﹙REFLECTIONS ★﹚

She was extremely uneasy in her white gi, and everybody could tell. Silently, Anthony placed his hand in hers. He didn't say anything, just squeezed her hand gently.

Her dojo had earned a spot in the Sekai Taikai, a world-renowned karate tournament. The only reason they'd even tried was because Cobra Kai was also trying to earn a spot. The judges decided to have a match with Cobra Kai against Miyagi-do, to make a decision between dojos.

"We'll begin with the boys. We have invited a local referee to ensure impartiality. First to three points wins." The main judge instructed, sitting down at a chair.

"Time to begin. Eli Moskowitz and Kenny Payne, please take the mat." The ref motioned the boys. "Face me. Bow. Face each other. Bow. Ready? Fight!"

The first point went to Kenny, and Cherry squeezed Anthony's hand, shoving the instinct to cheer far, far beneath her.

When Eli landed a hit that should've earned him a point, it was called out of bounds. "What, are you serious?" Eli complained.

"Ref, that's horseshit. He made contact in bounds!" Sensei Johnny yelled at the ref.

"No point. Back on the line." Ref motioned them back. "Ready? Fight!"

Kenny hit Eli in the back of the leg, which caused Eli to fall to the ground. Illegal strike. That's a warning." The ref called out.

"Warning? He should be disqualified." Daniel argued, but tried to keep his tone peaceful.

"It's fine. He just caught me off-guard." Eli shook his head.

Cherry and Anthony whispered complaints to each other. Everybody knew that the fight wasn't fair, and the ref definitely had some sort of bias. "Ready? Fight!" the ref called.

All of the confidence Eli had when he stepped out of the mat was gone. Kenny's hit had knocked Eli's breath away, causing him to collapse onto the floor.

"Point! 2-0, Payne." The ref yelled.

Eli gasped for breath, groaning. "Hawk, what's wrong?" Daniel rushed up to the mat, with Johnny by his side.

"I can't- can't... can't breathe." Eli spoke, as best as he could.

"Can you continue?" The ref asked as Eli attempted to get up, and Eli fell back onto the floor, which was evidence enough that he couldn't.

"Where's the medic?" Sensei Johnny yelled out.

The medic rushed onto the met, and the ref declared it a forfeit. All of the Cobra Kai students cheered, but the members of Miyagi-do were quick to call bullshit.

"Looks like you got a new name. Faux-hawk." Kenny mocked, earning lots of laughter from Kyler.

"This is so stupid." Cherry looked toward Anthony, taking her hand out of his to cross her arms.

"I know! None of this makes any sense." Anthony agreed, his gaze looking drawn to his hand, savoring the lingering warmth of her skin.

"I hate the ref! He's literally the dumbest person I've ever seen in my entire life."

"What happened to peace and love?"

"It's on pause right now."

Next up was the girl's fight. The intended match was supposed to be Tory against Sam, but Tory was nowhere to be found.

Everybody waited on her for a couple of minutes but eventually chose to replace her with Devon, an old member of Eagle Fang.

"Face me. Bow. Face each other. Bow. Ready? Fight!" The ref instructed the two girls on the mat.

It seemed that every single point that Sam should've earned, brought her down one.

She called a timeout for a discussion with her father about it. All three senseis agreed the ref was stupid, and that Sam's only option was to make every single point completely undeniable, so there was no way she could lose.

That's exactly what she did. When Sam won her match, that tied the dojos. The senseis encouraged her, and every single member of Miyagi-do cheered her on, with proud smiles on their faces.

The judges took their time deciding. "We have reached an agreement. As expected, we were impressed with the skills, precision, and discipline of the new Sekai Taikai qualifier... Cobra Kai." The main judge revealed.

The Cobra Kai students burst into cheers, hugging each other and high-fiving Kenny to congratulate him for his win.

"As for our other dojo, we admired your unusual mix of styles and underdog spirit, and we think you could be a unique addition to the competition. Therefore, we've decided that your dojo has also qualified." The announcer yelled. "Congratulations, everyone, and welcome to the Sekai Taikai."

The Miyagi-do students screamed with joy. Daniel squeezed his daughter, proud of her for her win. All of the other students were congratulating each other, overjoyed with their acceptance into the tournament.

Anthony turned to Cherry, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. Even though Cherry was shocked, she was quick to wrap her arms around him, too.

When she pulled her face away from his, their eyes met. Slowly, their eyes trailed down to the other's lips, and they pulled away sheepishly.

It was an unspoken agreement to not say a word.

"We've all earned this. Each and every one of you brought your a-game. Could not be more proud. With this tournament in our future, we've got a lot of work to do. But tonight... Tonight, go celebrate!" Daniel called out.

Sam stood outside the door, shifting her weight from foot to foot. The day before, at the celebration party, Tory showed up and revealed that Sam should've won the All Valley, that Silver paid off a ref to fake Tory's win.

When Tory confessed, that led to a fight with Sam. The day after, Sam had shown up to Cherry's house, claiming that she desperately needed her to visit someone important.

Cherry had accompanied her without a question, and when they arrived at Tory's house, she prayed for a good outcome.

The door of the apartment was pushed open by Tory, who held a bag of ice against her bruised fist.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tory's voice came off harsh.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Sam asked, glancing at Tory's fist.

"Don't pretend like you care."

"Look, I don't wanna be here. But if you're having problems with Cobra Kai, I'd be willing to listen."

Cherry looked at her feet. When she looked back up, Tory's eyes met hers, and her gaze softened. Silently, Tory opened the door and motioned them to take a seat on the couch. Their entrance was quiet.

"I wanted to win the all valley more than anything. When they handed me that trophy, that was the best moment of my life. But then I saw Silver and that ref, and it just killed me. I felt like a fraud. I wanted to get back at Silver so bad. That's why I listened to Kreese, but then I got caught up in more lies. And now my life is a living hell." Tory explained, staring at her bruised fist.

"I didn't know what you were going through. But now that I do, maybe we can help each other. I tried to talk to Stingray. He basically admitted it was Silver who assaulted him in the old dojo. He's afraid to go to the police. I knew Silver was involved, but I had no idea he did it with his own hands." Sam explained.

"There's no way of proving it, though." Cherry realized. "Unless you have cameras,"

"If it happened at the old dojo, maybe we can." Tory snapped up.

Tory gave them a long, nonsense plan that they needed to follow through in order to prove what had really happened. It sounded impossible.

Cherry texted the Miyagi-do group chat. Everyone was alerted to meet up at the Cobra Kai Dojo. Because it was so late at night, the dojo was closed, and nobody was there, which would either be in their favor or really, really bad.

"Hi, guys!" Cherry greeted the Miyagi-do members who were already outside the Cobra Kai dojo.

"Hi." Anthony smiled softly at her. "You ready?"

She nodded her head. Anthony had been the first to arrive at the dojo, needing only one word from Cherry in order to do whatever she asked.

He felt a little nervous under Cherry's unwavering gaze, and she quickly looked to the side when she realized she had been staring.