CHAPTER 175

He had done it. With the entire world watching, Johnny had finally gotten his win. He was not just a champion, but a world champion, and the feeling was absolutely incredible. It wasn't just about winning the fight. It was so much more than that.

For the first time in quite possibly Johnny's entire life, all of the stars had aligned. Not only was he champion, but he had finally gotten his moment, surrounded by the people he loved. As soon as he was declared winner, he found himself being mobbed by all of the Miyagi-Do students. Robby and Miguel were the first to run over to him to embrace him, and the rest of the dojo were not far behind. Even Daniel was happy for Johnny, despite wanting to win the fight himself. Johnny found himself being hugged and embraced by every student and sensei on the mat, and could even see Carmen, Jimmy, Bobby and his other friends and family in the front row of the crowd, cheering and screaming his name in celebration.

Johnny had won before. Twice actually. So this wasn't the first time he had tasted victory. But this time, it simply felt different, and it wasn't because it was a world championship as opposed to an All-Valley. It was because for the first time ever, Johnny had been allowed to feel like he actually won. He wasn't being diminished or put down by Kreese. He wasn't being forced to feel like he could've done more, could've done better. He had made it to the top of the mountain and he was allowed to actually enjoy the view for a while.

Johnny was presented with the trophy, and allowed himself to take in the roar of the entire 100,000 person audience cheering as he hoisted it into the air. Even this left Johnny speechless, partly because of who had just given him the trophy. It could've been a Taikai staff member. But it wasn't. It was a celebrity, someone that Johnny had never in a million years imagined that he'd be meeting in person: Sylvester Stallone! Rocky Balboa himself, one of Johnny's heroes, had just handed the trophy to him! The normally fearless guy that Johnny was, even he found his hands trembling as he accepted the trophy from his hero.

After he lifted the trophy, it was time for post-fight interviews for both the winner and the runner up. Like the trophy ceremony, they were also conducted by Sylvester Stallone, who first stood with Johnny.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here with the winner and new Sekai Taikai Champion of the senseis' division, Johnny Lawrence. How does this feel?"

"I don't know, man. I don't know. This is crazy." Johnny murmured, shaking his head as he spoke into the microphone. "First of all, before anything, I want to thank my family. Especially my two sons over there, Robby and Miguel. I might be the sensei but they helped guide me throughout the fight and throughout the past year, and without them, I definitely wouldn't have won."

The humility that Johnny showed was the truest testament to how much the man had changed since 1984. Not his fighting ability, but simply how he conducted himself after the fight, immediately shaking hands and bowing with Daniel, despite all of the emotions that were flooding through him at the time.

"I also want to thank everyone in my dojo. They didn't have to let me join them after the things I've done to them in the past. They didn't have to let me fight for them. But they did. They've given me so much, and so I want to say thank you to everyone in Miyagi-Do for that, and for allowing me to represent this dojo during this tournament."

Johnny thanked a lot of people during his interview, but there was only one person who he had crossed paths with on this journey that he didn't thank. The person was in the arena, but had watched the fight from a TV in the other competing dojo's locker room. Johnny's first sensei was watching the fight and was absolutely thrilled for his former student, even if his own dojo had lost the division. He couldn't help but still feel loyalty, still feel affection for his former champion, but he knew that Johnny felt nothing but animosity towards him.

"A big congratulations again, Mr. Lawrence. Enjoy the victory." Sylvester Stallone told him, shaking his hand and then approaching Daniel for his runner up interview.

Daniel gave a similar statement to Johnny, despite falling short to him at the very end. He was humble about the whole thing, happy that given that he didn't win, it had been Johnny who had. After everything Johnny had done to help him and all of his loved ones in the past few years, seeing him win was almost as satisfying as if he had won himself. There was no chance of there being any bad blood between them after this one at least.

As ecstatic as Johnny was though, he didn't allow himself to go too overboard with the celebrations. The moment he stepped off the mat, for him, the celebrations ended. He looked around and his eyes laid of all of his clapping and cheering students, and he remembered that they still had a large task ahead of them. They might have claimed the Sensei's division, but they already knew that that would be the case going into today. The big unknowns came with the next 2 upcoming fights, where Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do would go head to head.

Starting with the next fight that was about to occur: Tory Nichols vs. Sarah Gledhill…

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Here it was. Miyagi-Do's first chance to win the entire Taikai and their bet with Cobra Kai, their first opportunity to end the rivalry and bury Cobra Kai into the ground once and for all. It was a completely different situation for Miyagi-Do in comparison to where they had been in the past years. While for as long as they could remember, they had been the hunted, now they were the hunters. Cobra Kai were the ones being attacked from all angles, one killer blow enough to put them away from good.

But that was definitely easier said than done. Tory and Sarah's fight was the next fight on the card, and that entire fight had a question mark drawn all over it. Sarah had never been too keen on this whole Karate war. She had never allowed it to suck her in in the same way as the others. She didn't really need to get too close to the flames, as she didn't have to struggle with life in the same way that the others did. This meant that she had been able to spend the past year with her head down, her mind clear, and trained incredibly hard for this moment. Marcos put in a ridiculous number of hours into Karate and training, and more often than not, it was Sarah who was training with him and sparring against him. This potentially gave her an advantage going into the particular style of fight that the final was, as training with an MMA oriented student had led to her learning a few tips and tricks that she wouldn't have gotten if she had solely done Karate.

However, there was something that there was no chance in hell that Sarah could match Tory on, and that was Tory's determination and drive. There were only a few people on this earth who had the same drive to win that Tory had. While the likes of Miguel and Robby were often referred to as the 'workhorses' within the dojo, it was possible that Tory put in more hours than any of them. Any second that she wasn't working her job at Larusso Auto, she was at the dojo. It didn't matter how early or how late it was in the day. She was there, even if it meant practicing alone, as the thought of winning the Taikai in front of the whole world was enough to motivate her.

Now that the moment she had been waiting a year for had finally arrived, surprisingly Tory didn't feel nervous. What did she have to be nervous for? Of course Sarah had to be a good fighter as she had made it this far, but Tory hadn't fought Sarah herself to even know what she was up against. There was no point stressing about something that she didn't even know yet. Besides, it almost didn't matter how good or bad Sarah was. She had been training to the bone for the past year for this. She had sacrificed a lot to make it this far. It didn't matter who her opponent was, as Tory was not going to allow this opportunity to slip away no matter what.

"You ready?" Tory was pulled out of her train of thought, and she looked up to see Robby standing opposite her. Tory smiled faintly at him.

"Yeah. I am." She replied, determined. Robby nodded.

"That's good. Just remember, no matter what happens next, even making it this far is a huge achievement." He told her. Tory nodded back.

"I know. But I'm also not going to get this far, only to let someone else take the trophy home. I'm winning this." Tory said. Even hearing the words aloud pumped more adrenaline into her system, and they made her believe it more and more as she heard them. She had been through so much in the past few years. Whether it be dealing with the mistakes that she had made, both the physical consequences of them as well as the immense guilt from them. She had had to face losses; face cheapened victories; potential eviction and the ensuing sexual blackmail; breakups and infidelity from her ex, and so much more. The world had beaten her down, beaten her black and blue, but she was still somehow standing tall.

Tory had spent the past year healing all of her physical and emotional scars, the ones keeping her from truly winning. Now that she had done that, she felt freer and more uninhibited than ever. Never would she have ever thought this before, but the sky felt like the limit for her. Joining Miyagi-Do and later getting the job as a saleswoman had absolutely changed her life. It had been years since Tory had genuinely felt like she had nothing that she needed to stress about on the forefront of her mind. Her family was taken care of with the money she was making at Larusso Auto. She was in a committed, loving relationship. She was surrounded by real friends. The Tory Nichols standing there today was almost unrecognizable from the broken girl who had knocked out a teacher and growled into the intercom at West Valley High, spikes adorning her wrist, almost exactly 2 years prior. And now it was time to show the world that…