whatever?" Miguel asked.
"Well, I guess like I said, we don't go too far and lose ourselves in the process." Robby stated. "If they show kindness to us, we owe them that same courtesy. But… if they continue to come at us the way that Silver did in the press conference, then I believe we have every right to do similar. Just use good judgment. Don't make it too personal. Don't expose them and attack them with things that would cross the line. I know we might want to at times. But just… resist the urge. Stand up for our dojo but don't go too far on the offensive. How does that sound?"
The other Miyagi-Dos nodded.
"Sounds good." Tory replied. "Now let's get going to dinner. I'm starving and we're going to be late."