❝ once a cobra kai, always a cobra kai. ❞

MR. LARUSSO CAME RUSHING over to the teenagers as soon as he got home.

They were sitting at the kitchen table discussing the fight, aside from Demetri.

"Hey, hey, Amanda told me what happened. Are you guys alright? What happened?"

They all nodded. "Yeah dad." Sam explained, "They were gonna hurt Demetri. We had to do something. I hope you aren't mad at us."

Daniel quickly shook his head. "What? No, no- I'm just glad you're alright."

He looked pointedly at Ayane and Robby. "And you two. I'm glad you're a part of this family."

Ayane smiled warmly, glancing down at the table. Mr. LaRusso noticed Demetri just then, sitting alone in the other room.

"Ah..." Daniel walked away.

Ayane looked to Sam and Robby. "You think he's okay?" she asked, frowning a little.

Sam shrugged. "He didn't get hurt. They just roughed him up. They might've done worse if you weren't there."

Ayane sighed, resting her chin on her hand.

"I wish it wasn't like that though," she replied. "I wish Demetri could kick their asses on his own. Just one good time."

Robby laughed a little. "Who knows, maybe he will some day. It takes practice, right?"

She pursed her lips, leaning back in her chair.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Ayane stood up, going up to her room to text Miguel.

He was being unusually dry with her, however, until Ayane finally dialed his number and called him.

"Hello?" He picked up after a moment.

"Hi," she said, rolling over to lay on her back. Ayane noted his slightly irritated tone. "So why are you being drier than the Sahara?"

Miguel paused on the other end for a moment. "I saw what you did to Hawk. His face."

Ayane's smile faltered a little. "Oh. That. Well honestly Mig, he deserved it. He and the other Cobra Kais came to the mall and started harassing Demetri and me."

Miguel sighed. "But you didn't have to go that hard on him, did you? He can't even open his left eye."

She nearly laughed, in disbelief of Miguel.

"What do you suggest I should have done, then? Sit there and let him kick Demetri's ass and mine? I'm not a coward."

"I never said you were," he quickly replied, his tone growing a bit more frustrated. "You know what, just- never mind. I-I'll talk to you later."

Ayane frowned, rolling her eyes. "Okay, whatever. Bye."

She hung up, flinging her phone down with frustration and annoyance. Ayane did not even think she had hurt him that bad. Hawk acted like he was going to do worse, anyway.

Ayane got up, closing her eyes and doing kata as Mr. LaRusso had taught her to do when she got frustrated.

When she finally felt calm again, Ayane took a shower and went to bed. She was restless, however. It was worrying Ayane that Miguel thought she had done the most damage. She was trying to defend herself and her friends.

Finally, Ayane drifted off to sleep.

Tomorrow, she would have to have a serious conversation with Miguel.

. . . .

AYANE WALKED OUT TO MIYAGI-DO the next morning, and she was quickly shocked.

Robby followed behind her, seeing everything that she was seeing.

Miyagi-Do had been trashed.

"No. Fucking. Way." Ayane crossed her arms, feeling once again that pit of anger forming inside of her.

She turned to Robby, who had an equally angry expression on his face.

Ayane knew exactly who did it. They both did.

But it was worse when they walked inside the dojo. Everything was completely in tatters, knocked over.

Before anyone could start cleaning up, Ayane took out her phone and began taking pictures.

"What are you doing?" Mr. LaRusso asked with a frown on his face.

"Evidence," she replied. "Evidence that Cobra Kai did this."

Daniel sighed. "Ayane, I know we all hate them but we can't just automatically assume they did it-"

"No offense, Mr. LaRusso, but all signs point to them," Ayane interrupted, clenching her jaw.

Then, behind Daniel, Ayane noticed something. Well, a lack there of.

"Hey- where is Mr. Miyagi's medal?" Ayane walked over and squatted down, picking up the empty case that usually held Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor.

Daniel walked over as well, looking over Ayane. He was definitely angry, now.

"Dad!" Sam called from outside. Ayane stood, following Daniel and Robby outside.

Sam was standing by the yellow car. Ayane saw that something had been spray painted on the side of it:

COBRA KAI NEVER DIES.

She dug her nails so hard into her palm that it drew blood.

Mr. LaRusso suddenly walked over and opened the car door, getting in. Before he could leave, Ayane quickly got in the passenger seat.

She was not going to go so easy on Cobra Kai now.

Daniel did not say anything as he drove to Reseda, pulling into the strip mall parking lot.

They both got out of the car and stormed up to the dojo building. Walking inside, Ayane's eyes landed on Hawk and she went toward him instantly

"You're so fucking dead you piece of shit!" Ayane reared her arm back and punched Hawk in his already battered face.

Before she could throw another punch, someone grabbed her and restrained her.

"Ayane," Miguel's voice said from behind her. "Ayane, calm down."

She fought in his grip, trembling all over with anger.

"That's the third time your student has assaulted my student," Johnny said, pointing to Daniel. "What the hell are you doing here? And take your shoes off on my mat, you're disrespecting my dojo."

Daniel laughed cynically. "You're seriously gonna talk about disrespecting someone's dojo after what you did to mine?"

Johnny shook his head. "What the hell are you talking about, I didn't do anything to your dojo."

Ayane forced herself out of Miguel's grip, refusing to look at him. She glared at Hawk, who was covering his face. And then she glared at Tory, who had a nasty smirk on her face.

She walked back over to Mr. LaRusso, standing beside him.

"Just like you didn't slug one of my employees, huh?" Daniel continued. Johnny did not reply.

"You know," Daniel continued, "part of me actually felt bad for you at one point. But you make it so easy to remember who the bad guy is in all of this."

Ayane could feel Miguel looking at her, with that sad and disappointed look on his face. She refused to look back at him.

"You call yourself a sensei?" Daniel said, scoffing a little. "You don't even know what a sensei is. A sensei mentors, and elevates. He doesn't teach destruction and disrespect!"

Daniel stepped closer to Johnny threateningly, shaking with anger.

Ayane noticed Kreese, standing in the corner and watching. Johnny claimed not to have known about what happened to Miyagi-Do.

But there might have been another sensei at Cobra Kai who did.

"I already said I don't know what you're talking about, LaRusso," Johnny took a step toward him, "and you don't know what you're talking about either."

Daniel inhaled sharply. "Yeah, well I know you don't- you don't earn the Medal of Honor by stealing it!"

Ayane's face hardened. She crossed her arms, staring at Kreese now. He looked back at her at once. Slowly, he smiled.

"Let me tell you something about your sensei," Daniel took a step back. "He might teach you how to fight, but he doesn't know a thing about what it takes to truly win at life. If you wanna help yourselves before it's too late then the doors of Miyagi-Do are wide open."

"Don't try to come in here and poach my students!" Johnny said.

Ayane could have laughed. "We don't want them, anyway," she added in. "We don't want your dirty, disrespectful, asshole students."

"Nice talk for a second runner up," Tory retorted. Ayane turned her head quickly.

"Aw, that's cute, bitch," Ayane replied. "You still jealous?"

Tory took a step forward when Miguel suddenly reached out to stop her.

Ayane raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms and laughing cynically.

"Really, Miguel?"

She turned and walked out of the dojo, kicking the wall and letting out an angry yell.

A moment later, Miguel walked out of the dojo doors.

"Ayane-"

"Don't start," she laughed, shaking her head. "Don't you dare fucking start with me."

Miguel's expression turned to a frown.

He stared at her for a long time, then said, "I don't know what happened at Miyagi-Do, and I'm sorry that it did happen. But you're letting this turn you into something you're not. Ayane- when I first met you, you could kick ass better than anyone. And you didn't have to be this angry to do it. I-I don't know what's happened to you."

Ayane scoffed, placing a hand on her chest. "Me? No, Miguel, it's not me. It's all of you dirty little Cobra Kais who start with us every. Time. And you're giving me shit for defending myself? And my friends?"

Miguel threw his hands up in frustration.

"Why do you think it's all of Cobra Kai? It's not! I'm not involved with any of this! A-And neither is Aisha, or Tory-"

"Don't start with me about that bitch," Ayane said, "can you not see what she's trying to do?"

Miguel did seem pretty oblivious. He shook his head in confusion. "No... what are you talking about?"

Ayane turned around, putting her hands on her head.

"She wants to fuck you, Miguel! Are you that clueless?"

Miguel furrowed his eyebrows, not replying.

Ayane shook her head. "I'm tired of arguing about this. About karate."

She took a step closer to him, drawing in a breath.

"I don't want this to split us apart, Miguel. I don't want you to be a part of something like Cobra Kai."

Miguel refused to accept that, however. "The problem isn't Cobra Kai," he said as calmly as he could. "It's not Sensei Lawrence. I-It's not me."

"But you're allowing it to happen," Ayane quietly replied, shaking her head. "It's one dojo. If one person does something, it reflects on everyone else."

Miguel licked his lips, looking down at her. "Don't you think the same about yourself, then?"

Just then, Mr. LaRusso walked out of the doors. He stared at Miguel briefly, then said, "Come on kid."

Ayane took a few steps, then turned back to Miguel.

"I care about you more than this rivalry," she said, giving him one last look before getting in the car.

When Ayane and Daniel got back, Demetri was there with Sam and Robby. They had to start cleaning up.

If it were up to Ayane, she would have dragged Hawk and any of the others involved down there and made them do it. But since she did not have any solid evidence, she couldn't exactly do that.

As they were cleaning up, trying to lift the heavy rock that had somehow been knocked over, someone said, "Um, excuse me."

Ayane turned, her eyes falling on the familiar faces of Cobra Kai students.

Her first instinct was to go up and fight them, but she restrained herself. Ayane looked at Mr. LaRusso, waiting to see what he would do.

"Is this Miyagi-Do?" the one at the front asked. Ayane recognized him as one of the ones from the mall.

Robby began walking toward them with the same idea in mind as Ayane, but Daniel stopped him.

"Robby!"

Turning, Robby explained, "This was one of the guys who was beating up Demetri. And they probably helped trash the dojo."

"We didn't have anything to do with that," the kid said, shaking his head. "But I am sorry about what happened at the mall. We just wanna learn Miyagi-Do karate."

Ayane stood by Demetri and Sam, watching apprehensively. She didn't trust any Cobra Kais.

"We're happy to have you," Daniel smiled. He went forward, shaking all of their hands.

Ayane shook her head, facing Sam and Demetri. "I'd still watch out for them if I were you. I don't trust a single one of them."

Mr. LaRusso put the new students to work, making them all pitch in to clean up. Ayane steered clear of any of them, though. She was trying to avoid anymore conflict.

It was not until Demetri and Chris, as Ayane had learned his name was, started arguing that Daniel came outside to see what was going on.

Ayane watched him settle the dispute, surprised at how quickly he had gotten them to get along. Well, try to get along.

She walked over to Robby, helping him put up the punching bag.

"You think we can trust them?" she asked, glancing around at the new students.

Robby shook his head slowly, shrugging. "I don't know. Mr. LaRusso seems to, so I guess I'll just trust him for the time being."

Ayane pursed her lips, holding up the punching bag as he fixed the chain.

"Hey," she said, "I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time but- is Johnny Lawrence really your dad?"

Robby paused, giving her a perplexed look. "How do you know that he's my dad?"

Ayane licked her lips. "Miguel told me," she quietly responded.

Robby sighed after a moment.

"Yeah, that piece of shit is my dad. I don't even know if I should call him that."

She frowned. "Is that why you're staying here, at the LaRusso's?"

He slowly shook his head, hooking the punching bag on and stepping away. "No. I live with my mom- well, lived. She went off with some guy to Cabo and left me to fend for myself. When they shut off the power and water at my apartment, Mr. LaRusso let me come stay here."

Ayane furrowed her eyebrows. She had not even known all of this about Robby, and hadn't even thought to ask.

"Damn," Ayane replied. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Yeah, well. Looks like we both got pretty shitty parents, huh?"

Ayane laughed a little. She had barely even thought about her parents over the past few days.

"Yeah. Shitty parents for the win."

Just then, there was some commotion over with Demetri and Chris.

Ayane and Robby both ran over, along with Sam.

"Demetri," Sam hurriedly rushed to his side, "are you okay?"

"Woah, woah woah!" Mr. LaRusso came outside. "We're on the same team now!"

Ayane scoffed, shaking her head.

"No. Once a Cobra Kai, always a Cobra Kai."

NOTES!
tensions are beginning to grow between dojos... and ayane and miguel... guess we'll find out what happens :)