End of the Day

They met up again at lunchtime and visited the school's gallery after eating. There, the submissions were displayed for the school to look at.

Tomorrow, the gallery would be closed to viewing as the judges would arrive and it wouldn't be open again until after the contest concluded. So, this was the best time for them to look at Jasmine's competition.

There were other students who held some artistic talent, but for many of them, their talents shined only when they had a still life. Not many could create a piece from their imagination and even fewer had the ability to do so with any realism like Jasmine could.

Still, it didn't stop Jasmine for wanting to look, nor did it stop Liliana from adding her two cents as she judged the entries in her own way.

Of course, Liliana recognized the one that was Jasmine's and had very little criticism to share other than where she thought it could be improved. However, she was overly analytical of the competitions' choice of subjects for the theme.

"How is a picture of fish have anything to do with 'What dreams become'," she would remark. To which, Jasmine would read the description next to the pastel piece and just shrug as she didn't have an answer.

"Everyone has their own interpretations," she would respond to only find that her friend had moved onto the next submission and would comment about how her cousin in elementary school could do better.

After finishing their walkthrough of the gallery, they headed back towards their afternoon classes together and although Liliana spent her time continuing her scrutinizing of the art contest's artwork, Jasmine remained quiet. Her mind had already moved on to thinking of what she had missed the day before in classes.

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The school day came to an end peacefully, but left Jasmine with a couple of homework assignments. It was bothersome, but she had to get them done that night. Yet she still had her lessons at the dojo that her brother would pick her up for. She managed to finish one of them before he had swung by to pick her up by car.

In the car, Ethaniel informed her that her uniform would be arriving the next day and that she would have to borrow his old shinai this weekend as it wouldn't be shipped until next week. The ride was fairly short, and they arrived at the dojo with just enough time for Ethaniel to run in a change before his class.

Takana-sensei greeted the students before splitting up the classes again and allowing a sempai to direct the judo lessons.

Today, they were to learn Ukemi techniques, or how to fall properly according to judo. The idea behind learning how to fall being how to minimize damage and put yourself in a position that you could recover from.

This was a little more difficult for Jasmine to master as she wasn't exactly familiar with the concept of falling in the first place. As it was, the fight earlier this week at school was the first real physical confrontation she had other than the rough housing with her siblings as they grew up.

Still, she ended up doing pretty good at keeping up in practice and by the end of her hour-long session, she was ready to stop. Jasmine sported a new bruise on one of her elbows and on a knee because of her initial failures to breakfall properly.

Sitting at the edge of the tatami mats again, she watched the advanced kendo class for the second hour at the dojo and asked a few questions of Takana-sensei when he drifted closer to her.

Jasmine couldn't help but lament a little that she had not brought her homework with her to the dojo, as she could have spent some of the spare time working on it. Homework would have made the time waiting feel shorter as it was at least something to do. Plus, she could possibly ask her brother to check it if she had finished any of it.

Thankfully, it ended soon enough, and the sibling pair returned home. Ethaniel stayed for the late dinner with the family before leaving for the college campus, while Jasmine was rushed by her older sister, Krystal, to go finish her homework before bed.

That night, the previous dreams slowly started to return.

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Levana's absence from training the next day didn't go without notice. Samael was the first to comment about it and Azazel paid little attention to his complaints initially. For it wasn't the first time that she wasn't present. In fact, it was normal for him to receive a report either written or verbally that Levana was out on assignment and thus, missed training with the rest.

However, the day passed by without an account for her whereabouts being submitted to him. So, he grimaced at having to deal with the annoyance of paying the Thrones a visit to inquire about Levana's lack of presence with Uriel.

Swiftly moving along the paths from the academy towards the departments, he made quick progress in arriving at the Hall of Thrones to then delve deeper into the beast.

The sun was washing the sky with color as it set beyond the horizon, so he passed a few of the lesser ranked angels who were busying themselves by lighting the lamps in the hallways. His face seemed to be twisting to anger as he drew closer to Uriel's office door.

Pausing outside, he took a breath and put on his best poker face before rapping on the door before entering. Uriel was hunched over his desk, reading a scroll, when he was rudely interrupted. Furious dark, brown eyes met cold, detached grey eyes in silence, then Uriel's gravelly, irritated voice broke the quiet.

"What do you want?"

Suppressing the desire to snap at this reject of an angel before him, Azazel kept his tone even and coolly replied, "I'm here to report Levana's absence today."

The furrowing of Uriel's brows was enough to tell Azazel that the hermit angel hadn't known about this prior, so he felt it safe to continue.

"I haven't received a dispatch of notice for her leave of absence; thus, she should be punished. Do you know where she is?" he inquired.

Uriel's first reaction was to get angry at the mention of punishment, but he stopped himself as he sunk into thought. Glancing at the scroll before him, he cautiously rolled it up before answering.

"I believe she was not feeling well and was advised to rest for the day," he fibbed.

Azazel's gaze sharpened as he read between the lines. 'He didn't know she was absent, yet he is covering for her. Why?' he thought. However, this chess game was not one he could win at this time without evidence to the contrary, so he then excused himself from Uriel's office.