CHAPTER 166

As soon as Sam hit the ground, everyone could tell that there was something wrong. She had gone down in a heap and hadn't made any move to get up. Although the fight was still technically live so Tory had the ability to score a point on Sam, she didn't. She was rooted to the spot, staring at her opponent worriedly, waiting and secretly praying that Sam would get up.

She didn't though. Remaining on the ground, the referee had no choice but to call for a stoppage and shout for the medic. Immediately, as the medic stepped onto the mat, Daniel ran on after him, concern evident on the faces of every member of the dojo, who were all watching the fight unfold.

Daniel approached his daughter and knelt down beside her.

"Sam. You okay?" Daniel asked her.

"My ankle." Sam whispered, her voice deathly low and her face beginning to pale. That's all she needed to say… the two words and the tone with which she said them were enough to stab fear in the heart of her father. The result of the fight seemed almost irrelevant now in comparison to the massive health concern on their hands.

"Mr. Larusso, please let me through." The medic said, making Daniel step aside as he moved to kneel beside Sam's foot, ready to treat her.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mat, Tory was forced by the referee to return to her own corner and turn away and kneel. She was not allowed to be anywhere near Sam to see what was going on, despite the fact that they were teammates. The thought that she had injured her opponent, after everything else she had done to her in the past, was seriously stressing her out, but she wasn't even allowed to look to see what was going on.

"Alright, Ms. Larusso, can you wiggle your toes?" The medic asked. As Sam obliged, the medic nodded. "Any pain?"

"No." Sam replied quietly. The medic smiled comfortingly.

"That's good. Does it hurt when I do this?" The medic asked, pressing on a spot in her ankle.

"No." Sam said again, shaking her head.

"That's good. That's really good. You're doing so well, Ms. Larusso." The medic reassured her, before pressing another spot. "What about here?"

"Ow!" Sam quietly yelped in pain. "That one hurts."

The medic immediately let go of her foot and sat back a little, before turning to face both her and Daniel at the same time, Sam's father watching all of this, silent but petrified.

"What's going on, doctor?" Daniel immediately questioned him after his preliminary exam.

"Unclear. She can move her toes, and there isn't much swelling forming, so the ankle's definitely not badly broken." The medic reassured them. "However, given the pain that she's feeling and the location of it, there's likely a sprain, maybe even a fracture."

"Can I still fight?" Sam asked, hopefully. The medic winced.

"Well there's no sign of a break of anything that can cause immediate harm, so technically I can't stop you." The medic told her. "But I'd suggest that you first try and put weight on the foot, and then go from there."

Sure enough, as Daniel helped Sam to her feet, she would've immediately collapsed if not for her father holding her. She couldn't put even the slightest bit of weight on her bad ankle without a shooting pain racing up her leg. She could barely stand, let alone fight.

However, all was not lost for Sam. There was still hope for her, as she watched the medic walk over to the ref and murmur something in his ear. After a few seconds, the referee nodded and walked back to the center of the mat, addressing the entire arena as he spoke.

"A 15 minute recess has been recommended by the medical team to allow Ms. Larusso to recover. Both fighters will retreat to their own spaces, and in 15 minutes, we'll reconvene here to continue the fight. The score will remain 1-1."

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10 minutes remaining. 9 minutes remaining. 8 minutes remaining.

As Sam watched the minutes tick by, she limped around the private medical room that she had been moved to, trying to hobble on the ankle. A permanent grimace in pain was etched on her face. Things didn't look good for her. That was for sure. She had less than half of her allocated recess time remaining, and she still couldn't place all of her weight on the ankle. The ankle had been tightly wrapped in medical tape so that it wouldn't roll again, but that didn't change the damage that had already been done.

All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door of the medical room.

"Come in!" Sam called, and she watched as Miguel entered the room, smiling faintly at her as he did. Despite her predicament, Sam couldn't help but return the smile as she saw him there.

"How are you feeling?" Miguel immediately asked.

"Not great." Sam admitted honestly. No point lying or putting on a brave face now. She was starting to feel less and less certain of her future in this tournament, and more and more like she was going to be forced to bow out. "The doctor said it's not broken, but it still really hurts."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Miguel murmured. The way that Sam's ankle had rolled underneath her when she fell was very worrying for all of them. "Are you going to keep fighting?"

"I don't know." Sam murmured. On one hand, her ankle was throbbing with a pain she hadn't ever felt before. She could barely stand, let alone fight, especially against a fighter as good as Tory. But on the other hand… she couldn't let it all end like this. She had full faith that Tory would be able to bring the girls' title to Miyagi-Do, but that didn't change the fact that Sam wanted to win it! After everything she had been through, she needed to win it. For her dojo and for herself. Her All-Valley title had been taken from her by a paid-off referee. This was supposed to be her chance to get even, win what was rightfully hers.

"For what it's worth, I'm sure that nobody would be at all upset if you needed to stop." Miguel told her. "Health comes before anything. If you're not okay to fight, please don't fight anyways. You'll only risk making it worse."

"Right. Because you've never fought while suffering an injury, have you?" Sam smiled faintly at him, recalling all of the times that Miguel had fought, despite being pretty far from a full recovery from his back injury. Miguel chuckled quietly and nodded.

"Touche." He admitted. "All I'm saying is do what's right for you, and everyone supports you either way. You're not letting anyone down by not fighting, and you're not doing anyone any favors if you fight and get yourself hurt even more."

"What would you do?" Sam asked him curiously. "If you were in my situation, would you fight?"

"I, uh… I don't know." Miguel said. "For one thing, we don't really know the extent of your injury. It could be a lot worse than you were initially told, and fighting on it afterwards can't help. You also can't expect Tory not to want to target that area because it'll be an obvious weakness - that's just the smart thing to do. And you definitely can't expect Sarah not to capitalize on it in the final with the MMA style rules. It's not up to your opponent to be extra nice and avoid the injury. You need to be prepared to get seriously hurt if you keep going."

"But…" Sam prompted him, sensing that there was more to his sentence. Miguel smiled faintly. She knew him so well.

"But… when are you ever going to get an opportunity like this again? To fight on a global stage like this one. To be on TV, in front of millions of people, representing our dojo. It's been so surreal being here. It would be a shame to have to bow out like this." Miguel replied honestly. "That's if it was me anyway. Whatever you decide, I've got your back."

Sam nodded, determination glinting in her eyes as she spoke again.

"I'm fighting…"

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Pretty similarly to how Sam had been limping around her medical room, Tory paced up and down the empty waiting room that she had been forced to remain in for the 15 minute recess. For a while, the other Miyagi-Dos had been in the room with her as they waited for Sam's secondary checks to be done by the medics, but as soon as they heard that the tests were done, they all went to go and check on her, leaving Tory in her room alone.

Tory had no idea what was going on. She knew that she had badly injured Sam. That's all she knew. It had been a freak accident

All of a sudden, she was pulled out of her train of thoughts when she heard a knock on the door. Turning around to face whoever it was, she saw none other than Robby walking into the room. He had volunteered to stay with Tory when everyone else had gone to check on Sam, but Tory had asked him to go to see what the latest update was on Sam's condition. Tory was consumed with guilt from what she had done. She hadn't meant to injure Sam. That wasn't who she was anymore.

"How's Sam doing?" Tory immediately asked.

"She's doing alright." Robby replied. "She just finished having some more tests done. They're almost certain that nothing's broken. It seems like it's just a minor sprain. She's planning to wrap her ankle and keep fighting. So the fight's still on."

Although Tory was delighted that it didn't seem like Sam was seriously hurt, she didn't show it. Instead, she looked just as troubled as before, more so even, and Robby noticed.

"Are you okay?" Robby asked, seeing the expression on Tory's face.

"Fine." Tory grunted.

Robby didn't say anything, but he merely raised an eyebrow, not believing that for a second. He didn't question her; he didn't have to. His raised eyebrow was enough to cause Tory to look down, unable to look him in the eye as she spoke.

"This was not how it was supposed to go." Tory murmured quietly.

"Huh?" Robby grunted, confused.

"This was not how it was supposed to go." Tory repeated. "I came here to the Taikai to redeem myself."

"Redeem yourself? To whom?" Robby asked.

"Who do you think?" Tory snapped. "After everything I've done to the dojo when I was in Cobra Kai, this was supposed to finally be my chance to win for them."

"Tory, you aren't in debt to Miyagi-Do in any way." Robby said. "Everyone has long forgiven you for the past. Sam included."

"Maybe, but this time, I truly wanted to win for them. To show the dojo just how much I appreciate everything they've done for me since I defected, despite what I did to them in the past. And instead, all I've done is injure my own teammate, the same girl who I attacked with fucking spikes and broke into her house in the past! I've done the exact opposite of redeeming myself to them!"

Robby remained quiet as Tory spoke, allowing her to vent whatever feelings she needed to, but Tory misinterpreted it and sighed.

"Of course you don't get it. How could you? You're literally Miyagi-Do's golden child." Tory muttered. Robby raised an eyebrow.

"I don't get it? Are you kidding? I think you're forgetting that I was the guy who broke one of their leaders' back, put him in a coma, and nearly killed him. And if that wasn't bad enough, I then joined Cobra Kai and was part of the team that won the tournament. I thought I'd never in a million years be welcomed back. And when I did, I was convinced that I needed to somehow redeem myself in their eyes. That's why I stayed with my dad in Mexico to look for Miguel."

"Yeah, so you get it then. I'm stuck in the same shitty situation that you were." Tory grumbled. Robby shrugged.

"I don't think it was a shitty situation. It was the opposite. Seeing my dad lie to me and trick me into going to Mexico for a 'road trip'... it made me realize that grown adults do dumb shit just as much as we do."

"With Sensei Lawrence, that's definitely true." Tory remarked. Robby chuckled and nodded.

"Going on that wild goose chase with my dad showed me that sometimes, good intentions can lead to absolute shit. It can lead to mistakes. And that's fine, because it's all about looking forward to the next step, not looking back at the step that you've just taken. It's not about the mistakes made in the past, but instead about how we manage to move on from them."

Tory couldn't help but laugh at the seriously corny line.

"God, you really are a Miyagi-Do, aren't you? I guess living at his house, some of his corny catch phrases rubbed off on you, huh?" Tory commented. Robby chuckled and shrugged.

"I'm not wrong though, am I?" Robby said. "Look forward to the next step. Don't beat yourself up over things that happened a year or two in the past, or even accidents that just happened. Look forward to the next step… and for you, that's the Taikai final. If you still want to fight, that is."

Tory smiled as she nodded at him. She still didn't know how she had gotten so lucky with Robby. As horribly cheesy as it sounded, if tomorrow everything else in her life went to shit, she knew that she'd be able to get through it, and the reason for that was the person standing opposite her.

"Of course I still want to fight."

At that moment, the large timer on their room door hit 0, and an alarm instantly rang. It was time for the fight to continue…