"Ready?" Daniel LaRusso spoke to the mixed crowd of Eagle Fang and Miyagi Do.
"Let's Begin!" Johnny yelled.
The teens stood there since they didn't know if they were supposed to do their normal warm-ups when they had new Sensei. Demetri put his hand up. "Began what exactly?"
The adults looked at each other confused. "Oh my god, they didn't even discuss what class would be like?" Lee, who was exploring the yard, complained loudly.
"Be quiet you." Johnny scolds.
"It's the beginning of a new era." Daniel cleared his throat. "Many of us used to be enemies but rivalries don't need to last forever." He glances at Johnny. "The All Valley Tournament is just a few months away and this year the stakes are higher than they've ever been. We know that Cobra Kai is gonna use every dirty trick in the book. There's only one way we're going to beat…"
Johnny interrupted him. "By kicking their asses so hard they shit themselves. We gotta take things to the next level. Gonna teach you aggression stronger than anything Cobra Kai can throw at us. They strike first? We'll pre-strike." Lee couldn't stop giggling from the first sentence.
Daniel steps in front of him. "Okay, we are getting ahead of ourselves. We are going to respond to what they do."
"Eagles don't respond. They swoop down and take whatever they want. That's what we're going to do. Take back the Valley." His dojo was nodding their heads while Daniel's students were confused.
"Take it back in an organized and measured approach." Daniel tried to edit Johnny.
"We bite first," Johnny yelled.
"Okay, let's just warm up with some simple exercises." He thought they should get started.
"Line up." Johnny got them into formation.
"Breath and follow me." Daniel took a deep breath.
"Fighting formation. Right kick, hi-yah." He yelled.
Mitch kicked Nathaniel down. "Oh shit, dude, so sorry."
"Oh-kay…. I think maybe we should give you guys an hour or two to talk about what we're going to do because this is not flowing naturally." Lee helped Nate get to his feet.
"I tried, but he doesn't listen," Johnny whispers.
"Are you listening?" She asked.
"Huh? Of course." He put his hand to his chest like he was offended.
"Such a liar. Now go in there and be willing to compromise. I'm giving you an hour tops because it is hot and I will not be in this heat for long." She was planning on chilling in the house after getting a few pictures.
"Fine. Come on." Johnny nods for Daniel to follow him. He looked at Lee in amazement while doing so.
"So, that's what she does." Sam was also impressed.
"I'm good at talking him down but as far as correcting that's Lee's specialty," Miguel explains their roles.
"Ah… I ran out of my drink." Lee gasps at taking her last sip.
"I told you to put it down. You know if it's in your hand you're going to keep drinking." Demetri did not want to hear her whine for the rest of the day.
"We got the cooler in your trunk." Mitch reminds her.
"Oh, that's right." She perks up.
"I'll get it." Hawk ran to grab it for her.
Miguel raises his eyebrows at her. Her ex had been giving her space but if she mentioned needing something he was the first to jump. "Don't fall for it. He'll go back to treating you like crap if you get back with him." Chris said. Miyagi-do seemed to agree while Eagle Fang was on the fence.
"When I want an opinion I'll ask for it." She wanted to be positive about this combination but some of them thought so highly of themselves. She felt like her dojo owned up to its faults but the Miyagi-do didn't.
They planned to break the class into two parts with Johnny going first. "Ready, fight!" He was having everyone spar. Up first were Mitch and Bert. "Let's go for the teeth." He encourages. They were swinging wildly, hoping to land a hit.
"Okay, you're just swinging on each other." Daniel put his arms out to separate them. He looks back at Johnny. "Don't you teach any defense?"
"The best defense is more offense." Mitch proudly told him. Bert took that opportunity to kick his side and then his stomach to make him slam into the boulder.
"Why do you have a rock in the middle of a dojo?" Johnny glares at Daniel while helping Mitch up.
"I think it's for the saying on it." Lee had been trying to read it. She is currently in Japanese 2.
"What does the dumb thing say?" He asks.
"It's kind of hard to read because it's gibberish and the handwriting is sloppy. I had to practice for hours every day to get it right. It says Envy shows a garden without rocks." She squinted while she read.
"No, it says Envy only sees the garden without the rocks." Daniel corrected.
"No, see this right here." She points to a part of the sentence. "That's said Miseru, it means to show. Miru would be to see. Besides that, it's not even a Japanese proverb. It's based on a Russian one." She started to wonder if he was a cultural appropriator.
"Oh yeah, Envy sees the sea but not the rocks," Demetri remembers the one she was referring to.
"HAHAHAHA." Johnny crackled.
"Sorry, you got ripped off Sensei." Nate put a hand on his shoulder.
"Why would you want that saying anyways? Do you think people are jealous of you? And, you want them to know that you worked hard and it wasn't handed to you." She turned to the older man.
"It's not about me, it's about there's no need to envy others because you can work hard to get whatever you want." He explained what it meant to him.
"Sounds a little elitist to me." She hummed. "You got the privilege of your sensei's wealth when he passed away. You work hard to build from that, but to build from something is better than nothing." Daniel stared at her with an open mouth, not believing that Cole's kid was telling him about acting like an elitist.
"You're the best kid." He gave her a big hug.
"Technically, they are both wrong. It's about how envy only allows us to see the pros in others' lives and not the cons." Demetri corrected.
"Is he always this annoying?" Johnny made it like he was whispering to her but everyone heard.
"Fight." Daniel was having Demetri and Sam spar.
"That's it, keep circling." He encourages them. "Don't anticipate, stay focused."
"One of them needs to do something. What the hell is this?" Johnny complains.
"That's not how this works, one of us has to be provoked," Demetri told him.
"But neither of you is going to do that, so you might as well start singing for the rain to have some type of purpose." She stood next to Sensei just as confused.
"I thought she was here to calm him down, not amp him up." Daniel looks at Miguel.
"She'll do either, depending on what suits her." He shrugs.
"Sensei, I can't watch this for hours." She whines. He grabbed the water bottle she was drinking and whipped it at Demetri making the teen yell out in pain.
"Hey!" Daniel yelled.
"Provoked yet?" Johnny smirked at Demetri.
"Oh, you know what you can have them do, put two pieces of paper in a bowl and have them pick. One can be offense, the other defense. How are they ever going to learn to use defense as an offense if there is never any offense, to begin with." Lee bounces on her heels, excited by the idea that pops into her head. Daniel bites the inside of his cheek, hating that it was good.
"Oh, she's outsmarted you for a second time." Johnny was overfilled with joy.
"Wax on, wax off." Daniel was having his students wax his cars. "It doesn't matter how many times you do it, you always need the fundamentals."
"That's right, clean it well, I want it to look brand spanking new. Get all the cans out of there." Johnny was having them clean his van which was filled with trash and beer cans. "You find any loose change, it belongs to me." Daniel shook his head in disbelief.
"Dry my car good, I don't want any watermarks." Lee watches Bert's movements get slower.
"You heard the lady." He wipes faster while looking over at Hawk.
"She was talking to you, not me." He scoffed.
"At least she is on speaking terms with me." He mutters.
"No watermark on mine either," Johnny yelled at Miguel.
"It's got scrapes and dents all over it. No one is going to notice water marks." He squinted at him.
"I will, so dry fast." He whipped a towel at him.
"I think you should worry about vacuuming the inside of your car. Why are there so many crumbs?" She looks in the backseat.
"When I'm done eating I throw my trash over my shoulder?" He shrugs.
"That is disgusting! Don't you want to treat your things with respect?" Daniel didn't want the teens to think this was okay.
"I got it for free." He shrugs. Daniel shot him another look of disbelief. He walks away before he blows his top and sets a bad example in front of his class.
"Come on, you maggots! Faster!" He throws a beer bottle into the ground, shattering it. He made an obstacle course: running around flaming trash cans, jumping over shattered glass, spinning themselves while putting their head on a baseball bat, and punching a tire while avoiding the paddles. "Johnny, we're going to get sued here." Daniel looks at all the danger.
"Sue me, for what?" Johnny didn't have anything for them to take.
"I'm going to barf." Chris ran to the boat.
"Not the boat. Not the boat." Daniel yelled but it was too late.
The clicking of a camera could be heard making Johnny turn around. "What are you doing?" Lee was laying down in the back of one of Daniel's cars taking pictures.
"Trying to get a selfie." She sat up.
"Stop trying to make it look sexy." He saw the way she was positioning her body and elongating her neck.
"You're right it doesn't match the sweats I have on. Can I come back another day with a better outfit to take pictures?" She asked Daniel.
"I don't think that's what he meant." He was amused watching their dynamic.
"No, it's not." Johnny pulled her out of the car.
"Fight," Johnny was having Hawk and Mitch spar. They were trading blows until Mitch dodged and Hawk's foot went through the screen door.
"Sorry." He pulls his foot out.
"You see this is why we don't spar in here." Daniel looks at Johnny and Lee.
"It wasn't my idea for them to spar in here. I said that I was going to be in here because it was hot out." She fans herself with a Sensu.
"You know what, let's call it a day. Johnny and I need to plan things out so tomorrow can go better." He dismissed the kids. They gladly left.
"Tomorrow how about we do our own things? Me in the front and you in the back." Johnny suggested.
"Yeah, we can try that." He was surprised at how easy that was.
"Tomorrow, do you think you can teach Lee?" He looks off to the side, having to swallow his pride.
Daniel was shocked at first but he recovered. "I don't mind Johnny, but don't you want to teach her?"
"I tried, but I couldn't. She takes one hit and cries that she doesn't want to anymore. I can't force her to go on. I hate this… I don't want to admit it but I can't watch her get hit either." Johnny was clenching his teeth, having to force it out.
"She does have you wrapped around her finger." If he didn't know he would have thought Lee was Johnny's daughter.
"Will you do it or not?" He asked.
"I will, but she has to respect me." He wasn't going to have her undermining him.
"What? You're talking about two papers in a bowl idea. That was a good idea." Johnny couldn't think of a moment when she was rude.
"With the boulder." He pointed to it.
"What? The translation was wrong." He shrugged.
"She said that I was an elitist." He was the most insulted by that.
"She said you sounded like it. She didn't say you were. It's a big difference." He defends. "Trust me, she is a delight to have around. You'll see. You'll be trying to keep her permanently but she won't." He patted his shoulder on the way out.
"Ready, bow." Johnny bows to them to have them bow back.
"Sensei Lawerence and I have the same goal of preparing you for the tournament." Daniel thought it was good to start with that.
"But, we have different ways of getting you there." Johnny points out their differences.
"We realize that teaching you opposing viewpoints at the same time can be a little confusing." He thought yesterday was a failure. "So, we discussed it and came up with a conclusion."
"We divide and conquer. Eagle Fang trains out front." He pointed his thumb to the back of him.
"And I'll be here with Miyagi Do." He pointed down.
"I thought we were stronger working together," Miguel asks.
"We're still working together," Daniel reassured them.
"Separately," Johnny adds.
"Are they going to switch off? Like tomorrow Sensei will teach Miyagi-do. I thought the whole point of this was so they can learn two styles to make their own." Lee asks.
"Yes, we'll be doing that." Johnny nods. "Now, Eagle Fangs follow me."
"Miyagi-do in there." Daniel points to the house.
Lee went to follow Johnny. "No, you're going to stay here to learn with them." He stops her making Eagle Fang freeze.
"What? But, I'm always with you." Lee tilts her head.
"I practice better when she's there." Bert was motivated by his crush watching him.
"You said Eagle Fang and Lee's a part of that." Mitch knew this would hurt her.
"She films us for our social media, so she needs to be with us." Miguel didn't see the point of her staying. He didn't think Miyagi-do had a page.
"Yeah, what would she even be doing staying with them?" Hawk asks.
"You know how I tried to teach you to defend yourself but it never works out." He knew if he didn't explain then she might cry from feeling rejected. She was the spoiled brat that Tom Cole raised her to be. He did it hoping she would have high standards for her husband.
"Yeah, because after the first hit you go soft and tell her to go get an ice cream." Miguel was the one who normally had to spar with her and then had to do punishment drills after.
"Yes, that's why he's going to teach her." He glares at Miguel.
"But, I want you to be my only Sensei." Her lower lip quivered.
"I… I… you know what, fine you ca…" He was going to give in when Daniel interrupted.
"Johnny…" He called his name to remind it of what the point of this was.
He clears his throat to keep a strong commanding voice. "As your sensei, I'm telling you to stay here and learn from LaRusso. Now, every other Eagle Fang member come on." He didn't spare her another glance and walked to the front.
"We'll see you after Lee." Hawk nods to her before following the group.
"Alright, come on." Daniel led his group into the house. Lee drags her feet along. He had them sit cross-legged on the ground. "We all have anger inside but I want you to let it go. Don't let your emotions control you. You have to be in control, right?"
"Yes, Sensei," Lee yelled.
"We don't have to do that here." Chris sat next to her thinking she would be more comfortable between him and Demetri.
"Oh sorry," She bows her head.
"It's alright…. Now, everyone closes your eyes and relax." She did as she was told. She was concentrating on breathing to center herself.
Johnny could be heard yelling outside. "Stop whining like a little bitch and get up."
"Stay focused. Eyes closed. Breath in… breath out." Daniel was trying to keep the focus on the task at hand.
"Don't be a pussy, punch him in the face," Johnny yelled. Chris laughs along with a few others.
"I don't know why he says pussy like it's a weakness. I mean a pussy can take a pounding and push out a baby. Don't be a ball sack is what people should say. You just flick it and a guy down for the count." Lee flicks the air. Sam nods in agreement while the guys shift away from her.
"Don't get distracted. Get your focus back." He tried to get them back on track.
"You punched him in the balls? What the hell is wrong with you?" Johnny scolds someone. Lee stretched her neck to try and see through the hole Hawk made.
"Wait right here." Daniel got up to go outside.
"I'm getting up to stretch." Lee stood up. Others followed her lead, getting a drink of water while they waited.
"Walk it off, I'm trying my best here." Hawk came in to grab his water. He admired a painting on the wall while he drank.
"You know that's the sparring deck where Mr. Miyagi's great grandfather taught karate on the Okinawan waterfront." Demetri educated him.
He reached out to feel the frame. "Yo, be careful with that." Chris came over to push his hand down.
"Why do you think I'm going to break it?" He laughed.
"You already broke the door and you stole Mr. Miyagi's medal." Chris counted his wrongs.
"And you would have beat the shit out of me if it wasn't for Lee." Nate jumped in.
"Look, I'm sorry about all that." He wished he could prove he was sorry.
"Go back to your little Eagle gang, you're not wanted here." Chris wasn't ready to forgive.
"Hey," Lee did her impression of Johnny making all the guys jump. She stood in front of Hawk and crossed her arms. "Sensei LaRusso was just telling us the importance of letting anger go. And another thing, you can't ask for forgiveness and not give it. Is Mitch still mad at you Chris for pulling that dirty move of hitting him in the face with a textbook when he had you beat in that fight at the school? Tell me, Nate is Bert holding those hurtful words that you said against you."
"But, you can't compare us to him." Chris shook his head.
"Here is a real Japanese proverb for you, forgiving the unrepentant is like drawing pictures on water. He is trying to repent, unlike you. That statement about the little Eagle gang shows that you still feel a rivalry despite us all agreeing to work together." Lee looks over at Demetri to see if he would jump in but he avoids eye contact.
"Thanks but don't make enemies for me." Hawk walks out the door.
"What the hell, Demetri? You're the one who begs me to help him find his place." She shoulder-checked him on her way out.
"What did you expect when you burn bridges with everyone here?" Daniel yelled at Hawk. He walks off feeling defeated. "Hey, Hey." He tried to yell for him.
"So much for not letting your emotions control you." Lee glares.
"You're right, I'm sorry. Next time, I'll talk to him." He agrees that he handled that wrong.
"What the hell did you do?" Johnny watches him walk off.
"What did I do? I'm not the one that's been kicking his ass all day." He threw it back at him.
"He's right, Sensei. You more than anyone should know what it's like to want a second chance after doing some fuck up shit." She ran after her childhood friend. "Eli, Eli, Eli, come on stop." She hoped he wouldn't get into his car.
"Lee, I'm trying here but nothing is working." He turned around in front of the driver's door. "I don't know, maybe I should start fresh in another dojo or quit the whole sport."
"You don't want to run away from your problems. You have to make peace with these guys." Everyone went to school together. The dojos would still be trying to pick fights with him.
"Do you forgive me, Lee? Do you think you can trust me again?" He was hoping to make things right with her.
"I want to… I can see you want to be better. It reminds me of when Cobra Kai just started. LaRusso was trying to do everything to tear us down. I couldn't get it. Why would you stop someone from trying to better themselves?" She hated Daniel for trying to stop Johnny's progress.
"I thought your trust would be the hardest to earn." He was ready to grovel if he had to.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm not saying we can pick up where we left off but I'm willing to start over again. Get to know the Eli/Hawk hybrid." She knew it would take a while to trust him but she was willing to give him the time.
"I'm going for Eli with a Hawk skin." Him speaking video game lingo put a smile on her face. "Hey, could you get everyone to show up like an hour before practice tomorrow?"
"Yeah, why?" She asks.
"I just thought of a way to take action." He got in his car, in a hurry to get home.
"What's up with the sledgehammer?" She asked Hawk who got in her car.
"I've been thinking about that proverb that you said yesterday. I need to repent harder to prove to them I'm loyal to the two dojo things we got going on." He pointed forward for her to get going.
"How's the hammer going to do that?" She pulled away from the curve.
"You'll find out. I promise it is not for destruction… well not only destroying." He wanted the surprise to be for everyone at once.
"Okay." She put on music to fill the silence. When they got there, he got out of the car to walk into the back.
"What's up Hawk?" Miguel yelled as he walked by him in the car with Sam. "Hawk!" He yelled when he didn't turn around.
Lee taps the hood. "I don't know what's going on. He's talking about repenting hard and has a sledgehammer."
"Shit, okay, I'm coming." He got out of the car with Sam. They ran after him.
"Can I get everyone's attention?" He yelled. Everyone but the senseis was there. Once everyone's eyes were on him he went on. "I know that I've done some fuck up shit to everyone here. Especially to the people that I care about… that I loved the most." He looks at Demetri and then Lee. "I want to earn your guy's respect. That's going to take a lot more than words. That's why I designed this." He pulls his tablet out of his backpack to show a design.
"Is that a sparring deck?" Demetri grabs the tablet to get a better look at it.
"Yeah, I figure we can all work together to clear out the land back there and build it. This way we can have a proper place to practice." He watches as everyone gathers around the tablet.
"That would be great." Sam agrees.
"I agree that idea is good, but maybe we should get the design checked out by a professional." Chris didn't want to go through the floor when he was on it.
"I know he acted dumb to go with his bad boy image but Eli is smart. In science camp, he won the design contest every time." Demetri told an unconvinced crowd. "Lee and I can double-check it." That seems to calm their nerves.
Lee was impressed with Eli keeping his cool. If this was a few weeks ago, he would threaten to kick Chris's teeth in. "Well, let's get to the clearing." She claps her hands.
"The first thing to do is break down the fence." Miguel taps his shoulder with the hammer over it.
He knocked down a panel of the fence. They went through it with the tools that Sam brought from inside the house.
"Alright, everyone stands back it coming down," Hawk warned the people on the other side that he was knocking over the next panel.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Daniel and Johnny ran over to him.
"You were both right, talk is cheap. So, I'm building a bridge." He put the hammer down, knowing what it looked like.
"More specifically, an Okinawan sparring deck." Demetri shows them the blueprints on the tablet. "Eli is a design wiz. I look it over and the physics checks out."
"Does it?" Johnny asked Lee. When Daniel gave him a look, he defended himself. "What, you can have your wiz check it out but I can't have mine? Right now she is in AP Calculus and we are leading the curve." He brags.
"It's good." She confirms.
"All I need to hear." Johnny gave his approval.
"Mr. Miyagi just used this area for extra storage but a new deck would mean a lot more room for training." Sam thought her dad would go for it.
"We're all going to help build it. Assume Sensei's approval?" Miguel was holding a pit rake.
They felt foolish as they watched their students work together. "Sounds good to me." Daniel looks at Johnny.
"Yeah.. sounds awesome." Johnny nods.
"I don't want to build anything." Lee didn't trust herself to build something that people were going to be on. "I'll help clear it up though."
"What's wrong with building?" Daniel asked.
"What if I don't do a screw tight enough and someone gets hurt?" She held onto the shovel.
"Clearing will be enough," Johnny told her.
"No." Daniel shook his head. "You have to learn to trust yourself. You'll never learn to defend yourself if you always second-guess everything."
"Will someone double-check it first before someone steps on it?" She didn't want to be responsible for someone being in the hospital because she didn't nail a board right.
"Yes, we'll be doing that with everyone. Safety first." He would have a professional check it out also.
"Stick by me. I got you." Johnny pats her head. Daniel sighes, knowing he has to keep an eye on them to make sure Johnny didn't do everything for her.
