The referee pulls Sam's arm up in the air and the crowd goes wild. Tory is frozen to the spot for a moment. She takes a moment to get her breath back, and then returns to the Cobra Kai side of the mats. Her new team gathers around her but she pushes past them, not listening to anything they have to say.
She turns around and on the other side of the mats Sam jumps up and down in celebration, and Mr LaRusso and the rest the Miyagi-Do team hug her. Tory's heart sinks. That's it, they've definitely won. Only Sensei Lawrence, who's standing off a little to the side, spares Tory a glance. She accidentally meets his eyes, and he gives her a nod before turning to join the rest of his team.
Tory turns back around and sees Sensei Kim with her arms folded. She doesn't look angry or disappointed, but nor does she look like she's going to console Tory on her loss, not that Tory wants her to. "You may have lost, but you fought well," she says.
"Thanks," Tory says, a little surprised. It's more than she expected from Sensei Kim. She looks around, confused. "Where's Sensei Kreese?"
"He left after LaRusso scored her first point against you," Kim tells her.
Tory frowns. "What? He didn't even watch my match?" She starts walking off but Kim calls her name.
"Nichols, you must not leave! They will announce the final scores soon."
Tory ignores her, grabbing her phone and rushing off towards the nearest door out of the arena. He's not out in the corridor. The longer she looks for him, the more she feels stupid for doing so, and the angrier she gets at him. Of course he'd let her down like this. He always does.
She opens a fire escape door and is hit by the smell of cigar smoke. She marches over to him. "Hey! You missed my fight!" she says.
Kreese doesn't look up. "Did you win?" he asks.
"What do you think?" Tory says. It's a rhetorical question, but it still annoys her when he doesn't respond. "You knew I was gonna lose, didn't you? That's why you walked out after the first point, isn't it?"
Kreese glances at her, but seems preoccupied with his cigar. He at least has the decency to blow smoke away from her. "This isn't about you," he says.
Tory scoffs. "Not about me? Okay, I admit, most things are not about me. But I can say for damn sure that fighting in the final of the Sekai Taikai is about me, actually. All you had to do was be there for me, and you couldn't even do that?"
"I didn't want history repeating itself. You wouldn't understand."
"What wouldn't I understand? That you can't face losing? Is that it? Ever thought that it might be worse for me, you know, the one who's actually competing?" She sighs in frustration. "Oh, what's the point? You don't even care. She's not even a better fighter than me, LaRusso. She just has more support! How can I compete with that, when I've got nothing?"
Kreese turns to look at her, and for a moment she thinks maybe he's going to yell or lunge at her. But then she notices he's not even looking at her, more like through her. "For a moment I was back at the All Valley in eighty four," he says quietly. "Do you know what happened then?"
Tory finds herself thinking about this, even though he completely ignored what she just said. "That was… Mr LaRusso's first tournament, right?"
Kreese nods. "And Johnny Lawrence's last."
"So what, you couldn't take the thought of both of them beating us?"
"You know what happened after that tournament?"
"You broke his trophy, right? And he said you tried to choke him to death, but I dunno, sounded like he might've been exaggerating," she says, not sure why she's still making excuses for Kreese even now, like she's clinging onto the idea that he's not just one of many bad senseis she's had.
"He wasn't."
"Oh." Tory slumps her shoulders, disappointed that he's not even going to try to prove her wrong.
"He's never forgiven me for that."
"Well did you apologise to him?"
"I fixed his trophy. And I stopped Silver from kicking his ass. I think that's why I wound up framed for attempted murder," he says. He doesn't sound mad, just resigned. "No good deed goes unpunished, huh?"
"What? You never told me that!" Tory frowns and shakes her head. "I still don't get it."
"But even so, that wasn't enough," Kreese says, continuing on as if she hadn't said anything. "Still he hates me. And maybe I deserve that. I let him down. I let both of them down. I didn't want to do the same to you."
Tory looks down at her feet. She's not sure she understands. "This was my big chance, and I blew it," she says, wrapping her arms around herself. "I really needed someone in my corner. When I stepped off the mat, you were the only one I wanted to see! And you weren't there!"
"Then I did let you down after all."
Part of Tory wants to yell at him, make sure he really understands how alone and terrible he made her feel. But what's the use? He knows. And he won't apologise. Or he can't.
Suddenly her phone starts ringing. When she sees who it is, she forces herself to smile before she answers. "Brandon? Hey!"
"Hey Tory! I saw your fight, it was so cool!" Her brother sounds genuinely excited. She hasn't heard him sound like that in a long time.
"Oh, you thought so? I know I didn't win, but-"
"Are you kidding? I can't wait to tell all my friends my sister can kick the butts of almost everyone in the entire world!"
Tory laughs dismissively. "I'm not sure it works that way, but…" She stops herself, and suddenly smiles. "No you're right! I never actually thought about it like that"
"Anyway I called you because they're doing the final scores and I can't see you on the TV!"
"Oh. Oh crap! Okay, I better go. See you soon." Tory hangs up the call and turns to Kreese. "Come on, we've gotta go. They're announcing the results."
He looks up at her. "You still want me there?"
"Yes!" she says. "You've fought your entire life for this. And you're gonna miss it because you're too busy moping about the past?"
Kreese takes one last drag on his cigar and lowers his hand as if he's going to drop it, but then he pauses.
"Listen. We just proved on live TV that Cobra Kai can kick the asses of all but one of the best dojos in the world. That's not nothing. We're not losers. Nobody's gonna make me feel ashamed of getting second place." She places a hand on her chest, feeling herself getting a little choked up. "I'm proud!"
"And so the student surpasses the teacher. That's a lesson I could never learn."
"Then learn it now!" she says, grabbing his sleeve.
He raises his eyebrows, and tosses what's left of his cigar. He gives her a lopsided smile and shakes his head. "It can't be that simple."
"It can!" she says, tugging his sleeve. "Come on, we'd better run!"
Thankfully they make it back into the arena while the announcer is still speaking. Tory holds her head up high and doesn't even need to fake a smile for the cameras.
The total scores are announced, and it's no surprise. Tory, like most other people, has been keeping track in her head, so she already knows that Cobra Kai came in second, Miyagi-Do in first. She steps up and accepts her trophy, thinking about her brother watching back in California. It all seems a bit overblown. The cameras focus on Miyagi-Do. There's a lot of speeches. Mr LaRusso makes a speech, Sensei Lawrence grabs the mic from him mid-sentence to butt in with his own speech. Robby and Sam make speeches too.
Tory leans over to Kreese. "Glad I don't have to make a speech, aren't you?"
Kreese cackles. "You can pin-point the very moment each of them realises that millions of people are watching them."
"And the hair and makeup team have obviously been at them again. God, I hope this makeup looks better on TV than in real life!"
"If one of those people touches me again I am going to throttle them."
"I know, right? They've put so much hairspray on me I don't think it's ever gonna come out." Tory smiles, and then starts laughing as she realises that the people watching on TV will have no idea what they're talking about. It'll just look like they're pleased to have come in second place. Her brother's proud of her and that's all that matters. Her mom would be proud. And Sensei Kreese… is standing next to her, and she supposes that's good enough.