CHAPTER 144

A little bit under 24 hours later and the second day of prelims were beginning to wrap up too. The first day had been difficult, the second day had been so much harder. Fatigue was already beginning to set into the Miyagi-Dos' weary bones after the immense number of fights they had taken part in during the past 48 hours. It took every ounce of energy they had to make it through to the end, but they had done so extremely successfully.

After a slightly less successful first day, Miyagi-Do had turned everything around that night. Now that they knew exactly what and who they were up against, now they were prepared. Now their backs were against the wall, so they had no choice but to succeed or go home. The added pressure mounting, the Miyagi-Dos had all taken it right into their stride, dominating the second day of proceedings and winning almost every fight they took part in. As it stood, Miguel, Robby, Hawk, Sam, Tory, Daniel and Johnny had all qualified for the knockouts, with Demetri on the cusp, depending on whether he won his final fight or not.

As the second day began to wind down, there were just 2 fights left, but crucial ones at that. The fights spanned more than just the importance of getting the win and 5 points. It was also the first time that Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai would find themselves face to face in the entire tournament so far.

The first of the two fights came in the form of Tory Nichols vs. Piper Elswith. Tory had already qualified for the knockouts so there wasn't much pressure on her, but due to the way that the quarter finals were seeded, she knew that she needed to pull off a good performance or she could find herself much lower down the pecking order than she'd like and forced to fight some of the best fighters in the tournament.

Needless to say, like the excellent car salesman she was becoming, Tory handled the business for Miyagi-Do. She won the fight with relative ease, sealing her already guaranteed spot in the knockout rounds, but vitally for the bet, also knocking out Piper from the tournament. As it stood, 5/6 Miyagi-Do students had made the round of 16 and only 3/6 Cobra Kais had done the same (Marcos, Sarah and Shawn managed to sneak his way through at the very end).

"Winner… Nichols!" The referee exclaimed, raising Tory's hand in the air in triumph. As he did so, Tory listened to the crowd of a couple thousand people cheering, at least those of whom who had their attention on that fight in particular rather than the others that were going on concurrently. Tory had put on an absolute clinic, sending out a statement of intent to win the tournament. She was going for the crown, that was for sure. And she was showing her former teammates and her former dojo that she was well and truly no longer one of them.

That didn't prevent a certain sensei from feeling a pang of sadness as he watched his former champion win her fight dressed in an opposing gi. Kreese wasn't sure whether he was proud or disappointed. His gut said proud, but as soon as he remembered who she was fighting for, sadness overcame him. Betraying Tory Nichols' trust was one of his biggest regrets of the past few years. He shouldn't have left her out in the cold in the way he had, and shouldn't have stopped trying to convince her to return to Cobra Kai so early.

With all of this in mind, after Tory's fight had ended, as she walked over to the corner of the large arena to grab some water, Kreese followed close behind her, eager to have a conversation.

"That was some great fighting." Kreese remarked as he stood behind her as she drank. Tory's face immediately knitted into a large scowl as she slowly turned to face him.

"What do you want?" Tory snapped.

"To congratulate you." Kreese stated. "That was some of the best fighting I've ever seen you do."

"Yeah, what can I say? When you're fighting for the right people and the right side, people who you can actually trust, you tend to perform better." Tory commented harshly, clearly having no interest in whatever Kreese had to say. The sensei sighed and looked down.

"I also owe you an apology, Ms. Nichols." Kreese said. This took Tory by surprise, as she slowly looked up to look him in the eye. "You were right. I betrayed your trust when I was in jail."

"I know you did." Tory interjected, but Kreese held up a hand to stop her.

"But not in the way you claim that I did." He said. "I betrayed your trust the moment I reached out to you for help in the first place. I had promised to always have your best interests at heart, so I should've never gotten you involved in the first place."

"But you did. And that wasn't even the part I was pissed off about!" Tory exclaimed. "You used me, then as soon as you didn't need me anymore, you cut me loose! You didn't care about the effect what you were doing had on me or the people around me! You didn't care how many people I hurt carrying out your bidding! Despite everything I was doing for you, all of a sudden you just turned your back on me!"

"I never meant to hurt you." Kreese said. "I realized everything that you just mentioned, and felt that it would be better for your own interests for you to stop having to do me favors. I never meant for it to seem a betrayal. I was setting you free. Free to do whatever you decided. Free to train wherever you wanted. Free to build relationships with the people you wanted. You were no longer tied to having to help me."

"Maybe I should thank you then for that!" Tory snapped. "Because if it wasn't for you doing what you did, I wouldn't have turned to Miyagi-Do. I wouldn't have met the people I've met. Wouldn't have ever experienced what an actual dojo is supposed to be like, as opposed to the psychotic hellhole that you call a dojo!"

Kreese sighed.

"Ms. Nichols. I completely understand your frustration and your anger at me." He murmured. "But please direct that anger at me, not at Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai is not the problem, and I think you know that. Silver was a problem. I made mistakes too. But Cobra Kai as a dojo is not the problem and I think you know that."

It was Tory's turn to sigh.

"Look, I really don't care what you think or say. Fact is that for the first time in years, I actually feel good about myself and my life, and that came the moment I stepped away from Cobra Kai, the moment I joined Miyagi-Do."

Kreese took a few moments to reply, before nodding.

"I'm happy for you. I'm glad you're doing well." Kreese said. "Like I said, I only want what's best for you. And if you say that that's Miyagi-Do, while I might disagree, there's not much more I can say. Good luck in the rest of the tournament, Ms. Nichols. If you win… just remember which dojo you started it all with, will you?"

With that, Kreese turned around and walked away, leaving Tory standing alone.

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Shortly after, Tory met up with the rest of Miyagi-Do. The group was all huddled at the side of the arena as the senseis spoke to them.

"Alright everyone, listen up." Daniel said. "You've all done an incredible job. We're almost at the end for today. There's only one fight left and that's Demetri's. We're all going to put our own fights out of our heads for a bit and support him."

And although none of the senseis explicitly mentioned the fact, all of the Miyagi-Dos knew the permutations of this fight. Demetri had won 4 fights and lost 5 so far. If he won his final fight, he stood a good chance at slipping into the round of 16. If he didn't, he was all but guaranteed elimination. It truly was do or die for Demetri. He was the last Miyagi-Do yet to qualify, and so every single Miyagi-Do was rooting for him.

As soon as they heard Demetri's fight called over the loud intercom system, they made their way over to the mat where they were fighting. As soon as they arrived, they were in for a rude surprise: for the second fight in the row, Miyagi-Do found themselves staring face to face at the Cobra Kai dojo on the other side of the mat.

Demetri would be fighting a Cobra Kai right now, there was no doubt about that. But who? There were four possible people it could be: Marcos, Shawn, Kenny and Kyler. Against Kyler, Demetri had the fight in the bag. Against Kenny and Shawn, they would surely give him a run for his money, but Demetri had what it took to beat them. He prayed it was one of them, preferably his former bully. Unfortunately he had no such luck. Every single Miyagi-Do's heart dropped as they watched Cobra Kai's male champion step onto the mat, his biceps looking like boulders in his sleeveless black gi, his eyes locked on his target with steely-eyed determination.

The prelims hadn't been easy for Marcos, but he had managed to get through them relatively unscathed. He had won 8 fights and lost 1 so far, a brilliant record that was bound to get him pretty close to the top of the seeded positions in the round of 16, but there was a problem though. In the case that his win-loss record was the same as other competitors, Marcos was severely hindered by the fact that he had conceded quite a few points throughout the tournament, even if he had won his fights. Marcos still wasn't fully used to karate-style fighting, where you needed to protect yourself from even the lightest hits as they would cost you a point. He was used to continuous, MMA style fighting where it was inevitable to take hits but it was up to you to push through them. For this reason, his defense wasn't at the immaculate level of some of the other competitors, and he had been forced to rely on his attacking prowess to win his fights.

As Demetri stared at his senseis, he saw the heartbreak in their own eyes. All of them, including Demetri himself, had kind of accepted his fate. He felt like a goose ready to be cooked as he stood face to face with the bigger, taller, stronger, more experienced and more skilled opponent, and similar to Miguel's first fight, it was enough to allow his opponent to capitalize from the moment the fight started.

Almost as soon as the ref barked FIGHT, Marcos was on Demetri like a bloodhound, scoring 4 points in the first few minutes, barely even breaking a sweat. With the fight at 4-0, one more point for Marcos would seal Demetri's fate and send him tumbling out of the Taikai. As Demeri processed this fact, he limped over to his corner, staring at his senseis in defeat.

"So…" Demetri murmured. "We going to book my flight home from now or…"

"QUIET!" Johnny's powerful bark instantly shut the teenager up. "Big Mouth, listen carefully because I figured it out. I figured out how you can manage to beat this guy."

"Does that involve praying from a miracle from Jesus, because I think that's all that can really help me at this point." Demetri remarked sarcastically, and Johnny merely glared at him.

"You know what? Go take your final beating and be done with it! If you don't want to shut up for a second and listen, why bother?"

"Sorry, sensei." Demetri murmured. "What's your idea?"

And Johnny told him the idea. By the end, Demetri had a clear plan in mind about what he needed to do. Johnny was incredibly proud of himself for figuring it out. It was one of very few times he had ever seen Marcos fight, but he had managed to identify a weak spot within the Cobra Kai fighter's game. A weak spot that not only Demetri, but if Marcos won and had to face any of their students in future, any of them could take advantage of.

Demetri took to the mat with new hope. The chances of him winning after a 0-4 deficit was slim to none, but if he was going to go out, he wanted to go out with a bang.

"Score's 4-0 red… FIGHT!" The referee barked.

As the fight restarted, Demetri had a clear plan in mind. He did exactly what Johnny advised and watched Marcos' leading leg. For many fighters, it was the leg that telegraphed exactly what a fighter was planning to do. And although Marcos had trained well to avoid telegraphing too much, he wasn't perfect. There was a moment right before he struck where a slight swivel of his ankle left or right would expose which direction he was about to attack in. It was the smallest of tells, but in fighting, those were the margins required to bring down an opponent.

"When you see him going one way, you dive the other way. You take him by surprise and you score the point."

That's what Johnny had told him. And Demetri did exactly that. As he watched Marcos' leading leg inch leftwards, he knew that Marcos was about to strike from the left. Demetri was able to see it coming and easily move out of the way at the very last moment, dodging the Cobra and exposing a large hole in Marcos' abdomen where the boy was no longer blocking. A sharp jab to Marcos' side was all it took for the ref to shout…

"Point! Blue!" The referee exclaimed, and immediately, there was an uproar from the entirety of the Miyagi-Do students and senseis.

You would've thought Demetri had won the entire Taikai with the volume that they celebrated with. They were all so proud of him, so happy for him, and they made those feelings known. It almost didn't matter that shortly after, Marcos scored a decisive final point to win the fight 5-1. Demetri had made his mark, keeping up with an incredibly good fighter for a round, even besting him once.

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With Demetri's fight over, the prelims were officially over. 48 hours, 10 fights each, and they were finally over. It had been an all-round brilliant showing from both of the Los Angeles based dojos, especially given that it was their first time competing.

In the senseis' division, Silver had come out on top amongst the 4 senseis. In fact, he had come 1st overall in the sensei division, winning all 10 of his fights and losing none of them. It was clear that he hadn't lost a step while in prison, that was for sure. Johnny followed close behind in 3rd, winning 8 fights and losing 2. Daniel came 5th, winning 7 and losing 3. And finally, Kreese brought up the rear, 10th place so still qualifying, but only winning 5 of his 10 fights.

For the girls, it was a Miyagi-Do who had done the best amongst them, though the 3 qualified girls between the dojos were all in very close proximity to each other. Sam had bettered both Tory and Sarah, coming 3rd while winning 7/10 fights. Sarah followed in 4th, winning 6 and losing 4. Tory had the same 6-4 record as Sarah, but due to conceding more points than her Cobra Kai counterpart, Tory had to settle for 5th, still a great achievement and still through to the knockouts.

For the boys, the most tightly contested division, the division with the most competitors, it was Marcos who had done the best amongst the Cobra Kais and Miyagi-Dos, though interestingly enough he had missed out on the top 3. His struggle to adjust to Karate fighting meant that although he had a 9-1 record in the prelims, he was forced to settle for 4th place. Miguel was the next in line in the boys' division, coming 6th place after winning 8 fights and losing 2. Similar to with the girls, Robby and Miguel had actually won and lost the same number of fights, but due to the points scored/conceded rule, Miguel topped him and Robby instead was ranked 7th. There was a little bit of a gap between Robby and Hawk, who ended up coming in 9th place after only losing 1 more fight than the other 2 Miyagi-Dos, possessing a 7-3 record. Shawn, meanwhile, was the furthest away from all of them. He had barely squeaked through to the knockout stages by the skin of his teeth. He had come in 15th place, after only winning 5 fights, his points record saving him and allowing him entry into the knockouts.

The stage was set for the knockouts:

Marcos, Miguel, Robby, Hawk and Shawn were left for the boys.

Sam, Sarah and Tory for the girls.

Silver, Johnny, Daniel and Kreese for the senseis.

By the end of the tournament, more likely than not, 3 of them would be champions. The rest of them would be going home disappointed. But who? Who would it be?