"Attention!" Dash shouted while looking at all the students who knew karate at the school. Among the group were Sam, Robby, and most of the Cobra Kai kids, along with all the apprentices from Sakura Bushido who had been called by the physical education teacher.
"Most of us are suspended from school, but now they depend on us to win the skills exchange with Seaford High School."
Looking at everyone, Dash paused, fixed his gaze on Sam, who seemed a bit uncomfortable being in this place, and said, "Some of you may not know what's going on, but to put you in context, we had some misunderstandings that ended up creating a tournament between our school and Seaford High School."
Hawk smiled slightly, feeling a bit like the protagonist of these events because, literally, it was his fault that they now had this slight problem, which he didn't see as a bad thing for those who trained in Karate.
Dash looked at everyone seriously and said, "The tournament rules are very simple. All of us can participate, but only five teams of two will be the protagonists. One man and one woman, five teams, and the rest will be left to your discretion."
"Will we be a team, or will the five teams fight for the spot?" Miguel asked, slightly confused by Dash's ambiguous words.
In response to this question, Demetri, who was also present, asked, "Do the teams have to be mandatory mixed? That could be a bit problematic. What will happen with binary genders? They might consider this discriminatory."
"No one is interested in fighting, let alone making a scandal over a karate tournament," thought Robby, but he didn't say anything. His eyes focused on Sam, who was next to him, and he thought that the two of them could achieve good results in this tournament if they participated.
Devon, who was sitting in front of everyone, looked at Dash and knew that, due to the limited numbers, only the best would be considered.
Tory, on the side, asked, "Will I need to participate? Honestly, your martial arts school has the best male and female students. Why bother with such a long selection process?"
"Dash doesn't want to leave anyone out of consideration, especially when he wants problems outside of special competitions to be completely erased from all Karate schools," replied Devon without even looking at Tory, who had understood the reason.
Aisha, who was also present, said, "At least that would calm everyone's nerves a bit; even though there are no problems, they're still rigid in their behaviors."
"That doesn't matter; we won't try to be friends, after all," said Tory, looking at Sam, who was among those present.
Devon had to agree with Tory; they wouldn't be friends, and there was no need to be. As long as they didn't cause problems, what happened afterward wasn't anyone's concern.
"It's time to select the teams. I'll name the five teams, and if anyone disagrees, they can always challenge one of the selected to take their place." As Dash said this, he took a list from his smart tablet.
Seeing everyone watching him, Dash smiled and said, "The first team is Hawk with Aisha!"
Hawk smiled slightly, knowing that he was one of the selected. Only in this way could he defeat that guy named Jack, who had easily defeated him before.
"Miguel and Tory!"
"Victor with Sophia!"
"Robby with Samantha!"
Dash paused and pointed. "The last spot will be Devon and me!"
Once the list was given, everyone agreed too much with the selections, and no one objected. Mitch was interested in participating, but he wasn't good enough to beat any of the men, so he gave up.
"Well, I wouldn't have considered myself among the selected anyway," Demetri said without being disappointed by this result.
Miguel looked at Tory and nodded slightly. He had changed slightly in terms of his attitude toward his crush. What happened afterward was quite good; he felt better, and he saw everything from a more mature perspective.
Before starting with the training, Dash pointed out, "I'm aware that some of you feel uncomfortable interacting with some people in this place, but that's not my problem, and I want you to keep in mind that all of you can leave if you want."
"Do you want to do it?" Sam asked Robby, who had been silent from the beginning.
Robby thought about it for a bit and said, "I don't really care; I'll do what you say."
"We could give it a try." Sam murmured, slightly interested.
In the end, the selected ones stayed, and the others would serve as reserves in case any problems arose.