CHAPTER 142

Finally. Finally the day had arrived. Almost 365 days, countless sleepless nights, and God knows how much stress and worry, and it all came down to this. The first real competition day of the Sekai Taikai had arrived. The Miyagi-Dos had trained and worked themselves to the bone, and for what? For this moment. Have a bad day today and everything they had worked so hard for would end up being for nothing. Despite all of this though, the Miyagi-Dos knew that they needed to somehow clear their minds before going into the tournament. It was the only way they'd be able to get anywhere close to the finals. Allowing nerves and fears to take over would only have one outcome, and it wasn't a good one.

With all of these thoughts in mind, the Miyagi-Dos woke up achingly early, unable to get back to sleep. Not an ideal start to the day, as the claws of fatigue threatened to pull them in, but oh well. They knew that more likely than not, this would be the case for the other competitors too. That didn't change the fact that it felt like hours until they'd finally be on the bus on the way to the arena.

Robby and Tory dozed in bed together for a while, unable to truly find sleep, before they eventually gave up and decided to get ready for the long day ahead of them. They would each be fighting 5 fights that day, 5 crucial steps towards eventually making the knockout rounds by the end of tomorrow. With 10 total prelims, this was a far cry from the 3 pissy, useless preliminary fights they took part in during the All-Valley. They'd be on their feet all day, either fighting or getting ready for the next one, so they wanted to get all of the rest they could get beforehand.

Soon, at around 7 in the morning, all of the Miyagi-Dos had exited from their respective bedrooms and entered the common room. All of them nodded in greeting, but none of them said much. They knew that they were all thinking exactly the same thing: they were so nervous about the first prelims they could hardly speak. Other than Cobra Kai, they had no idea what to expect from their opponents, so they were walking in completely blind. They hadn't had the experience of fighting in previous tournaments to know who they were up against. It was all going to be discovered today, and they didn't have much time to find all of that out, as a bad start could mean the end for all of them.

The next place all of the students headed was the dining hall for breakfast. As expected, most of the competitors were already there, but to their surprise, so were their senseis. They saw all four adults sitting at one of the tables, eating a little bit of breakfast, and the Miyagi-Dos quickly joined them.

"Good morning, guys." Daniel forced a smile onto his face, even though he was feeling exactly the same nerves as them. "How did you sleep?"

"Not great." Miguel admitted. "Too stressful, you know? Knowing that everything we've done in the past year comes down to today."

"I hear you." Daniel nodded. "Which is why I want you to forget all about anything but what's right ahead of you. Forget about the bet. Forget about the finals. Forget about the knockout rounds. All you need to think about is each individual prelim you have to fight."

"Easier said than done." Sam murmured. Daniel sighed.

"I know. But trust me, it'll be a lot easier once we actually get on the mat. Right now, there's just too much anticipation, so it's almost impossible to do so."

"Let's hope so." Hawk muttered.

"Have you guys eaten yet?" Barnes asked. "Because today's going to be a very long day. You guys should definitely try and eat something at least right now."

Despite the words from the only proven National Champion amongst them, the Miyagi-Dos couldn't bring themselves to do so. There were so much anxiety radiating from the group that they knew that if any of them tried to eat even a small bite of food, it would quickly come back up. None of them were hungry at all, their stomachs in turmoil from the emotion, so despite all of their senseis' wheedling that proceeded, none of them touched the extravagant breakfast buffet at the front of the room.

"Look, none of us know today's going to work." Daniel eventually said as he saw none of the Miyagi-Dos reach for food and instead remain seated at the table. "I know that there's 6 of you fighting, and then there's Johnny and I… we're all fighting at the same time. So while we're all going to try our best to be there for all of your fights as much as possible, there might be times that our group gets separated."

"We probably will. Think about the number of fights that have to occur today. Of course there's going to be an overlap." Demetri remarked. Daniel nodded.

"Exactly. There might be times where more than one of you are fighting so all four of us senseis can't possibly be there at once. We might need to split up. In the event that that happens, just rest assured that there will almost never be a situation where we leave any of you without a sensei. And we'll try our very best, if we get split up, to pair you with a sensei that you've done the most extensive training with."

For Miguel, that was Johnny. For Sam, that was Daniel or Johnny. For Hawk, that was Barnes. For Demetri, that was Daniel. For Tory, that was Chozen. And for Robby, that was Chozen or Daniel.

"But because we might not all be together for much longer today, we wanted to give you guys one last quick talk right now." Daniel said. "We wanted to remind you guys about what we're doing here."

"Trust me, Mr. Larusso, we remember. How could we forget?" Robby murmured. Daniel shook his head.

"The bet is not why we're here. Beating Cobra Kai is not why we're here." Daniel stated. "I want you guys to cast your minds back to last summer. The end of last summer. Cobra Kai was gone, so we thought. And we had a decision to make: should we come to Japan and compete in this tournament. Do you remember why we decided to go after all? Because it had nothing to do with Cobra Kai."

"We said that we wanted to compete for each other." Miguel stated. "That this was our last time that we'd probably be together, at least for a while given that we've all graduated, so we wanted to make some final memories."

Daniel smiled.

"Exactly. Nothing to do with Cobra Kai. Nothing to do with winning either. It was about us. Making memories, both during this tournament and in the year leading up to it. And I know that there have been a lot of unforeseen circumstances along the way, but despite all of them, we've definitely made memories, that's for sure. We've built friendships and relationships with people we never would've otherwise. We've achieved so much on a personal level too. All of you have put together incredible plans for the future. I'm so proud of everything you've done in the past year that it doesn't even matter what happens next."

"Well… it does. If we lose, we shut down and Cobra Kai stays, remember? Even if we're gone, all of the Miyagi-Dos and other innocent teenagers after us are going to be tormented." Sam stated.

"And if that happens, we'll handle it just like we've handled everything else that has come our way." Daniel said. "Every time a new threat has arisen, we've been able to overcome it because of the bonds we have as a group, the love we have for each other. That isn't going away, win or lose this tournament, and even when all of you guys go your separate ways for your next chapters, that bond still exists amongst all of the existing Miyagi-Dos. Leave it to us senseis and them to handle everything else. It truly isn't what you should be worried about."

"Larusso's right." Johnny spoke up for the first time, uncharacteristically nervous, as it was the first time he had fought a tournament in almost 4 decades, and that last tournament hadn't exactly gone very well. "Have fun. Do as much as you can. That's all that you can really do."

"And whatever happens, you're there for each other, you understand?" Chozen stated. "When one of you wins, you all congratulate them. When one of you loses, you all console them. If one of you has to eliminate your own teammate in a fight, you don't let that divide you as a group. We stick together as a group, as a family, and Cobra Kai has no chance against us."

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That morning lasted forever. And that wasn't an exaggeration either. Robby could have sworn he saw the minute hand of his watch back-tracking and retreating backwards a few times, prolonging the agonizing wait until they finally made their way over to the facility and finally got the show on the road.

But eventually, just as they were all about to claw their own eyes out, the clock finally struck 10 and it was time for them to head to the entrance of the facility, where a long convoy of buses was preparing to take all of the competitors to the arena. It was the prelims, which meant that there would be hundreds of people competing, and therefore the Taikai committee were forced to resort to long coach buses to take the competitors to the arena. They couldn't go with something more lavish like a limo, as those were reserved for the later rounds when there were less people to transport.

This almost meant that as the Miyagi-Dos stepped onto the bus, they found themselves sharing it with one other dojo: the other new dojo to the Sekai Taikai, the other dojo from Los Angeles. Cobra Kai made it to the bus a little before the Miyagi-Dos, so they were the first to take their seats on the bus. They spread themselves out all across the bus, none of them in the mood to talk to one another at all, all of them feeling the same nerves as the Miyagi-Dos. Many of the Cobras wore headphones, trying to tune out all of the stresses with music.

Marcos didn't do any of that. He merely sat alone in the back of the bus, closing his eyes and trying to internally push all of his troubles deep down. He needed to compartmentalize: ignore all of the permutations of the tournament and simply focus on the fight at hand. He wasn't an idiot. He knew that unlike Miyagi-Do who had at least 3 male contenders, Marcos was pretty much the only card Cobra Kai held. If he wanted to help his dojo win, he couldn't afford anything less than perfect, and that included his mind. He couldn't think about the fact that if he lost, his dojo would shut down. He couldn't think about the fact that if he won, he had a perfect opportunity for a springboard that could eventually take him to professional fighting, and if he lost, he'd be doomed to return to the Valley with absolutely no plans for the future. Right now, all he needed to think about was the 74 points that he needed to score between the prelims and the semi finals, and the 25 minutes he needed to survive during the final. Do all of that successfully and he'd be champion, simple as.

As Marcos lay back in his seat, his eyes closed, he slowly opened them when he heard Robby's voice bring him out of his daze.

"Is this seat taken?" Robby asked. Opening his eyes and looking around the bus, Marcos realized that every other seat had indeed already been filled. All of them except the seat directly beside him. Marcos gestured beside him and Robby nodded and sat down.

As the bus began driving, a long silence occurred between the two boys, before Robby was eventually the first to speak up.

"You nervous?" was all the Miyagi-Do asked. Marcos shrugged.

"A little. You?" Marcos responded.

"A little." Robby replied.

That was all either of them said for the entire 20 minute drive to the arena.

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It didn't take too long for them to arrive at the arena, mostly because the next hour took place in a blur. Upon arrival, each dojo was whisked away by a staff member, first of all taken to the general male and female changing rooms, before then being escorted to the private room that each dojo got for the duration of the tournament all to themselves, a preparation room so to speak. It was a little bit further away from the actual mats and audience, but they could still practically feel the floor shaking from the amped up fans in the lead up to the event getting underway.

Most people, most viewers, considered the beginning of the Taikai to be at the beginning of the knockout rounds. After all, that was when the intense media coverage began to ramp up. It was when champions were crowned. Even the opening ceremony would take place right before the round of 16, rather than today before the prelims. But to the competitors, that was certainly not the case. Their work started today.

In fact, as all of them stood in their preparation room, dressed up in their gis and completing a warm up to get their blood flowing and their muscles working, a staff member walked into the room and uttered the two words that they had been waiting so long to finally hear…

"It's time."