Reflections & Decisions

When they got to class, they were not surprised that their classmates were a buzz with the excitement of the confrontation in front of the school entrance. A few even asked for more details from Liliana, but most of them left Jasmine alone as she had a small part to play in it.

The following period, Alan was allowed to rejoin the class, but no one other than his buddies approached him to speak in hushed tones.

Other than a few whispers from her classmates theorizing why the fight began, not much was mentioned further about the incident. It wasn't until that afternoon that they learned that the school administration had decided to play it down as just a small scuffle between students and didn't bother to notify any parents.

Honestly, this bothered Jasmine, but it was not unexpected of the school's administration. To avoid further paperwork and the possibility of assault charges being pressed, they tended to respond to fights in the middle schools in this manner as they didn't want to mar a student's future by having such conflicts appear in their record.

Still, it left a bitter taste in Jasmine's mouth as her friend was still sporting the mark on her face from Alan's assault this morning. She believed that Liliana and her parents should still be left the option to press charges since Alan started it and struck without her friend retaliating.

It was bullying, right?

The school was just as guilty as Alan was, in her eyes. By not doing anything about it, they could be understood as condoning his actions.

As upsetting as it was, the event made Jasmine more motivated to learn all she could when she visited the dojo later.

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When classes came to an end that afternoon, Jasmine watched as Liliana board a car that her parents had sent to pick her up. Liliana had called them during lunch to tell them what had happened.

With her friend leaving safely without further commotion, Jasmine could catch the bus to get back home without worry. Sitting on the bus, she could see Alan catching a ride with some friends in one of their older sibling's car. She silently cursed him and then turned her thoughts towards home.

Krystal wouldn't get back from school until an hour or so after Jasmine did, but their mother would be leaving for work shortly after she did get home.

Her mother was working an evening shift this week at the hospital, and with her father getting home around dinner time, neither of them could take her to the dojo. However, her brother had volunteered to drive her during the few days during the school week that she would be attending for.

So, the sight of her brother's old Toyota Camry out front of the house was a welcomed sight. 'Ethaniel was home pretty early. The class at the dojo isn't until later,' noted Jasmine.

Entering the house, she quickly found her brother to complain and lamented over the school's response to Alan's aggression. Ethaniel just quietly listened to his baby sister and flinched when she got to the part about Alan Johnson turning to hit her.

Ethaniel's reaction went without Jasmine's notice and she also missed how he balled up his fist to the point that nails bit into his palm. As she continued with her rant, she mentioned the kick that had landed on her and how it didn't hurt but Ethaniel wasn't quite listening at this point as he was preoccupied with thoughts of finding this kid and giving him a good beating.

How long it had been before she had stopped, Ethaniel didn't know. For when he managed to calm himself, his little sister was already gone and disappeared to her room.

It would be irrational and juvenile of him to act, wouldn't it? But he was in a state of disbelief that he would get so worked up by his sister just describing the events at her school earlier today.

He silently recalled that during the conflict, she never mentioned that she struck back. All she had done was avoid and dodge where she could, which was a smart decision in her situation. He quietly praised his sister for this, although he couldn't be sure that she had consciously remained level-headed and didn't engage her opponent during the scuffle.

Either way, she was lucky and so was Alan. For if it had escalated and the school had made any phone calls, he found out that his little sister had been seriously hurt, well... 'There's no telling what I'd do if I lost control,' he thought.

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Later that afternoon, Ethaniel drove Jasmine over to the dojo for her first formal class with Takana-sensei. Since she did not have her equipment yet, the plan was for her to join the judo class with some of her younger peers that had started a few months ago, while Ethaniel changed and participated in the advanced level kendo class.

In passing, Ethaniel mentioned the Jasmine's fight at school to their sensei. Taking note of the concern in the older brother's eyes, Mr. Takana arranged for the disciple who was responsible for the beginner's judo class to run through some self-defense exercises.

Jasmine seemed to pick up on the lessons quickly and was soon practicing energy redirection techniques with her peers under the senior student's supervision. The idea was a basic one in many martial arts.

It was better to redirect one's opponent's energy or power behind their strikes rather than taking them on with a block. Using your opponent's momentum to your advantage to dodge and follow up with a strike of your own by borrowing the opponent's energy.

Though the idea was simple enough, it took practice to develop the timing and response into a reflexive action. But it was this reflexive action that was the end goal as you didn't want to be bothered with thinking about what you were going to do when speed took priority in defending and disabling your opponent in a real fight.

As she practiced, Jasmine's movements became more fluid and her mind began to wander to some of the dreams she had in the past about the angels. More so, she remembered how Azazel would counter and defend himself when Levana and the others were training with him.

'He seemed to employ some moves like this,' she thought to herself.

After independent practice, the beginner's class instructor paired them off for practice sparring. Jasmine's partner was younger than her by a few years but had been attending the dojo for nearly a year. So, she was pleasantly surprised to find that she could defend herself from his attacks.

Takana-sensei supervised the advanced kendo class but would check upon the judo class from time to time and quietly approved of her performance, as it was in line with his predictions.

After an hour, the beginner's judo class had ended, while the advanced kendo class moved from independent practice to sparring. Much of her peers had left the dojo at this point, which left her free to observe the senior kendo students' sparring.

She sat at the edge of the tatami mats and watched as they took turns with Takana-sensei commenting upon the completion of each bout. He coupled both criticism and praise to correct their forms or choices in the exchanges.

At the end of the class, he dismissed them and let the students visit the lockers to change. While he went over to Jasmine and asked her if she would be interested in entering some minor competitions in the Spring.

Unsure of how to answer, she humbly asked for some time to consider it as she hadn't even formally participated in a single kendo class yet. She didn't feel that Takana-sensei was pressuring her as much as asking in a way to gauge her interest.

Either way, her brother returned after changing quick enough that further discussion stopped there as he needed to take her back home and return to the college campus.