❛ My decisions are for me, and no one else. ❜

Later that day, there was a knock in the doorway to Ayane's bedroom.

Sam stood there as Ayane looked up at her from her phone.

"Hey," she greeted. "How you feeling?"

Ayane inhaled slowly, sitting up at once on her bed. "Slightly less hungover than earlier."

Sam laughed. "Is it okay if I come in?"

Ayane nodded, adjusting herself up a little straighter as Sam entered the bedroom and sat down beside her on the bed.

"What happened with you and Miguel last night? You guys were arguing."

Her face hardened a little, blinking. "Uh– it's nothing. Doesn't matter, now. What's done is done."

Sam raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for Ayane to elaborate further. She wasn't letting her off with such a vague answer.

Ayane sighed. "Miguel... he was making out with some girl. But it doesn't matter, because I broke up with him like a week ago. So, you know, he can do whatever he wants."

The LaRusso girl was not buying any of Ayane's bullshit. If she really thought that, she wouldn't be acting this way.

"Ayane, he's clearly not over you. And... I don't think you're over him, either," Sam commented, Ayane giving her a look.

She crossed her arms at once, knowing that Sam was right on some level. But all Ayane could feel towards Miguel right now was anger. And hurt.

"He sure has a funny way of showing it," she muttered, glancing away.

Sam frowned, feeling bad for Ayane. With everything she was going through right now, Miguel doing what he did had just been the icing on the cake.

"I'm sorry, Ayane."

Ayane gave a blunt shrug. "You don't have to pity me. Like I said, the damage is done. I can't go back and change what happened, so."

The two girls sat there in silence for a moment, Sam being unsure of what to say. She had come to inform Ayane of much more urgent matters, needing the girl's help.

"I, um, I was actually coming to tell you something about Terry Silver," Sam finally broke the silence.

Ayane glanced up, quirking a brow. "Like what?"

"Well, I talked to Tory last night. And, uh... she told me that Silver paid off the referee from the All-Valley tournament. And he also framed Kreese for assaulting Stingray."

The girl's eyes widened a little. "Paid off the ref– what do you mean? Like– for Cobra Kai to win the All-Valley?"

Sam slowly nodded, not wanting to have to be the one to break the news to Ayane. The girl's heart sank a little, wondering if that meant her winning the tournament had just been a ploy.

"Does that mean... I didn't really win the All-Valley?"

"Ayane, of course not," Sam quickly replied. "Anyone could see that you beat me fair and square. There was no fighting dirty in our match. You deserve your win, but Cobra Kai doesn't."

Her face fell dejectedly, still upset over hearing this. Ayane was being given more and more reason everyday to despise Terry Silver.

She finally looked back up at Sam. "How can we prove this, though? I-I mean, unless we talked to the ref or Stingray–"

Ayane paused, raising a finger. Sam began to nod with a small smile.

"We're gonna go talk to Stingray," Sam said. "I was gonna see if you wanted to come with."

Ayane began to agree, then hesitated. "Who's 'we?'"

Sam opened her mouth reply, visibly apprehensive.

"Me, Bert, Eli, Demetri... and Miguel."

Setting her jaw, Ayane began to say no without hesitation.

"Ayane, please," Sam said, reaching out and grabbing her arm. "I want you to come with. You're good at talking to people. Please?"

Ayane kept her arms crossed, glaring at the ground when she thought of Miguel again. She did not want to be within the vicinity of him, but Ayane wanted to do anything to take down Terry Silver.

Rubbing her temple, Ayane reluctantly agreed.

"Alright, fine. Let's go."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Arriving at the nicest apartment complex in the Valley, Ayane got out of Sam's car and immediately scowled upon seeing Miguel.

He turned, looking at her with an unreadable expression. Miguel was unsure of what emotions he was feeling toward Ayane in the moment.

Everyone around them watched as the two had a heated staring contest, the awkward tension rising.

Ayane finally looked away, rolling her eyes.

"Alright, Bert. You lead the way," she said, following behind the boy.

Miguel watched her walk by, sighing to himself.

Bert led them up to the top floor, where he stopped at a door and knocked. They all waited for a moment, Ayane and Miguel standing as far away as possible. The silence between all the students was excruciatingly awkward, everyone knowing what had happened with Ayane and Miguel the night before.

At once, Stingray answered the door, gasping upon seeing Bert and the others.

"Oh, this is a trap! You Admiral Ackbar-ed me."

"Okay, knock it off," Eli piped up, "we know Kreese never hurt you."

"A-According to my testimony in a court of law, he did, so–"

"You can shove that testimony right up your ass," Ayane interjected, pushing past Stingray to enter his apartment just then.

As she entered, she saw a dining table full of guys, playing what appeared to be Dungeons and Dragons– no, Dojos.

"Alright, nerds, get outta here," Ayane pointed to the door, Stingray rushing over.

"Uh, guys, we're gonna have to call it a night for the campaign. I'll send you all a message in the Discord chat later," Stingray said, the guys finally all getting up at once and leaving.

Ayane took a seat at the end of the table, crossing her arms as Stingray walked to the other end.

"Have a seat, liar," she said vindictively, Stingray being somewhat too afraid to say no. Intimidation tactics worked pretty easily on him, so he sat down.

The other kids filed in behind Ayane, clearly following her's and Sam's lead.

"Okay, okay, alright," Demetri spoke up, leaning against the table. "Let's try this one more time, okay? What happened that night? Who hurt you?"

"Hey Bert, how does it feel?" Stingray said, ignoring Demetri. "To stab a grown man in the back between his shoulder blades and stare at the blood as it trickles down his back?"

Eli huffed with irritation. "God, enough! No more games!"

Stingray cowered a little, sighing at once. Ayane felt really bad for him, but he was not going to help serve justice if he only kept lying.

"Stingray," Ayane spoke up, her voice softening. "We won't let Silver hurt you again, alright? There's a lot of people on your side. We want to take him down, for good."

Stingray looked at all of the kids, picking up a D&D figurine at once.

They all listened as he began to tell a story, which he claimed was about his new D&D campaign. But it was strikingly familiar to what had happened in real life, and this was Stingray's way of giving them his confession. Ayane felt sympathy for him, but this was not something that could be used as actual evidence against Silver.

She pushed her chair back at once, standing up and walking out of the room with visible frustration. Everyone watched her, confused.

Miguel frowned, deciding at once to follow after her. He hurried out of the apartment, seeing her walking down the hall.

"Ayane," he called, Ayane almost not wanting to stop. He caught up with her, breathless.

"Ayane, wait up," he said, the girl finally halting.

She turned to face him at once, giving him a scowl.

"No offense, Miguel, but I really don't want to talk to you right now," she muttered, crossing her arms.

"I-I know," Miguel quickly replied. "I've been thinking a lot since last night... about everything. And I just– I wanna try to explain myself."

Ayane tilted her head, shrugging. "There's nothing to explain, Miguel. You made out with a girl, so what? We're not together anymore. It's whatever."

"Then why are you so angry?" he shot back, taking a step closer to her. He was beginning to grow frustrated with Ayane.

"If we're not together, then what gives you the right to treat me like I'm a piece of shit?" Miguel continued, glaring down at Ayane.

Her eyes never left his as she laughed a little, with cynicism.

"Why is it that after we break up, your first instinct is to stick your tongue down another girl's throat?" she spat, fire behind her eyes.

Miguel clenched his jaw. "Because I needed to find a distraction from you, Ayane. You are all that I can ever fucking think about, and that doesn't seem to bother you one bit."

Ayane looked as if it didn't bother her, too, showing no emotion on her face. She could only replay the image in her head from the night before, and that fueled her anger towards Miguel.

"Well stop thinking about me," she finally said at once, turning around and walking away.

She had no idea how hard it was for Miguel to do that.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ayane thought she and Sam were returning back to the LaRusso's, but Sam drove somewhere else.

She pulled into Reseda Heights, Ayane looking over at her with confusion.

"What are we doing here?"

Sam parked the car, shutting off the engine. "I asked everyone to meet here, including Tory. We're about to come up with a plan to get evidence against Silver."

Ayane thought about that as they got out of the car, her mind whirring at a sudden thought.

"Hey, wait," she said at once, following Sam into the group of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students. "The assault happened at the old dojo, right?"

Tory was there amongst the others, giving Ayane a curt nod. Robby had also joined them, Ayane unsure of where he had been before. Ayane eyed him for a prolonged moment, then looked away.

"The old dojo had cameras."

"Wait, are you sure?" Robby questioned, "How do you know?"

Ayane glanced over at Miguel, recalling the night she had taken him there. Brought him there just to tell him how much he meant to her, and why she would always choose him over anyone else.

She looked away, clearing the thought. "Just trust me. I know. Silver told me about them."

The kids all began to think.

"But the tapes were probably cleared out," Miguel pointed out.

"That might not matter," Demetri said. "The systems that we sell at TechTown all save the footage to a central server. When Silver moved out, he probably took the whole system with him."

"I think he did," Tory added. "There's a server in his office at the flagship dojo."

"If we get access to it, we could definitely post that footage," Eli cut in. "We could even post that Stingray clip to their YouTube channel."

Ayane raised a hand. "That would mean breaking into Cobra Kai."

"I've got twenty-four hour access," Tory replied to her, pulling a key fob out of her pocket and holding it up.

Sam nodded. "Get ahold of everyone else," she said to the rest of them.

"Let them know that we're taking down Cobra Kai. Tonight."

This was very, very risky, and they all knew it. But they were all willing to take the risk if it meant putting Silver away for good.

Ayane, Sam and Tory all left together, while the boys went with Demetri to get his gear from TechTown.

"Do you think is really gonna work?" Ayane asked as she got in the backseat of Sam's car, figuring she would allow Tory to have the front with Sam.

"It's worth a try," Tory replied. "Anything's worth trying to get Silver gone."

Ayane agreed. Sam drove them to Cobra Kai, the girls waiting in the car for the others to arrive. She noticed Sam's hand intertwined in Tory's, almost feeling a little envious.

The boys finally arrived, and other Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students began showing up as well.

They all approached the entrance, Sam gathering them together.

"Alright, some of you are gonna have to stay down here and keep a lookout. We're gonna go upstairs to Silver's office and see if we can access the old camera footage."

Ayane followed Sam and Tory, hoping Miguel was not also tagging along. However, he did, much to her dismay.

They all went inside, Ayane pointing out the cameras.

"What are we gonna do about those?" she questioned.

Robby walked over to the camera, jumping up and simply snatching it off of the wall. He let it clatter to the floor, looking over at Ayane.

"Problem solved."

None of them seemed to notice, however, a hidden camera in the Cobra Kai symbol on the wall.

Ayane stood by as Demetri and Eli worked together to get into Silver's computer. She watched as they got into it with ease, surprised by this.

"Maybe you nerds are good for something," she remarked, leaning over them to see Demetri working to pull up the old footage.

It didn't take him long at all, playing it for everyone to see.

Silver and Stingray talked on the footage, then the footage froze up.

"Shit!" Demetri exclaimed. "Shit– the footage, it got deleted!"

"There might be some other footage we can use," Tory said at once.

"You wouldn't happen to know the date and time, would you?" Eli questioned.

Just then, they heard commotion from outside the office, sounds of yelling. Ayane swore in her head.

"Stay here," Sam instructed to Eli and Demetri. "We need that footage."

Ayane was the first one out there, seeing the dojo full of both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang students.

Kenny was at the forefront, suddenly going forward and kicking Anthony onto the ground.

"Hey!" Ayane stepped in the middle of the two groups, staring Kenny down.

She saw Vincent amongst the Cobra Kai students, narrowing her eyes at him. He was glaring at her.

"How'd they even know we were here?" Sam asked with wild confusion.

Kyler began to snicker. "Mitch, come on, get your ass over here man!"

From behind Ayane, Mitch walked over and turned to face them, unzipping his jacket to reveal a Cobra Kai shirt. That was unexpected.

Vincent stepped forward at once, staring Ayane down.

"He's not the only traitor," Vincent spat, his scowl deepening at the girl.

Ayane peered up at Vincent, slowly starting to smile.

"Back up, Vincent. You don't wanna do this."

Miguel watched the exchange, waiting to see if Vincent was gonna do something. If he did, Miguel would be ready. Not for Ayane's sake; or so he told himself.

Vincent's hands twitched at his sides. "Your brother was right when he told us you were a traitor."

Something in Ayane snapped. She reared back and punched Vincent in the face, hard. He stumbled back, grabbing his nose as blood began gushing from it.

And that was everyone else's cue to begin fighting.

Both groups charged at each other, Ayane whipping around to see what was happening. As she turned away, someone struck her from behind. She buckled to the ground, rolling over on her back to see Vincent.

He lunged down at her, but was intercepted by someone kicking him across the face. Ayane saw that it was Miguel, throwing punch after punch at Vincent. She climbed to her feet, watching as Miguel ducked under Vincent's strike and spun on his heel, sending another kick to Vincent's face that knocked him all the way out.

Miguel turned to Ayane, the girl rolling her eyes.

"I can handle my own fights," was all she said, kicking back a Cobra Kai student that ran at her.

He cut his eyes at her as she faced him, seeing another Cobra Kai running up behind Ayane just then. Miguel swung a kick over her head, knocking the boy out like it was nothing.

Miguel looked back down at Ayane. "You sure?"

"Fuck off."

Ayane walked away from him, taking on three Cobra Kai students at once. It did not take her long to have them all on the ground, but only moments later was she on the ground once again.

Rolling over, Ayane looked up to see Sensei Kim standing over her. Ayane had to roll out of the way as Kim kicked at her, jumping to her feet.

"How did you go so far down the wrong path, Miss Cain?" Kim tilted her head. "Kwon was very disheartened to have to go back to South Korea for a second time because of your decisions."

Ayane pushed her hair out of her face, circling the mat she stood on while Kim did the same.

"My decisions are for me, and no one else. It was about time that I started recognizing that."

Kim only smirked. "You'll see soon how poor of a decision it was."

She crouched and threw a kick at Ayane, who dodged and kicked back. Kim blocked the kick, the two of them fighting back and forth so quickly that it was all blurs. Kim grazed her face with her hand, Ayane grabbing her by the shoulders and bringing her knee up to Kim's midsection.

Sensei Kim was barely hindered by this, starting toward Ayane again. Ayane was prepared this time, though. She was not going down without a fight. Ayane kicked at Kim, forcing her back as she tirelessly threw one kick after the other. Kim was beginning to have a hard time blocking them, Ayane only feeling rage in that moment.

Kim got ahold of her leg just then, yanking Ayane forward and sending her elbow to Ayane's back. The girl gasped with pain as she went to the ground, slapping the floor with her palms. Ayane flipped over, kicking Sensei Kim to the side as she did and pushing herself to her feet with her hands.

Ayane looked at Kim with more confidence now, bringing her fists up.

"I thought I wanted to take a break from karate, but this is making me reconsider it," Ayane halfway smiled. "I guess I just liked having a challenge."

Kim seemed pissed now, leaping at Ayane with a jab. Ayane sidestepped the quick strike and brought her own fist to Kim's face, landing the hit. Kim stumbled back, Ayane bringing up one foot and kicking her hard in the stomach. She was actually winning against one of her own senseis.

Ayane ran at her, taking Sensei Kim in a hold as she jumped up and twisted her body around, using all of her strength to flip Kim over her own self and onto the ground. She dropped, raising a fist to bring down, when she heard a chiming noise.

The girl looked up, seeing that the television in the dojo was on. It was playing security camera footage, but not with Stingray and Silver.

This piece of footage was Tory and Silver.

"...So you know about the ref," Silver's voice spoke calmly. "Have you told anyone else?"

"Not yet," Tory replied. "So you don't deny it?"

"Not at all. I paid him off to make sure Cobra Kai won. It was an insurance policy. Ayane still won the fight."

Ayane's frown deepened, when the voice of Silver echoed from another side of the room.

"That's it?" he asked, appearing in front of everyone. Ayane saw that Daniel, Amanda, Stingray and Carmen were all there now, likely coming to break up this brawl.

"That was your big plan, LaRusso?" Silver continued, walking toward Daniel. "Breaking into my dojo to steal some footage that changes nothing?"

Ayane stepped toward Silver. "It wasn't his plan. It was ours," she gestured to herself and her friends.

Silver turned, slowly coming closer to her. Ayane almost thought he might try to strike her, holding her ground.

But he stepped away, looking to his Cobra Kai students. "Our enemies think they can keep attacking us with no repercussions! And what does the enemy deserve?"

He was waiting to hear 'no mercy', but the phrase was not uttered by a single one of his students. They did not even look at him.

Terry scoffed. "Do you think I'm the only one willing to go to these lengths? Their senseis," Silver pointed to the other side, "broke into my home tonight! My home! Attacked me, unprovoked."

Everyone watched as Terry Silver began to unravel, going on a tangent about something, anything to try and win back his students.

He stepped to Daniel, a crazed smile on his face. "You got your ass kicked, Danny boy. And you can either accept that, or I can kick it again right now."

Everyone began to clear the mat, watching as Daniel and Silver circled each other. Ayane watched amongst the others, witnessing as Daniel seemed to easily be taking on Silver. It was hardly a competition.

Raising his leg into a crane position, Daniel kicked at Terry one last time, sending him back into the wall with the glass Cobra Kai logo crashing down on top of him.

Ayane had never felt such relief from that sight.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
( Trigger warning! Sensitive topics portrayed )

     The cops arrived shortly after the brawl ended, taking away Terry Silver in handcuffs.

Ayane leaned against Sam's car, watching from afar with her arms folded. Justice was finally being served.

She had a few bruises, but was relatively harmed nonetheless. As she stood there by herself, watching everyone making amends, Ayane saw Miguel standing across the parking lot. He was doing the exact same thing as her, standing alone and watching.

The girl breathed in, wishing she could just go and hug him tightly. It was in times like these that she wanted Miguel most, wishing there was someone there for her.

For right now, it seemed like Ayane had no one.

Ayane could not help but to feel a deep sadness, despite the victory that had been won.

She waited until Sam and Tory returned, taking Tory back home. Sam drove them to the LaRusso's, noticing how quiet Ayane was. She did not push it.

Ayane immediately went upstairs when they got home, shutting her bedroom door. She turned, leaning back against it for a moment.

Then, Ayane broke.

She burst into tears, a sob escaping her lips as she ran her hands back through her hair. Ayane sunk down to the floor, silently sobbing as she struggled to catch her breath.

She had screwed up everything in her life. Everyone she loved was gone and it was her fault. Ayane had fucked up before, but never like this. Never had she felt more alone, and there was no one to blame but herself.

Ayane could hardly breathe as she buried her face into her knees, wanting some way to stop all this pain she was feeling. She was unable to escape the austerity of her mind, wishing it would all go away.

Frantic, Ayane sat back and looked over to where her backpack sat in the corner of the room. She climbed to her feet, grabbing the bag and unzipping it as she collapsed onto her bed. She reached inside and pulled out a bottle of antidepressants, staring at it with shaking hands. Ayane let the backpack fall to the floor, taking a few attempts to pop open the lid.

Ayane emptied the contents of the bottle into her hand, a handful of pills in her palm. She was trembling all over, her body shaking violently from each sob she let out.

Maybe she could put an end to her anguish.

Raising her hand, Ayane threw her head back and let the pills fall into her mouth, nearly gagging at the bitter taste as she swallowed them.

Ayane sat there, processing what she had just done. She felt numb, her crying having subsided now. It did not take long for the things around her to start growing blurry, her ears ringing as Ayane could hear her the blood rushing through her. She breathed in sharply, shaking her head.

"No, no," Ayane reached for her phone in her pocket, swiping up multiple times to unlock it. She could not hardly make out what she was doing, or who she was calling, but she wanted it to be 911.

Ayane's body swayed, the girl barely unable to sit upright. She was not sure, but she thought she heard a dialing sound from her phone.

"Hello?"

She slumped over to the side, her body going limp.

"Ayane?" Miguel said through the phone, not hearing anything on the other line but a sudden thud. "Ayane? Are you okay? Hello?"

No reply.

Notes.
so...

this is a wrap on season 5, i know i ended it on a very dark note but this was the direction i planned on heading since i started writing this book.

ayane has been through a lot and things are going to start getting better for her, it's just gonna take some time. she'll still be our badass karate queen at the end of it all <3

so, aside from the ending scene of this chapter, i hope you all enjoyed the big act 5 finale!! i was beyond excited to write ayane and sensei kim's fight scene, and also the scene where she and miguel both rock vincent's shit

i'm starting on season 6 as soon as i can! i'm gonna spend some time with my family since it's almost thanksgiving, but i'll have another update out soon.

favorite moment of season 5?