CHAPTER 161

The rest of the morning and afternoon flew by. Before any of them knew it, the competitors found themselves back in the oh so familiar sports arena in Tokyo, surrounded by 15,000 insane fans, preparing for the penultimate round of the competition to start. The week had absolutely flown by, and it was crazy that they had already made it to the semis, but here they were.

The first fight of the night was a clash between the senseis. It was meant to be between Johnny and Silver, but of course that fight had been canceled upon Silver's removal from the tournament, so it was instead Daniel and Kreese's fight that opened the night. However, as that fight prepared to start between the senseis, as Daniel stared across the mat at his opponents, he realized something glaringly obvious: Cobra Kai had no sensei. While Daniel had 3 other senseis in his corner to coach him, now that Cobra Kai were without Silver and it was Kreese who was on the mat himself, Cobra Kai's corner was left mostly empty, only occupied by their male and female champions Marcos and Sarah, who were planning to make do as the so called 'senseis' for Kreese's fight. It was the least they could do for the sensei, whose prospects in this fight already looked pretty dim.

"Johnny, Mike, Chozen, I'm going to ask you for something, and you're going to have to trust me on this, okay?" Daniel said.

"Sure. What is it?" Barnes asked.

"Please go back to the locker room and watch the fight from there. Or at least go watch it from the seats away from the mat." Daniel asked them.

"What?" Johnny asked, seriously taken aback by this request. "Why the hell would we do that?"

"Look at them." Daniel said, gesturing to the other side of the mat where Kreese, Marcos and Sarah stood. "They don't even have a sensei."

"Karma! That's what happens when you decide to let in a bat-shit crazy lunatic back into your dojo after he literally framed you for assault less than a year earlier!" Barnes snapped. "That old piece of shit deserves everything he gets now."

"Daniel-san is right." Chozen grunted. "Students coach Kreese, so students must coach Daniel-san too. It is about honor."

"It is." Daniel nodded. "But also, Cobra Kai made a huge decision removing Silver from the tournament and removing him permanently from their dojo. They didn't have to do that, but it's something we've all been wanting for a very long time. It's something that already benefits us as it gives Johnny a free finals spot. We're not going to take advantage of it even further. We're going to be the bigger men. It's what Mr. Miyagi would have done. We're still going to win, but we'll win the right way."

So the 3 other Miyagi-Do senseis walked away to watch the fight from a short distance away, some of them slightly reluctantly, taking most of the students with them too. It was only Robby and Sam - Daniel's original 2 students - who remained to coach their sensei on the mat, balancing Marcos and Sarah, who were coaching Kreese.

As Daniel stepped onto the mat and faced Kreese on the other side, involuntary flashes of anger ripped through Daniel. He was standing less than a few meters from the man who had single handedly caused him so much stress, so much trauma. This was the man who had orchestrated the break-in and brawl in his house two Decembers ago. This was the man who had encouraged his students to show no mercy. His manipulation and brainwashing had caused the fight at the school, the fight at the arcade that had gotten Demetri's arm broken, the scalping of Hawk at the tattoo parlor, among countless other occasions that wouldn't have occurred if not for Kreese's actions.

Kreese's words from that morning didn't matter. They didn't erase the years of torment, all of the years of pain. Faced with an opportunity to get back at the man who had done so much to those he cared about, Daniel felt an anger very much unlike him, one that didn't go unnoticed by the two students who were tasked with coaching him.

"Dad, relax. Deep breaths. Don't let your emotions take over." Sam told him, sensing his anger.

"Sam, look who I'm fighting. You know what he did to us." Daniel murmured.

"Remember the first lesson of Miyagi-Do. The first thing you ever taught me years ago." Robby told him. "Find your balance. You can learn all of the moves, but none of that matters if you don't have balance."

"Robby's right." Sam said. "Balance your emotions. If you feel yourself getting angry, remember why you're fighting. It isn't for revenge. It isn't to hurt people. It's for us. To protect us. All of us in the Valley, who Cobra Kai could hurt if we don't do anything. Think about this, and allow it to recenter you."

Daniel nodded as he listened to his two oldest students, doing as they said and allowing it to steady his heart rate, calm himself. He imagined what Mr. Miyagi would've said to him if he was here:

"Balance. Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance, everything be better."

As Daniel remembered Mr. Miyagi's words from even before his first All Valley in 1984, it was like the man was with him again. Listening to his students, unprompted, saying the exact same things that Mr. Miyagi would've if he was there, it definitely put a smile on his face and helped erase his anger. He had done something right with these kids.

So Daniel took to the mat, newfound balance and calmness within him, ready to seal his spot in the Sekai Taikai final…

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And as the fight began, it was clear that it was a somewhat one-sided affair. Even with all of the experience that Kreese had, he couldn't combat the fact that Daniel was stronger, Daniel was faster. And most importantly, Daniel fought with a style that had beat Cobra Kai time and time again. After all of his fights against the Cobra Kai dojo, Daniel knew exactly what he was about to be faced with, and therefore was in the perfect position to counter it.

Sure enough, it didn't take him long to score the first point of the fight. Kreese was using Cobra Kai, pushing forward with the dojo's traditional offense, and Daniel was using Miyagi-Do's defense. Daniel moved around the mat as he blocked all of Kreese's attacks, using the fundamental Miyagi-Do techniques, every so often parrying and responding with strikes of his own.

After the first few minutes of the fight, it was 3-0 to Daniel, and it was clear that Cobra Kai needed a tactics change. What they were doing right now simply wasn't working, and if they continued like this, there was a genuine possibility of the fight ending 8-0. This was where not having an actual sensei in their corner really hurt Cobra Kai. Of course Kreese was a sensei, but at the same time, he was the one fighting. He wasn't able to watch the fight from a bird's eye view, like a sensei from the side would.

Kreese returned to his corner after the first timeout of the fight, and saw Marcos and Sarah deep in thought.

"Sensei, we're in a pattern. You attack, he defends. Each time it ends with him scoring. We need to change things up." Sarah stated.

"So you think I should go on defense?" Kreese asked, taken aback.

"I don't know, maybe?" Sarah suggested, though she was immediately interrupted.

"No! That would be even worse." Marcos interjected. "If you go on defense, he'll just go on offense, and we'll run into the same issues, if not even worse."

"How's that?" Sarah asked.

"Look, I've fought Robby, his student, so many times. Robby is almost as comfortable on offense as he is on defense."

"Yes, because he trained at our dojo." Kreese stated. Marcos shrugged.

"Sure. But also because he was presumably trained by Johnny Lawrence, who spent so long with Cobra Kai. Given that Mr. Larusso has probably also been taught a few things by Mr. Lawrence, he's going to know some offense either way. His offense will be more comfortable than our defense."

"What do you suggest then?" Kreese asked. Marcos thought for a while before coming up with a plan.

"Well if we know that we're stuck in a pattern, chances are that Mr. Larusso knows that too. He's going to want to continue in this way for as long as he can. He's going to want to leave us on offense and him on defense for as long as possible, as so far it has allowed him to score all of the points. This means that we have control over the tempo of the fight. So what I think you should do is push forward on offense, make him think you're doing the same thing as before, but just as he prepares to throw his counter and score, shoot backwards and get on defense. Jerk him around. Set these kinds of traps. He'll have no clue what to do."

"Are you sure about this?" Kreese asked.

"No." Marcos replied honestly. "But worth a try, right? Nothing to lose…"

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Shockingly, Marcos' gamble actually worked. For a short while at least. Baiting Daniel into continuing to fight the same way, but then setting traps whenever he did, helped Kreese scored 3 points, enough to level the score, before Daniel finally wisened up to what the man was doing. If it was one of his students fighting, Daniel would have figured it out a lot earlier. However, it was different when you were actually the one on the mat, especially after taking as long of a break from karate as Daniel had.

However, with the score equal at 3-3, Daniel understood what Kreese was doing and the severity of it, so he called for his own timeout, returning to his corner, where Robby and Sam were waiting for him.

"He knows how I fight." Daniel said, not asking a question, but instead making a blunt statement. Robby and Sam nodded.

"Of course he does. You've been fighting the same way since the 80s." Sam remarked. "He clearly knows how to counter your Miyagi-Do, so you're going to have to try something different."

"It's not like I can control it though. He keeps catching me in all kinds of traps." Daniel said.

"That's because you're letting him control the pace of the fight." Robby told him. "He's on offense, you're on defense, so he's the one dictating everything that's happening. It allows him to plan his traps on his terms. You need to set the tone. Go on offense yourself. Use Eagle-Fang. He'll never see it coming."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mat in the Cobra Kai corner, the sensei and the two students were also having their own conversation.

"Look, if I was in their corner right now, given the way the last few rounds have shaken out, I'd be thinking to go on offense to try and seize some control over the fight. It's clear you have a gameplan to combat Miyagi-Do, so they're going to be trying to do something different."

"So I'll just push him further on offense." Kreese stated. "Not give him a chance to change anything."

"Then you'll just find yourself with the same issue as the beginning of the fight." Sarah pointed out. Kreese sighed.

"That's a risk I'm going to have to take. Because if Johnny Lawrence, one of the best students and senseis this dojo has ever had, taught him offense, then Larusso's offense is probably going to be better than my defense." Kreese admitted. "I need to just press forward with stronger offense. That's my only option."

The fight resumed, with both fighters intent on their strategies. It was an interesting clash of styles between the two of them. Despite all of their history with each other, they hadn't actually come to blows too often. This led to a pretty open fight, one where the competitors scored point after point after point without much of a break in between. At the end of the day, all of the tactics and strategies in the world went out the window at a certain point, and it came down to simply who was the better fighter. And there was only one answer to that question…

If this fight had been contested by the John Kreese of 50 years ago, there most certainly would've been a different outcome. Nobody was touching the elite, special forces, hand-to-hand specialist that Captain Kreese used to be, least of all Daniel Larusso. But now, many years later, age was finally starting to catch up to the sensei, particularly in the latter stages of the fight where the man's lack of stamina and strength became even more obvious.

As the point gap between them increased, hope began to trickle away for the Cobra Kais. The score was 7-5 to Daniel, meaning that he only needed one more point to guarantee his position in the final and eliminate Cobra Kai's chances of winning that division. The Cobras were backed up against the ropes and needed one last hope, one more miracle, a moment of magic to help them advance past Daniel and achieve a finals matchup against Johnny.

Unfortunately, that miracle just wasn't to be though. A final point scored by Daniel made the score 8-5, ending the fight.

Daniel Larusso vs. Johnny Lawrence. The first matchup of the Sekai Taikai final had been confirmed…