Disclaimer: I blame marathons of Karate Kid movies on TV for making me writing fanfic of it, haha.
Story: When Mike Barnes seeks revenge some other way, Danielle finds healing in two unlikely and unexpected saviors.
Set as a genderbent continuation of the third Karate Kid movie.
Spoilers: Yeeeessss. Yes, yes, yes. Beware?
Warnings: Age difference, initial racism towards Asians, excessive drinking, some violence and language, PTSD, gender roles and gender expectations, societal expectations…
Pairings: Eventual John Kreese/fem!Daniel/Terry Silver.

Warning: Non-descript non-consensual sex (trigger warning) and some violence. Also genderbent Daniel because I'm obsessed with genderbending.

The Things I Could Do Without
Chapter One: Tears For Fears

Mr. Miyagi was dead. She…she hadn't expected that to happen. Not so soon after she had won the All-Valley Tournament again, and had defended her title with his help. He had seemed fine then. They had trained together, and he hadn't looked ill at all.

What was she going to do now?

She had lived with him, had become just as much a daughter to him as he had become a father to her. She had opened a bonsai store with him. She had…she had done so much with him.

What was Danielle LaRusso without Keisuke Miyagi?

Danielle was all alone now. Her mother was taking care of Danielle's uncle, and Mr. Miyagi was gone. Ali was in UCLA. She had no other friends or family. So where did that leave her? What was she going to do? Where was she going to go? Could she still stay at Mr. Miyagi's?

The rain poured down on her and the grave she stood over. Her eyes tried to blink the raindrops away, as she clutched onto the flag they had given her after Mr. Miyagi had been given a military funeral in honor of his service in the army.

Sniffling, she moved away from the grave and headed to her car, forgoing her usual yellow convertible for one of the others that she'd helped clean up and would better reflect her somber attitude in its dark colors. She got in and gently placed Mr. Miyagi's folded flag onto the seat next to her. She took a moment in the car, just sitting there and staring out the windshield.

Sighing, she shook her head and finally went to start the car. However, a loud bang against her window startled her and she looked out it to see a familiar, unwanted face.

Mike Barnes sneeringly smiled outside her window and she was too tired to deal with him and his games.

Rolling down her window a crack, she gave him a tired look. "What do you want, Barnes? I don't want to deal with you right now."

"Oh, you're going to deal with me right now," he growled and there was something off in his expression, something not right in his eyes.

A horrible feeling settled in the bottom of her stomach, and she felt the instinct to run scream at her. Something wasn't okay with him and she had to get as far away from him as he could. Reaching out to start her car, she panicked as Mike wrenched the door opened and yanked her out of the car and threw her onto the grass.

"What are you doing?!" she shrieked.

"You cost me everything!" he shouted at her.

He reached down to grab her, but she slapped his hands away and got up, taking off from there with a burst of speed. She ran through the cemetery, feet unwillingly pounding onto graves and dodging headstones of the dead. There was a line of trees ahead of her that formed the beginning of the forest surrounding the area. As she heard Mike's heavy steps behind her and feeling like he was catching up (but not daring to look), Danielle ran towards the trees.

She burst through the tree line and into the cover of the forest, making her way into it and getting deeper and deeper.

"Keep running! I'll get you!"

His yell hadn't sounded too far behind her, and she wanted to put more space between them. She had to. She knew if she didn't, something terrible would happen. She wasn't confident enough to fight him, and her fear blinded her anyway. More than of her opponents before, Mike Barnes had always unnerved her.

Johnny and his group had been jerks, but Mike was something else that chilled her to the core.

In a clearing in the forest, she felt herself get tackled to the ground. She screamed and landed on her front, struggling to get Mike off of her. She felt horrible pain as he slammed her head against the ground, making her dazed. Whatever he had planned, she wasn't going to let him go through with it. She'd fight tooth and nail before she'd let Mike win over her.

"If it hadn't been for you, I would have gained so much," he snarled at her, flipping her onto her back, though he had trouble doing so because she wouldn't quite struggling. "I was going to be rich. I was going to have it all! But you…"

His hands enclosed around her throat and he started choking her. She scratched at his hands, trying to pry them off, but he had a strong grip. She coughed erratically as he unexpectedly let go, but instead reached down to her black dress and started to pull it up.

That made her panic and scream, jerking a knee up to hit him with it to keep him away. But he only caught it and pushed away, yanking her dress over her knees and exposing herself.

"So fucking uppity! Think you're too good for me? Rejecting me every single time! Well, I'll show you what you were missing out on!"

Danielle lashed out and smacked his face, landing a good hit that ended up bruising his face that she hoped would look worse later. It just agitated him and he hit her back, dazing her again, and went back to choking her, though he used one hand and wasn't too tight.

Then he pushed in and she cried out.

Danielle felt herself become numb and the fight drain out of her, and she stared up at the sky blankly as she ignored Mike's presence and what he was doing to her. The pain she felt became a cloudy thing as she blocked it out, feeling only tears slide down her cold, numb face.

The sky was gray and the rain pelt down on her softly, mixing in with her tears.

When he finished, he grunted and pulled himself away and got up from her. He looked down at her and she wondered if he was going to finish her off. Instead, he scoffed and walked away and she was left there in the rain.

She felt completely empty.

Danielle couldn't find it in her to make herself get up, to do something. To get help. No, she lay on the forest ground as if she really had died and the gray skies above her was as lifeless as she was. She felt cold and alone.

There was no Mr. Miyagi to magically heal her this time.

She finally let out a sob, feeling the emotion finally well up in her and erupt. She cried for a few moments before forcing herself to turn over. Dirt smudged her skin and dug under her nails as her fingers clawed inward at the ground. Taking a second, she then slowly pushed herself up and then stumbled through the forest to try to find her way back.

She didn't have a sense of time or place, and her surroundings blurred around her and looked all the same. It seemed like it took forever for her to reach an end to the forest, where she dragged her feet onto the road. She wasn't near the cemetery.

Staggering to the middle of the road, she just stared off blankly and wished she could have protected herself better.

She had learned to protect herself, to fight back. Why couldn't she have this time?

Danielle heard a car approaching from behind her and turned slowly, hearing it screech to a stop. She squinted, trying to see who it was. But all she felt was exhaustion and a dull ache.

She passed out then, and fell to the floor with a quiet thud.

Between he and Terry, the two of them pulled together enough. Somehow, John had managed to scrounge up students from somewhere and Terry was still rich and in business. All in all, despite the loss of their "star pupil" Mike Barnes against that effortlessly annoying Danielle LaRusso, they'd managed to pull through and retain something of a win from it all.

It wasn't the revenge he wanted, but he wasn't as hopeless and depressed as he had been. And after everything had been said and done, the attempted revenge scheme had cooled his anger and grudge and he decided that had made things settled and equal in the end. Really, she'd suffered a bit, and it was enough for him. He never really liked picking on women either, so he felt that he was glad to finally wash his hands of all this.

And, well, for the second time in a row, she'd been something of an amazing thing to watch. It made him wish that he had snatched her up a long ago, to be his own student. And, as much as it still irked him to be beaten by the guy, he'd grudgingly admit that Miyagi had been more than a good opponent, even when he was up against him and Terry together. To say that he had to admit being impressed by the pair was something that would probably have to be pried from him.

"That guy died today," Terry said, sounding rather disappointed. John didn't need the name to know who he was talking about.

If he knew his old comrade, he was probably disappointed at the lack of opportunity to approach that old man for a rematch, until Terry could finally best Miyagi. He would have wanted that opportunity too. There wasn't many who could defeat them so easily and be such a challenge, and it had been a surreal change. An unwelcome one at first, but now it had wet their appetite to fight again, and even improve themselves. Keep away the stagnancy they had been wallowing in.

"Want to pay your respects?" Terry asked this time, wearing a wide grin, and John looked at him in amusement.

Still, why not? He had been, in hindsight, a great opponent. He was dead too, and there really was no point in beating a dead horse down, and their energy might as well be wasted in that endeavor. They could, now that that slope was dead, be a little more admitting to their respect and call their truce a little more real.

And, though they hadn't known until Terry had snuck into the old man's house, they were all military men. They had served in their army, for their country, and been in horrific wars. That they could at least really respect him for, and with his death, properly give him the respect for it.

He wondered if the old slope remembered bombings, burnt, emaciated bodies and shouting Germans the way he couldn't stop remembering flamethrowers, chemical sprays, and violent, slanted-eyed, untrustworthy people hiding in tall grasses…

"So?" his friend asked him.

"Yeah…yeah. Let's go," John answered gruffly.

That's why the two of them found themselves at a grave, freshly buried, on a rainy afternoon.

"To you, you old bastard," Terry raised up an imaginary bottle. "I would've eventually beat you to the ground!"

John scoffed. "Yeah right," he dodged the swat to his head, and grinned at Terry before turning his grin to the grave. "Never would have imagine us here, huh, slope? Hell, for a slope…you weren't half bad, eh?"

His grin faltered. "You left us behind and not even able to get a real, proper fight out of you, old man." A thought entered his head. "And what about your pupil? How about leaving her behind?"

He wondered what happened to her and what was she currently doing?

Shaking his head, they finished up there, silent as they watched the grave. And then John saluted it, surprising Terry, who (after a moment) followed suit. The man had a Medal of Honor. He knew the custom, even if John had a higher rank than the other.

And to be honest, the old slope had his respect either way. He had been a good enemy and he had been a fellow soldier.

"The world is fucked anyway," he muttered as he put down his hand.

"Isn't it?" Terry hmmed. "Let's get out of here."

They made their trek back to Terry's car, where they began to drive off. It was only when they were on a more isolated road away from the cemetery, where they got the scare of their lives. A girl, bedraggled and looking like she'd been dragged through the forest next to the road, stood in the middle of it. Terry hit the brakes when they were nearer, especially when it seemed like she wasn't paying attention to them or going to move from her spot anytime soon.

Stopped in front of her, they warily sat there in shock. They became even more shocked as the girl turned to face them, and squinted to try to see them.

Of all the people, the girl in front of them was none other than Danielle LaRusso.

Started 1/20/16 – Completed 1/23/16

A/n: To be honest, like whenever I enter a small fandom, I don't have high hopes of getting much attention due to having unusual ideas and pairings. Still crossing my fingers that this gets reviews somehow…