Chapter Ten: Golf 'N Stuff
…
Yasmine was playing Galaga on an old gaming cabinet at Golf 'N Stuff while Lucas leaned on it, eating Dipping Dots out of a cup with a plastic spoon.
"I meant to ask. Why is everyone at school obsessed with karate? At least so many of the guys, I don't get it at all."
"Not everyone can spend their free time with manicures and cheer Yas."
She glared at him for a moment.
Lucas was happy to see the smile on her face for a moment. "No but really, karate is about more than the actual martial arts. It's about building character."
"Then what sort of character is your karate about?"
Lucas shrugged. "Miyagi-Do is mostly about harmony. Peace, you learn to fight so you don't fight. It's always smarter to run than actually fight."
He looked aside, still explaining. "It really is about finding the defensive aspect of karate, not competing, not fighting for sport. Just, making sure you need to defend yourself when the time comes. Not being there when the crowds cheer and all the hooplah surrounds."
Yasmine began to laugh. She started to laugh and laugh and laugh.
"What?" Lucas chuckled nervously.
"Luke that's literally the exact opposite of you. It seems like you joined karate in the first place just for the clout. You won that big tournament just so you could get a bunch of attention right? And if not, it seems like this Miyagi-Do thing is like, the polar opposite of you as a person."
Lucas was about to protest but froze.
He looked like he saw a ghost.
Doug Rickenberger, a teen with dark hair and a tough build had turned around the corner at the end of the line of video game machines at Golf 'N Stuff.
He was walking with several Cobra Kai members.
Mikey, as well as a few others of Kreese's top students.
Lucas gripped Yasmine's hand, speaking calmly. "We need to go."
"Wh-What, but we were having so much-" Yasmine yelped suddenly.
Lucas turned and tucked her out of sight between a Galaga and Ms. Pac Man machine.
"Why are we hiding?" Yasmine whispered.
Yasmine's eyes grew, the close proximity between her and Lucas led to certain comfort from both of them.
Lucas whispered back. "To avoid a fight."
The two were looking at each other in a minute bit of privacy, their noses almost touching, before Lucas left the small spaces between all the gaming machines.
Lucas held Yasmine's hand again and she followed him out of the arcade for a moment before Lucas bumped directly into Mitch.
He turned, grinning.
"Hey Schwarber, fine date you picked up."
Lucas refused to let go of Yasmine's hand. "She's not my date."
"Right." Mitch chuckled, the rest of Cobra Kai drew near. "You know Aisha had every right to crack your fake ass nose Yas."
"No one has that right." Lucas said, earning a small look from Yasmine.
"Correction. You get to decide for yourself who deserves a proper ass beating."
Lucas laughed quietly. "That's John Kreese talking, not you Mitch."
"That's who talking?" asked Yasmine.
A bit surprised Lucas knew their Sensei's name, Mitch still ignored it and shrugged. "Then maybe he's right."
"Karate isn't like, a weapon dude. That's fucked up if you think you can solve all your problems by hitting people."
"It's better than enabling a cyber bully." Mitch stared at Yasmine angrily. "Right?"
She looked aside shamefully before Lucas spoke up again. "I don't have time for this."
They began to leave together and then a few Cobra Kais physically stood in their way.
"You know we came up with our own name to give you and mess with you the same way you messed with Aisha, Yas."
Mitch smiled. "Voldemort."
Mikey smirked too. "No nosed bitch."
Lucas then just shoved Rickenberger out of the way and started to run out of the arcade.
The Cobra Kais followed, and a Golf 'N Stuff employee looked confused in their direction.
"The heck?" Chris squinted at the scene.
…
At some point during the chase, Lucas and Yasmine got separated, he looked around an old laser tag room confused.
"Yas?" he called out.
"Fake bitch must've figured out you weren't worth it. Figures." Mitch entered the sectioned off part of the arcade with six other Cobra Kais.
Lucas only seemed to be focused on Mikey and Rickenberger, as if they appeared to be the only real threats.
"What do you want man?"
"To teach you a lesson. You keep trying to swoop Miguel's chicks, you're so desperate for 'tang you take out Yasmine for a date the moment she cyberbullies someone into striking back." he said.
Lucas sighed. "She just got her nose broken, she deserved to get cheered up. Everyone does. You all have that chance too."
Mitch shook his head with a chuckle. "You're such a liar Schwarber. You always wear karate gear, you got first place at last year's All Valley. You claim to know everything about karate, but you don't."
"Well maybe it's time someone taught it to you."
Mitch smirked and cracked his knuckles, walking forward only to throw a jab punch that resulted in him getting elbowed in the jaw for.
After a knee was thrown to his sternum, Lucas threw a groaning Mitch aside.
Lucas raised his voice before the other boys could act. "I promise you, I know more about Cobra Kai than any of you."
Surprised again Lucas knew this much when no one at their school had ever really talked about their karate dojo, the Cobra Kais paused.
"It isn't right, you don't create peace by hitting people." Lucas muttered.
Rickenberger and Mikey looked at each other for a moment.
"This is all fucked up. You're here to prove something to Yas she already learned, trust me. Nothing good comes of violence, I've been where you're all at. I promise you, it leads nowhere."
Lucas seemed to be getting through to them before all of a sudden Mitch had recovered and shoulder tackled Lucas to the ground.
He fell right onto his chin on the arcade floor.
"Yeah!" Mitch roared stupidly. "Mess with us? Yeah!?"
"Dude I think you busted his lip."
It looked a bit funny to the other Cobra Kais and suddenly, the look on Lucas' face changed.
He wasn't calm anymore, he was mad.
…
OST: Robot Rock - Daft Punk
…
Lucas wiped the bit of blood off his mouth slowly, nodding a bit.
Every Cobra Kai there could tell he was accepting their challenge out of rage.
Mitch stupidly walked right into another counter, this time a spinning wheel kick to the jaw.
The heel of Lucas' shoe connected right on Mitch's jaw, sending him flying to the ground.
Mikey and his friend attacked at the same time, Lucas elbowed Mikey in the jaw while dodging the other's punch. Grabbing a wild kick from Mikey, Lucas threw them together, their heads colliding.
Lucas rushed forward leaping off his back leg in a classic karate jab punch. His fist collided at full speed into Rickenberger's jaw, interrupting his front kick.
Lucas instantly spun around into a leg sweep to kick a rushing Cobra Kai's leg.
He staggered for a moment, and Lucas jumped upwards out of his spin to connect with a spinning round kick to the temple.
Lucas had knocked him clean out.
Before Mikey and Mitch could recover, Lucas was merciless in disabling his opponents. Through the low lights of the closed laser tag room, Lucas snapped one of their wrists, he couldn't even tell because of how mad he was.
However, Mitch shoulder tackled Lucas again to not receive the same fate.
Lucas was using the exact same moves as all of his opponents.
The jab, the reverse punch, the hook kick, the round kick and back kick, as well as the leg sweep. All of them knew Cobra Kai, but Lucas knew it far better than all of them.
The difference was that Lucas had to fight much smarter as he was outnumbered heavily. He had to move quicker, cleaner, counter more decisively.
There was no Miyagi-Do here, no flashy hand movement, just simple dodging, punching, and kicking.
Lucas used his elbows, his knees, he wasn't even thinking. He was just striking.
He would strike through his opponent's attacks, interrupting their combinations, using their numbers to their disadvantage. Making them hit each other quickly and then moving away.
Lucas should've lost this fight quickly, instead he struck first, and hard.
Rickenberger threw a round kick leading into a spinning hook kick, both directly to the head.
Lucas leaned back from both to dodge only to be tied up for a moment as Mitch pinned his arms behind his back.
As Rickenberger managed to land a solid punch to Lucas' ribs and jaw, he struggled.
Lucas managed to shake his head and regain his senses as Rickenberger panted, preparing a third strike.
Lucas quickly shifted left and right to both dodge and squirm a bit out of Mitch's grasp.
Rickenberger's fist and feet flew harmlessly by his head as Lucas then used hikite, or the karate fist pull back to the hip to damn near break Mitch's floating ribs.
He gasped, walking backwards before Lucas grunted in rage.
He struck Mitch directly in the eye as hard as he could with a back fist and then another elbow to the jaw. This time, the blow was so clean and hard, Mitch's whole head rocked up and he was out cold.
Rickenberger socked Lucas in the back of the head, making him spin for a second.
He dodged randomly by ducking when he hit the arcade wall. Both Rickenberger and another Cobra Kai ganged up on Lucas when he covered up.
Lucas was able to recover from the stagger quickly enough to quickly grab Rickenberger's foot when he tried to go for a front kick to Lucas' chest.
He rolled under his friend's punch to sweep Rickenberger's rear leg, sending him flying hard to the ground before Lucas hit his friend instantly with a jab before he could blink, much less counter.
Lucas was just that fast. He all but teleported across the ground of the arcade with a point karate style jab so hard and so quick he punched the lights of the Cobra Kai he hit the second he hit his chin.
The remaining three Cobra Kais were enraged with Lucas.
Two were helping Mikey nurse a snapped wrist and could've easily left the fight but decided to stay instead.
Mikey was able to fight through his pain and merely kicked and wildly used his other hand to fight.
Fighting three boys his age all at once, the brawl turned bloody.
Lucas had to fight fast and hard again, and he had bruises and blood all over his knuckles, shoes, and elbows.
He rolled like a boxer, boxing and weaving, his hands strapped to his temples.
Lucas checked kicks off his shins to counter with his own. He kicked knees, headbutted, again throwing his opponents together to interrupt attacks by landing his own.
By the end of it, he had taken a few hits and almost was cornered a few times but it was over.
A helpless Mikey was smacked at full speed directly into his pals by a round kick to the head.
He tumbled over his friends like bowling pins and Lucas then started to knock them clean out. He kneed Mikey right in the head, Lucas threw his arm like a knife hand, using a haito, or open hand strike to one of Mikey's friend's mouth.
All the sweat on their head flew for a moment before they fell to the ground.
Roaring, Lucas twisted into a back kick to catch the last Cobra Kai's solar plexus at full power. The wind knocked completely out of him, he fell, wheezing.
Lucas spun and connected with another back fist, this time upon the temple, sending the Cobra Kai flying back.
He defeated Mikey, Rickenberger, Mitch, and four of their friends all on his own. He was bruised, bloodied, but standing.
Lucas panted, limping out of the arcade, leaving them all there.
…
Kreese held Mitch's face, pushing it away in disgust.
Mikey's wrist was in a cast, his knee was also in bad shape. Mitch's entire face had been all but rearranged from the fight he picked, and Rickenberger was suffering a shoulder, head, and neck injury from how hard Lucas had swept him to the ground.
Their other four friends weren't in much better shape.
Miguel merely stood there, his arms crossed wearing his Cobra Kai GI.
Kreese shook his head. "You're all pathetic."
"We were sure we could've won this fight." Mitch lifted his chin, almost pouting.
"Yeah I'll bet." Kreese sighed. "Who was it?"
"Luke Schwarber." muttered Mikey quietly.
Kreese looked away. "I did tell you I don't respect point fighting. But that doesn't mean a point fighting champion can't handle himself. When you all recover, I'll let you come back to the team, for now, go home, rest."
Mitch was surprised. "What're you going to do?"
"What any good Sensei should. Protect his students."
…
"Hello there Daniel."
Daniel LaRusso was quietly doing some paperwork for LaRusso Auto in his office when John Kreese walked into his office, wearing a trench coat.
Daniel reached for the phone instantly as if he was going to call the police but Kreese chuckled. "Don't worry I'm just here to talk."
"Never took you for the diplomatic type."
"I'm not. I prefer good old fashioned violence to take down my enemies. As does your student."
Daniel looked confused.
"What? You haven't heard? He beat down seven of my students all on his own, and I heard he was just a bit scratched up and had a limp."
Daniel shook his head. "That's not like Lucas."
"No? Perhaps you don't know him as well as you think you did."
"So what're you here for?"
"What I wanted the last time we talked like this. Retribution, some sort of answer for the pain of my students."
Daniel shrugged. "I can't give that to you."
"I want some sort of answer. Right now. Or I promise you, things will get ugly."
Daniel looked at the door, and then the knuckles Kreese was baring.
Between starting a fight with John Kreese in his own dealership, probably meaning a serious loss of his reputation, or working out some sort of deal with him. The choice was clear.
"What do you want?" asked Daniel calmly from his desk.
Kreese leaned both of his hands on the chair opposite to where Daniel was sitting.
"A rematch."
"You want me to fight Johnny?" Daniel asked boredly with a snort.
"I want your student to fight mine. Anywhere, anytime."
"Yeah, you're known to fight a bit dirty." Daniel smirked. "Miyagi-Do is not about fighting."
"Then how do you suggest we settle this?"
"Same way we did last time. A tournament, I'll meet you there with bells on."
Kreese inhaled loudly. "Gladly." he growled out.
He then left the office in a huff.
"Who was that guy?" Amanda brushed past Kreese.
"Just some nutjob."
Amanda did not believe her husband at all, but did not inquire further.
…
Kreese sighed loudly, sitting on his desk the next day in the office of the Reseda strip mall dojo.
Miguel entered Kreese's office curiously. "What?"
"Cobra Kai has been banned from competition." Kreese sighed. "It seems the only way I can ever ask to return to compete is to ask for an appeal."
He looked over at Miguel. "How did this, Lucas Schwarber ever manage to stumble upon Rickenberger and the others at that arcade?"
"Coincidence." Miguel shrugged.
"No." Kreese gestured to his office door and Miguel closed it.
Miguel approached and Kreese spoke calmly. "You're going to tell me the truth right now. I know you well enough to know when you're lying."
Miguel frowned. "I um, wanted revenge on Schwarber."
"For?"
"He's the guy I've been telling you about."
Kreese chuckled, crossing his arms. "So instead of facing him yourself. You send your friends to do your dirty work for him."
Miguel couldn't respond.
"You're many things Mr. Diaz." said Kreese. "But a liar and a coward aren't one of them. The future of this dojo will be decided in the next couple months. No more hiding, no more lies, no more weakness. Is that understood?"
"Yes Sensei."
"When you want to take down your rival. You fight him like you mean it, only this time, it won't be from afar. It'll be up close."
"And. Where will that be?"
Kreese nodded slightly to the poster on the wall of the dojo. The All Valley tournament, the fiftieth anniversary.
"Go warm up the class."
"Yes Sensei."
…
The members of the All Valley Karate tournament committee were Daryl, an African American man who was the announcer at tournaments, Ron, a bald man with glasses, and an Asian man named George, a woman named Sue, and a few other people sitting at a few tables.
John Kreese entered and knocked at the open door.
"Hello?"
"Hi there." Ron said calmly. "How can we help you?"
"I'm here for an appeal. My dojo has been banned from competition at the All Valley."
"Banned?" George laughed. "Barely anyone competes anymore, why would we ban anyone?"
"And your name?" asked Sue.
"John Kreese." Daniel LaRusso said, entering the room, "And I assure you, he has in fact been banned."
Kreese quietly watched Daniel take an open seat at the committe table, patting Ron on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry um, I thought that Senseis weren't allowed to organize the tournament." said Kreese.
"Daniel LaRusso has closed Miyagi-Do since the 1980s sir." assured Ron. "There's no funny business going on here."
"Mm." Kreese smiled. "That's not what I heard."
"I'm sorry?" George looked confused, glancing at both Kreese and Daniel.
"Using karate Mr. LaRusso taught him, a student of his you all might know well named Lucas Schwarber has assualted several of my own students." Kreese said calmly. "So I am quite sure that Miyagi-Do is in fact, very open."
"What?" Ron chuckled in surprise, looking at Daniel. "What is this, how come we're the last to know of this?"
"I promise you, these are all lies. My karate does not lie in violence. And this man, is a liar." Daniel pointed towards Kreese.
Kreese shrugged, sitting down in front of the committe. "I have nothing else left to offer anyone but karate. I merely wish to return my dojo to competition, as a send off for my service to this country."
"I think we need to look up some archives." Sue muttered, the rest of the committee agreed.
…
After blowing the dust off some old files, Ron spoke calmly.
"It seems that you were banned from competition by Mr. Pat Johnson, organizer of this committee, himself. After you were accused of quote, unsportsmanlike conduct completely unberefit, of the noble tradition of karate." said Ron.
"That was over thirty years ago." Kreese said. "I promise, I am no longer that person."
"Really?" asked Daniel. "Because I swear, just this past year he-"
"I'm sorry." George said. "Is it really true that Lucas Schwarber is your karate student?"
"I just train him on my own, Lucas hasn't officially returned to competition under Miyagi-Do." he responded.
"Really?" asked Sue. "We need to hear that from himself." she added, as the other committee members nodded in agreement.
Daniel bit his lip angrily as he saw Kreese smirk at him. "Otherwise." added Sue. "You technically are a competing Sensei, and you shouldn't be here."
"I should still have a voice." Daniel insisted.
"You should." Ron agreed. "Just not on the council."
Daniel sighed, standing up to fix his tie. "Fine."
He took a seat near to Kreese, across the aisle of empty chairs.
Ron sighed, fixing his glasses and continuing. "Mr. Kreese I understand this incident was over thirty years ago, but I need to know. What exactly happened?"
Before Daniel could say anything Kreese spoke. "I no longer associate at all with Mr. Barnes or Mr. Silver."
"Silver and him go way back." Daniel chuckled.
Kreese continued. "I want to give my kids a chance to prove themselves."
"Which kids?"
"Kids of all sorts. Kids bullied by people from the privileged lifestyle Mr. LaRusso represents." Kreese said calmly. "I want a safe and fair environment for these kids to face their bullies, and to show their strength. Their growth. I've watched my students really grow into their own. As young men and women, into the karatekas, and people I could be proud of." Daniel rolled his eyes and Kreese continued. "The All Valley could really benefit from seeing the strength Cobra Kai can give. It's an essential aspect of this town's history, especially in martial arts."
Ron and Sue looked at each other, without words the council all appeared to be in agreement.
George cleared his throat. "I'm afraid I speak for all of us Mr. Kreese. Regardless of your current attempt to change your dojo and return for the better. You are someone this council's founder itself decided should be removed from competition."
"It's still a badass name for a dojo." Daryl shrugged.
George raised his gavel, and with a clack of it, Kreese shook his head and looked aside as Daniel smiled.
"I think I can speak for Pat Johnson when I can say a rematch is due on the mat."
"Mr. Schwarber." Ron instantly recognized him. "It's wonderful to see you actually at the arena again."
Daniel turned, shocked to see Kreese was right, Lucas was bruised a bit around his face.
"Glad to be here."
"And. Why are you here?" asked Sue.
"To ask for Mr. Kreese's reinstatement." Lucas said.
Ron was utterly confused. "And why would you ever do that?"
"Because once I was Mr. Kreese's student."
The committee was confused and muttered amongst themselves.
"Wait." George was confused. "So, the karate you used when you won last year's All Valley. That was Mr. Kreese's karate?"
"Precisely. As well as my own combined with Daniel LaRusso's."
Utterly frustrated, Daniel looked aside and hid his face in his hands that Lucas was willing to tell the committe all at once this.
Daryl said the obvious. "I think that changes everything then."
"Well not necessarily." Ron added, nodding to Lucas. "Let's see what Mr. Schwarber has to say."
"Yes, I became the Valley's youngest and quickest champion. And I have to side with my current Sensei, and agree that John Kreese is very much the same man he was when he was banned."
Daniel instantly seemed to smile at a disappointed Kreese.
"He's cruel, and a cheater, liar, and dishonest. But he can bring something that this tournament hasn't seen in a while. Some actually kickass karate."
The smirk battle between Daniel and Kreese continued directly across from and behind Lucas.
"Reinstate Cobra Kai please. You all need to sell tickets to make a profit, or this tournament can't even be run. Kicks sell tickets."
Ron shook his head. "From everything you're telling us, Mr. Kreese will desecrate this tournament. Why would you even want to compete against him again?'
"Because I want to prove again I can become this Valley's champion. No matter who wants to fight me." Lucas said calmly.
"Yeah that's not enough." George looked around, fixing the papers of Kreese's ban on the table.
"Nope." Sue shook her head.
Ron sighed. "It's really not."
"Now hold on." said Daryl, pointing a pen at Lucas. "How far are you willing to endorse Cobra Kai?"
"I will drop out of competing at this next All Valley if John Kreese is not in it."
"Now that really does change everything now doesn't it?" Daryl chuckled.
"Okay then." Ron looked around a nodding All Valley tournament committe table, there was not even a need for discussion considering the amount of the public's interest in Lucas' karate. "In that case. Congratulations Mr. Kreese, welcome back to the All Valley."
Daniel threw his hands up in the air and shook his head, clenching his jaw and looking like he wanted to swear and throw something, as Kreese smiled and bowed his head. "Thank you."
George clacked his gavel twice and like that, Cobra Kai was back in competition.
"And now." Ron picked up a clipboard, as Lucas', Kreese's, and Daniel's attention instantly turned to him. "On to our next and final order of business for our yearly meeting. The rule and affiliation change for our entire tournament."
"I'm sorry what?" Daniel was shocked.
Both Lucas and Kreese were also completely bewildered.
…
Cobra Kai OST: Globo-Kai
(Last Minute of track)
…
"For the past fifty years, the All Valley has been Tang Soo Do affiliated, using the same outdated and inefficient rules for karate competition. Meanwhile." Ron shrugged. "The rest of the world has caught up."
Sue sighed, checking her clipboard. "Even here in the Valley, other dojos have found a new, similar, but new way to compete in karate."
"The USANKF, or, USA national karate-do federation." Ron fixed his glasses. "Has backing from the international olympic committee, karate might even get to the olympics. We've reached out to them, and they agreed to include us."
Daniel and Lucas, and then even Kreese and Daniel looked confused at each other.
"It's time for the All Valley to evolve, and more importantly, grow." Ron said. "We need more tickets, and for years, we've been excluding all sorts of dojos from competition just because we refused to reform. Well no longer."
Sue spoke. "Mr. Schwarber, you are without a doubt the best fighter we've ever seen in All Valley Under 18 karate, but you've never seemed to test yourself against competitors from other styles. Some of which are essentially yours."
In Santa Clarita, karatekas practicing on traditional tatami under a flag of the traditional Goju-Ryu fist were doing kata together. There were rows of karatekas all wearing white GIs and black belts moving simultaneously, young men and women between the ages of thirteen and seventeen.
"Mr. Kreese your karate has evolved as well, far from where you began it too decades ago."
Kreese crossed his arms and squinted as George spoke.
"From what we understand, your karate is based heavily in traditional Shotokan."
Wearing only red footguards and gloves, near Huntington Beach, two boys sparred under the watchful eye of a Sensei, a short man in a karategi with crossed arms.
"Here they more or less have the same style, it's merely evolved greatly."
They exchanged punches, kicks, sweeps, the very same techniques John Kreese had taught vigorously for decades on Lankershim avenue.
"Whethere you're ready or not. The future is here." said Ron. "It's a big world out there for competitive karate, and it's time to step into it."
George clacked his gavel, and All Valley history was made for the second time in only one year.
…
…
…