Fate Undecided

X Azalea

Amane's POV

The dining hall was almost empty, a few nephilim were grabbing their lunches, it was nearly one, training will be starting soon. I wonder where my training partner is. Drift. I wonder if he knew what happened to me. Oh God, I always wonder about a lot of stuff.

I ate heartily, aware that Gabby was just beside me, eating with modesty. Here I am, eating like I will not see food again, using my fingers to scrape the plate clean.

I saw Drift talking animatedly to a girl with auburn hair, they look sweet, more like a couple. He caught my eye, but he immediately looked away, avoiding my eyes. Did I do something wrong?

"Training is still going on, right?" I ask Gabby, hoping to strike a conversation to break the awkward atmosphere.

"Yes, of course." She says, smiling at me. I wish he would still train with me, after me being possessed by Azazel. I smile at her sadly.

"Am I still welcome to join?" I ask her quietly. She looked at me with pity.

"You are required to join. You are the most required Amane." She says, smiling at me soothingly, making me feel comfortable, at ease.

After having a nice lunch, I took a bath, braided my hair and wore gear for training. I heard it was with the blades now. I feel excitement coursing through my veins. Drift won't let me down. He offered to train with me in the first place.

I head for the training room, and as usual, it adjusted to the number of people inside. I looked for Drift in the crowd, hoping to find my training partner and excited to get on with the training, but I didn't find him. My excitement died. I felt my heart sink. Is Drift avoiding me?

I walk toward the doors of the training room, maybe I would just spend my time in the library, enjoy the company of books. Raphael appeared in front of me, blocking my exit.

"Amane, where are you going? It's training time." Raphael says, eyeing me with curiosity. I avoid his blue eyes, and look on my boots instead.

"I, uh, was going to get some water." I lie. He eyes me with disbelief.

"More like, you are going to the library to get some books?" He asks. More like, he accuses. Damn, I forgot angels can sense what comes next.

"I don't have a partner." I say, sounding guilty because I lied. I glance at him, seeing his expression of sympathy.

"Well then, I'll be your partner for the meantime." He announces. He snapped his fingers, his usual clothes changed immediately into training gear. My eyes widen. I would've clapped my hands, but I know that would be very awkward.

Instead I say "So you're a magician now?" He chuckles.

"I'm an angel." He says.

***

We walk towards the weapons room. Raphael told me to pick the blade of my choice as he chose his own blade. I run my hands through the hilts of the blade, letting myself feel which blade I feel like using. I close my eyes as well, not wanting my eyes choose, but rather letting my heart pick.

I feel Raphael staring at me. Maybe I looked stupid doing this thing. I opened my eyes when I felt my hand attracted to a certain blade. Both the hilt and the blessed metal was black, nonetheless, it was beautiful. There were intricate gold designs surrounding the blade's hilt. I stared at the weapon, in awe of its beauty.

"You'd like to use that?" Raphael asks me, breaking my trance. I nod slowly.

"Can I?" I ask. He doesn't nod nor shake his head.

"This is actually not a blessed blade." He says, looking at the blade with an unreadable expression. "It's a blade version of the starshots." He continues. Oh. I can't use it. I stared longingly at the weapon.

"I'll just choose something else." I say. I was about to get some random blade when Raphael gets the blade I want and hands it to me.

I give him a questioning look.

"I didn't say you can't use it. I just introduced it to you. It's called Azalea." He says. Azalea. Wow.

"That's a nice name." I comment. I get Azalea from Raphael's hand and I don't know if I was hallucinating, or I saw the hilt of the weapon adjust itself to fit my hand. I must have been hallucinating. The hilt is hard, really hard.

"So shall we start?" He asks, I nod in approval. I feel adrenaline flowing in my veins.

Raphael taught me the correct position I should hold the hilt to not lose the grip on the blade. He also taught me how to precisely angle the blade to where I aim to hit my opponent. He taught me how to attack and defend myself using the blade.

"Let's do the actual scenario, defend yourself, understand?" I nod, I could feel my heartbeat thumping in excitement and nervousness.

He aimed to hit me on different parts of my body, I deflected each blow with ease, the blade, Azalea, lightweight and comfortable in my hand. Raphael looked surprised I was able to immediately get the hang of it. He smiled at me.

His attacks became faster than before, he was aiming for my head, I defend myself successfully, adrenaline coursing through my body. Raphael eyed me with disbelief. "Seems like you don't need training." He says, chuckling.

He surprisingly became faster than ever; he used his wings to propel himself above my head, his blade clashing with Azalea. His wings made me fall in a trance. They are purely white. Beautiful. Raphael almost nicked my ear when I felt Azalea control my hand movements, like it was the blade that is defending me, not me using the blade to defend myself.

Raphael must have seen my shocked expression because he stopped doing offense and landed in front of me, his wings retracting. "You all right?" He asks me. I slowly nod.

"Yeah." I say while nodding. I stare at Azalea as I put it back to where Raphael took it.

I feel Raphael boring holes at the back of my skull. I clear my throat, hoping it would break the awkward atmosphere.

"You're wings are beautiful, I didn't know if that was for distraction or you were just showing it off." I say, faking a smile, hoping he wouldn't sense that that was not what shocked me.